| | First efforts in biography | 361 |
| | Biographers of the nineteenth century | 362 |
| | Stratford topography | 363 |
| | Specialised studies in biography | 363 |
| | Epitomes | 364 |
| | Aids to study of plots and text | 364 |
| | Concordances | 364 |
| | Bibliographies | 365 |
| | Critical studies | 365 |
| | Shakespearean forgeries | 365 |
| | John Jordan (1746–1809) | 366 |
| | The Ireland forgeries (1796) | 366 |
| | List of forgeries promulgated by Collier and others (1835–1849) | 367 |
| | II—THE BACON-SHAKESPEARE CONTROVERSY | |
| | Its source | 370 |
| | Toby Matthew’s letter of 1621 | 371 |
| | Chief exponents of the theory | 371 |
| | Its vogue in America | 372 |
| | Extent of the literature | 372 |
| | Absurdity of the theory | 373 |
| | III—THE YOUTHFUL CAREER OF THE EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON | |
| | Shakespeare and Southampton | 374 |
| | Southampton’s parentage | 374 |
| 1573, Oct. 6 | Southampton’s birth | 375 |
| | His education | 375 |
| | Recognition of Southampton’s beauty in youth | 377 |
| | His reluctance to marry | 378 |
| | Intrigue with Elizabeth Vernon | 379 |
| 1598 | Southampton’s marriage | 379 |
| 1601–3 | Southampton’s imprisonment | 380 |
| | Later career | 380 |
| 1624, Nov. 10 | His death | 381 |
| | IV—THE EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON AS A LITERARY PATRON | |
| | Southampton’s collection of books | 382 |
| | References in his letters to poems and plays | 382 |
| | His love of the theatre | 383 |
| | Poetic adulation | 384 |
| 1593 | Barnabe Barnes’s sonnet | 384 |
| | Tom Nash’s addresses | 385 |
| 1595 | Gervase Markham’s sonnet | 387 |
| 1598 | Florio’s address | 387 |
| | The congratulations of the poets in 1603 | 387 |
| | Elegies on Southampton | 389 |
| | V—THE TRUE HISTORY OF THOMAS THORPE AND ‘MR. W. H.’ | |
| | The publication of the ‘Sonnets’ in 1609 | 390 |
| | The text of the dedication | 391 |
| | Publishers’ dedications | 392 |
| | Thorpe’s early life | 393 |
| | His ownership of the manuscript of Marlowe’s Lucan | 393 |
| | His dedicatory address to Edward Blount in 1600 | 394 |
| | Character of his business | 395 |
| | Shakespeare’s sufferings at publishers hands | 396 |
| | The use of initials in dedications of Elizabethan and Jacobean books | 397 |
| | Frequency of wishes for ‘happiness’ and ‘eternity’ in dedicatory greetings | 398 |
| | Five dedications by Thorpe | 399 |
| | ‘W. H.’ signs dedication of Southwell’s ‘Poems’ | 400 |
| | ‘W. H.’ and Mr. William Hall | 402 |
| | The ‘onlie begetter’ means ‘only procurer’ | 403 |
| | VI—‘MR. WILLIAM HERBERT’ | |
| | Origin of the notion that ‘Mr. W. H.’ stands for William Herbert | 406 |
| | The Earl of Pembroke known only as Lord Herbert in youth | 407 |
| | Thorpe’s mode of addressing the Earl of Pembroke | 408 |
| | VII—SHAKESPEARE AND THE EARL OF PEMBROKE | |
| | Shakespeare with the acting company at Wilton in 1603 | 411 |
| | The dedication of the First Folio in 1623 | 412 |
| | No suggestion in the sonnets of the youth’s identity with Pembroke | 413 |
| | Aubrey’s ignorance of any relation between Shakespeare and Pembroke | 414 |
| | VIII—THE ‘WILL’ SONNETS | |
| | Elizabethan meanings of ‘will’ | 416 |
| | Shakespeare’s uses of the word | 417 |
| | Shakespeare’s puns on the word | 418 |
| | Arbitrary and irregular use of italics by Elizabethan and Jacobean printers | 419 |
| | The conceits of Sonnets cxxxv.-vi. interpreted | 420 |
| | Sonnet cxxxv | 421 |
| | Sonnet cxxxvi | 422 |
| | Sonnet cxxxiv | 425 |
| | Sonnet cxliii | 426 |
| | IX—THE VOGUE OF THE ELIZABETHAN SONNET, 1591–1597 | |
| 1557 | Wyatt’s and Surrey’s Sonnets published | 427 |
| 1582 | Watson’s Centurie of Love | 428 |
| 1591 | Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella | 428 |
| I. | Collected sonnets of feigned love | 429 |
| 1592 | Daniel’s Delia | 430 |
| | Fame of Daniel’s sonnets | 431 |
| 1592 | Constable’s Diana | 431 |
| 1593 | Barnabe Barne’s sonnets | 432 |
| 1593 | Watson’s Tears of Fancie | 433 |
| 1593 | Giles Fletcher’s Licia | 433 |
| 1593 | Lodge’s Phillis | 433 |
| 1594 | Drayton’s Idea | 434 |
| 1594 | Percy’s Cœlia | 435 |
| 1594 | Zepheria | 435 |
| 1595 | Barnfield’s sonnets to Ganymede | 435 |
| 1595 | Spenser’s Amoretti | 435 |
| 1595 | Emaricdulfe | 436 |
| 1595 | Sir John Davies’s Gullinge Sonnets | 436 |
| 1596 | Linche’s Diella | 437 |
| 1596 | Griffin Fidessa | 437 |
| 1596 | Thomas Campion’s sonnets | 437 |
| 1596 | William Smith’s Chloris | 437 |
| 1597 | Robert Tofte’s Laura | 438 |
| | Sir William Alexander’s Aurora | 438 |
| | Sir Fulke Greville’s Cœlica | 438 |
| | Estimate of number of love-sonnets issued between 1591 and 1597 | 439 |
| II. | Sonnets to patrons, 1591–1597 | 440 |
| III. | Sonnets on philosophy and religion | 440 |
| | X—BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON THE SONNET IN FRANCE, 1550–1600 | |
| | Ronsard (1524–1585) and ‘La Pléiade’ | 442 |
| | The Italian sonnetteers of the sixteenth century | 442n. |
| | Philippe Desportes (1546–1606) | 443 |
| | Chief collections of French sonnets published between 1550 and 1584 | 444 |
| | Minor collections of French sonnets published between 1553 and 1605 | 444 |
| | INDEX | |
