Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	great_a	time_n	year_n	9,128	5	4.5915	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29768	Amusements serious and comical, calculated for the meridian of London by Mr. Brown.	Brown, Thomas, 1663-1704.	1700 (1700)	Wing B5051; ESTC R19929	56,419	166

Shop 't is so full of Gold and Silver and yet it often happens that he that is possest of all this vast Treasure is not worth a brass Farthing To Day his Counters bend under the weight of Cash and to Morrow the Shop is shut up and you hear no more of our Goldsmith till you find him in a Gazette torn to pieces by a Statute of Bankrupt And he and his Creditors made a Prey by a parcel of devouring Vermin call'd Commissioners The Neighbouring Country is Stocks-Market where you see a large Garden Paved with Pibble Stones in all the Beds and Allies indifferently open to all Comers and Goers and yet bears as good Herbs Fruits and Flowers as any in the World Here is Winter dress'd in the Livery of Summer Every day a Crop is gather'd and every Night are stockt up in Baskets till the next days Sun does open them About this Garden great Numbers of Nymphs reside who each of them live in their respective Tubs They have not only that in common with Diogenes but like that Philosopher also they speak out freely to the first Comer whatever comes uppermost A further Description I would give you of their Parts and Persons but that I cannot endure the smell of the Serjeants at the Counter-Gate who stink worse than old Ling or Assa faetida and would poyson the Country if this pleasant Garden was not an Antidote against their Infection And therefore I 'll go back again into the Country of Coffee-Houses WHere being arriv'd I am in a Wood there are so many of them I know not which to enter Stay let me see Where the Sign is Painted with a Woman's Hand in 't 't is a Bawdy-House Where a Man 's it has another Qualification but where it has a Star in the Sign 't is Calculated for every Leud purpose Every Coffee-House is Illuminated both without and within Doors without by a fine Glass-Lanthorn and within by a Woman so Light and Splendid you may see through her without the help of a Perspective At the Bar the good Man always places a charming Phillis or two who invite you by their Amorous Glances into their smoaky Territories to the loss of your Sight This is the Place where several Knights Errant come to seat themselves at the same Table without knowing one another and yet talk as familiarly together as if they had been of many years Acquaintance They have scarce look'd about them when a certain Liquor as Black as Soot is handed to them which being Foppishly fumed into their Noses Eyes and Ears has the Vertue to make them Talk and Prattle together of every thing but what they should do Now they tell their several Adventures by Sea and Land How they Conquer'd the Geand were overcome by the Lady and bought a pair of wax'd Boots at Northampton to go a Wooing in One was commending his Wife another his Horse and the third said he had the best smoak'd Beef in Christendom Some were discoursing of all sorts of Government Monarchical Aristocratical and Democratical Some about the choice of Mayors Sheriffs and Aldermen and others of the Transcendent Vertues of Vinegar Pepper and Mustard In short I thought the whole Room was a perfect Resemblance of Dover-Court where all Speak but no body heard nor answer'd To the Charms of Coffee the wiser sort joyn'd Spirit of Clary Usquebaugh and Brandy which compleatly Enchants the Knights By the force of these Soporiferous Enchantments you shall find one Snoaring heartily on a Bench another makes Love to beautiful Phillis at the Bar and the third as valiant as Orlando Furioso goes to signalize his Valour in scouring the Streets I should never have done if I should attempt to run through all the several Countries within the Walls of London as the long Robe the Sword the Treasury Every State in brief is like a separate Country by its self and has its particular Manners and Gibberish Here you may view the Fruitful Country of Trade that has turn'd Leather Breeches into Gold Chains blue Aprons into Fur Gowns a Kitchinstuff Tub into a gilded Chariot a Dray-man into a Knight and Noblemen's Palaces into Shops and Ware-Houses Here is also the Barren Country of the Philosopher's-Stone inhabited by none but Cheats in the Operation Beggars in the Conclusion and now is become almost Desolate till another Age of Fools and Knaves do People