Complete 9 page APA formatted essay: Sidneys Defence of Poesie.Download file to see previous pages... Sir Philip Sidney was one of the brightest stars adorning the Elizabethan era. This age is called

Complete 9 page APA formatted essay: Sidneys Defence of Poesie.

Sir Philip Sidney was one of the brightest stars adorning the Elizabethan era. This age is called Elizabethan, because Queen Elizabeth ruled England during this period. She was a patron of arts, and this encouraged the artists to produce their work in abundance. The Elizabethan age saw great writers like Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd, Peele, Lyly, Wyatt, Surrey, More, Spenser, and Sidney. The wave of Renaissance that hit the English coast, made a great impact on these writers.

Renaissance means 'rebirth'. It refers to the revival of interest in classical languages like Greek, and Latin. Historically, it follows the middle ages, but it is difficult to distinguish the end of the middle ages from the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a total break away from the middle ages. The Renaissance celebrated the learned, civilized, broad-minded, freethinking, and enlightened aspects of life. The spirit of Renaissance questioned everything related to tradition. Its influence touched all the walks of the Elizabethan period.

Renaissance was a European phenomenon. It revolved around Individualism and Humanism. When England turned its attention towards the study of Latin, and Greek, it led to the publication of many books in all the fields of literature. England opened its doors to the learned masters, like Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, and Scaliger. Moreover, it was during this stage, Rhetorics entered the field of English literature.

The rise of Criticism in England, can be traced back to the critical writings of a group of Cambridge Scholars, namely Roger Ascham, John Cheke, and Thomas Wilson. These Writers gave importance to prosody in their works. The most important theoretical document of English Criticism of the Renaissance is Sidney's "An Apology for Poetry ". The critical texts written in this era reflect the influence of the Italian literature. England witnessed the publication of the classical works, translated, and produced with the commentaries, and annotations. Many such works concentrated on the art of poetry. The Elizabethan scholars wrote apologies, or defences of poetry as the reply to the criticism of moralists, and of others, who did not favour the art of poetry. The best of such defences of poetry is Sidney's "Defence of Poesie ". The prefaces in most of the critical works, opposed the classical objections to the romantic forms, or literary texts of that period.