this so great a Fear What Act or Doing is there but Men and Women have dyed in it Mâ—â—y of Feavors more of Surfeits some of Cold some of overmuch Heat a great number of sorrow not a few of Gladness some in Talking some in Sneezing some in Gasping some ailing nothing but making them ready in the Morning What would you make of this but that Death is ready at al Times anâ— Hours to us that are Mortal K Henry the First who for his Surname was called The â—air Clerk or Learned Man dyed of eating of a Lamprey His Prince and eldest Son and his fair Daughter were both drowned in the Sea What shall never King eat Lampreys again Nor the Daughters nor Sons of Kings come in Ships or Boats for that Cause How often do you see that they shun it for all that except the Weather be tempestuous K. William Rufus was slain with an Arrow in hunting Shall Kings therefore give over all pastime or let no Man bear Bows while they be in Hunting How many do you see yearly drowned in the Thames And who forsaketh notwithstanding to row in a Barge or Wherry How many thousand of Children be born every day in one Place or other How many Hundreds think you in the City of London and in the Shire of Essex in a Month And if two dy in a year in Childbed it is a great Mervail And yet even they commonly dy of some Fear or some Fright or some Ague or some other Cause than the very Birth going before So that it is not Ten but a Hundred or a Thousand to one that the Woman shall escape who travaileth with Child And yet they do not amiss to commit themselves to God and to require his Aid at all such good and natural Works And they have the more Comfort as I think when they be in pain But to make this so perillous a Case and so fearful a Matter and so dangerous a Battel I do assure you I se no Cause And because you reckoned up so many Diseases whereunto natural Men and Women be subject And therefore you would be loth this also should be added You shall see how much contrary I am to you I think that bringing forth of Children doth not only preserve Women from many Diseases and other Inconveniences but it doth also clear their Bodies amend the Colour prolong their Youth If I should bring unto you th' authority and Reasons of Physic therefore altho it be easy to do yet would you ask me who the Devil made me a Physician And you would say yoa had no leisure to look over and try those Books which you may easily look and se the Conclusion Mark in the Court and in all other places where ye go Look what Ladies and Gentlewomen be most fruitful and have most Children if they look not for their Age moâ— youngly best coloured and be cleareâ—t 〈◊〉 Diseases Mark again them which be 〈◊〉 after they pass once Fourty or Fourty five years and toward Fifty if they look not withered yea either Red or Tawny coloured and older than they be by a great way I could bring you ready Examples not far hence where be three Sisters marryed Theldest hath Ten or Twelve Children the middlemost but one or two and the youngest had never a one who being best kept and most at Ease yet theldeit Sister being Ten years elder looketh Twenty years younger than the youngest And thâ—â—â—dlemost according to the Rate 〈◊〉 Children And I could name â—â—â—ugh to you in the Court and in 〈◊〉 and whensoever you wil I wiâ—â—â—hew you them But I would have you Mr. Agamus to mark this that I say And if you find my Sayings true then never be in that Heresy that you be in But rather think that for the Queens Majesties own Person and the Preservation of her Body Health Colour Beauty Grace and Youth it is an Hundred times better for her Highness to Mary and to have Children than to live sole Now let us come to the Grief of Mind For this was another piece whereby ye crept so into us that no Husband pleased you neither Stranger nor English neither whom her Highness would please nor whom she would not please And ye thought there would be no long Agreement Seing no Man nor Woman doth always agree with himself much less he can agree with another And hereupon ye builded your mervelous Forces and Castles What Inconveniences come with Disaggrements What Grief of the Graunting What Hatred of the Denying What Danger of the Dissension And you helped your self stoutly with the Histories of Queens and Noblewomen who have been greatly troubled vexed and brought to Extremities 〈◊〉 â—hose means I wil venture with you wheâ—â— begun and there joine with you where yâ—â— think your self strongest Can never Man â—â—ree long with himself Mary so much the â—â—tter say I. We do not think al one of thingâ— when we be Children and when we be Men nor when we be young Men and when we be old Mary we be the wiser For as Wisdom cometh Error goeth away Folly and Wisdom cannot agree That which to Childishness and Folly of Youth appeareth good to gray Age appeareth Lightnes and nothing worth Were it not better that this Dissension and Debate in our selves were at the first but that God would so train us up that we might se how we did profit Have we not after a little Wisdom cometh to us this Debate in our selves every day The Appetite draweth one way and Reason another Th' one would run at randome th' other holdeth back What do good Fathers to their Children but provide for them a Dissenter a Schoolmaster who should by godly Perswasion yea and sometimes Rebukes keep them from that which they most desire Doth not two Eyes se better than one Do not the contrary Opinions declared open the better the Truth Why doth else the Judge hear both Parties before he give Sentence And wherefore be Counsillors but because they be not always of the same Affection that the Prince is And by this Dissenting is the best way found out For even as when in a heap of Sand or Mould there is espied a bright thing like Mettal by sifting of it and washing it will come to a neerer Guess and by farther Travail be tryed whether it be Gold or no So when a thing glistereth and appeareth gay the same being sifted in Consultation among divers Judgments at the last doth so come to the strong Water or Ramentation or to the Test til it appeareth in his Clearness how it is to be reputed Or els Copper may sometimes be taken for Gold and a vain thing that wil consume like Brimstone may be praised for good Mettal And I pray you who shall more carefully look to or more faithfully counsil or be more circumspectly fearful for the managing of her Highness Affaires than an Husband should do Or who can more amiably more frankly more certainly or more secretly
