Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	honourable_a	majesty_n	privy_a	10,396	5	9.6495	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19462	Polimanteia, or, The meanes lawfull and vnlawfull, to iudge of the fall of a common-wealth, against the friuolous and foolish coniectures of this age Whereunto is added, a letter from England to her three daughters, Cambridge, Oxford, Innes of Court, and to all the rest of her inhabitants: perswading them to a constant vnitie of what religion soever they are, for the defence of our dread soveraigne, and natiue cuntry: most requisite for this time wherein wee now live.	Covell, William, d. 1614?; Clerke, William, fl. 1595, attributed name.	1595 (1595)	STC 5883; ESTC S108887	87,044	236

POLIMANTEIA OR The meanes lawfull and vnlawfull to IVDGE OF THE FALL OF A COMMON-WEALTH AGAINST the friuolous and foolish coniectures of this age Whereunto is added A letter from England to her three daughters Cambridge Oxford Innes of Court and to all the rest of her inhabitants perswading them to a constant vnitie of what religion soever they are for the defence of our dread soveraigne and natiue cuntry most requisite for this time wherein wee now live Invide quod neque as imitari carpere noli Nil nisicum sumptu mentem oculosque iuvat Printed by Iohn Legate Printer to the Vniversitie of Cambridge 1595. And are to be sold at the signe of the Sunne in Pauls Church-yard in London TO THE RIGHT honourable Robert Devorax Earle of Essex and Ewe Vicount of Hereforde Lord Ferrer of Chartley Borcher and Lovaine Master of the Queenes Maiesties Horse Knight of the noble order of the Garter and one of her Maiesties most Honourable privie Councell IT is easie to gesse honourable Lorde why Schollars flocke under the patronage of men in your place their condition is so weake that unlesse men truly honourable doe defend them they are most of all in this age distressed And yet braue noble Lorde ingeniously to confesse my true meaning it is not that which mooued me at this time but it is the height of admiration which my thoughts conceiued of your honours worth that made me thinke all men bound to offer signes of loue and dutie where both are deserued in so high a measure I take vpon me Englands person and speake like a Common-wealth And therfore howsoeuer it were presumption in me to dedicate papers of so small moment to a personage of so rare worth yet honourable Lorde take them as your cuntries talke vouchsafe to reade them stamped with her name and so all shall be afraide to mislike them beeing graced with yours And yet I weigh not whether others mislike them or no let but your honour for learnings sake a thing which I know you doe say you are content to accept of the meanest trifle and grace it with a good looke and then I contemne what male-contented melancholy can speake against me Your honour be it spoken without envie like Englands Cedar is sprung up to preserue with your shadowe the humblest in all professions from hatreds malice The warlike and braue soldier thinkes him selfe and that in truth is graced to be tearmed but your follower The worthy and kinde passionate Courtier deemes and worthily this his honour to be your fauorite The sober and devout student that dispised doeth walke melancholy takes himselfe and not without cause fortunate to be tearmed your schollar Thus all relye noble Lord upon your favour And I who though I must needs honour yet usually with so deepe affection am not devoted without cause doe so in kindnesse and loue if that be not a word too presumptuous passe over the full interest of my selfe to your dispose as in what kinde soeuer a schollar may doe his dutie I am readie and desirous to be commanded by you then accept noble lorde the willing mind of him that hath nothing else and say that that alone is absolutely sufficient to content you Read it but or if that be to much doe but accept it and so rest where of not doubting in the middest of so many signes of a schollar-respecting honour in dutie I kisse my hand and humbly take my leaue Your honours in all duty most affectionate W C. The Preface to the Reader WEe are fallen into the barren age of the worlde courteous Reader wherein though some fewe trauaile to expell Barbarisme which fortunately they haue done in our English tongue yet a number of idle conceited-wise-foolish heades take vpon them peremptorily to censure other mens paines so that euery man is loath to enter into the viewe whilst Idlenes shall stand controlling and giue her sentence I know it could fit these to write but that magni laboris est quem plerique fugimus Homer wrote of the trauailes of the worthie Graecian Vlysses Curtius of Alexander and Darius Rome had neuer beene so