Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	ambition_n	friend_n	great_a	61	3	2.1251	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B05023	Familiar letters. Vol. I. Written by the Right Honourable John, late Earl of Rochester, to the Honble Henry Savile, Esq; and other letters, by persons of honour and quality. With letters written by the most ingenious Mr. Thomas Otway, and Mrs. K. Phillips. Publish'd from their original copies. With modern letters, by Tho. Cheek, Esq; Mr. Dennis, and Mr. Brown.	Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of, 1647-1680.; Sidney, Algernon, 1622-1683.; Otway, Thomas, 1652-1685.; Cheek, Thomas.; Phillips, Katherine, fl. 1658.; Brown, Thomas, 1663-1704.; Ayloffe, W. (William).	1699 (1699)	Wing R1745A; ESTC R182831	73,342	242

the wary performance of Burglary and Shop-lifting Let your well-discerning Pallat the best Judge about you travel from Cellar to Cellar and then from Piece to Piece till it has lighted on Wine fit for its noble Choice and my Approbation To engage you the more in this matter know I have laid a Plot may very probably betray you to the Drinking of it My Lord will inform you at large Dear Savile as ever thou dost hope to out-do Machiavel or equal Me send some good Wine So may thy wearied Soul at last find Rest no longer hov'ring 'twixt th' unequal Choice of Politicks and Lewdness Maist thou be admir'd and lov'd for thy domestick Wit belov'd and cherish'd for thy foreign Interest and Intelligence TO THE Honourable HENRY SAVILE HARRY YOU cannot shake off the Statesman intirely for I percieve you have no Opinion of a Letter that is not almost a Gazette Now to me who think the World as giddy as my self I care not which way it turns and am fond of no News but the Prosperity of my Friends and the Continuance of their Kindness to me which is the only Error I wish to continue in 'em For my own part I am not at all stung with my Lord M 's mean Ambition but I aspire to my Lord L 's generous Philosophy They who would be great in our little Government seem as ridiculous to me as School-boys who with much endeavour and some danger climb a Crab-tree venturing their Necks for Fruit which solid Pigs would disdain if they were not starving These Reflections how idle soever they seem to the Busie if taken into consideration would save you many a weary Step in the Day and help G y to many an Hours sleep which he wants in the Night But G y would be rich and by my troth there is some sence in that Pray remember me to him and tell him I wish him many Millions that his Soul may find rest You write me word That I 'm out of favour with a certain Poet whom I have ever admir'd for the disproportion of him and his Attributes He is a Rarity which I cannot but be fond of as one would be of a Hog that could fiddle or a singing Owl If he falls upon me at the Blunt which is his very good Weapon in Wit I will forgive him if you please and leave the Repartee to Black Will with a Cudgel And now Dear Harry if it may agree with your Affairs to shew your self in the Country this Summer contrive such a Crew together as may not be asham'd of passing by Woodstock and if you can debauch Alderman G y we will make a shift to delight his Gravity I am sorry for the declining D ss and would have you generous to her at this time for that is true Pride and I delight in it ROCHESTER TO THE Honourable HENRY SAVILE Dear SAVILE THIS Day I receiv'd the unhappy News of my own Death and Burial But hearing what Heirs and Successors were decreed me in my Place and chiefly in my Lodgings it was no small Joy to me that those Tydings prove untrue my Passion for Living is so encreas'd that I omit no Care of my self which before I never thought Life worth the trouble of taking The King who knows me to be a very ill-natur'd Man will not think it an easie matter for me to die now I live chiefly out of spight Dear Mr. Savile afford me some News from your Land of the Living and though I have little Curiosity to hear who 's well yet I would be glad my few Friends are so of whom you are no more the least than the leanest I have better Compliments for you but that may not look so sincere as I would have you believe I am when I profess my self Your faithful affectionate humble Servant ROCHESTER Adderbury near Banbury Feb. ult My Service to my Lord Middlesex TO THE Honourable HENRY SAVILE HARRY I Am in a great straight what to write to you the stile of Business I am not vers'd in and you may have forgot the familiar one we us'd heretofore What Alterations Ministry makes in Men is not to be imagined though I can trust with confidence all those You are liable to so well I know you and so perfectly I love you We are in such a setled Happiness and such merry Security in this place that if it were not for Sickness I could pass my time very well between my own Ill-nature which inclines me very little to pity the Misfortunes of malicious mistaken Fools and the Policies