Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	world_n	write_v	writer_n	28	3	7.3074	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65151	Familiar and courtly letters written by Monsieur Voiture to persons of the greatest honour, wit, and quality of both sexes in the court of France ; made English by Mr. Dryden, Tho. Cheek, Esq., Mr. Dennis, Henry Cromwel, Esq., Jos. Raphson, Esq., Dr. -, &c. ; with twelve select epistles out of Aristanetus, translated from the Greek ; some select letters of Pliny, Jun and Monsieur Fontanelle, translated by Mr. Tho. Brown ; and a collection of original letters lately written on several subjects, by Mr. T. Brown ; to which is added a collection of letters of friendship, and other occasional letters, written by Mr. Dryden, Mr. Wycherly, Mr. -, Mr. Congreve, Mr. Dennis, and other hands.	Voiture, Monsieur de (Vincent), 1597-1648.; Brown, Thomas, 1663-1704.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700.; Congreve, William, 1670-1729.; Wycherley, William, 1640-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing V682; ESTC R34733	165,593	438

Mind more great than the World he Conquer'd I ought here to be afraid after your Example of Writing in too lofty a Style But how can the Writer be too sublime who writes of you and of Alexander I humbly beseech you Madam to believe that I have equal Passion for you with that which you shew for him and that the Admiration of your Virtues will oblige me to be always Madam yours c. An Imitation of Monsieur de Voiture's Letter to Mademoiselle de Rambouillet Being an Answer to that by which she had inform'd him who was then with Monsieur in Exile that the Academy designed to abolish the Particle Car For. That the Reader may be diverted with this Letter he is desir'd to suppose that there is a Club of Wits erected in London for the Regulation of the Tongue who have a Design to abolish it Madam FOR being of so great Importace in our Tongue as it is I extreamly approve of the Resentment you shew for the Wrong they design to do it and I must needs declare that I expect no good from this Club of Wits which you mention since they are resolved to establish themselves by so great an Oppression Even at a time like this when Fortune is acting her Tragedies throughout all Europe I can behold nothing so deserving of Pity as when I see they are ready to arraign and to banish a Word which has so faithfully serv'd this Monarchy and which amidst all our English Confusions has always been of the side of those who were truly English For my part I cannot for my Heart comprehend what Reason they can alledge against a Word whose only Business is to go before Reason and which has no other Employment than to usher it in I cannot imagine what Interest can oblige them to take away that which belongs to for to give it to Because that nor why they have a mind to say with three Syllables that which they say with three Letters That which I am afraid of Madam is this That after they have been guilty of this one Injustice they will not scruple at more perhaps they may have the Impudence to attack But and who knows if If may be any longer secure So that after they have depriv'd us of all those Words whose business it is to bring others together the Wits will reduce us to the Language of Angels or if they cannot do that they will at least oblige us to speak only by Signs And here I must confess that your Observation is true viz. That no Example can more clearly shew us the Instability of Humane Affairs He who had told me some Years ago that I should have out-liv'd For I had thought had promis'd me a longer Life than the Patriarchs And yet we see that after he has mentain'd himself for some hundreds of Years in full Force and Authority after he has been employ'd in the most important Treaties and has assisted in the Councils of our Kings with Honour he is all of a sudden fallen into Disgrace and threatned with a violent End I now expect nothing less than to be terrify'd with lamentable Cries in the Air declaring to the World that the Great For is dead for the Death of the Great Cam or of the Great Pan was in my mind less important I know if we consult one of the finest Wits of the Age and one whom I esteem with Passion he will tell us that 't is our Duty to condemn an Innovation like this that we ought to use the For of our Fathers as well as their Sun and their Soil and that we should by no means banish a Word which was in the Mouths of our Edwards and of our Henries But you Madam are the Person who are principally oblig'd to undertake his Protection for since the Supreme Grace and the Sovereign Beauty of the English Tongue lies in yours you ought to command here with an absolute Sway and with a Smile or a Frown give Life or give Death to Syllables as uncontroul'd as you do to Men. For this I believe you have already secur'd it from the imminent Danger which threatned it and by vouchsafing it a Place in your Letter have fix'd it in a Sanctuary and a Mansion of Glory to which neither Envy nor Time can reach But here Madam I beg leave to assure you that I could not but be surpriz'd to see how fantastick your Favours are I could not but think it strange that you who without Compassion could see a thousand Lovers expire should not have the Heart to see a Syllable die If you had but had half the Care