"The flannel Crew / With cunning joy the fond repentance view, / Pronounce Him bless'd, his miracles proclaim, / Teach the slight croud t' adore his hallow'd name, / Exalt his praise above the Saints of old, / And coin his sinking conscience into Gold."

— Walpole, Horatio [Horace], fourth earl of Orford (1717-1797)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by J. Hughs, for R. Dodsley
Date
w. 1740, 1748
Metaphor
"The flannel Crew / With cunning joy the fond repentance view, / Pronounce Him bless'd, his miracles proclaim, / Teach the slight croud t' adore his hallow'd name, / Exalt his praise above the Saints of old, / And coin his sinking conscience into Gold."
Metaphor in Context
Some hoary Hypocrite, grown old in sin,
Whose thoughts of heav'n with his last hours begin,
Counting a chaplet with a bigot care,
And mumbling somewhat 'twixt a charm and pray'r,
Hugs a dawb'd image of his injur'd Lord,
And squeezes out on the dull idol-board
A sore-ey'd gum of tears; the flannel Crew
With cunning joy the fond repentance view,
Pronounce Him bless'd, his miracles proclaim,
Teach the slight croud t' adore his hallow'd name,
Exalt his praise above the Saints of old,
And coin his sinking conscience into Gold.

(p. 75)
Provenance
Searching in ECCO-TCP
Citation
At least 11 entries in ECCO and ESTC (1748, 1751, 1755, 1758, 1763, 1765, 1766, 1775, 1782, 1789, 1798).

Written in the Year 1740. First published as "An Epistle from Florence. To T. A. Esq Tutor to the Earl of P--." See descriptions as "An Epistle from Florence. To Thomas Ashton, Esq. Tutor to the Earl of Plymouth." Manuscripts in Lewis Walpole Library and Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge.

Text from A Collection of Poems in Three Volumes. By Several Hands. (London: Printed by J. Hughs, for R. Dodsley, 1748). <Link to ECCO-TCP>

Found also in Fugitive Pieces in Verse and Prose (1758) and Bell's Fugitive Poetry (1789).
Date of Entry
11/10/2013

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