The Letters of Junius

Abstract

The Letters of Junius are like the Sonnets of Shakespeare in one respect, that they have provided material to create a major mystery in our literature and an immense amount of argumentation, largely superfluous. There was indeed far more reason for it in the case of the Letters of Junius, for their authorship was an extraordinarily well-kept secret. There has never been any doubt as to the authorship of the Sonnets, and the bulk of informed opinion has always held that they were written to and for the obvious person, Shakespeare’s patron, Southampton, and that the only possible rival poet was Marlowe. Nonsensical conjectures all over the place, with no sense of time, dating or character, hallooing after a supposititious inspirer, Mr. W. H. — when they are the obvious initials of the person who had got the manuscript — are entirely modern and fabricate a needless mystery.