"Provided still, you moderate your Joy, / Nor in your Pleasures all your Might employ: / Let Reason's Rule your strong Desires abate, / Nor please too lavishly your gentle Mate."
— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Jacob Tonson
Date
w. c. 1704, 1709
Metaphor
"Provided still, you moderate your Joy, / Nor in your Pleasures all your Might employ: / Let Reason's Rule your strong Desires abate, / Nor please too lavishly your gentle Mate."
Metaphor in Context
This Justin heard; nor could his Spleen controul,
Touch'd to the Quick, and tickled at the Soul.
'Sir Knight (he cry'd) if this be all your Dread,
'Heav'n put it past your Doubt, whene'er you wed;
'And to my fervent Pray'rs so far consent,
'That, e're the Rites are o'er, you may repent!
'Good Heav'n, no doubt, the nuptial State approves,
'Since it chastises still what best it loves:
'Then be not, Sir, abandon'd to Despair;
'Seek, and perhaps you'll find, among the Fair,
'One that may do your Business to a Hair;
'Not ev'n in Wish your Happiness delay,
'But prove the Scourge to lash you on your Way:
'Then to the Skies your mounting Soul shall go,
'Swift as an Arrow soaring from the Bow.
'Provided still, you moderate your Joy,
'Nor in your Pleasures all your Might employ:
'Let Reason's Rule your strong Desires abate,
'Nor please too lavishly your gentle Mate.
'Old Wives there are, of Judgment most acute,
'Who solve these Questions beyond all Dispute;
'Consult with those, and be of better Chear;
'Marry, do Penance, and dismiss your Fear.
Touch'd to the Quick, and tickled at the Soul.
'Sir Knight (he cry'd) if this be all your Dread,
'Heav'n put it past your Doubt, whene'er you wed;
'And to my fervent Pray'rs so far consent,
'That, e're the Rites are o'er, you may repent!
'Good Heav'n, no doubt, the nuptial State approves,
'Since it chastises still what best it loves:
'Then be not, Sir, abandon'd to Despair;
'Seek, and perhaps you'll find, among the Fair,
'One that may do your Business to a Hair;
'Not ev'n in Wish your Happiness delay,
'But prove the Scourge to lash you on your Way:
'Then to the Skies your mounting Soul shall go,
'Swift as an Arrow soaring from the Bow.
'Provided still, you moderate your Joy,
'Nor in your Pleasures all your Might employ:
'Let Reason's Rule your strong Desires abate,
'Nor please too lavishly your gentle Mate.
'Old Wives there are, of Judgment most acute,
'Who solve these Questions beyond all Dispute;
'Consult with those, and be of better Chear;
'Marry, do Penance, and dismiss your Fear.
Provenance
HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Over 35 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1709, 1716, 1717, 1720, 1727, 1736, 1740, 1741, 1742, 1751, 1752, 1753, 1754, 1756, 1757, 1760, 1762, 1764, 1766, 1769, 1770, 1772, 1773, 1776, 1777, 1779, 1785, 1789, 1790, 1794, 1795, 1797, 1800). [Collected in The Works of the English Poets]
See Poetical Miscellanies: the Sixth Part. Containing a Collection of Original Poems, With Several New Translations. By the Most Eminent Hands. (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, within Grays-Inn Gate, next Grays-Inn Lane, 1709), p. 177-224. <Link to ECCO>
See also The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, Modernis'd by Several Hands. Publish'd by Mr. Ogle., 3 vols. (London: Printed for J. and R. Tonson, in the Strand, 1741). <Link to ECCO>
See Poetical Miscellanies: the Sixth Part. Containing a Collection of Original Poems, With Several New Translations. By the Most Eminent Hands. (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, within Grays-Inn Gate, next Grays-Inn Lane, 1709), p. 177-224. <Link to ECCO>
See also The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, Modernis'd by Several Hands. Publish'd by Mr. Ogle., 3 vols. (London: Printed for J. and R. Tonson, in the Strand, 1741). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
06/21/2004
