set ryse my sonne Marke and sithens nowe thou arte yong it is but iust that thou geue me place whiche am aged If it bee true that it is xxxiii yeares sithens thou askedst place in the theathers as and old man tell mee I praye thee and also I coniure thee with what oyntement hast thou anoynted thy selfe or with what water hast thou wasshed thy selfe to become yonge O Claude if thou hadst founde anye medicyne or dyscouered anye herbe where with thou couldest take whyte heares from mens heades and from women the wrincles of theire face I sweare vnto thee and also I doe assure thee that thou shooldest be more vysyted and serued in Rome then the god Apollo is in his Temple at Ephesus Thou shouldest wel remember Annius priscus the old man whiche was our neighbour and somewhat a kinne to thee the whiche when I tolde him that I coulde not bee filled with his good woordes and to behold his auncient white heares he saied vnto me O my soone Mark it appereth wel that thou hast not byn aged because thou talkest as a yong maÌ„ for if white heares do honour the ê‘son they greatlye hurt the harte For at that houre when they se vs aged the straungers do hate vs ours do not loue vs. And he told me more I let the wete my sonne Marke that many times my wyfe and I talking of the yeares of another perticularly when she beholdeth mee and that I seeme vnto her so aged I saye vnto her and swere that I am yet yoÌ„ge and that the white heares came vnto me by great trauailes and the age by sicknes I do remember also that this Annius Priscus was senatour one yeare and bycause he woulde not seeme aged but desired that men shoulde iudge hym too bee yonge he shaued his bearde and hys heade which was not accustomed amonge the senatours nor Censours of Rome And as one day amongest the other Senatours he entred into the hyghe Capitolle one sayde vnto hym Tell me man from whence comest thou What wylte thou and why comest thou hither howe durste thou being no senatour enter into the Senate he aunswered I am Annius priscus the aged howe chauÌ„ceth it that nowe you haue not knowen me they replyed vnto hym if thou werte Annius Priscus thou woldest not come thus shauen For in this sacred senate can none enter to gouerne the coÌ„mon wealth vnlesse his parsoÌ„ be endued with vertues and his heade with white heares and therfore thou art banished and depriued of thy office For the olde which lyue as the yong ought to be punished Thou knowest wel Claude and Claudine that that which I haue spoken is not the faynyng of Homere neither a fable of Ouide but that you your selues saw it with your eyes and in his banishment I dyd helpe him with money and more ouer he was banished another time for the lightnes he dyd commit in the nighte in the citye and I meruaile not hereof for we see by experyence that old men whiche are fleashed in vices are more obstinate to correct then the yong O what euill fortune haue the olde men which suffered them selues too waxe olde in vyces for more daungerous is the fier in an old house then in a new and a greate cut of a sworde is not so perilous as a rotten fistule Though old men were not honest and vertuous for the seruice of the gods and the common wealth for the saieng of the people nor for the example of the yong yet he ought to be honest yf it weare but for the reuerence of their yeares If the pore old man haue noe teeth how shall he eate If he haue no heate in his stomacke howe can he dysgest If he haue no taste how can he drinke if hee be not strong howe can he be an adulterer If hee haue no feete howe can he goe If hee haue the palsy howe can hee speake if hee haue the goute in his handes howe can hee play Fynally suche lyke wordlye and vicyous men haue employed their forces beinge yonge desirous to proue al these vices and when they are old it greueth them extreamelye that they can not as yet accoÌ„pplishe their desiers Amongest all the faultes in old men in my opinion this is the chefest that since they haue proued al thiÌ„ges that they shoold stil remaine in their obstinat folly There is no parte but they haue trauailed no villany but they haue assayed no fortune but they haue proued no good but they haue persecuted no euyl but hath chaunced vnto theÌ„ nor there is any vice but they haue attempted These vnhappy men which in this sorte haue spent all their youth haue in the end their combes cut with infirmities diseases yet they are not somuch greued with the vices which in them do abound to hinder them froÌ„ vertues as they are tormented for wante of corporall courage to further them in their lusts O if wee were gods or that they would geeue vs licence to know the thoughts of the old as wee see with our eies the deeds of the yong I swear to the God Mars and also to the mother Berecinthe that without comparison we woold punishe more the wicked desiers which the aged haue to be wicked then the light deeds of the yong Tel mee Claude and thou Claudine do you think though you behaue your selues as yong you shall not seme to bee old know you not that our nature is the corruption of our body and that our body hindereth our vnderstandings and that the vnderstandyngs are kept of our soule that oure soule is the mother of desiers that our desiers are the scourge of our youth that our youth is the ensigne of our age age the spye of death that death in the end is the house where life taketh hys herber and from whence youth flyeth a fote and from whence age can not escape a horsback I woold reioyce that you Claude and Claudine woolde tell me what you fynde in lyfe that somuche therwith you should bee contented since now you haue passed foure score yeares of lyfe duryng the which tyme either you haue been wycked in the world or els you haue been good Yf you haue been good you ought to think it long vntil you be with the good gods if you haue been euil it is iust you dye to the end you bee no worse For speaking the truth those which in .3 score 10 yeares haue been wicked in woorks leaue smal hope of their ameÌ„dment of lyfe Adrian my lord being at Nola in Campania one brought vnto him a nephew of his from the study where as the yong child had not profyted a lytel for hee became a great Gretian and latinest and more ouer he was faire gratious wise honest And this Emperor Adrian loued his nephew so much that hee saied vnto him these woords My nephew I know not whither I ought to say vnto thee that thou art good or euil for
merite to suffer many troubles if we haue not pacience therin During the time of this our miserable life we cannot denay but in euery estate there is bothe trouble and daunger For then onely our estate shal be perfit when we shal come gloriously in soule and body without the feare of deathe and also whan we shall reioyce without daungers in life Retourninge agayne to our purpose mightie Prince although we all be of value little we all haue little we all can attaine little we all know little we al are able to doe little we all do liue but little Yet in all this little the state of Princes semeth some great and high thing For that worldely men say there is no such felicitie in this life as to haue authoritie to commaunde many to be bounde to obey none But if either subiectes knewe how dere Princes by their power to commaunde or if Princes knewe howe swete a thinge it is to liue in quiet doutelesse the subiectes would pitie their rulers and the rulers would not enuy theyr subiectes For ful few are the pleasures which Princes enioy in respecte of the troubles that they endure Sithe then the estate of Princes is greater than al that he may doe more than all is more of value than all vpholdeth more than all and finally that from thence procedeth the gouernement of all it is more nedefull that the house the person and the life of a Prince be better gouerned and ordred than all the reste For euen as by the yard the marchante measureth al his ware so by the life of the Prince is measured the whole common weale Many sorowes endureth the woman in nourishing a waywerde childe great trauaile taketh a scholemaister in teaching an vntowarde scholler much paine taketh an officer in gouerning a multitude ouergreate howe greate than is the paine and peril whereunto I offer my selfe in takinge vpon me to order the life of such a one vpon whose life hangeth all the good state of a common weale For Princes and great Lords ought of vs to be serued and not offended we ought to exhort them not to vexe them we ought to entreate them not to rebuke them we ought to aduise them and not to defame them finally I say that right simple recken I that surgiō which with the same plaisters he layed to a hard héele séeketh to cure the tender eyes I meane by this cōparison that my purpose is not to tel princes and noble men in this booke what they be but to warne them what they ought to be not to tell them what they doe but to aduise them what they ought to doe For that noble man which will not amende his lyfe for remorse of his owne conscience I doe thinke that he wil amende it for the writing of my penne Paulus diaconus the historiographer in the second booke of his commentaries sheweth an antiquitie right worthy to remember and also pleasaunt to reade Although in dede to the hinderaunce of my selfe I shall reherse it It is as of the henne who by longe scraping on the donghill discouereth the knife that shall cut hir owne throte Thus was the case Hannibal the moste renowmed Prince and captayne of Carthage after he was vainquished by thaduenturous Scipio fled into Asia to kinge Antiochus a Prince then liuinge of great vertue who receiued him into his realme tooke him into his protectiō and right honourably enterteyned him in his house And certes king Antiochus did herein as a pitefull Prince for what can more beautifie the honor of a Prince than to succor nobilitie in their nedefull estate These two Princes vsed diuers exercises to spende the time honorably thus they diuided tyme. Sometime to hunt in the mountaines otherwhile to disporte them in the fieldes oft to vewe their armies But mostly they wente to the scholes to heare the Philosophers And truly they did like wise skilfull men For there is no hower in a daye otherwise so well employed as in hearinge a wise pleasaunt tonged man There was at a time in Ephesus a famous philosopher called Phormio which openly red and taught the people of that realme And one day as these twoo Princes came into the schoole the philosopher Phormio chaunged the matter whereupon be red and of a sodayne began to talke of the meanes and wayes that Princes ought to vse in warre of thorder to be kepte in geuing battaile Such so straunge and high phrased was the matter which he talked of that not onely they merueiled which neuer before sawe him but euen those also that of longe tyme had dayly hearde him For herein curious and flourisshing wittes shewe their excellency in that they neuer wante fresh mater to entreate vpon Greatly gloried the king Antiochus that this philosopher in presence of this straunge prince had so excellentlye spoken so that straungers might vnderstand he had his realme stored with wise mē For couragious and noble princes esteme nothing so precious as to haue men valiāt to defend their frontiers and also wise to gouerne their commō weales The lecturered king Antiochus demaunded of the prince Hannibal howe he liked the talke of the philosopher Phormio to whome Hannibal stoutely aunswered and in his aunswere shewed him self to be of that stoutnes he was the same day whā he wanne the great battayle at Cannas For although noble harted and couragious princes lose all their estates and realmes yet they will neuer confesse their hartes to be ouerthrowen nor vaynquisshed And these were the words that at that time Hannibal said Thou shalt vnderstande kinge Antiochus that I haue séene diuers dotinge olde men yet I neuer sawe a more dootarde foole than Phormio whom thou causest such a great philosopher For the greatest kinde of foly is whan a man that hath but a little vaine science presumeth to teach not those which haue only science but also such as haue most certeine experience Tel me kinge Antiochus what harte can brooke with pacience or what tonge can suffer with silence to sée a sely man as this philosopher is nourished all his life time in a corner of Grece studieng philosophie to presume as he hath done to talke before the prince Hannibal of the affaires of warre as though he had bene either lorde of Affrike or captayne of Rome Certes he either full little knoweth him self or els but little estemeth vs. For it appeareth by his vaine words he would seme to know more in matters of warre by that he hath red in bookes than doth Hannibal by the sundry and great battayles which he hath fought in the fieldes O king Antiochus how far and how great is the difference betwene the state of philosophers the state of captaynes betwene the skill to reade in schole and the knowledge to rule an armie betwene the science that these wise men haue in bookes and thexperience that thothers haue in warre betwene their skil to write with the penne and ours to fight
