OF

LITERARY CRITICISM

IN THE RENAISSANCE

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE INFLUENCE OF
ITALY IN THE FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT
OF MODERN CLASSICISM

BY

VERSIT

JOEL ELIAS SPINCARN, A.D.

[Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Philos-
ophy, Columbia University]

New York

PUBLISHED FOR THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS BY

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.

All rights reserved

23222

COPYRIGHT, 1899,

BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

OF M BINDERY OCT 21'64

CONTENTS

PART FIRST

LITERARY CRITICISM IN ITALY

I. THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM OF RENAISSANCE

CRITICISM

i. Mediæval Conceptions of Poetry.

ii. The Moral Justification of Poetry.

iii. The Final Justification of Poetry.

II. THE GENERAL THEORY OF POETRY IN THE

ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

i. Poetry as a Form of Scholastic Philosophy.

ii. Poetry as an Imitation of Life.

iii. The Function of Poetry.

III. THE THEORY OF THE DRAMA

i. The Subject of Tragedy.

ii. The Function of Tragedy.

iii. The Characters of Tragedy.

iv. The Dramatic Unities.

PAGE

3

24

.

V. THE GROWTH OF THE CLASSIC SPIRIT IN ITALIAN

CRITICISM

i. Humanism.

ii. Aristotelianism.

iii. Rationalism.

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