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	speak_v	write_v	1,655	5	5.2381	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71267	Wit for money, or, Poet Stutter a dialogue between Smith, Johnson, and Poet Stutter : containing reflections on some late plays and particularly, on Love for money, or, The boarding school.	Brown, Thomas, 1663-1704.; Fidge, George.	1691 (1691)	Wing W3136A; ESTC R21557	26,676	36

have been forced to answer my self when my hand was in I believe they have lookt on my Poetry as Armies on those Towns they dare not Besiege I have had now and then a Bomb thrown at me but tho surrounded with Enemies none of them ever presumed beyond a Blocade for had they made a formal attack they had certainly lost by it and been repulsed worse than the Turks were at Vienna Johnson Without doubt it would have been a longer Siege than that of Troy Candia or Ostend and their only way to reduce you would have been by famine for then being starv'd for want of sense you could not have held out The flying squadrons of your Songs form'd into bodies of light Horse your Ballads into Dragoons your Lampoons into Horse Granadeers and Catches into Volonteers would have made work with them Your Libertine and smutty Copies of Verses had been your Enfans perdus the Burlesque Poems led the Van your Comedies had made your main body of Foot join'd with the book you writ in praise of Archers to darken the Sky with its Arrows and all those Plays you have altered had been Auxiliaries whilst you at the head of your Boarding-School mounted on a Weesil with an Owl for your Emblem display'd in your Standard a Life Guard of Scotch Songs your Satyrs for your Artillery the Siege of Memphis bringing up the rear and your Odes and other Poems in the body of Reserve would have made altogether so bold spruce and numerous an Army that Xerxes Darius or the Madianites never muster'd the like and he must have been more than a Leonidas an Alexander or a Gideon that dared encounter you Stutter Very prettily applied Mr. Johnson I protest had you been General of an Army you could not have done it better What think you of it Mr. Smith you say nothing People may talk now of Sir Iohn Suckling Waller and Denham for Writing well 't was easie for them who never writ above an Eighteen penny book but had they writ as much as I ' ga● it had been worth speaking of Ah! Mr. Smith do you think now any Author dare encounter me and take my Works to pieces Smith No faith Sir De nihilo nihil dicitur I think it would be as needless as Sir Nicholas Gimcracks dissection of a Cock Lobster or the answering all the impertinent questions sent to the Athenian Mercury and now Sir I have answer'd yours Stutter You have Sir But what 's to pay Boy call my man Ga ga gad Damn ye run you Dog His Boy comes i● Sirrah get me a Chair ' s●ud and Guns ma ma make hast Exit Boy Johnson A pretty Boy this how long have you kept him Tom Stutter Kept him Sir Zoons is that a proper question to a Gentleman Smith 'T is since his last Play he has been invisible since the three Dukes of Dunstable Stutter Hell and Furies What 's to pay Here 's money farewel Johnson Prithee stay and put up your money there 's nothing to pay Exit Stutter Thou wouldst be very unfit to make a Courtier Mr. Smith thou hast as little Complaisance as Manly in the Plain-dealer or Stamford in the Impertinents thou art a meer Heraclitus what diverts others puts thee out of humour Smith Who can be otherwise and hear the insipid sayings vain thoughts and ridiculous boasts of a conceited touchy illiterate pragmatical Nothing who seldom writes a line but either dullness false thought or something amiss appears in it and searce says one thing but may be better said to hear another stutter half an hour for a good word were a pleasure to this but to hear him stutter Nonsence is unsufferable Johnson For my part I cannot repent the having thrown away a little idle time in so facetious and odd a Conversation a daily course of this would soon bring a surfeit but a small touch E●●passant may be as much indulged as a meal of Roots and fruit when either we want better Dainties or their constant use hath rendred them unpallatable and when time is as heavy on my hands as it was when we met I so little repent the expence of it now that I may lay out as much more in chewing the Cud and committing to Paper what we have said And tho what hath been already Printed between us and Bays be indeed as much above this as he is above Stutter yet this may perhaps give as much satisfaction to the Reader since a Spanish Frior 〈◊〉 an All for Love have nor always had as good an Audience as a Love for Money FINIS Momus Ridens N. 20. Mor. 17th page of Trick for Trick

