Editing Shakespeare's sonnets (section)

==The quarto of 1609==
The primary source of Shakespeare's sonnets is a quarto published in 1609 titled ''Shake-speare's Sonnets.'' It contains 154 sonnets, which are followed by the long poem "[[A Lover's Complaint]]". Thirteen copies of the quarto have survived in fairly good shape. There is evidence in a note on the title page of one of the extant copies that the great Elizabethan actor [[Edward Alleyn]] bought a copy in June 1609 for one shilling.<ref>Shakespeare, William.  Callaghan, Dympna, editor.  ''Shakespeare's Sonnets''. John Wiley & Sons, 2008. p. x. {{ISBN|978-0470777510}}.</ref><ref name="duncan-jones" />{{rp|6}}

The sonnets cover such themes as the passage of time, love, infidelity, jealousy, beauty and mortality. The first 126 are addressed to a young man; the last 28 are either addressed to, or refer to, a woman. (Sonnets [[Sonnet 138|138]] and [[Sonnet 144|144]] had previously been published in the 1599 [[miscellany]] ''[[The Passionate Pilgrim]]''.)

The title of the quarto, ''Shake-speare's Sonnets'', is consistent with the entry in the ''[[Stationers' Register]]''. The title appears in upper case lettering on the title page, where it is followed by the phrase "Neuer before Imprinted". The title also appears every time the quarto is opened. That the author's name in a possessive form is part of the title sets it apart from all other sonnet collections of the time, except for one—[[Philip Sidney|Sir Philip Sidney's]] posthumous 1591 publication that is titled, ''Syr. P.S. his Astrophel and Stella'', which is considered one of Shakespeare's most important models. Sidney's title may have inspired Shakespeare, particularly if the "W.H." of Shakespeare's dedication is Sidney's nephew and heir, [[William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke|William Herbert]]. The idea that the persona referred to as the speaker of Shakespeare's sonnets might be Shakespeare himself, is aggressively repudiated by scholars; however, the title of the quarto does seem to encourage that kind of speculation.<ref name="duncan-jones" />{{rp|85}}

The first 17 poems, traditionally called the [[procreation sonnets]], are addressed to the young man—urging him to marry and have children in order to immortalize his beauty by passing it to the next generation.<ref>[[Stanley Wells]] and Michael Dobson, eds., ''The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare'' [[Oxford University Press]], 2001, p. 439.</ref> Other sonnets express the speaker's love for the young man; brood upon loneliness, death, and the transience of life; seem to criticise the young man for preferring a rival poet; express ambiguous feelings for the speaker's [[The Dark Lady|mistress]]; and pun on the poet's name. The final two sonnets are [[allegory|allegorical]] treatments of Greek [[epigrams]] referring to the "little love-god" [[Cupid]].

The publisher, [[Thomas Thorpe]], entered the book in the ''Stationers' Register'' on 20 May 1609:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/shakespeare-sexuality-and-the-sonnets|title=Shakespeare, sexuality and the ''Sonnets''|last=Dautch|first=Aviva|author-link1=Aviva Dautch|website=[[British Library]]|access-date=20 May 2019|date=30 March 2017}}</ref>

: Tho. Thorpe. Entred for his copie under the handes of master Wilson and master Lownes Wardenes a booke called Shakespeares sonnettes vjd.

Whether Thorpe used an authorised manuscript from Shakespeare or an unauthorised copy is unknown. [[George Eld]] printed the quarto, and the run was divided between the booksellers [[William Aspley]] and [[John Wright (bookseller)|John Wright]].{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}

===Dedication===
[[Image:sonnetsDedication.jpg|thumb|right|Dedication page from ''The Sonnets'']]
''Shakespeare's Sonnets'' include a dedication to "Mr. W.H.":

{{smalldiv|1=
{{quote|{{center|
TO.THE.ONLIE.BEGETTER.OF.<br />
THESE.INSUING.SONNETS.<br />
Mr.W.H. &nbsp; ALL.HAPPINESSE.<br />
AND.THAT.ETERNITIE.<br />
PROMISED.<br />
BY.<br />
OUR.EVER-LIVING.POET.<br />
WISHETH.<br />
THE.WELL-WISHING.<br />
ADVENTURER.IN.<br />
SETTING.<br />
FORTH.<br />
T.T.}}}}
}}

