Wyatt, Surrey
and the English sonnet
tradition
Carlo M. Bajetta
Universita' della Valle d'Aosta - Université de la Vallée d'Aoste
What do these two have in
common?
Lady Gaga performing at the
Toronto stop of The Monster Ball
Tour on March 12, 2011
Source - talktomegaga Author Gn!pGnop
Sir Thomas Wyatt by Hans Holbein the
Younger, Royal Collection, Windsor
Castle.
Why is she called ‘Gaga’?
• Influenced by
David
Bowie, Michael
Jackson, Madonna
…and Queen.
 She took her
name from their
hit song ‘Radio
Gaga’ (wr. By
Roger Taylor)
Influence rocks! (and rocked)
Both Gaga and Sir Thomas Wyatt were
‘influenced’ by some other authors
Influence is at work in our time as much as it
was in the Renaissance – even if with some
important differences
Influence then and now
• Today we look for originality (even if we
seem much into remakes…)
• In the Renaissance ‘originality’ was not a
problem. Starting from a well-know model
was a key element in literature, and
especially in poetry.
Inventio, imitation and
experience
‘Starting from a well-know model’
–> classical rhetoric stressed that invenire,
finding, such a good model was the first
step to write, for example, a good speech, a
good essay, or a good poem
Inventio (with dispositio, elocutio, memoria,
and pronuntiatio) was crucial to one’s own
literary creation
 But what about one’s personal experience,
(facts, feelings, sensations…) ?
Experience…
Madam, withouten many words
Once I am sure ye will or no…
And if ye will, then leave your bourds*
*jokes
And use your wit and show it so,
And with a beck* ye shall me call; *beckoning gesture
And if of one that burneth alway
Ye have any pity at all,
Answer him fair with yea or nay.
If it be yea, I shall be fain;
If it be nay, friends as before;
Ye shall another man obtain,
And I mine own and yours no more.
Apparently a true-to-life poem… with a clear message
Personal experience?
Madonna non so dir tante parole
o uoi uolet' o no se uoi uolete
oprat' al gran bisogn' il uostro senno
che uoi saret' intesa per un cenno
& se d' un che semp' arde al fin ui duole
un bel si un bel no mi rispondete
se sar' un si un si scriuero 'n rima
se sar' un no amici come prima
uoi trouerret' un' altr' amante & io
Non potend' esser uostro sar[ò] mio
Dragonetto Bonifacio,
(from Le Dotte, et Eccellente Compositioni de i Madrigalli ... a Cinque
Voci, 1549, p. 16).
So… inventio rocks!!!
• This poem appears ‘realistic’ and
unaffected, very direct - perhaps much
more than a description of one’s one (bad?
painful? disappointing?) real experience.
• Still, it is a almost a translation (did you note
the differences? See e.g. ‘se sar' un si un si
scriuero 'n rima’ / ‘If it be yea, I shall be fain’)
• in Renaissance terms, it is an imitation, a
sort of competition with the original.
Finally, a sonnet!
Who so list to hounte I know where is an hynde;
But as for me, helas, I may no more:
The wayne travaill hath weried me so sore,
I ame of theim that farthest cometh behinde;
Yet I by no meanes my weried mynde
Drawe from the Diere; but as she fleeth afore
Faynting I folowe; I leve of therefore,
Sithens in a nett I seke to hold the wynde,
Who list her hount I put him owte of dowbte,
As well as I may spend his tyme in vain:
And graven with Diamondes in letters plain
There is written her faier neck rounde abowte:
‘Noli me tangere for Cesars I ame,
And wylde for to hold though I seme tame.’
(Text from Tottel’s Miscellany, 1557)
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)
• Educated at Cambridge; court service since 1516 - Probably
intimate with Henry (NB: hunting together?)