generally afterwards received a late Learned Professor of that Language in Basil named Witstein made an Oration in that University lately Printed to confute it and to revive the old exploded Sounds And as he was thus useful to Learning in the University so he was also to Religion He was bred up in the Protestant Doctrine a pretty rare matter in those Times and he never flinched from it All his Kindred of his Father's side were neither Neutrals nor Papists as he wrote somewhere of himself all enclining to the Truth and Gospel Old and Young and so known and noted This he wrote to some because certain Backbiters in King Edward's Days had charged him to have been a Neutral The Reason whereof seemed to be because he did not run so fast in the Reformation under that King as some Hot-spurs would have him who knew not what the matter meant For he was publickly known to be a Protestant in the time of King Hâ—nry VIII living then in Cambridge and being there in place of Eminence when the Bishop of Winchester the Chancellor of that University was severe towards those that professed the Gospel and threatned Fire and Faggot-bearing Smith publickly defended them and opposed those rigorous Methods and staved off many And this he did before all Cambridge and all the Justices of Peace in the Shire and saved many and so continued He stood up and pleaded for the Professors and Profession of the Gospel publickly both in the University before all the Learned Men and not only so but in the Convocation before all the Bishops and in the Parliament-House before the Lords and Commons as he writ in Vindication of himself And being a Man of Reputation among them the University made use of him once as their Messenger and Advocate to the Court to address to Queen Katharine Par to whom he brought their Letters beseeching her Intercession to the King on their behalf being now as they apprehended in imminent Jeopardy For the Parliament in the 37th that is that last Year of that King's Reign had given him all the Colleges in the Kingdom whereat the University was sore afraid Dr. Smith repaired to that good Queen entreating her to prevail with his Majesty that not withstanding the late Act they might enjoy their Possessions as before And she did as she was a true Lover and Patroness of Learning and Religion effectually apply to the King and had her Request in that behalf granted and to that purport she wrote her Letters to the University of which Smith was also the Bringer wherein she called him their Discreet and Learned Advocate and having admonish them that she would have their University to be an University of Divine Philosophy as well as of Natural or Moral she let them understand that she had according to their Desire attempted her Lord the King's Majesty for the stay of their Possessions And That notwithstanding his Majesty's Property and Interest through the Consent of the High Court of Parliament his Highness was such a Patron of good Learning that he would rather add and erect new occasion therefore than confound those their Colleges So that Learning might hereafter ascribe her very Original whole Conservation and sure Stay to our Sovereign Lord as she expressed her self In his publick Academical Performances he acquitted himself with wonderful Applause and Admiration of all the Hearers And at a Commencement which happened as near as I can guess this Year being now the King's Professor both his Disputations and his Determinations were such that Haddon as good Judge in a Letter to Dr. Cox giving him some Account of that Commencement told him That had he been there he would have heard another Socrates and that he caught the forward Disputants as it were in a Net with his Questions and that he concluded the profound Causes of Philosophy with great Gravity and deep Knowledge Dr. Smith's Places and Preserments in Cambridge and elsewhere as they brought him in tolerably fair Incomes so they together with his Eminent Vertue and Learning reconciled him great Respect For he had the Lecture in the Civil Law bâ—ing the King's Professor in that Science for which he received 40 l. per Annum He was Chancellor to the Bishop of Ely which was worth to him 50 l. per Annum Besides he had a Benefice viz. of Leverington in Cambridgeshire which came to the Value of 36 l. per Annum So that his Preferments amounted to 120 l. a Year and upwards And such a good Husband he was that he made some Purchases before and some soon after his leaving the University as we shall hear by and by And this was the Port he lived in before his leaving of Cambridge He kept Three Servants and Three Guns and Three Winter Geldings And this stood him in 30 l. per Annum together with his own Board CHAP. IV. Smith is removed into the Protector 's Family His Preferments under King Edward Made Secretary Goes an Embassie Doctor Smith was often at King Henry's Court and taken notice of by that King and was growing so dear to him as to be received in Place and Office under him had he lived a little longer But soon after K. Henry's Death he was removed from Cambridge into the Duke of Somerset's Family where he was employed in Matters of State by that Great Man the Uncle and Governour of the King and Protector of his Realms Into whose Family were received many other very Learned and Pious Men. Long he had not been here but the University earnestly address'd to him to stand their Friend in some certain weighty Matter wherein not any single Cause of theirs was in hazard but themselves and their All. Which without Question was the Danger the University was in upon the Bill in Agitation in the Parliament-House for giving the King the Chauntries Hospitals Fraternities and Colleges which last Word took in the Societies of the Universities At which they look'd about them and made all the Friends they could at Court to save themselves And as they applied now to Cheke so to Smith also in this elegant Latin Epistle which was drawn up by the exquisite Pen of Ascham their Orator wherein may be observed what a general Opinion there went of his compleat Learning Si tu is es Clarissime SMITHE in quem Academia haec Cantabrigiensis universas vires suas universa Victatis jura enercuecrit si tiki uni omnia Doctrinae sâ—ae genera omnia Reipub. Ornamenta licentissimè contulerit si fructura gloriae suae in te uno jactaverit si spem Salutis suae in â—â—â—otissimùm reposuèrit Age ergo mente-ic cogitatione tua complectere quid tu vicisson illi debes quid illa quid Literae quid Respublica quid Deus ipse pro tantis Vietatis officiis quibus sic Dignitas tua efflorescit justissime requirit Academia nil debet tibi imo omnia sua
