The Percy Anecdotes (Volume 2); Original and Select [By] Sholto and Reuben Percy, Brothers of the Benedictine Monastery, Mont Benger (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: to have a flutenist to stand by while he was speaking. in order to give him the proper pitch to regulate his elevation and cadences, and to assist him with a proper tone in case he made a false inflexion of the voice. Cicero, however, thought it beneath an orator (as it certainly is) to have occasion for such an assistance. " Leave," says he, " the pipe at home, but carry the custom with you." PROLIXITY MADE PENAL. It appears from several of the ancient Royal Ordinances of France, and particularly from one of Charles VII. of France, that lawyers in that country (would to heaven it were so in all countries!) were subjected to heavy penalties, when guilty of prolixity in their pleadings. The Roman advocates used to make a sort of agreement with the court, how long they might have liberty to speak in defence of their client. Martial alludes to this practice in the following epigram. " Septem clepsydras magni) tibl voce petenti Arhiter invitus, Czeciliane, dedit; At tu multa diu dicis, vitreisque tepentem Ampullis, potas semisupinus aquam. Ut tandem saties vocemque sitimque rogamus Jam de clepsydra, Cteciliane hibas." " Seven glasses, Ciecilian, thou loudly didst crave; Seven glasses the judge full reluctantly gave; Still thou bawl'st and bawl'st on, and as ne'er to bawl off, Tepid water in bumpers, supine thou dost quaff. That thy voice and thy thirst at a time thou may'st slake, We entreat from the glass of old Chronus thou'dsttake." MARK ANTONY, THE CONSUL. It was owing to Mark Antony, according to the testimony of Cicero, that Rome could boast of being a rival to Greece in the art of eloquence. One of the most remarkable of his pleadings was that in favour of Marcus Aquilius. He moved the judges in so sensible a manner by the tears he...