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Stanley Wells, "By the Placing of His Words," TLS 5243 (26 Sept. 2003): 14-15. Wells describes a manuscript treatise by William Scott entitled "The Model of Poesy or the Art of Poesy drawn into a short or summary discourse" (c. 1600). "Perhaps of greatest interest to modern readers are a number of previously unrecorded allusions to the drama, and especially to Shakespeare." The document is in private and anonymous hands, but Wells quotes from bits and pieces. The important bit, for our purposes, is the following. Spenser's SC, says Scott, is a species of "low comedy" and "imitates the ancients so well that I know not if he comes behind for any apt invention; only for his affecting old words and phrases" (qtd. on p. 14; spelling is modernized). This was Sidney's complaint, and Scott may have picked it up from the Apologie (which he quotes "frequently"). So, in one sense, there's nothing new here. On the other hand, electrons are cheap, and it's a complaint that one hears with increasing frequency as the century unfolds. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask] East Carolina University Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c -----------------------------------------------------------------------