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book_n	virtue_n	young_a	youth_n	71	3	8.3324	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51726	The pourtract of the politicke Christian-favourite originally drawn from some of the actions of the Lord Duke of St. Lucar : written to the Catholick Majesty of Philip the Great, and the fourth of that name : a piece worthy to be read by all gentlemen, who desire to know the secrets of state, and mysteries of government / by Marquesse Virgilio Malvezzi ; to this translation is annexed, the chiefe state maxims, political and historical observations, in a brief and sententious way, upon the same story of Count Olivares, Duke of St. Lucar.; Ritratto del privata politico christiano. English	Malvezzi, Virgilio, marchese, 1595-1653.; Powell, Thomas, 1608-1660.	1647 (1647)	Wing M360; ESTC R9198	61,007	163

finish it if I doe not desire to out-live him who is worthie to outlive time and to hold out with all eternitie the All that I write is not the All that the Duke hath done nor all that hee will doe but it is onelie a little that I came to heare of of the infinite of that which hee hath performed it shall be sufficient for mee that if my hand may not have a quil of Mercuries vving that so I might flie this loftie pitch that it may have but one of his fingers to point out all the way and who can tell whether this my booke but onelie vvith the lifting up of the hand may not beat time to a consort of sweet singing Swans vvhich flie in a more noble aire amidst his fortunate Skie but let the heavens forbid it should beat time unto the harsh and importunate discords of such vvho baselie trouble the Christall streames of Wisedome and veritie State Maximes and Politicall ohservations on the actions of Count Olivares ANgels are the figures of God Favourites are the figures of Angels The glory of things past is like the King of Bees without a sting and the vanity thereof The relation of things past is like the painting of a picture and some oddes there is in relating things past and present Historians subject to divers censures What is represented to the eye is more forcible then what is read in papers In marriages worth is to be as well regarded as wealth A mans Country is not where but under which he is borne Man is a tree inversed whose hold is in Heaven not in the ground Trees bred on stormie hills prove stronger then those which are planted in fruitfull warme vallies The Law-givers were Polititians the Law politicall but now professors of the Law are become Empericks and the Law it selfe made mechanicall The Stars have alwaies the same influence but they seeme not still to be the same Cyrus was first a King of boyes then of men Why the first borne have the greatest fortunes and the younger the greatest vertues Riches preceding vertue hinder it but if they follow they helpe it To be alwaies amongst bookes is to die amongst the living and live amongst the dead Nothing of old honourable but valour Glory consists both in knowing and in doing When study is not delightsome it is a passion not a labour They that will serve Princes must spend their youth first in their studies before they become Courtiers Man a moveable world when hee goeth not forward he returnes back and can no more stand still then running water which if stopped will rather ascend against its nature then stand still The aspects of the firmament are not without some opposition nor the greatest fortunes without some molestation To be made governours of remote places is an honourable and ordinary exile of unfortunate worthy men Distance thawes the actions of remote governours that they seldome arrive to the Princes eares except by the Favourites meanes The Suns splendor is so great that the thickest Clouds cannot totally intercept it such are the beames of worth which cannot be hid A little heat is soone extinguished by cold but a great heat increaseth by antiperistasis or opposition so it is with eminent worth Agesilaus would not have his riding upon a stick amongst his boyes be told to them who were not parents least they should thinke him too fonde a father neither will Favourites have their love to the Prince known to their enemies for feare of misconstruction Lovers doe not onely love when they are beloveed but also when they are hated which love is in the heart not in the head Love is radicated in the soule but diffused into the body as the Sunnes light is extended where his Globe is not He that cannot moderate the base affections of riches cannot temper the urgent provocation of domination A spotlesse Favourite admits of no companion but he makes him his enemy for though in ability in managing great affaires require it yet ambition will not brooke it A Favourite that desires a companion seemes to accuse the Prince of tyranny as requiring helpe against his barbarousnesse If Tiberius cannot wait upon the Princes body hee will wait upon his carcasse Habit is not like nature but is another nature not a copie but the originall The habit which is necessarily produced by actions doth not necessarily produce actions Love which is in habit by a little disturbance receives no detriment A rest in