Inn, and were the earlier attempts of a briefless young barrister, who did not desire to be known as a writer for the stage, and who meant to "profess not to be a poet,” 1 but to whom any "lease of quick revenue "2 might not be unacceptable, and some cover a practical necessity, it is not difficult to imagine, that this “absolute Johannes factotum would be just the man to suit his purpose; nor is it necessary to suppose that an express bargain was struck in terms between them, in the first instance, but rather that the arrangement came about gradually in the course of time and the actual progress of events. Nor would it be a matter of wonder that his sudden pretensions to dramatic authorship should be sneered at by a rival who saw himself completely outdone (as he would suppose) by a mere under-actor, a puppet, an antic, and an ape. And when secret relations of this kind had once come to be established between the parties, the scheme of introducing to the public the two larger poems, a few years later, under the disguise of a dedication in his name as a closer cover for the real author, may have been the more practicable. How this was possible with so eminent a person as the Earl of Southampton, will be further considered hereinafter; observing, now, that Southampton was an intimate associate of the Earl of Essex, and of Francis Bacon, Essex's friend and counsellor, at this very time, and that there is not the least allusion to William Shakespeare in all the writings of Bacon, though, as we know from direct history, he was an intimate friend and patron of Ben Jonson, was a friend and admirer of George Herbert and other poets of the time, was familiar with the Greek and Latin poets, was an admirable orator and wit, was 66 a poetic imaginator," a lover and student of poetry, and himself a poet.

Prior to the date of these dedications (1593-4), the name of William Shakespeare had not appeared on the title-page of any printed play. It is not until 1598 that his name

1 Bacon's Apology concerning Essex.

2 Letter of Bacon.

66

begins to be printed on the title-page of the quartos. The author was not named on the title-page of the first printed editions of the "Richard II.," the "Richard III.," and the "Romeo and Juliet," in 1597; nor on that of the first part of the "Henry IV.," printed in 1598, nor on that of the "Henry V.," first printed in 1600. The "Love's Labor's Lost," newly corrected and augmented," and the second editions of the "Richard II." and the "Richard III.,” that were printed in 1598, bore the name of Shakespeare on the titlepage; and so did the sonnets and poems collected and published by Jaggard, in 1599, under the title of the "Passionate Pilgrim." But, after this date, the quartos appear, in most instances, at least, as "written," or as "newly corrected and augmented," or "newly set forth and overseene," by William Shakespeare. It is in 1598 that Meres, in the "Wit's Treasury," names "the mellifluous and honeytongued Shakespeare," in whom "the sweete witty soul of Ovid lives," as "witness his Venus and Adonis,' his 'Lucrece,' and his 'sugred sonnets' among his private friends”; and he mentions the "Gentlemen of Verona," the "Errors,” the "Love's Labor's Lost," the "Love's Labor's Wonne," the "Midsummer's Night Dreame," the "Merchant of Venice," the "Richard II.," the "Richard III.," the "Henry IV.," the "King John," the "Titus Andronicus," and the "Romeo and Juliet." Of all the pieces named by Meres, the two poems only had been printed under the name of Shakespeare before that year. And it is in 1599 that Weever writes: :

"Honie-tongued Shakespeare, when I saw thine issue,

I swore Apollo got them, and none other";

but he speaks only of the "fire hot Venus," the "chaste Lucretia," and

"Romeo, Richard, more whose names I know not." 1

In 1594, Willobie's "Avisa" alludes to the Rape of Lucrece: :

1 Life, by Halliwell, 189.

"Yet Tarquyne pluct his glistering grape,

And Shakespeare paints poor Lucrece rape."

In the margin of the "Polimanteia" (1595), we find these words: "All praise, Lucretia — sweet Shakespeare.” And soon after the death of Elizabeth, in 1603, this same Chettle, silenced before, but evidently by no means satisfied, noticing that, among many tributes to the virtues of the late Queen, none came from William Shakespeare, ventured to break out anew in these lines:

"Nor doth the silver-tongued Melicert

Drop from his honied muse one sable tear,
To mourn her death that graced his desert,
And to his laies open'd her royall eare:

