Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	henry_n	sir_n	thomas_n	17,904	5	9.4195	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31537	The history of the renown'd Don Quixote de la Mancha written in Spanish by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ; translated from the original by several hands ; and publish'd by Peter Motteux ... ; adorn'd with sculptures.; Don Quixote. English	Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 1547-1616.; Motteux, Peter Anthony, 1660-1718.	1712 (1712)	Wing C1775; ESTC R21655	804,786	1,366

Never did Spaniard suffer more by Drake than our Knight of La Mancha by the Writer of that English-Spanish Quixote He has transform'd him worse than any of his own Magicians and handled him so ill that his Valor appears only passive so that in his Book he may truly be call'd the Knight of the ill-favor'd Face He has omitted a great number of entire Paragraphs a whole Story and several Papers of Verses chang'd the Sense ridicul'd the most serious and moving Passages remov'd all the scandalous places in London into the middle of Spain and all the Language of Billingsgate into the Mouths of Spanish Ladies and Noblemen He has confounded the Characters and the Countries and added a World of Obscenity and fribling Conceits He seems indeed to have let his Fancy run away with his Judgment and to be sure will plead Design for his Mistake and tell you plainly that he thought himself a Man of greater Parts than Cervantes and that his Piece is an Improvement not a Translation of Don Quixote Now I have so mean an Opinion of my Talent this way and so great a Veneration for the wonderful Genius of the Author that I fancy it the greatest Justice to my self to be just to him Not that 't is to be expected that a Work of this Nature can always admit of a literal or close Translation that wou'd be to make the Book unintelligible and not English In some places we have minded the Sense more than the Words some things having a Grace in one Language that wou'd not be lik'd in another That high sounding pompous way of Expression which becomes the Spanish cannot always look so well in our Tongue yet I hope every thing will appear to have an Air of the Original Tho our Spaniard speaks English he is still in his own Country and preserves his native Gravity and Port. When the Knight or the Historian discourse of matters of Chivalry you here will find their Expression dash'd with some antiquated or bombastic Words as Cervantes has done but no where else his Stile being polite and modern wherever the Author speaks or Men and Women of Sense are introduc'd So that it was necessary to do equal Justice to the English as well as to the Spanish to give a good Translation of this Work And I have found it exceedingly more difficult to do the first than the last notwithstanding the great Assistance I have receiv'd from the best Judges of both Languages Here I ought to own how much I am oblig'd to those worthy Gentlemen some of whom have not only supply'd me with their Advice but generously contributed otherwise to inable me to perfect this Vndertaking Among the first with all grateful Respect I make bold to mention the Honourable Colonel Codrington Colonel Stanhoppe Sir Henry Sheer William Aglionby Esq who oblig'd me with the Story of the Captive translated by him some years ago Thomas Sergeant Esq who has favour'd me with that of the Goatherd and some other Gentlemen who are not only Masters of the Spanish but of the Delicacies of our Tongue I have also Acknowledgments to pay to Mr. Wycherly Mr. Congreve Dr. Garth Dr. Pellet Thomas Cheek Esq Mr. Savage Mr. Thomas Brown and some other ingenious Friends not forgetting Don Bernardino Navarro at once a just Critic in his own Language and so good a Master of ours as to have made an excellent Grammar which will be printed in some time I am so far from denying the Helps I have receiv'd ●hat I would choose to magnify my Assistance to strengthen my Party against the Censorious I must own that I have made my advantage of the mistakes and Beauties of the former Translators and by imitating what was good and avoiding their Errors may possibly have made this a tolerable Translation Where I have fallen in with their Expression 't is sometimes by accident but oftner by design I have had the good fortune to be a little conversant with the Stage of which advantage my Predecessors in this Affair were destitute as may appear by their losing the Genius of Comedy which runs through the Author and which I have