, like Thorpe, in procuring 'copy.' In 1606 'W.
H.' won a conspicuous success in that direction, and conducted his
operations under cover of the familiar initials. In that year 'W. H.'
announced that he had procured a neglected manuscript poem--'A
Foure-fould Meditation'--by the Jesuit Robert Southwell who had been
executed in 1595, and he published it with a dedication (signed 'W. H.')
vaunting his good fortune in meeting with such treasure-trove. When
Thorpe dubbed 'Mr. W. H.,' with characteristic magniloquence, 'the onlie
begetter [_i.e._ obtainer or procurer] of these ensuing sonnets,' he
merely indicated that that personage was the first of the
pirate-publisher fraternity to procure a manuscript of Shakespeare's
sonnets and recommend its surreptitious issue. In accordance with
custom, Thorpe gave Hall's initials only, because he was an intimate
associate who was known by those initials to their common circle of
friends. Hall was not a man of sufficiently wide public reputation to
render it probable that the printing of his full name would excite
additional interest in the book or attract buyers.

The common assumption that Thorpe in this boastful preface was covertly
addressing, under the initials 'Mr. W. H.,' a young nobleman, to whom the
sonnets were originally addressed by Shakespeare, ignores the elementary
principles of publishing transactions of the day, and especially of those
of the type to which Thorpe's efforts were confined. {93} There was
nothing mysterious or fantastic, although from a modern point of view
there was much that lacked principle, in Thorpe's methods of business.
His choice of patron for this, like all his volumes, was dictated solely
by his mercantile interests. He was under no inducement and in no
position to take into consideration the affairs of Shakespeare's private
life. Shakespeare, through all but the earliest stages of his career,
belonged socially to a world that was cut off by impassable barriers from
that in which Thorpe pursued his calling. It was wholly outside Thorpe's
aims in life to seek to mystify his customers by investing a dedication
with any cryptic significance.

No peer of the day, moreover, bore a name which could be represented by
the initials 'Mr. W. H.' Shakespeare was never on terms of intimacy
(although the contrary has often been recklessly assumed) with William,
third Earl of Pembroke, when a youth. {94} But were complete proofs of
the acquaintan