Wriothesley's Roses in Shakespeare's Sonnets, Poems and Plays

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Summary: Very interesting read.
Review: "Wriothesley's Roses" central purpose is to discuss Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton, as The Rose of Shakespeare's sonnets. The author marshals much evidence, interpretation, and supposition (the latter being perhaps not such a solid thing, but still very interesting) to support his thesis. He makes a respectable case, and you probably will be pursuaded that The Rose is indeed Henry Wriothesley. I held back on the fifth star in rating this book because, frankly, the writing style was a bit dense. But overall, I recommend the book because it's an interesting topic and advances an interesting hypothesis.

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Summary: Green's Sleuthing Reveals much about Shakespeare
Review: Martin Green's WRIOTHESLEY'S ROSES IN SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS, POEMS AND PLAYS adds significantly to our information about Shakespeare, of whom few have been able to tell us very much. The book captures the social milieu of the times, mentioning almost everybody who was anybody. It focuses on the well-educated, politically active, and sexually ambiguous coterie surrounding the Earl of Essex and their influence on Shakespeare's knowledge and concepts. Green's thesis is that the third Earl of Southampton, Henry Wriothesley (pronounced Rose-ly) was the "thou, my Rose" to whom the sonnets were addressed, the inspirer of Shakespeare's red and white and Rose imagery. One cannot but be impressed by the amassed evidence, starting with the Wriothesly coat-of-arms and the architectural particulars of H.W.'s Titchfield home. For all who love sleuthing, this book is a must. Stylistically a delight, partly because of Green's ready, wry humor, the book argues its case with the cogency of a skillful lawyer, anticipating and covering all points of view. In his insightful interpretations of Shakespeare's writings, Green highlights the puns and dark conceits that he says were there for artistic reasons and not out of legal necessity to avoid revelation of homosexual or sodomitical content. The book concludes with a short, lyrical chapter describing an initial meeting of Shakespeare and Henry Wriothesley, so beautiful that one ardently hopes it was so. Mr. Green is also author of THE LABYRINTH OF SHAKESPEARE's SONNETS, London 1974.