Rhetorical Affect in Early Modern Writing: Renaissance Passions Reconsidered

219 Pages·2003·0.96 MB·English

by  Robert Cockcroft (auth.)

Rhetorical Affect in Early Modern Writing
Also by the same author
PERSUADING PEOPLE: An Introduction to Rhetoric (with Susan M. Cockcroft)
Rhetorical Affect in Early
Modern Writing
Renaissance Passions Reconsidered
Robert Cockcroft
Former Lecturer in English
University of Nottingham
© Robert Cockcroft 2003
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 978-0-333-80252-6
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First published 2003 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-42170-1 ISBN 978-0-230-00594-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230005945
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cockcroft, Robert, 1939–
Rhetorical affect in early modern writing: renaissance passions
reconsidered/Robert Cockcroft.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. English literature – Early modern, 1500–1700 – History and criticism.
2. Emotions in literature. 3. Authors and readers – Great Britain – History
– 16th century. 4. Authors and readers – Great Britain – History – 17th
century. 5. English language – Early modern, 1500–1700 – Rhetoric. 6.
Renaissance – England. 7. Affect (Psychology) I. Title.
PR428.E56 C63 2002
820.9′353–dc21
2002074895
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02
To my partner in persuasion
Susan Cockcroft

Contents
Preface viii
1 Introduction: Reconsidered Passions 1
1.1 From perception to persuasion 1
1.2 Renaissance passions reconsidered 2
1.3 Emotion, now – and then 6
1.4 Introducing the new rhetoric 10
1.5 Empowering the reader? 30
1.6 A ‘double analysis’ – with a difference 34
2 Sable Clouds and Silver Linings 38
2.1 A patheticmuddle? 38
2.2 Ideas of pathosfrom Plato to Milton 40
2.3 The applications of pathos 73
2.4 Milton’s A Masque: the progression of pathos 77
3 Old Passions, New Purposes: Rhetoric Rhetoricised 83
3.1 Reconsidering: how and why? 83
3.2 Baldwin and Marlowe: talent and the spotlight 85
3.3 Hutchinson and Cavendish: writer and audience 93
3.4 Shakespeare: about the Bard’s business 103
3.5 Milton: perspectives on power 110
4 Going to Extremes 117
4.1 The extremes of love and hate 117
4.2 Passionate to a purpose 131
5 Adjusting the Mirrors 140
5.1 The emotional laser 140
5.2 Marlowe and Baldwin: designs on the audience 143
5.3 Hutchinson and Cavendish: rival reflections 157
5.4 Shakespeare: back to the audience? 167
5.5 Paradise Lost: engaging the reader 173
5.6 A case in point: Courtship in Wyatt and Gascoigne 179
5.7 Conclusion 184
Notes 186
Bibliography 197
Index 204
vii
Preface
This is the outcome of a long-standing wish to bring several things
together: the close reading which I learned at Cambridge; the interest
in Renaissance rhetoric and logic which I pursued at King’s College
London, and the British Library (then housed in the British
Museum); the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century texts taught for
35 years at Nottingham, especially Milton; and the exploration of
Rhetoric in which I and my students have brought together ancient
insights into persuasive language and modern analytical techniques.
The book is centred upon the moving of emotion, but it is driven by
the wish to pursue the pleasure of reading from the perspectives
already implied, especially the imaginative delight and the challenge
which, after one term of history at St John’s College Cambridge,
lured me into English and has kept me there.
I wish to thank the colleagues and friends on both sides of the
‘great divide’ between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ rhetorics. Among the
former, four stand out: Peter Stockwell for his steady encouragement
of my attempts to adapt schema theory; Margaret Berry for her
invitation to teach rhetoric according to the rigorous standards of
Modern English Language as applied at Nottingham; Katie Wales for
her encouragement to the cause of rhetoric in the context of linguis-
tics; and Ron Carter for the benefit of his insights, eager curiosity
about affectivity, and vast knowledge of who does what, and how. I
have gained too from membership of the Poetics and Linguistics
Association (PALA), especially the new kind of excitement and
friendliness found at its conferences. The same, in its own way, is
true of ISHR (the International Society for the History of Rhetoric).
The benefits I have drawn from Jameela Lares’s knowledge and
distinction as a scholar of pulpit rhetoric, renewed in enthusiastic
discussion in a variety of locations from Scottish boat-trips to
Spanish bus-rides, have been especially valued as this book neared
completion. So has Lynette Hunter’s wonderful grasp of the whole
picture of rhetoric and the original line she traces through it, so
eloquently shared. I also owe particular debts to Peter Mack and
Lawrence Green for timely help at several stages, and many others
who continue to inspire, encourage, and happily exchange ideas,
such as Peter France and Christine Sutherland.
viii
Preface ix
Lastly I must thank two scholars whose humanity, wisdom and
learning bestride the gap: Walter Nash (Bill to all his colleagues),
and Peter Verdonk of whom the least I can say is, that I wish I had met
him earlier and more often. I am also very grateful to David Norbrook
for putting me in touch with his work on Lucy Hutchinson; as her
stature grows steadily clearer, thanks to his efforts, the passage
discussed here will inevitably be viewed in a different light. Hinrich
Siefkind and Lis Leslie, who came to my help when I was floored by
my lack of German, are owed much, for their work, sound judgement,
and advice. To my wife and fellow-worker in the field of language,
whose imperfectly internalised voice presides permanently over my
writing of prose, and who is my resident expert in grammar, Susan
Cockcroft, my debt is incalculable in this as in everything else.
ROBERTCOCKCROFT