Pathosand Pastoralism: Aristotle'sRhetoricin Medieval England

Abstract

In 1927 Heidegger claimed that there was hardly a better analysis of the emotions than Aristotle's account in book 2 of his Rhetoric. Here I will consider how this pronouncement might have rung true for a fifteenth-century English preacher. My study concerns an unexpected junction of two textual worlds, one ancient and one medieval, all the more surprising because the connection occurs in the mind of a fifteenth-century annotator of a manuscript of Aristotle. The significance of this intersection lies in that vast field that we now call the “history of the emotions.” My argument here will take its departure from a poignant and powerful piece of manuscript evidence that links Aristotle's Rhetoric with the poetic effects of Piers Plowman. This evidence opens a window onto what the Rhetoric meant to readers in medieval England and how it was appreciated for its systematic, rhetorical approach to the passions. The Rhetoric could serve as a catalyst acting upon two already familiar discourses, poetry and preac...