The irregular sonnet entitled “To the deserving Author” follows:
When I respect thy argument, I see
An Image of those Times: but when I view
The wit, the workemanship, so rich, so true,
The Times themselves do seeme retriv'd to me.
And as Sejanus, in thy Tragedie,
Falleth from Caesars grace; even so the Crew
Of common Play-wrights, whom Opinion blew
Big with false greatnesse, are disgrac'd by thee.
Thus, in one Tragedie, thou makest twaine :
And, since faire workes of Justice fit the part
Of Tragic writers, Muses doe ordain
That all Tragedians, Maisters of their Arte,
Who shall hereafter follow on this tract,
In writing well, thy Tragedie shall acte.
CYGNUS.
“The more one reads this enigmatic poem,” Laoutaris avers, “the more 'Shakespearean' it appears.” Which is all for the better, one supposes, as it features in his upcoming book on the Shakespeare First Folio to be released on its 400th anniversary of the publication, regardless that it was most certainly not written by Shakespeare.
As for the Guardian headline, Jonson's play was first acted in 1603, true, but commendatory poems were not written to boost stage productions. The poem appeared in the 1605 First Quarto publication of the play.
First, in Laoutaris's behalf, Jonson would, some 18 years later, refer to Shakespeare as “the Swan of Avon”. Furthermore, Shakespeare is listed among the actors of the “Kings Majesties Servants” who first performed the play.
Not much more can be said for the doctor's theory, however. If one makes “even” into “e'en,” in the six iambic foot line #6, there is one less strike against the text. Shakespeare and his scholar are saved that indignity if we make that “correction”. We may also say, regarding this uncharacteristic blot, that six-foot lines can be cited, on rare occasion, in the body of the Bard's sonnets. There are even a greater number in the plays given their looser prosodic rules.
And there is also the fact that this sonnet is too small a sample from which to draw conclusions. Nor do we know Shakespeare's original text but only the text of the typesetter. Who actually knows just who chose “even”?
The smallness of the sample could also serve to explain the masculine rhyme at the end of each and every line. By 1605 Shakespeare was long since heavily investing his work with feminine end rhymes. We could add that this progressively more non-Shakespearean sonnet may be explained as merely something dashed off.
By the 17th century, poems with all masculine endings suggest a young poet. On the other hand, the enjambment and run-on lines are obviously part of this poet's toolkit ̶ a trait he shares with Shakespeare. He is not entirely inexperienced. He is not a great poet but not a terrible one either. And then there's the small sample size.
But even the small sample size, I suggest, cannot possibly explain why Shakespeare would ever use the same word four times in 14 lines ̶ not counting articles, of course, or the rampant punning of a Will poem ̶ no matter how otherwise irregular. Not just a word but a literary term. The form “tragedian” is not ever used in any of his poems and the base-word “tragedy” only used once. I might include commendatory poems in other writers' front matter if I knew of any other book with which he graced one.
Thankfully, Jonson must have realized that The Bard had had a seriously off day. These things happen. The poem was left off in the next published edition of the play. It does not appear in Jonson's own 1616 First Folio, that is to say. Now that's a true friend.
As for Dr. Laoutaris, he will soon have a book released, by a major commercial publisher, which will stand out among the 400th anniversary offerings for featuring a commendatory poem signed “CYGNUS,” purportedly because Shakespeare was already aware that he was the “Swan of Avon” in Jonson's mind some 18 years before Jonson wrote as much in the 1623 Shakespeare First Folio. And which uses the familiar thou as did Shakespeare sometimes and as George Chapman does throughout his poem in the front matter of Sejanus because he is a personal friend and co-writer of another play with the author, And the poet who signed his poem ΦΙΛΟΕ, a few pages later, because, whoever else he is, he is... well... a “loving friend”. Jonson's loving friend Hugh Holland, on the other hand, does not use thou but rather the modern spelling you.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
An Introduction to William Basse's “Epitaph on Shakespeare” (1616-1623). March 26, 2023. “Poems passed from hand to hand tend to show a range of variations major and minor.”
Edward de Vere in the Lives of his Daughters. February 27, 2023. "At least they take some comfort from their belief that De Vere had no demonstrable relationship with his daughter, the Countess of Montgomery, Susan de Vere."
More on Thomas North as Shakespeare and author of Arden of Feversham. June 14, 2021. “This is also the reason why the title pages included the address of the shop that was selling the book.”
- A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years. Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
- Shakespeare’s Funeral Meats. May 13, 2020. “Famous as this has been since its discovery, it has been willfully misread more often than not. No mainstream scholar had any use for a reference to Hamlet years before it was supposed to have been written.”
- Check out the Shakespeare Authorship Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the Letters Index: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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