of the Times which expose new Rarities of that kind every day The News I have to send and the sort alone which could be so to you are things Gyaris carcere digna which I dare not trust to this pretty Fool the Bearer whom I heartily recommend to your Favour and Protection and whose Qualities will recommend him more and truly if it might suit with your Character at your times of leisure to Mr. Baptist's Acquaintance the happy Consequence would be Singing and in which your Excellence might have a share not unworthy the greatest Embassadors nor to be despis'd even by a Cardinal-Legate the greatest and gravest of this Court of both Sexes have tasted his Beauties and I 'll assure you Rome gains upon us here in this point mainly and there is no part of the plot carried with so much Secresie and Vigour as this Proselytes of consequence are daily made and Lord S 's Imprisonment is no check to any An account of Mr. George Porter's Retirement upon News that Mr. Grimes with one Gentleman more had invaded England Mr. S 's Apology for making Songs on the Duke of M. with his Oration-Consolatory on my Lady D 's Death and a Politick Dissertation between my Lady P s and Capt. Dangerfield with many other worthy Treatises of the like nature are things worthy your perusal but I durst not send 'em to you without leave not knowing what Consequence it might draw upon your Circumstances and Character but if they will admit a Correspondence of that kind in which alone I dare presume to think my self capable I shall be very industrious in that way or any other to keep you from forgetting Your most affectionate obliged humble Servant ROCHESTER White-hall Nov. 1. 79. TO THE Honourable HENRY SAVILE Dear SAVILE WEre I as Idle as ever which I shou'd not fail of being if Health permitted I wou'd write a small Romance and make the Sun with his dishrievel'd Rays gild the Tops of the Palaces in Leather-lane Then shou'd those vile Enchanters Barten and Ginman lead forth their Illustrious Captives in chains of Quicksilver and confining 'em by Charms to the loathsome Banks of a dead lake of Diet-drink you as my Friend shou'd break the horrid Silence and speak the most passionate Fine things that ever Heroick Lover utter'd which being softly and sweetly reply'd to by Mrs. Roberts shou'd rudely be interrupted by the envious F Thus

we are alone The talking of the Devil puts me in Mind of the Parsons I had the Benefit of the Clergy this Week I mean the Company of two honest unbigotted Parsons I drank a Bowl to the Manes of our Immortal Friend one that was as witty as Necessity and discover'd more Truths than ever Time did One that was born to unchain the World that struggl'd with Mysteries as Hercules did with Monsters and like him too fell by a Distaff After so mournful a Subject I'gad I 'll make you laugh The Duce take me if I did not last Week assist at the Ceremony of making a Christian nay more Sir I was Honos sit Auribus a Godfather who am Your Affectionate Friend and Servant c. Mons BOILEAU's LETTERS TRANSLATED By THO. CHEEK Esq To the Duke DE VIVONE upon his Entrance into the Haven of Messina My LORD KNow you not that one of the surest ways to hinder a Man from being pleasant is to bid him be so Since you forbad me being serious I never found my self so grave and I speak nothing now but Sentences And besides your last Action has something in it so great that truly it would go against my Conscience to write to you of it otherwise than in the Heroick Style However I cannot resolve not to obey you in all that you command me so that in the Humour that I find my self I am equally afraid to tire you with a serious Trifle or to trouble you with an ill Piece of Wit In fine my Apollo has assisted my this Morning and in the time that I thought the least of it made me find upon my Pillow two Letters which for want of mine may perhaps give you an agreeable Amusement They are dated from the Elysian Fields the one is from Balzac and the other from Voiture who being both charm'd with the Relation of your last Fight write to you from the other World to congratulate you This is that from Balzac You will easily know it be to his by his Style which cannot express things simply nor descend from its heighth From the Elysian Fields June the 22d My LORD THe Report of your Actions revives the Dead it wakens those who have slept those thirty Years and were condemn'd to an eternal Sleep it makes Silence it self speak The Brave the Splendid The Glorious Conquest that you have made over the Enemies of France You have restored Bread to a City which has been accustom'd to furnish it to all others You have nourish'd the Nursing Mother of Italy the thunder of that Fleet which shut you up the Avenues of its Port has done no more than barely saluted your Entrance its Resistance has detained you no longer than an over civil reception So far from hindring the Rapidity of your Course it has not interrupted the Order of your