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CHAPTER II.

THE DEDICATION.

To the original edition of the Sonnets was prefixed the following Dedication:

TO. THE. ONLIE. BEGETTER. OF.

THESE. INSVING. SONNETS.

Mr. W. H. ALL. HAPPINESSE.

AND. THAT. ETERNITIE.

PROMISED.

BY.

OVR. EVER-LIVING. POET.
WISHETH.

THE. WELL-WISHING.

ADVENTVRER. IN.

SETTING.
FORTH.

T. T.

With respect to the initials, it may be remarked that on the titles of books the representation of names by initial letters was formerly much more common than is the case at present. As to who was intended by the final "T. T.” there need be no question, since under date "20 Maij," 1609, "Shakespeares sonnettes" were entered in the Stationers' Register to Thomas Thorpe :

"Thomas Thorpe Entred for his copie vnder th[e h]andes of master WILSON and master Lownes Warden a Booke called SHAKESPEARE'S sonnettes vjd."

1 Arber's Transcript, vol. iii. 183b.

Thorpe, therefore, was "the well-wishing adventurer in setting forth," that is, of course, in publishing; and there can be no question as to the meaning of "our ever-living poet." This expression can refer to no other than the author of the Sonnets. There remain, however, two questions which have given rise to much discussion: What is meant by the expression "the onlie begetter"? and, Who was "Mr. W. H."?

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As to the meaning of the expression "the onlie begetter," it has been alleged that the word "beget was used as meaning "get," "obtain," "procure." The "onlie begetter" therefore must, on this view, be the person who collected or obtained the Sonnets, and handed them over to Thorpe. Now if it be admitted that possibly the word "beget" might be used with the meaning just adverted to, this will not settle the question we have before us. We must notice, first, that it is obviously "Mr. W. H." who is designated the "onlie begetter;" but this fact does not help us very far towards ascertaining the sense of the latter expression. But reading the dedicatory inscription a little further, we find that to the "onlie begetter" eternity had been "promised by our ever-living poet;" for no other construction is at all reasonable or probable. There is thus a manifest reference to the numerous places in the Sonnets in which the poet promised to the beautiful youth he addressed "a life beyond life," enduring so long as the world itself shall endure. But still it may be contended, though Mr. W. H. is to be identified with the beautiful youth to whom the poet had "promised eternity," this does not determine certainly the meaning of "the only begetter." From Thorpe's point of view, Mr. W. H.'s chief merit may have been that he had collected the Sonnets, and then handed them over for publication. But such a view can scarcely appear in any way likely. Moreover, there is in the Sonnets one place particularly which should go very far towards determining the sense of the disputed words. The passage is to be found in Sonnet 38:

"O, give thyself the thanks, if aught in me
Worthy perusal stand against thy sight;
For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee,
When thou thyself dost give invention light?
Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth
Than those old nine, which rhymers invocate;
And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth
Eternal numbers to outlive long date.

If my slight Muse do please these curious days,

The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise." 1

Here the beautiful youth appears as the cause of the poet's writing verses "worthy perusal." Whoever invokes this powerful aid is to "bring forth eternal numbers to outlive long date." The quotation thus made must go far towards fixing the sense of "the onlie begetter." Evidence thus adduced from the Sonnets themselves as to the "begetter" must be regarded as of especial importance. But to speak of thought, invention, and literary composition as partaking of the nature of pregnancy and parturition appears to have been a metaphor common enough with the Elizabethan poets. Thus in 59, 2-4, “Our brains . . labouring for invention bear amiss the second burthen of a former child." And Spenser in his second Sonnet says:"Unquiet thought! whom at the first I bred Of th' inward bale of my love-pined heart; And sithens have with sighs and sorrows fed, Till greater than my womb thou waxen art," &c.

To the explanation of "the onlie begetter" thus given it may be objected, however, that the beautiful youth is not the subject of all the Sonnets. But certainly he is the subject of very much the larger portion; and this portion, moreover, stands first, and next after the Dedication. He might, therefore, very well be spoken of as "the onlie begetter of these insuing sonnets," the last twenty-eight, like the Lover's Complaint, appended to the first edition, being disregarded. "Thus," as Dowden observes, "was

1 It appears from this couplet that the Sonnets were not intended solely for the eye of the person first addressed.

Mr. W. H. the begetter of these poems, and from the point of view of a complimentary dedication, he might well be called the only begetter." 1

But who was Mr. W. H.? This question will be further considered in the sequel (Chap. VII.). But there are several answers which, supported by no valid evidence, need only the slightest mention. Thus there have been suggested Mr. William Hughes, Mr. William Hall, Mr. William Hart, Mr. William Hathaway, Mr. William Shakespeare (the H of the Dedication being a misprint for S), and also Mr. William Himself. With regard to the first of these suggestions, it may be perhaps mentioned that its author, Tyrwhitt, based it on the fact that in the first edition, at the seventh line of the 20th Sonnet, the word "Hews" (hues) is in italics, and begins with a capital, thus:

66 A man in hew all Hews in his controwling."

But in other Sonnets both italics and capitals are used far too freely, and without any special emphasis being intended, to allow us for a moment to conclude that "the onlie begetter of these insuing sonnets was a Mr. William Hughes, otherwise unknown.

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According to another opinion, the order of the initials W. H. has been purposely changed, for the sake of disguise, from H. W. The person really intended is Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, to whom the Venus and Adonis and Lucrece were dedicated. On this opinion some observations will be found in Chapter IV. But before making any further attempt to identify "Mr. W. H.," it may be convenient to find, if we can, some sure indications of time a matter of pre-eminent importance in relation to the Sonnets.

1 Mr. P. A. Daniel has suggested that "onlie" may be used with the sense of "chief." Such a sense would suit the facts very well; and it would not be unprecedented. The dark lady would thus be passed over as subordinate.

CHAPTER III.

SOME CHRONOLOGICAL INDICATIONS.

§ 1. The Passionate Pilgrim.-In the year 1599, William Jaggard published The Passionate Pilgrim, a collection of poetical pieces by different hands, but bearing on its title the name of Shakespeare. Occupying the first two places in this book are two Sonnets which differ only in some subordinate details from those numbered 138 and 144 in the first edition of "Shakespeare's Sonnets," published ten years later. The second of these Sonnets, 144, is especially important with regard to the chronology. The poet declares that he has "two loves," the one "a woman colour'd ill," and the other " a man right fair:

66

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"Two Loues I haue, of Comfort, and Despaire,
That like two Spirits, do suggest me still:

My better Angell is a man (right faire),
My worser Spirite a Woman (colour'd ill)."

The man right fair" is thus spoken of not only as an angel," but as a "better angel." There is thus a reasonable implication that he was not only endowed with preeminent beauty, but distinguished also by amiability and goodness. These facts, and especially the incidents alluded to (144, lines 5 to 8), the formation of an intimacy between the dark lady, the "woman colour'd ill," and the beautiful youth, the "man right fair," together with the woman being the wooer, correspond with what is to be found in the first series of Sonnets:

"Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all,” &c. (40).

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