such a degree which is likewise often attributed to other Knights and somtime to Esquires and other Gentlemen by way of Complement Gentlemen writing to Knights and Baronets often give onely the title of Sir and noble Sir worthy or most worthy Sir sometime Most Noble and the like But I like the plainest best especially when one hath much businesse and little leisure to complement The usuall superscription from one inferiour or of meaner rank is Right worshipfull c. sometime Right renowned or right worthy Sir and this comes sometimes as a Rarity from a punie Scholler as tumbling from his thumping pen And under the degree of a Gentleman or a Gentlemans mate it behoves in writing to have his or your Worship by the end along so often as his speech hath relation to the Baronets or Knights person From a peasant your good Worship will not do amisse But from a Gentleman ridiculous as arguing little breeding One Gentleman or Esquire writing to another usually attribute onely the title of Sir especially if strangers or lesse intimate if better acquainted many times some other addition of Noble Worthy Courteous Generous Kinde and the like according to their intimacie affection and difference of eminency and fortunes Somtime if very intimate more familiar termes which they ordinarily use in discourse But from one of a meaner sort or not a Gentleman would be thought a sawcinesse or arrogancy at least to do so unlesse from such make-sports as Gentlemen make use of onely to foole with From a Tradesman therefore of the ordinary sort I meane writing to an Esquire the title of Worshipfull Sir or Worthy Sir or the like and now and then to pull your Worship out of his pocket especially if to one any wayes eminent or of quality is no more than beseeming and requisite To lesse eminent or of meane fortunes or younger houses Sir will suffice The like ought to be observed in farmers and countrey-people of meaner rank Gentlemen of quality whether Knights Esquires or other Gentlemen of worth and fortune writing to Yeomen of the more substantiall sort such as go under jurisdiction of the common attribute Mr and whom such men please to make their companions in table and discourse if they be any thing intimate usually begin their title Honest Thom. Kinde Ieffrey Good Will such an one c. if lesse acquainted or when they are to be beholding to them for any courtesie then it will not be amisse to hang on their noses as spectacles at first entrance Mr such or such an one c. writing to any kinde of Scoggin or hanger on or the like then nothing but Dick Thom. c. I prethee do such a thing c. To an ordinary yeoman or tradesman Goodman c. is a good beginning But alwayes let Schollers and younger Brothers give the highest of his attributes to any wealthy man for 't is the money and not the man they are to respect and court But in personating a Letter from one to another under the degree or at least the title of a Gentleman he will be accounted more woodcock than wise that shall study any other complement than to begin with the ordinary title appropriate to them and so persist The same kinde of common title appropriate to the Person is to be used in civility when we write to one we hold as an adversary as to a Knight of what sort soever Sir such an one c. To an Esquire if much above our rank it is decent to say Sir if not the same that to a Gentleman If to a Gentleman of what rank or nature soever Mr such an one putting in his surname If under then Goodman thus or thus or from a Gentleman to one much inferiour Iohn Thomas Richard So and So c. And thus much for titles or superscriptions This is usually placed in the first corner in the margent space above the body of your Letter But I had like to have forgot the Ecclesiasticall title of Reverend Sir or Most Reverend c. according to their worth and dignity Having therefore thus instanced the severall sorts of Superscriptions we will now come to the Subscriptions for the body of a Letter can be reduced to no precise or particular rule without too much needlesse labour and innovation and in generall we have already said what we determine The same generall rule therefore that ties you in the superscription and body of the Letter to have respect to the party to whom you write and your owne individuall person ties you to the same conditions in the subscription and indorsement or outward superscription which wee bee still to treat of To a Baron therefore or to a Lord wee usually subscribe thus Your honours most humble servant My Lord Your eternally devoted Honourer and thrice humble servant Your Lordships most faithfull and most humble servant Your Lordships till death Your Lordships to command Your Honours most obliged c. diverse of this sort Subscriptions indeed as common as Hackney horses on Dunstable rode to meaner persons than Barons or Knights either onely leaving out Honour and Lordship But Your thrice humble servant