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HENRY FROWDE,
M.A.
LONDON, EDINBURGH
LONGINUS
ON THE SUBLIME
TRANSLATED BY
A. O.
PRICKARD,
NEW
M.A.
LATE FELLOW OF
COLLEGE, OXFORD
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1906
OXFORD
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
BY HORACE HART, HJU
PRINTED
IN
ENGLAND.'
INTRODUCTION
In a copjr of the
first
which
is
now
Museum,
'A
may be
golden book.'
written of
It is
it as
interest.'
lence
which gives
from
it
a place
of
Greek
so diderent
in
Poetry.
allowed to
it
long series of
and
it
scholars,
from
by a
Addison,
who
first
recommended
appeal to authority
to read the
little
work through, and to ask from how many wo'iters, ancient or modern, we could have borne the continuous development of the one theme, Be great live with
' !
great minds!
'
felt if
humane
first
time without
he has found a
to
invigorate,
to
direct,
to
Moreover,
it
Ti
Introduction
when he wrote
its
strong
and dignified
style,
but
also as
being a charaaeristic
important
also, as
having
Reynolds
and often
all
Bishop
his It
Hebrew
Poetry.
is
vrith evidently
genuine
and prose
ciation,
by none more
its
often, or
than by Fielding
*-
singular attractiveness
and
solid
is
sui
rhythm
and in conception, yet sometimes neither Latin nor Greek, and always impressed with the strong personality of the writer.
The
is
interest in authors
and
appeared
also in
subject, to
which
in effect, an answer.
The
' See an article in the Quarterly Review of October| 1900, which the reader should consult (or Prof. Churton Collins' Studies
in Poetry
and
Criticism, 1906).
Introduction
range from which
its
vii
is
appeals
strongly
has
word of
earlier
comment
cast
or notice vouchsafed to us by
stern waters of
antiquity
a babe
up by the
Time,
comes
and we will
how they
make too much of such uncertainties. Any ancient critical work coming from an author who had the great Greek books in his hands, just as we have, only in a more complete form,
In a sense,
it is
possible to
his
own
daily
it
and from
century or
the other
two
earlier or later is
no great matter.
On
may change
use
it,
about
who
wrote
it,
purpose
we know so
ment worked
so evenly, that
viii
Introductim
any period of
his life.
Yet we
feel
on much firmer
say, of
we turn to the Second Book or to the Ars Poetica, where so many preliminary doubts must be settled or left by agreement svh iudice, before we are free to deal with the contents. So the
critical
mind
and
less
Romeo and
Juliet.
The
headed in Greek
printed in the
earliest editions
it
seems never to
have been doubted that the author was the same person
as Cassius
who was
adviser
life
Queen Zenobia
xi).
(Gibbon, chap.
it
came to be known, in the first place by a discovery made by an Italian scholar, Amati, in the Vatican
Library, that the title was variously given
;
that the
itself,
though
it
bore the
name
'
.tained
an index
in
which the
treatise
was ascribed to
Dionysius or Longinus.'
A copy at
Florence, dating
Introduction
ment
affixed
ix
anonymous ' or
'
un-
As no
from
any source
itself, it
one of these
traditions, to conclude
that
all
are so
many
So a
work attributed to Aristotle, but certainly not was also attributed, in ancient times, to Plato,
another to Theophrastus.
The
difficulty
long
felt as
Roman names
;
Dionysius-Longinns
'
may
not be insuperable
but,
are those of
critics of antiquity, it is
much to
life
by one man. by
this
we have suggested since the philosopherstatesman left many writings, both on philosophy, and on literary subjects, of which we possess considersumption
as
;
able fragments
can
able
fairly
is
The most
favour'
language
ments.'
as it
is
This
mind'
(p.
55),
but
Introduction
:
As
light
to those
who
and
see,
is,
so
speech
is
good
to those
who
hear,'
critics
intrinsically beautiful
quoted by
own time.
is
tion
It
strange that
we cannot
composed in the
and whether
it
first
tiie same hand as the by the great scholar D. Ruhnken, and the other undoubted work of Cassius 'Longinus, for these are the two issues really before us.
Such
internal evidence
would
points,
and we
which
is
Df
c. 5.
Introduction
Of the numerous
discussed
orators,
li
poets,
Treatise,
;
and historians
the
latest
in
date
is
is
probably Matris
at
any
rate,
no one
named who
It
Au-
gustan.
named on
is
by
Caecilius, a
critic
A.D.,
who
first
century
possible,
It
is
(for all
the men-
made
in
much
;
detail to a
work written
several generations
at least that
back
the
it
The
make
and
also the
mention, in the imperfect tense, of a practice of Theodorus of Gadara, tutor of the Emperor Tiberius (p. 7). Of Postumius Terentianus nothing is known. From
the terms in which he
is
Excellent
'
(p.
Acts
xxiii. z6,
and
men
in public
How-
m
hails
IntretdueUm
man
'
of Tbeopiifastus {char, v)
as
'
an ordtoary sequaintance
Exeellent.'
The style
structions
is,
of the
Greek con-
and idioms used, does not seem to give any tangible criterion. The Greek used by writers of the
time of the
with
little
fixed
and
artificial,
growth or
of
its
Dion
it
ChrysQstom, Lucian.
'the subject
Vocabulary does
offer a test:
may be
been made by
and
also
by
number of words
when the
latter wrote,
or had changed their meaning. We may mention, as a term of some general interest, the word Allegory (p. 17) ; it is used, as it is by Quintilian and Cicero,
in the sense familiar to us, whereas in the RhftorU of
Iionginus
it
That
M.
as it has
seemed to
most people, to argue that the author of onr Treatise was no other than Plutarch, does not in any way
impair the cogency of his negative conclusion, nor yet
the great value and interest of his excellent studies.
Introduction
is
xiii
Both
write as
intellect,
men
of vast reading
models of
style,
the
Both
Were sincere admirers of Plato, and both found, or allowed the existence of certain shortcomings; but the oae
critic
most enjoys
and
their
harmony
Equally different
outside.
is
men
The
Minister
more
home,
as
The
life
;
Treatise
is
written for
men engaged
life is,
in public
the
relief of
man's
estate.
The word
is
common
in
Plato, though used rather of service to friends and comrades than to humanity; we recognize it as the aim
To
Cicero
and to the
teaching.
as
much that of Tacitus the complaint of the paucity of men of genius or greatness, the observation that we disparage what is virith us and
has been remarked,
eitol the past, the
demand
in it belong.
xiv
Introduction
and character,
as
in conception
hj
a scholar of authority
free,
its
and
when great
system.
glow-
We
which
assigns so interesting a
associates it
fortunate man.
Probably
be known
will
harm
be
As the author
says
Let every one take the view which pleases him, and
it.'
enjoy
The
self,
anticipate.
Two
points are
especially conspicuous.
One
is
fixes
on the
really great
and the
is
His
steady eye
ephemeral reputation.
that he
is
pardonable
enthusiasm
is
a really distracting
element in criticism.
Yet our
critic
Hermes,
vol. xxxiv.
Introduction
Tacitus, which, makes us prone to that pettiness.
result
is
iv
The
is
at
and in every
The other point is his constant endeavour one which we have already noticed in Burke to rest his
judgement upon
settled principles
the true
criteria
and combining
the forms of
Of
will
his
own
he
style
we need add
little.
The
reader
notice how,
falls
own
principles,
is
whom he
for
the profuse imagery of Plato, the grace of Hyperides, the condensation of Demosthenes, and the
'
perils
'
of
Two
One
lies
the craft of the mason (pp. 26, 74, &c.). To us they seem familiar enough, though the expressions
used are
difficult,
In Greek poets
we
one
more elaborate structures in Euripides' Hifpolytus, 468 ; and one to a splendid temple-front
in Pindar.
one of the Fine Arts, and perhaps did not greatly stir the
its
XVI
Introduction
it-
sdf it was merely ' useful ' (see Butcher, Aristotle's Theory
c. ii).
Nor was
it far
otherwise
walls
is
that applied to
Homer,
his genius,
own
proper
but leav-
meander.
But the
tides
who
little
to the science or to
more to
in
we come
describing
and
his
experiences in Gaul
lines
Silius
really striking
Italicus
the surprise of
Hannibal,
expeiieace awaiting
also,
him on the
Tacitus
in th Agricola, expresses
of Britain.
his
The
sure to appeal to
is
awe
at all that
vast in
Nature
but we should
his
like
to
of the
worM
own
Introduction
rvii
is
Treatise
the abunones,
Many
passages,
some long
Homer,
writers.
Plato,
Great
two
or
more
passages of
Homer
There
is
nothing to he surprised
is
Apart from these, the writer often glides into the words
of a poet or of Plato,
his
own
in
many
81)
;
cases
we
(see
pp. 40,
on
make
it
This habit
of unacknowledged quotation,
modern
still
more
so
when
there
is
a touch of senti-
ment,
as
when we
words of a
is
and inalienable
As long
as
'
The word
sublime,'
which
is
is
now
inseparably
a somewhat embarrassing
analysis
all
much.
It
is
not found at
is
in Shakespeare, nor
much
to do
home in our language. Coleridge, who has elsewhere examined the word more fully, is reported
with making it
at
LONG. TR.
}q
xviii
Introduction
:
'
Greek Literature ?
birth.'
I never could.
word more properly applied to certain parts of the Old Testament than to anything else to the account of the
Certainly V7e feel that the
is
Hebrew by
There are passages of Greek literature, wluch any of us could name as almost
it is
notice-
Death
of Oedipus,
We
'
When
Dr. Primrose
tell
how he thought
'
proper to exhort
happy marriages which make the I told them of the grave, becomthe
last adjective
have travelled
Certainly the
in possessing a
German language may be held fortunate word of home growth to express the
sublime.
'
author quotes
the original.
It
means simply
height,'
and we have
fixed literary
no reason to think
it
or
its
adjective
sense.
often so used,
;'
Introduction
XIX
meaning of height as a dimension in space. In the ff^atw, sublimity is almost equivalent to greatness, but
the author expressly
tells
us that there
plural,
is
so
Size
is
a factor
perceptible
of the awe-inspiring
Hero-
of fullness,
and
symmetry with
'
Europe,
want to know,' not the wonder which hears a voice warning him that the ground is holy ; a true Greek would feel the same if brought in sight of the Victoria Falls or the Golden
the wonder which says
I
'
Throne.'
Our author
speaks with
Ister and Ocean, and of that Aetna which to Pindar was merely a piUar of dazzling snow planted on the shaggy breast of the foe of Zeus, vomiting fire un-
approachable.
So of
afraid,
if
intellectual greatness
the test of
it
isjthe-awehis hearer
whict-itanspires.
Hyperides never'makes
is
Demosthenes
terrible as
a thunderstorm
Homer falls
ofi in his
Odyssey,
it is
because he pleases
b2
XX
and
interests,
Introduction
but no longer awes.
This point of view
there were
it all.
is
mot
so
much
is,
No
sense of
tinction
humour relieves the tension little disin fact, made between prose and poetry,
(p. 33)
avowedly
ment
invariably saves
and
it is
the greatness of a
good man. In this short and fragmentary pamphlet of an austere and strenuous critic, we hear sometimes
the notes of that wisdom which
is
'
full
to be required for a
new
translated already,
no translation of a
classical
and that a
an author's
sides of
hope that
had
it
at first
wished
But
appeared, on
a brilliant phrase,
when borrowed,
;
itself
is
it
acquires, so
more
rightly left in
own
surroundings.
To the
Introduction
xxi
and to the
brilliant translation of
Mr.
Havell, I feel
on which
difficulty.
errors I
am solely
responsible.
The
may be
allowed
whose hands
this translation
passages
translation (completed
by Osnington)
where
available.
The
have usually referred to pages. In the Appendix will be found specimen passages
translated
from various
later
Greek
is
critics,
of
whom
on
one
a note
in relation to the
ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS
Sect.
is i.
The
practical
men how
its
Sublime is ' an eminence and excellence of language,' and its aim both in poetry and in prose is to carry men out of themselves : this is done by a single powerful and well-timed stroke.
effects are attained.
The
Sect.
2. Is there an art
of Sublimity,
i.
e.
can the
;
what is natural ? Yes for Nature herself does not work at random, and the greatest natural forces are the most dangerous unless regulated (Nature comes first. Art is second, but no less essential). Also it requires Art to estimate genius
to
aright.
[The
special dangers to
3.
(i)
which
great genius
is
exposed.]
Sect.
all
which
its
opposite,
comes out of a straining for what is artificial and high-flown, (iii) Parenthyrsus, i. e. passion out of
ness
season.
(ii)
PueriKty
Sect.
others.
4.
(iv)
Frigidity,
a.
straining after
;
novelty.
Plato and
5.
Xenophon
faults
are not
wholly
free.
Sect.
All these
come
novelty, misdirected.
Sect. 6. Can we find a rule for avoiding them ? Yes, if we can frame a complete working definition of
'
Sublimity.'
Analysts of Contents
Sect.
repetition,
7.
i.
xxiH
Test.
e.
If
the
if
when
repeated
thoughts upwards, but itself falls more flat on the ear each time, it is no true Sublime. The verdict of all men through all ages is final.
Sect. 8. Five sources of the Sublime (power of : viz. A. Natural, (i) grasp of great thoughts, (ii) passion ; B. Artificial, (iii) 'Figures,' whetherof thought or of language; (iv) diction; (v) composition. (Caecilius gives an incomplete list, omitting passion, which is not co-extensive with sublimity, but
speech being presupposed)
is its
powerfid ally.)
\A gap
Sect.
of
9. (i)
of \% pages^
a great soul.'
The
' Sublimity rings Great thoughts. from Sublimity of Silence The Silence
Ajax
but lowers gods to men. The pure divine in Homer. Illustration from Genesis. The human sublime, in Homer the Prayer of Ajax for light. (Digression on the Odyssey, the work of Homer's old age. His genius compared to the setting sun, or the ebbing Ocean, but always the genius of Homer. Hence the ' Marchen,' the story telling and character sketches.)
is
:
instance
The
in the
Lower World
Battle of the
{Odyssey xi).
