Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A27301
|
Love-letters between a noble-man and his sister
|
Behn, Aphra, 1640-1689.
|
1684
(1684)
|
Wing B1740; ESTC R12977
|
368,501
|
1,302
|
Last Part of this History shall most Faithfully relate The End of the Second Part. THE AMOURS OF PHILANDER AND SILVIA Being the Third and Last Part OF THE Love-Letters Between a NOBLE-MAN AND HIS SISTER LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by most Book-Sellers 1687. TO THE LORD SPENCER My Lord WHEN a New Book conies into the World the first thing we consider is the Dedication and according to the Quality and Humour of the Patron we are apt to make a Iudgment of the following Subject If to a States-man we belive it Gravâ— and Politick if a Gown-man Law or Divinity if to the Young and Gay Love and Gallantry By this Ride I believe the gentle Reader who finds your Lordship's Name prefix'd before this will make as many various Opinions of it as they do Characters of your Lordship whose youthful Sallies have been the business of so much Discourse and which according to the Relator's Sence or good Nature is either aggravated or excused though the Womans Quarrel to your Lordship has some more reasonable Foundation than that of your own Sex for your Lordsâ—ip being Form'd with all the Beauties and Graces of Man-kind all the Charms of Wit Youth and Sweetness of Disposition derived to you from an Illustrious Race of Hero's adapting you to noblest Love and Softness they cannot but complain on that mistaken Conduct of â—ours that so lavishly deals out those agreeable Attractions Squandering away that Youth and Time on many which might be more advantageously dedicated to some one of the Fair and by a Liberty which they call not being Discreet enough robb 'em of all the Hopes of Conquest over that Heart which they believe can fix no where they cannot carress you into Tameness or if you sometimes appear so they are still upon their Guard with you for like a Young Lyon you are ever apt to leap into your Natural Wildness the Greatness of your Soul disdaining to be conâ—ined to lazy Repose tho the Delicacy of your Person and Constitution so absolutely require it your Lordship not being made for Diversions so rough and fatigueing as those your active Mind would impose upon it Your Lordship is placed in so Glorious a Station the Son of so Great a Father as renders all you do more perspicuous to the World than the Actions of common Men already the advantages of your Birth have drawn all Eyes upon you and yet more on those coming Greatnesses to which you were born if Heaven preserves your Lordship amidst the too vigorous Efforts and too dangerous Adventures which a too brisk Fire in your Noble Blood a too forward desire of gaining Fame daily exposes you to and will unless some force confine your too impatient Bravery shorten those Days which Heaven has surely designed for more Glorious Actions for according to all the Maxims of the Iudging Wise the little Extravagancies of Youth accomplish and perfect the Riper Years 'T is this that makes indulgent Parents permit those Sparks of Fire that are Gleaming in Young Hearts to kindle into a Flame knowing well that the Consideration and Temperament of a few more Years will regulate it to that just degree where the noble and generous Spirit should â—ix it self And for this we have had the Examples of some of the greatest Men that ever adorned History My Lord I presume to lay â—t your Lordship's Feet an Illustrious Youth the unhappy Circumstances of whose Life ought to be Written in lasting Characters of all Languages for a President to succeeding Ages of the Misfortune of â—eedless Love and â— too Early Thirst of Glory for in him your Lordship will find the fatal Effects of great Courage without Conduct Wit without Discretion and a Greatness of Mind without the steady Vertues of it so that from a Prince even ador'd by all by an imprudence that too often attendss the Great and Young and from the most exhalted Height of Glory mis-led by false notions of Honour and falser Friends fell the most pityed Object that ever was abandoned by Fortune I hope no One will imagine I intend this as a Parallel between your Lordship and our mistaken brave Vnfortunate since your Lordship hath an unquestioned and hereditary Loyalty which nothing can deface born from a Father who has given the World so evident Proofs that no fear of threatned danger can separate his useful Service and Duties from the Interest of his Royal and God-like Master which he pursues with an undaunted Fortitude in disdain of Phanatical Censures and those that want the Bravery to do a just Action for fear of future Turns of State And such indeed is your true Man of Honour and as such I doubt not but your Lordship will acquit your self in all times and on all occasions Pardon the Liberty my Zeal for your Lordship has here presumed to take since among all those that make Vows and Prayers for your Lordship's Health and Preservation none offers them more devoutly than My LORD Your Lordships Most Humble and Obedient Servant A. B. THE AMOURS OF PHILANDER and SILVIA OCTAVIO the Brave the Generous and the Amorous having left Silvia absolutely resolv'd to give her self to that doting fond Lover or rather to sacrifice her self to her Revenge that unconsidering Unfortunate whose Passion had expos'd him to all the unreasonable Effects of it return'd to his own House wholly transported with his happy Success He thinks on nothing but vast coming Joys Nor did one kind Thought direct him back to the evil Consequences of what he so hastily pursu'd he reflects not on her Circumstances but her Charms not on the Infamy he should espouse with Silvia but of those ravishing Pleasures she was capable of giving him he regards not the Reproaches of his Friends but wholly abandon'd to Love and youthful Imaginations gives a Loose to young Desire and Fancy that deludes him with a thousand soft Ideas He reflects not that his gentle and easy Temper was most unfit to joyn with that of Silvia which was the most haughty and humorous in Nature for tho' she had all the Charms of Youth and Beauty that are conquering in her Sex all the Wit and Insinuation that even surpasses Youth and Beauty yet to render her Character impartially she had also abundance of disagreeing Qualities mixt with her Perfections She was Imperious and Proud even to Insolence Vain and Conceited even to Folly she knew her Vertues and her Graces too well and her Vices too little she was very Opinionated and Obstinate hard to be convinced of the falsest Argument but very positive in her fancied Judgment Abounding in her own Sense and very critical on that of others Censorious and too apt to charge others with those Crimes to which she was her self addicted or had been guilty of Amorously inclin'd and indiscreet in the Management of her Amours and constant rather from Pride and Shame than Inclination fond of catching at every trifling Conquest and lov'd the Triumph tho' she hated the
