Sonnet 119: What Potions Have I Drunk Of Siren Tears Poem by William Shakespeare

_________________ The poet continues his defence of past conduct. In looking back he perceives himself to have been suffering from a serious infatuation, which like a disease and maddening fever forced him to pursue an unattainable goal, as the alchemist pursues an unattainable dream of converting all base matter to gold. _________________

It is difficult to assess how much a Renaissance reader, or the addressee, or the original circle of readers of these sonnets, would have picked up the references to alchemy and charlatanism. Limbecks and distillation would certainly point them in that direction, whereas to modern ears they are almost meaningless in that sense. There is little doubt that alchemy was well known, even though it was illegal in this country. Elizabeth herself at one stage employed an alchemist, Cornelius de Lannoy, who promised to provide her with 50,000 marks of pure gold per year for a moderate fee. Needless to say he was unsuccessful, and was eventually imprisoned in the Tower. If Ben Jonson's play The Alchemist is anything to go by, most of alchemy was pure charlatanism, intended only as a means of fleecing rich benefactors who hoped in time to become even richer. Many practicing alchemists were in fact skilled also at forging coins. The implication of all this for a reading of the sonnet is that the poet acknowledges that he has been engaged in duplicity, that the gold he hoped to find was a mirage, and that all his frenzied searching has at least enriched him by enabling him to recognise true virtue and true wealth. shakespeares-sonnets.com/

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