{"id":"01KG6S6VRV0ZYN0J7PDX9CTZFW","cid":"bafkreiapjgo6rpwysr3mj33fwtpxdxdqdlkyjayag7fxzhcxacuxhlct5i","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7188,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T06:24:48.288Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 12","source_file":"01KG6S2X2EBB305ENM00G16GWA","start_line":7161,"text":"A year before *The Passionate Pilgrim* appeared, it was announced that poems by Shakespeare were circulating ‘in private’. Shakespeare’s appreciative critic, Francis Meres, did more than write admiringly in 1598 of Shakespeare’s narrative poems, *Venus and Adonis* and *Lucrece*, which were accessible in print, and of a dozen plays, which were familiar on the stage to the theatre-goer. He made specific reference to writings by the great poet which were ‘held back from publishing’ and ‘kept in private’. These were vaguely described by Meres as Shakespeare’s ‘sugred Sonnets among his private friends, etc.’ The productions which Meres cloaked under his ‘etc.’ are not with certainty identified, but two of Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnets’ strayed into Jaggard’s net.\n\nThere can be no doubt that Jaggard, like his colleagues in trade when designing a miscellany, made it his chief aim to secure ‘private poems, sonnets, ditties, and other witty\n\n¹ It was not the first time that Shakespeare suffered such an experience, and the action of other publishers was even less justifiable than Jaggard’s. Already in 1595 *The Tragedie of Locriue* was attributed by the publisher, Thomas Creede, on the title-page to ‘W.S.’, with fraudulent intent. His surname figured on the title-pages of *The Life of Sir John Oldcastle*, 1600, *The London Prodigall*, 1605, *A Yorkshire Tragedie*, 1608, and ‘W.S.’ again in *Thomas Lord Cromwell*, 1602, and in *The Puritaine*, 1607. With none of these six plays had Shakespeare any concern. The worthless old play about King John was assigned to Shakespeare in revisions of 1611 and 1622.\n\n<!-- [Page 311](arke:01KG6QFYG1YSQM653P53071GS6) -->\n22\nTHE PASSIONATE PILGRIM\n\nconceits¹ by popular authors which had been ‘held back from publishing’ and ‘kept in private’. He depended for access to such treasures ‘according as they could be obtained by sight on favour of copying’. ‘Extant’ work was not excluded from his piratical undertaking. Eight of his pieces were already in print, but it seems probable that even in those cases he had met with the text in stray manuscript copies, and that he mistook them for ‘private’ instead of ‘extant’ compositions. There is no question that he was successful in acquiring two of the ‘private’ pieces by Shakespeare, the existence of which had been publicly vouched for by Meres. Three other poems by Shakespeare, which he included, were already in print, imbedded in a published play. But Jaggard was probably ignorant of the fact, and derived his text of these pieces also from independent transcripts in ‘private’ hands.¹\n\nOn the opening pages of his volume Jaggard set out two of that collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets which was not published until ten years later. The two sonnets are numbered, in the full edition of 1609, CXXXVIII and CXLIV respectively. Jaggard’s text differs at many points from that of the later volume. He clearly derived his text from detached copies privately circulating among collectors of verse. Thereby, in spite of his insolent defiance of the author’s rights or wishes, he rendered lovers of literature a genuine service.\n\nJaggard seems to have presented an earlier recension of the text than figured in the edition of 1609. The poet’s second thoughts do not seem to have been always better than his\n\n¹ Two careful analyses of the contents of *The Passionate Pilgrim* should be mentioned: one, by Mr. Charles Edmonds, is in the Isham Reprints—*The Passionate Pilgrime* from the First Edition, 1870; the other, by Professor Dowden, is in the photo-lithographic facsimile of the First Edition (Shakspere-Quarto facsimiles, No. 10).\n\nThe contents:\nShakespeare’s contributions.\n\nNos. I and II (Sonnets cxxxviii and cxliv).\n\n<!-- [Page 312](arke:01KG6QFYFDA8ESZMVB3W14BYK3) -->\nTHE PASSIONATE PILGRIM 23\n\nfirst. The text of the second, at any rate, of Jaggard’s sonnets is superior to that in Thorpe’s collection. In Jaggard’s first sonnet (No. CXXXVIII of 1609) he reads The first sonnet.\n","title":"Chunk 12"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6S4FQ9B05TDSVW2G3VD6WR","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6S2X2EBB305ENM00G16GWA","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6NWQ2H2K4PGG7H4ZHYCZ3Y","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6S6VRVE9EB6Q3YKHSXKAND","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6S6VRVK8JWGYA80TMAFQQP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T06:24:51.995Z","ts":"2026-01-30T06:24:57.078Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}