much about the structure of the
Italian sonnet, in order to make clear the task which lay before
Surrey and Wyatt, when they sought to transplant it into English.
Surrey did not adhere to the strict fashion of Petrarch: his sonnets
consist either of three regular quatrains concluded with a couplet,
or else of twelve lines rhyming alternately and concluded with a
couplet. Wyatt attempted to follow the order and interlacement of the
Italian rhymes more closely, but he too concluded his sonnet with a
couplet. This introduction of the final couplet was a violation of the
Italian rule, which may be fairly considered as prejudicial to the
harmony of the whole structure, and which has insensibly caused the
English sonnet to terminate in an epigram. The famous sonnet of Surrey
on his love, Geraldine, is an excellent example of the metrical
structure as adapted to the supposed necessities of English rhyming,
and as afterwards adhered to by Shakspere in his long series of
love-poems. Surrey, while adopting the form of the sonnet, kept quite
clear of the Petrarchist's mannerism. His language is simple and
direct: there is no subtilising upon far-fetched conceits, no
wire-drawing of exquisite sentimentalism, although he celebrates in
this, as in his other sonnets, a lady for whom he appears to have
entertained no more than a Platonic or imaginary passion. Surrey was a
great experimentalist in metre. Besides the sonnet, he introduced into
England blank verse, which he borrowed from the Italian _versi
sciolti_, fixing that decasyllable iambic rhythm for English
versification in which our greatest poetical triumphs have been
achieved.

Before quitting the subject of the sonnet it would, however, be well
to mention the changes which were wrought in its structure by early
poets desirous of emulating the Italians. Shakspere, as already
hinted, adhered to the simple form introduced by Surrey: his stanzas
invariably consist of three separate quatrains followed by a couplet.
But Sir Philip Sidney, whose familiarity with Italian literature was
intimate, and who had resided long in Italy, perceived that without a
greater complexity and interweaving of rhymes the beauty of the poem
was considerably impaired. He therefore combined the rhymes of the two
quatrains, as the Italians had done, leaving himself free to follow
the Italian fashion in the conclusion, or else to wind up after
English usage with a couplet. Spenser and Drummond follow the