an auncient malediction on riches hydde and treasours buried which Epimenides casteth out sayinge these words All the treasours hurded vp by the couetous shal be wasted by the prodigall You say through that I wast in few dayes you shall haue neither to giue to wast nor yet to eate at the yeres ende To this I aunswere most gracious princesse that if you had bene as ready to releue the poore as you Iustinian were dilygent to robbe the riche then you should iustly haue complayned and I worthely might haue repented Tyll now we haue not sene but that of the riche you haue made poore notwithstanding this yet you haue not gotten enoughe to buyld an Hospital for the poore You say the Princes to resist their enemyes haue neede of greate treasours To this I aunswere if Princes be proud gready and of straunge realmes ambicious it is most certaine that they nede great treasours to accomplishe their disordinate appetites For the end of a tyraÌ„nous prince is by hooke or by crooke to make him selfe riche in his lyfe But if the Prince be or wil be a man reposed quyte vertuous paciente peaceable and not couetous of the good of an other man what nede hath he of great treasours For to speake truly in princes houses ther is more offence in that that auaunceth then in that that wanteth I wil not wast many words in aunsweringe sithe I am muche more liberal of dedes then of wordes but I conclude that ther is no Prince which in vertuous dedes wasteth so much but if he wil he may spend much more For in the end princes become not poore spending their goodes vpon necessaries but for wasting it vpon things superfluous And take this word for al that for this he shal not be the porer but rather the richer For it is a general rule in Christian reglion the god wil giue more to his seruaunts in one houre theÌ„ they wil wast in 20. yeres Iustinian was Emperour .11 yeres who being a foole and obstinate in the heresye of Pellagien died to the great offence of the Romaine people whose death was asmuch desired as his life abhorred For the tirannous prince that maketh many wepinge eyes in his life shall cause many reioysing harts at his death Iustinian being dead Tiberius was elected Emperour who gouerned the empire through so great wisedom and iustice that no maÌ„ was able to reproue him if the histories in his time did not deceiue vs. For it seldoÌ„ hapeneth to a prince to be as he was vpright in iustice pure in life clene in conscience For few are those princes which of some vices are not noted Paulus Diaconus in his 18 boke of the Romain gestes declare a thing merueilous which be fell to this emperour at that time and very worthy to know at this present And it is that in the Citie of Constantinople the Romaine Emperours had a palace very sumptuous and besemyng the auctoritie of the imperiall maiesty which was begonne in the time of Constantine the greate and afterwardes as the succession of good or euyll Emperours was so were the buildings decayed or repayred For it is the deede of a vertuous Prince to abolyshe vices of the common wealth and to make greate and sumptuous buildinges in his country This Emperour Tiberius hadde spent treasours to redeme poore captiues to build hospitalles to erect monasteries to marie and prouide for the Orphanes and widowes in this he was so prodigall that it came almost to passe that he had nothing to eate in his palaice And truly this was a blessed necessitie For catholike Princes ought to thinke that well employed which in the seruice of Christ is bestowed And hereof the Emperoure was not ashamed but thought it a great glory and that which onely greued him was to see the Empresse reioyce so much at his miserye For the high and noble hartes which feele them selues wounded do not so much esteme their owne paine as they do to see their enemyes reioyce at their griefe God neuer forsoke theym that for his sake became poore as it appeareth by this It chaunced one day that euen as the Emperour Tiberius walked in the middest of his palace he saw at his feete a marble stone whiche was in fourme of the crosse of the reademer of the world And because it had bene to vniuste a thing as he thoughte to haue spurned that with his feete wherwith we trust from our enemyes to be defended he caused the stone to be taken vp not thinking any thing to be ther vnder and immediatly after they found an other wherin likewise was the forme of the crosse and this beyng taken vp they founde an other in lyke maner and when that was pluct vp from he bottome there was found a treasor which conteyned the some of 2. millions of Duckettes for the which the good Emperour Tiberius gaue vnto all mighty god most high thankes and wheras before he was lyberal yet afterwardes he was much more bountiful For all those treasours he distrybuted amongest the poore and needye people Let therfore mighty princes and great lords see reade and profit by this example and let them thinke them selues assured that for geuing almes to the poore they nede not feare to become poore for in the end the vycious man caÌ„not cal him self rich nor the vertuous man can counte him selfe poore ¶ How the Chefetaine Naâ—setes ouercame manye battailes only for that his whole confidence was in god And what happened to him by the Empresse Sophia Augusta wherin may be noted the vnthankefulnes of Princes towardes their seruauntes Cap. xvi IN the yere of the incarnacion of Christ 528 Iustinian the great being Emperour who was the sonne of Iustines sister his predecessour in the Empyre the histories say in especially Paulus Diaconus in the 18. booke Degestis Romanorum that ther was a knighte of Greece in Rome who from hys tender yeres hadde bene broughte vppe in Italye He was a man of meane stature of a colericke complexcion and in the Lawe of Christe verye deuoute whyche was no small thinge For at that tyme not onelye manye knightes but almoste all the Bishoppes of Italye were Arrians This knightes name was Narsetes and because he was so valliant in armes and so aduenturous in warres he was chosen Chefeteyne generall of the Romane Empire For the Romaines had this excellency that when they had a valiaunt and stoute captaine although they might haue his weighte of gold giuen them they would neuer depart from his person He enterprised so great thinges he ouercame such mighty realmes and had suche notable victories ouer his enemyes that the Romaines said he had in him the strength of Hercules the hardinesse of Hector the noblenes of Alexander the policye of Pirrus and the fortune of Scipio For many of the vaine gentils held opinion that as the bodyes dyd distribute their goodes in the lyfe so did the soules parte their giftes after the deathe This
the beautie of the body knowing that most commonly thervpon ensueth the vnclennes of the soule Vnder the christall stone lyeth oftentimes a daungerous worme in the faier wal is nourisshed the venemous Coluber within the middell of the white tothe is ingendered great paine to the gummes in the fynest clothe the motes do most hurt and the most fruitful tree by wormes is sonest perisshed I meane that vnder the cleane bodyes faire countenaunces are hid many and abhominable vyces Truly not only to children which are not wise but to all other which are lyght and fraile beauty is nothing els but the mother of many vyces and the hinderer of all vertues Let princes and great Lords beleue me which thinke to be faire and wel disposed that where there is great aboundaunce of corporal goods and graces there ought to be great bones of vertues to be able to beare them For the moste highe trees by great windes are shaken I say that it is vanytie to be vaine glorious in any thinge of this world be it neuer so parfite and also I saye that it is a greate vanytie to be proude of the corporall beautye For amonge all the acceptable giftes that nature gaue to the mortalles there is nothinge more superfluous in man and lesse necessarie then the beautye of the body For truly whether we be faire or foule we are nothing the better beloued of God neyther thereby the more hated of men O blyndnes of the world O lyfe which neuer lyueth nor shal lyue O death which neuer hath end I know not why man through the accident of this beautye shoulde or durst take vpon him any vaine glory or presumption sith he knoweth that all the fairest and most parfitest of flesh must be sacrificed to the wormes in the graue And knowe also that all the propernes of the members shal be forfeited to the hongry wormes which are in the earth Let the great scorne the lytle asmuch as they will the faire mocke the foule at their pleasure the hole disdaine the sicke the wel made enuy the deformed the white hate the blacke and the Giantes dyspise the dwarfes yet in the end al shall haue an end Truly in myne opinion the trees beare not the more fruit for that they are streight only nor for being high neither for geuing great shadowe nor for being beautifull nor yet for being great By this comparison I meane that though a noble stout man be proper of parson and noble of linage shadowing of fauour comlye in countenaunce in renowne very high and in the common wealth puissaunt that therfore he is not the better in lyfe For truly the common wealthes are not altered by the simple labourers which trauaile in the fieldes but by the vicyous men which take great ease in their liues Vnlesse I be deceiued the swine and other beastes are fed vnder the okes with the acornes and amonge the pricking briers and thornes the swete roses do grow the sharpe beeche giueth vs the sauoury chesnutts I meane that the deformed and litle creatures oft times are most profitable in the common wealth For the lytle and sharpe countenaunces are signes of valiaunt and stout hartes Let vs cease to speake of men which are fleshely being eftsones rotten and gone and let vs talke of sumptuous buildinges which are of stone which if we should go to se what they were we may know the greatnes and the height of them Then we shal not know the maner of their beauty and that which semed to be perpetuall in shorte space we see it ende and loase the renowne in such sort that ther is neuer memory of them after Let vs also leaue the auncient buildinges and come to the buildings now a days and one shal see that there is no man that maketh a house be it neuer so strong nor so faire but liuing a lytle while he shal see the beauty therof decay For ther are a great nombre of auncient men which haue sene both the toppes of famous and stronge buyldings made also the foundacion and ground therof decayed And that this is true it appeareth manyfestly for that if the toppe decay or the walles fall or els if the tymber be weke or the ioyntes open or the windowes waxe rotten or the gates do breake the buildinges forth with do decay What shall we say of goodly haules and galleries well appointed the which within short space by coles or candels of childrē or by torches of pages or smoke of chimneys by cobwebbes of spyders become as dry foule as before they were freshe and faire Then if that be true which I haue said of these things I would now gladly know what hope man cā haue of the cōtinuaunce of his beauty since we se the like destruction of corporal beauty as of stones wood bricke and clay O vnprofitable Princes O children of vanity to folyshe hardy do you not remember that all your healthe it subiecte to sicknes as in the payne of the stomack in the heate of the lyuer in the inflamacion of the feete in the distemperaunce of humors the mocions of the ayre in the coniunctions of the Moone in the Eclipse of the sunne I say do not you knowe that you are subiect to the tedyous sommer and vntollerable winter Of a trouth I cannot tel how you can be among so many in perfections and corruptions so full of vaine glory by your beauty seing and knowinge that a litle feuer doth not only deface and marre the beauty but also maketh and couloureth the face al yelow be it neuer so wel fauoured I haue maruailed at one thing that is to wete that all men are desirous to haue all things about their body cleane their gownes brushed their coates nette the table handsome and the bedde fine and only they suffer their soules to be foule spotted and filthi I durst say and in the faith of a christian affirme that it is a great lacke of wisedome and a superfluitie of folye for a man to haue his house cleane and to suffer his soule to be corrupted I would know what preheminence they haue which are fayre aboue others to whom nature hath denyed beautye Peraduenture the beauteful man hath two soules and the defourmed creature hath but one peraduenture the most fayrest are the most healthful and the most deformed are the most sicklyest Peraduenture the most fayrest are the wysest and the most defourmed the most innocentes peraduenture the fairest are most stoute and the defourmed most cowardes peraduenture the fayre are most fortunate and the foule most vnluckyest peraduenture the fayre only are excepted from vyce and the foule depryued from vertue peraduenture those whych are fayre of ryght haue perpetuall lyfe and those whych are foule are bound to replenyshe the graue I say no certaynlye Then if this be true why do the great mocke the litle the fayre the foule the right the crooked and the whyte the blacke since they know
and reproue the .40 yeares of an other Ther are many princes tender of yeres but ripe in counsailes and for the countrary there are other princes old in yeares yong in counsailes When the good Emperour Vespasian died they determined to put his sōne Titus in the gouernement of the empire or some other aged Senator because they said Titus was to yong And as they were in controuersie of the matter the Senatour Rogerus Patroclus said vnto the Senate For my parte I require rather a Prince which is yong and sage then I do a prince which is old and foolysh Therfore now as touchyng the children of Theodosius one day Estilconus the tutour of Archadius speaking to a greke philosopher very sage whose name was Epimundus sayde thus vnto him Thou and I long time haue bene acquainted together in the palace of the emperour Theodose my lord who is dead and we ar aliue thou knowest it had bene better that we .2 had died and that he had liued For there be many to be seruauntes of princes but there ar few to be good princes I feele no greater griefe in this world than to know many princes in one realme For the man whiche hath sene many princes in his lyfe hath sene many nouelties and alterations in the common wealth Thou knowest well that when Theodosius my maister died he spake to me these wordes the which wer not spoken without great sighes and multiplienge of teares O Estilconus I dye and am going into an other world wherin I shall giue a streighte accompte of the Realmes and seignories which I had vnder my charge And therfore when I thinke of myne offences I am meruelously afrayed But when I remember the mercy of God then I receiue some conforte and hope As it is but mete we should trust in the greatnes of his mercy so likewise is it reason we should feare the rigour of his iustice For truly in the christian law they are not suffred to liue as we which are Princes that liue in delightes of this world and afterward without repentaunce to goe streighte to Paradyse Then when I thinke of the great benefittes which I haue receiued of God and of the great offences which I haue committed when I thynke of the long tyme I haue lyued and of the litle which I haue profited also that vnprofitably I haue spent my time On the one part I am loath to dye for that I am afrayed to come before the tribunall seate of Iesus Christ and on the other part I would liue no lenger because I do not profit The mā of an euil life why doth he desire to lyue any longer My lyfe is now finished the tyme is shorte to make amendes And sithe god demaundeth nought els but a contrite harte with all my harte I doe repente and appeale to his iustice of mercie from his Iustice to his mercy because it maye please him to receiue me into his house and to giue me perpetuall glorie to the confusion of al my synnes and offences And I protest I dye in the holy catholike faith commend my soule to god my body to the earth to you Estilconus Ruffinus my faithful seruauntes I recōmende my dere beloued children For herby the loue of the childrē is sene in that the father forgetteth thē not at the houre of his death In this case of one only thing I doe