Sidney's the Defence of Poesy and Selected Renaissance Literary Criticism (Penguin Classics)

Out of the intellectual ferment of the English Renaissance came a number of outstanding critical works that sought to define and defend the role of literature in society and to comment on the craft of writing. Foremost among these is Sir Philip Sidney’s “The Defence of Poesy,” an eloquent argument for fiction as a means of inspiring its readers to virtuous action. George Puttenham’s “The Art of English Poesy” is an entertaining examination of poetry, verse form, and rhetoric, while Samuel Daniel’s “A Defence of Rhyme” considers the practice of versification and praises the English literary tradition. Along with pieces by such writers as Sir John Harrington, Francis Bacon, and Ben Jonson, these works reveal the emergence of key critical ideas and approaches, and celebrate the possibilities of the English language.

• Includes introduction, chronology, suggestions for further reading, and explanatory notes

Gavin Alexander is a university assistant lecturer in the faculty of English and a fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge.

Gavin Alexander is a university assistant lecturer in the faculty of English and a fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge.

Introduction

Further Reading

A Note on the Texts

Sir Philip Sidney

The Defence of Poesy (c.1580; printed 1595)

George Puttingham

Th Art of English Poesy (1589)

Samuel Daniel

A Defence of Rhyme (1603)

Selected Passages

George Gascoigne

Certain Notes of Instruction (1575)

Henry Peachum

The Garden of Eloquence (1577; 1593)

William Webbe

A Discourse of English Poetry (1586)

Sir John Harington

A Brief Apology of Poetry (1591)

Samuel Daniel

from Musophilus: Containing a General Defence of Learning (1599)

Thomas Campion

from Observations in the Art of English (1602)

Francis Bacon

from The Advancement of Learning (1605)

Michael Drayton

To Henry Reynolds, or Poets and Poesy (1627)

Sir William Alexander

from Anacrisis. Or a Censure of some Poets Ancient and Modern (c. 1655)

Ben Jonson

A Fit of Rhyme against Rhyme (before 1637)

Ben Jonson

from Horace, his Age of Poetry (before 1637)

A Note on Rhetoric

A Note on English Versification

Notes

Index