Rhetoric was a major tool, in the arts of the Renaissance
and Baroque periods. A performative, mute rhetoric that
focused in music, dance, pictorial art, architecture.
poetry, palace
gardens, etc. Linear perspective was discovered, and
used by Alberti like a hand gesture. Such a highly
persuasive tool could be, and was used politically.
Political uses of this new rhetoric by religious groups
to attack other religious groups, especially if opposing
religious groups were weak. Rhetoric tacens was used to
further anti-Semitism, in association with the Holy
Inquisition, women were targeted (Witch Trials), Moslems
were decimated in Spain and Portugal, Black African slaves,
Amerindians viewed as non-human. Rhetoric in the service
of Christianity was also (obviously) used to target
Christians (Protestant Reformation).
Sonnets and other forms of poetry were also subject to the
new rhetoric. Can we find such examples of sonnets used to
direct hatred towards innocent groups of people aside from
Colonialism?
Almost all Jews were murdered in great pogroms in 1189-1190
in London and York, England. Jews still living in England
after 1190 mostly came from Portugal and had to live
clandestinely. Do you think any Jew in hiding would choose
to draw attention to himself by "spitting" in any one's face,
even with good reason? References to myths of the past to
create hatreds to encourage violence are then the way of
empire?
Sonnets in Service of Christianity
Spit in my face, you Jews, and pierce my side,
Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me,
For I have sinn'd, and sinne', and only He,
Who could do no iniquity, hath died.
But by my death can not be satisfied
My sins, which pass the Jews' impiety.
They kill'd once an inglorious man, but I
Crucify him daily, being now glorified.
O let me then His strange love still admire ;
Kings pardon, but He bore our punishment ;
And Jacob came clothed in vile harsh attire,
But to supplant, and with gainful intent ;
God clothed Himself in vile man's flesh, that so
He might be weak enough to suffer woe.
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