Are these Shakespeare quotations double negatives?

[SteveH]

In the grammatical-error sense that is, in which two negatives equal a positive, eg "I didn't do nothing" means "I did do something". This is to do with a furious argument in a Facebook group. I won't say yet whether I think they are or not, because I want your uninfluenced opinions.
"Not today, O Lord, O not today, think not upon the fault my father made in compassing the crown" (Henry V)
"I never writ, nor no man ever loved" (Sonnet 116)

[ad_orientem]

The first one definitely isn't, in my opinion.

[jeremyp]

The context might be important however, I don’t think the first one is.

The second probably isn’t either.

[SteveH]

The first one should surely be "today, think not" In modern English, as it stands it is "Don't not think today about...".

[ad_orientem]

The not in "not today" is the same as the not in "not upon". The not's at the beginning are there just to emphasise the last not.

[SteveH]

The not in "not today" is the same as the not in "not upon". The not's at the beginning are there just to emphasise the last not.

Indeed they are, and in Shakespeare's day double negatives like that were normal, for emphasis. Later, however, they came to be regarded as grammatically incorrect. I'm actually fairly relaxed about them, though I don't use them myself, except the figure of speech called litotes, a form of understatement which affirms something by denying the opposite, eg "not unattractive", which is not considered a grammatical error, because it does indeed mean "attractive".

[jeremyp]

Indeed they are, and in Shakespeare's day double negatives like that were normal, for emphasis. Later, however, they came to be regarded as grammatically incorrect. I'm actually fairly relaxed about them, though I don't use them myself, except the figure of speech called litotes, a form of understatement which affirms something by denying the opposite, eg "not unattractive", which is not considered a grammatical error, because it does indeed mean "attractive".

I do not think double negatives are necessarily grammatically not correct.

[SteveH]

I do not think double negatives are necessarily grammatically not correct.

They're not if you use them as a figure of speech to affirm something by denying the opposite (litotes), eg "not unattractive".

[ad_orientem]

I use double negatives sometimes without even thnking, like "there ain't none" or "you don't know nothing"