Sonnet

(from the Italian.) A lyrical composition properly comprised in’ fourteen verses; viz. two stanzas of four verses each, and two of three each; the eight first verses being all in two rhymes. The sonnet is of Italian origin, and Petrarch has the honour of its invention, Du Bellai is said by Pasquier to have first introduced sonnets into France, but Du Bellai himself tells us, that Melin de S. Gelais first converted the Italian sonnets into French. Who first gave them an English dre is not certainly known, but Milton has left twenty-three examples of this species of song, amongst which that addre ed to the musician Laws, and the exquisite one‘on. his deceased wife, are the best, though they both serve to prove how difficult of construction the sonnet is in the English language.