Shakespeare's Sonnets: Part 1: The "Fair Youth"

The identity of the "fair youth" in Shakespeare's sonnets is one of literary history's mysteries. We can't be sure if he was even a real person. Nevertheless, today I'm taking look at the sonnets and exploring some candidates for the "fair youth"...

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Intro / Outro song: Silent Partner, "Greenery" [   • Greenery – Silent Partner (No Copyrig...  ]


Images:

Dedication page from “Shake-speares Sonnets” (1609, London). Held by the British Library.

Paul van Somer’s portrait of William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (1617). Held by the Royal Collection Trust.

Anonymous portrait of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton (circa 1600). Lent to the National Portrait Gallery by a private collection in 1964.

Dedication page from the first edition of "The Rape of Lurece," by William Shakespeare (1594). Held by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Oscar Wilde’s essay (“The Portrait of Mr. W.H.) contributed to Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, vol. CXLVI, no. 885, (July 1889), pp.[1]-21. Held by the British Library.


Quoted texts:

Selection of sonnets (1, 18, 20, 29, 73, 116) from “Shakespeare's Sonnets” (Arden Shakespeare: Third Series)