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Kaylee Mahony
Dr. Mr. DiGeorgio
AP Lang
22 August 2022
Robinson Précis
James E. Robinson in “The Ritual and Rhetoric of A Midsummer Night’s Dream” implies
that by combining comedy as a ritual and comedy as rhetoric, Shakespeare successfully portrays
that love can be fact or a ritual of faith, or even both. Robinson supports his claim by referencing
authors such as Aristophanes and Terence to give an in-depth explanation of what exactly
rhetoric and ritual comedies are, and how they are different, then uses direct quotes from
Shakespeare’s play and identifies these examples as either rhetoric or ritual. Robinson concludes
that Terentian style of writing combined with Aristophanes’ “plot formula” can be used in order
to create a comedy that is both ritualistic and rhetorical. The writer uses a formal tone, which can
build ethos because he establishes himself as a professional.