by recorded and very old traditions, indicates a
character or repute in accordance with their implication; and
especially must this be so, when we find that they agree with the
indications of other evidence not in any degree in question. These
various indications support each other like the bundle of sticks which
together could not be broken. From them I think we learn that
Shakespeare, however pleasant or attractive at times, was not a man
yielding or complacent to opposition or injury; but that he was a man
of fighting blood or instincts, quick in wit and repartee, apt and
inclined for aggressive sally, ready to slash and lay about him in all
encounters,--in short, a very Mercutio in temperament, and in the
lively and constant challenges of his life.

I submit that the records we have of the life of William Shakespeare
concur in indicating a man who could not have written the Sonnets
under the circumstances and with the motives which they reveal.

It should not be overlooked that at the time these Sonnets were
written, certainly as early as 1597 or 1598, Shakespeare was above
pecuniary want, and had begun to make investments, and apparently
regarded himself and was regarded as a wealthy man.[32]

Footnotes:

[24] Lee's _Shakespeare_, pp. 27-29.

[25] The italics in this and all the following quotations are my own.

[26] As I have said elsewhere, I do not contend that Shakespeare did
not have a part and a large part in the production of the
Shakespearean plays. My insistence is only that he was not the
transcendent genius to whom we owe their wonderful and unrivalled
poetry.

[27] Halliwell's _Shakespeare_, pp. 186, 187, 232, 241-245.

[28] Lee's _Shakespeare_, pp. 272, 273.

[29] Lee's _Shakespeare_, pp. 205, 206.

[30] Lee's _Shakespeare_, pp. 264-266.

[31] The different versions of those lines are printed in the
appendix.

[32] Lee's _Shakespeare_, pp. 193-196.

CHAPTER V

OF THE GENERAL SCOPE AND EFFECT OF THE SONNETS AS INDICATING THEIR
AUTHOR

As has been said before, the Sonnets obviously have a common theme.
They celebrate his friend, his beauty, his winning and lovable
qualities, leading the poet to forgive and to continue to love, even
when his friend has supplanted him in the favors of his mistress. They
are replete with compliment and adulation. Little side views or
perspectives are introduced with a marvellous facility of invention;
and yet in them all, even in the invocati