"In rainy days keep double guard, / Or spleen will surely be too hard, / Which, like those fish by sailors met, / Flies highest, while its wings are wet."
— Green, Matthew (1696-1737)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for A. Dodd
Date
1737 (also 1738, 1743, reprinted 1754)
Metaphor
"In rainy days keep double guard, / Or spleen will surely be too hard, / Which, like those fish by sailors met, / Flies highest, while its wings are wet."
Metaphor in Context
In rainy days keep double guard,
Or spleen will surely be too hard,
Which, like those fish by sailors met,
Flies highest, while its wings are wet.
In such dull weather, so unfit
To enterprize a work of wit,
When clouds one yard of azure sky,
That's fit for simile, deny;
I dress my face with studious looks,
And shorten tedious hours with books.
But, if dull fogs invade the head,
That mem'ry minds not what is read,
I sit in window dry as ark,
And on the drowning world remark:
Or to some coffee-house I stray
For news, the manna of a day,
And from the hipp'd discourses gather,
That politicks go by the weather:
Then seek good-humour'd tavern chums,
And play at cards, but for small sums;
Or with the merry fellows quaff,
And laugh aloud with them that laugh;
Or drink a joco-serious cup
With souls, who've took their freedom up,
And let my mind, beguil'd by talk,
In Epicurus' garden walk,
Who thought it heav'n to be serene,
Pain, hell, and purgatory, spleen.
(pp. 5-6 in 1737 ed., pp. 10-1 in 1754 ed.)
Or spleen will surely be too hard,
Which, like those fish by sailors met,
Flies highest, while its wings are wet.
In such dull weather, so unfit
To enterprize a work of wit,
When clouds one yard of azure sky,
That's fit for simile, deny;
I dress my face with studious looks,
And shorten tedious hours with books.
But, if dull fogs invade the head,
That mem'ry minds not what is read,
I sit in window dry as ark,
And on the drowning world remark:
Or to some coffee-house I stray
For news, the manna of a day,
And from the hipp'd discourses gather,
That politicks go by the weather:
Then seek good-humour'd tavern chums,
And play at cards, but for small sums;
Or with the merry fellows quaff,
And laugh aloud with them that laugh;
Or drink a joco-serious cup
With souls, who've took their freedom up,
And let my mind, beguil'd by talk,
In Epicurus' garden walk,
Who thought it heav'n to be serene,
Pain, hell, and purgatory, spleen.
(pp. 5-6 in 1737 ed., pp. 10-1 in 1754 ed.)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
7 copies in ECCO. Earliest printings from 1737 and 1738. I find two "second" editions: from 1738 and 1754 and a Dublin edition from 1743.
Text from C-H/HDIS transcription of Matthew Green, The Spleen. An Epistle Inscribed to his particular Friend Mr. C. J., 2nd edition (London: Printed for A. Dodd, 1754). <Link to ECCO><Link to ESTC>
See also the first edition (London: A Dodd, 1737) in ECCO <Link> or third edition, corrected (London: A. Dodd, 1738) in Google Books <Link>
Text from C-H/HDIS transcription of Matthew Green, The Spleen. An Epistle Inscribed to his particular Friend Mr. C. J., 2nd edition (London: Printed for A. Dodd, 1754). <Link to ECCO><Link to ESTC>
See also the first edition (London: A Dodd, 1737) in ECCO <Link> or third edition, corrected (London: A. Dodd, 1738) in Google Books <Link>
Theme
Pathetic Fallacy
Date of Entry
05/04/2005
Date of Review
06/11/2013
