3.2. How our writing and speaches publike ought to be figuratiue, and if they be not doe greatly disgrace the cause and purpose of the speaker and writer.
Bvt as it hath bene alwayes reputed a great fault to vse figuratiue speaches
foolishly and indiscretly, so is it esteemed no lesse an imperfection in mans
vtterance, to haue none vse of figure at all, specially in our writing and
speaches publike, making them but as our ordinary talke, then which nothing
can be more vnsauourie and farre from all ciuilitie. I remember in the first
yeare of Queenes Maries raigne a Knight of Yorkshire was chosen speaker of
the Parliament, a good gentleman and wise, in the affaires of his shire, and
not vnlearned in the lawes of the Realme, but as well for some lack of his
teeth, as for want of language nothing
well spoken, which at that time and businesse was most behooffull for
him to haue bene: this man after he had made his Oration to the Queene;
which ye know is of course to be done at the first assembly of both houses;
a bencher of the Temple both well learned and very eloquent, returning from
the Parliament house asked another gentleman his frend how he liked M.
Speakers Oration: many quoth th'other, me thinks I heard not a better
alehouse tale told this seuen yeares. This happened because the good old
Knight made no difference betweene an Oration or publike speach to be
deliuered to th'eare of a Princes Maiestie and state of a Realme, then he
would haue done of an ordinary tale to be told at his table in the contrey,
wherein all men know the oddes is very great. And though graue and wise
counsellours in their consultations doe not vse much superfluous eloquence,
and also in their iudiciall hearings do much mislike all scholasticall
rhetoricks: yet in such a case as it may be (and as this Parliament was) if
the Lord Chancelour of England or Archibishop of Canterbury himselfe were
to speake, he ought to doe it cunningly and eloquently, which can not be
without the vse of figures: and neuerthelesse none impeachment or blemish
to the grauitie of their persons or of the cause: wherein I report me to them
that knew Sir
Nicholas Bacon Lord keeper of the great Seale, or now
Lord Treasorer of England, and haue bene conuersant with their speaches
made in the Parliament house & Starrechamber. From whose lippes I
haue seene to proceede more graue and naturall eloquence, then from all the
Oratours of Oxford or Cambridge, but all is as it is handled, and maketh no
matter whether the same eloquence be naturall to them or artificiall
(though I thinke rather naturall) yet were they knowen to be learned and not
vnskilfull of th'arte, when they were yonger men: and as learning and arte
teacheth a scholar to speake, so doeth it also teach a counsellour, and
aswell an old man as a yong, and a man in authoritie, aswell as a priuate
person, and a pleader aswell as a preacher, euery man after his sort and
calling as best becommeth: and that speach which becommeth one, doth not
become another, for maners of speaches, some serue to work in excesse,
some in mediocritie, some to graue purposes, some to light, some to be
short and
brief, some to be long, some to stirre vp affections, some to pacifie and
appease them, and these common despisers of good vtterance, which resteth
altogether in figuratiue speaches, being well vsed whether it come by
nature or by arte or by exercise, they be but certaine grosse ignorance of
whom it is truly spoken
scientia non habet inimicum nisi ignorantem.
I haue come to the Lord Keeper Sir
Nicholas Bacon, & found him
fitting in his gallery alone with the works of
Quintilian before him, in
deede he was a most eloquent man, and of rare learning and wisedome, as
euer I knew England to breed, and one that ioyed as much in learned men and
men of good witts. A Knight of the Queenes priuie chamber, once intreated a
noble woman of the Court, being in great fauour about her Maiestie (to
th'intent to remoue her from a certaine displeasure, which by sinister
opinion she had conceiued against a gentleman his friend) that it would
please her to heare him speake in his own cause, & not to condemne him
vpon his aduersaries report: God forbid said she, he is to wise for me to
talke with, let him goe and satisfie such a man naming him: why quoth the
Knight againe, had our Ladyship rather heare a man talke like a foole or like
a wise man? This was because the Lady was a litle peruerse, and not
disposed to reforme her selfe by hearing reason, which none other can so
well beate into the ignorant head, as the well spoken and eloquent man. And
because I am so farre waded into this discourse of eloquence and figuratiue
speaches, I will tell you what hapned on a time my selfe being present when
certaine Doctours of the ciuil law were heard in a litigious cause betwixt a
man and his wife: before a great Magistrat who (as they can tell that knew
him) was a man very well learned and graue, but somewhat fowre, and of no
plausible vtterance: the gentlemans chaunce, was to say: my Lord the
simple woman is not so much to blame as her lewde abbettours, who by
violent perswasions haue lead her into this wilfulnesse. Quoth the iudge,
what neede such eloquent termes in this place, the gentleman replied, doth
your Lordship mislike the terme, [
violent] & me thinkes I speake
it to great purpose: for I am sure she would neuer haue done it, but by force
of perswasion: & if perswasions were not very violent to the minde of
man it could not haue wrought so strange an effect as we read that it did
once in Ae
gypt, & would haue told the whole tale at large, if the Magistrate had
not passed it ouer very pleasantly. Now to tell you the whole matter as the
gentleman intended, thus it was. There came into Aegypt a notable Oratour,
whose name was
Hegesias who inueyed so much against the
incommodities of this transitory life, & so highly commended death the
dispatcher of all euils; as a great number of his hearers destroyed
themselues, some with weapon, some with poyson, others by drowning and
hanging themselues to be rid out of this vale of misery, in so much as it was
feared least many moe of the people would haue miscaried by occasion of
his perswasions, if king
Ptolome had not made a publicke
proclamation, that the Oratour should auoyde the countrey, and no more be
allowed to speake in any matter. Whether now perswasions, may not be said
violent and forcible to simple myndes in speciall, I referre it to all mens
iudgements that heare the story. At least waies, I finde this opinion,
confirmed by a pretie deuise or embleme that
Lucianus alleageth he
saw in the pourtrait of
Hercules within the Citie of Marseills in
Prouence: where they had figured a lustie old man with a long chayne tyed
by one end at his tong, by the other end at the peoples eares, who stood a
farre of and seemed to be drawen to him by the force of that chayne fastned
to his tong, as who would say, by force of his perswasions. And to shew
more plainly that eloquence is of great force (and not as many men thinke
amisse) the propertie and gift of yong men onely, but rather of old men, and
a thing which better becommeth hory haires then beardlesse boyes, they
seeme to ground it vpon this reason: age (say they and most truly) beings
experience, experience bringeth wisedome, long life yeldes long vse and
much exercise of speach, exercise and custome with wisedome, make an
assured and volluble vtterance: so is ti that old men more then any other
sort speake most grauely, wisely, assuredly, and plausibly, which partes are
all that can be required in perfite eloquence, and so in all deliberations of
importance where counsellours are allowed freely to opyne & shew
their conceits, good perswasion is no lesse requisite then speach it selfe:
for in great purposes to speake and not be able or likely to perswade, is a
vayne thing: now let vs returne backe to say more of this Poeticall
ornament.
