Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	life_n	lord_n	word_n	9,286	5	4.0695	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02103	Greenes, groats-vvorth of witte, bought with a million of repentance Describing the follie of youth, the falshoode of makeshifte flatterers, the miserie of the negligent, and mischiefes of deceiuing courtezans. Written before his death, and published at his dyeing request.	Greene, Robert, 1558?-1592.; Chettle, Henry, d. 1607?	1592 (1592)	STC 12245; ESTC S117579	22,155	46

them Blacke is the remembrance of my blacke workes blacker than night blacker than death blacker than hell Learne wit by my repentance Gentlemen and let these few rules following be regarded in your liues 1 First in al your actions set God before your eies for the feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome Let his word be a lanterne to your féet and a light vnto your paths then shall you stand as firme rocks and not be mocked 2 Beware of looking backe for God will not bee mocked and of him that hath receiued much much shal be demaunded 3 If thou be single and canst abstain turne thy eies from vanitie for there is a kinde of women bearing the faces of Angels but the hearts of Deuils able to intrap the elect if it were possible 4 If thou bee married forsake not the wife of thy youth to follow straunge flesh for whoremongers and adulterers the Lord will iudge The doore of a harlot leadeth downe to death and in her lips there dwels destruction her face is decked with odors but she bringeth a man to a morsell of bread and nakednes of which my selfe am instance 5 If thou be left rich remember those that want so deale that by thy wilfulnes thy selfe want not Let not Tauerners and Uictuallers be thy Executors for they will bring thee to a dishonorable graue 6 Oppresse no man for the crie of the wronged ascendeth to the eares of the Lord ney ther delight to increase by Usurie least thou loose thy habitation in the euerlasting Tabernacle 7 Beware of building thy house to thy neighbors hurt for the stones will crie to the timber Wee were laid together in bloud and those that so erect houses calling them by their names shall lie in the graue lyke Sheépe and death shall gnaw vpon their soules 8 If thou be poore be also patient and strine not to grow rich by indirect meanes for goods so gotten shal vanish like smoke 9 If thou bee a Father Maister or Teacher ioyne good example with good counsaile else little auaile precepts where life is different 10 If thou be a Sonne or Seruant despise not reproofe for though correction bee bitter at the first it bringeth pleasure in the end Had I regarded the first of these rules or béene obedient to the last I had not now at my last ende béene left thus desolate But now though to my selfe I giue Consilium postfacta yet to others they may serue for timely precepts And therefore while life giues leaue I will send warning to my olde consorts which haue liued as loosely as my selfe albeit weaknesse will scarse suffer me to write yet to my fellow Schollers about this Cittie will I direct these few insuing lines To those Gentlemen his Quondam acquaintance that spend their wits in making plaies R.G. wisheth a better exercise and wisdome to preuent his extremities IF wofull experience may moue you Gentlemen to beware or vnheard of wretchednes intreate you to take héed I doubt not but you wil looke backe with sorrow on your time past and indeuour with repentance to spend that which is to come Wonder not for with thée wil I first begin thou famous gracer of Tragedians that Greene who hath said with thée like the foole in his heart There is no God shoulde now giue glorie vnto his greatnes for penetrating is his power his hand lyes heauie vpon me hee hath spoken vnto mee with a voice of thunder and I haue felt he is a God that can punish enemies Why should thy excellent wit his gift bee so blinded that thou shouldst giue no glorie to the giuer Is it pestilent Machiuilian pollicy that thou hast studied O peeuish follie What are his rules but meere confused mockeries able to extirpate in small time the generation of mankind For if Sic volo sic iubeo hold in those that are able to commaund and if it be lawfull Fas nefas to do any thing that is beneficiall onely Tyrants should possesse the earth and they striuing to exceed in tyrannie should each to other be a slaughter man till the mightiest outliuing all one stroke were lefte for Death that in one age mans life should end The brocher of this Diabolicall Atheisme is dead and in his life had neuer the felicitie hee aymed at but as he began in craft liued in feare and ended in despaire Quàm inscrutabilia sunt Dei iudicia This murderer of many brethren had his conscience seared like Caine this betrayer of him that gaue his life for him inherited the portion of Iudas this Apostata perished as ill as Iulian and wilt thou my friend be his disciple Looke but to me by him perswaded to that libertie and thou shalt find it an infernall bondage I knowe the least of my demerits merit this miserable death but wilfull striuing