Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	king_n	see_v	4,869	5	3.5371	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02153	Perimedes the blacke-smith a golden methode, how to vse the minde in pleasant and profitable exercise: wherein is contained speciall principles fit for the highest to imitate, and the meanest to put in practise, how best to spend the wearie winters nights, or the longest summers euenings, in honest and delightfull recreation: wherein we may learne to auoide idlenesse and wanton scurrilitie, vvhich diuers appoint as the end of their pastimes. Heerein are interlaced three merrie and necessarie discourses fit for our time: with certaine pleasant histories and tragicall tales, which may breed delight to all, and offence to none.	Greene, Robert, 1558?-1592.	1588 (1588)	STC 12295; ESTC S105812	37,452	59

Mar●ucio that th●n presentlye possest it this report comming to the eares of the prisoners Alc●m●des who knew very well to speake the Bar●arian toong told his keeper that might it please him to bring him to the kings pres●nce hee would take such order with his grace as hee should in despight of fortune remaine conqueror The Iaylor séeing the request was of importance told it presentlye to his Highnesse who in great hast sent for Alcimide● who gathering the king and his Nobles together discouered vnto them such a péece of politike seruice that they all consented to let Alc●medes haue the leading of the vaward who vndertaking the charge as a man greatly experienced in martiall discipline carried his men in squadrons and troupes so artificially as his warlike skil did greatly encourage the souldiers hauing thus set his men in arraye marching forward to méete the enimy when the battailes were within v●w and readye to ioyne Alcymedes taking the King by the hand presented him to the face of all his armie and then began to incourage them on this manner I néed not worthie Gentlemen and Souldiers of Barbarie séeke to incourage you with a long discourse vnlesse putting Oyle in the flame I should put a spur to a frée Horse your former valiant resolutions manifested in manye battailes the honor whereof still glories your name with renowm● assures me were the enimie like the sands of the sea and M●rs hims●lfe opposed against our forces yet the quarrell good and our minds armed with inuincible fortitude the vertue that dareth fortune in hir face maugre fates and destinies you shall as euer you haue done returne with an honorable conquest And for that the cause toucheth your King who counteth himselfe a fellow-partner in your fortunes sée he presents himselfe as the first man in the battaile and last man in the field vnlesse death giue him a princelie quittance of his kingdome let him be a myrror this day of your magnanimitie let his actions be your presidents presse but as far as your Generall courage Gentlemen the victory is ours sée how your sorrowfull Countrymen onelye animated by the rebellious perswasion of a traitor stands to receiue vs whose cowardize scarse dare march a foote to méete vs I sée yea I sée in their very faces the portrature of feare and therefore Gentlemen God and our Right and with that he put spurs to his horse and gaue a furious and valiant onset vpon the enemy The king ashamed to performe any lesse then Alcimides had promised taking a strong lance in his hand pulling downe his Beuier rusht most furiouslie vpon the enemie his So●ldiers noting the vnlookt-for courage of their King followed with such a desperate resolution that the enimie amazed at the valour of Martucio who like a Lion massacring whom he met ran without stop through the troupes they laid downe their weapons without any great slaughter But Martucio forgetting they were his natiue Countrymen and his subiects still raged till méeting him that made claime to the crowne in single combat he slewe him princely in the field stayed at last by one of his Lords who told him the battell was ended by the submission of his subiects who were ashamed that they had béene so forgetfull of their allegeance causing the retreat to be sounded he peaceablie marched on toward Susa where putting certaine of the chéefe offendors to the sworde he sent the rest home in quiet The victorye ended the King presently sommoned a parlament where with the consent of all his Commons Nobilitie hee proclaimed poore and distressed Alcimides Duke of Tunize and caused him to ride through the Cittie with a Garland of Bayes on his head and Princely robes in great and sumptuous magnificence Being thus aduanced the report thereof came vnto the eares of Constance who now knowing him aliue in great authoritie whome long since she held for dead she conceiued such inward ioye that she could not but outwardlye commit the sum of hir minde to the Gentlewoman with whome s●e dwe●t who pittying hir plaints promised as soon as opportunitie would giue her leaue to manifest the matter to Alcimides Constance impacient of delayes would not let the old Gentlewoman take no rest till one morning she went to A●cimides and told him that a certaine Gentlewoman was come from Lippary who desired to speake with him in secret Alcimides courteous as one whome honor had not made proud thanked the widow for hir paines and went home to her house where she presented him with the sight of Constance Alcimedes