that gave him breath 'T was then decree'd on those conditions he Came forth thy wombe and first was given thee Into her Kingdome Fortune all men brings To suffer worthy and unworthy things When they all kind of misery endure Some feele the fire for punishment or cure To some she makes the Sea become their graves And having struggled with the raging waves She doth not drive them to the shore at last But into some Sea-Monsters belly cast Others with sicknesse wasted she doth hold Long between life and death and uncontrol'd Using her wretched vassals at her pleasure In punishments and favours keepes no measure What need we then the parts of life lament When as the whole in misery is spent New unexpected mischiefs on us seize Before that we old sorrowes can appease Thou therefore must thy passions still inure T' endure those things that thou canst least endure And equally thy constant thoughts divide 'Twixt present ill and that which may betide Cap. 11 WHence then proceeds this strange oblivion Of thine and all the worlds condition Thou mortall art and mortals hast brought forth How couldst thou hope a body fram'd of earth Subject to chance to sicknesse and to paine Could solid and eternall things containe Thy Sonne 's departed hastned to that end To which all those that now survive him bend Even all those troopes that wrangle at the barre That fill the Theaters that prostrate are In Temples death at sundry times doth strike The honour'd and despis'd she maketh like Apollo's Oracle thou must fulfill Know thine owne selfe it is the chiefest skill What 's man a vessell broken with a knock Notable to endure a common shock By nature weake on others aide depending And in his chiefest strength himselfe defending Against a Savage Beast becomes her prey His body is compos'd of mire and clay Though nere so neat and comely to behold Impatient of toyle of heat or cold Whom very ease and rest consumes and whom The sustenance he takes doth overcome Dying as well with surfeit as with want Whose soule suspitious of her guard can scant Be woo'd to stay but oft leapes out for feare When as a suddaine noyse doth strike the eare Why doe we wonder at the death of one When as the same can be escapt by none There needs no great adoe the smell the taste Watching and wearinesse mans life doth waste Humours and meates that doe maintaine his breath Become at length the causes of his death Where ere he goes his weaknesse he may find In change of Aire of Water and of Wind Not us'd unto in every thing appeares The frailty of his life begun in teares And yet what Tumults doth this vile wretch move What thoughts he harbours in him farre above His seely reach and how doth he devise To Childrens Children perpetuities And while hee 's busi'd in his vaine pretence Death unexpected comes and takes him hence And that which we call age is at the most The course of some few yeeres that swiftly post Cap. 12 TEll me O Marcia if at least there be A reason of the griefe which troubles thee Whether the same thy dammage doe respect Or most on thy deceased sonne reflect Is it that thou no pleasure yet hast gain'd Or that thou might'st if he had still remain'd If 't be confest none hitherto t' have had Thy losse then doubtlesse is not halfe so bad Men have those things more willingly forsaken Wherein they have but little pleasure taken But if thou say'st th'hadst joy in him before Give thankes for that grudge not t' have had no more His very education was gaines Sufficient for all thy care and paines Vnlesse thou 't say that those which nourish whelps And little Birds with all such flattering helps Of divers minds doe in the touch or sight Or fawning of mute creatures take delight And that our childrens education Is not sufficient fruit thereof alone Then though his labour diligence and wit Did not redound unto thy benefit Yet certainely some fruit from hence doth grow T' have had him once and to have lov'd him so But he might have increa'st in yeeres and worth 'T is better yet than not t' have brought him forth For were it in our choise whether that we Would not at all or not long happy be We should desire rather than none t' accept A benefit that could not long be kept Doubtlesse thou wouldst not wish t' have had a Son Whose ill conditions and lewd courses run Would have but made him beare the empty name Rather than thine that so adorn'd the same A young man quickly wise and soone devout A husband and a father soone and out Of knowledge of his worth soone made a Priest And in all good things else as quickly blest No great felicity can long remaine Men may perhaps a Common good retaine The Gods who length of dayes to him deny'd With ages full perfection that supply'd Nor canst