ul reading of the
Sonnets themselves. To me, however, their message of sadness,
loneliness, and implied appeal seems as clear and certain as the
portrayal of agony in the marble of Laocoon.

That Sonnet LV., and perhaps in some degree Sonnet LXXXI., are moulded
after verses of Ovid or Horace, is often mentioned. And it is
mentioned as though that somehow detracted from their meaning or
force. That fact seems to me rather to reinforce that meaning. The
words of Ovid are translated as follows:

Now have I brought a work to an end which neither Jove's fierce wrath,
Nor sword nor fire nor fretting age with all the force it hath,
Are able to abolish quite.[22]

The Ode of Horace has been translated as follows:

A monument on stable base,
More strong than Brass, my Name shall grace;
Than Regal Pyramids more high
Which Storms and Years unnumber'd shall defy.

My nobler Part shall swiftly rise
Above this Earth, and claim the Skies.[23]

Agreeing that the poet had in mind the words of Ovid and of Horace and
believed that his productions would outlast bronze or marble, we see
that, so far following their thoughts, by a quick transition he says
that not he, but his friend, is to have the immortality that his
poetry will surely bring. While this comparison with the Latin poems
may not much aid an interpretation that seemed clear and certain
without it, at least its sudden rending from their thought does not
weaken, but strengthens the effect of the statement that the writer
was to have no part in the immortality of his own poetry.

It may be said that it is entirely improbable that the author of the
greater of the Shakespearean plays should have allowed their guerdon
of fame and immortality to pass to and remain with another. But if we
accept the results of the later criticism, we must then agree,--that
there were at least three poets who wrought in and for the
Shakespearean plays, that two of the three consented that their work
should go to the world as that of another, and that at least one of
the two was a poet of distinctive excellence. At that time the
publication and sale of books was very limited and the relative rights
of publishers and authors were such that the author had but little or
none of the pecuniary results. The theatre was the most promising and
hence the most usual market for literary work, and it seems certain
that poets and authors sold their literary productions to the managers