Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric. Ward Farnsworth
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Trollope, The Prime Minister (1876)
The public interests, because about them they have no real solicitude, they abandon wholly to chance; I say to chance, because their schemes have nothing in experience to prove their tendency beneficial.
Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1791)
d. The double use of conduplicatio. A classic pattern in the use of this scheme involves two initial claims, each of which is then repeated with elaboration or reasons for it.
Sir, he was a scoundrel, and a coward: a scoundrel, for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had not resolution to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman, to draw the trigger after his death!
Johnson, in Boswell’s Life (1791)
We are dregs and scum, sir: the dregs very filthy, the scum very superior.
Shaw, Man and Superman (1903)
I need not excuse myself to your lordship, nor, I think, to any honest man, for the zeal I have shown in this cause; for it is an honest zeal, and in a good cause.
Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)
e. Churchillian uses of conduplicatio. Churchill made frequent and good use of conduplicatio.
If the Government and people of the USA have a word to speak for the salvation of the world, now is the time and now is the last time when words will be of any use.
Churchill, speech at London (1938)
The repetition of time emphasizes it, and the fresh language afterwards is emphasized as well because it is the excuse for saying the word a second time.
Now all the difficulty about the tribunal has been removed, and removed by the simple process of complete surrender on our part of the whole case.
Churchill, speech in the House of Commons (1938)
The device adds rhetorical power because each initial clause sounds complete in itself; then comes a bit of repetition and elaboration, slightly against expectations – and then perhaps still another round of the same, as here:
[I]n the east, take Constantinople; take it by ships if you can; take it by soldiers if you must; take it by whichever plan, military or naval, commends itself to your military experts, but take it, and take it soon, and take it while time remains.
Churchill, speech in the House of Commons (1915)
Since take it is a phrase rather than a single word, this also can be considered a case of epimone – to which we now turn.
4. Epimone. We now examine the repetition of entire phrases.
a. Doublets.
I tell you, sir, I’m serious! and now that my passions are roused, I say this house is mine, sir; this house is mine, and I command you to leave it directly.
Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer (1773)
[T]o send forth the infidel savage – against whom? against your Protestant brethren; to lay waste their country, to desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name with these horrible hell-hounds of savage war – hell-hounds, I say, of savage war!
Pitt, speech in the House of Lords (1777)
The cause, then, Sir, the cause! Let the world know the cause which has thus induced one State of the Union to bid defiance to the power of the whole, and openly to talk of secession.
Webster, speech in the Senate (1833)
b. Triplets. The longer the phrase, the less consecutive repetition it will stand; so the triplets in a case of epimone tend to be shorter.
Most lamentable day, most woful day,
That ever, ever, I did yet behold!
O day! O day! O day! O hateful day!
Romeo and Juliet, 4, 5
“He was a beggar, perhaps.” Mr. Dick shook his head, as utterly renouncing the suggestion; and having replied a great many times, and with great confidence, “No beggar, no beggar, no beggar, sir!’”
Dickens, David Copperfield (1850)
You seem to come like my own anger, my own malice, my own – whatever it is – I don’t know what it is. But I am ill-used, I am ill-used, I am ill-used!
Dickens, Little Dorrit (1857)
c. The refrain. Repetition of longer phrases is gentler on the ear when the phrases are spread apart, which also can enable them to serve as a kind of chorus, or burden, as when showing how different possibilities provoke the same reply.
Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.
Julius Caesar, 3, 2
There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto; a beggar, that was us’d to come so smug upon the mart. Let him look to his bond. He was wont to call me usurer; let him look to his bond. He was wont to lend money for a Christian courtesy; let him look to his bond.
The Merchant of Venice, 3, 1
Methinks now this coined sun wears a ruddy face; but see! aye, he enters the sign of storms, the equinox! and but six months before he wheeled out of a former equinox at Aries! From storm to storm! So be it, then. Born in throes, ’t is fit that man should live in pains and die in pangs! So be it, then! Here’s stout stuff for woe to work on. So be it, then.
Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)
d. Intermittent repetition of phrases. A less rhythmic and more spontaneous effect can be had by circling back to the same or a nearly identical phrase less systematically. The speaker doesn’t mean to offer a refrain; he just can’t help saying the thing again and again.
Say not to me that it is not the lamp of lamps. I say to you it is. I say to you, a million of times over, it is. It is! I say to you that I will proclaim it to you, whether you like it or not; nay, that the less you like it, the more I will proclaim it to you.
Dickens, Bleak House (1853)
I say we must necessarily undo these violent oppressive acts; they must be repealed – you will repeal them; I pledge myself for it, that you will in the end repeal them; I stake my reputation on it – I will consent to be taken for an idiot, if they are not finally repealed.
Pitt, speech in the House of Lords (1770)
What could follow but one vast spoliation? One vast spoliation! That would be bad enough. That would be the greatest calamity that ever fell on our country. Yet would that a single vast spoliation were the worst!
Macaulay, speech in the House of Commons (1842)
e. Emphasized repetition, in which the speaker alerts the listener to it.
There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable – and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!
Henry, speech at the Second Revolutionary Congress of Virginia (1775)
When you have to attend to things of that sort, to the mere incidents of the surface, the reality – the reality, I tell you – fades.
Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899)
False, I repeat it, with all the vehemence of indignant asservation, utterly false is the charge habitually preferred against the religion which Englishmen have laden with penalties, and have marked with degradation.
Sheil, speech at Penenden Heath (1828)
5.