Abstract
Pasquil the Playne, a dialogue written by the English Humanist Thomas Elyot (1490-1546), was inspired by Elyot's unsuccessful experience as a counselor to Henry VIII. Seizing on this biographical context, historians have read the dialogue as a product of Elyot's disillusionment, identifying Elyot with the blunt, truthtelling Pasquil. In contrast this paper reads Pasquil the Playne as a multi-voiced Lucianic dialogue, which gives expression to several perspectives on the rhetoric of counsel. This reading problematizes questions of appropriateness (prepon) and right timing (kairos) in giving advice to a prince. Moreover, Elyot exploits the open-ended spirit of the Lucianic dialogue to attempt to develop in the reader the prudential reasoning (phronesis) essential to wise counsel.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-21 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | Rhetorica - Journal of the History of Rhetoric |
Volume | 30 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2012 |
Keywords
- Civic rhetoric
- Dialogue
- Elyot
- Lucian
- Pasquil the Playne
- Prince's mirror
- Prudence