§9.1.1cum sit proximo libro de tropis dictum, sequitur pertinens ad figuras, quae σχήματα Graece vocantur, locus ipsa rei natura coniunctus superiori.
Since the previous book has treated tropes, there follows the topic pertaining to figures, which are called schemata in Greek, a topic connected with the preceding by the very nature of the subject.
§9.1.2nam plerique has tropos esse existimauerunt, quia, sive ex hoc duxerint nomen, quod sint formati quodam modo, sive ex eo, quod vertant orationem, unde et motus dicuntur, fatendum erit esse utrumque eorum etiam in figuris, usus quoque est idem: nam et vim rebus adiiciunt et gratiam praestant.
For many have thought that these are tropes, because, whether they derive the name from this, that they are formed in a certain way, or from this, that they turn speech, whence they are also called movements, it must be admitted that both of these are also in figures, and their use is also the same: for they both add force to things and provide grace.
nec desunt qui tropis figurarum nomen imponant, quorum est C. Artorius Proculus.
Nor are there wanting those who impose the name of figures on tropes, among whom is C. Artorius Proculus.
§9.1.3quin adeo similitudo manifesta est, ut ea discernere non sit in promptu.
Indeed, the similarity is so manifest that to discern them is not easy.
nam quo modo quaedam in his species plane distant, manente tamen generaliter illa societate, quod utraque res de recta et simplici ratione cum aliqua dicendi virtute deflectitur, ita quaedam perquam tenui limite dividuntur, ut cum ironia tam inter figuras sententiae quam inter tropos reperiatur, περίφρασιν autem et ὑπέρβατον et ὀνοματοποιίαν clari quoque auctores figuras verborum potius quam tropos dixerint.
For just as certain species in these clearly differ, while that general association nevertheless remains, namely that both deviate from the straight and simple method with some virtue of speech, so some are divided by an extremely thin boundary, so that while irony is found both among figures of thought and among tropes, famous authors also have called periphrasis, hyperbaton, and onomatopoeia figures of words rather than tropes.
quo magis signanda est utriusque rei differentia.
Wherefore the difference between the two things must be marked the more.
§9.1.4est igitur tropos sermo a naturali et principali significatione translatus ad aliam ornandae orationis gratia, vel, ut plerique grammatici finiunt, dictio ab eo loco, in quo propria est, translata in eum, in quo propria non est; figura, sicut nomine ipso patet,conformatio quaedam orationis remota a communi et primum se offerente ratione.
A trope, therefore, is language transferred from its natural and principal meaning to another for the sake of adorning speech, or, as most grammarians define it, an expression transferred from that place in which it is proper to that in which it is not proper; a figure, as is clear from the name itself, is a certain shaping of speech removed from the common and first-presenting method.
§9.1.5quare in tropis ponuntur verba alia pro aliis, ut in μεταφορᾷ, μετωνυμίᾳ, ἀντονομασίᾳ, μεταλήμψει, συνεκδοχῇ, καταχρήσει, ἀλληγορίᾳ, plerumque ὑπερβολῇ; namque et rebus fit et verbis.
Wherefore in tropes words are put some for others, as in metaphor, metonymy, antonomasia, metalepsis, synecdoche, catachresis, allegory, and for the most part hyperbole; for this is done both in things and in words.
Ὀνοματοποιία fictio est nominis; ergo hoc quoque pro aliis ponitur, quibus usuri fuimus, si illud non fingeremus.
Onomatopoeia is the coining of a word; therefore this also is put for other words which we would have used if we had not coined that one.
Περίφρασις etiamsi frequenter et id ipsum, §9.1.6in cuius locum adsumitur, nomen complecti solet, utitur tamen pluribus pro uno.
Periphrasis, even if it frequently also encompasses that very thing in whose place it is assumed, is wont to embrace the name, yet uses many words for one.
Ἐπίθετον quoniam plerumque habet antonomasiae partem, coniunctione eius fit tropus.
Epithet, since it for the most part has a part of antonomasia, becomes a trope by its joining.
in hyperbato commutatio est ordinis, ideoque multi tropis hoc genus eximunt.
In hyperbaton there is a change of order, and therefore many exclude this class from tropes.
transfert tamen verbum aut partem eius a suo loco in alienum.
Yet it transfers a word or a part of it from its own place to another.
horum nihil in figuras cadit.
None of these things falls under figures.
§9.1.7nam et propriis verbis et ordine collocatis figura fieri potest.
For a figure can be made both with proper words and with them arranged in order.
quomodo autem ironia alia sit tropi, alia schematos, suo loco reddam.
But how one irony belongs to trope, and another to schema, I shall render in its proper place.
nomen enim fateor esse commune et scio quam multiplicem habeant quamque scrupulosam disputationem; sed ea non pertinet ad praesens meum propositum.
For I admit that the name is common, and I know how manifold and how scrupulous a dispute they have; but those things do not pertain to my present purpose.
nihil enim refert, quomodo appelletur utrumlibet eorum, si quid orationi prosit apparet, nec mutatur vocabulis vis rerum.
For it makes no difference how either of them is called, if it is apparent what benefit it brings to speech, nor is the force of things changed by words.
§9.1.8et sicut homines, si aliud acceperunt quam quod habuerant nomen, iidem sunt tamen, ita haec, de quibus loquimur, sive tropi sive figurae dicuntur, idem efficient; non enim nominibus prosunt, sed effectibus; ut statum coniecturalem an infitialem an facti an de substantia nominemus, nihil interest, dum idem quaeri sciamus.
And just as men, if they have received another name than what they had held, are nevertheless the same, so these things of which we speak, whether they are called tropes or figures, will produce the same; for they do not benefit by names, but by effects; just as whether we name the issue conjectural, or negative, or of fact, or concerning substance, it makes no difference, as long as we know that the same thing is being inquired into.
§9.1.9optimum ergo in his sequi maxime recepta et rem ipsam, quocunque appellabitur modo, intelligere.
Therefore, it is best in these matters to follow what is most widely accepted, and to understand the thing itself, in whatever way it shall be called.
illud tamen notandum, coire frequenter in eadem sententia et tropon et figuram.
This, however, must be noted, that both trope and figure frequently combine in the same sentence.
tam enim translatis verbis quam propriis figuratur oratio.
For speech is figured by transferred words just as much as by proper ones.