MILTON

MILTON, Allegro.

4. An attribute of a subject bestowed upon one of its parts or members.

Larging arms.

It was the nightingale, and not the lark,

That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear.

Rome and Jallit, all 3. st. 7.

—Oh,

Oh, lay by
Those most ungentle looks and angry weapons:
Unless you mean my griefs and killing fears
Should stretch me out at your reluctant feet.
Fair Fenest, all 3.

And ready now
To stoop with wearied wing, and willing feet,
On the bare outside of this world. Paradise Lost, 5. 3.

5. A quality of the agent given to the instrument with which it operates.

Why peep your accord (words half out their shells)?

6. An attribute of the agent given to the subject upon which it operates.

High-climbing hill Milton.

7. A quality of one subject given to another.

It is, beath name Arabum invades
Gazis. Herat. Caren 1. 1. ed. 29.

When simplets are, and weak unable limbs,
Should bring thy father to his drooping chair. Shakespeare.

By art, the pilot through the boiling deep,
And howling tempest, steers the furthest ship. Mod. xxiii. 355.

Then, nothing loth, th' enamour'd fair he led,
And sunk transported on the confines bed. Odyssey, viii. 357.

A flupid moment motioned the flood. Summer, 1. 1336.

8. A circumstance connected with a subject, expressed as a quality of the subject.

Breasy summit.

'Tis ours the chance of fighting fields to try. Mod. 1. 301.

Oh! had I dy'd before that well-fought wall. Odyssey, v. 395.

From this table it appears, that the adorning a cause with an attribute of the effect, is not so agreeable as the opposite expression. The progress from cause to effect is natural and easy; the opposite progress resembles retrograde motion*; and therefore painting height, astonish'd thought, are strained and uncouth expressions, which a writer of taste will avoid.

It is not less strained, to apply to a subject in its present state, an epithet that may belong to it in some future state:

Submersive obtrus puppes. Mod. 1. 75.

And mighty ruins fall. Mod. 8. 411.

Imjous sons their wangled fathers wound.

Another rule regards this figure. That the property of one subject ought not to be bestowed upon another with which that property is incongruous.

K. Rich.—How dare thy joints forget
To pay their soful duty to our presence? Richard II. all 3. f. 6.

The connection between an awful superior and his submissive dependent is so intimate, that an attribute may readily be transferred from the one to the other: but awfulness cannot be so transferred, because it is inconsistent with submission.

FIGURE of Speech, as peculiarly distinguished from the above and from those first referred to.] Under the article Metaphor and Allegory, a figure of speech is defined, "The using a word in a sense different from what is proper to it;" and the new or uncommon sense of the word is termed the figurative sense. The figurative sense must have a relation to that which is

proper; and the more intimate the relation is, the figure is the more happy. How ornamental this figure is to language, will not be readily imagined by any one who hath not given peculiar attention; and therefore we shall endeavour to unfold its capital beauties and advantages. In the first place, a word used figuratively, or in a new sense, suggests at the same time the sense it commonly bears; and thus it has the effect to present two objects; one signified by the figurative sense, which may be termed the principal object; and one signified by the proper sense, which may be termed accessory: the principal makes a part of the thought; the accessory is merely ornamental. In this respect, a figure of speech is precisely similar to concordant sounds in music, which, without contributing to the melody, make it harmonious.

To explain the matter by examples. Youth, by a figure of speech, is termed the morning of life: This expression signifies youth, the principal object which enters into the thought; it suggests, at the same time, the proper sense of morning; and this accessory object, being in itself beautiful, and connected by resemblance to the principal object, is not a little ornamental. Imperious ocean is an example of a different kind, where an attribute is expressed figuratively: Together with stormy, the figurative meaning of the epithet imperious, there is suggested its proper meaning, viz. the stern authority of a despotic prince; and these two are strongly connected by resemblance. Upon this figurative power of words, Vida descants with elegance, Poet. lib. iii. 44.

In the next place, this figure possesses a signal power of aggrandising an object, by the following means. Words, which have no original beauty but what arises from their sound, acquire an adventitious beauty from their meaning: a word signifying any thing that is agreeable, becomes by that means agreeable; for the agreeableness of the object is communicated to its name. This acquired beauty, by the force of custom, adheres to the word even when used figuratively; and the beauty received from the thing it properly signifies, is communicated to the thing which it is made to signify figuratively. Consider the foregoing expression Imperious ocean, how much more elevated it is than Stormy ocean.

