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Latest comment: 4 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion
A theory held by some is that Shake-Speare's sonnets were dedicated to Thomas Watson. This rests on the idea that they originally, before being 'bundled up' by Thomas Thorp, comprised 150 sonnets in two volumes.(nos. 153, 154 being about Cupid, and scanning differently; 138 and 144 are taken from "The Passionate Pilgrim" and so published as part of this in 1599 by Jaggard).
Evidence for this lies in the acrostic embedded in sonnet 76, the first of volume two, published (in manuscript) long after the first.
This acrostic is in bracket form to indicate that the initial letters of only lines 4 to 9 are employed.The acrostic is imperfect in that the initial ' T ' is duplicated when reading down, and that the silent 'k' in 'known'is omitted: "To T WATSO[k]n".
However, there is no known connection between Wiliam Shakespeare and Thomas Watson, except that both were famous for sonnets, and the acrostic is thought to be a mere coincidence by most.An intriguing additional fact is that Shakespeare's sonnet no. 150 was included in Thomas Watson's "The Teares of Fancie" 1593, published posthumously the year after Watson's death.Colcestrian 22:32, 8 November 2007 (UTC)Reply
