Thomas Babington Macaulay: the rhetorician. An examination of his structural devices in the history of England

Front matter

"Pl\

Hff jTff

Cornell University Library PR 4963.H89 1898

Introduction

1. General statement of the Plan of this Thesis.. 1

2. Macaulay's theory of historical writing 2

3. Macaulay's Introduction to his History 3

(a). The plan marked out in his Introduction.. 3 (b). The extent to which the plan set forth in

the Introduction is carried out 4

Chapter 1. — Paragraph Grouping

1. Wave movement of paragraphs 9

2. The shortening and lengthening of paragraphs 17

3. Reasons for Macaulay's variations from his usual manner of grouping. Detailed explanations for groups of short, medium and long paragraphs, with numerous references to the History 19

Chapter 2. — The Individual Paragraph

1. Kinds of paragraphs used by Macaulay 24

2. Unity 25

3. Sequence 26

4. Connectives 28

5. Variations of unity 33

6. The link paragraph 34

7. Paragraph echo 37

8. Beginnings and endings of paragraphs 41

9. The subject sentence 45

10. Repeated structure 48

11. Selection, Proportion, Variety SO

Chapter 3. — Narration

1. Macaulay's manner in general 57

2. Condensed Narrative and amplified narrative 60

3. Movement of paragraphs in narration 64

4. Reverting narrative 65

5. Overlapping narration 66

6. Digression 67

7. Episode 68

8. Intercalated narration 69

9. Mixed narration and description 70

10. Mixed exposit on and narration 71

Chapter 4. — Description

1. Macaulay's manner 73

2. Macaulay's fondness for description 76

3. Observations on the character of Macaulay's description 77

4. Character-description, frequency, where it occurs, and why 80

5. Place and scene description; noticeable features 84

6. Length of description. Macaulay's ability to adapt himself to description of any length, from a few sentences (vignettes.), to long, elaborate description 90

7. Use made by Macaulay of description supported by narration. Analysis of examples 98

8. Diagram. Point of reference 100

9. Shifting the point of view. Use of narration for suspense 102

10. Introducing the personal element. This is a common device of Macaulay's 104

11. Sketch. Suggestion 106

12. Generalized description 108

Chapter 5 . — Exposition

1. General remarks on Macaulay as an expositor Ill

2. Macaulay's manner 114

3. The places where Macaulay is apt to introduce his exposition 120

4. His ability to formulate the opinions of factions, or to summarize documents, in brilliant general statement 123

5. Exposition leading to argument 129

6. Expository description ... 131

7. Macaulay's manner of formulating general law, idea and relation 135

8. Macaulay's faults as an expositor. His overstatement and understatement 140

Section B. — Expression.

Chapter 6. — General Qualities of Expression. (a) Clearness

1. Macaulay's choice of language 141

2. Macaulay's painstaking 144

3. His directness. The simplicity and shortness of his sentences, hence his perspicuity.. ..146

(b) Force.

1. Device for carrying the reader on, and raising him to a high pitch of excitement 148

A. The various forms of climax and anticlimax 148

B. Oratorical eulogy 151

2. Device for holding the reader's interest by means of variety 156

A. Balance in sentence 157

B. Balance of parts of paragraphs 162

C. Balance in successive paragraphs 163

D. Counterbalance and contrast 163

3. Device for quickening the mind of the reader to astonishment 164

A. Plausible statement of assured results or conclusions, ending in statement of real result 164

B. By timely statement of picturesque incident, story or quotation 166

C. Allusion and suspense 167

D. Suspension of the leading thought of

a paragraph until the end 170

E. By brilliant antithesis 171

(c) Both clearness and force by means of repetition.

1. Repetition of some word 175

2 Repetition of favorite phrases „ 175

3. Repetition of noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, conjunction, preposition 176

Chapter 7. — Figurative Expression

1. General remarks on Macaulay's use of figures.. 180

2. Hyperbole and exaggeration 182

3. Comparison and contrast 185

4. Antithesis 190

5. Epigram 191

6. Analogy 193

7. Other figures 196

Part Ii.— Sentence Structure

Chapter S. — Classes and Form of Macaulay's Sentences. (a) Preliminary discussion of certain modern theories of the sentence

1. L. A. Sherman's Theory 203

2. A. S. Hill's View 206

3. The present writer's view. Sentence structure due : first to the character of the thought ; second to habit. Query : First, What are the surroundings of a sentence ? second, Is the style formal or informal, conversational and familiar ? 207

(tO The classe- of sentence found in the History.

