surdity. Tyrwhitt, putting together the initials w. H, in the Dedication to the Sonnets, and the following line of the xxth Sonnet, given thus in the original edition,

“ A man in hew all Hews in his controlling" imagined that the mysterious personage was a W. Hughes; while George Chalmers, as if to show that there are no bounds to the folly of a critic, maintained that Queen Elizabeth was typified by the poet's masculine friend!

Perhaps, after all, what Lord Byron says of Junius, is true concerning the object to whom the Sonnets are principally addressed ;

“ I've an hypothesis,—'tis quite my own,
'Tis, that what Junius we are wont to call,
Was really, truly, nobody at all;"

my conceit: being nothing else but an imitation of Virgill
in the second Eglogue of Alexis.” I may add, that at a
considerably later period, Phineas Fletcher (one of the
purest of poetical spirits) in his first Piscatory Eclogue, in-
troduces Thelgon lamenting the inconstancy of Amyntas ;
and that in a short copy of verses “ To Master W. C.” by
the same writer, is the following stanza :
“ Return now,

Willy; now at length return thee :
Here thou and I, under the sprouting vine,
By yellow Chame, where no hot ray shall burn thee,
Will sit, and sing among the Muses nine ;
And safely cover'd from the scalding shine,
We'l read that Mantuan shepherds sweet complaining,

Whom fair Alexis griev'd with his unjust disdaining.” See his Piscatorie Eclogs, and other Poeticall Miscellanies, (appended to The Purple Island,) 1633, p. 1, and p. 60.

perhaps, Shakespeare's “lovely youth" was merely the creature of imagination, and had no more existence than those fair ones, whom various writers have so perseveringly wooed in verse.79 I have long felt convinced, after repeated perusals of the Sonnets, that the greater number of them was composed in an assumed character, on different subjects, and at different times, for the amusement, and probably at the suggestion, of the author's intimate associates. 80 While, therefore, I contend that allusions scattered through these pieces should not be hastily referred to the personal circumstances of Shakespeare, I am willing to grant that one or two Sonnets have an individual application to the poet, as for instance, the cxth and the cxith, in which he expresses his sense of the degradation that accompanies the profession of the stage. Augustus Schlegel is of opinion, that sufficient use has not been made of them, as important materials for Shakespeare's biography; but, even if we regard them all as transcripts of his genuine feelings, what a feeble

79 “ Dost thou think the poets, who every one of 'em celebrate the praises of some lady or other, had all real mistresses ?... No, no, never think it ; for I dare assure thee, the greatest part of 'em were nothing but the mere imaginations of the poets, for a ground-work to exercise their wits upon, and give to the world occasion to look on the authors as men of an amorous and gallant disposition.” Don Quixote (translated by several hands) i. 225. ed. 1749.

80 Meres calls them “ his sugred Sonnets among his prie date friends :" see p. xlviii.

and uncertain light would they throw on the history of his life!

About the excellence of these Sonnets, slightly disfigured as they are by conceits and quibbles,81 there can be no dispute. Next to the dramas of Shakespeare, they are by far the most valuable of his works. They contain such a quantity of profound thought as must astonish every reflecting reader; they are adorned by splendid and delicate imagery; they are sublime, pathetic, tender, or sweetly playful; while they delight the ear by their fluency, and their varied harmonies of rhythm. Our language can boast no sonnets altogether worthy of being placed by the side of Shakespeare's, except the few which Milton 82 poured forth,--so severe, and so majestic.

Among the minor poems in the present volume, A Lover's Complaint stands pre-eminent in beauty. We recognize but little of Shakespeare's genius in The Miscellany entitled The Pussionate Pilgrim: it appears to have been given to the press without his consent, or even his knowledge; and how much of it proceeded from his

en, cannot be distinctly ascertained.

APPENDIX I.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF SHAKESPEARE's

PLAYS. 1

Pericles ....
Second Part of Henry VI.....
Third Part of Henry VI.
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Comedy of Errors ...
Love's Labour's Lost.
Richard II.
Richard III.
Midsummer Night's Dream
Taming of the Shrew
Romeo and Juliet.....
Merchant of Venice
First Part of Henry IV.
Second Part of Henry IV.
King John.....
All's Well that Ends Well

1590 1591 1591 1591 1592 1592 1593 1593 1594 1596 1596 1597 1597 1598 1598 1598 1599 1599 1600 1600 1601 1601

See P. XXX. * See Collier's Hist. of English Dram. Poet. i. 327.

Troilus and Cressida..
Henry VIII. ....
Measure for Measure
Othello 3
King Lear.
Macbeth
Julius Cæsar.....
Antony and Cleopatra
Cymbeline....
Coriolanus...
Timon of Athens
Winter's Tale
Tempest...

1602 1603 1603 1604 1605 1606 1607 1608 1609 1610 1610 1611 1612

3 I agree with Malone in thinking that the passage of Othello (act iii. sc. iv.),

the hearts of old gave hands, But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts," does not contain the slightest allusion to the institution of the order of Baronets in 1611: see his Life of Shakespeare, p. 402. (Shak. by Boswell, ii.)