Homeric
Gods
sublime,
Sect. 10. Rule for the application of great thoughts the most essential, and combine them into a whole, omitting secondary detail. So Sappho portrays the lover. Homer a storm, Archilochus a shipwreck, Demosthenes the arrival of the news of Elateia. Build with squared blocks, no rubble between them.
select
use-
is
xxiv
the object
is
AnalyAs of Contents
to excite pity or depreciation.
is irrelevant.
To
the
sublime, quantity
[Gap of 6 pages.^
and Demosthenes compared : Plato often affects us by quantity, Demosthenes by intensity.] Cicero and Demosthenes compared in a somewhat
[Plato
similar sense.
real
greatness
of Plato
illustrated
Plato points us the road to greatness, viz. the imitation of great predecessors. Plato steeped himself in Homer : he entered the lists against
him.
Sect. 14.
or
:
Demosthenes would have expressed this or that thought how they would have endured this or that expression of ours. Nay, how will all future ages
endure those expressions. cowardice to shrink.
great issue,
but
it
is-
use
Sect. 15. Imagination and Images defined. Their in oratory and in poetry distinct. Employment by Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles. Misused in modern the right use illustrated from Demosthenes oratory and Hyperides.
Sect. 16. [The second source of Sublimity Passion is not treated here ; see above, Sect, iii, and the last words of the Treatise.] (iii) The Figures. Only a few Adjuration, illustrated from the can be mentioned. De Corona of Demosthenes, where the circumstances make the oath sublime (contrast its bare use by the Comic Poet Eupolis).
Sect,
i 7.
The Author
and Passion are essential to the Figures, which otherThe oath by ' the dead of wise are so many tricks.
Analyns of Contents
Marathon
xxv
' would be but an artifice, if the artifice did not pass in the fierce light of the speaker's feeling.
Sect. i8.
Answer.
Question
and
[A gap
Sect. 19.
words).
of 4
(i.e.
pages."]
Asyndeton
omission of connecting
Sect. 20. Combination of Asyndeton with other Instance from the Midias of Demosthenes,
figures often effective.
Sect. 21. Introduce the missing conjunctions in such instances of Asyndeton, and the passage is spoiled.
effect
Sect. 22. Hyperbata (inversion of order) give the of reality and passion. Thucydides, Demosthenes.
Sect. 23.
Polyptota
plural.
past.
Sect.
26.
Change of person
To
the
Second.
Instances from
Homer
Instances
Sect. 29. Periphrasis requires more discretion than any other Figure. Sect. 30. Choice of words, a potent factor
pression.
in
ex-
certain judgeSect. 31. ments of Caecilius upon (i) homeliness of phrase, which may be justified by its vigour; (ii) number of metaphors: as to this, the practice of Demosthenes is the standard,
xxvi
Analysis of Contents
intensity
and the
of the passion
the
justification.
commend
the use
of qualifying words.)
Metaphors are also effective in laboured description. Instances from Xenophon and Plato (Timaeuj). Plato's excess in Metaphor is a fault, and Caecilius therefore prefers the faultless Lysias,
but wrongly.
Sect. 33.
are
We
must argue
?
Which
claims to
we
to prefer
And
again
?
the most
can have no doubt. Remember that (i) Genius has a special risk of falling (ii) Men mark failures and often omit to mark greatness. To be Homer or ApoUonius ? Bacchylides or Pindar ? Ion or Sophocles ?
or the greatest
I
Sect. 34. Hyperides or Demosthenes ? The two Orators are elaborately compared. Demosthenes makes up for the powers he lacks by the terrible intensity of those which he has.
But Lysias has fewer merits than Plato, and worse faults. Nature herself has made Man with aspirations and affinities towards greatness. He admires the
stupendous things in Nature rivers, ocean, volcanoes not things useful and ordinary.
Sect. 36. Thus it is sublimity, not faultlessness, which brings Man near to the divine Homer, Demo:
sthenes,
Plato
have their
set
failures,
nothing
when
against
their greatness
Objection. faulty statue is they are the immortals. In Art correctness not redeemed by its size. Ans'wer. But language is is the first thing, in Nature greatness.
therefore
a natural
gift.
Analysts of Contents
xxvii
Sect. 38. Hyperbole in excess becomes ridiculous. rightly used it should be unnoticed that it is hyperbole : and this will be so when there is passion to support it. So comic exaggeration is supported by being ludicrous (for laughter is a passion, but one which goes with pleasure, not pain).
When
the
Sect. 39. Arrangement of words (Composition): fifth and last constituent of Sublimity (see sect. 8). great factor not only of persuasion but also of passion : as great as music but not as enthralling. This illustrated from a famous passage of Demosthenes.
sentence or a period is an organic Sect. 40. words and phrases contribute to a whole, which is greater than their mere sum. Writers of limited ability may touch greatness by rhythm and
structure
:
arrangement.
Sects. 41-3. Causes of sinking in style, broken and jingling rhythm, scrappy phrases (like rubble in
masonry), condensation or difiuseness in excess, vulgar idioms and words (instance from Theopompus) all the opposites of what we have found to be factors of
sublimity.
Sect. 44.
The
Why have
?
we many
is
clever
reason political
men now,
but no great
are
men
Is the
(i) Men always think their despotism ? The answer : own times the worst, (ii) It is not the peace of the world which levels us down, but our own habits ; our love of getting, and of spending on our pleasures, both
and causes of others and worse corruption, Being what we are, and such like. perhaps we are better in servitude than if our vices had the passions. free vent. Better pass to the next subject
deadly
evils,
will-hunting,
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction
Analysis of Contents
....
.
.
v
xxii
i
Concerning Sublimity
Appendix I. Specimen Passages translated from Greek Writers of the Roman Empire on Literary Criticism
. .
83
Appendix
II.
The Treatise on
.
.
Sublimity
.
.105
Appendix
III.
Hebrew Poetry
Appendix IV.
phones
114
Text
127
CONCERNING SUBLIMITY
I
THE
treatise
'
written
by Caecilius
'concerning
Sublimity
when we looked
vital points
into
it
of
and to give
little
the
first
treatise
that
the
writer
is
should
show what
tell
should
be
us
as
may
made our own. Now Caecilius endeavours to show by a vast number of instances what the sublune is,
though
we
did not
know
we
in
may
scale
So
the
far as
he
is
concerned, perhaps
we ought
to praise
man
and
pains, not to
blame him
com-
my
turn,
and without
a
Sublimity as
favour
give
me
your
company
let
anything in the
men
in
2
public
life.
'
A
.
"Treatise
will help
Sect. I
You, comrade,
me by
passing
;
all particulars
It
who wished
to
and
in speaking truth.'
Writing to you,
my
knowledge of
all liberal
am
almost relieved at
language
this,
and
this
alone,
the
greatest poets
first
For
not to persuasion
of extraordinary
now
the
always and
and
to
please
to
be~4)eisuaded
usually
with
and
its
irresistible
stand high
above him.
Again,
skill
in
invention and
power of
effort
we know,
all
brought
the
that,
way and
fairest gifts
of gods to
men were
similar
'
59.
remark
is
attributed to Demosthenes.
Rhetoric
is
defined
by
Aristotle as
'
Rhei.
i.
c. i,
Tr. Welldon.
Sect. I
Concerning Sublimity
a stroke and
3
in its
and
entirety, the
considerations
my
dear Terentianus,
your
own
II
WE,
its
fiirther
question
? ^
is
opposite
For some go so
'
who
'
is
inbred, not
taught
to be
the
things
of
genius,
bom
with them.'
All natural
examination,
^
'
we
consider
that Nature,
a law to
The
it is
idea
a single blow
may be
produced
by
repetition,
by an accumulation of many
'
circumstances.'
Sir J.
of height or of depth
'
*)
are rightly
Art of sinking
is also right,
though he
It
was probably
omits the
him by a
friend, perhaps
known to Pope,
second noun.
The
alternative
is
(which
is
come from an
Sections
XLstyle
XLII, at the end of the Treatise, deal with the question how
may
be lowered.
B 2
4
lofty, yet is
A treatise
all
;
Sect. II
that is passionate
and
in
and originating
principle
which underlies
fitting
all
things,
of
occasion,
of
by method and
greatness
itself
is
in ,a
sense
all
exposed to a danger of
science
to
control,
its
'
own,
if left to
without
unsteadied,
un-
ballasted','
and uninit
structed venture;
also needs the bit *. true of the
to be
common
is
of
men
that
the greatest
to the
is
good
first, is
good counse^_and
is at
;-
that
where the
latter
once cancelled'
here Nature
we may
the place
fills
Also,
and
most important,
it
is
If, as
I said, the
p.
The latter of the two adjectives is applied by Plato i^Thtaet. 144 A) to boats, which word possibly stood in the text here. ' Words said to have been used by Plato about Xenocrates and Aristotle, and by Aristotle himself about two pupils; also by
'
Isocrates,
to
Attieus, 6, i) about
'
Theopompus
(see p.
the Brutus (181, &c.), discusses the question whether the opinion of the general public or of the expert upon
the merits of an orator
is
' Cicero, in
the
more important.
The
answer
is
Sect. II
critic
all
Concerning
finds fault with earnest students,
who
would take
would
in
my opinion
III
Stay they the furnace ! quench the far-flung blaze For if I spy one crouching habitant, I'll twist a lock, one lock of storm-bome flame, And fire the roof, and char the halls to ash :
!
Not
yet, not
now my
tragic
'
noble strain
is raised '.
ALL
\,
turned
pression,
this
;
is
'
tragic
locks,'
up
to heaven,' 'Boreas
flute player,'
and the
rest.
It is turbid in ex;
and confused
and
if
Now
when
in tragedy,
is
pompous and
could be In
found to be unpardonit
the public
is
final, that
of the specialist
is still
required to determine
the causes of effectiveness or failure, also to pronounce whether the orator is absolutely excellent, or only appears to be so in the
From
'
'
What can
'
tf
A
' '
Treatise
Thus we
Sect.
HI
'
laugh at Gorgias
of
and
some passages
and even
more
at
some
in Cleitarchus
he
is
a mere fantastic,
no mellowing gag
'
;
*.'
So with Amphicrates,
no inspired
it
children at play.
;'*
We may take
weak and
that turgidity is
"a
of all
of
faults
fact
in avoiding
we know
not
by the adage :
'To
I shall
As
which
Tom Thumb.
'
name.
'
he
fa& no
longer on
puny
pipes, but
irith fierce
original
Alt.
16, 2).
sophist,
Amphicrates
who
died
at the
Hegesias: a rhetorician,
who wrote
Matris of Thebes:
author of an
encomium on Hercules
'
a metrical form.
Com-
'
'
Sect. Ill
Concerning Sublimity
in bodies, so in writings, all swellings which are hollow and unreal are bad, and very possibly work round to the
'
'
so dry as a
of
all
that is great;
it is
most ignoble
it
What
'
then
is
puerility
Clearly
is
itself
and
becomes
Authors glide
into this
when
aifectation.
By
This
is
is
no
needed.
into expressions
it
cannot be otherwise,
when
the
But
we
pare
reserve
Ovid's
room
fine
on
the
fall
of Phaethon {Mel.
ii,
325)
His limbs, yet reeking from that lightning flame, The kindly nymphs entomb, and grave his name Phaethon lies here, who grasped the steeds of Day, Then greatly fell, yet from a great essay I
'
instructor of the
Treatise
Sect,
iv
IV
OF
acute,
we
mentioned,
frigidity,
Timaeus*
of
style
learned,
critical
of the
faults
of others,
own;
new notions.
of
I will set
down one
me with most
them.
'who
annexed
Asia
in
yes,
Panegyrkus
in
ten
Then how he
Athenians captured
in Sicily:
largely
on account of one
of the injured
father's side,
This makes me
'
He
A A
'
Sicilian historian
by Polybius.
'
great, but
somewhat
eloquent
tedious,
'
Athenian orator
(B. c.
436-
338),
the old
man
of Milton's sonnet.
of 380.
Sect.
IV
Concerning Sublimity
' and Heracles ; therefore he was deprived of his kingdom hy Dion and Heraclides.' What need to speak of Timaeus, when those heroes Xenopbon and Plato,
Zeus
own
school, sometimes
mean
no more hear
stone,
their voices
their
made of
no more draw
brass
;
made of
you might
modest maidens
' :
but
what a
whole row
in parti-
eyes.
Xenophon even
this point
of
frigidity.
He
says, speaking
of Agathocles, that he
been given in
who had
this,
Now who
'
who had
maidens,
divine, as at
'
texts
Our Author
is
a strange variation.
'
The
for
'
pupils
225.
'
10
other times he
'
A
is,
Treatise
Sects.
tablets,
IV,
wishing to mention
says
concerning walls,
O Megillus,
lie,
again.'
And
Herodotus
is
when he
calls beautiful
women
:
'
and
in
drink
still,
is it
V
A LL
novelties,
Jr\. from a
goes wild.
sources of
the bad.
all
on which, above
It
our
own
generation
would almost be
Thus
which
is
which
;
is
agreeable, contribute to
becomes a
of
its
principle
opposite.
Much
we
show
attend each.
Therefore
it is
show how
it
is
possible
the sublime.
'
778 D.
Herodotus, v. 18.
1;
Sects.
VI, VII
Concerning Sublimity
VI
IT
is
possible,
my
friend, to
at
do
this,
if
we
could
firs^
of
all
arrive
a clear
is.
and discriminating
Yet
this is
hard
judgement of
and
ripest fruit
of much experience.
language of precept,
it
if I
am
to speak in the
is
as
to
a right
VII
WE
it
know
nothing
this
is
truth.
As
which
things
in
our ordinary
life
great
is
ofRces,
as fortunes,
like,
is
men admire, more who have them, those who might have them,
(certainly
it is
with
all
we have
may
it is
For
it is
12
raised
A
by
true sublimity,
it
Treatise
it
Sect.
VII
it is filled
produced what
is
Whenever
therefore anything
heard frequently by a
but does
man of
experience,
beyond what
carefiilly at
is
sinks, if
you look
heard.
