work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3191,"",Reading,2003-11-03 00:00:00 UTC,"While man unmarr'd abode, his Spirits all
In Vivid hue were active in their hall,
This Spotless Body; here and there mentain
Their traffick for the Universall gain,
Till Sin Beat up for Volunteers. Whence came
A thousand Griefs attending on the same.
Which march in ranck and file, proceed to make
A Battery, and the fort of Life to take.
Which when the Centinalls did spy, the Heart
Did beate alarum up in every part.
The Vitall Spirits apprehend thereby
Exposde to danger great suburbs ly,
The which they do desert, and speedily
The Fort of Life the Heart, they Fortify,
The Heart beats up still by her Pulse to Call
Out of the outworks her train Souldiers all
Which quickly come hence: now the Looks grow pale,
Limbs feeble too: the Enemies prevaile:
Do scale the Outworks where there's Scarce a Scoute
That can be Spi'de sent from the Castle out.
(p. 34)",2009-04-14,8414,• This poem actually continues but the photocopy I am working from is cut short.,"""The Vitall Spirits apprehend thereby / Exposde to danger great suburbs ly, / The which they do desert, and speedily / The Fort of Life the Heart, they Fortify, / The Heart beats up still by her Pulse to Call / Out of the outworks her train Souldiers all / Which quickly come hence.""",Inhabitants,2013-06-12 17:31:00 UTC,""
3244,"",HDIS (Poetry),2004-08-19 00:00:00 UTC,"But you are unacquainted yet
With half the power of Amoret;
For she can drink as well as swive,
Her growing empire still must thrive.
Our hearts weak forts we must resign
When beauty does its forces join
With man's strong enemy, good wine.
This I was told by my Lord O'Brien,
A man whose words I much rely on:
He kept touch and came down hither
When you were scar'd by the foul weather.
But if thou wouldst forgiven be,
Say that a c--- detained thee;
C---! whose strong charms the world bewitches,
The joy of kings! the beggar's riches!
The courtier's business! statesman's leisure!
The tired tinker's ease and pleasure!
Of which, alas, I've leave to prate,
But oh, the rigor of my fate!
For want of bouncing bona-roba,
Lasciva est nobis pagina vita proba.
For that rhyme I was fain to fumble;
When Pegasus begins to stumble,
'Tis time to rest, your very humble.",2011-05-27,8498,"•Does this not also belong in Architecture? — Yes, 6/10/2013.","""Our hearts weak forts we must resign / When beauty does its forces join / With man's strong enemy, good wine.""","",2013-06-12 17:34:04 UTC,""
3420,Psychomachia,"Reading MacDonald's History of the Concept of Mind (Ashgate, 2003), 211.",2003-10-08 00:00:00 UTC,"And therefore to conclude, all thinges, but specially the whole life of man, is a certeine kinde of contention and strife. But in the meane while, omitting this externall strife, wherof we entreated erewhile, which I would God it were lesse, & therefore lesse knowne to all men: how great is the internall contention, not only against an other, but as I haue saide, against our owne kinde, not against an other particular person, but against our selfe, and that in this bodily outward couering, which is the most vile and base part of our selues? and euerie one hath continuall warre with him selfe in the most secret closet of his minde. For as touching this our bodie, with how contrarie humours it aboundeth and is troubled, enquire of those that are called naturall Phylosophers: but with how diuerse and contrarie affections the minde striueth against it selfe, let euerie one enquire of none other than him selfe, and answere him selfe, with how variable and vncerteine motion of minde hee is drawne sometime one way, some time an other: he is neuer whole, nor neuer one man, but alwayes dissenting & deuided in himselfe. For, to speake nothing of other motions, to will, to nill, to loue, to hate, to flatter, to threaten, to mock, to deceiue, to feigne, to iest, to weepe, to pitie, to spare, to bee angrie, to bee pleased, to slide, to bee cast downe, to bee aduanced, to stumble, to stande vp, to goe forwarde, to turne backe, to begin, to leaue of, to doubt, to erre, to bee deceiued, to be ignorant, to learne, to forget, to