Book Description

Excerpt from Shakespeare's Autobiographical Poems: Being His Sonnets Clearly Developed With His Character Drawn Chiefly From His Works Yet, with all this, his true lovers cannot, and ought not to be content. In their love they would know all about him they would see him face to face, hear him speak, be in his companionship, live' with him altogether. Wishes are boundless, but, when absurd, they quickly vanish; while, in an humbler and more reasonable strain, we sigh for the discovery of some well-authenticated, genuine anecdotes -a diary, kept by some Boswell companion, for instance, would be worth a million times its weight in gold. In the absence of so vast a treasure, let us, aided by the pre vious researches of others, strictly examine into his own writings, and endeavour to elicit something that may throw a light on the circumstances of his life, or his opinions, or his disposition. At first sight, this task may be condemned as hope less. Poets, though not essentially dramatic, are rarely to be relied on even when they seemingly pro fess to describe their own sentiments. They may choose rather to tell the world what they ought to be, than what they are; like Thomson, in his Seasons, expatiating on the happiness, the delight, the necessity of rural exercise, swimming, and early rising, calling out. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.