A THEATRE OF WITS Ancient and Modern Attended with severall other ingenious Pieces from the same PEN Viz. I. Foenestra in Pectore or a Century of Familiar LETTERS II. Loves Labyrinth A Tragi-comedy III. Fragmenta Poetica Or Poetical Diversions IV. Virtus Rediviva A Panegyrick on our late King CHARLES of ever blessed Memory Concluding with A PANEGYRICK on His Sacred Majesties most happy Return By T. F. Varietas delectat LONDON Printed by R. W. Leybourn for Thomas Basset in St. Dunstans Church-yard in Fleet-street 1661. VIRTVS REDIVIVA OR A PANEGYRICK On the late K. Charls the I. Second Monarch OF GREAT BRITAIN By THO. FORDE Honoris Amoris Doloris ergo Propositum est mihi Principem Laudare non Principis facta nam laudabilia multa etiam mali faciunt Plin. Panegyric in Trajan LONDON Printed by R. and W. Leybourn for William Grantham at the Black Bear in St. Pauls Church-yard neer the little North Door 1660. The Preface XEnophon charactered his Cyrus not as he was but as he ought to have been making him rather the subject of a brave Romance than a true History But such is the advantage of our Charls his Virtue that when I have said all I can say it will be infinitely beneath what I should say I shall doe truth no injury to confesse the weaknesse of Art to represent a person so admirable without diminishing his glories whose Fame surmounts the most daring Hyperbolies of Rhetorick and to praise faintly in Seneca's opinion is a piece of slander I must be forced to imitate the Cosâ—â—graphers who describe a large Kingdome by a little point and confine the whole world in a small circle whereto when I have done all I must subscribe this Motto Intelligitur plus quam pingitur Alexander the Great gave straight commands that no Painter should dare to make his Picture but Apelles I know no Penfill fit to draw great Charls his Picture but his own Ipse ipse quem loquar loquatur And well it is he hath done it in his divine Portrayture that Aureum flumen orationis a piece wherein Learning and Language Reason and Religion speak him at once a Solomon for knowledge and a David for piety and devotion Timanthes that rare and ingenious Artist as Pliny tells the Story divising in a little Table to represent a Cyclops sleeping because he would seem in that little Compasse to shew his Gyant-like bignesse he painted little Satyres hard by taking measure of one of his thumbs with long perches Our insufficiency to represent his sacred Majesty to the full may perhaps be none of the least Arguments to evince the greatnesse of his merit who as Pindar said Elegantly of Heiro cropt the tops and summities of all virtues which dispersed among all others met in Him as in their proper Center The Coloss at Rhodes one of the wonders of the World was no lesse admired being beaten down than when it stood when as they saw that with one of the fingers they might make many great Statues Nor can Great Charls his Fall lessen our Admiration of Him when it shall be considered that from His incomparable Actions may be drawn perfect Images and assured Examples of the greatest and most noble Virtues It is the priviledge of Virtue to give a new Life after Death Chi Semina virtu racoglie fame e vera Fama supera la morte Sayes the Italian Proverb He that sows virtuous Deeds reaps Renown and true Fame out-lives death How many have we read of who have been buried with ignominy and obscurity yet in a short time the Sun of their virtue hath risen out of the dark grave of prejudice and slander and shined with more luster than before Benedetto Alberti was banished by the Florentines and yet after his death they confessed their errour and fetcht home his bones burying him with solemn pomp and honour whom being alive they had persecuted with slanders and reproaches It is said of our English Edward the 2d that they who despised him being alive so much honored him being dead that they could have found in their hearts to make him a Saint The grave which buries a man should also bury all his enemies it being unnaturall to hate the dead whom we cannot hurt for the utmost that malice can doe is to kill and therefore it is noted a prodigious and unexampled hatred between the two brothers of Thebes Etocles and Polinices as Statius tells us Nec furiis post fata modus flammaeque rebelles Seditione rogi c. Their furies were not bounded by their fate One's Funeral flame the others flame did hate Solon made a Law that none should speak evill of the dead and his reason was for fear of immortal enemies Livor post fata quiescit Envy sleeps after death says the Poet as confidently as if it were not to be questioned Onely our Charls hath found it false and the men of our Age alone have made an exception to this generall rule of charity There have been found those who have persecuted his Ghost and committed Treason against his Memory like those chief Priests in the Gospel who consulted to put Lazarus to death after his resurrection But his Virtue hath survived their malice and he Lives in spight of Fate or envy Haec est CAROLI gloria ut nullius landibus crescat nullius vituperatione minuatur as Macrobius sayes of Virgil. This is CHARLS his Glory that as the prayses of his friends can adde nothing to him so the slanders of his enemies can detract nothing from Him His Virtue needeth not our Encomiums His Memory contemneth their scandals and his Merits Surpasse all Discourses Vivit post funera Virtus VIRTVS REDIVIVA OR A PANEGYRICK On the late K. Charls the I. Second Monarch of Great BRITAIN TO praise the living although never so deserving is not seldome suspected of flattery and design Therefore say the wise Italians La lode nascer deve quando è morto