This sword a dagger had his page, HUDIBRAS, CANTO I. Description of Hudibras's horse: He was well stay'd, and in his gait CANTO I. The sun had long since, in the lap PART II. CANTO 2. The most accomplished way of using books at present, is to serve them as some do lords,-learn their titles, and then brag of their acquaintance. Box'd in a chair the beau impatient sits, While spouts run clatt'ring o'er the roof by fits; The leather sounds; he trembles from within. IBID. DESCRIPTION OF A CITY SHOWER. SWIFT. REVIEW. What are the purposes of comparisons? What objects cannot be compared? What occurs in the early poems of every nation? What are proper subjects for a simile? What are the two kinds of comparisons? Give an example of the latter kind. Give examples of comparisons which suggest some unusual resemblance or contrast. Give examples of comparisons which place the object in a strong point of view. How does a poet convey the idea of vast numbers. What is the third end of comparison? Who excels in it? Give an example. When are comparisons improper? When are the boldest similies and metaphors relished? When are we disposed to figurative expression? Give examples of similies improperly introduced. What passions are enemies to the pomp and solemnity of comparison? Give an example of a disregard of this principle. How is the improper introduction of similies ridiculed in the Rehearsal? What is the effect of a faint resemblance in a comparison? What is the fault opposite to this? What is the strongest objection that can lie against a comparison ? Give specimens of these similies. Give examples of humorous comparisons. CHAPTER XX. Figures. THE endless variety of expression brought under the head of tropes and figures by ancient critics and grammarians, makes it evident that they had no precise criterion for distinguishing tropes and figures from plain language. It was accordingly my opinion, that little could be made of them in the way of rational criticism, till discovering, by a sort of accident, that many of them depend on principles formerly explained, I gladly embrace the opportunity to show the influence of these principles where it would be the least expected. Confining myself therefore to such figures, I am luckily freed from much trash, without dropping, as far as I remember, any trope or figure that merits a proper name. And I begin with Prosopopoia, or Personification, which is justly entitled to the first place. SECTION I.-Personification. The bestowing sensibility and voluntary motion upon things inanimate, is so bold a figure, as to require, one should imagine, very peculiar circumstances for operating the delusion: and yet, in the language of poetry, we find a variety of expressions, which, though commonly reduced to that figure, are used without ceremony, or any sort of preparation: as, for example, thirsty ground, hungry church-yard, furious dart, angry ocean. These epithets, in their proper meaning, are attributes of sensible beings. What is their meaning when applied to things inanimate? Do they make us conceive the ground, the church-yard, the dart, the ocean, to be endued with animal functions? This is a curious inquiry; and whether so or not, it cannot be declined in handling the present subject. The mind, agitated by certain passions, is prone to bestow sensibility upon things inanimate. This is an additional instance of the influence of passion upon our opinions and belief. I give examples: Antony, mourning over the body of Cæsar, murdered in the senate-house, vents his passion in the following words: Antony. O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That ever lived in the tide of times. JULIUS CESAR.-ACT III. Sc. 1. Here Antony must have been impressed with a notion that the body of Cæsar was listening to him, without which the speech would be foolish and absurd. Nor will it appear strange, considering what is said in the chapter above cited, that passion should have such power over the mind of man. Plaintive passions are extremely solicitous for vent; and a soliloquy commonly answers the purpose: but when such a passion becomes excessive, it cannot be gratified but by sympathy from others; and if denied. that consolation in a natural way, it will convert even things inanimate into sympathizing beings. Thus, Philoctetes complains to the rocks and promontories of the isle of Lemnos;* and Alcestes, dying, invokes the sun, the light of day, the clouds, the earth, her husband's palace, &c.† Moschus, lamenting the death of Bion, conceives that the birds, the fountains, the trees, lament with him. That such personification is derived from nature, will not admit the least remaining doubt, after finding it in poems of the darkest ages and remotest countries. No figure is more frequent in Ossian's works; for example: The battle is over, said the king, and I behold the blood of my friends. Sad is the heath of Lena, and mournful the oaks of Cromla. Again: The sword of Gaul trembles at his side, and longs to glitter in his hand. King Richard, having got intelligence of Bolingbroke's invasion, says, upon landing in England from his Irish expedition, in a mixture of joy and resentment— I weep for joy To stand upon my kingdom once again. Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meeting; And, when they from thy bosom pluck a flower, *Philoctetes of Sophocles, Act 4. Sc. 2. Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king RICHARD II.-Acr 3. Sc. 2. After a long voyage, it was customary among the ancients to salute the natal soil. A long voyage being of old a greater enterprise than at present, the safe return to one's country, after much fatigue and danger, was a delightful circumstance; and it was natural to give the natal soil a temporary life, in order to sympathize with the traveller. See an example, Agamemnon of Eschylus, Act 3, in the beginning. Regret for leaving a place one has been accustomed to, has the same effect.* 1 Terror produces the same effect; it is communicated in thought to every thing around, even to things inanimate: As when old Ocean roars, And heaves huge surges to the trembling shores. ILIAD, ii. 249. Go, view the settling sea. The stormy wind is laid; but the billows still tremble on the deep, and seem to fear the blast. FINGAL. A man also naturally communicates his joy to all objects around, animate or inanimate: As when to them who sail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past Of Araby the Blest; with such delay Well pleas'd, they slack their course, and many a league, PARADISE LOST.-BOOK IV. I have been profuse of examples, to show what power many passions have to animate their objects. In all the foregoing examples, the personification, if I mistake not, is so complete as to afford conviction, momentary indeed, of life and intelligence. But it is evident, from numberless instances, that personification is not always so complete: it is a common figure in descrip * Philoctetes of Sophocles, at the close. |