work_id,theme,id,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,created_at,context,comments,text,reviewed_on,provenance
5201,Ruling Passion,13991,"""Why dancing is his ruling passion.""","",2012-01-12 21:59:31 UTC,2004-06-01 00:00:00 UTC,"Act I, scene i",•Murphy's translation of Voltaire's play. First performed 9 January 1764.,"CARELESS.
Spirits! with one foot in the grave, he dances about the world, as if he was bit by a tarantula.
WISELY.
Why dancing is his ruling passion.
CARELESS.
So much, that he runs about to all the country assemblies, and is a beau garçon with all human infirmities.
WISELY.
He is very harmless and good-natur'd.
CARELESS.
Yes; but not a single idea but what is derived from dancing. If you ask him what sort of a place such a town is, ""They have a very good Monday-night assembly."" Or, if you desire to know what kind of people, ""They very often dance thirty couple.""
WISELY.
You have him exactly.
(I.i)",,"Searching HDIS for ""ruling passion"""
5271,"",14188,"""Be rul'd by reason for your beauty's sake.""",Empire,2011-07-27 19:59:22 UTC,2004-06-01 00:00:00 UTC,Front Matter,"","There's a true picture!--how do ye like it, ladies?
How is the light? and how do ye think the shade is?
A copy hence our simple girl may make;
Unless she should this wiser counsel take,
Be rul'd by reason for your beauty's sake.
Reason still gives to radiant eyes their grace,
Warren's imperial milk--for ev'ry face.
Beauty, ye fair, may forge the lover's chain;
But the mind's charms your empire must maintain.
",2011-07-27,Searching in HDIS (Drama)
5306,"",14241,"""Hope and fear alternate rising, / Strive for empire o'er my heart.""","",2009-09-14 19:40:22 UTC,2004-08-16 00:00:00 UTC,"Act I, scene x","•Dating is strange. Date given as ""1748 [1768]."" I'm interpreting this as a corrected misprint.","CLARISSA.
How easy to direct the conduct of others, how hard to regulate our own! I can give my friend advice, while I am conscious of the same indiscretions in myself. Yet is it criminal to know the most worthy, most amiable man in the world, and not be insensible to his merit? But my father, the kindest, best of fathers, will he approve the choice I have made? Nay, has he not made another choice for me? And, after all, how can I be sure that the man I love, loves me again? He never told me so; but his looks, his actions, his present anxiety sufficiently declare what his delicacy, his generosity will not suffer him to utter: it is my part then to speak first.--
Hope and fear alternate rising,
Strive for empire o'er my heart;
Ev'ry peril now despising,
Now at ev'ry breath I start.
Teach, ye learned sages, teach me,
How to stem this beating tide:
If you've any rules to reach me,
Haste, and be the weak one's guide.
Thus, our trial's at a distance,
Wisdom, science, promise aid;
But in need of their assistance,
We attempt to grasp a shade.",2009-06-15,"Searching ""empire"" and ""heart"" in HDIS (Drama)"
5534,"",14803,"""Once love gets into a man's head, poor reason is brought before a court-martial of the passions, and cashiered without a hearing""",Court,2009-09-14 19:41:58 UTC,2004-11-10 00:00:00 UTC,"",•INTEREST. Great metaphor of mind.,"MEADOWS.
And do you think she'll listen to me?
CANTEEN.
I'm sure of it, Sir; I'd stake my life to a cartouch box, that your letters from camp have been intercepted, and some damn'd story trump'd up by that old villain her guardian, to make her marry his own son.
MEADOWS.
It must be so, my Sophia otherwise could never have forgot me.
CANTEEN.
It must be so! Lord, Sir, if you were not so much in love, it would appear to you as plain as a pike-staff; but when once love gets into a man's head, poor reason is brought before a court- martial of the passions, and cashiered without a hearing.
MEADOWS.
But it will be necessary to apprise Sophia of this, if I can by any means convey a letter to her.
CANTEEN.
A light breaks in upon me; I met a little flower girl standing at the inn-door, as fresh, and as blooming as the sweetest rose in her basket-- Don't you imagine a letter may be conveyed by her into the garrison?",,Searching court and reason in HDIS (Drama)
5617,Ruling Passion,15031,Play [gambling] may be a ruling passion,"",2009-09-14 19:42:35 UTC,2004-06-01 00:00:00 UTC,Act I,•First performed 2 April 1785.,"LADY FLIPPANT SAVAGE
And wou'd you have me accessary to the ruin of a young creature?
CHEATERLY
There is no ruin intended;--I have open'd my mind to the lady,--Sir Buzzard is my friend, and I only solicit your interest; I would marry Constance.
LADY FLIPPANT SAVAGE
No ruin intended! could a greater curse befal a young creature than to marry you! --who are you, Sir?
CHEATERLY
Who am I, madam! a gentleman.
LADY FLIPPANT SAVAGE
I don't mean to asperse your birth, Sir; but is not your ruling passion play; your principal dependance cards and dice; your most intimate connections jockies, grooms, game-cocks, and race-horses? I am surprized you could look up to her.
