to peruert the senses and iudgements of all and all not able to represse the lightnesse and vanity of one Things that are new and not accustomed neyther Princes ought to allow nor yet the people to vse For a newe thing ought no lesse to bee examined and considered before it be brought into the cōmon wealth then the great doubts which arise in mens mindes Ruffinus in the Prologue of his secōd Booke of his Apologie reprooueth greatly the Egyptians because they were too full of deuises and blamed much the Grecians because they were too curious in speaking fine wordes and aboue all other hee greatly prayseth the Romanes for that they were very hard of beleefe and that they scarcely alwayes credited the sayings of the Greekes and because they were discreete in admitting the inuentions of the Egyptians The Author hath reason to prayse the one and disprayse the other For it proceedeth of a light iudgement to credit all the thinges that a man heareth and to doe all that he seeth Returning therefore now to our matter Marcus Varro sayde that there were fiue things in the Worlde very hard to bring in whereof none after they were commonly accepted were euer lost or forgotten for euen as things vainely begunne are easily left of so thinges with great feare accepted are with much care and diligence to bee kept and obserued The first thing that chiefly throghout all the World was accepted was all men for to liue together that is for to say that they should make places Towns Villages Citties and Common wealthes For according to the saying of Plato the first best inuentors of the common-wealth were the Antes which according to to the experience wee see do liue together trauell together do go together also for the winter they make prouision together and furthermore none of these Antes doe giue themselues to any priuate thing but all theirs is brought into their common wealth It is a maruellous thing to behold the common wealth of the ants how nearely they trim their hils to behold how they sweepe away the graine when it is wette and how they drye it when they feele any moysture to behold how they come from their work and how the one doth not hurt the other and to behold also how they do reioyce the one in the others trauell and that which is to our greatest confusion is that if it comes so to passe 50000. Ants wil liue in a litle hillocke together and two men onely cannot liue in peace and concord in a common wealth Would to God the wisedome of men were so great to keep themselus as the prudence of the ants is to liue When the world came to a certaine age and mens wits waxed more fine then tirants sprang vp which oppressed the poore theeues that robbed the rich rebels that robbed the quiet murderers that slew the patient the idle that eate the swet of other mens browes all the which things considered by them which were vertuous they agreed to assemble and liue together that thereby they might preserue the good and withstand the wicked Macrobius affirmeth this in the second booke of Scipions dreame saying That couetousnes ond auarice was the greatest cause why men inuented the commonwealth Plinie in the seuenth booke 56. Chapter sayth the first that made small assemblies were the Athenians and the first that built great Cities were the Egyptians The second thing that was accepted throughout al the world were the letters which wee read whereby wee take profite in writing According whereunto Marcus Varro sayth the Egyptians prayse themselues and say that they did inuent them and the Assyrians affirme the contrary and sweare that they were shewed first of all amongst them Plinie in the 7. booke sayth that in the first age there was in the alphabet no more then 16. letters that great Palamedes at the siege of Troy ladded other 4. and Aristotle saith that immediatly after the beginning there were found 18. letters And that afterwards Palamedes did add but 2. and so there were 20. and that the Philosopher Epicarmus did adde other 2. which were 22. it is no great matter whether the Egyptians or the Assyrians first foūd the letters But I say and affirme that it was a thing necessary for a common wealth and also for the encrease of mans knowledge For if wee had wanted letters and writings wee could haue had no knowledge of the time past nor yet our posterity could haue bin aduertised what was done in our daies Plutarch in the second booke entituled De viris illustribus and Pliny in the seuenth booke and 56. Chapter doe greatly praise Pirotas because hee first found the fire in a flint stone They greatly commended Protheus because he inuented barneyes and they highly extolled Panthasuea because she inuented the hatchet They praysed Citheus because hee inuented the bowe and the arrowes they greatly praysed Phenisius because hee inuented the Crossebow and the sling They highly praised the Lacedemonians because they inuented the Helmet the Speare and the Sworde and moreouer they commende those of Thessalie because they inuented the combat on hors-back and they commend those of Affrike because they inuented the fight by Sea But I doe praise and continually will magnifie not those which found the Art of fighting and inuented weapons to procure warres for to kill his neighbour but those which found Letters for to learne Science and to make peace betweene two Princes What difference there is to wet the Penne with inke and to paint the Speare with bloud to be enuironed with bookes or to be laden with weapons To studie how euery man ought to liue or else to goe priuily and robbe in the Warres and to kill his Neighbour There is none of so vaine a iudgement but will praise more the Speculation of the Sciences then the practise of the warres Because that in the ende he that learneth sciences learneth nought else but how he and others ought to liue And he that learneth warlike feats learneth none other thing then how to slay his Neighbour and to destroy others The third thing that equally of all was accepted were lawes For admit that all men now liued together in common if they would not be subiect one to another there would contention arise amongst them for that according to the saying of Plato That there is no greater token of the destruction of a Common-weale then when many rulers are chosen therein Plinie in his seuenth booke 56. chap sayth that a Queene called Ceres was the first that taught them to sowe in the fields to grinde in Milles to paste and bake in Ouens and also shee was the first that taught the people to liue according to the Law And by the meanes of these things our Fore-fathers called her a Goddesse Since the time we neuer haue seene heard nor read of any realme or other nation as well strange as barbarous whatsoeuer they were but haue had Lawes
paine answere thy demand For the doings of youth in a yong man were neuer so vpright honest but it were more honest to amend them then to declare them Annius Verus my father shewing vnto me his fatherly loue not accomplishing yet fully 13. years drew me frō the vices of Rome and sent mee to Rhodes to learn science howbeit better accompanied with books then loden with money where I vsed such diligence and fortune so fauored me that at the age of 26. years I read openly natural and moral Philosophy and also Rhetoricke and there was nothing gaue mee such occasion to study and reade books as the want of money For pouerty causeth good mens children to be vertuous so that they attaine to that by vertue which others com vnto by riches Truely friend Pulio I found great want of the pleasures of Rome especially at my first comming into the Isle but after I had read Philosophy x. yeares at Rhodes I tooke my selfe as one born in the countrey And I think my conuersation among them caused it seeme no lesse For it is a rule that neuer faileth That vertue maketh a stranger grow naturall in a strange country and vice maketh the naturall a stranger in his owne countrey Thou knowest well how my Father Annius Verus was 15. years a Captain in the Frontiers against the barbarous by the commandement of Adrian my Lord and Master and Antoninus Pius my Father in Law both of them Princes of famous memory which recommended mee there to their olde friends who with fatherly counsell exhorted me to forgette the vices of Rome and to accustome my selfe to the vertues of Rhodes And truely it was but needfull for mee For the naturall loue of the country oft times bringeth damage to him that is borne therein leading his desire still to returne home Thou shalt vnderstand that the Rhodians are men of much courtesie and requiting benenolences which chanceth in few Isles because that naturally they are persons deceitfull subtill vnthankefull and full of suspition I speake this because my Fathers friends alwaies succored me with counsel mony which 2 things were so necessary that I could not tell which of them I had most need of For the stranger maketh his profite with money to withstand disdainefull pouerty profiteth himself with counsel to forget the sweet loue of his country I desired then to reade Philosophie in Rhodes so long as my Father continued there Captaine But that could not bee for Adrian my Lord sent for me to return to Rome which pleased me not a litle albeit as I haue said they vsed me as if I had beene borne in that Iland for in the end Although the eyes bee fedde with delight to see strange things yet therefore the heart is not satisfied And this is all that touched the Rhodians I will now tell thee also how before my going thither I was borne and brought vp in mount Celio in Rome with my father from mine infancie In the common wealth of Rome there was a law vsed and by custome well obserued that no Citizen which enioyed any liberty of Rome after their sonnes had accomplished tenne yeares should bee so bold or hardy to suffer them to walke the streetes like vacabonds For it was a custome in Rome that the children of the Senators should sucke till two yeares of age till foure they should liue at their own willes till sixe they should reade till eight they should write til ten they should study Grammer and ten years accomplished they should then take some craft or occupation or giue themselues to study or goe to the warres so that throughout Rome no man was idle In one of the lawes of the twelue Tables were written these words Wee ordaine and commaund that euery Citizen that dwelleth within the circuite of Rome or Liberties of the same from ten yeares vpwards to keepe his son well ordered And if perchance the child being idle or that no man teaching him any craft or science should thereby peraduenture fall to vice or commit some wicked offence that then the Father no lesse then the Sonne should bee punished For there is nothing so much breedeth vice amongst the people as when the Fathers are too negligent and the children bee too bold And furthermore another Law sayde Wee ordaine and commaund that after tenne yeares bee past for the first offence that the child shall commit in Rome that the Father shall bee bound to send him forth some where else or to bee bound surety for the good demeanour of his Sonne For it is not reason that the fond loue of the Father to the Sonne should bee an occasion why the multitude should bee slaunred Because all the wealth of the Empire consisteth in keeping and maintaining quiet men and in banishing and expelling seditious persons I will tell thee one thing my Pulio and I am sure thou wilt maruell at it and it is this When Rome triumphed and by good wisdome gouerned all the world the inhabitants in the same surmounted the number of two hundred thousand persons which was a maruellous matter Amongst whom as a man may iudge there was a hundred thousand children But they which had the charge of them kept them in such awe and doctrine that they banished from Rome one of the sonnes of Cato Vticensis for breaking an earthen pot in a Maydens hands which went to fetch water In like manner they banished the sonne of good Cinna only for entring into a garden to gather fruit And none of these two were as yet fifteene yeeres old For at that time they chastised them more for the offences done in iest then they do now for those which are don in good earnest Our Cicero sayth in his booke De Legibus That the Romanes neuer tooke in any thing more pains then to restrain the children as well olde as the young from idlenes And so long endured the feare of their Law and honour of their common wealth as they suffered not their children like vagabonds idlely to wander the streetes For that country may aboue all other bee counted happy where each one enioyeth his owne labour and no man liueth by the sweate of another I let thee know my Pulio that when I was a child although I am not yet very old none durst bee so hardy to goe commonly through Rome without a token about him of the craft and occupation hee exercised and wherby hee liued And if any man had beene taken contrary the children did not onely crie out of him in the streets as of a foole but also the Censour afterwards condemned him to trauell with the captiues in common workes For in Rome they esteemed it not lesse shame to the child which was idle then they did in Greece to the Philosopher which was ignorant And to the end thou mayest see this I write vnto thee to be no new thing thou oughtest to know that the Emperour caused
say they are faithfull for oftentimes greater are the theeues which are receiuers and treasurers then are they that doe rob among the people I leaue thee my sonne expert and ancient men of whom thou maiest take counsell and with whom thou maiest communicat thy troubles for there can bee fourmed no honest thing in a Prince vnlesse hee hath in his company auncient men for such giue grauitie to his person and authoritie to his pallace To inuent Theaters to sish ponds to chase wilde beasts in the forrests to runne in the fields to let thy haukes flye and to exercise weapons al these things we can denie thee as to a yong man and thou being yong mayest reioice thy selfe in all these Thou oughtest also to haue respect that to ordaine armes inuent warres follow victories accept truces confirm peace raise bruites to make lawes to promote the one and put down the others to punish the euill and first to reward the good the counsell of all these things ought to bee taken of cleare iudgements of persons of experience and of white heads Thinkest thou not that it is possible to passe the time with the yong and to counsell with the old The wife and discreet Princes for all things haue time enough if they know well how to measure it Beware my sonne that they note thee not to vse great extremities for the end and occasion why I speake it is because thou shouldst know if thou knowest not that it is as vndecent a thing for a Prince vnder the colour of granitie to bee ruled and gouerned wholie by olde men as vnder semblance of pastime alwaies to accompanie himselfe with the yong It is no generall rule that all young men are light nor all old men sage And thou must according to my aduise in such case vse it thus if any old man lose the grauity of his age expulse him from thee if thou finde any young men sage despise not their counsell For the Bees doe drawe more honey out of the tender flowers then of the hard leaues I do not condemne the aged nor I doe commend the young but it shall bee well done that alwayes thou choose of both the most vertuous For of truth there is no company in the Worlde so euill ordered but that there is mean to liue with it without any suspition so that if the young are euill with solly the olde are worse through couetousnesse Once againe I returne to aduertise thee my sonne that in no wise thou vse extremitie for if thou beleeue none but young they will corrupt thy manners with lightnesse and if thou beleeue none but the old they will depraue thy iustice through couetousnesse What thing can bee more monstrous then that the prince which commaundeth all should suffer him to be commaunded of one alone Beleeue me sonne in this case that the gouernements of many are seldome times gouerned well by the head of one alone The Prince which hath to rule and gouerne many ought to take the aduise and counsell of many It is a great inconuenience that thou beeing Lord of many Realmes shouldst haue but one gate wherein all doe enter into to doe their businesse with thee For if perchance he which shall be thy familiar be of his owne nature good and be not mine enemy yet I would be afraid of him because hee is a friend of mine enemies And though for hate they doe me no euill yet I am afraide that for the loue of another he will cease to do me good I remember that in the Annalles of Pompeius I found a little booke of memories which the great Pompeius bare about him wherein were many things that he had reade and other good counsels which in diuers parts of the world he had lerned and among other wordes there were these The Gouernour of the Common-wealth which committeth all the gouernment to old men deserueth very little and hee that trusteth all young is light Hee that gouerneth it by himselfe alone is beyond himselfe and he which by himselfe and others doth gouerne it is a wise Prince I know not whether these sentences are of the same Pompeius or that hee gathered them out of some book or that any Philosopher had told him them or some friend of his had giuen him them I meane that I had them written with his hands and truly they deserued to bee written in letters of gold When thy affayres shall bee waighty see thou dispatch them alwayes by counsell For when the affaires be determined by the counsell of many the fault shall be diuided among them all Thou shalt finde it for a truth my sonne that if thou take counsell of many the one will tel the inconuenience the other the perill other the feare the other the damage the other the profite and the other the remedy finally they will so debate thy affayrs that plainly thou shalt know the good and see the danger thereof I aduertise thee my son that when thou takest counsel thou behold with thy eyes the inconuenience as well as the remedies which they shall offer vnto thee for the true counsell consisteth not to tell what they ought to doe but to declare what thereof is like to succeede When thou shalt enterprise my son great and weighty affayres as much oughtest thou to regard the little dammages for to cutte them off in time as the great mishaps to remedy them For oftenttmes it chanceth that for the negligence of taking vp a gutter the whole house falleth to the ground Notwithstanding I tell thee thou take counsell I meane not that thou oughtest to be so curious as for euery trifle to cal thy counsell for there are many thinges of such quality that they would bee immediately put in execution and they doe endammage themselues attending for counsell That which by thine own authority thou mayest dispatch without the dammage of the Common-wealth referre it to no other person and herein thou shalt be iust and shalt doe iustice conformable for considering that thy seruice dependeth onely of them the reward which they ought to haue ought to depend onely on thee I remember that when Marius the Consull came from the warres of Numedia he diuided all the treasure hee brought among his souldiers not putting one jewell into the common Treasurie And when hereof hee was accused for that he had not demaunded licence of the Senat he answered them It is not iust I take counsell with others for to giue recompence to those which haue not taken the opinions of others to serue me Thou shalt find my sonne a kind of men which are very hard of money and exceeding prodigal of counsell There are also diuers lenders which without demaunding them doe offer to giue it With such like men thou shalt haue this counsell neuer looke thou for good counsell at that man whose counsell tendeth to the preiudice of another for he offereth words to thy seruice and trauelleth thy businesse
was a certain philosopher wrote a book of hie and eloquent stile but the subiect very harde and diffuse to vnderstand which Socrates other philosophers hearing of cōmanded immediatly the Booke to be burned and the Author to be banished by which exāple we may well perceiue that in that so perfit and reformed Vniuersitie they would not onely suffer any Lasciuious or vicious booke but also they would not beare with those that were too hawtie and vainglorious in their stiles and whose matter was not profitable and beneficiall to the Publike-weale That man therfore that walloweth in idlenes lap that vouchsafes not to spēd one houre of the day to read a graue sentence of some good Booke wee may rather deseruedly cal him a brutish beast then a reasonable creature For euery wise man ought to glory more of the knowledge he hath then of the aboundance of goods he possesseth And it cannot be denyed but that those which reade vertuous Bookes are euer had in better fauor and estimation then others For they learne to speake they passe their time without trouble they know many pleasant things which they after tel to others they haue audacitie to reproue others euery man delighteth to heare them in what place or companie soeuer they come they are alwaies reuerenced honored aboue others euery man desireth their knowledge and acquaintance and are glad to aske them counsell And that that is yet of greater credit to them is that they are not few in number that trusteth them with their bodie goods And moreouer I say that the wise and learned man which professeth studie shall know very well how to counsel his friend and to comfort himselfe at all times when neede doeth serue which the foolish ignorant person can not doe For he cannot only tell how to comfort the afflicted in aduersitie but also hee cannot helpe himselfe in his own proper affaires nor take coūsell of himselfe what is best to doe But returning againe to our purpose we say because we would not be reproued of that we rebuke others of wee haue beene very circumspect and aduised and taking great care and paines in our study that all our books and workes wee haue published and compyled should be so exactly done that the Readers might not find any ill doctrine nor also any thing worthy reproofe For the vnhonest bookes made by lasciuious persōs do giue deseruedly euident token to the Readers to suspect the Authours and troubleth the iudgements of those that giue attentiue care vnto them And therefore I counsell and admonish him that will enterprise and take vppon him to bee a wryter and a setter forth of Bookes that hee bee wise in his matter hee sheweth and compendious in the wordes hee writeth and not to bee like to diuers Wryters whose workes are of such a phrase and style as we shall reade many times to the middest of the booke ere wee finde one good and notable sentence so that a man may say that al the fruit those reape for their paine watches and trauell is none other but onely a meere toye and mockery they being derided of euery man that seeth their workes That Authour that vndertaketh to write and afterwardes prostrateth to common iudgement the thing hee wryteth may bee assured that hee setteth his wittes to great trauell and studie and hazardeth his honour to present perill For the iudgement of men being variable and diuers as they are indeede manie times they doe meddle and enter into iudgement of those things whereof they are not only not capable to vnderstand but also lesse skilfull to reade them Now in that booke wee haue set out of The Dyall of Princes and in that other wee haue translated of the Life of the Romaine Emperours and in this wee haue now set forth Of the fauoured Courtiers the Readers may bee assured they shall find in them goodly and graue sentences whereby thy may greatly profit and they shall not read any wordes superfluous to comber or weary them at all For we did not once licence our pen to dare to write any word that was not first weyed in true ballāce measured by iust measure And GOD can testifie with vs that without doubt wee haue had more paine to be briefe in the wordes of our books we haue hitherto made then we haue had to gather out the inuention and graue sentences thereof For to speake good words and to haue good matter and wise purposes is the property of one that naturally is modest and graue in his actions but to write briefely he must haue a deepe vnderstanding When at the Fonte of the Printers Forme we first baptized the Booke of Marcus Aurelius wee intituled it The Dyall of Princes and this therefore that we haue now made and added to it we call it more for briefnes The fauoured Courtyer which portendeth the whet-stone and instruction of a Courtyer For if they will vouchsafe to reade and take the fruitfull counselles they finde written heerein they may assure themselues they shall awaken out of the vanityes they haue long slept in and shall also open their eies to see the better that thing wherin they liue so long deceyued And albeit indeed this present work sheweth to you but a fewe contriued lines yet GOD himselfe doeth knowe the paines we haue taken herein hath bin exceeding great and this for two causes the one for that the matter is very straunge and diuerse from others the other to thinke that assuredly it should be hated of those that want the taste of good discipline And therefore wee haue taken great care it should come out of our hands well reformed and corrected to the ende that Courtyers might finde out many Sentences in it profitable for them and not one word to trouble them Those Noble-men or Gentlemen that will from henceforth haue their children brought vp in the Courtes of Princes shall finde in this Booke all things they shall neede to prouide them of And those also which haue beene long Courtyers shall finde all that they ought to doe in Court And such also as are best fauoured of Noble Princes and carrie greatest reputation of honour with them shall find likewise excellent good counsels by meane whereof they may alwayes maintain and continue themselues in the chiefest greatnesse of their credite and fauour so that it may well be called a Mithridaticall Electuary recuring and healing all malignant opilations Of all the Bookes I haue hitherto compiled I haue Dedicated some of them vnto the Imperiall Maiestie and others to those of best fauor and credite with him where the Readers may see that I rather glorie to bee a Satyr then a Flatterer for that in all my sentences they cannot finde one cloked word to enlarge and embetter my credite and estate But to the contrary they may reade an infinite number of others where I doe exhort them to gouern their person discreetly and honorably and to amend their
the state of the rich is good if they will Godly vse it I say the estate of the Religious is good if they be able to profite others I say the estate of the communaltie is good if they will content themselues I say the estate of the poore is good if they haue pacience For it is no merite to suffer troubles if wee haue not pacience therein During the time of this our miserable life we cannot denie but in euery estate there is both trouble danger For then onely our estate shall be perfite when we shall come gloriously in soule and bodie without the feare of death and also when we shall reioyce without daungers in life Returning againe to our purpose Mightie Prince although wee all be of value little wee all haue little we all can attaine little wee all know little we all are able to doe little we all loue but little yet in all this little the state of Princes seemeth some great and high thing For that worldly men say There is no such felicitie in this life as to haue authoritie to cōmaund many and to be bound to obey none But if eyther subiects knew how deere Princes by their power to command or if princes knew how sweet a thing it is to liue in quiet doubtles the subjects would pittie their rulers and the rulers would not enuie their subiects For full fewe are the pleasures which Princes enjoy in respect of the troubles that they endure Since then the estates of Princes is greater then all that hee may do more then all is of more value then all vpholdeth more then all And finally that from thence proceedeth the gouernement of all it is more needefull that the House the Person and the life of a Prince be better gouerned and ordered then all the rest For euen as by the meate-yard the Marchaunt measureth all his wares So by the life whole of the Prince is measured the whole common-weale Many sorrowes endureth the woman in nourishing a way-ward child great trauell taketh a Schoolmaster in teaching an vntoward scholler much paines taketh an Officer in gouerning a multitude ouer-great How great then is the paine and perill wherevnto I offer my selfe in taking vpon mee to order the life of such an one vpon whose life dependeth all the good estate of a Common-weale For Noble Princes and great Lords ought of vs to bee serued and not offended wee ought to exhort them not to vexe them wee ought to encreate them not to rebuke them wee ought to aduise them and not to defame them Finally I say the right simple reckon I that Surgion which with the same plaisters hee layed to a harde heele seeketh to cure the tender Eyes I meane by this comparison that my purpose is not to tell Princes and Noble-men in this booke what they be but to warne them what they ought to bee not to tell them what they do but to aduise them what they ought to doe For that Noble-man which will not amende his life for remorse of his owne conscience Iidoe thinke hee will doe it for the writing of my pen. Paulus Dyaconus the first Hystoriographer in the second booke of his Commentaryes sheweth an antiquitie right worthie to remember and also pleasaunt to read Although indeed to the hinderaunce of my selfe I shall rehearse it It is as of the Henne who by long scraping on the Dung-hill discouereth the knife that shall cut her owne throate Thus was the case Hanniball the most renowmed Prince and captain of Carthage after hee was vanquished by the aduenturous Scipio fled into Asia to king Antiochus a prince then liuing of great vertue who receyued him into his realme tooke him into his protection and right honourably intertayned him in his house And truly king Antiochus did heerein as a pittyfull prince For what can more beautifie the honour of a Prince then to succour Nobilitie in their needefull estate These two Noble Princes vsed diuers exercises to spende the time honourablie and thus they diuided their time Sometime to hunt in the mountains otherwhiles to disporre them in the fields oft to view their Armeys But chiefly they resorted to the Schooles to heare the Phylosophers And truely they did like wise and skilfull men For there is no houre in a day otherwise so well employed as in hearing a wise pleasant tongued man There was at a time in Ephesus a famous Philosopher called Phormio which openly and publikely read and taught the people of the realme And one day as these two Princes came into the Schoole the Philosopher Phormio chaunged the matter whereupon he read and of a sudden began to talke of the meanes and wayes that Princes ought to vse in warre and of the order to bee kept in giuing battell Such so strange and high phrased was the matter which hee talked of that not onely they maruelled which neuer before saw him but euen those also that of long time had daily heard him For herein curious and flourishing wits shew their excellency in that they neuer want fresh matter to entreate vpon Greatly gloried the King Antiochus that this Philosopher in presēce of this strange Prince had so excellently spoken so that strangers might vnderstand he had his realme stored with wise men For couragious and noble Princes esteem nothing so precious as to haue men valiāt to defend their Frontiers and also wise to gouerne their common-weales The Lecture read King Antiochus demaunded of the Prince Hannibal how he liked the talke of the Philosopher Formio to whom Hanibal stoutly answered and in his answer shewed himselfe to bee of that stoutnesse he was the same day when he wan the great battell at Cannas for although noble hearted and couragious Princes lose all their estates and realmes yet they will neuer confesse their harts to be ouerthrowne nor vanquished And these were the words that at that time Hannibal sayde Thou shalt vnderstand K. Antiochus that I haue seene diuers doting old men yet I neuer saw a more dotard foole thē Phormio whom thou callest such a great Philosopher For the greatest kinde of folly is when a man that hath but a little vaine science presumeth to teach not those which haue onely science also such as haue most certaine experience Tell me King Antiochus what hart can brooke with patience or what tongue can suffer with silence to see a silly man as this Philosopher is nourished all his life time in a corner of Greece studying Philosophie to presume as hee hath done to talke before the prince Hannibal of the affayres of warre as though hee had beene eyther Lord of Affrique or Captaine of Rome Certes hee eyther full little knoweth himselfe or else but little esteemeth vs For it appeareth by his vaine wordes hee would seeme to know more in matters of warre by that hee hath read in bookes then doth Hanniball by the sundry great battels which he hath fought in the fields Oh King Antiothus how
