"Support our virtue:--kindle in our souls / A ray of your divine enthusiasm; / Such as inflames the patriot's breast, and lifts / Th'impassion'd mind to that sublime of virtue, / That even on the rack it feels the good, / Which in a single hour it works for millions, / And leaves the legacy to after times."
— Murphy, Arthur (1727-1805)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
Printed for P. Vaillant
Publisher
London
Date
1759
Metaphor
"Support our virtue:--kindle in our souls / A ray of your divine enthusiasm; / Such as inflames the patriot's breast, and lifts / Th'impassion'd mind to that sublime of virtue, / That even on the rack it feels the good, / Which in a single hour it works for millions, / And leaves the legacy to after times."
Metaphor in Context
ZAMTI.
Where is Arsace?--Fond maternal love
Shakes her weak frame--
(Enter Arsace .)
Quickly, Arsace, help
This ever-tender creature.--Wand'ring life
Rekindles in her cheek.--Soft, lead her off
To where the fanning breeze in yonder bow'r,
May woo her spirits back.--Propitious heav'n!
Pity the woundings of a father's heart;
Pity my strugglings with this best of women;
Support our virtue:--kindle in our souls
A ray of your divine enthusiasm;
Such as inflames the patriot's breast, and lifts
Th'impassion'd mind to that sublime of virtue,
That even on the rack it feels the good,
Which in a single hour it works for millions,
And leaves the legacy to after times.
(II, p. 35)
Where is Arsace?--Fond maternal love
Shakes her weak frame--
(Enter Arsace .)
Quickly, Arsace, help
This ever-tender creature.--Wand'ring life
Rekindles in her cheek.--Soft, lead her off
To where the fanning breeze in yonder bow'r,
May woo her spirits back.--Propitious heav'n!
Pity the woundings of a father's heart;
Pity my strugglings with this best of women;
Support our virtue:--kindle in our souls
A ray of your divine enthusiasm;
Such as inflames the patriot's breast, and lifts
Th'impassion'd mind to that sublime of virtue,
That even on the rack it feels the good,
Which in a single hour it works for millions,
And leaves the legacy to after times.
(II, p. 35)
Categories
Provenance
LION
Citation
First performed April 21, 1759. 10 entries in ESTC (1759, 1761, 1763, 1772, 1787, 1797).
Text from The Orphan of China, A Tragedy, As It Is Perform'd at the Theatre-Royal, in Drury-Lane. (London: Printed for P. Vaillant, 1759).
Text from The Orphan of China, A Tragedy, As It Is Perform'd at the Theatre-Royal, in Drury-Lane. (London: Printed for P. Vaillant, 1759).
Date of Entry
11/18/2013
