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for searching only. QUINTILIAN, THE SUPREME AUTHORITY 199
Steevens noted, "'Frons causae non satis honesta est,' is a phrase used by Quintilian."$ The context, however, is much more significant than the mere parallel in phraseology. Quintilian is discussing the
exordium, and after his usual discursive preliminaries finally comes to grips with his subject by making his fundamental division of the five "Genera . . . caussarum" in the exordium, and then discussing the first of them thus,
Nam Honestum quidem ad conciliationem satis per se valet: in Admirabili & Turpi, remediis opus est, Et ea quidem exordium in dugs diuidunt partes, principium, & insinuationem: vt sit principiis recta beneuolentiae & attentionis postulatio: quae quia esse in turpi genere caussae non possit, insinuatio surrepat animis, maxims vbi frons caussae non satis honesta est, vel quia res sit improba, vel quia hominibus parum probetur to
Othello has been accused of turpitude. So in his exordium he says "The very head and front of my offending"-"in turpi . . . vbi frons11 caussae non satis honesta est"-is that he has married Des-. demona. He denies that he is guilty of any turpitude. It follows, therefore, that he does not need to use an insinuating exordium. Instead, he can proceed boldly with "a round unvarnished tale" as where the case is honest, "Nam Honestum quidem ad conciliationem satis per se valet." This is the point to his further speech.
Rude am I in my speech,
And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace. For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith, Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used Their dearest action in the tented field,
And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle, And therefore little shall I grace my cause
In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience, I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver
Malone, Variorum (1821), Vol. IX, p. aI6. In his commentary, Raphael Regius notes "Maxime vbi fors causae. Frons vt legatur sensus exposcit. " Thus some editions presumably read "fors causae," but I have not happened upon any such. Shakspere's edition was not one of these.
10 Quintilian (1538), p. 53r; (1580), p. 208. "M regards the hanouraiii the very nature of the case is sufficient to win the approval of the judge; in the scandalous and extraordinary some kind of palliation is required.
"Some therefore divide the exordium into two parts, the introduction and the insinuation, making the former contain a direct appeal to the good-will and attention of the judge. But as this is impossible in scandalous cases, they would have the orator on such occasions insinuate himself little by little into the minds of his judges, especially when the features of the case which meet the eye are discreditable, or because the subject is disgraceful or such as to meet with popular disapproval" (Butler, Quintilian, Vol. II, p. 29).
n Cooper defines "frons" as "The foreheade," which becomes Shakspere's "head and front."
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