Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/267

 n s. VIL APRIL 5, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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The statute of thy beauty them wilt take, Thou usurer that put'st forth all to use,

Aoid sue a friend came debtor for my sake ; So him 1 lose through my unkind abuse.

S. 134, 1. 9 (addressed to the Dark Woman).

A fairly good pun on use and Hews. The tenth line is a parenthesis apparently intro- duced specially to bring in the pun.

S. 135 contains puns on the word " Will," as the name of Shakespeare and also of his friend, which are marked by capitals and italics in the original text.

S. 136 : More puns on " Will."

S. 143 : Another pun on " Will " as the friend's name, similarly marked.

We have now gone through the whole book, and I believe I have noted every instance of the employment of the Words hew, use, rose, and shadow in the Sonnets.

There are four fairly obvious puns on the name Hews, in S. 6, S. 20, S. 78, and S. 134. Besides these there are a number of verbal allusions, in some cases almost amounting to bad puns. They are sometimes found in close proximity, as if one allusion had sug- gested the other. Cases in which the words mentioned are employed in a natural and casual way seem comparatively few. Also there is found a fondness for dwelling on words meaning " forms, appearances, images," which may be used with a double meaning, and are sometimes found in con- junction with verbal allusions to the words use and hews. Considerable portions of the Sonnets contain no possible allusions at all, and then presently they may be found in a group together, generally in Sonnets which seem to have a more intimate personal touch than the others. The matters to which I have drawn attention are doubtless far- fetched and speculative in detail, but perhaps it may be allowed that they acquire some force by cumulative effect.

I have confined myself entirely to exami- nation of the text, and do not wish to enter into two other connected questions : ( 1 ) whether we can reasonably infer from the Sonnets that they were addressed to a man of high rank and importance ; and (2) whether it is probable or possible that Shakespeare can have had such intimate relations with personages like the Earl of Southampton or the Earl of Pembroke. These matters have been sufficiently dis- cussed, and the negative view is well put by Samuel Butler in his Introduction to the Sonnets. Another point which has been less dwelt upon is, whether the character of Mr. W. H. as displayed in the Sonnets

bears any resemblance to what we know of the characters of Lord Southampton, a youthful Warrior, and of Lord Pembroke,, a man of pleasure and fashion. But I do no more than allude to these questions ; the object of this article is to show that the text itself lends more countenance to the theory of the old commentators, and that until the Southamptonites and the Herbertists have settled their quarrels there is still room for the third theory, that the Sonnets Were inspired by an unknown youth called Will Hews.

Although it has usually been ignored by modern commentators, the Will Hewa theory has found some favour with literary men. Oscar Wilde wrote a tale called ' The Portrait of Mr. W. H.,' in which he imagined that Hews was one of the boy actors who played the female parts in Shake- speare's plays. Samuel Butler adopted the theory in his Introduction to the Sonnets, a very interesting work, although it neces- sitates a rearrangement of the Sonnets and refers them to an impossibly early date. He speaks of various persons called William Hews who are mentioned in the records of the time ; there is nothing to suggest that any one of them was the character in the Sonnets. The Will Hews theory depends entirely on the text of the poems themselves r which I have endeavoured to examine as minutely as possible. W. B. BROWN.

STATUES AND MEMORIALS IN THE BRITISH ISLES.

(See 10 S. xi. 441 ; xii. 51, 114, 181, 401 ;. 11 S. i. 282 ; ii. 42, 381 ; iii. 22, 222, 421 ; iv. 181, 361 ; v. 62, 143, 481 ; vi. 4, 284 r 343 ; vii. 64, 144.)

SOLDIERS (continued}. WALLACE MEMORIALS.

Aberdeen. Near the Public Library, at the north end of Union Street, stands the colossal bronze statue of William Wallace. The statue is placed on a rustic granite pedestal, and altogether rises to a height of nearly 30 ft. Wallace is represented stand- ing bareheaded, with left arm extended, and grasping with his right hand a two- handed sWord. Beneath his feet is inscribed on the granite :

In Memory of

William Wallace

Guardian of Scotland.

The sculptor was Mr. W. G. Stevenson r R.S.A., the donor being Sir John Steell, who