Pride, Humility, and the Petrarchan Happy Ending

Abstract

Pride and humility are among the paired opposites so important to Renaissance Petrarchism. They sometimes figure in an assessment of the moral state of the male lover, but their most common usage is in connection with the female beloved, and often not in a high-minded way: the woman’s resistance to her would-be seducer’s suit is frequently attacked as a sin of pride. Spenser’s Amoretti is particularly full of discussions of the woman’s pride, but as part of an unconventional pattern: from the start that pride is both attacked and praised. This alternation is part of the dynamics of courtship as it is dramatized in the sequence, and also closely linked to the lover’s early (and accurate) confidence that his suit will be successful. Understanding the pattern here can help allay the confusion caused by the superscription to sonnet 58, and also lead to a fresh appreciation of the conceits of sonnets 45 and 75.

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