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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59539	Discourses useful for the vain modish ladies and their gallants under these following heads, viz. I. Of some of the common ways many vertuous women take to lose their reputation, &c. II. Of meer beauty-love, &c. III. Of young mens folly in adoring young handsom ladies, &c. IV. Of the power womens beauty exercises over most young men. V. Of the inconstancy of most ladies, especially such as are cry'd-up beauties, &c. VI. Of marriage, and of wives who usurp a governing power over their husbands. VII. Of the inequality of many marriages, with the sad end that usually attend such matches. VIII. Against maids marrying for meer love, &c. IX. Against widows marrying. X. Against keeping of misses. XI. Of the folly of such women as think to shew their wit by censuring of their neighbours. XII. Of the French fashions and dresses, &c. XIII. Of worldly praises which all ladies love to receive, but few strive to deserve. XIV. Useful advices to the vain and modish ladies, for the well regulating their beauty and lives. By the right honourable Francis Lord Viscou	Shannon, Francis Boyle, Viscount, 1623-1699.	1696 (1696)	Wing S2963A; ESTC R222490	137,565	280

farther than to that great Friend or this near Kinsman and that perhaps more to inlarge their own fame than to relieve his wants and so savours more of Vain Glory than true Charity But Madam your Charity is so generally good and bountifully great as none need a better Title to it than that of having a great need of it In a word Madam your whole Life has been a continued Series of noble and Pious Actions which has render'd your Fame so compleatly excellent as you are not only an honour to your Name but a credit to your Sex and a comfort to both rich and poor about you for you oblige the great by your extraordinary Civility and relieve the poor by your abundant Charity Madam your trouble of reading this Letter being now near at an end 't is full time that my Apology for giving it you should now begin and because 't is a good saying I much like and follow That plain dealing is still the best Policy Truth being ever pictur'd naked I shall tell you here Madam the plain and naked Truth how your Name came to be plac'd in the Front of this little Book When my Lady P acquainted me you desired to see it she in a Rallying manner bid me send it you with a fine Epistle Dedicatory and I in a like Rallying manner told her I would and presently writ thus far of this Letter But upon my word Madam without any thought or design that it should ever come to your sight much less to publick view For assoon as I had writ it I resolved never to shew it or look on it more But being to buy the second part of this Book to send a Friend whose Servant stay'd purposely for it after I had given it him and he was gone talking with the Book-Binder he told me he had very near sold all my Books upon which I promised him one but it seems I had unfortunately forgot that I had left this Letter in the Book which I ordered to be carried to him and he finding this Letter dedicated to your Ladyship knowing the high Honour and great Esteem all have for you concluded That your Name in the Front of this Book must needs stamp a Value on it and breed a Curiosity in many for it and so Printed this Letter and placed my Name to it considering only his own profit by Printing it not your trouble in reading it or my discredit in owning it Assoon as I heard of it I went immediately much troubled and surpris'd to the Book-binder who desired me not to be so much concern'd for there were very few if any of the Books were sold that had this Letter Dedicatory to your Ladyship Printed to them they being but just come out of the Press and that for paying his Charges for Printing them he would deliver me them all which I readily consented to and came a few days after to receive them but this Book-binder was gone out of the World and by his Death my Book was dispersed in it past all possibility of recalling This is Madam the plain truth how your Name comes to be placed now in the Front of this little Book when it was Printed some few Years before without any Name to it at all and that your Name is now I am much asham'd of and humbly beg your Pardon for it I have Madam in writing these Discourses made it my great concern to avoid all Roads and Paths that Essays usually Travel in and treat of but really Virgin-Themes and fresh Provision of Wit is now so fearce to find that many of our best Writers and greatest Scholars are often forc'd to use cold Repetition Meats to furnish out their Books as well as good House-keepers are cold Meats to set out their Tables And tho' good Cooks can make several sorts of Dishes out of one kind of Meat yet they cannot with all their skill make one Dish to please all Palats like the delightful Manna in the Wilderness that gave a pleasant Gusto answerable to every Israelite's differing Taste No more can one sort of Writing suit the Fancy of all kinds of Readers I am sure I do not expect these Discourses should please any one they being Dull and most of the Subjects they write of Light