Astrophil and Stella: sonnet 52
Robert Stonehouse
A strife is grown between Virtue and Love
While each pretends that Stella must be his;
Her eyes, her lips, her all, saith Love, do this
Since they do wear his badge, most firmly prove.
But Virtue thus that title doth disprove,
That Stella - O dear name! - that Stella is
That virtuous soul, sure heir of heavenly bliss,
Not this fair outside which our hearts doth move.
And therefore, though her beauty and her grace
Be Love's indeed, in Stella's self he may
By no pretence claim any manner place.
Well, Love, since this demur our suit doth stay
Let Virtue have that Stella's self, yet thus,
That Virtue but that body grant to us.
1. A quarrel has arisen between Virtue and Cupid,
2. each claiming that Stella should belong to him.
3. Cupid says her eyes, her lips and everything else about her
4. prove his case with absolute certainty, because they all
carry his mark.
5. but Virtue refutes Cupid's title by this argument:
6. that Stella - whose name I love - the true Stella is
7. the soul, full of virtue, certain to inherit the Kingdom
of Heaven,
8. not the outward form that causes love;
9. and so, though her lovely shape and movements
10. do indeed belong to Cupid, in her true inward personality
Cupid has
11. no claim to any kind of position, by any argument.
12. Then, Cupid, since our case is brought to a halt by this
objection,
13. give up that inward personality to Virtue, on condition
14. that Virtue will give up her body to you and me.
Line 1, 'Virtue and Love'. The poem is based on this
personification, and so I have explicitly personified Love as
Cupid, although there is no corresponding name to give to
Virtue. The result is incongruous, but it is Sidney, not I,
who is writing poetry here.
Line 2, 'pretends'. Meaning 'claims', as it did for several
hundred years afterwards.
Browning (from memory - look out!):
'The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed.'
Law-suit language is used from here to the end of the poem.
Lines 3-4. 'Do this' in 3 goes with 'most firmly prove' in 4,
jumping over 'since they do wear his badge'. It is possible (I
think) to speak the lines so as to bring this out, despite its
awkwardness.
Line 5, 'title'. Legal: the right of ownership of property.
Line 6. The poet breaks off in sudden ecstasy at Stella's name
and has to begin again, but even so the two uses of it are not
identical in meaning.
Line 7. 'A member of Christ, the child of God, and an
inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven' (the catechism; warning -
memory again!) The reference is perhaps less familiar now, and
so I have paraphrased more explicitly.
Line 11, 'any manner place'. An archaic use (in Chaucer, I
think?) where at Sidney's time there would usually be an 'of'
('all manner of men').
Lines 13-14. The speaker is interested in fleshly matters, not
souls. This is not a standard position of Sidney's; it is
adopted for the immediate poetical purpose.
--
Robert Stonehouse
To mail me, replace invalid with uk. Inconvenience regretted.