The most dramatic of Sidney's poems is
"Sonnet 45." In this work Astrophil tells us about Stella's actions and behavior. However, Stella does not speak herself. In the poem Astrophil relates a specific event wherein both he and Stella are listening to a story about tragic lovers.
In the first quatrain Astrophil explains, in general terms, his situation with Stella. Although Stella often sees Astrophil looking sad and miserable, she is unable to feel any "pity" for him. Stella even knows that she is the cause of his sorrow (line 4), but that still does not make her feel concerned or worried about Astrophil.
The specific situation, the event of the poem, begins in the second quatrain. The word late means recently, and the word fable is simply used for story. "Lovers never known" indicates that the characters are fictional, and the word grievous indicates that the lovers in the story encountered a tragedy. So, in the first two lines of this quatrain, we find that recently Stella heard a tragic story about fictional lovers. We might imagine that the story is probably something very similar to Romeo and Juliet, a tale of two tragic lovers who both die because their families will not allow them to be together.
In the second part of the quatrain (lines 7-8),
Astrophil describes Stella's reaction to the tragic story. Stella is so emotionally moved by the story and she feels so much pity for the two young lovers that she cries a "sea" of tears.
Astrophil wonders, in the sestet, why Stella can feel pity for fictional characters but not for himself -- a real, living human being. The word fancy here means imagination, and the word imaged would be replaced by the modern word imagined. Also, the word false here is used for fictional. The word grace suggests pity and affection; breed means to cause; the word servant refers to Astrophil; and the word wrack indicates his sorrowful situation.
So, we might rewrite the first three lines of the sestet as follows:
If Stella's imagination, inspired by imagined and fictional events, does cause her to feel more pity and affection than Astrophil's own sad and sorrowful situation…
The last three lines of the poem finish the sentence. Astrophil then asks Stella to think of himself as a sad book, a tragedy. If Stella will think of Astrophil as a sad story, then perhaps she will -- Astrophil hopes -- feel pity for him.
The clause at the end of the first three lines in the sestet (line 11) is open to interpretation. The most plausible explanation is that it modifies (or describes) Astrophil and his sorrowful situation. Astrophil has "new doubts" about Stella. In the past he did not believe that she was capable of feeling pity. Now he believes that she is capable of that emotion. She is capable of feeling pity. And that emotion brings her, in Astrophil's opinion, "honor."
Why does Astrophil want Stella to feel pity for him? The answer can be found in "Sonnet 1" (line 4). The student might remember that Astrophil's purpose in writing these poems is to gradually get her to love him. He feels that if she can come to pity him, to feel some kind of emotion for him, then eventually she will come to love him.