chi si ha da lodar Praises ought not to be born till the party praised be dead when both envy in the Reader and flattery in the Writer are useless when the Writers Pen is neither brib'd by favours to a mercenary and sordid adulation nor frighted by the frownes of greatnesse into a Paraletick and shaking cowardice I have undertaken a Subject which will secure me from the guilt of fawning flattery as being so far above all praises that I fear not to be guilty of saying too much but too little in his commendation The richest colours of Rhetorick are too dark to represent a life so transparent so full of worth so full of wonder The brightest language will prove but a dark shadow to that shining merit which exceeds all apprehension much less expression well it is if it do not spoil what I confess I am not able to adorn Materies tamen ipsa juvat Charls the First whom but to name is to cast a cloud upon all former Ages and to
benight Posterity In taking of whose Picture I shall not need to doe as that Painter did who drew Antigonus imagine luscâ half faced that so he might hide his want of an eye from the view of the beholder There is nothing in Charls but what is lovely and admirable no deformity or imperfection I shall rather choose to imitate the famous Apelles who to express his art to the full in the picture of Venus rising naked out of the Sea assembled together all the most beautifull women of the Island of Coos his native place uniting in that piece all their divided perfections There is nothing eminent or excellent in all the deservedly admired antients that is not only met but out-done in Charls It is affirmed by the learned Raleigh that if all the pictures and patterns of a merciless Prince were lost in the world they might all again be painted to the life out of the Story of Hen. 8. But I shall with as much truth and perhaps more Charity maintain that if all the Pictures and Patterns of a mercifull Prince of a couragious and constant King of a vertuous and brave Man were lost they might be repaired if not infinitely excell'd in the Story of Charls the First whose life needs no Advocate whom detraction it self cannot mention without commendation I find not any man in all the Records of the antients or the Writings of the more modern authors over whom he hath not some advantage nor any ones life taken altogether so admirable as His nor any thing admirable in any that was not in Him Quae simul omnia uno isto nomine continentur In Him alone are to be found all the vertuous qualities of the best Princes in the world without the vices of any of them for he only hath made it appear that great vertues may be without the attendance of great vices It was said of our Hen. the 5th that he had something in him of Caesar which Alexander the Great had not that he would not be drunk and something of Alexander the Great which Caesar had not that he would not be flattered But Charls had the vertues of all without the vices of any tam extra vicia quam cum summis virtutibus He as much exceeded all other Kings as other Kings doe all other men In a word he was what ever a good Prince ought to be and what others should be yet was this Lilly born in the land of thorns and briers this Rose sprang up amidst a field of thistles I presume the description hath prevented me saying it was Scotland A Land that calls in question and suspence Gods Omni-presence but that Charls came thence In quo nihil praeter unum Carolum est quod commendemus A Nation famous for the birth of Charls but infamous for their treachery and disloyalty to so brave a Prince But the happiness of a brave and incomparable Father did sufficiently recompence for the place of his birth So that I may say of him what is said of Lewis the 8th of France father to St. Lewis that he was Son to an excellent Father and Father to an excellent Son a Son only worthy of such a Father a Father only worthy of such a Son A Father so admirable that Sir W. Raleigh hath left it upon Record to all Posterity that if all the malice of the world were infused into one eye yet could it not discern in his life any one of those foul spots by which the consciences of all forreign Princes in effect have been defiled nor any drop of that innocent bloud on the Sword of his justice with which the most that fore-went him have stained both their hands and fame This Encomium of the Father may justly descend to the Son as Heir apparant to his virtues as well as his Crowns In his Childhood the weaknesse of his lower parts which made him unapt for exercises and feats of activity rendred him more retired and studious and more intent upon his Book then perhaps he had been otherwise So great a Student was he in his younger dayes that his Father would say he must make him a Bishop Providence then seeming to design him rather to the Crosier then the Crown By his great study he became a great Historian an excellent Poet a great lover and Master of Musick and indeed a generall Scholar This rare Cien was not grafted upon a wilding or crab-stock but an innocent and studious youth was the prologue to a more active and vigorous manhood For being grown in years and state he shook off his former retiredness and betook himself to all manner of man-like exercises as vaulting riding the great Horse running at the Ring shooting in Cross-bowes Muskets and great Ordinance in which he became so expert that he was said to be the best Marks-man and the most comely Manager of a great Horse of any one in his three Kingdoms Nor were these excellencies ill-housed but his fair Soul was tenant to a lovely and well proportioned body His stature of a just proportion his body erect and active