(ii) Sir Thomas Wyatt

Thomas Wyatt occupies a conspicuous place in the history of English literature as the importer and
naturaliser of the Italian sonnet-form. He stands out, as a pioneer, in the realm of poetry for his
introduction of the Petrarchan form of English sonnets. Despite the usual limitations of a pioneer, Wyatt
has a specific significance, as the herald of the advent of a new kind of poetry and particularly personal
poetry in English.

Wyatt's significance, as suggested already, lies mainly in his contribution to the new poetical form ---the
sonnet. hi course of his visit to Italy, on diplomatic missions, he came under the spell of the fourteenth-
century Italian poet, Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), a great name in sonnet-writing. Petrarch's sonnets,
celebrating his ideal love of his mistress Laura proved to be magically instrumental to the beginning of a
new poetic pattern in English by Wyatt. Immensely impressed, Wyatt turned to Petrarch's model,
translated some of his sonnets and introduced English sonnets, following that model.

Thomas Wyatt, of course, was no prolific poet. His sonnets are nearly thirty in number, out of which
some ten sonnets are the translations from Petrarch. What is, however, important to note is his
initiative to devise a new poetic type in English on the Italian model. This new type, unencumbered by
the medieval fiction or allegory, is found to sing, from the core of the heart, so"’ much of personal pain
and happiness and to set a model for the aspirant poets of the glorious Elizabethan age. In fact, sonnet
writing is found to be immensely successful in great Elizabethan literature, and here Wyatt's role is
particularly remarkable. Of course, Wyatt, as the pioneer, had the problem to reproduce in English a
foreign pattern, with due solemnity and the total unity. But he combated well with that to pioneer
sonnet-writing in English.

Indeed, the literary pattern, set by Wyatt against the background of medieval literary traditions, still
operating, has a specific significance in the literary history of the time. After all, the sonnet is not simply
a poem of fourteen lines, with a certain rhyme-scheme. It has a deftly balanced arrangement, with
pauses and links between thoughts and arguments, retaining a total unified impression. This is truly a
highly developed verse-form that demands discipline and craftsmanship from the poet to mould and
express his thought, with wit and aptness, to the precise share of some fourteen balanced lines. Wyatt is
found to experiment, freely and effectively, this new verse-form and to make possible a broad road of
development in English sonnet-writing

Thomas Wyatt is, no doubt, a classical, rather Petrarchan. sonneteer. His sonnets occasionally appear a
sort of laboured imitation. But, at the same time, some of his sonnets clearly betray a tendency to
deviate from the usual structure of the Petrarchan sonnet by concluding the sonnet with a couplet or by
breaking the sonnet into the two equal divisions of seven lines each. His sonnets, in some cases, seem to
grape, through trials and experiments, to master a literary instrument, but they well reveal his
craftsmanship to treat a conventional theme in a disciplined yet flexible poetic style.
Wyatt's sonnets are truly commendable endeavours and possess individual beauty as well as strength.
As a typical follower of Petrarch, he is concerned with love, in its fulfilment as well as frustration. The
passion of love, expressed in his sonnets, is personal and intense, and this surely constitutes the essence
of lyrical poetry. This personal pre-occupation seems to prompt in him a note of freedom from the
conventional poetical slavery to love. His angry disdain and blunt revulsion register a logical
consequence of the ill-treatment of love. Moreover, his sonnets are rich in images, metaphorical and
varied, and in the impassioned diction of 'Petrarch and his followers. A smart combination of flexibility
and regularity is definitely a rich gift to English poetry from Wyatt.

Wyatt is not the author of sonnets only. He has to his credit a few other lyrical poems, brief but spirited.
He appears even more personal in some of those lyrics. His approach is bold and free, with a light
bantering tone occasionally. In fact, Wyatt's most finished poems are not necessarily his literary
innovation -sonnets. These are his lyrical songs in which the poet is under no restriction of classical
rules.

Other poetical forms, attempted by Wyatt, include epigrams and satires. The epigrams are some
conceits or paradoxes, centering generally on love, and well illustrate his remarkable ‘range of learning
and wit. His satires are found frank and forceful, with a precise note of moral communications.

Wyatt, as noted already, is no great poet, but a pioneer. His subject-matter is, as a rule, conventional,
traditional. "lhis treats the hopeless love of an ardent, passionate lover. Yet. his poetical achievement
and significance , as a pioneering , original poet of an extraordinary strength are not ignorable.

Tottel’s Miscellany

A number of early Elizabethan poems and songs were printed and published together by one printer Mr.
Richard Tottel, under the title Songes and Sonnettes, written by the ryght honorable Lorde Henry
Howrad, Late Earle of Surrey and others. The volume is popularly known as Tottel's Miscellany. It is
found to contain poems, mainly from Wyatt and Surrey and from some other poets most of whom are
yet to be identified distinctly. The volume proved to be immensely popular and passed through several
editions within a short span.

