The nature and extent of classical rhetoric's influence
on subsequent ages has been the focus of much recent study.
Scholars have been concerned with how classical authors,
particularly Cicero and Quintilian, emerged in educational
and rhetorical theories of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance,
and later centuries. Despite this flurry of research, a
great deal of Quintilian's enduring legacy remains unknown,
particularly in seventeenth-century England.
"Quintilian's Influence on Obadiah Walker," then,
extends our knowledge of Quintilian's influence into the
seventeenth century by looking at one seventeenth-century
thinker in particular, Obadiah Walker. More specifically,
this thesis compares and analyzes the authors' primary
works: Quintilian's Institutio oratoria and Walker's Some
Instructions Concerning the Art of Oratory and Of Education,
Especially of Young Gentlemen.
This study investigates Quintilian's and Walker's
similarities and differences within three comparable areas:
their educational systems, their theories and placement of
rhetoric in their systems, and their educational purposes.
Within these areas, this study questions how and to what
extent did Walker appropriate Quintilian's ideas when
crafting his two educational/rhetorical treatises?
The comparison of the primary texts manifests some
specific and general conclusions. There are two specific
conclusions. First, Walker is heavily indebted to
Quintilian; he liberally adopts and modifies Quintilian's
ideas in nearly every facet of his works. Second, Walker
offers a seventeenth-century student a digest and modern
version of Quintilian's Institutio. Moreover, this study
offers some general conclusions. First, it demonstrates
that Quintilian's influence extends into the late
seventeenth century, at least in the works of one writer of
the era. Next, it argues that if Quintilian's treatise lost
favor, at least it did not do so completely. And finally,
it contributes another story to classical rhetoric's
incomplete history. / Graduation date: 1996
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/27768 |
| Date | 15 August 1995 |
| Creators | O'Rourke, Kathryn Ann |
| Contributors | Moore, Mark P. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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