3.17. Of the figures which we call Sensable, because they alter and affect the minde by alteration of sence, and first in single wordes.
The eare hauing receiued his due satisfaction by the auricular figures,
now must the minde also be serued, with his naturall delight by figures
sensible such as by alteration of intendmentes affect the courage,
and geue a good liking to the conceit. And first, single words haue their
sence and vnderstanding altered and figured many wayes, to wit, by
transport, abuse, crosse-naming, new naming, change of name. This will
seeme very darke to you, vnlesse it be otherwise explaned more particularly:
and first of Transport. There is a kind of wresting of a single word
from his owne right signification, to another not so naturall, but yet of
some affinitie or conueniencie with it, as to say, I cannot digest your
unkinde words, for I cannot take them in good part: or as the man of law
said, I feele you not, for I vnderstand not your case, because he had
not his fee in his hand. Or as another said to a mouthy Aduocate, why
barkest thou at me so sore? Or to call the top of a tree, or of a hill, the
crowne of a tree or of a hill: for in deede crowne is the highest
ornament of a Princes head, made like a close garland, or els the top of a
mans head, where the haire windes about, and because such terme is not
applyed naturally to a tree, or to a hill, but
is transported from a mans head to a hill or tree, therefore it is called by
metaphore, or the figure of
transport. And three causes moues
vs to vse this figure, one for necessitie or want of a better word, thus:
As the drie ground that thirstes after a showr
Seemes to reioyce when it is well wet,
And speedely brings foorth both grasse and flowr,
If lacke of sunne or season doo not let.
Here for want of an apter and more naturall word to declare the drie temper
of the earth, it is said to thirst & to reioyce, which is onely proper to
liuing creatures, and yet being so inuerted, doth not so mush swerue from
the true sence, but that euery man can easilie conceiue the meaning thereof.
Here for want of an apter and more naturall word to declare the drie temper
of the earth, it is said to thirst & to reioyce, which is onely proper to
liuing creatures, and yet being so inuerted, doth not so much swerue from
the true sence, but that euery man can easily conceiue the meaning thereof.
Againe we vse it for pleasure and ornament of our speach, as thus in an
Epitaph of our owne making, to the honourable memorie of a deere friend, Sir
Iohn Throgmorton, knight, Iustice of Chester, and a man of many
commendable vertues.
Whom vertue rerde, enuy hath ouerthrowen
And lodged full low, under this marble stone:
Ne neuer were his values so well knowen,
Whilest he liued here, as now that he is gone.
Here these words, rered, ouerthrowen, and lodged, are inuerted,
& metaphorically applyed, not vpon necessitie, but for ornament
onely, afterward againe in these verses.
No sunne by day that euer saw him rest
Free from the toyles of his so busie charge,
No night that harbourd rankor in his breast,
Nor merry moode, made reason runne at large.
In these verses the inuersion or metaphor, lyeth in these words, saw,
harbourd, run: which naturally are applyed to liuing things, & not to
insensible: as, the sunne, or the night: & yet they approch
so neere, & so conueniently, as the speech is thereby made more
commendable. Againe, in moe verses of the same Epitaph thus.
His head a source of grauitie and sence,
His memory a shop of ciuill arte:
His tongue a streame of sugred eloquence,
Wisdome and meeknes lay mingled in his harte,
In which verses ye see that these words, source, shop, stud, sugred,
are inuerted from their owne signification to another, not altogether so
naturall, but of much affinitie with it.
Then also do we it sometimes to enforce a sence and make the word more
significatiue: as thus,
I burne in loue, I freese in deadly hate
I swimme in hope, and sinke in deepe dispaire.
These examples I haue the willinger giuen you to set foorth the nature and
vse of your figure metaphore, which of any other being choisly made, is the
most commendable and most common.
But if for lacke of naturall and proper terme or worde we take another,
neither naturall nor proper and do vntruly applie it to the thing which we
would seeme to expresse, and without any iust inconuenience, it is not then
spoken by this figure Metaphore or of inuersion as before but by
plaine abuse, as he that bad his man go into his library and set him his bowe
and arrowes, for in deede there was neuer a booke there to be found, or as
one should in reproch say to a poore man, thou raskall knaue, where
raskall is properly the hunters terme giuen to young deere, leane
& out of season, and not to people: or as one said very pretily in this
verse.
I lent my loue to losse, and gaged my life in vaine.
