"Alas! there are some stupid souls, formed of such phlegmatic, adverse materials, that you might sooner strike conception into a flannel petticoat--or out of one--(now keep your temper I beg, sweet Sir) than convince their simple craniums that six and seven makes thirteen."
— Sancho, Charles Ignatius (1729-1780)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by J. Nichols
Date
1782
Metaphor
"Alas! there are some stupid souls, formed of such phlegmatic, adverse materials, that you might sooner strike conception into a flannel petticoat--or out of one--(now keep your temper I beg, sweet Sir) than convince their simple craniums that six and seven makes thirteen."
Metaphor in Context
MY friend Mr. I--, who--like a simple fellow with a palish phiz--crazy head--and hair of a pretty colour--an aukward loon--whom I do sometimes care about--who has more wit than money--more good sense than wit--more urbanity than sense--and more pride than some princes--a chap who talks well--writes better--and means much better than he either speaks or indites.--A careless son of nature, who rides without thinking--tumbles down without hurt--and gets up again without swearing--who can--in short, he is such an excentric phizpoop--such a vessel!--a new skin full of old wine is the best type of him--know you such a one? No! I guessed as much--nay--nay--if you think for a twelvemonth and a day, you will never be a jot the nearer--give it up, man.--Come, I will solve the mystery--his name is --. I will tell you anon--but as I was saying--for I hate prolixity--as I was saying above--Mr. I-- (in initiation of the odd soul I have laboured to describe) wishing to do me honor as well as pleasure--came in person twice, to insist accompanying he and she and two more, to see Mr. H-- take possession of the throne of Richard--into the boxes (I believe box is properer) we went--the house as full, just as it could be, and no fuller--as hot as it was possible to bear--or rather hotter.--Now do you really and truly conceive what I mean? Alas! there are some stupid souls, formed of such phlegmatic, adverse materials, that you might sooner strike conception into a flannel petticoat--or out of one--(now keep your temper I beg, sweet Sir) than convince their simple craniums that six and seven makes thirteen.--It was a daring undertaking--and H-- was really awed with the idea of the great man, whose very robes he was to wear-- and whose throne he was to usurp.--But give him his due--he acquitted himself well--tolerably well--he will play it much better next time--and the next better still; Rome was not built in six weeks--and, trust me, a Garrick will not be formed under seven years.--I supped with his Majesty and Mr. and Mrs. I--, where good-nature and good-sense mixed itself with the most chearful welcome.
(II.xlii, pp. 100-2; pp. 181-2 in Carretta)
(II.xlii, pp. 100-2; pp. 181-2 in Carretta)
Categories
Provenance
Reading; text from DocSouth
Citation
Five entries in ESTC (1782, 1783, 1784). [Second edition in 1783, third in 1784.]
See Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African. In Two Volumes. To Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of His Life (London: Printed by J. Nichols, 1782). <Link to text from Documenting the American South at UNC>
Reading Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, ed. Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin, 1998).
See Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African. In Two Volumes. To Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of His Life (London: Printed by J. Nichols, 1782). <Link to text from Documenting the American South at UNC>
Reading Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, ed. Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin, 1998).
Date of Entry
07/11/2013
