Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	master_n	servant_n	service_n	3,408	5	7.4851	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10214	The secretary in fashion: or, A compendious and refined way of expression in all manner of letters. Composed in French by P. Sr de la Serre, historiographer of France. And translated into English, by John Massinger, Gent; Secrétaire à la mode. English	La Serre, M. de (Jean-Puget), ca. 1600-1665.; Massinger, John.	1640 (1640)	STC 20491; ESTC S115331	42,861	162

which presents it selfe But being the occasion to Importune you was offer'd when I sought one to doe you service I will force my selfe to beleeve that my good will may oblige you not to refuse this courtesie Sir to Your most humble servant Another upon the same SIR MY vowed Service and Friendship give mee the freedome to Implore your favour in behalfe of the Bearer of these Presents I serve my selfe very boldly of the Power you have given me to imploy your Indeavors in all sorts of encounters but upon Condition that you will doe the same in all occasions that may offer themselves wherein I may witnesse how much I am Sir Your most humble servant M. Another SIR IF you make as great Account of my Intreaty as I doe of your commands you will easily accord unto me this which is to sustaine with your Authority a businesse of Mine now in agitation that it may bee determined to my advantage I doe not doubt of your Power and lesse of your Noblenesse which forces me to beleeve that you will comply with this Occasion offerd you to oblige extreamely Sir Your most humble servant M. Another SIR IF you complaine of my Importunity accuse your owne freenesse for if you had beene lesse Generous I had bin lesse bold But being I know by Experience in what a high degree Civility Courtesie predominate in you I am constrain'd to think that my intreaty will not be inacceptable which is that you would bee pleased to mollifie with your Eloquence that harsh conceipt that Master N. has of mee In this incounter you will oblige us both together since giving him to understand my Innocence hee will easily give place to reason This favour in particular I hope from your Goodnesse as you on the contrary may expect all sorts of Service from my Duty In Quality Sir of Your most humble servant M Another SIR THough I bee the most unprofitable of all your friends yet I shall never faile to prove my selfe one of the most passionate to your Service The violence whereof causes me at this Present to intreate you to oblige me in such or such an Encounter All that I can say to you for the first acknowledgement is that I shall conserve Eternally the Memory of this favour and if I be not able to meet with an Occasion to revenge my selfe that I shall carry the Sorrow of it into my Grave together with the Quality Sir of Your most humble servant M. Answers to the Letters of Intreaty SIR I Have done all that you desired of me but with so much satisfaction and so little Paines that I beseech you prepare some new commands whereby the passion I have to serve you may not be left unprofitable and you shall see by my observance that I have no greater Pleasure in the World then to make my selfe remarqued in all places Sir Your most humble servant Another Answer SIR I Have many thankes to returne you for the happy imployment you gave mee in your service I thinke all things fell out according to your desire which gave mee ample occasion to rejoyce as participating in all things that concerne your particular I beseech you doe me the favour that I may never have occasion to doubt of it since I professe my selfe as much as any man in the World Sir Your most humble servant M. Another Answer SIR I Could wish you had every day occasion to command my service that I might continually have the Good fortune to produce new proofes of my obedience I performed happily the last Commands wherewith you were pleased to honour mee which gives me cause to believe that you will not long let me rest unprofitable without giving me some other sort of imployment wherein I may finde more satisfaction as prooving it more painefull This I beseech you to doe in quality Sir of Your most humble Servant M. Another Answer SIR I Finde so much facility in the execution of the Command which you imposed upon mee that I am ashamed to reckon it in the number of services which I desire to render you It being an Encounter of so little Importance for my satisfaction and your Interest that I beseech you give me some other Imployment wherein I may witnesse according to your Merit and my Affection how unfaignedly I am Sir Your most humble Servant M. Another Answer SIR I Aske you pardon for the long time that I have spent in the executing your Commands not that I have beene negligent in employing my Cares and Diligence but because the successe consisting in a Strangers power I could no sooner give you the Effects yet let not the mishap of this delay hinder you hereafter in using my Endeavours since I am without reserve Sir Your most humble servant Another Answer SIR WHen you