The Sonnets

by William Shakespeare

Overview

From fairest creatures we desire increase,

That thereby beauty's rose might never die,

But as the riper should by time decease,

His tender heir might bear his memory:

But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,

Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,

Making a famine where abundance lies,

Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.

Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament

And only herald to the gaudy spring,

Within thine own bud buriest ty content

And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding.

Pity the world, or else this glutton be,

To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912714919
Publisher:	Chiltern Publishing
Publication date:	08/31/2021
Series:	Chiltern Classics
Pages:	168
Sales rank:	165,933
Product dimensions:	4.80(w) x 7.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best work produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language.

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Read an Excerpt

106
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Table of Contents

List of illustrations     vi
Preface     vii
List of abbreviations and conventions     viii
Introduction   Stephen Orgel     1
Note on the text     23
The Sonnets     25
The Commentary     104
Textual analysis     258
Manuscript copies of the Sonnets     268
Reading list     272
Index of first lines     274

Editorial Reviews

Octavo continues to provide digital access to rare and important literary works. Only 13 originals survive of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Never Before Imprinted, first published in London in 1609. This disc provides page-by-page views from the quarto held in the Grenville collection of The British Library. The 154 sonnets, plus an 11-page poem, "A Lover's Complaint," appear in the typeface of the day. The images are accompanied by a text commentary by Arthur Freeman, with notes on the binding and collation, provenance, and viewing tips. One continuous PDF holds it all, and Adobe Acrobat tabs must be used to maneuver through the document. While this arrangement makes individual word search and copy-and-paste possible, navigation is not without its challenges. A specific sonnet cannot be located quickly unless one enters its number into a simple search. And because the volume was rebound and thickened with extra sheets during Thomas Grenville's ownership, 42 of the 116 views are of blank pages. Academics and archivists may delight in such primary-source integrity; unwary researchers will be frustrated when they find themselves lost in the midst of the void. Sonnets can be purchased at a discount when bundled with Octavo's similar CD-ROMs of Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies and Poems. Bottom Line Recommended for scholars, archivists, collectors, and academic and special libraries that serve those patrons. For casual readers, existing publications, such as Helen Vendler's The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1997), which includes facsimiles of the 1609 prints of each sonnet along with analysis, should suffice.-Corinne H. Smith, Ware, MA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"The great master who knew everything . . . an unspeakable source of delight."  —Charles Dickens

From the Publisher

Rich in melody and wordplay, Shakespeare’s sonnets are, of all his work, the best-suited to audio production--while also the most demanding in vocal delivery and interpretation. Woven through the sonnets, though in no organized or consecutive manner, is the most amazing personal story, a love triangle that’s funny, shocking and weird--baring, or seeming to, the author’s most intimate secrets. John Gielgud’s slightly abridged two-CD WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: THE SONNETS, recorded for Caedmon in 1963, is still a standard, and an excellent choice for students. D.W. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine

APR/MAY 00 - AudioFile