raphical value. Mr. Lee has weakened his case by
admitting that "key-sonnet" No. 144 is autobiographical. Now, if this
be true, then one must assume that the sonnets set forth Shakespeare's
relations to a real man and a real woman. But the most convincing
argument against the Herbert-Fitton theory lies in the chronology. It is
certain that the sonnet fashion was at its height immediately after the
publication of Sidney's sequence in 1591, and it seems equally certain
that it had fallen off by 1598. This chronology is rendered probable
by two facts about Shakespeare's work. First, Shakespeare employs the
sonnet in dialogue in _Two Gentlemen of Verona_ and in _Romeo and
Juliet_. These plays belong to the early nineties. Second, the moods
of the sonnets exactly correspond, on the one hand, to the exuberant
sensuality of _Venus and Adonis_, on the other, to the restraint of the
_Lucrece_.

An even safer basis for determining the chronology of the sonnets Collin
finds in the group in which the poet laments his poverty and his outcast
state. If the sonnets are autobiographical--and Collin agrees with
Brandes that they are--then this group (26, 29, 30, 31, 37, 49, 66,
71-75, 99, 110-112, 116, 119, 120, 123, and 124) must refer to a time
when the poet was wretched, poor, and obscure. And in this case, the
sonnets cannot be placed at 1598-99, when Shakespeare was neither poor
nor despised, a time in which, according to Brandes, he wrote his gayest
comedies.

It seems clear from all this that the sonnets cannot be placed so late
as 1598-1600. They do not fit the facts of Shakespeare's life at this
time. But they do fit the years from 1591 to 1594, and especially the
years of the plague, 1592-3, when the theaters were generally closed,
and Shakespeare no doubt had to battle for a mere existence. In 1594
Shakespeare's position became more secure. He gained the favor of
Southampton and dedicated the _Rape of Lucrece_ to him.

Collin develops at this point with a good deal of fullness his
theory that the motifs of the sonnets recur in _Venus and Adonis_
and _Lucrece_--in _Venus and Adonis_, a certain crass naturalism;
in _Lucrece_ a high and spiritual morality. In the sonnets the same
antithesis is found. Compare Sonnet 116--in praise of friendship--with
129, in which is pictured the tyranny and the treachery of sensual love.
These two forces, sensual love and platonic friendship, were mighty
cultural influences during Shakespeare