hearing long before that she was dead stood amazed at the sudden aduenture but shée poore soule whome loue stunge at the verye heart could not abstaine but blushing leapt about his necke bewraying her ioye in teares Alcimedes the most ioyfull man aliue for so happy an encounter after many swéete imbrasings past demaunded the cause meanes how she came into Barba●ie who recounting the fore rehearsed discourse greatly gladded Alcimides for the finding of so tr●stie and true a fréend Long he stayed not but that he reuealed this comicall Historie to the King who desirous to sée the Maide entertained hir with great and princelie courtesie and with all spéed to both their contents solemnized the mariage which past he sent them according to their calling riche home to their fréends in Lippary Delia hauing ended her Tale Perimedes began to take occasion to talke of the inconstancie of Fortune who onelye coueted to be counted variable in all her actions for quoth he I tell thée wife I haue séene in my time many rich men who liued secure in the aboundance of their wealth driuen to such extreame pouertie that their superfluitie was ●ot more then their ●nsuing want many baze peasants by hir flattery be so hoisted vp to the top of her wauering whéele as they b●e potentates and mightie men of the earth but her fauours are such as they include misfortune and when she presents the most comicall shewes then she intends the most balefull and dismall stratagemes as the instance of Alexander the great may serue for a presidēt who in twelue yeares making a conquest of the whole world and so ●●attered by Fo●tune as he séemed to holde hir fauours in his owne hand amidst his most glée and greatest glorye was ●●wardlye poysoned in Babilon At this Pe●imedes was readye to enter into a long discourse his Wife Delia told him the night was farre spent wherevppon taking his wiues motion for a warning commanding hir to Co●●re l● fen the poore Smith and his Wife went to Bed The third nights exercise THe next day being a solempne day of sacrifice obserued amongst the Aegyptians Perimedes shutting vp his shop as one that feared to giue the least occasion of offence tying his deuotion to the Gods his obedience to his king his loue to his neighbours and his will to the lawe causing his wyfe to honor the festiuall Rytes with her best rayment him selfe

that selfe loue hang●s in the heart not in the habite that Plato durst say Calco fastidium-Diogenis meaning that the poore Cynick was as insolent in his patcht cloake as Alexander the great in all his roy●ltie Enuie of all othervites hee did eschewe as a cancker so p●stil●nt to an honest minde that it suffereth quiet not so much as to pry into the motions of the heart Couetous h● was not as one that sought by his handes thrift to satisfie his owne necessitie and if any surplusage were graunted by good lucke hée slept not soundly on saturday at night till he his wife and his neighbours had merilie and honestlie spent it at a homelie banquet He wanted nothing as one that against all spight of Fortune opposed patience and against necessitie content And yet Fortune that she might not be thought to iniu●ious in lieu of all her other dissauours lent him a wife of his owne conditions whome he loued more then himselfe for the poore woman although she was barren and had no children yet was she of a verie pure and perfect complexion and witha●l of such good b●hauiour first in loue and dutie to her husband and then in friendly and familiar conuersation with her neighbo●rs that shée was thought a wife fit for so honest a husband These two thus beloued of all the inhabitants of Memphis prescribed them selues such an order of life as diuerse men of great calling sought to be carefull imitators of their methode for suffring no priuate iarres to come within their poore cottage as a thing most preiuditiall to an Oeconomicall estate no sooner had thes● two past away the day he at his hammers and she at the Bellowes for boy they had none but that sitting them selues to supper they satisfied nature with that their labour did get and their calling allow and no sooner had they taken their repast but to passe the rest of the euening merely they fell to pleasant chatte betwéene them selues sometim● discoursing of what came first in their heads with Pro cōtra as their naturall logick would graunt them leaue other while with merie tales honest and tending to some good end without either lasciousnesse or scurilitie thus euer they passed away the night and for that the Egyptians as a great monument kept diuerse of their discourses which some by chance had ouerheard and put downe as a Iewell in their librari● I meane as their recordes doe rehearse to set downe in brief two of their nightsprattle which although homely tolde yet being honestand pleasant I thought they would bread● some conceipted delight to the hearers and therefore thus The first nightes discourse NO sooner had Perymedes and his wyfe Delia for so was her name ended their dayes worke and taken their repast but sitting safely in their simple cottage by a little fire Perymedes begā thus solemnly and sadlie to enter into a discourse I can not thinke wife but if we measure all our actions with a true proportion that wée haue supt as daintely as the proudest in all the Cittie of Memphis for the ende