crowns in Tilt and Turney when he himself should have a son 〈◊〉 the Lord Steward wondred much at this the Princes answer to whom he said What means this Siâ—… is not the child that is boâ—… your son your wife having brought him forth twelve months after you were married I now find said the Prince that privat meâ—… are not much acquainted â—…ith the Interests of Princes But to let you see that I have reason for what I say tell me how old I am Eighteen the twelâ—…th of 〈◊〉 month replyed the Steward Confess then said the Prince that the child 〈◊〉 now born is my brother not my son for privat men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 children from their brethren by their birthâ—… but Priâ—… by 〈◊〉 age and know that those shall be my best beloved sons who shall be 〈◊〉 â—…o me when I shall be 50 years old and when any such shall be born I will be content that extraordinary joy shall be shewn For when sons are born to a young Prince as I am bels should rather toll out for sorrow to Funerals than Trumpets sound for joy A Prince who marries whilst he is young runs hazard of having a multitude of sons which is the true stone of offence of whatsoever State this is so great a truth as a King can receive no greater blessing from heaven than to have but one only son alive Moreover a Prince who hath many sons whilst he is young ought not to covet long life for as Fathers desire to die with Supreme power in their hand so sons when they come to certain years of age have not patience to wait till the Fruit of Government grow to be ripe by their Fathers death for many great Kings have had sons who blinded with a desire of reigning would rather hazard their healths with eating green Grapes in Iune then tarry till they should be ripe in September If it be so said the Steward I must confess the condition of Princes is to be deplored in that wherein we privat men do envie them Know then said the Prince that when my son who is now born shall come to be one and twenty years old and I shall not put him into full possession of this my Principality if he shall then chance to contrive any thing against my Person or my State it is I that shall therein have erred more then he For it will be as great a discourtesie in me not to resigne over unto him my State then as it would be inhumanity in me if when I should be eating at a plentifull Table I should see him stand by ready to starve for hunger and not bid him eat The LVIII ADVERTISEMENT Apollo erects a new Tribunal in Parnassus for the punishment of flatterers but succeeds very unfortunately therein THe civil and vertuous life which the Litterati lead in this State of Parnassus is not so much to be attributed to the severe punishment threatned to such as are vitiously given as to the great rewards held out to such as are vertuous nor yet to the good genius which the Litterati are generally of as to Apollos wisdom who hath appointed several distinct Tribunals for every vice for every fault omitted and Judges thereunto appropriated for his Majestie hath learnt by the late disorders that when his Ministers are troubled with but a few affairs they dispatch them accurately well whereas those that have great store of business upon their hands are neither speedy nor very just in their dispatches Nor was Apollo aware till six months since of the great disorder which reignes in this State wherein many severe Tribunals being erected against all such principal vices whereinto men do most usually fail there was no Judge nor punishment set apart for the vice of flattery which his Majestie doth so much detest and which is so pernitious both to Princes and privat men So as his Majestie thought that disease was so generally diffused amongst men chiefly because there was neither Physitian nor Apothecary appropriated thereunto Wherefore his Majestie who is alwaies vigilant in the extirpation of all vice and in procuring indempnity to his Vertuosi thought it very necessary to correct so great an error and to curb so wicked a vice He therefore of his own meer motion erected a Tribunal six months ago in this Court under severe punishments against flatterers For his pleasure was that such as should be found guilty of so foul a fault should be tied to the infamous Chain which is in the chief Market-place and flead live by Marsia who was very skilful thereat having learnt it at his own charges And for the more severe punishment of so enormous a vice he chose the chief Satirical Poets of the State as the greatest enemies of flatterers to be their Judges Peter Aratine was made Lord Chief Justice Iuvenal the first Advocate Ariosto Attorney-General Francis Berna chief Notary who had Nicholas Franco and Cesar Caporali for his substitutes and six months being past since the erecting of the Tribunal in all which time no complaint came in against flatterers though flattery were seen to be daily used in Parnassus Apollo that he might have occasion to punish those wicked persons made use of a great many Spies who diligently watching over them might accuse them before the Tribunal This remedy wrought good effect for ere long they found Bartolomeo Cavalcanti who flattering a foolish Prince given to hunting wantonness all sorts of delights neglecting the Government of his State so far as he had transferred the care thereof into the hands of one that was mercenary ignorant and very passionate he termed him vigilant indefatigable in taking pains an enemy to all pastime which he had wholly placed in following business Cavalcanti was suddenly seased upon who upon examination presently confest all that could he desired Wherefore the Judge using all the mercy to him that could stand with Justice allowed him three daies to make his defence and Martia brandisht his knife about and put all other things in order when the Judge coming to examin the Prince who was flattered found that though he was notoriously known to be what was said of him he pretended notwithstanding that Cavalcanti had not only spoke truth but that in the praise which he with reason gave him he came short of his deserts So as being asked if he had any thing to alleadg against Cavalcanti or whether he thought himself offended by his gross flattery the Prince being much incenst answered that he had no reason to complain of one that had said truth and that he did not esteem those praises which he ought to reward injuries and added that he did very much wonder and was greatly scandalized at that new Tribunal which seemed to be invented rather to defame men of honour then to punish cheaters Aretin being much moved at this answer with more freedom then became him asked with what face he could pretend that Cavalcanti had not lied basely in praising such
