"Awake, great Common Sense, and sleep no more, / Look to thy self; for then, when I was slain, / Thy self was struck at."
— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Watts [etc.]
Date
1736
Metaphor
"Awake, great Common Sense, and sleep no more, / Look to thy self; for then, when I was slain, / Thy self was struck at."
Metaphor in Context
2 GHOST
Awake, great Common Sense, and sleep no more,
Look to thy self; for then, when I was slain,
Thy self was struck at: Think not to survive
My Murder long; for while thou art on Earth,
The Convocation will not meet again.
The Lawyers cannot rob Men of their Rights;
Physicians cannot dose away their Souls:
A Courtier's Promise will not be believ'd;
Nor broken Citizens again be trusted.
A thousand News-papers cannot subsist,
In which there is not any News at all.
Play-houses cannot flourish, while they dare
To Nonsense give an Entertainment's Name.
Shakespear and Johnson, Dryden, Lee, and Row,
Thou wilt not bear to yield to Sadler's-Wells;
Thou wilt not suffer Men of Wit to starve,
And Fools, for only being Fools, to thrive.
Thou wilt not suffer Eunuchs to be hired,
At a vast Price, to be impertinent.
Awake, great Common Sense, and sleep no more,
Look to thy self; for then, when I was slain,
Thy self was struck at: Think not to survive
My Murder long; for while thou art on Earth,
The Convocation will not meet again.
The Lawyers cannot rob Men of their Rights;
Physicians cannot dose away their Souls:
A Courtier's Promise will not be believ'd;
Nor broken Citizens again be trusted.
A thousand News-papers cannot subsist,
In which there is not any News at all.
Play-houses cannot flourish, while they dare
To Nonsense give an Entertainment's Name.
Shakespear and Johnson, Dryden, Lee, and Row,
Thou wilt not bear to yield to Sadler's-Wells;
Thou wilt not suffer Men of Wit to starve,
And Fools, for only being Fools, to thrive.
Thou wilt not suffer Eunuchs to be hired,
At a vast Price, to be impertinent.
Categories
Provenance
Searching HDIS (Drama); found again reading Sophia A. Rosenfeld's Common Sense: A Political History (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2011), 17.
Citation
Henry Fielding, Pasquin. A Dramatick satire on the times: being the rehearsal of Two plays, viz. A Comedy call'd, The Election; And a tragedy call'd, The Life and Death of Common-Sense. As it is Acted at the Theatre in the Hay-Market (London: J. Watts, 1736).
Date of Entry
10/13/2004
Date of Review
09/26/2011