and the like I have often heard from such as I presume understood not the word From Gentleman to Gentleman if equall and acquainted then Your assured friend to serve you Your truly respective friend or the like But if lesse acquainted or different in degree There is so much service professed as they forget all friendship Nothing then but Your servant Your humble servant Sir at your command and the like innumerable which I leave to observation and practice Onely take this by the way that one of inferiour ranke writing to a person eminent in degree above him by the Lawes of our best Secretaries shall commonly write his name at the foot of all the Letter or paper be it never so large and the contents never so small to shew his acknowledgement of distance The other subscription about middle distance betweene the body of the Letter and the name And that either double or single as occasion is offered of your expression and the quantity of space or void paper Sometime they make it in a treble space by interposing My Lord or Sir or noble or worthy Sir and the like according to their degree From an inferiour person to a Baronet or Knight Your Worships most humble servant Your Worships to command in all due respect and the like The same is to bee observed in one of meane ranke to an Esquire especially if of worth or any wise eminent To or between men of ordinary quality whether under the title of Gentlemen Citizens and tradesmen or the like the usuall subscription of Your loving friend Your very loving friend Your assured Your faithfull Your true and sometime Your respective friend for change or where the party written to hath the odds in estimation is most commendable In briefe notes no more but Yours N. N. To a Gentleman of
a foundation of it If to a servant let love and mildnesse so proceed as may not loose its distance for too much rigour looseth the servant and too much love the Master who may easily discerne love from a servant tempered with a little awe is alwayes most available to the Master as acts voluntary go beyond enforcements If to a Maister let the stile be such as may demonstrate all obsequy and duty This I speake in respect of servants as servants in generall not but that I know as there are differences and diverse degrees of Masters so ought there severall respects to be had to servants according to their place and manner of service For it were absurd to think that Gentlemen in those places that may befit their rank and fortune though subject to their masters call should be tied to the obsequious termes of every pedantique Groome As first he that waits voluntary and at his owne expence then Secretaries in their severall ranks then such as serve in the places of Gentlemen as Ushers and the like Then Clarks to men eminent and of quality and Clarks appertaining to Offices Factors and Apprentices especially about London men perhaps as is usuall in that kind better derived than their Masters In this respect I say ought the servant to consider the relation or respect to be had according to his Masters rank his own person and the nature of his service yet generally speaking all servants as servants of what nature or calling soever ought aswell in writing as otherwise to shew a kinde of respect extraordinary Though as I said some be tied to termes more incomparably strict than others If we write to a Parent our stile and manner of writing must be such as may shew all dutifull respect and obedience exacted from a Child to a Parent by the Lawes of God and Nature If to a father or mother in law that is by marriage we will tender our selves in such termes as may professe service and obedience but not duty At least not equall to the former though I grant we ought to think our selves tied in a firme obligation of civill and more than common respect If to a child love and care But the passionate expressions of tender affection better fit a mother than a father for men ought to governe their affections by the rule of reason least otherwise they chance to set a bad example of letting loose the reines of passion of it self too apt to run out of one errour to another In a word if to a friend friendly If to an adversary harsh as you think good according to the nature of the offence and quality of the person offending But not railing or too invective which will argue more passion than judgement or discretion and be a meanes to make other men suppose a want in you of somwhat might make you rightly capable of an injury But if it be to a familiar and intimate friend you shall be restrained to no other rule but onely your own imagination and the best liking of your friend according as you shall observe his conceits most addicted or inclined this way or that Onely take it as a generall and infallible rule let the body of your letter be succinct and pithy such as may expresse much matter in few words and let that be your greatest study by