“MR W. H.” WAS SON OF INN-KEEPER

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18380, 4 February 1928, Page 4

“MR W. H.” WAS SON OF INN-KEEPER

SHAKESPEARE MYSTERY CLEAi.ED UP IN BOOK. i ; by Telegraph.— Press Assn.— Copyright. Aus. and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received February 4, 11.30 a.m) LONDON, February 3 The discovery is announced by tha “Daily Telegraph” of the manuscript of a commonplace book, which is likely to solve the age-long mystery* of tha identity of “Mister W.FK,” to whom Shakespeare's sonnets were dedicated. The well-known Bibliophile. Edmund Rung, who came into possession of tha book, sent it to America for examination by the most erudite authorities of the universities. “The book.” says the “Daily graph,” "is indubitably that of William Holgatc. the seventeen-vear old son of the wealthy inn-keeper of the Rose 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 the sonnets. , Those interested will study the sonnets 104 and 135. The boy's interest in Shakespeare was proved bv his copying his favourite sonnet, as well as current references to Shakespeare, including a rhyming letter revealed for the first time from Francis Beaumont to Ben Johnson, in which Shakespeare was proclaimed as a deathless genius.**