Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	body_n	heart_n	soul_n	4,786	5	4.6656	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26632	Five love-letters from a nun to a cavalier done out of French into English.; Lettres portugaises. English	Guilleragues, Gabriel Joseph de Lavergne, vicomte de, 1628-1685.; Alcoforado, Mariana, 1640-1723.; Chamilly, Noël Bouton, marquis de, 1636-1715.; L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.	1678 (1678)	Wing A889; ESTC R6558	20,475	136

LICENSED Dec. 28. 1677. Ro. L'Estrange FIVE LOVE-LETTERS FROM A NUN TO A CAVALIER Done out of French into English LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls 1678. TO THE Reader YOu are to take this Translation very Kindly for the Authour of it has ventur'd his Reputation to Oblige you Ventur'd it I say even in the very Attempt of Copying so Nice an Original It is in French one of the most Artificial Pieces perhaps of the Kind that is any where Extant Beside the Peculiar Graces and Felicities of that Language in the Matter of an Amour which cannot be adopted into any other Tongue without Extream Force and Affectation There was it seems an Intrigue of Love carry'd on betwixt a French Officer and a Nun in Portugal The Cavalier forsakes his Mistress and Returns for France The Lady expostulates the Business in five Letters of Complaint which She sends after him and those five Letters are here at your Service You will find in them the Lively Image of an Extravagant and an Unfortunate Passion and that a Woman may be Flesh and Bloud in a Cloyster as well as in a Palace FIVE Portugaise LETTERS Turn'd into ENGLISH The first Letter OH my Inconsiderate Improvident and most unfortunate Love and those Treacherous Hopes that have betray'd both Thee and Me The Passion that I design'd for the Blessing of my Life is become the Torment of it A Torment as prodigious as the Cruelty of his Absence that causes it Bless mee But must this Absence last for ever This Hellish Absence that Sorrow it self wants words to express Am I then never to see those Eyes again that have so often exchang'd Love with Mine and Charm'd my very soul with Extacy and Delight Those Eyes that were ten thousand worlds to mee and all that I desir'd the only comfortable Light of Mine which since I understood the Resolution of your Insupportable Departure have Serv'd mee but to weep withall and to lament the sad Approach of my Inevitable fate And yet in this Extremity I cannot me-thinks but have some Tenderness even for the Misfortunes that are of your Creating My Life was vow'd to you the first time I saw you and since you would not accept of it as a Present I am Content to make it a sacrifice A Thousand times a day I send my Sighs to hunt you out and what Return for all my Passionate Disquiets but the good Counsel of my Cross fortune that whispers me at every turn Ah wretched Mariane why do'st thou flatter and Consume thy self in the vain pursuit of a Creature never to be Recover'd Hee 's gone hee 's gone Irrevocably gone h 'as past the seas to fly thee Hee 's now in France dissolv'd in pleasures and thinks no more of thee or what thou suffer'st for his false sake then if he had never known any such woman But hold Y 'ave more of Honour in you then to do so ill a thing and so have I then to believe it especially of a Person that I 'm so much concern'd to justify Forget me 'T is Impossible My Case is bad enough at best without the Aggravation of vain suppositions No no The Care and Pains you took to make me think you lov'd me and then the Joyes that That Care gave Me must never be forgotten and should I love you less this Moment then when I lov'd you most in Confidence that you lov'd me so too I were Ungratefull 'T is an Unnatural and a strange thing methinks that the Remembrance of those blessed hours should be now so terrible to me and that those delights that were so ravishing in the Enjoyment should become so ter in the Reflection Your last Letter gave me such a Passion of the heart as if it would have forc'd its way thorough my Breast and follow'd you It laid me three hours sensless I wish it had been dead for I had dy'd of Love But I reviv'd and to what End only to die again and lose that Life for you which you your self did not think worth the saving Beside that there 's no Rest for me while you 're Away but in the grave This fit was follow'd with other Ill Accidents which I shall never be without till I see you In the mean while I bear them yet without repining because they came from you But with your Leave Is this the Recompense that you intend me Is this your way of treating those that love you Yet 't is no Matter for do what you will I am resolv'd to be firm to you to my last gasp and never to see the Eyes of any other Mortal And I dare assure you that it will not be the worse for you neither if you never set your heart upon any other woman