The Italian Influence in English Poetry

If poetry was the fashionable mode of expression in Tudor England, ‘Great Italy’, as Shakespeare called her, was the land of predilection for Englishmen. They looked to Italy for lessons in philosophy, good breeding, in the art of civilization and the art of government. Englishmen travelled to Italy and lived as students in Padua; Italian Protestants came to England—Vermigli, Gentili, Florio, Bruno. The commerce in politics, religion, court life, manners and the things of the intellect was immense.

First published in 1955, The Italian Influence in English Poetry analyzes the non-dramatic work of various poets to show how, beginning with Chaucer, Englishmen took from Italy many of the forms of their poetry, many of its techniques and much of its subject-matter. But their policy was not to annex; rather to naturalise. Spenser tries to surpass Ariosto; Sidney finds a pattern in Petrarch; Greville adapts Machiavelli; and so on, through the study of Shakespeare, Drayton and Southwell, and a host of minor poets. The results of scattered research are here for the first time drawn together to form a comprehensive picture.