Essay on the Rival Poet from Shakespeares Sonnets -- Sonnet essays

Identifying of the Rival Poet from Shakespeare's Sonnets One of the intriguing aspects of Shakespeare's Sonnets is the identity of the principal characters within them, the Young Man, the Dark Lady, and the Rival Poet. Nowhere are these people explicitly identified and their anonymity has spawned much debate as to who these people could have been. The content of the Sonnets that refer to these people however, undoubtedly show that these were indeed real people. The Rival Poet was the cause of obvious anxiety to Shakespeare. A poet depended on patronage to finance the publication of his works so a rival presents a real threat of loss of income through loss of patronage as well as the professional and personal feelings of rejection, loss of esteem and a competitor being seen to gain favour instead of oneself. The sonnets that refer to the Rival Poet appear to contain sufficient data to enable the rival to be identified: The Rival Poet who writes verse is first mentioned in Sonnet 21: "So is it not with me as with that muse Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse" and goes on to say: "Making a couplement of proud compare" This part of the sonnet is open to several interpretations but it may be explicitly referring to George Chapman's use of English couplet rhymes in his epic translation of Homer's Odysseys: "The Gods in council sit, to call Ulysses from Calypso's thrall, And order their high pleasures thus: Grey Pallas to Telemachus (In Ithaca) her way addrest; And did her heavenly limbs invest..." The heavenly subject matter of Chapman's verse would appear to correlate with Sonnet 21's: "Who heaven itself for ornament doth use" The fin... ...f the Sonnets, there was a group of poets called The School of Night, also called The School of Atheisme in a 1592 reference, that was led by Raleigh and included Marlowe and Chapman. This group is apparently parodied in Love's Labours Lost: King: "Black is the badge of hell, The hue of dungeons and the school of night And beauty’s crest becomes the heavens well." Chapman also wrote a verse named The Shadow of Night whose title and subject matter fits in well with Chapman's involvement with this group. Finally, George Chapman did write verse dedicated to the Earl of Southampton who was also Shakespeare's patron. Although the identity of the Rival Poet is not conclusive, the material within the Rival Poet sonnets and the contemporary activity of George Chapman does, in my view, converge to point to George Chapman being the man.