每日一首Sonnet (59)

LIX

1. If there be nothing new, but that which is
2. Hath been before, how are our brains beguil'd,
3. Which labouring for invention bear amiss
4. The second burthen of a former child.
5. Oh that record could with a backward look,
6. Even of five hundred courses of the sun,
7. Show me your image in some antique book,
8. Since mind at first in character was done,
9. That I might see what the old world could say
10. To this composed wonder of your frame;
11. Whether we are mended, or where better they,
12. Or whether revolution be the same.
13. Oh sure I am the wits of former days,
14. To subjects worse have given admiring praise.

Commentary:
Thepoet toys with the old idea that 'thereis nothing new under the sun' and speculates on what it might mean forhisbeloved and for the reports of his beauty.He does not take the idea tooseriously, and he imagines that the historical record would not havedonejustice to his fair love's beauty. He thinks it unlikely that anyonewitha comparable 'composed wonder of frame' has existed in the past. Thepraisethat was heaped on beauteous persons was probably exaggerated, and theadmirationthey engendered was excessive, for they were worse in stature andbeautythan the beloved youth.
Note:
1. 'There is nothing new under thesun' is proverbialand may be traced back to the Bible. (See extract below of a letterfromSir Thomas Bodley to Sir Francis Bacon 'upon his new Philosophy',writtenin 1607). The syntax encourages one to read at first 'If all that isnewis that which now is..' but the mind modifies this meaning on reachingthesecond line.

2. beguiled =deceived, tricked. Seenote on line 4 below


3. labouring -the metaphor is from childbirth.The poet labours to give birth to his new ideas (invention). But he ismistakenand suffers a miscarriage (he bears amiss).

4. burthen= burden. An obsolete spelling.
second - because it is a repeat performance.Someone else has alreadyproduced a similar 'invention' in a former age, hence aformerchild'.The result of thebirth pangs is an infant whichhas already been born to another (in former times). It is worthmentioningthat the necessity of producing heirs in noble and royal families couldresult in deceitful practices. A suppositious babe, with the connivanceof a mifwife, could be introduced and passed off as the true birth of awife who failed to conceive for whatever reason. The babe would havebeenrecently born to some other woman in the locality and slipped insecretlyfor the purpose of substitution if the birth went wrong, or if nothingwasproduced. At royal births various men of high rank would be present toensurethat this did not occur, and that the birth was genuine. Mary Tudor(BloodyMary) endured what appears to have been a phantom pregnancy in herdesperationto produce an heir. (See OED supposititious 1.b.and supposition4.a ). The possibility of a reference to this practiceis supportedby the use of beguiled in line 2 above.

5. record =the historical record, writing.
with a backward look - i.e. delving far backinto the historicalrecord.

6. Evenof - of at least (as a bareminimum).
five hundred courses of the sun - probablysix hundred years. Theold English hundred was apparently 120, so five of these add up to 600.According to some this was the figure of the Platonic cycle, afterwhichall earthly events supposedly repeated themselves. It is doubtful ifShakespearegave any credence to it, knowing his fondness for the old chronicleswhichdescribed events much more remote than 600 years and yet avoidedrepetitions(e.g. King Lear, Cymbeline). A course of the sunwas one year, during whichtime the earth completes its orbit.
A sibyl,that had number'd in the world
The sun to course two hundred compasses,
In her prophetic fury sew'd the work; Oth.III.4.70-2

7. image - adescriptive image. One tendsto think of a painted portrait also, but the following lines seem torulethat out.

8. mind =thoughts, ideas.
in character = in letters, in the writtenword.
Since mind etc. = since first history began tobe written down asrecorded thoughts.

9. the old world= antiquity; ancientGreece and Rome; times past. Probably not a reference to The Old World,signifying the Eastern hemisphere, as distinct from the New World ofAmerica.

10. composedwonder of your frame -handsomely moulded and wondrous creation. to framewas to produceor make. A frame was a structure, but it was alsoused as a synonymfor a body, animal or human (OED.9.a.). See:
Since Isuppose we are to be made no stronger
Than faults may shake our frames MM.II.4.131-2.
..............Wesmothered
The most replenished sweet work of nature,
That from the prime creation e'er she framed. R3.IV.3.17-19

11. mended =improved, made superior.
where better they = in what ways they weresuperior to us. Some editorsemend to whe'er for whether, giving a 'whether...or whether ' construction,proabably not necessary as in reading the alternative meaning could nodoubtbe heard even without the emendation.

12. Orwhether the cyclical revolution oftime has brought us round to the same pre-existing circumstances; orwhetherfortune's wheel has produced the same results as in former times. Thewordrevolution is not used by Shakespeare in thesense of 'the overthrowof established government'. It is found only in four places in thecorpus,and the following gives an adequate idea of its meaning.
O God! thatone might read the book of fate,
And see the revolution of the times
Make mountains level, and the continent,
Weary of solid firmness, melt itself
Into the sea! 2H4.III.1.45-9.

13. The couplet expressesscepticism that anyoneof former days could have been as beautiful as the youth. If anywonderfuldescriptions are to be found, they are based on inferior subjects.
wits = inventive brains. OED.2.b. The sense ofwit = humour was notin use until much later.

14. subjects worse= worse subjects,worse themes, persons, etc.
The couplet rhyme days, praise is also used in 38,62 and 106. Theword praise is understandably not uncommon in thesonnets, occurring35 times (including related forms).