But sodaine storme did so turmoyle the aire,
And tombled vp the sea, that she, alas,
Strake on a rocke that vnder water lay.
O great misfortune, O great griefe, I say,
Thus in one moment to see lost and drownde
So great riches, as lyke can not be founde.
3.
Then heauenly branches did I see arise,
Out of a fresh and lusty Laurell tree
Amidde the yong grene wood. Of Paradise
30 Some noble plant I thought my selfe to see,
Suche store of birdes therein yshrouded were,
Chaunting in shade their sundry melodie.
My sprites were rauisht with these pleasures there.
While on this Laurell fixed was mine eye,
The Skie gan euery where to ouercast,
And darkned was the welkin all aboute,
When sodaine flash of heauens fire outbrast,
And rent this royall tree quite by the roote.
Which makes me much and euer to complaine,
40 For no such shadow shal be had againe.
4.
Within this wood, out of the rocke did rise
A Spring of water mildely romblyng downe,
Whereto approached not in any wise
The homely Shepherde, nor the ruder cloune,
But many Muses, and the Nymphes withall,
That sweetely in accorde did tune their voice
Vnto the gentle sounding of the waters fall.
The sight wherof dyd make my heart reioyce.
But while I toke herein my chiefe delight,
50 I sawe (alas) the gaping earth deuoure
The Spring, the place, and all cleane out of sight.
Whiche yet agreues my heart euen to this houre.
5.
I saw a Phoenix in the wood alone,
With purple wings and crest of golden hew,
Straunge birde he was, whereby I thought anone,
That of some heauenly wight I had the vew:
Vntill he came vnto the broken tree
And to the spring that late deuoured was.
What say I more? Eche thing at length we see
60 Doth passe away: the Phcenix there, alas,
Spying the tree destroyde, the water dride,
Himselfe smote with his beake, as in disdaine,
And so forthwith in great despite he dide.
For pitie and loue my heart yet burnes in paine.
6.
At last so faire a Ladie did I spie,
That in thinking on hir I burne and quake,
On herbes and floures she walked pensiuely.
Milde, but yet loue she proudely did forsake.
White seemed hir robes, yet wouen so they were,
70 As snowe and golde together had bene wrought.
Aboue the waste a darke cloude shrouded hir,
A stinging Serpent by the heele hir caught,
Wherewith she languisht as the gathered floure:
And well assurde she mounted vp to joy.
Alas in earth so nothing doth endure
But bitter griefe that dothe our hearts anoy.
7.
My Song thus now in thy Conclusions,
Say boldly that these same six visions
Do yelde vnto thy lorde a sweete request,
80 Ere it be long within the earth to rest.
SIR WALTER RALEGH (c. 1552–1618)
Ralegh was an explorer, statesman, poet, favourite of Elizabeth I and friend of Spenser. He wrote this commendatory sonnet for the publication of The Faerie Queene (1590), in which it was published. It may be the first mention in English literature of Laura’s grave and therefore merits inclusion in this collection.
A Vision Vpon This Conceipt of the Faery Queene
Me thought I saw the graue, where Laura lay,
Within that Temple, where the vestall flame
Was wont to burne, and passing by that way,
To see that buried dust of liuing fame,
Whose tumbe faire loue, and fairer vertue kept,
All suddeinly I saw the Faery Queene:
At whose approch the soule of Petrarke wept,
And from thenceforth those graces were not seene.
For they this Queene attended, in whose steed
10 Obliuion laid him downe on Lauras herse:
Hereat the hardest stones were seene to bleed,
And grones of buried ghostes the heuens did perse.
Where Homers spright did tremble all for griefe.
And curst th’accesse of that celestial theife.
Richard Edwards, The Paradise of Dainty Devices (1576)
This miscellany was clearly an attempt to compete with Tottel, and includes the writings of noblemen such as the Earl of Oxford, one of whose poems is presented below. It went through nine editions between 1576 and 1606. Edwards died in 1566.
