# Renaissance literary theory and practice Author: Baldwin, Charles Sears, 1867-1935; Clark, Donald Lemen, 1888-1966 [Editor] Genre: Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches Language: English License: Public domain Source: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72647 Amazon editions: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Renaissance+literary+theory+and+practice+Baldwin&tag=cyberlibrar00-20 ## Summary The word _renaissance_ suggests a state of mind, the sense of recovering something neglected by one’s literary ancestors. “Ours is a new day,” says the fifteenth century. “We have escaped from the decadence of our fathers into the purer poetry. We have recovered the great tradition and are setting it forward.” So the English eighteenth century, which had again repudiated “gothic night,” was in turn repudiated in the manifesto of the _Lyrical Ballads_ and scorned by Keats as “a schism nourished in foppery and barbarism.” _The_ Renaissance, then, is it only one such instance of self-consciousness among the many that mark so-called periods of literature? The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries... ## Chapters - [Chapter IX](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/31/index.md) - [Chapter III](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/3/index.md) - [Chapter VIII](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/25/index.md) - [Chapter IV](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/4/index.md) - [Chapter II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/2/index.md) - [Book I mentions the Cyclops, Circe, Thyestes, Medusa, the Centaurs,](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/6/index.md) - [Chapter VII](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/17/index.md) - [Chapter I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/1/index.md) - [Chapter V](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/5/index.md) - [Act I, for the first time more than a prelude, consists](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/16/index.md) - [Canto XXXVIII takes Ruggiero from her, to support his honor; “and](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/8/index.md) - [Book IV analyzes style under the headings of the classical](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/21/index.md) - [Book II shows Florence in full republican career thwarted by](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/29/index.md) - [Chapter VI](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/9/index.md) - [Book III, Ornament, is a long and elaborate classification of](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/24/index.md) - [Part III (Style), opening with the rhetorical tradition of](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/22/index.md) - [xxi. 148) are not elaborated descriptively; they are summed up as](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/30/index.md) - [Act I of _Cornélie_ is again a prelude consisting of a fine](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/14/index.md) - [Act V is an epilogue. The Nurse reports the death of Portia,](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/13/index.md) - [Book II, Proportion Poeticall, is a misguided prosody.](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/23/index.md) - [Book III, dealing with lyric forms, is especially ample as](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/20/index.md) - [Book I, discussing epic, includes the _Divina Commedia_ and](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/18/index.md) - [Book XII: The Milanese legates at Venice against the](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/27/index.md) - [Act I consists of (1) a monologue by the Fury Mégère, a fine](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/10/index.md) - [Act III. Upon a Senecan monologue by Areus breaks Octavius to](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/11/index.md) - [scene iii adds to Cleopatra’s oratory a flash of jealousy and](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/15/index.md) - [Book II, discussing drama, though it gives a better account of](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/19/index.md) - [Act IV brings the rout and death of Brutus to Portia by](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/12/index.md) - [Book I, for instance, closes a summary of ancient history with](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/28/index.md) - [Canto XXXVI, which finally brings Ruggiero and Bradamante together,](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/7/index.md) - [Book III: Pope Gregory to the Florentines for peace through the](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/renaissance-literary-theory-and-practice-72647/chapters/26/index.md)