[39]
The narration of a
humorous story may often be used with clever effect
and is a device eminently becoming to an orator.
Good examples are the story told of Caepasius and
Fabricius, which Cicero tells in the pro Cluentio, or
the story told by Caelius of the dispute between
Decimus Laelius and his colleague when they were
both in a hurry to reach their province first. But
in all such cases the whole narrative must possess
elegance and charm, while the orator's own contribution to the story should be the most humorous
element. Take for instance the way in which Cicero
gives a special relish to the flight of Fabricius.1
1 pro Cluent. xxi. 58.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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.