Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	king_n	power_n	supremacy_n	2,252	5	10.5244	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44628	The six days adventure, or, The new Utopia a comedy as it is acted at his Royal Highness the Duke of York's theatre.	Howard, Edward, fl. 1669.	1671 (1671)	Wing H2974; ESTC R16302	64,652	106

be little credit to their judgments or their Playing if the latter were not in some kind suitable to that wit which has rather the good fortune to be receiv'd than good in it self The humour of the age is so much inclin'd to favour low and farcelike Mimikry together with common place wit not less undervaluing the Stage than the other frequently observ'd from discourse in Taverns French-houses Coffee-houses together with the loose and debauch'd carriages of men and women put together not considering that the wit and beauty of Poesy consist rather in manners feign'd than in such of vulgar observation amongst men that this Comedy the humours of which are more remote and Satyrical could not in reason meet with an applause equal to the former which though I take to be in some part its commendation I shall not so far justifie it as not to give the Reader necessary satisfaction in what he may misconceive from the report or misapprehension of others In order to which before I speak of the parts against which I can gather any objection lyes I will say something of the design which is the foundation of a Play the deficiency whereof doth render all Dramatique compositions neither profitable nor pleasant like a structure that is rais'd upon an unsound foundation though there be never so many supporters applied of wit to keep it from falling it will be observ'd so leaning and tottering that it cannot be worthy of the Architecture of the Muses who are too much the Daughters of Science to admit incongruity and error in their works And as to the contrivance of this Play that it was new its greatest adversaries will not I suppose deny I wish they could say as much in behalf of Plays they most esteem that it was not improper I shall as easily manifest For what can be objected against my introducing the several common-wealths of men and women grounded on suppos'd custome by affirming it to be novel and consequently unalowable the objection is not at all solid because it is not more impossible that such a manner of rule might be practis'd than that there were Amazons in one or more parts of the world if we will believe Authors who had a supremacy over men obtain'd by force of law or power or at some time or other conferr'd on their ambition by a prevalent indulgence to that sex or that some Countreys at this day admit of Queens as well as Kings and perhaps it is more the authority of usage and manners than the law of nature which does generally incapacitate the Rule of women there being not seldome to be found as great abilities in them allowing for the disadvantage they have in not being suitably educated to letters as are to be observ'd in men of greatest comprehensions But this is suggested not disputed here their characters in this Play being rather made use of to confirm the judgement and practice of the world in rendring them more properly the weaker Sex than to authorize their government though the ambition of that Sex as likewise the value they are apt enough to allow themselves may call it a severe policy but women have small reason to complain if for their greater honour their beauty and other attractions give them not seldom such a superintendent esteem that they command in many respects without being oblig'd to power and law no less absolutely than men But enough of this particular For the Characters of this Play I find those of Foppering and Peacock occasion'd some scrupulous or inconsiderate spectators to make more than needful objections against them not but I conceive that there are few characters in the most approved Plays which keep so strict a decorum with nature and reason as that there cannot be observ'd any incongruities in them Wherefore I shall not so far undertake their vindication but rather shew how they were usefully to have been receiv'd in order to what was to be expressed by them And first for Foppering in whose Character the reader will observe a Satyre against lyars heightn'd by several degrees of traducing of truth not that every common Lyar keeps that road or goes so high as the Moon for Fables which had not been necessary in his case strictly to resemble because it being satyrically intended against this exorbitancy in men it might be allow'd to be more bold with truth than they usually are by reason the higher in that case a Character is rais'd it is more comprehensive of whatsoever can fall under that notion as we see in his which doth not only correct vulgar lying but by an extravagancy of humour ascends to Astronomers whose faults could not have otherwise been touch'd as is instanc'd in their erroneous computations of the motions of the Moon well known to the learned The like may be said of the part of Peacock whose vanity of self-love is heightned to introduce that Satyr which is usefully designed against the impossibilities pretended by Chymists and he could be no otherwise than of an extraordinary humour to represent it for what had been common could not have done it And I differ from their judgments who think that whatsoever is not vulgarly observ'd amongst men to be therefore not Poetically allowable which if true the wit of Poetry were rather common-place and observation than invention in no case to be allow'd Wherefore there needs no practicable authority for every Character that is produced if what has been never before observ'd answer the design of the Author in being useful and corrective to manners the essential dignity of Comedy and without which it has small title to that name or desert besides a Satyr cannot be poetically expressed but it must be highly Hyperbolical as may be seen in those of Juvenal's as also in most of the comedies of Ben Jhonson in which are very many characters of no being amongst men as in his Devil 's an Ass Cinthio's Revels and others nay in his more exact one of the silent Woman I doubt not to affirm that there was never such a man as Morose who convers'd by a whisper through a Trunk but the Poets authority in that case is sufficient for what is not probable because it was an extravagancy well applyed to the humour of such a person which is sufficient to direct us that things may be allow'd in a Poetical sence which are not naturally so Who ever disputed against the wonders mention'd by the Poets the Metamorphosis of Ovid AEsop's Fables and the like by reason that the moral of them is more to be regarded than the truth which consideration has been the best and general authority of introducing of Fables wherefore to such as are different in opinion there needs no other reply but that they are little skill'd in the Muses and must be beholding to their ignorance for their excuse As there are few rules for the decision of wit so it has not always a dignity suitable to its desert nay very often so