Illa vel intactæ segetis per summa volaret
Gramina: nec teneras cursu læsisset aristas.
Æneid. vii. 808.
—— Atque imo barathri ter gurgite vastos
Sorbet in abruptum fluctus, rursusque sub auras
Erigit alternos, et sidera verberat undà.
Æneid. iii. 421.
—— Horrificis juxta tonat Ætna ruinis,
Interdumque atram prorumpit ad æthera nubem,
Turbine fumantem piceo et candente favilla:
Attollitque globos flammarum, et sidera lambit.
Æneid. iii. 571.
Speaking of Polyphemus,
—— Ipse arduus, altaque pulsat Sidera.
Æneid. iii. 619.
—— When he speaks,
The air, a charter’d libertine, is still.
Henry V. act 1. sc. 1.
Now shield with shield, with helmet helmet clos’d,
To armour armour, lance to lance oppos’d,
Host against host with shadowy squadrons drew,
The sounding darts in iron tempests flew,
Victors and vanquish’d join promiscuous cries,
And shrilling shouts and dying groans arise;
With streaming blood the slipp’ry fields are dy’d,
And slaughter’d heroes swell the dreadful tide.
Iliad iv. 508.
The following may also pass, though stretched pretty far.
Econjungendo à temerario ardire
Estrema forza, e infaticabil lena
Vien che si’ impetuoso il ferro gire,
Che ne trema la terra, e’l ciel balena.
Gierusalem, cant. 6. st. 46.
Quintilian[23] is sensible that this figure is natural. “For,” says he, “not contented with truth, we naturally incline to augment or diminish beyond it; and for that reason the hyperbole is familiar even among the vulgar and illiterate.” And he adds, very justly, “That the hyperbole is then proper, when the subject of itself exceeds the common measure.” From these premisses, one would not expect the following conclusion, the only reason he can find for justifying this figure of speech. “Conceditur enim amplius dicere, quia dici quantum est, non potest: meliusque ultra quam citra stat oratio.” (We are indulged to say more than enough, because we cannot say enough; and it is better to be over than under). In the name of wonder, why this slight and childish reason, when immediately before he had made it evident, that the hyperbole is founded on human nature? I could not resist this personal stroke of criticism, intended not against our author, for no human creature is exempt from error; but against the blind veneration that is paid to the ancient classic writers, without distinguishing their blemishes from their beauties.