SAMUEL DANIEL: DELIA: ELIZABETHAN SONNET CYCLE

Samuel Daniel's 'Delia' is one of the major Elizabethan sonnet sequences, reprinted here in an attractive new edition.

'Delia' is a sonnet cycle of love poetry, and some of the finest verse in the English language.

The book includes a note on Samuel Daniel, illustrations, and suggestions for further reading. Each poem has a page to itself. It's a useful edition for students.

Samuel Daniel was born in 1562 in Taunton, Somerset. He was educated at Oxford (Magdalen Hall); he worked as a tutor (to William Herbert), and a court official. His patrons included Fulke Greville and the Earl of Devonshire. He wrote plays as well as poetry (his 1605 'Philotas' tragedy was deemed anti-royal, and sympathetic to the Earl of Essex's rebellion). He died in 1619.

Samuel Daniel's 'Delia' was first published in a pirated edition in 1591 (alongside Sir Philip Sidney's 'Astrophel and Stella'). In 1592, Daniel published his own edition of 'Delia: Contayning Certayne Sonnets: With the Complaint of Rosamond' (50 poems). 'Delia' was reprinted and revised in 1592 (again), 1594, 1595, 1598, 1601, 1602, 1622 and 1632.

Delia (another name for the goddess Diana) may have been addressed to Sir Philip Sidney's sister, the Countess of Pembroke (she is one of the recurring figures in Elizabethan sonneteering, and Delia was dedicated to her). Someone who lived in Beckington, Wiltshire (close to where Samuel Daniel lived), has also been suggested.

Illustrated. Bibliography and note. ISBN 9781861712912. 96 pages.

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SIR PHILIP SIDNEY: ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: ELIZABETHAN SONNET CYCLE

Sir Philip Sidney's 'Astrophel and Stella' is one of the major Elizabethan sonnet sequences, reprinted here in an attractive new edition.

'Astrophel and Stella' is a sonnet cycle of love poetry, and some of the finest verse in the English language.

The book includes a note on Sir Philip Sidney, illustrations, and suggestions for further reading. Each poem has a page to itself. It's a useful edition for students.

Sir Philip Sidney is one of the most well-known of Elizabethan sonneteers, and a key poet in contributing towards the fashionable success of the genre. Born in 1554 in Penshurst in Kent, Sidney was educated in Oxford (Christ Church) and Shrewsbury. Sidney was an ambassador (to the German Emperor in 1577), and involved in European politics (his European tour was 1572-1575). He was knighted in 1583, and was governor of Flushing in 1585. He died aged 31 in 1586, following wounds sustained in the Battle of Zutphen.

Sir Philip Sidney's works include 'Arcadia' (1577/ 86), 'Defence of Poetry', translations of psalms and du Bartas, sonnets for Penelope Rich (c. 1581), and 'Astrophel and Stella'.

'Astrophel and Stella' was first published in 1591, and again in 1598 (where it was at back of the edition of 'Arcadia'). It was apparently edited by the Countess of Pembroke, one of the principal figures in Elizabethan poetry.

Illustrated. Bibliography and note. ISBN 9781861711762. 160 pages.

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HENRY CONSTABLE: DIANA: ELIZABETHAN SONNET CYCLE

Henry Constable's 'Diana' is one of the major Elizabethan sonnet sequences, reprinted here in an attractive new edition.

'Diana' is a sonnet cycle of love poetry, and some of the finest verse in the English language.

The book includes a note on Henry Constable, illustrations, and suggestions for further reading. Each poem has a page to itself. It's a useful edition for students.

Henry Constable was born in 1562; he studied at Cambridge (1580); converted to Catholicism around 1590; he worked as a spy in Europe, returning to England in 1603. He died in Liege in 1613 after being arrested in 1604 (after which he lived in poverty), and banished in 1610.

Henry Constable's 'Diana: The Praises of His Mistress In Certain Sweete Sonnets' was published first in 1592 (it contained only 23 sonnets). There is some confusion about which of the Diana sonnets Constable wrote (Constable was in Europe at the time), in the 1594 edition ('Diana or the Excellent Conceitful Sonnets of H.C. Augmented With Divers Quatorzains of Honorable and Lerned Personages'). In the later, 1594 'Diana', there are 8 decades of 76 sonnets. Some of the sonnets were written by Sir Philip Sidney (as indicated).

The identity of Diana is unknown, although Henry Constable did address some sonnets to Lady Rich, the woman who inspired Stella in Sir Philip Sidney's 'Astrophel and Stella'.

Illustrated. Bibliography and note. ISBN 9781861711083. 108 pages.

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