Testimony of the Sonnets as to the Authorship of the Shakespearean Plays and Poems

though some of them may have been written as late as 1601,-and that a great portion were probably written as early as 1594.[8] Shakespeare was b

Sonnets which seem to indicate that they were written by a man well past middle a

twenty-six seem to have been written. In poetry as in perspective, there is much that is relative, and in the Sonnets the age of the writer and that of his friend are so often con

s him why he abuses the bounteous largess given him to give; calls him a profitless usurer; tells him that the hours that have made him fair will unfair him; that he should not let winter's rugged hand deface ere he has begotten a child, though it were a greater happiness should he beget ten. He asks if his failure to marry is because he might wet a widow's eye, and then in successive Sonnets cries shame on his friend for being so improvident. He tells him that when he shall wane, change toward age, he should have a child to perpetuate his youth; and the thought again brings to the poet the vision of winter, summer's green borne on winter's bier, and he urges him that he should prepare against his coming end,

hild of yours a

twice in it, a

nveys, I think will be increased by reading the Sonnets themselves. I have refrained from stating any portion

ient when the

burning head,

o his new-app

looks his s

b'd the steep-u

ong youth in h

oks adore his

n his golde

ighmost pitch,

ge, he reelet

e duteous, now

tract, and lo

elf out-going

iest, unless

eep and is journeying on the level heaven toward the zenith. Certainly that

. reads a

nters shall b

renches in thy

oud livery, so

r'd weed, of sm

k'd where all

treasure of

thine own dee

ng shame, and th

.

e new made whe

d warm when thou

n the mind of the poet the fortieth year was not in the ascending scale of life, but was at, or perhaps b

so far below middle life that a statement of the decadence that would come after his fortieth year presented a remote or far-off picture. Besides, if his friend was below thirty years, while it might be well to urge him to marry,

which the poet can appropriately weave so much of compliment and expressions of admiration and affection. But if that be so, must we not still believe that the great d

s which convey similar and, I submit, unmistakable in

indicates that it was written as a greeting or salutation afte

e, my love's sw

any wrinkle

e a satir

s spoils despi

me faster than

st his scythe an

g, in Sonnet CIV

riend, you ne

e when first y

eauty still. Thre

.

f the season

.

w you fresh, whi

beauty, lik

figure, and no

, which methinks

d mine eye may

ch, hear this,

orn was beauty

resent no clear or sharp indication as to the age of his friend, yet I think that of them this may be fairly said: the word "green" is used as opposed to ripe or matured, and his friend's age is such that three years see

a dia

rom his

the poet says

nt'st a pure u

d by the ambush

il'd, or victor

LXXVII. th

hich thy glass

aves will giv

al's shady ste

ish progress

XVI. is a

vely boy, who

fickle glass, h

ing grown, and

ering as thy sw

vereign mistr

wards, still wil

to this purpose

ace and wretch

O thou minion

but not still ke

ugh delay'd, a

etus is to

a leave-taking, perhaps not of his friend, but of the labor that had so long moved him. Perhaps for that reason its words should be deemed more significant, and it should be read and considered more carefully.[12] All its thoughts seem responsive to the central suggestion that his friend appears much younger than he is

we were. But on this let us further consult our poet. He tells us that at ten begins the age of the whining school-boy; at twenty of the lover, sighing like a furnace, and that of the soldier, a vocation of manhood, at thirty.[13] To me it seems very clear that the rich poetic fancy of this Sonnet would be greatly lessened by assuming it to be addressed to a person

suppose that the poet had in mind a person below twenty-five years of age. To do so would make some, at least, of his terms of description inapt, subtract from the sparkle and force of his compliments, and cause his words of loving admonition and advice to appear ill-timed and inappropriate. Certainly the Sonnets indicate that his friend was on the

than thirty, and possibly or probably below twenty years of age. A careful examination of these

LIV. the

beauteous and

ade, my verse dis

t XCVI.

ault is youth,

race is youth a

ppear in Sonnets II.,

t CXIV.

as your sweet

appellation, "my lovely boy,

t CVIII.

brain, that in

figured to thee

speak, what ne

ss my love, or

oy; but yet, lik

ay say o'er t

thing old, tho

irst I hallowe

al love in lo

he dust and

necessary w

tiquity for

st conceit of l

outward form wo

on the morning side of life without any precise or clear reference to, or indication of, their age. We should therefore turn to the lines containing the appellation "boy" for whatever of force there is in the claim for the extreme youth of the poet's friend. Doing so, the cont

he dust and

necessary w

end, nor his love for him, nor his own frequent recurring expressions of it, to grow old; the last two lines of the Sonn

ld, indeed a mere boy, at least half of the portion of the Sonnet following the term "sweet boy" is inappropriate and useless. This Sonn

sented as clearly stating that his friend was termed a boy

east twenty years older than is indicated of his friend, except in the Sonnets now being considered. If the poet was fifty years of age or more, the terms here discussed are amply and fully satisfied without ascribing to them any definite indication as to the age of the person addressed. To a person of the age of fifty or sixty years, addressing a per

