MODULE 6

Renaissance Criticism

Objectives:

At the end of the learning activity, the students should be able to:

1. Discuss the background of Philip Sidney, the

contributions of the Renaissance Period in literature,
and the influence of humanism on the Renaissance
Literary Criticism;
2. Explain the key features to understand the
Renaissance Literary Criticism based on “The
Defense of Poesy”;
3. Argue on the charges brought against poetry and
Sidney’s defense as discussed in his work, The
Defense of Poesy; and
4. Analyze one of the sonnets compiled as collection in
“Astrophel and Stella” by Sir Philip Sidney based on
the key features of Renaissance Literary Criticism.

The Renaissance Period

The word ‘renaissance’ is a French word which means ‘rebirth’. The

people credited with beginning the Renaissance were trying to recreate the
classical models of Ancient Greek and Rome.

The Renaissance was a fervent period of European cultural, artistic,

political and economic “rebirth” following the Middle Ages. Generally
described as taking place from the 14th century to the 17th century, the
Renaissance promoted the rediscovery of classical philosophy, literature and
art. Some of the greatest thinkers, authors, statesmen, scientists and artists in
human history thrived during this era, while global exploration opened up new
lands and cultures to European commerce. The Renaissance is credited with
bridging the gap between the Middle Ages and modern-day civilization.

The Emergence of the Literary Movement during the Renaissance Period

 Along with the renewed cultural interest in all things classical—the
history, culture, and writings of ancient Greece and Rome—came a fresh
concentration on all things Human, also known as “Humanism.”

During the 14th century, the philosophy of humanism began to emerge

in Italy. Humanism emphasizes that man is the center of the universe and that
all human achievements in art, literature, and science should be regarded.
Instead of relying on the will of God, people began to act according to
capabilities.

Renaissance writers were full of curiosity about humankind. What

motivates or inspires people? What angers or pleases them? What makes
them good or bad? How will people of different character respond under
pressure? What are the limits to the capabilities of men and women?

Writers also pondered the human condition. What is the nature of

human life in this world? Is it bad or good? Free or determined? Monumentally
important or completely insignificant?

Literature During the Renaissance Period

The following briefly describes the literature during the Renaissance Period:

1. The dominant forms of English literature during the Renaissance were

the poem and the drama, drama subgenres are tragedy and comedy.
2. Playwrights mixed things up by manipulating the traditional genres of
tragedy and comedy. These genre-bending works lead to the birth of
the tragicomedy.
3. Some of the major contributions during the renaissance period are the
translations of religious writings into other languages as in the case of
Martin Luther and William Tyndale, those contributions led to a
religious reformations
4. Renaissance literature revolved more around having a real humanistic
protagonist with a real story to tell.
5. Renaissance literature dealt much more with human characteristics
and behaviors leaving behind the religious and methaphysical subjects
of the medieval era.
6. Some of the writings of the time were influenced by roman and greek
mythology so it is common that those writing include heroes, deities
and monsters.
7. Some of the writing focus on political reformation.
8. The writers of the movement imitated art and they hope to change
reality through it. Imitation means mirroring life.
9. The writer reflected an spirit of exploration that was going on
throughout the world.
10. The renaissance writers were concerned with monarchs and
aristocrats. They wrote about them and also they were men of the
court.
Renaissance Writers

The earliest Renaissance literature appeared in 14th century Italy;

Dante, Petrarch, and Machiavelli are notable examples of Italian Renaissance
writers. From Italy the influence of the Renaissance spread at different rates
to other countries, and continued to spread throughout Europe through the
17th century. The English Renaissance and the Renaissance in Scotland date
from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. In northern Europe the
scholarly writings of Erasmus, the plays of Shakespeare, the poems of
Edmund Spenser, and the writings of Sir Philip Sidney may be considered
Renaissance in character.

Philip Sidney’s An Apology for Poetry

A. Sir Philip Sidney

Sir Philip Sidney was one of the founders of humanist tradition of the
English verse. 400 years ago in London a society was founded, called
“Areopagus” headed by Philip Sidney. The members of this society were
Edmund Spenser (1552 –1599), Fulk Grewil. During their meetings religious
and philosophical problems were discussed and new forms of poetry were
worked out. “The Defense of Poetry” by Philip Sydney was a theoretical work,
philosophical and esthetical creed of the new poetry founders. The main
object of poetry after Sidney is considered to be the positive influence on the
individual’s mentality: it is necessary for the poet to create an ideal character;
and to convince the reader to believe in such perfect character the writers
must face their characters to difficulties and make them improve their souls

B. Apologie for Poetrie/Defense of Poetry: A Background

A product of the revival of classical Greek and Roman culture known

as humanism, Renaissance literary criticism took root in defenses of poetry
and dialogues on language and literary imitation in Italy in the 14th and 15th
centuries.

