beyond friendship, and wholly aloof from appetite. In Elizabeth's and James's time it seems to have been almost fashionable to cherish such a feeling; and perhaps we may account in some measure for it by considering how very inferior the women of that age, taken generally, were in education and accomplishment of mind to the men. Of course there were brilliant exceptions enough; but the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher-the most popular dramatists that ever wrote for the English stage-will show us what sort of women it was generally pleasing to represent. Certainly the language of the two friends, Musidorus and Pyrocles, in the Arcadia, is such as we could not now use except to women; and in Cervantes the same tone is sometimes adopted, as in the novel of the Curious Impertinent. And I think there is a passage in the New Atlantis of Lord Bacon, in which he speaks of the possibility of such a feeling, but hints the extreme danger of entertaining it, or allowing it any place in a moral theory. I mention this with reference to Shakspeare's Sonnets, which have been supposed, by some, to be addressed to William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, whom Clarendon calls the most beloved man of his age, though his licentiousness was equal to his virtues. I doubt this. I do not think that Shakspeare, merely because he was an actor, would have thought it necessary to veil his emotions towards Pembroke under a disguise, though he might probably have done so if the real object had perchance been a Laura or a Leonora. It seems to me that the Sonnets could only have come from a man deeply in love, and in love with a woman; and there is one sonnet which, from its incongruity, I

take to be a purposed blind. These extraordinary Sonnets form, in fact, a poem of so many stanzas of fourteen lines each; and, like the passion which inspired them, the Sonnets are always the same, with a variety of expression-continuous, if you regard the lover's souldistinct, if you listen to him, as he heaves them sigh after sigh.

These Sonnets, like the Venus and Adonis and the Rape of Lucrece, are characterized by boundless fertility and laboured condensation of thought, with perfection of sweetness in rhythm and metre. These are the essentials in the budding of a great poet. Afterwards habit and consciousness of power teach more ease-præcipitandum liberum spiritum.

CHARLES ARMITAGE BROWN.

[Shakespeare's Autobiographical Poems. Being his Sonnets clearly developed; with his Character drawn chiefly from his works. London, 1838.]

The name of the individual to whom the Sonnets were addressed is a matter of minor importance compared to the unravelling of their meaning. Mr. W. H., to whom they are addressed, is William Herbert. "Mr. was not improperly applied to the eldest son of an earl, there not having been, at that period, any grander title of courtesy." Meres, in 1598, probably spoke only of the first twenty-six sonnets. Herbert was then eighteen years of age, the age at which Shakspere himself was married.

The 153rd and 154th Sonnets are intruders, utterly

foreign to the rest. Sonnets I.-CLII. are six poems in sonnet-stanza, each poem concluding with an appropriate

envoy.

FIRST POEM.-Stanzas I.-XXVI. To his friend, persuading him to marry; I.-XVI., arguments to this effect; XVII.-XXV., with the same arguments, the poet resolves, in case his friend will not perpetuate the beauty of his youth in offspring, to make him live for ever young in verse; XXVI., L'Envoy.

SECOND POEM.-Stanzas XXVII.-LV. To his friend-who had robbed the poet of his mistress-forgiving him. The poem was written when Shakspere was distant from London, possibly during one of his journeys to Stratford. Sonnet LV., L'Envoy.

THIRD POEM.-Stanzas LVI.-LXXVII. To his friend, complaining of his coldness, and warning him of life's decay. Soon after the reconciliation, the youth evinced a coldness towards his friend. In the first three stanzas Shakspere complains of this coldness; afterwards it is only once referred to (Stanza LXI.); and the remainder of the poem is filled with compliments and assurances of unaltered affection, mixed with warnings of the fleeting nature of youth-exemplified in the poet himself, now past his best days, and looking forward to age and death. When writing the poem he was, Mr. Brown believes, about five and thirty. In Stanzas LXIX. and LXX. he mentions his having heard his young friend's conduct blamed. This he supposes to be a slander, yet counsels him to beware of giving a likelihood to such talk. L'Envoy is curious. It appears that the poem was written in a book, leaving some blank leaves, which

Shakspere recommends his friend to occupy with his

mind's imprint.

FOURTH POEM.-Stanzas LXXVIII.-CI.

To his friend,

complaining that he prefers another poet's praises, and reproving him for faults that may injure his character. Who this rival poet was is beyond my conjecture; nor does it matter. To point out how different Shakspere himself is from a servile poet, he now blames the youth for his faults-licentious conversation and fickleness in friendship-excusing himself for interference by alleging that a stain on the youth's character affects his friend. The Envoy (CI.), like that of the second poem, contains a promise of immortal fame in an address to his muse.

FIFTH POEM.-Stanzas CII.-CXXVI. To his friend, excusing himself for having been some time silent, and disclaiming the charge of inconstancy. Three years had elapsed between the first poem and the fifth. In the first three poems we find tenderness and integrity expressed, for the most part, in monotonous lines; the sentiment often disguised in conceits. The fourth is far less objectionable; but the fifth is full of varied, rich, and energetic poetry. In Stanza CXXI., "to be vile" means to be fickle in friendship, and yield to "affections new." The Envoy seems to take a poetical leave of the youth, and, to mark this, it is written not in sonnetstanza but six couplets.

SIXTH POEM.-Stanzas CXXVII.-CLII. To his mistress, on her infidelity. The stanzas up to CXXVI. are in due order; the same attention was not paid to this sixth poem. Some irrelevant stanzas (e.g., the Will ones, CXXXV., CXXXVI.) have been introduced. Shakspere here contends

with an unworthy passion, and conquers it, leaving his mistress (CLII.) with bitter words. The punning sonnets are too playful; CXLV. is octosyllabic; CXLVI. solemn, but not congruous with the rest. These must be expunged. They occur between two parts of the poem; the first part being written in doubt and jealousy, and the after part in certainty of the woman's infidelity. The feeling of the poem lacks continuity, being a stormy feeling buffeted to and fro; the poem presents an admirable picture of pain and distraction caused by an almost overwhelming passion for a worthless object. This poem was written just before the second one to his friend, or soon after, in dramatic retrospection. Mr. Brown gives a brief prose paraphrase of each of the Sonnets.

HALLAM.

[Introduction to the Literature of Europe. Part III. ch. v.]

No one, as far as I remember, has ever doubted their genuineness; no one can doubt that they express not only real but intense emotions of the heart; but when they were written, who was the W. H. quaintly called their begetter-by which we can only understand the cause of their being written-and to what persons or circumstances they allude, has of late years been the subject of much curiosity. These Sonnets were long overlooked; Steevens spoke of them with the utmost scorn, as productions which no one could read; but a very different suffrage is generally given by the lovers of poetry, and perhaps there is now a tendency, especially