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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	author_n	print_v	write_v	2,056	5	5.4928	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67452	Letters and poems, amorous and gallant	Walsh, William, 1663-1708.	1692 (1692)	Wing W647; ESTC R8169	35,279	138

LETTERS AND POEMS AMOROUS AND GALLANT LONDON Printed for Iacob Tonson at the Iudge's-Head in Chancery-Lane near Fleet-Street 1692. PREFACE IT has been so usual among modern Authors to write Prefaces that a Man is thought rude to his Reader who does not give him some Account before hand of what he is to expect in the Book That which may make somewhat of this kind more necessary in my Case than others is That a great part of this Collection consists of familiar Letters which sort of Writings some Learned Persons among us have thought unfit to be publish'd It must be confess'd indeed that a great Beauty of Letters does often consist in little Passages of private Conversation and references to particular Matters that can be understood by none but those to whom they are written But to draw a general Conclusion from thence That familiar Letters can please none but those very Persons is to conclude against the common Experience of all the World since besides the great applauses have been given the Letters of Cicero and Pliny among the Romans we see no Book has been better received among the Spaniards than the Letters of Guevara or among the French than those of Voiture and Balsac Not to mention the Italians among whom there has been hardly any considerable Man who has not publish'd Letters with good Success What may have contributed very much to the kind Reception these things have met is that there is no sort of Writing so necessary for People to understand as this A Man may have a great deal of Wit without being able to write Verses or make Harangues and may live in very good repute without having occasion of doing either But a Man can hardly live in the World without being able to write Letters There is no state of Life in which a Faculty of that kind is not requisite and there are few Days pass in which a Man has not occasion to make use of it The Stile of Letters ought to be free easy and natural as near approaching to familiar Conversation as possible The two best Qualities in Conversation are good Humour and good Breeding those Letters are therefore certainly the best that shew the most of those two Qualities There are some Men so surly so ill natur'd and so ill-bred that tho' we can hardly deny 'em to have Wit yet we can say at least that we are sorry they have it And indeed as their Wit is troublesome to other People so I can hardly imagine of what great use it can be to themselves For if the end of Wit be not to render one self agreeable I shall scarce envy 'em any other use they can make of it The second Part of this Collection consists of Amorous Verses Those who are conversant with the Writings of the Antients will observe a great difference between what they and the Moderns have publish'd upon this Subject The occasions upon which the Poems of the former are written are such as happen to every Man almost that is in Love and the Thoughts such as are natural for every Man in love to think The Moderns on the other hand have sought out for Occasions that none meet with but themselves and fill their Verses with thoughts that are surprizing and glittering but not tender passionate or natural to a Man in Love To judge which of these two are in the right we ought to consider the end that People propose in writing Love-Verses And that I take not to be the getting Fame or Admiration from the World but the obtaining the Love of their Mistress and the best way I conceive to make her love you is to convince her that you love her Now this certainly is not to be done by forc'd Conceits far fetch'd Similes and shining Points but by a true and lively Representation of the Pains and Thoughts attending such a Passion Si vis me flere dolendum est laedent Primum ipsitibi tunc tua me infortunia I would assoon believe a Widow in great grief for her Husband because I saw her dance a Corant about his Coffin as believe a Man in Love with his Mistress for his writing such Verses as some great Modern Wits have done upon theirs I am satisfied that Catullus Tibullus Propertius and Ovid were in love with their Mistresses while they upbraid them quarrel with them threaten them and forswear them but I confess I cannot believe Petrarch in Love with his when he writes Conceits upon her Name her Gloves and the place of her Birth I know it is natural for a Lover in Transports of Iealousie to treat his Mistress with all the Violence imaginable but I cannot think it natural for a Man who is much in Love to amuse himself with such Trifles as the other I am pleas'd with Tibullus when he says he could live in a Desart with his Mistress where never any Humane Foost-steps appear'd because I doubt not but he really thinks what he says but I confess I can hardly for bear laughing when Petrarch tells us he could live without any other sustenance than his Mistresses Looks I can very easily believe a Man may love a Woman so well as to desire no Company but hers but I can never believe a Man can love a Woman so well as to have no need of Meat and Drink if he may look upon her The first is a Thought so natural for a Lover that there is no Man really in Love but thinks the same thing the other is not the thought of a Man in Love but of a Man who would impose upon us with a pretended Love and that indeed very grosly too while he had really none at all It would be endless to pursue this Point and any Man who will but give himself the trouble to compare what the Ancients and Moderns have said upon the same Occasions will soon perceive the advantage the former have over the others I have chosen to mention Petrarch only as being by much the most famous of all the Moderns who have written Love-Verses And it is indeed the great Reputation which he has gotten that has given Encouragement to this false sort of Wit in the World for People seeing the great Credit he had and has indeed to this day not only in Italy but over all Europe have satisfied themselves with the Imitation of him never enquiring whether the way he took was the right or not There are no Modern Writers perhaps who have succeeded better in Love-Verses than the English and it is indeed just that the fairest Ladies should inspire the best Poets Never was there a more copious Fancy or greater reach of Wit than what appears in Dr. Donne nothing can be more gallant or gentile than the Poems of Mr. Waller nothing more gay or sprightly than those of Sir Iohn Suckling and nothing fuller of Variety and Learning than Mr. Cowley's However it may be observ'd that among all these that Softness Tenderness and Violence of