Testimony of the Sonnets as to the Authorship of the Shakespearean Plays and Poems Part 7

Footnotes:

[33] Sonnets LXXVIII., LXXIX., Lx.x.x., Lx.x.xV., Lx.x.xVI.

[34] Sonnets XCV. and XCVI.

[35] Lee's _Shakespeare_, pp. 377-380.

[36] Lee's _Shakespeare_, p. 406.

[37] It was not until 1596 or 1599 that a coat of arms was granted to John Shakespeare, the father of William. That appears to have been granted on the application of the son, and to have been allowed, in part at least, because his wife, the mother of William, was the daughter of Robert Arden, gentleman. The grant gave the father the t.i.tle of Esquire and not of Gentleman. Lee's _Shakespeare_, pp.

187-190.

[38] Lee's _Shakespeare_, p. 26; Halliwell's _Life of Shakespeare_, p.

133; Grant White's _Introductory Life of Shakespeare_, pp. 25, 42.

[39] Lee's _Shakespeare_, pp. 22-26, 273, 274.

[40] Halliwell's _Shakespeare_, p. 172, Lee's _Shakespeare_, pp.

193-196.

[41] See pp. 68-70, _supra_.

[42] The portion of Sonnet CIV. relevant to this point is printed at page 26, _supra_.

[43] These plays contain names of places and persons, and allusions and references, which could hardly have been made had Shakespeare been a stranger to their composition. In _As You Like It_, the forest has his mother's family name, "Arden"; the allusion to Sir Thomas Lucy, has already been noticed. Page 63, _supra_.

[44] While I speak of the poet of the Sonnets and of the greater plays as unknown, I can but believe that the Sonnets, when carefully studied in connection with contemporaneous history and chronicles, will yet afford an adequate clew to his identification. It occurs to me that a promising line of inquiry might be made on this a.s.sumption,--that the poet was born about twenty years before Shakespeare and died soon after the production of the plays ceased, or when about sixty-five or seventy years of age; that he had reverses and disappointments, perhaps humiliations; that his name was William, and that he had written other works before he wrote the Shakespearean plays. It is also possible, although I think not probable, that the initials, W.

H., appearing in the introduction to these Sonnets may refer to him.

That he had produced earlier works, I think is shown by Sonnet LXXVI.

The first lines of that Sonnet are as follows:

"Why is my verse so barren of new pride, So far from variation of quick change?

Why with the time do I not glance aside To new-found methods and to compounds strange?

_Why write I still all one, ever the same, And keep inventions in a noted weed, That every word doth almost tell my name_, Showing their birth and where they did proceed?"

CHAPTER VI

OF THE CONCLUSIONS TO BE DRAWN FROM THE SONNETS

The result of the preceding discussion, as it appears to me, is as follows:

The Sonnets were not written by Shakespeare, but it is very probable that he was the friend or patron around whom their poetry moves and to whom most of them are addressed.

Reading the entire series with that theory in mind, very many difficulties of interpretation are entirely overcome. Without this theory so many of the Sonnets seem blind, or obviously false or inaccurate, that many have been led to the inference of conceits, affectations, imitations, or hidden meanings. Adopting the theory here presented, there is neither reason nor excuse for giving to their words any other than their natural or ordinary meaning.

I would not deny to Shakespeare great talent. His success in and with theatres certainly forbids us to do so. That he had a bent or a talent for rhyming or for poetry, an early and persistent tradition and the inscription over his grave indicate. And otherwise there could hardly have been attributed to him so many plays beside those written by the author of the Sonnets.

a.s.suming that the Sonnets were not written by him, it would then seem clear that to Shakespeare, working as an actor, adapter or perhaps author, came a very great poet, one who outcla.s.sed all the writers of that day, in some respects all other writers; and that it is the poetry of that great unknown which, flowing into Shakespeare's work, comprises all, or nearly all of it which the world treasures or cares to remember. I would not dispute any claim made for Shakespeare for dramatic as distinguished from poetic talent, for wit, or comely or captivating graces. The case is all with him there,--at least there is no evidence to the contrary. But I insist that the Sonnets reveal another poet, and reveal that those great dramas, or at least that those portions of them which are in the same cla.s.s or grade of poetry as the Sonnets, were the work of that great unknown.

APPENDIX

The different versions of the verses which Shakespeare is alleged to have composed on Sir Thomas Lucy are as follows:

A parliamente member, a justice of peace, At home a poore scare-crow, at London an a.s.se; If lowsie is Lucy, as some volke miscalle it, Then Lucy is lowsie, whatever befalle it: He thinkes himselfe greate, Yet an a.s.se in his state We allowe by his eares but with a.s.ses to mate.

If Lucy is lowsie, as some volke miscalle it, Sing lowsie Lucy, whatever befalle it.

Sir Thomas was too covetous To covet so much deer, When horns enough upon his head Most plainly did appear.

Had not his wors.h.i.+p one deer left?

What then? He had a wife Took pains enough to find him horns Should last him during life.