studio affectu consilio feratur Oratoriae Candidatus ut alicujus in dicendo sit similis quem totâ mente atque omni animo defixus intueatur ille autem sit unus quo aequabilior componatur stilus 2. Translating 3. Frequent exercise of your style and Imitation Usus dicendi Magister est optimus saith pliny junior modo sit diligens primo non celeris stilus The Translating is to be 1. Simply ad verbum but this never further than it well consists with the propriety of the Language into which you translate which you are alwayes diligently to observe as well by inversion and alteration of the phrase for excluding expletives see s. 4. n. 4. and preserving the weightiest words in their due place of which see s. 5. n. 4. as by inserting words necessary as Epithets c. in the English Tongue see s. 6. n. 1. and excluding redundants to the sense in the orderly expression of that Language into which you translate For every tongue from the varying of their Grammar hath a several capacity of expression rather offending in being too concise than too copious it being a reputation to the amplitude of that Language which can signifie more matter in fewer words 2. By rendering verse in prose a little bending the expressions and mitigating the poeticall into an Orator's Stile 3. By contracting things copiously said by others and again amplifying what others have delivered concisely SECT. VIII IN all your compositions after the last hand added to your stile yet to try whether the words be well placed and the numbers well fitted and the phrase enough perspicuous an audible recitation of them is not to be omitted And you are to sound them distinctly and tunably and as you would do before an audience to take the experience of your voice also and after the contrivance of them in the brain and the examining of them again when set down in writing by the eye to bring them at last by their sounds to the test and triall of the ears which have a most acute judgment residing properly in them as also all the other senses have distinct from that of the mind and of which the soul is not capable but by this instrument for what but the ear can measure sounds discovering to her besides the defects of numbers and ill-soundings in the cadence which the soul in the silence of the pen and of composing discerns not discovering also befides these I say many latent obscurities of the stile which seeming clear to the fancy that conceived them as our own things are by our selves more easily understood and again to the eye that easily recollects them that being permanent before it in the paper what passeth away in the sound yet are many times dark and obscure not onely to the Auditor but to the probation of this out-lodging sense of the Composer whose own ears give him almost as impartial a censure as those of other mens concerning the perspicuousness and obscurity smoothness and roughness of his stile In which ear if the Oration please not it is much less effective on the passions Nihil intrare potest in affectum quod in aure tanquam quodam vestibulo statim offendit saith Quintilian and Acerrimum est aurium judicium saith Pliny ita ut oratio quae scripta placet recitata non probetur First then we ought to try our composures this way by which the soul receiving them more remotely conveyed to the ear by the voice and from this returned to her as it were from abroad and that onely in a transient sound sits now as the most disinterested Arbiter and impartial judge of her own works that she can be Which office Pliny the more exactly to perform procured his own compositions to be recited to him by some other than himself But next it is almost necessary also after this examen which may be too partial to our own conceptions to try them before some friend or company or communicate them to them to be perused See Plini's diligence herein lib. 7. ep. 17. Nullum emendandi genus omitto Ac primum quae scripsi mecum ipse pertracto deinde duobus aut tribus lego mox aliis trado annotanda notasque eorum si dubito cum uno rursus aut altero pensito novissimè plaribus recito ac si quid mihi credis tunc acerrimè emendo nam tanto diligentiùs quanto solicitiù◠intendo Optimè autem reverentia metus pudor judicant Et cum multis saepe tractandum quod placere semper omnibus cupias Nec verò ego dum recite laudari sed dum legor cupio For even those who are much inferiour in the same faculty and not able to produce the like may yet judge of what we compose better than our selves and that not onely for cadence perspicuity singularities and indecent affectations c. which as it is somewhat hard for us to discern so it is for them to mistake but also concerning the whole matter disposition and ornaments of our work For 1. first what letteth that those short of us in fancy may exceed us in judgment Or 2. if not yet are we more dis-enabled to this office by self-love to our own productions than they by ignorance c. Therefore our selves also judge perfectlier of these when we have for a while laid them aside and the ardency of love which we have to any new parturition is by some space of time abated after that we have diverted to some other imployment amongst which as amongst children commonly the yongest is most affected Or 