honour of the admirable and singular virtues of his Lady.' This
collection of fifty-three sonnets is dedicated to the wife of Sir Richard
Mollineux. Fletcher makes no concealment that his sonnets are literary
exercises. 'For this kind of poetry,' he tells the reader, 'I did it to
try my humour;' and on the title-page he notes that the work was written
'to the imitation of the best Latin poets and others.' {433b}
Lodge's 'Phillis,' 1593.
The most notable contribution to the sonnet-literature of 1593 was Thomas
Lodge's 'Phillis Honoured with Pastoral Sonnets, Elegies, and Amorous
Delights.' {433c} Besides forty sonnets, some of which exceed fourteen
lines in length and others are shorter, there are included three elegies
and an ode. Desportes is Lodge's chief master, but he had recourse to
Ronsard and other French contemporaries. How servile he could be may be
learnt from a comparison of his Sonnet xxxvi. with Desportes's sonnet
from 'Les Amours de Diane,' livre II. sonnet iii.
Thomas Lodge's Sonnet xxxvi. runs thus:
If so I seek the shades, I presently do see
The god of love forsake his bow and sit me by;
If that I think to write, his Muses pliant be;
If so I plain my grief, the wanton boy will cry.
If I lament his pride, he doth increase my pain
If tears my cheeks attaint, his cheeks are moist with moan
If I disclose the wounds the which my heart hath slain,
He takes his fascia off, and wipes them dry anon.
If so I walk the woods, the woods are his delight;
If I myself torment, he bathes him in my blood;
He will my soldier be if once I wend to fight,
If seas delight, he steers my bark amidst the flood.
In brief, the cruel god doth never from me go,
But makes my lasting love eternal with my woe.
Desportes wrote in 'Les Amours de Diane,' book II. sonnet iii.:
Si ie me sies l'ombre, aussi soudainement
Amour, laissant son arc, s'assiet et se repose:
Si ie pense a des vers, ie le voy qu'il compose:
Si ie plains mes douleurs, il se plaint hautement.
Si ie me plains du mal, il accroist mon tourment:
Si ie respan des pleurs, son visage il arrose:
Si ie monstre la playe en ma poitrine enclose,
Il defait son bandeau l'essuyant doucement.
Si ie vay par les bois, aux bois il m'accompagne:
Si ie me suis cruel, dans mon sang il se bagne:
Si ie vais a la guerre, it deuient mon soldart:
Si ie passe la mer, il conduit ma nacelle:
Bref, iamais l'inhumain de moy ne se depart,
Pour rendre mon amour et ma peine eternelle.
Drayton's 'Idea', 1594.
Three new volumes in 1594, together with the reissue of Daniel's 'Delia'
and of Constable's 'Diana' (in a piratical miscellany of sonnets from
many pens), prove the steady growth of the sonnetteering vogue. Michael
Drayton in June produced his 'Ideas Mirrour, Amours in Quatorzains,'
containing fifty-one 'Amours' and a sonnet addressed to 'his ever kind
Mecaenas, Anthony Cooke.' Drayton acknowledged his devotion to 'divine
Sir Philip,' but by his choice of title, style, and phraseology, the
English sonnetteer once more betrayed his indebtedness to Desportes and
his compeers. 'L'Idee' was the name of a collection of sonnets by Claude
de Pontoux in 1579. Many additions were made by Drayton to the sonnets
that he published in 1594, and many were subtracted before 1619, when
there appeared the last edition that was prepared in Drayton's lifetime.
A comparison of the various editions (1594, 1599, 1605, and 1619) shows
that Drayton published a hundred sonnets, but the majority were
apparently circulated by him in early life. {435a}
Percy's 'Coelia,' 1594.
William Percy, the 'dearest friend' of Barnabe Barnes, published in 1594,
in emulation of Barnes, a collection of twenty 'Sonnets to the fairest
Coelia.' {435b} He explains, in an address to the reader, that out of
courtesy he had lent the sonnets to friends, who had secretly committed
them to the press. Making a virtue of necessity, he had accepted the
situation, but begged the reader to treat them as 'toys and amorous
devices.'
