Our style should be like a skein of
silk, to be carried and found by the right thread, not ravelled and
perplexed; then all is a knot, a heap.
silk, to be carried and found by the right thread, not ravelled and
perplexed; then all is a knot, a heap.
Ben Jonson - Discoveries Made Upon Men, and Some Poems
--_The Laconic_.
--_Suetonius_.
--_Seneca and
Fabianus_. --The brief style is that which expresseth much in little; the
concise style, which expresseth not enough, but leaves somewhat to be
understood; the abrupt style, which hath many breaches, and doth not seem
to end, but fall. The congruent and harmonious fitting of parts in a
sentence hath almost the fastening and force of knitting and connection;
as in stones well squared, which will rise strong a great way without
mortar.
_Periodi_. --_Obscuritas offundit tenebras_. --_Superlatio_. --Periods are
beautiful when they are not too long; for so they have their strength
too, as in a pike or javelin. As we must take the care that our words
and sense be clear, so if the obscurity happen through the hearer's or
reader's want of understanding, I am not to answer for them, no more than
for their not listening or marking; I must neither find them ears nor
mind. But a man cannot put a word so in sense but something about it
will illustrate it, if the writer understand himself; for order helps
much to perspicuity, as confusion hurts. (_Rectitudo lucem adfert_;
_obliquitas et circumductio offuscat_. {116a}) We should therefore speak
what we can the nearest way, so as we keep our gait, not leap; for too
short may as well be not let into the memory, as too long not kept in.
Whatsoever loseth the grace and clearness, converts into a riddle; the
obscurity is marked, but not the value. That perisheth, and is passed
by, like the pearl in the fable.
Our style should be like a skein of
silk, to be carried and found by the right thread, not ravelled and
perplexed; then all is a knot, a heap. There are words that do as much
raise a style as others can depress it. Superlation and over-muchness
amplifies; it may be above faith, but never above a mean. It was
ridiculous in Cestius, when he said of Alexander:
"Fremit oceanus, quasi indignetur, quod terras relinquas. " {117a}
But propitiously from Virgil:
"Credas innare revulsas
Cycladas. " {117b}
He doth not say it was so, but seemed to be so. Although it be somewhat
incredible, that is excused before it be spoken. But there are
hyperboles which will become one language, that will by no means admit
another. As _Eos esse_ P. R. _exercitus_, _qui caelum possint
perrumpere_, {118a} who would say with us, but a madman? Therefore we
must consider in every tongue what is used, what received. Quintilian
warns us, that in no kind of translation, or metaphor, or allegory, we
make a turn from what we began; as if we fetch the original of our
metaphor from sea and billows, we end not in flames and ashes: it is a
most foul inconsequence. Neither must we draw out our allegory too long,
lest either we make ourselves obscure, or fall into affectation, which is
childish. But why do men depart at all from the right and natural ways
of speaking? sometimes for necessity, when we are driven, or think it
fitter, to speak that in obscure words, or by circumstance, which uttered
plainly would offend the hearers.
Fabianus_. --The brief style is that which expresseth much in little; the
concise style, which expresseth not enough, but leaves somewhat to be
understood; the abrupt style, which hath many breaches, and doth not seem
to end, but fall. The congruent and harmonious fitting of parts in a
sentence hath almost the fastening and force of knitting and connection;
as in stones well squared, which will rise strong a great way without
mortar.
_Periodi_. --_Obscuritas offundit tenebras_. --_Superlatio_. --Periods are
beautiful when they are not too long; for so they have their strength
too, as in a pike or javelin. As we must take the care that our words
and sense be clear, so if the obscurity happen through the hearer's or
reader's want of understanding, I am not to answer for them, no more than
for their not listening or marking; I must neither find them ears nor
mind. But a man cannot put a word so in sense but something about it
will illustrate it, if the writer understand himself; for order helps
much to perspicuity, as confusion hurts. (_Rectitudo lucem adfert_;
_obliquitas et circumductio offuscat_. {116a}) We should therefore speak
what we can the nearest way, so as we keep our gait, not leap; for too
short may as well be not let into the memory, as too long not kept in.
Whatsoever loseth the grace and clearness, converts into a riddle; the
obscurity is marked, but not the value. That perisheth, and is passed
by, like the pearl in the fable.
Our style should be like a skein of
silk, to be carried and found by the right thread, not ravelled and
perplexed; then all is a knot, a heap. There are words that do as much
raise a style as others can depress it. Superlation and over-muchness
amplifies; it may be above faith, but never above a mean. It was
ridiculous in Cestius, when he said of Alexander:
"Fremit oceanus, quasi indignetur, quod terras relinquas. " {117a}
But propitiously from Virgil:
"Credas innare revulsas
Cycladas. " {117b}
He doth not say it was so, but seemed to be so. Although it be somewhat
incredible, that is excused before it be spoken. But there are
hyperboles which will become one language, that will by no means admit
another. As _Eos esse_ P. R. _exercitus_, _qui caelum possint
perrumpere_, {118a} who would say with us, but a madman? Therefore we
must consider in every tongue what is used, what received. Quintilian
warns us, that in no kind of translation, or metaphor, or allegory, we
make a turn from what we began; as if we fetch the original of our
metaphor from sea and billows, we end not in flames and ashes: it is a
most foul inconsequence. Neither must we draw out our allegory too long,
lest either we make ourselves obscure, or fall into affectation, which is
childish. But why do men depart at all from the right and natural ways
of speaking? sometimes for necessity, when we are driven, or think it
fitter, to speak that in obscure words, or by circumstance, which uttered
plainly would offend the hearers.
