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Study
Guide Prepared by Michael J. Cummings...©
2003
Revised
in 2010..©
Type
of Work
.......As
the title suggests, this Shakespeare work is a complaint poem. This type
of poem was popular in medieval and Renaissance times. Authors of complaint
poems narrated stories of unrequited love, personal difficulties, injustice,
poverty, or another social problem. Sometimes they spiced their poems with
satire. A complaint poem often appeared at the end of a collection of other
poems.
Year
of Publication
.......The
poem was published in 1609, at the end of a quarto edition featuring Shakespeare's
sonnets.
Setting
.......The
events described in the poem take place in rural England.
Characters
The
narrator: Unidentified person. He observes a woman complaining about
a man who seduced her, then left her.
The
woman: Person who yields to the charms of the seducer.
Old
Man: Person who listens to the woman's story.
The
Seducer: Handsome young man with a clever tongue who treats women as
objects for satisfying his lust.
Verse
Format
.......The
poem is in rhyme royal (or rime royal), a format in which each stanza has
seven lines and the metric pattern is iambic pentameter. In rhyme royal,
the rhyme scheme is ababbcc.
.......Geoffrey
Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales, pioneered this rhyme scheme
in England in his works Troilus and Criseyde and
The Parlement
of Foules. Rhyme royal was going out of fashion when
A Lover’s Complaint
was published, although later poets–including John Milton in the seventeenth
century and John Masefield in the twentieth–revived it.
.......The
first stanza of the poem demonstrates the rhyme scheme:
.From
off a hill whose concave womb re-worded
A plaintful
story from a sistering vale,
My spirits
to attend this double voice accorded,
And down
I laid to list the sad-tun’d tale;
Ere long
espied a fickle maid full pale,
Tearing
of papers, breaking rings a-twain,
Storming
her world with sorrow’s wind and rain.
Lines 4 and
5 demonstrate the prevailing metric pattern:
.........1...............2..............3..............4................5
And
DOWN..|..I
LAID..|..to
LIST..|..the
SAD-..|..tun'd
TALE
........1...............2...............3..............4..............5
Ere
LONG..|..es
PIED..|..a
FICK..|..le
MAID..|..full
PALE
Authorship
Question.......Because
parts of the poem appear “un-Shakespearean" in style, some researchers
hold open the possibility that another author wrote the poem. However,
it was not unusual for Shakespeare to alter his style. Moreover, although
un-Shakespearean passages do exist in the poem–passages which Algernon
Charles Swinburne ridiculed as bombastic–a goodly passel of typically Shakespearean
passages grace the poem. Swinburne acknowledged these passages as exquisite.
And here’s something more: The first stanza of A Lover’s Complaint
resembles the first stanza of The Rape of Lucrece in structure and
word choice. Other similarities exist in other stanzas. Below is a comparison
of the first four lines of A Lover's Complaint and the first four
lines of The Rape of Lucrece. Note the similarities:
A
Lover's Complaint
.
From
off a hill whose concave womb reworded
A
plaintful story from a sistering vale,
My
spirits to attend this double voice accorded,
And
down I laid to list the sad-tuned tale;
.
The
Rape of Lucrece
.
From
the besieged Ardea all in post,
Borne
by the trustless wings of false desire,
Lust-breathed
Tarquin leaves the Roman host,
And
to Collatium bears the lightless fire
Summary
of the Poem By
Michael J. Cummings...©
2003.........When
woeful cries echo from a hill, the poem’s narrator cocks an ear to listen.
By and by, he spies in the distance the source of the lamentations: a maid
wearing a straw hat against the bright sunlight. Pale and careworn, she
is crying into a handkerchief. Although past her youth, she retains a glimmer
of youthful beauty. Her distress attracts a “reverend man" grazing cattle
nearby. Leaning on a sturdy ashen staff, he seats himself a modest distance
from her and asks what troubles her. It may be that, as a man of many years
and much experience, he may have the wisdom to alleviate her grief.
