to reuenge, and to satisfie. For the parents iniurie was reuenged, and the
duetie of nature performed or satisfied by the childe.
[Sidenote: _Hypozeuxis_, or the Substitute.]
But if this supplie be made to sundrie clauses, or to one clause sundrie
times iterated, and by seuerall words, so as euery clause hath his owne
supplie: then is it called by the Greekes _Hypozeuxis_, we call him the
substitute after his originall, and is a supplie with iteration, as thus:
_Vnto the king she went, and to the king she said,
Mine owne liege Lord behold thy poore handmaid._
Here [_went to the king_] and [_said to the king_] be but one clause
iterated with words of sundrie supply. Or as in these verses following.
_My Ladie gaue me, my Lady wist not what,
Geuing me leaue to be her Soueraine:
For by such gift my Ladie hath done that,
Which whilest she liues she may not call againe._
Here [_my Ladie gaue_] and [_my Ladie wist_] be supplies with iteration,
by vertue of this figure.
Ye haue another _auricular_ figure of defect, and is when we begin to
speake a thing, and breake of in the middle way, as if either it needed no
further to be spoken of, or that we were ashamed, or afraide to speake it
it out. It is also sometimes done by way of threatning, and to shew a
moderation of anger. The Greekes call him _Aposiopesis._ I, the figure of
silence, or of interruption, indifferently.
[Sidenote: _Aposiopesis_, or the Figure of silence.]
If we doo interrupt our speech for feare, this may be an example, where as
one durst not make the true report as it was, but staid halfe way for
feare of offence, thus:
_He said you were, I dare not tell you plaine
For words once out, neuer returne againe._
If it be for shame, or that the speaker suppose it would be indecent to
tell all, then thus: as he that said to his sweete hart, whom he checked
for secretly whispering with a suspected person.
_And did ye not come by his chamber dore?
And tell him that: goe to, I say no more._
If it be for anger or by way of manace or to show a moderation of wrath as
the graue and discreeter sort of men do, then thus.
_If I take you with such another cast
I sweare by God, but let this be the last._
Thinking to haue said further viz. I will punish you.
If it be for none of all these causes but vpon some sodaine occasion that
moues a man to breake of his tale, then thus.
_He told me all at large: lo yonder is the man
Let himselfe tell the tale that best tell can._
This figure is fit for phantasticall heads and such as be sodaine or lacke
memorie. I know one of good learning that greatly blemisheth his
discretion with this maner of speach: for if he be in the grauest matter
of the world talking, he will vpon the sodaine for the flying of a bird
ouerthwart the way, or some other such sleight cause, interrupt his tale
and neuer returne to it againe.
[Sidenote: _Prolepsis_, or the Propounder.]
Ye haue yet another maner of speach purporting at the first blush a defect
which afterward is supplied the, Greekes call him _Prolepsis_, we the
Propounder, or the Explaner which ye will: because he workes both
effectes, as thus, where in certaine verses we describe the triumphant
enter-view of two great Princesses thus.
_These two great Queenes, came marching hand in hand,
Vunto the hall, where store of Princes stand:
And people of all countreys to behold,
Coronis all clad, in purple cloth of gold:
Celiar in robes, of siluer tissew white
With rich rubies, and pearles all bedighte._
Here ye see the first proposition in a sort defectiue and of imperfect
sence, till ye come by diuision to explane and enlarge it, but if we
should follow the originall right, we ought rather to call him the
forestaller, for like as he that standes in the market way, and takes all
vp before it come to the market in grosse and sells it by retaile, so by
this maner of speach our maker setts down before all the matter by a brief
proposition, and afterward explanes it by a diuision more particularly.
By this other example it appeares also.
_Then deare Lady I pray you let it bee,
That our long loue may lead us to agree:
Me since I may not wed you to my wife,
To serue you as a mistresse all my life:
Ye that may not me for your husband haue,
To clayme me for your seruant and your slaue._
_CHAP. XIII._
_Of your figures Auricular working by disorder._
[Sidenote: _Hiperbaton_, or the Trespasser.]
To all of speaches which wrought by disorder by the Greekes gaue a general
name [_Hiperbaton_] as much to say as the [_trespasser_] and because such
disorder may be committed many wayes it receiueth sundry particulars vnder
him, whereof some are onely proper to the Greekes and Latines and not to
vs, other some ordinarie in our maner of speaches, but so foule and
intollerable as I will not seeme to place them among the figures, but do
raunge them as they deserue among the vicious or faultie speaches.
