Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/234

Rh (1623); and the editors justify the selection of their patrons on the ground that the Herberts had been pleased to think Shakespeare's plays something heretofore, and had 'prosecuted both them and their author living with so much favour.' Other parts of the dedication prove as clearly that Shakespeare was on friendly terms with Pembroke, and the fact confirms the suggestion that the publisher's dedication of Shakespeare's 'Sonnets' 'to the onlie begetter of these insving sonnets, Mr. W. H.,' is addressed to Pembroke, disguised under the initials of his family name—William Herbert. The acceptance of this theory gives Shakespeare's 'Sonnets' an important place in Pembroke's early biography. The 'Sonnets,' though not published till 1609, were written for circulation among private friends more than ten years earlier. The opening series was addressed by Shakespeare to a handsome youth above his own rank, to whom the poet was deeply attached. He advises the youth to marry, is disconsolate when they are separated, and prophesies that his verse will secure his friend immortality. Some of the early sonnets seem to imply that the friend had temporarily robbed Shakespeare of his mistress, and the poet subsequently describes an estrangement between them owing to the young man's corruption by bad company. A reconciliation follows, but the concluding series of sonnets (clxxvi-cliv.) appears to relate how the friend supplanted the poet in the affections of 'a dark lady' associated with the court. Shakespeare's young friend was doubtless Pembroke himself, and 'the dark lady' in all probability was Pembroke's mistress, Mary Fitton. Nothing in the sonnets directly contradicts the identification of W. H., their hero and 'onlie begetter,' with William Herbert, and many minute internal details confirm it (cf., Shakespeare'sSonnets, 1890, passim, and esp. pp. 44-73).

On the accession of James I Pembroke returned to court, and soon secured a high position there. He was wealthy, despite his reckless expenditure, and was popular with all parties. Although James never 'loved or favoured him,' he 'regarded and esteemed him' from the first. As early as 17 May 1603 Pembroke received the office of keeper of the Forest of Clarendon, and on 25 June 1603 he was installed a knight of the Garter. He entertained the king at Wilton on 29-30 Aug. 1603(, Progresses,i. 254). On 28 Jan. 1603-4 he was appointed lord warden of the Stannaries and high steward of the duchy of Cornwall, and on 21 May following became lord-lieutenant of Cornwall. He performed in the court masque on St. John's day, 1604, which celebrated the marriage of his brother Philip. He showed his active intelligence, and some love of speculation, in becoming governor of the Society of London for Mineral and Battery Works, which was incorporated on 18 Jan. 1603-4, and subsequently obtained government protection for waterworks erected at Trelleck, Monmouthshire, in October 1607 (Cal. State Papers, 1603-10, pp. 68, 378). He accompanied the king to Oxford in August 1605, and was created M.A. In June 1606 he was prominent in a tournament at Greenwich, and, with the Duke of Lennox, Lord Arundel, and his brother, spoke a challenge addressed in chivalric language, for which William Drummond of Hawthornden is said to have been responsible, to all knights adventurers of hereditary note' (ib. p. 319). On 8 Jan. 1607-8 he obtained that post of warden of the Forest of Dean which Queen Elizabeth had refused him. In 1603 a quarrel between Pembroke and Sir George Wharton over a game of cards led to an undignified scuffle between them in the huntingfield near Bagshot. A challenge followed, but the king and council forbade a duel, and compounded the dispute (, iii. 241). On 16 Oct. 1609 Pembroke was nominated captain of Portsmouth, and he became a privy councillor 29 Sept. 1611.

Pembroke was deeply interested in the explorations in New England. He became a member of the king's council for the Virginia Company of London 23 May 1609, and was an incorporator of the North-West Passage Company 26 July 1612, and of the Bermudas Company 29 June 1615. On 3 Nov. 1620 he was made a member of the council for New England. His interest in the Bermudas was commemorated by a division of the island being named after him, and in Virginia the Rappahannock river was at one time called the Pembroke river in his honour. In 1620 he patented thirty thousand acres in Virginia, and undertook to send over emigrants and cattle. In January 1622 the council in Virginia promised to choose the land for him out of 'the most commodious seat that may be.' On 19 May 1627 he was an incorporator of the Guiana Company. It is said that on 25 Feb. 1629 Pembroke obtained a grant of Barbadoes, and that it was revoked on 7 April 1629, owing to the prior claims of the Earl of Carlisle, but Barbadoes was included in a grant to his brother Philip of 2 Feb. 1627-8 (cf., Genesis of the United States, 1890, ii. 921). From 1614 Pembroke was a member of the East India Company.

At home Pembroke was no friend to James's imperious domestic policy, nor to his tortuous diplomacy abroad. He had opposed the alliance with Spain, which the king favoured,