Rhetoric Gym

GEORGE (to mic, playful):
All right. Confession 
Some people hear the phrase “rhetorical devices” and immediately reach for the nearest exit sign.
But over the years I have learned that rhetorical devices are not decorations. They’re not lace on the edge of language.
They’re engines.
They’re how a speaker makes an audience feel the truth—
even when the truth is… being negotiated.
And Shakespeare? Shakespeare wasn’t born with a quill in his hand.
He was trained.
Today we walk into the rhetoric gym.

GEORGE:
And we’re going to meet the young Shakespeare as he learns the craft of making words do things.

But first

GEORGE:
This is Celebrate Creativity. I’m George Bartley.

This series blends historical research with fiction and imagined conversations. Not a documentary, not advice.

Today: the schooling that made Shakespeare’s language possible—and how those rhetorical “moves” show up in the plays like fingerprints.

Now Picture it: a grammar school. from at least six o'clock in the morning to 6 o'clock at night Monday through Saturday. Repetition that drills itself into the mind.

Latin. Translation. Memorization. Imitation.
Not because the world is kind, but because the world is competitive.
A boy learns to hold language in his mouth like a tool—and to sharpen it.

GEORGE:
Master Shakespeare—be honest. Was Learning about rhetoric miserable?

SHAKESPEARE (pleasant, sardonic):
It was character-building.

GEORGE:
That’s what people say when it was miserable.

Transcript

CELEBRATE CREATIVITY
Conversations with Shakespeare: School of words

I would like to start out this podcast with a true story from graduate school. The professor started talking about rhetorical devices - something I had never heard of before - he explained that Shakespeare studied rhetorical devices in grammar school, and those devices laid the basis for the language he later used in his plays.   Then the professor ut he was trained yes and today we walk into the rhetoric gym  which is if you can control the shape of a sentence you can control the shape of a thought that is the very hard rhetoric language is persuasion language as performance and I know that Shakespeare tered one of the most dreaded sentences in the English language - take out a blank piece of paper and get ready for a major quiz. Then he began listing 10 rhetorical devices my name, and told us to right down the meanings.  There was one person - it seems like they're always one of those persons - who was able to start writing furiously and got all the rhetorical devices correct - he was probably one of those people with a photographic memory.   But the rest of the class, including me, had blank pieces of paper.

Well the professor was faced with a problem - it seems that at least in that graduate school - getting an F meant you had flunked out.  So the professor gave us the option of dropping our lowest grade on a paper or test - otherwise, with the exception of a by now very hated person - we would all have to drop out of school after paying all that tuition. So ever since that time, I have had what you might call a very strange relationship with rhetorical devices - and come to learn that the use of rhetorical devices really ARE at the basis of Shakespeare's greatness.

Unlike that professor, I'm not gonna throw all kinds of rhetorical devices at you at one or two settings - there are thousands of them - but I do want to try to expose you to rhetorical devices in a painless way and understand why they were used by Shakespeare.

SFX: A schoolroom: murmured recitation, slate scratches, a ruler tap on wood.

GEORGE (to mic, playful):
All right. Confession 
Some people hear the phrase “rhetorical devices” and immediately reach for the nearest exit sign.
But over the years I have learned that rhetorical devices are not decorations. They’re not lace on the edge of language.
They’re engines.
They’re how a speaker makes an audience feel the truth—
even when the truth is… being negotiated.
And Shakespeare? Shakespeare wasn’t born with a quill in his hand.
He was trained.
Today we walk into the rhetoric gym.

GEORGE:
And we’re going to meet the young Shakespeare as he learns the craft of making words do things.

But first

GEORGE:
This is Celebrate Creativity. I’m George Bartley.

This series blends historical research with fiction and imagined conversations. Not a documentary, not advice.

Today: the schooling that made Shakespeare’s language possible—and how those rhetorical “moves” show up in the plays like fingerprints.

Now Picture it: a grammar school. from at least six o'clock in the morning to 6 o'clock at night Monday through Saturday. Repetition that drills itself into the mind.

Latin. Translation. Memorization. Imitation.
Not because the world is kind, but because the world is competitive.
A boy learns to hold language in his mouth like a tool—and to sharpen it.

GEORGE:
Master Shakespeare—be honest. Was Learning about rhetoric miserable?

SHAKESPEARE (pleasant, sardonic):
It was character-building.

GEORGE:
That’s what people say when it was miserable.

SHAKESPEARE:
Then yes. Very character-building.

GEORGE:
So what were they actually doing? Just… translating?

SHAKESPEARE:
Translating. Reciting. Imitating. Rearranging.
And learning the true secret of rhetoric.

GEORGE:
Which is?

SHAKESPEARE:
If you can control the shape of a sentence, you can control the shape of a thought.

