"When Love in an impetuous Torrent flows, / How vainly Reason would its Force oppose; / Hurl'd down the Stream, like Flowers before the Wind, / She leaves to Love, the Empire of the Mind."
— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for John Watts
Date
1728
Metaphor
"When Love in an impetuous Torrent flows, / How vainly Reason would its Force oppose; / Hurl'd down the Stream, like Flowers before the Wind, / She leaves to Love, the Empire of the Mind."
Metaphor in Context
WISEM.
What am I to think? Am I in a Dream? or was this writ in one? Sure, Madness has possessed the World, and Men, like the Limbs of a tainted Body, universally share the Infection. What shall I do! to go, is to encounter a Mad-man, and yet I will. Some strange Circumstances may have wrought this Delusion, which my Presence may dissipate. And, since Love and Jealousie are his Diseases, I ought to pity him, who know by dreadful Experience,
When Love in an impetuous Torrent flows,
How vainly Reason would its Force oppose;
Hurl'd down the Stream, like Flowers before the Wind,
She leaves to Love, the Empire of the Mind.
What am I to think? Am I in a Dream? or was this writ in one? Sure, Madness has possessed the World, and Men, like the Limbs of a tainted Body, universally share the Infection. What shall I do! to go, is to encounter a Mad-man, and yet I will. Some strange Circumstances may have wrought this Delusion, which my Presence may dissipate. And, since Love and Jealousie are his Diseases, I ought to pity him, who know by dreadful Experience,
When Love in an impetuous Torrent flows,
How vainly Reason would its Force oppose;
Hurl'd down the Stream, like Flowers before the Wind,
She leaves to Love, the Empire of the Mind.
Provenance
Searching "empire" and "mind" in HDIS (Drama)
Citation
4 entries in ESTC (1728, 1755).
See Love In Several Masques. A Comedy, As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal, By His Majesty's Servants. Written by Mr Fielding. (London: Printed for John Watts, 1728). <Link to ECCO>
See Love In Several Masques. A Comedy, As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal, By His Majesty's Servants. Written by Mr Fielding. (London: Printed for John Watts, 1728). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
08/11/2004
Date of Review
01/12/2012
