Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	felicity_n	flesh_n	great_a	32	3	2.1033	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A00662	Monophylo, Drawne into English by Geffray Fenton. A philosophicall discourse, and diuision of loue; Monophile. English	Pasquier, Etienne, 1529-1615.; Fenton, Geoffrey, Sir, 1539?-1608.	1572 (1572)	STC 10797; ESTC S121952	125,100	188

there are none in whome libertie of spéeche hath lesse power or the wittes furthest enstranged from their due office function then where loue hath a sole soueraignetie and gouernement the same being an argument of opinion to me that the better to aduaunce their glorious excellencie in a subiect excéeding all consideration of manne euerye one of those voluble writers did fashion and choose a woman friende as in whose prayse and memorie they raysed so many excellent monumentes in writing if in such respect onely sayth Phylopolo as you presume these writers heaped suche famous exercises mée-thinkes their wrong was no lesse to the dignitie of their learning then their actions most intollerable in example séeing they might haue chosen many matters of much more worthynesse than to become vaine worshippers of transitorie ydols as though their iudgementes were so base and their wittes so vilely inclined as without the subiect of women they coulde bring foorth no substaunce of learning ah quod I beware of hastie iudgements séeing wée maye easelier slaunder their doings than knowe their pretence For as wée haue reason to thinke that all these great loues which in their young and gréene yeares they disguised in themselues vnder the shadowe of poeie doe promise more waightye exercises as they rise into more ripenesse of age so considering how all thinges haue their time and euery time his proper season it néede not séeme straunge if fashioning their rhymes according to the subiect resembling their present youth they suborned certayne passions and pangues and sawced their volumes with varieties of Venus miseries the better to serue as a looking glasse for all the worlde as for such as professe loue to finde necessarie rules for their instruction to such as hate him to abhorre hym more by their example the same being so much the more conuenient in them as whose age is not prepared for other studies as their indeuour brought foorth a fruite of common commoditie This spéech sayth Glaphyro is impertinent to our present purpose and yet to whosoeuer woulde demaunde a reason of their writinges I thinke the Poetes would aunswere that it was the most highe and excellent theame that coulde be deuised bicause loue hath alwayes caried such soueraine power that the highest elementes that euer were yea euen the auncient Gods themselues haue vouchsafed to be led in triumph vnder his banner And for my part if they trauelled in those exercises as men in experienced in his authoritie and but induced only to reueale the passions which he hiteth in himselfe I estéeme them so muche the more worthy as the matter was haughty and harde I meane to speake so properlye of loue hauing made no proofe of his nature but if they haue béene lymed with the fethers of his winges prooued the burthen of his power it were not amisse no lesse for the furtheraunce of their study then to fauour their health and quiet that they resigne their pretence séeing it brings such daunger in practises wherein they haue this assured and infallyble meane if afore they loase the vse of their senses they perswade no possibilitie to attaine to the end yea albeit there be power to possesse yet let them fixe vppon this as vpon the north starre that the pleasaunt vse being the ende and marke of all their pretence is no other thing then an opinion of pleasure raysed of an affection which is borne more to one woman than an other and lastelye that all women haue affinitie with the humors of their first mother Eue who was not without hir frayle and slyding infirmities I confesse that in this meane or medicine is neyther such facilitye nor constancie as maye be deuised bicause who hath once imprinted an opinion of a woman in his conceyte may aunswere that he makes no value or estimation to vse or possesse but onely bycause of an affection which is extreme towards his mistresse yea if causes be indifferently measured you shall finde no comparison betwéene the pleasure we receyue of a publike woman to whome we beare but a vile and squirilous affection in respect of the delight we féele in our peculiar friend so that the best aduise I can giue to hym that woulde beguile loue is to fashion at the first a desperate impossibility to possesse séeing that to warraunt vs from the passions amongst which loue raignes we haue a double medicine the one if in beléeuing the suggestions of reason purelye and simply wée doe supplant all affections leauing neyther roote nor rynde in vs the other if when passions kindle and preuaile ouer vs we fight against our proper willes maintayning a ciuill warre in our selues vnder the leading of reason accompanied notwithstanding with some contrary passion the first was familiar with Socrares who by a deepe and heauenly Philosophie being armed with a continuall contempt of all thinges obserued such constancy that neyther