The upper case letters and the stops that follow each word of the dedication were probably intended to resemble an [[Ancient Rome|ancient Roman]] [[Lapidary|lapidary inscription]] or [[monumental brass]], perhaps accentuating the declaration in Sonnet 55 that the work would confer immortality to the subjects of the work:<ref>Burrow 2002, 380.</ref>
{{Poem quote|
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this pow'rful rhyme}}

The initials "T.T." are taken to refer to the publisher, Thomas Thorpe. Thorpe usually signed prefatory matter only if the author was out of the country or dead, which suggests that Shakespeare was not in London during the last stage of printing.<ref>{{Cite book
|last=Burrow
|first=Colin
|title=Complete Sonnets and Poems
|url=https://archive.org/details/completesonnetsp00shak_771
|url-access=registration
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|year=2002
|page=[https://archive.org/details/completesonnetsp00shak_771/page/n109 99]
|isbn=0-19-818431-X}}
</ref> However, Thorpe's entire corpus of such consists of only four dedications and three prefaces.<ref>Foster 1984, 43.</ref> It has been suggested that Thorpe signing the dedication, rather than the author, might indicate that Thorpe published the work without obtaining Shakespeare's permission.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book
|last=Vickers
|first=Brian
|title=Shakespeare, A lover's complaint, and John Davies of Hereford
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|year=2007
|page=[https://archive.org/details/shakespearelover0000vick/page/8 8]
|isbn=978-0-521-85912-7
|url=https://archive.org/details/shakespearelover0000vick/page/8
}}
</ref> Though Thorpe's taking on the dedication may be explained by the great demands of business and travel that Shakespeare was facing at this time, which may have caused him to deal with the printing production in haste before rushing out of town.<ref>Honigmann, E.A.J. "There is a World Elsewhere, William Shakespeare, Businessman".  Habitcht, W., editor.  ''Images of Shakespeare.'' (1988) {{ISBN|978-0874133295}} p. 45</ref> After all, May 1609 was an extraordinary time: That month saw a serious outbreak of the plague, which shut down the theatres, and also caused many to flee London. Plus Shakespeare's theatre company was on tour from Ipswich to Oxford. In addition, Shakespeare had been away from Stratford and in the same month, May, was being called on to tend to family and business there,<ref>Chambers, ''The Elizabethan Stage,'' vol. 2, p. 214 (1923). {{ISBN|978-0199567478}}</ref> and deal with the litigation of a lawsuit in Warwickshire that involved a substantial amount of money.<ref>Schoenbaum, Samuel.  ''William Shakespeare, a Documentary Life,'' Oxford (1975). {{ISBN|978-0195051612}} p. 183</ref>

====Mr. W. H., the dedicatee====
The identity of Mr. W.H., "the only begetter of ''Shakespeare's Sonnets''", is not known for certain. His identity has been the subject of a great amount of speculation: That he was the author's patron, that he was both patron and the "faire youth" who is addressed in the sonnets, that the "faire youth" is based on Mr. W.H. in some sonnets but not others, and a number of other ideas.<ref>Rollins, H. E., ''A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The Sonnets.'' Lippincott & Co. 1944. pp. 174–185</ref><ref name="duncan-jones" />{{rp|51–55, 63–68}}<ref>Schoenbaum, S. S. ''Shakespeare's Lives.'' Oxford University Press. 1991. p. 566. {{ISBN|978-0198186182}}</ref>

[[File:WilliamHerbert3rdEarlofPembroke.jpg|thumb|William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke]]
[[File:Miniature of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, 1594. (Fitzwilliam Museum) cropped.png|thumb|upright|[[Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton]]]]

[[William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke|William Herbert]], the [[Earl of Pembroke]], is seen as perhaps the most likely identity of Mr. W.H. and the "young man". He was the dedicatee of the [[First Folio]]. Thorpe would have been unlikely to have addressed a lord as "Mr",<ref name=schoenbaum270>{{cite book
|last=Schoenbaum
|first=S.
|title=William Shakespeare: a compact documentary life
|year=1977
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|location=New York
|isbn=0-19-502211-4
|pages=[https://archive.org/details/williamshakespea00scho/page/270 270–271]
|edition=1st
|ol=21295405M
|url=https://archive.org/details/williamshakespea00scho/page/270
}}</ref> but there may be an explanation, perhaps that form of address came from the author, who wanted to refer to Herbert at an earlier time—when Herbert was a "younger man".<ref>Burrow, Colin, ''William Shakespeare: Complete Sonnets and Poems'', Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 98.</ref> There is a later dedication to Herbert in another quarto of verse, Ben Jonson's ''Epigrammes'' (1616), in which the text of Jonson's dedication begins, "MY LORD, While you cannot change your merit, I dare not change your title … " Jonson's emphasis on Pembroke's title, and his comment, seem to be chiding someone else who had the audacity to use the wrong title, as perhaps is the case in Shakespeare's dedication.<ref name="duncan-jones" />{{rp|60}}

