GLOSSARY N-Sh

Neo-Platonism: Because most commentators do not consider that Shakespeare had a philosophy of his own they presume he borrowed at will from the prevailing schools of thought of his day. Because of the popularity of Neo-Platonism in the sixteenth century it is frequently assumed he held to some form of Neo-Platonism.
      For those who accept that the writings of Shakespeare are not conventionally Christian*, an alternative has been to imagine he avowed a form of Neo-Platonism. This has the virtue, for the apologists*, of keeping Shakespeare within the idealist* fold, so making his work still acceptable to those of a Christian persuasion. The typical consequence of such wishful thinking has been the continued acceptance of Malone’s* emendations*, the denigration of the increase* sonnets, and the promotion of doubt about the authenticity of the Q ordering. As these volumes show that Shakespeare had a more consistent and coherent philosophy than the Christian and Platonic, and as he logically accounts for the excesses of idealism without succumbing to scepticism or scientific realism, apologists will have to look elsewhere to find support for their psychologically based systems of thought.

Numbers: The logic of the Sonnets is complemented by a set of numbers that function to highlight the consistency of the philosophy.
One: The number 1 corresponds to the logical unity evident in Nature* and the Mistress*. The number of sonnets devoted to each (154 = 1+5+4 = 10 = 1+0 = 1 and 28 = 2+8 = 10 = 1+0 = 1) adds to one by mystic addition*. The Poet, as someone who appreciates the logical status of Nature and the logical relationship of female and male, is also a unity (145 = 1+4+5 = 10 = 1+0 = 1).
Two: The number 2 characterises the logical complexity of Nature* and the Mistress*. It derives from the division of 154 and 28 by 14 (154 = 14x11; 11 = 1+1 = 2; 28 = 14x2). Nature and the Mistress incorporate unity and diversity in the logic of their female constitutions.
Eight: The number 8 is used as the unit of musical structure for the whole set out of the octosyllables of sonnet 145. The music sonnets, 8 and 128, point to the significance of the natural octave of 8 notes.
Nine: The number 9 is the logical numbering for the youth* (126 = 1+2+6+9) that leaves him one short of the required unity. The Poet’s argument in sonnets 1 to 126 is designed to convince the youth of the need to acquire the required one from the Mistress* to gain his unity. The rival poet, an immature rhymer, also has the number 9.
Ten: The number 10 corresponds to 1 (10 = 1+0 = 1) as another form of the unity characteristic of Nature* and the Mistress*.
Eleven: The number 11 is another form of 2 that expresses the duality (11 = 1+1 = 2) of Nature*.
Fourteen: The number 14 is the number of the pivotal increase* sonnet. There are 14 lines in a regular sonnet and the whole set is structured in multiples of 14 (1, 2, 9, 10, 11) out of sonnet 14. By mystic addition* 14 adds to 5, the symbolic number for humankind. The 5 poetry and increase* sonnets also reflect this appreciation.
Twenty-eight: The number 28 is the lunar number given to the Mistress* to accord with her role as the archetypal woman.
One hundred and forty five: The number 145 is a traditionally symbolic number that adds to a unity. Shakespeare associates the Poet with the number 145 because the Poet understands the natural logic expressed in the Sonnets.
One hundred and fifty four: Shakespeare inverts the order of the numerals of the Poet’s 145 to reflect the unity and complexity of Nature* as 154.

Numerology: The logical system of the Sonnets is supported by a precise numerology that conforms to the details of the structural dynamic of the whole set.
      It was typical of the Renaissance that poetic sets were organised numerologically. Dante’s Divine Comedy had 100 cantos, which added by mystic addition to unity (100 = 1+0+0 = 1). Of the sonneteers of Shakespeare’s day, Sidney, Daniel, Drayton, Spenser, all tried their hand at numbered systems. Shakespeare elevated the convention to a philosophic level by numbering his Sonnets so they conformed to the basic elements of his logic. He also numerologically encrypted the Dedication and other features.

