The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0439  Thursday, 11 May 2006

From: 		Jon Ciccarelli <
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Date: 		Wednesday, 10 May 2006 13:15:02 -0400
Subject: 	Faith Youth

Can someone on the list elaborate a bit on the connection with William 
Herbert and the fair youth? It seems that he is the prevailing candidate 
these days, but I don't see how this can be on two different fronts. 
One, what is the connection between WS and the Herberts during his 
lifetime? Other than the posthumous dedication of the First Folio to 
William Herbert, I can't seem to locate any connection between WS and 
Herbert to warrant such a close relationship.  Second, is the dating of 
the earliest sonnets.  Love's Labours Lost (c1594) has one of the 
strongest connections to the sonnet cycle.  If we are to assume that 
there is a biographical backstory to them and Rosaline is a 
representation of the Dark Lady, most of the "Dark Lady" sonnets would 
have played out before writing LLL, possibly 1592-93.  Herbert was 
between 12 to 14 at the time.  Wouldn't he have been too young at this 
point to have been the recipient, especially with the first seventeen 
begging him to marry? Any elaboration is greatly appreciated.

Regards
Jon Ciccarelli

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