Zepheria, 1594.
A collection of forty sonnets or 'canzons,' as the anonymous author calls
them, also appeared in 1594 with the title 'Zepheria.' {435c} In some
prefatory verses addressed 'Alli veri figlioli delle Muse' laudatory
reference was made to the sonnets of Petrarch, Daniel, and Sidney.
Several of the sonnets labour at conceits drawn from the technicalities
of the law, and Sir John Davies parodied these efforts in the eighth of
his 'gulling sonnets' beginning, 'My case is this, I love Zepheria
bright.'
Barnfield's sonnets to Ganymede, 1595.
Four interesting ventures belong to 1595. In January, appended to
Richard Barnfield's poem of 'Cynthia,' a panegyric on Queen Elizabeth,
was a series of twenty sonnets extolling the personal charms of a young
man in emulation of Virgil's Eclogue ii., in which the shepherd Corydon
addressed the shepherd-boy Alexis. {435d} In Sonnet xx. the author
expressed regret that the task of celebrating his young friend's praises
had not fallen to the more capable hand of Spenser ('great Colin, chief
of shepherds all') or Drayton ('gentle Rowland, my professed friend').
Barnfield at times imitated Shakespeare.
Spenser's 'Amoretti', 1595.
Almost at the same date as Barnfield's 'Cynthia' made its appearance
there was published the more notable collection by Edmund Spenser of
eighty-eight sonnets, which in reference to their Italian origin he
entitled 'Amoretti.' {435e} Spenser had already translated many sonnets
on philosophic topics of Petrarch and Joachim Du Bellay. Some of the
'Amoretti' were doubtless addressed by Spenser in 1593 to the lady who
became his wife a year later. But the sentiment was largely ideal, and,
as he says in Sonnet lxxxvii., he wrote, like Drayton, with his eyes
fixed on 'Idaea.'
'Emaricdulfe,' 1595.
An unidentified 'E.C., Esq.,' produced also in 1595, under the title of
'Emaricdulfe,' {436a} a collection of forty sonnets, echoing English and
French models. In the dedication to his 'two very good friends, John
Zouch and Edward Fitton Esquiers,' the author tells them that an ague
confined him to his chamber, 'and to abandon idleness he completed an
idle work that he had already begun at the command and service of a fair
dame.'
Sir John Davies's 'Gullinge Sonnets,' 1595.
To 1595 may best be referred the series of nine 'Gullinge sonnets,' or
parodies, which Sir John Davies wrote and circulated in manuscript, in
order to put to shame what he regarded as 'the bastard sonnets' in vogue.
He addressed his collection to Sir Anthony Cooke, whom Drayton had
already celebrated as the Mecaenas of his sonnetteering efforts. {436b}
Davies seems to have aimed at Shakespeare as well as at insignificant
rhymers like the author of 'Zepheria.' {436c} No. viii. of Davies's
'gullinge sonnets,' which ridicules the legal metaphors of the
sonnetteers, may be easily matched in the collections of Barnabe Barnes
or of the author of 'Zepheria,' but Davies's phraseology suggests that he
also was glancing at Shakespeare's legal sonnets lxxxvii. and cxxxiv.
Davies's sonnet runs:
My case is this. I love Zepheria bright,
Of her I hold my heart by fealty:
Which I discharge to her perpetually,
Yet she thereof will never me acquit[e].
For, now supposing I withhold her right,
She hath distrained my heart to satisfy
The duty which I never did deny,
And far away impounds it with despite.
I labour therefore justly to repleave [_i.e._ recover]
My heart which she unjustly doth impound.
But quick conceit which now is Love's high shreive
Returns it as esloyned [_i.e._ absconded], not to be found.
Then what the law affords I only crave,
Her heart for mine, in wit her name to have (_sic_).
Linche's 'Diella,' 1596.
'R. L., gentleman,' probably Richard Linche, published in 1596
thirty-nine sonnets under the title 'Diella.' {437a} The effort is
thoroughly conventional. In an obsequious address by the publisher,
Henry Olney, to Anne, wife of Sir Henry Glenham, Linche's sonnets are
described as 'passionate' and as 'conceived in the brain of a gallant
gentleman.'