[Sidenote: _Parenthesis_, or the Insertour]
Your first figure of tollerable disorder is [_Parenthesis_] or by an
English name the [_Insertour_] and is when ye will seeme for larger
information or some other purpose, to peece or graffe in the middest of
your tale an vnnecessary parcell of speach, which neuerthelesse may be
thence without any detriment to the rest. The figure is so common that it
needeth none example, neuerthelesse because we are to teache Ladies and
Gentlewomen to know their schoole points and termes appertaining to the
Art, we may not refuse ro yeeld examples euen in the plainest cases, as
that of maister _Diars_ very aptly.
_But now my Deere_ (_for so my loue makes me to call you still_)
_That loue I say, that lucklesse loue, that works me all this ill._
Also in our Eglogue intituled _Elpine_, which we made being but eightene
yeares old, to king _Edward_ the sixt a Prince of great hope, we surmised
that the Pilot of a ship answering the King, being inquisitiue and
desirous to know all the parts of the ship and tackle, what they were, &
to what vse they serued, vsing this insertion or Parenthesis.
_Soueraigne Lord (for why a greater name
To one on earth no mortall tongue can frame
No statelie stile can giue the practisd penne:
To one on earth conuersant among men.)_
And so proceedes to answere the kings question?
_The shippe thou seest sayling in sea so large, &c._
This insertion is very long and vtterly impertinent to the principall
matter, and makes a great gappe in the tale, neuerthelesse is no disgrace
but rather a bewtie and to very good purpose, but you must not vse such
insertions often nor to thick, nor those that bee very long as this of
ours, for it will breede great confusion to haue the tale so much
interrupted.
[Sidenote: _Histeron proteron_, or the Preposterous.]
Ye haue another manner of disordered speach, when ye misplace your words
or clauses and set that before which should be behind, _& è conuerso_, we
call it in English prouerbe, the cart before the horse, the Greeks call it
_Histeron proteron_, we name it the Preposterous, and if it be not too
much vsed is tollerable inough, and many times scarse perceiueable,
vnlesse the sence be thereby made very absurd: as he that described his
manner of departure from his mistresse, said thus not much to be misliked.
_I kist her cherry lip and tooke my leaue_:
For I tooke my leaue and kist her: And yet I cannot well say whether a man
vse to kisse before hee take his leaue, or take his leaue before he kisse,
or that it be all one busines. It seemes the taking leaue is by vsing some
speach, intreating licence of departure: the kisse a knitting vp of the
farewell, and as it were a testimoniall of the licence without which here
in England one may not presume of courtesie to depart, let yong Courtiers
decide this controuersie. One describing his landing vpon a strange coast,
sayd thus preposterously.
_When we had climbde the clifs, and were a shore_,
Whereas he should haue said by good order.
_When we were come ashore and clymed had the cliffs_
For one must be on land ere he can clime. And as another said:
_My dame that bred me up and bare me in her wombe_.
Whereas the bearing is before the bringing vp. All your other figures of
disorder because they rather seeme deformities then bewties of language,
for so many of them as be notoriously vndecent, and make no good harmony,
I place them in the Chapter of vices hereafter following.
_CHAP. XIIII._
_Of your figures Auricular that worke by Surplusage_.
Your figures _auricular_ that worke by surplusage, such of them as be
materiall and of importaunce to the sence or bewtie of your language, I
referre them to the harmonicall speaches oratours among the figures
rhetoricall, as be those of repetition, and iteration or amplification.
All other sorts of surplusage, I accompt rather vicious then figuratiue, &
therefore not melodious as shalbe remembred in the chapter of viciosities
or faultie speaches.
_CHAP. XV._
_Of auricular figures working by exchange._
[Sidenote: _Enallage_, or the Figure of Exchange.]
Your figures that worke _auricularly_ by exchange, were more obseruable to
the Greekes and Latines for the brauenesse of their language, ouer that
ours is, and for the multiplicitie of their Grammaticall accidents, or
verball affects, as I may terme them, that is to say, their diuers cases,
moodes, tenses, genders, with variable terminations, by reason whereof,
they changed not the very word, but kept the word, and changed the shape
of him onely, vsing one case for another, or tense, or person, or gender,
or number, or moode. We, hauing no such varietie of accidents, haue little
or no vse of this figure. They called it _Enallage._
[Sidenote: _Hipallage_, or the Changeling.]
But another sort of exchange which they had, and very prety, we doe
likewise vse, not changing one word for another, by their accidents or
cases, as the _Enallage_: nor by the places, as the [_Preposterous_] but
changing their true construction and application, whereby the sence is
quite peruerted and made very absurd: as he that should say,
for _tell me troth and lie not, lie me troth and tell not._
For _come dine with me and stay not, come stay with me and dine not._
A certaine piteous louer, to moue his mistres to compassion, wrote among
other amorous verses, this one.
