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And this is as far as I'm going in the De Oratore. With any luck, I'll pick up with Caesar, fighting random dudes, over winter break. For now, I need to go put together an explanation of my highly theoretical high-percentage-of-the-grade Latin paper. (And go work on my Greek.)
For now, let's see what Cicero has to say about the use of "transferred words", by which he seems to include metaphors, similes, and words that mean different things in different contexts. It's all good for oratory.
155. “That third method of the transferred word* is extensively accessible, which a necessity compelled by scarcity and constraints gave rise to, though afterward pleasure and delight employed it frequently. For just as clothing was first invented for the sake of dispelling the cold, then later began to be used for decorating even the body and for dignity, so the transference of words was established for the sake of scarcity, then used more frequently for the sake of delight. For even the rustics say “Vines put forth buds,” “there is luxury in plants,” and “happy crops.”** For what can scarcely be said with the proper word, this metaphor when it’s spoken, the resemblance illustrates that which we want to be understood of the thing which we set down by a different word.
156. “Therefore these transferences are sort of borrowings, when we acquire from elsewhere whatever we don’t possess; those metaphors are a little audacious, the ones which don’t indicate scarcity, but call for something of a splendid oration; what of these ought I specify for you all as either a method or categorization for the inventions?
157. “[] But it is appropriate that these things are transferred which either make the matter clearer, so that all well-known words--
The sea bristles up,
Shadows are doubled, the blackness of night and storm clouds grows darker,
Fire flashes between clouds, the sky trembles with thunder,
Sudden hail mixed with rain falls, hurtling downward generously,
The wind breaks out in all directions, savage storms spring up,
The ocean boils in a fever.
--may carry all things, so that they are more vivid, they are spoken by transferred words through similarity--[158] or so that the whole matter may be explained better, whether some deed or some plan, so that this man, who with two transferred words by merely a resemblance indicates another man concealing something:
Since indeed that wretch clothes himself with words, he’s fenced it off diligently.***
Sometimes, even, brevity is executed by metaphor, as with that “If he flees a weapon from the hand”; the inadvertence of a hurled spear cannot be expressed by shorter appropriate words than are expressed in that one metaphor.
159. “And so it very often seems to me that this kind of thing ought to be marveled at, because all are delighted by transferred and different words more than by appropriate ones and their own. For if the matter does not have its own name and appropriate vocabulary, as with “pes” for sailing, as with “nexum” which is used with scales, as “divorciam” with a wife,^ necessity compels the borrowing from elsewhere of what you do not have; but men take even more delight, if they’re transferred for a reason, in the greatest abundance of their own words.
160. “But I believe it happens either because a certain sign of talent is placed in plain view to leap over and another one drawn from far away to lay hold of, or because whoever listens is led to some other thought and nevertheless is not distracted, which is the greatest delight, or because from individual words the matter and its complete likeness are produced, or because the whole metaphor which indeed is used reasonably is moved towards the senses themselves, especially of the eyes, which are the sharpest sense.
161. “For the “odor” of urbanity and the “softness” of liberality and the “murmur” of the sea and the “sweetness” of an oration are all derived from different senses; both those of the eyes are by far the keenest, which plainly put into the sight of the soul those things which we are not able to discern or see. For there is nothing in the nature of things which we are not able to use in other matters with vocabulary and name. For from that place it is possible to be led by similarity--moreover it is possible for everything--and from the same source there is one word which holds together a transferred similarity as clarity to offer an oration.”
---
* The transferred use of words = metaphor.
** All of the words translated above have secondary non-agricultural meanings; I believe Crassus is making a point about how even unstylized speakers use secondary word meanings, but...y’know, I’m not quite sure. The footnote on this is more baffling and gnomic than illuminating.
[] - There is a sentence here which the footnote explains, at length, is deeply awkward in its positioning, and thus suspected to be an error added in later transcriptions. As it appears to be talking about another topic entirely, I’m just ignoring it in my translation.
*** As with most poetry quotes--the one above it being a rare exception--in Cicero, this is wildly difficult to understand without context. Apparently the context is that someone is building a fence around a rotting corpse to keep out those who would bury it, and doing so...with words? Okay. I don’t follow even with the footnotes.
