Sidney's Astrophel and Stella and Greville's Cælica

Abstract

Students of Elizabethan sonnet literature have been aware of general resemblances between Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella and Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke's Cælica, but no one has ever printed a full comparison of the two sonnet sequences. That we might expect to find some resemblances between the works of Greville and Sidney could be implied from what we know of the close relationship of the two men. The title-page of the 1633 edition of Greville's works describes them as “written in his youth and familiar exercise with Sir Philip Sidney.” Greville and Dyer were Sidney's closest literary friends, both sharing equally Sidney's books at his death. Greville was a member of the Areopagus, whatever its nature might be; and he and Sidney entered Shrewsbury School on the same day, and left college and went up to Court together. One of Greville's greatest boasts was his friendship with Sir Philip. It is not surprising, therefore, that when Sidney started to write a sonnet sequence Greville should follow suit, for the two men's interests were much the same. The similarities of Astrophel and Stella and Cœlica are the natural results of the poets' friendship.