Yet another theory about Shakespeare’s sonnets

William Shakespeare is a tale of mystery and imagination. The mystery is that we know virtually nothing for certain about his personal life and his character. The imagination comes with the numerous ‘biographies’ which have filled these gaps with speculation (Shakespeare was a Catholic, he was gay, he was really Francis Bacon etc). I see no reason why I too can not join this great enterprise.

Most of the speculation about Shakespeare revolves around his 154 sonnets rather than his plays. These appear intensely personal, express the deepest emotions and have mystifying allusions to other people (most famously to the ‘fair youth’ and the ‘dark lady’). It is not surprising that biographers see the sonnets as a book of clues to be deciphered. However, they all make the same fundamental mistake: they assume Shakespeare wrote for any reason other than money. Shakespeare came from a family of small businessmen, and his father had lost money, position and status following prosecution for illegal trading. Sons from such families usually seek the security of cash in hand. There is also the fact that Shakespeare was a Warwickshire man, from a very commercially-minded part of the world (I speak as a native of that County myself). Nonetheless, Shakespeare’s attitude was probably common among those who write for a living, then and now. Another Midlander, Samuel Johnson, wrote “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”

The results can be seen in Shakespeare’s life and from what we can gather about his attitude to his work. His poems were published as commercial enterprises, but he showed no interest in publishing his plays (presumably because they were the property of the stage company he wrote for). After he retired on what seems to have been the comfortable proceeds of his writing, he showed no apparent interest in writing his memoirs or writing of any kind for pleasure. So what are we to make of the sonnets? They were published in 1609, but some at least seem to have written several years earlier. My proposal is that Shakespeare wrote them on demand for wealthy subscribers. The subscribers (who in England of the time would have been aristocrats such as the Earl of Southampton) would have regarded the sonnets rather like Italian Renaissance princes regarded the paintings they commissioned - as evidence of their wealth, learning and taste. They might even have been a precursor of the Valentine’s card, being despatched to their lovers. Of course, as in almost everything he wrote, Shakespeare produced the most wonderful poetry and the sharpest observation of human nature. But then, he was a professional.

So there is no need to speculate who Shakespeare’s fair youth and dark lady were, because they were someone else’s fair youth and dark lady.