"'Tis in the ruling Passion: there alone, / The wild are constant, and the cunning known, / The fool consistent, and the false sincere; / Priests, Princes, Women, no dissemblers here."
— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Author
Work Title
Date
1734
Metaphor
"'Tis in the ruling Passion: there alone, / The wild are constant, and the cunning known, / The fool consistent, and the false sincere; / Priests, Princes, Women, no dissemblers here."
Metaphor in Context
'Tis in the ruling Passion: there alone,
The wild are constant, and the cunning known,
The fool consistent, and the false sincere;
Priests, Princes, Women, no dissemblers here.
This clue once found, unravels all the rest;
The prospect clears, and Clodio stands confest.
Clodio, the Scorn and Wonder of our days,
Whose ruling passion was the Lust of Praise;
Born with whate'er could win it from the wise,
Women and fools must like him, or he dies.
Tho' wond'ring Senates hung on all he spoke,
The Club must hail him Master of the Joke.
Shall parts so various aim at nothing new?
He'll shine a Tully, and a Wilmot too:
Then turns repentant, and his God adores
With the same spirit that he drinks and whores:
Enough, if all around him but admire,
And now the Punk applaud, and now the Fry'r.
Thus, with each gift of Nature and of Art,
And wanting nothing but an honest heart;
Grown all to all, from no one vice exempt,
And most contemptible to shun contempt;
His Passion still to covet gen'ral praise;
His Life, to forfeit it a thousand ways;
A constant Bounty, which no friend has made;
An Angel Tongue which no man can persuade;
A Fool, with more of Wit than half mankind;
Too rash for Thought, for Action too refin'd;
A Tyrant to the Wife his heart approves;
A Rebel to the very King he loves;
He dies, sad out-cast of each Church and State!
And (harder still) flagitious, yet not great.
Ask you why Clodio broke thro' every rule?
'Twas all for fear, the Knaves should call him fool.
(ll. 174-207, pp. 555-7)
The wild are constant, and the cunning known,
The fool consistent, and the false sincere;
Priests, Princes, Women, no dissemblers here.
This clue once found, unravels all the rest;
The prospect clears, and Clodio stands confest.
Clodio, the Scorn and Wonder of our days,
Whose ruling passion was the Lust of Praise;
Born with whate'er could win it from the wise,
Women and fools must like him, or he dies.
Tho' wond'ring Senates hung on all he spoke,
The Club must hail him Master of the Joke.
Shall parts so various aim at nothing new?
He'll shine a Tully, and a Wilmot too:
Then turns repentant, and his God adores
With the same spirit that he drinks and whores:
Enough, if all around him but admire,
And now the Punk applaud, and now the Fry'r.
Thus, with each gift of Nature and of Art,
And wanting nothing but an honest heart;
Grown all to all, from no one vice exempt,
And most contemptible to shun contempt;
His Passion still to covet gen'ral praise;
His Life, to forfeit it a thousand ways;
A constant Bounty, which no friend has made;
An Angel Tongue which no man can persuade;
A Fool, with more of Wit than half mankind;
Too rash for Thought, for Action too refin'd;
A Tyrant to the Wife his heart approves;
A Rebel to the very King he loves;
He dies, sad out-cast of each Church and State!
And (harder still) flagitious, yet not great.
Ask you why Clodio broke thro' every rule?
'Twas all for fear, the Knaves should call him fool.
(ll. 174-207, pp. 555-7)
Provenance
Searching HDIS for "ruling passion"
Citation
At least 40 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1733, 1734, 1735, 1736, 1737, 1739, 1744, 1747, 1750, 1751, 1752, 1753, 1754, 1757, 1758, 1760, 1762, 1764, 1769, 1770, 1776, 1777, 1780, 1785, 1789, 1790, 1793, 1797, 1800).
See An Epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Lord Visct. Cobham. By Mr. Pope. (London: Printed for Lawton Gilliver, at Homer’s Head against St. Dunstan’s Church in Fleetstreet, 1733 [1734]). <Link to ESTC>
Text from The Works of Alexander Pope (London: Printed for B. Lintot, Lawton Gilliver, H. Lintot, L. Gilliver, and J. Clarke, 1736). <Link to LION> [Epistle I. To Sir Richard Temple, Lord Viscount Cobham.]
Reading The Poems of Alexander Pope. A One-Volume Edition of the Twickenham Text with Selected Annotations. Ed. John Butt (New Haven: Yale UP, 1963).
See An Epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Lord Visct. Cobham. By Mr. Pope. (London: Printed for Lawton Gilliver, at Homer’s Head against St. Dunstan’s Church in Fleetstreet, 1733 [1734]). <Link to ESTC>
Text from The Works of Alexander Pope (London: Printed for B. Lintot, Lawton Gilliver, H. Lintot, L. Gilliver, and J. Clarke, 1736). <Link to LION> [Epistle I. To Sir Richard Temple, Lord Viscount Cobham.]
Reading The Poems of Alexander Pope. A One-Volume Edition of the Twickenham Text with Selected Annotations. Ed. John Butt (New Haven: Yale UP, 1963).
Theme
Ruling Passion
Date of Entry
05/25/2004