a lover and consequently I love amorous Poetry but this must be when love is handled with such terms of civility by modest Poets which I so much admire in my most modest Petrarch Nor can I sufficiently wonder how some modern Poets can be so shameless as to make use of Learning which was wholly brought into the world to sow vertue amongst men therewith to teach others the use of wicked lust and the practice of every most detestable vice Nor can I imagin how it can be possible that any man should be so sullied with the sluttery of uncleanness as that he dare publish those obscenities with his pen in clear day-light and in the sight of the whole world which are committed by libidinous men not without blushing and remorse of conscience in the dark secretly within sheets in close Chambers and that they do not only not acknowledg such slips to be actions which bring with them eternal infamy but that they are grown so blind as that they hope to win same unto themselves and purchase eternal glory by those things which deserve perpetual punishment Apollo had not made an end of speaking when the unfortunate Poet went out of the Hall and he and his guide getting upon the same horses whereon they came left Parnassus as fast as they came thither And to his greater scorn his book which no man durst touch with their hands as if it had been infectious was by the publick Aparators kickt out of the Court. In this interim a base Mountebank forced the Guard at the dore of the Pavillion and with a Box which he had under his arm and a Dog which he led in his hand entred the Court the dore-keepers ran immediately to keep so unworthy a fellow from coming before his Majesty and taking him by both the arms pluck him out of the Pavillion The Mountebank being very strong strugled hard to keep in and cryed out aloud that he would be heard Apollo was sorry to see the poor wretch so handled and commanded the Souldiers to forbear further troubling him the Mountebank then spread his Cloke upon the ground and opening his Box drew forth a great sheet of Vellum at which a large seal was hanged and shewing it to his Majesty to the Muses and to the Colledg of Litterati said Sir To prove that the Sope which I for the general good deliver out to every one to take away whatsoever stain of shame or dishonour unless it be the disgrace of having married a whore out of the vestments of peoples reputation is miraculous and the only thing in the world let all men behold this my priviledg granted me by the invincible and alwaies glorious Prince Charls the first King of France who thought this my secret worthy so singular a favour only because I took avvay that great spot of Oyle from off his Royal Robe with this my sope not any waies injuring the stuff which Ariadeno Barbarosso threw upon it Wherefore I earnestly beseech your Majesty and all those who are in this consecrated place that my commodity may be fully tryed and if every one find it not to be the rare thing which I have said I desire it may immediately be burnt Apollo seemed to be much taken with the vivacity of this bold mans wit whom he asked what his dog was good for The Charletan answered That the modern world being become sensual he gathered company together to hear him with this his dog which could shew tricks If it be so said Apollo this your occupation seems to me to be much like to the catching of birds for you with your prating play the fowlers part who whistle your sope is the bait which is put upon the bird-lime your dog the owle those that hear you and believe you the guls who leaving some feathers of small money in the bird-lime of your Merchandize makes your Quarry good But since you are unfortunately falne upon this place where such as you are are but little credited and your commodities not like to go off for that my Litterati have no stains at all in their aparrel do me and my Vertuosi the pleasure to see your dog play The Charletan obeyed and made his dog which was singularly well taught shew many tricks which it did so handsomly and with such understanding obeying whatsoever his Master bad him do as he seemed to have human sense The graver sort of the Senat wondred very much to see Apollo waste the time appointed for businesses of such weight in looking upon such trivial pleasure especially since his Majesty seemed to be much delighted with the dogs tricks which continued a good while But their wonder turned soon into admiration when Apollo whose property it is to extract excellent documents and useful precepts even out of the vilest things that he looks upon cryed out Oh the glory of Knowledg Oh the great felicity of my Illustrious Vertues the only rich patrimony of mankind O my dearly beloved Litterati rejoice with me cheer up your hearts since now you see with your eyes the great power of Knowledg the worth of Science when a little knowledg which a man hath been able to teach a dog is sufficient not only to make both him and his Master live plentifully but to cause him to enjoy the greatest content which can befall a large soul of seeing the world and getting good gain thereby and yet there be some who value them not who despise them and persecute them as being prejuditial The Mountebank being liberally rewarded and dismist by order from Apollo a Vertuoso appeared before his Majesty who whilst he lived in the world by reason of his pleasant pregnant wit and his graceful comportment having been the delight of the Roman Court was by all men known to be that Baldo Cataneo who was so admired by the Vertuosi of that Court for his pleasant witty conceits and his gravity in more serious affairs both in Prose and in Verse as he deserved the munificent Allessandro Peretti Cardinal Montalto for his liberal Mecenas This Poet presented Apollo with the first Canto's of his Argonautica a Poem composed by him in eight lined Stanzas and bitterly bewailing his misfortune in dying in the flowre of his age said his death was for no other cause displeasing to him save only that he must now lay before his Majesties feet that immature fruit of his brain which if he had lived longer he hoped would by increase of years have been so perfected as it would have been more then meanly pleasing to the Litterati Which calamity was the reason why for his small desert and by reason of the misfortune of this Poem he now desired that Immortality unto his name of meer grace and favour which he had hoped to have been able to have challenged of right and justice Apollo with great humanity but in words and gesture answered Cataneo That both himself and all the Vertuosi of Parnassus were very sensible of his
so famous Schools of Physick in Padua it happened that some Plebeians in Venice being gon according to their custom to the Sea-side to sollace themselves with some young Courtisans which they had carried along with them they were so beaten by some Noble Venetians as the former betaking themselves unto their swords slew one of the others and handled the rest but ill For which fault being sent for by the Judges those Plebeians although they saw all the Judges in the power of the offended Nobility yet they hoped so much in the uprightness of the Senat and in the exact Justice of the Tribunals for offences as they stuck not to make their appearance and go to Prison Nor were they deceived in their opinion for the Judges finding by the defence which they made how they had been molested by those Noble Venetians they were as innocent set at liberty to the eternal glory of the uncorrupt Venetian Justice And that it was a prodigie not formerly seen and which could not be believed but by those that practised it that the Noble man though of powerfull Parentage famous for his riches and of great Authority through the honours he had received in the Commonwealth the Citizen proved the harder adversary in pleading than the Noble man And that if the Politick Precept written by great men was true That Aristocrasies never died when the young Nobility used Modesty and the Tribunals maintained equal Justice he could not see when the most happy Venetian Liberty which was so severe in punishing the licentiousness of her Nobles and so exquisitly just in her Tribunals should ever have an end Learned Ermolao Barbaro would be the last that spake who said That Tyranny being then introduced in free Countries when the most important secrets of Commonwealths was communicated but to a few Senators the excellent Venetian Liberty to shun splitting upon so dangerous