ABSTRACT
Robert’s own poetry probably dates from the 1590s, but his poetic achievement has remained concealed until our own day, for his poems-sonnets intermixed with songs in a sequence whose overall structure is modeled on that of Philip’s Astrophil and Stellaare preserved only in a single modest notebook which is unsigned though entirely in the poet’s own handwriting. Robert avoided public recognition as a poet, influenced perhaps by a wish to avoid invidious comparisons with a brother whose memory had been consecrated by death. It is now possible, however, to recognize echoes of Robert’s work in a few other poems by members of the courtly circle in the 1590s, and we may deduce that some at least of his sonnets were allowed to circulate on loose sheets of manuscript among a select few. The contemporary readership for Robert’s poems probably consisted of the same circle of ‘private friends’ as were also reading Shakespeare’s ‘sugred Sonnets’ in manuscript at the same period. Connections both personal and literary suggest that this privileged circle included Fulke Greville and Spenser. Characteristic of the Elizabethan courtly poets is the way they respond to each other’s work: it follows that where relationships can be detected between their poems it may not always be possible to determine which is echoing which.