Whereas this worde lent is properly of mony or some such other thing,
as men do commonly borrow, for vse to be repayed againe, and being applied
to loue is vtterly abused, and yet very commendably spoken by vertue of this
figure. For he that loueth and is not beloued againe, hath no lesse wrong,
than he that lendeth and is neuer repayde.
Now doth this vnderstanding or secret conceyt reach many times to the only
nomination of persons or things in their names, as of men, or mountaines,
seas, countries and such like, in which respect the wrong naming, or
otherwise naming of them then is due, carieth not onely an alteration of
sence but a necessitie of intendment figuratiuely as when we cal loue by the
name of Venus, fleshly lust by the name of Cupid, bicause they
were supposed by the auncient poets to be authors and kindlers of loue and
lust: Vulcan: for fire, Ceres for bread: Bacchus for
wine by the same reason; also if one should say to a skilfull craftesman
knowen for a
glutton or common drunkard, that had spent all his goods on riot and delicate
fare.
Thy hands they made thee rich, thy pallet made thee poore.
It is ment, his trauaile and arte made him wealthie, his riotous life had
made him a beggar: and as one that boasted of his housekeeping, said that
neuer a yeare passed ouer his head, that he drank not in his house euery
moneth four tonnes of beere, & one hogshead of wine, meaning not the
caskes or vessels, but that quantitie which they conteyned. These and such
other speaches, where ye take the name of the Author for the thing it selfe,
or the thing conteining, for that which is contained, & in many other
cases do as it were wrong name the person or the thing. So neuerthelesse as
it may be vnderstood, it is by the figure metonymia, or misnamer.
And if this manner of naming of persons or things be not by way of
misnaming as before, but by a conuenient difference, and such as is true or
esteemed and likely to be true, it is then called not metonimia, but
antonomasia, or the Surnamer, (not the misnamer, which might extend
to any other thing aswell as to a person) as he that would say: not king
Philip of Spaine, but the Westerne king, because his dominion lieth the
furdest West of any Christen prince: and the French king the great
Vallois, because so is the name of his house, or the Queene of England,
The maiden Queene, for that is her hiest peculiar among all the
Queenes of the world, or as we said in one of our Partheniades, the
Bryton mayde, because she is the most great and famous mayden of
all Brittayne: thus,
But in chaste stile, am borne as I weene
To blazon foorth the Brytton mayden Queene.
So did our forefathers call Henry the first, Beauclerke, Edmund Ironside,
Richard coeur de lion: Edward the Confessor, and we of her Maiestie
Elisabeth the peasible.
Then also is the sence figuratiue when we deuise a new name to any thing
consonant, as neere as we can to the nature thereof, as to say: flashing
of lightning, clashing of blades, clinking of fetters, chinking of mony:
& as the poet Virgil said of the sounding a trumpet, ta-ra-tant,
taratantara, or as we giue special names to the voices of dombe
beasts, as to say, a horse neigheth, a lyon brayes, a swine
grunts, a hen cackleth, a dogge howles, and a hundreth mo such new names
as any man hath libertie to deuise, so it be fittie for the thing which he
couets to expresse.
Your Epitheton or qualifier, whereof we spake before, placing
him among the figures auricular, now because he serues also to alter
and enforce the sence, we will say somewhat more of him in this place, and
do conclude that he must be apt and proper for the thing he is added vnto,
& not disagreable or repugnant, as one that said: darke disdaine,
and miserable pride, very absurdly, for disdaine or disdained things
cannot be said darke, but rather bright and cleere, because they beholden and
much looked vpon, and pride is rather enuied then pitied or miserable,
vnlesse it be in Christian charitie, which helpeth not the terme in this case.
Some of our vulgar writers take great pleasure in giuing Epithets and do it
almost to euery word which may receiue them, and should not be so, yea
though they were neuer so propre and apt, for sometimes wordes suffered to
go single, do giue greater sence and grace than words quallified by
attributions do.
But the sence is much altered & the hearers conceit strangly entangled
by the figure Metalepsis, which I call the farfet, as when we
had rather fetch a word a great way off then to vse one nerer hand to
expresse the matter aswel & plainer. And it seemeth the deuiser of
this figure, had a desire to please women rather then men: for we vse to say
by manner of Prouerbe: things farrefet and deare bought are good for Ladies:
so in this manner of speach we vse it, leaping ouer the heads of a great
many words, we take one that is furdest off, to vtter our matte by: as
Medea cursing hir first acquaintance with prince Iason, who
had very vnkindly forsaken her, said:
Woe worth the mountaine that the maste bare
Which was the first causer of ally my care.