remember, to enuie, to contemne, to wonder, to loath, to despise, and to haue in admiration, and such like, than whiche truly there can bee nothing imagined more vncerteine, and with which the life of man ebbeth and floweth vncerteinly, from the beginning to the ending without intermission. For what tempests and madnesse is there in these foure passions, to wit, to hope or desire, and to reioice, to feare and to bee sorie, whiche trouble the poore and miserable minde, by driuing him with sodeine windes and gales, in course far from the hauen into the middes of the dangerous rocks? Which passions, some one way, and some another, yea diuersly diuerse haue expressed in lesse than in an whole verse. And as Saint Augustine writeth, the Poet Virgil hath comprised in a most knowne veritie: of which passions truly I am not ignorant, that more and lesse may bee said on both sides. As for me I haue not much studied for shortnesse nor copie, but I haue set downe in writing such matter as in order hath offered it selfe to me, out of the common course of mans life, that I might not werie the Reader, either with scarcitie or tediousnesse. And let not the name of Fortune grieue thee, which is repeated not onely in the superscriptions and tytles, but also in the woork: For truly thou hast often heard mine opinion, concerning fortune. But when I foresawe that this Doctrine was most necessarie, specially for such as were not furnished with learning, I haue vsed in their behalfe the common and knowne woord, not being ignorant, what other men generally, & most briefly. S. Hierome thinketh of this matter, where he sayth, that there is neither Fortune nor destinie, so that the common sort shall acknowledge and perceiue here their manner of speaking: as for the learned, which are but scarce, they will vnderstand what I meane, and shall not bee troubled with the vsuall woord. Of the one part of this twoofold woorke, concerning passions and fortune, wee haue saide alredie, what wee thought good, & of the other we will now speake, what wee shall see conuenient.",,8721,"REVISIT and chase down text. Had cut this? — ""[Allegorical battle] within every individual takes place in the concrete, ordinary world familiar to contemporary readers. Reason and 4 passions contend
[Rem. I. xxiii]""","""And euerie one hath continuall warre with him selfe in the most secret closet of his minde.""","",2013-06-12 18:50:07 UTC,""
3607,"","Searching ""breast"" and ""guest"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2006-03-15 00:00:00 UTC,"------ & apta
Spicula sent nobis puris ------
Simple as are the Elements unmixt,
Stedfast as is the earth, whose footing's fixt;
Untainted like the silver suite of Swan,
Alone like truth, well ordered like a man,
Like these in each of these was I, untill
Upon a time, Reason fell foule with Will,
Who back't with sence, that it might battaile move,
Implor'd the ayde of all commanding Love,
Love by his mother taught, doth soone comply,
To be an Actor in this treachery.
The battell's wag'd, and reason fleye the field,
While Sence and Will to Love the Conquest yeeld.
I now, loves subject, am inforclt to doe
What ever his designes commands me to do;
See, see (quoth hee) do you behold that maid,
Whose equall doth not breathe; and there he staid,
To draw fresh aire, So quicke was he to give
Mee notice that I must no longer live,
In my owne selfe, but her whom when I spy'd,
Mee thought I had been happy to have dy'd
Since I at once saw severally in one,
What joyn'd together made perfection.
This was Florella that bright shining starre,
Who might have caused a second Trojan warre,
Were there a second Paris, for her face,
The world might strive, but then there sate a grace
So chast that might expell each spurious thought,
Such as foule Hellen to her Paris brought.
There I might read in my Florella's lookes,
(Such are indeed beauties most perfect bookes)
Loves pleasant Lecture where I might espie
How Cupid once sought entrance at her eye
Whom she repell'd, like snow and chast and cold
Could not admit a Sympathy to hold,
With his hot flames, but melting quite put out
That ardent fire which warm'd her round about.
