De Garrulitate

This charming essay, by far the best in the volume, suffers from only one defect, its length. Though Plutarch again and again, by his narrative skill and naïve or unconscious humour, will delight even those who have hardened their hearts against him (I mean his editors), he cannot at last resist the temptation to indulge in what he considered scientific analysis and enlightened exhortation. He is then merely dull. But, taken as a whole, the essay is surely a success, and as organic and skilful a performance as any in the Moralia.

The work was written after De Curiositate and before De Tranquillitate, De Capienda ex Inimicis Utilitate, and De Laude Ipsius.[*](I have thus combined the conclusions of Pohlenz, Brokate, and Hein.) It stands in the Lamprias catalogue as No. 92.[*](Mr C. B. Robinson’s translation, or paraphrase, of this and several other essays in this volume, arrived too late to be of service (see Plutarch, Selected Essays, Putnam, New York, 1937).)

It is a troublesome and difficult task that philosophy has in hand when it undertakes to cure garrulousness. For the remedy, words of reason, requires listeners; but the garrulous listen to nobody, for they are always talking. And this is the first symptom of their ailment: looseness of the tongue becomes impotence of the ears.[*](It suits Plutarch’s humour in this passage, in which he speaks of garrulity as a disease, to invent one, and possibly two, pseudo-medical terms, ἀσιγησία, inability to keep silent, and ἀνηκοΐα, inability to listen. The figure is maintained in διαρρέουσι at the end of section d. Rouse suggests: And here is the first bad symptom in diarrhoea of the tongue - constipation of the ears.) For it is a deliberate deafness, that of men who, I take it, blame Nature because they have only one tongue, but two ears.b If, then, Euripides[*](Cf.Moralia, 39 b; von Arnim, Stoic. Vet. Frag., i. p. 68, Zeno, Frag. 310.) was right when he said with reference to the unintelligent hearer,

1. I could not fill a man who will not hold
2. My wise words flooding into unwise ears,

1. I could not fill a man who will not take
2. My wise words flooding into unwise ears,

They give the name of Seven-voiced[*](A portico on the east side of the Altis; Cf. Pausanias, v. 21. 17, Pliny, Natural History, xxxvi. 15. 100.) to the portico at Olympia which reverberates many times from a single utterance; and if but the least word sets garrulousness in motion, straightway it echoes round about on all sides,

Touching the heart-strings never touched before.[*](Cf. 456 c, 501 a, supra.)

But if, however, we are resolved to leave no means untried, let us say to the babbler,

Hush, child: in silence many virtues lie,[*](Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. 2, p. 147, Sophocles, Frag. 78 (Frag. 81 ed. Pearson, vol. i. p. 50), from the Aleadae.)

As when the North-wind blows along A sea-beaten headland before the storm,[*](Cf. 455 a, supra.)

Then are your feet of the greatest value,

And yet Nature has built about none of our parts so stout a stockade as about the tongue,[*](Cf.Commentarii in Hesiodum, 71 (Bernardakis, vol. vii. pp. 87-88).) having placed before it as an outpost the teeth, so that when reason within tightens the reins of silence,[*](Homer, Il., v. 226; σιγαλόεντα, of course, means glossy or shining, but here it is probably used as a playful pun on σιγή.) if the tongue does not obey or restrain itself, we may check its incontinence by biting it till it bleeds. For Euripides[*](Adapted from Bacchae, 386, 388.) says that disaster is the end, not of unbolted treasuries or storerooms, but of unbridled tongues. And those who believe that storerooms without doors and purses without fastenings are of no use to their owners, yet keep their mouths without lock or door, maintaining as perpetual an outflow as the mouth of the Black Sea, appear to regard speech as the least valuable of all things. They do not, therefore, meet with belief,[*](Cf. 519 d, infra.) which is the object of all speech. For this is the proper end and aim of speech, to engender belief in the hearer; but chatterers are disbelieved even if they are telling the truth. For as wheat shut up in a jar[*](Or a pit, perhaps; Cf.Moralia, 697 d.) is found to have increased in quantity, but to have deteriorated

