"Sixteenth-century writers and their readers generally shared the view inherited from antiquity that the oration was the single most authoritative model of prose composition, even for a piece of writing not spoken to a public audience but intended for readers. ... What is meant by poetic language in these discussions is quite simply the words and their arrangements to be found in sixteenth-century poems. ... It is therefore by focusing especially on poems that the following chapters will explore questions about sixteenth-century language and the assumptions on which it was predicated." -- from the Preface * Edmund Spenser, 1552-1599.

CONTENTS:
1. The Verb to Read * Definitions * Reading Writing * Reading Speaking * Reading Things * The Narrator as Reader in The Faerie Queene
2. Parts of Speech * Paired Adjectives and Nouns * Noun Adjectives, Noun Substantives * Shifting Parts of Speech * Words as Names * Names Proper and Improper * A Grammatical Lesson In The Faerie Queene
3. Translating or Borrowing * Definitions * Places * Metaphorical Epithets * Genitive Metaphors * Transumptive Metaphors * Metaphorical Puns * Metaphors of Identity * Metaphor and Allegory * Spenser's "Way" in The Faerie Queene
4. Charms, Prayers, Rituals * Magical and Miraculous Language * The "Diuine Breath" of Poetry * Poetry and Prescribed Prayers * Poetry and "Wondrous" Paradox * Poetry and Rituals of Naming * Contexts of Catalogues in The Faerie Queene