Page:Arte or Crafte of Rhethoryke - 1899.djvu/65

 ////. ./A'// uA' CKAFTE OS AV// ////.) AY. 63

the Nurra-.on.

I ii tins kynde we vfc but felden hole narracioni / ooeles we make our oracion afore them that knowe nat the hiftory of the actc or dede whiche we be aboute to praife. Hut in ftcdc of a narracio* we vie a propofycion / on this maner.

Amonge all the noble dedes Cefar 1 that you haue done there is non that is more worthy to be pray led then this rcftiiufion of Marke Marcell.

< >i ( 'on fyrinacion/ which is the fyrftc parte of Contcncion.

The places of confyrinacyon are honclty / jxrrfitc ' lyghtnes or hard i IK * of the 1 dede. 1 or after the prohenie of the oracion and tlit n mat von / then go we to the prouynge of our mater. fhewing that i: cry honefte dede. And next / that it was oat

all onely honefty : but alfo profitable. Thyrdely asconcernynge the easines or difficult! / the praife then if mufte be confydered / part in the doer / part in the dede. An eafy dede deferueth no great pravfe / but an harde & a ieoperdoufe thyng / the loner and the lyghtlyter it is acheued / the [C vi a] more it is to be lauded. The honefty of the caufe is fet from the nature of the thynge that is fpoken of / whiche place lieth in the wytte of the oratour / and inaye allb be fet out of the phylofophers bokes. It is alfo copiofely declared of Rhetorycyens / and very compendioufly handled of Erafmus in his boke / entituled of the maner & crafte to make epiftles / in the chapitre of a perfuadynge epiftle. The profyte of the dede / or the commoditie may be fet at the circuwrftaunce of it. Circuwftauwces are thefe / what was done / who dyd it / whan / where it was done / amonge whom / by whole helpe.

As if one wolde praife Sceuolaes acte / of Me which mencio* was made afore, he may whan he cometh to the places of contencion / fhew fyrfte howe honett a dede it is for any man to put his lyfe in ieoperdy for the defence of his contrey / whiche is fo much the more to be commended that it came of his owne mynde / and nat by the initigacion of any other / and howe profitable it was to the citic to remoue fo ftronge and puy flaunt an enemy by fo good and crafty policy / what tyme the citie was nat wel allured of all me*nes myndes that were within the walles / co//fidcryng that but a lytle

1 H. Cezare. B. pn>t 5 B. aJJs the.

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