The first thirty two pages of the Miscellany contains thirty” six poems by Surrey. These are followed by
Wyatt's poems. In fact, the sonnets of Wyatt and Surrey seem to go together in Tottel's Miscellany.

The other contributors to Tottel's Miscellany include Nicholas Grimald, with forty poetical pieces,
Thomas Lord Vaux, with two, John Heywood, the dramatist, with one, and Edward Somerset, with one.
One hundred and thirty poems, also included in the Miscellany, are by uncertain poets, some of whom
might have been identified as William Thynne, Sir Thomas Bryan and Thomas Churchyard. These poems
by the uncertain authors are not of the same type or quality. There are love poems, sonnets in the
Petrarchan convention on of Wyatt and Surrey as also the songs of complaints about feminine fickleness
and frailty. Those anonymous poets appear to follow Wyatt and Surrey and to repeat even their
thoughts, ideas and conceits time and again.

The historical importance of Tottel's Miscellany is, however, immense. It is the first surviving printed
communication of poetry to a great variety of readers. The collection presents different types of works
and thereby indicates different poetical influences and inclinations at work in the early days of the
Renaissance. It is supposed to be a belated manifesto of the new poetry in the Elizabethan age.

It may be noted, in this connection, that, without this Tottel's Miscellany, much of the early poems of
the Elizabethan age would have been lost. Tottel's Miscellany, helped by the process of printing, at least,
managed to preserve the works that had to create a remarkable tradition in English poetry. In this
respect, Tottle's preservation of the sonnets of Wyatt and Surrey may be mentioned in particular.

Henry Howard: Earl of Surrey

In Tottel's Miscellany, a collection of songs and poems, printed and published by one printer, Tottel, in
1557, the name of Henry Howard, Duke Surrey, appeared on the title page. His name, better known as
simply Surrey, is closely associated with Wyatt's, although he was some fourteen years younger than me
other. He belonged to a very aristocratic heredity and succeeded to his father's dukedom at a very
young age. Like Wyatt, he was a classical scholar and high intellectual. He was, too, a courtier man of
culture and refinement-an ideal Renaissance gentleman, like Sidney. But he had not Sidney's fortune to
die as a martyr on the battle field, but was an unfortunate victim of royal rage and executed, on a charge
of treason, when he was barely thirty.

Like Wyatt, Surrey was drawn to the new literary fashion from Italy. Like him, he made literary exercises
to enlarge the range 0f English poetry by translations and adaptations from classical masters. What he
did particularly was to join Wyatt to popularise'and strengthen the newly adopted poetic form -sonnet-
writing. Surrey was no pioneer, like Wyatt, in sonnet writing, but he was definitely a better craftsman.
His sonnets, though following the Petrarchan convention in theme and treatment, are found to deviate
from the usual Petrarchan form and to introduce new metrical pattern. Here he is a more competent
technician in sonneteering than Wyatt.

In Tottel's Miscellany, the first thirty-six poems are by Surrey. Four more poems are found included
later. This-well signifies Surrey's position and importance in the quickly expanding fashion of sonnet-
writing in English literature.

Surrey's theme is conventional -Petrarchan-love, rather sex love. Though married quite early, at the age
of . sixteen, his sonnets are addressed, in the Petrarchan manner, to a mistress to whom he vows love
and allegiance. His moods are conventional -the passion and pang of love. His sonnets here come very
close to Wyatt's.

But Surrey surpasses Wyatt in his nature imagery which is distinctly more English and natural than what
is found in Petrarch's sophisticated pictures. Even his description of ,natural scenes is found rather
prolonged, though lifelike all through. Here he seems to anticipate Shakespeare's nature imagery. ‘
What, however, is the matter of specific interest in Surrey's sonnets is his rhyme-scheme. He is found to
have deviated remarkably from the conventional Petrarchan pattern. His handling of the sonnet form,
with the lines rhyming abab, abab/ abab, aa is unusual, as there are only two rhymes (a, b) instead of
five in the usual Petrarchan sonnet. He is also the innovator of the grouping of the sonnet into three
quatrains and a concluding couplet. The rhyme-scheme, used by him here, is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. This
structural and technical innovation, much improved under Shakespeare, is known commonly as the
Shakespearean or English form. Surrey's rhyme pattern have variations in the forms ab ab, ab ab, ah ah,
cc and ah ha, cddc, effe, gg. lnfact, he is found to have experimented with rhyme schemes to secure the
greatest freedom and convenience for his expressions in sonnet-writing. ’

Surrey's pioneering achievement is, no doubt, this metrical experiment in sonnet-writing that gives the
English sonnet its own character and grandeur. But this rests no less on-his translation of Virgil's epic,
the Aeneid, in blank verse. The quality of his translation is not beyond all disputes. But the introduction
of blank verse'in long and grave poetry is found to start the metre of great poetical and dramatic works
of Marlowe, Shakespeare and Milton.