Seventhly, The crowding into one period or thought different figures of speech, is not less faulty than crowding metaphors in that manner. The mind is distracted in the quick transition from one image to another, and is puzzled instead of being pleased:
I am of ladies most deject and wretched,
That suck’d the honey of his music vows.
Hamlet.
My bleeding bosom sickens at the sound.
Odyss. i. 439.
———————— Ah miser,
Quantâ laboras in Charybdi!
Digne puer meliore flammâ.
Quæ saga, quis te solvere Thessalis
Magus venenis, quis poterit deus?
Vix illigatum te triformi
Pegasus expediet Chimærâ.
Horat. Carm. lib. 1. ode 27.
Eighthly, If crowding figures be bad, it is still worse to graft one figure upon another. For instance,
While his keen falchion drinks the warriors lives.
Iliad xi. 211.
A falchion drinking the warriors blood is a figure built upon resemblance, which is passable. But then in the expression, lives is again put for blood; and by thus grafting one figure upon another the expression is rendered obscure and unpleasant.
Ninthly, Intricate and involved figures, that can scarce be analized or reduced to plain language, are least of all tolerable:
Votis incendimus aras.
Æneid. iii. 279.
—— Onerantque canistris
Dona laboratæ Cereris.
Æneid. viii. 180.