Quintilian on Style

Ancient Rome

A Good Man Speaking Well

Hermagoras’ Stasis

• Fact (Conjecture)• Definition• Quality• Exception/Objection

Roman Rhetorical Canon

• Invention• Arrangement• Style• Memory • Delivery

Natural Style

Eloquence

• “Eloquence requires the utmost teaching; no man can attain it without the aid of art;

• study must be applied to the acquirement of it;• exercise and imitation must make it their object;• our whole life must be spent in the pursuit of it;• it is in this that one orator chiefly excels another;• it is from this that some styles of speaking are so

much better than others.”

Skotison!

• 18. Some labor even to attain this fault, a fault by no means of recent date; as I find in Livy that there was a teacher in his day who exhorted his scholars to obscure what they said, using the Greek word σκότισν (skotison), "Darken it": and from whom, I should suppose, proceeded that extraordinary eulogium, "So much the better; even I myself cannot understand it."

Perspicuity

• 24. We must, therefore, take care, not merely that he may understand us, but that he may not be able not to understand us.

Embellishment

• 5. But this grace of style may contribute in no small degree to the success of a cause;

• for those who listen with pleasure are both more attentive and more ready, to believe;

• they are very frequently captivated with pleasure, and sometimes hurried away in admiration.

Tropes and Figures

• Tropes: conversion of word or phrase from proper signification to another to increase its force (and adorn style)

• Figures: form of speech differenting from the common mode of expression by poetic or oratorical phraseology (of thought or words)

Tropes 1/3

• : the conversion of a word or phrase, from its proper signification to another, to increase its force.– Synecdoche– Metonymy– Antonomasia

Tropes 2/3

– Onomatopoeia– Catechresis– Metalepsis

Tropes 3/3

• Irony• Hyperbaton• Hyperbole

Figures

• (as is indicated by its very name) a form of speech differing from the common and ordinary mode of expression.– Make arguments believable– Stealth; camouflage for ideas– Excite emotion– Win favor– Avoid monotony– Avoid obscenities, indiscretions

Figures

• Reinforce Proof– How to ask and respond to questions

• Intensify Emotions– Pathos

• Enhance Elegance

Figures 1/3

• 9.2:– Interrogation– Anticipation– Doubt (feigned)– Communication (consulting judge/opponent)

Figures 2/3

– Simulation– Prosopopoeia (personification)

Figures 3/3

• 9.2– Apostrophe (distraction)– Hypotyposis (vivid detail)

Reading and Writing

Composition

• Writing, speaking, reading are closely connected

• Listening, reading, and imitation very important

• Write slowly and carefully.

Rewrite into Powerful Prose

1. What's in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet.

2. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—/I took the one less traveled by/And that has made all the difference.

3. The learn'd reflect on what before they knew/Careless of censure, nor too fond of fame/Still pleas'd to praise, yet not afraid to blame/Averse alike to flatter or offend/Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to mend.

Extempore

• Realize its necessity• Plan for length and content• Let fear of failure/desire for praise spur you• Try to imagine yourself giving the speech;

interacting with audience

Declamation• "The Case of the Poor Man's Bees"• Law: One may sue for unlawful damage to property• Situation: A poor man and a rich man have adjacent

gardens. The rich man has flowers; the poor man, bees. The rich man complained that the bees were feeding on (and harming) his flowers, and told the poor man to move his bees. He did not, so the rich man put poison on his flowers, which killed the poor man's bees. The rich man is charged with unlawful damage to property.

• [Impersonating the poor man, the student then presents his case against the rich man.]