he might well enjoy a Part especially with the Concurrence and Interest of some of the Powerful men about the King when they begged for themselves And never after could Sir William Smith nor any of his Posterity recover it For the Premises had been so long possest by others that neither Sir Thomas Smith who had suffered much for his unshaken Loyalty to King Charles I. had success in his Petition preferred to King Charles II. upon his Return nor yet Sir Edward Smith still surviving in his upon the late Revolution He that is minded to know more at large how this Case stood may in the Appendix find the Petition of the foresaid Sir Thomas Smith exemplified as it was humanely communicated to me by his Son together with the Kings order thereupon CHAP. XV. The Secretary Oppressed with business His Discourse with the Queen about Ireland and the Earl of Essex His Act in the behalf of Colleges of Learning His Sickness and Death THE Secretary could not want for Care and Toyl in these busie and most dangerous Days wherein the Nation was exposed to the Malice and Envy of the Pope and the mighty Kings of Spain and France the one more Covertly the other more professedly but both fatal Enemies to the Queen and the Religion established the Irish backed in their Rebellion by a Foreign Power and at home a great many Malecontents To trace him a little in his Pains and Diligence To them he devoted himself even to quite Tyring after he had been a year or two exercised therein For when once in the year 1574. he had a few Play-days and was ready to go home to his House in Essex he told his Friends that he was thorowly weary tam Animo quam Corpore and could scarce endure any longer And thaâ— which increas'd his Weariness was the Queens Wariness for she did not use to be hasty in Dispatch of Matters which was Smith's great Desire should not hang in hand This he would call among his intimate Friends the Queens Irresolution and in some Heat as he was somewhat hasty and quick in his Temper complained at this time to the Lord Treasurer That it was sometimes So and sometimes No and in all times uncertain and ready to Stays and Revocation And sometimes she would not be spoken with upon Business and Access to the Queen was clean shut up Which made him between jest and earnest say That he thought her Majesty supposed that he would chide as he dared But indeed he said that he could not but Lament and complain of this her Irresolution which did weary and kill her Ministers destroy her Actions and overthrew all good Designs and Counsels And again in this Discontent he cryed out I wait while I have neither Eyes to see nor Legs to stand upon And yet these Delays grieve me more and will not let me sleep in the Night The Occasion of this present Distaste of Smith was that the Queen had commanded the Earl of Leicester and Sir Christopher Hatton her chief Favourites to forbear moving suits to her And when the Secretary went to her with private Suits he could get neither Yea nor Nay And if these Two aforesaid Persons were forbidden to move Suits Then said he had we need within a while to have a Horse or an Ass to carry Bills after us encreasing daily and never dispatched as he angerly and wittily spake to one of his Friends Of these Practices of the Queen he would say These Resolutions and Revocations of Resolutions will be the undoing of any good Action Matters in Ireland being in an ill Condition the Lord Treasurer and the Secretary dealt earnestly with the Queen to supply the Earl of Essex an honest Gentleman and an excellent Commander in Ulster with Men and Money those Northern Parts of Ireland being now in great Disturbance and Essex forced by reason of secret Enemies in the Court to lie still and do but little to the purpose for want of both The Queen resolved and revoked her Resolutions again This created the Secretary a great deal of Vexation For she would say she would consult with the Lord Treasurer when he came to Court tho' she had done it and had his Opinion in that behalf before The Earl of Leicester privately hindred all having no Love for Essex Thus the Earl of Essex's Plat stuck with the Queen But about 10 or 12 days passing in March the Secretary comforted himself by the Perswasion that she was come to a full Resolution to go forward with it without any going back and that she would send for him and signifie the same to him And had it indeed been so to use the Secretaries Expression the Realm and she had past a great and troublesome Ague and especially the Lord Treasurer and himself and such others as they who had Doings in that Matter But the Queen took respite again until she heard again from the Lord Treasurer Whereat the Secretary was so bold as to tell her that she knew his Lordships Mind full many times told her before And this he signified unto that Lord and in Conclusion told him That Coming unsent for to have Resolution he was sent back again without Resolution He prayed God to send it that Night or to morrow And added that it was high time to resolve one Way or other Which done he would be bold to take a little rest and make some start home into Essex being thorowly weary he said am animo quam corpore and could scarce endure any longer But at last in the Month of March 1575. Anno incipiente Sir Thomas and the Lord Burghley got the Earl of Essex's Business to come to a Resolution Which was to send a good supply with a Plat how he was to manage himself The Queen had first entred into a discourse one night with her Secretary about Ireland and declared her dislike of the Enterprise of Ulster for default of them who should execute it asking him what Men of Counsel or Wisdom there were into whose Hands might be committed so great a Mass of Money and so great a Charge as should be sent The Secretary answered her Majesty That the Counsel what and how to do herein was already taken And that a Plat was laid down by my Lord of Essex and allowed of by the Lord Deputy and Council there and liked of by the Lords of her Council here as she her self had heard of the Lords and all their Reasons so that said he whereas it is said Priusquam incipias consulto that had been Maturely and Deliberately done And to which as he subjoyned her Highness by Letters to the Lord Deputy and the Earl of Essex had given her Consent And now there rested nothing but Ubi consulueris mature opus est facto To which her Majesty had set a good Beginning giving a Warrant for the half Years Charges Now said Sir Thomas Counsels be commonly of Old men