desire any service of me I beseech you consider whether it be in my power or no to the end that being unable to execute your Commands as I am at this Present I incurre not the hazard of your reproach You may Expect new proofe when you please of the Passion which I have to serve you since I no way desire to beare in vaine the Quality Sir of Your most humble Servant M. Other Answers of Excuse to the Letters of Intreaty SIR I Am more sorry then your selfe that I am not able to effect your Commands The duty which you expect does not absolutely depend of mee so that to render it worthily I am to implore the favour of an other Man who professeth to incline totally to the adverse party Doe not thinke that I make these excuses to avoid the occasion which presented it selfe for your service but beleeve I beseech you that in all other Encounters I will Comport my selfe with so much passion that you shall be forced to confesse I am unfaignedly Sir Your most humble servant M. Another Answer SIR IF you knew in what disorder my Misfortune causes me to write since I am not able to satisfie your desire you would have pitty on my Affliction being it wholly proceeds from my Griefe that the Power to doe you service is taken from mee I speake this from my heart and soule and being the friendship I promised you taught mee the Language I will constraine my selfe to beleeve that it is Eloquent enough to perswade you that the only want of ability deprives mee at this Present of the Honour and Contentment to witnesse unto you how much I am Sir Your most humble servant M. Congratulatory Letters to a friend of some Good Fortune happened to Him SIR IF you knew how excessively joyfull I was at the Newes of your good fortune you would make a doubt whether your owne resentment might be equalled to mine or no truly Sir there could nothing be added to it and besides it proceeds wholly from the friendship that long agoe I vowed to your good nature which is not vulgar since it has your desert for the Object I could say more if the

where wilt thou learne a more exact way of ordering Men and disposing a Battle than here where one displaced puts all the rest out of order Humanity cannot invent a more compendious way of Short writing since Stenography has here arrived to such Perfection that when a Man has but writ his Name hee has both Courted his Mistresse Comforted the Sick Defied an Enemy and Obliged a Friend Logick I am sure is here in her Auge since our Syllogismes are so powerfull that except a Man would confesse himselfe rude and unreasonable and consequently no Man he can never deny the Argument What Rhetorick is more pleasing than this where servants and Admirers are acquired in every page What Musick more Harmonious than where we are so rigorous in teaching the true art of stopps that when one only is escaped the whole Aire is nothing but a Discord I must confesse our Grammer is an Antipode to Lilly though Infinitely more Compleat for wee doe not decline Words but only Obsolecies and Barbarismes nor have wee more than two Conjugations viz. to doe you service and to revenge my selfe by which we Conjugate all our other Verbs and Nouns be they what they will Behold Reader beyond thy Expectation another Ars magna et Ultima besides the Lullian another Panace or Curer of all Deseases beside the Graecian and another Castle of Knowledge beside Records Sphere which if thou accept with a Willing mind and good Intention I le deifie thee but if thou attempt upon it with unwashed hands or a Prejudicated Opinion I defie thee and so fare thee well Thy Servant J. M. THE FIRST LETTERS OF COMPLEMENT SIR I Take such delight in rendring you my service that I remaine alwayes the first satisfied though I acquit my selfe And that which makes mee so carefull in seeking Occasions is that you should not reproach me to have omitted any Yet in this Sir I doe not implor● your beleife desiring so to let you see by Effects rather then Words that I am without Complement Sir Your most humble servant Another upon the same Subject SIR I Defie you to accuse me of neglect in the performance of my Duty the passion which I have to your Service being so violent that it nourisheth in mee a continuall Care of seeking Opportunities to make it knowne To the furtherance of which this Letter offerd it selfe most happily having charge to assure you from my part that of all the servants which your Merits have acquired you I am Sir The most humble and most faithfull SIR I Am by so many obligations Yours that the onely want of Occasions to give Testimony of it breeds all my Discontents Esteeming my selfe unfortunate in nothing so much as that the Passion which carries me to your Service prooves as unprofitable as extreame Which forceth me to have recourse to Intreaties beseeching you to honour me with your Commands that other meanes failing my obedience may oblige you to believe that I am Sir Your most humble servant Another upon the same SIR I Must discharge my heart in telling you that I honour you more then all the rest of the World T is true your desert