Page:Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale.djvu/103

Shakespeare's Sonnets arouses more interest or a greater critical discussion, a discussion which unfortunately has arrived at no sure conclusions.

 

The numerous problems presented by this sonnet collection may be grouped under three heads: historical, literary, and autobiographical.

The historical problems are the identification of the men and women of this series, or the events hinted at in such a sonnet as No. 107. Who was W. H.? Is he the same person as the 'beauteous and lovely youth' of the first sonnets? Who was the poet whom Shakespeare considered 'better' and 'worthier' than himself? Who was the dark woman? (Cf. notes on pp. 78–79, 85, 89.) These questions are perpetually discussed, but never conclusively answered.

The two chief literary problems are: when were these sonnets written and in what order should they be printed? Plainly, from Meres's mention of them in 1598, many of the sonnets were composed long before the appearance of the first quarto in 1609, and just as clearly, many of the sonnets were printed out of their natural order.

In regard to the first question, it has been shown that there are more striking parallels between the sonnets and the earlier plays—Love's Labour's Lost, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Romeo and Juliet—than with the later, though the mood of Troilus and Cressida, Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra, is sometimes reflected in this collection. Internal evidence is always dangerous, yet the general impression the sonnets make on the 