Part 30 (1/2)

To the Right Worfhipfull and Vertuous Gentle life, a profperous achieueood defires

There follows in se, a dedicatory letter--the frequent sequel of the dedicatory salutation--in which the writer, 'WH,' coious temper of 'these meditations' and deprecates the coldness and sterility of his own 'conceits' The dedicator signs hie 'Your Worshi+ps unfained affectionate, WH' {401}

The two books--Southwell's 'Foure-fould Meditation' of 1606, and Shakespeare's 'Sonnets' of 1609--have es of the initials 'W H' in a prominent place, and of the common form of dedicatory salutation Both volues, cae Eld Eld for many years co-operated with Thorpe in business In 1605 he printed for Thorpe Ben Jonson's 'Sejanus,' and in each of the years 1607, 1608, 1609, and 1610 at least one of his ventures was publicly declared to be a speciraphy Many of Thorpe's books came forth without any ures more frequently upon them than that of any other printer

Between 1605 and 1609 it is likely that Eld printed all Thorpe's 'copy'

as matter of course and that he was in constant relations with him

'W H' and Mr William Hall

There is little doubt that the 'W H' of the Southwell volume was Mr

William Hall, hen he procured that manuscript for publication, was an hu are of literary history He served an apprenticeshi+p to the printer and stationer John Allde from 1577 to 1584, and was admitted to the freedo period of twenty-two years after his release from his indentures he was connected with the trade in a dependent capacity, doubtless as assistant to a master-stationer When in 1606 the manuscript of Southwell's poenised role of procurer of their publication, he had not set up in business for himself It was only later in the same year (1606) that he obtained the license of the Stationers' Courate a press in his own naan business In 1608 he obtained for publication a theological manuscript which appeared next year with his nae for the first time This volume constituted the earliest credential of his independence It entitled him to the prefix 'Mr' in all social relations Between 1609 and 1614 he printed some twenty volumes, most of them sermons and almost all devotional in tone Thewas Guillim's far-famed 'Display of Heraldrie,' a folio issued in 1610 In 1612 Hall printed an account of the conviction and execution of a noted pickpocket, John Seled in the Royal Chapel at Whitehall On the title-page Hall gave his own name by his initials only The book was described in bold type as 'printed by W H'

and as on sale at the shop of Thomas Archer in St Paul's Churchyard

Hall was a careful printer with a healthy dread of misprints, but his business dwindled after 1613, and, soon disposing of it to one John Beale, he disappeared into private life

'W H' are no unco to the discovery of 'Mr W H's' position in life and his function in relation to the scheme of the publication of the 'Sonnets' than in establishi+ng his full name But there is every probability that William Hall, the 'W H' of the Southwell dedication, was one and the same person with the 'Mr W H' of Thorpe's dedication of the 'Sonnets' No other inhabitant of London was habitually known to mask himself under those letters Willia those initials who there is reason to suppose was on faed at much the sa manuscripts for publication; both inscribed their literary treasure-trove in the coh rank or distinction, and both engaged the same printer to print their etter' means 'only procurer'

No condition of the problem of the identity of Thorpe's friend 'Mr W H'

seenored by the adoption of the interpretation that he was the future master-printer William Hall The objection that 'Mr W H' could not have been Thorpe's friend in trade, because while wishi+ng hietter of these insuing sonnets,' is not formidable Thorpe rarely used words with much exactness {403b} It is obvious that he did not eetter,' when literally interpreted as applied to a literary work, ed that Thorpe intended to describe 'Mr W H' as the author of the 'Sonnets' 'Begetter' has been used in the figurative sense of inspirer, and it is often assuetter' Thorpe meant 'sole inspirer,' and that by the use of those words he intended to hint at the close relations subsisting between 'W H' and Shakespeare in the dramatist's early life; but that interpretation presents numberless difficulties It was contrary to Thorpe's ainificance, and thus mystify his customers

