A year after the issue of Venus and Adonis,' in 1594, Shakespeare published another poem in like vein, but far more mature in temper and execution. The digression (11. 939–59) on the destroying power of Time, especially, is in an exalted key of meditation which is not sounded in the earlier poem. The metre, too, is changed; seven-line stanzas (Chaucer's rhyme royal, ababbcc) take the place of six-line stanzas. The second poem was entered in the 'Stationers' Registers' on May 9, 1594, under the title of 'A Booke intitled the Ravyshement of Lucrece,' and was published in the same year under the title 'Lucrece.' Richard Field printed it, and John Harrison published and sold it at the sign of the White Greyhound in St. Paul's Churchyard. The classical story of Lucretia's ravishment and suicide is briefly recorded in Ovid's Fasti,' but Chaucer had retold it in his 'Legend of Good Women,' and Shakespeare must have read it there. Again, in topic and metre, the poem reflected a contemporary poet's work. Samuel Daniel's 'Com 'Lucrece.' 143-6. Cf. Lodge's description of Venus's discovery of the wounded Adonis : Her daintie hand addrest to dawe her deere, Her roseall lip alied to his pale cheeke, In the minute description in Shakespeare's poem of the chase of the hare (11. 673-708) there are curious resemblances to the Ode de la Chasse (on a stag hunt) by the French dramatist, Estienne Jodelle, in his Euvres et Meslanges Poétiques, 1574. plaint of Rosamond,' with its seven-line stanza (1592), stood to 'Lucrece' in even closer relation than Lodge's 'Scilla,' with its six-line stanza, to 'Venus and Adonis.' The pathetic accents of Shakespeare's heroine are those of Daniel's heroine purified and glorified. The passage on Time is elaborated from one in Watson's Passionate Centurie of Love' (No. lxxvii.) Shakespeare dedicated his second volume of poetry to the Earl of Southampton, the patron of his first. He addressed him in terms of devoted friendship, which were not uncommon at the time in communications between patrons and poets, but suggest that Shakespeare's relations with the brilliant young nobleman had grown closer since Rosamond, in Daniel's poem, muses thus when King Henry challenges her honour : But what? he is my King and may constraine me; The World will thinke Authoritie did gaine me, I shall be judg'd his Love and so be shamed; We see the faire condemn'd that never gamed, If not, I live disgrac'd, yet thought the same. 2 Watson makes this comment on his poem or passion on Time, (No. lxxvii.): 'The chiefe contentes of this Passion are taken out of Seraphine [i.e. Serafino], Sonnet 132: Col tempo passa[n] gli anni, i mesi, e l'hore, Watson adds that he has inverted Serafino's order for 'rimes sake,' or 'upon some other more allowable consideration.' Shakespeare was also doubtless acquainted with Giles Fletcher's similar handling of the theme in Sonnet xxviii. of his collection of sonnets called Licia (1593). he dedicated 'Venus and Adonis' to him in colder language a year before. The love I dedicate to your lordship,' Shakespeare wrote in the opening pages of 'Lucrece,' 'is without end, whereof this pamphlet without beginning is but a superfluous moiety. What I have done is yours; what I have to do is yours; being part in all I have, devoted yours.' tic reception of the poems. In these poems Shakespeare made his earliest appeal to the world of readers, and the reading Enthusias public welcomed his addresses with unqualified enthusiasm. The London playgoer already knew Shakespeare's name as that of a promising actor and playwright, but his dramatic efforts had hitherto been consigned in manuscript, as soon as the theatrical representation ceased, to the coffers of their owner, the playhouse manager. His early plays brought him at the outset little reputation as a man of letters. It was not as the myriadminded dramatist, but in the restricted rôle of adapter for English readers of familiar Ovidian fables, that he first impressed a wide circle of his contemporaries with the fact of his mighty genius. The perfect sweetness of the verse, and the poetical imagery in 'Venus and Adonis' and 'Lucrece' practically silenced censure of the licentious treatment of the themes on the part of the seriously minded. Critics vied with each other in the exuberance of the eulogies in which they proclaimed that the fortunate author had gained a place in permanence on the summit of Parnassus. 'Lucrece,' wrote Michael Drayton in his 'Legend of Matilda' (1594), was 'revived to live another age.' In 1595 William Clerke in his 'Polimanteia' gave 'all praise' to 'sweet Shakespeare' for his 'Lucrecia.' John Weever, in a sonnet addressed to 'honey-tongued Shakespeare' in his 'Epigramms' (1595), eulogised the two poems as an unmatchable achievement, although he mentioned the plays 'Romeo' and 'Richard' and more whose names I know not.' Richard Carew at the same time classed him with Marlowe as deserving the praises of an English Catullus.1 Printers and publishers of the poems strained their resources to satisfy the demands of eager purchasers. No fewer than seven editions of 'Venus' appeared between 1594 and 1602; an eighth followed in 1617. 'Lucrece' achieved a fifth edition in the year of Shakespeare's death. Shake There is a likelihood, too, that Spenser, the greatest of Shakespeare's poetic contemporaries, was first drawn by the poems into the ranks of Shakespeare's speare and admirers. It is hardly doubtful that Spenser Spenser. described Shakespeare in Colin Clouts come home againe' (completed in 1594), under the name of 'Aetion'—a familiar Greek proper name derived from 'AɛTós, an eagle: And there, though last not least is Aetion; A gentler Shepheard may no where be found, The last line seems to allude to Shakespeare's sur- name. P. 43. Excellencie of the English Tongue' in Camden's Remaines, mutual. At any rate Shakespeare acknowledged acquaintance with Spenser's work in a plain reference to his 'Teares of the Muses' (1591) in 'Midsummer Night's Dream’(v. i. 52–3). The thrice three Muses, mourning for the death is stated to be the theme of one of the dramatic entertainments wherewith it is proposed to celebrate Theseus's marriage. In Spenser's 'Teares of the Muses' each of the Nine laments in turn her declining influence on the literary and dramatic effort of the age. Theseus dismisses the suggestion with the not inappropriate comment : That is some satire keen and critical, But there is no ground for assuming that Spenser in the same poem referred figuratively to Shakespeare when he made Thalia deplore the recent death of 'our pleasant Willy.' The name Willy was frequently used in contemporary literature as a term of familiarity without relation to the baptismal name of the person referred to. Sir Philip Sidney was ad All these and all that els the Comick Stage By which mans life in his likest image To mock her selfe and Truth to imitate, Is also deaded and in dolour drent.-(ll. 199-210). |