work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5459,"","Reading, but the passage copied from HDIS",2003-11-02 00:00:00 UTC,"It were unnecessary to enter into any farther extenuation of what was thought exceptionable in this Play, but that it has been said, that the Managers should have prevented some of the defects before its appearance to the Public--and in particular the uncommon length of the piece as represented the first night.--It were an ill return for the most liberal and gentlemanly conduct on their side, to suffer any censure to rest where none was deserved. Hurry in writing has long been exploded as an excuse for an Author;-- however, in the dramatic line, it may happen, that both an Author and a Manager may wish to fill a chasm in the entertainment of the Public with a hastiness not altogether culpable. The season was advanced when I first put the play into Mr. Harris's hands:--it was at that time at least double the length of any acting comedy.--I profited by his judgment and experience in the curtailing of it--'till, I believe, his feeling for the vanity of a young Author got the better of his desire for correctness, and he left many excrescences remaining, because he had assisted in pruning so many more. Hence, though I was not uninformed that the Acts were still too long, I flatter'd myself that, after the first trial, I might with safer judgment proceed to remove what should appear to have been most dissatisfactory.--Many other errors there were, which might in part have arisen from my being by no means conversant with plays in general, either in reading or at the theatre.--Yet I own that, in one respect, I did not regret my ignorance: for as my first wish in attempting a Play, was to avoid every appearance of plagiary, I thought I should stand a better chance of effecting this from being in a walk which I had not frequented, and where consequently the progress of invention was less likely to be interrupted by starts of recollection: for on subjects on which the mind has been much informed, invention is slow of exerting itself.--Faded ideas float in the fancy like half-forgotten dreams; and the imagination in its fullest enjoyments becomes suspicious of its offspring, and doubts whether it has created or adopted. ",,14590,"",Faded ideas float in the fancy like half-forgotten dreams,"",2009-09-14 19:41:20 UTC,Preface
5459,"","Reading, but the passage copied from HDIS",2003-11-02 00:00:00 UTC,"It were unnecessary to enter into any farther extenuation of what was thought exceptionable in this Play, but that it has been said, that the Managers should have prevented some of the defects before its appearance to the Public--and in particular the uncommon length of the piece as represented the first night.--It were an ill return for the most liberal and gentlemanly conduct on their side, to suffer any censure to rest where none was deserved. Hurry in writing has long been exploded as an excuse for an Author;-- however, in the dramatic line, it may happen, that both an Author and a Manager may wish to fill a chasm in the entertainment of the Public with a hastiness not altogether culpable. The season was advanced when I first put the play into Mr. Harris's hands:--it was at that time at least double the length of any acting comedy.--I profited by his judgment and experience in the curtailing of it--'till, I believe, his feeling for the vanity of a young Author got the better of his desire for correctness, and he left many excrescences remaining, because he had assisted in pruning so many more. Hence, though I was not uninformed that the Acts were still too long, I flatter'd myself that, after the first trial, I might with safer judgment proceed to remove what should appear to have been most dissatisfactory.--Many other errors there were, which might in part have arisen from my being by no means conversant with plays in general, either in reading or at the theatre.--Yet I own that, in one respect, I did not regret my ignorance: for as my first wish in attempting a Play, was to avoid every appearance of plagiary, I thought I should stand a better chance of effecting this from being in a walk which I had not frequented, and where consequently the progress of invention was less likely to be interrupted by starts of recollection: for on subjects on which the mind has been much informed, invention is slow of exerting itself.--Faded ideas float in the fancy like half-forgotten dreams; and the imagination in its fullest enjoyments becomes suspicious of its offspring, and doubts whether it has created or adopted. ",,14591,"","The imagination in its fullest enjoyments becomes suspicious of its offspring, and doubts whether it has created or adopted","",2009-09-14 19:41:20 UTC,Preface
5459,"","Seth Lerer pointed out this passage in conversation, copied from HDIS",2003-11-02 00:00:00 UTC,"MRS. MALAPROP
There, Sir Anthony, there sits the deliberate Simpleton, who wants to disgrace her family, and lavish herself on a fellow not worth a shilling!
LYDIA
Madam, I thought you onc. --
MRS. MALAPROP
You thought, Miss!--I don't know any business you have to think at all--thought does not become a young woman; the point we would request of you is, that you will promise to forget this fellow--to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.
LYDIA
Ah! Madam! our memories are independent of our wills.--It is not so easy to forget.
MRS. MALAPROP
But I say it is, Miss; there is nothing on earth so easy as to forget , if a person chooses to set about it.--I'm sure I have as much forgot your poor dear uncle as if he had never existed --and I thought it my duty so to do; and let me tell you, Lydia, these violent memories don't become a young woman.
SIR ANTHONY
Why sure she won't pretend to remember what she's order'd not!--aye, this comes of her reading!