renowmed but for Titus Livius Thucydides eternized Iason and Minotaure and sweet Salust Iugurth and Cateline nay this wise age long since had beene plaine foolish if our painefull forefathers had not trauailed for their good And if any man thinke this age is too wisely learned to read any thing which is but some fewe droppes of that mayne Ocean which ouerflowed in their daies let him knowe this that care added to their industrious trauailes is easily able to perform matters of great importance Learning was let loose ouer all Europe euer since Athens did first flourish excepting a fevve yeares when the Gothes and Vandalls compelled her to liue in exile who flying fast from their furie left Italie and those famous places and planted her selfe so firmely in these poore countreies that euer since amongst vs shee hath liued honourably Thus in the abundance of our knowledge he that hath taken pains stands at the courtesie of euery paltrie fellowe to be censured as it please him In consideration whereof wise men haue deemed it the safest secretly to smile and soberly to say nothing For my paines I much care not I esteeme thee Reader as thou dost me for degenerous minds intreated grow insolent the daies are euill and the argument is fit for these times I knowe diuers haue trauailed in the same kinde whome I but humble without wronging them to speake vnto thy capacitie Nobilitie fully learned made choice to handle the same argument and with such profounde deepe skill performde it as that truth taketh her selfe much bound vnto him who made her to speake eloquently that vseth to be plaine and false prophesies ashamed who so long haue vsurped truths titles From hence maist thou learne or at least remember that the greatest Monarches howsoeuer proud in their owne strength must either fall with an enemies stroake or as Rome did with her owne waight here maist thou see that nothing is so made but subiect to great change And yet least thou desire to knowe what thou oughtest not I haue laboured to make knowne what thou shouldest desire my leisure will not serue to detaine thee long and a short preface is beseeming so small paines I take my leaue and if thou hast deserued I giue thee thanks onely this I must adde further not to accuse others or make an Apologie for my selfe that I neuer yet in the least syllable of the so tearmed loosest line meant either to modestie pietie chastitie time the Muses or kindnes to doe wrong neither should the surmised obiect of my muses song or the dearest which that obiect hath suspect in me but the least shadow of supposed eniurie for I neither ment to make loose poetrie a true historie or thought that wise courtesie would be so suspicious to misdeeme him whose thoughts long since were deuoted to grauer

treason they tearmed by the name of Gods Church their phantasticall opinions Gods knowne trueth and their poysoned heresies the inspiration of Gods spirit It were tedious too long to repeate their names who continually haue slaundered Loyaltie with base tearmes when themselues haue deserued most badly both of the Church and of the Common wealth Thus might I with teares remember the wrong that I suffered in the Northerne Rebellion where though the fact was so infamous as the memorie is odious to this day yet did they pretend a reforming of religion a freedome of consciēce and a bettering of the Common wealth I passe ouer without speech but neuer to be remēbred without sighes the lamentable rebellions made in Lincolneshire the disorder in Norffolke by Ket his bad companie the intollerable boldnes in Kent by Iacke Straw and his accomplices These and such like haue laboured to roote me from the place of mine abode to pull out Loyaltie from the mindes of subiects to make them offend thinke there is no fault to raise a flame that may giue light whilest the Common-wealth shall burne to stirre vp those vnder pretence of right who haue desired to subuert the state of the whole land Iosephus an ancient writer setting downe the rebellious reuolting which the Iewes made from the Romanes vnder colour of rude and vntoward dealing which they found in Florus their gouernour he setteth downe the particular remonstrance that King Agrippa made touching the small apparance of occasion which they had rebelliously to exempt them from their lawfull obedience the Iewes replied that it was only against Florus and not the Romanes that they bare armes whom Agrippa tolde it was easie to say so but their actions were such as worse could not haue been by the greatest enemies of the Romane Empire for the townes they sacked the treasuries they robbed the houses they burnt the fields they wasted neither were the townes the treasuries the houses the fields of Florus and no