George:
That is the   of rhetoric: language as persuasion—language as performance.
And Shakespeare gradually becomes a master performer of thought.
Now, We don’t have Shakespeare’s school notebooks. We don’t have a neat little list of his assignments.

But we do know what an Elizabethan grammar school typically taught—
and we can hear, loud and clear, that Shakespeare absorbed it.

Because the plays don’t merely use rhetorical devices—
they play them like instruments.

SHAKESPEARE:
I prefer “like weapons,” but instruments is more polite.

GEORGE:
All right, listeners. Welcome to my favorite part.
If you’ve ever thought, “Why does Shakespeare sound so powerful?”
One answer is: rhetorical devices—repeatable techniques that move the mind.

And I’m going to do this in a friendly way.

Each device gets:
A plain-English definition
A quick demo you can hear
A hint of where it shows up later

SHAKESPEARE (approving):
A syllabus. You can pretend that you are a scholar.

DEVICE 1 — ANAPHORA (repetition at the start)
GEORGE:
Anaphora is repeating the beginning of phrases.
It’s the verbal equivalent of footsteps—you feel the approach.

GEORGE (demo, plain):
We must be brave. We must be steady. We must be true.

GEORGE (demo, Shakespeare-powered):
We must be brave—when fear is fashionable.
We must be steady—when chaos is convenient.
We must be true—when lies are profitable.

SHAKESPEARE:
Now the audience is leaning forward.

GEORGE:
Exactly. You’ll hear this later in big public speeches—
Julius Caesar is basically a masterclass.

DEVICE 2 — ANTITHESIS (balanced opposites)
GEORGE:
Antithesis pairs opposites in a balanced structure.
It’s a courtroom trick: it feels fair, even when it isn’t.

GEORGE (demo):
Not this, but that. Not fear, but courage.

SHAKESPEARE:
Opposites snap like a trap.

GEORGE:
And you do it constantly—especially when characters are trying to sound wise.

DEVICE 3 — TRICOLON (the power of three)
GEORGE:
Tricolon is a list of three items—three beats.
Sleep nowIt’s satisfying. It sounds inevitable.

GEORGE (demo):
I came, I saw, I conquered.
(And yes, that one’s older than you.)

SHAKESPEARE:
I never steal from amateurs.

GEORGE:
You’ll hear Shakespeare build to three all the time:
thought, thought, thought—then the punch.

DEVICE 4 — CHIASMUS (a mirror structure: ABBA)
GEORGE:
Chiasmus is a crisscross, like a mirror.
Structure: A-B / B-A.

GEORGE (demo):
We shape our words, and our words shape us.

SHAKESPEARE:
That is clean. That is dangerous.

GEORGE:
It’s memorable. It sticks.
Characters who want to sound profound love it.

DEVICE 5 — ASYNDETON (dropping conjunctions for speed)
GEORGE:
Asyndeton is when you remove “and” to make language rush.

GEORGE (demo):
I saw it, heard it, felt it, knew it.

SHAKESPEARE:
Now you’re running downhill.

GEORGE:
That’s the point. It’s urgency in grammar.

DEVICE 6 — POLYSYNDETON (too many “ands” for weight)
GEORGE:
And polysyndeton is the opposite—too many “ands.”

It slows the listener down. It makes things feel heavy and accumulating.

GEORGE (demo):
And the night was long, and the road was cruel, and the heart was tired.

SHAKESPEARE:
Now you’re dragging a chain.

GEORGE:
Exactly. It’s gravity in language.

DEVICE 7 — APORIA (performed doubt)
GEORGE:
Aporia is feigned doubt.
A speaker acts uncertain to look honest—
or to lure you in.

GEORGE (demo):
I don’t know… perhaps I’m wrong… but doesn’t it seem—

SHAKESPEARE (bright):
Aporia is delicious. It makes the audience do the work.

GEORGE:
And you use it with characters who manipulate gently. Or pretend to.
Croft
DEVICE 8 — PARALEIPSIS (mentioning by pretending not to mention)
GEORGE:
Paraleipsis is: “I won’t even bring up the scandal…”
while bringing it up.

GEORGE (demo):
I will not remind you of his many failures—
I will not mention the rumors—
I will not—

SHAKESPEARE:
—stop mentioning them.

GEORGE:
Right. It’s a sly grin disguised as virtue.

Remember that A RHETORICAL QUESTION (a question that isn’t a question)
The rhetorical question is a question designed to steer the listener.

GEORGE (demo):
Are we going to accept this? Are we going to stay silent?

SHAKESPEARE:
A question that gives only one respectable answer.

GEORGE:
Exactly. And Shakespeare stacks them like steps.

DEVICE 10 — THE VOLTA (the turn)
GEORGE:
And finally: the turn—the moment a speech pivots.
Not a single device, but a habit.
You build one direction, then—
you twist.

