SONNETS.

Preface.

The First Edition. On May 20th, 1609, " a book called Shakespeares Sonnettes" was entered on the Stationers' Register, and soon after was published, in quarto, with the following title-page:

"SHAKE-SPEARES | SONNETS. | Neuer before Imprinted. AT LONDON By G. ELD for T. T. and are | to be solde by William Aspley. | 1609. | "* (cp. fac-simile on opposite page.)

At the end of the Sonnets was printed, for the first time, the poem entitled "A LOVERS COMPLAINT."

The text of the Sonnets was, on the whole, carefully printed, but evidently without the author's supervision; thus, e.g. Sonnet CXXVI., a twelve-line Envoi, was marked by parentheses at the end, as though two lines were missing; similarly, the final couplet of Sonnet XCVI. may have been borrowed from Sonnet XXXVI.

In 1640 Shakespeare's Sonnets, re-arranged under various titles (with the omission of XVIII., XIX., XLIII., LVI., LXXV., LXXVI., XCVI., CXXVI.), were included in "POEMS: WRITTEN BY WIL. SHAKESPEARE, Gent. Printed at London by Tho. Cotes, and

* Some copies have the name of "John Wright, dwelling at Christ Church gate," as the bookseller, instead of "William Aspley."

A facsimile of the "Sonnets" was issued among the "Shakspere Quarto Facsimiles" (No. 30).

The original selling price of the "Sonnets" was 5d. A perfect copy would, probably, now fetch £500.

are to be sold by John Benson, dwelling in St. Dunstanes Churchyard 1640.

It is strange that there should have been no edition between 1609 and 1640; perhaps Benson's protestation that "the Reader" will find them "Seren, cleere, and eligantly plain, such gentle straines as shall recreate and not perplexe the brain, no intricate or cloudy stuffe to puzzell intellect, but perfect eloquence," best explains the prevailing opinion on the subject of the poems. Mr. Publisher "protests too much" against the alleged obscurity of the Sonnets.*

One hundred years after the appearance of the First Edition, the Sonnets were first republished, by Lintot, as originally printed; about the same time Gildon issued a new edition of the 1640 version, under the heading of 66 Poems on several occasions."

The Sequence of the Sonnets. The Sonnets, as printed in 1609, present on the whole an orderly arrangement, though here and there it is somewhat difficult to find the connecting links. If it could be proved that any one Sonnet is out of place, the whole chain would perhaps be spoilt, but no such "broken link" can be adduced.†

The Sonnet-Sequence consists of three main sections: -A. Sonnets I.-CXXVI.; B. Sonnets CXXVII.-CLII.;

* Probably no weight is to be attached to Benson's statement that the poems are of the same purity the Author himself then living avouched."

Mr. Rolfe, in his Addenda to the "Sonnets," contrasts Sonnet LXX. with Sonnets XXXIII.-XXXVI. (to say nothing of XL.XLII.); if these Sonnets, he observes, are addressed to the same person, Sonnet LXX. is unquestionably out of place. This seems so at first sight; but surely the faults referred to in the earlier Sonnets are not only forgiven, but here (in LXX.) imputed to slander; or, as Mr. Tyler puts it, "such an affair as that with the poet's mistress was not regarded, apparently, as involving serious moral blemish." Anyhow the statement in the Sonnet is somewhat too flattering, but its position dare not be disturbed.

C. Sonnets CLIII.-CLIV.; Sections A and B are closely connected; Section C may be a sort of Epilogue to B, but it is more probably an independent exercise in sonneteering, based on a Latin version of a Greek Epigram found in the ninth book of the Anthology, composed by Byzantine Marianus, a writer probably of the fifth century after Christ:

“Τᾷδ' ὑπὸ τὰς πλατάνους ἁπαλῷ τετρυμένος ὕπνῳ
εἶδεν "Ερως, νύμφαις λαμπάδα παρθέμενος.
Νύμφαι δ' ἀλλήλησι, “τί μελλόμεν; αίθε δε τούτῳ
σβέσσαμεν, εἰπόν, “ ὁμοῦ πῦρ κραδίης μερόπων.
Λαμπὰς δ' ὡς ἔφλεξε καὶ ὕδατα, θερμὸν ἐκεῖθεν
Νύμφαι Ερωτιάδες λουτροχοεῦσιν ύδωρ."

