One must read this passage very seriously to avoid laughing. The following passage is quite extravagant: the different parts of the human body are too intimately connected with self, to be personified by the power of any passion; and after converting such a part into a sensible being, it is still worse to make it to be conceived as rising in rebellion against self: Cleopatra. Haste, bare my arm, and rouse the serpent's fury. Would'st thou conspire with Cæsar, to betray me, Dryden, All for Love, Act V. Next comes descriptive personification; upon which I must observe, in general, that it ought to be cautiously used. A personage in a tragedy, agitated by a strong passion, deals in warm sentiments; and the reader, catching fire by sympathy, relisheth the boldest personifications: but a writer, even in the most lively description, taking a lower flight, ought to content himself with such easy personifications as agree with the tone of mind inspired by the description. Nor is even such easy personification always admitted; for in plain narrative, the mind, serious and sedate, rejects personification altogether. Strada, in his history of the Belgic wars, has the following passage, which, by a strained elevation above the tone of the subject, deviates into burlesque. Vix descenderat a prætoria navi Cæsar; cum fœda illico exorta in portu tempestas, classem impetu disjecit, prætoriam hausit; quasi non yecturam amplius Cæsarem, Cæsarisque fortunam. Dec. I. l. i. Neither do I approve, in Shakspeare, the speech of King John, gravely exhorting the citizens of Angiers to a surrender; though a tragic writer has much greater latitude than a historian. following specimen : Take the The cannons have their bowels full of wrath; Act II. Sc. 3. Secondly, If extraordinary marks of respect to a person of low rank be ridiculous, no less so is the personification of a low subject. This rule chiefly regards descriptive personification; for a subject can hardly be low that is the cause of a violent passion; in that circumstance, at least, it must be of importance. But to assign any rule other than taste merely, for avoiding things below even descriptive personification, will, I am afraid, be a hard task. A poet of superior genius, possessing the power of inflaming the mind, may take liberties that would be too bold in others. Homer appears not extravagant in animating his darts and arrows: nor Thomson in animating the seasons, the winds, the rains, the dews; he even ventures to animate the diamond, and doth it with propriety : -That polish'd bright And all its native lustre let abroad, Dares, as it sparkles on the fair one's breast, But there are things familiar and base, to which personification cannot descend. In a composed state of mind, to animate a lump of matter even in the most rapid flight of fancy, degenerates into burlesque : How now! What noise! that spirit's possess'd with haste, That wounds th' unresisting postern with these strokes. Shakspeare, Measure for Measure, Act IV. Sc. 6. -Or from the shore The plovers when to scatter o'er the heath, And sing their wild notes to the list'ning waste. Thomson, Spring, 1.23. Speaking of a man's hand cut off in battle: Te decisa suum, Laride, dextera quærit : The personification here of a hand is insufferable, especially in a plain narration: not to mention that such a trivial incident is too minutely described. The same observation is applicable to abstract terms, which ought not to be animated unless they have some natural dignity. Thomson, in this article, is licentious; witness the following instances out of many: O vale of bliss! O softly swelling hills! Summer, l. 1435: Then sated Hunger bids his brother Thirst Nor wanting is the brown October, drawn Autumn, l. 516. Thirdly, It is not sufficient to avoid improper subjects: some preparation is necessary, in order to rouse the mind; for the imagination refuses its aid, till it be warmed at least, if not inflamed. Yet Thomson, without the least ceremony or preparation, introduceth each season as a sensible being: From brightening fields of æther fair disclos'd, In pride of youth, and felt through Nature's depth. And ever fanning breezes, on his way; While from his ardent look, the turning Spring Summer, l. 1. See Winter comes, to rule the vary'd year, Winter, /. 1. This has violently the air of writing mechanically without taste. It is not natural that the imagination of a writer should be so much heated at the very commencement; and, at any rate, he cannot expect such ductility in his readers. But if this practice can be justified by authority, Thomson has one of no mean note: Vida begins his first eclogue in the following words: Dicite, vos Musæ, et juvenum memorate querelas; Et requiesse suos perhibent vaga flumina cursus. Even Shakspeare is not always careful to prepare the mind for this bold figure. Take the following instance: Upon these taxations, The clothiers all, not able to maintain The many to them 'longing, have put off Henry VIII. Act I. Sc. 4. Fourthly, Descriptive personification, still more than what is passionate, ought to be kept within the bounds of moderation. A reader warmed with a beautiful subject, can imagine, even without passion, the winds, for example, to be animated: but still the winds are the subject; and any action ascribed to them beyond or contrary to their usual operation, appearing unnatural, seldom fails to banish the illusion altogether: the reader's imagination, too far strained, refuses its aid; and the description becomes obscure, instead of being more lively and striking. In this view, the following passage, describing Cleopatra on shipboard, appears to me exceptionable; The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, The winds were love-sick with 'em. Antony and Cleopatra, Act II. Sc. 3, The winds in their impetuous course have so much the appearance of fury, that it is easy to figure them wreaking their resentment against their enemies, by destroying houses, ships, &c.; but to figure them love-sick, has no resemblance to them in any circumstance. In another passage, where Cleopatra is also the subject, the personification of the air is carried beyond all bounds: -The city cast Its people out upon her; and Antony And made a gap in nature. Antony and Cleopatra, Act II. Sc. S. The following personification of the earth or soil is not less wild: She shall be dignifi'd with this high honour, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. Sc. 7. Shakspeare, far from approving such intemperance of imagination, puts this speech in the mouth of a ranting lover. Neither can I relish what follows: Omnia quæ, Phobo quondam meditante, beatus Ille canit. Virgil, Buc. vi. 82. |