"Here the English Renaissance sonnet is re-evaluated in the light of recent developments in critical theory. Paul Innes locates the sonnet in relation to the historical circumstances surrounding its various uses in England but is not concerned with seeking to trace out a scheme of development for the form. Instead, he relates the form to contemporary anxieties about the family, lineage and women. The book begins by concentrating on the works of various writers - Sidney, Spenser, Wilson, Daniel, Drayton and Davies - and then moves into a detailed consideration of Shakespeare's sonnets. The sonnet is presented as a poetic form which seeks to define women within a set of parameters that are ultimately patriarchal in origin. This is then investigated in a series of readings that pay attention to how this operation is conducted, and also to how, at points, it fails."--Jacket.