SEMESTER V CC 303 LITERARY CRITICISM DR.

KAVITA PATEL

Estimate Sidney’s contribution to Renaissance Criticism and his Apology for

Poetry or Defence of Poesie.

After Longinus in the Christian era until Sir Philip Sidney in the English
Renaissance, literary criticism, in the strictest sense of the term, was not
practised. What are available during this vast span are some rhetorical treatises
valuable for historical research. With Sidney this period of critical inactivity
comes to a grinding halt.

Sir Philip Sidney is the first critic – and a critic of lasting significance –
representing all that is superlative in Renaissance criticism. Sidney’s services to
England are most memorable. Besides being a public servant, he was also a man of
letters of great reputation. Spenser dedicated his The Shepherd’s Calendar to
him, and honoured him his Astrophel.

Sidney was the very model of excellence for many of his contemporaries.
Historically speaking, Sidney’s work appeared at the time when such treatise was
a felt necessity. Elizabethan literature was still in its infancy. No great work had
come out of England. In less than three decades after Sidney’s work England
nearly became the cultural capital of Europe. It was from Italians that Sidney
borrowed the concept of the dramatic unities, the poet as second creator, and
tragedy as evoking and winning our admiration. He drew from Horace the idea of
the poet being the seer, and the notion of the twin function of poetry. He must
have used the Latin translations of Aristotle and Plato rendered by the Italians.
He must also have been touched by the spirit of nationalism and dominated French
thinking.

Sidney’s Apologie was probably written in 1583, though it was published in 1595,
posthumously. The treatise bears two titles. His work was published in two
separate editions, The Defence of Poesie by William Ponsonby and An Apology
for Poetrie by Henry Olney.

During the Renaissance, discussion on literature, and polemical pamphleteering

maintaining a high level of debate were a common phenomenon. These constantly
touched just four areas of literary culture:

1. The art of poetry in verse.

2. Treatises on poetry and poetics
3. Treatises in the nature of answers to specific charges, and
4. Apologetic essays in defence of the art of poetry.

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Obviously, Sidney’s Apologie belongs to the fourth type. Defences, such as

Sidney’s were quite popular during the Renaissance. The birth of literary criticism
indicates the realization of the need to establish principles of writing. As the
previous century lacks good poetry, critics turned to the classics for their guides
and models. Firstly, the literary criticism was concerned with the status and value
and poetry. Gosson stigmatised poetry as immoral in his treatise/ long titled
Pamphlet School of Abuse: Containing a pleasant invective against Poets,
Pipers, Players, Jesters and such like Caterpillars of the commonwealth
(1579), denouncing works of literature as the works of the Devil, occasioned
Sidney’s spirited rebuttal. Sidney replied in his famous Apology for Poetry which
stressed the value of poetry.

Sidney was multi-lingual and widely-read and travelled; he knew the poems and
poets of France and Italy, and his patriotism required that England too should
produce a vernacular literature. His Apology is a glorification of poetry intended
to inspire poets to write in English since ‘for the uttering sweetly and properly
the concepts of the mind, which is the end of speech that it hath equally with any
other tongue in the world.’

The Apology is written with absolute sureness of touch, serious but never solemn,
witty but never solemn, witty but never facetious, and full of memorably vivid
phrases – Alexander and Darius strove ‘who should be cock of this world’s dung-
hill’ – ‘How many headaches a passionate life bringeth us to’ –- ‘I never heard the
old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a
trumpet.’

Apologie happens to be the first English text, complete, comprehensive,

propounding a set of principles on the art of literature. Stephen Gosson in The
School of Abuse, attacked all secular literature with a convert’s zeal. Poets are
classed with pipers, players jesters and such like caterpillars of a commonwealth,
‘fathers of lies,’ drawing the mind from virtue and making their nation effeminate.
This work he dedicated, without permission, to Philip Sidney (1554-86) whose
Apology for Poetry or Defence of Poesie, written about 1580, is sometimes
described as an answer to Gosson. But it is far more than that. Sidney’s the
‘Defence of Poesy’ can be considered as the beginning of formal English literary
criticism. Basically it was a reply to moral grumblers like Stephen Gosson who
condemned poetry and poets. However, Sidney did not limit himself simply to a
formal reply. His essay reflects not only the continental criticism of the century
but also classical Greek and Roman critical thought. Apologie is carefully crafted
in the form of a rhetorical argument and the pattern is clear for analysis. The

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form or plan of Apologie conforms to the rhetorical principle of construction.

