Art of English Poesy

Frank Whigham is Arthur J. Thaman and Wilhelmina Doré Thaman Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Seizures of the Will in Early Modern English Drama and Ambition and Privilege: The Social Tropes of Elizabethan Courtesy Theory. Wayne A. Rebhorn is Celanese Centennial Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of several books, including The Emperor of Men's Minds: Literature and the Renaissance Discourse of Rhetoric and Renaissance Debates on Rhetoric, both from Cornell.

The first response to this critical edition of Puttenham's Art of English Poesy ought to be gratitude. Frank Whigham and Wayne A. Rebhorn, both of whom have made substantial scholarly contributions to a rhetorical understanding of early modern literature, have done all students, teachers, and scholars of early modern English literature a great service. This is now the best, most readily available edition of Puttenham’s text. If this new edition means that Puttenham’s Art is taught more often, that will be a good thing. Students will now more likely be examining an art of English poetry and not just a sociology of it in the wonderful prose argument in this historicized, yet aesthetically aware edition of the text. We should exhibit our gratitude by ordering it for our libraries and requiring it for our classes.

• Introduction1. The Documentary Life2. Puttenham's Writings3. The Authorship of the Art4. Puttenham’s Archive5. Poetics in the Art6. Puttenham’s Ambitions7. Editorial ConventionsBibliographyBook 1Book 2Book 3The "Table"The uncorrected state of sig. Ee2rEmendationsLonger NotesName GlossaryWord GlossaryIndex to First Lines of Illustrative QuotationsGeneral Index