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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59603	Miscellanea, or, Various discourses upon 1. tragedy, 2. comedy, 3. the Italian & 4. The English comedy, 5. and operas ... together with Epicurus, his Morals / written originally by the Sieur de Saint Euvremont ; and made English by Ferrand Spence ; to which is prefixt a general dissertation introductory to the several tracts, and dedicated to T.M., Esq.; Selections. English. 1686	Saint-Evremond, 1613-1703.; Spence, Ferrand.	1686 (1686)	Wing S304; ESTC R12218	66,243	296

Passion being toucht b●t by halves excites only imperfect motions in our Souls which do neither leave them in their proper seat nor yet raise 'em up ●●ove themselves § Of COMEDY AS to Comedy which ought to represent Life in ordinary and common Conversation the French have altogether wheel'd it upon Galantry in imitation of the Spaniards not considering that the Antients made it their whole bu●ness to represent Humane Life according to the diversity of Humors and that the Spaniards to follow their own proper bent and Genius have only describ'd and painted out the Life that is lead at Madrid in their Intrigues and Adventures I confess this sort of work among the Antients might have had a much more Noble Air and more Gallant But this was rather the fault of those Ages than the fault of those Authors Now-adays the greater part of our Poets are as little acquainted with the manners as they in those times knew what Galantry was You wou'd swear there are no more Covetous Rogues now living no more spend-thrifts no more good natur'd Men of an humor fit for Society no more People naturally peevish gloomy and austere as if Madam Nature was chang'd and Men had worn out these several Impressions Now under the very same Character they are all represented whereof I know no reason unless it be this that the Women in our daies have found it very seasonable that there ought to be no Creatures but Galants in the World I must acknowledge that the Madrid-Wits are much more fruitful in Invention than the French Sparks For which reason the Latter have fetch 't thence the greatest part of their Subjects which they have crowded with amorous or tender Discourses and wherein they have put more Regularity and likely-hood The cause is for that in Spain where the women are seldom or never seen the Poet's imagination is spent in ingenious waies to bring the Lovers together into the same place whereas in France where a free liberty of Commerce is settled the Author 's greatest delicacy is employ'd in the tender and lovely expressions of Thoughts 'T is not long since let me see a Lady of Quality in Spain read the Romance of Cleopatra And happening after a long narration of Adventures to fall upon a very curious and nice conversation betwixt a Lover and his Mistress that had an equal passion one for the other God bless me saies she What a World of wit is here ill impl●y'd What signify all these fine discourses when they are got both together The pleasantest R●flexion was this that ever I heard in all my Life And Calprenet tho a French-man ought to have remember'd that to Lovers born under a Sun much hotter then that of Spain Words were very useless on such occasions But this Ladies good sense would never be receiv'd in the Ordinary Galantries among the French where a man may speak a thousand times of a passion before he can be once believ'd and be whole years making complaints before he can meet with the happy minute of putting a period to his torment Moliere's Coy Lady is made a ridiculous Character in the thing it self as well as in the Terms to be loath to take the Roman by the tail when he is about treating the serious affair of Marriage with her Parents But it had not been a false delicacy with a Galant to expect his Declaration and what-ever comes by degrees in a procedure of Galantry As for Regularity and Verisimilitude 't is no wonder we meet with 'em less among the Spaniards than among the French As all the Spanish Galantry came from the Moors there still remains in 't some relish of Africa unknown to other nations and too extraordinary to be accommodated to the exactness of Rules To this add that an old impression of Knight-erran●ry which has the ascendant over all Spain does bias the minds of the Cavaliers to mighty silly adventures The Young Ladies on their parts in their very child-hood draw in this Air from the books of Chivalry the fabulous prittle-prattle of the old women about them So that with the same Ideas do both the Sexes fill their minds And generally the Men and Women look upon the scruple of an amorous extravagance as a pitiful coldness unworthy of their passion Though Love in no Countrey what-ever takes very good and ac●urate