Learning and transforming conventional wisdom: Reading and rhetoric in the Elizabethan grammar school

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines the question of the contribution of rhetorical training to Elizabethan culture and writing in the light of our developing understanding of renaissance rhetoric. It argues that the rhetorical skills taught in the grammar school provided pupils with ways of both elaborating and transforming conventional wisdom. It begins with some general observations about rhetorical theory and the Elizabethan classroom. It considers the way in which the texts and practices of the Elizabethan grammar school inculcated rhetorical skills. It considers the contribution of rhetorical training and conventional wisdom to new thinking in some sonnets by Sidney and some Speeches from Hamlet. It concludes with some comments on the relationship between reading, writing and new thinking in Elizabethan culture.