There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Julius Cæsar, act 4. sc. 5.
Figuring glory and honour to be a garland of fresh flowers:
Hotspur.—— Would to heav’n,
Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!
Pr. Henry. I’ll make it greater, ere I part from thee;
And all the budding honours on thy crest
I’ll crop, to make a garland for my head.
First Part Henry IV. act 5. sc. 9.
Figuring a man who hath acquired great reputation and honour to be a tree full of fruit:
—————————— Oh, boys, this story
The world may read in me: my body’s mark’d
With Roman swords; and my report was once
First with the best of note. Cymbeline lov’d me;
And when a soldier was the theme, my name
Was not far off: then was I as a tree,
Whose boughs did bend with fruit. But in one night,
A storm or robbery, call it what you will,
Shook down my mellow hangings, nay my leaves;
And left me bare to weather.
Cymbeline, act 3. sc. 3.
I am aware that the term metaphor has been used in a more extensive sense than I give it; but I thought it of consequence, in matters of some intricacy, to separate things that differ from each other, and to confine words within their most proper sense. An allegory differs from a metaphor; and what I would chuse to call a figure of speech, differs from both. I shall proceed to explain these differences. A metaphor is defined above to be an operation of the imagination, figuring one thing to be another. An allegory requires no operation of the imagination, nor is one thing figured to be another: it consists in chusing a subject having properties or circumstances resembling those of the principal subject; and the former is described in such a manner as to represent the latter. The subject thus represented is kept out of view; we are left to discover it by reflection; and we are pleased with the discovery, because it is our own work. Quintilian[26] gives the following instance of an allegory,
O navis, referent in mare te novi
Fluctus. O quid agis? fortiter occupa portum.
Horat. lib. 1. ode 14.
and explains it elegantly in the following words: “Totusque ille Horatii locus, quo navim pro republica, fluctuum tempestates pro bellis civilibus, portum pro pace atque concordia, dicit.”
There cannot be a finer or more correct allegory than the following, in which a vineyard is put for God’s own people the Jews.