Monsieur Chapelain having not yet pronounced upon it I am wholly unresolved in what quality to esteem it I am SIR Your c. Balzac 20 Octob. 1639. LET. XXIII SIR LEt us leave the dead to the company of those in the same condition and suffer me to congratulate with you for your new acquaintance I never yet saw the face of Monsieur the Embassadour of Sueden though I have long since had a particular esteem of his endowments and had not he turn'd the Institutes into Verse and publish'd some other pieces of the like nature I should have yet had a greater veneration of his worth As for his humour of affecting the behaviour of a stranger I am not much displeas'd with it we are all Barbarians to one another and there is a sort of civility at Paris which I more disgust then all the rudenesse of the North. The Poet of Luca of whom you have no knowledge is a that has made an infinite company of Verses at the rate of a hundred for a penny as your Marin us'd to speak and all de communi in the term of the University I have not discover'd one grain of salt in two or three great Poems which I had the patience to read Whereupon I have bidden him Adieu for e-ever I am SIR Your c. Balzac 4 Novemb. 1639. LET. XXIV SIR SHould I credit your Relation I must use much vertue to restrain me from vain-glory My Writings deserve not the commendations they have receiv'd at Ramboüillet Hostel and the honour bestow'd on me seems more properly the due of my Lord the Cardinal de la Valette But in the mean time where was the dear Monsieur that constant and perpetuall admirer of F. N. C. whose disposition is so sweet that hony and sugar are bitter in comparison ********** The gravity of our other friend is also rare and admirable and I believe the Areopagus never saw any thing more sober and compos'd Be pleas'd Sir for my sake to call my Consolation a Discourse for besides the propernesse of the Title and that it is Oratio ad Cardinalem there being some much shorter in the Books of the Ancients especially in those of the old Greeks you know I detest the name of Letter cane pejus angue Yet it is necessary the Muse of the Fennes have a Copy since you ordain it so and I have no power to disobey you But this must not be drawn to an example and you must bear with me another time if la signora Principina ò la signora write to me and I return them no answer What misery is this to be oblig'd to make Elogiums upon all Books that are publish'd 'T is certainly to be in a worse condition in Prose then the Auratus poeta regius was who did with a good will what I do by force and as condemn'd to I have with sorrow understood the death of poor Monsieur Arnaud He was indeed a person of great worth and I lament the case of the Gentlemen his Brothers who are very deserving and for whom I have ever had a most sincere affection but full of respect and reverence Shall we never see a happier time then this nor furious Mars once secur'd in chains Quem das finem Rex magne laborum I speak of the Catholique King for as for the most-Christian we know he desires peace even in the midst of Victory I am SIR Your c. Balzac 8 Novemb. 1639. LET. XXV SIR I Never pass judgement on any thing but I sometimes declare my opinion Your Sonnet seems to me of perfect excellence and the Edict of fame which is executed by a hundred people at the same hour is proclaim'd is without question an Inspiration for which you are beholding to your Muses I would have this understood without prejudice to what we shall say of it at another time But what means Seigneur Jean-Jacques with his dreadfull Title of Panglossie If he account himself Master of forty Languages he exceeds Scaliger by three and twenty and the soul of Parnassus must be commended in the Tongue of Biscay and base Bretagnie This is to make wild Musick in Apollo's Hill and to bring Barbarians into the Holy place with no lesse crime then theirs that opened the passages of Italy to the Predecessors of the King of Sweden Do me the favour to know of Monsieur Conrart if Monsieur du Moulin has lately printed any of his Sermons for I should be glad to see his manner of writing upon all occasions I ever had a great passion for the merit of the excellent Monsieur Conrart and desire the continuance of his favour as absolutely necessary and essentiall to the conservation of my life Give me leave Sir at least once a year to request of you some news concerning Monsieur de St. Cyran Monsieur le Maistre and the unfortunate I extreamly resent the losse of our poor Camusat and 't is an Article that I had forgotten in my former He had a great portion both of honour and vertue and had he grown old in his Profession he would have restored it to its primitive glory But Books must also one day perish as well as those that print them Debemus morti nos nostraque I most humbly kiss your hands and am SIR Your c. Balzac 22 Novemb. 1639. LETTER XXVI SIR ALthough at present I want the assistance of Totila I shall not forbear to write to you in as good a fashion as a weak hand and a bad pen will suffer me and to let you see my intentions in the least disorder I am able to represent them Be pleas'd then Sir That I thank you with my uncomely writing for the fair present you have conferr'd upon me I mean the Robe of a Consolatour wherewith your favour has invested me and rais'd me as it were a statue between those of Seneca and Plutarch These dignities are indeed very dear unto me because they assure me the esteem of such a person who possesses reason in a soveraign degree and so is consequently free from errour in his judgements But is it possible that you have discover'd a Vittoria Colonna at Paris and that that Marchionesse of whom we never heard before is equall in merit to her of Rome It is no longer questionable after you have affirmed it and we must reverence her excellent qualities for the future and acknowledge the justice and favour she has done us in the affair of Phylarque To confirm her in her opinion I desire she may have my Apology in the form as I lately revis'd it But Sir my principall ambition is to satisfie you alone whose least scruples give me more trouble then all the declared hostilities of all the Doctors and Academies of the world can do You may judge from hence if I esteem and allow the curiosity of Monsieur de Scudery who intends to rank you amongst his Illustrious persons I onely desire that he would be careful of placing you with
