case choice by rhyme

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:50 AM -0400 9/22/05, Baker, John wrote:
>         It's clear from the context of the sonnet, which I did not quote
>in full in my prior post.  Shakespeare is criticizing the false
>comparisons poets make about their mistresses:
>
>MY mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
>Coral is far more red than her lips' red:
>If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
>If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
>I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
>But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
>And in some perfumes is there more delight
>Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
>I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
>That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
>I grant I never saw a goddess go,-
>My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
>   And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
>   As any she belied with false compare.
>
>
>John Baker

It makes it clear that "she" indeed corresponds to a subject within
its clause--the subject, that is, of (passive) "[who is] belied by
false compare".  But this isn't really relevant to its case (see
below).  Complicating the situation is that the "object of
comparison" has for centuries occurred both in the nominative and in
the objective:

X is as rare as she/her.
Y is rarer than he/him.

The fact that the post-equative pronoun is quantified by "any" and is
the subject of a passive clause doesn't affect this.  Presumably the
voice of Shakespearean sonnets is formal enough that a nominative
would be expected in this position.  The relation of "she" and
"belied" is not really relevant here, as can be seen from contexts
not involving comparatives/equatives:

I saw her whom I love.
I was seen by she whom I love.

Of course, I'm on shakier ground in these matters than our resident
expert.  Arnold?

L

>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>Of Joel S. Berson
>Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2005 9:38 AM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: case choice by rhyme
>
>Please tell me why this "she" should be read as the object of "belied"
>rather than the subject".
>
>At 9/21/2005 03:50 PM, you wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: case choice by rhyme
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>--------
>>
>>          It's not new.  Compare Shakespeare's Sonnet CXXX:
>>
>>"And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with
>>false compare."
>>
>>          Shakespeare didn't need the rhyme, but he did need a
>>monosyllabic reference for his dark lady.
>>
>>John Baker