The Sonnet Forms of Wyatt and Surrey

The Sonnet Forms of Wyatt and SurreyAuthor(s): Elizabeth Deering HanscomSource: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 16, No. 5 (May, 1901), pp. 137-140Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2917163 .

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273 May, I9OI. MODEARV LANGUAGE iVO TES. Vol. xvi, No. 5. 274

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S. Guiillaunie de Lorris: Roman de la Rose. Ed. by Fraticisque Michel, ll. 1-4669. Paris, I864.

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V. Robert de Blois: Floris et Liriope. Pub. by D. Wolfram v. Ziulgerle in the Altfranzbsische Bibliothek, Vol. xii. Leipzig, i89i.

W. Brun de la Moontaiguie. Pub. by Paul Meyer. Paris, 1875 (Socitd (les ancienis textes frangais).

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Y. Seigneur d'Aigltire: Le Saint Voyage de Jlherusalen. Paris, I878 (Soci6td des aniciens textes francais).

Z. Le Debat des HeraLlts d'Arnies de France et d'Angleterre. Pub. by L6o- pold Pannier et Paul Meyer. Paris, I875 (Socidt6 des anciens textes frangais).

AA. Franqois Villoii: Oeuvres. Ed. by Au- guste Longnion. Paris, I892.

BB. Ronideaux et Autres Podsies du xv. Si6cle. Pul. by Gaston Raynaud. Paris, I889 (Soci6t6 des ancienis textes fransais).

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i|98i (Soci&t6 des aincieii textes fi-ani- ! EE. lais). EE. Clemenit AMarot: Oeuivres Complttes.

Vol. i. Paris, I824. FF. Montaigne: Essais. Ed. by Clharles

Louandre. Vol. i. Paris, I876. GG. Frangois Mallierbe: Po6sies. Published

by MM. De Latour. Par-is, I842. IHlH. MoHiLre: Oeuivres. (I1n) Les Grands

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KK. Balzac: Eiig6nie Granidet. Ed. by Eu- g6ne Bergeron. New York, 1895.

LL. George Sand: (I) La Mare au Diable. Ed. by F. C. de Stimichlrast. Boston, I896; (2) La Petite Fadette. Ed. by Ferdiniand B6cher. New York, 1899.

MM. Prosper M6rim6e: Colomba. Ed. by J. A. Fonitaine. Boston, 1897.

NN. ]Eniile Atigier: ThdAtre Complet. Vol. i. Paris, I894.

OLIVER M. JOHNSTON. Stanford University. THE SONNET FORAMS OF WYA TT

AND SURREY. THE following study is an examiniation of the form of the sonnets of Wyatt and Surrey, with reference to the Italian standards used by Petrarch, whom they translated and imitated. By the largest definition, the Petrarchan sonnet consists of fourteen five-stressed iambic lines, grouped in two quatrains of two rimes each, and two tercets, forming a sestet, of two or three rines. In all of Petrarch's sonnets the second qtuatrain repeats the rimes of the first; and in all but three the arrangement of the second is identical with that of the first; in three hulndred and three out of three hundred and seventeen this is the enclosed rime (abba). The sestet of three rimes occurs in onie hundred and eighty-seven sonnets, that of two in oIne hundred and thirty; of these only four are concluded with a couplet. In but one does the sestet contain a rime from the quatrains.

The most noticeable difference between

II7

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275 A7c7y, rgoi. MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES. VI-. xvi, NO. 5. 276

these formlis and those used by Wyatt and Surrey is that the latter, however widely they may vary in other details, always close with a couplet, introducing the rime and expressing the thought in suclh a way as to make the arrangement of the last six lines a quatrain pluis a couplet. By the largest definition then, these earliest English sonnets conisist of three quatrains of two rimes each followed by a couplet.

With the exception of Wyatt's verses begin- ninlg

" I abide and abide, and better abide,"

written with four stresses to the line, all the sonnets of both poets are written in five- stressed iambic linles.

In the form of the first and second quatrains, Wyatt folIows closely the model of Petrarch, employing the enclosed rime in the first quatrain of all but one, in the second quatrain of all but two of his sonnets. With four exceptions the second quatrain repeats the rimes of the first. Surrey departs radically from the Petrarchani standard, adhering, however, witlh- out deviation to the rule of identity of structure in the first and second quatrains. With himii the alternate rime (abab) used by Wyatt but once, is the favorite, occurring in fifteen out of his sixteen sonnets. In only four are the rimes of the first repeated in the second quatrain.

