Note 143b — IX—THE PATRONAGE OF THE EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON
Reading edition
Octavius Cæsar at thirty-two is described by Mark Antony after the battle of Actium as the ‘boy Cæsar’ who ‘wears the rose of youth’ (Antony and Cleopatra, III. ii. 17 seq.) Spenser in his Astrophel apostrophises Sir Philip Sidney on his death near the close of his thirty-second year as ‘oh wretched boy’ (l. 133) and ‘luckless boy’ (l. 142). Conversely it was a recognised convention among sonnetteers to exaggerate their own age. See p. 86, note.