1 5 2 Shakspeare 



fession, arc driven oftentimes to bring forth with 

 difficult travail various elegancies of laboured 

 artifice. Using Bacon's simile, one might say 

 that he, the " honey-tongued " songster, like the 

 bee, gathered honey from every fact of life ; they, 

 like the spider, spin fine-patterned cobwebs out of 

 their own insides. 



In the series of sonnets addressed to his noble 

 friend and patron three things are made manifest : 

 first, that Shakspeare was calmly conscious of his 

 own great powers and of the value and vitality 

 of his verse ; secondly, that he felt keenly and 

 resented bitterly the contrast between the low 

 station in which fortune's spite had placed him 

 and the social eminence of his friend ; thirdly, 

 that they were closely associated in a looseness 

 of life which had somehow cast a slur on his 

 name and hindered just social recognition of his 

 genius. 



(1) Assured belief of his own worth was scarce 

 wanting to one who could aspire, as he did, to 

 confer " immortal name " on his friend by praise 

 in " eternal lines," of which he dared predict : — 



So long as men shall breathe and eyes can see, 

 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee ; 



who proclaimed that 



Not marble nor the gilded monuments 



Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme ; 



But you shall shine more bright in these contents 

 Than unswept stone besmeared with sluttish time ; 



who foretold to him an immortal name in verse 



