Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	wise_a	woman_n	world_n	28	3	3.9836	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A08000	The anatomie of absurditie contayning a breefe confutation of the slender imputed prayses to feminine perfection, with a short description of the seuerall practises of youth, and sundry follies of our licentious times. No lesse pleasant to be read, then profitable to be remembred, especially of those, who liue more licentiously, or addicted to a more nyce stoycall austeritie. Compiled by T. Nashe.	Nash, Thomas, 1567-1601.	1589 (1589)	STC 18364; ESTC S110083	31,239	46

vngratious Another of them béeing asked what was the greatest miracle in the world saide a chaste woman One requiring Diogenes iudgment when it was best time to take a wife answered for the young man not yet and the olde man neuer Pythagoras sayd that there were thrée euils not to be suffered fire water and a woman And the forenamed Cinick déemed them the wisest lyers in the world which tell folke they will be married and yet remaine single accounting it the lesse inconuenience of two extremities to choose the lesse The selfe same man affirmeth it to be the only means to escape all euils to eschew womens counsaile and not to square our actions by their direction The olde Sages did admonish young men if euer they matcht wyth any wife not to take a rich Wife because if she be rich shee wyll not be content to be a wife but will be a Maister or Mistresse in commaunding chiding correcting controlling Another Philosopher compared a woman richly apparelled to a dunghill couered with grasse Socrates deemed it the desperatest enterprise that one can take in hand to gouerne a womans will What shall I say of him that béeing askt from what women a man should keepe himselfe answered from the quick from the deade adding moreouer that one euill ioynes with another when a woman is sicke Demosthenes saide that it was the greatest torment that a man could inuent to his enemies vexation to giue him his daughter in marriage as a domesticall Furie to disquiet him night and day Democritus accounted a faire chaste woman a miracle of miracles a degrée of immortality a crowne of tryumph because shee is so harde to be founde Another beeing asked who was he that coulde not at any time be without a wife answered hee that was alwaies accurst and what dooth thys common prouerbe he that marrieth late marrieth euill insinuate vnto vs but that if a man meane to marry he were as good begin betimes as tarry long and béeing about to make a vertue of necessitie and an arte of patience they are to beginne in theyr young and tender age Moreouer amongst the thinges which change the nature and conditions of men women and wine are sette in the forefront as the chiefe causes of their calamitie Plutarch in his precepts of wedlocke alleageth a reason why men faile so often in choosing of a good wife because saith hee the number of them is so small There be two especiall troubles in this worlde saith Seneca a wife and ignoraunce Marcus Aurelius compared women to shyps because to keepe them wel and in order there is alwayes somewhat wanting and Plautus saith that women decke themselues so gorgiously and lace themselues so nicely because foule deformed things seeke to sette out themselues sooner then those creatures that are for beauty far more amiable For my part I meane to suspende my sentence and to let an Author of late memorie be my speaker who affyrmeth that they carrie Angels in their faces to entangle men and deuils in their deuices Valerius in Epist. ad Ruf. hath these words of womens trecherous works Amice ne longo dispendio te suspendam lege aureolum Theophrasti Medeam Iasonis vix pauca inuenies impossibilia mulieri Amice det tibi Deus omnipotens faeminae fallacia non falli My friend least I should holde thee too long with too tedious a circumstaunce reade but the golden Booke of Theophrastus and Iasons Medea and thou shalt finde fewe things impossible for a woman My sweet friende GOD Almightie graunt that thou beest not entrapt by womens trecherie Furthermore in the same place he saith Quis muliebr● garrulitati aliquid committit quae illud solum potest tacere quod nescit who will commit any thing to a womans tatling trust who conceales nothing but that shee knowes not I omit to tell with what phrases of disgrace the ancient fathers haue defaced them wherof one of thē saith Quid aliud est mulier nisi amicitiae inimica c. What is a woman but an enemie to friendshippe an vneuitable paine a necessary euil a naturall temptation a desired calamitie a domesticall danger a delectable detriment the nature of the which is euill shadowed with the coloure of