a Rock communicated secrets and had the most important business of her State discust in the Supreme Magistracy of the Pregadi Wherein were above 250 Senators and that it seemed very strange to him that the Commonwealth of Venice could find that secrecy in so great a number of Senators which Princes did often in vain endeavor with such diligence and through such liberal gifts in one sole Secretary and a couple of Councellers Then did the most excellent Lady of the Venetian Liberty rest her hand upon Ermolao Barbaro's shoulder and said unto him You have found out that pretious Jewel which I so much glory in and for which I deserve to be envied by all the world for secrecy is no less necessary for the well governing of States then good councel The Sixth ADVERTISEMENT A Learned Laconick is severely punished by the Laconick Senat for not having used requisite brevity in his discourse THat unluckie Laconick Letterato who exprest that in three words which was judged by the Laconick Senat might have been said in two and which was reputed a more then Capital fault by those Laconicks who are more penurious of words then courteous men are of pence after eight moneths long and teadious imprisonment received his sentence five daies agoe which was That he should read only once over the Warr of Pisa written by Guicchardino the Laconick read over the first leaf with much agony but so horribly teadious did that rabble of discourse appear to him as the unfortunate wretch threw himself down before his Judges feet who had sentenced him and earnestly entreated them that they would condemn him to row in the Gallies during life that they would immure him between two Walls and that for mercies sake they would flea him alive for to read those endless discourses those so teadious Councels those empty Harangues made at the taking in of a Pigeon-house was a punishment which surpast all the bitter pains of child-birth and all the most cruel deaths that ever the pittiless Perillus could think upon at the instance of the most cruel Tyrants The Seventh ADVERTISEMENT The Censors of Learning do severely punish one of their Associates who in his more mature years seemed to be pleased with Italian Poetry A Vertuoso was taken yesterday by the Marshals belonging to the Court of the Censors of Learning who was found with his spectacles on his nose reading some Italian Poetry and this morning early by order from Apollo he received three sound lashes with a cord first and was afterward told that being as he was of the age of 55 years he should learn to apply himself to graver studies and leave the reading of those Madrigals Songs and Sonnets to be idlely spent by those spruce Youngsters in whom those things were tolerated which were severely punished in old men The Eighth ADVERTISEMENT Apuleius his Golden Ass and Plantus his Assinaria complain to Apollo of their Masters great severity and receive no very pleasing answer THe eight of this present moneth Apuleius his glorious Golden Asse and the famous Assinaria of Plantus appear'd before Apollos Majesty to whom in the name of all sorts of Pack-Horses they joyntly said That if those creatures deserved to be better treated which were of little charge and much use they had more reason to complain of their Masters than any other beasts for though by their perpetual labour they bore the greatest weight in their Masters house both by day and night and for their food were contented with a little course grass and water and made it a Holy day when they got but a little bran yet they were so indiscreetly dealt withall through their Masters ingratitude and cruelty as that miserable beasts that they were they became the spectacle of all brutish usage and that since they could not mollifie their Masters cruelty by humble prostrating of their service they did in all submission beseech his Majestie to the end that some bounds though not utter period might be put to their Ass like sufferings he would vouchsafe to command their Masters to use more gratitude atleast more humanity to so meritorious beasts To which Apollo answered That the severity used by Masters to their Pack-Horses for which they so much complained arose not from their Masters cruelty since there was none that hated the profit of his own Patrimony but that it was occasioned through the great sloathfulness and monstrous dulness of the Pack-Horses For which their Masters were forced by store of bastenadoes to egg them on to do that which they had not spirit enough to do by any vivacity of their own wit And that they who would judge aright of the cruelties used to any whosoever must not regard so much his genius who useth severity as the parties condition who complains of ill usage The Ninth ADVERTISEMENT A Sommary of what the Learned in Sciences have sowed and reaped THe Harvest is already over and the whole encrease of this year is brought by the Possessers thereof into their Grainaries which though it hath been various according to the nature of the grounds
greatness as is the miraculous and singular situation of those Marish and Fenny grounds which we cannot partake of All that understand any thing in State-affairs confess that the Senat is the Heart and Fountain of Life of every Free State Skilful Fencers when they will overthrow their enemy with few blows make a thrust at their heart and Princes who have en-deavored to subdue Commonwealths have made their first blow at the Metropolitan City of the Free State only to dissipate the Senat for these are the mortal wounds which kill all even the most potent Liberties For the Senat being routed and consequently the heart of the Commonwealth struck through it dies immediately An imperfection which Monarchies have not the greatness of whose Empire is alwaies where the Kings person is as the Duke of Guise made proof of who by his taking of Paris did rather accelerate his own death then hasten on his own greatness The Dictator Cesar proves this which I affirm to be true Who to Tyrannize over his Country made himself Master of Rome which Pompey was very indiscreet in abandoning only that he might defeat the Senat A thing which Hanibal the true Master of Militia and sole honor of Africa knew before him and endeavored it but knew not how to effect it And which after him the Emperor Charls the fifth that Founder of the greatness of the Spanish Monarchy knew very well how to do and did practice it against the Florentines and the 〈◊〉 This mortal wound could never be given to the State of Venice whose Metropolis where the Senat abides is fortified and armed with the proof-Armor of Marishes and Washes wherefore I think I may conclude that their wils are good who desire to bring in Liberty of living Free in our Country but their wisdom is but weak And that they who are for a Prince intend well and are excellently well advised and in taking a resolution in this our so weighty business I desire you all to remember that the Florentine Nobility which through the impertinency of the seditious people could never bring in a perfect form of living free in their Country not being able any longer to undergo the cruel and bloudy insolences of the base Plebeians were forced to call in a forrein Tyrant the Duke of Atene only that by extraordinary severity he might afflict the common people of Florence who did so abuse their Liberty Though these reasons were thought very efficacious by the wiser sort yet could they not make the people resolve upon chusing a new Prince Wherefore the business was carried for living free and that Ambassadors should be sent to Venice to receive the Laws