Introduction: Rhetorical Approaches to Malory's Morte Darthur

Abstract

Introduction: Rhetorical Approaches to Malory's Morte Darthur ANN DOBYNS and ANNE LASKAYA In the past ten years we have seen a renewed interest in the influence of classical rhetoric on theliterature ofthe MiddleAges. Studies such as Rita Copeland's 1991 Rhetoric, Hermeneutics and Transition in theMiddUAges,1 Ruth Morse's 1991 Truth and Convention in the MiddUAges,7· Jody Enders's 1992 Rhetoric and the Origins ofMedievalDrama? and Suzanne Reynolds's 1996MedievalReading* allestablish the extent to which the studyofrhetoric influenced the writing ofliterary texts in the Middle Ages. As Ruth Morse points out, 'If something might be said to have united the many different kinds ofwriting in which medieval authors engaged, that something might be derived from a version of the assumptions and practices of classical rhetoric.'5 James J. Murphy, George A. Kennedy, Thomas Conley, and others have pointed out that rhetoric manifested itselfin the late MiddleAges mainly in practical applications: as a school discipline, in handbooks on the arts of preaching, letter writing, and poetry, and in legal training.6 Of these applications die one most significant for die understandingofMalory's work is the grammar school education. Nicholas Orme's studies ofeducation in medieval England are most helpful in understanding die ways that Malory was influenced by the rhetorical tradition through his training in grammar.7 Orme observes diat records from the fifteenth century indicate the kind of education taught in the late medieval English curriculum. If we accept Peter Field's argument that Thomas Malory was die Sir Thomas Malory ofNewbold Revel ofWarwickshire, then he was a member ofthe gentry.8The family probably had ten or so servants, and as such may have included a master for Malory and his three sisters.9 Malory's facility in reading French and English manuscripts argues for a solid early grammar education, as does documentation showing him as an esquire in 1439 witnessing a deed setdement for his cousin.10 ARTHURIANA I3.3 (2OO3) ARTHURIANA Ifhewas the MaloryofNewboldRevel, hewouldhave been die recipient ofwhat Orme calls die education of die lay aristocracy of later medieval England: rhe royal family, peers and great magnates, knights, esquires and ordinary gentlemen. The grammar education of die son of a gende or aristocratic family usually took place in die home and lasted approximately sixyears, from die age ofsix or seven until fourteen. The instruction was die responsibilityofprofessional schoolmasters, most widi universityeducation in grammar, others possessingat least die highest levelofdieir most advanced students.11 As dierudimentarystage ofdie trivium, grammarformed die foundation of medieval textual culture.12 Grammar was first and foremost a study of correctness but to diat end included die study of literary texts and thus overlappedwith rhetoric. In fact, according toJohn O. Ward, diegrammatical tradition kept alive die principles ofclassical rhetorical theory in England. In part this is because of what we might call the rhetorical nature of grammatical study in classical education.13 Suzanne Reynolds points to this connection when she reminds readers diat grammar instruction would include die analysis of style. Like rhetoric, she says, grammar included a consideration of figures and tropes; what distinguished them was 'dieir approach to figuration, for while grammar offers an explanation of its mechanisms, rhetoric is concerned to harness its effects in the work of persuasion.'14 Such arguments indicate ashift in assessments ofdie influence ofrhetoric in die Middle Ages. All too often twentieth-century readers have assumed diat rhetoric had a hiatus in the Middle Ages widi die notable exception of Augustine's fifth-centuryappropriation ofrhetorical principles into a method of interpreting and teaching the scriptures in On Christian Doctrine. According to this argument, rhetoric—as defined in die classical periodas a means by which citizens participated in die administration of dieir social order—had litde opportunity to flourish in a world ofabsolutes governed by a hierarchical system. And, while the language ofrhetoric was preserved in the grammatical texts that were so prominent in the period, such documents could not really properly be considered rhetorical treatises. But, aswe have seen, rhetoricwas an essential and primaryelement in die artes liberales and, as such, was at die heart of die educational curriculum. The literate were of course primarily the clerical class, and dirough their influence rhetorical...