of a delicate constitution yet so strong withall as if nature had design'd him to be the strife of Mars and Venus His countenance amiable and beautiful wherein the White Rose of York and the Red of Lancaster were united his hair inclining to a brown till cares and grief changed them into a white at once the Embleme of his innocence and his fortune clear and shining eyes a brow proclaiming fidelity his whole frame of face and favour a most perfect mixture and composition of Majesty and Sweetness Thus long have we beheld him as a Man Let us now view him as a Husband as a Father as a King and we shall find him alike admirable in all relations As an Husband he is a rare Example o 〈…〉 and chastity at his first receiving of his 〈◊〉 he professed that he would be no longer 〈◊〉 of himself then whilst he was a Servant t 〈…〉 and so well did he make his words good t 〈…〉 the day before his death he command 〈…〉 Daughter the excellent Princess Elizabe 〈…〉 tell her Mother that his thoughts had 〈◊〉 strayed from her and that his love should 〈◊〉 same to the last And indeed no man m … ved or less doated upon a wife As a father how tender was he of his chi … without a too remiss indulgence how c … of their education in the true Protestant R 〈…〉 which he alwayes professed and learnedly … ded advising the Lady Elizabeth and in h … rest to read Bishop Andrews Sermons Hooke … clesiaistcall Politie and Bishop Laud's book 〈◊〉 Fisher to ground them against Popery Let us now view him as a King and w … see him as the Soul of the Common-weal … cting vigourously and regularly every p … lar member in its several place and office … hold him in his royall Throne and then pencing his sacred Oracles of Law and Just … the admiration
He who had worn a Crown of Gold must now admit a crown of thornes that might fit him for the Crown of Glory They had promised to make him a glorious King and now was the time come Sit divus modo non sit vivus say they His Kingdom was not to be any longer of his world and therefore he prepares himself with humility piety charity and magnanimity to bear this earthly cross that be might attein his heavenly crown His enemies curse him he prays for them they slander him he forgives them they load him with affronts he carries them with patience And now his pious soul is on the wing and makes many a sally to the place where she longed to be at rest and in the fire of an ardent devotion he offers up himself an Holocaust being kindled with the flames of Divine Love and is fill'd with a large measure of celestial joy and holy confidence witnesse that admirable Anagram made by himself on the day before his death Carolus Rex Cras ero Lux. Hermigildus Son of Levigildus King of the Visogoths forsaking the Arrian Heresie which his Father maintain'd and embracing the Catholick truth was threatned by his Father with death unless he returned to his former errors To whom the pious Son Poteris saith he in me statuere pater quod lubet regno privas sed periturae tantum immortale illud eripere non potes In vincula me rapis ad coelum certè patet via ibimus illuc ibimus Vitam eripitis restat melior aeterna Such were the pious resolves of the most Christian Charls You may doe with me what you will ye may deprive me of my Kingdomes alas these are perishing things but mine immortal Crown ye cannot reach If ye confine me to the narrow walls of a prison my soul vvill mount to Heaven thither thither vvill vve goe If ye take avvay this life I shall but exchange it for a better and eternal one Thus prepared he vvith all humility and Christan resignation offers up himself the peoples Martyr to the grief of his friends the shame of his enemies and the amazement of all the world Quis talia fando temperet à lachrymis Many wiped up his blood with their handkercheifs which experience proved afterwards an admirable Collirium to restore the sight even to those I could name some of the recovered patients from whom I received the relation who were almost blind this wants not truth so much as a Roman pen to make it a miracle Sure I am his death opened thousands of eyes which passion and prejudice had blinded and those who whilst he lived wish'd him dead now he was dead wish'd him alive again That so great a Prince who yet chose rather to be good than great to be holy rather than happy might not die unattended many loyal subjects left this life with the very news of His death as it is reported of Hugh Scrimiger servant to S. W. Spotswood beheaded by the Covenanters of Scotland passing by the Scaffold before it was taken down fell into a swound and being carried home died at his own door The truth of this Relation I leave to the credit of the Historian the former I attest upon mine own knowledge my self being assistant at the Funeral of a Kinsman who with divers others died of no other disease than the newes of the Kings death on whom as I then bestowed I here deposite this Epitaph Here lies a loyal member dead Who scorned to survive his Head Thus died Charls Aliorum majori damno quam suo It being hard to determine whether the Church and State were more happy to have had or more miserable to lose so incomparable a King who wanted nothing but to have lived in an Age when it was in fashion to Deifie their Worthies or in a Country where it is a trade to be Sainted But alas He lived in an Age when vices were in fashion and virtues accounted vices Of whom his worst enemies sayes one who was none of his best friends cannot but give this civil yet true Character That he was a Prince of most excellent natural parts an universal Gentleman very few men of any rank or quality exceeding him in his natural endowments and the most