NOTES
Dedication
1. onlie begetter. Some scholars, notably Lee, argue that 'begetter' here means 'obtainer,' 'procurer'; hence the publisher T. T. is thanking W. H. for finding and delivering to him the MSS. of this sonnet collection. Lee goes further and identifies W. H. as William Hall, a stationer of the period. Mrs. Stopes, practically following Lee's interpretation of 'begetter,' identifies W. H. as William Harvey, the stepfather of the third Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's friend. The natural rendering of this phrase which recalls the 'only begotten' of the Creed, is 'the one, the only, inspirer.'
3. W. H. These initials raise a controversy which many volumes have not yet settled. If we reject Lee's interpretation and believe that a nobleman must be the inspirer of the sonnets praising a youth, the two best candidates are William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, and Henry Wriothesley (pronounced 'Rizley'), third Earl of Southampton. Of the two, Southampton seems the better claimant, though Herbert's liaison with Mary Fitton and her subsequent career has led many (especially dramatists) to consider her the heroine of the last group of sonnets. But Herbert came to court as late as 1598 and the sonnets, as a whole, seem to have been written before that year. Southampton is the only patron Shakespeare publicly acknowledged, and the dedication of Venus and Adonis, 1593, and The Rape of Lucrece, 1594, show that the poet regarded him with gratitude and affection. If, as seems more probable, W. H. was not a great nobleman, other names have been suggested: William Hall, William Harvey (vide supra), William
