"O! that some usual Labour were injoyn'd, / And not the Tyrant Vice enslav'd my mind! / No weight of Chains cou'd grieve my captive Hands, / Like the loath'd Drudg'ry of its base Commands."
— Arwaker, Edmund (c.1655-1730)
Work Title
Date
1686, 1712
Metaphor
"O! that some usual Labour were injoyn'd, / And not the Tyrant Vice enslav'd my mind! / No weight of Chains cou'd grieve my captive Hands, / Like the loath'd Drudg'ry of its base Commands."
Metaphor in Context
O! that some usual Labour were injoyn'd,
And not the Tyrant Vice enslav'd my mind!
No weight of Chains cou'd grieve my captive Hands,
Like the loath'd Drudg'ry of its base Commands;
By this a double mis'ry I contract,
Ev'n I condemn the hated Ills I act.
Yet of my Chains I'm not so weary grown,
But that I still am putting others on.
For Sin has always this attending Curse,
To back the first Transgression with a worse:
This to my sorrow, I too often find!
Yet no Experience warns my heedless mind.
Thus Vice and Virtue do my Soul divide,
Like a Ship tost between the Wind and Tide.
Pleasure, the Bawd to Vice, here draws me in,
There, Grief, its Follow'r, pulls me back from Sin:
Yet Pleasure oft comes Conqueror from the Field,
Whilst I to Vice, inglorious Homage yield.
Tho' Grief does still with Vice in triumph ride,
Plac'd like a Slave by that great Conqu'ror's side.
Thus Vice and Virtue have alternate sway,
While I, with endless labour, Both obey:
And to increase my pains, as if too small,
Thy heavy hand comes in the rear of all,
And with deep piercing strokes corrects me more,
For what was punish'd in it self before.
Thus guilty Souls in Hell are scourg'd for Sin;
Their never-ending Pains thus still begin.
And not the Tyrant Vice enslav'd my mind!
No weight of Chains cou'd grieve my captive Hands,
Like the loath'd Drudg'ry of its base Commands;
By this a double mis'ry I contract,
Ev'n I condemn the hated Ills I act.
Yet of my Chains I'm not so weary grown,
But that I still am putting others on.
For Sin has always this attending Curse,
To back the first Transgression with a worse:
This to my sorrow, I too often find!
Yet no Experience warns my heedless mind.
Thus Vice and Virtue do my Soul divide,
Like a Ship tost between the Wind and Tide.
Pleasure, the Bawd to Vice, here draws me in,
There, Grief, its Follow'r, pulls me back from Sin:
Yet Pleasure oft comes Conqueror from the Field,
Whilst I to Vice, inglorious Homage yield.
Tho' Grief does still with Vice in triumph ride,
Plac'd like a Slave by that great Conqu'ror's side.
Thus Vice and Virtue have alternate sway,
While I, with endless labour, Both obey:
And to increase my pains, as if too small,
Thy heavy hand comes in the rear of all,
And with deep piercing strokes corrects me more,
For what was punish'd in it self before.
Thus guilty Souls in Hell are scourg'd for Sin;
Their never-ending Pains thus still begin.
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "chain" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Edmund Arwaker's translation of Herman Hugo's Pia desideria emblematis (Antwerp, 1624). 42 Latin editions between 1624 and 1757. Arwaker worked from the 1636 edition of Hugo; first published in England in 1686. At least 4 entries in ESTC (1686, 1690, 1702, 1712).
Text from Pia Desideria: or, Divine Addresses, In Three Books. 4th ed., corr. (London: printed for R. and J. Bonwicke, 1712) <Link to UVa E-Text Center><Link to 1702 3rd edition in Google Books>
See also Pia Desideria: or, Divine Addresses, in Three Books. Illustrated with XLVII. Copper-Plates. Written in Latine by Herm. Hugo. Englished by Edm. Arwaker, M.A. (London: Printed for Henry Bonwicke, at the Red-Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1686). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Pia Desideria: or, Divine Addresses, In Three Books. 4th ed., corr. (London: printed for R. and J. Bonwicke, 1712) <Link to UVa E-Text Center><Link to 1702 3rd edition in Google Books>
See also Pia Desideria: or, Divine Addresses, in Three Books. Illustrated with XLVII. Copper-Plates. Written in Latine by Herm. Hugo. Englished by Edm. Arwaker, M.A. (London: Printed for Henry Bonwicke, at the Red-Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1686). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
06/29/2011
