Shakespeare as Author: The Sonnet Sequence

At the time he was active, Shakespeare was known as a poet and a playwright. He wrote two long, epic poems, 154 sonnets in a cycle, 38 plays, and some other poems. During his lifetime, many of his works were printed/published. The most common format was the quarto, or a small paperback book-sized publication. It wasn't until seven years after his death, in 1623, that the First Folio was published, which collected his plays into one volume the size of a coffee-table book.

The 1609 quarto

His sonnet cycle of 154 sonnets, though written as early as 1590 and possibly as late as the early 1600s, was not published until 1609 and then in what is assumed was an unauthorized format, probably because they were intended for a private audience and not to be published. Only thirteen copies of the sonnets quarto have survived; there was only one printing. The dedication page of the quarto has spurred all sorts of speculation:

TO.THE.ONLIE.BEGETTER.OF.
THESE.INSUING.SONNETS.
Mr.W.H.   ALL.HAPPINESSE.
AND.THAT.ETERNITIE.
PROMISED.
BY.
OUR.EVER-LIVING.POET.
WISHETH.
THE.WELL-WISHING.
ADVENTURER.IN.SETTING.
FORTH.
T.T.

The initials of T.T. are those of the publisher, Thomas Thorpe. It is widely believed that because his initials appear instead of Shakespeare's it means the publication was done without Shakespeare's authorization. If this is the case, it is an instance of the author not only not having any input into the publication of the work, but also one that possibly violates privacy, as the sonnets in the sequence are considered very private, emotional poems. It's also possible Shakespeare authorized the printing, but because May 1609 was a time of upheaval for the theatres in London, having been closed for the plague once again, Thorpe wasn't able to get final approvals and had to print without Shakespeare "signing-off" on them.

In any case, there was only one printing of the sonnet sequence until a 1640 printing in which the sonnets were rearranged. Two of the sonnets, 138 and 144, were published in a 1599 collection called The Passionate Pilgrim. This printing is interesting because the poems are all ascribed to Shakespeare, but are from a number of different authors. The appearance of the two sonnets in Pilgrim demonstrate these two, at least, were written far before 1609, and probably the sonnets surrounding them the 1609 quarto order, as they are thematically linked. It also demonstrates how little control over printing authors had, since it's unlikely Shakespeare had any involvement in Pilgrim; if he had, it's likely he would not have allowed other poems of dubious quality to be linked to his name.