Epigrams

An epigram is a stylistic device akin to a proverb, the only
difference being that epigrams are coined by individuals whose names
we know, while proverbs are the coinage of the people. In other words,
we are always aware of the parentage of an epigram and therefore, when
using one, we usually make a reference to its author.

Epigrams are terse, witty, pointed statements, showing the ingenious
turn of mind of the originator. They always have a literary-bookish air
about them that distinguishes them from proverbs. Epigrams possess
a great degree of independence and therefore, if taken out of the context,
will retain the wholeness of the idea they express. They have a generaliz-
ing function and are self-sufficient. The most characteristic feature of
an epigram is that the sentence gets accepted as a word-combination and
often becomes part of the language as a whole. Like proverbs, epigrams
can be expanded to apply to abstract notions (thus embodying different
spheres of application). Brevity is the essential quality of the epigram.
A. Chekhov once said that brevity is the sister of talent; 'Brevity is the
soul of the wit' holds true of any epigram.

Epigrams are often confused with aphorisms and paradoxes. It is dif-
ficult to draw a demarcation line between them, the distinction being
very subtle. Real epigrams are true to fact and that is why they win
general recognition and acceptance.

Let us turn to examples.

Somerset Maugham in "The Razor's Edge" says:

"Art is triumphant when it can use convention as an instrument
of its own purpose."

This statement is interesting from more than one point of view. It
shows the ingenious turn of mind of the writer, it gives an indirect de-
finition of art as Maugham understands it, it is complete in itself even
if taken out of the context. But still this sentence is not a model epigram
because it lacks one essential quality, viz. brevity. It is too long and
therefore cannot function in speech as a ready-made language unit. Be-
sides, it lacks other features which are inherent in epigrams and make
them similar to proverbs, i.e. rhythm, alliteration and often rhyme. It
cannot be expanded to other spheres of life, it does not generalize.

Compare this sentence with the following used by the same author in the same novel.

"A God that can be understood is no God."

This sentence seems to meet all the necessary requirements of the
epigram: it is brief, generalizing, witty and can be expanded in its appli-
cation. The same applies to Byron's

¹ Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.

"...in the days of old men made manners;
Manners now make men" ("Don Juan")

or Keats'

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

Writers who seek aesthetic precision use the epigram abundantly:
others use it to characterize the hero of their work. Somerset Maugham
is particularly fond of it and many of his novels and stories abound in
epigrams. Here are some from "The Painted Veil."

"He that bends shall be made straight."

"Failure is the foundation of success and success is the lurking
place of failure..."

"Mighty is he who conquers himself."

There are utterances which in form are epigrammatic—these are
verses and in particular definite kinds of verses. The last two lines of
a sonnet are called epigrammatic because, according to the semantic
structure of this form of verse, they sum up and synthesize what has been
said before. The heroic couplet, a special compositional form of verse,
is also a suitable medium for epigrams, for instance:

"To observations which ourselves we make,
We grow more partial for th' observer's sake."

(Alexander Pope)

There are special dictionaries which are called "Dictionaries of Quota-
tions." These, in fact, are mostly dictionaries of epigrams. What is worth
quoting must always contain some degree of the generalizing quality and
if it comes from a work of poetry will have metre (and sometimes rhyme).
That is why the works of Shakespeare, Pope, Byron and many other great
English poets are said to be full of epigrammatic statements.

The epigram is, in fact, a supra-phrasal unit in sense, though not in
structure (see p. 194).

Poetry is epigrammatic in essence. It always strives for brevity of
expression, leaving to the mind of the reader the pleasure of amplifying
the idea. Byron's

“The drying up a single tear has more

Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore,"

is a strongly worded epigram, which impresses the reader with its gener-
alizing truth. It may be regarded as a supra-phrasal unit inasmuch as
it is semanticallу connected with the preceding lines and at the same
time enjoys a considerable degree of independence. The inner quality
of any sentence to which the rank of epigram, in the generic sense of
the term, can be attributed, is that the particularity of the event is
replaced by a timeless non-particularity.^l

¹ Cf. Chafe, W. Meaning and the Structure of Language. Chicago, 1970, p. 173.

