June 1, 1887.] 



♦ KNO\VLEDGE * 



169 



^ILLUSTRATEinvIAGAZINE '^^ 



LONDON: JUNE I, 1887. 



SHAKESPEARE'S POEMS. 



HOUGH I do not propose here to discuss the 

 Baconian paradox, I touch upon it as giving 

 interest to certain comparisons which I am 

 about to make between the poems of Shakes- 

 peare and his plays. Even the most rabid 

 Baconian, I imagine, does not deny that 

 Shakespeare wrote " Yenus and Adonis," 

 l.iurcce, the Sonnets, the "Lover's Complaint," and parts 

 of the "Passionate Pilgrim" (really a congeries of short 

 poems, some of which were admittedly his, while others 

 were as certainly the work of other men). Of course, the 

 circumstance that in " Love's Labour Lost " some of these 

 poems are actually introduced, would in no sort convince a 

 jiaradoxist that the play was not Bacon's : for it is one of 

 the charming characteristics of paradox that it can derive 

 comfort from the most contradictorj' arguments. If we find 

 a passage in Shakespeare which suggests Baconian thoughts, 

 then we are asked, "Who but Bacon could have written 

 that 1 " But if we find something which Bacon could not 

 be supposed to have written, or, as in the present case, 

 something which Shakespeare certainly wrote, then we are 

 asked to admire the ingenuity with which Bacon masked his 

 identity. Therefore I do not insist on the circumstance 

 that, unless Bacon was a thief or Shakespeare a rogue (or 

 preferably both), the appearance of unquestionably Shakes- 

 pearean sonnets in one of Shakespeare's plays suffices to 

 overthrow the Baconian theory. (In fact, who vmnfs to 

 overthrow it ? — any more than a grown man would want to 

 kick over the mud fortresses or the oyster grottoes of little 

 children.) But the evidence of the Shakespearean mind, 

 and especially of Shakespeare's specially dramatic power, 

 shown in the poems which he certainly wrote, is well worth 

 studying apart from any such fond fancies in regard to the 

 plays. Nay, I may go so far as to admit that if some 

 of the B.aconian paradoxists .should be led to study Shakes- 

 peare's poems (it is hopeless to urge them to study appre- 

 ciatively Bacon's " Instauratio Magna " and " Novum 

 Organum ") this little essay would have served a useful 

 purpose. 



" Venus and Adonis" was probably written several years 

 before 1593, when it was published. Shakespeare speaks of 

 it as "the first heir of his invention," and it is certain that 

 he had written other poems than this before 1593, for 

 Spenser, in 1591, had praised Shakespeare's muse, "full of 

 high thoughts' invention." It is thought by some that 

 Shakespeare wrote this poem before he came to London — 

 somewhere about 1586 — but I imagine he had not much 

 opportunity for poetic composition during the few years 

 which he passed at Stratford after his much too early mar- 

 riage (to a woman eight years his senior). Some of the 

 softer touches of the wooing of Adonis by Venus may with- 

 out malice be tliought to have been memories of Ann 



Hathaway 's wooing of the j'oung poet, for when a woman 

 of twenty-six, even the most charming, is wed too early, 

 yet too late, by a boy of eighteen, one may usually suppose 

 the woman the first to woo. And even in the coldness of 

 Adonis the poet may have pictured in part his own boyish 

 bashfulness, as where in the first sonnet of " The Passionate 

 Pilgiim " he says : — ■ 



But whether unripe years did want conceit, 

 Or he ref us'd to take her tigur'd proffer, 

 The tender nibbler would not touch the bait, 

 But smile and jest at every tender offer. 



The love of Phcebe for Rosalind in her disguise as the 

 boy Ganymede suggests similar thoughts, though we must 

 not profanely touch the Shakespearean drama, where Shakes- 

 peare the man scarce ever shows, but only Shakespeare the 

 inspired creator of men. 



The " Venus and Adonis," if marked by many faults, 

 and painted throughout in too warm tints, yet contains 

 clear evidence of the work of the Shakespeare of the plays. 

 Here and there occur words and phrases, such as Shakes- 

 peare h.as elsewhere used almost unchanged. Thus, re- 

 proaching Adonis: "Ah, me!" quoth Venus, " young and 

 so unkind " ; as Lear to Cordelia : "' So young and so 

 uutender." The descriptions, especially of animals, are such 

 as are matched only in the plays. Consider, for instance, 

 the description of the horse : — 



Look, when a painter would surpass the life, 



In limning out a well-proportion'd steed. 

 His art with nature's workmanship at strife. 

 As it the dead the living should exceed ; 

 So did this horse excel a common one, 

 la shape and courage, colour, pace, and bone. 



Eound-hoof 'd, short- jointed, fetlocks shag and long. 



Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostrils wide. 

 High crest, short ears, straight legs, and passing strong, 

 Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide. 

 Look, what a horse should have he did not lack. 

 Save a proud rider on so proud a back. 



One may recognise the country-bred poet in the descrip- 

 tion of hunting sports, both of the more dangerous sort as 

 in the boar hunt, and in the hunting of the weak hare : — 



Mark the poor wretch, to over-slioot his troubles. 

 How he outruns the winds, and with what care 



He cranks and crosses with a tliousand doubles : 

 The many musets through the which he goes, 

 Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes. 



(Note here and there throughout the poem the ease and 

 grace of diction, the wide vocabulary, and the use of such 

 words as Shakespeare the dramatist is fond of using — as, foi- 

 instance, " He cranks and crosses," comparing with this 

 Hotspur's remark that this river " comes me cranking in.') 



In the following passage we recognise Shakespeare's know- 

 ledge of animal ways (is there no paradoxist prepared to 

 recognise some huntsman or veterinary surgeon of Elizabeth's 

 time as the author of the plays t), and in " caitiff," 

 " venom'd," " sovereign " (adjectively), " ill-resounding," 

 " welkin," " volleys," we note the Shakespearean vocabu- 

 lary :— 



Here kennel'd in a brake she tinds a hound, 

 And asks the weary caitiff for his master ; 

 And there another licking of his wounds 



'Gainst venom'd wounds the only sovereign plaster ; 

 And here she meets another sadly scowling, 

 To whom she speaks, and he replies with howling. 



When he hath ceas'd his ill-resonnding noise. 



Another flap-mouth'd mourner, black and grim, 

 Against the welkin vollej's out his voice ; 

 Another and another answers him. 



Clapping their proud tails to the ground below, 

 Shaking their scratch'd ears, bleeding as they go. 