March you have constrain'd in their their Sight the South and North Winds to obey you without chastizing the Sea as Xerxes did you have taught it Discipline you have done yet more you have made the Spaniard humble After that what may not one say of you No Nature I say Nature when she was young and in the time that she produc'd Alexanders and Caesars has produc'd nothing so great as under the Reign of Louis the XIV she has given to the French in her Declension that which Rome could not obtain from her in her greatest Maturity She has made appear to the World in your Age both in Body and Soul that perfect Valour which we have scarce seen the Idea of in Romances and Heroick Poems Beging the Pardon of one of your Poets he had no reason to say That beyond Cocitus Merit is no more known Yours My LORD is extoll'd here by the common Voice on both sides of Styx It makes a continual Remembrance of you even in the Abodes of Forgetfulness It finds zealous Partizans in the Country of Indifference It puts Acheron into the Interests of the Seine Nay more there is no Shade amongst us so prepossest with the Principles of the Porticus so hardned in the School of Zeno so fortified against Joy and Grief that does not hear your Praises with pleasure that does not clap his Hands and cry A Miracle at the moment you are named and is not ready to say with your Malherbe A la fin c'est trop de Silence En si beau suject de parler As for me My LORD who know you a great deal better I do nothing but meditate on you in my Repose I fill my Thoughts intirely with your Idea in the long Hours of our Leisure I cry continually How great a Man is this And if I wish to live again 't is not so much to return to the Light as to enjoy the sovereign Felicity of your Conversation and to tell you Face to Face with how much Respect I am from the whole extent of my Soul My LORD Your Lordship 's most humble and most obedient Servant BALZAC I Know not My LORD whether these violent Exaggerations will please you and whether you will not find that the Style of Balzac is a little corrupted in the other World however it be in my Opinion he never lavish'd his Hyperboles more to the purpose 't is for you to judge of it But first read if you please the Letter from Voiture From the Elysian Fields June the 22d My LORD THo' we poor Devils who are dead do not concern our selves much in the Affairs of the Living and are not exceedingly inclin'd to Mirth Yet I cannot forbear rejoycing at the Great Things you do over our Heads Seriously your last Fight makes the Devil and all of a Noise here below it has made it self heard in a place where the very Thunder of Heav'n is not heard and has made your Glory known in a Country where even the Sun is not known There are a great many Spaniards come hither who were in the Action and have inform'd us of the Particulars I see no reason why the People of that Nation shou'd pass for Bullies for I can assure you they are very civil Persons and the King sent 'em hither t'other Day very mild and quiet To tell you the truth my LORD you have manag'd your Affairs very well of late To see with what speed you fly o're the Mediterranean-Sea wou'd make one think you absolutely Master of it There is not at present in all its extent one single Privateer in safety and if you go on at this rate I can't see how you 'd have Tunis and Algiers subsist We have here the Caesars the Pompeys and the Alexanders they all agree that you exactly follow their Conduct in your way of fighting But Caesar believes you to be superlatively Caesar There are none here ev'n to the Alaricks the Gensericks the Theodoricks and all the other Conquerors in icks who don't speak very well of this Action and in Hell it self I know not whether you are acquainted with that Place there

is no Devil my LORD who does not confess ingeniously That at the head of an Army you are a greater Devil than himself This is a truth that your very Enemies agree in But to see the good that you have done at Messina for my part I believe you are more like an Angel than a Devil only Angels have a more airy shape and do not carry their Arms in a Scarf Railery a-part Hell is extreamly byass'd in your Favour There is but one thing to be objected to your Conduct and that is the little Care that you sometimes take of your Life You are so well belov'd in this Country that they don't desire your Company Believe me my LORD I have already said it in the other World a Demi-god is but a very little thing when he is dead he 's nothing like what he was when he was alive And as for me who know already by experience what it is to be no more I set the best Face on the Matter I can but to hide nothing from you I die with Impatience to return to the World were it only to have the Pleasure to see you there in pursuance of this intended Voyage I have already sent several times to find out the scatter'd Parts of my Body to set 'em together but I could never recover my Heart