Masked Love: The Metaphor Behind “Love” in Wyatt’s “Farewell, Love” and Sidney’s “Not at first sight, nor with a dribbèd shot”

The typical life of a courtier living during sixteenth century England, also known as theTudor period, was not as glamourous as those involved with it may have liked. The court was the center of power but was also the center of cultural influence, with holds in fashion, art, theater, and poetry, and whatever was popular in the courts shaped the entire country’s thoughts about culture. However, despite the court being a place for advancement when it came to politics, wealth, and influence, it was also a dangerous place for those in close proximity to the King/Queen. The Norton Anthology of English Literature directly states that “the courtiers were torn between the need to protect themselves and the equally pressing need to display themselves” (533), meaning that putting oneself into the public sphere also puts one into the spotlight where secrets and faults could potentially be exposed to all of the court, which could ruin someone’s life, and even get them killed. Since both Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 - 1542) and Sir Philip Sidney (1554 - 1586) were not only courtiers but influential courtiers and poets, they had to be especially careful when it came to expressing their true thoughts and feelings since their works would be most likely widely distributed and read by all. Wyatt’s sonnet “Farewell, Love” and the second sonnet of Sidney’s famous sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella, titled “Not at first sight, nor with a dribbèd shot” are both about the hardships of being in love but they have a common feature: within both poems, the word “love” is capitalized, which not only personifies the concept, but also creates an extended metaphor where “Love” represents not only love itself but the person whom the poem is really about.  

In the opening lines of “Farewell, Love,” the speaker bids goodbye to Love, saying “Farewell, Love and all thy laws forever / Thy baited hooks shall tangle me no more” (1 - 2). As noted, love is capitalized, which brings forth the assumption that “Love” is a stand in for the poem’s real subject, Anne Boleyn. “Love” has used baited hooks to ensnare him, which in fishing terms refers to fisherman using hooks baited with small fish to catch larger fish. The speaker compares himself to a fish who is ignorant of the dangers of being “hooked,” and “Love” is the cruel fisherman who baits him, fully aware his tortured fate of unrequited love. Whether or not this poem was written before or after the death of Boleyn is unknown, but the message still stays pretty much the same, that Wyatt is now giving up on love because of the dangers associated with being involved with the queen. This poem may have come after his accusation of adultery and his dance with death, which would explain his renouncement of all love for the rest of his life. Both Boleyn and love have caught him on a hook like an unaware fish, and left him gasping for his life, both in terms of unrequited love and the real threat of death, and just like the caught fish at the mercy of the fisherman, Wyatt was set free and given a second chance to not fool around with untouchable women. Similarly, in Sidney’s “Not at first sight, nor with a dribbèd shot,” Love is also capitalized and personified. This time, “Love” is an archer, or more specifically Cupid, the Roman god of erotic love and desire. He claims that “Love gave the wound” that now causes him to be unwillingly under the control of “Love” (2). Since Sidney was wounded by Cupid’s arrows, this brings forth the idea of “true love,” which, in real life, would leave his true love, Penelope, married to another man. This would also explain why Sidney does not say “farewell” to love as Wyatt does: there is a divine force behind him forcing him to be in love with Penelope always, against his will.

Sir Thomas Wyatt and Sir Philip Sidney were both influential courtiers, poets and philosophers. Wyatt was a member of King Henry VIII’s court and was an extremely popular voice among his courtier audience; he not only introduced what we call today the “Sonnet,” with influences of Francesco Petrarch, but he was able to capture the intense emotional atmosphere of court life in the sixteenth century (Greenblatt 646 - 647). Sir Philip Sidney was a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth, King Henry’s daughter. Sidney’s writings, like himself, were also very popular and influential among the whole of England. An important hardship that both Wyatt and Sidney had in common was that both of the women they were connected to belonged to somebody else. Wyatt was thought to have been involved in adultery with Anne Boleyn, and in 1536 he was imprisoned along with others accused of having secret love affairs with the queen (Greenblatt, 647). He was later set free, but all the others, including the queen, were executed. Many of Wyatt’s poems include very subtle references to Boleyn and the dangers of lusting for someone so unattainable. Sidney’s story was one of lost, rather than dangerous, love. Sidney was connected with a woman named Penelope Devereux, whom Sidney was speculated to marry. However, Devereux married another, Lord Robert Rich, since higher ranked individuals during this time usually married out of necessity of protecting the interest of the families involved (Greenblatt 1084). Just like Wyatt, Sidney makes subtle references that his poems are truly about Devereux, for many of his poems pun on her married name “Rich.” It is very clear that if either of these men were to write plainly on their feelings, they would cause a huge scandal that, according to both poems, would be worse than dealing with the pain of  impossible love.

