"Unwilling to condemn, thy soul disdains / To wear vile faction's arbitrary chains."
— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
Place of Publication
London
Date
1763
Metaphor
"Unwilling to condemn, thy soul disdains / To wear vile faction's arbitrary chains."
Metaphor in Context
Mean, narrow maxims which enslave mankind,
Ne'er from its bias warp thy settled mind:
Not duped by party nor opinion's slave,
Those faculties which bounteous nature gave
Thy honest spirit into practice brings,
Nor courts the smile, nor dreads the frown of kings,
Let rude, licentious Englishmen comply
With tumult's voice, and curse they know not why;
Unwilling to condemn, thy soul disdains
To wear vile faction's arbitrary chains,
And strictly weighs, in apprehension clear,
Things as they are, and not as they appear.
With thee good-humour tempers lively wit;
Enthron'd with judgment, candour loves to sit,
And nature gave thee, open to distress,
A heart to pity, and a hand to bless.
Ne'er from its bias warp thy settled mind:
Not duped by party nor opinion's slave,
Those faculties which bounteous nature gave
Thy honest spirit into practice brings,
Nor courts the smile, nor dreads the frown of kings,
Let rude, licentious Englishmen comply
With tumult's voice, and curse they know not why;
Unwilling to condemn, thy soul disdains
To wear vile faction's arbitrary chains,
And strictly weighs, in apprehension clear,
Things as they are, and not as they appear.
With thee good-humour tempers lively wit;
Enthron'd with judgment, candour loves to sit,
And nature gave thee, open to distress,
A heart to pity, and a hand to bless.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "faction" and "soul" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 6 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1763, 1764, 1765, 1766, 1767, 1769, 1772, 1774, 1776, 1780, 1783, 1790, 1800).
See The Prophecy of Famine. A Scots Pastoral. By C. Churchill. Inscribed to John Wilkes, Esq. (London : printed for the author, and sold by G. Kearsly, in Ludgate-Street, 1763). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Poems of Charles Churchill: ed. James Laver ([London]: The King's Printers, 1933). <Link to LION>
See The Prophecy of Famine. A Scots Pastoral. By C. Churchill. Inscribed to John Wilkes, Esq. (London : printed for the author, and sold by G. Kearsly, in Ludgate-Street, 1763). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Poems of Charles Churchill: ed. James Laver ([London]: The King's Printers, 1933). <Link to LION>
Date of Entry
08/24/2004
Date of Review
05/23/2011
