"Thus my Conscience being tossed in the Waves of a scrupulous Mind, and partly Despair to have any other Issue than I had already by this Lady now my Wife, it behoved me further to consider the State of this Realm, and the Danger it stood in for lack of a Prince to succeed me."
— Lennox, née Ramsay, (Barbara) Charlotte (1730/1?-1804)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for A. Millar
Date
1754
Metaphor
"Thus my Conscience being tossed in the Waves of a scrupulous Mind, and partly Despair to have any other Issue than I had already by this Lady now my Wife, it behoved me further to consider the State of this Realm, and the Danger it stood in for lack of a Prince to succeed me."
Metaphor in Context
Upon the Resolution and Determination whereof, he desired Respite to advertise the King his Master thereof, whether our Daughter Mary, should legitimate in Respect of this my Marriage with this Woman, being sometime my Brother's Wife; which Words, once conceived within the secret Bottom of my Conscience, ingendered such a scrupulous Doubt, that my Conscience was incontinently accombred, vexed, disquieted; whereby I thought myself to be greatly in Danger of God's Indignation, which appeared to be (as to me seemed) the rather for that he fent us no issue Male, and all such Issues Male as my said Wife had by me, died incontinent after they came into the World, so I doubted the great Displeasure of God in that behalf. Thus my Conscience being tossed in the Waves of a scrupulous Mind, and partly Despair to have any other Issue than I had already by this Lady now my Wife, it behoved me further to consider the State of this Realm, and the Danger it stood in for lack of a Prince to succeed me: I thought it good, in Release of the weighty Burthen of my weak Conscience, and also the quiet Estate of this worthy Realm, to attempt the Law therein, whether I may lawfully take another Wife, by whom God may send me more Issue, in case this my first Copulation was not good, without any carnal Concupiscence, and not for any Displeasure or misliking of the Queen's Person and Age, with whom I would be as well contented to continue, if our Marriage may stand with the Laws of God, as with any alive.
(p. 188)
(p. 188)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in ECCO-TCP
Citation
Text from Shakespear Illustrated: or the Novels and Histories, on which the Plays of Shakespear are Founded, Collected and Translated from the Original Authors. With Critical Remarks. The Third and Last volume. By the Author of The Female Quixote. (London: Printed for A. Millar, 1754). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
08/16/2013
