Shakespeare's Sonnets -- An Introduction

English 1120 -- Time and History in Literature
Professor Timothy H. Wilson
Department of English, University of Ottawa (Winter 2021)

Lecture 6 presents a discussion of the cultural and historical context of Shakespeare's Sonnets in the Renaissance and in the rise of Modernity. We then turn to the main currents that contributed to Renaissance Love Poetry, including Courtly Love conventions and Neo-Platonism. Finally, we look at the form of Shakespeare's Sonnets and closely read Sonnet 12 in relation to the question of how to overcome the passing of time.

0:00 - Introduction
4:20 - Literary History and the History of Ideas
11:20 - The Renaissance
17:00 - What is Modernity?: 1413 (Linear Perspective), 1453 (the Fall of Contantinople), 1454 (the Gutenberg Bible), 1469 (the Golden Age in Florence), 1490's (Voyages of Discovery), ca 1500 (end of Feudal Society), 1517 (Luther's 95 Theses), 1543 (the Copernican Revolution)
47:17 - Courtly Love
50:22 - Neo Platonism: Ficino and the "Ladder of Love", reference to Castiglione
53:00 - Francesco Petrarch
54:50 - The Sonnet Form (Rhythm, Meter, Feet)
1:04:25 - The Structure of Shakespeare's Sonnets (Procreation Sonnets, Triangle Sonnets, On the Poet's Mortality, On Rival Poet, On Public Displays, On Infidelity)
1:06:00 - Time and Poetry in Shakespeare's Sonnets
1:07:35 - Sonnet #1 (close reading)
1:10:00 - Temporal Themes in the Sonnets
1:11:37 - Sonnet #12 (close reading)
1:17:46 - Sonnet #18 (art as a new solution to overcome time)