The typical sonnet during the sixteenth century usually dealt with love, either physical or divine. Wyatt’s sonnet “Farewell, Love” was first printed in the influential anthology Tottel’s Miscellany, also entitled Songs and Sonnets, which was an extremely popular collection that established Wyatt’s career as one of the most important poetic voices of the sixteenth century (Frontain). This sonnet follows the typical Italian sonnet form: the first eight lines, describe the speaker’s challenge: he is renouncing the “laws” of love and in the last six lines, the speaker is relieved of love’s entanglement and his freedom from it’s subjugation. Similarly, “Not at first sight, nor with a dribbèd shot” follows the same sonnet form but is a part of a larger sonnet sequence, a technique first made famous by Dante and Petrarch. Sidney’s poem also includes a speaker who describes himself dealing with the chains of love.

In lines 3 - 4 of “Farewell, Love,” the speaker says one of the reasons for abandoning Love’s control is that “Senec and Plato call me from thy lore, / To perfect wealth my wit for to endeavor.” In other words, the speaker wants to escape the “lore” of Love and perfect his well-being through the studies of the ancient philosophers Seneca and Plato. It was common for those within the court to also have an understanding of philosophy, which leaves this line heavily implied that Wyatt is leaving “Love” for the court. Wyatt lays his loyalties with the court because his dangerous habits of love could ruin him socially, so he turns away from love and returns to “Senec and Plato” and all the others that the courtiers admire. He then goes on to state that “In blind error when I did persever, / Thy sharp repulse, that pricketh aye so sore, / hath taught me to set in triles no store, / And scape forth since liberty is lever” (5-8). Wyatt is saying that the reason he followed Love’s commands because of “blind error,” by which he means his error was purposefully blind towards the pain that Love was causing him, and he goes on to say that free will is better than the hurt of love, because to put value on things that bring you pain is no life worth living. Wyatt may be trying to alleviate himself of the responsibility of his actions while he was under the control of “Love” by blaming “Love,” or Boleyn, for the causes of his actions.  In Sidney’s “Not at first sight, nor with a dribbèd shot,” he explains his own “blind error”:

“At length to Love’s decrees, I, forced, agreed,

Yet with repining at so partial lot.

Now even that footstep of lost liberty

Is gone, and now like slave-born Muscovite,

I call it praise to suffer tyranny” (7 - 11)

Just like Wyatt, Sidney brings for this image of being “forced” into love against his will, which acts as a pardon on his part for any actions done while he was under “Love”’s influence. Even though Penelope never physically forces Sidney to be in love with her, he cannot help but see everything she does as a “decree” since he has lost all liberty of his heart because she “owns it.” Him calling it “praise to suffer” against her tyranny is Sidney’s way of addressing that he is aware of his “blind error” and that he knows there is no way to avoid it.

Despite their similarities, both poems end very differently. Wyatt stays true to his refute of “Love,” ending his poem with his final goodbye:

“Therefore farewell, go trouble younger hearts,

And in me claim no more authority;

With idle youth go use thy property,

And thereon spend thy many brittle darts.

For hitherto though I have lost all my time,

Me lusteth no longer rotten boughs to climb.” (9 - 14)

These final lines imply the opposite of what was stated before: that maybe this poem was written before the death of Boleyn. Wyatt tells her to “go trouble younger hearts” like she usually does, and there is a tone of bitterness in his words, especially when he compares her to the “rotten boughs” of a tree. But if assumed that the poem was written after Boleyn’s death, the ending becomes less bitter and more depressing, for now his heart is only free because she “claim[s] no more authority” over him and the image of the “rotten bough” becomes a much darker one. The ending of Sidney’s poem is also a full of depression for he claims that he must “now employ the remnant of my wit, / To make myself believe that all is well, / While with a feeling skill I paint my hell” (12 - 14).  Unlike Wyatt, who gives up completely on love, Sidney does  the exact opposite: he embraces the tortuous life of living under “Love’s” ruling. Even though he will be living in “hell,” Sidney would rather always have to see what he sees as his true love with another man, knowing he can never have her, than to live without her. So instead of giving up, he will live out his days pretending like he is alright with his life, even though he is truly miserable.

Though the poems end differently and take a slightly different stance on love, both utilize the same construct of setting up an extended metaphor of love. Wyatt and Sidney both want to express their extreme emotion of lost love, but can only do so by setting up the personification of “Love” to work as a symbol for their respective lost loves. Though both poets do use subtle references within some of their work to hint at to whom their poems are truly about, with these two specific poems, “Farewell, Love” and “Not at first sight, nor with a dribbèd shot,” true feelings are masked behind the “Love” metaphor, and the importance of creating such a disguise is enhanced not only by the potential reactions of their unattainable lovers, but also by the other courtiers and even higher ranked individuals.