measures yet still this I will say that it hath nothing very extravagant in France either in the manner of it's making or in the ordinary events which it produces That which is call'd a true passion has much adoe to preserve it self from being Laught at For the People of Quality being engaged in several cares and employs never devote their thoughts to it as the Spaniards do amidst the inglorious ease of Madrid where no motion is but what proceeds from Love At Paris the continual hurry of the Court ties men up to the Function of a charge or else the design of an employment keeps them awake fortune prevailing over the Mistress in a place where the Custom is for a man to prefer what is his interest before what he Loves And the Ladies who are to regulate ' emselves accordingly have more Galantry than passion and besides do make use of their Galantry to dive into Intrigues Very few are there but are sway'd by vanity and interest and so the concerns jogg on the better o' both sides they interchangeably make use o' one of the other they of their Galants and their Galants of them to get their own ends Love never fails of intruding into the Company of this Interest but he seldom becomes it's Head or Master For the conduct which Men are oblig'd to keep in their Affairs does adapt and fashion 'em to some regularity in their Pleasures or at least distances them from any Extravagant Actions In Spain to Live is to Love What they call Love in France is only ●o talk of Love in propriety of speaking and to mix vain Galantries with the sentiments of Ambition These differences being considered no Man can think it strange that the Spanish Comedy which is nothing else but the representation of their Adventures shou'd have as little regularity as the Adventures themselves nor any more can he admire that the Comedy among the French which does not stray from their Usages shou'd keep up those Respects in the representation of their Amours as they commonly keep in the Amours themselves I confess good sense which ought to be a Native of all Countreys in the World does establish certain things which in no part can be withal dispensed Yet it 's an hard matter o' my word not to allow much to Custom since Aristotle himself in his Art of Poetry sometimes places Perfection in what was believ'd and thought better at Athens and not in what was really the most perfect Comedy hath no more Priviledge then the Laws which ought all to be founded upon Justice yet nevertheless have particular discriminations

towards Pain it hath been to avoid a much greater and contrariety if they have not glanc'd upon some pleasures it was by such an Abstinence to acquire Others more satisfactory and solid For what other cause wou'd you have us ascribe to their Illustrious Actions Do you think they would have so boldly left this Life That they wou'd have turn'd their backs upon the possession of Gold That they would painfully hunt after very dangerous Enmities And not consider at the same time if what they did was useful or agreeable to them with this Censure let us not bespatter them The Effects of their Wisdom let us not impute to the unruliness of their Mind but believe that they consulted generally themselves and their own Intellectuals upon their Actions And let us not state them in a worse condition than the most salvage of Animals which are never transported nor troubled in such a manner but that it is easie to discover what is the Aim of the Impetrosity of their Movements Cato forsook that Life which was become his Burthen he found it less grievous to quit the World than to obey Caesar whom he believes to be no good man and he thought it more pleasant not to live at all than to live in an ignominious slavery Regulus return'd to Carthage If he had not done so he had been accus'd of Perfidiousness Fabricius cou'd not be corrupted by Pyrrhus in which he exerted his Integrity He serv'd his Country and in the single pleasure of refusing Riches he satisfied himself more than if he had accepted all the Treasures of the Vniverse In short Tully gave hard words to Antonius and declar'd himself his capital Enemy If without any reason he did so he is much to blame But if at his own peril he had a design to establish the Common-wealth and if he undertook Marc Anthony's Ruine to prevent that of Rome as hereby he took care of the common safety of his Citizens wherein his own was contain'd so he moreover deserv'd the praise of all Mankind and the love of the whole People of Rome Those Great Men indeed were not of the Family of Epicurus and One of 'em hath even endeavour'd by his Writings to destroy his Opinions But it 's sufficient that the Authority of their Examples is found in the Doctrine of that Philosopher and that the World know That it was not