ad Inmortalitatem consecrare vale Romae Kalendis Januariis A. C. N.M.D CXXVIII Ex Epistola Johannis Jacobi Buccardi ad Franciscum Olearium Regiarum Rationum Lutetiae Magistrum LETTER III. To Monsieur de Bayers SIR IF I had known of your loss earlier I should sooner have shewen you what a part I beare in your griefe I just now understood the cause of it in the Gazette and make no question how strong and how fortified soever you be with Constancy but that you are sensible of the blow your family hath received and which will be felt all over our Province Without injury to nature reason cannot rank such like Accidents in the number of things Indifferent Tendernesse of heart is not incompatible with greatnesse of spirit for those who have undauntedly seen their own blood trickle down yet have with teares bewail'd their kindred and friends in that Condition Well Sir we must not think to make war upon other termes There was ever mourning and teares even on the side of victory Let us hope to recall him home who gives us occasion to speak so often of it and let us not ambition the Empire of the World at the rate of so deare a life as his You must in this life aâ—me your selfe with comfort against all sorts of death and that great kinsman of yours should countervaile all the former misfortunes of your life It is a perpetuall reason of Content and cause of satisfaction that there is no colour why you should grieve for any one or any lament you Yet I do it Sir in obedience to custome knowing withall that that part of the soul which suffers is strucken sooner then that which Reason hath warded off the blow I thought it was necessary for me to enter into the same thoughts with you but that it was as necessary too to get out of them and by a way which without doubt your selfe had made choice of I will hope that hereafter you will possesse all your joyes pure and serene and that Heaven who loves you reserves successes for you wherein your Moderation shall be more requisite then your Constancy at least I wish them you withall my heart being without Complement SIR Your c. June 5. 1642. LETTER IV. To Monsieur de Villemontee of the Kings Councell Controller of the Revenew in Poitou Saintonge Aunix c. SIR YOu will say it may be my zeal renders me impatient but though you could justly taxe it of indiscretion yet I must send this beaâ—er to you to know at his returne what I cannot be ignorant of without disquiet When I parted from you I left you in the best plight the study of wisedome could settle a mind perfectly reasonable and the Letter you did me the honour to write to me informes me of nothing that should not continue you in this good temper Neverthelesse I confesse that sentence of sadnesse among the rest runnes in my mind And in truth it would trouble me if so drowzy and effeminate a passion as that is should encroach upon your vigilance and fortitude I remember the sage discourse you held me in when your wound was yet greene sure you have not forgotten the great Precedent you then propounded and what was so ready in your memory at the day of our separation They who bequeathed us those high examples concerning which we held so long a conference were not happy or unlucky but in the good or bad fortune of the Common-wealth They bare so great a love to their Country that they left none for themselves They knew no dysasters bâ—t wicked actions and the blame that attends on them they dreaded faults but despised every thing else And unlesse you mightily dissembled you are of the same mind these are your principles as well as theirs and consequently Sir while you do the King service with courage and understanding and your Gowne saves him the expence of an army on this side the Loire while you maintaine your self in repute at the Court without losing the affection of the people and while by your dexteâ—ity the bitternesse of your medicines make not the Physitian distastefull I cannot think you have any need of consolation nor that the Melancholly and clouds of an afflicted soul can retaine their mists before the splendor and light of so unblemished a life He whom I have sent to you will without doubt bring me the confirmation of all this and the meaning of a sentence which I shall be very glad rightly to understand my passion is wittily resolv'd to perplexe me but your goodnesse me thinks is obliged to draw me out of it for I am not an ill interpreter of your words but because it is with affection which is never without alarmes that I am SIR Your c. Jul. 1. 