farre and how great is the difference betweene the estate of Phylosophers and the state of Captaines betweene the skyll to reade in Schooles and the knowledge to rule an Armey betweene the science that wise men haue in bookes and the experience that the others haue in warre betweene their skill to write with the penne and ours to fight with the Sword betweene one that for his pastime is set round with deskes of bookes and an other in perill of life encompassed with troups of Enemyes For many there are which with great eloquence in blazing deeds don in warres can vse their tongues but fewe are those that at the brunte haue hearts to aduenture their liues This Phylosopher neuer saw man of war in the field neeer saw one Armey of men discomfited by an other neuer heard the terrible Trumpet sound to the horrible cruel slaughter of men neuer saw the Treasons of some nor vnderstood the cowardnes of others neuer saw how few they be that fight nor how many ther are that run away Finally I say as it is seemly for a Phylosopher and a learned man to praise the profite of peace Euen so it is in his mouth a thing vncomely to prate of the perills ' of warre If this Phylosopher hath seene no one thing with his Eyes that hee hath spoken but onely read them in sundry bookes let him recount them to such as haue neyther seene nor read them For warlike feates are better learned in the bloudy fields of Affricke then in the beautifull schooles of Greece Thou knowest right well king Antiochus that for the space of thirty and sixe yeares I had continuall and daungerous warres as well in Italie as in Spayne In which Fortune did not fauour mee as is alwayes her manner to vse those which by great stoutnesse and manhood enterprise things high and of much difficultie a witnesse whereof thou seest mee here who before my beard beganne to growe was serued and now it is hoare I my selfe beginne to serue I sweare vnto thee by the God Mars king Antiochus that if any man did aske mee how hee should vse and behaue himselfe in warre I would not aunswer him one word For they are things which are learned by Experience of deedes and not by prating in words Although Princes beginne warres by justice and followe them with wisedome yet the ende standeth vppon fickle Fortune and not of force nor pollicie Diuerse and sundrie other things Hannibal sayde vnto king Antiochus who so bee desirous to see let him reade in the Apothegmes of Plutarche This example Noble Prince tendeth rather to this end to condemne my boldnesse and not to commend my enterprise saying that the affayres of the common wealth bee as vnknowne to mee as the dangers of the warres were to Phormio Your Maiestie may iustly say vnto me that I being a poor simple man brought vp a great while in a rude Countrey doe greatly presume to describe how so puissant a Prince as your Highnes ought to gouerne himselfe and his Realme For of truth the more ignorant a man is of the troubles and alterations of the world the better he shall be counted in the sight of God The estate of Princes is to haue great traines about them and the estate of religious men is to bee solitary for the seruant of God ought to be alwaies void from vaine thoughts to be euer accompanied with holy meditations The estate of Princes is alwayes vnquiet but the state of the religious is to bee enclosed For otherwise he aboue all others may be called an Apostata That hath his body in the Cell and his heart in the market place To Princes it is necessary to commune and speake with all men but for the religious it is not decent to be cōuersant with the world For solitary men if they do as they ought should occupy their hands in trauel their bodies in fasting their tongue in prayer and their heart in contemplation The estate of Princes for the most part is employed to war but the estate of religious is to desire procure peace For if the Prince would study to passe his bounds and by battell to shed the bloud of his enemies the religious ought to shed teares and pray to God for his sinnes O that it pleased Almighty God as I know what my bounden duty is in my heart so that hee would giue me grace to accomplish the same in my deedes Alas when I ponder with my selfe the weightines of my matter my Pen through slouth and negligence is readie to fall out of my hand and I halfe minded to leaue off mine enterprize My intent is to speake against my selfe in this case For albeit men may know the affaires of Princes by experience yet they shall not know how to speake nor write them but by science Those which ought to counsell princes those which ought to reforme the life of princes and that ought to instruct them ought to haue a cleare iudgement an vpright minde their words aduisedly considered their doctrine wholesome and their life without suspition For who so wil speake of high things hauing no experience of them is like vnto a blinde man that would leade and teach him the way which seeth better then hee himselfe This is the sentence of Xenophon the great which saieth There is nothing harder in this life then to know a wise man And the reason which hee gaue was this That a wise man cannot bee knowne but by another wise man wee may gather by this which Xenophon sayeth That as one wise man cannot be knowne but by another wise man so likewise it is requisite that he should be or haue bin a Prince which should write of the life of a Prince For hee that hath bin a marriner and hath sailed but one yeare on the Sea shall bee able to giue better counsell and aduise then he that hath dwelled ten yeares in the hauen Xenophon wrote a booke touching the institution of princes bringeth in Cambyses the king how hee taught and spake vnto king Cyrus his sonne And he wrote an other book likewise of the Arte of Chiualry and brought in king Philip how he ought to teach his sonne Alexander to fight For the philosophers thought that writing of no authoritie that was not entituled and set foorth vnder the Names of those Princes who had experience of that they wrote Oh if an aged Prince would with his penne if not with word of mouth declare what misfortunes haue happened since the first time hee beganne to raigne how disobedient his subjects haue bin vnto him what griefes his seruants haue wroght against him what vnkindnesse his Friendes haue shewed him what wiles his enemies haue vsed towards him what daunger his person hath escaped what jarres hath bin in his Pallace what faultes they haue layde against him how manie times they haue deceyued straungers Finally what griefes hee hath had by day and what sorrowfull sighs
vs By these things we haue spoken of before the Readers may perceyue what is due vnto the Hystoriographers who in my opinion haue left as great memorie of them for that they wrote with their pennes as the Princes haue done for that they did with their swords I confesse I deserue nor to be named amongst the Sages neyther for that I haue written and Translated nor yet for that I haue composed Therefore the Sacred and diuine letters set aside there is nothing in the world so curiously written but needeth correction and as I say of the one so will I say of the other and that is as I with my will doe renounce the glory which the good for my learning would giue mee so in like manner euill men shall not want that against my will seeke to defame it Wee other writers smally esteeme that labour and paines wee haue to write although indeede wee are not ignorant of a thousaund enuious tongues that will backbite it Many now adayes are so euil taught or to say better so enuious that when the Author laboreth in his study they play in the streetes when he awaketh they sleepe when he fasteth they eate when hee sitteth turning the leaues of the booke they goe hunting after vices abroade yet for all that they will presume to iudge depraue and condemne an other mans doctrine as if they had the authoritie that Plato had in Greece or the eloquence that Cicero had in Rome When I finde a man in the Latine tongue well seene his vulgar tongue well pâ—lished in hystories well grounded in Greeke-letters very expert and desirous to spend his time with good bookes this so Heroicall and noble a personage I would desire him to put my doctrine vnder his feete For it is no shame for a vertuous and wise man to be corrected of an other wise man Yet I would gladly know what patieÌ„ce can suffer or heart can dissemble when two or three bee assembled together at meate and after at the table or otherwise one of them taketh a booke at aduenture in his handes against that which another will say it is too long and another will say it speaketh not to the purpose another it is very obscure another the words are not well couched another will say all that is spoken is fayned One will say hee speaketh nothing of profite another hee is too curious and the other hee is too malicious So that in speaking thus the doctrine remaineth suspitious and the Authour scapeth not scot-free Suppose them to be therefore such that speake it as I haue spoken of that at the Table do finde such faults sure they deserue pardon for they speake not according to the Bookes which they haue read but according to the cups of wine which they haue drunke For that Hee that taketh not in iest which is spoken at the Table knoweth not what iesting meaneth It is an olde custom to murmure at vertuous deedes and into this rule entreth not onely those that make them but also those which writethem afterwards Which thing seemeth to be true for that Socrates was reproued of Plato Plato of Aristotle Aristotle of Auerois Sicilius of Vulpitius Lelius of Varro Marinus of Ptolomeus Ennius of Horace Seneca of Aulus Gelius Crastonestes of Strabo Thessale of Gellian Hermagoras of Cicero Cicero of Salust Origines of Saint Hierome Hierome of Rufinus Rufinus of Donatus Donatus of Prosper and Prosper of Lupus Then sith that in these men and in their workes hath beene such need of correction which were men of great knowledge and Lanternes of the World It is no maruell at all that I haue such fortune since I know so little as I doe Hee may worthily bee counted vaine and light which at the first sight as for onely once reading will rashly iudge that which a wise man with much diligence study hath written The Authors and Writers are oft times reproued not of them which can translate and compile workes but of those which cannot reade and yet lesse vnderstand them to the entent simple folkes should count them wise and take their parts in condemning this worke and esteeme him for a great wise man I take God to witnesse who can iudge whether my intention were good or ill to compile this worke and also I lay this my doctrine at the feet of wise and vertuous men to the end they may be protectors and defendours of the same For I trust in God though som would come to blame as diuers do the simple words which I spake yet others would not fayle to relate the good intention that I meant And to declare further I say that diuers have written of the time of the sayde Marcus Aurelius as Herodian wrote little Eutropius lesse Lampridius not so much and Iulius Capitolinus somewhat more Likewise yee ought to know that the Masters which taught Marcus Aurelius sciences were Iunius Rusticus Cinna Catullus Sextus Cheronensis which was nephew to the great Plutarke These three were those that principally as witnesses of sight wrote the most part of his life and doctrine Many may maruel to heare tell of the doctrine of Marcus Aurelius saying it hath beene kept hidde and secret a great while and that of mine owne head I haue inuented it And that there neuer was any Marcus Aurelius in the world I know not what to say now vnto them for it is euident to all those which haue read any thing that Marcus Aurelius was husband to Faustine father to Comodus brother to Anntus Verus and sonne in Law to Antoninus Pius the seuenth of Rome Emperour Those which say I only haue made this doctrine truly I thanke them for so saying but not for their so meaning For truly the Romanes would haue set my Image in Rome for perpetuall renowne if so graue sentences should haue proceeded froÌ„ my head Wee see that in our time which was neuer seene before and heare that we neuer heard before VVe practise not in a new world and yet wee maruell that there is at this present a newe booke Not for that I was curious to discouer Marcus Aurelius or studious to translate him For truely it is worthy he bee noted of wise persons and not accused of enuious tongues For it chaunceth oftentimes in Hunting that the most simplest man killeth the Deare The last thing which the Romaines conquered in Spayne was Cantabria which was a citie in Nauarre ouer against La-grogne and scituated in a high Countrey where there is now a vaine of Vines And the Emperour Augustus which destroyed it made tenne bookes De Bello Cantabrico wherein are many thinges worthie of noting and no lesse pleasaunt in reading which happened vnto him in the same conquest As Marcus Aurelius was brought mee from Florence so was this other booke Of the warres of Cantabria brought mee from Colleyne If perhaps I tooke paines to Translate this booke as few haue done which haue seene it they would
thee I shall not follow my selfe and beeing thine I shall cease to bee mine Thou art come to haue the name of the Great Alexander for conquering the world and I haue attained to come to renowme of a good Phylosopher in flying the world And if thou dost imagine that thou hast gotten and wonne I thinke I haue not erred nor lost And since thou wilt be no lesse in authoritie then a King doe not thinke that I will lose the estimation of a Phylosopher For in the world there is no greater losse vnto a man then when hee looseth his proper libertie When he had spoken these words Alexander saide vnto them that were about him with a lowde voyce By the immortall Gods I sweare and as god Mars rule my hands in Battell if I were not Alexander the Great I would bee Diogenes the Phylosopher And hee saide further In mine opinion there is no other Felicitie vpon the earth then to bee King Alexander who commaundeth all or to bee Diogenes to commaund Great Alexander who commaundeth all As king Alexander was more familiar with some Philosophers then with others so hee esteemed some bookes more then others And they say he read oftentimes in the Iliades of Homer which is a booke where the story of the destruction of Troy is and that when he slept he layd vnder his head vpon a bolster his sword and also his booke When the great King Alexander was borne his father Philip king of Macedonia did two notable things The first was that hee sent many and very rich gifts into the I le of Delphos where the Oracle of Apollo was to the ende to present them with him and to pray him that it would please him for to preserue his sonne The other thing that hee did was that immediately hee wrote a letter to the great Philosopher Aristotle wherin he sayd these words The letter of King Philip to Aristotle the Phylosopher PHilip King of Macedonia wishes health and peace to the philosopher Aristotle which readeth in the Vniuersitie of Greece I let the vnderstand that Olympias my wife is brought to bedde of a goodly man childe whereof both she and I and all Macedonia do reioyce For kings and Realms ought to haue great ioy when that there is borne a sonne sueccssour of the natural prince of the prouince I render thankes vnto the immortall gods and haue sent many great gifts to the Temples and it was not so much for that I haue a son as for that they haue giuenhim vnto me in the time of so great and excellent Philosopher I hope that thou wilt bring him vp teach him in such sort that by heritage hee shall be Lord of my patrimony of Macedonia and by desert he shall be Lord of Asia to that they should call him my sonne and thee his father Vale foelix iterumque vale Ptolomeus father in law who was the eight king of the Aegyptians did greatly loue the Sages as well of Caldea as of Greece and this thing was esteemed for a great vertue in king Ptolome For there was as much enuy betweene the phylosophers of Greece and the Sages of Egypt as betweene the Captaines of Rome and the Captaines of Carthage This Ptolome was very wise and did desire greatly to bee accompanied with Phylosophers and after this hee learned the letters of the Latines Caldes and Hebrues for the which cause though the kings named Ptolomei were eleuen in number and all warrelike men yet they put this for the Chiefe and Captaine of all not for battels which hee wanne but for the sentences which he learned This king Ptolomeus had for his familiar a Philosopher called Estilpho Magarense who was so entirely beloued of this Prince that laying aside gentlenesse and benefits which hee shewed him hee did not onely eate with the king at his table but oftentimes the king made him drink of his owne cup. And as the sauours which Princes shew to their seruants are but as a watch to proue the malitious it chanced that when this king gaue the philosopher to drinke that which remayned in his cuppe an Egyptian knight moued with enuy sayde vnto King Ptolome I thinke Lord how thou art neuer satisfied with drinking to leaue that which remaineth in the cuppe for the Philosopher to drinke after thee To whom the king answered Thou sayst well that the Phylosopher Estilpho is neuer filled with that which I doe giue him For that which remaineth in my cup doth not profite him so much to drinke as the Phylosophy which remaineth in him should profite thee if thou wouldst take it The king Antigonus was one of the most renowmed seruants that king Alexander the great euer had who after his death enherired a great part of his Empire for how much happy the king Alexander was in his life so much hee was vnhappy at the time of his death because he had no children which might enherite his goods and that hee had such seruants as spoyled him of his renowme This king Antigonus was an vnthrist and excessiue in all vices But for all hee loued greatly the phylosophers which thing remained vnto him from king Alexander whose pallace was a schoole of al the good phylosophers of the world Of this ensample they may see what great profite ensueth of bringing vp of them that bee yong for there is none that euer was so wicked or inclined vnto euill but that in long continuance may profite somwehat in his youth This king Antigonus loued two philosophers greatly the which florished in that time that is to say Amenedius and Abio of which two Abio was wel learned and very poore For in that time no phylosopher durst openly reade philosophy as if hee were worth any thing in temporall goods As Laertius sayth and as Pulio declares it better in the book of the rulers and noble men of the Greekes The Schooles of the Vuiuersitie were so correct that the philosopher which knew most had least goods so that they did not glorifie of any thing eise but to haue pouertie and to know much of philosophy The case was such that the phylosopher Abio was sicke and with that sickenes he was so vexed that they might almost see the bones of his weake bodie The king Antigonus sent to visite him by his owne sonne by whom hee sent him much money to helpe him withall For hee liued in extreame pouertie as it behoued the professors of phylosophy Abio was sore sicke being aged and crooked and though he had made himselfe so leane with sicknesse yet notwithstanding he burned alwayes vpon the weeke of good life I meane that he had no lesse courage to despise those gifts then the king Antigonus had nobles to send them This Phylosopher not contented to haue despised those gifts in such sort sayd vnto the sonne of Antigonus who brought them Tell king Antigonus that I giue him great thankes for the good entertainement hee gaue me alwayes
the proofe of this it needeth not books to read but onely our eyes to see how the brute Beasts for the most part when their females are bigge do not touch them nor yet the Females suffer them to be touched I meane that the Noble and high Estates ought to absent thēselues from their wiues carnally being great with childe and hee that in this case shall shewe himselfe most temperate shall of all men be deemed most vertuous I doe not speake this to the ende it should binde a man or that it were an offence then to vse the companie of his wife but vnto men that are vertuous I giue it as a counsell For some things ought to bee done of necessitie and others ought to be eschued for honestie Dyodorus Siculus saieth that in the Realme of Mauritania there were so few men and so many women that euery man had fiue wiues where there was a law among them that no man should marrie vnder three wiues furthermore they had a wonderfull and foolish custome that when any Husband died one of those women shuld cast herselfe quicke into the graue and be buried with him And if that within a moneth she did it not or that she dyed not by iustice shee was openly put to death saying that it is more honestie to bee in companie with her Husband in the graue then it is to be alone in her house In the Isles of Baleares the contrary is seene for there increase so many men and so few women that for one woman there was seuen men and so they had a custome especially amongst the poore that one woman should bee marryed with fiue men For the rich men sent to seeke for women in other strange Realmes wherfore then Merchants came heauie loaden with women as now they doe with marchandize to sell Vpon which occasion there was a custome in those Isles that for as much as there were so few women when any woman with childe drew neere the seuen monethes they were seperated from their husbands and shutte and locked vp in the Temples where they gaue them such things as were necessary for them of the common treasure For the ancients had their Gods in such veneration that they would not permit any person to eate that which he brought but of that which vnto the Gods of the Temple was offered At that time the Barbarous kept theit wiues locked in the Church because the Gods hauing them in their Temples should bee more mercifull vnto them in their deliuerie and also to cause them to auoyde the dangers at that time and besides that because they tooke it for a great villany that the women during that time should remaine with their husbands The famous and renowmed Philosopher Pulio in the fift Booke De moribus antiquorum said That in the Realme of Pannonia which now is Hungarie the women that were great with childe were so highly esteemed that when any went out of her house all those which mette with her were bound to returne backe with her and in such sort as wee at this present doe reuerence the holy Communion so did these Barbarous then the women with childe The women of Carthage being with childe when Carthage was Carthage had as great priuileges as now our Sanctuaries haue for the safegard of misdoers for in times past all such offenders as could enter into the house where a woman lay in child-bed should haue beene free from correction of Iustice As Fronto saith in his Booke of the Veneration of the Gods the Gallois Transalpins did not only honor reuerence the women with childe but also with much care and diligence watched her deliuery for it little auaileth the Shippe to haue passed safe the dangerous Seas if at the Shore she be cast away The case was in this sort that al the ancient Gentiles honored some gods in their Temples and kept other in their houses the which were called Lares and Penates and when any woman began to labour each neighbour brought his familiar god vnto her to present her with all because they thought that the more gods there were of so much more power they were to keepe her from perills Speaking like a Christian Truely those gods were of small value since they could not helpe the woman safely to be deliuered that was in trauaile CHAP. XII What the Philosopher Pisto was and of the Rules hee gaue concerning women with childe IN the time of Octauian the Emperour was a Philosopher called Pisto which was of the sect of Pithagoras and when Rome flourished he was very familiar with the Emperour Octauian and well beloued of all the people which ought not to be a little esteemed for he which of the Prince is most fauored commonly of the people is much hated This Emperour Octauian was a Prince very desirous of all vertuous things so that when he dined with his Captaines he spake of Warre when he supped with the Sages hee reasoned of the Sciences and he that vttered any dishonest or idle word in his presence hee alwaies afterward tooke him as his enemie This Pisto was very graue in waightie affaires very pleasant in slents and jests and oft times he was demanded many questions of the Emperour whereof the answeres of some according to the demands and questions here followeth The Emperour sayd to Pisto Of all these that liueth whom takest thou to be most Foole To whom the Philosopher answered In my opinion I take him to be most foole of whose word there commeth no profite for truely he is not so very a foole that flingeth stones into the winde as he that vttereth vaine words Tell me Pisto Whom ought wee of right to desire to speake whom of right to command to be silent He answered It is good when speech doth profite and good to keepe silence when speech is hurtfull for the one desiring to maintaine the good and the other to defend the euill warres begin throughout all the world Tell mee Pisto from what thing ought the fathers most to keepe their children He sayd In my opinion parents ought in nothing to watch so much as to keepe them from being vicious for the father ought rather to haue his sonne dye well then to liue euill Tell me Pisto What shall man do if hee be brought to this extremitie That if he speake truth hee condemneth himselfe and if hee make a lye he saueth himselfe The vertuous man said he ought rather to choose to be ouercome by truth then to ouercome by lyes for it is vnpossible that a man which is a lyer should continue long in prosperity Tell me Pisto What shall men do to obtaine rest He answered As I thinke the man cannot haue rest vnlesse he forsake worldly affayres for the men that are occupied with weightie affaires cannot be without great cares or alwaies accompanied of great troubles Tell me Pisto wherein a man sheweth himselfe to be most wise He answered
and in this place they talked with him that had businesse and truely it was a great policie for where as the Prince doth not sit the suitor alwaies abridgeth his talke And when the day began to waxe hot he went to the high Capitoll where all the Senate tarryed for him and from thence hee went to the Coliseo where the Ambassadours of the Prouinces were and there remained a great part of the day Afterwards he went to the Chappell of the Vestall Virgins and there he heard euery Nation by it selfe according to the order which was prescribed Hee did eate but one meale in the day and it was very late but he did eate well not of many and diuers sorts of meate but of few and good for the abundance of diuers strange meates breedeth sundry diseases They sawe him once a weeke goe through Rome and if hee went any more it was a wonder at the which time he was alwayes without company both of his owne and also of strangers to the entent all poore men might talke with him of their businesse or complaine of his Officers for it is vnpossible to reforme the Common-wealth if he which ought to remedie it be not informed of the iniuries done in the same He was so gentle in conuersation so pleasant in words so Noble amongst the Great so equall with the least so reasonable in that hee did aske so perfect in that he did worke so patient in iniuries so thankefull of benefites so good to the good and so seuere to the euill that all loued him for being good and all the euill feared him for being iust A man ought not little to esteeme the loue that the people bare to this so good a Prince and Noble Emperour for so much as the Romanes haue been thus that for the felicitie of their estate they offered to their Gods greater Sacrifice then they did in any other Prouinces And Sextus Cheronensis saith that the Romanes offered more Sacrifices to the Gods because they should lengthen the life of the Emperour then they did offer for the profite of the Common-wealth Truely their reason was good for the Prince that leadeth a good life is the heart of the Common-wealth But I doe not maruell that the Emperour was so well willed and beloued of the Romane Empire for he had neuer Porter to his Chamber but the two houres which hee remayned with his wife Faustine All this being past the good Emperour weat into his house into the secretst place hee had according to the counsell of Lucius Seneca the key whereof he alone had in his custodie and neuer trusted any man therewith vntill the houre of his death and then he gaue it to an olde ancient man called Pompeianus saying vnto him these words Thou knowest right well Pompeianus that thou being base I exalted thee to honour thou being poore I gaue thee riches thou being persecuted I drew thee to my Palace I being absent committed my whole honour to thy trust thou being olde I marryed thee with my daughter and doe presently giue thee this Key Behold that in giuing thee it I giue thee my heart and life for I will thou know that death grieueth mee not so much nor the losse of my wife and children as that I cannot carry my Bookes into the graue If the Gods had giuen mee the choyse I had rather choose to be in the graue inuironed with Bookes then to liue accompanied with fooles for if the dead doe read I take them to be aline but if the liuing doe not read I take them to be dead Vnder this key which I giue thee remayneth many Greeke Hebrew Latine and Romame Bookes and aboue all vnder this key remaineth all my paynes swet and trauells all my watchings and laboures where also thou shalt finde Bookes by mee compiled so that though the wormes of the earth doe eate my body yet men shall finde my heart whole amongst these Bookes Once againe I doe require thee and say that thou oughtest not a little to esteeme the key which I giue thee for wise men at the houre of their death alwayes recommend that which they best loue to them which in their liues they haue most loued I doe confesse that in my Studie thou shalt finde many things with mine owne hand written and well ordered and also I confesse that thou shalt finde many things by me left vnperfect In this case I thinke that though thou couldest not write them yet thou shalt worke them well notwithstanding and by these meanes thou shalt get reward of the Gods for working them Consider Pompeian that I haue beene thy Lord I haue beene thy Father-in-law I haue beene thy Father I haue beene thy Aduocate and aboue all that I haue beene thy speciall friend which is most of all for a man ought to esteeme more a faithfull friend then all the Parents of the world Therefore in the faith of that friendshippe I require that thou keepe this in memorie that euen as I haue recommended to others my Wife my Children my Goods and Riches So I doe leaue vnto thee in singuler recommendation my Honour for Princes leaue of themselues no greater memorie then by the good learning that they haue written I haue beene eighteene yeeres Emperour of Rome and it is threescore and three yeeres that I haue remayned in this wofull life during which time I haue ouercome many Battailes I haue slayne many Pyrates I haue exalted many good I haue punished many euill I haue wonne many Realmes and I haue destroyed many Tyrants but what shall I doe wofull man that I am sith all my companions which were witnesses with me of all these worthy feates shall be companions in the graue with the greedy wormes A thousand yeeres hence when those that are now aliue shall then be dead what is hee that shall say I saw Marcus Aurelius triumph ouer the Parthians I saw him make the buildings in Auentino I sawe him well beloued of the people I saw him father of the Orphanes I saw him the scourge of Tyrants Truely if all these things had not beene declared by my Bookes or of my friends the dead would neuer haue risen againe to haue declared them What is it for to see a Prince from the time he is borne vntill the time hee come to dye to see the pouertie he passeth the perills he endureth the euill that hee suffereth the shame that he dissembleth the friendshippe that hee fayneth the teares which hee sheddeth the sighes that hee fetcheth the promises that hee maketh and doth not endure for any other cause the miseries of this life but onely to leaue a memorie of him after his death There is no Prince in the world that desireth not to keepe a good house to keepe a good table to apparell himselfe richly and to pay those that serue him in his house but by this vaine honour they suffer the water to passe through their lippes not drinking thereof As
