“Colour” that Fails “To Set”: Unethical Persuasion and the Nature of Rhetoric in More’s History of King Richard III

Abstract

In The History of King Richard III, Thomas More presents a tyrant whose skill in speaking we often take for granted. This article, however, provides a more complicated view of the sophistic Duke of Gloucester. While More evokes the Roman ideal-orator tradition when describing Richard and while the future King and his henchmen give speeches that help Richard secure the throne, these acts of persuasion usually fail to persuade audiences. Such failures disclose More’s (limited) epistemological confidence in the ability of human beings to see through false appearances. This belief, in turn, helps to reveal More’s conviction – which he dramatizes in The History – about the nature of rhetoric: true and apt words are more persuasive than sophistic falsehoods that are delivered with equal skill.