Stella+and+Astrophil-Queen+and+Courtier

= The Power of Stella =

Philip Sidney’s //Astrophil and Stella//, though written by a male, is very deserving of a feminist reading. Through 108 Petrarchan sonnets and eleven songs, Sidney “//with a feeling skill [paints] hell//” and details Astrophil’s mental and emotional struggle coming to terms with an unconsummated love for the idealized Stella. As with most Petrarchan sonnets, Sidney’s Astrophil seems to get caught up detailing the physical attributes of Stella. It is her eyes, lips, hair, and (even so shockingly) her breasts that spur desire in Astrophil’s heart. However, “feminists' criticism of the English Petrarchan tradition has most recently worked to undo this ‘fetishization’ of woman as Petrarchan ideal,” (MacArthur). Within the first four lines of Sidney's first sonnet, the purpose of //Astrophil and Stella// becomes clear. //Sonnet I (lines 1-4)//  //Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,//  //That she (dear she) might take some please of my pain;//  //Pleasure might cause her to read, reading might make her know;//  //Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain.// By seeking only to obtain pity, Astrophil is placing himself in a place of subservience. Only those who have, have the ability to pity those who have not. In this case, Stella holds power over Astrophil's emotional state. Astrophil's love, as long as it remains unrequited, will keep Stella in a position of dominance: "//I craved the thing, which ever she denies"//. As mentioned earlier, the Petrarchan sonnets focus on the physical detailing of the male poet's lover. In this way, men are able to "claim" the woman just as they can claim authorship of the piece of art that depicts them. However, in sonnet 52, Sidney shows that this is not the case with //Astrophil and Stella//: //Sonnet 52// //A strife has grown between virtue and love,// //While each pretends that Stella must be his.//  //Her eyes, her lips, her all, saith love, do this,//  //Since they do wear his badge, most firmly prove.//  //But virtue thus that title doth disprove://  //That Stella (O dear name) that Stella is//  //That virtuous soul, sure heir of heavenly bliss,//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Not this fair outside, which our hearts doth move;//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//And therefore, though her beauty and her grace//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Be love's indeed, in Stella's self he may//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//By no pretence claim any manner place.//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Well, love, since that demur our suit doth stay,//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Let virtue have that Stella's self; yet thus,//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//That virtue but that body grant to us.//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">﻿Astrophil recognizes the difference between his feelings of love and Stella's self. He admits that his claim over Stella is simple "pretend". His love lays claim over the only things it can: Stella's physical attributes. However, Stella's true being is //"not this fair outside, which our hearts doth move//"//,// therefore, he realizes that he cannot actually claim any place in Stella's life or Stella's virtue (which could very well represent her virginity and, therefore, a consummated love). He can claim only what everyone in the physical world is allowed: the ability to see and admire Stella's beauty. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Astrophil's acknowledgement that he has no claim to Stella establishes her as an independent (somewhat of a variety for women in this time period). However, //Astrophil and Stella// goes further, and allows Stella, not only her own agency, but power and dominance over Astrophil. Thereby highlighting the reversal of power dynamics in the relationship between the two genders. The sonnets and songs are, though written by Astrophil, inspired by Stella via a type of "divine inspiration": //"Even thus: in Stella's face I read/ What love and beauty be; then all my deed/ But copying is, what in her nature writes."// He is casting himself as the tool by which Stella's nature glorifies itself. In fact, it even appears that Astrophil's intellect (a dominance men innately had over women) is also controlled by Stella: //"...my young brain captivated in golden cage/ ...alas, the race/ Of all my thoughts hath neither stop nor start/ But only Stella's eyes and Stella's heart//." The very nature of Stella is what legitimizes Astrophil's thoughts. His stream of intellect only starts with thoughts of Stella and they do not end unless they also pertain to Stella. However, Astrophil does admit a fault in this. By writing only what Stella inspires in him and thinking only thoughts that stem from her, he is giving up all control over his intellect and, accordingly, the content of his sonnets. This is acknowledged in various sonnets with repeated references to Astrophil as a horse, who is only allowed the agency that his rider (Stella) provides him with: //"I do confess--pardon a fault confessed--/ My mouth too tender is for thy hard bit", "And now man's wrongs in me, poor beast, descry. The reins wherewith my rider doth me tie", "He sits me fast, however I do stir; And now hath made me to his hand so right/ That in the manage myself takes delight."// This depiction of himself as a horse shows the reader just how much control over his actions his rider (though gendered male, one could assume that it is the "controlling" that matters more than the rider) has. Astrophil also takes a type of masochistic approach to his description, though his mouth is too tender for the bit and he stirs under the rider's weight, he takes pleasure and delight in the physical manage of his persons. This delight could stem from the fact that it is the only way he can feel close to Stella. Though it is not a physical closeness, her power over his thoughts and actions allows him to feel connected to her, albeit unjustly.

