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
A36512	The antient and modern stages survey'd, or, Mr. Collier's view of the immorality and profaness of the English stage set in a true light wherein some of Mr. Collier's mistakes are rectified, and the comparative morality of the English stage is asserted upon the parallel.	Drake, James, 1667-1707.	1699 (1699)	Wing D2123; ESTC R22914	157,366	406

The Antient and Modern Stages survey'd OR Mr COLLIER's View OF THE Immorality and Profaness OF THE English Stage Set in a TRUE LIGHT Wherein some of Mr Collier's Mistakes are rectified and the comparative Morality of the English Stage is asserted upon the Parallel Rode Caper Vitem tamen hinc cum stabis ad Aram In tua quod fundi Cornua possit erit Ov. LONDON Printed for Abel Roper at the Black Boy over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1699. TO THE Right Honourable CHARLES Earl of Dorset and Middlesex Baron Buckhurst one of the Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council Lord Lieutenant of the County of Sussex and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter c. My Lord IN addressing to Your Lordship tho I betray my Ambition I shall strengthen the opinion of my Integrity For by appealing to so great and so impartial a Judge I give the World sufficient demonstration that I trust more to the Merit of my Cause than of my Performance and depend rather upon the matter than the manner of what I deliver for my Justification The Tyde of Prejudice runs high for my Adversary and the less discerning part of the Town are so prepossess'd with the Specious Title and the Plausible Pretence of Mr Collier's Book that they think the whole Interest of Virtue and Religion embark'd on that Bottom Immorality and Prophaness are things so justly abhorrd that whoever enters the Lists against 'em has all Good Men for his Seconds And their zeal for the Cause so far blinds many of 'em that they neither see nor suspect any Defect or Treachery in their Champion For men are very unwilling to hear Truth against Prejudice and suffer Reason to triumph over Inclination The Town is divided in its Judgment of the Piece and the whole Contest lies betwixt those that are Judges and those that are not as Cardinal Richlieu said upon another occasion The latter are of the Opposite Faction and are as much more numerous than the former as Vanity and Presumption are more Universal than Understanding This makes the Prefixing your Lordships name by your own Permission whose Judgment is as little to be byass'd as 't is to be question'd not only matter of Honour to me but of necessary Defence Not that I expect any Protection for those Errors which I may have committed They must be left to the mercy of Readers of far less Judgment and Candour than Your Honour To be tried by such a Grand Jury is a happiness I am so far from expecting that I know it impossible But the Deference due to so great a Name may procure me a fair hearing amongst some upon whom a bare regard to Justice wou'd hardly prevail so far Did Mr Collier contend only for the better Establishment of Virtue and Reformation of Manners I shou'd be asham'd to appear against him But there is a Snake in the Grass Mr Collier undertakes the Patronage of Virtue as Cunning Men do the Guardianship of rich Orphans only to make his Markets of it That this is his case the following Sheets will I hope sufficiently demonstrate His Vehemence gives us just ground to suspect his Integrity and to believe that he has some conceal'd Interest or Pique at the bottom The disinterested enquiry after Truth is always accompany'd with Candour where that is wanting there is just reason to suspect some further design In Mr Collier's management the Heat and Smoke are too great and apparent for the Fire to be long conceal'd His Design is manifestly not to argue the Poets out of their Faults but to bully his Readers out of their Understandings and by violence to alter the Impressions already receiv'd of those matters which he treats of His Style is adapted to his purpose fierce and bold full of vehement exaggerations and haughty menaces he racks Sentences and tortures Expressions to extort a Confession from 'em of things to which they are absolute Strangers The consequence of this way of writing is that Women and Weak Men whose Fears are stronger than their Judgments will be aw'd into a Perswasion before they are convinc'd of the Truth of it For such People in most cases measure the certainty of Assertions by the Confidence of him that pronounces 'em and the Importance by the false weight that is laid upon ' em 'T was this consideration not any extraordinary Affection for the Stage that engag'd me in this Argument I look upon it as an attempt towards usurping the Soveraignty of Men's Understandings and restoring the Tyranny of Bigottry whose Yoak we have scarce yet sufficiently shaken off My Reason is the dearest and freest part of me or at least it ought to be so and he that puts the Dice upon that affronts me in the most sensible manner I had rather be bubbled of my Money than my Intellects and shou'd chuse rather to be thought his Cully than his Fool. 'T is true these tricks are not to be put upon a man that is aware of 'em and consequently I might have secur'd my self without making a publick discovery But I think it a Cowardly piece of Caution a sort of Criminal Misprision to connive at the cheating of others and while I am able to inform 'em the Clamour of Knaves or Fools shall never awe me to Silence That this is no extravagant Surmise no Hypochondriacal Fancy is evident from the Tenour of the whole Book especially the third Chapter Every thing is deliver'd with an air so haughty so magisterial so decisive that he seems rather to serve us with an Injunction to believe him than an Argument That this Imposition may be the more tamely submitted to he palms the Authority of the Church upon us and pretends her Commission to make Fools of the Laity The Church is by no means oblig'd to him for endeavouring to cast the Odium of his own Arrogance and Ambition upon her How great soever his Zeal for her service may be his Indiscretion in it does not come a whit behind it For to extend the Power and Authority of the Priest he curtails the Articles of the Church and denies the King's Supremacy which she has already oblig'd him to swear to the belief of I shall not trespass so far upon Your Honour's patience as to recapitulate the several Invidious things which he fathers upon the Church I will hope well of his Design tho I fear the effects of his Performance will not turn to her Service And I cou'd wish his Motives were better or not so apparent If Demetrius was a Stickler for the honour of Diana 't was because he made Shrines for her the interest of his trade engag'd him in her Party Mr Collier's Case is not much different The Poets had sometimes made bold to display a vicious or a foolish Priest and those that were Knaves in the World and Drolls in the Pulpit had been made Cheats and Buffoons upon the Stage The Mask of Formality and