Nevv epistles of Mounsieur de Balzac. Translated out of French into English, by Sr. Richard Baker Knight. Being the second and third volumes

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Title
Nevv epistles of Mounsieur de Balzac. Translated out of French into English, by Sr. Richard Baker Knight. Being the second and third volumes
Author
Balzac, Jean-Louis Guez, seigneur de, 1597-1654.
Publication
London :: Printed by T. Cotes [and John Dawson] for Fra. Eglesfield, Iohn Crooke, and Rich. Serger, and are to be sold at the Gray-hound in Pauls Chuch-yard [sic],
1638.
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Link to this Item
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A02322.0001.001
Cite this Item
"Nevv epistles of Mounsieur de Balzac. Translated out of French into English, by Sr. Richard Baker Knight. Being the second and third volumes." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A02322.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 13, 2024.

Pages

SIR, My deare Cousin,

one cannot say you nay, in any thing: to doe you a second plea∣sure, I am about to commit a second treason, and to send you the Verses, of which I told you who was the Poet. I was bound by a thousand Oaths to keepe them secret, but I must confesse you are a strange corrupter, and your perswasi∣ons would shake a firmer fidelitie than mine: yet to the end, we may at least save the appa∣rence, and give some colour to my fault; you may be pleased to say, that it is the translation of an Ode, made by Cornelia, mother of the Grac∣chi, and that you found it, in an ancient Manu∣script: you may say, shee made it for one of her sonnes, being in love with a woman, whom af∣terward he married; and that seeing him one day looke extreamly pale, shee asked him, what it was had made him sicke? There is nothing more true than this Story, and there needs no∣thing, but to change the Names. It is not indeed, the same person, but it is the same merit, and I am sure, you doubt not, but a French Lady is capable of as much, as Quintilian spake of a Romans: Graccorum eloquentiae multum contu∣•…•…isse Corneliam, matrem, cujus doctis•…•…mus ser∣mo,

Page 72

in posteros quo{que} est Epistolis traditus.—I never heard speake of such an impatience, or such an irresolution, for I cannot beleeve, that it is either feare, or effeminatenesse, or that the spi∣rit of so great a Prince could be subject to such enormous maladies. Whatsoever it be, if he had but read Virgill, a woman would have sayd un∣to him with great indignation; and is it then such a miserable thing to die? And if he had been in the Levant, he might have learned of a Turkish Proverbe, That it is better to be a Cock for one day, than a Henne all ones life. Et con questo vi bacio le mani, and am

Sir, my deere Cousin,

Your, &c.

〈◊〉〈◊〉. August, 1630.

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