Hopefully my reading notes may help in your Shakespeare journey.
~
The Portrait of Mr W. H. can be read as simply a fictional story; and yet, here the theory of Mr W. H.’s identity sounds plausible. My personal take is that Wilde supports Thomas Tyrwhitt's Willie Hughes theory in the form of a short story.
Wilde first sets out the premise that Mr W. H. is the inspiration of art and imagination for Shakespeare. To quote Wilde, Mr W. H. is ‘a vital factor in the development of his [Shakespeare’s] dramatic art’; Wilde believes the inspiration cannot be either Pembroke or Southampton, the traditional candidates, though Wilde doesn’t elaborate much on this point. Perhaps I can help do Wilde some justice; here is my elaboration. As there was a boys’ company working with the Blackfriars Theatre (an indoor theatre), Shakespeare might have met the boy-actor there. Yet, Wilde hasn’t offered any discussion on why we should dismiss the relationship between Shakespeare and Pembroke.
Wilde thinks Southampton may not be Mr W. H. because he was in love with Elizabeth Vernon at a very early age (21 or 22 years old). And he was not beautiful and didn’t resemble his mother. This line from one of the sonnets (‘Thou art thy mother’s glass’) definitely contradicts Southampton’s appearance.
Wilde’s theory is that Mr W. H. is a boy-actor called Willie Hughes. Though we cannot find his name on the acting list of the First Folio, Wilde thinks it actually strengthens his identity. Mr W. H. at some point deserted Shakespeare. Wilde thinks he had gone to act for Christoper Marlowe (Shakespeare's rival), who was lured by the boy-actor’s beauty. On Marlowe’s death, he returned to Shakespeare. I find Mr W. H.'s betrayal and treacherous desertion very plausible, though Southampton might have deserted Shakespeare in some way unknown as well (falling in love with Vernon?). To prove his point, Wilde draws our attention to Sonnet 86; one of the lines refers to Marlowe’s play Dr. Faustus: ‘affable familiar ghost / Which nightly gulls him with intelligence’. According to Wilde’s interpretation, the ghost (Marlowe) has lured away the boy with his dramatic talent from Shakespeare.
Meanwhile, Wilde points out there is a pun on ‘Hews’ (Hughes) in the sonnets. Hews is a surname related to music. When the Earl of Essex was dying, he asked a musician called Willie Hews (though not Shakespeare’s love considering the death year of the Earl of Essex) to play him the virginals. Wilde thinks perhaps this musician is somewhat related to Mr W. H., before expressing his uncertainty about the theory through his surrogate (the narrator) in the story.
~
Wilde’s strongest point, I think, is that some sonnets relate to Mr W. H. and his acting. When Shakespeare says he gives immortality to Mr W. H., he means that as he plays different roles across his canonical work, perhaps as Cleopatra or Juliet, people will remember him.
This bit from Sonnet 53 is about his vast acting range, capable of playing different roles:
‘Since every one hath, every one, one shade,
And you, but one, can every shadow lend’ *(shadow; shade: role)
While Sonnet 38 praises the boy’s performance giving life to Shakespeare’s verse:
‘How can my Muse want subject to invent,
While thou dost breathe, that pourst into my verse
Thine own sweet argument, too excellent
For every vulgar paper to rehearse?’