[[Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton|Henry Wriothesley]] (the [[Earl of Southampton]]), with initials reversed, has received a great deal of consideration as a likely possibility. He was the dedicatee of Shakespeare's poems ''[[Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare poem)|Venus and Adonis]]'' and ''[[The Rape of Lucrece]]''. Southampton was also known for his good looks.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}

Other suggestions include:
* A simple printing error for Shakespeare's initials, "W.S." or "W. Sh". This was suggested by [[Bertrand Russell]], [[Jonathan Bate]], and [[Donald Wayne Foster|Donald W. Foster]].<ref>Bate, Jonathan. ''The Genius of Shakespeare'' (1998) 61–62.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Foster |first1=Donald W. |title=Master W.H., R.I.P. |journal=[[Modern Language Association#Activities|PMLA]] |date=January 1987 |volume=102 |issue=1 |pages=42, 49}}</ref>
* [[William Hall (printer)|William Hall]], a printer who had worked with Thorpe.<ref>Lee, Sidney, Sir. ''A Life of William Shakespeare'' (1898). Cambridge University Press, 2012. {{ISBN|978-1108048194}}</ref><ref name="auto"/> It is noted that "ALL" following "MR. W. H." spells "MR. W. HALL". Using his initials W.H., Hall had edited a collection of the poems of [[Robert Southwell (Jesuit)|Robert Southwell]] that was printed by [[George Eld]], the printer of the 1609 Sonnets.<ref>Collins, John Churton. ''Ephemera Critica.'' Westminster, Constable and Co., 1902; p. 216.</ref>
* Sir [[William Hervey, 1st Baron Hervey|William Harvey]], Southampton's stepfather.<ref name=schoenbaum270/><ref>{{Cite book
|last=Appleby
|first=John C
|title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|location=Oxford, England
|year=2008
|chapter=Hervey, William, Baron Hervey of Kidbrooke and Baron Hervey of Ross (d. 1642)}}
</ref>
* [[William Haughton (playwright)|William Haughton]], a contemporary dramatist.<ref>{{Cite book
|last=Berryman
|first=John
|author-link=John Berryman
|title=Berryman's Shakespeare: essays, letters and other writings
|editor=Haffenden, John
|editor-link=John Haffenden
|publisher=Tauris Parke
|location=London
|year=2001
|page=xxxvi
|isbn=978-1-86064-643-0}}
</ref><ref name=neil1867>{{cite magazine
|title=Moffat, N.B., Shakespeare's birthday, 1867.
|last=Neil|first=Samuel|author-link=Samuel Neil
|date=27 April 1867
|magazine=[[Athenaeum (British magazine)|Athenæum]]
|location=London
|issue=2061
|volume=1867
|page=552
|hdl = 2027/uc1.l0063569123
|hdl-access = free
|via = [[HathiTrust]]
}}</ref>
* [[Joan Shakespeare|William Hart]], Shakespeare's nephew and male heir.<ref>{{Cite book
|last=Neil|first=Samuel
|title=Shakespere: a critical biography
|publisher=Houlston and Wright
|location=London
|year=1863
|pages=105–106
|oclc=77866350}}</ref>
* Who He. It has been argued that the dedication is deliberately ambiguous, possibly standing for "Who He", a conceit also used in a contemporary pamphlet. It might have been created by Thorpe to encourage speculation and discussion (and hence, sales).<ref>Colin Burrow, ed. ''The Complete Sonnets and Poems'' (Oxford UP, 2002), pp. 98, 102–103.</ref>
* [[Willie Hughes]]. The 18th-century scholar [[Thomas Tyrwhitt]] proposed "William Hughes", based on puns on the name in the sonnets (notably [[Sonnet 20]]). This idea is expressed in [[Oscar Wilde]]'s short story "[[The Portrait of Mr. W. H.]]", and that the sonnets were written to a young actor who played female roles in Shakespeare's plays.<ref>[[Hyder Edward Rollins]], The Sonnets, New Variorum Shakespeare, vol. 25 II, Lippincott, 1944, pp. 181–184.</ref>

===Form and structure of the sonnets===
[[File:William Shakespeare - Sonnet XXX - Rapenburg 30, Leiden.JPG|thumb|[[Sonnet 30]] as a [[Wall poems in Leiden|wall poem in Leiden]] ]]
The sonnets are almost all constructed using three [[quatrains]] (four-line [[stanzas]]) followed by a final [[couplet]]. The sonnets are composed in [[iambic pentameter]], the [[poetic meter|metre]] used in Shakespeare's plays.

