Part 34 (1/2)

containing fifty-one 'Amours' and a sonnet addressed to 'his ever kind Mecaenas, Anthony Cooke' Drayton acknowledged his devotion to 'divine Sir Philip,' but by his choice of title, style, and phraseology, the English sonnetteer once more betrayed his indebtedness to Desportes and his compeers 'L'Idee' was the name of a collection of sonnets by Claude de Pontoux in 1579 Many additions were made by Drayton to the sonnets that he published in 1594, and many were subtracted before 1619, when there appeared the last edition that was prepared in Drayton's lifetime

A comparison of the various editions (1594, 1599, 1605, and 1619) shows that Drayton published a hundred sonnets, but the majority were apparently circulated by him in early life {435a}

Percy's 'Coelia,' 1594

William Percy, the 'dearest friend' of Barnabe Barnes, published in 1594, in emulation of Barnes, a collection of twenty 'Sonnets to the fairest Coelia' {435b} He explains, in an address to the reader, that out of courtesy he had lent the sonnets to friends, who had secretly co a virtue of necessity, he had accepted the situation, but begged the reader to treat them as 'toys and amorous devices'

Zepheria, 1594

A collection of forty sonnets or 'canzons,' as the anonymous author calls them, also appeared in 1594 with the title 'Zepheria' {435c} In solioli delle Muse' laudatory reference was made to the sonnets of Petrarch, Daniel, and Sidney

Several of the sonnets labour at conceits drawn from the technicalities of the law, and Sir John Davies parodied these efforts in the eighth of his 'gulling sonnets' beginning, 'My case is this, I love Zepheria bright'

Barnfield's sonnets to Gany to 1595 In January, appended to Richard Barnfield's poeyric on Queen Elizabeth, was a series of twenty sonnets extolling the personal charue ii, in which the shepherd Corydon addressed the shepherd-boy Alexis {435d} In Sonnet xx the author expressed regret that the task of celebrating his young friend's praises had not fallen to the reat Colin, chief of shepherds all') or Drayton ('gentle Rowland, my professed friend')

Barnfield at times imitated Shakespeare

Spenser's 'Amoretti', 1595

Almost at the same date as Barnfield's 'Cynthia' made its appearance there was published the ht sonnets, which in reference to their Italian origin he entitled 'Amoretti' {435e} Spenser had already translated many sonnets on philosophic topics of Petrarch and Joachim Du Bellay Some of the 'Amoretti' were doubtless addressed by Spenser in 1593 to the lady who becaely ideal, and, as he says in Sonnet lxxxvii, he wrote, like Drayton, with his eyes fixed on 'Idaea'

'Emaricdulfe,' 1595

An unidentified 'EC, Esq,' produced also in 1595, under the title of 'Elish and French ood friends, John Zouch and Edward Fitton Esquiers,' the author tells theue confined him to his chamber, 'and to abandon idleness he coun at the command and service of a fair dae Sonnets,' 1595

To 1595 e sonnets,' or parodies, which Sir John Davies wrote and circulated in arded as 'the bastard sonnets' in vogue

He addressed his collection to Sir Anthony Cooke, whom Drayton had already celebrated as the Mecaenas of his sonnetteering efforts {436b} Davies seenificant rhymers like the author of 'Zepheria' {436c} No viii of Davies's 'gullinge sonnets,' which ridicules the legal metaphors of the sonnetteers, may be easily matched in the collections of Barnabe Barnes or of the author of 'Zepheria,' but Davies's phraseology suggests that he also was glancing at Shakespeare's legal sonnets lxxxvii and cxxxiv

Davies's sonnet runs:

My case is this I love Zepheria bright, Of her I hold e to her perpetually, Yet she thereof will never ht, She hath distrained my heart to satisfy The duty which I never did deny, And far away impounds it with despite

I labour therefore justly to repleave [_ie_ recover]