An Introduction

to the English Sonnet

 
Letteratura Inglese 1
Prof. Alessandra Petrina
BEFORE THE ADVENT OF DICTIONARIES AND
GRAMMAR BOOKS FOR BOTH CLASSICAL AND
MODERN TONGUES, LEARNING A NEW
LANGUAGE OFTEN INVOLVED BY NECESSITY THE
CAREFUL STUDY OF PARALLEL TEXTS IN TWO
LANGUAGES
(JASON LAWRENCE)
LEONARDO BRUNI: THE PRIME REQUISITE OF THE
TRANSLATOR IS A GOOD KNOWLEDGE OF BOTH
SOURCE AND TARGET LANGUAGES AS A MATTER
OF COURSE: “MAGNA ET TRITA ET ACCURATA”
A DEMANDING AGENDA FOR THE SECULAR
TRANSLATOR
(MASSIMILIANO MORINI)
Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus
interpres –

(“As a true translator you will take care
not to translate word for word”. Horace,
Ars Poetica)

OR

Biblia sola scriptura?
Translation as Transposition:
how do you modify a text?
To  begin  with,  a  few  examples  from  
pain5ng…  
  
 
Leonardo da Vinci:

Monna Lisa

 
  
 
A “translation” by

Marcel Duchamp
  
 
Another by

Andy Warhol


Giotto, Cappella degli Scrovegni (1306): Il bacio di Giuda



Paolo Uccello, Battaglia di San Romano

(1438)
Diego Velàzquez

Ritratto di Papa
Innocenzo X
  

 
 
Translated by

Francis Bacon
 
  
 
 
The difficulties of English lovers with rhyme
(from William Shakespeare,
Much Ado about Nothing, V.ii)

Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme. I have tried.

I can find out no rhyme to “lady” but “baby”—an
innocent rhyme; for “scorn,” “horn”—a hard rhyme;
for, “school,” “fool”—a babbling rhyme; very ominous
endings. No, I was not born under a rhyming planet,
nor I cannot woo in festival terms.
 The Italian Sonnet

Francesco Petrarca
Rima 310

Zephiro torna, e ’l bel tempo rimena,

e i fiori et l’erbe, sua dolce famiglia,
et garrir Progne et pianger Philomena,
et primavera candida et vermiglia.
Ridono i prati, e ’l ciel si rasserena;
Giove s’allegra di mirar sua figlia;
l’aria et l’acqua et la terra è d’amor piena;
ogni animal d’amar si riconsiglia.
Ma per me, lasso, tornano i piú gravi
sospiri, che del cor profondo tragge
quella ch’al ciel se ne portò le chiavi;
et cantar augelletti, et fiorir piagge,
e ’n belle donne honeste atti soavi
sono un deserto, et fere aspre et selvagge.

Compare with “The Soote Season” by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

The Italian Sonnet

Francesco Petrarca
Rima 190

Una candida cerva sopra l’erba

verde m’apparve, con duo corna d’oro,
fra due riviere, all’ombra d’un alloro,
levando ’l sole a la stagione acerba.

Era sua vista sí dolce superba,

ch’i’ lasciai per seguirla ogni lavoro:
come l’avaro che ’n cercar tesoro
con diletto l’affanno disacerba.

" Nessun mi tocchi - al bel collo d’intorno

scritto avea di diamanti et di topazi - :
libera farmi al mio Cesare parve ".

Et era ’l sol già vòlto al mezzo giorno,

gli occhi miei stanchi di mirar, non sazi,
quand’io caddi ne l’acqua, et ella sparve.
The Italian sonnet: structure and rhyme-scheme

Francesco Petrarca
Rima 190

U/na / can/di/da / cer/va // so/pra / l’er/ba A

verde m’apparve, con duo corna d’oro, B
fra due riviere, all’ombra d’un alloro, B
levando ’l sole a la stagione acerba. A

Era sua vista sí dolce superba, A

ch’i’ lasciai per seguirla ogni lavoro: B
come l’avaro che ’n cercar tesoro B
con diletto l’affanno disacerba. A

