Authors:James M. Farrell Pages: 36 - 56 Abstract: Daniel Webster’s famous prosecution speech in the Salem Murder Trial (1830) has been both praised and condemned. Celebrated as a masterpiece of forensic eloquence it is also criticized as contributing to a miscarriage of justice. This essay examines that address to the Salem jury in the context of Webster’s own classical training in rhetoric. Specifically, the paper discusses the elements and details of Webster’s persuasive strategy as they are drawn from his Ciceronian rhetorical sensibility. Ethical condemnations of Webster’s address cannot be sustained when that trial speech is reviewed from the vantage of classical forensic rhetoric. In fact, Webster’s performance may be one of the last great expressions of the classical forensic paradigm in American courtroom oratory. PubDate: 2018-03-01 DOI: 10.1007/s12138-016-0414-6 Issue No:Vol. 25, No. 1 (2018)
Abstract: When Gregorio Correr selected the myth of Procne and Philomela for his c. 1427 adaptation of Seneca’s Thyestes, he was altering what is sometimes termed ‘a tragedy with no women’ into one which largely focuses on female protagonists. Yet he chose to omit the scene where Philomela (or Philomena) weaves a tapestry depicting her rape and mutilation by her sister’s husband Tereus. This scene, which is a key feature of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and also appears in all other medieval and Renaissance adaptations of the myth, has been interpreted by scholars as Philomena’s successful attempt to find an alternative voice for her outrage after Tereus has cut out her tongue. This paper addresses the implications of Correr’s omission of this important feature of the myth, analysing its effect on the portrayal of Philomena and the dynamics of her relationship with her avenger Procne. It shows how the agency in this relationship is shifted almost entirely to Procne and how Philomena is transformed into a type of ghost who is brought back by her sister’s rage and dreadful act of retribution on her husband. Within this analysis attention will be given to the Christian elements of Correr’s reception of the myth, in particular the motif of resurrection which permeates the play and the final scene which culminates in a distortion of the rites of the eucharist. PubDate: 2018-05-24 DOI: 10.1007/s12138-018-0474-x
Authors:Alexander Jordan Abstract: This article argues that Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) stood in a long tradition of philosophical and literary Cynicism, stretching from ancient Greece, through the early modern period, and into the French and German Enlightenments. In keeping with this tradition, Carlyle consistently advocated a life in accordance with nature, which he considered to mean a life in accordance with virtue. Concomitantly, he waged an ongoing polemic against all forms of artifice, folly, luxury and vice, whether these lay in established institutions, such as the landed aristocracy or Church, or in the commercial and democratic society that was emerging around him. Adopting a fiercely independent stance modelled upon that of Diogenes the Cynic, Carlyle scorned both aristocratic patronage and ‘public opinion’, setting himself up as a rigid moral censor. In pursuing this vocation, he made abundant use of the traditional techniques of literary Cynicism, such as invective, irony, satire, parody, ridicule and burlesque. Moreover, Carlyle’s contemporaries frequently acknowledged him as the preeminent Cynic sage of their era. Thus, while Carlyle was without doubt one of the great railers of the age, he always had a positive purpose in mind, namely to draw his readers away from artifice and vice, and back towards nature and virtue. PubDate: 2018-04-09 DOI: 10.1007/s12138-018-0466-x
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