PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE SONNETS. THE English Sonnet owes its origin to the poets of Italy. Dr. Newton had said, that Petrarch has gained the reputation of being the first author and inventor of this species of poetry: But this was a mistake; which Dr. J. Warton has corrected; for, he observes, Guittone d'Arezzo, who flourished about the year 1250, many years before Petrarch was born, first used the measure observed in the Sonnet. Mr. Roscoe, in his admirable Life of Lorenzo de' Medici, refers the reader, for a learned and curious disquisition on the origin of the Sonetto, to Annotazioni di Francesco Redi al suo ditirambo di Bacco in Toscana, p. 99. He adds the following remarks, on this kind of composition, by Lorenzo de' Medici; which are as judicious, he says, as they are pointed and concise: "La brevità del Sonetto non comporta, che una sola parola sia vana, ed il vero subietto e materia del Sonetto debbe essere qualche acuta e gentile sentenza, narrata attamente, ed in pochi versi ristretta, e fuggendo la oscurità e durezza. Comment. di Lor. de' Med. Sopra i suoi Sonetti, p. 120. ed. Ald. 1554." Concerning the introduction of the Sonnet into Italian poetry, see also an ingenious work, entitled "A Sketch of the Lives and Writings of Dante and Petrarch, with some account of Italian and Latin literature in the fourteenth century." Lond. 1790, p. 78, 79. Dante has written a number of Sonnets. A critick of great taste observes, with Mr. Warton, that Milton's Sonnets partake much more of the genius of Dante than of Petrarch; and further that, like those of Dante, they are frequently deficient in sweetness of diction and harmony of versification, yet possess, what is seldom discernible in compositions of this kind, energy and sublimity of sentiment; for which qualities, and for vigour of expression, the Sonnets to Cyriack Skinner, Fairfax, Cromwell, and Vane, are remarkable; whilst those addressed to the Nightingale, and to Mr. Lawrence, can boast both of melody in language and elegance in thought. See Literary Hours by N. Drake, M.D. 1798, p. 63. See also the concluding Note on Milton's sixth Sonnet. Yet perhaps Milton's first and last Sonnets display rather the sweetness and tenderness of Petrarch. I venture to enlarge these observations with a retrospect to the more distinguished Sonnet-writers of our own country. The earliest Sonnets in the English language, which have been published, are those of Lord Surrey, to which are joined "Songes and Sonnettes of Sir Thomas Wyat the elder, and of Uncertain Auctours," in 1557. Lord Surrey's Sonnets have been justly admired for the tenderness, simplicity, and nature, which they exhibit. See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 12. The Sonnets of Petrarch were, in Lord Surrey's time, grown into great fashion: They continued also, long afterwards, as models of composition; witness the labours in this species of writing by Sidney, Spenser, Shakspeare, and Daniel; and by many other poets in the reigns of Elizabeth and James the first, little known to fame. The late Mr. Steevens has commended the amatory poems of Thomas Watson, 66 an elder and more elegant sonnetteer than Shakspeare:" The Passionate Centurie of Love is the title of the Sonnets thus noticed, to which the character of elegance, at least, belongs. See specimens, in Hawkins's Orig. Eng. Drama, vol. iii. p. 213, and Gent. Mag. vol. lxiii. p. 558. But Henry Constable has been termed the "first, or principal, sonnetteer of his time," Hawkins, ut supr. p. 212. In The Return from Parnassus, 1606, he is thus characterised, A. i. S. ii. "Sweet Constable doth take the wondring ear, And Ben Jonson speaks of "Constable's ambrosiack Muse," Underwoods ed. 1640, p. 196. A specimen of Constable's abilities in this kind of composition has been given, in the exhibition of his Sonnet prefixed to King James the first's Poeticall Exercises. It is also printed by Sir John Harrington, in his Notes at the end: of the 34th book of his Orlando Furioso; and by Hawkins, in his Origin of the Eng. Drama, vol. iii. p. 212; and is highly commended by Edmund Bolton and Antony Wood. See the new and much-enriched edition of Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum Anglicanorum, 1800, p. 228, 268. Wood relates further, that Constable" has also several Sonnets extant, written to Sir P. Sydney, some of which are set before the Apology for Poetry, written by the said knight.”—But by the preceding writers no mention is made of Constable's Sonnets, as a complete publication, or as unconnected with other works. I have been induced to say so much of Constable, because I possess a very curious little volume, in manuscript, of several Sonnets, Satires, Epigrams, &c. written by different poets in the reign of Elizabeth; among which are Constable's "Sonets," commencing with a poetical address" To his Mistresse." Then follows in prose "The order of the booke." 