O:

P:

Painting: The Sonnets draw a distinction between painting and false painting. The youth is said to be by Nature* painted, but he is falsely painted when dressed up in ideas that deny their basis in natural logic.
      In the system of the Sonnets all sensations* are logically subsumed under the concept of beauty*. Painting, as one of the arts, uses sensations or beauty* to evoke an emotive response in the viewer. But since the dynamic of understanding requires a continual interaction between truth* and beauty there is always an element of thought in a painting. As the ideal can logically be only a sensation, the notion of ideal beauty is tautological. A painting representing ideal beauty is logically impossible, as an ideal* painting would be one in which all is reduced to sensation. Attempts to surpass the bounds of natural logic create not true beauty but false painting, hence taste. Painting avoids taste by adhering to the trajectory of natural logic from Nature through increase to the potentiality of the truth and beauty dynamic in the mind.

Paradigm: In this presentation it has been necessary to distinguish between the paradigm, or worldview, that has failed to appreciate the philosophy* of the Sonnets, and the consistent* philosophy of the Sonnets that demonstrates the inadequacies of such a worldview.
      The Platonic*/Christian* paradigm is based on an attitude to human understanding contrary to natural logic. Priority* under such paradigms is given to the male over the female, and to the operations of the mind* over those of the body*. Shakespeare in his Sonnets, and in his other works, corrects the illogicalities of such systems, prejudicial as they are to the logic of the natural processes of life*. The plays and poems demonstrate a return to natural logic does not lessen the mythic* possibilities of expression. They demonstrate that works can be created at a mythic level consistent with humanity’s highest aspirations.

Passionate Pilgrim, The: The Passionate Pilgrim is the title of a publication of 1599 in which most of the sonnets presented were attributed to Shakespeare, though only a few were actually his. It seems he was much offended by the presumptuousness of the publisher William Jaggard. .
      Significantly, Shakespeare revised two of the sonnets from the 1599 publication for the 1609 edition of the Sonnets. The revisions conform to the heightened sense of logical structure given the Sonnets as he prepared them for publication. Also of interest is sonnet 99 in the Master Mistress* sequence, with its 15 lines, which has no discernable numerological* function in the Sonnet structure. Sonnet 99 can be compared to sonnet 112, which can be seen as a response by Shakespeare to Robert Greene who vilified him as an ‘upstart crow’ in 1592. Because sonnet 99 has the same tone of a wrong redressed it is not unreasonable to presume that it has 15 lines to reflect the publication date of The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599.

Personas: Throughout the Sonnets there is continual interaction between persons in the world and the personae of the Poet. Persons such as the Mistress*, Master Mistress*, Poet*, and rival poet* are entities who have a role to play in the logic of natural processes. Personae are their equivalents in the dynamic of the mind.
      As the Sonnet philosophy is a consistent* philosophy* in which the processes of understanding have the appropriate logical multiplicity* to represent the natural world, the relationship between persons in the world and personae of the mind* is exact. The whole set of Sonnets can be read equally in terms of persons or personae. Shakespeare codifies this logical achievement in the Dedication* by making the whole of the Dedication represent the numerological* relation simultaneously between the complete dynamic in Nature and the dynamic within the mind of the Poet. The internal divisions of the Dedication correspond either to the archetypal persons of sovereign mistress, Mistress, Master Mistress, Poet, etc., or those entities when they are considered as part of the Poet’s mental constitution.