In 1579 Stephen Gosson published a short book, The School of

Abuse, virtually attacking poets and actors and questioning the morality of
fictitious works. In 1580 Sidney wrote The Defense of Poesy also known as
An Apology for Poetry. The comments of Gosson did not address specifically
to Philip Sidney, but it motivated Sidney to write his own opinions on the
subject

This work by Sidney is an early example of English criticism as it goes

beyond just looking at poetry. Sidney instead said “poesy” which included all
of fictionalized arts, examples being prose and drama. The idea that poetry is
all lies comes from puritans and even Plato, but Defense of Poesy takes the
judicial side of the argument and explains why this isn’t the case. Sidney’s
argument attempts to raise poetry into the higher arts and disprove the
criticism against it.

In Sidney’s work The Defense of Poesy, he defended poetry,

discussed the opposition to poetry, such as the common caviller notion of
studying “practical” knowledge, and a small discussion on linguistics.

It raises issues – such as the value and function of poetry, the nature of
imitation, and the concept of nature.

C. Key Features to understand the Renaissance Literary Criticism

based on “The Defense of Poesy”

The literature of the Renaissance was written within the general

movement of the Renaissance that arose in 13th century Italy and continued
until the 16th century while being diffused into the western world. It is
characterized by the adoption of a Humanist philosophy and the recovery of
the classical literature of Antiquity and benefited from the spread of printing in
the latter part of the 15th century.

For the writers of the Renaissance, Greco-Roman inspiration was

shown both in the themes of their writing and in the literary forms they used.
Platonic ideas were revived and put to the service of Christianity. The search
for pleasures of the senses and a critical and rational spirit completed the
ideological panorama of the period. New literary genres such as the essay
and new metrical forms such as the sonnet and Spenserian stanza made their
appearance.

1. The Theory of Imitation

a. The Renaissance critics’ theory of imitation is different from that
of Plato and Aristotle.
b. Imitation for Plato and Aristotle was the imitation of persons and
things in nature. Horace and Longinus used it as meaning the
imitation of other writers. This latter sense is the one in which it
was most often used by the Renaissance critics.
c. Plato views that art is the imitation of nature but it is not slavish
imitation rather it is creative imitation
d. For Sidney, nature is dull, incomplete and ugly. It is artists who
turn dull nature in to golden color. He employs his creative
faculty, imagination and style of presentation to decorate the raw
materials of nature.
e. For Aristotle human action is more important, but for Sidney
nature is important.
f. In Sidney’s work The Defense of Poetry, he displays knowledge
of Horace and Plato
g. Sidney states that poetry “is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle
termed it in his word mimesis, that is to say, a representing,
counterfeiting, or figuring forth: to speak metaphorically, a
speaking picture: with this end, to teach and delight”
 h. Sidney adapts elements from the early modern period Aristotle
and Horace to offer his own somewhat broader view of imitation
i. He suggests that there have been three kinds of poetic imitation:
i. poetry that “did imitate the inconceivable excellencies
of God,” as in the various poetical portions of the Old
Testament
ii. imitation that is effected by poetry that deals with subjects
whose scope is philosophical, historical, or scientific,
such as the works of Cato, Lucretius, Manilius, or Lucan
iii. imitation that lifts it free of the constraints imposed by
Aristotle wherein poets most properly do imitate to teach
and delight, and to imitate, borrow nothing of what is,
hath been, or shall be: but range only . . . into the divine
consideration of what may be, and should be”

2. The truth-value and didactic role of literature

a. Didactic effect of a poem depends up on the poet's power to
move. It depends up on the affective quality of poetry
b. Example of didactic role: Heroes are ideally presented and evils
are corrupt
c. Didactic role during the renaissance
i. The Renaissance critics adopted the Horatian formula
that literature should “teach and delight”.
ii. The prevailing renaissance version of this is that poetry
teaches delightfully.
iii. This was in answer to the medieval view that poetry is
either dangerous or a waste of time

3. The classical “Unities”

a. Renaissance writers added the doctrine of the “unity of place”
to Aristotle’s original demand for the unity of action and time

4. Notion of Verisimilitude
a. Renaissance critics asserted that poetry must be verisimilar in
two respects. This was based on the notion of verisimilitude:
i. It must imitate objects that are real, not fantastic
ii. Its manner of imitation must appear probable or at least
possible to the audience

5. The use of the vernacular

a. Many Renaissance writers write in the vernacular. Some of
these writers theorized and defended their practice.
b. The Protestant Reformation fostered vernacular translations of
the Bible as well as of liturgies and hymns.
c. The Renaissance writers were obliged to address controversial
issues of meter, rhyming, and versification in vernacular
tongues.