it To this may be added the Cold Country of the News-Mongors that Report more than they hear affirm more than they know and swear more than they believe that Rob one another and lye in Sheets for want of a Coverlid The Hot Country of the Disputers that quarrel and raise a Dust about nothing The Level Country of Bad Poets and Presbyterian Parsens One of which is maintain'd by a good stock of Confidence and by the other Flattery and Canting The Desert uninhabited Country of Vertuous Women The Conquer'd Country of Coquets and an infinite Number of others not to reckon the Lost Country inhabited by Strowlers who aim at nothing but to lead others out of their way They are of easie access but 't is dangerous to Traffick with them Some of them have the Art to please without Management and to love without Loving But how have I forgot my own Dear Country that is consecrated to Bacchus that abounds with Nectar the Wonder working Liquor of the World that makes a Poet a Prince in 's own Conceit a Coward Valiant and a Beggar as Rich as an Alderman Here I live at Ease and in Plenty Swagger and Carouze Quarrel with the Master Fight the Drawer and never trouble my self about paying the Reckoning for one Fool or other pays it for me A Poet that has Wit in his Head never carries Money in his Breeches for fear of creating a New Amusement In Leicester-Fields I saw a Mounte-bank on the Stage with a Congregation of Fools about him who like a Master in the Faculty of Lying gave them a History of his Cures beyond all the Plays and Farces in the World He told them of Fifteen Persons that were Run clear through the Body and glad for a matter of three Days together to carry their Puddings in their Hands but in Four and twenty Hours he made 'em as whole as Fishes and not so much as a Scar for a Remembrance of the Orifice If a Man had been so bold as to ask him when and where his Answer would have been ready without Studying that it was some Twelve hundred Leagues off in Terra Incognito by the Token that at the same time he was Physician in Ordinary to a great Prince that dy'd about Five and twenty years ago and yet the Quack was not Forty All these Subjects though very Amusing were not equally Edifying and therefore in my Voyage towards the City I call'd in at a Quaker's Meeting where a Fellow was talking Nonsence as confidently as if he had had a Patent for it and confirm'd the Popish Maxim That

get a Dinner and a Bottle but the Stingy Curr pop't me off with a Dish of Coffee and the old Talk that Trading was Dead that they suffer'd for other Mens Works as well as their own and in short finding not a Penny to be screw'd out of the Prig I pursued my Voyage to the City but it happening to Rain to shelter my self from it I run my Face into A Heralds Office HERE was a Confounded Noise of Descents Pedigrees Genealogies Coat Armour Bearings Additions Abatements and a deal of that insignificant Jargon While I was listening to this Gibberish in comes a Fellow with a Role of Parchment in his Hand to be made a Gentleman and to have a Coat of Arms finely Painted to hang up in his Dining-Room till his Wife Died and then to be transported on the Outside and Front of the House to Invite a Rich Widdow to Marty him My Father says he has bore Arms for His Majesty in many Honourable Occasions of Watching and Warding and has made many a Tall Fellow speak to the Constable at all Hours of the Night My Uncle was the first Man that ever was of the Honourable Order of the Black-Guard And we have had five Brave Commanders of our Family by my Father's side that have served the State in the Quality of Marshal's Men and Thief Takers and gave His Majesty a fair Account of all the Prisoners that were taken by them And by my Mothers side it will not be denied but that I am Honourably Descended for my Grandmother was never without a Dozen Chamber-Maids and Nurses in Family Her Husband wore a Sword by his Place for he was Deputy-Marshal and to prove my self a Man of Honour I have here a Testimonial in my Hand in Black and White and in my Pocket brave Yellow-Boys to pay for a Coat of Arms Which being produced and Finger'd by the Herald he immediately assign'd him a Coat viz. A Gibbet Erect with a Wing Volant A Ladder Ascendant A Rope Pendant and a Marshal's Man Swinging at the end on 't I am Sandalized says my Indian at your Custome in London in making every Saucy Iack a Gentleman And why are you not as well offended reply'd I to my Indian to hear almost every Gentleman call one