"A race fantastick, in whose page you see / Untutor'd fancy, a meer Jeu d'Esprit: / Wit's shatter'd mirror lies in fragments bright, / Reflects not nature, but confounds the sight."
— Brown, John (1715-1766)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for R. Dodsley
Date
1745
Metaphor
"A race fantastick, in whose page you see / Untutor'd fancy, a meer Jeu d'Esprit: / Wit's shatter'd mirror lies in fragments bright, / Reflects not nature, but confounds the sight."
Metaphor in Context
Yet scarce had SATIRE well relum'd her flame,
(With grief the muse relates her country's shame)
E'er Britain saw the foul revolt commence,
And treacherous Wit began her war with Sense.
Then 'rose a shameless, mercenary crew,
Whom latest time with just contempt shall view:
A race fantastick, in whose page you see
Untutor'd fancy, a meer Jeu d'Esprit:
Wit's shatter'd mirror lies in fragments bright,
Reflects not nature, but confounds the sight.
(p. 27)
(With grief the muse relates her country's shame)
E'er Britain saw the foul revolt commence,
And treacherous Wit began her war with Sense.
Then 'rose a shameless, mercenary crew,
Whom latest time with just contempt shall view:
A race fantastick, in whose page you see
Untutor'd fancy, a meer Jeu d'Esprit:
Wit's shatter'd mirror lies in fragments bright,
Reflects not nature, but confounds the sight.
(p. 27)
Categories
Provenance
Searching ECCO-TCP
Citation
At least 3 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1745, 1748, 1749).
See An Essay on Satire: Occasion'd by the Death of Mr. Pope. (London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1745). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Collected in Dodsley's Poems (1748), Vol. III, pp. 315-337.
See An Essay on Satire: Occasion'd by the Death of Mr. Pope. (London: Printed for R. Dodsley, 1745). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Collected in Dodsley's Poems (1748), Vol. III, pp. 315-337.
Date of Entry
08/23/2013
