Cover -- Half-title -- Series-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- NOTE ON THE SYSTEMS OF RHETORIC AND DIALECTIC -- 1 Rhetoric in the grammar school -- THE SHAPE OF THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL SYLLABUS -- READING LATIN LITERATURE -- COMPOSITION EXERCISES -- ELEVEN RHETORICAL SKILLS -- 1. Moral sentences -- 2. Moral stories -- 3. Narratives -- 4. History -- 5. Structures for compositions -- 6. Rhetorical topics -- 7. Thinking about an audience -- 8. Amplification -- 9. Commonplaces -- 10. Note-taking and commonplace books -- 11. Figures of rhetoric -- CONCLUSION -- 2 Rhetoric and dialectic at Oxford and Cambridge -- RHETORIC -- DIALECTIC -- DISPUTATIONS AND DECLAMATIONS -- EIGHT ASPECTS OF UNIVERSITY RHETORIC AND DIALECTIC -- 1. A complete syllabus of classical rhetoric -- 2. Declamations and sermons -- 3. Logical invention and the topics -- 4. Argumentation and the syllogism -- 5. Organisation and method -- 6. Distinctions and definitions -- 7. Tactics for disputation -- 8. Dialectical reading -- 3 English-language manuals of rhetoric and dialectic -- ENGLISH MANUALS AND THE LATIN EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT -- FOUR SUCCESSFUL MANUALS -- THE ENGLISH STYLE MANUAL -- ADAPTATION TO ENGLISH -- 4 Everyday writing: notebooks, letters, narratives -- NOTEBOOKS -- LETTERS -- NARRATIVES -- 5 Histories, conduct manuals, romances -- MORAL STORIES -- NORAL SENTENCES -- TECHNIQUES OF AMPLIFICATION -- SPEECHES AND LETTERS -- DEBATES -- SHARED THEMES -- CONCLUSION -- 6 Political argument -- DIPLOMATIC LETTERS -- CECIL'S MEMORANDA -- ARGUMENT WITHIN THE PRIVY COUNCIL -- ESSEX'S APOLOGY -- DIALECTIC AND RHETORIC IN POLITICAL ARGUMENT -- 7 Elizabethan parliamentary oratory -- SIR NICHOLAS BACON'S SPEECH FOR THE OPENING OF PARLIAMENT 1571 -- DEBATES FROM 1572 AND 1593 -- STRUCTURE OF INTERVENTIONS -- MEANS OF PERSUASION.

STYLE -- OPOSITION, FREE SPEACH AND HONEST COUNSEL -- THE QUEEN IN PARLIAMENT -- CONCLUSION -- 8 Religious discourse -- ARGUMENTS ABOUT PREACHING -- RHETORIC AND DIALECTIC IN ELIZABETHAN RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE -- a) Interpretation of the Bible -- b) Logic -- c) Organisation -- d) Style -- MORAL ARGUMENTS IN RELIGIOUS WRITING -- a) Funeral sermons -- b) Poverty and alms-giving -- c) Authority -- CONCLUSION -- Conclusion -- AN APPROACH TO READING FOUNDED ON ELIZABETHAN RHETORIC -- HOW PRACTICE CHANGES THE CATEGORIES -- ETHICS AND POLITICS -- Bibliography -- MANUSCRIPTS -- PRINTED PRIMARY SOURCES -- SECONDARY SOURCES -- Index of rhetorical and dialectical terms -- General index.