Musick if short its delightfull if long it dislikes so long expectation wearies the desire and weakens love The long absence of a Favourite from his Prince may retaine the reputation of profitable but looseth the opinion of necessary He that would have it believed that nothing can be done without him must not give time that it may bee done It is wisedome sometimes to make shew of refusing the favour presented Discourse requires setled spirits but love unsettles and troubles them Agrippina● wise act in calling home Seneca from exile It s ill when for the mans sake vertues are banished but worse when for his vertues sake the man is exiled The people punish worth when they feare it a popular Government then feares but a tyrannicall hates it and an Aristocracie both envies hates and feares it Favourites cannot be tyrants over others if they be not first so over their Princes The differences that are betweene a great Counseller and a great Favourite The favour of Princes comes partly ●y destinie of our birth partly by our ●wne prudence When a Favourite doth every thing ●nd nothing done without him hatred ●s begot When the inferiour heavens do not move with the first mover they move by it The primum mobile may cause contrary motions in the inferiour orbes as well as the soules of man and of other creatures in their bodies A true Favourite in the interest of the King and in right of justice knowes no friends and hath no parents The Prince like the Sun is the equivocall and universall father of his subjects A man hath blood for the foundation of his paternity a Prince hath love He that loves not the Prince more then others makes himselfe no sonne but a servant and the Prince no father but a Lord In correcting of errours many times errours are committed either because they are believed as necessary or because profitable When Princes suffer men of worth to live retiredly it s a signe that either they know not or else hate their worth He that will not serve his Prince and yet knowes how to serve is more faulty then he that serves him ill not knowing how to serve Retiring is the reward of such as have wrought he that retires and hath done nothing will have his reward before his merit Retiring is a recompence to them that have done enough but a punishment to the idle A man may rest and yet not be at quiet yet for the most part he is most unquiet

THE POURTRACT OF THE POLITICKE Christian-Favourite Originally drawn from some of the actions of the Lord DUKE of St. LUCAR Written to the Catholick Majesty of PHILIP the Great and the Fourth of that name A Piece worthy to be read by all Gentlemen who desire to know the secrets of State and mysteries of Government By Marquesse Virgilio Malvezzi To this Translation is annexed the chiefe State Maxims Political and Historical observations in a brief and sententious way upon the same story of Count Olivares Duke of St. Lucar LONDON Printed for M. Meighen and G. Bedell and are to be sold at their shop at the Middle-Temple gate 1647. To the Reader Good Reader A Little Gold is of more value then much Lead and there is more excellency in a small Diamond then in the greatest rocks or quarries of free-stone there is a quantity of vertue as well as of bignesse and it is the quality not the quantity that for the most part sets price and esteeme upon things This booke though small in bulke yet is great in worth and containes more wealth in a little roome then thou shalt find in more capacious buildings I am confident had Alexander lighted upon this piece hee would have given it entertainment wit●Homers Iliads in Darius hi●● rich Cabinet here are briefly an● sententiously set downe many excellent and rare State Maxime● and Politicall observations upon some prime actions of the greates●Favourite to the greatest Princ● of Christendome the Author 〈◊〉 the Marquesse Virgilio Malvez Zi a man so noble and eminent 〈◊〉 very way that hee needs not my pennicell to delineat him I recommend this piece to thee as 〈◊〉 jem of great value and desir● thee to drink it downe with no less● cheerefulnesse and delight ther●Cleopatra did her rich jewell when she entertained Mark Antonie and so I bid thee heartily farewell An Introduction to the Reader I Never Reader writ a book with greater hast nor with greater danger for the Enemies of that subject whereof I write will call me enemy the Corrivals flatterer the friends weake and he perhaps himselfe will deeme me rash one will believe I have said more then is said another will undertake to know I have said lesse some will make me say that which I would not say and to conclude it will be much lamented that I have taken such a freedome and liberty of speech I doe humbly intreat the Lord Duke to excuse me his friends to beare with me his competitours to know that I write not in flattery and his enemies to believe that I write not in hatred I confesse it an undertaking of no great discretion to write the actiōs of any man without knowing whether he will repute it a hate or a kindnesse and I shall peradventure be discredited with thee my reader incredulous that I can set down rules of policy and cannot put them in practice for that I could say the Byt-maker