accomplished King this Nation had ever since the Conquest FINIS Doloris nullus Oweni Epigr. in Regicidas Si manus offendat te dextra abscindito dextram Offendat si pes abjice Christus ait Corpus in errorem dexter si ducat ocellus Ipse oculus peccans effodiendus erit Quaelibet abscindi pars corporis aegra jubetur Excipiunt medici Theologique Caput An Elegie on Charls the First c. COme saddest Muse tragick Melpomine Help me to weep or sigh an Elegie And from dumb grief recover so much breath As may serve to express my Sovereigns death But that 's not all had Natures oil been spent And all the treasury of life she lent Exhausted had his latest sand been run And the three fatal Sisters thred been spun Or laden with yeares and mellow had he dropt Into our mothers bosome not thus lopt We could have born it But thus hew'd from life B'an Axe more hasty than the cruel knife Of grisly Atropos thus to be torn From us whom loyal death would have sorborn This strikes us dead Hence Nero shall be kind Accounted he but wished and that wish confin'd Within the walls of Rome but here we see Three Kingdoms at one blow beheaded be And instead of the one head of a King Hundreds of Hydra headed Monsters spring Scarce can I think of this and not engage My Muse to muster her Poetick rage To scourge those Gyants whose bold hands haâ—e renâ— This glorious Sun from out our Firmament Put out the light of Israel that they might Act their black deeds securely in the night When none but new and foolish lights appear Not to direct but cheat the traveller But biting births are monstrous Ours must be My Midwife Muse a weeping Elegie Well may we like some of whom Stories write From this Sun-set in mourning spend our night Until we see a second Sun arise That may exhale those vapours from our eyes Since the breath of our nostrils we have lost We are but moaning statues at the most Our wisedome reason justice all are dead As parts that liv'd and died with our Head How can we speak him praise or our loss when Our tongue of language silenc'd is with him Or can our fainter pensils hope to paint Those rayes of Majesty which spake him Saint In mortal weeds not man As great a King Of virtues as of men A sacred thing To such an heighth of eminency rais'd Easier by far to be admir'd than prais'd 'T would puzzle the sage Plutarch now to tell Or finde on earth our Charls 's parallel Let Rome and Greece of Heroes boast no more To make our One would beggar all their store Weep ye three Orphan Kingdoms weep for
in the Church like a Bishop but as he was Duke going guarded like a Tyrant Whither thinkest thou the Bishop shall go when the Duke shall be damned King Edward the 3d. having the King of France prisoner here in England and feasting him one time most sumptuously pressed him to be merry The French King answered How can we sing songs in a strange Land Calvin answered his friends with some indignation when they admonished him for his healths sake to forbear studying so hard What said he would you that my Master when he comes should find me idle Spiridion a godly Bishop in Cyprus having not what else to set before a guest that came to him in Lent set him a piece of pork to feed on and when the stranger made a scruple of eating flesh in Lent saying I am a Christian and may not do it Nay therefore thou mayst do it said he because to the pure all things are pure Dr. Preston on his death-bed said He should change his place not his company A certain stranger comming on Embassage to Rome and colouring his hair and pale cheeks with vermilion hue a grave Senator espying the deceit stood up and said What sincerity are we to expect at this mans hands whose locks and looks and lips do lye Sir Horaetio Vere when in the Palatinate a Council of War was called and debated whether they should fight or not Some Dutch Lords said That the enemy had many peeces of Ordnance in such a place and therefore it was dangerous to fight That Nobleman replyed My Lords if you fear the mouth of the Cannon you must never come into the field Sir John Burroughs receiving a mortal wound in the Island of Rhees and being advised not to fear death but to provide for another world He answered I thank God I fear not death and these thirty years together I never arose in the morning that ever I made account to live while night A learned Frier at a Council complaining of the abuse of the Clergy Preaching before the Emperor wished him to begin a reformation of the Clergy à minoribus The Emperor thanked him for his Sermon and said He had rather begin à majoribus from the better sort of the Clergy Aristippus being told that Lais loved him not No more saith he doth wine nor fish yet I cannot be without them The Lord Burleigh being at Cambridge with Queen Elizabeth viewing the several Schools said Here I find one School wanting and that is the School of Discretion Henry the 4th told the Prince his Son Getting is a chance but keeping is a wit A Philosopher that hearing his creditor was dead kept the money which he had borrowed without witnesses a night or two but after some strugling with his conscience he carried it to his Executor saying Mihi vivit qui aliis mortuus est though he be ded to others he 's still alive to me Severus the Emperor having passed through many adventures at last died in our land overladen with troubles weighing with himself what his life had been he brake forth into these speeches I have been all that might be and now am nothing the better Scipio viewing his army said There was not one who would not throw himself from the top of a tower for love of him Hildebert Bishop of Mentz said of the Roman Courtiers Employ them not and they hinder you