Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	court_n	great_a	king_n	2,817	5	3.7634	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44738	Paroimiographia Proverbs, or, Old sayed savves & adages in English (or the Saxon toung), Italian, French, and Spanish, whereunto the British for their great antiquity and weight are added ... / collected by J.H., Esqr.	Howell, James, 1594?-1666.	1659 (1659)	Wing H3098; ESTC R5378	300,163	349

be thus according to the Translation of Wickliffe Our fader that art in Heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom com to be thy will done so in Heaven as in earth gif to us this day our bread over other substance and forgive us our dettes as we forgeven our detters and leed us not into temptation but deliver us from evill Amen In this Translation we find that ther are some French words crepd in as dettis detters temptation deliver Touching the refinings interpolation and enrichments which the English Toung hath receavd from time to time it is to be considered that Languages as well as other notions of the mind use to proceed to a perfection by certain degrees The Latin Toung remaind in a kind of barbarisme nere upon 500. yeers till Caesar Cicero Salust and others did refine her and brought her to that purity we now read her in So did her daughters the Italian French and Spanish till the first was refined by Dante petrarca with Boccace his scholler and Ariosto The French began to be polishd in the reign of Philip de Valois Marot did something under Francis the First but Ronsard under Henry the Second did more then both Now the English came to that perfection and fullnes that she is now arrivd unto by adopting to herself the choicest best sounding and significanst words of other languages which in tract of time were enfranchizd and made free denizons as it were of England by a kind of Naturalization But she hath more of the French then of any other because of the Norman Conquest Insomuch that for the speaking of eloquent English 't is a great advantage to understand French whence she hath her gentilest words which was the ground of the old proverb Iack wold be a gentleman could he speak French Therefore though the Root of the English language be Dutch yet she may be sayed to have bin inoculated afterwards upon a French stock and she thrive so well that she did reingraffe upon divers words as chiefly upon chief faulty upon fault precisenes upon precise which are not found in French with a great nomber more but som Critiques observe that she takes the liberty to altar sometimes the sense of the words which she borrows as she useth crank for being lively and well whereas 't is sick in Dutch she useth bid to require or command whereas in Dutch t is to pray or entreat she useth Rogue for a rascall c. whereas in French t is used for a bragger or highminded man she useth nice for unwilling or averse whereas t is Idle in French with divers besides Moreover they tax her that she wants single words for sundry things which she expresseth by way of paraphrase as an old man a woman with child a looking glasse a peece of bread and butter c for which there are single words in other toungs yet for som things she hath differing proper words which others want as the Italian and Spaniards have no toes but fingars on their feet nor can all France Italy or Spain find a word for a smock though they all three love it well enough Nor doth the English language enfranchize French words only but divers choice expressive words from the Italian and Spaniard with others Insomuch that she may be sayed to be Dutch embrodered with French and other toungs or she may be sayed to be like one that garhers sweet flowers out of divers banks and beds to make a nosegay But t is a thing that gravells all Antiquaries how so many Greek words shold be found in the English toung being the same both for sense and signification as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grasse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a door 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 new 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to kisse with a great many more The probablest reason that may be given for this is that the Greek being a great mercantile toung and the most spacious for trading in times passd of any on earth som of that Nation for traffique sake migh come here or to Saxony And not many ages since there was a Colony of Grecians in Marseilles in France and another in Calabria in Italy By these applications and borrowings of choice exotic words the English may be sayed to be one of the most copious languages on earth nor in point of native eloquence as for Allegories Tropes Agnominations Metaphors and rhe constant poursuit of them doth she yield to any as also for soundnes and strength of poeticall fancyes so strong that the soft melting phrases of other toungs are too weak to gird them about Concerning the Originall of the French-toung t is taken pro confesso by all that she is sprung of the Latin while Rome kept three and twenty legions of Roman soldiers many Ages within her bowels who with the Countrey may be sayed to have conquerd the language also which was calld the old Celtique and is thought to be the same that the remnant of the old Britains now speak in Wales Touching the Changes which the French Toung hath receivd ther be divers Instances producd in my Epistle to the Reder before Cotgraves Dictionary she hath divers Dialects as the Gascon Picard Provensall that of Iersey Guernsey and low Normandy that of Liege and the Walloon who calls it Romand as the Spaniard calls his Romance and considering the ayrie and volatil humor of that Nation it is to be wondred that their language did receive no more changes ther having bin so many externall causes that concurrd thereunto as the continuance and coalition of the English so long among them the voyages that six of their Kings made to the Holy Land the warrs and weddings with their Neighbours and the great company of Strangers that kept still in the Queens Court But at this time the French is arrivd to a great pitch of perfection purity and sweetnes Ther was a contest not long agoe which spoke the best French the Kings Court the University or the Lawyers and the Courtier carried it the other two savouring the one of Pedantery the other of Chicanery or Sophistry Touching the Italian toung she may be calld the topbranch or eldest daughter of the Latin and she resembleth her mother more then the other two which made King Iames say that the Italian was nothing els but the Dative and Ablative Cases of the Latin she is held the smoothest the civillst and charmingst vulgar Toung of Europe For the first she hath not one word that ends with a consonant throughout the whole body of the language unlesse it be som small monosyllable praepositions and conjunctions which makes Her the more fluent and smooth this made the German for retorting of a geere which was cast upon the roughnes of his Toung by being that wherein Adam was thrust out of Paradis to say that the Devill had