Abstract

Shakespeare's stage-practice may have been influenced by several texts on rhetoric that would have been accessible in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England, and which consider the implications, philosophical and practical, contained in the construction and reception of openings in oratory. By alluding, for example, to the concern of the orator in engaging audiences and to the mechanics of ordering oratorical material to influence audience reception from the outset, the treatises and handbooks of Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian, for instance, may offer important dimensions for understanding the construction of Shakespeare's openings, even though the media are markedly different.

Journal
Rhetoric Review
Published
2013-01-01
DOI
10.1080/07350198.2013.739492
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Rhetoric Review

References (28)

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  2. On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. Trans and commentary
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  5. De Medicina
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  19. Twelfth Night, or What You Will
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  21. English Renaissance Literary Criticism
  22. Shakespeare's Opening-Scenes
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