Publication date:
07 February 2013Length of book:
610 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9780739175101
A Mirror for Lovers: Shake-speare’s Sonnets as Curious Perspective, by William F. Zak, seeks to identify in Shake-speare’e sonnet sequence the structural and thematic features of the satirical tradition born in Plato’s Symposium. Through this study, Zak traces the power of an idea to endure, re-animate, and enrich itself through time: Plato’s discrimination of the true nature of love in The Symposium. Born anew in its medieval reincarnations (The Romance of the Rose, The Vita Nuova, and The Canzoniere of Petrarch), the tradition begun in Plato’s Symposium was then resuscitated in the Elizabethan sonnet sequence revival, most notably in Shake-speare’s Sonnets. With extended examination of all the texts in the Q manuscript, A Mirror for Lovers makes a case for the mutually illuminating relationship among the sonnets to the fair young man and the dark lady, “A Lover’s Complaint,” and the mysterious dedication that until now have never received attention as an integral symbolic matrix of meaning.
As Zak explains in the preface to his study of Shakespeare's sonnets (where he also explains the idiosyncratic spelling of Will-I-Am Shake-speare), readers will need a copy of the Quarto version of the poems in front of them since this book includes none of the full texts. This work joins other valuable, close readings and assessments of the sonnets (e.g., studies by Stephen Booth, Katherine Duncan-Jones, and Helen Vendler). The author credits the individual scholars in this long critical tradition, expanding on and arguing against some views and offering his own insights. He traces the structure and themes of the sonnets back to Plato's Symposium, through the Middle Ages, and into early modern England. Zak addresses "A Lover's Complaint" and the ambiguous "Dedication" of Shakespeare's sonnets in some detail. He analyzes a variety of subjects, including Shakespeare's conflicted views on love and hate, the procreation group, and his dark lady, and provides notes after each chapter to augment and document his research. Summing Up: Recommended. For comprehensive research collections.