Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	life_n	think_v	9,849	5	4.3485	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01951	Playes confuted in fiue actions prouing that they are not to be suffred in a Christian common weale, by the waye both the cauils of Thomas Lodge, and the play of playes, written in their defence, and other obiections of players frendes, are truely set downe and directlye aunsweared. By Steph. Gosson, stud. Oxon.	Gosson, Stephen, 1554-1624.	1582 (1582)	STC 12095; ESTC S105757	41,651	123

compasse to this key of carnall delight which wee reape by Comedies is very sore maynied and robbed of Souerainetie if delight be●●g●ea●e Next by reason of a contrariety wh●n it exceedes thus Aristotle drawing out a streight line of the office of prudence maketh it consist in giuing good counsell to liue well in which place hee counteth temperance the Nurse exceeding deligh y e corrupter of prudence But Comedyes ma●e our delight exceede for at thē many times wee laugh so extreemely that striuing to bridle our selues wee cannot therfore Plato af●irmeth y e great laughter breedeth a great change y e old prouerbe peraduenture rose of this much laughter is y e cognisāce of a soole wher● such excesse of laughter b●rsteth out y t we cannot holde it ther● is no temperance for the time where no tēperāce is ther is no wiseome nor vse of reasō when we shew our s●lues voide b●th of reason and wisedome what are we then to be thought but fooles Last of all it is a blocke in the way of reason because it locketh vp y e powres of the minde from doing their ●uetie like a kinde of drunkennes maketh vs stagger very vnfit either to speake or to walke as we shoulde in our vocation It wh●ts vs to wantō●cs because it breedeth a hunger thirst after pleasure● For whē the thing which our appetite enioyeth cānot bee receiued all at once but by succession or change we gape after more as hee y e hearing one halfe of a sentence delighteth in that is very desirous to haue the rest So in 〈◊〉 delight beeing moued with varietie of shewes of euentes of musicke the longer we gaze the mo●e we craue yea so forcible they are y t afterwards being but thought vpō they make vs seeke for the like an other time It nourisheth imperfections so long as it settes our heartes vpo● thinges that are transitorie vaine and shall perish in the twinckling of an eye it argueth a corruption in our manners because it is the windowe by which we looke into the secret corners of the soule it is the very line● and lead whereby our disposition is measured to bee roughe or smooth● streight or crooked lawefull or vnlawfull right or wrong How shall wee knowe a man to be good or euill but by the goodnes or naughtines of his will His will appeareth by the ende thereof that is counted the end wherein it resteth and the rest of our will is the delight that wee reape in the thing we holde to be good Thus we pronounce all them to bée vertuous whome we see to delight in the workes of vertue them to be wicked whome we finde to reioyce in the works of wickednes For as that is euill which rebelleth against reason and the lawes of God so is that delight to be iudged euil that is fixed in the same and the man likewise euill that so deliteth Therfore I may well say the delight which springeth of Comedies wherby superiority is giuen to affect●ons and so rebellion raysed against reason the lawes of God are brokē which bid vs come out and departe from the doctrine of the Diuell so marketh the corruption of our maners in our forehe●ddes that euery one that hath iudgmente may poynte it out● But to leaue ouer curi●u●●y to descant vpon this plainesonge of life and delight either by Aquinas or by Aristotle or by Philosophie her self I exhorte you w t Paule to beware lest any man spoyle you through Philosophy● and vaine deceite after the traditions of men and after the iudiments of the worlde and not after Christ. And s●thince we are commanded by the same Apostle as we haue receiued Christ so to walke in him let vs bring the triall of our cause to the touch of Gods worde and examine by that what the life and delight of a Christian ought to be then shall you sée my generall proposition verie strongly confirmed that Plaies are not to bee suffered in a Christian commonweale Paule commandeth the Phillippians to reioyc● in the Lord not for a day nor a wéeke nor a moneth nor a yeare but euer the reason is added that their modesty might bee knowne and why should their modesty be knowne because the Lorde is at hand by whiche Particle the delight of this life is beatē