Speaking of cranes: The pigmy nations, wounds and death they bring, Cool age advances venerably wise.-Iliad, iii. 149. The peculiar beauty of this figure arises from suggesting an attri bute that embellishes the subject, or puts it in a stronger light. 6. A complex term employed figuratively to denote one of the component parts. Funus for a dead body. Burial for a grave. 7. The name of one of the component parts instead of the complex term. Tada for a marriage. The East for a country situated east from us. Jovis vestigia servat, for imitating Jupiter in general. 8. A word signifying time or place, employed figuratively to denote what is connected with it. Clime for a nation, or for a constitution of government; hence the expression Merciful clime. Fleecy winter for snow, Seculum felix. 9. A part for the whole. The Pole for the earth. The head for the person: Triginta minas pro capite tuo dedi. Plautus. Thy growing virtues justified my cares, And promised comfort to my silver hairs.-Iliad, ix. 616. -Forthwith from the pool he rears His mighty stature. The silent heart with grief assails. Paradise Lost. Parnell. The peculiar beauty of this figure consists in marking that part which makes the greatest figure. 10. The name of the container, employed figuratively to signify what is contained. Grove for the birds in it, Vocal grove. Ships for the seamen, Agonizing ships. Mountains for the sheep pasturing upon them, Bleating mountains. Zacynthus, Ithaca, &c., for the inhabitants. Ex mastis domibus, Livy. 11. The name of the sustainer, employed figuratively to signify what is sustained. Altar for the sacrifice. Field for the battle fought upon it, Wellfought field. 12. The name of the materials, employed figuratively to signify the things made of them. Ferrum for gladius. 13. The names of the heathen deities, employed figuratively to signify what they patronize. Jove for the air, Mars for war, Venus for beauty, Cupid for love, Ceres for corn, Neptune for the sea, Vulcan for fire. The figure bestows great elevation upon the subject; and therefore ought to be confined to the higher strains of poetry. SECOND TABLE. Attributes expressed figuratively. 539. When two attributes are connected, the name of the one may be employed figuratively to express the other. 1. Purity and virginity are attributes of the same person: hence the expression, Virgin snow, for pure snow. 2. A word signifying properly an attribute of one subject, employed figuratively to express a resembling attribute of another subject. Tottering state. Imperious ocean. Angry flood. Raging tempest. Shallow fears. My sure divinity shall bear the shield, Odyssey, xx. 61. Black omen, for an omen that portends bad fortune. The peculiar beauty of this figure arises from suggesting a comparison. 3. A word proper to the subject, employed to express one of its attributes. 4. When two subjects have a resemblance by a common quality, the name of the one subject may be employed figuratively to denote that quality in the other. Summer life for agreeable life. 538. The several relations on which figures of speech are founded.-First Table.-SubJects expressed figuratively. 539. Second table.-Attributes expressed figuratively. 5. The name of the instrument made to signify the power of employing it. Melpomene, cui liquidam pater Vocem cum cithera, dedit. 540. The ample field of figurative expression displayed in these tables, affords great scope for reasoning. Several of the observations relating to metaphor, are applicable to figures of speech: these I shall slightly retouch, with some additions peculiarly adapted to the present subject. In the first place, as the figure under consideration is built upon relation, we find from experience, and it must be obvious from reason, that the beauty of the figure depends on the intimacy of the relation between the figurative and proper sense of the word. A slight resemblance, in particular, will never make this figure agreeable; the expression, for example, Drink down a secret, for listening to a secret with attention, is harsh and uncouth, because there is scarce any resemblance between listening and drinking. The expression weighty crack, used by Ben Jonson for loud crack, is worse if possible: a loud sound has not the slightest resemblance to a piece of matter that is weighty. The following expression of Lucretius is not less faulty: "Et lepido quæ sunt fucata sonore.' (i. 645.) Sed magis Pugnas et exactos tyrannos Horat. Carm. 1. ii. ode 13. Phemius! let acts of gods and heroes old, What ancient bards in hall and bower have told, Attemper'd to the lyre, your voice employ, Such the pleased ear will drink with silent joy.-Odyssey, i. 488. Strepitumque exterritus hausit. Write, my Queen, Eneid, vi. 559. And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you send. Cymbeline, Act I. Sc. 2. As thus the effulgence tremulous I drink. Summer, 1. 1684. Neque audit currus habenas. Georg. i. 514. O prince! (Lycaon's valiant son replied), As thine the steeds, be thine the task to guide. The horses, practised to their lord's command, Shall hear the rein, and answer to thy hand. Iliad, v. 288. The following figures of speech seem altogether wild and extravagant, figurative and proper meaning having no connection whatever. Moving softness, Freshness breathes, Breathing prospect, Flowing spring, Dewy light, Lucid coolness, and many others of this false coin, may be found in Thomson's Seasons. ["Of all late writers of merit who have indulged in remote or unmeaning metaphors, Thomson, in his Seasons, is perhaps most exposed to reprehension. His desire to elevate 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 propriety 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.] เ 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, And Ithaca, presumptuous boast their loves; 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 resem blance, and of no resemblance between the figurative and proper sense of the wordBarron'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. 8. Sin may be imagined heavy in a figurative sense; but weight in a proper sense belongs to the accessory only; and therefore to describe the effects of weight, is to desert the principal subject, and to convert the accessory into a principal: Cromwell. How does your Grace? Wolsey. Why, well, Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell. A peace above all earthly dignities, 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. 6. I wonder now how yonder city stands, Troilus and Cressida, Act IV. Sc. 9. Othello. No; my heart is turn'd to stone: 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: They've burnt and wither'd up the tree. 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. |