The polliticke courtier : Spenser's The faerie queene as a rhetoric of justice

Michael Dixon applies rhetorical theory to The Faerie Queene, highlighting the importance of rhetoric and locating the inventio, or organizing principle, of Spenser's epic narrative in the conception of justice. He demonstrates how Spenser adapts classical rhetoric to the poetics of romance-epic and illustrates the usefulness of rhetorical analysis as a complement to allegorical studies and the New Critical and new historicist approaches that currently dichotomize Spenserian scholarship.

Although pervasive in Spenser's art, the role of rhetoric has not been adequately addressed by critics. This disregard of the importance of rhetoric in The Faerie Queene, Dixon argues, obscures Spenser's larger rhetorical method and the structural dynamic it generates. Dixon identifies Britomart's evolution in Books III-V as the poem's centre and elucidates the rhetorical strategies that invest Spenser's argument for justice. Building on Kenneth Burke's conception of courtship in rhetoric as the use of suasive devices for the transcending of social estrangement, Dixon interprets The Faerie Queene as a narrative of courtship in purpose as well as content, arguing that its tales of questing knights compose an artifact of suasive devices whereby Spenser courts a meeting of minds with his audience on the subject of justice.

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Rhetorical Structure and Critical Re-construction PART ONE: INVENTIO HEROICAE 1 Decorum, Sequence, and Proof: The Problematics of Analogy 2 Redcrosse as Courtier; Narrative as Argument PART TWO: IURIS COMITATUS 3 Britomart Ascendent and Venus Transcendent 4 Proof by Digressio: A Rhetoric of Marriage PART THREE: CIVILITATIS CAUSA 5 Ovid's Cone and the Rhetoric of Law 6 Radigund, Britomart, and the Rhetoric of Psychomachia 7 Artegall, Mercilla, and Calidore: The Ethos of Fortune PART FOUR: "(WHO KNOWES NOT ARLO-HILL?)": A GRAMMAR OF CLOSURE 8 Mount Acidale, Arlo Hill, and the Ethos of Pastoral 9 Envoy and Peroratio: Spenser on Arlo Hill Appendix: Schematic of Classical Rhetoric and Glossary of Terms Notes Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P R S T U V W The author applies rhetorical theory to "The faerie queene", highlighting the importance of rhetoric and locating the inventio, or organizing principle, of Spenser's narrative in the conception of justice.