Publisher's Synopsis
"A Lover's Complaint" is a narrative poem published as an appendix to the original edition of Shakespeare's sonnets. It is given the title "A Lover's Complaint" in the book, which was published by Thomas Thorpe in 1609. Although published as Shakespeare's work, the poem's authorship has become a matter of critical debate. The majority opinion is that it is by Shakespeare, though of inferior quality to his other works. The Passionate Pilgrim (1599) is an anthology of 20 poems collected and published by William Jaggard that were attributed to "W. Shakespeare" on the title page, only five of which are considered authentically Shakespearean. These are two sonnets, later to be published in the 1609 collection of Shakespeare's sonnets, and three poems extracted from the play Love's Labour's Lost. Internal and external evidence contradicts the title-page attribution to Shakespeare. Five were attributed to other poets during his lifetime, two were published in other collections anonymously, and critics agree that the remaining eight cannot be attributed to Shakespeare on stylistic grounds. Jaggard later published an augmented edition with poems he knew to be by Thomas Heywood.