against knowne truth exceedeth all the terrors of my soule Defer not with me till this last point of extremitie for litle knowst thou how in the end thou shalt be visited With thee I ioyne yong Iuuenall that byting Satyrist that lastly with mee together writ a Comedie Sweet boy might I aduise thee be aduisde and get not many enemies by bitter wordes inueigh against vaine men for thou canst do it no man better no man so well thou hast a libertie to reprooue all and name none for one being spoken to all are offended none being blamed no man is iniured Stop shallow water still running it will rage or tread on a worme and it will turne then blame not Schollers vexed with sharpe lines if they reproue thy too much liberty of reproofe And thou no lesse deseruing than the other two in some things rarer in nothing inferiour driuen as my selfe to extreme shifts a litle haue I to say to thee and were it not an idolatrous oth I would sweare by sweet S. George thou art vnworthy better hap sith thou dependest on so meane a stay Base minded men all three of you if by my miserie you be not warnd for vnto none of you like mee sought those burres to cleaue those Puppets I meane that spake from our mouths those Anticks garnisht in our colours Is it not strange that I to whom they all haue beene beholding is it not like that you to whome they all haue beene beholding shall were yee in that case as I am now bee both at once of them forsaken Yes trust them not for there is an vpstart Crow beautified with our feathers that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you and beeing an absolute Iohannes fac totum is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey O that I might intreat your rare wits to be imploied in more profitable courses let those Apes imitate your past excellence and neuer more acquaint them with your admired inuentions I knowe the best husband of you all will neuer

GREENES GROATS-VVORTH of witte bought with a million of Repentance Describing the follie of youth the falshood of makeshifte flatterers the miserie of the negligent and mischiefes of deceiuing Courtezans Written before his death and published at his dyeing request Foelicem fuisse infaustum LONDON Imprinted for William Wright 1592. The Printer to the Gentle Readers I Haue published here Gentle men for your mirth and benefite Greenes groates worth of wit VVith sundry of his pleasant discourses ye haue beene before delighted But nowe hath death giuen a period to his pen onely this happened into my handes which I haue published for your pleasures Accept it fauourably because it was his last birth and not least worth In my poore opinion But I will cease to praise that which is aboue my conceipt leaue it selfe to speak for it selfe and so abide your learned censuring Yours VV. VV. To the Gentlemen Readers GEntlemen The Swan sings melodiously before death that in all his life time vseth but a iarring sound Greene though able inough to write yet deeplyer serched with sicknes than euer heeretofore sendes you his Swanne like songe for that he feares he shall nener againe carroll to you woonted loue layes neuer againe discouer to you youths pleasures How euer yet sicknesse riot Incontinence haue at once shown their extremitie yet if I recouer you shall all see more fresh sprigs then euer sprang from me directing you how to liue yet not diswading ye fro● loue This is the last I haue writ and I feare me the last I shall writ And how euer I haue beene censured for some of my former bookes yet Gentlemen I protest they were as I had speciall information But passing them I commend this to your fauourable censures that like an Embrion without shape I feare me will be thrust into the world If I liue to end it it shall be otherwise if not yet will I commend it to your courtesies that you may as well be acquainted with my repentant death as you haue lamented my careles course of life But as Nemo ante obitum felix so Acta Exitus probat Beseeching therefore so to be deemed heereof as I deserue I leaue the worke to your likinges and leaue you to your delightes GREENES GROATES-VVORTH OF WIT. IN an Iland bounded with the Ocean there was somtime a Cittie situated made riche by Marchandize and populous by long peace the name is not mentioned in the Antiquarie or els worne out by times Antiquitie what it was it greatly skilles not but therein thus it happened An old new made Gentleman herein dwelt of no small credit exceeding wealth and large conscience hee had gathered from many to bestow vpon one for though he had two sonnes he esteemed but one that being as himselfe brought vp to be golds bondman was therefore held heire apparant of his il gathered goods The other was a Scholler and maried to a proper Gentlewoman and therfore least regarded for tis an old sayd saw To learning law thers no greater foe than they that nothing know yet was not the father altogether vnlettered for he had good experience in a Nouerint and by the vniuersall tearmes therein contained had driuen many a yoong Gentleman to séeke vnknowen countries wise he was for he boare