Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

The History of Sir Charles Grandison. In a Series of Letters.

London

Printed for S. Richardson; And Sold by C. Hitch and L. Hawes

[1753] 1754

One may endeavor to conquer her passion

Lady L. afterwards told us, that she found the Lady in violent anguish of spirit; her aunt endeavouring to calm her: She, however, politely addressed heself to Lady L. and, begging her aunt to withdraw for a few moments, she owned to her, in French, her passion for her brother: She was not, she said, ashamed to own it to his sister, who must know that his merit would dignify the passion of the noblest woman. She had endeavoured, she said, to conquer hers: She had been willing to give way to the prior attachments that he had pleaded for a Lady of her own country, Signora Clementina della Porretta, whom she allowed to have had great merit; but who, having irrecoverably been put out of her right mind, was shut up at Naples by a brother, who vowed eternal enmity to Sir Charles; and from whom his life would be in the utmost hazard, if he went over. She owned, that her chief motive for coming to England was, to cast her fortune at her brother's feet; and as she knew him to be a man of honour, to comply with any terms he should propose to her. He had offered to the family della Porretta to allow their daughter her religion, and her confessor, and to live with her every other year in Italy. She herself, not inferior in birth, in person, in mind, as she said, she presumed, and superior in fortune, the riches of three branches of her family, all rich, having centred in her, insisted not now upon such conditions. Her aunt, she said, knew not that she proposed, on conviction, a change of her religion; but she was resolved not to conceal anything from Lady L. She left her to judge how much she must be affected, when he declared his obligation to leave England; and especially when he owned, that it was to go to Bologna, and that so suddenly, as if, as she apprehended at first, it was to avoic her. She had been in tears, she said, and even would have kneeled to him, to induce him to suspend his journey for one month, and then to have taken her over with him, and seen her safe in her own palace, if he would go upon so hated, and so fruitless, as well as so hazardous an errand: But he had denied her this poor favour.
(pp. 154-5)

War::Conquest::Conquer Passion

Searching "conque" and "passion" in HDIS (Prose)

At least 31 entries in ESTC (1753, 1754, 1756, 1762, 1765, 1766, 1770, 1776, 1780, 1781, 1783, 1785, 1786, 1793, 1795, 1796).

See The History of Sir Charles Grandison. In a Series of Letters Published from the Originals, by the Editor of Pamela and Clarissa. In Seven Volumes. (London: Printed for S. Richardson; and sold by C. Hitch and L. Hawes, in Pater-noster Row; by J. and J. Rivington, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard; by Andrew Millar, in the Strand; by R. and J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall; and by J. Leake, at Bath, 1754). <Link to ESTC><Link to Vol. 1 ECCO-TCP><Vol. 2><Vol. 3><Vol. 4><Vol. 5><Vol. 6><Vol. 7>

02/08/2005