"This [her own Mind] being haunted with Ghosts, dejected with an unaccountable Melancholy, and afflicted with a Variety of Distempers, tho' we are at a Loss to discover what Appellation to give them, is very often the Result of nothing more than a strong Imagination unimployed, which could be all alive and merry if it was not confined to some Scene of Dullness, which curbs all its Pleasures; and then, rather than be motionless, it chuses to be mischievous, bearing in that respect a strong Resemblance to the Activity of the Monkey, whose chief Glory is to mimick Man, and who, as far as that Mimickry goes, is a most perfect Master of that Branch of Ridicule."
— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
A. Millar
Date
1759
Metaphor
"This [her own Mind] being haunted with Ghosts, dejected with an unaccountable Melancholy, and afflicted with a Variety of Distempers, tho' we are at a Loss to discover what Appellation to give them, is very often the Result of nothing more than a strong Imagination unimployed, which could be all alive and merry if it was not confined to some Scene of Dullness, which curbs all its Pleasures; and then, rather than be motionless, it chuses to be mischievous, bearing in that respect a strong Resemblance to the Activity of the Monkey, whose chief Glory is to mimick Man, and who, as far as that Mimickry goes, is a most perfect Master of that Branch of Ridicule."
Metaphor in Context
When Lady Dellwyn finished the new furnishing her Castle, she began to be at a great Loss for Employment; she had now no Refuge from a languid, wearisome Melancholy, which is often called a Fever upon the Spirits; she had no Food from outward Objects, to employ her animal Spirits, and they therefore prey'd at home; and oppressed her own Mind.
This being haunted with Ghosts, dejected with an unaccountable Melancholy, and afflicted with a Variety of Distempers, tho' we are at a Loss to discover what Appellation to give them, is very often the Result of nothing more than a strong Imagination unimployed, which could be all alive and merry if it was not confined to some Scene of Dullness, which curbs all its Pleasures; and then, rather than be motionless, it chuses to be mischievous, bearing in that respect a strong Resemblance to the Activity of the Monkey, whose chief Glory is to mimick Man, and who, as far as that Mimickry goes, is a most perfect Master of that Branch of Ridicule.
(I.i.10, pp. 92-3)
This being haunted with Ghosts, dejected with an unaccountable Melancholy, and afflicted with a Variety of Distempers, tho' we are at a Loss to discover what Appellation to give them, is very often the Result of nothing more than a strong Imagination unimployed, which could be all alive and merry if it was not confined to some Scene of Dullness, which curbs all its Pleasures; and then, rather than be motionless, it chuses to be mischievous, bearing in that respect a strong Resemblance to the Activity of the Monkey, whose chief Glory is to mimick Man, and who, as far as that Mimickry goes, is a most perfect Master of that Branch of Ridicule.
(I.i.10, pp. 92-3)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "haunt" and "mind" in HDIS (Prose Fiction)
Citation
2 entries in the ESTC (1759).
See The History of the Countess of Dellwyn. In Two Volumes: By the Author of David Simple. (London: Printed for A. Millar, 1759). <Link to ESTC>
See The History of the Countess of Dellwyn. In Two Volumes: By the Author of David Simple. (London: Printed for A. Millar, 1759). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
04/27/2004
