By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage …’: so begins Shakespeare’s Sonnet 26, which is the focus of our analysis here. It’s seen as something of a triumph among the early sonnets in the sequence, and is worth unpicking and summarising carefully for that reason.
Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit,
To thee I send this written embassage,
To witness duty, not to show my wit:
Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine
May make seem bare, in wanting words to show it,
But that I hope some good conceit of thine
In thy soul’s thought, all naked, will bestow it:
Till whatsoever star that guides my moving,
Points on me graciously with fair aspect,
And puts apparel on my tottered loving,
To show me worthy of thy sweet respect:
Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee;
Till then, not show my head where thou mayst prove me.