Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	baron_n	earl_n	sir_n	16,189	5	6.3303	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A08278	The labyrinth of mans life. Or Vertues delight and enuies opposite. By Io: Norden	Norden, John, 1548-1625?	1614 (1614)	STC 18611; ESTC S110180	46,781	96

THE LABYRINTH OF MANS LIFE OR VERTVES DELIGHT AND Enuies opposite By IO NORDEN Virtus abunde sui est pr●mium quicumque sequ●tur euentus Printed at London for Iohn ●udge and are to be sold at the great South doore of Paules and at Brittaines ●u●sse 16●4 TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR ROBERT CARR Knight Baron of Branspeth Vicecount Rochester Earle of Somerset of his Maiesties most honorable priuie Counsell Knight of the most noble order of the Garter And Lord High Treasurer of Scotland Most Honorable Lord I Haue bin long ballanced betweene Desire and Feare The first inclining vnto The second swaying me from the publishing of these vnworthy lines especially vnder so honorable a Name But the first beeing a passion in counterpoysible preuailed Onely Feare remayneth least your high prudence and admired grauity should disesteeme the gracing of seeming Le●tlie Because many friuolus Poems are dayly begotten and brought forth worthy to be abandoned Yet many worthy subiects haue been handled in verse much graced and imbraced of the wise And howsoeuer these silly lines may seeme vnworthy the hand or eye of so worthy a Patron there is vse in some of them to be made by men of whatsoeuer condition If it be but to the chasing a-away of that common enemy Idlenes And to preuent thoughts lesse beseeming mindes inclinable to vertue For where vertue is a stranger vice is a dayly guest 〈…〉 tue the M●ther 〈◊〉 and guide to most solide content Containing the Appetite euer within the circle of Sobrietie Obseruing that the more Concupiscence is satisfied and fed the more irregularly it runnes from one voluptuous experiment to another neuer satisfied with the admired varieties of abhorred vanities Men enter this life as into a Labyrinth or fatall Desert of changes and miseries And none escapeth the incounter of those hideous Minotaures Vice or Enuy whose dangers are as Silla and Caribdis by shunning the first he fals into the second Democritus laughed to see the folly of men But much more might Heraclitus weepe to obserue the miseries whereinto they are subiect to fall by Vice or Enuy. Onely that Diuine Ariadne vertue giueth vnto euery prudent Theseus the line of Right Reason to cōduct him through all the ambiguous Angles and crooked turnings of this lifes Labyrinth wherin Vice and Enuy couch to snare surprise the wisest Common experience the Mother of best vnderstanding reueileth this as in the glasse of the risings and fallings of men which I haue endeuored in some weake measure in these simple Elegies to dilate not to teach but to put men in minde of the vncertaintie of all estates in this mortalitie wherein there is neither safetie or content without adhering to Vertue whose companion is Enuy which euer followeth but neuer fayleth the vertuous Sola virtus inuicta Most bound vnto your Honor IO NORDEN The Authors farewell to his Booke THou silly Orphan of my dulled braine I send thee forth in basest Country tyre Least falling in to that high Courtly ●raine Should'st be enui'd if thou wert clothed higher So were my cost bestow'd in vaine Therefore where so thou shalt be entertain'd Giue what content may best befit thy place And tell thy Readers forc'dly wert constrain'd To leaue thy Syre and seeke some vulgar grace● Which by desert may be obtain'd And as thou maist flye selfe-conceited wits Though they pretend experience The meanest apprehension best befits Thy Country-breeding wanting Eloquen●● Digest it wel whatsere hits If any taxe thee with too base a stile And say thy verse is but a ragged Rime Intreat those Eloquents to vse their file To burnish thee from that suggested crime So shalt thou seeme A new compile Some will content to heare thee speake so plaine That long to learne and be not superfine First will them read if cause be to complaine If matter nor the meeter please their eyne Be not dismaid come home againe And leaue this errand with the Curious Who seeme to 〈◊〉 thinges most intricate The ●●aker willing though lesse Coyous Search and conceiue what Readings intimate Else R●●●ing were superfluous And tell the Captious thou art not ignorant Of higher Poems and Inuention But that thou dred'st to be deem'd arrogant Exceeding measure of Intention Soe censur'd too extrauagant Chawcer Gowre the bishop of dunkell In ages farre remote were eloquent Now S●d●ey Spencer others moe excell And are in latter times more excellent To antique Lauriats paralell But matters of great admiration In moderne Poes●es are wordes estrang'd Inuention of hid speculation The scope whereof hardly conceiu'd as it is rang'd But by a Comentation Who readeth Chaucer as a moderne man Not looking back into the time he wrote Will hardly his ambiguous phrases scan Which in that time were vulgar well I wote Yet we run back where he began And all our praised Poems art beset With Chaucers wordes and Phrases ancient Which these our moderne ages quite forget Yet in their Poems far more Eloquent Not yet from Gowre or Chaucer fett Why should it not befit our Poets well To vse the wordes and Phrases Uulgar know Why should d they rouze them from obliuions cel Sith their ambiguous termes frō whence they flow The learned'st Reader scant can tell But thinges illustrated with art and sence As Chaucer did his Troylus and Creside To amplifi't aptly with Eloquence Base matter by good Verse is beautifi'de And gaines admired Reuerence Not vsing wordes and Phrases all so darke But so familiarly as vulgar may Well apprehend the Poets couched marke And see th' Idea which he doth display About the Center in his Arke This will excuse thee to the friendly wise But not perhaps vnto the Captio●s Be silent yet know nothing fructefies In fattest wit if will be scurrilous Wit wilfull will wil tyrranise But for more hoped comfort and content Keepe on thy way first to that worthy wight To whose protecting fauour I thee sent He either will accept thee basely dight Or send thee back incontinent And thus I leaue thee to thy fortunes lot As other Orphans left depriu'd of friendes If he affect thee though some other not Though some do rob thee and some make amends It is enough that thou hast got To his deare friend Maister John Norden vpon his Labyrinth of Mans life R. N. Encomium NOt Egipts old laborious Labyrint Turning returning winding in and out Which whosoeuer once did enter in 't Euer to issue stood in deepest doubt Nor the Dedalion Labyrinth of Crete Wherein King Minos shut the Minotaure Nor which Porsenna ' in Italy did complete Nor that in Lemnos Isle of stone hew'd square Nor which King Henry-fit● Empresse did found At Woodstock for his beautious Concubine That famous and renowned Rosamond Can be compard with this worke so diuine That Norden here with his Practise p●nsife Reueales in this his Labyrinth of mans life Non luco subter Rosis Amico suo I. N. THe labour of this Labyrinth I finde A perfect mirror