The Principal Characters of Shakespeares Sonnets :: William Shakespeare, Sonnets

One of the many intriguing aspects of Shakespeares Sonnets is the identity of the principal characters inwardly them, of which there are three - The Young Man - The Dark peeress - The Rival Poet Nowhere in the Sonnets are these mass explicitly place and their anonymity has spawned much debate as to who these people could have been. The pith of the Sonnets that refer to these people however, undoubtedly show that these were indeed real, living people and not imaginary inventions by the author for the sake of literary exercise. umteen poets of the Elizabethan and Jacobean age wrote verse to others and did not refrain from identifying who they were addressing. about poems were clearly dedicated to the addressees, such as Spensers Prothalamion which is dedicated in honovr of the dovble matrimony of the two Honorable & vertuous Ladies, the Ladie Elizabeth and the Ladie Katherine Somerset, Daughters to the Right Honourable the Earle of Worcester and espoused to the two wo rthie Gentlemen M. Henry Gilford, and M. William woodpecker Esquyers. And Spenser makes clear that the poem is about the Somerset ladies within the poem itself by punning on their names in the 4th. stanza But rather Angels or of Angels breede Yet were they bred of Somers-heat they say. Where poems were not explicitly dedicated to the addressee their identity could quiet be found in the poems verse, such as in Sidneys Astrophel and Stella Doth euen modernize rich, meaning my Stellaes name and Rich in all beauties which mans eye evict see Beauties so farre from reach of words that we Abase her praise verbalise she doth excell Rich in the treasure of deserud renowne, Rich in the riches of a royall heart, Rich in those gifts which giue theternall crowne Who, though most rich in these and eury eccentric