" Nessun mi tocchi - al bel collo d’intorno C

scritto avea di diamanti et di topazi - : D
libera farmi al mio Cesare parve ". E

Et era ’l sol già vòlto al mezzo giorno, C

gli occhi miei stanchi di mirar, non sazi, D
quand’io caddi ne l’acqua, et ella sparve. E
 An Elizabethan Translation
Francesco Petrarca
Sir Thomas Wyatt (p. 595)
Una candida cerva sopra l’erba
verde m’apparve, con duo corna d’oro,
fra due riviere, all’ombra d’un alloro,
levando ’l sole a la stagione acerba.
Era sua vista sí dolce superba,
ch’i’ lasciai per seguirla ogni lavoro:
come l’avaro che ’n cercar tesoro
con diletto l’affanno disacerba.
“Nessun mi tocchi - al bel collo d’intorno
scritto avea di diamanti et di topazi - :
libera farmi al mio Cesare parve”.
Et era ’l sol già vòlto al mezzo giorno,
gli occhi miei stanchi di mirar, non sazi,
quand’io caddi ne l’acqua, et ella sparve.
And wild to hold, though I seem tame.”
Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, helas! I may no more.
The vain travail hath worried me so sore,
I am of them that furthest come behind.
Yet may I by no means, my worried mind
Draw from the deer; but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
Since in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I, may spend his time in vain;
And graven in diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about,
“Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,
 AMOUR COURTOIS

Expressed
 through
 three
 metaphors:
 

 
LOVE
 –
 WAR
 
LOVE
 –
 HUNTING
 
 
LOVE
 –
 SIEGE
 
 
 

 

 
The
 Lady
 and
 the
 
Unicorn
 
(Paris,
 Musée
 de
 Cluny)
 

 
Metaphor
 of
 love
 as
 
hunt
 

 

 

 

The white deer: a symbol of inaccessible beauty

  
 
 
 
 
The  deer  as  symbol  of  nobility:  emblem  of  King  Richard  II  
  
 
 
 
The  “noli  me  tangere”  episode  in  the  Bible  
  
Setting the sonnet in context

•  Wyatt’s translation of Petrarch’s sonnet can

also be read as applying to his own relationship
with Anne Boleyn, who would become Henry
VIII’s second wife

•  The sonnet therefore becomes a message to the

king, and a symbol of the function of literature
in diplomatic intermediation
THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII
As a young man, Henry had been married
by special dispensation to CATHERINE
OF ARAGON who gave him a daughter,
Mary, but she was now unlikely to bear
him a son. In 1536, ANNE BOLEYN,
who had given the king a daughter,
Elizabeth, was executed and Henry
married JANE SEYMOUR, who died
after giving birth to the King’s only
legitimate son. In 1540, the king later
married the Protestant ANNE OF
CLEVES but he soon divorced to marry
CATHERINE HOWARD. After two
years he had her executed because of a
love affair with her cousin. Henry’s last
wife was CATHERINE PARR, who
managed to survive her husband.
  
 
 
 
Who  is  the  hunter,  and  who  is  the  hunted?  
 Translation and Language Learning:
main references

Francis O. Matthiessen, Translation. An Elizabethan Art,
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931.
Jason Lawrence, “Who the devil taught thee so much Italian?”. Italian
Language Learning and Literary Imitation in Early Modern England,
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005
Massimiliano Morini, Tudor Translation in Theory and Practice,
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006

  
Basic bibliography
on the Elizabethan Sonnet:
 
Julius  Walter  Lever,  The    Elizabethan  Love  
 
Sonnet    (London  :  Methuen,  1966)  
 
John  Fuller,  The  Sonnet  (London  :  Methuen,  1972)  
 
Wilhelm  Theodor  Elwert,  Versi4icazione  italiana  dalle  origini  ai  
giorni  nostri  (Firenze  :  Le  Monnier,  1991)  
 
Derek  Attridge,  Poetic  Rhythm.  An  
Introduction  (Cambridge  :  Cambridge  University  Press,  1995)