English Wordplay ~ Listen and Enjoy
Sonnet 145
InWilliam Shakespeare, His Life and Work Anthony Holden writes of the punning and says: "It appears the young poet carried a torch - before marriage, anyway - for Ms Hathaway".
Stanley Wells, author of Shakespeare for All Time points out that this sonnet is octosyllabic.
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From The Shakespeare Miscellany by David and Ben Crystal (see below): "Sonnet performer Will Sutton thinks this sonnet is best performed as a present day rap."
Those lips that Love's own hand did make, Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate', To me that languish'd for her sake: But when she saw my woeful state, Straight in her heart did mercy come, Chiding that tongue that ever sweet Was us'd in giving gentle doom; And taught it thus anew to greet; 'I hate' she alter'd with an end, That followed it as gentle day, Doth follow night, who like a fiend From heaven to hell is flown away. 'I hate', from hate away she threw, And sav'd my life, saying 'not you'.
From The Shakespeare Miscellany by David and Ben Crystal:
"Some think that the final couplet is a punning reference to his wife, Anne Hathaway (='hate away'). The words were pronounced more alike than they are now. The th sound in the middle of a proper name could have been pronounced as t, and the vowel in hate would have sounded more like the present-day het. Moreover the d of and was often not pronounced (it is often written as 'an in contemporary texts), suggesting a second pun on Anne".
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