thou say that thou alone by Fate Art thus design'd to be unfortunate Looke round about and thou shalt easely find In every place examples of this kind Captaines and Princes yea as Poets write The Gods themselves are not exempted quite Which they the rather would have us beleeve That we with such partakers lesse might grieve Looke round I say and see if thou canst spy A house afflicted with such misery That doth-not find a kind of ease to know Another plunged in a greater woe Though I of thee have no such ill conceit To thinke that others woes should thine abate To heare of many mourners is at best But envious comfort to a mournefull brest Yet some I will repeat not to th' intent To shew that this to man is incident For that were folly but to shew how some By bearing have afflictions overcome And herein Lucius Sylla shall be first Who lost his Sonne which did not slacke his thirst Of vengeance to his foes nor any way His fury to the Citizens allay But after his great losse as fully bore The Sir-name Happy as he did before And on mens ruines building his successe Their hatred his despis'd and scorn'd no lesse The very envâ—e of the Gods whose crime It was that Sylla to that height did clime Yet here I will not censure but let passe As yet a thing uniudg'd what Sylla was Although his foes confesse to his renowne He both tooke up Armes well and laid them downe I onely prove the same not ill to be That may concurre with great felicity And therefore let not Greece too much admire Her Xenophon who at the holy fire And as he was about his Sacrifice Of his Sonnes death received sure advise Who onely bidding then the musicke cease And taking from his head the Crowne made peace With all his rising passions instantly And so accomplisht the solemnity Cap. 13 OUr owne high Priest Puluillus did the same To whom the tidings of his Sonnes death came Even in the midst of that most solemne state
L. A. SENECA THE PHILOSOPHER HIS BOOKE OF CONSOLATION to MARCIA Translated into an English POEM LONDON Printed by E. P. for HENRY SEILE and are to besold at the Tygres head in St. Pauls Church-yard 1635. TO THE READER REader to offer thee a piece of Seneca Englished when the whole is Indenniz'd here and almost every where else might seeme ridiculous but if his Copious Brevity and Powerfull Facility two eminencies peculiar to Seneca be lost or at the best but faintly expressed in those severall Translations as perhaps not to be reached by any Prose but his owne it may be worth an houres paines to see the same in a new way more pathetically rendred to the life which in the opinion of Iudicious men thou wilt find in this Poeme provided thou doest not marre it in the reading PHILOPHRASTES TO THE NOBLE LOVER OF all Vertues and Fautor of all Goodnesse the Illustrious and truely Religious IOHN Earle of Bridgewater Viscount Brackly Baron of Elsmere Knight of the Bath Lord President of Wales and one of the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Privie Councell THe worthiest Subjects as the Sages say Be those who be their Countries joyfull stay Which Gods due glory next their Princes Fame And these three marks do make their best blest ayme How well's your worth approv'd to God and Man Our Church our King our Kingdomes witnesse can How well your life doth hit this triple white Whose Goodnesse Gravenesse Greatnesse all delight May that bright name shine uneclipsed here Whom all his Country justly holds most deere Whom Heaven hath stellified for 's Piety Whom his great King loves for 's loyalty O may this threefold twist be nere untwin'd Long may Learning of you a sure friend find May Honors Pinnace Fames swolne sayles admit Tackled with merit Piloted with wit That as you God God may you ever honor The while you fight under Faiths sacred Banner That as you grace your King your King may grace you Your God your King your Countrey may embrace you With humble heart and voyce thus sayes thus prayes Who in devout admiring rest alwayes Most devoted to your Vertues RC L. A. SENECA OF CONSOLATION TO MARCIA Cap. 1 BVt that I knew thee Marcia to be As from their faults from Womens weaknesse free And that thy manners argue thou wert sent To re-inforce some ancient president I nothing had against thy griefe attempted Since from the like even men are not exempted Nor could I hope the time now so unfit The fault so great and thou the Judge of it That any reason could thy will importune To be appeas'd and to forgive thy fortune But thy knowne courage and the large extent Of thy try'd vertues made me confident 'T is manifest how in thy Fathers case Thou shew'dst thy selfe who in thy love had place As ample as thy Children then alive Save that thou would'st not he should them