of me which you have shewn of For I should then have been happy in spight of ill Fortune Then Poverty Exile and Grief would scarce have had force to come near me If you had not deliver'd me from these Evils themselves you had freed me at least from the Sence of them But at a time that I expected to receive Consolation from yours I found that your Kindness was only design'd to For and that his Banishment troubled you more than ours I must confess Madam it is but just you should undertake his Defence but you ought to have taken some care of me too that People might not object to you That you forsake your Friends for a Word You make no Answer at all to that which I writ about you take not the least Notice of that which so much concerns me In three or four Pages you scarce remember me once and the Reason of this is For Be pleased to consider me a little more for the future and when you undertake the Defence of the Afflicted remember that I am of the Number I shall always make use of him himself to oblige you to grant me this Favour and to convince you that it is but my Due For I am c. To the Duke of Enguien upon his Taking of Dunkirk I Am so far from wondring that you have taken Dunkirk that I believe you cou'd take the Moon by the Teeth if you did but once attempt it Nothing can be impossible to you I am only uneasie about what I shall say to your Highness on this Occasion and am thinking by what extraordinary Terms I may bring you to reach my Conceptions of you Indeed my Lord in that Height of Glory to which you have now attain'd the Honour of your Eavour is a singular Happiness but it is a troublesome thing to us Writers who are obliged to Congratulate you upon every good Success to be perpetually upon the Hunt for Words whose Force may answer your Actions and to be ev'ry Day inventing of new Panegyricks If you would but have the Goodness to suffer your self to be beat sometime or to rise from before some Town the variety of the Matter might help to support us and we should find out some fine thing or other to say to you upon the Inconstancy of Fortune and the Glory that is gotten by

bargain with you before-hand that you shall send me your Poem in pieces just as you finish it Nay even before you have finish'd it by which means it will come the more fresh like Fruit newly gather'd from the Tree You will tell me 't is impossible that small Pieces shou'd please so well as an entire Work or that a Sketch should be so well liked as a finish'd Picture I confess it and therefore I will consider it as such and you shall bestow the last hand upon it at your leisure in my Library To your other Favours give me I beseech you this farther Mark of your Friendship as to communicate to me what you wou'd let no body else see For tho' I may the more commend and value your Writings as I see them come out more slowly and more correct yet I shall both Love and Honour your self infinitely the more as you send me these things with most dispatch in their Undress To his Wife Calphurnia Lib. 8. YOu send me word that my Absence does not a little afflict you and that you have no other Antidote against your Melancholy but my Letters 'T is no small Satisfaction to me that I am always in your Thoughts and that such Trifles can contribute to your Diversion For my part to let you see my Case is parallel with yours I am perpetually reading yours and the oftner I read them the more new they seem to me and I still discover some fresh Beauties in 'em which I did not observe before Tho' this in some measure alleviates my Pain yet it sets me a longing the more for your Company for if your Letters are so sweet and entertaining what Pleasures may I not expect from your Conversation Therefore let me conjure you to lose no Opportunities of Writing to me tho' as I hinted before at the same time this Commerce delights me it gives me some Uneasiness To the Same Lib. 7. 'T Is impossible for me to tell you how much I regret the want of your good Company and I have several good Reasons for it In the first place there is Love in the case Then 't is to be consider'd that you and I never lived asunder which is the reason why I pass the greatest part of the Night in thinking on you From the same Cause it proceeds that even in the Day-time at those Hours when I used to visit you in your Chamber my Feet of their own accord carry me to you and then when I miss you there I come back no less melancholy and sorrowful than if you had turn'd me out of your Room The only time that I am free from these Inquietudes is when I am pleading in the Hall and drudging for my Friends Judge then what a mortified Life I lead when I am forced to find Relaxation in Labour and Comfort in Care and Misery To his dear Friend Ferox Lib. 7. YOur last Letter is a convincing Argument that you Study and that you don't You 'll tell me I talk Riddles to you and so I do till I explain to you more distinctly what my Meaning is In short the Letter you sent me shows you did not study for it so easie and negligent it appears to be and yet at the same time 't is so polite that 't is impossible that any one should write it who did not weigh every word or else you are certainly the happiest Man in the World if you can write Letters so Entertaining without Care and Premeditation To Cornelius Tacitus Lib. 8. I Return you your Book which I read