A master of this will say,
Mow the beard,
Shave the grass,
Pin the plank,
Nail my sleeve.
From whence results the same kind of pleasure to the mind, as to the eye, when we behold Harlequin trimming himself with a hatchet, hewing down a tree with a rasor, making his tea in a cauldron, and brewing his ale in a tea-pot, to the incredible satisfaction of the British spectator. Another source of the bathos is,
The Metonymy,
the inversion of causes for effects, of inventors for inventions, &c.
| Lac'd in her Cosins[1] new appeared the bride, | |
| A Bubble-boy[2] and Tompion[3] at her side, | |
| And with an air divine her Colmar[4] ply'd. |
The Synecdoche,
which consists in the use of a part for the whole. You may call a young woman sometimes pretty-face and pigs-eyes, and sometimes snotty-nose and draggletail. Or, of accidents, for persons; as a lawyer, is called split-cause, a tailor, prick-louse, &c. Or of things belonging to a man, for the man himself; as a sword-man, a gown-man, a t-m-t-d-man; a whitestaff, a turn-key, &c.