Griffin's 'Fidessa,' 1596. Thomas Campion, 1596.
To the same year belongs Bartholomew Griffin's 'Fidessa,' sixty-two
sonnets inscribed to 'William Essex, Esq.' Griffin designates his
sonnets as 'the first fruits of a young beginner.' He is a shameless
plagiarist. Daniel is his chief model, but he also imitated Sidney,
Watson, Constable, and Drayton. Sonnet iii., beginning 'Venus and young
Adonis sitting by her,' is almost identical with the fourth poem--a
sonnet beginning 'Sweet Cytheraea, sitting by a brook'--in Jaggard's
piratical miscellany, 'The Passionate Pilgrim,' which bore Shakespeare's
name on the title-page. {437b} Jaggard doubtless stole the poem from
Griffin, although it may be in its essentials the property of some other
poet. Three beautiful love-sonnets by Thomas Campion, which are found in
the Harleian MS. 6910, are there dated 1596. {437c}
William Smith's 'Chloris,' 1596.
William Smith was the author of 'Chloris,' a third collection of sonnets
appearing in 1596. {437d} The volume contains forty-eight sonnets of
love of the ordinary type, with three adulating Spenser; of these, two
open the volume and one concludes it. Smith says that his sonnets were
'the budding springs of his study.' In 1600 a license was issued by the
Stationers' Company for the issue of 'Amours' by W. S. This no doubt
refers to a second collection of sonnets by William Smith. The projected
volume is not extant. {438a}
Robert Tofte's 'Laura,' 1597.
In 1597 there came out a similar volume by Robert Tofte, entitled 'Laura,
the Joys of a Traveller, or the Feast of Fancy.' The book is divided
into three parts, each consisting of forty 'sonnets' in irregular metres.
There is a prose dedication to Lucy, sister of Henry, ninth Earl of
Northumberland. Tofte tells his patroness that most of his 'toys' 'were
conceived in Italy.' As its name implies, his work is a pale reflection
of Petrarch. A postscript by a friend--'R. B.'--complains that a
publisher had intermingled with Tofte's genuine efforts 'more than thirty
sonnets not his.' But the style is throughout so uniformly tame that it
is not possible to distinguish the work of a second hand.
Sir William Alexander's 'Aurora.'
To the same era belongs Sir William Alexander's 'Aurora,' a collection of
a hundred and six sonnets, with a few songs and elegies interspersed on
French patterns. Sir William describes the work as 'the first fancies of
his youth,' and formally inscribes it to Agnes, Countess of Argyle. It
was not published till 1604. {438b}
Sir Fulke Greville's 'Caelica.'
Sir Fulke Greville, afterwards Lord Brooke, the intimate friend of Sir
Philip Sidney, was author of a like collection of sonnets called
'Caelica.' The poems number a hundred and nine, but few are in strict
sonnet metre. Only a small proportion profess to be addressed to the
poet's fictitious mistress, Caelica. Many celebrate the charms of
another beauty named Myra, and others invoke Queen Elizabeth under her
poetic name of Cynthia (cf. Sonnet xvii.) There are also many addresses
to Cupid and meditations on more or less metaphysical themes, but the
tone is never very serious. Greville doubtless wrote the majority of his
'Sonnets' during the period under survey, though they were not published
until their author's works appeared in folio for the first time in 1633,
five years after his death.
Estimate of number of love-sonnets issued between 1591 and 1597.
With Tofte's volume in 1597 the publication of collections of
love-sonnets practically ceased. Only two collections on a voluminous
scale seem to have been written in the early years of the seventeenth
century. About 1607 William Drummond of Hawthornden penned a series of
sixty-eight interspersed with songs, madrigals, and sextains, nearly all
of which were translated or adapted from modern Italian sonnetteers.