Philosophy, philosophic, philosophical: It has been a nearly universal claim that Shakespeare* had no, or only a borrowed, philosophy. By demonstrating that the Sonnets contain a logically structured philosophy based in Nature, these volumes reveal why the traditional attempts to understand them has failed.
      When Shakespeare published the Sonnets in 1609, around the time he was writing Cymbeline, he knew he was giving definitive expression to the philosophy he had developed for more than 20 years as the philosophy behind all his plays and poems. Not only does the philosophy correct the inconsistencies of previous philosophical systems, it elevates the philosophical enterprise onto a logical plane above the psychological* confusions that bedevil Platonism* and beliefs based in biblical mythology. Shakespeare demonstrates in his poems and plays that credibility at a mythic level of expression can be achieved by adhering to a consistent philosophy. The Sonnet philosophy is not the basis for a system of belief, as is the case with apologetic philosophies, but is the mythic expression of the natural processes of life* that require no belief. Throughout the four volumes a distinction is drawn between philosophic and philosophical. The philosophic (compare mythic*) in these volumes refers to an approach to philosophy typified by Ludwig Wittgenstein* and exemplified by Shakespeare that sets out the logical conditions for human understanding within Nature. The philosophical refers to the use of formal logical procedures to rationalise a preexisting set of beliefs as in apologetics* or to separate psychological* attitudes from their relationship to Nature.

Phoenix and the Turtle, The: The Phoenix and the Turtle is a poem in 67 lines, published in 1601 with poems by others, that exhibits many of the traits of Shakespeare’s Sonnet philosophy*.
      Interpreted in most quarters as a Platonic* allegory, The Phoenix and the Turtle is written for the opposite intent. As with all Shakespeare’s works, the poem demonstrates the limitations of idealism* and provides the basis for consistent understanding and expression. It does this in the language of the Sonnets, which in 1601 were in some form of preparation before publication in 1609. Mention of posterity*, and truth* and beauty*, and the play on number relationships, are in keeping with the philosophic concerns of the Sonnets. The perplexity commentators exhibit over this short poem is symptomatic of the persistent prejudice brought to bear on Shakespeare’s works over the last 400 years.

Platonism: When Plato insisted that the ideal* form of any object was prior to its manifestation in reality he gave support to a system of thought at odds with natural logic.
      Contrary to a traditional view of the Sonnets, the youth* is not the representative of a Platonic ideal to which the Poet* aspires. In the sequence to the Master Mistress* Shakespeare examines the nature of idealism*. The Poet acknowledges the logical status of the ideal as a possibility that arises in the dynamic of the mind*, but he critiques the illogical implications when the ideal is given priority over natural types in Platonic thought. While the older Poet esteems the propensities of youth, including his tendency to overly idealise mind-based ideas, he warns him of the consequences of giving the ideal priority over the natural world. Shakespeare’s consistent philosophy contextualises the psychological priorities of Platonism within natural logic. By accepting the priority of Nature, by acknowledging the logical requirement to increase, and by deriving a consistent understanding of truth* and beauty*, Shakespeare takes to a logical conclusion the more natural philosophy of Plato’s pupil, Aristotle*.

Plays: From the evidence of Shakespeare’s Sonnets and his plays and poems, he arrived the basic principles of his philosophy* in the 1580s. At the time he was a young man influenced by the maturity of Anne Hathaway*, his wife, and the mother of his children. He began to articulate aspects of the philosophy in his early poems and plays before he decided to give it a definitive formulation in the Sonnets.
      The philosophy is such a basic and profoundly simple understanding of the logic of life* that once he had removed the religious prejudices of his early experiences he would not have wavered in his adherence to it and in his expression of it over the course of his life. Not only is it evident as the basis for his early poems, Venus and Adonis, and Lucrece, it is also manifest in all his early plays, especially Love’s Labour’s Lost. It is the foundation upon which he created his greatest tragedies, with their intensely mythic* expression of the dynamic of life in which every character has an undeniable reality and every word resonates with sense and purpose. His last plays continue as an expression of his mature understanding of the logical relation of myth and reality.

