每日一首Sonnet (14)

XIV

1. Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck;
2. And yet methinks I have Astronomy,
3. But not to tell of good or evil luck,
4. Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
5. Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
6. Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
7. Or say with princes if it shall go well
8. By oft predict that I in heaven find:
9. But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
10. And, constant stars, in them I read such art
11. As truth and beauty shall together thrive,
12. If from thyself, to store thou wouldst convert;
13. Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
14. Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.

NOTE:
1. judgement = judgement or knowledge of the future;
pluck = obtain, seize. It does have a suggestion of reaching upwards, as in plucking an apple from the sky, and perhaps suggests the upward reaching hand of an astrologer bringing down knowledge from the stars. Possibly also a belittling sense, in that astrologers were notorious for plucking predictions from the bizarrest concatenations of planetary movements.

2. methinks = I think;
Astronomy in Elizabethan times was much closer to what we would nowadays term astrology. It was not yet weighted down with knowledge of what the planets and stars actually are, as modern day astronomy is. There was a widespread belief that the stars, in their various conjunctions, had an important and direct influence on the life of humans, both on individuals, and on social institutions. See the sonnet by Sidney, given at the bottom of the page. He calls those who consider the stars to shine merely to spangle the night 'dusty wits', for to him their importance was much greater. They were an importance influence in human lives. Although his sonnet, like this one, by its conclusion is somewhat tongue in cheek. (Note that Sidney uses the term astrology. He also reads Stellas's eyes as if they were stars). The poet here claims to 'have Astronomy', i.e he understands it as a science, and then he proceeds to tell us how his knowledge differs from that of the traditional astrologer (lines 3-8).
We tend to think of ourselves as a more rational age, but a recent president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, relied on his wife's astrologer to forecast for him propitious days for work and policy decisions.

3. As astrologers would do. More or less the same as fortune telling is today.



4. Almanacs would foretell such things.
plagues - this had contemporary relevance, as bubonic plague attacked the city of London many times in Shakespeare's life, necessitating the closure of theatres and the removal of the royal court to a safer district. Anyone who had sufficient means would leave the city for the country at such times. 1593 and 1594 were particularly bad years in London.
dearths = famines, shortages. Not infrequent in those days;
seasons' quality = the character of the various seasons, whether they would produce crops or not.
quality = character, nature, essence, capability. Cf. Hamlet:
Come, give us a taste of your quality. II.ii.440.

5. to brief minutes tell = predict with minute by minute accuracy.

6.Pointing to each = appointing (or pointing out) for each person; thunder, rain and wind these are taken as being symbolic of bad times in a person's life. See the previous sonnet, where the stormy gusts of winter's day are tokens of bad fortune in the shape of malaise befalling a lineage which cannot renew itself. Some commentaters have made heavy work of this line, referring each and his back to seasons in line 4, or minutes in line 5, but I believe the above interpretation is neater.

7. Astrologers and fortune tellers regarded it as an important part of their work to predict the fate of kingdoms. Critical dates in Elizabeth's reign were 1588, which was connected to some biblical interpretation of the Babylonian captivity, and 1596 and 1603, which were her climacteric years. Many dire predictions were made for all those dates. Moore's almanac is still printed annually, but mostly nowadays it is filled with fairly vacuous predictions.

8. By oft predict = by frequent predictions. Presumably deduced from conjunctions of the stars. oft as an adjective and predict as a noun are virtually unknown other than in this sonnet. KDJ accepts an emendation to aught.

9. This gives the reason why he does not rely on conventional astrology. His beloved's eyes are stars, from which he foretells the world's future. Compare Sidney's poem below.

10. constant stars - the fixed stars were considered to be constant and reliable, in contrast to the wandering stars, or planets. The idea persisted, cf. Keats: Bright star, would I were steadfast as though art. (Sonnet, circa 1820). The beloved's eyes are praised as being constant, unchanging stars, superior perhaps to the mutable stars in the skies upon which the astrologers relied.
I read such art = I derive such skill (art). When taken with the following line it expands to 'I derive such skill that it enables me to deduce that etc.'

11. As = that. See note to previous line. truth and beauty - truth could be taken as the inner quality, beauty as the external one. They were probably the chief ideals of Neo-Platonic philosophy, the moral and spiritual qualities to which all beings strived.

12. If you would devote some attention to the question of procreation. store = increase, preservation; selection and reproduction of the best of a species. See the note to Sonnet 11:
Let those whom Nature hath not made for store,
convert = turn to, give your attention to. Also with the implication of turning away from (thy)self, being less self-centred. Compare:
And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestowest
Thou mayst call thine when thou from youth convertest. 11

13. Or else I foretell this result for you.
prognosticate = forecast future events. The poet takes a leaf from the astrologer's book and makes his own prediction.

14. The alternative to 11 & 12 above. Truth and beauty will not survive the youth's own death, if he has not created children before then.
doom = death, destruction, fate.
date = final end, terminal date.

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Or else I foretell this result for you.