{439a} About 1610 John Davies of Hereford published his 'Wittes
Pilgrimage . . . through a world of Amorous Sonnets.' Of more than two
hundred separate poems in this volume, only the hundred and four sonnets
in the opening section make any claim to answer the description on the
title-page, and the majority of those are metaphysical meditations on
love which are not addressed to any definite person. Some years later
William Browne penned a sequence of fourteen love-sonnets entitled
'Caelia' and a few detached sonnets of the same type. {439b} The dates
of production of Drummond's, Davies's, and Browne's sonnets exclude them
from the present field of view. Omitting them, we find that between 1591
and 1597 there had been printed nearly twelve hundred sonnets of the
amorous kind. If to these we add Shakespeare's poems, and make allowance
for others which, only circulating in manuscript, have not reached us, it
is seen that more than two hundred love-sonnets were produced in each of
the six years under survey. France and Italy directed their literary
energies in like direction during nearly the whole of the century, but at
no other period and in no other country did the love-sonnet dominate
literature to a greater extent than in England between 1591 and 1597.
Of sonnets to patrons between 1591 and 1597, of which detached specimens
may be found in nearly every published book of the period, the chief
collections were:
II. Sonnets to patrons, 1591-7.
A long series of sonnets prefixed to 'Poetical Exercises of a Vacant
Hour' by King James VI of Scotland, 1591; twenty-three sonnets in Gabriel
Harvey's 'Four Letters and certain Sonnets touching Robert Greene'
(1592), including Edmund Spenser's fine sonnet of compliment addressed to
Harvey; a series of sonnets to noble patronesses by Constable circulated
in manuscript about 1592 (first printed in 'Harleian Miscellany,' 1813,
ix. 491); six adulatory sonnets appended by Barnabe Barnes to his
'Parthenophil' in May 1593; four sonnets to 'Sir Philip Sidney's soul,'
prefixed to the first edition of Sidney's 'Apologie for Poetrie' (1595);
seventeen sonnets which were originally prefixed to the first edition of
Spenser's 'Faerie Queene,' bk. i.-iii., in 1590, and were reprinted in
the edition of 1596; {440} sixty sonnets to peers, peeresses, and
officers of state, appended to Henry Locke's (or Lok's) 'Ecclesiasticus'
(1597); forty sonnets by Joshua Sylvester addressed to Henry IV of France
'upon the late miraculous peace in Fraunce' (1599); Sir John Davies's
series of twenty-six octosyllabic sonnets, which he entitled 'Hymnes of
Astraea,' all extravagantly eulogising Queen Elizabeth (1599).
III. Sonnets on philosophy and religion.
The collected sonnets on religion and philosophy that appeared in the
period 1591-7 include sixteen 'Spirituall Sonnettes to the honour of God
and Hys Saynts,' written by Constable about 1593, and circulated only in
manuscript; these were first printed from a manuscript in the Harleian
collection (5993) by Thomas Park in 'Heliconia,' 1815, vol. ii. In 1595
Barnabe Barnes published a 'Divine Centurie of Spirituall Sonnets,' and,
in dedicating the collection to Toby Matthew, bishop of Durham, mentions
that they were written a year before, while travelling in France. They
are closely modelled on the two series of 'Sonnets Spirituels' which the
Abbe Jacques de Billy published in Paris in 1573 and 1578 respectively.
A long series of 'Sonnets Spirituels' written by Anne de Marquets, a
sister of the Dominican Order, who died at Poissy in 1598, was first
published in Paris in 1605. In 1594 George Chapman published ten sonnets
in praise of philosophy, which he entitled 'A Coronet for his Mistress
Philosophy.' In the opening poem he states that his aim was to dissuade
poets from singing in sonnets 'Love's Sensual Empery.' In 1597 Henry
Locke (or Lok) appended to his verse-rendering of Ecclesiastes {441a} a
collection of 'Sundrie Sonets of Christian Passions, with other
Affectionate Sonets of a Feeling Conscience.' Lok had in 1593 obtained a
license to publish 'a hundred Sonnets on Meditation, Humiliation, and
Prayer,' but that work is not extant. In the volume of 1597 his sonnets
on religious or philosophical themes number no fewer than three hundred
and twenty-eight. {441b}
Thus in the total of sonnets published between 1591 and 1597 must be
included at least five hundred sonnets addressed to patrons, and as many
on philosophy and religion. The aggregate far exceeds two thousand.
