A Life of William Shakespeare Part 35

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 n.o.ble patronesses by Constable circulated in ma.n.u.script 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 ent.i.tled '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 G.o.d and Hys Saynts,' written by Constable about 1593, and circulated only in ma.n.u.script; these were first printed from a ma.n.u.script 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 ent.i.tled '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 Pa.s.sions, 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 ent.i.tled 'Delie'

(1544). But it was Ronsard (1524-1585), in the second half of the century, who first gave the sonnet a p.r.o.nounced vogue in France. The sonnet was handled with the utmost a.s.siduity not only by Ronsard, but by all the literary comrades whom he gathered round him, and on whom he bestowed the t.i.tle of 'La Pleiade.' The leading aim that united Ronsard and his friends was the re-formation of the French language and literature on cla.s.sical models. But they a.s.similated 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 a.s.sociates 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 cla.s.sical 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 Pa.s.serat (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 t.i.tles as 'Amours de Ca.s.sandre,' '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, ent.i.tled 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 Pa.s.serat, 'Vers . . .

d'Amours' (1597); and Anne de Marquet, who died in 1588, 'Sonnets Spirituels' (1605). {445}