over very carefully having marked all along in the Margin what places I thought fit to be alter'd and what struck out For I am no less inclin'd to tell the Truth than you are to hear it 'T is a plain Case I believe that no Man suffers himself to be so patiently found fault with as he that deserves the highest Commendation And now I expect my own Book from you with your Corrections and Amendments These reciprocal Offices of Friendship that pass between us give me no little Satisfaction for if our Posterity will have any Concern for us I am pleased to think that they will tell with what Amity Concord and Integrity you and I have lived together It will be a remarkable and perhaps the only Instance in History that two Men almost of the same Age and Quality and of some Reputation for Learning I am oblig'd to speak the more sparingly of you because at the same time I speak of my self should promote one another's Studies so unanimously When I was but young and you had justly acquir'd a high Character in the World even then it was my greatest Ambition to imitate and follow you tho' at never so great a Distance We had then at Rome several Persons of Wit and Learning that were deservedly admired yet so great a Similitude was there between our Tempers and Dispositions that even then I endeavoured to Copy after you For this Reason 't is no small Satisfaction to me that whenever there is any Discourse about Learning and Learned Men you and I are still quoted together that when your Name is mention'd the Company immediately mentions mine and that when they prefer a third Man to one of us they mean it of both But 't is no matter to me whether you or I are mention'd first for if I am first it is only because I am the next to you I don't question too but you have observ'd that in the last Wills of the Deceas'd unless there was some particular Difference in the Case you and I have Legacies of the same Value generally bequeathed us The Conclusion I draw from all this is That we have the greatest Obligations that can be to entertain the strictest Amity since even our Studies our Manners our Reputations in short the united Testimony of the World are so many Arguments why the mutual Friendship between us shou'd still increase Farewel To Cornelius Tacitus Lib. 6. YOu desire me to send you an Account of my Uncle's Death that you may be the better able to relate it in your History I am obliged to you for this Favour for I foresee my Uncle's Name will be immortal if it has the Honour to be preserv'd by your Pen Tho' it was his Fate to die like great Cities memorable for their Calamities in the Universal Desolation of the finest Part of Italy Nay tho' he himself has written several learned Volumes which will propagate his Memory to future Ages yet that Eternity which seems to be intailed on every thing you write will not a little contribute to perpetuate his Name For my part I reckon those Men happy who by a particular Indulgence of Heaven are capable of doing things fit to be transmitted to Posterity or of writing Works that deserve to be read but I reckon those the happiest of all who posses both these Advantages Amongst the Number of these Latter I reckon my Uncle by means of yours

upon a level than Smithfield does Lords and Bellows-menders Beaux and Fleaers of dead Horses Colonels and Foot-soldiers Bauds and Women of Vertue walk Cheek by Jole in the Cloisters and jostle one another by Candle-light as familiarly as Nat. Lee's Gods in Oedipus jostle one another in the dark The poor Vizard-masks suffer most unmercifully no sooner can one of this Character shew her Head within this priviledg'd Place but she is hurried into a Corner and a hundred several Hands are examining at once whether she carries any Contraband-goods about her The Woman's Children in the Maccabees that chose rather to suffer than pollute themselves with Swines-flesh wou'd have died ten thousand Deaths rather than so much as tasted a Pig 's Ear in Smithfield with a thousand of Prince Molach's Subjects floating in the Sauce about him But I suppose our vertuous People swallow Pig and Pork so earnestly to shew their Aversion to Judaism So much may suffice at present for I am just now going to a Puppet-show to see the Creation of the World and Noah's Flood which will give me more Satisfaction I don't question than Dr. Woodward's Hypothesis Mr. Whiston's Theory or any new System of our modern Vertuoso's I am your most humble Servant A Consolatory Letter to my Lady on the Death of her Husband Madam I Was very much surprized to hear that your Ladyship took so much to Heart the Loss of your Husband that your Relations should not be able to Conquer so obstinate a Grief or that a Person of your good Sence and Resolution should be so unfashionable and so weak as to pay that Respect to the Ashes of the Dead which well-bred Women now-a-days can scarce afford to the Living I will not pretend to attack your Grief in the common Formes I will not represent to you that all Flesh is Grass that nothing is exempt from the Laws of Fate and that 't is in vain to regret a Loss which it was not in our Power to prevent these thread-bare Topicks I shall leave to Divines and Philosophers and shall content my self to oppose your Lamentations with Arguments better suited to your present Condition 'T is true Madam you have lost a