which I left at parting with those seven Mistresses that I serv'd as you know so faithfully the whole seven at once As for my Wit unless you have it I am told 't is not to be found in the World To tell you the truth I shrewdly suspect that you have at least the Gaiety of it For I have been told here four or five Sayings of your Turn of Expression which I wish with all my Heart I had said and for which I would willingly give the Panegyrick of Pliny and two of my best Letters Supposing then that you have it I beg you to send it me back as soon as possibly you can for indeed you can't imagine how inconvenient it is not to have all one's Wit about one especially when one writes to such a Man as you are this is the Cause that my Style at present is so alter'd Were it not for that you shou'd see me merry again as formerly with my Comrade Le Brochet And I should not be reduc'd to the necessity of ending my Letter trivially as I do in telling you that I am My LORD Your Lordship 's most Humble and Obedient Servant VOITURE These are the two Letters just as I receiv'd 'em I send them you writ in my own Hand because you would have had too much trouble to read the Characters of the other World if I had sent 'em you in the Original Do not fancy my LORD that this is only a trial of Wit and an imitation of the Style of these two Writers You know very well that Balzac and Voiture are inimitable However were it true that I had recourse to this Invention to divert you shou'd I be so much in the wrong of it or rather ought I not to be esteem'd for having found Out this way to make you read the Praises which you wou'd never have suffer'd other ways In a word cou'd I better make appear with what Sincerity and with what Respect I am My LORD Yours c. A LETTER Writ by Mr. DENNIS Sent with the following SPEECH SIR I Have here sent you inclos'd what I promis'd you by the last Post and I think my self oblig'd to give you some account of it In the late Appendix to the new Observator I find the Author reasonably complaining of the Corruption of History by the French and giving a reasonable guess how false the History of this Age as far as it is writ by them is like to come out in the next And particularly what Monsieur Pelisson's History of the present King of France is like to be which is now writing by that King 's own Order Monsieur Boileau who writ the enclos'd has at least as great a share in that History as Monsieur Pelisson And therefore you have in the enclosed in the which he has very artfully inserted a Panegyrick of his Prince a Pattern of what his part of the History will be For having flatter'd his Master in this small Panegyrick we have all the reason in the World to believe That he will flatter him too in his History And that he has flatter'd him here you will plainly find not only by Exaggerations which are in some measure to be allow'd to an Orator but in affirming things which are directly contrary to the Truth Such are those two remarkable Passages of the French King 's Offering Peace to the late Confederacy for the general Good of Christendom which not so much as a Frenchman who has Common-sense believes and of his Bombarding Genoa only to be reveng'd of its Insolency and of its Perfidiousness which every Man who has heard the Story of Mr. Valdryon must laugh at Now since it is to be presum'd that Monsieur Boileau will flatter him in his History because it is plain that he has flatter'd him in his Panegyrick what are we to expect from Monsieur Pelisson whose Sincerity is by no means so much talk'd of as the other 's I thought to have concluded here But it comes into my Mind to make two Reflections upon the Panegyrical part of the enclos'd The first is this That since Monsieur Boileau who is in the main a Man of Sincerity and a lover of Truth could not but flatter Lewis the Fourteenth when he commended him we may conclude that it is impossible to give him a general Commendation without Flattery For where a Satyrick Poet paints what other Man must not daub The second Reflection is this That since this Panegyrick is scarce to be supported notwithstanding the most admirable Genius of the Author which shines throughout it and an Art to which nothing can be added remember that I speak of the Original and beyond which nothing can be desir'd you may easily conclude how extreamly fulsom the rest of the Panegyricks upon Lewis the Fourteenth must needs be whose Authors fall infinitely short of Boileau's either Genius Art or Vertue THE SPEECH OF Mons BOILEAU Upon his Admission into the French Academy Translated by Mr DENNIS GENTLEMEN THE Honour this Day conferr'd upon me is something so great so extraordinary so little expected and so many several sorts of reasons ought to have for ever excluded me from it that at this very Moment in which I return my Acknowledgments I am doubtful if I ought to believe it Is it then possible can it be true Gentlemen that you have in effect judg'd me worthy to be admitted into this Illustrious Society whose Famous Establishment does no less honour to the Memory of Cardinal Richlieu than all the rest of the Numerous Wonders of his matchless Ministry And what must be the thoughts of that Great Man What must be the thoughts of

