ich 'will,' in the double sense of stubbornness
and sensual passion, is the strongest element). He deplores that the
lady has captivated not merely himself, but also his friend, who made
vicarious advances to her.

Sonnet cxliii. runs:

Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
One of her feathered creatures broke away,
Sets down her babe, and makes all swift despatch
In pursuit of the thing she would have stay;
Whilst her neglected child holds her in chase,
Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent
To follow that which flies before her face,
Not prizing her poor infant's discontent:
So runn'st thou after that which flies from thee,
Whilst I, thy babe, chase thee afar behind;
But if thou catch thy hope turn back to me,
And play the mother's part, kiss me, be kind:
So will I pray that thou mayst have thy will, {426}
If thou turn back and my loud crying still.

In this sonnet--which presents a very clear-cut picture, although its
moral is somewhat equivocal--the poet represents the lady as a country
housewife and himself as her babe; while an acquaintance, who attracts
the lady but is not attracted by her, is figured as a 'feathered
creature' in the housewife's poultry-yard. The fowl takes to flight; the
housewife sets down her infant and pursues 'the thing.' The poet,
believing apparently that he has little to fear from the harmless
creature, lightly makes play with the current catch-phrase ('a woman will
have her will'), and amiably wishes his mistress success in her chase, on
condition that, having recaptured the truant bird, she turn back and
treat him, her babe, with kindness. In praying that the lady may have
her 'will' the poet is clearly appropriating the current catch-phrase,
and no pun on a man's name of 'Will' can be fairly wrested from the
context.

IX.--THE VOGUE OF THE ELIZABETHAN SONNET, 1591-1597.

The sonnetteering vogue, as I have already pointed out, {427a} reached
its full height between 1591 and 1597, and when at its briskest in 1594
it drew Shakespeare into its current. An enumeration of volumes
containing sonnet-sequences or detached sonnets that were in circulation
during the period best illustrates the overwhelming force of the
sonnetteering rage of those years, and, with that end in view, I give
here a bibliographical account, with a few critical notes, of the chief
efforts of Shakespeare's rival sonnetteers. {427b}