for certainly a Passion under the degree of mine will never content you You may find more Beauty perhaps elswhere tho' the time was when you found no fault with mine but you shall never meet with so true a heart and all the rest is nothing Let me entreat you not to stuff your Letters with things Unprofitable and Impertinent to our Affair and you may save your self the trouble too of desiring me to THINK of you why 't is Impossible for me to forget you and I must not forget the hope you gave me neither of your Return and of spending some part of your time here with us in Portugal Alas And why not your whole Life rather If I could but find any way to deliver my self from this unlucky Cloyster I should hardly stand gaping here for the performance of your Promise but in defiance of all opposition put my self upon the March Search you out follow you and love you throughout the whole world It is not that I please my self with this Project as a thing feasible or that I would so much as entertain any hope of Comfort tho' in the very delusion I might find pleasure but as it is my Lot to be miserable I will be only sensible of that which is my Doom And yet after all this I cannot deny but upon this Opportunity of writing to you which my Brother has given me I was surpriz'd with some faint Glimmerings of Delight that yielded me a temporary Respite to the horrour of my despair Tell me I conjure you what was it that made you so sollicitous to entangle me when you knew you were to leave me And why so bloudily bent to make me Unhappy why could you not let me alone at quiet in my Cloyster as you found me Did I ever do you any Injury But I must ask your Pardon for I lay nothing to your Charge I am not in condition to meditate a Revenge and I can only complain of the Rigour of my Perverse fortune When she has parted our Bodies she has done her worst and left us nothing more to fear Our hearts are Inseparable for those whom Love has United are never to be divided As you tender

better have Supported your Ingratitude it self though never so foul and Odious than the Deadly Deadly Thought of this Irrevocable Separation And it is not your Person neither that is so dear to me but the Dignity of my unalterable Affection My soul is strangely divided Your falseness makes me abhor you and yet at the same time my Love my Obstinate and Invincible Love will not consent to part with you What a Blessing were it to me now if I were but endu'd with the Common Quality of other Women and only Proud enough to despise you Alas Your Contempt I have born already Nay had it been your Hatred or the most Raging Jealousie All this compar'd with your Indifference had been a Mercy to me By the Impertinent Professions and the most Ridiculous Civilities of your Last Letter I find that all mine are Come to your hand and that you have read them over too but as unconcern'd as if you forsooth had no Interest at all in the Matter Sot that I am to lie thus at the Mercy of an Insensible and Ungrateful Creature and to be as much afflicted now at the Certainty of the Arrival of those Papers as I was before for fear of their Miscarriage What have I to do with your telling me the TRVTH OF THINGS Who desir'd to know it Or the SINCERITY you talk of a thing you never practis'd toward me but to my Mischief Why could you not let me alone in my Ignorance Who bad you Write Miserable Woman that I am Methinks after so much pains taken already to delude me to my Ruin you might have streyn'd one point more in this Extremity to deceive me to my Advantage without pretending to excuse your self 'T is too late to tell you that I have cast away many a Tender Thought upon the Worst of Men the most Oblig'd and the most Unthankful Let it suffice that I know you now as well as if I were in the heart of you The only favour that I have now to desire from you after so many done for you is This and I hope you will not refuse it me Write no more to me and remember that I have conjur'd you never to do it Do all that is Possible for you to do if ever you had any Love for me to make me absolutely forget you For Alas I dare not trust my self in any sort of Correspondence with you The least hint in the World of any kind Reflection upon the reading of this Letter would perchance expose me to a Relapse and then the taking of me at my Word on the other side would most certainly transport me into an Extravagance of Choler and Despair So that in my Opinion it will be your best course not to meddle at all with Me or my Affairs for which way so ever you go to work it must inevitably bring a great disorder upon both I have no Curiosity to know the success of this Letter Me-thinks the Sorrows you have brought upon me already might abundantly content you even if your Design were never so malicious without disturbing me in my Preparations for my future Peace Do but leave me in my Uncertainty and I will not yet