All other loves, with which the world doth blind In the Hymn of Heavenly Beauty we are taught by ascending scale of beauty in creation, by the blinding brightness of the sun, to "Look at last up to that Sovereign light From whose pure beams all perfect beauty springs; There are then, according to Spenser, two kinds of beauty, the corporeal and the spiritual. The first is the object of earthly, the second of spiritual love, and the work of the pure soul of true love is to fashion for itself and in itself from the earthly image that spiritual ideal which is the reflection of God Himself. In the process of transformation the better self, God's grace and God Himself, are constantly addressed in the same terms. This identity of love with the object is found in St. Paul's "Vivo ego jam non ego, sed Christus vivit in me," and is a leading thought with St. Augustine, “Anima plus ubi amat quam ubi vivit." And now let us turn to the sonnets and see how they can be interpreted on the lines of the philosophy already sketched. The first series, 1-126, THEME OF THE SONNETS 223 is addressed to a youth idealised, described now as a fair boy, now as an angel, the type of pure love, leading the poet to higher things. The second series, 127-156, is addressed to a woman, the type of evil passion, whose only purpose is to degrade and destroy the soul. The pure love and the false the poet experiences in his own heart. "Two loves I have, of comfort and despair, As love follows knowledge, the loveable object, whether good or evil, is presented to the soul through one of the three channels of human information. These are the outward senses, the inward senses of the imagination and memory, and the mind itself. Each of these, when actuated by the object, proposes to the will a corresponding good. The object of the outward senses is corporeal beauty. The object of the inward senses is the imaginative beauty created by the phantasies and memory. The object of the intellect is the ideal beauty, the perfect expression of truth, and too spiritual and intellectual to be set forth in any phantasm or outward form. As St. Augustine says, " Vera pulchritudo fustitia est." This triple division is, then, found in the sonnets. Sonnets 1-45 treat of the imaginative love, which is again subdivided by its object as represented corporeally, by the memory or phantasy, or as an intellectual idea. In the first stage, goodness or beauty as seen through the outward senses forms the theme of twenty sonnets, which we proceed to summarise, the bracketed numbers indicating the sonnets referred to. The opening lines declare that beauty or goodness should be perpetual, for the thought of coming decay and separation prevents any true enjoyment of the beloved object (1). Therefore he desires offspring for his friend (2). The child is the parent's reflection, and represents him in his prime. His beloved should not then be barren, but inspire the poet's soul with fitting conceptions of his worth, that he may live on in his rhyme (3, 4). As the rose, though dead, lives on in the fragrant water distilled from its leaves, so will his beloved in the verses of the poet. This simile is borrowed from Sidney's image of the rosewater in crystal-glass (5). The necessity of the spiritual marriage is reiterated and illustrated through the next four sonnets. "Summer defaced by winter's ragged hand," the sun's meridian glory adored with bowed head, but forgotten when it sets, typify the oblivion, the necessary heritage of a childless life (6, 7). Then follows an exquisite image from an acoustic phenomenon in music, recalling again the harmony found in every creature true to itself. As the two notes of a perfect triad, struck in complete accord, produce spontaneously a third, so should the poet's fruitful union with his beloved. LOVE OF THE SENSES "Mark how one string, sweet husband to another, 225 Say this to thee, 'Thou single wilt prove none'" (8). From this point the arguments become less rhetorical, and appeal more directly to the feelings. Do you keep single for fear of wetting a widow's eye? (9). You cannot love others if you thus slay yourself by singleness; and here the poet urges his suit by a personal appeal. "Make thee another self for love of me, That beauty still may live in thine or thee" (10). In conceptive power live wisdom, beauty, increase; without it, time would cease, and the world perish in an age (11). The visible decay of all things warns us to prepare for death (12), and the only preparation is to leave issue to posterity (13). The poet speaks, not as an augur or soothsayer from weather signs, but from the principles of truth and beauty seen in the "constant stars," the unchanging light of his beloved's eyes (14). The poet's verses, inspired by this light, will immortalise his love, though all other things, "cheered and checked by the self-same sky," from memory pass (15). If, however, his friend would draw himself by his own sweet skill, such a work would be more blessed than the poet's barren rhyme (16). Without such an authentic declaration of the truth none would P believe in that beauty which is beyond compare (17). But with this guarantee his love would live through all time in his friend's verse and in his own. Yet his unaided song shall sing his love's praises, for Truth's eternal summer never fades (18). "Do thy worst, old Time, despite thy wrong, My love shall in my verse be ever young" (19). He then commences his praises of his love. His beloved's beauty is the Creator's painting, not false adornment of art. Yet its outward semblance others may extol with what similes they will. Its interior loveliness is the object of the poet's desire (20, 21), and reclothed therein his youth is ever renewed. "For all the beauty that doth cover thee Is but the seemly raiment of my heart, Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me, How can I then be elder than thou art?" (22). Notwithstanding his previous declaration to sing his friend's praises at any cost, his love renders him tongue-tied, like an actor who, through fear, forgets his part. His beloved then must read in his heart" what love hath writ." He holds there a treasure. Earth's heroes and royal favourites live in to-day's smile and expire in the morrow's frown. His love and joy are eternal. "Then happy I that love and am beloved, Where I may not remove, nor be removed" (25). With Sonnet 26 we enter the second degree in |