Parliament was the highest public arena of debate in Elizabethan England. In parliament gentlemen from the shires could watch the greatest officials of state explain their policies and legislative projects, sometimes in the face of critical arguments and counter-proposals. Thanks to the enthusiasm of seventeenth-century antiquarians quite substantial records of Elizabethan parliamentary speeches and debates survive, now collected and edited in three handsome volumes by T. E. Hartley. Parliamentary oratory enables us to examine the impact of humanist rhetorical training in practical life. At the same time rhetorical theory can help us understand the effect of individual speeches and the broader import of parliamentary discourse.

Many of the formal features of parliamentary speeches can be connected with rhetorical training. The format of long parliamentary speeches reflects a compromise between rhetorical teaching about introductions and structures derived from dialectic and the practice of disputation. Short debating speeches take their form entirely from dialectic and resemble interventions in university disputations. While the restrained style predominates in both kinds of speech, all the speakers employ amplification to mark important passages and to drive home arguments. Some speakers, especially later in the reign, cultivate a more elaborate style throughout. History plays a crucial role in longer speeches, with government speakers elaborating the contrast between Elizabeth's government and her inheritance from Mary, while other orators cite biblical and classical histories. Proverbs and moral sentences are very prominent in all types of speeches. Many arguments are elaborated with commonplaces and lively descriptions.