CHEATERLY
My fortune and family entitle me to look up to any woman.",,"Searching HDIS for ""ruling passion"""
5649,Ruling Passion,15100,Love of admiration may be a ruling passion,"",2009-09-14 19:42:46 UTC,2004-06-01 00:00:00 UTC,"Act IV, scene iv","•Play is ""Dedicated to Mrs. Montague."" First performed 18 November 1786.","COUNT PIERPONT
Monsieur Oldstock.
SIR OLIVER OLDSTOCK
Count Pierpoint, no apologies: I am not at all angry with you, nor do I entertain any suspicion of my wife--Love of admiration is her ruling passion; and as long as she lives, she'll fancy herself an object of that admiration.
COUNT PIERPONT
Vous savez très bien my passion pour Mademoiselle Harriet.
SIR OLIVER OLDSTOCK
I know every thing--I now see your view, in all this attention to Lady Oldstock: you imprudently made her your enemy, not knowing her character; but you have very wisely rectified your mistake.--You see, Count, I'm a keen old fellow; I haven't liv'd for nothing so many years in the world.
COUNT PIERPONT
Mon Dieu! vous etes un Machiavel.",,"Searching HDIS for ""ruling passion"""
6224,"",19386,"""Yet, why repine? What, though by bonds confined, / Should bonds enslave the vigour of the mind?""",Fetters,2012-01-06 20:01:40 UTC,2012-01-06 20:01:40 UTC,"Act I, Scene i","","RECITATIVE
Yet, why repine? What, though by bonds confined,
Should bonds enslave the vigour of the mind?
Have we not cause for triumph when we see
Ourselves alone from idol-worship free?
Are not this very day those rites begun,
Where prostrate error hails the rising sun?
Do not our tyrant lords this day ordain
For superstition's rites and mirth profane?
And should we mourn? should coward virtue fly,
When impious folly rears her front on high?
No; rather let us triumph still the more,
And as our fortune sinks, our wishes soar.
(I.i)",,"Searching ""bond"" and ""mind"" in HDIS (Poetry)"
7586,"",22165,"""Assist me, Furies, with your hellish Aid, / Nor let the Tyrant Conscience more invade; / Since I am stain'd with Blood, thro' Blood I'll wade.""",Empire,2013-08-15 23:38:57 UTC,2013-08-15 23:38:57 UTC,"Act IV, scene i","","SEJANUS
WHY are my Thoughts still ministring fresh Pain?
Why are new Cares still rank'ling in my Mind?
Nature aloud calls out for balmy Rest,
But all in vain. My ever waking Soul,
Sits brooding o'er a Train of Images,
That constant rise in terrible Array,
And shrink my Resolution into Fears.
But wherefore should vain Fancies thus appall?
Is not an Empire subject to my Rule?
Have I not all that Fortune could bestow;
In ev'ry Thing but Name, an Emperor!
Is not Ambition glutted with my Store?
And yet that faithful Mirror of the Mind,
Reflection, still a gloomy Prospect shews.
Remorse the Raven of a guilty Mind,
Is ever croaking horrid in my Ear;
Often I rouse to banish it away,
But the Tormentor still returns again,
And like PROMETHES' Vulture, ever gnaws.
What then is Glory, without soft Repose?
If sweet Content is banish'd from my Soul,
Life grows a Burden, and a Weight of Woe.
Oh! that I could run o'er my Race again,
Then would I chuse to tread the humble Vale,
Nor lab'ring climb up Greatness painful Hill.
But my past Deeds have set me beyond Cure,
And I must still go on or worse endure.
Assist me, Furies, with your hellish Aid,
Nor let the Tyrant Conscience more invade;
Since I am stain'd with Blood, thro' Blood I'll wade.
(IV.i, p. 37)",,Searching in ECCO-TCP
7657,"",22601,"""Infernal Jealousy! thou foe to rest, / Despotic ruler in the female breast, / Of Love begot, unnatural, and dire, / Thou prey'st upon the vitals of thy fire.""","",2013-08-26 03:56:46 UTC,2013-08-26 03:56:46 UTC,"","","PHOEBUS.
Infernal Jealousy! thou foe to rest,
Despotic ruler in the female breast,
Of Love begot, unnatural, and dire,
Thou prey'st upon the vitals of thy fire.
But, see! she comes, whom no such pangs excite,
The harbinger of ev'ry dear delight;
She comes, like teeming Spring along the plain,
Youth, Plenty, Health, and Pleasure, in her train.
(I.iv, p. 17)",,ECCO-TCP
7778,"",23244,"""Is human nature exil'd from thy breast?""","",2013-11-18 04:54:36 UTC,2013-11-18 04:54:36 UTC,Act II,"","MANDANE.
And can it then be true?
Is human nature exil'd from thy breast?
Art thou, indeed, so barb'rous?--
(II, p. 30)",,LION