Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	earl_n	honourable_a	right_n	13,405	5	6.9102	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46439	The satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis translated into English verse by Mr. Dryden and several other eminent hands ; together with the satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus, made English by Mr. Dryden ; with explanatory notes at the end of each satire ; to which is prefix'd a discourse concerning the original and progress of satire ... by Mr. Dryden.; Works. English. 1693	Juvenal.; Persius. Works. English.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700.	1693 (1693)	Wing J1288; ESTC R12345	297,921	482

THE SATIRES OF JUVENAL AND PERSIUS THE SATIRES OF Decimus Junius Juvenalis Translated into ENGLISH VERSE BY Mr. DRYDEN AND Several other Eminent Hands Together with the SATIRES OF Aulus Persius Flaccus Made English by Mr. Dryden With Explanatory Notes at the end of each SATIRE To which is Prefix'd a Discourse concerning the Original and Progress of SATIRE Dedicated to the Right Honourable Charles Earl of Dorset c. By Mr. DRYDEN Quicquid agunt homines votum timor Ira voluptas Gaudia discursus nostri est farrago libelli LONDON Printed for Iacob Tonson at the Iudge's Head in Chancery-Lane near Fleetstreet MDCXCIII Where you may have Compleat Sets of Mr. Dryden's Works in Four Volumes in Quarto the Plays being put in the order they were Written TO THE Right Honourable CHARLES Earl of Dorset and Middlesex Lord Chamberlain of Their Majesties Household Knight of the Most Noble Order of the GARTER c. My Lord THE Wishes and Desires of all good Men which have attended your Lordship from your First appearance in the World are at length accomplish'd in your obtaining those Honours and Dignities which you have so long deserv'd There are no Factions tho irreconcilable to one another that are not united in their Affection to you and the Respect they pay you They are equally pleas'd in your Prosperity and wou'd be equally concern'd in your Afflictions Titus Vespasian was not more the Delight of Human-kind The Universal Empire made him only more known and more Powerful but cou'd not make him more belov'd He had greater Ability of doing Good but your Inclination to it is not less And tho' you could not extend your Beneficence to so many Persons yet you have lost as few days as that Excellent Emperour and never had his Complaint to make when you went to Bed that the Sun had shone upon you in vain when you had the Opportunity of relieving some unhappy man This My Lord has justly acquir'd you as many Friends as there are Persons who have the Honour to be known to you Meer Acquaintance you have none You have drawn them all into a nearer Line And they who have Convers'd with you are for ever after inviolably yours This is a Truth so generally acknowedg'd that it needs no Proof 'T is of the Nature of a first Principle which is receiv'd as soon as it is propos'd and needs not the Reformation which Descartes us'd to his For we doubt not neither can we properly say we think we admire and love you above all other men There is a certainty in the Proposition and we know it With the same Assurance I can say you neither have Enemies nor can scarce have any for they who have never heard of you can neither Love or Hate you And they who have can have no other notion of you than that which they receive from the Publick that you are the best of Men. After this my Testimony can be of no farther use than to declare it to be Day-light at High-Noon And all who have the benefit of sight can look up as well and see the Sun 'T is true I have one Priviledge which is almost particular to my self that I saw you in the East at your first arising above the Hemisphere I was as soon Sensible as any Man of that Light when it was but just shooting out and beginning to Travel upwards to the Meridian I made my early Addresses to your Lordship in my Essay of Dramatick Poetry and therein bespoke you to the World Wherein I have the right of a First Discoverer When I was my self in the Rudiments of my Poetry without Name or Reputation in the World having rather the Ambition of a Writer than the skill when I was Drawing the Out-Lines of an Art without any Living Master to Instruct me in it an Art which had been better Prais'd than Study'd here in England wherein Shakespear who Created the Stage among us had rather Written happily than knowingly and justly and Iohnson who by studying Horace had been acquainted with the Rules yet seem'd to envy to Posterity that Knowledge and like an Inventer of some useful Art to make a Monopoly of his Learning When thus as I may say before the use of the Loadstone or knowledge of the Compass I was sailing in a vast Ocean without other help than the Pole-Star of the Ancients and the Rules of the French Stage amongst the Moderns which are extreamly different from ours by reason of their opposite taste yet even then I had the presumption to Dedicate to your Lordship A very unfinish'd Piece I must Confess and which only can be excus'd by the little Experience of the Author and the Modesty of the Title An Essay Yet I was stronger in Prophecy than I was in Criticism I was Inspir'd to foretell you to Mankind as the Restorer of Poetry the greatest Genius the truest Judge and the best Patron Good Sence and good Nature are never separated tho' the Ignorant World has thought otherwise Good Nature by which I mean Beneficence and Candor is the Product of right Reason Which of necessity will give Allowance to the Failings of others by considering that there is nothing perfect in Mankind and by distinguishing that which comes nearest to Excellency tho not absolutely free from Faults will certainly produce a Candor in the Judge 'T is incident to an Elevated Understanding like your Lordships to find out the Errors of other men But 't is your Prerogative to pardon them to look with Pleasure on those things which are somewhat Congenial and of a remote Kindred to your own Conceptions And to forgive the many Failings of those who with their wretched Art cannot arrive to those Heights that you possess from a happy abundant and Native Genius Which are as inborn to you as they were to Shakespear and for ought I know to Homer in either of whom we find all Arts and Sciences all Moral and Natural Philosophy without knowing that they ever Study'd them There is not an English Writer this day living who is not perfectly convinc'd that your Lordship excels all others in all the several parts of Poetry which you have undertaken to adorn The most Vain and the most Ambitious of our Age have not dar'd to assume so much as the Competitours of Themistocles They have yielded the first place without dispute and have been arrogantly content to be esteem'd as second to your Lordship and even that also with a Longo sed proximi Intervallo If there have been or are any who go farther in their Self-conceipt they must be very singular in their Opinion They must be like the Officer in a Play who was call'd Captain Lieutenant and Company The World will easily conclude whether such unattended Generals can ever be capable of making a Revolution in Parnassus I will not attempt in this place to say any thing particular of your Lyrick-Poems though they are the Delight and Wonder of this Age and