"Thy gentle Temper, / Is form'd with Passions mixt in due Proportion, / Where no one overbears nor plays the Tyrant, / But join in Nature's Business, and thy Happiness: / While mine disdaining Reason and her Laws, / Like all thou can'st imagine wild and furious, / Now drive me head-long on, now whirl me back, / And hurry my unstable flitting Soul / Ev'ry mad Extream."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Bernard Lintott
Date
1715
Metaphor
"Thy gentle Temper, / Is form'd with Passions mixt in due Proportion, / Where no one overbears nor plays the Tyrant, / But join in Nature's Business, and thy Happiness: / While mine disdaining Reason and her Laws, / Like all thou can'st imagine wild and furious, / Now drive me head-long on, now whirl me back, / And hurry my unstable flitting Soul / Ev'ry mad Extream."
Metaphor in Context
EARL OF PEMBROKE.
Ha! coud'st thou bear it?
And yet perhaps thou might'st. Thy gentle Temper,
Is form'd with Passions mixt in due Proportion,
Where no one overbears nor plays the Tyrant,
But join in Nature's Business, and thy Happiness:
While mine disdaining Reason and her Laws,
Like all thou can'st imagine wild and furious,
Now drive me head-long on, now whirl me back,
And hurry my unstable flitting Soul
Ev'ry mad Extream.
Then Pity me,
And let my Weakness stand.--
(I.i, p. 7)
Provenance
C-H Lion
Citation
First performed April 20, 1715. 33 entries in the ESTC (1715, 1717, 1718, 1719, 1720, 1727, 1730, 1733, 1735, 1736, 1740, 1744, 1748, 1750, 1754, 1755, 1761, 1764, 1771, 1774, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1782, 1791)

See The Tragedy Of The Lady Jane Gray. As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane. By N. Rowe (London: Printed for Bernard Lintott, 1715). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
07/21/2013

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