ought not to be learn'd P. There is a great deal of difference betwixt learning this and the other plain familiar Latine which is as it were the ground-work in a Language and must only be learn'd out of Books because there only you can have those Idiotisms which are proper to every subject and occasion and without which you cannot deliver your mind in a familiar discourse without the censure of affectation D. I have observed already that it is so but pray Sir what may be the reason of it P. Because expressions of fancy being not in ordinary way of delivery but such as scorn the common road and beaten path of Language raising themselves aloft as it were and soring above the pitch of ordinary parts and wits he that useth them will always make shew of ostentation of Parts Wit or Language above other men which kind of ostentation in words is called affectation Now on the other side in a set Speech or Verses or Books it is both supposed and expected that a man should take pains to express himself above the ordinary rate of vulgar words and phrases and therefore in such cases there is no fear to be censur'd for affectation if it be done with discretion and the stile suited to the matter in hand You see then the necessity of knowing all these vulgar forms of speech which I call Idiotisms In this regard amongst the rest that you may speak without affectation which as I told you before you have no other way to judge of so well as by your own Language wherein you are best acquainted and therefore when a man speaks with affectation and when not because you do know when he useth Idiotisms and when not which in Latine or any other Language which you are not yet very well exâ—reâ—s'd and familiar in you cannot be so sensible of not knowing so exactly for want of use what Phrases are Idiotisms and what are expressions But when by diligent and frequent observation of your Authors you can distinguish them you will be as sensible of the affectation in Latine as you are of it in English which you may also apply to the distinguishing of propriety of speech in a Language which many are not sensible of in Latine or any other forreign Language for want of use and familiarity of it to know what is proper and what improper But to one that is exercised in a Language as he ought to be such impropriety of speech is as sensible as it is to you in your own Language As for example Look how strange and uncouth it is in English to say Be safe friend instead of saying How do you Sir or to say You come most wished for instead of saying You are very welcome or to say I do not hear it being merry instead of saying I am sorry to hear it so uncoath it is in any other Language to those that are well exercised in it to use any phrase or manner of speech which is not usually received Now to return from the digression to our purpose that Idiotisms are only to be learned out of books in Latine because it being not now vulgarly spoken as most other Languages are you have none other way to know what an Idiotism is and what not But for a quaint stile and elegant Latine the learning whereof you desire to be informed in though it may be and always is much helped by books yet doth it more depend on a mans peculiar fancy and genius D. Sir I would desire you if you please first to shew me how it depends upon a mans fancy and genius and then how it may be helped by reading P. I shall for the first then You must know that all elegancy of speech and quaintness of phrase especially in respect of the signification of words howsoever it is very large and in some manner infinite as we may perceive by that infinite variety of expression of the same thing which we find in Orators and Poets none of them ever using or at least frequently the same expression which either themselves or others have had before yet is there not one expression in all this large variety of Language and elegancy which is not deduced to one of the four Tropes usually taught in Rhetorick Metonymia Ironia Metaphora Synecdoche as you will easily perceive by a little observation Now you know that these Tropes howsoever they be taught by Art which in this as in other things may be helpful to nature Yet we do find by common experience that he that is not naturally inclin'd by his own genius to make use of those Tropes in his expression will never be brought by Art to any considerable perfection in it We see in common English some naturally express themselves by Similitudes and Metaphors which they never studied for others likewise by contraries or Ironies and so of the rest as their peculiar fancy leads them And he that can properly once express himself in plain Phrase will easily as he hath a mind raise himself to a figurative expression As for example He that can say such an one hath a great opinion of himself can if he have a mind to express himself better say one is swoln or puft up with self-conceit He that can say such an one desires and seeks after honour can say if he have a mind such an one hunts or pants after honour or by an Ironie such an one cares not at all for honour or by a Metonymy such an one desires to be cring'd to or stood bare to by others and so in any other For any one that once knows the true and proper signification of words can easily make use of them for any tropical and figurative expression D. This Sir I now fully conceive viz. how this elegancy of speech depends