Thirdly, This figure hath a happy effect by preventing the familiarity of proper names. The familiarity of a proper name is communicated to the thing it signifies by means of their intimate connection; and the thing is thereby brought down in our feeling. This bad effect is prevented by using a figurative word instead of one that is proper; as for example, when we express the sky by terming it the blue vault of heaven; for though no work of art can compare with the sky in grandeur, the expression, however, is relished, because it prevents the object from being brought down by the familiarity of its proper name. With respect to the degrading the familiarity of proper names, Vida has the following passage:

Hinc si dura mihi passus dicendus Ulysses,
Non illum vero memorabo nomine, sed qui
Et mores hominum munitus vidit, et artes,
Naufragus everit post favaincenda Troja. Poet. lib. ii. 1. 46.

Lastly, By this figure, language is enriched, and rendered more copious; in which respect, were there

no other, a figure of speech is a happy invention. This property is finely touched by Vida; Poet. lib. iii. 90.

The beauties we have mentioned belong to every figure of speech. Several other beauties peculiar to one or other sort, we shall have occasion to remark afterward.

Not only subjects, but qualities, actions, effects, may be expressed figuratively. Thus, as to subjects, gates of breath for the lips, the watery kingdom for the ocean. As to qualities, force for stormy, in the expression Fierce winter; altus for profundus, Altus patens, Altum mare; breathing for perspiring, Breathing plants. Again, as to actions, The sea roars, Time will melt her frozen thoughts, Time kills grief. An effect is put for the cause, as lux for the sun; and a cause for the effect, as bown labours for corn. The relation of resemblance is one plentiful source of figures of speech; and nothing is more common than to apply to one object the name of another that resembles it in any respect: Height, size, and worldly greatness, resemble not each other; but the emotions they produce resemble each other, and, prompted by this resemblance, we naturally express worldly greatness by height or size: One feels a certain uneasiness in seeing a great depth; and, hence depth is made to express any thing disagreeable by excess, as depth of grief, depth of despair: Again, height of place, and time long past, produce similar feelings; and hence the expression, Ut altius repetam! Distance in past time, producing a strong feeling, is put for any strong feeling: Nihil mihi antiquius nostra civitatis: Shortness with relation to space, for shortness with relation to time: Brevius esse labors, obscurius fere: Suffering a punishment resembles paying a debt; hence pendere penas. In the same manner, light may be put for glory, sunshine for prosperity, and weight for importance.

Many words, originally figurative, having, by long and constant use, lost their figurative power, are degraded to the inferior rank of proper terms. Thus the words that express the operation of the mind, have in all languages been originally figurative: the reason holds in all, that when these operations came first under consideration, there was no other way of describing them but by what they resembled: it was not practicable to give them proper names, as may be done to objects that can be ascertained by sight and touch. A soft nature, jarring tempers, weight of woe, pompous phrase, beget compassion, assuage grief, break a vow, bend the eye downward, flower down curses, drown'd in tears, wrapt in joy, warm'd with eloquence, loaded with spoils, and a thousand other expressions of the like nature, have lost their figurative sense. Some terms there are that cannot be said to be altogether figurative or altogether proper: originally figurative, they are tending to simplicity, without having lost altogether their figurative power. Virgil's Regina faucia cura, is perhaps one of these expressions: with ordinary readers, faucia will be considered as expressing simply the effect of grief; but one of a lively imagination will exalt the phrase into a figure.

For epitomising this subject, and at the same time for giving a clear view of it, Lord Kames* gives a list of the several relations upon which figures of speech are commonly founded. This list he divides into two

tables: one of subjects expressed figuratively, and one of attributes.

1. A word proper to one subject employed figuratively to express a resembling subject.

There is no figure of speech so frequent, as what is derived from the relation of resemblance. Youth, for example, is signified figuratively by the morning of life. The life of a man resembles a natural day in several particulars: the morning is the beginning of a day, youth the beginning of life: the morning is cheerful, so is youth, &c. By another resemblance, a bold warrior is termed the thunderbolt of war; a multitude of troubles, a sea of troubles.

This figure, above all others, affords pleasure to the mind by variety of beauties. Besides the beauties above-mentioned, common to all sorts, it possesses in particular the beauty of a metaphor or of a simile: a figure of speech built upon resemblance, suggests always a comparison between the principal subject and the accessory; whereby every good effect of a metaphor or simile may, in a short and lively manner, be produced by this figure of speech.

2. A word proper to the effect employed figuratively to express the cause.

Lux for the sun; Shadow for cloud. A helmet is signified by the expression glittering terror; a tree by shadow or umbrage. Hence the expression,

Nec habet Pelion umbras. Ovid.

Where the dan umbrage hangs. Spring, i. 1023.

A wound is made to signify an arrow:

Vulneri non pedibus te consequar. Ovid.

