Boscán and Garcilaso as Rhetorical Models in the English RenaissanceThe Case of Abraham Fraunce’s The Arcadian Rhetorike

Abstract

Published in 1588, Abraham Fraunce’s The Arcadian Rhetorike is one of the most influential rhetorical treatises written in English that followed the Ramist tendencies. Imbued thus with these rhetorical premises, Fraunce, like other rhetoricians, laid emphasis exclusively on the systematic classification of the figures of speech. To do so, he employed illustrations taken from the works of renowned poets of the Greek, Latin, Italian, English, and Spanish traditions. Particularly interesting is the presence of Spanish literature in the treatise. Focusing then on the circulation of texts from the Spanish literary tradition in Elizabethan England, this article attempts to examine the reasons why Juan Boscán’s and Garcilaso de la Vega’s compositions worked as valid vernacular paradigms suitable for rhetorical explanation, as Abraham Fraunce suggested in his manual.