Supplementary Table 9. Occurrence of E O (or E OX) block letters formed by diagonal Vere
alignments or acrostics (DVAs) in 38 sonnet sequences composed by various 16th- and early 17thCentury British authors (from University Microfilm facsimiles except as noted). (Revised June 15, 2012)
No. of
sonnets
No. of sonnets with E O or
E OX (Listing)
R = E points right
L = E points left
(Unmarked: E = R or L)
Percent
With
E O or
E OX
Henry Howard (Lord Surrey),
Sir Thomas Wyatt, and unsigned
56
3
(Poems #14,50L,232L)b
5.4
Anne Locke
26
0
0.0
King James VI of Scotlandc
15d
2
(#2R plus “Sonnet
Decifring the Perfyte
Poete.”e)
13.3
Pandora
John Soowthernf
14g
2
(#1,10L)
14.3
1584
Vannetyes and Toyes
of his Youthe and The
Later Poemsh
Sir Arthur Gorges
38
7
(#16,53L,63R,75,81,110,
plus the second sonnet in
The Olympian Catastrophe)
18.4
1591
Astrophel and Stella
Sir Philip Sidney
108
6
(#4,13,43,55L,98R,102L)
5.6
1592
Delia
Samuel Daniel
54
3
(#34R,35R,53L)
5.6
1592
Diana
Henry Constable
23
4
(Dedication L plus
#6R,10L,17L)
17.4
1593
Licia
Giles Fletcher, the Elder
52
2
(#31R,40)
3.8
1593
Parthenophil and
Parthenophe
Barnabe Barnes
109i
10
(#26,42,53R,65L,66R,71,
72L,87,105,
plus #1 of 4 dedicatory
sonnets at end)
9.5
1593
Phillisj
Thomas Lodge
36k
3
(#18R,20,21R)
8.3
1593
Tears of Fancie
Thomas Watson
53l
25
(One prefatory sonnet R
plus
#17R,18,23,25R,26,27,29,
30R,31,33R,34R,35R,37,
38,39,44,45,46R,47,48,
57R,58R,59(2),60R)
47.2
Source
(abbreviated title)
Author(s)
1557
Songes and Sonettes
(Tottel’s Miscellany)
1560
Meditation Sonnets
1584
Essayes of a Prentise
1584
Yeara
Supplementary Table 9. (continued)
Yeara
2
No. of
sonnets
No. of sonnets with E O or
E OX (Listing)
R = E points right
L = E points left
(Unmarked: E = R or L)
Percent
With
E O or
E OX
William Percy
20
0
0.0
Michael Drayton
52
2
(Amours #27R, 34R)
3.8
Source
(abbreviated title)
Author(s)
1594
Coelia
1594
Ideas Mirrour
1594
Zepheria
Anonymous
35m
3
(Canzones #20,30L,39R)
8.6
1595
Amoretti
Edmund Spenser
89
8
(#2,15R,21,39,55,
64L,81,88)
9.0
1595
Cynthia
Richard Barnfield
20
1
(#5)
5.0
1595
Divine Centurie
Barnabe Barnes
100
7
(#2,3,18,20R,64,
83R,96)
7.0
1595
Emaricdulfen
E.C. Esquire
40
19
(#4,6,7,9R,10,13R,19R,
23,24R,25R,27R,28,29,
30,33,36,37,38,40)
47.5
1595
Epithalamiono
Sir John Davies
10
2
(Clio, Polyhimnia L)
20.0
1595
Ovid’s Banquet
George Chapman
10
0
0.0
1596
Chlorisp
William Smith
52
7
(2 dedicatory sonnets
Plus #23,24,36L,42L,46)
13.5
1596
Diellaq
R.L. Gentleman (= Richard
Lynche?)
