me; for hitherto I have been biassed by an impression that the sonnet is merely a form of literary trifling, not differing much from a conundrum in verse. I promise you to regard them

differently in future.”

“Ah, old friend, you are like the rest of the world. Few, even among those who affect to be thought 'literary,' are familiar with Sidney's sonnets; and it has happened on several occasions that when I have asked one of these if he had read 'Astrophel and Stella'—the title of Sidney's collected songs and sonnets-the reply showed me that it was thought I was speaking of some new novel.”

"Let me ask you, Professor, how many sonnets are contained in that collection, and also how they compare with those you just now recited ?”

"In 'Astrophel and Stella' there are one hundred and eight sonnets, besides a number of songs; but in addition to these he wrote sixteen others, chiefly amatory, which are to be found among his 'Miscellaneous Poems.' Some of these last, to which the two renouncing desire belong, are of decided merit. In reply to your other question, I remark that, although all the sonnets in 'Astrophel and Stella' are not as fine as those to which you have listened, still these are fair specimens, and were not selected because of their exceptional quality. Others among them are as good as these, some are superior to them, and some again are decidedly inferior; but I can assure you there is not one in the collection which will not reward the reader by some gentle, or graceful, or noble thought, some happy turn of expression, or some pleasing flight of fancy. Moreover, they are all models of pure and unaffected English: their orthography is greatly in advance of the time when they were written, and needs the slightest revision only to make it conform to our

Sidney's Verse inspired by Stella.

53

modern standard; and they are freer from the admixture of foreign and antiquated expressions, then so much in vogue, than almost any other productions of that period, save those of Shakespeare and Sir Walter Raleigh."

"Do you not think, Professor, that Sidney marred the otherwise almost perfect beauty of his invocation to Sleep by the trivial compliment to Stella in the concluding couplet? To me, it wears the appearance of an anti-climax."

"Your criticism is just, and I can offer no defence but the imperfect one, that the sonnet in question was one of a series addressed to and in praise of Stella. Spenser tells us in a tender elegy, entitled 'Astrophel,' which he wrote on Sidney's death, how exclusively the hero's muse was devoted to this, his first love. Says Spenser:

"Stella, the faire, the fairest star in skie,

As faire as Venus or the fairest faire,

(A fairer star saw never living eie,)

Shot her sharp pointed beames through purest aire.
Her did he love, her he alone did honor,

His thoughts, his rimes, his songs were all upon her.
To her he vowd the service of his daies,

On her he spent the service of his wit:

For her he made hymnes of immortal praise,

Of onely her he sung, he thought, he writ.

Her, and but her, of love he worthie deemed;
For all the rest but little he esteemed.'

If the lines to Sleep had been an independent sonnet—as were the stately ones to Desire-this blemish might not have occurred. And yet it must be remembered that Sidney did not place a high value on poetical renown. Protestations to this effect are profusely strewn over all his poems. For this rea

son, and often apparently solely to emphasize his indifference to applause, he intentionally belittled some of his most ambitious poetical productions. Though it does not cure these defects, or excuse his low estimate of poetical fame, yet it in a measure accounts for both to say that Sidney was essentially a man of action and affairs, a far-reaching and sagacious soldier and statesman, to whom poetry was a pastime in which he indulged in the intervals of his leisure from more engrossing, and, in his estimation, nobler pursuits."

"I cannot tell you, Professor, how loth I am to turn away from the contemplation of this 'soldier's, scholar's, courtier's eye, tongue sword,' of whom I remember Tom Nash wrote with unwonted pathos for his railing pen, ‘Gentle Sir Philip Sidney, thou knewest what belonged to a scholar; thou knewest what pains, what toil, what travel, conduct to perfection: well couldst thou give every virtue his encouragement, every art his due, every writer his desert, cause none more virtuous, witty, or learned than thyself. But thou art dead in thy grave, and hast left too few successors of thy glory, too few to cherish the sons of the muses, or water those budding hopes with their plenty, which thy bounty erst planted.' But we too must even say farewell to 'gentle Sir Philip,' else the afternoons that are left will be all too few for what remains to be told of his favorite, the sonnet."

"It will not be a violent transition," said the Professor, "from Sidney to Spenser; for he was of the same gentle and exalted strain, and was loved and befriended by him. Spenser's sonnets, like Sidney's, were almost exclusively of love; and, with the exception of those that were translations, were also, again like Sidney's, solely in honor of or addressed to the woman he loved; but whom, more fortunate than Sidney, he

Relation of the Sonnets and "Epithalamion." 55

afterward won to be his wife. Those sonnets which are peculiarly Spenser's own were collected by him under the title 'Amoretti,' and, together with his matchless nuptial song, 'Epithalamion,' were published in one volume. This poem, the most ornately beautiful in the language, he tells us, in 'The Faerie Queene,' is a 'song of joy and jollity;' and he thus describes the purpose for which it was written, in a sort of epilogue which forms its closing lines:

Song! made in lieu of many ornaments,

With which my Love should duly have been dect,

Be unto her a goodly ornament,

And for short time an endlesse moniment !'

In the sonnets which precede and usher in this glorious song Spenser gives a history of his courtship, in the course of which he recites the traits and perfections of his mistress, describes the progress of his love and the emulation for her favor, and depicts the alternations of his hopes and fears, till at length fear is vanquished by hope, the dark clouds are driven from his sky, and his soul is radiant with light and brightness. Then comes the 'Epithalamion,' fitting complement to the sonnets, breathing an ecstasy of gladness and bursting into an exultant strain of joy and triumph upon the happy termination of his wooing, in which he calls on muses, and nymphs, and dryads, and maidens of every degree, and all nature, animate and inanimate, to resound the praises of his Love, the while decking her with garlands and strewing her way with flowers, as they sing to her 'songs of joy and pleasure,' so 'that all the woods shall answer, and theyr eccho ring.' The Sonnets and the Epithalamion should always be read together, the latter being as nec

essary a sequence to the former as the marriage it celebrates is to honorable courtship."

"I suppose I ought to be ashamed, Professor, to act the part of a chronic questioner so persistently as I do, but then I know you will say that this is a privilege of curiosity and ignorance. So, to be consistent with myself, let me ask, How do Spenser's sonnets compare with Sidney's?"

"To answer that question as it deserves, my friend, would require a longer and more careful analysis and comparison of the productions of the two poets than is now possible or desirable. It will be enough to say, in the briefest and most general way, that, as regards their exterior form, the sonnets of Sidney have a superiority over those of his friend in the qualities of greater simplicity, purity, and precision of language, and in their comparative freedom from archaisms and forms of expression that even in that day were considered antiquated or obsolete; while, on the other hand, Spenser's rhymes are more musical, and his verse flows more evenly, though not with greater facility. Both are addicted in almost equal degree to the play on words, the smart conceits, and the false refinements of phrase, which were then thought to belong to the sonnet as if by a special license, and from which it did not liberate itself till a much later period. As to their interior spirit, there is little to choose between them. But it may be said that Sidney's sonnets are the most intellectual, Spenser's the most graphic and realistic. Sidney discriminates more clearly than Spenser the operations of the mind — thoughts, ideas, sentiments, emotions, and all those abstract qualities that have their rise in the brain or the heart. But Spenser paints better than Sidney: his Elizabeth is less of an angel and more of a woman than Sidney's Stella; her beauty is more sensuous, more be