Virtue alone which was their Motive or at least what they call'd Virtue ought to be styled Pleasure However out of this School there have issued Spirits compleatly Heroique who in a corrupted Age have perform'd as vigorous Actions as those Antient Romans in the flower of their Republique under Neroe's Reign the World admir'd the death of Petronius as much as that of Seneca The Emperour's Tutour acquired no Glory by dying but what was afterwards bestow'd upon the Arbiter of his Pleasures and the common Sentiment was that the Stoician who had always held forth and preach'd up a contempt of Life did not leave it more generously than Petronius who had courted all it's Pleasures In this place I am bound for the honour and sake of Epicurus to retrace something of the Life and Death of this great Disciple As indeed it wou'd be impossible for me to pass by this point without some discourse to you concerning it and as you with a very willing Ear listen to the performances of Illustrious Men you will not be loath to rank Petronius in their number and take a transitory view of the marks of his Wisdom and Generosity This famous Epicurean far from resembling those Sots and Debauchees who commonly gormandize all their Estate away made Profession of a Polite Luxury making Pleasures his only study And as Toil and Industry confer Reputation on the ●est of Mankind he alone obtain'd it by a gentile kind of Idleness Very free and very much neglected were his Words and Actions And for as much as they demonstrated the goodness and the candour of his Soul appearing under the garb and covert of simplicity with so much the more pleasure and satisfaction they were receiv'd Notwithstanding which this excellent Man knowing well that there are times wherein the Wise Man is oblig'd to lay aside the repose and tranquillity of Life to serve the State in Publique Affairs did wholly throw away that happy way of Living when he was Elected Proconsul of Bithynia and afterwards was chosen Consul And acquitting himself worthily of those glorious Employments he shew'd by his Application and Conduct that no affair how bulky soever was too unweildy for his management At the Expiration of these Charges he fell again to his wonted way of Living and then being became one of Nero's most intima●e Friends when though this Prince had very bad Inclinations yet he was so much enchanted with Petronius his merit that he made him the Arbiter of all his Pleasures and fanci'd that amidst the affluence of these Delights none were to be accounted sweet and pleasant but such as were approved by Petronius I would be understood here to speak of honest Pleasures since he was so far from participating in the filthy Debauches of Nero as that that Emperour was us'd to wonder how they cou'd come to the knowledge of Petronius who reproach'd him with them by his Codicils so that he caus'd Silia to be punish'd as suspecting she had reveal'd them From that time Tegaltinus eyed Petronius as his Competitor and fearing that by the means of honest Pleasure he might do what Seneca was unable to effect with the austerity of his Sect i. e. that he might reduce Nero from the disorders of his Life and restore a true Emperour to Rome he resolv'd to under-mine him saying there was no establishing his own Fortune but by the ruin of Petronius Wherefore he straightwaies attacks the cruelty of that Prince to which all his other Pleasures yeilded and gave way he accuseth Petronius of having been of the number of Scevinus his Friends who had shared in Pisoe's conspiracy He corrupt● a Slave of his to depose against him He deprives him of all waies to make his Defence and causes the greater part of his Domestiques to be laid in Shackl●s under such Circumstances a Man less generous wou'd either have flatter'd himself with the hopes of Pardon or prolong'd his Life to the utmost Extremity But he for his part was of a quite contrary Opinion he thought it both a vile and a weak thing to support any longer the fatigues of Fear or Hope and resolving to die he contrives to do it with the same Tranquillity in which he had liv'd Thus unwilling to part with his Life in a precipitate way he has his Veins opened and then bound up again and still now and then taking off the Bands according as his fancy mov'd him he discours'd his Friends upon agreeable matters not affecting to entertain them with serious Debates and search'd sentences by which he might pretend to the glory of Constancy The last

