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[Transcriber's Notes:

About this book: _The Art or crafte of Rhetoryke_ was originally
published c. 1530; the second edition was published in 1532. It is
considered the first book on rhetoric in English.

Typography: This e-book was transcribed from microfiche scans of the
1532 edition. The original line and paragraph breaks, hyphenation,
spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, including the use of a
spaced forward slash (/) for the comma, the use of u for v and vice
versa, and the use of i for j, have been preserved. All apparent
printer errors have also been preserved, and are listed at the end of
this document.

The following alterations have been made:

1. Long-s has been regularized as s.

2. The paragraph symbol, resembling a C in the original, is rendered
as ¶.

3. Superscript letters are preceded by ^.

4. Missing hyphens have been added in brackets, e.g. [-].

5. A decorative capital followed by a capital letter is represented
here as two capital letters, e.g. COnsyderynge.

6. Abbreviations and contractions represented as special characters in
the original have been expanded as noted in the table below. A
"macron" means a horizontal line over a letter. A "cursive semicolon"
is an old-style semicolon somewhat resembling a handwritten z.
"Supralinear" means directly over a letter. "Superscript" means raised
and next to a letter. The "y" referred to below is an Early Modern
English form of the Anglo-Saxon thorn character, representing "th,"
but identical in appearance to the letter "y."

Original                                  Expansion

&c with macron                            &c[etera]
q with cursive semicolon                  q[ue]
superscript closed curve                  [us]
long final s                              [e]s
crossed p                                 p[er] or p[ar]
p with looped downstroke                  p[ro]
p with macron                             p[re]
vowel with macron                         vowel[m] or vowel[n]
consonant with supralinear upward curve   consonant[er]
w with supralinear t                      w[i]t[h]
y with superscript e                      y^e (i.e., the)
y with superscript t                      y^t (i.e., that)
y with macron                             y[at] (i.e., that)
y with supralinear u                      y[o]u (i.e., thou)

Greek: Phrases in ancient Greek are transliterated in brackets, e.g.,
[Greek: outos esti].

Pagination: This book was printed as an octavo volume, and was
paginated using a recto-verso scheme. In octavo printing, the printer
uses large sheets of paper folded and cut into eight leaves each,
creating 16 pages. The front of each leaf is the recto page (the
right-hand page in a book); the back of each leaf is the verso page
(the left-hand page in a book). For this book, the printer apparently
used six sheets, lettered A through F, and each leaf is numbered with
a lower-case Roman numeral, i through viii. Thus, for example, the
first leaf (i) from the second sheet (B) is numbered B.i.

In the original, page numbers are printed only on the recto side of
each leaf, and are not printed at all after the fourth or fifth recto
page of each sheet, until the first leaf of the next sheet. For the
reader's convenience, all pages in this e-book, even those without a
printed number in the original, have been numbered in brackets
according to the original format, with the addition of "r" for recto
and "v" for verso. Pages A.i.v and F.viii.r are blank and are not
numbered in this e-book.

Sources consulted: This e-book was prepared from microfiche scans of
the 1532 edition, which can be viewed at the Bibliothèque nationale de
France (BnF/Gallica) website at http://gallica.bnf.fr. The uneven
quality of the scans, and the blackletter font in the original, made
the scans difficult to read in some places. To ensure accuracy, the
transcriber has consulted the following sources:

1. The 2004 electronic transcription by Robert N. Gaines, available in
SGML format from the Arts and Humanities Data Service,
http://ahds.ac.uk. The typography notes above are based in part on the
notes to that transcription.

2. The 1899 reprint edited and annotated by Frederick Ives Carpenter
(University of Chicago Press; facsimile reprint by AMS Press, 1973).]




[A.i.r]

¶ The Art
or crafte of
Rheto-
ryke.

1532




[A.ii.r]

¶ To the reuerende father in god
& his singuler good lorde / the lorde Hugh
Faryngton Abbot of Redynge / his pore
client and perpetuall seruaunt Leonarde
Cockes desyreth longe & prosperouse lyfe
with encreace of honour.

