He believed with the majority of critics that Lord William Herbert was addressed in the first series of Sonnets; but his fine sensibility or, if you will, his peculiar temperament, led him to question whether Thorpe's dedication to "Mr.
W.H." could have been addressed to Lord William Herbert.

He preferred the old hypothesis that the dedication was addressed to a young actor named Mr.William Hughes, a supposition which is supported by a well-known sonnet.

He set forth this idea with much circumstance and considerable ingenuity in an article which he sent to me for publication in _The Fortnightly Review_.

The theme was scabrous; but his treatment of it was scrupulously reserved and adroit and I saw no offence in the paper, and to tell the truth, no great ability in his handling of the subject.[9] He had talked over the article with me while he was writing it, and I told him that I thought the whole theory completely mistaken.
Shakespeare was as sensual as one could well be; but there was no evidence of abnormal vice; indeed, all the evidence seemed to me to be against this universal belief.

The assumption that the dedication was addressed to Lord William Herbert I had found it difficult to accept, at first; the wording of it is not only ambiguous but familiar.