"Some ruling Passion lurks in ev'ry Breast"
— Paget, Thomas Catesby, Lord Paget (1689-1742)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed, and are to be sold by Fletcher Gyles
Date
1734 [1735?]
Metaphor
"Some ruling Passion lurks in ev'ry Breast"
Metaphor in Context
Ask the bold Freeman, or the coward Slave,
What makes one abject, and the other brave?
What gives to Fools their Faith, to Knaves their Wiles,
To Cynicks Sow'rness, and to Flatt'rers Smiles?
This one great Truth must stand by all confest,
Some ruling Passion lurks in ev'ry Breast;
That Weakness by a specious Name they call,
But 'tis that Weakness still which governs all.
What makes one abject, and the other brave?
What gives to Fools their Faith, to Knaves their Wiles,
To Cynicks Sow'rness, and to Flatt'rers Smiles?
This one great Truth must stand by all confest,
Some ruling Passion lurks in ev'ry Breast;
That Weakness by a specious Name they call,
But 'tis that Weakness still which governs all.
Provenance
Searching "ruling passion" in HDIS (Restoration and C18)
Citation
At least 8 entries in LION, ECCO, and ESTC (1734, 1735, 1736, 1741, 1750, 1757, 1776, 1779).
See An Essay on Human Life. (London: Printed, and are to be sold by Fletcher Gyles over-against Grays Inn in Holborn, 1734). <Link to ESTC>
Text from An Essay on Human Life. By the Right Honourable the Lord Paget. The Third Edition. Corrected and Much Enlarg'd by the Author (Dublin and London: Printed, and Re-printed by George Faulkner, 1736). See also London printing of same year: <Link to Google Books>. And also Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (London: 1741).
Attributed to Pope and published in A Supplement to the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq. (1757) and Additions to the Works of Alexander Pope (1776). Excerpts in Roach's Beauties of the Poets (1793, 1794, 1795).
See An Essay on Human Life. (London: Printed, and are to be sold by Fletcher Gyles over-against Grays Inn in Holborn, 1734). <Link to ESTC>
Text from An Essay on Human Life. By the Right Honourable the Lord Paget. The Third Edition. Corrected and Much Enlarg'd by the Author (Dublin and London: Printed, and Re-printed by George Faulkner, 1736). See also London printing of same year: <Link to Google Books>. And also Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (London: 1741).
Attributed to Pope and published in A Supplement to the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq. (1757) and Additions to the Works of Alexander Pope (1776). Excerpts in Roach's Beauties of the Poets (1793, 1794, 1795).
Theme
Ruling Passion
Date of Entry
05/25/2004
