Italian criticism produced an increasingly stronger effect on English
criticism. I hope to show that the English critics who formulated theories
of poetry in the renaissance derived much of their critical terminology,
not directly from the rediscovered classical theories of poetry, but
through various channels from classical theories and practice of rhetoric.
The tendency to use the terminology of rhetoric in discussing poetical
theory did not originate in the English renaissance, but is largely an
inheritance from classical criticism as interpreted by the middle ages.
Both in England and on the continent this mediæval tradition persisted far
into the renaissance. Renaissance English writers on the theory of poetry
use to an extent hitherto unexplored the terminology of rhetoric. This
rhetorical terminology was derived from three sources: directly to some
extent from the classical rhetorics themselves; indirectly through the
influence of classical rhetoric upon the terminology of the Italian
critics of poetry; and indirectly, to a considerable extent, through the
mediæval modifications of classical and post-classical rhetoric.



1. The Distinction between Rhetoric and Poetic


Aristotle wrote two treatises on literary criticism: the _Rhetoric_ and
the _Poetics_. The fact that he gave separate treatment to his critical
consideration of oratory and of poetry is presumptive evidence that in his
mind oratory and poetry were two things, having much in common perhaps,
but distinguished by fundamental differences. With less philosophical
basis these fundamental differences were maintained by nearly all the
classical literary critics. It is important, therefore, to review briefly
what the classical writers meant by rhetoric and by poetic, and to trace