Philip Sidney: sonnets 1, 5, 74, 86

WHAT IS FOR SIDNEY THE REAL POETRY?

He starts to speak about what is a poet: he is the maker, the one who make. He is a creator. We

will find the word maker with the meaning of creator in Spenser works. The nature philosopher

and the moral philosopher. Today philosohper are the ones who study morality. The one who

study nature are the scientist now. He said we should imitate and respect nature. Only the poet

that didn’t like being connected with something he will be lifted because of his invention, he

create another nature. He create something better than Nature do or completely different and

new, as heros, demigods, furies, chimeras.

Imitation is good for the poet if it is connected with invention. He have to live and travell in his

wit.

If Nature creates a bronze world, poets deliver a gold world.

The very Newton was an alchemist, not a scientist. During Elisabeth’s reign, a lot of people were

interest of Alchemy, like Bacon.

Intermezzo fra due atti di una tragedia: masque.

Francis Bacon dedicated a masque to Elisabeth in which he speaks about Alchemy: the three



elements thet leads to knowledge library, garden and alchemical furnace.

Why?

Humanity begins in Eden, which was a garden (paradisum in latin means garden) in which there

was no ageing and so on. Milton in paradise lost defines God as the master gardener. Alchemy as

to do with patiance. Alchemists define themselves like gardeners. In a garden which is in every

religious a micro-cosmo in which we see the rebirth of life from death.

Alchemy is devided into two: material alchemy (the goal is to become rich) and spiritual

alchemy. The real goal of alchemy was trying to return being like how we were in the Eden. In

Francesco de Medici, an alchemist, he died because he had drunk to much potabile gold.

Probably even Sidney was interest in Alchemy

SONNET 5

It is most true—that eyes are formed to serve

The inward light; and that the heavenly part

Ought to be king; from whose rules, who doth swerve,

Rebels to Nature, strive for their own smart.

It is most true, what we call Cupid’s dart,

An image is, which for ourselves we carve,

And, fools, adore in temple of our heart;

Till that good god make church and churchmen starve.

True, that true beauty Virtue is indeed,

Whereof this beauty can be but a shade,

Which elements with mortal mixture breed;

True, that on earth we are but pilgrims made,

And should in soul up to our country move;

True—and yet true, that I must Stella love.

Ben and Davis Crystal studied the real english pronunciation. Love was pronunced as Luv,

because the last couplet get rhymed with move.

There’s a lot of repetition of the word “True”. What si this rethorical figures? Anaphora. So there

is an Anaphorical structue. Meaning: è assai vero; è proprio vero.

t is most true—that eyes are formed to serve

The inward light; and that the heavenly part

Ought to be king; from whose rules, who doth swerve,

Rebels to Nature, strive for their own smart.

È proprio vero che gli occhi sono stati creati per servire la luce interiore (opposed to the

phisiological vision); ed è vero che la parte divina/celeste dovrebbe essere la parte più

importante, il re, dalle cui regole coloro che si allontanano, ribelli di Natura, fanno di tutto per

andare incontro al proprio dolore, sofferenza.

SMART: not only clever, but even pain, suffering.

true, what we call Cupid’s dart,

It is most

An image is, which for ourselves we carve,

And, fools, adore in temple of our heart;

Till that good god make church and churchmen starve.

È proprio vero che ciò che noi chiamiamo freccia di Cupido è un’immagine che noi intagliamo

per noi. E, sciocchi, adoriamo nel tempio del nostro cuore; finchè quel buon dio fa morire di fare

chiesa e uomini di chiesa.

CARVE: intagliare.

In this sonnet the lover is going away from spiritual love, adoring love as a pagan pray in front of

a temple. This image we adore is an idol. At the same time we are creating our own suffering.

Who is that good God that lead Churchmen to starve? Cupid. If it was the Christian God, it

would have been write with the capital letter.

True, that true beauty Virtue is indeed,

Whereof this beauty can be but a shade,

Which elements with mortal mixture breed;

È vero è la vera bellezza è una virtù. Di cui questa bellezza materiale non è che un’ombra.

Questa bellezza terrena è il risultato di una mescolanza mortale dei quattro elementi.

In Neoplatonism beauty is always considered a virtue.

What is the conflict? By saying “this Beauty” he is speaking about the real beauty? But he is

speaking about sessual love, not spiritual love. “This Beauty” means the beauty that lives on

Earth, material Beauty.

MITH OF THE CAVE: there are slaves in a cave that a facing the wall, when there are the

shadow of the real world. But because they never escaped they think the shadows are the real

world, while they are only shadows. It’s a methafor of our condition on Earth: we only live in a

world which is only an imitation, a shadow of the real world, the world of Ideas. We are these

slaves who are able only to see shadow of the real world.

DICHOTOMY BETWEEN MATERIAL WORLD AND REAL, SPIRITUAL WORLD.

Material beauty is a mixtures of the four elements.

Number 4 is the number on which it is based our world: 4 elements (earth, water, air and fire);

Fire water

Se li uniamo viene fuori la stella ebrea, o stella del re salomone, anche conosciuto come il

simbolo dell’alchimia

4 cardinal points; 4 seasons, 4 ages of humanity. From Plato on, number 4 is the number that

defines our world. Number 4 is connected with the square. But God is connected with the circle.

