The Renaissance Epic and the Oral Past

"Welch's multipronged argument repays careful rereading, and his lyrical prose commands grateful admiration....This consistently learned and imaginative book will be of significant interest not only to scholars of Renaissance literature and music but also to classists...."—Leah Whittington, Modern Philology

~Leah Whittington, Modern Philology

"Anthony Welch presents for the reader a panorama of epic and narrative poets in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who fought a losing battle but in the process made a fascinating series of experiments before prose writers took narrative away from them. Anyone who studies Renaissance epic needs to read this book."—Michael Murrin, Clio

~Michael Murrin, Clio: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History

“Welch’s . . . accomplished study considers early modern crossovers between epic and oral song as modeled in an ancient oral culture that Renaissance humanists both idealized and mocked.”—Leah S. Marcus, SEL

~Leah S. Marcus, SEL