1. Sentences embodying either a condition, restriction, or thought parallel with the main thought .....209

A. Places where such sentences are to be found. Explanation 209

B. A study of this class of sentences in Macaulay's exposition. Examination of

a representative group 210

C. The two forms of description in which this kind of sentence occurs. Explanation 212

D. The particular narrative form in which it is found, and why. One representative passage studied 213

2. Sentences without condit ; on or restriction.. 213

A. Macaulay's fondness for this clasd of sentences 213

B. His use of such sentences singly or in small groups. The reason for this 214

C. His use of them in rapid succession or in large groups 215

1. In the description of extensive operations and of attendant circumstances. Study of representative passages ....215

2. In narration following the order of time. Study of one representative passage 217

(c) The forms of sentences in Macaulay.

1. Prelimintary remarks. Macaulay 's style dignified and studied. Hence his choice of sentences to that end - 219

2. The forms of sentences used by Macaulay : the short sentence ; the balanced sentence ; the periodic 219

3. The differences in his use of these sentences in narrative, description and expository writing 219

4. The use of short, periodic and balanced sentences in narration 220

(a) In narration where the order is that of cause and effect 220

( b ) In narration where the order is that of time 221

5. The use of short, periodic and balanced sentences in descripiion 221

(a) In place-description 221

(b) In general character description 221

(c) In description of operations '. 222

(dj In description of circumstances 222

6. The use of periodic and balanced sentences

in exposition 222

A. In a single paragraph 222

B. In groups of two paragraphs 223

C. In groups of three paragraphs 224

D. In large groups. Reason for the absence of short sentences in exposition 224

7. Variety in the use of these forms of sentences 225

A. Why balanced sentences are used 22S

(a) Halves or parts of sentences in balance 225

(b) Successive sentences in balance.. ..226

(c) The sentence containing a balance and a periodic ending 227

B. Use of periodic sentences toward the paragraph's end 228

C. The use of short sentences 230

(a) Oracularly, i. e., for point 230

(b) For movement 231

8. Concluding observations 231

A. The sentence forms favored by Macaulay demand, from their very nature, special care in order to insure correctness and neatness 231

B. Macaulay's carefulness proven 231

(a) Objectively, from the testimony of Trevelyan 231

(b) From the internal evidence of th,e sentences themselves 233

C. Macaulay's cerrectness 233

(a) In the syntax itself 233

(b) In the relative places assigned to the clauses and phrases embodying the leading thought and the subordinate thoughts 234

Chapter 9. — Properties of the Sentence in 'Macaulav. (a) Unity

1. Macaulay's painstaking 235

XI

2. Occasional lack of strict unity in punctuation 235

3. Lack of unity in adjusting sentences to the paragraph, — stringing together sentences without connection 237

(b) Clearness.

1. Care in the use of modifiers 237

2. Care in the use of personal pronouns 238

3. Care in the use of the neuter (it) and relative pronouns - - .. 238

4. Care in the use of demonstrative pronouns. .239

5. Repetition of personal pronouns, adjectives, verbs and nouns 239

7. Nice use of adverbs - 240

8. Avoidance of very long sentences 240

9. Use of for at the beginning, — explanation .. 241

10. The leading thought of paragraph stated in

a simple sentence 242

11. Luminousness and clearness due to avoidance of loose sentences and preference for formal sentences 242

(c) Force.

