Shakespeare's Use of the Arts of Language - Hardcover

Available in its entirety for the first time in a half-century, this textbook is the first and only to present, in a complete manner, a general theory of rhetoric in Renaissance England. This examination provides a handbook of the Renaissance theory of composition and shows, with ample illustration from his plays and poems, how Shakespeare used this theory. It is a volume addressed to the wide audience of teachers of English and Renaissance literature, to the philologist, to the Shakespearean scholar, and to students and teachers of all Romance literatures. Its particular contribution is the reorganization of two hundred figures of speech, as distinguished by Renaissance rhetoricians, into a simple, understandable pattern. Through the tripartite filter of logic, grammar, and rhetoric, Shakespeare''s true mastery of the English language can finally be grasped. Illuminating and revelatory, this study brings to life the wealth of linguistic resources that would have been at the Bard''s fingertips and shows how he used them to ultimate effect in his plays and sonnets.

Sister Miriam Joseph Rauh, CSC, was a member of the Sisters of the Holy Cross and a professor of English at Saint Mary''s College from 1931 to 1960. She was the author of The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric, and many articles on Shakespeare and on the trivium.