Allegory in Renaissance literature

allegory in the Middle Ages, Renaissance literature exhibits an increased emphasis on courtly love,^[1] sometimes abandoning intelligibility for deliberately unintelligible allegories.^[2]

The early modern theory of allegory is discussed in

Orlando furioso

, 1591).

Continuous/intermittent

Renaissance allegories could be continuous and systematic, or intermittent and occasional.

Jortin to 'Triamond' in his 1734 edition). The three sons correspond to the three worlds, born of love. Cambell's battle with the three sons is an allegory of "man's battle with the three worlds to find his place in the universe, to establish harmony in God's creation, and ultimately to achieve salvation".^[4] Furthermore, since any triad may be an analogue of another, the three brothers could also be an allegory of the three worlds of man's soul: the vegetative, the sensitive, and the angelic".^[4] Spenser's (multi-layered) allegory is similarly worked out through all six books.^[5]

Ariosto, for example.^[6]

Three-world theory

By the 16th century, allegory was firmly linked to what is known as the Elizabethan world picture, taken from Ptolemy and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. This theory postulates the existence of three worlds:

the sublunary world we live in, subject to change.
the celestial world, the world of the planets and stars, unchanging.
the
Godhead
are.

Pierre de la Primaudaye

in The French Academie, London, 1618, p. 671).

Further examples

Kenneth Borris has argued that Philip Sidney and John Milton were also major allegorists.^[7]

Notes

^ C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love, 1936.
^ I. Ousby ed, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (1995) p. 16
^ Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (1971) p. 90-1
^ ^a ^b Thomas P. Roche: The Kindly Frame, 1964, excerpted in Paul. J. Alpers (ed): Elizabethan Poetry. Modern Essays in Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967: 418
^ I. Ousby ed, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (1995) p. 318
^ Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (1971) p. 90-1
^ Kenneth Borris, Allegory and Epic in English Renaissance Literature: Heroic Form in Sidney, Spenser, and Milton, 2000.

[1] C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love, 1936.

[2] I. Ousby ed, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (1995) p. 16

[3] Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (1971) p. 90-1

[Thomas_P_1964-4] Thomas P. Roche: The Kindly Frame, 1964, excerpted in Paul. J. Alpers (ed): Elizabethan Poetry. Modern Essays in Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967: 418

[5] I. Ousby ed, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (1995) p. 318

[6] Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (1971) p. 90-1

[7] Kenneth Borris, Allegory and Epic in English Renaissance Literature: Heroic Form in Sidney, Spenser, and Milton, 2000.

[1]

[2]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

Continuous/intermittent

Three-world theory

Further examples

See also

Notes