Rhetoric is what there was before there were
English majors.
It's the study of how to be persuasive, and
more American politicians had some training
in rhetoric.
Part of that training was studying examples,
and the examples were Shakespeare.
So, in the 19th century, we would expect a
politician, in middle school, or, let's say,
secondary school, to have studied the speeches
of "Julius Caesar."
To have actually stood up and practiced them.
So, when you think of someone like Winston
Churchill, who is constantly thinking about
how his speeches are going to land with an
audience, what is going to be dramatic, what
is going to connect, he is part of this centuries-long
tradition of trying to understand what makes
an effective speaker.
When it comes to thinking about rhetoric in
politics, Shakespeare himself studied rhetoric,
and he would have been taught exercises in
what the best persuasive technique is if you're
talking to an audience, in a funeral oration,
or if you're talking to an assembly, or if
you're talking to a judge.
Then, he used those techniques in his plays.
So, in "The Merchant of Venice" when you get
a judge like Portia speaking, she's using
rhetoric, and Shakespeare understood that
common language.
That is also the language that American politicians
adopted in the 19th and 20th centuries.
It's the language Churchill understood as
well.
