Seeing as the Sonnets were composed by a playwright, it was only a matter
of time until references to acting popped up and such is the beginning of
Sonnet 23. This Sonnet centers mainly on
the notion that the persona would rather have his writing speak for him as he
trusts not in his own eloquence or maybe this love is just too strong to
express in actual speech.
Shakespeare begins by likening himself to an actor overcome by stage
fright who consequently forgets his lines. Such is the intensity of his love
for the Fair Youth, it leads him to a state of utter speechlessness. Could it
be an attempt at justifying this sequence of Sonnets for surely no lover would
be continually satisfied by mere writing or is this 'love' being accorded the
power of rendering someone speechless? From the image of a meek actor struggling
to remember his lines, Shakespeare takes us to an animal or indeed a human
being, "...some fierce thing..." weakened by excessive passion, love
and affection. Weakened to the extent of failing to express fully what a lover
should. It would seem, the persona is implying that he needs time to compose
himself and express fully in writing how he feels.
In line 8 the persona proclaims, "O'ercharged with burden of mine own love's might,"
there are instances that he is simply overwhelmed by what he feels and that is
when the writing takes over. Another way to interpret this particular line
would be to assume that it is actually in these times that the loves is at its
weakest because how can a true lover fail to say what needs to be said at any
given moment? interesting perspectives if one considers that it means when he
or she prefers to text you rather than speak to you in person they've been
overcome by emotion or if the second viewpoint is to be considered more
accurate, texts are but a veil to a feigned love. Real love is best expressed
by word of mouth.
The third quatrain brings into play a slightly provocative perspective
to this whole writing versus speech predicament as it now seems as if
Shakespeare might just be endorsing his writing to give the Fair Youth the
impression that this is the most efficient and emotionally rewarding form of
correspondence. Doubtlessly the writing is great but to assert that no form of
speech would suffice to rival these Sonnet like a bit of a long shot. Granted
Shakespeare was never known for exceptional oratory capabilities but word of
mouth just automatically carries with it a greater significance than writing
would. Ultimately though, the persona knows what is best for his lover.
Whilst the debate on who the Fair Youth actually was is very far from
reaching a conclusion, the one sure-fire this is he was a literati of some sort
as the final couplet implores him to 'read between the lines' to find the tid
bits of love hidden in this Sonnet, much like what we are trying to do. One has
to assume this sort of thing worked with the Fair Youth as there are a 154 of
these metaphoric mazes.
A tip for the guys, 'Nothing works better than a 14 lined riddle to get
her to love you.'