That it is a hastily and carelessly tossed together conglomeration of left over literary odds and ends from a motley array of Elizabethan authors. For a long time I have had the impression of the Pilgrim as being a kind of strange meeting ground. A meeting ground between two poets whose twainness is really just a matter of names, and who are really one and the same. If my impression were based only on moonbeams and mist, then perhaps it would be important to me only. In my mind I see William Jaggard receiving the manuscript all at once, in one piece, the entire publication already carefully laid out.
Nothing is outspoken.
Everything is implicit or hidden. Part of the basic design of Pilgrim is the mixing of poems known to be by William Shakespeare and a number by Edward de Vere. Of course they are one and the same person, but not so far as the world in general knows now or knew then. For example, at least two of the poems, selections 17 and 20, were published in England's Helicon a year later under the signature of Ignoto. Ignoto is one of the known posies used by Edward de Vere.