On the Sublime E-Book

Longinus

• Herausgeber: Longinus
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

The word “style” has become a weariness to think upon; so much is said, so much is printed about the art of expression, about methods, tricks, and turns; so many people, without any long experience, set up to be judges of style, on the strength of having admired two or three modern and often rather fantastic writers. About our author, however, we know that his experience has been long, and of the best, that he does not speak from a hasty acquaintance with a few contemporary précieux and précieuses. The bad writing of his time he traces, as much of our own may be traced, to “the pursuit of novelty in thought,” or rather in expression. “It is this that has turned the brain of nearly all our learned world to-day.” “Gardons nous d’écrire trop bien,” he might have said, “c’est la pire manière qu’il y’ait d’écrire.”I.5
The Sublime, with which he concerns himself, is “a certain loftiness and excellence of language,” which “takes the reader out of himself.... The Sublime, acting with an imperious and irresistible force, sways every reader whether he will or no.” In its own sphere the Sublime does what “natural magic” does in the poetical rendering of nature, and perhaps in the same scarcely-to-be-analysed fashion. Whether this art can be taught or not is a question which the author treats with modesty. Then, as now, people were denying (and not unjustly) that this art can be taught by rule. The author does not go so far as to say that Criticism, “unlike Justice, does little evil, and little good; that is, if to entertain for a moment delicate and curious minds is to do little good.” He does not rate his business so low as that. He admits that the inspiration comes from genius, from nature. But “an author can only learn from art when he is to abandon himself to the direction of his genius.”

Leseprobe

Longinus

On the Sublime

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Table of contents

ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XX

XXI

XXII

XXIII

XXIV

XXV

XXVI

XXVII

XXVIII

XXIX

XXX

XXXI

XXXII

XXXIII

XXXIV

XXXV

XXXVI

XXXVII

XXXVIII

XXXIX

XL

XLI

XLII

XLIII

XLIV

FOOTNOTES

NOTES ON LONGINUS

APPENDIX

ANALYSIS

The Treatise on the Sublime may be divided into six Parts, as follows:—I.—cc. i, ii. The Work of Caecilius. Definition of the Sublime. Whether Sublimity falls within the rules of Art.II.—cc. iii-v. [The beginning lost.] Vices of Style opposed to the Sublime: Affectation, Bombast, False Sentiment, Frigid Conceits. The cause of such defects.III.—cc. vi, vii. The true Sublime, what it is, and how distinguishable.IV.—cc. viii-xl. Five Sources of the Sublime (how Sublimity is related to Passion, c. viii, §§ 2-4).(i.) Grandeur of Thought, cc. ix-xv.a. As the natural outcome of nobility of soul. Examples (c ix).b. Choice of the most striking circumstances. Sappho’s Ode (c. x).c. Amplification. Plato compared with Demosthenes, Demosthenes with Cicero (cc. xi-xiii).d. Imitation (cc. xiii, xiv).e. Imagery (c. xv).(ii.) Power of moving the Passions (omitted here, because dealt with in a separate work).(iii.) Figures of Speech (cc. xvi-xxix).a. The Figure of Adjuration (c. xvi). The Art to conceal Art (c. xvii).b. Rhetorical Question (c. xviii).c. Asyndeton (c. xix-xxi).d. Hyperbaton (c. xxii).e. Changes of Number, Person, Tense, etc. (cc. xxiii-xxvii).f. Periphrasis (cc. xxviii, xxix).(iv.) Graceful Expression (cc. xxx-xxxii and xxxvii, xxxviii).a. Choice of Words (c. xxx).b. Ornaments of Style (cc. xxxi, xxxii and xxxvii, xxxviii).(α) On the use of Familiar Words (c. xxxi).(β) Metaphors; accumulated; extract from the Timaeus; abuse of Metaphors; certain tasteless conceits blamed in Plato (c. xxxii).[Hence arises a digression (cc. xxxiii-xxxvi) on the spirit in which we should judge of the faults of great authors. Demosthenes compared with Hyperides, Lysias with Plato. Sublimity, however far from faultless, to be always preferred to a tame correctness.](γ) Comparisons and Similes [lost] (c. xxxvii).(δ) Hyperbole (c. xxxviii).(v.) Dignity and Elevation of Structure (cc. xxxix, xl).a. Modulation of Syllables (c. xxxix).b. Composition (c. xl).V.—cc. xli-xliii. Vices of Style destructive to Sublimity.(i.) Abuse of Rhythm(ii.) Broken and Jerky Clauses (iii.) Undue Prolixity(cc. xli, xlii).(iv.) Improper Use of Familiar Words. Anti-climax. Example from Theopompus (c. xliii).VI.—Why this age is so barren of great authors—whether the cause is to be sought in a despotic form of government, or, as Longinus rather thinks, in the prevailing corruption of manners, and in the sordid and paltry views of life which almost universally prevail (c. xliv).

INTRODUCTION

Boileau, in his introduction to his version of the ancient Treatise on the Sublime, says that he is making no valueless present to his age. Not valueless, to a generation which talks much about style and method in literature, should be this new rendering of the noble fragment, long attributed to Longinus, the Greek tutor and political adviser of Zenobia. There is, indeed, a modern English version by Spurden, “ “