The Arte of English Poesie eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 355 pages of information about The Arte of English Poesie.

The Arte of English Poesie eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 355 pages of information about The Arte of English Poesie.
Or as another said to a mouthy Aduocate, why barkest thou at me so sore? Or to call the top of a tree, or of a hill, the crowne of a tree or of a hill:  for in deede crowne is the highest ornament of a Princes head, made like a close garland, or els the top of a mans head, where the haire windes about, and because such terme is not applyed naturally to a tree or to a hill, but is transported from a mans head to a hill or tree, therefore it is called by metaphore, or the figure of transport.  And three causes moue vs to vse this figure, one for necessitie or want of a better word, thus: 
  As the drie ground that thirstes after a showr
  Seems to reioyce when it is well wet,
  And speedely brings foorth both grasse and flowr,
  If lacke of sunne or season doo not let.

Here for want of an apter and more naturall word to declare the drie temper of the earth, it is said to thirst & to reioyce, which is onley proper to liuing creatures, and yet being so inuerted, doth not so much swerue from the true sence but that euery man can easilie conceiue the meaning thereof.

Againe, we vse it for pleasure and ornament of our speach, as thus in an
Epitaph of our owne making, to the honourable memorie of a deere friend,
Sir Iohn Throgmorton, knight, Iustice of Chester, and a man of many
commendable vertues.
  Whom vertue rerde, enuy hath ouerthrowen
  And Iudged full low, vnder this marble stone: 
  Ne neuer were his values so well knowen,
  Whilest he liued here, as now that he is gone.

Here these words, rered, overthrowen, and lodged, are inuerted, &
metaphorically applyed, not vpon necessitie, but for ornament onely,
afterward againe in these verses.
  No sunne by day that euer saw him rest
  Free from the toyles of his so busie charge,
  No night that harbourd rankor in his breast,
  Nor merry moode made reason runne at large.

In these verses the inuersion or metaphore, lyeth in these words, saw,
harbourd, run:
which naturally are applyed to liuing things, & not to
insensible:  as the sunne, or the night:  & yet they approach so neere,
& so conueniently, as the speech is thereby made more commendable.  Againe,
in moe verses of the same Epitaph, thus.
  His head a source of grauitie and sence,
  His memory a shop of ciuill arte,
  His tongue a streame of sugred eloquence,
  Wisdome and meekenes lay mingled in his harte,

In which verses ye see that these words, source, shop, find, sugred, are inuerted from their owne signification to another, not altogether so naturall, but of much affinitie with it.

Then also do we it sometimes to enforce a sence and make the word more
significatiue:  as thus,
  I burne in loue, I freese in deadly hate
  I swimme in hope, and sinke in deepe dispaire.

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The Arte of English Poesie from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.