That
is really great,
;
which pves
is Tiard,
much food
and
which If
nay
impossible, to resist; of
indelible.
and please
all.
different
habits,
same view
beyond
admire.
all
winch they
VIII
Now
ductive
;
foundation
'
,
common
to
all
five types,
and inseparable
The words
are doubtful
Probably the
:'
Sect.
VIII
Concerning Sublimity
13^
it
from any.
worlc on
my
Xenophon,
4nd_impetuous.
are in
which now
follow
come through _art ; the proper handling of figures, which again seem to fall under two heads, figures of
thought, and figures of diction
;
'
and of elaboration
which includes
and
fifthly, that
cause of greatness
it,
preceded
dignified
and
at
spirited composition.
is
what
some of the
five,
passion.
and
common origin, he is entirely wrong. For some passions may be found which are distinct
coexistent and of
pity, grief,
and
again,
;
in
many
cases,
there
is
sublimity
without passion
the poet's
own
Upon Olympus
On
a stair to heaven
:
Now
their will.
Od.
xi.
14
display, exhibit
A Treatise
commonly
lack passion
:
Sect.
VIII
but
passion succeed least in panegyric, and again the panegyrists are not strong in passion
*.
Or
if,
on the other
Han d,"
undeserving
of mention, he
fidence
in
quite in error.
maintaining
that
npdiing
reaches
great
inspired.
IX
A FTER
all,
however, the
first
^~V
be a
gift jasJier
is
possible
we must
that is great,
as
it
were,
How^
you
will ask.
to this effect:
I have
myself written
is
in another place
'Sublimity
the
it
Thus
is
without any
great
,:
Ajax
in the
'
See Spectator, no. 389 (Addison). 'Eloquence is the ring of a great soul' (Dr. G. H. Kendall,
'
'
Sect.
IX
Concerning Sublimity
and more sublime than any words*.
is quite
is great,
First,
then,
it
from which
this springs
spirit,
low ungenerous
for
who
them
and
for slaves,
and
practise
Great, word s
issue,
are weighty.
spirit that
So
it is
on the
lips
words of
Take
said
who had
were content
'
\Here about
.
.
eighteen
/oj/.]
a measure one
may
call
it
Od.
xi.
543.
But never Aias, child of Telamon Came near me, but with gloomy brows and bent
Stood far aloof, in sternness eminent, Eating his heart for that old victory Against him given by clear arbitrament, Concerning brave Achilleus' arms.
observes
'
His silence
'
is
clearly a finer
a principle recognized
by Aeschylus, insomuch that he was sometimes rallied upon his habit of keeping his characters silent, as though it had passed into a mannerism (Aristophanes, Frogs, 911). ' 'The story runs that Parmenio said to Alexander that, had
he been Alexander, he would have been content to stop the war on those terms, and run no further risks; and that Alexander
answered that he too, had he been Parmenio, would have done
the same.'
Arrian,
ii.
25,
2.
6
1
^Treatise
as
Sect.
IX
Homer
of
Strife
'.
Unlike
(if
'
The Shield
really to
be
From
'
'
hatefiil,
not
terrible.
great
all
Far as the region of blank air in sight Of one who sitting on some beacon height Views the long wine-dark barrens of the deep, Such space the horses of the realm of light Urged by the gods, as on they strain and sweep, While their hoofs thunder aloft, bound over at one leap'-
He
of the world.
he marked
Who
make two
they
no longer
too
find
Passing
great
Gods:
are
the
Heaven
sent
its clarion
forth
Olympus
too
in his
gloomy
reign.
And
'
leapt
up with a scream,
head
//. iv.
44a
(a description of Strife)
'
At first she rears, but soon with loiiier claim, Her forehead in the sky, the earth doth tread.'
'
may
probably be placed
c,
any
substantial part of
Homer.
388, perhaps mixed up with
v,
' //. V.
770.
'//. zxi.
75a
Sect.
IX
Concerning Sublimity
Poseidon cleave tJie solid earth in twain, And open the pale kingdom of the dead Horrible, foul widi blight, which e'en Immortals dread '.
You
its
see,
is
torn up from
things
heaven and
hell,
Yet
all
For when
all
Homer
factions,
massed
together,
seems to
me
that,
as he has
done his
gods, so
uttermost to
make
the
when we
reserved in
their
unhappiness.
'
Far
Battle of the
divinity as
Gods
which show us
truly great,
with no admixture;
on Poseidon
wild woods,
from height to
. . .
The
city
Rocked
. . .
Poseidon in his wrath . . . the light wheels along the sea-plain rolled
'
//.
XX. 5i-s.
LONG. TR.
A
From
cave and
lair
Treatise
Sect.
IX
the creatures of the deep round him, and the crystal heap Of waters in wild joy disparting know . Their lord, and as the fleet pair onward sweep '
Flocked
to sport
Thus too the lawgiver of the Jews, no common man when he had duly conceived the power of the Deity, showed it forth as duly. At the very beginning of
'',
his
Laws,
light,
'
God
said,'
he writes
light,
What
'
Let there
be
let
there
was
comrade,
on
human theme,
that
you may
learn
how he
majesties
which
are
Gloom and
Zeus,
sire,
do thou the
veil
of darkness rend.
And make
Then
*
may
see
'.
These
'
lines are
taken from
//. xiii.
The
Moses was.'
'
Letter of General
.
.
was
for such
really think
1844.
With
conceived
showed
forth,'
difficulty
apprehended His
Him
actions
With
'
II. xvii.
:
Burke
With
this
very
terrible,
obscurity seems in
Sect.
IX
is
Concerning Sublimity
the very truth of the passion of
Here
for
Ajax:_he
he
^e hero but
when
in impracticable darkness
could _dispose_hK^
y^om
^or light
the
at
the speediest,
at
worst
Zeus be arrayed
goes along
;
him.
Truly the
spirit
of
Homer
in full
'
he
feels
Not fire in densest mountain glade, Nor spear-armed Ares e'er raged dreadfiiller
Foam
started
from his
lips,
..."
Qdj/ssey (for there
are
many
reasons
why we must
also), that,
when
bggins to
age.
of sto ry-teUi ng
mark ofusold
this
work
fact
from the
Odyssey remnants of
before
Dium,~"as so
;
many
additional
to its
aye,
and renders
When we know the full extent of any when we can accustom our eyes to it, u great deal of the apprehension vanishes.' On the Sublime and Beautiful, ii, 3. Buike quotes Milton's description of Death in the Second Book of Parageneral to be necessary.
danger,
dise Lost,
and observes
'
In this description
all is
dark, uncertain,
last degree.'
/;.
XV. 605.
C 2
'
20
awarded
is
A
in
Treatise
Sect.
IX
some
Patroclus there,
There the brave Aias and Achilleus lie whose wisdom matched the gods on
;
high;
my
son.
From
heyday of his
^structiye
is
O^jjgy
in the
main naiTOtivej^whkhLis.JbgLSpecid,.|ga]^54ja.ge,
it
So
to
IS that in
;
Homer
a setting sun
the greatness.
Here
Ilium
level
is
no longer maintained
all
into
and
is
left
our view,
and a wandering among the shallows of the fabulous and the incredible ".
While I say
this,
Cyclops
^,
am
describing
Still in all
Homer,
Od.
iii.
109.
'
The
Mediterranean.
Compare
3
wonder
c,
at the tides
and
tidal
Agricola (end of
CW.Bookix.
Sect.
IX
Concerning Sublimity
order tp
show howj^ry^
easily great_geniuSjWlien^,the
PGBeisji^ji_iOmed..aid.J;ilJrifl^
by Circe to swine
tears'),
'
there are
(whom ZoUus
called
'
porkers in
like a
young bird', of
-
What
Zeus
* '
'
can
? '
we
call
'
dreams of
second reason
why
Od.
X. 17,
&c
229, &c.
B.C.
critic,
of
Scourge of Homer.'
62.
*
' '
03.
xii,
end.
Od.
xxii.
lies
Homer
that he 'shows
how
should be
told
he so manages the
c.
irrational,
a potent
happened at
Homer, after noticing the modest opening of the Odyssey, goes on to speak of
a
warm and
these marvels
fire his
object
is
to bring.
But fire from smoke, a very different thing Yet has he dazzling miracles in store, Cyclops, and Laestrygon, and fifty more . . . And all this glamour, all this glorious dream. Truth blent with fiction in one motley scheme. He so contrives, that, when 'tis o'er, you see Beginning, middle, end alike agree.' A. P. 143, &c., Conington's translation.
If
we
assume a single author for the Iliad and Odyssey, the work of his old age is a very
22
Odytsey
also
A
should
reco gnize ho
Treatise
is
Sect.
this
;
IX
yo u
be discussed
that_
may
in
great
:
writers
intojjhargff.^e^'-t^ rawin g
in the
household of Ulysses
much resemble
comedy ofxhatactSC-
X
WILL
now ask you
to consider with
me whether
which
Sin ce with
I
all
we may
vital
^i of making
it
these,
spirit in their
may be
found
(1829), of which Lockhart writes : 'The various play of fancy in the combination of persons and events, and the airy liveliness of both imagery and diction, may
Atme of
Geierstein
what he
beautifully says
of his
King Ren4
man he was ; the snows of age but they did not chill him Gaiety, Even in life closing, touch'd his teeming brain With such wild visions as the setting sun Raises in front of some hoar glacier. Painting the black ice with a thousand hues.' Life of Sir W. Scotl, vol.
mirthful
Fell,
vii.
On
the
late
foil.,
Sect.
X
wKch
Concerning Sublimity
ideas,
23
bythe choice of
those
Ijave
truth.
But wherein does she show her great excellence ? In her power of first selecting and then closely combining those
which are conspicuous and intense
Blest as the immortal gods
is
:
he
The youth whose eyes may look on thee, Whose ears thy tongue's sweet melody
May
still
devour.
!
Thou smilest too sweet smile, whose charm Has struck my soul with wild alarm. And, when I see thee, bids disarm
Each
vital
power.
the flame within
Speechless I gaze
Runs
my
;
quivering skin
My
eyeballs
My
And
I
swim
cold drops
grow ; and then together fail Both sight and sound '.
not marvel
frail
Do you
'
how
600
c), written in the metre which bears her name, has only
this treatise.
It
been preserved to us in
by Catullus
text
is
same metre.
The
version in the
by
J.
24'
all
now, by a
;:
A
she
it
Treatise
:
Sect.
series
X
of
and bums,
is irrational,
is either in terror
or at the point of
death)^, so that
may not
which
the
is
upon
All
to the choice
So
it is,
The
:
author
Here
too
is
Mid
seas
men
mighty marvel for our thought dwell, on water, far from land
Wretches they are, for sorry toil is theirs Eyes on the stars, heart on the deep they fix. Oft to the gods, I ween, their hands are raised. Their inward parts in ewl case upheaved '.
Any
many :
As when a wave swoln by the wild wind's blore ' Down from the clouds upon a ship doth light,
^
The
' Aristeas,
North,
mentioned by
the
'
who
says,
iv.
spous,'
an eye).
'
blore, it e. blast.
Ci.
'
a sudden blore,'
Chapman,
one.
The west wind and the north join The word is approved by Johnion
in as
an
'
expressive
'
Sect.
Concerning Sublimity
2f
And And
the whole hulk with scattering foam is white, through the sails all tattered and forlorn Roars the fell blast : the seamen with affright
away '.
terrible.
result is petty
and so
it
does
Again
he gives us the picture of men meeting destruction conUnuaily, wellnigh in every wave.
Yet
again,
by forcing
them
to
combine (I
refer to the
words
'
out from
death
'),
trouble
which
upon them
has so pressed
it
together
;
has
peril:
breadth they are borne.' Just so Archilochus' in describing the shipwreck, and Demosthenes,
when
the news of
Elateia comes:
^
'For
it
was
evening,' he says*.
They
II. XV.
6*4.
'
270
B.C.,
the
by Cicero.
The
words quoted by
another poet.
'
St. Paul,
Acts
xvii. 28,
Two
The
is
its
26
merit (if one
A
may use
trivial,
Treatise
real
Sect.
them nothing
things
or undignified, or low.
effect,
For such
in
much
as,
building,
XI
named
is
in
Whether
be done by
way of
topics, or
reasoning, or of handling
'
deeds^one or
suffering
endured
;
The words
the
the
a paraphrase.
With
the general
drift,
'
The
on the
slopes of
most perfect remains of Greek building in the Peloponnese, and are a beautiful example of Hellenic masonry during the best period.
They
hedded
On
8) recommends the
use of small
crete,
and con-
which
the interstices.
A comparison between
Greek
masonry
at its
best
Sect.
XI
Concerning Sublimity
27
know
in
all
other processes of
amplification, take
away the
;
soul out of body they are effective no longer, and become nerveless and hollow unless braced by passages
of sublimity.
down wherein
precepts,
between
my
present
and Sublimity.
XII
AM
I
greatness.
Of
course
may
serve in
common
for sublimity,
and
passion,
and
theianguage
it
To me
seems
in this, that
Sublimity
;
lies in intensity.
conse-
in outline
an accumulation of
;
all
in.
a subject, strengthening
ofAe^argument_by
insistence
and
differs in
28
this
"Treatise
latter
Sect.
XII
seeks to
demon-
lostJ\
Hence
it is,
we
more strongly
and of
spirit
of fire
and
aglow
Plato,
calm
in
his stately
It is
points,
if
we
as
Greeks
and
Demosthenes
of Cicero
differ
is in
their
grand^
passages.
Demosthenes' strength
that
in
^^
diffiisifijj,
Our countryman,
his violence, swift,
because he
strong,
to a lightning fl^h
or a thunderbolt.
the
fire
which
burns
is
at his will
now
:
in
one
part,
now
in another,
and fed
certainly .the
moment
I will
not
say, is cold,
not, as
on p. 34,
his brilliance.
Sect.
