A total of 156 numbered sonnets exist from Shakespeare’s work, in addition to six others that were featured within Shakespeare’s plays. However, it is believed he wrote others that did not survive the course of history. Of these 156, scholars have grouped them broadly into internal collections, the most prominent of which is the “Fair Youth sequence.” This encompasses Sonnets 1-126. The Fair Youth sequence is believed to be dedicated to a young man, though the man’s identity has been a point of contention among scholars and literary critics. What is known is that Shakespeare dedicated his sonnets to a “W. H.,” which many equate with the “Fair Youth” featured across the poems.

Among the suggested candidates are the Earl of Southampton, Henry Wriothesley; Earl of Pembroke, William Herbert; and stage actor William Hughes. Henry Wriothesley was a court noble and a friend of Shakespeare’s, to whom the poet dedicated his narrative poem “Venus and Adonis” (1593). Portraits exist of Wriothesley that show him to be fair and androgynous, qualities attributed to the subject of the sonnets. However, Wriothesley and Shakespeare were very close in age; the Fair Youth sequence suggests a substantial gap in age between the poet and his subject.