HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

SMOTRYC'KYJ'S THRENOS OF 1610 473Come hither to me, all the nations, all citizens of the earth: hear my voice, and youwill know what I was long ago, and you shall marvel. 32The prescribed purpose of the narratio is an exposition of events thathave occurred or are supposed to have occurred. 33 According to the handbooks,there are three types of narrations: one which contains only the caseand the reason for the dispute; a second in which a digression is made forthe purpose of attacking somebody, or of making a comparison, or of amusingthe audience, or for amplification; and a third which is wholly unconnectedwith public issues, which is recited or written solely for amusementbut at the same time provides valuable training. 34Smotryc'kyj's narratio, which extends from 2r to 7r [18-23] ("Synowiey Corki moie. . . zaniedbali"), presents the crucial fact in its first sentence:The sons and daughters whom I bore and raised left me and followed after her whodid not suffer with them, so that they might be satiated with the excess of her fat. 35This statement alleges both a crime (the fact that the sons and daughters ofthe Eastern church have abandoned her) and a motive (to enjoy the temporalaffluence, the zbytek tiustosci, of the stepmother, who is the Romanchurch).Smotryc'kyj appears to have chosen the second kind of narratio mentionedin the handbooks. Much of the section is devoted to a digression onthe main topic intended to maintain the favorable disposition of the audience.Here the Eastern church continues her lament, elaborating on the factthat her children have left her. With skillful use of the "ubi sunt. . ." topos,she asks what has happened to the times when she bore martyrs, saints, anddoctors, what has happened to the faithful sons of days gone by? She thendescribes the kind of sons she needs now and asks where she is to findthem.The purpose of the partitio is to make the whole speech "clear and perspicuous."36 According to Cicero, there are two sorts of partitions: that inwhich we show in what we agree with our opponents and what is left in32Smotryc'kyj, Threnos, pp. lr-v [17-18]: "Sam do mnie co zywo wszelkie narody,wszyscy obywatele ziemscy przystapcie, posluchaycie gJosu mego, a poznacie com byla przedlaty, y zadziwuyc[i]e sie."33Cicero, De inventione (I xix 27): "Narratio est rerum gestarum aut ut gestarum expositio."34See Cicero, De inventione (I xix 27), and Rhetorica adHerennium (I viii 12).35Smotryc'kyj, Threnos, p. 2r [18]: "Synowie y Corki moie, ktorem rodzita y wychowata,opusciwszy mie, szly za ta., ktora imi nie bolala: aby sie z zbytkiem tiustosci iey nasycili."36Cicero, De inventione (I xxii 31): "Recte habita in causa partitio illustrem et perspicuamtotam efficit orationem."