| Figure Name | pysma |
| Source | Silva Rhetoricae (http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Silva.htm) |
| Earliest Source | None |
| Synonyms | quaesitio, quaesitum |
| Etymology | Gk. "question" |
| Type | Chroma |
| Linguistic Domain |
Syntactic |
| Definition |
1. The asking of multiple questions successively (which would together require a complex reply). A rhetorical use of the question. (Silva Rhetoricae) 2. Pysma is a figure by which the Orator doth demaund many times together, and use many questions in one place, whereby he maketh his speech very sharpe and vehement, and it differeth from Erotema, forasmuch as that may be answered with one word either graunting or denying, but this not without many. Cicero for Roscius: In what place did he speake with them? with whom did he speake? did he hire them? whom did he hire, and by whom? To what end, or how much did he give them? (Peacham) |
| Example |
2. "Will the Lord absent himselfe for ever, and will hee be no more intreated? Is his mercy cleane gone for ever? and is his promise come utterly to an end for evermore? hath God forgotten to be gracious? and will hee shut up his loving kindnesse in displeasure?" Psal. (Peacham) |
| Kind Of | Series |
| Part Of | |
| Related Figures | figures of consultation |
| Notes | This figure serveth fitly for pittifull complaints, provocations, insultations, confirmations, and such like: and like as the former, it is mighty to confirme, to confute, to provoke, to cause attention, to moove affections, and it is well and aptly represented in the conflict of battaile, as in the manifold strokes of the sword, thicke volies of arrowes, and in the thundring peales of cannon shot. (Peacham) |
| Confidence | Unconfident |
| Last Editor | Ashley Rose Kelly |
| Confidence | Unconfident |
| Editorial Notes | |
| Reviewed | No |