1. In the sentence 243

A. Aviodance of loose sentences 243

B. Apt use of interrogative sentences 243

C. Use of short sentences ..... 244

1. For bold, direct statement 244

2. To mark the half-way point of paragraph 244

3. To end a climax and turn to a fresh subject 245

D. Periodic sentences 245

I. The stress coming at the end in a

single word or thought 245

2. The stress coming on the climactic word of a series 246

E. Balanced sentences 247

1. Stress in the second part of the balance 247

2. Stress on the first part of the balance 247

F. Chiasmus 247

The place of the subject sentence 248

A. At the beginning 248

B. At the end 248

C. Cogent statements of the topic at the beginning of a paragraph, with repeti- - tion at the end in different language - 249

D. At the beginning, middle and end of a paragraph 249

. In the adjustment of sentences to the paragraph 250

A. Climax within the paragraph leading to final climax at the end of the paragraph. .250

B. The rise into periodic sentences of increasing length in forcible expression of opinion 251

C. Emphatic word 251

1. At the beginning of a paragraph.. ..251

2. At the end of a paragraph 252

D. Adjusting the sentence structure to energetic expression 253

1. Partition of paragraph into sections, each section dealing with part of the general theme, and having the same or nearly the same number of sentences .— 254

2. Repetition of the leading thought

of a section at the beginning and end 254

XIII

3. Grouping of sentences to form a

climax 255

E. Brevity, spacing, economy of words.. .256 (d) Harmony.

1. Macaulay's taste for harmonious flow of language : his poetry, his expressions in his essays 257

2. The absence of barbarisms and neologisms from his language 258

3. Alliteration 259

4. Pairing words of similar sound 259

5. Adapting sound to sense 260

Conclusion of this Thesis 261

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

1. General Statement of the Plan of This Tliesis.

I propose to make as thorough a study as possible of Macaulay's artifices in paragraphing and sentence-structure, in so far as they are noticeable in the History of England. Among his brilliant accomplishments none was more conspicuous than his mastery of style. Undoubtedly it was the enchantment of his style which won him the ear and the heart of English-speaking people. No other of his writings spread his fame as widely as did the History of England, and on no other did he spend as much pains in perfecting the rhetorical form.* Consequently we may expect to find him, in this, his most carefully written work, full of the artifices of a skilled writer who studied his form as much, if not more, than his subject. f An examination of these artifices, then, is the present writer's aim.

*See Trevelyan, JAfe and Letters of M. Vol. II.

tOf course I am not concerned with Macaulay's subject-matter. His Whiggism may or may not be rampant : that is a point which does not enter into an Examination of the form of the History.

I

2. Macaulay's Theory of Historical Writing.

To make this examination worthily, even respectably, a scholar should have a lively knowledge of Lord Macaulay's "imaginary model," for the great writer must have endeavored, to the extent of his abilities, to conform to his ideal of perfection. "History," he says, in the Introduction to his Essay on Hallam, "history, at least in its state of imaginary perfection, is a compound of poetry and philosophy. It impresses great truths on the mind by a vivid representation of particular characters and incidents." Again, in his Essay on History, "The perfect historian is he in whose work the character and spirit of an age is exhibited in miniature. He relates no fact, he attributes no expression to his characters, which is not authenticated by sufficient testimony. But by judicious selection, rejection and arrangement he gives to truth those attractions which have been usurped by fiction. . . . We have no hesitation in saying, that a great artist might produce a portrait of this remarkable woman (Elizabeth) at least as striking as that in the novel Kenilworth without employing a single trait not authenticated by ample testimony."

The key word of these opinions is the word Fiction. The major portion of the most celebrated works of fiction is the truth of human nature irrespective of the facts of history. Macaulay would make his History all truth and all fact. Pie would embellish it with all the charms of the novel : lively narration, glowing description, that element of the dramatic, — the sayings of the characters, and exposition. In other words, he would exercise the same care in arrangement, in structure, as in selection of subject-matter ; in the one the perfect historian should be an artist ; in the other the faithful relater of fact. Every statement should be a fact : there should be "images in every line." Historical truth should be dressed in the garb of the Modern Novel.

For twenty years this theory lay fallow in his brain until it bore abundant fruit in the publication of his History of England.

3. Macaulay' s introduction to His History.

(a) The plan marked out in his introduction.