doth bring to th one and so much more Hatred and Displeasure the Denying doth bring unto thother As for Example sake it K. Philip desired most earnestly we should make War with the Frenchmen and Q. Mary desired no less to live in Quiet and to have Peace with them the Husband and the Wife in most contrary Appetites the Granting extremely grieved th one the Denyal should as extremely have offended thother Of the Event what followed we know But ye wil say this was when a Foreign Prince did marry the Queen who having War of his own with the Frenchmen must needs desire his Wifes Country for Loves-sake to joyn with him And this Realm having Wounds enough at home had good Cause to mislike War abroad But if her Grace marry one of her own here at home there shall be no such Occasion you wil say but their Minds shall be al one whom th one loveth thother loveth also and whom the one misliketh so wil thother also This is wholly assured if it were always so but seeing never Man was always in one Mind himself continually nor yet Woman but that which at one time we love another time we hate what we like being Children we mislike being Men and Women and much more when we be old How can we think that any Man or Woman may be always of one Opinion Mind Judgment or Desire with another where he is not so with himself Conveniet nulli qui secum dissidet ipse saith the old Verse And what Mischiefs those Break may bring we have too many Examples both amongst the Graecians Romans and â—arbarians And first I will begin with the Goths when they were Lords over Rome and Italy Amula Suinta or as some do write her Amala Suenta the Daughter of K. Theodoricus King of Rome and al Italy and so rightfally Heir of that Kingdom to govern the Realm the better took to her Husband Theodotus a Nobleman of the â—oths who belike afterwards dissenting with her in Opinion of Matters of the State first found the means to exile her into a little Island in a Lake besides Vossinana in Italy and afterwards there caused her to be most cruelly slain Philippe Vicecount of Milain being at a very low Ebb by Marriage of Beatrice wife to Fantino Cane had the Lordships and Seignories of Vercelli Alexandria Navarra Cortana four goodly Cities a great number of Riches Thereby he recover'd again the State of Milain and Lumbardy which was before lost This man to recompence her Kindnes and al these Benefits within a short while after caused her to be convicted of Adultery and cruelly to be put to death Iane the 2d Queen of Naples did otherwise She took to Husband Iaques Countie de la Nardy of the French Kings Blood with whom she indented that he should be contented to be called Prince Tarento and to leave to her not only the Name but also the Government of the Kingdom of Naples This liked not he or els his Counsillors and so removed her from Administration and kept her almost as a Prisoner She like a wise Woman feigned to rejoyce thereat and to bear it well until such time as she had compassed all her Device and shut him clean out of Naples For which Cause altho' he made War yet was he sain at the last willed he nilled he to live as a Man banished out of that Realm I have read of many being Sole Inheritors and Princesses of many Countrys which after took unto them Husbands who had no better success tho' not all so evil Even in our days Q. Mary took K. Philip to her Husband a Noble Prince Wise Discreet and Fortunate Yet many Men think that thereby she lost the Hearts of the most number of her Subjects And it is too manifest that immediately upon it in a very short space an incredible number of her Subjects were by order of such Law and Justice as was used in those Days most cruelly put to Death And God for his part whether offended that she so living Sole and as may be thought a Virgin did so suddenly choose to marry or rather that she finding the Light of the Gospel abroad in her Realm did what she could to Extinguish it and put it out did so punish the Realm with Quartan Agues and other such long and new Sicknesses that in the two last years of her Reign so many of her Subjects were made away what with the Execution of the Sword and Fire and what by Sicknesses that the third Part of the Men in â—ngland was consumed Ye see I do pass oâ—e◠〈◊〉 thinâ—s liâ—htly and do not Amâ—lify thâ—◠〈◊〉 Oratoâ—◠〈◊〉 Bu◠〈◊〉 â—â—ould have evâ—ry Piece rathâ—â—â—o 〈◊〉 â—eighed of you deâ—per than that you 〈◊〉 think that I should with words overlade the â—atter I comâ— to the Third that is what is best for the Realm and her Subjects And surely in this matter methinks for many Reasons it is best as it is now And here I will not over-slip this Advantage I pray you what Fault is there to be found with the Governance now Wherein do we lack or want an Husband for the Queen Compare both Q. Maries Time married and the Q. Highnesses Time that now is unmarryed Then was Burning and Hanging at Home Wars and Losing of Strong Holds Abroad Most Men discontent except a few of her Sect with Subsidies and Loans Sicknesses and Promooters as well th' one as th' other throughly vexed War we saw and felt and other Mischief was feared which whether it was to come or no few know Now for War we have Peace for Fear Security So tho' even the Papists altho ' otherwise they lost for their Stiffness yet they be more sure of their Lives now by the Clemency of the Time than they were then by the importune Favour of the Prince For Scarcity we have reasonable Plenty for Brass-Mony good Silver For Servitude Liberty What can a Common-wealth desire more than Peace Liberty Quietness little taking of base Mony few Parliaments their Coin amended Friendship with their Neighbours War with no Man either to follow the Gospel or Security of Life if they will be Papists Except peradventure we should seem to do as Aesop's Frogs did which not content with the King which Iupiter gave them knowing them to need none were weary of their Liberty and would not rest till they had also the Stork and Hearn for their Kings From whom now with all their Cryes these many Thousand years they cannot be delivered Well yet for the Wars and such Martial Feats it is most convenient to have a Man who should Govern abroad take upon him the Spear and Shield be there in Presence himself which is marvellous Encouragement to the Souldier to Fight in the Sight of the Prince where he thinks his Reward shall be according to his Deserts And as a great Warrior said I had rather have an Army of Harts their General being a Lyon than an Army
