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	henry_n	thomas_n	48,653	5	8.3439	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68619	The arte of English poesie Contriued into three bookes: the first of poets and poesie, the second of proportion, the third of ornament.	Puttenham, George, d. 1590.; Puttenham, Richard, 1520?-1601?, attributed name.; Lumley, John Lumley, Baron, 1534?-1609, attributed name.	1589 (1589)	STC 20519.5; ESTC S110571	205,111	267

the principall man in this profession at the same time was Maister Edward Ferrys a man of no lesse mirth felicitie that way but of much more skil magnificence in his meeter and therefore wrate for the most part to the stage in Tragedie and sometimes in Comedie or Enterlude wherein he gaue the king so much good recreation as he had thereby many good rewardes In Queenes Maries time florished aboue any other Doctour Phaer one that was well learned excellently well translated into English verse Heroicall certaine bookes of Virgils Aeneidos Since him followed Maister Arthure Golding who with no lesse commendation turned into English meetre the Metamorphosis of Ouide and that other Doctour who made the supplement to those bookes of Virgils Aeneidos which Maister Phaer left vndone And in her Maiesties time that now is are sprong vp an other crew of Courtly makers Noble men and Gentlemen of her Maiesties owne seruauntes who haue written excellently well as it would appeare if their doings could be found out and made publicke with the rest of which number is first that noble Gentleman Edward Earle of Oxford Thomas Lord of Bukhurst when he was young Henry Lord Paget Sir Philip Sydney Sir Walter Rawleigh Master Edward Dyar Maister Fulke Greuell Gascon Britton Turberuille and a great many other learned Gentlemen whose names I do not omit for enuie but to auoyde tediousnesse and who haue deserued no little commendation But of them all particularly this is myne opinion that Chaucer with Gower Lidgat and Harding for their antiquitie ought to haue the first place and Chaucer as the most renowmed of them all for the much learning appeareth to be in him aboue any of the rest And though many of his bookes be but bare translations out of the Latin French yet are they wel handled as his bookes of Troilus and Cresseid and the Romant of the Rose whereof he translated but one halfe the deuice was Iohn de Mehunes a French Poet the Canterbury tales were Chaucers owne inuention as I suppose and where he sheweth more the naturall of his pleasant wit then in any other of his workes his similitudes comparisons and all other descriptions are such as can not be amended His meetre Heroicall of Troilus and Cresseid is very graue and stately keeping the the staffe of seuen and the verse of ten his other verses of the Canterbury tales be but riding ryme neuerthelesse very well becomming the matter of that pleasaunt pilgrimage in which euery mans part is playd with much decency Gower sauing for his good and graue moralities had nothing in him highly to be commended for his verse was homely and without good measure his wordes strained much deale out of the French writers his ryme wrested and in his inuentions small subtillitie the applications of his moralities are the best in him and yet those many times very grossely bestowed neither doth the substance of his workes sufficiently aunswere the subtilitie of his titles Lydgat a translatour onely and no deuiser of that which he wrate but one that wrate in good verse Harding a Poet Epick or Historicall handled himselfe well according to the time and maner of his subiect He that wrote the Satyr of Piers Ploughman seemed to haue bene a malcontent of that time and therefore bent himselfe wholy to taxe the disorders of that age and specially the pride of the Romane Clergy of whose fall he seemeth to be a very true Prophet his verse is but loose meetre and his termes hard and obscure so as in them is litle pleasure to be taken Skelton a sharpe Satirist but with more rayling and scoffery then became a Poet Lawreat such among the Greekes were called Pantomimi with vs Buffons altogether applying their wits to Scurrillities other ridiculous matters Henry Earle of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyat betweene whom I finde very litle differēce I repute them as before for the two chief lāternes of light to all others that haue since employed their pennes vpon English Poesie their conceits were loftie their stiles stately their conueyance cleanely their termes proper their meetre sweete and well proportioned in all imitating very naturally and studiously their Maister Francis Petrarcha The Lord Vaux his commendatiō lyeth chiefly in the facillitie of his meetre and the aptnesse of his descriptions such as he taketh vpon him to make namely in sundry of his Songs wherein he sheweth the counterfait actiō very liuely pleasantly Of the later sort I thinke thus That for Tragedie the Lord of Buckhurst Maister Edward Ferrys for such doings as I haue sene of theirs do deserue the hyest price Th' Earle of Oxford and Maister Edwardes of her Maiesties Chappell for Comedy and Enterlude For Eglogue and pastorall Poesie