Nay, to make him the more modish, the
good lady is at pains to patch up his style with unnecessary
phrases and flourishes in the French taste, which have just such an
effect in a translation of Homer, as a bag-wig, and snuff-box would
have in a picture of Achilles."
In parody a slight likeness in form and expression brings together ideas
with very different associations. Several instances of this may be found
in a preceding chapter. By increasing points of similarity between
distant objects, poetry may be changed into humour. Addison remarks that
"If a lover declare that his mistress' breast is as white as snow, he
makes a commonplace observation, but when he adds with a sigh, that it
is as cold too, he approaches to wit." The former simile is only
poetical, but the latter draws the comparison too close, the
complication becomes too strong, and we feel inclined to laugh. Addison
merely notices the number of points of similitude, but the reason they
produce or augment humour, is that they make the solution difficult.
When it is easy to limit and disentangle the likeness and unlikeness,
the pleasantry is small, as where Butler says--
"The sun had long since, in the lap
Of Thetis, taken out his nap,
And, like a lobster boiled, the moon
From black to red began to turn.
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