Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	husband_n	owe_v	wife_n	3,983	5	8.4283	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

Secular Cat in Christendom that is more a Libertine or more head-strong than he I am in hopes however that I shall perswade him to stay by the kind Entertainment I give him for I treat him with nothing but good Cheese and Naples-Biskets and perhaps Madam he was not so well treated by you For I fancy the Ladies of don't suffer their Cats to go into their Cupboards and that the Austerity of the Convent won't afford 'em such good Chear He begins to grow tame already Yesterday I thought verily he had torn off one of my Hands in his wanton Addresses 'T is doubtless one of the most playful Creatures in the World there 's neither Man Woman nor Child in my Lodging that wears not some Mark of his Favour But however lovely he is in his own Person it shall always be for your sake that I esteem him and I shall love him so well for the Love I have for you that I hope to give occasion to alter the Proverb and that hereafter it shall be said Who Loves me Loves my Cat. If besides this Present you will give me the Raven that you promis'd me and if you will send me an Elephant in a Hand-basket one of these Days you may as proudly say that you have given me all the sorts of Beasts that I love and ev'ry way oblig'd me to be all the Days of my Life Yours c. A Comical Letter out of the famous Monsieur de Colletier to Madamoiselle de Choux By Sir D. Clark Kt. Madam DId you ever see an Almanack in your Life You 'll say this is an odd Question I 'll give you the Reason then why I ask'd it There 's an odd sort of a Fellow usually pictur'd in it Madam with the Devil knows how many Darts in his Body And what of him cry you Why Madam he 's only a Type of your humble Servant for that Son of a Whore Cupid has so pink'd me all over with his confounded Arrows that by my Troth I look like let me think like what like your Ladiship 's Pin-cushion But this is not all Your Eyes had like to have proved more fatal to me than Cupid and all his Roguery for Madam while I was Star-gazing t'other Night at your Window full of Fire and Flame as we Lovers use to be I dropt plumb into your Fish-pond by the same Token that I hiss'd like a red-hot Horse-shooe flung into a Smith's Trough 'T was a hundred Pound to a Penny but I had been drown'd for those that came to my Assistance left me to shift for my self while they sorambled for boil'd Fish that were as plentiful as Herrings at Roterdam Some of my Fellow-sufferers I caught of which I intend to make an Offering to your Ladiship as well as of Madam Your most devoted Slave COLLETIER The End of the first Part of Voiture's Letters Twelve Select EPISTLES OUT OF ARIST AENETVS Epist. 2. Lib. 1. Translated from the GREEK I Was a singing to my self one of the newest Songs last Evening in the Piazza when a very merry Adventure befel me Two pretty young Ladies in the bloom of their Youth and inferiour to the Graces in nothing but their Number came up to me and the Elder of them with a Look that had nothing of the Air of a Coquette in it was pleas'd to greet me after the following manner Whatever you may think of the matter Sir you have made two Conquests to Night by your Voice Love has found a way to our Souls thro' our Ears we are both subdu'd by your Harmony and have had a long Debate with our selves for which of us you intended this Entertainment My own Vanity made me believe it was meant for me my Companion here is as positive that the Compliment was designed for her Thus not being able to decide the Controversie among ourselves which had like to have engaged us in a Civil War we both agreed to have it determined by yourself Why faith Ladies reply'd I to them you are both of you very Handsome but the Duce take me if I am in love with either of you therefore I wou'd advise you as a Friend and a Plain-dealer not to quarel about such an insignificant Fellow as I am but to let all Acts of Hostility cease and live like good Neighbours together Not but that I believe I cou'd be heartily in Love with both or either of you at any other time but at present my Heart is engaged else-where and I am confident you have more Generosity and Justice than to usurp the Property of another or to take up with the Leavings of Love Oh! cry'd they this is a downright Sham. There is not one handsome Woman in this Quarter of the Town yet you pretend to be in Love 't is plain we have caught you in a Story therefore you shall swear that you love neither of us I cou'd not but laugh at the Proposal Why Ladies said I every thing I have is at your Service but I have a tender Conscience and wou'd not willingly be perjur'd That is as we would have it said one of 'em we knew the Truth wou'd come out one way or other therefore resolve to come along with us for we won't lose so fair an Opportunity With that both the Damosels fell a tugging and hawling me forward they pluckt one way and I pluckt another but you know the Proverb Two to one is odds at Foot-ball so I was forc'd to submit to my Destiny and go along with 'em whither they were pleas'd to lead me So far the Story may be read or heard by all the World but what follows is a Secret In short not to set your Mouth a Watering with a Description of every Particular I was carried to a Room where we made an extemporary Bed with Chairs and Stools so ingenious is Love when it is put to its Shifts The two good natur'd Nymphs were not disappointed and your humble Servant went off well satisfied with his good Fortune Glycera to Philinna Out of the same Epist. 3. Lib. 2. SOme ill Demon certainly ow'd me a Spite by the same Token he more than got out of my Debt when I was prevailed upon to marry this dull Flegmatick Lawyer of mine for I 'll tell you after what a horrid rate he uses me Every Night when other Husbands as in Duty bound solace their poor Wives a Bed my Man of Law sits up pretending he has a Conveyance to draw for my Lord and then says he I 'm to make a Speech in the Court to Morrow for my Client Sir John and if I have it not by heart there will be the Devil and all to do with that he walks about the Room in a meditating Posture to make me believe he is in earnest mumbling I know not what unintelligible Stuff to himself Since he has not Assets enough as far as I can perceive to discharge the Debt of Matrimony why should he marry I wonder to inslame