EDWARD DE VERE, EARL OF OXFORD (1550–1604)
Edward de Vere, seventeenth Earl of Oxford, succeeded his father in 1562, but not being of age was assigned to the household of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, whose eldest daughter, Anne, he married. He led an extravagant and litigious life, including a duel with Sir Philip Sidney. He was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth and served as Lord Great Chamberlain at the coronation of James I. He was patron of a company of actors and was praised as a poet by the literati of the Elizabethan period.
P102: Cesare, poi che ’l traditor d’Egitto
84. Not attainyng to his desire, he complaineth
I am not as [I] seme to bee,
Nor when I smile, I am not glad:
A thrall although you count me free,
I moste in mirthe, moste pensiue sadd.
I smile to shade my bitter spight,
As Haniball that sawe in sight:
His countrey soile, with Carthage toune:
By Romaine force, defaced doune.
And Caesar that presented was,
10 With noble Pompeyes princely hedd,
As twere some iudge, to rule the case,
A floud of teares, he semde to shedd.
Although in deede, it sprong of ioye,
Yet others thought it was annoye:
Thus contraries be vsed I finde,
Of wise to cloke the couert minde.
I Haniball that smiles for grief,
And let you Caesars teares suffice:
The one that laughs at his mischief,
20 The other all for ioye that cries.
I smile to see me scorned so,
You wepe for ioye, to see me wo:
And I a harte by loue slaine dead,
Presents in place of Pompeyes head.
O cruell happ, and harde estate,
That forceth me to loue my foe:
Accursed be so foule a fate,
My choise for to profixe it so.
So long to fight with secret sore,
30 And finde no secret salue therefore:
Some purge their paine, by plaint I finde,
But I in vaine doe breathe my winde.
THOMAS WATSON (c. 1557–92)
Watson’s Hekatompathia, or a Passionate Century of Love (1582) has been advanced as a candidate for the first sonnet sequence in English, but its typical 18-line sonnet form and its lack of poetic invention do not steal the laurel from Sidney. His Tears of Fancy (1593) do not advance his distinction as a sonneteer. He is mainly remembered for his Latin hexameter poem, Amyntas (1585), an adaptation of Tasso’s pastoral, Aminta. Abraham Fraunce translated Watson into English (1587) without acknowledging his source, and this version gained some popularity and is mentioned by Spenser. Watson is also credited with The First Sett of Italian Madrigalls Englished (1590), from which the third poem (no. 4) in the selection comes; the first two poems are Sonnets 5 and 40 from Hekatompathia.
P132: S’amor non è, che dunque è quel ch’io sento?
If it bee not loue I feele, what is it then?
&nbs
p; If loue it bee, what kind a thing is loue?
If good, how chance he hurtes so many men?
If badd, how happ’s that none his hurtes disproue?
If willingly I burne, how chance i waile?
If gainst my will, what forrow will auaile?
O liuesome death, O sweete and pleasant ill,
Against my minde how can thy might preuaile?
If I bend backe, and but refraine my will,
10 If I consent, I doe not well to waile;
And touching him, whome will hath made a slaue,
The prouerbe saith of olde, Selfe doe, selfe haue.
Thus beeing tost with windes of sundry sorte
Through daung’rous Seas but in a slender Boat,
With errour stuft, and driu’n beside the porte,
Where voide of wisdomes fraight it lies afloate,
I waue in doubt what helpe I shall require,
In Sommer freeze, in winter burn like fire.