upon the fancy I desire now that you will shew me what use may be made of books to this purpose which was the second thing P. In attaining to elegancy of speech you are not to make the same nor so much use of books to this purpose as some ignorantly do who will not use any form of speech or expression but what they find in some Latine Authors so that their Latine is nothing else but a cento or a patcht composition piec'd together out of several books But such as those know not the difference between an Idiotism and an expression The first whereof are indeed to be had out of books the other from the fancy There are again others who though they do not tye themselves so strictly to the expression of their books yet are they so desirous to bring out of themselves what they can that many times they bring in things very incongruously and improperly which either express more or less than the matter requires or at least break that integrity and evenness which ought to be in a stile A third and last sort there are of others who because they have some confused notion that elegancy of
becomes an Idiotisme as were easie to shew by examples in our own Language Our common form of speech used to be Sir I shall make bold to come and see you by and by After some made use of this as a more elegant and civil expression Sir I shall take the boldness to wait upon you which is now grown as common as the other and therefore is no longer an Expression but an Idiotism We used to say I do verily believe such a thing then came in these and the like expressions I verily perswade my self I am very confident or I do assume my self of such and such a thing and the like which however at first when they were new they were Expressions yet being now grown common and familiar they pass for Idiotisms Nay it is very probable that most of our common Expressions and Phrases which are now most common and vulgar were quaint and new Expressions and made Idiotisms by common use in which conditions they shall continue till other new ones come in their places and usurp their rooms which I conceive to be the chief if not the only cause of that vicisitude and change which Languages are obnoxious unto as well as other things For whilst we naturally grow weary of old things and delight in novelties it comes to pass that old words and Phrases give place to new ones and perhaps old Antiquated ones after some Ages like old fashions come into request again as Horace tells us Multa renascentur quae jam cecidére cadent que Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula si volet usus Quem penes arbitrium est jus norma loquendi D. This being then the difference as you have shown me betwixt an Expression and an Idiotism I suppose that it will be consequent to say that whensoever a man will speak or write a familiar ordinary style he must use Idiotisms which are common Expressions and when he would speak or write a style more raised or quaint he must use Expressions i. e. such forms of speech that are not made vile cheap as it were by commun Use P. Very right and as we laugh at him who in any thing that requires Elegancy as in set speech or the like useth common homely expressions letting his style as we say creep upon the ground So on the contrary he is as ridiculous that in common and ordinary talk affects strong lines and bombast phrases as we call them which perhaps would fit well in another place D. To return again to my question concerning phrase-Phrase-books it seems Sir that you do not allow any one of those Printed ones but only such as are of my gathering P. There is one notwithstanding which may be made some Use of and that is Erasmus de copia verborum who according to his extraordinary perfection in that Language hath briefly gathered together in that little Book under a certain number of pertinent heads most of the considerable Idiotisms of that Language and the way to benefit by that Book would be now and then to spend an hour or two in turning them into English and transcribing them into the Note-book after the same manner which I prescribed you for the reading of your Authors D. Is there no other Book of that nature that can be made use of P. There is one more but not altogether of that nature which I must needs commend to you D. What is that I pray Sir P. Laurentius Valla de elegantiis which I would advise you by all means to joyn with the reading of the prescribed Authors for he hath in a great part done to your hand what you read these Authors for gaving gathered a great part of these Idiotisms and proprieties together D. How Sir hath he gathered them better than Erasmus P. He goes in a way plain different from him Erasmus only or chiefly gathers Phrases and Sentences but Valla hath taken the most pains in shewing the true and proper signification of particular words and the right Use of those particulars which I spoke of before and indeed in these things as much as any consists the Idiom of a Language D. Pray Sir what will be the best way to read his Book with advantage P. Why having read over a Chapter which commonly is very short and treats but of one word or Idiotism contract the substance of it as briefly as you can and so write it down in your Paper-book D. Must I write it down in Latine or in English P. Only the Phrase or Word it self in Latine but all the Explication of it as much as needs in English Take for an