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SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE
happiness’, ‘health and *eternall happiness’*, ‘all perseverance with soules happiness’, ‘health on earth temporall and higher happiness eternal’, ‘the prosperity of times successe in this life, with the reward of eternitie in the world to come’ are variants of the common form, drawn from books that were produced at almost the same moment as Shakespeare’s sonnets. The substantives are invariably governed by the identical inflexion of the verb—‘wisheth’—which Thorpe employed.
The promise of eternity.
By attaching to the conventional complimentary mention of ‘eternity’ the ornamental phrase ‘promised by our ever-living poet’ (i.e. Shakespeare), Thorpe momentarily indulged in that vein of grandiloquence of which other dedications from his pen furnish examples. ‘Promises’ of eternity were showered by poets on their patrons with prodigal hands. Shakespeare in his sonnets had repeated the current convention with much fervour when addressing a fair youth. Thorpe’s interweaving of the conventional ‘wish’ of the ordinary bookmaker, with an allusion to the conventional ‘promise’ of the panegyrizing poet, gave fresh zest and emphasis to the well-worn phrases of complimentary courtesy. There is no implication in Thorpe’s dedicatory greeting of an ellipse, after the word ‘promised’, of the word ‘him’, i.e. ‘Mr. W. H.’ Thorpe ‘wisheth’ ‘Mr. W. H.’ ‘eternity’, no less grudgingly than ‘our ever-living poet’ offered his own friend the ‘promise’ of it in his sonnets.
Thorpe’s technical language.
Almost every phrase in his dedicatory greeting of ‘Mr. W. H.’ has a technical significance, which has no bearing on Shakespeare’s intention as sonneteer, but exclusively concerns Thorpe’s action and position as the publisher. In accordance with professional custom, Thorpe dubbed himself page, below this dedication, are the words: ‘There follows an *Epistle* if | you dare venture on | the length.’ The Epistle begins overleaf.
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