Their fixed Javelins in her Side she wears, THUS dreft foftens the Hyperbole, by making the Back of the Whale like an Ifland with a Wood rifing out of it. This Figure is fometimes admitted in Profe with the like. Softenings, as when Florus fays Hift. Rom. Lib. 2. c 2. Ut 22012 naves arte facte, fed quodam munere Deorum in naves mutate arbores viderentur; the Ships were equipped with fuch Dispatch in the first Punick War, that it feemed as if they were not built by Shipwrights, but that the Trees were turned into Ships by the Gods. Virgil does not fay, that the Ships are floating Ifles, but you would believe they were; nor Florus, that the Gods turned the Trees into Ships, but it feemed fo. This Precaution is a Sort of a Pafsport for an Hyperbole ; by making an Excuse for a Saying before you fay it, you prepoffefs the Reader in its Favour, let it be ever fo incredible: Propriis auribus auditur quamvis incredibile eft, quod excufatur antequam dicitur. Senec. Rhet. Suafor. 2. Voiture never wants thofe Softenings where they are neceffary, and no Writer ever knew better than he did to give a Face of Truth to that which was not fo; as in his Letter to Cardinal de la Valette, on the Entertainment at la Barre. Au fortir de table, le bruit des viclons fit monter tout le Monde en haut, ou l'on trouva une chambre fi bien eclairée, qu'il femblait que le jour qui n'eftoit plus fur la terre, s'y fuft retiré tout entier. When we rofe from Table, every one ran up Stairs at the Noife of Violins, where they came to a Chamber fo full of Lights, it feemed as if the Sun which had left fhining upon the Earth, was retired into that Room. It seemed there rectifies the Thought, and renders the Senfe reafonable, tho' 'tis full of Hyperbole. In his Letter to Madam Saintot, with the Orlando Furiofo of Ariosto, tranflated into French, Voiture writes thus, Toutes les couleurs, & la Fard de la poefie, &c. All the Collours of Poetry cannot paint you fo fair as we behold you, nor can the Imagination of Poets reach to fuch a Height. Had he flopt here, the Thought would have been falfe; but what follows renders the Hyperbole credible, as bold as it is, tho' the Subject of it is above Credibility. The Chambers of Christal, and the Palaces of Diamonds, which you will read of here, are far far more eafy to be imagined. And the Enchantments of Amadis, which appear to you fo incredible, are hardly more incredible than your own. At the first Sight to feize upon Souls, the most refolute, and the least made for Servitude; to create in them a Sort of Love, which is fenfible of Reafon, and ignorant both of Hope and Defire; to transport with Pleasure and Glory the Minds of thofe from whom you have ravished Repofe and Liberty; and to render thofe perfectly fatisfied with you, to whom you never were but cruel: These are Effects more strange and more diftant from Probability, than the Hyppogrifes and flying Chariots of Ariofto, or than whatever is most marvellous in Romances. The Reflections on the more than Magick Power of her Charms render the Hippogrifes of Ariofto the more credible, and the Hyperbole of the flying Chariots is brought within Bounds by it, Nunquam tantum fperat Hyperbole quantum audet, fed incredibilia affirmat ut ad credibilia terveniat. Senec. de Benef. Lib. 7. cap. 23. One of our English Poets has attempted to foften his Hyperbole, and reduce it to Credibility by fo poor a Word as fcarce: Valden's Verses upon Watson's Ephemeris: In artful Frames your heavenly Bodies move, Scarce brighter in their beauteous Orbs above. Without this Scarce the Clock-Maker's Stars wou'd be brighter than Jupiter, Venus, Mars, &ç. THE Irony is another Way of paffing off an Iy- Irony. perbole. When we rally or banter we may fay any Thing, but must be more upon our Guard when we write ferioufly; as Balzac does where he fays, He could get as much Wine out of his Muscadines as would make baif England drunk; that bis Vines produce as much as ought to ferve a whole Country; that there are more Perfumes in his Chamber than in all Arabia Fœlix, and fuch a Flood of Orange and Feffamine Water, that he and his Servants are forced to fwim for their Lives. Had he faid this by Way of Banter, it had been well enough; but the Misfortune is he fays it with a grave Tone, and perhaps is the first Man that ever faid a Thing fo gravely, that had fo little Truth in it. Voiture never offends in this manner. When he introduces the Hyperbole 'tis always by Way of Raillery: As in this other Paffage of the above-mention'd Letter to Cardinal de la Valette, upon the Entertainment at la Barre, Le bal continuoit avec beaucoup de plaifir, &c. The Ball continued continued very pleasantly, till a great Noife a great Noife without Doors drew all the Ladies to the Window, where, at about a hundred Yards diftance, fo great a Number of artificial Fire-works iffu'd out of a Wood, that it feem'd as if all the Branches of the Trees were fo many "Rockets, that all the Stars were falien from the Skies, and the Sphere of Fire had taken Place of the middle Region of the Air. Thefe, my Lord, are three Hyperboles, which being rightly appraised and reduced to the just Value of Things, can amount to no more nor no less than three dozen of Rockets. The Conclufion is Banter and Irony. Voiture did not think it feem'd was fufficient to warrant the Wood of Rockets, the falling Stars and the Sphere of Fire, he turns it all into Raillery, and brings off all well. Tefauro does not so, when fpeaking of flying Rockets, he fays only it seems as if they would