Shepheard, remember our Elizabeth,

And sing her rape, done by that Tarquin, Death." 1

His

But down to the year 1598, nothing definite anywhere appears, except these dedications to Southampton, and these allusions which followed them, on which to base the claim of this authorship for William Shakespeare, beyond the bare fact that the plays were upon the stage in the theatres with which he was connected, and were generally attributed to him. He had already become a principal sharer and manager, had purchased New Place at Stratford-onAvon, and was able to loan money to his friends. wealth had been derived from the theatres of his company, and his success was due, in no small degree, perhaps, to the superior excellence of these plays. After this dedication of the poems under his name, an undiscriminating public might be very well warranted in taking him to be the author of the plays also. If the plays came to the theatre through his hands, his fellow-actors would, of course, presume that he was himself the author of them, however much they might wonder that he never blotted out a line. They had to be attributed to somebody, and William Shakespeare does not appear to have declined the honor of their paternity. Greene might sneer, Nash insin1 Mourning Garment, 1603.

uate, and Ben Jonson criticize; but he was under the protection of "divers of worship," and his reputation soon became established among the printers. It was Shakespeare's theatre, and naturally enough they were Shakespeare's plays.

As to the sonnets, it is by no means improbable that a reputation might arise in a similar manner. We know that in that age, when the art of printing had not as yet entirely superseded the circulation of manuscript copies, it was a common thing for various writings to be passing about from hand to hand in manuscript. Says John Florio, who translated Montaigne's Essays in 1600, and was tutor to Prince Charles, and must have known something of Shakespeare, and was doubtless well acquainted with Francis Bacon, in his preface to the "World of Words," printed in 1598: "There is another sort of leering crows that rather snarl than bite, whereof I could instance in one, who, lighting on a good sonnet of a gentleman's, a friend of mine, that loved better to be a poet than to be counted so, called the author a rhymer." This may not have been Francis Bacon, but we know that Bacon wrote sonnets: some of them were addressed to the Queen, and were "commended by the great." Sir Philip Sidney had written sonnets. Sir Walter Raleigh wrote sonnets. Thomas Carew, a gentleman of the Bedchamber under Charles I., was a noted writer of sonnets. It was probably not an uncommon thing for manuscript sonnets to be circulating among great persons at this time. Indeed, we positively know that Bacon's sonnets and essays did pass from hand to hand, in that manner. The researches of Mr. Hepworth Dixon have ascertained the fact, that "a few essays, a few Religious Meditations, with some other short pieces of his composition, were passing, as Shakespeare's sugared sonnets and Raleigh's fugitive verses were at the same time passing, from hand to hand; but a rogue of a printer being about to publish these scraps, their author, in fear of imperfect copies, put them with his own

hands to the press." And thus the first edition of the Essays came to be printed, under Bacon's own hand, in 1597. In 1599, Jaggard, printer of several editions of the Essays between 1606 and 1624, had somehow come into possession of a collection of sonnets and smaller poems, which he published under the name of William Shakespeare; and in 1609, a larger collection was dedicated to "Mr. W. H., the only begetter of them," (on whom is invoked by the printer's preface "all happiness and that Eternity promised by our ever-living poet"), believed by Mr. Collier, no doubt correctly, to have been William Herbert, son of Henry, Earl of Pembroke and his celebrated Countess,

66 Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother;"

2

who succeeded to the earldom in 1601, at the age of twenty-one, and was himself a poet, a writer of sonnets, and "a great patron of learning ;' was an associate of Essex and Southampton, and is said to have been a rival, with Bacon and Coke, for the hand of the rich widow Hatton; and was a friend of Bacon, a witness to his patent of peerage, and one of that "incomparable pair of brethren," to whom was dedicated the Folio of 1623; for, these plays, also, the author himself would take care to see published in authentic form, though in this instance under the name of another; for he had determined not to be known as a poet; yet, as he himself said of the first edition of the Essays, in the Epistle Dedicatory to his brother Anthony, "like some that have an orchard ill-neighboured, that gather their fruit before it is ripe to prevent stealing," or rather, as we may suppose, in the case of the plays, to preserve the ripe fruit and prevent it from being corrupted by stolen and mangled copies, or from being by mere neglect wholly lost to the world. And this epistle con

1 Story of Lord Bacon's Life, by W. Hepworth Dixon. London, 1862, D. 114.

2 Wood's Athen. Oxon. II. 482; I. 523. 8 Works, (Boston,) XII. 289.