Male Graduate Students:
un-serious in terms of studies since 1931.
I'm planning to take a few days off from blogging Quintilian so that I can actually catch up with the readings. I know, I know--of all people, I should be caught up since I'm the one actually posting them. But, hey.
Anyway, I'll try to get it going again after a few days.
XXVIII. Est etiam huic tropo quaedam cum synecdoche vicinia; nam cum dico "vultus hominis" pro vultu, dico pluraliter quod singulare est: sed non id ago, ut unum ex multis intellegatur (nam id est manifestum), sed nomen inmuto: et cum aurata tecta "aurea", pusillum ab ea discedo, quia non est pars auratura. Quae singula persequi minutioris est curae etiam non oratorem instruentibus.
28. The following kind of trope has also some affinity with the synecdoche. When I say vultus hominis, "the looks of a man," I express in the plural that which is singular. Yet I do not make it my object that one may be understood out of many (for my meaning is evident), but make an alteration only in the term. When I call, also, gilded ceilings "golden ceilings," I deviate a little from the truth, as the gilding is but a part. To notice all such expressions, however, would be too trifling an employment, even for those who are not forming an orator.
Sorry I've missed the last few days. We don't have internet set up yet at our new apartment and things have been a little hectic. Apologies aside...back to Quintilian!
XXVII. Illud quoque et poetis et oratoribus frequens, quo id quod efficit ex eo quod efficitur ostendimus. Nam et carminum auctores "pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas", et pallentesque habitant morbi tristisque senectus", et orator "praecipitem iram", "hilarem adulescentiam", "segne otium" dicet.
27. That kind of metonymy, too, by which we signify the cause from the effect is very common both among poets and orators. Thus the poets have,
Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,
Pale death, with equal foot, knocks at the gate
Of poor man's cottage, etc.
and,
Pallentesque habitant morbi, tristisque senectus,
And pale diseases dwell, and sad old age;
and an orator will speak of "rash anger," "cheerful youth," and "slothful inactivity."
