Rhetoric and Poetry in the Renaissance / A Study of Rhetorical Terms in English Renaissance Literary Criticism

The study traces how classical rhetoric shaped English Renaissance literary criticism between the mid-sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, arguing that critics used rhetorical terminology and thinking derived not only from Greek and Roman sources and Italian commentators but significantly from medieval rhetorical traditions. Divided into two parts, it first examines the blending and distinctions of rhetoric and poetic—surveying Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, and medieval transformations—then considers conceptions of poetry's purpose, including moral instruction, allegory, and the eventual shift from allegory toward example. The essay maps channels of transmission, pedagogical manuals, stylistic debates, and the persistence of rhetorical habits in critical theory.