Quotations

Next to the originator of a good sentence
is the first quoter of it. Emerson

A quоtation is a repetition of a phrase or statement_from a
book, speech and the like used by way of authority, illustration, proof
or as a basis for further speculation on the matter in hand.
By repeating a passage in a new environment, we attach to the ut-
terance an importance it might not have had in the context whence it
was taken. Moreover, we give it the status, temporary though it may
be, of a stable language unit. What is quoted must be worth quoting,
since a quotation will inevitably acquire some degree of generalization.
If repeated frequently, it may be recognized as an epigram, if, of course,
it has at least some of the linguistic properties of the latter.
Quotations are usually marked off in the text by inverted commas
(""), dashes (—), italics or other graphical means.

They are mostly used accompanied by a reference to the author of
the quotation, unless he is well known to the reader or audience. The
reference is made either in the text or in a foot-note and assumes va-
rious forms, as, for instance:

"as (so and so) has it"; "(So and so) once said that"...; "Here we quote
(so and so)" or in the manner the reference to Emerson has been made
in the epigraph to this chapter.

A quotation is the exact reproduction of an actual utterance made
by a certain author. The work containing the utterance quoted must
have been published or at least spoken in public; for quotations are
echoes of somebody else's words.

Utterances, when quoted, undergo a peculiar and subtle change.
They are rank-and-file members of the text they belong to, merging
with other sentences in this text in the most natural and organic way,
bearing some part of the general sense the text as a whole embodies;
yet, when they are quoted, their significance is heightened and they
become different from other parts of the text. Once quoted, they are
no longer rank-and-file units. If they are used to back up the idea ex-
pressed in the new text, they become "parent sentences' with the cor-
responding authority and respect and acquire a symbolizing function;
in short, they not infrequently become epigrams, for example, Hamlet's
"To be or not to be!"

A quotation is always set against the other sentences in the text
by its greater volume of sense and significance. This singles it out, par-
ticularly if it is frequently repeated, as any utterance worth committing
to memory generally is. The use of quotations presupposes я good know-
ledge of the past experience of the nation, its literature and culture.¹
The stylistic value of a quotation lies mainly in the fact that it com-
prises two meanings: the primary meaning, the one which it has in its

original surroundings, and the applicative meaning, i.e. the one which
it acquires in the new context.

¹ A quotation from Byron's "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" will be apt as a
comment here: "With just enough of learning to misquote"

Quotations, unlike epigrams, need not necessarily be short. A whole
paragraph or a long passage may be quoted if it suits the purpose.
It is to be noted, however, that sometimes in spite of the fact that the
exact wording is used, a quotation in a new environment may assume a new shade of meaning, a shade necessary or sought by the quoter, but not intended by the writer of the original work.

Here we give a few examples of the use of quotations.

"Socrates said, our only knowledge was

"To know that nothing could be known" a pleasant

Science enough, which levels to an ass

Each man of Wisdom, future, past or present,

Newton (that proverb of the mind) alas!

Declared with all his grand discoveries recent

That he himself felt only "like a youth

Picking up shells by the great ocean—Truth." (Byron)

"Ecclesiastes said, "that all is vanity"—
Most modern preachers say the same, or show it
By their examples of the Christianity..." (Byron)

Quotations are used as a stylistic device, as is seen from these exam-
ples, with the aim of expanding the meaning of the sentence quoted and
setting two meanings one against the other, thus modifying the original
meaning. In this quality they are used mostly in the belles-lettres style.
Quotations used in other styles of speech allow no modifications of mean-
ing, unless actual distortion of form and meaning is the aim of the quoter.

Quotations are also used in epigraphs. The quotation in this case
possesses great associative power and calls forth much connotative mean-
ing.