The [[rhyme]] scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Sonnets using this scheme are known as Shakespearean sonnets, or English sonnets, or Elizabethan sonnets. Often, at the end of the third quatrain occurs the ''volta'' ("turn"), where the mood of the poem shifts, and the poet expresses a turn of thought.<ref>{{cite web|title=Glossary of Poetic Terms|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/volta|website=Poetry Foundation|access-date=12 February 2018}}</ref>

The exceptions are sonnets [[Sonnet 99|99]], [[Sonnet 126|126]], and [[Sonnet 145|145]]. Number 99 has fifteen lines. Number 126 consists of six couplets, and two blank lines marked with italic brackets; 145 is in [[iambic tetrameter]]s, not pentameters. In one other variation on the standard structure, found for example in [[sonnet 29]], the rhyme scheme is changed by repeating the second (B) rhyme of quatrain one as the second (F) rhyme of quatrain three.

Apart from rhyme, and considering only the arrangement of ideas, and the placement of the volta, a number of sonnets maintain the two-part organization of the Italian sonnet. In that case the term "octave" and "sestet" are commonly used to refer to the sonnet's first eight lines followed by the remaining six lines. There are other line-groupings as well, as Shakespeare finds inventive ways with the content of the fourteen-line poems.<ref>Vendler, Helen. ''The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets''.  Harvard University Press, 1999. {{ISBN|978-0674637122}} p. 50</ref>

===Characters of the sonnets===
When analysed as characters, the subjects of the sonnets are usually referred to as the Fair Youth, the Rival Poet, and the Dark Lady. The speaker expresses admiration for the Fair Youth's beauty, and—if reading the sonnets in chronological order as published—later has an affair with the Dark Lady, then so does the Fair Youth. Current linguistic analysis and historical evidence suggests, however, that the sonnets to the Dark Lady were composed first (around 1591–95), the procreation sonnets next, and the later sonnets to the Fair Youth last (1597–1603). It is not known whether the poems and their characters are fiction or autobiographical; scholars who find the sonnets to be autobiographical have attempted to identify the characters with historical individuals.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.interlitq.org/issue6/donald_adamson/job.php |title=The International Literary Quarterly |publisher=Interlitq.org |access-date=2014-04-02}}</ref>

====Fair Youth====<!-- This section is linked from William Shakespeare and from Oxfordian theory-->
The "Fair Youth" is the unnamed young man addressed by the poet in Sonnets [[Sonnet 1|1]]–[[Sonnet 126|126]]. The young man is handsome, self-centred, universally admired and much sought after. The sequence begins with the poet urging the young man to marry and father children (sonnets 1–17). It continues with the friendship developing with the poet's loving admiration, which at times is homoerotic in nature. Then comes a set of betrayals by the young man, as he is seduced by the Dark Lady, and they maintain a liaison (sonnets 133, 134 & 144), all of which the poet struggles to abide. It concludes with the poet's own act of betrayal, resulting in his independence from the fair youth (sonnet 152).<ref>Hammond. ''The Reader and the Young Man Sonnets''.  Barnes & Noble. 1981. p. 2. {{ISBN|978-1-349-05443-5}}</ref><ref name="duncan-jones" />{{rp|93}}<ref name="auto2">Hubler, Edward. ''Shakespeare's Songs and Poems''. McGraw HIll. 1964. p. xl</ref>

