of a sestina focuses on the repetition, in all its STANZAs,
of the same six words at the ends of the lines, with the
last word of one stanza becoming the end of the fi rst
line in the next, and no word occupying the same
number line-end in more than one stanza. The envoi
also uses the six stanza end-words (two in each line).
The earliest surviving examples of sestinas were pro-
duced by French troubadours, which were ably imi-
tated by Dante and PETRARCH. In English literature, the
sestina enjoyed brief popularity in the Tudor era. SIR
PHILIP SIDNEY produced a double sestina, “Ye Goat-herd
Gods,” in The Old Arcadia, among other examples.
FURTHER READING
Spanos, Margaret. “The Sestina: An Exploration of the
Dynamics of Poetic Structure.” Speculum 53, no. 3 (1978):
545–557.
Carol E. Harding
“SET ME WHEREAS THE SONNE DOTH
PERCHE THE GRENE” HENRY HOWARD, EARL
OF SURREY (1557) A translation of PETRARCH’s Rime
145, this SONNET by HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY,
was included in TOTTEL’S MISCELLANY in 1557. Surrey
fi nesses the poem, however, into a new form of his
own creation, subsequently called the ENGLISH SONNET.
While Surrey certainly had Petrarch’s sonnet before
him, it is likely that he was also familiar with Petrarch’s
principal Latin source for his poem, Horace’s Ode
1.22, and he is largely faithful to both sources.
The poem’s overall effect is contrast and balance,
which Surrey achieves through a range of situational
antitheses. The pattern of the poem advances this con-
cept quatrain by quatrain, as each begins with “Set me”
and builds to the fi nal COUPLET in a way that ultimately
effaces landscape altogether and emphasizes the rela-
tionship of the lover with the beloved. But this pattern,
which GEORGE PUTTENHAM, author of the ART OF POESY,
calls merismus or amplifi catio (amplifi cation), is made still
more subtle in Surrey’s hands. Within the technical
structure of the sonnet form, Surrey’s poem further
retains metrical elements of ACCENTUAL VERSE, incorporat-
ing CAESURAe—or midline pauses—that further highlight
the antitheses Surrey presents. Thus, the poem’s frequent
pauses, marked by commas in lines 3–13, isolate dis-
crete phrasal units that balance one another. Scholars
have also noted that in striking such a balance, Surrey
appears to make use of the marriage ceremony of the
Roman Catholic Church—which would have been used
in Surrey’s own wedding in 1532—whose English vows
were inserted in an otherwise Latin service: “I N. take
the[e] N. to my weded wife to haue and to hold from
this day forwarde for bettere for wers for richere for
pouerer: in sykeness and in hel[th]e tyl dethe vs departe.. .” Drawing on these contrasts, Surrey successfully
maintains that geography, condition, and circumstance
are ultimately irrelevant in the affairs of the heart: what
matters most is simply the individual freedom to love.
FURTHER READING
Jones, Emrys, ed. Henry Howard Earl of Surrey: Poems.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970.
Sessions, William A. Henry Howard, The Poet Earl of Surrey:
A Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
David Houston Wood
SEVEN DEADLY SINS (CAR DINAL SINS,
CAPITAL VICES) The “cardinal sins” were con-
sidered the most serious sins in pre-Reformation
Christianity and generally included all mortal (major)
sins. These were relatively abstract terms under which
the medieval church categorized other more specifi c
sins for the purpose of eliciting confession. Techni-
cally, the terms deadly sins and cardinal sins are not
interchangeable; indeed, the phrase deadly sins did not
start to come into common use until the 14th century.
However, these have been elided over the years. The
number of deadly sins—seven—has its own signifi -
cance in medieval theology. Seven was thought to rep-
resent completion, based on the precedent set by the
seven days of the Creation.
Though the idea of a list of the most serious sins has
a long pre-Christian history, the cardinal sins have their
basis in the Bible. This would seem to suggest that the
idea of a list of major sins originated in the Bible, though
it does have history before the Judeo-Christian era. The
fourth-century theologian John Cassian proposed the
fi rst list of sins, which Pope Gregory revised into the list
most commonly recognized throughout the Middle
Ages: superbia, ira, invidia, avaritia, acedia, gula, luxuriaSEVEN DEADLY SINS 355