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SEEMING IRRELEVANCE.

207

Carlyle, speaking of the Salzburg country, says—' an extensive Crypto-Protestantism lodging, under the simple slouch-hats, in the remote valleys there. Protestantism peaceably kept concealed, hurting nobody; wholesomely forwarding the wooden-clock manufacture, and arable or grazier husbandries, of those poor people.' The insinuation is that their simple and industrious ways grew out of their attachment to the Protestant creed.

4. Allied to the epigram in effect is the turning of a familiar saying into some contradictory or unexpected shape.

We suffer a momentary surprise from the saying of Horace Walpole-Summer has set in with its usual severity'; the fact being that the early so-called summer months contain much cold weather.

'Do unto others as ye would not that they should do unto you'-a surprise, intended for irony.

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All men are born unequal;' a parody and contradiction of the American declaration of the rights of man.

There are many modes of turning the passage-' Conscience does make cowards of us all': 'custom doth make dotards of us all'; 'sickness makes scoundrels of us all'.

To set forth the requisites of a good librarian, it was said 'The librarian who reads is lost'; an epigrammatic adaptation of the old adage-The woman who hesitates is lost'.

One of Gibbon's characteristic forms of epigram is shown in his saying 'The choice of the enemies of Rome was decided by the legislative authority'-to signify the power of declaring war.

In Kinglake's History we have this passage-'In the eyes of the Czar, Lord Stratford's way of keeping himself eternally in the right and eternally moderate was the mere contrivance, the inverted Jesuitism, of a man resolved to do good that evil might come-resolved to be forbearing and just for the sake of doing a harm to the church'.

We might invert Spenser's designation of the old English, and call it the well of English unpurified'.

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It was remarked sarcastically of someone, remarkable for propriety 'He has not a redeeming vice'.

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George III. said to one that came late and quoted the saying, Better late than never,' that he would have the proverb, 'Better never than late'.

5. A mild form of the shock of Epigram is seen in the use of the Arrestive conjunctions.

'The world

'We hate the sin, but pity the sinner.' will tolerate many vices, but not their diminutives.' Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull.

6. The play upon words is carried to an extreme in the Paronomasia, or Pun.

The pun is not a genuine form of Epigram, although based upon the same foundation of verbal ambiguity. Any one, in a burst of enjoyment, shouting, This is life,' exemplifies the epigram of intensity. But when, in answer to the question,Is life worth living?' the reply is, 'That depends on the liver,' there is a pun upon the two wholly unconnected meanings of the word-the verbal noun from 'live,' and the name of an organ of the human body.

Punning upon proper names is common. Eschylus plays upon the name of Helen, as signifying to take away or destroy. Peter is the same as rock; hence the saying, 'Thou art Peter; and on this rock will I build my church'.

'Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits,' is something between an epigram and a pun. There is a certain connection in the two uses of home, which would be wanting in the typical pun.

The pun illustrates nothing, conveys no truth in more impressive form; it belongs simply to the exertion of ingenuity to cause admiration and surprise. Hence, apart from conversation, it is nowadays mostly confined to comic writing. For example, in Hood-

Or

Ben Battle was a soldier bold,

And used to war's alarms,

But a cannon-ball shot off his legs,

So he laid down his arms.

The parson told the sexton, and the sexton tolled the bell.

But in our older literature it was quite common. In Shakespeare it is abundant, in tragic as well as in comic. writing; and even Milton occasionally uses it.

PROPER SCOPE OF EPIGRAM.

209

The Conundrum carries out, to the utmost limits, the play of cross-purposes with words.

7. The legitimate scope of the Epigram in composition follows from its characteristics.

Like all strong effects, the figure is liable to abuse. Its value consists in calling attention to important meanings, and in helping to fix these in the memory.

The figure also furnishes the pleasure derived from suggestion, seeing that the hidden meaning is left for the hearer or reader to detect. And in addition, it is often a powerful means of condensation.

On the other hand, the stimulus is attended with fatigue and loss of power on the whole; while the emphasis placed on some one circumstance may violate proportion.

All this is on the most favourable suppositions; namely, that the word-play is needed for the occasion, and that the double meaning is readily got at, and serves to bring out the intended truth.

Milton's epigram on the leader of the Satanic host--' by merit raised to that bad eminence '-takes an undue liberty with the word 'merit,' which should signify powers employed so as to command approbation. We must regard such an epigram as a poetic licence; its justification depends on its being very pointed and illustrative.

The Socratic ignorance,' on its first enunciation by the philosopher, was a power over men's minds, and in the direction then most needed. All modern imitations and repetitions of the thought are of value only as personal sarcasms.

'Another such victory, and we are undone,' is both epigrammatic and terse. The intention readily discloses itself, and the regular meaning of the word 'victory' is not sacrificed to licence.

