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Thorpe is thanking the dedicatee for being the ‘onlie begetter’ of the sonnets. But what does ‘begetter’ mean here, why are they the ‘onlie begetter’, and does that help us to solve the mystery of who ‘Mr. W. H.’ was?
The identity of Mr. W.H., "the only begetter of Shakespeare's Sonnets ", is not known for certain. His identity has been the subject of a great amount of speculation: That he was the author's patron, that he was both patron and the "faire youth" who is addressed in the sonnets, that the "faire youth" is based on Mr. W.H. in some sonnets but not ...
Here it is, so familiar, and so obscure: what an amazing production! There’s nothing remotely like it anywhere else in Elizabethan or Jacobean literature. What does it mean, for a start? What is it trying to tell us? The opening phrase is so well-known, “To the onlie begetter,” but how many people know that the spelling of “onlie” is very rare indeed? It could have been, in its tiny ...
The 154 sonnets were published in 1609 with an enigmatic dedication, presumably from the publisher Thomas Thorpe: “To The Onlie Begetter Of These Insuing Sonnets.
Because he is described as “begetting” the sonnets, and because the young man seems to be the speaker’s financial patron, some people have speculated that the young man is Mr. W.H. If his initials were reversed, he might even be Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, who has often been linked to Shakespeare in theories of his history.
The term 'onlie begetter' may signify the inspirer of the Sonnets (presumably the young man of 1-126, as discussed above), or it may simply refer to the procurer of the manuscripts from which they were printed; some commentators find other, more arcane possibilities.
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Was Thomas Thorpe the 'onlie begetter' of the sonnets?
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Is a male poet a 'begetter'?
The dedication is cryptic: "To the only begetter of these ensuing sonnets, Master W.H." who is wished "all happiness and that eternity promised by our ever-living poet" (odd if Shakespeare was still alive in 1609).
