"But This, my Friend, these stormy Gusts of Pride / Are foreign to my Love--Till Sigismunda / Be disabus'd, my Breast is Tumult all, / And can obey no settled Course of Reason. / I see Her still, I feel her powerful Image!"
— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for A. Millar
Date
1745
Metaphor
"But This, my Friend, these stormy Gusts of Pride / Are foreign to my Love--Till Sigismunda / Be disabus'd, my Breast is Tumult all, / And can obey no settled Course of Reason. / I see Her still, I feel her powerful Image!"
Metaphor in Context
TANCRED.
Heavens! Submission!
Could I descend to bear it, even in Thought,
Despise me, you, the World, and Sigismunda!
Submission!--No!--To-morrow's glorious Light
Shall flash Discovery on this Scene of Baseness.
Whatever be the Risque, by Heavens! To-morrow,
I will o'erturn the dirty Lye-built Schemes
Of these old Men, and shew my faithful Senate,
That Manfred's Son knows to assert and wear,
With undiminish'd Dignity, that Crown
This unexpected Day has plac'd upon him.
But This, my Friend, these stormy Gusts of Pride
Are foreign to my Love--Till Sigismunda
Be disabus'd, my Breast is Tumult all,
And can obey no settled Course of Reason.
I see Her still, I feel her powerful Image!
That Look, where with Reproach Complaint was mix'd,
Big with soft Woe and gentle Indignation,
Which seem'd at once to pity and to scorn me--
O let me find Her! I too long have left
My Sigismunda to converse with Tears,
A Prey to Thoughts that picture me a Villain.
But ah! how, clogg'd with this accursed State,
A tedious World, shall I now find Access?
Her Father too--Ten Thousand Horrors croud
Into the wild fantastic Eye of Love--
Who knows what he may do? Come then, my Friend,
And by thy Sister's Hand O let me steal
A Letter to her Bosom--I no longer
Can bear her Absence, by the just Contempt
She now must brand me with, inflam'd to Madness,
Fly, my Rodolpho, fly! engage thy Sister
To aid my Letter, and this very Evening
Secure an Interview--I would not bear
This Rack another Day not for my Kingdom!
Till then deep-plung'd in Solitude and Shades,
I will not see the hated Face of Man.
Thought drives on Thought, on Passions Passions roll;
Her Smiles alone can calm my raging Soul.
(II.ix)
Heavens! Submission!
Could I descend to bear it, even in Thought,
Despise me, you, the World, and Sigismunda!
Submission!--No!--To-morrow's glorious Light
Shall flash Discovery on this Scene of Baseness.
Whatever be the Risque, by Heavens! To-morrow,
I will o'erturn the dirty Lye-built Schemes
Of these old Men, and shew my faithful Senate,
That Manfred's Son knows to assert and wear,
With undiminish'd Dignity, that Crown
This unexpected Day has plac'd upon him.
But This, my Friend, these stormy Gusts of Pride
Are foreign to my Love--Till Sigismunda
Be disabus'd, my Breast is Tumult all,
And can obey no settled Course of Reason.
I see Her still, I feel her powerful Image!
That Look, where with Reproach Complaint was mix'd,
Big with soft Woe and gentle Indignation,
Which seem'd at once to pity and to scorn me--
O let me find Her! I too long have left
My Sigismunda to converse with Tears,
A Prey to Thoughts that picture me a Villain.
But ah! how, clogg'd with this accursed State,
A tedious World, shall I now find Access?
Her Father too--Ten Thousand Horrors croud
Into the wild fantastic Eye of Love--
Who knows what he may do? Come then, my Friend,
And by thy Sister's Hand O let me steal
A Letter to her Bosom--I no longer
Can bear her Absence, by the just Contempt
She now must brand me with, inflam'd to Madness,
Fly, my Rodolpho, fly! engage thy Sister
To aid my Letter, and this very Evening
Secure an Interview--I would not bear
This Rack another Day not for my Kingdom!
Till then deep-plung'd in Solitude and Shades,
I will not see the hated Face of Man.
Thought drives on Thought, on Passions Passions roll;
Her Smiles alone can calm my raging Soul.
(II.ix)
Categories
Provenance
C-H Lion
Citation
At least 29 entries in ESTC (1745, 1748, 1749, 1752, 1755, 1758, 1759, 1761, 1764, 1766, 1767, 1768, 1770, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1779, 1784, 1787, 1790, 1792). [Robert Hume lists among the "few considerable new plays mounted" between 1737 and 1760.]
See Tancred and Sigismunda. A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal In Drury-Lane, By His Majesty's Servants. By James Thomson (London: Printed for A. Millar, 1745). <Link to ECCO>
See Tancred and Sigismunda. A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal In Drury-Lane, By His Majesty's Servants. By James Thomson (London: Printed for A. Millar, 1745). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
06/28/2013
