"By heaven that thought / lifts up my kindling soul / With renovated fire."
— Murphy, Arthur (1727-1805)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
Printed for P. Vaillant
Publisher
London
Date
1759
Metaphor
"By heaven that thought / lifts up my kindling soul / With renovated fire."
Metaphor in Context
ZAPHIMRI, [lying on the ground; officers and guards behind him.]
Oh! cruel!--yet a moment--Barbarous Scythians!--
Wilt thou not open earth, and take me down,
Down to thy caverns of eternal darkness,
From this supreme of woe?--Here will I lie,
Here on thy flinty bosom,--with this breast
I'll harrow up my grave, and end at once
This pow'rless wretch,--this ignominious king!--
--And sleeps almighty Justice? Will it not
Now waken all its terrors?--arm yon band
Of secret heroes with avenging thunder?
By heaven that thought
[rising]
lifts up my kindling soul
With renovated fire
[aside.]
My glorious friends,
(Who now convene big with your country's fate,
When I am dead,--oh! give me just revenge--
Let not my shade rise unatton'd amongst ye;--
Let me not die inglorious;--make my fall
With some great act of yet unheard-of vengeance,
Resound throughout the world; that farthest Scythia
May stand appall'd at the huge distant roar
Of one vast ruin tumbling on the heads
Of this fell tyrant, and his hated race.
(IV, p. 72)
Oh! cruel!--yet a moment--Barbarous Scythians!--
Wilt thou not open earth, and take me down,
Down to thy caverns of eternal darkness,
From this supreme of woe?--Here will I lie,
Here on thy flinty bosom,--with this breast
I'll harrow up my grave, and end at once
This pow'rless wretch,--this ignominious king!--
--And sleeps almighty Justice? Will it not
Now waken all its terrors?--arm yon band
Of secret heroes with avenging thunder?
By heaven that thought
[rising]
lifts up my kindling soul
With renovated fire
[aside.]
My glorious friends,
(Who now convene big with your country's fate,
When I am dead,--oh! give me just revenge--
Let not my shade rise unatton'd amongst ye;--
Let me not die inglorious;--make my fall
With some great act of yet unheard-of vengeance,
Resound throughout the world; that farthest Scythia
May stand appall'd at the huge distant roar
Of one vast ruin tumbling on the heads
Of this fell tyrant, and his hated race.
(IV, p. 72)
Categories
Provenance
LION
Citation
First performed April 21, 1759. 10 entries in ESTC (1759, 1761, 1763, 1772, 1787, 1797).
Text from The Orphan of China, A Tragedy, As It Is Perform'd at the Theatre-Royal, in Drury-Lane. (London: Printed for P. Vaillant, 1759).
Text from The Orphan of China, A Tragedy, As It Is Perform'd at the Theatre-Royal, in Drury-Lane. (London: Printed for P. Vaillant, 1759).
Date of Entry
11/18/2013
