Rhetoric and Courtliness in Early Modern Literature [Hardcover]

This book explores the early modern interest in conversation.Rhetoric and Courtliness in Early Modern Literature explores the early modern interest in conversation as a newly identified art. Conversation was widely accepted to have been inspired by the republican philosopher Cicero. Recognising his influence on courtesy literature--the main source for 'civil conversation'--Jennifer Richards uncovers new ways of thinking about humanism as a project of linguistic and social reform. Richards explores the interest in civil conversation among mid-Tudor humanists, John Cheke, Thomas Smith and Roger Ascham, as well as their self-styled successors, Gabriel Harvey and Edmund Spencer.Rhetoric and Courtliness in Early Modern Literature explores the early modern interest in conversation as a newly identified art. Conversation was widely accepted to have been inspired by the republican philosopher Cicero. Recognising his influence on courtesy literature--the main source for 'civil conversation'--Jennifer Richards uncovers new ways of thinking about humanism as a project of linguistic and social reform. Richards explores the interest in civil conversation among mid-Tudor humanists, John Cheke, Thomas Smith and Roger Ascham, as well as their self-styled successors, Gabriel Harvey and Edmund Spencer.The art of conversation was widely believed to have been inspired by the republican philosopher Cicero. Recognizing his influence on courtesy literature (the main source for civil conversation ), Jennifer Richards reveals new ways of thinking about humanism as a project of linguistic and social reform. Richards explores the interest in civil conversation among mid-Tudor humanists, John Cheke, Thomas Smith and Roger Ascham, as well as their self-styled successors, Gabriel Harvey and Edmund Spencer.Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Types of honesty: civil and domestical conversation; 2. From rhetoric to conversation: reading for Cicero in The Book of the Courtier; 3. Honest rivalries: Tl£+