3. if not this neither yet since our works are according to other mens capacity and not our judgment estimated and as they are composed by us so are for them we ought perchance in something to depart even from the right where they disallow it It was Pomponius Secundus his saying Provoco ad Populum Plin. lib. 7. Ep. 17. For none is an Orator to himself but others and therefore what is not writ agreeable to their apprehensions is written to small purpose and what is most accommodated to these do not themselves best determine what is writ for others is either to profit or to delight them but nothing in this kind profits much which doth not first please and what best pleaseth them they best judge Therefore since a discreet Orator would onely use what they may like it is also very requisite that he trie how they like what he useth Onely in this he is to observe not singular opinions but some more general consent in their judgement which when in many the same is seldom mistaken SECT. IX IT remains yet that something be said of Pronunciation and Action 1. In the Pronunciation 1. Monotonia i. e. the same continued Tone 2. The same stay upon every word and 3. The same Pause between them are ungraceful and to be avoided Non solùm in membris sed
and words of the like termination being a sound next to Tautologies are to be to a certain distance severed or where they cannot be so avoided for as divided they make in the sentence a very sweet and grateful rythme so concurring they have a very harsh and unpleasing accent Example Clarorum exempla virorum nemo illorum inimicus mihi fuit voluntarius 2. Phil. Gravitate prudentia fide propè singulari Titulis imaginibus signis so almost in all Asyndetons one of them is chosen of a different termination 6. Repeat not in the several clauses of a period words by being expressed in one sufficiently understood in the rest such a conciseness not onely avoiding a kind of Tautology but savouring of a great deal more acuteness force and clearness of conceit frustr a per plura quae per pauciora especially in those things which are not meditated to be spoken which require a looser and diffused style but written to be read Example Defendi rempublicam adolescens non deseram senex Contempsi Catilinae gladios non pertimescam tuos which words common to both clauses are pro libitu sometimes placed in the beginning sometimes in the end sometimes in the middle of the sentence In this Figure Tacitus very frequent serving many nouns and several cases of them with one verb though to some of them it be a little improper rather then entertaining any redundance Essigiem animalis quo monstrante errorem sitimque depulerant sacravere Adversus sontes miseratio oriebatur tanquam non utilitate publica sed in saevitiam unius absumerentur Necare quenquam ex agnitis nefas animasque peremptorum aeternas putant Eadem de infernis persuasio coelestium contrà Cui cauta potius consilia cum ratione quà m prospera ex casu placâ—erant SECT. V. 2. Concerning Periods EVery Period is constituted of two members at least except it be a sentence but to speak alwayes sententiously is not Orator-like since they being single Propositions are not Reasoning and many of them together if without connexions but implicite argumentation at most But since all reasoning the concisest is an Enthymem and must have two Propositions hence must Periods have so too And matter also sententiously delivered is then granted to be more graceful stately and observed when either the whole sense hath a duplication by a varied expression a piece of Rhetorick constantly observed by the gravity of the Hebrew and other Eastern languages and people or some part or word thereof at least is synonymized as of which we would make a fuller impression As Miserat etiam Epistolas Romam jactantes gloriosas c Ne satietate taedio quodam justitia cognoscentium severitasque languesceret vide sect. 6. n. 17. Every Period then consists of two and the best say the Masters of this Art of four branches Now in these t is one of the chiefest Rules in Oratory that there alwayes be a correspondency and exact similitude as far as the matter will permit of every particle of one branch to those of another every reddition ecchoing as it were to the proposition foregoing every accent thereof But if any exceed the last clause rather to be the longer Which is to be observed not onely in the length of sentences but of words among which a multisyllable better answers a monosyllable precedent then a monosyllable a multisyllable Yet monosyllables correspond better to monosyllables as the words fear and love correspond better than fear and affection and words of a like cadence better than of a diverse as the words experience and science correspond better than experience and knowledge Wheresoever therefore you perceive a halting in the Period some expletives than which nothing is easier must be inserted though the sense were before perfect and it makes the reddition more full to use rather synonyma's to a former word than relatives to it It these them c. Ut oratio quae scripta placet recitata non probetur i. e. non place at Which though religion did not commend to us yet civil prudence could not but extol So likewise