begetter. Perhaps Southampton had lost his own copy, or perhaps this one was presented as a remarkable specimen of penmanship.

F. BODENSTEDT.

[William Shakespeare's Sonette in Deutscher Nachbildung. Von Friedrich Bodenstedt. Berlin, 1862.]

The order of the Sonnets in ed. 1609 is accidental. Many of the Sonnets are later than 1598, especially those of great excellence. The greater number of those written for friends and patrons are addressed to Southampton. "Begetter" perhaps means "obtainer." The rival poet is Spenser.

A large part of Bodenstedt's "Schlusswort" consists of a reply to Barnstorff.

Bodenstedt's translation is in verse; the Sonnets are arranged in a new order, and divided into four parts.

The order is as follows:-Part I. CXXVIII., CXXXV., CXXXVI., CXLIII., XXIII., CXXI., CLIII., CLIV., CLII., CXXXVII., CLI., CXLV., CXLIX., CL., CXLI., CXLII., LXXV., CXLVII., CXLVIII., CXXX., CXXVII., CXXXII., CXXXI., CXXXVIII., XLVI., XLVII., CXIII., CXIV., LVII., XCVII.-XCIX., LVI., XCVI., XCV., LXXXVIII., LXXXVII., LXXXIX., CXXXIX., CXL., CXXIX. Part II. CXXXIII., CXXXIV., CXLIV., XXXIII.-XXXV., XL.XLII., XXVI., XX., XXIV., XXIX.-XXXI., XXXVI., LXVI., XXXIX., XXXVIII., XLVIII, LII., L., LI., XXVII., XXVIII., LXI., XLIII.—XLV., LIII., LXXX., LXXXII., LXXXV., LXXXVI., LXXVIII., LXXIX., XXXVII., LVIII., XLIX., LXII., LXXXIII., LXX., LXIX., LXVII., LXVIII., XCIII., LXXXI., LXXIV.,

XXXII. Part III. 1.-XIX., XXII., XXI., CXXVI., CX.-CXII.,
Part IV. C., CIX.,

LXXXIV., LXIV., LXV., CVII., CVIII.
CXVIII., XC., XCII., CXXV., CXIX., CXX., CXVII., CIII., LXIII.,
CIV.-CVI., CXXII., CXV., CXVI., LXXIII., LXXII., XCI., LXXVI.,
CI., CII., LIX., LX., LIV., LV., CXXIII., XCIV., CXLVI., CXXIV.,
LXXVII., XXV.

Nos. 1 and 3 of Bodenstedt's translation, preceding and immediately following Sonnet CXXVIII., are No. 3 of Passionate Pilgrim, "Let not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye" (from Love's Labour's Lost), and No. 8 of the same, "If music and sweet poetry agree."

FRANÇOIS-VICTOR HUGO.

[Euvres complètes de W. Shakespeare. Tome xv. Sonnets, Poëmes, Testament. Paris [1862].]

The Sonnets, arranged in a new order, are translated into prose. M. Hugo begins with Shakspere in love; the three punning sonnets (CXXXV., CXXXVI., CXLIII.) are placed first. The lady does not yield; Shakspere asks, "Do you love me?" she replies, "I hate-not you" (CXLV.). In the fifth sonnet (CXXVIII.) we see him seated by the virginal while she plays a piece-perhaps by Dowland. Here, M. Hugo introduces as Shakspere's the sonnet by Barnfield from the Passionate Pilgrim in which occur the words, "Dowland to thee is dear." While Shakspere sighs for a kiss, the coquette makes advances to others; he loses patience (CXXXIX., CXL.). "Take care," he says; "you are not beautiful enough to be so cruel" (CXXVII., CXXXI., CXXXII.). She persists, until

