in all I have, devoted yours. Were my worth greater, my duty would show greater; meantime, as it is, it is bound to your Lordship, to whom I wish long life still lengthened with all happiness.
Your Lordship’s in all duty,
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.
Note. Lucrece was licensed for printing, May 9, 1594. Southampton’s generous patronage of the poet is the subject of an anecdote in Rowe’s Life of Shakespeare (1709) to the effect that the Earl on one occasion presented Shakespeare with a thousand pounds to enable him to carry through a purchase he had in mind.
X. THE EARLIEST TRIBUTE TO SHAKESPEARE BY NAME AS A POET (1594).
Anonymous verses prefixed to Willobie His Avisa (1594).
To high renown a lasting life,
And found that [what] most in vain have sought,
To have a fair and constant wife;
Yet Tarquin plucked his glistering grape,
And Shake-speare paints poor Lucrece’ rape.
Note. This illustrates the immediate popularity of Shakespeare’s Lucrece. The curious topical work in mingled prose and verse which this commendatory poem introduces comprises a dialogue between H. W. (Henry Willobie) and one W. S. It has been dubiously supposed to allude to Shakespeare as an authority on love. The book was entered for publication, September 8, 1594.
