Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the History of Medieval Rhetoric

Abstract

During the Middle Ages, rhetoric and literature were thoroughly intertwined, whereas current notions of disciplinarity, in which literature and rhetoric are constructed as separate traditions, muddy our understanding of medieval practice. This essay reads Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an anonymous fourteenth-century poem, as engaged in a Ciceronian debate over the ramifications of legislative rhetoric on civic decision-making. Because of the paucity of information on medieval rhetorical practice, it concludes, literature is a resource that illuminates this neglected and misunderstood historical period.

Notes

1I thank RR peer reviewers George Kennedy and James Murphy as well as RR editor Theresa Enos.

2The MED's definition of eloquence corresponds to Cicero's definition of the term; according to his On Invention, “[t]he function of eloquence seems to be to speak in a manner suited to persuade an audience, the end is to persuade by speech” (1.5.6).

3The poem appears, either in full or in part, in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Longman Anthology of British Literature, and The Broadview Anthology of British Literature.

4For examples of such medieval rhetorical texts, please see Kennedy 314 and Murphy's Three Medieval Rhetorical Arts.

5For Cicero rhetoric is part of politics: “[W]e will classify oratorical ability as a part of political science” (On Invention 1.6.5).

6“The function of eloquence seems to be to speak in a manner suited to persuade an audience, the end is to persuade by speech” (On Invention I.5.6).

7De Oratore may not have been available during much of the European Middle Ages (Murphy, RMA 361). However, this sentiment is indicative of Cicero's general attitude toward civic rhetoric. See also On Duties 1.5.15: Moral action is primarily concerned “with the conservation of organized society.”