aliàs dato Intérque maerentes Amicos Egregius properaret Exul c. Page 101. One of 'em hath endeavour'd by his Writings to destroy his Opinions i. e. Cicero who in most of his Philosophick or Moral Writings doth oppose the Opinions of Epicurus especially this of Volupty being the Summum Bonum And he deals not only with his Ethicks but his Physicks and Theology too by introducing several of the Greatest Wits and Gentlemen of Rome in company and conversation some of whom being leven'd with these Principles he makes to dispute with huge vivacity and acumen with him and his Friends Page 107. Petronius did not employ the last hours of his Life in set Speeches concerning the Souls Immortality As Seneca did who made better use of his time and did not dye with the Crowderos about him This may be easily interpreted in a very bad sense principally when my Author elsewhere page 60. of the second Volume of his Works Printed at Paris speaks so slightingly of the Eternal duration of the Soul And therefore I think my self oblig'd not to pass it over without some Asterisk fixt upon it For my part I would go no farther than this place to find an argument for the Soul's Immortality For I think it an undeniable proof that if the Soul be Immaterial it is certainly Immortal unless God will withdraw his ordinary Providence and annihilate it Now that its essence is immaterial and not corporeal may be gather'd hence that if it were co-substantial with the body it could never act as it does in a dying man When one Vein was Lanc'd then would so much Soul fly out with the Animal Spirits and the mind would contract an equal Imbecillity with the Body Judgment Invention Memory would all fail Gradually And the very Harmony which Petronius thought to find in his Musique would prove Discord to him Not to engage here in any disputes I will only mention a Story that a Roman Catholique my Friend and a Person of excellent sense told me t'other Night When he was last in France he pay'd a Visit to an Hermite And after much discourse finding him to be of a free temper and as we say a Good-humour'd Man he became so confident as to ask him why he being so accomplish'd a Man and so fit for the Pleasures as well as Affairs of humane Life should go and macerate himself at this rate for a thing that is doubtful and Cross and Pile Why says he If I am in the right at last I am most happy if wrong I am where you are still Ibid. He chose to imitate the sweet Fate of Swans Pausanias notes that Cygnus King of Liguria a Prince much addicted to Musique was transform'd into a Swan by Apollo which Bird ever since was Musical entertaining its own death with Songs and Rejoicings Ovid in his Epistles Sic ubi Fata vocant udis abjectus in undis Ad vada Maeandri concinit albus Olor The dying Swan adorn'd with Silver Wings So in the Sedges of Maeander sings 'T is true the Authors of natural History give little credit to this Relation of their Harmonical Notes before death as Aristotle Pliny Dr. Brown c. and Alexander Myndius says That he has attended the death of several of them yet could never for his Life hear one Musical Note However since it was the vulgar notion it serv'd the Poets to beautifie their Poesy withal and when my Author was speaking of a Poetique death it was pitty but the Mantuan Swan should come into his Head The Roguy Martial himself us'd it as one of his Flowers in his Epigrams Dulcia defectâ modulatur carmina Linguâ Cantator Cygnus Funeris ipse sui The Swan her sweetest Notes sings as she dies Chief Mourner at her own sad Obsequies Page 110. Impertinent Terrours and Scholastic Scare-Crows This is such a description of happiness as we meet with in the Poet Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas Atque metus omnes inexorabile Fatum Subjecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis Avan ' Virg. Georg. 2. The Lord Verulam somewhere observes very well that perhaps a little Philosophy may make men Atheists but a greater search into the Clue of Causes doth certainly extricate them from that pestilent Principle it being as Pindar calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wicked Craft and seems to entitle Atheists to the Denomination of Wits when indeed it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very height of Folly or rather of Ignorance as Clemens Alexandrinus says And we have an Instance of it in Hobbs himself even where in effect he expresses himself One who in the very same Book in which he pretends that it is highly necessary to the Empire of our High and Mighty Sovereign Lord and Master Leviathan that the unthinking Mobile be abus'd with the Belief and scared with the Terrour of Invisible Powers yet lest the World should be tempted to think him so weak as to be betray'd into the same Opinion he declares openly totidem verbis That neither himself nor any wise-man ought to regard the Tales of Religion and that they are only design'd to chouse poor Ignorant and Foolish Creatures Just as if this great Politician shou'd go about to fright Birds from his Corn which is one of his own