1641. LETTER V. To Monsieur de Lymerac de Mayat Captaine in the Regiment of Conty SIR I Have no great inclinations to serve you in your request I know not how to bewaile a man who hath gotten so much honour as you You are more fit for Brave mens envy then Philosophers compassion and your laurells are much more delicate then your chaines a stubborne Imprisonment is not so great an evill as you imagine it it gives ill influences leasure to passe over you it reserves a man to a happier season and it may be we should have lost you if our enemies had not preserv'd you As concerning the Brimmers of Germany of which you spake to me with such griefe as if they were Turkish bastinadoes me-thinks your sobriety is there a thought too superstitious You must as they that talk proverbs say when you are at Rome do as they do at Rome and not to alledge to you great Commanders Do not you know that wise Embassadours have heretofore been fudled for the good of the Kings affaires and sacrificed all their wisedome and gravity to the necessity of the times and the custome of the countrys in which they resided I do not advise you to debauchery that is prohibited but I do not think there is any harme in drowning your cares now and then in Rhenish wine and to make use of that pretty trick of contracting the time which seemes tediously long to prisoners Your father all this while labours hard to procure your liberty and you must think he doth not forget his cares and usuall activenesse in a businesse that is neerer his heart then all his other For my part being able to contribute onely my good wishes I can assure you they are most ardent and passionate for I am as much as it is possible to be SIR Your c. Dec. 15. 1645. LETTER VI. To Monsieur de Prizac of the Kings Privy Councell SIR IT is better to be sick in your company then well in your absence The delight I now take comes not neere the comfort you gave me and your society is so good that it makes even diseases pleasant If it cannot be had at a lower price
approved all the world over if you please to produce as fine things as you are able to expresse them elegantly The ancient Latinism beares a high price amidst the barbarism of these latter ages but where it is quite dryed up as in some places in which it is maintained meerly by the dint of talking it is to write only for two or three in a kingdome whose palates are capable of gusting any thing of sound and sincere antiquity The curiosity of the major part must be contented with something notorious and remarkable that may stick in the memory and not be blown away with the sound of the words And herein the Italian writer of Characters is much more divertising and instructive then he of France though he is inferiour to him in Latin and Politenesse For example is there not a great deal of delight in understanding the true manner of Politian's death which Cardinall Bembo hath so disguised in the Epitaph he made upon him the whimsey of Naugerius in making an annuall sacrifice of Martiall 's Epigrammes to the muse of Catullus and the proud morosities of another Poet of the same times c. I advise you to excite the Readers attentivenesse by such like particularities in the lives of your worthies Use your utmost to interweave the curiosity of History with the purity of language and do not forget to sprinkle Paulus Jovius salt in the same feasts where you use St. Martha's sugar If you do thus you will compose a work that shall live and will not deserve meanly of your own Age by obliging Posterity I send you what Madam Des Loges lately sent to me and beseech you to own me for what I am with passion SIR Your c. Sep. 21. 1646. LETTER IX To the Reverend father Tesseron of the society of Jesus Professour of Rhetorick Reverend father I Do a little understand the language of Heaven but cannot judge of the merits of them who speak it for the Peerage of Poets ought to be exempted from the Jurisdiction of Grammarians It is sufficient for me then to bestow these commendations on your fine verses and thank you for the delight they gave me For to engage my self into that strict examination you seem to desire of me would be not only to introduce an inquisition into a free Country and violate the enfranchisments of Parnassus but an acception of your words too literally and the grounding a Prerogative upon a Complement I intend not any such thing nor will so abuse the arbitrement you commit to me I must not take advantage on the civilities of a man that teaches Rhetorick and consequently does not make profession of rigid truth Whatsoever you do you cannot debase your self into a vulgar person or humble your self so low by your modesty as you are elevated in your Genius and conceptions Reverend Father Sevine will tell you in what termes I expressed my self to him concerning the subject of those frequent towrings and what I said of your Muses daring flight you know he is an eager and patheticall Oratour But I have no need either of his vehemence or his figures I only desire his bare testimony to perswade you that I am Reverend Father Your c. Apr. 25. 1645. LETTER X. To Monsieur Perrot of Ablancourt SIR YOu will receive by this bearer the discourses I promised you yesterday they will not teach you any new thing for what is it you are now to learn but they will call to memory your excellent knowledge and revive your fading Ideas The last time I saw him that made them I left him in a designe to fall on studying French as if he had been a German you see here how it hath succeeded and you your self Sir you who were born on the banks of Seine cannot chuse but confess to me that our desarts begin to be civilized and the savages to grow tame at least they purge their tongues by little and lâ—ttle from the faults of their Country and speak more like men then formerly from swaggerers lawles in matter of Eloquence they are reclaimed to discreet Lovers and become persons of Reason this gentleman sticks but too close to the method and precepts of Art He is so fearfull of failing or being misapprehended that sometimes he writes rather like a Gramarian then an Oratour and because he leaps from licentiousness to scruple in his style it may be that so exquisite strictness of his will not seem very naturall to you You remember him that was taken for a forraigner for being too Attick for he discovered himself by his disguise The Provinciall Oratour's way of speaking is remarkable for the same care and shews something pumpt and strain'd for For the matters he treates of though often times they slide into Common-places yet they are pretty lucky falls and me thinks his Preaching is not tiresome but I will not comment in a Tickquet nor forestall the sentence I ought to waite for I shal receive it from your soveraign Criticism the next time I have the Honour to see you I most humbly kisse your Hands and am ever with passion SIR Your c. Paris Mar 7. 