Giorgio Melchiori’s brilliant book on the Sonnets (a re-working of the original Italian version published in 1973) has as its sub-title An Experiment in Criticism. Although relying significantly on structuralist analytical techniques it is, nonetheless, critical of their rigorous and abstract application which runs the risk of ‘imprisoning [the poem] in pre-established categories which precede the very act of creation, so as to suppress all truly critical considerations’. Melchiori’s own method is therefore a convergence of a variety of critical approaches, taking into account, for example, structural and linguistic features, sociological and political backgrounds, ideological links with Shakespeare’s other works and those of his contemporaries. Using computer statistical data he points out in what respects Shakespeare’s sonnet sequence is atypical in comparison with those of his contemporaries, notably in its high incidence of the second person and the presence of a dramatic I–thou relationship. However, where such a relationship is not set up and we have ‘meditative’ sonnets a drama is still acted out within the speaker’s mind. Of these, nos. 94, 121, 129, 146 are exceptional in their themes being dramatic meditations on power, social behaviour, sex, and religion, and the book comprises in the main a critique of these four sonnets.