Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IV.?/ NUNC AND /WITH ANOTHER IMPERATIVE. The formula i nunc, it may be prefaced in a general way, was not used under ordinary circumstances. It marks the presence, and is the product, of a stress of emotion. It gives expression to feelings varying in regard to their source and degree of complexity. It might indicate impatience or resignation, might spring from vexation or disgust, might give outlet to sarcasm or ridicule, might be used in a serio-comic sense, might even give vent to an outburst of anger, the degree in each case depending upon the occasion, the amount of offence taken and the excitement aroused. Hence it adds an unmistakable flavor to the narrative and throws no uncertain light upon the state of mind of the writer, being, as it were, a mental barometer. Its stylistic importance has not been overlooked, and references to it appear sporadically in commentaries that go back a number of years. In some cases a limited number of examples have been added. Jahn, ad Pers. IV 19, says: frequentissima irridentis vel exprobantis formula, semper imperativum alterum adiunctum habet, vel addita particula copulativa. He then cites some examples of each of these usages, but the lists are incomplete and some of the passages confused. He cites Ovid, Her. IV 127, for the first class, but here there is no conjunction. Senec. Helv. VI 10 is cited instead of VI 8. In the second class, asyndeton, Ovid, Her. IX 105, Am. I 7, 35 and A. A. II 635 have the conjunction et. Hand, Turs. IV, p. 341, says: Cum imperative et cum coniunctivo adhortationis nunc componitur, ut rerum status, in quo iussum nitatur, appareat: nee raro cum quodam sarcasmo. He cites Lambinus ad Hor. Epist. 16, 17: Concessio est dissimulationis et irrisionis plena, qua utuntur Latini, quum vel a re quapiam deterren...