STYLE.*
Du. ROBERTS is to be congratulated upon the accomplishment of a worthy task. His edition of the famous treatise known as Demetrius on Style is a credit to our English learning. The editor is not merely a scholar, he is a man of letters as well ; and in his notes he has applied the maxims of the ancient Greek to the literature of to-day with the utmost skill. Indeed, though Greek lies at this moment under a cloud of suspicion, we can none-the less recommend this work without diffidence or fear, since no English writer can study Dr. Roberts's translation and notes without purging his own composition of faults innumerable.
Now Demetrius, if indeed he be the author of the treatise, is not of those who believe that the writing of prose comes by nature. It is true that he includes verse also in his survey. But treatises upon the art of poetry abound, and we praise his work most highly because it recognises that the composition of prose also is an art. For him the written language is essentially different from conversation. His essay is all in Favour of thought and self-consciousness. He holds that in prose. (as in verse) nothing should be left to chance. Rhythm, the alternation of vowel and consonant, the choice and arrange- ment of words, the use of particles, all of which are immaterial to speech, are the necessary accompaniments of a finished style. Prose has its laws, which he lays down with perfect clarity, no less than verse, and to outrage these laws is an un- pardonable fault. For instance, he holds it a mark of frigidity to introduce metrical phrases in prose. "A bit of verse out of Place," says he, "is just as inartistic as the disregard of metrical rules in poetry." This is nothing but the sober truth. Yet how often is it disregarded by those writers of to-day who deem that distinction is attainable by the stealthy introduction of blank verse
[98. 1
• Demetrius on Style. The Greek Text, Edited, with Introdn ction, Transla- tion. ace., by W. Rhys Roberts, Litt.D. Cambridge : At the Blair•ersdy Press.
The scheme of his essay is to discriminate the four types of style,—the elevated, the elegant, the plain; theiforcible. In this discrimination there is the pedantry which is inseparable.
from all rigid divisions, but the four types are but a frame- work of a comely and ornate edifice. In other words, what is chiefly valuable in the treatise of Demetrius is the opinions which he expresses by the way. For instance, he has no illusions concerning the treatment and the subject of literature. He warns his readers against being "beguiled" by a great subject to the opinion that the discourse is great. " ' Beguiled,' I say," thus he writes, " for we must consider not so much the things narrated as the method of narration, since great topics may be handled in a manner that is mean and below the dignity of the subject-matter." . That which is elevated may with bad treatment easily . degenerate into frigidity, its• 'corresponding vice. For " as in the sphere of morals certain bad qualities exist side by side with certain attractive qualities," again we quote Demetrius, " audacity, for example, corresponding to bravery, and shame to reverence, so also the leading types of style are matched by distorted varieties." But Thucydides and other masters of the elevated style avoid frigidity, not merely by the loftiness of their thought, but by a purely technical method ; and it; is in his exposition of technique that Demetrius excels. Thus much may be done by a concurrence of long vowels, and diphthongs clashing with diph- thongs may produce an admirable effect. Repetition also is a -notable figure, by which, for instance, Homer impresses Nireus, a mean man and the leader of a handful, upon our memory : "Nireus brought three ships, Nireus Aglaea's son, Nireus the goodliest man." A single mention of the name would have meant nothing; its repetition raises the simple Nireus to a level with heroes. For " it is with writing as with banquets," says the critic, " where a few dishes may be so arranged as to seem many."
When Demetrius tells us that "in the elevated style the members should begin with a procatarctic paeon and end with a catale,ctic paeon," he again appears pedantic. But he is only putting into a scientific form the truth which all great writers of prose have recognised. Cicero seemed to sacrifice the laws of grammar that his phrases might end without a common jingle, and Demetrius most properly recognised that each sentence should open and close impressively. Again, he wisely points out that a succession of long syllables, however appropriate they may be to the heroic style, is ill-adapted to prose. In verse this succession may produce a noble effect, in spite of Pope's line, quoted by Dr. Roberts : " And ten low words oft creep in one dull line." Tennyson, a master of the mono- syllabic, could invest ten words with marvellous dignity and meaning :—
" The long day wanes : the slow moon climbs : the deep
Moans round with many voices."
NO day was ever so long, no moon ever so slow, as that assemblage of ten words, which Denietrius would have appre- ciated, though he justly declares that the artifice is not an artifice of prose.
So the treatise tells you how by arrangement and fore- thought you may elevate or refine your style. " The very thought which, if placed at the beginning or middle of a sentence, would have no charm, is often full of grace when it comes at the end." The use of a word with a noble associa- tion will ennoble what might have been a plain and -simple sentence. •' Apxotior, for example, carries with it a respect which raAagoi, a word of similar meaning, knows not. An easy turn of the phrase makes a delightful cadence where otherwise the words would halt or stumble. Aiipa on ow itElli ET 41 MCCrea 1 l' Al10,—there is grace. But invert it to &arc/ Tar, AsiVereci, and the effect vanishes. These few instances will give some instances of Demetrius's method. Yet for all his interest in the niceties of style, he is no enemy of general views. His chapter on the art -of letter- writing, composed by one who had studied the letters of Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle, remains as wise a piece of criticism as is known. He holds that " a- letter should be a little more studied than a dialogue, since- the dialogue reproduces an extemporary utterance, while the letter is committed to writing and is sent (in a way) as a gift." But he would have no stilted language, no laboured writing, no wearisome treatise with the heading " My dear So-and-so." Rather he would exact a certain familiarity, since the letter should be quick with glimpses of character. "It may be said that everybody reveals his own soul in letters. In every other form of composition it is possible to discern the writer's character, but in none so clearly as in the epistolary." Yet Demetrius has revealed his character in his treatise, and when he tells us what should be the purport of a letter, we seem to know what manner of man he was. "A letter," says he, "is designed to be the heart's good wishes in brief."
Who was the author of this interesting treatise ? Was he Demetrius ? Or has he borrowed a stranger's name ? That he was not Demetrius Phalereus seems certain. Dr. Roberta proves conclusively, as we think, that the author of this treatise on style could not have lived earlier than the first century B.C. But whoever he was, whenever he lived, he was thrice fortunate. He loved the best literature the world has ever known, and he knew why he loved it. Thucydi- des, Sappho, and Homer,—these were his gods, whom he worshipped with zeal and understanding. " When Sappho celebrates the charms of beauty," he writes, " she does so in lines that are themselves beautiful and sweet. So, too, when she sings of love, and springtime, and the halcyon, every lovely word is inwoven with the texture of her poetry." Few indeed have ever displayed a finer enthusiasm for Sappho's haunting beauty. None ever knew better the charm of such a phrase as wad/ waytri5o; ciavihEAEoripcs, zpvooii xpvocrripa. But it is his peculiar achievement to have explained the qualities of prose, and his book, though it was written two thousand years ago, may still be commended to the practical use of those who would write their own language with pro- priety, and who accept the definition of Aristotle that "the perfection of style is to be clear without being mean."
Previous page