(Act I, Scene ii)",,14592,"•The scene follows the frantic stashing of novels. Given Malaprop's view of Lydia's reading, the echo of ""alliteration,"" and implicit Lockean metaphors of mind, this exchange is most worth a reading.",A fellow may be forgotten--illiterated from the memory,"",2009-09-14 19:41:20 UTC,"Act I, scene ii"
5459,"","Reading, text from HDIS (Drama); found again searching ""brain"" and ""furniture""",2003-11-02 00:00:00 UTC,"ABSOLUTE
By Heavens! I shall forswear your company. You are the most teasing, captious, incorrigible lover!--Do love like a man.
FAULKLAND
I own I am unfit for company.
ABSOLUTE
Am not I a lover; aye, and a romantic one too? Yet do I carry every where with me such a confounded farago of doubts, fears, hopes, wishes, and all the flimsy furniture of a country Miss's brain!
FAULKLAND
Ah! Jack, your heart and soul are not, like mine, fixed immutably on one only object.-- You throw for a large stake, but losing--you could stake, and throw again:--but I have set my sum of happiness on this cast, and not to succeed, were to be stript of all.
ABSOLUTE
But for Heaven's sake! what grounds for apprehension can your whimsical brain conjure up at present? Has Julia miss'd writing this last post? or was her last too tender, or too cool; or too grave, or too gay; or--
(Act II, Scene i)",,14593,"","One may carry with him ""all the flimsy furniture of a country Miss's brain""","",2009-09-14 19:41:21 UTC,""
5459,"",Reading,2003-11-02 00:00:00 UTC,"ACRES
O I dare insure her for that--but what I was going to speak of was her country dancing:-- Odds swimmings! she has such an air with her!--
FAULKLAND
Now disappointment on her!--defend this, Absolute, why don't you defend this?-- Country-dances! jiggs, and reels! am I to blame now? A Minuet I could have forgiven--I should not have minded that--I say I should not have regarded a Minuet--but Country-dances! Z---ds! had she made one in a Cotillon --I believe I could have forgiven even that--but to be monkey-led for a night!--to run the gauntlet thro' a string of amorous palming puppies!--to shew paces like a managed filly!--O Jack, there never can be but one man in the world, whom a truly modest and delicate woman ought to pair with in a Country-dance ; and even then, the rest of the couples should be her great uncles and aunts!
ABSOLUTE
Aye, to be sure!--grand-fathers and grand-mothers!
FAULKLAND
If there be but one vicious mind in the Set, 'twill spread like a contagion--the action of their pulse beats to the lascivious movement of the jigg--their quivering, warm-breath'd sighs impregnate the very air--the atmosphere becomes electrical to love, and each amorous spark darts thro' every link of the chain!--I must leave you--I own I am somewhat flurried-- and that confounded looby has perceived it. ",2011-02-05,14594,Faulkland hears that his Miss Melville has been dancing in his absence,"""If there be but one vicious mind in the Set, 'twill spread like a contagion--the action of their pulse beats to the lascivious movement of the jigg--their quivering, warm-breath'd sighs impregnate the very air--the atmosphere becomes electrical to love, and each amorous spark darts thro' every link of the chain!""","",2011-02-05 23:41:39 UTC,""
5459,"",Reading,2003-11-02 00:00:00 UTC,"FAULKLAND
They have no weight with me, Julia: no, no--I am happy if you have been so--yet only say, that you did not sing with mirth --say that you thought of Faulkland in the dance.
JULIA
I never can be happy in your absence.-- If I wear a countenance of content, it is to shew that my mind holds no doubt of my Faulkland's truth.--If I seem'd sad--it were to make malice triumph; and say, that I had fixed my heart on one, who left me to lament his roving, and my own credulity.--Believe me, Faulkland, I mean not to upbraid you, when I say, that I have often dressed sorrow in smiles, lest my friends should guess whose unkindness had caused my tears.
FAULKLAND
You were ever all goodness to me.--O, I am a brute, when I but admit a doubt of your true constancy!
(Act III, Scene ii)",2008-12-03,14595,"","""If I wear a countenance of content, it is to shew that my mind holds no doubt of my Faulkland's truth.""","",2009-09-14 19:41:21 UTC,Faulkland and Julia try to make up
5459,"",Reading but the text comes from HDIS (Drama),2003-11-02 00:00:00 UTC,"JULIA
I see you are determined to be unkind.-- The contract which my poor father bound us in gives you more than a lover's privilege.
FAULKLAND
Again, Julia, you raise ideas that feed and justify my doubts.--I would not have been more free--no--I am proud of my restraint.-- Yet--yet--perhaps your high respect alone for this solemn compact has fettered your inclinations, which else had made worthier choice.--How shall I be sure, had you remained unbound in thought and promise, that I should still have been the object of your persevering love?
JULIA
Then try me now.--Let us be free as strangers as to what is past:-- my heart will not feel more liberty!
FAULKLAND
There now! so hasty, Julia! so anxious to be free!--If your love for me were fixed and ardent, you would not loose your hold, even tho' I wish'd it!
JULIA
O, you torture me to the heart!--I cannot bear it.
FAULKAND
I do not mean to distress you.--If I lov'd you less, I should never give you an uneasy moment. --But hear me.--All my fretful doubts arise from this--Women are not used to weigh, and separate the motives of their affections:--the cold dictates of prudence, gratitude, or filial duty, may sometimes be mistaken for the pleadings of the heart.--I would not boast--yet let me say, that I have neither age, person, or character, to found dislike on;--my fortune such as few ladies could be charged with indiscretion in the match.--O Julia! when Love receives such countenance from Prudence , nice minds will be suspicious of its birth .
