I. William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born in Stratford on Avon, a small town to the northwest of London. His father was a burgher, a well-to do glove maker and later became an alderman of the town. Shakespeare may have attended the grammar school of the town where he may have learned “little Latin and less Greek”, as noted by his contemporary Ben Jonson. From various records it is clear that his father John Shakespeare, having enjoyed prosperity in business for some time, became less prosperous and Shakespeare might have helped him in his butcher, s shop. A bond dated Nov. 26, 1582, affords clear evidence that Shakespeare married with Anna Hathaway of Stratford. At this time Shakespeare was only eighteen, and the bride was eight years older. It was very probable that it was a hurried marriage because their first child Susanna was christened on May 26, 1583. The fact that the child was born only six months after the marriage suggests that it was a forced marriage and an ill-matched one.

In 1584 Shakespeare left his native town. Why he did so remains a mystery. The most popular explanation was that he was prosecuted by a big landlord for poaching on his estate. Then until 1592 when he reappeared as a rising actor, Shakespeare disappeared from view. During the period he is said to have wandered through the country, finally coming to London, where he performed various mean jobs, including holding horses at a theater. The most recent attempt to bridge the gap in his life is a suggestion that he may have spent much of the time in the Low Countries in service in the armies of the Earl of Leicester

The earliest record of Shakespeare’s career is a reference in Robert Greene’s essay in which Shakespeare is mentioned as “an upstart crow…in his own conceit the only shakescene in a country.” In 1594 his name appeared on the payroll of Lord Chamberlain’s company of actors, or Lord Chamberlain’s men at the Globe Theatre.

Shakespeare probably began to write plays around 1590, at first in collaboration with other playwrights or engaged in revising old plays. Then his two narrative poems were published. Venus and Adonis (1593), a poem about the love between a handsome young man, Adonis, and the goddess of love and how the youth was killed by a wild boar. The Rape of Lucrece (1594) is about a Roman lady who was raped and committed suicide and how she was avenged. They were dedicated to the Earl of Southampton. It was the custom of the time to write poems to the noblemen and get their patronage.

Shakespeare’s career as an actor and playwright stretched for more than twenty years. Many of his plays were popular and quite a number of them were published in his life time without his knowledge. After his death a collection of his plays, 37 in all, were published in folio form by two of his friends in 1623. Shakespeare was also a shareholder in the playhouse. In 1611 or 1612 he retired or partly retired from London and went back to live in his native town. He died in Stratford in 1616.

II. Historical Background

1. Renaissance

Renaissance refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th century in western civilization and the movement, which marks the transition from the medieval to the modern world. It first started in Florence and Venice of Italy and went to embrace the rest of Europe, with the flowering of painting, sculpture and architecture.

The word “Renaissance”, which means rebirth or revival, is usually regarded as the result of an emphasis upon the discovered Greek and Roman classics and the combination or compromise of a newly interpreted Christian tradition and an admired tradition of pagan classical culture. Renaissance was stimulated by a series of historical events, such as the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture, the new discoveries in geography and astronomy, the religious reformation and the economic expansion.

The new humanistic learning is frequently taken as the beginning of the Renaissance. By emphasizing the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life, Renaissance humanists advocated that man did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of this life, but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders. They also voiced their rebellious spirit against the tyranny of feudal rule. The individualism view of life exerted a strong influence upon the European Renaissance life and literature.

2. Poet’s Writing Career

Shakespeare’s writing career may be roughly divided into four stages:

The early years were years of his apprenticeship, dating from 1592 to 1594. During this period he wrote his early history plays or histories and a group of comedies. They are King Henry VI in three parts (1590-1592), Richard III (1593), Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594), and Love’s Labour Lost (1594).This is a period of experimentation. It is marked by imitation of existing plays, by the spirit of youthfulness and rich imagination, by exaggerated language and by the frequent use or rhymed couplets.

The second period is a period of rapid growth and development, dating from 1595 to 1600. Such plays as Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595), Romeo and Juliet (1596), The Merchant of Venice (1597), the two parts of Henry IV (1597-1598), As You Like It (1598), Julius Caesar (1599), and Henry V (1599), were all written in this period. They show more careful and artistic work, better plot, and a marked increase in the knowledge of human nature.

The third period is a period of gloom and depression, dating from 1601 to 1608. It is a period of his tragedies, such as Hamlet (1601), Othello (1604), King Lear (1605), and Macbeth (1605).

