“But since she prick’d thee out for women’s pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure”
That my friends is the last two lines from Shakespeare’s sonnet 20. Now all of us have probably read about the speculation of how the great playwright was probably gay because many of his passionate poems are addressed to an unknown man. These lines for the first time made me understand why.
I have read a few other poems a long time back where Shakespeare in his poem appreciates the beauty of a man. But I have never read Sonnet 20 before. In this Sonnet Shakespeare talks about how his male friend is more beautiful than any woman he has ever seen. He then goes on to praise his beauty and how God intended to make him a woman and then decided to give him a part, a thing that Shakespeare has no use of (By adding one thing to my purpose nothing. – I hope you know what thing he is talking of, I try not putting up profane stuff on my blog). So in the last two lines that I put up on the top of this post basically means that while this Male friend has been made for the pleasure of women, Shakespeare wants his love and his body can be used by the women who love him. Wow. That is some really intense selfless love for the mystery man. And if the poem is autobiographical, then Shakespeare was definitely gay. Or bisexual. And to be so bold about his love in Elizabethan times is definitely more praiseworthy than shocking.