"When health and vigour swell'd my youthful veins, / Lust drew my carriage, Folly held the reins."
— Thompson, Edward (1738-1786)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1765, 1770
Metaphor
"When health and vigour swell'd my youthful veins, / Lust drew my carriage, Folly held the reins."
Metaphor in Context
When health and vigour swell'd my youthful veins,
Lust drew my carriage, Folly held the reins,
A thousand times I wish'd the wench to meet,
Blest with a generous heart, and power to treat:
If I had had such luck, I had been vain,
Vain of my person, and my parts; when gain
Flow'd in from deeds of heavenly pleasure too,
My manhood had not bore a thing so new;
It wou'd have turn'd my head, t'have been in pay,
With the dear sex I kneel to, night and day:
But Venus knew the folly of her son,
Intending always he shou'd be undone,
But not at once;---for had it been my fate,
Ye gods to've had a beauty of that Rate,
Like giddy Phaeton I'd broke my bones,
In driving such a gen'rous Queen as Jones.
(ll. 1039-1054)
Lust drew my carriage, Folly held the reins,
A thousand times I wish'd the wench to meet,
Blest with a generous heart, and power to treat:
If I had had such luck, I had been vain,
Vain of my person, and my parts; when gain
Flow'd in from deeds of heavenly pleasure too,
My manhood had not bore a thing so new;
It wou'd have turn'd my head, t'have been in pay,
With the dear sex I kneel to, night and day:
But Venus knew the folly of her son,
Intending always he shou'd be undone,
But not at once;---for had it been my fate,
Ye gods to've had a beauty of that Rate,
Like giddy Phaeton I'd broke my bones,
In driving such a gen'rous Queen as Jones.
(ll. 1039-1054)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
4 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1765, 1770).
Text from The Court of Cupid. By the Author of the Meretriciad. Containing the Eighth Edition of the Meretriciad, with Great Additions. 2 vols. (London: Printed for C. Moran, 1770).
See also The Courtesan. By the Author of the Meretriciad. (London: Printed for J. Harrison, in Covent Garden, 1765). <Link to ESTC>
Text from The Court of Cupid. By the Author of the Meretriciad. Containing the Eighth Edition of the Meretriciad, with Great Additions. 2 vols. (London: Printed for C. Moran, 1770).
See also The Courtesan. By the Author of the Meretriciad. (London: Printed for J. Harrison, in Covent Garden, 1765). <Link to ESTC>
Date of Entry
10/28/2013
