There the language is plain and pleasing; even without stopping,
round without swelling: all well-turned, composed, elegant, and
accurate.
Vitiosa oratio, vasta--tumens--enormis--affectata--abjecta.--The
vicious language is vast and gaping, swelling and irregular: when
it contends to be high, full of rock, mountain, and pointedness; as
it affects to be low, it is abject, and creeps, full of bogs and
holes. And according to their subject these styles vary, and lose
their names: for that which is high and lofty, declaring excellent
matter, becomes vast and tumorous, speaking of petty and inferior
things; so that which was even and apt in a mean and plain subject,
will appear most poor and humble in a high argument. Would you not
laugh to meet a great councillor of State in a flat cap, with his
trunk hose, and a hobbyhorse cloak, his gloves under his girdle, and
yond haberdasher in a velvet gown, furred with sables? There is a
certain latitude in these things, by which we find the degrees.
Figura.--The next thing to the stature, is the figure and feature in
language--that is, whether it be round and straight, which consists
of short and succinct periods, numerous and polished; or square and
firm, which is to have equal and strong parts everywhere answerable,
and weighed.
Pages:
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112