of living free from that Commonwealth which was suddenly done The Ambassadors were received and welcom'd by the Venetian Commonwealth with incredible magnificency and the Venetian Government Orders and Laws were shewn unto them which the Ambassadors caused to be exactly copied out and registred and so departed And being returned to Mitilene they made their Report and read in publick Senat the Laws which they had brought with them which gave very bad satisfaction to all the common People and to the greatest part of the Nobility For the people could by no means indure that by the Venetian Laws they should be excluded from publick Government saying that that Country merited not to be called Free where all did not command And the wealthier Nobility being accustomed under Monarchy to purchase favors from the Favorits and to obtain places of Magistracy which they did shamefully execute from their Princes storm'd and said publickly That that was a most unfortunate Country where men were inhibited the making free use of their monies which was purchased by industrious men at the cost of so much sweat not only to buy meat and clothes but to purchase therewith such things which encreased reputation And that it was much better for Citizens to be ruled over by a Prince whose good will might be won by a thousand several waies then to be govern'd by inexorable Laws when they were administred by a numerous Senat where a little not being sufficient and enough not being alwaies to be had whereby to make so many prevaricate and break the Laws it might truely be said to be incorruptible And that under Monarchies the chiefest of the Nobility did from the first execute the prime places of the Principality and that in Commonwealths it was sad for them to begin together with the meanest Senators at the lowest imployments and come slowly by degrees to places of highest dignity That it required more then the usual years of man to arive at the supreamest preferments and the rigor of bestovving places of Magistracy only according to mens meer merit vvas a Precept first invented by Tyrants to keep potent men lovv and to exalt the mean But amongst all these bad satisfactions nothing distasted three parts of four of the Nobility more then the severe Magistracy of the Censors which they heard was used by the Venetians who perpetually did severely and strictly examin all mens behaviours wherefore they said freely that if the Nobility were so severely proceeded with in the State of Venice the Noble Venetians were slaves amidst their Liberty and the people of Miteline free amidst their servitude for very dread of these things all with a loud voice cryed out Monarchy Monarchy And that if any one would set up Liberty in Mitilene let them burn all Laws and Statutes for such understood that to be perfect Liberty where none obeyed all commanded and every one did what he list The XL. ADVERTISEMENT James Creyton a Scotchman having incenst the Vertuosi in Parnassus by a proud defyance was so shamed by them through a bitter jest as without ending the dispute they forced him to forgo Parnassus JAmes Creyton a Scotchman the Prodigie of Nature for Learning came some daies ago to this Court with such vain-glorious pomp and self-oftentation as moved as much nauseousness in the compleatest Vertuosi of this State as wonder in the meaner sort of people who are usually ignorant to see that a young fellow of but 25 years of age should pretend to be exactly knowing in all Sciences when the chiefest Vertuosi know the continual study of 80 years is but a short time to be Master of one only Science This Creyton the next day after his entrance into Parnassus caused a paper to be fixed upon the Gates of all the Colledges and upon the Pillars of all the Delfick Portici wherein in large Capital Letters these words were written Nos Iacobus Crytonius Scotus cujuscumque rei propositae ex improviso respondebimus We Iames Creyton a Scothman will answer ex tempore to whatsoever shall be propounded This bold defiance which was thought by many to be very arrogant did so nettle the Vertuosi as many of them framed Arguments even in the hardest Sciences wherewith they thought to choak him at very first But an acute Satyrical Poet bereft the whole
Litterati were grown to such petulancy in many important particulars as blinded by proud presumption they had not feared to intermeddle in the very greatest Concerns of Princes and even to give Laws to Reason of State not knowing poor people that they are that the insight into Politick affairs is so far from the common judgement of any wit how good soever as none ought to discourse thereof but men who have spent their whole time in the Government of Kingdoms and in the affairs of great Princes though they may peradventure want that Philosophy Rhetorick and other Sciences registred by the Litterati in their Scribled Papers For Policy not having so much Theory as that a Grammar may be thereout composed which may teach men the art how to govern States well consisted wholly in practise of the which none but such as had learnt it from great Princes Secretaries and in State-Councils ought to discourse lest they become ridiculous for writing things which deserves the rod. By these words Duke Federico found that the Princes had just reason to be incensed wherefore he easily prevailed with Aristotle to revoke his former definition of a Tyrant and to make a new one which might satisfie those so highly offended Princes Then Aristotle suddenly recanted and said That Tyrants were a certain sort of men in the old time the Race whereof was wholly lost now The Princes having received such satisfaction as they desired presently quitted their quarters And being gone towards their own States Aristotle being half dead with fear returned to Parnassus assuring all the Vertuosi that his Philosophical Precepts failed him very much against the fear of death and bad the Litterati attend their studies and let alone the reason of State which it was impossible to treat of without running evident danger of being esteemed Criminal by Princes The LXXVII ADVERTISEMENT By order from Apollo a general Reformation of the world is published by the seven wise men of Greece and by the other Litterati THe Emperor Iustinian that great Compiler of Statutes and Books of Civil Law some few daies since shewed a new Law to Apollo to have his Majesties approbation of it wherein men were strictly forbidden killing themselves Apollo was so astonished at this Law as fetching a deep sigh he said Is the good Government of mankind Iustinian fallen then into so great disorder as men that they may live no longer do voluntarily kill themselves And whereas I have hitherto fed an infinite number of Philosophers only that by their words and writings they may make men less apprehensive of death are things now reduced to such calamity as even they will now live no longer who could not formerly frame themselves to be content to die And am I amongst all the disorders of my Litterati all this while supinely asleep To this Iustinian answered That the Law was necessary and that many cases of violent deaths having hapned by many mens having desperately made themselves away worse was to be feared if some opportune remedy were not soon found out against so great a disorder Apollo then began diligently to inform himself how men did live in the world and found that the world was so impaired as many valued not their lives nor Estates so they might be out of it These disorders necessitated his Majesty to provide against them with all possible speed so as he absolutely