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

and LXXXI. a

nor the gild

ll outlive this

ine more bright

ne, besmear'd wi

war shall st

ot out the wo

rd nor war's qui

record of y

h and all-ob

th; your praise sh

eyes of al

world out to

udgment that y

is, and dwell

ive your epi

e when I in e

ur memory dea

each part wil

hence immortal

gone, to all th

yield me but a

bed in men's e

shall be my

yet created s

be your being

eathers of this

live-such virt

breathes, even in

oet, either in prose or verse, is in the dedication of the two poems to the Earl of Southampton. To Shakespeare, to Shakespeare alone, have the Shakespearean poems and plays b

their real author was "some pale, wasted student ... with eyes of genius gleaming through despair" who found in Shakespeare a purchaser, a publisher, a friend, and a patron. If that theory is correct,

presented in Sonnets LV. and LXXXI. I would refer the reader particularly to Sonnets XXXVI

orld should loo

with me aft

of Sonnet LXXII.

rld should tas

ed in me, that

, dear love, f

can nothing

ld devise some

r me than min

e praise upo

ruth would wil

ome true and genuine and much more poetic, if we conceive them to be written, not by the accredited author of the Shakespearean dramas, but by the unnamed and unkn

nnets of which it forms a part. Sonnets LXXVII. to XC. all more or less relate to another poet, who, the author fears, has

d full sail of

prize of all t

e thoughts in m

mb the womb whe

it, by spirits

pitch, that s

e, nor his co

id, my verse

t affable f

gulls him with

f my silence

k of any fear

ountenance fill

matter; that e

al poet; and running through them all are allusions or statements which seem to have been intended to strengthen the ties between him and his friend,-to hold him if he meditated going, and to bring him back if he had already strayed. It was obviously for that purpose that Sonnet LXXXI., one of the central Sonnets of that group, was written; and, considered as written for that purpose, how apt and true its language appears! The poet, ass

ent. Let us then assume that the poet was simply stating his own case against a rival poet, presenting his own appeal,-and the verse at once has added dignity and passion, and we almost feel the poet's heart throb. Of course the final question-whether or not the two Sonnets printed at the head of this chapter were founded on

, is often mentioned. And it is mentioned as though that somehow detracted from their meaning or forc

rk to an end which neit

r fretting age with a

o abolish

e has been trans

nt on st

an Brass, my N

l Pyramid

d Years unnumbe

art shall s

th, and claim

he says that not he, but his friend, is to have the immortality that his poetry will surely bring. While this comparison with the Latin poems may not much aid an interpretation that seemed clear and

d go to the world as that of another, and that at least one of the two was a poet of distinctive excellence. At that time the publication and sale of books was very limited and the relative rights of publishers and authors were such that the author had but little or none of the pecuniary results. The theatre was the most promising and hence the most usual market for literary work, and it seems certain that

dred and thirty plays. But no one would deem it improbable th

without force against the clear and unambiguous

tno

Metamorphose

e, Book II