Abstract
The purpose of my thesis is to present an inductive study of John Milton's theory of rhetoric. Milton's theory of rhetoric may be established by a consideration of the rhetorical practices and theories of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, by examination of Milton's Art of Logic, and by examination of the rhetorical method in a selected prose work. | The rhetorical practices and theories of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are best shown through Milton's schooling, both at St. Paul's school and at Christ's College, Cambridge. The influence of Peter Ramus, the sixteenth century French logician, was very great at those schools, and Milton's theory of rhetoric can be traced to that influence. The Art of Logic, Milton's textbook of rhetoric, was influenced by his study of Ramist rhetoricians. It is more properly a rhetoric text than a logic text, for it emphasizes methods of invention and disposition. It does discuss logic but only as it applies to methods of composition. | Milton’s prose pamphlet, Of Reformation in England (1641), was selected to illustrate Milton’s use of his principles of rhetoric for three important reasons. First, it is his first prose pamphlet and, as such, would set the tone of his later prose works. Second, it was published only a few years after he was teaching principles of rhetoric to his pupils. It would most likely, then, exhibit techniques that were still fresh in his mind. Third, the work followed, closely his interest in and partial composition of the Art of Logic. The rhetorical relationship between the two works is apparent partly because of their closeness in time to each other.