Part 34 (2/2)

My heart which she unjustly doth ih shreive Returns it as esloyned [_ie_ absconded], not to be found

Then what the law affords I only crave, Her heart for mine, in wit her name to have (_sic_)

Linche's 'Diella,' 1596

'R L, gentleman,' probably Richard Linche, published in 1596 thirty-nine sonnets under the title 'Diella' {437a} The effort is thoroughly conventional In an obsequious address by the publisher, Henry Olney, to Anne, wife of Sir Henry Glenham, Linche's sonnets are described as 'passionate' and as 'conceived in the brain of a gallant gentleman'

Griffin's 'Fidessa,' 1596 Thos Bartholomew Griffin's 'Fidessa,' sixty-two sonnets inscribed to 'Willianates his sonnets as 'the first fruits of a young beginner' He is a shaiarist Daniel is his chief model, but he also imitated Sidney, Watson, Constable, and Drayton Sonnet iii, beginning 'Venus and young Adonis sitting by her,' is al 'Sweet Cytheraea, sitting by a brook'--in Jaggard's piratical rie {437b} Jaggard doubtless stole the poeh it may be in its essentials the property of some other poet Three beautiful love-sonnets by Thomas Campion, which are found in the Harleian MS 6910, are there dated 1596 {437c}

William Smith's 'Chloris,' 1596

William Smith was the author of 'Chloris,' a third collection of sonnets appearing in 1596 {437d} The voluht sonnets of love of the ordinary type, with three adulating Spenser; of these, two open the volume and one concludes it Ss of his study' In 1600 a license was issued by the Stationers' Company for the issue of 'Amours' by W S This no doubt refers to a second collection of sonnets by William Smith The projected volume is not extant {438a}

Robert Tofte's 'Laura,' 1597

In 1597 there came out a similar volume by Robert Tofte, entitled 'Laura, the Joys of a Traveller, or the Feast of Fancy' The book is divided into three parts, each consisting of forty 'sonnets' in irregular metres

There is a prose dedication to Lucy, sister of Henry, ninth Earl of Northumberland Tofte tells his patroness that most of his 'toys' 'were conceived in Italy' As its name implies, his work is a pale reflection of Petrarch A postscript by a friend--'R B'--coenuine efforts 'hout so uniforuish the work of a second hand

Sir Willias Sir William Alexander's 'Aurora,' a collection of a hundred and six sonnets, with a few songs and elegies interspersed on French patterns Sir William describes the work as 'the first fancies of his youth,' and foryle It was not published till 1604 {438b}

Sir Fulke Greville's 'Caelica'

Sir Fulke Greville, afterwards Lord Brooke, the intimate friend of Sir Philip Sidney, was author of a like collection of sonnets called 'Caelica' The poems number a hundred and nine, but few are in strict sonnet metre Only a small proportion profess to be addressed to the poet's fictitious mistress, Caelica Many celebrate the charms of another beauty named Myra, and others invoke Queen Elizabeth under her poetic name of Cynthia (cf Sonnet xvii) There are also many addresses to Cupid and meditations on more or less metaphysical themes, but the tone is never very serious Greville doubtless wrote thethe period under survey, though they were not published until their author's works appeared in folio for the first time in 1633, five years after his death

Estimate of number of love-sonnets issued between 1591 and 1597

With Tofte's volume in 1597 the publication of collections of love-sonnets practically ceased Only two collections on a voluminous scale seem to have been written in the early years of the seventeenth century About 1607 Williaht interspersed with songs, als, and sextains, nearly all of which were translated or adapted from modern Italian sonnetteers

{439a} About 1610 John Davies of Hereford published his 'Wittes Pilgrih a world of Amorous Sonnets' Of more than two hundred separate poems in this volu section e, and the majority of those are metaphysical meditations on love which are not addressed to any definite person Some years later William Browne penned a sequence of fourteen love-sonnets entitled 'Caelia' and a few detached sonnets of the same type {439b} The dates of production of Drummond's, Davies's, and Browne's sonnets exclude the them, we find that between 1591 and 1597 there had been printed nearly twelve hundred sonnets of the amorous kind If to these we add Shakespeare's poe in manuscript, have not reached us, it is seen that more than two hundred love-sonnets were produced in each of the six years under survey France and Italy directed their literary energies in like direction during nearly the whole of the century, but at no other period and in no other country did the love-sonnet doland between 1591 and 1597

Of sonnets to patrons between 1591 and 1597, of which detached specimens may be found in nearly every published book of the period, the chief collections were:

II Sonnets to patrons, 1591-7