first and best Masters of Fence the which the Romanes kept alwaies for their Playes for as Trogus Pompeius sayth the Romanes found it by experience that there were no better men in waightie affayres then those of Spaine nor no people apter to playes and pastimes then those of Arcadia As those Siconians were ancient so they were maruellously addicted to follies and superstitious in their vsages and customes for among other they honoured for their God the Moone and during the time that shee was seene they gaue their children sucke imagining that the Moone shined vpon the brests of the mother it would doe much good vnto the childe The Authous hereof is Sinna Catullus in the booke De edicandis pueris and as the same Historian sayth the Aegyptians were great enemies to the Siconians so that all that which the one did allow the others did repoue as it appeareth for as much as the Siconians loued Oliues and Akorns they were cloathed with linnen and worshipped the Moone for their God The Aegyptians for the contrary had no Oliues neyther nourished they any Okes they did weare no linnen they worshipped the Sunne for their God and aboue all as the Siconians did giue their children sucke whiles the Moone did shine so the Aegyptians gaue their children sucke whiles the Sunne did shine Among other follies of the Caldeans this was one that they honoured the Fier for their God so that hee that was not marryed could not light Fier in his house because they sayd the custodie of Gods should be committed to none but to married and ancient men They had in Mariages such order that the day when any children did marry the Priests came into his house to light new Fire the which neuer ought to bee put out vntill the houre of his death and if perchance during the life of the husband and of the wife they should finde the fire dead and put out the marriage betweene them was dead and vndone yea though they had beene fortie yeeres together before in such sort and of this occasion came the prouerbe which of many is read and of few vnderstood that is to say Pronoke me not so much that I throwe water into the fire The Caldeans vsed such wordes when they would diuorce and separate the marriage for if the woman were ill contented with her husband in casting a little water on the fire immedately she might marry with an others and if the husband in like manner did put out the fire hee might with another woman contract marriage I haue not beene marryed as yet but I suppose there are many Christians which wish to haue at this present the libertie of the Caldes for I am well assured there are many men which would cast water on the fire to escape from their wiues also I sweare that there would be a number of women which would not onely put out their fire but also the ashes imbers and coales to make themselues free and to bee dispatched of their husbands and in especially from those which are iealous Therefore returning to our matter The Caldeans made before the fire all notable things in their lawe as before their God for they did eate before the fire they slept before the fire they did contract before the fire and the mothers did neuer giue the children sucke but before the fire for the milke as they imagined did profite the childe when it sucked before the fire which was their God The Author of this that is spoken is Cinna Catuilus The Mauritanians which at this present are called the realms of 〈◊〉 were in times past warlike men of whom the Romans had great victories and the more valiant the men were in the warres so much the more superstitious their wiues were in soceries charmes and enchantments 〈◊〉 the husband that is long abâ—â—nt from his wife ought not to maruell though in her bee founde some 〈◊〉 Cicero in the booke De Natura Deorum and much more at large Boccâ—s sayeth That as many men and women as were in that Realme 〈◊〉 many gods there were among the people for euery one had one particular God to himselfe so that the god of the one was not the god of the other And this was to bee vnderstood in the weeke dayes for in the holy and festiuall dayes they had no other gods the which altogether they did honour The manner that they had in choosing gods when a woman was with child was this Shee went to the Sacrificer of the Idoll and tolde him that shee was great with childe and besought him to giue her a God for her child And the sacrificer gaue her a little idoll of stone gold siluer or of wood the which the mother hanged at the necke of the child And as often as the childe did sucke the dugge so oft the mother putteth the Idoll on his face for otherwise shee had not giuen him a droppe of milke to sucke vnlesse first shee had consecrated to the god the milke of her brest That which I haue spoken is little in respect of that I will speake which is that if perchance the child dyed before the time or that any young man by some perilous mishap dyed before hee was somewhat ages the Fathers and kinsmen of the dead did assemble and came to the Idoll of him and eyther stoned it â—â—ng it drew it burnt it or else they cast it into the deepe well saying that sith the gods did kill man without reason that they might lawfully kill them by iustice The same Bocchas in the second booke De Natura Deorum sayth that the Allobroges had a custome that those which were Priests of the gods should from the wombe of their mothers bee chosen vnto that dignitie And as soone as the childe was born before he tasted the milke of the brest they earned it into a Priestes house for they had a custome that the man which had tasted the thinges of the world merited not to serue the Gods in the Temples One of the lawes that they sayde Priests had was that not onely they could not by violence shedde any bloud nor yet see it neyther touch it so that immediately as the Priest should by chance touch mansbloud euen so soone he lost his Priesthood This law afterwards was so narrowly looked vnto that the Priests of the Allobroges did not onely not shedde drinke nor touch mans bloud when they were now men but also when they were little infants those that should bee Priests they gaue them no milke of the brest at all And this was their reason That to sucke milke was no other but to drinke white bloud for white milke is but sodden bloud and redde bloud is but raw milke Pulio in the booke de educandis pueris sayeth That the Auncients had a certaine kinde of reedes that breaking it in sunder there issued white milke wherewith they accustomed to nourish their children but let it bee as it is that this law
as hee sayeth that I haue disinherited him and abiected him from my heritage hee beeing begotten of my body hereunto I answere That I haue not disinherited my sonne but I haue disinherited his pleasure to the entent hee shall not enioy my trauell for there can bee nothing more vniust then that the young and vicious sonne should take his pleasure of the swet and droppes of the aged father The sonne replyed to his Father and sayde I confesse I haue offended my Father and also I confesse that I haue liued in pleasures yet if I may speake the truth though I were disobedient and euill my Father ought to beare the blame and if for this cause hee doeth dishenherite mee I thinke hee doth me great iniurie for the father that instructeth not his son in vertue in his youth wrongfully disinheriteth him though he be disobedient in his age The Father againe replyeth and sayeth It is true my sonne that I brought thee vp too wantonly in thy youth but thou knowest well that I haue taught thee sundry times and besides that I did correct thee when thou camest to some discretion And if in thy youth I did not instruct thee in learning it was for that thou in thy tender age diddest want vnderstanding but after that thou hadst age to vnderstand discretion to receyue and strength to exercise it I beganne to punish thee to teache thee and to instruct thee For where no vnderstanding is in the child there in vaine they teach doctrine Since thou art old quoth the sonne and I young since thou art my Father and I thy sonne for that thou hast white hayres on thy beard and I none at all it is but reason that thou be belieued and I condemned For in this world wee see oft times that the small authoritie of the person maketh him to loose his great iustice I graunt thee my Father that when I was a childe thou diddest cause mee to learne to reade but thou wilt not denie that if I did commit any faulte thou wouldst neuer agree I should be punished And hereof it came that thou suffering me to do what I would in my Youth haue bin disobedient to thee euer since in my age And I say vnto thee further that if in this case I haue offended truely mee thinketh thou canst not bee excused for the fathers in the youth of their children ought not onely to teach them to dispute of vertues what vertue is but they ought to inforce thē to be vertuous in deed For it is a good token when Youth before they knowe vices haue been accustomed to practise vertues Both partyes then diligently heard the good Phylosopher Solon Solinon speake these words I giue iudgement that the Father of this childe be not buryed after his death and I commaund that the Sonne because in his youth hee hath not obeyed his Father who is olde should be disinherited whilest the Father liueth from all his substance on such condition that after his death his sonnes should inherite the Heritage and so returne to the heyres of the Sonne and liue of the Father For it were vniust that the innocencie of the Sonne should be condemned for the offence of the Father I do commaund also that all the goods be committed vnto some faithfull person to the end they may giue the Father meat and drinke during his life and to make a graue for the Sonne after his death I haue not without a cause giuen such iudgement the which comprehendeth life and death For the Gods will not that for one pleasure the punishment bee double but that wee chastise and punish the one in the life taking from him his honour and goods and that wee punish others after their death taking from them memorie and buryall Truely the sentence which the Philosopher gaue was very graue and would to GOD wee had him for a iudge of this world presently For I sweare that hee should finde manie Children now a dayes for to disinherite and moe Fathers to punish For I cannot tell which is greater The shame of the children to disobey their Fathers or the negligence of the Fathers in bringing vp their children Sextus Cheronens in the second book of the sayings of the Philosophers declareth that a Citizen of Athens saide vnto Dyogenes the Phylosopher these wordes Tell mee Dyogenes What shall I doe to be in the fauour of the Gods and not in the hatred of men For oft times amongst you Phylosophers I haue hearde say that there is a great difference between that that the gods will and that which men loue Dyogenes answered Thou speakest more then thou oughtest to speake that the Gods will one thing and men another for the Gods are but as a center of mercy and men are but as a denne of malice if thou wilt enioy rest in thy dayes and keepe thy life pure and cleane thou must obserue these three things The first honour thy Gods deuoutely for the man which doeth not serue and honour the Gods in all his enterprises hee shall be vnfortunate The second bee very diligent to bring vp thy children well for the man hath no enemie so troublesome as his owne sonne if hee bee not well brought vp The third thing bee thankefull to thy good benefactors and friends for the Oracle of Apollo sayth that the man who is vnthankefull of all the world shall be abhorred And I tell thee further my friend that of these three things the most profitable though it be more troublesome is for a man to teach and bring vp his children well This therefore was the answere that the Philosopher Diogenes made to the demaund of the Citizen It is great pitty and griefe to see a young childe how the bloud doth stirre him to see how the flesh doth prouoke him to accomplish his desire to see sensuality goe before and he himselfe to come behind to see the malitious World to watch him to see how the Diuell doth tempte him to see how vices binde him and in all that which is spoken to see how the Father is negligent as if hee had no children whereas in deede the olde man by the fewe vertues he hath had in his Youth may easily knowe the infirmityes and vices wherewith his Sonne is incompassed If the expert had neuer beene ignorant if the Fathers had neuer beene children if the vertuous had neuer been vicious if the fine wittes had neuer been deceiued it were no maruell if the Fathers were negligent in teaching their children For the little experience excuseth men of great offences but since thou art my Father and that first thou wert a Sonne since thou art old and hast bin young and besides all this since that pride hath inflamed thee lechery hath burned thee wrath hath wounded thee Negligence hath hindred thee Couetousnes hath blinded thee Glotonie surfetted thee Tell mee cruell Father since so many vices haue reigned in thee why hast thou not an
that is to say Whether to reward the good or to punish the euill were for a Prince more naturall Hee aunswered As naturall as both the right and left arme is in a man so necessarie is reward and punishment in a Prince But as wee helpe our selus more with the right arm then with the left so the Prince ought more to endeauour himselfe to reward then to punish For punishment ought to bee by the handes of a stranger but reward ought to bee with his owne proper hands When wee perswade Princes to bee iust and that they doe iustice it is not to bee vnderstood that they should be head murderers banish rebels and seditious persons hang theeues and burie felons aliue For such or other like things rather appertaine to bloudy Hangmen then to pittifull Kings All the profit of iustice is in that the Prince be honest of person carefull for his householde zealous of the Common-wealth and not large of his Conscience For Princes ought not to bee commended for murdering many cruelly but for reforming the common wealth louingly Plutarch in the comfortable Oration that hee wrote to Appoloni speaking of the Lawes which Promotheus gaue to the Egyptians amongst the residue he recited these three that follow Wee ordaine and commaund that Princes lay not hands on others for any crimes or offences done vnto himselfe For Princes ought not to vse their hāds to reuenge their owne iniuries but rather by iustice to defend other that bee iniuried Wee ordaine and commaund that all times when they shall bee in their Common wealth and not in wars they shall not weare weapons defensiue and much lesse offensiue For good Princes neyther ought to bee hastie to the ende they may kill nor yet to haue vices whereby they may be killed We ordaine and commaund that the Prince doe not onely not kill with his handes but also that doe not see them doe iustice with his eyes For how much noble and worthy a thing it is before the presence of a Prince that al should receyue honor so slaunderous a thing it is that any in his presence should lose their liues CHAP. II. The way that Princes ought to vse in choosing their Iudges and Officers in their Countries SParthianus in the liues that he wrote of thirty tyrants sayde that Ciriacus the Tirant had a memoriall made of certaine of the Senatours whom he would haue killed and when the thing was discouered they slew him They found in the hands of another tyrant named Regilius after hee was dead a memoriall of those which with his own hands he had depriued of their liues wherfore they afterward depriued him of his buriall O how many Iudges are there in this world that doe as much aduance themselues of those whom they haue caused to be whipt to bee slaine to be beheaded to be hanged quartered and slaine as others doe which haue redeemed many captiues or haue married Orphanes Those Iudges which according to the order of Lawes customes and iurisdictions to punish the euill I do wel allow but to reioice and aduance themselues of them whom they haue condemned I vtterly abhor for the vertuous and Christian Iudge ought rather to shed teares in the Churches then by affection to shed bloud of men in the seate of iudgement And for the confirmation of that which I haue sayde I affirme that the good iudge and gouernor of the common-wealth ought not to beare in minde the murthers and slaughters done by others but to record the iniuryes which they haue done themselues For in other mens offences we ought to be silent and for our owne iniquities wee ought to be penitent Iudges execute some punishments which men disallow and God doeth aproue an other time God condemneth them though the world do allow them Therefore the surest thing for Iudges is not to reioyce of their brethren whom they haue corrected but what they themselues for theyr owne offences haue deserued In iudging others by false witnes the Iudges many times against theyr wills doe erre but in their owne matters they can neuer erre vnlesse they will since the offences which wee commit are alwayes certaine Therefore it grieueth mee much that there be some so euill which being accused before GOD would excuse themselues before men yet their owne breethren with false witnesses they dare condemne Great care ought Princes to haue to examin them whom they wil make Iudges and gouernors For the iudge which daylie maketh not an account with his Conscience in secrete shall commit euery houre a thousand euills in the Common-wealth Oh poore and miserable common-wealth where the gouernours and iudges thereof doe not cast their eyes but vnto them whome they ought to chastise where they doe not thinke in their hearts but how they may enrich their Coffers where they doe not occupie their handes but to take bribes and doe not passe the time but in feastings and Bankettes And I sayd not without a cause bankets For there are too many iudges which employ their studyes more to get them Friendes to maintaine their state proudly then for to reade good bookes and to iudge mens causes vprightly The iudge which neuer readeth the iudge which neuer studyeth the iudge which neuer openeth booke the iudge which is neuer in his house the iudge which day and night robbeth How is it possible that hee should execute one true iustice There can bee no greater feare in a man nor slaunder more great in the commonwealth then when the iudge who ought to iudge and chastise the offences of others is alwayes ouerwhelmed with vices The iudge which presumeth to bee good and wil be good and which desireth to be good a man should finde him no where vnlesse hee be studying in his house or else sitting in the place of Iustice c. Let not Noble Princes trust vppon this when they prouide Iudges and Gouernours saying That if they finde any euill they wil soone cut him off For such are so euill that if they want no meanes to get to those Offices they shal want no cautils nor corrupt Friends to suborne them therin When Noble Princes and great lords shall find any iudge euill I counsell them to auoyde him immediately or that they shew themselues not contēted with his doings For such a one shall forthwith enforce himselfe to do iustice with intention that those of the commonwealth might desire him to be their iudge Although my pen doth reproue these iudges which are extreame and cruell yet my intention is not to cōmend the others which are negligent and carelesse the which neyther by knowledge can iudge nor with stoutnesse punish The Iudges which iudge and gouerne they ought not to bee with all so familiar that all dare take vpon them to aske him for in this case if some commend his gentle conuersation others will blame his partiall Iustice I counsell admonish and require Princes that they content themselus not onely to be
the diligence which the Iudges vsed towards the Senat to the end they might giue them offices the selfe same ought the Senate to haue to seeke vertuous men to commit such charge into their hands For the office of iustice ought to be giuen not to him which procureth it but to him that best deserueth it In the yeare of the foundation of Rome 642. yeares the Romane people had many warres throughout all the world That is to say Caius Celius against those of Thrace Gneus Gardon his brother against the Sardes Iunius Scilla against the Cimbres Minutius Rufus against the Daces Seruilius Scipio against the Macedonians and Marius Consull against Iugurtha King of the Numedians and amongst all these the warre of the Numidians was the most renowmed and also perillous For if Rome had many Armies against Iugurtha to conquer him Iugurtha had in Rome good friends which did fauour him King Boco at that time was king of the Mauritans who was Iugurthas friend in the end hee was afterwards the occasion that Iugurtha was ouerthrowne and that Marius tooke him These two Kings Marius the Consull brought to Rome and triumphed of them leading them before his triumphant chariot their neckes loaden with yrons their eyes full of teares The which vnlucky fortune al the Romaines which behelde lamented and tooke great pitie of the strangers whō they heard The night after the triumph was ended it was decreede in the Senate that Iugurtha should bee beheaded leauing king Boco aliue depriued of his Country And the occasion thereof was this The Romaines had a custom of long time to put no man to execution before that first with great diligēce they had looked the ancient bookes to see if any of their predecessors had done any notable seruice to Rome whereby the poore prisoner might deserue his pardon It was found written in a booke which was in the high Capitoll that the Grandfather of King Boco was very sage and a speciall friend to the Romane people and that once hee came to Rome and made diuers orations to the Senate and amongst other notable sentences there was found in that book that he had spoken these words Woe be to that realme where all are such that neyther the good amongst the euill nor the euil amongst the good are known Woe vpon that realme which is the entertainer of all fooles and a destroyer of all Sages Woe is that Realme where the good are fearefull and the euill too bold Wo on that realme where the patient are despised and the seditious commended Wo on that Realm which destroyeth those which watch for the good and crowneth those that watch to doe euill Woe to that realme where the poore are suffered to bee proud and the rich tirants Wo to that realme where all know the euil and no man doth follow the good woe to that realme where so many euill vices are openly committed which in another countrie dare not secrrtly bee mentioned Wo to that realm where all procure that they desire where all attaine to that they procure where all thinke that this is euill where al speake that they thinke and finally where all may doe that which they will In such and so vnfortunate a realm where the people are too wicked let euery man beware hee bee not inhabitant For in short time they shall see vpon him eyther the yre of the Gods the fury of the men the depoputation of the good or the desolation of the Tirants Diuers other notable thinges were contained in those Orations the which are not at this present touching my letter But forasmuch as we thought it was a very iust thing that they should pardon the folly of the Nephew for the deserts of the wise grandfather Thou shalt reade this my letter openly to the Pretours and Iudges which are resident there and the case shall bee that when thou shalt reade it thou shalt admonish them that if they will not amend secretly wee will punish them openly I wrote vnto thee the last day that as touching thy banishment I would be thy friend and be thou assured that for to enioy thy old friendshipp and to performe my word I will not let to danger my person I write vnto Panutius my Secretary to succour thee with two thousand Sesterses wherewith thou mayest releeue thy pouerty and from hence I send thee my letter wherewith thou mayest comfort thy sorrowfull hear I say no more to thee in this case but that thorough the Gods thou mayest haue contentation of all that thou enioyest health of thy person and comfort of thy friends the bodily euils the cruell enemies the perillous destenies bee farre from me Marke In the behalfe of thy Wife Rufa I haue saluted my wise Faustine shee and I both haue receyued with ioy thy salutations and with thankes wee sent them you againe I desire to see thy person here in Italy and wish my feuer quartens there with thee in Scicilie CHAP. XII An exhortation of the Author to Princes and Noble men to embrace peace and to eschew the occasions of warre OCtauian Augustus second Emperour of Rome is commended of all for that hee was so good of his person and so wel beloued of all the Romane Empire Suetonius Tranquillus sayth that when any man dyed in Rome in his time they gaue great thanks to the Gods for that they tooke their life from them before their Prince knew what death meant And not contented onelie with this but in their Testaments they commaunded their heires and children that yearely they should offer great sacrifices of their proper goods in all the Temples of Rome to the end the Gods shold prolong the dayes of their Prince That time indeed might bee called the golden age and the blessed land where the Prince loued so well his subiects and the subiects so much obeyed their prince for seldome times it hapneth that one will be content with the seruices of all neyther that all will bee satisfied with the gouernement of one The Romans for none other cause wished for the good Prince more then for themselues life out because he kept the commonwealth in peace The vertue of this Prince deserued much prayse and the good will of the people merited no lesse commendation he for deseruing it to them they for giuing it to him for to say the truth there are few in number that so heartily loue others that for theyr sakes will hate themselues There is no man so humble but in things of honour wil be content to goe before saue only in death where he can be content to come behinde And this seemeth to bee very cleare in that that now dyeth the father now the mother now the husband now the wife now the sonne now his neighbour in the end euery man is content with the death of an other so that he with his owne life may escape himselfe A Prince which is gentle patient stout sober honest and
when they see themselues in such cares and distresse And after my count made I finde that they ought not to thinke of the companie past nor wofull sollitarines wherein they are presently and much lesse they ought to thinke on the pleasures of this world but rather to remember the rest in the world to come For the true widdowe ought to haue her conuersation among the liuing and her desire to be with the dead If till this present thou hadst paine and trouble to looke for thy Husband to come home haue thou now ioy that hee looketh for thee in Heauen wherein I sweare vnto thee that thou shalt be better vsed of the Gods then he was here of men For in this world wee know not what glorie meaneth and there they know not what paines are Licinius and Posthumius thy vnkles tolde mee that thou art so sorrowfull that thou wilt receiue no comfort but in this case I thinke not that thou bewailest so much for Claudinus that alone doest thinke thou hast lost him For since wee did reioyce together in his life wee are bound to weepe together at his death The heauie and sorrowfull hearts in this worlde feele no greater griefe then to see others reioyce at their sorrowes And the contrary heereof is that the wofull and afflicted heart feeleth no greater ioy nor rest in extream mishappes of Fortune then to thinke that others haue sorrow and griefe of their paine When I am heauie and comfortles I greatly ioy to haue my friend by me and my heart doth tell me that what I feele hee feeleth So that all which my Friend with his eyes doeth bewayle and all that which of my griefes he feeleth the more wherewith hee burdeneth himselfe and the more thereof he dischargeth me The Emperour Octauian Augustus the Hystories say on the riuer of Danuby found a kinde of people which had this straunge custome that with eyes was neuer seene nor in bookes at any time neuer read which was that two Friendes assembled and went to the aulters of the Temples and there one friend confederate with another so that theyr hearts were marryed as man and wife are marryed touching their bodies swearing and promising there to the gods neuer to weepe nor to take sorrow for any mishappe that shold come to their persons So that my friend should come to lament and remedy my troubles as if they had bin his owne and I should lament and remedie his as if they had bin mine Oh glorious world O age most happie O people of eternall memorie wherein men are so geentle friends so faithfull that theyr owne trauells they forgot and the sorrows of strangers they bewayled O Rome without Rome O time euill spent O time to vs others euill employed O wretches that alwaies are carelesse now a dayes the stomacke and intrailes are so seuered from the good and the hearts so ioyned with the euill that men forgetting themselus to be men become more cruell then beasts I labour to giue thee life and thou seekest to procure my death Thou weepest to see mee laugh and I laugh to see thee weepe I procure that thou doe not mount and thou seekest that I might fall Finally without the profite of anie wee cast our selues away and without gaine we doe reioyce to ende our liues By the faith of a good man I sweare vnto thee Lady Lauinia that if thy remedy were in my handes as thy griefe is in my heart I would not be sorrie for thy sorrowes neyther thou so tormented for the death of thy husband But alas though I miserable man haue the heart to feele thy anguish yet I want the power to remedie thy sorrowes CHAP. XXXVIII ¶ The Emperor proceedeth in his letter and perswadeth widdows to put theyr willes to the will of God and exhorteth them to liue honestly SInce thy remedie my desire cannot be accomplished because it is a thing vnpossible to receiue speake with the dead and not hauing power mee thinkes that thou and I should referre it to the Gods who can giue much better then wee can aske O Ladie Lauinia I desire thee earnestly and as a Friend I counsell and admonish thee and with all my heart I require thee that thou esteeme that for well done which the Gods haue done that thou conforme thy selfe to the will of the Gods and that thou will nought else but as the Gods will For they onely knowe they erre not wherfore they haue assaulted thy husband with so sudden death and vnto thee his wife haue lent so long life The Gods beeing as they are so mighty and so sage what is hee that can be iudge of their profound iudgements The Gods knowe right well those which serue them and those which offend them those which loue them and those which hate them those that praise them and those that blaspheme them those that yeelde them thanks and those which are vnthankefull And I tell thee further that oftentimes the Gods are serued more with them which are buryed in the graues then with those which goe weeping through the Temples Wilt thou now enter into account with the Gods thou oughtst to note and consider that they haue left thee Children to comfort thy selfe they haue left thee goods wherewith thou mayest auoyde pouertie they haue left thee Friends by whome thou shalt be fauoured they haue left thee parents of whom thou art beloued they haue left thee a good name for to be esteemed and health wherewith thou mayest liue Finally I say that small is that which the Gods take from vs in respect of that they leaue vs. After one sort we ought to behaue our selues with men and after another wee ought to serue the Gods For to men sometimes it is requisite to shew a countenance for to humble them but to the Gods it is necessary to lye flat on the grounde with thy stomacke to honour them And if the Oracle of Apollo doe not deceyue vs the Gods are sooner with humilitie wherewith wee worship them appeased then with presumptuous Sacrifices which wee offer vnto them contented Since thou art widdow Lady Lauinia and art a wise and vertuous Woman beseech the Gods to preserue thy children to defend thy renowme and not to seuer thy Friendes from thee and that thou scatter not thy goods to preserue thy person in health and aboue all to bee in theyr fauour Thou canst not winne nor loose so much in all thy life as the Gods can giue or take from thee in one houre Would to GOD the widow knew how little shee winneth among men and how much she loseth among the Gods when shee is not pacient in aduersitie For impatience oftentimes prouoketh the Gods to wrath We see it in mans bodie by experience that there are sundrie diseases which are not cured with wordes spoken but with the hearbs therevnto applyed And in other diseases the contrary is seene which are not cured with costly medicines
bēt to bloudy wars went to see speake with Diogines the Phylosopher offring him great presents discoursing with him of diuers matters So that wee may iustly say This good Prince of himselfe tooke paines to seeke out wise men to accompanie him electing by others choyce and aduise all such as hee made his Captaines to serue him in the warres It is manifest to all that Dyonisius the Syracusan was the greatest Tyrant in the worlde and yet notwithstanding his Tiranny it is a wonder to see what sage and wise men he had continually in his Courte with him And that which makes vs yet more to wonder of him is that hee had them not about him to serue him or to profite one jote by their doctrines and counsell but onely for his honour and their profite which enforceth mee to say concurring with this example that sith Tyrants did glorie to haue about them Sages wise and worthie men Much more should those reioice that their works deeds are noble freeharted And this they ought to do not onely to bee honoured with them openly but also to be holpen with their doctrine and counsells secretly And if to some this should seeme a hard thing to follow we will say that worthy men not being of abilitie and power to maintayne such Wise-men ought yet at least to vse to reade at times good and vertuous books For by reading of vertuous Bookes they may reape infinite profite As for example By reading as I say these Good Authours the desire is satisfied their iudgement is quickned ydlenesse is put away the heart is disburdened the Time is well employed and they lead their liues vertuously not being bound to render account of so manie faults as in that time they might haue committed And to conclude it is so good an exercise as it giueth good example to the Neighbour profite to himselfe and health to the soule We see by experience after a man taketh vppon him once the Studie of holie Scriptures and that hee frameth himselfe to bee a Diuine hee will neuer willingly thenceforth deale in any other studyes and all because he will not forgoe the great comfort and pleasure he receyueth to reade those holy sayings And that causeth that we see so manie learned wise men for the more part subiect to diuers diseases and full of Melancholike humours For so sweete is the delight they take in theyr Bookes that they forget and leaue all other bodily pleasure And therefore Plutarche writeth that certaine phylosophers being one day met at the lodging of Plato to see him demanding what exercise he had at that time Plato answered thē thus Truely my brethren I let you know that euen now my onely exercise was to see what the great Poete Homer said And this he tolde them because that they took him euen then reading of some of Homers bookes and to say truely his aunswere was such as they should all looke for of him For to reade a good booke in effect is nothing else but to heare a wise man speake And if this our iudgement and aduise seeme good vnto you we would yet say more that you should profite more to reade one of these bookes then you should to heare speake or to haue conference with the Author him selfe that made it For it is without doubt that all Writers haue more care and respect in that their penne doth write then they haue in that their tongue doth vtter And to the end you should not thinke we cannot proue that true that we haue spoken I giue you to vnderstand that euerie Author that will write to publish his doing in print to lay it to the shew and iudgement of the world and that desireth thereby to acquire honour fame and to eternize the memory of him turneth many bookes conferreth with other wise and lerned men addicteth himselfe wholy to his book endeauoureth to vnderstand well oft refuseth sleepe meat and drinke quicneth his spirites doing that he putteth in writing exactly with long aduise and consideration which he doth not when hee doth but onely speake and vtter them though oft in deede by reason of his great knowledge in speech vnawares there falleth out of his mouth many godly and wise sentences And therefore God hath giuen him a goodly gift that can reade and him much more that hath a desire to study knowing how to chuse the good bookes from the euill For to say the truth there is not in this world any state or exercise more honourable and profitable then the study of good books And we are much bound to those that read more to those that study and much more to those that write any thing but most doubtlesse to those that make compile goodly books and those of great and high doctrine for there are many vaine and fond bookes that rather deserue to be throwne into the fire then once to be read or looked on for they do not only shew vs the way to mocke them but also the ready meane to offend vs to see them occupie their braines and best wittes they haue to write foolish and vaine things of no good subiect or erudition And that which is worst of all yet they are occasion that diuers others spend as much time in reading their iests and mockeries as they would otherwise haue imploied in doctrine of great profit and edifying the which to excuse and defend their error say they did not write them for men to take profite thereby but only to delight and please the Readers to passe the time away merily whom we may rightly answer thus That the reading of ill and vaine bookes cannot bee called a pastime but aptly a very losse of time And therefore Aulus Gelius in the fifteenth of his booke writeth that after the Romanes vnderstood the Orators and Poets of Rome did giue themselues to write vain voluptuous and dishonest bookes causing Enterludes and Poeticall Comedies to be played they did not only banish them from Rome but also out all the parts of Italy for it beseemed not the Romane grauity neyther was it decent for the Weale publike to suffer such naughty bookes among them and much lesse for to beare with vicious and lasciuious gouernours And if the Romane Panims left vs this for example how much more ought wee that are Christians to continue and follow it since that they had no other Bookes for to reade saue onely Histories and we now a dayes haue both Histories and holy Scriptures to read which were graūted vs by the church to the end that by the one we might take some honest pleasure and recreation and with the other procure the health of oursoules Oh how farre is the Common-wealth nowe-adayes digressed from that wee wryte and counsell since we see plainely that men occupie themselues at this present in reading a nūber of Books the which only to name I am ashamed And therfore said Aulus Gelius in his 14. book That there