Employ them in your causes and they delay them if you sollicite them they scorn you if you enrich them they forget you When Antonius had made away his brother Geta after the first year of their joynt Empire he entreated Papinianus a famous Lawyer to plead his excuses Who answered It is easier Paricidium facere quam excusare thou mayst said he command my neck to the block but not my tongue to the bar I prize not my life to the pleading of an evil cause Simonides being asked what did soonest grow old among men Made answer A benefit Apollonius â—hianaeus having travelled over all Asia Africk and Europe said There were two things whereat he marvelled most in all the world the first was that he always saw the proud man command the humble the quarrellous the quiet the tyrant the just the cruel the pitiful the coward the hardy the ignorant the skilful and the greatest thieves hang the innocent A Philosopher being asked how he could endure so ill a Wife as he had The answer which he gave was I have hereby a School of Philosophy in my house and learning daily to suffer patiently I am made the more milder with others Alexander seeing Diogenes tumbling among dead bones he asked him what he sought To whom the other answered That which I cannot find the difference between the rich and the poor Demonax asked one a question who answered him in old obsolete affected words Prethee fellow said he where are thy wits I ask thee a question now and thou answerest 400 years ago Albertus Duke of Saxony was wont to say that he had three wonders in one City viz. three Monasteries For the Fries of the first had children and yet no wives the Friers of the second had a great deal of corn and yet no land the Friers of the third abounded with moneys and yet had no rents A Captain sent from Caesar unto the Senators of Rome to sue for the prolonging of his government abroad understanding as he stood at the Council-chamber-door that they would not condiscend to his desire clapping his hand upon the pummel of his sword Well said he seeing you will not grant it him this shall give it him When Anne Bolen that vertuous Lady had received a message from Henry the 8th that she must instantly prepare her self for death answered That she gave him humble thanks for all his favours bestowed upon her as for making her of a mean woman a Marchioness of a Marchioness a Queen but especially seeing he could not on earth advance her to any greater dignity that he would now send her to rest and reign upon Gods high and holy throne When Tully was asked which Oration of Demosthenes he liked best He answered The longest Diogenes said of one That he cast his house so long out at the window that at last his house cast him out of the door having left nothing rich except a nose There are two saying fathered on two great Counsellors Secretary Walsingham and Secretary Cecil one used to say at the Council-Table My Lords stay a little and we shall make an end the seoner The other would oft-times speak of himself It shall never be said of me that I will defer till to morrow what I can do to day Adrian the Sixt said A Physician is very necessary to a populous Country for were it not for the Physician men would live so long and grow so thick that one could not live for the other It was a bold answer Captain Talbot returned Henry the 8th from Calais who having received special
to kill me and in me to die without fear it is in you to banish me and in me to go to it cheerfully When Athanasius was banished by the Emperor Julian he said unto his friends that came to sorrow with him in his disgrace Courage my children this is but a little cloud which will vanish presently Fabius Maximus having spoiled Tarentum and made it desolate with all kinds of cruelties when his Secretary came to ask him What shall we do with the enemies gods He answered Let us leave the angry gods unto the Tarentines Scanderbeg had it in particular in all his encounters and military actions always to begin his first Stratagems of Victory with the death of the head saying That the head should be first cut off and the rest of the body will fall alone and that he knew no kind of living creature that could survive the head being taken off It was a witty speech of him that said That mens actions were like notes of musick sometimes in spaces and sometimes in lines sometimes above and sometimes beneath and never or seldom straight for any long continuance Rubrius Flavius being condemned by Nero to lose his head when as the Executioner said unto him that he should stretch forth his neck boldly he answered Thou shalt not strike more boldly than I will present my head Croesus King of Lydia seeing Cyrus's souldiers running up and down the Town of Sardis he demanded whither they did run They go to the spoil of the Town answered Cyrus They take nothing from me replyed Croesus all they carry away is thine and not mine Signifying that the spoils of souldiers are the losses of the Conqueror rather than the conquered One demanded of Symonides why he was so sparing in the extremity of his age For that said he I had rather leave my goods after my death to my enemies than in my life-time to have need of my friends When Antisthenes the Philosopher was in extream pain he cryed out Who shall deliver me from these miseries Diogenes presenting a knife unto him said This if thou wilt and that soon I do not say of my life replyed the Philosopher but of my pain One demanded of Cercidas the Megalapolitane if he died willingly Why not said he for after my death I shall see those great men Pythagoras among the Philosophers Hecateus among the Historians Homer among the Poets and Olympus among the