the ladies say that Astrophil cannot love. In political
terms, this is effectively to say that he cannot gain the
queen’s favor—that he is both politically and sexually
impotent.
At the sonnet’s VOLTA, beginning with line 9, Astro-
phil poses as a man content to hear such things said
about him. As long as his beloved Stella knows what he
really thinks, he does not care what others think of him.
In line 11, he turns to address the ladies directly, admon-
ishing them that true love lies “in the hart” (l. 12) rather
than in outward affectations. Astrophil implicitly com-
pares himself to a silent (“Dumbe”) swan (l. 13), while
he unfl atteringly compares other courtiers who speak
the language of love to “chatring” magpies, which sets
up the end of this increasingly self-righteous little ser-
mon: He argues that only those who “quake to say they
love” are true lovers (l. 14).
Because of its anti-Petrarchan appearance and its
claims to distinguish the mere ornaments of love from
the real thing, this sonnet has been taken as an impor-
tant precursor to 17th-century love poetry, especially
that of John Donne. The irony is, of course, that Astro-
phil has actually been very talkative indeed. This son-
net stands in the middle of a SONNET SEQUENCE—108 in
total—all about Astrophil’s love, and so it is diffi cult to
take his claims not to play the lover very seriously. As
so often happens in Astrophil and Stella, Astrophil pres-
ents us with a witty and rational argument, only to
subvert it in the end by revealing how taken with pas-
sion he really is.
See also ASTROPHIL AND STELLA (OVERVIEW); SIDNEY, SIR
PHILIP.
Joel B. DavisAstrophil and Stella: Sonnet 56 (“Fie, school of
Patience, fi e, your lesson is”) SIR PHILIP SIDNEY
(ca. 1582) Sonnet 56 is an APOSTROPHE to the fi gure
of Patience, personifi ed as a schoolmaster. Astrophil
plays the part of the reluctant student, and Stella is the
book. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY uses the ITALIAN (PETRARCHAN)
SONNET form here, and while we fi nd the expected turn
at the beginning of line 9, Astrophil adds the fi nal twist
to his argument in the last three lines (the last half of
the SESTET). Most of the critical attention to the poem
focuses on its rhyme, which is seen to be rather
strained, and on the fact that in the fi rst QUATRAIN of
Astrophil and Stella, the positions of this sonnet and
Sonnet 55 have been reversed.
In the fi rst half of the OCTAVE, Astrophil complains
that the lesson Patience teaches is too long to be mem-
orized—to be learned “without booke”—and asserts
that he cannot remember the whole thing—Patience’s
“large precepts”—because he has not seen his book for
an entire week (ll. 2, 4). In the second half of the
octave, Astrophil reveals that his book is actually Stel-
la’s face. Stella’s face bears fair “letters” that, when
Astrophil reads them, “teach vertue” (ll. 5–6). Astro-
phil essentially tells his schoolmaster, Patience, that he
possesses patience when he can see Stella’s face, but to
hear the lesson without seeing Stella is more than he
can tolerate, or “brooke.” He then rather arrogantly
suggests that even when he listens to Patience, he takes
its advice like that of a well-meaning but misinformed
or dull-witted friend.
Astrophil begins the sestet by repeating his previ-
ous point. He poses it as a rhetorical question: Now
that he can no longer see Stella (want here means
“lack,” so that Astrophil is saying he lacks the sight of
Stella before him), he asks, can Patience seriously
believe that Astrophil would heed his advice? Patience’s
counsel is “cold stuff,” in which can be found only a
“phlegmatick” delight. Of the FOUR HUMORS, phlegm
was thought to be the cold and moist humor in Renais-
sance natural philosophy, what we might call a “wet
blanket” thrown on Astrophil’s passion—the “fi re” of
the last line.
In the end, we can see Astrophil most impatiently
stamping his foot, telling the schoolmaster Patience
that if he wants to do some good for his pupil, he must
make Stella return and listen to his expressions of love
patiently herself. Part of the genius of this poem is the
childish tone it evokes: Astrophil begins chiding with
“Fy... Fy” in the fi rst line; he uses “What” as an inter-
jection to begin two increasingly aggressive rhetorical
questions in lines 3 and 10; he brazenly admits that he
does not take Patience seriously; and fi nally he sug-
gests that it is Stella who should have patience, not
himself. Thus, we get the impression of a very impa-54 ASTROPHIL AND STELLA: SONNET 56