Matters were ripe I disclos'd the unwelcome Secret to him He raved and wept and after some interval wept and raved again but thanks to my pious Advice and the kind influence of t'other Bottle it was not long before the Paroxysm was over I cou'd almost wish you had been by to see how Heroically he threw off your Chains with what Alacrity he tore you from his Bosom and in fine with what a Christian Self-denial he renounc'd you more heartily I dear swear than his Godfather abjur'd the Devil for him at his Baptism And now Madam tho' I confess you have prevented my Curses by your choice of such a Coxcomb and 't is not good Manners to solicite a Judgment from Heaven on every such Accident as this for Providence wou'd have a fine time on 't to be at the expence of a Thunderbolt for every Woman that forswears herself yet so much do I resent the ill usage of my Friend that I cannot forbear to give you this Conviction how earnestly I can pray when I set my self to 't Therefore give me leave Madam to throw these hearty Ejaculations at your Head now since I shall not have the honour to throw a Stocking at you on the fatal Night of Consummation May the Brute your Husband be as jealous of you as Usurpers are of their new Subjects and to shew his good opinion of your Judgment as well as your Virtue may he suspect you of a Commerce with nothing of God's making nothing like a Gentleman that may serve to excuse the Sin but lousie Bush-begotten Vagabonds and hideous Rogues in Rags and Tatters or Monsters that stole into the World when Nature was asleep with Ulcers all over them and Bunches on their Backs as large as Hillocks May you never actually Cuckold him for that were to wish you some Pleasure which God knows I am far from being guilty of but what will serve to torment him as effectually May the Wretch imagine you 've injur'd him that way under which prepossession may he never open his Mouth but to Curse nor lift up his Hands but to Chastise you May that execrable Day be for ever banished out of the Almanack in which he does not use his best endeavours to beat one into your Bones and may you never go to Bed without an apprehension that he 'll cut your Throat May he too have the same distrust of you Thus may your Nights be spent in eternal Quarrels and your Nuptial-sheets boast of no honourable Blood but what 's owing to these Nocturnal Skirmishes May he lock you up from the sight of all Mankind and leave you nothing but your ill Conscience to keep you company till at last between his penurious allowance and the sense of your own guilt you make so terrible a figure that the worst Witch in Mackbeth wou'd seem an Angel to you May not even this dismal Solitude protect you from his Suspicions but may some Good-natured Devil whisper into his Ear That you have committed Wickedness with a Bed-staff and in one of his frantick Fits may he beat out your Brains with that supposed Instrument of your Lust May your History be transmitted to all Ages in the Annals of Grubstreet and as they fright Children with Raw-head and Bloody-bones may your Name be quoted to deter People from committing of Matrimony And to ratifie all this upon my Knees I most devoutly beg it may Heaven hear the Prayers of T. BROWN TO THE Honourable In the Pallmall SIR LAst Night I had the following Verses which for my part I confess I never saw before given me by a Gentleman who assur'd me they were written by my late Lord Rochester and knowing what a just Value you have for all the Compositions of that Incomparable Person I was resolv'd to send 'em to you by the first opportunity 'T is indeed very strange how they could be continued in private Hands all this while since the great care that has been taken to print every Line of his Lordship's Writing that would endure a publick view But I am not able to assign the reason for it All that you need know concerning the occasion of them is that they were written in a Lady's Prayer-Book Fling this useless Book away And presume no more to pray Heav'n is just and can bestow Mercy on none but those that mercy show With a proud Heart maliciously inclin'd Not to increase but to subdue Mankind In vain you vex the Gods with your Petition Without Repentance and sincere Contrition You 're in a Reprobate Condition Phillis to calm the angry Powers And save my Soul as well as yours Relieve poor Mortals from Despair And justifie the Gods that made you fair And in those bright and charming Eyes Let Pity first appear then Love That we by easie steps may rise Through all the Joys on Earth to those Above I cannot swear to their being genuine however there 's something so delicate in the Thought so easie and