Again, every self-respecting and orderly man would, I think, avoid drunkenness. For while, according to some, anger lives next door to madness,[*](Cf. Antiphanes, Frag. 295 (Kock, Com. Att. Frag., ii. p. 128): λύπη μανίας ὁμότοιχος εἶναί μοι δοκεῖ.) drunkenness lives in the same house with it; or rather, drunkenness is madness, shorter in duration, but more culpable, because the will also is involved in it.[*](Cf. Seneca, Epistulae Morales, lxxxiii. 18.) And there is no fault so generally ascribed to drunkenness as that of intemperate and unlimited speech. For wine, says the Poet,[*](Homer, Od., xiv. 463-466; Cf. Moralia, 645 a; Athenaeus, v. 179 e-f.)

1. Urges a man to sing, though he be wise,
2. And stirs to merry laughter and the dance.

But it lets slip some word better unsaid[*](Cf.De Vita et Poesi Homeri, 149 (Bernardakis, vol. vii. p. 421).):

Thus silence is something profound and awesome and sober, but drunkenness is a babbler, for it is foolish and witless, and therefore loquacious also. And the philosophers[*](Cf.Moralia, 716 f; Chrysippus, Frag. Mor. 643 (von Arnim, op. cit., iii. p. 163).) even in their very definition of drunkenness say that it is intoxicated and foolish talking; thus drinking is not blamed if silence attends the drinking, but it is foolish talk which converts the influence of wine into drunkenness. While it is true that the drunken man talks foolishness in his cups, the chatterer talks foolishness on all occasions, in the market-place, in the theatre, out walking, drunk or sober, by day, by night. As your physician, he is worse than the disease; as your ship-mate, more unpleasant than sea-sickness; his praises are more annoying than another’s blame: we certainly have greater pleasure in company with clever rascals than with honest chatterboxes. In Sophocles,[*](Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. 2, p. 312, Frag. 771 (Frag. 855 ed. Pearson, vol. iii. p. 63); Cf.Moralia, 810 b.) when Ajax

I blame you not: ill your words, but good your deeds.

Lysias once composed a speech for a litigant and gave it to him. The man read it through a number of times and came to Lysias in despair and said that the first time he read it the speech seemed to him wonderfully good, but on taking it up a second and third time it appeared completely dull and ineffectual. Well, said Lysias laughing, isn’t it only once that you are going to speak it before the jurors? And consider the persuasiveness and charm of Lysias! For he is one who, for my part,

I say has a fair portion in the violet-tressed Muses.[*](An anonymous fragment, attribtued to Sappho by Bergk ( Poet. Lyr. Gr., iii. p. 703), to Bacchylides by Diehl (Anthologia Lyrica, ii. p. 162); Cf. Edmonds, Lyra Graeca, iii. p. 429.)

1. I scorn to tell
2. A tale again that’s once been clearly told[*](Od., xii. 452-453; Cf.Moralia, 764 a.);

Let this, then, be the first thing of which we remind them - that just as wine, discovered for the promotion of pleasure and good fellowship, is sometimes misused to produce discomfort and intoxication by those[*](Probably referring to the συμποσίαρχος (Cf., for example, Moralia, 620 a ff.), or magister bibendi.) who compel others to drink it undiluted in large quantities, so speech, which is the most pleasant and human of social ties, is made inhuman and unsocial by those who use it badly and wantonly, because they offend those whom they think they please, are ridiculed for their attempts at gaining admiration, and are disliked because of the very means they employ to gain affection. As, then, he can have no share in Aphrodite who uses her girdle to drive away and alienate those who seek his company, so he who arouses annoyance and hostility with his speech is no friend of the Muses and a stranger to art.