XII
Concerning Sublimity
is
29
and generally
where accumulated
in play,
:
to be hard struck
is to
the
moment
for
it
where he
is
perorations
and digressions,
and
in
all
passages
XIII
THAT
greatness,
'
'
in
some
none the
less reaches
you
you have
know
this
typical passage:
virtue,'
it
Those who
are unversed in
all their
wisdom and
runs,
'and spend
like, are
They
pure
like
cattle,
down, and
and
fill
bowed
and
and
in the greediness
of these
'.'
we would
choose not to
' Plutarch (i/e of Demosthenes, iii) severely blames Caecilius for venturing on a comparision of the two Orators, and quotes a pioveib
own
586 A.
30
neglect the lesson, besides
all
A
that
Treatise
is
Sect.
XIII
that there
als,o_aEatlj; road,
we have
sublime.
''Imitation
Here
it
:
is
our mark,
my
friend,
us hold closely to
for
many
inspired
is
cleft in
men of who
inspired by
in others.
?
Was
Herodotus alone
There
;
but,
Homeric
water.
(Perhaps
we ought
not
'
419) ; but Plutarch, who lived on the spot, makes no mention of the mephitic vapour, and indeed uses words (JDe defeetu Orac. c. xlii) incompatible with its existence. For the bearing of
as Strabo (ix.
this passage
' Stesichorus,
'
of Himera.
Ammonius, a
critic,
who
Homer
(not,
as
Longinus).
Sect.
XIII
is
Concerning Sublimity
theft, but
31
is
,Jiere
no
such a rendering as
made from
as
had entered
with
all
Homer,
aye,
his
;
young
and
striven for
the
lists,
for
'
good,' says
Hesiod,
for
is this strife
for mortals.'
fame
is fair,
and
its
not
XIV
THEREFOI^E
greatness
even we,
when we
to
are working
of thought,
do
well
imagine
within
said
Homerjvould have
same
thing,
how
histojj;,
The
Thucydides would have made it sublime. figures of those great men will meet us on the
vie with them, they will stand out before
way while we
'
'
In a word,
Homer
fills
his readers
with sublime
all
ideas, and,
I believe,
have come
ately takes
him.
fhe
who immediHomer
in
fire at
hint of
rises
Spectator, no.
417 (Addison)
339.
32
Qur_eyes,
A
if
Treatae
Sect.
XIV
measure of
SSn'inore so
thr~^iC0Eb. w^ %V6
.
conjured up.
;
we add
?
how
they
or Demosthenes
how would
this
have
felt
at
this?
Truly great
is
competition,
jury,
such
before
judges
and
we undergo
a scrutiny of
what we
be
if
write.
:
jou add
'
IF
future ages
hear
quence, that he
beyond his
must
dull
;
me?| If any man Tear" tffis1S(5asemay say something which shall pass own day and his own life, then needs
fulfilment.
all
for
XV
WEIGHT,
fiStEer
produced
very
high "degree,
young
friend,
by appeals
to Imagination, called
is
Ey some
'rmage making^.'
Imagination
no doubt a name
hiit_rfie_wprd
moved By enthusiasm
"and "passion,
'
ypu
With
this section
',
On
the pleasures
:
of the Imagination
also
ennemie de
la raison
'
{Pensies;
Sect.
'
'
XV
Concerning Sublimity
3 3
seem to
t^em_jjfiaer"tEe~ey^rTjf^'youF~hearers.
in rhetoric,
'
fatter is to
both, howeveiT^eek to
the
mind
strongly.
My mother,
Of bloody
Here
and
!
here
Alas
she'll slay
me
whither
may
I flee
his
own
eyes,
Now
Euripides
is
most pains-
Tragedy the
and
is
two passions
others;
efforts
of madness
and
love,
more
of
imagination.
far
Though
great,
:
his
own
natural
it
genius
was
from being
he yet forced
in every detail
in
many
instances to
become
tragic
of his
it,
With
Thus
says
:
his swift
tail,
and
stirs
up
battle's thirst
'.
Helios,
handing
over the
reins
to
Phaethon,
clime,
thy car.
XX. 170.
T^
LONG. TR.
34
Then he
goes on
:
Sect.
-^ Treatise
XV
Right for the seven Pleiads shape thy course : So spake the sire ; the son now grasped the reins,
They,
air
:
The
sire, astride
in the rear,
thither drive
car,
yea here
Would you
and wears
been imagined by
heavenly
display,
'
it,
if
in in
that
So
.'
.
his
Cassandra ',
Ho, ye
against Thebes,
of that name
And
Slaying the sacred bull o'er black-rimm'd shields touching with their hands the victim's gore,
man
of
own, with
'
no word of ruth
*
' ;
So the MS.
a trace-horse
'.
An
alteration
is
of
'
Either image
sufficiently extravagant.
'
'
From the Phaelhon, a lost play of Euripides (Nauck 779). From another lost play, perhaps the Alexander, in which
Aeschylus,
Cassandra figured.
'
Swen
Swanwick's
tr.
Sect.
XV
Concerning Sublimity
;
ij
perils.
is
Thus
in
Aeschylus the
in
of Lycurgus
passing
:
troubled
by the Gods
is
manner
manifest
strange
when Dionysus
made
See
how the
all
palace is possessed,
.
.
its halls
Are
Euripides
differently
a revel
has
;
smoothed
this
it
And
Oedipus
^,
all
'-
wEen "e"
;
passes to his
own
burial
aimidst
elemental portents
expressed
but
it is
with
more
,
impossible to
put
down
all
instances.
We may,
goes^e^nd
all
that is
in
which has
reality
and
tru th is
always best.
Deviations from
this rule
of the speech
'
poetic
into
of Aeschylus
is
from
The
reference
c, a
poet.
$6
impossibility
'
A
than to
our
Treatise
surely
clever
Sect.
XV
like
of every sort;
we need look no
who,
further
own
orators,
learn so
much
as this, that
;
when Orestes
says
;
Unhand me one of my own Furies thou Dost grasp my waist, to thrust me down to
he imagines
all
hell
this because
he
?
is
mad.
What_then
and passion
much
deding with
facts an admixture
of
him
'
its
slave,
Now
if at
this very
moment a
courts,
no one,
all
he
But
if
the man who released them is now before you, that man would have no hearing, and would instantly die ^,' So Hyperides when put on his trial, because he had proposed, after our defeat, to make the slaves free This proposal,' he said, was moved not by the Orator,
; ' '
'
' ;
here, while
he deals
with the
'
facts,
'
* Hyperides, a
whom
see p.
'
6 a.
the
Plutarch
disaster
tells
us that
he was accused of
' '
'
illegality
after
it
was the
fight at Chaeroneia,
'
Sect.
XV
Concerning Sublimity
beyond persuasion.
nature that
In
all
such instances
a fact of
we
listen to that
which
is strongest.
We
are therefore
denjonstration to
that
which has
fact
ment of
This process
is
only what
we might
expect
when two
of the other.
What
I have
now
and secondarily by
'.
by imagination,
will suffice
XVI
HERE comes
'
',
jorm_no_jninor element
Some words may have been lost here. Jhe ' Figures,' partly of words, partly of thoughts (see p. 13) Were idols of the rhetoricians, who nearly all wrote treatises upon them. The bondage in which the orators stood to these ' Figures
' is
well
shown
in
story
preserved
by Seneca (Controv.
but
Ill,
self-
Introduction).
critical
Albucius,
an
excellent
anxious and
bar,
by the unfortunate
The
oath.
Swear,'
replied
Albucius,
intending by
the figure to
disclose all his opponent's iniquities, 'but I will prescribe the oath,
father,
which
lie
unbnried.
Swear by
38
in greatness.
A
As
we
will
Treatise
it
Sect.
XVI
however
would be a
laborious, or
of
all,
go through
in
of greatness of speech,
assertion,
order to
thus.
make good
Demosthenes
'
my
is
'.
and
will
begin
Now
natural
way
to deal with
it ?
You
:
made no
home.
For they
also
made no mistake who fought at Marathon, at Salamis, at Plataea.' But when, as one suddenly inspired and
possessed, he breaks out with that oath by the bravest
men of Greece
no,
'
It
made
a mistake
by use of a single
I
call
apostrophe),
to have
those
ancestors
we ought
to swear, as
by
gods, by
men who
spirit
died so;
and implanting
in the
judges the
the
of the
I '
men who
He
:
memory
of your father
We
my
'
'
made no
employed a
Aruntius insisted
'Rule them
his
'we
be able to
live
without them.'
The
mouth
in public again.
in
owe the
the
whose History
of Literary Criticism,
'
will
be found
much mention of
Figures.'
'
De
Corona, 208.
Sect.
lives
XVI
of old
;
Concerning Sublimity
1 9
and,
withal,
infusing
into
the
souls of his
;
that so,
by the medicine of
his
words of
praise,
they
against
Philip
than on the
triumphs
all
won
at
Marathon and
his hearers up
at Salamis.
Doing
this,
he caught
a figure.
It is said,
this oath is
found in Eupolis
my
fight,
No man
But then
which
is
my
heart.
is
;
great
place,
all essential.
is
all
it is
addressed to Athenians
;
when
prosperous
has not
made immortals of
so he
a
may
worthy record of
who bore
to suit beaten
a failure no longer
stration
'
it is,
as I said, at once a
demon-
that
they
made no
mistake,
an example, an
Comedy, contemporary of
Aristophanes.
The
lines are
40
assurance
resting
A
on
Treatise
oaths,
Sect.
XVI
an be
word of
praise,
liable to
exhortation.
And
met by
this objection
You
and
yet
you
swear
by
in the
by
rule,
us a
lesson that
we must
yet be
sober
*
who bore the brunt,' are his words, who fought on sea by Salamis and off Artemisium, by those who stood in the ranks Nowhere does he say who conquered,' at Plataea
'.'
'
By
at
Marathon, by those
!
'
'
result,
at
once adds
To
of whom the
city
gave public
burial,
Aeschines,
who
succeeded.'
XVII AT
l\.
given
this point I
state
my
dear friend, to
It shall be
one of
my own
and
conclusions.
is
quite
concisely,
this.
As
though by
and
turn
are
marvellously .supported
this is so,
by the
alliance.
I will explain.
There
of
it
;
suggests a
suspicion
of ambuscade,
is
all
plot,
sop histry
Sect.
XVII
Concerning Sublimity
:
41
any
feels that
if
he
silly child,
by
wild beast,
is
Accordingly a
it
is
Therefore sublimity
beautiful
and
great, enters
and remains,
is sufficiently
This
'
By
the
men who
'
By what
by
Clearly,
its
very light.
Much
artifices
An
removed from
are used,
When
lie
colours
and the
upon the
meets the
only more
light
the shadow,
and seems
nearer.
not
it is
much
So
in
speeches
come
I
into
figures,
because of what
brilliance
;
may call
and also of
the
were, veiled.
42
A
are
Treatise
Sect.
XVIII
XVIII
WHAT
that,
we
',
and
Interrogations
Is
it
not true
our
figure
takes,
it
makes
much
"is
this,
more
me,
effective
sir !)
to
there any
that a Philip
news than
dead
man of Macedonia is subduing Greece? Is ? Not dead. Heaven knows, but sick.
?
What
matter to you
if
will quickly
Again,
'
Let
ever
us sail to Macedonia.
find to put into
"What
harbour shall
we
'.'
War
will discover
weak
The
it is,
would be
as
the rush and swift return of, question and answer, and the meeting of his
another,
difficulty as if it
came from
For
passionate language is
more
attractive
when
it
seems to
|be
bom
Much
as those
'
who
are questioned
by
others,
when
spurred by
it
are of Question
and Answer
seems not
improbable that one of the two substantives has replaced the word
'
Answers
'
in the original.
i.
Philippie,
lo.
'
Id.
i.
44.
Sect.
43
the sudden appeal, meet the point vigorously and with the plain truth, so
it is
answer;
it
words
Again
be thus
\Here about
six
/oj/.]
XIX
THE
self.
'
are,
so to say,
Locking
Xenophon,
'
they
Or
Eurylochus in
Homer
bad'st,
E'en as thou
we
at
Such an
effect
Homer
XX
/yN
excellent and stirring effect
figures,
is
often given
by
when two
in
or three
fiind
common
the
their force,
Thus
'
speech
'
Xenophon,
Od. x. 251.
44
against Midias'
repetitions
-^ Treatise
we have Asyndeta
'
Sect.
XX
interwoven with
There
are
many
some of which
passage
another, by gesture,
by look, by
voice.'
Then,
may
a rush
Asyndeta and
;
by
gesture,
by look,
by voice
fists,
when
in insult,
when
in enmity,
when with
of the
when
as slave.'
what the
striker did,
he belabours the
intellect
Then
this point,
; '
wind do
when with
stir,
these
frantic, to
whom
insult is not
familiar.
No
one by
telling
atrocity.'
//
Thus he keeps up
in essence
them
is
disorderly,
and again
his
order of a kind.
XXI
Now
insert,
if
you
will,
:
conjunctions, as
"''~A"gam
the
we must
not
many
things which
by
gesture,
Midias, 72.
Sect.
XXI
Concerning Sublimity
'
:
^s
how
the
if
when smoothed
one should
tie
fails
and
For
as, if
is
gone, so passion
The
freedom of running
is
moniSum
XXII
UNDER
we must
is
set
cases
of
Hyperbaton.
This
is
oTvehement passion.
For
as those
who are
fall
all logic,
then
first,
and
and thoughts
sharply across,
now
this
way,
now
that,
and so divert
is it in
the
them by way of
art is perfect
Hyperbata to the
just
of
nature.
For
nature,
unnoticed.
Take
:
'Our
the speech
fortunes
ir.
4<J
rest
A
on the edge of a
to take
Treatise
Sect,XXii
razor,
lonians, whether
we
for
are
therefore,
you choose
up hardships, there
will be able to
'
is toil
you
you
overcome your
lonians,
enemies.'
The
now
is
He
at
Men
of Ionia,' starting
time to
name
his audience.
Then he
has
Before
sajring that
toil
(which
is
he
first
',
why they
should do so
'
our fortunes
he says,
'
rest
is
E'hucydides in the skill with which he separates, by the le of Hyperbata, things which nature has made one and
separable.