= <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">The Power of <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-decoration: line-through;">Stella <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Elizabeth =

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">It is hard to ignore the similarities between Astrophil and Stella's relationship and that of Sir Philip Sidney and Queen Elizabeth I. When this is taken into account, //Astrophil and Stella// is subject to a much more complex and intriguing reading. In order to understand these complexities, it is important to have knowledge on the historical context surrounding this piece. It is widely believed that Philip Sidney wrote //Astrophil// //and Stella// with Lady Penelope Devereux in mind. While there is analytical evidence in order to support this theory. It also seems that Sir Philip Sidney wrote this piece with Queen Elizabeth in mind. Whether or not he did that consciously can be eternally argued, but there is no argument that Queen Elizabeth held a very important role in Sir Philip's life. As a courtier, his life, wealth, and status in Elizabethan society was completely dependent on Queen Elizabeth's good graces. This position of power is echoed strongly in //Astrophil and Stella.// Stella is what gives agency to Astrophil's thoughts and, very existence, just as Queen Elizabeth has agency in Sir Philip's existence. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Disregarding the mirroring of power relationships, there are also details within the sonnets that reveal characteristics of Astrophil and Stella. These details make it all to easy to consider Elizabeth synonymous with Stella (as well as Philip with Astrophil). In the sonnets, Sidney refers to Stella as being //"she most fair and cold"//. Queen Elizabeth I was very beautiful; however, as a monarch, she reigned with a cool distance that often infuriated her consults. Also, dubbed "The Virgin Queen", she never married. This was not for a lack of suitors; directly upon taking the throne, Elizabeth was sought after by many men hoping to court and marry her. For reasons unknown, she never accepted any of these proposals. Like Stella's beauty belonged to everyone, so did Queen Elizabeth's. Also, just as Stella's "self" and virtue were never able to be obtained by Astrophil, Elizabeth remained an independent monarch and ruled on her own terms. She eventually used the unrequited admiration of her male courtiers to her advantage. Elizabeth used her position of power in order to play her suitors against one another, gaining alliances and costly gifts in exchange for the possibility of settling with one of them. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Lastly, looking at sonnet 62 of //Astrophil and Stella,// it seems to echo sentiments expressed by Queen Elizabeth in her own poetry.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Sonnet 62 lines (1-6)// <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Late tired with woe, even ready for to pine//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//With rage of love, I called my love unkind;//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//She in whose eyes love, though unfelt, doth shine,//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Sweet said that I true love in her should find.//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//I joyed, but straight watered was my wine//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//When I was Fair and Young (lines 1-10)//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//When I was fair and young, and favor graced me,//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Of many was I sought, their mistress for to be;//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//But I did scorn them all, and answered them therefore,//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Go, go, go, seek some otherwhere ﻿ //  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Importune me no more!//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//How many weeping eyes I made to pine with woe,//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//How many sighing hearts, I have no skill to show;//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Yet I the prouder grew, and answered them therefore,//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Go, go, go, seek some otherwhere,//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//Importune me no more!//  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">On the surface, these two pieces do not seem to have much in common. However, once Astrophil is put into the role of one of Elizabeth's suitors, the two perspectives become almost mirrored opposite. Elizabeth admits that she has no love for the men, in fact, she scorns them. Astrophil calls his love "unkind". Line one of Sidney's sonnet "//Late tired with woe, even ready for to pine"// is the direct opposite perspective of Elizabeth's line six: "//How many eyes I made to pine with woe".// In //When I Was Fair and Young//, she admits to growing proud in the face of all these suitors. She realizes their love and basks in it. It seems that Stella is the same way, Astrophil describes her as having eyes in which "//love, though unfelt, doth shine"//. Stella does not reciprocate this love, but her eyes shine when confronted with the love of others. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">If one wanted to go deeper into a comparison between Stella and Elizabeth, there are multiple references throughout the sonnets to "monarchies", "virtue" and "golden". These are all words that can relate directly back to Elizabeth. Whether or not Sidney wrote //Astrophil and Stella// consciously with Elizabeth in mind and whether or not his inspiration was romantically based it is clearly arguable that Penelope Devereux is not the only possible inspiration for //Astrophil and Stella.// <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">//-Jaclyn Enderle// <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">References: <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">MacArthur, Janet H. //Critical Contexts of Sidney's Astrophil and Stella and Spenser's Amoretti.// British Columbia: University of Victoria, 1989. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Sidney, Philip. //The Major Works including Astrophil and Stella//. Ed. Katherine Duncan-Jones. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">