Triumphal Forms: Structural Patterns in Elizabethan Poetry - Softcover

Fowler, Alastair

Softcover

ISBN 10: 052112896X ISBN 13: 9780521128964

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

A study of numerology in Elizabethan poetry, with some background studies which base the subject in classical learning, the works of Dante and Petrarch, and the esoteric traditions of the humanists. The central assumption of numerological criticism is that there exist works written in this tradition which show a correspondence between structure and meaning on a numerical plane; that is, one in which the number of the constituent parts (lines, stanzas, sonnets in a sequence) expresses a major aspect of the meaning. For instance parts of the whole can be arranged to represent months of the year and so on. Such structures of time and the triumphal form, in which the most important 'sovereign' element is placed at the centre, are the two main numerological patterns discussed by Dr Fowler. Critics have tended to regard numerology as an isolated phenomenon, rare after the Middle Ages but Dr Fowler demonstrates its persistence in the works of Spenser, Sidney, Chapman, Shakespeare, Donne, Jonson, Dryden and others.

About this title

Book Description:

A study of numerology in Elizabethan poetry, with some background studies which base the subject in classical learning, the works of Dante and Petrarch, and the esoteric traditions of the humanists. Dr Fowler demonstrates numerology's persistence in the works of Spenser, Sidney, Chapman, Shakespeare, Donne, Jonson, Dryden and others.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 052112896X
• ISBN 13: 9780521128964
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264