Sir Philip Sydney and Maister Challenner and that other Gentleman who wrate the late shepheardes Callender For dittie and amourous Ode I finde Sir Walter Rawleyghs vayne most loftie insolent and passionate Maister Edward Dyar for Elegie most sweete solempne and of high conceit Gascon for a good meeter and for a plentifull vayne Phaer and Golding for a learned and well corrected verse specially in translation cleare and very faithfully answering their authours intent Others haue also written with much facillitie but more commendably perchance if they had not written so much nor so popularly But last in recitall and first in degree is the Queene our soueraigne Lady whose learned delicate noble Muse easily surmounteth all the rest that haue writtē before her time or since for sence sweetnesse and subtillitie be it in Ode Elegie Epigram or any other kinde of poeme Heroick or Lyricke wherein it shall please her Maiestie to employ her penne euen by as much oddes as her owne excellent estate and degree exceedeth all the rest of her most humble vassalls THE SECOND BOOKE OF PROPORTION POETICAL CHAP. I. Of Proportion Poeticall IT is said by such as professe the Mathematicall sciences that all things stand by proportion and that without it nothing could stand to be good or beautiful The Doctors of our Theologie to the same effect but in other termes say that God made the world by number measure and weight some for weight say tune and peraduenture better For weight is a kind of measure or of much conueniencie with it and therefore in their descriptions be alwayes coupled together statica metrica weight and measures Hereupon it seemeth the Philosopher gathers a triple proportion to wit the Arithmeticall the Geometricall and the Musical And by one of these three is euery other proportion guided of the things that haue conueniencie by relation as the visible by light colour and shadow the audible by stirres times and accents the odorable by smelles of sundry temperaments the tastible by sauours to the rate the tangible by his obiectes in this or that regard Of all which we leaue to speake returning to our poeticall proportion which holdeth of the Musical because as we sayd before Poesie is a

I said before and then ought neither to be engrauen nor hanged vp in tables I haue seene them neuertheles vpon many honorable tombes of these late times erected which doe rather disgrace then honour either the matter or maker CHAP. XXIX A certaine auncient forme of poesie by which men did vse to reproch their enemies AS frendes be a rich and ioyfull possession so be foes a continuall torment and canker to the minde of man and yet there is no possible meane to auoide this inconuenience for the best of vs all he that thinketh he liues most blamelesse liues not without enemies that enuy him for his good parts or hate him for his euill There be wise men and of them the great learned man Plutarch that tooke vpon them to perswade the benefite that men receiue by their enemies which though it may be true in manner of Paradoxe yet I finde mans frailtie to be naturally such and alwayes hath beene that he cannot conceiue it in his owne case nor shew that patience and moderation in such greifs as becommeth the man perfite and accomplisht in all vertue but either in deede or by word he will seeke reuenge against them that malice him or practise his harmes specially such foes as oppose themselues to a mans loues This made the auncient Poetes to inuent a meane to rid the gall of all such Vindicatiue men so as they might be a wrecked of their wrong neuer bely their enemie with slaunderous vntruthes And this was done by a maner of imprecation or as we call it by cursing and banning of the parties and wishing all euill to a light vpon them and though it neuer the sooner happened yet was it great easment to the boiling stomacke They were called Dirae such as Virgill made aginst Battarus and Ouide against Ibis we Christians are forbidden to vse such vncharitable fashions and willed to referre all our reuenges to God alone CHAP. XXX Of short Epigrames called Posies THere be also other like Epigrammes that were sent vsually for new yeares giftes or to be Printed or put vpon their banketting dishes of suger plate or of march paines such other dainty meates as by the curtesie custome euery gest might carry from a common feast home with him to his owne house were made for the nonce they were called Nenia or apophoreta and neuer contained aboue one verse or two at the most but the shorter the better we call them Posies and do paint them now a dayes vpon the backe sides of our fruite trenchers of wood or vse them as deuises in rings and armes and about such courtly purposes So haue we remembred and set forth to your Maiestie very briefly all the commended fourmes of the auncient Poesie which we in our vulgare makings do imitate and vse vnder these common names enterlude song ballade carroll and ditty borrowing them also from the French al sauing this word song which is our naturall Saxon English word The rest such as time and vsurpation by custome haue allowed vs out of the primitiue Greeke Latine as Comedie Tragedie Ode Epitaphe