14
Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck;
And yet, methinks, I have astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons’quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind;
Or say with princes if it shall go well
By aught predict that I in heaven find;
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive
If from thyself, to store thou would convert:
Or else of thee this I prognosticate,
Thy end is truth’s and beauty’s doom and date.
First quatrain
The speaker says that he doesn’t draw his conclusions from the stars, but even so he understands astrology, although not to foretell good or bad luck, of plagues, shortages, or the nature of the forthcoming seasons.
2. I have astronomy: i.e I have knowledge of astronomy
Second quatrain
Nor is he able to predict the future down to the last minute, stating exactly when there will be thunder, rain and wind; or say whether certain rulers will be fortunate by means of frequent predictions which he reads in the stars.
8. oft predict: KDJ has amended to aught, on the grounds that oft is almost never used as an adjective, and this is the only recorded use of predict as a noun. But others have stayed with oft, admitting its rarity. SB: ‘The perversity of the diction and the awkwardly elliptical style suggest the pompous obfuscation of a smug hack.’ Not sure I agree with him, but what a wonderful comment!
Third quatrain
Instead, the speaker says, he derives his knowledge from the beloved’s eyes. They are like constant/unmoving stars, and in them he can read/discover such learning to the effect that truth (constancy) and beauty (external) will thrive together if the beloved were to turn away from self-adoration/gratification and convert to providing for the future (store).
9-10: this idea is typically Elizabethan but most particularly from Sidney in Arcadia: ‘O sweet Philoclea…thy heavenly face is my Astronomie’ and here, in Astrophel and Stella no.26:
Though dusty wits dare scorn astrology,
And fools can think those lamps of purest light
Whose numbers, ways, greatness, eternity,
Promising wonders, wonder to invite,
To have for no cause birthright in the sky,
But for to spangle the black weeds of night;
Or for some brawl, which in that chamber high
They should dance, to please a gazer's sight:
For me, I do Nature unidle know,
And know great causes great effects procure,
And know those bodies high reign on the low.
And if these rules did fail, proof makes me sure,
Who oft fore-judge my after-following race
By only those two eyes in Stella's face.
Couplet
If not the speaker says that he predicts for the beloved that his death will also be truth and beauty’s final fate and stipulated limit (in time).
14. cf The Pheonix and Turtle, ll.62-64: 'Truth may seem, but cannot be, / Beauty brag, but 'tis not she, / Truth and Beauty buried be.’
HV comments that this is the first instance of the linked words truth and beauty in the sonnets.
Links to other works by WS:
14: The Phoenix and Turtle, ll.62-64
Links to works by other authors:
Philip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella, 26
