Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

USING METAPHORS, FOREIGN IDIOMS, ETC.

35

many others the Endeavour after Perfpicuity prejudices its Greatness.

Ariftotle has obferved, that the Idiomatick Stile may be avoided, and the Sublime formed, by the following Methods. First, by the use of Metaphors, like those of Milton.

Imparadis'd in one anothers Arms,
-And in his Hand a Reed

Stood waving tipt with Fire;
The graffie Clods now calv'd.-

In these and several [innumerable] other Inftances, the Metaphors are very bold but beautiful; I must however obferve, that the Metaphors are not thick fown in Milton, which always favours too much of Wit; that they never clash with one another, which as Ariftotle obferves, turns a Sentence into a kind of an Enigma or Riddle; and that he seldom makes use of them where the proper and natural Words will do as well.

Another way of raising the Language, and giving it a Poetical Turn, is to make use of the Idioms of other Tongues. Virgil is full of the Greek Forms of Speech, which the Criticks call Hellenifms, as Horace in his Odes abounds with them much more than Virgil. I need not mention the feveral Dialects which Homer has made use of for this end. Milton, in conformity with the Practice of the Ancient Poets, and with Ariftotle's Rule has infused a great many Latinifms, as well as Græcifms, [and sometimes Hebraifms,] into the Language of his Poem; as towards the Beginning of it.

Nor did they not perceive the evil plight

In which they were, or the fierce Pains not feel. [Yet to their Gen'ral's Voice they foon obey'd.] Who fhall tempt with wandring Feet

The dark unbottom'd Infinite Abyfs,

And through the palpable Obfcure find out his way,

His uncouth way, or fpread his airy Flight
Upborn with indefatigable Wings
Over the vast Abrupt !-

So both afcend

In the Vifions of God

B. 2.]

Under this Head may be reckoned the placing the Adjective after the Subftantive, the tranfpofition of Words, the turning the Adjective into a Substantive, with feveral other Foreign Modes of Speech, which this Poet has naturalized to give his Verse the greater Sound, and throw it out of Profe.

The third Method mentioned by Ariftotle, is that which [what] agrees with the Genius of the Greek Language more than with that of any other Tongue, and is therefore more ufed by Homer than by any other Poet. I mean the lengthning of a Phrafe by the Addition of Words, which may either be inserted or omitted, as alfo by the extending or contracting of particular Words by the Insertion or Omiffion of certain Syllables. Milton has put in practice this Method of raising his Language, as far as the nature of our Tongue will permit, as in the Paffage above-mentioned, Eremite, [for] what is Hermit[e], in common Difcourfe. If you obferve the Measure of his Verse, he has with great Judgment suppreffed a Syllable in feveral Words, and shortned thofe of two Syllables into one, by which Method, befides the abovementioned Advantage, he has given a greater Variety to his Numbers. But this Practice is more particularly remarkable in the Names of Perfons and of Countries, as Beelzebub Heffebon, and in many other Particulars, wherein he has either changed the Name, or made use of that which is not the most commonly known, that he might the better deviate from the Language of the Vulgar.

The fame Reason recommended to him several old Words, which also makes his Poem appear the more venerable, and gives it a greater Air of Antiquity.

I must likewise take notice, that there are in Milton

[ocr errors]

OR LENGTHENING PHRASES. MILTON COINS WORDS. 37 feveral Words of his own Coining, as Cerberean, mifcreated, Hell-doom'd, Embryon Atoms, and many others. If the Reader is offended at this Liberty in our English Poet, I would recommend him to a Discourse in Plu tarch, which fhews us how frequently Homer has made ufe of the fame Liberty.

Milton, by the above-mentioned Helps, and by the choice of the nobleft Words and Phrafes which our Tongue wou'd afford him, has carried our Language to a greater height than any of the English Poets have ever done before or after him, and made the Sublimity of his Stile equal to that of his Sentiments.

I have been the more particular in these Observations of Milton's Stile, because it is that part of him in which he appears the most singular. The Remarks

Í have here made upon the Practice of other Poets, with my Obfervations out of Ariftotle, will perhaps alleviate the Prejudice which fome have taken to his Poem upon this Account; tho' after all, I must confefs, that I think his Stile, tho' admirable in general, is in fome places too much stiffened and obfcured by the frequent use of those Methods, which Ariftotle has prescribed for the raising of it.

This Redundancy of those several ways of Speech which Ariftotle calls foreign Language, and with which Milton has fo very much enriched, and in some places darkned the Language of his Poem, is [was] the more proper for his ufe, because his Poem is written in Blank Verfe. Rhyme, without any other Affistance, throws the Language off from Profe, and very often makes an indifferent Phrase pass unregarded; but where the Verse is not built upon Rhymes, there Pomp of Sound, and Energy of Expreffion, are indifpenfably neceffary to fupport the Stile, and keep it from falling into the Flatnefs of Profe.

Those who have not a Taste for this Elevation of Stile, and are apt to ridicule a Poet when he departs from the common Forms of Expreffion, would do well to fee how Ariftotle has treated an ancient Author,

called Euclid, for his infipid Mirth upon this Occafion. Mr. Dryden used to call this fort of Men his ProfeCriticks.

I should, under this Head of the Language, confider Milton's Numbers, in which he has made use of feveral Elifions, that are not cuftomary among other English Poets, as may be particularly obferved in his cutting off the Letter Y, when it precedes a Vowel. This, and fome other Innovations in the Measure of his Verfe, has varied his Numbers in fuch a manner, as makes them incapable of fatiating the Ear and cloying the Reader, which the fame uniform Measure would certainly have done, and which the perpetual Returns of Rhyme never fail to do in long Narrative Poems. I fhall close these Reflections upon the Language of Paradife Loft, with obferving that Milton has copied after Homer, rather than Virgil, in the length of his Periods, the Copiousness of his Phrases, and the running of his Verfes into one another.

[graphic]

The

SPECTATOR.

Ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis
Offendor maculis, quas aut Incuria fudit,
Aut Humana parum cavit Natura-

But in a Poem elegantly writ,

I will not quarrel with a flight Miftake,
Such as our Nature's frailty may excufe.

Hor.

Rofcommon.

Saturday, February 2. 1712.

Have now confider'd Milton's Paradife Loft under those four great Heads of the Fable, the Characters, the Sentiments, and the Language; and have fhewn that he excels, in general, under each of these Heads. I hope that I have made several Discoveries that [which] may appear new, even to those who are versed in Critical Learning. Were I indeed to chuse my Readers, by whofe Judgment I would stand or fall, they should not be such as are acquainted only with the French and Italian Criticks, but also with the Ancient and Moderns who have written in either of the learned Languages. Above all, I would have them well versed in the Greek and Latin Poets, without which a Man very often fancies that he understands a Critick, when in reality he does not comprehend his Meaning.

It is in Criticism, as in all other Sciences and Speculations; one who brings with him any implicit Notions and Obfervations which he has made in his reading of the Poets, will find his own Reflections methodized and explained, and perhaps feveral little Hints that had paffed in his Mind, perfected and im

« PoprzedniaDalej »