Encomium
A formal speech or piece of writing in warm praise of a person, thing, or idea.
An encomium is composed praise. In classical rhetorical training it was one of the progymnasmata — the graded exercises students worked through — with a set structure: origins, upbringing, deeds, comparisons, and a closing call to emulate the subject.
It differs from a eulogy in occasion rather than tone: a eulogy honours the dead, while an encomium may celebrate the living, and may even praise something abstract. Gorgias praised Helen of Troy; Erasmus, in The Praise of Folly, wrote an encomium to foolishness itself.
The mock-encomium is the form's most durable descendant. By applying the machinery of formal praise to an unworthy subject, a writer produces satire that never has to state its criticism aloud.
Common mistake: praise without evidence. The classical structure exists because unsupported superlatives flatten quickly; the deeds section is what makes the rest believable.
“The Praise of Folly (Moriae Encomium), 1511.”
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A formal speech or text in elaborate praise of a person, place, or achievement.
A speech of praise for someone who has died, often the source of widely-quoted lines.
A formal public speech — the original setting for many of the most-quoted lines in history.
A formal defence of one's beliefs or conduct — an explanation, not an apology.