Cupid, Choice, and Rewriting Petrarch in the Early Sonnets of Astrophil and Stella

Through linking the mythology and mythography of Cupid with the issue of choice, Sidney enacts his ambition to rival Petrarch’s Rime in Astrophil and Stella. From early on, Sidney highlights choice and its consequences as a central concern for Astrophil, who relates that falling in love with Stella was a considered decision. Yet Sidney also has Astrophil concede that his deliberate commitment has now subjected him to desire. Astrophil thereafter portrays his condition as a troubled submission to the tyranny of the Alexandrian Cupid. Astrophil also indicates that submission to the Alexandrian Cupid has exiled him from his normative sense of personal identity and from his public role.