cannot byt a horse but I meane not to make that servile which is Architectonicall nor write my selfe a master wherein I am but a Scholler I could say that if a little house and a great City be not the same that then likewise the policies of Princes will not be the same with that of particulars but there I expect no glory I seeke for no excuse all my actions are without policies for I my selfe am without interests professing my selfe onely to be most affectionate to my friends most devoted to my Lords and this is a known truth to such as know me Nothing did more suspend my pen from writing this booke nor more retard my provocations to print it then the being most assured the perversenesse of the times make mee speake it that the world which is full of interests and flattery will judge mee too to be full of interests and flattery but now I returne to your excellency great Favourite and here doe publiquely protest that I have writ for truths sake first of all for so nay more then so do your great actions merit then after that ingratitude for so much and much more I am indebted to the noble offers which so exceeding lovingly you did make bee made mee in times that were to me calamitous And if I have not lighted upon any thing that suites with your liking I doe humbly again intreat you to excuse mee but if you doe happily value my will to merit a reward any reward whatsoever that is not either your favour or your praise should by mee be reputed for an insufferable injury and I should be compel'd by necessity to call your Excellency by the name of ingratefull My family hath never knowne how to deserve rewards in Spaine with any other pen then with the Sword nor with any other ink then with blood and I am still likewise ready both with the one and the other if not to deserve yet at least to serve I am not of so poor a condition as that I am forced to write for a reward nor am I of so arrogant a disposition as that I write to give instructions but I am least of all so far from vain as not to write for praise which peradventure is my due if not because I merit it yet in regard I seeke it for though this affecting of praise be not to be commended yet is it out of question to be tolerated because it is borne with us because it seldome times dies before us and it many times makes us live longer then we doe live I intreat thee Reader and I humblie intreat thee that if ever my writings have beene of any merit with thee either by unloading thee of idlenesse or by withholding thee from drowsinesse to be willing to favour me with a beliefe that in all my past present books I never have meant nor doe ever meane to blame any living man either particular Favourite or private the heartie devotion which I bear my Lords nor the tender affection which I beare to my friends never as yet hath nor never shall have power to make me forget that reverence wherewith I am obliged unto Princes or that respect whereof I am a debtor to all men As for my writings they are not figurativelie but literally to be interpreted nor have they anie breath but what they breath I write not after the Aegyptian manner nor have I said but what I say And since I am not willing to say that which I have not said be pleased not to make mee say what I say not I seriouslie protest that if anie for what cause soever be moved to write against mee my purpose is to afford him no answer for if he write against what I have faid either that I have said will defend it selfe or else it will not merit a defence and then if he write against what I have not said it nothing belong unto me to defend it For a Conclusion be advertised Reader that the book is not yet finished nor indeed can I desire to

deriv'd from the vertue of magnanimity will not be pai'd with the viciousnesse of flattery I should not much lament to incurre that blemish from such as are his Emulours so I might be quit from it in his conceit For I hold it farre more facile to make the Duke blush then to make them look pale in the relating of his great Acts I will expect more liberty from envie then from modestie because there is more vertue in him then there is defect in others Your Majestie then is humbly intreated to beare with the weaknesse of my writings too unequall for successes I grant it to bee more easie to speake then to doe when that which is spoken is to bee done but it is peradventure easier to doe then to speak when a man is to tell what hath been done The Drammaticke that is represented in Sceanes is more forcible then the Epick that is read in Papers yet is that personated part much inferiour in spirit to that which is seen for if it have a soule yet it hath not that soule Let that comendation neverthelesse bee granted to these writtings which is customarily given by him that loves to the face that is pictured For if penns be not inferiour to pencills and words to collours it will be acceptable to your Majestie to behold expos'd to veiw those Actions drawne howsoever not to the life which your Majestie hath thought worthy of your generous affections I know right well that this Pourtrait should not have been adventured upon but by an Appelles and by an Appelles who drawing from