Rhetoric and Poetry in the Renaissance - A Study of Rhetorical Terms in English Renaissance Literary Criticism

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rhetoric and Poetry in the Renaissance by Donald Lemen Clark This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Rhetoric and Poetry in the Renaissance A Study of Rhetorical Terms in English Renaissance Literary Criticism Author: Donald Lemen Clark Release Date: November 19, 2003 [EBook #10140] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RHETORIC AND POETRY *** Produced by Distributed Proofreaders RHETORIC AND POETRY IN THE RENAISSANCE A STUDY OF RHETORICAL TERMS IN ENGLISH RENAISSANCE LITERARY CRITICISM BY DONALD LEMEN CLARK, PH.D. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 1922 To my Father and Mother PREFACE In this essay I undertake to trace the influence of classical rhetoric on the criticisms of poetry published in England between 1553 and 1641. This influence is most readily recognized in the use by English renaissance writers on literary criticism of the terminology of classical rhetoric. But the rhetorical terminology in most cases carried with it rhetorical thinking, traces of whose influence persist in criticism of poetry to the present day. The essay is divided into two parts.