Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.

The same rule applies to the movemints. Consequently on the stage young men and old, soldiers and married women all walk sedately, while slaves, maidservants, parasites and fishermen are more lively in their movements. But instructors in the art of gesture will not permit the hand to be raised above the level of the eyes or lowered beneath

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that of the breast; since it is thought a grave blemish to lift it to the top of the head [*]( The general sense is clear, though the text is unsetsfactory and scarcely translatable. ) or lower it to the lower portions of the belly.

It may be moved to the left within the limits of the shoulder, but no further without loss of decorum. On the other hand, when, to express our aversion, we thrust our hand out to the left, the left shoulder must be brought forward in unison with the head, which will incline to the right.

It is never correct to employ the left hand alone in gesture, though it will often conform its motion to that of the right, as, for example, when we are counting our arguments on the fingers, or turn the palms of the hands to the left to express our horror of something,

or thrust them out in front or spread them out to right and left, or lower them in apology or supplication (though the gesture is not the same in these two cases), or raise them in adoration, or stretch them out in demonstration or invocation, as in the passage,

Ye hills and groves of Alba, [*](pro Mil. xxxi. 85. )

or in the passage from Gracchus [*]( See Cic. de Or. III. lvi. 214. ) :

Whither, alas! shall I turn me? To the Capitol? Nay, it is wet with my brother's blood. To my home?

etc.