the period must be understood in part metaphorically, in part literally; for the imagination cannot follow with fufficient eafe, changes fo fudden and unprepared: a metaphor begun and not carried on, hath no beauty; and inftead of light there is nothing but obfcurity and confufion. Inftances of fuch incorrect compofition are without number. I fhall, for a fpecimen, felect a few from different authors. Speaking of Britain, This precious ftone fet in the fea, Which ferves it in the office of a wall, Richard II. at 2. fe 1. In the first line Britain is figured to be a precious ftone in the following lines, Britain, divefted of her metaphorical drefs, is prefented to the reader in her natural appearance. Thefe growing feathers pluck'd from Cæfar's wing, Who elfe would foar above the view of men, And keep us all in fervile fearfulness. Julius Cæfar, act 1. fc. 1. Rebus anguftis animofus atque Fortis adpare: fapienter idem Turgida vela. Hor. The following is a miferable jumble of expreffions, arifing from an unfteady view of the fubject, between its figurative and natural appearance : But now from gath'ring clouds deftruction pours, Mifts Mifts from black jealoufies the tempest form, Difpenfary, canto 3. To thee, the world its prefent homage pays, Pope's Imitation of Horace, b. 21 Oui, fa pudeur n'eft que franche grimace, Moliere, l'Etourdi, act 3. fc. 2. Et fon feu, depourvû de fenfe et de lecture, Boileau, l'Art poetique, chant. 3. 1. 319. Dryden, in his dedication of the translation of Ju venal, fays, When thus, as I may fay, before the use of the load-ftone, or knowledge of the compafs, I was failing in a vast ocean, without other help than the pole-ftar of the ancients, and the rules of the French ftage among the moderns, &c. There is a time when factions, by the vehemence of their own fermentation, stun and disable one another. Bolingbroke. This fault of jumbling the figure and plain expreffion into one confufed mafs, is not lefs common in allegory than in metaphor. Take the following ex◄ amples. Heu! quoties fidem, Mutatofque Deos flebit, et afpera Emirabitur infolens, Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aureâ : Sperat, nefcius auræ Fallacis. Horat. Carm. 1. 1. ode 5. Pour Pour moi fur cette mer, qu'ici bas nous courons, Lord Halifax fpeaking of the ancient fabulifts: "They (fays he) wrote in figns and fpoke in parables : all their fables carry a double meaning; the ftory is one and entire; the characters the fame throughout; not broken or changed, and always conformable to the nature of the creature they introduce. They never tell you, that the dog which snapp'd at a fhadow, loft his troop of horfe; that would be unintelligi. ble. This is his (Dryden's) new way of telling a ftory, and confounding the moral and the fable together." After inftancing from the hind and panther, he goes on thus: "What relation has the hind to our Saviour; or what notion have we of a panther's Bible? If you fay he means the church, how does the church feed on lawns, or range in the foreft? Let it be always a church or always a clovenfooted beaft, for we cannot bear his thifting the fcene every line.' A few words more upon allegory. Nothing gives greater pleasure than this figure, when the reprefentative fubject bears a ftrong analogy, in all its circumftances, to that which is reprefented: but the choice is feldom fo lucky; the analogy, being generally fo faint and obfcure, as to puzzle and not pleafe. An allegory is ftill more difficult in painting than in poetry the former can fhow no refemblance but what appears to the eye; the latter hath many other refources for fhowing the refemblance. And therefore, with refpect to what the Abbe du Bos* terms mixt allegorical * Reflections fur la Poefie, vol. 1. fect. 24. allegorical compofitions, these may do in poetry; becaufe in writing, the allegory can easily be diftinguifhed from the historical part: no perfon, for example, mistakes Virgil's Fame for a real being. But fuch a mixture in picture is intolerable; becaufe in a picture the objects must appear all of the fame kind, wholly real or wholly emblematical. For this reafon, the history of Mary de Medicis, in the palace of Luxenbourg, painted by Rubens, is unpleasant by a perpetual jumble of real and allegorical perfonages, which produce a difcordance of parts, and an obfcurity upon the whole: witnefs in particular, the tablature reprefenting the arrival of Mary de Medicis at Marfeilles; where, together with the real perfonages, the Nercids and Tritons appear founding their fhells: fuch a mixture of fiction and reality in the fame group, is ftrangely abfurd. The picture of Alexander and Roxana, defcribed by Lucian, is gay and fanciful; but it fuffers by the allegorical figures. It is not in the wit of man to invent an allegorical reprefentation deviating farther from any fhadow of refemblance, than one exhibited by Lewis XIV. anno 1664; in which an enormous chariot, intended to represent that of the fun, is dragg'd along, furrounded with men and women, representing the four ages of the world, the celeftial figns, the feafons, the hours, &c. a monftrous compofition, fuggefted probably by Guido's tablature of Aurora, and ftill more abfurd. In an allegory as well as in a metaphor, terms ought to be chofen that properly and literally are applicable to the reprefentative fubject: nor ought any circumftance to be added that is not proper to the reprefentative fubject, however juftly it may applicable properly or figuratively to the principal. The following allegory is therefore faulty; Ferus be Ferus et Cupido, Semper ardentes acuens fagittas Horat. I. 2. ode 8. For though blood may fuggeft the cruelty of love, it is an improper or immaterial circumftance in the reprefentative fubject: water, not blood, is proper for a whetstone. We proceed to the next head, which is, to exam, ine in what circumftance thefe figures are proper, in what improper. This inquiry is not altogether fuperfeded by what is faid upon the fame fubject in the chapter of Comparisons; becaufe upon trial it will be found, that a fhort metaphor or allegory may be proper, where a fimile, drawn out to a greater length, and in its nature more folemn, would fcarce be relifhed. And, first, a metaphor, like a fimile, is excluded from common converfation, and from the defcription of ordinary incidents. Second, in expreffing any fevere paffion that wholly occupies the mind, metaphor is improper. For which reason, the following fpeech of Macbeth is faulty. Methought I heard a voice cry fleep no more! Act 2. fc. 3. The following example of deep defpair, befide the highly figurative ftyle, hath more the air of raving than of fenfe : Califta. |
