Shakespeare Electronic Conference, SHK 7.0829. Thursday, 14 November 1996.
(1) From: C. David Frankel <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 13 Nov 1996 08:42:59 -0500 (EST)
Subj: Re: SHK 7.0822 Re: Rhetorical Resource
(2) From: Terry Ross <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 13 Nov 1996 09:15:30 -0500 (EST)
Subj: Re: SHK 7.0822 Re: Rhetorical Resources
(3) From: Patrick Gillespie <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 13 Nov 1996 12:34:50 -0500
Subj: RE: SHK 7.0818 Re: Rhetorical Resources
(4) From: Evelyn Gajowski <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 13 Nov 1996 10:22:28 -0800 (PST)
Subj: Re: SHK 7.0822 Re: Rhetorical Resources
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From: C. David Frankel <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 13 Nov 1996 08:42:59 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 7.0822 Re: Rhetorical Resource
Comment: Re: SHK 7.0822 Re: Rhetorical Resource
Joseph Bertram's _Acting Shakespeare_ (not to be confused with Barton's
_Playing Shakespeare_) has an extensive discusssion (as I remember it) about
rhetorical figures in Shakespeare. He discusses "the ladder" for example with
illustrations from the plays.
C. David Frankel
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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From: Terry Ross <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 13 Nov 1996 09:15:30 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 7.0822 Re: Rhetorical Resources
Comment: Re: SHK 7.0822 Re: Rhetorical Resources
I join the chorus recommending Richard Lanham's *Handlist of Rhetorical Terms*,
which includes not only the classical terms but also Puttenham's delightful
English terms (he calls ploce "the doubler" or "swift repeate"). Puttenham's
*Arte of English Poesie* is available online at the University of Virginia
collection of electronic texts. The file containing the *Arte* is located at
this URL (the file is 600k in size, so be patient):
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed-new?id=PutPoes&tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed
So large an URL is easy to mistype, so it might be easier to reach Puttenham by
going to this URL
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/uvaonline.html
and browsing the list of authors (Puttenham is the last entry on the "P" list).
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From: Patrick Gillespie <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 13 Nov 1996 12:34:50 -0500
Subject: 7.0818 Re: Rhetorical Resources
Comment: RE: SHK 7.0818 Re: Rhetorical Resources
A very useful reference work on Rhetoric is "A Handbook to Sixteenth-Century
Rhetoric" compiled by Lee A. Sonnino. This book brings together pedagogic texts
of rhetorical handbooks used during the sixteenth century. It lists the figures
by their latin names, although several indexes in the rear of the book also
classify the figures by their Greek names. The examples given are all taken
from these sixteenth century texts, namely: Quintillian, Erasmus, Scaliger,
Hoskins, etc... Some of these texts may have been known to Shakespeare as a
schoolboy and later.
Someone mentioned Sister Miriam Joseph. Her primary work in this area is
"Shakespeare's Use of the Arts of Language". In this book she uses Shakespeare,
exclusively, to illustrate the various rhetorical figures of the time. Critics
have complained that this book is more of a reference work than an attempt to
surmise Shakespeare's own attitude toward rhetoric. For example, does
Shakespeare use on or other rhetorical figure for a particular emotive value;
or are rhetorical figures capable of consistently producing certain responses
from a listener? These are not issues Joseph attends to, though she skirts the
subject by assigning to different figures comical or tragic uses. This subject
matter reflects one of my primary interests in Shakespeare, so I nevertheless
find the book an extremely useful resource.
Another text by Brian Vicars, unfortunately out of print and in my opinion
superior to his other book, "Classical Rhetoric in English Poetry", is "The
Artistry of Shakespeare's Prose". In this book he examines Shakespeare's use of
rhetoric in prose. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in exploring the
skill with which Shakespeare deployed prose - often with as much dexterity as
verse.
Some other books:
Both by John Porter Houston
"The Rhetoric of Poetry in the Renaissance and Seventeenth Century"
"Shakespearean Sentences" - This book is less a study of Rhetoric than
of his overall style. For instance, Houston devotes once chapter to
Shakespeare's inversions of Subject, Verb and Object for dramatic
effect. He also devotes a chapter to Asyndeton.
And a new book:
"Shakespeare and the Sixteenth-Century Study of Language."
I haven't had time to read this book yet but it seems to pick up where Sister
Miriam Joseph left off, that is, less interested in cataloguing Shakespeare's
use of various figures than interpreting how he applied them.
I've never seen the book "Handlist of Rhetorical Terms" but I'm going to pick
it up this afternoon from the local bookstore. Thanks to Joanne Woodway for
mentioning it. I also looked up "The Complete Stylist" by Sheridan Baker,
apparently it's now called the "The Practical Stylist", according to Books in
Print.
Patrick Gillespie
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From: Evelyn Gajowski <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 13 Nov 1996 10:22:28 -0800 (PST)
Subject: 7.0822 Re: Rhetorical Resources
Comment: Re: SHK 7.0822 Re: Rhetorical Resources
I was introduced to a wealth of rhetorical figures in several undergraduate
Renaissance courses taught by William Cherubini at Cleveland State U. His
class handouts were drawn from Edward P. J. Corbett's *Classical Rhetoric for
the Modern Student*, Oxford U P, 1965.