warne you one only thing I require you one only thing I desire you one onely thing I cōmaund you that is that you occupye not your mindes in augmentinge the Realmes seignories of my childrē but only that you haue due respect to giue thē good education vertuous seruāts For it was only the wise men which I had about me that thus long haue mainteined me in this great auctoritie It is a goodly thing for a prince to haue stoute captains for the warres but without comparison it is better to keape haue wise men in his palace For in the end the victory of the battaille consisteth in the force of many but the gouernement of the common weale oftentimes is putte vnder the aduise of one alone These so dolefull and pitiefull wordes my lord and maister Theodosius spake vnto me now tell me Epimundus what I should doe at this present to fulfill his commaundement For at his harte he had nothing that troubled him so much as to thinke whether his children would vndoe or encrease the cōmon wealthe Thou Epimundus thou art a Grecian thou art a philosopher thou hast vnderstandyng thou art an olde seruaunt thou arte my faithfull frend therfore for al these thinges thou art bound to giue me good healthful counsaile For many times I haue heard Theodosius my maister say that he is not accompted sage which hath turned the leaues of many bookes but he which knoweth and can geue good healthful counsailes Epimundus the philosopher aunswered to these wordes Thou knowest wel Lord Estilconus that the auncientes and great Philosophers ought to be brief in wordes and very parfect in their workes For otherwise to speake muche worke litle semeth rather to be done like a tyraunt then like a greeke philosopher The Emperour Theodosius was thy Lord and my frend I say frend because it is the libertie of a greeke Philosopher to acknowledge no homage nor seruice to any superiour For he in his hart can haue no true sciēce that to rebuke the viicous kepeth his mouth shut In one thing I cōtent my selfe in Theodose aboue al other princes which were in the Romaine empire and that is that he knew and talked wisely of al his affaires and also was very diligēt to execute the same For all the fault of Princes is that they are prompte bold to talke of vertues and in executing them they are very slacke fearefull For such Princes can not continew in the vertue which they doe commende nor yet resyste the vyce which they do dispraise I graunt that Theodosius was an executour of iustice mercifull stoute sober valiaunt true louyng thankfull and vertuous and finally in all thinges and at all times he was fortunate For fortune oftentimes bringeth that to Princes which they will and desire yea many times better then they looke for Presuppose it to be true as it is most true that the time was alwayes prosperous to the Emperour Theodosius yet I doubte whether this prosperity wil continew in the succession of his children For worldlye prosperitie is so mutable that with one only man in a moment she maketh a thousande shrewde turnes and so much the more it is harde to continue stedfast in the second heyre Of slowe and dull horses come oftentimes couragious and fyerse coltes and euyn so of vertuous fathers come children euill brought vp For the wicked children inherite the worste of the father whiche is ryches and are dysenherited of the best whiche are vertues That whiche I perceyue in this matter as
wyfe and children as that I cannot carye my bookes into the graue Yf the Gods had geuen me the choyse I had rather chose to be in the graue inuyroned with bookes then to lyue accompanyed wyth fooles for if the dead doe rede I take them to be alyue but if the lyuing doe not reade I take them to be deade Vnder this key which I gyue the remayneth many Greke Hebrue latine and Roman bookes and aboue all vnder this key remayneth al my paynes swet and trauayles al my watchinges and labours where also thou shalte fynde bokes by me compyled so that though the wormes of the yearth doe eate my body yet men shall fynde my harte hole amongest these bokes Once againe I doe require the and saye that thou oughtest not a lytell to esteame the key which I giue the for wise men at the hower of their death alwayes recommed that whiche they best loue to them which in their liues they haue most loued I doe confesse that in my studie thou shalte fynd many thinges with myne owne hand written and wel ordered and also I confesse that thou shalte find many thinges by me left vnpersit In this case I thinke that though thou couldest not wryte them yet thou shalt worke thē wel notwithstandynge and by these meanes thou shalte get reward of the Gods for workyng them Consyder Pompeian that I haue ben thy lorde I haue ben thy father in law I haue bene thy father I haue bene thy aduocate and aboue all that I haue bene thy speciall frend which is most of all for a man ought to esteme more a faithful frend then all the parentes of the world Therfore in the faith of that frendshyp I require that thou kepe this in memory that euen as I haue recommended to others my wife my children my goods and ryches So I do leaue vnto the in singular recommendacion my honoure For prynces leaue of them selues no greater memorye then by the good learning that they haue wrytten I haue bene .18 yeares emperour of rome and it is .lx. and .iii. yeares that I haue remayned in thys wofull life during whiche time I haue ouercome many battailles I haue slayne many pirattes I haue exalted many good I haue punished manye euil I haue wonne many realmes I haue distroyed many tirauntes But what shal I do woful man that I am sithe all my compagnions which were witnesses with me of al these worthy feates shal be my compagnions in the graue with the gredy wormes A thousand yeares hence when those that are now alyue shal then be dead what is he that shal say I saw Marcus Aurelius triumphe ouer the Parthians I saw him make the buildings in Auentino I saw him welbeloued of the people I saw him father of the orphanes I saw him the scourg of tiraūtes truly if al these thinges had not ben declared by my bookes or of my frendes the dead would neuer haue rysen agayn to haue declared them What is it for to se a prince from the time he is borne vntil the time he come to dye to se the pouerty he passeth the perilles he endureth the euil that he suffereth the shame that he dyssembleth the frendeshyp that he fayneth the teares which he sheaddeth that sighes that he fetchith the promises that he maketh and doeth not endure for any other cause the mysteries of this life but onely to leaue a memorye of him after his death There is no prince in the worlde that desireth not to keape a good house to keape a good table to aparrel him selfe rychely to pay those that serue hym in his house but by this vaine honour they suffer the water to passe thorough their lippes not drinking therof As one that hath proued it it is reason that I be beloued in this case and that is that the entent of princes to conquere straunge Realmes and to permit their owne to suffer wronges is for no other thyng but because that the commendacions which they speake of the princes past they should lykewyse talke the same of them that be to come Concluding therfore my mynde and declaring my intencion I say that the Prince that is noble and desireth to leaue of him selfe some fame let hym consider and se what it is that those can write of him which writ his history for it profiteth litel that he atchieue greate affayers by the swerde if there be no writer to sette them fourth with the penne and afterwardes to exalte them with the tonge These wordes thus spoken by the noble Emperour Marcus Aurelius he gaue the key of his studye to the honourable old man Pompeianus that toke all the wrytinges and put them in the high Capitol where the Romans honored them as the christians the holye Scriptures all these writynges besydes many others peryshed in rome when by the Barbarous it was dystroyed For the Gothes vtterly to extinguishe the name of rome distroyed not onely the walles therof but also the bokes that were therein and trulye in this case the Goothes shewed more crueltye to the Romans then if they had slayne the children of their bodies or bet downe the walles of their Cities For without doubte the lyuelye letter is a moresewerer wytnes of renowme that alwayes speaketh then eyther the lyme sand or stone wherwith fortresses are buylded Of the importunate suete of the Empresse Faustine to the Emperour Marke Aureille Concerning the key of his closet Chap. xiiii VVe Haue declared howe the Emperoure Marcus Aurelius had his studie in the secretest place of al the palace and how that he him selfe did kepe the key It is to be vnderstande that he would neuer let his wife hys children nor any other of his familier frendes come into it for he said I had rather suffer that they shoulde take from me my treasoures then that any man should turne the leaues of my bookes It chaunced that on a daye the Empresse Faustine being great with child importuned the Emperour muche by all the meanes she could that he would be so fauourable vnto her as to gyue her the key of his studye and it is no meruaile for naturallye women dispise that which is geuen them and lust forth at that is denayed them Faustine instantly besoughte him not once but manye times not onely with fayer wordes but with aboundaunt teares alleagynge vnto him these reasons I haue requyred the sondrye tymes that thou wouldest gyue me the key of thy chamber and thou haste by iestinge made frustrate my request the whych thou my Lorde oughte not to haue done consyderynge that I am with childe for oftetimes it chaunceth that that wherfore the husbande reioyceth this daye tomorow he doeth lamente Thou oughtest to remember that I am that Faustine the renowmed the which in thy eyes am the fairest and of thy tonge haue bene most commended of thy parson I was best beloued and of thy harte I am most desired then since it is true that thou hast
seameth both vnsauery and noysome It maye wel be that since the childrē are not nourished in the house that they know not their seruauntes that they loue not their parentes that they come not nere their brethren nor talke with their sisters that they are ignoraunt of their fathers do disobey their mothers wherfore since litle feare doeth abounde and good wyl fayle one daye they commit some mischeauous offence whereby they doe loose their life worthely and the fathers loose the riches and likewyse their honour deseruedly to the intent that the fathers alwayes keape their proper chyldren vnder obedience there is no better meane then to bring them vp in their owne houses the mother to geue them sucke and the father to teache them for when the mother desireth any thing of her chylde she should not shewe him the belly from whence he came but the dugges which he did sucke For all that whiche is asked vs by the milke that we did sucke truly there is no harte so hard that can denay her The historiographers say that Antipater among all the Gretians was the most renowmed tyraunt and among the Romaines Nero. And these two wicked princes wer not great tyrauntes because they had committed many tyrannies but because they did committe one which was most greuous of all others For they doe not call a man a glutton or cormoraunt because he eateth euery houre but because he deuoureth more at one paste then others doe in one daye The case was that Antipater in Grece and Nero in Rome determined to kyll their own mothers And the historiographers saye that when Nero commaunded his mother to be killed she sent to aske of him why he would put her to death wher vnto he answered that he was cloyed to beholde the armes wherin he was nourished and therfore he caused her to be killed to see the intrailes out of the which he came This case was so horrible that it semed to many not to speake it but concluding I say as vniustly as the mothers loste the mortall life so iustly did the children get for them immortal imfamy Nothing can be more wicked detestable to the children then to kil their mothers which did beare them with paine did nourish them with loue but notwithstāding al this we do not rede that euer they did kill dishonoure nor yet disobey their nourses which gaue them milke Iunius Rusticus in the fifte booke of the brynging vp of childrē saith that the two Gracchi renowmed famous Romains had a third brother being a bastarde who shewed him self as valiaunt hardy in the warres of Asia as the other twoo did in the warres of Africa The which as he came one day to rome to visite his house he foūd therin his mother which bare him the nourse which gaue him suck To that which nourse he gaue a girdle of gold to his own mother he gaue a iewel of siluer Of the which things the mother being ashamed cōsidring what her son had done she asked him why he had geuē the norse the gold which did but only geue him suck and that he had not geuen the gyrdle of golde to her as well as the Iewell of siluer since she had borne him and brought him into the world Wherunto he aunswered in this maner maruell not thereat mother why I doe this thing for thou diddest beare me but nyne monethes in thy wombe and she hath geuen me sucke and nourished me these three yeres with her own propre pappes and when thou diddest cast me from thee out of thy sight she receiued me and nourished me in her propre armes Fifthly women ought to enforce them selues to nourishe their children to the ende they may kepe them the better and that in their cradels they be not chaunged for others Aristotle saieth that the Cocowe commeth to the neaste of another birde when she hath laide her egges sucketh them and layeth in the same place her own egges so that the other birde thinking that they are her owne hatchieth and nourisheth them vp as her owne vntill suche tyme as they are able to flie Then the Cocow killeth and eateth the sily birde that hath nourished her through the which occasion the males of those birdes are at so great contention that they haue bene so deceiued that the one of them killeth the other the whiche they might let if euery bird did nourishe her owne In the same tyme that Philip reigned in Macedonia whiche was the father of the great Alexander Arthebanus was kynge of the Epirotes who in his age had a childe borne the whiche was stollen out of the cradell and an other put in his steade The nourse whiche did nourishe it through couetousnes of money consented to that treason for the harte that is with couetousnes ouercome wyll not feare to committe any treason It chaunced not long after that kyng Arthebanus died and lefte as he thought his own sonne for his heire but within fewe dayes after the nourse her self whiche had consented vnto the robbery discouered the thefte and sayd that she could tell where the lawfull childe of the good kyng Arthebanus was and that that childe whiche nowe was heire was but the sonne of a meane knight but in dede it had bene better for those of the miserable realme that the woman had neuer discouered the secrete For it chaunceth oftetimes that a man maketh suche haste of his horse that he hurteth his legge through that occasion afterwardes falleth and breaketh his necke But what shal we saye to the Plebeical women of base and meane estate I doe not meane the noble gentle and vertuous ladies whereof they are many that though in great secrete their chiefest friende telleth them any thinge yet before they drinke they will vtter it to another Thus when the treason was discouered cruel warres betwene these two princes began so that in the end in a great battayle they were both slayne the one in defending and the other in assaulting At that tyme Olimpias reigned who was the faire and worthy wyfe of Philip and mother of Alexander She had a brother named Alexander who was both politique and hardie and hearing the Epirotes were in controuersie and that twoo kinges were slaine in the fielde he placed him selfe in the Realme more of will then of right And let no man marueile that this kyng occupied the Realme for in the olde time all the tyrannous princes thought that all that whiche they could obtaine without resistaunce did vnto them belonge by iustice This king Alexander was he whiche came into Italy in the fauoure of the Tarentines when they rebelled against the Romaines who afterwarde was slaine in battaile at Capua where his body was vnburied And truly it was a iuste sentence that the tyraunt which bereueth many of their liues should him selfe taste some shamefull death I haue declared this history to this ende that princesses and great ladies should see that if the wyfe