survive And yet that 's doubtfull too great piety Against things fit reserves a liberty Thy Fathers death as much as in thee lay Thou hinderd'st when thou saw'st no other way For him t' escape the shamefull servitude Which through Sejanus hate had soone ensude Thou favour'dst not his purpose but content To yeeld thy selfe and privately lament Swallow'dst thy groanes yet never hadst the art In cheerefull lookes to hide a wofull heart And this thou didst when throgh the wretched times 'T was goodnesse to forbeare unnaturall crimes But when an alteration made truth seeme Somewhat more safe thou didst indeed redeeme Thy Sire from death by publishing the wit Which valiantly with his owne blood he writ Well maist thou therefore thy great merits boast For Romes Records whereof most part were lost Posterity that to his endlesse glory May freely read an uncorrupted story Shall render thankes which he shall likewise give For that through thee his memory shall live And flourish here whil'st any of our heires Shall be desirous to revolve th' affaires Of their fore-fathers or shall seeke t' inherit The knowledge of a perfect Roman spirit Whilst any shall require to know a man Free in thought word and action who even then When all mens neckes so slavishly did beare Sejanus yoke was wholly void of feare It had been dammage to the publike weale T' have suffer'd wilfull envie to conceale A worke with two such eminencies fraught Both Eloquence and free revealed thought Hee 's read and in mens hands and hearts abides Where boldly he times menacings derides But those vile miscreants of whom there needs No memory but for their damned deeds Shall nere obtaine of any tongue to be Hereafter nam'd though to their infamie These acts of thine forbad me to looke backe Upon thy Sexe to weigh what that might lacke Or to respect thy lookes where griefe doth rest And is thereof as at the first possest Behold how plainely I intend to deale That doe not on thy passions closely steale But have reviv'd old woes would'st thou be sure This may be heal'd th' hast seene as great a cure Let others then deceitfull med'cines borrow I am resolv'd to skirmish with thy sorrow And if thou 'lt heare me speake to make thee know How to dry up those teares that now more flow From custome then from reason which I meant And gladly would performe with thy consent But if thou shalt in wilfulnesse persist I le do 't perforce though thou thy selfe resist Although thou hast determin'd to imbrace And hug thy sorrow in thy dead sonnes place But what good can there from our labour rise All meanes have been assay'd thy friends allies And others whose authority might threat Thy disobedience have been knowne t' intreat For Learnings cause and for thy fathers sake Yet none could profit longer than they spake Yea time it selfe Natures best remedy That heales all woes hath lost his force in thee Three yeeres are now expir'd and yet at length Thy griefe decayes no jot but gathers strength Custome hath so prevail'd that now 't is growne To make thee thinke it shame to cease thy moane For as all vices entering our brest Take root if they at first be not supprest So this and such like wilfull discontent Raging against it selfe findes nourishment In its owne bane sorrow that knowes no measure Becomes the wretched creatures deadly pleasure I therefore could have wisht I had begun This cure betimes it had been easely done A wound yet greene the Surgeon may be bold To seare it and to search it but growne old And to an ulcer bred he must be faine To do 't with more advice and greater paine I cannot as I might have done at first Heale up thy griefe with ease it must be burst Cap. 2 I Know that such as to advise intend Begin with Precepts with Examples end I must invert this order for there 's need That diversly with divers we proceed Reason prevailes with some others must heare Of famous persons that their mindes may reare To things of splendour
him that dyed before For he two daughters also left behind That should bring him not sorrow to thy mind Which thou great pleasures or great paines maist make Accordingly as thou the same shalt take The husband-man when any trees he findes Torne by the rootes or split with sudden winds Some grafts thereof doth instantly replant And with advantage soone supply's their want For time whom all these humane things obey Is swift as well in growth as in decay Place thou those daughters in Metellius stead And let two joyes be from one sorrow bred It is the nature of all mortalls most To Covet what they utterly have lost And with such earnestnes the same t' effect As what they present have they quite neglect Behold how fortune hath to thee extended Her favour though she seem'd