§6.2.27quae esse verisimilia volemus, simus ipsi similes eorum qui vere patiuntur adfectibus, et a tali animo proficiscatur oratio qualem facere iudicem volet.
When we want these things to be realistic, let us ourselves be like those who truly suffer in their emotions, and let our speech proceed from such a mind as it will wish to make the judge's mind.
an ille dolebit, qui audiet me, qui in hoc dicam, non dolentem? irascetur, si nihil ipse, qui in iram concitat se idque exigit, similia patietur? siccis agentis oculis lacrimas dabit? fieri non potest.
Will he feel pain, who hears me, who speak for this purpose, if I am not feeling pain? Will he be angry, if he himself who stirs himself up to anger and demands it, suffers nothing similar? Will the speaker bring tears with dry eyes? It is impossible.
§6.2.28nec incendit nisi ignis nec madescimus nisi humore nec res ulla dat alteri colorem quem non ipsa habet.
For nothing burns unless it is fire, nor do we become wet unless by moisture, nor does any thing give to another a color which it does not itself possess.
primum est igitur, ut apud nos valeant ea quae valere apud iudicem volumus, adficiamurque antequam adficere conemur.
Therefore, the first thing is that those things which we wish to have force with the judge should have force with us, and that we should be moved before we attempt to move others.
§6.2.29at quomodo fiet, ut adficiamur? neque enim sunt motus in nostra potestate.
But how will it happen that we are moved? For emotions are not in our power.
temptabo etiam de hoc dicere.
I will attempt to speak also on this.
quas φαντασίας Graeci vocant, nos sane visiones appellemus, per quas imagines rerum absentium ita repraesentantur animo, ut eas cernere oculis ac praesentes habere videamur.
What the Greeks call phantasiai, let us indeed call visions, through which the images of absent things are so represented to the mind that we seem to discern them with our eyes and to have them present before us.
§6.2.30has quisquis bene conceperit, is erit in adfectibus potentissimus.
Whoever conceives these well will be most powerful in moving emotions.
hunc quidam dicunt εὐφαντασίωτον, qui sibi res, voces, actus secundum verum optime finget; quod quidem nobis volentibus facile continget.
Some call such a person euphantasiōtos, who will best fashion for himself things, voices, and actions according to the truth; and this indeed will easily happen to us if we wish it.
nisi vero inter otia animorum et spes inanes et velut somnia quaedam vigilantium ita nos hae de quibus loquor imagines prosequuntur, ut peregrinari, navigare, proeliari, populos alloqui, divitiarum, quas non habemus, usum videamur disponere, nec cogitare sed facere: hoc animi vitium ad utilitatem non transferemus?
Unless indeed, amid the leisure of our minds and empty hopes and as it were certain dreams of those who are awake, these images of which I speak pursue us in such a way that we seem to travel abroad, to sail, to fight, to address assemblies, and to dispose of the use of riches which we do not have, seeming not to think of these things but to do them—shall we not transfer this defect of the mind to our benefit?
§6.2.31at hominem occisum queror; non omnia, quae in re praesenti accidisse credibile est, in oculis habebo? non percussor ille subitus erumpet? non expavescet circumventus? exclamabit vel rogabit vel fugiet? non ferientem, non concidentem videbo? non animo sanguis et pallor et gemitus extremus, denique exspirantis hiatus insidet?
But suppose I complain of a man being slain; shall I not have before my eyes all those things which are credible to have happened in the actual event? Will not that sudden assassin burst forth? Will not the victim, when surrounded, tremble with fear? Will he not cry out, or beg for mercy, or flee? Shall I not see the striker, and the one falling down? Will not the blood, the paleness, the last groan, and finally the gasp of the dying person remain fixed in my mind?
§6.2.32insequitur ἐνάργεια, quae a Cicerone illustratio et evidentia nominatur, quae non tam dicere videtur quam ostendere; et adfectus non aliter, quam si rebus ipsis intersimus, sequentur.
There follows enargeia, which is called illustration and evidence by Cicero, which seems not so much to speak as to show; and emotions will follow no otherwise than if we were present at the events themselves.
an non ex his visionibus illa sunt; excussi manibus radii, revolutaque pensa? — levique patens in pectore vulnus? equus ille in funere Pallantis,—positis insignibus? quid? non idem poeta penitus ultimi fati concepit imaginem, ut diceret: §6.2.34et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos? ubi vero miseratione opus erit, nobis ea, de quibus queremur, accidisse credamus atque id animo nostro persuadeamus.
Are not these famous lines from these visions: 'the shuttle shaken from her hands, and the task unrolled'? — and 'the open wound in his smooth breast'? And that horse at the funeral of Pallas, 'its trappings laid aside'? What? Did not the same poet conceive the image of the ultimate fate so deeply that he said: 'and dying, he remembers sweet Argos'? But where there is need of pity, let us believe that those things of which we complain have happened to ourselves, and let us persuade our mind of this.
nos illi simus, quos gravia, indigna, tristia passos queremur, nec agamus rem quasi alienam, sed adsumamus parumper illum dolorem.
Let us be those people whom we complain of having suffered heavy, unworthy, and sad things; let us not treat the matter as if it were someone else's, but let us assume that pain for a little while.
ita dicemus, quae in nostro simili casu dicturi fuissemus.
Thus we shall say what we would have said in our own similar case.
§6.2.35vidi ego saepe histriones atque comoedos, cum ex aliquo graviore actu personam deposuissent, flentes adhuc egredi.
I have often seen actors, both of tragedy and comedy, when they had laid aside their mask after some rather heavy scene, leave the stage still weeping.
quodsi in alienis scriptis sola pronuntiatio ita falsis accendit adfectibus, quid nos faciemus, qui ilia cogitare debemus ut moveri periclitantium vice possimus?
But if in the writings of others, delivery alone so inflames them with false emotions, what shall we do, who ought to conceive those things so that we can be moved in the place of those who are in danger?
§6.2.36sed in schola quoque rebus ipsis adfici convenit easque veras sibi fingere, hoc magis quod illic ut litigatores loquimur frequentius quam ut advocati.
But in school also it is fitting to be moved by the events themselves and to imagine them as true for ourselves, all the more because there we speak more frequently as litigants than as advocates.
orbum agimus et naufragum et periclitantem, quorum induere personas quid attinet, nisi adfectus adsumimus? haec dissimulanda mihi non fuerunt, quibus ipse, quantuscunque sum aut fui, pervenisse me ad aliquod nomen ingenii credo; frequenter motus sum, ut me non lacrimae solum deprehenderent, sed pallor et veri similis dolor.
We play the orphan, the shipwrecked person, and the one in danger; what is the point of putting on their masks unless we assume their emotions? These things were not to be concealed by me, by which I believe that I myself, whatever I am or have been, have arrived at some reputation for talent; I was frequently moved, so that not only tears seized me, but also paleness and grief resembling the truth.