way of inditing And by the way of writing to have respect to Orthography according to those rules we have before prescribed But to come with a bundle of Circumquaques after the manner of the vulgar sort whose common custome is to begin their Letters thus Loving friend The occasion of my writing unto you at this present time is to let you understand that I should be very glad to heare you are in good health as I am at the writing hereof God be blessed therefore c. on in a whole bederoule of ribble-rabble is most ridiculous and absurd in the sight of one which knowes the manner of inditing For to be glad to heare of their welfare is implicit in the title of friend and to send word of your health it suffices to tell if it be not so if not the other is easily imagined And so many prayers and thanksgivings as some put in were better spent in their closet where no ayre might circumvent them than inserted in ordinary letters excepting such as passe betweene man and wife parent and child which passing through so many hands may chance to get infection or at least exposed to the wind and open ayre may chance coole their fervour of devotion But here we likewise exempt Apostolicall benedictions sent from Ministers befitting their function and calling and answerable to the Word of God who in that rightly imitate the worthy President S. Paul in his Epistles Having therfore marked or creased as we call it out the paper which ought to be in folio or in quarto that is an whole sheet or an halfe sheet doubled and having in the top after the usuall custome especially writing to persons of worth and quality left a sufficient space for a vacuum and as ample a margent but that is to be ordered more or lesse according to the quantity of your paper and the subject whereon you are to write then in the first place are you to order the superscription or the title to be attributed as an entrance For your assistance wherein you shall as I said before have respect to the quality of the person to whom it is written and your selfe and that whether as an acquaintance or stranger intimate or lesse familiar having relation or dependance either of other or not friend or adversary c. and then order your title in this manner If therefore it be a Lord for higher I will not ascend presuming any to whom these be directed to have little intercourse with Emperours Monarchs Kings Princes Dukes Marquestes Earles c. or if they have let them seeke other assistance or send to us and we shall do our indeavour to supply their want if it be so as he holds his title onely by some place or dignity by way of Office or Magistracy we seldome superscribe any other title than My Lord and by the way still in the body of your Letter put him in minde of his Lordship and now and then his honour c. If he be a Count or Baron by descent of noble pedigree our title is chiefly Right Honourable Right Honourable and my very good Lord this from a retainer or one that hath dependance on his honour Most noble and illustrious Sir Right Honourable and renowned Sir and diverse others to this effect And from a Gentleman only My Lord will suffice But still we ought in addressing our speech to him to do it with the attribute of His Honour and now and then for change we may say Your Lordship or Your good Lordship from one of meaner rank To a Baronet Honoured Sir as the most usuall and befitting title to
ordinary quality from an inferiour person Your servant Yours to command c. To an adversary Yours as you use me Yours to use but not abuse Yours if you please if not mine owne Yours as I see cause Yours when not mine owne and the like as your judgement and the occasion offered shall suggest To a servant under hire from a Gentleman of ranke onely his name To such as are tyed to lesse servile conditions or from Masters which are of meaner degree Your loving Master Your very loving Master Your assured c. To a retainer only or voluntary waiter Your loving friend N. N. c. To a parent Your dutifull Your most dutifull or Most dutifull and respective Dutifull and most obedient till death c. whether sonne or daughter To a child Your loving father Your affectionate mother Affectionate is likewise much used between friend and friend especially Lovers Your truly carefull c. diverse in this kinde which we leave to observation And thus much for subscriptions Having thus written or subscribed your Letter date it from such or such a place and set down the day of the moneth and if much distance interposeth the writer and the party written to the yeare after the usuall manner of dating The place allotted for the date is in the margent space just under the superscription or title a little beneath the body of the Letter This done fold up your Letter after a decent order and seale it To a person of quality we usually propose it in a large fold kept very faire To others at your owne discretion especially of equals Now therefore