Cupid denied of this did backward start,
And ran for hast to hide him in her heart,
Where he renewed fresh flames, and by delay,
So I corcht his wings he could not fly away
Thus force perforce in her my conquer'd breast
Is the poore Inne of such a God-borne guest,
Whom while I harbor, it is hard to tell
Whether his presence be a Heaven or Hell.
Such pleasurable paine, such painfull pleasure
Sometimes below, and sometimes above measure.
Mars on a time forsook his Venus bed,
Protesting he no longer would be led
To these embraces, which like Circles charmes,
Made him forget th'Heroicke use of Armes,
Venus heard this whiles halfe in anger shee
Did thrust her darling Cupid off her knee.
Downe falls the youngster and in salling so
Broke all his Arrows, quiver and his bow,
His grandame Nature pittying the mischance,
Wipes the wagges eyes, told him she would advance
Him to his former office: for a dart
That should transfixe the most obdurate heart.
She would create an eye, and for a bow
She'd make a brow, whose art inclining so,
Should shoote such shafts, that deity should yeeld
Themselves glad prisoners in the maiden field,
When streight she made Florella, such a maid,
Who being nam'd, need there ought else be said?
'Tis not long since that I heard Lovers whine
At whose deep wounds, which from their Mistris eyne
They bleeding had ceceiv'd, cause they could winne
No mercy from them, whilst I thought some pinne
Had scratch'd their tender hands, till I too late
Grew sensible they were unfortunate
In their lost loves, 'cause when Florella fround,
Shee like a Commet strucke mee to the ground,
Till shee was pleas'd to cleare her glorious eyes,
Which summon'd mee from death to life to rise.
Wherefore you speedy Merchant doe you runne
Beyond the bounds of the all-bounding Sunne,
To seeke for Rubies, Pearle, and Ivory,
Adventuring hazard both of Land and skie,
When my Florella can afford all this
Without your search in the tumultuous Seas.
Rubies and Pearle, her lips and teeth, her skinne,
Like hollow Ivory, lockes those gems within,
For which you fondly up and downe doe rome
When you may better find this wealth at home,
What would the Northerne Climate hold too deare
To purchase my Florella to live there?
That where the niggard sute denies to shine,
They might receive more lustre from her eyne.
But that I know she loves Religion best,
She had long since, seene India the West,
But least those Pagans who adore the rise
Of the bright Sunne, should doate upon her eyes,
She was resolv'd to stay; wo had I bin
Had she gone thither to encrease their sinne.
East India nothing holds that's worth her view,
There's nothing there, that shee can take for new,
Their aire-perfuming spices, pretious gum,
Their fragrant odors, pleasants, Cinamum
All these and sweeter farre, shee breathes whose smell
Doth all things but it selfe, highly excell:
Once to my friend I did these lines rehearse,
Who streightway smil'd and did applaud my verse
But Ah! I feare 'twas my Florella's name
That brib'd his tongue, so to belie my fame.
Once, and but once I chanc'd to have the sight
Of my Florella, who makes darkness light:
When leaden Morpheus did her sence surprize,
In the lock't casket of her closed eys,
Faine would I steale a kisse, but as I strove,
Those scarlet Judges of my sleeping love
Did swell against my pride, and angry red,
Charg'd mee stand back from her forbidden bed:
While they her precious breath did seem to smother.
Each privately did steale a touch from the other,
I envious at their new begotten blisse
Was hold on her soft lips to print a kisse.
At which she wak't: And have you ever seene
How faire Aurora, heavens illustrious queene.
Shakes off her sable Robe, and with a grace
Smiles in the front of a faire morning face.
Just so my love as if night had beene noone,
Discards the element of the uselesse moone:
And from her glorious tapers sent a fire,
To light the darkest thoughts to quicke desire.
While thus from forth her rosall gate she sent,
Breath form'd in words, the marrow of content.
