Sonnet XX

A woman's face with nature's own hand painted,
Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women's fashion:

An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.

And for a woman wert thou first created;
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.

   But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,
   Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.

The sonnet belongs to the Shakespearean collection, indeed there isn’t a real title, since the sonnet is marked by number 20.

Considering the structure, the reader can certify that sonnet follows the traditional English model. Indeed the sonnet is arranged into three quatrains with alternated rhyme and a rhyming couplet. The rhyme scheme is: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

The sonnet starts with an image: a woman’s face painted by nature’s hand. The reader can create a mental image of beauty and grace. Since the whole collection is dedicated to the Fair Youth, the reader can suppose that the image conveyed by the first line is somehow linked to the addressee.

Indeed, in the second line, the reader  becomes sure that the speaking voice links female beauty to the Fair Youth, defined the ‘master mistress of my passion’. The mistress was the lady who kept the poet’s heart.  So in the first two lines, firstly the speaker exalts the handsome and attractive appearance of the Fair Youth and secondly he adds that he is totally involved by him.

The second part of the first quatrain deepens the comparison between the Fair Youth and women. The addressee has got the same gentle female heart and even more perfect: indeed his love doesn’t shift or change unexpectedly mood, as false women’s love does. The reader should remember that in the Renaissance code, the adjective ‘gentle’ means ‘able to improve and to perfect’.

In the first quatrain the speaking voice magnifies his beloved, the Fair Youth, revealing that he is totally involved by his passion.  The first quatrain ends with a colon: the intelligent reader should expects the second quatrain will have an explanatory function.

Indeed it adds further elements, deepening the comparison between the fair Youth and women.

The speaker’s beloved is less false in rolling, in that he is more faithful: his loyalty makes his bright gaze a precious thing. In addition the addressee has got all hues in his controlling: he is perfect and he doesn’t lack anything. The second quatrain rests on the semantic field of body, focusing on the face.

The forth line expresses the effect of such perfection: the Fair Youth is an irresistible attraction on both men and women. The Fair Youth amazes women’s soul and steal’s men’s eyes: the speaker proves his attraction since he is completely captured by him.

The speaker magnifies the Fair Youth, creating a perfect image of him. Shakespeare has understood and wanted to convey a universal message: when you fall in love with somebody, your beloved seems perfect to you because you magnify his or her qualities.

The second quatrain has an explanatory function and better explains the female perfection of the fair Youth. The nouns ‘man’ and ‘woman’ seem to be fused one with the other, in order to convey  a sense of perfect completeness. But after an accurate observation, the reader can certify that the noun ‘woman’ appears more times than ‘man’.

For that reason, the third quatrain deepens the topic of genre belonging of the Fair Youth, who seems to be more close to the female genre than to the male one.

The speaking voice reveals that at first the addressee was thought by Nature to be a woman, but Nature itself felt in love with him, and gave him a specific male quality. The addition is not suitable with the male genre of the speaker: it is useless for the speaker’s purpose. The speaker leaves everything implicit, but the meaning of the third quatrain is easily understandable.

What is the function of the third quatrain? Firstly it is the summit of the climax of the Fair Youth’s magnification. Indeed, the speaking voice tells that Nature gave the Fair Youth such a perfect female beauty, gentleness and grace that he became so attractive to capture Nature’s love, that wanted him to be a man.

Secondly, the third quatrain expresses the speaker’s drama. Indeed, by addition, Nature stole the Fair Youth to the speaker. The reader should understand that the expression ‘my purpose’ refers to the speaker’s  sexual desire, that can’t be satisfied since Nature wanted the Fair Youth to be a man.  

Moving to a deeper level, the reader can catch the message conveyed by Shakespeare: beauty has no genre, is not female or male, indeed you could be fascinated and attracted independently by a man or by a woman.

In the rhyming couplet there should be the volta, the solution of the speaker’s trouble. But there isn’t any possible solution, because Nature can’t be controlled or changed by humans. The reader already knows that the speaker won’t find a solution to satisfy his desire.

Indeed, the first line of the couplet states that Nature gave the Fair Youth as a gift to women’s pleasure, and the speaker can’t but accept the situation.

In return, last line reveals a partial solution of the speaker’s trouble. He will own the Fair Youth’s love, while women will own his love’s use, that is sexual satisfaction. In other words, there is a juxtaposing between speaker’s ‘spiritual’ love and women’s ‘material’ love.

Depending on the point of view, last line consists in a cold comfort or in a good one: on one side the reader could think that the speaker’s real desire is to own the Fair Youth’s ‘spiritual’ love, to be his beloved; on the other side the reader could believe that the speaker’s real aim is to satisfy sexual desire, as line 12 suggests.

In my opinion, the speaker would like be the Fair Youth’s both ‘material’ and ‘spiritual’ object of desire, therefore he will never be satisfied at all.