JULIA
I know not whither your insinuations would tend:--as they seem pressing to insult me--I will spare you the regret of having done so.--I have given you no cause for this!
(Act III, Scene ii)",2011-06-26,14596,"•There is something Kantian about Faulkland's (sentimental?) reasoning...
•See also Faulkland's speech about the birth of love below.","""Yet--yet--perhaps your high respect alone for this solemn compact has fettered your inclinations, which else had made worthier choice.""",Fetters,2011-05-27 13:59:03 UTC,"Act III, scene ii. Faulkland and Julia attempt to make up"
5459,"",Reading ,2003-11-02 00:00:00 UTC,"FAULKLAND
In Tears! stay, Julia: stay but for a moment.--The door is fastened!--Julia!-- my soul--but for one moment:--I hear her sobbing! --'Sdeath! what a brute am I to use her thus! Yet stay.--Aye--she is coming now:--how little resolution there is in woman!--how a few soft words can turn them!--No, faith!--she is not coming either.--Why, Julia--my love-- say but that you forgive me--come but to tell me that--now, this is being too resentful:--stay! she is coming too--I thought she would--no steadiness in any thing! her going away must have been a mere trick then--she sha'n't see that I was hurt by it.--I'll affect indifferenc. --
(hums a tune: then listens)
--No--Z---ds! she's not coming!-- nor don't intend it, I suppose.--This is not steadiness , but obstinacy! Yet I deserve it.--What, after so long an absence, to quarrel with her tenderness! --'twas barbarous and unmanly!--I should be ashamed to see her now.--I'll wait till her just resentment is abated--and when I distress her so again, may I lose her for ever! and be linked instead to some antique virago, whose knawing passions, and long-hoarded spleen, shall make me curse my folly half the day, and all the night!
[Exit. ",2012-06-29,14597,Faulkland after Julia has left in tears. Passage copied from HDIS (cleaned up some),"""I'll wait till her just resentment is abated--and when I distress her so again, may I lose her for ever! and be linked instead to some antique virago, whose knawing passions, and long-hoarded spleen, shall make me curse my folly half the day, and all the night!""",Beasts,2012-06-29 14:56:52 UTC,""
5459,"","Reading, but passage copied from HDIS",2003-11-02 00:00:00 UTC,"MRS. MALAPROP
Your being Sir Anthony's son, Captain, would itself be a sufficient accommodation; --but from the ingenuity of your appearance, I am convinced you deserve the character here given of you.
ABSOLUTE
Permit me to say, Madam, that as I never yet have had the pleasure of seeing Miss Languish, my principal inducement in this affair at present, is the honour of being allied to Mrs. Malaprop; of whose intellectual accomplishments, elegant manners, and unaffected learning, no tongue is silent.
MRS. MALAPROP
Sir, you do me infinite honour!-- I beg, Captain, you'll be seated.--
(Sit)
--Ah! few gentlemen, now a days, know how to value the ineffectual qualities in a woman! few think how a little knowledge become a gentlewoman! Men have no sense now but for the worthless flower, beauty!
ABSOLUTE
It is but too true indeed, Ma'am;--yet I fear our ladies should share the blame--they think our admiration of beauty so great, that knowledge in them would be superfluous. Thus, like garden-trees, they seldom shew fruits, till time has robb'd them of the more specious blossom.--Few, like Mrs. Malaprop and the Orange-tree, are rich in both at once!
MRS. MALAPROP
Sir--you overpower me with good-breeding. --He is the very Pine-apple of politeness! You are not ignorant, Captain, that this giddy girl has somehow contrived to fix her affections on a beggarly, strolling, eve's-dropping Ensign, whom none of us have seen, and nobody knows any thing of.
(Act III, Scene iii)",,14598,•An anology worthy of Wollstonecraft. Cross-reference.,"Women, ""like garden-trees,"" seldom show fruit, ""till time has robbed them of the more specious blossom""","",2009-09-14 19:41:21 UTC,""
5459,"","Reading, but passage copied from HDIS",2003-11-02 00:00:00 UTC,"ABSOLUTE
O, I have heard the silly affair before.-- I'm not at all prejudiced against her on that account.
MRS. MALAPROP
You are very good, and very considerate, Captain.--I am sure I have done every thing in my power since I exploded the affair! long ago I laid my positive conjunction on her never to think on the fellow again;--I have since laid Sir Anthony's preposition before her;--but I'm sorry to say she seems resolved to decline every particle that I enjoin her.
ABSOLUTE
It must be very distressing indeed, Ma'am.
MRS. MALAPROP
It gives me the hydrostatics to such a degree!--I thought she had persisted from corresponding with him; but behold this very day, I have interceded another letter from the fellow! I believe I have it in my pocket.
(Act III, Scene iii)",,14599,"","One may be so distressed as to be given ""hydrostatics""","",2009-09-14 19:41:21 UTC,""