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This is Hobbes’ free translation of what he considered the most important parts of Aristotle’s Rhetoric, as dictated to his young pupil, William Cavendish (1617–1684), 3rd earl of Devonshire (not to be confused with the William Cavendish who was Margaret’s husband, and the 1st duke of Newcastle).

Hobbes described rhetoric as the scientific study of the human being, and considered Aristotle’s text an unsurpassed guide to knowledge of human nature and “the art of managing [the] passions.” Although innumerable volumes had been written concerning the faculties, passions, and manners of men,

nor doth any man at this day so much as pretend to know more than has been delivered two thousand years ago by Aristotle

wrote Hobbes in The Elements of Law. Aubrey confirms this, reporting that

I have heard [Hobbes] say that Aristotle was the worst Teacher that ever was, the worst Politician and Ethick — a Countrey-fellow that could live in the World would be as good: but his Rhetorique and Discourse of Animals was rare.

Not surprisingly, Margaret Cavendish shared this Hobbesian sentiment, writing in her book of Philosophical and Physical Opinions that as

for exellent disputants, that make Aristotle their church of reason, that cannot erre, and will maintain his nonsense against reason, I leave them to their ignorance, and wish they would rather follow his Logick, and his Rhetorick, then his natural Philosophy, for their own sakes.

Hobbes’ neo-Aristotelian aesthetics and discourse theory shifted the rhetorical emphasis from social conventions and outward matters of decorum to the psychological — the mind creating, or the mind receiving and responding. According to one critic, Hobbes

started with the facts of experience and sought to analyze them.... His inquiries began with a scrutiny of the moving forces of our constructive and responsive life, and he bent the power of his great analytical intellect to arrive at solutions.

Because of the Rhetoric’s influence on so many members of the Cavendish circle, including leading figures of the new science movement in England and France, I believe a digital edition of Hobbes’ extemporaneous translation — which will make it more readily available to a modern audience — is warranted.

RELATES TO: GALLERY exhibits on the evolving iconography of Rhetorica and Design; several PLAYERS webessays on Margaret Cavendish; the PDF publication, Time, Soul, Memory (LIB. CAT. NO. DTP2003)


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	Thomas Hobbes’ A Briefe of the Art of Rhetorique (1637) This is Hobbes’ free translation of what he considered the most important parts of Aristotle’s Rhetoric, as dictated to his young pupil, William Cavendish (1617–1684), 3rd earl of Devonshire (not to be confused with the William Cavendish who was Margaret’s husband, and the 1st duke of Newcastle). Hobbes described rhetoric as the scientific study of the human being, and considered Aristotle’s text an unsurpassed guide to knowledge of human nature and “the art of managing [the] passions.” Although innumerable volumes had been written concerning the faculties, passions, and manners of men, nor doth any man at this day so much as pretend to know more than has been delivered two thousand years ago by Aristotle wrote Hobbes in The Elements of Law. Aubrey confirms this, reporting that I have heard [Hobbes] say that Aristotle was the worst Teacher that ever was, the worst Politician and Ethick — a Countrey-fellow that could live in the World would be as good: but his Rhetorique and Discourse of Animals was rare. Not surprisingly, Margaret Cavendish shared this Hobbesian sentiment, writing in her book of Philosophical and Physical Opinions that as for exellent disputants, that make Aristotle their church of reason, that cannot erre, and will maintain his nonsense against reason, I leave them to their ignorance, and wish they would rather follow his Logick, and his Rhetorick, then his natural Philosophy, for their own sakes. Hobbes’ neo-Aristotelian aesthetics and discourse theory shifted the rhetorical emphasis from social conventions and outward matters of decorum to the psychological — the mind creating, or the mind receiving and responding. According to one critic, Hobbes started with the facts of experience and sought to analyze them.... His inquiries began with a scrutiny of the moving forces of our constructive and responsive life, and he bent the power of his great analytical intellect to arrive at solutions. Because of the Rhetoric’s influence on so many members of the Cavendish circle, including leading figures of the new science movement in England and France, I believe a digital edition of Hobbes’ extemporaneous translation — which will make it more readily available to a modern audience — is warranted. RELATES TO: GALLERY exhibits on the evolving iconography of Rhetorica and Design; several PLAYERS webessays on Margaret Cavendish; the PDF publication, Time, Soul, Memory (LIB. CAT. NO. DTP2003)
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