Allusions

An allиsion is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a
historical, literary, mythological, biblical fact or to a fact of everyday
life made in the course of speaking or writing. The use of allusion presup
poses knowledge of the fact, thing or person alluded to on the part of
the reader or listener. As a rule no indication of the source is given. This
is one of the notable differences between quotation and allusion. Another
difference is of a structural nature: a quotation must repeat the exact
wording of the original even though the meaning may be modified by the
new context; an allusion is only a mention of a word or phrase which
may be regarded as the key-word of the utterance. An allusion has cer-
tain important semantic peculiarities, in that the meaning of the word
(the allusion) should be regarded as a form for the new meaning. In other
words, the primary meaning of the word or phrase which is assumed to
be known (i.e. the allusion) serves as a vessel into which new meaning
is poured. So here there is also a kind of interplay between two meanings.

Here is a passage in which an allusion is made to the coachman, Old
Mr. Weller, the father of Dickens's famous character, Sam Weller. In
this case the nominal meaning is broadened into a generalized concept:

"Where is the road now, and its merry incidents of life!.. old honest,
pimple-nosed coachmen? I wonder where are they, those good fellows?
Is old Weller alive or dead?" (Thackeray)

The volume of meaning in this allusion goes beyond the actual know-
ledge of the character's traits. Even the phrases about the road and the
coachmen bear indirect reference to Dickens's "Pickwick Papers."

Here is another instance of allusion which requires a good knowledge of mythology, history and geography if it is to be completely understood..

"Shakespeare talks of the herald Mercury

New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
And some such visions cross'd her majesty

While her young herald knelt before her still.
'Tis very true the hill seem'd rather high,

For a lieutenant to climb up; but skill
Smooth'd even the Simplon's steep, and by God's blessing
With youth and health all kisses are heaven-kissing."

(Byron)

Mercury, Jupiter's messenger, is referred to here because Don Juan
brings a dispatch to Catherine II of Russia and is therefore her majesty's
herald. But the phrase "...skill smooth'd even the Simplon's steep..."
will be quite incomprehensible to those readers who do not know that
Napoleon built a carriage road near the village of Simplon in the pass
6590 feet over the Alps and founded a hospice at the summit. Then the
words 'Simplon's steep' become charged with significance and implica-
tions which now need no further comment.

Allusions are based on the accumulated experience and the knowledge
of the writer who presupposes a similar experience and knowledge in
the reader. But the knowledge stored in our minds is called forth bу an
allusion in a peculiar manner. All kinds of associations we may not yet
have realized cluster round the facts alluded to. Illustrative in this re-
spect is the quotation-allusion made in Somerset Maugham's novel "The
Painted Veil". The last words uttered by the dying man are "The dog it
was that died." These are the concluding lines of Goldsmith's "Elegy on
the "Death of a Mad Dog." Unless the reader knows the Elegy, he will
not understand the implication embodied in this quotation. Consequently,
the quotation here becomes an allusion which runs through the whole
plot of the novel. Moreover, the psychological tuning of the novel can be
deciphered only by drawing a parallel between the poem and the plot of
the novel.

The main character is dying, having failed to revenge himself upon
his unfaithful wife. He was punished by death for having plotted evil.
This is the inference to be drawn from the allusion.

The following passage from Dickens's "Hard Times" will serve to prove
how remote may be the associations called up by an allusion.

"No little Grandgrind had ever associated a cow in a field with
that famous cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that wor-
ried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt, or with that yet more

famous cow that swallowed Tom Thumb; it had never heard of those
celebrities."

The meaning that can be derived from the two allusions, one to the
nursery rhyme "The House that Jack built'' and the other to the old tale "The History of Tom Thumb" is the following: '

No one was permitted to teach the little Grandgrind children the
lively, vivid nursery rhymes and tales that every English child knows
by heart. They were subjected to nothing but dry abstract drilling. The
word cow in the two allusions becomes impregnated with concrete mean-
ing set against the abstract meaning of cow-in-a-field, or cow-in-general.
To put it into the terms of theoretical linguistics, cow-in-a-field refers
to the nominating rather than to the signifying aspect of the word.

