"With such a weight upon the mind length of life would be burthensome; with a sensation of guilt early death would be terrific!"
— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Payne and Son and T. Cadell
Date
1782
Metaphor
"With such a weight upon the mind length of life would be burthensome; with a sensation of guilt early death would be terrific!"
Metaphor in Context
Accuse me not of caprice, and pardon my irresolution, when you find me shrinking with terror from the promise I have made, and no longer either able or willing to perform it. The reproaches of your family I should very ill endure; but the reproaches of my own heart for an action I can neither approve nor defend, would be still more oppressive. With such a weight upon the mind length of life would be burthensome; with a sensation of guilt early death would be terrific! These being my notions of the engagement into which we have entered, you cannot wonder, and you have still less reason to repine, that I dare not fulfil it. Alas! where would be your chance of happiness with one who in the very act of becoming yours would forfeit her own!
(IV, pp. 102-3)
(IV, pp. 102-3)
Categories
Provenance
C-H Lion
Citation
At least 14 entries in ESTC (1782, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1790, 1791, 1793, 1795, 1796).
Frances Burney, Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress. By the Author of Evelina. 5 vols. (London: Printed for T. Payne and Son and T. Cadell, 1782). <Link to ESTC>
Frances Burney, Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress. By the Author of Evelina. 5 vols. (London: Printed for T. Payne and Son and T. Cadell, 1782). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
06/16/2013
