senses the Sonnets 53, '4, '5; 1 no doubt has he, that these belong to the beautiful poem, from which they are so far removed, like three magnificent bowlders, rent asunder from their native mountain, and borne far away by an antediluvian ice-river. In the 53rd, the poet again describes, with a prelude from the world of shadows an ideal beauty, being the union or absorption of the feminine into the masculine perfections; the 55th is an imitation of the exegi monumentum of Horace, and is, no doubt, the last stanza of the poem; the first part of which consists of twenty stanzas, and in the second part the lost sonnets probably amount to seven or seventeen; and as in the 53rd and 54th the poet praises his friend for his constancy and truth, the two great virtues of chivalry, it is possible, the missing sonnets may refer to the virtues and career of a gentle knight; and I may further add, how unmeaning and unintelligible in their present position are the four lines about shadows in the 53rd; but how natural and full of meaning, if we view them as having a reference to previous sonnets, describing the knightly virtues and accomplishments of his friend. Amongst all the sonnets there is not one that can be interposed between the 20th and 53rd, except sonnet in the Passionate Pilgrim, having a reference to Spenser, and which, "unquestionably, bears the mark of Shakspere's hand"; I have, therefore, placed it between the 20th and 53rd, as the representative of 1 Ed. 1609; but in this Ed. 22, 23, 24. the missing sonnets. also published in the Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, it will be seen, I have not committed such an impropriety, nor taken so great a liberty, as might at first have been imagined; but in restoring this sonnet to its place, have only done an act of justice and benevolence. Furthermore, in the last line it confirms and ratifies my opinion, that the missing sonnets refer to the virtues and career of a gentle knight; it also corroborates the supposition, that the sonnets were commenced in 1591, at which time Dowland was the fashionable musician, and Spenser, who was in England in 1590-1, had just published in the Tears of the Muses, As the 143rd and 151st were "He, the man whom Nature self had made Here ends the First Part of the Sonnets, a Poem, essentially a work of art. The Second and Third Parts consist of "poetical epistles," or at least, of their lamentable remains; it is the man that speaks, sometimes showing his wit and ingenuity, occasionally glimpses of his innermost feelings; but not unfrequently the poet breaks forth, gilding or glooming the scene. In the arrangement of these epistles, I have been guided by the death of Marlowe, and the publication of the poems, but more especially, as far as my judgment goes, by their versification and tone, and by their internal contents. The Journey, full of anxiety about thieves, naturally precedes the Rival, as a good opportunity for Marlowe to steal my love away and introduce him to a fast set"; just as Steele, to the great distress and agony of Addison, carried off Sir Roger de Coverley. The first epistle, I believe, was written about six months or so after the poem or First Part; I am led to this conclusion by its light, airy, and cheerful vein, and particularly by the second stanza, No. 26, where "both truth and beauty" directly connects it with the 14th in the First Part; and in the 29th, although he has known him for three years, "yet doth beauty, like a dial hand, steal from his figure and no pace. perceived"; his friend must therefore still be a very young man, and to whom the term boy may, by a much older friend, still be applied; the 32nd most probably refers to domestic or internal peace, and to the general prosperity of the country, the Catholics having become reconciled to the Queen's government, and there being no longer any serious danger to be dreaded from the power of Spain; and though, probably, several sonnets are missing, the 37th must have been the last stanza of this epistle, or of a similar one, as "To witness duty not to show my wit," points to an epistle of some length. This first epistle may have been written in June, 1592, the next in July; there was then a break in the intercourse; and the third and fourth were probably not written till December or January; the Journey in March or April, and the Rival in May; I had so arranged them, when I found these notions or suppositions corroborated by the two sonnets to the lady, 122 and 123, on Absence in the Autumn and in April. Furthermore, the two epistles1 following the Rival, not only as to the time of their composition, but also in the sentiments, coincide remarkably with the sonnets depicting the unhappiness of an illicit love. In the 75th, "And thou presentest a pure untainted prime,” shows, that his young friend, though he had occasionally associated with Marlowe, had not yet become a rake or dissipated character, of which there is some danger according to the second epistle,2 in the Third Part, written probably towards the end of the year; from which time we may presume, Shakspere spent his leisure hours in composing the Lucrece, published in May, 1594, and which was probably intended to terminate the poetical connection; but it was again recommenced, perhaps towards Christmas, by the epistle on Time, Sonnets 87 to 92, in which the poet begins cheerfully, but soon passes by meditating on the subject into a more serious mood; the remaining epistles were, of course, written in 1595, or at latest, before Southampton went to Spain in 1596; from which time, Shakspere devoted himself 1 The 76th and 77th are two isolated sonnets; but they fit well in a an ending to the last epistle. 2 Mr. C. Knight has clearly proved that this epistle, or at least the 84th Sonnet, must have been written long before 1596, since the line, Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds," is quoted in Edward the Third, a play attributed to Shakspere, and published in 1596, after being "sundry times played" in different theatres. to the theatre and his farm, rapidly becoming a prosperous man, enjoying the best society in London, and acknowledged as the greatest poet of the day, and finally, spending the latter years of his life beloved and respected in his native town. It is interesting to see how, in these latter epistles, Shakspere has completely forgotten that his noble friend may, 'by advised respects,' find it necessary to drop the acquaintance of the 'poor player'; I cannot understand the two last, unless they mean, coloured by poetic diction and feeling, that the poet has been so much flattered and caressed by other noble friends, that he has literally turned the tables, and for a season has by his own advised respects neglected the society of his earlier friend. Nor do I see upon what grounds Hallam can speak so harshly of "Shakspere's humiliation in addressing him (the youth) as a being before whose feet he crouches, whose frown he fears," unless the accomplished critic mistakes for meanness the loving tenderness and pathos of the poet, who even, to the last stanza, always speaks of his friend as his best and dearest bosom friend, "mutual render, only me for thee." Having now sorted and drawn together the poem and epistles, we make the delightful discovery, that all the Amatory Sonnets have dropped through, like little fishes through the meshes of a net, and have ro connection whatever with our love, being, in fact, directly and essentially opposed to the whole spirit of the poem and epistles. I have, therefore, placed then, |