"At length, with more prevailing rage possest, / Her jealous honour steels her daring breast / The thoughts of injur'd fame new courage gave, / And nicer virtue now confirms her brave."
— Yalden, Thomas (1670-1736)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Tonson
Date
1694, 1708
Metaphor
"At length, with more prevailing rage possest, / Her jealous honour steels her daring breast / The thoughts of injur'd fame new courage gave, / And nicer virtue now confirms her brave."
Metaphor in Context
Yet in her breast does kind compassion plead,
And fills her soul with horrour of the deed;
Her sex's tenderness resumes its place,
And spreads in conscious blushes o'er her face.
Now stung with the remorse of guilt, she cries,
"Ah, frantic girl, what wild attempt is this!
Think, think, Theutilla, on the murderer's doom,
And tremble at a punishment to come:
Stain not thy virgin hands with guilty blood,
And dread to be so criminally good.
Lay both thy courage and thy weapon down,
Nor fly to aids a maid must blush to own;
Nor arms, nor valour, with thy sex agree,
They wound thy fame, and taint thy modesty,
Thus different passions combat in her mind,
Oft she's to pity, oft to rage inclin'd:
Now from her hand the hated weapon's cast,
Then seiz'd again with more impetuous haste:
Unfix'd her wishes, her resolves are vain,
What she attempts, she straight rejects again;
Her looks, the emblems of her thoughts, appear
Vary'd with rage, with pity, and despair:
Alone her fears incline to no extreme,
Equally poiz'd betwixt revenge and shame,
At length, with more prevailing rage possest,
Her jealous honour steels her daring breast:
The thoughts of injur'd fame new courage gave,
And nicer virtue now confirms her brave.
Then the fam'd Judith her whole mind employs,
Urges her hand, and sooths the fatal choice:
This great example pleas'd, inflam'd by this,
With wild disorder to the youth she flies;
One hand she wreaths within his flowing hair,
The other does the ready weapon bear:
"Now guide me (cries) fair Hebrew, now look down,
And pity labours thou hast undergone.
Direct the hand that takes thy path to fame,
And be propitious to a virgin's name,
Whose glory's but a refuge from her shame!"
Thus rais'd by hopes, and arm'd with courage now,
She with undaunted looks directs the blow:
Deep in his breast the spacious wound she made,
And to his heart dispatch'd th' unerring blade.
(pp. 33-4 in Miscellanies
And fills her soul with horrour of the deed;
Her sex's tenderness resumes its place,
And spreads in conscious blushes o'er her face.
Now stung with the remorse of guilt, she cries,
"Ah, frantic girl, what wild attempt is this!
Think, think, Theutilla, on the murderer's doom,
And tremble at a punishment to come:
Stain not thy virgin hands with guilty blood,
And dread to be so criminally good.
Lay both thy courage and thy weapon down,
Nor fly to aids a maid must blush to own;
Nor arms, nor valour, with thy sex agree,
They wound thy fame, and taint thy modesty,
Thus different passions combat in her mind,
Oft she's to pity, oft to rage inclin'd:
Now from her hand the hated weapon's cast,
Then seiz'd again with more impetuous haste:
Unfix'd her wishes, her resolves are vain,
What she attempts, she straight rejects again;
Her looks, the emblems of her thoughts, appear
Vary'd with rage, with pity, and despair:
Alone her fears incline to no extreme,
Equally poiz'd betwixt revenge and shame,
At length, with more prevailing rage possest,
Her jealous honour steels her daring breast:
The thoughts of injur'd fame new courage gave,
And nicer virtue now confirms her brave.
Then the fam'd Judith her whole mind employs,
Urges her hand, and sooths the fatal choice:
This great example pleas'd, inflam'd by this,
With wild disorder to the youth she flies;
One hand she wreaths within his flowing hair,
The other does the ready weapon bear:
"Now guide me (cries) fair Hebrew, now look down,
And pity labours thou hast undergone.
Direct the hand that takes thy path to fame,
And be propitious to a virgin's name,
Whose glory's but a refuge from her shame!"
Thus rais'd by hopes, and arm'd with courage now,
She with undaunted looks directs the blow:
Deep in his breast the spacious wound she made,
And to his heart dispatch'd th' unerring blade.
(pp. 33-4 in Miscellanies
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Searching in EEBO-TCP, ECCO, and ESTC (1694, 1708, 1727, 1716, 1779, 1790, 1795, 1800).
First printed in Tonson's miscellany for 1694 (the fourth volume). See The Annual Miscellany, for the Year 1694 Being the Fourth Part of Miscellany Poems: Containing Great Variety of New Translations and Original Copies. (London: Printed by R.E. for Jacob Tonson, 1694). <Link to EEBO-TCP>
Earliest hit in ECCO is Miscellany Poems (London: Tonson, 1708). <Link to ECCO> See also Miscellany Poems (London: Tonson, 1716). <Link to Google Books>
Yalden's poetry was also collected and reprinted in the Works of the British Poets (London: Printed by E. Cox, [etc.], 1779). <Link to Google Books>.
Text from The Poems of Dr. Yalden (London: Printed for J. Johnson; J. Nichols and Son; R. Baldwin, 1810). <Link to UVa E-Text Center>
First printed in Tonson's miscellany for 1694 (the fourth volume). See The Annual Miscellany, for the Year 1694 Being the Fourth Part of Miscellany Poems: Containing Great Variety of New Translations and Original Copies. (London: Printed by R.E. for Jacob Tonson, 1694). <Link to EEBO-TCP>
Earliest hit in ECCO is Miscellany Poems (London: Tonson, 1708). <Link to ECCO> See also Miscellany Poems (London: Tonson, 1716). <Link to Google Books>
Yalden's poetry was also collected and reprinted in the Works of the British Poets (London: Printed by E. Cox, [etc.], 1779). <Link to Google Books>.
Text from The Poems of Dr. Yalden (London: Printed for J. Johnson; J. Nichols and Son; R. Baldwin, 1810). <Link to UVa E-Text Center>
Date of Entry
04/03/2012
Date of Review
04/03/2012
