Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	death_n	life_n	power_n	7,316	5	4.8859	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55662	The chaste seraglian, or, Yolanda of Sicily a novel, in two parts / done out of French by T.H. ...	Préchac, Jean de, 1647?-1720.; Hayes, Thomas.	1685 (1685)	Wing P3204; ESTC R31911	51,066	168

Hands he went to see him in the Prison under pretext of questioning him concerning the Affairs of Messina and comforted him in Terms very civil and obliging assuring him that he needed not to be under any fear of his Life and that he would make known to him that he had never merited his Hatred tho' he had been his Rival adding with a kind of confusion That he had but lately known the Violence that had been done Yolanda upon his account and that he would have rather chosen to have lost her Fortune than to have married her against her will The Prince of Escaletta confused to find so much Generosity in a Man whom the Interest of his Love had made him look upon as his most cruel Enemy was at first something touch'd by the Duke's obliging Discourses But representing to himself that a great Courage finds much more satisfaction in a such-like Revenge than in another more bloody he fancied it would be a poorness of Spirit in him to make shameful Submissions to his Rival and made him answer after a haughty manner That it was in vain for him to do himself the Honour to save his Life which was not in his power without disobeying the Orders of Spain That his present Circumstances would make him receive Death as a Favour having onely survived Yolanda to revenge her in contributing to deliver his Country from the Insults of the Spaniards and that at present that the French were entred into Messina he had nothing more to desire The Duke of Fernandina admiring this Generosity replied That he ought to have more respectful Sentiments for his Lawful Prince and then assured him that his Power was not so limited but that he could preserve his Life without disobeying the King The Consequences justified that he spoke to him with sincerity and he not onely sweetned his Imprisonment by several little Liberties which he gave him but he wrote also into Spain That he had deferred putting him to death that so the Nobility of Sicily might not be wrought up to perfect Despair and to prevent the Cabals which his Relations whose Power was formidable would have made in the other Cities of the Kingdom which were already sufficiently staggered by the Example of Messina adding That he was in hopes usefully to employ the Ministry of that Prisoner for the reducing the Messineses to some Accommodation The Court of Spain fearing the Consequences of this Revolt abated of its former Rigour upon the Viceroy's Remonstrances and returned him this Answer That they relied upon his Prudence in that Business and that since he thought in convenient for the good of the present State of Affairs they remitted to him the Execution of that Prince But we must leave the Prince for some time in a Prison which is not over-rigorous to go in the mean while and learn Tidings of Yolanda As soon as the perfidious Trik had parted with the Prince he thought of nothing but of glutting his Avarice by drawing a considerable Sum from the Sale of Yolanda and having carried her to the Port of Constantinople he had her proposed to the Bashaw who has the Superintendence of the Seraglio as one of the most Beautiful Persons in the World This Bashaw having seen her was satisfied with her Beauty tho' he could have rather wished she had been perfectly Fair because the Grand Seignior has more inclination to love those who are so than all others Nevertheless he bought her and put her into the Seraglio So many several Descriptions have been seen of that House of Pleasure of the Ottoman Emperours that every one fancies he is perfectly well informed of every Circumstance of the Place yet the truth is few have given an exact Account of it because that extraordinary care has been taken to hinder the Publick and principally Strangers from coming to the knowledge of what passes therein But let the Reader be pleased to take the following Relation of it which I have drawn out of Memoires which were given me for authentique The Seraglio is a very vast House wherein there is almost an infinite number of extraordinary fine Apartments all distinguished by different Gardens These Lodgings are taken up by the Grand Seignior by the Sultana's and by several Beautiful Persons who are chosen out of all Nations in the World without any distinction of Birth or of Country Beauty alone being required for their admittance Nevertheless they perform a kind of Noviceship before they appear before the Eyes of the Grand Seignior and particular care is taken to teach 'em the Turkish Tongue in case they understand it not that if they have the Honour of pleasing his Highness they may be capable of answering him without robbing him of the Pleasure of Conversation which is certainly what commonly affords most delight They are governed and served by Eunuchs who for the most part have but very little Complaisance and treat 'em with a great deal of severity The first Year they enter the Seraglio is spent in learning divers Exercises and the Salamelek or the Reverence they are taught to make in extraordinary Ceremonies They are afterwards admitted or sent back according as they have Qualities necessary to please the Grand Seignior and the Stories which have run up and down Europe of the Resistance his Highness met with in a cruel Beauty are so far from being true that never any Lady was introduc'd to the Emperour until she had made solemn Protestations that she loved him and that she would never neglect endeavouring to please him During the first Year they are shewn every day in a great Hall as many Pourtraicts of the Grand Seignior as he has Years each of which represents how he was made and clothed the first Day of that Year Those who out of Principles of Vertue or of Modesty resist the Cunning and Tricks of the Eunuchs who are proposed to inspire them with Love for the Grand Seignior are shut up in a kind of Monastery consecrated to Mahomet wherein they observe several Vows and pricipally that of Chastity And as the number of 'em is very small they are had in great veneration the Turks calling 'em The Wives of their Great Prophet Yolanda having been conducted into the Seraglio was under extreme Disquiets upon the consideration of her present Condition and tho' the Death of her Lover and her other Misfortunes had made her look with indifferency upon all that could happen to her the fear of the Violences which she imagined would be done her kept her in continual apprehensions until that an European Eunuch who was her Master in the Turkish Tongue had setled her Mind a little at rest by acquainting her with what was observed in the Seraglio He assured her there was no Example of Force ever having been made use of to constrain any Lady to satisfie the Desires of the Grand Seignior adding with a kind of Complaint That the Seraglio was but too much filled up with the Cabals of