A FEW NOTES ON RHETORIC

Rhetoric may be defined as "the science of discourse", that is, "the study of the principles of composition of expression of thought by means of language." Figures are deviations from the plain or ordinary mode of expression which are intended to enhance meaning. Some figures, like the familiar simile and metaphor, are based on substitution. Many are based on the repetition of a sound, a word, a clause or phrase, or even an idea. Other figures are built on the omission of letters, syllables, conjunctions or words for effect. Still others deal with reasoning, pathos, etc.
In Shakespeare's day, rhetoric was taught in the so-called private schools (what we in America call "public school"), so it is likely that Shakespeare grew up with an appreciation of rhetorical devices-figures of words. He was certainly a master at using them to good effect.

Ornamented language for its own sake came into vogue during the reign of Elizabeth I. By 1579, when John Lyly wrote Euphues, the novel that lends its name to the movement, euphuism, no self-respecting playwright would dare to fashion speeches that ignored the niceties of rhetorical elaboration. At least a part of the effectiveness of the currently fashionable "rap" music is it's unconscious exploitation of what Shakespeare's audience would have recognized as "rhetoric--word play." While much of the Twentieth Century was devoted to the "deconstruction" of language which many regarded as meaningless and useless, the tide in the Twenty-first seems to be turning back to the enjoyment and appreciation of language as humankind's unique means of communicating.

Some of the more common figures Shakespeare used are simile, metaphor, allegory, antithesis, epigram, repetition, metonymy, periphrasis, paronomasia, pleonasm, synecdoche, interrogation, climax, exclamation, apostrophe, personification, hyperbole, catachresis, apophasis and irony. For beginners, the specifics of this complex and fascinating study are not as important as an awareness that the study exists. One does not need to know that Dogberry frequently indulges in catachresis to appreciate his humor. One knows instinctively that Benedick and Beatrice seem to deny their affections for one another while really affirming it in the very denial. The label apophasis for this particular rhetorical construction is less important than the fact of it.

For further study see http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm