Therefore we
must consider in every tongue what is used, what received.
must consider in every tongue what is used, what received.
Ben Jonson - Discoveries Made Upon Men, and Some Poems
(_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. Or to avoid obsceneness, or sometimes
for pleasure, and variety, as travellers turn out of the highway, drawn
either by the commodity of a footpath, or the delicacy or freshness of
the fields. And all this is called ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
_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. Or to avoid obsceneness, or sometimes
for pleasure, and variety, as travellers turn out of the highway, drawn
either by the commodity of a footpath, or the delicacy or freshness of
the fields. And all this is called ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
