British Literature II

Matthew Butcher
English 210-1
Dr. Colvin
8 October 1993


1. The sonnet form had major developments in England from Wyatt through Shakespeare. Differences in themes, techniques, rhyme schemes, and other individual differences contribute to these developments.
The sonnet was introduced to England by Sir Thomas Wyatt The Elder. Wyatt's themes came from a Petrarchan source, a collection of 366 poems called Canzoniere, "but his rhyme schemes came from other Italian models. The usual Italian rhyme scheme imitated by Wyatt consisted of an octave, abba abba, and a sestet, cddc ee. This structure was already beginning to break down into the "English" sonnet, three quatrains and a couplet. He also used iambic pentameter. Wyatt's poems were with a "cheerful, lively independence" as a characteristic.
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey used a form of the sonnet that became known as the English sonnet. It contained three distinct quatrains and a couplet but with a different rhyme scheme, abab cdcd efef gg. Surrey has also been noted as "the first English poet to publish in blank verse--unrhymed iambic pentameter--a verse form so popular in the succeeding four centuries that it seems almost indigenous to the language."
Edmund Spenser created a form of the English sonnet with perhaps the most difficult rhyme scheme. He overlaps the quatrains with abab bcbc cdcd and then a final couplet, ee. Spenser's sonnets, especially from Amoretti, are mainly love poems, drawing on characteristic and conventional themes and conceits. What is characteristically Spenserian about them is his yoking of the spirit and the flesh."
William Shakespeare's sonnet form became so popular that it adopted his name. The three quatrains in a Shakespearean sonnet "work equally and successively to prepare for a conclusion in the couplet." Shakespeare also drew on the Petrarchan structure of the octave setting one situation and the sestet turning in an entirely different direction. Shakespeare made good use of rhetorical strategies in his sonnets, "some begin with a reminiscence, some are imperative, others make an almost proverbial statement and then elaborate it." The imagery of these sonnets is also very deep drawing off many different sources, especially nature.
The sonnet underwent many changes once it arrived in England. All of the contributions from the above mentioned authors eventually transformed the sonnet into what it is today.
2. The Faerie Queen can be seen as a manifestation of Sir Philip Sidney's theory of literature, presented in his The Defence of Poesy. Sidney says that the main objectives of the poet is to delight and to teach. Sidney's responses to the four objections raised by advocates against poetry go wonderfully with what Spenser is doing in The Faerie Queen.
The first objection is that there are more fruitful types of knowledge than poetry. Sidney refutes this by saying that the highest knowledge is moral knowledge. Spenser's main purpose in The Faerie Queen is instructing the reader morally. It can be seen as an allegory showing the readers the evils of life and telling them to avoid them. In short, The Faerie Queen is a story of a culture's ethical and spiritual morals.
The second objection is that poetry is a bunch of lies. Sidney says, "if lying is to affirm, what is false?" Poets tell the moral truth. Spenser relates the "right" way to proceed in life. That is what the House of Holiness represents. It cleanses the Redcrosse Knight's vision and cures his will so he can begin to tread down the "right" path. Traveling is Spenser's metaphor for the Redcrosse Knight's progress. His ways are the right, moral ways.
The third objection is that poetry infects us with bad desires. Sidney says that poetry doesn't infect wit, rather wit infects poetry. In other words, poetry corrects. The Faerie Queen tells of religious and political turmoil in subtle ways. The House of Holiness can be seen as a parody of St. Augustine's City of God. A battle can be seen as the Church of England over Rome or Christ defeating Satan or other such allegorical representations. It tells us of good ways and doesn't incur bad desires.
The fourth and final objection is that Plato himself banished poets from his Republic. Sidney says that Plato banished poetry, not because it was bad, but because it was abused. Spenser makes his Faerie Queen an intelligent work for many of the reasons above. To instruct us morally is Spenser's main purpose. This cannot be seen as an abuse of poetry.
The poet, according to Sidney, must also present a "golden world." The reader tends to imitate this world. The poet should present a perfected nature. This is what Spenser does.
3. In many ways it is possible to see Dr. Faustus as an outgrowth of the earlier dramatic tradition, especially the morality plays, both in technique and in thematic.
Dr. Faustus got the important aspects from morality plays, such as theology, philosophy, medicine (aka natural history), and law. But Dr. Faustus is no longer straight didactism or allegorical. There are real, particularized people on stage that have our attention as they fall through some willful act of their own. They must be noble at the beginning and fall into an ignominious position at the end. Dr. Faustus is built on a parody of mystery plays, the story of saints and martyrs. Instead of the main character traversing upwards to holiness, Faustus goes down to damnation.
The easiest comparison to draw is that of Dr. Faustus to Everyman. When the seven deadly sins come out in Faustus the audience can immediately grasp the similarity to Everyman's characters. Everyman uses straight allegorical representations for its characters, while Faustus moves into representation. In the latter, the audience can decipher what the characters are supposed to stand for, rather than just naming the character what it is.
Faustus is immediately an outgrowth of this early morality play tradition. Drama becomes what we know it from these two works.