Chapter 37: On tropes

1. Tropes are so named by the grammarians from a Greek word which in Latin means _modi locutionum_. They are turned from their own meaning to a kindred meaning that is not their own. And it is very difficult to comment on the names of them all, but Donatus gave for practice a list of thirteen selected from the whole number.

2. Metaphor is the assumption of a transfer of meaning in some word, as when we say _segetes fluctuare_ (the grain-fields billow), _vites gemmare_, when we do not find any waves or gems in these things, but the words are transferred from the old application to a new one. These and other tropical forms of speech are veiled with figurative cloaks with reference to the things to be understood, with the view that they may exercise the intelligence of the reader, and may not be cheap because they are unadorned and easily apprehended.

22. Allegory is the saying of things that do not belong to the matter in hand (_alienoloquium_), for one thing is said, another is understood; as, _tres in littore cervos conspicit errantes_, where the three leaders of the Punic war, or the three Punic wars are indicated; and in the _Bucolics_, _aurea mala decem misi_, _i.e._, ten pastoral eclogues to Augustus. There are many species of this figure, of which seven are conspicuous: irony, antiphrasis, enigma, charientismus, paroemia, sarcasmus, astysmus.

23. It is irony where the thought is given a contrary meaning by the manner of speech. By this figure something is said cleverly, either in the way of accusation or insult, as the following:

Vestras, Eure, domos, illa se jactet in aula
Aeolus, et clauso ventorum carcere regnet.

And why _aula_ (palace) if it is _carcer_ (prison)! It is made clear by the manner of speech, for the manner of speech says _carcer_. _Jactet in aula_ is irony, and the whole is expressed in a contradictory manner of speech by the figure of irony which mocks by praising.

24. Antiphrasis is language to be understood to the contrary, as, _lucus_ (sacred grove), since it is without light (_lux_) because of the excessive gloom of the woods....

25. Between irony and antiphrasis there is this difference, that irony indicates by the manner of speaking alone what is meant, as when we say to a man doing ill, “Bonum est quod facis”. But antiphrasis indicates the contrary not by the voice of the speaker, but only in the words, whose derivation is the opposite [of their meaning].