Thomas Wilson (rhetorician)

Thomas Wilson (rhetorician)

Thomas Wilson (1524-1581) was an English diplomat and judge, and a courtier at the court of Elizabeth I. He is now remembered for his "Logique" (1551) and "The Arte of Rhetorique" (1553) [ [http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/arte/arte.htm Renascence Editions' e-text on "The Arte of Rhetorique"] ] , an influential text. James Franklin ["The Science of Conjecture" (2001) p.128.] calls these "the first complete works on logic and rhetoric in English.

He also wrote "A Discourse upon Usury by way of Dialogue and Orations" (1572), and translated Demosthenes.

Life

He was the son of Thomas Wilson of Strubby, in Lincolnshire. He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, where he joined the school of Hellenists to which John Cheke, Thomas Smith, Walter Haddon and others belonged. He graduated B.A. in 1546 and M.A. in 1549.

In 1551 he produced, in conjunction with Walter Haddon, a Latin life of Henry and Charles Brandon, dukes of Suffolk. His earliest work of importance was "The Rule of Reason, conteinynge the Arte of Logique set forth in Englishe" (1551),which was frequently reprinted. It has been maintained that the book on which Wilson's fame mainly rests, "The Arte of Rhetorique", was printed about the same time, but this is probably an error: the first edition extant is dated January 1553. It is the earliest systematic work of literary criticism existing in the English language.

Wilson threw in his lot with the Dudley family, and when they fell, he fled to the Continent. He was with Sir John Cheke in Padua in 1555-1557, and afterwards at Rome, whither in 1558 Queen Mary wrote, ordering him to return to England to stand his trial as a heretic. He refused to come, but was arrested by the Roman Inquisition and tortured. He escaped, and fled to Ferrara, but in 1560 he was once more in London.

Wilson became Master of St Katherine's Hospital in the Tower, and entered parliament in January 1563. In 1570 he published a translation, the first attempted in English, of the "Olynthiacs" and "Philippics" of Demosthenes, on which he had been engaged since 1556. His "Discourse upon Usury" appeared in 1572.

From 1574 to 1577, Wilson, who had now become a prominent person in the diplomatic world, was principally engaged on embassies to the Low Countries, and on his return to England he was made a privy councillor and sworn secretary of state; Walsingham was his colleague. In 1580, although he was not in holy orders, Queen Elizabeth made Wilson dean of Durham. He died at St Katherine's Hospital on the 16th of June 1581, and was buried next day, "without charge or pomp," at his express wish.

The Arte of Rhetorique gives Wilson a place among the earliest exponents of English style. He was opposed to pedantry of phrase, and above all to a revival of uncouth medieval forms of speech, and encouraged a simpler manner of prose writing than was generally appreciated in the middle of the 16th century.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.bartleby.com/213/1910.html Bartleby.com's entry for "The Arte of Rhetorique"]
*worldcat id|lccn-n50-15574

Further reading

*Susan Doran and Jonathan Woolfson, "Wilson, Thomas (1523/4–1581)," "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004; [http://www.oxforddnb.com/ online edition] , January 2008.
*Thomas O. Sloane, "On the Contrary: The Protocol of Traditional Rhetoric", Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1997
*Tita French Baumlin, "Thomas Wilson," "The Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 236: British Rhetoricians and Logicians, 1500-1660, First Series", Detroit: Gale, 2001, pp. 282-306.
*Peter E. Medine, "Thomas Wilson", Boston: Twayne, 1986
*Peter E. Medine, ed., "The Art of rhetoric (1560)", by Thomas Wilson, University Park: Penn State University, 1994 (includes introduction by Medine)


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Thomas Wilson — may refer to:Politicians*Thomas Wilson (mayor) of Adelaide, Australia *Thomas Wilson (Virginia) (1765 1826), US Representative from Virginia *Thomas Wilson (Minnesota) (1827 1910), US Representative from Minnesota *Thomas Webber Wilson (1893… …   Wikipedia

  • Rhetoric — This article is about the art of rhetoric in general. For the work by Aristotle, see Rhetoric (Aristotle). Painting depicting a lecture in a knight academy, painted by Pieter Isaacsz or Reinhold Timm for Rosenborg Castle as part of a series of… …   Wikipedia

  • 1581 in literature — Events*Stationer Thomas Marsh publishes Seneca s Tragedies in English , a collected edition of ten dramas written by Seneca the Younger (or attributed to him), translated by Jasper Heywood, John Studley, Alexander Neville, Thomas Newton, and… …   Wikipedia

  • education — /ej oo kay sheuhn/, n. 1. the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life. 2. the act or process of… …   Universalium

  • literature — /lit euhr euh cheuhr, choor , li treuh /, n. 1. writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays. 2.… …   Universalium

  • Rhetoric of science — is a body of scholarly literature exploring the notion that the practice of scientific inquiry is a rhetorical activity. It emerged from a number of disciplines during the late twentieth century, including the disciplines of sociology, history,… …   Wikipedia

  • comedy — comedial /keuh mee dee euhl/, adj. /kom i dee/, n., pl. comedies. 1. a play, movie, etc., of light and humorous character with a happy or cheerful ending; a dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance,… …   Universalium

  • Gospel — Four gospels redirects here. For other uses, see The Four Gospels (disambiguation). For other uses, see Gospel (disambiguation). First page of the Gospel of Mark in Armenian, by Sargis Pitsak, 14th century. A gospel is an account, often written,… …   Wikipedia

  • Deaths in October 2005 — Deaths in 2005 : January February March April May June July August September October November December → The following is a list of notable deaths in October 2005. 31 Hal O. Anger, 85, pioneer of nuclear medicine, inventor of gamma ray… …   Wikipedia

  • Split infinitive — A split infinitive is an English language grammatical construction in which a word or phrase, usually an adverb or adverbial phrase, comes between the marker to and the bare infinitive (uninflected) form of a verb. For example, a split infinitive …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”