Horace

Horace (65 B.C. 8 B.C.) lived in the glorious Augustan age named after
Octavian Augustus. It was particularly glorious in literature, which the emperor
himself patronised. To this age belong the greatest of the Roman writers Virgil,
Horace, Ovid and Livy. Prose which was the medium of oratory suffered a downfall
whereas new conditions favoured the poet. The emperors interest in the art peeked
upon his discovery of poetry to be a powerful instrument to advertise his
achievements.

There were three different attitudes prevalent during the age, and they were
Atticists who favoured the Greek authors, Alexandrians who favoured the modern
forms prevalent during that period which preferred emotions and short terms and
lastly Romans who favoured earlier Roman writings. This, the eternal battle between
the Ancients and the Moderns, and other questions of a like nature that followed, set
off an unprecedented wave of critical inquiry that, beginning with poetry, embraced
other branches of literature too. To this enquiry Horace, of all the poets of this
period, made the largest contribution. His works include two books of Satires, four
books of Odes and three books of Epistles. The Epistle to the Pisos is generally called
the Ars Poetica (Art of Poetry). The title was given to it by Quintilian in his Institutio
Oratoria.

Ars Poetica is a letter in verseoffering advice on literary matterstoa father and

twosons of the name of Piso,whose identity has been variouslysurmised. Quintilian
gave it the statusof a systematic treatise.Though it follows no methos or
plan,scholars have discernedin it three usual divisions of an Alexandrian-Greek
discourse of this sort: Poesis or subject matter, Poema or form, and Poets or the poet.

Poesis/ Subject matter

He makes two observations of a general nature: let your theme be what it

may, provided it be simple and uniform; and choose a theme suited to your
powers, ye authors, and ponder long what weight your shoulders refuse to bear and
what they can support. By a simple theme he means one from familiar material or
from life and customs. It has to be uniform or one whole, with nothing extraneous or
irrelevant to the matter in hand. Poetic decorum should be the primary concern and
all works should be judged based on this norm. Poetic license should not be
stretched beyond limits. Verisimilitude must be the poetic norm than internal
coherence and a writer should excercise judgement in his choice of words.

Poema

Following the Greek tradition, Horace believed that poetry has settled kinds
with a metre appropriate to each. For the epic, which celebrates the exploitsof
princesand leaders and the sad story war, he considers the rightful metre to be
dactylic hexameter. For the elegy and songs of thanksgiving, the elegiac measureand
for tragedy, comedy and satirical verse the iambic metre is more suitable. He
emphasises the right choice words and their effective arrangement in composition.
The poem should fulfil the two requirements of expression i.e., clearness and
effectiveness. If the poet has no familiar words to express what he has in his mind,
he could have the license to coin a new word. Regarding the dramatic form his
words follow like this: Excessively violent incidents ought not be presented on stage
and drama should have five acts. Chorus should be the spokesperson of what is
morally right and just.

Poeta

A poet should have inborn talent or nature and developed talents also to
express his mind and familiar experiences. All aspiring poets must practise imitation
by emulating and following great masters. The poets skill lies in making the familiar
words appear strange and the strange ones familiar.

Function of Poetry

According to Horace the ultimate goal of poetry is to instruct and provide

pleasure. But the ideal poet is the one who combines these twin functions.

Concept of Rhetoric

Horace classified rhetoric into:

1. Exordium - The introduction of a speech, where one announces the subject and
purpose of the discourse, and where one usually employs the persuasive appeal of
ethos in order to establish credibility with the audience.

2. Narratio -The second part of a classical oration, following the introduction or

exordium

3. Partitio - Following the statement of facts, or narration (2), comes the partitio or
divisio. In this section of the oration, the speaker outlines what will follow, in
accordance with what's been stated as the status, or point at issue in the case.

4. Confirmatio - Following the division / outline or partition (3) comes the main
body of the speech where one offers logical arguments as proof. The appeal to logos
is emphasized here.

5. Refutatio - Following the confirmatio or section on proof in a classical oration,

comes the refutation. As the name connotes, this section of a speech was devoted to
answering the counterarguments of one's opponent.

