Speake that I may see thee, figures of rhetoric in Shakespeare's comedies

grantor: University of TorontoThe purpose of my study is to look at Shakespeare's thirteen comedies through the lost lens of classical rhetoric: a lens that brings certain elements of the plays into sharp focus and allows us to share the perspective of Shakespeare's rhetorically trained audience members. The plays chosen for study include the thirteen comedies written between 1590 and 1604. In addition to examining the use of rhetorical figures within each comedy, I consider the changes in Shakespeare's use of rhetorical figures during the period when he was concentrating on comic form. The introduction addresses some of the problems inherent in rhetorical nomenclature, in figure classification, and in distinguishing between "artificial" and "natural" rhetoric. Chapter 1 examines three groups of figures that appear in every play, performing a wide range of tonal, descriptive, and characterizing tasks. The second chapter is a case study of the figure epithet: examining how Shakespeare used this device in each comedy gives a sense both of the dramatic usefulness of the device and of Shakespeare's rhetorical development during the fourteen years in which he was writing comedy. Chapter 3 focuses on one group of rhetorical devices, the vices of language, and examines the ways these devices serve to characterize certain Shakespearean clowns. The salient rhetorical traits of three specific comedies are studied in chapter 4, including the contrasting styles of rhetoric in 'Shrew' the use of anagogic metaphor in 'Dream' and the meaning of the titular proverb in 'All's Well'. Only one play is examined in detail. Chapter 5 consists of a rhetorical case study of 'The Merchant of Venice': it considers both the rhetorical patterns within the play and the ways in which those patterns reveal the shift in Shakespeare's rhetoric between his early and his late comedies. The final chapter explores the benefits of rhetorical training to twentieth-century Shakespearean actors. Since rhetorical self-consciousness has direct implications for performance, I believe the study of rhetoric is of interest not only to students and teachers of language, but also to theatre historians, directors, and actors.Ph.D