Poet: The Poet of the Sonnets understands the logical relation between the Mistress* and the Master Mistress* and their logical relation to Nature*, and is capable of giving the complete dynamic consistent* mythic* expression.
      The Poet is mentioned by name six times in the Master Mistress sequence, but not in the Mistress sequence. He is appropriately introduced as the Poet in sonnet 17 of the poetry and increase* group and then in three sonnets that establish his relation to the rival poets* (32, 79, and 83). But the litany of first person references throughout both sequences more than compensates for the few mentions. The Poet is first introduced in the form of I, me, and my, in sonnet 10. Significantly, this is after sonnet 9 of the increase sonnets where he presents the youth* with the logical conditions for love*. The Poet not only appreciates the logical relation between the Mistress and the Master Mistress but also the logical relation between the feminine and masculine personae internal to his own philosophic makeup. He explores both possibilities concurrently throughout both sequences. The Poet’s relation to Nature is expressed in his numerological* value of 145. While Nature as 154 is characterised by a more complex arrangement of the same numerals, the Poet’s number 145 expresses his more linear relation to Nature’s complexity. His understanding gives him a simpler sense of unity than that of Nature or the Mistress. Although his poetry is mythic*, it cannot ‘contain’ or reproduce the sexual basis of life.

Poetry and Increase: After establishing of the priority* of increase* over truth* and beauty* in sonnets 1 to 14, and before considering the logical dynamic of truth and beauty in sonnets 20 to 154, the Poet takes account of his role as poet/philosopher. The 5 sonnets (15 to 19) examine the logical relation between increase and poetry.
      While increase is prior to poetry, sonnets 15 to 19 recognise that it is through the medium of poetry that the Poet is able to convey his philosophy based in Nature, the sexual dynamic and increase. In sonnets 15 and 16 he first reaffirms the priority of increase and then introduces the possibility of poetry. Then, because increase provides the logical basis for any form of expression, in sonnets 17and 18 he demonstrates the way in which his writing conforms to the logical preconditions. Sonnet 18 achieves its exceptional lyrical force because it is a seamless demonstration of the conjunction of the logic of increase with the possibility of the Poet’s expression. Sonnet 19 then states the logical condition for immortality* through poetry. Whereas increase allows for the life of a person to persist in human form, poetry only allows the youth to persist in the way he is depicted.

Politics: Because the Sonnet philosophy presents Shakespeare’s understanding of humankind’s logical relation to the world, it provides the philosophic underpinning for the exploration of political and social issues in the plays.
      The presentation of the truth* and beauty* dynamic in the Sonnets, which is based on the logic of the sexual* dynamic in Nature*, provides Shakespeare* with a sound systematic philosophy. He applies the philosophy in the plays* to ensure the judgments* of his characters are assessed against the background of natural logic. The philosophy of the Sonnets provides a constitutional check on social and political circumstances. In his historybased plays Shakespeare explores the implications of the truth and beauty dynamic for characters of various political and religious persuasions. Because his philosophy underlies all their activities he is able to demonstrate appropriate solutions to their dilemmas. When he based his social and political situations on the writings of other playwrights he subjected their efforts to the same rigorous philosophic critique. Ironically, because his philosophy has not been recognised in the last 400 years, it is commonly thought he was merely reiterating Elizabethan and Jacobean political commonplaces.

Posterity: Posterity is used in the poems and plays to convey the sense of the persistence of humankind into the future because, without increase*, humankind would not persist. The word store* is used with a meaning similar to posterity.

Priority: The Sonnet logic establishes four basic priorities for consistency* in the dynamic of understanding.
      Firstly, Nature* the sovereign mistress* is logically prior to the sexual*possibility. The whole set of 154 sonnets as Nature is prior to the division of the set into the Mistress*and Master Mistress*sequences. The second priority is the priority of the female over the male, where the 28 Mistress sonnets give her a unity not inherent in the 126 sonnets to the Master Mistress. The third priority is the logical requirement that the Master Mistress return to the Mistress for the persistence of humankind. The 14 increase* sonnets present the pre-condition. The fourth priority is the priority of increase over the possibility of understanding or truth* and beauty*. The 5 poetry and increase sonnets provide the bridge between the increase sonnets and the presentation of the truth and beauty dynamic in sonnets 20 to 154. The logical priorities determine the basic structure of the Sonnets. When the Sonnet priorities are inverted, as they are in most biblically based beliefs, contradiction abounds.

