Classical rhetoric in Anglo-Saxon England

Abstract

This passage fromThe Wandererdemonstrates some of the rhetorical techniques which have been noted in Old English texts. Its most striking features are the rhetorical questions and the figure ofanaphorawhich is produced by the repetition of ‘Hwær’. Another rhetorical element is the use of the theme(topos)ofubi sunt(‘where are…?’) to lament the loss of past joys. In classical antiquity, features such as these, which served to create effective discourse, were the products ofars rhetorica. This art was distinguished from the more basic subject ofars grammaticain that rhetoric, the ‘ars … bene dicendi’ (Quintilian,Institutio oratoriaII.xvii.37), aimed at thegoodproduction of text (for oral delivery) with the aim of persuading the listeners to take or adopt some form of action or belief, whereas grammar, the ‘recte loquendi scientia’, was responsible forcorrectspeech and also for the interpretation of poetical texts (‘poetarum enarratio’: Quintilian,Institutio oratoriaI.iv.2). In terms of classical rhetoric, the above passage fromThe Wanderercould be analysed according to the three phases of the production of a text(partes artis)which pertain to both written and oral discourse:inventio(finding topics such as theubi sunt),dispositio(arranging the parts of the text) andelocutio(embellishing the text stylistically, for example with rhetorical questions and other figures and tropes).How and under what circumstances did the Anglo-Saxons acquire their knowledge of how to compose a text effectively?