he hath fetched in the night Truely I thinke and in my thought I am nothing deceiued that if a prince would declare vnto vs his whole life and that hee would particularly shewe vs euery thing wee would both wonder at that bodie which had so much suffered and also we would be offended with that heart which had so greatly dissembled It is a troublesome thing a dangerous thing and an insolent and proud enterprise for a man to take vpon him with a penne to gouerne the Common-wealth and with a Prince to reason of his life For in deed men are not perswaded to liue well by faire words but by vertuous deedes And therefore not without cause I say that hee is not wise but very arrogant that dare presume vnasked to giue a Prince counsell For princes in many things haue their mindes occupyed and haughtely bent and som of them also are affectionate and whereas wee peraduenture thinke to haue them mercifull wee finde them more angrie and heauie against vs. For counsell doeth more harme then profite if the giuer thereof be not very wise and hee also which receyueth it very pacient I haue not bin a Prince for to know the trauels of Princes nor am as president to counsell Princes and yet I was so bolde to compile this Booke it was not vpon presumption to counsell a Prince so much as by an humble sort to giue mine aduise For to giue counsell I confesse I haue no credite but to giue them aduise it sufficeth mee to bee a subiect What the order is in that I haue taken in this Booke how profitable it is to all men and how vnpleasaunt to no man how wholsom and profound doctrine in it is contayned and how the Historyes bee heerein applyed I will not that my pen doe write but they themselues shall judge which shall read this worke We see it oft come to passe that diuers Bookes doe loose their estimation not for that they are not very good and excellent but because the Authour hath been too presumptuous and vaine-glorious For in mine opinion for a man to praise his owne wrytings much is nothing else but to giue men occasion to speake euill both of him and of his workes Now let no man thinke that I haue written this which is written without great aduisement and examination I doe confesse before the Redeemer of the whole world that I haue consumed so many yeares to seeke what I should write that these two yeares one day hath scarcely escaped me wherein my Pen hath not done his dutie to write or correct in this worke I confesse that I tooke great paines in writing it for of truth it hath been written twice with mine owne hand and thrice with another mans hand I confesse I haue read and searched in diuers and sundrie partes manie good and straunge books to the end I might finde good and pleasaunt doctrine and besides that I trauelled much to set and apply the Hystories to the purpose For it is an vnseemely thing to applie an hystorie without a purpose I had great respect in that I was not so briefe in my wrytings that a man might note mee to bee obscure nor yet in anie thing so long that any man should slaunder mee with too much talke For all the excellencie of Wryting consisteth where many and goodly Sentences are declared in fewest and aptest words For oft times the long stile is loathsome and tedious both to the Hearers and Readers Nero the Emperour was in loue with a Ladie in Rome named Pompeia the which in beautie to his fantasie exceeded all others In the ende partly with intreatie partly with Money and presents he obtained of her that hee desired For in this case of loue where prayers and importunities bee paciently heard resistance doth lacke The inordinate loue that Nero bare to Pompeia proceeded of the yealow haires she had which were of the colour of Amber and in praise of her he compiled diuers and sundry songs in Heroicall-Meeter and with an instrument sang them himselfe in her presence Nero was a sage Prince wise and excellently well learned in the Latine tongue and also a good Musitian yet Plutarch in his book of the jests of noble women to declare the vanitie and lightnes of Nero reciteth this history and describing Pompeia that her bodie was small her fingers long her mouth proper her eyelids thin her nose somwhat sharpe her teeth small her lips red her necke white her fore-head broad and finally her eyes great and rowling her brest large well proportioned What think you would Nero haue done if hee had so affectionately set his fantasie vpon al other her beautiful properties since that for the loue only of her yellow locks he was depriued both of his wisdom also senses For vaine light men loue commonly not that which reason commandeth but that which their appetite desireth The loue of the Emperour increased with folly so much that not onely he counted seuerally al the haires that his louer Pompeia had on her head but also gaue to euery hayre a proper name and in prayse of euery one of them made a song insomuch that this effeminate Prince spent more time in banqueting and playing with his louer Pompeia then he did to reform and amend the faults of the common wealth yea his folly so much surmoūted all reason that he commaunded a combe of golde to bee made and therewith hee himselfe combed her yellow locks And if it chaunced that any one hayre in combing fell off hee by and by caused it to be set in golde offered it vp in the Temple to the Goddesse Iuno For it was an ancient custome among the Romanes that the thinges which they entirely loued whether it were good or euill should bee offered vp to their gods And when it was once knowne that Nero was so in loue with those haires of Pompeia which were of the color of amber all the Ladies endeauoured themselues not onely to make artificially theyr hayre of that colour but also to weare their garments and other attires of the same colour in somuch that both men and women did vse collers of amber brooches and ringes set with amber and all their other iewels were of amber For alwayes it hath beene seene and euer shall be that those things whereunto the Prince is most addicted the people follow and aboue all other couet the same Before this Emperour Nero plaied this light part in Rome the amber stones was had in little estimation after that hee set so much by it there was no precious stone in Rome so much esteemed Yea and furthermore the Marchant gained nothing so much whether it were in golde or silke as he did in the amber stones nor brought any kind of marchandize to Rome more precious or more vendible then that was I do maruell at this vanitie foras-much as the children of the world do loue desire and labour more to
follow the straunge follie of another then to furnish and supplie their owne proper necessitie Therefore returning againe to my purpose most excellent Prince by this example you may coniecture what I would say that is that if this writing were accepted vnto Princes I am assured it would be refused of no man And if any man would slanderously talke of it hee durst not remeÌ„bring that your Maiesty hath receyued it For those things which Princes take to their custody wee are bound to defend and it is not lawfull for vs to diminish their credite Suppose that this my worke were not so profound as it might be of this matter nor with such eloquence set out as many other bookes are yet I dare bee bolde to say that the Prince shall take more profit by reading of this worke then Nero did by his loue Pompeia For in the end by reading and studying good bookes men turn and become sage and wise and by keeping ill company they are counted fooles and vitious My meaning is not nor I am not so importunate and vnreasonable to perswade Princes that they should so fauour my doctrine that it should be in like estimation now in these parts â—a the amber was there in Rome But that onely which I require and demaund is that the time which Nero spent in singing and telling the hayres of his loue Pompeia should now bee employed to redresse the wrongs faults of the common wealth For the noble and worthy Prince ought to employ the least part of the day in the recreation of his person After hee hath giuen audience to his Counsellours to the Ambassadours to the great Lords and Prelates to the rich and poore to his own countrey men strangers and after that he be com into his Priuy Chamber then my desire is that hee would reade this Treatise or som other better then this for in Princes chambers oftentimes those of the Priuie Chamber and other their familiars lose great time in reciting vaine and trifling matters and of small profit the which might better bee spent in reading some good good booke In all worldly affayres that wee do and in all our bookes which we compile it is a great matter to bee fortunate For to a man that fortune doth not fauour diligence without doubt can little auaile Admit that fortune were against mee in that this my worke should bee acceptable vnto your Maiesty without comparison it should be a great griefe and dishonour vnto mee to tel you what should be good to reade for your pastime if on the other part you would not profite by my counsell and aduise For my mind was not onely to make this booke to the end Princes should reade it for a pastime but to that end in recreating themselues sometimes they might thereby also take profit Aulus Gelius in the 12. Chapter of his third booke entituled De nocte attica sayde that amongst all the Schollers which the diuine Plato had one was named Demostenes a man among the Greekes most highly esteemed of the Romanes greatly desired Because hee was in his liuing seuere and in his tongue and doctrine a very Satyre If Demosthenes had come in the time of Phalaris the tyrant when Grecia was peopled with tirants and that hee had not beene in Platoes time when it was replenished with Philosophers truely Demosthenes had been as cleare a lanterne in Asia as Cicero the great was in Europe Great good hap hath a notable man to bee born in one age more then in another I meane that if a valiant Knight come in the time of a couragious and stout Prince such a one truly shall bee esteemed and set in great authority But if hee come in the time of an other effeminate and couetous Prince bee shall not bee regarded at all For hee will rather esteeme one that wel augment his treasure at home then him that can vanquish his enemies abroad So likewise it chanceth to wise and vertuous men which if they come in the time of vertuous and learned princes are esteemed and honoured but if they come in time of vaine and vicious Princes they make small account of them For it is an auncient custom among vanities children not to honour him which to the Common wealth is most profitable but him which to the Prince is most acceptable The end why this is spoken Most puissant Prince is because the two renowmed Philosophers were in Greece both at one time and because the diuine Philosopher Plato was so much esteemed and made of they did not greatly esteeme the Philosopher Demosthenes For the eminent high renowne of one alone diminisheth the fame and estimation among the people of many Although Demosthenes was such a one indeed as wee haue sayde that is to witte eloquent of tongue ready of memory sharpe and quicke of witte in liuing seuere sure and profitable in giuing of counsell in renowne excellent in yeares very auncient and in Philosophy a man right well learned yet hee refused not to goe to the Schooles of Plato to heare morall Philosophie He that shall reade this thing or heare it ought not to maruel but to follow it and to profit likewise in the same that is to vnderstand that one Philosopher learned of another and one wise man suffred himself to be taught of another For knowledge is of such a quality that the more a man knoweth dayly there encreaseth in him a desire to know more All things of this life after they haue beene tasted and possessed cloyeth a man wearieth and troubleth him true science onely excepted which neuer doth cloy weary nor trouble them And if it happen wee weary any it is but the eyes which are wearied with looking and reading and not the spirite with seeling and tasting Many Lords and my familiar friends doe aske mee how it is possible I should liue with so much study And I also demaund of them how it is possible they should liue in such continuall idlenes For considering the prouocation and assaults of the flesh the daungers of the world the temptations of the deuil the treasons of enemies importunity of friends what hart can suffer so great and continuall trauell but onely in reading and comforting himselfe in bookes Truely a man ought to haue more compassion of a simple ignorant man then of a poore man For thereis no greater pouerty vnto a man then for to lacke wisedom whereby he should know how to gouerne himselfe Therefore following our matter the case was such one day Demosthenes going to the schoole of Plato saw in the market place of Athens a great assembly of people which were hearing a Philosopher newly come vnto that place and hee spake not this without a cause that there was a great company of people assembled For that naturally the common people are desirous to heare new and strange things Demosthenes asked what Philosopher hee was after whom so many people went and when it was
aunswered him that it was Calistratus the Philosopher a man which in eloquēce was very sweete and pleasant hee determined to stay and heare him to the end hee would know whether it were true or vaine that the people tolde him For oftentimes it hapneth that among the people some get thēselues great fame more by fauor then by good learning The difference betwixt the diuine Philosopher Plato and Calistratus was in that Plato was exceedingly wel learned and the other very eloquent and thus it came to passe that in liuing they followed Plato and in eloquence of speech they did imitate Calistratus For there are diuers men sufficiently well learned which haue profound doctrine but they haue no way nor meanes to teach it vnto others Demosthenes hearing Calistratus but once was so farre in loue with his doctrine that he neuer after heard Plato nor entered into his Schoole for to harken to any of his lectures At which newes diuers of the Sages and Wise men of Grecia maruelled much seeing that the tongue of a man was of such power that it had put all their doctrine vnto silence Although I apply not this example I doubt not but that your Maiesty vnderstandeth to what ende I haue declared it And moreouer I say that although Princes and great Lordes haue in their Chambers Bookes so well corrected and men in their Courts so well learned that they may worthily keepe the estimation which Plato had in his Schoole yet in this case it should not displease me that the difference that was between Plato and Calistratus should bee betweene Princes and this Booke God forbid that by this saying men should thinke I meane to disswade Princes from the company of the sage men or from reading of any other booke but this for in so doing Plato should bee reiected which was diuine and Calistratus embraced which was more worldly But my desire is that sometimes they would vse to reade this booke a little for it may chaunce they shall finde some wholesome counsell therein which at one time or other may profite them in their affayres For the good and vertuous Prince ought to graffe in their memory the wise sayings which they reade and forget the cankred iniuries and wrongs which are done them I do not speake it without a cause that hee that readeth this my writing shall finde in it some profitable counsell For all that which hath bin written in it hath beene euery word and sentence with great diligence so well wayed and corrected as if therein onely consisted the effect of the whole worke The greatest griefe that learned men seele in their writing is to thinke that if there bee many that view their doings to take profite thereby they shall perceyue that there are as many more which occupie their tongues in the slaunder and disprayse thereof In publishing this my worke I haue obserued the manner of them that plant a new garden wherein they set Roses which giue a pleasant sauour to the nose they make faire greene plattes to delight the eyes they graft fruitfull trees to bee gathered with the hands but in the end as I am a man so haue I written it for men and consequently as a man I may haue erred for there is not at this day so perfect a painter but another will presume to amend his worke Those which diligently will endeauour themselues to reade this booke shall finde in it very profitable counsels very liuely lawes good reasons notable sayings sentences very profound worthy examples and histories very ancient For to say the truth I had a respect in that the doctrine was auncient and the Stile new And albeit your Maiesty bee the greatest Prince of all Princes and I the least of all your Subiects you ought not for my base condition to disdaine to cast your eyes vpon this booke nor to thinke scorne to put that thing in proofe which seemeth good For a good letter ought to be nothing the lesse esteemed although it be written with an euill pen. I haue sayde and will say that Princes and great Lords the stouter the richer and the greater of renowme they bee the greater need they haue of all men of good knowledge about them to counsell them in their affayres and of good bookes which they may reade and this they ought to doe as well in prosperity as in aduersity to the end that their affayres in time conuenient may be debated and redressed For otherwise they should haue time to repent but no leasure to amend Plinie Marcus Varro Strabo and Macrobius which were Historiographers no lesse graue then true were at great controuersie improouing what things were most authenticke in a common weale and at what time they were of all men accepted Seneca in an Epistle hee wrote to Lucullus praysed without ceasing the Common wealth of the Rhodians in the which with much ado they bent themselues altogether to keepe one selfe thing and after they had therupon agreede they kept and maintained it inuiolably The diuine Plato in the sixt booke entituled De Legibus ordained and commanded that if any Cittizen did inuent any new thing which neuer before was read nor heard of the inuentour thereof should first practise the same for the space of ten yeares in his own house before it was brought into the Common-wealth and before it should bee published vnto the people to the end if the inuention were good it should be profitable vnto him and if it were nought that then the daunger and hurt thereof should light onely on him Plutarch in his Apothegmes sayeth that Lycurgus vpon grieuous penalties did prohibite that none should bee so hardy in his Common wealth to goe wandring into strange Countries nor that hee should be so hardy to admit any strangers to come into his house and the cause why this law was made was to the end strangers should not bring into their houses things strange and not accustomed in their Common wealth and that they trauelling through strange countries should not learne new Customes The presumption of men now adayes is so great and the consideration of the people so small that what soeuer a man can speake he speaketh what so euer he can inuent he doth inuent what hee would hee doth write and it is no maruell for there is no man that wil speak against them Nor the common people in this case are so light that amongst them you may dayly see new deuises and whether it hurt or profit the Common wealth they force not If there came at this day a vaine man amongst the people which was neuer seene nor heard of before if hee bee any thing subtill I aske you but this question Shall it not bee easie for him to speake and inuent what hee listeth to set forth what he pleaseth to perswade that which to him seemeth good and all his sayings to be beleeued truly it is a wonderfull thing and no lesse slaunderous that one should be sufficient
whereby the good were fauoured and also institutions of grieuous paines wherewith the wicked were punished Although truely I had rather and it were better that the good should loue reason then feare the law I speake of those which leaue to doe euill workes for feare onely of falling into the punishments appoynted for euill doers For although men approue that which they do for the present yet God condemaeth that which they desire Seneca in an epistle hee wrote vnto his friende Lucille saide these wordes Thou writest vnto mee Lucille that those of Scicile haue carryed a great quantitie of Corne into Spaine and into Affrike the which was forbidden by a Romaine law and therefore they haue deserued most grieuous punishment Now because thou art vertuous Thou mayest teache mee to doe well and I that am olde will teach thee to say well and this is because that amongst wise and vertuous men it is enough to say that the Law commaundeth appoynteth and suffereth this thing but in as much as it is agreeing with reason For the crowne of the good is reason and the scourge of the wicked is the law The fourth thing that commonly through the worlde amongst all men was accepted was the Barbers And let no man take this thing in mockery For if they doe reade Plinie in the 59. chapter and the seuenth booke there they shall finde for a Trueth that in those former times the Romaines were in Rome 454. yeares without eyther powling or shauing the hâ—ires off the bearde of anie man Marcus Varro said that Publius 〈◊〉 was the first that brought the barbers from Scicilie to Rome But admit it were so or otherwise yet notwithstanding there was a great contention among the Romaines For they sayd they thought it a rash thing for a man to commit his life vnto the curtesie of another Dyonisius the Syracusian neuer trusted his Beard with any barbor but when his Daughters were very little they clipped his beard with sisers but after they became great hee would not put his trust in them to trimme his beard but hee himselfe did burne it with the shales of nuttes This Dyonisius Syracusan was demaunded why hee would not trust any Barbours with his beard He aunswered Because I know that there bee some which will giue more to the Barbor to take away my life then I will giue to trimme my beard Plinie in the seuenth booke sayeth that the great Scipio called Affrican and the Emperour Augustus were the first that caused them in Rome to shaue their beards And I thinke the end why Plinie spake these things was to exalt these two Princes which had as great courage to suffer the rasours to touch their throats as the one for to fight against Hanniball in Affricke and the other against Sextus Pompeius in Scicilie The fifte thing which commonly throgh the world was accepted were the Dyalls and clockes which the Romains wanted a long time For as Plinie and Marcus Varro say the Romaines were without clockes in Rome for the space of 595. yeares The curious Hystoriographers declare three manner of dyalls that were in old time that is to say Dyalls of the houres Dyalls of the Sunne and Dyalls of the Water The dyall of the Sunne Aneximenides Millesius inuented who was great Animandraes scholler The dyall of the water Scipio Nasica inuented the dyall of houres one of the Schollers of Thales the phylosopher inuented Now of all these Antiquities which were brought into Rome none of them were so acceptable to the Romaines as the Dyalls were whereby they measured the day by the houre For before they could not say we will rise at seuen of the clocke wee will dine at ten we will see one the other at twelue at one wee will doe that wee ought to doe But before they sayde after the Sunne is vp wee wil doe such a thing and before it goe downe wee will do that wee ought to doe The occasion of declaring vnto you these fiue antiquities in this preamble was to no other entent but to call my Booke the Diall of Princes The name of the Booke beeing new as it is may make the learning that is therin greatly to be esteemed God forbid that I should bee so bolde to say they haue been so long time in Spaine without dayes of learning as they were in Rome without the Diall of the Sunne the water and of the houres For that in Spaine haue beene alwaies men well learned in Sciences and very expert in the warres By great reason and of greater occasion the Princes ought to bee commended the knights the people their wits and the fertility of their Countrey but yet to all these goodnesse I haue seen many vnlearned bookes in Spaine which as broken Dials deserue to bee cast into the fire to bee forged anew I doe not speake it without a cause that many bookes deserue to bee broken and burnt For there are so many that without shame and honesty doe set forth bookes of loue of the world at this day as boldlie as if they taught them to despise and speake euill of the world It is pitty to see how many dayes and nights be consumed in reading vaine bookes that is to say Orson and Valentine the Court of Venus and the foure sonnes of Amon and diuers other vaine bookes by whose doctrine I dare boldly say they passe not the time but in perdition for they learne not how they ought to flye vice but rather what way they may with more pleasure embrace it This Diall of Princes is not of sand nor of the Sunne nor of the houres nor of the water but it is the Diall of Life For the other Dials serue to know what houre it is in the night and what houre it is of the day but this sheweth and teacheth vs how wee ought to occupie our minds and how to order our life The property of other Dials is to order things publike but the Nature of this dyal of Princes is to teach vs how to occupie our selues euerie houre and how to amend our life euery moment It little auaileth to keepe the dyalls well and to see thy Subiects dissolutely without any order to range in routes and dayly rayse debate and contention among themselues The End of the generall Prologue THE AVTHOVRS PROLOGVE SPEAKETH PARTICVLARLIE of the Booke called MARCVS AVRELIVS which he translated and dedicated to the Emperour CHARLES the fift THe greatest vanity that I finde in the world is that vaine men are not onely content to be vaine in their life but also procure to leaue a memory of their vanity after their death For it is so thought good vnto vaine and light men which serue the world in vain works that at the houre of death when they perceyue they can do no more and that they can no longer preuaile they offer themselues vnto death which now they see approch vpon them Many of the World are so fleshed in the World that
yea and surmount and surpasse many but yet I doe aduise thē not to employ their force but to follow one For often times it chanceth that many which suppose themselues in their life to excell all when they are dead are scarcelie found equall vnto any Though man hath done much and blazed what he can yet in the end he is but one one mind one power one birth one life and one death Then sithence hee is but one let no man presume to know more then one Of all these good Princes which I haue named in the rowle of iustice the last was Marcus Aurelius to the intent that he should weaue his webbe For suppose we reade of many Princes that haue compiled notable things the which are to bee reade and knowne but all that Marcus Aurelius sayde or did is worthy for to be knowne and necessary to bee followed I doe not meane this Prince in his Heathen law but in his vertuous deedes Let vs not stay at his beleefe but let vs embrace the good that hee did For compare many Christians with some of the Heathen and looke how farre we leaue them behind in faith so farre they excell vs in good and vertuous works All the olde Princes in times past had some Philosophers to their familiars as Alexander Aristotle King Darius Herodorus Augustus Pisto Pompeius Plauto Titus Plinie Adrian Secundus Traion Plutarchus Anthonius Apolonius Theodotius Claudinus Seuerus Fabatus Finally I say that Phylosophers then had such aucthoritie in Princes pallaces that children acknowledged them for Fathers and Fathers reuerenced them as masters These Wise and Sage men were aliue in the company of Princes but the good and vertuous Marcus Aurelius whose doctrine is before your Maiesty is not aliue but dead Yet therefore that is no cause why his Doctrine should not bee admitted For it may bee peraduenture that this shall profite vs more which hee wrote with his handes then that which others spake with their tōgus Plutarch sayeth in the time of Alexander the great Aristotle was aliue and Homer was dead But let vs see how hee loued the one and reuerenced the other for of truth he slept alwayes with Homers booke in his hands and waking he read the same with his eyes and alwayes kept the doctrine thereof in his memory and layde when he rested the booke vnder his head The which priuiledge Aristotle had not who at all times could not be heard and much lesse at all seasons be beleeued so that Alexander had Homer for his friend and Aristotle for a master Other of these Philosophers were but simple men but our Marcus Aurelius was both a wise Philosopher and a very valiant Prince and therfore reason would hee should be credited before others For as a prince hee will declare the troubles and as a Philosopher hee will redresse them Take you therefore Puisaunt Prince this wise Philosopher and Noble Emperour for a Teacher in your youth for a Father in your gouernment for a Captaine generall in your Warres for a guide in your iourneyes for a friend in your affayres for an example in your vertues for a Master in your sciences for a pure white in your desires and for equall match in your deedes I will declare vnto you the Life of an other beeing a Heathen and not the life of an other beeing a Christian For looke how much glory this Heathen Prince had in this world beeing good and vertuous so much paines your Maiesty shall haue in the other if you shall bee wicked and vicious Beholde behold most Noble and illustrious Prince the Life of this Emperour and you shal plainly see and perceyue how cleare hee was in his iudgement how vpright hee was in his iustice how circumspect in the course of his life how louing to his friends how patient in his troubles and aduersities how hee dissembled with his enemies how seuere against Tirants how quiet among the quiet how great a friēd vnto the Sage and louer of the simple how aduenturous in his warres and amiable in peace and chiefly and aboue all things how high in wordes and prosound in sentences Many and sundry times I haue beene in doubt with my selfe whether the heauenly and eternall Maiesty which giueth vnto you Princes the Temporall Maiesty for to rule aboue all other in power and authoritie did exempt you that are earthly Princes more from humane fraylety then hee did vs that be but Subiects and at the last I know hee did not For I see euen as you are children of the World so you doe liue according to the World I see euen as you trauell in the Worlde so you can know nothing but things of the world I see because you liue in the Flesh that you are subiect to the miseries of the flesh I see though for a time you doe prolong your life yet at the last you are brought vnto your graue I see your trauel is great and that within your Gates there dwelleth no rest I see you are colde in the winter and hote in the Summer I see that hunger feeleth you and thirst troubleth you I see your friendes forsake you and your enemies assault you I say that you are sadde and do lacke ioy I see that you are sicke and bee not well serued I see you haue much and yet that which you lacke is more What will you see more seeing that Princes dye O noble Princes and great Lords since you must dye and become wormes meate why doe you not in your life time search for good counsell If the Princes and noble men commit an errour no man dare chastice them wherefore they stand in greater need of aduise and counsell For the traueller who is out of his way the more he goeth forward the more hee erreth If the people doe amisse they ought to be punished but if the Prince erre he should be admonished And as the Prince will the people should at his hands haue punishment so it is reason that he at their hands should receyue counsell For as the wealth of the one dependeth on the wealth of the other so truly if the Prince bee vitious the people cannot be vertuous If your Maiesty will punish your people with words commaund them to print this present worke in their hearts And if your people would serue your Highnesse with their aduise let them likewise beseech you to reade ouer this booke For therin the Subiects shall finde how they may amend and you Lords shall see all that you ought to doe whether this present Worke be profitable or no I will not that my pen shall declare but they which do reade it shall iudge For wee Authours take pains to make and translate and others for vs to giue iudgement and sentence From my tender yeares vntill this present time I haue liued in the World occupying my selfe in reading and studying humane and diuine Bookes and although I confesse my debility to bee such that I haue not read so
