Selected quad for the lemma: majesty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
majesty_n	lord_n	sir_n	treasurer_n	3,072	5	11.1004	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10214	The secretary in fashion: or, A compendious and refined way of expression in all manner of letters. Composed in French by P. Sr de la Serre, historiographer of France. And translated into English, by John Massinger, Gent; Secrétaire à la mode. English	La Serre, M. de (Jean-Puget), ca. 1600-1665.; Massinger, John.	1640 (1640)	STC 20491; ESTC S115331	42,861	162

THE Secretary in Fashion OR A Compendious and Refined way of Expression in all manner of LETTERS COMPOSED IN FRENCH By P. St de la SERR Historiographer of FRANCE And Translated into English by JOHN MASSIN●ER Gent. LONDON Printed by J. B. and S. B. for Godfrey Emerson and are to be sold at his Shop in Little Brittain 1640. TO THE WORTHILY Admired for Learning and Good Parts Mr. Tho Berney Gent. of Grays-Inn SIR I Thought my endeavours too poorly imployed while they were restrain'd to the limits of a particular acknowledgement which forced me to comply with my ambitious humour by making this publick profession of my duty observance I may seem both Ignorant and Indiscreet to promise any new thing in this fardell of Epistles to you vvho are able to give lessons of Courtship and Civility to the most refined Spirits of this age yet I deserve pardon if you consider that nothing is here but vvhat might either have bin written by you or to you and consequently deserves the approbation of the most malitious For in the one your own Humanity and in the other the Judgement of all the world is interessed as is in all things that concerne your Particular the repose SIR of Your most humble and most obedient servant J. M. TO MY LORD THE Abbot of Dorak one of his Majesties Privie Counsellors and Treasurer of the Holy Chappell at Paris My Lord THe Particular esteeme I have of your Merit obliged me to these Publick Proofes being Ambitious the world should know that though my inclinations be not strong enough to follow vertue yet I never cease to build her Altars in al places where I find her Image To maintain my Lord that you are one of the most lively the Eloquence of your actions surpassing that of my Discourse has already perswaded it to al the world so that your Honesty having made it selfe known every where I satisfie my selfe in praising you worthily to declare your name being one of the most accomplished Prelates of this Age. I speake not of those negotiations of Importance which you have finished to the Honour of the King and Satisfaction of his Emminence who knew right well that the greatest Employments were under the reach of your Capacity I wish with Passion I had any in your service wherby I might force you to beleeve that I am extreamly My Lord Your most humble and most faithfull servant P. de La. Serre The Author to the Reader HAving had notice given mee that my Secretary of the Court which I composed for a Divertisement in my Youth ran through the World in my Name and with some kind of Approbation in strange Countries as being 30 times Printed since it was first published and never falling into my hands to be corrected I thought good to present thee with this new one which is a Digested worke and where thou shalt receive more satisfaction as finding a lesse number of faults It beares the Name of Secretary in Fashion to the end that it may be alwayes in season considering how variable the manner of Writing is Receive it with as good a heart as I give it thee and if it like thee not learne charitably to hold thy Tongue or else to reproach with a good grace t is the best counsell I am aable to give thee Reader I Here present thee with a Cornucopia of knowledge and Expression If thou dost not receive it with an acknowledgement proportioned to the Worth of such a Gift mayst thou acquire two Cornucopia's of Ignominy to Adorne thy forehead and bee condemned to the Reading of the English Secretary as long as thou livest If the whole Mountaine of the Common-wealth whereof thy selfe art a molehill were as sensible as thou oughtest to be I assure my selfe shee would bow her venerable knees and doe mee Homage for that mighty Portion of Wit and Courtshippe whereof shee goes now to take Possession But I see thee already blear-eyed with reading Monsieur Balzaac and the Packet of Letters forgive mee good Reader I aske thee most humbly Mercy and with much Resentment call backe my former Imprecation since I perceive thee already exposed to a more rigorous Pennance than that which my Charity would have suffered my Justice to impose upon thee For what mischeif could I have imagined though I had beene informed with the Soule of Phalaris his inginer equall to the Malice of this which thou hast already incurred in the one thou learnest nothing but to speake Baudy with a good Grace in the other nothing but to blow a horne Here thou suckest in the Principles of Atheisme there of Ignorance Here thou art instructed to Preach in an Epistle there to Court thy Friend in a Sermon This stuffs thy Memory with Stolne French that with English not worth the Stealing The one Commands thee to Violate the Laws of all Ancient Rhetorique the other to observe none The one will give thee Rules how to speak Balzaac or badly the other like a Post id est nothing at all The Consideration of this Loving Kind Courteous Reader did much precipitate my Vindication of the Times from Error or as the Pure Hees and Shee s of this Age say did even force my Spirit to reclaime the Idolatrous from adoring that Malicious Idoll the English Secretary that Image which Nebuchadnezzar the King had set up the Post with a Packet of Letters and that most abhominable Baal Balzaac by divulging this Peece of Excellent Workmanship which the Gods themselves did hammer and frame in the Head of Monsieur La Serre by letting this Bird of Paradise fly out of her Cage that she might recreate Mortality with the Charms of her Voyce and resuscitate the Intombed Spirits of Men from that Leaden sleep which the former Tarantulaes had throwne them into Or as with most reason I may averre by Publishing this new Ephimerides to the World which shall teach thee to know the Conjunctions of the Planets or erring Stars I meane the Connection of Wandring words and sentences used and abused by Men of all sorts ad Libitum It will teach thee the rising and setting of the Sun or Elevation and depression of Periods The Ecclipses in writing as to distinguish amongst sounds and to know when one obscures another or at least renders it lesse agreeable But if thou beest not yet Contented with this moderate touch of knowledge it shall proceed farther and open to thee a sluse of all other sublunary Sciences whatsoever Where canst thou have better Philosophy than here where it teacheth thee how the rude Matter of an Epistle is to be informed with the spritefull Vivacity of Phrases and Apt Coherence of Periods Where wilt thou prove an Arithmetitian if not here where thou art taught that if thou add or subtract but one word from the whole Number of an Epistle thy Computation will prove false and it utterly lose the Grace and Sweetnesse due unto it If thou wouldst be instructed in the Tacticks