beautiful in the Expression that I am without much difficulty to be perswaded that they belong to my Lord. Besides I cannot imagine with what prospect any Gentleman should disown a Copy of Verses which might have done him no ill Service with the Ladies to father them upon his Lordship whose Reputation was so well establish'd among them beforehand by a numerous and lawful Issue of his own begetting The Song that comes along with them was written by Mr. Gl of Lincoln's-Inn and I believe you 'll applaud my Judgment for seeking to entertain you out of my Friend's Store who understands the Harmony of an English Ode so well since I have nothing of mine own that deserves transcribing I. Phillis has a gentle Heart Willing to the Lover's Courting Wanton Nature all the Art To direct her in her Sporting In th' Embrace the Look the Kiss All is real Inclination No false Raptures in the Bliss No feignd Sighing in the Passion II. But oh who the Charms can speak Who the thousand ways of toying When she does the Lover make All a God in her enjoying Who the Limbs that round him move And constrain him to the Blisses Who the Eyes that swim in Love Or the Lips that suck in Kisses III. Oh the Freaks when mad she grows Raves all wild with the possessing Oh the silent Trance which shows The Delight above expressing Every way she does engage Idly talking speechless lying She transports me with the Rage And she kills me in her Dying I could not but laugh at one Passage in your Letter where you tell me that you and half a dozen more had like to have been talk'd to death t'other day by upon the Success of his late Play For my part I don't pity you at all for why the Devil should a Man run his Head against a Brick-wall when he may avoid it On the other hand I wonder why you Gentlemen of Will 's Coffee-house who pretend to study Pleasure above other People should not as naturally scamper

since Cheapside fails you a God's Name try your Fortune in Lombard-street But if you could order matters Otherwise and allow me a Week or so longer to make up my Sum you shou'd then be repaid with Interest by LYSANDER A Consolatory Letter to an Essex Divine upon the Death of his Wife OLD FRIEND A Gentleman that lives in your Neighbourhood told me this Morning after we had had some short Discourse about you that you have buried your Wife You and I Doctor knew one another I think pretty well at the College but being absolutely a stranger to your Wife's Person and Character the Old Gentleman in Black take me if I know how to behave my self upon this occasion that is to say whether to be Sad or Merry whether to Condole or Congratulate you But since I must do one or t'other I think it best to go on the surer side And so Doctor I give you Joy of your late great Deliverance You 'll ask me perhaps why I chose this Party To which I shall only reply That your Wife was a Woman and 't is an hundred to one that I have hit on the right But if this won't suffice I have Argument to make use of that you can no more answer than you can confute Bellarmine I don't mean the Popish Cardinal of that Name for I believe you have oftner laid him upon his Back than Mrs. Mary deceas'd but an ungodly Vessel holding about six Gallons which in some parts of England goes by another Name the more 's the pity 't is suffer'd and is call'd a Jeroboam And thus I urge it Mrs. Mary defunct was either a very good or a very bad or an indifferent a between Hawk and Buzzard Wife tho' you know the Primitive Christians for the four first Ages of the Church were all of Opinion that there were no indifferent Wives however disputandi gratia I allow them here Now if she was a good Wife she 's certainly gone to a better place and then St. Jerome and St. Austin and St. Ambrose and St. Basil and in short a whole Cart-load of Greek and Latin Fathers whom 't is not your Interest by any means to disoblige say positively That you ought not to grieve If she was a bad one your Reason will suggest the same to you without going to Councils and Schoolmen So now it only remains upon my hands to prove that you ought not to be concern'd for her Death if she was an indifferent Wife and Publick Authority having not thought fit as yet to oblige us to mourn for Wives of that denomination it follows by the Doctrin of the Church of England about things indifferent that you had better let it alone for fear of giving Scandal to weak Brethren Therefore Doctor if you 'll take my Advice in the first place Pluck up a good Heart secondly Smoak your Pipe as you used to do thirdly Read moderately fourthly Drink plentifully fifthly and lastly When you are distributing Spoon-meat to the People next Sunday from your Pulpit cast me a Hawk's Eye round your Congregation and if you can spy out a Farmer 's Daughter plump and juicy one that 's likely to be a good Breeder and whose Father is of some Authority in the Parish because that may be necessary for the Support of holy Church say no more