Rival Poet
Encyclopedia
The Rival Poet is one of several 'characters,' either fictional or real persons, featured in William Shakespeare's
sonnets
. The sonnets most commonly identified as the Rival Poet group exist within the Fair Youth group in sonnets 78-86. Several theories about these characters, the Rival Poet included, have been expounded, and scholarly debate continues to put forward both conflicting and compelling arguments. In the context of these theories, the speaker of the poem sees the Rival Poet as a competitor for fame, wealth and patronage.
, Christopher Marlowe
, Samuel Daniel
, Michael Drayton
, Barnabe Barnes
, Gervase Markham
, Richard Barnfield
and Walter Raleigh
have been proposed as identities for the Rival Poet.
was a prominent poet and translator of Homer
. Scholars speculate that Shakespeare was familiar with his work, having read part of his translation of the Iliad
for his own Troilus and Cressida
, a dramatic reworking of Chaucer's
epic poem. Chapman himself wrote Ovid's Banquet Of Sense, a metaphysical poem seen as a response to the erotic Venus and Adonis
, which incidentally features Shakespeare's most quoted poet, Ovid
. The moral tone of Chapman's poem eschews the amatory tone of Shakespeare's, and seeks to instill spiritual seriousness in a work that takes the five senses as its Conceit
s. Chapman's patrons also moved in the same circles as Shakespeare's; thus Shakespeare may have felt insecure about the stability of his own income versus a talented rival. Chapman was both then and now regarded as being particularly erudite, whereas, as Ben Jonson
writes, Shakespeare had "small Latine and lesse Greeke."
was more highly regarded as a dramatist than a poet, his chief poetical work, Hero and Leander
, remaining incomplete at the time of his death (it was subsequently completed by Chapman). Due to Marlowe's relatively small dramatic output as compared with Shakespeare, it's unlikely that he would have been the subject of Shakespeare's sonnets, i.e. considered a serious rival. By the time Shakespeare began his works Marlowe was a well-established playwright but the two had a very important artistic relationship. In his book The Genius of Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate notes “the two-way traffic between Marlowe and Shakespeare until the latter’s death” (Bate 107). Shakespeare strove to outdo Marlowe and through their artistic competition they would push one another to higher achievements in dramatic literature. This competition could have also motivated the Rival Poet sonnets (130).
The Speaker’s attitude towards the Rival is also difficult to pinpoint. Some critics, such as R. Gittings, believe that much of the Poet’s comments on his rival should be read as ironic or satiric (Robertson 180). Jackson maintains that his feelings toward the Rival shift between varying degrees of admiration and criticism (226). This also indicates a multitude of rivals. As the Poet’s confidence ebbs and flows along with his impression of his rival(s), the identity of the rival(s) also fluctuates.
A final defense for the Multiple Rivals Theory relies on a dating of the Rival Poet sonnets between 1598-1600. While this frame of reference has support, so do other possible dates and there will always be controversy regarding dating of individual sonnets. However, if it is assumed that this grouping was published between 1598 and 1600, a publication by Francis Meres
comes into play. In 1598, Meres published Palladis Tamia; Wits Treasury with a chapter titled “A Comparative Discourse of our English Poets with the Greek, Latin, and Italian Poets” in which he documents the critical esteem of the poets of the day (233). Shakespeare received high praise for his dramatic work but Marlowe and Chapman were deemed England’s “two excellent poets” (qtd. in Jackson 234). This, according to Jackson “must surely have helped provoke the Rival Poet series” (234).
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
sonnets
Shakespeare's sonnets
Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 poems in sonnet form written by William Shakespeare, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. All but two of the poems were first published in a 1609 quarto entitled SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS.: Never before imprinted. Sonnets 138 and 144...
. The sonnets most commonly identified as the Rival Poet group exist within the Fair Youth group in sonnets 78-86. Several theories about these characters, the Rival Poet included, have been expounded, and scholarly debate continues to put forward both conflicting and compelling arguments. In the context of these theories, the speaker of the poem sees the Rival Poet as a competitor for fame, wealth and patronage.
Possible candidates
Among others, George ChapmanGeorge Chapman
George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar, and his work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets...
, Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
, Samuel Daniel
Samuel Daniel
Samuel Daniel was an English poet and historian.-Early life:Daniel was born near Taunton in Somerset, the son of a music-master. He was the brother of lutenist and composer John Danyel. Their sister Rosa was Edmund Spenser's model for Rosalind in his The Shepherd's Calendar; she eventually married...
, Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era.-Early life:He was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothing is known about his early life, beyond the fact that in 1580 he was in the service of Thomas Goodere of Collingham,...
, Barnabe Barnes
Barnabe Barnes
Barnabe Barnes , was an English poet. He is known for his Petrarchan love sonnets and for his combative personality, involving feuds with other writers and culminating in an alleged attempted murder.-Early life:...
, Gervase Markham
Gervase Markham
Gervase Markham was an English poet and writer, best known for his work The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman first published in London in 1615.-Life:Markham was the third son of Sir Robert Markham of Cotham, Nottinghamshire, and was...