example if you will the particular Idiom of the Verb Committo which besides its ordinary signification it often hath and is then followed with ut and sometimes with Quamobrem When it hath ut after it I perceive by his example it signifies the same in this Idiotism that we express by this English Phrase Be sure you do not such or such a thing and when it hath Quamobrem the same that this I will be sure never to give any occasion why I should not do so or so which you may set down in short in your Paper-book thus Lib. 3. Cap. 56. Committo with ut or Quamobrem Non committam ut mihi dicendum sit non putaram I will be sure never to be put to say Non putaram Nihil committam quamobrem non eò veniam I will be sure never to give any occasion why I should not come there or which may hinder me from coming there And thus have you a brief sum of the Chapter and may in the same manner contract the rest according to your own fancy some one way and some another but of this I shall also give a larger example apart for I would have you read these Books of Valla very diligently because they will save you a great deal of labour in collecting at random and indeed Books of that nature are the chief helps for getting of Languages And I shall advise you that what Language soever you learn and desire to be exact in that you will get such a one of that Language if it be to be had In Latine you have this In Greek you have Vigerus his Idiotisms In Italian French and Spanish you have them more plentifully But so much for this I have now I suppose satisfied you concerning phrase-Phrase-books what other question would you ask me D. When you first mentioned Valla de elégantiis I was in hope you were going to speak something concerning the manner of attaining elegant Latine which before I desired to know of you but seeing his Book gives you not occasion to speak of it I make bold to put you in mind of it again as you then willed me P. You desire to know how one may write or speak quaint elegant Latine D. IS r first whether it may be learn'd or no and then how for you seem'd before to intimate that it cannot or
speak English know what Phrases they have made choice of to be in common use in France Italy or Spain or what are the common Phrases in German Turkish or Persian Language and as impossible would it be for them to know what ours are P. So that now you must confess that if one of any of these Nations should come to learn our Language and know the signification of all English words yet he might fall upon as uncouth a Phrase as that which I propounded D. I am now convinced that he may for how shall he know that these are in use more than any other in our Language having one perhaps clear differing from ours in his own Language and probably ours will seem as strange to him as his does to us P. No question but it will But this which you rightly apprehend will be more clear by an instance or two Suppose Latine were spoke in Italy as once it was here comes one of that Country into England and Latine is the Language He hath desire upon occasion to speak the same in effect which we have already propounded for an example The manner of speech in use in his Language for the purpose is this Rogo te Amice mihi Virgilium tuum ad horam unam aut alteram utendum des eum tibi reddam integrum Which he will probably translate into our Language knowing no other way to utter his mind in particular so that he willcome to you and say I intreat thee my Friend that thou maist give to me to be used thy Virgil to one hour or another and I shall render him to you entire D. I cannot indeed well conceive how he should speak any otherwise being ignorant of our usual manner of speech in this particular but surely we should count it very strange English P. If a Frenchman should come he would have some other kind which yet would differ as much from our English and seem as strange the same you may understand of an Italian of a Spaniard of a Dutchman or any other whatsoever all would be different and all uncouth A Frenchman would say My Master I pray you of lending me your Virgil for an hour or two c. A Dutchman would say Do me though amabo your Virgil an hour two three and I will give you it back again unhurt Then see how these differ both from one another and you need not think there is less variety in the rest The same variety will appear in any other phrase If a Latinist should ask you how you do i. e. salute you at the first meeting he would say according to his own Dialect Salve Amice Be safe Friend A Frenchman would say Good day my Master how do you bear your self An Italian How stands your Lordship or how stand you A Dutchman Good day my Master how goes it with your health whereas they must say if they would speak good English How do you do Sir I am glad to see you well for the other are their familiar expressions and this is ours By what I have said you see that the same thing may be expressed with infinite variety and that some few of those ways are used in a Language and all the rest are obsolete and uncouth So that to the perfect knowledge of a Language is required besides the signification of the words and the grammatical joining them together that you acquaint your self with the use and custome of a Language by observing what manner of Phrases and Forms of Speech are used in it upon such occasions and in such subjects which is the business the greatest