"The very idea was a dagger to my heart!"

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for T. Lowndes
Date
1778, 1779
Metaphor
"The very idea was a dagger to my heart!"
Metaphor in Context
The very idea was a dagger to my heart!--I could not support it, and--but I blush to proceed--I fear your disapprobation, yet I should not be conscious of having merited it, but that the repugnance I feel to relate to you what I have done, makes me suspect I must have erred. Will you forgive me, if I own that I have first written an account of this transaction to Miss Mirvan?--and that I even thought of concealing it from you?--Short-lived, however, was the ungrateful idea, and sooner will I risk the justice of your displeasure, than unworthily betray your generous confidence.
(II, p. 63)
Categories
Provenance
Searching ECCO-TCP
Citation
23 entries in ESTC (1778, 1780, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1788, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1796, 1797, 1800).

See Evelina, or, a Young Lady's Entrance into the World (London: Printed for T. Lowndes, 1778). <Link to LION>

Text also drawn from Evelina: or, a Young Lady's Entrance into the World. (Dublin: Printed for Messrs. Price, Corcoran, R. Cross, Fitzsimons, W. Whitestone [etc.], 1779). <Link to Vol. I in ECCO-TCP><Vol. II>

Reading Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World, ed. Margaret Doody (New York: Penguin, 1994). Note, Doody uses the third edition, published in 1779, as her copy-text.
Date of Entry
07/23/2014

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