The Two Loves I Have

I remember, the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare that in his writing (whatsoever he penned) he never blotted out line. My answer hath been, would he had blotted a thousand. Which they thought a malevolent speech…
Ben Jonson

Shakespeare's Sonnets were published in a single volume in 1609, but people were reading them at least a decade earlier:

  • In 1598, Frances Meres (a rector, schoolteacher, and early literary critic) praised Shakespeare's "sugar'd sonnets among his private friends."
  • In 1599, two of the sonnets (138 and 144) were printed in a collection titled "The Passionate Pilgrim."

Between 1599 and 1609, he did some blotting-but not much.