speake the like of it that they did of Marcus Aurclius Because men are so long in speaking and so briefe in studying that without any let or shame they will auowe no Booke to be in the world this day but that they haue eyther reade or seene it I haue as much profited in this writing which is humane as other Doctours haue done in matters which are diuine It is not translated word for word but sentence for sentence For wee other Enterpreters are not bound to giue wordes by measure but it sufficeth vs to giue Sentences by weight I beganne to studie this worke in the yeare a thousand fiue hundred and eyghteene and vntill the yeare a thousand fiue hundred twentie and soure I could neyther vnderstand nor know wherein I was occupyed and albeit I kept it as secrete as I could for the space of sixe yeares yet it was knowne abroad whervpon the Emperour his Majestie being with the Feauer diseased sent to mee for it to passe the time away And I according to his commaundement shewed him Marcus Aurelius that then was vncorrected and humbly beseeching him sayde That for recompence of all my trauâ—lâ— I desired no other rewarde but that no man in his Chamber might copie the Booke And in the meane time proceeded to accomplish the worke because I did not meane in such manner to publish it for otherwise I saide his Majestie should be euill serued and I also of my purpose preuented but my sinnes caused that the Booke was coppyed and conueyed from one to another and by the hands of Pages sunday times written so that there increased daily in it errours and faultes And since there was but one originall copie they brought it vnto me to correct which if it could haue spoken would haue complained it selfe more of them that did write it then of those that did steale it And thus when I had finished the worke thought to haue published it I perceyued that Marcus Aurelius was now imprinted at Seuill And in this case I take the Readers to be judges between mee and the imprinters because they may see whether it may stand with Law and justice that a Booke which was to his Imperiall Maiestie dedicated the author thereof being but an jnfant and the booke so vnperfite and vncorrected without my consent or knowledge should bee published Notwithstanding they ceased not but printed it againe in Portugall and also in the Kingdome of Nauarre And if the first impression was faulty truely the second and the third were no lesse So that which was written for the wealth and good of all men generally each man did applye to the profite of himselfe particularly There chaunced another thing of this booke called The golden booke of Marcus Aurelius which I am ashamed to speake but greater shame they should haue that so dishonestly haue done That is some made themselus to be authors of the whole worke Others say that parte of it was made and compyled of their owne heads the which appeareth in a booke in priut wherein the authour did like a man voyd of all honesty in another booke one vsed likewise the wordes which Marcus Aurelius spake to Faustine when shee asked him the key of his Studie After these Theeues came to my knowledge iudge you whether it were ynough to prooue my patience For I had rather they had robbed me of my goods then taken away my renowme By this all men may see that Marcus Aurelius was not then corrected nor in any place perfect whereby they might perceyue that it was not my minde to Translate Marcus Aurelius but to make a Dyall for Princes whereby all Christian people may be gouerned and ruled And as the doctrine is shewed for the vse of manie so I would profite my selfe with that which the wise men had spoken and written And in this sort proceedeth the worke wherein I put one or two chapters of mine and after I put some Epistles of Marcus Aurelius and other doctrine of some Auncient men Let not the Reader bee deceyued to thinke hat the one and the other is of the Authour For although the phrase of the Language be mine yet I confesse the greatest part that I knew was of another mans althogh the Historiographers and Doctours with whom I was holpen were manie yet the doctrine which I wrote was but one I will not denye but I haue left out some things which were superfluous in whose steade I haue placed things more sweete and profitable So that it needeth good wittes to make which seemeth in one language to be grosse in another to giue it the apparance of gold I haue deuided into three books this present Dyall of Princes The first treateth that the Prince ought to bee a good Christian The second how hee ought for to gouerne his wife and children The third teacheth how he should gouerne his person and his Common wealth I had begunne another booke wherein was contained how a Prince should behaue himselfe in his Court and Pallace but the importunity of my friendes caused me to withdraw my penne to the end I might bring this worke to light The end of the Argument A COMPENDIOVS TABLE OF ALL THE SEVERALL ARGVMENTS contayned in these distinct Bookes of MARCVS AVRELIVS * ⎠* The first Booke OF the Birth and Linage of the vise Philosopher and Emperor Marcus Aurelius Also of three seuerall Chapters in the beginning of this book concerning a discourse of his life for by his Epistles and doctrine the whole course of the present worke is approued Chap. 1. Fol. 1. Of a Letter sent by Marcus Aurelius to his friend Pulio wherein hee declareth the order of his whole life And among other things hee maketh mention of a thing which happened to a Romane Censor with his Host of Compagnia chap. 2. fol. 5. The Letter concluded by Marcus Aurelius declaring at large what Science hee had learned and all the Masters he had Beside he reciteth fiue notable things in obseruance whereof the Romanes were curious chap. 3. fol. 8. Of the excellency of Christian Religion which manyfesteth the true God and disproueth the vanitie of the Ancients in hauing so many gods And that in the old times when enemies were reconciled in their houses they caused also that their gods should imbrace each other in their Temples chap 4. fol. 13. How the Philosopher Bruxelius was greatly esteemed among the Ancients for his life And of the words which hee spake to the Romanes at the houre of his death chap. 5. fol. 15. chap. 6. fol. 16. How the Gentiles thought that one God could not defend them from their enemies And how the Romanes sent throughout all the Empire to borrow gods when they fought against the Gothes chap. 7. fol. 17 Of a Letter sent from the Senate of Rome to all the Subiects of the Empire chap. 8. fol. 18. Of the true and liuing God And of the maruailes wrought in the old Law to manifest
to bee borne afore him a burning brand and the Councel an Axe of Armes the Priests a Hatte in manner of a Coyse The Senatours a Crusible on their Armes the Iudges a little Balance the Tribunes Maces the Gouernours a Scepter the Bishoppes Hattes of flowers the Oratours a Booke the Cutler 's a Sword the Goldsmith a pot to melt gold and so forth of all other offices strangers excepted which went al marked after one sort in Rome For they would not agree that a stranger should be apparrelled and marked according to the children of Rome O my friend Pulio it was such a ioy then to behold the Discipline and prosperity of Rome as it is now at this present such a griefe to see the calamitie thereof that by the immortall Gods I sweare to thee and so the God Mars guide my hand in Wars that the man which now is best ordered is not worth so much as the most dissolute person was then For then amongst a thousand they could not find one man vicious in Rome and now amongst twenty thousand they cannot find one vertuous in all Italy I know not why the Gods are so cruell against me and fortune so contrary that this forty yeares I haue done nothing but weepe and lament to see the good men dye and immediately to be forgotten and on the other side to see wicked men liue and to be alwayes in prosperity Vniuersally the noble heart may endure all the troubles of mans life vnlesse it bee to see a good man decay and the wicked to prosper which my heart cannot abide nor yet my tongue dissemble And touching this matter my friend Pulio I will write vnto thee one thing which I found in the booke of the high Capitoll where hee treateth of the time of Marius and Silla which truely is worthy of memory and that is this There was at Rome a custome and a law inuiolable sith the time of Cinna that a Censour expresly commāded by the Senate should goe and visite the Prouinces which were subiect vnto it throughout all Italy and the cause of those visitations was for three things The first to see if any complained of Iustice The second to see in what case the Common-weale stood The third to the end that yearely they should render obedience to Rome O my friend Pulio how thinkest thou If they visited Italie at this present as at that time they suruaied Rome how ful of errours should they finde it And what decay should they see therin thinkest thou Truely as thou knowest they should see the common wealth destroyed Iustice not ministred and moreouer Rome not obeyed and not without iust cause For of right ought that common-wealth to be destroyed which once of all other hath beene the flower and most beautified with vertues and after becommeth most abhominable and defiled with vices The case was such that two years after the wars of Silla and Marius the Censour went yeerly to Nola which is a place in the Prouince of Campania to visite the same Country as the custome was And in those dayes the time and season being very hote and the Prouince quiet not disturbed with warres and perceyuing that none of the people came to him The Censour said to the Host which lodged him Friend I am a Iudge sent from the Senatours of Rome to visite this land Therefore goe thy wayes quickly and call the good men hither which be among the people for I haue to say vnto them from the sacred Senate This Host who peraduenture was wiser then the Romane Iudge although not so rich goeth to the graues of the dead which in that place were buried and spake vnto them with a loude voyce saying O yee good men come away with mee quickly for the Romane Censour calleth you The Iudge perceyuing they came not sent him againe to call them and the Host as he did at the first time so did he now at the second For when he was at the graues with a loud voice he sayd O yee good men come hither for the censour of Rome would talke with you And likewise they were called the third time with the selfe same words And the Censour seeing no body come was maruellous angry and sayde to the Host Sith these good men disdain to come at my commandement and shew their allegiance to the sacred Senate of Rome that were aliue and not those that are dead the Host made answere O thou Romane Iudge if thou wert wise thou wouldest not maruell at that that I haue done For I let thee vnderstand in this our City of Nola all the good men all I say are now dead and lye here buried in these graues Therefore thou hast no cause to maruell nor yet to bee displeased with my aunswere but I rather ought to bee offended with thy demaund willing me to enquire for good men and thou thy selfe dost offend with the euill dayly Wherefore I let thee know if thou bee ignorant thereof if thou wilt speake with any good man thou shalt not finde him in all the whole world vnlesse the dead bee reuiued or except the Goas will make a new creation The Consull Silla was fiue moneths our Captaine in this our City of Nola in Campania sowing the fruit which ye other Romaines gathered that is to say he left children without Fathers Fathers without children daughters without Mothers and Husbands without Wiues Wiues without Husbands Vncles without Nephewes Subiects without Lords Lords without Tenants Gods without Temples Temples without Priestes Mountaines without Heards and fieldes without fruites And the worst of all is that this wicked and cursed Silla dispeopled this our City of good and vertuous men and replenished it with wicked and vitious persons Ruine and decay neuer destroyed the Walles so much neyther the Mothes euer so many garments nor the Worme rotted so much fruit nor yet the Hayle beate downe so much corne as the disorder and vices of Sylla the Romane Consull did harme which hee brought vnto this land of Campania And although the mischiefe and euils that hee did heere to the men were manifold great yet much greater herein was that which he did to their Customes and Manners For in the end the good men which hee beheaded are now at rest with the dead but the vices which hee left vs in this Land there are none but proude and arrogant men that delight to commaund In this land there are none other but enuious men that know nought else but malice In this land there are idle men which doe nothing but loose their time In this land there are none but gluttons which doe nothing but eate In this land there are none but theeues which entend nought else but robberies In this land there are none but rebels that do nothing but stirre sedition And if thou and all the Romanes esteeme these men for good tarry a while I will goe to call them all to thee For if wee should
amongst the Gardens of Detha and this temple remained till the time of Randagagismus who besieging Rome destroyed the Temples and brake vp their Gardens and buyldings round about Rome They had also an other God called Adeon and his charge was that when the Childe could goe well hee should goe to his mother and make much of her And albeit Cicero in his booke De natura Deorum putteth this God amongst the other Gods yet I do not remember that I haue euer read that this god had any temple in Rome till the time of Mammea mother of the Emperour Antoninus This excellent woman being left a widowe and with two little children desiring that they might be wel and vertuously brought vp and that they should increase their loue towards her she built to the god Adeon a sumptuous temple in the xii region Vaticanus neer to the Gardens of Domicilius and hard adioyning to that also shee erected one other edifice called Sacellum Mammae where she abode solitarilie for a time For the manner and custome at that time was that all widowes which would bring vp their Children in good discipline should immediately seuer themselues farre from the dangerous pleasures of Rome The ancients had also an other God called Mentallis which was in effect god of wit That is to wit he had authoritie and power to giue Children good or euill sence And to this god the ancients did great sacrifices especially the Greekes much more then the Romanes For as much as Seneca saith that he doth maruell nothing at all of that the Greekes knew but that which made him most to maruel was of that they knewe not since they had the temple of the God Mentallis within their schooles All the children whom they sent to learne Philosophy were by the lawes of Athens bound to serue three yeeres in that Temple And to omit that which Seneca spake of the Greekes I dare boldly say and affirme to many which at these dayes are liuing that if it bee true he gaue sence and vnderstanding to men that they would to day rather then to morrow withdraw themselues to goe into those Temples and there offer their vowes For nothing in the World hapneth to men more then the want of witte and vnderstanding how to gouerne themselues and liue in quiet They had also another God Volunus and a Goddesse called Voluna these two had the charge of affiance in Wedlocke and therefore they were two because the one should helpe the man and the other should helpe the woman The manner vvas such that during the time of their marriage each of them vvare the Image of their owne God about theyr necks those were of gold or siluer And after they were married the Bridegroome gaue vnto his Spouse the Goddesse Voluna and the Bride vnto her husband the God Volunus At such times as the Consuls were created at Rome and the Kings banished and before the comming of the Emperours a litle before the Cornelians moued ciuill commotions in Rome there was one Consul amongst all these whose name was Balbus It is sayde he was the first that builded the Temple of Volunus and Voluna It did stand in the ninth Ward of the City neere vnto the gate Corinthia and was called Scripta Balbi And nigh vnto it was another building called Theatrum Balbi All the Consuls Senatours noble and renowned Barons were married in the Temple which Balbus built That night that Pompey the Great married Iulius Caesars daughter there were some that sayd that Pompey refused to marry her in the Temple of the Gods Volunus and Voluna whereupon they diuined straight that the marriage would not endure long betwixt them As writeth Publius Victor in his third booke De nuptiis Antiquorum The auncient Pagans honoured a God called Agrestes as much to say as the God of fields and fruites to him they offered no sacrifice but twice in the yeare that is to say in Seede time and in haruest The Phrygians that is the Troians and Cicilians greatly obserued this God Agrestes and it was for that in those two Countries there was gathered such plenty of corne to make bread that Phrygia was the great garner of Asia and Trinacria that was Cicilia was the Corne house of Europe They had another God called Belus which was Patrone of men of warre For euen as the Christians when they come to the point to giue battell make their prayers vnto God so likewise the Auncients in the same point did kneele downe and recommend themselues to God Belus Liuie declareth that in all other things which were done and wherof the Romane Knights were accused in the battell of Cannas against Hannibal was for that they did not recommend themselues at all to the God Belus when they should giue battell saying the Carthagians remained Conquerours because they a little before honoured the god Mars and the Romaines were vanquished for that they offered no Sacrifice to God Belus When Pirrus King of the Epirotes that is of Albany came into Italy and that the Romanes were aduertised hee brought with him many Engines and subtill inuentions for the war they decreed to build a Tēple for god Belus within the wals Rome in the ninth warde neere the gate Carmentalle and it was named Edes Beloe in the front whereof was a maruellous sumptuous and stately piller wherein was grauen the order of battell The Gentiles had another God called the God of Victory to whome the Romanes more then any other Nation did sacrifices to the end they might obtaine victory of their enemies Of this God Victoria there was many magnificent Temples in Rome but the chiefest and the greatest was adioyning to the gate Venia in the twelfth warde in the place called Della Victoria It was built in the yeare of the foundation of Rome foure hundreth threescore and seuenteene And it was for the occasion of the victory that Appius Claudius and Quintus Fabius had in Sicill the first time the Romane people fought against the Africanes Herones beeing King Of this warre and victory rose the cruell long and perillous warres betweene Rome and Affricke There was another God amongst the Gods whom the Auncients called Honorius which had the charge that the Inne-keepers should honor and gently entertaine Pilgrimes and strangers so that they should bee well handled through the Prouinces and Realmes whereby they passed And there was a custome in Rome that euer when any Romane should goe any voyage his wife immediately should goe to the Temple of God Honorius to doe her sacrifices In the 15. yeare after that Hannibal passed into Italy the Romanes knew by a Prophesie that as soone as they brought the Image of the Goddesse Berecinthia mother of all the Gods into Rome so soone Hannibal should retire out of Italy And to bring this to passe the Romanes sent their Ambassadors into Phrygia which is one part of Asia to the end they should bring the Goddesse Berecinthia
was a Goddesse of the bars and hinges of the gates and the cause why the Auncients did sacrifice to her was that no man should breake the gates nor lift vp the hinges and that if they went about to put to their hands immediately the hinges should make a noyse to awake the Master of the house that hee might heare it and know that his enemies were at the gate There was another God who was called Siluanus and was most honored among the Auncients especially among all the Romanes This God had the charge to keepe those from perill and misfortune that went for their pleasures and recreation to the Gardens as Plinie sayth in an Epistle he wrote to Rutilius The first that built a Temple for the God Siluanus was Mecenas which was in the time of Augustus And hee desired aboue all other men to make feasts and banquets in Gardens This Temple was in the eleuenth Warde in the field of the Goddesse Venus neare vnto the house of Murcea which was destroyed in the time of the Emperour Antoninus Pius through an Earthquake whereby many buildings and houses fell in Rome Iugatiuus was the God of marriages who had charge to make the loue which begunne in youth to endure till the olde age It was wonderful to see how the women newly married went on pilgrimage for Deuotion vnto this God and what gifts and presents they offered in his Temple Suetonius Tranquillus sayeth that there was a Temple of this God but I finde not in writing by whom it was built saying that Helius Spartanus sayeth that the Emperour Heliogabalus found much riches in the Temple of Iugatibus the which hee tooke away to maintaine his wars Bacchus was the God of drunkards and the custome in Rome was that only mad men and fooles celebrated the feast of this God and if there were found any of wit and vnderstanding were it neuer so little they thrust him forthwith out of the Temple and sought in his steade another drunkard The Temple of Bacchus was in the 10. Warde in the meadowes which they call Bacchanales without the City in the way of Salaria by the Altars of the goddesse Februa and it was built by the Gaules when they besieged Rome in the time of Camillus Februa was a Goddesse for the feuers and they vsed in Rome when any was taken with the feauer immediately to send some sacrifice vnto her This Goddesse had no Temple at all but her Image was in Pantheon which was a Temple wherein all the Gods were and in this place they sacrificed vnto her Pauor was the God of feare who had the charge to take feare from the Romanes hearts and to giue them stoute courage against their enemies The Temple of this God Pauor was in Rome in the sixth Ward in the place of Mamuria neare to the olde Capitoll and euer when they had any enemies the Romaines forth with offered in this place sacrifices and there was in the same Temple a statue of Scipio the Affricane all of siluer which hee offered there when hee triumphed ouer the Carthagenians Meretrix was the Goddesse of dishonest women and as Publius Victor sayeth There was in Rome forty streetes of common women In the middest whereof the Temple of this Meretrix was It chanced in the time of Ancus Martius the fourth King of the seuen Romane Kinges that there was in Rome a Curtezan Natiue of Laurento which was so fayre that with her body shee gained great riches wher of shee made all the Romane people partakers Wherefore in the memory of her the Romanes built there a temple and made her Goddesse of all the common women in Rome Cloatina was Goddesse of the stoole and to this Goddesse all those commended themselues which were troubled with the Collycke to the ende shee would helpe them to purge their bellies Quies was the Goddesse of rest and to her the Romanes did offer great Sacrifices because that she should giue them pleasure and rest especially on that day when there was any triumph or solemnitie in Rome they gaue in this Temple many gistes because shee should preserue the glory and ioy of the triumphes Numa Pompilius second King of the Romaines built the Temple of this Goddesse and it was without the City for to note that during the life of man in this world hee could neyther haue pleasure nor rest Theatrica was a Goddesse which had the charge to keepe the Theaters and Stages when the Romanes celebrated their Playes and the occasion of inuenting of this Goddesse was because when the Romaines would set foorth theyr Tragedyes they made so solemne Theaters that there might well stand twentie thousand men aboue and as manie vnderneath for to behold the spectacle And sometime it hapned that for the great weight of them aboue the wood of the Theaters and Stages brake and killed all those which were vnderneath and so after this sort all their pastime turned into sorrow The Romanes which vvere prouided in all things agreed to doe Sacrifice vnto the Goddesse Theatrica to the ende shee should preserue them from the dangers of the Theaters and built her a Temple in the ninth ward in the market-place of Cornelia neere to the House of Fabij Domitian the twelfth Emperour of Rome destroyed this Temple because in his presence one of the Theaters brake and killed manie people And for that the Goddesse Theatrica had not better preserued them hee made this Temple to be beaten down Peraduenture those that haue read little shall finde these things now ynough but let them reade Cicero in his booke De Natura Deorum Ihon Bocchas of the Genealogie of Gods and Pulio of the Auncients Gods And Saint Augustine in the first the eleuenth and the eighteenth booke of Citie of God and they shall finde a great number more then is heere spoken of CHAP. XIII ¶ How Tiberius the Knight was chosen Gouernour of the Empyre and afterwards created Emperour onely for being a good Christian And how GOD depriued Iustinian the younger both of his Empyre and Senses for beeing an Heretique THe fiftie Emperour of Rome was Tiberius Constantinus who succeeded Iustinian the younger which was a cruell Emperour And Paulus Dyaconus sayeth That hee was an enemie to the poore a Thiefe to the Rich a great louer of riches and an enemie to himselfe in spending them For the propertie of a couetous man is to liue like a Beggar all the dayes of his life and to be found rich at the houre of his death This Iustinian was so exceeding couetous that hee commaunced strong coffers and chests of yron to be made and brought into his Pallace to keepe in safety the euil-gotten treasures that he had robbed And of this you ought not to maruell for Seneca saith That couetous Princes do not only suspect their Subiects but also themselues In those daies the Church was greatly defiled by the heresie of the Pelagians and the maintayner of that Sect was
speake these things is to perswade princes prelates and great Lords that the great diligence they haue to seeke Surgeans and the summe of mony they waste to maintaine and content them they should spend part of that to seeke wise men to counsell their persons for if men knew what it were to keepe a wise man to commaund in their house they would giue for one onely wise man all their goods yee ought for to haue pitty and compassion vpon those princes and great Lords which lose so many dayes in the moneth and so many houres in the day in speaking of warres buildings weapons meats beasts of huntings and medicines oftentimes of other mens doings and of other vain things not necessary for mans life And this communication they vse with those that are neither vertuous nor wise the which can neyther wisely talke nor yet answere directly vnto that which is asked Oftentimes it chanceth that a prince at randon moueth a matter which they neuer saw written before nor with their eares they neuer heard the like neyther in all their life time they had knowledge thereof and yet they wil seeme to giue iudgement of it or better to say obstinately to contend as if all the dayes of their life they had studied it which thing proceedeth of great shame and euill bringing vp For the priuie Councell may speake before their princes but be they neuer so priuie with licence or without licence it is not lawfull for them to contend Helius Spartianus in the life of Alexander Seuerus sayeth that the Emperour Seuerus was demaunded onceby an Ambassadour of Greece What thing was most painefull to him in Rome whereunto the Emperour answered There is nothing grieueth mee more then when I am merry that my seruants should raise any strife or debate I am not displeased that matters should be debated but this grieueth mee when one will obstinatly striue that hath no ground of that hee speaketh hee cannot otherwise but be called obstinate Theodosius the Emperour was once demanded What a Prince ought to doe to be good wherunto he answered The vertuous Prince when he goeth abroade ought to haue graue and wise men in his company to discourse withall when he is at his meat to haue wise men at his board disputing and when he withdraweth him selfe a part to be reading with wise men and finally at all vacant times he ought to bee found with sage men counselling for the Knight which entreth into battell without weapōs is as hardy as the prince which will gouerne the common wealth without the counsell of wise men Lampridius in the booke of the Roman gests sayth that the Emperor Marcus Aurelius neyther at his meat at his going to bedde at his vprising in his trauell openly nor secretly suffered at any time that fooles should sing or communicate with him but onely wise and vertuous men whom alwayes he most entirely loued Of truth hee had reason for there is nothing be it in iest or in earnest but it is better liked of a wise man thē of a foole If a Prince bee sad cannot a wise man peraduentur by the saying of the holy Scripture counsell him better then a foole by foolish words If a Prince be prosperous shall it not bee better to keepe him in the same property to associate himselfe with a wise man rather then to put his trust in a foole and malitious person If a Prince be destitute of money cannot perchance a wise man finde him better meanes to get it then a foole which doth nothing but aske If a Prince will passe the time away shall not hee bee more comforted with a wise man that reckoneth vnto him the sauoury histories done in times past then hearkning a foole speake foolishly and declaring things dishonestly with the sayings of the malitious of the time present That that I speake of Surgians the selfe same I speake of fooles For I doe not say that they keepe them for their pastime though truely wee might better say to lose their time then to passe their time for that may iustly bee called time lost which is spent without the seruice of God and profit of their neighbours That which I most maruell at is not so much for the great authoritie that fooles haue in the Pallaces of Princes and great Lords as for the little succour and credite which wise men haue among them For it is a great iniurie that fooles should enter into the pallace of princes euen vnto their beds side and that one wise man may not nor dare not enter into the hall So that to the one there is no dore shut and to the other there is no gate open Wee which are at this present of right doe commend those that were before vs for no other cause but that in times past though the Sages were few in number and the world was replenished with barbarous people yet the Sages of those barbarous people were greatly esteemed and had in reuerence And this custome endured long time in Greece that when a Philosopher passed by a Greeke hee rose and spake vnto him and hee might not sit for the contrary all those which shall liue hereafter will reprooue vs which are at this present Forasmuch as wee haue so great a multitude of Sages and do not liue amongst barbarous but amongst Christians and it is a griefe to see and shame to write how little wise men are esteemed for at this day through our offences not those which haue most science but those which haue most riches in the common wealth do commaund I know not whether the diuine wisedome hath depriued them or that the worldly malice hath lost the taste of them For now a dayes there is no sage that liueth al alone to be wise but it is necessary for him to trauell how to gaine his liuing for necessity enforceth him to violate the rules of true Philosophy O world world I know not how to escape thy hands nor how the simple man and ideot defendeth himselfe out of thy snares when the Sage and wise men yea with al their wisedom can scarsely set their foot sure on the ground For all that Wise men of this World know is little enough to defend them from the malitious Reading that which I read of time past and seeing that which I see of time present I am in doubt which was greater the care that vertuous Princes had in seeking out Sages to counsell them or the great couetousnesse that others haue at this present to discouer mines and treasures Speaking therefore in this matter as I thinke I desire that those which haue the charge of gouernment◠whether hee bee Prince Prelate or priuate person I passe not that they once may haue about them sage men that bee wise in deede and that they would loue them aboue all the treasure they had heaped For in the end of good counsell there commeth profite and much treasure is a token of great
