Fair Youth

Today I would like to return to Shakespeare. We’ve already discussed one of his best love sonnets, but today I want to dig into his sexuality and sexual orientation. The most obvious choice would be to start from Sonnet 20, in which he explores the thin red line between male and female sexuality. The poet is addressing a young man who seems to have overwhelmed his emotions. He is the mysterious “fair youth” who is the main focus of Shakespeare’s attentions from Sonnet 1 to Sonnet 126. This beautiful young man has a lovely mother and has hair like the auburn buds of marjoram. 

Henry Wriothesley (The "Fair Youth"?)

In Sonnet 20 Shakespeare seems to be besotted by the beauty of this youth, but he transcends gender saying that... Your face isn’t dolled up artificially like a woman’s, and yet it is naturally beautiful and so excites my passion both as master and as mistress.

A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;

The poet then draws a dichotomy between male and female sensitivity by saying that the young man’s heart is as gentle as a woman's, but it is also steadfast and honest… You have a gentle heart like that of a woman, but unlike a woman’s, it is not fickle and false. 

A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change as is false women’s fashion;

Shakespeare reiterates this difference between the sexes by saying that the youth’s glance is brightly angelic like those of women, but his eyes are true and not flirtatious…Your eyes are also brighter than those of women, shining on what you look at, not like theirs that cheat by incessantly searching elsewhere. 

An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;

The sexual attraction is clearly more and more evident as the sonnet develops. The youth’s appeal seems to transcend gender and attracts both men and women. Shakespeare says… You are beyond beautiful and attract both men and women.

A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.

The obvious homoerotic inference, I believe, really points towards Shakespeare's own bisexual orientation. Up to this point in the sonnet (the first octave), the poet prefers the young man to any other woman. The ensuing sestet sees nature creating the beautiful youth as a woman, but, being so smitten by the beauty of her creation, she decides to add a penis, to make him a man. However, in so doing, nature has complicated Shakespeare’s life, since his physical desire for the young man is now be untenable. He tells the youth that… When you were being created by nature, you were meant to be a woman, but then nature fell in love with her creation and so added something extra to you, which therefore made me lose you; that one thing she gave you made you unreachable. 

And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.

In the final couplet Shakespeare becomes more brazen and quite direct with his connotative language using the word “pricked”, an obvious reference to the male genital organ, a prick. He seems to be saying… But since she gave you a prick to satisfy the pleasures of women, I’ll have your love and they can have your body.

But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.

Ultimately, I believe that Shakespeare was such a unique prodigy in all aspects that even his sexuality rose well above all basic human conventions.

A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change as is false women’s fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.