Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A42675
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The Ghost of the Emperor Charles the Fifth appearing to Volcart the porter, or, A dialogue of the times
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1690
(1690)
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Wing G638; ESTC R30404
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32,343
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42
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to a place in Paradise If this be so it must be acknowledged that here are a great many People deceived for I cannot believe there have been dispatcht from time to time on any other design so many Princes and Princesses who died some suddenly others with a little more knowledge of the cause In effect all this has hapned to 'em from the part of their good Friends whose only design is to make them more happy in the other World than they could ever arrive to in this The deceased Madam the Dutchess of Orleans began the Dance but she had not time given her to recollect her self for loving the World as she did it was fear'd that through weakness she might obstruct her own happiness it has been probably the same in respect of the deceased Charles King of England who was known to be too great a lover of his Pleasures to so easily quit them if he could help it But there was not such quick work made with the last Elector Palatine It being Catholicks that undertook this business and the desire of making Converts reigning very much with them they have therefore given him time to think on his Conscience so that it is not their fault if they could not vanquish his hard Heart They comfort themselves the more easily that he could not carry his States whence they had a design to drive out the Hereticks and as they could not attain hereunto but by his Death so we must not think it strange if they advanced it and glory in it as a meritorious action In effect whatever is done in regard to Religion cannot be ill which is the Morals of the good Fathers the Jesuits God preserve us from 'em and keep 'em from coming near us for had I either House or Land joyning to theirs they would quickly strip me of them for the use of the Altar Ghost It must be granted thou runnest over a great many matters in a short time Volcart I acknowledg it but I deal with you otherwise than I would with another whom I was sure to see another time how know I how soon you 'll vanish I therefore deal out my Merchandise to you by whole-sale lest you should escape me And therefore I must tell you again tho' you blame me afresh for it that it is not a Year since that by a storke of Charity like to those I now mentioned the second Son of the deceased Duke of Brandenburg was sent to Paradise It was fear'd lest he should become one day Elector and inebriate himself with the vanities of the World which were seen to prevail on him It 's said his eldest Brother was to have taken the same Voyage who is now on the Throne and in fine he must thither sooner or latter but by small Journeys However this will not hinder him from leaving behind him a Prince of his Blood to Inherit his Countries seeing the Princess his Wife has lately given him a Son to the great content of all honest People Ghost Thou surprisest me and as far as I can see it 's not only in France where there are Voisins Volcart This is not a fit name for these Monsters there was another Woman of a greater Reputation than she which was the Marquess of Brinvilliers Daughter of the Lieutenant Civil of Paris She poyson'd her own Father her two Brothers her Sister and her Husband and for so many famous Facts her name remains consecrated to express whatever is most rare in this Diabolical Science A small quantity of Madam Brinvilliers Medicinal Preparations will make way for any Succession so that it 's wondered how the Duke of Brandenburg has escaped God preserve this present Pope for should he prove otherwise than favourable to the Court of France he is in danger of Apoplectick Fits Yet as Pious People resign themselves not only to the Will of God but make advantage of all conditions this old Gentleman can cough when he pleases especially when he is importuned by Demands to which he is not minded to answer It was told me some days since That the Cardinal d' Estrée who lies at Rome soliciting the Affairs of France has given this Cough a thousand times to the Devil and would have given the Cougher too had he believed he would have gone to him Ghost Well to thy subject again this is sufficiently known Volcart What is my subject for I confess at present I comprehend so much that I know not whereabouts I am However let 's march on softly and perhaps I shall recollect my self Well pray tell me Master Charles the Fifth then you think the King of France does not much matter the Thunders of the Vatican Ghost I do believe so Volcart Yet he acts so greatly the Bigot at present that it is marvellous what they say of him Ghost No matter Volcart We are then very happy that the matter does not wholly depend on him it is thanks be to God in the Hands of People brought up in other Maxims than you Earthly Monarchs you are commonly rockt with a Machiavel in one Hand so that you suck in with your Milk this Wretches Policy You have not for the most part of you either God or Faith or Law altho' you have nothing else in your Mouthes We have to do with Charions People brought up in the fear of God and of Rome Persons of an upright Heart a lively Faith an irreproachable Conversation in a word on whom we may rely when the question is to decide between Rome and France Ghost Perhaps so Volcart What do you mean by this perhaps so as well as this snearing giggle which accompanies it Ghost Prethee be not out of humour at my smiling I mean thee nor no body else any harm only let me tell thee thou expectest Miracle to be wrought out of season Volcart Why the Devil are you so given to detraction how can you have so ill an opinion of so venerable a body as that of the Chanons Ay Venerable is not that the name given ' em And the Bishops themselves do they call them otherwise they that know 'em better than any Ghost Whatever pompous Title is given does not hinder a Man from being otherwise at bottom Those that commit the greatest Injustices yet are baptized by the name of Just Another that shall violate whatever is most Divine and Sacred shall be called Pious Another that Volcart Ah say no more I know you have reason I remember that in the Pleading of Monsieur Talon whom I not long since mention'd he said in speaking of the King his Master a King so Pious Yet wherein confists this Piety is it in that he has taken away another Man's Wife and openly kept her in the Face of all the World or is it that he keeps her at Court to serve as a scandal to all those who behold her Is it in his other Adulteries which he has committed as well before as since his pretended Conversion Who is it