for to reward that which thou hast done to me I doe some seruice vnto thee which shall be to giue vnto thee some good counsell for strangers vse to pay for the feast with money and vaine men with telling lyes babblers by counting vaine tales children by flatteries but vertuous men ought to pay by giuing good Counsels This house hath cost thee much paine great griefes and much money and if it cost thee so much it is but reason that thou enioy the same take therefore these my three counsels and it may be thou wilt find thy selfe better contented with those then with money of strangers for many haue wherewithall to build a house but they haue not vnderstanding to gouerne the same The first counsell is Though that thou loue thy friend very well or thy wife as well yet that thou neuer discouer all the secrets of thy heart neither to thy friend nor to thy wife but that thou alwaies reserue some particular vnto thy selfe for Plato saith to whome a man committeth his secrets to him also hee giueth his libertie The second counsel is That neither in priuate businesse nor in publike affaires thou occupy thy selfe so much but at the least thou dost reserue three houres in the day for thine owne rest The third counsell is That thou haue in thy house some secret place wherof thou alone shalt haue the key and therein thou shalt haue Bookes where thou maist study of thy affaires and also talke with thy friends Finally this place shall be a secretary of thy counsels and a rest for thy trauels These were the words that Lucius Seneca spake to his friend Emilius Varro which words were such as he himselfe was that is to say of a sage and excellent personage and though the Banquet was rich yet the payment of Lucius Seneca was much more worth for the minde feeleth more taste in the good and ripe counsell then the body doeth in sauory and delicate meates I haue told you this example of Lucius Seneca for to tell another that happened to the Emperour Marcus Aurclius with his wife Faustine And to the end that the order of the matter bee not turned without breaking our Historie first we will declare here the order which this Emperour obserued in his life for the Common-wealth shall neuer be well gouerned but where the Prince gouerneth well his life Princes of necessitie ought to bee well ordered in this life because they may profite the affayres of the Empire with the particulars of their house and because they should vse the particulars of their house to the recreation of their Person and all these things ought to bee deuided according to time for a good Prince ought to lacke no time to doe that thing well which he hath to doe nor ought hee to haue any time vacant to employ himselfe to vice The worldly call that time good the which is or was prosperous vnto them they call that time euill which is or hath beene contrary and vnfortunate vnto them The Creator will neuer that this sentence bee approued by my penne but I call that time good which is imployed in vertues and that time euill that is lost in vices for the times are alwayes as one but men do turne from vice to vertue from vertue to vice The good Emperour Marcus Aurelius did deuide the time by time so that though hee had time for himselfe he had time likewise to dispatch his owne and others affayres for the man that is willing in a small time dispatcheth much businesse and the man which is negligent in along time doth little This was the order that the Emperour Marcus Aurelius tooke in spending his time He slept seuen houres in the night and one houre rested himselfe in the day In dining and supping hee consumed onely two houres and it was not for that hee tooke great pleasure to belong in eating but because the Philosophers which disputed before his Presence were occasion to prolong the time for in seuenteene yeeres they neuer sawe him at meate but one or other read vnto him some Booke or else the Philosophers reasoned before him Philosophy As he had many Realmes and Prouinces so he appointed one houre for the affayres of Asia for Affricke one houre and Europe another houre and for the conuersation of his wife children and familie he appointed other two houres of time hee had another houre for extraordinary affayres as to heare the complaints of the grieued the quarrels of the poore the complaints of the widdowes and the robberies done to the orphanes for the mercifull Prince giueth no lesse care vnto the poore which for want can doe little then to the rich which for abundance can do much Hee occupied all the residue of the day and night to read Bookes write works to make meeter and in studying of other Antiquities to practise with the Sage to dispute with the Philosophers and finally he tooke no taste of any thing so much as hee did to talke of Science Vnlesse the cruell warres did let him or such like affayres troubled him ordinarily in Winter he went to bed at nine of the clocke and awaked at foure and because he would not be idle he had alway a Booke vnder his beds head and the residue of the day hee bestowed in reading The Romanes had an ancient custome to beare fire before them that is to say a Torch light in the day and a Lampe burning in the night in their Chambers so that waking they burned Waxe and sleeping they burned Oyle And the cause why the Romanes ordeyned that the Oyle should be made of Oliue and the Waxe made of Bees which was vsed to bee borne before the Princes was to the end they should remember that they ought to bee as gentle and louing as the Oyle of Oliue is sweete and as profitable to the Common-wealth as the Bees are Hee did rise at sixe of the clocke and made himselfe ready openly and with a gentle countenance hee asked them that were about him wherein they had spent all the night and declared vnto them then what hee had dreamed what he had thought and what hee had read When hee was readie he washed his face with odoriferous waters and loued very well sweete sauours for hee had so quicke a sent that hee was much offended when hee passed through any stinking place In the morning he vsed to eate two morsels of a Lectuary made of Sticades and dranke three spoonefulls of Maluesey or else two droppes of Aqua vita because he had a cold stomacke for that hee gaue himselfe so much to studie in times past We see it by experience that the great Students are persecuted more with sicknesse then any others for in the sweetnesse of the Science they know not how their life consumeth If it were in the Summer season hee went in the morning to recreate himselfe to the Riuer of Tiberi and walked there a foote for two houres
one that hath proued it it is reason that I bee beloued in this case and that is That the entent of Princes to conquere strange Realmes and to permit their owne to suffer wrongs is for no other thing but because that the commendations which they speake of the Princes past they should likewise talke the same of them that bee to come Concluding therefore my minde and declaring my intention I say that the Prince that is Noble and desireth to leaue off himselfe from fame let him consider and see what it is that those can write of him which write his history for it profiteth little that hee atchieue great affayres by the sword if there bee no Writer to set them forth with the pen and afterwards to exalt them with the tongue These words thus spoken by the Noble Emperour Marcus Aurelius he gaue the key of his Studie to the Honourable olde man Pompeianus that tooke all the Writings and put them in the high Capitoll where the Romanes honoured them as the Christians the holy Scriptures All these Writings besides many others perished in Rome when by the barbarous it was destroyed for the Gothes vtterly to extinguish the name of Rome destroyed not onely the walles thereof but also the Bookes that were therein And truely in this case the Gothes shewed more crueltie to the Romanes then if they had slayne the children of their bodyes or beate downe the walles of their Cities For without doubt the liuely Letter is a more sweeter witnesse of renowme that alwayes speaketh then eyther the Lime Sand or Stone wherewith Fortresses are builded CHAP. XIIII Of the importunate suite of the Empresse Faustine to the Emperour Marcus Aurelius concerning the Key of his Closet WE haue declared how the Emperour Marcus Aurelius had his Study in the secretst place of all the Palace and how that he himselfe did keepe the key It is to be vnderstood that hee would neuer let his wife his children nor any other of his familiar friends come into it for he sayd I had rather suffer that they should take from mee my treasures then that any man should turne the leaues of my Bookes It chanced that on a day the Empresse Faustine being great with childe importuned the Emperour much by all the meanes shee could that he would be so fauourable vnto her as to giue her the key of his Studie and it is no maruell for naturally women despise that which is giuen thē lust for that that is denied them Faustine instantly besought him not once but many times not onely with faire words but with abundant teares alleadging vnto him these reasons I haue required thee sundry times that thou wouldest giue mee the key of thy chamber and thou hast by iesting made frustrate my request the which thou my Lord oughtest not to haue done considering that I am with childe for oftentimes it chanceth that that wherefore the husband reioyceth this day to morrow he doth lament Thou oughtest to remember that I am that Faustine the renowmed the which in thy eyes am the fayrest and of thy tongue haue beene most commended of thy person I was best beloued and of thy heart I am most desired then since it is true that thou hast me so deepely in heart why then doubtest thou to shew mee the Writings of thy Studie Thou dost communicate with mee the secrets of the Empire and thou hidest from me the books of thy study Thou hast giuen me thy tender heart of flesh and now thou denyest mee the hard key of iron now I must needs thinke that thy loue was fayned that thy words were double and that thy thoughts were others then they seemed for if they had been otherwise it had been vnpossible thou shouldest haue denyed mee the key that I doe aske thee for where loue is vnfayned though the request bee merrily asked yet it is willingly graunted It is a common custome that you men vse to deceiue vs simple women you present vs with great gifts you giue many fayre words you make vs faire promises you say you will doe maruels but in the ende you doe nothing but deceiue vs for we are persecuted more of you thē of any others When men in such wise importune the women if the women had power to deny and withstand wee should in short space bring yee vnder the yoke and leade you by the noses but when we suffer our selues to be ouercome then you beginne to forsake vs and despise vs. Let mee therefore my Lord see thy Chamber consider I am with childe and that I dye vnlesse I see it If thou dost not to doe me pleasure yet doe it at least because I may no more importune thee for if I come in danger through this my longing I shall but lose my life but thou shalt lose the childe that should be borne and the mother also that ought to beare it I know not why thou shouldest put thy noble heart into such a dangerous fortune wherby both thou I at one time shuldperish I dying so yōg and thou in losing so louing a wife By the immortall Gods I doe beseech thee and by the mother Berecinthia I coniure thee that thou giue me the key or that thou let me enter into the Study and stick not with me thy wife in this my small request but change thy opinion for al that which without consideration is ordayned by importunate suite may bee reuoked We see daily that mē by reading in Bookes loue their children but I neuer sawe heart of man fall in such sort that by reading and looking in Bookes hee should despise his children for in the ende Bookes are by the words of others made but children are with their own proper bloud begotten Before that any thing of wisedome is begunne they alwaies regard the inconueniences that may follow therefore if thou wilt not giue mee this key and that thou art determined to be stubborne still in thy will thou shalt lose thy Faustine thou shalt lose so louing a wife thou shalt lose the creature wherewith she is bigge thou shalt lose the authoritie of thy Palace thou shalt giue occasion to all Rome to speake of thy wickednesse and this griefe shall neuer depart from thy heart for the heart shall neuer bee comforted that knoweth that he only is the occasion of his owne griefe If the Gods doe suffer it by their secret indgements and if my wofull mishappes deserue it and if thou my Lord desirest it for no other cause but euen to doe after thy will for denying me this key I should dye I would willingly dye But of that I thinke thou wilt repent for it chanceth often times to wise men That when remedy is gone the repentance commeth suddenly and then it is to late as they say to shutte the Stable doore when the Steede is stolne I maruell much at thee my Lord why thou shouldest shew thy selfe so froward in this case since thou knowest that
womē to nourish dogs giuing them Milke from theyr owne breasts They replyed in the Senate and saide Tell vs Marcus Porcia What wouldest thou wee should doe which liue now to resemble our Fathers which are dead Marcus Portio aunswered them The woman that presumeth to be a Romain Matrone ought to be found weauing in her house and out of that to bee found in the Temple praying to God and the Noble and stoute Romaine ought to be found in his House reading Bookes and out of his house fighting in the plaine Field for the honor of his countrey And surely these were wordes worthie of such a man Annius Minutius was a Noble Romaine and captaine of great Pompeius who was a great friend to Iulius Caesar after the battell of Farsalie For hee was an Auncient and one that could giue good counsell wherfore hee neuer scaped but that hee was chosen in Rome for Senatour Consull or Censor euery yeare For Iulius Caesar was so mercifull to them that hee pardoned those which had been his most enemies in the warres were of him in peace best beloued This Annius Minutius then beeing chosen Censour within Rome which was an Office hauing charge of Iustice by chaunce as hee went to visite the wife of another Friend of his the which lay in Child-bed because she had great aboundance of milke hee found that a little prettie Bitche did sucke her Vpon the which occasion they say hee saide these wordes to the Senate Fathers conscript a present mischiefe is now at hand according to the token I haue seen this day that is to say I haue seene a Romaine woman denie her owne Children her milke and gaue suck to a filthy bitche And truly this Annius had reason to esteeme this case as a wonder For the truest and sweetest loues are not but betweene the Fathers and Children and where the mother embraceth the brute beast and forsaketh her natural child which she hath brought forth it cannot bee otherwise but there either wisdome wanteth or follie aboundeth for the Foole loueth that hee ought to despise and despiseth that which he ought to loue Yet though the mothers will not giue their children sucke they ought to do it for the danger which may come to the health of their persons ' for as the women which bring forth Children doe liue more healthfull then those which beare none so these which doe nourish them haue more health then those which doe not nourish them For although the bringing vp of children be troublesome to women yet it is profitable for their health I am ashamed to tell it but it is more shame for Ladyes to do it to see what plaisters they put to theyr Breasts to drie vp their milke and hereof commeth the iust iudgements of God that in that place ofte times where they seeke to stoppe their milke in the selfe same place they themselues pocure theyr sudden death I aske now if women do not enioy their children being young what pleasure hope they to haue of them when they be olde What a great comfort is it for the Parents to see the young Babe when hee will laugh how hee twinckleth his little eyes when he will weepe how he will hang the pretie lippe when he would speake how he will make signes with his litle fingers when hee would goe how hee casteth forward his feete and aboue all when he beginneth to babble how he doubleth his words What thing is more pleasant to the Father then to see them and to the mother to agree to it when the children doe sucke they plucke forth the Breasts with the one hand and with the other they plucke their cradle and further they beat their feete together and with their wanton eyes they cast on theyr Parents a thousand louing lookes what is it to see them when they are vexed and angrie how they will not be taken of the Fathers how they strike their Mother they cast away things of gold and immediately they are appeased with a little apple or rushe What a thing is it to see the innocents how they answere when a man asketh them what follies they speake when they speak to them how they play with the dogges and runne after the Catts How they dresse them in wallowing in the dust how they make litle houses of Earth in the streetes how they weepe after the birdes when they flie away All the which things are not to the Eyes of the Fathers and Mothers but as nightingales to sing and as Bread and meate to eate The Mothers peraduenture will say that they will not bring vp their children because when they are young they are troublesome but that after they shold be nourished and brought vppe they would be glad To this I answer them that the mothers shal not deny me but that some of these things must needes meete in their children that when they be olde they shal be eyther proud enuious couetous or negligent that they shal be Lecherous or else Theeues that they shal be Blasphemers or else gluttons that they shal be rebells or fooles and disobedient vnto their Fathers I belieue that at this day there are manie Mothers in the world which did hope to be honoured and serued with the Children which they hadde brought vp and afterwards perceyuing their manners would willingly forgoe the pleasures which they hoped for so that they might also be deliuered from the troubles which for their euill demeanours are like to ensue For that time which the Parents hoped to passe with their Children in pleasures they consume seeing their vnthriftie life in sorrowfull sobbes and sighes I counsell admonish and humbly require Princesses and great Ladyes to nourish and enioy their Children when they are young and tender for after that they are great a man shall bring them newes euery day of diuers sorts and māners they vse for asmuch as the one shall say that her sonne is in prison and another shall say that hee is sore wounded another that he is hid others that hee hath played his cloke others that hee is slaundered with a common harlot another that he stealeth his goods from him another that his enemies doe seeke him another thet hee accompanieth with vnthrifts And finally they are so slurdie vnhappie and so farre from that which is good that oftentimes the fathers would reioyce to see them die rather then to see them liue so euill a life Mee thinketh that the knot of loue between the mother and the childe is so great that not onely she ought not to suffer them to be nourished out of the house one whole yeare but also she ought not to suffer them to be out of her presence one onely day For in seeing him shee seeth that which is borne of her entrailes she seeth that which shee hath with so great paines deliuered she seeth him who ought to inherite all her goods shee seeth him in whome the memorie of their Auncestors remaineth and
this coate The poore Poet answered him I let thee know my friend that I cannot tell which is greater thy euill lucke or my greate felicitie The Romane Calphurnius replyed Tell me Cornificius How canst thou call thy selfe happy since thou hast not a loafe of bread to eate nor a gowne to put on thy backe and why sayest thou that I am vnhappy since thou and thy family may be fed with that alone which at my table remayneth To this the poet answered I will that thou know my friend and neighbour that my felicitie is not for that I haue little but for that I desire lesse then I haue And thy euill lucke is not for that thou bast much but for that thou desirest more and doest little esteem that that thou hast And if thou be rich it is for that thou neuer spakest truth and if I he poore it is because I neuer tolde lye For the house that is stuffed with riches is commonly voyd of the truth And I tell thee further that I call my selfe happie because I haue a sister which is the best esteemed in all Italie and thou hast a Wife the most dishonest in all Rome And sith it is so betweene thee and mee I referre it to no mans iudgement but to thine which is better eyther to be poore as I am with honour or else to bee rich as thou art and liue with infamte These wordes passed betweene the Romane Calphurnius and the Poet Cornificius I desire to declare the excellencie of those few auncient women as well Greekes as Latines and Romanes to the intent that Princesses and great Ladyes may knowe that the auncient women were more esteemed for their sciences then for their beauties Therefore the Princesses and great Ladies ought to thinke that if they be womē the other were also in like māner and if they bee fraile the others were also weake If they be marryed the others also had Husbands if they haue theyr willes the others had also what they wanted If they be tender the others were not strong Finally they ought not to excuse themselues saying that women are vnmeete for to learne For a woman hath more abilitie to learne Sciences in the scholes then the Parate hath to speake words in the cage In my opinion Princesses and great Ladyes ought not to esteeme themselues more then another for that they haue fairer hayres then others or for that they are better Apparrelled then another or that they haue more riches then another But they ought therfore to esteeme themselues not for that they can doe more then others To say the trueth the faire and yeallow hayres the rich and braue Apparel the great treasurs the sumptuous Pallaces and strong Buildings these and other like pleasures are not guydes and leaders vnto vertues but rather Spyes and Scowtewatches to vices Oh what an excellent thing were it that the noble Ladyes would esteeme themselues not for that they can doe but for that they knowe For it is more commendations to know how to teach two Philosophers then to haue authority to commaund a hundred knightes It is a shame to write it but it is more pittie to see it that is to say to reade that wee read of the wisedome and worthinesse of the auncient Matrons past and to see as we do see the frailenes of these yong ladies present For they coueted to haue Disciples both learned and experimented and those of this present desire nothing but to haue seruants not only ignorant but deceitfull and wicked And I doe not maruell seeing that which I see that at this present in Court she is of little value least esteemed amōg Ladies which hath fairest Seruants is least entertained of Gentlemen What shall I say more in this matter but that they in times past striued who shold write better and compile the best books and these at this present doe not striue but who shall haue the richest and most sumptuous Apparrell For the Ladyes thinke it a jolyer matter to weare a Gowne of a new fashion then the ancients did to read a lesson of Phylosophie The ancient Ladyes striued which of them was wisest but these of our dayes contend who shal be fairest For at this day the Ladyes would choose rather to haue the face adorned with beautie then the heart endued with wisedome The Auncient Ladyes contended which should bee best able to teach others but these Ladyes now a dayes contend how they may most finely apparrell themselues For in these dayes they giue more honour to a Woman richly Apparrelled then they giue to another with honesty beautified Finally with this word I doe conclude and let him marke that shall reade it that in the olde time women were such that their vertues caused all men to keepe silence and now their vices bee such that they compell all men to speake I will not by this worde any man should be so bold in general to speake euill of all the Ladyes for in this case I sweare that there are not at this day so many good vertuous women in the world but that I haue more enuie at the life they lead in secrete then at all the sciences which the auncient women read in publike Wherefore my pen doth not shew it selfe extreame but to those which onely in sumptuous Apparrell and vaine words doe consume their whole life and to those which in reading a good Booke would not spend one onely houre To proue my intention of that I haue spoken the aboue written sufficeth But to the ende Princesses and great Ladyes may see at the least how much beter it shal be for them to know little then to haue and possesse much and to be able to do more I wil remēber them of that which a Romain woman wrote to her children wherby they shal perceiue how eloquent a woman she was in her sayings and how true a mother in her coūsel For in the end of her letter she perswadeth her children to the trauels of the warre not for any other cause but to auoyde the pleasures of Rome CHAP. XXXI Of the worthinesse of the Lady Cornelia and of a notable Epistle shee wrote to her two sonnes which serued in the warres Tiberius and Caius disswading them from the pleasures of Rome and exhorting them to endure the trauels of warre ANNius Rusticus in the booke of the Antiquities of the Romanes sayeth that in Rome there were fiue principall Iynages that is to say Fabritii Torquatii Brutii Fabit and Cornelii though there were in Rome other new lynages whereof there were many excellent personages yet alwayes these which came of the fiue lynages were kept placed and preferred to the first Offices of the common wealth For Rome honoured those that were present in such sort that it was without the preiudice of those that are gone Amongst those v. linages the Romaines alwayes counted the Cornelii most fortunate that which were so hardy and couragious in fight
the warres were between Carthage and Rome the Common wealth of Carthage was very well gouerned and as it beseemed such a noble City but it is an ancient priuiledge of the warre that it killeth the persons consumeth the goods and aboue all engendreth a new passion and misery and in the end destroyeth all good ancient customes The Carthagenians therefore had a custome that the children and especially those which were of honest men should be put in the Temples from three yeeres till twelue and so from twelue till twenty they learned crafts sciences and occupations and from 20. til 25. they instructed thē in the feates of war and at the end of 30. yeares they gaue themselues to marriage for amongst them it was a Law inuiolable that no man should marrie vntill he were thirty yeares of age and the woman 25. And after that they were married the moneth following they ought to present themselues before the Senate and there to choose what kinde of estate they would take vpon them to liue in and what their mindes most desired that is to say if they would serue in the Temples follow the warre or trauell the seas or get their liuing by land or follow their occupation which they had learned And looke what estate or office that day they chose the same they kept and occupyed during their life and truely the law was very good because such change of estates and Offices in the World are occasion that presently so many come to destruction All the excellent and ancient Princes had many great Philosophers for their Masters and this seemeth to be true by this that king Darius had Lichanins the philosopher for his master the great Alexander had Aristotle the Philosopher for his Master King Artaxerces had Pindarus the philosopher for his Master The aduenturous and hardy captaine of the Athenians Palemo had Xenocrates the philosopher for his master Xemaides onely king of the Corinthians had Chilo the philosopher for his Master and tutour to his Children Epamynundus Prince of the Thebanes had for his master and councellour Maruchus the Philosopher Vlysses the Greeke as Homer sayeth had for his master and companion in his trauels Catinus the philosopher Pirrus which was King of the Epirotes and a great defendor of the Tharentines had for his Master and Chronicler Arthemius the philosopher of whom Cicero speaketh ad Atticum that his sword was sharper to fight then his penne ready for to write The great King Ptholomeus Philodelphus was not onely Scholer of the most singular Philosophers of Greece but also after he was King he sent for 72. Philosophers which were Hebrewes Cirus King of the Persians that destroyed the great Babylon had for his Master Pristicus the Philosopher Traian the Emperour had Plutarch for his Master who did not onely teach him in his youth but also wrote him a booke how he ought to gouerne himselfe and his commōwealth By these few examples which I haue expressed and by many other which I omit Princes at this present may see how carefull princes were in times past to giue their children wise and learned men O princes great Lords since you at this present do presume and take vpon you that which your Forefathers did I would that now you would consider who brought them to so high estate who leaueth them eternall memorie for without doubt noble men neuer wan renown for the pleasurs they had in vices but for the trauels they had in vertues Againe I say that Princes in times past were not famous for their stoutnes apt disposition of their bodies nor for discent of noble lynage nor for the possessiō of many Realmes or heaping vp of great treasures but they wanne and obtained immortall renowne for that their Fathers in their youth put them vnder the tuition of wise and learned tutours which taught them good doctrine and when they were of age gaue them good counsellours to gouerne the common-wealth Laertius in the life of the Phylosophers and Bocchas in the Booke of the linage of Gods say thus That among the Phylosophers of Athens there was a custome that no straunge Phylosopher should reade in their Schooles before hee were first examined in naturall and morall Phylosophie For among the Greekes it was an auncient Prouerbe That in the schoole of Athens no vicious man could enter nor idle word be spoken neyther they did consent that any ignorant Phylosopher should come in to reade there Now as by chaunce many phylosophers were come from the Mount Olympus amongst the refidue there was one came to see the philosophers of Athens who was natiue of Thebes a man as afterwardes hee declared himselfe in Morall and naturall phylosophie very well learned And since he desired to remaine in Athens hee was examined and of many and diuers things demanded And amongst the others these following were some of them First they asked him what causeth women to bee so froward since it is true that nature made them shamefaste and created them simple The Phylosopher answered A woman is not froward but because shee hath too much her will and wanteth shame Secondarily they asked him why young men are vndone hee answered because Time aboundeth them for to doe euill and Maisters wanteth to enforce them to doe good Thirdly they asked him why are Wise men deceyued as well as the simple he answered The wise man is neuer deceyued but by him that vseth faire wordes and hath euill conditions Fourthly they asked him of whom men ought most to beware he aunswered That there is to a man no greater enemie then hee which seeth that thing in thee which hee desireth to haue in himselfe Fifthly they asked him why manie princes begunne well and ended euill hee aunswered Princes begin well because their nature is good and they ende euill because no man doth gaine-say them Sixtly they asked him why do princes commit such follyes hee answered Because Flattterers aboundeth that deceyue them and true men are wanting which should serue them Seuenthly they asked him why the Auncients were so sage and men at this present were so simple hee aunswered Because the Auncients did not procure but to knowe and these present doe not trauell but for to haue Eightly they asked him why so manie vices were nourished in the pallaces of princes hee aunswered Because pleasures abound and counsell wanteth The ninth they asked him why the most parte of men liued without rest and fewe without paine he aunswered No man is more without and suffereth more paine then hee that dyeth for the goods of another and little esteemeth his owne The tenth they asked him whereby they might knowe the Common-wealth to bee vndone hee aunswered There is no Common-wealth vndone but onely where the young are light and the old vicious The 11. they asked him wherwith the Common-wealth is maintained he answered The common wealth cānot decay where iustice remaineth for the poore punishment for the tyrants