Allusions_and quotations may be termed nonce-set-expres-
siопs because they are used only for the occasion.

Allusion, as has been pointed out, needs no indication of the source.
It is assumed to be known. Therefore most allusions are made to facts
with which the general reader should be familiar. However, allusions
are sometimes made to things and facts which need commentary before
they are understood.

Allusions are used in different styles, but their function is every-
where the same. The deciphering of an allusion, however, is not always
easy. In newspaper headlines allusions may be decoded at first glance,
as, for instance:

"'Pie in the sky' for Railmen"¹

Most people in the USA and Britain know the refrain of the workers'
song: "You'll get pie in the sky when you die."

The use of part of the sentence-refrain implies that the railmen had
been given many promises but nothing at the present moment. Lin-
guistically the allusion 'pie in the sky' assumes a new meaning, viz.
nothing but promises. Through frequency of repetition it may enter into
the word-stock of the English language as a figurative synonym.

Decomposition of Set Phrases

Linguistic fusions are set phrases, the meaning of which is understood
only from the combination as a whole, as to pull a person's leg or to have
something at one's finger tips. The meaning of the whole cannot be derived
from the meanings of the component parts. The stylistic device of decom-
position of fused set phrases consists in reviving the independent mean-
ings which make up the cоmроnent parts of the fusion. In other words,it
makes each word of the combination acquire its literal meaning which, of
course, in many cases leads to the realization of an absurdity. Here is
an example of this device as employed by Dickens:

"Mind! I don't mean to say that I know of my own knowledge,

what there is particularly dead about a doornail. I might have been

¹ Daily Worker, Feb. 1, 1962.

inclined, myself, to regard a coffin nail as the deadest piece of iron-
mongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the si-
mile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it or the Country's
done for. You will, therefore, permit me to repeat emphatically
that Marley was as dead as a door-nail." (Dickens)

As is seen in this excerpt, the fusion 'as dead as a door-nail', which
simply means completely dead, is decomposed by being used in a differ-
ent structural pattern. This causes the violation of the generally rec-
ognized meaning of the combination which has grown into a mere emo-
tional intensifier. The reader, being presented with the parts of the unit,
becomes aware of the meanings of the parts, which, be it repeated, have
little in common with the meaning of the whole. When, as Dickens does,
the unit is re-established in its original form, the phrase acquires a fresh
vigour and effect, qualities important in this utterance because the unit
itself was meant to carry the strongest possible proof that the man was
actually dead.

Another example from the same story:

"Scrooge had often heard it said that money had no bowels, but he
had never believed it until now."

The bowels (guts, intestines) were supposed to be the seat of the emo-
tions of pity and compassion. But here Dickens uses the phrase 'to have
no bowels' in its literal meaning: Scrooge is looking at Marley's ghost
and does not see any intestines.

In the sentence "It was raining cats and dogs, and two kittens and

a puppy landed on my window-sill" (Chesterton) the fusion 'to rain cats

and dogs' is freshened by the introduction of "kittens and a puppy,"

which changes the unmotivated combination into a metaphor which in

its turn is sustained.

The expression 'to save one's bacon' means to escape from injury or
loss. Byron in his "Don Juan" decomposes this unit by setting it against
the word hog in its logical meaning:

"But here I say the Turks were much mistaken,
Who hating hogs, yet wish'd to save their bacon."

Byron particularly favoured the device of simultaneous materiali-
zation of two meanings: the meaning of the whole set phrase and the in-
dependent meanings of its components, with the result that the indepen-
dent meanings unite anew and give the whole a fresh significance.

Here is a good example of the effective use of this device. The poet
mocks at the absurd notion of idealists who deny the existence of every
kind of matter whatsoever:

"When Bishop Berkley said: "there was no matter"
And proved it—'twas no matter what he said."

(Byron)