ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. Although allegory was normally treated by writers on rhetoric as an ornamental device which needed to be clear in order to reinforce and render more accessible the speaker's meaning, it was given the opposite function when treated by writers on poetry and philosophy. The political level of allegory presents a special case among the inner core of meanings known to the critics. It stands out because the truth which the poet conceals has no inherent need for the veil but rather depends upon external circumstances. In the Renaissance as in the twentieth century the writer sometimes felt constrained to maintain political positions unpopular with those in power, and he shielded himself from censure by a deliberate obscurantism. Ambassadors spent hours and hours recording and puzzling out what they saw and heard in an effort to uncover true intent beneath obfuscating garments of words.