another Iack and Tom and Harry They first dropt the Distinction Proper to Men of Quality and Scoundrels took it up and bestowed it upon themselves and hence it is that a Gentleman is sunk into plain Iack and Iack is rais'd into Gentleman In Days of Yore a Man of Honour was more Distinguishable by his Generosity and Affability than by his Lac'd Liveries but too many of them having degenerated into the Vices of the Vulgar Fry Honour is grown Contemptible the Respect that is due to their Births is lost in a Savage Management and is now assumed by every Scoundrel The Cobler is Affronted if you don't call him Mr. Translator The Groom Names himself Gentleman of the Horse and the Fellow that carries Guts to the Bears writes himself one of His Majesty's Officers The Page calls himself a Child of Honour and the Foot-Boy stiles himself my Ladies Page Every Little Nasty Whore takes upon her the Title of Lady and every Impudent Broken-Mouth'd Manteau-Maker must be call'd Madam Theodosia Br Every Dunce of a Quack is call'd a Physician Every Gown-Man a Counseller Every Silly Huff a Captain Every Gay thing a Chevalier Every Parish Reader a Doctor And every Writing Clerk in the Office Mr. Secretary Which is all but Hypocrisie and Knavery in Disguise for nothing is now called by its right Name The Heralds I see have but little to do Honour and Arms which used to employ all Men of Birth and Parts is now almost dwindled into an Airy Nothing Let us then go and see how the World wags in the City Circle Amusement XI The City Visiting-Day I Have given my Traveller Walking enough from Country to Country let us save him the trouble now of Beating the Hoof and shew him the rest of the World as he sits in his Chair To be acquainted with all the Different Characters of it it will be sufficient for him to frequent certain Numerous Assemblies a sort of City Circle they are set up in imitation of the Circle at Court The Circle in Foreign Courts is a Grave Assembly but ill seated upon Low Stools set in a Round Here all Women Talk and none of them Listen Here they make a Pother about nothing Here they Decide all things and their most diversified Conversations ons are a sort of Roundeaus that end either in Artificial Slanders or gross Flattery but this being in no wise applicable to the English Court I shall wave a further Description of it and come to The City Circle WHICH is a Familiar Assembly or a General Council of the Fair and Charming-Sex where all the Important Affairs of their Neighbors are largely discuss'd but Judged in an Arbitrary Manner without hearing the Parties speak for themselves Nothing comes amiss to these Tribunals Matters of High and no Consequence as Religion and Cuckoldom Commodes and Sermons Polliticks and Gallantry Receipts of Cookery and Scandal Coquettry and Preserving Jilting and Laundry in short every thing is subject to the Jurisdiction of this Court and no Appeal lies from it A Venerable Old Gentlewoman call'd Madam Whimsey whose Relations are dispersed into all Corners of the Earth is President of this Board She is Lineally Descended from the Maggots of the South an Illustrious and Ancient Family that were a Branch of the Wag-Tails of the East who boast themselves Descended in a Right Line from Madam Eve Here are to be found as many Different Opinions as there are Heads in the Room The same Judge is sometimes Severe and sometimes Indulgent sometimes Grave and sometimes Trifling and they Talk exactly there as I do in my Amusements They pass in a Moment from the most Serious to the most Comical Strain from the greatest things to the smallest from a Duke to a Chimney-Sweeper from a Council of War to a Christning and sometimes a sudden Reflexion upon a Womans Head-Dress hinders the Decision of a Case of Conscience under Examination In this Country Twenty several Sentences are pronounced all at once The Men Vote when they can the Women as often as they please They have two Votes for one The great Liberty that is allowed in the City Circle invites all sorts of Persons to come thither to see and to be seen Every one talks according to his Designs his Inclination and his Genius The Young Folks talk of what they are now a doing the Old Fellows Talk of what they have done in the Days of Queen Dick and your Sots and Coxcombs of what they have a design to do tho' they never go about it The Ambitious Rail at the Sluggards as a Company of Idle Fellows that take up a room in the World and do nothing The Sluggards return back the Compliment