ALLEGORY (
allos, other, and
agoreuein, to speak), a
figurative representation conveying a meaning other than and in
addition to the literal. It is generally treated as a figure of
rhetoric, but the medium of representation is not necessarily
language. An allegory may be addressed to the eye, and is
often embodied in painting, sculpture or some form of mimetic
art. The etymological meaning of the word is wider than that
which it bears in actual use. An allegory is distinguished
from a metaphor by being longer sustained and more fully
carried out in its details, and from an analogy by the fact
that the one appeals to the imagination and the other to the
reason. The
fable or parable
? is a short allegory with one
definite moral. The allegory has been a favourite form in
the literature of nearly every nation. The Hebrew scriptures
present frequent instances of it, one of the most beautiful
being the comparison of the history of Israel to the growth
of a vine in the 80th Psalm. In classical literature one
of the best known allegories is the story of the stomach and
its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa (
Livy ii. 32);
and several occur in
Ovid's
Metamorphoses. Some elaborate and successful specimens of allegory
are to be found in the works of English authors. Spenser's
? Faerie Queene, Swift's Tale of a Tub, Addison's
? Vision of Mirza, and, above all, Bunyan's
? Pilgrim's Progress, are
examples.
from a public domain 1911 encyclopedia
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