Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	author_n	person_n	write_v	1,696	5	5.4406	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57235	Raillerie a la mode consider'd, or, The supercilious detractor a joco-serious discourse, shewing the open impertinence and degenerosity of publishing private pecques and controversies to the world : occasionally written to a young gentleman, to shew the odium of this ingentile humour, and to direct him in the best choice of men and books.		1673 (1673)	Wing R139; ESTC R217762	15,251	90

in to your opinion and favour than by this treacherous way of traducing others to you Nor would I have you over apt to lissen to or trust him that fain would be tickling you with adulatory praise of your parts and qualities especially if the Party be a stranger to you and one that you never any ways had obliged before for 't is common with some sort of men to put on a fawning familiarity upon the first Acquaintance they have with any one to make lavish offers of Friendship and service to you Sir I say take good heed of such a one least there be as 't is odds if there be not some Sting of Design at the end of their Tail Besides what can sound more harsh or untunable in the Ear of the generous wise or modest than to hear an Encomiastick Harangue or Elogy of Praise personally addrest to his Face Musick fit for none but Fools to caper at alas they must be but silly Trouts that will be so tickled to death The saying of Tully ought to be every true Gentleman's Nolo esse lauditor ne videar Adulator Now for ought you know this great Praise may be but Ironice prodere Famam the Man that speaks so so may possibly mean nothing less but the quite contrary but be sure he that hath any Sense will not be imposed on at this rate but will soon find it out and know how to retort it in the like Language But on the other side where this kind of Flattery on both sides takes as said sadly really and indeed then cannot there be more pleasant Diversion than to see two Asses bray out Applauses to one another This is Mulus mulum scabit or Kee me and I 'le kee thee as the old Proverb speaks But certain it is none can be flattered of another till he first flatter himself One may observe a sort of Natural Rhetorick even among the Common Professors of the Art of Railling they have their Figures Graces and Ornaments peculiar to their kind of Speech though they do not distinguish or use them Grammatically by the Names of Sarcasmus Asteismus Micterismus Antiphrasis Charientismus or Ironia yet have they their Dry Bobs their Broad Flouts Bitter Taunts their Fleering Frumps and Privy Nips Besides the use of their admirable Art of Canting they have a cunning way of Jeering accusing others by justifying themselves and saying I never did or by asking the Question general Who did so and so Why who did you Whore cries ' tother did I and so the Game begins but by this evasive way of Abuse they will be sure to keep wide off the Law 's Tenter-hooks Thus you see there is none can come out Master of this Art that hath not been brought up at Billingsgate for only there are found the best Proficients of this kind which while some of our Authors are but the bashful Imitators alas see how far they fall short of the true force and efficacy that is to be found in the perfection of this Faculty But I have deviated a while from my first discourse giving you the fore-going Reflections I now come again to consider the end of Writing and what is most commendable The principal end of Reading is I am sure to enrich the Mind and doubtless that is the best Work where the Graces and the Muses meet But where every Man thinks what he lists speaks what he thinks writes what he speaks and prints what he writes from such kind of scribling carried on by a frantick Figgary I do not well apprehend what Advantage can in the least accrue one way or other to the Readers either to the enriching their Discourse or advancing their Knowledg Nor is it easie to conceive the drift or design of this odd fantastick way of writing without the help of a skilful Interpreter they having more need of Notes and a Comment than the History of Don Quixot without which you shall be no more able to apprehend our Author than capable to carry off the Intregue of one of our Now-adayes Comedies so hard it is to force the Poetick Fire out of their flinty Inventions The Treasury of Wit being of late so close look'd up in the Wild Meanders of our present Muses that he that has not the Court-key of the newest forge shall hardly be the better for 't I cannot tell how this way of Writing comes to be now the Mode that so much obtains I mean of Detracting and Traducing Persons for I do not remember the Ingenious Author of the Book called Reflections upon the Eloquence of the Bar and Pulpit so much as once mentions much less commends this manner of writing or speaking as either modish modest or decent but gives this Gentle Lash to the Users of it That nothing of that kind is entertained with effect when too personally addrest and that though with civility we may glance at yet may we not without rudeness and ill manners too openly stare upon the faults or imperfections of any Person Detraction is an old Vice although it be but newly come into request among us again It was the sin of Haman against Mordecai of Saul against David of Iezabel against Naboth and there are whole Psalms of Execration for this Sin I find an old Poet of ours Gower Declaiming against this Vice in this manner Invidiae pars est Detractio pessima pestem Quae magis infamem flatibus oris agit Lingua venenato sermone repercuit aures Sic ut in alterius scandala fama volat Morsibus a tergo quos inficit ipsa fideles Vulneris ignoti sepe salute carent Sed generosus Amor linguam conservat ut ejus Verbum quod loquitur nulla sinistra gerat This honest old Author sets out this Vice in this sort by way of Admonition Euer kepe thou thy tonge stylle Thou myzt the more have of thy wille If that thy self art envyous Thou shalt not be gracious As thou parauentur sholdest be elles Ther wol no man drink of the welles Whiche as he wote is poyson ynne And ofte such as men begynne Towards other suche as they fynde That set hem ofte fer behynde When that they wenen be byfore My good sone and thou therefore Beware and leue thy wycked speche Whereof hath fallen ofte wretche To many a man byfore this time For who so wol his hands lyme They must be the more unclene For many a mote shall be sene That wol not elles cleue there And that shold euery wise man fere For who so wol another blame He se kyth ofte his owne shame Which else might be right stylle c. Now should I go about to Paint a Detractor forth in his proper Colours or to Draw every Feature of Deformity in his Face I fear in the first place I should find my Ink not Black enough to Paint so Foul a Monster nor could a Man have Courage enough to Draw the Devil without the Security of some Good Guardian