that matter is many times better divided into several like clauses which may be involv'd all in one As It is great inhumanity to deprive those men who are confessed to have done no wrong of their rights Betther us It is c. to deprive those men of their rights who are confessed to have done no wrong And to advance this parity the voice Active or Passive Tenses Cases c. are as much as may be to be continued the same and unvaried through the several parts of the sentence Which uniformity of phrase much helpeth perspicuity See sect. 7. num 14. Examples of such parity in the branches of a Period Te miror Antoni quorum facta imitere eorum exitus non perhorrescere Alterum peto à vobis ut pro me dicentem benignè alterum ipse efficiam ut contra illum cum dicam attentè audiatis Verum implicata inscitia impudentia est si nec scit quod Augurem nec facit quod pudentem â—ecet Nunc enim nihil legere nihil scribere aut assidenti vacat aut auxio libet And as for whole Periods so for any part thereof doubled when the rest is not a correspondency of the several particles of it as far as the sense will permit is not to be neglected Example The proud oftentation of mens abilities for Invention and the vain affectation of varieties for expressions merit not the name c. Next concerning the placing of the several words in a Period Transposition of them diverse from the Grammatical construction especially in Languages distinguishing Numbers Tenses Cases by their proper terminations by which they become much less liable to ambiguity hath alwayes been practised and is of much use provided that our style by this be not much obscured Fit frequentissimè aspera dura dissoluta hians oratio si ad necessitatem ordinis verba redigantur c. differenda igitur quaedam praesumenda nec aliud potest sormonem facere numerosum quà m opportuna ordinis mutatio Quint. Example Quae res in Civitate duae plurimum possint eae contra nos ambae faciunt in hoc tempore summa gratia eloquentia Of much use I say 1. For the adding of a greater emphasis to words most considerable So since the beginnings and ends make deepest impression there being some stay still before the one and after the other 't is fit the weightiest words should there be placed Therefore 't is usual to commence with things rather than persons with the Accusative rather than the Nominative which also may have more reference to what next precedes again to conclude with that without which the sense is not perfect to keep the Auditor in an attentive suspense till all is said and upon which the rest chiefly depend which is
the participle grieved being either indicative or causal They found him much inclined to passion exceedingly displeased upon this relation c. for him who was much or because he was much inclined to passion to be exceedingly displeased c. Things thus ordered he hasted to conclude for after or whilest that things were thus ordered They suffering patiently he will succour for if they shall suffer patiently c. Or by using some other contractions mentioned before Sect. 4. Num. 9. where is some danger of ambiguity 5. By long deferring the conclusion of a Period Non in longum dilata conclusio Quint. l. 8. cap. 2. which happens either 1. By circumlocution of our meaning and accumulation of empty words out of an affectation to copiousness and fluency the sense thus suffering more darkness from that length which is used for the more perspicuity whereas the matter is more clear where onely nothing is wanting than where something also doth redound Of this Quintilians rule is to be strictly observed especially in what is penned for a Reader Nihil neque desit neque superfluat An usual fault among those who affect good words and expressions is this redundancein their stile who between two equally-good illustrations loth to lose either intrude both Or 2. by interposing many parentheses and accumulating many considerations and circumstances in the same period out of fulness of matter and its pertinency to to that place a disease to which luxuriant wits especially those who would inclose much matter in a little compass are very subject and where invention is a great enemy eloquence by which whereas we strive to say all we do not say so much to the Auditors understanding as if we said less and withall disturb the uniformity of our stile Etiam interjectione i. e. Parenthesi ut medio sermone aliquem inserant sensum impediri solet intellectus nisi quod interponitur breve est Quint. l. 8. c. 2. And Circumstantiis nimio pluribus orationem vestire parit taedium Bacon Where note that it much helpeth for perspicuity not to put terms too far asunder which relate one to another as Nominative and Verb Comparatives c. As What differs he who subverteth the lawes c. from a Tyrant where the matter interposed is very long better premising it thus He who subverteth c. what differs he from a tyrant See Num. 22. 6. By not making a division and sorting of our matter See Sect. 2. 