Page:A life of William Shakespeare (IA lifeofwilliamsha02lees).pdf/43

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CONTENTS
xxxv
VI
THE FIRST APPEAL TO THE READING PUBLIC
PAGE
1593, April. Publication of Venus and Adonis 78
1584, May. Publication of Lucrece 80
Enthusiastic reception of the poems 82
Shakespeare and Spenser 83
Patrons at Court 85
VII
THE SONNETS AND THEIR LITERARY HISTORY
PAGE
The vogue of the Elizabethan sonnet 87
Shakespeare's first experiments 88
1594 Majority of Shakespeare's sonnets composed 89
Their literary value 91
Circulation in manuscript 92
Their piratical publication in 1609 93
A Lover's Complaint 95
Thomas Thorpe and 'Mr. W. H.' 95
The form of Shakespeare's sonnets 99
Their want of continuity 100
The two 'groups' 100
Main topics of the first 'group' 102
Main topics of the second 'group' 103
The order of the sonnets in the edition of 1640 104
Lack of genuine sentiment in Elizabethan sonnets 104
Their dependence on French and Italian models 105
Sonnetteers' admissions of insincerity 109
Contemporary censure of sonnetteers' false sentiment 110
Shakespeare's scornful allusions to sonnets in his plays 111


VIII
THE BORROWED CONCEITS OF THE SONNETS
PAGE
Slender autobiographical element in Shakespeare's sonnets 113
The imitative element 113
Shakespeare's claims of immortality for his sonnets a borrowed conceit 117
Conceits in sonnets addressed to a woman 122
The praise of 'blackness' 122
The sonnets of vituperation 124
Gabriel Harvey's Amorous Odious sonnet 125
Jodelle's Contr' Amours 126
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