Institutio Oratoria
Quintilian
Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.
And it is not merely in writing that this may occur, but you will find, unless you exercise the greatest care, that there are a number of persons who take pleasure in putting an indecent interpretation on words, thinking, as Ovid [*](Met. i. 502. ) says:
Nay, an obscene meaning may be extracted even from words which are as far removed from indecency as possible. Celsus, for example, detects an instance of κακέμφατον in the Virgilian [*](Georg. i. 357. ) phrase:
- that whatsoe'er is hid is best of all.
but if this point of view be accepted, it will be risky to say anything at all.
- incipiunt agitata tumescere;
Next to indecency of expression comes meanness, styled ταπείνωσις, when the grandeur or dignity of anything is diminished by the words used, as in the line:
The opposite fault, which is no less serious, consists
This fault will result in making our language dull, or coarse, jejune, heavy, unpleasing or slovenly, all of which faults are best realised by reference to the virtues which are their opposites, that is, point, polish, richness, liveliness, charm, and finish.
We must also avoid μείωσις a term applied to meagreness and inadequacy of expression, although it is a fault which characterises an obscure style rather than one which lacks ornament. But meiosis may be deliberately employed, and is then called a figure, as also is tautology, which means the repetition of a word or phrase.
The latter, though not avoided with special care even by the best authors, may sometimes be regarded as a fault: it is, in fact, a blemish into which Cicero not infrequently falls through indifference to such minor details: take, for example, the following passage, [*](Pro Cluent. xxxv. 96. To bring out the effect criticised by Cicero, iudicium must he translated judgment. But trial is required to give the correct sense. ἐπανάληψις = repetition. )
Judges, this judgment was not merely unlike a judgment.It is sometimes given another name, ἐπανάληψις, under which appellation it is ranked among figures, of which I shall give examples when I come to the discussion of stylistic virtues. [*](IX. ii.)
A worse fault is ὁμοείδεια, or sameness, a term applied to a style which has no variety to relieve its tedium, and which presents a uniform monotony of hue. This is one of the surest signs of lack of art, and produces a uniquely unpleasing effect, not merely on the mind, but on the ear, on account of its
We must also avoid macrology, that is, the employment of more words than are necessary, as, for instance, in the sentence of Livy,
The ambassadors, having failed to obtain peace, went back home, whence they had come.[*](Fr. 62, Hertz. ) On the other hand, periphrasis, which is akin to this blemish, is regarded as a virtue. Another fault is pleonasm, when we overload our style with a superfluity of words, as in the phrase,
I saw it with my eyes,where
I saw itwould have been sufficient.
Cicero passed a witty comment on a fault of this kind in a declamation of Hirtius when he said that a child had been carried for ten months in his mother's womb.
Oh,he said,
I suppose other women carry them in their bags.[*](perulra means a small wallet. But it is noteworthy that in Apul. Met. V. xiv. it is used = uterus, and the doubleentendre was probably current in Cicero's time. ) Sometimes, however, the form of pleonasm, of which I have just given an example, may have a pleasing effect when employed for the sake of emphasis, as in the Virgilian phrase [*](Aen. iv- 359. ) :
But whenever the addition is not deliberate,
- With mine own ears his voice I heard.