to be offended Who doth beside those daughters that yet live The comfort of so many Nephews give Cap. 17 COnsider likewise Marcia that if all According unto merit should befall No evill ever good-men should betide But now both good and bad alike divide And though it grievous be to have him dye On whom his parents might so much relye Yet it is humane thou and all mankind Art certainely to all these things design'd To suffer losse to dye to hope to feare To grieve and to be grieved to appeare Desirous and yet fearefull to depart And not to know in what estate thou art If any man before-hand should propound To one that were for Syracusa bound The good and evill that from thence arise And thus before he went should him advise These rare things shalt thou find first thou shalt see That Iland severed from Italy By such a narrow sea as by consent Of all is thought t' have beene the continent Through which the sea with sudden breach did flow And ever since the land divided so Then thou by knowne Charybdis gulfe must saile Which while the winds forbeare their southerne gale Continues calme but otherwise hath power The greatest vessells wholly to devoure Next shalt thou see the cleere and famous spring Of Arethusa whereof Poets sing Which either there begins or passage makes Beneath the Sea and not thereof partakes And then thou shalt the safest harbour gaine That nature ere did make or art obtaine For ships to ride in where it shall be showne Where all the power of Athens was o'rethrowne And where were many thousand captives shut In one vast prison out of maine rocks cut Thou shalt arrive at Syracuse at length A citty of large circuit and great strength Where winter is so temperat that no day Without some sun-shine ere doth passe away But when th' ast found all this thou shalt be sure A hot contagious summer to endure That with diseases will the land annoy And that mild winters Benefit destroy There shalt thou Dionysius behold Who having law and equity controld The County's freedome under foot doth tread And though he have divinest Plato read Yet to the height of Tyranny aspires And after a base exile life desires Some he will burne and some to death will scourge Others when no occasion him doth urge He will behead and overgrowne with vice He male and female will to lust entice And ' mongst those bruitish sinnes that men should loath Hee 'le active be at once and passive both Th' ast heard what may invite what may deter And therefore with thy serious thoughts conferre Whether thou wilt resolve to goe or stay If after all this warning any say He will adventure let him beare the blame That undertooke advisedly the same Thus nature doth to every one declare If thou bring'st children know some may be faire Some foule and some if that thou many have Their countrey may betray as well as save Despaire not but thy children may attaine To so great worth as may mens tongues restraine From obloquy yet likewise thinke they may Be such as will a curse upon thee lay I see no cause but thee they should out-live Yet be prepar'd them unto death to give In child-hood youth or age for there appeares Small difference here in concerning yeeres Since parents seldome go but with moist-eyes To any of their childrens obsequies When thou hast all these things before thee laid Thou no way canst the heavenly powers upbraid If thou wilt then bring children for behold How they before-hand did the truth unfold Cap. 18 With this example therefore we may well The lives of men and women parallell As thou intending Syracuse to view Hast understood what thereon will ensue So now imagine that before thy birth I come to tell what thou shalt find on earth Here nature thee into a cittie brings Common to gods and men where in all things Contained are by lawes eternall tide Where the celestiall bodies doe abide In their unwearied courfe there shall thine eyes Behold the starres in their varieties And see with admiration one great light That fills the world dividing day and night By dayly motion by whose annuall race Winter and Summer have their equall space Then shalt thou see the Mooue succeed the other Who by encounters borrowes from her brother Her dimmer light which sometimes not appearing And sometimes with full face the sad earth cheering Is in increasing and decreases strange And every day from what she was doth change Then shalt thou see five planets that all bend Their courses severally and do contend With heavens swift motion these controle the fates Of private people and of publicke states Which subject are to good or bad effects According to their different aspects Then shalt thou see the clouds the raine and wonder At oblique lightnings and heaven-piercing thunder