6. Peroratio Following the refutatio and concluding the classical oration, the
peroration conventionally employed appeals through pathos, and often included a
summing up

Horace divided style into high, middle and low. Rhetoric should be grounded
in moral principles as it is related to law, philosophy and ethics. He also asserts the
supremacy of Greek literature. His concept of mimesis meant a recreation and not
just copying.

Observations on Drama

Horace studied drama under three heads: plot, characterisation and style. Plot
should beborrowed from familiar material, preferably the known Greek legends in
which, the story being already known, the author could distinguish himself by
originality of treatment. If an untied theme wastobe chosen, it had to be consistent
from the beginning to the end. Only the relevant events of the story should be joined
into an unbreakable union. Events repugnant tosight , or difficult tobelieve should
be reported epic-wise rather than shown on the stage,for what is heard is less
shocking than what is heard. A character who is one at onetime and another at
another is not a consistent character unless he persists in his changefulness, in which
case he becomes consistent, being consistently inconsistent. A child in a play should
behave like a child and young man like a young man.

Longinus
Longinus is considered as the third member of the classical triumvirate of
criticism. The name Longinus is ascribed to two people a 3rd century A.D. author
whose name was Cassius Longinus and a 1st century author, A Greek rhetorician.
His On the Sublime is a treatise written in Greek and addressed to one Postumius
Terentianus, a Roman of whom nothing is known. While Longinus declared subject
is rhetoric, its central argument is: what constitutes sublimity in literature.

Function of Poetry

Before Longinus the function of literature/poetry was to instruct ortodelight

or todo both, and if it was prose to persuade. But Longinus found this three word
formula wanting. For according to Longinus the masterpieces of Greek classical
literature the epics of Homer, thelyrics of Sappho andPindar,the tragedies of
Aeschylus and Sophocles,the orations of Demosthenes were great for a different
reason altogether their sublimity. Sublimit, he says, consists in a certain distinction
and consummate excellence in expression, and it is from this and no other source,
that the greatest poets and prose writers have gained their eminence and immortal
fame. The effect of a lofty passage is to transport him out of himself. Not instruction
or delight or persuasion is the test of great literature, but transport its capacity to
move the reader to ecstasy caused by an irresistible magic of speech.

The Sources of the Sublime

Both nature and art contribute to sublimity in literature. Longinus finds five
principal sources of the sublime, the first two of which are largely the gifts of nature
and the remaining three the gifts of art; 1) Grandeur of Thought, 2) Capacity for
Strong Emotion, 3) Appropriate use of figures, 4) Nobility of diction, and 5) Dignity
of composition or a happy synthesis of all the preceding gifts. But as a common
foundation an author is in great need of the preliminary gift i.e., the command of
language.

1) Grandeur of Thought

Power of forming great conceptions: It is concerned with the grandeur

of thought in writers and is the first essential source of sublime. Lofty and
natural expression is possible when there are noble and lofty thoughts. Such
elevating thoughts that remain as the echo of great soul" are possible when
the author has power of forming great conceptions. Mean and ignorable
thoughts can never energies a lofty utterance. The great thoughts come from
the imagination of a great creative genius and from a sound interpretation of
the imitation of nature and of the great predecessors. The details of the
conceptions should be so chosen to form an organic whole being heightened
by amplification of all the details of a given subject through the vivid use of
imagery and rhetoric.

2) Capacity for Strong Emotions

Vehement and inspired passion: The second source of sublime is the

genuine emotion. The emotion should be strong and natural expressed in
lofty and elevated language so that it can move the readers with pleasure and
persuasion. It should match with the grandeur of subject, thought and lofty
style. True emotion in the right place could inspire the authors withdivine
frenzy, says Longinus. It is for this reason Longinus preferred the Iliad to the
Odyssey and Demosthenes to Cicero. Like stately thoughts, stately emotions
too belong to the loftiest souls.

