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"A Lover's Complaint" is a narrative poem written by William Shakespeare, and published as part of the 1609 quarto of ''
Shakespeare's Sonnets William Shakespeare (1565 –1616) wrote sonnets on a variety of themes. When discussing or referring to Shakespeare's sonnets, it is almost always a reference to the 154 sonnets that were first published all together in a quarto in 1609. Howe ...
''. It was published by
Thomas Thorpe Thomas Thorpe ( 1569 – 1625) was an English publisher, most famous for publishing Shakespeare's sonnets and several works by Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. His publication of the sonnets has long been controversial. Nineteenth-century ...
. "A Lover’s Complaint" is an example of the female-voiced complaint, which is frequently appended to sonnet sequences. Other examples include Samuel Daniel's "Complaint to Rosamund", which follows Daniel's ''Delia'' (1592), Thomas Lodge's "Complaint of Elstred", which follows ''Phillis'' (1593), Michael Drayton's "Matilda the Faire", which follows ''Ideas Mirrour'' (1594), and Richard Barnfield's "Cassandra", which follows ''Cynthia with certaine sonnets''.


Form and content

The poem consists of forty-seven
stanzas In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...
of seven-lines each written in the form known as
rhyme royal Rhyme royal (or rime royal) is a rhyme, rhyming stanza form that was introduced to English literature, English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer. The form enjoyed significant success in the fifteenth century and into the sixteenth century. It has had a mo ...
(rhyme scheme ABABBCC), a metre identical to that of Shakespeare's longer narrative poem ''
The Rape of Lucrece ''The Rape of Lucrece'' (1594) is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Roman noblewoman Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, ''Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare poem), Venus and Adonis'' (1593), Shakespeare had included ...
''. The poem begins with a description of a young woman weeping at the edge of a river, into which she throws torn-up letters, rings, and other tokens of love. An old man nearby approaches the woman and asks the reason for her sorrow. She responds by telling him of a former lover who pursued, seduced, and finally abandoned her. She recounts in detail the speech her lover gave to her which seduced her. She concludes her story by conceding that she would fall for the young man's false charms again:
O, that infected moisture of his eye, O, that false fire which in his cheek so glowed, O, that forc'd thunder from his heart did fly, O, that sad breath his spungy lungs bestowed, O, all that borrowed motion seeming owed, Would yet again betray the fore-betray'd, And new pervert a reconciled maid!


Authorship

Few have questioned the authorship of the poem. Shakespeare's authorship was not questioned until the early 19th century, when Hazlitt expressed doubts. In 1917 Robertson suggested that the poem, and several plays, were written by Chapman. This idea was not widely accepted, and attributions based on general aesthetic impressions of a poem have since become less common among literary scholars. "A Lover's Complaint" contains words and forms not found elsewhere in Shakespeare, including archaisms and Latinisms.
Edmond Malone Edmond Malone (4 October 174125 May 1812) was an Irish barrister, Shakespearean scholar and Literary editor, editor of the works of William Shakespeare. Assured of an income after the death of his father in 1774, Malone was able to give up his ...
called the poem "beautiful", and suggested that Shakespeare may have been trying to compete with
Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; – 13 January 1599 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the House of Tudor, Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is re ...
. Critics have seen thematic parallels to situations in Shakespeare's ''
All's Well That Ends Well ''All's Well That Ends Well'' is a play by William Shakespeare, published in the First Folio in 1623, where it is listed among the comedies. There is a debate about the date of its composition, with possible dates ranging from 1598 to 1608. ...
'' and ''
Measure for Measure ''Measure for Measure'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604 and first performed in 1604. It was published in the First Folio of 1623. The play centers on the despotic and puritan Angelo (Measure for ...
''. According to John Kerrigan in ''Motives of Woe'', the poem may be regarded as an appropriate coda to the sonnets, with its narrative triangle of young woman, elderly man, and seductive suitor paralleling a similar triangle in the sonnets themselves.
Stanley Wells Sir Stanley William Wells, (born 21 May 1930) is an English Shakespearean scholar, writer, professor and editor who has been honorary president of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, professor emeritus at Birmingham University, and author of many ...
and Paul Edmondson note that: Shakespeare is widely accepted as the poems' author. This is supported by studies written by Kenneth Muir, Eliot Slater and MacDonald P. Jackson.Shirley Sharon-Zisser & Whitworth, Stephen. "Generating Dialogue in Shakespeare's A Lover's Complaint", ''Critical Essays on Shakespeare's 'A Lover's Complaint': Suffering Ecstasy'', Ashgate Publishing, 2006, pp. 1–55.


Alternative views

One writer suggests that the author was an anonymous early Elizabethan poet. In 2007 Brian Vickers, suggested the poem was written by
John Davies of Hereford John Davies of Hereford (c. 1565 – July 1618) was a writing-master and an Anglo-Welsh literature, Anglo-Welsh poet. He referred to himself as ''John Davies of Hereford'' (after the city where he was born) in order to distinguish himself from ...
, an author of theological pamphlets.Vickers, John, ''Shakespeare, 'A Lover's Complaint', and John Davies of Hereford'', Cambridge University Press, 2007. He details arguments for the non-Shakespearean nature of the poem and lists numerous verbal parallels between the "Complaint" and the known works of Davies: – such as 'What brest so cold that is not warmed heare' and 'What heart's so cold that is not set on fire'. On this evidence it was omitted from the 2007 RSC ''Complete Works''. MacDonald P. Jackson, in his review of Vickers' book in the '' Review of English Studies'', calls this omission a "mistake" and states that Vickers' evidence is "very meagre." Jackson adds: Harold Love, in his ''
The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
'' review, has similar questions regarding Vickers' suggestion:


References


External links


A Lover's Complaint (1609)
Full text.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lover's Complaint, A Poetry by William Shakespeare Love poems