resolved to create a Congregation of all the most famous men that were in his Dominions for wisdom and good life But in the entrance intoso weighty a business he met with difficulties impossible to be overcome for when he came to chuse the members of this Congregation amongst so many moral Philosophers and the almost infinite number of Vertuosi he could not find so much as one who was indowed with half those parts which were requisite to be in him who ought to reform his companion His Majesty knowing very well that men are better reformed by the exemplary life of their reformers then by any the best rules that can be given In this great penury of fitting personages Apollo gave the charge of the Universal Reformation to the seven wise men of Greece who are of great repute in Parnassus as those who are conceived by all men to have found out the receit of washing Blackmoors white Which antiquity though still in vain hath so much laboured after The Grecians were much rejoyc'd at this news for the honor which Apollo had done their Nation but the Latins were much grieved at it thinking themselves thereby much injured Wherefore Apollo very well knowing how much the ill satisfaction of those that are to be reformed in their reformers hinders the fruit which is to be hoped by reformation and his Majesty being naturally given to appease his Subjects imbittered minds more by giving them satisfaction then by that Legislative power which men are not well pleased withall because they are bound to obey it That he might satisfie the Romans who were much distasted to the seven wise men of Greece he added Marcus Cato and Anneus Seneca And in favour to the modern Italian Philosophers he made Iacopo Mazzoni da Casena Secretary of the Congregation and honored him with a vote in their Consultations The 14 day of the last month the seven wise men with the aforesaid addition accompanied by a Train of the choicest Vertuosi of this State went to the Delfick Palace the place appropriated for the reformation And the Litterati were very well pleased to see the great number of Pedants who with their little baskets in their hands went gathering up the Sentences and Apothegmes which fell from those wise men as they went along The next day after the solemn entrance the Assembly being met to give a beginning to the business t is said Talete Milesio the first wise man of Greece spake thus The business most wise Philosophers about which were are all met in this place is as you all know the greatest that can be treated on by human understanding And though there be nothing harder then to set bones that have been long broken wounds that are fistuled and incurable cancars yet difficulties which are able to affright others ought not to make us despair of their cure for the impossibility will increase our glory and will keep us in the esteem we are in and 〈◊〉 do assure you that I have already found out the true Antidote against the poyson of all these present corruptions I am sure we do all believe that nothing hath more corrupted the present age then hidden hatreds feigned love impiety the perfideousness of double-dealing men cloaked under the specious mantle of simplicity love to religion and of charity apply your selves to these evils Gentlemen by making use of fire razor and lay corrosive Plasters to these wounds which I discover unto you and all mankind which by reason of their vices which leads them the high-way to death may be said to be given over by
very first day that he sees an illaffected eye water to his clouts and cauters and is forced to leave his patient vvith a bleer eye vvhen if the eye vvere quite blind it vvere too late to seek for remedy so reformers should oppose abuses vvith severe remedies the very first hour that they commence For when vice and corruption hath got deep rooting it is wiselier done to tolerate the evil then to go about to remedy it out of time with danger to occasion worse inconveniences it being more dangerous to cut of an old Wen then it is misbecoming to let it stand Moreover we are here to call to mind the disorders of private men and to use modesty in so doing but to be silent in what concerns Princes and to bury their disorders which a wise man must either touch very tenderly or else say nothing of them for they having no Superiors in this world it belongs onely to God to reform them he having given them the prerogative to command us the glory to obey And certainly not without much reason for subjects ought to correct their Rulers defects onely by their own good and godly living For the hearts of Princes being in the hands of God when people deserve ill from his divine Majestie he raiseth up Pharoahs against them and on the contrary makes Princes tender hearted when people by their fidelity and obedience deserves Gods assistance What Solon had said was much commended by all the hearers and then Cato began thus Your opinions most wise Grecians are much to be admired and by them you have infinitely verified the Tenet which all the Litterati have of you for the vices corruptions and those ulcerated wounds which the present age doth suffer under could not be better nor more lively discovered and pointed out Nor are your opinions which are full of infinite wisdom and humane knowledge gain-said here for that they were not excellently good but for that the malady is so habituated in the veins and is even so grounded in the bones as that humane complexion is become so weak as vital virtue gives place to the mightiness of vice whereby we are made to know clearly that the patient we have in hand is one sick of a consumption who spits putrifaction and whose hair fals from his head The Physician hath a very hard part to play Gentlemen when the Patients maladies are many and the one so far differing from the other as cooling medicines and such as are good for a hot liver are nought for the stomach and weaken it too much And truly this is just our case for the maladies which molest our present age and wherewithal all other times have been affected do for number equal the stars of heaven or the sea-sands and are more various and further differing one from another then are the flowers of the field I therefore think this cure desperate and that the patient is totally incapable of humane help And my opinion is That we must have recourse to prayers and to other Divine helps which in like cases are usually implored from God And this is the true North-Star which in the greatest difficulties leads men into the haven of perfection for Pauci prudentia honesta ab deterioribus utilia ab noxiis discernunt plures aliorum eventis docentur Tacit. lib. 4. Annal. And if we will approve as we ought to do of this consideration we shall find that when the world was formerly fallen into the like difficulties it was no thought of man but Gods care that did help it who by sending universal deluges of water razed mankind full of abominable and incorrigible vice from off the world And Gentlemen when a man sees the walls of his house all gaping and runious and the foundations so weakened as in all appearance it is ready to fall certainly it is more wisely done to pull down the house and build it anew then to spend his money and waste his time in piecing and in patching it Therefore since mans life is so foully depraved with vice as it is past all humane power to restore it to its former health I do with all my heart beseech the Divine Majestie and counsel you to do the like that he will again open the Cataracts of heaven and send new deluges of water upon the earth and so by pouring forth his wrath