al reform in the printing of
Shakspeare's sonnets. After sonnet 125 should occur the
words _End of Part I_. The couplet-piece, numbered 126,
should be called _Epilogue to Part I._. Then, before 127,
should be printed Part II. After 152, should be put End of
Part II.--and the two last sonnets should be called Epilogue
to Part II. About these two last I have a theory of my own.

Did you ever see the excellent remarks on these sonnets in
my brother's _Lives of Famous Poets?_ I think a simple point
he mentions (for first time) fixes Pembroke clearly as the
male friend. I am glad you like his own two fine sonnets. I
wish he would write more such. By the bye, you speak with
great scorn of the closing couplet in sonnets. I do not
certainly think that form the finest, but I do think this
and every variety desirable in a series, and have often used
it myself. I like your letters on sonnets; write on all
points in question. The two last of Shakspeare's sonnets
seem to me to have a very probable (and rather elaborate)
meaning never yet attributed to them. Some day, when I see
you, we will talk it over. Did you ever see a curious book
by one Brown (I don't mean Armitage Brown) on Shakspeare's
sonnets? By the bye, he is not the source of my notion as
above, but a matter of fact he names helps in it. I never
saw Massey's book on the subject, but fancy his views and
Brown's are somewhat allied. You should look at what my
brother says, which is very concise and valuable. I hope I
am not omitting to answer you in any essential point, but my
writing-table is a chaos into which your last letters have,
for the moment, sunk beyond recovery.

I consider the foregoing, perhaps, the most valuable of
Rossetti's letters to me. I cannot remember that we ever
afterwards talked over the two last sonnets of Shakspeare;
if we did so, the meaning attached to them by him did not
fix itself very definitely upon my memory.

In explanation of my alleged dislike of the closing couplet,
I may say that a rhymed couplet at the close of a sonnet has
an effect upon my ear similar to that produced by the
couplets at the ends of some of the acts of Shakspeare's
plays, which were in many instances interpolated by the
actors to enable them to make emphatic exits.