The identity of the Fair Youth has been the subject of speculation among scholars. One popular theory is that he was [[Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton|Henry Wriothesley]], the 3rd Earl of Southampton; this is based in part on the idea that his physical features, age, and personality might fairly match the young man in the sonnets.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Shakespeare's Sonnets|last=Sarker|first=Sunil|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors|year=2006|isbn=8171567258|location=New Delhi|pages=87, 89}}</ref> He was both an admirer and patron of Shakespeare and was considered one of the most prominent nobles of the period.<ref>{{Cite book|title=William Stanley as Shakespeare: Evidence of Authorship by the Sixth Earl of Derby|last=Rollett|first=John|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers|year=2015|isbn=978-0786496600|location=Jefferson, NC|pages=108}}</ref> It is also noted that Shakespeare's 1593 poem ''[[Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare poem)|Venus and Adonis]]'' is dedicated to Southampton and, in that poem a young man, Adonis, is encouraged by the goddess of love, Venus, to beget a child, which is a theme in the sonnets. Here are the verses from ''Venus and Adonis'':<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Apocryphal William Shakespeare: Book One of A 'Third Way' Shakespeare Authorship Scenario|last=Feldman|first=Sabrina|publisher=Dog Ear Publishing|year=2011|isbn=978-1457507212|location=Indianapolis, IN|page=110}}</ref>

{{Numbered verses|first=163|
Torches are made to light, jewels to wear,
Dainties to taste, fresh beauty for the use,
Herbs for their smell, and sappy plants to bear;
Things growing to themselves are growth's abuse,
{{pad|1em}}Seeds spring from seeds, and beauty breedeth beauty;
{{pad|1em}}Thou wast begot; to get it is thy duty.

Upon the earth's increase why shouldst thou feed,
Unless the earth with thy increase be fed?
By law of nature thou art bound to breed,
That thine may live when thou thyself art dead;
{{pad|1em}}And so in spite of death thou dost survive,
{{pad|1em}}In that thy likeness still is left alive.
| ''Venus and Adonis''<ref>Duncan-Jones, Katherine. Woudhuysen, H. R. eds. Shakespeare, William. ''Shakespeare's Poems: Third Series''. Arden Shakespeare. (28 September 2007) lines 163–174 {{ISBN|978-1903436875}}</ref>}}

A problem with identifying the fair youth with Southampton is that the most certainly datable events referred to in the Sonnets are the fall of Essex and then the gunpowder plotters' executions in 1606, which puts Southampton at the age of 33, and then 39 when the sonnets were published, when he would be past the age when he would be referred to as a "lovely boy" or "fair youth".<ref name="duncan-jones" />{{rp|52}}

Authors such as [[Thomas Tyrwhitt]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Poems of William Shakespeare|last1=Shakespeare|first1=William|last2=Bell|first2=Robert|publisher=John W. Parker and Son West Strand|year=1855|location=London|page=163}}</ref> and [[Oscar Wilde]] proposed that the Fair Youth was William Hughes, a seductive young actor who played female roles in Shakespeare's plays. Particularly, Wilde claimed that he was the Mr. W.H.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lord Arthur Savile ́s Crime – The Portrait of Mr. W. H. and other Stories|last=Wilde|first=Oscar|publisher=Outlook|year=2018|isbn=978-3732658817|location=Main, Germany|pages=82–83, 87}}</ref> referred to in the dedication attached to the manuscript of the Sonnets.<ref name=":0" />

====The Dark Lady====<!-- This section is linked from William Shakespeare.-->
{{Main|Dark Lady (Shakespeare)}}
The Dark Lady sequence (sonnets 127–152) is the most defiant of the sonnet tradition. The sequence distinguishes itself from the Fair Youth sequence with its overt sexuality ([[Sonnet 151]]).<ref name="WoS111">{{cite book |title=The World of Shakespeare's Sonnets: An Introduction |last =Matz |first=Robert |isbn=978-0-7864-3219-6 |page=111|year =2008 }}</ref> The Dark Lady is so called because she has black hair and "dun" skin. The Dark Lady suddenly appears (Sonnet 127), and she and the speaker of the sonnets, the poet, are in a sexual relationship. She is not aristocratic, young, beautiful, intelligent or chaste. Her complexion is muddy, her breath "reeks", and she is ungainly when she walks. The relationship strongly parallels Touchstone's pursuit of Audrey in ''As You Like It''.<ref>Shakespeare, William.  ''As You Like It''. Act 3, scene 3, lines 1–57</ref> The Dark Lady presents an adequate receptor for male desire. She is celebrated in cocky terms that would be offensive to her, not that she would be able to read or understand what is said. Soon the speaker rebukes her for enslaving his fair friend (sonnet 133). He can't abide the triangular relationship, and it ends with him rejecting her.<ref name="duncan-jones" /><ref name="auto2"/> As with the Fair Youth, there have been many attempts to identify her with a real historical individual. Lucy Negro,<ref>{{cite news|last=Furness |first=Hannah |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/william-shakespeare/9758184/Has-Shakespeares-dark-lady-finally-been-revealed.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/william-shakespeare/9758184/Has-Shakespeares-dark-lady-finally-been-revealed.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Has Shakespeare's dark lady finally been revealed? |newspaper=Telegraph |date=2013-01-08 |access-date=2014-04-02}}{{cbignore}}</ref> [[Mary Fitton]], [[Emilia Lanier]], [[Elizabeth Wriothesley]], and others have been suggested.