"Father,'
she says, "though in me you behold
The
injury of many a blasting hour,
Let
it not tell your judgment I am old;
Not
age, but sorrow, over me hath power:
I
might as yet have been a spreading flower,
Fresh
to myself, If I had self-applied
Love
to myself and to no love beside."
.......She
then tells her listener how a young man whose “qualities were beauteous
as his form" wooed her, first winning her “affections in his charmed power,"
then stealing “all my flower." In other words, the young man had seduced
her. His methods, she says, were “foul beguiling" and deceits “gilded in
his smiling." Afterward, he abandoned her. The poem ends when the maid
bitterly denounces the wrongdoer while acknowledging, paradoxically, that
she would yet again succumb to his wiles if the opportunity presented itself:
"O,
that infected moisture of his eye,
O,
that false fire which in his cheek so glow'd,
O,
that forced thunder from his heart did fly,
O,
that sad breath his spongy lungs bestow'd,
O,
all that borrow'd motion seeming owed,
Would
yet again betray the fore-betray'd,
And
new pervert a reconciled maid!"
The old
man offers no response.
A
Lover's Complaint
By
William Shakespeare
Text
and Explanatory Notes
1
From
off a hill whose concave womb re-worded
A
plaintful story1
from a sistering vale2,
My spirits
to attend this double voice3
accorded,
And down
I laid to list4 the
sad-tun’d tale;
Ere long
espied a fickle maid full pale,...............................5
Tearing
of papers5, breaking
rings a-twain,
Storming
her world with sorrow’s wind and rain.
2
Upon
her head a platted6 hive
of straw,7
Which
fortified her visage from the sun,
Whereon
the thought might think sometime it saw.............10
The carcass
of a beauty spent and done:
Time
had not scythed8
all that youth begun,
Nor youth
all quit; but, spite of heaven’s fell9
rage,
Some
beauty peep’d through lattice10
of sear’d11
age.
3
Oft did
she heave her napkin to her eyne,12.......................15
Which
on it had conceited characters,
Laundering
the silken figures in the brine
That
season’d
woe13 had pelleted
in tears,
And often
reading what content it bears;
As often
shrieking
undistinguish’d woe14............................20
In clamours
of all size, both high and low.
4
Sometimes
her levell’d eyes their carriage ride,
As
they did battery to the spheres intend;15
Sometime
diverted, their poor balls are tied
To the
orbed earth; sometimes they do extend....................25
Their
view right on; anon their gazes lend
To every
place at once, and nowhere fix’d,
The mind
and sight distractedly commix’d.
5
Her hair,
nor loose nor tied in formal plat,16
Proclaim’d
in her a careless hand of pride;...........................30
For some,
untuck’d, descended her sheav’d hat,
Hanging
her pale and pined cheek beside;
Some
in her threaden fillet17
still did bide,
And true
to bondage would not break from thence
Though
slackly braided in loose negligence..........................35
6
A thousand
favours from a maund18
she drew
Of amber,
crystal, and of beaded jet,
Which
one by one she in a river threw,
Upon
whose weeping margent19
she was set;
Like
usury, applying wet to wet,20........................................40
Or monarch’s
hands that let not bounty fall
Where
want cries some, but where excess begs all.
7
Of folded
schedules21
had she many a one,
Which
she perus’d, sigh’d, tore, and gave the flood;
Crack’d
many
a ring of posied gold and bone,........................45
Bidding
them find their sepulchres in mud;
Found
yet more letters sadly penn’d in blood,
With
sleided
silk feat22 and
affectedly
Enswath’d,
and seal’d to curious secrecy.
8
These
often bath’d she in her fluxive23
eyes,..........................50
And often
kiss’d, and often ’gan to tear;
Cried
"O false blood! thou register of lies,
What
unapproved24
witness dost thou bear;
Ink
would have seem’d more black and damned here."25
This
said, in top of rage the lines she rents,26........................55
Big discontent
so breaking their contents.