GEORGE (demo):
I wanted peace—
but peace without justice is merely quiet tyranny.

SHAKESPEARE (soft):
The turn is where character reveals itself.

GEORGE:
Yes. The turn is the soul stepping into the light.

NARRATOR:
Notice what has happened: you haven’t learned vocabulary.
You’ve learned moves.
And once you hear them, you can’t un-hear them.

GEORGE:
So the rhetoric gym wasn’t there to make poets.
It was there to make… persuaders.

SHAKESPEARE:
Yes.

GEORGE:
Which means Shakespeare is, among other things, a professional persuader.

SHAKESPEARE:
I persuaded audiences to sit still for two hours without scrolling.

GEORGE:
A miracle.

SHAKESPEARE:
A craft.

GEORGE:
And this craft explains something modern listeners often miss:
Shakespeare’s language is not ornate for its own sake.
It’s functional.
It pushes. It pulls. It accelerates. It slows.
It makes you agree before you realize you’ve agreed.

GEORGE:
So when I later interview Mark Antony, I’m not just hearing grief or anger.
I’m hearing… deliberate structure.

SHAKESPEARE:
A staircase built in the dark.

GEORGE:
Or when I interview Richard III—

SHAKESPEARE (amused):
Ah. A MOST clever character

GEORGE:
—I’ll hear charm built out of devices.

SHAKESPEARE:
Richard is a man who can make a lie sound like a compliment.

GEORGE:
And that’s rhetoric.

SHAKESPEARE:
That’s Tuesday.

George
Here’s our lens for the whole series:
When you hear a Shakespeare character speaking, ask:
Are they repeating to build momentum? (anaphora)
Are they using opposites to sound wise? (antithesis)
Are they speeding the sentence to create urgency? (asyndeton)
Are they slowing it to make weight? (polysyndeton)
Are they pretending to doubt to look honest? (aporia)
Are they pretending not to mention something… while mentioning it? (paraleipsis)

And suddenly the speech becomes visible—like seeing the beams behind a wall.

SHAKESPEARE:
Beams are useful. They keep the roof from falling on the actors.

GEORGE:
Now we’re ready for the fun part.
Because this rhetoric gym doesn’t stay in the classroom.
It walks right onto the stage.

In our next episode, we turn to the world outside the schoolroom—
the world that pressures the theatre itself.
And on down the literary Road in this podcast, we’re going to put this rhetorical lens to work on a character who can persuade an entire crowd in one scene.

SHAKESPEARE:
You mean—

GEORGE:
Yes.
Mark Antony.

Because whether you love him or distrust him, you cannot deny the craftsmanship.
The way the speech builds.
The way it turns.
The way it leads an audience by the hand.

SHAKESPEARE:
The audience thinks it is walking freely.

GEORGE:
Exactly. That’s rhetoric.
So listeners: keep your ears open.
You’ve just been given the decoder ring.
And Shakespeare… you’ve just admitted you built the ring on purpose.

SHAKESPEARE (lightly):
I admit nothing in writing.

I'd like to end this podcast by introducing one more rhetorical device. And I hope that you at least understand the following rhetorical device - if not, don't worry.  We certainly will be coming back to rhetorical devices because
I believe they are so central to Shakespeare's works - and that rhetorical device is parallelism.  Think of two lines that are beside each other - those lines are parallel.  Now possibly Shakespeare's most famous line is a great example of parallelism.  - to be, or not to be, that is the question, hamlets most famous line from the play of the same name.  I believe I have mentioned that my background has been in interpreting Shakespeare's plays into American Sign Language - and I think it's really cool to show that inherent parallelism and that line through using American Sign Language.

Now first, American Sign Language does not communicate signs literally - for one thing there wouldn't be enough time in a play, and that's not how deaf people communicate with each other.  Take the concept to be - that is usually a signed as Life then the interpreter signs the sign for death on the other side - then moving back to the middle and signing which - as if the speaker is making a choice between Life and death - as though they were equal or parallel choices - followed by the sign for which - so you actually have a visual example of parallelism - and three signs in American Sign Language that communicate the 10 signs and spoken English. I know that I have taken a lot of time to explain something that's really very simple, but if you could just remember the root word parallel for parallelism you have the meaning for that specific rhetorical device.


Shakespeare
Oh thank you Mr. Bartley. I do admit that was a bit wordy but I hope it conveys the meaning of a parallelism and how it can be used.

George
This has been episode three of Conversations with Shakespeare - School of Words

Thank you for listening to celebrate creativity. Now… let’s open the doors of the theatre.

Sources include: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeare: The Biography by Peter Ackrold, and ChatGPT.

(Optional: theme music rises slightly, then fades.)