| Name |
Views and Comments | Date |
| Harry Horton |
A major issue involving Shakespeare, could be in the top five, is what the following piece is about. The issue involves the nature of Shakespeare's sonnet's deidcation and who was the Mr. W.H., addressed in the dedication, that the publisher Thomas Thorpe had something to do with, conveying the problem to humanity for centuries onwards. A problem from the post Shakespeare era of the 1500's and early 1600's.
There was an article written by Gwynneth Bowen called "The Mysterious Mr. W.H." that went into the identity question surrounding the sonnet's dedication mystery person Mr. W.H. This article supplies some fairly substantial information for obtaining an idea about how to resolve the issue. A very interesting bit of information comes from a quote from the early part of the Bowen article --the quote: ...."someone who signed himself with the initials W.H. had published (or anyway, sponsored) a poem entitled "A Fourfold Meditation", by Robert Southwell; and that the printer was George Eld, who also printed Shakespeare Sonnets for Thomas Thorpe. The dedidcation of a Four fold Mediatation begins "To the Right Worshipfull and/ Vertous Gentleman, Mathew? Saunders, Esquire? W.H. wisheth, with long life, a prosperous/ achievement of his good desires". "Long have they lien hidden in obscuritie, and happily had never seen the light, had not a meere accident convayed them to my hands." The epistle is signed--"Your Worships unfained affectionate W.H." End of quote. Two important observations could be made about this quote; (1) W.H. sponsored a poem called " A fourfold Meditation" of a clergyman Southwell, and was involved with other literary works of the time. This W.H. could be the W.H. of the sonnet's dedication, or most importantly a relative, such as a father to the sonnet's dedication Mr. W.H. (2) The Mr. W.H. of the sonnet's dedication, in regards to him, "Mr." in Elizabethan usage was primarily used to indicate a young man such as an adolescent, which the term was most commonly utilized in a designated fashion. This fact could create the factual possibility that the sonnet's dedication's Mr. W.H. as the son of the Four fold Meditation's W.H. that Gwynneth Bowen wrote about in her article. Furthermore, the Shakespeare sonnets could easily deal with an estarnged father and son relationship. A father W.H. and son Mr. W.H. is not out of the realm of possibility on this point. Further along these lines, the Yale critic Harold Bloom wrote another article (entitled, something to the title ,as --'Shakespeare estranged father or homosexual pdophile') this article was about the author's relationship to the fair youth in the sonnets that brought up the factual possibility that a father son relationship was inherent to the substance and structures of the sonnets. A Father W.H. and son Mr. W.H., could that be the case of an estranged relationship Bloom alluded to? Who knows. So the above sentences convey some interesting possibilities surrounding potential avenues to take in resolving the identity of the sonnet's Mr. W.H. And the possibility two W.H.'s could be involved in the problem's solution.
A second phase of the issue deals with the dedication of the Shakespearean poem "The Rape of Lucrece". Taking some lines from that poem's dedication and comparing them to Bowen's Four fold Meditation dedication involving W.H. is a first approach. Secondly, taking this first comparitive approach and applying it to Shakespeare's sonnets dedication is a final maneuver. So, first from the Rape of Lucrece dedication comes the lines: "as it is, it is bound to your lordship, to whom I wish long life still lengthened with all happiness." Compare these Lucrece dedication lines to G Bowen's article's lines: "W.H. wisheth, with long life, a prosperous achievement of his good desires." Both lines sound like the same person. Additionally the words, " wisheth, long, life" can be found in both the Lucrece dedication sentence presented above as well as in Bowen's W.H.'s statements. So the fascinating result of this, are both lines by the same man W.H.? And thus an interesting literary problem is presented with lines from both these two separate literary work's dedication. "A Fourfold Mediitation" was fairly well verified to be by Southwell, yet a similar person who had something to do with the Rape of Lucrece could be involved with this work also.
"All happinesse and that eternitie promised,..wisheth" These are quoted fragments from Shakespeare's sonnet's dedication. And the words "happiness" and "wisheth", exact words that can be found in the Four fold Meditation dedication as well as the Lucrece dedication, further tie the sonnets dedication into these two earlier work's dedication. Suggesting the same man is involved in the sonnets dedication as the two earlier aforementioned works. Also, the gist of these described sonnet dedication's lines convey the same meaning of long happy lfe, as the earler two work's dedication lines convey roughly the same meaning also. And this fact additionally suggests W.H is involved in the Shakespeare sonnet dedication's lines (A W.H. who could be separate from the sonnet's deisignatee Mr. W.H.) as well as the two earlier works mentioned, that is, their dedication lines also, could involve the participation of W.H. Such is the interesting facets that involve the question of who is the identity of "Mr. W.H." , or "W.H." in the above works mentioned in this piece. And hopefully, additonal approaches to the resolving the problem is supplied by this commentary. Who Mr. W.H is is a problem that could be an issue easily in anyone's top five on English literature subjects. |
5/16/2007 |
| jayc |
Hey i just read this piece and i'm glad to say that ive been a little enlightened by it.Mainly because I'm an aspiring english addict and also due to the fact that i've read four of those books and i'm still 16.unless im very fortuitous im glad to be able to say ive got some taste. |
10/19/2006 |
| Kim |
I read all of those in High school. Amazing books. |
6/12/2006 |
| AJ |
These are great ideas! I am just about to complete a degree in Secondary Ed/English, and since I'm 35, I spent the past couple of years revisiting books I read a very long time ago in high school and my first time at college. I was wondering - is there a list somewhere of "all the books you really should read if you are going to call yourself an English teacher?" thanks! |
5/26/2006 |
| Janice |
Great article! Thanks for the kick to think about reading some of the oldies but goodies again. |
5/19/2006 |
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