WIT for MONEY OR POET STUTTER A DIALOGUE BETWEEN Smith Johnson and Poet Stutter Containing Reflections on some late Plays and particularly on Love for Money or The Boarding-School Good Satyr's no Abuse Mr. Durfey Epil to Love for Money Wit is now us'd like a common Slave Both by those that have none as well as those that have Tho. Durfey Gent. Epil to Trick for Trick LONDON Printed for S. Burgis 1691. TO Mr. T ho s D urfey Sir CRITICK CATCALL sends Greeting YOV have shown your self so Penitent after the Poetical Correction you received from me that to retaliate tho late the Honour you did me in chusing me for your Patron I return you Epistle for Epistle and make you the Patron of the following Dialogue It reflects on a certain Namesake and Country man of yours and some Plays of his lately Launch'd out but that 's all one since it may turn to as good an account to you as some of yours and your own practise of sacrificing your friends to your own and the Town 's Jests justifies it Indeed I must confess 't is a sad Age we live in since the applause of the Town from Exalted Box to more Exalted upper Gallery the routing the Jacobites stilling the Criticks and drowning their Hisses by the loud repeated Claps of the lusty fisted Champions of your Party able to have drown'd those of Thunder it self and all the Kitts and Fiddles of your Antagonists of the nimble Craft I say 't is a sad Age seriously since all this cannot secure a man from censure or a Play from being taken to pieces which altogether made so pretty a figure 't is as uncharitable as the exposing the false Hair Teeth Calves Eyes and Eye-brows c. of our antiquated Beaux and Ladies Such is the malice of some prying envious Persons not having the fear of Satyrists before their Eyes that they most feloniously barbarously and wickedly like Rival Women search for nay make and find faults in others as industriously as they seek to hide their own But what shall I say to it Alas 't is the general custom of you Authors the more 's the pity like Mastives you bark at claw and worry one another whilst others cry hollow and heartily laugh at you for your pains Other Societies protect and shoulder one another but you like so many Game Cocks turn'd loose together fall foul of the next you meet Or to speak more Poetically like Cadmus's Soldiers cut and slash your fellows without mercy Is there no means to stop this fury From the Cobler that mends your Shooes to the rich Goldsmith that keeps your 〈◊〉 there are Halls for their Corporations in London 't is pitty yours in Beotia is not removed a little nearer or that your Master Apollo doth not send from Parnassus some Deputy to govern you here that being once united as much as you are divided the Trade for by your leave 't is now a Trade as much as those I Nam'd may flourish and the Proverb be a Lyar which bars Poets from becoming Aldermen This would be very necessary at present that the Indisposition of the Laureat is like to spill as much Blood as Ink among you for from the Modern Play-writers to the high toppers of the Profession I expect to find you all at Daggers drawing should he be so civil to you to leave us in haste I hope he will not to make a visit to his Brothers Terence and Ben Johnson in the Elizian Fields The Author of this Mushroom hopes all this will attone for his presumption he desired me to recommend it to you to have it made into a Play and hopes you may prove as prevailing a Patron as your Party was to get yours a Name and a third day and hinder it from sinking under the weight of those who did not like it some of whom were something sawcy and us'd these words out of a Play of a certain Poet who before the Poll Acts used to write himself T. D. Gentleman That should we not sometimes dive into the secrets of Wit and reprove mistakes these Rascally Poets would grow Insolent we should be perpetually tormented with Lampoons It was hard in them to reverse the saying upon its Author tho amongst Authors 't is no more than the reflections of Lawyers against one another at the Bar. It helps to make you famous and I am much mistaken if some of you would not be as thankful for a severe Criticism in Print as for a Copy of Verses in praise of your Works Had my Author attach'd your friend in his worst Plays he could have had a cheaper Victory and the other a greater Overthrow but he has done as those Generals who slight little weak Towns to set down before the Capital City which may please the Party concern'd as much as it would the Governour of the Town to see it attack'd on the strongest side I need not then Apologize to any of the Fraternity for my friends Observations on that score but rather to the Town for telling them 't is dark at Midnight that crack'd Skulls are not found and that some Writers Vpper-rooms are unfurnish'd This undigested product of a few spare hours is as needless to some Criticks as a