Talis actor, qualis orator: encenando o discurso oratório

Abstract

If the 11th book of Quintilians Institutio oratoria has been considered one of the most complete manuals of forensic performance in Ancient Rome, the sixth book, by presenting the instructions for a well-made peroration performance, curiously approximates the orators action to the theatrical actors action in the sophisticated art of manipulating emotions of the audience. This dissertation aims to show that the complete translation of the first chapter of the sixth book has pointed out similarities between good actors and good orators regarding their objectives, techniques and performance itself, as well as a vast common vocabulary between the two arts. It is also intended to bring to discussion, by means of first books eleventh chapter translation, Quintilians educational project to rear the man that would become a uir bonus dicendi peritus, providing the students not only with technical and theoretical knowledge of oratory, but, especially, moral and practical aspects of the forensic practice that will build the orators Œthos. Concerned about performance of the orators of his time and, particularly, about a certain excess of drama that he observed in public speeches, Quintilian pioneers a distinct schooling formation by offering a teacher for each of the stages that would constitute the educational background of the future orator. Concomitantly with the formation of the grammaticus in which the orators learn, by reading literary texts, technical precepts of the rhetorical art Quintilian proposes as part of his oratory education the observation of dramatic actor, the stage of learning, as far as it is known, instituted and discussed only in the Institutio, a practical dimension for those instructions that were taught by the grammaticus. In the rhetors school, they would learn the precepts of rhetoric from tasks that would help them to develop their eloquence. It is also desired to demarcate the limits of forensic practice, which is often supported by principles of scenic performance, by investigating the theatrical references that are present in the translated chapters from the Institutio oratoria, in view of the multiple similarities between the two arts, which allow us to establish relations between the stage and the forum, as well as between the orator and the actor when what is being considered, during the narration of a case, is the persuasion of the audience.