despair in time of arriving at some degree of Quiet This I dare promise you that I shall never hate you for I am too great an Enemy to Violent Resolutions ever to go about it Who knows but I may yet live to find a truer friend than I have lost But Alas What signifies any mans Love to me if I cannot Love him Why should his Passion work more upon my heart than mine could upon Yours I have found by sad Experience that the first Motions of Love which we are more properly said to Feel than to Understand are never to be forgotten That our souls are perpetually Intent upon the Idol which we our selves have made That the first Wounds and the first Images are never to be cur'd or defac'd That all the Passions that pretend to succour us either by Diversion or Satisfaction are but so many vain Promises of bringing us to our Wits again which if once lost are never to be recover'd And that all the Pleasures that we pursue many times without any desire of finding them amount to no more than to convince us that nothing is so dear to us as the Remembrance of our Sorrows Why must you pitch upon Mee for the subject of an Imperfect and Tormenting Inclination which I can neither Relinquish with Temper nor Preserve with Honour The dismal Consequences of an Impetuous Love which is not Mutual And why is it that by a Conspiracy of Blind Affection and Inexorable fate we are still condemn'd to Love where we are Despis'd and to hate where we are Belov'd But what if I could flatter my self with the Hope of diverting my Miseries by any other Engagement I am so sensible of my own Condition that I should make a very great scruple of Using any other Mortal as you have treated me and though I am not Conscious of any Obligation to spare you yet if it were in my Power to take my Revenge upon you by changing you for any other a thing very Unlikely I could never agree to the gratifying of my Passion that way I am now telling my self in your behalf that it is not reasonable to expect that the simplicity of a Religious should confine the Inclinations of a Cavalier And yet methinks if a body might be allow'd to reason upon the Actions of Love a man should rather fix upon a Mistress in a Convent than any where else For they have nothing there to hinder them from being perpetually Intent upon their Passion Whereas in the World there are a thousand fooleries and Amusements that either take up their Thoughts intirely or at least divert them And what Pleasure is it or rather how great a Torment if a body be not Stupid for a man to see the Woman that he loves in a Continual Hurry of Delights taken up with Ceremony and Visits no discourses but of Balls Dresses Walks c. Which must needs expose him every hour to fresh jealousies Who can secure himself that Women are not better Satisfied with these Entertainments than they ought to be even to the Disgusting of their own Husbands How can any man pretend to Love who without examining Particulars contentedly believes what 's told him and looks upon his Mistress under all these Circumstances with Confidence and Quiet It is not that I am now Arguing my self into a Title to your Kindness for this is not a way to do my business especially after the Trial of a much more probable Method and to as little purpose No no I know my Destiny too Well and there 's no strugling with it My Whole Life is to be miserable It was so when I saw you every day When we were together for fear of your Infidelity and at a distance because I could not endure you out of my sight My heart

my soul let me hear often from you I have a Right me-thinks to the Knowledg both of your Heart and of your fortune and to your Care to inform me of it too But what ever you do be sure to come and above all things in the world to let me see you Adieu And yet I cannot quitt this Paper yet Oh that I could but convey my self in the Place on 't Mad fool that I am to talk at this Rate of a thing that I my self know to be Impossible Adieu For I can go no farther Adieu Do but Love me for ever and I care not what I endure THE SECOND Letter THere is so great a difference betwixt the Love I write and That which I feel that if you measure the One by the Other I have undone my self Oh how happy were I if you could but judg of my Passion by the violence of your own But That I perceive is not to be the Rule betwixt you and me Give me leave however to tell you with an honest freedom that tho' you cannot love me you do very ill yet to treat me at this Barbarous Rate It puts me out of my Wits to see my self forgotten and it is as little for your Credit perhaps as it is ●or my Quiet Or if I may not say that you are Unjust it is yet the most Reasonable thing in the World to let me tell you that I am Miserable I foresaw what it would come to upon the very Instant of your Resolution to leave me Weak Woman that I was to expect after this that you should have more Honour and