Naming Thy Name: Cross Talk in Shakespeare's Sonnets

by Elaine Scarry

A fascinating case for the identity of Shakespeare’s beautiful young man

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS ARE indisputably the most enigmatic and enduring love poems written in English. They also may be the most often argued-over sequence of love poems in any language. But what is it that continues to elude us? While it is in part the spellbinding incantations, the hide-and-seek of sound and meaning, it is also the mystery of the noble youth to whom Shakespeare makes a promise―the promise that the youth will survive in the breath and speech and minds of all those who read these sonnets. “How can such promises be fulfilled if no name is actually given?” Elaine Scarry asks.

This book is the answer. Naming Thy Name lays bare William Shakespeare’s devotion to a beloved whom he not only names but names repeatedly in the microtexture of the sonnets, in their architecture, and in their deep fabric, immortalizing a love affair. By naming his name, Scarry enables us to hear clearly, for the very first time, a lover’s call and the beloved’s response. Here, over the course of many poems, are two poets in conversation, in love, speaking and listening, writing and writing back.

In a true work of alchemy, Scarry, one of America’s most innovative and passionate thinkers, brilliantly synthesizes textual analysis, literary criticism, and historiography in pursuit of the haunting call and recall of Shakespeare’s verse and that of his (now at last named) beloved friend.

Genres: Shakespeare, Poetry, Nonfiction, Adult, Literary Criticism, Criticism

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Liz Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn't consider myself a Shakespeare scholar, but this was an absolutely fascinating work of research. Considering my own limited knowledge on the subject, this was also very eye-opening to a lot of historical context and speculation that I wasn't aware of. Very cool!

[Kristen McDermott · Rating 2 out of 5]

My review of this book appears in the February 2017 edition of Historical Novels Review:
"Elaine Scarry, a celebrated literary scholar known for her interdisciplinary approaches to the study of poetry, culture, philosophy, and art, has joined Oscar Wilde, A. L. Rowse, and many others in attempting to unmask the mysterious subject of Shakespeare’s immortal love sonnets. Her meticulous analysis of Shakespeare’s love sonnets has yielded, she argues, the long-sought-after identity of the beloved young man who is the subject of many of the poems, embedded anagrammatically into individual lines.

Even though her literary-critical detective work does not succeed in altering our understanding of Shakespeare’s biographical record, Scarry has inadvertently created an enchanting piece of historical fiction in the passionate love affair she has imagined between William Shakespeare and the Elizabethan poet-courtier Henry Constable. Shakespearean scholars, most of whom agree that it is fruitless to read the sonnets biographically, have dismissed her detective work, pointing out the ways in which Scarry, like poor wishful Malvolio, “crushes” historical facts to fit the alphabetical clues she finds in the sonnets. However, readers of historical fiction will find a treasure-trove of details about Elizabethan art, poetry, herbology, printing, architecture, court gossip, etc. and Scarry’s conclusion, tantalizingly identifying Constable with Shakespeare’s mysterious London boarder, may inspire many new romantic novels about the Bard’s love life."

[Herb Levine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A scholarly tour de force that reads like a historical novel! This book needs to be made into a movie. It has scenes in London, Scotland and France and the Netherlands, a bisexual lead character (who happens to be the most famous writer who ever lived), a homosexual love, a rival for that homosexual love, two love triangles with repeated "betrayals"-- one hetero, one homo -- years of exile from one another, followed by return, imprisonment, and eventual reunion, secret identities, secret forms of communication through sonnets, Catholic-Protestant intrigue on an international scale. And woven into all that are Shakespeare's 154 sonnets whose backstory has fascinated speculative minds for hundreds of years. Now the back story comes to life through scholarly sleuthing on a scale rarely encountered in books that fictionalize such devotion to uncovering the past, such as A. S. Byatt's Possession or Rachel Kaddish's The Weight of Ink, to name only the best of the bunch. The scholars who have reviewed the book in professional journals have found ways to poke holes in her methodology, but no one can dispute the preponderance of evidence that Professor Scarry piles up. I suggest beginning with the chapter on The Rival Poets -- they were writing poems to each other that may well have given a third poet, our beloved hero, pause. And then go back to the beginning. Have a complete copy of the sonnets by your side. Even the most familiar of them will come to life in new ways.

[John Fredrickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For fans of the sonnets, this is a very interesting read. The author purports to have identified the fair-haired member of the love triangle, and based on the evidence she provides, I believe she has done so. She also identifies King James as the rival poet.

Some of the evidence that she provides feels like it requires too much credulity on its own, but nonetheless the overall identification feels right. The last couple of chapters get into highly speculative mode, and I hesitate to put much belief in her argument, but there are some very interesting points made.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good to exercise my academic brain again.

[Marianne Mason Sievers · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5. No, sorry, not buying the author's argument as to the identity of the Fair Youth of the sonnets. Too much special pleading to really make a believable case.