We are in the presence of amazing powers of memory. And, according to Cicero, these natural powers were indeed aided by training of the type described in Ad Herennium. The specimen image just described was a memory for things image; it was designed to recall the things or facts ofthe case and the following loci of the system would presumably have held other memory for things images, recording other facts about the case or arguments used in speeches by the defence or the prosecution. The other two specimen images given in Ad Herennium are memory for words images. The student wishing to acquire memory for words begins in the same way as the memory for things student; that is to say he memorises places which are to hold his images. But he is con- fronted with a harder task for far more places will be needed to memorise all the words of a speech than would be needed for its notions. The specimen images for memory for words are of the same type as the memory for things image, that is to say they represent human figures of a striking and unusual character and in striking dramatic situations-imagines agentes. We are setting out to memorise this line of verse: lam domum itionem reges Atridae parant12(And now their homecoming the kings, the sons of Atreus are making ready) The line is found only in the quotation of it in Ad Herennium and was either invented by the author to exhibit his mnemonic tech- nique or was taken for some lost work. It is to be memorised through two very extraordinary images. One is Domitius raising his hands to heaven while he islashed by the Marcii Reges. The translator and editor of the text in the Loeb edition (H. Caplan) explains in a note that Rex was the name of one of the most distinguished families of the Marcian gens; the Domitian, of plebeian origin, was likewise a celebrated gens. The image may reflect some street scene in which Domitius of the plebeian gens (perhaps bloodstained to make him more memorable) is being beaten up by some members of the dis- tinguished Rex family. It was perhaps a scene which the author himself had witnessed. Or perhaps it was a scene in some play. It was a striking scene in every sense of the word and therefore suitable as a mnemonic image. It was put on a place for remember- ing this line. The vivid image immediately brought to mind Domitius-Reges and this reminded by sound resemblance of domum itionem reges. It thus exhibits the principles of a memory for words image which brings to mind the words which the memory is seeking through their sound resemblance to the notion suggested by the image. We all know how, when groping in memory for a word or a name, some quite absurd and random association, something which has stuck in the memory, will help us to dredge it up. The classical art is systematising that process. The other image for memorising the rest of the line is Aesopus and Cimber being dressed for the roles of Agamemnon and Menelaus in Iphigenaia. Aesopus was a well-known tragic actor, a friend of Cicero; Cimber, evidently also an actor, is only men- tioned in this text.13 The play in which they are preparing to act also does not exist. In the image these actors are being dressed to play the parts ofthe sons of Atreus (Agamemnon and Menelaus). I t is an exciting off-stage glimpse o f two famous actors being made up (to smear an image with red paint makes it memorable according to the rwes) and dressed for their parts. Such a scene has all the elements of a good mnemonic image; we therefore use it to remember Atridae parant, the sons of Atreus are making ready. This image immediately gave the word Atridae (though not by sound resemblance) and also suggested making ready for the home-coming through the actors making ready for the stage. This method for memorising the verse will not work by itself, says the author of A d Herenmum. We must go over the verse three or four times, that is learn it by heart in the usual way, and then represent the words by means of images. In this way art will sup- plement nature. For neither by itself will be strong enough, though we must note that theory and technique are much the more reliable. 14 The fact that we have to learn the poem by heart as well, makes memory for words a little less baffling. Reflecting on the memory for words images, we note that our author seems now concerned not with the rhetoric students proper business .of remembering a speech, but with memorising verse in poems or plays. To remember a whole poem or a whole play in this way one has to envisage places extending one might almost say for miles within the memory, places past which one moves in reciting, drawing from them the mnemonic cues. And perhaps that word cue does give a clue to how the method might be workable. Did one really learn the poem by heart but set up some places with cue images on them at strategic intervals? --Francis Yates, Art of Memory, 1966.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 18:25:43 +0000
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