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XXIV.

SHAKESPEARE AND HIS PATRON.

LEICESTER HOUSE was bequeathed by the Earl, at his death, to his step-son, the Earl of Essex, and took the name of its new master. We shall make it apparent that he continued the friend of Shakespeare, and it was doubtless under his roof that the poet met his noblest patron. Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, was the other self of Essex, and the roll of nobility contains no name so dear to literature. Happily we may reverence the man as well as the patron; for he is as honourably enshrined in History. He was indeed eminently adapted to figure in both. Nature and fortune had bestowed upon him all their gifts-rare capacity, a handsome person, high birth, hereditary honours, wealth, and repute. These ensured the homage of his contemporaries, but he owes the respect of posterity to himself; and it would be claimed by his fidelity to Essex, even if it were not due to his friendship for Shakespeare.

This connection was certainly formed before 1592, when Chettle speaks of the poet as highly considered by "divers of worship," but it could not yet have brought substantial advantages; for he was in no position to render effectual aid to his father, who is returned in that year by the commissioners as absenting himself from church "for fear of process for debt." This fact sufficiently refutes the notion that he derived a large income from his plays, and we may safely estimate their proceeds by the price which Oldyss says

1 See note to page 97, ante.

he received for 'Hamlet'-five pounds. But he was now coming on better days. In 1593 he published his poem of Venus and Adonis,' which he calls "the first heir of his invention ;" and, consequently, it must have been written ten years before it was printed. This, however, as we have seen in the case of the Arcadia,' was no uncommon occurrence, and it might have been read by his friends in manuscript long before; for we shall presently hear of his sonnets circulating in this way, though they were not given to the printer till nine years afterwards. Indeed, there were no need to describe the poem as a first production, if it were manifestly such, and not preceded by compositions which, though written later, were earlier known to the public.

It was then customary for authors to give their works to the world under the auspices of some illustrious person, who, in the dedication, was acknowledged as a patron, and thus shared the honour of the production. This association with literature is the coronet of the Elizabethan nobility. It fell, indeed, into abuse, and dedications were made a commodity, retailing flattery and adulation for a price. But the institution was a good one; and it is an honour to Elizabeth that she considered herself honoured by the dedication of the Fairy Queen.' Her example influenced the Court, and there were few there of the temper of Cardinal d'Este, who repaid Ariosto with a sneer for his dedication of Bombastes Furioso,' while the brigands of the mountains, "albeit unused to the melting mood," returned the money they had stripped him of on hearing his name. The nobles of Elizabeth were munificent patrons. Sidney ordered fifty guineas to be presented to Spenser on merely reading a stanza of the Fairy Queen,' which had been left in manuscript at his door, and doubled the gratuity the next moment, when he had read a second, raising it to two hundred guineas on reading a third, 1 'Othello,' act v. 1.

when he ordered his steward to hasten away, lest he should give all he possessed. We have seen that Spenser refers to the "gifts and goodly grace" that he received from Leicester, and that it was beyond doubt the subsidy of Leicester that enabled Shakespeare to aid his father and place him for a time at ease. Essex was of a more generous nature, but not possessed of the same means; and, moreover, was surrounded by a host of dependents, who suffered none of his bounty to pass themselves. They could have no fear of molestation from Shakespeare. He did not appear amongst them in the character of a parasite, but as an adherent of the house and its master's friend. We may presume that he was a more frequent visitor at the mansion of Southampton, at Holborn Bars; and it was to this nobleman that in 1593 he dedicated Venus and Adonis.'

The dedication is a model of that species of composition. It rather seeks to apologise for the author than to praise the patron, and does this in such a manner that we see it is no affectation. It differs from the dedications of the day, too, in its brevity, which is never more the soul of wit than in such cases—

"To the Right Honourable HENRY WRIOTHESLEY, Earl of Southampton and Baron of Titchfield.

"I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolished lines to your Lordship, nor how the world will censure me for choosing so strong a prop to support so weak a burthen only if your Honour seem but pleased, I account myself highly praised, and vow to take advantage of all idle hours till I have honoured you with some graver labour. But if the first heir of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sorry it had so noble a godfather, and never after ear so

barren a land, for fear it yield me still so bad a harvest. I leave it to your honourable survey, and your honour to your heart's content; which I wish may always answer your own wish, and the world's hopeful expectation.

"Your Honour's in all duty,

"WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE."

The prevailing taste ran on gods and goddesses, and the beings of classic fable. Divinities and monsters, nymphs and satyrs, furnished the characters of all the pageants and all the court masques; and the first composition of Shakespeare naturally partook of the regulation pattern. A set form was prescribed for poetry as for sculpture, and he submitted to the one as in later days Canova bowed to the other. But the submission was only in appearance and in name; for the Venus of the boy poet, like the Orpheus of the boy sculptor, was in all else human. Canova broke into what he called "the sculpture of the heart," and Shakespeare into the poetry of the heart. He could represent nothing but nature, what he had seen and knew, and this brought his goddess down to a woman, the point to which we all bring our goddesses. The poem of Venus and Adonis' is a delineation of human passions and feelings, presented visibly to the eye in a narrative play. All the details are beautiful reflections of life. "The myrtle grove," "the bushes in the way," "the brake" "the flying hare," and "the flap-mouthed hound," give us the very image of the scene and action. Meanwhile the ear is charmed by the soft flow of the metre and the harmony of the rhyme, while a delicate touch veils those points which would otherwise be too prominent, and impart a too voluptuous tint to the poem.

The publication was a great success, and the "unpolished lines" were pronounced "honey-flowing verse."1

1 Barnsfield's 'Poems, in Divers Humour.'

It

became an immediate favourite, and passed through several editions. But the proceeds of the poem, even if the copyright was not sold for a trifle, were the least of Shakespeare's recompense; for Lord Southampton was so gratified by the dedication that he soon afterwards presented him with a thousand pounds. Rowe speaks of the occurrence with some hesitation, but it is affirmed positively by Oldyss,' and comes to us as an immemorial tradition. Some later biographers believe in the present, but discredit the amount. "This amount," says Mr. Halliwell, "must be exaggerated; for, considering the value of money in those days, such a gift is altogether incredible." How incredible? when we find that in 1596, only three years later, an estate worth eighteen hundred pounds was presented to Bacon by Essex. Indeed, the gift to Bacon was probably suggested by that made to Shakespeare, as Essex was one who would not be outshone, even by Southampton, and though encumbered with debt, he involved himself further to eclipse his friend.

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The next year gave to the world the "graver labour" of "all idle hours," for which the poet stood pledged in the dedication of Venus and Adonis.' This was the poem of the Rape of Lucrece,' also dedicated to Lord Southampton, in accordance with the same promise; and the tradition of his gift here receives corroborative testimony from Shakespeare himself:

1 Rowe was a believer, as he could not resist the evidence :-"There is one instance so singular in the magnificence of this patron of Shakespeare's, that if I had not been assured that the story was handed down by Sir William D'Avenant, who was probably very well acquainted with his affairs, I should not have ventured to have inserted-that my Lord Southampton at one time gave him a thousand pounds to enable him to go through with a purchase which he heard he had a mind to." Oldyss merely states the fact:"Wriothesley, E. of Southampton, gave him 1000l. to complete a purchase." Life of Shakespeare,' by J. O. Halliwell.