X.--BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON THE SONNET IN FRANCE, 1550-1600.
Ronsard (1524-1585) and 'La Pleiade.' Desportes (1546-1606).
In the earlier years of the sixteenth century Melin de Saint-Gelais
(1487-1558) and Clement Marot (1496-1544) made a few scattered efforts at
sonnetteering in France; and Maurice Seve laid down the lines of all
sonnet-sequences on themes of love in his dixains entitled 'Delie'
(1544). But it was Ronsard (1524-1585), in the second half of the
century, who first gave the sonnet a pronounced vogue in France. The
sonnet was handled with the utmost assiduity not only by Ronsard, but by
all the literary comrades whom he gathered round him, and on whom he
bestowed the title of 'La Pleiade.' The leading aim that united Ronsard
and his friends was the re-formation of the French language and
literature on classical models. But they assimilated and naturalised in
France not only much that was admirable in Latin and Greek poetry, {442a}
but all that was best in the recent Italian literature. {442b} Although
they were learned poets, Ronsard and the majority of his associates had a
natural lyric vein, which gave their poetry the charms of freshness and
spontaneity. The true members of 'La Pleiade,' according to Ronsard's
own statement, were, besides himself, Joachim du Bellay (1524-1560);
Estienne Jodelle (1532-1573); Remy Belleau (1528-1577); Jean Dinemandy,
usually known as Daurat or Dorat (1508-1588), Ronsard's classical teacher
in early life; Jean-Antoine de Baif (1532-1589); and Ponthus de Thyard
(1521-1605). Others of Ronsard's literary allies are often loosely
reckoned among the 'Pleiade.' These writers include Jean de la Peruse
(1529-1554), Olivier de Magny (1530-1559), Amadis Jamyn (1538?-1585),
Jean Passerat (1534-1602), Philippe Desportes (1546-1606), Estienne
Pasquier (1529-1615), Scevole de Sainte-Marthe (1536-1623), and Jean
Bertaut (1552-1611). These subordinate members of the 'Pleiade' were no
less devoted to sonnetteering than the original members. Of those in
this second rank, Desportes was most popular in France as well as in
England. Although many of Desportes's sonnets are graceful in thought
and melodious in rhythm, most of them abound in overstrained conceits.
Not only was Desportes a more slavish imitator of Petrarch than the
members of the 'Pleiade,' but he encouraged numerous disciples to
practise 'Petrarchism,' as the imitation of Petrarch was called, beyond
healthful limits. Under the influence of Desportes the French sonnet
became, during the latest years of the sixteenth century, little more
than an empty and fantastic echo of the Italian.
Chief collections of French sonnets published between 1550 and 1584.
The following statistics will enable the reader to realise how closely
the sonnetteering movement in France adumbrated that in England. The
collective edition in 1584 of the works of Ronsard, the master of the
'Pleiade,' contains more than nine hundred separate sonnets arranged
under such titles as 'Amours de Cassandre,' 'Amours de Marie,' 'Amours
pour Astree,' 'Amours pour Helene;' besides 'Amours Divers' and 'Sonnets
Divers,' complimentary addresses to friends and patrons. Du Bellay's
'Olive,' a collection of love sonnets, first published in 1549, reached a
total of a hundred and fifteen. 'Les Regrets,' Du Bellay's sonnets on
general topics, some of which Edmund Spenser first translated into
English, numbered in the edition of 1565 a hundred and eighty-three. De
Baif published two long series of sonnets, entitled respectively 'Les
Amours de Meline' (1552) and 'Les Amours de Francine' (1555). Amadis
Jamyn was responsible for 'Les Amours d'Oriane,' 'Les Amours de
Calliree,' and 'Les Amours d'Artemis' (1575). Desportes's 'Premieres
OEuvres' (1575), a very popular book in England, included more than three
hundred sonnets--a hundred and fifty being addressed to Diane, eighty-six
to Hippolyte, and ninety-one to Cleonice. Ponthus de Thyard produced
between 1549 and 1555 three series of his 'Erreurs Amoureuses,' sonnets
addressed to Pasithee, and Belleau brought out a volume of 'Amours' in
1576.
