Shakespeare's Use of the Arts of Language

by Miriam Joseph

Paul Dry Books' edition of this 1947 classic has been produced with the highest publishing standards as a companion to our edition of The Trivium “Sister Miriam Joseph’s Shakespeare’s Use of the Arts of Language remains, after more than half a century, an immensely valuable aid to serious students of the greatest of all writers. The book manifests enormous learning and real wisdom in applying that erudition to the needs of contemporary readers.”—Harold Bloom “The importance of this book is that it makes clear what we ought to mean when we call Shakespeare an artist in language…The average person today knows two figures of speech if he knows any…Shakespeare knew two hundred.”—Mark Van Doren, New York Herald Tribune As part of their education in the trivium (the liberal arts of logic, grammar, and rhetoric), grammar school students in Shakespeare’s time were taught to recognize the two hundred figures of speech that Renaissance scholars had derived from Latin and Greek sources. Sister Miriam Joseph views this theory of composition as integral to Shakespeare’s mastery of language. In her classic 1947 book, she lays out these figures of speech in simple, understandable patterns and explains each one with examples from Shakespeare. Her analysis of his plays and poems illustrates that the Bard knew more about rhetoric than perhaps anyone else. Sister Miriam Joseph (1898–1982) earned her doctorate from Columbia University. A member of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Sister Miriam was professor of English at Saint Mary’s College from 1931 to 1960.

Genres: Nonfiction, Shakespeare, Writing, Poetry, Literary Criticism, Education, Philosophy

423 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2005

About the author

Sister Miriam Joseph Rauh, C.S.C., PhD (1898–1982) was a member of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. She received her doctorate from Columbia University and was Professor of English at Saint Mary's College from 1931 to 1960. She is the author of several books including The Trivium which is a text she developed as part of the core curriculum of Saint Mary's College. It discusses the medieval liberal arts education based upon grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have an interest in rhetoric and, more specifically, figures of speech. Shakespeare and the KJV Bible use them to a beautiful effect and I enjoy identifying them and trying to use them.

With that background, I was very interested in this book. The scope of the book is much larger than figures of speech, however. It covers a wide range of linguistic devices and techniques (grammar, logic and rhetoric).

However, interested readers should know that this is less a close analysis of Shakespeare’s use of these devices, and more a catalog of the Classical/Renaissance devices with examples. The author is more interested in spelling out the elements of Classical/Renaissance language and checking off the fact that Shakespeare used a particular device, than how or why he used it.

So, it’s good for what it is – a lesson on classical rhetoric and evidence that Shakespeare knew it well and practiced its basic tenets with aplomb. It does not answer what devices or figures Shakespeare used most, how this changed throughout his career, and what he hoped to achieve by using them.

But this is for the hardcore grammarian/rhetorician/logician only. It’s pretty dry reading.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unbelievable scholarship.

[Marie Trotter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really impressive work of scholarship on understanding Shakespeare's background in logic and rhetoric, but it is not an easy or intuitive read. It's better taken as a valuable reference guide (with a very thorough index) than read cover-to-cover.

[Blunt Of Mercia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely good reference for rhetoric

[Thuỷ Nguyễn]

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