The year 1849 was made illustrious in the roll of English letters by the appearance of "The History of England from the Accession of James II." In the opening sentence, with his usual perspicuity, the author announces his plan. "I purpose to write the History of England from the accession of James II down to a time which is within the memory of men still living." After laying down the details of his plan, he continues : "I should very imperfectly execute the task which I have undertaken if I were merely to treat of battles and sieges, of the rise and fall of administrations, of intrigues in the palace, and of debates in the parliament. It will be my endeavor to relate the history of the people as well as the history of the government ; to trace the progress of the useful and ornamental arts, to describe the rise of religious sects and the changes of literary taste, to portray the manners of successive generations, and not to pass by with neglect even the revolutions which have taken place in dress, furniture, repasts and public amusements. I shall cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below the dignity of history, if I can succeed in placing before the English of the nineteenth century a true picture of the life of our ancestors."

"A true picture of the life of our ancestors" ; Macaulay has not, then, abandoned his theory. He proposed to treat pictorially the history of the people and the history of the government from James II to George IV.

(b) The extent to which the plan set forth in the introduction is carried out.

The author's purpose was not accomplished. The five volumes published are a torso of the original plan — magnificent, indeed, but nevertheless a torso. Mr. J. Cotter Morison has given the explanation of the failure.* He says : "It is perhaps a low-minded objection to Macaulay's conception of history to remark that its application to lengthy periods is a physical impossibility. The five volumes we have of his History comprise the space of some fifteen years. It was his original scheme to bring his narration down to the end of the reign of George IV; in round numbers, a period of a century and a half. If, therefore, his plan had been carried out on its present scale, it would have needed fifty volumes, if not more, as it is highly improbable that more recent events would have permitted greater compression. But, further, he wrote, at an average, a volume in three years; therefore his whole task would have taken him one hundred and fifty years to accomplish, — that is to say, it would have taken as long to record the events as the events took to happen. This is almost a practical refutation of the method he adopted. And yet such an absurd result could not, on his principles, be avoided. If history is to be written in such minute detail that it shall rival the novel in unbroken sustention of the personal interest attaching to the char-

*Macaulay, Bng. Men of Letters Series, P. 141.

acters, unexampled bulk must ensue. Macaulay had no intention of being so prolix. He expected to achieve the first portion of his plan (down to the commencement of Walpole's administration), a matter of thirty-five years, in five volumes ; and, as it turned out, five volumes only carried him over fifteen years. But he could not afford to reduce his scale, thus sacrificing his conception of how history should be written."

Fail Macaulay undoubtedly did in the ability to cover the period of one hundred and fifty years. But what of the fifteen years actually covered ? His impartiality has been called in question ; but the dignity, the pictorial quality of his style has never been disputed. In 1849, while the voice of Croker alone was raised against him, the English ladies were reading the History at their country houses and at the seaside instead of their novels. Macaulay held his readers by his sustained eloquence, by vivid representation of particular characters and incidents, by the attractions which had been long usurped by drama and fiction: in short, by all the artifices of rhetoric. It is of these artifices that I wish to speak in the following pages:

PART I PARAGRAPHING

SECTION A— INVENTION

Chapter I Paragraph Grouping

IVave-moz'cmcnt of Paragraphs.

( a ) The term wave-movement of the paragraphs should explain itself. To guard against any misapprehension, however, I will say that by wave-movement I mean the variation of length of the paragraphs in a particular series dealing with one subject. In this and subsequent pages I use the terms short, medium and long paragraphs. By short paragraph I mean one of from two to eight lines of the octavo page ; by medium, nine to twenty lines ; by long, anything over twenty lines.

(b ) In general the wave-movement of paragraphs throughout Macaulay's History is as follows : The series begins with a short pragraph, which is followed by a medium paragraph, this in turn by a long paragraph. The number and size of the long paragraphs in any series vary with the subject of the series and the amount of material on that subject. A group may consist of either three or more than three paragraphs. If the group consists of only three paragraphs, they are as a rule arranged in the order above stated. If the group consists of more than three paragraphs, then usually, after the second, or medium paragraph, the paragraphs grow longer and longer until we come to a very climactic paragraph, after which the series is closed by another medium paragraph. In other words, the movement of the paragraphs is such as, by the use of longer and longer paragraphs to carry the mind of the reader onward towards a single paragraph, — three-quarters of a page to two and a half pages long, — in which is massed the bulk of the details of some event, situation or party opinion. Thus :

"The discomfiture of the Whigs was completed by a communication from the King. Caermarthen appeared in the House of Lords bearing in his hand a parchment signed by William. It was an Act of Grace for political offences.