Minor collections of French sonnets published between 1553 and 1605.
Among other collections of sonnets published by less known writers of the
period, and arranged here according to date of first publication, were
those of Guillaume des Autels, 'Amoureux Repos' (1553); Olivier de Magny,
'Amours, Soupirs,' &c. (1553, 1559); Louise Labe, 'OEuvres' (1555);
Jacques Tahureau, 'Odes, Sonnets,' &c. (1554, 1574); Claude de Billet,
'Amalthee,' a hundred and twenty-eight love sonnets (1561); Vauquelin de
la Fresnaye, 'Foresteries' (1555 et annis seq.); Jacques Grevin, 'Olympe'
(1561); Nicolas Ellain, 'Sonnets' (1561); Scevole de Sainte-Marthe,
'OEuvres Francaises' (1569, 1579); Estienne de la Boetie, 'OEuvres'
(1572), and twenty-nine sonnets published with Montaigne's 'Essais'
(1580); Jean et Jacques de la Taille, 'OEuvres' (1573); Jacques de Billy,
'Sonnets Spirituels' (first series 1573, second series 1578); Estienne
Jodelle 'OEuvres Poetiques' (1574); Claude de Pontoux, 'Sonnets de
l'Idee' (1579); Les Dames des Roches, 'OEuvres' (1579, 1584); Pierre de
Brach, 'Amours d'Aymee' (_circa_ 1580); Gilles Durant, 'Poesies'--sonnets
to Charlotte and Camille (1587, 1594); Jean Passerat, 'Vers . . .
d'Amours' (1597); and Anne de Marquet, who died in 1588, 'Sonnets
Spirituels' (1605). {445}
INDEX.
A
Abbey, Mr. E. A., 342
Abbott, Dr. E. A., 364
Actor, Shakespeare as an, 43-45
_See also_ Roles, Shakespeare's
Actors: entertained for the first time at Stratford-on-Avon, 10
return of the two chief companies to London in 1587, 33
the players' licensing Act of Queen Elizabeth, 34
companies of boy actors, 34 35 38 213
companies of adult actors in 1587, 35
the patronage of the company which was joined by Shakespeare, 35 36
women's parts played by men or boys, 38 and _n_ 2
tours in the provinces, 39-42
foreign tours, 42
Shakespeare's alleged scorn of their calling, 44 45
'advice' to actors in _Hamlet_, 45
their incomes, 198 199 and _n_ 2, 201
the strife between adult actors and boy actors, 213-17 221
patronage of actors by King James, 232 and _n_ 2
substitution of women for boys in female parts, 334 335
Adam, in _As You Like It_, played by Shakespeare, 44
Adaptations by Shakespeare of old plays, 56
Adaptations of Shakespeare's plays at the Restoration, 331 332
Adulation, extravagance of, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, 137 138 and
_n_ 2
AEschylus, Hamlet's 'sea of troubles' paralleled in the _Persae_ of, 13
_n_
resemblance between Lady Macbeth and Clytemnestra in the _Agamemnon_
of, 13 _n_
AEsthetic school of Shakespearean criticism, 333
Alexander, Sir William, sonnets by, 438
Alleyn, Edward, manages the amalgamated companies of the Admiral and Lord
Strange, 37
pays fivepence for the pirated Sonnets, 90 _n_
his large savings, 204
Allot, Robert, 312
_All's Well that Ends Well_: the sonnet form of a letter of Helen, 84
probable date of production, 162
plot drawn from Painter's 'Palace of Pleasure,' 163
probably identical with _Love's Labour's Won_, 162
chief characters, 163
its resemblance to the _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, 163
_For_ editions _see_ Section xix. (Bibliography), 301-25
America, enthusiasm for Shakespeare in, 341 342
copies of the First Folio in, 308 310 _n_
Amner, Rev. Richard, 321
'Amoretti,' Spenser's, 115 435 and _n_ 5, 436
'Amours' by 'J. D.,' 390 and _n_
_Amphitruo_ of Plautus, the, and a scene in _The Comedy of Errors_, 54
'Amyntas,' complimentary title of, 385 _n_ 2