Table Of ContentTHE CRITICAL IDIOM REISSUED
Volume 18
RHETORIC
RHETORIC
PETER DIXON
Firstpublishedin1971byMethuen&CoLtd
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First published 1971
hy Methuen & Co Ltd
zz New Fetter Lane, London EC4
© 1971 Peter Dixon
Printed in Great Britain
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For PAUL, MICHAEL, and JANE
'insatiable in discourse'
Contents
GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE vii
NOTE viii
INTRODUCTION: Some Modern Instances
2 CLASSICAL THEORY 7
3 THE RULES OF RHETORIC 21
The Three Types of Rhetoric
The Education of the Orator
The Five Faculties
4 RHETORIC AND LITERATURE 45
Rhetoric in Education
Poets and Orators
Some Forms and Topics
The Elizabethans and After
5 THE RENUNCIATION OF RHETORIC 64
6 RHETORIC RENEWED 71
BIBLIOGRAPHY 78
INDEX 86
General Editor's Preface
This volume is one of a series of short studies, each dealing with a
single key item, or a group of two or three key items, in our, critical
vocabulary. The purpose of the series differs from that served by
the standard glossaries ofliterary terms. Many terms are adequately
defined for the needs of students by the brief entries in these
glossaries, and such terms will not be the subjects of studies in the
present series. But there are other terms which cannot be made
familiar by means of compact definitions. Students need to grow
accustomed to them through simple and straightforward but
reasonably full discussions of them. The purpose of this series is to
provide such discussions.
Some of the terms in question refer to literary movements (e.g.,
'Romanticism', 'Aestheticism', etc.), others to literary kinds
(e.g., 'Comedy', 'Epic', etc.), and still others to stylistic features
(e.g., 'Irony', 'The Conceit', etc.). Because of this diversity of
subject-matter, no attempt has been made to impose a uniform
pattern upon the studies. But all authors have tried to provide as
full illustrative quotation as possible, to make reference whenever
appropriate to more than one literature, and to compose their
studies in such a way as to guide readers towards the short biblio
graphies in which they have made suggestions for further reading.
John D. Jump
Uniyersity ofM anchester
Note
Apart from a few key words and phrases in the original Greek or
Latin, quotations from classical authors are given in translation
only, for reasons of space. The translations used, unless otherwise
stated, are those in the Loeb Classical Library series.
I
Introduction:
Some Modern Instances
In his essay '"Rhetoric" and Poetic Drama' T. S. Eliot outlined a
difficult task. Rhetoric, he said, 'is one of those words which it is
the business of criticism to dissect and reassemble' (Selected
Essays, p. 38). The critic may perhaps be excused for feeling that
he is in the position of a man trying to dissect and reassemble a
jellyfish - for the word, as Eliot went on to acknowledge, is
notoriously slippery and imprecise. It has served to designate a
number of radically different stylistic qualities. It has been invoked
in order to praise writers, and at other times in order to condemn.
So invertebrate is the word that we can apparently turn it inside
out. Etymologically the rhetor (p~Twp) is a public speaker, and
his distinctive art is that of addressing courts of law and popular
assemblies. Yet when the judges in a recent debating competition
laid down guidelines for the competitors they 'advised against
rhetoric' (The Ohseryer, 26 January 1969). Cicero and Quintilian
would have found such advice incomprehensible.
We may be able to reduce some of this confusion to a semblance
of order by drawing out the implications of the word's etymology.
To speak in public presupposes an audience which is spoken to, an
audience which the speaker wishes to influence, to persuade,
perhaps to exhort and instruct. And public speech is necessarily
different from private chat. The rhetor will use more artistic, more
artificial and formal kinds of language than he would in everyday
conversation. At the very least he will be more orderly than usual,
choosing his words with greater precision; otherwise he may find
