1. If thy soul check thee that I come so near,
2. Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy Will,
3. And will thy soul knows is admitted there,
4. Thus far for love, my love-suit sweet fulfil.
5. Will will fulfill the treasure of thy love,
6. I fill it full with wills, and my will one,
7. In things of great receipt with ease we prove.
8. Among a number one is reckon'd none.
9. Then in the number let me pass untold,
10. Though in thy stores' account I one must be,
11. For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold,
12. That nothing me, a something sweet to thee.
13. Make but my name thy love, and love that still,
14. And then thou lovest me, for my name is 'Will.'
Alias Will
Dedication: To Elizabeth
Suggesting to Elizabeth that her strong will is now one with his identity as 'Will'. That what both she and he wants can then be fulfilled. Telling her that his true identity can "pass untold". That he is accounted for already by virtue of what is in her stores, i.e., Henry. Telling her "to make but his name her love" is in essence a way for her to acknowledge him publicly as Will.
1st Quatrain: (1-4)
If I go against your soul, convince your soul that I am your "Will". Evidently "Will" has a good reputation with her soul (see explanation in commentary). I believe this is a further indication that Elizabeth was fully familiar with his persona of William Shakespeare and that this persona was probably adopted as cover for these very types of correspondence that were aimed to win her heart and convince her to perform what the poet regarded as both of their wills.
2nd Quatrain: (5-8)
Will Shakespeare (the pseudonym) allows her to "fulfill the treasure of thy love" by recognizing Henry. That she should inclule his will, i.e. last testament in line 6, alludes to his own metaphorical end.
3rd Quatrain: (9-12)
He goes on to argue for his own part to be untold. And it is well enough that he is "something sweet to thee"
couplet (13-14),
For in a sense, if she loves Will (Shakespeare) she gets his other persona and isn't asked to love Oxford.
Commentary:
Here the poet begins to engages in both the argument and also starts a series of sonnets where he actually engages in bargaining with his own involvement in the underlying subject of Henry’s recognition.
His anonymity is mentioned in line 9 while his connection and continued involvement in Henry (the store) is crucial aspect in line 10.
Interestingly and importantly he is using his pseudonym as a way to illustrate his anonymity and removal as Henry’s father. Likely to better facilitate and overcome what he believes is a possible source of Elizabeth’s objection to recognizing Henry. So he cleverly uses the word and name ‘Will” to represent that he is subjugating to her will. This sonnet is an important way of understanding that the creation of Will or at least the usage of the pseudonym was very much intrinsic and brought on by the events of the story told within these sonnets. Only much later was a facsimile of that name brought in as an actual front.
This offer of anonymity using the William Shakespeare pseudonym I believe more importantly predates the publication of V&A and also by the dating of this treatment precludes any involvement by the Stratford man. I argue it was later when Oxford went about creating a front man using the Stratford man. This ultimately created the authorship problem. It should be kept in mind though that as scholars have dated the works (poems included) to the Stratford man’s life, they have always been left with the problem of understanding how Venus and Adonis with its late publication date and high quality could have been one of the first things written by Shakespeare. But the more important point of course is that Shakespeare was always a pseudonym and originated when the Stratford man would not have even been an adult.
Another very important element of this sonnet is the first appearance of the mention of stores which will become a very important metonym/metaphor for representing Henry. A line from Romeo and Juliet expresses the connection of the usage Shakespeare has with stores in these sonnets, it reads “That when shedies with beauty dies her store”.
It is worth mentioning that the name Will works better in the couplet I believe because there is a notion of surprise as the subject has to make the association of the poet's adopted pseudonym. One likely now associated with the plays that are being performed at Court.
KDJ – Begins her commentary with that this "sonnet continues to elaborate puns on will/Will in support of speaker’s claim for sexual acceptance".
Note:
The early usage of the Shakespeare name I argue is also corroborated by separate evidence which I believe possibly illustrates that Oxford was using the initials “WSS” (William Shake Speare) to refer to himself very early in his life. And additionally the relationship of the manner in which Oxford wrote these initials is intimately related to the griffe de notaire Clara de Chambrun identified in the Skipwith Holinshed in Shakespeare Rediscovered.