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	robert_n	viscount_n	16,276	5	11.7158	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12821	Staffords Niobe: or His age of teares A treatise no lesse profitable, and comfortable, then the times damnable. Wherein deaths visard is pulled off, and her face discouered not to be so fearefull as the vulgar makes it: and withall it is shewed that death is only bad to the bad, good to the good.	Stafford, Anthony.	1611 (1611)	STC 23129; ESTC S106303	42,293	224

Staffords NIOBE Or HIS AGE OF TEARES A Treatise no lesse profita ble and comfortable then the times damnable Wherein Deaths visard is pulled off and her face discouered not to be so feare full as the vulgar makes it and withall it is shewed that death is only bad to the bad good to the good AT LONDON Printed by Humfrey Lownes 1611. TO THE RIGHT Honourable Robert Earle of Salisbury Knight of the most honourable Order of the Garter Vicount Cranborne Lord Cecil of Essindon Lord high Threasurer of England Chancelour of the Vniuersitie of Cambridge and one of his Maiesties most Ho nourable priuie Councel A. S. wisheth the pleasures of the Kingdome of Heauen for his paines taken in this Kingdome of the Earth IT may seem strange vnto you truely honourable Lorde that a stranger should dedicate a Booke vnto you but wonder not For though I be not knowen to your Honour yet your Honor is wel knowen vnto me and indeed to whom not I haue no small time be it spoken without blasphemie euen worshipt your Worth and therefore now offer vp vnto it all the reuenewes of my reuerence I was the rather induced to dedicate it to your Honour by reason that my father was a neighbour to your Father being much obliged vnto him and my whole Family vnto your selfe And next of all to giue you thankes in the behalfe of all Gentrie which is daylie bettered by your Lordships directions and furtherances in all honest courses Desert was fled into the Desert before your Lordship called her home from exile clad hir weather-beaten limmes And which draweth neere vnto a miracle your Lordship doth not imitate the greatest part of the hodiernall Nobilitie Qui beneficia in calendario seribunt But whether goe I knowing that your monosyllables as also short speeches are pleasing to GOD sometimes and to Great-men at all times Accept then this Leafe rather then Booke together with my vowed and owed seruice which though I offer serò tamen seriò my euer honoured Lord. Your Lordships most humble seruant to be commanded ANTHONIE STAFFORD TO THE Reader Different or indifferent READER Health to thy Soule and Bodie Knoweing vertue to bee of the nature of the Sun that is she shines as well vpon the bad as vpon the good I thought the badde would claime interest in her as well as the good To preuent which I wrote this treatise in which I haue layed my selfe open to the world to the intent that I may attract the loue of the vertuous and the hate of all those who continue vitious for I hold him to be no honest man that is beloued of all men For in that he sheweth that he can apply himselfe to the time be it neuer so vitious to the place be it neuer so infamous to the person be it neuer so odious Wherfore I giue all men to vnderstand that I am a servant to Vertue which I proclaime to the world by this booke my Heraulde and giue defiance to her foes and mine And howsoeuer I seeme now and then to lend an eare to lewdnesse it is not that I take pleasure in it but because I am loth to diplease the harbourers and diu●lgers of it What soeuer the world thinkes of me or thinketh me to be yet this I am For being throughly acquainted with myselfe I doe not aske another man what I am I protest it againe and againe that I depend on Vertue And if I wax poore in her seruice I shall account my selfe richer then all this wicked worlds wealth can make me and if I growe rich without her I shall esteeme my self poorer then pouerty her selfe can make me I speake not this like a Politiciā to purchase my selfe a greater fame then mine owne worth No no We doe not dissemble in those things in which he first deceiues himselfe that would others Wherefore he is iniurious to me who wicked in himselfe frameth a minde to me out of his owne If my inward man excuse me what care I who accuse me yet doe I not despise an honest report but onely warne you this that it is not in my power to tye loose tongues And therefore Fame is to be reckoned amongst these externall accidents as of no moment to the accomplishment of a quiet and a blessed life What to be consisteth on my part what I am said to be on the vaine vulgars Fame and Conscience are of two differing properties the one blazeth a mans deserts yet makes him neuer the better the other the better yet neuer the more renowned I knowe that my beliefe in God and not the worlds beliefe of me shall saue me yet by the way would I not haue any man thinke that I write this by constraint that is to cleare my selfe of any imputed Crime for I write it not to dispossesse but to possesse the world of a good opinion of me I verily thinke that I haue layed my selfe too open dealt too plainely in some things contained in this insuing treatise but I passe not much For as my birth styled me a gentleman so I would haue my death stile me generous Prying Policy telleth me that it is farre 〈◊〉 to knowe what a man speaks then to speak what he knowes but my harmelesse heart dictates to my pen not what the world would but what it should heare of My soule is an Antipode treads opposite to the present world My intent in writing this book is twofolde first to purchase to my selfe not so much the title of a learned as of an honest man and secondly because I knowe not whether my vnfortunate fortunes and vnstaied youth may leade me that the world may be acquainted with the secrets of my soule and may receiue from me a testimonie of my liuely faith that so it may iudge the more charitably of mee being dead Thus much for my selfe Now gentle or vngentle Reader concerning thee I diuide thee into Learned and Vnlearned and the Learned I subdiuide into Iudicial and Not-indiciall Seneca saith that Summū bonum in iudicio est that mans chief felicity is in iudgement and Sealiger calleth it Animamsapientiae the soule of wisedome And therefore he that hath this Wisedomes soule to be the Centre of his soule I doe not so much feare as reuerence his censure But hee that hath read neuer so much and in his discourse will shoote whole Volleis of Volumes at a man and yet wanteth iudgemente my Booke turnes his posteriours to him and bids him shoote there as a marke too faire for his carping mouth to aime at The Vnlearned I rediuide into Prudent and Impudent The Prudent will not let his censure flie aboue his knowledge but what he vnderstands not he will with modestie either passe it ouer or with discretion enquire after it of some better-knowing spirits As for impudent asses who will reprehende vvhat their shallowe vvits can neither apprehende nor comprehende and so turne despaire into iudgement I hold them fitter to