"[I]f miseries pressed on thy brain too great for reason to support, would tend thee in the cell of madness, and even there derive more ecstasy from one kind look given in the transient intervals of sense, than all the unruffled pleasures that the world without thee can afford"
— Holman, Joseph George (1764-1817)
Date
1800
Metaphor
"[I]f miseries pressed on thy brain too great for reason to support, would tend thee in the cell of madness, and even there derive more ecstasy from one kind look given in the transient intervals of sense, than all the unruffled pleasures that the world without thee can afford"
Metaphor in Context
ANG.
Then justly did a villain perish; for if ever the tongue of mortal could truly charge me with an act, however trivial, or one word or look, that spoke my heart wandering from thee, may Heaven withhold from me its mercy, and let the fiercest pangs that dying sinners tremble at, be my eternal lot! Oh, my Alphonso, spurn not, as faithless, her whose dearest, only joy, has been thy love; her who, if all the world combined to load thee with its hate, would still cling to thee with increasing fondness; and who, if miseries pressed on thy brain too great for reason to support, would tend thee in the cell of madness, and even there derive more ecstasy from one kind look given in the transient intervals of sense, than all the unruffled pleasures that the world without thee can afford!
Then justly did a villain perish; for if ever the tongue of mortal could truly charge me with an act, however trivial, or one word or look, that spoke my heart wandering from thee, may Heaven withhold from me its mercy, and let the fiercest pangs that dying sinners tremble at, be my eternal lot! Oh, my Alphonso, spurn not, as faithless, her whose dearest, only joy, has been thy love; her who, if all the world combined to load thee with its hate, would still cling to thee with increasing fondness; and who, if miseries pressed on thy brain too great for reason to support, would tend thee in the cell of madness, and even there derive more ecstasy from one kind look given in the transient intervals of sense, than all the unruffled pleasures that the world without thee can afford!
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Drama)
Date of Entry
08/29/2005
