Elizabethan Criticism of Poetry

e of information pertaining to the art that he is zealous to teach them, so that "though they be to seek of the Greek and Latin languages" they shall not "lament for lack of knowledge sufficient to the purpose of this art. "108 In the three books making up his Art of English Poesy, namely, "Of Poets and Poesy," "Of Proportion Poetical," and "Of Ornament," he attempts to supply information on all possible aspects of the subject, devoting himself in the main, however, to practical matters of forms and kinds, methods, prosody, and figures of speech. The prominence of the didactic motive in Elizabethan criticism of poetry is further evinced in the controversy between Campion and Daniel. Campion, in his endeavor to "induce a true form of versifying" with the aim of displacing the "vulgar and unartificial custom of riming," which he knows has "deterred many excellent wits from the exercise of English poesy, "i09 devotes himself chiefly to the exposition of the forms of verse that he wishes to be adopted, his purpose being not only to persuade poets to make the departure but also to teach them how to proceed. In his reply to Campion, Daniel, like Sidney, in a high and broad sense assumes the office of teacher. Just as Sidney had promulgated better conceptions of the nature and function of poetry, so Daniel contributes needful ideas concerning the question of form. Men like Campion had been obsessed by the idea that English poetry could best be saved and elevated by th...