Wyatt shows greater variety in the treatment of the third quatrain, although he uses his favorite enclosed rime in twenty-four out of thirty-two cases. It is to be noted that in the sestets of P'etrarch's sonnets there is no arrangement analagous to this. In seven cases the alternate rime is used, manifestly following the arrangement of the first fouir lines of the sestet found in one hulndred and seventeen of Petrarch's sonnets. According to Italian rule also is the introductioni of new rimes in these four lines. In twenty-eight of these quatrains botlh rines are new; in three but one new rime is introduced; while one repeats the same rimes in the same order as in the quatrains. Surrey, witlh one exception, retains alternate rime for the tllird qUatraini. There are twelve cases in wvhich both times are new, one in whiclh the previous quatrainis have fur- nished a rime, and three in whiclh both rimes have been used earlier.

The concluding qLuatraini has, as we lhave seen, practically no parallel in the Petratrchan sonniet; inideed it was conisidered a defect by most Italian writers and critics. For reasonis connected with differences of metrical taste, anid particularlv with differences in the thouglht to be expressed, the final couplet was at first the favorite nmethod of concltuding the Eniglisl sonnet. As stated before, all WVyatt's anid Surrey's soninlets close in this way; andci on nio point do the poets agree so fully as in the nmanagement of the coupJet. Each showvs marked preference for a new rime in these two lines. Wyatt uses this tihirty times anid Surrey fouirteeni. Each furnislhes onie examiiple of a couplet in wliclh the rime is borrowed from tlle tlhird quatraini, and onie in wlhich it contains a rime commnnoni to all the quatrainis. WVyatt has one sonniiet so arranged as to close withi two couplets, and Surrey one closinig witi a triplet. It is wortlhy of observationi that the Conlcluding couplet was thus firnmly establislhed in the earliest English experimients.

In the arrangemiienlt of the rines, Wyatt's favorite form is abba abba cddc ee, occurrilng seventeen out of thirty-two times. Surrey's is abab cdcd efef gg, occurring eleven out of sixteen times. This is at onice recognized as the fornm of the Elizabethlanl sonniiet nmade classic by Shakespeare. It is to be fturther noted that in its formii it is far nearer to the stra-mbotti of Petrarclh's conitenmporaries thani to any sonniet of Petrarch's. Oin the line of this resemblance I hope to make furtler in- vestigation.

It is inievitable that any Englislh copy of an Italian metre slhould differ widely froml the original in the cadences anid in the quality of the rines, owing to the different values of in- flectional syllables in the two languages. Thu Ls we find Italian rines predominantly feminine, dissyllabic and even trisyllabic, ending in a vowel; anid English rimes predominianltly nmasculine, monosyllabic, ending in a consonianit. In hiis attempt to follow foreign usage Wyatt did violenice to his native tonigue in a fashionl that recalls poor Lydgate's anid Occleve's frantic attempts to rimiie like their " naister Clhaucer." Some of Wyatt's most proniouniced peculiarities are (r) rimning words witlh tlle same gramimatical ending, as aggrieved . .. .

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277 Afay, IquI. ifYl)) EARN LANGUAGE NVO TE.s Vol. xvi, 1Vo. 5. 273

wearied1. b.. r-ied . .. stirr-oedt, making, as it were, a grammniatical or inflectionail rimei; (2) i-iming words that endl in the same vowel withi- out regard to precedinig consonanits, as jollity . . . sluggardy . .. .unhappY.. . comonl10114y; (3) riming words witlh different accelits as c5n- fort . . . port; done . .. oyi... prison . . . occdsion. MIarked examples of these forced rinies are fouind in tlhirteeni out of Wyatt's soninets, aind less noticeable violence in niearly all. None of these errors are committed by Suiirrey, and lhere lies one chiief reason for the greater melody of lhis verse.

While Wyatt, like all succeedinig Englisl poets, commonlovy uised nmasculine rime, the very fact of lhis imlitationi of Italian models caused hiim to nmake frequent experinmenits witlh feminine rime, genierally unsuccessfuil, as variable

.. stable; ever . . . endeavor . . . persIver lever. Many of the forced rinies referred

to above are in'entionally femlininie. This form of rime occurs in eleven sonnets, and in sonme of these several timies. In tlhis, as in all else, Suirrey recogniizedi miiore clearly than did Wyatt the possibility of the me(iuim witl whlich lie was workiing; anid there are but two soninets in wlhiclh feniniiie rimie occurs. One of these is a direful attempt to nmake dissyl- lables rime throughout the quatrains, anid re- sults in the sequeence season . . . reasoz ... pea non ... geason ... treason . . . poison (I) capped by the couplet taken . . . shaken. Thlie other case is used very effectively in the sixth and eiglhth linies of the finle Epitaph onz Clere.

