A Passionate Pilgrim

Shakespeare is thought to have inspired only five of the 20 poems in William Jaggards "The Passionate Pilgrim" (1599) anthology, which was given the "W. Shakespeare" credit on the title page. These two sonnets, along with three other poems taken from the play Loves Labours Lost, were later included in the 1609 collection of Shakespeares sonnets. Shakespeare is not who is claimed to be on the title page, according to both internal and external evidence. During his lifetime, two were published in other collections under an anonymous name, and five were credited to other poets. While the majority of critics rule out the remaining poems as not being Shakespearean due to stylistic differences, Ward Elliott and Robert Valenzas stylometric analysis placed two blocks of the poems within Shakespeares style parameters. The Passionate Pilgrim was first published in octavo, probably in 1599 or possibly the year before. The first edition survives only in two sheets (poems 1-5, 16-18) preserved at the Folger Shakespeare Library. There are still two copies of the second edition (O2) from 1599. It is a collection of 20 poems that were first credited to William Shakespeare and was published in 1599 by William Jaggard.