OF all the figures in Poetry, that called the Hyberbole is managed with the greatest difficulty. The Hyperbole is an exaggeration, with which the Mufe is indulged, for the better illuftration of her subject, when she is warned into enthufiafm. Quintilian calls it an ornament of the bolder kind. Demetrius Phalereus is ftill more fevere. He fays, the Hyperbole is of all forms of fpeech the moft frigid. Masa den Υπερβολὴ ψυχρότατον πάνων : but this mutt be underftood with some grains of allowance. Poetry is animated by the paffions; and all the paffions exaggerate. Paffion itself is a magnifying medium. There are beautiful inftances of the Hyperbole in the Scripture, which a reader of fenfibility cannot read without being strongly affected. The difficulty lies in choofing fuch Hyperboles, as the fubject will admit of; for, according to the definition of Theophraftus, the frigid in ftyle is that, which exceeds the expreffion fuitable to the fubject. The judgment does not revolt against Homer for reprefenting the horses of Ericthonius running over the ftanding corn without breaking off the heads, because the whole is confidered as a fable, and the North wind is reprefented as their Sire: but the imagination is a little startled, when Virgil, în imitation of this Hyberbole, exhibits Camilla as flying over it without even touching the tops. Illa vel intacta fegetis per fumma volaret This elegant author, we are afraid, has upon fome other occafions degenerated into the frigid, in ftraining to improve upon his great master. -Homer Homer in the Odyffey, a work which Longinus does not fcruple to charge with bearing the marks of old age, defcribes a ftorm in which all the four winds were concerned together. Σὺν δ' Ευρός τε, Νοτό; τ' ἔπεσε, Ζεφυρός τε δυσαή;, We know that fuch a contention of contrary blafts could not poffibly exist in Nature; for even in hurricanes the winds blow alternately from different points of the compafs. Nevertheless Virgil adopts the defcription, and adds to its extravagance. Incubuere mari, totumque à fedibus imis Una Eurufque Notufque ruunt, creberque procellis Here the winds not only blow together, but they turn the whole body of the ocean topfy turvey-. Eaft, Weft, and South, engage with furious sweep, And from its loweft bed upturn the foaming deep. The North wind, however, is ftill more mifchievous. -Stridens aquilone procella Velum adverfa ferit, fluctusque ad fidera tollit. The fail then Boreas rends with hideous cry, And whirls the madd'ning billows to the fky. The motion of the fea between Scylla and Charybdis is ftill more magnified; and Etna is exhibited as throwing out volumes of flame, which brush the ftars*. Such expreffions as thefe are not intended as a real representation of the thing specified; they are defigned to ftrike the reader's imagination; but they generally ferve as marks of the author's finking under his own ideas, who, apprehenfive of * Speaking of the firft, he says, Tollimur in cælum curvato gurgite, et ijdem Of the other, Attollitque globos flammarum, efidera lambit. FF 2 injuring injuring the greatnefs of his own conception, is hur ried into excefs and extravagance. Quintilian allows the ufe of Hyperbole, when words are wanting to express any thing in its juft ftrength or due energy: then, he fays, it is better to exceed in expreffion, than fall fhort of the conception: but he likewife obferves, that there is no figure or form of speech fo apt to run into fuftian. Nec alia magis via in nanoav itur. If the chafte Virgil has thus trefpaffed upon poetical probability, what can we expect from Lucan but Hyperboles even more ridiculously extravagant? He reprefents the winds in conteft, the fea in fufpence, doubting to which it fhall give way. He affirms that its motion would have been fo violent as to produce a second deluge, had not Jupiter kept it under by the clouds; and as to the fhip during this dreadful uproar the fails touch the clouds, while the keel strikes the ground. Nubila tanguntur velis, et terra carina. This image of dashing water at the stars, Sir Richard Blackmore has produced in colours truly ridiculous. Defcribing spouting whales in his Prince Arthur, he makes the following comparison : Like fome prodigious water-engine made To play on heav'n, if fire fhould heav'n invade. The great fault in all thefe inftances is a deviation from propriety, owing to the erroneous judgment of the writer, who, endeavouring to captivate the admiration with novelty, very often fhocks the underftanding with extravagance. Of this nature is the whole defcription of the Cyclops, both in the Odyffey of Homer and in the neid of Virgil. It must be owned however that the Latin Poet with all his merit is more apt than his great original to dazzle us with falfe fire, and practise upon the imagination with gay conceits, that will not bear the critic's examination. There is not in any of Homer's works now fubfifting fuch an example of the falfe fublime, as Virgil's description of the thunder-bolts forging under the hammers of the Cyclops. Tres imbris torti radios, tres nubis aquofa DRYDEN. This is altogether a fantastic piece of affectation, of which we can form no fenfible image, and ferves to chill the fancy, rather than warm the admiration of a judging reader. Extravagant Hyperbole is a weed that grows in great plenty through the works of our admired Shakfpeare. In the following defcription, which hath been much celebrated, one fees he has had an eye to Virgil's thunder-bolts. O, then I fee queen Mab hath been with you. On the fore-finger of an alderman, Athwart men's nofes as they lie afleep: Her waggon fpokes made of long spinners legs; The traces, of the finallest spider's web; The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams, &c. Even in defcribing fantastic beings, there is a propriety to be observed; but furely nothing can be more revolting to common fenfe, than this numbering of the moon beams among the other implements of queen Mab's harnefs, which, though extremely flender and diminutive, are nevertheless objects of the touch, and may be conceived capable of use. FF 3 The The Ode and Satire admit of the boldeft Hyperboles: fuch exaggerations fuit the impetuous warmth of the one; and in the other have a good effect in expofing folly, and exciting horror againft vice. They may be likewife fuccefsfully ufed in Comedy, for moving and managing the powers of ridicule. ESSAY XVIII. VERSE is an harmonious arrangement of long and fhort fyllables, adapted to different kinds of poetry, and owes its origin entirely to the measured cadence, or mufic, which was used when the firft fongs or hymns were recited. This mufic, divided into different parts, required a regular return of the fame measure, and thus every ftrophe, antiftrophe, fianza, contained the fame number of feet. To know what conftituted the different kinds of rythmical feet among the, antients, with refpect to the number and quantity of their fyllables, we have nothing to do but to confult thofe who have written on grammar and profody: it is the business of a school-mafter, rather than the accomplishment of a Man of Tafte. Various effays have been made in different countries to compare the characters of antient and modern verfification, and to point out the difference beyond any poffibility of miftake. But they have made diftinctions, where in fact there was no difference, and left the criterion unobferved. They have transferred the name of rhyme to a regular repetition of the fame found at the end of the line, and fet up this vile monotony as the characteristic of modern verfe, in contradiftinction to the feet of the antients, |