^ “pes” is “foot”, but also a particular rope attached to the main sail. “nexum” is “weaving,” but also a word for a legal contract. “divorcium” is “divergence”--usually of rivers--but then comes to mean a divorce.
For now, let's see what Cicero has to say about the use of "transferred words", by which he seems to include metaphors, similes, and words that mean different things in different contexts. It's all good for oratory.
155. “That third method of the transferred word* is extensively accessible, which a necessity compelled by scarcity and constraints gave rise to, though afterward pleasure and delight employed it frequently. For just as clothing was first invented for the sake of dispelling the cold, then later began to be used for decorating even the body and for dignity, so the transference of words was established for the sake of scarcity, then used more frequently for the sake of delight. For even the rustics say “Vines put forth buds,” “there is luxury in plants,” and “happy crops.”** For what can scarcely be said with the proper word, this metaphor when it’s spoken, the resemblance illustrates that which we want to be understood of the thing which we set down by a different word.
156. “Therefore these transferences are sort of borrowings, when we acquire from elsewhere whatever we don’t possess; those metaphors are a little audacious, the ones which don’t indicate scarcity, but call for something of a splendid oration; what of these ought I specify for you all as either a method or categorization for the inventions?
157. “[] But it is appropriate that these things are transferred which either make the matter clearer, so that all well-known words--
The sea bristles up,
Shadows are doubled, the blackness of night and storm clouds grows darker,
Fire flashes between clouds, the sky trembles with thunder,
Sudden hail mixed with rain falls, hurtling downward generously,
The wind breaks out in all directions, savage storms spring up,
The ocean boils in a fever.
--may carry all things, so that they are more vivid, they are spoken by transferred words through similarity--[158] or so that the whole matter may be explained better, whether some deed or some plan, so that this man, who with two transferred words by merely a resemblance indicates another man concealing something:
Since indeed that wretch clothes himself with words, he’s fenced it off diligently.***
Sometimes, even, brevity is executed by metaphor, as with that “If he flees a weapon from the hand”; the inadvertence of a hurled spear cannot be expressed by shorter appropriate words than are expressed in that one metaphor.
159. “And so it very often seems to me that this kind of thing ought to be marveled at, because all are delighted by transferred and different words more than by appropriate ones and their own. For if the matter does not have its own name and appropriate vocabulary, as with “pes” for sailing, as with “nexum” which is used with scales, as “divorciam” with a wife,^ necessity compels the borrowing from elsewhere of what you do not have; but men take even more delight, if they’re transferred for a reason, in the greatest abundance of their own words.
160. “But I believe it happens either because a certain sign of talent is placed in plain view to leap over and another one drawn from far away to lay hold of, or because whoever listens is led to some other thought and nevertheless is not distracted, which is the greatest delight, or because from individual words the matter and its complete likeness are produced, or because the whole metaphor which indeed is used reasonably is moved towards the senses themselves, especially of the eyes, which are the sharpest sense.
161. “For the “odor” of urbanity and the “softness” of liberality and the “murmur” of the sea and the “sweetness” of an oration are all derived from different senses; both those of the eyes are by far the keenest, which plainly put into the sight of the soul those things which we are not able to discern or see. For there is nothing in the nature of things which we are not able to use in other matters with vocabulary and name. For from that place it is possible to be led by similarity--moreover it is possible for everything--and from the same source there is one word which holds together a transferred similarity as clarity to offer an oration.”
---
* The transferred use of words = metaphor.
** All of the words translated above have secondary non-agricultural meanings; I believe Crassus is making a point about how even unstylized speakers use secondary word meanings, but...y’know, I’m not quite sure. The footnote on this is more baffling and gnomic than illuminating.
[] - There is a sentence here which the footnote explains, at length, is deeply awkward in its positioning, and thus suspected to be an error added in later transcriptions. As it appears to be talking about another topic entirely, I’m just ignoring it in my translation.
*** As with most poetry quotes--the one above it being a rare exception--in Cicero, this is wildly difficult to understand without context. Apparently the context is that someone is building a fence around a rotting corpse to keep out those who would bury it, and doing so...with words? Okay. I don’t follow even with the footnotes.
^ “pes” is “foot”, but also a particular rope attached to the main sail. “nexum” is “weaving,” but also a word for a legal contract. “divorcium” is “divergence”--usually of rivers--but then comes to mean a divorce.