P134: Pace non trovo e non ò da far guerra
I ioy not peace, where yet no warre is found;
I fear, and hope; I burne, yet freeze withal;
I mount to heau’n, yet lie but on the ground;
I compasse nought, and yet I compasse all;
I lieu her bond, which neither is my foe,
Nor frend; nor holdes me fast, nor lets me goe;
Loue will not that I lieu, nor lets me die;
Nor lockes me fast, nor suffers me to scape;
I want both eyes and tongue, yet see and cry;
10 I wish for death, yet after helpe I gape;
I hate my selfe, but loue an other wight;
And feede on greefe, in lieu of sweete delight;
At selfe same time I both lament and ioy;
I still am pleasd, and yet displeased still;
Loue sometimes seemes a God, sometimes a Boy;
Sometimes I sincke, sometimes I swimme at will;
Twixt death and life, small difference I make
All this deere Dame befals me for thy sake.
P310: Zefiro torna e ’l bel tempo rimena
Zephirus breathing, now calls nymfs from out their bowres,
To play and wanton, in roubes of sundry flow’rs:
Progne chirpeth, and sweet Philomele recordeth:
And Flora seeing what the spring affordeth
Smyleth so sweetly, that heauen itself inflamed,
Greatly reioyceth to but heare her named,
The welkin, water, and earth are full of pleasure,
All creatures ioy in loue, as Natures treasure.
Clement Robinson, A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584)
A Handful of Pleasant Delights was a miscellany mainly of broadside ballads, collected by Clement Robinson, in whose name it was registered in 1566. It demonstrates that even broadside balladeers tried their hand at Petrarch.
P258: Vive faville uscian de’ duo bei lumi
The Louer being wounded with his Ladis beutie, requireth mercy. To the tune of Apelles
The liuelie sparkes of those two eyes,
my wounded hart hath set on fire:
And since I can no way deuise,
To stay the rage of my desire,
with sighs and trembling tears I craue
my deare on me some pitie haue.
In vewing thee, I tooke such ioy,
As one that sought his quiet rest:
Vntill I felt the fethered boy,
10 Ay flickring in my captiue brest:
Since that time loe, in deepe dispaire,
all voide of ioy, my time I weare.
The wofull prisoner Palemon,
And Troylus eke kinge Pyramus sonne,
Constrained by loue did neuer mone:
As I my deer for thee haue done.
Let pitie then requite my paines,
My life and death in thee remaines.
If constant loue may reape his hire,
20 And faith vnfained may purchace:
Great hope I haue to my desire.
Your gentle hart wil grant me grace,
Til then (my deer) in few words plaine,
In pensiue thoughts I shall remaine.
HENRY CONSTABLE (1562–1613)
Like Barnabe Barnes, Constable wrote both a secular and a sacred sonnet sequence, the latter published only in the nineteenth century. His Diana appeared as a 22-sonnet sequence in 1592 and as a 76-sonnet sequence in 1594, containing eight of Sidney’s Certaine Sonnets. A manuscript version containing 63 sonnets was edited by Joan Grundy. Constable was connected on both sides of his family to nobility, and served on diplomatic missions for Elizabeth I, James VI and Henry of Navarre. Although he began his career as a pro-Huguenot Protestant, he soon became an ardent defender of the Church of Rome, and used his social position to further the cause of a Roman Catholic ecumenism that failed. Sonnets 1, 3 and 6 from Diana.
P248: Chi vuol veder quantunque pò Natura
The second 7 of his Ladies prayse. An exhortation to the reader to come and see his Mistrisse beautie
Eyes curiouse to behold what nature can create
Come see come see and write what wonder yow doe see
Causing by true reporte oure next posteritye.
