Elizabethan Parliamentary Oratory

Abstract

--------------------P E T E R MACK P arliament was the highest public arena of debate in Elizabethan England. In Parliament gentlemen from the shires could hear the greatest officials of state explain their policies and legislative projects, sometimes in the face of critical arguments and counterproposals. Persuasion, explanation, and argument are the province of rhetoric, the main component of Tudor grammar school education. Parliamentary oratory thus enables us to examine the impact of humanist rhetorical training in practice. At the same time, rhetorical theory can help us understand the effect of individual speeches as well as the broader import of parliamentary discourse.Much of the Tudor grammar school curriculum was given over to studies and composition exercises connected with rhetoric. Boys learned to write commonplaces, themes, and theses. They were trained to analyze the rhetorical impact of texts, to collect pithy sayings for reuse in their own compositions, to amplify and abbreviate, to recognize and use tropes and figures of speech, and to adjust the subject matter and tone of letters to suit their correspondents. (London, 1612). These matters are discussed in more detail in my forthcoming book, Elizabethan Rhetoric (Cambridge, 2002 Many of the formal features of parliamentary speeches can be connected with rhetorical training. Long speeches draw on rhetorical doctrines (for example, about the organization of a speech and the contents of an introduction) as well as dialectical principles. Short deb~ting speeches, on the other hand, take their form entirely from dialectic and closely resemble interventions in university disputations. While the restrained style predominates in both kinds of speech, all the speakers employ amplification-adding detail or impressive language for emphasis-to mark important passages and to drive home arguments. Some speakers, especially later in the reign, cultivate a more elevated style throughout. Historical examples play a crucial role in longer speeches, with government speakers developing the contrast between Elizabeth's government and her inheritance from Mary, while other orators cite biblical and classical histories. Proverbs and moral sentences are very prominent in all types of speeches. Many arguments are also elaborated with commonplaces and lively descriptions. Several speakers use rhetorical principles to elaborate an individual ethos, or a persona, as a means of persuasion.A rhetorical approach may also enable us to rethink some questions about the political function of the Elizabethan Parliament and in particular about the significance of opposition to the Privy Council line. Since the 198os, revisionist historians have questioned the importance of Parliament, arguing that the House of Commons was essentially powerless because the queen could always reject legislation of which she disapproved. Sir Geoffrey Elton took the view that most parliamentary speech was "empty words," devoid of impact on policy or legislation. Where Sir John Neale had overemphasize...