Wouldn't the semicolons be even more "open to question"?  I don't mean  
to suggest that they are "wrong," but they were a relatively new mark  
in Shakespeare's time, I believe.
Does anyone know who is responsible for the punctuation of the sonnets  
that we possess?

Ed S

On Mar 18, 2009, at 7:24 PM, Paul E. Doniger wrote:

> Herb & Scott,
>
> I've always held that the main clause of this one sentence sonnet,  
> as Herb suggests (if I'm reading you rightly), appears in the third  
> quatrian: "(Haply) I think on thee." It's the implied "then"  
> statement that follows the when statement that opens the sonnet  
> ("When in disgrace ......., [then] I think on thee.").  This, it  
> seems to me, is the main point of the entire sonnet and is explained  
> more fully by the final couplet.  By the way, I'm not at all  
> convinced by the punctuation, which in Shakespeare is often open to  
> question anyway, especially the comma after line #9, which I think  
> is still a continuation of the previous thought, not an introduction  
> to the main clause that follows it.  What do you think?
>
> Paul
>
> "If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an  
> improbable fiction" (_Twelfth Night_ 3.4.127-128).
>
>
> From: "STAHLKE, HERBERT F" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 4:03:57 PM
> Subject: Re: Sonnet grammar analysis help
>
> Scott,
>
> I think I’d treat “Yet…thee” as a main clause as well, not as  
> adverbial.  Yet acts as a coordinating conjunction and so also gets  
> used sentence-initially to set up a contrast with a preceding  
> thought.  There’s a single complex adverbial clause comprising the  
> first two quatrains.  The third quatrain begins with the main clause  
> of that sentence and is itself a coordinate clause with “and.” The  
> third quatrain is set off by a semi-colon because of the preceding  
> serial commas..  The closing couplet is also set off with a semi- 
> colon, perhaps because of the initial “for” and the close logical  
> link between it and three quatrains.  A sonnet in one sentence.  Not  
> many poets have pulled this off so well.
>
> Of course, the semicolons are the interpretation of an editor,  
> unidentified.  In the 1609 facsimile (http://ia311343.us.archive.org/3/items/shakespearessonn00shakrich/shakespearessonn00shakrich.pdf 
> ), all lines but the last end in commas, although the punctuation at  
> the end of the first quatrain is ambiguous.  I can’t make out on the  
> screen whether it was meant to be a comma or a period, but I suspect  
> the former.
>
> Herb
>
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask] 
> ] On Behalf Of Scott Woods
> Sent: 2009-03-18 14:53
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Sonnet grammar analysis help
>
> List,
> Please let me know if you think I'm basically correct with my  
> analysis or where I might be more correct or clear.
>
> Adverb clause in italics
> Independent clauses in bold
> participial phrases in < > with participle underlined
> noun clauses in [ ]
> adjective or relative clauses in {  }
> When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
> I all alone beweep my outcast state,
> And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
> And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
> <Wishing me like to one more rich in hope>,
> <Featur’d like him>, <like him with friends possess’d>,
> <Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope>,
> <With [what I most enjoy] contented least>;
> Yet <in these thoughts myself almost despising>,
> Haply I think on thee,—and then my state,
> Like to the lark at break of day <arising
> From sullen earth>, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
>      For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings
>      {That then I scorn to change my state with kings}.
>
> Does this seem right?  Any comments?
>
> Thanks,
> Scott Woods
>
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