Violet, Purple, and the Puzzle of Sonnet 99
"Shakespeare is the master of riddles, and Sonnet 99 is one of his strangest puzzles. Unlike the traditional 14-line sonnet, this one has 15 lines and begins with a quintain, a quiet announcement that something unconventional is unfolding.
"This poem begins and drips with color. Shakespeare first invokes violet, a spectral color at the edge of visible light. Then he quickly shifts to purple, which in medieval and Renaissance England was not simply a color but a symbol of wealth, power, and exclusivity. Purple dye was rare, expensive and reserved for the elite.
"The transition from violet to purple made me think deeply about the social and economic divides embedded not only in Shakespeare's world but also in ours. Language, like color, has hierarchies. Art does, too. Who is allowed access? Who understands the coded meaning? Who gets to speak in purple?
"To explore this coded world, I created a seductive Violet figure, surrounded by words that function like clues. Phrases only reveal themselves through hints, associations, and patient decoding. Using a word puzzle as my structure allowed me to approach the sonnet's riddling spirit on its own terms, to play with the same devices Shakespeare used: layering, ambiguity, and playful misdirection.
“Through this process, Sonnet 99 becomes more than an oddity in the sequence. It becomes a meditation on beauty, power and the hidden structures that shape how we interpret both. For me, art is the way into that puzzle."
Suzanne Coley
Image: Violet, Purple, and the Puzzle of Sonnet 99 by Suzanne Coley, 2018. Materials: Hand carved linocut printed on completed NY Times crossword puzzle.