almost as very Light as the airy Ladies they treat of and are designed for and therefore I am so far from pretending in the least to any of my readers Praises as I expect none from any but beg pardon of all And I truly wish this Book may perswade the vain young Ladies to beg God's And that as I desire my Readers excuse for my dull Writing they may their Maker's Pardon for their vain living I am sure I am doubly bound to beg your Ladyship's both for giving you the trouble of reading this Book and assuming the Confidence of placing your Name tho' undesignedly to it But I will add no Excuses knowing a Conclusion to a dull long Letter is still the best Complement I am sure Madam 't is the only one I can ever justly pretend to make you your Merits being much above all my Praises I wish I could as truly say That your whole Life were above all sorts of Troubles that your reading this might not prove one to you but as 't is foolish to fear what 's unavoidable so 't is to wish for Impossibilities since the most great the most virtuous and the most happy in this World are not free from Troubles because they cannot be free'd from Sin we are all unavoidable Tributaries to it being all born in an original servitude to Sin without any certain measure or exact number But tho' the misery of Sinning is unavoidable yet we ought to make our selves as Spiritually wise and Worldly happy as we are able that is make our Sins as few and all our Troubles except for our Sins as little as we can and therefore Madam to make your Trouble the less in looking this over I shall desire you to read it but just after the rate I writ it which was when I had nothing else to do And for all my other Readers I only desire they will use these Discourses no worse than most do maim'd Beggars that is though they want the Charity to relieve their Wants yet not so to abound in ill Nature as to jeer at their Defects This is all I expect from them and this is all Madam I humbly beg of you That you will please to pardon this poor Book 's Faults and not jeer at its Defects which shall ever be an Obligation placed on Madam Your most Obedient and ever Faithful Humble Servant SHANNON The CONTENTS of The First Part. The First Discourse OF some of the common ways many vertuous Women take to lose their Reputation though they keep their Chastity being vertuous in their inward Intentions but indiscreet in their outward Carriage and Men judg by what they see not by what Women say they mean Page i.

DISCOURSES Useful for the Vain Modish Ladies AND THEIR GALLANTS Under these following Heads viz. I. Of some of the Common Ways many Vertuous Women take to lose their Reputation c. II. Of meer Beauty-Love c. III. Of young Mens Folly in adoring young handsom Ladies c. IV. Of the Power Womens Beauty exercises over most young Men. V. Of the Inconstancy of most Ladies especially such as are cry'd-up Beauties c. VI. Of Marriage and of Wives who usurp a Governing Power over their Husbands VII Of the Inequality of many Marriages with the sad End that usually attend such Matches VIII Against Maids marrying for meer Love c. IX Against Widows marrying X. Against keeping of Misses XI Of the Folly of such Women as think to shew their Wit by Censuring of their Neighbours XII Of the French Fashions and Dresses c. XIII Of Worldly Praises which all Ladies love to receive but few strive to deserve XIV Useful Advices to the vain modish Ladies for the well regulating their Beauty and Lives By the Right Honourable FRANCIS Lord Viscount Shannon Printed for J. Taylor at the Ship in S. Paul's Church-yard 1696 The Epistle Dedicatory To the Right Honourable ELIZABETH Countess of Northumberland MADAM MY Lady P. acquainted me 't was your Desire which is still to me a Command that I should send you this small Book of Discourses and Essays And tho' I know many of the Subjects they treat of to be light and trivial yet I immediately concluded tho' none of these Discourses are worthy your reading yet all your Commands are worthy my obeying and I had much rather the World should know I write ill than you Madam should have the least thought I obey you so And I humbly beg you to believe Madam that I do not present you this Book upon any dependency I have of it's merit but meerly to publish the obligations I owe you which I must ever want ability to requite but shall never lack justice to acknowledge And I hope Madam you will be the more easily perswaded to pardon this great confidence when you consider that self-interest now governs this World and since a a King can raise and illustrate one of his meanest Subjects and render him Honourable by declaring him such so Madam tho' this is one of the meanest Books Dedicated to you yet if you will be pleased to raise and honour it with your countenance it cannot but thrive under so great noble a Patronage And pray Madam do not think I write this Book out of any hope to shew some Wit when really I never so much as thought of it but meerly to publish the great honour I have for you and how humble a Servant I am to you And you know Madam 't is as well a Mark of Sovereignty to have one's Image stampt upon a Penny as a Guinea the meanness of it's value nor the