labour that belongs to a Language This propriety and use of such and such Phrases is called the Idiom or Propriety of a Tongue and such manner of usual Phrases and Expressions are called Idiotisms and he that hath attained to that perfection in any Tongue that he can use these in their due places without uncouth and unusual Phrases is said to speak pure i. e. properly or as we say for example good English good Latine good French or the like And now having told you what good Latine is it remains that according to your desire I give you some directions for the attaining of it D. I perceive that I have a greater business in hand than I dreamed of for the attainment of Latine I thought that now being an indifferent Grammarian and able as I supposed hitherto to make a piece of ordinary Latine indifferent well I had not wanted much of a perfect Latinist but now I see plainly that there is yet such a task for me behind before I can arrive ever to write good plain ordinary Latine that I am ready to despair of attaining to it P. Why should you say so D. Why Sir Because I see as you have convinced me that every Language and particularly Latine hath for every particular occasion and conception a peculiar phrase and idiom different to all ours all which to observe and be acquainted with considering the multitude and multiplicity of occasions subjects and conceptions that will occur must needs be too long a task to be performed in any reasonable time or pains P. If that be all take a good heart do but take along with you a consideration or two which I shall give you and you will confess the difficulty is not so great as you imagine it to be at the first sight First then you must know that a great part of this long task which you so fear is over already you have with your first Rudiments taken in a great many of these Idiotisms in learning your Grammar and other School Authors and for what is still behind assure your self that one quarter of a year well imploy'd in the way which I shall set you will dispatch so much of it that the remainder will be delightsome and such as may be pursued with pleasure Again you must know that very few do ever attain to such an exactness no not in their own Mother-tongue as to be acquainted with the several Idiotisms thereof but as he is best which knows most so he may be accounted a Master for perfection in a Language who knows so much as he can express himself in proper phrase at least in some measure upon any subject whatsoever not I say as though any one could know them all for there are many times several expressions not a few and all proper and usual for the same thing all which you will not stand in need of but only one or two of the choicest and most receiv'd D. What Books will you have me to read to observe those Idiotisms out of P. That was the next thing which I intended to instruct you in you have already seen that good Language and good Latine are several things D. I have so and conceive that I must first learn to make good Latine and then good Language or elegant Latine P. That must undoubtedly be the way and here it is clear
that in common Schools they go preposterously to work that make Latine first or at least their chiefest exercises for their Scholars Theams and Verses which require elegancy as well as propriety whereas they should at first exercise them well in a plain and proper stile by making Epistles or Dialogues or telling of Stories and making Relations by which they might learn to speak purely and properly upon every subject for when they can do that elegancy of speech will come of it self being a thing that depends upon fancy and invention for by this preposterous course of theirs it comes to pass that if you put one of those who have been taught after this method to make a Theam or a Speech they will bring you a piece of stuff patcht up of several expressions scrap'd together out of Poets and Orators which if every Bird had its own feather would have nothing left but here and there a bald Anglicism and if you put them to write an Epistle of any familiar matter or make a relation of some occasional subject you will quickly see how far they are from good Latinists for there you shall have nothing of them but English phrases in Latine words unless they can bring in ever and anon one of their Oratorical or Poetical expressions which is very incongruous to the matter D. I must needs confess that it is as you say but would you not have Scholars taught to write elegant Latine as well as proper P. Remember to ask me of that again by and by I will first dispatch what I am in hand withall about plain and proper Latine which I say must first be learn'd before you learn elegancy of speech If you were to teach one of these Strangers which I mentioned English would you first teach him to write strong lines as we call them before he could use proper expressions D. Methinks that is as if one should go about to teach a Child to dance before you teach it to go P. A Musician must first learn Plain song before he come to Division and Discant A Limner must first learn to draw before he learn to paint and a Linguist must first learn to speak in usual and proper phrase before he come to a queint stile and strong lines but I promised to tell you what Authors must be read for gaining this propriety of phrase which must first be aimed at D. I Sir I pray do so P. They first