"Between an Act of Grace originating with the Sovereign and an Act of Indemnity originating with the Estates of the Realm there are some remarkable distinctions. An Act of Indemnity passes through all the stages through which other laws pass, and may, during its progress, be amended by either House. An Act of Grace is received with peculiar marks of respect, is read only once by the Lords and once by the Commons, and must be either rejected altogether or accepted as it stands. William had not ventured to submit such an Act to the preceding Parliament. But in the new Parliament he was certain of a majority. The minority gave no trouble. The stubborn spirit which had, during two sessions, obstructed the progress of the Bill of Indemnity had been at length broken by defeats and humiliations. Both Houses stood up uncovered while the Act of Grace was read, and gave their sanction to it without one dissentient voice.

"There would not have been this unanimity had not a few great criminals been excluded from the benefits of the amnesty. Foremost among them stood the surviving members of the High Court of Justice which had sate on Charles the First. With these ancient men were joined the two nameless executioners who had done their office, with masked faces, on the scaffold before the Banqueting House. None knew who they were, or of what rank. It was probable that they had been long dead. Yet it was thought necessary to declare that, if even now, after the lapse of forty-one years, they should be discovered, they would still be liable to the punishment of their great crime. Perhaps it would hardly have been thought necessary to mention these men, if the animosities of the preceding generation had not been rekindled by the recent appearance of Ludlow in England. About thirty of the agents of the tyranny of James were left to the law. With these exceptions, all political offences, committed before the day on which the royal signature was affixed to the Act, were covered with a general oblivion.* Even the criminals who were by name excluded had little to fear. Many of them were in foreign countries ; and those who were in England were well assured that, unless they committed some new fault, they would not be molested.

"The Act of Grace the nation owed to William alone; and it is one of his noblest and purest titles to renown. From the commencement of the civil troubles of the seventeenth century down to the Revolution, every victory gained by either party had been followed by a sanguinary proscription. When the Roundheads triumphed over the Cavaliers, when the Cavaliers triumphed over the Roundheads, when the fable of the Popish plot gave the ascendency to the Whigs, when the detection of the Rye House Plot transferred the ascendency to the Tories, blood, and more blood, and still more blood, had flowed. Every great explosion and every great recoil of public feeling had been accompanied by severities which, at the time, the predominant faction loudly applauded, but which on a calm review, history and posterity have condemned. No wise and humane man, whatever may be his political opinions, now mentions without reprehension the death either of Laud or of Vane, either of Stafford or of Russell. Of the alternate butcheries the last and worst is that which is inseparably associated with the names of James and Jeffreys. But it assuredly would not have been the last, perhaps it might not have been the worst, if William had not had the virtue and the firmness resolutely to withstand the importunity of his most zealous adherents. These men were bent on exacting a terrible retribution for all they had undergone during seven disastrous years. The scaffold of Sidney, the gibbet of Cornish, the stake at which Elizabeth Gaunt had perished in the flames for the crime of harbouring a fugitive, the porches of the Somersetshire churches surmounted by the skulls and quarters of murdered peasants, the holds of those Jamaica ships from which every day the carcass of some prisoner dead of thirst and foul air had been flung to the sharks, all these things were fresh in the memory of the party which the Revolution had made, for a time, dominant in the State.

