Críticos Pre-Modernos

Sir Philip Sidney Bilingual Comment

La única versión que encontré de la Defensa de la Poesía de Sidney fue en inglés antiguo y me costó un tanto llevarle el hilo. Es cansado leer en un idioma que no es el materno, más aún cuando no se usan las expresiones actuales y más aún cuando no sólo se trata de leer sino de razonar y sacar conclusiones. Así que decidí hacer un comentario bilingüe, después de un rato sentía la necesidad de expresarme en español. No lo he editado por lo que si encuentran errores que les ataquen los ojos please let me know.

Redoble de tambor, los dejo con Sir Philip Sidney

Bio: Born 1554 he died at the age of 32 years old. He was one of the most important figures of th Elizabethan Age’s. Author of Astrophil and Stella, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia and An Apology for Poetry.

He wrote An Apology for Poetry (1583). He addresses to general objections to poetry as Plato did in his time. In this essay he integrates Classical and Italian precepts on fiction. His defense is based on the idea that poetry, by combining history with ethics is more effective than either of these alone.

This text is the most important contribution to Renaissance literary theory. Sidney claims a place for poetry inside of an aristocratic state structure. He published his work in an age of extreme antipathy to poetry. The Puritans were against the imaginative literature because they thought it was a mean to corrupt the mind.

There are several topics discuss in the Apology one is the shortage of presenting virtue as a precept, the poet must encourage men to righteous actions. Action is more important than intangible knowledge.

Another important theme is the place of poets in society. He said that poetry means creating a separate reality. Poets draw a different world and different ways to understanding. But, we have to keep in mindt that the poet work is imitation or fiction. Sidney's notion of fore-conceit means that a conception of the work must exist in the poet's mind before it is written. And it can be better than the real thing. The poet is a creator and he is between two worlds “inspiring forms and historical realism”.

The third component is the theory of metaphoric language based upon the statement that poetry is an art of imitation, meaning that represents something.

Sidney writes An Apology for Poetry as a judicial speech. It is structured as if he was on trial and he has to give his arguments to the jury. Trying to avoid the censorship he used rhetorical resources as metaphors and allegories. So he can reveal his position. As I wrote before, he defends fiction, arguing that the poet makes no literal claims of truth.

Curse I must send you in the behalfe of all Poets, that while you liue, you liue in loue,and neuer get fauour,for lacking skill of a Sonet, and when you die, your memorie die from the earth for want of an Epitaphe.

En defensa de la Poesía por
El Caballero Philip Sidney

El caballero inglés, inicia su defensa diciéndonos que él ha sido un soldado y que ser soldado requiere de valor y a su vez los mejores son los de la caballería. Él de alguna forma sale en defensa del poeta su otra profesión Lo encuentra una causa justa y nos dice que ira aportando pruebas.

Al dar su argumento, nos lleva a un recorrido de los grandes poetas, desde la antigua Grecia con Homero y Hesíodo, pasando, los renacentistas Dante, Boccaccio y Petrarca y los ingleses como Chaucer. Esto lo hace para probar que los poetas siempre han estado presentes en la historia de la civilización y han contribuido tanto en las artes y como en las ciencias. Recapitulando, su principal argumento es que la creación poética es en sí una imitación, una metáfora de la realidad por lo que de ningún modo promueve el uso malicioso del intelecto.