Artlikeness: Enargeia, Imagination, and the Enlivening of Shakespeare’s Hero

Abstract

F iction has the ability to make present and make vivid. As Erasmus says, a good description does not just relay information; it paints a scene. Sidney similarly implies that well-crafted language speaks for itself, like a picture.Both are contemplating representation in relation to dramatic representation specifically, connecting poesis with performance: Erasmus’ theatrical analogy invokes the prepositional quality of spectatorship—“place it before the reader,” draw him “outside himself ”—while Sidney’s poetizing verbs—“representing, counterfetting, or figuring”—make poesy a talking thing.One describes a lively spectacle, the other a lively persona. In thinking about fiction, sixteenth-century authors—others include George Puttenham, Henry Peacham, George Chapman, and John Florio—often thought about vividness. They drew upon the classical notion of lifelikeness, denoted