Psychology: Because commentators have not fathomed the natural logic of Shakespeare’s Sonnet philosophy, many compensate by reducing the Sonnets to a psychological drama.
      These volumes demonstrate that Shakespeare’s Sonnets present a consistent and coherent philosophy. Any psychological considerations are secondary or irrelevant to the articulation of natural logic in the basic structure of the whole set. And because Shakespeare articulates the logical conditions for any mythological expression he avoids the psychological ramifications of beliefs that take mythologies literally. Because the Sonnet philosophy is logically sound it critiques the inadequacies of the philosophical understandings that have failed to understand its natural logic. Shakespeare’s profound philosophy reveals the psychological motives behind all forms of apologetic* philosophy. From his sound philosophic base Shakespeare created characters of great psychological depth and credibility in the plays. Psychology in its various forms has been impotent to reveal the depth in Shakespeare’s work. (See the essay on Freud and Jung in Volume 4.)

Q:

Quatrains: In a regular sonnet of 14 lines, the lines are usually divided into 3 stanzas of four lines followed by a couplet of two lines. The four line stanzas are called quatrains.

R:

Rival poet: The rival poet represents a stage in development that is inferior to the Poet’s consistent understanding and expression. The Poet* warns the Master Mistress* that if he does not appreciate the natural logic of the Sonnets he will forever be like a rival poet.
      The 9 rival poet sonnets (78 to 86), positioned at the beginning of the second half of the set, serve as a reminder to the youth of the consequences of his unwillingness to grasp the logic of the Poet’s argument. An early distinction is drawn in sonnet 32 between the inadequacy of mere poetic skills, such as rhyming and style, and the philosophy based in the logic of love* expressed by the Poet in his Sonnets. In the 9 rival poet sonnets the Poet shows that, like the youth, the rival lacks a component of understanding. The youth requires an additional Muse* to add to the 9 traditional Muses of poetic inspiration. Ironically, the rival’s inadequacy is reflected in his plagiaristic attitude to the youth’s beauty. As Shakespeare is the only Poet to articulate a consistent philosophy, he effectively challenges all poets and philosophers to accept the logical conditions for philosophic and poetic maturity.

Romeo and Juliet: Romeo and Juliet, written around 1594/95, contains a number of sonnets and phrases that link it closely to ideas Shakespeare developed and then published in Q.
      Romeo and Juliet presents the drama of two warring families whose hate is institutionalised in the social construct of marriage. When Romeo and Juliet consummate their natural love for each other, their tragic deaths are a direct consequence of their parents abrogation of the logic of increase in Nature. The misunderstandings and injustices wrought by the other protagonists reflect the contradictions that result from the inversion of the dynamic of truth and beauty. Juliet’s age, at near 14, is in keeping with the Sonnet structure organised around the 14 increase sonnets and the pivotal role of sonnet 14.

Rose: The Rose is the symbol for beauty* throughout the Sonnets. The beauteous flower of the Rose is the archetype for all idealised sensations*, while the canker of the Rose serves to remind the idealising youth that logically beauty entails all possible sensations.
      The significance of the Rose is heralded by its inclusion alongside the word beauty in the first sonnet. It is capitalised throughout the set along with the Muse*, the symbol for truth*. The double nature of the Rose, with its thorns, hidden canker*, and shadow, and its anagrammatic Eros, also symbolises the capacity for beauty or sensations to be differentiated or named and so become part of the truth dynamic.

