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Sonnet XX

iambic hexameter · English sonnet · 14 lines · from The Sonnets

A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted,Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquaintedWith shifting change, as is false women’s fashion:An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;A man in hue all ‘hues’ in his controlling,Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.And for a woman wert thou first created;Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,And by addition me of thee defeated,By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.But since she prick’d thee out for women’s pleasure,Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.

Words in this poem

hast: , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
whereupon adv.: Upon which; in consequence of which; after which.
doting a.: That dotes; silly; excessively fond.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Sonnet XX is in the public domain. This text is taken from Shakespeare's Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #1041; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: William Shakespeare, Sonnet XX, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-20.html, id L00038.

Form and metre

Sonnet XX is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.0 syllables. 13 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.

See other English sonnets, other poems in iambic hexameter.

Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.

Rhyme words, stanza by stanza

The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.

1 ABABCDCDEFEFGG painted^A · passion^B · acquainted^A · fashion^B · rolling^C · gazeth^D · controlling^C · amazeth^D · created^E · doting^F · defeated^E · nothing^F · pleasure^G · treasure^G

Scansion, line by line

Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic hexameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted,	11	·/˘··/˘··/˘
Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;	11	···/˘/˘··/˘
A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted	11	·/˘/˘···˘/˘
With shifting change, as is false women’s fashion:	11	·/˘····/˘/˘
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,	11	·········/˘
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;	11	/˘·/˘/˘/···
A man in hue all ‘hues’ in his controlling,	11	········˘/˘
Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.	11	·····/˘·˘/˘
And for a woman wert thou first created;	11	···/˘···˘/˘
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,	11	·/˘······/˘
And by addition me of thee defeated,	11	··˘/˘···˘/˘
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.	11	·/˘····/˘/˘
But since she prick’d thee out for women’s pleasure,	11	·······/˘/˘
Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.	11	·········/˘

On this poem

"His friend is 'beauty's pattern' (19. 12) ; as such he owns the attributes of male and female beauty " (Dowden). Palgrave omits this sonnet, with I 51, 153, and 1 54. T. With Nature's own hand painted. Not artificially coloured — a fashion which S. detested, as he did false hair. Cf. Sonn. 68. 5 below, and M. of V. iii. 2. 94 : — " the dowry of a second head, The skull that bred them [the " golden locks"] in the sepulchre." 156 See also T. of A. iv. 3. 144 : " Thatch your poor thin roofs With burdens of the dead." In Z. Z. Z. iv. 3. 258 Biron says : — " O, if in black my lady's brows be deck'd, It mourns that painting and usurping hair Should ravish doters with a false aspect." It was then comparatively a recent fashion. Stow says : " Women's periwigs were first brought into England about the time of the mas- sacre of Paris " (1572). Barnaby Rich, in 161 5, says of the periwig- sellers : " These attire-makers within these forty years were not known by that name. . . . But now they are not ashamed to set them forth upon their stalls — such monstrous mop-poles of hair — ■ so proportioned and deformed that but within these twenty or thirty years would have drawn the passers-by to stand and gaze, and to wonder at them."

Notes from the edition 3

Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan

Line 2 Master-mistress of my passion. " Who sways my love with united charms of man and woman" (Dowden).
Line 5 Less false in rolling. Dowden compares Spenser, F. Q. iii. '•4»! — " Her wanton eyes (ill signes of womanhed) Did roll too lightly." Tyler refers to 139. 6 and 140. 14 below.
Line 7 Hues. Printed in the quarto in italics and with a capital. This led Tyrwhitt to surmise that " Mr. W. H." might be Mr. William Hews, or Hughes. But the following words are all printed in the same manner: Hose, I. 2; Audit, 4. 12 ; Statues, 55. 5 ; Intrim, 56. 9; Alien, 78. 3; Satire, 100. 11 ; Autumne, 104. 5; Al/isme, 112. 9; Alcumie, 114. 4; Syren, 119. 1 ; Hereticke, 124. 9; Informer, 125. 13 ; Audite, 126. 13 ; and Quietus, 126. 14. The word hue was used by Elizabethan writers not only in the sense of complexion, but also in that of shape, form. In Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 17, Talus tries to seize Malengin, who transforms himself into a fox, a bush, a bird, a stone, and then a hedgehog:- — " Then gan it [the hedgehog] run away incontinent, Being returned to his former hew." The meaning here may then be, A man in shape surpassing all that excite the wonder and admiration of men and women. ii. Defeated. Disappointed, defrauded. Cf. M. N. D. iv. 1. 161: — " They would have stolen away ; they would, Demetrius, Thereby to have defeated you and me, You of your wife, and me of my consent."

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