be beleued for the saying of the graue authours on the one parte and by that we dayly see on the other parte For in the ende it is more pleasure to heare a man tell mery tales hauing grace and comlines in his wordes then to heare a graue man speake the truthe with a rude and rough tongue I haue founde in many wrytinges what they haue spoken of Pithagoras and his doughter but none telleth her name saue only in a pistle that Phalaris the tyraunt wrate I fouÌ„d this word written where he saith Polichrata that was the doughter of the philosopher Pithagoras was young and exceading wyse more faire then riche and was so much honoured for the puritie of her life and so high estemed for her pleasaunt tongue that the worde which she spake spinning vpon her distaffe was more estemed then the philosophy that her father red in the schole And he sayd more It is so great a pitie to see and heare that women at this present are in their life so dishonest in their tongues so malicious that I haue greater pleasure in the good renowme of one that is dead then in the infamie of all them which are aliue For a good woman is more worth with her distaffe spinning then a hundred euel queenes with their roiall scepters reigning By the wordes which Phalaris saied in his letter it seamed that this doughter of Pithagoras was called Polichrate Pithagoras therefore made many commentaries as wel of his owne countrey as of straungers In the end he died in Mesopotamia where at the houre of his death he spake vnto his doughter Polichrate saied these wordes I see my doughter that the houre wherein I must ende my life approcheth The Gods gaue it me and nowe they wil take it from me nature gaue me birth now she geueth me death the earth gaue me the body and now it retourneth to ashes The woful fatall destinies gaue me a litle goodes mingled with manie trauailes so that doughter of all thinges which I enioyed in this world I cary none with me for hauing all as I had it by the waye of borowyng nowe at my death eche man taketh his owne I die ioyfully not for that I leaue thee riche but for that I leaue thee learned And in token of my tender harte I bequethe vnto the al my bookes wherin thou shalt finde the treasure of my trauailes And I tel thee that that I geue thee is the riches gotten with mine owne sweat and not obtained to the preiudice of an other For the loue I beare vnto thee doughter I pray thee and by the immortall gods I coniure thee that thou be such so good that althoughe I die yet at the least thou mayst kepe my memory for thou knowest wel what Hoâ—ere saieth speaking of Achilles and Pirrus that the good life of the childe that is aliue keapeth the renowme of the father that is dead These were the wordes which this philosopher spake vnto his doughter lieng in his death bed And though perhaps he spake not these wordes yet at the least this was the meaning As the great poet Mantuan saieth king Euander was father of the giant Pallas and he was a great frende of king Eneas he vaunted him selfe to discend of the linage of the Troyans and therfore when king Eneas prince Turnus had great warres betwene them which of them should haue the princesse Lauinia in mariage the which at that time was only heire of Italy king Euander ayded Eneas not only with goodes but also sending him his owne sonne in persone For the frendes ought for their true frendes willingly to shed their bloud in their behalfe without demauÌ„ding thei ought also to spend their goods This king Euander had a wyfe so well learned that that which the Grekes saied of her semeth to be fables That is to say of her eloquence wisdome for they say that if that which this woman wrote of the warres of Troye had not bene through enuy cast into the fire the name of Homere had at this day remained obscure The reason hereof is because the woman was in the time of the destruction of Troy and wrate as a witnes of sight These wordes passed betwene the Romaine Calphurnius and the poet Cornificius I desire to declare the excellency of those fewe auncient women as wel Grekes as Latines Romaines to thintent that princesses and great ladies may knowe that the auncient women were more esteamed for their sciences then for their beauties Therefore the princesses and great Ladies ought to thinke that if they be women they were also in lyke maner and if they be frayle the others were also weake If they be maried the other also had husbandes if they haue their wylles the other had also what they wanted if they be tender the others were not strong Finally they ought not to excuse them selues saying that for to learne women are vnmete For a woman hath more abilitie to learne sciences in the scholes then the Parate hath to speake wordes in the cage In my opinion princesses great ladies ought not to esteame theÌ„selues more then an other for that they haue fairer heares then other or for that they are better appareled then an other or that they haue more ryches then an other But they ought therfore to esteame them selues not for that they can doe more then others To say the truth the faire and yelow heares the riche and braue apparel the great treasures the sumptuous palaces and strong buildinges these and other like pleasures are not guides and leaders to vertues but rather spies scout watches for vices O what a noble thinge were it that the noble ladies would esteme them selues not for that they can doe but for that that they knowe For it is more commendation to knowe howe to teache twoo philosophers then to haue authoritie to commaunde a hundred knightes It is a shame to write it but it is more pitie to see it that is to wete to read that we read of the wisdome and worthines of the auncient matrones paste and to see as we doe see the frailenes of these younge ladies present For they coueted to haue disciples both learned and experimented and these of this present desire nothing but to haue seruauntes not only ignoraunt but deceitful and wicked And I do not marueile seing that which I se that at this present in court she is of litle value lest estemed among ladies which hath fairest seruauntes is lest enterteined of gentlemen What shall I say more in this matter but that they in times past striue who should write better compile the best bookes and these at this presente doe not striue but who shal haue the richest and most sumptuous apparel For the ladies thinke it a iolier matter to weare a gown of a new fachion then the auncientes did to read a lesson of philosophie The auncient ladies striue whiche of them was
if thou be euill lyfe shal bee euyl imployd on thee and if thou bee good thou oughtest to die imediatly and because I am woors thē all I liue lōger then all These woordes which Adrian my lord sayed doe plainely declare and expresse that in short space the pale and cruel death doth assaulte the good and lēgthneth life a great while to the euil The opinion of a philosopher was that the gods are so profound in their secrets high in their misteryes and so iust in their woorks that to men which least profit the common wealth they lengthen lyfe longest and though he had not sayd it we others see it by experience For the man which is good and that beareth great zeale and frendship to the common wealth either the gods take him from vs or the enemies do sley him or the daungers doe cast him away or the the trauailes do finish him When great Pompeius Iulius Cesar became enemyes from that enmite came to cruel warres the cronicles of that time declare that the kings and people of the occidental part became in the fauour of Iulius Cesar and the mightiest most puisaunte of al the oriental parts came in the ayd of great Pompeius beecause these two Princes were loued of few and serued and feared of al. Amongst the diuersity and sundry nations of people which came out of the oriental part into the host of the great Pompeius one nation came maruelous cruel barbarous which sayd they dwelled in the other side of the mountayns Riphees which go vnto India And these barbarous had a custome not to liue no longer then fifty years therfore when thei came to that age they made a greater fier and were burned therin aliue and of their owne willes they sacrificed them selues to the gods Let no man bee astoined at that wee haue spoken but rather let them maruel of that wee wyl speak that is to say that the same day that any man had accomplished fifty years immediatly hee cast him self quick in to the fier and the parents children and his freends made a great feast And the feast was that they did eat the fleash of the dead half burned and drank in wyne and water the asshes of his bones so that the stomak of the children beeing aliue was the graue of the fathers beeing dead All this that I haue spoken with my toung Pompeius hath seen with his eies for that some beeing in the camp did accomplish fifty years bycause the case was straunge hee declared it oft times in the Senate Let euery man iudge in this case what hee will and condemne the barbarous at his pleasure yet I wyll not cease too say what I think O golden world which had such men O blessed people of whom in the world to come shal bee a perpetuall memory What contēpt of world what forgetfulnes of him self what stroke of fortune what whip for the flesh what litell regard of lyfe O what bridell for the veruous O what confusion for those that loue lyfe O how great example haue they left vs not to feare death Sithens those heeare haue wyllingly dispised their own liues it is not to bee thought that they died to take the goods of others neither to think that our life shoold neuer haue end nor our couetousnes in like maner O glorious people and .10 thousand sold happy that the proper sensuallyty beeing forsaken hath ouercome the natural appetyte to desire to liue not beeleeuing in that they saw and that hauing faith in that they neuer saw they striued with the fatall destines By the way they assalted fortune they chaunged life for death they offred the body to death and aboue al haue woon honor with the gods not for that they should hasten death but because they should take away that which is superfluus of life Archagent a surgiō of Rome and Anthonius Musus a phisition of the Emperor Augustus and Esculapius father of the phisick shoold get litel mony in that country Hee that thē shoold haue sēt to the barbarous to haue doone as the Romaynes at that tyme did that is to wete to take siroppes in the mornings pylls at night to drynk mylk in the morning to noynt them selues with gromelsede to bee let bloud to day and purged to morrow to eat of one thing and to abstein from many a man ought to think that hee which willingly seeketh death wil not geue mony to lengthen lyfe ¶ The Emperor concludeth his letter and sheweth what perilles those old men lyue in which dissolutely like yong children passe their days and geeueth vnto them holsome counsell for the remedy therof Cap. xxii BVt returning now to thee Claude to thee Claudine mee thinketh that these barbarous beeing fifty years of age and you others hauing aboue thre score and 10. it should bee iust that sithens you were elder in years you were equal in vertue and though as they you wyl not accept death paciently yet at the least you ought to amend your euel liues willingly I do remember that it is many years sithens that Fabritius the yong sonne of Fabritius the old had ordeyned to haue deceiued mee of the which if you had not told mee great inconueniences had hapned and sithens that you did mee so great a benefit I woold now requite you the same with an other like For amongst frends there is no equal benifit then to deceyue the deceyuer I let you know if you doo not know it that you are poore aged folks your eyes are soonk into your heads the nostrels are shutt the hears are white the hearing is lost the tonge faltreth the teeth fall the face is wrincled the feete swoln the stomak cold Finally I say that if the graue could speak as vnto his subiects by iustice hee myght commaund you to inhabit his house It is great pity of the yong men and of their youthfull ignorante for then vnto such their eyes are not opened to know the mishaps of this miserable life when cruell death doth end their dayes and adiorneth thē to the graue Plato in his book of the common wealth sayd that in vaine wee geeue good counsels to fond light yongmen For youth is without experiēce of that it knoweth suspicious of that it heareth incredible of that is told him despising the counsayl of an other and very poore of his own Forsomuch as this is true that I tell you Claude and Claudine that without comparison the ignorance which the yong haue of the good is not so much but the obstinacion which the old hath in the euel is more For the mortal gods many times do dissemble with a .1000 offeces committed by ignorance but they neuer forgeeue the offence perpetrated by malice O Claude and Claudine I doo not meruel that you doo forget the gods as you doo which created you and your fathers which beegot you and your parēts which haue loued you and your frends which haue