Demosthenes
is
he
is
applica-
tions ;
transposition is great,
call
For he
which
and
all
dissimilar, matter
which
outside,
he
Sect.
; : ;
XXII
Concerning Sublimity
47
he makes
when you
good the -thought which has so long been owing, and works in his own way to a happy conclusion making
:
Let us
spare
more instances
XXIII
NEXT
effective,
come jthe
figures
which
are very
in
with ornament,
Only look
at
of
case,
person,
number,
gender
!
how
Of
found to be plural
At
once the people in its multitude Break man from man, shout ' tunny !
but the other class deserves even
'
'
"
more
attention, because
In this long period the writer has fallen, as he often does, into
whom
he
is
considering.
fish,
The tunny
is
a Mediterranean
a large mackerel.
'
The
fishermen place a look-out or sentinel on some elevated spot, who makes the signal that the shoal of tunnies is approaching, and
points out the direction in
a great
which
it
will
come.
Immediately
line,
number of boats
set off,
and, joining their boats, drive the tunnies towards the shore, where
poles.*
From
48
; :
Treatise
fall
Sect.XXllI
of multitude
O
That gave me
marriage
rites
and having borne me, gave To me in turn an offspring, and ye showed Fathers and sons, and brothers, all in one, Mothers and wives, and daughters, hateful names. All foulest deeds that men have ever done.
birth,
but for
all that,
made the misfortunes plural also of many for one : Forth Hectors
'
^.'
And
the Athenians
'
No
blood are
things
we that dwell
and so
forth.
For
effect
strike
when
groups.
Yet
this should be
done
we know
'
that to
go everywhere
*.
'
ibells
'
is
'
Unknown.
bells
" *
Menexenus, 245 D. ' Other men take their misfortunes quietly, he hangs out
Sect.
49
XXIV
plural to (
I
sides,' says
And
fell
look at
the
this,
'when[
of
Phrynichus
Miletus, the
drama,
Taking
whole theatre
into tears'.'
Where
of a single body
is
produced.
of the ornamental
effect is the
same
them
is
into plurals
;
shows emotion
plural, to
is
surprised
where
change
in
XXV
A GAIN,
where you introduce things past and done as
in the actual present,
\
jr\. happening
you
will
make your
'A man
and
is
of the horse he
falls.'
So Thucydides
life
most
instances.
in his daily
i.
a next thing to
Demosthenes, Arislogeilon,
in the translation are
go.
1
"
De Corona,
Herodotus
i8.
21.
vi.
taken
from Herodotus.
tears,'
'
Our
vii. 1.
missed.
Cyropaedeia,
LONG. TR.
fo
Treatise
Sect.
XXVI
EFFECTIVE
described
:
also in the
same way
is
the trans-
position of persons,
Thou
Of toughest kind wouldst have called those hosts, so manfully Each fought with each '.
Aratus
'
And
has
Not
in that
month may
You will
sail
up
come
to a level plain.
tract,
you
will again
for
two days
is
whose name
Meroe'.'
You
see,
comrade,
how he
him
All
own
make him
to a single
know
more
attentive;
is
filled
fiill
of the combat,
because he
11. XV.
697.
(see above
"
Phaenomma, 287
/;. V.
on p. 35).
'
ii.
29.
85.
XXVII
Concerning Sublimity
'
fi
XXVII
THEN
there
is
by a sudden
in this class/
/
p erson
an outburst of passion
To
But Hector warned the Trojans with loud cry, rush upon the ships, and pass the plunder by But whom elsewhere than at the ships I sight, Death shall be his that moment*.'
'
Here the
without
poet
himself, as is fitting
previous explanation,
it
chieftain:
'
Hector then
now
the change
Hence
occasion
is
where
th
him
'
: '
to hurry
from person
t(
person, as in Hecataeus
at
Ceyx, indignant
at this,
later genera-
"
for I have
no power to help
you and
therefore,
that
infiict
wound on me,
Demosthenes,
*
'
found
n. XV. 346-9.
Hecataeus of Miletus (living about B.c. 520), historian and
Aristogeiton,
geographer.
'
i.
27.
fi
this
A
change of persons
'
Treatiie
Sect.
And
will
none of you be
found,' he says,
who, thou
is
stopped,
He
angry
is
so
'
Who,
he says
from Aristogeiton, and having done with him, you tliink, he directs it upon him again with far more
intensity through the passion.
Much
in the
What brings thee, herald, thee, the pioneer Of these imperious suitors ? Do they send To bid the servants of my husband dear
end,
to meet
Here
May
Who
they their latest and their last now eat, thus with outrage foul Telemachus entreat. Ye to your parents heedful ear lend none, Nor hearken how Odysseus lived of yore '.
Orf. iv.
68i.
XXVIII
Concerning Sublimity
j-j
XXVIII
NO
if
it
in
doubt as to eii^
For as
in!
to the be auty,
more
this
especially
In proof of
it
will be
Speech':
Of all
that
we
now
they
what
the
is
personally each
man by
'
Here he has
by
called death an
appointedjoumey,' and
Is the dignity
'^
these
tums^ut a
smatPrriatter^
Or
fiSTierather
it
came of
toil to
periphrasis
Xenophon
'
Ye
reckon
it
life,
'
Paraphones,
The
musical term
is
has
been suggested that our Author means to contrast the rich effect of a chord with the thinner sound of a single note, and thus to
illustrate,
relation of a periphrasis to a
ample word or
phrase.
'
The
phrase
'
iaisae vocuiae
{de
Orat.
'
iii.
98).
Menexenus, 336 D.
^4
all
-^ Treatise
and the most
Sect,
gallant
of
more
By
like
calling toil
the guide to
happy
points,
life,'
and giving a
and
definite thought.
:
Herodotus
And
those
'
On
of
the
Scythians
who
XXIX
YET
ear,
special than
any of the
figures, if
used by a writer_
withour"Sefi'se
So
when
"
figure
with great
in the
Laws '
mocking
and
settle there,'
wealth
cattle*.'
disquisition
(which came
in
figures in pro-
those which
'
i.
we
have men-:
vii.
Cyropaedia,
It
i.
5. la.
105.
'
Laws,
is
80. I.
p.
avowedly
(See Introduction.)
XXIX
tioned
Concerning Sublimity
make speeches more
ff
XXX
NEXT,
I
will
me
whether any
..^li^SBiain.
right
that
this
all
orators
it
and
all writers,
because, of
beauty,
its
own
inherent virtue,
brings
greatness,
raciness,
all its
weight,
strength,
were the
fairest statues
mere
facts a soul
that
it
it
imparts
may
perhaps
my
readers
know
words are, in a real and sp ecialsense, - VVf-Tt;pir^nj:|ji^<ity is n^t; the light of i^iiniight qf spryice and details grand trifling apply to to in jjCpiaces,!.
For
beautiful
solemn words would appear much the same as if one were to fasten a large tragic mask upon a little child '.
Yet
in poetry
lostJ\
The same
figure is used
by Quintilian
(vi. I. 36).
ftf
Treatise
Sect.
XXXI
. . .
'
The
So too
Thracian
filly
my
care.
Theopompus' has
it
merit,
appears to
me most
fault
with
Philip,'
he says,
'
down facts perforce.' So vulgar idiom is sometimes much more expressive than ornamental
swallowing
language; itis recogniz,4j?tpncas"atoucff^jpmmon
life;
a nd
what
is
familiar is
Therefore,
when
applied to a
is
man who
'
patiently puts
mean and
in
repulsive in order
to swallow
'
:
So
until
Herodotus
'
down Then
strips,
And
and fought
until
These
"Sei^t vulgar
' Anacreon of Teos, a lyric poet who died about B.C. 4^8. Most of the well-known poems which bear his name are spurious.
Theopompus, an
vi.
see p. 75.
'
75.
* vii.
181.
XXXII
Concerning Sublimity
S7
XXXII
AS
to
to
Hown
a rule allowing
About such
figures
again
Demosthenes
is,
is
the true
passions
when
metaphors.
'
Men
foul
and
flatterers,'
he says,
'
having mutilated
their fatherlands,
away
their
freedom
wine,
first
to Philip,
now
to
life
without a
'.'
Here
the orator's
number of the
if I
may speak
bold
thus,'
and
;
'
if I
am
right
for 'censure,'
they say,
accept
figures,
'
cures
;
expression.'
For
myself, I
all
these
ij^at
De
Corona, 296.
'
f8
Treatise
Sect.
vehement, and sublimity when genuine, are sure speci-fics~foF numerous ^an3~Haring metaphors
;
because as
it
is his.
Yet
and
in
is
succ^sise^ tropesv
It is
more
admirably in Plato
The
to
head he
calls
the citadel
the
neck,
;
men
;
to
of taste
the
heart
is
appointed to
he
calls lanes.
For the
is
structure
a sponge, in order
it,
when wrath
boils
up within
the heart
may
that
Memorabilia,
i.
4. f
Timaeus, 69 D.
XXXII
chamber.
filled
Concerning Sublimity
S9
The
grows
large
and unsound.
all
'After
with
to be a pro-
like layers
of
felt.'
'
He
for
of the fleshy
they
parts.
And
the
sake
of
nourishment
made
water-courses
from an
canal.'
But
go
is at
and
:
it is
let
those which
in their
we have
nature
down
suffice to
tropical
expressions are7~and
how metaphors
that the use
Yet
of tropes,
of
on
my
saying
it.
For
upon these
is
pieces,
he
portentous allegory.
says,
into
'
'
For
it is
mixed
;
where-
wine
yet,
when chastened by
For
to call
temperate
god,' they
say,
and admixture
is
chastening,' is the
anything but
sober.
weak
points
6o
Treatise
',
Sect.
actually
all
:
mixing up two
different feelings
Only he
is carried
them to
be.
his
The
fact
XXXIII
COME now
clear
it^
let
us find
some
writer
who
is really
and beyond
criticism.
Upon
this point, is
with some
or a genius which
is
drops
first
Aye, and
whether the
These
part,
I know, for
'
my own
459-380).
him under
him.*
x<V"
critics felt in
Prof. Sir
R. C.
XXXIII
that
Concerning Sublimity
6\
clear record.
near littleness
there
"
may even
be
"neglected.
may
perhaps be a necessary
law, that humble or modest geniusT" wliicK never runs a risk, and never aims at excellence, remains in most
cases without a failure and in comparative safety
that
;
but
what
jj^
great js hazardous
greatness.
that
their
all
Not that I fail to recognize this second law, human things are more easily recognized on
the'
memory of
failures
remains
indeliBle,
away.
failures in
Homer and
in others
of the very
greatest,
which I do not
it
and
I remain
unshaken in
my
throughout,
should always
else,
yetfbr the
sake of simple
instance,
greatness.
To
take
an
ApoUonius
who
most
in his Pastorals is
:
now
poet, to
whom
Virgil is
much
indebted.
' Theocritus,
380 B.C.
62
this being so,
Treatise
Sect.
in
it
to blame;
he a
ill-
who
drags
much
arranged
inspiration
that outpouring
of divine
?
which
it
is difficult
'
Sophocles himself?
all
ablaze
least
expect
it,
and they
fail
most unhappily.
in his senses, if
Am
I not
no man
in
he put the
Eratosthenes of Cyrene.
He
also
wrote on
Homer and
'
on the Old
less
Attic
Comedy.
is
Nothing
else is
known
of this
fault-
poem,' but he
said to
poem, Hermes.
and
known
to us since
897,
published
by Dr. F. G.
Interesting
Kenyon from
value,
'
is
judgement of our
confirmed.
with Sophocles
he attempted
and was famous as an anecdotist. ' With this judgement on Sophocles, which comes to us
thing of a surprise, compare Plutarch (fin hearing poets,
as
some-
c. xiii),
XXXIV
Concerning Sublimity
6^
XXXIV
IFweighed;
far
not
jTijs
reckonuig,
^,
surpass "DemdstHenes.
He
he wins a second
of the Pentathlon,
first
prize
Hyperides
He
talks
with simplicity,
when
it is
monotonous manner
sense
like
hand
who knows
great
as
in
those
but
appropriate,
clever
raillery,
comic power
aimed
charm.
fun,
and with
this
what I may
inimitable
He
gift for
compassion,
Sophocles
may be blamed
'
Bergk
with reference to such passages as Antigone, 904, &c., which many good judges hare felt unable to accept as genuine.
'
'
R. C. Jebb
ii.
is
He
54
ease in tacking
:
-^ "Treatise
for instance, the story of
Sect.
Latona he
character,
no
flowing
certainly
he
is
not supple,
and
list
display:
of
qualities
mentioned above
when he
is
forced to
when he wants
to approach
it.
charm
We
little
may be
speech
had attempted
to write the
on Phryne or that on
established even
yithenogenes,
he would have
more
firmly the
fame of Hyperides.
:
As
see
it,
The
are
beauties
of the
latter
devoid of
greatness \ dull
to a sober
hearer to rest
unmoved (who
'
when he
tale ','
reads
Hyperides
?)
adds
sublimity of tone,
passions in living
em-
bodiment, copiousness,
is
versatility,
speed
also,
which
beyond
to
his
own
prerogative,
ability
and
force
approach.
Now
himself in one
gifts,
all
for
them, therefore by
all
other
men
'
Garr. 4)
minstrel
An Homeric
phrase {Od,
viii.
500), used
when one
succeeds another.
XXXV
thunder,
orators of
in the face
Concerning Sublimity
not.
6$
With down
his
his
;
lightning,
he
bears
the
time
in
Demosthenes.
WHEN
is
XXXV
we come
in
to Plato, there
is,
as I said,
below him
yet
more
excess of
him
in faults
which
lies
is
greatest,
detail
which
things,
in every
this, that
Nature determined
but introducing
man
to be
life
us into
some
vast
and
eternal
love
of that
divine.
which which
own
standard,
more
Therefore
is,
and thought
all
is sufficient,
and
if
one
all
how
in
know
for
been bom.
