Table of Contents
Preface; 1. Parentage and birth; 2. Childhood, education, and marriage; 3. The farewell to Stratford; 4. On the London stage; 5. Early dramatic work; 6. The first appeal to the reading public; 7. The sonnets and their literary history; 8. The borrowed conceits of the sonnets; 9. The patronage of the Earl of Southampton; 10. The supposed story of intrigue in the sonnets; 11. The development of dramatic power; 12. The practical affairs of life; 13. Maturity of genius; 14. The highest themes of tragedy; 15. The latest plays; 16. The close of life; 17. Survivors and descendants; 18. Autographs, portraits, and memorials; 19. Bibliography; 20. Posthumous reputation; 21. General estimate; Appendix: 1. The sources of biographical knowledge; 2. The Bacon-Shakespeare controversy; 3. The youthful career of the Earl of Southampton; 4. The Earl of Southampton as a literary patron; 5. The true history of Thomas Thorpe and 'Mr. W. H.'; 6. 'Mr. William Herbert'; 7. Shakespeare and the Earl of Pembroke; 8. The 'Will' sonnets; 9. The vogue of the Elizabethan sonnet, 1594-7; 10. Bibliographical note on the sonnet in France, 1550-1600; Index.