And when thine eyes are filled with that fight Behold the earth affordeth new delight Smooth boundlesse plaines high snow-headed mountaines The falls of rivers and cleare streaming fountaines Floods from one source that runne both East west And tottring woods with their owne beight opprest Thicke forrests fraught with beasts and birds that fly And warble foorth their differing harmony Then shalt thou see the divers scituations Of citties and of farre disjoyned nations Whereof some for security retire Into the mountaines some the plaines desire Others delight neere rivers to remaine And some to dwell in Fens do not disdaine Then shalt thou see the plow-man till the land Preparing harvest with industrious hand Trees fructifie alone brookes gently slide Along the moddowes in their flowry pride Havens and creeks that all beholders please And scattered Ilands giving names to Seas What should I tell of pretious stones of gold That swiftest torrents in their sands infold Of fires in midst of land and sea that shine And of the Ocean whose large armes intwine The spacious earth which that in three parts cuts And so a barre betwixt the nations puts Which rageth oft with an unbridled will Within whose waters that are seldome still Huge monsters live that all beleefe exceed Some are so great and heavy
ill The passage is more easie when the soule Is speedily dismissed from her foule Abode for she doth then contract lesse slime And to her station may more lightly clime Great spirits cannot willingly reside Long in the body nor those straights abide But to breake through and mount aloft desire And to their first originall aspire And therefore learned Plato sayeth well A wise mans mind on death doth ever dwell Doth wish doth will and thereto in effect In all his actions hath his whole respect When such grave vertue Marcia thou did'st view In thy yong Sonne and how he did subdue All his affections given to no vice In midst of wealth abhorring avarice How honour without pride he did possesse And recreations without wantonnesse Couldst thou conceive that he could long remaine What ere at highest is goes backe againe Vertue growne perfect vanisheth away And fruits that ripen soone doe soone decay Fire that burnes cleare is soone extinguished That lasteth more that with grosse matter fed Burnes with a thicke smoake for it best subsisteth With nourishment whose quality resisteth So wit that is most delicate and pure Is ever found a short time to endure For dissolution followeth apace When as for future growth there is no place Fabian reports a monstrous thing in nature Of a child seene in Rome of a mans stature But it soone dy'd as wisemen did presage His stature had so gained on his age Decay doth still maturity attend And things when growth is spent draw neer their end Cap. 24 COunt thy Sons vertues then and not his yeeres Though he t' have lived long enough appeares Who fourteene yeeres was under Tutors bred And by thy counsell ever governed Who though he had a houshold of his owne Vnwilling was to have thee live alone And being fit the warres to undertake The same refused wholly for thy sake For thinke how small a time they are enjoy'd That often are in forraigne parts imploy'd How mothers usually that time lament No lesse then death which in the warres is spent And then beleeve he liv'd as long as others That alwaies have beene absent from their mothers He thus remaining in thy house and sight To order there his studies tooke delight Gaining a wit by precepts dayly read That would his grand-fathers have equalled Had it not beene with-stood by bash fullnesse That great worth oft in silence doth suppresse A youth of rare aspect who ' mongst so many Men-tempting women gave no hope to any But when the lust of some durst him assault Would blush and thinke his comlinesse a fault This holinesse of manners was the cause That he though very yong with great applause Was made a Priest by meanes his mother us'd Though notwithstanding he had beene refus'd Had not his owne true worth their judgements led Then do not thou conceive him to be dead But that his vertues make him so remaine That thou for him shalt never grieve againe For all that can be now thou hast endur'd The rest is free from chance of joy assur'd And if thy Sonne thou wilt but rightly prise Then know his image onely buried lyes And that not very like whilst he now eas'd Of all the burdens that him so displeas'd Is rendred to himselfe for flesh and skin And all the rest that we are wrapped in Are nothing but the fetters of the soule And such as doe her faculties controule Which shee opposing ever strives to bee In endlesse blisse from all darke errours free And therefore 't is but folly to repayre