1635. LETTER XI To the Reverend Father Adam a Preacher of the society of Jesus Reverend Father YOu have extreamly obliged me in not failing of your word and sending me your fifteen Sermons they might deserve of the Eares of the Court they are high proofe against all my little craft in the way of words and they have little less power on paper then when you animated them with the eloquence of your delivery left in our minds so many agitations and emotions behind them Proceed to advance your fame yet higher in this noble race wherein you have already acquired a great stock of reputation your beginnings were very glorious and splendid your continuation yet more and I make no doubt but if you fortifie your sacred School learning by the serious study of the fathers and the solid knowledge of the ecclesiasticall History you will not be left behind those that runne most vigorously after honour and this you will do without forfiture of your humility too Hitherto I answer you with delight but what mean you I beseech you after the sending fifteen Sermons what do those taunts of a Rhetorician those ambiguous and figurative termes those subtle and delicate complaints in your Letter signifie you are mistaken Reverend Father if you imagine your interests are not dear to me or that I have been cold in an occasion where I ought to shew my Ardour Certainly you are missinformed in the particulars and circumstances of the thing and to use the termes of the Founder of the French Academy some Petulant Aggravatour hath enlarged this business of nothing to disturbe the quiet of your mind The Reverend Father Gombauld knows how much I am concern'd in any thing that relates to you and at what price I rate your vertue He shall justifie my proceedings to you and I will
onely assure you at the present that I am most faithfully Reverend Father Your c. Jan. 15. 1643. LETTER XII To my Lord the Bishop of Grasse My Lord IF you resolve as you say you do to write without any Ornament it is a designe will puzzel you hard and you will scarce be able to bring it about besides your not following Saint Basil's counsell herein you deviate from the example of him and the whole Church of his time who made no scruple to speak handsomely I beseech you shake off this untoward humour do not be incensed against the Graces those good and innocent Damsels who have already wonne you so many Adherents and so many Readers of your works bear some respect to the advantages of nature I mean the gifts of God and if you are not an Enemy to the harmless delights of our Country do not do like that extravagant Chaste one who mangled his face because his beauty pleased those Eyes too well that looked upon it Eloquence hath nothing to be dreaded in it when she is in the service of Piety A Graecian is not to turne Barbarian when he is converted Christian They who are afraid the riches of Language should corrupt the simplicity of Christianity would have driven the wise men from Jesus Christs stable where they came to offer Gold There cannot be too much curiosity either on the Altars or in your works and you ought not to apprehend that the name of Chrysostome should make you loose that of Saint I am My Lord Your c. Ap. 12. 1639. LETTER XIII To Monsieur the Abbot Talon SIR SInce you relish well the last things I writ and your palat so exceedingly accurate and discerning I cannot count them utterly ill it is no small matter to have pleased you and Monsieur the Attourney Generall Talon for who dares in point of Eloquence contradict a mouth that hath so long while swayed the ablest and justest Councell in the world I willingly submit my dead words dropped upon my paper to that lively and animated vertue residing on his lips that produces decrees in the breasts of the judges I should be contented not to be wholly slighted but I should be very proud if it were true that he had any esteem for me and that in that Sunne he fights in he cast pleased aspects upon that shade wherein I am obscur'd I cannot chuse but apprehend much delight that my retirement is approved by the most active and best-acting person in the world Oblige me to tell him this on my part and to believe me passionately SIR Your c. Jan. 4. 1645. LETTER XIIII To Monsieur the Abbot Bouchard SIR I Make no question of Monsieur Holstenius his great riches I only complain of his thriftiness Of what use is abundance without liberality unlesse to change the nature of Good and lock up that which would be communicated He should either possesse lesse or impart more for though I know he hoards up for Posterity and will enrich our grand-children yet me thinks he should not in the meane time disinherit us nor reserve the best part of his fame for a Future that he shall never see Be our solicitour then to his learned worship and tell him in the name of all the Grecians and Latins of this kingdome that we lay claime to his papers and that he is more obliged to instruct his own Age then another He is none of those barren ones that continually sit in Libraries but never hatch any thing It is expected he should bring forth something Eminent from his long conversation with the Vatican I received what you did me the favour to send me from him I confesse it is purple and cloath of Tissue but it is only a patterne and there is scarce enough to make a sute for a baby I would have enough to hang a room with and I beg whole Pieces c. I am SIR Your c. Mar. 14. 