Real and Imagined Space: The Rhetoric of Thomas Overbury’s Imprisonment

Abstract

The article discusses how the presentation of the career, arrest and imprisonment of Sir Thomas Overbury illustrate the importance of place. Looking at epistolary material between 1611 and 1613, it examines how Overbury was represented by courtiers, diplomats and commentators in connection to different royal locations. It argues that the rhetorical training of such writers led to the use of places of argument which aimed to guide readers’ emotional responses to the information presented. Having begun with Overbury’s disagreement with the queen at Greenwich in May 1611, the article then moves on to his role in the competition for the position of the royal secretary and the connection of the courtier at this time to the king’s hunting lodge at Royston. Finally, moving to the reception of Overbury’s arrest by those watching the court and his own letters from the Tower, it considers how he uses the same rhetorical techniques in an ill-fated attempt to influence the king’s favourite, Robert Carr, then Viscount Rochester, and secure his release from close imprisonment.