but pelt her with Letters Hymns and Spiritual Sonnets till you have gain'd your Carnal Point of her Follow this Counsel and I 'll engage your late Wife will rise no more in your Stomach for by the unerring Rule of Kitchin-Physick which I am apt to think is the best in all Cases one Shoulder of Mutton serves best to drive down another I am Yours T. BROWN To the Fair LUCINDA at Epsom MADAM I Wish I were a Parliament-man for your sake Another now wou'd have wish'd to have been the Great Mogul the Grand Seignior or at least some Sovereign Prince but you see I am no ambitious Person any farther than I aspire to be in your good Graces Now if you ask me the Reason why I wish to be so 't is neither to bellow my self into a good Place at Court nor to avoid paying my Debts 't is to do a Publick Service to my Country 't is to put the fam'd Magna Charta in force In short Madam 't is to get a Bill pass whereby every pretty Woman in the Kingdom and then I am sure you 'll be included in it shou'd under the severest Penalties imaginable be prohibited to appear in Publick without her Mask on I have often wonder'd why our Senators flatter us with being a free People and pretend they have done such mighty things to secure our Liberty when we are openly plunder'd of it by the Ladies and that in the face of the Sun and on His Majesty's Highway I am a sad Instance Madam of this Truth I that but twelve Hours ago was as free as the wildest Savage in either Indies that Slept easily Talk'd cheerfully took my Bottle merrily and had nothing to rob me of one Minute's Pleasure now love to be alone make answers when no Body speaks to me Sigh when I least think on 't and tho' I still drag this heavy lifeless Carcase about me can give no more account of my own Movements than of what the two Armies are doing this very moment in Flanders By all these wicked Symptoms I terribly suspect I am in Love If that is my case and Lucinda does not prove as merciful as she is Charming the Lord have mercy on poor MIRTILLO To the Same at LONDON MADAM AT last but after a tedious Enquiry I have found out your Lodgings in Town and am pleas'd to hear you 're kept by who according to our last Advices from Lombard-street is Rich and Old two as good Qualities as a Man cou'd desire in a Rival May the whole World I heartily wish it consent to pay Tribute to all your Conveniences nay to your Luxury while I and none but I have the honour to administer to your Love Don't tell me your Obligations to him won't give you leave to be complaisant to a Stranger You are his Sovereign and 't is a standing Rule among us Casuists that under that capacity you can do him no wrong But you imagine he loves you because he presents you with so many fine Things After this rate the most impotent Wretches wou'd be the greatest Lovers for none are found to bribe Heaven or Women so high as those that have the most defects attone for You may take it for granted that half the Keeping-drones about the Town do it rather to follow the Mode or to please a vain Humour than out of Love to the Party they pretend to admire so and this foolish Affectation attends them in other things I cou'd tell you of a certain Lord that keeps a Chaplain in his House and allows him plentifully yet this Noble Peer is a rank Atheist in his Heart and believes nothing of the

matter I know another that has a fine Stable of Horses and a third that values himself upon his great Library yet one of them rides out but once in half a Year and t'other never looked on a Book in all his Life Admit your City-Friend loved you never so well yet he 's old which is an incurable Fault and looking upon you as his Purchase comes with a Secure that is with a Sickly Appetite while a vigorous Lover such as I am that has honourable Difficulties to pass through that knows he 's upon his good Behaviour and has nothing but his Merits to recommend him is nothing but Rapture and Extasie and Devotion But oh your are afraid it will come to Old Limberham's Ears that is to say You apprehend I shall make Discoveries for 't is not to be supposed you 'll turn Evidence against your self Prithee Child don't let that frighten you Not a bribed Parliament-man nor a drubb'd Beau nor a breaking Tradesman nay to give you the last satisfaction of my Secresie not a Parson that has committed Symony nor a forraging Author that has got a private Stealing-place shall be half so secret as you 'll find me upon this occasion I 'll always come the back-way to your Lodgings and that in the Evening with as much prudent religious Caution as a City Clergyman steals into a Tavern on Sundays and tho' it be a difficult Lesson for Flesh and Blood to practise yet to convince you Madam how much I value your Reputation above my own Pleasure I 'll leave you a Mornings before Scandal it self is up that is before any of the censorious Neighbourhood are stirring If I see you in the Street or at the Play-house I 'll know you no more than