"Mr. Fitzpatrick would never have found sufficient Opportunities to have engaged my Heart, which, in other Circumstances, I still flatter myself would not have been an easy Conquest to such a Person."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for A. Millar
Date
1749
Metaphor
"Mr. Fitzpatrick would never have found sufficient Opportunities to have engaged my Heart, which, in other Circumstances, I still flatter myself would not have been an easy Conquest to such a Person."
Metaphor in Context
'The very next Day, my Aunt left the Place, partly to avoid seeing Mr. Fitzpatrick or my self, and as much perhaps to avoid seeing any one else; for, tho' I am told she hath since denied every thing stoutly, I believe she was then a little confounded at her Disappointment. Since that Time, I have written to her many Letters; but never could obtain an Answer, which I must own sits somewhat the heavier, as she herself was, tho' undesignedly, the Occasion of all my Sufferings: For had it not been under the Colour of paying his Addresses to her, Mr. Fitzpatrick would never have found sufficient Opportunities to have engaged my Heart, which, in other Circumstances, I still flatter myself would not have been an easy Conquest to such a Person. Indeed, I believe, I should not have erred so grosly in my Choice, if I had relied on my own Judgment; but I trusted totally to the Opinion of others, and very foolishly took the Merit of a Man for granted, whom I saw so universally well received by the Women. What is the Reason, my Dear, that we who have Understandings equal to the wisest and greatest of the other Sex so often make Choice of the silliest Fellows for Companions and Favourites? It raises my Indignation to the highest Pitch, to reflect on the Numbers of Women of Sense who have been undone by Fools.' Here she paused a Moment; but Sophia making no Answer, she proceeded as in the next Chapter.
(pp. 350-1)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "conque" and "heart" in HDIS (Prose)
Citation
Over 75 entries in the ESTC (1749, 1750, 1751, 1759, 1763, 1764, 1765, 1766, 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1780, 1782, 1783, 1784, 1786, 1787, 1789, 1791, 1792, 1794, 1795, 1797, 1800).

See The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes. By Henry Fielding. (London: Printed for A. Millar, 1749). <Link to ECCO><Link to LION>

See also three-volume Dublin edition in ECCO-TCP <Link to Vol. I in ECCO-TCP><Vol. II><Vol. III>

Reading The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. Norton Critical Edition, ed. Sheridan W. Baker. (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1973).

Also reading Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, eds. John Bender and Simon Stern (Oxford: OUP, 1996).
Date of Entry
09/29/2004

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