Last updated: January 2, 2021
In the Dedication grid, the tip of the arrowhead maps to 5-9, Sonnet 59.
Hunnis crest overalid on the Dedication grid.
Sonnet 59 seems to highlight parallels between the biographies of the two men and to reference Hunnis’s crest. Together with Sonnet 60 which follows on from 59, the larger poem presents time repeating and concludes with the image of the cruel hand of time.
Sonnet 59
If their bee nothing new, but that which is,
Hath beene before, how are our braines beguild,
Which laboring for invention beare amisse
The second burthen of a former child? (4)
Oh that record could with a back-ward looke,
Even of five hundreth courses of the Sunne,
Show me your image in some antique booke,
Since minde at first in carrecter was done.(8)
That I might see what the old world could say,
To this composed wonder of your frame,
Whether we are mended, or where better they,
Or whether revolution be the same.(12)
Oh sure I am the wits of former daies,
To subjects worse have given admiring praise.
Line notes
1-2 The concentration of bee, been, before and beguiled and continuing alliteration on “B” may recall the beehives of Hunnis’s crest and his "bee" verse.
3 Spe et Labore is the motto on Hunnis’s crest - by hope and by labour. Labouring occurs in Sonnet 59: Hope occurs in Sonnet 60 (following).
4 A burthen is both a musical drone and the sound associated with bees.
4 former child Stopes notes that given that Hunnis became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, he may well have been a former Child of the Chapel. We noted earlier that,as a child, Neville may also have been associated with the Chapel.
7 Your image may refer to the image of Hunnis in his antique book,
8 This use of character also occurs in Sonnet 122 (LINK TO 122).
12 Revolution be the same may refer to
1) the revolving of a hand around the face of a clock. Reversing the co-ordinates, Sonnet 59 also maps to the I of TERNIT (y,x). If our “arrow” is in fact a clock hand, it would seem logical to take the I of TERNIT to be the axis of this hand, since it is the thing that is turned.
2) the fact that both men were involved in revolutions; that is, their revolutions were the same. Perhaps there is a quiet reprise of "bee" here too, as in Hunnis’s verse.
14 Subjects worse may refer to the status of the two men as rebels.
Sonnet 60 may be seen to form a pair with Sonnet 59. Like Sonnet 59, 60 concerns the repetitions of Time. The image of a child repeating the life of a forebear in Sonnet 59 finds its echo in Sonnet 60 which has waves...each changing place with that which goes before.
Most strikingly, Sonnet 60 presents the vivid image of Time piercing the face of youth, precisely mirroring the image on Hunnis’s crest. Booth’s comments on this phrase are worth presenting in extenso:
transfix the flourish In context the meaning of this phrase is clear (destroy the beauty), but transfix and flourish - each of which pertains to what precedes and follows this line - do not obviously pertain to one another and give no immediately apparent literal sense: transfix pierce through (see fight in line 7 and the suggestions of digging, pecking, and cutting in lines 10-12); flourish (1) blossoming, state of being in blossom ... (2) highest degree of prosperity, perfection, prime
The obscure image of beauty being pierced by time links the Dedication with Hunnis's crest and Sonnet 59/60 with perfect precision
Sonnet 60
Like as the waves make towards the pibled shore,
So do our minuites hasten to their end,
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toile all forwards do contend.(4)
Nativity once in the maine of light,
Crawles to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked eclipses gainst his glory fight,
And time that gave, doth now his gift confound.(8)
Time doth transfixe the florish set on youth,
And delves the paralels in beauties brow,
Feedes on the rarities of natures truth,
And nothing stands but for his sieth to mow.(12)
And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand
Praising thy worth, dispight his cruell hand.
Line notes
2 Minutes This sonnet is dicussed in Units of Time.
3 Each changing place with that which goes before Time repeats.
9 Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth. Booth notes that this line depicts Time piercing the face of youth (see note above and similarity to Hunnis’s crest).
10 Delves the parallels continues the image of Time disfiguring beauty. Parallel may also suggest the parallel lives of Neville and Hunnis.
13 As we saw labouring in Sonnet 59 here we see hope, thus completing the motto Spe et labore.
14 Time’s cruel hand evokes the hand of the clock as an image of piercing; exactly as in Hunnis’s crest.
(C) Copyright 30 April 2008-2020 James Leyland and James Goding. All rights reserved.