Sidney follows the general oratorical method made up for narration, proposition
and proof. Apologie falls into seven broad divisions:

1. Exordium
2. Narration, describing the antiquity of poetry.
3. Proposition, the poetry is imitation
4. Division- Religious, Philosophic, Imitative
5. Proof
6. Refutation, and
7. Peroration

The treatise opens with a prologue about the need for vindicating poetry. If some
horsemanship needs to be defended, why not the art of poetry? If poetry is
subject to condemnation, it would mean that a nation’s culture and its heritage
are the real target. The high points of interest in Apologie are:

1. Sidney’s double definition of poetry

2. His ideas of poetry as a union of philosophy and history and
3. His comments on poetic inspiration.

Sidney offers a definition of poetry—a poet is the maker, and poetry is the art
of representation. ‘Poesy therefore is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle termed
it in his word ‘memesis’, that is to say, a representing, counterfeiting or figuring
forth—to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture; with this end to teach and
delight’. He classifies different categories of poetry, and adds that metre is not
necessary for poetry. Poetry is proved to be superior to history and philosophy.
He discusses different generic divisions of poetry: pastoral, elegiac, iambic,
satiric, comic, tragic, lyric, and heroic. He defends poetry against the charges
levelled against these. Poetry is not immoral as it is charged; only its abuse is
immoral. Poetry cannot be effeminate, since all men of action in warfare have felt
inspired by poetry. The fault does not rest with poetry, but with the practitioners
of the art. As a practical critic he applies the Horatian norms to English poetry;
find faults with lack of unity in English plays and protests against the mixture of
tragedy and comedy.

In short the ‘Defence of Poesy’ is an exercise both in theoretical and practical

criticism. Sidney’s definition of poetry is drawn from Aristotle as well as Horace.
Following the ancients he says that poetry is an art of imitation, it is a “speaking
picture” and its aim is to teach and delight. The definition is supported by the
antiquity, universality and veneration of poetry among the ancients. In line with

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other critics Sidney also holds the view that poetry was the first among all
branches of learning. From that point, poets are “fathers of learning”. Even
history and philosophy first appeared in the grab of poetry. Moreover poetry
flourished in all ages and countries. Even the uncivilized Turks and Tartars were
lovers of poetry. In fact, it softened the hearts of the barbarians.

Another proof of its greatness is the veneration of poetry and poets among the
ancients. Both the Greeks and the Romans honoured poets. They considered the
poet to be a seer or prophet. In Greek the word poet means maker or creator.
The poet is a creator in the real sense. All other arts are tied to nature while
poetry is liberating. The poet through his imaginative powers or “divine frenzy”
can form things better than in nature. He can fashion heroes, demigods, Cyclops,
chimeras, furies and the like. What more the poet can fashion heroes, demigods,
cyclops, chimeras, furies and the like. What more the poet can fashion a perfect
lover, a perfect friend and a perfectly valiant man, even though they are not
found in nature; “ Nature’s world is brazen but the poet’s is golden”. The poet is
not only a maker but also seer or prophet. Sidney gives the examples of the oracle
of Delphos, the prophecies of Sybylls and the psalms of the Bible.

After establishing the place of poetry among all other arts and branches of
learning, Sidney divides it into three broad types. They are religious poetry,
philosophical poetry and true poetry. According to him the third is the true and
real poetry. Religious poetry sings the praises of God and as such it cannot lead
anyone astray. Philosophical poetry imparts knowledge. This kind of poetry too is
harmless since it is “the sweet good of sweetly uttered knowledge”. The third
kind of poetry is further subdivided into heroic, lyric, tragic, comic, satiric and
pastoral. Among all these Sidney considers epic poetry as “the best and most
accomplished kind of poetry”. In it heroic and moral goodness is most effectively
portrayed. It presents “pictures of heroic men and heroic deeds which in turn
inspires men to heroic action”.