ge of the author of these Sonnets,-what was the age of the poet of the Shakespearean plays? I shall present that which in

ive years of age, when these Sonnets were composed,-he was b

hat he is older than his fri

l not persuad

th and thou ar

hee time's fu

eath my days

beauty that d

eemly raimen

east doth live,

en be elder

directly of his own age or

year thou may

aves, or none,

hs which shake

s, where late the

est the twili

nset fadeth

y black night

self, that seal

'st the glowin

shes of his y

bed whereon i

hat which it wa

st, which makes th

l which thou mus

nnet LXII. and Sonnet

lass shows me

opp'd with ta

-love quite c

f-loving we

elf, that for m

ge with beaut

ove shall be

rious hand crush

rain'd his blood

wrinkles; when

d on to age's

beauties where

or vanish'd

the treasure

time do I

ounding age'

ll never cu

beauty, though

l in these blac

ive, and he in t

uoted at page 22. The metaphor is the same, comparing life to the daily journey of the sun. In each, the poet views the steep of the journey, the earlier and the later hours of the day; and while he finds that his friend's age is represented by the sun passing from the "steep-up" hill to the zenith

XVIII. is

ears that she i

her, though I

think me some u

he world's fal

nking that she

ows my days are

t her false-sp

hus is simple t

says she not

e say not I

t habit is in

loves not to h

ie with her a

lts by lies we

true he knows she lies, he adopts the conceit of asserting that he is not old, as an equivalent to her obvious falsehood in saying that she is not unjust. This is on

sen such a theme, and these Sonnets seem to be certainly based on an actual occurrence. And if so, certainly we may construe them very li

h of a child.[17] We know from legal records that he and his father before him had frequent lawsuits.[18] While a uniform tradition represents him as comely, pleasing and attractive, equally does it represent him as a man of ready, aggressive and caustic wit, and rebellious and bitter against opposition.[19] The lines on the slab over his grave are less supplicatory tha

or indication of the Sonnets. Mr. Lee urges that these Sonnets were mere affectations, conceits common to the poets of that day. That view will not bear investigation. He cites passages from poets of that time ascribing to themselves in youth the ills, the miseries, the wrinkles, the white hairs of age. But such is not the effect of what has been here quoted. The poet says that it is his age that oppresses him, and brings him its ills and marks and ravages; and about as clearly as poetic description is capable of, indicates and says that he is on the sunset side of his day of life. I cannot at this instant quot

II. and VII. (pp. 22 and 23). If those Sonnets came from a poet of the age and infirmities which a literal reading indicates, how forceful, strong, and poetic is their appeal. But if it is to be assumed that they were writte

the age of the poet, but which do have great significance from their correspondence in tone and effect with what has been already quoted. T

XXX. and XX

ssions of swee

emembrance of

ck of many a

s new wail my de

own an eye, u

nds hid in death'

love's long sinc

pense of many a

ieve at griev

from woe to

unt of fore-

ay, as if not

.

endeared wi

acking have

love, and all lov

riends which I

holy and ob

gious love stol

f the dead, w

oved that hidd

ave where burie

trophies of

parts of me to

many now is

t LXXI.

urn for me w

l hear the su

to the world

orld, with viles

ead this line

writ it; for

sweet thoughts

me then shoul

t CXXII.

tables, are

.

date, even

st, so long as

y by nature

azed oblivion

t CXLVI.

e centre of m

ebel powers t

pine within an

outward walls

ost, having so

n thy fading

inheritors of

rge? is this t

e thou upon thy

pine to aggra

ne in selling

, without be

eed on Death, t

ead, there's no

ns. Such thoughts and meditations do not seem to be those of

rgument to establish that this concurrence of statements made in different groups of Sonnets and doubtless at different times has much more than four times the persuasive force of one such statement. And in like ratio do the other Sonnets indicating the reflections and conditions of ag

t Bacon was the author of the Sonnets, or of the plays or poems produced by the same p

tno

peare, p. 87; Preface to

the decade from forty to fifty as past the middle arch of life, and next to the age of the slippered pantaloon and s

f they were written by an unknown poet and brought out or published by Shakespeare, the time betw

ubject discussed in this chapter,-the age of the poet. Such an expression would se

m that this Sonnet was addr

ike It, Act I

world's

en and women

r exits and th

n his time pl

seven ages. At

uking in the

g school-boy, w

ning face, cree

school. And t

urnace, with a

tress' eyebrow.

oaths, and beard

ur, sudden and

he bubble

on's mouth. And

belly with goo

ere and beard

saws and mode

his part. The

n and slippe

s on nose and

se, well saved,

shank; and his

toward childis

his sound. Las

s strange eve

ldishness and

eyes, sans taste,

age 28

ppear some statements so relevant to this di

he rose of youth' (Antony and Cleopatra, III., ii., 17 seq.). Spenser in his Astrophel apostrophizes Sir Philip Sidn

ral, having stated that his friend the Colonel spoke to him about being a candidate for an office, continued, "I said to him, 'Why, Fred, you are a

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