Note 416 — APPENDIX
Reading edition
Professor Dowden (Sonnets, p. xxxv) writes: ‘It appears from the punning sonnets (cxxxv. and cxliii.) that the Christian name of Shakspere’s friend was the same as his own, Will,’ and thence is deduced the argument that the friend could only be identical with one who, like William Earl of Pembroke, bore that Christian name.