Sed magis

Pugnas et exactos tyrannos

Densum humeris bibit aure vulgus.

Horat. Carm. l. ii. ode 13.

Phemius! let acts of gods, and heroes old,
What ancient bards in hall and bow'r have told,
Attemper'd to the lyre, your voice employ,
Such the pleas'd ear will drink with silent joy.

Odyssey, i. 433.

Strepitumque exterritus hausit.

Write, my Queen,

Eneid, vi. 559.

And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you send.

Cymbeline, Act 1. Sc. 2.

As thus th' effulgence tremulous I drink.

Summer, l. 1684.

Neque audit currus habenas.

Georg. i. 514.

O Prince! (Lycaon's valiant son reply'd),
As thine the steeds, be thine the task to guide.
The horses practis'd to their lord's command,
Shall hear the rein, and answer to thy hand.

Iliad, v. 288.

The following figures of speech seem altogether wild and extravagant, the figurative and proper meaning having no connexion whatever. Moving softness, Freshness breathes, Breathing prospect, Flowing spring, Dewy light, Lucid coolness, and many others of this false coin, may be found in Thomson's Seasons.

Secondly, The proper sense of the word ought to bear some proportion to the figurative sense, and not soar much above it, nor sink much below it. This rule, as well as the foregoing, is finely illustrated by Vida:

Hæc adeo cum sint, cum fas audere poetis

Multa modis multis; tamen observare memento

Si quando haud propriis rem mavis dicere verbis,
Translatisque aliunde notis, longeque petitis,
Ne nimiam ostendas, quærendo talia, curam.
Namque aliqui exercent vim duram, et rebus inique
Nativam eripiunt formam, indignantibus ipsis
Invitasque jubent alienos sumere vultus

Haud magis imprudens mihi erit, et luminis expers,
Qui puero ingentes habitus det ferre gigantis,
Quam siquis stabula alta lares appellet equinos.
Aut crines magnæ genitricis gramina dicat.

Poet. iii. 148.

Thirdly, In a figure of speech, every circumstance ought to be avoided that agrees with the proper sense only, not the figurative sense; for it is the latter that expresses the thought, and the former serves for no other purpose but to make harmony:

Zacynthus green with ever-shady groves,

And Ithaca, presumptuous boast their loves;
Obtruding on my choice a second lord,
They press the Hymenean rite abhorr❜d.

Odyssey, xix. 152.

Zacynthus here standing figuratively for the inhabitants, the description of the island is quite out of place: it puzzles the reader, by making him doubt whether the word ought to be taken in its proper or figurative sense.

-Write, my Queen,

And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you send,
Though ink be made of gall.

Cymbeline, Act I. Sc. 2.

The disgust one has to drink ink in reality, is not to the purpose where the subject is drinking ink figuratively.

In the fourth place, To draw consequences from a figure of speech, as if the word were to be understood literally, is a gross absurdity, for it is confounding truth with fiction.

Be Moubray's sins so heavy in his bosom,
That they may break his foaming courser's back,
And throw the rider headlong in the lists,
A caitiff recreant to my cousin Hereford.

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.
I know myself now, and I feel within me

A peace above all earthly dignities,

A still and quiet conscience. The King has cur'd me,
I humbly thank his Grace; and from these shoulders,
These rain'd pillars, out of pity, taken

A load would sink a navy, too much honour.

Ulysses speaking of Hector :

Henry VIII. Act III. Sc. 6.

I wonder now how yonder city stands,

When we have here the base and pillar by us..

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,
Than when my name fill'd Afric with affrights,
And froze your hearts beneath your torrid zone.

Don Sebastian, King of Portugal, Act 1.

How long a space, since first I lov'd, it is!
To look into a glass I fear,

And am surpris'd with wonder when I miss
Grey hairs and wrinkles there.

Cowley, vol. I. p. 86.

I chose the flourishing'st tree in all the park,
With freshest boughs and fairest head;

I cut my love into his gentle bark,
And in three days behold 'tis dead;;
My very written flames so violent be,

They've burnt and wither'd up the tree.

Cowley, vol. I. p. 136.

Ah, mighty Love, that it were inward heat
Which made this precious limbeck sweat!

But what, alas! ah what does it avail,
That she weeps tears so wondrous cold,
As scarce the ass's hoof can hold,

So cold, that I admire they fall not hail.

Cowley, vol. I. p. 132.

Such a play of words is pleasant in a ludicrous

poem.

Almeria. O Alphonso, Alphonso!

Devouring seas have wash'd thee from my sight,

No time shall rase thee from my memory;
No, I will live to be thy monument:
The cruel ocean is no more thy tomb;

But in my heart thou art interr'd.

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.

Je crains que cette saison
Ne nous amene la peste;
La gueule du chien celeste
Vomit feu sur l'horison.
Afin que je m'en delivre,
Je veux lire ton gros livre
Jusques au dernier feüillet:
Tout ce que ta plume trace,
Robinet, a de la glace
A faire trembler Juillet.

In me tota ruens Venus
Cyprum deseruit.

Maynard.

Horat. Carm. l. i. ode 19.

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
Vulnera siccabat lymphis --

Eneid, x. 833.

Tres adeo incertos cæca caligine soles
Erramus pelago, totidem sine sidere noctes.

Aneid, iii: 209.

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

Dicat Opuntia

Frater Megillæ, quo beatus.

Vulnere.

Horat. Carm. lib. i. ode 27.

Parcus deorum cultor, et infrequens,
Insanientis dum sapientiæ
Consultus erro.

Horat. Carm. lib. i. ode 34.

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,
That suck'd the honey of his music-vows.

My bleeding bosom sickens at the sound.

Hamlet.

Odyssey, i. 439.