is anxious to see his son suitably married.1 Why the match was broken off does not appear. Probably William Herbert backed out of it after all. This view accords with what is said in Sonnet 40, line 8, of Mr. W. H.'s "refusing :". "By wilful taste of what thyself refusest." But, whatever view may be taken of this allusion, with the facts just adverted to before us, there can be no difficulty in the exhortations of Sonnets 1 to 17, as addressed to a youth only eighteen years old. And the idea that the Countess, William Herbert's mother, had something to do with these Sonnets being written gains increased credibility shall come vp both to attend her Mates pleasure for his intended travell (whereunto he shall accordingly prepare him selfe) and also to performe what by yore LP and me shall be agreed upon for his purposed marriage. This is all I can yet write to yre LP of this matter; yf ther is anything you further desier to vndersta[nde] I will satisfy you therin. in the meane time, good my L. faill not t[o] procure me licence to be absent from the parlament for that [I] am to returne into Wales to attend her Mates seruice there. [My] proxy I purpose to yore LP; yet yf it please you, you may te[11] her Maty, I will there conferre it where she shall comaund and so wishing to yore LP and to my selfe, I end. At Wilton the 3 of September 1597. Yore Lps most faithfully assured PEMBROKE." have given this letter more fully on account of its special importance with respect to the first seventeen Sonnets; and it is of importance also with regard to other particulars. 1 Pembroke's letter appears to have reached Burleigh on September 6; it was then transmitted to the Earl of Oxford, who very promptly (September 8) replied. He says, "I do perseyue how bothe my lord and ladie doo perseuer, which dothe greatly content me. My Lord of Pembroke ys a man syklye and therfore yt ys to be gathered he desyrethe in hys lyfte time to se hys sonne bestowed to his lekinge, to compas wch my thinkes hys offers very honorable, hys desyres very resonable. Agayne beinge agreable to youre Lordships fatherly care and loue to my daughter. A thinge wch for the honor, friendship, and lekinge I haue to the mache very agreable to me so that all partes desyre but the same thynge. I know no reason to delay yt but according to there desyres to accomplishe yt wth conuenient speede and I do not dout but youre Lordship and my self shall receyue great comfort therby. for the ionge gentelman as I vnderstand hathe been well brought vp, fayre conditioned, and hathe many good partes in hym." It will thus be seen that the negotiation had proceeded a very long way. from the correspondence.1 Whether William Herbert came up to London in the October of 1597, or whether, in accordance with the previous arrangement, he began to reside in town in the spring of 1598, there are apparently no adequate grounds for deciding. It is sufficient for our argument if the spring of 1598 was the time when he first saw Shakespeare. In accordance with what has been already said, he would then be eighteen, an age entirely suitable to his being spoken of as in the "April" of his life (3, line 10), and to such expressions being used concerning him as those which are to be found in the first Sonnet (lines 9 to 12), "the world's fresh ornament," "herald to the gaudy spring," "thine own bud," "tender churl." On coming to London, Herbert would no doubt live at Baynard's Castle, south of St. Paul's, and on the bank of the Thames. Now Baynard's Castle was very near indeed to the Blackfriars Theatre, and there is at least a possibility that in some way in connection with this theatre Herbert might have become acquainted with Shakespeare." The intervention of the Countess of Pembroke seems, however, more probable, especially if the allusions in the 3rd Sonnet are considered, allusions agreeing with the wellknown personal beauty of the Countess :— "Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee 1 The late Mr. Grant White, in his Introduction to the Sonnets (Works of Shakespeare, vol. i. p. 152, ed. 1865), says of 1 to 17, "There seems to be no imaginable reason for seventeen such poetical petitions. But that a mother should be thus solicitous is not strange, or that she should long to see the beautiful children of her own beautiful offspring. The desire for grandchildren, and the love of them, seem sometimes even stronger than parental yearning. But I hazard this conjecture with little confidence." But the documents in the Record Office, quoted just before, have put a new complexion on this matter. 2 This would be more probable just at this time than shortly afterwards, when (as it would seem) the Blackfriars Theatre was leased to Evans for the performance of the "Children of the Chapel.” Anxious that her son should marry, and the trouble she had taken in 1597 having been, as we have seen, resultless, she may in consequence have suggested to Shakespeare the writing of the first seventeen Sonnets. That she should extend her patronage to Shakespeare is likely enough. The sister of Sir Philip Sidney, and herself a lady of literary taste, she may well have been an admirer of the great genius now approaching its fullest maturity. Those proclivities which were afterwards to manifest themselves so conspicuously may very possibly have shown themselves while young Herbert was still in the country; and this may account for the difficulty he had in obtaining permission to reside in London. The Countess would probably come to London with her son; but, having regard to the fact that her husband the Earl was suffering from serious disease, it may very well have occurred that he remained in the country, and that Shakespeare was not brought into personal contact with him. In his letter to Lord Burleigh from Wilton, September 3, 1597, he states (supra, p. 46) that he should be unable to attend Parliament without extreme danger to his health. Thus, in Shakespeare's being personally unacquainted with Herbert's father some explanation is given of the words of 13, "You had a 1 Having regard to the relationship of the Countess and her son to Sir Philip Sidney, there is no difficulty in accounting for such allusions to Sidney's Arcadia in Sonnets 1-17, as Mr. Gerald Massey has pointed out (Secret Drama, &c., 2nd edit., p. 36 seq.). Such quotations or allusions would probably be regarded as complimentary. Spenser's lines on this distinguished lady may be given :— All heavenly gifts and riches locked are; -Colin Clout's Come Home Again. D |