SOURCE: Dwyer, June. “Fulke Greville's Aesthetic: Another Perspective.” Studies in Philology LXXVIII, no. 3 (summer 1981): 255-74.

In the following essay, Dwyer considers several of Greville's works in an attempt to define his aesthetic philosophy.

Fulke Greville's work has always been considered opaque and difficult. Of late, critics seem wisely to have decided that an understanding of Greville's aesthetic philosophy is the best way to penetrate his obscurity. But this task, too, has proved a difficult one. Twice in the recent past this journal has published articles on Greville's poetic philosophy,¹ each making valid points, but neither being completely satisfying. This paper, in an effort to make a definitive statement on Greville's aesthetic philosophy, will not only consider the standard statements he makes in his Life of Sidney and his Treatie of Humane Learning, it will look beyond them to certain metaphors he uses in his poetry which reflect his...