Dear earth; I do salute thee with my hand, Plays fondly, with her tears, and smiles in meeting; So weeping, smiling, greet I thee my earth." . 4. Hatred takes hold of the same species of expression. Satan thus addresses the sun, in Paradise Lost. "O thou that, with surpassing glory crown'd, All na 5. Joy also delights in personification. Adam's exultation at his first interview with Eve is beautifully painted by Milton." ture is alive to share their happiness. 16 To the nuptial bow'r I led her, blushing like the morn; all heaver, 6. The impatience of Adam to know his origin, is supposed to prompt the personification of all the objects he beheld, in order to procure information. 66 Thou Sun, said I, fair light! And thou enlighten'd earth, so fresh and gay! Scholium. These examples evince, that a great part of the most expressive language of passion is personification, and that it is peculiarly adapted to the more interesting scenes of life, where the passions are wound up to the highest pitch. We should indeed naturally expect this consequence from the violent disorder of the mind in which it can be relished; for without ascending to that derangement which infers lunacy and distraction, reason can scarcely offer a greater sacrifice to passion, than to admit the order of nature to be reversed, and inanimate existence to be endowed with life and intelligence. Example 7. All the best tragedies, all the most passionate scenes in the most finished epic poems, bear ample testimony to its truth.— We shall exhibit only another quotation from the most perfect play of the most complete painter of the language of passion. King Lear, in the height of his distress, personifies, and rails against the elements, which he considers as combined with his daughters to procure his destruction. "I tax not you, ye elements, with unkindness, I never gave you kingdoms, call'd you children : Your horrible displeasure. Here I stand your brave; But yet I call you servile ministers, That have, with two pernicious daughters, joined 296. In treating of gender, (Art. 56. Mlus. 3. and 4.) we took notice, that the English language possessed a singular advantage in marking personifications, by employing the pronouns significant of sex. In all other cases, inanimate objects must be denominated by the neuter pronoun; and, in other languages, no distinction of gender can take place in personifications, because the genders of their nouns are invariable. But a writer in English is left at liberty to adopt either the male or female sex; and it is of some consequence to attend to this circumstance, because improprieties are not uncommon. Example. Milton has chosen unsuitable genders for the following personifications. Of Satan, he sings, Had not lost all her original brightness, Nor appear'd less than archangel ruin'd." Analysis. If the personification of the form of Satan was admissible, it should certainly have been masculine. A female form, conjoined to the person of a male, seems to approach the ridiculous. (See Anal. Ex. Art. 297.) 297. A capital error in personification, is to deck the figure with fantastic and trifling circumstances. A practice of this sort dissolves the potent charm which enchants and deceives the reader, and either leaves him dissatisfied, or excites, perhaps, his risibility. Example. Shakspeare will furnish an example of this sort. "She shall be dignified with this high honour, Analysis. Here the earth, which we usually call "our mother," (Ex. 2. Art. 295.) is degraded by being termed "base." (Ex. 3. Art. 205.) On the supposition that the earth is a person, it was competent to the poet to give her lips" to steal a kiss.". But then to fancy the earth" growing proud" of this "favour," and disdaining "to root the summer smelling flower," is a ridicule of all figurative communication; since, as flowers would embellish her bosom, she prefers, to the pomp of dress, the pleasure of a kiss. But we may surmise that the poet personifies the earth as a male, since it is rather a masculine prerogative "to steal a kiss." Now," so great a favour," in place of cooling his heart, was calculated to inflame it; therefore to imagine that the effect would be "to make rough winter everlastingly," marks something more than a defective taste in the poet. 298. Another error, frequent in descriptive personifications, consists in introducing them when the subject of discussion is destitute of dignity, and the reader is not prepared to relish them. Example. One can scarcely peruse the following quotations with composure. Thomson thus personifies and connects the bodily appetites, and their gratifications. "Then sated Hunger bids his brother Thirst Nor wanting is the brown October drawn Example. 2. Shakspeare, sometimes great in errors as in beau-ties, far outdoes Thomson. Speaking of Antony and Cleopatra : The city cast Its people out upon her; and Antony, Inthroned in the market-place, did sit alone, And made a gap in nature." 299. So also, addressing the several parts of one's body, as if they were animated, is not congruous to the dignity of passion. Example. For this reason, we must condemn the following passage, in Pope's, very beautiful poem of Eloise* to Abelard : "Dear fatal name! rest ever unreveal'd, Analysis. Here are several different objects and parts of the body personified; and each of them is addressed or spoken to; let us consider with what propriety. The first is, the name of Abelard: "Dear fatal name! rest ever," &c. To this, no reasonable objection can be made. For, as the name of a person often stands for the person himself, and suggests the same ideas, it can bear this personification with sufficient dignity. Next, Eloise speaks to herself; and personifies her heart for this purpose: "Hide it, my heart, within that close," &c. As the heart is a dignified part of the buman frame, and is often put for the mind or affections, this also may pass without blame. But, when from her heart she passes to her hand, and tells her hand not to write his name, this is forced and unnatural; a personified hand is low, and not in the style of true passion; and the figure becomes still worse, when, in the last place, she exhorts her tears to blot out what her hand had written. "Oh! write it not," &c. There is, in these two lines, an air of epigrammatic conceit, which native passion never suggests; and which is altogether unsuitable to the tenderness which breathes through the rest of that excellent poem. 300. In prose compositions, this figure requires to be used with still greater moderation and delicacy. The same liberty is not allowed to the imagination there, as in poetry. The same assistances cannot be obtained for raising passion to its proper height by the force of numbers, and the glow of style. CHAPTER V. ALLEGORY. 301. ALLEGORY is a species of writing, in which one thing is expressed, and another thing is under *Her country calls her Eloise, Pope Eloisa: I write the orthography of either. stood. The analogy is intended to be so obvious, that the reader cannot miss the application, but he is left to draw the proper conclusion for his own use. Illus. It is for this reason employed chiefly when a writer desires to communicate some important intelligence or advice, but is not permitted to deliver it in plain terms. It is also used for ornament, or to convey instruction so as to interest the imagination, and flatter the understanding, by giving the reader the appearance of instructing himself. Example 1. A finer and more correct allegory is not to be found than the following, in which a vineyard is made to represent God's people the Jews. "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land, The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and, behold, and visit this vine; and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself."* 2. Prior's Henry and Emma contains another beautiful example, in which human life is the primary object, and a voyage also the allegorical one. Any reader of discernment will easily trace the application. Emma addresses Henry : "Did I but purpose to embark with thee On the smooth surface of a summer's sea, Scholium. From these examples it will appear, that allegory partakes of the nature of metaphor and comparison in respect of resemblance, though it is not altogether a resemblance of the same kind. In allegory no supposition is made, even for a moment, that the primary object is converted into the resembling one; as is done in the case of metaphor. Nor is the similitude between the primary and resembling object pointed out, as is performed when com parisons are employed. We are left to discover the application, and to make the proper inference. We are satisfied with discerning the general purpose of the allegory, without inquiring with minuteness into the interpretation of every particular circumstance, * Psalm lxxx, 8-16. |