rhetoric of a courtroom defense oration. Still, others,
because of its reliance on the Bible, see the poem as a
serious avowal of Protestantism and a statement about
a wicked urban population.
FURTHER READING
Brigden, Susan. “Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and the
‘Conjured League.’ ” The Historical Journal 37 (1994):
507–537.
Jentoft, C. W. “Surrey’s Four ‘Orations’ and the Infl uence
of Rhetoric on Dramatic Effect.” Papers on Language and
Literature 9 (1973): 250–262.
Sessions, W. A. Henry Howard the Poet Earl of Surrey: A Life.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Doug Eskew
“LONG LOVE THAT IN MY THOUGHT
DOTH HARBOR, THE” SIR THOMAS WYATT
(1557) By most accounts, SIR THOMAS WYATT’s visit
to Italy in 1527 gave him the incentive to translate sev-
eral of PETRARCH’s SONNETs into English, including this
version of Sonnet 140, which was also translated by
Wyatt’s contemporary, HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SUR-
REY. Wyatt’s confi dence both in the suitability of Eng-
lish and in his competence as a poet may account for
the freedom with which he reinterpreted, rather than
slavishly translated, the Petrarchan poems. For exam-
ple, in this sonnet, line 12 in the original poem alludes
to the lover’s fear of his master, Love, whereas Wyatt
changes the poem to mean that his master, Love, is
afraid of the beloved.
Wyatt followed the form of the traditional ITALIAN
(PETRARCHAN) SONNET. He also incorporated many of
the common Petrarchan themes derived from the con-
ventions of COURTLY LOVE. These include an obsessed
lover who must endure great hardship in the service of
love and a fi ckle beloved whose indifference causes
severe pain to her noble lover. Ultimately, this is a
poem about a lover who is in love with a woman, but
whose fundamental allegiance is to love itself.
In the fi rst four lines of this poem, Love is personi-
fi ed as a lonely knight who takes shelter in the speak-
er’s thoughts and keeps his home in the speaker’s
heart. From there, the knight makes bold incursions
into the speaker’s face, where he displays his insignia
in the form of blushes, “spreading his banner” (l. 4). By
portraying Love as a separate entity from the lover, the
speaker conveys the idea that the lover is a victim who
is held hostage by love—whose thoughts, feelings, and
outward expressions of love are entirely involuntary.
The next four lines focus on Love’s object, known
only as “She” (l. 5). The beloved is displeased with
Love’s boldness, preferring that her lover rein in his
unruly passions by the threefold approach of right
thinking, emotional control, and spiritual reverence.
The beloved holds a position of authority over the
lover in that she teaches him how to love, “me learneth
to love and suffer” (l. 5), as well as imposes her stan-
dards as to which expressions of love are appropriate,
“with his hardiness taketh displeasure” (l. 8). Conse-
quently, the lover is torn between the vagaries of love’s
whims and his beloved’s censure of love’s boldness.
Whereas the fi rst eight lines set forth the lover’s situ-
ation, the fi nal six focus on the resolution of his
dilemma. In response to the beloved’s displeasure, Love
fl ees into the heart’s forest (with the common pun on
hart, meaning deer, suggesting that Love is preyed upon
by the beloved), where he hides unseen, no longer
showing himself in the lover’s face. In the fi nal three
lines, the lover acknowledges that banished love is his
master and concludes that he must be Love’s faithful
servant, going with him into battle, willing to die there
for him, “for good is the life ending faithfully” (l. 14).
See also LOVE THAT DOTH REIGN AND LIVE WITHIN MY
THOUGHT, PERSONIFICATION.
FURTHER READING
Foley, Stephen M. Sir Thomas Wyatt. Boston: Twayne Pub-
lishers, 1990.
Heale, Elizabeth. Wyatt, Surrey, and Early Tudor Poetry. Lon-
don and New York: Longman, 1998.
Margaret H. Dupuis“LORD RANDAL” (15th century) Like most
folk BALLADs, “Lord Randal” enjoyed a lengthy oral tra-
dition until it was recorded in the 17th century, and it
focuses on action and dialogue. Lord Randal, a “hand-
some young man” (ll. 2–3), is confronted by his
mother, asking where he has been. His answer is that
he has been hunting in the greenwood, but then he
says he is weary and wants to lie down. In the next250 “LONG LOVE THAT IN MY THOUGHT DOTH HARBOR, THE”