Institutio Oratoria
Quintilian
Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.
I would remark that our rhythm must be designed to suit our delivery. Is not our tone subdued as a rule in the exordium, except of course in cases of accusation where we have to rouse the judge or fill him with indignation, full and clear in the statement of fact, in argument impetuous and rapid not merely in our language, but in our motions as well, expansive and fluent in commonplaces and descriptions and, as a rule, submissive and downcast in the peroration?
But the motions of the body also have their own appropriate rhythms, while the musical theory of rhythm determines the value of metrical feet no less for dancing than for tunes. Again, do we not adapt our voice and gesture to the nature of the themes on which
Consequently, where necessary, we must borrow the pompous effect produced by the spondees and iambi which compose the greater portion of the rhythms of tragedy, as in the line,
But the comic senarius, styled trochaic, contains a number of pyrrhics and trochees, which others call tribrachs, but loses in dignity what it gains in speed,From an unknown tragedian. [*](Lo, I am lord at Argos, where to me I Pelops the sceptre left.)
- En, impero Argis, sceptra mi liquit Pelops.
as for example in the line,
Violent and abusive language, on the other hand, even in verse, as I have said, employs the iambic for its attack: e.g.,Ter. Eun. I. i. 1. [*](What shall I do then? Not go even now?) The pyrrhic never forms a separate foot, but does form part of the anapaest, tribrach and dactyl and it is in this connexion that it is mentioned by Quintilian.
- quid igiturfaciam? non earn, ne nunc quidem?
As a general rule, however,Cat. xxix. 1. [*](Who save a lecherous gambling glutton can endure to gaze on such a sight as this)
- Quis hoc potest videre, quis potest pati,
- nisi impudicus et vorax et aleo?
if the choice were forced upon me, I should prefer my rhythm to be harsh and violent rather than nerveless and effeminate, as it is in so many writers, more especially in our own day, when it trips along in wanton measures that suggest the accompaniment of castanets. Nor will any rhythm ever be so admirable that it ought to be