A persuasive plenty: 'Copia' in the English Renaissance Parliament

This study undertakes to analyze the theory and practice of copia (amplificational and stylistic fullness) and apply them to nonliterary persuasion. Contemporary sources, represented most significantly by Erasmus and Thomas Wilson, focus on the philosophical background, as well as the methodology, of the deliberative theory of copia. In essence, the theory delineates the Renaissance emphasis on wisdom with eloquence as achieved through copia of thought and word. Copia of thought uses exempla and sententiae as part of the inductive process of incorporating wisdom into discourse. Copia of word involves the stylistic use of figures to express and highlight content and to impress the memory and aesthetic ear of listeners, thereby illuminating their intellects and arousing their emotions. The virtuous ideal is often illustrated by an orator's drawing on culturally privileged representations of events from the past. Speeches from the Elizabethan Parliament of 1572 concerning the fate of Mary Queen of Scots are analyzed to show how such copia actually functions in real civic discourse. These parliamentary materials demonstrate that the theory of copia was also the practice and that copia enhanced the deliberative process for a variety of rhetorical reasons particularly appropriate to the age.