David Wilson-Okamura
Mon, 09 Aug 2004 09:12:51 -0700
The virus-catchers seem to have caught up with [EMAIL PROTECTED] and we are back online. Thank you for being patient. A question, then. For the last few years, I have been reading and writing about epic style in the Renaissance. For someone who was trying to imitate Virgil's epic style in a vernacular language, the first question was which meter to use: dactylic hexameter, blank verse, couplets, or stanzas? This also applied to translations. My question is this: when did critics and poets start using the term "heroic couplet"? The online OED, which lets you search quotations, does not have an example of this phrase until 1857! As early as 1693, Dryden is using the phrase "heroic verse," but this is still very late, and he doesn't write as if the term were a new one. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] East Carolina University Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub