Read Ebook: Elements of Criticism Volume III. by Kames Henry Home Lord

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Such a simile upon the simplest of all actions, that of opening a lock, is pure burlesque.

A writer of delicacy will avoid drawing his comparisons from any image that is nauseous, ugly, or remarkably disagreeable: for however strong the resemblance may be, more will be lost than gained by such comparison. Therefore I cannot help condemning, though with some reluctance, the following simile, or rather metaphor.

The strongest objection that can lie against a comparison, is, that it consists in words only, not in sense. Such false coin, or bastard wit, does extremely well in burlesque; but is far below the dignity of the epic, or of any serious composition:

There is evidently no resemblance betwixt an isicle and a woman, chaste or unchaste. But chastity is cold in a metaphorical sense, and an isicle is cold in a proper sense; and this verbal resemblance, in the hurry and glow of composing, has been thought a sufficient foundation for the simile. Such phantom similes are mere witticisms, which ought to have no quarter, except where purposely introduced to provoke laughter. Lucian, in his dissertation upon history, talking of a certain author, makes the following comparison, which is verbal merely.

This author's descriptions are so cold, that they surpass the Caspian snow, and all the ice of the north.

Virgil has not escaped this puerility:

Nor Tasso, in his Aminta:

Nor Boileau, the chastest of all writers; and that even in his art of poetry:

And again, talking of this same ruling or master passion.

Lord Bolingbroke, speaking of historians:

Where their sincerity as to fact is doubtful, we strike out truth by the confrontation of different accounts; as we strike out sparks of fire by the collision of flints and steel.

Let us vary the phrase a very little, and there will not remain a shadow of resemblance. Thus, for example:

We discover truth by the confrontation of different accounts; as we strike out sparks of fire by the collision of flints and steel.

Racine makes Pyrrhus say to Andromaque,

Vaincu, charg? de fers, de regrets consum?, Brul? de plus de feux que je n'en allumai, Helas! fus-je jamais si cruel que vous l'et?s?

And Orestes, in the same strain:

Que les Scythes sont moins cruels qu' Hermione.

Similes of this kind put one in mind of a ludicrous French song:

Je croyois Janneton Aussi douce que belle: Je croyois Janneton Plus douce qu'un mouton; Helas! helas! Elle est cent fois, mille fois, plus cruelle Que n'est le tigre aux bois.

Again,

Helas! l'amour m'a pris, Comme le chat fait la souris.

A vulgar Irish ballad begins thus:

I have as much love in store As there's apples in Portmore.

Where the subject is burlesque or ludicrous, such similes are far from being improper. Horace says pleasantly,

And Shakespear,

In breaking oaths he's stronger than Hercules.

And this leads me to observe, that beside the foregoing comparisons, which are all serious, there is a species, the end and purpose of which is to excite gaiety or mirth. Take the following examples.

Falstaff, speaking to his page:

I do here walk before thee, like a sow that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one.

I think he is not a pick-purse, nor a horse-stealer; but for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a cover'd goblet, or a worm-eaten nut.

Desciption of Hudibras's horse:

Books, like men, their authors, have but one way of coming into the world; but there are ten thousand to go out of it, and return no more.

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 observed to adhere close in prosperity, but on the decline of fortune, to drop suddenly off: whereas the generous author, just on the contrary, finds his hero on the dunghill, from thence by gradual steps raises him to a throne, and then immediately withdraws, expecting not so much as thanks for his pains.

He does not consider, that sincerity in love is as much out of fashion as sweet snuff; no body takes it now.

FIGURES.

The reader must not expect to find here a complete list of the different tropes and figures that have been carefully noted by ancient critics and grammarians. Tropes and figures have indeed been multiplied with so little reserve, as to make it no easy matter to distinguish them from plain language. A discovery almost accidental, made me think of giving them a place in this work: I found that the most important of them depend on principles formerly explained; and I was glad of an opportunity to show the extensive influence of these principles. Confining myself therefore to figures that answer this purpose, I am luckily freed from much trash; without dropping, so far as I remember, any figure that merits a proper name. And I begin with Prosopopoeia or personification, which is justly intitled to the first place.

One thing is certain, that the mind is prone to bestow sensibility upon things inanimate, where that violent effect is necessary to gratify passion. This is one instance, among many, of the power of passion to adjust our opinions and belief to its gratification. I give the following examples. Antony, mourning over the body of Caesar, murdered in the senate-house, vents his passion in the following words.

Here Antony must have been impressed with some sort of notion, that the body of Caesar was listening to him, without which the speech would be foolish and absurd. Nor will it appear strange, after what is said in the chapter above cited, that passion should have such power over the mind of man. Another example of the same kind is, where the earth, as a common mother, is animated to give refuge against a father's unkindness.

Again,

Again,

Earl Rivers carried to execution, says,

King Richard having got intelligence of Bolingbroke's invasion, says, upon his landing in England from his Irish expedition, in a mixture of joy and resentment,

Terror produceth the same effect. A man, to gratify this passion, extends it to every thing around, even to things inanimate:

Speaking of Polyphemus,

Le flot qui l'apporta recule epouvant?.

A man also naturally communicates his joy to all objects around, animate or inanimate:

I have been profuse of examples, to show what power many passions have to animate their objects. In all the foregoing examples, the personification, if I mistake not, is so complete as to be derived from an actual conviction, momentary indeed, of life and intelligence. But it is evident from numberless instances, that personification is not always so complete. Personification is a common figure in descriptive poetry, understood to be the language of the writer, and not of any of his personages in a fit of passion. In this case, it seldom or never comes up to a conviction, even momentary, of life and intelligence. I give the following examples.

Abstract and general terms, as well as particular objects, are often necessary in poetry. Such terms however are not well adapted to poetry, because they suggest not any image to the mind: I can readily form an image of Alexander or Achilles in wrath; but I cannot form an image of wrath in the abstract, or of wrath independent of a person. Upon that account, in works addressed to the imagination, abstract terms are frequently personified. But this personification never goes farther than the imagination.

Thus, to explain the effects of slander, it is imagined to be a voluntary agent:

As also human passions. Take the following example.

Virgil explains fame and its effects by a still greater variety of action. And Shakespear personifies death and its operations in a manner extremely fanciful:

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