"Thus have we proved it never happens, / That ornament and outward trappings, / Can make on the heart the least impression, / Much less secure a fix'd possession."

— Dibdin, Charles (bap. 1745, d. 1814)


Place of Publication
London
Date
1783
Metaphor
"Thus have we proved it never happens, / That ornament and outward trappings, / Can make on the heart the least impression, / Much less secure a fix'd possession."
Metaphor in Context
RECITATIVE.

VENUS.
Thus have we proved it never happens,
That ornament and outward trappings,
Can make on the heart the least impression,
Much less secure a fix'd possession.

Our Jove here has been long time married,
Yet his wife's fondness had miscarried;
Each thing in life she did was wrong,
Until she kindly--held her tongue.
Learn hence, that husbands will be blind
To every beauty but the mind;
Great Venus there should hold her court;
There should the Loves and Graces sport;
There rapture beam'd in every feature,
Bound by that Cestus, called Good Nature.
(p. 23)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in ECCO-TCP
Citation
3 entries in ESTC (1783, 1784).

The Cestus: A Serenata. Performed at the Royal Circus, in St. George's Fields. (London: 1783). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
04/29/2014

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