"Can you be free while passions rule you?"
— Cambridge, Richard Owen (1717-1802)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for R. Dodsley; and sold by M. Cooper.
Date
1752
Metaphor
"Can you be free while passions rule you?"
Metaphor in Context
M. Who then is free? S. The wise alone,
Who only bows to reason's throne;
Whom neither want, nor death, nor chains,
Nor subtle persecutor's pains,
Nor honours, wealth, nor lust can move
From virtue and his country's love.
Self-guarded like a globe of steel,
External insults can he feel?
Or e'er present one weaker part
To fortune's most insidious dart.
Much honour'd master, may you find
These wholesome symptoms in your mind.
Can you be free while passions rule you?
While women ev'ry moment fool you?
While forty mad capricious whores
Invite, then turn you out of doors;
Of ev'ry doit contrive to trick you,
Then bid their happier footman kick you.
(Cf. p. 17 in 1752 ed.)
Who only bows to reason's throne;
Whom neither want, nor death, nor chains,
Nor subtle persecutor's pains,
Nor honours, wealth, nor lust can move
From virtue and his country's love.
Self-guarded like a globe of steel,
External insults can he feel?
Or e'er present one weaker part
To fortune's most insidious dart.
Much honour'd master, may you find
These wholesome symptoms in your mind.
Can you be free while passions rule you?
While women ev'ry moment fool you?
While forty mad capricious whores
Invite, then turn you out of doors;
Of ev'ry doit contrive to trick you,
Then bid their happier footman kick you.
(Cf. p. 17 in 1752 ed.)
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
2 entries in ESTC (1752).
See A Dialogue Between a Member of Parliament and His Servant. In Imitation of the Seventh Satire of the Second Book of Horace. by Richard Owen Cambridge, Esq. (London: Printed for R. Dodsley; and sold by M. Cooper, 1752). <Link to ECCO>
Text from The Works of Richard Owen Cambridge. Including Several Pieces Never Before Published: With an Account of His Life and Character, by His Son, George Owen Cambridge (London: Printed by Luke Hansard and sold by T. Cadell and W. Davies and T. Payne, 1803).
See A Dialogue Between a Member of Parliament and His Servant. In Imitation of the Seventh Satire of the Second Book of Horace. by Richard Owen Cambridge, Esq. (London: Printed for R. Dodsley; and sold by M. Cooper, 1752). <Link to ECCO>
Text from The Works of Richard Owen Cambridge. Including Several Pieces Never Before Published: With an Account of His Life and Character, by His Son, George Owen Cambridge (London: Printed by Luke Hansard and sold by T. Cadell and W. Davies and T. Payne, 1803).
Date of Entry
07/19/2004
Date of Review
10/30/2006