goodnes Therefore if to put her a way be a sinne to keepe her still must needes be a torment Another sayth Illud aduerte quod extra paradisum vir factus est c. Consider this that man was made without Paradise woman within Paradise that thereby we may learne that euery one winneth not credit by the nobilitie of the place or of his stock but by his vertue Finally man made better is foūd without Paradise in a place inferior and contrariwise she which was created in a better place namely Paradise is founde to be worser Another hath these words Diligit mulier vt ●ap●a● ●ecipit vt rapiat amat quod habes non quod es A woman loues that she may entrappe shee deceiues that she may spoyle she loues that thou hast not that thou art Another writeth after thys manner Nulla est vxoris electio c. There is no choise to be had of a wife but euen as she comes so we must take her if teatish if foolish if deformed if proude if stinking breathed or whatsoeuer other fault she hath we know not till we be married A Horse an Oxe or an Asse or a dogge or what soeuer other vile merchandise are first prooued and then bought a mans wife alone is neuer throughly seene before least shee dysplease before she be married Viros ad vnumquodque maleficium singulae cupiditates impellunt saith Tully mulieres ad omnia maleficia cupiditas vna ducit muliebrium enim vitiorum omniū fundamentum est auaritia Mens seuerall desires doe egge them to each kind of euill but one onely affection leades women to all kind of wickednes for couetousnesse is the foundation of all womens euill inclinations Seneca also saith thus in his Prouerbs Aut amat aut odit mulier nil tertium est dediscere flere faminam mendacium est c. A woman either loues or hates there is no third thing it is an vntruth to say that a woman can learne to forget to weepe two kinde of teares are common in their eyes the one of true sorrowe the other of deceipt a Woman meditates euill when she is musing alone Thus you sée hawe farre their wickednes hath made Authors to wade with inuectiues in their dispraise wherefore I shall not need to vrge their inco●stancie more vehemently resembling them to Battus who was wonne with a Cowe and lost with a Bull nor stand to repeate that of Plato who doubted whether he shold put women among reasonable or vnreasonable creatures who also gaue thanks to Nature especiallie for three things whereof the first and cheefest was that shee had made him a man and not a woman I omitte that of Aristotle who alleaging the inconueniencie of too

least by the comparison he might be conuinced of ignorance so I am to request your worship whiles you are perusing my Pamphlet to lay aside out of your ●igh● whatsoeuer learned inuention hath heretofore bredde your delight least their singularitie reflect my simplicitie their excellence conuince mee of innocence Thus hoping you will euery way censure of me in fauour as one that dooth partake some parts of a Scholler I commit you to the care of that soueraigne content which your soule desireth Your most affectionate in all Vsque 〈◊〉 T. Nashe ❧ THE ANATOMIE OF ABSVRDITIE ZEuxes béeing about to drawe the counterfet of Iuno assembled all the Agrigentiue Maydes whō after he pausing had viewed he chose out ●●ue of y ● fayrest that in their beautie he might imitate what was most excellent euen so it fareth with mee who béeing about to anatomize Absurditie am vrged to take a view of sundry mens vanitie a suruey of their follie a briefe of their barbarisme to runne through Authors of the absurder sort assembled in the Stacioners shop sucking and selecting out of these vpstart antiquaries somewhat of their vnsauery duncerie meaning to note it with a Nigrum theta that each one at the first sight may eschew it as infectious to shewe it to the worlde that all men may shunne it And euen as Macedon Phillip hauing finished his warres builded a Cittie for the worst sorte of men which hee called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 malorum Ciuitas so I hauing laide aside my grauer studies for a season determined with my selfe béeing idle in the Countrey to beginne in this vacation the foundation of a trifling subiect which might shroude in his leaues the abusiue enormities of these our times It fareth nowe a daies with vnlearned Idiots as it doth with she Asses who bring foorth all their life long euen so these brainlesse Bussards are euery quarter bigge wyth one Pamphlet or other B●t as an Egge that is full beeing put in to water sinketh to the bottome whereas that which is emptie floateth aboue so those that are more e●quis●tly furnished with learning shroude themselues in obscuritie whereas they that voide of all knowledge endeuour continually