parifons. This in a great measure is evident from the comparifons already mentioned; and fhall be further illuftrated by other examples. Love, for example, in its infancy, roufing the imagination, prompts the heart to difplay itself in figurative language, and in fimiles!

Troilus. Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's

love,

What Creffid is, what Pandar, and what we?
Her bed is India, there fhe lies, a pearl:
Between our Ilium, and where the refides, f
Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood
Ourself the merchant, and this failing Pandar
Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark.
Troilus and Creffida, alt 1. jc. 1.

Again,

Come, gentle Night; come, loving black-brow'd Night!

Give me my Romeo; and, when he fhall die,'"

Take him, and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heav'n fo fine,

That all the world fhall be in love with Night
And pay no worship to the garish fun.

Romeo and Juliet, at 3. fc. 4.

The dread of a misfortune, however imminent, involving always fome doubt and uncertainty, agitates the mind, and excites the imagination:

Wolfey.

Nay, then, farewell;

I've touch'd the highest point of all my greatness.
And from that full meridian of my glory

I haste now to my fetting. I fhall, fall,
Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man fee me more.

Henry VIII. at 3. fc. 4.

But it will be a better illuftration of the prefent head, to give examples where comparifons are improperly introduced. I have had already occafion to obferve, that fimiles are not the language of a man in his ordinary ftate of mind, going about the common affairs of life. For that reason, the following fpeech of a gardiner to his fervants, is extremely improper.

Go bind thou up yon dangling apricocks
Which, like unruly children, make their fire
Stoop with oppreffion of their prodigal weight:
Give fome fupportance to the bending twigs.
Go thou, and like an executioner,

Cut

Cut off the heads of too-faft-growing fprays,!! That look too lofty in our commonwealth

All must be even in our government.

Richard II. at 3. fc. 7.

The fertility of Shakespear's vein betrays him frequently into this error.

There is

the fame impropriety in another fimile of

his:

Hero. Good Margaret, run thee into the par

lour;

There fhalt thou find my coufin Beatrice;
Whisper her car, and tell her, I and Urfula
Walk in the orchard, and our whole difcourfe
Is all of her; say, that thou overheard'st us :
And bid her steal into the pleached bower,
Where honeyfuckles,, ripen'd by the sun,
Forbid the fun to enter; like to favourites,
Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
Against that power

that bred it.

Much ado about nothing, at 3, fc.-1.

Rooted grief, deep anguish, terror, remorse, despair, and all the fevere difpiriting paffions, are declared enemies, perhaps not to figurative language in general, but undoubtedly to the pomp and folemnity of comparison. Upon

Upon this account the fimile pronounced by young Rutland under terror of death from an inveterate enemy, and praying mercy, is unnatural:

So looks the pent-up lion o'er the wretch
That trembles under his devouring paws;
And fo he walks infulting o'er his prey,
And fo he comes to rend his limbs afunder.
Ah, gentle Clifford, kill me with thy fword,
And not with fuch a cruel threat'ning look.

Third part Henry VI. at 1. fc. 5.

Nothing appears more out of place, or more aukwardly introduced, than the following fimile.

Lucia.

Farewell, my Portius,

Farewell, though death is in the word, for-ever! Portius. Stay, Lucia, stay; what dost thou say, for-ever?

Lucia. Have I not fworn? If, Portius, thy fuc
cefsted o

Must throw thy brother on his fate, farewell:
Oh, how fhall I repeat the word for-ever!

Portius. Thus, o'er the dying lamp th' unsteady

flame

Hangs quivering on a point, leaps off by fits,
And falls again, as loath to quit its hold.

-Thou

Thou

ou must not go, my foul still hovers o'er

thee, And can't

get loofe.

Cato, alt 3. Sc. 2.

Nor doth the fimile which clofes the first act of the fame tragedy, make its appearance with a much better grace; the fituation there represented, being too difpiriting for fimile. A fimilé is improper for one who dreads the discovery of a fecret machination.

Zara. The mute not yet return'd! Ha! 'twas the King,

The King that parted hence! frowning he went; His eyes like meteors roll'd, then darted down Their red and angry beams; as if his fight

Would, like the raging Dog-ftar, fcorch the earth, And kindle ruin in its courfe.

Mourning Bride, act 5. fc. 3.

A man spent and difpirited after lofing a battle, is not difpofed to heighten or illuftrate his difcourfe by fimiles:

York. With this we charg'd again; but out!

alas,

We bodg'd again; as I have seen a swan

With