put so unjust a Construction upon my Expressions 't is only to see how much your Beauty surpasses theirs and to be able to do the more Justice to your Merits Yes Madam by Cupid I swear it who never had a devouter Votary then my self you surpass the rest of your Sex in Dress Beauty and the Agreeableness of your Deportment Your Charms are so conspicuous and shining that they need no Artifice to set 'em off a natural Red adorns your Cheeks neither do you lye under any necessity to load your Head with that cumbersome Attire other Women take a Pride in You have the loveliest Hair in the Universe Who can behold so black a pair of Eye-brows in so fair and white a Forehead and not own himself your Slave I dare not trust my Invention as fertle as it is with venturing upon more Particulars In short Madam all the Perfections of your Sex center in you and your Empire is never so safe as when you appear amongst our most celebrated Beauties Your sight alone as it creates our Astonishment so it commands our Love and to make a new Triumph you need only appear to a new Beholder Since my Life is intirely wrapt up in yours I wish you may live long and happy All my Inclinations all my Hopes and Thoughts terminate in you and I earnestly beg of Heaven that I may always continue in this Opinion Enjoy that Conquest therefore which Nature has given you and I will everlastingly carry Love's Golden Dart in my Breast Neither do you endeavour to pluck it out from thence for besides that you are not able to do it I don't desire to have it done for I take pleasure in nothing so much as in my Passion May it always be the Scope of my whole Life to love Delphis and may it be my Fate to be beloved by her to be subdued by her Beauty and charm'd by her Conversation Oceanius to Aristobulus Out of the same Epist. 20. Lib. 2. YOu desire to know what Progress our Friend Damon has made in the Affections of his Mistress whom he hath so long besieg'd and I am sorry I cannot send you so good News as I cou'd wish He threw himself down at her Feet and in the common strain of Lovers will you not says he take compassion on my Youth Will you not pity one that dies every Moment for you Show at least some Tenderness to the Man who never was conquer'd by any Beauty but yours But she return'd him a Compliment as cold as if it had come out of the midst of Tartary Leave persecuting me says she with idle Stories of your Passion with your pretended Darts and your Romantick Flames for you do but lose your Time and Labour The Youth was reduc'd to the last Despair when he found himself thus slighted and as Anger on these Occasions generally succeeds to Love he said the most reproachful bitter things against her that his Indignation cou'd inspire him with When his Fury had spent it self looking upon him with a scornful Air I know says she how to punish the Insolences of your Tongue All your Sex are perfidious and false You devour us nay you devour one another The most savage Beasts in the Woods unless compell'd by Hunger seldom attack the Travellers but when they are taken by you and have been debauch'd with a Domestic Education they prove erranter Brutes than any in the Forest to be short with you your Perjury and Inconstance teach us to lay aside all pity and treat you as you deserve for in the first Ardors of your Love you can lie all Night at our Thresholds on the bare Ground you can say the most submissive things in the World you can whine and cry and make Goddesses of us you have Oaths perpetually at command and with those Counters you deceive us but no sooner have we granted the last Favours to you but you grow insolent and haughty you make us the Subject of your ill-manner'd Mirth and you disdainfully reject her whom the Hour before you adored like a Divinity You are all Atheists as to Love and pretend that Jupiter has other Business on his Hands then to trouble himself with the Oaths of Lovers Thus the Lady discarded the unfortunate Lyco and as partial as I am to my Friend I cannot but own there is a great deal of Truth in her Invective Chrysis to Myrina Out of the same Epist. 15. Lib. 11. YOu and I my dearest Myrina have long languish'd under the Tyranny of Cupid who is the most Fantastical of all the Deities You are in Love with my Husband and 't is my unhappy Destiny But who can resist the God who commands all the rest to doat on your Page What Expedient will Love who uses to be no Block-head when he is put to his shifts what Expedient I say will Love find out to put an end to our present Sufferings You know I am a constant Woman at Prayers and if a Woman ever prays for any thing in good earnest you likewise know 't is when she prays for a kind Gallant Now to be plain with you I put up a fervent Petition to Heaven this Morning that it wou'd furnish a Remedy for both our Passions when immediately the following ing Thought came into my Head I won't be positive as our Priests generally are that this Whimsie of mine is of Heaven's inspiring but it seems so easie so pretty and so feasible that I am resolv'd with your help to see it put in Execution The Stratagem in short is this Do you pretend to be very angry with your Page upon what Occasion you think most proper whether for tearing your Fan beating your Squirrel or so forth but be sure to turn him out of your House The better to colour this Business I will give you leave to strike him a Blow or two but I article before-hand with you that you shan't hurt him Upon this I know he will immediately run to me as being your greatest Acquaintance and I will take care to dispatch my Husband on an Errand to you under pretence of interceding for the Boy that you wou'd be so kind as to take him into your Service again By this Means both of us will have a fair Opportunity to satisfie our Longings which for my part I will see punctually perform'd unless your Page is a very ignorant Devil indeed and I suppose you will not be wanting to your self But my dear Myrina remember to keep my Husband with you as long as you can for that you know will be for our mutual Interest I can tell you before-hand that you will not be disappointed in my Spark I that have so often experienc'd how well he performes upon Duty am satisfi'd he 'll out-do a Heroe when Wickedness spurs him on Farewel Stesichorus to Eratosthenes Out of the same Epist. 9. Lib. 1. TO see now what cunning Gipsies these Women are T'other Day a certain Woman of my Acquaintance walking