Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A19558
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Amanda: or, The reformed whore. Composed, and made by Thomas Cranley gent. now a prisoner in the Kings-bench, Anno Dom. 1635
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Cranley, Thomas, fl. 1635.
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1635
(1635)
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STC 5988; ESTC S118905
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47,524
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98
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AMANDA OR THE REFORMED WHORE Composed and made by Thomas Cranley Gent. now a Prisoner in the Kings-bench Anno Dom. 1635. Admiranda canunt credenda aliquando Poetae Poets doe tell of strange things not a few Yet often times those things though strange are true Printed at LONDON and are to be sold at the golden Key over against the midle 〈…〉 To the worshipfull his worthy friend and Brother in law THOMAS GILEOVRNE Esquire All health and happinesse SIr having composed this small Volume J was resolved to Dedicate it to a right worthy and worshipfull Gentleman living within the wals of the City of London being perswaded thereunto by an intimate friend and familiar acquaintance of mine which Gentleman as he reported unto me was an especiall favourer of the Muses But upon better consideration well knowing that for my owne part J had no particular relation unto him neither was he a man with whom J had at any time the least acquaintance or one whom to my knowledg I had ever sixed my eye upon J was doubtfull left some ill construction might have bin made of my honest and simple meaning and therefore unwilling to be taxed with over bold presumption J thought it better to reflect my eye upon a more familiar object and to present the dedication of these poore labours to such a man of whose goodnesse and worth J have had sufficient tryall by the testimony of many yeeres acquaintance and the more imboldned thereunto by that conjugall affinity which hath more strongly united me to anindeered and in violable obligation If I consider of the worke it selfe I may well blush at the performance thereof and with the Poet say Cum relego scripsisse pudet quia plurima cerno Me quoque qui feci judice digna lini For although I have had an Idaea in my minde which hath presented me with a better forme yet my productions I must confesse are lame and imperfect and come farre short of the extentions of my wishes and imaginations Let your better judgment rather allow of my intentions then of my unpolisht expressions and what I am not able to delineate in words let my well-meaning endeavours be supplied out of the treasure of your more judicious apprehension So shall I have a further tryall of your favours and acknowledge a sacrifice which I owe unto the graces and you and shall alwaies rest Your most obliged THOMAS CRANLEY Iuly 1. 1635. Perlegi hoc opusculum cui titulus Amanda or the Reformed Whore quod continet folia 52º aut circiter in quibus nihil reperio quo minùs cum utilitate publica imprimi queant modò supprimantur quae deleta sunt intra sex menses proximè sequentes reliqua typis mandentur GVILIELMVS HAYVVOOD RR. P Arch. Cant. Cap. dom The Author to his Booke GOe little Booke the issue of my braine Begot in bondage now at last made free To keepe thee still in prison 't were in vaine Make triall how the world will favour thee If none receive thee turne againe to me I am no starter here thou shalt me sinde Shift for thy selfe be gone thou knowst my minde But whether shall I have thee goe at first Vnto the Cruicke no let him alone Many are bad but he of all is worst I 'de rather thou should'st die and goe to none Be sure avoide his hands of any one Shun Momus too lest he at thee doe carpe And Zoilus for his rebukes are sharpe Avoide their sight and then goe where thou wilt Thy meaning 's good how ere it take effect Although with words of art thou art not guilt Some thy unlearned plainenesse will respect And perchance fancie this thy Dialect That may please some which will not profit all Although thy lines are not didacticall Chiefely I send thee to the female sexe Whom I doe truely honour and regard Thy ready service shall attend their becks Without expecting profit or reward Oh that some one would take thee to their guard Mayst thou please them as I could wish it so I care not if the rest be pleas'd or no. In thy first interprize thou conquerd'st one And drag'd her by thy force out of the mire Let that encourage thee and suffer none To shun thy strong encounter till thou try her Boldly goe on and neither faint nor tyre God knowes so happy the successe may be To one resisting thou mayst conquer three Thou hast thy charge and now thou mayst be gone Goe to the Countrey City and the Court They all yeeld matter for to worke upon I send in earnest goe not thou in sport To great aswell as meane doe thou resort If so thou be esteem'd of any worth I shall be glad that ere I sent thee forth Cranley CRANLEYS Amanda Or The Reformed Whore HAving beene many monthes a prisoner in the Fleete and overwearyed with the teadious length of idle time glad of the least occasion of imployment as well to put the thoughts of my distracted fortunes out of my head as also to helpe waste and bring to an end the wearisome day It was my fortune walking one day solitarily on the Leads being on the top of an high Tower adjoyning unto my Chamber and looking over the battlements into the Fleete-lane I espied in one of the Houses right opposite against me a young Gentlewoman of a comely feature and sweete grace apparelled very richly and attired according to the fashion then most in use she was looking out at a window into the streete and I standing on the toppe of the Tower being almost two stories higher then her chamber window could easily discerne her without being seene my selfe where after she had looked a while into the street she retires into her chamber and shuts the casement I thinking she had beene a stranger and came to visit some friend or kinsman in that house tooke little regard of her for that time But afterwards walking many times upon the Leads looking againe into the Lane I by chance cast mine eye against the same window out of the which I did first see the Gentlewoman to looke where I might darkly perceive through the Glasse the casement being then shut the same Gentlewoman stand busy about something which I could not discerne and perceiving her to be the same woman which I had there formerly seene I began to thinke that she might perchance lodge in the same house and knowing her to be a stranger and not inhabitant there and that it was no fit place for a Gentlewoman of her fashion as she seemed to be to lodge in such a place whereas every house almost in the Lane was filled with prisoners I began to enquire if she were wife of any prisoner or if she were a prisoner herselfe because such women as are prisoners doe for the most part lie in the Lane upon enquiry I understood that she was neyther prisoner nor prisoners wife but a stranger newly come out of the City and that she