3.5. Of Stile.
Stile is a constant & continuall phrase or tenour of speaking and
writing, extending to the whole tale or processe of the poeme or historie,
and not properly to any peece or member of a tale: but is of words speeches
and sentences together, a certaine contriued forme and qualitie, many times
naturall to the writer, many times his peculier by election and arte, and
such as either he keepeth by skill, or holdeth on by ignorance, and will not or
peraduenture cannot easily alter into any other. So we say that
Ciceroes stile, and Salusts were not one, nor Cesars and
Liuies, nor Homers and Hesiodus, nor Herodotus
and Theucidides, nor Europides & Aristophanes, nor
Erasmus and Budeus stiles. And because this continuall course
and manner of writing or speech sheweth the
matter and disposition of the writers minde, more than one or few words or
sentences can shew, therefore there be that haue called stile, the image of
man [
mentus character] for man is but his minde, and as him minde is
tempered and qualified, so are his speeches and language at large, and his
inward conceits be the mettall of his minde, and his manner of vtterance the
very warp & woofe of his conceits, more plaine, or busie and intricate,
or otherwise affected after the rate. Most men say that not any one point in
all
Phisiognomy is so certaine, as to iudge a mans manners by his eye:
but more assuredly in mine opinion, by his dayly maner of speech and
ordinary writing. For if the man be graue, his speech and stile is graue: if
light-headed, his stile and language also light: if the mine be haughtie and
hoate, the speech and stile is also vehement and stirring: if it be colde and
temperate, the stile is also very modest: if it be humble, or base and meeke,
so is also the language and stile. And yet peraduenture not altogether so, but
that euery mans stile is for the most part according to the matter and
subiect of the writer, or so ought to be, and conformable thereunto. Then
againe may it be said as well, that men doo chuse their subiects according
to the mettal of their minds, & therfore a high minded man chuseth him
high & lofty matter to write of. The base courage, matter base &
lowe, the meane & modest mind, meane & moderate matters after
the rate. Howsoeuer it be, we finde that vnder these three principall
complexions (if I may with leaue so terme them) high, meane and base stile,
there be contained many other humors or qualities of stile, as the plaine and
obscure, the rough and smoth, the facill and hard, the plentifull and
barraine, the rude and eloquent, the strong and feeble, the vehement and cold
stiles, all which in their euill are to be reformed, and the good to be kept
and vsed. But generally to haue the stile decent & comely it behooueth
the maker or Poet to follow the nature of his subiect, that is if his matter
be high and loftie that the stile be so to, if meane, the stile also to be
meane, if base the stile humble and base accordingly: and they that do
otherwise vse it, applying to meane matter, hie and loftie stile, and to hie
matters, stile eyther meane or base, and to the base matters, the meane or
hie stile, to vtterly disgrace their poesie and shew themselues nothing
skilfull in their arte, nor hauing regard
to the decencie, which is the chiefe praise of any writer. Therefore to ridde
all louers of learning from that errour, I will as neere as I can set downe,
which matters be the hie and loftie, which be but meane, and which be low
and base, to the intent the stiles, may be fashioned to the matters, and
keepe their
decorum and good proportion in euery respect: I am
not ignorant that many good clerkes be contrary to mine opinion, and say that
the loftie style may be decently vsed in a meane and base subiect &
contrariwise, which I do in parte acknowledge, but with a reasonable
qualification. For
Homer hath so vsed it in his trifling worke of
Batrachomyomachia: that is in his treatise of the warre betwext the
frogs and the mice.
Virgill also in his
bucolickes, and in his
georgicks, whereof the one is counted meane, the other base, that is
the husbandmans discourses and the shepheards, but hereunto serueth a
reason in my simple conceite: for first to that trifling poeme of
Homer, though the frog and the mouse be but litle and ridiculous
beasts, yet to treat of warre is an high subiect, and a thing in euery respect
terrible and daungerous to them that it alights on: and therefore of learned
dutie asketh martiall grandiloquence, if it be set foorth in his kind and
nature of warre, euen betwixt the basest creatures that can be imagined: so
also is the Ante or pismire, and they be but little creeping things, not
perfect beasts, but
insects, or wormes: yet in describing their nature
& instinct, and their manner of life approching to the forme of a
common-welth, and their properties not vnlike to the vertues of most
excellent gouernors and captaines, it asketh a more maiestie of speach then
would the description of any other beastes life or nature, and perchance of
many matters perteyning vnto the baser sort of men, because it resembleth
the historie of a ciuill regiment, and of them all the chiefe and most
principall which is
Monarchie: so also in his
bucolicks, which
are but pastorall speaches and the basest of any other poeme in their owne
proper nature:
Virgill vsed a somewhat swelling stile when eh came
to insinuate the birth of
Marcellus heire apparant to the Emperour
Augustus, as child to his sister, aspiring by hope and greatnes of the
house, to the succession of the Empire, and establishment thereof in that
familie: whereupon
Virgill could do no lesse then to vse such manner
of stile, whatsoeuer
condition the poeme were of and this was decent, & no fault or
blemish, to confound the tennors of the stiles for that cause. But now when
I remember me againe that this
Eglogue, (for I haue read it
somewhere) was conceiued by
Octauian th'Emperour to be written to
the honour of
Pollio a citizen of Rome, & of no great nobilitie, the
same was misliked againe as an implicatiue, nothing decent nor
proportionable to
Pollio his fortunes and calling, in which respect I
might say likewise the stile was not to be such as if it had bene for the
Emperours own honour, and those of the bloud imperiall, then which subiect
there could not be among the
Romane writers an higher nor grauer to
treat vpon: so can I not be remoued from mine opinion, but still me thinks
that in all decencie the stile ought to conforme with the nature of the
subiect, otherwise if a writer will seeme to obserue no
decorum at
all, nor passe how he fashion his tale to his matter, who doubteth but he
may in the lightest cause speake like a Pope, & in the grauest matters
prate like a parrat, & finde wordes & phrases ynough to serue both
turnes, and neither of them commendably, for neither is all that may be
written of Kings and Princes such as ought to keepe a high stile, nor all that
may be written vpon a shepheard to keepe the low, but according to the
matter reported, if that be of high or base nature: for euer pety pleasure,
and vayne delight of a king are not to accompted high matter for the height
of his estate, but meane and perchaunce very base and vile: nor so a Poet or
historiographer, could decently with a high stile reporte the vanities of
Nero, the ribaudries of
Caligula, the idlenes of
Domitian,
& the riots of
Heliogabalus. But well the magnimitie and
honorable ambition of
Caesar, the prosperities of
Augustus, the
grauitie of
Tiberius, the bountie of
Traiane, the wisedome of
Aurelius, and generally all that which concerned the highest honours
of Emperours, their birth, alliaunces, gouernement, exploits in warre and
peace, and other publike affaires: for they be matter stately and high, and
require a stile to be lift vp and aduanced by choyse of wordes, phrases,
sentences, and figures, high, loftie, eloquent & magnifik in proportion:
so be the meane matters, to be caried with all wordes and speaches of
smothnesse and pleasant moderation, & finally the base things to be
holden within
their teder, by a low, myld, and simple maner of vtterance, creeping
rather then clyming, & marching rather then mounting vpwardes, with
the wings of the stately subiects and stile.
