A Treatise of Schemes and Tropes

by Richard Sherry

The mean and temperate kynd of indyghting standeth of the lower, and yet not of the loweste, and moste comen wordes and sentẽces.

And it is ryghtyly called the temperate kynde of speakyng, because it is very nygh vnto the small, and to the greate kynde, folowyng a moderacion and temper betwyxt thẽ.

And it foloweth as we saye in one tenour, distinguyshyng all the oracion wyth small ornamentes both of wordes, and sentences. Cicero vseth thys for the lawe of Manilius, for Aulus Cecinna, for Marcus Marcellus, and moste of all in hys bookes of offices. In this it is fautye to come to the kynd that is nye vnto it, whyche is called dissolute, because it waueth hyther and thyther, as it were wythout senowes and ioyntes, standyng surely in no poynte. And suche an oracion can not cause the hearer to take anye heede, when it goeth so in and out, and comprehendeth not any thyng wyth perfecte wordes.

[ Of Schemes and Tropes.]

[Scheme] Scheme is a Greke worde, and signifyeth properlye the maner of gesture that daunsers vse to make, whẽ they haue won the best game, but by translacion is taken for the fourme, fashion, and shape of anye thynge expressed in wrytynge or payntinge: and is taken here now of vs for the fashion of a word, sayynge, or sentence, otherwyse wrytten or spoken then after the vulgar and comen vsage, and that thre sũdry waies: by figure, faute, vertue.

[Figure.]

Fygure, of Scheme y^e fyrst part, is a behaueoure, maner, or fashion eyther of sentence, oracion, or wordes after some new wyse, other thẽ men do commenlye vse to wryte or speake: and is of two sortes. Dianoias, that is of sentence, and [Lexeos] of worde.

Figure of [Dianoias], or sentence, because it properlye belongeth to oratoures, we wyll speake of it hereafter in place conuenient, now wyll we entrete of the figure Lexeos, or of worde, as it perteyneth to the Gramarians.

[Figure of worde.]

Figure Lexeos, or of [worde], is when in speakyng or wrytyng any thynge touchynge the wordes is made newe or straunge, otherwyse then after y^e comen custume: & is of .ii. kyndes; diccion, & construccion.