Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

A Sicilian Romance

London

Printed for T. Hookham

1790

"The love of power was his ruling passion;--with him no gentle or generous sentiment meliorated the harshness of authority, or directed it to acts of beneficence."

The duke de Luovo was of a character very similar to that of the marquis. The love of power was his ruling passion;--with him no gentle or generous sentiment meliorated the harshness of authority, or directed it to acts of beneficence. He delighted in simple undisguised tyranny. He had been twice married, and the unfortunate women subjected to his power, had fallen victims to the slow but corroding hand of sorrow. He had one son, who some years before had escaped the tyranny of his father, and had not been since heard of. At the late festival the duke had seen Julia; and her beauty made so strong an impression upon him, that he had been induced now to solicit her hand. The marquis, delighted with the prospect of a connexion so flattering to his favourite passion, readily granted his consent, and immediately sealed it with a promise.
(I.iii, pp. 129-130; pp. 56-7 in OUP edition)

Government::Rule and Subjection::Rule of Passion

Reading

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).

Ruling Passion

05/31/2013