There is a peculiar force and beauty in this figure: the word which signifies figuratively the principal subject, denotes it to be a cause by suggesting the effect.

3. A word proper to the cause employed figuratively to express the effect.

Bouque labores for corn. Sorrow or grief for tears.

Again Ulysses we'd his pensive head;

Again, unmann'd, a flow'r of serene shed.

Streaming Grief his faded cheek bedew'd.

Blindness for darkness:

Cecis erramus in undis. Horad. iii. 200.

There is a peculiar energy in this figure, similar to that in the former: the figurative name denotes the subject to be an effect, by suggesting its cause.

4. Two things being intimately connected, the proper name of the one employed figuratively to signify the other.

Day for light. Night for darkness; and hence, A sudden night. Winter for a storm at sea:

Interea magno misceri marmore portum,
Emillamque Hyemem sensit Neptunus. Horad. i. 128.

This last figure would be too bold for a British writer, as a storm at sea is not inseparably connected with winter in this climate.

5. A word proper to an attribute, employed figuratively to denote the subject.

Youth and beauty for those who are young and beautiful:

Youth and beauty shall be laid in dust.

What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night,
Together with that fair and warlike form
In which the Majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometime march? Hamlet, act 1. sc. 1.

Or have ye chosen this place
After the toils of battle, to repose
Your weary'd virtue? Paradise Lost.

Verdure for a green field. Summer, l. 301.

The pigny nations, wounds and death they bring,
And all the war descends upon the wing. Iliad, iii. 10.
Co-llege advances venerably wife. Iliad, iii. 149.

The peculiar beauty of this figure arises from suggesting an attribute that embellishes the subject, or puts it in a stronger light.

6. A complex term employed figuratively to denote one of the component parts.

Funus for a dead body. Burial for a grave.

7. The name of one of the component parts instead of the complex term.

Tada for a marriage. The East for a country situated east from us. Jovis vestigia servat, for imitating Jupiter in general.

8. A word signifying time or place, employed figuratively to denote what is connected with it.

Chine for a nation, or for a constitution of government: hence the expression, Merciful climate, Fleecy winter for snow, Seculum felix.

9. A part for the whole.

The pole for the earth. The head for the person:

Triginta minas pro capite tuo dedi. Plautus.

Tergum for the man:

Fugiens tergum. Ovid.

Vultus for the man:

Jam fulgor armorum fugaces
Terret equos, equitumque vultus. Horat.

Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus
Tam chari capitis? Horat.

Dumque virent getus?
Thy growing virtue justify'd my cares,
And promis'd comfort to my fleer'd bair. Iliad, ix. 616.

—Forthwith from the pole he rears
His mighty stature. Paradise Lost.

The silent heart which grief assails. Parnel.

The peculiar beauty of this figure consists in marking that part which makes the greatest figure.

10. The name of the container, employed figuratively to signify what is contained.

Grove for the birds in it; Vocal grove. Ships for the seamen; Agonizing ships. Mountains for the sheep pasturing upon them, Bleating mountains. Zacynthus, Ithaca, &c. for the inhabitants. Ex meelis domibus, Luvi.

11. The name of the sustainer, employed figuratively to signify what is sustained.

Altar for the sacrifice. Field for the battle fought upon it, Well-fought field.

12. The name of the materials, employed figuratively to signify the things made of them.

Ferretum for gladius.

13. The names of the Heathen deities, employed figuratively to signify what they patronise.

Jove for the air, Mars for war, Venus for beauty, Cupid for love, Ceres for corn, Neptune for the sea, Vulcan for fire.

Vol. VII. Part I.

This figure bestows great elevation upon the subject; and therefore ought to be confined to the higher strains of poetry.

1. When two attributes are connected, the name of the one may be employed figuratively to express the other.

Purity and virginity are attributes of the same person: hence the expression, Virgin snow, for pure snow.

2. A word signifying properly an attribute of one subject, employed figuratively to express a resembling attribute of another subject.

Tottering state. Imperious ocean. Angry flood. Raging tempest. Shallow fears.

My sure divinity shall bear the shield,
And edge thy sword to reap the glorious field. Odyssey, xx. 61.

Black omen, for an omen that portends bad fortune. Alar omen. Virgil.

The peculiar beauty of this figure arises from suggesting a comparison.

3. A word proper to the subject, employed to express one of its attributes.

Mens for intellectus. Mens for a resolution:

Issam, oro, exue mentem.

4. When two subjects have a resemblance by a common quality, the name of the one subject may be employed figuratively to denote that quality in the other:

Summer life for agreeable life.

