Introduction. some HE author of this volume contributed to the “Leisure Hour,” week by week from Advent of 1873 to Advent of 1874, this series of poems on thought connected with the services of each Sunday and chief festival of the ecclesiastical year, and based upon a passage from the Gospel or Epistle for the day to which each Sonnet belongs. Probably except for one reason these poems would have been varied in length and metre; but this would have involved a seeming plagiarism on the plan of the “ Christian Year” of Keble, and the author could not but feel that to follow his course so nearly would have been a presumption, even if he had carefully avoided, which would have been difficult, adopting any metre, or special text, or line of thought, used by the great Church poet. He therefore elected the Sonnet as the measure for the whole series for three reasons. In the first place, this measure is of so distinct an order that to B write in it was to remove as far as possible from the ordinary metrical forms. Again, if what Henry Reed, the author of those “ Lectures on the British Poets" which have been so widely read in England and America, has said is true, “that the public taste for the Sonnet is reviving," it seemed well worth while to make any effort, however humble, to minister to this appreciation of one of the noblest forms of all noble verse, and also to help to give it a tone in harmony with “ the everlasting chime.” And, once more, the writer, far from feeling that he is driven by the necessity of being original to the use of a metre which is not the best vehicle for thought on sacred subjects, was strongly convinced that there was no measure better adapted for his purpose than this, and that the general testimony of English literature at its best serves to show that in our language at least the Sonnet is especially fitted for subjects that are grave, dignified, and contemplative. It is scarcely likely that this fact will be clear and this opinion acceptable to every reader, and therefore it has been thought advisable to introduce the series with some remarks on the origin, history, and character of this species of verse, with particular reference to the distinctive position which it holds in English literature. There can be no doubt that much of the careless and even unkindly feeling with which the Sonnet has been, and is, here and there regarded, has arisen from two causes, the knowledge of the fact of its foreign origin, and the supposition, which is a misapprehension in relation to that fact, that it is more or less exclusively assigned to amatory effusions. Dr. Johnson's adverse and contemptuous opinion of it is well knowri, and has been severely commented upon by many of the best literary critics, but we are not aware that any of them have traced his incapability of rightly estimating the Sonnet to what appears to us to be the very probable cause—that is, the worthy doctor's obstinate dislike of anything that he considered un-English, and his almost exclusive preference for what was ponderous and severe in sentiment. He defines Sonnet in the following terms : “A short poem of fourteen lines, of which the rhymes are adjusted by a particular rule. It is not very suitable to the English language.” And he affirms of Milton's majestic Sonnets that of the best it can only be said that they are not bad -a criticism which no one now will deny to be utterly worthless and miserable. His definition of sonneteer is “a small poet : in contempt.” Upon this we cannot do better than quote the indignant words of the American critic, Henry Reed : “Small poets ! Let us see who they are. nothing of the worthy train of early poets who were small only by comparison with their great contemporaries, the Sonnet was a favourite form of composition with each one of that glorious triumvirate who kindled To say 6 the flame of poetry higher than ever since the creation it flamed by mere human kindling, and kept it burning at its brightest for a century. Edmund Spenser, William Shakspeare, John Milton-sonneteers all'small poets ! in contempt!' Oh, Samuel Johnson ! in charity I hope that you are forgiven !” This is lively and just indignation, but we shall make another quotation of far greater power, in which, like a sledge-hammer upon a pebble, a Sonnet is used by a great poet of the last generation with crushing force against this wretched definition of Johnson, and in special vindication of the Sonnets of Milton. This champion of its order is worthy of the position which it assumes, and we would ask our readers to note, in case there are those to whom it is not familiar, how much is gathered together in these fourteen lines, and yet how the conciseness or the amount of matter is never oppressive or perplexing. Though we have here an enumeration of no less than seven poets, with touches upon the character of each, their individual experiences and their purposes in writing, nevertheless the whole poem flows on with sweetness and with dignity from the deprecation with which it begins to the trumpet-blowing of its close. “Scorn not the sonnet; critic, you have frowned A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound; Shakspeare is the first here mentioned by Wordsworth, and rightly, since he is the poet beyond comparison, facile princeps among the "kings of men;" but he was not the earliest Sonnet writer. The Sonnet was born in Provence and nurtured in Italy; and though we are of opinion that its real maturity and highest excellence have only been reached since its naturalization in this country, yet it is but right that an essay devoted to the Sonnet should have some precise account of its origin. Its name is derived from the fact that, like the musical composition called a sonata, from being sounded or played, it was first made to be accompanied by some musical instrument, the lute or the guitar. It is the most ancient form of Italian poetry, was of very early use among the Provençals, and is mentioned by Count Thibaut de Champagne in the thirteenth century as a species of poetry then universally used and known. A friar, by name Guittone, |