SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS

A substantial introduction precedes Rowses' presentation of Shakespeare's sonnets (""utterly intractable"") in which he has applied the ""historical"" method to clarify many of the conjectural areas-- not the identity of Shakespeare's mistress, but more primary matters. These include questions of ""dating and chronology"", of indicating the ""friend and then the rival poet"", and ""establishing their order"". On one page Rowse gives the original sonnet, with modern spelling and punctuation; on the facing page he paraphrases the sonnet in modern prose and includes shorter to longer commentaries. One can wonder whether scholars will accept this more readily than they did his recent biography.