one fine morning she gets the epigram (cxxx.), “My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun," etc. There is a scene. "You do not love me," she cries. "Cruel," he replies; "how can you say this when I adore your very faults" (CXLIX., XXI.). He perceives that the ironical tone succeeds best, and the sonnets that follow are a curious mixture of adorations and sarcasms. "Il semble que Shakespeare veuille se venger sur la femme qu'il aime de l'amour qu'elle lui inspire, tant il l'accable à la fois de tendresses et d'injures" (CXXXVII., CXXXVIII., CXLVII., CXLVIII.). A laugh on the lips, but a sob in the breast of Shakespeare (CL.). "You ought to be ashamed to love me thus," she says; "you, who have vowed fidelity to another; you break your oath." "Ah," he replies, "it is not you who should reproach me, you who are twice forsworn" (CLII.). "Après cette foudroyante réplique, la triste créature semble à bout de résistance. Elle est vaincue. . . Elle se donne enfin et le xxve. (i.e., CLI.) sonnet est . . . le cri de victoire de Shakespeare." The sense of shame (CXXIX.) follows. And now he has reason to think that she has beguiled his friend (CXXXIII., CXXXIV.); yet he does not possess any absolute proof that his suspicion is well founded (CXLIV.). At length his young friend confesses all, weeping. How does Shakespeare take it? "He finds in the infinite tenderness of his heart a sublime denoûment. He forgives" (xXXIII.XXXV.). As to the woman, he sees her no more. "Yet," he exclaims, "it may be said, I loved her dearly" (XLII.). From henceforth she is dead to him.

Deceived in love, Shakespeare throws himself wildly into friendship. From friendship he seeks the impos

sible happiness he has elsewhere sought in vain. He looks for a love unchanging, inexhaustible, ideal. He passes from one extreme to another. He will love only a soul (xx.). His great desire is that the marriage of true minds may be eternal; he declares war with time; he would procure for his friend the twofold perpetuity of offspring and of verse. "Ah! c'est que pour Shakespeare la poésie a un caractère auguste et religieux : elle a, comme l'amour, cette faculté mystérieuse d'engendrer. La muse aussi est mère."

Mr. W. H., according to Hugo, is Southampton. Thorpe wishes W. H. "happiness" and "eternity," as Shakspere in the Dedication of Lucrece had wished. Southampton "long life, still lengthened with happiness.” Venus and Adonis is only the symbolic formula of the ideas developed in the sonnets urging marriage on his friend. In Sonnet LIII. he writes:

Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit.
Is poorly imitated after you.

The date is between 1593-1598; the Sonnets were kept private, as Drake says, because Queen Elizabeth was opposed to Southampton's marriage. Thorpe calls Southampton "Mr. W. H.," because it would not be becoming to connect his name openly with the Sonnets. The rival poet is Marlowe.

The Sonnets are arranged by Hugo in the following order :-cxxxv., CXXXVI., CXLIII., CXLV., CXXVIII., Passionate Pilgrim No. 8, CXXXIX., CXL., CXXVII., CXXXI., CXXXII., CXXX., XXI., CXLIX., CXXXVII., CXXXVIII., CXLVII.,

CXLVIII., CXLI., CL., CXLII., CLII.-CLIV., CLI., CXXIX., CXXXIII., CXXXIV., CXLIV., XXXIII.-XXXV., XL.-XLII., XXVI., XXIII., XXV., XX., XXIV., XLVI., XLVII., XXVII., XXX., XXXI., CXXI., XXXVI., LXVI., XXXIX., L., LI., XLVIII., LII., LXXV., LVI., XXVII., XXVIII., LXI., XLIII., XLIV., XLV., XCVII.-XCIX., LIII., CIX.-CXX., LXXVII., CXXII.— CXXV., XCIV.-XCVI., LXIX., LXVII., LXVIII., LXX., XLIX., LXXXVIII.-XCIII., LIII., CIX.-CXX., LXXVII., CXXII.-CXXV., XCIV.-XCVI., LXIX., LXVII., LXVIII., LXX., XLIX., LXXXVIII.— XCIII., LVII., LVIII., LXXVIII., LXXIX., XXXVIII., LXXX., LXXXII.-LXXXVII., XXXII., CXLVI., C.-CIII., CV., LXXVI., CVI., LIX., CXXVI., CIV., I.-XIX., LX., LXXIII., XXXVII., XXII., LXII., LXXI., LXXII., LXXIV., LXXXI., LXIV., LXIII., LXV., LIV., LV., CVIII., CVII.

SAMUEL NEIL.

[Shakespere, a Critical Biography. London, 1863, pp. 104-108. The Sonnets.]

"Begetter" must mean "collector," for no single person can have been the sole cause of all the sonnets (“ the onlie begetter"). May not Mr. W. H. be Mr. William Hathaway, born Nov. 30th, 1578, brother-in-law of William Shakspere. To give his brother-in-law a start, Shakspere may have given him the MS. of the Sonnets, telling him to get the most he could out of the booksellers for them.

"We do not believe in the continuity of the Sonnets; in the oneness of their object, i.e., inspirer; or in the entirely autobiographical theory. Many, we believe, were ad