Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	letter_n	page_n	send_v	2,737	5	10.0535	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02131	Mamillia The second part of the triumph of Pallas: wherein with perpetual fame the constancie of gentlewomen is canonised, and the vniust blasphemies of womens supposed ficklenesse (breathed out by diuerse iniurious persons) by manifest examples clearely infringed. By Robert Greene Maister of Arts, in Cambridge.; Mamillia. Part 2	Greene, Robert, 1558?-1592.	1593 (1593)	STC 12270; ESTC S105831	71,941	112

constancie men are farre more to be appeached of want than women to be condemned for defect and therefore who soeuer made the forepassed verses was both vniust and iniurious yea the railing of Mantuan in his Eglogs the exclaiming of Euripides in his Tragedies the tants of Martiall and priuie quippes of Propertius are more of course than cause and rather inforced by rage than inferred by reason What Pharicles quoth Signor Fernese I sée thou canst hold a candle before the diuel and that you can so cunningly runne a point of Descant that be the plaine song neuer so simple thou canst quauer to please both parts You were euen now a condemner of womens varietie and are you now an accuser of mens inconstancie If you be so variable in your verdit we wil thinke that either you speak foolishlie without skill or as a flatterer to please women But indéede it is daungerous for him to speake ill of an Irish kearne that is offering a Cowe to Saint Patricke and as perillous for a man to blaspheme women that is knéeling at the shrine of Venus sith then you are in the same case we will take your deuotion for a sufficient excuse In the meane time if it please my Ladie the Marquesse wée will go to dinner and there ende our discourse more at leisure Content quoth the Marquesse and with that they went to dinner where Pharicles behaued himselfe so wittily as they stood in doubt whether his wit beautie or behauiour deserued greater commendations Well dinner being ended Pharicles hauing the spurres in his side alledging vrgent cause of his so hastly departure tooke his leaue of the Marquesse and the rest of the company and giuing great thanks to Signor Fernese for his good cheare hyed him home in haste to his chamber Where séeing the letter of Clarynda a gastly obiect to his gazing eyes willing to returne an answere that she might not accuse him of discurtesie tooke Penne and Inke and wrote a letter to this effect Pharicles to Clarynda health IT is hard Clarynda for him which commeth within the reach of a Crocodile to escape without daunger it is as impossible to sée the Cockatrice not be infected Who so toucheth the Torpedo must néeds be charmed and he that handleth a Scorpion cannot but be striken t is not possible to medle with pitch haue clean hands nor to be acquainted with a strumpet haue a good name This considered Clarynda I being a stranger of Italie whose life liuing is more noted than if I were a citizen in Saragossa counting my honest behauiour the chiefest stay of my vnknowen state feared least thy maides arriuall to my lodging should bée hurtfull to my countenance or preiudicial to my credit If then I gréeued to haue my parler combred with the maid you may wel think I were loth to haue my person trobled with the Mistresse For silence modestie Clarynda which you say the force of my loue constrained you to passe I am sure you shooke hands with modestie and strained curtesie with silence long before you knewe me for Pharicles or I you for a Curtizan Indéed you haue brought forth fit examples to confirme your consequent I allow them For silent Sapho was a riming monster of lecherie you a rooted Mistresse in bawdrie Modest Phedra was a most incestuous harlot and you a most infectious strumpet so that your comparisons hold very well sith the equalitie of your maners makes them not odious Doest thou think Clarinda that I am so carelesse in choice as to choose such filthie chaffre or so soone allured as to be in loue with such trash No no I haue such care to my credit and such regard to my calling such respect to my birth and such feare to defame my parētage as I meane not to match with a Princesse if she be not honest much lesse then linke my selfe to a lasciuious Lais whose honestie shall be a pray to euery straggling stranger Shall I beate the bush and others get the byrdes Shall I hold the net and others catch the fish yea shall euery man get his fee of the Deare and I get nothing but the hornes No I will first fast before I taste of such a dish as wil turne me to so great displeasure But you reply that the Mirabolanes in