Husband but what of that have not Thousands done so before you but then consider that his Death makes room for a new Election A Widow ought no more to afflict her self for the Death of her Husband than a Country Corporation ought to go into Mourning for the Death of the Member that represented 'em in Parliament for without staying for a Writ from the Clark of the Crown she may proceed to a new Choice as soon as she sees convenient Your Husband God be thank'd has neither carried your Youth with him into the other World nor your Joynture cou'd he have robb'd you of either of those Blessings you might have just Reason to complain but I think a Woman's Condition is not very desperate when her two surest Friends her Beauty and her Wealth stick close to her As you have Charmes and Money enough to procure you store of Lovers so in my Opinion it must needs be an agreeable Diversion in your present Sorrow for I will allow you Madam to keep up the Appearance of it to observe the different Stile and Language of your Admirers one will tell you that he adores the Perfections of your Soul exclusive of all Worldly Considerations but Madam have a care of these Platonicks for a Man that makes vigorous Court to the Body is worth a Thousand Coxcombs that pretend to be in Love with your Soul another will tell you that he is ready to hang or drown for your Sake and desires you to chuse what sort of Death for him you think fit if you deny him that Blessing wherein his Life can be only happy Be govern'd by me Madam and take such a Lover at his Word if he decently dispatch himself you may take it from me that he lov'd in earnest but if he fails to give you this Testimony of his Affection you may conclude him to be a Hippocrite a third perhaps will boast of his Acres and tell you what a large Settlement he will make you whatever you do pray take care of these Smithfield Gentlemen for not one in a Thousand is honest at bottom It will be a pleasant Amusement to you to manage these Humble Servants of yours so artificially as to make all of 'em hope yet at the same time jealous of one another to steal a kind Glance sometimes at one and bestow a gracious Nod sometimes upon another and after you have thoroughly examined their several Merits and Qualifications to proceed in your Choice as the Cardinals do at the Election of a Pope and pitch upon one which in all probability is likely to make a sede vacante Thus Madam instead of dwelling upon the Illustrious Qualities of the Defunct to the usual Method of common Comforters I have made bold to lay down before you the Measures you are to take with the Living I confess I have venter'd upon a Task for which I am no ways fitting Solomon has told us That the Hearts of Kings are unsearchable which I suppose he knew to be so by his own Case he might have added when his Hand was in That the Hearts of Widows are past finding out Thus Madam you are not to wonder if the Directions I have given you are none of the surest however such as you see 'em they are at your Service as is likewise Madam Your most Obedient and Faithful c. To Mr. Moult upon the breaking up of Bartholomew-fair Sept. 12 99 Dear Sir THe Glory is departed from Smithfield and Intriguing has left the Cloisters in short Bartholomew-fair is over Et voila mon Ami les miserables Effets d' une si grand● Revolution Those very individual Persons who two Days ago glitter'd in Imperial Tinsel govern'd Kingdoms in Imagination commanded Legions and talk'd sublime Heroic in Tragic Buskins those very Persons I say who put the Sun out of Countenance in his double Capacity both as the God of Poetry and the Governor of the Day who out-shone him at Noon with their brighter Bristol Stones and out metaphor'd all Parnassus in the Booth who commanded Respect from the inferiour Mobb and drew the Eyes of the whole City more than a Lord-Mayor at a Publick Cavalcade Quis talia fando Myrmidonum Dolopumve aut duri miles Vlyssis Temperet à lachrymis Are now by a most wonderful Revolution of Fate divested of all their Splendour and Magnificence their Troops their Armies nay their very Guards have deserted 'em they are now reduced to the common Obscurity of Mankind instead of the most exquisite Wine that used to Crown their Glasses we find 'em now burying the Regret of their lost Sovereignty in humble Flip or more humble Anniseed and are glad to be trusted for a Dinner at a Boiling-cook's and snore contentedly in a Garret And those charming Dulcibella's

I am belov'd too I have thought all Night upon the two Ladies that In short upon you know whom I write this Billet to one of them deliver it I beseech you to her whom you believe that I love the more passionately of the two In Acknowledgment of the good Offices which I receive from you I assure you that you shall always dispose of my Affections and that I will never love any one so much as your self till I am convinc'd that you have in good earnest a Mind that I should To his Unknown Mistress WAs there ever so extraordinary a Passion as that which I have for you For my part I do not know any thing of you and to my knowledge I never so much as heard of you And yet I Gad I am desperately in Love with you and it is now a whole Day since I have sigh'd and look'd silly and languish'd and dy'd and all that for you Without having even seen your Face I am taken with its