1640. LETTER XV. To the Reverend father Josset a Divine of the society of Jesus Professour of Rhetorick Reverend father I Think I need not spend much time in justification of my silence I may rather commend my teares to you and tell you that common report having killed you I have with true griefe bewail'd your imagined death I must confesse you confuted this falsity after an excellent fashion for as you were deceased in my thoughts so you are newly risen againe to my eyes more gloriously for so I call the pompe wherein you appeared to me and that lustre in the work you did me the faâ—our to send me Never was so bright a diffusion seen The fertility of things rare is only in you and though there are mothers that people the world with cripples and crook'd-backs your abundance cannot be said to resemble that unfortunate fecundity You get only perfect children Omnes Coelicolas omnes supera alta tenentes May I dare to hazard a fancy just now fallen into my head You so highly sing the triumphs of the Church and Holy dayes of the State the death of Martyrs and the birth of Princes that your verses seeme to accumulate glory to that of Heaven and ornaments to those of the Lovure the Saints seeme to receive a new happinesse from you and Monsieur the Dolphin a second nobility But you are not only a great Poet you are a jâ—lly man also for I confesse that what you say there concerning the warre with Spaine and the Queens lying in made me laugh in the height of my Melancholly According to your opinion the good fortune of the King was so busily employed at Saint Germaines that she could not be at Fontaraby So Diana suffered her temple at Ephesus to be burnt that night in which Alexander was brought into the world while she served as a Midwife to his Mother Olimpias Plutarch derides this saying of Timeus the Historian and Cicero admires it in his books of the nature of the Gods Which of these two are in the right and to whom shall we judge the prize or if neither of them must be condemned what way of accommodation shall we contrive to reconcile them we wil determine this businesse of consequence at our next interview In the mean time I have a thing that more concernes me to speak to you since you ever love me Be alwayes mindfull of me in your sacrifices of Love and Charity allow me some little share in those excesses and inundations of vertue I have been told of at least let those overflowings water my barrennesse I want only the sight of you to grow better Come reverend father come and with your presence manure the stones and sands of our desart I conjure you to it from the bottome of my heart and am passionately Dec. 5. 1638. Your c. LETTER XVI To Monsieur de Marca Councellour to the King SIR AFter I have told you I was very sensible of the honour you did me I must now adde that I have a
whom you love and to tell you the truth methinks he is grown more gentle and lesse thorny since he passed through your hands The reason is you contract no soile from the impurity of the matters which you handle and amidst the corruptions of Policy your morality is preserv'd pure and unconcern'd A Stoicall Philosopher of this latter Age as you will grant Justus Lipsius to be had the same passion as your self A great Commander as questionless was the Marquesse Spinola hath translated the same thing into his own language though it never was yet published and I reveale this secret to you from the mouth of one of his greatest Confidents So that you are neither singularly gentleman or the only wise man that hath pleased to make observation upon ill times and carefully studied the History of a corrupted Empire with a soul worthy the Repubique in her perfect Glory You cannot thinke how I prize your work the beauty and the chastity of your style both that which nature bestowed largely upon you and your own acquisitions But this is a subject for another paire of manuscripts I conclude with a sincere protestation to continue with all my soul SIR Your c. Jun. 4. 1643. LETTER XXII To the Reverend Father d'Estrades a Divine of the Society of Jesus Superiour of the confessours Cloister in Bourdeaux Reverend father At last my New-years gift are come I Have received the controverted discourses you did me the favour to send me and you were just to call them the Weapons I adde fatall and invincible and I think I speak yet too modestly of them For in earnest who can esteem those Weapons high enough which Monsieur the Grand Prior forged and you have polished on which he bestowed the temper and the strength you the fashion and ornaments Your Minister is too happy for dying so faire a death Certainly Du Moulin and Mestrezat will envy him for it But for our particular what should we do It becomes us to joy as in our Muses behalfe at the honour don them by a man of so high quality who hath had so great and so illustrious employments is at present Governour of a Province and one day may be soveraigne to a Nation made up all of Gentlemen I confess freely to you my profession begins not to dislike me so much as it did I begin to love it a little more since as well as I that Gallant Knight is of the same and