"Forgive me, Madam, it is not that my Heart is weary of its Chain, but—This incoherent Stuff was answer'd by a tender Sigh, Why do you put your Wit to a week Woman?"

— Steele, Sir Richard, and Joseph Addison


Work Title
Date
From Thursd. Aug. 25. to Saturd. Aug. 27. 1709
Metaphor
"Forgive me, Madam, it is not that my Heart is weary of its Chain, but—This incoherent Stuff was answer'd by a tender Sigh, Why do you put your Wit to a week Woman?"
Metaphor in Context
Forgive me, Madam, it is not that my Heart is weary of its Chain, but—This incoherent Stuff was answer'd by a tender Sigh, Why do you put your Wit to a week Woman? Strephon saw he had made some Progress in her Heart, and pursued it, by saying that he would certainly wait upon her at such an Hour near Rosamond's Pond; and then—The Sylvian Deities, and Rural Powers of the Place, sacred and inviolable to Love; Love, The Mover of all noble Hearts, should hear his Vows repeated by the Streams and Ecchoes. The Assignation was accordingly made. This Style he calls the unintelligible Method of speaking his Mind; and I'll engage, had this Gallant spoken plain English, she had never understood him half so readily: For we may take it for granted, That he'll be esteemed as a very cold Lover, who discovers to his Mistress that he is in his Senses.
(II, pp. 65-6; cf. I, pp. 416-7 in Bond ed.)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in ECCO-TCP
Citation
Over 50 entries in the ESTC (1709, 1710, 1711, 1712, 1713, 1716, 1720, 1723, 1728, 1733, 1737, 1743, 1747, 1749, 1750, 1751, 1752, 1754, 1759, 1764, 1772, 1774, 1776, 1777, 1785, 1786, 1789, 1794, 1795, 1797).

See The Tatler. By Isaac Bickerstaff Esq. Dates of Publication: No. 1 (Tuesday, April 12, 1709.) through No. 271 (From Saturday December 30, to Tuesday January 2, 1710 [i.e. 1711]). <Link to ESTC>

Collected in two volumes, and printed and sold by J. Morphew in 1710, 1711. Also collected and reprinted as The Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.

Consulting Donald Bond's edition of The Tatler, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987). Searching and pasting text from The Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff Esq: Revised and Corrected by the Author (London: Printed by John Nutt, and sold by John Morphew, 1712): <Link to Vol. 1><Vol. 2><Vol. 3><Vol. 4><Vol. 5>. Some text also from Project Gutenberg digitization of 1899 edition edited by George A. Aitken.
Date of Entry
03/02/2014

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