Medieval rhetoric and poetic to 1400 : $b Interpreted from representative worksBaldwin, Charles Sears
History
Medieval rhetoric and poetic to 1400 : $b Interpreted from representative works
Baldwin, Charles Sears
Literature, Medieval -- History and criticism; Poetics -- History -- To 1500; Rhetoric, Medieval
The _Laborintus_[18] is at once briefer and more inclusive. Opening with
rueful mock-heroic on the lot of a schoolmaster, it glances through the
seven arts in a series of allusions, and expands upon _grammatica_.
Thus poetry is reached by the traditional approach.[19] Most space,
however (269-598), is given to exemplifying rhetorical ornament,
especially figures. Though the list, as usual, is long, the manufactured
or borrowed examples are short. Évrard’s plan of tucking away each
within a closed hexameter-pentameter couplet is carried out with some
ingenuity. Though he has to take more room for _demonstratio_ (573-594),
he generally abjures Geoffrey’s dilating upon dilation. His examples
are rather mnemonics than exhibitions. The fourth section (599-686)
is a list of authors for school reading.[20] The order, though not
obviously progressive, suggests: (1) certain brief moralizing works for
elementary study, i.e., a “Cathonet” (the so-called “Distichs of Cato”),
a “Théodolet,” or “Theudlet” (the allegorical verse dialogue entitled
_Theodulus_),[21] an “Ysopet,” or collection of fables;[22] (2) the
classics and their imitators, with Vergil applied as the exemplar of all
“three styles”;[23] (3) the Latin summaries of the Trojan war, Dares and
the _Ilias latina_, (4) Sidonius and the earlier Christian poets, Alain’s
_Anticlaudianus_, and Matthew’s _Tobias_; (5) a group of works on style,
i.e., Geoffrey’s _Poetria_; the _Doctrinale_ and _Græcismus_, Matthew’s
_Ars versificatoria_, Martianus Capella, and Bernard Silvester.[24]
The section on metric (687-834) exemplifies the leonine verses repudiated
by Matthew,[25] the handling of phrases and clauses—even to such
ingenuities as reversible lines, several patterns of internal rime in
the hexameter,[26] and typical faults. After lamenting a schoolmaster’s
hardships (835-990), Évrard concludes (991-end) with classified
specimens of _rhythmi_. There is a noticeable preponderance of trochaic
measures.[27] The final group of quatrains in a measure common both in
hymns and in Goliardic use is clearly a school exercise in framing a
stanza to end upon a familiar quotation.
4. Johannes de Garlandia, _Poetria_ (probably before mid-Thirteenth
Century).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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