Where she might aswell haue said, woe worth our first meeting, or woe
worth the time that Iason arriued with his ship at my fathers cittie
in Colchos, when he tooke me away with him, & not so farre off
as to curse the mountaine that bare the pinetree, that made the mast, that
bare the sailes, that the ship sailed with, which caried her away. A
pleasant Gentleman came into a Ladies nursery,
and saw her owne pleasure rocking or her young child in the cradle, and
sayd to her:
I speake it Madame without any mocke,
Many a such cradell may I see you rocke.
Gods passion hourson said she, would thou haue me beare mo children yet, no
Madame quoth the Gentleman, but I would haue you liue long, that ye
might the better pleasure your friends, for his meaning was that as euery
cradle signified a new borne childe, & euery child the leasure of one
yeares birth, & many yeares a long life: so by wishing her to rocke
many cradels of her owne, he wished her long life. Virgill said:
Post multas mea regna videns mirabor aristas.
Thus in English.
After many a stubble shall I come
And wonder at the sight of my kingdome.
By stubble the Poet vnderstoode yeares, for haruests come but once euery
yeare, at least wayes with vs in Europe. This is spoken by the figure of
farre-set. Metalepsis.
And one notable meane to affect the minde, is to inforce the sence of any
thing by a word of more than ordinary efficacie, and neuertheles is not
apparant, but as it were, secretly implyed, as he that said thus of a faire
Lady.
O rare beautie, ô grace, and curtesie.
And by a very euill man thus.
O sinne it selfe, not wretch, but wretchednes.
Whereas if he had said thus, O gratious, courteous and beautifull
woman: and, O sinfull and wretched man, it had bene all to one
effect, yet not with such force and efficacie, to speake by the denominatiue,
as by the thing it selfe.
As by the former figure we vse to enforce our sence, so by another we
temper our sence with wordes of such moderation, as in appearaunce it
abateth, it but not in deede, and is by the figure Liptote, which
therefore I call the Moderator, and becomes vs many times better to
speake in that sort quallified, than if we spake it by more forcible termes,
and neuertheles is equipolent in sence, thus.
I know you hate me not, nor wish me any ill.
Meaning in deede that he loued him very well and dearely, and yet the words
doe not expresse so much, though they purport so much. Or if you would say,
I am not ignorant, for I know well inough. Such a man is no foole, meaning in
deede that he is a very wise man.
But if such moderation of words tend to flattery, or soothing, or excusing, it
is by the figure Paradiastole, which therfore nothing improperly we
call the Curry-fauell, as when we make the best of a bad thing, or
turne a signification to the more plausible sence: as, to call an vnthrift, a
liberall Gentleman: the foolish-hardy, valiant or couragious: the niggard,
thriftie; a great riot, or outrage, and youthfull pranke, and such like termes:
moderating and abating the force of the matter by craft, and for a pleasing
purpose, as appeareth by these verses of ours, teaching in what cases it may
commendably be vsed by Courtiers.
But if you diminish and abbase a thing by way of spight or malice, as it were
to depraue it, such speach is by the figure Meiosis or the
disabler spoken of hereafter in the place of sententious
figures.
A great mountaine as bigge as a molehill,
A heauy burthen perdy, as a pound of fethers.
But if ye abase your thing or matter by ignorance or errour in the choise of
your word, then is it by vicious maner of speach called Tapinosis,
whereof ye shall haue examples in the chapter of vices hereafter folowing.
Then againe if we vse such a word (as many times we doe) by which we
driue the hearer to conceiue more or lesse or beyond or otherwise then the
letter expresseth, and it be not by vertue of the former figures
Metaphore and Abase and the rest, the Greeks then call it
Synecdoche, the Latines sub intellectio or vnderstanding, for by
part we are enforced to vnderstand the whole, by the whole part, by many
things one thing, by one, many, by a thing precedent, a thing consequent, and
generally one thing out of another by maner of contrariety to the word which
is spoken, aliud ex alio, which because it seemeth to aske a good,
quick, and pregnant capacitie, and is not for an ordinarie or dull wit so to
do, I chose to call him the figure not onely of conceit after the Greeke
originall, but also of quick conceite. As for example we will giue none
because we
will speake of him againe in another place, where he is ranged among the
figures
sensable apperteining to clauses.