imposed the necessity upon me but it did not give me the inclination though I beseech you to beleeve that I was very willing in the constraint having suffer'd no other violence then what my Reason and Iudgement offer'd mee You shall have daily new proofes by the Continuation of my Duty and by the Quality which I beare Sir of Your most humble servant Another upon the same subiect SIR IF you expect nothing but Complements from me you shall never receive any I am a Sworne enemy of Courtship and Civility towards persons whom I honour extreamely as I doe you It sufficing mee that I performe my Duty in their behalfe and that I take care to do it with a good Grace This is the Study in which I practice my selfe and I beseech you thinke that I will not loose the least occasion to witnesse it to you because I finde my selfe much interessed in the Resolution which I have taken to be all my life Sir Your most humble servant Another upon the same SIR THough I have told you a thousand times by word of Mouth that I am your Servant yet my Pen shall once aga●ne assure you of the sam● expecting till you oblige me to more Eminent proofes which I conjure you do to if you be pleased to prevent the occasion by some Command that may satisfie my Impatience to make you know and confesse at the same time that you may have more powerfull and more considerable Servants but never Sir A more humble or more faithfull Answers to the Letters of Complement SIR I Never made doubt of your Civility and Courtesie but of my owne good fortune in meeting with the meanes to require them Yet I intreat you to believe that hereafter I will imploy all my cares to witnesse unto you my good affection and if Ill meanes render them unprofitable I will dye for my owne satisfaction Sir Your very humble Servant Another Answer SIR I Esteeme to much the Honour of your Remembrance not to desire the continuation and withall to beseech you for some Employment wherein I may witnesse the Passion which I have to your service For which I will importune you hereafter desiring by deeds rather then words to let you see that I am extreamely Sir Your most affectionate servant Another Answer SIR THough this in some sort requite the favour of your remembrance yet I cannot cease to be indebted to you when I consider that your courtesie prevented my respects But I beseech you imagine that for the Time to come I will bee so carefull to disingage my selfe that you shall have greater cause to complaine of my importunity then my silence which I have resolved never to keepe when your Interests oblige me to the contrary as making Publike Profession to appeare in all places Sir Your most humble servant Another Answer SIR I Will be so presumptuous since you desire it as to beleeve you love me but upon condition that you will likewise acknowledge the Passion which I have to serve you For as it onely makes mee merit the honour of your Friendship so I shall be very glad that you would everlastingly conserve the Remembrance of it Continue then in loving mee as much as you please and likewise esteeme infallibly that I am more then all the world besides Sir Your most humble Servant Another Answer SIR THough I give you very humble thanks for the Honour of your Remembrance yet I shall alwayes remaine Indebted to you as making more account of the least of your favours then all the respects I am able to render you Continue onely in obliging mee of that fashion though I be intirely yours already and beleeve if you please that I shall never bee capable of other resentment then which shall witnesse the quality that I beare Sir of Your

publickly that have been too shamelesse to maintain the contrary in private 'T is a malice so ill contrived though black as Hell that I am perswaded it will deceive it selfe For what appearance is there that having received an infinity of favour from your goodnesse I should so irreverently contemne a thousand other noble qualities that elevate your esteem above the common I beseech you beleeve that I shall be their admirers all my life and a continuall flaile to the broachers of this Imposture I have no respect of persons when my Honor is questioned I beare a sword to defend it with the hazard of my life which I esteem far lesse But if this cannot give you satisfaction let me know the name of the reporter and I will make you sport in laying open the particulars of his knavery and the sincerity of my innocency which shall give you sufficient never to make doubt of the passion I have to serve you as being Sir Your most humble and obedient servant An other SIR IT is an easie matter for any Man to accuse me but I defie all the World together to convince me in the least respect T is true I could not speak in that Company but some must heare me but be pleased to shew me my adversary and I le engage my self to make him signe me an acquittance of my innocency with his owne blood I boast of nothing that I will not doe for let me but know the broachers of that imposture and I will easily let you know their malice which shall force you to beleeve as