endeavour'd to maintain by avoiding all Improprieties of Speech Here I cannot forbear admiring his strange Art of moralizing with so facetious an Air. He has chosen to make his Book an exact Mirror of Mankind where every man may view his Face without any abuse but the silent Reflection of the Shadow as it naturally flows from the Substance This dumb sort of Instruction he was sensible must be very prevalent with the World since every body is fond of seeing their own face be it never so ugly In short his Book is in a manner a Dramatic Piece with great variety of Characters justly maintain'd by the nicest Rules of Art his Stile generally following the nature of the Subject and his Example is as just a Rule for the Stage as his Precepts What can be more full and comprehensive than the Humours of Sancho Any man with half the Squire 's Wit may read in this single Character the mean slavish and ungenerous Spirit of the Vulgar in all Countries and Ages a crouching E●●● awkard Lying sordid Avarice sneeking Pity a natural Inclination to Knavery and a superstitious Devotion The whole Multitude in little The Antients had recourse to a supernatural many-headed Beast to express and signify the Rabble but he makes Nature spin the Web out of her own Bowels and shows us the Monster without frighting us with the Hydra The Character of Don Quixote must speak its own praise 't is an Original without a Precedent and will be a Pattern without a Copy its greatest fault was its too great Beauty by which some think it answer'd the Design too effectually Many men being still of opinion that the wonderful Declension of the Spanish Bravery and Greatness in this last Century may be attributed very much to his carrying the Jest too far by not only ridiculing their Romantic Love and Errantry but by laughing them also out of their Honour and Courage But that this was far from the Author's Design is very evident from his many noble Sentiments of Love and Honour through his Book The Ladies are infinitly oblig'd to him the Characters of the Fair Sex are generally virtuous He gives their Love all the moving Softness that can raise our Passions without offence to their Modesty He makes them love like Women but speak like Angels And we may gather from his favourable opinion of the fair Sex as much as by his Courtly Stile that he kept the best and noblest Company The Consideration of so many Graces in the Original were enough to make any Translator suspect his Ability for undertaking so great a Work but on the other hand so many Beauties are sufficient to entice any man to an imitation Magnis tamen excidit ausis was a noble excuse and the Attempt in a great Design is sometimes as laudable as succeeding

Sirrah that as they gave you a dry Benediction with a Quarter-Staff they did not cross you with a Cutlass I han't Breath to answer you at present quoth Sancho but my Back and Shoulders speak enough for me Pray let 's make the best of our way from this Cursed Place and whene'er I Bray again may I get such another Polt on the Kidneys Yet I can't help saying that your Knights-Errant can betake themselves to their Heels to save one upon Occasion and leave their trusty Squires to be beaten like Stock-fish in the midst of their Enemies A Retreat is not to be accounted a Flight reply'd Don Quixote for know Sancho that Courage that has not Wisdom for its Guide falls under the Name of Temerity and the rash Man's successful Actions are rather owing to his good Fortune than to his Bravery I own I did Retire but I deny that I fled and in such a Retreat I did but imitate many Valiant Men who not to hazard their Persons indiscreetly reserv'd themselves for a more fortunate Hour Histories are full of Examples of this nature which I do not care to relate at present because this would be more tedious to me than profitable to thee By this time Don Quixote had help'd Sancho to bestride his Ass and being himself Mounted on Rozinante they Pac'd softly along and got into a Grove of Poplar Trees about a Quarter of a League from the Place where they Mounted Yet as softly as they rode Sancho could not help now and then heaving up deep Sighs and lamentable Groans Don Quixote ask'd him why he made such a heavy Moan Sancho told him That from his Rump to his Pole he felt such grievous Pains that he was ready to sink Without doubt said Don Quixote the Intenseness of thy Torment is by reason the Staff with which thou wert struck was broad and long and so having fallen on those parts of thy Back caused a Contusion there