they make ten thousand blots in their honor O how many haue I known in Rome to whom it hath chaunced that all that they haue gotten in Rome to leaue vnto their best beeloued child an other heir with litle care of whom they thought not hath enioyed it Ther can bee nothing more iust then that al those which haue beegyled others with disceits in their life shoold bee found disceiued in their vayn immaginacions after their death Iniurious shoold the gods bee if in all the euil that the euill propound to doo they shoold geeue them tyme place conuenient to accomplish the same But the gods are so iust and wyse that they dissemble wyth the euill to th end they shoold beegin and folow the things according to their own willes and fantasies and afterwards at the best time they cut of their lyues to leaue them in greter torment The gods shoold bee very cruell and to them it shoold bee great greefe to suffer that that which the euill haue gathered to the preiudice of many good they shoold enioy in peace for many yeres Mee thinketh it is great folly to know that wee are borne weeping and to see that wee dysighing and yet for all this that wee dare liue laughing I woold ask the world and his worldlyngs sithens that wee enter into the world weeping and go out of the world sighing why wee shoold lyue laughing for the rule to measure all parts ought to bee equall O Cincinnatus who hath beegyled thee to the end that for one bottel of water of the Sea of this world for thy pleasure thou wilt blister thy hand with the rope of cares and broose thy body in thanker of troubles and aboue all to aduenture thyne own honor for a glasse of water of an other man By the faith of a good man I swere vnto thee that for all the great quantitie of water thou drawest for the great deal of money thou hast thou remainest asmuch dead for thrist drinking of that water as when thou were without water in the cup. Consider now thy yeres if my counsel thou wilt accept thou shalt demaund death of the gods to rest thee as a vertuous man and not riches to lyue as a foole With the teares of my eyes I haue beewayled many in Rome when I saw them depart out of this world and thee I haue beewayled and doo beewaile my frend Cincinnatus with drops of blood to see thee retorn into the world The credit thou hadst in the senate the blood of thy predecessors my frenship the aucthority of thy parson the honor of thy parentage the sclaunder of thy comonwealth ought to withdraw thee from so great couetousnes O poore Cincinnatus consider the white honored hears which doo fall ought to bee occupied in the noble armies sitheÌ„s thou art noble of blood valyant in parson auncient of yeres and not euil willed in the common wealth For thou oughtest to consider that more woorth is reason for the path way of men whych are good then the common opinion which is the large high way of the euyll For if it bee narrow to go on the one side ther is no dust wherwith the eyes bee blynded as in the other I will geeue thee a counsell and if thou feelest thy self euel neuer count thou mee for frend Lust no more after the greasy fatt of temporall goods sins thou hast short lyfe for wee see dayly many beefore they come to thy age dye but wee see few after thy age lyue After this counsell I will geeue thee an aduise that thou neuer trust present prosperitie for then alway thou art in danger of some euill fortune If thou art mounted into such pricking thorns as a foole mee thinketh thou oughts to descend as a sage And in this sort all wil say amongst the people that Cincinnatus is descended but not fallen My letter I will conclude and the conclusion therof see well thou note that is to weete that thou and thy trade shal bee cursed wher you other marchants wil liue poore to dy rich Once again I retorn to curse you for that the couetousnes of an euill man is alwais accomplished to the preiudice of many good My wife Faustinc doth salute thee and shee was not a little troubled when shee knew thou were a marchaunt and that thou keepest a shop in Capua I send thee a horse to ryde vpon one of the most richest arras of Tripoli to haÌ„g thy house withall a precious ring and a pommel of a swoord of Alexandrie and all these things I doo not send thee for that I know thou hast neede therof but rather not to forget the good custom I haue to geeue Pamphilâ— thy aunt and my neighbor is dead And I can tell thee that in Rome dyed not a woman of long time which of her left such renowm for so much as shee forgot all enmities shee succored the poore shee visited the banished shee entertained frends and also I heard say that shee alone did lyght all the temples Prestilla thy cosin hath the health of body though for the death of her mother her hart is heauy And without doubt shee had reason for the only sorows which the mothers suffer to bring vs foorth though with drops of blood wee shoold beewayl them yet wee cannot recompence them The gods bee in thy custody and preserue mee with my wife Faustine from all euill fortune Marke of mount Celio with his owne hand ¶ The aucthor perswadeth princes and great Lords to fly couetousnes and auarice and to beecome bowntifull and liberall which vertue is euer pertinent to the roiall parson Cap. xxviii PIsistratus the renowmed tyraunt among the Atheniens sins his frends coold not endure the cruelties that hee committed eche one retorned to his own house and vtterly forsook him The which when the tyraunt saw hee layd all his treasure and garments on a heap togethers and went to visite his frends to whom with bitter tears hee spake these woords All my apparell and money heere I bring you with determination that if you will vse my company wee will go all to my house and if you will not come into my company I am determined to dwell in yours For if you bee weary to folow mee I haue great desire to serue you sithens you know that they cannot bee called faithfull frends where the one cannot bear with the other Plutarchê° in his Apothegmes saith that this tyrant Pisistratus was very rych and extream couetous so that they write of him that the gold siluer which once came into his possession neuer man saw it afterward but if hee had necessity to buy any thing if they woold not present it vnto him willingly hee woold haue it by force When hee was dead the Atheniens determined to wey him and his treasure the case was meruelous that the gold and siluer hee had weyd more then his dead body .6 tymes At that tyme in Athens there was a philosopher called
After that the wife doth see her louing husband in the graue I woold ask her what good could remayne with her in her house Since wee know that if her husband were good he was the hauē of al her trobles the remedy of al her necessitys the inuentour of all her pleasours the true loue of her hart the true lord of her parson and the idoll whom shee honored finally he was the faithfull steward of her house and the good father of her children and familye Whether family remayneth or not whyther children remayneth or not in the one and in the other trouble and vexation remaineth most assuredly to the poore widow If perchaunce shee remayne poore and haue no goods let euery man imagine what her life can bee For the poore miserable vnhappy woman eyther wil aduenture her parson to get or wil lose her honesty to demaund An honest woman a noble worthy womā a delicat woman a sweete woman a woman of renowme a woman that ought to maynteyne children and family ought to haue great reason to bee full of anguishe and sorow to see that if shee wil mainteyne her self which the needle shee shal not haue sufficiently to find her self bread and water If shee gaine with her bodie shee loseth her soule If shee must demaund others shee is sahamed If shee fulfill the testament of her husband shee must sell her gowns If shee will not pay his detts they cause her to be brought beefore the iudge As women naturaly are tender what hart will suffer theym to suffer such inconueniēces and what eyes can absteine to shed infinite tears If perchaūce goods doo remaine to the miserable widow she hath no litel care to keepe thē Shee is at great charges and expences to sustain and maintayn her self in long suit about her lands much trouble to augment them and in the end much sorow to depart from them For all her children and heirs doo occupy them selues more to think how they might inherit then in what sort they ought to serue her When I came to this passage a great while I kept my pen in suspence to see whither I ought to touch this matter or no that is to weete that oftentimes the poore wydows put openly the demaund of their goods and the iudges doo secretly demaund the possession of their parson So that first they doo iniury to her honor beefore they doo minister iustice to her demaunds Though perchance shee hath no child yet therfore shee remaineth not without any comfort and for that the parents of her husband doo spoyl her of her goods For in thys case their heirs often times are so disordered that for a worn cloke or for a broken shirt they trouble and sore vexe the poore wydow If perchaunce the miserable wydow haue children I say that in this case shee hath double sorow For if they are yong shee endureth much payn to bring them vp so that ech hour and moment their mothers lyue in great sorows to think onely of the lyfe and health of their children If perhaps the children are old truely the griefs whych remayn vnto them are no lesse For so much as the greatest part of them are eyther proud disobedient malycious negligent adulterers gluttons blasphemers false lyers dull headed wanting wit or sickly So that the ioy of the wofull mothers is to beewayl the death of their welbeeloued husbands and to remedy the discords of their youthfull children If the troubles which remain to the mothers with the sonnes bee great I say that those which they haue with their doughters bee much more For if the doughter bee quick of witt the mother thinketh that shee shal bee vndoon If shee bee simple shee thinketh that euery man will deceiue her If shee bee faier shee hath enough to doo to keepe her If shee bee deformed shee cannot mary her If shee bee well manered shee wil not let her go from her If shee bee euil manered shee cānot endure her If shee bee to solitary shee hath not wherewith to remedy her If shee bee dissolute shee wil not suffer her to bee punished Fynally if shee put her from her shee feareth shee shal bee sclaundeted If shee leaue her in her house shee is afrayd shee shal bee stollen What shal the wofull poore wydow doo seeing her self burdened with doughters enuironed with sonnes and neither of them of such sufficient age that there is any tyme to remedy them nor substāce to maintein them Admit that shee mary one of her sonnes and one doughter I demaund therfore if the poore widow wil leaue her care and anguish Truely I say no though shee choose rich personages and wel disposed shee cannot escape but the day that shee replenisheth her self with doughters in law the same day shee chargeth her hart with sorows trauels and cares O poore wydows deceiue not your selues and doo not immagin that hauing maried your sonnes doughters from that time forward yee shal liue more ioyful and contented For that laid aside which their nephews doo demaund them and that their sonnes in law doo rob them when the poore old woman thinketh to bee most surest the yong man shall make a claym to her goods What doughter in law is there in this world who faithfully loueth her stepmother And what sonne in law is there in the world the desireth not to bee heir to his father in law Suppose a poore widow to bee fallen sick the which hath in her house a sonne in law and that a man ask him vppon his oth which of these two things hee had rather haue either to gouern his mother in law wyth hope to heal her or to bury her with hope to inherit her goods I swear that such woold swere that hee coold reioyce more to geeue a ducket for the graue then a penny to the phisition to purge and heal her Seneca in an epistle saith that the fathers in law naturally loue their doughters in law the sonnes in law are loued of their mothers in law And for the contrary hee saith that naturally the sonnes in law doo hate their mothers in law But I take it not for a generall rule for there are mothers in law whych deserue to bee woorshipped and there are sonnes in law which are not worthy to bee beeloued Other troobles chance dayly to these poore wydows which is that when one of them hath one only sonne whom shee hath in the steed of a husband in steed of a brother in steed of a sonne shee shall see him dye whom sith shee had his lyfe in such great loue shee cannot though shee woold take his death with pacience So that as they bury the dead body of the innocent chyld they bury the lyuely hart of the wofull mother Let vs omit the sorows whych the mothers haue when their children dye and let vs ask the mothers what they feele when they are sick They will aunswer vs that always and as often tymes as their
