Composition and Publication of Shakespeare’s Sonnets Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Composition and Publication of Author Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University

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Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Kate McPherson, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines

This document uses Canadian English spelling

 Published file. Updated metadata Added culture catrefs, added size limit to first image, fixed some small text errors. added two figures and citations. Created File
Title page of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, published in 1609. Courtesy of the British Library. Shelfmark c.21.c.44. Public Domain.
Overview of Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Believed to have been written in the early to mid-1590s, Shakespeare’s collection of 154 sonnets was published in 1609 by the printer and bookseller Thomas Thorpe. Scholars presume that at least some of the sonnets were written earlier, because in 1598, Francis Meres mentions Shakespeare’s sugared Sonnets among his private friends, etc. in the same document where he lists some of Shakespeare’s popular plays. Circulation of handwritten, recopied poems like Shakespeare’s sonnets between friends and acquaintances was a common literary practice of the time. It was viewed as more genteel than publication.

Two of the poems, #28 and 144, had already been printed in a 1599 literary anthology called The Passionate Pilgrim. Scholars see ties between several plays of the mid to late 1590s, such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Richard II, with the sonnets as they appeared in the 1609 volume.

Dates of Composition for the Sonnets

Many scholars have sought to date the composition of the sonnets using language and style, with strong consensus that they were not written in the sequence in which they appeared in 1609. The latest conclusions group them as follows: Sonnet 145 (about Anne Hathaway?), composed around 1582 Sonnets 127–144, 146-154, composed 1590–1595 Sonnets 87–103, composed 1594–1595 Sonnets 61–77, composed 1594–1595 Sonnets 1–60, composed 1595-97 and revised 1600–1609 Sonnets 78–86 (the Rival Poet sequence), composed 1598–1600 Sonnets 104–26 (mostly to the Friend), composed 1600–1604

Puzzles About the Dedication to Shakespeare’s Sonnets
A composite image of the title page and dedication page of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1609), showing the dedication from the onlie begetter of these insuing sonnets to Mr. W.H. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

On the dedication page when the Sonnets were printed, the following dedication appears, presumably written by Thomas Thorpe, whose initials appear at the end: TO THE ONLIE BEGETTER OF THESE INSUING SONNETS MR. W.H. ALL HAPPINESSE AND THAT ETERNITIE PROMISED BY OUR EVER-LIVING POET WISHETH THE WELL-WISHING ADVENTURER IN SETTING FORTH T.T.

Scholars and literary historians believe the main candidates for Mr. W.H. are Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, but his initials are H.W., not W.H.. If he is the dedicatee, it is very unusual that he is addressed as Mr. and not Lord. Southhampton was an young nobleman who sailed on various expeditions and was an investor in the Virginia Colony in North America. William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, which is also suspect due to an earl being addressed as Mr. William Herbert was a patron of the arts, as was his wife, Mary Sidney Herbert.

Some have argued that W.H. is a misprint for W.S., that is, William Shakespeare, who is the creator or onlie begetter, the creator of the poems. In this period, dedications use the word begetter to indicate the author, rather than the dedicatee or inspiration. This dedication, signed T.T., was presumably written by the bookseller (what we would call the publisher) Thomas Thorpe. However, it is farfetched to assume he would write to the noblemen who had previously acted as patrons of Shakespeare’s work because he did not have a connection with them, as Shakespeare did when he dedicated his narrative poems to them in the 1590s. In the end, the dedication to the sonnets raises more questions than it answers.

Key Print Sources A Companion to Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Edited by Michael Schoenfeldt. Oxford, Blackwell Publishers, 2007. Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Edited by Paul Edmondsonand Stanley Wells. Oxford University Press, 2004. Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Poems. Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. Simon and Schuster, 2006. Taylor, Gary and Rory LoughnaneThe Canon and Chronology of Shakespeare’s Works. In The New Oxford Shakespeare, edited by Gary Taylor, John Jowett, Terri Bourous, and Gabriel Egan. Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 417-602.
Key Online Sources Best, Michael. An ambiguous dedication. Shakespeare’s Life and Times.Internet Shakespeare Editions, https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/life/youth/mrwh.html. Accessed 28 Feb. 2023. Best, Michael. The plot thickens. Shakespeare’s Life and Times.Internet Shakespeare Editions, https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/life/youth/sonnets.html. Accessed 5 Mar. 2023. McCarthy, Erin A.Sonnets, First Edition. Shakespeare Documented https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/node/557. Accessed 28 Feb. 2023. Neary, Lynn.Did Shakespeare Want to Suppress His Sonnets. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2009/05/20/104317503/did-shakespeare-want-to-suppress-his-sonnets Accessed 28 Feb. 2023.
Image Sources Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare’Sonnets. London: G. Eld, 1609. Title page. British Library. https://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/asset/171318/. Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare’Sonnets. London: G. Eld, 1609. Composite image of the title page and dedication page. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SonnetsDedication.jpg.