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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	name_n	time_n	1,717	5	3.4300	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20892	The secretary of ladies. Or, A new collection of letters and answers, composed by moderne ladies and gentlewomen, collected by Mounsieur Du Bosque. Translated out of French by I.H.; Nouveau recueil de lettres des dames de ce temps avec leurs responses. English	Du Boscq, Monsieur.; Hainhofer, Jerome.; Glover, George, b. ca. 1618, engraver.	1638 (1638)	STC 7267; ESTC S109959	69,231	286

THE SECRETARY OF LADIES OR A new collection of Letters and Answers composed by Moderne Ladies and Gentlewomen Collected by Mounsieur Du BOSQVE Translated out of French by I. H. LONDON Printed by Tho. Cotes for William Hope and are to be sold at the signe of the Vnicorne in Cornehill neere the Royall Exchange 1638. TO MY LADY the Countesse of DORSET Governesse to the DVKE of YORKE Madam YOur pardon if it bee presumption my selfe but newly admitted to preferre others to your service 'T is a sinne I could not be drawne to commit but to avoyd a greater So I conceive each Casuist rankes the breach of vowes which would bee my obliquity should I offer at any other Altar these first fruites of my poore endeavours The French Collector so hee s●iles himselfe presents these Letters to the world with a French familiar confidence Ra●ing them sufficiently accomplisht to merit entertainement His courage cannot cure my feare knowing they must passe the censure at least if you daigne them a view of one then hee conceits his worke far more accomplisht and not being ignorant that this English habit made by a stranger to the tongue more to the Courtly dresse may much blemish their native beauty My comfort is without wracke of reputation they may want some of their originall ornaments but could I hope your approbation to trifles hardly worth your eye I durst bee bold this would procure them more grace than they have lost by their Translator But Madam t is too much I dare not begge it my most ambitious prayer shall bee regarding my unworthy sacrifice you would vouchsafe not to disdaigne i● Reserve your acceptation for more deserving straines your prayse for those that more directly tend to ki●dle flame of piety Your not r●j●cting those will proove a sufficient pasport and helpe them travel the Brittish world without affront or enemy where I am confident there does not breath such a schismaticke to civility that in so triviall a point will not wave his opinion to one that governes his hopes In which beleefe I devote these papers to the fate you please decree them My onely intent in exposing them was to give some testimony of a thankfull heart If I have mist the way it cannot bee denied I had a will to finde it and mist nothing but fit meanes to informe the world that I am Madam Your most humble and devoted servant Ierome Hainhofer Patritius Augustanus The Authors Dedication TO MADAM DE PISIEVX Madam I Should peradventure have made some difficulty to offer you any booke but this fearing to demand an unjust protection or to make you a present unworthy of your selfe But th●se Ladies which I tender you are so accomplisht I could not cherish the least feare to produce them without sinning against their merit and the judgement you know to make in things of valew Neverthelesse how perfect soever they be they acknowledge a necessity of your approbation to appeare in the world And that if this good fayle them all their faire dresses and ornaments can gaine them a reputation but imperfect Behold them then in posture to doe the homage they owe you and to learne from your mouth what credit they may hope from others Behold the wonders of our age which come to reverence the rare qualities that France admires in you And to consult the oracle which must declare their good or bad fortune Confident they are to disp lease none if they be but so happy to please you and that by the generall esteeme you are in your judgement shall bee the rule to all others Receive them Madam as creatures whom the report of your name and vertue hath acquired And that will not shew themselves abroad with your passe Refuse not your favour to these faire unknowne which enter not into the world but to vindicate the honour of dames and to make it appeare that Letters are not the peculiar heritage of one sexe and that men are out when they va●t themselves sole Monarchs in the Empire of the sciences For my selfe Madam who doe but lend a hand to their enterprise I confesse I am ravisht to see them fall into your armes and that besides the lustre of their owne beauty they shall borrow that of yours to render them pleasing as your selfe to all that have eyes and reason I cannot cease to commend their choyse seeing it must be imagined Noble as you are you will be taken with their courage and while they travaile in a designe so glorious I assure my selfe you will second their endeavours And that your countenance approbation and spirit shall bring them more than halfe their victory and triumph Thus hopes Madam Your most humble and most obedient servant Du Bosque An advertisement to the Reader by a friend of the Collector BE not astonisht to see this Collection come out in print hee that hath tane the paines to make it had reason to thinke that after you had read the letters of so many ingenious men you would take it well to see these offers of women There is no colour to say it will becomes their sexe for i● it be not amisse that they are able to m●ke a complement you must not thinke it strange that they can write one T is the principall subject of these Letters which are not confused nor shufled together as many others which the vulgar esteeme good They are not treatises nor orations they are no deepe discourses wherein there is nothing smels of a Letter but Sir your servant But it is not needfull● to witnesse these good that I make others appe●re ill I will onely say that if the●e bee any who cannot yet consent that Gentlewomen should write I assure my selfe this book will convert them where they shall 〈◊〉 so many things of worth they shall 〈◊〉 ●ompeld to renounce their ignoranc● 〈◊〉 ●nvy for by one of these names I 〈◊〉 call the cause of their error which I would farther oppose if these Ladies had need of my Apology but they defend themselves better by neglect than those 〈◊〉 deserve And I will content my selfe to say that if this age hath seene many that write with approbation of all the world upon the most important matters Religion and morality wee need not make it such a marvell that they can endite good letters seeing they can make good bookes But it is time to finish this advertisement and I vow I am to blame to detaine the reader from the booke it selfe where he shall receive much more satisfaction than I am able to promise THE SECRETARY of LADIES The first Letter She prayes her to returne to Pari● and bring her in dislike with the Country MAdam provided you have a just opinion of your owne merit you cannot faile in that you o●ght to have of our griefe Remember your selfe onely of the pleasure your presence brings us to comprehend what your absence takes from us and you will easily averre that the losse of so