Integrity then other Men because I had unquestionably deserv'd it from you by a transcendent degree of Affection above the Love of Other Women No no Your Levity and Aversion have overrul'd your Gratitude and Justice you are my Enemy by Inclination whereas only the Kindness of your Disposition can Oblige me Nay your Love it self if it were barely grounded upon my Loving of you could never make me happy But so far am I even from that Pretence that in six Moneths I have not receiv'd one sillable from you Which I must impute to the blind fondness of my own Passion for I should otherwise have foreseen that my Comforts were to be but Temporary and my Love Everlasting For Why should I think that you would ever content your self to spend your Whole Life in Portugal and relinquish your Country and your fortune only to think of me Alas my sorrows are Inconsolable and the very Remembrance of my past Enjoyments makes up a great part of my present pain But must all my hopes be blasted then and fruitless Why may not I yet live to see you again within these Walls and with all those Transports of Extacy and Satisfaction as heretofore But how I fool my self for I find now that the Passion which on my side took up all the faculties of my soul and Body was only excited on your part by some loose Pleasures and that they were to live and die together It should have been my Business even in the Nick of those Critical and Blessed Minutes to have Reason'd my self into the Moderation of so Charming and deadly an Excess and to have told my self before-hand the fate which I now suffer But my Thoughts were too much taken up with You to consider my self So that I was not in Condition to attend the Care of my Repose or to bethink my self of what might poison it and disappoint me in the full Emprovement of the most Ardent Instances of your Affection I was too much pleas'd with you to think of parting with you and yet you may remember that I have told you now and then by fits that you would be the Ruin of me But those Phancies were soon dispers'd and I was glad to yield them up too and to give up my self to the Enchantments of your false Oaths and Protestations I see very well the Remedy of all my Misfortunes and that I should quickly be at Ease if I could leave Loving you But Alas That were a Remedy worse then the disease No no I 'le rather endure any thing then forget you Nor could I if I would 'T is a thing that did never so much as enter into my Thought But is not your Condition now the worse of the two Is it not better to endure what I now suffer then to enjoy Your faint satisfactions among your French Mistresses I am so far from Envying your Indifference that I Pitty it I defie you to forget me absolutely and I am deceiv'd if I have not taken such a Course with you that you shall never be perfectly happy without me Nay perhaps I am at this Instant the less miserable of the two in regard that I am the more employ'd They have lately made me door-keeper here in this Convent All the people that talk to me think me mad for I answer them I know not what And certainly the rest of the Convent must be as mad as I they would never else have thought me Capable of any Trust. How do I envy the good Fortune of poor Emanuel and Francisco Why cannot I be with you perpetually as they are tho in your Livery too I should follow you as Close without dispute and serve you at least as faithfully for there is nothing in this World that I so much desire as to see you But however let me entreat you to think of me and I shall Content my self with a bare place in your Memory And yet I cannot tell neither whether I should or no for I know very well that when I saw you every day I should hardly have satisfy'd my self within these Bounds But you have taught me since that whatsoever you will have me do I must do In the Interim I do not at all repent of my Passion for you Nay I am well enough satisfi'd that you have seduc'd me and your Absence it self tho' never so rigorous and perhaps Eternal does not at all lessen the vigour of my Love which I will avow to the Whole world for I make no secret on 't I have done many things irregularly 't is true and and against the Common Rules of good Manners and not without taking some Glory in them neither because they were done for your sake My honour and Religion are brought only to serve the Turn of my Love and to carry me on to my lives end in the Passionate Continuance of the Affection I have begun I do not write this to draw a Letter from you wherefore never force your self for the Matter for I will receive nothing at your hands no not so much as any Mark of your Affection unless it comes of its own accord and in a Manner whether you Will or No. If it may give you any satisfaction to save your self the trouble of Writing it shall give me some likewise to excuse the Unkindness of it for I am wonderfully enclin'd to pass over all