I .hink he is not a pick-purse, nor a horse-stealer; but for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a covered goblet, or a worm-eaten nut. As You Like It, Act III. Sc. 4. This sword a dagger had his page, Description of Hudibras's horse: Hudibras, Canto I. He was well stay'd, and in his gait And as that beast would kneel and stoop, Cario I. Honor is, like a widow won Canto I. The sun had long since in the lap Part II. Canto II. Books, like men their authors, have but one way of coming into the world; but there are ten thousand to go out of it, and return no more. Tale of a Tub. And in this the world may perceive the difference between the integrity of a generous author, and that of a common friend The latter is observed to adhere close in prosperity; but on the decline of fortane, to drop suddenly off: whereas the generous author, just on the contrary, finds his hero on the dunghill, from thence by gradual steps raises him to a throne, and then immediately withdraws, expecting not so much as thanks for his pains. Ibid. The most accomplish'd 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, Ibid. Description of a City Shower. Swift. Clubs, diamonds, hearts, in wild disorder seen, The pierc'd battalions disunited, fall In heaps on heaps; one fate o'erwhelms them all. He does not consider that sincerity in love is as much out of fashion as sweet snuff; nobody takes it now. Careless Husband. Lady Easy. My dear, I am afraid you have provoked her a little too far. Sir Charles. O! not at all. You shall see, I'll sweeten her, and she'll cool like a dish of tea. Ibid. CHAPTER XX. FIGURES. The bestowing of sensibility and voluntary motion upon inanimate things, a bold figure Illustrations-Personification of two kinds-The former attended with conviction-Abstract terms not well adapted to poetry-The difficulty of distinguishing between descriptive personification and a figure of speech-Dispiriting passions unfavorable to passionate personification-Passionate personification to be exclusively confined to the gratification of the passionDescriptive personification-The writer always to confine himself to easy personification-Personification of low objects, ridiculous-The same remark applicable to abstract terms-Terms of dignity excepted-Preparation necessary to personification-Descriptive personification to be especially restrained within due bounds-Descriptive personification to be dispatched in few words. THE endless variety of expressions 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 Prosopopia or personification, which is justly entitled to the first place. SECTION I-PERSONIFICATION. THE bestowing of 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 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 churchyard, 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 sensi bility, 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, Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of time. Julius Casar, Act III. S. 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. In another example of the same kind, the earth, as a common mother, is animated to give refuge against a father's unkindness: Almeria. O Earth, behold, I kneel upon thy bosom, And bend my flowing eyes to stream upon Thy face, imploring thee that thou wilt yield! Into thy womb the last and most forlorn Of all thy race. Hear me, thou common parent; Mourning Bride, Act IV. Sc. 7. Plaintive passions are extremely solicitous for vent; and a solilo quy commonly answers the purpose: but when such 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 sympathising 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. The shepherd, who in Virgil bewails the death of Daphnis, expresseth himself thus: For him the lofty laurel stands in tears, And hung with humid pearls the lowly shrub appears. And cold Lycæus wept from every dropping stone. 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. Though rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs As a long parted mother with her child Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meeting; And, when they from thy bosom pluck a flower, Richard II. Act III. Sc. 1. 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 sympathise with the traveller. See an example, Agamemnon of Eschilus, Act III. in the beginning. Regret for leaving a place to which one has been accustomed, has the same effect." Terror produces the same effect: it is communicated in thought to every thing around, even to things inanimate : Speaking of Polyphemus, Clamorem immensum tollit, quo pontus et omnes Intremuere undæ, penitusque exterrita tellus Italiæ. Eneid, III. 672. With that he roared aloud, the dreadful cry 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. Racine, in the tragedy of Phedra, describing the sea-monster that destroyed Hippolytus, conceives the sea itself to be struck with terror as well as the spectators: Le flot qui l'apporta recule epouvanté. 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 Cheer'd with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles. Paradise Lost, b. IV. I have been profuse of examples, to show what power many pas sions 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 descriptive poetry, understood to be the language of the writer, and not of the persons he describes: in this case, it seldom or never comes up to conviction, even momentary, of life and intelligence. I give the following examples. First in his east the glorious lamp was seen, His longitude through heav'n's high road: the gray Shedding sweet influence. Less bright the moon, His mirror, with full face borrowing her light Paradise Lost, b. VII. 1. 370.1 Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day Romeo and Juliet, Act III. Sc. 5. But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Hamlet, Act I. Sc. I. It may, I presume, be taken for granted, that in the foregoing instances, the personification, either with the poet or his reader, amounts not to a conviction of intelligence: that the sun, the moon, the day, the morn, are not here understood to be sensible beings. What then Philoctetes of Sophocles, at the close. The chastity of the English language, which in common usage distinguishes by genders no words but what signify beings male and female, gives thus a fine opportunity for the prosopopia; a beauty unknown in other languages, where every word is masculine or feminine. |