Publisher's Synopsis
From the author's PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
There are many objections made to the Sonnets of Shakespeare, but they arise entirely from misunderstanding. Those who so misjudge should be told, as werethe readers of the first folio of his dramatic works, to "read him therefore again and again, and if then you do not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger not to understand him." If such a request was made for the Plays, how much more necessary is it for the Sonnets, which are throughout as dark as the Plays are clear!
The first question upon the subject is, Who was the friend spoken of so much in the poems in question? I answer, Master William Herbert, afterwards third Earl of Pembroke, and him alone it is the object of these pages to establish as claiming the honour of the friendship of Shakespeare. It was to this nobleman and his brother, designated those "incomparable pair of brethren," that the first folio was dedicated, as the "remains of your servant Shakespeare," at the time when Lord Southampton, who was publicly known as our poet's earliest patron, was living and in London. About the date this loving friendship was contracted (1597), Lord Southampton embarked as a volunteer in the expedition against Spain, and in the following year he attended Essex to Ireland as general of the horse, and subsequently, when Essex fell under the royal displeasure, Southampton, who was leagued with him in his mad-cap rebellion, was committed to the Tower, and although his life was spared, he was kept in prison during the remainder of Elizabeth's reign. (See Bell's "Poems of Shakspeare," p. 36.) Our poet himself, cautious against arousing the enmity of church or state, would naturally turn to one cautious and politic like himself, which Herbert was.
Shakespeare may also have offended the headstrong earl in seeking, by good advice, to curb his wild career. This might naturally lead to a transfer of friendship; and the one fact of Shakespeare not being known to pen consolatory verses to Southampton when in prison for high treason, as other poets were doing, significantly points to a rupture between them. The reason of this is that Lord Southampton was merely a patron sought for by the poet, while Master Herbert proved more than patron, he became Shakespeare's all unlooked-for constant friend, from his youth upward. Hence the poet pays him a higher compliment than Lord Southampton had received. Master Herbert is the actual Adonis of the poem addressed to him. I acknowledge that he is no new claimant.
My object is to add to the evidence already brought forward in proof of his right to it, although numerous critics assent to his being the man, among whom is Mr. Hallam. But what is most to the purpose is that there is full agreement between that young lord and the youth described in the Sonnets. The beauty which distinguished him so much above others I am able to show, Shakespeare was not alone in extolling.
