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And that deep vow, which Brutus made before,
He doth again repeat, and that they swore.

When they had sworn to this advised doom,
They did conclude to bear dead Lucrece thence; 1850
To show her bleeding body thorough Rome,
And so to publish Tarquin's foul offence:
Which being done with speedy diligence,
The Romans plausibly did give consent
To Tarquin's everlasting banishment.
1854. plausibly, willingly.

SONNETS

VOL. X

369

2 B

INTRODUCTION

SHAKESPEARE'S Sonnets were first printed in 1609, with the following title-page :

SHAKE-SPEARE'S-SONNETS. | Neuer before Imprinted. | AT LONDON. BY G. Eld for T. T., and are to be solde by William Aspley. | 1609. |

In some copies 'John Wright, dwelling at Christchurch gate,' is named as the seller.

At the end of the Sonnets was printed A LOVER'S COMPLAINT.

In 1640 the great majority of the Sonnets were reissued (together with some of the poems from The Passionate Pilgrim and A Lover's Complaint and some pieces not by Shakespeare) in a volume entitled :—

POEMS: WRITTEN BY WIL. SHAKE-SPEARE Gent. | Printed at London by Tho. Cotes, and are to be sold by John Benson, dwelling in | St Dunstans Churchyard. 1640.

The order of the Sonnets is here arbitrary, and Nos. XVIII, XIX, XLIII, LVI, LXXV, LXXVI, Xcvi, and CXXVI are omitted. The eighteenth-century editors, Gildon (1710), Sewell (1725), Ewing (1771), and Evans (1775), followed this order.

Of definite chronological data we have two only. (i) The Passionate Pilgrim, published in 1599, contained, with trifling variations, the two Sonnets CXXXVIII and CXLIV.

(ii) Meres, in 1598, mentioned, as already familiar and celebrated, Shakespeare's 'sugred sonnets among his private friends.'

Love's Labour's Lost, published in the same year, contained two Sonnets, and Romeo and Juliet (pr. 1597) a third; none of these, however, appear in the collection of 1609.

All that can be inferred from these facts is that Shakespeare had written some sonnets by 1598.

Attempts have been made to supplement this very inadequate conclusion by inferences, more or less plausible, from particular passages. Thus (1) CVII 5, 'The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured,' has been variously understood of the peace of Vervins in 1598, of the Essex plot against Elizabeth (1601), and of Elizabeth's death. Mr. Lee's parallels from her obituary literature leave little doubt that the last was the event referred to. (2) The reiterated declaration in ci f. that 'three years' had passed since the beginning of the friendship, and thus of the sonnet sequence itself, if we may accept it literally, in so far narrows the limits of possible date. (3) An allusion in the Avisa of Henry Willobie (1594) to a familiar friend of his, one 'W. S.,' as having 'not long before tried the courtesy of a like passion' [i.e. suffered from the cruelty of a mistress], and 'now newly recovered of the like infection,' has been thought to refer to Shakespeare and to the love-adventure which some of them reflect. This passage would go far to show that the passion of the sonnets sprang more from Shakespeare's imagination than from his heart, had we any definite ground for identifying 'W. S.' with Shakespeare. But it is impossible to draw any inference from grounds so slight. (5) Numerous affinities of style and thought connect the Sonnets with the Poems and with a group of plays which can

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