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; 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 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: Cowley, vol. i. p. 186. Such a play of words is pleasant in a ludicrous poem. Almeria. O Alphonso, Alphonso! 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. 838. Erramus pelago, totidem sine sidere noctes. Eneid, iii. 203. 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: 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, Hamlet. Odyssey, i. 489. worse to graft one Iliad, xi. 211. While his keen falchion drinks the warriors' lives. 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 grafting of one figure on another. Scribéris 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, 738. 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 circumstances 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 effect when accurately constructed and properly introduced, they ought however 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 extent 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 truth, it is little disposed to the operations of the imagination. Strada's Belgic history 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. example, the impulse upon the ground is proportioned in some degree to the celerity of motion: though in appearance it is otherwise; for a person in swift motion seems to skim the ground, and scarcely to touch it. Virgil, with great taste, describes quick running according to appearance; and raises an image far more lively than by adhering scrupulously to truth: Hos super advenit Volsca de gente Camilla, Agmen agens equitum et florentes ære catervas, Eneid, vii. 803. This example is copied by the author of Telemachus: Les Brutiens sont légères à la course comme les cerfs, et comme les daims. On croirait que l'herbe même la plus tendre n'est point foulée sous leurs pieds; à peine laissent-ils dans le sable quelques traces de leurs pas. Liv. X. 549. Fourth, In narration as well as in description, objects ought to be painted so accurately as to form in the mind of the reader distinct and lively images. Every useless circumstance ought indeed to be suppressed, because every such circumstance loads the narration; but if a circumstance be necessary, however slight, it cannot be described too minutely. The force of language consists in raising complete images (chap. ii. part i. sec. 7); which have the effect to transport the reader as by magic into the very place of the important action, and to convert him as it were into a spectator, beholding every thing that passes. The narrative in an epic poem ought to rival a picture in the liveliness and accuracy of its representations: no circumstance must be omitted that tends to make a complete image; because an imperfect image, as well as any other imperfect conception, is cold and uninteresting. I shall illustrate this rule by several examples, giving the first place to a beautiful passage from Virgil: Qualis populea morens Philomela sub umbrâ Observans nido implumes detraxit.-Georg. lib. iv. l. 511. The poplar, ploughman, and unfledged young, though not essential in the description, tend to make a complete image, and upon that account are an embellishment. Again: Hic viridem Æneas frondenti ex ilice metam Horace, addressing to Fortune: 549. Where the subject is intended for entertainment solely, how ought a thing to be described? |