5. The name of the instrument made to signify the power of employing it:

—Melpomene, cui liquidam pater
Vocem eum cibora dedit.

The ample field of figurative expression displayed in these tables, affords great scope for reasoning. Several of the observations relating to metaphor*, are applicable to figures of speech: these shall be slightly re-touched, with some additions peculiarly adapted to the present subject.

1. As the figure under consideration is built upon relation, we find from experience, and it must be obvious from reason, that the beauty of it depends on the intimacy of the relation between the figurative and proper sense of the word. A slight resemblance, in particular, will never make this figure agreeable: the expression, for example, Drink down a secret, for listening to a secret with attention, is harsh and uncouth, because there is scarce any resemblance between listening and drinking. The expression weighty crack, used by Ben Johnson for loud crack, is worse if possible: a loud sound has not the slightest resemblance to a piece of matter that is weighty.

Phenius! let acts of gods, and heroes old,
What ancient bards in hall and bow'r have told,
Attempted to the lyre, your voice employ,
Such the pleas'd ear will drink with silent joy. Odyssey, i. 433.

Sirepitumque exterritis hysti. Enid, vi. 559.

—Write, my queen,
And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you send. Cymbeline, act 1. sc. 2.

As thus th' effulgence tremulous I drink. Summer, l. 1654.

O prince! (Lycaon's valiant son rep'd),
As thine the steeds, be thine the talk to guide.
The horses practis'd to their lord's command,
Shall bear the rein, and answer to thy hand. Iliad, v. 288.

The following figures of speech seem altogether wild and extravagant, the figurative and proper meaning having no connection whatever. Moving softness, Freshness breathes, Breathing prospect, Flowing spring, Drew light, Lucid coolness, and many others of this false coin, may be found in Thomson's Seasons.

2. The proper sense of the word ought to bear some proportion to the figurative sense, and not soar much above it, nor sink much below it. This rule, as well as the foregoing, is finely illustrated by Vida, Poet. iii. 148.

3. In a figure of speech, every circumstance ought to be avoided that agrees with the proper sense only, not with the figurative sense; for it is the latter that expresses the thought, and the former serves for no other purpose but to make harmony:

Zacynthus green with ever-hairy groves,
And ithaces, presumptuous boast their loves;
Ostruding on my choice a second lord,
They prets the Mymenean site abhorr'd.

Zacynthus here standing figuratively for the inhabitants, the description of the island is quite out of place: it puzzles the reader, by making him doubt whether the word ought to be taken in its proper or figurative sense.

Write, my queen,
And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you send,
Though ink be made of gall. Cymbeline, all 1. sc. 2.

The disgust one has to drink ink in reality, is not to the purpose where the subject is drinking ink figuratively.

4. To draw consequences from a figure of speech, as if the word were to be understood literally, is a gross absurdity; for it is confounding truth with fiction:

Be Mombray's sins so heavy in his bosom,
That they may break his foaming counter's back,
And throw the rider headlong in the lists,
A caustic recreant to my cousin Hereford.

Sin may be imagined heavy in a figurative sense: but weight in a proper sense belongs to the accessory only; and therefore to describe the effects of weight, is to desert the principal subject, and to convert the accessory into a principal:

Cromwell. How does your Grace?
Wilsy. Why, well;
Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell.
I know myself now, and I feel within me
A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience. The king has cur'd me,
I humbly thank his Grace: and, from these shoulders,
These ruin'd pillars, cut of pity, taken
A lead would sink a navy, too much honour.

Ulysses speaking of Hector:

I wonder now how yonder city stands,
When we have here the base and pillar by us.
Trosilus and Cressida, all 4. sc. 9.

Othello. No; my heart is turn'd to stone: I strike it, and it hurts my hand.
Othello, all 4. sc. 5.

Not less, even in this despicable now,
Than when my name fill'd Africa with affrights,
And froze your hearts beneath your torrid zone.
Don Sebastion King of Portugal, all 1.

How long a space, since first I lov'd, it is!
To look into a glass I fear,
And am surpris'd with wonder, when I miss
Grey hairs and wrinkles there.
Conway, vol. 1. p. 86.

I chose the flourishing 'st tree in all the park,
With freshest boughs, and fairest head:
I cut my love into its gentle bark,
And in three days behold 'tis dead;
My very written flames so violent be,
They've burnt and wither'd up the tree.
Conway, vol. 1. p. 136.

Ah, mighty Love, that it were inward heat
Which made this precious linbeck sweet!
But what, alas! ah what does it await
That the weeps tears so wond'rous cold,
As scarce the asf's hoof can hold,
So cold, that I admire they fall not hail?
Conway, vol. 1. p. 132.

