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  • Essay / The outcome of courtly love: responses to the Petrarchan form in Wyatt, Sidney and Shakespeare

    When Sir Thomas Wyatt decided to introduce the sonnet to England, the result was unexpected to say the least. While Wyatt was known for his lighter mysteries, songs, and satires, he nonetheless made the surprising choice to focus on a brooding genre so far from his wheelhouse. Although the English Renaissance sonnet is often studied as an isolated genre, it is the composition of Petrarch's model and its careful arrangement in sequence that establishes an expectation, thereby proving the debt of English sequences to Petrarch. The study of the English sonnet therefore depends on understanding its Italian foundations. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayThe original sequences followed a formal progression, revealing the poet's intention. Francesco Petrarca, the original sonnet, illustrates the ideals of courtly love by apotheosizing Laura, a married woman constantly out of his reach. Similar to a hymn to love, although without counterpart, his poetry seems inspired by a Troubadour style Ode. This classic sonnet is traditionally a rhapsody of a pure woman, whose beauty is incomparable. The form of the poem is as follows: a poem of fourteen lines, with lines written in iambic pentameter, rhyming abba abba cde cde, and divided into an octave and a seset. The eighth line tends to be the end of a thought, therefore naturally culminating with a syntactic stop. The aesthetic of Petrarch's sonnet lies in its mechanical form. Norman C. Strageberg argues that this form promotes a unified response to the poem in question. Unless the structure is organized in a way that creates a sense of cohesion, unity, and movement, the object cannot be perceived as pleasant. The arrangement of rhymes in their subgroups of quartets and tercets also provides a visual of unity that helps the reader have a perceptual understanding of the sonnet. This explains the longevity of the form, as it ticks all the right boxes. The first octave features the lover lamenting before an impassive beloved, while the following seset brings some transformation in the relationship between the beloved and the poet, whether it be a rejection, of acceptance or even death. The Petrarchan model is apparent but modified in later English sonnets, demonstrating the flexibility of its structure. The English form is usually composed of three quatrains and a couplet, and has an abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme. Although the sonnet is organized into three stanzas, the basic structure is composed of two parts, the first being laid out on the three quatrains, followed by a turn in line 13, and ending with the final couplet. It also establishes an out-of-reach object of affection that must be glorified, the quest to conquer it, and the eventual denouement of the narrative. The change is most apparent in the departure from the conventional plot and in the speaker's behavior. This suggests a derivation of the idea of ​​"courtly love" and proves that the form provides a malleable canvas for exploring the subject of love from all angles. One of the first features to move away from the Petrarchan form is the apparent disentanglement. on the speaker himself. Wyatt's "List of Whoso to Hunt" is a translation of Petrarch's "Una candida cerva," a sonnet in which the speaker enters into an ethereal dream encounter with a golden doe. The laurel behind the doe implies that it belongs to Caesar, meaning that it is spoken for and out of reach of the speaker. This does not prevent him from following her blindly until he falls into a stream, while she evaporates. Even if the speakeroriginal feels blessed to have had this vision, Wyatt's version seems bitter. This is a vague translation, to say the least, because it removes most of the otherworldly imagery and leaves room for cynical disillusionment: Who is on the hunt list, I know where a doe is, but as for me , alas, I can no longer do it. The vain work has worried me so much that I am one of those who come furthest behind. (Wyatt. “Whoever announces a hunt.” 1-4) The speaker here is caught in a grueling doe hunt, believed to be Anne Boleyn, as her jeweled collar suggests that she has an owner identified as Caesar, a likely comparison with Henry VIII. The poem was most likely written while Boleyn was still alive, which adds a worrying element to its proprietary status. Given the awkward pacing, the translation insinuates a complete deconstruction of the original to adapt it to English, and even appears as a distant interpretation. The awkwardness of the meter may be a deliberate choice to show frustration with Petrarch. The original poem is melodic and written in language that expresses only gratitude after meeting. Wyatt, on the other hand, is deliberately crude with his language, and the first line of the sonnet highlights this, as it is not typical pentameter. The speaker is transparent with his hurt feelings because he does not romanticize his pursuit. He is exhausted, but cannot seem to stop himself from continuing the chase, as evidenced by the strides that illustrate his breathless but inflexible state. He keeps running, even though he knows it's in vain. The final verse presents a warning to other suitors "Noli me tangere, for Caesar I am, / And wild to hold, though I seem tame." (Wyatt. "Whoever proposes a hunt." 13-14) While the Petrarchan sequence celebrates the beloved and attempts to conquer him, the stakes do not depend on his success. Indeed, the speaker in the Petrarchan tradition does not express his desire, and his love is supposed to be pure, but the English poets gradually let it go. go beyond these constraints. Sir Philip Sidney writes his Astrophil and Stella sequence, describing his desire, in the guise of Astrophil, for the inaccessible Stella. Here, the chaste Stella being Lady Penelope Devereux, is the Petrarcha muse par excellence, who is compared to. a star and a “book of virtue”. Considering that Sidney was devastated when Devereux married Robert Rich, the future Earl of Warwick in 1851, and that she would later have an extramarital affair, going so far as to obtain a divorce, it seems strange that he would not Don’t revise Stella’s angelic figure. However, unlike a quintessential Petrarchan pretender, Sidney's Astrophil lacks self-control. In sonnet 71, “Who in the book shall know nature fairest,” the speaker's true nature appears in the final verse. Stella is described as a book of Virtue where “will he find the overthrow of all vices” (Sidney.71.5) and is elevated to the status of a quasi-goddess. Although he is a symbol of Virtue, Astrophil gives in to his carnal thoughts: “As quickly as your virtue bends this love to good: / “But ah,” cries Desire again, “give me food. » The disentangling of the form accompanies the disentangling of the will of the speaker. The presence of eye rhymes is significant, as they illustrate the poet's contradictory desires. The visual rhyme of “good” and “food” is perfect at first glance, but sounds completely wrong. Much like the poet's desire to keep up appearances, once subjected to even the slightest scrutiny, it collapses. A recurring theme in the English Renaissance sonnet is the gradual corruption of the Muse. The most striking departure from the Petrarchan ideal representation of the beloved figure concerns without