• Married by 1520, soon separated from his wife, whom he
accused of adultery
• Romantic involvement with Anne Boleyn
• At the time of Boleyn’s fall in 1536, imprisoned
• Released & restored to favour, but imprisoned again after
the execution of his patron, Thomas Cromwell (1540)
• Released and restored to court service – ambassador to
Charles V
• Dies of a fever on a diplomatic mission (on his way to
Falmouth, England, to greet the emperor’s ambassador).
O Dear, O Deer…
Who so list to hounte I know where is an hynde;
But as for me, helas, I may no more:
The wayne travaill hath weried me so sore,
I ame of theim that farthest cometh behinde;
Yet I by no meanes my weried mynde
Drawe from the Diere; but as she fleeth afore
Faynting I folowe; I leve of therefore,
Sithens in a nett I seke to hold the wynde,
Who list her hount I put him owte of dowbte,
As well as I may spend his tyme in vain:
And graven with Diamondes in letters plain
There is written her faier neck rounde abowte:
‘Noli me tangere for Cesars I ame,
And wylde for to hold though I seme tame.’
Una candida cerva sopra l'erba
verde m'apparve, con duo corna d'oro,
fra due riviere, all'ombra d'un alloro,
levando 'l sole a la stagione acerba.
Era sua vista sí dolce superba,
ch'i' lasciai per seguirla ogni lavoro:
come l'avaro che 'n cercar tesoro
con diletto l'affanno disacerba.
‘Nessun mi tocchi - al bel collo d'intorno
scritto avea di diamanti et di topazi - :
libera farmi al mio Cesare parve’.
Et era 'l sol già vòlto al mezzo giorno,
gli occhi miei stanchi di mirar, non sazi,
quand'io caddi ne l'acqua, et ella sparve.
Pertarch, Canzoniere (Rerum Vulgarium
Fragmenta), no. 190
Caesar???
Fra Angelico [Beato
Angelico], (Guido di
Pietro) (c. 1400-55).
Noli Me Tangere
1440-41 (190 Kb);
Fresco, 180 x 146 cm;
Cell 1, Convent of San
Marco, Florence
Dear Deer…
• ‘In rete accolgo l'aura, e 'n ghiaccio i fiori’,
Petrarch RVF, 239 (NB: not a sonnet…)
• Etsi multa non querenti obveniant — quis enim amicitiarum
commoda atque oblectationes enumeret? —, caritas tamen
stimulos non requirit, se se contenta est, ipsa sibi calcar et
premium; siquid uberius obtigerit, non amicitie laus fuerit sed
fortune. Sicut non melior piscator est sed fortunatior, cui in
visceribus capti piscis iaspis inventa est, nec venator fuit
melior qui avorum temporibus sub arthoa plaga, si tamen vera
fama est, cervum torque aureo circa collum cepit, in quo, ut
perhibent, vetustissimis literis scriptum erat «Nemo me
capiat» quem Iulius Cesar liberum esse iussit.
Petrarch, Familares, XVIII, 8.5
Read this again…
Who so list to hounte I know where is an hynde;
But as for me, helas, I may no more:
The wayne travaill hath weried me so sore,
I ame of theim that farthest cometh behinde;
Yet I by no meanes my weried mynde
Drawe from the Diere; but as she fleeth afore
Faynting I folowe; I leve of therefore,
Sithens in a nett I seke to hold the wynde,
Who list her hount I put him owte of dowbte,
As well as I may spend his tyme in vain:
And graven with Diamondes in letters plain
There is written her faier neck rounde abowte:
‘Noli me tangere for Cesars I ame,
And wylde for to hold though I seme tame.’
(Text from Tottel’s Miscellany, 1557)
Who so list to hounte
The poem plays on a numebr of parallelisms, similes
and oppositions, plus with multiple sources, e.g.:
• dear / deer + Caesar / religious overtones
• Inventio / real life
• Translation but also ‘traslatio’ of a real situation
into a fictional reality
• Contemplation / hunting
Petrarch’s sonnet is here assimilated, transformed:
Erasmus (in England at various times 1499, 1500s, a friend of
Henry VIII’s courtiers such as Lord Mountjoy and Sir
Thomas More) used a metaphor for this, that of chewing,
digesting
Sonnet and form
2 ways or reading this rhyme scheme:
a) Petrarchan octave + sestet: ABBA ABBA CDD CEE
b) Sonnet of the new ‘English’ type: ABBA ABBA CDDC EE
Emphasis on the last couplet, which is the only phrase
not ‘by’ the narrator (‘Noli me tangere for Cesars I ame,
/ And wylde for to hold though I seme tame.’)