of delicates is but to satisfie nature which is so partiall in hir desires that were not our vitious mindes drowned in gluttonie content would seale vp hir request with a very small pittance but such is the course of the world now a dai●● that euerie man séekes with Philoxenus to haue his necke as long as a Crane that he may with more pleasure swill in the sweete tast of their superfluous deinties But wife since I can remember here in Memphis Psamnetichus our king was of so sparing a diet that being demaunded by an Ambassadour what Caters he had for his houshold made answere his Cooke and his stomake in seeming by this that his Cooke bought no more in the shambles than woulde satisfie what his stomack desired But now wife euery meane man must be so curious in his fare that we are rather to be counted Epicurians than Egiptians and our Chaldees haue more skill in a cup of wine than in a ●ibrarie which superfluitie bredeth both beggerie to manie and diseases to all For so they drowne them selues in the bottomlesse sea of gluttonie as at last they make their bodies a subiect for the Physition thinking that the temperature of their complexions can neuer be well affected vnlesse their stomacks bee made a verie Apotecaries shoppe by receiuing a multitude of simples and drugges so to settle their wauering constitution those men that wed them selues to such inordinate excesse finde diuerse and sondrie passions to torment the stomack and all the body which no sooner paynes them but straight as experiēce is a great mistresse they calculate the nature of the disease and straight ●●ye to purging to phlebotomie to fomentacions such medicinall decretals according to the interiour or exteriour nature of the disease where as perhaps some slender fault is the efficient cause of such a momentanie passion better to be cured by time than physick But excesse in diet wi●e bréedeth this restlesse desire and so manie are the diseases incident by our owne superfluities that euerie one had néede to haue an Herball tied at his girdle well I haue heard my father say that he was but one daie sicke in all his life time being then also through ouer much labour fallen into a feauer And this perfect temperature of the bodie did not procéed● from the diuersities of potions and daintie delicates but by a true proportion of exercise and diet which Zeno the Philosopher noted well to be true who beeing of a verie weake and tender constitution subiect oft to sickn●sse yet neuer kept his bed Being demaunded of a Lacedemonian what preseruatiues he did vse Zeno willing to be briefe in his answeres shewed then a péece of bread a dish of water with a strong bowe of Stéele meaning by this Enigma to discouer vnto them that he raced out his diseases by exercise and fasting as two especiall pointes necessarie for the perfecting of mans health You say truth husband quoth Delia for oft haue I heard my mother say that thrée thinges are the chiefest delicates which who so vseth shall liue long and happely Hunger quiet and mirth but to auer your sayings to be true euerie one séekes to attaine the contrarie which causeth such sodaine death perilous diseases mo perish by gluttonie than by the sworde for in steade of hunger men séeke to satisfie nature with excesse for quiet enuie at others happinesse presentes a stratageme for mirth melancholie and couetous humours how most gréedily to gaine thus euerie one séekes that time and experience proues most preiudiciall but the time hath bene yea Perymedes and within my remembrance when the inhabitantes of Memphis knewe not what ryot and ill diet ment but euery man applying him selfe to frugalitie coueted to be thought honest and vertuous where as nowe a daies the meanest doth desire to be thought proud and sumptuous While Numa Pompilius banished excesse out of Rome

play at Cardes let me heare thée tell a tale to requite yesternightes chat Delia nothing dainty with hir husband taking the tongs in hir hand to kéepe the fire in reparations began in this manner Delia hir tale IN the Ile of Lyppary there dwelled sometime a Gentleman of good parentage as descended from worshipfull and honest parents learned by education as trained vp amongst the Philosophers in their academies vertuous in his actions as putting in practize those principles which he hearde in their Shooles as Axiomes generally well nourtred in so much that he liued in very good account in the Iland This Gentleman called Alcimides although fauoured thus with sondrie good qualities yet was greatly enuied by loue and fortune for his wāt was such as his reuenewes were nothing aunswerable to his minde but li●ed poorely and yet contentedly in meane estate Fancie séeing fortune frowne to fill vp the tragedie presented him with the sight of a young Gentlewomā called Constance who bein● both wise and beautifull two perswasions sufficient to induce affection was so narrowly marked of Alcimides as he thought no obiect to fit his eie but her person nor no melodie to please his eare but the sound of her modest and graue communication Snared thus with the consideration of this young Gentlewoman at the first he found wa●es to proffer hir roses and perfumes but at the last pilles and hemlock For the young virgin hearing of the vertuous disposition of Alcimides and séeing his minde was as well garnished