is  the  "marriage  with  hisMuse,"an  expression  which

is  definitely  put  forward  in  Sonnet  LXXXII  where,

in  the  bitterness  of  his  heart  at  the  defection  of  the

boyactor  for  whom  he  had  written  his  greatest

parts,  and  whose  beauty  had  indeed  suggested

them,  he  opens  his  complaint  by  saying —

"I  grant  thou  wert  not  married  to  my  Muse."

The  children  he  begs  him  to  beget  are  no  children

of  flesh  and  blood,  but  more  immortal  children  of

undying  fame.  The  whole  cycle  of  the  early  sonnets

is  simply  Shakespeare's  invitation  to  Willie  Hughes

to  go  upon  the  stage  and  become  a  player.  How

barren  and  profitless  a  thing,  he  says,  is  this  beauty

of  yours  if  it  be  not  used:

"When  forty  winters  shall  besiege  thy  brow.
