Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	life_n	part_n	write_v	3,080	5	5.3628	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59303	The compleat memoirs of the life of that notorious impostor Will. Morrell, alias Bowyer, alias Wickham, &c. Who died at Mr. Cullen's the bakers in the strand, Jan. 3. 1691/2. With considerable additions never before published. Licensed, April 14. 1694.	Settle, Elkanah, 1648-1724.	1694 (1694)	Wing S2673; ESTC R214764	54,948	96

The Compleat MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THAT Notorious Impostor Will. Morrell alias Bowyer alias Wickham c. Who died at Mr. Cullen's the Bakers in the Strand Jan. 3. 1691 2. With Considerable Additions never before Published Aude aliquid Brevibus Gyaris carcere dignum Sivis esse aliquid Licensed April 14. 1694. LONDON Printed for Abel Roper and E. Wilkinson at the Black Boy over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1694. TO Gabriel Balam Esq SIR A Fair Name in the Frontispiece of a Book is by long Custom reckoned as Essential a part of it as a Portico is of a Temple And yet as Panegyricks are their common Furniture Dedication is the nicest part of Writing For though the Honest Poet like the Faithful Painter draws not beyond the Life 't is still but a sort of Labour lost For as Modesty is the Finishing Stroke to the Compleat Gentleman That Patron that is the most worthy of Praise is the least fond of it And if we stretch into that nauseous Extream of Flattery the Panegyrick is turn'd into a Libel by exposing what we pretend to praise 'T is true the Pretence of Dedications is the borrowed Protection a piece of Scribble receives from the Noble Patron under whose Vmbrage 't is usher'd into the World When alas a great Patron is no more a Protection to a dull Book than a Cesar's Face to a leaden Shilling Wit and Sense stand only upon their own Legs and go no farther than their own intrinsick Merit carries them The World at least the Judicious part of it is not to be so cheated There 's no passing off that false Coin for which every Man of Sense has both a Scales and a Touch-stone Wit runs the Fate of Belteshazzar The Mene Tekel is certainly written over our Heads if we are once weigh'd and found too Light But supposing some favour'd Author cherish'd by the Smiles of a Noble or Generous Patron takes this occasion for that 's the fairest Dedicatory pretext of avowing his Gratitude to the whole World for such signal Obligations yet this publick Acknowledgment of past Favours looks very suspiciously like a Design of drawing on of new ones too So that to sum up the Cause the Brotherhood of the Quill if they would fairly unmask should plainly tell the World that there 's a private Gratification goes along with the publick Acknowledgment For Men make Dedications as Votaries make Thanksgivings The bent Knee is not wholly for Blessings receiv'd but for some little Continuation too of the kind descending Smiles And 'Faith now I am playing the Tell-troth and making thus bold with the Poetick Fraternity this common Fault amongst them may well be excused For to Apologize for the Muses in their own Native Dialect I need but quote a Stanza in Gondibert O hireless Science and of all alone The Liberal Meanly the rest each State With Pension treats But this depends of none Whose Worth they reverently forbear to rate If Poor Poetry is put to such hard Shifts for maugre our Gondibert's fair Flourish that 's the plain English to be so wholly unprovided for that the Muses have neither Lands nor Livings annex'd to their Foundation but are wholly supported by Goodness and Favour whilst all other Studies whether in the Long or Black Robe have their Preferments as warm Gowns soft Furs fat Glebes and fruitful Crops and what not And Poetry as much as 't is charg'd with Fiction yet like Truth goes almost naked Vnder these Melancholly Circumstances it may well be permitted some Grains of Allowance as an Vnhappy Dependant upon Courtesie But whilst I am thus plain in correcting Faults abroad I ought to look at home as having a much weaker Plea for my own Dedication when being so altogether a Stranger to you I dare be guilty of this Presumption This indeed I ought to have consider'd But when I find the Ingenious every day making their Court to you and the more eminent Priests of Apollo the more successful and no less deservingly so all assiduous Suitors to your Favour so many fair Examples are that Warrant for my Ambition that I lay hold of any Occasion tho at a farther distance of making one of the Train You have that Air of Sweetness and obliging Temper a Conversation so grateful as renders you the Favourite even of Both Sexes But if I proceed to sum up your fair Character I shall transgress the Laws I have laid down and offend that Modesty as has an Ear too tender for that Subject Not to enlarge therefore upon your other Merits 't is sufficient You are so great a Cherisher of the Muses and the Stage that that single Virtue alone has encourag'd me to the Confidence of this Address All I have truly to blush at is the slenderness of the Present this inconsiderable Trifle I offer you However as the Crow presented to Cesar be pleased to give it the same favourable Acceptance as indeed like that poor Crow saluting you with the same Hayle only with more Zeal and tend'ring you the humble Obedience of SIR Your most Devoted Servant E. SETTLE THE Notorious Impostor Or the History of the Life of Will. Morrell alias Bowyer c. THIS Famous Rover from the Multitude of his Titles to begin with his right Name William Morrell was by Profession a Chyrurgion and more than twenty Years ago for many Years together a Practitioner of good Credit in Banbury where his Industry honestly got him by his Practice a comfortable Subsistence with which he maintained himself his Wife and Family very handsomly till about twenty Years ago he began to be very Lazy and much addicted to hanker after the Conversation of the Gentry thereabouts And being a Person very Facetious and his Company not disacceptable he screwed himself into the Society of the best Quality round about and would be a Month or two a Guest at several Great Mens Houses More particularly he some time since insinuated himself into the Favour of a Worthy Gentleman near Banbury viz. Humphry Wickham of Swakely Esq whose Person and Character he pretended to represent and in which Imposture he made his last Exit His Original it was very Obscure and his first Start into the World was in no higher a Post than a Journey-man Shoemaker in which Character he liv'd some considerable time at Worcester understanding so little of what he profess'd at Banbury viz. Chyrurgery that he knew the Vertue of no other Plaister than his own Cobler's Wax From that Imployment he took a Frolick to Sea from whence returned he came to Swakely with the true Privilege of a Traveller his Authority unquestionable he talk'd Miracles both of his Voyages and Adventures For Example That he had made a Voyage to Constantinople and Barbadoes for East and West were all one in his Geography and so amused the Country-People with his Rhodomontadoes that they look'd upon him as a Prodigy of a Man His great Art he profess'd was Chyrurgery the