Musicians A Babler demanding of Aristole if his discourse were not strange No answered he but yet a man having feet should not give himself so long patience to hear thee The Embassadors of Lacedemon being come to the King Lygdomnus he making difficulty to hear them and feigning himself sick the Embassadors said We are not come to wrestle with him but to speak with him Lewis the 11th of France one day went into the kitchin whereas he found a young lad turning the spit he demanded his name of whence he was and what he did earn This turn-spit who knew him not told his name and that though he were in the Kings service yet he got as much as the King For the King said he hath but his life and so have I God feeds the King and the King feeds me The Emperor Maximilian answered a Merchant who besought him to make him a Gentleman I can make thee much richer than thou art but it is not in my power to make thee a Gentleman Pope Julius the 2d having had a long feud with the Emperor Frederick against whom he had fought 12 Battels being one day gently admonished by the Arch-Bishop of Ostia how St. Peter his Predecessor was commanded to put up his sword 'T is true said Julius our Saviour gave the prime Apostle such a comand but 't was after he had given the blow and cut off Malchus ear Diogenes said That Troy was lost by horses and the Common-wealth of Athens by asses Alvaro de Luna whom John King of Castile advanced and loved above all men of his Realm said to them that admired his fortunes Judge not of the building before it be finished He died by the hands of Justice Lewis the 13th King of France being but a child when crowned tired with being â—o long eight hours in the Church and bearing the Crown on his head with divers other heavy vests upon his body was asked what he would take to take the like pains again He answered For another Crown I would take double the pains Those of the Religion petitioning Lewis 13. for a continuance of holding their cautionary Townes as Hen. 3. and Hen. the great had done He told them What grace the first did shew you was out of fear what my Father did was out of love but I would have you know that I neither fear you nor love you The Marshal de Saint 〈◊〉 comming to Sir Edward Herbert then Embassador from the King of England for the Rochellers after a counter-buff with Luynes the Constable and told him in a friendly manner you have offended the Constable and you are not in a place of security here Whereunto he answered That he held himself to be in a place of security wheresoever he had his sword by him The Duke of Suilli was a Favourite to Henry the 4th whom he had reduced from a Roman to be a Reformist when he was King of Navar onely and perswading him to become Roman again the Duke bluntly answered Sir you have given me one turn already you have good luck if you give me any more Lewis the 13th when but a youth he went to the Country of Bearn at his entrance to Pan the Inhabitants bringing a Canopy to carry over his Head He asked whether there was ever a Church in the Town And being answered No He said he would receive no honour in that place where God himself had no house to be honoured in William Prince of Orange to content those that reproved his too much humanity said That man is well bought who costs but a salutation A President of a Parliament in France whose friends came to see him at his new house began exceedingly to commend it for the rareness of the Workmanship and the goodness of the stone timber marble and such like You mistake said he the stuff whereof it is made the house is onely bâ—â— de testes les fols of foolsheads Bias one of the seven wise men of Greece sailing in a ship where some fellows were that had given themselves over to lewdness and yet in a storm were calling unto their gods for help He said unto them Hold your peace for fear lest the gods should know you be here Alexander Severus was wont to say That a Souldier is never afraid but when he seeth himself well apparelled and his Belt furnished with money Dionysius the Tyrant said We should deceive children with dice and cock-alls and men with Oaths Alexander the Great when one wondred why he not onely not kill'd his enemies but took them to
in Winter retired to their first nothing as resolving to enjoy no life in the absence of the Sun their Father Since I cannot encircle you in person let me embrace your picture and let your pen supply the silence of your tongue If you will sometimes vouchsafe me this happiness I shall quit scores with my wishes and resolve to be no happier in this unhappy Age. Thus because you have expected it long I have at length returned you a long Letter to assure you that I am and most sincerely Sir your Friend and Servant T. F. To Mr. C. A. Sir THis Letter must begin where yours ended ' because what you commend to me as an object of my pitie hath been the subject of my thoughts for it is impossible my friends should suffer any loss and my self not be sensible of and sorrowful for it If the stream of your grief may be substracted by division I refuse not and that willingly to take my part that yours may be the less The cause that challengeth our grief for now 't is mine as well as yours speaks it self in the loss of a Friend of a Mother To begin with that ends all Death me thinks I can find as little cause to lament as to wonder at it it being so general a necessitie that none ever did or ever shall avoid it We were born to live and live to die It is the onely thing we can here expect without a fortasse the onely certainty of which we cannot be deprived Epictetus wondred no more to see a mortal man dead than to see an earthen pitcher broken And as wise