ABSTRACT
The sonnet originated in Italy in the fifteenth century and left its home at the end of that century, reaching the height of its musical beauty in the lines of Petrarch and Dante. The Italian sonnet has a tinge of song, as is to be expected in that artistic nation which shelters melodies within it. Sir Sidney Lee mentioned in a history of the English sonnet that he traces the appearance of many of William Shakespeare’s anashid to relations with the royal court. The “sonnet” is restricted to specific, beautiful meters, with some leniency in the feet as it is translated from language to language, and it is restricted to a limited number of lines and a special structure in the arrangement of its images. Shakespeare’s forms and literary works were exposed to such thefts by pretenders in all their bravado.
