"With distant Voice neglected Virtue calls, / Less heard, and less the faint Remonstrance falls; / Tir'd with Contempt, she quits the slipp'ry Reign, / And Pride and Prudence take her Seat in vain."
— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for R. Dodsley
Date
1749
Metaphor
"With distant Voice neglected Virtue calls, / Less heard, and less the faint Remonstrance falls; / Tir'd with Contempt, she quits the slipp'ry Reign, / And Pride and Prudence take her Seat in vain."
Metaphor in Context
The teeming Mother, anxious for her Race,
Begs for each Birth the Fortune of a Face:
Yet Vane could tell what Ills from Beauty spring;
And Sedley curs'd the Form that pleas'd a King.
Ye Nymphs of rosy Lips and radiant Eyes,
Whom Pleasure keeps too busy to be wise,
Whom Joys with soft Varieties invite
By Day the Frolick, and the Dance by Night,
Who frown with Vanity, who smile with Art,
And ask the latest Fashion of the Heart,
What Care, what Rules your heedless Charms shall save,
Each Nymph your Rival, and each Youth your Slave?
An envious Breast with certain Mischief glows,
And Slaves, the Maxim tells, are always Foes.
Against your Fame with Fondness Hate combines,
The Rival batters, and the Lover mines.
With distant Voice neglected Virtue calls,
Less heard, and less the faint Remonstrance falls;
Tir'd with Contempt, she quits the slipp'ry Reign,
And Pride and Prudence take her Seat in vain.
In croud at once, where none the Pass defend,
The harmless Freedom, and the private Friend.
The Guardians yield, by Force superior ply'd;
By Int'rest, Prudence; and by Flatt'ry, Pride.
Here Beauty falls betray'd, despis'd, distress'd,
And hissing Infamy proclaims the rest.
(pp. 66-7, ll. 319-342)
Begs for each Birth the Fortune of a Face:
Yet Vane could tell what Ills from Beauty spring;
And Sedley curs'd the Form that pleas'd a King.
Ye Nymphs of rosy Lips and radiant Eyes,
Whom Pleasure keeps too busy to be wise,
Whom Joys with soft Varieties invite
By Day the Frolick, and the Dance by Night,
Who frown with Vanity, who smile with Art,
And ask the latest Fashion of the Heart,
What Care, what Rules your heedless Charms shall save,
Each Nymph your Rival, and each Youth your Slave?
An envious Breast with certain Mischief glows,
And Slaves, the Maxim tells, are always Foes.
Against your Fame with Fondness Hate combines,
The Rival batters, and the Lover mines.
With distant Voice neglected Virtue calls,
Less heard, and less the faint Remonstrance falls;
Tir'd with Contempt, she quits the slipp'ry Reign,
And Pride and Prudence take her Seat in vain.
In croud at once, where none the Pass defend,
The harmless Freedom, and the private Friend.
The Guardians yield, by Force superior ply'd;
By Int'rest, Prudence; and by Flatt'ry, Pride.
Here Beauty falls betray'd, despis'd, distress'd,
And hissing Infamy proclaims the rest.
(pp. 66-7, ll. 319-342)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 19 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1749, 1752, 1755, 1759, 1763, 1765, 1785, 1789, 1792, 1793, 1795, 1796, 1797). [Reprinted in Dodsley's miscellany.]
See The Vanity of Human Wishes. the Tenth Satire of Juvenal, Imitated by Samuel Johnson. (London: Printed for R. Dodsley at Tully’s Head in Pall-Mall, and sold by M. Cooper in Pater-Noster Row, 1749). <Link to ESTC>
Page and line numbers correspond to Samuel Johnson's Selected Poetry and Prose. Ed. Frank Brady and W. K. Wimsatt. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1977. Text edited by Jack Lynch. <Link to Jack Lynch's online edition>
See The Vanity of Human Wishes. the Tenth Satire of Juvenal, Imitated by Samuel Johnson. (London: Printed for R. Dodsley at Tully’s Head in Pall-Mall, and sold by M. Cooper in Pater-Noster Row, 1749). <Link to ESTC>
Page and line numbers correspond to Samuel Johnson's Selected Poetry and Prose. Ed. Frank Brady and W. K. Wimsatt. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1977. Text edited by Jack Lynch. <Link to Jack Lynch's online edition>
Date of Entry
06/22/2010
