Of Auricular figures pertaining to clauses of speech and by them working no little alteration to the eare. The Arte of English Poesie | ||
3.12. Of Auricular figures pertaining to clauses of speech and by them working no little alteration to the eare.
As your single words may be many waies transfigured to make the meetre or verse more tunable and melodious, so also may
But if it be to mo clauses then one, that some such word be supplied to perfit the congruitie or sence of them all, it is by the figure [Zeugma] we call him the [single supplie] because by one word we serue many clauses of one congruitie, and may be likened to the man that serues many maisters at once, but all of one country or kinred: as to say.
Fellowes and friends and kinne forsooke me quite.Here this word forsooke satisfieth the congruitie and sence of all three clauses, which would require euery of them asmuch. And as we setting forth her Maiesties regall petigree, said in this figure of [Single supplie.
Her mother a crowned Queene, her Sister and her selfe.
Whereas ye see this one word [was] serues them all in that they require but one congruitie and sence.
Yet hath this figure of [Single supply] another propertie, occasioning
Her presence all the powers of my discourse. &c.
Where ye see this one word [perst] placed in the foreward, satisfieth both in sence & congruitie all those other clauses that followe him.
And if such word of supplie be place in the middle of all such clauses as he serues: it is by the Greeks called Mezozeugma, by vs the [Middlemarcher] thus:
And with wether and sicknes, and sorrow as they say.
Where ye see this word [weares] serues one clause before him, and two clauses behind him; in one and the same sence and congruitie. And in this verse,
Either the troth or talke nothing at all.Where this worde [talke] serues the clause before and also behind. But if such supplie be placed after all the clauses, and not before nor in the middle, then is he called by the Greeks Hypozeugma, and by vs the [Rerewarder] thus:
And my neighbours, who dwelt next to my wall,
The friends that sware, they would not sticke to die
In my quarrell: they are fled from me all.
Where ye see this word [fled from me] serue all the three clauses requiring but one congruitie & sence. But if such want be in sundrie clauses, and of seuerall congruities or sence, and the supply be made to serue them all, it is by the figure Sillepsis, whom for that respect we call the [double supplie] comceiuing, and as it were, comprehending vnder one, a supplie of two natures, and may be likened to the man that serues many masters at once, being of strange Countries or kinreds, as in these verses, where the lamenting widow shewed the Pilgrim the graues in which her husband & children lay buried.
Yonder mine owne deere husband buried is.
Where ye see one verbe singular supplyeth the plurall and singular, and thus
My Ladie laughs for ioy, and I for wo.
Where ye see a third person supplie himselfe and a first person. And thus,
Nor my deserts would euer suffer you.
Viz. to show. Where ye see the moode Indicatiue supply him selfe and an Infinitiue. And the like in these other.
Nor neuer doo intend untill I die.
Viz. [to show.] Thus much for the congruitie, now for the sence. One wrote thus of a young man, who slew a villaine that had killed his father, and rauished his mother.
And by one feate of euerlasting fame,
This lustie lad fully requited kinde,
His fathers death, and eke his mothers shame.
Where ye see this word [requite] serue a double sence: that is to say, to reuenge, and to satisfie. For the parents iniurie was reuenged, and the duetie of nature performed or satisfied by the childe. but if this supplie be made to sundrie clauses, or to one clause sundrie times iterated, and by seuerall words, so as euery clause hath his owne supplie: then is it called by the Greekes Hypozeuxis, we call him the substitute after his originall, and is a supplie with iteration, as thus:
Mine owne liege Lord behold thy poore handmaid.
Here [went to the king] and [said to the king] be but one clause iterated with words of sundrie supply. Or as in these verses following.
Geuing me leaue to be her Soueraine:
For by such gift my Ladie hath done that,
Ye haue another auricular figure of defect, and is when we begin to speake a thing, and breake of in the middle way, as if either it needed no further to be spoken of, or that we were ashamed, or afraide to speake it out. It is also sometimes done by way of threatning, and to shew a moderation of anger. The Greekes call him Aposiopesis. I, the figure of silence, or of interruption, indifferently.
If we doo interrupt our speech for feare, this may be an example, where as one durst not make the true report as it was, but staid halfe way for feare of offence, thus:
For words once out, neuer returne againe.
If it be for shame, or that the speaker suppose it would be indecent to tell all, then thus: as he that said to his sweete hart, whom he checked for secretly whispering with a suspected person.
And tell him that: goe to, I say no more.
If it be for anger or by way of manace or to show a moderation of wrath as the graue and discreeter sort of men do, then thus.
I sweare by God, but let this be the last.
Thinking to haue said further viz. I will punish you.
If it be for none of all these causes, but vpon some sodaine occasion that moues a man to breake of his tale, then thus.
Let himselfe tell the tale that best tell can.
This figure is fit for phantasticall heads and such as be sodaine or lack memorie. I know one of good learning that greatly blemisheth his discretion with this maner of speach: for if he be in the grauest matter of the world talking, he will vpon the sodaine for the flying of a bird ouerthwart the way, or some other such sleight cause, interrupt his tale and neuer returne to it againe.
Ye haue yet another maner of speach purporting at the first blush a defect which afterward is supplied the, the Greekes call him Prolepsis, we the Propounder, or the Explaner which ye will: because he workes both effectes, as thus, where in certaine verses we
Vnto the hall, where store of Princes stand:
And people of all countreys to behold,
Coronis all clad, in purple cloth of gold:
Celiar in robes, of siluer tissew white,
With rich rubies, and pearles all bedighte.
Here ye see the first proposition in a sort defectiue and of imperfect sence, till ye come by diuision to explane and enlarge it, but if we should follow the originall right, we ought rather to call him the forestaller, for like as he that standes in the market way, and takes all vp before it come to the market in grosse and sells it by retaile, so by this maner of speach our maker setts down before all the matter by a brief proposition, and afterward explanes it by a diuision more particularly.
By this other example it appeares also.
That our long loue may lead us to agree:
Me since I may not wed you to my wife,
To serue you as a mistresse all my life:
Ye that may not me for your husband haue,
To clayme me for your seruant and your slaue.
Of Auricular figures pertaining to clauses of speech and by them working no little alteration to the eare. The Arte of English Poesie | ||