66 The sonets following are divided into 3 parts, each parte contayning 3 severall arguments, and every argument 7 sonets. "The first parte is of variable affections of loue, wherein the first 7 be of the beginning and byrth of his loue; the second 7 of the prayse of his Mistresse; the thyrd 7 of seuerall accidents hapning in the tyme of his loue. "The second is the prayse of perticulars, wherein the first 7 be of the generall honours of this Ile, through the prayses of the heads thereof, the Q. of England and K. of Scots; the second 7 celebrate the memory of perticular Ladies whome the author most honoureth; the third 7 be to the honour of perticulars, presented vpon seuerall occasions. "The thyrd part is tragicall, conteyning only lamentations, wherein the first 7 be complaynts onlye of misfortunes in loue; the second 7 seuerall sonets of the death of perticulars; the last 7 of the end and death of his loue."-The Sonnet to the King of Scots, before-mentioned, is the fifth in the second part, and is inscribed "To the K. of Scots touching the subiect of his poems dedicated wholie to heauenly matters. "When others hooded with blind loue doe flye, &c." As this Sonnet is so well known, I will exhibit the Sonnet preceding it in the manuscript, which is also addressed "To the K. of Scots whome as yet he had not seene." "Bloome of the rose! I hope those hands to kisse, Thy altar throne for that receiued blisse." "Yet, prince of hope! suppose not for all this, "That I thy place and not thy guifts adore; 66 Thy scepter? no, thy pen I honour more; "The pen wherewith thou doth so heauenly singe, At the conclusion of the third part are the following words :"When I had ended this last sonet, and found that such vayne poems, as I had by idle houres writ, did amounte iust to the diametricall number 63; me thought it was high tyme for my follie to die, and to employe the remnant of wit to other calmer thoughts lesse sweete and lesse bitter." Then follow three Sonnets, the two last of which are by another poet, as perhaps the first also may be, which is inscribed "To the diuine protection of the Ladie Arbella the author commendeth both his Graces honoure and his Muses æternitye." The second " To H. C. Vpon occasion of his two former Sonets to the K. of Scots." The last "To H. C. Vpon occasion of leauing his countrye, and sweetnesse of his Verse." There is an elegance in this Sonnet with which the reader will be pleased: "Englands sweete nightingale! what frights thee so, 66 "As over sea to make thee take thy flight, "And there to liue with natiue countreyes foe, "And there him with thy heauenly songs delight? What, did thy sister swallowe thee excite "With her, for winters dread, to flye away? "Who is it then hath wrought this other spite, "That when as she returneth thow shouldst stay? "As soone as spring begins, she cometh ay: "Returne with her; and thow like tidings bring: "When once men see thee come, what will they say "Loe, now of English po'esie comes the Spring! ? "Come, feare thow not the cage, but loyall be, "And ten to one thy soveraigne pardons thee." This Sonnet confirms Dr. Birch's conjecture, that Henry Constable was the same person who fled from his country, on account of his attachment to the Popish religion. Whether the col lection of which I have given an account, ever reached the press, in Constable's time, I have been unable to discover. However, if published (which I doubt), it has been little known, and not described, before the first edition of Milton's poetry by me in 1801. Mr. Malone has, in his collection, a very rare little book, containing Sonnets by Constable, entitled "Diana. Or The excellent conceitful Sonnets of H. C. Augmented with diuers Quatorzains of honorable and learned personages. Deuided into viij. Decads." But this is not the same work. I must not omit to mention, that I was indebted to the courtesy of the late Mr. Alderman Bristow, bookseller in Canterbury, for the manuscript. From Constable I proceed to the elegant poet Drummond, whose Sonnets &c. were first published in 1616, and, as Dr. J. Warton has observed, are exquisitely beautiful and correct. That Milton read and admired him, may appear by several passages, which have been cited from his Sonnets, Madrigals, and other pieces, in the pages of these volumes. Dr. J. Warton, speaking of the measure observed in the Sonnet, says, that it is a measure which the great number of similar terminations renders easy in the Italian, but difficult in our language. And Dr. Johnson remarks, that, for this reason, the fabrick of the regular Sonnet has never succeeded in English. But it may be answered, in the words of a lady, whose opinion coincides with that of Mr. T. Warton, and whose own Sonnets eminently confirm the observation, that "the fallacy of this remark is proved by the great number of beautiful legitimate Sonnets, which adorn our national poetry, not only by Milton, but by many of our modern poets." Pref. to Original Sonnets, &c. by Anna Seward, 1799, p. v. The following unpublished Sonnet, addressed to a friend by the late Benjamin Stillingfleet, Esq., and for which I was obliged to the late bishop of Ely, [Dr. Dampier,] will prove also how attentively, and how successfully, Milton was studied, and imitated in this species of composition more than half a century since. It is dated in 1746. |