Elegie Epigramme and other moe And we haue purposely omitted all nice or scholasticall curiosities not meete for your Maiesties contemplation in this our vulgare arte and what we haue written of the auncient formes of Poemes we haue taken from the best clerks writing in the same arte The part that next followeth to wit of proportion because the Greeks nor Latines neuer had it in vse nor made any obseruation no more then we doe of their feete we may truly affirme to haue bene the first deuisers thereof our selues as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not to haue borrowed it of any other by learning or imitation and thereby trusting to be holden the more excusable if any thing in this our labours happen either to mislike or to come short of th'authors purpose because commonly the first attempt in any arte or engine artificiall is amendable in time by often experiences reformed And so no doubt may this deuise of ours be by others that shall take the penne in hand after vs. CHAP. XXXI Who in any age haue bene the most commended writers in our English Poesie and the Authors censure giuen vpon them IT appeareth by sundry records of bookes both printed written that many of our countreymen haue painfully trauelled in this part of whose works some appeare to be but bare translatiōs other some matters of their owne inuention and very commendable whereof some recitall shall be made in this place to th' intent chiefly that their names should not be defrauded of such honour as seemeth due to them for hauing by their thankefull studies so much beautified our English tong as at this day it will be found our nation is in nothing inferiour to the French or Italian for copie of language subtiltie of deuice good method and proportion in any forme of poeme but that they may compare with the most and perchance passe a great many of them And I will not reach aboue the time of king Edward the third and Richard the second for any that wrote in English meeter because before their times by reason of the late Normane conquest which had brought into this Realme much alteration both of our langage and lawes and there withall a certain martiall barbarousnes whereby the study of all good learning was so much decayd as long time after no man or very few entended to write in any laudable science so as beyond that time there is litle or nothing worth commendation to be founde written in this arte And those of the first age were Chaucer and Gower both of them as I suppose Knightes After whom followed Iohn Lydgate the monke of Bury that nameles who wrote the Satyre called Piers Plowman next him followed Harding the Chronicler then in king Henry th' eight times Skelton I wot not for what great worthines surnamed the Poet Laureat In the latter end of the same kings raigne sprōg vp a new company of courtly makers of whom Sir Thomas Wyat th' elder Henry Earle of Surrey were the two chieftaines who hauing trauailed into Italie and there tasted the sweete and stately measures and stile of the Italiā Poesie as nouices newly crept out of the schooles of Dante Arioste and Petrarch they greatly pollished our rude homely maner of vulgar Poesie from that it had bene before and for that cause may iustly be sayd the first reformers of our English meetre and stile In the same time or not long after was the Lord Nicholas Vaux a man of much facilitie in vulgar makings Afterward in king Edward the sixths time came to be in reputation for the same facultie Thomas Sternehold who first translated into English certaine Psalmes of Dauid and Iohn Hoywood the Epigrammatist who for the myrth and quicknesse of his conceits more then for any good learning was in him came to be well benefited by the king But

In which respect it is to be wished that none Ambassadour speake his principall cōmandements but in his own language or in another as naturall to him as his owne and so it is vsed in all places of the world sauing in England The Princes and their commissioners fearing least otherwise they might vtter any thing to their disaduantage or els to their disgrace and I my selfe hauing seene the Courts of Fraunce Spaine Italie and that of the Empire with many inferior Courts could neuer perceiue that the most noble personages though they knew very well how to speake many forraine languages would at any times that they had bene spoken vnto answere but in their owne the Frenchman in French the Spaniard in Spanish the Italian in Italian and the very Dutch Prince in the Dutch language whether it were more for pride or for feare of any lapse I cannot tell And Henrie Earle of Arundel being an old Courtier and a very princely man in all his actions kept that rule alwaies For on a time passing from England towards Italie by her maiesties licence he was very honorably enterteined at the Court of Brussels by the Lady Duches of Parma Regent there and sitting at a banquet with her where also was the Prince of Orange with all the greatest Princes of the state the Earle though he could reasonably well speake French would not speake one French word but all English whether he asked any question or answered it but all was done by Truchemen In so much