the gods onely which had no beginning shall haue also no endyng Therefore mee thinketh most noble prince that sage men ought not to desire to lyue long For men which desire to liue much eyther it is for that they haue not felt the trauailes past beecause they haue been fooles or for that they desire more time to geeue them selues to vices Thou mightst not complayn of that sins they haue not cut thee in the flower of the herb nor taken thee greene from the tree nor cut in thee in the spring tide and much lesse eat the eager beefore thou were ripe By that I haue spoken I mean if death had called thee when thy lyfe was sweetest though thou hadst not had reason to haue complayned yet thou mightst haue desired to haue altered it For it is a great grief to say vnto a yong man that hee must dye and forsake the world What is this my lord now that the wall is decayed ready to fall the flower is withered the grape dooth rotte the teeth are loose the gown is worn the launce is blunt the knife is dull and doost thou desire to return into the world as if thou hadst neuer knowen the world These lxii yeares thou hast liued in the prison of thys body wilt thou now the yron fetters haue rot thy legges desire yet to length thy days in this so woful prison They that wil not be cōtented to lyue lx years fyue in this death or to dye in this lyfe will not desire to dye in lx thousand years The Emperour Augustus octauian sayd That after men had lyued .l. years eyther of their own will they ought to dye or els by force they shoold cause them selues to bee killed For at that time all those which haue had any humain felicity are at the best Those which liue aboue that age passe their days in greeuous torments As in the death of children in the losse of goods importunity of sōne in laws in mainteining processes in discharging debts in sighing for that is past in bewailing that that is present in dissēbling iniuries in hearing woful news in other infinit trauails So that it were much better to haue their eies shut in the graue then their harts bodies aliue to suffer so much in this miserable life Hee whom the gods take from this miserable life at the end of 50. years is quited from al these miseries of life For after that time hee is not weak but crooked he goeth not but rouleth hee stumbleth not but falleth O my lord Mark knowest thou not that by the same way whereby goeth death death cometh Knowst not thou in like maner that it is 52. years that life hath fled from death and that there is an other time asmuch that death goeth seeking thy life and death going from Illiria where hee left a great plague and thou departing from thy pallayce ye .ii. now haue met in Hungary knowst not thou that where thou leapedst out of thy mothers intrails to gouern the land immediatly death leaped out of his graue to seeke thy life Thou hast always presumed not onely to bee honored but also to bee honorable if it bee so synce thou honoredst the Imbassadours of Princes which did send them the more for their profyt then for thy seruice why doost thou not honor thy messenger whom the gods send more for thy profyt then for their seruices Doost thow not remember well when Vulcane my sonne in law poysoned mee more for the couetousnes of my goods then any desire hee had of my life thou lord diddest come to comfort mee in my chamber and toldst mee that the gods were cruell to slea the yong and were pytiful to take the old from this world And thou saydst further these woords Comfort thee Panutius For if thow were born to dye now thou diest to liue Sins therefore noble prince that I tell thee that which thow toldst mee and counsaile thee the same which thou coūsayledst mee I render to thee that which thow hast geeuen mee Fynally of these vines I haue gathered these clusters of grapes ¶ The aunswer of the emperour Marcus to Panutius his secretory wherein hee declareth that hee tooke no thought to forsake the world but all his sorow was to leaue beehynd hym an vnhappy chyld to enheryt the Empire Cap. lij PAnutius blessed bee the milk thou hast sucked in Dacia the bread which thou hast eaten in Rome the learning which thou hast learned in Greece the bringing vp which thou hast had in my pallace For thou hast serued as a good seruant in life and geeuest mee counsayl as a trusty frend at death I commaund Commodus my sonne to recompence thy seruice and I beseech the immortal gods that they acquite thy good counsayls And not wythout good cause I charge my sonne with the one and require the gods of the other For the payment of many seruices one man alone may doo but to pay one good counsayl it is requisyt to haue all the gods The greatest good that a frend can doo to his frend is in great wayghty affayres to geeue him good and holsome counsayl And not without cause I say holsome For commonly it chaunceth that those which think with their counsayl to remedy vs do put vs oftentimes in greatest perils All the trauayles of lyfe are hard but that of death ys the most hard and terrible Al are great but this is the greatest All are perillous but this is most perillous All in death haue end except the trauayl of death whereof wee know no end That which I say now no man perfectly can know but onely hee which seeth him self as I see my self now at the point of death Certainly Panutius thou hast spoken vnto mee as a wise man but for that thou knowst not my grief thow couldst not cure my disease for my sore is not there where thou hast layd the playster The fistula is not there where thou hast cut the flesh The opilation is not there where thou hast layd the oyntments There were not the right vayns where thou dydst let mee blood Thou hast not yet touched the wound which is the cause of all my grief I mean that thou oughtst to haue entred further with mee to haue knowen my grief better The sighes which the hart fetcheth I say those which come from the hart let not euery man thynk which heareth thē that he can immediatly vnderstand them For as men can not remedy the anguishes of the spirit so the gods likewise woold not that they shoold know the secrets of the hart Without fear or shame many dare say that they know the thought of others wherein they shew them selues to bee more fooles then wise For since there are many things in mee wherein I my self doubt how can a straunger haue any certayn knowledge therein Thow accusest mee Panutius that I feare death greatly the which I deny but to feare it as mā I doo confesse For
to deny that I feare not death shoold bee to deny that I am not of flesh Wee see by experience that the elephants doo feare the Lyon the Beare the Elephant the woolf the Beare the lamb the woolf the ratte the catte the catte the dogge and the dogge the man fynally the one and the other doo feare for no other thyng but for feare that one kylleth not the other Then since brute beasts refuse death the which though they dye feare not to fyght with the furies nor hope not to rest with the gods so much the more ought wee to feare death which dye in doubt whither the furies wyll teare vs in pieces with their torments or the gods will receyue vs into their houses with ioy Thinkest thou Panutius that I doo not see well that my vine is gathered and that it is not hyd vnto mee that my pallace falleth in decay I know well that I haue not but the kirnel of the raison and the skinne and that I haue not but one sygh of all my lyfe vntill this time There was great difference beetweene mee and thee and now there is great difference beetwixt mee and my self For about the ensigne thow doost place the army In the ryuers thow castest thy nettes within the parks thou huntest the bulles In the shadow thow takest cold By this I mean that thow talkest so much of death beecause that thou art sure of thy life O myserable man that I am for in short space of all that in this lyfe I haue possessed with mee I shall cary nothing but onely my wynding sheete Alas now shall I enter into the field not where of the fierce beasts I shal bee assaulted but of the hungry woorms deuoured Alas I see my self in that dystresse from whence my frayl flesh cannot escape And yf any hope remayn it is in thee o death When I am sick I woold not that hee that is whole shoold comfort mee When I am sorowfull I woold not that hee which is mery shoold cōfort mee When I am banished I woold not that he which is in prosperity shoold comfort mee When I am at the hour of death I woold not that hee shoold comfort mee which is not in some suspicion of lyfe But I woold that the poore shoold comfort mee in my pouerty the sorowfull in my sorows the banyshed in my banishment and hee which is in as great daunger of his life as I am now at the poynt of death For there is no counsayle so healthfull nor true as that of the man which is in sorow when hee counsayleth an other whych is likewise tormented him self If thow consyderest well this sentence thow shalt fynd that I haue spoken a thyng very profound wherein notwithstanding my tongue is appeased For in my oppinion euill shall hee bee comforted which is weeping with him that continually laugheth I say this to the end thow know that I know it and that thou perceiue that I perceyue it And beecause thou shalt not lyue deceyued as to my frend I wil disclose the secret and thow shalt see that small is the sorow which I haue in respect of the great which I haue cause to haue For if reason had not stryued wyth sensuality the sighs had ended my lyfe and in a pond of teares they had made my graue The things which in mee thow hast seene which are to abhorre meat to banysh sleepe to loue care to bee annoyed with company to take rest in sighs to take pleasure in tears may easely declare vnto thee what torment is in the sea of my hart when such tremblings doo appeare in the earth of my body Let vs now come to the purpose and wee shall see why my body is without consolation and my hart so ouercome with sorows for my feelyng greatly exceedeth my complaynyng beecause the body is so delycat that in scratchyng it it complayneth and the hart is so stout and valiaunt that though it bee hurt yet it dyssembleth O Panutius I let thee weete that the occasion why I take death so greeuously is beecause I leaue my sonne Commodus in this life who lyueth in this age most perillous for hym and no lesse daungerous for the Empire By the flowers are the fruits knowen by the grapes the vines are knowen and by the face men are knowen by the colt the horse is iudged and by the infant youth is knowen This I say by the Prince my sonne for that hee hath been euill in my life I doo ymagyn that hee will bee woorse after my death Since thou as well as I knowst the euill condicions of my sonne why doost thou maruell at the thoughts and sorows of the father My sonne Commodus in years is yong and in vnderstanding yonger Hee hath an euill inclynation and yet hee wil not enforce him self against the same hee gouerneth him self by hys own sence and in matters of wisedome hee knoweth lytel of that hee shoold bee ignoraunt hee knoweth too much and that which is woorst of all hee ys of no man esteemed Hee knoweth nothing of things past nor occupyeth hym about any thing present Fynally for that which with myne eyes I haue seene I say and that which with in my hart I haue suspected I iudge that shortly the person of my sonne shall bee in hazard and the memory of hys father perysh O how vnkyndly haue the Gods vsed them selues toward vs to commaund vs to leaue our honor in the hands of our children for it shoold suffice that wee shoold leaue them our goods and that to our frends we shoold commyt our honor But yet I am sory for that they consume the goods in vices and lose the honor for to bee vitious The gods beeyng pityful as they are since they geeue vs the authoryty to deuyde our goods why doo they not geeue vs leaue to make our wills of the honor My sonnes name beeing Commodus in the Romayn tongue is as much to say as profyt but as hee is wee will bee content to bee without the lytle profyt which hee may doo to some so that wee may bee excused of the great domage which hee is lykely to doo to all For I suppose hee wyll bee the scourge of men and the wrath of Gods Hee entreth now into the pathway of youth alone without a guide And for that hee hath to passe by the hygh and daungerous places I feare lest hee bee lost in the wood of vices For the children of Princes and great Lords for so much as they are brought vp in lyberty wantonnes doo easely fall into vices and voluptuousnes and are most stubborn to bee wythdrawen from their folly O Panutius geue attentiue eare to that I say vnto thee Seest thow not that Commodus my sonne is at lyberty is rych is yong and is alone By the fayth of a good man I sweare vnto thee that the least of these wynds woold ouerthrow not onely a yong tender ash but also a mighty strong
thousand sexterces Trauaile to augmēt them for her not to dymynish them I commend vnto thee Drusia the Romain wydow who hath a proces in the Senat. For in the times of the cōmotions past her husband was banished proclamed traytor I haue great pyety of so noble worthy a widow for it is now .iii. moneths since shee hath put vp her cōplaint for the great warres I could not shew her iustice Thou shalt find my sonne that in .xxxv. yeares I haue gouerned in Rome I neuer agreed that any widow should haue any sute beefore mee aboue .viii. dayes Bee carefull to fauour and dispatch the orphanes and wydows For the needy wydows in what place so euer they bee doo encurre into great daunger Not which out cause I aduertise thee that the trauaile to dispatch thē so sone as the maist to administer iustice vnto thē For through the prolōging of beautiful womēs suites their honor credit is diminished So that their busines being prolōged they shal not recouer so much of their goods as they shal lose of their renowm I cōmēd vnto thee my sonne my old seruaunts which with my long yeares and my cruell warres with my great necessityes with the combrance of my body and my long disease haue had great trouble as faithfull seruaunts oftentimes to ease mee haue annoyed them selues It is conuenient since I haue preuailed of their lyfe that they should not loose by my death Of one thing I assure thee that though my body remaine with the wormes in the graue yet beefore the gods I will remember them And heerin thou shalt shew thy selfe to bee a good child when thou shalt recompence those which haue serued thy father well Al princes which shall doo iustice shal get enemies in the excucion therof And sith it is doone by the hands of those which are neere him the more familiare they are with the prince the more are they hated of the people al in generally doo loue iustice but none doo reioyce that they execute it in his house And therfore after the Prince endeth his lyfe the people will take reuenge of those which haue beene ministers therof It were great infamy to the empire offence to the gods iniury to mee vnthankfulnes to thee hauing found the armes of my seruants redy xviii yeares that thy gates should bee shut against them one day Keepe keepe these thinges my sonne in thy memorye and since particulerly I doo remember them at my death cōsider how hartely I loued them in my life ¶ The good Marcus Aurelius Emperor of Rome endeth his purpose life And of the last woords which hee spake to his sonne Commodus and of the table of counsels which hee gaue him Cap. lvii WHen the Emperor had ended his particuler recommendacions vnto his sonne Commodus as the dawning of the day beegan to appeere so his eies beegan to close his tong to faulter his hands to tremble as it dooth accustome to those which are at the point of death The prince perceiuing then litle life to remaine commaunded his secretory Panutius to go to the coffer of his books to bring one of the coffers beefore his presence out of the which hee tooke a table of .iii. foot of bredth and ii of length the which was of Eban bordered al about with vnycorne And it was closed with .2 lyds very fine of red wood which they cal rasing of a tree where the Phenix as they say breedeth which dyd grow in Arabia And as there is but one onely Phenix so in the world is there but one onely tree of that sorte On the vttermost part of the table was grauen the God Iupiter on the other the goddesse Venus in the other was drawen the God Mars the goddesse Diana In the