FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65  
66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   >>  
ilarly in many passages of Thucydides. XXVI Equally dramatic is the interchange of persons, often making a reader fancy himself to be moving in the midst of the perils described-- "Unwearied, thou wouldst deem, with toil unspent, They met in war; so furiously they fought."[1] and that line in Aratus-- "Beware that month to tempt the surging sea."[2] [Footnote 1: _Il._ xv. 697.] [Footnote 2: _Phaen._ 287.] 2 In the same way Herodotus: "Passing from the city of Elephantine you will sail upwards until you reach a level plain. You cross this region, and there entering another ship you will sail on for two days, and so reach a great city, whose name is Meroe."[3] Observe how he takes us, as it were, by the hand, and leads us in spirit through these places, making us no longer readers, but spectators. Such a direct personal address always has the effect of placing the reader in the midst of the scene of action. [Footnote 3: ii. 29.] 3 And by pointing your words to the individual reader, instead of to the readers generally, as in the line "Thou had'st not known for whom Tydides fought,"[4] and thus exciting him by an appeal to himself, you will rouse interest, and fix attention, and make him a partaker in the action of the book. [Footnote 4: _Il._ v. 85.] XXVII Sometimes, again, a writer in the midst of a narrative in the third person suddenly steps aside and makes a transition to the first. It is a kind of figure which strikes like a sudden outburst of passion. Thus Hector in the _Iliad_ "With mighty voice called to the men of Troy To storm the ships, and leave the bloody spoils: If any I behold with willing foot Shunning the ships, and lingering on the plain, That hour I will contrive his death."[1] The poet then takes upon himself the narrative part, as being his proper business; but this abrupt threat he attributes, without a word of warning, to the enraged Trojan chief. To have interposed any such words as "Hector said so and so" would have had a frigid effect. As the lines stand the writer is left behind by his own words, and the transition is effected while he is preparing for it. [Footnote 1: _Il._ xv. 346.] 2 Accordingly the proper use of this figure is in dealing with some urgent crisis which will not allow the writer to linger, but compels him to make a rapid change from one person to another. So in Hecataeus: "Now Ceyx took t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65  
66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   >>  



Top keywords:

Footnote

 

writer

 

reader

 

action

 

Hector

 

effect

 

readers

 

proper

 
making
 

narrative


fought

 

person

 

transition

 
figure
 

bloody

 
suddenly
 
spoils
 
lingering
 

Shunning

 
behold

passion

 

strikes

 

sudden

 

outburst

 

mighty

 

called

 

Accordingly

 

dealing

 

urgent

 
preparing

effected
 
crisis
 
Hecataeus
 

linger

 

compels

 

change

 
Sometimes
 
business
 
abrupt
 

threat


ilarly
 

attributes

 

frigid

 

interposed

 

warning

 

enraged

 

Trojan

 

contrive

 

passages

 

region