a Philosopher as the former entertained the newes of his Sons deaths with no more but a Scivi eos mortales esse natos As being a greater wonder that they should have so long than that they died so soon Why should we wonder or grieve to see one goe before us the same way that we our selves must follow Vale vale nos te sequemur was the solemn leave the Ancients took of their deceased friends and if we believe the Grammarians from thence we call a Funeral Exequiae the same being noted not without a silent lesson in our common custome of the Coarse's going before and the attendants following after It is Seneca's observation Nature hath ordained that to be common which we account so heavy that the cruelty of the fate may be lessened by the equality But 't is the death of a Mother and here nature and affection will put in a plea and plead prescription for our grief yet may we entertain our fortune with dry eys We know she was mortal and so liable to the common fate a mother and so by the order of nature to goe before her children She was before them that they might be after her It was thought ominous among the Jewes and not without the re-mark of a punishment for the Father to burie the Son as if it were an inversion of the course of nature and not to be seen without a Prodigie But I remember what the Schools teach That an Angel of an inferiour cannot enlighten a superiour Hierarchy Yet I presume you will excuse the rashness of the attempt since it proceeds from the affection of one devoted to be in all relations Sir your ready servant T. F. To Mr. C. A. Sir THat a discourse of death from a sick person and firm arguments from an infirm and shaking brain should have the good hap to rout or at least to prevent the triumph of your sorrows was certainly to be ascribed to the benevolent Planet that co-operated in their production or rather to your own more favourable Aspect I shall not pursue a flying enemy nor torture that argument to a martyrdome that is already a willing Confessor Your quoted Author hath expressed himself Fuller than the smalness of my reserve pretends to That the death of one breaks anothers heart is not safe to contradict since it hath obteined the general vote of a Proverb But I shall humbly adventure to lay the Scene at a greater distance and date it from that Golden Age when hearts were so entwined they could not part without breaking when that Gordian knot of amitie was not to be untied till it were cut by the Sythe of him that out-conquers Alexanders sword Were it not to upbraid the present Age by the comparison I could willingly venture at a Character or Encomium of that venerable Friendship the Imitation of former and Despiar of later Ages But I shall do the subject more right to commend it to your more commanding Pen and study always to make good the precise value you are pleased to put upon Sir the meanest of your servants T. F. To Mr. D. P. Sir WHether this should be an Apologie for my former perhaps too frequent visits or my later as uncivil forbearance I know not since both have been equally liable to the piquant censures of detracting tongues and in so loud an accent that I question not but they have long since arrived your eares It is not my intention to make this paper guilty by relating those stories which would be tedious for me to write and troublesome for you to read Had they been vented with as much innocence as falshood I could have looked upon them as some pretty Romances and at once both laugh'd at the Relation and pitied the Relator But finding them so loaded with the over-weight of scandal as well as slander I should belye my own thoughts if I should not say they have touched the most sensible part of my soul That I have hitherto been silent and contented my self to be an auditor onely was that so if it had been possible they might have found a grave in their birth And it is a common saying among the Jewes That lyes have their feet cut off they cannot stand long to what they say But since I see by what designe I know not that they have already out-lived the common age of a wonder though I know you are too wise to take up any ware upon trust from such walking-pedlers for so I am informed the original speaks a Tale-bearer I am not altogether diffident of your pardon if I shall enter my protests which is all the re-action I shall endeavour that whatever some have fancied or others reported I never propounded any other end to my self either in a direct or collateral line in my approches than to make my self happy by the enjoyment of your societie This was the cause that inducted me into your acquaintance and I am not conscient to my self of any Apostacy from my first resolutions or that those real intentions have suffered any dilapidations I must confess 't was my ambition to rival your goodness and to make my respects if it had been possible as infinite as your merit and I have read that excesses in friendship are not onely tolerable but laudable But that what I thought obedience should be interpreted impudence is a false
