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XVIII.—French Influence on The Beginnings of English Classicism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Extract

It would appear, on investigation, that English classicism made itself firm roots in Elizabethan soil. Furthermore, that the plant was exotic, and came of French stock seems extremely probable. If this is our conclusion, it is necessary to premise the characteristics of an age possessing classic tendencies and show them to have appeared in sixteenth century English letters. Also we must trace interrelations of technique and theme between France and England, in order to support our latter deduction.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1911

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References

page 500 note 1 Spenser, Ed. Grosart, Vol. ix, pp. 263, 265, 270.

page 500 note 2 Harvey, Letter Book, p. 101.

page 501 note 1 Spenser, Ed. cit., ix, 263.

page 501 note 2 Ibid., p. 265.

page 505 note 1 Vol. ii, p. 285.

page 506 note 1 Discourse, Arber, p. 68.

page 507 note 1 Spingarn, Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, New York, 1908, p. 298.

page 507 note 2 Upham, French Influence in English Literature, New York, 1908, p. 26: Samuel Daniel, Abraham Fraunce, Countess of Pembroke.

page 507 note 3 Foxburne, Life of Sidney, Chapter on Areopagus.

page 507 note 4 Schelling, Poetic and Verse Criticism of the Reign of Elizabeth, Philadelphia, 1891, p. 33.

page 507 note 5 Bullen, Lyrics of Elizabethan Romances, Introduction, p. 11.

page 508 note 1 Foxburne, Life of Sir Philip Sidney, New York, 1891.

page 508 note 2 Church, Life of Spenser, Eng. Men of Letters Series, p. 24.

page 508 note 3 Spingarn, op cit., p. 171.

page 509 note 1 Deffence, ed. cit., p. 11.

page 509 note 2 Ibid., p. 17.

page 509 note 3 Ed. Blanchemain, Œuvres complètes, Paris, 1857, Vol. i.

page 510 note 1 Ed. cit., Vol. iii, p. 35.

page 510 note 2 Ronsard, “ Tous ceux qui escrivent en carmes, tant doctes puissent-ils estre, ne sont pas poetes. Il y a autant de différence entre un poëte et un versificateur …” Ed. cit., iii, 19; vii, 310.

page 510 note 3 Spingarn, op. cit., pp. 91 ff.

page 511 note 1 Cf. Horace again.

page 511 note 2 Vide also an agreement between Sidney and Ronsard on the comparative worth of History and Poetry, showing one to present verity, the other verisimilitude. Preface to the Franoiade, Vol. iii, pp. 7 ff.

page 511 note 3 Du Bartas says in his Uranie: “The poet sans art, sans scavoir creates works of divine beauty.” Cf. Spenser in later discussion. Later, he says: “Usage makes art, then art perfects and regulates.” Cf. Horace.

page 512 note 1 Saintsbury, Hist. of Eng. Lit., Vol. ii, p. 35.

page 512 note 2 Ibid., p. 39.

page 514 note 1 Ed. Grosart, p. 95, Vol. ix.

page 515 note 1 Phillips, Popular Manual of Eng. Lit., p. 117.

page 515 note 2 Spenser, ed. cit., pp. 277 ff. Harvey writing to Spenser: “In good faith, I had once again nigh forgotten your Faerie Queene, howbeit by good chance, I have now sent hir home at the laste, neither in better or worse case than I found hir. And must you of necessity have my judgment, of hir indeede? To be plaine, I am voyde of all judgement, if your nine comoedies whereunto in imitation of Herodotus you give the names of the nine Muses (and to one man's fansie not unworthily) come not neerer Ariostoes Comoedies eyther for the finenesse of plausible Elocution, or the rarenesse of Poeticall Invention, then that Elvish Queene doth to his Orlando Furioso which notwithstanding you will needes seeme to emulate and hope to overgo, as you flatly professed yourself in one of your last Letters … But I will not stand greatly with you in your owne matters. If so be the Faerye and Hobgoblin runne away with the Garland from Apollo. Marke what I saye, and yet i will not say what I thought, but there an End for this once, and fare you well, till God or some good Aungell putte you in a better minde.”

page 515 note 3 Spingarn, op. cit., p. 117, and p. 305.

page 516 note 1 Spingarn, op. cit. p. 181.

page 516 note 2 Ibid., p. 121.

page 516 note 3 Ibid., p. 110.

page 517 note 1 Arte of English Poesie, Arber, p. 21.

page 519 note 1 Vide also Fletcher, J. B., Article on Spenser in American Encyclopœdia.

page 519 note 2 Nash and Lodge show interest, if mocking interest, in this Gallic theme by their Muse out of Purgatory.

page 519 note 3 Ed. cit., Vol. iii, p. 17.

page 519 note 4 Courthope, Hist. of English Lit., Vol. ii, p. 40.

page 519 note 5 Ed. cit., Vol. i, p. 137, p. 229.

page 522 note 1 Spingarn, op. cit., p. 255.

page 523 note 1 Vide previous note from Pellissier; and preliminary notices in Orepet's Recueil des Poetes Français to Ronsard and Du Bellay, Vol. ii, pp. 55 ff., and pp. 9 ff.

page 526 note 1 Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., Vol. ii, p. 9.