office in his parish and sat as formally in his foxfurd gowne as if he had been a very vpright dealing Burges he was religious too neuer without a booke at his belt and a bolt in his mouthe readye to shoote through his sinfull neighbor And Latin hee had some where learned which though it were but little yet was it profitable for he had this Philosophye written in a ring Tu tibi cura which precept he curiously obserued being in selfeloue so religious as he held it no poynt of charitie to part with any thing of whiche hee liuing might make vse But as all mortall thinges are momentanie and no certaintie can bee-found in this vncertaine world so Gorinius for that shall bee this vsurers name after manye a gowtie pang that had pincht his exterior partes many a curse of the people that moūted into heuens presence was at last with his last summons by a deadly disease arrested wher-against when hee had long contended and was by Phisitions giuen ouer he cald his two sonnes before him and willing to performe the old prouerb Qualis vita finis Ita he thus prepard himselfe and admonished them My sonnes for so your mother sayde ye were and so I assure my selfe one of you is and of the other I will make no doubt You se the time is com which I thought would neuer haue aproched and we must now be seperated I feare neuer to meete againe This sixteene yeares dayly haue I liude vexed with disease and might I liue sixteene more howe euer miserably I should thinke it happye But death is relentlesse and will not be intreated witles and knowes not what good my gold might doo him senseles hath no pleasure in the delightfull places I would offer him In briefe I thinke he hath with this foole my eldest sonne been brought vp in the vniuersitie and therefore accounts that in riches is no vertue But thou my son laying then his hand on the yongers head haue thou another spirit for without wealth life is a death what is gentry if welth be wanting but bace seruile beggerie Some comfort yet it is vnto me to thinke how many Gallants sprunge of noble parents haue croucht to Gorinius to haue sight of his gold O gold desired gold admired gold and haue lost their patrimonies to Gorinius because they haue not returned by their day that adored creature How manye Schollers haue written rymes in Gorinius praise and receiued after long capping and reuerence a sixpeny reward in signe of my superficial liberality Breefly my yong Lucanio how I haue beene reurenst thou seest when honester men I confesse haue been sett farre off for to bee rich is to bee any thing wise honest worshipful or what not I tel thee my sonne when I came first to this Citie my whole wardrop was onely a sute of white sheepe skins my wealth an old groat my woonning the wide world At this instant o greefe to part with it I haue in ready coine thréescore thousand pound in plate and Iewels xv thousand in Bondes and specialties as much in land nine hundred pound by the yeere all which Lucanio I bequeath to thee only I reserue for Roberto thy wel red brother an old groat being y e stocke I first began with wherewith I wish him to buy a groats-worth of wit for he in my life hath reprooud my manner of life and therefore at my death shall not be contaminated with corrupt gaine Here by the way Gentlemen must I digresse to shewe the reason of Gorinius present speach Roberto being come from the Academie to visit his father there was a great feast prouided where for table talke Roberto knowing his father

hearing of his brothers beggery albeit he had little remorse of his miserable state yet did séeke him out to vse him as a propertie whereby Lucanio was somewhat prouided for But béeing of simple nature hee serued but for a blocke to whet Robertoes wit on which the poore foole perceiuing he for sooke all other hopes of life and fell to be a notorious Pandar in which detested course he continued till death But Roberto now famozed for an Arch-plaimaking-poet his purse like the sea somtime sweld anon like the same sea fell to a low ebbe yet seldom he wanted his labors were so well estéemed Marry this rule he kept what euer he fingerd afore hand was the certaine meanes to vnbinde a bargaine and being askt why hee so slightly dealt with them that did him good It becoms me saith hee to bee contrary to the worlde for commonly when vulgar men receiue earnest they doo performe when I am paid any thing afore-hand I breake my promise He had shift of lodgings where in euery place his Hostesse writ vp the wofull remembrance of him his laundresse and his boy for they were euer his in houshold beside retainers in sundry other places His companie were lightly the lewdest persons in the land apt for pilferie periurie forgerie or any villainy Of these hee knew the casts to cog at cards coossen at Dice by these he learnd the le gerdemaines of nips foystes connycatchers crosbyters lifts high Lawyers and all the rabble of that vncleane generation of vipers and pithily could he paint out their whole courses of craft So cunning he was in all craftes as nothing rested in him almost but craftines How often