Beauty and am charm'd with your Wit tho' I never have heard one Syllable of it I am ravish'd with your every Action and I fancy in you a kind of I know not what that makes me passionately in Love with I know not whom Sometimes I fancy you Fair and at other times Black Now you appear Tall to me by and by Short Now with a Nose of the Roman Shape and anon with a Nose turn'd up But in whatever Form I describe you you appear the Loveliest of Creatures to me and though I am ignorant what sort of Beauty yours is I am ready to pawn my Soul that it is the most Bewitching of all of them If it be your Luck to know me as little and to love me as much then thanks be to Love and the Stars But lest you should a little impose upon your self in fancying me a tall fair Fellow and so be surpriz'd at the Sight of me I care not for once if I venture to send you my Picture My Stature is three Inches below the middle one my Head appears tolerable enough and is decently set off with a large grey Head of Hair then with Eyes that languish a little yet are something Hagard I have a sort of a cudden cast of a Face But in Requital one of your Friends will tell you that I am the honestest Fellow in the World and that for Loving faithfully in five or six Places at a time there is no Man alive comes near me If you think that all this will accomodate you it shall be at your Service as soon as I see you Till that long long'd for time I shall think of you that is of I know not whom But if any one should chance to ask me for whom I sigh don't be afraid I warrant to keep the Secret I would fain see any one catch me at naming you to him To Mademoiselle Paulet Madam There was only one thing wanting to your Adventures and that was to be a Prisoner of State I have given you here the happy Occasion of being such Fortune who has omitted no Opportunity of bringing you into Play will in all probability make her Advantage of this I know very well that I bring you into Danger by writing to you yet cannot even that Reflection restrain me From whence you may conclude that there is no Risk which I would refuse to run to refresh your Remembrance of me since I can resolve to endanger even you you who are dear and valuable above all the rest of the World to me I tell you this Madam at a time when I would not lye no not in a Compliment For I would have you to know that I am much the better for the Distemper which I have lately had It has caused me to assume such good Resolutions that if I had them not I could be contented to purchase them with all my Health I plainly foresee that this will but divert you you who are conscious to so much of my Weakness and who will never believe that I can keep single Resolutions I who have broken so many Vows yet nothing is more certain than that I have hitherto beheld the Spanish Beauties with as much Indifference as I did the Flemish at Brussels and I hope to grow a Convert in the very Place of the World in which the Tempter is strongest and where the Devil resumes as glorious Shapes as what he put off when he fell The Reformation is so great in me that I have but one Scruple remaining which is That I think too often of you and that I desire to see you again with a little too much Impatience I who have moderated the rest of my Passions have been unable to reduce that which I have for you to the Measure with which we are permitted to love our Neighbours that is to say as much as we do ourselves and I fear you have a larger Share in my Soul than I ought to allow a Creature Look out I beseech you for a Remedy for this or rather for an Excuse for it for as for a Remedy I believe there is none and that I must be always with utmost Passion Madam yours To the Marchioness of Rambouillet in Answer to a Letter of Thanks of hers Madam THo' my Liberality should as you tell me surpass the Bounty of Alexander it would nevertheless be richly recompens'd by the Thanks which you have return'd me for it He himself as boundless as his Ambition was would have confin'd it to so rare a Favour He would have set more value upon this Honour than he did on the Persian Diadem and he would never have envied Achilles the Praise which he received from Homer if he could but himself have obtain'd Yours Thus Madam on this Pinacle of Glory on which I stand if I bear any Envy to his 't is not so much to that which he acquir'd himself as to that which you have bestow'd upon him and he has received no Honours which I do not hold Inferior to mine unless it be that which you did him when you declar'd him your Gallant Neither his Vanity nor the rest of his Flatterers could ever persuade him to believe any thing that was so advantageous to him and the Quality of Son of Jupitur Hammon was by much less glorious to him than this But if any thing comforts me for the Jealousie which it has rais'd in me 't is this Madam that knowing you as well as I know you I am very well assur'd that if you have done him this Honour 't is not so much upon the account of his having been the Greatest of Mankind as of his having been now these two thousand Years no more However we here find cause to admire the Greatness of his Fortune which not being able yet to forsake him so many Years after his Death has added to his Conquests a Person that gives them more Lustre than the Daughters and Wife of Darius and which has gain'd him a