SOURCE: Holahan, Michael. “Wyatt, the Heart's Forest, and the Ancient Savings.” English Literary Renaissance 23, No. 1 (Winter 1993): 46-80.

In the following essay, Holahan argues that Wyatt's translations of Petrarch's works altered them from private love poems to public declarations of allegiance.

My Lord, I see I must be your homager and hold land of your gift; but do you know the manner of doing homage in law? Always it is with a saving of his faith to the King and his other lords; and therefore, my Lord, I can be no more yours than I was, and it must be with the ancient savings.

—Francis Bacon to the Earl of Essex, upon receiving a gift of land¹

Introducing Petrarch to England, Wyatt is assured a place in English literary history. That place is surrounded, however, with charges of indifferent or uncertain translation and with the faintest kind of praise...