Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	abbey_n	abbot_n	find_v	38	3	4.3854	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66698	The lives of the most famous English poets, or, The honour of Parnassus in a brief essay of the works and writings of above two hundred of them, from the time of K. William the Conqueror to the reign of His present Majesty, King James II / written by William Winstanley, author of The English worthies ...	Winstanley, William, 1628?-1698.	1687 (1687)	Wing W3065; ESTC R363	103,021	246

laborious study of History in both which he excelled all his Contemporaries His skill also was excellent in Oratory and Divinity as also in such manual Arts as lie in the Suburbs of the liberal sciences Painting Graving c. so that we might sooner reckon up those things wherein he had no skill as those wherein he was skilled But his Genius chiefly disposed him for the writing of Histories writing a large Chronicle with great Commendations from the Norman Conquest to the Year of our Lord 1250. where he concludes with this Distich Siste tui metas studij Matthaee quietas Nec ventura petas quae postera proferat aetas Matthew here cease thy Pen in peace and study on no more Nor do thou rome at things to come what next Age hath in store Yet notwithstanding this resolution he afterwards resumed that Work continuing it to the Year 1259. a History impartially and judicially written neither flattering any for their Greatness nor sparing others for their Vices no not so much as those of his own Profession yet though he had sharp Nails he had clean Hands strict in his own as well as striking at the loose conversation of others and for his eminent austerity was imployed by Pope Innocent the Fourth not only to visit the Monks in the Diocess of Norwich but also was sent by him into Norway to reform the Discipline in Holui a fair Covent therein but much corrupted His History was set forth with all integrity about a hundred years ago by his namesake Matthew Parker though some asperse it with a suspition of forgery and afterwards in latter and more exact Edition by the care and industry of Doctor William Wats and is at this present in great esteem amongst learned men WILLIAM RAMSEY THis William Ramsey was born in Huntingtonshire a County famous for the richest Benedictines Abbey in England yet here be would not stay but went to Crowland where he prospered so well that he became Abbot thereof Bale saith he was a Natural Poet and therefore no wonder if fault be found in the Feet of his Versez but by his leave he was also a good Scholar and Arithmetician enough to make his Verse run in right Numbers This William wrote the Lives of St. Guthlake St. Neots St. Edmond the King and divers others all in Verse which no doubt were very acceptable and praise-worthy in those times but the greatest wonder of him and which may seem a wonder indeed was that being a Poet he paid the vast Debts of others even forty thousand Marks for the engagement of his Covent and all within the compass of eighteen Months wherein he was Abbot of Crowland This was a vast Sum in that Age and would render it altogether incredible for a Poet to do but that we find he had therein the assistance of King Henry the Second who to expiate the Blood of Becket was contented to be melted into Coyn and was prodigiously bountiful to many Churches as well as to this He died about the year 1180. ALEXANDER NEQVAM ALexander Nequam the learnedest Englishman his Age was born at St. Albans in Hartfordshire His Name in English signifies Bad which caused many who thought themselves wondrous witty in making Jests which indeed made themselves to pass several Jokes on his Sirname whereof take this one instance Nequam had a mind to become a Monk in St. Albans the Town of his Nativity and thus Laconically wrote for leave to the Abbot thereof Si vis veniam sin autem tu antem To whom the Abbot returned Si bonus sis venias si nequam nequaquam Whereupon for the future to avoid the occasion of such Jokes he altered his Name from Nequam to Neckam His admirable knowledge in good Arts made him famous throughout England France Italy yea and the whole World and that with incredible admiration that he was called Miraculum ingenij the Wonder and Miracle of Wit and Sapience He was an exact Philosopher and excellent Divine an accurate Rhetorician and an admirable Poet as did appear by many his Writings which he left to posterity some of which are mentioned by Bale That he was born at St. Albans apears by a certain passage in one of his Latine Poems cited