The last quatrain, however, does not stand alone  it
‘hesitates between alternatives’ (Falconer, 2003: 182). But
this is precisely the problem of the lover in such a
complex situation...
Poetic form can be in itself significant – and Wyatt
knew this... See the next poem here...
Running away from me??
They fle from me that sometyme did me seke
With naked fote stalking in my chambre.
I have sene theim gentill tame and meke
That nowe are wyld and do not remembre
That sometyme they put theimself in daunger
To take bred at my hand ; and nowe they raunge
Besely seking with a continuell chaunge .
Thancked be fortune, it hath ben othrewise
Twenty tymes better ; but ons in speciall
In thyn arraye after a pleasaunt gyse
When her lose gowne from her shoulders did fall,
And she me caught in her armes long and small ;
Therewithall swetely did me kysse,
And softely saide 'dere hert, howe like you this? '
It was no dreme: I lay brode waking.
But all is torned thorough my gentilnes
Into a straunge fasshion of forsaking;
And I have leve to goo of her goodenes,
And she also to vse new fangilnes.
But syns that I so kyndely ame serued,
I would fain knowe what she hath deserued.
Running away from me??
•
Aestus erat, mediamque dies exegerat horam;
adposui medio membra levanda toro.
pars adaperta fuit, pars altera clausa fenestrae;
quale fere silvae lumen habere solent,
qualia sublucent fugiente crepuscula Phoebo,
aut ubi nox abiit, nec tamen orta dies.
illa verecundis lux est praebenda puellis,
qua timidus latebras speret habere pudor.
ecce, Corinna venit, tunica velata recincta,
candida dividua colla tegente coma—
qualiter in thalamos famosa Semiramis isse
dicitur, et multis Lais amata viris.
Deripui tunicam—nec multum rara nocebat;
pugnabat tunica sed tamen illa tegi.
quae cum ita pugnaret, tamquam quae vincere nollet,
victa est non aegre proditione sua.
ut stetit ante oculos posito velamine nostros,
in toto nusquam corpore menda fuit.
quos umeros, quales vidi tetigique lacertos!
forma papillarum quam fuit apta premi!
quam castigato planus sub pectore venter!
quantum et quale latus! quam iuvenale femur!
Singula quid referam? nil non laudabile vidi
et nudam pressi corpus ad usque meum.
Cetera quis nescit? lassi requievimus ambo.
proveniant medii sic mihi saepe dies!
5
10
15
20
25
(Ovid, Amores I, 5)
Need a Translation ?  
Ovid, Amores I, 5
• Then comes Corinna with her tunic unbelted, her
hair spilling to either side of her white neck. […] I
tugged at her tunic. It was so thin that it hid little,
but nevertheless she struggled to keep it on.
Protesting like one who doesn't really want to be
listened to, she finally surrendered the garment
not unhappily. […] But why do I describe
individual beauties? I saw nothing that was not
worthy of praise, and I pressed her naked body to
mine
http://david-drake.com/ovid/amoresI-4.html (NB: careful with this translation…)
They flee from me…
3 x n stanzas = essential,
basic, form of a ballad
 a ballad tells a story
(PS: this will be what the
Romantic ballad is
meant to do…
remember Coleridge’s
The rime of the ancient
mariner ? It is no
coincidence the title
has an archaic
spelling…)
Sonnets and poetic form
• Form is an integral part of poetic meaning – it
is a choice on the part of the author.