Spaine are perilous in the bud pretious in the fruite that the wine is sower in the presse and yet swéet in the Caske that she which is vicious in her youth may be vertuous in her age I graunt indéede it may be but it is hard to bring the posse into esse For the barking whelp proues alwayes a byting dog the yong Frie will proue old Frogges where the blossome is venemous there the fruite must néedes be infectious where vice is embraced in youth there commonly vertue is reiected in age yea t is a thing most commonly séene that a yong whoore prooues alwayes an olde Bawde As for Rodhope the curtizan of Egypt and Phyrne the strumpet of Athens whome you bring in as examples of this strange Metamorphosis I answere that their particular conuersion inferreth no generall conclusion For though Rodhope of a vicious maiden became a vertuous matron and though Phryne of a lasciuious Lamia became a loyall Lucretia yet it followes not that you should of a stragling harlot become a staied huswife for we sée it hardlie commeth to passe that a yoong diuell proues an old Saint But put case you would performe as much as you promise and make a change of your chaffre with better ware of your fléeting affection with fixed fancie that your forepassed dishonestie would turne to perfect constancie that of a carelesse Corynna you would become a carefull Cornelia yet I cannot recall the stone alreadie cast withhold the stroake alreadie stroken nor reclaime affection fancie being alreadie fixed I am Clarynda to put thée out of doubt betroathed to a yoong Gentlewoman in Padua who in beautie wealth and honestie is inferiour to none in all Italie and wouldest thou then haue me leaue the fine Partridge to praie on a carrion Kyte to refuse the Hare and hunt at the Hedgehog to falsifie my faith to a most honest beautifull dame and plight my troth to a lasciuious and dishonest strumpet No Clarynda thou hearest I cannot though I would and if I could I will not and so farewell Not thine if he could Pharicles Pharicles hauing thus finished his letter sent it by his Page to Clarynda who receiuing it hartily and rewarding the Page bountifully went hastily into her closet where vnripping the seales she found not a preseruatiue but a poyson not newes to encrease her ioy but to bréed her annoy not louing lines as from a friend but a quipping letter as from a foe not a comfortiue to lengthen her life but a corasiue to shorten her dayes yea she found the letter so contrarie to her former expectation that nowe falling into a desperate minde she

creature most currish conditions who more faire than Paris yet a trothlesse traitor to his loue Oenone Vlisses was wise yet wauering Eneas a pleasant tongue yet proued a parasiticall flatterer Demophoon demure and yet a dissembler Iason promiseth much yet performed little and Theseus addeth a thousand othes to Ariadne yet neuer a one proued true Consider the hearbe of India is of pleasant smell but who so commeth to it féeleth present smart the Goorde leafe profitable the séede poyson the rinde of the trée Tillia most swéete and the fruite most bitter the outward shew of such flattering louers full of delight but the inward substance sawsed with despight Call also to minde their often periuries their vaine oathes falsified promises and inconstancie their protestations pilgrimages a thousande dissembled flatteries and if thy louer be infected with any particular fault let that be the subiect whereon to muse knowing that many vices are hidden vnder the coloured shape of vertue if he be liberal thinke him prodigall if eloquent a babler if wise inconstant if bolde rash if timerous a dastard if he be well backt thinke it is the taylers art not natures workemanship if a good waste attribute it to his coate that is shapt with the Spanish cut if wel legd think he hath a bumbast hose to couer his deformitie yea driue all his perfections out of thy minde and muse vpon his infirmities so shalt thou leade a quiet life in libertie and neuer buy repentance too deare and though hée countes thée cruell because thou art constant and doest refuse to yéeld to thine owne lust thinke it no discredite for mustie caskes are fit for rotten grapes a poysoned barrell for infectious liquour and crueltie is too milde a medicine for flattering louers Thus Madame you haue heard my counsel which I haue learned by proofe and speake by experience which if you willingly accept I shall thinke my labour well bestowed and if you wisely vse you shall thinke your time not ill spent but if you do neither my well wishing is neuer the worse and so fare you well Yours to command Mamillia MODESTA TO HER