A Selection from the Great English Poets

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SHAKESPEARE

AS LYRIC POET (1564-1616)

HERE are two distinct literary Shakespeares,—the dramatic poet, the author of the plays, and the lyric poet, the author of the sonnets and songs. A liking for the plays does not necessarily carry with it a äking for the sonnets, and some who love the sonnets know little of the plays. We must learn to like each separately, though the songs in the plays are a natural introduction to the sonnets. In the present work Shakespeare will be considered exclusively as a lyric poet.

The sonnets, like everything else in Shakespeare, have been the subject of the wildest speculation and the most absurd theories. All we actually know about them is that they were published in 1609, probably without the sanction of the author, and dedicated by Thorpe, the publisher, to "Mr. W. H.," "their only begetter." In 1598 Meres, in his "Palladis Tamia," speaks of Shakespeare's "sugred sonnets among his private friends." Two of the sonnets appeared in the "Passionate Pilgrim," published in 1599.

This is absolutely all we know. Who "W. H." was is a matter of the merest conjecture. Many suppose he was William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, known to be one of Shakespeare's friends and patrons; and a considerable number of Shakespeare students believe that the sonnets are, as they seem, autobiographical.

An examination of the sonnets themselves will show that they consist of two distinct series. The first one hundred and twenty-five are addressed to a man, the end of the series being marked by a poem not a sonnet, numbered 126. The remainder are apparently addressed to a darkhaired woman, who is neither beautiful nor good. The great fact, however, is that the first series constitutes the most musical, the most beautiful, and the noblest poem in our language on the great theme of Love and Beauty, from the personal standpoint.

In order to give us a point of view from which we can study this beautiful poem, and come to appreciate its influence on all our subsequent poetic literature, even down to Keats and Rossetti, I offer the following speculative outline of the possible facts about the sonnets merely as a theory among other theories. All I know is that the conclusion to which it comes is obviously true.

Shakespeare's age was one of lyric poetry, and especially of sonnets. It was a revival of the great Italian Renascence. While Shakespeare was earning his living by writing plays, which he did not even attempt to publish, he wrote and published, with a humble dedication to a great patron, his Venus and Adonis, and Lu

crece. These were poetic attempts in the style of the day, which do not seem either better or worse than others of their kind. But the sonnet was the great artistic form, and Shakespeare was ambitious to be known as a successful sonneteer. He felt, however, that he would like to make his sonnets distinguished above those of his contemporaries. The one great theme of sonnets had been Love and Beauty in women. To be original, Shakespeare at first tried a series of sonnets to a woman who was neither beautiful nor good, but whom he loved in spite of all. This was an original and highly interesting theme. The result of his efforts was the series on the "dark lady.' dark lady." It is probably to these sonnets that Meres referred, and it was two of this series that appeared in the "Passionate Pilgrim" in 1599.

But an entirely successful poem demands an entirely noble theme; and this theme was sordid, though interesting. It was then that Shakespeare conceived the idea of addressing a series of sonnets on Love and Beauty to a man, a man young, beautiful, and noble, though with just faults enough to afford the necessary artistic contrast. The result was the first series of sonnets, which constitutes a far superior poem to the series printed last. Whether these sonnets were addressed to a real man or not, or in any way represent the outward facts of Shakespeare's life, is of no importance. We have but to read them to know that they speak the history of his inner heart, and are in art well-nigh perfect. They were probably written at the time he was producing

each group a complete and beautiful poem single theme, and all the groups unite to f a single lyric poem of one hundred and twe five stanzas and an envoi (a short poem n sonnet). We may first learn to like single nets, which will appeal to us as complete po rather than extracts or beautiful passages. T we may choose a group here and a group th and read the sonnets in a group as parts o poem, which we shall learn to like. At last, some glorious day of exuberant and overflow life, we will read the whole, and discover in tha poem rare and varied, made up of many forms perfectness, and in itself a higher form than a

This series of sonnets, perhaps the only s cessful series of its kind in this or any langua appeals to me like one of Beethoven's sonat Each group is a musical "movement," deali with the general theme in a different key, a varying the principal theme with many subs iary themes, though always returning to t original motive.

The first group consists of sonnets I-XV on the general theme of human beauty. Ea sonnet ends with urging the young and beautif friend to immortalize his beauty by begetting a equally beautiful child. The last sonnet declar that its object shall live in a beautiful offsprin and "in my rhyme." These words are the ke of the second group, sonnets XVIII-XXXII, O

the general subject of the personal love of the author, the fame he will give his beloved by his verse, and the intensification of personal love that is emphasized by absence. The third group changes suddenly. The object of the author's love has sinned. We see beauty emphasized by stain in sonnets XXXIII-XLII. It appears that the friend, abetted by the author, has taken away the author's mistress. Yet the stain is described only to be forgiven, and in the next group we have a more passionately personal expression of love. Sonnets XLIII-LII are called the principal series on absence. Sonnets LIII-LV are transitional, taking up the theme of beauty and decay. Sonnets LVI-LXI form the prelude to what is perhaps the most exquisitely beautiful group of all, sonnets LXII-LXXIV, a lofty, meditative poem on beauty, decay, and death, from the point of view of love. Sonnets LXXV-LXXXVI return to the subject of sin against love in the form of encouragement of a rival poet. In sonnets LXXXVII-XCV the movement suddenly becomes more plangent, and the author deals boldly with the loss of the loved one. Here there appears to be a break. At least a year passes before the writing of sonnets XCVI-XCIX. Then there is another break. Three years would appear to have passed before the writing of the next and final group, c-cxxv, which seems to be the poet's effort to save what he can from the ashes of a love that is gone.

When we learn to read this poem aright we are struck first of all by the changing and wonderful musical movement; then by the ex