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The Model of Poesy

Shakespeare's first critic: a newly discovered work of literary criticism from the 1590s, the most revolutionary decade in English literary history.

William Scott (Author), Gavin Alexander (Edited by)

9781316505588, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 January 2016

350 pages, 2 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.47 kg

'The recent discovery of the manuscript of William Scott's previously unknown Model of Poesy (c.1599), with its wealth of allusions to contemporary writers including Shakespeare, Spenser, Sidney, and Daniel, represents a major addition to the corpus of Elizabethan literary criticism. And Gavin Alexander's magisterial edition, exemplary in the range and depth of its scholarship, is in every way worthy of its subject.' Stanley Wells, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

The Model of Poesy is one of the most exciting literary discoveries of recent years. A manuscript treatise on poetics written by William Scott in 1599, at the end of the most revolutionary decade in English literary history, it includes rich discussions of the works of Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare and their contemporaries. Scott's work presents a powerful and coherent theoretical account of all aspects of poetics, from the nature of representation to the rules of versification, with a commitment to relating theory to contemporary practice. For Scott, any theory of literature must make sense not of the classics but of what English writers are doing now: Scott is at the same time the most scholarly and the most relevant of English Renaissance critics. In this groundbreaking edition, Gavin Alexander presents a text of The Model of Poesy framed by a detailed introduction and an extensive commentary, which together demonstrate the range and value of Scott's thought.

Preface
Introduction: William Scott (c.1571–c.1617)
The Model in context
Form and method
Textual introduction
The Model of Poesy
Commentary
Appendices: Appendix 1. The dedication to Scott's Du Bartas
Appendix 2. Scott's letter to Cecil
Appendix 3. Scott's will.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]

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