Treatise of the bulk of the Book of Martyrs to prove that Maevius was a bad Poet or a Lecture of War to a great Commander But tho they do not want to inform their Iudgments they may something to make chem merry when they have as little to do as my friend when he writ it had he been Master of leisure enough to have revised it it would have appeared in a better Dress and have had less roughness in the Style and perhaps more in the Satyr The smoothness of your Pen may Redress the first and if you think he has been too mild in the other which I must confess was at my Request let me know it and you will have no cause to complain to my knowledge this being at the best but a Rough-draught or the Sketch of his Poet. I think there is enough drawn to discover who sat for it and tho the finishing strokes being wanting it may well be said that the Picture is somewhat unlike I dare say 't is after the way of our Modern Painters and of you Freeholders of Parnassus in the Panegyricks of your Patrons and consequently not for the worse my friend having us'd yours more kindly than your Abdicated Brother Bays hath been and made him speak a Language he hath no cause to be asham'd of tho perhaps he himself may I hope the Name of Stutter will no more offend than that of Weesilion Poet Belly Lady Stroddle Coopee c. which bear your Stamp but if you think that of Balladwright or Maggot properer you may new Nick-name that worthy Person my friend not designing it as a mock upon any infirmity of speech a thing to be pitied but as a distinguishing mark of his Hero who

Bisket Prithee dear Poetry who writ it Stutter An honest Moralist I faith that shall be nameless you or I for ought I know Johnson Then you pretend to Morality but how do's it agree with it to come on a Man that hath a thousand Aggressors already and never meddled with you and what is more is guilty of no other fault than you that is to have altered his principle Morality teaches us to use others as we would be us'd our selves What now if some one or other should stick to your skirts and expose you as much Stutter I fear it little my Emblem is the Thistle Nemo me impune lacesset 't would do me and my books a kindness and like the Sun after an Eclipse I should appear the more glorious Johnson A very pretty Simile and much to the purpose for Phoebus the God of Poetry is the Sun Smith Ay but there is this difference that the Sun has 12 Houses but our little Phoebus here has not one But my friend how came you to write the Weesil Trap'd after the Weesils And if I am not mistaken the Tryennial Mayor as well as the Moralist Methinks their principles differ as much as a Lay-Elder and a Lawn Sleeve or Poet Stutter in the two last Reigns and Poet Stutter in this Stutter Oh! you wrong me I never chang'd my Religion Smith That may well be because perhaps you never had any but for your principles I am sure you have alter'd them more in two years than the Taylors have the fashions since the Restauration but that 's no newer thing to some of your profession than to a true Courtier in times of change Johnson Prithee don't be too severe but remember all Trades must live Why should not a Writer sell to both parties his Wit for Money as well as a Vintner his Claret or a Town Woman her favours What if a man will exalt a Weesil and Trap him afterwards rail at the Clergy in one place and commend them in another side with the Grumblers in one thing then lash them in the next Write Trimming Songs and Panegyricks on the City Magistrates in this Reign and wish them Shamm'd Kick'd and Damn'd in the last Blame Doctors for Writing Pro and Con yet do it one Week after another It doth not signify a farthing from whence it comes 't is like Musick the different and thwarting parts set one another off Do you think Rats and Weesils Moralizing Atheists dull Panegyricks worse than Lampoons and Lampoons more glorious to those they are meant to than Panegyricks by those hands Songs Ballads Drolls and Farces signify a pin on either side No to mind those things is the business of those that have none and tho the Authors of those mighty trifles strut it like Turky-cocks and think themselves wrong'd for want of a Lawrel to rear their Blockheads dignify their Nonsense and hide their Ignorance the wiser part let them go on and write on still as the worst of punishments and the best of rewards for their teeming Noddles while like Aesop's fly on the Camels head they think themselves men of mighty weight as if they were the Primum Mobile of State Affairs and every Revolution the Influence of their Verse tho like Town Jilts 't is Money they Respect and every Party may be served alike and laught at in their hearts this I mean of our Ambidexters only Stutter Pray Mr. a spare your self the pains to be my Advocate on my word tho you plead