A simile is improper for one who dreads the discovery of a secret machination. Zara. The mute not yet return'd! Ha! 'twas the king, Would, like the raging dog-star, scorch the earth, MOURNING BRIDE.-ACT V. Sc. 3. A man spent and dispirited after losing a battle, is not disposed to heighten or illustrate his discourse by similies: York. With this we charg'd again; but out, alas! With bootless labor swim against the tide, And spend her strength with over-matching waves. The sands are number'd that make up my life; THIRD PART HENRY VI.-ACT I. Sc. 6. Far less is a man disposed to similies, who is not only defeated in a pitched battle, but lies at the point of death mortally wounded: Warwick. My mangled body shows, My blood, my want of strength, my sick heart shows, That I must yield my body to the earth, And, by my fall, the conquest to my foe. Thus yields the cedar to the axe's edge, Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle; Under whose shade the ramping lion slept; Whose top-branch overpeer'd Jove's spreading tree, THIRD PART HENRY VI.-Act V. Sc. 3. Queen Katharine, deserted by the king, and in the deepest affliction on her divorce, could not be disposed to any sallies of imagination; and for that reason the following simile, however beautiful in the mouth of a spectator, is scarce proper in her own: I am the most unhappy woman living, That once was mistress of the field, and flourish'd, KING HENRY VIII.-ACT III. Sc. I. Similies thus unseasonably introduced, are finely ridiculed in the Rehearsal. Bayes. Now here she must make a similie. Smith. Where's the necessity of that, Mr. Bayes? Bayes. Because she's surprised; that's a general rule; you must ever make a similie when you are surprised; 'tis a new way of writing. A comparison is not always faultless, even where it is properly introduced. I have endeavored above to give a general view of the different ends to which a comparison may contribute. A comparison, like other human productions, may fall short of its aim; of which defect, instances are not rare even among good writers; and to complete the present subject, it will be necessary to make some observations upon such faulty comparisons. I begin with observing, nothing can be more erroneous than to institute a comparison too faint a distant resemblance, or contrast, fatigues the mind with its obscurity, instead of amusing it; and tends not to fulfil any one end of a comparison. The following similies seem to labor under this defect : K. Rich. Give me the crown.-Here, cousin, seize the crown. Here, on this side, my hand; on that side, thine. The emptier ever dancing in the air, The other down, unseen and full of water: Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high. RICHARD II.-ACT IV. Sc. 3. K. John. Oh! cousin, thou art come to set mine eye; And all the shrouds wherewith my life should sail, KING JOHN.-ACT V. Sc. 10. York. My uncles both are slain in rescuing me: Turn back, and fly like ships before the wind, THIRD PART HENRY VI.-Act I. Sc. 6. The latter of the two similies is good; the former, by its faintness of resemblance, has no effect but to load the narration with an useless image. The next error is a capital one. In an epic poem, or in a poem upon an elevated subject, a writer ought to avoid raising a simile on a low image, which never fails to bring down the principal subject. A grand object ought never to be resembled to one that is diminutive, however delicate the resemblance; for it is the peculiar character of a grand object to fix the attention, and swell the mind; to contract it to a minute object, is therefore unpleasant. The resembling an object to one that is greater, has a good effect, by raising the mind: for one passes with satisfaction from small to great; but cannot be drawn down, without reluctance, from great to small. Hence the following similies are faulty: Meanwhile the troops beneath Patroclus' care ILIAD, XVI. 312. So burns the vengeful hornet (soul all o'er) ILIAD, xvii. 642. An error, opposite to the former, is the introducing a resembling image, so elevated or great as to bear no proportion to the principal subject. Their remarkable disparity never fails to depress the principal subject by contrast, instead of raising it by resem blance: if the disparity be great, the simile degenerates into burlesque; nothing being more ridiculous than to force an object out of its proper rank in nature, by equalling it with one greatly superior or greatly inferior. A writer of delicacy will avoid drawing his comparisons from any image that is nauseous, ugly, or remarkably disagreeable; for, however strong the resemblance may be, more will be lost than gained by such comparison. O thou fond many! with what loud applause Did'st thou beat heav'n with blessing Bolingbroke SECOND PART HENRY IV.—ACT I. Sc. 6. The strongest objection that can lie against a comparison is, that it consists in words only, not in sense. Such false coin, or spurious wit, does extremely well in burlesque; but is far below the dignity of the epic, or of any serious composition. The noble sister of Poplicola, The moon of Rome; chaste as the icicle That's curdled by the frost from purest snow, CORIOLANUS.-Acт V. Sc. 3. There is evidently no resemblance between an icicle and a woman, chaste or unchaste; but chastity is cold in a metaphorical sense, and an icicle is cold in a proper sense; and this verbal resemblance, in the hurry and glow of composing, has been thought a sufficient foundation for the simile. Such phantom similies are mere witticisms, which ought to have no quarter, except where purposely introduced to provoke laughter. This author's descriptions are so cold, that they surpass the Caspian snow, and all the ice of the north. But for their spirits and souls, This word rebellion had froze them up As fish are in a pond. SECOND PART HENRY IV.-ACT I. Sc. 2. Queen. The pretty vaulting sea refus'd to drown me; SECOND PART HENRY VI.-ACT I. Sc. 6. Here there is no manner of resemblance but in the word drown; for there is no real resemblance between being drowned at sea, and dying of grief at land. But perhaps this sort of tinsel wit may have a propriety in it, when used to express an affected, not a real passion, which was the queen's case. Pope has several similies of the same stamp in his Essay on Man, the most instructive of all his performances. And hence one master passion in the breast, EPIST. 2. 1. 131. And, again, talking of this same ruling or master passion: Nature its mother, Habit is its nurse: Wit, spirit, faculties, but make it worse; As heav'n's bless'd beam turns vinegar more sour. IBID. 1. 145. Lord Bolingbroke, speaking of historians: Where their sincerity as to fact is doubtful, we strike out truth by the confrontation of different accounts; as we strike out sparks of fire by the collision of flints and steel. Let us vary the phrase a very little, and there will not remain a shadow of resemblance. Thus: We discover truth by the confrontation of different accounts; as we strike out sparks of fire by the collision of flints and steel. Beside the foregoing comparisons, which are all · serious, there is a species, the purpose of which is to excite gaiety or mirth. Take the following examples: I think he is not a pick-purse, nor a horse-stealer; but for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a covered goblet, or a worm-eaten nut. AS YOU LIKE IT.-ACT III. Sc. 10. |