38
16
(#1,3,4,5,11,14,16,21,23,
24,25,26,27,30,33,34R)
42.1
1596
Fidessa
Bartholomew Griffin
62
9
(#6,11,17R,19R,23,27,
31L,52,56L)
14.5
1597
Dedicatory Sonnetsr
Henry Lok
60
8
(#11,12,16,17,21,
23,27L,29)s
13.3
1597
Gullinge Sonnetso
Sir John Davies
10t
2
(#5,9R)
20.0
1597
Poemsu
Sir John Salusbury
24
2
(Sonetto #21,23)
8.3
Supplementary Table 9. (continued)
Yeara
Source
(abbreviated title)
3
Author(s)
No. of
sonnets
No. of sonnets with E O or
E OX (Listing)
R = E points right
L = E points left
(Unmarked: E = R or L)
Percent
With
E O or
E OX
1598
Celestiall Elegies &
Funerall
Lamentacions
Thomas Rogers
41
5
(Elegy quatorzains #1L, 15;
Maji Sonnet R; Author’s
conclusion L; Funeral
quatorzain #4L)
12.2
1598
Certain Sonnets
Sir Philip Sidney
14
0
0.0
1602
Idea
Michael Drayton
67
5
(#4,44R,46,58,66)
7.5
1604
Aurora
Sir William Alexander
105v
7
(#6,31,40,42R,79L,
94R,97)
6.7
1605w
Wittes Pilgrimage
John Davies of Hereford
103
4
(#10R,15,20R,51L)
3.9
1606
Amorose Songes,
Sonets, and Elegies
Alexander Craig
94x
4
(#1,2,21R,44R)
4.3
1611
Caelia Sonets
David Murray
27y
1
(#2)
3.7
1616
Coeliaz
William Browne
14
3
(#9,12,13)
21.4
1616
Poems (Parts I and II)
William Drummond of
Hawthornden
84aa
5
(#2R,20,45L,55R plus
“When with brave
Arte...”L)
6.0
1633
Holy Sonnets in
Poems by J.D.bb
John Donne
26cc
0
0.0
1633
The Temple
George Herbert
15
2
(H. Bapt. L plus Love #2R)
13.3
Totals:
1796
189
(10.54%)
% Ave.:
SD (pop):
11.59
11.57
Notes to Supplementary Table 9.
Notes:
a
Year of initial publication or estimated date of MS.
As numbered in Tottel’s Miscellany (1557–1587), Revised Edition, edited by Hyder E. Rollins
(Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1966).
b
c
Afterward, King James I of England. His authorship is indicated in a Latin 12-line prefatory
ACROSTICHON spelling IACOBVS SExTVS.
d
e
Includes three sonnets not in the numbered first twelve.
With two sets of ERd O block letters formed by 16 of the 20 DVAs that are present.
f
A pen name of Captain Morrys Denys according to Charles Wisner Barrell (Shakespeare Fellowship
News Letter, October 1943).
Includes a “Sonnet to the Reader”and 13 sonnets “To his Mystresse Diana”, but excluding “Foure
Epytaphes made by the Countes of Oxenford” and one “Epitaph made by the Queenes Maiestie”.
g
h
Printed transcriptions from the Egerton MS 3561 in The Poems of Sir Arthur Gorges edited by Helen
E. Sandison (Oxford, 1953). Incudes, besides the twenty-nine 14-line sonnets in Vannetyes and Toyes, four
such sonnets in The Later Poems (1599–1614) and five in The Olympian Catastrophe (1612).
i
Includes 26 sonnets with 15 lines.
As apparently first observed by Joseph Sobran (“Before He Was Shakespeare: Part Two,” The
Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter, Spring 2005), various lines and passages in Phillis are repeated verbatim
or closely imitated in the later sonnet sequence Chloris (1596) by William Smith.
j
k
Includes two “sonnets” with 12 lines (# 8 and #26), one sonnet with 15 lines (#17), and one sonnet
with 16 lines (#12).
Includes one prefatory sonnet and two 18-line “sonnets.” Published the year after Watson’s death, this
Tears of Fancie (or Love Disdained) sonnet collection contains numerous “borrowings” from A Hundreth
Sundrie Flowres (1573) and other sources. Sonnets #9 through #16 are missing in surviving copies. Sonnet
#60 is known from MS evidence to be by the Earl of Oxford. The first lines of the 25 sonnets with E O
block letters formed by DVAs are given in Supplementary Table 9A, where 11 have unequivocal ER
orientations and 14 have ER/L orientations, but none have EL orientations.
l
m
Includes two sonnets with 15 lines (#23 and 35) but excludes five canzones with 16 or more lines
(#1,2, 24, 36, and 40).