_Madame, I set your eyes before mine woes._
For, mine woes before your eyes, spoken to th'intent to winne fauour in
her sight.
But that was pretie of a certaine sorrie man of law, that gaue his Client
but bad councell, and yet found fault with his fee, and said: my fee, good
frend, hath deserued better counsel. Good master, quoth the Client, if
your selfe had not said so, I would neuer haue beleeued it; but now I
thinke as you doo. The man of law perceiuing his error, I tell thee (quoth
he) my counsel hath deserued a better fee. Yet of all others was that a
most ridiculous, but very true exchange, which the yeoman of London vsed
with his Sergeant at the Mace, who said he would goe into the countrie,
and make merry a day or two, while his man plyed his busines at home: an
example of it you shall finde in our Enterlude entituled Lustie London:
the Sergeant, for sparing of hors-hire, said he would goe with the Carrier
on foote. That is not for your worship, saide his yeoman, whereunto the
Sergeant replyed.
_I wot what I meant Iohn, it is for to stay
And company the knaue Carrier, for loosing my way._
The yeoman thinking it good manner to soothe his Sergeant, said againe,
_I meant what I wot Sir, your best is to hie,
And carrie a knaue with you for companie._
Ye see a notorious exchange of the construction, and application of the
words in this: _I wot what I meane_; and _I meane what I wot_, and in the
other, _company the knaue Carrier_, and _carrie a knaue in your company_.
The Greekes call this figure [_Hipallage_] the Latins _Submutatio_, we in
our vulgar may call him the [_under-change_] but I had rather haue him
called the [_Changeling_] nothing at all sweruing from his originall, and
much more aptly to the purpose, and pleasanter to beare in memory:
specially for our Ladies and pretie mistresses in Court, for whose
learning I write, because it is a terme often in their mouthes, and
alluding to the opinion of Nurses, who are wont to say, that the Fayries
vse to steale the fairest children out of their cradles, and put other ill
fauoured in their places, which they called changelings, or Elfs: so, if
ye mark, doeth our Poet, or maker play with his wordes, vsing a wrong
construction for a right, and an absurd for a sensible, by manner of
exchange.
_CHAP. XVI._
_Of some other figures which because they serue chiefly to make the
meeters tunable and melodious, and affect not the minde but very little,
be placed among the auricular._
[Sidenote: _Omoioteleton_, or the Like loose.]
The Greekes vsed a manner of speech or writing in their proses, that went
by clauses, finishing in words of like tune, and might be by vsing like
cases, tenses, and other points of consonance, which they called
_Omoioteleton_, and is that wherin they neerest approched to our vulgar
ryme, and may thus be expressed.
_Weeping creeping beseeching I wan,
The loue at length of Lady Lucian._
Or thus if we speake in prose and not in meetre.
_Mischaunces ought not to be lamented,
But rather by wisedome in time preuented:
For such mishappes as be remedilesse,
To sorrow them it is but foolishnesse:
Yet are we all so frayle of nature,
As to be greeued with euery displeasure._
The craking Scotts as the Cronicle reportes at a certaine time made this
bald rime vpon the English-men.
_Long beards hartlesse,
Painted hoodes witlesse:
Gay coates gracelesse,
Make all England thriftlesse._
Which is no perfect rime in deede, but clauses finishing in the self same
tune: for a rime of good simphonie should not conclude his concords with
one & the same terminant sillable, as _less, less, less_, but with diuers
and like terminants, as _les, pres, mes_, as was before declared in the
chapter of your cadences, and your clauses in prose should neither finish
with the same nor with the like terminants, but with the contrary as hath
bene shewed before in the booke of proportions; yet many vse it otherwise,
neglecting the Poeticall harmonie and skill. And th'Earle of _Surrey_ with
Syr _Thomas Wyat_ the most excellent makers of their time, more
peraduenture respecting the fitnesse and ponderositie of their wordes then
the true cadence or simphonie, were very licencious in this point. We call
this figure following the originall, the [_like loose_] alluding to
th'Archers terme who is not said to finish the feate of his shot before he
giue the loose, and deliuer his arrow from his bow, in which respect we
vse to say marke the loose of a thing for marke the end of it.
[Sidenote: _Parimion_, or the Figure of like letter.]
Ye do by another figure notably affect th'eare when ye make euery word of
the verse to begin with a like letter, as for example in this verse
written in an _Epithaphe_ of our making.
