SIR THOMAS WYATT

(1503-1542)
He was born at the Allington Castle, in Kent. His father was part of
the Privy Council of the Tudor kings Henry VII and Henry VIII. Wyatt studied
at St. Johns College, Cambridge, and held many different functions at the
court of Henry VIII, including official diplomatic trips, between 1526 and
1527, to France and Italy (negotiating cooperation treaties against the
emperor Carlos V, from Spain); participation in court tournaments;
translation of works of literature and philosophy (e.g. Plutarch and Petrarch);
and serving as High Marshal of Calais which is said to have been a kind
of moderate exile imposed by the king, on the supposition of Wyatts
involvement with Anne Boleyn.
He was knighted in 1535 and in the next year was made prisoner at
the London Tower, again on suspicion of having an affair with the queen,
whod be executed in that very year. Wyatt was at the risk of losing his own
head, literally, but was set free and went back to his functions, and was sent
as an ambassador to the court of Carlos V. Following the excommunication
of Henry VIII, he travels through France on his way to Barcelona, Zaragoza
and Valladolid. He is accused, in 1538, of having a dissolute life and of
wishing to live in Spain.
Cromwells friend, Wyatt was present to his execution in 1540. The
poet would be incarcerated again at the Tower in 1541, following
accusations of treason. His properties and Allington Castle were taken and
his wife was evicted. Wyatt then writes a declaration of innocence, and asks
for the kings pardon. The king concedes it, but demands that Wyatt leaves
the pregnant mistress (Elizabeth Darrell) and goes back to his wife. Wyatt
accepts the kings terms but, when made captain of the light cavalry in
Calais, leaves land for Darrell and his illegitimate son in his will. Suffering
from fever in 1542, he dies in October.
Wyatt was a poet of fundamental importance in England,
establishing some of the first experiences with Italian forms notably the
sonnet in English, and did that by managing a unique mixture of Italian
and English poetic values.

THOMAS WYATT
Who so list to hount
Who so list to hount I knowe where is an hynde
but as for me helas I may no more
the vayne travaill hath weried me so sore
I ame of theim that farthest cometh behinde
yet may I by no meanes my weried mynd
drawe from the Deere but as she fleeth afore
faynting I followe I leve of therefor
sethens in a nett I seke to hold the wynde
Who list her hount I put him owte of dowbte
as well as I may spend his tyme in vain
and graven with Diamondes in letters plain
There is written her faier neck rounde about
noli me tangere for Cesars I ame
and wyld for to hold, though I seme tame.
A quem a caa quer
A quem a caa quer, sei onde caar,
quanto a mim, ai, j nem sequer um meu
dedo movo dor que amor me deu:
de longe sigo e nem quero alcanar.
Mas inda a mente cansa a ir buscar
a cora em fuga frente, a que eu
j fraco me afobo e ento se perdeu,
pois s vento o que tento enredar.
A quem queira ca-la eu desengano
na voz de quem seu tempo em vo gastou.
Que, posta em diamantes, se gravou
a letra em torno ao colo soberano:
Noli me tangere, de Csar sou,
dura caa a quem pensa que me dou.
(Traduo de Dirceu Villa)

EDMUND SPENSER
(1552-1599)
He was born to a modest family in London (his father was a
clockmaker) and educated at the Merchant Taylors School, in London, and
Pembroke Hall, in Cambridge, via a scholarship offered to poor students. As
it happens with all of those in his situation and with literary ambitions,
Spenser worked in translations: one from the Dutch (but translating from the
French version of it) and some Petrarchan verses in A Theatre for Wordlings
(1569), to showcase his abilities; ten years later, he publishes his first book
The Shepheardes Calender (1579), dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney, the
notable nephew of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the most powerful man
in Elizabeth Is England, and famous patron of the arts and sciences
(including the occult).
After being the secretary of the Bishop of Rochester, he is called
upon the Earl (certainly after the effect of his dedication to Sidney) and works
for a short time for him; soon afterwards, he goes to Ireland in the company
of Lord Grey. Although he felt the position as a defeat, he would spend most
of his life in Ireland. There he meets Sir Walter Raleigh, who would bring
him to London in 1589 to make him present there his newest poem, the long
allegory of Queen Elizabeth I, The Faerie Queene, for which he then
received a pension of 50 pounds a year, even though the poem was
unfinished and it would stay so until his death.
Spenser is perhaps the most ambitious poet of his time; he really
set out with the idea of completing the rota Virgilii, or the way the Roman
poet Virgil established a route that would encompass all ancient poetic
genres: Spenser wrote pastoral verses, didactic work and the long, narrative
allegory to the queen. He had an astonishing ear for verse, and composed
some of the sweetest English poems before Shakespeare (and had
unmistaken influence over Master William), especially in the lyrical part of
his works, Amoretti (1595). He improved on the English sonnet from Wyatt
and Surrey to a perfect pitch, creating a string of rhymes of his own (the
Spenserian sonnet) and deriving the stanza of the Faerie Queene from the
model of Ariostos Orlando Furioso (1516).

