SOURCE: Andrews, Michael Cameron. “Sincerity and Subterfuge in Three Shakespearean Sonnet Groups.” Shakespeare Quarterly 33, no. 3 (autumn 1982): 314-27.

In the following essay, Andrews explores Shakespeare's sonnets to the young man. The critic contends that the speaker of these sonnets should be understood as a dramatic character separate from his creator, and demonstrates that through the course of the sequence the speaker journeys from insincerity and delusion to anguish.

Early in Sincerity and Authenticity, Lionel Trilling comments on the “implicit pathos” of Polonius' final adjuration to Laertes: “Who would not wish to be true to his own self? True, which is to say loyal, never wavering in constancy. True, which is to say honest: there are to be no subterfuges in dealing with him.” But as Trilling sadly observes, “We understand with Matthew Arnold how hard it is to discern one's own self in order to reach it and be...