They discover a hidden copy of a famous Shakespeare sonnet

Madrid. A researcher at the University of Oxford unearthed a rare manuscript copy of the famous Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare who was hidden in a collection of 17th -century poetry.

He found this treasure among the papers of Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), founder of the Ashmolean Museum and a firm defender of the monarchy during the English Civil War. This is the second known manuscript copy of that text.

Dr. Leah Veronese, from the English Faculty, ran into this remarkable find while investigating the Bodleian library for her doctorate.

The manuscript is part of a miscellanya type of writing that contains a selection of texts by different authors and topics.

Early modern poetry used to circulate in miscellaneous; This manuscript even contains some of the original poetry of Ashmole himself.

“While I was leaving the text, the poem seemed like a strange version of the Sonnet 116.

“When I looked in the catalog (originally compiled in the 19th century), the poem was described, not incorrectly, as ‘about the constancy in love’, but does not mention William Shakespeare. It seems to me that the combination of the first additional line ‘a self -giving error takes over those minds’ and the absence of William Shakespeare in the description of the original catalog may be the reason why this poem has gone unnoticed as a copy of the Sonnet 116 During all these years, ”explained Dr. Veronese in a statement.

What makes this version particularly fascinating, says the researcher, is how the poem has been adapted. The sonnet is among the works with political burden, for example, prohibited carols and satirical poems on the tumultuous events of the early 1640s.

In this copy, the sonnet has been adapted as a song with music by composer Henry Lawes. This copy only includes the text, but music can be found in a song book in the New York Public Library. The composition of the sound piece includes seven additional lines and changes in the introduction and the final pairing, original Shakespeare. The introduction changes from:

Do not let me marry the true minds / admit impediments; Love is not love / that is altered when it finds alterations

a:

A self -chist error takes over all those minds / that with false appellants call that love / that is alterations when it finds alterations

A probable practical reason for these additional lines is to create more verses. However, in the context of the English Civil War, they could also be read as a call to religious and political loyalty.

Political use of texts

Although the aggregate verses have a rather ambiguous meaning, more politicians are perceived when they are read in the collection of a realist surrounded by realistic poetry. Potentially they transform the sonnet of a meditation on romantic love to a powerful political declaration.

The public interpretation of songs was prohibited during the Republican regime. Many musicians, such as Henry Lawes, survived thanks to private and secret actions in their homes.

This text not only provides a new example of how Shakespeare was read during the Civil War, but also how their texts were politically reused to adapt to the problems of the time.

Professor Emma Smith, Shakespeare Studies professor at Oxford University, said This exciting discovery shows that centuries of searching for evidence on William Shakespeare and their early reception have not exhausted the files.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds It is now one of Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets, but does not seem to have been very popular in his time. While others circulated and cited widely, only a reference prior to it was known, and what Veronese demonstrates in his investigation of this new version: the sonnet is understood in the context of monarchical politics, far from his role in modern weddings.

Veronese’s finding sheds new light on how Shakespeare’s words resonated and were reformulated during one of the most tumultuous periods in English history. Your article A new copy of sonnet 116: an arrogant version It is published in The Review of English Studies.