the Gentlewoman his Wife labored vainely to recall him is lamentable to note but as one giuen ouer to all lewdnes he communicated her sorrowfull lines among his loose truls that iested at her bootlesse laments If he could any way get credite on sc●res he would then brag his creditors carried stones comparing euery round circle to a groning O procured by a painfull burden The shamefull ende of sundry his consorts deseruedly punished for their amisse wrought no compunction in his heart of which one brother to a Brothell hee kept was trust vnder a trée as round as a Ball. To some of his swearing companions thus it happened A crue of them sitting in a Tauerne carowsing it fortuned an honest Gentleman and his friend to enter their roome some of them béeing acquainted with him in their dominéering drunken vaine would haue no nay but downe hee must néedes sitte with them béeing placed no remedie there was but he must needes keepe euen compasse with their vnseemely carowsing Which he refusing they fell from high words to sound strokes so that with much adoo the Gentleman saued his owne and shifted from their company Being gone one of these tiplers for sooth lackt a gold Ring the other sware they sée the Gentleman take it from his hande Upon this the Gentleman was indited before a Judge these honest men are deposde whose wisedome weighing the time of the braule gaue light to the Jury what power wine-washing poyson had they according vnto conscience found the Gentleman not guiltie and God released by that verdit the innocent With his accusers thus it fared One of them for murder was worthily executed the other neuer since prospered the third sitting not long after vpon a lustie horse the beast sodenly dyde vnder him God amend the man Roberto euery day acquainted with these examples was notwithstanding nothing bettered bur rather hardened in wickednesse At last was that place iustified God warnethmen by dreams and visions in the night and by knowne examples in the day but if hee returne not hee comes vppon him with iudgement that shall bée felt For now when the number of deceites caused Roberto bee hatefull almost to all men his immeasurable drinking had made him the perfect Image of the dropsie and the loathsome scourge of Lust tyrannized in his bones lying in extreame pouerty and hauing nothing to pay but chalke which now his Host accepted not for currant this miserable man lay comfortlesly languishing hauing but one groat left the iust proportion of his Fathers Legacie which looking on he cryed O now it is too late too late to buy witte with thée and therefore will I sée if I can sell to carelesse youth what I negligently forgot to buy Héere Gentlemen breake I off Robertoes speach whose life in most parts agraéing with mine found one selfe punishment as I haue doone Héereafter suppose me the saide Roberto and I will goe on with that hee promised Greene will send you now his groats-worth of wit that neuer shewed a mites-worth in his life though no man now bee by to doo mée good yet ere I die I will by my repentaunce indeuour to doo all men good Deceiuing world that with alluring toyes Hast made my life the subiect of thy scorne And scornest now to lend thy fading ioyes To length my life whom friends haue left forlorne How well are they that die ere they be borne And neuer see thy sleights which few men shun Till vnawares they helpelesse are vndone Oft haue Isung of Loue and of his fire But now I finde that Poet was aduizde Which made full feasts increasers of desire And proues weake loue was with the poore despizde For when the life with food is not suffizde What thought of Loue what motion of delight VVhat pleasance can proceed from such a wight VVitnesse my want the murderer of my wit My rauisht sence of wonted furie reft VVants such conceit as should in Poems fit Set downe the sorrow wherein I am left ●ut therefore haue high heauens their gifts bereft Because so long they lent them mee to vse And I so long their bountie did abuse O that a yeare were graunted me to liue And for that yeare my former wits restorde VVhat rules of life what counsell would I giue How should my sinne with sorrow be deplorde But I must die of euery man abhorde Time loosely spent will not againe be wonne My time is loosely spent and I vndone O horrenda fames how terrible are thy assaults but vermis conscientiae more woūding are thy stings Ah Gentlemen that liue to read my broken and confused lines looke not I should as I was wont delight you with vaine fantasies but gather my follies altogether and as yee would deale with so many parricides cast them into the fire call them Telegones for now they kil their Father and euery lewd line in them written is a deepe piercing wound to my heart euery idle houre spent by any in reading them brings a million of sorrowes to my soule O that the teares of a miserable man for neuer any man was yet more miserable might wash their memorie out with my death and that those works with mee together might bee interd But sith they cannot let this my last worke witnes against them with mee how I detest