and affects them all with Pain and had it been of a greater Magnitude thy Grievances had been so much the greater Truly quoth Sancho you 've clear'd that in very pithy Words of which no body made any doubt Body of me was the Cause of my ailing so hard to be guess'd that you must tell me that so much of me was sore as was hit by the Weapon Shou'd my Ankle-bone ach and you scratch your Head till you had found out the Cause of it I would think that something But for you to tell me that Place is sore where I was Bruis'd every Fool could do as much Faith and Troth Sir Master of mine I grow Wiser and Wiser every Day I find you 're like all the World that lay to Heart no body's Harms but their own I find where abouts we are and what I 'm like to get by you for e'en as you left me now in the Lurch to be well belabour'd and Rib-roasted and t'other Day to dance the Carp-Galliard in the Blanket you wot of so I must expect a hundred and a hundred more of these good Vails i' your Service and as the Mischief has now lighted on my Shoulders next Bout I look for it to fly at my Eyes A Plague of my Jolter-head I have been a Fool and Set all along and am never like to be Wiser while I live Would it not be better for me to trudge home to my Wife and Children and look after my House with that little Wit that Heaven has given me without galloping after your Tail high and low through confounded cross Roads and By-ways and wicked and crooked Paths that the Ungodly themselves can't find out And then most commonly to have nothing to moisten one's Weasand that 's fitting for a Christian to drink nothing but meer Element and Dog's Porridge And nothing to stuff one's Puddings that 's worthy of a Catholick Stomach Then after a Man has tir'd himself off his Legs when he 'd be glad of a good Bed to have a Master cry Here are you sleepy Lie down M● Squire your Bed's made Take six Foot of good hard Ground and measure your Corps there and if that won't serve take as much more and welcome You 're at Rack and Manger spare not I beseech your Dogship there 's Room enough Old Nick roast and burn to a Cinder that unlucky Son of Mischief that first set People a madding after this Whim of Knight-Errantry or at least the first Ninny-hammer that had so little Forecast as to turn Squire to such a Parcel of Mad-men as were your Knights-Errant in the Days of Yore I mean I am better bred than to speak ill of those in our Time no I honour them since your Worship has taken up this blessed Calling for you 've a long Nose the Devil himself could not outreach you you can see farther into a Milstone than he I durst lay a Wager said Don Quixote that now thou art suffer'd to prate without Interruption thou feel'st no manner of Pain in thy whole Body Prethee talk on my Child say any thing that comes uppermost to thy Mouth or is Burdensome to thy Brain so it but alleviates thy Pain thy Impertinencies will rather please than offend me and if thou hast such a longing Desire to be at home with thy Wife and Children Heaven forbid I should be against it Thou hast Money of mine in thy Hands See how long 't is since we Sallied out last from Home and cast up the Wages by the Month and Pay thy self An 't like your Worship quoth Sancho when I serv'd my Master Carrasco Father to the Batchelor your Worship's Acquaintance I had two Ducats a Month besides my Victuals I don't know what you 'll give me tho' I 'm sure there 's more Trouble in being Squire to a Knight-Errant than in being Servant to a Farmer for truly we that go to Plough and Cart in a Farmer 's Service though we moil and sweat so a-days as not to have a dry Thread to our Backs let the worst come to the worst are sure of a Bellyful at Night out of the Pot and to snore in a Bed But I don't know when I have had a good Meal's Meat or a good Night's Rest in all your whole Service unless it were that short time when we were at Don Diego's House and when I made a Feast on the savoury Skimming of Camacho's Cauldron and Eat Drank and Lay at Master Basil's All the rest of my time I have had my Lodging on the cold Ground and in the open Fields subject to the Inclemency of the Sky as you call it living on the Rinds of Cheese and Crusts of mouldy Bread drinking sometimes Ditch-water sometimes Spring as we chanc'd to light upon 't in our way Well said Don Quixote I grant all this Sancho then how much more dost thou expect from me than thou had'st from thy Master Carrasco Why truly quoth Sancho if your Worship will Pay me Twelve-pence a Month more than Thomas Carrasco gave me