man had wrong but the Romanes to whom these belonged In like manner when in former times for I am loth to mention these later faults wrong openly was offered to them of our countrie the townes takē the churches robbed the houses burnt the men slaine and not so much sacred as the very sepulchers of our forefathers the pretence was onely this not a wrong or disobedience to the Prince but a reuenge and reformation of the oppressing cormorant And thus lately for I must needs touch it whilest Lopez most Iewishlie nay Iudaslie had concluded with the Spanish Pharisies to sell his Soueraigne yet shamefully hee protested this whereunto common sense will hardly allow credit that he onely ment to deceiue them of their coyne and to saue her from harme Can we thinke the Spanyard so credulous as in a matter of so great importance to credit without good cause Can wee thinke it likely that he who had concealed it hetherto from her Councell ment after to impart it to her Maiestie These things and manie such howsoeuer smoothed ouer with a faire shewe haue been committed by vnnaturall subiects since her Maiesties raigne that our very enemies for the state of our countrie could by no meanes possible haue deserued worse And howsoeuer the lawe tearme them not enemies but simplie as rebels and seditious to their owne countrie yet they ought not to be honored with the name of peace nor as subiects any way to be made partakers thereof vnles the infinitly ouerflowing mercie of their Prince vouchsafe them vndeserued so great a fauour When Anthonie rose vp in armes against his countrie he was iudged condemned worthilie by the Senate to bee a rebell and when some intended to send vnto him to intreate of peace Tully thought it was most strange farre differing from the state of the Senate to affoord a rebel the priuiledge of an open enemie France can testifie of the like when trayterous subiects vndeseruedly giue mee leaue to tearme them by that name haue been so mightie to withstand the King that he hath sent without cōtrolling tearms as to an open enemie England hath not now and I happilie wish as I hope it neuer shall any cause to deale in the like manner But the time was in the dayes of Edward the sixt when a base pesant so braued the Kings armie that they vouchsafed them parle as if Rome had sent Ambassadors to the men of Carthage But rebellion being the canker of a Common wealth time hath taught vs by lamentable experience in the warres of Rome That sedition doth grow by suffering and that clemencie is rebellions spurre which if it had not bin a state so florishing had not so soone failed And for France in the time of holie Lewes sedition had not been so soone cut off no rebellion had been rooted out if the sword had not been made sharpe for to cut them off for it be commeth a Prince like a good Surgion to cut off the putrified parts least the sound bee infected with the like contagion Furthermore to groūd my seueritie vpon the tearmes of honor for Loyaltie cā hardly indure clemencie towards treason there is no Gentleman vnles degenerate that will indure the lye of his companion without recanting and shall the Prince not onely suffer this but wrongs dammages iniuries despitefully at the hands of traytors Then band your selues Honorable Lords wise Prelates braue Captaines worthie Gentlemen resolute Soldiers trustie Citizens and painful Cominaltie that the smallest part of treason may not take strength in our time and all of you rather hazard the last droppe of your dearest bloud then by treacherous dealing the least wrong may bee offered to her sacred Maiestie This is a iust quarrell wherein Loyallie we are to vnite our selues for loosing but the bridle to such dangerous treasons our Prince our liues our Countrie our fortunes are all indangered at the same instant Besides either to pardon these at home or fondly to credit those abroad can bring no other benefite to the land but this a contempt of our authoritie a certaine danger to the Princes person a perpetuall and needfull feare of some new attempts yet euer I must reserue a prerogatiue to my gracious Soueraigne for gracious clemencie a worthie vertue to a subiect but dangerous to a traytor giues them but leasure to fortifie themselues graunts them but time to renew their force the storme is no sooner past but there is present feare of as great a tempest For it is great simplicitie to suppose at least the extremitie of follie to beleeue that those who are once plūged in the gulfe of treason and haue throughly plotted for a kingdomes conquest can possibly be reclaimed with the greatest kindnes or let goe their hope before their liues giue vp the latest gaspe If a kingdome were so weake or a Prince so timerous as almost it was