Rhetoric and Poetry in the Renaissance (Volume 41); A Study of Rhetorical Terms in English Renaissance Literary Criticism (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1922. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VIII THEORIES OF POETRY IN THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE 1. The Rhetorical Period Of English Criticism Spingarn has carefully traced the introduction of the theories of poetry formulated by the Italian critics into England at the end of the sixteenth century. It is the r purpose of this study not to go over the ground which y Spingarn has so admirably covered, but to point out in English renaissance theories of poetry those elements which derive from the mediaeval tradition and from the classical rhetorics, and to trace the gradual displacements of these elements by the sounder classical tradition which reached England from Italy. "The first stage_ of_ English Criticism," say Spingarn, "was entirely given upJkoL. rhetoricalstudy." 1 In..his period he includes Cox and Wilson, the rhetoricians, and Ascham, fheschblar. Of the second period, which he characterizes as one of classification and metrical studies, he says, "A long period of rhetorical and metrical study had helped "to formulate, a rhetorical and technical conception of "the poet's function." 2 These twn pprinHa hnye an much In common that they may readily be .considered together. )'Iliroughout this period in England there was no abstract theorizing on the art of poetry. The rhetorics of Cox (1524) and Wilson (1553) were rhetorics and made no pretence of treating poetry. This is significant of a direct contact with classical rhetoric. Because Cox founded his treatise on the sound scholarship of Melanchthon, and Wilson wrote with the text of his Cicero and his Quintilian open before him, neither was so completely under the mediaeval influence as were most of the subsequent writers on rhetoric in England. Boyes unhappy, and Clownes should speake disorderlye."T It is interesting that this conception of the characters in a dr...