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"[W]ould not one believe her Charms are sufficient to conquer a thousand Hearts?"

— Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Author

Manley, Delarivier (c. 1670-1724)

Work Title

Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality, of Both Sexes. From the New Atalantis

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed for John Morphew and J. Woodward

Date

1709

Metaphor

"[W]ould not one believe her Charms are sufficient to conquer a thousand Hearts?"

Metaphor in Context

Intel. See there the Prince Adario, conspicuous for his Equipage, but much more for his having his Princess in the same Coach with him. She come down deep to his French Valet de Chambers for this Favour: My Lady Vertue, she is certainly of your Court, and the greatest Ornament of that of Angela's; is not her Person graceful, her Air sweet and modest; would not one believe her Charms are sufficient to conquer a thousand Hearts? yet they make no impression upon that only One she desires to touch; her Birth is most illustrious, descended from a Race of Heroes, neither has Scandal, (which scarce spares your very Ladyships) tainted her Character, but when they object, they tell us she loves Cards too well, which was a Diversion she probably took up, to amuse her trouble of Mind from her Lord's repeated Inconstancy: How great and how little is that Man? something so very high, and yet so very low in his Character, even his Generosity is a Virtue too much extended, and borders so intimately upon Extravagancy; that one knows not how to divide 'em, then the Merit of his Courage is so allay'd by his want of Conduct, that in praising one, it always puts us in mind how much we ought to blame the other; so ambitious in his Principles; so humble in his Converse; so managed by his Favourites, and so mistaken in his unworthy Choice of 'em; in his Amours only there's no Contradiction, there 'tis all of a piece, Vice without any allay; he has corrupted more Women than a Grand-Seignor; his Pleasure consists in Variety; he leaves nothing undone to compass his Ends, and because Money makes the best dispatch, he is lavish of that to profuseness; the Traders in Amour no sooner see a handsome young Girl come to Town; a Citizen marry'd to a pretty Wife; a beautiful Daughter expos'd to the Frowns of Fortune by the death of her Parents, but they run with their Intelligence to his Highness; the French-Valets introduce 'em, one is very well rewarded, and the other, by these Services, keep themselves in favour; yet has he this of Magnificent in his Temper, he turns none of his Women to starve when he has done with 'em; there are several, (that sometimes shine in the Prado) to whom he has given large Cantons of his Estate; his now favourite Mistress is a Woman of exalted Birth; he purchas'd her of her Mother, (and that was most abominable) by a considerable Sum to her self, and a Settlement of Two thousand Crowns a Year upon her Daughter; the reverend Matron did not blush to sell the Prince's Favour to all that would purchase; (a wretched Principle) she was not asham'd to take sixty Pieces of a poor Poet, (all the Profit that his Brains had ever been able to present him) to make him only a Subaltern; the French-Valets rejoic'd at her death, because she was very like, during her Daughter's Reign, to run away with their Profit, the Bribes having all found the way to her. When the Prince went to his Vice-Royalty in the Indies, the Princess, his Wife, was forced to give give an incredible Sum to those rascally Fellows, or she had been left behind; yet had she the new Mortification, to find her Lord so wholly neglectful of her, and of all Business, as to shut up himself whole Days, to write long tedious repeated Assurances of Love to his then reigning Mistress; neither was he ever easie till she arriv'd, but those Transports are pretty well abated of their first violence; he has return'd long since to his darling love of Variety; 'tis pity no kind Hand is found to rescue him from this continu'd Vice, to paint on his Lady's suffering Merit, that, if possible, he may, tho' late, do justice to it. He's now no longer in his Youth; 'tis time these Follies shou'd pass away, but I doubt there's small hopes of it, whilst he is in those Hands, that manage him; but by the continuation of his Frailties, and will not, in all probability, so much to their own prejudice, awaken him from that Lethargy he appears so many Years to have been buried in: He's positively good-natur'd, all the Errors of his Life seem not to proceed so much from himself, as his Flatterers, who have cherish'd and encourag'd 'em in him; had his Choice first light upon Men of Honour, and true Principles, how eminent might he now have been? neither is it yet too late, if he strive to redeem his Character, it will appear, as if those ill Habits had been rather acquir'd than natural to him.
(pp. 165-7)