1. Num. 2. or Secondly after this made by the not duly mentioning our Transitions Or Thirdly by prosecuting severally the members of a division without first numbering them all together a frequent fault which capitulation of them especially when we dwell long upon the particulars is first to be made and the branches of it again severally to be repeated as they come to be handled As you may see in some of those examples mentioned before Sect. 6. Num. 22. Amongst all these impediments of perspicuity the chief are 1. a very short stile Brevis esse laboro Obscurus fio Hor. or 2. a stile full of Parentheses For remedying the first 1. In a Laconick stile you must use a multiplication of the like expressions and the substance of what is said briefly must be said more than once onely the expression changed both to make a further explanation of the matter and to leave a perfecter impression in the Auditor Lastly it is to be in effect the same with a long stile Est quaedam partium brevitas quae longam tamen efficit summam Quint. One of those longer periods must be answered with a heap of these smaller and the magnitude of the one equalled with the multitude of the other 2. For the second where the parenthesis is a short necessary explication or interpretation of a word it may be anywhere inserted if not so the matter thereof is 1. Either some praecognitum and then it is best placed next before such a period Or 2. some reason and argument to confirm somewhat there asserted and then it is either to be made part of the sense to fill up the remainder of the period the intended sequence of matter being removed to the next when the parenthesis hath nearer relation or a memorandum being made of it in a by-paper as you are writing it is to be inferred after the period finished Inferred either by a Conjunction Causal Illative Exceptive c. although but yet because for therefore since that as the parenthesis is a reason or a consequent of what is said As Caesar who intended ro revenge his c. invited the Commanders c. where the parenthesis is very long is better changed thus Caesar intended to revenge and therefore invited Or Caesar invited because he intended to revenge Or by the repeating that word of the former period to which the parenthesis appertains and so joyning the parenthesis to it after the period As Dabitur non cubiculum Principis sed ipsum Principem cernere in publico in populo cui locorum quinque milliâ— ad ecit c. sedentem where the parenthesis happens to be very long is better changed thus in populo sedentem Populo cui locorum quinque millia adjecit c For all parentheses that are not explications are mostwhat aggravations unto and elegant gradations or reflections upon what is formerly said and since they are so and may be so well husbanded this ingrafting of several matters into one another by parenthesis if it argues a good wit it shews a weak and unthrifty Orator whose orderly production of his matter is one of his greatest perfections besides the regard he is to have to uniformity of stile and the intellect of his Auditor who much better discerns things severed than many intwisted together and offered all at once in a croud to his examination Or 3. lastly if the parenthesis be long and the matter thereof can neither well be premised nor deferred the words preceding the parenthesis are to be again repeated and resumed after it that the perspicuity of the sense no way be lost As Those persecutions which have bin c. those long persecutions I say have not extinguisht c. Thus may Parentheses and the intertexture of various matter many ways be prevented but not without the inconvenience of multiplication of words and further extension of the discourse Note that Parentheses are not half so troublesom to a Reader as to an Auditor because they are marked out in the paper to the eye but cannot be so in the voice to the ear therefore in compositions which are to be spoken they are much more carefully to be avoided After all the Rules of Oratory well studied and known the practice of three things is yet further necessary unto you for the acquiring this Art 1. The frequent and assiduous reading of some Authors and pieces that are eloquent using rather some one that is excellent than many Prono
commonly a Verb a Participle or Adjective words much-what of the same power and all of much more than the rest being words expressing some action or passion about the rest Verbo sensum claudere multò si compositio patiatur optimum est In vrbis enimsermonis vis inest Quint. l. 9. c. 4. Vide exemp sect. 5. num 12. 2. For the apter Connexion that so those words might be placed together which have neerer dependance one of another as the oblique cases alwayes have on others without which location doubt many times happens in tongues that are in their Cases and Tenses invariable so the confirmation of any thing claims the next place to it with an Orator who above all things ought to regard perspicuity 3. For the sweeter Symphony and Accent So the Period is handsomly interwoven and gravely suspended by Interpositions between generally all Correspondents which as also Omoptota's accord better being severed So Nominatives and Verbs Accusative and Verb Substantive and Adjective are many times with more elegancy dis-joyned 4. Words either the same or several of the same termination or in the unlearned Languages words of the same part of speech and relating to one another whether Substantives Adjectives Participles or Verbs being