The Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford has brought to light a unknown handwritten version of the Sonnet 116 of William Shakespeare. Dr. Leah Veronese, a researcher at the Faculty of English at the University of Oxford, found this document while doing her doctorate. The manuscript is one of the few known handwritten versions of the sonnet and was for centuries filed In a collection of poetry of the seventeenth century, within the ELIAS ASHMOLE DOCUMENTSfounder of the Ashmolean Museum.
The manuscript is part of a “miscellaneous”, written in which many unconnected and mixed subjects are treated, and that in the seventeenth century, was a usual format to share poetry and writings of different nature. In this case, the notebook also includes original texts by Ashmole. When reviewing the document, Dr. Veronese noticed significant differences with the printed version of the sonnet. “While the manuscript broke, the poem seemed like a strange version of the Sonnet 116”, Explained as stated in the study Posted in Review of English Studies. “In the catalog, I was described as ‘about the constancy in love’, but without mention to Shakespeare,” he added. The absence of its name and an additional line at the beginning could have contributed to this text to go unnoticed for centuries.
It is an adaptation of the poem
What makes this version especially interesting is the adaptation of the poem. In this manuscript, the sonnet appears Musicalized by Henry Lawesa composer of the seventeenth century. While only the text is preserved, the corresponding score is found in a New York Public Library Songs Book. The adaptation introduces seven additional verses and alters the introduction and final pairing of Shakespeare’s original. The new version begins with: “A self -giving error takes over all those minds / that with false appellants call love to that love.” Beyond serving musical interpretation, these changes could contain a veiled political message.
Together with political content texts of the 1640s
The context of the finding reinforces this hypothesis. The manuscript is found Together with political content textsas prohibited carols and satirical poems about the conflicts of the 1640s. During the English Civil War, fidelity to the monarchy and the Church of England were sensitive issues, and this version of the sonnet could be read as a plea in favor of political and religious loyalty. The teacher Emma SmithShakespeare specialist at Oxford University, he stressed: “What Dr. Veronese demonstrates with her research is that this sonnet was understood in a political key, far from her role in modern weddings.”
That the poem was turned into a song is also a significant detail. Under the Republican regime, the public interpretation of songs was prohibited, which forced musicians like Henry Laws to act privately. The existence of this musicalized version reinforces the idea that Shakespeare’s poetry was not only read, but also used to transmit undercover political messages in times of censorship.
This discovery rewrites our understanding about the circulation and adaptation of Shakespeare in the seventeenth century. He suggests that his work was not merely literary, but also a vehicle for political expression. The presence of this sonnet modified in a monarchical environment suggests that poetry could be used as a resistance tool or ideological statement. As Professor Smith pointed out, “this exciting finding demonstrates that centuries of search have not exhausted the archives.”
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