“Vetruvian man” is designed inside a circle and a square. Square stands for

Leonardo da Vinci

the earthly dimension and circle stands for spiritual dimension: man are inside both dimensions,

but he had to adoring only one

MITH OF THE FOUR HUMOURS: blood (è il più sano); black bile and yellow bile; flame. Still

in our days we somehow believe in this ancient theory. According to ancient philosophy, human

is created with a mixture of those 4 humours. If I am made of too much black bile, I will be a

melancholic person (melancolia vuol dire bile nera). Every humour is connected with a planets,

with seasons, with elements.

True, that on earth we are but pilgrims made,

And should in soul up to our country move;

True—and yet true, that I must Stella love.

Noi sulla terra siamo solamente di passaggio, siamo solo per un periodo breve nel mondo delle

ombre ma aspiriamo tutti a ritornare nella nostra vera dimora. Vero, ma è anche vero che io devo

amare stella of the sonnets is an Aristotele’s sillogism.

Last line concentrate the all meaning. The structure

It’s generally made of a beginning and a conclusione. But it has more than one beginning, so it is

a sorites.

Critic think it’s a false sillogism, because the conclusion reverse all the sonnet’s meaning. The

real meaning is that we should believe in spiritual and not in material love.

Best part:

8 blood, 2 red bile, and 2 of black or

8 blood, 4 flime, 2 red bile and 1 of black bile.

Blackk bile is the only one that affects human mind. It was and is a sospicious humour.

Accordinf to some writter, melancholia have to do with some genius minds (Hamlet is the

concentration of all the melancholic protagonist).

DO YOU AGREE WITH THE CRITICS IN CONCLUDING SONNET 5 IS A FALSE

SILLOGISM?

Critics think it’s a false sillogism because the last line reverses all the sonnet’s meaning.

Or is it a logical conclusion? Astrophil’s love to Stella is virtue, and Stella is immagined as a

Muse, who inspired Astrophil (Stella is invention). Love goes beyond nature. It creates an ideal

world. So it doesn’t reverse the sonnet’s meaning, because Stella is not a mortal beauty.

From “defence of poetry”: poet gives birth to a second nature. Thanks to the spirit, he is able to

giving birth something that goes beyond normal things.

Sidney don’t contradict himself. It’s a logical sillogism. The same name of Stella , it makes us

thinking about paradise.

Stella represents immortality. 

Oscar Wilde “Critic of Artist” he anticipated the idea of critical as an artist. Critical is also the

reader. For him, the real artist is not the one who makes it, but the one who interpretates it.

SONNET 74

I never drank of Aganippe well,

Nor ever did in shade of Tempe sit,

And Muses scorn with vulgar brains to swell;

Poor layman I, for sacred rites unfit.

Some do I hear of poets' fury tell,

But (God wot) wot not what they mean by it:

And this I swear by blackest brook of hell,

I am no pick-purse of another's wit.

How fall it then, that with so smooth an ease

My thoughts I speak, and what I speak doth flow

In verse, and that my verse best wits doth please?

Guess we the cause. 'What, it it thus?' Fie, no.

'Or so?' Much less. 'How then?' Sure, thus it is:

My lips are sweet, inspir'd with Stella's kiss.

It’s one of the happiest sonnets of the collection, because Astrophil obtains Stella’s kiss.

I never drank of Aganippe well,

Non ho mai bevuto dal pozzo di Aganippe (fontain of the Muses).

We are facing again a meta-sonnet.

Nor ever did in shade of Tempe sit,

all’ombra della Tessaglia

E nemmeno mi sono seduto

Tempe was considered a magical area. L’asino d’oro di Appuleio accade tutto lì. La stessa storia

tra Apollo e Dafne accade lì. It’s indirectly connect with poetrry, because Apollo was the

protector of poetry. From than allore will be the plant for poets.

He is using the rethorical device of Diminutio (fare finta di essere inferiori e non degni).

And Muses scorn with vulgar brains to swell;

E le Muse disdegnano di abitare nei cervelli volgari

SCORN: disdegnare

TO SWELL: vivere, abitare, dimorare

Astrophil says he has no inspiration (diminutio goes along)

Poor layman I, for sacred rites unfit.

E io, povero profano, non degno di entrare dentro il tempio del ver amore

LAYMAN: profano (we are again in the same semantic field of religious themes)

Some do I hear of poets' fury tell,

sento qualcuno parlare della divina furia poetica.

But (God wot) wot not what they mean by it:

ma, Dio lo sa, nn so quello che intendano questa persone che parlano di furia divina.

And this I swear by blackest brook of hell,

E io questo lo giuro, e lo giuto sul fiume infernale più nero (lo Stige)

I am no pick-purse of another's wit

Non sono un ladro/ladruncolo dell’ingegno altrui.



WIT: ingegno, inventio this sonnet can be connected with the first sonnet.

How fall it then, that with so smooth an ease

E allora