A load would fink a navy, too much honour.

Ulyffes fpeaking of Hector:

Henry VIII. act 3. fc. 6.

I wonder now how yonder city stands,

When we have here the base and pillar by us.

Troilus and Crefida, act 4.fc. 9.

Othello. No, my heart is turn'd to ftone: I ftrike it,

and it hurts my hand.

Othello, act 4. fc. 5.

Not lefs, even in this defpicable now,

Than when my name fill'd Afric with affrights,

And froze your

hearts beneath your torrid zone.

Don Sebaftian King of Portugal, act 1,

How long a space, fince first I lov'd, it is!

To look into a glafs I fear,

And am furpris'd with wonder, when I miss,

Grey hairs and wrinkles there.

Cowley, vol. 1. p. 86,

I chose the flourishing'ft tree in all the park,
With freshest boughs, and faireft head;

I cut my love into his gentle bark,

And in three days behold 'tis dead;
My very written flames fo 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

That the weeps tears fo wond'rous cold,
As scarce the afs's hoof can hold,

So cold, that I admire they fall not hail.

Cowley, vol. 1. p. 132.

Such a play of words is pleafant in a ludicrous

poem.

Almeria, O Alphonfo, Alphonfo!

Devouring feas have wash'd thee from my fight,

No time fhall rafe 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. fc. 1.

This would be very right, if there were any inconsistence, in being interred in one place really, and in another place figuratively.

Je crains que cette faison
Ne nous amenne la peste;
La gueule du chien celefte
Vomit feu fur l'horifon.
A fin que je m'en délivre,
Je veux lire ton gros livre
Jufques au dernier feüillet:
Tout ce que ta plume trace,
Robinet, a de la glace
A fair trembler Juillet.

Maynard.

In

In me tota ruens Venus

Cyprum déferuit.

Horat. Carm. lib. 1. ode 19.

From confidering that a word ufed in a figurative sense fuggefts at the fame time its proper meaning, we difcover a fifth rule, That we ought not to employ a word in a figurative fenfe, the proper fenfe of which is inconfiftent or incongruous with the fubject: for every inconfiftency, and even incongruity, though in the expreffion only and not real, is unpleasant :

Interea genitor Tyberini ad fluminis undam

Vulnera ficcabat lymphis

Eneid. x. 833.

Tres adeo incertos cæca caligine foles

Erramus pelago, totidem fine fidere noctes.

Æneid. iii. 203.

The foregoing rule may be extended to form a fixth, That no epithet ought to be given to the figurative sense of a word that agrees not alfo with its proper sense:

Seventhly, The crowding into one period or thought different figures of speech, is not lefs 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 moft deject and wretched,
That fuck'd the honey of his music vows.

My bleeding bofom fickens at the found.

Hamlet.

Qdy. i. 439.

Ah mifer,

Quantâ laboras in Charybdi!

Digne puer meliore flamma.
Quæ faga, quis te folvere Theffalis

Magus venenis, quis poterit deus?
Vix illigatum te triformi
Pegafus expediet Chimarâ.

Horat. Carm. l. 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 paffable. But then in the expreffion, lives is again put for

blood;

blood; and by thus grafting one figure upon another, the expreffion is rendered obfcure and unpleasant.

Ninthly, Intricate and involved figures, that can scarce be analyfed, or reduced to plain language, are least of all tolerable:

Arma acri facienda viro: nunc viribus ufus,

Nunc manibus rapidis, omni nunc arte magiftra:

Elfe fhall our fates be number'd with the dead.

Iliad, v. 294.

Commutual