daughter. So far the balance leans towards Herbert. But his father lived until 1601 (fee XIII. and Notes); Southampton's father died while his fon was a boy; and the date of Herbert's birth (1580), taken in connection with Meres's mention of Sonnets, and the Two loves' of the Paffionate Pilgrim Sonnet (1599), CXLIV., may well cause a doubt.

A clue, which promises to lead us to clearness, and then deceives us into deeper twilight, is the characterisation (LXXVIII.-LXXXVI.) of a rival poet who for a time fupplanted Shakspere in his patron's regard. This rival, the 'better spirit' of LXXX., was learned (LXXVIII.); dedicated a book to Shakspere's patron (LXXXII. and Notes); celebrated his beauty and knowledge (LXXXII.); in 'hymns' (LXXXV.); was remarkable for 'the full proud fail of his great verse' (LXXXVI., LXXX.); was taught by spirits' to write above a mortal pitch', was nightly visited by 'an affable familiar ghost' who 'gulled him with intelligence' (LXXXVI.). Here are allufions and characteristics which ought to lead to identifica

tion. Yet in the end we are forced to confefs that the poet remains as dim a figure as the patron.

Is it Spenfer? He was learned, but what ghost was that which gulled him? Is it Marlowe? His verfe was proud and full, and the creator of Fauftus may well have had dealings with his own Mephistophelis, but Marlowe died in May 1593, the year of Venus & Adonis. Is it Drayton, or Nafh, or John Davies of Hereford? Perfons in fearch of an ingeniously improbable opinion may choose any one of these. Is it Daniel? Daniel's reputation ftood high; he was regarded as a master by Shakspere in his early poems; he was brought up at Wilton, the feat of the Pembrokes, and in 1601 he inscribed his Defence of Ryme to William Herbert; the Pembroke family favoured aftrologers, and the ghoft that gulled Daniel may have been the fame that gulled Allen, Sandford, and Dr. Dee, and through them gulled Herbert. Here is at leaft a clever guess, and Boaden is again the gueffer. But Profeffor Minto makes a guess

even more fortunate. No Elizabethan poet wrote ampler verse, none scorned 'ignorance' more, or more haughtily afferted his learning than Chapman. In The Tears of Peace (1609), Homer as a spirit visits and inspires him; the claim to fuch inspiration may have been often made by the tranflator of Homer in earlier years. Chapman was pre-eminently the poet of Night. 'The Shadow of Night', with the motto Verfus mei habebunt aliquantum Nodis, appeared in 1594; the title-page describes it as containing two poeticall Hymnes'. In the dedication Chapman affails unlearned 'paffion-driven men', hide-bound with affection to great men's fancies', and ridicules the alleged eternity of their idolatrous platts for riches'. 'Now what a fupererogation in wit this is, to think Skill fo mightily pierced with their loves, that she should prostitutely show them her fecrets, when she will fcarcely be looked upon by others, but with invocation, fafting, watching; yea not without having drops of their fouls like a heavenly familiar'. Of Chapman's Homer a part appeared

in 1596; dedicatory fonnets in a later edition are addressed to both Southampton and Pembroke.

Mr. W. H., the only begetter of the Sonnets, remains unknown. Even the meaning of the word 'begetter' is in difpute. I have fome coufin-germans at court', writes Decker in Satiromaftix, 'fhall beget you the reversion of the mafter of the king's revels', where beget evidently means procure. Was the 'begetter' of the Sonnets, then, the person who procured them for Thorpe? I cannot think so; there is special point in the choice of the word 'begetter', if the dedication be addressed to the perfon who inspired the poems and for whom they were written. Eternity through offspring is what Shakspere most defires for his friend; if he will not beget a child, then he is promised eternity in verse by his poet,-in verse 'whose influence is thine, and born of thee' (LXXVIII.). Thus was Mr. W. H. the begetter of these poems, and from the point of view of a complimentary dedication he might well be termed the only begetter.

I have no space to consider suggestions which seem to me of little weight,—that W. H. is a misprint for W. S., meaning William Shakspere; that 'W. H. all' should be read 'W. Hall'; that a full stop should be placed after 'wisheth', making Mr. W. H., perhaps William Herbert or William Hathaway, the wifher of happiness to Southampton, the only begetter (Ph. Chasles and Bolton Corney); nor do I think we need argue for or against the fuppofition of a painful German commentator (Barnstorff), that Mr. W. H. is none other than Mr. William Himself. When Thorpe uses the words 'the adventurer in fetting forth,' perhaps he meant to compare himself to one of the young volunteers in the days of Elizabeth and James, who embarked on naval enterprises, hoping to make their fortunes by discovery or conqueft; fo he with good wishes took his risk on the sea of public favour in this light venture of the Sonnets.1

The date at which the Sonnets were written, like their origin, is uncertain. In Willobie's 1 See Dr. Grofart's Donne, vol. ii. pp. 45-46.