'Beware the fury of a patient man,' says Dryden; an unexceptionable employment of the form of epigram. It serves its purpose in awakening attention; and the true meaning is within reach of a moment's reflection.

'A favourite has no friend' (Gray) is a delicate reproof of the weakness and insufficiency of favouritism.

The moral epigrams of the same author have the exaggeration permitted to the moralizing strain, and are not open to cavil.

How low, how little, are the proud,

How indigent the great.

"The right divine of kings to govern wrong' is an effective pun upon the word 'right'; the sentiment could not be more tersely given.

'Not less alone than when alone' is not remarkably illustrative. 'Dark with excess of bright' has been found a serviceable saying; there is an occasional literality in its application; and it can be turned to a variety of uses.

'Like, but oh! how different' may strike us when first said. As with

the saying 'Another and the same,' it fails to give point, for the reason that agreement in difference is the rule in nature.

'He never wrote because he had to say something, but because he had something to say.' A very forcible epigrammatic contrast, bringing out an important principle.

Shelley has this

The bright chains

Eat with their burning cold into my bones.

'Piercing cold' would serve as well.

Horace thus expresses the intellectual influence of Greece over Rome→→
Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes
Intulit agresti Latio.

This is imitated by Pope, very imperfectly, in the lines

We conquer'd France, but felt our captive's charms;
Her arts victorious triumph'd o'er our arms.

Horace has all the force of brevity and suggestiveness; whereas Pope rather explains the epigram, and so destroys its effect.

The power of the Epigram for suggesting very forcibly what would be weakened by fuller expression, is seen in such an instance as this from Pope: One from all Grub-street will my fame defend,

And more abusive, calls himself my friend.
To sit thus, stand thus, see and be seen,
At the proper place in the proper minute,

And die away the life between. (Browning.)

A forcible expression of the lifelessness of mere conventional propriety, arresting attention and expressing contempt.

Wordsworth closes a poem on Burns, after speaking of his frailties and confessing the common weaknesses of mankind, with the words—

The best of what we do and are,
Just God, forgive.

Compare Tennyson's expression of the same thought—

Forgive what seem'd my sin in me;
What seem'd my worth since I began:
For merit lives from man to man,
And not from man, O Lord, to thee.

These examples show that the epigram may be used with effect in the gravest writing.

THE CONDENSED SENTENCE.

1. The Condensed Sentence is an artificial abbreviation of the structure, apparently involving impropriety or incongruity.

Brutus instituted liberty and the consulship. Properly, the verb 'instituted' applies only to 'the consulship,' and we should say, 'won liberty for the State and instituted the

LIMITATIONS OF THE FIGURE.

211

consulship'. But by bringing the two objects under one. verb we indicate an important connexion, and call special attention to it by the seeming impropriety.

'Smelling of musk and of insolence' (Tennyson) is a conjunction of words at first sight incongruous, and demanding separate statements-smelling of musk and exhibiting insolence'; but the apparent incongruity calls attention to a connexion in the things spoken of.

Gibbon has such examples as these-Spain was 'exhausted by the abuse of her strength, by America and by superstition'. "The system of Augustus was adopted by the fears and the vices of his successors.' The Caledonians were indebted for their independence to their poverty no less than to their valour.' "Of the nineteen tyrants who started up under the reign of Gallienus, there was not one who enjoyed a life of peace or a natural death.'

In these examples, one verb is connected with two or more subjects, objects or adverbial phrases, whereas a different verb should properly be supplied to each. In other cases, the incongruity lies only in bringing together, in one enumeration, things so different that they would naturally receive distinct statement. Thus: Proselytes and gold mines were sought with equal ardour' (Macaulay). 'Sought' is perfectly appropriate to both; yet to speak of seeking proselytes and gold mines involves an incongruous conjunction of ideas; these being such as would ordinarily be put into distinct clauses or sentences. "The pious youth sought in the palace of Constantinople an orthodox baptism, a noble wife and the alliance of the Emperor Justin' (Gibbon).

"There used to be in Paris, under the ancient regime, a few women of brilliant talents, who violated all the common duties of life, and gave very pleasant little suppers. Among these supped and sinned Madame D'Epinay.'

Inflamed with bad passions and worse whisky.'

2. The Condensed Sentence, being closely allied to the Epigram, is subject to the same limitations.

Like the Epigram, the Condensed Sentence is largely used for comic effect. Thus: Some killed partridges, others time only', 'She did not return to herself or her needle for a month afterwards.'

Thackeray uses the construction abundantly for this purpose. 'He died full of honours and of an aspic of plovers' eggs.'

you

I found had gone to cultivate matrimony and your estate in the country.' Dickens employs it in ways still more broadly comic, as in this instance: 'She dropped a tear and her pocket handkerchief'. Pope has examples like this

Here thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea.

But the Condensed Sentence is also frequently used, with good effect, in serious composition; only, as with all pungent effects, it

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