Sonnet 86: Was It The Proud Full Sail Of His Great Verse Poem by William Shakespeare

.shakespeares-sonnets.com/ This is the last of the group of sonnets dealing with the threat of a rival poet taking over the dominant position of affection that the writer claims to enjoy in the beloved's eyes. The rival poet here is given the credit of composing bombastic verse which conceivably could cow other poets into submission, rather like a fleet in full sail (the armada?) bearing down on a seemingly defenceless enemy. The image may be taken either way, as one of splendour and magnificence, or one of empty boast and hollow show which leads to failure. Specific details are then given of how the rival poet relies on supernatural help from voices and spirits which communicate with him by night, and ghostly figures which prompt him. It is difficult not to read an undertone of ridicule into this description, for Shakespeare's attitude to his own versification is often very pedestrian and matter of fact. He disingenuously admits the superiority of his rival's verses, at the same time undermining that superiority by writing a sonnet which is as good as that of any of his contemporaries.

... This sonnet however seems to bring us far closer to the identity of a possible rival than any of the preceding ones. Many commentators think that the affable familiar ghost and the compeers by night point directly at George Chapman, translator of the Iliad, a translation much admired by Keats who wrote a sonnet in praise of it. Lines 5-10 especially seem to refer to a particular poet, rather than to potential rivals in general. The difficulty of making a certain identification stems largely from the absence of concrete information on three essential points. a) . The date of composition of any of the sonnets, including the rival poets' sequence. b) . The identity of the youth to whom the sonnets are addressed. c) . The disappearance of the poems which supposedly were written as rival poems and were accepted as offerings by the youth, to the detriment of the writer of these sonnets.

........ 7. No, neither he, nor his compeers by night his compeers by night - the spirits which aid him in his composition. compeer is an old word meaning a companion of equal standing. Here it is used somewhat contemptuously. If Chapman is the rival poet, the spirits or ghosts which appeared to him in nightly visions were Musaeus, Marlowe and Homer. Chapman claimed a special affinity with the night in his poem The Shadow of Night published in 1594. He therefore is one of the chief contenders of all those put forward for the title of the rival poet. 8. Giving him aid, my verse astonished. astonished = struck dumb. Pronounced astonish 9. He, nor that affable familiar ghost He, nor = neither he, nor. Repeating the statement of line 7. affable familiar ghost - the rival poet evidently claimed that the spirit that appeared to him was friendly (affable) . familiar was a term which was applied to spirits, often those associated with the devil. Witches were supposed to have dealings with them, their familiars often taking the form of a cat. The use of the term here attaches to the person being referred to the dubious distinction of probably being in touch with the devil. (See OED.A.2.d & B.3) 10. Which nightly gulls him with intelligence, nightly - evidently the familiar spirit appeared to the rival poet in the hours of darkness. gulls him = dupes and decieves him. Possibly also 'stuffs him full, crams him. intelligence = information, knowledge. 11. As victors of my silence cannot boast; As victors of my silence = As victors who are responsible for silencing me. cannot boast - the subject is he, (the rival poet) , and his 'affable, familiar ghost'. They cannot boast themselves to be the victors who forced me to silence. 12. I was not sick of any fear from thence: sick = ill, unable to write. from thence = from him and his spiritual assistants.

Now what is the meaning of this, 'by spirits taught to write'?