What is your substance, whereof are you made,
That millions of strange shadows on you tend?
Substance and Reality in Shakespeare
Shakespeare follows the non-philosophical convention and uses the word “substance” interchangeably with “nature” In Sonnets 5, 37 and 44 the word “nature” can be substituted without any change of sense. In plays such as The Merry Wives of Windsor[II,2 Ll 985] andPericles 2.1.580, he uses the word in much the same way. He also tends to use the word “shadow” in opposition to it. In Richard II [II, 2 1007] he writes,
“Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows,
Which shows like grief itself, but is not so;
Reality and Illusion in Shakespeare
If comparison is made of his words to that of a technical philosopher, such as Bacon, as Caroline Spurgeon does inShakespeare’s Imagery, (1975) p 17 then it can be seen that no connection is made between “darkness” and “light” as truth and falsity by Shakespeare in the fashion that Bacon would connect them. For Shakespeare, the opposition is reality and illusion. Shakespeare is telling his lover that the millions of other human beings are unreal compared to the reality of the beloved. He uses “tend” as a gardener might a garden, or a servant, a guest. Shakespeare only uses “tend” in the infinitive in the Sonnets (57 and 103)
Since every one hath, every one, one shade,
And you, but one, can every shadow lend.
He then turns the comparison around while keeping the predication with gardening. The beloved despite being one can nonetheless lend his shadow to all others, despite their having only one shade. because of the beloved’s universal beauty. It is exclusive and apart.
Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit
Is poorly imitated after you;
The beloved is the universal archetype expressed in its male form by Adonis and in its female form
by Helen. Both types are mortal.
On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set,
The sun of Helen’s beauty is set as well as having beauty set in her type. Shakespeare’s metaphoric range is consistently predicative, relying on verbs to express the underlying comparison.
And you in Grecian tires are painted new:
Yet the beloved renews the archetype, as if in a classic portrait
Speak of the spring and foison of the year,
The one doth shadow of your beauty show,
Shakespeare sets the visible beauty of Spring against the reality of growth and physical strength.
The other as your bounty doth appear,
Goodness for Shakespeare is always concrete and visible. Compare Lysimachus’ lines in Pericles [IV, 6 2050
“She's such a one, that, were I well assured
Came of a gentle kind and noble stock,
I'ld wish no better choice, and think me rarely wed.
Fair one, all goodness that consists in bounty
Expect even here, where is a kingly patient.”
The World of the Beloved
Shakespeare then tilts the flow of thought in a typically Renaissance fashion. The “volta” is to extend the contrast of reality and illusion to the world.
And you in every blessed shape we know.
In all external grace you have some part
Shakespeare often shows signs of a specific vocabulary derived from Catholic theology. In this case it is from Augustine. “All the effects of supernatural providence which help the human will perform the virtues.” (De Corrept. et Gratia ii) yet Shakespeare knows he cannot compare even his beloved to the action of God.
But you like none, none you, for constant heart.
To follow Shakespeare’s thought it is useful to see the semantic parallel rhyme of “part” and “heart” The beloved unlike anyone else has a constant heart. Now Shakespeare’s elusive use of “none” falls into place. It is “no-one else” in the first use and “no-one but” in the second. In the first sense the beloved is distinct and “a part” from the human race. In the second, the beloved sums up the humanity of goodness under the sway of grace in the human heart.
Substance and shadow: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 53, seen in the light of Jalal-uddin Rumi, Zafar Shaheed 2010
Linda Sue Grimes british-poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/shakespeare_sonnet_53
Duncan McGibbon - By contributing writer, Bath (UK) Institute Convenor and Wells Festival Prize-Winner, Duncan McGibbon