to bed not so nicely as the Ladies and Gentlewomen be here but either in a Tent or a wide Barn after the maner of her Country Ireland And I'tell you said she I felt in a maner no pain at al these Births Nor I se no Cause why I should make so nice of the Matter as you do here in England We do not so in our Country Whereat an old Lady was wonderfully offended and said they were Beasts and she was but a Beast to say so Then she as a witty Lady turned the Matter and said It was a Gift which St. Patrick begged for her Country-folk the Irish Women of our Lady But the Truth is al Women that stir about to travail and to labour as they do there and do not use themselves to Rest and Ease as they can better away with Travail because of use so they bear that Travail of Childbirth with much more Ease and in maner with no pain Which we do se also in these idle Runnagates Egyptians whose Women be always trudging from place to place as they be and be brought to bed in the Straw in some Barn or Out-house without any great Curiosity And within three or four days after yea sometimes the second day they ride away with the rest of that beggarly Train I remember I read when I was a Boy in Aristotle and I trow it be in his Politicks he would that those that should make Laws for a Common-wealth should have regard also to Women that were great with Child that they should not use themselves to over-fine ' Diet nor to over-much Rest. Which saith he may be don if they do appoint them certain Pilgrimages to be don to such Gods as have the Honor of such Matters Meaning such Gods as the Gentils did Sacrifice unto for such things as Gemini Lucina Parcae Iuno c. His purpose is that when the Time of Birth draweth nigh they should by gentle means be brought to a kind of Exercise and Travail either on Horseback or on Foot or both to the intent that they might the easilier bear the Travail of Childbirth And thought that they could by no means so wel be perswaded unto them which then he somewhat heavy because of their Burden as by Colour of Holiness and Religion So that our Pilgrimage also which we had of late years was not much out of the Way for such an Effect as may appear But I tary long about these Matters To bear Children is painful I do not deny It is the Threat of God to Eve and to al her Posterity as wel as to Adam and al Men to get his Living with the Sweat of his Brows And yet some Men sweat but easily And why should not I think also that her Highness should bring forth her Children more easily than a great sort of other Women I se nothing leadeth me to the contrary Many things do encourage me to think so Her Learning Discretion Judgment her store of Physicians and of al things necessary for them to use That where other by their Folly do make that Travail to them more painful and dangerous than naturally it should be her Highness by her Noble Vertues and Wisdom should make it more easie yea than of natural Course it should be For as there be ways to augment so there be ways to diminish Pain or Grief Wherein standeth the Difference of Wisdom or Folly But why do I stand upon this Would not her Majesty be glad think you to take some pain to make a Prince To make one who should be a part of her who should mâ—ke her alive after her Death Reign in her stead when by Course of Nature she can tarry no longer Who shall continue and transplant her Name and Posterity for many an hundred years here Kings in England and leave such a Row of that Race as is the Root of Iesse Was it nor you of whom I heard even now that all fair and laudable things be painful to come by Will you not grant unto me that this which I speak of now to have a Prince born of her own Body who should Reign after her Highness here in England in whom she might se her own Image not painted in a Table but lively expressed every Joint yea both Body and Soul who should cal her Highness Queen Mother and whom al England should cal King and Father Whom it you do not think more to be esteemed than al the Treasure that the wise and rich Prince her Grandfather K. Henry the VII left at his Death or that the Noble and Magnificent Prince her Father K. Henry VIII spent in his Life ye are in a contrary Opinion to all English men Whom when she shall behold kiss and embrace she shall take more Comfort and more Pleasure in than of all the Riches and Jewels which her Highness had or ever was Lady of Do you not think I say such a Jewel worthy to have the pains taken for the getting of it and bringing it to life Are you he that was even now so stout that if the Thing were good laudable and necessary to be had the harder it were to obtain the more you thought it were to be laboured for And so you Counsilled and proved by many Reasons and Authorities Are you I say now again so weak and so womanly hearted that for a little pains in the Birth peradventure of one Hour or two or at the most of one Day for the Extremity of the Pain cannot lightly be longer wil counsil us to cast down our Courage and run away like Cowards and leave al this so rich and so precious a Treasure ungotten and unlaboured for for the Travail of one hour I wis Foloign cost more the getting and Calais the loosing And yet this Treasure were more worth than both those Holds to her Majesty I dare say and unto the Realm of England if it should be esteemed by true value Mary yet ye go neerer me and bring in certain Queens who have dyed in Childbirth And herein you had good Advantage to have two Examples so neer and in so fresh Memory that they must needs make much indeed to the Terror of Mischance And yet this is but another Startbugg that you have gotten to make us afraid It is sineâ— the Conquest five hundred years little under or over In which time our Chronicles have indifferently wel been kept and many Kings and Queens have dyed and al not after one sort I pray you how many more have you read of that have dyed in Child-bed And yet one of those was not the Queen but Dowager as you know well enough And some men would say it was thought that that did distress her then and bring her to her End as much as Travail of the Birth But of that I will not Dispute But if in five hundred years in which space so many Queens have had so many Children and only one or two have dyed in Childbed would you make