upon mankind mend the incurable wounds thereof by the salve of death but withal that a new Ark may be made wherein all boys of not above twelve years of age may be saved and that all the female sex of what soever age be so wholly consumed as nothing but the unhappy memory thereof may remain And I beseech the same Divine Majestie that as he hath granted the singular benefit to Bees Fishes Beetles and other annimals to procreate without the feminine sex that he will think men worthy the like favour For Gentlemen I have learnt for certain that as long as there shall be any women in the world men will be wicked It is not to be believed how much Cato's discourse displeased the whole Assembly who did all of them so abhor the harsh conceit of a deluge as casting themselves upon the ground with their hands held up to heaven they humbly beseeched Almighty God that he would preserve the excellent femal sex that he would keep mankind from any more Deluges and that he should send them upon the earth onely to extirpate those discomposed and wilde wits those untnuable and blood thirsty souls those Hetorotrical and phantastick brains who being of a depraved judgement and out of an overweening opinion which they have of themselves are in truth nothing but mad men whose ambition was boundless and pride without end and that when mankind should through their misdemerits become unvvorthy of any mercy from his divine Majestie he would be pleased to punish them with the scourges of Plague Svvord and Famine and that he vvould make use of his severest and of all others most cruel rod as it is recorded by Seneca of inriching mean men but that he should keep from being so cruel and causing such horrid calamity as to deliver mankind unto the good vvill and pleasuree of those insolent vvicked Rulers vvho being composed of nothing else but blind zeal and diabolical folly vvould pull the vvorld in pieces if they could compass and put in practice the beastial and odde Caprichios vvhich they hourly hatch in their heads Cato's opinion had this unlucky end when Seneca thus began Rough dealings is not so greatly requisite in point of Reformation as it seems by many of your discourses Gentlemen to be especially when disorders are grown to so great a height The chief thing to be considered is to deal gently with them They must be toucht with a light hand like wounds which are subject to convulsions It redounds much to the Physians shame when the Patient dying with the potion in his body every one knows the medicine hath
Majesties pardon Lipsius whilst in this very desperate condition did so increase in constancy and boldness as he bad Apollo use his pleasure he could not make him die ignorant who was possest with gratitude the Queen of all Human Vertues that therefore the flames which should consume his body would give a greater splendor of glory then of fire and that he protested at that very last minute of his life he was so far from acknowledging the fault which was laid to his charge of having loved and honored his Tacitus too much that in commemoration of the infinite obligations which he ought him it grieved him more then death to think he should die ungrateful and that the present agony which they might all perceive him to be in arose not from the terror of death but from his immense sorrow to have heard his Tacitus termed by his Majesty a wicked Atheist an injury which if it had been done to that most wise Writer by any other then his Majesty he would not though in that his last moment of life have left it unrevenged at least by words and that with the liberty which most properly belonged to him who desired not to live he witnessed to all the world that Tacitus did so far know God as being he alone who of all the Writers of the Gentiles had by his great wisdom arived at the knowledg How much the faith of things unseen avails in matters of Religion or which cannot be proved by reason he had said Sanctiusque ac reverentius visum de actis Deorum credere quam scire Tacit. de Morb. Germ. Most holy words and worthy to be considered by those Divines who in their Writings were at a loss through too sophistical subtilties Apollo being full of wonder and infinitely astonished at the things he had heard caused Lipsius immediately to be set at liberty and straitly imbracing him said O my dear Vertuoso with how much consolation to my self and how much to your advantage have I tried your patience and constancy and by the injurious speeches which I have uttered against Tacitus which are the very same which they accuse him with who neither study him nor understand him have I made proof of your devotion towards that excellent Historian who even deserves my wonder And by what I have heard you say I find that you have been delighted in reading him and long studied him to your profit For I know that the defence which so much to your glory you have made is your own but taken out of my and your dearly beloved Tacitus Apollo then turned towards the Vertuosi who out of a curiosity to hear that Judgement were flockt in great numbers to the Hall and said O my beloved Litterati admire and ever imitate the honored constancy of this my glorious Vertuoso and let the infinite love and everlasting veneration of that Prince be ingraven in your hearts who keeps up your reputation and forget not that his power precipitates more easily who loseth his Princes good will then houses doe whose foundations fail Therefore you who follow the Court learn to know that Nihil rerum mortalium tam instabile ac fluxum est quam fama potentiae non sua vi nixae Tacit. lib. 13. Annal. A most certain rule which teacheth every one to imitate Lipsius in loving honoring and in ever faithfully serving their Prince For as it is great impiety in holy things to have any other God save him who created man the heavens and earth so ought you never to have any devotion for any Prince not expect or desire any good from any other Lord save from him who out of confidence in your loyalty and out of the extraordinary affection which he bears you owns you to all the world not for his servants but for his dear friends and by the Supreme Authority which he suffers you to exercise in his State makes you appear unto his Vassals no less Princes then himself And because the wisdom of Princes out of their jealousies of those that rule is usually accompanied with suspition and Court-favorits being alwaies envied alwaies narrowly observed by their rivals and alwaies persecuted by such as malign them That you may overcome so many difficulties and still preserve your selves in the favors which you have won love your Princes with all your heart observe them with all your soul and serve them with all possible loyalty And like my Lipsius chuse rather to die then to think much less to do any thing which may indanger the least loss of their favours And believe for certain that then your ruine begins when you suffer your selves to be perswaded that you may better your condition by using simulation and falshood with your Princes who both know see and understand more then is possible to be exprest For those who think to live securely by dissembling with Princes who though they should know nothing themselves have so many who can put them in mind and who want not a thousand Malignant spirits to wake them when they are asleep are like those fools who think to confine Gypsies and hope to cheat Mountebanks The LXXXVII ADVERTISEMENT The Queen of Italy being much intreated by her chiefest Princes and by Apoll's self to pardon the injuries done by those Italian Commanders who took up arms