"But that my Soul, conscious of whence it sprung, / Sits unpolluted in its sacred Temple, / And scorns to mingle with a Thought so mean."
— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Jacob Tonson
Date
1702
Metaphor
"But that my Soul, conscious of whence it sprung, / Sits unpolluted in its sacred Temple, / And scorns to mingle with a Thought so mean."
Metaphor in Context
ARPASIA.
Why sought'st thou not from thy own Impious Tribe
A Wife, like one of these; for such, thy Race
(If human Nature brings forth such) affords.
Greece, for chast Virgins fam'd, and pious Matrons,
Teems not with Monsters, like your Turkish Wives;
Whom guardian Eunuchs, haggard and deform'd,
Whom Walls and Bars make honest by constraint.
Know, I detest, like Hell, the Crime thou mention'st:
Not that I fear, or reverence thee, thou Tyrant:
But that my Soul, conscious of whence it sprung,
Sits unpolluted in its sacred Temple,
And scorns to mingle with a Thought so mean.
(IV.i, pp. 51-2)
Why sought'st thou not from thy own Impious Tribe
A Wife, like one of these; for such, thy Race
(If human Nature brings forth such) affords.
Greece, for chast Virgins fam'd, and pious Matrons,
Teems not with Monsters, like your Turkish Wives;
Whom guardian Eunuchs, haggard and deform'd,
Whom Walls and Bars make honest by constraint.
Know, I detest, like Hell, the Crime thou mention'st:
Not that I fear, or reverence thee, thou Tyrant:
But that my Soul, conscious of whence it sprung,
Sits unpolluted in its sacred Temple,
And scorns to mingle with a Thought so mean.
(IV.i, pp. 51-2)
Categories
Provenance
C-H Lion
Citation
Performed in December 1701. Over fifty entries in the ESTC (1702, 1703, 1714, 1717, 1719, 1720, 1722, 1723, 1725, 1726, 1728, 1733, 1735, 1736, 1744, 1750, 1755, 1757, 1758, 1764, 1766, 1770, 1771, 1772, 1774, 1776, 1778, 1784, 1790, 1792, 1795).
Text from Tamerlane. A Tragedy. As it is Acted At the New Theater in Little Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. By His Majesty's Servants. Written by N. Rowe (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1702). <Link to 2nd edition in Google Books>
Text from Tamerlane. A Tragedy. As it is Acted At the New Theater in Little Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. By His Majesty's Servants. Written by N. Rowe (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1702). <Link to 2nd edition in Google Books>
Date of Entry
07/17/2013
