"So thou, my dearest, truest, best Alicia, / Vouchsafe to lodge me in thy gentle Heart, / A Partner there; I will give up Mankind, / Forget the Transports of encreasing Passion, / And all the Pangs we feel for its Decay."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Bernard Lintott
Date
1714
Metaphor
"So thou, my dearest, truest, best Alicia, / Vouchsafe to lodge me in thy gentle Heart, / A Partner there; I will give up Mankind, / Forget the Transports of encreasing Passion, / And all the Pangs we feel for its Decay."
Metaphor in Context
JANE SHORE.
Away, you Flatterer!
Nor charge his generous Meaning with a Weakness,
Which his great Soul and Vertue must disdain.
Too much of Love thy hapless Friend has prov'd,
Too many giddy foolish Hours are gone,
And in fantastick Measures danc'd away:
May the remaining few know only Friendship.
So thou, my dearest, truest, best Alicia,
Vouchsafe to lodge me in thy gentle Heart,
A Partner there; I will give up Mankind,
Forget the Transports of encreasing Passion,
And all the Pangs we feel for its Decay.


ALICIA.
Live! live and Reign for ever in my Bosom,
[Embracing.]
Safe and unrivall'd there possess thy own;
And you, ye brightest of the Stars above,
Ye Saints that once were Women here below.
Be witness of the Truth, the holy Friendship,
Which here to this my other self I vow.
If I not hold her nearer to my Soul,
Then ev'ry other Joy the World can give,
Let Poverty, Deformity and Shame,
Distraction and Despair seize me on Earth,
Let not my faithless Ghost have Peace hereafter.
Nor Tast the Bliss of your coelestial Fellowship.
(I.ii, p. 10)
Provenance
C-H Lion
Citation
Over seventy entries in the ESTC (1714, 1719, 1720, 1723, 1726, 1728, 1731, 1733, 1735, 1736, 1740, 1746, 1748, 1751, 1752, 1754, 1755, 1756, 1758, 1760, 1761, 1764, 1765, 1767, 1768, 1770, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1780, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1790, 1791).

See The Tragedy of Jane Shore. Written in Imitation of Shakespear's Style. By N. Rowe (London: Printed for Bernard Lintott, 1714).
Date of Entry
07/20/2013

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.