by Mr. Cambden and thus Englished by his Translatour Doctor Holland This is the place that knowledge took of my Nativity My happy Years my Days also of Mirth and Jollity This Place my Childhood trained up in all Arts liberal And laid the ground-work of my Name and skill Poetical This Place great and renowned Clerks into the World hath sent For Martyr bless'd for Nation for Sight all excellent A troop here of Religious Men serve Christ both night and day In Holy Warfare taking pains duly to watch and pray He is thought by some saith Bale to have been a Canon Regular and to have been preferred to the Abbotship of Glocester as the Continuater of Robert of Glocester will have it And Master Alisander that Chanon was er Imaked was of Gloucestre Abbot thulk●yer Viz. 7 Reg. Regis Johannis But this may be understood of Alexander Theologius who was contempory with him and was Abbot of St. Maries in Cirencester at the time of his death Bishop Godwin in his Catalogue of the Bishops of Lincoln maketh mention of a passage of wit betwixt him and Phillip Repington Bishop of Lincoln the latter sending the Challenge Et niger Nequam cum sis congnomine Nequam Nigrior esse potes Nequior esse nequis Both black and bad whilest Bad the name to thee Blacker thou mayst but worse thou canst not be To whom Nequam rejoyned Phi not a foetoris Lippus malus omnibus horis Phi malus Lippus totus mains ergo Philippus Stinks are branded with a Phi Lippus Latin for blear-eye Phi and Lippus bad as either then Philppus worse together A Monk of St. Albans made this Hexameter allusively to his Name Dictus erat Nequam vitam duxit tamen aequam The Elogy he bestoweth on that most Christian Emperor Constantine the Great must not be forgot From Colchester there rose a Star The Rays whereof gave Glorious Light Throughout the world in Climates far Great Constantine Romes Emperor bright He was saith one Canon of Exeter and upon what occasion is not known came to be buried at Worcester with this Epitaph Eclipsim patitur Sapientia Sol sepelitur Cui si par unus minus eset flebile funus Vir bene discretus in omni more facetus Dictus erat Nequam vitam duxit tamen aquam Wisdom's eclips'd Sky of the Sun bereft Yet less the loss if like alive were left A man discreet in matters debonair Bad Name black Face but Carriage good and fair Yet others say he was buried at St. Albans where he found repulse when living but repose when dead with this Epitaph Alexander cognomento Nequam Abbas Cirecestriae Literarum scientia clarus obitt Anno Dom. 1217. Lit. Dom. C. prid

glorious Sparta lies upon the ground Lofty Mycenae hardly to be found Of Oedipus his Thebes what now remains Or of Pandion's Athens but their Names So also Sylvester in his Du Bartus Thebes Babel Rome those proud Heaven-daring Wonders Lo under ground in Dust and Ashes lie For earthly Kingdoms even as men do die By this you may see that frail Paper is more durable than Brass or Marble and the Works of the Brain more lasting than that of the Hand so true is that old Verse Marmora Maeonij vincunt Monumenta Libelli Vivitur ingenio caetera mortis erunt The Muses Works Stone-Monuments out-last 'T is Wit keeps Life all else Death will down cast Now though it is the desire of all Writers to purchase to themselves immortal Fame yet is their Fate far different some deserve Fame and have it others neither have it nor deserve it some have it not deserving and others though deserving yet totally miss it or have it not equall to their Deserts Thus have I known a well writ Poem after a double expence of Brain to bring it forth and of Purse to publish it to the World condemned to the Drudgery of the Chandler or Oyl-man or which is worse to light Tobacco I have read in Dr. Fuller's Englands Worthies that Mr. Nathanael Carpenter that great Scholar for Logick the Mathematicks Geography and Divinity setting forth a Book of Opticks he found to his great grief the Preface thereof in his Printers House Casing Christmas-Pies and could never after from his scattered Notes recover an Original thereof thus saith he Pearls are no Pearls when Cocks or Coxcombs find them There are two things which very much discourage Wit ignorant Readers and want of Mecaenasses to encourage their Endeavours For the first I have read of an eminent Poet who pass by a company of Bricklayers at work who were repeating some of his Verses but in such a manner as quite marred the Sence and Meaning of them he snatching up a Hammer fell to breaking their Bricks and being demanded the reason thereof he told them that they spoiled his Work and