====The Rival Poet====
{{Main|Rival Poet}}

The Rival Poet's identity remains a mystery. If Shakespeare's patron and friend was Pembroke, Shakespeare was not the only poet who praised his beauty; Francis Davison did in a sonnet that is the preface to Davison's quarto ''A Poetical Rhapsody'' (1608), which was published just before ''Shakespeare's Sonnets''.<ref>Brown, Henry. ''Shakespeare's Patrons; and other essays.''  Forgotten Books (19 April 2018) {{ISBN|978-1331296171}}</ref> [[John Davies of Hereford]], [[Samuel Daniel]], [[George Chapman]], [[Christopher Marlowe]], and [[Ben Jonson]] are also candidates that find support among clues in the sonnets.<ref>Halliday, F. E. ''A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964.'' Baltimore, Penguin, 1964. pp. 52, 127, 141. {{ISBN|978-0715603093}}</ref><ref>Wells, Stanley. Dobson, Michael. Sharpe, Will. Sullivan, Erin. editors. ''The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare.'' Oxford (2015) {{ISBN|978-0191058158}}</ref>

It may be that the Rival Poet is a composite of several poets through which Shakespeare explores his sense of being threatened by competing poets.<ref name="rivalpoetmeres">{{cite journal|author=MacD. P. Jackson |title=Francis Meres and the Cultural Contexts of Shakespeare's Rival Poet Sonnets |journal=The Review of English Studies |volume=56 |issue=224 |pages=224–246 |publisher=Res.oxfordjournals.org |date=2005-04-01 |doi=10.1093/res/hgi050 }}</ref> The speaker sees the Rival Poet as competition for fame and patronage. The sonnets most commonly identified as the Rival Poet group exist within the Fair Youth sequence in sonnets [[Sonnet 78|78]]–[[Sonnet 86|86]].<ref name="rivalpoetmeres" />

==="A Lover's Complaint"===
"A Lover's Complaint" is part two of the quarto published in 1609. It is not written in the sonnet form, but is composed of 47 seven-line stanzas written in [[rhyme royal]]. It is an example of a normal feature of the two-part poetic form, in which the first part expresses the male point of view, and the second part contrasts or complements the first part with the female's point of view. The first part of the quarto, the 154 sonnets, considers frustrated male desire, and the second part, "A Lover's Complaint", expresses the misery of a woman victimized by male desire. The earliest Elizabethan example of this two-part structure is Samuel Daniel's ''Delia ... with the Complaint of Rosamund'' (1592)—a sonnet sequence that tells the story of a woman being threatened by a man of higher rank, followed by the woman's complaint. This was imitated by other poets, including Shakespeare with his ''[[Rape of Lucrece]]'', the last lines of which contain Lucrece's complaint. Other examples are found in the works of [[Michael Drayton]], [[Thomas Lodge]], [[Richard Barnfield]], and others.<ref>Roche, Thomas P. ''Petrarch and the English Sonnet Sequences''. AMS Press. New York 1989. {{ISBN|978-0404622886}}. p. 343</ref>

The young man of the sonnets and the young man of "A Lover's Complaint" provide a thematic link between the two parts. In each part the young man is handsome, wealthy and promiscuous, unreliable and admired by all.<ref name="duncan-jones" />{{rp|89}}

Like the sonnets, "[[A Lover's Complaint]]" also has a possessive form in its title, which is followed by its own assertion of the author's name. This time the possessive word, "Lover's", refers to a woman, who becomes the primary "speaker" of the work.<ref name="duncan-jones" />{{rp|85}}

====Story of "A Lover's Complaint"====
"A Lover's Complaint" begins with a young woman weeping at the edge of a river, into which she throws torn-up letters, rings, and other tokens of love. An old man nearby approaches her and asks the reason for her sorrow. She responds by telling him of a former lover who pursued, seduced, and finally abandoned her. She recounts in detail the speech her lover gave to her which seduced her. She concludes her story by conceding that she would fall for the young man's false charms again.