3) Appropriate use of Figures

The due formation and use of figures of speech:

The third source of sublime is the poetic use of language. The formation and
use of figures boost the elevated expression if they are properly used. Such a
use of figures should not be mechanical and forceful. They should be used
genuinely and as per the demands of the contextual environment. According
to Longinus, a figure is effective only when it appears in disguise, that is to
say, when it is shaded by the brilliance of style. The chief figures that makes
for sublimity are the rhetorical question, apostrophe , asyndeton, hyperbaton
and periphrasis.

The rhetorical question is either a statement in question-form that suggests

its own answer. The proper use of rhetorical question makes an immediate
appeal to the emotions.
 Eg: Who is here so base, that would be a bondman?, with its implied answer
None.

An apostrophe is a direct address to a person, thing, or abstraction, or readers

that helps to move readers.

Asydenton is a figure of speech in which clauses are left unconnected. The

omission of conjunctions gives a quick movement of feelings and emotions.

Eg: Now where is the revenue which is todo all these mighty things? Five-
sixths repealed- abandoned-sunk-gone-lost forever. (Here the rapid flow of the
unconnected verbs suggest the excited mood in which theyare uttered and
which is likely to induce the same mood in the hearer or the reader.

Hyperbaton is an intentional inversion of word order suggestive of a

disordered utterance made under an emotional strain and falling with a like
effect on the hearer or the reader. It is designed for special emphasis or
climatic effect.

Eg: When Macduf,ShakespearesMacbeth,comes at the appointed hour to

callon Duncan and finds him lying dead in a pool of blood in his bed-
chamber,only broken words can fall from his lips that,could explain his
bewilderment more effectively than if they had followed their normal order:

O horror! Horror! horror! Tongue nor heart

Cannot conceive nor name thee!

Tongue here is the subject of name and heart the subject of conceive but
not only tongue seems to go with conceive and heart with name but each
of these subjects seems to go with both the verbs.

Periphrasis is a roundabout way of speaking.

Eg: in Shakespeares Othello where Othello has rudely shocked Desdemona

by calling her a whore, she and Emilia complain of it to Iago like this:

Desdemona: Am I that name, Iago?

Iago: What name, fair lady?

Desdemona: Such as she says my lord did say I was.

Anaphora, polybaton, etc. give ballast to the lofty and natural expression of
the language. In short, the use of figures must be physical and intimately
connected with thoughts and emotions.

4) Nobility of Diction

The fourth source of sublime is diction that includes choice and arrangement
of words. Longinus says that the use of proper and striking words enthrall
 (hold attention) the hearers. The words, to him, should be noble
corresponding to the subject matter and emotion. So as to impart grandeur
and beauty, giving breath in to dead things. He considers metaphor and
hyperbole the ornaments of speech. But both should be the natural outcome
of emotion and that, like allgreat art, it should appear in disguise.

5) Dignity of Composition

Dignified and elevated composition: The last source of sublime is the

dignified and elevated arrangement of the diction for the grandeur of
composition. The verbal order should be rhythmic and harmonious which
helps pull off persuasion and pleasure. Such a composition appeals to the soul
and enables the readers to participate in the emotions of the author. Similarly,
while discussing the sources of true sublime, Longinus also deals with the
factors of the false sublime. To him, the vices of the sublime emerge out of the
lack of passion sincerely and inadequacy of communication caused by faulty
techniques. The following factors are described to mention how they cause
sublime to be false:

Conceit of turgidity: It is a type of timidity or bombast use of language, which

he thinks, is drier than dropsy.

Puerility: The use of puerility spoils the sublimity. It is a pedantic type of

conceit adding to a pompous and frigid style.

Parentheses: It is a passion out of place and meaning, where there is no cause

for passion or unrestrained where restraint is needed. Here unrestrained
passion does not make sublime for the greatness of soul, place, manner,
occasion, and purposes are essential.

Defects of style: The false sublimity even arises out of the defeats of style,
especially when sincerity is sidelined in favor of the craze for fashionable
style. Here, he suggests that the same elements of true sublime may obstruct
and cause false sublime if they are not well handled by virtue of nature and
sincerity.

At last to Longinus, the form and content should bring about equilibrium. The
hierarchical composition can never be sublime as an art showing a beautiful cock in
the mid- ocean can never be natural and pleasing.