Mighty he was at both of these,
And styl'd of war, as well as peace:
So some rats of amphibious nature,
Are either for the land or water †.

In this coarse kind of drollery, those laughable translations or paraphrares of heroic and other serious poems, wherein the authors are said to be travestied, chiefly abound.

To the same class those instances must be referred, in which, though there is no direct comparison made, qualities of real dignity and importance are degraded, by being coupled with things mean and frivolous, as in some respect standing in the same predicament, An example of this I shall give from the same hand.

For when the restless Greeks sat down
So many years, before Troy town,
And were renown'd, as Homer writes,

For well-soal'd boots *, no less than fights +.

I shall only observe further, that this sort, whose aim is to debase, delights in the most homely expressions, provincial idioms, and cant phrases.

THE second kind, consisting in the aggrandisement of little things, which is by far the most splendid, and

Ibid. Part I. Canto I.

* In allusion to the Evxvdes Axa, an expression which frequent ly occurs both in the Iliad and in the Odyssey.

† Ibid. Part I. Canto II.

displays a soaring imagination, these lines of Pope will serve to illustrate:

As Berecynthia, while her offspring vie
In homage to the mother of the sky,
Surveys around her in the blest abode,
An hundred sons, and every son a god:

Not with less glory mighty Dulness crown'd,
Shall take thro' Grubstreet her triumphant round;
And her Parnassus glancing o'er at once,

Behold a hundred sons, and each a dunce *.

This whole similitude is spirited. The parent of the celestials is contrasted by the daughter of night and chaos; heaven by Grubstreet; gods by dunces. Besides, the parody it contains a beautiful passage in Virgil, adds a particular lustre to it . This species we may term the thrasonical, or the mock-majestic. It affects the most pompous language, and sonorous phraseology, as much as the other affects the reverse, the vilest and most grovelling dialect.

I SHALL produce another example from the same writer, which is, indeed, inimitably fine. It represents a lady employed at her toilet, attended by her maid, under the allegory of the celebration of some solemn and religious ceremony. The passage is rather

*Dunciad. B.

†The passage is this.

Felix prole virum, qualis Berecynthia mater
Invehitur curru Phrygias turrita per urbes,
Læta deûm partu, centum complexa nepotes,

Omnes cœlicolas, omnes supera alta tenentes. NEIS.

long for a quotation, but as the omission of any part would be a real mutilation, I shall give it entire.

And now unveil'd, the toilet stands display'd,
Each silver vase in mystic order laid.

First, rob'd in white, the nymph intent adores,
With head uncover'd, the cosmetic powers.
A heavenly image in the glass appears,
To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears;
Th' inferior priestess, at her altar's side,
Trembling, begins the sacred rites of pride;
Unnumber'd treasures ope at once, and here
The various offerings of the world appear;
From each she nicely culls with curious toil,
And decks the goddess with the glittering spoil.
This casket India's glowing gems unlocks,

And all Arabia breathes in yonder box.

The tortoise here and elephant unite :

Transform'd to combs, the speckled and the white.
Here files of pins extend their shining rows,
Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billet-doux.
Now awful beauty puts on all its arms,
The fair each moment rises in her charms,
Repairs her smiles, awakens every grace,
And calls forth all the wonders of her face
Sees by degrees a purer blush arise,

And keener lightnings quicken in her eyes*,

To this class also we must refer the application of grave reflections to mere trifles. For that great and serious are naturally associated by the mind, and likewise little and trifling, is sufficiently evinced by the common modes of expression on these subjects, used

Rape of the Lock, Canto I.

in every tongue. An apposite instance of such an ap plication we have from Philips.

My galligaskins, that have long withstood
The winter's fury and encroaching frosts,

By time subdued, (What will not time subdue!)
An horrid chasm disclose *.

Like to this, but not equal, is that of Young:

One day his wife (for who can wives reclaim!)
Levell'd her barbarous needle at his fame †.

To both the preceding kinds, the term burlesque is applied, but especially to the first.

Of the third species of wit, which is by far the most multifarious, and which results from what I may call the queerness or singularity of the imagery, I shall give a few specimens that will serve to mark some of its principal varieties. To illustrate all would be impossible.

THE first I shall exemplify, is where there is an apparent contrariety in the things she exhibits as connected. This kind of contrast we have in these lines of Garth,

Then Hydrops next appears amongst the throng;
Bloated and big she slowly sails along :

But like a miser in excess she's poor;

And pines for thirst amidst her watery store *.

*Splendid Shilling.

+ Universal Passion.

* Dispensary.

The wit in these lines doth not so much arise from the comparison they contain of the dropsy to a miser, (which falls under the description that immediately succeeds) as from the union of contraries they present to the imagination, poverty in the midst of opulence, and thirst in one who is already drenched in water.

A SECOND sort, is where things compared are what with dialecticians would come under the denomination of disparates, being such as can be ranked under no common genus. Of this I shall subjoin an example from Young,

Health chiefly keeps an Atheist in the dark :
A fever argues better than a Clarke:

Let but the logic in his pulse decay,

The Grecian he'll renounce, and learn to pray *.

Here, by implication, health is compared to a sophister, or darkener of the understanding, a fever to a metaphysical disputant, a regular pulse to false logic, for the word logic in the third line is used ironically. In other words, we have here modes and substances, the affections of body, and the exercise of reason, strangely, but not insignificantly, linked together; strangely, else the sentiment, however just, could not be denominated witty; significantly, because an unmeaning jumble of things incongruous would not be wit,

but nonsense.

A THIRD Variety in this species springs from conUniversal Passion.