agree to reade it one after the other we would have it without ceasing at the same time both together The meaning is we beg another and I hope you will excuse our importunity since it proceeds from the esteeme we make of an Author which you commend so much my eager desire would seeme perhaps importune if it proceeded not from that which I have to approve all that pleases you and to be in all things Madam Your c. The XVI Answer She replies that even at Paris it selfe there are not many which judge soundly of good bookes and praises the Author of that she sent MAdam t is nothing strange if in the Countrey they doe not esteeme good bookes as they should wee have not indeed many here which can Iudge of them soundly There is no body that praises not that you received and I can assure you that never was approbation so generall as that is given it I speake of that of the better sort which speake without passion and without interest There are some people found which not being able to know good things or to suffer their brightnesse straine themselves to make them ill but they have gained nothing but repentance to have their ignorance and malice publickely appeare they have beene constrained to change their discourse albeit perhaps they have not diminished their envy But whatever they utter of it or would perswade indifferent men it is profitable to all sorts of humours and persons The learned doe there finde content and the ignorant instruction Neverthelesse I advertise you of one thing that whatever esteeme you make of this booke you ought to prepare a speciall one for him that made it you desire to see him and I assure my selfe you will be no lesse satisfied with his entertainement then the reading of his writings You shall observe nothing in his visage nor his discourse which smels of that we call an Author And you shall not finde in him that ●aturall or affected dulnesse of many which dreame in the best company and give no other reason of their silence but that they compose These are fitter for a closet then society they cannot expresse themselves but by the pen. He you shall see is not of this humour he speakes yet better then hee writes and gives the lye to those who maintaine that the same temperament cannot be proper to both There is no lesse force in his discourse then judgement in his writings And above all you may marke in both an extraordinary facility I speake not of that vitious eafinesse which proceedes from lightnes orindiscretion I know well that the earth doth easily produce superfluous things and that of her selfe she beares thornes and thistles enough I praise that excellent facility which comes from the strength of spirit when a man is master of the subject he handles and good words are joyned with rich thoughts I will use a sacred example to explaine a profane matter If holy Scripture saith of the covetous that they are the men of riches instead of saying that t is the riches of men wee may say of certaine Brokers that they are the men of science not that they have the science of men the one and the other be the slaves of their wealth know not how to distribute it with reason The Authour you shall see is in no wise of this number let him speake or write he expresses himselfe with an advantage extraordinary try him and you will affirme without doubt aswell as many others that know him that readinesse and strength of Spirit are in him both equall He is prompt without being light solid with out being dull I will say no more of him and indeede it would alwaies be lesse then he deserves and I beleeve however more then hee desires In effect t is a modesty without paralell but his owne Never have I heard him speake of his workes or of himselfe with the least appearance of vanity you shall judge of him then when I shall have the honour to present him to you and that I shall assure you from my owne mouth how that I am Madam Your c. The XVII Letter She thankes her for her approbation and complaines that her Letters are too short MAdam I intend never to present my selfe there where you have spoken of me nor put my selfe in danger to spoile my reputation by my presence You delight to speak to my advantage and to give me excessive praises you will get no blame by this you shall acquire the reputation of one that obliges if you loose that of speaking truth my Letter should end here if I measured him by the length of yours I have beene no longer reading the contents then the superscription Never feare that yours should be trouble some to me make them as long as you please I shall alwayes esteeme them too short I speake according to the measure of my affection not of my merit Since I have nothing worthy of your good will I cannot receive so small testimonies therof that I be not for them extreamly obliged and that they give me not sufficient cause to be all my life Madam Your c. The XVIII Letter Shee assures her that shee has alwaies been melancholy since her departure and that shee shall never be merry till her returne MAdam I beseech you beleeve that losing you at the same time I lost my good fortune and that the day I parted from Paris was the last of my life since which time I have scarce had leasure to breathe if I have spoken t was only to complaine After the persecutions of the Countrey people sicknesse challenged mee the combat as if the torments of the soule caused by your absence were not sufficient to overcome me I must needs confesse to you the error I lived in in times past aswell as my displeasure at the present I thought the countrey would yeeld charmes to drive away my heavinesse and that the conversation of the Dames of Burgundy and Forrests would make me forget those I left at Paris but I have beene fairely deceived My disease followes me every where with so great a displeasure at what I see that I can finde nothing that contents me It may be if I thought lesse on you I should be more happy The remembrance of your entertainement renders me that of others unpleasant and I may say the remembrance of a past good is to me a present misfortune In the distaste I am in whilest I possesse you not the most able people here seeme not to me to have common sense Iudge then how unhappy I am seeing I am in a Countrey where she that has the best stomacke can hardly find victuals where of she would be willing to eate Wee must not seeke for superfluities where necessaries are scarse to be found so farre are wee from procuring ought for pleasure we can hardly meete with enough to satisfie nature This is the cause of my misfortune which afflicts