These points he proves from the Sonnets themselves. As regards No. 1 he writes: "to look upon him as simply the object of certain love poems is to miss the whole meaning of the poems; for the art of which Shakespeare talks in the Sonnets is not the art of the Sonnets themselves, which indeed were to him but slight and secret things, it is the art of the dramatist to which he is always alluding. He proceeds to quote the lines: "Thou art all my art and dost advance As high as learning my rude ignorance." 2 and 3 effectually dispose of the pretensions of Pembroke and Surrey. 4. The theory of the very actor he praises by the fine sonnet:-- "'How can my Muse want subject to invent, While thou dost breathe, thou pour'st into my verse Thine own sweet argument, too excellent For every vulgar paper to rehearse? O, give thyself the thanks, if aught in me Worthy perusal stand against thy sight: For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee, When thou thyself dost give invention light? Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth Than those old nine, which rhymers invocate; And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth Eternal numbers to outlive long date.'" The name of the boy he discovers in the eighth line of the 20th sonnet, where W. H. is punningly described as-- "_A man in hew, all Hews in his contrawling_," and draws attention to the fact that "In the original edition of the sonnets 'Hews' is printed with a capital H and in italics," and draws corroboration from "these sonnets in which curious puns are made on the words 'use' and 'usury.'" Another point he touches on is that Will Hughes abandoned Shakespeare's company to enter the service of Chapman, or more probably of Marlowe. He proves this from the lines-- "But when your countenance filled up his line Then lack I matter; that enfeebled mine"-- as also "Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid My verse alone had all thy gentle grace, But now my gracious numbers are decayed, And my sick nurse does give another place"; and further by "Every alien pen has got my use And under thee their poesy disperse," and draws attention to the "obvious" play upon words (use = Hughes). Such in brief are the salient points of his argument, the limitations of space precluding me from amplifying the subject, but I strongly advise all those interested in the subject to read the whole article for themselves. It is undoubtedly one of the cleverest things Wilde ever did, and as a contribution to controversial English literature no student of letters can afford to overlook it. Some day perhaps the manuscript of the book will be discovered--in the library of a Transatlantic millionaire maybe--and the author's more matured and expansive investigations be given to the world. May that day come soon! PART VII THE PHILOSOPHY OF BEAUTY THE PHILOSOPHY OF BEAUTY