XXII.
MADAM,
YOu said in your last Letter, that Sir G. A. doth so brag of his own gallant Actions, as he saves his neighbour the labour to report them;
CCXI sociable letters written by the thrice noble, illustrious, and excellent princess, the Lady Marchioness of Newcastle.
About this Item
- Title
- CCXI sociable letters written by the thrice noble, illustrious, and excellent princess, the Lady Marchioness of Newcastle.
- Author
- Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of, 1624?-1674.
- Publication
- London :: Printed by William Wilson ...,
- M.DC.LXIV [1664]
- Rights/Permissions
-
To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
- Link to this Item
-
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A53064.0001.001
- Cite this Item
-
"CCXI sociable letters written by the thrice noble, illustrious, and excellent princess, the Lady Marchioness of Newcastle." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A53064.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 15, 2024.
Pages
Page 41
I am sorry to hear gallant men should brag of their own Actions, for their bragging takes off the gloss of their Courage; for as Time takes off Youth or fresh Colour off Beauty, so Self-praise takes off the Esteem and Honour of Merit: But as some will boast of their own Worth, so others will boast of their own Baseness, as what subtil Cheats they have pra∣ctised, or whom they have Betrayed, or how ingenious they were in telling Lies, or how many Robberies they have commit∣ted; as also of their Disobedience, Disloyal∣ty, and the like; others will boast of their Debaucheries, as how often they have had the French Disease, how many Women they have Debauch'd, how much they can Drink before they are Drunk, and how long they can sit a Drinking, what Monies they have Won or Lost at Play, how Vain and Expen∣sive they are, or have been, and many the like, which I wonder at, that men should Glory and take a Pride in that which is Base or Foolish: But this argues some men to have mean Souls and foolish Brains, full of idle Discourses, wanting Judgement and Wit; also unprofitable Lives, and when they Die there is a good riddance, for they were but as Rubbish in the World, which Death, like as an honest painful Labourer, takes up like as Dunghils, and throws them into the Grave, and buries them in Oblivi∣on, not being worthy of a monument of Re∣membrance,
Page 42
in which Grave I leave those that are Dead, and those that Live I wish may be Reformed to more Purity; so I rest,
Madam,
Your faithful Friend and Servant.