As the Guardian writes, the dedication to the sonnets’ first printing was apparently written by its publisher, Thomas Thorpe. It reads: “To the only begetter of these ensuing sonnets Mr WH.

The Sonnets didn’t fare as well. There was a bit of a sonnet-writing fad in the 1590s, but by 1609, interest in them had waned. After the 1609 printing, Shakespeare’s sonnets were largely ...

After William Shakespeare died, on this date in 1616, his contemporary, Ben Jonson, wrote that “He was not of an age, but for all time.” Johnson was spot on.