or be put out With any cold extinguisher but death If many shoulders make griefs burthen light Then so shall ours and may mine cease to be When they shall cease to bear their equal part And sympathize with thee as doth my heart Seph Uncle my thanks How rare it is to find A friend in misery Men run from such Like Deer from him is hunted with the dogs As if that misery infectious were Men fly with Eagles wings away But creep like snails when they should succour lend I cannot therefore chuse but prize your love Who dare be true unto your friend a name Nearer than that of kindred or of blood This is th' effect of noblest virtue which Ties firmer knots than age can e're undo Such is the knot my Maximus and I Have tied spight of my fathers anger it Shall hold when envy 's tired to invent Mischiefs in vain to cut the knot in two Which heaven hath knit too fast to loose again Alas fond man who thinks to unravel what The gods have wove together 'T is in vain Scaen. 3. 1 Lo. Lady time cals upon you not to stay Lest by a fond delay you call upon His fury to convert into some worse And sudden punishment which may deny All hopes of future safety of all ills The least is always wisely to be chosen Seph Go and prepare that floting grave which must Devour's alive I will attend you here Before when will my dearest find his grief In finding me thus lost without relief Exeunt Manet Sephestia Why doth my Love thus tarry surely he Forgotten hath the place or time or else He would not stay thus long but can I blame Him to be slow to meet his ruine I Could wish he would not come at all that so He yet might live although I perish but How fondly do I wish to be without Him without whom alas I cannot live 'T were as impossible as without air He 'tis for whom I suffer and with him All places are alike to me See where He comes who is sole keeper of my heart Enter Maximus Max. My dear Seph Ah dear indeed for whom thy life Must pay the shot of cruelty enrag'd Max. What meanes my love is' t she or do I dream Sure this cannot be she whose words were wont To be more sweet than honey soft as oil These words more sharp than daggers points ne're came From her I know What sayst thou my sweet Seph The same truth will not suffer me to speak Other lest I should injure her O that 'T were possible so to dispense with truth Not to betray our selves I know not what to say Max. Heavens bless us what a sudden change is here Love who hath wrong'd thee tell me that I may Thrid their lives upon my sword make their Dead trunks float in their own blood till they blush At their own shame Tell me my heart who is' t Seph Alas poor soul thou little dreamst what sad News do's await thine ears my tongue doth fail Not daring once to name the thing must be Our loves sad end and dire Catastrophe My fathers fury Oh that that name I once delighted in should odious be To mine affrighted senses But for thee Alone it is I grieve not for my self Max. Be 't what it will so that it be but in Relation to thy love I will embrace And hug and thank that malice too that so Invented hath a means whereby I may But testifie my loyalty to thee For whose sweet sake I would encounter with Legions of armed furies sacrifice My dearest blood unto thy service which I more esteem than all the wealth the world Can boast of 'T is thee alone I value Above whatever mens ambitious thoughts Can fathom with their boundless appetites Seph This flame of love must now be quenched in The foaming sea we are design'd a prey Unto the fury of winds and waves The deadly Barque's providing which must be Our moving habitation the sea Must be our Kingdom and the scaly frie Our subjects This this the portion is Of fortunes frowns and fathers fiercer hate Fly fly my dearest Maximus and save My life in thine oh stay no longer here weeps Max. Why dost thou torment thy self before Thy time wilt thou anticipate the sea And drown thy self in tears Deny me not To share with thee in suffering as well As I have done in pleasure 't is for me This storm is rais'd were I once cast away His rage would cease I I have wrong'd thee And I 'll be just to thee and to my word draws I 'll ope the sluces of my fullest veins And set them running till they make a flood Wherein I 'll drown my self He offers to kill himself She stays his hand Seph Thine heart lies here 'T is here lock't up securely in my brest First open that and take it out for death Shall ne're divorce me from thy company I will attend thee through those shady vaults Of death or thou shalt live with me Dost think This body possible to live without A soul or without thee Have pitie on Thy tender babe whose life depends on thine And make not me widow and him orphan With unadvised rashness Sheath thy sword Max. Mine eyes will ne're endure it to behold Thee miserable no no death first shall draw A sable veil of darkness over them Pardon my rashuess I will live with thee And tire thy fathers rage with suffering So he 'l but suffer thee to live in mirth The greatest sorrow shall not make me sad Seph Here comes my father cerainly his rage Will know no bounds I fear it will Break forth into some desperate act on me Max. Although he be a King which sacred name I reverence and as a mortal god Adore he shall not dare to injure you Before my face first shall he wear my life Upon his sword if he but dare to touch Thy sacred self Scaen. 4. Enter Damocles Kin. How now light-skirts have you got your Champion To shield you from our anger know I have Not yet forgot the name of father though You thus have slighted it but as a King We must be just to punish your contempt Did you so well know your beauty to be Proud of it and yet so little value it As thus to throw it all away at once Well get you gone Since that you have esteem'd A strangers love before your lovalty To me or my care to you a stranger shall Inherit what you were born to had not Your fond affections forc'd this vile exchange Max. Sir for your fury will not suffer me To call you father think not your daughter Undervalued by her love to me Her love ran not so low as to be stoop'd To meet with crime who am a Prince no less Than is your self Cyprus my Kingdome is Kin. What drew you hither then you must needs know It is no less than treason for to steal An heir to our crown what drew you hither Max.