I most humbly intreat you that I will sooner loose my life than the honour and stile of being Sir Your most humble and most obedient servant M. An other SIR I Will not justifie my selfe with words of the aspersion laid upon me desiring by effects to let you see my innocency as clear as the malice of those that would have blemished it black and pernicious I beseech you think that I shall never be able to forget the respect I owe you and if any have the boldnesse to accuse me of it my Sword shall impose them a most rigorous pennance since I profer to be alwayes what I alwayes was Sir Your most humble Servant M. Answers to the Letter of Justification SIR T Is true I was told you abused mee behind my back but since I never gave you cause and on the other side your discretion being sufficiently knowne to me I was not so much as tempted to give credit to it you needed not then have justified your selfe of a fault whereof I esteem'd you alwayes innocent The reputation you bear in all places of the World may seem as a judge to condemne your accusers wherefore you may sleep in quiet since I account my selfe disinteressed and place me in the number Sir of Your most humble and most affectionate servants Another Answer SIR BEfore I can declare you guilty you must confesse your self faulty with your own mouth for the testimonies of all the World cannot convince the good opinion I have of your integrity Men may calumniate your reputation as much as they please but I shall alwayes hold your accusers to be in the fault since it is impossible I should lose the esteem which I conceive of your desert being Sir Your most humble servant Letters to a sick Friend SIR THe news of your sicknesse hath bred such a change in my health that I may justly count my selfe in the number of those that are not well Take courage then if you will give it me you know the intent I have in all things concerning your particular In a word if you leave not your bed very suddenly I shall be constrained to take it These are the Protestations Sir of Your very humble servant M. Another SIR I Will not tell you how extreamely sensible the sorrowfull news of your sicknesse was to me only I must put you in mind that your disease cannot chuse but be very contagious having infected one hither I could wish for your service and my contentment that I were neare you but my misfortune is such that it ties me to certain affaires in this Town which by no meanes I am able to abandon Yet all these obstacles shall not hinder me from acquitting my selfe of my duty if you esteem me usefull to render you any manner of service of which I give you most faithfull assurance as protesting to be all my life Sir Your most humble servant M. Answers to the Letters written to a sick Friend SIR IF I had sooner recovered my health I had sooner returned you thanks for the resentment you wittnessed to have of my sicknes but being it kept me very long I was constrained to delay my acknowledgement till this very present though 't is not from this encounter onely that I know how sensible you are of al things concerning your Friends which makes you have them without number but I can assure you that put them all together I am Sir The most obedient and most faithfull An other Answer SIR AS soon as ever I was able to hold a pen I served my self of the opportunity to render you thanks for the consolation which you gave me in the delightfull entertainment of your letters Yet I pray you Sir deprive me not of this contentment if you would not have me sick againe For I can assure you t is a very great satisfaction to me to see my selfe honoured with the favour of your remembrance in Quality Sir of Your most humble servant M. Letters to demand the protection of a strange Prince SIR THough I have not the honour to be knowne to your Highnesse yet the esteem that al the World makes of your Royall vertues gave me the boldnesse most humbly to beseech your Majestie to grant me protection within the Lands of your Obedience I am not guilty of any crime that should make me blush and if I have violated the Lawes of my owne Prince it was but to obey the Law which Honour had imposed upon me before This makes me expect from your Highnes bounty al manner of assistance since onely the profession of Souldier made me quit my owne Country Your Highnesse will augment by this action the number of your Creatures since thereby I shall vow my selfe to live and dye in quality of Your Highnesse Most humble servant M. Another SIR THe Bruit of your Highnesse renowne occasion'd my entrance into the Lands of your Obedience not knowing where to find a more assured harbour in the World I hope your Highnesse will not violate for me alone the Lawes which your wisedome has already made in favour of distressed and guilty persons and though I be no otherwise than the right of Honour dos permit yet I most humbly implore your Majesties protection as extreamly conducing to my repose and quiet For my birth and condition I thought it not necessary to reveale them till your Highnesse command oblige me to it being