Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	esq_n	john_n	richard_n	2,060	5	10.2616	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30403	Two books of elegies in imitation of the first books of Ovid de Tristibus, with part of the third to which is added verses upon several occasions with some translations out of the Latin and Greek poets / by Thomas Ball.	Ball, Thomas.	1697 (1697)	Wing B585; ESTC R28342	45,440	169

TWO BOOKS OF ELEGIES In Imitation of The Two First Books of Ovid de Tristibus with part of the Third To which is added VERSES upon several Occasions with some Translations out of the Latin and Greek Poets By THOMAS BALL M. A. of St. John's Colledge in Cambridge Turba Poetarum Nasonem novit audet Non fastiditis annumerare viris Ovid. LONDON Printed for Richard Cumberland at the Angel in St. Paul's Churth yard 1697. THE Epistle Dedicatory TO JOHN HARVEY Of Thurly in Bedford-shire Esq SIR WEre Patrons bound to Defend Books they never saw as Seconds are to Fight Men they never heard of I shou'd not have Presum'd to have made You a Dedication for I am Oblig'd to tell the World of my Misfortune You never saw one Line of these Elegies and so are absolutely disengag'd from all Inadvertencies Faults and Follys of what Nature soever And tho' Men are generally as fond of the Issues of their Brain as those of their Body and partially give it for themselves without Fault I am not so Conceited of mine as to think I have writ without Mistakes tho' there is none that I know of You may remember in July last when I made you a Visit about Peterborough I told you I had some Papers of this Nature in some Friends Hands in Town and wish'd I had had em then to have taken your Thoughts Not long after I received them and had no reason to alter my Design of Publishing 'em at one time or another Then I show'd them to some of my Acquaintance in the Countrey and several Persons agreeing in the same Opinion I took up this still desperate Resolution of Printing It has been a Humour in all Ages but I believe never so Vniversal as now for Men to think it a Detraction from their own Character to give another Man his and when Homer has been Burlesqu'd Virgil Travestied Waller Criticis'd on and Cowley Condemn'd no Body must take it ill Cowley was a Man of Admirable Wit and his Writings will Challenge a Respect 'till our Poets are inspir'd Waller indeed writ with more Art and was the first of our Countrey-men that Affected that agreeable Smoothness which with his large Share of Wit makes his Poems perpetually Entertaining But those that Rail for no other Design than to be thought Critiques are fond of a Character they are not able to maintain And tho' they are a great part of Mankind they are of so different a Complexion from the better part of Mankind that they have as little Respect as Modesty and it 's no Reflection to be out of their Favour When I first began these Elegies the only Motive to me was my Diversion and to Persue the Design of Entertaining my self I Choose this way of Imitation which admits of more Liberty And tho' the Alterations are not great nor many yet they are too many for a strict Translation Besides this I had another Reason which Prevail d with me more than my Ease and that was Ovid s extream Sense of his Misfortunes in a hundred places of his Elegies He is so Melted with his Sorrows that his Complaints discover a Weakness which is better hid Ovid's was indeed a very hard Case as could be and it 's no Wonder if the Affection he had for his own Countrey the passionate Tenderness for his Wife and Family together with the dreadful Apprehensions of the barbarous People he was going to if all these shockt his Resolution and made him write his Fears and it is rather to be wish'd he had done it seldomer than to be wonder'd he did it at all The true Occasion of his Banishment as far as I can learn has been a lasting Secret and men of his own time could but Guess the most probable Conjecture to me is that he suffer'd not so much for his own Fault as Caesar's that he was Conscious of something that made Caesar uneasie I don't think it was any Familiarity with Livia or Julia that gave him Augustus's Displeasure and those Verses Cur aliquid vidi cur noxia lumina feci Cur imprudenti cognita culpa mihi est signify no more than that he was unfortunately Privy to some dishonourable Action of Caesar's and he durst not trust him at home Had his Crime been of so high a Nature as to have wrong'd him in his Wife or Daughter Banishment had not been Punishment enough And had it been Livia he durst not so much as have mention'd her but we find him in the second Book of his Elegies which he writes to Augustus particularly commending his Livia Livia sic tecum sociales impleat annos Quae nisi te nullo conjuge digna fuit Quae si non esset caelebs te vita deceret Nullaque cui posses esse maritus erat But this is still Conjecture and all the Proofs that can be Amass'd of either side amount to no more and therefore I shall leave the Reader to his Liberty without pretending to determine from any of ' em But whatever was the Occasion of his Banishment he was Treated with great Respect by those of his own time and his Writings have been judg'd very Fortunate by those of several Ages since The two Seneca's Marcus and Lucius Velleius Paterculus Quintillian Cornelius Tacitus Martial Statius Pampinius Angelus Politianus Erasmus Julius Scaliger these and a great many more have all interested themselves in the Commendations of Ovid and are more than Common Authoritys And now SIR if you can find any thing in the following sheets that may Divert you when Tired with or Indisposed for better Studies I shall have the greatest part of my Design and only want your Pardon for this Freedom SIR Your most Obliged and very humble Servant T. Ball. The First ELEGY OF Ovid de Tristibus He applies himself to his Book that it shou'd go to Rome and admonishes what 's to be done GO to fam'd Rome my Book thy Verses show A Privilege thy Master had 'till now Go but Undrest Forlorn Unhappy go No Crown adorns a wretched Exile's Brow No Garb's allow'd but what his Sorrows show Vermillion Purple that are Fine and Gay With these while others Titles flourisht be Your Page my Book must want the Liberty These are the Ensigns only of the Great You must reflect your Master and his Fate Nor be asham'd of Blots for all that read Will know my Flowing Tears the Blots have made Go in my Words and Name Salute the Town The much lov'd Place that I so long have known If you shou'd meet a Man shou'd ask of me Tell him I live not from Misfortunes free If he asks more be silent let him read Lest you should say what 's better much unsaid The Reader may my Crimes perhaps repeat And say 't is just he suffer'd as he ought Be sure you don't defend tho' you cou'd wound A Cause that 's ill Protected ill is found If you shou'd find a Friend that shou'd Bemoan And often