English Renaissance Literary Criticism

This is the first comprehensive collection of English Renaissance literary criticism to appear for nearly a century. In his wide-ranging introduction the editor shows that English critics in the period 1520 to 1650 owed most to classical writers on rhetoric and poetics: Cicero, Horace, Quintilian, Plutarch. All selections are annotated, identifying classical and other sources, and giving translations for Greek, Latin, and Italian texts. A section is devoted to Further Reading, and an extensive glossary is provided for archaic and technical words.