Veni, vidi, vici.
———————— Ite:
Ferte cite flammas, date vela, impellite remos.
Æneid. iv. 593.
Quis globus, O Cives, caligine volvitur atra?
Ferte cite ferrum, date tela, scandite muros.
Hostis adest, eja.
Æneid. ix. 36.
In this view Longinus[88] justly compares copulatives in a period to strait tying, which in a race obstructs the freedom of motion.
It follows from the same premisses, that to multiply copulatives in the same period ought to be avoided. For if the laying aside copulatives give force and liveliness, a redundancy of them must render the period languid. I appeal to the following instance, though there are not more than two copulatives.
Upon looking over the letters of my female correspondents, I find several from women complaining of jealous husbands; and at the same time protesting their own innocence, and desiring my advice upon this occasion.
Spectator, Nº 170.
I except the case where the words are intended to express the coldness of the speaker; for there the redundancy of copulatives is a beauty.
Dining one day at an alderman’s in the city, Peter observed him expatiating after the manner of his brethren, in the praises of his sirloin of beef. “Beef,” said the sage magistrate, “is the king of meat: Beef comprehends in it the quintescence of partridge, and quail, and venison, and pheasant, and plum-pudding, and custard.”