to the Substance of the Realm and Riches both publick and private it would be no less Pity to think than it is needless to tell unto you especially For first what Debt the Realm was left in to be paid beyond the Seas you heard it declared by Mr. Secretary in the first Parliament of the Queens Majesty and how much it did exceed the Debt of King Edward VI. What was owing also to the Subjects within the Realm It was marvellous to hear how the private Substance was diminished Part might be seen by the Subsidy Books And in the first Parliaments of King Philip and Queen Mary You heard a Burgess of London make plain Declaration and proof that the City of London alone was worse in Substance in those Five Years by 300000 l. than it was at the Death of the late King Edward And if you will say that King Philip being so occupied with continual Wars in which the Emperor his Father left him could not be rich but her Majesty may take one that shall bring in great Wealth and Treasure and whom his Friends have lâ—st very rich This may be done I do not deny altho' it be unlikely that any Prince would be so unnatural to Rob Spoil make bare poor and naked his own Country or Realm to enrich this But if he should do doth he not think you look to be a Gainer by it I think he doth not mean to cast his Money away but possibly he may look for the greater Usury the longer he tarrieth for it and do as some men do adventure a little to get a great Treasure But grant that he looketh for nothing Even for mere Love and Royalty he will bestow the Money here in the Realm he will enrich the Queen's Majesty he will frankly spend all What shall he do when all is spent We see the Treasure of King Henry VII All the Treasure which Maximilian lâ—ft to the Emperour Charles and which came to him out of the Indiâ—s and other Countries which I take to be as rich to his Coffers as the Indies had an end That which in long time is slowly gathâ—red is if Occasion so serve soon spâ—nt and consumed I pray God then this sudden Riches make not again a long Repentaâ—â—â— this sudden joy a long Rueing this spâ—â—dy â—â—riching a longer Taking Whereas if we were content with our own as we know thâ— Coming in so we measure the spending If we will say that Yearly there shall come in the Revenues of that Realm which shall supply again the empty Coffers First I will ask you if that Realm you do speak of is kept with nothing And where that Realm shall stand that hath no Enemies near it no Garrison on the Frontiers no Soldiers to be paid no Officers to be kept no Charge to go out I know few Regions but all that ever can come of them ordinarily can do no more but keep their own ordinary Charges For I see when they have any extraordinary thing as War or Marriage to be made the Princes are constrained to seek extraordinary means by Subjects Love and other Devices to bear them I see this in France in Italy in Spain The rich Indies be so rich to the King of Portugal for all that He is only the Merchant of Spices to all Europe Yet now almost every man doth see that he is scarcely with the Revenues of them able to bear their Charges As Milain and Nâ—ples so the Charges of keeping them is no doubt incrâ—dible to him that hath not marked nor known it And the Accounts â—ruly made I assure you small Gains King Philip hath of them And if the Prince being away from thence remaining the Enemies should invade the Realm you speak of should it not be necessary trow you to employ that Revenue and more upon it Or if the People seeing their Treasure so wasted and their Realm impoverished should repine at it as some Countries would do and refuse to pay any more or if any other in his Absence should take upon him to usurp the State and pretend some Titles as we see to Ambitious Heads there never lack Titles either of Kindred or Commonwealth to Claim to themselves the Soveraignty what Gain shall be looked for from thence Nay what Charges shall we be put to by it Either we must abandon that Realm which were the greatest Dishonour that could be or else employ all our Force and Treasure to the Recovery thereof Either of which if they should chance as few Realms be long without them then casting our Cards aright we shall find very small Advantage And for Proof of this which I say we will but examine your own Examples Mary the Scotch Queen was highly advanced you say to the Dolphin who afterwards was the French King called Francis the Second But what Ricâ—es came by that Match to the Realm of Scotland Ask the Scots who for the great Oppreâ—â—ion which they suffered by the French and the great impoverishing of the poor Realm were fain to demand aid of us their old Enemies and yet in their Distress their most sure Friends and faithful Neighbours And then what Aid had she of the French I pray you when for the Misgovernment of them the â—â—bjects of her purchased Reâ—â—m she had almost lost the Government of her own natural and as I would call it Patrimonial Râ—alm which came to her by Inheritance from her Auncestors We will come to the third Mâ—ry the Daughter and Heir of Charles the Hardy Duke of Burgundy because here you think to have your strongest Bulwark she Marrying Maximilian the Emperor's Son I cannot deny but her Posterity is now in divers places of Christendom the chief Rulers and Governors But I will deny that her Country of Burgundy is in so good an Estate as it was in her Fathers time For then it was Head and Chief but now it is Subject to the House of Austrich Then the Burgundians were reckoned the hardiest and most valiant Warriors now be the Spaniards Almains and Italians before them Their Riches were then a Terror to France a Marvel to all the World now it is but a little Patch to King Philip's Power And if they were not as well taxed and assessed in the Emperor Charles and this Mighty and Puissant King Philip's Time as ever they were the Burguudians were much to Blame to groan so fast Take Antwerp apart and a few small things by the Sea side which have had another Cause of Increase let us see if all the rest of the Cities be not greatly in Decay and in far worser State than they were when they had but a Duke to their Head As when one River falleth into another they do increase indeed and make larger Water but yet the lâ—ss River thereby loseth both his Name and strength And the biggest River that is falling into the Sea looseth his Force and Power and is salted as well as the rest be So a Kingdom swalloweth up