downe Christe giuing vs to vnderstand the danger of these delights wherein wée laugh with the worlde pronounceth a woe vpon them wo bee to you that laugh nowe for ye shall wéepe and lament It behooueth a Christian so to delight and reioyce nowe that he maye reioyce delight at the last daye which ioye is accomplished by this that wee are partakers of the crosse of Christe Howe farre this delight is different from Comedies is easie to bee seene with halfe an eye and if Peets haue no surer gyrthes to their sa●dle thē life and delight it will be no trouble to vnhorse them for a Christian knoweth how to delight in death Large is the groūd I might trauace in this behalfe yet for breuities sake I will passe it ouer and shewe you she life of a Christian as I promised We are taught by Paule that Christ is our life and that our life is layde vpp with Christe in God therefore by the way of comparison as Christ died and after ascended vp to heauen so he persuadeth ●s to dye that is to mortifie this ●lesh with the delights thereof and to seeke after those thinges that are aboue where Christ our life is The end of the death of Christ was that we which liue in this worlde should not liue to our selues but vnto him heere is all prerogatiue taken from vs wee are nowe no longer our owne men for if by the benefite of him wee liue our life must be his and not our own Our life is not his excepte wee crucifie the flesh with the affections and concupiscences of the same wee crucifie not the affections of our flesh when we ●esorte vnto playes to stirre them vpp therefore running to playes wee liue to our selues and not to Christe when we liue to our selues it is no li●e Yet the Authour of the Playe of Playes and Pastimes thinkes hee hath plowed such surrowes on my backe as will neuer bee filled vp againe because Comedis norish delight and delight should neuer be taken frō life This argument cuts like a Ledenhaule knife where as they say in common speach if one poure on stéele with a ladell an other comes and wipes it of with a fether Neuerthelesse heere it maye bee that my friendes of the vniuersityes will accus● me of that ausleryty which was vsed by some of the Godly long agoe who perceiuing men in all thinges naturally to passe the boundes of modesty and beeing desirous to lay some strong kinde of playster to this olde soare allowed men to vse the blessinges of God but for necessities sake prescribing them nothing but that

honour them By this meanes the Deuill driuing them from the worship of the true God as ships from the harbour where they shoulde ryde helde them in greater perill of death then if they had worshipped no God at all Sithince it is manifest by all Antiquities if we search them that plaies are the Sacrifices of the Deuill taught by him selfe to pull vs from the seruice of our God as ofte as euer wée set them vp in our Christian Cities the Diuell triumpheth and reioyceth therein as in thinges sacrificed by Christians vnto him Because that as in the Church singing and praysing the Lorde together as hee him selfe hath instrcted vs in his worde is a signe by whiche the true God is assured that we sacrifice our hearts vnto him with the Calues of our lippes So the Diuell perceiuing vs to aduaunce the offringes or sacrifices of the Gentiles after the same manner of houses of apparell of Stages of Plaies that he instructed the Gentiles by his Oracles hath greate cause to bee merrie and to holde him selfe honoured thereby Is it ●o and shall wee say wee doe it not with the minde to commit Idolatrie Truely this aunsweare is like to a drawght of colde water in burning Feuers whereby the bodie is quieted for a time but the sickenes can neuer be remoued The noble Scipio Nasica perceiuing that the Citie cannot longe endure whose walles stande and manners fall when hee sawe the whole Senate bent to builde vpp Theaters aud sett out Playes with earnest persuasion drewe them from it And Valerius Maximus flatlie affirmeth t●at they were not brought in to Rome Sine pacis rubore without à steine of disgrace to the time of Peace They grewe in time so infamous among y e Romanes thē selues that if any continued in that arte they were depriued of the dignitie of other Citizens and remoued by the Censors from their Tribe Wherefore I beséech God so to touch the heartes of our Magistrates with a perfite hatred of sinne and feare of Iudgement so to stirre vpp some noble Scipio in the Courte that these daūsing Chaplines of Bacchus and all such as set vp these wicked artes may be driuen out of Englande may bee shutt from the companie