תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

Then he great tamer of all human art!

First in my care, and ever at my heart;
Dullness! whofe good old cause I yet defend,

With whom my mufe began, with whom shall end,
L'er fince Sir Fopling's periwig was praise,

To the last honours of the Bull and Bays!
O thou! of bus'nefs the directing foul !

To this our head, like bias to the bowl,

Which, as more pond'rous, made its aim more true,
Obliquely wadling to the mark in view :
O! ever gracious to perplex'd mankind,
Still fpread a healing mift before the mind:
And, left we err by Wit's wild dancing light,
Secure us kindly in our native night.
Or, if to wit a coxcomb make pretence,
Guard the fure barrier between that and fenfe;
Or quite unravel all the reas'ning thread,
And hang fome curious cobweb in its stead!
As, forc'd from wind-guns, lead itfelf can fly,
And pond'rous flugs cut fwiftly through the fky;
As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe,
The wheels above urg'd by the load below:
Me Emptinefs, and Dullness could infpire,
And were my elasticity, and fire.

B. 1. 163.

The following inftance is ftretched beyond all resemblance: it is bold to take a part or member of a living creature, and to beftow upon it life, volition, and 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:

-Do

De noftri baci

Meritamenti fia giudice quella,

Che la bocca ha più bella.

Tutte concordemente

Eleffer la beliffima Amarilli;

Ed' ella i fuoi begli occhi
Dolcemente chinando,

Di modefto roffor tutta fi tinfe,

E moftrò ben, che non men bella è dentro
Di quel che fia di fuori;

O foffe, che'l bel volto

Aveffe invidia all' onorata bocca,

E s' adornaffe anch' egli

Della purpurea fua pomposa vesta,
Quafi voleffe dir, fon bello anch'io.

Paftor Fido, at 2. fc. 1.

Fifthly, The enthusiasm of paffion may have the effect to prolong paffionate perfonification: but defcriptive perfonification cannot be dispatched in too few words; a circumftantiate defcription diffolves the charm, and makes the attempt to perfonify appear ridiculous. Homer fucceeds in animating his darts and arrows: but such personification fpun out in a French translation, is inere burlesk!

Et la fléche en furie, avide de fon fang,
Part, vole à lui, l'atteint, et lui perce le flanc.

Horace fays happily,

Poft equitem fedet atra Cura.

See

See how this thought degenerates by being divided, like the former, into a number of minute parts:

Un fou rempli d'erreurs, que le trouble accompagne
Et malade à la ville ainsi qu'à la compagne,

En vain monte à cheval pour tromper fon ennui,
Le Chagrin monte en croupe et galope avec lui.

A poet, in a fhort and lively expreffion, may animate his muse, his genius, and even his verse: but to animate his verse, and to address a whole epiftle to it, as Boileau doth *, is însupportable.

The following paffage is not lefs faulty.

Her fate is whisper'd by the gentle breeze,
And told in fighs to all the trembling trees:

The trembling trees, in ev'ry plain and wood,
Her fate remurmur to the filver flood;

The filver flood, fo lately calm, appears

Swell'd with new paffion, and o'erflows with tears;
The winds, and trees, and floods, her death deplore,
Daphne, our grief! our glory! now no more.

Pope's Paftorals, iv. 61.

Let grief or love have the power to animate the winds, the trees, the floods, provided the figure be difpatched in a fingle expreffion even in that cafe, the figure feldom has a good effect;

• Epifle 10.

because

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 bę fenfible beings. But when this figure is deliberately spread out with great regularity and accuracy, through many lines, the reader, instead of relishing it, is ftruck with its ridiculous appear

ance.

SECT.

II.

APOSTROPHE.

TH

His figure and the former are derived from the fame principle. If, to favour a plaintive paffion, 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,
Heu! genitorem, omnis curæ cafufque levamen,
Amitto Anchifen: hic me pater optime feffum
Deferis, heu! tantis nequicquam erepte periclis.
Nec vates Helenus, cum multa horrenda moneret,
Hos mihi prædixit luctus; non dira Celano.

Æneid. iii. 707.

Strike the harp in praise of Bragela, whom I left in the isle of mist, the spouse 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 fhall 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 paft; for I will not return till the ftorm 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.

Fingal, b. 1.

Speaking of Fingal,

Happy are thy people, O Fingal, thine arm shall fight their battles. Thou art the first in their dangers; the wifeft in the days of their peace: thou speakest, and thy thousands obey; and armies tremble at the found of thy fteel. Happy are thy people, Fingal, chief of the lonely

hills.

This figure is fometimes joined with the former: things inanimate, to qualify them for liftening to a paffionate expoftulation, are not only perfonified, but also conceived to be present:

Et, fi fata Deûm, fi mens non læva fuiffet,
Impulerat ferro Argolicas foedare latebras :
Trojaque nunc ftares, Priamique arx alta maneres.

Eneid. ii. 54

Helena.

Poor Lord, is't I

That chafe thee from thy country, and expofe

Thofe

« הקודםהמשך »