Thomas Wyatt and William Shakespeare’s Forbidden Renaissance Romance

The Renaissance brought about a flourishing wave of poets. Sir Thomas Wyatt and William Shakespeare, poets with a minor time gap between them, both express their passions of a taboo love through their sonnets. Within both “Whoso List to Hunt” by Wyatt, and “Not Marble, Nor the Gilded Monuments” (Sonnet 55) by Shakespeare display their turmoil of a passionate, forbidden love that will last an eternity through their poetry. Both of these sonnets express a multitude of the same emotions that define the romance that was blossomed in the late Middle Ages and thrived in the 15^th century Renaissance. The Renaissance brought with it a new definition of romantic love that caused much confusion for those who were in love with someone that society would not let them be with.

These sonnets are both deeply driven by love and depict an emotional struggle in which these poets are overwhelmed by their forbidden enduring love. There is speculation that Shakespeare wrote many of his sonnets to a man, rather than a woman. Whether or not they are intended to resemble friendship or a romantic relationship is unknown. This sonnet can be evidence of a homosexual romantic relationship that society forbids. The subject of this poem is not personified with pronouns but the only diction in the poem is rather masculine: princes, stone, war, masonry, mars, swords, fire. This diction can lead readers to believe the subject is a man. The love Shakespeare bears for the subject is also evident. Shakespeare tells his love that they shine more bright in the contents of his sonnet because they will not be deteriorated over time (3-4). He is expressing that the person he loves is so perfect at this moment, that the only way to encapsulate them is in writing, for if he did not save them in the writing, they would become victim to time. Because their perfection is captured in the writing, they will outlive marble, gilded monuments, princes, wars, and death.

Rather than boldly stating the subject will outlive all these elements, Wyatt expresses his love’s eternal perfection in his sonnet in another way. Like Shakespeare’s love, Wyatt’s is also forbidden. There is some guesswork that the subject of Wyatt’s sonnet is about the late Queen Anne Boleyn, with whom he had brief romantic relationship with before she married the king. Because of her premature death, Wyatt could have written this sonnet about her to encapsulate her in writing as well. It is known that he was madly in love with her. The sonnet is a metaphor of a love chase, rather than a hunt. “Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind” (1) infers that many hunt the subject, be Wyatt knows her better because he romantically loves her. It is also evident that he loves her because he makes mention to the fact that she cannot be had. Both of these sonnets exhibit the idea of new romance and passion that evolved in the Renaissance and complicated with a forbidden love.

The Renaissance’s social code required marriages to be arranged and only between a man and a woman. With the strife of arranged marriages still being prevalent in the Renaissance, the difficulty of not being able to be with the one you love is evident within these sonnets. Not only are marriages arranged, they are only to be between man and woman. Shakespeare’s lines “So, till the judgment that yourself arise, You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes” (13-14) reveal that he is dwelling in the eyes of his lover that he may not have. If he is dwelling, it does not reveal positive connotations. He must not be able to have his love if he can only dwell in their eyes until he dies. If this sonnet is written for a man, the taboo on homosexuality during the Renaissance could be the factor that is keeping them apart. It is very obvious that Wyatt cannot have the subject of his sonnet as well. He cannot have her because she belongs to the king (13). Shakespeare cannot be with his love because he is a man, while Wyatt cannot have his because she belongs to the king. Arranged marriages and homosexuality restrictions were abundant so the struggle of loving someone with the new romance ideas was more troubling than ever during this time.

“Til’ death do us part” is typical within wedding vows, although within these sonnets, the love lasts through death and through many other trails. Within both of these sonnets, the love is not just temporary, but everlasting. The love the writers bear for the subject will not be forgotten in time. Shakespeare states that his love will outlast “marble and gilded monuments” (1), that princes will die before it dies (2), and that sluttish time will not destroy it (4). He makes it very clear that time is no obstacle for his love. It is, however, less plain that Wyatt also means for his love to endure forever. By stating “and graven with diamonds in letters plain” (11), Wyatt infers that his love and the letters that keep his love from him are etched into diamonds. Diamonds are earth’s strongest mineral; the words would not fade in time. They are forever engraved. He is incessantly in love with her and she is forever not allowed to be his (13). Renaissance romance indulges in not just temporary love, but a love which can also be a great struggle.

