their servants were new, their plate was new, their carriage was new, their harness was new, their horses were new, their pictures were new, they themselves were new, they were as newly married as was lawfully compatible with their having a bran-new baby. . . .
Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1865)
Those examples involve changes in the subject of the sentence; here is the same idea with a change made in the object:
They will have their courts still; they will have their ballot-boxes still; they will have their elections still; they will have their representatives upon this floor still; they will have taxation and representation still; they will have the writ of habeas corpus still; they will have every privilege they ever had and all we desire.
Baker, speech in the Senate (1861)
The general effect in all the cases just seen is similar. The differences between the examples are made subordinate to the points they have in common. That last passage could as easily – probably more easily – have been written by putting still closer to the middle of each clause (they will still have, etc.); pushing it to the end lends the word more weight and makes the statements seem more completely parallel. And think a bit about the sound of the word. Still is a single accented syllable ending with a liquid consonant – meaning, for our purposes, a consonant that is made without friction and that can be sustained when it is said, almost like a vowel (unlike, say, ck, which stops, or p, which explodes). If still goes into the middle of a sentence it can easily be truncated, with its ending lost in the movement to the next word. When it ends a sentence, still gets sounded out more completely and it invites a little pause afterwards. So the use of epistrophe gives the word a more forceful sound as well as a more forceful placement.
b. Changes of a modifier; as when describing the same thing several ways.
They were not respectable people – they were not worthy people – they were not learned and wise and brilliant people – but in their breasts, all their stupid lives long, resteth a peace that passeth understanding!
Twain, The Innocents Abroad (1869)
Each modifier gets its own clause, and the thing under discussion is carved up into categories as the speaker goes along. These constructions also tend to give the modifiers more power than they would have had if strung on a list. When most of the words in each clause are the same, the stress in reading or speaking them falls hard on the changed adjective.
I’ll state the fact of it to you. It’s the pleasantest work there is, and it’s the lightest work there is, and it’s the best-paid work there is.
Dickens, Hard Times (1854)
I believe, in spite of recent events, there is as great a store of kindness in the German peasant as in any peasant in the world. But he has been drilled into a false idea of civilization, – efficiency, capability. It is a hard civilization; it is a selfish civilization; it is a material civilization.
Lloyd George, International Honour (1914)
The same theme is useful for comparing the same two things in different respects:
I am a donkey, that’s what I am. I am as obstinate as one, I am more stupid than one, I get as much pleasure as one, and I should like to kick like one.
Dickens, Hard Times (1854)
c. Changes of the verb; as when describing the same person doing or not doing different things in the same way.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13:11
He confiscates, as your fathers did; he banishes as they did; he debases as they did; he violates the instincts of human nature, and from the parent tears the child, as they did; and he inflicts upon a Catholic people a church alien to their national habits, feelings, and belief as you do.
Sheil, speech in the House of Commons (1836)
[T]he legislature shall pass no act directly and manifestly impairing private property and private privileges. It shall not judge by act. It shall not decide by act. It shall not deprive by act. But it shall leave all these things to be tried and adjudged by the law of the land.
Webster, argument in Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1818)
You knew what was going to happen. You intended it to happen. You wanted it to happen. You are glad it has happened; and it serves you right.
Shaw, The Irrational Knot (1905)
4. Independent statements followed by identical commentaries; as when various deeds by the same actor lead to the same outcome or judgment.
We are fond of talking about “liberty”; that, as we talk of it, is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about “progress”; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about “education”; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good.
Chesterton, Heretics (1905)
The repetition of the verbal pattern matches the claim that seemingly different acts serve the same purpose.
There is an agreement that the boards of accounts and stamps should be united; that agreement they violated. There is an agreement that the revenue board should be confined to seven commissioners; that agreement they violate. There is a King’s letter, declaring that the salaries of the ordnance shall be reduced; that declaration they violate. There are principles and law against the sale of honours; those principles and law they have violated.
Grattan, speech in the Irish Parliament (1790)
Buonaparte, it seems, is to reconcile every thing by the gift of a free constitution. He took possession of Holland, he did not give her a free constitution; he took possession of Spain, he did not give her a free constitution; he took possession of Switzerland, whose independence he had guaranteed, he did not give her a free constitution; he took possession of Italy, he did not give her a free constitution; he took possession of France, he did not give her a free constitution; on the contrary, he destroyed the directorial constitution, he destroyed the consular constitution, and he destroyed the late constitution, formed on the plan of England!
Grattan, speech in the House of Commons (1815)
A related construction applies symploce to statements of an “if, then” character: again a variety of possibilities all come to the same result in sound and substance.
The Conservative party are accused of having no programme of policy. If by a programme is meant a plan to despoil churches and plunder landlords, I admit we have no programme. If by a programme is meant a policy which assails or menaces every institution and every interest, every class and every calling in the country, I admit we have no programme.
Disraeli, speech at Manchester (1872)
If, living in Italy, you admire Italian art while distrusting Italian character, you are a tourist, or cad. If, living in Italy, you admire Italian art while despising Italian religion, you are a tourist, or cad. It does not matter how many years you have lived there.
Chesterton, The Aristocratic ’Arry (1912)
5. Lengthenings. As with all other figures of repetition, the impact of symploce often is increased when it is combined with variety in the length or rhythm of the phrases involved. One possibility, familiar from earlier chapters, is to lengthen the last section. The repetition at the start and end continues, but the structure is varied:
That Angelo’s forsworn, is it not strange?
That Angelo’s a murderer, is’t not strange?
That Angelo is an adulterous thief,
An hypocrite, a virgin-violator,
Is it not strange and strange?
Measure for Measure, 5, 1
O, what men dare do! what men may do! what