Raillerie a la Mode CONSIDER'D OR THE SUPERCILIOUS DETRACTOR A Joco-serious Discourse shewing the open Impertinence and Degenerosity of Publishing Private Pecques and Controversies to the World Occasionally Written To a Young Gentleman to shew the Odium of this Ingentile Humour and to direct him in the best choice of Men and Books Multi cum alijs maledicunt sibi ipsis convicium faciunt Seneca LONDON Printed by T. R. and N. T. for Henry Million at the Bible in Fleetstreet MDCIXXIII THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER Generous Reader FOR such I would have thee to be to Answer the true Design of these few Sheets First occasionally writ by way of Advice to a Young Gentleman abroad and I humbly conceive not unseasonable to any that make pretence to that Name or Quality It teaches true Curtisie Charity Civility and the Duty of Good Language which we owe unto all Men which are indeed the Supreme Points of Generosity Policy Christianity as well as of Moral Virtues among such as approve and practice them You have here the Character of a Detractor accurately drawn forth and Detected through all his Protean Shapes and Disguises with the true Imbelishments that should adorn a Bred and Worthy Man whereby your self are left to judge which of these are most amiable when you behold both their Pictures here set before you These Lines were purposely set to pull up this Croking Mandrake Detraction from amongst us and to root deed is this strictly so for it is no more than the Old mad Humor of the Cobler of Glocester new Vampt And lest you may not perhaps have seen enough by the Books themselves I have at your desire sent you I shall take a little pains to give you my Sense of the present sort of Writing to shew you as seasonable to your Young and Inconversant Years the Ridiculousness Incivility and Inhumanity of it in a few short and sober Reflexions on this Publick Piece of Folly which does but indeed render us the mere Ludibrium and May-game of Strangers it is a fashion so illy introduced among us It is a Vitious sort of Buffoonry that this mistaken Age is ready to cry up for a high acquir'd Ornament and Piece of Refin'd Education while a sober Judgment or modest Innocence is as much mistook and exploded for meer Dulness and Ignorance He that can abuse another handsomely is presently applauded for a shrewd Wit a notable Man which indeed imports no better than an abusive K as a good harmless honest Man is but the better word for a Fool. It is indeed Sir much my satisfaction that your Retir'd inclination hath so happily setled you for your seasoning time so commodiously remote from the Corrupt Converse of a great part of this Infectious Town And I assure you that I think it altogether my Duty to be as careful that no Contagious Subjects come intrudingly to your hands and would also advise you to be as cautious of receiving any as many were of London-Letters the last Great Pestilence here amongst us Pray take this Advice as from a Friend that most unfeignedly Loves and Tenders you and be sure ever to Choose your Bookes as you would your Acquaintance i. e. let them be few choise and reputable You cannot well complain you want good Company when you are not withont good Authors to converse with and that too at the best Advantage as I take it their Writings being for the most part much the best of them compar'd with their common converse and personal society When you are soberly contemplative your Companion is still at hand to entertain your Humor when your thoughts incline you another way then have you others to divert you and when you are weary of all at last you may take down Apollo's Lute and refresh your fancy with the most pleasing and not unprofitable strains of Poetry English or others But truly to Buy or Read these Cudgel-playing Books is but to make Billings-gate your Diversion or to know the best way how to give bad Language 't is no better than downright Railing Frenchisi'd into Raillerie a la mode Beside the smart Itch of Writing and Replying in this New Canting Drolling Way made up of a few fugitive Expressions I am sure he that gives himself up to this must at once licentiously let go the Rains of his Sobriety Reason and Religion to play at Have at All or to Write in a Refined sort of Frenzy For let his Rodamantadoes and Bombast be but unreachably Remote or Far-fought as we commonly say and it will want nothing to make it off provided the Bookseller be but Wise. To be Witty at this Rate is certainly very Poor Pitiful as well as Spightful for any one to signalize himself by because every one that will sans regard assume this abominable abusive Liberty may as easily attain the accomplishment if any will have it one for as much as Mens Wits are naturally readier at this than any other Theme Yet though the Ape be never so curiously trick'd up he is still but the same so let such Works be set out in never so quaint Language yet what are they better then unsavory Breaths perfum'd a more precious kind of stink in the Nostrils of either the Judicious or Good and smell still too much of the Dunghil Declamations of the Schools studied Oppositions though by some they may be said smart or witty yet the order of their Design or Matters wherewith they meddle are very little Just or Conformable to the Precepts of good Morality Humanity or Christianity in any degree and so base and degenerate a Genius ought utterly to be abandon'd by the sober and civil sort of Mankind and of all that prosess and love Virtue as dissentaneous to the right Rules of true Generosity and as much beneath that Grandeur of a Christians high Profession which teaches Men not to revile and slander one another and forewarns them from being Busie-bodies in other Mens matters Some Men in the heat of Humor while the letcherous Itch lasts care not who they Traduce or Reflect upon so they can but do it handsomely in huggermugger Kings and Privy Councellors cannot scape them But could you peep through the Key-hole while he is in close Adultery in his Study with his Wanton Muse and let but a Mouse or the least Noise stir how he obrupty starts and rumples up the Naughty Sheets in more haste and confusion than the Gallant shifts the Scene of his private Debaucheries upon a dangerous surprize and when all is whist is presently at it again When 't is once delivered 't is presently pawn'd upon the Publick like a Brat upon the Parish the Incognito Parent standing by to observe how 't is received who railes with the rest against that which shame and danger dares not let him own for fear of Penance or a Whipping-post But 't were with such highly ridiculous to ask in St. Paul's Language What Profit have ye of those Things