CHAPTER XVI. EDITIONS OF THE SONNETS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. IN 1599, as stated above, appeared The Passionate Pilgrim with the following title: "THE PASSIONATE PILGRIME. By W. Shakespeare. AT LONDON printed for W. Iaggard, and are to be sold by W. Leake, at the Grey-hound in Paules Churchyard. 1599." The volume derives, perhaps, its chief importance from its containing two of Shakespeare's Sonnets, 138 and 144. When these Sonnets, as they appeared in 1599, are compared with the text published ten years later, differences of reading become manifest, such as could certainly not have arisen from faults in transcription or from errors of the press. To give an example. In the Passionate Pilgrim the seventh and eighth lines of Sonnet 138 stand thus: "I smiling, credite her false speaking toung, In the Sonnets of 1609 these two lines have become "Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue, On both sides thus is simple truth supprest." A comparison of the lines thus given can scarcely leave a doubt of intentional alteration. "Outfacing faults with love's ill rest" agrees with the forced smile of the previous line :—“I smiling credit her falsehood." In the second version, one might think "smiling" would have been better than "simply;" but "simply" and "simple" have come in together. "Vnskilfull in the world's false forgeries" (P. P., line 4) becomes "Vnlearned in the world's false subtilties" in 1609; a tolerably manifest improvement. As to the way in which Jaggard got hold of the two Sonnets, nothing can here be added to what was said above. On January 3, 1599 [1600], an entry was made in the Stationers' Register relating to a book which, it is quite likely, was published, but, if so, no copy is known to exist. The entry is to Eleazar Edgar : "Entred for his copye under the handes of the Wardens. A booke called Amours by J. D. with certen oy" [other] sonnetes by W. S. . . . vjd." 1 The author denoted by W. S. may possibly have been Shakespeare; but under the circumstances of course no decided opinion can be expressed. The first edition of the collected Sonnets bears the title"SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS. Neuer before Imprinted. At London. By G. Eld for T. T. and are to be solde by William Aspley. 1609." Or, instead of "William Aspley," is found "Iohn Wright, dwelling at Christ Church gate." The book is not printed quite so accurately as was possible at the time, but still it is printed fairly well. It is pretty evident that Shakespeare did not correct successive proofs; but there is no probability that this supervision on the part of the author, if it existed at all, was nearly so common and indispensable as it is now.2 In the present 1 Arber's Transcript, vol. iii. 2 But it would seem certainly to be a mistake to say that the correction of the press by the author was unknown in Elizabethan times. At the end of Breton's Will of Wit (1599) there is a note-"What faults are escaped in the printing, finde by discretion, and excuse the author, by other worke that let him from attendance to the presse" (Halliwell's Reprint, 1860). According to Mr. Halliwell Phillips, in May 1609 Shakespeare's company case the frequent misprint of "their" for "thy" (46 al.) furnishes tolerably conclusive evidence. The question, however, remains undecided whether the printer, or "the wellwishing adventurer in setting forth," T. T. (Thomas Thorpe), received from Shakespeare the MS. of the Sonnets. No sure inference can be drawn from the use of the expression "well-wishing." Thorpe may have wished well to Shakespeare and Mr. W. H., even if he printed the Sonnets without direct sanction. But there is another indication of greater importance. That Shakespeare intended the publication of the first series of Sonnets may, as already mentioned (p. 14), be inferred from the concluding couplet of 38: "If my slight Muse do please these curious days, The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise;" and the indication thus given should be taken together with Shakespeare's frequent predictions of the immortality of his verses. It is possible that Shakespeare handed the MS. to Thorpe, and then, through absence from London or other cause, may have had nothing further to do with the publication of the book. That Herbert took a good deal of trouble in preserving and collecting the Sonnets, and that, having so done, he handed them over to Thorpe for publication, seems to me not quite likely. The conjecture is not, perhaps, altogether improbable that whatever of due order and arrangement the Sonnets as published possess was given to them by Shakespeare himself; that copies were made in MS. for distribution among the poet's "private friends;" that one of these copies fell into the hands of Thorpe, who also received information as to the patron and friend of the "ever-living poet," though, in accordance with not uncommon usage, he thought it expedient to give only initials. were engaged in provincial performances (Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, 7th ed., vol. i. p. 227). But no inference can be drawn from this as to Shakespeare's being in or out of London when the book was printed. To the Sonnets was appended "A Louers complaint. By William Shake-speare." But with this appendix we are not now concerned. Altogether, including Title and Dedication, there were but forty leaves. In 1640 was issued a volume which, if called a second edition of the Sonnets, can be so called only when the word "edition" is used with considerable freedom. Sonnets 18, 19, 43, 56, 75, 76, 96, and 126 are omitted, and with respect to the rest the order of the edition of 1609 is little regarded. The volume contains, besides Shakespeare's work, quasi-Shakespearian poems from the Passionate Pilgrim and other sources, as well as a number of translated pieces, and three elegies on Shakespeare. We should have, apparently, to regard all these as ascribed to Shakespeare, if we were to take literally the heading of the appendix to the book :-"An Addition of some excellent Poems, to those precedent, of Renowned Shakespeare, By other Gentlemen." The volume is much thicker than that of 1609, is printed on a much smaller page, and bears the title,“ POEMS: WRITTEN BY WIL. SHAKESPEARE, Gent. Printed at London by Tho. Cotes, and are to be sold by Iohn Benson, dwelling in St. Dunstans Church-yard. 1640.' The publisher, Benson, prefixed to the volume an Address to the Reader which, though not at all remarkable for critical discernment, is nevertheless important as bearing testimony to the Sonnets being, on their first publication, less popular than the Plays: TO THE READER. I Here presume (under favour) to present to your view some excellent and sweetely composed Poems, of Master William Shakespeare, Which in themselves appeare of the same purity, the Authour himselfe then living avouched; they 1 There is also on the title a floral device with the motto, HEB. DDIM. HEB. DDIEV." had not the fortune by reason of their Infancie in his death to have the due accomodatio of proportionable glory with the rest of his ever-living Workes, yet the lines of themselves will afford you a more authentick approbation than my assurance any way can, to invite your allowance, in your perusall you shall find them Seren, cleere and eligantly plaine, such gentle. straines as shall recreate and not perplexe your braine, no intricate or cloudy stuffe to puzzell intellect, but perfect eloquence; such as will raise your admiration to his praise: this assurance I know will not differ from your acknowledgment. And certaine I am, my opinion will be seconded by the sufficiency of these ensuing lines; I have beene somewhat solicitus to bring this forth to the perfect view of all men; and in so doing glad to be serviceable for the continuance of glory to the deserved Author in these his Poems. I. B. How Benson could write of the "elegant plainness " of the Sonnets, and of there being nothing intricate in them "to puzzle intellect," it may not be quite easy to understand. No doubt, however, he would have been glad to get as many customers for the book as possible. Perhaps he had heard it objected that the Sonnets are obscure; and he may have wished to meet the objection. How very far he was from understanding the Sonnets is shown by the arrangement he adopted, and by the titles or mottoes which he prefixed. If these mottoes are not of much value with respect to the meaning of the Sonnets, they may, nevertheless, be given here as possessing some historical import 1 Dowden considers, however, that perhaps Benson refers "to the obscurity of the reigning 'metaphysical school of poetry.'" |