il_ Publication of _Venus 74
and Adonis_
1594, _May_ Publication of 76
_Lucrece_
Enthusiastic 78
reception of the
poems
Shakespeare and 79
Spenser
Patrons at Court 81
VII--THE SONNETS AND
THEIR LITERARY
HISTORY
The vogue of the 83
Elizabethan sonnet
Shakespeare's first 84
experiments
1594 Majority of his 85
Shakespeare's
composed
Their literary value 87
Circulation in 88
manuscript
Their piratical 89
publication in 1609
_A Lover's Complaint_ 91
Thomas Thorpe and 91
'Mr. W. H.'
The form of 95
Shakespeare's sonnets
Their want of 96
continuity
The two 'groups' 96
Main topics of the 98
first 'group'
Main topics of the 99
second 'group'
The order of the 100
sonnets in the
edition of 1640
Lack of genuine 100
sentiment in
Elizabethan sonnets
Their dependence on 101
French and Italian
models
Sonnetteers' 105
admissions of
insincerity
Contemporary censure 106
of sonnetteers' false
sentiment
Shakespeare's 108
scornful allusions to
sonnets in his plays
VIII--THE