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29 q Chapter 1 Common Rhetoric Planting Figures of Speech in the English Shire Walter Haddon’s dedication to Thomas Wilson ’s Arte of Rhetoric (1560) imagines the translation of rhetoric into English as a modest woman’s journey to a new country. Sister Logic spoke to her sister Rhetoric whom she recently became acquainted with; the language was English. Rhetoric, struck with great sadness, grew quiet; for she still did not know how to speak in our tongue. Wilson, who had been the teacher of logic and had added our sounds to her, by chance overheard these things. Having consoled silent Rhetoric with friendly words, he addresses himself to her and asks whether she wishes to be English. Casting her eyes downward, she responds that she would willingly but that she is unable to find the way. “I myself,” he says, “shall teach you the ways and the rules of speaking and how to place the English words correctly.” He kept his promise; Rhetoric is arrayed in our language; and each of the two is made our sister. England, if the language of these two noble sisters is dear to you, the language of this author will be dear to you.1 1. “Rhetoricen Logice soror est affata sororem/Quem didicit nuper; sermo Britannus erat./Rhetorice tacuit mango perculsa dolore;/Nam nondum nostro noverat ore loqui,/Audiit haec Logices Wilsonus forte magister/Qui fuerat nostros addideratque sonos./Rhetoricen mutam 30     Chapter 1 At first glance, this scene in which Logic and Rhetoric converse with a learned man might not appear noteworthy. First published in Latin, its personifications seem familiarly medieval, as representations of scholastic training traditionally depict rhetoric as a woman. This familiarity disappears when Thomas Wilson presumptuously offers to teach a timid and grateful Lady Rhetoric to speak English, which in the poem means helping her to be English (Se vocat et rogitat num esse Britanna velit). In order to be turned English ,Rhetoric must first be able to use the English vernacular;she must learn how to “place the English words correctly” (Quomodo perfecte verba Britanna loces). This passage suggests how the use of English might signify a particular place, somewhere to which the metaphorically naked Rhetoric must “find the way [via]” by learning the “ways [vias] and the rules of speaking.” At the close of the passage the poet hails this destination, the nation of “England [Anglia],” urging it to value its native language just as it values the ancient arts of discourse. This exhortation uses the vernacular to conjure a particular location and community, creating a union of language, land, and population according to which speaking English becomes a form of travel to and habitation in the country of England. Considering the context in which Wilson first composed his English art of rhetoric, the pretense of these verses is almost laughable. In the 1550s the art of rhetoric had little apparent need of “English speaking [verba Britanna].” In fact, quite the contrary: English writers required the tools of rhetoric in order to render the vernacular capable of classical feats of eloquence. When Walter Haddon publishes his dedication in Latin, he confirms that English is not a fit vehicle of conversation among a scholarly coterie. Nevertheless, the content of Haddon’s poem reverses the relationship of dependency between English and Latin, embodying the rhetorical art in a shy lady who requires the instruction of a confident English master. Preposterous though it was, a growing number of writers shared this fantasy of vernacular ascendancy. Given the cultural preeminence of the classical languages, this project required a powerful justification, and the English rhetorics defend their translations as a form of national service. They contend that the newly created eloquent vernacular will establish the territorial identity and integrity of verbis solatus amicis/Se vocat et rogitat num esse Britanna velit./Deiciens oculos respondit velle libenter,/Sed se qua possit non reperire via./Ipse vias, inquit, tradam legesque loquendi,/Quomodo perfecte verba Britanna loces./Liberat ille fidem, nostro sermone politur/Rhetorice nostra est utraque facta soror. /Anglia nobelium si charus sermo sororum/Est tibi, sermonis charus et author ecrit.” Thomas Wilson, The Arte of Rhetoric (1560), ed. Peter E. Medine (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994), 44, 247–48. I thank John Guillory for drawing my attention to this passage. COMMON RHETORIC     31 “England,” the final addressee of Haddon’s dedication. The rhetorics thus produce one version of what Richard Helgerson calls the “Elizabethan writing of England,” with England...

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