"And where's the boasted liberty of man? / Chang'd are his lords indeed; and tyrant Lust / Usurps the just supremacy of Heav'n."
— Cardinal Melchior de Polignac (1661-1741)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Richard Manby
Date
1747
Metaphor
"And where's the boasted liberty of man? / Chang'd are his lords indeed; and tyrant Lust / Usurps the just supremacy of Heav'n."
Metaphor in Context
But the wild passions, once broke loose, to check
Surpass'd his pow'r, or the slack'd reins recall.
The pilot, when th' outrageous tempest roars,
If once the helm he quite, in vain exhorts
His mariners the swelling sails to furl:
Vain all their art: precipitately drives
The wand'ring bark, as winds and waves command.
Or when a lofty mound with massy pride
Hath long withstood the lashing surge's rage;
At the first breach the torrent bursts it's way
With rapid fury impetuous, uncontroll'd.
Thus your deluded Chief, Heav'ns sacred awe
Subvertng, pav'd the fatal way to vice.
And where's the boasted liberty of man?
Chang'd are his lords indeed; and tyrant Lust
Usurps the just supremacy of Heav'n.
(p. 7)
Surpass'd his pow'r, or the slack'd reins recall.
The pilot, when th' outrageous tempest roars,
If once the helm he quite, in vain exhorts
His mariners the swelling sails to furl:
Vain all their art: precipitately drives
The wand'ring bark, as winds and waves command.
Or when a lofty mound with massy pride
Hath long withstood the lashing surge's rage;
At the first breach the torrent bursts it's way
With rapid fury impetuous, uncontroll'd.
Thus your deluded Chief, Heav'ns sacred awe
Subvertng, pav'd the fatal way to vice.
And where's the boasted liberty of man?
Chang'd are his lords indeed; and tyrant Lust
Usurps the just supremacy of Heav'n.
(p. 7)
Categories
Provenance
Reading in ECCO
Citation
4 entries in ESTC (1748, 1751, 1757, 1766).
Anti-Lucretius of God and Nature, a Poem, Written in Latin By the Cardinal De Polignac: Rendered into English By the Translator of Paradise lost, trans. William Dobson (London: Printed for Richard Manby, 1747). <Link to ECCO>
See also Anti-Lucretius, sive de Deo et natura, libri novem (Paris: Guerin, 1747). <Link to Vol. I> and the 1766 translation by George Canning.
Anti-Lucretius of God and Nature, a Poem, Written in Latin By the Cardinal De Polignac: Rendered into English By the Translator of Paradise lost, trans. William Dobson (London: Printed for Richard Manby, 1747). <Link to ECCO>
See also Anti-Lucretius, sive de Deo et natura, libri novem (Paris: Guerin, 1747). <Link to Vol. I> and the 1766 translation by George Canning.
Date of Entry
01/24/2012
