Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-207) and index
Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction; CHAPTER 1 Types of honesty: civil and domestical conversation; CHAPTER 2 From rhetoric to conversation: reading for Cicero in The Book of the Courtier; CHAPTER 3 Honest rivalries: Tudor humanism and linguistic and social reform; CHAPTER 4 Honest speakers: sociable commerce and civil conversation; CHAPTER 5 A commonwealth of letters: Harvey and Spenser in dialogue; CHAPTER 6 A new poet, a new social economy: homosociality in The Shepheardes Calender; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index
This book explores the early modern interest in conversation. Conversation was widely accepted to have been inspired by the philosopher Cicero. Recognising his influence on courtesy literature - the main source for 'civil conversation' - Jennifer Richards uncovers new ways of thinking about humanism as a project of linguistic and social reform
