The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 11.0878  Friday, 21 April 2000.

From:           Larry Weiss <
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Date:           Thursday, 20 Apr 2000 12:55:28 -0400
Subject:        Sonnet 129

Martin Green observes that Sonnet 129

>is more than a meditation upon sex as  "before a joy proposed, behind a
>dreame";
>it is a statement that the sexual drive - - lust - - is capable of
>anything to achieve satisfaction:  it is "perjurd, murdrous, blouddy
>full of blame,/ Savage, extreame, rude, cruell, not to trust,/ . . .
>Past reason hunted . . . . /Mad in pursut . . . . / . . . the heaven
>that leads men to this hell."

Right.  And has anyone else noticed that the sonnet is an extended
crescendo climaxing on the word "proof" followed by a dramatic
decrescendo, thus illustrating as well as explaining its theme, the same
point made by Horace's epigram "Omni animal post coitum triste est,
praeter gallumque et mullierem."