6. The definition of poetic genres such as narrative and drama

 a. The Renaissance writers wrote in the ancient forms or genres of
epic, tragedy, and comedy to attain the ancient spirit.
b. They mould their style upon that of the great ancients.

7. The invention of new, mixed genres

a. The Renaissance critics did not accept the mixing of genres as
tragicomedy since it can destroy the sense of decorum.
However, Shakespeare is known for using this mixing of genre
like his famous “Romeo and Juliet”. The tragedy on this play
was the death of the mains characters, and the comedy on this
instance was the satisfaction of the main characters of reaching
their aim on “’till death do us part”.
b. The Renaissance writers invent newer, characteristically
humanist, genres such as the essay and the dialogue form.
c. They focus on the epigram as an instrument of wit.

8. The use of rhyme in poetry

a. Renaissance writers rejected the regular stress-based
alliterative meter of medieval poets.
b. They rejected rhyme as an unclassical barbarism.
c. They searched for a new metrical basis for poetry and
eventually stimulated the growth of blank verse.

9. The relative values of quantitative and qualitative verse

a. Renaissance writers introduced classical quantitative meters,
based on length of syllables rather than stress, into vernacular
languages

D. Charges Brought Against Poetry and Sidney’s Defense

The following cite the specific charges brought against poetry during the
Renaissance Period, and these were how Sidney defended poetry:
1. There are other kinds of knowledge more fruitful than poetry
a. Poetry is the source of knowledge and a civilizing force for
Sidney.
b. Poetry corrupts the people and it is the waste of time, but Sidney
says that no learning is so good as that which teaches and
moves to virtue and that nothing can both teach and amuse so
much as poetry does.
c. In essay societies, poetry was the main source of education. He
remembers ancient Greek society that respected poets. The
poets are always to be looked up. So, poetry is not wasted of
time.
d. Sidney states that the greatest gifts bestowed upon human
beings are oratio and ratio, speech and reason
e. Sidney defended that it is poetry which most polishes the gift of
speech, and it “far exceedeth prose” on two accounts:
 i. it engenders delight because of its meticulous ordering of
words
ii. it is memorable
f. Hence, since knowledge depends on memory, poetry has an
affinity with knowledge
g. Moreover, since poetry “teacheth and moveth to virtue,” there
can be no “more fruitful knowledge” than poetry

2. Poetry “is the mother of lies”

a. Sidney’s famous retort is that “the poet . . . nothing affirms, and
therefore never lie”
b. Sidney defended that the poet does not claim to be telling the
truth; he is not relating “what is, or is not, but what should or
should not be… He is writing “not affirmatively, but allegorically,
and figuratively”
c. The poetic truths are ideal and universal; therefore, poetry
cannot be a mother of lies

3. Poetry abused men’s wit, training it to wanton sinfulness, and

lustful love
a. Sidney defended that it is with particular poets who have abused
their art, not with the art itself
b. Sidney explained that it is not that “poetry abused man’s wit, but
that, man’s wit abused poetry”
c. Abuses are more nursed by philosophy and history than by
poetry, by describing battles, bloodshed, violence etc
d. On the contrary, poetry helps to maintain morality and peace by
avoiding such violence and bloodsheds; moreover, it brings light
to knowledge

Sample Literature by Sidney and Its Interpretation

Philip Sidney used seduction literature, which can be seen as erotic

literature, but is more often used in the meaning of to lead. This would mean
that he is guiding you through his works, fitting in with the theme of literary
criticism which was to guide the reader through the works of the classics and
into their newer theories.

Astrophil and Stella 1: Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to

show
By Sir Philip Sidney

Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,

That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,—
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,—
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe;
 Studying inventions fine her wits to entertain,
Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburn'd brain.
But words came halting forth, wanting invention's stay;
Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows;
And others' feet still seem'd but strangers in my way.
Thus great with child to speak and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite,
"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write."

The sequence “Astrophel and Stella” (written in the period 1581 –1583
and published in 1591)contains 108 sonnets and 11 songs. The young
courtier Astrophel is the Greek for ‘star-lover’--“Stella” – the Latin for ‘star’.