And have you Sir, at such a tempting time
Betrayd my honour, to this welcome crime,
By stealing pleasure from me, 'twas thy Love
I know, that did thee to this trespasse move
For I have prov'd thy faith which since I finde
The trusty Inmate of a loyall minde,
Of force I must except it; and in part
Of recompence, afford thee all my heart,
Thus having ceaz'd my prize; I told her, sweet,
As by no fouler name we ere may greete,
So what is mine I tender, all, my selfe,
The poorest part of thy unvalued wealth.
Thou hast won much in this, thy mercy showne,
That thus at last thou dost receive thy owne
Least they who after me like fare shall prove,
Should say, See what it is to be in Love.
I am in portu.",,9356,"•Rich passage. I've included five times: Flame, Conquest, Inn, Guest, Heaven or Hell","""Cupid denied of this did backward start, / And ran for hast to hide him in her heart, / Where he renewed fresh flames, and by delay, / So I corcht his wings he could not fly away / Thus force perforce in her my conquer'd breast / Is the poore Inne of such a God-borne guest, / Whom while I harbor, it is hard to tell / Whether his presence be a Heaven or Hell.""",Inhabitants,2009-09-14 19:34:09 UTC,I've included the entire poem
3618,"","Searching ""mind"" and ""invad"" in HDIS (Poetry)",2005-05-04 00:00:00 UTC,"These Ruins of his Citie from the Skie,
Alcides look'd on, with a mournfull Eye,
But all in vain; for him the strict command,
And fear of his great Father Jove withstand,
That he should nothing act 'gainst the Decree
Of his severe Step-Mother. Therefore He,
Concealing his Design, to Faith repairs,
Who in the farthest part of Heav'n, the Cares
Of Deities revolv'd: thus, at her Shrine
He tries Her Counsels: Thou great Power Divine!
Born before Jove himself: who art the Grace,
And Honour both of Gods, and Humane Race,
Consort of Justice, without whom nor Seas,
Nor Earth, can know the benefit of Peace;
A Goddess (where thou art) in every Breast!
Canst thou behold Sagunthus, thus opprest,
Unmov'd? That Citie, which, for Thee alone,
So many, so great ills, hath undergone?
For Thee the People dy, upon Thee, all,
Men, Women, Children, that can speak, do call,
By Famine overcome: from Heaven relieve
Their sad Estate, and some Assistance give.
Thus He; To whom the Heav'nly Maid again
Replies. I see all this, nor is't in vain,
That thus my Leagues infringed are: a Day
Shall come, Alcides, that shall sure repay,
With Vengance these their dire Attempts. But I
Was forc'd from the polluted Earth to fly,
To seek, in Jove's blest Mansions, a Place,
Free from the num'rous Frauds of Humane Race.
I left their Tyrans, that their Scepters hold,
Fearing, as they are Fear'd: that Fury, Gold,
The vile Reward of Treacheries, I left,
And above all, the Men, who now bereft
Of all Humanity, like Beasts by Spoil,
And Rapine, live, while Honour is the Foil
To Luxury, and Modesty by Night,
And her dark Crimes opprest, avoids the Light,
The place of Right, the too imperious Sword
Doth arrogate; and Force alone's Ador'd:
Vertue gives way to Vice; for look upon
The Nations of the Earth, and there is none
Is Innocent; their frequent Fellowship
In Crimes, alone, the Common Peace doth keep.
But that these Walls, erected by thy Hand,
May in the Book of Fame for ever stand,
By an End worthy Thee, and that they may
Not give their Bodies up a Captive Prey,
To the Proud African (which, onely, now
The Fates, and State of Future things allow)
The Honour of their Death will I extend
Beyond the pow'r of Fate, and them commend,
As Patterns, to Posterity, and go,
With their prais'd Souls, unto the Shades below.
This said; The constant Virgin, through the Air,
Descends, and to Sagunthus doth repair,
Then strugling with the Fates: through ev'ry Breast
She goes, invades their Minds, which, all-possest
By her great Deitie, each Soul doth prove
Her Altar, burning by her Sacred Love.
