exposed to reprehension. His desire to eevate and recommend a subject which had little in it to interest the understanding or the passions, and which depended almost entirely on the imagination, and the influence of picturesque description (the powers of which were in some measure untried and unknown), seems to have prompted him to call into his service every poetical embellishment of which he could with any propri sty lay hold. He scruples not to personify on the most trivial occasions; but what is much more exceptionable, to these ideal personages he affixes many ideal attributes, which have little relation or resemblance to any thing that exists in nature. He enfeebles his diction by overloading it with epithets, and he obstructs the impression by the variety or tautology of his metaphors. What conception can arise, or what impulse can result, from the following combinations? Lone quiet,' 'pining grove,' 'pale dreary,'' solid gloom,' and a thousand more of the same species? Such figures, however, abound chiefly in the first editions of the Seasons; many of them were afterwards improved or expunged. It is to be regretted, that the author or his friends had not been still more industrious to correct or suppress them. They are the chief blemishes of a poem, in other respects one of the most beautiful of its kind which any age has produced."-Barron, Lect. 17.] Secondly, The proper sense of the word ought to bear some proportion to the figurative sense, and not soar much above it, nor sink much below it. 541. Thirdly, In a figure of speech, every circumstance ought to be avoided that agrees with the proper sense only, not the figurative sense; for it is the latter that expresses the thought, and the former serves for no other purpose but to make harmony: Zacynthus green with ever-shady groves, Odyssey, xix. 152. Zacynthus here standing figuratively for the inhabitants, the description of the island is quite out of place; it puzzles the reader, by making him doubt whether the word ought to be taken in its proper or figurative sense. Write, my Queen, And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you send, The disgust one has to drink ink in reality, is not to the purpose where the subject is drinking ink figuratively. In the fourth place, To draw consequences from a figure of speech, as if the word were to be understood literally, is a gross absurdity, for it is confounding truth with fiction. 540. On what the beauty of figure of speech depends. Examples of too slight resemblance, and of no resemblance between the figurative and proper sense of the word.➡ Barron's criticism on Thomson.-The proportion of the proper to the figurative sense. Be Moubray's sins so heavy in his bosom, Richard II. Act I. Sc. 3. Sin may be imagined heavy in a figurative sense; but weight in a proper sense belongs to the accessory only; ard therefore to describe the effects of weight, is to desert the principal subject, and to conver the accessory into a principal: Cromwell. How does your Grace? Wolsey. Why, well, Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell. A still and quiet conscience. The king has cured me, A load would sink a navy, too much honor. Ulysses speaking of Hector: Henry VIII. Act III. Sc. 3. I wonder now how yonder city stands, Troilus and Cressida, Act IV. Sc. 9. Othello. No; my heart is turn'd to stene: I strike it, and it hurts my hand. Othello, Act IV. Sc. 5 Not less, even in this despicable now, Don Sebastian, King of Portugal, Act I How long a space, since first I loved, it is And am surprised with wonder when I miss Cowley, vol. i. p. 86. I chose the flourishing'st tree in all the park, I cut my love into his gentle bark, And in three days behold 'tis dead: Cowley, vol. i. p. 186. Such a play of words is pleasant in a ludicrous poem. Almeria. O Alphonso, Alphonso! Devouring seas have wash'd thee from my sight, Mourning Bride, Act I. Sc. 1. This would be very right, if there were any inconsistence in being interred in one place really, and in another place figuratively. In me tota ruens Venus Horat. Carm. 1. i. ode 19. 541. Circumstances to be avoided.-The drawing of consequences from a figure of speech Examples. 542. From considering that a word used in a figurative sense suggests at the same time its proper meaning, we discover a fifth rule, That we ought not to employ a word in a figurative sense, the proper sense of which is inconsistent or incongruous with the subject; for every inconsistency, and even incongruity, though in the expression only and not real, is unpleasant: Interea genitor Tyberini ad fluminis undam Tres adeo incertos cæca caligine soles Eneid, x. 833. Erramus pelago, totidem sine sidere noctes. Eneid, iii. 208. The foregoing rule may be extended to form a sixth, That no epithet ought to be given to the figurative sense of a word that agrees not also with its proper sense: -Dicat Opuntia Frater Megillæ, quo beatus Horat. Carm. lib. i. ode 27. Parcus deorum cultor, et infrequens, Insanientis dum sapientiæ Consultus erro. Horat. Carm. lib. i. ode 34. 