to gather the plain meaning regardless of the figures: A stubborn and unconquerable flame Lady Jane Gray, Act I. Se. 1. Copied from Ovid, Sorbent avidæ præcordia flammæ. Metamorph. lib. ix. 172. Let us analyse this expression. That a fever may be imagined a flame, I admit; though more than one step is necessary to come at the resemblance: a fever, by heating the body, resembles fire; and it is no stretch to imagine a fever to be a fire: again, by a figure of speech, flame may be put for fire, because they are commonly conjoined; and therefore a fever may be termed a flame. But now admitting a fever to be a flame, its effects ought to be explained in words that agree literally to a flame. This rule is not observed here; for a flame drinks figuratively only, not properly. King Henry to his son Prince Henry: Thou hid'st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts, Second Part, Henry IV. Act IV. Sc. 11. Such faulty metaphors are pleasantly ridiculed in the Rehearsal: Physician. Sir, to conclude, the place you fill has more than amply exacted the talents of a wary pilot; and all these threatening storms, which like impregnate clouds, hover o'er our heads, will, when they once are grasped but by the eye of reason, melt into fruitful showers of blessings on the people. Bayes. Pray mark that allegory. Is not that good? Johnson. Yes, that grasping of a storm with the eye is admirable. Act II. Sc. 1. Fifthly, The jumbling different metaphors in the same sentence, beginning with one metaphor and ending with another, commonly called a mixt metaphor, ought never to be indulged. Quintillian bears testimony against it in the bitterest terms; "Nam id quoque in primis est custodiendum, ut quo ex genere cœperis translationis, hoc desinas. "Multi enim, cum initium a tempestate sumpserunt, "incendio aut ruina finiunt: quæ est inconsequen"tia rerum fœdissima." L. viii. cap. vi. sect. 2. 66 K. Henry. -Will you again unknit This churlish knot of all-abhorred war, And move in that obedient orb again, Where you did give a fair and natural light?. First Part, Henry VI. Act V. Sc. 1. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind, to suffer Hamlet, Act III. Sc. 2. In the sixth place, It is unpleasant to join different metaphors in the same period, even where they are preserved distinct: for when the subject is imagined to be first one thing and then another, in the same period without interval, the mind is distracted by the rapid transition; and when the imagination is put on such hard duty, its images are too faint to produce any good effect: At regina gravi jamdudum saucia eura, Eneid, iv. 1. -Est mollis fiamma medullas Interea, et tacitum vivit sub pectore vulnus. Eneid, iv. 66. Motum ex Metello consule civicum, Bellique causas, et vitia, et modos, Principum amicitias, et arına Nondum expiatis uncta cruoribus, Horat. Carm. 1. ii. ode 1. In the last place, It is still worse to jumble together metaphorical and natural expression, so as that the period must be understood in part metaphorically, in part literally; for the imagination cannot follow with sufficient ease changes so sudden and unprepared: a metaphor begun and not carried on hath no beauty: and instead of light there is nothing but obscurity and confusion. Instances of such incorrect composition are without number. I shall, for a specimen, select a few from different authors. Speaking of Britain, This precious stone set in the sea, Richard 11. Act I. Sc. 1. In the first line Britain is figured to be a precious stone: in the following lines, Britain, divested of her metaphorical dress, is presented to the reader in her natural appearance. These growing feathers, pluck'd from Cæsar's wing, Will make him fly an ordinary pitch, Who else would soar above the view of men, And keep us all in servile fearfulnes. Rebus angustis animosus atque Julius Cesar, Act I. Sc. 1. Fortis adpare: sapienter idem Hor. The following is a à miserable jumble of expressions, arising from an unsteady view of the sub ject, between its figurative and natural appear ance: But now from gath'ring clouds destruction pours, Dispensary, canto iii. To thee, the world its present homage pays, Pope's Imitation of Horace, b. ii. Oui, sa pudeur n'est que franche grimace, Moliere, l'Etourdi, Act III. Sc 2. Et son feu, depourû de sense et de lecture, Boileau, l'Art Poetique, Chant. iii. I. $19. Dryden, in his dedication of the translation of Juvenal, says, When thus, as I may say, before the use of the loadstone, or knowledge of the compass, I was sailing in a vast ocean, without other help than the pole-star of the ancients, and the rules of the French stage among the moderns, &c. There is a time when factions, by the vehemence of their own fermentation, stun and disable one another. Bolingbroke. This fault of jumbling the figure and plain expression into one confused mass, is not less common in allegory than in metaphor. Take the following examples: Heu! quoties fidem, Mutatosque Deos flebit, et aspera Nigris æquora ventis Emirabitur insolens, Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aureâ : Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem Sperat, nescius auræ Fallacis. Horat. Carm. 1. i. ode 1. Pour moi sur cette mer, qu'ici bas nous courons, Boileau, Epitre, v. Lord Halifax, speaking of the ancient fabulists; "They (says he) wrote in signs, and spoke in pa rables: all their fables carry a double meaning; "the story is one and entire; the characters the "same throughout; not broken or changed, and "always conformable to the nature of the creature "they introduce. They never tell you, that the 66 dog which snapp'd at a shadow, lost his troop of "horse; that would be unintelligible. This is his "(Dryden's) new way of telling a story, and con"founding the moral and the fable together." After instancing from the hind and panther, he goes on thus: "What relation has the hind to our Sa"viour: or what notion have we of a panther's "Bible? If you say he means the church, how "does the church feed on lawns, or range in the "forest? Let it be always a church, or always a "cloven-footed beast, for we cannot bear his shift"ing the scene every line." A few words more upon allegory. Nothing gives greater pleasure than this figure, when the representative subject bears a strong analogy, in all its circumstances, to that which is represented; but the choice is seldom so lucky; the analogy being generally so faint and obscure, as to puzzle and not please. An allegory is still more difficult in painting than in poetry; the former can show no resemblance but what appears to the eye; the latter hath many other resources for showing the resemblance. And therefore, with respect to what the Abbe Du Bos* terms mixt allegorical Reflections sur la Poesie, vol. i. sect. 24. |