all the favourites of all Kings and great Princes all the beauties that did adorne them being in him united he should present him to the sight of Your Majestie The Lord Iasper Guzman third Earle of Olivarez was the sonne of Henry Guzman who was the Embassadour for his sacred Majestie in Rome and of the Lady Mary Pimentelli a Lady of most worthy vallue If the Imaginative faculty be of force to imprint an impression in tender and plaine conceits and that it hath any part in the representing of shapes to the Formative power what conceit may wee presume it to forme or what shape to represent in that Imagination which approved of no other discourse then of that of the King nor conceited the forming of other conceits then of his service I doe not exclude the service of God because that holy Kings intent unto Gods honour cannot be well serv'd if God be not first serv'd If men would seek when they doe seek for wives to joyne themselves to worth as well as wealth their rich estates would oftentimes be more hereditary as being more secure from mens treachery and lesse submitted to the insultings of fortune which although it sometimes doth hinder the working it takes not from them the being He was not borne in Rome and for twelve yeares space went up and downe with his Father who was surrounded with troublesome negotiations sometimes in Sicely sometimes in Naples in both which Provinces he sate in the throne of Vice-Roy That is not a mans Country where he was borne but that under which hee was borne Man was esteemed by men of old a Tree reversed because as the Country of a Tree is the soyle wherein its roots are placed so the Country of a man is that Heaven to which he is exposed To stay in ones native Country to vindicate himself amongst his owne is to become a true Tree and a reversed man such as these are for the most part are like to those plants which being planted in the fatnesse of a fertile soyle doe grow bulky oftentimes but unfruitfull The Oaks that are set and grow on the barren mountaines brought up among stormes winds tempests they feare not the impetuous furies of the blustering Northerne gusts but if they grow fat in the calmenesse of delightfull plaines and luxuriantly increase they are but feeble and endure no stronger gales then warme refreshing breaths of Zephyrus or else they are made leaflesse or blowne downe He being return'd into Spaine and having journied far in vertues disposed himself to the study of the Lawes not to defend causes by cases of Titus and Sempronius but o● defend States with the prudence of the Lawes Expoundors The Law is a Book of Politicks yet few Lawyers now are Politicians They were that made it but they are not that learne it because they only learne that which is done and not to what end it hath been done Very few of those that know the Lawes understand them Hee that seeks Authority without Reason is reasonlesse To deprive the Law of reason is to take the soule from men and from themselves this comes thus to passe because that which is Politicall is in many become Mechanicall And whereas Law was at first the legitimate Daughter of Judgement it is now made the adopted Daughter of Memory and Legists of Rationalls are become Empericks This man was created Rectour of the Vniversity of Salamanca Hee that could have Lyncaeus his eyes would sometime know with little children in the cradle that the Starrs doe prattle and shew themselves by the matter with the souls if not hindred by it for surely they are not helped then are the nfluences more secure though then they be more impotent and it may be that God would that they have lesse force in that age that is to predominate over their power The influences of the starres are alwaies the same but they seem not so because the men that receive them are not alwaies the same the Actions of the Active search for a good disposition of the patient that their issue may be prosperous That starre which would make Cyrus great because it found him among Children made him King of Children And certainly it was the selfe same starre which afterwards finding him amidst the Armies made him the King of the Persians That Aspect which made the Earle in Salamanca the first Rector of the Vniversity is the selfe same Constellation that finding him in the Court of the greatest Monarch did make him one of the Princes of the Vniverse In this time died the Lord Ierosme his elder Brother so that he who was the second birth was now become the first The first borne because it is given by fortune to be the first The guifts of fortune are oftentimes likewise given them by men This custome peradventure is not in use to reward them but to succour them they that are begotten last doe sometimes become the valiantest the seeing them to be borne more unfortunate is an argument to us of their valour Who knowes whether men either by a motive of the soule or by some other instigation have not known this truth and have repaired thither with presents of gold where the reparations of vertue were wanting It is a greater good fortune to live a while a second and then become a first then to be borne first When riches precede vertue they oftentimes hinder it and when