"I've been surprized in an unguarded Hour, / But must not now go back: The Love, that lay / Half smother'd in my Breast, has broke through all / Its weak Restraints, and burn's in its full Lustre, / I cannot, if I wou'd, conceal it from thee."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)


Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Tonson
Date
1713
Metaphor
"I've been surprized in an unguarded Hour, / But must not now go back: The Love, that lay / Half smother'd in my Breast, has broke through all / Its weak Restraints, and burn's in its full Lustre, / I cannot, if I wou'd, conceal it from thee."
Metaphor in Context
MARCUS.
I've been surprized in an unguarded Hour,
But must not now go back: The Love, that lay
Half smother'd in my Breast, has broke through all
Its weak Restraints, and burn's in its full Lustre,
I cannot, if I wou'd, conceal it from thee.
(IV.i, p. 49)
Provenance
C-H Lion
Citation
First performed April, 1713; 8 editions that year. Over one 120 entries in the ESTC (1713, 1716, 1718, 1721, 1722, 1725, 1726, 1728, 1730, 1732, 1733, 1734, 1735, 1736, 1737, 1739, 1744, 1745, 1746, 1748, 1749, 1750, 1752, 1753, 1754, 1755, 1756, 1757, 1758, 1761, 1763, 1764, 1765, 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1793, 1795, 1799, 1800).

See Cato. A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, By Her Majesty's Servants. By Mr. Addison. (London: Printed for J. Tonson, 1713). <Link to ECCO-TCP> <Link to Google Books>

Reading also Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays, ed. by Christine Dunn Henderson and Mark E. Yellin, with a Foreword by Forrest McDonald (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2004).
Date of Entry
07/21/2013

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