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Examples

  • - I1v - thrust in the Clowne by head and shoulders to play a part in majesticall matters, with neither decencie nor discretion: so as neither the admiration and Commiseration, nor the the right sportfulnesse is by their mongrell Tragicomedie obtained.

    Defence of Poesie 1992

  • And there is a decencie, that euery speech should be to the appetite and delight, or dignitie of the hearer & not for any respect arrogant or vndutifull, as was that of _Alexander_ sent Embassadour from the

    The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

  • The Greekes call this good grace of euery thing in his kinde, [Greek: illegible], the Latines [_decorum_] we in our vulgar call it by a scholasticall terme [_decencie_] our owne Saxon

    The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

  • For in comparison of these treasours, all the gold or siluer in the world may by a skornefull terme be called pelfe, & so ye see that the reason of the decencie holdeth not alike in both cases.

    The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

  • Now let vs passe from these examples, to treate of those that concerne the comelinesse and decencie of mans behauiour.

    The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

  • In all things to vse decencie, is it onely that giueth euery thing his good grace & without which nothing in mans speach could seeme good or gracious, in so much as many times it makes a bewtifull figure fall into deformitie, and on th'other side a vicious speach seeme pleasaunt and bewtifull: this decencie is therfore the line & leuell for al good makers to do their busines by.

    The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

  • And there is a decencie in chusing the times of a mans busines, and as the

    The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

  • And in the choise of a man's delights & maner of his life, there is a decencie, and so we say th'old man generally is no fit companion for the young man, nor the rich for the poore, nor the wise for the foolish.

    The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

  • _Cineas_ Counsellour to king _Pirrhus_, who kept that decencie in all his perswasions, that he euer preuailed in aduice, and carried the king which way he would.

    The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

  • _Of decencie in behauiour and action, which also belongs to the consideration of a Poet or maker.

    The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

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