"'Behold, what is woman!' said he--'The slave of her passions, the dupe of her senses! When pride and revenge speak in her breast, she defies obstacles, and laughs at crimes!'" "Assail but her senses; let music, for instance, touch some feeble chord of her heart, and echo to her fancy, and lo! all her perceptions change"

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Cadell and Davies
Date
1797
Metaphor
"'Behold, what is woman!' said he--'The slave of her passions, the dupe of her senses! When pride and revenge speak in her breast, she defies obstacles, and laughs at crimes!'" "Assail but her senses; let music, for instance, touch some feeble chord of her heart, and echo to her fancy, and lo! all her perceptions change"
Metaphor in Context
Schedoni was scarcely less disturbed, but his were emotions of apprehension and contempt. 'Behold, what is woman!' said he--'The slave of her passions, the dupe of her senses! When pride and revenge speak in her breast, she defies obstacles, and laughs at crimes! Assail but her senses; let music, for instance, touch some feeble chord of her heart, and echo to her fancy, and lo! all her perceptions change: - she shrinks from the act she had but an instant before believed meritorious, yields to some new emotion, and sinks - the victim of a sound! O, weak and contemptible being!'
(II.iv, p. 207)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
At least 7 entries in the ESTC (1797)

Radcliffe, Ann. The Italian, ed. Robert Miles (New York: Penguin, 2000). <Google Books: vol. I, vol. II, vol. III>
Date of Entry
06/04/2013

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