Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

A more trivial effect is produced by the following: Non Pisonum, sed pistorum, [*](Not of the Pisos, but of the bakers.) and Ex oratore arator, [*](Phil III. ix. 22: Orator turned ploughman. ) while phrases such as Ne patres conscripti videantur circumscripti, [*]( Auct. ad Herenn, iv. 22. That the conscript fathers be not cheated. ) or raro evenit, sed vehenenter venit, [*](Meaning uncertain.) are the worst of all. It does, however, sometimes happen that a bold and vigorous conception may derive a certain charm from the contrast between two words not dissimilar in sound.

I do

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not know that there is any reason why modesty should prevent me from illustrating this point from my own family. My father, in the course of a declamation against a man who had said he would die on his embassy and then returned after a few days' absence without accomplishing anything, said, non exigo ut immoriaris legationi: immorare. [*](I (do not demand that you should die on your embassy; only stay there!) For the sense is forcible and the sound of the two words, which are so very different in meaning, is pleasant, more especially since the assonance is not far fetched, but presents itself quite naturally, one word being of the speaker's own selection, while the other is supplied by his opponent.

The old orators were at great pains to achieve elegance in the use of words similar or opposite in sound. Gorgias carried the practice to an extravagant pitch, while Isocrates, at any rate in his early days, was much addicted to it. Even Cicero delighted in it, but showed some restraint in the employment of a device which is not unattractive save when carried to excess, and, further, by the weight of his thought lent dignity to what would otherwise have been mere trivialities. For in itself this artifice is a flat and foolish affectation, but when it goes hand in hand with vigour of thought, it gives the impression of natural charm, which the speaker has not had to go far to find.

There are some four different forms of play upon verbal resemblances. The first occurs when we select some word which is not very unlike another, as in the line of Virgil

vuppesque tuae pubesque tuorum,
Aen. i. 399. [*](Your ships and the flower of your young warriors.)

or, sic in hac calamitosa fama quasi in aliqua perniciosissim flamma, [*](Pro Cluent. i. 4. In the midst of this disastrous defamation, which may be compared to a disastrous conflagration. ) and non enim tarn spes laudanda quam

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res est. [*]( From Cic. de Republica. For it is performance rather that promise that claims our praise. ) Or at any rate the words selected will be of equal length and will have similar terminations, as in non verbis, sed armis. [*](Rutil. ii. xii. Not with words, but with arms. )