THE PROSE MAXIM IN OLD ENGLISH: AELFRIC AND WULFSTAN (RHETORIC, LITERATURE, ANGLO-SAXON)

Old English wisdom literature has received much critical attention in recent years, nearly all of it concerned with Old English poetry. This dissertation examines the maxim as a useful persuasive device in the Old English homilies of Aelfric and Wulfstan. Concluding that both major homilists used maxims to create deliberate rhetorical effects in their prose, this study provides further evidence for the importance maxims held for the Anglo-Saxons.;Chapters Four and Five examine, respectively, Aelfric's and Wulfstan's uses of maxims. Aelfric uses maxims freely and variously. His frequent use of maxims with attached explanatory clauses indicates that he consciously chose to use the elaborate sententia form as well as the more concise proverb and maxim. He uses maxims to summarize or emphasize the meaning of a scriptural text or an exemplam. Maxims also distance Aelfric from an audience made up of equals or superiors (bishops, nobles, the King). He also uses brief homily maxims and proverbs to compel audience assent.;Maxims appear in Wulfstan's homilies less frequently and with less rhetorical variety than they do in Aelfric's, most often appearing as generalizations that round off segments of discourse, forming rules for moral behavior. He varies the usual Old English se...bio maxim formula with optative subjunctive verbs, creating an effect similar to that of The Canons of Edgar and The Institutes of Polity. A brief concluding chapter points out that differences in the two homilists' uses of maxims are in accord with other features of their prose styles.;Chapter One defines wisdom literature and its subcategories; Chapter Two describes various approaches to wisdom materials, emphasizing the need for an interdisciplinary approach. Chapter Three defines maxim and proverb as basic units of wisdom literature, identifying the formal structures they assume in Old English. This chapter also reviews the functions maxims perform in Old English poetry: rounding off segments of discourse; emphasizing a point; in series, creating an incantatory poetic effect; and, in dialogue, conveying unpleasant information diplomatically.