prosperitie coulde make him swell nor aduersitye cause him to stoupe This remedie séemes so muche the straunger as our soule being composed of reason and passion our passions oftentimes doe carye awaye our reason And therefore we must with diligence resort to the seconde medicine when reason enuironed with passions and not able of hyr selfe to shifte them of takes ayde of a contrarye passion which albeit of it selfe be not good yet enclyning in this hehalfe to reason wyth seruiceable duetie as to hir soueraigne mystrisse can not be called euill bycause affections be not euill but when against the order of nature they séeke to beare rule ouer reason This was the medicine which the Phylosopher Carneadus applyed to our instructions as aduising vs that amydde the froth of our mortall delightes we shoulde remember the myseries of the worlde to the ende that brydeling by that meane our vnbrydeled pleasure we maye temper the one with the other This was the wishe of Phylip of Macedonia who receyuing in one daye newes of the birth of his mightie sonne and report of two victories obteyned to his vse craued that Fortune would mixe his great felicity with some sharpe accident least his fleshe vsed hir propertie the wise Anaxagoras notwithstanding nature stirred him to delight singulerly in the lyfe of his childe yet his extreme ioy was so moderated with a continuall feare of our common frayltie that his death was not grieuous when he remembred he had begot him in the state of mortalitie These two wayes in déede are no lesse commendable for their excellencie then most conuenient to defende men from such sortes of furies And yet touching the first although in other affections it may preuaile by a continuall vse and meditation yet I stande in doubt to assure it anye place in loue for that he is a passion so subtill that we sée him no sooner enter into vs then we haue aduertisement of him yea euen Pallas the Goddesse of wisedome fell one day vpon a sodaine into the nettes of Venus Cupide choyce of place we shall reliefe our griefe

wée stande bereaued of the pleasant philosophie flowing from the swéete breath and speache of our Ladies the more doe we honour their vertues in contemplation and the seldomer we gouerne the actuall motions of their quicke and sparckling eyes the more doe we trauaile in desire to beholde them so that it cannot be that we decline in good will séeing with the nature of fire long kept downe with straw absence reuiueth our affection enforceth our desire and redoubleth our hope which truly vsed is neuer without hys true merite Herein I haue the helpe of Philosophie in which this is one principle that more doe we desire those thinges which we least commaund then such ouer whome we haue a frée gouernement the same perhaps being the cause why many estéeme the Italians most constaunt in their loue and yet in my iudgement not without their errours that way bicause that possessing onely the fauour and vse of the eye without other benefite of speach or secret familiaritie they alwayes continue in loue and increase in desire which is also the very nature and operation of absence not for all this that I mainteine presence to procure any default or diminishing of loue seeing the onely presence of your Ladies sty●res vp such a present contentment that all torment all dolor yea euery sighe and sorowfull vision passed is nothing in respect of the pleasure which hir onely societie brings and the same as an indifferent vertue deuiding it selfe into a mutuall felicitie to you both fashions such a fift heauen in you that you leaue hir not without a vehement desire eftsoones to sée hir as a stomacke whose appetite encreaseth by a restraint of meate This is it which Amadys de Gawle hath figured vnto vs in his .viij. Booke when Nyquea presenting before hir eyes in a looking glasse hir Amadys de Grece was so rapt into present conceytes of ioy that the onely vision in the Glasse defaced all other pleasures with hir but the forme being taken awaye the effect also did vanishe as a shadowe on a wall which is gouerned by the reflection of the Sunne and all hir former ioyes turned into a mountaine of smoke by the onely losse of that dissembled cause The like also happening to Anastarax when he could enioy no more the presence of his Nyquea Did Penelope I pray you for all the importunities of so many Princes corrupt the duetie of hir wiuehoode to hir husband for his long absence of .xx. yeares and she was not induced to this constancie by any feare of hir husband bicause in such a distaunce of place and tyme shée might conceale hir fault no the extremitie of honest and carefull loue to hir husband kept hir in that vertuous course in hys absence And euen as good olde Seneca is woont to say although he knewe is offence woulde be concealed not onely from the worlde but euen from God himselfe yet sayth he would I not sinne for the onely hate I beare to sinne euen so the true louer notwithstanding your voluble fancie although he knowe his offence shall not come to the knowledge of his Ladie a thing of verie harde assurance yet ought he to eschew the inconuenience you spake of in a reuerent regarde to the perfect loue he beares to his Mystresse So that as their presence