Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	woman_n	work_n	write_v	24	3	4.7580	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53061	Poems, and fancies written by the Right Honourable, the Lady Margaret Newcastle.	Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of, 1624?-1674.	1653 (1653)	Wing N869; ESTC R17512	154,101	257

POEMS AND FANCIES WRITTEN By the Right HONOURABLE the Lady MARGARET Countess of NEWCASTLE LONDON Printed by T. R. for J. Martin and J. Allestrye at the Bell in Saint Pauls Church Yard 1653. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY TO SIR CHARLES CAVENDISH MY Noble Brother-in-Law SIR I Do here dedicate this my VVork unto you not that I think my Book is worthy such a Patron but that such a Patron may gaine my Book a Respect and Esteeme in the VVorld by the favour of your Protection True it is Spinning with the Fingers is more proper to our Sexe then studying or writing Poetry which is the Spinning with the braine but I having no skill in the Art of the first and if I had I had no hopes of gaining so much as to make me a Garment to keep me from the cold made me delight in the latter since all braines work naturally and incessantly in some kinde or other which made me endeavour to Spin a Garment of Memory to lapp up my Name that it might grow to after Ages I cannot say the VVeb is strong fine or evenly Spun for it is a Course peice yet I had rather my Name should go meanly clad then dye with cold but if the Sute be trimmed with your Favour shee may make such a shew and appeare so lovely as to wed to a Vulgar Fame But certainely your Bounty hath been the Distaffe from whence Fate hath Spun the thread of this part of my Life which Life I wish may be drawne forth in your Service For your Noble minde is above petty Interest and such a Courage as you dare not onely look Misfortunes in the 〈◊〉 but grapple with them in the defence of your Freind and your kindnesse hath been such as you have neglected your selfe even in ordinary Accoutrements to maintaine the distressed which shewes you to have such an Affection as St. Paul expresses for his Brethren in Christ who could be accurst for the sakes And since your Charity is of that Length and Generosity of that Height that no Times nor Fortunes can cut shorter or pull downe lower I am very confident the sweetnesse of your 〈◊〉 which I have alwayes found in the delightfull conversation of your Company will never change but be so humble as to accept of this Booke which is the VVork of Your most Faithfull Servant M. N. TO ALL NOBLE AND WORTHY LADIES Noble Worthy Ladies COndemne not as a dishonour of your Sex for setting forth this Work for it is harmelesse and free from all dishonesty I will not say from Vanity for that is so naturall to our Sex as it were unnaturall not to be so Besides Poetry which is built upon Fancy Women may claime as a worke belonging most properly to themselves for I have observ'd that their Braines work usually in a Fantasticall motion 〈◊〉 in their severall and various 〈◊〉 in their many and singular choices of Cloaths and Ribbons and the like in their curious shadowing and mixing of Colours in their Wrought workes and divers sorts of 〈◊〉 they imploy their Needle and many Curious things they make as Flowers Boxes Baskets with Beads Shells Silke 〈◊〉 or any thing else besides all manner of Meats to 〈◊〉 and thus their Thoughts are imployed perpetually with Fancies For Fancy goeth not so much by Rule Method as by Choice and if I have chosen my 〈◊〉 with fresh colours and 〈◊〉 them in good shadows although the 〈◊〉 be not very true yet it will please the Eye so if my Writing please the Readers though not the Learned it will satisfie me for I had rather be praised in this by the most although not the best For all I desire is Fame and Fame is nothing but a great noise and noise lives most in a 〈◊〉 wherefore I wish my Book may set a worke every Tongue But I imagine I shall be censur'd by my owne Sex and Men will cast a smile of scorne upon my Book because they think thereby Women incroach too much upon their Prerogatives for they hold Books as their Crowne and the Sword as their Scepter by which they rule and governe And very like they will say to me as to the Lady that wrote the Romancy Work Lady work let writing Books alone For surely wiser Women nere wrote one But those that say so shall give me leave to wish that those of neerest Relation as Wives Sisters Daughters may imploy their time no worse then in honest Innocent and harmlesse Fancies which if they do Men shall have no cause to feare that when they go abroad in their absence they shall receive an 〈◊〉 by their loose Carriages Neither will Women be desirous to Gossip abroad when their Thoughts are well imployed at home But if they do throw scorne I shall intreat you as the Woman did in the Play of the Wife for a Month which caused many of the Effeminate Sex to help her to keep their Right and Priviledges making it their owne Case Therefore pray strengthen my Side in defending my Book for I know Womens Tougns are as sharp as two-edged Swords and wound as much when they are anger'd And in this Battell may your Wit be quick and your Speech ready and your Arguments so strong as to beat them out of the Feild of Dispute So shall I get Honour and Reputation by your Favours otherwise I may chance to be cast into the Fire But if I burn I desire to die your Martyr if I live to be Your humble Servant M. N. AN EPISTLE TO MISTRIS TOPPE SOME may think an Imperfection of wit may be a blemish to the Family from whence I sprung But Solomon sayes A wise man may get a Fool. Yet there are as few meer Fools as wise men for Vnderstanding runs in a levell course that is to know in generall as of the Effects but to know the Cause of any one thing of Natures workes Nature never gave us a Capacity thereto Shee hath given us Thoughts which run wildly about and if by chance they light on Truth they do not know it for a Truth But among it many Errours there are huge Mountaines of Follies and though I add to the Bulke of one of them yet I make not a Mountaine alone and am the more excusable because I have an Opinion which troubles me like a conscience that 〈◊〉 a part of Honour to aspire towards a Fame For it cannot be an Effeminacy to seek or run after Glory to love Perfection to desire Praise and though I want Merit to make me worthy of it yet I make some satisfaction in desiring it But had I broken the Chaines of Modesty or behav'd my selfe in dishonourable and loose carriage or had run the wayes of Vice as to Periure my self or 〈◊〉 my Freinds or denyed a Truth or had lov'd deceit Then I might have prov'd a Greife to the Family I came from and a dishonour to the Family I am link't to raised Blushes in their cheeks being mentioned or to