每日一首Sonnet (66)

LXVI

1. Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
2. As to behold desert a beggar born,
3. And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
4. And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
5. And gilded honour shamefully misplac'd,
6. And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
7. And right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd,
8. And strength by limping sway disabled
9. And art made tongue-tied by authority,
10. And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
11. And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
12. And captive good attending captain ill:
13. Tir'd with all these, from these would I be gone,
14. Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.



Commentary:

The poetlaments the corruption and dishonestyof the world, from which he desires to be released. This is a sonnetwhichstrikes a chord in almost any age, for it tells the same old story,thatgraft and influence reign supreme, and that no inherent merit is ever aguarantee of success. For that depends on social structures andconditionsalready set in place long ago. As often as not they aid and promote theunworthy, the malicious, the wealthy, the incompetent and those who arejust good at manipulation of the system.A parallel passage isfound in Hamlet, in the famous‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy, but Hamlet’s world-wearinesssprings from rather different causes. However the phrase ‘thespurnsthat patient merit of the unworthy takes’ is an interestingsummaryof the complaint of this sonnet. The relevant part of Hamlet’s speechis given below.


From Hamlet’ssoliloquy:

For whowould bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Ham.III.1.69-76.
KDJ draws attentionto the placing of this sonnetin this position, as No. 66. "Multiples of six have adverseconnotations,alluding to the biblical ‘beast’ associated with universal corruption:all human beings ‘had the marke, or the number of his name . . . andhis number is sixe hundred threescore and sixe’. (Revelation,13.16-18)."
KDJ 66 Headnote, p.242.

Note:

1. Tired with all these= exhausted,wearied, disgusted with all these - then follows the list of socialevilswith which he is tired. Possibly with a suggestion of attired with, inthesense that the evils cling to him like clothing, and he cannot divesthimselfof them.

2.As = as, for example, all these following.
desert = a deserving person, a worthwhileperson. In each succeedingline either praiseworthy or degenerate qualities are personified. Thus needynothing, purest faith, gilded honour, maiden virtue, right perfectionetc.all refer to the person or persons endowed with such characteristics.
a beggar born = born into poverty.

3.needy nothing = a nonentity who isneedy because he is lacking in all good qualities. At first glance itappearsthat the phrase suggests the opposite of that intended, for being in alistof socially desirable types whom society has downtrodden, oneautomaticallyaccepts it as being of the correct type to fit the general flow of thepoemi.e. one of the better and praiseworthy examples. Further considerationshows that this is not so, and needy nothing turns out to be one of thenasties who has managed to get himself kitted out in the latestfashion,no doubt at the expense of desert in the line above.
trimm'din jollity =(undeservingly) done up in frivolous and expensive clothesand ornaments.

4.purest faith = one who exhibits trustand trustworthiness; one who is pure in heart.
unhappily = through evil fortune, unluckily;wretchedly.
forsworn = tricked by false promises, betrayed.



5.As in line 3, gilded honour is notan example of virtue ill-treated, but of unworthiness well rewarded. Gildedhonour stands for the pomp and paraphernalia of office andauthority,the gold regalia of office, but here it is misplaced, because it hasbeenbestowed on those who are not fit to receive it.

6.maiden virtue = unblemished virtue;an innocent maiden.
rudely strumpeted = forced to become a whore,proclaimed a whore.Figuratively, virtue is forced into evil ways. The resemblance of thewordstrumpet to trumpet hintsat the possibility of public shamingof the innocent.

7.right perfection = genuine, honestperfection.
wrongfully= sinfully, evilly, unjustly.

8.strength = the strength of knowingthe right course of action.
limping sway = influence, which is typifiedby a crippled, shufflingfigure working behind the scenes. The irony is that strength,whichis hale and hearty, is disabled by influence and corruption, which islimpingand crippled, but nevertheless manages to make strengthlike himself.KDJ sees a possible reference to the authority of the ageing Elizabethinrestricting the activities of young male courtiers, for example theEarlof Essex in 1600/01. But it is unlikely that Shakespeare would haveneededto look to the very top of society for examples of young talent andenterprisesuppressed by the aged and infirm. Youth in any age can feel itselfrepressedby precedent, tradition, and the influence and authority of thosealreadyin power. In Elizabethan England, being of the right family and havingcontactswith those who could pull strings was vital for success, and manytalentedyouths must have discovered that their prospects were severly blightedbythe conventions of the times and the limited prospects for advancement.

9.art = skill, knowledge. A person whopossesses these. The word was less often applied to what we would callthecreative arts.
authority = a person in authority. SB mentionsthat this could referto censorship, which did operate in Elizabethan times, albeit rathererratically.

10.folly = stupidity, ignorance.
doctor-like - as an academic doctor;pretending to be learned. Skillis usedby Shakespeare of thephysician’s art also, so thereference could here be to a doctor of medicine.
………There's something in't,
More than my father's skill, which was the greatest
Of his profession AWW.I.3.233-5
Sir, I will use
My utmost skill in his recovery, Per.V.1.73-4.
controlling = restraining, exercising authority over,restricting, hampering.skill - used in a general sense to signifythose who have knowledge,those who are skilled in a branch of science. But perhaps the referenceis more to an academic situation, in which a person flaunting academicdresscontrols those who are more knowledgeable than him, but who do not havesuch a high academic standing. In the traditional personification ofFolly,such as that depicted in Erasmus’s In Praise of Folly,he wasgiven learned pomposity and academic garb to suit it. See SB.p.249.n.10.

11.simple truth = plain truth, unadornedtruth. miscalled = wrongfully named.
simplicity = stupidity, idiocy.

12.captive = having been captured; enslaved,having no freedom; attending = serving in a menialcapacity; takinginstruction from.
captain ill = evil (an evil person) in aposition of authority. Thetitle referred to a military rank, but was often used in a more generalsense to mean a military person in high authority,
Who does i' the wars more than his captain can
Becomes his captain's captain AC.III.1.21-2.

13.Wearied with all this graft and corruption,I wish to escape from it all.

14.Save that = except that.
to die = by dying; if I die.
I leave my love alone = I abandon my love andleave him defenceless;the only thing that I regret leaving is my love.

谢谢了。。。 我很赞成，继续努力吧













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