we are both Authors in one Language But I beseech you Reverend father repent not of that good Office you lately did him and do not conceive that action though it seem inferiour is unworthy of you There is more Glory in Copying out Oracles then dictating ones own inventions The Sybills and Prophets did nothing but repeate as well as you They were but interpreters and messengers or not to runne so farre back Posterity shall not be less beholding to you for preserving a piece of Divinity of Monsieur the Grand Priour than we are now obliged to Arrian for saving us the reliques of Epictetuâ—'s Philosophy Doubt not then to proceed in the Noble Collection of the reasons and arguments of an other Nevertheless since in poynt of Learning you are not lesse rich by birth then fortune and industry hath rendred you send us something immediately from your own hand to let your Minister know you are able to beat him with your unborrow'd forces this will effectually dispatch him and not leave him in the distress you have put him so much as this small sentence of comfort with which he may possibly flatter his despaire Is it possible not to yield to the Vncle of a man who hath command of Legions I shall expect this second present for my next new yeares gift and in the meane time remaine withall my soul Reverend father Your c. Jan. 15. 1640. LETTER XXIII To Monsieur de Borstel SIR THe gentleman who delivered me your Letter brings you the Sermons you would needs have me read and of which you desired my opinion I have read them with a great deal of delight and I may say with much edification for in earnest they do not deviate me-thinks from the Orthodox Doctrine and were it not for two or three little marks which denote them of the contrary party and some slight offers at our Outside which we do not much care to defend they might be preached with applause in our Ladies Church at Paris I met with beauty in most places and vigour almost in all especially in that of our dear Monsieur Daille He is none of those Oratours Seneca's Apes whose perpetuall Antithesies only touch upon the superficies of the soul As he uses better weapons then they so he strikes deeper wounds He leaves true compunction in the heart and not false allarmes in the eare He hath seen the Idea of that Soveraigne Rhetorick whose pourtrait I drew lately and Monsieur Costar calls Queen of the Free States He hath studyed her among the ablest masters and though by a certaine scrupulositie entayled on his profession he dare not display her in her full extent though he conceales more then he discloses yet it is easily visible he doth possesse what he doth not make shew of and that he is rich and powerfull though he be modest and thristy c. In a word I am with passion SIR Your c. Feb. 4. 1639. LETTER XXIIII To Madam de Nesmond Superiour of the Ursulines in Angoulesme Madam my Deare Cosen IT is now wednesday morning and you may keep Monsieur Godeau's book till Friday Evening but I declare to you I cannot resolve to endure a longer absence Do you know how much I do in this for your sake I seperate my selfe from a friend at all houres of the day I deprive my self of a companion that makes my solitude happy I let go a guest that payes me in Rubies and Diamonds It is true he will returne speedily but in the meane time what a Patience must I practise to be without him to day to morrow and the next day When you have surveyed the wonders I speak of you will accuse my words of undervalewing and poorenesse you will deride the meanenesse of my Metaphors though I draw them from the most precious things Magnificence can be imploy'd in and make them of Rubies and Diamonds You will tell me that in this inferiour world and amongst all the glories of nature that are visible no comparison is to be found worthy of my friend that he is an Angell in a Poets disguise that he is descended to Earth to teach men the language and Musick of Heaven at least let us say and that with a perfect consent and wonder that before him our Muses were Courtesans and debauched wenches and he hath reclaimed them from that scandalous life to make them Saints and Religious like you let us say he hath reduced Verse to its primitive and Legitimate use that he hath cleansed Parnassus when
all places to render honour to his memory But the violation of his faith dispenses with me for that care and having been injur'd in such a degree all that I can do is to give him room in my charity and to pray God for a poor Deceased who were it not for that action would now have been one of the Demi-gods of my Closet The freedome whereof I make profession will not permit me to play the dissembler with you and I have discharged that into your bosome which lay so heavy upon my heart I had hitherto complained only to the Trees and Rocks of my Desart and my grief should have been still secret did it not concern me to justifie my silence to you and to assure you that it is not without reason that I bear not a part in the consort of your Funerall Elegies I am SIR Your c. Feb. 20. 