American and British Studies Annual (Dec 2014)
Shakespeare’s Poetry in the context of mimesis and imitatio in Elizabethan Poetics
Abstract
The study deals with Elizabethan considerations of the classical concept of mimesis, particularly that of Aristotle and Horace. Shakespeare’s poetics will be examined on the basis of chosen aspects of his poems including a number of his sonnets, Venus and Adonis, Lucrece and The Phoenix and the Turtle. Other Elizabethan considerations of poetics, especially by Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser will be compared. Unlike Sidney or Spenser, Shakespeare did not compose any theoretic work; nevertheless his poetics can be explored through readings of his poetry. First of all it is obvious that Shakespeare does not surrender to classical aesthetic rules, yet then again Elizabethan poetics in general is not overly rigid and resists “slavish imitatio” of classical examples. In this context we see Shakespeare not as solitary or an anarchist, but as a practical dramatist: an astute observer of the passions and interests of his time working within established rules and themes, yet not endorsing pompous eloquence or quasi-knowledge.
