Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 13, MAT-MIC

MET [5
Metaphor, his (Dryden’s new way of telling a ftory, and con-
founding the moral and the fable together.” After
inftancing from tlie Hind and Panther, he goes on thus:
“ What relation has the hind to our Saviour ? or what
notion have we of a panther’s bible ? If you fay he
means the church, how does the church feed on lawns,
or range in the forefl: ? Let it be always a church, or
always a cloven-footed beaft; for we cannot bear his
fhifting the fcene every line.”
A few words more upon allegory. Nothing gives
greater pleafure than this figure, when the reprefenta-
tive fubjeft bears a ftrong analogy, in all its circum-
Itances, to that which is reprefented : but the choice is
feldora fo lucky ; the analogy being generally fo faint
and obfcure, as to puzzle and not pleafe. An allegory
is ftill more difficult in painting than in poetry : the
former can fliow no refemblanee but what appears to
the eye ; the latter hath many other refources for ffiow-
ing the refemblance. And therefore, with refpeft to
what the abbe du Los terms mixt allegorical compoji-
tions, thefe may do in poetry j becaufe, in writing, the
allegory can eafily be diftinguiffied from the hiftorical
part: no perfon, for example, miftakes Virgil’s Fame
for a real being. But fuch a mixture in a picture is in¬
tolerable ; becaufe in a picture the objects mult appear
all of the fame kind, wholly real or wholly emblema¬
tical. For this reafon, the hiftory of Mary de Medicis,
in the palace of Luxembourg, painted by Rubens, is
unpleafant by a perpetual jumble of real and allegori¬
cal perfonages, which produce a difcordance of parts,
and an obfcurity upon the whole : witnefs, in particu¬
lar, the tablature reprefenting the arrival of Mary de
Medicis at Marfeilles ; where, together with the real
perfonages, the Nereids and Tritons appear founding
their {hells : fuch a mixture of fittion and reality in the
fame group is ftrangely abfurd. The pi&ure of Alex¬
ander and Roxana, defcribed by Lucian, is gay and
fanciful •, but it fuffers by the allegorical figures. It is
not in the wit of man to invent an allegoricalreprefenta-
iion deviating farther from any fhadow of refemblance,
than one exhibited by Louis XIV. anno 1664 j in
which an enormous chariot, intended to reprefent that
of the fun, is dragged along, furrounded with men and
women, reprefenting the four ages of the world, the ce-
leftial figns, the feafons, the hours, &c. a monftrous
compofition, and yet fcarcely more abfurd than Guido’s
tablature of Aurora.
In an allegory, as well as in a metaphor, terms ought
to be chofen that properly and literally are applicable
to the reprefentative fubjedt: nor ought any circum-
ilance to be added that is not proper to the reprefenta¬
tive fubjedt, however juftly it may be applicable pro¬
perly or figuratively to the principal. The following
allegory is therefore faulty :
Ferus et Cupido,
Semper ardentes acuens fagittas
Cote cruenid. Horat. lib. ii. ode 8.
For though blood may fuggeft the cruelty of love, it
is an improper or immaterial circumftance in the re¬
prefentative fubjedt: water, not blood, is proper for a
whetftone.
\
We proceed to the next head, which is, to examine
in what circumftances thefe figures are proper, in what.
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14 ] MET
improper.. This inquiry is not altogether fuperfeded by Metaphor
what is faid upon the fame fubjedt in the article Com-
pARISON 5 becaufe, upon trial, it will be found, that a
ffiort metaphor or allegory may be proper, where a fi-
mde, drawn out to a greater length, and in its nature
more folemn, would fcareely be reliffied.
And, in the firft place, A metaphor, like a fimile, is
excluded from common converfation, and from the de-
fcription of ordinary incidents. Secondly, In expreffing
any fevere pafiion that totally occupies the mind, me¬
taphor is unnatural.
The following example, of deep defpair, befide the
highly figurative Ryle, has more the air of raving than
of fenfe :
Calijla* Is it the voice of thunder, or my father?
Madnefs ! confufion ! let the ftorm come on,
Let the tumultuous roar drive all upon me,
Haffi my devoted bark } ye furges, break it:
’Tis for my ruin that the tern pelt rifes.
When I am loft, funk to the bottom low,
Peace ftiall return, and all be calm again.
Fair Penitent, adt v„
The following metaphor is fweet and lively ; but it
fuits not the fiery temper of Chamont, inflamed with
paffion : parables are not the language of wrath venting
kfelf without reftraint:
Chamont. You took her up a little tender flow’r,
Juft fprouted on a bank, which the next froft
Had nipp’d ; and with a careful loving hand,
Tranfplanted her into your own fair garden,
Where the fun always ftiines : there long ftie flouriffi’d,
Grew fweet to fenfe, and lovely to the eye 5
Till at the laft a cruel fpoiler came,
Cropt this fair rofe, and rifled all its fweetnefs,
Then caft it like a loathfome weed away.
Orphan, adl iv.
The following fpeech, full of imagery, is not natural
in grief and dejedtion of mind.
Gonfalez,. O my fon ! from the blind dotage
Of a father’s fondnefs thefe ills arofe.
I'or thee I’ve been ambitious, bafe, and bloody :
For thee I’ve plung’d into this fea of fin 5
Stemming the tide with only one weak hand,
While t’other bore the crown (to wreathe thy brow),
Whofe weight has funk me ere I reach’d the ftiore.
Mourning Bride, adl v. fc. 6.
There is an enchanting pidlure of deep diftrefs in
Macbeth, where Macduff is reprefented lamenting his
wife and children, inhumanly murdered by the tyrant.
Stung to the heart with the news, he queftions the
meffenger over and over : not that he doubted the fadl,
but that his heart revolted againft fo cruel a misfor¬
tune. After ftruggling fame time with his grief, he
turns from his wife and children to their favage but¬
cher : and then gives vent to his refentment, but ftill
with manlinefs and dignity :
O, I could play the woman with mine eyes,
And braggart with my tongue. But, gentle Heav’n !
Cut ihort all intermiftion j front to front
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myfelf j
Within