• Going back to ‘Whoso list to hunt’, one may at
this stage realize that choosing the sonnet
form is for Wyatt is a way to transform his
dangerous contents into an example of otium,
an elegant cultural exercise. It is a way to
discuss his theme within a ‘lyric’ framework, to
claim that this is a fictional story, not reality.
• Still, a sonnet is, above all, a love
poem...
So... Qui habet aures audiendi audiat!
Sonnets and poetic form
• This is, however, not always easy…
and it can be a rather dangerous
game, especially if your king
happens to be as nice-tempered as
Henry VIII... 
• Let us see how Wyatt and his fellow
courtier poet did to one of Petrarch’s
poems, ‘Amor, che nel penser mio
vive et regna’, (RVF, 140)
Wyatt (from Tottel’s miscellany)
The longe love, that in my thought doeth harbar
And in myn hert doeth kepe his residence,
Into my face preseth with bolde pretence,
And therin campeth, spreding his baner.
She that me lerneth to love and suffre,
And willes that my trust and lustes negligence
Be rayned by reason, shame and reverence,
With his hardines taketh displeasur.
Wherewithall, vnto the hertes forrest he fleith,
Leving his entreprise with payn and cry;
And ther him hideth, and not appereth.
What may I do when my maister fereth
But in the feld with him to lyve and dye?
For goode is the liff, ending faithfully.
Petrarch, RVF 140
Amor, che nel penser mio vive et regna
e 'l suo seggio maggior nel mio cor tene,
talor armato ne la fronte vène,
ivi si loca, et ivi pon sua insegna.
Quella ch'amare et sofferir ne 'nsegna
e vòl che 'l gran desio, l'accesa spene,
ragion, vergogna et reverenza affrene,
di nostro ardir fra se stessa si sdegna.
Onde Amor paventoso fugge al core,
lasciando ogni sua impresa, et piange, et trema;
ivi s'asconde, et non appar piú fore.
Che poss'io far, temendo il mio signore,
se non star seco infin a l'ora extrema?
Ché bel fin fa chi ben amando more.
Surrrey (from Tottel’s miscellany)
Love that doth raine and liue within my thought,
And buylt his seat within my captyve brest,
Clad in the armes wherein with me he fowght,
Oft in my face he doth his banner rest.
But she that tawght me love and suffre paine,
My doubtful hope & eke my hote desire
With shamfast looke to shadoo and refrayne,
Her smyling grace convertyth streight to yre.
And cowarde Love, then, to the hart apace
Taketh his flight, where he doth lurke and playne
His purpose lost, and dare not shew his face.
For my lordes gilt thus fawtles byde I payine;
Yet from my lorde shall not my foote remove:
Sweet is the death that taketh end by love.
Petrarch, RVF 140
Amor, che nel penser mio vive et regna
e 'l suo seggio maggior nel mio cor tene,
talor armato ne la fronte vène,
ivi si loca, et ivi pon sua insegna.
Quella ch'amare et sofferir ne 'nsegna
e vòl che 'l gran desio, l'accesa spene,
ragion, vergogna et reverenza affrene,
di nostro ardir fra se stessa si sdegna.
Onde Amor paventoso fugge al core,
lasciando ogni sua impresa, et piange, et trema;
ivi s'asconde, et non appar piú fore.
Che poss'io far, temendo il mio signore,
se non star seco infin a l'ora extrema?
Ché bel fin fa chi ben amando more.
Surrey 1517-1547
• Member of one of the most important families in
England - son of the Duke of Norfolk.
• Close companion of Herny VIII illegittimate son,
Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond
• Involved in dangerous political maneuvering
• An alteration in his coat of arms was interpreted
(quite correctly…) as a claim of royal descent
 Tried for trason
(cf. Braden 2005: 66)
Rhyme scheme
• Petrarch: octave + sestet: abba abba cdc cdc
• Wyatt: abba abba cdc cdd
• Surrey: abab cdcd efef gg
Incidentally…
Poetic competition?
Not necessarily, but one has to remember the
circulation of poetry ‘collections’ such as the
Devonshire MS (BL MS Add. 17492 – which has
been called ‘the Facebook of the 16th century’ –
[Ray Siemens]), which includes poems by Wyatt
and others.
