Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	earl_n	george_n	viscount_n	11,189	5	11.4325	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B21478	Sir Barnaby Whigg, or, No wit like a womans a comedy : as it is acted by Their Majesties servants at the Theatre-Royal / written by Thomas Durfey, Gent.	D'Urfey, Thomas, 1653-1723.; Marmion, Shackerley, 1603-1639. Fine companion.; Brémond, Gabriel de. Double-cocu.	1681 (1681)	Wing D2778	60,903	74

Sir Barnaby Whigg OR No Wit like a WOMANS A COMEDY AS IT IS Acted by their MAJESTIES SERVANTS AT THE Theatre-Royal Written by THOMAS DURFEY Gent. Quiquid agunt homines votum timor Ira voluptas Gaudia discursus nostri farrago libelli est Juvenal LONDON Printed by A. G. and J. P. for Joseph Hindmarsh at the Black Bull in Cornhil 1681. To the Right Honourable GEORGE Earl of Berkeley Viscount Dursely Lord Berkeley of Berkeley-Castle c. My LORD IT was one of the most prudent Actions of Virgil's Life to bestow the fruits of his admired Genius and prostrate the Labours of his Honoured Muse at the feet of a more Honoured Witty and Learned Patron for Mecaenas was a Man of an unbiass'd impartial and generous nature and knew as well how to Judge and Applaud an Excellent Poem as the Poet himself knew how to write what was fit to be Applauded This therefore causes our Modern Authors instructed by his Wife Example to make an humble offering of their Works to the most deserving and knowing Men of the Age cunningly implying That as they have most Wit and Judgment to find out their faults they have also most modesty and good nature to excuse ' em Amongst this tribe my Lord I must humbly confess my self one and acknowledge these two Reasons for my presumption First A secret pride to have my Play grac'd with the great Name of the Honoured Berkeley lineally descended for many Ages past from the Royal Blood of the Illustrious Harding and thence flowing through the veins of One and twenty Noble Families to the Honours he now deservedly wears and which his Sacred Majesty could not more justly bestow And secondly to be impartially Judg'd by a person who knows as well how to write as to ●atronize Your Lordship did me once the favour to present me a little book of your own Writing Entituled Historical Applications c. where he that reads may find an exact serenity of Fancy a vivacity of Wit a refin'd Elegance in Language and observe it to be adorn'd with certain Jems of Morality and Divinity and other maxims of Rational Wisdom and true Collections of History that render it a piece fit to be admired by the most Wife and Learned and lov'd by the most Religious and Loyal I make this little digression my Lord not out of any insolent belief that I am fit to commend either the Book or its Author for that belongs to a far better Genius and Pen but only out of an impatient desire to do my self Justice in applauding you though 't is impossible I should do you any Sola virtus vera Nobilitas is a Maxim in which Seneca and your Lordship fully agree for would any man be Pious and Morally good let him make you his pattern would he be bless'd with a sweet benign and modest disposition and show a perfect Character of true Nobility unsway'd by the powerful vices Pride and Folly let him make you his pattern Or would he be loyal and honest a faithful lover of his King and an unmovable Pillar of his Country still let him Copy you and make your Actions his Examples you that had rather be Just than Popular and had rather follow the dictates of a good conscience than gain the service and applause of a numerous and potent party This my Lord is so great and undoubted a Truth that with the most nice apprehensions 't is impossible it should leave the least impression of flattery that being a thing as difficult for me to do as for you to endure for all that know ye will say thus much and therefore 't is probable all that love ye will speak much more As to this Comedy it had the Honour to please one party and I am only glad that the St. Georges of Eighty-one got a Victory over the old hissing Dragons of Forty-two 't is a good Omen and I hope portends future successes though some fat Whiggs of Sir Barnaby's tribe made all the interest they could to cry it down My Lord 't is not only a nice but a very difficult thing to write a good Comedy and therefore a tolerable one should be the more excusable for there is not only Wit but Plot Invention and a quick and ingenious fancy requir'd Fancy the brightest Jewel of Poetry of which the Famous English Spencer was the great and only Master as we may see in all his Descriptions but more particularly in his Legend of Temperance when he speaks of Mammon or Covetousness I. At last he came into a gloomy Glade Cover'd with Bows and Shrubs from Heavens light Whereas he sitting found in secret shade And uncouth salvage and uncivil wight Of greizly heiw and fowl ill-favour'd sight His Head and Beard with Soot were ill bedight His Cole black hands did seem to have bin sear'd In Smiths fire spitting forge and nails like Claws appear'd II. And round about him lay on every side Great heaps of Gold that never could be spent Of which some were rude Ore not purified Of Mulciber's devouring Element Some others were new driven and distent Into great Ingots and to Wedges square Some in round Plates withouten Monument But most were stampt and in their Mettal bare The antick shapes of Kings and Kezars strange and rare But this is a sort of Poetry of a different nature from Dramaticks and therefore the fancy must of necessity vary because in one it is digested into Characters that are to speak before a carping Audience and in the other perhaps only to be read or spoken of before one or two persons But suppose the fancy to be good that will not now serve turn for in this Age 't is not a Poets Merit but his Party that must do his business so that if his Play consists of a Witch a Devil or a Broomstick so he have but a Priest at one end of the Play and a Faction at 'tother end of the Pit it shall be fam'd for an excellent piece And the Mobile either encouraged by their Grandees or treated by the Poet shall throng to it with as much zeal as they once did to the Committee when the scale was turn'd and Loyalty began to come in fashion This my Lord is the World and the Worlds Nature but you I may boldly say value Merit for its own sake and not through interest or to please a faction you will not hiss or clap a Play in the wrong place nor use an Arbitrary Power to carry a Cause by Popular Interest or Parties I say you will not do this and I wish all others were of your mind But since they are not your Lordships acceptance and patronizing of this Comedy is the greatest Encouragement and Honour that can possibly happen to My LORD Your Lordships obliged and devoted humble Servant THO. DURFEY PROLOGUE HOW long alas must our unhappy Stage Groan for the follies of this Plotting Age When shall our doubts and anxious fears have end That we may