smallness of it's Image not at all lessening the great power of the Prince it represents No more can I Madam by placing your great Name to this small Book in which your Virtues being only meanly set off and painted but in Dead colours can lessen and eclipse your high worth and splendid merits I know Madam there are many great Ladies that keep alive in the Root the Title of their noble and ancient Families but indeed there are very few that now-a-days bring any addition of Honour to their House But all know Madam that you not only keep alive in the Root but your Merits spring and flourish in all your Actions both to your own and Families Great Honour and Reputation for you not only live to the height of greatness that any of the English Nobility now do but to the height of Piety that any of the Primitive Christians ever did for you make it your great delight to read God's Laws and your main concern to keep his Commandments never striving to procure a high place in Court but to secure a good one in Heaven still courting the good not the great never flattering the powerful always praising the Virtuous being only a Servant to the Servants of God and not Courtier-like an humble Servant in Words to all scarce in deed a true Friend to any who seldom speak what they think and rarely perform what they promise their words being commonly not the Interpreters but Disguisers of their Thoughts But Madam you still kept your self in a kind of religious retirement out of the false and glittering Scenes of the Court and not only from the common Vices and Vanities of England but from the Foppish Modes high Extravagances of France which were just upon being naturaliz'd here in England And indeed you differ from most Ladies for they love much to receive Praises but strive little to deserve them but you Madam strive to deserve them but love not to receive them your great Humility adding a lustre to your high Quality and your high Quality adding a lustre to your true Humility and a blessing too for God still gives Grace to the humble I shall not here trouble you much Madam with a Character of the vain idle Vitioso Fopps of our time nor here make it my business to set out the vain modish Ladies of our age since both make it their main concern to set out themselves tho' in a very bad Figure but my design here is that because I did in my Youth perswade some young Wives to do what they ought not I would now in my old age perswade all young Wives and Women to do what they ought which is To remember their Creator in the Days of their Youth and to strive more for the true lasting Beauty of Holiness than the slight fading one of a fine Face which is only a meer out-side Beauty but the Beauty of Holiness is like the King's Daughter all glorious within which will bring one an agreeable satisfaction whilst one lives and a sweet peace of Conscience when one Dies The other but high and proud vain thoughts whilst her Beauty lives and sad Frettings and Discontents when she finds it dies for usually as the Mistresses Beauty leaves her so her Lovers Love leaves him for Effects will follow their Cause And tho' many of the vain Modish Ladies are guilty of Pride Vanity and perhaps what 's worse than both yet most of them are so self-conceited of their own merit as they had rather judg the World Censorious than themselves faulty like the Philosopher that lost his sight and yet would not believe himself blind but that the Room was Dark And now Madam being towards the end of my Letter I shall speak as all Christians do or at least ought to do at the ending of their Lives which is to speak the truth from the bottom of their Heart as I am sure I now do by saying your Virtuous Life exemplary Piety and your extraordinary Charity which is not like that of most great Ladies whose bounty extends no

of the Roman Faith In a word our young Gallants are grown so very vain in their Apparel and Dresses that desiring to see change and excess of vanity we need but look on one anothers vain change of Dresses being almost as diverse as the Persons that wear them and therefore 't is impossible to view them all but I can give you in a line this exact and true Character of them That our Modes are become the effects of our vain fantastick Prodigality and more irregular Inconstancy Indeed all our vain expensive French Dresses may make the Ladies or Gallants finer but never better or worser for Embroidered Clothes to our Bodies are but like flowers of Rhetoric in Speeches they make the words sound the sweeter but render not the sense the better it may please the Ear but it does not improve the Judgment Or like silver Dishes on a Table they may shew their own Costliness but they make no addition or goodness to the Meat they contain whatever they may do to the fancy of the Eater or Observer Really if we would but allow Conscience or Reason a Vote in this affair we should soon be assured by them that there appears more true wisdom and satisfaction in giving one Penny as an Alms-deed for Christ's sake than in laying out many Pounds on bravery for our own more real fine in Clothing one that 's naked on a pious account of true Charity than by bedawbing twenty footmen