So
it is
that, as
66
A
far
Treatise
Sect.
little
and
more than
all,
Ocean
nor are
we awed by
it
keeps
its
bodies, often
more marvellous
Regarding
is
such things
we may
serviceable
man can
procure; what
XXXVI
HENCE,
in
literature,
we must
this
fection,
at
men of
stature,
though
all rise
far
removed from
:
flavyless ^per-
yet
other qualities
prove those
raises
wHo
greatness~3^od.
No failure,
What
is
ofti_ seen to
redeem
;
all
his failures
further,
by a
is
single
and
which
all
most
the failures
result
would
XXXVI
Concerning Sublimity
67
exhibit.
itself
time,
which envy
prizes
of victory
it
inalienable,
and
will as
it
As To
Colossus
who
the
Spearman of
In
Art
a
work is jdmired,
it is
in the
works of
is
Nature greatness.
Now
man,
we
seek what
said,
in speech
what
surpasses, as I
human
st andard s.
Yet
it is
words of
is in
to Art, to
in
are reciprocal
the result
far
sliould be perfection.
was necessary
to
go thus
let
every one
it.
From an epigram on Midas, quoted by Plato (Phatdna, The somewhat sentimental character of the quotation here may be noticed.
264 C).
^ Perhaps the famous Colossus of Rhodes, perhaps a later
Polycleitus,
work.
His
an
artist
of Sicyon of the
as the
'
fifth
century B.
c.
probably
now
at Naples.
F 2
6i
Treatise
Sect.
XXXVII
neighbourhood to INgoclose back to them, come
Metaphors, for we must
Illustrations
. .
and Similes,
which
differ
from them
in this respect
lostJ\
XXXVIII
SUCH
less
Hyperboles as
'
un-
you~wear'your"Brains
heels to be
trampled down'.'
ly
I^nce we ought
to
know
exact-
how
far each should go, Tor^ sometimes to limits destroys the hyperbole
;
advance
in such
beyond these
cases
extreme
tension
brings
its
relaxation,
and even
Isocrates
opposite.
Thus
into
amplify at
points.
The Argument
of his Pane-
but
at
the
this
'
More-
is
possible thereby
to
make what
a
*
'
is
great
is
lowly,
and
ness
in
/
about what
small,
and to
treat
new
The
fashion,
is
simile too
slight.
'
being only
" he
a simile
but
when he
says that
it is
a metaphor.'
"he
Aristotle, Rhetorie, 3,
Welldon.
attributed to
'
Demosthenes.
XXXVIII
happened
in
Concerning Sublimity
an
old fashion.'
'
6^
Isocrates
',
'
'
What,
some one
will say,
parts of the
this set praise
at
For
best hyperboleSj as
are those
we
This
in an
harmony widb a
certain
grandeur in the
is
crisis described, as
where Thucydides
'
speaking of the
Syracusans',
men
he
slaughtered in Sicily.
'also
For
and
the
says,
came down
the
butchered
water,
went on drinking
as
it
mud and
bloody
it.' '
mud were drunk together, and yet were things fought over,
passes for credible in the intensity of the feeling and
in
the
crisis.
The
men of Thermopylae
says,
is,
'
similar
'
On
this spot
',
he
those
who
still
had them
they
left,
and
with
teeth,
were buried
'
under the
sort of
missiles
of the Barbarians.'
it',
Here
'
What
thing
is
you
will
',
say,
against
missiles
armed men
'
or what to be
But
it
for
c. viii.
'
vii.
84.
'
vii.
225.
70
fathered
A
by the
fact.
Treatise
For, as I
Sect.
am
never tired of
and a
frenzy.
specific in
So, in
Comedy,
utterances
which approach
:
He
For
had a
field
Which
holds a Spartan
which
lies in
pleasure.
There
is
And,
in
a manner of
XXXIX
THE
already
fifth
at the
remains
to be considered,
my
excellent friend
compositipn. in
I have
in
two
treatises
on
this
subject,
which
of such theoretical
therefore, only add,
and need,
a marvellous instriuneoit,
which produces
'
passion,
yet leaves
Does
by the
The
may be
illustrated
famous dispatch reporting the disaster of Cyzicus (410 B.C.): ' Honour is lost Mindarus is gone : the men starve we know not
: :
what to
do.'
' ;
XXXIX
Concerning Sublimity
71
of wild revelry ?
Does
them
it
and
to
'
conform themselves
no music
in
to the air,
him
'
Do
upon human
that
nature
position
And
then are
is,
we
not to
think
com-
^being as it
words whi^h
his very soul,
are in
man by
his
and not
ears, alone;
them things
bom and
bred within us
of
its
own
bringing
them
building
gTeatness
^t "CompositionT^
we
contains with
say7 must by
all
these
means
at
once soo^gjjs as
stateliness,
thingwhich
mere
itself, in
eachand
?
every
it
minds
Although
folly to raise
sufficient, I
am
play of Euripides.
72
marvellous indeed
his decree
:
-A Treatise
Sect.
XL
to
This
'
it is,
decree
made
less
than the
has given
it
voice.
Take any
where you
the danger
word out of
will
:
its
own
place,
and
transfer
it
'
This proposal,
like a vapour,
'
made
or,
'
made
it
and you
how
closely the
'
sublimity.
For
first
like a
rhythm
long, if
as,
if
lengthen
it
out,
'
made
to pass
away
like to a
vapour
,the sense is the same, but not the effect on the ear,
sheer sublimity
is
XL
1ANGUAGE
_> "degree
is
made .grand
which
in
the
highest
to
by
that
corresponds
the
if
which no one,
The
difficult
Dt
Corona, l88.
metrical
by Dr.
Verrall (^Class.
Rev.
xix. p. 354).
Sect.
XL
Concerning Sublimity
73
itself,
yet
all in
So
great passages,
when
limits
wfich
encircle
fliat
them
fund
give
it
grand effects
period
to
common
of
that
grandeur.
However
writers
shown
many prose
and poets of no
natural sublimity,
using in general
common and
by mere arrangedisso,
ment and adjustment, attained a real dignity and tinction of style, in which no pettiness is apparent;
amongst many others,
Philistus,
Aristophanes
in certain
am
full
fraught with
ills
no stowing
more.'
The
subject.
phrase
is quite popular,
you
of comis
When
it
Dirce
being
Jragged~a'way"byThe bull
Where'er
chanced.
Rolling around he with him ever drew Wife, oak-tree, rock, in constant interchange.''
'
tr.
R. Browning.
From
the Aniiope, a
lost play.
74
The
more
borne
forcible
-^ Treatise
conception in itself
is
Sect.
XL
become
along
on
rollers
the
words are
solidly
which
result in stability
and grandeur.
XLI
THERE
esccited
is
nothing
which introduces
pettiness
much
as a broEen~and
which
For
in
trivial,
and
it
sameness makes
about this
is,
The
worst point of
all
that,
as ballad-music draws
away
the subject to
itself,
so prose which
made
some
over-
so that in
cases,
movement too
soon,
as
though
in a dance.
lie
^passages which
'
way of
Here again
(as
on
p.
drift
apparent.
Sect.XLII
Concerning Sublimity
7S
XLII
ANOTHER
X\.
phrase
cessive
is
is
ex-
conciseness
grand
inaiineS
when
it
a compass.
I must be understood to
not to
absolutely
it
is
that
what
is
spun out
lifeless,
all
'
which
XLIII
is
strangely potent in
in
mean.
Thus
Herodotus
spirit,
which
this in
particular,
'when the
'
word 'boiled'
;
then he has
',
and again
it
'
'
flagged
is
'
is
an undignified vulgarism,
unwelcome '
disaster.
So
also
Theopompus*,
brilliant
and
army
'
Perhaps
this should
read
'
(if
'
88.
See
.p.
56.
7<J
A
'For
send
did
not
Treatise
Sect.XLIII
spoilt the
whole passage:
tribe,
what
city
of Asia, or what
envoys to
the
King?
him?
What
or art
beautiful
earth grows,
Were
many and
costly coverlets
pieces,
and
gold,
variegated,
and white
with
all
?
furnished
things
many
costly robes
and couches
silver,
There were
also vessels of
worked with
of arms, some
in exceedingly
bushels of spices,
many
other
all
papyrus
and
all
commodities;
and so
many
pickled carcases of
sorts
the heaps
they
He
made
With
mixed up
placed
his bags
and
spices,
!
imagination
cook-shop
among those
gem-crusted cups
and the
silver
common
so in a description each of
!,
'
Sect.
XLIII
Concerning Sublimity
is
77
was open
as he has
^n ugliness
It
:
stands.
him
to
go through
all in
broad outline
given
us
all
the
rest
of the
pageant,
all
camels,
supplies for
table,
or he might
all
and daintiness
or, if
he
meant, at
list,
all costs,
down
in
an inclusive
all
'
the dainties
known
to
in
victuallers
and confectioners
'.
mean and
discredited!
;
terms unless
but
it
strong necessity
and to copy
who
fashioned
man
them away so
us
",
Xenophon
tells
But there
means of producing
most
cases
'
*
Literature, p. 390.
'
Memorabilia,
i.
4. 6.
78
Treatise
Sect.XLIV
XLIV
ONE
This
to
is to
point remains,
which
in
view of your
dili-
me by
'
said,
as assuredly
do many
others,
how
is
it
is
that in
our age
genius
persuasive and
;
but
such
is
the
Are we indeed ', he went on, to believe the common voice*, That democracy is a good nurse of all
'
that is great
all
power-
it ?
For
hand
their
Freedom, they
spirits
;
say,
it
gives
and
prizes.
in
Further, because
commonwealths,
whetted by use
irTTnay
use~3ie
he went on, of a
'
'
seem
to be
;
dutiful slavery
in its
we
able eloquence of
which
summing up.)
Sect.
are
79
mean Freedom
^yherefore
we
Other
faculties,
he
mere household
servants,
but no
slave
becomes an
As Homer
has
it
virtue doth
Whom
'
he surrenders
he went on,
As
then
',
if
what
I hear is to be be-
lieved,
dwarfs
those
the growth of
who
slavery,
though
be never so
prison.'
it
a cage of the
soul
and a public
'it is easy,
fault
Here _I_reJ2ined :
present
'Sir,' I said,
and
is
with things
it
may
of the universal
world, but
desires,
*
much
rather this
and more
The
Od.
found in a passage
also of slaves.
p.
387 A),
at
xvii.
322.
Rome
under the
early emperors.
strosities,
who
mon-
c.
83).
8o
and make
spoil
A
of
it
Treatise
Sect.
life
XL IV
a prisoner
The
love of money,
which cannot be
satisfied
and
is
a disease wTth'u's'all,
and ourselves
down
utterly
which makes us
ignoble.
is
I try to reckon
is
discover
how
it
possible that
we who
so greatly
truly,
make
it
a god, can
fail
There follows on
it
and
which,
the
way
into cities
and
When
to
these evils
have passed
the
much
us,
time in our
lives,
wise
tell
breed and
;
and luxury
no
this
For
must perforce be so
men
will
no longer look
up, nor
;
little
;
by
little
life
is
effected
all
be emulated, while
men admire
their
own
mortal parts,
A judge bribed
and sound judge
which he
is
to take
Even
so,
whole
Sect.
lives,
XL IV
Concerning Sublimity
8i
each by his
this ruin
own
luxury, do
we
really expect,
life,
which reach to
eternity
and that we
Fo r such m en
we
are, it
may
and grasping,
would
evils.'
modem
is
few exceptions^ we
now
which
is
honour.
'
'
',
and
pass
we
this
was
to be the passions,
in
about which
From
APPENDIX
I
Specimen
Passages
translated
from
DIONYSIUS OF HALICARNASSUS
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (about 78-7 B.C.), a learned writer
on history and
criticism.
Under the
latter
Thru
Rhys Roberts), and the treatise On Composition, is taken. The style is pure and the criticism
marked by good judgement and taste, and of real value. There are many phrases which he uses in common with the writer of the
Treatise on the Sublime
;
may
illustrate
On
the passage
56-8.
THE
this
smooth and
florid
mode of
composition,
in order,
It
words
is
is
not at
in
all
to
its taste, it
motion and
activity,
84
all
appendix I
half,
and
in
one
another,
effect.
This
is
no perceptible
side
it
interval
upon
this
resembles fine-woven
or paintings wherein
It
would have
all its
Rough
it is
words be
fitly
joined
it
Of rhythms
which
its
it
employs,
or
not
the
longest,
but those
;
are moderate
comparatively short
the ends of
periods must be
level.
it
takes
two
words
it
makes
forces
apart,
view
all
round.
It
will
most old-
it
mostly loves
DionyAus of Halicarnasms
is
%f
so
much theatrical
beguilement.
this style is
speak again.
those
The next thing would naturally be who have reached the first place in
Hesiod most
of
character
;
to
it.
enumerate
Of
Epic
fully
developed
of
lyric poets
;
Euripides
detail,
but
add
the
following
the lyricist
Immortal Venus, throned above In radiant beauty, child of Jove, skilled in every art of love
And
Release
artful snare;
Dread power,
to
whom
and
set
my
soul
free
From bonds of
piercing
agony
shrine
In chariot yoked with coursers fair, Thine own immortal birds that bear
air
e.
the Austere,
Sd
appendix 1
Soon they were sped and thou, most blest, In thine own smiles ambrosial dressed. Didst ask what griefs my mind oppressed What meant my song What end my frenzied thoughts pursue For what loved youth I spread anew My amorous nets ' Who Sappho, who Hath done thee wrong ? What though he fly, he'll soon return Still press thy gifts, though now he spurn Heed not his coldness soon he'll bum. E'en though thou chide.' And saidst thou thus, dread goddess ? Oh, Come then once more to ease my woe ; Grant all, and thy great self bestow, My shield and guide ! *
Here
For
the
woven
are
into one, as
affinity fitted
letters.
Vowels
Of concurrences of semi-
very few.