procures to vs a pleasure and most perfite contentment so absence leades vs in an insatiable desire towardes them the same being a sufficient meane to call vs backe from all other temptations yea this onely desire and constant remembraunce of them being continuall and extréeme will mortyfie in vs all minde and memorie of euerie other thing Like as also such ●orment procéeding of such absence will excéede without comparison all the delites we can ymagin euen in all the other women in the worlde so that if my iudgement might chalenge authoritie I holde that such loue in it selfe is so passioned that by it we forget all other passions and fancies are made as halfe Gods in such sort that in respect of our great fragilitie we are not able to drawe our selues from these intemperaunces whereof you speake although God commaundes vs yet being clothed with this kinde of loue notwithstanding all the pleasures of the worlde m●ster and present afore our eyes we shall not swarue or decline one iote And nowe touching the latter part of your discourse that loue consistes not but in the hart not in these inclinations of nature wherewith necessarily we are touched your opinion is not altogither without the societie of reason wherein as I thinke you might alleage that Apothegma sometimes attributed to Aelyus Verus Emperour of Rome who to couer his wanton and licentious factes sayde it was not lawfull by the honestie of mariage to execute his passions vpon his owne wife and therefore to preserue the honour of wedlocke he allowed himselfe a conuersation with other publike women euen so might you allude as not to contamynate this precious cloake of true loue a lawe or libertie to doe as much on the behalfe of them on whom you had not fixed your heart Albeit you make a further restraint of your selfe as not desiring the execution in such thinges but onely when by a naturall violence you are forced to doe it But I pray you tell me seigneur Glaphyro if you had maryed a wyfe not for any setled affection towardes hir but onely in a gréedie regarde to the greatnesse of hir wealth as we haue sayde before that maryages tooke their beginning and she glosing with you in affection and professe a presentiall obedience to you and secretly prostitutes hir selfe to another would not hir dealing be of hard disgestion with you yea albeit you maye aunswere that it belonges to euery wife dutifully to conforme hirselfe altogither to the pleasure of hir husbande and not to séeke to delite the residue of the world yet would not hir abuse séeme intollerable with you wherein then if you tooke your wife vnder pretence of gaine without anye consideration of loue what would you say if she whom the heauens séeme to haue reserued for you imparted hir bodie with another Oh lamentable destinie oh griefe without comparison oh dealing might you say whose bare remembraunce bringes with it a horrible ymagination of death for my part albeit I make no carefull inquirie in suche things yet in nature and reason I holde it the greatest wounde that can happen to the heart of man so that you must not thinke seigneur Glaphyro that reciprocation is not founde in your Ladie who feeles no small smart of minde as often as you releeue straungers with the almes which she accomptes proper to hir selfe where as be it that she be ignoraunt yet ought you not to pretende worse to hir then you would she should performe agaynst you bycause it is peremptorie in Gods iudgement to rewarde finne with his merite and returne to euery one the same measure wherewith they haue serued others And this

for their sakes wée desire to sée them great as then to become the staye and comfort of our old age wherein wee employe no small diligence wée feare their venterous youth as not to fall into daunger of body or infection of minde by lewde conuersation and for that cause we prouide tutors to moderate their rashnesse suche is our torment and care of minde for them that wée euen féele the displeasures they suffer and endure a share in their woes and miseries yea if wée waighe in euen ballaunce the gréeues distending with such as we bring into this worlde with the pleasures wée receyue by them we shall hardelie iudge the difference and yet such is the vehement nature of our affection as it makes vs forget the sorrow and trouble whereof they are the cause it is impossible that in matters by which wée receyue extreame contentment that sometimes also they turne vs not to heauie gréeues and annoyes what one thing in the worlde doth more necessarilye delight vs then the fier and yet by it wée sée stately cities and pallaces reuersed and consumed who denies water to be most conuenient for the necessitye of man and yet it is the element in which much people perish and great treasure is deuoured So that notwithstanding the perillous accidentes happening by these two elementes yet to hinder or take awaye their vse were to driue nature from hir course and confuse the thinges of the worlde euen so is it of loue whose profession you wish vs to leaue for certaine light inconueniences accompanying him by circumstaunce and nothing considering the soueraigne benifits which secretly lie shrowded and hidde within him wherein to offer you familiaritie