The World of Shakespeare's Sonnets: An Introduction

by Robert Matz

Overview

Of Shakespeare's sonnets we know the crystalline meter, exquisite diction, and exhilarating surprise of the "turn" in the final couplet. By contrast, we know very little of their subjects and motives. This book does not approach the sonnets as Shakespearean autobiography but instead delineates the customs that shaped the poet's world and thus his sonnets. It argues for understanding them as brilliant, edgy expressions of the equally brilliant, edgy culture of the English Renaissance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786432196
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	01/02/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert Matz is an associate professor of English at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     
Preface     
Introduction     

Section I: “This Powerful Rhyme”
1. Mirrors of Courtesy     
2. Educating the Courtier     
3. Love, or Literary Credential?     
4. In the Shadow of Abundance     
5. Dedicated Words     
6. He That Buys Must Sell     
7. Thy True-telling Friend     
8. From Form to Feeling     

Section II: “A Man Right Fair”
9. Before Homosexuality     
10. The King Loved Him Well     
11. Marriages and Men     
12. “Eternal Lines”: Marriage or Poetry?     
13. “Being Your Slave”     
14. Friendship and Its Flatteries     
15. But Did They Have Sex?     

Section III: “A Woman Coloured Ill”
16. Gynerasty..     
17. Saucy Jacks     
18. Weaker Vessels.     
19. A Reproach of Their Own     
20. The Black Mistress: A Renaissance Common Place     
21. More Perjured I?     
22. “The Expense of Spirit”     
23. Fair Is Foul     
24. Sonnet 20: A Reprise     

Section IV: “So Long Lives This”
25. The Sonnets Today     
26. From “Sweet Boy” to “Sweet Love”     
27. “Piteous Constraint to Read Such Stuff”     
28. A Lover and a Man     
29. The Science of Sonnets     
30. Wilde Sonnets.     
31. Love Poetry at Last     

Coda: Universal Shakespeare?     
Notes     
Bibliography     
Index     

What People are Saying About This

Nichole Lehman

"Teachers and students alike will learn from Matz's accessible information and extensive research, and grow from the opportunity to participate in the 400-year conversation about Shakespeare's sonnets. In the end, we remember that we must connect the sonnets to Shakespeare's world in order to understand their connection to ours. This book will come in handy when I teach the sonnets."--(Nichole Lehman, English Department, Chantilly High School, Chantilly, Virginia)

Jonathan Goldberg

In The World of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Robert Matz offers readers elegant guidance into the social and literary conventions that shape Shakespeare's poems and have influenced their reception over the past four hundred years. The book is especially astute in its reading of the sex-gender system, including its class and racial dimensions, in which Shakespeare conceived his fair young male beloved and his black mistress. This is the book I would recommend to any novice--and even to more experienced readers--approaching the sonnets."--(Jonathan Goldberg, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, Department of English, Emory University)

Editorial Reviews

highly recommended”—Choice; “the book’s timeliness is what makes it a valuable contribution to Shakespeare studies”—Pennsylvania Literary Journal; “In The World of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Robert Matz offers readers elegant guidance into the social and literary conventions that shape Shakespeare’s poems and have influenced their reception over the past four hundred years. The book is especially astute in its reading of the sex-gender system, including its class and racial dimensions, in which Shakespeare conceived his fair young male beloved and his black mistress. This is the book I would recommend to any novice—and even to more experienced readers—approaching the sonnets.”—Jonathan Goldberg, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, Department of English, Emory University; “Teachers and students alike will learn from Matz’s accessible information and extensive research, and grow from the opportunity to participate in the 400-year conversation about Shakespeare’s sonnets. In the end, we remember that we must connect the sonnets to Shakespeare’s world in order to understand their connection to ours. This book will come in handy when I teach the sonnets.”—Nichole Lehman, English Department, Chantilly High School, Chantilly, Virginia.

From the Publisher

the book's timeliness is what makes it a valuable contribution to Shakespeare studies

Pennsylvania Literary Journal

highly recommended

Choice