54
LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME
XXVIII
"Why com'st thou, Medon, from the wooers proud?
Com'st thou to bid the handmaids of my lord
To cease their tasks, and make for them good cheer?
Ill fare their wooing, and their gathering here!
Would God that here this hour they all might take
Their last, their latest meal! Who day by day
Make here your muster, to devour and waste
The substance of my son: have ye not heard
When children at your fathers' knee the deeds
And prowess of your king?"[1]
None, I suppose, would dispute the fact that periphrasis tends much to sublimity. For, as in music the simple air is rendered more pleasing by the addition of harmony, so in language periphrasis often sounds in concord with a literal expression, adding much to the beauty of its tone,–provided always that it is not inflated and harsh, but agreeably blended.
2 To confirm this one passage from Plato will suffice–the opening words of his Funeral Oration: "In deed these men have now received from us their due, and that tribute paid they are now passing on their destined journey, with the State speeding them all and his own friends speeding each one of them on his way."
[2] Death, you see, he calls the "destined journey"; to receive the
- ↑ Od. iv. 681.
- ↑ Menex. 236, D.
