Zielinski's Clauselgesetz Das Clauselgesetz in Cicero's Reden
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The Classical Review http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR Additional services for The Classical Review: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here Zielinski's Clauselgesetz Das Clauselgesetz in Cicero's Reden. Von Th. Zielinski, Prof, an der Universität St. Petersburg. Leipzig: Th. Weicher, Dieterich'sche Verlags - Buchhandlung. 1904. Pp. 253. M. 8.40. Albert C. Clark The Classical Review / Volume 19 / Issue 03 / April 1905, pp 164 - 172 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00000214, Published online: 27 October 2009 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00000214 How to cite this article: Albert C. Clark (1905). The Classical Review, 19, pp 164-172 doi:10.1017/ S0009840X00000214 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 130.237.165.40 on 11 Nov 2015 164 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. ZIELINSKI'S CLAUSELGESETZ. Das Clauselgesetz in Cicero's Reden. Von the cretic (_ „ _), as Cicero points out when TH. ZIELINSKI, Prof, an der Universitat commenting upon the rule of Aristotle St. Petersburg. Leipzig: Th. Weicher, (Orator § 215). Demosthenes had certain Dieterich'eche Verlags - Buchhandlung. favourite rhythms. Thus Norden shews 1904. Pp. 253. M. 8.40. that in the First Philippic the predominant forms in the clausulae are the ditrochaeus PKOFESSOR TH. ZIELINSKI, of St. Peters- (or dichoreus), dispondeus, cretic + trochee, burg, who is well known to students of choriambic + trochee. His love of the cretic Cicero as the author of a charming work was noticed by Quintilian who quotes as Cicero im, Wandel der Jahrhunderte, Leipzig, examples of his severa compositio (ix. 4. 63) 1897, has made a very remarkable discovery rol<s Oeols ev^o/iai wao-i KO.1 ira<rais from de concerning the character of the Ciceronian Cor. 1, and youjSe To£evy from Phil. iii. 19. clausula. From statements which he makes The use of numeri was pushed to an extreme he appears to have been working upon the by Asiatic writers. Cicero says, that they subject since 1894. His conclusions have put in words merely to complete the been formed as the result of a truly gigantic rhythm: ' apud Asiaticos numeros ser- piece of work : viz. the examination of all vientes reperias quaedam verba quasi com- the clausulae in all the speeches of Cicero, plementa numerorum' (Orat. 231). Their 17,902 in number. These he has analysed, writings were marked by excessive partiality classified, and reduced to forms, and has for certain rhythms, by carefully balanced finally discovered that they are based upon clauses (laoKtaka) and ofioioreXevra, the de- a principle which can be readily compre- livery being as Cicero says a chant, or sing- hended. The clausula follows a law, and if song (ululanti voce more Asiatico canere this is broken, then the clausula is faulty. Orat. 27). It may at first be thought that the writer The Asiatic school became popular at is suffering from an idee fixe, caused by pro- Rome. Cicero in a famous passage (Orator longed poring over statistics. I have, how- 214) after saying (modum) unum est secuta ever, studied his system with care, tested Asia maxime, qui dichoreus vocatur, quotes his examples, and examined in the light of from a speech of Car bo his rules several speeches upon which I am myself working, and have come to the ' quicumque earn violassent, ab omnibus conclusion that, whatever the ultimate ex- esse ei poenas persolutas,' dichoreus . planation of his law may be, it is a very deinde, 'patris dictum sapiens temeritas valuable instrument which cannot be ne- filii comprobavit.' Hoc dichoreo tantus glected by any critic, while it enables every clamor contionis excitatus est ut admirabile reader to discover fresh charms in Ciceronian esset. Quaero, nonne id numerus effecerit 1 prose. verborum ordinem immuta : fac sic, ' com- probavit filii temeritas,' iam nihil erit. Since the subject is. very technical and has vnot received much attention in this The use of rhythm was avoided by the country, it may be well to state briefly some Atticists, such as Caesar and Brutus : by theories of ancient writers concerning the archaic writers such as Sallust and appa- rhythm of prose, and the results arrived at rently by Tacitus. The favourite rhythms recently by other inquirers. of Livy differ, as will shortly be shewn, in Metrical prose was, of course, not an in- an interesting particular from those of vention of the Romans, but came to them Cicero. The composition of Seneca and from Greece. Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, Pliny and that of the various imitators of well-known to us from the Republic of Plato, Cicero is rhythmical and follows more or less is said to have been the first person to aim the Ciceronian rules. at metrical effect by the use of favourite Cicero on various occasions and especially rhythms. Quintilian (ix. 4. 