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Article: Did you write a Shakespearean sonnet?
- Article from:
- Word Ways
- Article date:
- August 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Jeremiah Farrell. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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One can divide humanity into two groups--those who can be identified as the real author of a Shakespearean sonnet, and those who cannot. Willard Espy revealed in his book The Word's Gotten Out (Clarkson Potter, 1989) the method for establishing authorship: look for the first letter of a name anywhere in the first line of a given sonnet, the second letter of the name anywhere in the second line of the same sonnet, and so on until the full name is spelled out. Sure enough, WILLARD ESPY appears in Sonnet 114:
or Whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you,
drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery?
or whether shaLl I say mine eye saith true,
and ...