This author, in riper years is guilty of a much greater deviation from the rule. Dullness may be imagined a deity or idol, to be worshipped by bad writers; but then fome fort of difguife is requifite, fome baftard virtue must be bestowed, to make fuch worship in fome degree excufible. Yet in the Dunciad, Dullness without the leaft difguife, is made the object of worship. The mind rejects fuch a fiction as unnatural; for dullness is a defect, of which even the dulleft mortal is ashamed: Then he Great tamer of all human art! : First in my care, and ever at my heart; Dullness! whofe good old caufe I yet defend, B. i. 163. The following inftance is ftretched beyond all refemblance: it is bold to take a part or member of a living creature, and to bestow upon it life, volition, and N4 action: action after animating two fuch members, it is ftill bolder to make one envy the other; for this is wide of any resemblance to reality: De noftri baci Meritamenti fia giudice quella, Tutte concordemente Elefler la beliflima Amarilli Ed' ella i fuoi begli occhi Di modefto roffor tutta fi tinfe, E moftro ben, che non men bella è dentro Di quel che fia di fuori; O foffe, che'l bel volto Avelle invidia all' onorata bocca, E s'adornaffe anch' egli Della purpurea fua pompofa, vesta, Paftor Fido, act 2. fc. 1. Fifthly, The enthufiafm of paffion may have the effect to prolong paffionate perfonification: but def criptive perfonification cannot be dispatched in toa few words: a circumftantiate description diffolves the charm, and makes the attempt to perfonify appear ridiculous. Homer fucceeds in animating his darts and arrows but fuch perfonification fpun out in a French tranflation, is mere burlesque : Et la fléche en furie, avide de fon fang, Horace fays happily, Poft equitem fedet atra Cura. Obferve how this thought degenerates by being die vided, like the former, into a number of minute parts: Un Un fou rempli d'erreurs, que le trouble accompagne A poet, in a fhort and lively expreffion, may animate his mufe, his genius, and even his veríe: but to animate his verfe, and to address a whole epiftle to it, as Boileau doth,* is infupportable. The following paffage is not lefs faulty: Her fate is whifper'd by the gentle breeze, Pope's Paflorals, iv. 61. Let grief or love have the power to animate the winds, the trees, the floods, provided the figure be dispatched in a fingle expreffion: even in that cafe, the figure feldom has a good effect; because grief or love of the paftoral kind, are caufes rather too faint for fo violent an effect as imagining the winds, trees, or floods, to be fenfible beings. But when this figure is deliberately fpread out, with great regularity and accuracy, through many lines, the reader, instead of relishing it, is ftruck with its ridicu lous appearance. SECT. II. Apostrophe. THIS figure and the former are derived from the fame principle. If, to humour a plaintive paflion, we can beftow a momentary fenfibility upon an inanimate object, it is not more difficult to bestow a momentary prefence upon a fenfible being who is abfent : Hinc Drepani me portus et illætabilis ora Accipit. Hic, pelagi tot tempeftatibus actus, Strike the harp in praife of Bragela, whom I left in the ile of mift, the fpoufe of my love. Doft thou raise thy fair face from the rock to find the fails of Cuchullin ? The fea is rolling far diftant, and its white foam shall deceive thee for my fails. Retire for it is night my love, and the dark winds figh in thy hair. Retire to the hall of my feafts, and think of the times that are past; for I will not return till the storm of war is gone. O Connal fpeak of wars and arms, and fend her from my mind; for lovely with her raven-hair is the white-bofom'd daughter of Sorglan. Speaking of Fingal abfent. Fingal, b. 1. Happy are thy people, O Fingal; thine arm fhall fight their battles. Thou art the first in their dangers; the wifeft in the days of their peace: thou fpeakeft, and thy thou fands C fands obey; and armies tremble at the found of thy fteel. Happy are thy people, O Fingal. This figure is fometimes joined with the former : Et fi fata Deûm, fi mens non læva fuiffet, Eneid, ii. 54. Helena Poor Lord, is't I That chafe thee from thy country, and expofe Of non-fparing war? And is it I That drive thee from the fportive court, where thou And let them lift ten thoufand fwords, faid Nathos with a fmile the fons of car-borne Ufnoth will never tremble in danger. Why dost thou roll with all thy foam, thou roaring fea of Ullin? why do ye ruftle on your dark wings, ye whittling tempefts of the fky? Do ye think, ye ftorins, that ye keep Nathos on the coaft? No; his foul detains him; children of the night! Althos, bring my father's arms, &c. Fingal. Whether haft thou fled, O wind, faid the King of Morven! Doft thou ruftle in the chambers of the fouth, and pursue the fhower in other lands? Why comeft not thou to my fails, to the blue face of my feas? The foe is in the land of Morven, and the king is abfent. Fingal. |