Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bad_a	good_a	see_v	1,466	5	3.4614	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36704	Troilus and Cressida, or, Truth found too late a tragedy, as it is acted at the Dukes Theatre : to which is prefix'd, a preface containing the grounds of criticism in tragedy / written by John Dryden ...	Dryden, John, 1631-1700.; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Troilus and Cressida.	1679 (1679)	Wing D2389; ESTC R4152	72,712	95

gipsie a Tawney-moor to my Cousin Cressida And she lay with one white arm underneath the whorsons neck oh such a white lilly white round plump arm it was and you must know it was stript up to th'elbows and she did so kisse him and so huggle him as who shou'd say Troil. But still thou stay'st what 's this to Cressida Pand. Why I made your excuse to your Brother Paris that I think 's to Cressida but such an arm such a hand such taper fingers tother hand was under the bed-cloaths that I saw not I confess that hand I saw not Troil. Again thou tortur'st me Pand. Nay I was tortur'd too old as I am I was tortur'd too but for all that I cou'd make a shift to make him to make your excuse to make your father by Jove when I think of that hand I am so ravish'd that I know not what I say I was tortur'd too Troilus turns away discontented Well I go I go I fetch her I bring her I conduct her not come quoth a and I her Uncle Exit Pandarus Troilus I m'e giddy expectation whirls me round The imaginary relish is so sweet That it enchants my sence what will it be When I shall taste that Nectar It must be either death or joy too fine For the capacity of human powers I fear it much and I do fear beside That I shall lose distinction in my joys As does a battle when they charge on heaps A flying Enemy Re-enter Pandarus Pand. She 's making her ready she 'll come straight you must be witty now she does so blush and fetches her breath so short as if she were frighted with a spright 't is the prettiest villain she fetches her breath so short as 't were a new ta'ne Sparrow Troil. Just such a passion does heave up my breast My heart beats thicker than a feavourish pulse I know not where I am nor what I do Just like a slave at unawares encountring The eye of Majesty Leade on I 'le follow Exeunt together SCENE III. The Camp Nestor Ulysses Vlyss. I have conceiv'd an embryo in my brain Be you my time to bring it to some shape Nest. What is 't Vlysses Ulyss. The ●eeded pride That has to this maturity blow● up In rank Achilles must or now be ●ropt Or shedding breed a nursery of ●ike ill To overtop us all Nest. That 's my opinion Vlyss. This challenge which 〈◊〉 as brings from Hector However it be spred in general terms Relates in purpose only to Achilles And will it wake him to the answer think you Nest. It ought to do whom can we else oppose Who do●'d from Hector bring his honour off If not Achilles the Successe of this Although particular will give an Omen Of good or bad ev'n to the general cause 〈◊〉 Pardon me Nestor if I contradict you Therefore 't is fit Achilles meet not 〈◊〉 Let us like Merchants show our coursest 〈◊〉 And think perchance 〈…〉 The lustre of our better yet unshown Will show the better let us not 〈◊〉 Our greatest warriour shou'd be match'd with Hector For both our honour and our shame in this Shall be attended with strange followers Nest. I see e'm not with my old eyes what are they Vlyss. What glory our Achilles gains from Hector Were he not proud we all should share with him But he already is too insolent And we had better parch in A●●rick Sun Than in his pride shou'd he scape Hector fair But grant he shou'd be foyl'd Why then our common reputation suffers In that of our best Man No make a Lottery And by device let blockish Ajax draw The chance to fight with Hector among our selves Give him allowance as the braver Man For that will physick the great Myrmidon Who swells with loud applause and make him fall His Crest if brainless Ajax come safe off If not we yet preserve a fair opinion That we have better men Nest. Now I begin to relish thy advice Come let us go to Agamemnon straight T' inform him of our project Vlyss. 'T is not ripe The skilfull Surgeon will not lanch a sore Till Nature has digested and prepar'd The growing humours to his healing purpose Else must he often grieve the patients sence When one incision once well-time'd woul'd serve Are not Achilles and dull Ajax friends Nest. As much as fools can be Vlyss. That knot of friendsip first must be unty'd Ere we can reach our ends for while they love each other Both hating us will draw too strong a byasse And all the Camp will lean that way they draw For brutall courage is the Soldiers Idoll So if one prove contemptuous back'd by to'ther 'T will give the law to cool and sober sence And place the power of war in Mad-mens hands Nest. Now I conceive you were they once divided And one of them made ours that one would check The others towring growth and keep both low As Instruments and not as Lords of war And this must be by secret coals of envy Blown in their brest comparisons of worth Great actions weigh'd of each and each the best As we shall give him voice Vlyss. Here comes Thersites Enter Thersites Who feeds on Ajax yet loves him not because he cannot love But as a Species differing from mankinde Hatss all he sees and rails at all he knows But hates them most from whom he most receives Disda●ing that his lot shou'd be so low That he shou'd want the kindeness which he takes Nest. There 's none so fit an Engine Save ye Thersites Vlyss. Hayl noble Grecian Thou relief of toyls Soul of our mirth and joy of sullen war In whose converse our winter-nights are short And Summer-days not tedious Ther 's Hang you both Nest. How hang us both Ther 's But hang thee first thou very reverend fool Thou sapless Oke that liv'st by wanting thought And now in thy three hundreth year repin'st Thou should'st be fell'd hanging's a civil death The death of men thou canst not hang thy trunk Is only fit for gallows to hang others Nest. A fine greeting Ther 's A fine old Dotard to repine at hanging At such an Age what saw the Gods in thee That a Cock-Sparrow shou'd but live three years And thou shoud'st last three Ages he 's thy better He uses life he treads himself to death Thou hast forgot thy use some hundred years Thou stump of Man thou worn-out broom thou lumber Nest. I 'le hear no more of him his poyson works What curse me for my age Vlyss. Hold you mistake him Nestor 't is his custome What malice is there in a mirthfull scene 'T is but a keen-edg'd Sword spread o're with blame To heal the wound it makes Ther 's Thou beg'st a curse May'st thou quit scores then and be hang'd on Nestor Who hangs on thee thou lead'st him by the nose Thou paly'st him like a puppet speak'st within him And when thou hast contirv'd some dark design To loose a thousand Greeks make dogs