_Time tried his truth his trauailes and his trust,
And time to late tried his integritie._
It is a figure much vsed by our common rimers, and doth well if it be not
too much vsed, for then it falleth into the vice which shalbe hereafter
spoken of called _Tautologia._
[Sidenote: _Asyndeton_, or the Loose language.]
Ye haue another sort of speach in a maner defectiue because it wants good
band or coupling, and is the figure [_Asyndeton_] we call him [_loose
language_] and doth not a litle alter th'eare as thus.
_I saw it, I said it, I will sweare it._
_Caesar_ the Dictator vpon the victorie hee obteined against _Pharnax_
king of _Bithinia_ shewing the celeritie of his conquest, wrate home to
the Senate in this tenour of speach no lesse swift and speedy then his
victorie.
_Veni, vidi, vici,
I came, I saw, I overcame._
Meaning thus I was no sooner come and beheld them but the victorie fell on
my side.
The Prince of Orenge for his deuise of Armes in banner displayed against
the Duke of Adua and the Spaniards in the Low-countrey vsed the like maner
of speach.
_Pro Rege, pro lege, pro grege,
For the king, for the commons, for the countrey lawes._
It is a figure to be vsed when we will seeme to make hast, or to be
earnest, and these examples with a number more be spoken by the figure of
[_lose language_.]
[Sidenote: _Polisindeton_, or the Couple clause.]
Quite contrary to this ye haue another maner of construction which they
called [_Polisindeton_] we may call him the [_couple clause_] for that
euery clause is knit and coupled together with a coniunctiue thus,
_And I saw it, and I say it and I
Will sweare it to be true._
So might the Poesie of _Caesar_ haue bene altered thus.
_I came, and I saw, and I ouercame._
One wrote these verses after the same sort,
_For in her mynde no thought there is,
But how she may be true to is:
And tenders thee and all thy heale,
And wisheth both thy health and weale:
And is thine owne, and so she sayes,
And cares for thee ten thousand wayes._
[Sidenote: _Irmus_, or the Long loose.]
Ye haue another maner of speach drawen out at length and going all after
one tenure and with an imperfit sence till you come to the last word or
verse which concludes the whole premisses with a perfit sence & full
periode, the Greeks call it [_Irmus_,] I call him the [_long loose_] thus
appearing in a dittie of Sir _Thomas Wyat_ where he describes the diuers
distempers of his bed.
_The restlesse state renuer of my smart,
The labours salue increasing my sorrow:
The bodies ease and troubles of my hart,
Quietour of mynde mine unquiet foe:
Forgetter of paine remembrer of my woe,
The place of sleepe wherein I do but wake:
Besprent with teares my bed I thee forsake._
Ye see here how ye can gather no perfection of sence in all this dittie
till ye come to the last verse in these wordes _my bed I thee forsake_.
And in another Sonet of _Petrarcha_ which was thus Englished by the same
Sir _Thomas Wyat_.
_If weaker care of sodaine pale collour,
If many sighes with little speach to plaine:
Now ioy now woe, if they my ioyes distaine,
For hope of small, if much to feare therefore,
Be signe of loue then do I loue againe._
Here all the whole sence of the dittie is suspended till ye come to the
last three wordes, _then do I loue againe_, which finisheth the song with
a full and perfit sence.
[Sidenote: _Epitheton_, or the Qualifier.]
When ye will speake giuing euery person or thing besides his proper name a
qualitie by way of addition whether it be of good or of bad it is a
figuratiue speach of audible alteration, so is it also of sence as to say.
_Fierce Achilles, wise Nestor, wilie Vlysses,
Diana the chast and thou louely Venus:
With thy blind boy that almost neuer misses,
But hits our hartes when he levels at vs._
Or thus commending the Isle of great Brittaine.
_Albion hugest of Westerne Ilands all,
Soyle of sweete ayre and of good store:
God send we see thy glory neuer fall,
But rather dayly to grow more and more._
Or as we sang of our Soueraigne Lady giuing her these Attributes besides
her proper name.
_Elizatbeth regent of the great Brittaine Ile,
Honour of all regents and of Queenes._
But if we speake thus not expressing her proper name _Elizabeth_, videl.
_The English Diana, the great Britton mayde._
Then is it not by _Epitheton_ or figure of Attribution but by the figures
_Antonomasia_, or _Periphrasis_.
[Sidenote: _Endiadis_, or the Figure of Twinnes.]