, Richard Barnfield
Richard Barnfield
Richard Barnfield , English poet, was born at Norbury, Staffordshire, and brought up in Newport, Shropshire.He was baptized on 13 June 1574, the son of Richard Barnfield, gentleman. His obscure though close relationship with Shakespeare has long made him interesting to scholars...
and Walter Raleigh
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England....
have been proposed as identities for the Rival Poet.
George Chapman
ChapmanGeorge Chapman
George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar, and his work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets...
was a prominent poet and translator of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
. Scholars speculate that Shakespeare was familiar with his work, having read part of his translation of the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
for his own Troilus and Cressida
Troilus and Cressida
Troilus and Cressida is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1602. It was also described by Frederick S. Boas as one of Shakespeare's problem plays. The play ends on a very bleak note with the death of the noble Trojan Hector and destruction of the love between Troilus...
, a dramatic reworking of Chaucer's
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
epic poem. Chapman himself wrote Ovid's Banquet Of Sense, a metaphysical poem seen as a response to the erotic Venus and Adonis
Venus and Adonis
Venus and Adonis, a classical myth, was a common subject for art during the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Some works which have been titled Venus and Adonis are:-Literary works:...
, which incidentally features Shakespeare's most quoted poet, Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
. The moral tone of Chapman's poem eschews the amatory tone of Shakespeare's, and seeks to instill spiritual seriousness in a work that takes the five senses as its Conceit
Conceit
In literature, a conceit is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem. By juxtaposing, usurping and manipulating images and ideas in surprising ways, a conceit invites the reader into a more sophisticated understanding of an object of comparison...
s. Chapman's patrons also moved in the same circles as Shakespeare's; thus Shakespeare may have felt insecure about the stability of his own income versus a talented rival. Chapman was both then and now regarded as being particularly erudite, whereas, as Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
writes, Shakespeare had "small Latine and lesse Greeke."
Christopher Marlowe
MarloweChristopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
was more highly regarded as a dramatist than a poet, his chief poetical work, Hero and Leander
Hero and Leander
Hero and Leander is a Byzantine myth, relating the story of Hērō and like "hero" in English), a priestess of Aphrodite who dwelt in a tower in Sestos on the European side of the Dardanelles, and Leander , a young man from Abydos on the opposite side of the strait. Leander fell in love with Hero...
, remaining incomplete at the time of his death (it was subsequently completed by Chapman). Due to Marlowe's relatively small dramatic output as compared with Shakespeare, it's unlikely that he would have been the subject of Shakespeare's sonnets, i.e. considered a serious rival. By the time Shakespeare began his works Marlowe was a well-established playwright but the two had a very important artistic relationship. In his book The Genius of Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate notes “the two-way traffic between Marlowe and Shakespeare until the latter’s death” (Bate 107). Shakespeare strove to outdo Marlowe and through their artistic competition they would push one another to higher achievements in dramatic literature. This competition could have also motivated the Rival Poet sonnets (130).
Multiple poets
It has also been suggested that the Rival Poet is an amalgam of several of Shakespeare’s contemporaries instead of a single person. This is indicated by the fluctuation between singular and plural addresses of the rival(s) in the sonnet sequence (Jackson 225). In Sonnet 78 the Speaker refers to other poets who have gained inspiration from the Fair Youth but in 79 the Speaker is only concerned with one “he,” a potentially “worthier pen.” Sonnet 80 continues the singular reference but by 82 the Speaker reverts to the plural “writers” (225). In 83 he refers to “both your poets” indicating that the Speaker is one poet and the Rival is the other. According to MacD. P. Jackson, Sonnet 86 is “the most powerful of the group [and] the most detailed in its characterization of one specific Rival Poet” (226). While arguably the most powerful of this sonnet grouping, one cannot neglect the oscillation between singular and plural seen throughout the group as a whole. This discrepancy makes it difficult to isolate one specific poet to claim the title of Rival.The Speaker’s attitude towards the Rival is also difficult to pinpoint. Some critics, such as R. Gittings, believe that much of the Poet’s comments on his rival should be read as ironic or satiric (Robertson 180). Jackson maintains that his feelings toward the Rival shift between varying degrees of admiration and criticism (226). This also indicates a multitude of rivals. As the Poet’s confidence ebbs and flows along with his impression of his rival(s), the identity of the rival(s) also fluctuates.
A final defense for the Multiple Rivals Theory relies on a dating of the Rival Poet sonnets between 1598-1600. While this frame of reference has support, so do other possible dates and there will always be controversy regarding dating of individual sonnets. However, if it is assumed that this grouping was published between 1598 and 1600, a publication by Francis Meres
Francis Meres
Francis Meres was an English churchman and author.He was born at Kirton in the Holland division of Lincolnshire in 1565. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1587 and an M.A. in 1591. Two years later he was incorporated an M.A. of Oxford...
comes into play. In 1598, Meres published Palladis Tamia; Wits Treasury with a chapter titled “A Comparative Discourse of our English Poets with the Greek, Latin, and Italian Poets” in which he documents the critical esteem of the poets of the day (233). Shakespeare received high praise for his dramatic work but Marlowe and Chapman were deemed England’s “two excellent poets” (qtd. in Jackson 234). This, according to Jackson “must surely have helped provoke the Rival Poet series” (234).