by Robin Arzoni >> Tue, 2 Feb 1999 20:20:00 GMT
A previously-undiscovered sonnet by Shakespeare has recently come to light. This
exquisite poetry shows remarkable similarities to the language of object-oriented programming, a mode of expression which did not appear until 350 years after Shakespeare's death.
The sonnet appears to be dedicated to the noblewoman Jade, who was, perhaps, the 'Dark Lady' to whom the bard devoted many of his finest sonnets.
Shakespeare here follows the idiomatic rhyme scheme that Philip Sydney used in
the first great Elizabethan sonnet cycle, Astrophel and Stella (published posthumously in 1591). This scheme interlaces the rhymes of two pairs of couplets to make a quatrain, then builds the whole sonnet of three differently rhymed quatrains and a concluding couplet.
The text is given in full below. _________________________________________________________________________
To Jade
Sweet Jade, by whom my transient hopes are dash’d,
To whom persistent fools attend in constant thrall,
Woulds’t not enmesh me in thy web,
That I may browse the fairest form of all?
And tho’ an object not of thy class,
Whose primitive root excites no deference,
Still dare I hope, as Time doth pass,
Thy hidden attributes to reference.
Such vain collections of idle loons
Do dote upon thy treasur’d face,
Shall I then be class’d with these poltroons,
And, tarr’d by their methods, invite disgrace?
Spring me, sweeting, from this fever’d trap,
Or cast me forth to roam the global map.