briskly you will not deserve a Fee at my hands do but hear my Lord Roscommon he mitigates the matter much more I pity from my Soul unhappy Men Compell'd by need to prostitute their Pen Who Lawyer like must either starve or plead And follow right or wrong where Guinea's lead But because you are Men of Honour and Sense I shall not think an hour ill bestow'd to argue the matter a little farther with you this place is too publick nor has it been without some sweat I have heard you and refrain'd my self If you please we will adjourn to the Tavern and with a sober Bottle renew the Argument Wine is a Friend to the Muses Johnson I believe so and wonder why Poets are said to drink of the Fountain Hippocrene Smith Oh! Sir 't is to shew that all their thoughts must be clear as Chrystal their words flow easy their design be natural their matter innocent not able to intoxicate our Reason as Wine Wine you know alters men it makes the old young the sad merry the poor rich the coward stout the weak strong enlivens the face advises the wise and also makes him mad I believe many of our Plays have been written in Claret Stutter Come let 's go and take a Dose of it since as you say 't is a Pannacea a cure for all Evils and the Gentleman U●her to Mirth and Happiness On my word your Notion is not amiss and by the way I 'll not forget it I will only give this Sheet to the Bookseller and wait on you if you 'll tell me where Smith Don't go we shall be Tongue-kill'd with his stuff Johnson Prithee come 't will be variety for once besides we 'll make him Sing Let it be quickly then at the Cross-keys Stutter There 's such a noise there always the Pit on my first day or Billings-gate it self might pass for quiet places to it Smith Nay one of your Similes will serve for I think the Play-House was a Billings-gate then Johnson Name your Tavern then Stutter Let it be the Rose I am sure of a Glass of the best there Johnson Agreed you 'll follow Stutter Presently Smith I wonder how he ventures to the Tavern with us seeing how we have used him already I should as soon have believed he would have come at a Lords Mayors Feast to Sing his Ioy to Great Caesar or London's Loyalty Johnson He is a better Courtier than you imagine and will endeavour to make you Neuter if he cannot win you to his Party not unlike the Jesuites who purchase all the Books are writ against them that they may not be read by other people or like those who Fee some Lawyers not so much to use them as to hinder them from Pleading for their Adversaries Smith It can be no easy matter to reconcile me to the Pro's and Cons of such Mercenary Pens they bring the whole Body Politick of Poetry into disgrace and contempt like Drawcansir they spare neither Friend nor Foe provided there be something to be got by it and as the Whores give Love for Money they as meanly expose Wit for Money till Punk and Scribbler grow as loath'd and common one as the other The Law hath provided a House of Correction for the one and since Satyr is too mild to lash the others 't is pity there is not some other means us'd to silence them that the better Pens and the Men of honester Principles may no longer suffer for the faults of

those and when these Torrents and Inundations of the spurious muddy mingled stuff of those Dabblers which now drowns the Town is drain'd Wit and Merit need not be asham'd to appear abroad but flow in their Natural Channel Johnson Faith thou' rt in the right Smith Well I am sorry we have ingaged our selves with this fellow it were better to hear another Rehearsal of Bays or another reading of his City Mouse and Country Mouse Johnson Prithee do not be disheartned we will have rare sport Smith It will be dear bought if you have any it were a better bargain to hear Merry Andrew's Insipid Jokes in hopes of a Jest every half hour Court an affected senseless Musician for a Song or humour an old peevish Relation on the prospect of a Legacy Johnson Why thou art more Splenatick than a Mathematician disturbed in his Calculations or a Poet whose Play hath been Damn'd before his third Day Thou art a meer Usurer of thy Conversation thou wilt not lend thine without a large Interest of Wit Come Jack your stock is large be a little more lavish on 't to him 't is Charity he lives upon the scraps of such as you and you need not grudge to see the Brats of your Brains father'd by another Smith Nor those of my Body Frank tho I should hate to see them ill dress'd or distorted and such I guess his Education will make any ones when the best fancy or plot Midwifd by him into the World will either be crippled or at the best look like a Child half starv'd at Nurse Johnson Do you take him for such an ill Taylor that he cannot dress any Wit as it ought to be Smith Even so witness his laying violent hands on Shakespear and Fletcher