Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	write_n	write_v	year_n	67	3	4.4996	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33146	Xerxes, a tragedy as it is acted at the new theatre in Little Lincoln's-Inn Fields / written by C. Cibber ...	Cibber, Colley, 1671-1757.	1699 (1699)	Wing C4285; ESTC R18221	38,508	58

XERXES A TRAGEDY As it is ACTED at the NEW THEATRE in Little Lincoln's-Inn Fields Written by C. CIBBER Quot Homines Tot Sententiae LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Iohn Nutt near Stationers-Hall 1699. To my Worthy Friend SAMUEL ADAMS OF WOLVERTON Gent. I Can't tell why an Old Friend and Kinsman shou'd not give a Man as good a Title to a Dedication as a fine Coat and a great Perriwig Two Qualities that of late are thought as strictly Requisite in a Fashionable Patron as a Clap and a Duel to the compleating a Gentleman And indeed it 's no wonder that our late Plays are so Barren since we generally see our Authors reserve their Gall and Satyr for their Dedications where they seem to smile in the Patron 's Face and are civilly calling him Coxcomb by a long Repetition of those Virtues which Half the Town is heartily convinc'd he is not the least Tainted with And thus as Apelles displeas'd with his Painting an Horse's Foam gave it the most heightning Touch by throwing his Pensil at it in a Fury these Gentlemen that are so very tame and civil in their Satyr are most Satyrical in their Panegyricks and never so compleatly show a Fop as when they are hardest at work upon the fine Gentleman Now my end in sending you this Play with your Name to 't was purely to let pou see that I still take a Pleasure in thinking of you though at this Distance and if you find it worth a Room in your Closet that it might now and then put you in Mind of the Author Besides I owe you many Thanks for your Care of my Brother and wish I had a more effectual way of returning them in the mean time be pleas'd to take this Present in part of Payment though I am apt to believe shou'd I be ever Paying I shall never be out of your Debt for even your protection of this Trifle is running on fresh Score For whatever Fortune Xerxes may have found in Town I knew your Name wou'd be the surest means to give him a Favourable Reception in the Country and though the Ladies thereabouts shou'd think it but a dull Afternoons Entertainment in it Self yet if you happen to be by at the Reading it will at least be diverting in the Consequence For even Poetry can't make you Ill Company They 'll want no Musick between the Acts having the Relief of your Conversation and they must certainly be deeply in Love with something out of their reach if that can't put 'em in Tune For what Company though never so dull'd does not feel a new Life when you come into it or is not Dead when you leave it What Child what Man or what 's no little Wonder what Woman is not pleas'd with you which they are seldom known to be with any Man that has so long forborn to Complement some one of their Sex with his Freedom Yet so far you do Complement 'em too Your not Marrying is more than a Probability that you will never meet with an Occasion to have an Hearty Quarrel with any of them Thus with a little Expence of your Good Humour you Purchase the Favour of that Sex at the same time giving them Security that you never will be their Enemy by Loving any one of them too well if every ones Love be any step to Happiness there wants but the 'tother Half of the Worlds knowing you to make you the Happiest Man in it While you are Master of such an Easie Fortune no Wise-Man but must approve your Choice You have Preserv'd your Liberty and Tasted it and how good a Friend soever you are to the Bottle yet your worst of Enemies can't but still own that your a Batchelor and no Poet You never yet were so far overtaken that you either Married or Writ Verses which that you never may without any Complement to the Ladies is while Yours the Real Wish of SIR April 20th 1699. Your Oblig'd Friend and Kinsman C. CIBBER THE PROLOGUE Spoken by Mr. Batterton LOng have we strove with Passion and Grimace To show you Vice and Vertue 's diff'ring Face Vertue 's Reward has woo'd you to its Charms And Vice expos'd shou'd laugh you from its Arms. Vertue we vainly offer to your Taste Tir'd with Instruction and Agog for Iest Y' abhor the wholesome Plainness of the Feast In vain on Pois'nous Vice wou'd Satyr trample For what you shou'd contemn is your Example In vain we wear the Buskin or the Sandal Your judging false makes our Instruction Scandal The Wife provok'd to wrong her Husband's Bed Was meant his Cure by punishing his Head But you from hence not kind but jealous grow Think all Wives false when Usage makes 'em so Reform the Brute you keep the Woman true The Powder'd Fop for Drawling Speech and Dress Expos'd shall laugh But then so likes his Face He dresses in the Stage's Looking-Glass The High-kept Miss when shewn the Fate of Iilting Smiles Gets a new Spark sets Fools a Tilting A second Time she 's warn'd and so improves Till in due Time about the Pit she roves Reduc'd to Doily's Stuff no Stays and dirty Gloves Thus ev'n sage Collier too might be accus'd If what h'as writ's through Ignorance abus'd Girls may read him not for the Truth he says But to be pointed to the Bawdy Plays Far be 't to think such his Intention was Thus ev'n sound Physick if wrong taken shall Inflame Diseases which it meant to heal Now though Men die Physick has Vertue still Wou'd you but come with Minds attentive bent To laugh at Follies Vices to resent Warn'd by the Dangers painted wou'd you learn To shun abroad what 's here the Wise Man's Scorn Calm would he then the Zealot's hasty Rage And good Men Fearless might support the Stage Then as at Athens to learn Vertue 's Rules Crowds might we hope for from deserted Schools To see our Labours by just Laws allow'd And Publick Treasures pay for Publick Good Like them encourag'd we like them might write Athenian Hearers rais'd Athenian Wit In favour then of us begin to day To make a just Construction of a Play So shall the impious Xerxes Terrour move The chaste Tamira's Tears from Ruin'd Love His first Attempt for Vertue you approv'd But now fair Nymphs by nobler Passion mov'd Our Author has to your just Praise design'd A brighter Image of your Sexes Mind The EPILOGUE TO Friends or Foes whatever Fortune sends him Gallants our Author thus in short commends him If from his present Dulness Sirs you fear The Danger of his Writing once a Year To cure his future Itch of Writing Ill Now Headlong throw him to the Muses Hell But if from what you 've seen your Thoughts incline That any Sparks of Heat or Genius shine Let loose your Favours wave Poetick Laws And to your Wishes swell him with Applause The Persons Xerxes King of Persia. Mr. Verbruggen Mardonius Attabanus His Generals Mr. Hodgson Mr. Betterton Aranthes