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Horace (65 B.C. 8 B.C.) lived in the glorious Augustan age named after
Octavian Augustus. It was particularly glorious in literature, which the emperor
himself patronised. To this age belong the greatest of the Roman writers Virgil,
Horace, Ovid and Livy. Prose which was the medium of oratory suffered a downfall
whereas new conditions favoured the poet. The emperors interest in the art peeked
upon his discovery of poetry to be a powerful instrument to advertise his
achievements.
There were three different attitudes prevalent during the age, and they were
Atticists who favoured the Greek authors, Alexandrians who favoured the modern
forms prevalent during that period which preferred emotions and short terms and
lastly Romans who favoured earlier Roman writings. This, the eternal battle between
the Ancients and the Moderns, and other questions of a like nature that followed, set
off an unprecedented wave of critical inquiry that, beginning with poetry, embraced
other branches of literature too. To this enquiry Horace, of all the poets of this
period, made the largest contribution. His works include two books of Satires, four
books of Odes and three books of Epistles. The Epistle to the Pisos is generally called
the Ars Poetica (Art of Poetry). The title was given to it by Quintilian in his Institutio
Oratoria.
Poema
Following the Greek tradition, Horace believed that poetry has settled kinds
with a metre appropriate to each. For the epic, which celebrates the exploitsof
princesand leaders and the sad story war, he considers the rightful metre to be
dactylic hexameter. For the elegy and songs of thanksgiving, the elegiac measureand
for tragedy, comedy and satirical verse the iambic metre is more suitable. He
emphasises the right choice words and their effective arrangement in composition.
The poem should fulfil the two requirements of expression i.e., clearness and
effectiveness. If the poet has no familiar words to express what he has in his mind,
he could have the license to coin a new word. Regarding the dramatic form his
words follow like this: Excessively violent incidents ought not be presented on stage
and drama should have five acts. Chorus should be the spokesperson of what is
morally right and just.
Poeta
A poet should have inborn talent or nature and developed talents also to
express his mind and familiar experiences. All aspiring poets must practise imitation
by emulating and following great masters. The poets skill lies in making the familiar
words appear strange and the strange ones familiar.
Function of Poetry
Concept of Rhetoric
1. Exordium - The introduction of a speech, where one announces the subject and
purpose of the discourse, and where one usually employs the persuasive appeal of
ethos in order to establish credibility with the audience.
3. Partitio - Following the statement of facts, or narration (2), comes the partitio or
divisio. In this section of the oration, the speaker outlines what will follow, in
accordance with what's been stated as the status, or point at issue in the case.
4. Confirmatio - Following the division / outline or partition (3) comes the main
body of the speech where one offers logical arguments as proof. The appeal to logos
is emphasized here.
6. Peroratio Following the refutatio and concluding the classical oration, the
peroration conventionally employed appeals through pathos, and often included a
summing up
Horace divided style into high, middle and low. Rhetoric should be grounded
in moral principles as it is related to law, philosophy and ethics. He also asserts the
supremacy of Greek literature. His concept of mimesis meant a recreation and not
just copying.
Observations on Drama
Horace studied drama under three heads: plot, characterisation and style. Plot
should beborrowed from familiar material, preferably the known Greek legends in
which, the story being already known, the author could distinguish himself by
originality of treatment. If an untied theme wastobe chosen, it had to be consistent
from the beginning to the end. Only the relevant events of the story should be joined
into an unbreakable union. Events repugnant tosight , or difficult tobelieve should
be reported epic-wise rather than shown on the stage,for what is heard is less
shocking than what is heard. A character who is one at onetime and another at
another is not a consistent character unless he persists in his changefulness, in which
case he becomes consistent, being consistently inconsistent. A child in a play should
behave like a child and young man like a young man.
Longinus
Longinus is considered as the third member of the classical triumvirate of
criticism. The name Longinus is ascribed to two people a 3rd century A.D. author
whose name was Cassius Longinus and a 1st century author, A Greek rhetorician.
His On the Sublime is a treatise written in Greek and addressed to one Postumius
Terentianus, a Roman of whom nothing is known. While Longinus declared subject
is rhetoric, its central argument is: what constitutes sublimity in literature.
Function of Poetry
Both nature and art contribute to sublimity in literature. Longinus finds five
principal sources of the sublime, the first two of which are largely the gifts of nature
and the remaining three the gifts of art; 1) Grandeur of Thought, 2) Capacity for
Strong Emotion, 3) Appropriate use of figures, 4) Nobility of diction, and 5) Dignity
of composition or a happy synthesis of all the preceding gifts. But as a common
foundation an author is in great need of the preliminary gift i.e., the command of
language.
1) Grandeur of Thought
Eg: Now where is the revenue which is todo all these mighty things? Five-
sixths repealed- abandoned-sunk-gone-lost forever. (Here the rapid flow of the
unconnected verbs suggest the excited mood in which theyare uttered and
which is likely to induce the same mood in the hearer or the reader.
Tongue here is the subject of name and heart the subject of conceive but
not only tongue seems to go with conceive and heart with name but each
of these subjects seems to go with both the verbs.
Anaphora, polybaton, etc. give ballast to the lofty and natural expression of
the language. In short, the use of figures must be physical and intimately
connected with thoughts and emotions.
4) Nobility of Diction
The fourth source of sublime is diction that includes choice and arrangement
of words. Longinus says that the use of proper and striking words enthrall
(hold attention) the hearers. The words, to him, should be noble
corresponding to the subject matter and emotion. So as to impart grandeur
and beauty, giving breath in to dead things. He considers metaphor and
hyperbole the ornaments of speech. But both should be the natural outcome
of emotion and that, like allgreat art, it should appear in disguise.
5) Dignity of Composition
Defects of style: The false sublimity even arises out of the defeats of style,
especially when sincerity is sidelined in favor of the craze for fashionable
style. Here, he suggests that the same elements of true sublime may obstruct
and cause false sublime if they are not well handled by virtue of nature and
sincerity.
At last to Longinus, the form and content should bring about equilibrium. The
hierarchical composition can never be sublime as an art showing a beautiful cock in
the mid- ocean can never be natural and pleasing.