Name you already For you love Aliens and Strangers so well and praise so well all Countrys and Countrymen save England and Englishmen that 't is pity you were not born somewhere else And I think you be or should be some VVelchman and Named Lewelyn as one would say Lovealien or in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Well said he and laughed you do not well thus to Nick-name and Provoke me to be angry with you when you pray me for to speak for you It is happy your Tongue serveth you no better and that God hath sent a shrewd Cow short Horns None of us should escape you if your Tongue were as good as your Heart But yet I would it would have served you now it should have eased me well in confuting his Tale whom you have now Christned Mr. Agamus or VVedspite Which Tale was after such a sort I must confess unto you as I looked not for But yet I trust it may be answer'd and thereto if you give me a while patient Ears I will endeavour my self with a good Will II. Philoxenus or Love alien This Oration for the Queens Marrying IT shall not be amiss to begin saith he now Mr. Agamiâ— for it is like to be your Name at this Time where you began Which as methought was pretty and Philosophical Yet must I repeat the Mâ—tter somewhat higher Two things being appointed to be had in Election if the one be honest th' other dishonest the Election is easy to him that preferreth Vertue and Honesty to all other things altho' the Dishonest be more profitable or more pleasant ten thousand fold For always that which is honest and godly is to be taken And yet possibly this Election would not be so taken of every Man as hath appeared in them that have made War to their Country Proscription of their Citizens and have exercised a thousand Tyrannies for Ambition Profit or Pleasures-sake preferring the Dishonest things because they were profitable or pleasant before Honesly But where the Things propounded be both equal for that Part there the Election standeth in their Degrees as if Things of themselves may be Honest and Godly and the Contraries thereof may also so be and the one and the other may be used there the Circumstances do alter the Matter As Peace and War Punishment and Forgiveness Eating and Abstinence Marriage and Sole Life both not only permitted but allowed of God And according to the Circumstance of Time and Place Person and Occasion sometime th' one better sometime th' other And herein I think we do not vary Altho' you seem in your Tale to make them both Vertues I mean Virginity and Marriage Which I think you did after the common manner of Speaking rather than the true manner of Understanding For a right Vertue cannot be abused Either of these may be abused and encrease Damnation But as things indifferent Eating and Drinking Reasoning and Disputing Ruling and Obeying Sleeping and Waking Earnest and Play so these take of their Circumstances as I said before of Place Time and Person Cause Occasion or Necessity to make them good or bad Wherefore this is not so simply to be granted unto you that Sole Life is the better No tho' it be the harder but according as the Circumstances be Who that should begin being a private Person to bring in a new Sect or Religion to reform all the State and Order of that which hath been taught before not with Power but Perswasion not with Sword but with Miracle not with Violence but with Patience not with War but with Fleeing when he is persecuted from one place to another To him it is necessary and to all them that shall follow that kind of Policy to be disburthened of Care for his Wife of Charge for his Children of the Negligence of Servants of harkening to Accounts of Saving of his Stock and of all such Things as Marriage necessarily doth bring to the private or publick Person whosoever he be that is not altogether without that Affection which is most natural the which they that lack are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then to Christ then to St. Paul then to all them who at the first Time as it were the Sowing Time of Christian Religion were the Till-men of the Gospel ye see it was most necessary yea in a manner it could not well otherwise be done but that they should be Sole and unmarried That which was in their Persons and at that time best whether it be now and in the Queens Person best may justly be a great Doubt I cannot see but that Abraham having the Seed promised him wherein all Nations should be blessed was as Holy in knowing Sarah as Elias who was ravished into Heaven in his Virginity if no other Difference were but that Nor why Manue Manoah to whom Sampson was promised who should be the Deliverer of Israel did not as well therein as Elizaeus in keeping himself Sole who the Prophet said should slay all them that Iehu left Now let th' one be simply better than th' other Virginity than Mariage which it seemeth can hardly be gathered of St. Paul for he praiseth Virginity as better not for it self nor in its self but for having less Lett and Trouble than hath Marriage So that if a Marriage have less Let and Trouble the Virginity more then he preferreth Mariage Wherein it may appear that it is not as I said so better as Vertue is better than Vice nor as Gold than Silver nor scarcely as the Fine than the Base But let it be as both in one kind of Nature but the one as fine Gold the more to be esteemed th' other as base the less Yet where the Baser weigheth Ten pound and the Finer but one Ounce there must needs the Base in kind be better indeed the Courser in Nature of such things be more excellent in Use and Necessity Peradventure to a Student a Priest a Man of War and a Merchant-Adventurer the first were best because Care of Houshold and Family should happily much disturb them of their Studies the other because they are always in danger and absent from home it were best for them to live a Sole Life But for a Prince upon whose quiet Succession a great part of the Common-wealth doth hang whose Family is the Root and Foundation of inward Peace within the Realm to live Sole is to be an Author of such Mischief as no Man can wish to a Realm a greater And who would say then That to a Prince it is simply better to live Sole than to marry To kill the Prince who is the King 's Eldest Son is worthily made High-Treason What is it then not to kill one but all yea and not that but the Hope of all And you Mr. Aganius open your Lips to praise Virginity or Sole Life in our Queen whose Daughter much more Son or a Prince if God should send one as I trust God if it shall please her Highness to
