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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Section 1
Explanation and Analysis—Don Quixote:
In the following passage, Burke includes an allusion to Don Quixote, the 1605 Spanish epic novel written by Miguel de Cervantes:
Am I to congratulate an highwayman and murderer, who has broke prison, upon the recovery of his natural rights? This would be to act over again the scene of the criminals condemned to the gallies, and their heroic deliverer, the metaphysic Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance.
The "Knight of Sorrowful Countenance" is Don Quixote himself, a man who declares himself a knight-errant and, for much of the epic, refuses to view the world through any other lens than that of chivalric fiction. In the above passage, Burke references a scene from the novel in which Quixote frees a group of criminals under the misapprehension that they are being illegally imprisoned as slaves. These criminals immediately attack Quixote after he sets them free, proving that in his idealism, he misjudged the situation and the moral character of the men he wanted to save.
Burke includes this allusion as a means of commenting on the various moral dimensions of the word "freedom," crucially noting that not all of the term's varied uses bear positive implications. Freedom from oppression is not the same as a criminal's freedom after breaking out of prison, Burke notes, and it is important not to correlate one with the other when describing the merits of a revolutionary project.
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Section 2
Explanation and Analysis—Machiavelli:
In this passage, Burke refers to "Machiavelian" politicians, alluding to the philosopher Nicolo Machiavelli's treatise The Prince:
They saw nothing in what has been done in France, but a firm and temperate exertion of freedom; so consistent, on the whole, with morals and with piety, as to make it deserving not only of the secular applause of dashing Machiavelian politicians, but to render it a fit theme for all the devout effusions of sacred eloquence.
The Prince is a well-known political tract in which Machiavelli advocates the idea that conventionally immoral methods are justified in the pursuit of absolute power. Burke includes this allusion to Machiavelli as a means of critiquing those who view the French Revolution as an expression of "freedom." Burke's opponents, according to this characterization, view themselves as morally upright revolutionaries on the right side of history; yet, seemingly in direct contradiction to this, they have allied themselves with "Machiavelian" politicians who believe that the ends justify the means. Through this allusion, Burke therefore implies that the revolutionaries also—in their own way—seek a form of absolute power by asserting their right to democratic self-determination. In Burke's mind, the revolutionaries use the term freedom too liberally, applying it to their cause preemptively before the dust has settled in France.
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Explanation and Analysis—Occult Revolutionaries:
Throughout Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke includes occultism as a motif, capitalizing on the anti-atheist sentiments of his audience to discredit the revolutionaries and their ideas. In the following passage, for instance, wherein Burke attempts to refute the sermon of one Doctor Richard Price, both allusion and metaphor feature as a means of tying occultism to the arguments of Burke's opponent:
On the forenoon of the 4th of November last, Doctor Richard Price, a non-conforming minister of eminence, preached at the dissenting meeting-house of the Old Jewry, to his club or society, a very extraordinary miscellaneous sermon, in which there are some good moral and religious sentiments, and not ill expressed, mixed up in a sort of porridge of various political opinions and reflections: but the revolution in France is the grand ingredient in the cauldron.
Here, Burke uses metaphor to equate "the revolution in France" with an ingredient in the revolutionaries' "cauldron" of political ideas. This figurative language undoubtedly brings witchcraft to mind, along with its unsavory heathen associations. Burke may have used this particular metaphor as a means of vaguely alluding to the witches from Act 4, Scene 1 of Macbeth: "Round about the cauldron go; In the poison’d entrails throw." Burke includes this metaphor and allusion to associate Price with a lifestyle many readers at the time would have considered unsavory, if not outright evil.
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Explanation and Analysis—Psalms:
In the following passage, Burke directly quotes Psalm 149:6-8, alluding to the Old Testament of the Bible:
[Richard Price's] sermon is in a strain which I believe has not been heard in this kingdom [since the Reverend Hugh Peters] made the vault of the king’s own chapel at St. James’s ring with the honour and privilege of the Saints, who, with the ‘high praises of God in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hands, were to execute judgment on the heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron.’
Burke includes this direct quote from the Psalms in an attempt to connect the revolutionaries to the ancient Israelites, albeit in a satirical manner. This specific quote from Psalms alludes to the righteous vengeance of the people of God, who wish to "bind their kings with chains." According to Burke, the "sermons" given by the current revolutionaries are of the same ilk, characterizing anti-monarchical action as important, God-ordained action.
Burke himself quite clearly views this revolutionary self-importance as sanctimonious, finding it amusing that his opponents would liken themselves to God's chosen and oppressed people. He disagrees vehemently with such a likeness, believing that the revolutionaries are heretical, not the monarchy.
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