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To: wideminded
"The first 126 of Shakespeare's sonnets are addressed to a man....

I've never heard it put like that, but, if so, it's not as if W.S. has the typical gay adgenda in mind. In the 3rd Sonnet, for instance, he's advising the young man to go find a woman and have children, or till his husbandry, as he puts it.

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest Now is the time that face should form another; Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest, Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother. For where is she so fair whose unear'd womb Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry? Or who is he so fond will be the tomb Of his self-love, to stop posterity? Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime; So thou through windows of thine age shalt see, Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time. But if thou live, remember'd not to be, Die single and thine image dies with thee

22 posted on 01/09/2008 12:14:32 PM PST by PUGACHEV
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To: PUGACHEV
it's not as if W.S. has the typical gay agenda in mind. In the 3rd Sonnet, for instance, he's advising the young man to go find a woman and have children,

Yes, but he is advising the young man to have children in order to preserve the young man's own beauty. In other words W.S. is an admirer of this beauty.

35 posted on 01/09/2008 1:01:28 PM PST by wideminded
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