Ode
six,
'
and among
that
number of nouns,
verbs, and
Translated by J. Herman Merivale, 1833. The original is in the same metre, the Sapphic, as the Ode quoted in sect, 3 of
the Treatise.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
suited
87
do
not
to
be
commingled,
[De
PLUTARCH
Plutarch (about
40-120
life,
a.d.), a
native of Cbaeroneia
:
ia
he held a priesthood
other parts of
he spent many
Besides his
in
years in
Rome, and
he
is
visited
Italy.
the author of
many
miscellaneous essays on
historical,
title
ethical,
and
literary subjects,
of Moralia.
by strong
:
his
The
:
Treatise ftom
How a
young
man
Philosophy.
may
we
we
introduce
him
to poems, a conception
in
its
scope corre-
Do
is
Painting
is
Poetry which
mute
let
us teach
him
further that,
when we
we
it
it
because
it is like,
not because
is
In
itself
but
we
it
praise
be bad or good.
a beautiful
On
88
a proper likeness.
natural actions, as
jippendix
There are Timomachus
I
artists
painted
Theon Orestes
all
we must
teach
him
that
we do
that accordingly,
in imitative
feelings
and characters, he
what
is
approve
as
as
it
it
in so far
is suitable
Just
when we
heair
we
are troubled
naturally, as
Parmeno used
to
Again,
we shun
man
stricken
by sickness and
;
full
but
we
like
wasted
reads
when
a young or a
man
what
Thersites
buffoon,
Sisyphus,
or
him be taught to
For
Plutarch
'
8 9
beautifully
fit
'
means
fitly,
ugly the
the
only
and
Why,
lost,
shoes of
Demodocus
the cripple,
fit
which he
and
were shabby
lines
:
affairs,
The
an^
If thou must sin at all, take courage man, Sin where a kingdom is the prize, [Eur. Phoen. 245.] thou thy credit angel-white, thy deeds both for gain dark as desperation
Make
As ad_ To
ylnon.
(tr.
E. M.)
a talent
and
humph
sleep,
groat.'
no,
'he
and won a
uinon.
many
vicious
lies,
artist in sixty
\De Audiendis
DION CHRYSOSTOM
Dion Chrysostom (about 50-117 *!>.), a native of Prusa in a famous rhetorician and sophist ; in philosophy an Bithynia
eclectic,
style,
with
is
little
severity
The
art
passage translated
an interesting
is
its
defence.
To
man
all
this Phidias
might perhaps
reply, being
no
90
a
Appendix 1
and moreover a friend
tongue,
:
and
intimate
of
Pericles
'
Men
is
for
it is
and
their right or
wrong
administration, that I
am
put
upon
rules
my
all,
God who
and his
likeness,
whether
life,
it
wanting nothing of
give of the divine,
man can
to
be unworthy and
first
unfit.
But consider
expounder and
be
the
teacher of truth
early days
among you. For I. was not bom in the when Greece had still no clear and steady
;
Of
my own
handiwork,
finish,
But
much
older
much
wiser, I
mean
able,
knowledge of the
For
divine
all
the
own
if a
is
man were
moon
or
Dion Chrysostom
the disk of the sun.
are full of character
91
and of thought,
exhibited.
nothing of the
sort is
Accordingly the
this view.
no sculptor or painter
them
out.
and therefore
we have
recourse to
it,
attaching a
human
body
to a god, as a vessel
;
reason
so
we
we
beyond our
the
aid
intelligence
and
in-
and we use
than some
of
symbol,
more
us,
effectually
barbarians,
who, they
trifling
tell
animals upon
and absurd
pretexts.
He who
by
it
most
far
Nor can
it
be
said that a
were
no shrine, no likeness of
who
is
deems them
afar.
them from
towards what
divine, ail
men have
approaching, and
addressing themselves to
incense,
it
For
just
as
young
feel
children
when
torn from
father and
mother
92
strange yearning
Appendix I
and
desire,
hands
in
dreams to those
to
who
do men
gods
benevolence
and
and
are
eager
to
do
Accordingly
their
many
art,
and meagreness of
trees,
call
and motionless
and unmarked
stones by the
in
gods than
is their
am
to be
wrath against
Homer
first
form
in a
mention-
harangues,
how
sleeping,
loftiness
their
drinking,
courting,
with great
yet
no
doubt,
and
to
ornament of
verse,
keeping
closely
always
a mortal likeness.
Agamemnon
butes
'
:
to the
god
in
his
most sovereign
attri-
like thunder-loving
Zeus '.
my
examined
So
it
comes
to this, that if
to be a peer of the
Dion Chrysostom
gods
in
93
wisdom, I
I
am
you choose.
am
my
own
it
art in view.
For poetry
;
a copious undertaking,
can,
:
of
its
own
it
self,
whatever
be
which
fact,
passion or
grandeur,
can never be
all this
at fault for a
speaking voice
to announce
'
very distinctly.
lightly,
',
move
in to
and
fro'.
race
is likely
to
go short of everything
;
of
this alone
it
has
senses,
which
it
has
left
words
for
one thing
great
But the
art
all
of the poets
that of
Homer, who
all
he did not
all
the
Dorian
all
too,
he mixed them
up
mix
colours, only
more
freely;
he did
own
generation, but
out,
94
all
appendix I
of an uncldmed treasure-house,
for love of
sparing no single
to
have in
it
enjoyment or intensity
and, besides
all
these,
he drew
Even
all
own
and contracted
there,
and altered
round ; and at
last
came out
inventing
as a
self,
sometimes just
names
for things,
seal, leaving
no sound
of wind, and
fire,
and
sea.'
\0r.
xii,
Olympicui.^
LUCIAN
Lucian (about
120-200
CommagenS.
who
has
left
is,
works on
generally
'
His style
excellent,
and
treatise
on the question
How
many of
his writings,
much
HISTORY'
It began
is
King Lysimachus.
is
by the kind permission irom the translation of Lucian by H. W, Fowler and F. O. Fowler (Clarendon Press, 4 vols., 1905).
extracted,
The
of the
translators,
; ;
Lucian
marked and
from the very
9f
uninterraittent
first
About
by
was
relieved,
some cases by a
in others
effects,
The
mental
all
they were
stage-struck,
at the
Their favourite
recitation
was the
after another
;
would go
who were
our seventh-day
tragedians vociferating,
Love, who
rest
lord'st
it
over
and the
of
it.
This continued
some
time,
till
the coming of winter put an end to their madness with a sharp frost. I find the explanation of the form
:
it
and
in the
in the theatre,
and con-
was followed by a
their
relapse
Andromeda haunting
ing,
Gorgon's head
Well, to compare
educated class
epidemic.
is
with
like,
now
are
suffering
from an Abderite
that
They
not
stage-struck, indeed;
infatuation
to be possessed
no
the
9<J
barbarian war, the
victories
appendix I
Annenian
meet
disaster, the succession
is
of
writing history;
a Thucydides, a Herodotus,
a Xenophon.
The
be the father of
historians
it
all
seeing
what a
litter
of
has
now teemed
forth at a birth.
my
my
all
A report
somehow
or other.
Diogenes having
was moved by
do not want
;
am
rolling
my
am
dumb man
;
at so
vociferous a season
so I decided to
my cask
as best I could.
am
not coura-
my
of
is
only a poor
I
find
little
jar
earthenware like
mine;
myself picking up
Lucian
the pieces.
97
my idea for campaign-
Come,
to
all
that
foam and
spray,
that I
be wise enough to do
advice,
benefit
my
an art of talking,
or eating i
is
history-writing
is perfectly easy,
is
comes natural,
uni-
your thoughts
it
into
words.
But the
truth
it is
is
without
my telling,
old friend
you know
not a task to be
lightly undertaken,
no,
it
needs as
much
calls
it.
Thucydides
a hearing from
know I shall not get many of them, and some will be seriously
Well, I
offended
their
able,
especially any
in cases
work;
it
where
reception
would be
it
folly to
correct; has
a State document
profit
by
;
my
we
words
we
have disposed of
a Celto-Gothic or an Indo-Bactrian
friends' composition
war
then our
98
tion of
appendix I
my
measuring-rod
always
all
recognize
its
them do
their
own mensuration
Abdera
on
one of
us
first
to
of what
faults
and
This
will include
of proportion, of
of comment
on
;
and connexion.
the present
are liable.
Of
all
that,
however,
later
for
we
As
of diction, construction,
common
neither
them
is
compatible with
my
my
purpose.
But
own
observation will
show you
just those
which a constant
me
at every oppor-
way
a
to a
few
Here
is
serious fault to
begin with.
It
is
the fashion to
those
of their
own
They forget
that between
Lucian
history
^^
two things
are
is
communication;
The
one concern
to commend and
theme
History, on the
falsehood
tell
it
is like
know
is
and history
and have
the
poet's fancy.
;
He
is
inspired
if
he chooses to horse
winged
may haul up
there
no
fear the
may
smashed
atoms.
there
is
In a complimentary picture of
nothing against his having Zeus's
Agamemnon,
in fact, the
be an epitome of
Divinity;
it is
virithout
the
It
assistance
is
of metre
"
appendix 1
loo
distinguish history
like her sister,
with
their attendant
exaggerations
as well take
some mighty
powder
athlete with
muscles of
steel, rig
CASSIUS LONGINUS
Cassius Longinus
literary teacher,
(113-273 a.d.)
bom, according
a
Emesa
in Syria, or
rhetoric.
He was
student
by
mentator on Homer was one of his most distinguished pupils. He became the teacher, and afterwards the political adviser, of Queen
Moved by a genuine love of liberty, he encouraged the Queen to assert her independence of the Emperor Aurelian ; and for his share in the rising he paid with his life, when Palmyra was taken and destroyed. Considerable fragments of his works
Zenobia.
remain, the most notable being a part of his Rhetoric, which had
was extricated by the insight of the great scholar D. Ruhnken, though not published till after his death by W. Bake.
One, two,
three
is
the
to-day
where
*
is
he
of Plato.
; '
Cassius Longinus
Longinus the
critic,
it
loi
is
of which the
first
is
somewhat
and ordinary,
is
rendered
variation in the
;
that both,
however, receive a
elevation^
three,'
much
third.
and
from the
Thus
he ?
fourth
'
it is
also constructed
of words
in
more
dignified.
turn.
LONGINUS ON STYLE
Not the least important Art of Rhetoric is Style;
Style
light
and
all
makes them.
called a
Accordingly,
Style
is
not to be neglected
is
Sublimity.'
I02
taken as
Appendix I
models
have
who
have excelled in
their
this
depart-
ment,
and
invested
delivery
will
with
the
There
not be the
whole
you
train
of reasoning, and
its individual
steps,
if
fail
and
suitable, attending
to the selection
number of
charm a
verbs.
For
many
things which
much more
a sense
in
rational,
of symmetry.
what the
Homer, who did not reckon this a paltry or a cheap matter, for each of his poems has a good and easy style. Take again Archilochus of Paros, for he, too,
has taken great pains with
poets in a body, or those of
this.
Or
who
careless or disdainful
all
due pains.
To
the great
Cassius
Lmginus
to surpass
all
io|
who
own
by
this
he would seem
others
come within
The
office
of style
is
the rest of
is
mankind
strange,
the utterance;
clearness in statement,
pleasure.
If
sequence,
you
will
displease
and
and your
show
limits
exceed
measure.
You
men with
you,
Avoid
breaking
the
and unfamiliar.
Again,
it
be without service
of vowels, so
called,
without a
trip,
flow of voice.
I04
The
any one
distinctive
appendix I
mark of good rhythm
turned and
is
clear
to
who
rhythmical, well
discoverers
of which,
those
who
first
exhibited
mind
to the matter,
you
will see
how
Now
mouth.
Anybut
body
the
all
first
can say
irait,tis,
naii^eic
cxuv presents a
;
distinctive type
of language and
phraseology
nearly
there are
own
the
upon
us,
but
we upon
II
The
Treatise on Sublimity
Critics
and Latin
A
tained
COMPARISON of the
Treatise
on
the
Sublime
Greek
critics
conin
Appendix
I shows a
wide divergence
style, treatment,
is
and conception.
Even more
striking
the contrast, if
we
works of Aristotle
is
Aristotle
business-like,
much
as
Bacon does,
the
as a part
of the
intellectual
equipment of
human
race,
and
it
which
is at
his
own
his
writings, and
is,
notably in his
'
in
any
is
it
sense
of the word,
but
criticism
he disparages poetry as
ideal poet
one degree,
artisan,
The
author of the
Thus we
character in the
work ;
it
partly a sense
Mommsen
J0(S
'
Appendhc II
dissertation
The
in the first
unknown
certainly
proceeds,
at
any rate
from a man
who
revered alike
Homer and
Moses.'
ch. il.J
viii.
And
'
again
that treatise on the Sublime, which Homer's Poseidon, shaking land and sea, and Jehovah, who creates the shining sun, side by side, and the beginnings of the Talmud which belong
ventures to place
to this epoch,
of the
first
no special reason to
made,
we
observe that,
if
Law
incorrectly.
Nor
the
can
we
work of
many of whose
illustrations are
who
was,
if
we may
believe
of the Treatise betray the influence of the Latin basis of the great
lived.
His
latest
English editor
We notice also
See
Sublimity
Such
lists
Critics
'
and Latin
in
107
may be found
we
when
Rhetoric,
critic Quintilian
(about
:
40-118
'
A. D.)
Such
;
are
Some
penetration, enjoying
2.
21
cp. p. 12.)
call
What
we may
visions
will be
most effective
in
{Quint,
vi. z.
The
which
is called
Apostrophe,
is
wonderfully
{Quint, ix. 2.
'
38
cp. p. 38.)
As
If
of Hercules to
'
{Quint,
vi.
i.
36
cp. p. 55.)
we
in expression,
specifics,
we must come
to speak,"
" so
and the
viii.
{Quint,
'
3,
'
37;
cp. p. 57.)
'
in
The treatment of the Figures and of Composition Quint, ix may be compared with pp. 70-2 of the
These
instances
are
Treatise.
notes,
p. 85,
and
id8
appendix II
show
in relief,
it
to a certain extent to
true to
would be more
midst
glittering in the
all
when the
whole speech
shine,'
is in light,
viii.