then in this kind are all Tullys works except his Orations D. May I read any of the other works indifferently P. No there must be choice used in them too his Epistles are the plainest and are most fit for this purpose containing in them all manner of subjects incident and consisting of a plain and familiar stile such as we use in common discourse The other as his Offices De senectute de amicitia de natura Deorum de finibus de oratore Tuscul Questions do now and then rise above a quotidian stile which is easily discernable Among these you may chuse out such subjects as you desire most to benefit your self in as for example If you desire to be well furnish'd with expressions for Disputations which is a thing very necessary and commendable take his Tusculan Questions where he brings in meer disputing Dialoguewise and so in other subjects D. Pray Sir why do you except his Orations for none are more usually read in Schools than they P. The Orations are of a quaint and lofty stile and yet not to be medled with till you have made good progress in the first kind of Latine and whosoever would have their Scholars learn Latin out of them sooner indeed before they be better grounded than they usually are in common Grammar Schools will never make good Latinists D. You have already given me convincing reasons for that What other Books do you commend besides Tully P. Tully alone were almost sufficient being so large and full of variety for all manner of subjects But yet for diversity and to supply what is wanting in him for common ordinary talk Terence or Erasmus his Colloquies the first especially for all manner of familiar discourse the latter both for telling of Stories and Relations and for discourse which to do well is one of the most difficult things in a Language To these it would not be amiss to add a Book or two of Caesars Commentaries which will fit you with all propriety of speech concerning Souldiery Wars descriptions of Countreys and other terms of History which you will scarce find so conveniently in any other For as he calls his Book a Commentary that is a Journal or short relation of passages so he is content to make a bare relation of the carriage and managery of his own War with several other Occurrences without any quaintness of Phrase or flourishes of Rhetorick the only impediment of learning a Language D. You have told me what Books I must read I would now desire you to give me some rules for the profitable reading of them P. That I shall scarce need to do if you have well observed what I have already told you concerning the nature and propriety of a Language it will be necessary in this reading of Authors for the better observing the Idiom of every sentence and form of speech to turn it into English as you go along comparing it with the idiom of your own Language and noting their difference down in a Paper-book for that purpose as oft as you meet with any thing observable that is with any thing you did not know before or which you might have failed in had you been to make that into Latine without the knowledge of that Latin Idiotisme as for example read me any Sentence out of your Terence D. Where shall I read P. Any where read the beginning of the second Act and the third Scene of Andria D. Quid igitur sibi vult pater cur simulat ego dicam tibi P. Quid igitur sibi vult pater How will you English that D. what is my Father's meaning or what doth my Father intend P. Suppose you had had this English to have put into Latine how would you have done it D. I believe scarce as it is here if I had not known otherwise the Latine phrase before I should have said perhaps Quaenam est intentio patris or so P. It is not improbable you would take then your Paper-book and write down Quid igitur What means he then adding to it such a caution as this when it is needful not tum not quaenam est intentio ejus But of this kind of exercise I shall give you a large example apart hereafter out of which you will better understand the nature of it than by any precepts D. But methinks Sir that it should be an infinite and endless task to go through a Book on this fashion for I shall probably find some difference in the Idiom and consequently somthing to observe
generally averse from Learning and will commonly learn no more than they needs must are yet ordinarily brought to be good Latinists in four years space one that would set himself about it with study and earnestness would do as much in one year or two at the most P. No question but he might I knew a Boy once and one not of the largest capacity neither that having been taught to Write and Read and having learn'd his Accidence with some part of Propria quae maribus gave over School at ten years of Age for the space of five years his Parents being but of mean estate and intending nothing less than to make him a Schollar to which notwithstanding he having a desire got his Friends o let him go to School again when he was about 15 years of age after which in a year and a halfs time he learnt both Greek and Latine and went to the University though perhaps not so well grounded as he ought to have been but I am sure as well as most go out of Country-Schools and had he been set in a right way might probably with the same pains have attained to greater perfection in the same time though I say his Masters care was as commendable as his own diligence D. Sir I have heard that