"It was not in the rapid intricacies of execution, that she excelled so much as in that delicacy of taste, and in those enchanting powers of expression, which seem to breathe a soul through the sound, and which take captive the heart of the hearer."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)


Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Hookham
Date
1790
Metaphor
"It was not in the rapid intricacies of execution, that she excelled so much as in that delicacy of taste, and in those enchanting powers of expression, which seem to breathe a soul through the sound, and which take captive the heart of the hearer."
Metaphor in Context
The instructions of madame she caught with astonishing quickness and in a short time attained to a degree of excellence in her favourite study, which few persons have ever exceeded. Her manner was entirely her own. It was not in the rapid intricacies of execution, that she excelled so much as in that delicacy of taste, and in those enchanting powers of expression, which seem to breathe a soul through the sound, and which take captive the heart of the hearer. The lute was her favourite instrument, and its tender notes accorded well with the sweet and melting tones of her voice.
(I.i, p. 9; pp. 4-5 in OUP edition)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 6 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1790, 1791, 1792, 1795, 1796).

Text from A Sicilian Romance. By The Authoress of The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne 2 vols. (London: Printed for T. Hookham, 1790). <Link to volume I, 2nd edition in Google Books><Volume II>

Reading in A Sicilian Romance, ed. Alison Milbank (Oxford and New York: OUP, 1993).
Date of Entry
05/31/2013

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.