Gallo, cujus amer tantum mihi crefcit in horas, Nor Taffo, in his Aminta: Bucol. X. 37. Picciola e' l'ape, e fa col picciol morfo Aet 2. fc. 1. Nor Boileau, the chastest of all writers; and that even in his art of poetry: Ainfi tel autrefois, qu'on vit avec Faret Mais allons voir le Vrai jufqu'en fa fource même. But for their spirits and fouls This word rebellion had froze them up As fish are in a pond. Second part, Henry IV. at 1. fc. 3. Queen. Queen. The pretty vaulting fea refus'd to drown me. Knowing, that thou wou'dft have me drown'd on shore, With tears as falt as fea, through thy unkindness. Second part, Henry VI. at 3. Sc. 6. Here there is no manner of refemblance but in the word drown; for there is no real refemblance be tween being drown'd at fea, and dying of grief at land. But perhaps this fort of tinfel wit may have a propriety in it, when used to exprefs an affected, not a real paffion, which was the Queen's cafe. Pope has feveral fimiles of the fame ftamp. I fhall transcribe one or two from the Effay on Man, the gravest and most instructive of all his perform ances: And hence one mafter paffion in the breaft, Epift. 2. 1. 131. And again, talking of this fame ruling or master passion: Nature its mother, Habit is its nurfe Lord Bolingbroke, fpeaking of hiftorians : Where their fincerity as to fact is doubtful, we strike out truth by the confrontation of different accounts; as we ftrike out fparks of fire by the collifion of flints and steel. Let us vary the phrafe a very little, and there will not remain a fhadow of refemblance. Thus, We CH. XIX. We difcover truth by the confrontation of different accounts; as we ftrike out fparks of fire by the collision of flints and feel. Racine makes Pyrrhus fay to Andromaque, Vaincu, chargé de fers, de regrets confumé, And Oreftes in the fame strain : Que les Scythes font moins cruel qu' Hermoine. Similes of this kind put one in mind of a ludicrous French fong: Je croyois Janneton Auffi douce que belle: Je croyois Janneton Plus douce qu'un mouton; Helas helas! Elle eft cent fois, mille fois, plus cruelle Again: Helas! l'amour m'a pris, Comme le chat fait la fouris. A vulgar Irish ballad begins thus: I have as much love in ftore Where the fubject is burlesque or ludicrous, fuch fimiles are far from being improper. Horace fays pleasantly, Quanquam tu levior cortice. L. 3. ode 9. And · And Shakespear, In breaking oaths he's ftronger than Hercules. And this leads me to obferve, that befide the foregoing comparisons, which are all ferious, there is a fpecies, the end and purpofe of which is to excite gaiety or mirth. Take the following examples: Falstaff, fpeaking to his page: I do here walk before thee, like a fow that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one. Second part, Henry IV. a&t 1. fc. 4. I think he is not a pick-purfe, nor a horfe-ftcaler; but for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a cover'd goblet, or a worm-eaten nut. As you like it, at 3. fc. 10. This fword a dagger had his page, Description of Hudibras's horse: Hudibras, canto 1. He was well stay'd, and in his gait And as that beaft would kneel and ftoop, So Books, like men their authors, have but one way of coming into the world; but there are ten thoufand 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 obferved to adhere close in profperity; but on the decline of fortune, to drop fuddenly off whereas the generous author, juft on the contrary, finds his hero on the dunghill, from thence by gradual fteps raifes him to a throne, and then immediately withdraws, expecting not fo much as thanks for his pains. Tale of a Tub. The most accomplish'd way of ufing books at prefent is, to ferve them as fome do lords, learn their titles, and then brag of their acquaintance. Tale of a Tub. Box'd in a chair, the beau impatient fits, The leather founds; he trembles from within. |