"Yet--yet--perhaps your high respect alone for this solemn compact has fettered your inclinations, which else had made worthier choice."
— Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751-1816)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
John Wilkie
Date
1775
Metaphor
"Yet--yet--perhaps your high respect alone for this solemn compact has fettered your inclinations, which else had made worthier choice."
Metaphor in Context
JULIA
I see you are determined to be unkind.-- The contract which my poor father bound us in gives you more than a lover's privilege.
FAULKLAND
Again, Julia, you raise ideas that feed and justify my doubts.--I would not have been more free--no--I am proud of my restraint.-- Yet--yet--perhaps your high respect alone for this solemn compact has fettered your inclinations, which else had made worthier choice.--How shall I be sure, had you remained unbound in thought and promise, that I should still have been the object of your persevering love?
JULIA
Then try me now.--Let us be free as strangers as to what is past:-- my heart will not feel more liberty!
FAULKLAND
There now! so hasty, Julia! so anxious to be free!--If your love for me were fixed and ardent, you would not loose your hold, even tho' I wish'd it!
JULIA
O, you torture me to the heart!--I cannot bear it.
FAULKAND
I do not mean to distress you.--If I lov'd you less, I should never give you an uneasy moment. --But hear me.--All my fretful doubts arise from this--Women are not used to weigh, and separate the motives of their affections:--the cold dictates of prudence, gratitude, or filial duty, may sometimes be mistaken for the pleadings of the heart.--I would not boast--yet let me say, that I have neither age, person, or character, to found dislike on;--my fortune such as few ladies could be charged with indiscretion in the match.--O Julia! when Love receives such countenance from Prudence , nice minds will be suspicious of its birth .
JULIA
I know not whither your insinuations would tend:--as they seem pressing to insult me--I will spare you the regret of having done so.--I have given you no cause for this!
(Act III, Scene ii)
I see you are determined to be unkind.-- The contract which my poor father bound us in gives you more than a lover's privilege.
FAULKLAND
Again, Julia, you raise ideas that feed and justify my doubts.--I would not have been more free--no--I am proud of my restraint.-- Yet--yet--perhaps your high respect alone for this solemn compact has fettered your inclinations, which else had made worthier choice.--How shall I be sure, had you remained unbound in thought and promise, that I should still have been the object of your persevering love?
JULIA
Then try me now.--Let us be free as strangers as to what is past:-- my heart will not feel more liberty!
FAULKLAND
There now! so hasty, Julia! so anxious to be free!--If your love for me were fixed and ardent, you would not loose your hold, even tho' I wish'd it!
JULIA
O, you torture me to the heart!--I cannot bear it.
FAULKAND
I do not mean to distress you.--If I lov'd you less, I should never give you an uneasy moment. --But hear me.--All my fretful doubts arise from this--Women are not used to weigh, and separate the motives of their affections:--the cold dictates of prudence, gratitude, or filial duty, may sometimes be mistaken for the pleadings of the heart.--I would not boast--yet let me say, that I have neither age, person, or character, to found dislike on;--my fortune such as few ladies could be charged with indiscretion in the match.--O Julia! when Love receives such countenance from Prudence , nice minds will be suspicious of its birth .
JULIA
I know not whither your insinuations would tend:--as they seem pressing to insult me--I will spare you the regret of having done so.--I have given you no cause for this!
(Act III, Scene ii)
Categories
Provenance
Reading but the text comes from HDIS (Drama)
Citation
First performed January 17th, 1775. 14 entries in ESTC (1775, 1776, 1785, 1788, 1791, 1793, 1797, 1798).
Sheridan, R. B. The Rivals, a Comedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden (London: John Wilkie, 1775). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Sheridan, R. B. The Rivals, a Comedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden (London: John Wilkie, 1775). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
11/02/2003
Date of Review
06/26/2011