vppermost part of the table was carued a bull in the neythermost part was drawne a kyng And they sayd the paynter of so famous renowmed a woork was called Apelles The Emperor takyng the table in his hands casting his eies vnto his sonne sayd these woords Thou seest my sonne how from the turmoyls of fortune I haue escaped how I into miserable destenies of death doo enter where by experience I shall know what there is after this lyfe I meane not now to blaspheme the gods but to repent my sinnes But I would willingly declare why the gods haue created vs since there is such trouble in life such paine in death Not vnderstāding why the gods haue vsed so great cruelti with creatures I see it now in that after .lxii. yeres I haue sayled in the daunger peril of this life now they commaund mee to land harbour in the graue of death Now approcheth the houre wherin the band of matrimoni is losed the thred of life vntwined the key dooth lock the slepe is wakened my lyfe dooth end I go out of this troublesome paine Remembring mee of that I haue doone in my lyfe I desire no more to liue but for that I know not whyther I am caryed by death I feare refuse his darts Alas what shal I doo since the gods tel mee not what I shal doo what coūsail shal I take of any mā since no man will accompany mee in this iourney O what great disceite o what manifest blindnes is this to loue one thing al the days of his life to call nothing with vs after our death Beecause I desired to bee rych they let mee dy poore Bycause I desired to lyue with company they let mee dy alone For such shortnes of life I know not what hee is that wyl haue a house since the narow graue is our certain mansiō place beeleeue mee my sonne that many things past doo greeue mee sore but with nothing so much I am troubled as to come so late to the knowledge of this life For if I could perfectly beeleeue this neyther should men haue cause to reproue mee neither yet I now such occasion to lament mee O how certaine a thing is it that men when they come to the point of death doo promise the gods that if they proroge their death they will amend their life but notwithstanding I am sory that wee see them deliuered from death without any maner of amendment of life They haue obteyned that which of the gods they haue desired haue not perfourmed that which they haue promised They ought assuredly to think that in the sweetest time of their lyfe they shall bee constreyned to accept death For admit that the punishment of ingrate persons bee deferred yet therfore the fault is not pardoned Bee thou assured my sonne that I haue seene enough hard felt tasted desired possessed eaten slept spoken and also liued inough For vices geeue as great trouble to those which follow them much as they doo great desire to those which neuer proued them I confesse to the immortall Gods that I haue no desire to lyue yet I ensure thee
saluation the euil gotten good a cause of his eternal dānation More ouer yet what toyle and trauayl is it to the body of the man how much more perill to the liuing soule when hee consumeth his hole days and life in wordly broile and yet seely man hee can not absent him self from that vile drudgery till death dooth sommon him to yeeld vp his accoūt of his lief and dooings And now to conclude my prologue I say this booke is deuided into two parts that is to weete in the first tenne chapters is declared how the new come courtier shall beehaue him self in the princes court to winne fauor credit with the prince the surplus of the woork treateth when hee hath atcheeued to his princes fauor acquired the credyt of a worthy courtier how hee shal then continew the same to his further aduaūcement And I doubt no whit but that my lords gentlemen of court wil take pleasure to read it and namely such as are princes familiars and beeloued of court shall mostly reap profyt thereby putting the good lessons aduertisements they fynd heretofore writen in execucion For to the yong courtiers it sheweth them what they haue to doo putteth in remembraunce also the old fauored courtier lyuing in his princes grace of that hee hath to bee circūspect of And fynally I conclude sir that of al the treasors riches gyfts fauors prosperities pleasures seruices greatnes power that you haue possesse in this mortal transitory life by the faith of a christian I sweare vnto you also that you shal cary no more with you then the onely time which you haue wel vertuously emploied during this your pilgrimage ¶ The Argument of the booke entituled the fauored courtier wheare the author sheweth the intent of his woork exhorting all men to read and study good and vertuous bookes vtterly reiectyng fables and vayn trifflyng stories of small doctrine erudicion AVlus Gelius in his booke De noctibus atticis sayeth that after the death of the great poet Homer seuen famous Cyties of Greece were in great controuersy one with the other ech one of them affirmyng that by reason the bones of the sayd poet was theirs and onely apperteined to them all seuen takyng their othes that hee was not onely born but also norished and brought vp in euery one of them And this they did supposing that they neuer had so great honor in any thing but that this was farre greater to haue educated so excellent and rare a man as hee was Euripides also the philosopher born and brought vp in Athens trauayling in the realme of Macedonia was sodeynly striken with death which wofull newes no sooner came to the Athenians ears declared for a trouth but with al expedicion they depeached an honorable imbasy onely to intreat the Lacedemonians to bee contented to deliuer them the bones of the sayd philosopher protesting to them that if they woold franckly graunt them they woold regratify that pleasure done them and if they woold deny them they should assure them selues they woold come to demaund them with sweord in hand Kyng Demetrius held Rhodes beesyged long tyme which at length hee wanne by force of armes and the Rhodians beeing so stubborn that they would not yeeld by composition nor trust to his princely clemency hee commaunded to strike of all the Rhodians heads and to rase the cyty to the hard foundacions But when hee was let vnderstand that there was euen then in the cyty Prothogenes a phylosopher and paynter doutyng least in executyng others hee allso vnknowen myght bee put to the sweord reuoked his cruel sentence and gaue straight commaundement foorthwith they should cease to spoyle and deface the town further and also to stay the slaughter of the rest of the Rhodiens The diuine Plato beeing in Athens aduertised that in the cyty of Damasco in the realme of Palestine were certayn bookes of great antiquity whych a philosopher born of that countrey left beehynd hym there when hee vnderstoode it to bee true went thither immediatly led with the great desyre hee had to see them and purposely if they dyd lyke him afterwards to buy them And when hee saw that neyther at his sute nor at the requests of others hee could obtein them but that hee must buy them at a great price Plato went and sold all his patrimony to recouer them and his own not beeing sufficient hee was fayn to borrow vpon interest of the cōmon treasory to help him So that notwithstanding hee was so profound and rare a philosopher as in deede hee was yet hee woold sell all that small substaunce hee had only to see as hee thought some prety new thing more of philosophy As Ptholomeus Philadelphus kyng of Egipt not contented to bee so wise in al sciences as hee was nor to haue in his library .8000 bookes as hee had nor to study at the least .4 howers in the day nor ordinaryly to dispute at his meales wyth philosophers sent neuertheles an imbassage of noble men to the Ebrews to desire them they woold bee contented to send him some of the best lerned and wisest men among them to teach him the Ebrew tongue to read to him the bookes of their laws When Alexander the great was born his father kyng Phillippe wrote a notable letter immediatly to Aristottle among other matters hee wrote there were these I doo thee to weete O greatest philosopher Aristotle if thou knowst it not that Olimpias my wife is brought to bed of a sonne for which incessantly I geeue the gods immortal thanks not so much that I haue a sonne as for that they haue geeuen him mee in thy tyme. For I am assured hee shal profit more with the doctrine thou shalt teach him thē hee shal preuail with the kingdoms I shal leaue him after mee Now by the examples aboue recited and by many more we coold alledge wee may easly consider with what reuerence and honor the auncient kyngs vsed the learned and vertuous men of their tyme. And wee may also more playnly see it syth then they held in greater price and estimacion the bones of a dead philosopher then they doo now the doctrine of the best learned of our time And not without iust occasiō dyd these famous heroycal princes ioy to haue at home in their houses abrode with them in the feeld such wise learned men whilst they liued after they were dead to honor their bones and carcases and in dooing this they erred not a iot For who so euer accompanieth continually with graue wise men enioyeth this benefit and priuiledge beefore others that hee shall neuer bee counted ignorant of any Therefore continuing still our fyrst purpose let vs say that who so euer will professe the company of sober and wise men yt can not otherwise bee but hee must maruelously profyt by their comapny For beeing in their company they will put all
I doe appeale thee if thou hast dreamed that thou hast wrytten I saye beleue not in dreames and if thou wylt not it shoulde auayle to glorifie me as a frende yet thou mightest wryte it aduertising and repreuing me as the father to the sonne younge vertuous persones are bounde to honour auncient wyse men and no lesse olde wyse men ought to endoctrine the younge people and very young as I am A iust thing it is that the new forces of youth supplie and serue them that are worne by age For their longe experience instructeth our tender age and naturall ignoraunce Youthe is euill applied when it aboundeth in force of the body wanteth the vertues of the mind and age is honoured wherein the force dieth outwarde whereby vertues quickeneth the more inwarde We may see the tree when the fruite is gathered the leaues fall and when flowers drie then more grene and perfecte are the rootes I meane that when the first season of youth is passed whiche is the Sommer time then commeth age called Wynter and purifieth the fruite of the fleshe and the leaues of fauour fal the flowers of delite wither and the vynes of hope drye outwarde then it is ryght that much better are the rootes of good workes within They that be olde and auncient ought to prayse their good workes rather then their white heares For honoure ought to be geuen for the good life and not for the whyte head Glorious is that common wealth and fortunate is that prince that is lord of young men to trauaile and auncient persones to councell As to regarde the sustaininge of the naturalitie of the lyfe in likewyse ought to be considered the policy of gouernaunce the whiche is that al the fruites come nor drye not al at once but when one beginneth another faileth And in this maner ye that be auncient teaching vs and we be obedient as olde fathers and young pullettes being in the neste of the Senate Of some their fethers fallinge and other younge fethered and where as the olde fathers can not flie their trauayles are mainteined by their tender children Frende Catullus I purposed not to wryte one lyne this yeare because my penne was troubled with thy slouthe but the weakenes of my spirite and the great peril of myne offices alwayes called on me to demaunde thy councell This priuiledge the olde wyse men holde in their houses where they dwell They are alwayes lordes ouer them that be simple and are sclaues to them that be wyse I thinke thou hast forgotten me thinking that sithe the death of my dere sonne Verissimus the time hath bene so long that I should forget it Thou hast occasion to thinke so for many thinges are cured in time which reason can not helpe But in this case I can not tell which is the greatest thy trūpery or my dolour I sweare to thee by the gods immortall that the hungry wormes are not so puissaunt in the entrales of the vnhappy chylde as the bitter sorowes are in the heauy hart of the wofull father And it is no comparison for the sonne is dead but one tyme and the heauy father dieth euery momente What wylt thou more that I should saye But that one ought to haue enuy of his death and compassion of my lyfe because in dyeng he lyueth and in the lyuing I dye In the mischaunces of lyfe and in the great vnconstancie of fortune whereas her gyles profiteth but litle and her strengthe lesse I thinke the best remedy is to fele it as a man and dissimule it as discrete and wyse If all things as they be felt at heart should be shewed outward with the tongue I thynke that the wyndes shoulde breake the hearte with syghinges and water all the earth with weping O if the corporal eyes sawe the sorowe of the heart I sweare to thee they should see more of a drop of bloud sweatinge within then all the wepyng that appeareth without There is no comparyson of the great dolours of the body to the least greife of the mynde For all trauayle of the body men may finde some remedy but if the heauy heart speake it is not heard if it wepe it is not sene if it complaine it is not beleued What shal the poore harte doe Abhorre the lyfe wherwith it dieth and desire death wherwith it liueth The highe vertues among noble vertuous people consiste not all onely to suffer the passions of the body but also to dissimule them of the soule They be suche that alter the humours and shewe it not outward they brynge a feuer without altering of the poulce they alter the stomacke they make vs to knele to the earth to suffer the water vp to the mouthe and to take death without leauing of the lyfe and finally they length our life to the intente that we should haue no more trauayle and denieth vs our graue to the intent that we should not reste But considering as I am troubled with sorowes so am I voyde of consolations for when I haue either desire of the one or werynes of the other I vse alwayes this remedy to dissimule with the tongue to wepe with the eyes and to fele it with my heart I passe my lyfe as he that hoped to lese all that he hath neuer to recouer that that is loste I saye this though ye see me not nowe make funeral wepinges and waylinges as I did at the death of my sonne yet thinke not but it doeth bren my heart so that with the great heate inward is consumed the humiditie of the eyes for it brenneth al my spirites within Thou mayest knowe what an honorable father suffereth to lese a good childe in all thinges the gods be liberal except in geuing vs vertuous children Where there is aboūdaunce of great estates there is greatest scarsitie of good inheritours It is a dolefull thing to heare and greater pitie to see howe these fathers clime to haue rychesse and to see their children descende to haue viciousnes To see the fathers honoure their children and the children to infame their fathers yea and the fathers to geue reste to the chyldren and the chyldren to geue trouble to their fathers yea and sometyme the fathers die for sorowe that their children die so sone and we see their childrē wepe because their fathers die so late What should I saye more but that the honoure and ryches that the fathers haue procured with great thought the chyldren consume with litle care I am certayne of one thing that the fathers may gather ryches with strengthe and crafte to susteyne their children but the Gods wyll not haue durable that that is begonne with euyll intention as that is whiche is wonne to the preiudice of other and possessed with an euyll heyre And though the heauy destinies of the father permit that the ryches be lefte to their children to serue them in all their vyces for their pastime at last yet according to their merites the
