Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	year_n	young_a	youth_n	105	4	7.4758	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48274	The policy and government of the Venetians both in civil and military affairs / written in French by the Sieur de la Hay, and faithfully Englished.	La Haye, Sieur de.	1671 (1671)	Wing L180A; ESTC R230570	48,068	205

illustrious persons the next day after they are return'd from their Embassies lay aside all the Grandure and Glory which they had taken upon them for the honour of their Conntrey and march up and down the Streets as it were incognito with the same modesty as an ordinary Citizen This condescension of theirs gains strangely upon the affections of their Subjects and disposes them to obedience without violence or coersion for observing how quietly their Governours resign they cannot think much to conform to the Government themselves As to the Ambassadors which are sent to Venice they are receiv'd with great honours The Senate in their Robes of scarlet go out in their Gondoloes to meet them in some of the Isles about the Town and having made their Complements they conduct them to the City with a great train of Boats attending every Senator taking a Gentleman of the Ambassadors Equipage into his Gondolo with him But after this day they have no liberty to see or converse together more nor can the Ambassador himself speak or negotiate with ●ny of them upon any pretence whatsoever All things afterwards are transacted in full Senate ●he Duke and Counsel being pre●ent where no immediate Answer ●s ever given to any Proposition ●ut the Ambassadors withdrawing ●he business is debated and then put to the Vote what shall be reply'd The Laws are so jealous and so ●evere in matters of Intelligence or Correspondence that if it be known a noble Venetian has had conference not only with an Ambassador but the least person in his Retinue he runs no less hazard than of his life insomuch that they run as fast and with as much horror from any of them as from a Basilisk About twenty six years since one of the Family of the Contarini and Nephew to the Doge that was then was strangled in Prison for having been seen in a Gondoloe with a Secretary of Spain A Friend of mine one Labia a noble Venetian who had spent much of his time in France when Monsieur du Plessis Besancon took his leave of the Senate admiring the beauty and accomplishment of the young Chevalier his Son he could not contain himself from accosting him and paying his respects but suspecting that one of the Counsel of Ten who are alwayes about the Ambassadors had observ'd him he was glad of his own accord to throw himself at the feet of those terrible Judges to acknowledge his fault and implore their pardon which at length though with severe reprehension he obtain'd because he had prevented their Informers by accusing himself choose their Doge their Counsel of Ten their Senators their Ambassadors their Sages Grands their Podestats their Captains-General their Provediteurs-General their Governours their Grand-Captains their Vice-Admirals of their Galleys the heads of their Inquisition which is but the shadow of a Court in Venice because let the Inquisitors be as zealous as they will they can neither act nor undertake any thing without the permission of certain Senators appointed to assist who commonly like the rest of the Nation being not over-scrupulous or severe in such matters do choak and correct the ardour which your more refin'd Catholicks are prone to In short all the chief Offices depending upon the Senate whether Military or Civil are entrusted only with the noble Venetians the rest of the Citizens and the noblest upon the Continent never so much as hoping for them in their turns Till they be five and twenty years old the noble Venetians are not admitted into the Counsel yet this severity is not so general but some few which are of their friends are receiv'd at twenty Here it is they model and form their young plants for the government of the State here it is they are instructed in their most refin'd policies and prepared for publick affairs And though it may seem strange that the heat of youth should accord with the coldness and asperity of old age yet there has been alwayes observ'd so great ●n union and concurrence resulting from their Counsels that it must be acknowledg'd the flame of the young Gentlemen has hitherto had no other effect but to correct and qualifie the frigidity of the more ancient and on the other side the Ice and gravity of the seniors have serv'd only to cool and temper the juvenile ebullitions of their juniors The Pregadis which are the Counsels to which they are usually called as is imply'd by the name for Pregadi in the Venetiau language is as much as invited or convok'd have their first meeting all in a body in the Place of St. Mark where every one driving on his own designs either for himself or such of his friends as are ambitious of authority they walk up and down promiscuously solliciting and making their Cabals No body is suffer'd at that time to come near the place where they are walking and if by accident or presumption any stranger intrudes himself he is repuls'd and runs a great hazard of some publick affront The while they are there the place is counted as sacred and call'd by the name of Pregadi it runs along all the front of the Palace and takes up a full half of the Market-place in breadth One custome they have I know not whether more subtil or pleasant When any one who has stood for any dignity comes out of the Counsel whether his ambition be prosperous or not all people salute him with their Complements congratulate his advancement and by a peculiar Oath which they have on purpose swear they have done their utmost to serve him by which means the poor rejected person besides the affront he receiv'd being defeated of his hopes finds himself under a necessity of receiving a civility from him who perhaps was the principal destruction of his designs for he can never be assured who were either his friends or his foes because the Elections being made by Tickets put into a Bason without any superscription the whole conduct remains so confus'd and obscure it would be beyond the skill of an Oedipus to resolve him This invention of Tickets is the most safe way was ever found out for giving their judgements freely for who is it will deny but when one is to give his opinion in a publick Assembly he is not liable to certain insuperable motions which oblige him many times to speak against his judgement being to give his Vote against some great person which he is afraid to displease or against a Friend which he is unwilling to destroy against a man of parts which perchance he has occasion to use or against a man of power that another time may do as much for him But this occult way of Election defends them against those dangers and authoriseth them to be honest without apprehension of any body If there be several Children in a Family the elder seldom marry but give a good proportion of their patrimony to the younger it is reported that the youngest marryes for them all but I