"Learn hence, that husbands will be blind / To every beauty but the mind; / Great Venus there should hold her court; / should the Loves and Graces sport / There rapture beam'd in every feature, / Bound by that Cestus, called Good Nature."
— Dibdin, Charles (bap. 1745, d. 1814)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1783
Metaphor
"Learn hence, that husbands will be blind / To every beauty but the mind; / Great Venus there should hold her court; / should the Loves and Graces sport / There rapture beam'd in every feature, / Bound by that Cestus, called Good Nature."
Metaphor in Context
RECITATIVE.
VENUS.
Thus have we proved it never happens,
That ornament and outward trappings,
Can make on the heart the least impression,
Much less secure a fix'd possession.
Our Jove here has been long time married,
Yet his wife's fondness had miscarried;
Each thing in life she did was wrong,
Until she kindly--held her tongue.
Learn hence, that husbands will be blind
To every beauty but the mind;
Great Venus there should hold her court;
There should the Loves and Graces sport;
There rapture beam'd in every feature,
Bound by that Cestus, called Good Nature.
(p. 23)
VENUS.
Thus have we proved it never happens,
That ornament and outward trappings,
Can make on the heart the least impression,
Much less secure a fix'd possession.
Our Jove here has been long time married,
Yet his wife's fondness had miscarried;
Each thing in life she did was wrong,
Until she kindly--held her tongue.
Learn hence, that husbands will be blind
To every beauty but the mind;
Great Venus there should hold her court;
There should the Loves and Graces sport;
There rapture beam'd in every feature,
Bound by that Cestus, called Good Nature.
(p. 23)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in ECCO-TCP
Citation
3 entries in ESTC (1783, 1784).
The Cestus: A Serenata. Performed at the Royal Circus, in St. George's Fields. (London: 1783). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
The Cestus: A Serenata. Performed at the Royal Circus, in St. George's Fields. (London: 1783). <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
04/29/2014