Curse fortune for that they were borne to late
Come then and come ye all, come soone least that
The tyme should be to shorte and men to few should be
For all be few to write her least parts historie
Though they should euer write and neuer write but that
millions looke on her eyes millions thinke on her witte
10 millions speake of her [lip] millions write of her hand
The whole eye or the lip I doe not vnderstand
Millions to few to prayse but some one parte of it
As eyther of her ey or lip or hand to write
The light or blacke the tast or red the soft or white
P84: Occhi, piangete, accompagnate il core
My reason absent did myne eyes require
To watch and ward and such foes to descrie
As neare my heart they should approaching spy
But traytoure eyes my hearts death did conspire
Corrupted with hopes guifts let in desire
To burne my heart and sought no remedie
Though store of water were in eyther eye
Which well employ’d might well haue quencht the fir,
Reason returned, loue and fortune made
10 Iudges, to iudge myne eyes to punishment
Fortune (sith they by sight my heart betrayd)
From wished sight adiudgd them banishment
Loue (sith by fire murdred my hearte was found)
Adiudged them in teares for to be drown’d
P334: S’onesto amor pò meritar mercede
If true loue might true loues reward obtayne
Dumbe wonder onlye could speake of my ioy
But to much worth hath made thee to much coy
And told me longe agoe I lou’d in vayne
Not then vayne hope of vndeserued gaine
Hath made me paint in verses myne annoye
But for thy pleasure that thow mightst enioy
Thy beauties sight in glasses of my payne
See then thy selfe though me thow wilt not heare
10 By looking on my verse (for payne in verse
Loue doth in payne, beautie in loue appeare)
So if thou wilt my verses meaning see
Expound them thus when I my loue rehearse
None loues like him that is none fayre like mee
SAMUEL DANIEL (c. 1562–1619)
Daniel was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and became tutor to William Herbert, thus gaining access to the circle of the Countess of Pembroke at Wilton. Twenty-eight of his sonnets appeared in the surreptitious 1591 edition of Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella, but in 1592 his Delia… with the Complaint of Rosemond appeared and was constantly revised and augmented until 1601. Like Sidney,
Daniel absorbed the Petrarchan grammar and idiom without having to translate Petrarch. The first sonnet selected here is as close to a translation as he gets, but the second shows what Daniel can do on his own with the Petrarchan language. Sonnets 6 and 7 from Delia.
P297: Due gran nemiche inseme erano agiunte
Faire is my Loue, and cruell as she’s faire;
Her browshades frownes, although her eyes are sunny;
Her Smiles are lightning, though her pride dispaire,
And her disdaines are gall, her fauours hunny.
A modest maide, deckt with a blush of honour,
Whose feete doe tread greene pathes of youth and loue,
The wonder of all eyes that looke vppon her:
Sacred on earth, design’d a Saint aboue,
Chastitie and beautie, which were deadly foes,
10 Liue reconciled friends within her brow:
And had she pittie, to conioine with those,
Then who had heard the plaints I vtter now?
For had she not been faire, and thus vnkinde,
My Muse had slept, and none had knowne my minde.
For had she not bene faire and thus vnkinde,
Then had no finger pointed at my lightnes:
The world had neuer knowne what I do finde,
And Clowdes obscure had shaded still her brightnes.
Then had no Censors eye these lines suruaid,
20 Nor grauer browes have judg’d my Muse so vaine;
No sunne my blush and errour had bewraied,
Nor yet the world had heard of such disdaine.
Then had I walkt with bold erected face,
No downe-cast looke had signified my misse:
But my degraded hopes, with such disgrace
Did force me grone out griefes, and vtter this.
For being full, should I not then haue spoken:
My sence, oppress’d, had fail’d, and hart had broken.
THOMAS LODGE (c. 1558–1625)
Lodge may be the perfect exemplar of the Elizabethan litterateur. Educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, Trinity College, Oxford, and Lincoln’s Inn, he turned to literary productions, such as a reply to Stephen Gosson’s School of Abuse in his Defense of Plays (1580), the epyllion, Scilla’s Metamorphosis (1589), his prose romance, Rosalynde (1590; the source of Shakespeare’s As You Like It), his sonnet sequence, Phillis (1593), and the satire, A Fig for Momus (1595). After 1600, he turned to the practice of medicine, with medical degrees from Avignon and Oxford. The first poem in this selection comes from Rosalynde, the second from Phillis and the last is after Ronsard’s Amours, 1.12.
Petrarch in English Page 15
