Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

[*](Phil. II. xxv. 63. That you were compelled to vomit the next day in the presence of the Roman people. ) Transfer the last word to some other position and the effect will be decreased. For the whole passage is made to converge to a point at the end; the disgraceful circumstance of his being forced to vomit has been mentioned and the audience expect nothing more, when the orator adds yet a further revolting feature of the case, namely that he was still unable to retain his food the day after the carouse.

Domitius Afer was in the habit of transferring words at the cadence of the sentence solely for the purpose of harshening his rhythm, more especially in his exordia, as, for example, in his defence of Cloatilla, where he says gratias again continuo, [*](I will thank you at once.) and in his defence of Laelia, where he says, eis utrisque apud te iudicem periclitatur Laelia. [*]( Owing to both of these circumstances Laelia runs the risk of betng condemned with you for judge. ) To such an extent did he avoid the voluptuous effect of soft and delicate rhythm, that he actually interposed obstacles to break the natural harmonies of his language.

There is a further drawback resulting from the faulty arrangement of words, with which we are all familiar, namely, that it leads to ambiguity. The above remarks will, I think, suffice as a brief summary of the points which require notice in connexion with order. If the order is

v7-9 p.525

faulty, our language will be deservedly liable to the charge of lacking artistic construction, however compact and rhythmical it may be. The next point for consideration is connexion, that is to say connexion between words, commata, cola and periods. [*](See § 22) For all these have merits and defects which turn on the way in which they are linked together.

I will follow the natural order and will begin by pointing out that there are some blemishes so obvious that even the uneducated regard them as worthy of censure; I refer to occasions when two consecutive words form some unseemly expression by the coalescence of the last syllable of the first word and the first of the second. [*](cp. VIII. 45. ) Again, there are occasions when vowels clash. When this happens, the language is broken by gaps and interstices and seems to labour. The most unpleasing effects of sound will be produced by the juxtaposition of the same long vowels, while the worst hiatus occurs between vowels which are pronounced hollow- or open-mouthed. [*](i.e. A, O, U. )