Interpretation of the Classical Poets as Guide to Action
The study of bonae litterae was the domain of the grammarian. Late medieval teachers of grammar were responsible not only for instruction in the noble classical languages but also, therein, for moral instruction through the correct interpretation of the classical poets. As Alastair Minnis writes, the poets were considered to “direct themselves towards ethics” which is to say that their works pertained to “moral science, a branch of practical philosophy” (MLTC 14). Concerned with ethical persuasion and thus with interpretation as a guide to action, grammar “was an art of living as well as an art of language, and the single method of instruction was the explication of the poets” (Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism 14).