Now of the other affections and maladies some are dangerous, some detestable, some ridiculous; but garrulousness has all these qualities at once; for babblers are derided for telling what everyone knows, they are hated for bearing bad news, they run into danger since they cannot refrain from revealing secrets. So it is that Anacharsis,[*](A Scythian of high rank, who travelled widely in the pursuit of knowledge, and visited Athens in the time of Solon, circa 597 b.c.) when he had been entertained and feasted at Solons house and lay down to sleep, was seen to have his left hand placed

Since other labour was pressing,[*](Homer, Od., xi. 54.)

Sulla is a mulberry sprinkled with meal[*](Referring to his complexion: blotches of red interspersed with white; Cf. Life of Sulla, ii. (451 f).);

The loquacity of one man, again, prevented Rome from becoming free by the removal of Nero.[*](This account differs in every way from the standard version in Tacitus, Annals, xv. 54 ff.) For but one night remained, after which the tyrant was to die, and all preparations had been made; but the man[*](Perhaps Subrius Flavus is meant (Annals, xv. 50).) who was to kill him saw at the palace gates when on his way to the theatre a prisoner about to be led before Nero and lamenting his evil fortune. He approached the prisoner and whispered to him, Only pray, my good man, that to-day may pass by and to-morrow you will be thankful to me. So the prisoner grasped the intended meaning, and reflecting, I suppose, that

1. He is a fool who leaves things close at hand
2. To follow what is out of reach,[*](Hesiod, Frag. 219 (Frag. 18, p. 278 ed. Evelyn-White in L.C.L.; Frag. 234 ed. Kinkel) from Eoae according to von Blumenthal, Hermes, xlix. 319.)

Zeno[*](Of Elea; Cf.Moralia, 1126 d, 1051 c; Diels, Frag. d. Vorsokrat. 5, i. p. 249, A 7; and Dougan’s note on Cicero, Tusc. Disp., ii. 22. 52.) the philosopher, in order that even against his will no secret should be betrayed by his body when under torture, bit his tongue through and spat it out at the despot.[*](Called by Plutarch Demylos of Carystus.) And Leaena[*](Cf. Pausanias, i. 23. 1; Athenaeus, 596 f; Leaena means lioness. She was Aristogeiton’s mistress.) also has a splendid reward for her self-control. She was a courtesan belonging to the group led by Harmodius and Aristogeiton and shared in the conspiracy against

No spoken word, it is true, has ever done such service as have in many instances words unspoken[*](Cf.Moralia, 10 e-f, 125 d; 515 a, infra.); for it is possible at some later time to tell what you have kept silent, but never to keep silent what once has been spoken - that has been spilled, and has made its way abroad.[*](Cf. Horace, Ars Poet., 390: nescit vox missa reverti.) Hence, I think, in speaking we have men as teachers, but in keeping silent we have gods, and we receive from them this lesson of silence at initiations into the Mysteries. And the Poet f has made the most eloquent Odysseus the most reticent, and also his son and his wife and his nurse; for you hear the nurse saying,[*](Eurycleia; adapted from Od., xix. 494.)

I’ll hold it safe like sturdy oak or iron.

1. Did pity in his heart his wife in tears,
2. But kept his eyes firm-fixed within their lids
3. Like horn or iron.[*](Od., xix. 210-212; Cf. 442 d-e, supra.)

His heart remained enduring in obedience,[*](Od., xx. 23; Cf. 453 d, supra.)

And Ino in Euripides,[*](Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. 2, p. 486, Frag. 413. 2; Cf.Moralia, 606 a.) speaking out boldly concerning herself, says that she knows how to be

Silent in season, to speak where speech is safe.