of experience why wishe you not in like sort that wée were not borne at all séeing that as béeing once entred into this worlde our conuersation runnes vnder infinite and intollerable miseries euen so our destinie caries this condicion that the higher we are raysed into degrées of felicitie the redilier we encline to reuolution and féele with more gréefe the pinching stinges of displeasure which Madame me thinkes might drawe you to a fauourable consideration of loue by whome if sometimes wée are lifted into actes of high and perfit pleasure it is not out of reason if at other seasons he leade vs in effectes of more harde and straunge nature séeing that if at one time the pleasure should be litle euen so at an other season the displeasure coulde not but be lesse for so hath God vnited and paysed the one with the other as to bridle our presumption in vaunting to be happy on all sides and therefore he doth drawe ouer our calme of pleasure and felicitie a darcke clowde of gréefe calamitie and yet our voluble pleasure is farre more great without comparison in the respect of our present controuersie then the inwarde gréeues which wée féele for where the lamentable teares the strayned sighes the broken sorowes which oftentimes wée poure out in loue are not enforced by other occasion or meane then as perticipating of our mortalitie subiect to all infirmitie and miserie the pleasures on the other side which like swéete honye distilles by his suggestion laye vs in resemblaunce with Aungelles as though in that contemplacion we imparted with the heauenly powers and to vse a direct truth loue would establish vs as it were in a perfite felicitie vpō earth were not that his pleasaunt mocions be sometimes mingled with certaine light disquietes Wherein maye be discouered a great prouidence of God who to laye afore vs our humanitie hath tempered our delightes with pilles of sorowe and prouided our riuer of transitorie ioye to runne in a streame of anguishe and gréefe not that those small accurrauntes should challenge such authoritie and force as for them it shoulde bée néedefull to deuest our selues of so great beatitude But it behooues amid such distresses to prooue the heart of a true and loyall louer euen as golde is tryed in the furnace séeing that to whome so euer liuing continually nourished in pleasures suche as eyther he woulde haue or can wish for without proofe of displeasure or gréefe it is a hard experience to haue a true taste of the swéete fruite which the gardaine of such delightes doth yéelde yea it standes not with incongruent necessitie to make his taste and iudgement more perfite to entangle his pleasures with some easie and light annoyes like as to giue a good season to meate is required not onely sugar and swéete thinges but also some sharpe spices of qualitie to be hardelye disgested which applyed and tempered with other drugges doe giue a good and perfite taste to that which otherwayes woulde carrie no season at all Ah seigneur Monophylo sayth the Ladie suche is your force in spéeche and reasons to perswade that I could euen settle in your opinion were it not that for you alone ouer whome a voluntarie force holdes the heauie yoake of loue there may be founde thousandes and ten thousandes who bitterlye doe washe their mouthes in curses and complaintes against the daye and hower wherein they tooke first footing in that miserable pryson yea such is eyther theyr naturall blindenesse or prouidence of destinie that albeit they beholde their owne spoyle and ruine yet the missery of their thrall estate holdes so strayght a hande vpon them that neyther force nor pollicie can delyuer them euen like vnto the Déere entangled in nettes who the more he striues the faster contendes he against his deliuerie Why hath nature then sayth Phylopolo who valued louers with brute beastes indued man with a soule of reason as to deuide him from beastlye creatures if he loasing the custome of reason enter willingly into a place which afterwardes without hys great confusion he cannot eschewe the same resembling the condicion of the sillie birde albeit more excusable to whom onelie belonges to complaine of nature as taking from hir all knowledge to resist the swéete charme of the fowler by whome if shée escape death shée is suer at least of captiuity where man drawing to himselfe hys selfe destruction without other power of remedy then to late a repentaunce wherein I praye you is he to be deuided from other creatures but only in the outward eface vnder the which hée couereth his great beastelinesse What syr aunswereth Charyclea who here though good to cut of his ielouse spéech wished him not to presume so far of his owne felicitie séeing he had neyther pollicie nor speciall prerogatiue aboue others to auoyde the misterie if the mischiefe fell vpon him For sayth shée euen as the experience is common that many Marinors vndertaking a long voyage commit themselues to the sea vnder a showe of fayre weather smiling at the first vpon them albeit their hope being turned to heauinesse they stande at last so déepe in the daunger of the tempest that notwithstanding their indeuours they are enforced to abandon their shippe to the mercie of the waues without meane of remedie euen so