Pysma
Pysma (pys'-ma) is the asking of a series of questions successively, usually rhetorically. “Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home? / What tributaries follow him to Rome, / To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?” Julius Caesar, 1.1.36 Also see hypophora.
Notes on Pysma
Tempter or Tempted?
Read the NoteIn Measure for Measure (2.2.197), Angelo confronts, possibly for the first time in his life, the temptation of lust. And since this is new to him and because he is highly moralistic, he is troubled and confused. He reacts by asking himself a series of questions for which he has no answers.
What’s this? What’s this? Is this her fault,
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Quotes including the Figure of Speech Pysma
Hence! Home, you idle creatures, get you home!
Read the QuoteFlavius
Hence! Home, you idle creatures, get you home!
Is this a holiday? What, know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk
Upon a laboring day without the sign
Of your profession?—Speak, what trade art thou?
Carpenter
Why, sir, a carpenter.
Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?
What tributaries follow him to Rome,
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Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Read the QuoteWhy, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.Adynaton & Simile
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Men at some time are masters of their fates;
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And why should Caesar be a tyrant then?
Read the QuoteAnd why should Caesar be a tyrant then?
Poor man, I know he would not be a wolf,
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep;
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.
Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
Begin it with weak straws.Metaphors What trash is Rome?
What rubbish and what offal?
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Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
Read the QuoteShylock
Signior Antonio, many a time and oftHendiadys
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances.
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug
(For suff’rance is the badge of all our tribe).
You call me misbeliever, cutthroat dog,
And spet upon my Jewish gaberdine,
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Adieu, adieu, adieu. Remember me
Read the QuoteGhost
Adieu, adieu, adieu.Epizeuxis Remember me.
He exits.
Hamlet
O all you host of heaven! O Earth!Anapodotons & Apostrophes What else?
And shall I couple hell?Pysma O fie! Hold, hold, my heart,
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
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Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile
Read the QuoteDuke Senior
Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of Alliterationpainted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?Pysma
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,
The seasons’ difference,
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And let us swear our resolution
Read the QuoteCassius
And let us swear our resolution.
Marcus Brutus
No, not an oath!Anapodoton If not the face of men,
The sufferance of our souls, the time’s abuseIsocolon—
If these be motives weakAnastrophe, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed;
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Portia! What mean you? Wherefore rise you now?
Read the QuoteBrutus
Portia! What mean you? Wherefore rise you now?Hyperbaton & Pysma
It is not for your health thus to commit
Your weak condition to the raw cold morning.
Portia
Nor for yours neither.Anapodoton You’ve ungently, Brutus,
Stole from my bed. And yesternight at supper
You suddenly arose and walked about,
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Kneel not, gentle Portia
Read the QuoteBrutus
Kneel not, gentle Portia.
Portia
I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus.Antanaclesis
Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,
Is it excepted I should know no secrets
That appertain to you? Am I yourself
But, as it were, in sort or limitation,
To keep with you at meals,
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At what hour tomorrow Shall I attend your Lordship?
Read the QuoteIsabella
At what hour tomorrow
Shall I attend your Lordship?
Angelo
At any time ‘fore noon.
Isabella
Save your honor.
She exits, with Lucio and Provost.
O cunning enemy that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook.
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