Page:Shakespeare's Sonnets.djvu/31

INTROD UCTION.

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"passion-driven men," "hide-bound with affection to great men's fancies/' and ridicules the alleged eternity of their "idolatrous platts for riches." "Now what a supereroga- tion in wit this is, to think Skill so mightily pierced with their loves, that she should prostitutely show them her secrets, when she will scarcely be looked upon by others, but with invocation, fasting, watching; yea, not without hav- ing drops of their souls like a heavenly familiar." Of Chap- man's Homer a part appeared in 1596; dedicatory sonnets in a later edition are addressed to both Southampton and Pembroke.

Mr. W. H.j the only begetter of the Sonnets, remains un- known. Even the meaning of the word " begetter " is in dispute. " I have some cousin-germans at court," writes Decker in Satiromastix, " shall beget you the reversion of the master of the king's revels," where beget evidently means procure. Was the " begetter " of the Sonnets, then, the per- son who procured them for Thorpe ? I cannot think so ; there is special point in the choice of the word " begetter," if the dedication be addressed to the person who inspired the poems and for whom they were written. Eternity through offspring is what Shakspere most desires for his friend ; if he will not beget a child, then he is promised eternity in verse by his poet — in verse " whose influence is thine, and born of thee (78). Thus was Mr. W. H. the begetter of these poems, and from the point of view of a complimentary ded- ication he might well be termed the ofily begetter.

I have no space to consider suggestions which seem to me of -little weight — that W. H. is a misprint for W. S., meaning William Shakspere; that " W. H. all" should be read "W. Hall;" that a full stop should be placed after "wisheth," making Mr. W. H., perhaps William Herbert or William Hathaway, the wisher of happiness to Southamp- ton, the only begetter (Ph. Chasles and Bolton Corney) ; nor do I think we need argue for or against the supposition