Unto his Sepulchre where ashes are And bones and that which troubled him no more Parts of thy Sonne then were the clothes he wore For he went hence intire staying a while Above us to be purged from the vile Contracted dregs of nature mounted then And was receiv'd amongst those happy men The Scipio's and the Cato's with the rest That life contemn'd and now in death are blest Thy father there O Marcia though that place Makes all of kinne his Grandchild doth embrace And there instructs the new enlightened youth Not by conjecture but assured truth In all the courses of the starres neere hand And makes him all those secrets understand And as a stranger joyeth to find one That in a city where he is not knowne Will take the paines to lead him up and downe And shew him all the pleasures of the towne So glad was he when he did first arrive Being of heavenly things inquisitive Of this well knowne interpreter that so He likewise might be shew'd the things below For 't is a pleasure to th'infranch is'd mind To view from heaven what it hath left behind Frame all thy actions then as they were done In sight both of thy father and thy Sonne Who are not now as when from hence they went But every way become more excellent And be ashamed of these triviall things To grieve for them whose change such honor brings Who left the world to fixe themselves on high And there to dwell in endlesse liberty Where neither Seas nor hills nor danger barres Their entercourse whose wayes are mixt with starres Cap. 26 THink therfore now that from that heavenly Tower Thy father speakes who had with thee like power That thou hadst with thy Sonne not in that straine Wherein he did of civill warres complaine Wherein the banishers themselves he sent With shame into eternall banishment But with a farre more elevated wit As he doth now in greater glory sit Why Daughter doth thy griefe remaine so long Why dost thou so continue in the wrong To thinke thy Sonne ill dealt with who withdrew Himselfe to his forefathers when he grew Weary of life dost thou not know what blasts Of trouble fortune upon all things casts How she her favour only doth conferre On those that have conversed least with her Wilt thou that I those famous Kings repeat Whose happinesse would have been found compleat Had timely death whereof none ere repented The evills of their future lives prevented Or Roman captaines who could nothing lacke Had some few yeeres of life beene given backe Or those great men that of their owne accord Expos'd their necks unto the souldiers sword Thy father and thy grand-father behold He murthered was I shewing with how bold A mind I writ did rather then to lye At others mercy choose to fast and dye Why is he in our house so much bewail'd Whom death in so great measure hath avail'd We dwell together in a glorious light And see you compast with a dismall night Where all your best things base and sordid are And may not with the least of ours compare What should I say heere are no battells fought By land or sea no mischiefes done or thought Our Courts are not with clamours fill'd our dayes Perpetuall are our hearts our lives our wayes Open and nothing hid within our brest But all events to us are manifest I when I liv'd took pleasure to compose The story of one age and but of those That in a corner of the world did dwell Wee the succession of all times can tell And doe the rise and falls of kingdomes view The ruines of great cities with the new And uncontrolled courses of the Seas For know that if it may thy sorrow ease To understand the truth of common fate That nothing shall continue in the state That now it is time all things shall devoure And not with men alone of Fortunes power The smallest part alas shall pastime make But the whole world shall of the same partake Here it shall hills suppresse there rocks inforce And supp up Seas and change the usuall course Of rivers and dissolving all commerce The race of man shall utterly disperse Causing else-where the trembling earth to cleave And greedily whole cities to receive Into her bowells belching out from thence Damps that will breed a generall pestilence Then shall it both with inundations drowne And with strange fires all mortall things burne down And when the world that is to be renew'd Shall thus dissolve there shall be deadly feud Betweene the starres that with such order shine Which shall their fires to that vast fire resigne Wee also being blessed soules that claime Aeternity when God shall please to frame The world anew must therein have our share And shall to our first elements repaire And therefore Marcia happy is thy Sonne That know's all this as 't were already done FINIS Imprimatur SA BAKER Episcopo Londinensi à sacris