Moreover, his career and the circumstances under which he became the publisher of the sonnets confute the assumption that he was in such relations with Shakespeare or with Shakespeare's associates as would give hie of Shakespeare's early career that was not public property All that Thorpe--the struggling pirate-publisher, 'the ishi+ng adventurer in setting forth' wares mysteriously come by--knew or probably cared to know of Shakespeare was that he was the most popular and honoured of the literary producers of the day When Thorpe had the luck to acquire surreptitiously an unprinted reat man's circle of friends or patrons, to which hitherto he had had no access, that he was likely to seek his own patron Elementary considerations of prudence impelled him to publish his treasure-trove with all expedition, and not disclose his design preht possibly take steps to hinder its fulfilment But that Thorpe had no 'inspirer' of the 'Sonnets' in his mind when he addressed himself to 'Mr W H' is finally proved by the circumstance that the only identifiable male 'inspirer' of the poems was the Earl of Southampton, to whourative etter,' that of 'inspirer' is by no et' was not infrequently eet,' 'procure,' or 'obtain,' a sense which is easily deducible fro' Ha the players, bids theet a teerman at Court,' wrote Dekker in 1602, in his 'Satiro-Mastix,' '[that] shall beget you the reversion of the Master of the King's Revels' 'Mr W H,' who sonnets,' was in all probability the acquirer or procurer of the ht the book into being either by first placing theout the nificance to the word 'begetter' was entirely in Thorpe's vein {405} Thorpe described his _role_ in the piratical enterprise of the 'Sonnets' as that of 'the ishi+ng adventurer in setting forth,' _ie_ the hopeful speculator in the scheme 'Mr W H' doubtless played the almost equally important part--one as well known then as now in commercial operations--of the 'vendor' of the property to be exploited

VI--'MR WILLIAM HERBERT'

Origin of the notion that 'Mr W H' stands for 'Mr Williaenerally assumed that Shakespeare addressed the bulk of his sonnets to the young Earl of Peuess which was first disclosed to the public in 1832, and won for a time almost universal acceptance {406} Thorpe's form of address was held to justify the mistaken inference that, whoever 'Mr W H' ed story of the poems; and the cornerstone of the Pembroke theory was the assumption that the letters 'Mr W H' in the dedication did duty for the words 'Mr William Herbert,' by which na been known in youth The originators of the theory clai man of rank and wealth to whom the initials 'W

H' applied at the needful dates In thus interpreting the initials, the Pembroke theorists made a blunder that proves on examination to be fatal to their whole contention

The Earl of Pembroke known only as Lord Herbert in youth

The nobleman under consideration succeeded to the earldom of Pembroke on his father's death on January 19, 1601 (N S), when he enty years and nine months old, and from that date it is unquestioned that he was always known by his lawful title But it has been overlooked that the designation 'Mr William Herbert,' for which the initials 'Mr W H'

have been long held to stand, could never in the mind of Thomas Thorpe or any other contemporary have denominated the Earl at any moment of his career When he came into the world on April 9, 1580, his father had been (the second) Earl of Pembroke for ten years, and he, as the eldest son, was from the hour of his birth known in all relations of life--even in the baptisister--by the title of Lord Herbert, and by no other During the lifetime of his father and his own minority several references weredegrees of intimacy He is called by them, without exception, 'my Lord Herbert,' 'the Lord Herbert,' or 'Lord Herbert'

{407} It is true that as the eldest son of an earl he held the title by courtesy, but for all practical purposes it was as well recognised in coht No one nowadays would address in current parlance, or even entertain the conception of, Viscount Cranborne, the heir of the present Prime Minister, as 'Mr J

C' or 'Mr Jaitimate to assert that it would have occurred to an Elizabethan--least of all to a personal acquaintance or to a publisher who stood toward his patron in the relation of a personal dependent--to describe 'young Lord Herbert,' of Elizabeth's reign, as 'Mr Williaht have to al document, would have entered it as 'William Herbert, commonly called Lord Herbert'