Astrophil and Stella Flashcards
Who is Stella supposed to have been based upon?
Penelope Devereux / Rich
How were Petrarch’s oxymorons and metaphors considered at the time when Sidney write Astrophil and Stella?
They were considered familiar and predictable
What Petrarchan ideas does Sidney use in Astrophil and Stella?
The allusive beloved.
The tormented lover.
How were sonnets considered at the time Sidney wrote Astrophil and Stella?
They were fashionable. A sign you were a gentleman.
Who was Penelope Devereux?
The supposed inspiration behind Stella in A+S.
Her married name was Penelope Rich.
Why was Sidney’s sonnet sequence particularly revolutionary?
It was the first sequence in which the speaker is named (eg. Astrophil, not simply, ‘I’)
What is the form of an English sonnet?
3 quatrains
Rhyming couplet
How does the flow of ideas compare between Petrarch’s sonnet sequence and Sidney’s?
Petrarch becomes more spiritual.
Astrophil, in Sidney’s, becomes more physical. Stella becomes obtainable.
Summarise the events in Astrophil and Stella.
Astrophil falls in love with Stella, who does not especially return his affections.
Stella gets married, but she is unhappy.
Stella eventually is persuaded to love A.
But ends the relationship because she is married.
Despite being a private person, the Norton introduction to Astrophil and Stella says what about Sidney in reference to this poem?
In it, Sidney seems to ‘hold up a mirror to every nuance of his emotional being.’
