. and cxliii., 'will' occurs once only; it alone
is italicised in the second sonnet in the original edition, and there, in
my opinion, arbitrarily and without just cause. {419}

The conceits of sonnets cxxxv-vi. interpreted.

The general intention of the complex conceits of Sonnets cxxxv. and
cxxxvi. becomes obvious when we bear in mind that in them Shakespeare
exploits to the uttermost the verbal coincidences which are inherent in
the Elizabethan word 'will.' 'Will' is the Christian name of the
enslaved writer; 'will' is the sentiment with which the lady inspires her
worshippers; and 'will' designates stubbornness as well as sensual
desire. These two characteristics, according to the poet's reiterated
testimony, are the distinguishing marks of the lady's disposition. He
often dwells elsewhere on her 'proud heart' or 'foul pride,' and her
sensuality or 'foul faults.' These are her 'wills,' and they make up her
being. In crediting the lady with such constitution Shakespeare was not
recording any definite observation or experience of his own, but was
following, as was his custom, the conventional descriptions of the
disdainful mistress common to all contemporary collections of sonnets.
Barnabe Barnes asks the lady celebrated in his sonnets, from whose 'proud
disdainfulness' he suffered,

Why dost thou my delights delay,
And with thy cross unkindness kills (_sic_)
Mine heart, bound martyr to thy wills?

Barnes answers his question in the next lines:

But women will have their own wills,
Since what she lists her heart fulfils. {420}

Similar passages abound in Elizabethan sonnets, but certain verbal
similarities give good ground for regarding Shakespeare's 'will' sonnets
as deliberate adaptations--doubtless with satiric purpose--of Barnes's
stereotyped reflections on women's obduracy. The form and the constant
repetition of the word 'will' in these two sonnets of Shakespeare also
seem to imitate derisively the same rival's Sonnets lxxii. and lxxiii. in
which Barnes puts the words 'grace' and 'graces' through much the same
evolutions as Shakespeare puts the words 'will' and 'wills' in the
Sonnets cxxxv. and cxxxvi. {421a}

Shakespeare's 'Sonnet' cxxxv. runs:

Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will,
And will to boot, and will in over-plus;
More than enough am I that vex thee still,
To thy sweet will making addition thus.
Wilt thou, whose will is large and spaciou