The struggle within the sonnets is caused because they love someone that they cannot have. Because they love their subject so much and will for eternity, it is a struggle to prevail in the chase and in life. Within his sonnet, Wyatt is wearied so sore (3), wearied mind (5), and is fainting as he follows her (7). This shows us that this chase is really quite a struggle for Wyatt. He also understands the chase is in vain for he says “the vain travail hath wearied me so sore” (3) which could also make this rather depressing and even more of a struggle for him to continue on living. This also shows the perseverance of his love for the subject. Even though she “fleeth afore” (6) away from him and making it difficult for him, he keeps chasing. Wyatt also displays the impossibility of him capturing his love in the line “Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind” (8). This is a direct line that compares his love to the wind: impossible to hold. Shakespeare’s struggle is not as apparent as Wyatt’s.

Shakespeare also shows the struggle within his sonnet as well. He depicts not only the struggle that the love has to prevail through time, but the struggle that the worldly elements are having in breaking the love. He says “and broils root out of the masonry” (6) and “than unswept stone, besmear’d with sluttish time” (4). The roots protrude out of the masonry which is not an easy feat for the plant; it is a struggle that the plant has which would overcome the love he bears for the subject. The unswept stone besmear’d with sluttish time is also no feat for the love he bears. It is not regular time, but sluttish time which infers that it is negative and a struggle. The struggle that time has breaking down the subject can be viewed as a metaphor for the struggle love has to prevail without being captured in poetry. Within the sonnet, the love will last forever and the struggle will not prevail. Through these lines, each of these sonnets demonstrates the struggles that Renaissance romantics had with their forbidden lovers.

            These sonnets not only a difficult struggle that lasts for eternity, they are also full of passion. The emphasis on the everlasting quality of Shakespeare’s sonnet shows passion. Rather than expressing it in one way, he shows numerous ways that the love will last. The passion continues on when he says “nor mars his sword no war’s quick fire shall burn” (7). This line is full of passion because soldiers fight with their swords with passion and fire is associated with it as well. The passion within this sonnet is evident, while it is more of a metaphor in Wyatt’s.

            Hunters are classically passionate about their sport, which indicates that Wyatt, too, has passion within his sonnet. While it is not as fierce and bold as Shakespeare’s, it is still evident. The underlying hunting metaphor within the sonnet speaks passion. The words “fleeth” (6) and “wearied” (5) are also words that can be associated with passion because fleeing takes much effort to do and if you flee, there must be passion behind it. Being weary is the end result of exerted passion. The last line within this sonnet also indicates passion as well. “And wild for to hold, though I seem tame” (14) clearly states that the subject is wild. Because this line also says she seems tame, it reassures the hidden meaning behind the hunting metaphor: passion. Renaissance romance was passionate and it is displayed within these sonnets.

            Within the fourteen lines of these sonnets, both of the authors demonstrate the turmoil and passion that Renaissance romantics had.  Because of arranged marriages, requirements of love to only be between a man and a woman, new ideas of love and romance, as well as the struggle to gain a love, these authors literate the struggle of love. Enduring love can cause passion, struggles, and despair. Shakespeare illustrates an illicit enduring love that survives all chaos of life, while Wyatt divulges the strained chase between two lovers that cannot be together. William Shakespeare and Sir Thomas Wyatt both illustrate the emotional struggle of loving someone that you can never have as long as the world exists which was a developing problem with the new romance ideas and old ways of love that were conflicting, as well as the restrictions in choice of lovers in the Renaissance.