in me to defend I think it no shame to retract my errors and am well pleas'd to suffer in the cause if the Art may be improv'd at my expence I therefore proceed to The Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy TRagedy is thus defin'd by Aristotle omiting what I thought unnecessary in his Definition 'T is an imitation of one intire great and probable action not told but represented which by moving in us fear and pity is conducive to the purging of these two passions in our minds More largly thus Tragedy describes or paints 〈◊〉 Action which Action must have all the proprieties above nam'd First it must be one or single that is it must not be a History of one Mans life Suppose of Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar but one single action of theirs This condemns all Shakespears Historical Plays which are rather Chronicles represented than Tragedies and all double action of Plays As to avoid a Satyr upon others I will make bold with my own Marriage-A-la-Mode where there are manifestly two Actions not depending on one another but in Oedipus there cannot properly be said to be two Actions because the love of Adrastus and Euridice has a necessary dependance on the principal design into which it is woven The natural reason of this Rule is plain for two different independant actions distract the attention and concernment of the Audience and consequently destroy the intention of the Poet If his business be to move terror and pity and one of his Actions be Comical the other Tragical the former will divert the people and utterly make void his greater purpose Therefore as in Perspective so in Tragedy there must be a point of sight in which all the lines terminate Otherwise the eye wanders and the work is false This was the practice of the Grecian Stage But Terence made an innovation in the Roman all his Plays have double Actions for it was his custome to Translate two Greek Comedies and to weave them into one of his yet so that both the Actions were Comical and one was principal the other but secondary or subservient And this has obtain'd on the English Stage to give us the pleasure of variety As the Action ought to be one it ought as such to have Order in it that is to have a natural beginning a middle and an end A natural beginning says Aristotle is that which could not necessarily have been plac'd after another thing and so of the rest This consideration will arraign all Plays after the new model of Spanish Plots where accident is heap'd upon accident and that which is first might as reasonably be last an inconvenience not to be remedyed but by making one accident naturally produce another otherwise 't is a Farce and not a Play Of this nature is the Slighted Maid where there is no Scene in the first Act which might not by as good reason be in the fifth And if the Action ought to be one the Tragedy ought likewise to conclude with the Action of it Thus in Mustapha the Play should naturally have ended with the death of Zanger and not have given us the grace Cup after Dinner of Solyman's divorce from Roxolana The following properties of the Action are so easy that they need not my explaining It ought to be great and to consist of great Persons to distinguish it from Comedy where the Action is trivial and the persons of inferior rank The last quality of the action is that it ought to be probable as well as admirable and great 'T is not necessary that there should be Historical truth in it but always necessary that there should be a likeness of truth something that is more then barely possible probable being that which succeds or happens oftner than it mi●●es To invent therefore a probability and to make it wonderfull is the most difficult undertaking in the Art of Poetry for that which is not wonderfull is not great and that which is not probable will not delight a reasonable Audience This action thus describ'd must be represented and not told to distinguish Dramatic Poetry from Epic but I hasten to the end or scope of Tragedy which is to rectify or purge our passions fear and pity To instruct delightfully is the general end of all Poetry Philosophy instructs but it performs its work by precept which is not delightfull or not so delightfull as Example To purge the passions by Example is therefore the particular instruction which belongs to Tragedy Rapin a judicious Critic has observ'd from Aristotle that pride and want of commiseration are the most predominant vices in Mankinde therefore to cure us of these two the inventors of Tragedy have chosen to work upon two other passions which are fear and pity We are wrought to fear by their seting before our eyes some terrible example of misfortune which hapned to persons of the highest Quality for such an action demonstrates to us that no condition is privileg'd from the turns of Fortune this must of necessity cause terror in us and consequently abate our pride But when we see that the most virtuous as well as the greatest are not exempt from such misfortunes that consideration moves pity in us and insensibly works us to be helpfull to and tender over the distress'd which is the noblest and most God-like of moral virtues Here 't is observable that it is absolutely necessary to make a man virtuous if we desire he should be pity'd We lament not but detest a wicked man we are glad when we behold his crimes are punish'd and that Poetical justice is done upon him Euripides was censur'd by the Critics of his time for making his chief characters too wicked for example Phaedra though she lov'd her Son-in-law with reluctancy and that it was acurse upon her Family for offending Venus yet was thought too ill a pattern for the Stage Shall we therefore banish all characters of villany I confess I am not of that opinion but it is necessary that the Hero of the Play be not a Villain that is the characters which should move our pity ought to have virtuous inclinations and degrees of morall goodness in them As for a perfect character of virtue it never was in Nature and therefore there can be no imitation of it but there are allays of frailty to be allow'd for the chief Persons yet so that the good which is in them shall outweigh the bad and consequently leave room for punishment on the one side and pity on the other After all if any one will ask me whether a Tragedy cannot be made upon any other grounds than those of exciting pity and terror in us Bossu the best of modern Critics answers thus in general That all excellent Arts and particularly that of Poetry have been invented and brought to perfection by men of a transcendent Genius and that therefore they who practice afterwards the same Arts are oblig'd to tread in their footsteps and to search in their