Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator), 8.3.54

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[54] Cicero passed a witty comment on a fault of this kind in a declamation of Hirtius when he said that a child had been carried for ten months in his mother's womb.

Oh,

he said,

I suppose other women carry them in their bags.

¹ Sometimes, however, the form of pleonasm, of which I have just given an example, may have a pleasing effect when employed for the sake of emphasis, as in the Virgilian phrase ² :

With mine own ears his voice I heard.

But whenever the addition is not deliberate,

Institutio Oratoria. Quintilian. Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator). Cambridge, Mass.. 1920-1922.

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Funding provided by Tufts University.

Current edition Perseus

Institutio Oratoria (English) (Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.)

Editions (1)

Institutio Oratoria Perseus (Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, editor. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.) — 8.3.54 focus

[54] emendavit hoc etiam urbane in Hirtio Cicero, cui sapasim ¹ cum declamans filium a matre decem mensibus in utero latum esse dixisset, quid ? aliae, inquit, in perula² solent ferre? nonnunquam tamen illud genus, cuius exemplum priore loco posui, adfirmationis gratia adhibetur:

vocemque his auribus hausi.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. perulra means

a small wallet.

But it is noteworthy that in Apul. Met. V. xiv. it is used = uterus, and the doubleentendre was probably current in Cicero's time.

2. Aen. iv- 359.

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 8.3.54

Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator)

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