that inspires 'em they are the very Brandy that make 'em Valiant and you may as soon beat Sense into their Brains as the very appearance of Truth 't is the very Language of the scarlet Beast to ' em They understand no other than their own and he that does knows to what ends we aim No matter Sir what Tools you work withal so the finisht piece be fine at last Look forward to the Goal a Crown attend it and never mind the dirty Road that leads to 't With such false Arguments as these he wrought upon the easie Nature of the Prince who ordered some thousands of 'em to be Printed ready for their being disperst all over France as soon as they should be Landed Especially among the Parisians too apt to take any impressions that bore the stamp and pretence of Religion and Liberty While these and all other things necessary were preparing Cesario wholly given over to Love being urg'd by Hermione to know the occasion of his last Nights absence unravels all the secret and told my Lord and she one Night at Supper the whole Scene of the Grotto so that Hermione more than ever being puft up with Ambitious thoughts hast'ned to have the Prince press'd to marry her and consulting with the Councillour of her closest secrets sets him anew to work swearing violently that if he did not bring that design about she should be able by her Ascendant o're Cesario to ruin all those they had undertaken and yet turn the Prince from the Enterprize and that it was more to satisfy her Ambition to which they were oblig'd for all the Prince had promised that he had undertaken to Head an Army and put himself again into the Hands of the Hugonots and forsake all the soft repose of Love and Liâ—e than for any Inclination or Ambition of his own and that she who had power to animate him one way he might be assur'd had the same power another This she ended in very high Language with a look too fierce and fiery to leave him any doubt of and he promised all things should be done as she desired and that he would overcome the Prince and bring him absolutely under her power Not said she with a scornful look that I need your aid in this affair or want power of my own to command it but I will not have him look upon it as my Act alone or a thing of my seeking but by your advice shall be made to understand it is for the good of the Publick that having to do with a sort of People of the Reformed Religion whose pretences were more Nice than Wise more seemingly zealous than reasonable or just they might look upon the Life she lead with the Prince as scandalous that was not justifyed by form tho never so unlawful A thousand things she urg'd to him who needed no instruction how to make that appear authentick and just however contrary to religion and Sense But so inform'd he parted from her and told her the Event should declare his zeal for her Service and so it did for he no sooner spoke of it to the Prince but he took the Hint as a divine Voice his very Soul flush'd in his lovely Cheeks and all the Fire of Love was dancing in his Eyes Yet as if he had fear'd what he wish'd could not handsomely and lawfully be brought to pass he ask'd a thousand questions concerning it all which the subtle Wizard so well resolv'd at least in his judgment who easily was convinced of what he wish'd that he no longer deferr'd his happiness but that very Night in the visit he made Hermione fell at her Feet and implores her consent of what he had told her Fergusano had fully convinced him was necessary for his Interest and Glory neither of which he could injoy or regard if she was not the partner of 'em and that when he should go to France and put himself in the Field to demand a Crown he should do it with absolute Vigor and Resolution if she were to be seated as Queen on the same Throne with him without whom a Cottage would be more pleasant and he could relish no Joys that were not as intirely and immediately hers as his own He pleaded impatiently for what she long'd and would have made her Petition for and all the while she makes a thousand doubts and scruples only to be convinced and confirmed by him and after seeming fully satisfyed he leads her into a Chamber where Fergusano waited and only her Woman and his faithful confident Tomaso and Married her since which she has wholly managed him with greater power than before takes abundance of State is extreamly elevated I will not say Insolent and tho they do not make a publick Declaration of this yet she owns it to all her Intimates and is ever reproaching my Lord with his lewd course of Life wholly forgetting her own crying out upon infamous Women as if she had been all the course of her Life an innocent By this time Dinner was ended and Silvia urg'd Brilljard to depart with her Letter but he was extreamly surpriz'd to find it to be to the Governours Nephew Don Alonzo who was his Lords Friend and who would doubtless give him an account of all if he did not show him the Billet all these reasons could not disswade this fickle wanderer whose Heart was at that time set on this young inconstant at least her inclinations He tells her that her Life would be really in danger if Philander comes to the knowledge of such an Intrigue which could not possibly be carry'd on in that Town without noise She tells him she is resolved to quit that false injurer of her Fame and Beauty who had basely abandoned her for other Women of less merit even since she had pardoned him the Crimes of Love he committed at Cologne that while he was in the Country with her during the time of her Lying in he had given himself to all that would receive him there that since he came away he had left no Beauty unattempted and could he possibly imagine her of a Spirit to bow beneath such injuries No she would on to all the revenges her Youth and Beauty were capable of taking and stick at nothing that led to that interest and that if he did not joyn with her in her noble design she would abandon him and put herself wholly out of his Protection Thus she spoke with a fierceness that made the Lover tremble with fear of losing her he therefore told her she had reason and that since she was resolved he would confess to her that Philander was the most perfidious Creature in the World and that Hermione the haughty Hermione who hated naughty Women invited and treated all the handsome Ladies of the Court to Balls and to the Basset Table and made very great entertainment only to draw to her Interest all the brave and the young men and that she daily gain'd abundance