sterious friend at whose feet are
laid so many poetic wreaths, woven by such a master. All discussion
has assumed that this friend was a patron, who somehow greatly aided
the poet, and to whom the poet felt himself greatly indebted. And so
it was at once suggested that his friend was one of the nobility or
peers of that age.

The Earl of Southampton (to whom by name _Venus and Adonis_ and
_Lucrece_ were dedicated) has been very generally assumed to be the
person intended. Lord Pembroke [William Herbert] has also been
presented as the unnamed friend.

_I think the Sonnets contain internal evidence that they were not
addressed to either of these peers_, AND WERE NOT ADDRESSED TO ANY ONE
OF THEIR CLASS.

It is very remarkable how narrow is the range of these Sonnets,--how
little they say, convey or indicate as to the person to whom they were
addressed. From the first seventeen Sonnets we infer that the poet
understood that his friend was unmarried; a line in Sonnet III.
perhaps indicates a peculiar pride in his mother, and that it pleased
him to be told that he resembled her; from a line in Sonnet XX., "A
man in hue," etc., it has been inferred that his friend's beard or
hair was auburn, and from Sonnets CXXXV. and CXXXVI. it has been
inferred that his friend was familiarly called "Will," or at any rate
that his name was William. Obviously he was in some way a patron or
helper to our poet, and to another poet as well[33]; he superseded the
poet in the favors of his mistress; he was beautiful, attractive,
genial, and sunny in disposition; that he was not infrequently
responsive to lascivious love is indicated.[34] We have already fully
considered what the Sonnets indicate as to his age. And now I put the
inquiry: Is there anything else as to the poet's friend that these two
thousand lines of poetry state or indicate? With diligent search I can
find in all those lines no other fact indicated or stated as to this
mysterious friend or patron.

In Sonnet CXXIV. the poet says:

If _my dear love were but_ the child of state,
It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd.

From that it has been argued that his friend was of the nobility, a
"child of state."

Reading those two lines, or reading the entire Sonnet, it seems clear
that if they contain any indication as to the station of his friend,
the indication is rather against than in favor of his being of the
nobility, "a child of state."

I do not think, however