SOURCE: Scanlon, Paul A. “Munday's Zelauto: Form and Function.” Cahiers Elisabéthains, no. 18, (1980): 11-15.

In the following essay, Scanlon attempts to demonstrate the underlying coherence of Zelauto, despite its episodic structure.

I

According to Stillinger, had Anthony Munday finished Zelauto. The Fountaine of Fame (1580) «it could have been one of the most structurally sophisticated novels of the period.»¹ In support of this claim he proceeds to compare it with epic poetry, particularly The Odyssey. And there is undoubtedly some truth in what he says. If the structure of Munday's narrative is not sophisticated, it is elaborate, certainly one of the more ambitious attempts in prose fiction of the Elizabethan age. Yet to approach Zelauto in this light is to set up false assumptions, to give the wrong impression of its design and aims—and, consequently, of its success. Criticism of Zelauto has invariably been misled by such assumptions...