Sonnet 133

1. Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan

2. For that deep wound it gives my friend and me;

3. Ist not enough to torture me alone,

4. But slave to slavery my sweet'st friend must be.

5. Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken,

6. And my next self thou harder hast engrossed,

7. Of him, myself, and thee, I am forsaken,

8. A torment thrice threefold thus to be crossed:

9. Prison my heart in thy steel bosom's ward,

10. But then my friend's heart let my poor heart bail,

11. Who'er keeps me, let my heart be his guard,

12. Thou canst not then use rigor in my Jail

13. And yet thou wilt, for I being pent in thee,

14. Perforce am thine and all that is in me.

Threefold of Torment

Dedication: To Elizabeth

Cursing Elizabeth's heart for the wound that her deed inflict on his "friend" and him. Complaining that it is not enough to torture him alone and asking if Henry must really be subject to this fate. Offering her that he has lost both her and Henry. Thus his threefold torment and his effective jailing. That this is effectively all that is of importance to him (and thus this complaint).

1st Quatrain: (1-4)

Oxford cursing Elizabeth's cold heart in line 1 for the injury to him and Henry in line 2. Expressing the torture for them both line 3 and finally to comment on the persecution in line 4.

2nd Quatrain: (5-8)

Here Oxford refers again to the injury to himself as part of him (his son) is taken by Elizabeth's cruelty. Thus in line 6 we now see the estrangement of the poet from the himself, Elizabeth, and Henry is achieved. Lines 7 and 8 say it all too well, with a diacope of the threefold torment and the wrong committed.

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

In line 9 "ward" is no accident. It is a play on the child be held in a secret ward a situation Oxford is all too familiar with having himself been under the wardship of Elizabeth (held by Burghley). Line 11 is a metaphor for suggesting he still has great personal interest in his child. While line 12 tell Elizabeth not to argue logic in his imprisoned state.

couplet (13-14),

While here Oxford expresses that Elizabeth will do what he asked that she not as he is held in check by her power.


Commentary:

In this sonnet the poet expresses that he is metaphorically both prisoner of Elizabeth and also part of her. An expression of Henry as part of both parents. This is an important metaphor but will actually take a different form and become more common as Henry alone will be depicted as the prisoner in other sonnets using various metaphors.

Again this sonnet contains clear additional mentions of the third party and “friend” to the poet that is intimately entwined with the subject and with the poet’s own fate.

There is no mention of a rivalry between the “friend” and the poet. To the contrary their aims appear the same as poet discusses and speaks for the friend and his predicament. More importantly is that the friend takes a role as an equal to the suffering of the poet and is revealed to be central to the issue of this poem. But taking clues form the previous sonnet the poet has also declared the relationship of the mysterious ‘He’ to being both ‘thine’ and that ‘other mine’ and who both pays the ‘whole’ price. Also he is someone for whom the poet is offering to ‘forfeit’ himself.

Vendler sees this poem as more supposed “infidelity with the speaker’s friend” by the lady. An erroneous assumption regarding the relationship discussed. The youth as mentioned in the previous analysis is a captive of the woman but the relationship is no where revealed as sexual or romantic in this or any other poem. On the contrary, the nature of the slavery mentioned is much better characterized as in thy steel bosom’s ward.

KDJ – poet rebukes for enslaving his friend as well as himself.


I would also encourage readers to contrast my reading with that of the Folger Library's Georgianna Ziegler and her more orthodox understanding. Particularly with the notion of the "dark lady" as a "trouble maker" (around 2:20) somehow creating problems for the mysterious relationship the poet has with the "fair youth". Not to mention the silly notions of turning Petrarchan traditions on their head.