Mistress Liberty, by George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax

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LIBERTY is the Mistress of Mankind, she hath powerful Charms which do so dazzle us, that we find Beauties in her which perhaps are not there, as we do in other Mistresses; yet if she was not a Beauty, the World would not run mad for her; therefore since the reasonable desire of it ought not to be restrain’d, and that even the unreasonable desire of it cannot be entirely suppress’d, those who would take it away from a People possessed of it, are likely to fail in the attempting, or be very unquiet in the keeping of it.

by George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax 1633-1693

From ‘The Complete Works of George Savile, First Marquess of Halifax’ (1912). The original spelling has been retained. The Character of a Trimmer was begun in 1685, but not published until 1688.

Précis

Halifax likened the desire for liberty to a man’s desire for his mistress. Her charms may be a little overrated, but they were enough to make it as foolish to outlaw liberty as to outlaw mistresses, and any attempt to do so would be perilous to attempt, and in the long run impossible to enforce.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Précis

Questions for Critics

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