artificially disposed and interchanged do confer a much better Rythme and Harmony to the speech and a greater correspondency or sometimes a variation pleasanter than it to the clauses And this several wayes 1. Either when by them the beginnings of the several clauses accord As Liber offensis liber gratiâ liber secundis casibus adversis caret Habebat puer mannulos multos vinctos solutos habebat canes majores minoresque habebat luscinias psittacos merulas So in words of like termination Ubi aut jucundiùs morarentur quà m in patriâ aut pudicitiùs continerentur quà m sub oculis parentum c. 2. Or the Ends accord Poenos Populus Romanus justitia vincit armis vincit liberalitate vinicit Quis eos postulavit Appius Quis produxit Appius c. So in words of like sound Nunc enim nihil legere nihil scribere aut assidenti vacat aut anxio libet Recta ingenia debilitat verecundia perveâ—sa confirmat audacia Ipse est studiosus literatus etiam disertus Puer simplicitate comitate juvenis senex gravitate 3. Or both the beginnings and ends of both accord Ut est in summa avaritia sumptuosus in summa infamia gloriosus c. 4. Or lastly the beginning of the former with the end of the latter and the end of the former with the beginning of the latter Thiis inversion being sometimes more grateful for its varying As Multa super Priamo rogitans super Hectore multa Bene est mihi quia tibi bene est So in like-ending words Quid autem illo aut fidelius amico aut sodale jucundius Saluti eorum potius consulam quà m voluntati Quae in Senatu saepe ab inimicis ab improbis saepe jactata sunt Detestanda avaritia illius qui tam multa concupiscebat cùm haberet super vacua tam multa Although these transpositions are more incident to the learned tongues yet of them the modern are not wholly destitute wch because they be most are not made use of or never used by design but onely by chance It perhaps may not be amiss here to set you down some examples of those which our own Tongue is capable of which I have borrowed out of Hooker one in our Language very eloquent Where you may see that we also have a graceful liberty 1. Of observing many of those elegancies in the correspondent beginnings and endings of sentences exemplified before in the Latine tongue where the apt disposing of words of the same part of speech and that have some relation to one another especially of Verbs and Participles is many times very Emphaticall and Graceful Example It is but justice to exact of you and perverseness it is in you to deny c. Your teachings we heard we read your writings Gross for men of this quality wise and grave men They thought it better to be somewhat hardly yoked at home than for ever abroad discredited the exercise of this kind of judgement our Saviour required in the Jews in them of Beraea the Scripture commendeth it wherein they which did impose were holy and they unrighteous which did bear the burden I need not give instance in any one sentence so alledged for that I think the instance in any alledged otherwise a thing not easie to be given They accuse you and against you they plead For one kind as many reasons may be brought as for another Though in which we are oftener than they mistaken They will sell your bodies your wives c. all these things and if there be ought else c. they will sell these be the two fair supporters c. either the inducing tyrannie or the reducing Shewing how good how gainful how happy it must needs be How shall a man know to do himself this right how to perform this honorable duty None hath brought ceremony on more or more driven holiness out And by how much the less contentious it is by so much it will be more Christian 2. Of ending many times with the Verb or Adjective For in a Civil State more in-sight and in those affairs more experience must needs be granted them Forced to confess that with whom the truth is they know not That evil spirit which is even in his illusions strong As the simple sort are even when they see no apparent cause jealous His vehement requests herein as touching both points were satisfied Some things are so plain that truth from falshood is most easily discerned which thing though in it self most true yet is in your defence most weak Yea they are of their due and deserved sufferings no less proud than c. Be found unto all kinds of knowledge a Step-mother 3. Of placing the Accusative Case and so the Infinitive Mood before the Nominative and before the Verb. To do as the Church of Geneva did the learned in some other Churches must needs be more willing somewhat needs ye must do Dangerous it was c. The other they would rather accept Two things of principal moment there are 4. Of dividing and transposing the Substantive and Adjective The description is as suted best to those times typical and shadomy yet we shall find them broken well-nigh all by c. Practising to subdue the mighty things of this world by things weak And the jurisdictive power in the Church there ought to be none at all c. Wayes of peaceable conclusion there are but these two certain so that of peace and quietnesse there is not any way possible As for any other means withour this they seldom prevail 5. Of placing the oblique cases with their signs or prepositions of to from c. which