Dryden "Gave [Sigismunda] those griefs, which made the Stoic feel, / And call'd compassion forth from hearts of steel"
— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for the Author
Date
1763
Metaphor
Dryden "Gave [Sigismunda] those griefs, which made the Stoic feel, / And call'd compassion forth from hearts of steel"
Metaphor in Context
Poor Sigismunda! what a fate is thine!
Dryden, the great high-priest of all the Nine,
Revived thy name, gave what a Muse could give,
And in his numbers bade thy memory live;
Gave thee those soft sensations which might move
And warm the coldest anchorite to love;
Gave thee that virtue, which could curb desire,
Refine and consecrate love's headstrong fire;
Gave thee those griefs, which made the Stoic feel,
And call'd compassion forth from hearts of steel;
Gave thee that firmness, which our sex may shame,
And make man bow to woman's juster claim;
So that our tears, which from compassion flow,
Seem to debase thy dignity of woe.
But, O, how much unlike! how fallen! how changed!
How much from Nature and herself estranged!
How totally deprived of all the powers
To shew her feelings, and awaken ours,
Doth Sigismunda now devoted stand,
The helpless victim of a dauber's hand!
Dryden, the great high-priest of all the Nine,
Revived thy name, gave what a Muse could give,
And in his numbers bade thy memory live;
Gave thee those soft sensations which might move
And warm the coldest anchorite to love;
Gave thee that virtue, which could curb desire,
Refine and consecrate love's headstrong fire;
Gave thee those griefs, which made the Stoic feel,
And call'd compassion forth from hearts of steel;
Gave thee that firmness, which our sex may shame,
And make man bow to woman's juster claim;
So that our tears, which from compassion flow,
Seem to debase thy dignity of woe.
But, O, how much unlike! how fallen! how changed!
How much from Nature and herself estranged!
How totally deprived of all the powers
To shew her feelings, and awaken ours,
Doth Sigismunda now devoted stand,
The helpless victim of a dauber's hand!
Categories
Provenance
Searching "heart" and "steel" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
9 entries in ESTC (1763, 1765, 1766, 1769).
See An Epistle to William Hogarth, 2nd edition (London: Printed for the Author, 1763). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Poems of Charles Churchill, ed. James Laver. 2 vols. (London: The King's Printers, 1933).
See An Epistle to William Hogarth, 2nd edition (London: Printed for the Author, 1763). <Link to ESTC>
Text from Poems of Charles Churchill, ed. James Laver. 2 vols. (London: The King's Printers, 1933).
Date of Entry
06/09/2005
