Old Passions, New Purposes: Rhetoric Rhetoricised

Abstract

This chapter will explore the use of pathos in modern critical writing — as acute as any to be found in early modern texts — besides anticipating and (later) interacting with Chapter 5, which tries to trace the emotional appeals made by the authors or by their characters (or by the authors through the characters) to the original audiences in their particular contexts. But I do not intend, in that chapter, to supersede the judgements which will be sampled here. I wish, rather, to highlight the way in which today’s critics exploit pathos for their own persuasive purposes, often laudable, always interesting. They tend to put their own emotional ‘spin’ on the pathos of early modern writing, and to develop distinct modes of pathos in relation to the topics treated. My aim ultimately is to distinguish the spin which twists the original meaning, from that which (quite properly) presents it from a different angle.