A Triptych for the Third Earl

Abstract

Shakespeare’s career as a poet took on a life of its own, in an environment as competitive as that of the theatre. Some evidence is on display in the rival-poet series; more can be found in Venus and Adonis and Lucrece, the two poems that Shakespeare dedicated to the third Earl of Southampton. Parallels between Sonnets and the narrative poems argue that the three works are a triptych, and that Sonnets’ fair youth was modelled, at least initially, on Southampton. Identifying the fair youth is significant not only in view of the poet’s promise to immortalise him; it helps us see Sonnets as the third of three interrelated works. This chapter discuss symbolism related to the number 3 (in such sonnets as 33, 66, and 99), the theme of theft in the sonnets, and the degree to which the fair youth can be identified as the Third Earl of Southampton, the young aristocrat to whom Shakespeare dedicated Venus and Adonis and Lucrece. Numerological analysis of the narrative poems and comparisons to the sonnets follows. The chapter concludes that the two narrative poems and the sonnets were at least initially intended as a group of related works for the third earl.