The Renaissance epic and the oral past
By: Anthony Welch
Series: Yale studies in English
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 260
ISBN-13: 9780300178869
Subjects: Classical influences; European Epic literature; European poetry; History and criticism; European Epic poetry; European literature
Description: This volume explores why Renaissance epic poetry clung to fictions of song and oral performance in an age of growing literacy. 16th- and 17th-century poets, Anthony Welch argues came to view their written art as newly distinct from the oral cultures of their ancestors.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Tasso's silent lyre; title: The oldest song: Ronsard and Spenser; title: Interchapter: The lutanist and the nightingale; title: Harps in Babylon: Cowley, Davenant, Butler; title: Milton's lament; title: Epic opera; title: Coda: The singer withdraws.