Some chiefs of that party had redeemed their necks by paying heavy ransom. Others had languished long in Newgate. Others had starved and shivered winter after winter, in the garrets of Amsterdam. It was natural that in the day of their power and prosperity they should wish to inflict some part of what they had suffered. During a whole year they pursued their scheme of revenge. They succeeded in defeating Indemnity Bill after Indemnity Bill. Nothing stood between them and their victims, but William's immutable resolution that the glory of the great deliverance which he had wrought should not be sullied by cruelty. His clemency was peculiar to himself. It was not the clemency of an ostentatious man, or of a sentimental man, or of an easy tempered man. It was cold, unconciliating, inflexible. It produced no fine stage effects. It drew on him the savage invectives of those whose malevolent passions he refused to satisfy. It won for him no gratitude from those who owed to him fortune, liberty, and life. While the violent Whigs railed at his lenity, the agents of the fallen tyranny, as soon as they found themselves safe, instead of acknowledging their obligations to him, reproached 'him in insulting language with the mercy which he had extended to them. His Act of Grace, they said, had completely refuted his Declaration. Was it possible to believe that, if there had been any truth in the charges which he had brought against the late government, he would have granted immunity to the guilty? It was now acknowledged by himself, under his own hand, that the stories by which he and his friends had deluded the nation and driven away the royal family were mere calumnies devised to serve a turn. The turn had been served ; and the accusations by which he had inflamed the public mind to madness were coolly withdrawn. But none of these things moved him. He had done well. He had risked his popularity with men who had been his warmest admirers, in order to give repose and security to men by whom his name was never mentioned without a curse. Nor had he conferred a less benefit on those whom he had disappointed of their revenge than on those whom he had protected. If he had saved one faction from a proscription, he had saved the other from the reaction which such a proscription would inevitably have produced. If his people did not justly appreciate his policy, so much the worse for them. He had discharged his duty by them. He feared no obloquy ; and he wanted no thanks."

(c) This statement of Macaulay's method could not be fully corroborated without immoderately long citations. The truth of the statement, however, will be apprehended by the most casual reader who will study attentively any one chapter with regard to the point. The following are illustrative references :

(d) In wave moment of paragraphs there is a striking contrast between Macaulay and Gibbon. Students of Macaulay have never marked this contrast. The massive uniformity of Gibbon's periods has been

*The edition here followed Is that of the Amet'. Publ. Corpora., New York, 310-318 Sixth Ave. IB compared to the tramp of a Roman legion. In Macaulay the paragraph at any point in the History offers a variety of movement commensurable with the effect he desires to make on the reader.

The Shortening and Lengthening of Paragraphs. fa) The explanation of the general plan of grouping, which I have remarked upon is easy. (1) The short paragraph is usually transitional, technically a link-paragraph. It carries the mind of the reader on from one set of events which have been concluded, to another set of events which are just beginning to be narrated. The second paragraph is summarizing ; that is to say, it states the main points or the outline of the subject which is to be treated in the series. The long paragraphs which follow contain the details of the subject of the series. (2) Macaulay's evident intention in observing this order and increasing length of paragraph was to gradually arouse the interest of the reader until he came to the grand paragraph, after which he would relax the tension by following up the climax with a medium paragraph, and thus gently lead him into the next subject or the next series. The effect is what is called in music crescendo. The author hurries the reader to the climax in the grand paragraph, where the mind revels in details or is dazzled with colors.

(b) But Macaulay's general plan has many exceptions. (1) The commonest divergence from 1 the normal is to pass directly from a short paragraph to a long paragraph or to several long paragraphs without a medium paragraph, either between the short and the first long, or at the end of the series. (2) One series of paragraphs on a given subject is sometimes connected with another series on another subject without the interposition of link and medium (or summarizing) paragraphs. This is accomplished by what is technically called the echo.

(c) The paragraph shortening and lengthening varies ( 1 ) according to the material the author has in hand; and (2) according to the attitude of his mind towards the matter. The variety in the size of the groups depends, of course, on what place or character is to be described, events narrated, or principle explained. The wave movement also varies with the attitude of the mind of Macaulay to his material, his mood, and the impression which fact, or truth, or principle has made on him. Macaulay is always a consummate artist and the groups of paragraphs increase or decrease in size in obedience to his taste for striking effect. 3. Reasons for Macaulay s Variations from His Usual Manner of Grouping. Detailed Explanations for Groups of Short, Medium and Long Paragraphs. Besides the variations already mentioned, other significant expedients are to be noticed : (a) Groups of short paragraphs.

(1) Short paragraphs are sometimes bunched together for condensation of thought and for concentration of the attention.