The Vanity of Human Wishes

Abstract

The key image of The Vanity of Human Wishes is the image of the portrait in the golden frame. It comes in the section which concerns itself with the vain wish for political success (ll. 73–120). The section includes a description of the rise and fall of a generalised ‘statesman’; and then a brief narrative of the career of Wolsey; the historical narrative closely echoing the pattern of the general, fictitious one.

Keywords

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