Henry Peacham, who served the Church of England as a clergyman for more than six decades, is known for a single work, The Garden of Eloquence Conteyning the Figures of Grammer and Rhetorick, a rhetorical treatise that was first published in 1577 and substantially revised in a 1593 edition. As a commentary on nearly two hundred rhetorical figures, The Garden of Eloquence is unrivaled among sixteenth-century studies of elocutio (elocution, or style). Although primarily a synthesis of the most important classical and humanistic studies of rhetorical figures that were available to Peacham, the book is more than a translation of Continental studies of elocution--Peacham adds much to his sources, and his analysis of the emotional power of rhetorical figures is an important contribution to the history of Renaissance rhetoric. In many ways, The Garden of Eloquence is also more than a textbook, and its contents can be seen to reflect...