similitudes and colours of Speech with an empty Doublet an Hat and a crooked Stick but yet lest the Jack-Daws should take him for one of their own silly Flock he shall take most especial care to inform them that himself knows it only to be a man of Clouts These are mens manners admirably well describ'd and express'd 'T is the nature of Flesh and Bloud sometimes to run counter to that Old Ethical Axiom Omnia appetunt bonum but then it appears under the notion and semblance of Good As you see this antique Saw a line above translated Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor Saluft the Historians Excellence lay in characterizing men and his chief stroaks in those Characters lye in the representations of the same Persons frequent Differing from themselves in their Passions and Habitudes of Vertue and Vice Page 146. This Sun which is going to Set for ever He alludes to that of Catullus Soles occidere redire possunt Nobis cum brevis occidit semel Lux Nox est perpetua una dormienda Page 151. They never lift up their Eyes towards Heaven but their Consciences fly in their Faces Conscience is a Principle inh●rent in the Soul and deriv'd from God and Nature and not to be eradicated by the Art of Man Great Philosophers have Christen'd it by the most venerable Names as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a Domestique God a Divine Bishop or Overseer a Sacred Deity a Power that hath fram'd to himself a natural Temple in the Conscience Tho Atheists pretend to slight it yet Cotta who disputed zealously against it confess'd that as to Matters of Vertue and Vice sine ullâ divinâ ratione grave ipsius Conscientiae pondus est Tull. de Nat. Deorum lib. 3. But it begins to grow dark and I think here are notes enow o' Conscience already for a Book of this small magnitude I will therefore trouble neither my Reader nor my self any further with such stuff as any Fellow who has but one Eye to look into an Index and another into a Book can with as great ease as haughtiness present him withal upon some hours retirement into his Study This in plain truth is my case For I am not indebted to my Stars so much as Seneca the Declamator was who could repeat two Thousand Names in the same Order that they were rehearsed and could remember all the lovely things in the Juvenile Harangues of Rome Forty years before Beyond all contradiction this is the best way I love when Men do a thing that they should do it throughly FINIS Inter Epistolas Mandi Procerum P. 1. P. 9. P. 9. P. 39. P. 44. P. 35 P. 35. Postscript to Albi●● and Alba●ius Preface Ibid. P. 42. P. 45. P. 42. p. 44. P●ef to Alb. a●d Alba● P. 5● † In the French Inutilité which I render in Virgil's Language Ignobile Otium Georg. lib. 4. † Sur opinion d'autruy * Comme elle ét●it sobre et Si●ne * And the En●lisher possibly wi●h more reason t● the Learned Gassendus his Notes upon it together with a la●ge account of Epicurus his Life writ by the same Famous French Philosopher

of their Sect and that rigorous virtue which makes a mock of pain they 'le find their body does not colten with their opinion and that tho their discourses be magnificent sublime yet they are neither according to truth or humane nature I will not prop this Proposition with the example of the Mobile of those Philosophers I will not make use of a Name they may scruple to receive nor pitch on a Man whose virtues may seem suspected by them Hercules alone shall bear testimony of what I urge that Hercules who is plac'd among the Gods whom so many labours have rendred Famous and the Poets made choice of for a perfect model of the force of their Wisdom What if we take a view a while of that Hero dying and consider the last Actions of his Life That Invincible Mans Congee will be doubtless like his entrance Illustrious in performing something Heroick Certainly he will say nothing as may dishonour his Noble Actions or seem unworthy of his former virtue The strength of his pain gets the mastery over his courage His Constancy yields to the ardour of the Venom which devours him he does not only complain he we●ps he cries he howls At circum gem●nt petrae Locrorum alta Eubaeae Promont●ria And 't is with the last effects of rage and despair that he departs out of this Life to take his place among the Gods Therefore let the Stoicks rank themselves in our party let 'em tattle no longer of their insensibility nor foist on us that the Wise man may be happy amid Tortures and let 'em not despise pain to which Hercules himself was constrain'd to submit so many victories But if it be answer'd that the Poets were to blame for representing Hercules in this manner and that in favour of that Hero they are willing to rescue him from the Authority of Books and the consent of Theatres Possidonius formerly one of