Shakespeare’s Sonnets And A Lover’s Complaint

A good modern edition of all of Shakespeare’s sonnets and A Lover’s Complaint accompanied by a scholarly introduction and notes on the poems.

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Citation

Shakespeare’s Sonnets And A Lover’s Complaint, with an Introduction by W.H. Hadow (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1907).

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Francesco Petrarch (Author)

Petrarch’s sonnets dedicated to his unattainable beloved, Laura, inspired a rage for sonnets throughout Europe and certainly inspired Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets.
Geoffrey Chaucer (Author)

The greatest English writer before Shakespeare, Chaucer pioneered the use of English, rather than French or Latin, for serious literary works. He also brought all classes of society onto the page together, particularly in his masterwork, The Canterbury Tales.

John Dryden ()

One of the great English poets and playwrights who followed Shakespeare, Dryden is similarly interested in portraying the importance of English history for English audiences. Dryden was also deeply interested in establishing the theater as a legitimate art form rather than just a popular entertainment.
Alexander Pope (Author)

A great poet in his own right, Pope also edited Shakespeare’s work, regularizing and “smoothing” it to accord with 18th century aesthetic judgements.

Key Quotes

Literature & Music

WHEN in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my out-cast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon my self and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this mans art, and that…

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Connected Readings

What to read next.

Fifteen Sonnets of Petrarch

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

The sonnets that began the Renaissance sonnet craze and established many of the tropes and techniques that Shakespeare explores in his own sonnet sequence.

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The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope

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The romantic, comic, and myth-laden works of Ovid were central to the formation of Renaissance drama and poetry, particularly the wildly popular Metamorphosis, which Shakespeare references often in the plays, and his love poems which inform the sonnets.

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Poem

The Works of Christopher Marlowe, vol. 3 (Poems)

Christopher Marlowe

Hero and Leander

The long narrative poem, “Hero and Leander” is a fine example of the poetic retellings of myths from the Classical world that were so popular in the Renaissance.

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