"MR. W.H."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 29, 4 February 1928, Page 9

"MR. W.H."

IDENTITY THEORY

Age-Long Mystery Of Shakespeare Sonnets.

POSSIBLE SOLUTION. .By Cable.—press Association.—Copyright.) i" ceived 11 a.iii.l LONDON, February 3. The discovery is announced bv the Daily Telegraph 1 ' of the manuscript |of a commonplace book likely to solve the age-long mvsterv of the identity of "Mr. W. H." *to whom Shakespcaro's sonnets were dedicated by Thomas Thorpe, the publisher. The well-known bibliophile, Edmund Paiug, who came into possession of the book sent it to America for examination by the most erudite authorities of the universities. '"The book," says the "Dailv Telegraph,"' "is indubitably that of William Hoignte, the seventeen-year-old son of the wealthy innkeeper of the Hose and Crown at Saffron, Walden. "It is known that Shakespeare and his travelling company visited the town in 1607. two years before the publication of his sonnets. Those interested will study the sonnets 104 and 13.">. "Ihe boy's interest in Shakespeare was proved by his copying the favourite sonnet as well as current references to Shakespeare, including a rhyming letter revealed for the first- time from Francis Beaumont to Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare was proclaimed as a deathless genius." Shakespeare's sonnets did not appear in printed form until the year 1609, when they were produced in quarto by Thomas Thorpe, one of the piratical publishers of the day, though they were certainly written much earlier. Thorpe did the poet the ill service of prefixing to his edition a dedication to a certain "Mr. W. 31.,'' who is described as "the onlie begetter of these ensuing sonnets." The wording of this dedication has naturally suggested to students that "Mr. W. H." is to be identified with the person to whom the sonnets are addressed. However, no satisfactory identification of the person thus indicated has ever been adduced. The initials have been regarded by some_ as a transposition of those of Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. Shakespeare's early patron, white others have read them as those of William Herbert. Earl of Pembroke. In the latter case at all events there is really no substantial evidence „o give reason to think that the poet ever stood in such to Pembroke as would prompt him to address to that nobleman a long eeriefc of poems like the sonnets. Th£ view favoured by Sir Sidney Lee is that ".Mt\ W. H.' stands merely for William Hall, a hanger-on of the publishing trade, who made a traffic of procuring or "begetting" copies of manuscript works for the pirating fraternity. In at least one previous case Thorpe had thus dedicated a W6rk to its "begetter."