_Attributes expressed figuratively._
1. When two attributes are connected, the name of the one may be
employ’d figuratively to express the other.
Purity and virginity are attributes of the same person. Hence the
expression, _Virgin_ snow for pure snow.
2. A word signifying properly an attribute of one subject, employ’d
figuratively to express a resembling attribute of another subject.
_Tottering_ state. _Imperious_ ocean. _Angry_ flood. _Raging_ tempest.
_Shallow_ fears.
My sure divinity shall bear the shield,
And edge thy sword to _reap_ the glorious field.
_Odyssey_ xx. 61.
_Black omen_, for an omen that portends bad fortune:
_Ater_ odor.
_Virgil._
The peculiar beauty of this figure arises from suggesting a comparison.
3. A word proper to the subject, employ’d to express one of its
attributes.
_Mens_ for _intellectus_. _Mens_ for a resolution.
Istam, oro, exue mentem.
4. When two subjects have a resemblance by a common quality, the name of
the one subject may be employ’d figuratively to denote that quality in
the other.
_Summer_ life for agreeable life.
5. The name of the instrument, made to signify the power of employing
it.
---- Melpomene, cui liquidam pater
Vocem cum _cithara_ dedit.
The ample field of figurative expression display’d in these tables,
affords great scope for reasoning and reflection. Several of the
observations relating to metaphor, are applicable to figures of speech.
These I shall slightly retouch, with some additions peculiarly adapted
to the present subject.
In the first place, as the figure under consideration is built upon
relation, we find from experience, and it must be obvious from reason,
that the beauty of the figure depends on the intimacy of the relation
betwixt the figurative and proper sense of the word. A slight
resemblance, in particular, will never make this figure agreeable. The
expression, for example, _drink down a secret_, for listening to a
secret with attention, is harsh and uncouth, because there is scarce any
resemblance betwixt _listening_ and _drinking_. The expression _weighty
crack_, used by Ben Johnson for _loud crack_, is worse if possible: a
loud sound has not the slightest resemblance to a piece of matter that
is weighty. The following expression of Lucretius is not less faulty.
“Et lepido quæ sunt _fucata_ sonore.” i. 645.
---------------- Sed magis
Pugnas et exactos tyrannos
Densum humeris _bibit_ aure vulgus.
_Horat. Carm. l. 2. 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_.
_Æneid._ vi. 559.
------------ Write, my Queen,
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 connection 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 iniqui
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. l. 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 1. sc. 2._
The disgust one has to drink ink in reality, is nothing 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 1. 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 ruin’d pillars, out of pity taken
A load would sink a navy, too much honour.
_Henry VIII. act 3. sc. 6._
Ulysses speaking of Hector:
I wonder now how yonder city stands
When we have here the base and pillar by us.
_Troilus and Cressida, act 4. sc. 9._
_Othello._ No, my heart is turn’d to stone: I strike it and it
hurts my hand.
_Othello, act 4. 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. 1. 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. 1. 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 wond’rous cold,
As scarce the asses hoof can hold,
So cold, that I admire they fall not hail.
_Cowley, vol. 1. p. 132._
Je crains que cette saison
Ne nous amenne la peste;
La gueule du chien celeste
Vomit feu sur l’horison.
A fin que je m’en délivre,
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.
_Maynard._
In me tota ruens Venus
Cyprum deseruit.
_Horat. Carm. lib. 1. ode. 19._
_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 1. sc. 1._
This would be very right, if there were any inconsistence in being
interred in one place really and in another place figuratively.
From considering that a word employ’d in a figurative sense suggests at
the same time its proper meaning, a fifth rule occurs, That to raise a
figure of speech, we ought to use no word, the proper sense of which is
inconsistent or incongruous with the subject: for no incongruity, far
less inconsistency, whether real or imagined, ought to enter into the
expression of any subject:
Interea genitor Tyberini ad fluminis undam
Vulnera _siccabat_ lymphis----
_Æneid. x. 833._
Tres adeo incertos cæca caligine _soles_
Erramus pelago, totidem sine sidere noctes.
_Æneid_. 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:
-------- Dicat Opuntiæ
Frater Megillæ, quo _beatus_
Vulnere.
_Horat. Carm. lib. 1. ode 27._
Parcus deorum cultor, et infrequens,
_Insanientis_ dum sapientiæ
Consultus erro.
_Horat. Carm. lib. 1. 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.
_Hamlet._
My bleeding bosom sickens at the sound.
_Odyss._ i. 439.
---------------- Ah miser,
Quantâ laboras in _Charybdi_!
Digne puer meliore _flammâ_.
Quæ saga, quis te solvere Thessalis
Magus _venenis_, quis poterit deus?
Vix illigatum te triformi
Pegasus expediet _Chimærâ_.
_Horat. Carm. lib. 1. ode 27._
Eighthly, If crowding figures be bad, it is still worse to graft one
figure upon another. For instance,
While his keen falchion drinks the warriors lives.
_Iliad_ xi. 211.
A falchion drinking the warriors 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.
Ninthly, Intricate and involved figures, that can scarce be analized or
reduced to plain language, are least of all tolerable:
Votis incendimus aras.
_Æneid._ iii. 279.
---- Onerantque canistris
Dona laboratæ Cereris.
_Æneid._ viii. 180.
Vulcan to the Cyclopes,
Arma acri facienda viro: nunc viribus usus,
Nunc manibus rapidis, omni nunc arte magistra:
_Præcipitate_ moras.
_Æneid._ viii. 441.
-------- Huic gladio, perque ærea suta
Per tunicam squalentem auro, latus _haurit_ apertum.
_Æneid._ x. 313.
Semotique prius tarda necessitas
Lethi, corripuit gradum.
_Horat. Carm. lib. 1. ode 3._
Scribêris Vario fortis, et hostium
Victor, Mæonii carminis _alite_.
_Horat. Carm. lib. 1. 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._
Speaking of Proteus,
Instant he wears, elusive of the rape,
The mimic force of every savage shape.
_Odyss._ iv. 563.
Rolling convulsive on the floor, is seen
The piteous object of a prostrate Queen.
_Ibid._ iv. 952.
The mingling tempest waves its gloom.
_Autumn_, 337.
A various sweetness swells the gentle race.
_Ibid._ 640.
A sober calm fleeces unbounded ether.
_Ibid._ 967.
The distant water-fall swells in the breeze.
_Winter_, 738.
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 apply’d in a figurative sense:
Hear me, oh Neptune! thou whose arms are hurl’d
From shore to shore, and gird the solid world.
_Odyss._ ix. 617.
Neptune is here introduced personally, and not figuratively for the
ocean: the description therefore, which is only applicable to the ocean,
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 the only guide we can rely on.
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 ornament of any kind.