with good qualities as his bodie with proportion vsed lex talionis and repaied him loue for loue so farre as his honestie might desire her honor admitte in so much that nothing was wanting in the accōplishment of their thoughtes but her fathers consent who being moued by Alcimides in the matter flatly denied and made this obiection that he was to poore to make his daughter any sufficient ioynter Which answere so mazed Alcimides that in a desperate moode aquainting certaine friendes with his purpose He rigged forth a ship to sea with full resolution either to retourne rych or to lea●e his louer and him selfe in the boosome of Neptune Upon which determination resting he loosed with his companions from Lyparie in manner of mart made hauock on y ● Coast of Barbarie so that in short time he became very rich but insatiate couetise that like the serpent Hidaspis is euer a thiefe so haled him to the hope of more rich purchase that at last he and all his men were taken by the Sarrasins and carried away prisoners into Thūnes The news of this mishap as report must euer be pratling came flying to the Ile of Lypary that the ship wherein Alcimides and his Souldiours was imbarqued was drowned in the Coast of Barbarie Constance no sooner heard of this cursed Stratageme but she determined to ende these miseries with death and that in the sea that she might imitate Alcymides who was reported to perish in the same Element to the ende therefore ●ir purpose might the more easily be brought to passe Constāce walking downe to the shoare found a little fisher boate readie furnished with mast sayles other prouision floating in the the hauen Which Constance espying taking this for good occasion she spéedely went into the boat and as well as she coul● as the women of that Iland are most skilfull in nauigation haled forth into the maine and there committed hir selfe to the mercie of the waue and winding thinking by this meanes to procure sonest hir fatall ende sith so many accidents were readie as death daunger euerie minute Passed thus two or thrée dayes alongst the Coast till at last a Southeast wynde dryue the ship vpon the shoare of Barbarie The Barke thus beaten vp there was at that present in the same place a poore woman who made cleane the fishermens nets which séeing the ship so roughly arriued thought the Marriners had bene a sléepe to warne them therefore of their landing she went vp the hatches and found none in so much that séeking further she found this young Gentlewoman fast a sléepe as one secure and carelesse of hir misfortune whome the poore fisherwife waking perceiuing by hir apparell that she was a Christian demaunded in the latine toung of whence she was and the cause of hir so straunge imbarking Constance risen as it were from a dreame hearing one speake latine thought she had béene driuen back againe to Lypary but casting hir eye about and séeing hir selfe in an vnknowen Coast she craued of the woman the name of the countrey who tolde hir she was in Barbarie neare a citti● called Su●e Which greatly grieued Constance that hir death was prolonged by such a luklesse aduenture so that fearing some dishonour in so barbarous a countrey might befall hir virgins estate she sat her downe and wept The poore woman taking pittie of hir passions caried hir home to hir little cottage and there as well as she might so comforted the distressed maide that she tolde hir from point to point the some of this haplesse accident and grewe so farre in familiaritie that Constance demaunded of hir what she was who made aunswere that she was of Trapany a seruant to certaine fishers hir-name Mawdleyne Constance séeing she was a Christian and could speake Latine very perfec●lie began to intreate hir that she would for the loue of their religion and fai●h tell her what course she had best take that she remaine for a time safe without preiudice either of honor or honesty Mawdleyne a woman of good and vertuous disposition told her that there was a Sarrazen widow in the Citie of vertuous life and good conscience whose house was oft a sanctuary for the distressed there she durst assure hir selfe she might for a time remaine till time and opportunitie should better prouide for her estate Constance glad of this newes desired Mawdleyne to fauour hir with the benefit of that seruice who willing to pleasure her before two dayes were pas● setting all things to hir minde in order went with Constance to the widowes house who hauing heard before of Mawdleyne of this maide gaue her verye good intertainement as one pittying hir distresse heard hir sorrow with teares and remorse well Cons●an●e thus placed being in the company of sundry other maides that wrought néedle-worke so applied hir selfe to hir labour that not only by hir diligence she procured hir mistresse fauour but by hir courtesie the generall loue good liking of all hir fellowes Remaining thus quiet though not satisfied fortune willing after so sharpe a Catastrophe to induce a comicall conclusion tempered hir storme with this pleasant calme Alcymedes lying thus in prison hauing no hope to recouer his fréedom● but looking euerye daye to be condemned perpetuall slaue to the Galleys newes came that a Nobleman of great reputation dignitie power had made claime to the kingdome of Thimes as his owne and ment by the sworde to take it from