by Coleridge · Cluster: Appearance vs Reality · Beauty · Eyes and Sight
Abstract
An epigram exposing a confessor’s hypocrisy in frequenting a courtesan, plus one on ‘Surface’ whose memory selectively forgets others’ worth; satire of clerical hypocrisy and self-deception.
Connections
Motifs: Sun Themes & Concepts: Satire of Society, Faith and Doubt, Appearance vs Reality, Lust Sexual Desire Forms & Genres: Epigram
Testo integrale / Full text
My father confessor is strict and holy,
Mi Fili, still he cries, peccare noli.
And yet how oft I find the pious man
At Annette’s door, the lovely courtesan!
Her soul’s deformity the good man wins
And not her charms! he comes to hear her sins!
Good father! I would fain not do thee wrong;
But ah! I fear that they who oft and long
Stand gazing at the sun, to count each spot,
Must sometimes find the sun itself too hot.
First published in Morning Post, Oct. 11, 1802.
When Surface talks of other people’s worth
He has the weakest memory on earth!
And when his own good deeds he deigns to mention,
His memory still is no whit better grown;
But then he makes up for it, all will own,
By a prodigious talent of invention.
First published in Morning Post, Oct. 11, 1802.