S:

Science: The dynamic of truth* and beauty* or ethics* and aesthetics* logically accounts for all forms of thought* and language and all types of sensations*. This means that science, as a rational activity based on language, is logically a form of ethics.
      The seeking after knowledge*, through the judgment* between true and false or right and wrong that typifies science, associates science logically with dynamic of ethics*. So logically the phrase ‘science of ethics’ becomes a tautology* ‘ethics of ethics’ if science attempts to investigate the logic of ethics. While science is characterised by its reliance on the dynamic of truth or language-based investigations, it cannot avoid the logic of sensations in its observations, intuitions* and estimations. As in the logical relation between truth and beauty, science is logically subject to the influence of sensations. Intuition and art impinge on scientific investigations because the logic of truth and beauty, derived from the sexual* process out of Nature* and the increase* dynamic, is an inherent part of human nature and the mythic expression of the relation between humankind and Nature. Over the last few millennia, apologetic* philosophy has attempted to justify the contradictions between the discoveries of science and biblical beliefs.

Seeing: The Sonnets take the sensory process of seeing as the archetypal form of sensation* or beauty*. Seeing characterises both the perceptions in the mind* from external sensations, and the sense of intuition* or seeing arising from sensations within the mind.
      Throughout the Sonnets the eyes play a logical role in the dynamic of understanding. The eyes* are identified in sonnet 14 as the logical source of truth* and beauty. In the first ten Mistress sonnets, and particularly in sonnet 130, the Mistress is sensed through all the five senses. Then in sonnet 137 the process of seeing is explicitly identified with beauty and truth is identified with saying. In keeping with the focus on sensation or beauty, Shakespeare gives the Mistress nothing to say until sonnet 138, which uses the word truth twice. By not appreciating the logical role of seeing throughout the Sonnets commentators have missed a vital clue to the Sonnet logic, and the blindness has led to some of the more telling emendations*. Many of the ‘their/thy’ emendations, introduced out of ignorance by Malone*, trivialise the logic of the ‘eyes’ seeing.

Sensations: There are two traditionally recognised modes of understanding, ideas* and sensations, or ethics* and aesthetics*. In the Sonnets they are referred to as truth* and beauty*.
      In the logical precision of the Sonnets, the unity of Nature*, with its potential to divide into female and male, and the requirement that female and male reunite, leads to the possibility of beauty or sensations and its logical complement, ‘saying*’ or truth. Shakespeare understands sensations or aesthetics as any form of perception unmediated by thought*. In the Sonnets, ‘seeing*’ is taken as the archetypal form of sensation. It covers all instances of sensory awareness including sensations or intuitions* (seeing as knowing) generated in the mind* as a product of thought and language. The logic of the Sonnets draws no qualitative distinction between base sensations or sublime sensations. Because Shakespeare avoids the illogical understanding of aesthetics as a preferred form of sensation or taste (see Kant*) his writings are not constrained by particular tastes or fashions.

Sexual: The Sonnets draw a clear distinction between the sexual and the erotic*. The structure of the whole set, with its two parts, and the 14 increase* sonnets at the beginning of the set, establish the sexual as a given for the eroticism in the remaining Sonnets.
      The sexual is the biological or the procreative dynamic. The overarching structure of the whole set presents the sexual relationship of the female and male out of Nature as fundamental to the possibility of humankind. The increase sonnets present the logical requirement that the two sexes must recombine for the continuation of the species. The sexual given is prior to the possibility of human understanding. By articulating the logical conditions of human life in the increase sonnets, the Poet acknowledges their importance for the appreciation of the dynamic of truth* and beauty* presented in the remaining sonnets. The sexual dynamic has the required logical multiplicity* to account for the operations of the mind. The sexual is distinguished from the erotic, as the dynamic of the mind*, in that no amount of eroticism will produce a child. Logically, all activity of the mind is erotic because the mind functions as a consequence of the logic of the sexual dynamic.

Shakespeare, William: The philosophy so brilliantly articulated in the Sonnets as the philosophy behind all the poems and plays, could only have been written by William Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon, husband to Anne Hathaway.
      The evidence and arguments presented here establish Shakespeare as the only person capable of articulating the philosophy of the Sonnets. None of his contemporaries show evidence of a similarly articulated philosophy in their work. Because Shakespeare’s philosophy has not been understood in 400 years, a diversionary industry has arisen based on speculations as to his true identity and theories about the provenance and authenticity of his work.