9
A reverend
man that graz’d his cattle nigh—
Sometime27
a blusterer, that the ruffle28knew
Of court,
of city, and had let go by
The swiftest
hours, observed as they flew—...........................60
Towards
this afflicted fancy29
fastly30
drew;
And,
privileg’d
by age,31 desires
to know
In brief
the grounds and motives of her woe.
10
So slides
he down upon his grained bat,32
And comely-distant33
sits he by her side;...............................65
When
he again desires her, being sat,
Her grievance
with his hearing to divide:
If that
from him there may be aught34
applied
Which
may her suffering ecstasy assuage,35
’Tis
promis’d in the charity of age...........................................70
11
‘Father,’
she says, ‘though in me you behold
The injury
of many a blasting hour,36
Let it
not tell your judgment I am old;
Not age,
but sorrow, over me hath power:
I might
as yet have been a spreading flower,............................75
Fresh
to myself, if I had self-applied
Love
to myself and to no love beside.
12
‘But,
woe is me! too early I attended
A youthful
suit,37 it was
to gain my grace,
Of one
by nature’s outwards so commended,...........................80
That
maidens’
eyes stuck over all his face.38
Love
lack’d a dwelling, and made him her place;
And when
in his fair parts she did abide,
She was
new lodg’d and newly deified.
13
‘His
browny locks did hang in crooked curls, 85
And every
light occasion of the wind
Upon
his lips their silken parcels hurls.
What’s
sweet to do, to do will aptly find:39
Each
eye that saw him did enchant the mind,
For on
his visage was in little drawn.........................................90
What
largeness thinks in Paradise was sawn.40
14
‘Small
show of man was yet upon his chin;
His phoenix41
down began but to appear
Like
unshorn velvet on that termless42
skin
Whose
bare
out-bragg’d the web it seem’d to wear;43................95
Yet show’d
his visage by that cost44
more dear,45
And nice
affections wavering stood in doubt
If best
were as it was, or best without.
15
‘His
qualities were beauteous as his form,
For maiden-tongu’d46
he was, and thereof free;........................100
Yet,
if men mov’d47
him, was he such a storm
As oft
’twixt May and April is to see,
When
winds breathe sweet, untidy though they be.
His rudeness
so with his authoriz’d youth
Did
livery falseness in a pride of truth.48...................................105
16
‘Well
could he ride, and often men would say
“That
horse his mettle from his rider takes:
Proud
of subjection, noble by the sway,
What
rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop he makes!"
And controversy
hence a question takes,.................................110
Whether
the horse by him became his deed,
Or he
his manage by the well-doing steed.
17
‘But
quickly on this side the verdict went:
His real
habitude49
gave life and grace
To appertainings
and to ornament,50.........................................115
Accomplish’d
in himself, not in his case:
All aids,
themselves made fairer by their place,
Came
for additions; yet their purpos’d trim
Piec’d
not his grace, but were all grac’d by him.
18
‘So on
the tip of his subduing tongue.........................................120
All kinds
of arguments and question deep,
All replication51
prompt, and reason strong,
For his
advantage still did wake and sleep:
To make
the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,
He had
the dialect and different skill,..........................................125
Catching
all passions in his craft of will:52
19
‘That
he did in the general bosom reign
Of young,
of old; and sexes both enchanted,
To dwell
with him in thoughts, or to remain
In personal
duty, following where he haunted:..............................130
Consents
bewitch’d,53 ere
he desire, have granted;
And dialogu’d
for him what he would say,
Ask’d
their own wills, and made their wills obey.
20
‘Many
there were that did his picture get,
To serve
their eyes, and in it put their mind;.................................135
Like
fools that in the imagination set
The goodly
objects which abroad they find
Of lands
and mansions, theirs in thought assign’d;54
And labouring
in more pleasures to bestow them
Than
the true gouty landlord which doth owe55
them.....................140
21
‘So many
have, that never touch’d his hand,
Sweetly
suppos’d them mistress of his heart.