he spoiled theirs And for the second what greater encouragement to Ingenuity than Liberality Hear what the Poet Martial saith Lib. 10. Epig. 11. What deathless numbers from my Pen would flow What Wars would my Pierian Trumpet blow If as Augustus now again did live So Rome to me would a Mecaenas give The ingenious Mr. Oldham the glory of our late Age in one of his Satyrs makes the renowned Spenser's Ghost thus speak to him disswading him from the Study of Poetry Chuse some old English Hero for thy Theme Bold Arthur or great Edward's greater Son Or our fifth Henry matchless to renown Make Agin-Court and Crescy-fields out-vie The fam'd Laucinan-shores and walls of Troy What Scipio what Maecenas wouldst thou find What Sidney now to thy great project kind Bless me how great a Genius how each Line Is big with Sense how glorious a design Does through the whole and each proportion shine How lofty all his Thoughts and how inspir'd Pity such wondrous Parts are not preferr'd Cry a gay wealthy Sot who would not bail For bare Five Pounds the Author out of Jail Should he starve there and rot who if a Brief Came out the needy Poets to relieve To the whole Tribe would scarce a Tester give But some will say it is not so much the Patrons as the Poets fault whose wide Mouths speak nothing but Bladders and Bumbast treating only of trifles the Muses Haberdashers of small wares Whose Wit is but a Tavern-Tympany The Shavings and the Chips of Poetry Indeed such Pedlars to the Muses whose Verse runs like the Tap and whose invention ebbs and flows as the Barrel deserve not the name of Poets and are justly rejected as the common Scriblers of the times but for such who fill'd with Phebean-fire deserve to be crowned with a wreath of Stars for such brave Souls the darlings of the Delian Deity for these to be scorn'd contemn'd and disregarded must needs be the fault of the times I shall only give you one instance of a renowned Poet out of the same Author On Butler who can think without just rage The glory and the scandal of the age Fair stood his hopes when first he came to Town Met every where with welcoms of renown Courted and lov'd by all with wonder read And promises of Princely favour fed But what reward for all had he at last After a life in dull expectance pass'd The wretch at summing up his mispent days Found nothing left but poverty and praise Of all his gains by Verse he could not save Enough to purchase Flannel and a grave Reduc'd to want he in due time fell sick Was fain to die and be interr'd on Tick And well might bless the Feaver that was sent To rid him hence and his worse fate prevent Thus you see though we have had some comparable to Homer for Heroick Poesie and to Euripides for Tragedy yet have they died disregarded and nothing left of them but that only once there were such Men and Writings in being I shall in the next place speak something of my Undertakings in writing the Lives of these Renowned Poets Two things I suppose may be laid to my charge the one is the omission of some that ought with good reason to have been mentioned and the other the mentioning of those which without any injury might have been omitted For the first as I have begg'd pardon at the latter end of my Book for their omission so have I promised if God spare me life so long upon the first opportunity or second Edition of this Book to do them right In the mean time I should think my self much beholding to those persons who would give me any intelligence herein it being beyond the reading and acquaintance of any one single person to do it of himself And yet let me tell ye that by the Name of Poet many more of former times might have been brought in than what I have named as well as those which I have omitted that are now living namely Sir Walter Rawleigh Mr. John Weever Dr. Heylin Dr. Fuller c. but the Volume growing as big as the Bookseller at present was willing to have it we shall reserve them to another time they having already eternized their Names by the never dying Histories which they have wrote Then for the second thing which may be objected against me That I have incerted some of the meanest rank I answer That comparatively it is a less fault to incert two than to omit one most of which in their times were of good esteem though now grown out of date even as some learned Works have been at first not at all respected which afterwards have been had in high estimation as it is reported of Sir Walter Rawleigh who being Prisoner in the Tower expecting every hour to be sacrificed to the Spanish cruelty some few days before