of the Godly as open professors of Idolatrie separated from vs by Sea and Lande If there be a zeale in authoritie to banish them a diligence in Preach●rs to pursue them● a generall consent in vs to loath them I dare boldely auouch from my owne experience that monstrous sinnes with very light trauell imminent dāger with very small troble olde fes●red corruptions in very shorte time wil be displaced the Churches in London more frequented more furnishte more ●illed the diuine seruice of God more regarded more reuerenced more kept and the vtter suppressing of a fewe bréed a swéete reformation in many thousandes The 2 Action IF the daye wherein wee bee deliuered from the iawes of death ought to bée as ioyfull to vs as the houer of birth because the ioy of sa●etie atchiued is sure the condition of byrth vncertaine and because wee are borne without pleasure saued with gladnes Both I shal think my study very well employed and my louing cuntrimen of Englande shall haue cause to reioyce if it please God by my trauell against Plaies to make me a stay to the ryot of their expences a discloser of the corruptiō in their families and a watchman againste the hazard of their soules All which as I iudge to proceed of Stage Plays so must I confute the opinion of them that holde the contrary Yonge Master Lodge thinking to iett vpon startoppes and steale an y●che of his hight by the bare name of Cicero allegeth frō hi● ● t a Play is the School-mistresse of life the lookinge glas●e of manners and the image of trueth But finding him selfe too wéeke in the knées to stand it out neither alleadging the place where Tullie saith it nor bringing any reason of his owne to proue it hee flittes from this to the Etymologie of Plai●s frō thence to the mu●niors and so gallops his wisedome out of breath It séemeth that Master Lodge s●w this in Tulile with other f●lk●s eyes and not his owne For to my remembrance I neuer read it in him neither doe I thinke that Master Lodge can shewe it me For in his Tusculans second third and ●ourth booke he misliketh playes in his bookes of the common weale he is sharpe set against them In his Epistles writing to Marius who was absent from the playes that were set out at Pompeys charges he telleth him that if any paine of bodie or decaye of health withhelde him hee attributeth it rather to for●une then to his wisdome but if he contemned those bables that other men wonder at and being not ●indered with sicknes refused to see them of his own accord he rei●yceth greatly in his friēdes behalfe first that he felt no greese of bodie next that ●he was perfectly whole in minde because he fores●owed to come to those spectacles which other mē delight in without cause I would it pleased master Lodge to remember that in cases of conscience no mans aucthoritie may stand for reason it is therefore our duetie to weighe before we speake whether the testimonies of other men will abide the hammeringe when they come to be wrought by the worde of God otherwise to take what soeuer they say for Oracles and muster them together in proofe of that which neither reason nor conscience doth allow is as fonde and impertinent an enterprise as to open our locke with the hatchet and cleaue our wood with the key But because master Lodge will needes father these wordes vpon Tullie that neuer spake them I will first sette downe the matter and the persons of both kindes of playes then rippe vp euery part of this definition that you may see how this gentleman like the Foxe at the banquet of the Storke lickes the outside of the glasse with an emptie stomacke when his heade will not suffer him to enter in The argumēt of Tragedies is wrath crueltie incest iniurie murther eyther violent by sworde or voluntary by poyson The persons Gods Goddesses furies fiendes Kinges Quenes and mightie men The ground worke of Commedies is loue cosenedge flatterie bawderie slye conneighance of whordome The persōs cookes queanes knaues baudes parasites courtezannes lecherouse olde men amorous yong men Therefore Plautus in his prologue before the comedie of the captiues desiring to curry fauoure with his auditours exhorteth them earnestly to marke that playe because it shall cast no such stenche of impuritie into theire noses as others doe There is in it saith he neither forsworne baude nor harlot nor bragging souldier Why could he not giue this commendation to all the rest because it was the practise of the deuill to weaue in a threed of his own spinning Why is this rather purged of filthines then the rest because it is the iuglinge of the deuill to turne