[25]
direct my attention to
special figures employed in expressing anger, in
entreating for mercy, or appealing to pity, but it
does not follow that expressions of anger, appeals
to pity or entreaties for mercy are in themselves
figures. Cicero, it is true, includes all ornaments of
oratory under this head, and in so doing adopts, as
it seems to me, a middle course. For he does not
hold that all forms of expression are to be regarded
as figures, nor, on the other hand, would he restrict
the term merely to those expressions whose form
varies from ordinary use. But he regards as
[p. 363]
figurative all those expressions which are especially
striking and most effective in stirring the emotions
of the audience. He sets forth this view in two of
his works, and that my readers may have the
opportunity of realising the judgment of so high
an authority, I subjoin what he says verbatim.1
1 The two works are the Orator (xxxix. 134 sqq.）—see sect. and the de (Oratore III. lii. 201, which is here quoted.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.