to publish theyr follie Such and the very same are they that obtrude themselues vnto vs as the Authors of eloquence and fountains of our finer phrases when as they sette before vs nought but a confused masse of wordes without matter a Chaos of sentences without any profitable sence resembling drummes which béeing emptie with in sound big without Were it that any Morrall of greater moment might be fished out of their fabulous follie leauing theyr words we would cleaue to their meaning pretermitting their painted shewe we woulde pry into their propounded sence but when as lust is the tractate of so many leaues and loue passions the lauish dispence of so much paper I must needes sende such idle wits to shrift to the vicar of S. Fooles who in stéede of a wor●er may be such a Gothamists ghostly Father Might Ouids exile admonish such Idlebies to betake them to a new trade the Presse should be farre better employed Histories of antiquitie not halfe so much belyed Minerals stones and herbes should not haue such cogge● na●ures and names ascribed to them with out cause Englishmen shoulde not be halfe so much Italinated as they are finallie loue woulde obtaine the name of lust and vice no longer maske vnder the visard of vertue Are they not ashamed in their pre●●●ed pos●es to adorne a pretence of profit mixt with pleasure when as in their bookes there is scarce to be found one precept pertaining to vertue but whole quires fraught with amorous discourses kindling Venus flame in Vulcans forge carrying Cupid in tryumph alluring euen vowed Vestals to treade awry inchaunting chaste mindes and corrupting the continenst Hencefoorth let them alter their pos●es of profit with intermingled pleasure inserting that of Ouid in steed Si quis in hoc artem populo non nouit amandi Me legat lecto carmine doctus a●et So shall the discreet Reader vnderstand the contents by the title and their purpose by their posie what els I pray you doe these bable bookemungers endeuor but to repaire the 〈◊〉 wals of Venus Court to restore to the worlde that forgo●ten Legendary licence of lying to imitate a fresh the fantasticall dreames of those exiled Abbie-lubbers from whose idle p●ns procéeded those worne out impressions of the feyned no where acts of Arthur of the rounde table Arthur of litle Bri●ta●ne sir Tristram Hewon of Bur●ea●x the Squire of 〈…〉 the foure sons of Amon with infinite others It is not of my yeeres nor studie to censure these mens foolerie more 〈◊〉 but to shew how they to no Common-wea●● 〈◊〉 tosse ouer their troubled imaginations to haue the praise of the learning which they lack Many of them to be more amiable with their friends of the Feminine sexe blot many sheetes of paper in the blazing of Womens slender praises as though in that generation there raigned and alwaies rema●ned such singuler simplicitie that all p●sterities should be enioyned by duetie to fill and furnish theyr Temples nay Townes and streetes with the shrines of she Saints Neuer remembring that as there was a loyall Lucretia so there was a light a loue Lais that as there was a modest Medullina so there was a mischiuous Medea that as there was a stedfast Timoclea so there was a trayterous Tarpeya that as there was a sober Sulpitia so there was a deceitful Scylla that as there was a chast Claudia so there was a wanton Clodia But perhaps Women assembling their senate will seeke to stop my mouth by most voices and as though there were more better then bad in the bunch will obiect vnto me Atlanta Architumna Hippo Sophronia Leaena to these I will oppose proude Antigone Niobe Circe Flora Rhodope the despightfull daughters of Danaus Biblis and Canace who fell in loue with their owne Brothers Mirrha with her own Father Semiramis with her own sonne Phaedra with Hippolitus Venus inconstancie Iunos iealous●e the riotous wantonnesse of Pasiphae with whō I wil knit vp this packet of Paramours To this might be ad●ed Mantuans inuectiue against them but that pitti● makes me refraine from renewing his worne out complaints the wounds wherof the former forepast feminine sexe hath felt I but here the Homer of Women hath forestalled an obiection saying that Mantuans house holding of our Ladie he was enforced by melancholie into such vehemencie of speech and that there be amongst them as amongst men some good some badde but then let vs heare what was the opinion of ancient Philosophers as touching the Femall sexe One of thē beeing asked what estate that was which made wise men fooles and fooles wisemen answered marriage Aristotle doth counsell vs rather to gette a little wife then a great because alwaies a little euill is better then a great so that hee counted all women without exception euill and