"O how I could reproach Thee, Sigismunda! / Pour out my injur'd Soul in just Complaints!"
— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for A. Millar
Date
1745
Metaphor
"O how I could reproach Thee, Sigismunda! / Pour out my injur'd Soul in just Complaints!"
Metaphor in Context
TANCRED.
I know too much.
O how I could reproach Thee, Sigismunda!
Pour out my injur'd Soul in just Complaints!
But now the Time permits not, These swift Moments--
I told thee how thy Father's Artifice
Forc'd me to seem perfidious in thy Eyes.
Ah, fatal Blindness! not to have observ'd
The mingled Pangs of Rage and Love that shook me;
When, by my cruel Publick Situation
Compell'd, I only feign'd Consent, to gain
A little Time, and more secure Thee mine.
E'er since--A dreadful Interval of Care!--
My Thoughts have been employ'd, not without Hope,
How to defeat Siffredi's barbarous Purpose.
But thy Credulity has ruin'd all,
Thy rash, thy wild--I know not what to name it--
Oh it has prov'd the giddy Hopes of Man
To be Delusion all, and sickening Folly!
(V.vi)
I know too much.
O how I could reproach Thee, Sigismunda!
Pour out my injur'd Soul in just Complaints!
But now the Time permits not, These swift Moments--
I told thee how thy Father's Artifice
Forc'd me to seem perfidious in thy Eyes.
Ah, fatal Blindness! not to have observ'd
The mingled Pangs of Rage and Love that shook me;
When, by my cruel Publick Situation
Compell'd, I only feign'd Consent, to gain
A little Time, and more secure Thee mine.
E'er since--A dreadful Interval of Care!--
My Thoughts have been employ'd, not without Hope,
How to defeat Siffredi's barbarous Purpose.
But thy Credulity has ruin'd all,
Thy rash, thy wild--I know not what to name it--
Oh it has prov'd the giddy Hopes of Man
To be Delusion all, and sickening Folly!
(V.vi)
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