COnsiderynge my spe[-]
ciall good lorde how great[-]
ly and how many ways I
am bounden to your lord-
shyp / and among all other
that in so great a nombre
of counynge men whiche are now within
this region it hath pleased your goodnes
to accepte me as worthy for to haue the
charge of the instruction & bryngynge vp
of suche youth as resorteth to your gra-
mer schole / fou[n]ded by your antecessours in
this your towne of Redynge / I studied a
longe space what thyng I myght do next
the busy & diligent occupienge of my selfe
in your sayd seruyce / to the whiche bothe
conscience and your stipende doth straytly
bynde me / that myght be a significacion
of my faithfull and seruysable hart which
I owe to your lordeshyp / & agayne a long
memory bothe of your singuler and bene-
[A.ii.v] ficiall fauour towarde me: and of myn in-
dustry and diligence employed in your ser-
uyce to some profite: or at the leest way to
some delectacion of the inhabitauntes of
this noble realme now flouryshynge vn-
der the most excellent & victorious prynce
our souerain Lorde kyng Henry the.viii.

¶ And whan I had thus long prepensed
in my mynde what thynge I myght best
chose out: non offred it selfe more conue-
nyent to the profyte of yonge studentes
(which your good lordshyp hath alwayes
tenderly fauoured) and also meter to my
p[ro]fession: than to make som proper werke
of the right pleasaunt and persuadible art
of Rhetorique / whiche as it is very neces-
sary to all suche as wyll either be Aduoca[-]
tes and Proctours in the law: or els apte
to be sent in theyr Prynces Ambassades /
or to be techers of goddes worde in suche
maner as may be moost sensible & accepte
to theyr audience / and finally to all them
hauynge any thyng to purpose or to speke
afore any companye (what someuer they
be) So contraryly I se no science that is
lesse taught & declared to Scolers / which
ought chiefly after the knowlege of Gra-
mer ones had to be instructe in this facul[-]
tie / without the whiche oftentymes the
[A.iii.r] rude vtteraunce of the Aduocate greatly
hindereth and apeyreth his clie[n]tes cause.
Likewise the vnapt disposicion of the pre-
cher (in orderyng his mater) confoundeth
the memory of his herers / and briefly in
declarynge of maters: for lacke of inuen-
cion and order with due elocucion: great
tediousnes is engendred to the multitude
beyng present / by occasion wherof the spe[-]
ker is many tymes ere he haue ended his
tale: either left almost aloon to his no li-
tle confusio[n]: or els (which is a lyke rebuke
to hym) the audience falleth for werynes
of his ineloquent language fast on slepe.

¶ Wyllynge therfore for my parte to help
suche as are desirouse of this Arte (as all
surely ought to be which entende to be re-
garded in any comynaltie) I haue parte-
ly translated out a werke of Rhetorique
wryten in the Latin tongue: and partely
compyled of myn owne: and so made a ly-
tle treatyse in maner of an Introductyon
into this aforesayd Science: and that in
our Englysshe tongue. Remembrynge
that euery good thyng (after the sayeng[e]s
of the Philosopher) the more comon it is:
the more better it is. And furthermore tru[-]
stynge therby to do som pleasure and ease
to suche as haue by negligence or els fals
[A.iii.v] persuacions be put to the lernyng of other
sciences or euer they haue attayned any
meane knowlege of the Latin tongue.

¶ whiche my sayd labour I humbly offre
to your good Lordeshyp / as to the chyefe
maintener & nouryssher of my study / be-
sechynge you / thoughe it be ferre within
your merites done to me / to accepte it as
the fyrst assay of my pore and simple wyt /
which yf it may fyrst please your Lord-
shyp / and nexte the reders / I trust by
the ayde of almyghty god to endyte
other werkes bothe in this facul-
ty and other to the laude of the
hygh godhed / of whome all
goodnes doth procede / and
to your Lordshyps plea-
sure / and to profyte
and delectacion of
the Reder.




[A.iiii.r]

WHo someuer desyreth to be
a good Oratour or to dys-
pute and commune of any
maner thynge / hym beho-
ueth to haue foure thinges.

¶ The fyrst is