Cicero's Masters and the greatest of all the Stoicks for so he is stil'd by that disciple will serve us for an illustrious example we shall see a Pillar of the Porch stagger'd by a Disease The Gout being the Malady of that Philosopher was likewise the wrack of his constancy he endur'd its violence as patiently as an ordinary Man would have done and tho he upbraided pain that all it's twinges pinches could not constrain him to own that it was an evil yet for all this it afflicted him and made him complain It seems too that Cicero was choqu'd or at least astonisht at this wisemans weakness I have seen says he Possidonius the greatest of the Stoicks have as little power to undergo the pains of the Gout as my Host Nicomachus whom Tully accounted a common sort of Fellow And assuredly I am so far from believing that true felicity can concur with pain that I should esteem it the action of a Wise Man to part with his Life if he could not separate it from pain And because the Memory of Mecoenas is in great veneration with me and in my Opinion he ought never to be mention'd but with Honour I wi●h if it were possible that those Verses which remain to us of him had been stiss●d and he had not informed us that he was more wedded to Life than became I do not say a Philosopher but only a Man of Courage You cou'd not have offer'd him any condition so he might but live but what he wou'd have accepted were he deform'd that 's no matter were he maimed he 'd find some consolation in living let him endure all the Torments of the most violent Distempers he 'd still be happy if they were not mortal and tho you shou'd have sentenc'd him to the most cruel of Deaths he wou'd not consent to quit Life provided he cou'd keep it amidst the Tortures of Executions Debilem faci●o mann Debil●m pede coxa Tuber adstrue Gibberum Lubricos quate dentes Vita dum superest bene est Hanc mihi vel acuta Si sedam Cruce sustine Without doubt Effeminacy dictated these Verses to him while he tasted all the Pleasures of Life He never had had any experience of pain and had he fall'n into the ill condition he proposes Death wou'd have been as welcome to him as a Reprieve to a Criminal upon the Rack It 's easy by this to understand that M●caenas was voluptuous but no Epicurean since those Philosophers have too gen●rous a Soul to shrink to such feeble sentiments they dread Death much less than pains and sometimes renounce Pleasure for very pain And the reason is that Epicurus well judging that most Men being allured and corrupted by the fruition of pleasures and suffering themselves without Rule and blindly to be hurry'd away by the current of their Appetites wou'd not be in a capacity to foresee the pains and afflictions which wou'd fall upon 'em in conseq●ence of those disorders And besides fearing that the love of case and Effeminacy of s●irit joyn'd to the fear of pain and labour might oblige them to be wanting in their Duties and to render themselves useless in L●fe he was of opinion that in the time wherein a Wise man shou'd have full liberty of Election and wherein nothing shou'd hinder him from procuring his own satisfaction he might abandon himself to pleasure and give a temporary Fare-well to Pain But That then are certain seasons in which they must be Friends again and during which the Obligation of Duties and the Necessity of Things ought to constrain him not to refuse Dolour and to reject Voluptuousness 'T was this generous Maxim that made Cato of Vtica his own Executioner For tho' he might have born himself up on the Mines of his Party and Caesar wou'd have been mighty glad to grant him his Life yet the shame of surviving the Loss of the Publique Liberty and the Infamy of Servitude would not let that large Heart even deliberate whether he should choose the Pain of dying gloriously to avoid the Pleasure of living after a manner that seem'd to him unworthy of a Roman This Maxim it was that made Regulus to reput himself into the hands of his Enemies where the Cruelties of his Tormentors were less s●nsible to him than his Remorse would have been for having broken his word 'T was this Maxim which making Fabricius to despise the Treasures of the King of Epeirus made him also despise the evil desires which fol●ow the possession of Riches and preserve to himself the Repose of Mind the sovereign and chiefest of Pleasures Lastly it was this Maxim that set Cicero o' declaiming against Anthony to devote himself for the safety of the Common-wealth at a time when he might have stayed at home very fairly in Peace and quietly enjoy'd an easie Life and the Delights of his own Studies To this Maxim there are no laudible Actions but what may be referr'd And what Heroick Pea●s soever those great men have atchiev'd you will find that if they have run