Such a play of words is pleasant in a ludicrous poem.

Alucia. O Alphonso, Alphonso!
Devouring seas have wash'd thee from my sight,
No time shall raise 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.

This would be very right, if there were any inconsistency in being interr'd in one place really, and in another place figuratively.

From considering, that a word used in a figurative sense suggests at the same time its proper meaning, we discover a fifth rule, That we ought not to employ a word in a figurative sense, the proper sense of which is inconsistent or incongruous with the subject: for every inconsistency, and even incongruity, though in the expression only and not real, is unpleasant:

Interea genitor Tyberini ad fluminis undam
Vulnera faciat lym; his. Ruill, x. 335.

Tres adeo incertos caeca caligine filis
Erramus pelago, totidem sine fidere nocet.
Ruill, iii. 203.

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

Dicat Opuntiae
Frater Megillax, quo datus
Volante. Horat. Carm. lib. 1. ode 27.
Pareus deorum cultor, et infrequens,
Infansietis dum sapientiae
Confultus erro. Horat. Carm. 1. 1. ode 34.

Seventhly, The crowding into one period or thought different figures of speech, is not less 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 most deject and wretched,
That suck'd the honey of his music vows.
My bleeding bosom sickens at the sound.
Hamlet.

Ah miser,
Quanta laboras in Cleopatra!
Digne puer meliore sumus.
Quae faga, quis te solvere Theffalis
Magus vocat, quis poterit deus?
Ossify, i. 439.

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 blood,
Hud. xi. 211.

A falchion drinking the warriors blood is a figure built upon resemblance, which is passable. But then in the expression, lives is again put for blood; and by thus grafting one figure upon another, the expression is rendered obscure and unpleasant.

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

Votis incendimus aras. Hud. iii. 279.

— One entique canistris
Dona laborat Ceresis. Hud. vii. 180.

Vulcan to the Cyclopes:

Arma acri facienda viro: nunc viribus usus,
Nunc manibus rapidis, omni nunc arte magistra:
Precipitate morax. Hud. viii. 441.

— Huic gladio, perque ares frusta
Per tunicam equalem auro, latus laevit apertum.
Hud. x. 313.

Scriberis Vario fortis, et hostium
Victor, Maedi carminis alite. Horat. Carm. lib. 1. ode 6.

Else shall our fates be number'd with the dead.
Hud. v. 294.

Communal death the fate of war confounds.
Hud. viii. 85. and xi. 117.

Speaking of Proteus.

Infant he wears, elusive of the rape,
The minute force of every savage shape. Ovid. iv. 563.
Rolling convulsive on the floor, is seen
The piteous object of a prostrate queen. Ibid. iv. 652.
The mingling tempest weaves its gloom. Autumn. 537.
A various sweetness swells the gentle race. Ibid. 640.
The distant water-fall swells in the breeze. Winter. 735.

In the tenth place, When a subject is introduced by its proper name, it is absurd to attribute to it the properties of a different subject to which the word is sometimes applied in a figurative sense:

Hear me, oh Neptune! thou whose arms are hurl'd
From shore to shore, and gird the solid world.
Ovid. ix. 617.

Neptune is here introduced personally, and not figuratively for the ocean: the description therefore, which is only applicable to the latter, is altogether improper.

It is not sufficient that a figure of speech be regularly constructed, and be free from blemish: it requires taste to discern when it is proper, when improper; and taste perhaps is our only guide. One, however, may gather from reflections and experience, that ornaments and graces suit not any of the dispiriting passions, nor are proper for expressing any thing grave and important. In familiar conversation, they are in some measure ridiculous: Prospero, in the Tempest, speaking to his daughter Miranda, says,

The fringed curtains of thine eyes advance,
And say what thou feest yond.

No exception can be taken to the justness of the figure; and circumstances may be imagined to make it

proper: but it is certainly not proper in familiar conversation.

In the last place, Though figures of speech have a charming effect when accurately constructed and properly introduced, they ought, however, to be scattered with a sparing hand: nothing is more luscious, and nothing consequently more fatiguing, than redundant ornaments of any kind.

FIGURE is used, in theology, for the mysteries represented or delivered obscurely to us under certain types or actions in the Old Testament. Thus manna is held a figure or type of the eucharist; and the death of Abel a figure of the suffering of Christ.

Many divines and critics contend, that all the actions, histories, ceremonies, &c. of the Old Testament, are only figures, types, and prophecies, of what was to happen under the New. The Jews are supposed to have had the figures or shadows, and we the substance.

FIGURE is also applied in a like sense to profane matters; as the emblems, enigmas, fables, symbols, and hieroglyphics, of the ancients.