Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle

London

Printed for the author

1751

"[A] circumstance of barbarity, which had made such an impression upon his mind, as disordered his brain, and drove him to despair in a fit of which he had made away with himself, leaving his wife then big with child, to all the horrors of indigence and grief"

After having sat a few minutes, he told the company, that he would favour them with a very proper opportunity to extend their benevolence, for the relief of a poor gentlewoman, who was reduced to the most abject misery, by the death of her husband, and just delivered of a couple of fine boys. They, moreover, understood from his information, that this object was daughter of a good family, who had renounced her, in consequence of her marrying an ensign without a fortune; and even obstructed his promotion with all their influence and power; a circumstance of barbarity, which had made such an impression upon his mind, as disordered his brain, and drove him to despair, in a fit of which he had made away with himself, leaving his wife then big with child, to all the horrors of indigence and grief.
(pp. 60-1)

Impressions

Searching "brain" and "impression" in HDIS (Prose)

33 entries in ESTC (1751, 1758, 1763, 1765, 1769, 1773, 1775, 1776, 1778, 1779, 1781, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1788, 1791, 1793, 1794, 1798, 1799, 1800).

Smollett, Tobias. The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle. In which are included, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality., 4 vols. (London: Printed for the author, 1751). <Link to ESTC>

05/18/2005