as the Prince of Orange maruelling at it looked a side on that part where I stoode a beholder of the feast and sayd I maruell your Noblemen of England doe not desire to be better languaged in the forraine languages This word was by and by reported to the Earle Quoth the Earle againe tell my Lord the Prince that I loue to speake in that language in which I can best vtter my mind and not mistake Another Ambassadour vsed the like ouersight by ouerweening himselfe that he could naturally speake the French tongue whereas in troth he was not skilfull in their termes This Ambassadour being a Bohemian sent from the Emperour to the French Court where after his first audience he was highly feasted and banquetted On a time among other a great Princesse sitting at the table by way of talke asked the Ambassador whether the Empresse his his mistresse when she went a hunting or otherwise trauailed abroad for her solace did ride a horsback or goe in her coach To which the Ambassadour answered vnwares and not knowing the French terme Par ma foy elle cheuauche fort bien si en prend grand plaisir She rides saith he very well and takes great pleasure in it There was good smiling one vpon another of the Ladies and Lords the Ambassador wist not whereat but laughed himselfe for companie This word Cheuaucher in the French tongue hath a reprobate sence specially being spoken of a womans riding And as rude and vnciuill speaches carry a marueilous great indecencie so doe sometimes those that be ouermuch affected and nice or that doe sauour of ignorance or adulation and be in the eare of graue and wise persons no lesse offensiue than the other as when a sutor in Rome came to Tiberius the Emperor and said I would open my case to your Maiestie if it were not to trouble your sacred businesse sacras vestras occupationes as the Historiographer reporteth What meanest thou by that terme quoth the Emperor say laboriosas I pray thee so thou maist truely say and bid him leaue off such affected flattering termes The like vndecencie vsed a Herald at armes sent by Charles the fifth Emperor to Fraunces the first French king bringing him a message of defiance and thinking to qualifie the bitternesse of his message with words pompous and magnificent for the kings honor vsed much this terme sacred Maiestie which was not vsually geuen to the French king but to say for the most part Sire The French king neither liking of his errant nor yet of his pompous speech said somewhat sharply I pray thee good fellow clawe me not where I itch not with thy sacred maiestie but goe to thy businesse and tell thine errand in such termes as are decent betwixt enemies for thy master is not my frend and turned him to a Prince of the bloud who stoode by saying me thinks this fellow speakes like Bishop Nicholas for on Saint Nicholas night commonly the Scholars of the Countrey make them a Bishop who like a foolish boy goeth about blessing and preaching with so childish termes as maketh the people laugh at his foolish counterfaite speeches And yet in speaking or writing of a Princes affaires fortunes there is a certaine Decorum that we may not vse the same termes in their busines as we might very wel doe in a meaner persons the case being all one such reuerence is due to their estates As for example if an Historiographer shal write of an Emperor or King how such a day hee ioyned battel with his enemie and being ouer-laide ranne out of the fielde and tooke his heeles or put spurre to his horse and fled as fast as hee could the termes be not decent but of a meane souldier or captaine it were not vndecently spoken And as one who translating certaine bookes of Virgils Aeneidos into English meetre said that Aeneas was fayne to trudge out of Troy which terme became better to be spoken of a beggar or of a rogue or a lackey for so wee vse to say to such maner of people be trudging hence Another Englishing this word of Virgill fato profugus called Aeneas by fate a fugitiue which was vndecently spoken and not to the Authours intent in the same word for whom he studied by all means to auaunce aboue all other men of the world for vertue and magnanimitie he meant not to make him a fugitiue But by occasion of his great distresses and of the hardnesse of his destinies he would haue it appeare that Aeneas was enforced to flie out of Troy and for many yeeres to be a romer and a wandrer about the world both by land and sea fato profugus and neuer to find any resting place till he came into Italy so as ye may euidētly perceiue in this terme fugitiue a notable indignity offred to that princely person and by th' other word a wanderer none indignitie at all but rather a terme of much loue and commiseration The same translatour when he came to these wordes Insignem pietate virum tot voluere casus tot adire labores compulit Hee turned it thus what moued Iuno to tugge so great a captaine as Aeneas which word tugge spoken in this case is so vndecent as none other coulde haue bene deuised and tooke his first originall from the cart because it signifieth the pull or draught of the oxen or horses and therefore the leathers that beare the chiefe stresse of the draught the cartars