Yet, speaking generally, who has left himself the right to speak out boldly against one who has not kept silent? If the story ought not to have been known, it was wrong for it to be told to another; and if you have let the secret slip from yourself and yet seek to confine it to another, you have taken refuge in another’s good faith when you have already abandoned your own. And if he turns out to be no better than yourself, you are deservedly ruined; if better, you are saved beyond all expectation, since you have found another more faithful on your own behalf than you yourself are. But this man is my friend. Yet he has another friend, whom he will likewise trust as I trust him; and his friend, again, will trust another friend. Thus, then, the story goes on increasing and multiplying by link after link of incontinent betrayal. For just as the monad[*](Cf.Moralia, 429 a, 1012 d-f. For the indeterminate dyad, see Aristotle, Met., 987 b 26 and 1081 a 14; A. E. Taylor, Philosophical Studies, pp. 130 ff; and for Plutarch’s understanding of the dyad see L. Robin, La Theorie platonicienne des idees et des nombres , pp. 648-651 (Notopoulos and Fobes).) does not pass out of its own boundaries, but remains once and for all one (for which reason it is called a monad), and as the dyad is the indeterminate beginning of difference (for by doubling it at once shifts from unity to plurality), so a story confined to its first possessor is truly secret; but if it passes to another, it has acquired the status of rumour. The Poet,[*](Homer, passim; on the formula, see the most recent discussions in Classical Philology, xxx. 215 ff., xxxii. 59 ff., Classical Quart., xxx. 1-3.) in fact, says that words are winged: neither when you let go from your hands a winged thing is it easy to get

Circling on swift wings,[*](Cf.Moralia, 750 b; probably from the Epodes of Archilochus, Cf. Eusebius, Praep. Evang., xv. 4. 5; Edmonds, Elegy and Iambus, ii. p. 142.)

1. With but a little torch one might set fire
2. To Ida’s rock; and tell one man a tale,
3. Soon all the town will know.[*](Nauck, op. cit., p. 486, Euripides, Frag. 411, vv. 2-4, from the Ino; Cf. St. James, iii. 5, 6.)

The Roman Senate[*](Cf. the tale of Papirius Praetextatus, Aulus Gellius, i. 23.) was once for many days debating in strict privacy a certain secret policy; and since the matter gave rise to much uncertainty and suspicion, a woman prudent in other respects, but yet a woman, kept pestering her husband and persistently begging to learn the secret. She vowed with imprecations upon herself that she would keep silent, and wept and moaned because she was not trusted. And the Roman, wishing to bring home her folly by proof, said, Wife, you have won; listen to a terrible and portentous matter. We have been informed by the priests that a lark has been seen flying about with a golden helmet and a spear; we

But Fuivius,[*](Fabius Maximus in Tacitus, Annals, i. 5, who relates the story quite differently.) the friend of Caesar Augustus, heard the emperor, now an old man, lamenting the desolation of his house: two of his grandsons[*](Gaius and Lucius Caesar.) were dead, and Postumius,[*](Postumus Agrippa; Cf. Tacitus, Annals, i. 3.) the only one surviving, was in exile because of some false accusation, and thus he was forced to import his wife’s son[*](Tiberius.) into the imperial succession; yet he pitied his grandson and was planning to recall him from abroad. Fulvius divulged what he had heard to his own wife, and she to Livia; and Livia bitterly rebuked Caesar: if he had formed this design long ago, why did he not send for his grandson, instead of making her an object of enmity and strife to the successor to the empire. Accordingly, when Fulvius came to him in the morning, as was his custom, and said, Hail, Caesar, Caesar replied, Farewell, Fulvius.[*](Ave, Caesar; Vale, Fulvi.) And Fulvius took his meaning and went away; going home at once, he sent for his wife, Caesar has found out, he said, that I have not kept his secret, and therefore

