al publisher, apparently without the author's
consent.

In the Shakespearean sonnet the complicated rime scheme of its Italian
original has become very much simplified, being reduced to the
following form: _a, b, a, b; c, d, c, d_; _e, f, e, f_; _g, g_. This
is merely three four-line stanzas with alternate rimes, plus a final
couplet. Such a simplified form had already been used by other English
authors, from whom our poet borrowed it.

Shakespeare's sonnets, apart from some scattered ones in his plays, are
154[7] in number. They are usually divided into two groups or
sequences. The first sequence consists of numbers 1-126 (according to
the original edition); and most of them are unquestionably addressed to
a man. The second sequence contains numbers 127-154, and the majority
of these are clearly written to a woman. There are a few in both
groups which do not show clearly the sex of the person addressed, and
also a few which are not addressed to any one.

{67}

Beyond some vague guesses, we have no idea as to the identity of the
"dark lady" who inspired most of the last twenty-eight sonnets.
Somewhat less uncertainty surrounds the man to whom the poet speaks in
the first sequence. A not improbable theory is that he was the Earl of
Southampton already mentioned, although this cannot be considered as
proved.[8] The chief arguments which point to Southampton are: (_a_)
That Shakespeare had already dedicated _Venus and Adonis_ and _Lucrece_
to him; (_b_) that he was regarded at that time as a patron of poets;
(_c_) that the statements about this unnamed friend, his reluctance to
marry, his fair complexion and personal beauty, his mixture of virtues
and faults, fit Southampton better than any other man of that period
whom we have any cause to associate with Shakespeare; and (_d_) that he
was the only patron of Shakespeare's early years known to us, and was
warmly interested in the poet.

The literary value of the different sonnets varies considerably. When
an author is writing a fashionable {68} form of verse, he is apt to
become more or less imitative and artificial at times, saying things
merely because it is the vogue to say them; and Shakespeare here cannot
be wholly acquitted of this fault. But at other times he speaks from
heart to heart with a depth of real emotion and wealth of vivid
expression which has given us some of the noblest poetry in the
language.

Another question, more difficult to settle