BELOued Mamillia IT is too late Madame Mamillia to sound the retrait the battaile being already fought to drie the malt the kil being on fire to wish for raine when the shower is past to apply the salue the sore being remedilesse to giue counsaile the case being past cure for before the corosiue came the sore was growne to a festred Fistula ere your comfortable confect was presented to my hand I was fallen into a strange Feuer Thou didst Mamillia counsell me to beware of loue and I was before in the lash Thou didst wish me to beware of fancie and alas I was fast fettred I haue chosen Mamillia What do I say haue I chosen yea but so poore soule as all my friends do wish me to change and yet I haue satisfied my self though not contented them My friendes regarded the mony and I respected the man they wealth and I wisedome they lands and lordships and I beautie and good bringing vp so that either I must choose one rich whom I did hate and so content them or take one poore whom I did loue and so satisfie my selfe Driuen Mamillia into this dilemma I am to aske thine aduise what I should do whether I should lead my life with aboundance of wealth in loathe or spende my daies with no riches in loue In this if thou shalt stand my friend to giue me thy counsel I will if euer I be able requite thy curtesie From Saragossa in haste Thine assuredlie doubtfull Modesta Mamillia hauing receiued this Letter returned her as spéedily as might be an answere to this effect MAMILLIA TO THE Ladie Modesta MAdame Modesta I haue receiued your letters haue viewed your doubtfull demaund whereunto thus I answer that to liue we must follow the aduise of our friends but to loue our owne fancie for to another mans liuing they may giue preceptes but to fixe fancie in loue they can prescribe no certaine principles Then Madame sith you haue riches which may of a poore woer make a welthy spéeder wed not for wealth least repentance cast the accounts nor match not with a foole least afterward thou repēt thine own follie but choose one whose beautie may content thine eye and whose vertuous wisedom may satisfie thy minde so shalt thou haue neither cause to repent nor occasion to mislike thy choyce and that thou maist perceiue my meaning more plainly reade this following historie with good aduisement There dwelt in Toledo a certaine Castilian named Valasco by parentage a Gentleman by profession a Marchant of more wealth than worship and yet issued of such parents as did beare both great countenance and credit in the countrie This Valasco after the decease of his father was a ward to the Duke of Zamorra who séeing him indued with great wealth and large possessions hauing the disposition of his marriage in his hands married him to a kinswoman of his named Sylandra a Gentlewoman neither indewed with wit nor adorned with beautie and yet not so witlesse but she was wilfull nor so deformed but she was proude insomuch as her inward vices and outward vanities did in tract of time so quat the queasie stomacke of her husband Valasco that although in his childish yéeres he did not mislike of her follie yet in his ripe yéeres when reason was a rule to direct his iudgement he so detested the infirmities of her nature and the infections of her nurture as she was the onely woman his crasie stomack could not digest Valasco being thus combred with such a crosse as the burthen thereof was to him more heauie than the weight of the heauens to the shoulders of Atlas and knowing by experience what a miserie it was to marrie without loue or make his choice without skill and how loathsome it was to liue without liking or to be wedded to her whom neither his fancie nor affection did desire to enioy hauing by his wife Sylandra one onelie daughter named Syluia determined with Themistocles to marrie her rather to a man than to monie and neuer to match her with anie whom she did not both intirely loue and like While he was in this determination Sylandra died leauing Valasco a diligent husband for the finishing of his wines funerals and a carefull father for the well bringing vp of his daughter Syluia who now was about the age of sixtéene yéeres so beautified with the gifts of nature and adorned with sundrie vertues and exquisite quallities as the Citizens of Toledo were in doubt whether her beautie or vertue deserued greater commendation Syluia flourishing thus in the prime of her youth and proouing daylie more excellent as well in the complexion of the bodie as in the perfection of her mind grew so renowmed for her famous feature almost throughout all Europe that as they which came to Memphis thought they had séene nothing vnlesse