Home of Anne Hathaway

I should call it “Shakespeare Saturday.” My readings of Shakespeare’s sonnets continue with Sonnet 3.

But first, a little biographical information that you may or may not have known about Shakespeare:

• He was married to Anne Hathaway, possibly because he’d gotten her pregnant.
• He had three children in all, Susanna (the eldest) and fraternal twins Hamnet and Judith.
• When Shakespeare died at the ripe old age of 52, he bequeathed to Anne his “second-best bed.”  How… sweet.

Sonnet 3

Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose unear’d womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb,
Of his self-love, to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother’s glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime;
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.
    But if thou live, remember’d not to be,
    Die single, and thine image dies with thee.

What I get out of it

Look in thy glass

This is getting a tad repetitive.  Ok, more than a tad.  When Shakespeare got an idea set in his head, he apparently couldn’t shake it.  Admittedly, our ADD culture could probably benefit from his practice of considering things from multiple angles.

The idea he’s set on, once again, is that the person to whom Sonnet 3 is dedicated needs to hurry up and make babies.  “Look in thy glass,” or mirror, and tell yourself that the face you see “should form another”… in a reproductive sense.  If you don’t “renew” your beautiful features by passing them along to a new generation, you are teasing (”beguiling”) the world and taking away what should be a blessing upon a new “mother”:  the blessing of having your beautiful child.

Shakespeare continues:  you could have anyone you want!  What woman is “so fair” that she “disdains the tillage of thy husbandry,” refusing to have your child?  (I think I’ll ignore the rather unsettling comparison of plowing with the act of love.)  How can you be “so fond” in “self-love” that you will “stop posterity” and allow your lineage to die out?

“Thou art thy mother’s glass”… you are your mother’s mirror image.  When she had you, she preserved her own “lovely” appearance, at least for a time.  If you pass that along to your own children, then when you are old, you will see your youthful beauty (and hers) in the faces of your offspring.  On the other hand, if you don’t leave anyone to “remember” you, then “die single” and take your beauty to your grave.

Is it relevant?

Yes.  It reminds me of a conversation I got dragged into once when I was a child.  The MacOdys family consists mostly of women, especially in my father’s generation.  These women, having been married, no longer carry the MacOdys name.  My only male cousin who is named MacOdys has only daughters; my brother likewise has no sons.  My mother was remarking on this to my father.

Suddenly, she turned to face me, playing with my action figures.  “Aylad, it looks like it’s up to you to preserve the MacOdys name,” she said.

No pressure or anything.  Heckuva thing to tell a ten-year-old.

Whether beauty, or wealth, or a name, people are still sometimes pressured to have children to pass along some inherited trait.  When this fails to happen, we click our tongues — tsk, tsk — and remark what a shame it is.  Just for an example, William Shakespeare’s only son died as a child; his daughters married and lost the Shakespeare name… a fact I can’t help lamenting.

And God said [to Abraham], Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
– Genesis 17:19-20

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