Philippides,[*](Cf. 517 b, infra; Moralia, 183 e; Life of Demetrius, xii. (894 d).) the comic poet, therefore, made the right answer when King Lysimachus courteously asked him, What is there of mine that I may share with you? and he replied, Anything you like, Sire, except your secrets. And to garrulousness is attached also a vice no less serious than itself, inquisitiveness.[*](Cf. 519 c, infra.) For babblers wish to hear many things so that they may have many things to tell. And they go about tracking down and searching out especially those stories that have been kept hidden and are not to be revealed, storing up for their foolish gossip, as it were, a second-hand stock of hucksters’ wares; then, like children with a piece of ice,[*](Proverbia Alexandr., i. 19 (Paroemiographi Graeci, i. p. 324); Cf. Pearson on Sophocles, Frag. 149 (153 ed. Nauck).) they are neither able to hold it nor willing to let it go. Or rather, the secrets are like reptiles[*](Cf. Aesop, Fable 97 ed. Halm.) which they catch and place in their bosoms, yet cannot confine them there, but are devoured by them; for pipefish[*](Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animalium, vi. 13 (567 b 23); De Generatione Animalium, iii. 4 (755 a 33).) and vipers, they say, burst in giving birth, and secrets, when they escape, destroy and ruin those who cannot keep them.

Seleucus[*](Cf. 489 a, supra.) the Victorious lost his entire army and power in the battle against the Gauls; he tore off his

Still speaking his head was mingled with the dust.[*](Homer, Il., x. 457.)

This man, it is true, had as something of an excuse for his incontinence his hopes and the friendly service he had rendered;

but most talkers do not even have a reason for destroying themselves. For example, people were once talking in a barber’s shop about how adamantine[*](Cf.Life of Dion, vii. (961 a), x. (962 b); Aelian, Varia Historia, vi. 12.) and unbreakable the despotism of Dionysius was. The barber laughed and said, Fancy your saying that about Dionysius, when I

It is not strange that barbers are a talkative clan, for the greatest chatterboxes stream in and sit in their chairs, so that they are themselves infected with the habit. It was a witty answer, for instance, that King Archelaü;s[*](Cf.Moralia, 177 a.) gave to a loquacious barber, who, as he wrapped his towel around him, asked, How shall I cut your hair, Sire? In silence, said Archelaüs. And it was a barber[*](Cf.Life of Nicias, xxx. (542 d-e).) also who first announced the great disaster of the Athenians in Sicily, having learned it in the Peiraeus from a slave, one of those who had escaped from the island. Then the barber left his shop and hurried at full speed to the city,

Lest another might win the glory

and he come second.[*](Homer, Il., xxii. 207.)

And yet, just as those who have drunk bitter and evil-smelling drugs are disgusted with the cups as well, so those who bear ill tidings cause disgust and hatred in those who hear them. Therefore Sophocles[*](Antigone, 317-319: Creon and the Guard who brings news of the attempted burial of Polyneices are the speakers.) has very neatly raised the question:

1. Gu. Is it in ear or soul that you are stung?-
2. Cr. But why seek to define where lies my pain?-
3. Gu. The doer grieves your heart, I but your ears.

The temple of Athena of the Brazen House at Sparta was discovered to have been plundered, and an empty flask was found lying inside. The large crowd which had quickly formed was quite at a loss, when one of the bystanders said, If you wish, I shall tell you what occurs to me about that flask. I think that the robbers, before undertaking so dangerous a task, drank hemlock and brought along wine, so that, if they should escape detection, by drinking the unmixed wine they might quench the poison and rid themselves of its evil effects,[*](Cf.Moralia, 61 b, 653 a.) and so might get away safely; but if they should be caught, that they might

Were not the murderers of Ibycus[*](The parallel accounts are collected by Edmonds, Lyra Graeca, ii. pp. 78 ff.) caught in the same way? They were sitting in a theatre, and when cranes came in sight, they laughed and whispered to each other that the avengers of Ibycus were come. Persons sitting near overheard them, and since Ibycus had disappeared and now for a long time had been sought, they caught at this remark and reported it to the magistrates. And thus the slayers were convicted and led off to prison, not punished by the cranes, but compelled to confess the murder by the infirmity of their own tongues, as it were some Fury or spirit of vengeance. For as in the body the neighbouring parts are borne by attraction toward diseased and suffering parts, so the tongue of babblers, ever inflamed and throbbing, draws and gathers to itself some portion of what has been kept concealed and should not be revealed. Therefore the tongue must be fenced in, and reason must ever lie, like a barrier, in the tongue’s way, checking its flow and keeping it from slipping, in order that we may not be thought to be less sensible than geese,[*](Cf.Moralia, 967 b.) of whom they relate that when from