two Sharpers that design to bob a Country-fellow with a dropp'd Guinea know one another when they meet in the Tavern I 'll not discover my Engagements with you by any Overt-acts of my Loyalty such as Drinking your Health in all Companies and Writing your Name in every Glass-window nor yet betray you by too superstitious a Care to conceal the Intrigue Thus Madam I have answered all the Scruples that I thought cou'd affect you upon this matter But to satisfie your Conscience farther I am resolv'd to visit you to Morrow-night therefore muster up all the Objections you can and place them in the most formidable posture that I may have the Honour to attack and defeat them If you don 't wilfully oppose your own Happiness I 'll convince you before we part that there 's a greater Difference than you imagine between your Man of Phlegm and such a Lover as MIRTILLO To W. KNIGHT Esq at Rascomb in Berkshire Dear SIR YOu desir'd me when I saw you last to send you the News of the Town and to let you see how punctually I have obey'd your Orders scarce a Day has pass'd over my Head since but I have been enquiring after the freshest Ghost and Apparitions for you Rapes of the newest date dexterous Murders and fantastical Marriages Country Steeples demolish'd by Lightning Whales stranded in the North c. a large Account of all which you may expect when they come in my way but at present be pleas'd to take up with the following News On Tuesday last that walking piece of English Mummy that Sybil incarnate I mean my Lady Courtall who has not had one Tooth in her Head since King Charles's Restauration and looks old enough to pass for Venerable Bede's Grandmother was Married Cou'd you believe it To young Lisanio You must know I did my self the Honour now and then to make her Ladiship a Visit and found that of late she affected a youthful Air and spruc'd up her Carcase most egregiously but the Duce take me if I suspected her of any lewd Inclinations to Marry I thought that Devil had been laid in her long ago To make my Visits more acceptable I us'd to compliment her upon her Charms and all that where by the by my dear Friend you may take it for a general Rule that the Uglier your Women are and the Duller your Men they are the easier to be flatter'd into a Belief of their Beauty and Wit I told her she was resolv'd to act Sampson's part and kill more People in the last Scene of her Life than other Ladies cou'd pretend to do in the whole five Acts of theirs By a certain awkard Joy that display'd it self all over her Countenance and glow'd even through her Cheeks of Buff I cou'd perceive this nauseous Incense was not unwelcome to her 'T is true she had the Grace to deny all this and told me I rallied her but deny'd it so as intriguing Sparks deny they have lain with fine Women and some Wou'd-be Poets deny their Writing of Fatherless Lampoons when they have a mind at the same time to be thought they did what they coldly disown I cou'd not but observe upon this and several other occasions how merciful Heaven has been to us in weaving Self-love so closely into our Natures in order to make Life palatable The Divines indeed arraign it as a Sin that is they wou'd make us more miserable than Providence ever design'd us tho' were it not for this very Sin not one of them in a hundred wou'd have Courage enough to talk in publick For my part I always consider'd it as the best Friend and greatest Blessing we have without which all those merry Farces that now serve to entertain us wou'd be lost and the World it self be as silent and melancholly a sa Spanish Court 'T is this blessed Vanity that makes all Mankind easie and chearful at home for no Body's a Fool or a Rascal or Vgly or Impertinent in his own Eyes that makes a Miser think himself Wise an affected Coxcomb think himself a Wit a thriving gay Villain think himself a Politician and in short that makes my Lady Court-all believe her self But to quit this Digression and pursue my Story On the Day abovemention'd this dry Puss of Quality that had such a furious longing to be Matrimonially larded stole out of her House with two of her Grave Companions and never did a Country Justice's Oatmeal-eating Daughter of fifteen use more Discretion to be undone with her Father's Clarke or Chaplain Gray's Inn Walks was the place of Rendezvous where after they had taken a few Turns Lisanio and she walked separately to the Chappel and the Holy Magician Conjur'd them into the Circle From thence they drove home in several Coaches Din'd together but not a Syllable of the Wickedness they had committed till towards Night because then I suppose their Blushes were best concealed they thought fit to own all Upon this some few Friends were invited and the Fiddles struck up and my Old Lady frisk'd about most notably but was as much overtopp'd and put out of Countenance by the Young Women at Somerset-house with the New Buildings Not to enter into a Detail of all that happen'd