History of Sonnet
The Influence of Italian, Spanish, and French Sonneteers on the Elizabethan Sonnet
by Rahul Dhankhar*,
- Published in Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education, E-ISSN: 2230-7540
Volume 3, Issue No. 5, Jan 2012, Pages 0 - 0 (0)
Published by: Ignited Minds Journals
ABSTRACT
The sonnet continued to flower andflourish in Italy during the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries. By thesixteenth century, it had spread to Spain and France. It reached Englandthrough the work of Wyatt and Surrey in the first half of the sixteenthcentury. After their deaths, it was not practised for some years. Thus Sidneyled the way to a great outburst of sonneteering. Thus sonneteering became apopular habit, a conventional code, a modish artifect of gallanty andcompliment. No poet between 1590 and 1600 failed to try his poetic skill atthis poetic device. During those ten years, more sonnets were composed inEngland than in any other decade. Thus, the Elizabethan sonnet took two forms :(i) the Italian or Petrarchan; (ii) the English or Shakespearean form. Duringthis period, both kinds flourished to the full. But the English form of thesonnet flourished better than the foreign model. Wyatt began with a group of theItalian type. Surrey introduced the English form. The Elizabethan sonnets oweda great deal to the French sonneteers who had preceded them. It wascontemporary French, rather than older Italian influences which first stirredin the Elizabethan mind a fruitful interest in the sonnet. The firstinspiration came from Clement Marot the protestant French poet of the earlyyears of the sixteenth century, who was a contemporary to Wyatt and Surrey. Hestudied Petrarch with ardour, translated into French some of his sonnets andodes and made two or three original experiments in the sonnet form under thetitle of Esigrammar. After his death, Ronard and his companionscontinued writing sonnets. Thomas Watson was the earliest Elizabethan to make areputation as a sonneteer.
KEYWORD
sonnet, Italy, Spain, France, England, Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Elizabethan sonnet, Petrarchan sonnet
INTRODUCTION
(1) The Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet contains the following features:
An octave (eight lines) rhyming abbaabba A sestet (six lines) of varying rhyme patterns, such as cdecde or cdccdc. Sir Thomas Wyatt in the early 1500s first introduced the Italian sonnet into English. It rapidly became all the rage.
(2) The English (or Shakespearean) sonnet contains the following features:
Three quatrains (sections of four lines, also called "staves"): abab cdcd efef
A concluding couplet (two rhyming lines): gg. Sometimes, the concluding couplet after the turn is called the gemel. Note that, though this type of sonnet is called "Shakespearean," Shakespeare did not invent it. It was actually introduced by the Earl of Surrey and other English experimenters in the 1500s. Normally, the first part of the sonnet introduces a problem or question of some sort, which is developed in the first octave (in Italian sonnets) or the first three quatrains (in English sonnets). Then, there is a change in direction, thought, or emotion called a volta or a turn. The last sestet (in Italian sonnets) or the final couplet (in English sonnets) illustrates this change in direction, thought, or emotion. Shakespeare's sonnets are very different from other sonnets of the day. Each sonnet deals with a highly personal theme and every sonnet can be taken on its own or in relation to the poems around it. we don't know whether his sonnets deal with real events or not, because no one knows enough about Shakespeare's life, so we tend to refer to the voice of the sonnets as "the speaker"--as though he were a dramatic creation like Hamlet or King Lear. There are certainly a number of intriguing continuities throughout the poems. The first 126 of the sonnets seem to be addressed to an unnamed young nobleman, whom the speaker loves very much; the rest of the poems (except for the last two, which seem generally unconnected to the rest of the sequence) seem to be addressed to a mysterious woman, whom the speaker loves, hates, and lusts for simultaneously. The two addressees of the sonnets are usually referred to as the "young man" and the "dark lady"; in summaries of individual poems, I have also called the young man the "beloved" and the dark lady the "lover," especially in cases where their identity can only be surmised. Within the two mini-sequences, there are a number of other discernible elements of "plot": the speaker urges the young man to have children; he is forced to endure a separation from him; he competes with a rival poet for the young man's patronage and affection. At two points in the sequence, it seems that the young man and the dark lady are actually lovers themselves--a state of affairs with which the speaker is none too happy. But while these continuities give the poems a narrative flow and a helpful frame of reference, they have been frustratingly hard for scholars and biographers to pin down. In Shakespeare's life, who were the young man and the dark lady? Sidney entered the field very soon after Watson set foot there. He undoubtedly, is a pioneer among Elizabethan sonneteers. He may fairly be credited with marching at the head of the contemporary cavalcade of sonneteers. His collection of sonnets Astrophel and Stella was written between the years 1580 and 1584. They were not published till 1591. Sidney’s sonnets form a connected sequence. The poet, under the name of Astrophel, narrates the course of his love and passion for a lady to whom he gives the name of Stella. Thus the theme of the sonnet was nearly always love, the real or imaginary joys and sorrows of the love and his adoration of his mistress beauty. This is the theme of Sidney’s sonnets. He writes a whole series of sonnets, which together tell the story of a real incident in his life, his love for Stella who is Penelope Devereux, daughter of the Earl of Essex, and his disappointment.
CONCLUSION:
All sonnets are lyrics of 14 lines, iambic (unstressed/stressed syllables – heartbeat), pentameter (five iambs to a line). The two major forms of the sonnet are the Italian, also called the Petrarchan, and the English, also called the Shakespearean. Like much poetic literature, the sonnet has common figurative language and themes that we call conceits or conventions. Courtly love is the common feature of renaissance sonnets: Love is presented as torture, slavery, death, war, or a hunt. The lady is treated as a master or queen, a “cruel fair,” a celestial object (star, moon), a doe, a tyrant. The lady is praised for her virtue and her beauty. Commonly, the poet objectifies her body by singling out specific parts to honor and worship, such as her eyes, lips, breasts, and hands. The lady has power in her gaze and can destroy or inspire with a look. The poet will often make puns with his and his lady’s names. (See Petrarch’s sonnet below). The poet will often speak in apostrophe – a poetic device where one talks to an inanimate object, such as the moon or a dead person. The poet will engage in paradox: a statement that seems contradictory or absurd but may be true. This statement draws attention to something the poet thinks is important. (See Spenser’s sonnet about ice and fire – her ice enflames him and his fire freezes her). Hyperbole is used to express the poet’s emotions – exaggeration for effect.
REFERENCES
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