每日一首Sonnet (50)

XL
1. Howheavy do I journey on the way,
2. When what I seek, my weary travel's end,
3. Doth teach that ease and that repose to say,
4. 'Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend!'
5. The beast that bears me, tired with my woe,
6. Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me,
7. As if by some instinct the wretch did know
8. His rider lov'd not speed being made from thee.
9. The bloody spur cannot provoke him on,
10. That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide,
11. Which heavily he answers with a groan,
12. More sharp to me than spurring to his side;
13. For that same groan doth put this in my mind,
14. My grief lies onward, and my joy behind.

Commentary:
Thisand the following sonnet deal with theheaviness of separation, caused by a journey which the poet has tomake.He travels on horseback, the normal means of locomotion inShakespeare'sday. The condition of the roads, heavily rutted and often flooded, madetravel in carriages impracticable, other than in towns. Post horsescouldbe hired from the frequent Inns which were situated along the highwaysandin the various towns on route. But travellers frequently would havetheirown horse, which would carry them between 20 or 30 miles in a day, amuchslower method than hiring the post horses. Shakespeare refers to thehorsein this poem as if it were his own. But in any case he is not muchconcernedto speed on his journey, since it only seems to lead him onward intosorrow.
It would beinteresting to know what thejourney was to which the poet alludes. Was it a trip back to his nativeStratford, which tradition tells us he made on numerous occasions,choosingthe Oxford route rather than the one through Ayelsbury and Banbury? Butof course we have no means of knowing the answer to such a question,andit is probable that the two sonnets summarise the feelings arising fromhaving to make any and every journey which the poet makes and whichtherebysunder him from his friend.
Despite themelancholy of the poem, it is possibleto find humour in the cleverness and wit in the description of thehorsesharing the rider's unwillingness to travel. One could even see it asoneof the 'sugared sonnets' which amusingly depict the boundless love thepoethas for his friend and which show how that love enters into everyaspectof his existence, including the most mundane and tedious, as this oneofgoing on a journey.
Sidneywrote a sonnet comparing himself to ahorse, and another one extolling the highway, which might have thepleasureof kissing Stella's feet. Both sonnets are given at the bottom of thispage.

Note:
1. heavy= heavily, burdened withsorrow. A heavy heart was proverbial, especially in lovers andShakespearehimself often uses the phrase. e.g.
My heart isheavy and mine age is weak;
Grief would have tears, and sorrow bids me speak. AWW.III.4.41-2.
'O heart,' as the goodly saying is, --O heart, heavy heart,
Why sigh'st thou without breaking? TRO.IV.4.14-15.

2. travel- travel and travail were usedindiscriminately. See 27, 34, in which Q gives the spelling trauaileor trauaill.

3.that ease and that repose - the easeand rest one would expect at the end of a journey. The constructionhoweverforces one to respond mentally to the 'doth teach that'clause, asif my weary travel's end were teaching the poet alesson.

4. Insteadof ease and repose, the two conspireto remind him of the distance that now separates him from his friend.
friend= beloved.

5. tired- can also have the meaning'attired', as though the beast had been clothed with the sorrow thatafflictsthe rider.

6. dully- Q gives duly whichOED records as an old spelling for dully. There may not have been muchdifferencein the pronunciation. duly suggests the mechanicalperformance ofa tedious obligation. to bear that weight in me -because it wasbearing the extra weight of the rider's sorrow; because he (the horse)wasalso weighed down with my sorrow.

7. instinct= innate knowledge, or intuition.(The modern usage is much the same. OED 3.)

8. speedbeing made from thee - any speedwhich results in my travelling farther away from you. The 'speedbeingmade' construction is related to the phrase 'makehaste' whichShakespeare frequently uses, or 'making a journey',so that the primarymeaning is 'he (the horse) knew that his rider delighted not in speed,asit only hasted him away from you'. The other evident meaning is thattherider (the poet) is made from the beloved, because the two are one, soeachinhabits the other.

9. spur- a small metal wheel with pointedprojections which fits round the heel of a rider's boot. It is jabbedintothe horse's side to provoke it to move faster, and could on occasiondrawblood.

10. anger- because of the horse's tardiness.
thrusts= causes to thrust.

11. heavily- the horse shares the writer'sdesponency.
groan- groans were the traditional accompaniment to the lover's pain.Comparefor example:
Yet, in good faith, some say that thee behold
Thy face hath not the power to make love groan:
To say they err I dare not be so bold,
Although I swear it to myself alone.
And, to be sure that is not false I swear,
A thousand groans, but thinking on thy face, 131.

12. Moresharp to me - the antecedentis 'groan' in the previous line. The reason for its sharpness is giveninthe couplet.

14. As heproceeds onwards, he goes fartherfrom his friend, so that he is, as it were, hasting towards sorrow, andleaving behind the joy of his friend's company.