87) speaks of in de Or. iii. 173 sqq, and Orat. 204 sqq. him as the ' discoverer' of the paean. The discusses the nature of numerosa oratio. same foot was preferred by Aristotle, who The gist of his remarks is that, while the thought that the 1st paean (_ „ „ J) was orator should not fall into poetry, or numeri most suitable at the beginning of a sentence, pure and simple, his discourse should be and the 4th paean ( ) at the end. similis numerorum. Thus -(Orat. 222) refer- Both of these are metrical equivalents of ring to the sentence of Crassus THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. 165 missos faciant patronos, ipsi prodeant, The first writer upon the subject was G. Wiist (1881), who in his work ' de clausula he says that but for the stop after patronos, rhetorica' etc. tabulated the results arrived it would form a senarius. He would prefer at by an examination of 18 speeches, leav- prodeant ipsi. ing the others to those blessed by leisure Besides numeri, he says, concinnitas is or to whom ' natura ferream quandam con- • necessary : i.e. the various commata and cola stantiam dedit.' He shewed clearly that must be carefully balanced. The most im- while some clausulae were extremely portant part of the sentence is the end or common, others were very exceptional, e.g. clausula : cf. de Or. iii. 192 'clausulas the clausula heroica, condemned by Quin- diligentius etiam servandas esse arbitror tilian. Thus he only found two cases of quam superiora, quod in eis maxime per- fhis in the speeches used by him viz. fectio atque absolutio indicatur.' In a verse Cat. 1. 14. cumulasti, Mil. 91 volitarunt, the beginning, the middle, and the end are where the unsyncopated forms remove the equally important, and a blemish anywhere faulty rhythm. So in 1895 I read volita- is promptly detected: ' in oratione autem verunt in Mil. I.e., which Zielinski refers pauci prima cernunt, postrema plerique.' to as being the only occasion upon which He elsewhere (Orat. 216) defines what he any editor has made an alteration on means by clausula. He says ' hos cum in metrical grounds. The results of Wiist's clausulis pedes nomino, non loquor de uno discussion were somewhat desultory, and pede extremo : adiungo quod minimum sit, his chief claim to praise lies in the fact proximum, superiorem, saepe etiam tertium.' that he was the pioneer. He was followed He recommends for use in the clausula in by several investigators who proceeded by the first place the cretic, and secondly the one of two methods. One school, the most paean (^ „ ^ _), which is its metrical equiva- eminent member of which is M. Borneque lent. Of the spondee he says that it is not (1898), took as its watchword the theory that ' funditus repudiandus,' aud that it has the metrical form of the last word in the ' stabilem quendam et non expertem digni- clausula determines the metrical form of tatis gradum.' I pass by the remarks which that before it, e.g. he took an iambic dis- he makes about the use of other feet. syllable, and tabulated all possible feet I also omit the rules laid down by Quin- found before it, e.g. tilian, since they appear to be based upon those of Cicero, while his examples, many oras . of which are highly interesting and shew fingere | keen insight, are chiefly taken from Cicero's amoveant Vferant. writings. I also pass over various remarks ore j made by grammarians and rhetorical writers, scripserint with a single exception: which, in view He took his illustrations from the letters of Zielinski's canon, possesses peculiar ad Fam. some of which are wholly rhyth- interest. mical, such as those to Lentulus, while Terentianus Maurus (290 A.D. circ.) says others are only partially so. Those to of the cretic Atticus are, of course, not rhythmical. His optimus pes et melodis et pedestri gloriae: conclusions were not satisfying. Fre- plurimum orantes decebit, quando paene in quently he says that no conclusion is ultimo possible, or that all the forms seem possible. obtinet sedem beatam, terminet si clausulam His tables, however, are exceedingly dactylus, spondeus imam nee trochaeum interesting when compared with Zielinski's respuo: forms, the results being the same though bacchicos utrosque fugito, nee repellas tri- the terminology is different. The other school represented by E. Miiller, de numero brachyn. Ciceroniano, 1886, Norden in his important plenius tractatur istud arte prosa rhetorum. work, die klassische Kunstprosa, 1898, and It will be noticed that he speaks of a Ju. Wolff, de clausulis Giceronianis, 1901, sedes beata for the cretic in the clausula, insisted upon the connexion of Latin rhyth- viz. paene in ultimo before _ „ w, > _ «. mical prose with Greek, and endeavoured to This statement is practically identical with collect types or forms of clausulae.