------------ Write, my Queen, And with mine eyes I’ll _drink_ the words you send. _Cymbeline, act 1. sc. 2._
As thus th’ effulgence tremulous I _drink_. _Summer, l. 1684._
Neque _audit_ currus habenas. _Georg._ i. 514.
O Prince! (Lycaon’s valiant son reply’d) As thine the steeds, be thine the task to guide. The horses practis’d to their lord’s command, Shall _hear_ the rein, and answer to thy hand. _Iliad._ v. 288.
The following figures of speech seem altogether wild and extravagant, the figurative and proper meaning having no connection whatever. _Moving_ softness, freshness _breathes_, _breathing_ prospect, _flowing_ spring, _dewy_ light, _lucid_ coolness, and many others of this false coin may be found in Thomson’s _Seasons_.
Secondly, the proper sense of the word ought to bear some proportion to the figurative sense, and not soar much above it, nor sink much below it. This rule, as well as the foregoing, is finely illustrated by Vida:
Hæc adeo cum sint, cum fas audere poetis Multa modis multis; tamen observare memento, Si quando haud propriis rem mavis dicere verbis, Translatisque aliunde notis, longeque petitis, Ne nimiam ostendas, quærendo talia, curam. Namque aliqui exercent vim duram, et rebus iniqui Nativam eripiunt formam, indignantibus ipsis, Invitasque jubent alienos sumere vultus. Haud magis imprudens mihi erit, et luminis expers, Qui puero ingentes habitus det ferre gigantis, Quam siquis stabula alta lares appellet equinos, Aut crines magnæ genitricis gramina dicat. _Poet. l. iii. 148._
Thirdly, in a figure of speech, every circumstance ought to be avoided that agrees with the proper sense only, not the figurative sense; for it is the latter that expresses the thought, and the former serves for no other purpose but to make harmony:
Zacynthus green with ever-shady groves, And Ithaca, presumptuous boast their loves; Obtruding on my choice a second lord, They press the Hymenean rite abhorr’d. _Odyssey_ xix. 152.
Zacynthus here standing figuratively for the inhabitants, the description of the island is quite out of place. It puzzles the reader, by making him doubt whether the word ought to be taken in its proper or figurative sense.
---------------- Write, my Queen, And with mine eyes I’ll drink the words you send, Though ink be made of gall. _Cymbeline, act 1. sc. 2._