The rule of the Petrarclhani soninet is that each miietrical dlivisioni is syntactically distinct, or if not embo(dyinig an inidependent seI)tenice contains a separate clause of a compounid sen- tenice. Tlie old statemlent of the office of the differenit parts of the poem presupposes this syntactical completeniess:

" The buisiness of the first qtuatrain of the sonnet is to state the lproposition of it; of the seconid quatrain to prove the proposition; of the first tercet to confirm-n it; anid of the second tercet to draw the coniclusioni." The point at whlichi this syntactical separation is miiost essential is, natura-llly, thle poinit of metrical separation, that is at the close of the quatrains and beginning of the tercets. So careftully did Petrarchl observe this rule that

in the first lhundredl soinnets only the tentlh, eleveltl, forty-fourth, anrid sevenitv-ninthl leave the senise incomplete at the end( of the eightlh line, andl in no case is the second quatrain concluded by a real ruin-on line. In the same hlundred sonnets there are twenty-two cases of first quatrains with incomplete sense (Sonnlets 1, 4, 6, 8, io, II, i6, 20, 27, 30, 32, 39, 40, 46, 48, 49, 55, 58, 79, 93, 94, 96); and eleveen cases of first tercets concluding witlh incomplete sense (Sonniiets 2, 9, 10, I9, 21, 32, 36, 72, 77, 82, 90). In the eighty-second the overflow from the first to the seconid tercet is by a run-oii line. Wyatt and Surrey did not nmaintain this logical and syllogistic clharacter of the sonnet, but disregarded the syntactical independence of the qtiatrains. Tlhus amonig WXyatt's sonnets there are seven cases of sentences continuled fronm the first to the seconid quatrain (Sonnets 7, 10, 13, 13, I5, 22, 23, 26);I seven continue(d fronm the second to the third quatrain (Sonnets 4, 8, I7, i8, I9, 22, 25); fifteeni conitinuiied from the quiatraini to the couplet (Sonnets I, 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, II, I2, 15, 18, 19, 22, 25, 28, 3I). Surrey shows four cases of the first quatrain overflowing to the second (Sonnets 3, p. 12; 5, p. 13; 7, p. I4; 9, p. i6); five overflowing from the second to the tlhird quatrain (Sonnets 6, p. 14; 9, p. i6; II, p. 59; I3, p. 62; i6, p. 68); and six overflowing from the third quatraini to the couplet (Sonniets 5, p. I3; 6, p. I4; 7, p. 15; 8, p. I5; 12, p. 6o; I5, p. 64).

Of the teclhnically terme(d ruin-oni lines one woll'd expect to find few examples in Wyatt's verses. He was so mechanical a writer, so new to Ihis craft, so unaccustomed to his tools that naturally he took refuge in the end-stop line that fuinrislhes a breathinig place before beginning the desperate struggle with five miore unuwillinig feet atnd a new unyielding rime. It is imiipossible to be dogmatic on this poinit, as one's determinationl of run-on lines often deplends on individual phrasing. I have fouind ten sonlnets with none of these Iihues (Sonnets II, I3, I5, I7, 20, 21, 92, 23, 27, 32); niine witlh butt one (Sonnets I, 3, 6, 7, I2, I4, i6, I8, 28); six with two (Soninets 8. 10. 2A. 2Z. 26.

x In numbering these sonnets, I have followed the order of the Aldine edition, in which they occur between pages one and twenty-one; but as Surrey's soninets are not given con- secuitively in the Aldine edition, I have added to the nuimber of the sonnet the number of the nage.

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279 AMay, l90I. MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES Vol. xvi, No. 5. 28O

30); four witlh three (Sonnets 2, 4, 5, 29); one with four (Sonnet 3I); and two with five (Son- nets 9 and I9). With Surrey the proportion is somewhat different: four have no run-on lines (Sonnets 3, p. I2; 5, p. I3; io, p. i6; I4, p. 62); seven have one (Sonnet I, p. 3; 4, p. I2; 8, p. I5; 9, p. i6; II, p. 59; I2, p. 59; I5, p. 64); four have two (Sonnets 2, p. ii; 6, p. I1; 7, p. I4; I3, p. 62); and one lhas tlhree (Sonnet i6, p. 68). It is apparent that the greater smoothness of Surrey's verse can hardly be due to the pre- dominance of these lines.

