Page:Shakespeare of Stratford (1926) Yale.djvu/29

Shakespeare of Stratford ''in all I have, devoted yours. Were my worth greater, my duty would show greater; meantime, as it is, it is bound to your Lordship, to whom I wish long life still lengthened with all happiness.''

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Lucrece was licensed for printing, May 9, 1594. Southampton’s generous patronage of the poet is the subject of an anecdote in Rowe’s Life of Shakespeare (1709) to the effect that the Earl on one occasion presented Shakespeare with a thousand pounds to enable him to carry through a purchase he had in mind.

Anonymous verses prefixed to Willobie His Avisa (1594).

This illustrates the immediate popularity of Shakespeare’s Lucrece. The curious topical work in mingled prose and verse which this commendatory poem introduces comprises a dialogue between H. W. (Henry Willobie) and one W. S. It has been dubiously supposed to allude to Shakespeare as an authority on love. The book was entered for publication, September 8, 1594.