As pointed out by Michael Brame and Galina Popova in Chapter 11 of their Shakespeare’s
Fingerprints (Adonis Editions, Vashon Island, WA, 2002) and by Joseph Sobran (“Before He Was
Shakespeare: Part One,” The Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter, Winter 2005), the phraseology and syntax of
many of the Emaricdulfe sonnets bear strong resemblances and congruencies with many passages in
SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (1609) and other works of Shakespeare. Although written in the English style
rhyme scheme, these sonnets, unlike the original edition of Shakespeare’s, were printed in alternating line
indentations. The first lines of the 19 sonnets with E O block letters are given in Supplementary Table 9B,
where 13 have ER/L orientations and 6 have ER orientations, but none has an EL orientation.
n
4
Notes to Supplementary Table 9. (continued)
o
Printed transcription from MSS in The Poems of Sir John Davies, edited by Robert Krueger (Oxford,
1975). The holograph copy of the Gullinge Sonnets in the Chetham Hospital and Library MS A.4.15
(8012), published in English and Scottish Sonnet Sequences of the Renaissance, edited by Holger M. Klein
(Georg Olms Verlag, 1984, Vol. 1, pp. 271-283), has the same DVA alignments as the Krueger
transcription. The date of composition of the Gullinge Sonnets is uncertain, but it may have been as early as
1595 when Emaricdulfe appeared, since that name appears in one of them.
p
As mentioned in Note j above, many lines and passages in these Chloris sonnets of 1596 first appeared
in Phillis (1593) by Thomas Lodge.
q
The phraseology, imagery, allusions to nature, repetitions of words, and other characteristics of the
Diella sonnets are reminiscent of SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (1609) and passages in other poems of
Shakespeare. Although written in the English style rhyme scheme, these sonnets, unlike those of
Shakespeare, were printed with alternating line indentations like those of E.C.’s Emaricdulfe (cf. Note n
above). The first lines of the 16 sonnets with E O block letters formed by DVAs are given in
Supplementary Table 9C, where 15 have ER/L orientations, and only one has an ER orientation.
Sonnets “collected by the Printer” as appended to the 200 “Sundrie Sonets of Christian Passions”
following Lok’s paraphrase of Ecclesiastes.
r
Not numbered in the original printing. No. 12 is dedicated to the “Earle of Oxford.”
s
t
Includes prefatory sonnet to Sir Anthony Cooke.
u
In SINETES Passions uppon his fortunes ... etc. by Robert Parry, Gent. (London, 1597). Reprinted in
Poems by Sir John Salusbury and Robert Chester, published for the Early English Text Society, Vol. 113
(London, 1914).
v
Sonnet #86 is missing in the microfilm facsimile.
w
Most likely year of undated publication.
x
Unnumbered order. In the Hunterian Club printing of 1873 the four EO sonnets appear on pages 25,
26, 45, and 69, respectively.
y
Includes one opening and four additional dedicatory sonnets at the end.
z
In The Whole Works of William Browne, Vol. 2, collected and edited by W. Carew Hazlitt. The
Roxburghe Library, 1869.
Sonnets in “The Second Part” of Drummond’s Poems of 1616 include one from Teares on the Death
of Moeliades, nine from Urania, or Spirituall Poems, and six from Madrigals and Epigrammes.
aa
bb
In contrast to Helen Gardner’s dating of the composition of these sonnets to ca. 1607–1611 in her
John Donne: The Divine Poems, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1978), Dennis Flynn in the John Donne Journal (1988,
Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 35–46) presents evidence that at least some of them were written earlier, possibly in the
1590s.
Includes four additional “Holy Sonnets” in the edition of 1635 plus three in the Westmoreland MS
reprinted by Gardner (see Note bb above).
cc
5