knewe howe small a thing it is to be hated of men and howe great a comfort to be beloued of god I sweare that you woulde not speake one worde although it were in ieste vnto men neither woulde you cease night nor day to commende your selues vnto god for god is more mercifull to succour vs then we are diligent to call vppon hym For in conclusion the fauour whiche men can giue you other men can take from you but the fauour that god will giue you no man can resiste it All those that possesse muche should vse the company of them whiche can doe muche and if it be so I let you princes wete that all men can not thynke so muche togethers as god him selfe is able to doe alone For the crie of a LyoÌ„ is more fearefull then the howling of a woulfe I confesse that princes and great lordes maye sometimes gayne and wynnne of them selfes but I aske them whose fauoure they haue neade of to preserue and kepe them we see oftentymes that in a short space many come to great authoritie the whiche neither mans wisedome suffiseth to gouerne nor yet mans force to kepe For the authoritie whiche the Romaines in sixe hundred yeares gayned fighting against the Eothes in the space of three yeares they loste We see dayly by experience that a man for the gouernement of his owne house onely nedeth the councell of his friendes and neighbours and doe princes great lordes thinke by their owne heades onely to rule and gouerne many realmes and dominions ¶ What the Philosopher Byas was of his constancie whan he lost all his goodes and of the ten lawes he gaue worthy to bée had in memorie Cap. xxi AMong all nations and sortes of men whiche auaunt them selues to haue had with them sage men the Gretians were the chiefest whiche had and thought it necessary to haue not onely wyse men to reade in their scholes but also they chose them to be princes in their dominions For as Plato saith those whiche gouerned in those daies were Philosophers or els they sayde and did like Philosophers And Laertius wryteth in his second booke De antiquitatibus Grecorum that the Gretians auaunted them selues muche in this that they haue had of all estates persons moste notable that is to wete seuen women very sage seuen Queenes very honest seuen kings very vertuous seuen Captaines very hardy seuen cities verie notable seuen buildinges very sumptuous seuen Philosophers well learned whiche Philosophers were these that folowe The first was Thales Milesius that inuented the Carde to sayle by The seconde was Solon that gaue the first lawes to the Athenians The thirde was Chilo who was in the Orient for Embassadour of the Athenians The fourth was Pittacus Quintilenus who was not only a philosopher but also Captaine of the Mitelenes The fifth was Cleobolus that descended froÌ„ the auncient linage of Hercules The sixte was Periander that long tyme gouerned the realme of Corinth The seuenth was Bias Prieneus that was prince of the Prieneans Therfore as touching Bias you muste vnderstande that when Romulus reigned at Rome and Ezechias in Iudea there was great warres in Grecia betwene the Metinenses and the Prieneans and of these Prieneans Bias the philosopher was prince and Captaine who because he was sage read in the vniuersitie and for that he was hardy was chiefetaine in the warre and because he was wyse he was made a Prince and gouerned the common wealth And of this no man ought to marueile for in those dayes the Philosopher that had knowledge but in one thing was litle estemed in the common wealth After many contentions had betwene the Metâ—nenses and Prienenses a cruell battayle was fought wherof the philosopher Bias was captaine and had the victorie and it was the first battayle that euer anye Philosopher gaue in Greece For the whiche victorie Greece was proude to see that their Philosophers were so aduenturous in warres and hardy of their handes as they were profound in their doctrine and eloquente in their toungues And by chaunce one brought him a nomber of women and maydens to sell or if he listed to vse them otherwyse at his pleasure but this good philosopher did not defile them nor sell them but caused them to be apparailed and safely to be conducted to their own natiue countries And let not this liberalitie that he did be had in litle estimation to deliuer the captiues and not to defloure the virgins For many times it chaunseth that those whiche are ouercome with the weapons of the conquerours are conquered with the delightes of them that are ouercome This deede amongest the Grekes was so highly commended and likewyse of their enemies so praysed that immediatly the Metinenses sent Embassadours to demaunde peace of the Prienenses And they concluded perpetuall peace vpon condition that they shoulde make for Bias an immortall statue sith by his handes and also by his vertues he was the occasion of the peace and ending of the warres betwene them And trulye they had reason for he deserueth more prayse which wynneth the hartes of the enemies in his tentes by good example then he whiche getteth the victorie in the fielde by shedding of bloud The hartes of men are noble and we see daily that oftentyme one shal soner ouercome many by good then many ouercome one by euyll and also they saye that the Emperour Seuerus spake these wordes By goodnes the least slaue in Rome shall leade me tied with a heere whether he wyll but by euill the most puissaunt men in the worlde can not moue me out of Italy For my harte had rather be seruaunt to the good then Lorde to the euill Valerius Maximus declareth that when the citie of Priene was taken by enemies put to sacke the wyfe of Bias was slayne his children taken prysoners his goodes robbed the citie beaten downe and his house set on fire but Bias escaped safe and went to Athens In this pytiful case the good philosopher Bias was no whit the sadder but rather sang as he went by the way and when he perceiued that men marueiled at his mirthe he spake vnto them these wordes Those whiche speake of me for wantinge my citie my wife and my children and losing al that I had truly such know not what fortune meaneth nor vnderstande what philosophie is The losse of children and temporall goodes cannot be called losse if the life be safe and the renowne remaine vndefiled Whether this sentence be true or no let vs profoundly consider if the iust god suffer that this citie should come into the handes of the cruell tyrauntes then this prouision is iuste for there is no thing more conformable vnto iustice then that those whiche receyue not the doctrine of the Sages shoulde suffer the cruelties of the Tyrauntes Also thoughe my ennemies haue kylled my wyfe yet I am sure it was not withoute the determynation of the Gods who after they created her bodye immediately appoynted the
ende of her lyfe Therfore why should I bewayle her death synce the gods haue lent her life but vntyll this daye The greate estimation that we haue of this life causeth that death semeth vnto vs sodayne and that the lyfe vnwares with death is ouertaken but these are wordes of the children of vanitie for that by the wyl of the gods death visiteth vs and against the wylles of men lyfe forsaketh vs. Also my chyldren be vertuous philosphers and albeit they be nowe in the handes of tyrauntes we oughte not therefore to call them captiues for a man may not call him a captiue whiche is laden with irons but him whiche is ouerwhelmed with vices And although the fire haue burnt my house yet I knowe not why I ought to be sad for of truthe it was now olde and the wynde did blowe downe the tyles the wormes did waste the woode and the waters that ran downe perished the walles and it was old and lyke to fall and perchaunce would haue done greater displeasure For most commonly enuy malice and olde houses sodainely without any warning or knocking at the doore assaulteth menne finally there came the fire whiche quited me of many troubles First of the trouble that I should haue had in repairing it secondarely it saued me money in pluckinge it downe thirdly it preserued me and myne heires from muche coste and many daungers For oftentimes that whiche a man consumeth in repayring an olde house would with auauntage by hym a newe Also those whiche saye that for the taking away of my goodes I lacke the goodes of fortune such haue no reason so to thinke or saye For fortune neuer geueth temporall goodes for a proper thing but to those whome she list and when she will dispose them therfore when fortune seeth that those men whome she hath appointed as her distributers doe hourde vp the same to them and to their heires then she taketh it from them to geue it to an other Therefore by reason I should not cōplayne that I haue lost any thing for fortune recommendeth vnto an other the temporall goodes but I cary pacience and Philosophie with me so that they haue discharged me from all other and haue no more charge but for my selfe alone Laertius declareth in his fift boke of the sayings of the Gretians That this Bias determined to goe to the playes of Mounte Olimpus whereunto resorted people of all nations and he shewed hym selfe in this place of so highe an vnderstanding that he was counted supreame and chiefe of all other philosophers and wonne the name of a true philosopher Other philosophers then beinge in the same playes Olimpicalles asked him many questions of sondry matters whereof I wyll make mention here of the chiefest ¶ The questions demaunded of the Philosopher Bias. THe first question was this Tell me who is the vnhappiest man in the worlde Bias aunswered He is moste vnhappy that is not paciente in aduersities For men are not killed with the aduersities they haue but with the impacience whiche they suffer The second was what is most hardest troublesome to iudge he answered There is nothing more difficulte then to iudge a contention betwixte two friendes For to iudge betwene two enemies th one remaineth a frend but to be iudge betwene two friendes the one is made an enemy The third was what is moste hardest to measure whereunto Bias aunswered Ther is nothing that needeth more circumspection then the measuring of time for the time shold be measured so iustly that by reason no time should want to do wel nor any time should abound to do euill The fourth was what thing is that that nedeth no excuse in the accomplishment therof Bias answered the thing that is promised must of necessity be parformed for otherwise he that doth lose the creadite of his word shoulde lose more then he that should lose the promise to him made The 5 was what thinge that is wherin the men aswell good as euill should take care Bias aunswered men ought not in any thinge to take so greate care as in sekinge counsayle and counselours for the prosperous times cannot be maintayned nor the multitude of enemyes resisted if it be not by wise men and graue counsayles The sixte was what thing that is wherin men are praised to be negligent he aunswered in one thinge only men haue lycence to be neglygente and that is in chosing of frendes Slowly ought thy frendes to be chosen and they neuer after for any thing ought to be forsaken The seuenth what is that which the afflyeted man doth most desire Bias aunswered It is the chaunge of fortune and the thing which the prosperous man doth most abhorre is to thinke that fortune is mutable For the vnfortunate man hopeth for euery chaunge of fortune to be made better and the wealthye man feareth through euery chaunge to be depriued of hys house These wer the questions which the philosophers demaunded of Bias in the playes of the mount Olimpus in the 60 Olimpiad The philosopher Bias liued 95. yeres and as hee drew nere his death the Prienenses shewing them selues to be maruelous sorofull for the losse of suche a famous man desired him earnestly to ordeine some lawes wherby they myght know howe to chose captaynes or some Prince whiche after hym mighte gouerne the Realme The phylosopher Bias vnderstandinge their honeste requestes gaue theym certaine lawes in fewe woordes whiche folowe Of the whyche the deuine Plato maketh mencion in his booke De legibus and lykewise Aristotle in the booke of Occonomices ¶ The Lawes whych Bias gaue to the Prienenses WE ordeine and commaunde that no man be chosen to be prince amonge the people vnlesse he be at least 40 yeres of age For gouernours ought to be of such age that nether youth nor small experience should cause theym to erre in their affaires nor weakenes through ouermuch age should hinder them from taking paines We ordeine and commaund that none be chosen amongest the Prienenses gouernour if he be not wel learned in the greke letters For there is no greater plague in the publik weale then for him to lack wisedome whych gouerneth the same We ordeine and commaunde that ther be none amongest the Prienenses chosen gouernour vnlesse he hath bene brought vp in the warres 10. yeres at the leaste For he alone dothe knowe how precious a thing peace is whych by experience hath felte the extreme miseryes of warre We ordeine and commaund that if any haue bene noted to be cruel that he be not chosen for gouernour of the people For that man that is cruel is likely to be a tyrant We ordeine comaund that if the gouernor of the Prienenses be so hardy or dare presume to breake the aunciēt lawes of the people that in such case he be depriued from thoffice of the gouernour and lykewise exiled from the people For there is nothing that destroyeth soner a publike weale then to ordeine new and fond lawes and