(pride, wrath or anger, envy, avarice or greed, sloth,
gluttony, lust). Gregory even suggested the mnemonic
acronym SIIAAGL as an aid for devout Christians.
Gregory’s list was intended to rank the sins accord-
ing to their severity. Pride, for example, was thought
such a direct affront to God that it merited the top
position on the list. It is the sin of excessive self-love,
or extreme confi dence in personal ability, thus denying
the grace and assistance of God. It is related to the pre-
Christian concept of hubris (overbearing, godlike
pride). Wrath, more commonly known as anger, refers
to the failure to accept love and the embracing of con-
fl ict. Envy involves all-consuming desire—in this case,
the desire to be someone else (or at least to have their
position, possessions, and characteristics). Gluttony is
similarly all-consuming, as it is the desire to consume
beyond one’s means and necessity. Avarice goes
beyond simple greed, or lust for material possessions;
it also involves the desire to possess everything. Sloth
is the avoidance of both physical and spiritual work,
while lust is the desire to indulge in the pleasures of
the fl esh. Occasionally one or more of the following
terms is substituted on the list: vana gloria, or vain-
glory, which is related to pride; tristitia, or the sin of
despair/hoplesness; and cupiditas, or covetousness,
which is related to both avarice and lust.
One very popular representation of the deadly sins
is the ubiquitous model of the “Tree of Vice,” usually
portrayed with its counterpart, the “Tree of Virtue.”
The seven cardinal sins are also popular in literature,
with the more famous examples including “The Par-
son’s Tale” from GEOFFREY CHAUCER’s The CANTERBURY
TALES, WILLIAM LANGLAND’s PIERS PLOWMAN (Passus 5),
EDMUND SPENSER’s The FAERIE QUEENE (book 1), and the
pageant in CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE’s play Dr. Faustus.
See also CONFESSIO AMANTIS, VIRTUES.
FURTHER READING
Bloomfi eld, Morton W. The Seven Deadly Sins: An Introduc-
tion to the History of a Religious Concept. East Lansing:
Michigan State College Press, 1967.
Newhauser, Richard. In the Garden of Evil: The Vices and Cul-
ture in the Middle Ages. Toronto: Pontifi cal Institute, 2005.
Wenzel, Siegfried. “The Source of Chaucer’s Seven Deadly
Sins.” Traditio 30 (1974): 351–378.
Kathryn R. Vulic and Michelle M. Sauer
“SEVEN SONNETS FOR ALEXANDER
NEVILLE” GEORGE GASCOIGNE (1573, 1575)
“Seven Sonnets for Alexander Neville” is the fourth in a
series of fi ve poems written by GEORGE GASCOIGNE as
he returned from the war. The SONNET appears in both
A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres (1573) and in the “Flow-
ers” section of Posies (1575). As is the case with all fi ve
poems in the series, “Seven Sonnets” takes its theme in
response to a maxim, each suggested by a different
friend. Alexander Neville suggested the theme “If it be
done quickly, let it be done well,” to which Gascoigne
responded with seven sonnets explicating the theme “if
done too quickly, hardly done well.” He uses his own
recent experience of court life as the exemplar of his
theme.
The poem describes the fi rst time Gascoigne’s “gaz-
ing eye” (l. 2) beheld the “stately pompe of princes and
their peeres” (l. 5) who seemed to “swimme in fl oudes
of beaten goulde” (l. 6) amid all sorts of young and
beautiful people, especially women, “so faire of hue, so
freshe of their attire” (l. 10). The sight made the coun-
try boy (“seemely swayne”) Gascoigne think he had
stumbled into a kind of heaven. Thereafter, with “puffte
up” heart and full of “peevish pride,” he desperately
sought to “playe his parte” in courtly life (ll. 37, 39).
The rest of the poem explains the high cost of that
decision for him. Seeking to maintain a lavish lifestyle
while attempting to become ever “higher plaste” at
court, he runs out of funds and is compelled to lease
all of his inherited farmlands for more. Soon enough,
merchants demand his assets as payment on his debts,
and with all his wealth lost, he leaves court having
experienced very little gain at very heavy cost.
Gascoigne composed all fi ve of the poems in the
series containing the SONNET SEQUENCE written for Nev-
ille because his friends at Gray’s Inn wished him to
write some worthy verse before rejoining them. Gray’s
Inn had long fostered the literary and dramatic arts,
and like many of the works produced by students
there, Gascoigne’s “Seven Sonnets” have about them an
awareness and use of literary tradition combined with
the awkwardness of an academic exercise. Having his
“gazing eye” bedazzled by courtly life shows Gascoigne
making sly use of the medieval tradition of love enter-
ing fi rst through the eye by shifting its traditional focus356 “SEVEN SONNETS FOR ALEXANDER NEVILLE”