Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	father_n	king_n	son_n	3,169	4	5.2990	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58024	The tragedies of the last age consider'd and examin'd by the practice of the ancients and by the common sense of all ages in a letter to Fleetwood Shepheard, Esq. / by Thomas Rymer, of Grays-Inn, Esq.	Rymer, Thomas, 1641-1713.	1678 (1678)	Wing R2430; ESTC R2180	47,703	161

the art and what rests in eye 'T is by the History to which the picture serves only as an Index For till our memory goes back to the History the head of the Baptist can say no more to us than the head of Goliah But the Ancients in their Tragedies rested not on History They found that History grosly taken was neither proper to instruct nor apt to please and therefore they would not trust History for their examples but refin'd upon the History and thence contriv'd something e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more philosophical and more accurate than History But whether our English Authors of Tragedy lay their foundation so deep whether they had any design in their designs and whether it was to prudence or to chance that they sacrific'd is the business of this present enquiry We have in Herodian the horrid and bloody story of the two Brothers Antoninus and Geta Emperors all which crude and undigested as in the Original we find cram'd into The Tragedy of Rollo Duke of Normandy NO reason I presume can be given why having found an History this Author should change the names of Antoninus and Geta into Rollo and Otto Emperors of Rome into Dukes of Normandy Nor why he alter'd the Scene to bring these Cut-throats and Poisoners from the other side of the Alps. Aristotle tells it as extraordinary of a Tragedy made by Polemon wherein both the names and matter were of his own invention and yet it had the fortune to please He also reminds us that a man is better pleas'd with the picture of an acquaintance than of a person of whom we had never heard And we generally observe when one tells of an adventure or but a jeast he will choose to father it on some one that is known thereby to get attention and gain more credit to what he relates Besides many things are probable of Antoninus or of Alexander and particular men because they are true which cannot be generally probable and he that will be feigning persons should confine his fancy to general probability The Fable is this ROllo and Otto Brothers and both equally let me call them Kings of one and the same Kingdom cannot agree about the matter Rollo by the means of his favourite Latorch attempts to poison his Brother which failing he kills Otto in the arms of their Mother Sophia with Sword drawn offers to kill his Mother and Sister Mat. but is disarm'd by Aubrey yet sends out Lord Chancellor Gisbert to be chopt in two and thrown to the dogs and his Tutor Baldwin also to be beheaded Hamond Captain of the Guards saw all this executed Allan the Captain 's Brother gives his quondam-Master the Chancellor Christian Burial for which he is sent to por Edith Baldwin's Daughter beseeches the King to spare her Father prevails but too late Rollo is in love with her she resolves his death Hamond in revenge of his Brother Allan stabs and is stab'd by Rollo whose Sister Matilda Aubrey takes to Wife and Reigns in his stead Now if you call this a Fable give me one of old AEsop's where for all the coarse out-side there dwells a little reasonable Soul within a little good Sense at the bottom which carries it through all Nations and will commend it to the end of the World For nothing certainly is design'd in this of Rollo either to move pitty or terror either to delight or instruct It is indeed a History and it may well be a History for never man of common sense could set himself to invent any thing so gross Poetry requires the ben trovato something handsomely invented and leaves the truth to History but never were the Muses profan'd with a more foul unpleasant and unwholsome truth than this which makes the Argument of Rollo If the end of this Tragedy is the Marriage and Coronation of Aubrey had one of the ancient Poets been to cultivate this History They would have laid the right of the Crown in Aubrey They would have given us to understand that Aubrey's Father a good King rais'd Rollo's Father from a mean condition to be his favourite and have the places of greatest trust and confidence with him This ungrateful Villain most treacherously murders the King his Master settles himself on his Throne dies in Peace leaves the Kingdom equally to his two Sons These Sons enter upon the Government the people swear Allegiance to 'em Complement them with Addresses from all Countreys the Air rings with Vive-le-Roy's and Acclamations The Sun shines as it was wont the Grass grows Cows give white Milk and no AEgyptian Plague troubles the Land Heaven has forgot and human means appear none for either revenging the murder'd King or restoring his Son Aubrey Now is the time for a Poet to shew his cunning Now he must bring a sudden and terrible judgment to destroy the Rollian-Race and set young Aubrey on the Throne of his Ancestors To effect this the two Brothers must be made to kill each other and as a consequence of this disaster their Mother is to kill her self for sorrow These Brothers in their character would have been harmless men modest enough and loving each other tenderly for had they been wicked the judgment upon them might be apply'd as due to their own crimes Or however their Fathers crime in it self would have appear'd less as not enough alone to deserve that vengeance and if the occasion was not clear the punishment would be less regarded but their innocence makes the punishment more signal and extraordinary and more discovers the work of Heaven And thus also they are capable of moving pitty when only their Father's crime pursues them and it seems likely that other wise they might have liv'd happily together Their Sister Matilda must have been a vertuous sweet Lady every way of singular merit sensible of her Father's crime and of the wrong that Aubrey suffers By this character all those who had pittied her Brothers would have been extremely satisfi'd to see their Sister so well preferr'd in the Marriage with Aubrey for Heaven by this would seem in her to make some amends for the hard measure to the unfortunate Brothers Aubrey should in all his words and actions appear great promising and Kingly to deserve that care which Heaven manifests so wonderfully in his Restoration And because this of the two Brothers killing each other is an action morally unnatural therefore by way of preparation the Tragedy would have begun with Heaven and Earth in disorder nature troubl'd unheard of prodigies something if I may so say physically unnatural and against the ordinary course of nature Perhaps the first Scene would have shew'd the Usurper's Ghost from Hell full of horror for his crime cursing his Sons and sending some infernal fury amongst them And by the way he might relate all things fit to be known which past out of the Drama The nicety in writing upon this Fable would have chiefly been in the characters of the