you got your Learning in as short a space P. It matters not much who it was Thus much take from me that it is very true and my end in relating of it is to let you see that learning of a Language however it may seem at first as it doth I perceive to you a thing very laborious and difficult yet with a little pains and time rightly imployed will be found otherwise And if from the first Rudiments such a time will serve sor some proportionable attainment of it how much less will serve such an one as you that have already thus far proceeded in it D. Sir your discourse hath now delivered me from that discouraging apprehension which I had of the difficulty and tediousness of the business So that now I can resolve to settle to it as a thing facile only I shall desire you to give me leave to ask you another question or two which I suppose will not be altogether impertinent P. You cannot please me better than to ask me questions in whatsoever may concern your own improvement and therefore ask freely both now and at other times whatsoever you desire satisfaction in D. Sir I suppose this Note-book which you would have me make for my Idiotismes will be but a kind of phrase-Phrase-book now seeing there is great variety of these Printed and to my hand whether would not one of them serve me as well P. By no means and that for many Reasons First Because though there be many kinds of them yet none are made in that manner which I ascribe most advantagious because they do not give the particular signification of every Phrase by it self nor set down the difference of Idiotisms which is chiefly to be observed but only put down own Sentence or Conception in general and reduce many Phrases to it as to an head or common place which have any affinity with it Secondly Because many times they confound Idiotismes with Elegancies or expressions of fancies which if they be not distinguished you shall never find any end of your labour For Idiotismes though they be not few in number which belong to a Language yet is the number of them certain and definite But expressions of fancy as I have told you already are infinite and every where various and different according to the genius and fancy of the Author D. How may I know an Idiotisme from an expression of fancy P. Ask me by and by and I shall tell you Thirdly My third Reason against your common Phrase-book is because they only gather such Idiotismes as consist in whole clauses or sentences neglecting those which consist in single words and small particulars as Adverbs Conjunctions Praepositions c. which are not less if not more to be regarded as you will find by diligent observation as I shall shew in those large examples which I promised you Fourthly My last Reason is because they are gathered to your hand already for the main advantage which you reap by this exercise consists more in the gathering of them than in having them already gathered because this by little and little imprints them in your mind and the frequent meeting with the same Phrase or Idiotisme in your reading and comparing it with others which are allyed to it fixeth them so in your memory as to have them ready at hand upon occasion which you shall never have by a Printed Phrase-book though you should get it without book These are my Reasons why I account them insufficient Before I go any further I shall satisfie your demands concerning the difference betwixt an Idiotisme and an expression of fancy D. That indeed I would willingly know P. The difference in short is no more but this as I have in a manner told you before An Idiotisme is generally used of every one in plain and familiar speech An expression for so I shall henceforth call it to distinguish it from an Idiotisme every man hath or may have peculiar to himself As for example In English if I should say thus I have not received a Letter from you this twelve month this were an Idiotisme because a common and usual Phrase which every man in familiar speech useth upon the same occasion But if I should say The Sun hath once compleated his yearly Circuit since you grac'd me with a Letter from you this were an expression because any man may form the like according to his own fancy As another might have said in the same sence The Sun hath made his annual progress through all his Caelestial Houses since I broke up the Seal of one of your Letters Another thus 〈…〉 run through all the lines in the Zoâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 saw one from you Another thus 〈…〉 now the second August since I saw your hand at a Letter Another thus You write Letters to me as men do Almanacks once a year and so a thousand ways according as every mans fancy leads him I suppose I need not shew you the same over again in Latine you will easily understand from what I have already said that whether in English or Latine or what Language soever the true and only difference betwixt an Idiotisme and expression is that the one is common and familiar in all mens mouths upon such a subject and the other used but of one or at least borrowed of him by some few others as we see men will many times make use again and again of an expression which they like having had it from the mouth of another or met with it in some Book And so essential is the difference which I have already laid down that if any expression of fancy come to be vulgarly used it ceaseth to be an expression and