against her in assistance of Forrein Nations denies to do it DOubtlesly the Palace wherein the Queen of Italy keeps her residence is even by the testimony of Vitruvio's self acknowledged to be the most magnificent and richliest adorn'd Palace in all Parnassus Here amongst other stupendious and delightful things is the fore Court to a large Amphitheatre at the upper end whereof stands the Statue of the Queen of Italy on horseback all of pure gold dedicated to the great Bellizarius a Grecian and that of Narses a Grecian also which was erected at the lower end of the Court for his perpetual glory by the same Queen but is now thrown to the ground and is broken all in pieces for that notorious injury which she received from him so that whereas it was formerly the envie of great men and served to put men in mind of so great a Commanders merit it now serves to shew his shame who out of the rage of privat disdain did profane so great a merit and observed that glory which deserved envie On the right hand of the fore-front of this so miraculous Court are the faces of those famous Italian Commanders drawn by Apelles and other prime Painters who having by their arms and by their expence of bloud delivered Italy from the slavery of Barbarians are by their grateful Country kept in ever honored memory And on the left hand of the same Court to the perpetual shame of ungratefull persons those Italian Captains are hung upon Gallowses by the heels who forgetting the obligation due to a mans Country which equals that of children to their parents took up arms in assistance of babarous Nations
and their sheerers would learn to handle their sheers without cutting their skins Wherefore the whole generation of sheep that they might no longer undergo such calamities and oppressions did earnestly beglong horns and sharp teeth wherewith to procure respect To this request Apollo answered with a chearful countenance That the sheep had in this their request shewed their simplicity since they knew not that of all the four footed beasts that were upon the earth there were not any that were more favoured by God nor which received greater priviledges from him then they For whereas the rest were forced to seek their meat with cark and care and a thousand dangers many of them spending the night season which was destined for sleep and rest in eating for that it was not safe for them to be seen by day pasture grounds were reserved and bought at dear rates onely for sheep by men who had the command of all beasts and were Lords of the earth that in the night season they were with great care and diligence defended from their enemies in their folds and whereas other beasts were persecuted even by beasts themselves and by men and that to procure their death many did nothing but make nets feed dogs and lay snares sheep out of a particular grace injoyed the noble prerogative to have all these things done by men to secure them from their enemies And that the Creator of the world having â—…hewed exceeding great love towards sheep instead of ravenous teeth and swift legs had granted them the powerful weapons of wool cheese and of their riches wherewith they did so aquire mans love as that men did perpetually persecute Wolves Lyons Tygers and all their other cruel enemies with all sort of weapons meerly for the affection which they bore to sheep And that sheep being reputed the Worlds delight and wealth for the singular advantages which they afforded mankind they hapned to be the most numerous of any sort of beasts so as sheep being fed and defended by their Shepherds vigilancy and charity they were foolish to desire ravenous teeth and sharp horns And finally Apollo said That they ought to revenge themselves for the severity which some shepherds used towards them in milking and sheering them onely by their obedience and humility by yielding them great store of wool and much cheese and by studying how to be fruitful it being sheeps greatest felicity that those Shepherds that dealt ill with their flocks were cheifly cruel to themselves for it was a certain truth that wounds shamefully given to sheep did usually kill the Shepherd Wherefore he wished them to keep more from being desirous to bite their shepherds then they would do from the Wolves teeth For such sheep could not esteem themselves so happy who by their humility and obedience did secure their Shepherds from all harm as those were unhappy who delighted to put them in fear The LXXXIX ADVERTISEMENT Nicholas Machiavel being banished Parnassus upon pain of death was found hidden in a friends Library for which his former sentence of being burnt was excuted THough Nicholas Machiavel was banished Parnassus and the Territories thereof many years ago upon severe punishment as well to whosoever durst give receptacle to so pernicious a man in his Library yet was he found the last week secretly hidden in a friends study where he was made Prisoner He was presently sentenced by the Judges of Assize and was this day to have been burnt when he signified unto his Majestie his desire that he might first be permitted to say somewhat in his defence before the Tribunal-seat which had condemned him Apollo using his wonted clemency bad him send his Advocates and he should have fair hearing Machiavel replyed he desired to be heard himself and that Florentines needed no advocates to speek for them and his demand was granted Machiavel was then brought to the Bar where he spoke thus in his own defence Lo here you Soveraign of Learning That Nicholas Machiavel who hath been condemned for a Seducer and Corrupter of mankind and for a dispercer of scandalous politick Precepts I intend not to defend my writings I publikely accuse them and condemn them as wicked and execrable documents for the government of a State So as if that which I have printed be a doctrine invented by me or be any new Precepts I desire that the sentence given against me by the Judges be put in execution But if my writings contain nothing but such Politick precepts such rules of State as I have taken out of the actions of Princes which if your Majestie will give me leave I am ready to name whose lives are nothing but doing and saying of evil things what reason is there that they who have invented the mad desperate policies written by me should be held for holy and that I who am onely the publisher of them should be esteemed a Knave and an Atheist For I see not why an original should be held holy and the Copy thereof beburnt as execrable and why I should be so much persecuted when the reading of History which is not onely permitted but commended by all men hath the particular vertue of turning as many as do read them with a politick eye into so many Machiavels for people are not so simple as many believe them to be but that those who by the greatness of their wits have been able to find out even the most hidden secrets of Nature may not also have the judgement to discover the true ends of all Princes actions though they be cunningly hidden And if Princes that they may do what they will with their subjects will have them to be block-heads and dunces they must do as the Turks and Muschovites do inhibit Learning which is that which makes blinde understandings quick sighted otherwise they will never compass their ends for Hypocrisie which is now so familiarly used in the world hath onely a star-like vertue to incline not to force men to believe that which likes them best that use it These speeches wrought much upon the Judges and they were ready to revoke the sentence when the Atorney General told them That Machiavel was deservedly condemned for the abominable and execrable precepts which were contained in his writings and that he ought again to be severely punished for that he was found by night amongst a flock of sheep whom he taught to put false teeth dogs teeth in their mouthes thereby indangering the utter ruine of all shepherds a people so necessary as it was an indescent and angersom thing to think that they must by means of this wicked Machiavel be forced to put on breast-plates and gauntlets when they would milk or sheer their sheep and to what price would wool and cheese grow hereafter if shepherds were to be more aware of their sheep then of wolves and if they could no longer keep their flocks in obedience with thâ—… whistle and their wand but must make use of a Regiment of murrions and