marry shortly would send a Prince if you should once wish dead all Men might justly abhor you to the Death VVhat could you wish more if Domitian or Nero if Maximine or C. Caligula did Reign over us than that which the Soldiers did say when they slew their Children Ex mah genere ne catulum quidem relinquendum And because you come with what is good to God-ward and you take your sure Rule that which pleaseth God is best I pray you what is the Promise that he maketh to David If thy Sons walk before me saith he in truth with all their hearts thou shalt not want one who shall come out of thy Loins to sit upon the Throne of Israel And to Iebu for the zelous Revenge of Ahab's Iniquity that his Sons should sit upon the Throne of Israel to the fourth Generation Again What threatneth he to Saul for his Rebellion other than that the Kingdom should be translated from him and his Sons should not Reign after him To Ieroboam to Baasa and Achab for their Idolatry and Wickedness but that he would not leave of their Posterity one to piss against the Wall So that it may appear a Blessing of God a token of Faith in God and good Favour of God towards Princes when he sendeth them of their own Seed to Reign after them As the Contrary of Disfavour and Discontentment of God toward them when he cutteth off their Generation and leaveth them without Posterity and Issue of their Bodies to Reign after them Then if it be a Blessing to Princes to have Children to Inherit after them which sheweth the Favour of God it is a Curse to have no Posterity or the Posterity cut off which sheweth the Disfavour of God as appeareth most manifestly by these Examples of Scripture And Sole Life bringeth the Curse and want of Posterity and no other thing can bring the Blessing of lawful Children but Matrimony Why then may not I conclude by this judgment of Scripture that Matrimony in a Prince is that Good to be allowed and that Sole Life is that Evil to be eschewed And what hath the Queens Majesty deserved at your hands I pray you that you had rather she had the Curse which fell upon Saul Hieroboam Baaza and Aehab than the Blessing which David had and Abraham Now the Second Part Mr. Agamus was so well handled and so sinely you entred into your Matter and so well you shadowed it with your Histories and Examples of such things as have been done before that I assure you if I had not taken a good Triacle before and tyed my self to my Mast as Vlysses did to pass by Syrenes I had been caught as a Fish with a Hook and ye had led me by the Ears whether you had would Now marking it well and not swallowing up the Bait I am able to unwind my self that same way I was brought in You put us first into a great Fear of the Queens Majesties Person Of which what good English Heart is there which will not have Care Then ye amplified great Dangers and Disquietness Exaggerated great Cares Thoughts and Griess of her Highness Mind From all which as well of Body and Soul you found but one onely Refuge and as it were a Sanctuary of Virginity and Sole-Life as my Friend here my Godfather saith This Fancy came out of the School of Monkery who when they did see the Dangers and infinite Occasions of Pleasure Displeasure Honour Ambition Contempt Riches Poverty and all other such things as did vex them when they remained abroad and in the Common-wealth which was able to bring them from the true trade of Vertue and to bring them unto Vice and peradventure had once or twice don so already wherby they knew themselves the better of what Mettal they were made And then saw nothing of Monks and Friars but their Holy Coat their Becks and their Ducks and their Religions Words they thought that there was none other way to Heaven but to run into their Cloisters Where they thought they were so sure and the Gates so well kept that there could no Vice get in And when they were there as fast locked in as th' other they found themselves so well eased as the Fish that leapt out of the Frying-Pan into the Burning Coals Or as they that be Sea-sick when they come out of the Great Ship into the little Cock-Boat I wis their Choler goeth with them and till they come a-land they sind small case in the Chaunge Ye make a Mervaillous Matter of Danger in Womens Bearing of Children which ye exaggerated so much that when I heard I began to tremble with my self as to take their leave of the Church to prepare for present Death to fight hand to hand with Death without a Custrel or any Esquire to be in more danger than in a Foughten Field where Trumpets blow the Clarions sound the Guns thunder the Noise of the stroaks the Clashing of Armour the Clattering of Harness the Braying of the Horses the Groaning of Men Dying and the Gasping of the Dead teacheth almost to Heaven I thought I had been at the Battel of Muskleborough or Agincourt But when I looked again and saw so many fair Ladies so goodly Gentlewomen so fine and so trim Maids pas these Pykes so wel not once only but twice thrice yea sometimes twenty times so easily so merrily so quietly in their sine Beds of Down their Chambers hanged with Arras their Curtains and Coverings of Silk their Pillows and Cushions Embroidered with Gold and Silver-work their Warming-Pans their Perfuming-Pans and al such things so trick and trim about them And they aâ—â—r it look so fair and ruddy and so beautiful that it would make any man in the World enamoured of them And when I marked further what hast they made to go to the Battel again I began to laugh at my self and thought that the Fear in which you put me was with a Vizor only which you had taken upon you and so made me afraid as Children be afraid of Bearbuggs and Bulbeggers Why Is not the Bearing of Children painful Is not that dangerous say you Ask not that of me but of them who be never wel til their Paniers be ful which they are sure they cannot empty til they come to this terrible Battel that ye speak of Le ts see Many of them wil leave and take Truce any longer than their Month or time of Churching cometh out Which Month some of them think it so long of four Weeks that they end it most commonly at three weeks because they might the sooner come to such another of these Conflicts So much they be afraid of it It was my Chance to be at Dinner with the Countes of Ormond with whom Sir Francis Brian maried At which time she being merrily disposed among other Communications that Ladies and Gentlewomen had of this matter she said she had now born as I remember Ten Children and she was brought