fet the Sphere of Fire in a Flame, thunder the Thunders, and alarm the Stars, Par che fagliano ad infiammar la sfera del fuoco: a fulminare i fulmini, & a gridar allarme contra le ftelle. He contents himself with faying, Par che fagliano, it feems, and takes no further Care about it. Let the Hyperbole make its way with that Pafsport, he'll give it no other. Had he fpoken it in Raillery, as Voiture did, as bold and as falfe as his Thoughts are, they wou'd have paft with his Par che fagliano only. Falfehood it felf becomes Truth by the Help of an Irony, or what we call the Rule of Contraries. Thus when we fay of a fcandalous lewd Woman, fhe is a very vertuous Perfon, every one underftands what is faid, or rather what is not faid. Omnis falfe dicendi ratio in eo eft, ut aliter quam eft, rectum verumq; dicatur. Quint. Lib. 6. cap. 3. Intelligitur quod non dicitur. ibid. After all the best Guide we can follow is this admirable Saying of one of the greateft Wits of our Age, Rien n'eft beau que le Vray, le Vray feul eft aimable, Nothing but Truth is lovely, nothing fair, "Tis taken from Boileau, and is as well expreft by Lord Lanfdown: Impartial Truth, ftill let your Fables hold, And moral Myfteries with Art unfold. Thefe Thefe judicious Reflections are a strange Rebuke to those Writers and Readers, who waste their Time about fuch Stuff as Robinjon Crufo's, Gullivers, &c. Dean Swift in all his Tales and Fables, has not fhewn that he is at all fenfible of the Duty of an Author to have Truth always in View, and to follow that unerring Guide. If he can work his Readers Faces into a Grin he reaches the utmost of his Ambition; and if they laugh, he has his noble Reward; tho' like People that are tickled, they would cry if they could, and are, or ought to be, in Pain when he pretends to give them Pleasure. Pere Bouhours fpeaks of fome merry Authors in France, who pointed their Epitaphs, as Owen points his Epigrams. Or this kind is the Epitaph on Francis the I. written by St. Gelais, in the Dialogue Way: Qui tient enclos ce marbre qui je voy! Refponfe. Le Grand Francois incomparable Roy. Comme eut tel Prince, un fi court Monument ? Refponfe. De luy n'y a que le Coeur feulement. Donc icy n'eft pas tout ce Grand Vainqueur ? Refponfe. Il y eft tout, car tout il eftoit Cœur. What does the Marble I behold enclofe? Anfw. The mighty Francis Conqu'ror of his Foes. So great the King, the Monument fo finall? Here only is his Heart. Anfw. Anfw. It holds not all, The Conqu'ror? Yes, he's here in every Part, Francis the Great was nothing else but Heart. A merry Point This! for fo ferious a Thing as an Epitaph? and that on the Marefchal de Ranzau is not much better. He had loft an Eye and a Leg in the Wars, and perhaps never General was more maim'd than he. This is the Thought the Poet goes upon, and after having told us that but Half of the great Ranzau is beneath the Marble, and the other Half in the Field of Battle, he concludes thus: Et Mars ne luy laiffa rien d' entier le No Lungs, no Liver, nor any Thing elfe. How far different from this is what Voiture writes to Mademoifells de Paulet; Paulet; Si jofois ecrire des lettres pitoyables, &c. If I durft write pitiful Letters, I could fay Things that would break your Heart; but to tell you the Truth, I had much rather it fhould keep whole. I am afraid, if it was in two Pieces, Half of it might be loft in my Abfence: You fee I know how to make use of the pretty Things which I hear faid. Voiture is not in earneft. He rallys, and even in his Raillery borrows from fome Body whom he banters for fo faying. Yet a Critick upon Voiture charges him as if the Thought was his own, which if it had been fo, would have been excufable in a pleasant Writer, who in Mirth and Frolick, fays any thing that comes uppermoft to divert himself and others; fomewhat like the Converfation of a good humour'd Fellow at a Friends Table, who rambles in his Difcourfe after the Glafs has gone about a little. One fhould never take what is then faid in the like Circumstances according to the Letter; yet I could bear it much better than a very grave Saying of a Man after he had vomited Blood, Je n'oferois, &c. I must not dare to tell you, as formerly, that I love you with all my Soul, fince I have loft more than half of it: To Speak more regularly, I affure you I love you with all my Might. They are Balzac's Words; and befides that, 'tis allowable in Poets only to confound the Blood and the Soul, and take the one for the other; If he had loft half of his Soul, his Might would have gone along with it, and his Love to his Friend is very weakly expreft. What he fays elfewhere is no more true nor just than this. Je fais auffi dechiré, &c. I am as much torn in Pieces as if I had been in all the Battles I have read of. I am but a Piece of my felf, a Quarter or half Quarter of what I was. Voiture, only had the Talent of fpeaking pleafantly, and correctly at the fame Time; as thus, Je ne puis pas dire, &c. I cannot fay abfolutely, I am arriv'd at Turin, for there is but Half of me come hither: you imagine my Meaning to be, that the other half remains with you: That is not the Cafe; for of a bundred and four Pounds, which I weigh'd, I now weigh but Fifty Two. Never was any Thing feen fo lean and lank as I am. Voiture is not falfe when he is merry, but Balzac is when he is ferious, and one falfe Thought is enough to fpoil a fine Piece, whether in Profe or Verfe. Malherb, perhaps, never wrote any Thing finer than thofe fpiritual Stanza's, which begin with this Verfe. N'efperons |