artificiallie, after to learned a sorte, as _Thucydides_ doth in his
orations. And how cummeth it to passe, sayd I, that _Cæsar_
and _Ciceroes_ talke, is so naturall & plaine, and _Salust_ writing so
artificiall and darke, whan all they three liued in one tyme?
I will freelie tell you my fansie herein, said he: surely, _Cæsar_
and _Cicero_, beside a singular prerogatiue of naturall eloquence
geuen vnto them by God, both two, by vse of life, were daylie
orators emonges the common people, and greatest councellers in
the Senate house: and therefore gaue themselues to vse soch
speach as the meanest should well vnderstand, and the wisest
best allow: folowing carefullie that good councell of _Aristotle_,
_loquendum vt multi, sapiendum vt pauci_. _Salust_ was no soch man,
neyther for will to goodnes, nor skill by learning: but ill geuen
by nature, and made worse by bringing vp, spent the most part
of his yougth very misorderly in ryot and lechery. In the
company of soch, who, neuer geuing theyr mynde to honest
doyng, could neuer inure their tong to wise speaking. But at
last cummyng to better yeares, and bying witte at the dearest
hand, that is, by long experience of the hurt and shame that
commeth of mischeif, moued, by the councell of them that
were wise, and caried by the example of soch as were good,
first fell to honestie of life, and after to the loue of studie and
learning: and so became so new a man, that _Cæsar_ being
dictator, made him Pretor in _Numidia_ where he absent from his
contrie, and not inured with the common talke of Rome, but
shut vp in his studie, and bent wholy to reading, did write the
storie of the Romanes. And for the better accomplishing of
the same, he red _Cato_ and _Piso_ in Latin for gathering of matter
and troth: and _Thucydides_ in Greeke for the order of his storie,
and furnishing of his style. _Cato_ (as his tyme required) had
more troth for the matter, than eloquence for the style. And
so _Salust_, by gathering troth out of _Cato_, smelleth moch of the
roughnes of his style: euen as a man that eateth garlike for
helth, shall cary away with him the sauor of it also, whether he
will or not. And yet the vse of old wordes is not the greatest
cause of _Salustes_ roughnes and darknesse: There be in _Salust_
Lib. 8. // some old wordes in deed as _patrare bellum, ductare_
Cap. 3. // _exercitum_, well noted by _Quintilian_, and verie
De Orna- // much misliked of him: and _supplicium_ for _suppli-_
tu. // _catio_, a word smellyng of an older store than the
_the ready way to the Latin tong._ 299
other two so misliked by _Quint_: And yet is that word also in
_Varro_, speaking of Oxen thus, _boues ad victimas faciunt, atque ad
Deorum supplicia_: and a few old wordes mo. Read _Saluste_ and
_Tullie_ aduisedly together: and in wordes ye shall finde small
difference: yea _Salust_ is more geuen to new wordes, than to
olde, though som olde writers say the contrarie: as _Claritudo_
for _Gloria_: _exactè_ for _perfectè_: _Facundia_ for
_eloquentia_. Thies
two last wordes _exactè_ and _facundia_ now in euery mans mouth,
be neuer (as I do remember) vsed of _Tullie_, and therefore
I thinke they be not good: For surely _Tullie_ speaking euery
where so moch of the matter of eloquence, would not so
precisely haue absteyned from the word _Facundia_, if it had
bene good: that is proper for the tong, & common for mens
vse. I could be long, in reciting many soch like, both olde &
new wordes in _Salust_: but in very dede neyther oldnes nor
newnesse of wordes maketh the greatest difference // The cause why
betwixt _Salust_ and _Tullie_, but first strange phrases // Salust is not
made of good Latin wordes, but framed after the // like Tully.
Greeke tonge, which be neyther choisly borowed of them, nor
properly vsed by him: than, a hard composition and crooked
framing of his wordes and sentences, as a man would say,
English talke placed and framed outlandish like. As for
example first in phrases, _nimius et animus_ be two vsed wordes,
yet _homo nimius animi_, is an vnused phrase. _Vulgus, et amat, et
fieri_, be as common and well known wordes, as may be in the
Latin tong, yet _id quod vulgò amat fieri_, for _solet fieri_, is but
a strange and grekish kind of writing. _Ingens et vires_ be
proper wordes, yet _vir ingens virium_ is an vnproper kinde of
speaking and so be likewise,
{_æger consilij._
{_promptissimus belli._
{_territus animi._
and many soch like phrases in _Salust_, borowed as I sayd not
choisly out of Greeke, and vsed therefore vnproperlie in Latin.
Againe, in whole sentences, where the matter is good, the
wordes proper and plaine, yet the sense is hard and darke, and
namely in his prefaces and orations, wherein he vsed most
labor, which fault is likewise in _Thucydides_ in Greeke, of whom
_Salust_ hath taken the greatest part of his darkenesse. For