ABSTRACT
Robert Henryson's eclectic selection from a wide range of rhetorical techniques and ideas makes his verse an excellent "bridge" between the several periods in Scotland. John MacQueen has already shown how Henryson's verse might show the impact of the Italian Quattrocento, especially in the Orpheus. Henryson's opportunities to become familiar with Quintilian would have been especially numerous if he were educated in Italy, as Jack believes. Henryson's career as a schoolmaster might have provided another opportunity for him to have been swept up in the general enthusiasm about Quintilian's work. The ultimate success of the characters depends on Henryson's sense of audience reaction and his control of his narrative framework. Quintilian's inventory of topoi would also have provided Henryson with the tools that he needed in his rhetoric. Particularly in Henryson's use of the deliberative and forensic rhetoric of the ars dictaminis and the ars notaria, Henryson employs virtually all of Quintilian's techniques.
