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 purpose of this study not to go over the ground which
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
up to rhetorical study."[193] In his period he includes Cox and Wilson,
the rhetoricians, and Ascham, the scholar. 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."[194] These
two periods have so much in common that they may readily be considered
together.

Throughout this period in England there was no abstract theorizing on the
art of poetry. The rhetorics of Cox (1524) and Wilson (1553) were