Shakespeare's Sonnets Published: The Bard's Poetic Legacy Revealed
Thomas Thorpe published Shakespeare's Sonnets on May 20, 1609, with a cryptic dedication to "Mr. W.H." whose identity has never been conclusively established. The collection of 154 sonnets had circulated in manuscript among Shakespeare's private friends for at least a decade before publication. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man, urging him to marry and have children, then expressing intense love and jealousy. Sonnets 127-152 are addressed to a "Dark Lady." The publication appears to have been unauthorized: Shakespeare never mentioned the sonnets in any other context and never published a second edition. The sonnets contain some of the most quoted lines in English literature, including "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" and "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments."
May 20, 1609
417 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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