The typical foot in these, as in all sonnets, is the iambic; but as is customary in Eniglislh verse this is often superseded by the trochaic foot. Wyatt uses this shifted accent very fre- quently, in all about one hundred and seventy times; and in about one third of the cases the trochaic foot is the first in the linle. Twenty- three of the lines thus introduced begin a new turn of thought (for example, Sonnets I, 1. 5; 2, 1. 3; 7, 1. I4; 2I, 1. 5); and the shifted accent may then be considered as a nmark of emphasis. But in the renmaininig cases there is no suchl change of thouglht or expression (for example, Sonnets 2,1. 8; 4, 1. 8; 9,1. 4; 28,1. I2). Some- times the initial troclhee is followed by one, two, or three others before the measure returns to the iambic; and there are foturteeni fully trochaic lines (Sonnet I, 11. 1, 4, 8, II, I2; 5, 1. I; 10, 1. 4; I2, 1. 3; I4, 1. 2; 22, 1. 4, 5; 27, 1 I; 30, 1. 3; 3I, 1. IO). Very rarely the shifted accent occurs after a medialpause (Soninets 4, 1. II; 5, 1. 9; 13, 1. 9; I9, 11. 6, I2). In general I have been able to see no reason for these trochaic interpolations except the conivenience of an unskillfuLl craftsman. Wyatt's otlher changes of feet are to the dactyllic, wlhich lhe uses twice in the sevenith and once in the twelfth line of the ninieteenth sonnet; anid to the anapestic which he uses about thirty times. The thirtieth sonnet beginning

" I abide and abide, and better abide,"

is written throughout in four-stressed litnes of triple measure with occasional dissyllabic feet; and in comparison with the regular five- stressed iambic compositions furniishes a goo(d example of a kind of metrical comnpensationi. Surrey's use of the dactyllic and aniapestic foot is very sparing. The former occurs once (p. ii, Sonniiet 2, 1. I); anld the latter seveni

times (p. 13, Sonniet 5, 11. 2, 13,. 14; P1 14, SonJ- net 7, 1. 6; p. 59, Sonniet If, 1J. I, 2S p. 6o, SoIinet 12, 1. 14). There are two fully trochaic lines (p. 6o, Sonnet I2, 1. 5; p. 62, Son- net 14, 1. ').

The initial troclhaic foot occurs fifty-six times in fourteen of Surrey's sonniets, and witlh six exceptions (p. ii, Sonniet 2, 1. i0; P. 15, Son- niet 7, 1. xo; p. 59, Sonnet I2, 1. 3; p. 62, SOI- niet 13, 11. 3, 6; p. 69, Sonniiet i6, 1. Ii), it is used after a pause or to mlark emplhasis. There seem to me few details that show the superior- ity of Surrey to Wyatt more clearly thani this logical, consistent uise of the slhifted accenit.

ELIZABETH DEERING HANSCOA1. Smtith College.

THrE- CAL F O F THE LEGC. THIS use of tile word ca/f has always been a puzzle. T he wor(d is definied in The Oxford Dictionary as " The fleshy hinder part of tile shaink of tlhe leg, formed by the bellies of mtuscles wlhiclh nmove tlhe foot." Evidently re- latedl forms aie not wanitiing. IIn Old Norse we find the weak nioun kdfi ' calf of the leg,' which appears also in ktzifabht, definled as 'ham' anid said to be equal to knesbot, kne1sfot. Then there is Irish anid Gaelic ca/ia 'calf of the leg,' wlhich has been p)roposed as tle source of tlle Gernlaniic word. It would, however, be lhard to explaini how a Celtic ip slhould becomne if wlheni adopted inito a Germzanic language, wlhile the coniverse clhange of If to it in passilig froImi Germianic ilitO Celtic is i1ot stralige. AMoreover, the word lacks explana- tion in Celtic atnd cani be easily explainied as Germaniic; lhenice we must, as ill so milany otlher cases, regard the Celtic as the borrowver. In fact, we finid, niot onily ca/f of tike leg ap- pearing in Gaelic as ca/pa, ca/bt/ha, Manlx colbey-ny-coshey, but also calf 'vitulus' appear- inig as ca/pach, co/pach, colbt//ach, Manx col- bagh.

TIhle Eniglish word, wlliclh appears as ca/zf in the fourteenth century, may standcI for OE. cea/f; but, if the form ca/fe is nlot nierely atn orthograpilic variant, the word was originially a weak derivative, cogniate witlh ON. cflSlf or derived directly frolll it, anid the sliorter form is due to the inifluenice of cal/ ' vitulus.' But this is immanaterial.

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The Sonnet Forms of Wyatt and Surrey