Now, as if Strong again, for Arms they cry,
And in the Fight their weak Endeavours try.
Strength, above Hope, they find, while the sweet Name,
And Honour, of the Goddess doth inflame
Their Hearts; resolved, for her Sake, to dye,
And suffer things, far worse then Death; to try
The Food of Savage Beasts, and Crimes to add
To their Repast: but them chaste Faith forbad
Longer, with so much Guilt, to view the Day,
Or with Man's Flesh their Hunger to allay.",,9394,•Translated from Silius Italicus.
•I've included twice: Invasion and Altar,"""[T]hrough ev'ry Breast [Faith] goes, invades their Minds, which, all-possest / By her great Deitie, each Soul doth prove / Her Altar, burning by her Sacred Love""",Empire,2009-09-14 19:34:11 UTC,""
3866,"","Reading Arthur A. Cash, ""The Sermon in Tristram Shandy."" ELH 31:4 (1964): 399.",2012-06-12 20:34:32 UTC,"12. Thirdly, probabilities, which cross men's appetites and prevailing passions, run the same fate. Let ever so much probability hang on one side of a covetous man's reasoning, and money on the other; it is easy to foresee which will outweigh. Earthly minds, like mud-walls, resist the strongest batteries: And though perhaps sometimes the force of a clear argument may make some impression, yet they nevertheless stand firm, and keep out the enemy truth, that would captivate or disturb them. Tell a man passionately in love, that he is jilted; bring a score of witnesses of the falsehood of his mistress, it is ten to one but three kind words of hers shall invalidate all their testimonies, Quod volumus, facile credits; What suits our wishes, is forwardly believed; is, I suppose, what every one hath more than once experimented: And though men cannot always openly gainsay or resist the force of manifest probabilities that make against them, yet yield they not to the argument. Not but that it is the nature of the understanding constantly to close with the more probable side; but yet a man hath a power to suspend and restrain its inquiries, and not permit a full and satisfactory examination, as far as the matter in question is capable, and will bear it to be made. Until that be done, there will be always these two ways left of evading the most apparent probabilities.
(IV.xx.12)",,19792,"","""Earthly minds, like mud-walls, resist the strongest batteries: And though perhaps sometimes the force of a clear argument may make some impression, yet they nevertheless stand firm, and keep out the enemy truth, that would captivate or disturb them.""",Empire and Impressions,2012-06-12 20:34:32 UTC,IV.xx.12
7370,"","Reading John Yolton's ""Locke's Unpublished Marginal Replies to John Sargent,"" Journal of the History of Ideas 12:4 (October 1951): 537. ",2013-04-02 02:34:58 UTC,"2. I must confess, Dear Sir, That when I heard you discourse, you did it so ingeniously in the Cartesian Way of Wit, which consists in Explicating and Doubting, and seems to exclude Proving, that I did not see how the Great Cartesius himself could have defended his Doctrine better: For, he could not have Doubted more scrupulously than you did; nor, I think, have Explicated himself more ingeniously. You guarded his Doctrine so warily, that it was scarce possible to attack it. Tho', that I may not flatter you, I cannot say you did this by the Evidence of any Proposition you Advanc'd, but by your Ready Exceptions against any thing that Art or Nature could oppose; at least, taking them as manag'd by one no better skill'd than I am. Your Cause seem'd to me, as if it had been secur'd in some Castle; made Impregnable, not by means of the Ordinary Methods of Fortification, us'd in Lawful War; but, (which is against the Old Laws of Arms,) by a kind of Enchantment. Your Bulwarks, Entrenchments and Redoubts lay so cunningly hid in your Way of Ideas, that they were altogether Invisible; so that the most quick-sighted Engineer living could not discern them, or take any sure Aim at them: Much less such a Dull Eye as mine; who, tho' I bend my Sight as strongly and steadily as I am able, yet I cannot, for my Heart, see what kind of Things those Spiritual Ideas are. And, which leaves me in a helpless Condition as to that Particular, such very Ingenious Cartesians as Mr. Le Grand, who, having por'd so long upon them, should be best acquainted with them, and therefore best qualified to inform me what they are, gives me no Account of them; unless we can think there may be such Things as are made up of Contradictions, and altogether Chimerical. As you may see in the 2d Examen of my Ideae Cartesianae Expensae, §§. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30.
