fame manner as a clufter on the vine does from only one or two grapes. § 2. Some examples of the Allegory may be very proper to be produced. Not to be tedious in the citations of them, let the following inftances fuffice: Did I but purpose to embark with thee That is a fine Allegory in the Poem, intitled the Spleen: Thus, thus I fteer my bark, and fail At helm I make my reason fit, Judg. xiv. 14. This obfervation fhews us, that an Allegory ought not to be ranked under the Metaphor, as it undoubtediy extends itself to other Tropes. PRIOR'S Henry and Emma. With ftore fufficient for relief, And wifely ftil prepar'd to reef: The whole fourteenth ode of the first book of HORACE is an Allegory, exquisitely wrought by that great favourite of the Mufes *. O fhip! new billows foon will rise, And bear thee off to sea again: What madness? O in time be wife, Make, make thy port, nor tempt the main. Naked are all thy decks; thy maft Thou hear'ft with horror o'er thee groan; Bending beneath the heavy blast, In vain thy keel attempts to plow The wave, and conflict with the tide No cords to bind thy planks haft thou, Tho' all are ftarting from thy fide. O navis, referent in mare te novi Nudum remigio latus, Et malus celeri faucius Africo, Antennæque gemant? ac fine funibus Vix durare carinæ Poffint imperiofius How Æquor? BS How rent, how tatter'd are thy fheets! 1 No more with Ocean's terrors ftrive; Left thou, the sport of ev'ry blast, Should'ft headlong to perdition drive. Thou, long my heart-diftreffing pain, Still my fond hope, and dearest care, Fly, fly the rocks that curfe the main, Whatever glitt❜ring charms they wear. We meet with a most beautiful Allegory in Pfalm lxxx. from the 8th Verfe: "Thou haft brought, fays the Pfalmift, a vine out of Egypt: Thou haft caft out the Heathen, and planted " it. Thou preparedft room before it, and didft Ss cause Equor non tibi funt integra lintea; Silvæ filia nobilis, Ja&tes & genus & nomen inutile: Nil pictis timidus navita puppibus Debes ludidibrium, cave. Nuper follicitum qui mihi tædium, Nunc defiderium, curaque non levis, Vites æquora Cycladas. cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.. The hills were covered with the fhadow ss of it, and the boughs thereof were like the "goodly cedars. She fent out her boughs unto "the fea, and her branches unto the river. Why ss haft thou broken down her hedges, fo that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth wafte it, and "the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Ress turn, we beseech thee, O Gon of hofts; look s down from heaven, and behold, and visit this " vine and the vineyard which thy right hand " hath planted, and the branch that thou madest ftrong for thyself. It is burnt with fire; it is ss cut down. They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance,” · $$ $$ 3. Allegories are of two forts, pure and mixed. Pure Allegories are fuch as preferve the Trope from the beginning to the end of them without any opening, if I may fo call it, of the literal fenfe. Such an Allegory is that Ode of HORACE which we have but now recited; fo that " many "learned Commentators, fays Mr FRANCIS, in 66 a note upon his translation of the Ode, under"stand it in a plain hiftorical manner; though QUINTILIAN, whofe judgment we scruple not "to prefer, quotes the Ode as an example of "the Allegory, and tells us, that throughout "the whole passage, the Poet means by the "tempefts, civil wars; and by the haven, peace "and concord +." The danger arising from a pure Allegory is that of obfcurity; and whoever frequently ufes it, fhould take particular care that he does not involve the fenfe in hard and difficult riddles, which ought to fhine out clear and perfpicuous, as it may do even from under the veil of Tropes themselves, according to the very juft account of Metaphors, which will alike extend to Allegories, by Lord LANSDOWNE, in his Ellay upon unnatural Flights in Poetry: As veils transparent cover but not hide, $ 4. Mixed Allegories are fuch Allegories as are not intire, but admit of spaces in which the literal sense appears: or, in other words, proper and allegorical expressions are alternately used in the fame sentence or paragraph. Of this kind is that Allegory in the speech of PHILIP King of Macedon, in † Aaλnyogia, quam inverfionem interpretamur, aliud verbis, aliud fenfu oftendit, ac etiam interim contrarium. Prius, ut O navis, referent in mare te novi Fluctus. O quid agis? fortiter occupa Portum Totufque ille Horatii locus, quo navim, pro republica; fluctuum tempeftates, pro bellis civilibus; portum pro pace atque concordia dicet. QUINTIL. lib. viii. cap. 6. § 2. |