The Drama of the Sonnet. The general theme of the Sonnets is the poet's almost idolatrous love for a younger friend, a noble and beauteous youth, beloved for his own sweet sake, not for his exalted rank; this unselfish, whole-hearted, and soul-absorbing devotion passes through various stages of doubt, distrust, infidelity, jealousy, and estrangement; after the period of trial, love is again restored, stronger and greater than before:

"O benefit of ill! now I find true

That better is by evil still made better;
And ruin'd love, when it is built anew,

Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater." "Friendship Triumphant" is the story unfolded in Sonnets I.-CXXVI. Love between man and man, tri

*“Here beneath the plane trees, overborne by soft sleep, Love slumbered, giving his torch to the Nymphs' keeping; and the Nymphs said to one another, 'Why do we delay? and would that with this we might have quenched the fire in the heart of mortals.' But now, the torch having kindled even the waters, the amorous Nymphs pour hot water thence into the bathing pool." Mackail, Select Epigrams. (On the source of the two Sonnets, cp. Hertzberg, Jahrbuch der Deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, 1878.) A Latin rendering is found in Selecta Epigrammata; Basel, 1529.

umphing over the love of man for woman, was no uncommon theme in Elizabethan literature. The dénouement of The Two Gentlemen of Verona turns upon it, while Lyly's Campaspe (pub. 1584) illustrates the same truth: Alexander the Great and Apelles, the most famed of Grecian painters, were intimate friends; their friendship was well-nigh wrecked through a woman's charms; the painter became enamoured of the monarch's mistress while painting her likeness, but Alexander generously cancelled his claim; his friendship for the painter was greater than his love for the fair captive.

The Sonnet-drama seems to have many points in common with Lyly's Court-play; instead of the painter of "Venus Anadyomene," we have the poet of " Venus and Adonis "; instead of magnanimity on the part of the high-born and exalted friend, it is the wronged poet who bears forgivingly "the strong offence's cross"; instead of a ravishingly beautiful woman, we have a dark-eyed Circe, the reverse of beautiful, bewitching men by the magic of her eyes; a dark-haired, pale-cheeked siren, drawing her victims despite their knowledge of her wiles; a very Cleopatra in strength, intellect and hedonism.

As in the drama, so in the Sonnets, the chief actors are three in number; the poet is, however, the hero; the friend and the woman are the good and evil angels:—

"Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still;
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill.”

This, then, is the keynote of the whole sequence: the first section (I.-CXXVI.) is occupied mainly with the "man right fair," the second (CXXVII.-CLII.) concerns the "woman colour'd ill," to whom passing allusion is evidently made in Sonnets XXX.-XXXV., etc.; the poet's picture of his Campaspe needed a special section for itself; he gives us no fancy picture, but one evidently drawn from life (cp. CXXVII.-CXLIV., etc.).

Noteworthy Points. (i) Although the first one hundred and twenty-six Sonnets form one whole, it is quite clear that they sub-divide into smaller groups, though in very few instances does a Sonnet stand by itself, unconnected with what goes before or with what follows. Thus I.-XXVI. is a series of Sonnets forming, at is were, a single poetical epistle urging his friend to marry; XXVII.-XXXII. seem to form another such epistle, dealing with friendship in absence; XXXIII.-XLII. tell of love's first disillusioning; love's willing pain, selfdenial, and forgiveness; XLIII.-LV. express friendship's fears during separation. Similarly, the remaining Sonnets of the series may be more or less accurately grouped; the most striking of the remaining groups is probably C.-CXXV., which gives the impression of having been added after the so-called Sonnet CXXVI. had been written; if this were so, Shakespeare's original intention was to compose a Century of Sonnets, following the example of the poet Watson, the author of "Hekatompathia, the Passionate Century of Love." (Cp. Analytical Chart.)

(ii) These various poetical epistles probably represent intervals of time; but there are also more direct indications of the time covered by the poems; the most important of these indications is to be found in Sonnet CIV. (where a three years' space is alluded to; compare with the earier Sonnets, e.g. XXXIII. "he was but one hour mine"). Time-indications are also perhaps to be found in the references to particular seasons in some of the Sonnets.

(iii) Certain Sonnets are suggestive of historical allusions, notably CVII. and CXXIV., though it may at present be difficult to explain with certainty the events. referred to.

(iv.) One of the most striking features of the Sonnets is the poet's oft-repeated belief in the immortality of his poems (c.g. LV., LXIII., LXXXI., etc.): he was evidently following Horace's excellent precedent (“exegi