that they need The art of others some so lightly float Their course is swifter then the swiftest boat And some such floods of water from them fling As oftentimes do ships in danger bring Where thou shalt see adventrous fleets prepar'd To find out lands whereof few ever heard There being nothing now left unattempted By humane boldnesse nor art thou exempted But shalt thy selfe herein have much to doe As a spectator and an actor too Thou Arts shalt learne and teach some liberall Mechanique some some Philosophicall To perfect life but having all this found Know that this city likewise will abound With pestilent diseases that will foule And quite destroy the body and the soule Warres rapines poysonings hasting so our ends Ship-wracks ill ayre and losse of dearest friends Death and the same as much uncertaine when As whether easie or with torments then Bethinke thy selfe if thou on life wilt venture For here thou must goe out that there dost enter Thou 'lt choose to live why not can I suppose Thou seekest that whereof th' art loath to lose Any one part live therefore as is fit And beare thy losse as one prepar'd for it But here perhaps t' will be objected thus That none before hand hath consulted us Our parents who the worlds condition knew Consulted were and thence our covenant grew Cap. 19 But to returne to consolations now First let us see what 's to be done then how We commonly with sorrow much are mov'd Upon the losse of those we dearely lov'd And yet we find that we can easily beare The absence of our friends which commeth neere To death it selfe because we are thereby Deprived of their help and company Opinion then our sorrow doth beget And we our selves a rate upon it set This remedy we have let 's but conceive That they as absent only tooke their leave And since we all must follow t is no more But to suppose that they are gone before Yet this perchance our griefe doth much augment That children are for our protection sent But shall I tell what strange to thee may seeme That childlesse folkes are now in most esteeme And fruitfullnesse that usually hath fav'd Old age from ruine is so much deprav'd That many their owne children strive to hate And seeke the meanes to become desolate But as for thee thy dammage not so much As thy affection makes thy sorrow such For he unworthy comfort is to have That parteth with a child as with a slave Or that doth thinke of any thing beside The very person of his Sonne that dy'd Why doth thy passion then remaine so strong Because hee 's dead or that he liv'd not long If that the reason be because hee 's dead Then sure thou shouldst have ever sorrowed For thou didst ever know he was to dye Three or foure lines omitted repugnant to the rest impugning the immortality of the soule And therefore thinke what he hath gain'd thereby Since his enthralled bondage now doth cease And he abideth in eternall peace Where no vaine feare of poverty affrights him Nor vainer hope of getting wealth delights him And where no provocations of lust Do him into unlawfull pleasures thrust Who neither envies any others good Or any way by envy is with-stood Whose eares heare no revilings and whose eyes Behold no manner of calamities Who doth no more depend upon events That hourely alter from their first intents But hath obtain'd a place of that defence That fraud nor force can ever drive him thence Cap. 20 HOw little do men know their miseries That do not death as natures best gift prise Whether that she felicity include Or the calamity that them pursu'd Doth drive away or whether she do end The irksome troubles that old age attend Or that the same the flowre of youth doth crop In the chiefe prime of his expected hope Or whether tender childhood she recall Ere that into a worse condition fall Shee is the end of all the help of many The wish of some not meriting from any More then from these to whom without request She with the soonest hath her selfe addrest Shee free 's the slave in spight of his sterne lord Shakes off his chaines and of her owne accord Releaseth prisoners that committed stand By cruell tyrants under strickt command Shee teacheth them that are in banishment Whose thoughts and eies are on their country bent Not to be troubled how when they are dead Or in what place they shall be buried She when blind fortune hath divided ill Her gifts 'tweene those that had by natures will An equall right doth them againe restore To that equality they had before Shee it is that could never yet obey That takes all sence of poverty away She it is Marcia whom thy father sought That makes it not a punishment be thought To have beene borne but helps us in despight Of fortunes threats to keepe our minds upright Death is our refuge though we tortur'd bee In severall kinds she us at length shall free Some their heads downe ward are to gibbets ty'd And some with stretcht out armes are crucify'd Where every member sundry engines rent And some have stak's thrust through their fundament Yet death's their cure here enemies invade There friends insult yet death at length brings aid It is not hard to serve when at one step We weary growne may into freedome leape Against the injury of life we have A sure and common benefit a grave Thinke but what good a timely death hath brought And how much ill a longer life hath wrought Had Pompey this great Empire's strength and pride At Naples of his burning-feaver dy'd He then the Prince of Rome had sure beene stil'd Whereas his glorious hopes were all beguil'd By the addition of a little time And he throwne swifter downe then he could climbe He saw his legions lie before him dead Whose vanguard by grave Senators was led That did escape to testifie to all The too long life of him their Generall His sacred body he did then submit To base Aegyptians that betrayed it Though had he liv'd it would have beene a griefe To thinke how he was forc't to seeke reliefe That Pompey through the world surnam'd the great Of any King should life or aid intreat Had Tully dy'd when he escap't the slaughter Design'd by Catiline or with his daughter Had left the world he had great honor wonne And had not seene so many mischiefes done Swords sheath'd in mutuall bowells and their goods By murd'rers shar'd who therfore sought their bloods Nor beene so much unhappy to behold The Consulary spoyles at out-cries fold When as our state no insolence debar'd But unto theeves and traitors gave reward Encouraging all sorts of lewd designes The Senate having many Catilines If Cato when from Cyprus he did bring To Rome the wealth of that deceased King Had with the same intended for the pay Of a dire civill warre beene cast away This honour had accompanied his end That
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
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