EDMUND SPENSER
from Amoretti, LXXX
Fresh spring the herald of loves mighty king,
in whose cote armour richly are displayd
all sorts of flowers the which on earth do spring
in goodly colours gloriously arrayd:
Goe to my love, where she is carelesse layd,
yet in her winters bowre not well awake:
tell her the joyous time wil not be staid
unlesse she doe him by the forelock take.
Bid her therefore her selfe soone ready make,
to wayt on love amongst his lovely crew:
where every one that misseth then her make
shall be by him amearst with penance dew.
make hast therefore sweet love, whilest it is prime,
for none can call againe the passed time.
dos Amoretti, LXXX
Stao fresca enfim, de amor o clarim,
Em cujo rico braso se apresente
Pletora de flores que h num jardim,
Gama de cores, glorioso presente:
Vai minha bela, onde deita indolente,
No leito de inverno, quase desperta:
Diz-lhe que o tempo de gozo iminente
Se o toma pela franja, bem alerta.
Pede ento que se faa logo esperta,
espera do amor no amvel cortejo,
Onde quem perde o par em tal oferta,
Com castigo vai punido em sobejo.
Apressa-te agora, amor, que sabido:
No torna a ningum o tempo perdido.
(Traduo de Dirceu Villa)

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY

(1554-1586)
Nephew of the powerful Earl of Leicester the queens favourite
and the man who many intellectuals, artists and scientists served (I use
modern terms here to avoid listing a huge number of XVIth century
occupations) , Philip Sidney was born, we could say, under the title of that
Charles Dickenss novel much later, in the XIXth century: Great
Expectations. And Sidney fulfilled each one of them: exemplary courtier,
elegant, polyglot, erudite, soldier, poet; firm, but of fine gentleness, attentive
to his duties and always well-disposed towards people of intelligence and
talent, he was a talented poet himself (and author of the famous Defence of
Poesy, 1581, a learned treatise on the virtues of poetry, answering, in the
end, to Platos ban on the poets from the ideal Republic).
He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and was elected
member of the Shrewsbury Parliament in 1572, and he went to accompany
Queen Elizabeth I to France for the marriage negotiations with the Duc
DAlenon. He was then in Paris when the massacre of St. Bartholomews
Day happened (a massacre attacked in a famous letter from Elizabeth I to
the French king Charles IX). Sidney travelled a lot: Frankfurt, Vienna,
Venice, etc. and was even in Hungary. He was also appointed imperial
ambassador in Prague. Friend of many significant literary people, like
Edmund Spenser, Fulke Greville and Gabriel Harvey, he had a sister, Mary
Sidney, of great learning and intelligence, who kept a kind of a literary salon,
where all of these mentioned, and others (well read one of them in a next
class, Samuel Daniel) would participate. It was a courtiers rule to consider
poetic activity as something almost casual (we read, in his Defence of
Poesy, he had slipped into the title of a poet) and his works werent
published in his very short life, but circulated in courtly fashion, in
manuscripts especially the prose of the Old & New Arcadia and the
sonnet sequence Astrophil & Stella, that would influence Shakespeare ,
all of them of posthumous publication (and his death was quite a commotion
in England). He died during the battle against Spain in Zutphen,
Netherlands.

PHILIP SIDNEY
from Astrophil and Stella, VII
When nature made her chiefe worke, Stellas eyes,
In collour blacke, why wrapt she beames so bright?
Would she in beamy blacke like Painter wise,
Frame daintiest lustre mixte of shades & light?
Or did she els that sober hewe devise,
In object best, to strength and knitt our sight,
Lest if no vaile these braue beames did disguise,
They Sun-like should more dazell than delight.
Or would she her miraculous power shewe,
That whereas blacke seemes Beauties contrarie,
Shee euen in blacke doth make all Beauties flowe:
Both so and thus, she minding Loue should bee
Plaste euer there, gaue him this mourning weede:
To honour all their deathes, which for her bleede.
de Astrophil and Stella, VII
Os olhos de Stella, que a natureza
Primou em fazer negros, brilham mais,
Pois brilho negro de sutil destreza
Em luz e sombra, que hbil pintor faz.
Ou esse sbrio tom ser defesa
Que enreda todo olhar no que lhe apraz,
Mas sob um vu, desse fulgor represa,
Pois sol no deixa ver primores tais?
Ou fora milagrosa ela possui,
Se do belo o negror parece oposto,
E o belo, mesmo em negro, dela flui?
Ambas, e por saber que Amor vem posto
Ali, vestiu-lhe em luto, por respeito
A quem por ela em morte sangra o peito.
(Traduo de Dirceu Villa)