Rhetoric and Courtliness in Early Modern Literature

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...
More Description

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.