"That Bride, if reason may presume / To judge by things past, things to come, / In future times will tread the stage, / Equally form'd for love and rage, / Whilst Pope for comic humour famed, / Shall live when Clive no more is named."
— Lloyd, Robert (bap. 1733, d. 1764)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Evans
Date
1774
Metaphor
"That Bride, if reason may presume / To judge by things past, things to come, / In future times will tread the stage, / Equally form'd for love and rage, / Whilst Pope for comic humour famed, / Shall live when Clive no more is named."
Metaphor in Context
And would you really have my muse
Employ herself in writing news,
And most unconscionably teize her
With rhyming to Warsaw and Weser;
Or toss up a poetic olio,
Merely to bring in Marshal Broglio?
Should I recite what now is doing,
Or what for future times is brewing,
Or triumph that the poor French see all
Their hopes defeated at Montreal,
Or should I your attention carry
To Fred'rick, Ferdinand, or Harry,
Of flying Russian, dastard Swede,
And baffled Austria let you read;
Or gravely tell with what design
The youthful Henry pass'd the Rhine?
Or should I shake my empty head,
And tell you that the king is dead,
Observe what changes will ensue,
What will be what, and who'll be who,
Or leaving these things to my betters,
Before you set the state of letters?
Or should I tell domestic jars,
How author against author wars,
How both with mutual envy rankling,
Fr--k--ng damns M--rp--y, M--rp--y Fr--k--ng?
Or will it more your mind engage
To talk of actors and the stage,
To tell, if any words could tell,
What Garrick acts still, and how well,
That Sheridan with all his care
Will always be a labour'd play'r,
And that his acting at the best
Is all but art, and art consest;
That Bride, if reason may presume
To judge by things past, things to come,
In future times will tread the stage,
Equally form'd for love and rage,
Whilst Pope for comic humour fam'd,
Shall live when Clive no more is nam'd.
Employ herself in writing news,
And most unconscionably teize her
With rhyming to Warsaw and Weser;
Or toss up a poetic olio,
Merely to bring in Marshal Broglio?
Should I recite what now is doing,
Or what for future times is brewing,
Or triumph that the poor French see all
Their hopes defeated at Montreal,
Or should I your attention carry
To Fred'rick, Ferdinand, or Harry,
Of flying Russian, dastard Swede,
And baffled Austria let you read;
Or gravely tell with what design
The youthful Henry pass'd the Rhine?
Or should I shake my empty head,
And tell you that the king is dead,
Observe what changes will ensue,
What will be what, and who'll be who,
Or leaving these things to my betters,
Before you set the state of letters?
Or should I tell domestic jars,
How author against author wars,
How both with mutual envy rankling,
Fr--k--ng damns M--rp--y, M--rp--y Fr--k--ng?
Or will it more your mind engage
To talk of actors and the stage,
To tell, if any words could tell,
What Garrick acts still, and how well,
That Sheridan with all his care
Will always be a labour'd play'r,
And that his acting at the best
Is all but art, and art consest;
That Bride, if reason may presume
To judge by things past, things to come,
In future times will tread the stage,
Equally form'd for love and rage,
Whilst Pope for comic humour fam'd,
Shall live when Clive no more is nam'd.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "reason" and "judge" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Text from The Poetical Works of Robert Lloyd, A.M. to Which Is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author. by W. Kenrick, LL.D. in Two Volumes. (London: printed for T. Evans in the Strand, 1774). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
09/01/2004