1643. LETTER XX. To Monsieur de Flotte SIR I have been almost drown'd in an inundation of Rheume and I am not yet dry from my shipwrack I have great dread of the return of the tempest and that the clouds are not dispell'd in good earnest Notwithstanding without further expectation of a more assured calme I will make use of this tolerable moment to rejoyce for it with you yea and to give you my thanks for it too I have it in effect by your gift and you have restor'd me the use of my eyes and my soul 'T is by the reading of your Letter and Monsieur le Fevre's book that I renew the commerce which I had intermitted with all handsome Letters and good Books The receite of that you sent me has done me more good then you imagine They are not scare-crows but Armes which you have furnisht me withall Your Volume is my Arsenal and I do not doubt but when I have finish'd the Lecture which I am enter'd upon I shall be not only more polite and stor'd with fine Notions to make my self regarded amongst my neighbourhood but also much stronger and fortyfi'd with examples and reasons to defend the Rights of my Country In the mean time be pleas d to suffer me to remind you of some less serious Subjects which I have long expected of your-enriching and embroiderie I desire of you in the first place the History of that exemplary death which hapned in the Palace of Guise in the year sixteen hundred and eighteen The Dialogâ—e of Austin when he was dying with Monsieur the Almoner who exhorted him to dye like a Christian and bâ—unted all his Divinity against the hardness of his Turkish soul will be none of the worst passages of the piece But for the little that you will excite your miâ—th in tickling your spleen you will make wonders oâ— his Testament and his taking leave of all the Pots and Kâ—ttles one after another Policy which is my Mistress and the speculative Sciences my dear friends must pardon me if they please that I love this sort of Relations better then â—hose of Botero and Antonio Perez Amidst the Hostility of the two parties these should be the Gazettes inviolable to both and if they had leisure to laugh in Germany there is no Question but they would afford equall pleasure to our enemie Picolomini and Torstenson our Allie Let my request prevaile with you to exercise your self in these â—xcellent wayes of writing and do not suffer the graces of your discourse to expire with the sound of your voice Preserve us the memory of your feasts after the example of Plutarch and Athenaeus And to the end your good cheere may last after the Table is taken away and all the Compositum may tast it I meane the whole man prepare us a volume of novels which may deserve to be term'd even by the sober Monsieur Chaplain the Ragousts and delicates of the Wit Provided they containe no foâ—bidden ingredient as there is in some of those of Boccace I promise you a publick remerciment for the pleasure you shall give me whereof I have so great need I beseech you consider of it and be pleas'd to believe me alwayes SIR Your c. 28 Decemb. 1641. LETTER XXI To Monsieur de Silhon Secretary to my Lord the Cardinal Mazarin SIR MOnsieur Chaplain ha's inform'd me of your zealous goodnesse and the heat which you testified in my little affaires They are oblâ—gations of which I am infinitely sensible and I consider them much more then all they can produce of profitable and advantagious to me I have need of my pensionâ— but I cannot lâ—ve without your friendship and having assur'd me of the continuation of it in your last Letter you have given me much more then I shall receive from the Exchequer Yet I shall not make you a studied thanks for it nor put my self to the trouble of providing Rhetorick to send thâ—ther whence it comes to us You perceive the very bottome of my soul and know that I preserve you in it with what is most precious and deare to me with my Heroes and my Heroesses my Masters and Mistresses if I have any It is a cleare fountaine you need not doubt it and is not at all soil'd with particular interest Therefore Sir you may draw out the acknowledgment that is due to you But withall expect something from it whâ—ch you have newly inspir'd me with and I owe to the reading of your last work The faire Ideas of our excellâ—nt reasonings which remaine still in my soul have left a seâ—d and principle of beauty in it which hath already germinated some thing that possibly wâ—ll not be displeasing to his Eminence I do not designe to passe with him for a maker of Pan gyricks But I can make it appeare to him in time and place and in matters of historicall certainty that an honest man of a good perswasion can relate truth with no bad grace And of this your self are an undeniable instance Tu Silo sacro Sophie quem Nectare pavit Qui pleno rerum pectore verba facis Qui cautas Regnandi artes dubia omnia â—octus Terrarum dominos optima sola doces Nec falsum nec inane sonas velut Aulica turba turba etiam ducibus plaudere sueta malis Hic quanquam haud aequo tua per vestigia passu Scilicet Vâ—be procul sorte nec arte parem Me tamen Rectum Veri secreta latentis Secura invidiae quaerere mente juvat Veri diva potens Sophie mihi Numinis instar Tu Silo auctores vos sequor este mei I did not think to conclude with Verses but the first begat the rest as chance made the first I will not complaine of that chance but rather call it my good fortune if it ha's given me the meanes of expressing my meaning to you better and represented me in a more noble manner as I am perfectly SIR Your c. 19 Feb. 1644. LETTER XXII To the same SIR I Shall perhaps one day have the courage to attempt to