Long before their appearance in print, many
poems by W & S (and others) circulated, were
read, and were commented at court.
 Not ‘private’ poetry… which is important…
‘Traduttore, traditore…’
• Wyatt: ‘For goode is the liff, ending faithfully’
 Loyalty to love = absolute moral value
• Surrey: ‘Sweet is the death that taketh end by love.’
 Love = aesthetic experience [Camaiora 1993: 47-8]
Wyatt: pardoned
Surrey: not quite…
Words matter !!!
Sonnets and poetic form
words matter, but also form matters
Wyatt and Surrey (re-)introduced the sonnet
(which was known in England before
them...) + provided a model for the use of
the iambic pentameter
Surrey  translations from Virgil  blank
verse
Wyatt  experiments with accentual metre /
syllabic system (ever since his stay in Italy,
1527)
Rather than forty shillings…
• W + S were dead by the time of the
publication of Tottel’s Miscellany (1557) –
but the book was immensely popular and
went through numerous reprints down to
the 1580s
• ‘I had rather than forty shillings I had my
Book of Songs and Sonnets here’
(Shakespeare, the Merry Wives of Windsor,
I.1,182)
Sonnets and poetic form
Words matter, but also form matters
• Form is significant at all levels, including
prosody (rhythm)
Cf., e.g., the opening of Shakespeare’s sonnet
12 and 18 below. Try to scan them…
When I do count the clock that tells the
time...
Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?
Sonnets and poetic form
When I do count the clock that tells the time
Regular iambic pentameter:
˘ / ˘/ ˘/ ˘/ ˘/
regular stess + allitteration
 Ticking of the clock
Sonnets and poetic form
Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely, and more temperate
Need to change the rhytm -> substitute foot
˘ / ˘/
/ [+pause?] ˘ ˘/ ˘/
The most important element in this line, and in the
whole poem, becomes central also in terms of
rhythm
And now, a quick test...
Do not panic
Now try this one and see how you can scan
it…
OK, panic…
Sonnets and poetic
form
Loving in trueth, and fayne my love in verse to show,
That the deere Shee, might take some pleasure of my paine:
Pleasure might cause her reade, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pittie winne, and pittie grace obtaine.
I sought fit wordes, to paint the blackest face of woe,
Studying inventions fine, her wittes to entertaine,
Oft turning others leaves, to see if thence would flowe,
Some fresh and fruitfull showre, upon my Sunne-burnt braine.
But wordes came halting out, wanting inventions stay,
Invention Natures childe, fledde Stepdames studies blowes:
And others feete, still seem'de but straungers in my way,
Thus great with Childe to speake, and helplesse in my throwes,
Byting my tongue and penne, beating my selfe for spite:
Foole saide My muse to mee, looke in thy heart and write.
Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella, 1
Tricky…
‘And others feete, still seem'de but straungers
in my way’
NOT an iambic petameter but a 12-syllable
line (Alexandrine, typical of the French
poets of the Pléiade - such as Pierre de
Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay)
The sonnet rocks!!!
Surrey said that Wyatt had ‘taught what
might be said in rhyme’ (epitaph for Wyatt,
l. 13)
Sidney, Shakespeare, and the Elizabethan
learned from Wyatt and Surrey (and others
after them…) to bend the rules of English
prosody, to get the best out of the clash
between meaning and form
Works cited
• Braden, Gordon (ed.) 2005. Sixteenth-Century
Poetry: An annotated anthology (Oxford: Blackwell).
• Camaiora, Luisa, [1990] 1993. The Arts of Culture:
Essays on Wyatt and Surrey, Gray. Goldsmith and
Keats (Milan: Europrint).
• Falconer, Richard, [2000] 2003. ‘A Reading of
Wyatt’s 'Who so list to hunt'’ in A Companion to
English Renaissance Literature and Culture ed.
Michael Hattaway (Oxford: Blackwell).