came to Court he used all possible diligence to observe his Princes genius and finding that he vvas mightily given to lasciviousness he used all his Rhetorick to praise a vice so misbecoming a King making it appear to be an egregious vertue and then all his industry to be imployed by him therein vvhich vvhen he had obtained he studied diligently hovv to fit him vvith those vvho mig ht satisfie his lust That aftervvards under divers pretences as that they vvere either vitious or enemies to the Prince he had by degrees removed all the Princes honest servants from the Court vvho he knevv might have reduced him to have lived vertuously and that he had put Confidents of his own in their places who were likewise given to carnallity and to all other sorts of vice by whose means he had endeavoured that his Master should quite lose some signal endowments which he had by nature and which he had received by his former good education That then under pretence that they were unfaithful he had so wrought it as all the old State-Ministers were turned out whose just sorrows for their Prince his loose life he had made the Prince believe were but seditious backbitings and so had made their places be conferred upon men void of counsel or wisdom and who cared not for their Princes interest for he onely desired confidence in them and that they would stick close to him and that he had so surrounded his Master with such as these as it was impossible for him to hear truth from any one that was faithful to the common good which truth ought always to be joyned to a Prince as is his shadow to his body That then to the end that he himself might alone govern the State he had brought his Prince to be so in love with idleness as taking delight in nothing but pleasant Gardens Conntrey-houses and hunting he hated to hear of business or of any thing that concerned his State That moreover he had brought him to believe that his having made him fall out with his own son and the Princes of the blood proceeded from his great zeal unto his service and his love to the publique good of his people and that he had so besotted him by his cunning tricks as the unfortunate Prince called that the vigilancy of a faithful servant an ease to his labours charity towards the publike affairs which was known by the veriest fools of his State to be Tyranie and as such abhord And had made him believe that his idleness slothfulness and negligence was honourable repose That besides all this to the end that the Prince might never awake out of so shameful a sleep and opening his eyes might be aware of his own simplicity and of other mens wicked ambition he had filled his house with flatterers who by their infamous perswasions cryed up his folly for great worth the peoples universal hatred for immeasurable love publique fault finding for exagerated praise confusion for excellent Government the tyrany of a wicked personage for excellent service termed extortions justice prodigallity liberallity his slothfulness and baseness in having quite given over the Government of his State honorable labour and diligent rule All the Princes who heard the wickednesses confest by this perfidious man were so astonished at the hearing thereof as they said it was charity to hang him and that therefore Perillous should be desired to invent some new torment whereby this monster of nature might be by piece-meal torn in pieces and made to dye a lingring death to the end that no man might ever commit such wickedness hereafter And the Princes were so moved with the foulness of this process as they earnestly desired his Majestie to use extraordinary rigour to such who should suffer themselves to be so shamefully treated by their fraudilent servants And because Apollo being so touched at the very soul with the vertuous desire made unto him by these Princes let fall some tears the foolisher sort of people believed that it was occasioned through his great joy to see the Princes so much detest that vice which he desired they might shun but the wiser sort of Vertuosi who were there present knew very well that Apollo bewailed the blindness of Princes who are so drunk as hating their own errors in others did earnestly desire that those vices should be punished with extraordinary severity in which the most of them without being aware of it were dipt even up to the eyes So pernitious is it in Princes to idolatrize Minnions as knowing it and blaming it in their companions they are not aware of it in themselves but do highly commend it and they who boast themselves to be the onely Aristarchi of the world are those who fall into this shameful error The VI. ADVERTISEMENT All the Monarchies of the world affrighted at the over-great power and successful proceedings of the German Common-wealths consult in a general Dyet how to keep themselves from being in time opprest by them THe general Dyet which all the Monarchies of the World intimated four moneth ago to be held at Pindo the 15 of the last moneth and which by excluding all the Commonwealths of Europe occasioned great jealousies in them lest a general league might be concluded against all free Countreys Being at last dissolved on the 20 of the present moneth and the Princes being already returned to their own States it is known for certain that it was called for no other end but against the infinite number of Commonwealths which have of late been instituted amongst the Switzers Grisouns Bearnois and other people of Germany particularly against those which with so much scandal to Monarchy begin to rise between the Hollanders and Zealanders in the Low-Countreys When all the Monarchies of the World according to their custom were set down in a great Hall it is said their Lord Chancellor spoke thus Most high and mighty Monarchs and Rulers of mankind it may clearly be seen by the sad and dangerous condition which you are in that there is nothing under the Sun which is perpetual nor which doth not threaten present ruine Since Monarchy her self which by all understanding Polititions hath always been held for the sovereign Queen of all Policy hath got so great a rent and cleft in her Fabrick as it is not onely evidently seen that she is not of that Eternal Foundation which those who understand State affairs have continually asserted her to be but seems to be neer ruine Monarchies from the very beginning of the World to this present day have governed so happily and won such reputation as of all sorts of Governments they have been cheifly praised and have always had the victory over Commonwealths their enemies And though it was thought that the immence Roman Liberty by having destroyed so many famous Monarchies would have put the whole World at Liberty yet at last though after a long time she her self turned into a Principality which is the certain end