ABSTRACT
When Astrophel ends the first sonnet in his Astrophel and Stella sequence with the line, ‘“Fool”, said my Muse to me, “looke in thy heart and write”’ (Evans, 1977, p. 2), we must assume that the author, Sir Philip Sidney, was being faux naïf. For most people the act of writing is a difficult and painstaking task. Among other things, it involves having a sense of the intended audience and a means of controlling the language so as to say exactly what is intended. To construct a sonnet requires even more complex skills since it is a highly wrought form that requires considerable control of syntax, vocabulary and sound patterns as well as an understanding on the part of the author of exactly what values sonnets may be said to represent within a particular society at a particular time.