Now if anyone were to ask,

Who is the most wicked and the most abandoned man,[*](Kock, Com. Att. Frag., iii. p. 544, ades. 774.)

1. You are not generous: it’s your disease,
2. You love to give,[*](Epicharmus, Frag. 274: Kaibel, Com. Graec. Frag., i. p. 142.)

But these remarks are not to be regarded as an accusation against garrulity, but an attempt to cure it; for we get well by the diagnosis and treatment of our ailments, but the diagnosis must come first; since no one can become habituated to shun or to eradicate from his soul what does not distress him, and we only grow distressed with our ailments when we have perceived, by the exercise of reason, the injuries and shame which result from them. Thus, in the present instance, we perceive in the case of babblers that they are hated when they wish to be liked, that they cause annoyance when they wish to please,[*](Cf. 504 e, supra.) that they are laughed at when they think they are admired, that they spend their money without any gain, that they wrong their friends, help their enemies, and destroy themselves. Consequently this is the first step in curing the disease - by the application of reason to discover the shameful and painful effects that result from it.

And the second is that we must apply our reasoning powers to the effects of the opposite behaviour, always hearing and remembering and keeping close at hand the praises bestowed on reticence, and the solemn, holy, and mysterious[*](Cf. 504 a, 505 f, supra.) character of silence, remembering also that terse and pithy speakers and those who can pack much sense into a short speech are more admired and loved, and are considered to be wiser, than these unbridled and headstrong talkers. Plato,[*](Cf.Protagoras, 342 e.) in fact, commends such pithy men, declaring that they are like skilful throwers

And we must be careful to offer to chatterers examples of this terseness, so that they may see how charming and how effective they are. For example: The Spartans to Philip: Dionysius in Corinth.[*](Cf. Tryphon apud Spengel, Rhetores Graeci, iii. p. 202; Quintilian, viii. 6. 52; Dionysius the Younger upon being expelled from Syracuse (Cf. Moralia, 783 d) kept a school in Corinth. The expression is somewhat like saying, Remember St. Helena. ) And again, when Philip wrote to them, If I invade Laconia, I shall turn you out, they wrote back, If. And when King Demetrius[*](Cf.Life of Demetrius, xlii. (909 c); Moralia, 233 e. In Moralia, 216 b, Agis (the Younger?) makes the remark to Philip.) was annoyed and shouted, Have the Spartans sent only one envoy to me? the envoy replied undismayed, One to one.

And among the men of old also sententious speakers are admired, and upon the temple of the Pythian Apollo the Amphictyons inscribed, not the Iliad and the Odyssey or the paeans of Pindar, but Know thyself[*](Cf.Moralia, 408 e, 385 d, 164 b; Pausanias, x. 24. 1; Tryphon, l.c.; Plato, Charmides, 165 a.)

If anyone will but review and recollect constantly these and similar instances, he may conceivably stop taking pleasure in foolish chatter. But as for me, that famous case of the slave puts me utterly to shame when I reflect what immense importance it

On what terms the truce is made,[*](Kock, Com. Att. Frag., iii. p. 473; Cf. 518 f - 519 a, infra.)

For it is impossible to check the babbler by gripping the reins, as it were; his disease must be mastered by habituation. In the first place, then, when questions are asked of neighbours, let him accustom himself to remaining silent until all have refused a response:

For counsel’s aim is not that of a race,[*](To see who can get to the goal first.)