remaine diseased and their vnderstanding blinded their memory dulled their sense corrupted their will hurted their reason subuerted and their good fame lost and worst of all the flesh remaineth alwayes flesh O how many young men are deceyued thinking that for to satisfie and by once engaging themselues to vices that from that time forwarde they shall cease to bee vicious the which thing not onely doth not profite them but also is very hurtfull vnto them For fire is not quenched with drye wood but with cold water But O God what shall wee doe since that now a dayes the Fathers doe as much esteeme their children for being fine and bolde minions among women as if they were verie profound in science or hardie in feates of Armes and that which is worst they oft times make more of their bastards gotten in adulterie then of their legitimate childe conceiued in matrimony What shall wee say then of mothers Truely I am ashamed for to speake it but they should bee more ashamed to doe it which is because they would not displease their husbands they hide the wickednesse of their children they put the children of their harlots to the Nurse they redeeme their gages they giue them money to play at dice they reconcile them to their fathers when they haue offended they borrow them money to redeeme them when they are indebted Finally they are makers of their bodies and vndoers of their soules I speake this insidently for that the masters would correct the children but the Fathers and mothers forbid them For it little auayleth for one to pricke the horse with the spurre when hee that sitteth vpon him holdeth him back with the bridle Therfore to our matter what shall we do to remedy this ill in the young man which in his flesh is vicious Truely I see no other remedie but with the moist earth to quench the flaming fire and to keepe him from the occasions of vice For in the warre honour by tarrying is obtained but in the vice of the flesh the victory by flying is obtayned The end of the second Booke THE THIRD BOOKE OF THE DIALL OF PRINCES WITH THE FAMOVS BOOKE OF MARCVS AVRELIVS WHERE HEE entreateth of the vertues which Princes ought to haue as Iustice Peace and Magnificence CHAP. I. How Princes and great Lordes ought to trauell to administer to all equall iustice EGidius Frigulus one of the most famous and renowmed Philosophers of Rome sayde that that betweene two of the Zodaicall signes Leo and Libra is a Virgine named Iustice the which in times past dwelled among men in earth and after that shee was of them neglected shee ascended vp to Heauen This Philosopher would let vs vnderstand that Iustice is so excellent a vertue that she passeth al mens capacitie since shee made heauen her mansion place and could finde no man in the whole earth that wold entertaine her in his house During the time they were chaste gentle pittifull patient embracers of vertue honest and true Iustice remayning in the earth with them but since they are conuerted vnto adulterers tyrants giuen to be proud vnpatient lyers and blasphemers shee determined to forsake them and to ascend vp into heauen So that this Philosopher concluded that for the wickednesse that men commit on earth Iustice hath leapt from them into Heauen Though this seeme to bee a Poeticall fiction yet it comprehendeth in it high and profound doctrine the which seemeth to be very cleare for where wee see iustice there are few theeues few murderers few tirants and few blasphemers Finally I say that in the house or Common wealth where Iustice remaineth a man can not committe vice and much lesse dissemble with the vicious Homer desirous to exalt justice could not tell what to say more but to call Kings the children of the great God Iupiter and that not for that naturalty they haue but for the office of iustice which they minister So that Homer concludeth that a man ought not to call iust Princes other but the children of God The diuiue Plato in the fourth booke of his common-wealth saieth that the chiefest gift God gaue to men is that they being as they be of such vile clay should bee gouerned by justice I would to GOD all those which reade this wryting vnderstoode right well that which Plato said For if men were not indued with reason and gouerned by iustice amongst all beasts none were so vnprofitable Let reason be taken from man wherwith he is indued and iustice whereby he is gouerned then shall men easily perceyue in what sort he will leade his life He cannot fight as the Elephant nor defend himselfe as the Tygre nor he can hunte as the Lyon neither labour as the Oxe and that wherby he should profite as I thinke is that he should eate Beares and Lyons in his life as now he shall be eaten of worms after his death All the Poets that inuented fictions all the Oratours which made Orations all the Philosophers which wrote books all the Sages which left vs their doctrines and all the Princes which instituted Lawes meant nothing else but to perswade vs to think how briefe and vnprofitable this life is and how necessary a thing iustice is therin For the filth and corruption which the bodie hath without the soule the selfe same hath the common-wealth without iustice Wee cannot denye but that the Romaines haue been prowde enuious adulterers shamelesse and ambicious but yet with all these faultes they haue beene great obseruers of iustice So that if God gaue them so manie Triumphs beeing loaden and enuironed with so many vices it was not for the vertues they had but for the great iustice which they did administer Plinie in his second booke saith that Democrites affirmed there were two gods which gouerned the vniuersall world that is to say Reward and Punishment Whereby wee may gather that nothing is more necessarie then true and right iustice For the one rewardeth the good and the other leaueth not vnpunished the euill Saint Austine in the first Booke De Ciuitate Dei saieth these words Iustice taken away what are Realmes but dennes of Theeues Truely hee had great reason For if there were no whips for vagabonds gags for blasphemers fines for periurie fires for heretiques sword for murderers galowes for theeues nor prisons for Rebells we may boldly say there would not bee so many Beasts on the mountains as there would be thieues in the Common-wealth In many things or in the greatest parte of the commonwealth wee see that Bread Wine Corn Fish Wool and other things necessary for the life of the people wanteth but we neuer saw but malicious men in euery place did abound Therefore I sweare vnto you that it were a good bargaine to chaunge all the wicked men in the commonwealth for one onely poore sheepe in the fielde In the Common-wealth wee see nought else but whipping daylie beheading slaying drowning hanging but notwithstanding this
true pittifull honest and vertuous nor yet to be iust but that it is as well necessarie they bee obseruers of iustice For let them know that there is great difference between him that is iust and another that doth minister iustice for to the Prince that is good commeth honor to his person but from him that ministreth iustice commeth profite to the Common-wealth Peraduenture it is no wonder to see the Prince that will tell no lye and to see his Ministers not to speake one truth Peraduenture I do not thinke my selfe slaundered to see the Prince temperate in eating and to see all his seruants distempred both with eating and drinking peraduenture and it is no cause to muse vpon to see the Princes chast and honest and to see their seruants in flesh filthy and dissolute peraduenture it is no cause to maruell to see the Prince iust and to loue iustice and that very few of his ministers do minister it The end why all these thinges are spoken is to aduertise Princes that they be not so carefull to be chast sober true and iust but that they know whether their Gouernours and Iudges are corrupted couetous greedy vnshamefast lyers or bribers for if it toucheth vs much that our Princes be good so much more it toucheth vs that the Ministers be not euill One of the things wherein Princes ought to prouide with their Iudges and gouernours is that by no meanes they suffer their lawes and and ancient customes to be broken in their commō welth and that in their steads strange customs be not introduced for the Comminalty is so variable in that they say and so light in that they aske that they would dayly see a new king and hourely change a new law Plinie in an Epistle that he writeth to Escario sayeth Optime apud Persius capitalem per legem fuit prohibitum nouos aut perigrinos mores inducere As if hee spake more plainely Amongst the Persians it was a Law inuiolable that no man should bring into the Common-wealth any strange custome for such an offence they should pay none other ransome but the losse of their heads As men dayly doe diminish in vertue vnlesse by force they be withholden and augment in vanity so they would inuent new deuises and strange customes wherewith men should bee decayed and the Common wealth destroied for straunge meates doe alter mens stomackes When those of Creta were vngently vsed of the Rhodians they did not pray to their gods to send them pestilence warre famine or sedition among their enemies but that they would suffer som euil maners to be brought in amongst the people Let not those thinke that shall reade this that it was a small curse that those of Creta desired and that it was a small reuenge which God gaue them of their enemies if he gaue them that which they did require for from war famin and pestilence som may escape but with deuises we see all perish Of many things the historiās do reproue the Emperor Sergius Galba for one alone they praise him That he neuer cōsented that in Rome any new law shold be made nor any old custom broken And he commanded that those should be grieuously punished which brought in any new law he rewarded those which put him in mind of any olde custome the which bee commaunded to bee obserued It is a mockery yea better to say a slaunder to see that some young Iudges will doe that of the Common-wealth which a Taylour doeth of a gowne that is to say to turne him within and without before behind which they ought not to doe nor the people to consent therevnto For the Prince doeth not sende them to make lawes nor to bring in new orders but to the ende that they do only preserue the commonwealth in their good customes Princes ought also to take great care that vnto litle and great rich poor they minister equall iustice sith there is no diuine nor humaine law that giueth them power and aucthoritie to corrupt it For if a Prince cannot without reason d pose of his owne goods much lesse he can make lawes and sell Iustice Wee doe not denye a Prince but that hee is lorde of Beastes of Fysh of Byrds of Mynes of Mountains of seruants and of fields Finally that hee is lord of the sea and land but therefore we will not graunt him that he is lord of iustice For there is none other true Lorde of Iustice but GOD which is the selfe same Iustice When a Prince dyeth and maketh his will he sayeth I bequeath all my Realms and Seigniories to the Prince my sonne and legitimate heyre and doe leaue vnto my second sonne such an Estate and dowrey and to my daughter such Lands and to all I recommend Iustice to the end they do obserue it and cause it to be obserued euery one in his owne Countrey It is much to note that the Father doth not say that hee leaueth vnto his Sonne Iustice but that hee doeth recommend it vnto him so that the good Princes ought not to think that they haue inherited Iustice of theyr predecessors in form of a patrimony but that God gaue it vnto thē of trust Princes of all things may be called Lords saue onely of Iustice whereof they are but onely ministers Wee dare boldely say that the Prince or great Lord which iudgeth causes not according to the Diuine will but according to their owne affection wee will not call him a iust iudge but a rouing Theefe For the Prince is much worse which robbeth God of Iustice then the Theefe which stealeth the goods from men Suetonius Tranquillus reciteth much wickednes of Domitian and the greatest of al was the poore the Orphans and those which could doe little hee alwayes punished and the other that were rich and of authoritie he pardoned He compounded with some for money and with others hee dissembled for fauour Lampridius sayde of Alexander Seuerus the 25. Emperour of Rome that hee neuer kept in his Court any euill man or suffered any of his parents to be vicious And when he was demanded on a time why hee banished one of his cousines since he was young and a Childe Hee aunswered them which intreated for him and alleadged That though he was young and his Cousin yet Charior est mihi Respub as if more plainely he had saide I haue none other neerer of kinne to mee in my Pallace then the Commonwealth O high much more higher words worthy for a truth to be writtē in princes hearts whereby they ought to be aduertised that hee said not I take for my kinne one part of the Commonwealth For the Prince which feareth GOD and desireth to be found iust as he wil indifferently be obeyed of al so ought he equally to administer iustice to all If they wil not credit me nor my pen let them credit Plato in the books of his commonwealth who giueth libertie and
of counsel they themselues imagine and other flattrers telleth that thogh they haue much in respect of other princes yet they can doe little Also they say vnto them that if their substaunce bee great their Fame ought to bee greater Further they tell them that the good Prince ought little to esteeme that hee hath inherited of his predecessors in respect of the great deale more hee ought to leaue to his successours Also they tell them that neuer prince left of him any great memory but inuenting some cruell Warre against his enemie Also they tell them that the houre that one is chosen Emperour of Rome hee may boldely conquer the whole earth These vaine reasons being heard of the princes afterwardes as their Fortune is base and their mindes high immediately they defie their enemies they open their Treasures they assemble great armies and in the end of all the Gods suffer that they thinking to tkae an other mans goods they waste and lose their owne Oh Princes I knowe not who doth deceyue yee that you which by peace may be rich and by war wil be poore Oh Princes I know not who doth deceiue you that you which may be loued doe seeke occasions to be hated Oh princes I knowe not who doth beguyle yee that yee which may enioy a sure life doe aduenture your selues to the mutabilitie of Fortune Oh princes I knowe not who doeth deceyue you that you so little esteeme and weigh your owne aboundance and so greatly set by the wants of others Oh princes I know not who doth deceiue you that all hauing need of you you should haue neede of others I let thee to knowe my Cornelius though a prince bee more quicke and carefull then all other his predecessors haue bin in Rome yet it is vnpossible that all things touching warre should succeede vnto him prosperously For in the greatest neede of warres eyther he wanteth money or his subiects do not succour him or time is contrarie vnto him or he findeth perilous pasges hee lacketh Artillerie or the captaines rebell or else succour commeth to his aduersaryes so that hee seeth himselfe so miserable that thoughtes doe more oppresse his heart then the enemies do harme his land Though a prince had no warre but for to suffer men of warre yet he ought to take vpon him no warre I aske thee now my Cornelius what trauell so great to his person or what greater damage to his Realme can his Enemies do then that which his own men of warre doe c The Enemies to doe the worst they can will but robbe our Frontiers but our men of War do robbe the whole countrey The Enemies we dare and may resist but to ours we cannot nor dare not speake The Enemyes the worst they can do is once in a moneth to robbe and runne their wayes but ours daily do robbe and remaine still The Enemyes feare their enemies only but ours doe feare their enemyes and haue no pitie on their friends The enemies the further they goe on the more they diminish but ours the further they goe the more they encrease I know no greater warre that Princes can haue then to haue men of warre in their realmes For as experience doth shew vs before the Gods they are culpable to Princes importunate and to the people troublesome so that they liue to the damage of all and to the profit of none By the God Mars I swear vnto thee my friend Cornelius as hee may direct my hands in the war that I haue more complaints in the Senate of the thefts which my Captaines did in Illyria then of all the enemies of the Romane people Both for that I say and for that I kept secret I am more afraid to create an Ensigne of two hundred men of warre then to giue a cruell battell to thirty thousand men For that battell fortune good or euill forthwith dispacheth but with these I can bee sure no time of all my life Thou wilt say vnto me Cornelius that since I am Emperour of Rome I should remedy this since I know it For that Prince which dissembleth with the fault of another by reason hee will condemne him as if it were his owne To this I answere that I am not mighty enough to remedy it except by my remedy there should spring a greater inconuenience And since thou hast not beene a Prince thou couldest not fall into that I haue nor yet vnderstand that which I say For Princes by their wisdom know many things the which to remedy they haue no power So it hath beene so it is so it shall be so I found it so I keepe it so will I leaue it them so I haue reade it in bookes so haue I seen it with my eyes so haue I heard it of my predecessors And finally I say our Fathers haue inuented it and so will wee their children sustaine it and for this euill wee will leaue it to our heyres I will tell thee one thing and imagine that I erre not therein which is considering the great dammage and little profite which men of warre do bring to our Common wealth I thinke to doe it and to sustaine it eyther it is the folly of men or a scourge giuen of the Gods For there can be nothing more iust then for the Gods to permit that wee feele that in our owne houses which wee cause others in strange houses to lament All those thinges I haue written vnto thee not for that it skileth greatly that I know them but that my heart is at ease for to vtter them For as Alcibiades sayde the chests and the hearts ought alwayes to be open to their friends Panutius my Secretary goeth in my behalfe to visite that Land and I gaue him this Letter to giue thee with two Horses wherewith I doe thinke thou wilt be contented for they are Genets The Weapons and riches which I tooke of the Parthians I haue now diuided notwithstanding I do send thee two Chariots laden with them My wife Faustine greeteth thee and shee sendeth a rich glasse for thy Daughter and a iewell with stones for thy sister No more but I doe beseech the gods to giue thee a good life and me a good death CHAP. XVII An Admonition of the Author to Princes and great Lordes to the entent that the more they grow in yeares the more they are bound to refrayne from vices AVlus Gelius in his booke De noctibus Atticis sayeth that there was an auncient custome among the Romanes to honour and haue in great reuerence aged men And this was so inuiolate a Law amongst them that there was none so noble of bloud and linage neyther so puissant in riches neyther so fortunate in battels that should go before the aged men which were loden with white hayres so that they honoured them as they did the Gods Amongst other the aged men had these preheminences that is to say that in feasts they sate highest in the
profound which the Philosopher spake and great reason had the king to esteeme it so much For if wee doe prepare our selues to consider whereof wee are and what we shall be that is to say That wee are of earth and that we shall returne to earth We would not cease to weepe nor sigh One of the greatest vanities which I finde among the children of vanity is that they employ themselues to consider the influences of the starres the nature of the Planets the motion of the heauens and they will not coÌ„sider themselues of which consideration they should take some profite For man giuing his mind to thinke on strange things commeth to forget his owne proper Oh if we would consider the corruption whereof wee are made the filth whereof wee are engendred the infinit trauell wherewith we are born the long tediousnes wherewith we are nourished the great necessities and suspitions wherein wee liue and aboue all the perill wherein wee dye I sweare and affirme that in such consideration wee finde a thousand occasions to wish death and not one to desire life The children of vanity are occupyed many yeares in the Schooles to learne Rethorike they exercise themselues in Philosophy they heare Aristotle they learne Homere without booke they study Cicero they are occupied in Xenophon they hearken Titus Liuius they forget not Aulus Gelius and they know Ouid yet for all this I say that we cannot say that the man knoweth little which doth know himselfe Eschines the Philosopher sayde well that it is not the least but the chiefest part of Philosophy to know man and wherefore he was made for if man would deepely consider what man is he should finde more things in him which would moue him for to humble himselfe then to stirre him to be proud If we doe behold it without passion and if we doe examine it with reason I know not what there is in man O miserable and fraile nature of man the which taken by it selfe is little worth and compared with an other thing is much lesse For man seeth in brute beastes many things which hee doth enuy and the beasts doe see much more in men whereon if they had reason they would haue compassion The excellencie of the soule layde aside and the hope which we haue of eternall life if man doe compare the captiuity of men to the liberty of beasts with reason we may see that the beasts doe liue a peaceable life and that which men doe lead is but a long death If we prepare our selues to consider from the time that both man and beast come into this world vntill such time as they both dye and in how many thinges the beasts are better then men with reason we may say that nature like a pittifull mother hath shewed her selfe to beasts and that she doth handle vs an vniust stepmother Let vs beginne therefore to declare more particularly the originall of the one and the beginning of the other and wee shall see how much better the brute beasts are endowed and how the miserable men are disinherited CHAP. XXXIII The Author followeth his purpose and excellently compareth the misery of men with the liberty of beasts WE ought deeply to consider that no wilde nor tame beast is so long before hee come to his shape as the miserable man is who with corruption of bloud and vile matter is nine moneths hid in the wombe of his mother Wee see the beast when shee is great if neede require doth labour all exercises of husbandrie so that shee is as ready to labour when she is great as if shee were empty The contrary hapneth to women which when they are big with child are weary with going trobled to be laid they ride in Chariots through the market places they eate little they brooke not that they haue eaten they hate that which is profitable and loue that which doth them harme Finally a woman with childe is contented with nothing and shee fretteth and vexeth with her selfe Sithence therefore it is truâ—â—hat we are noysome and troubleâ—â—â—e to our mothers when 〈◊〉 beare vs in theyr wombes why doe we not giue them some safe conduct when they are in deliuering O miserable state of maÌ„ since the brute beasts are borne without destroying their mothers but the miserable men before they are born are troublesome and carefull and in the time of their birth are both perillous to themselues and dangerous to their mothers which seemeth to be very manifest for the preparation that man maketh when he wil die the selfe same ought the woman to doe when shee is ready to bee deliuered Wee must also consider that though birdes haue but two feete they can goe moue and runne immediately when it commeth foorth but when man is borne hee cannot goe nor moue and much lesse runne So that a Popingey ought more to bee esteemed which hath no hands then the man which hath both hands and feet That which they do to the little babe is not but a prognostication of that which he ought to suffer in the progresse of his life that is to say That as they are not contented for to put the euill doer in prison but they lode his hands with yrons and set his feete in the stockes so in like manner to the miserable man when hee entreth into the Chaâ—ter of his life immediately they binde both his hands and his feete and lay him in the Cradell So that the innocent babe is first bound and rolled before hee bee embraced or haue sucke of the mother We must note also that the houre wherein the beast is brought foorth though it know not the Sier which begate it at the least it knoweth the damme which brought it forth which is apparant for so much as if the mother haue milke the youngling forthwith doth seeke her teates and if perchaunce the haue no milke they goe afterwards to 〈◊〉 themselues vnder her wings Of the miserable man it is not so but the day that hee is borne he knoweth not the Nurse that giueth him sucke neyther the Father which hath begotten him the mother which hath borne him nor yet the Mid-wife which hath receyued him moreouer hee cannot see with his eies heare with his eares nor iudge with the taste and knoweth neyther what it is to touch or smell so that wee see him to whome the Seigniory ouer all brute beasts and other things that are created partayneth to bee borne the most vnable of all other creatures We must consider also that thogh the beast be neuer so little yet it can seeke for the teates of his mother to sucke or to wander in the fieldes to feede or to scrape the dunghilles to eate or else it goeth to the fountains and riuers to drinke and that he learneth not by the discourse of time or that any other beast hath taught it but as soone as it is borne so soone doth it know what thing is necessarie for
the world wil do For all that the world hath giuen me hath beene but mockery and deceite but that which the gods haue giuen mee I haue gouerned and possessed without snspition For this last houre my sonne I haue kept the best the most noble and richest iewell that I haue possessed in my life time and I doe protest vnto the immortall gods that if as they doe commaund mee to die they would giue me lieence to reade in the graue I would command it to be buried with me Thou shalt know my sonne that in in the tenth yeare of my Empire a great warre arose against the vnrulie people of Persia where by euill lucke it was appointed for mee in person to giue the battell the which wonne and all their Countrey destroyed I returned by the olde City of Thebes in Egypt to see if I could finde any antiquitie of those in times past In the house of an Egyptian Priest I found a little table which they hanged at the gate of the Kinges pallace the day of his Coronation And this poore Priest tolde mee that that which was in his table was written by a king of Egypt named Ptholomeus Arasides I beseech the immortall god my sonne that such bee thy works as the words of this table require As Emperour I leaue thee heyre of many Realmes and as a father I giue thee this Table of Counsels The words which the Fathers do teach vnto the children at the last houre the children ought to keepe continually in their memory Let this therefore be my last word with the Empire thou shalt be feared through out all the World and with the counsels of this Table thou shalt bee loued of all Nations This talke being ended and the table giuen the Emperour turned his eyes lost his sences and for the space of a quarter of an houre lay languishing in extreame paine and within a while after yeelded vp the Ghost In this table were certaine Greeke Letters which weere in meeter and in our tongue signifie thus A Table left by the Emperour Marcus Aurelius to his Soune Commodus ONn Honours stall I doe no Tirant heaue Nor yet the poore suppresse if hee were tust For riches rule I nould to pardon cleaue For want of wealth nor follow rigors lust For naked loue I neuer spent reward Nor would correct for onely enuies heate Of vertues impes I alwayes had regard And mischiefes mates haue plagude with torment great To others doome I neuer would commit Of open right the quarrell to decide Ne yet of doubtfull strifes in trust of wit The finall end alone I would diuide To them that sought for iustice equall sway Her golden rule I neuer would deny Ne yet to such for whom desert would lay Their slender faults might well be slipped by To feele the griefe that waued in my mind With others smart I neuer could sustaine Nor yet rewards my princely words would binde When sweet delight had chiefest ioy to raine In high estate when most blinde for tune smilde A recklesse life I restlesse ranne not on Nor yet when change these happy dayes beguilde To colde despaire my quiet mind was gone By boyling heate of malice endlesse fire To vices traine I cast no eagre eye Ne yet for lust of pining wealths desire Vnlawfull facts I rechlesse would applye The trayterous brest I neuer could embrace Nor lend mine eares to swallow flattering talke Of vices slaues I wayed not the grace Nor left vnsought good will in vertues walke Poore Irus band for that I did relieue Whose needy state doth stoppe in Croesus swaye The greatest gods whose heauenly wracke doth grieue The prowdest crownes was aye my present state The end of the thirde Booke THE FOVRTH BOOKE OF THE DIALL OF PRINCES COMPILED By the Right Reuerend Father in God ANTONIE of Gueuara Bishop of Mondogueto Preacher Chronicler and Councellor to CHARLES the fift Emperour of ROME Containing many Instructions and Rules for the fauoured of the Court being once in fauour easily to keepe and continue themselues in fauour still Very necessary and profitable for all Princes and Noble men and Gentlemen Courtiers that seeke to continue themselues in honour and estimation LONDON Imprinted by Bernard Alsop 1619. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER WHat detracting tongues report of mee and my first trauell in the translation of this Dyall enlarging them at pleasure to work my defame disabling my doing herein by brute it was no worke of mine but the fruit of others labour I need not much force since by dayly proofe wee see that ill disposed minds can neuer frame an honest tongue of head For my obiect and reproof of this their slaunderous and malignant speech I can alleadge courteous Reader two principall causes which thou reading iudging with indifferency mayest easilie aproue if I should seem to glose with thee First the basenesse of my Stile the plain humble words couched in the same the meane rude and ill contriued sentences layde before thee together with the simple handling of the whole plainely sheweth to thee whence they are and easily acquainteth thee with the curious Translator Who protesteth to God and confesseth to the world that hee more rashly then wisely plunged himself into so graue and deepe a matter and whose young yeeres and vnskilfull head might both then and now haue excused his fond enterprises herein For the second and last I must needs appeale to all the worshipfull and my bebeloued companions and fellow students of our house of Lincolnes Inne at that time from whence my poore English Diall tooke his light To whose iust and true reports for thy vndoubted satisfaction and discharge of my poore honesty I refer thee and wholy yeeld me These recited causes for purgation of my suspected fame as also for established assurance of the like and thy further doubt of mee hereafter I thought good Gentle Reader to denounce vnto thee I might well haue spared this second and last labour of mine taken in the rformation and correction of this Diall enlarging my selfe further once againe with the translation of the late and new come fauoured Courtier and which I found annexed to the Diall for the 4. and last booke If my proceeding trauell taken in the setting forth of the first three bookes and the respect of mine honesty in accomplishing of the same had not incited mee vnwillingly to continue my first begunne attempt to bring the same to his perfect and desired end which whole worke is now compleat by this last booke intituled the fauored Courtier which first last volume wholly as it lyeth I prostrate to the iudgemēt of the graue and wise Reader subiecting my self and it to the reformation and correction of his learned head whom I beseech to iudge of mee with fauour and equity and not with malice to persecute my fame and honest intent hauing for thy benefite to my little skill and knowledge imployed my simple talent crauing no other guerdon of thee
and iudgeth of his sound It is but reason hee should be so much the more circumspect before hee choose his Friend to examine his life and condition since all the other things wee haue spoken of may bee put in diuers houses and corners but our Friend we lodge and keepe deerely in our proper be wells Those that write of the Emperour Augustus say that he was very strange and scrupulous in accepting Friends but after hee had once receyued them into his friendship hee was very constant and circumspect to keepe them For hee neuer had any friend but first he had some proofe and tryall of him neyther would hee euer after forsake him for any displeasure done to him Therefore it shold alwayes be so that true friends should beare one to an other such loue and affection that the one beeing in prosperitie should not haue occasion to complaine of himselfe in that hee did not relieue his friends necessitie being in aduersitie nor the other being poore and needy should grudge or lament for that his friend being rich and wealthie would not succour him with all that hee might haue done for him For to say the trueth where perfect friendship is there ought no excuse to be made to doe what possible is the one for the other The friendship of young men commeth commonly or for the most part at the least by beeing companions in vice and follie and such of right ought rather to be called vacabonds then once to deserue the name of true friends For that cannot bee called true friendship that is continued to the preiudice or derogation of vertue Seneca writing againe to Lucillus saith these words I would not haue thee thinke nor once mistrust O my Lucillus that in all the Romaine Empire I haue any greater Friende then thuo but with all assure thy selfe that our Friendship is not so straight between vs that I would take vpon mee at any time to doe for thee otherwise then honesty should lead mee For though that loue I beare thee hath made thee Lord of my libertie yet reason also hath left mee vertue free The Authour proceedeth on Applying that wee haue spoken to that wee will now declare I say I will not acknowledge my selfe your seruant for so should I bee compelled to feare you more then loue you much lesse will I vaunt my selfe to bee your Kins-man for so I should importune and displease you and I will not brag that heretofore wee haue beene of familiar acquaintaunce for that I would not make any demonstration I made so little account of you and lesse then I am bound to doe neyther will I boaste my selfe that I am at this present your familiar and welbeloued For indeed I should then shew my selfe to bee too bolde and arrogant but that that I will confesse shall be that I loue you as a Friend and you mee as a Kins-man albeeit this friendship hath succeeded diuersly till now For you being Noble as you are haue bountifully shewed your friendship to mee in large and ample gifts but I poore and of base estate haue onely made you sure of mine in wordes Plutarch in his politikes sayd That it were far better to fell to our friends our workes and good deedes whether they were in prosperitie aduersitie or necessitie then to feede them with vaine Flattering wordes for nothing Yet it is not so generall a rule but that sometimes it happeneth that the loftie and high words on the one side are so profitable and the workes so few and feeble on the other side that one shal be better pleased and delighted with hearing the sweete and curteous wordes of the one then he shall be to be serued with the colde seruice and workes of the other of small profite and value Plutarche also in his booke De animalibus telleth vs that Denis the Tyrant beeing one day at the Table reasoning of diuers and sundrie matters with Chrysippus the Phylosopher it chaunced that as hee was at dinner one brought him a present of certaine Sugar-cakes wherefore Chrysippus ceasing his former discourse fell to perswade Denis to fall to his cakes To whome Denis aunswered on with your matter Chrysippus and leaue not off so For my heart is better contented with thy sweete and sugred wordes then my Tongue is pleased with the delicate taste of these mountain-cakes For as thou knowest these cakes are heauie of digestion and doe greatly annoy the stomack but good workes doe meruellously reioyce and comfort the heart For this cause Alexander the great had the poet Homer in greater veneration beeing dead then all the other that were aliue in his time not for that Homer euer did him seruice or that hee knew him but onely because of his learned Bookes hee wrote and compiled and for the graue sentences he found therein And therefore he bare about him in the day time the booke of the famous deedes of Troy called the Illyades hanged at his neck within his bosome and in the night hee layde it vnder his bolster at his beds-head where hee slept In recompence therefore Syr of the many good turnes I haue receyued at your hands I was also willing to compyle and dedicate this my little Treatise to you the which I present you with all my desires my studyes my watches my sweatte and my troubles holding my selfe fully satisfyed for all the paines I haue taken so that this my simple trauell be gratefull vnto you to whom I offer it and to the publike weale profitable Being well assured if it please you to trust me and credite my wryting you shall manifestly know how freely I spake to you and like a friend and not deceyue you as a flatterer For if the beloued and Fauourites of Princes chaunce to bee cast out of fauour it is because euery man flattereth him and seeketh to please him and no man goeth about to tell him trueth nor that that is for his honour and fittest for him Salust in his booke of the warres of Iugurtha sayth that the high heroycall facts and deedes were of no lesse glorie to the Hystoriographers that wrote them then they were to the captaine that did them For it happeneth many times that the Captaine dying in the battell hee hath wonne liueth afterwardes notwithstanding by the Fame of his noble attempt And this proceedeth not only of the valiant deeds of Arms he was seene doe but also for that wee read of him in worthy Authors which haue written thereof Wee may well say therefore touching this matter that as well may wee take him for a true friend that giueth good counsell as hee which doeth vs great pleasure and seruice For according to the opinion of the good Emperor Marcus Aurelius who who saide to his Secretarie Panutius that a man with one pay may make full satisfaction and recompence of many pleasures and good turns shewed but to requite a good counsell diuers thankes and infinite seruices are requisite If we
