Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Sir Fulke Greville, Baron Brooke 1620: Sonnet II
FAIRE dog, which so my heart dost teare asunder,
That my liue's-blood my bowels ouerfloweth :
Alas, what wicked rage conceal'st thou vnder
These sweet enticing ioyes thy forehead showeth :
Me, whom the light-wing'd god of long hath chased,
Thou hast attain'd : thou gau'st that fatall wound
Which my soule's peacefull innocence hath rased,
And Reason to her seruant Humour bound.
Kill therefore in the end, and end my anguish,
Give me my death; me thinks euen Time vpbraideth
A fulnesse of the woes, wherein I languish :
Or if thou wilt I liue, then Pittie pleadeth
Help out of thee, since Nature hath reuealed,
That with thy tongue thy bytings may be healed.
The "lady" in this sonnet is limn'd in an unusual way!
The story refers to Diana and Actæon from Greek mythology.
Diana, the chaste virgin goddess of the hunt, was bathing with her nymphs
when the mortal man Actæon accidentally happened upon her and saw her
naked! Diana, enraged, turned him into a stag, and Actæon got torn to
pieces by his own hunting dogs. Don't fool around with Diana!
Greville begins the sonnet by addressing the lady as "Fair dog"; the reader,
expecting a traditional sonnet in which the love object is idolized, may be
surprised on encountering "Fair dog"! Effectively, Greville is calling her a
bitch! The bestial imagery continues with "my heart," punning on heart/hart.
Thus the mistress-bitch is both a dog tearing apart a hart and a goddess
tearing apart the heart of the dear fool wishing to be her lover.
Blood overflowing the bowels continues the imagery of physical violence,
while at the same time suggesting the lover's arousal—blood is overflowing
his control: "death" was a common euphemism for organism.
Furthermore, Diana's raging passion might just be a little fake, an enticing
excuse used by the bitch to enjoy the attention, as well as torture the mere
mortal. The reference to the "light-wing'd god", is to Cupid (symbol of lustful,
earthly love). The fool's love for her in turn has destroyed this poor mortal's
soul's "peaceful innocence", his caritas, the soul's holy love for the Goddess
(that bitch)! Should have stayed home after breakfast ("death" or orgasm "with
thy tongue", a way "thy bytings may be healed"). The terminal couplet is a
"saltus" (discontinuity): the public goddess is but a teasing whore (lets get
the show on the road)!
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