purpose the works of such men as Milton and Shakespeare. It may be expected, that, like other critics, I should next speak of the passions: but as the main end and principal effect of the bathos is to produce tranquillity of mind (and sure it is a better design to promote sleep than madness), we have little to say on this subject. Nor will the short bounds of this discourse allow us to treat at large of the emollients and opiates of poesy; of the cool, and the manner of producing it; or of the methods used by our authors in managing the passions. I shall but transiently remark, that nothing contributes so much to the cool, as the use of wit in expressing passion; the true genius rarely fails of points, conceits, and proper similes on such occasions: this we may term the pathetic epigrammatical, in which even puns are made use of with good success. Hereby our best authors have avoided throwing themselves or their readers into any indecent transports. But, as it is sometimes needful to excite the passions of our antagonist in the polemic way, the true students in the law have constantly taken their methods from low life, where they observed, that to move anger, use is made of scolding and railing; to move love, of bawdry; to beget favour and friendship, of gross flattery; and to produce fear, of calumniating an adversary with crimes obnoxious to the state. As for shame, it is a silly passion, of which as our authors are incapable themselves, so they would not produce it in others. CHAP. X. OF TROPES AND FIGURES; AND FIRST OF THE VARIEGATING, CONFOUNDING, AND REVERSING FIGURES. BUT we proceed to the figures. We cannot too earnestly recommend to our authors the study of the abuse of speech. They ought to lay down as a principle, to say nothing in the usual way, but (if possible) in the direct contrary. Therefore the figures must be so turned, as to manifest that intricate and wonderful cast of head, which distinguishes all writers of this kind: or (as I may say) to refer exactly the mould, in which they were formed, in all its inequalities, cavities, obliquities, odd crannies, and distortions. It would be endless, nay impossible, to enumerate all such figures, but we shall content ourselves * Another figure which greatly contributes to the Bathos might here be added, which Longinus, in his third section, calls the Parenthyrsus; a kind of violence and emotion, ill-timed and out of season, and disproportioned to the subject; into which good writers, nay Horace himself, is said to have fallen. When he says, that even as the most superb and useful monuments of human skill and regal magnificence, the making new ports, the draining of marshes, the altering the course of rivers, the building moles, and other vast and expensive works, alter and decay; sa do words and current expressions: 66 "Debemur morti nos nostraque→→ -Mortalia facta peribunt, Nedum sermonum stet honos et gratia vivax." "The objects by which this decay of words are illustrated are too large and important for the occasion." HoR. Art of Poetry, I. 63. See Blondell's Comparison of Horace and Pindar. Dr WARTON. to range the principal, which most powerfully con tribute to the bathos, under three classes. I. The variegating, confounding, or reversing tropes and figures. II. The magnifying, and We cannot avoid giving to these the Greek or Roman names: but in tenderness to our countrymen and fellow writers, many of whom, however exquisite, are wholly ignorant of those languages, we have also explained them in our mother tongue. Of the first sort, nothing so much conduces to the bathos, as the CATACHRESIS. A master of this will say, "Mow the beard, Shave the grass, From whence results the same kind of pleasure to the mind as to the eye, when we behold Harlequin trimming himself with a hatchet, hewing down a tree with a razor, making his tea in a cauldron, and brewing his ale in a tea-pot, to the incredible satisfaction of the British spectator. Another source of the bathos is, The METONYMY, the inversion of causes for effects, of inventors for inventions, &c. Lac'd in her Cosins new appeared the bride,: The SYNECDOCHE, which consists in the use of a part for the whole. You may call a young woman sometimes prettyface and pigs-eyes, and sometimes snooty-nose and draggle-tail. Or, of accidents, for persons; as a lawyer, is called split-cause, a tailor, prick-louse, &c. Or of things belonging to a man, for the man himself'; as a sword-man, a gown-man, a t-m-t-dman; a white-staff, a turn-key, &c, mohol pe tine; The APOSIOPESIS, an excellent figure for the ignorant, as, “what shall I say?" when one has nothing to say: or, "I can no more," when one really can no more, Expressions which the gentle reader is so good as never to take in earnest. The METAPHOR.** The first rule is to draw it from the lowest things; * Stays. + Tweezer-case. Watch. Fan, § A sort of periwig: all words in use at this present year 1727. POPE. ¶ These five lines, and the two at the bottom of p. 70, are quoted from his own youthful poems; as indeed are most of those marked Anonymous. See also note on p. 52.-Dr WARTON. ** It were to be wished that all the critical opinions of Dr. Johnson were as solid and judicious as are his admirable observations in the Life of Cowley, on mixt Metaphors, false Wit, and what (after Dryden) he calls "Metaphysical Poetry." After a certain period, in every country and in every language, men grow weary of the natural, and search after the singular.-Dr WARTON. which is a certain way to sink the highest; as when you speak of the thunder of heaven, say, The lords above are hungry and talk big.* Or if you would describe a rich man refunding his treasures, express it thus, Tho' he (as said) may riches gorge, the spoil Soon shall he perish with a swift decay, Like his own ordure, cast with scorn away. † The second, that whenever you start a metaphor, you must be sure to run it down, and pursue it as far as it can go. If you get the scent of a state negotiation, follow it in this manner : The stones and all the elements with thee Wild beasts their savage temper shall forget, And seeing thee, for joy sincerely weep.‡ Or if you represent the Creator denouncing war against the wicked, be sure not to omit one circumstance usual in proclaiming and levying war. Envoys and agents, who by my command Reside in Palestina's land, To whom commissions I have given To manage there the interests of Heaven: Ye holy heralds, who proclaim Or war or peace, in mine your master's name, Ye pioneers of Heaven, prepare a road, Make it plain, direct and broad; For I in person will my people head; Lee's Alexander. Job, p. 22. + Blackmore, Job, p. 91, 93. |