The Sonnet Sir Philip Sidney & more rhetoric

Just two more from Sir Philip Sydney today, dear readers. Sidney’s use of the sonnet as a stanza brings to mind The Pearl, the 13th century alliterative poem composed of 101 twelve-verse stanzas. The poet continues to describe his love almost in terms of an infection which progressively spreads from a wound which turns his inside-out, making him into a bundle of contradictions and absurdities: II Not at the first sight, nor with a dribbed¹ shot, Loue gaue the wound, which, while I breathe, will bleede; But knowne worth did in tract of time proceed, Till by degrees, it had full conquest got. I saw and lik'd; I lik'd but loued not; I lou'd, but straight did not what Loue decreed: At length, to Loues decrees I, forc'd, agreed, Yet with repining² at so partiall lot. Now, euen that footstep of lost libertie Is gone; and now, like slaue-borne Muscouite, I call it praise to suffer tyrannie; And nowe imploy the remnant of my wit To make myselfe beleeue that all is well, While, with a feeling skill**, I paint my hell. III Let dainty wits crie on the Sisters nine, That, brauely maskt, their fancies may be told; Or, Pindars apes, flaunt they in phrases fine, Enam'ling with pied flowers their thoughts of gold; Or else let them in statlier glorie shine, Ennobling new-found tropes with problemes old; Or with strange similes enrich each line, Of herbes or beasts which Inde or Affrick hold. For me, in sooth, no Muse but one I know, Phrases and problems from my reach do grow; And strange things cost too deare for my poor sprites. How then? euen thus: in Stellaes face I reed What Loue and Beautie be; then all my deed But copying is, what in her Nature writes. Sidney returns to every poet’s favorite subject – poetry – in the third sonnet / stanza. Affecting the style of the ancients, weighing down verse with philosophically pregnant figures of speech and exotica are not unfamiliar targets. Nor is the appeal to “nature” and authenticity, eschewing ornate style and rhetoric. In my view, Sidney’s up to a lot more here than a rather conventional appeal to nature and authenticity. Sir Philip uses the sonnet, a poetic form foreign to the English tradition, which by and large existed in its native tradition as stand-alone poems, to compose a large-scale poem. Hardly authentic. Consider, if you will, esteemed readers, the rhyme schemes thus far employed. The first sonnet, posted yesterday, rhymes abab abab cdcd ee; the second, abba abba cdcd ee; the third, abab abab ccde ed. I have not broken down the rhymes according to semantic sense. That adds another layer of clearly conscious “artistry” on behalf of the poet. Hardly natural. At the end of today’s second sonnet, having decried and exposed those who call upon the Muses, the poet describes his own “process” which, rather surprisingly, is that of the inspired poet, who is but a conduit, just like Hesiod and as Plato explained in the Ion. I read this poem, insofar as its subject is rhetoric / poetics, as Sidney calling for the work to be carried out correctly. Eschewing the “Muses” for “Nature” evokes, to my mind, Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric in the first book of his Rhetoric: Ὅτι μὲν οὖν οὐκ ἔστιν οὔτε ἑνός τινος γένους ἀφωρισμένου ἡ ῥητορική, ἀλλὰ καθάπερ ἡ διαλεκτική, καὶ ὅτι χρήσιμος, φανερόν, καὶ ὅτι οὐ τὸ πεῖσαι ἔργον αὐτῆς, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἰδεῖν τὰ ὑπάρχοντα πιθανὰ περὶ ἕκαστον . . . ³ Thus it is not that rhetoric is about any one matter, but it is like dialectic (i.e. its application is not restricted), and that it is useful, clearly, and that its work is not to persuade but to see the existing persuasive elements in respect of each matter . . . So don’t say something poetic about the face, discover and write the poetry in the face. Sidney claims wider applicability and relevance for poetry (read: the poet) than his perceived “rivals” who, in his view, superficially plunder and poorly copy models without serious intent. Their engagement with classical antiquity has left them with “dainty” wits whereas, I suggest, the poet’s wits have been put to the test by antiquity and, though now a “remnant,” have survived and are the stronger for it. Aristotle in a way rescued rhetoric by taming it, making it the compliment to dialectic, picking up where dialectic, or true philosophy, leaves off – the probable. Plato, of course, had his own views on poets and practitioners of rhetoric. In Aristotle’s hands, rhetoric became less dangerous. Is Sidney looking to similarly tame poetry, rather than find old problems for new tropes, to seek to find old tropes for new problems? But enough of my inconsequential typings about Sir Philip. More sonnet tomorrow. Until then, I remain, your faithful servant, Peregrinus Thank you for reading Peregrinus. Subscribed 1 A “dribbed” shot from a bow is one which is meant to strike the target / opponent from above. More the long bow shot than, say, that of a cross bow. 2 From verb “to repine” - to be disconcerted, down in spirits; to complain, to fret. 3 Rhet. 1355b.14. Translation mine. © 2024 Peregrinus 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104