Before the discussion of the sonnet sequence let us consider some

facts from the life of Sydney and Penelope Devereux and their relationship.
The contemporaries of Sydney believed them to be the prototypes of
Astrophel and Stella. Sydney was engaged to Penelope, the daughter of the
earl of Essex – who eventually had a rather unhappy marriage to Lord Rich.
For the time Sydney was engaged to Penelope she was 18-19. Penelope is
identified as Stella, although she is said to have been rather less virtuous than
Stella.

The range of lexical means Sidney used in his cycle is wide. He used
colloquial words, introduced political, military, law terms enriching English
poetry and national language in the whole.

Sidney used two methods:

1. Compound epithets consisting of two or more words. This
technique was new for the English poetry. Sidney was considered to
copy it from French poetry. Writing about peculiarities of the English
language Sidney noted that for his native language “brilliant
composition of two or three words” is characteristic.

2. The second method is inversion which has emotional and

intellectual character and makes the verse more musical and
colored. For example in the 11th Song: “Never doth thy beauty flourish
More than in my reason’s sight”, or in the 1st Song: “Doubt you, to
whom my Muse these notes intendeth/ Only with you not miracles are
wonders”. Besides Sydney prefers to use one syllable or two syllable
words in his verse and sometimes there is about 10 short words in the
line, for example, sonnet 31: “With how sad steps, o Moone, thou
climb’st the skies”, 12 or sonnet 1: “Fool”, said my Muse to me, “Look
in thy heart and write…”

SAQ Activity 1
Direction: Discuss the following questions:
 1. Philip Sidney as one of the greatest poet of his time
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2. Influence of humanism during the Renaissance Period of Literature

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3. Contributions of the Renaissance Period in literature

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4. The Defense of Poesy considered as the early example of literary

criticism
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Activity 3
Direction: Agree or Disagree? Argue and defend your stand on the
following statements related to the charges against poetry:

1. Poetry is superior to all other branches of learning

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2. Poetry nurses abuse of humanity

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3. Poetry is a double edged sword: It can be used badly or well

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4. Poetry is an art of imitation

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5. Poetry teaches and moves virtue

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Activity 4
Directions: Analyze one of the sonnets compiled as collection in
“Astrophel and Stella” by Sir Philip Sidney based on the key features of
Renaissance Literary Criticism. Write at least three-page analysis of the
given poem.

Astrophel and Stella by Sir Philip Sidney

1. Leave me, O Love, which reaches! but to dust,

2. And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things!
3. Corw rich in that which never taketh rust:
4. Whatever fades, but fading pleasure brings.
5. Draw in thy beams, and humble all thy might
6. To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be;
7. Which breaks the clouds and opens forth the light
8. That doth both shine and give us sight to see.
9. O! Take fast hold! let that light be thy guide
10. In this small coarse which birth draws out to death,
11. And think how evil becometh him to slide
12. Who seeketh Heaven, and comes of heavenly breath.
 13. Then farewell, world! thy uttermost I see:
14. Eternal love, maintain thy life in me!

Key Features of Renaissance Literary Criticism:

A. Poetic Imitation (discuss what aspect of nature is imitated by the

poem)
B. Didactic Effect (what are the examples of binary objects reflected in
the poem; how do these objects reflect the concept of “teach and
delight”)
C. Unity of Place, Action, and Time (discuss the place, action, and time
reflected in the poem, and how they are related with one another)
D. Notion of Verisimilitude (are the imitated objects real or fictitious?
How do they appear probable to the audience?)
E. The Use of Vernacular (discuss the form of the poem based on the
vernacular used)
F. Poetic Genre (discuss the style of the writer)

References
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worldhistory/chapter/literature-in-the-renaissance/
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https://literariness.org/2017/11/17/literary-criticism-of-sir-philip-sidney/
Poetry Foundation. (n.d.). Astrophil and stella: Loving in truth and fain in
verse my love to show. Retrieved from
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45152/astrophil-and-stella-1-
loving-in-truth-and-fain-in-verse-my-love-to-show
Read Great Literature. (n.d.) Reading renaissance English literature.
Retrieved from https://readgreatliterature.com/reading-renaissance-
english-literature-1485-1660/
Russel, W. M. (n.d.). Literary criticism. Retrieved from
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9780195399301/obo-9780195399301-0212.xml
Sites. (n.d.). Sidneys defense of poetry. Retrieved from
https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/sidneys-defense-of-poesy/
Slideshare. (n.d.). Philip Sidney an apology for poetry. Retrieved from
https://www.slideshare.net/stmaryspg2014/philip-sidney-an-apology-
for-poetry
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