liues thenceforth When I Imprinted the Diall of Princes together with Marcus Aurelius and brought them to light I wanted not backbiters and detractors that beganne forthwith to teare me in pieces neyther shall I want at this present as I beleeue such as will not spare with venemous tongues to poyson my worke But like as then I little wayed their slaunderous speeches of me euen so much lesse do I now force what they can say against mee being assured they shall finde in the end they haue ill spoken of mee and my poore workes proceeding from them rather of a certaine enuie that gnaweth their heart then of any default they finde in my doctrine comforting my selfe yet in the assurance I haue that all their spight shall one day haue an end and my workes shall euer be found good and perdurable The end of the Argument THE FOVRTH BOOKE OF THE DYALL OF PRINCES COMPILED BY THE LORD ANTHONY Gueuara Bishop of Mondogueto CHAP. I. That it is more necessary for the Courtier abiding in Court to be of liuely spirite and audacity then it is for the Souldier that goeth to serue in the warres PLutarch Plinie and Titus Liutus declare that King Agiges one day requested the Oracle of Apollo to tell him who was the happiest man in the world to whom answere was made that it was a man they called Aglaon beknowne of the Gods and vnknowne of men This King Agiges making then search for this man through all Greece who was called Aglaon found at length that it was a poor Gardner dwelling in Archadia who being of the age of threescore and two yeares neuer went aboue a mile from his house keeping himselfe and his family continually with his onely labour and tillage of his Garden Now albeit there were in the world of better parentage and linage then he better accompanied of seruants and tenants better prouided of goods and riches higher in dignity and of greater authority then he yet for all this was this Aglaon the happiest of the world And this was for that he neuer haunted princes Courts neyther by enuy to bee ouerthrowne nor yet by auarice to be ouercome For many times it chanceth to men that when they would least giue themselues to acquaintance then come they most to bee knowne and when they make least account of themselues then cometh there an occasion to make thē to be most reputed of For they winne more honor that despise these goods honours and riches of this world then those do that continually gape and seeke after the same And therefore we should more enuy Aglaon with his little garden then Alexander the Great with his mighty Asia For true contentation consisteth not in hauing aboundance but in being contented with that little hee hath It is a mockery and worthily hee deserueth to be laughed at that thinketh contentation lyeth in hauing much or in being of great authoritie for such wayes are readier to make vs stumble yea and many times to fall down right then safely to assure vs to go on our way The punishment that God gaue to Cain for murdering of his brother Abel was that his body continually trembled and he euer after wandred thorough the world so that he neuer found where he might enhabite nor house where he might harbour And albeit this malediction of Cain was the first that euer God ordained I durst affirme notwithstanding that it remayneth as yet vntill this present day amongst Courtiers sith wee see them dayly trauell and runne into strange Countries dayly changing and seeking new lodgings Which maketh me once again to say that Aglaon was counted happy and for that onely hee neuer romed farre from his house For to say truly there is no misery comparable to that of the Courtier that is bound dayly to lye in others houses hauing none of his owne to goe to And he onely may bee called happy that putteth not himselfe in danger to serue others Iulius Caesar beeing counselled to wayre vpon the Consull Sylla to the end that by seruing or being about him hee might doe himselfe greate good and it might bee very profitable to him answered thus I sweare by the immortall Gods I will neuer serue any in hope to be more worth greater then I am For this I am sure of that where Liberty is exiled there might nor power can preuaile He that forsaketh his owne Countrey where he liued at ease in health and the place where hee was knowne and beloued the neighbours of whom hee was visited the friends of whome hee was serued the parents of whome hee was honoured the goods wherewith he maintained himselfe his wife and children of whom he had a thousand pleasures and consolations and that commeth to serue and dye in the Court I cannot say otherwise of him but that he is a very foole or that hee commeth to doe penance for some notable crime hee hath committed And therefore not without great cause was this name of Courte which in our tong signifieth short adhibited to the pallace of Princes where indeed all things are short only enuy and malice excepted which continue long He onely desireth to be a Courtier that as yet hath not tasted the sweetnesse and pleasure of his owne house nor hath yet proued and seene the troubles and pains of the Court For hee that knoweth them figheth when he is called to the Court and weepeth when he is kept long there I haue studyed in times past in the Vniuersities preached in the Courts praying in Religion and now I dwel vpon my Bishopricke teaching and instructing my Diocesians but I dare say of all these foure states recited there is none so streight and painfull as is to follow the Court. If I studyed at the Vniuersity I did it of free will to bee wiser but onely in the Court I spent my time to be more worth then I was But the greatest time I consumed in Religion was to say my prayers and to bewayle my grieuous sinnes In the Court I onely gaue my selfe to suspect my neighbour and inuented to build great Castels of wind with thought in the ayre And therefore I returne once again to say that it is a greater trouble and vexation for to become a Courtier then to bee a religious person For in religion it sufficeth to obey one but in the Court hee must serue all And in religion also they are apparrelled with lesse cost and charges and to the greater contentation of the person then they are in the Court. For a poore Gentleman Courtier is bound to haue more change and sutes of apparrell then the falcon feathers The religious persons goe alwayes to dinner and finde their meate on the Table ready prepared for them without any thought taken of their part what they shall haue but fine Courtiers many times rise out of their bed without euer a penny in their purse And albeit religious persons all their life take great paines in
times Princes are so earnest of their game and so desirous to kill that they hunt that they are wonte boldly to chase the beastes they hunt and pursue them so that oftentimes they lose the sight of the rest In such a case the good Courtier must euer haue his eyes vpon him and rather seeke to follow the King then to take pleasure in hunting of other beasts for in that case it shal be a better hunting for him to finde out the King and to be with him then he should take pleasure in being alone with the Hart. It may happen lightly that the king galloping his horse vpon the rockie stones he might stūble at such a stone as both the King and his horse should come to the ground and at that time it could not be but very profitable to the Courtier to bee present For it might so happen that by means of the Princes fall he being ready to helpe him he might thenceforth beginne to grow in fauour and credite with the Prince The most part of those that delight to goe a hunting are wont commonly to eate their meate greedily drinke out of measure and besides to shout and make a wonderful noise as they were out of their wits which thinges the graue and wise Courtier should not do for they are rather fit for vagabonds idle persons that set not by their honesty then they are for the honest Courtier that only desireth and endeauoreth by modesty wise behauiour to become great and in fauour CHAP. X. Of the great pains and troubles the Courtier hath that is toilde in sutes of Law and how hee must suffer and behaue himselfe with the Iudges THere are in the Court also diuers kindes of men that bee not Courtiers Princes seruants but only are Courtiers of necessity by reason of suites they haue with the counsell And these manner of Courtiers haue as much need of counsell as of helpe for hee that hath his goods in hazard hath also his life in ieopardy To speake of the diuers and subtill wayes of suffering it is no matter worthy to bee written with ynke but onely with liuely bloud For indeed if euery one of these suters were forced to abide for his faith and beleeue those paines troubles and sorrowes that he doth to recouer his goods as much cruelty as tortures should Vaglioditi and Grauata haue as euer had Rome in times past In my opinion I thinke it a hell to continue a long suter And surely we may beleeue yea and sweare to that the Martyrs executed in olde time in the Primitiue Church which were many in number did not suffer so much neyther felt such griefe to loose their life as doth now a daies an honest man to see himselfe depriued of all his faculties It is a great trouble and charge to recouer any thing but in the end of these two effects a wise man suffereth and feeleth more the displeasure he receyueth then he doth the goods hee spendeth And in my iudgement to striue and contend is nothing else but to bring matter to the hart to sigh and lament to the Eyes to weepe to the Feet to go to the Tongue to complaine to the handes to spend to intreat his Friendes to fauour his cause and to commaund his seruaunts to be carefull and diligent and his bodie to labour continually He that vnderstandeth not the conditions of contention I will let him know they are these which follow Of a rich man to become poore of a mery man to be made sad and Melancholie of a free man a bond-man of a liberall man a couetous man of a quiet man an vnquyet person and of a htaefull a desperate person How is it otherwise possible but that the haplesse Poore Suter must become desperate seeing the Iudge looketh vppon him with a frowning counteuaunce his goods to bee demaunded of him wrongfully and that now it is so long a time hee hath not bin at home and knoweth not as yet whether Sentence shall be giuen with him or against him And besides all this that the Pooreman in his lingring Sute hath spent so much that hee hath not left him sixe pence in his purse If any of these troubles be ynough to bring a man to his end much more shal they be to make the poore-man desperate and weary of his life So diuers are the effects and successes seene in matters of Sutes that many times there is no wit able to dyrect them nor goods to bring them to end Nay wee may boldly and truely say that the Lawes are so many diffuse of themselues and mens iudgements so simple to vnderstand them that at this day there is no Suite in the world so cleer but there is found another law to put that in doubt make it voyd And therfore the good and ill of the Suter consisteth not so much in the reason he hath as in the Law which the Iudge chuseth to giue iudgmēt of It is well that the Suter belieue and thinke that he hath right but the chiefest thing of importaunce is that the Iudge also desire that hee haue his right For that Iudge that fauoureth my cause and desireth to doe mee Iustice he will labour and study to seeke out some Law that shal serue my turn to restore mee againe to my right To contend is so profound a science that neither Socrates to the Athenians nor Solon to the Greeks nor Numa Pom pylius to the Romaines nor Prometheus to the Egiptians nor Lycurgus to the Lacedemonians nor Plato to his Disciples nor Apolonius to the Poets of Nemesis nor Hiarcus to the Indians could euer teach it them and much lesse could they tell how to finde anie way to write it in the bookes of their Common-wealth The cause why these famous men did not finde it was because this Science could not be learned by studying of diuers bookes nor by trauelling through diuers countreyes but onely by framing great Sutes and Processes and by infinite charge and expences of money Happie yea truly and most treble happie were those ages in which they neither knew nor yet could tell what strife or contention meant For indeede from that time hetherto the world hath fallen to decay and chiefly since men haue grown to quarrel and each one contēded with his neighbor Plato was wont to say that in that Commonweale where there were found many Physitians it was also an euident token that there were many vicious people and likewise we may say that in that Citie where there are manie Suters it is to bee thought it followes also that there are many yll disposed-people That onely may be called a blessed and fortunate Common Weale where men liue quietly and haue not to doe with Iustices nor Iudges for it is a true rule when Physitians are much frequented and Iudges much occupied that amongst that people there is little health and lesse quiet But to returne to the troubles of our
and that is without procuring or offering my selfe he Senate of their own Will hath commaunded mee In the eight Table of our auncient laws by these Wordes Wee commaund that in our sacred Senate Charge of iustice bee neuer giuen to him that willinglie offereth him selfe to it but to such as by great deliberation are chosen This is certainely a iust Law for men be now not so vertuous not so louing to the Common wealth that they will forget their own quietnes and rest doing damage to themselues to procure another mans profite There is none so foolish that will leaue his wife children and his owne sweet Countrey to gee into straunge Countries but if hee see himselfe among strange people thinking vnder the colour of iustice to seeke for his owne vtility I say not this without weeping that the Princes with their small study and thought and the Iudges with their couetousnesse haue vndermined and shaken downe the high wals of the policie of Rome O my friend Catullus what wilt thou that I shall say but that our credence so diminisheth our couetousnesse so largely stretcheth our hardinesse so boldneth our shamefastnesse so shamelesse that wee prouide for Iudges to go and rob our neighbours as Captaines against our enemies I let thee to know where as Rome was beloued for chastising the euill now it is as much hated for spoiling the good I doe remember that I reade in the time of Dennis Siracusan that ruleth all Scicill there came an Ambassadour from Rhodes to Rome being of a good age wel learned and valiaunt in armes and right curious to note all things He came to Rome to see the Maiesty of the sacred Senate the height of the high Capitoll enuironed with the Colliset the multitude of Senators the wisedome of the Counsellors the glory of triumphes the correction of the euill the peace of the inhabitants the diuersity of Nations the aboundance of the mantenance the order of the offices And finally seeing that Rome was Rome hee was demaunded how hee thought thereby He answered and sayde O Rome at this present world thou art ful of vertuous and wise men hereafter thou shalt bee furnished with fooles Loe what high and very high words were these Rome was seuen hundred yeares without any house of fooles and now it hath beene three hundred yeares without any wise or vertuous man Looke what I say it is no mockery but of truth if the pittifull Gods now a dayes did raise our predecessors from death to life eyther they would not know vs for their children or else they would attach vs for fooles These be things vsed in Rome but thou sendest no word of that is vsed in Agripine I will write nothing vnto thee to put thee to paine write to me some thing to reioyce me if thy wiâ—e Dimisila chanced well of the flote that came out of Cetin with salt oyle and honey I haue well prouided for her Wilt thou know that Flodius our vncle was cast downe by the rage of his horse and is deceased Laercia and Colliodorus are friendes together by occasion of a marriage I doe sende thee a Gunne I doe pray to the gods to send thee ioy thereof My wife Faustine saluteth thee Recommend mee to Iamiro thy sonne The Gods haue thee in keeping and and sinister fortune bee from me Marcus thy friend to thee Catullus his own CHAP. VII Marcus Aurelius writeth to the amorous Ladies of Rome MArk Orator reading in Rhodes the art of humanity to you amorous Ladies of Rome wisheth health to your persons and amendmeÌ„t of your desired liues It was written to mee that at the Feast of the mother Berecinthia all you being present together made a play of mee in which you layed my life for an example and slaundred my Renowne It is tolde mee that Auilina composed it Lucia Fuluia wrote it and thou Toringua did sing it and you altogether into the Theater did present it You brought mee forth painted in sundry formes with a booke in my hand turned contrary as a fained Philosopher with a long tongue as a bold speaker without measure with a horn in my head as a common Cuckolde with a nettle in my hand as a trembling louer with a banner fallen down as a coward Captaine with my beard halfe shauen as a feminate man with a cloth before my eyes as a condemned foole and yet not content with this another day yee brought mee foorth portracted with another new deuise Yee made a figure of mine with feete of straw the legges of amber the knees of wood the thighes of brasse the belly of horne the armes of pitch the hands of mace the head of yron the eares of an Asse the eyes of a Serpent the heares of rootes â—agged the teeth of a catte the tongue of a Scorpion and the forehead of lead in which was writteÌ„ in two lines these letters M. N. S. N. I. S. V. S. which in my opinion signifieth thus This picture hath not so many mettals as his life hath changes This done yee went to the riuer and tyed it with the head downwarde a whole day and if it had not beene for the good Lady Messelyne I thinke it had beene tyed there till now And now yee amorous Ladies haue written mee a Letter by Fuluius Fabritius which grieued me nothing but as an amorous man from the handes of Ladies I accept it as a mockery And to the end I should haue no leysure to thinke thereon yee sent to demaund a question of me that is if I haue found in my bookes of what for what from whence when for whom and how women were first made Because my condition is for to take mockes for mockes and sith you doe desire it I will shew it vnto you Your friendes and mine haue written to mee but especially your Ambassador Fuluius hath instantly required mee so to doe I am agrieued with nothing and will hold my peace sauing to your letter onely I will make aunswere And sith there hath been none to aske the question I protest to none but to you amorous Ladies of Rome I send my aunswere And if an honest Lady will take the demaund of you it is a token that shee doth enuie the office that yee bee of For of a truth that Lady which sheweth her selfe annoyed with your paine openly from henceforth I condemne her that shee hath some fault in secrete They that bee on the Stage feare not the roaring of the Bull they that bee in the Dungeon feare not the shot of the Canon I will say the woman of good life feareth no mans slaunderous tongue The good Matrons may keepe mee for their perpetuall seruant and the euill for their chiefe enemie I aunswere It is expedient you know of what the first women were made I say that according to the diuersities of Nations that are in the world I find diuers opinions in this case The Egyptians say that when the tiuer Nilus brake and ouerranne the
no sporte nor lightnes inuented in Rome but first it is registred in your house And finally they say that you giue your selues so vnto pleasures as though you neuer thought to receyue displeasures O Claude and Claudine by the God Iupiter I sweare vnto you that I am ashamed of your vnshamefastnes and am greatly abashed of your manners and aboue all I am exceedingly grieued for your offence For at that time that you ought to lift your hands you are returned againe into the filth of the world Manie things men commit which though they seeme graue yet by moderation of the person that cōmitteth them they are made light but speaking according to the truth I finde one reason whereby I might excuse your lightes but to the contrarie I see tenne whereby I may condemne your follies Solon the Phylosopher in his Lawes said to the Athenians that if the young offended hee should be gently admonished and grieuously punished because he was strong and if the olde erre hee should bee lightly punished and sharply admonished sith hee was weake and feeble To this Lycurgus in his lawes to the Lacedemonians sayd contrarie That if the young did offend hee should be lightly punished and grieuously admonished since through ignorance he did erre and the olde man which did euill should bee lightly admonished and sharply punished since thorough malice hee did offend These two phylosophers beeing as they haue bin of such authority in the worlde that is past and considering that their lawes and sentences were of such weight it should bee much rashnes in not admitting the one of them Now not receiuing the one nor rereprouing the other Mee thinketh that there is no great excuse to the young for their ignorance and great condemnation to the aged for their experience Once againe I returne to say that you pardon me my friends and you ought not greatly to weigh it thogh I am somewhat sharpe in condemnation since you others are so dissolute in your liues for of your blacke life my penne doth take inke I remember wel that I haue heard of thee Claude that thou hast beene lusty and couragious in thy youth so that thy strength of all was enuyed and the beauty of Claudine of all men was desired I will not write vnto you in this letter my friends and neighbours nether reduce to memory how thou Claude hast employed thy forces in the seruice of the comonwealth and thou Claudine hast won much honor of thy beauty for sundry times it chāced that men of many goodly giftes are noted of grieuous offences Those which striued with thee are all dead those whom thou desirest are deade those which serued thee Claudine are dead those which before thee Claudine sighed are dead those which for thee dyed are now dead and since all those are deade with theyr lightnesse doe not you others thinke to die and your follies also I doe demand now of thy youth one thing and of thy beauty another thing what do you receiue of these pastims of these good entertainements of these aboundances of these great contentations of the pleasures of the world of the vanitie that is past and what hope you of all these to carry into the narrow graue O simple simple and ignoraunt persons how our life consumeth and wee perceiue not how wee liue therein For it is no felicitie to enioy a short or long life but to know to employ the same eyther well or euill O children of the earth and Disciples of vanitie now you know that Time flyeth without mouing his wings the life goeth without lifting vp his feete the World dispatcheth vs not telling vs the cause men doe beguile vs not mouing their lippes our flesh consumeth to vs vnawares the heart dyeth hauing no remedie and finally our glorie decaieth as it it had neuer beene and death oppresseth vs without knocking at the dore Though a man be neuer so simple or so very a foole yet hee cannot deny but it is impossible for to make a fire in the bottome of the sea to make a way in the ayre of the thinne bloud to make rough sinewes and of the soft veines to make hard bones I meane that it is vnpossible that the greene flower of youth be not one day withered by age CHAP. XX. The Emperour followeth his Letter and perswadeth Claudius and Claudinus being now olde to giue no more credite to the World nor to any of his deceitfull flatteryes THat which I haue spoken now tendeth more to aduertise the young then to teach the olde For you others haue now passed the prime time of childhood the summer of youth and the haruest of adolescency and are in the winter of age where it seemeth an vncomely thing that those your hoary haires should bee accompanied with such vaine follies Sithens young men know not that they haue to end their youth it is no maruell that they follow the world but the olde men which see themselues fall into this guile why will they runne after vices againe O world for that thou art the world so smal is our force so great our debilitie that thou willing it and we not resisting it thou dost swallow vs vp in the most perillous gulfe and in the thornes most sharpe thou dost pricke vs by the priuiest wayes thou leadest vs by the most stony waies thou carriest vs. I meane that thou bringest vs to the highest fauours to the end that afterwards with a push of thy pike thou mightest ouerthrow vs. O world wherein all is worldly two and fifty yeeares haue passed since in thee I was first borne during which time thou neuer toldest mee one truth but I haue taken thee with ten thousand lyes I neuer demanded the thing but thou diddest promise it me and yet it is nothing at all that euer thou diddest perform I neuer put my trust in thee but euer thou beguiledst me I neuer came to thee but thou diddest vndoo me finally neuer saw I ought in thee wherby thou deseruest loue but alwayes hatred This presupposed I know not what is in thee O world or what we worldlings want for if thou hatest vs we cannot hate thee if thou doest vs iniury we can dissemble it if thou spurne vs with thy feet wee wil suffer it if thou beatest vs with a staffe wee wil hold our peace also though thou persecutest vs we will not complain though thou take ours wee will not demand it of thee though thou dost beguile vs we will not call ourselues beguiled and the worst of all is that thou doest chase vs from thy house yet we will not depart from thence I know not what this meaneth I know not from whence this commeth I know not who ought to prayse this same that wee couet to follow the world which wil none of vs and hate the gods which loue vs oft times I make account of my yeares past somtimes also I turne and tosse my booke to see what
I haue read and another time I desire my friends to giue mee good counsell and for no other end I doe it then to attaine to that I haue spoken and to know that I will say I reading Rethorike in Rhodes Adrian my lord maintaining me there knowing that I was two and thirty years of age it hapned in the Spring time I found my selfe solitarily and soluarinesse with liberty smelled the world and smelling it I knew it and know-it I followed it and following it I attained it attayning vnto it therunto I ioyned my selfe and ioyning my selfe therewith I proued it and in prouing it I tasted it and in tasting it mee thought it bitter and in finding it bitter I hated it and hating it I left it and leauing it is returned and being returned I receyued it againe Finally the world inuiting mee and I not resisting it two and fiftie yeares wee did eate our bread together and in one house wee haue alwayes remayned wilt thou know after what sort the world and I doe liue in one house together or better for to say in one heart remayne Harken then and in one word I will tell it thee When I saw the world braue I serued him when hee saw me sad hee flattered mee when I saw him wealthy I asked him when hee saw mee merry hee begulled mee when I desired any thing hee holpe me to attaine to it and afterwards when the same I best enioyed then hee tooke it from me when hee saw me not pleased he visited me when hee saw mee he forgot me when he saw mee ouerthrowne hee gaue mee his hand to releeue mee when he saw me exalted hee tripped me againe to ouerthrow me Finally when I thinke that I haue somewhat in the world I finde that all that I haue is a burthen If this which I haue spoken of the world bee any thing more is that a great deale which yet of my selfe I will say which is that without doubt my folly is greater then his malice since I am beguiled so oft and yet alwayes I follow the deceyuer O world world thou hast such moods and fashions in thy proceeding that thou leadest vs all to perdition Of one thing I maruell much whereof I cannot bee satisfied Which is since that we may go vpon the bridge and yet without any gaine wee doe wade through the water and where as the shallow is sure wee seeke to runne into the gulfe and where the way is drie wee goe into the plash where wee may eate wholesome meates to nourish the life wee receyue poyson to hasten death we seeke to destroy our selues whereas wee may bee without danger Finally I say without profite wee commit a fault though wee see with our eyes the paine to follow Wise men ought circumspectly to see what they do to examine that they speake to proue that they take in hand for to beware whose company they vse and aboue all to know whom they trust For our iudgement is so corrupt that to beguile vs one is inough and to make vs not to bee deceyued tenne thousand would not suffice They haue so great care of vs I doe meane the world to be guile vs and the flesh to flatter vs that the high way being as it is narrow the pathway daungerous and full of prickes the iourney is long and the life short our bodies are neuer but loden with vices and our hearts are full of sorrows and cares I haue wondered at diuers things in this World but that which astonieth mee most is that those which be good we make them beleeue they are euill and those which are euill wee perswade others to beleeue that they are good So that wee shoote at the white of vertues and hit the butte of vices I will confesse one thing the which beeing disclosed I know that infamy will follow mee but peraduenture some vertuous man will maruell at it that is that in those two and fifty yeeres of my life I haue proued al the vices of this world for no other entent but for to proue if there bee any thing where in mans malice might be satisfied And afterwards all well considered all examined and all proued I finde that the more I eate the more I dye for hunger the more I drinke the greater thirst I haue the more I rest the more I am broken the more I sleepe the more drousier I am the more I haue the more I couet the more I desire the more I am tormented the more I procure the lesse I attaine Finally I neuer had so greate paine through want but afterwards I had more trouble with excesse it is a great folly to thinke that as long as a man liueth in this flesh that he can satisfie the flesh for at the last cast shee may take from vs our life but wee others cannot take from her her disordinate couetousnesse if men did speake with the Gods or that the Gods were conuersant with men the first thing that I would aske them should bee why they haue appointed an end to our wofull dayes and will not giue vs an end of our wicked desires O cruell Gods what is it you doe or what doe you suffer vs it is certaine that wee shall not passe one good day of life onely but in tasting this and that life consumeth O intollerable life of man wherein there are such malices from the which wee ought to beware and such perils to fall in and also so many things to consider that then both shee and wee doe ende to know our selues when the houre of death approcheth Let those know that know not that the World taketh our will and wee others like ignorants cannot deny it him and afterwardes hauing power of our will doth constraine vs to that which wee would not so that many times wee would doe vertuous workes and for that wee are now put into the Worlds hands wee dare not do it The World vseth another subtilty with vs and to the end we should not striue with it it prayseth the times past because wee should liue according to the time present And the World sayeth further that if wee others employ our forces in his vices he giueth vs licence that wee haue a good desire of vertue O would to God in my dayes I might see that the care which the Worlde hath to preserue vs the Worldlings would take it to withdraw them from his vices I sweare that the Gods should then haue more seruants and the World and the flesh should not haue so many slaues CHAP. XXI The Emperour proceedeth in his Letter and proueth by good reasons that sith the aged persons will bee serued and honoured of the young they ought to be more vertuous and honest then the young I Haue spoken all this before rehearsed for occasion of you Claude and Claudine the which at 60 and 10 yeeres will not keepe out the prison of the world You I say which haue