in Gold or Silver rich Liveries on the score either of vanity or Fashion and that because it suits the London or Paris Mode For I esteem Livery-men excepting those that are really necessary to a Mans person and Quality but just so many Porters that are hired to carry about a Mans pride and folly and the several Colours of his Liveries to be but so many Lures and Jack Puddings to draw mens Eyes to behold a fair shew not only of his own Pride but often of his Merchants loss for 't is now grown no common wonder especially in London to see young Sparks Clothes and their Footmens Liveries to last longer in their Merchants books than on their own or Footmens backs and they turned off before the Books are Crossed out In a word I wish our French fashions may not prove fatal follies by being soon naturalized into English Customs for then let them be never so costly ridiculous and vain like blackness among the Aethiopians the commonness may remove their deformity but can never smother the prejudices against them I will now only add this Consideration to conclude all in reference to our fine young Frenchefied Ladies and that is that they would seriously reflect on the end of all their fine Modish Dresses and their greater loss of pretious time they wast about them which occasions their minding so much the fineness of their Bodies as many of them neglect by it the care of their Souls the best and only lasting part and therefore they should remember that they must die certainly tho' they now live pleasantly and then all their plenty of finch rich Frenchefied Dresses will be contained in one poor Winding-sheet and their exact slender shape in a Coffin and all their fine Gallants and constant admirers will leave them at the Grave where their Bodies will be only fit to be enjoyed by nasty worms This young Ladies is the true Epilogue to the sad Tragedy of your vain Dresses and what 's yet worse than all your Souls will be in as sad a condition as your Bodies after death without a hearty Repentance which can never be without a real amendment in abandoning not only great Sins but vain excesses as well in Dresses as wasting time about them and that you come to esteem them as Solomon did the pleasures of this World only as vanity of vanities Therefore all you young Ladies that desire to cloath your Souls in a Heavenly dress adorn your Lives with constant Piety and your Bodies with modest and decent Clothing such as wasts not too much of your time or Estate but wear still what is most generally worn and then you may be sure that few persons will either gaze or laugh at you THE THIRTEENTH DISCOURSE Of Worldly Praises which all Ladies love to receive but few strive to merit with the sad end of it and them when they come to Die WOrldly Praise is a Subject I shall write little of for these two Reasons first that I need not write for it and next that I dare not write against it for as one the one hand it would be vain and superfluous to make that my business to commend what all Praise so on the other side it would argue a great folly to write against that all the World writes for therefore to prevent all I can writing superfluously or foolishly I shall only glance this Discourse on the Worlds high esteem and eager ambition after vain Praises the desires of gaining it being as inseparable from most Men and Womens Actions as Light is from the Sun or heat from fire and shall only name the common ways to it and the usual end of it and them when they come to die Praise is that great Idol which all people in the World adore and flatter as the Supream object of their pleasure and delight as having a perfect influence over all our Actions of what kind degree and quality whatsoever And therefore let publick Writers say what they will and pretend what they please self Praise is the Jack they all Bowl at tho many take several Grounds to it And tho some Writers are more humble and reserv'd more moderate and less opinionaters of their own Writings less apt to Censure those of others that differ in Opinion from theirs than usually most kind of Writers are yet all of them court Praise tho in several shapes and differing manners Some court Praise by their ingenious Writing others think to gain it by their witty speaking and a third sort hope to procure it by a discreet silence relying upon wise Solomon's saying a Man of understanding holdeth his peace and a Fool useth many Words The finest Ware is usually the closest wrapt up and Silence is not only still useful to shelter a Fool but often to discover a wise Man 'T is wisdom to speak when one ought and folly when we ought not he needs much Reason that speaks well but a little serveth him that holdeth his Peace since he that takes upon him to speak wisely on a Subject but does it simply all hearers are Judges and witnesses of his folly but he that is silent none can justly tell whether he can speak wisely or not and so as to him ought to hold their Peace because he does his There are as many Roads and Paths to Praise as there are employments I think I might well venture to say all Actions in the World and hope of Praise is the common Guide and Conductor general to them all making the greatest