If I remember rightly, Michael Murrin once suggested (in "The Rhetoric of
Faeryland," perhaps?) that the precedent for the proems lies in Roman
comedy. Of course, I may not remember rightly, and am away from my books;
and in any case, I have no idea how plausible the suggestion was to begin
with.
DM
At 11:05 AM 4/16/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>The question needs to be asked because 'proem' is not a term used by
>Spenser but rather by editors to refer to the prefatory stanzas to each
>book. I don't believe that he had any precedent in classical or Italian
>epic. A.C. Hamilton
>
>
>At 07:39 AM 2001-04-16 +0000, you wrote:
> >Dear Yngve,
> >
> >Pretty commonly, people use the form "I.proem.1" for the first stanza of the
> >proem to Book I. Hope that helps.
> >
> >Donald Stump
> >Saint Louis University
> >
> >Yngve Nordgård wrote:
> >
> >> Hi
> >>
> >> This may seem trivial to you, but I wonder how to refer to FQs
> introductury
> >> stanzas (before the cantos). I mean, the first line om the first canto of
> >> the first book is referred to as I.i 1, right? But how do we refer to the
> >> lines "Lo I the man," etc.?
> >>
> >> Yours,
> >>
> >> --
> >> Yngve Nordgaard, graduate student of comparative literature
> >> University of Oslo, Norway
> >
> >
>
>A.C.Hamilton
>[log in to unmask]
>Cappon Professor Emeritus
>Queen's University, Canada
>Phone & Fax: 613- 544-6759
David Lee Miller
Professor of English
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0027
(859) 257-6965
FAX (859) 323-1072
home: (859) 252-3680
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