Non tamen invideo miror magis tibi pulchram Haud aliena mihi est cum sit tua gratulor artem Qua Seium Seiamque me tuearis Amice Si quis adhuc surgat Philarki ex ossibus hostis The Post of Friday brought me newes of our Monsieur de Peirarede whose name is become so great that it ha's fill'd all Paris and the Celtes begin to admire the Aquitanes Or if you please to have it in another fashion and in the phrase of a Poet the God of the Seine is astonish'd to heare the singing of the Muses of Dordonne For my part I am wholly ravish'd with their last composition and if blessed souls could be recall'd with the charmes of excellent verse I do not question but that of the Duke of Brezê would descend from Heaven at the hearing of these Tu Nube serena Stellato fulgens apice radianto coronâ Ad tua Sacra veni quae multo Regia luctu Concelebrat sacrÃque Chori sanctúsque Senatus c. Aspice ut ipsa gemens ingenti adfixa feretro Horridaque laceris luget victoria pennis Quae quondam tua castra tuas comitata triremes Hesperio toties mutas dum sanguine Pontum Deseruit tua signa semel Nunc caedis acerbae Invidiam lenire velit fatisque malignis Imputat infandaeque excusat crimina cladis c. Have you ever seen any thing more noble and more pathetick then this poore victory afflicted with the death of that brave Duke What a sight it is to behold her with her robes torne and her wings broken doing pennance for the fault whereof she conceives her selfe guilty to see her hanging and as it were nailed to that great Herse which she bathes with her teares she cannot be comforted for the misfortune arriv'd at Orbitello and would readily lay the blame upon bad destiny she c. But I containe my self and you shall not know the rest unlesse you come to learne it here I expect you some day of the following week and am passionately SIR Your c. Dec. 4. 1646. LETTER XXXII To Monsieur Girard Secretary to the late Duke of Espernon SIR I Send you the Stanza which sham'd my memory in our last conversation and whereof I could repeat no more then the four first verses Che giova posseder cittadi regni Et palagi habitar d'alto lavoro Et servi-intorno haver d'imperio degni Et l'archi gravi di molto tesoro Esser cantate da sublimi ingegni Di porpora vestir mangiar in oro Et di bellezza pareigiar il sole Giacendo poi nel letto tutto fredde sole Monsieur de Frangipane recited this handsome stanza admirably and was wont to call it Divine but as there is no Divinity which does not meet with impious and sacrilegious persons so I have seen a Grammarian that would not approve that the Poet should give robes of Scarlet to Queens and Princesses like Cardinals and Counsellours of Parliament He judg'd the verse of the full Coffers of lesse dignity then the rest and that the two words fredde and sole which end the last are transpos'd because it is being alone that causes cold and therefore it ought to precede My servant will deliver you the new book of Monsieur de Priezac and the judgment of Cardinal Bentivoglio You see from hence that the most sufficient are also the most just and that Italy begins to esteem the Barbarians Let us take part in the glory of our excellent friend and To perswade the Cardinal Bentivoglio is to gaine at once and in one person the Senat and order of Cavaliers the Learned of the university and the honest people of the Court Rome Florence Paris and all the rest So that we have a friend that is universally approv'd and France an Authour that deserves the praises of him that receives those of all the world I am passionately SIR Your c. Jan. 3. 1640. LETTER XXXIII To Monsieur Conrart Councellour and Secretary to the King SIR I Have with delight survey'd the beauties of the printed pieces which you did me the favour to send me But is there nothing else for me to read and is it not possible for me with your assistance to obtaine the sight of some secret stanzaes whereof I have heard wonders They are of Monsieur de Serisay's making and you know he once lov'd me a little as I had alwayes a perfect esteem for him Yet I dare not addresse to him in this occasion being I cannot think my self in a condidition to receive of his favours in that he ha's not accounted me deserving of the least token of his remembrance You may please to know that he came lately into this province without making so much enquiry as whether I were in it or no. The neglect is great and would be a very sensible injury to a person lesse accustom'd to suffer then I. But I have gain'd a habit of patience so farre as sometimes to believe that my friends have reason on their side when they do me wrong I had rather acknowledge my unworthiness then complaine of their injustice and suppresse my resentments then publish my disgraces Nevertheless be not you weary of doing good to the undeserving and obliging those that are out of favour Since he is at present as devout as he ha's been alwaies vertuous you may tell him for the obtaining those desired stanzaes that 't is from Paul the Hermite or St. Hilarion that they were requested of you I conceive he ha's not an opinion good enough of the moderne Anchâ—rites and possibly his coldnesse for me proceedes from that of my zeal and the little progresse he hath seen me make in piety Yet I have had commerce with great Saints both on this and the other side the Mountaines and Monsieur de Lorme will test fie to him that Monsieur the Abbot of I am with all my soul SIR Your c. March 12. 1645. LETTER XXXIII To Monsieur Girard Secretary to the late Duke of Espernon SIR YOu must not think the promotion of Monsieur the President Seguier causes only a particular festivall at Cadillac but will be publick and universall within these four daies The king ha's done a good deed to all his Realme and the yeare must not be esteemed happy so much for the purity of the aire or the fruitfulnesse of the Earth as for the election of excellent Magistrates I rejoyce at this newes as a subject of the Kings which is the principall regard wherein I consider it but I have besides a second right to be glad and that is out of the interest I have in the raising of a modesty that is known to me and the happinesse I apprehend to me in the prosperity of a person of whose probity I am perfectly assured I know he ha's preservatives against all the poisons of the Court and a reason not to be corrupted by all the presents of fortune There is nothing of