--Custom is the most certain
mistress
of language, as the
public stamp makes the current money.
public stamp makes the current money.
Ben Jonson - Discoveries Made Upon Men, and Some Poems
But in this translation we must only serve
necessity (_nam temere nihil transfertur a prudenti_) {111b} or
commodity, which is a kind of necessity: that is, when we either
absolutely want a word to express by, and that is necessity; or when we
have not so fit a word, and that is commodity; as when we avoid loss by
it, and escape obsceneness, and gain in the grace and property which
helps significance. Metaphors far-fetched hinder to be understood; and
affected, lose their grace. Or when the person fetcheth his translations
from a wrong place as if a privy councillor should at the table take his
metaphor from a dicing-house, or ordinary, or a vintner's vault; or a
justice of peace draw his similitudes from the mathematics, or a divine
from a bawdy house, or taverns; or a gentleman of Northamptonshire,
Warwickshire, or the Midland, should fetch all the illustrations to his
country neighbours from shipping, and tell them of the main-sheet and the
bowline. Metaphors are thus many times deformed, as in him that said,
_Castratam morte Africani rempublicam_; and another, _Stercus curiae
Glauciam_, and _Cana nive conspuit Alpes_. All attempts that are new in
this kind, are dangerous, and somewhat hard, before they be softened with
use. A man coins not a new word without some peril and less fruit; for
if it happen to be received, the praise is but moderate; if refused, the
scorn is assured. Yet we must adventure; for things at first hard and
rough are by use made tender and gentle. It is an honest error that is
committed, following great chiefs.
_Consuetudo_. --_Perspicuitas_,
_Venustas_. --_Authoritas_. --_Virgil_. --_Lucretius_. --_Chaucerism_. --
_Paronomasia_.
--Custom is the most certain mistress of language, as the
public stamp makes the current money. But we must not be too frequent
with the mint, every day coining, nor fetch words from the extreme and
utmost ages; since the chief virtue of a style is perspicuity, and
nothing so vicious in it as to need an interpreter. Words borrowed of
antiquity do lend a kind of majesty to style, and are not without their
delight sometimes; for they have the authority of years, and out of their
intermission do win themselves a kind of grace like newness. But the
eldest of the present, and newness of the past language, is the best.
For what was the ancient language, which some men so dote upon, but the
ancient custom? Yet when I name custom, I understand not the vulgar
custom; for that were a precept no less dangerous to language than life,
if we should speak or live after the manners of the vulgar: but that I
call custom of speech, which is the consent of the learned; as custom of
life, which is the consent of the good. Virgil was most loving of
antiquity; yet how rarely doth he insert _aquai_ and _pictai_! Lucretius
is scabrous and rough in these; he seeks them: as some do Chaucerisms
with us, which were better expunged and banished. Some words are to be
culled out for ornament and colour, as we gather flowers to strew houses
or make garlands; but they are better when they grow to our style; as in
a meadow, where, though the mere grass and greenness delight, yet the
variety of flowers doth heighten and beautify. Marry, we must not play
or riot too much with them, as in Paronomasies; nor use too swelling or
ill-sounding words! _Quae per salebras_, _altaque saxa cadunt_. {114a}
It is true, there is no sound but shall find some lovers, as the
bitterest confections are grateful to some palates. Our composition must
be more accurate in the beginning and end than in the midst, and in the
end more than in the beginning; for through the midst the stream bears
us. And this is attained by custom, more than care of diligence. We
must express readily and fully, not profusely. There is difference
between a liberal and prodigal hand.
necessity (_nam temere nihil transfertur a prudenti_) {111b} or
commodity, which is a kind of necessity: that is, when we either
absolutely want a word to express by, and that is necessity; or when we
have not so fit a word, and that is commodity; as when we avoid loss by
it, and escape obsceneness, and gain in the grace and property which
helps significance. Metaphors far-fetched hinder to be understood; and
affected, lose their grace. Or when the person fetcheth his translations
from a wrong place as if a privy councillor should at the table take his
metaphor from a dicing-house, or ordinary, or a vintner's vault; or a
justice of peace draw his similitudes from the mathematics, or a divine
from a bawdy house, or taverns; or a gentleman of Northamptonshire,
Warwickshire, or the Midland, should fetch all the illustrations to his
country neighbours from shipping, and tell them of the main-sheet and the
bowline. Metaphors are thus many times deformed, as in him that said,
_Castratam morte Africani rempublicam_; and another, _Stercus curiae
Glauciam_, and _Cana nive conspuit Alpes_. All attempts that are new in
this kind, are dangerous, and somewhat hard, before they be softened with
use. A man coins not a new word without some peril and less fruit; for
if it happen to be received, the praise is but moderate; if refused, the
scorn is assured. Yet we must adventure; for things at first hard and
rough are by use made tender and gentle. It is an honest error that is
committed, following great chiefs.
_Consuetudo_. --_Perspicuitas_,
_Venustas_. --_Authoritas_. --_Virgil_. --_Lucretius_. --_Chaucerism_. --
_Paronomasia_.
--Custom is the most certain mistress of language, as the
public stamp makes the current money. But we must not be too frequent
with the mint, every day coining, nor fetch words from the extreme and
utmost ages; since the chief virtue of a style is perspicuity, and
nothing so vicious in it as to need an interpreter. Words borrowed of
antiquity do lend a kind of majesty to style, and are not without their
delight sometimes; for they have the authority of years, and out of their
intermission do win themselves a kind of grace like newness. But the
eldest of the present, and newness of the past language, is the best.
For what was the ancient language, which some men so dote upon, but the
ancient custom? Yet when I name custom, I understand not the vulgar
custom; for that were a precept no less dangerous to language than life,
if we should speak or live after the manners of the vulgar: but that I
call custom of speech, which is the consent of the learned; as custom of
life, which is the consent of the good. Virgil was most loving of
antiquity; yet how rarely doth he insert _aquai_ and _pictai_! Lucretius
is scabrous and rough in these; he seeks them: as some do Chaucerisms
with us, which were better expunged and banished. Some words are to be
culled out for ornament and colour, as we gather flowers to strew houses
or make garlands; but they are better when they grow to our style; as in
a meadow, where, though the mere grass and greenness delight, yet the
variety of flowers doth heighten and beautify. Marry, we must not play
or riot too much with them, as in Paronomasies; nor use too swelling or
ill-sounding words! _Quae per salebras_, _altaque saxa cadunt_. {114a}
It is true, there is no sound but shall find some lovers, as the
bitterest confections are grateful to some palates. Our composition must
be more accurate in the beginning and end than in the midst, and in the
end more than in the beginning; for through the midst the stream bears
us. And this is attained by custom, more than care of diligence. We
must express readily and fully, not profusely. There is difference
between a liberal and prodigal hand.
