Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	abbess_n	monk_n	nun_n	17	3	10.5327	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36625	Fables ancient and modern translated into verse from Homer, Ovid, Boccace, & Chaucer, with orginal poems, by Mr. Dryden.	Dryden, John, 1631-1700.; Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 or 18 A.D.; Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400.; Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375.; Homer.	1700 (1700)	Wing D2278; ESTC R31983	269,028	604

Corruption of the Best becomes the Worst When a Clergy-man is whipp'd his Gown is first taken off by which the Dignity of his Order is secur'd If he be wrongfully accus'd he has his Action of Slander and 't is at the Poet's Peril if he transgress the Law But they will tell us that all kind of Satire though never so well deserv'd by particular Priests yet brings the whole Order into Contempt Is then the Peerage of England any thing dishonour'd when a Peer suffers for his Treason If he be libell'd or any way defam'd he has his Scandalum Magnatum to punish the Offendor They who use this kind of Argument seem to be conscious to themselves of somewhat which has deserv'd the Poet's Lash and are less concern'd for their Publick Capacity than for their Private At least there is Pride at the bottom of their Reasoning If the Faults of Men in Orders are only to be judg'd among themselves they are all in some sort Parties For since they say the Honour of their Order is concern'd in every Member of it how can we be sure that they will be impartial Judges How far I may be allow'd to speak my Opinion in this Case I know not But I am sure a Dispute of this Nature caus'd Mischief in abundance betwixt a King of England and an Archbishop of Canterbury one standing up for the Laws of his Land and the other for the Honour as he call'd it of God's Church which ended in the Murther of the Prelate and in the whipping of his Majesty from Post to Pillar for his Penance The Learn'd and Ingenious Dr. Drake has sav'd me the Labour of inquiring into the Esteem and Reverence which the Priests have had of old and I would rather extend than diminish any part of it Yet I must needs say that when a Priest provokes me without any Occasion given him I have no Reason unless it be the Charity of a Christian to forgive him Prior loesit is Justification sufficient in the Civil Law If I answer him in his own Language Self-defence I am sure must be allow'd me and if I carry it farther even to a sharp Recrimination somewhat may be indulg'd to Humane Frailty Yet my Resentment has not wrought so far but that I have follow'd Chaucer in his Character of a Holy Man and have enlarg'd on that Subject with some Pleasure reserving to my self the Right if I shall think fit hereafter to describe another sort of Priests such as are more easily to be found than the Good Parson such as have given the last Blow to Christianity in this Age by a Practice so contrary to their Doctrine But this will keep cold till another time In the mean while I take up Chaucer where I left him He must have been a Man of a most wonderful comprehensive Nature because as it has been truly observ'd of him he has taken into the Compass of his Canterbury Tales the various Manners and Humours as we now call them of the whole English Nation in his Age. Not a single Character has escap'd him All his Pilgrims are severally distinguish'd from each other and not only in their Inclinations but in their very Phisiognomies and Persons Baptista Porta could not have describ'd their Natures better than by the Marks which the Poet gives them The Matter and Manner of their Tales and of their Telling are so suited to their different Educations Humours and Callings that each of them would be improper in any other Mouth Even the grave and serious Characters are distinguish'd by their several sorts of Gravity Their Discourses are such as belong to their Age their Calling and their Breeding such as are becoming of them and of them only Some of his Persons are Vicious and some Vertuous some are unlearn'd or as Chaucer calls them Lewd and some are Learn'd Even the Ribaldry of the Low Characters is different The Reeve the Miller and the Cook are several Men and distinguish'd from each other as much as the mincing Lady Prioress and the broad-speaking gap-tooth'd Wife of Bathe But enough of this There is such a Variety of Game springing up before me that I am distracted in my Choice and know not which to follow 'T is sufficient to say according to the Proverb that here is God's Plenty We have our Fore-fathers and Great Grand-dames all before us as they were in Chaucer's Days their general Chararacters are still remaining in Mankind and even in England though they are call'd by other Names than those of Moncks and Fryars and Chanons and Lady Abbesses and Nuns For Mankind is ever the same and nothing lost out of Nature though every thing is alter'd May I have leave to do my self the Justice since my Enemies will do me none and are so far from granting me to be a good Poet that they will not allow me so much as to be a Christian or a Moral Man may I have leave I say to inform my Reader that I have confin'd my Choice to such Tales of Chaucer as savour nothing of Immodesty If I had desir'd more to please than to instruct the Reve the Miller the Shipman the Merchant the Sumner and above all the Wife of Bathe in the Prologue to her Tale would have procur'd me as many Friends and Readers as there are Beaux and Ladies of Pleasure in the Town But I will no more offend against Good Manners I am sensible as I ought to be of the Scandal I have given by my loose Writings and make what Reparation I am able by this Publick Acknowledgment If any thing of this Nature or of Profaneness be crept into these Poems I am so far from defending it that I disown it Totum hoc indictum volo Chaucer makes another manner of Apologie for his broad-speaking and Boccace makes the like but I will follow neither of them Our Country-man in the end of his Characters before the Canterbury Tales thus excuses the Ribaldry which is very gross in many of his Novels But first I pray you of your courtesy That ye ne arrete it nought my villany Though that I plainly speak in this mattere To tellen you her words and eke her chere Ne though I speak her words properly For this ye knowen as well as I Who shall tellen a tale after a man He mote rehearse as nye as ever He can Everich word of it been in his charge All speke he never so rudely ne large Or else he mote tellen his tale untrue Or feine things or find words new He may not spare altho he were his brother He mote as well say o word as another Christ spake himself full broad in holy Writ And well I wote no Villany is it Eke Plato saith who so can him rede The words mote been Cousin to the dede Yet if a Man should have enquir'd of Boccace or of Chaucer what need they had of introducing such Characters where obscene Words were proper in their Mouths but very undecent