(pp. 4-6)",,20082,INTEREST: Shandean? REVISIT and think about Sterne here...,"""Your Bulwarks, Entrenchments and Redoubts lay so cunningly hid in your Way of Ideas, that they were altogether Invisible; so that the most quick-sighted Engineer living could not discern them, or take any sure Aim at them: Much less such a Dull Eye as mine; who, tho' I bend my Sight as strongly and steadily as I am able, yet I cannot, for my Heart, see what kind of Things those Spiritual Ideas are.""","",2013-04-02 02:34:58 UTC,""
3923,"",Searching in C-H Lion,2013-06-18 14:06:58 UTC,"MANLEY riseth,
Enough,--This is no cure for my Malady,--What a miserable Wretch is Man!--Condemned to Passions, captivated by 'em--We are the Monarchs o're all other Creatures, yet Anarchy predominates in us. The Sences in Confederacy raise Rebellion against reason; there now is a Civil War over all this Compound Tabernacle. Pride and Desire disturb the Harmony of Government, endeavouring to undermine the tottering Fabrick, and to hurl all into Chaos and Confusion.--Such is my case, the Love of a Woman; mine she is by contract, and I am satisfied she bears me a reciprocal Affection. Shall I suffer her to be torn from me by that tawdry Bubble? I am in a Labyrinth--ha! Freeman come to teaze me!
(II.i, pp. 8-9) ",,20921,"","""The Sences in Confederacy raise Rebellion against reason; there now is a Civil War over all this Compound Tabernacle. Pride and Desire disturb the Harmony of Government, endeavouring to undermine the tottering Fabrick, and to hurl all into Chaos and Confusion.""",Inhabitants,2013-06-18 14:06:58 UTC,"Act II, scene i"
7519,"",C-H Lion,2013-07-09 14:41:52 UTC,"OROONOKO.
Ha! thou hast rouz'd
The Lion in his den, he stalks abroad,
And the wide Forrest trembles at his roar.
I find the danger now: my Spirits start
At the alarm, and from all quarters come
To Man my Heart, the Citadel of love
Is there a power on Earth to force you from me?
And shall I not resist it? not strike first
To keep, to save you? to prevent that curse?
This is your Cause, and shall it not prevail?
O! you were born all ways to conquer me.
Now I am fashion'd to thy purpose: speak,
What Combination, what Conspiracy,
Woud'st thou engage me in? Ile undertake
All thou woud'st have me now for liberty,
For the great Cause of Love and Liberty.
(p. 42)",,21570,"","""I find the danger now: my Spirits start / At the alarm, and from all quarters come / To Man my Heart, the Citadel of love.""",Inhabitants and Room,2013-07-09 14:41:52 UTC,""
7945,"",Reading (in the British Library),2014-06-22 03:08:34 UTC,"III. We may fetch an Argument of the Wisdom and Providence of God from the convenient situation and disposition of the Parts and Members of our Bodies: They are seated most conveniently for Use, for Ornament, and for mutual Assistance. First, for Use; So we see the Senses of such eminent Use for our well-being, situate in the Head, as Sentinels in a Watch-Tower, to receive and conveigh to the Soul the impressions of external Objects. Sensus autem interpretes ac nutii rerum in capite tanquam in arce mirifice ad usus necessarios & facti & collati sunt. Cic. de Nat. Deorum. [...]
(p. 157)",,24084,"","""First, for Use; So we see the Senses of such eminent Use for our well-being, situate in the Head, as Sentinels in a Watch-Tower, to receive and conveigh to the Soul the impressions of external Objects""",Impressions and Inhabitants,2014-06-22 03:08:34 UTC,""