famous in the History of the past Age I can shew you none but Persons enervated with softness and debauches Persons that have nothing of Princes in them but the Name and who between you and I cannot remember themselves without a self-condemnation Such a Portrait as this is must needs be unpleasant and we had better draw the Curtain before it I must do the same in respect of the other Grandees of the Kingdom And what will you think when instead of the Montmorancys Chatillons and so many other great Personages in your time I can shew you only Men that are meer Slaves not only of the Monarchy but of the Ministry It being a Custom establisht among them to make Alliances now in Rich Families which is the cause that that greatness of mind by which their Ancestors were heretofore so recommendable is not to be found amongst them they see every thing they suffer every thing without saying a word and are so far from opposing it as that they be the first who approve it through a base complacency It is no longer the time wherein they may speak their minds to the King they only busie themselves now with Trifles and among so many Dukes of which the Court of France consists scarcely is there to be found one on whom one may reckon if it concern'd only the King of his Salvation to the prejudice of a Minister I can find on the other hand enough who will procure him Mistresses if he has occasion for them and even without seeking them in another Family would take them out of their own Bed I don't say this by rote I know what I say as well as another This Prince being become in love with a Princess not far hence and intending to testifie his Love in a manner a little familiar as this did not please her so she repell'd him a little scurvily without remembring he was not wont to be treated with such Caresses In leaving her he told it her Father desiring him not to send her to Court but he instead of being like her was one of those Princes I lately described told him she was a foolish Girl and that she had lost her Fortune and not content with this Answer he went again to His Majesty excusing what had past telling him in formal Terms that if he pleas'd to command it he would himself bring her into his Arms. And these are the Dukes and Princes to be met with in this Court one of them knows perfectly well to Cog a Dye and has his Trade from Father to Son another carries on a debauch to excess and having told his Wife several times there is no true Pleasure but in Disorder he has so well insinuated this Lesson into her that she puts it every day in practice every one is welcome to her whether he comes to see her or one of her Friends she takes a particular satisfaction in doing her Neighbour a Pleasure affirming this ought to be the humour of all Civil People Another lives without Faith without Law and without Religion and though he draws near Sixty he is as young as impious as if he had never time to know himself Another runs from one Wench to another from Morning till Night another to the Churches believing it good to appear Devout to get Credit I could make you a Picture of all the rest but it being sufficient to judge of the whole Piece by a Pattern it would be to tire you to relate to you still the same thing one is form'd from the Mould of another and excepting two one of which has high Thoughts and worthy of a better Fortune than he has and the other which is a very worthy Person although the Son of a Father who was a Fool to his Grave I shall not pass for a Calumniator when I shall say that the rest is mixt Ware Not but that there are some among them who act the Parts of honest Men but I am afraid that he who shall look well into the matter will find more Hypocrisie in their Actions than real Piety Not that I am for those affected Devotions which are perform'd to dazle the Eyes of the People for I love rather to say a Pater heartily in my Closet than a thousand in the sight of others When one is so devout commonly he is not so busied in carrying on Intrigues Yet those I speak of are in them over head and ears and are mad if any of them chance to be discovered In speaking of this methinks I see one of our late Governours whom I supris'd one day having a great String of Beads wound as it were about his Wrist and yet with the same Hand carest very nearly an exceeding handsom Lady It 's true these Beads of his were as familiar to him as the Monks Breviary is to him Ghost Perhaps these Beads had a certain Vertue which thou knowst not of there is a certain Indian Wood which 't is said does wonders and perhaps his Beads were made of it and he was minded to try the Experiment Volcart All this is useless and without vigor love cannot last long whatever Chaplet a Man has were it of this Wood you speak of it would have no effect on me if I was a Woman unless I was perswaded it had this Vertue to make a Man vigorous all Ladys having great esteem for that and I remember that a certain Monsieur being arriv'd in these Parts some Months ago all the fine Dames of Brussels were for being of his Friends not that he was an handsomer Man than another but because there were reported marvellous things of him The deceased Prince of Conde who had heard of him as well others desirous to know whether this was true askt his Father one day the Question who is still alive or I am much mistaken but this good Man who was no Courtier answer'd him seriously he could not tell seeing his Son had never made him his Confident in that matter but this I know saith he that if it be so he has it from his Mother not from me Ghost Thou relatest matters very pleasantly but dost not mind how much thou forgettest thy self in thy large Discourse of the Court of France having quite lost the Subject we were upon neither do I know how thou canst return to it Volcart This will be no such hard matter and to speak freely as old as I am I do not so greatly doat as you think for Does a Man talk idly when he recites the Condition of an Enemies Country and how can you deal with it unless you know its strength and weakness I must tell you farther though you still persist in your Opinion that France has moreover other Malecontents than those I now mentioned and though I have told you that the King of France has compast his end in laying low the Hugonots yet this is an Hydras Head which still produces something that is new they are only extirpated in appearance and