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
A41984	Elegies of old age made English from the Latin of Cn. Cornelivs Gallvs.; Elegiae. English	Maximianus, 6th cent.; Walker, Hovenden, Sir, 1656?-1728.; Gallus, Gaius Cornelius, 69?-26 B.C.	1688 (1688)	Wing G181A; ESTC R11044	28,218	106

ELEGIES OF OLD AGE MADE ENGLISH from the LATIN OF CN CORNELIVS GALLVS Juven Sat. 10. hoc pallidus optas Da spatium vitae multos da Jupiter Annos Sed quàm continuis quantis longa Senectus Plena malis LONDON Printed for B. CRAYLE at the Peacock and Bible at the West-end of St. Paul's 1688. Licensed Octob. 25. 1687. Rob. Midgley To the Right Honourable Sir ROBERT RIDGEWAY BARONET EARL of LONDON-DERRY AND BARON of GALLEN-RIDGEWAY c. My LORD WHile these Elegies of Cornelius Gallus remain'd in their native dress they were thereby secur'd from the Censures of all as well the Learned as Vnlearned from these because they could not either read or understand them and from the others because they acquiesc'd in the Reputation which the Author had amongst the greatest of the Roman Wits But since they are habited in the English Tongue nor 't is likely now so well adapted to every Mode of Expression in that Language as they might have been by another Hand I have presum'd to shelter them under Your Lordship's Name for Protection and this I am incourag'd to from the sence I have of the many undeserved Favours Your Lorship when applied to affords to any Distress for such is every one who in this Age adventures to write by opposing himself thereby to the usual Assaults at least of the most rigid and the severest Criticks But if this first Essay of mine in this Nature may at any time be thought worthy to entertain some few of Your Lordship's leasure Hours and pass Your reading with any Approbation I have my utmost end and shall be altogether regardless of the ineffectual Criticisms of others relying on Your Lordship's Judgment only as a sufficient Defence for me against all the expected Machinations of the Wits who perhaps may think it an Invasion upon the Particular Privilege of their Society for any to write who have not yet had the Fortune to be admitted amongst ' em And now My Lord were my Talent in Panegyrick equivolent to what Your Worth requires I should here take notice of with all the advantageous Rhetorick they merit Your Lordship 's many noble Qualifications and how well your Mind is proportion'd to the Character you bear in the World and that Your Lordship does not only inherit the Honours but the Vertues of Your ancient Family which are seldomer transmitted to Posterity from Ancestors then Estates But since such a design in me would rather serve to injure then illustrate Your Lordship's Fame I believe it more my Duty to be silent then offend by the ill management of so great a Task And shall therefore only now beg Your Lordship's pardon for coveting to my self the Honour of subscribing me My LORD Your Lordship 's most oblieged and most devoted humble Servant H. WALKER The PREFACE I Design not in this Preface either to undertake a Defence for my felf against the Criticks or by any Insinuations to recommend my own endeavours to the World as valuable Since none no not the best Authors could ever advantage themselves by Attempts of that Nature nor did the worst ever want some to esteem and read their Writings Thus the Great Dryden cannot escape Censure nor is Withers himself without his Admirers And therefore prepared by such Considerations I am fortified against whatever Fate may happen to these following Verses most of which for Praestat otiosum esse quàm nihil agere were the Effests of my idle hours at Sea and the rest have been for want of better the imployment of some of my vacant time a Shoar If any shall think the fifth Elegy too loose and for that reason be ready to reflect upon me let them take that for my Apology which Martial makes in his own behalf to Caesar in one of his Epigrams Innocuos Censura potest permittere Lusus Lascivia est nobis Pagina Vita proba est But if that will not serve and the squeamish and nice will be offended let them be angry with the Author who in the Original takes greater liberty to himself in his Words then I have done in the Translation And besides I shall desire they would regard these Elegies as they are design'd to expose the sordid inexcusable vices of lascivious old Men in whom Lust is more odious than in the Young for they being heated with the impetuous sallies of their youthfull blood are less culpable then those who have appetites when Nature has scarce left them Health or the pleasure of Tast And Juvenal himself when he lashes in his tenth Satyr the unreasonable Follies of those who wish to live to a great Age lays no restraint upon his expressions And that Satyr has been made publick in English more then once by several Hands However I believe the Authority of the Author Catullus Tibullus Propertius Horace himself and all the Epigrammatists may be enough to defend what I have done And if not sure the Examples of the Poets of our own Nation and Times will For can I name one scarce who has not either upon the Stage represented or otherwise writ what is full as much if not more licentious then any thing in this Book Pictoribus atque Poetis Quidlibet audendi semper fuit aequa Potestas And we see daily in Pictures those Parts of the Body lay'd open to the view which are else conceal'd And therefore Poetry which is a speaking sort of Painting spares not when occasion offers to give the liveliest Representations of Nature or Vice And this has been so customary in all Ages that none will sure refuse the same privilege to those who write now I doubt not but to stand excused before the Ladies because the Famous Wits of that fair Sex have seldom deny'd their Pens the liberty to be as luxurious in this way of writing as the Men nor have they thought it either injurious or scandalous to them to publish many things as lascivious as this Nor indeed though they ought to be so in their lives and conversations it is not so very necessary that Poets should be reserv'd and chast in their Verses and this is the Opinion of Catullus Nam Castum esse decet pium Poetam Ipsum Versiculos nihil necesse est For the Business of a Poet is either on the one hand to incite Men to Vertue and to do this by rendering it amiable with the most sutable Descriptions and most elegant and heighthen'd Praises or else on the other hand to deter them from Vice and then he must not scruple to paint it in the most deform'd shape or fear to shew it in the worst colours to all the disadvantage imaginable Now if these Arguments will not content some who think it an Excellence to be too precisely rigid I shall repeat to them the same words which Martial uses in his Epistle before the 1st Book of his Epigrams Si quis tamen tam ambitiosè tristis est ut apud illum in nullà paginà