World of Shakespeare's Sonnets

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

“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.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      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