My woeful
self, that did in freedom stand,
And
was my own fee-simple,56
not in part,
What
with his art in youth, and youth in art,..................................145
Threw
my affections in his charmed power,
Reserv’d
the stalk and gave him all my flower.
22
‘Yet
did I not, as some my equals did,
Demand
of him, nor being desired yielded;
Finding
myself
in honour so forbid,57.............................................150
With
safest distance I mine honour shielded.
Experience
for me many bulwarks builded
Of
proofs new-bleeding,58
which remain’d the foil59
Of this
false jewel, and his amorous spoil.
23
‘But,
ah! who ever shunn’d by precedent........................................155
The destin’d
ill she must herself assay?60
Or forc’d
examples, ’gainst her own content,
To put
the by-pass’d perils in her way?
Counsel
may stop awhile what will not stay;
For when
we rage, advice is often seen..........................................160
By blunting
us to make our wits more keen.
24
‘Nor
gives it satisfaction to our blood,
That
we must curb it upon others’ proof;61
To be
forbid the sweets that seem so good,
For fear
of harms that preach in our behoof.....................................165
O appetite!
from judgment stand aloof;
The one
a palate hath that needs will taste,
Though
Reason weep, and cry “It is thy last."
25
‘For
further I could say “This man ’s untrue,"
And knew
the patterns of his foul beguiling;.....................................170
Heard
where his plants in others’ orchards grew,
Saw how
deceits were gilded in his smiling;
Knew
vows were ever brokers to defiling;
Thought
characters and words merely but art,
And bastards
of his foul adulterate heart..........................................175
26
‘And
long upon these terms I held my city,
Till
thus he ’gan besiege me: “Gentle maid,
Have
of my suffering youth some feeling pity,
And
be not of my holy vows afraid:62
That’s
to ye sworn to none was ever said;........................................180
For feasts
of love I have been call’d unto,
Till
now did ne’er invite, nor never woo.
27
‘“All
my offences that abroad you see
Are errors
of the blood, none of the mind;
Love
made them not: with acture63
they may be,...............................185
Where
neither party is nor true nor kind:64
They
sought their shame that so their shame did find,
And
so much less of shame in me remains,65
By how
much of me their reproach contains.
28
‘“Among
the many that mine eyes have seen,....................................190
Not one
whose flame my heart so much as warm’d,
Or my
affection put to the smallest teen,66
Or any
of my leisures ever charm’d:
Harm
have I done to them, but ne’er was harm’d;
Kept
hearts in liveries, but mine own was free,....................................195
And reign’d,
commanding in his monarchy.
29
‘“Look
here, what tributes wounded fancies sent me,
Of paled
pearls and rubies red as blood;
Figuring
that they their passions likewise lent me
Of grief
and blushes, aptly understood................................................200
In bloodless
white and the encrimson’d mood;
Effects
of terror and dear modesty,
Encamp’d
in hearts, but fighting outwardly.
30
‘“And,
lo! behold these talents67
of their hair,
With
twisted metal amorously impleach’d,68........................................205
I have
receiv’d from many a several fair,
Their
kind acceptance weepingly beseech’d,
With
the annexions69
of fair gems enrich’d,
And deep-brain’d
sonnets, that did amplify
Each
stone’s dear nature, worth, and quality........................................210
31
‘“The
diamond; why, ’twas beautiful and hard,
Whereto70
his invis’d71
properties did tend;
The deep-green
emerald, in whose fresh regard
Weak
sights their sickly radiance do amend;
The heaven-hued
sapphire and the opal blend........................................215
With
objects manifold: each several stone,
With
wit well blazon’d,72
smil’d or made some moan.
32
‘“Lo!
all these trophies of affections hot,
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