A Short Hint of What We Can Do in the Sublime, and a Description of Miss Sophia Western
In the previous chapter, the narrator told us that he wanted to work up something suitably dramatic to introduce Sophia Western, our heroine.
In this chapter, we find out what the narrator means when he's talking about such "poetical embellishments" (4.1.2).
We start out this chapter with extremely formalpoetic language, of the kind we haven't seen yet in Tom Jones.
These poetic words decoratethis chapter with extra-lovely (almost ridiculous) imagery of gods and goddesses and flowers and beauty.
This chapter makes fun of high-toned language, with its sudden use of "thy" and "thou" instead of "your" and "you."
The switch to constant poetic quotation sounds really stiff and awkward after all that exciting, down-to-earth stuff about bastards and poaching that we have seen in the previous chapters.
Still, as we plow through all of this high and mighty language, we definitely get the sense that Sophie Western is smokin' hot.
But she is more than beautiful: she is also well educated and sweet-tempered.