onely resteth that we say somwhat of indorsements or outward superscriptions and so commit them to the Post Your title on the indorsement to a Lord shall be To the right Honourable Thomas or whatsoever other Christian name Lord such or such an one adding the highest of his titles at such a place these present To the right honourable and his very good Lord of or from one of any dependance To the right honourable and most noble Most renowned Right illustrious c. multitudes of Epithetes in this kinde To a Baronet from a Gentleman To his most honoured friend Sir N. N. and Much honoured and most noble friend Most worthy Very noble Renowned c. as you 〈◊〉 think fit The same we commonly use to any other Knight but especially to a Baronet is appropriate the title of Honoured From a person of meaner quality To the right worshipfull Sir N. N. at such a place c. If in any familiarity To the right worshipfull and his most honoured friend c. From an inferiour person To the right worshipfull and most worthy Sir N. N. or the like leaving out friend From one Esquire or Gentleman to another various in respect of intimacy degree affection or courtesie To his noble friend To his worthy approved much respected much esteemed much honoured and to meaner Very loving c. From an inferiour person to an Esquire or Gentleman of worth To the worshipfull The rest he may take out of the precedent Epithetes From a Gentleman to such an one To his loving friend c. To a parent To my most endeared c. Father Or Mother To a child To my loving sonne or daughter To my deare or tenderly respected or beloved may do well enough from a mothers affection From one inferiour person to another To my loving To my very loving To my approved friend and the like of this sort best befits To an adversary For Sir such an one at such a place For Mr or Goodman so or so For Tho. For Richard c. according to the quality of the writer and the person written to Onely setting his name with his common attribute the place whither it is directed with For instead of To his or my c. And now I think it will be time to conclude for the Carrier is in hast This therefore shall suffice to satisfie our present purpose concerning this subject Onely take this by way of peroration 1 Let your Letter be kept faire without blots or soiling especially to one of superiour rank 2 Be cautious by way of Orthography to write true English 3 And lastly what I have often instanced let your Letters be succinct and pithie A quality incommendable estimation and practice among our moderne Secretaries and no lesse pursued among the ancient Latines For who in his familiar Epistles more succinct than Cicero In Orations and otherwise who more profuse The rest I leave to observation easily enough to be acquired since many of our Secretaries have a singular faculty in that kinde This I have written for such as want instructions for those that be better able to help themselves I shall be glad and thankfull to be instructed by them Non omnia possumus I confesse it incident to humane imperfection and to my selfe most peculiar But Nihil est pudoris vel discere vel melius addiscere At least alwayes so reputed by me S. D. Laus Deo FINIS ab eb ib ob ub abe ebe ibe obe abd ebd ibd obd ubd abs ebs c. abt ebt ac ec ic oc uc ace c. ach ack c. act c. ad c. adde ade ades ads adst af c. afe afes aft ag age agh aght agn ah oh ahn. ake ac ack ack'd ack't al c. ale all ald alch alge alf alk alm aln alp alse alsh alt alth alve am ame amme amb. amn amp. an. anne ane ance anch anth. auk and ang. ange angth anst. ap. ape appe appes aph. apt ique ar. are arre arce arch ard arb. arfe arg. arge arke arle arm arn arp arse arres arsh art artch ath arth arve arx as ase asâ—d asâ—e ash ask asme asp ast at ate ates atch at s ave aves ax aze ba be bi bo bu bda bla ble bli blo blu bra bre bri bro bru ca. ce ci co cu. Cha. Chra c Cra. cre cri cro cru Cla cle. cli clo. clu Da. de di do du Dra. dre dri dro dru Dwa. Fa. fe fi fo. fu Fla. fle fli flo flu Fra. fre fri fro fru Ga. go gu ge gi Gha ghe gho Gla. gli gle glo Gna Gra. gre gri gro. gru Gua. Ha. he hi ho hu Ia. Ie. Io. Iu. Ka. ke ki ko ku Kna. kne kni kno knu La. le li lo lu Ma. me mi mo mu. Mna Na. ne ni no nu Pa. pe pi po pu Pha. Phra. Pla. ple pli plo plu Pra pre pri pro pru Psa. Qua. que qui quo Ra. re ri ro ru Rha. Sa. se si so su Sca. sce sci sco scu Ska sko sku ske ski scha scra. scre scri sha she shi sho shu shra. sla sle sli slo slu Sma sme smi smo smu Sna sne sni sno snu spa spe spi spo spu squa squi sta ste sti sto stu stra stre stri stro stru swa swe swi swo swu Ta te ti to tu Tha. the thi tho thu Thra. thre thri thro thru Thwa. Tra. tre tri tro tru Twa Va. ve vi vo vu Wa. we wi wo Wha whe whi who Wra wre wri wro wru Xa xe xi Ya ye yo Za. ze These hard words mentioned are wittingly omitted perceiving the volume to arise to too big a bulk beyond the Authour his intention or expectation