whose Plays he hath altered so much for the worse like the Persecutors of Old killing their living Beauties by joining them to his dead lameless Deformities Johnson Oh! if there be Poetical Justice to be had in the Elezian Fields how he 'll be maul'd and if in this World he were serv'd like Aesops Jay and every Bird should claim their feathers how Naked he would be Smith Not so naked neither he is Voluminous enough with the Leaves of his Books like another Adam to cover his nakedness and tho most of our Authors might well call their Books pickt Sentences select Lines Collections of fine things and Miscellanies of other mens thoughts should one Chymist like separate the different Metals of which their compound is made up there would remain of their own a great deal of substantial weighty solid Johnson Lead you mean Smith Matter Johnson Then pray no more of that matter we have discanted but too much on it already let 's talk of something else till our Poet after come you 'll be sure of a belly full of it then Smith Let 's talk of what you will tho' let me tell you I would have my friend like an Ingenious Preacher extract a good Doctrine out of a barren Text. But here he comes Stutter Gentlemen I hope I have made my word good I love to be as punctual to my friends as Smith An Author to his Bookseller when he is to pay him his Copy Money a passionate Lover to his first assignation or a moneyless Parasite to my Lords Hour of setting down to Dinner or Stutter The Sun to his appointed setting and there I was before you But what News do you hear Gentlemen Johnson They say the Armies Stutter Oh! I did not ask about Warlike News But News from Wits Commonwealth What new Lampoon hath the Vogue What Songs now fill the Air What Satyr bites the Town Or to speak more largely What new Play puts the Criticks to their old Talent of finding fault Or Jacobite like biting their Fingers for want of power to bite others Johnson Why Tom I should have expected such questions from thee as little as from a Court Lady what 's the fashion a Seaman how 's the Wind or a Watchman what 's a Clock What Song What Lampoon What Satyr Or what Play in short can please the Town but what is Coyn'd in your Mint I can go no where but like Air you are still to be found From Wapping to Tuttlefields from Southwark to Shoreditch you fill the Nations mouth The trudging Carman whistles your harmonious Poetry to his Horse the Glass Coach Beau whispers them to his as senceless Nymph the grumbling Jacobite mutters them in Corners to his Abdicated Brethren the Coffee-house Bard his Nose Sadled with Spectacles pores over your Comical Remarks as much as on the no less divertive Observator Your Ballads when half asleep from the Street in a high Base and a low Treble wish me a good rest when I can catch it The Cookmaid and Scullion listen to them and the very Coachmen ingratiates himself to the antiquated Chamber-maid with them They will not escape the quiet Nursery for there they Rock Baby asleep In Guild-Hall some of the Anti-New Raparees exalt them up to the very Hustins and from the Philistine Goliah now make you their third Giant I see them on every Post and shoals of them at every Booksellers and must for a while have abdicated the Play-house had I not as much Complaisance for them as I have had for some of the foregoing Comical Entertainments Stutter Sir I hope you make that difference between their Plays and mine which the success of the one and the other claim My Play may live to bear the charge of theirs and clear a brace of 1000 l. to the House Smith Oh Sir I never judge of things by their success The Emperour of the Moon and other trifles could brag of that if it were allowable Stutter What Sir compare my Play to The Emperour of the Moon when it makes the Lawrel shake on one's head and another despair of it again Smith If one of the two you mean despairs of the Lawrel 't is what can't be help'd but if it shake on the others Head I believe 't is when he laughs at some mens presumptions tho' I 'm no Mans Champion win it and wear it Tom when you have writ as many good Plays as they and your Tory ones are forgot perhaps you may be in a better way tho' by the way I 'd advise you to write no more Stutter How Sir write no more What ca ca can you mean by this speak Zoons Smith Oh Sir if you are so furious speak by your self Johnson Prithee Tom hear him he 's no Foe to you and to my knowledge brought a good party to clap swingingly on your first day which by the way was no small advantage to the Play Stutter Oh Sir I had a powerful party against me tho' I would not give a farthing for a Play that cannot stem the tide of a Faction but what can be your reasons Mr. Smith for my leaving off Writing Smith Why Sir in the first place like the Sun to which you compar'd your self