§9.2.60Hinc est quasi paenitentia dicti, ut pro Caelio sed quid ego ita gravem personam introduxi? et quibus utimur vulgo: imprudens incidi. vel cui quaerere nos, quid dicamus, fingimus: Quid reliquum est? et Num quid omisi et cum ibidem invenire, ut ait Cicero: unum etiam mihi relicum huiusmodi modi est; et aliud ex alio succurrit mihi. §9.2.61unde etiam venusti transitus fiunt; non quia transitus ipse sit schema, ut Cicero, narrato Pisonis exemplo, qui anulum sibi cudi ab aurifice in tribunali suo iusserat, velut hoc in memoriam inductus adiecit: hic modo me commonuit Pisonis anulus, quod totum effluxerat.
From this comes a kind of repentance of what has been said, as in Pro Caelio: "But why did I introduce so grave a character?" and those expressions we use commonly: "I slipped into this unintentionally." Or when we pretend to ask ourselves what we should say: "What is left?" and "Have I omitted anything?" And when we find it on the very spot, as Cicero says: "One more thing of this kind remains to me"; and "One thing after another occurs to me." From this also come elegant transitions; not because transition itself is a figure, as when Cicero, having narrated the example of Piso, who had ordered a ring to be made for himself by a goldsmith in his tribunal, added, as if brought by this into memory: "Just now this ring of Piso reminded me of what had entirely slipped my mind.
quam mullis istum putatis hominibus honestis de digitis anulos aureos abstulisse? et cum aliqua velut ignoramus: sed earum rerum artifice, quem? quemnam? recte admones, Polyclitum esse dicebant. §9.2.62quod quidem non in hoc tantum valet.
How many honest men do you think he stripped of gold rings from their fingers?" And when we pretend to be ignorant of something: "But who was the artist of those things? Who indeed? You prompt me rightly, they used to say it was Polyclitus." This indeed is of value not only for this purpose.
quibusdam enim, dum aliud agere videmur, aliud efficimus, sicut hic Cicero consequitur, ne, cum morbum in signis atque tabulis obiiciat Verri, ipse quoque earum rerum studiosus esse credatur.
For in some cases, while we seem to be doing one thing, we achieve another, as Cicero accomplishes here, lest, while he charges Verres with a disease for statues and paintings, he himself also should be believed to be a connoisseur of those things.
et Demosthenes iurando per interfectos in Marathone et Salamine id agit, ut minore invidia cladis apud Chaeroneam acceptae laboret.
And Demosthenes, by swearing by those killed at Marathon and Salamis, acts so that he may labor under less ill-will for the defeat received at Chaeronea.
§9.2.63faciunt illa quoque iucundam orationem, aliqua mentione habita differre et deponere apud memoriam iudicis et reposcere quae deposueris, et iterare quaedam schemate aliquo, (non enim est ipsa per se iteratio schema) et excipere aliqua et dare actioni varios velut vultus.
Those things also make a speech pleasant: to defer something after mentioning it and deposit it in the memory of the judge, and to reclaim what you deposited, and to repeat certain things by some figure (for repetition itself is not a figure by itself), and to make exceptions of some things, and to give various countenances, as it were, to the pleading.
gaudet enim res varietate, et sicut oculi diversarum aspectu rerum magis detinentur, ita semper animis praestat, in quod se velut novum intendant.
For the matter rejoices in variety, and just as the eyes are more detained by the sight of different things, so it is always better for minds to have something new upon which to intent themselves.
§9.2.64est emphasis etiam inter figuras, cum ex aliquo dicto latens aliquid eruitur, ut apud Vergilium non licuit thalami expertem sine crimine vitam Degere more ferae? quamquam enim de matrimonio queritur Dido, tamen huc erumpit eius adfectus, ut sine thalamis vitam non hominum putet, sed ferarum.
Emphasis is also among the figures, when something latent is extracted from some saying, as in Vergil: "Was it not allowed to lead a life free from marriage, without crime, in the manner of a wild beast?" For although Dido complains about marriage, yet her passion breaks out to this point, that she thinks a life without marriage is not of humans, but of wild beasts.
aliud apud Ovidium genus, apud quem Zmyrna nutrici amorem patris sic confitetur; "
O, dixit, felicem coniuge matrem
"
Huic vel confinis vel eadem est, §9.2.65qua nunc utimur plurimum.
Another kind is in Ovid, in whom Smyrna confesses her love for her father to her nurse in this way: "O," she said, "happy is my mother in her husband!" To this is either close or the same, which we use most now.
iam enim ad id genus, quod et frequentissimum est et exspectari maxime credo, veniendum est, in quo per quandam suspicionem quod non dicimus accipi volumus, non utique contrarium, ut in Εἰρωνείᾳ, sed aliud latens et auditori quasi inveniendum.
For now we must come to that kind which is both most frequent and, I believe, most expected, in which through a certain suspicion we wish what we do not say to be understood, not indeed the contrary, as in Irony, but something else latent and to be found, as it were, by the hearer.
quod, ut supra ostendi, iam fere solum schema a nostris vocatur, et unde controversiae figuratae dicuntur.
This, as I showed above, is now almost the only thing called a figure by our people, and from which figured controversies are named.
§9.2.66eius triplex usus est: unus si dicere palam parum tutum est, alter si non decet, tertius qui venustatis modo gratia adhibetur et ipsa novitate ac varietate magis, quam si relatio sit recta, delectat.
Its use is threefold: first, if to speak openly is not safe enough; second, if it is not becoming; third, which is employed only for the sake of elegance, and delights more by its very novelty and variety than if the statement were direct.
§9.2.67ex his, quod est primum, frequens in scholis est.
Of these, the first is frequent in the schools.
nam et pactiones deponentium imperium tyrannorum et post bellum civile senatus consulta finguntur et capitale est obiicere anteacta, ut, quod in foro non expedit, illic nec liceat.
For both pacts of tyrants laying down their power and decrees of the senate after a civil war are devised, and it is a capital offense to charge past deeds, so that what is not expedient in the forum may not be allowed there either.
sed schematum condicio non eadem est.
But the condition of figures is not the same.
quamlibet enim apertum, quod modo et aliter intelligi possit, in illos tyrannos bene dixeris, quia periculum tantum, non etiam offensa vitatur.
For however open, provided it can also be understood otherwise, you may well say it against those tyrants, because only danger, not also offense, is avoided.
quod si ambiguitate sententiae possit eludi, nemo non illi furto favet.
But if it can be eluded by the ambiguity of the expression, everyone favors that artifice.