De Elocutione: Grace & Charm of Humor

De Elocutione (On Style), allegedly by Demetrius Phalereus, bears similarities to Tractatus Coislinianus in that it is likewise related to Aristotle’s theories and concerned with the production of humor. Opinions clash over its author and date (See Figueroa-Dorrego & Larkin-Galiñanes, Footnote 10, 32).

De Elocutione defines four types of style: the elevated, the elegant, the plain, and the forcible. Among them, the elegant style alone addresses the production of laughter and the humoristic discourse. For Demetrius (since De Elocutione is always attributed to Demetrius: Demetrius Phalereus, Demetrius of Plutarch... The only problem is that there is no telling which Demetrius is the author.), the elegant style is characterized by two qualities: grace and charm.

Grace may arise from terse wording, designed syntax, figures of speech, or unexpected play of words. In the latter part of the discussion of the elegant style, Demetrius elaborates on charm while distinguishing “the humorous” and “the charming”:

                         --table content based on Figueroa-Dorrego & Larkin-Galiñanes 33

As stated above, the elegant style, which addresses laughter and humor, is characterized by grace and charm: grace comes from the unexpected and unconventional use of language; charm lies in a virtuous, pleasurable, and poetic verbal delivery wrought with wit. Humor then (humor in its general, modern sense; not humor in Demetrius’ “the humorous”) is a high-brow performance of language skill applied to a proper object (a person or an inanimated item) on a proper occasion without hurting feelings and with a demonstration of wit.

According to Figueroa-Dorrego & Larkin-Galiñanes, Demetrius sides with Aristotle, for, like Aristotle, he agrees that “humour depends on incongruity” and sees the use of humor “as a rhetorical or stylistic device” (32-33).

The following link will lead you to a site dedicated to the complete English translation of De Elocutione by W. Rhys Roberts (1858-1929). Since the webpage offers no means to contact the compiler of the on-line e-text of De Elocutione and late Mr. Roberts’ translation may well enter the public domain, I then take the liberty to share the link here:
http://fxylib.znufe.edu.cn/wgfljd/%B9%C5%B5%E4%D0%DE%B4%C7%D1%A7/pw/demetrius/index.htm
If this link or the linked website raises any copyright issue, please let me know. I shall remove the link immediately.

The source site of the above link features three translated works by W. Rhys Roberts, including On Style (De Elocutione), On the Sublime by pseudo-Longinus, and Rhetoric by Aristotle:
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Roberts%2C%20W.%20Rhys%20(William%20Rhys)%2C%201858-1929