Ye haue yet another manner of speach when ye will seeme to make two of
one, not thereunto constrained, which therefore we call the figure of
Twynnes, the Greekes _Endiadis_ thus.
_Not you coy dame your lowrs nor your lookes._
For [_your lowring lookes_] And as one of our ordinary rimers said,
_Of fortune nor her frowning face,
I am nothing agast._
In stead of [_fortunes frowning face_.] One praysing the Neapolitans for
good men at armes, said by the figure of Twynnes thus.
_A proud people and wise and valiant,
Fiercely fighting with horses and with barbes:
By whole prowes the Romain Prince did daunt,
Wild Affricanes and the lawlesse Alarbes:
The Nubiens marching with their armed cartes,
And sleaing a farre with venim, and with dartes._
Where ye see this figure of Twynnes twise vsed, once when he said _horses
and barbes_ for barbd horses: againe when he saith with _venim_ and with
_dartes_ for venimous dartes.
_CHAP. XVII._
_Of the figures which we call Sensable, because they alter and affect the
minde by alteration of sence, and first in single wordes._
The eare hauing receiued his due satisfaction by the _auricular_ figures,
now must the minde also be seured, with his naturall delight by figures
_sensible_ such as by alteration of intendments affect the courage, and
geue a good liking to the conceit. And first, single words haue their
sence and vnderstanding altered and figured many wayes, to wit, by
transport, abuse, crosse-naming, new naming, change of name. This will
seeme very darke to you, vnlesse it be otherwise explaned more
particularly: and first of _Transport_.
[Sidenote: Metaphora, or the Figure of transporte.]
There is a kinde of wresting of a single word from his owne right
signification, to another not so naturall, but yet of some affinitie or
conueniencie with it, as to say, _I cannot digest your vnkinde words_, for
I cannot take them in good part: or as the man of law said, _I feele you
not_, for I vnderstand not your case, because he had not his fee in his
hand. Or as another said to a mouthy Aduocate, _why barkest thou at me so
sore?_ Or to call the top of a tree, or of a hill, the crowne of a tree or
of a hill: for in deede _crowne_ is the highest ornament of a Princes
head, made like a close garland, or els the top of a mans head, where the
haire windes about, and because such terme is not applyed naturally to a
tree or to a hill, but is transported from a mans head to a hill or tree,
therefore it is called by _metaphore_, or the figure of _transport_. And
three causes moue vs to vse this figure, one for necessitie or want of a
better word, thus:
_As the drie ground that thirstes after a showr
Seems to reioyce when it is well wet,
And speedely brings foorth both grasse and flowr,
If lacke of sunne or season doo not let._
Here for want of an apter and more naturall word to declare the drie
temper of the earth, it is said to thirst & to reioyce, which is onley
proper to liuing creatures, and yet being so inuerted, doth not so much
swerue from the true sence but that euery man can easilie conceiue the
meaning thereof.
Againe, we vse it for pleasure and ornament of our speach, as thus in an
Epitaph of our owne making, to the honourable memorie of a deere friend,
Sir _Iohn Throgmorton_, knight, Iustice of Chester, and a man of many
commendable vertues.
_Whom vertue rerde, enuy hath ouerthrowen
And Iudged full low, vnder this marble stone:
Ne neuer were his values so well knowen,
Whilest he liued here, as now that he is gone.
Here these words, _rered, overthrowen_, and _lodged_, are inuerted, &
_metaphorically_ applyed, not vpon necessitie, but for ornament onely,
afterward againe in these verses.
_No sunne by day that euer saw him rest
Free from the toyles of his so busie charge,
No night that harbourd rankor in his breast,
Nor merry moode made reason runne at large._
In these verses the inuersion or metaphore, lyeth in these words, _saw,
harbourd, run:_ which naturally are applyed to liuing things, & not to
insensible: as the _sunne_, or the _night_: & yet they approach so neere,
& so conueniently, as the speech is thereby made more commendable. Againe,
in moe verses of the same Epitaph, thus.
_His head a source of grauitie and sence,
His memory a shop of ciuill arte,
His tongue a streame of sugred eloquence,
Wisdome and meekenes lay mingled in his harte,_
In which verses ye see that these words, _source, shop, find, sugred_, are
inuerted from their owne signification to another, not altogether so
naturall, but of much affinitie with it.
Then also do we it sometimes to enforce a sence and make the word more
significatiue: as thus,
_I burne in loue, I freese in deadly hate
I swimme in hope, and sinke in deepe dispaire._
These examples I haue the willinger giuen you to set foorth the nature and
vse of your figure metaphore, which of any other being choisly made, is
the most commendable and most common.