543. Seventhly, The crowding into one period or thought different figures of speech, is not less faulty than crowding metaphors in that manner; the mind is distracted in the quick transition from one image to another, and is puzzled instead of being pleased: I am of ladies most deject and wretched, Eighthly, If crowding figures be bad, it is still figure upon another: for instance, While his keen falchion drinks the warriors' lives. Hamlet. Odyssey, i. 439. worse to graft one Пiad, xi. 211. A falchion drinking the warrior's blood is a figure built upon resemblance, which is passable. But then in the expression, lives is again put for blood; and by thus grafting one figure upon another, the expression is rendered obscure and unpleasant. 544. Ninthly, Intricate and involved figures that can scarce be analyzed, or reduced to plain language, are least of all tolerable. 542. What word should not be employed in a figurative sense.-What epithet should not be given to the figurative sense of a word. 543. The crowding of different figures of speech into one period or thought.-The graft ing of one figure on another Scribêris Vario fortis, et Hostium Victor, Mæonii carminis alite. Horat. Carm. lib. i. ode 6. Else shall our fates be number'd with the dead.-Iliad, v. 294. Commutual death the fate of war confounds. Iliad, viii. 85, and xi. 117 Rolling convulsive on the floor, is seen The distant waterfall swells in the breeze. Ibid. iv. 952. Winter, 788. 545. In the tenth place, When a subject is introduced by its proper name, it is absurd to attribute to it the properties of a different subject to which the word is sometimes applied in a figurative sense: Hear me, oh Neptune! thou whose arms are hurl'd From shore to shore, and gird the solid world.-Odyssey, ix. 617. Neptune is here introduced personally, and not figuratively, for the ocean the description, therefore, which is only applicable to the latter, is altogether improper. It is not sufficient that a figure of speech be regularly constructed, and be free from blemish: it requires taste to discern when it is proper, when improper; and taste, I suspect, is our only guide. One however may gather from reflection and experience, that ornaments and graces suit not any of the dispiriting passions, nor are proper for expressing any thing grave and important. In familiar conversation, they are in some measure ridiculous. Prospero, in the Tempest, speaking to his daughter Miranda, says, The fringed curtains of thine eyes advance, And say what thou seest 'yond. No exception can be taken to the justness of the figure; and cir cumstances may be imagined to make it proper; but it is certainly not proper in familiar conversation. In the last place, Though figures of speech have a charming ef fect when accurately constructed and properly introduced, they ought nowever to be scattered with a sparing hand; nothing is more luscious, and nothing consequently more satiating, than redundant ornaments of any kind. 544. Intricate and involved figures. 545. When a subject is introduced by its proper name, what is it absurd to attribute to it ?-When a figure of speech is not to be used. To what exter to be used CHAPTER XXI. NARRATION AND DESCRIPTION. 546. THE first rule is, That in history, the reflections ought to be chaste and solid; for while the mind is intent upon truin, it is little disposed to the operations of the imagination. Strada's Belgic his tory is full of poetical images, which discording with the subject, are unpleasant; and they have a still worse effect, by giving an air of fiction to a genuine history. Such flowers ought to be scattered with a sparing hand, even in epic poetry; and at no rate are they proper, till the reader be warmed, and by an enlivened imagination be prepared to relish them; in that state of mind they are agreeable; but while we are sedate and attentive to an historical chain of facts, we reject with disdain every fiction. 547. Second, Vida, following Horace, recommends a modest commencement of an epic poem; giving for a reason, that the writer ought to husband his fire. This reason has weight; but what is said above suggests a reason still more weighty: bold thoughts and figures are never relished till the mind be heated and thoroughly engaged, which is not the reader's case at the commencement. Homer introduces not a single simile in the first book of the Iliad, nor in the first book of the Odyssey. On the other hand, Shakspeare begins one of his plays with a sentiment too bold for the most heated imagination: Bedford. Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night! Comets, importing change of times and states, Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky, And with them scourge the bad revolting stars, First Part Henry VI. A third reason ought to have no less influence than either of the former, That a man, who, upon his first appearance, strains to make a figure, is too ostentatious to be relished. Hence the first sentences of a work ought to be short, natural, and simple. Cicero, in his oration pro Archia poeta, errs against this rule: his reader is out of breath at the very first period; which seems never to end. Burnet begins the History of his Own Times with a period long and in tricate. 548. A third rule or observation is, That where the subject is intended for entertainment solely, not for instruction, a thing ought to be described as it appears, not as it is in reality. In running, for 546. Rule for reflections in history. 547. How an epic poem should be commenced. |