{Quint,
6.
29;
lost in
cp. p. 41.)
work of
At any
much
common between
many of
Quintilian,
the professional
critic,
If
we
latter, for
we may
select
two of a
greatness in Nature.
concern
literature,
may be
^Think
to look
great thoughts
dare
The blessings
and
of
liberty,
which
is
so forcibly
is
described
fanatic
;
the
is
Treatise.
Yet
neither author
each
men
what
is
within
Sublimity
reach.
and Latin
Critics
109
the Republic
that
dignified opportunism
examples were
men.
Both
writers look
beyond mere
political
status to the
the
'
All
it is
better to
be ruled than to
latter
live free.
(the
of
whom
thought and
subjects than
he sometimes receives
Persius
opinion.
in
The awe
familiar to
in the
is
is
Romans.
look ' with no fear ' on the mighty regularity of the heavenly
bodies
;
but he makes
it
He
laughs at the
man
river
who likes to draw his pint of water from a great but or who cuts his mouthfuls from a great mullet
;
then
he
is
and the
glutton,
and any
good enough
he
to belabour them.
Cicero's
felt
this clear,
nowhere
in
more
detail
Dream of Scifio,
down from
a fragment of his
work On
in
it
by Macrobius.
the
cliffs
We hear
of
Nile thundering
1 1
Appendix II
and under his
;
parts,
diflerent
of Caucasus
Solar
all
vast
and wonderful.
awfiil, in their
The
As
critics,
Cicero and Horace have not much in comCicero was profoundly interested
mon with
one another.
in the history
and prospects of
it,
Roman
oratory
Horace
never mentions
Latinity which
it
exacts.
Roman
own
literature as a critic.
we have
is
ideas
the Treatise.
Horace
Rome
to study
the greatest
his
own were
Homer,
Alcman
not
the
Alexandrians.
He
is
himself, as
p.
Roman
the
orators,
reproduced
in
Latin
the
Speeches
of Aeschines against
Ctes'tphon
and
Demosthenes On
Crown,
as an orator,
he
tells us,
How
Sublimity
and Latin
Critics
III
more
lasting
reward
history.
Roman
^ for
reminding
him of performances
their
'
which
is
of
silent,
and
live
when
am
is
dead.'
The most
that in
by
It
failure, to
moderate
excellence,
however
flawless.
was hardly to be
to send abroad in
and indeed
it
Rome.
it
to impress
grammar of the
poetic
that slovenly
work
is
Cicero, in
taken to
come of
'
stupidity.'
Yet
we may be
Certainly
sure, unstinted
Horace discusses
Brutus, end.
112
and Art
:
Appendix II
he allows that
at
Homer can be
this
drowsy, though
he himself chafes
every nod.
judgement
itself is
it.
is
a work
of art;
it
from Nature,
This
But
Music
of his
hardly explicit
it.
So
remains
unique,
in
to
find
it
anticipated
Yet
Latin
literature
itself
furnishes a practical
essential, link
is
commentary on the
strange, yet
'
It
of the
sets before
that
as the didactic
left
poem of
unfinished
by
their authors,
in a
more or
less
No poem was
113
was the
legitimate
desires, than
the great
Yet, if Horace
with
inseparable imperfections.
It is not desired to
Future
research
the Treatise in
complete form, or as to
in the nature
authorship,
surprise.
of a
may
afEnities to
Horace began
by writing Greek
lyrics,
to be merely
which
need
deceive
no one.
114
III
ROBERT LOWTH
Robert Lowth (1710-87), a native of Winchester, and educated in the College there, and at New College, Oxford, of which he was
a Fellow (1729-50). He was Professor of Poetry at Oxford (1741-50), and from that Chair delivered in Latin the Lectures on
Hebrew Poetry from which our extracts are tramlated. An argument used in this course drew on him an attack from Warburton, which he answered in a letter which has become a classic. In later life
(1778-9) he published Isaiah, a New Translation with notes. He was Bishop successively of St. Davids (1 766), Oxford (l 'j66-'j'),
and London (1767-87). The extracts have been chosen
and as showing
in the thoughts
how
'
of eighteenth-century
the Figures
if
'
also because
many
It is
points relating to
possible,
however, that,
now be
found of value.
OF SUBLIMITY IN DICTION
I
the
great
stirs
the
l^ohert
distinction,
Lowth
iif
the words
never
thinking whether
be
its
In most cases
arises
own
This
much
inconvenience.
We will
therefore
first
it
has
in it to
name given
in virtue
of sublimity.
own
its
words
and
full to
artistic,
its entire
form and
breaking the
barriers
speech.
voice;
orderly in arranging
its
subjects,
plain
in
it
setting terms to
studies first
of
all
With
;
not
much
care for
all
this
swollen stream, they struggle within; of these the more vehement burst out as chance wills it, wherever they may; whatever has life and glow and speed they snatch
up, they
do not seek
out.
t 2
ii(J
poetry.
Appendix III
Whatever be the
feeling
which
stirs
the mind,
the
into that
it
which
stirs it
it it
and
not
utterance;
is
actually
must express
splendour,
it
it
according to
its
own
by
concep-
with
may
be, or
melancholy, or
their
exultation, or horror.
natural force are borne
For the
feelings
own
that is within
to express
;
with elevation,
and
by two
methods;
either
by
the subject
mind
at the time.
Hence
make
all
so much, attributing to
Art
:
For Nature forms our spirits to receive Each bent that outward circumstance can give; She kindles pleasure, bids resentment glow. Or bows the soul to earth in hopeless woe; Then, as the tide of feeling waxes strong. She vents it through her conduit pipe, the tongue. Horace, A. P.
What
poetry.
is true
of the nature of
all
poetry will be at
in transferring
J^bert Lowth
brilliance,
117
this.
majesty, elevation
it
Then,
in diction,
is
we have
and dignify
often employs,
artistic
arrangement of
which
is
We
it
have
which separate
off from
of
prose
Hebrew
language:
all
in
it
is
bare,
straightforward,
sane, simple;
carefully chosen
there
is
no
;
follow;
adjuncts
most
Thus
the
its
the
writer,
spirit.
to
reflect
the
image
of
But
in
Hebrew
poetry
quite different.
The
spirit
dashes on un-
and
frigid details
its
veil
; ;
ii8
is
Appendix III
aside,
drawn
so that
we
condition
sudden
impulse, the
onward
am
make an
experi-
ment.
first
read
speech.
now
what
happened
when he came
to
Virgil,
or
even
from
to
Herodotus
Homer,
or
put
down Xenophon
It is
vehement
style
and
and continuous
spirited
whole
fabric so
more
poetical.
Most of
relating
in
others,
lie
form and
cases,
structure,
is
somewhat deeper ;
effect,
some
what
powerful in
in mentally, is
hard to explain
handle
it,
it, it
seems
it is
clear
and
it
found to vanish.
As
much
T{ohert Lovoth
119
style.
The
reader should
first
notice
grief
Let
And
I was to be born on it (i.e. on which I was to be born) the night (which) said, There is a man child
conceived '.
first line,
figure,
and
still
more abrupt
construction, in
Ask
Yet you
will acknowledge,
of the period
is
thoroughly
clear,
and more
of the
feeling
speaker less
accident
and
less distinctly.
By
a fortunate
for
we
to
the proof;
twin, that
it
The
but
sense
Cursed be the day wherein I was bom: Let not the day wherein my mother bare
blessed.
'
me
be
Job
iii.
3.
I20
father,
appendix III
who
bringing glad tidings to
my
man
made him
very glad'-
The
querulous
than indignant;
it
is
more
gentle,
quiet,
plaintive, so
in a
high degree,
especially strong
stir pity,
little.
Let us move on a
points
slight
;
We
the
closely
set
thoughts,
but
words
eloquence
as
we have
four,
in
a
it
space
of
twice
in
many
;
short lines,
only used,
would seem,
poetry
at least,
poetry,
still
more
unfamiliar.
Not
to dwell
on
all
what
is
fullness
curtness, in this
That
In
this, again,
night
let
darkness have
it.
we have an
No
doubt he
first
conceived
Let
But,
and the
and
intensity.
'
We return
He
finger.
'
1{ohert LoToth
to
121
Job
let that
Lo,
seems to
night be barren
to point to
'
with his
The doors of my womb ' for the doors of my mother's womb (v. lo) is an ellipsis which is easily
'
to be supplied, but
tranquil
and
Not
to take
up too
much of your
Wherefore
one passage
And
will he give light to him that is in misery. unto the bitter in soul; Which long for death, but it cometh not; And would dig for it more than for hid treasures;
life
Which would rejoice exceedingly, and exult. They would triumph if they could find the grave To a man whose way is hid from the sight of God,
And whom God hath hedged in For my sighing cometh before I eat, And my roarings are poured forth with my
?
drink'.
The
let
is
admirable
will
Wherefore
misery?'
Who
will give?
God, no doubt
in
whom
before.
Him
what went
He
'for
my
sighing
all
cometh before
I eat':
from which
it
appears that
the
Job.
iii.
7.
Job
iii.
ao-4.
22
appendix III
himself.
He
from
plural
to singular,
death,
passage
then
he
which he seemed
it is
to have
done with.
From
all
this
in
boldness
thoughts
and images,
and the
use
of
drift
and
What
of
all
my
Hebrew
and matter;
character,
it
Hence
it is full
own
but
which, as
we may
it
own
when
Going
a step further,
will
some of them.
[Lecture xiv.J
OF SUBLIMITY IN DICTION
In order
characteristic
{continued)
to bring out
more
clearly Sublimity as a
Book of
Job, where he
may
I^obert
Lowth
123
and
metrical sequel.
As
the comparison
if
may seem
unfairly
a great difference in
us
now make
same subject-matter
is treated in
and
We
shall find
Book of Deuteronomy,
parts
a most
it
penalties
may
command of God,
In both passages
poem which
is essentially
sublime.
we perceive every quality of force, grandeur, magnificence, possessed by the Hebrew language in either style, and and we see meanwhile the its great power in both
;
Any
one
Hebrew
carefully with
one another, and see the great difference between the one
style,
full,
but
its
rush
its
124
appendix III
structure,
it is
much
them from
his
own
how-
observation, than
to understand
is
to explain
them
intelligently, or
them
as explained.
Certain points,
a class
force,
common
in
Hebrew
poetry, yet
by
their great
difficulty,
demand
more
application, taking
my example
from
mean
of
God
first,
present
They have
children,
their blemish
Then he
A
Do
ye thus requite the Lord, and unwise ? Is not he thy father, that hath bought thee He hath made thee and established thee.
'
Dent, xxxii, 5.
:'
'Robert Lorvth
Then, as
most
his burning indignation abates a
lay
little,
and
in
of
God
and his
more than
them to be
turned
fatherly affection
towards the
Israelites,
when he chose
in
own
people,
and
;
all this
language
Israelites
then he marvellously
Now
mark with
But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art become sleek; Then he forsook God which made him. And lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation '.
Thou
is
suddenly directed
is
fervid,
forcible,
pointed,
Worthy to be comapostrophe,
Moses
is Virgil's
most
ingenious,
'Not
far off
^ah,
false
word
[Lecture xv.]
Aen.
viii.
642.
I2<J
IV
[p. f3).
autres
qu'on pourrait
Thrasylle, conL'dcrivain le
:
aux
intervalles
de quinte
et
de quarte.
" sons
Tels sont,
la
ajoute-t-il,
parhypate et de la paramese, ainsi que la tierce majeure compose de la diatonique et de la paramese.' (Gevaert et VollgrafF,
de
triton, formfi
de
The
tion
is
date of Gaudentius
quite satisfactory
is uncertain.
No
explana-
resolution of one
sound
of many words
few.
It
may
therefore be
tion quoted
Amaud
(1721-84):
'Je suis convaincu que, par les sons paraphones, Denys Longin n'entend autre chose que ces notes que nous appelons de gofit et de passage, et qui, loin de
d&aturer la subsistance du chant, I'enrichissent et Foment infiniment. De mSme que les variations musicales, qui portent dans un air un beaucoup plus grand norabre de sons, sans en altfirer le sens et le theme, lui prStent plus d'agrlment et de vie, ainsi la piriphrase, qui consiste i expliquer une chose par un certain, nombre de mots au lieu de la d&igner par son terme propre, donne souvent i cette chose plus d'&ergie et de grice. Des lors il n'y a plus d'obscuritfi; la comparaison devient on ne peut pas plus juste.'
127
to pages.')
Danaus, 48. Demosthenes, 4, 25, 28-9, 31-2, 36, 38, 46, 49, 51, 57, 63, 66, 72. Dion, 9.
Dionysius, 8, 35, 45. Dirce, 73.
Elateia, 35,
Ammonius, 30,
Amphicrates, 6, 9, Anacreon, 56.
Apollonius, 6r-3.
Gorgias, 6.
Artemisium, 40.
Bacchylides, 62.
Boreas, 5.
Cadmus, 48.
Caecilius, 1,
8,13,14,56,57,
Hercules,
*j^,
59Callisthenes, 6.
Hermocrates, 8. Herodotus, 9, 10, 13, 45, 50, 54. 56> 69> 75Hesiod, 16.
Homer,
32,
43,
Cleitarchus, 6.
The, 20.
128
Ister,
Isocrates, 8, 44,
The, 66.
Poseidon, 17.
Marathon, 38-41.
Matris, 6.
Meroe, 50,
Miletus,
Taking
of,
49.
34.
Socrates, 9.
The, 66.
Ocean, 66. Odyssey, The, 19-22. Oedipus Tyrannus, 48, 61. Oedipus Coloneus, 35,
Orestes, 36.
Phaethon, 33.
Philip, 42, 56, 57.
Philistus, 73.
Theodorus, 7. Theophrastus, 57. Theopompus, 35-7, 75. Thermopylae, 69. Thucydides, 31, 46, 49, 69. Tiber, The, 66. Timaens, 8, 9.
Ulysses, 21, 22.
Xenophon,
58. 77Xerxes, 6.
9, 13,
Zeus, 21.
Zoilus, 21.
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