The fourth period is a period of restored serenity, from 1608 to 1612. It is a period of calm after storm, with such plays as The Winter’s Tale (1610) and The Tempest (1611).

3. Sonnet

Shakespeare, besides his two long poems and his plays, also wrote sonnets, 154 altogether in number.

A sonnet is a short song in the original meaning of the word. Later it became a poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter with various rhyming schemes. It was first written by the Italian poet Petrarch (1304-1374) who wrote sonnets to a lady named Laura.

Sonnet was introduced to England by poets Thomas Wyatt (1503? 1542) and the Earl of Surrey (15179 -1547). Shakespeare wrote his sonnets in about 1589 and they were published in 1609. The writing of sonnets, either to one’s love, or to one’s patron, or to one’s friend, was a fashion in his time.

The 154 sonnets fall into two groups, divided at sonnet 126. The first group was addressed to a Mr. W. H. People have been making guesses as to who this W. H. was. It is very likely that he was a nobleman. The second group was addressed to a Dark Lady and people have been puzzling their brains for ages to find out who this Dark Lady was.

The first 17 sonnets exhort the young man W. H. to marry and beget children. Beginning with Sonnet 18, Shakespeare is concerned about the effect of passing time on the young man. He says that though his friend may grow old and lose his beauty, he will be immortalized in the sonnets that Shakespeare wrote for him. In the third part of the group, Shakespeare no longer treats his friend’s beauty as subject of decay, but as perfect model of beauty, and many other beauties on earth are its expressions.

In the group of sonnets written to that dark skinned, dark eyed, and dark haired lady, Shakespeare blamed her for betraying his love. She had lured him once and then deserted him and went to his friend.

The metrical form of Shakespeare’s sonnets is different from that of Petrarach’s. Petrarch’s sonnet is divided into two parts. The first eight lines are called an octave rhyming pattern of abba abba, in which the theme of the sonnet is put forward or a problem is raised. The next six lines are called a sestet following a rhyming scheme cde cde, in which the answer to the theme is given. Shakespeare’s sonnet consists of three quatrains with a rhyming scheme abab cdcd efef and ends with a couplet rhyming gg. In the three quatrains the theme is put forward and developed, and in the couplet the sonnet ends with a surprise conclusion or a shift of ideas.

III. Reading Guide

Sonnet 18, often alternatively titled Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?, is one of the best-known of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. Part of the Fair Youth sequence (which comprises sonnets 1–126 in the accepted numbering stemming from the first edition in 1609), it is the first of the cycle after the opening sequence now described as the procreation sonnets.

In the sonnet, the speaker asks whether or not he should compare his beloved to the summer season, and argues that he should not because the comparison does not properly express the depths of his emotion. He also states that his beloved will live on forever through the words of the poem. Scholars have found parallels within the poem to Ovid's Tristia and Amores, both of which have love themes. Sonnet 18 is written in the typical Shakespearean sonnet form, having 14 lines of iambic pentameter ending in a rhymed couplet. Detailed exegeses have revealed several double meanings within the poem, giving it a greater depth of interpretation.

IV. Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

V. Notes

1. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?: This is a rhetorical question that does not expect an answer.

2. art: are

3. temperate: moderate

4. summer’s lease: A lease is a written agreement, made according to law, by which the use of a building or piece of land is given by its owner to somebody for a certain time in return for rent. Here summer is personified as a “lease” held by a tenant for a short term and time is holding that “lease” like some kind of eternal landlord.

5. hath all too short a date: has too brief a duration. Notice the sound effect of the clipped syllables.

6. Sometime: sometimes.

7. the eye of heaven: the sun.

8. his: the sun’s

9. And every fair from fair sometime declines: And the beauty of every beautiful thing will fade at some future time.

10. untrimmed: stripped of beauty.

11. ow’st: own

12. Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade: Death shall not brag either that you will go to the underworld.

13. When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: When you and the eternal time are one and the same.

VI. Translation

我怎么能够把你来比作夏天？

你不独比它可爱也比它温婉。

狂风把五月宠爱的嫩蕊作践，

夏天出赁的期限又未免太短；

天上的眼睛有时照得太酷烈，

它那炳耀的金颜又常遭掩蔽；

被机缘或无常的天道所摧折，

没有芳艳不终于雕残或销毁。

但是你的长夏永远不会雕落，

也不会损失你这皎洁的红芳；

或死神夸口你在他影里漂泊，

当你在不朽的诗里与时同长。

只要一天有人类，或人有眼睛，

这诗将长存，并且赐给你生命。