Sidney proves that basically none of the poetic form misleads or misdirects men
as the moralists of 16th century England claim. Similarly poets are not sub-humans
or caterpillars of the society. The conclusion is that it is not poetry that abuses
man but man who abuses poetry.

As a Renaissance critic Sidney considers poetry to be superior to both philosophy

and history. Here the ancient controversy about the superiority of poetry is seen
in a new light. According to Sidney philosophy teaches by precepts (laws) and
historian by example, whereas the poet employs both, to teach and to persuade.

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The basic principles of virtue, vice and morality without the beauty of style do
not necessarily lead men to virtue. Similarly the data or chronicle of the past
events does not motivate people. The poet alone accomplishes the dual task. He
seems only to promise delight but at the same time moves men to virtue without
they realising it. So in Plutarch’s phrase, he becomes “the right popular
philosopher” and poetry the highest and the noblest form of human wisdom.

‘Defence of Poesy’ or ‘An Apology for Poetry’ also shows Sidney’s likes and
dislikes with regard to Elizabethan poetry and drama. He mentions Spenser’s ‘The
Shepherd’s Calendar’ with respect. He frankly acknowledges the emotional sway
of the old ballad of ‘Chevy Chase’ and his veneration for Chaucer’s poetry. In his
criticism of English dramas, Sidney is not so generous. He was under the influence
of Aristotle’s theory of tragedy and Seneca’s practice of revenge tragedy.
Naturally he protests against the lack of unity in academic tragedies. The only
exception is “Gorboduc”. He also objects to the absurdities of the English stage
where on one side Africa and on the other Asia may be represented and where in
an hour a youth may grow from childhood to old age.

Sidney is particularly harsh on the mixture of the comic and tragic elements in
tragi-comedy. “Never did the ancients” ‘like the English’, “match hornpipes with
funerals”. He scoffs at the idea of the clatter of wooden swords at the end of
tragedies and the mixing of clowns with Kings.

In summary one can say that Sidney was quite disappointed with the state of the
English tragedy and comedy of his days. Sidney’s thesis is that the poet is truly
a ‘maker’, a creator, not merely imitating nature but creating an ideal universe
which can both teach and delight his readers, teaching by delighting them. The
historian, laden with old mouse-eaten records, is ‘captivated to the truth of a
foolish world’ where wicked men flourish; but in the poet’s world the good can
invariably triumph and the wicked perish. The philosopher can utter precepts, but
this is useless unless men are ‘moved’ to ‘learn’; only a poet so moves them, ‘for he
cometh to you with words sent in delightful proportion, either accompanied with
or prepared for the well enchanting skill of music; and with a tale forsooth he
cometh unto you; with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from
chimney corner.’

Sidney declares that ‘poetry is the companion of the camps’ and the even an
imperfect poem can move men’s hearts to the exercise of courtesy, liberality and
especially courage.’

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Apologie concludes with a strong claims of the greatness of poetry as an object

fit for veneration (respect). He blesses those who love and enjoy the charms of
poetry, and denounces those who have no sensibility to appreciate it. Sidney’s
main objective in the treatise is to show the true value of poetry , and he does it
by presenting a picture of the past. Apologie is in a form of a classical oration. In
an age of puritan suspicion of literature, this forceful justification of poetry was
a spirited defence in the truest sense of the term. Through this work Sidney
inaugurates that great tradition in criticism which subordinates purely technical
matters in literary works, and examination of writers to enquiries into wider and
deeper philosophic problems. That is why Sidney is regarded as an inalienable
(unchallengeable) part of the central tradition that descends from Aristotle to
the present.

Sidney’s Apologie is an epitome (ideal) of the general Renaissance criticism. It

has brought, within a single compass, a wide range of critical principles current
during the Renaissance. The discussion of Sidney may be concluded with Atkins’s
apt remarks: “It is therefore as the first piece of literary criticism in English
that is literature itself that the Apologie figures in critical history…..As a fitting
legacy of one of England’s noblest and gentlest souls the work will continue to
charm modern readers with its idealism, its sanity, its humour and its grace”.