leauing nothing behinde him but sorrow and teares and a desire alwaies to bewaile him alwaies to wish for him He that loued him not neuer knew him he that knew him and was not sorrie for him had neither sense nor humanitie But what doe I meane to be carried away thus by griefe from my purposed end Let vs leaue all sorrow and rather enuious of his selicitie then mooued with his losse let vs reioice at his fortune He hath paid the debt which he ought vnto nature and the sooner it was the better was his hap For happier is he that by an impetuous but prosperous gale is speedily driuen into the desired port then he that arriues there with a long and tedious calme And be that knew this life was but lent him of nature liued so as hee was not vnwilling to die if hee may be said to die that is gone out of darknesse into light that leaues paine for pleasure and puts off mortalitie to become immortall Wherein could the fauour of God appeare vnto him more then in taking him out of the troubles and calamities of this wicked world before hee should know the dangers of times the sorrowes of age and the many mischiefes that continually attend on this miserable life of ours And well was it foreséene of his nature that féeling it selfe cloied with the false and transitorie pleasures of the earth for to bee possessed of the true and euerlasting idies of heauen made him leaue vs euen then when in the very prime and flourish of his yéeres he had attained to as much honour and fame as man with long trauell as bodie and minde could in al his life time acquire But why Sir doe I take all this paines to finde out meanes of consolation for you that with much more eloquence and vnderstanding is better able to comfort me and that with more courage and constancie knowes how to beare this brunt of fortune I will therefore cease to be a further trouble either to you or my selfe and with this comfortable assurance end that as reioicing in his glorie he is now assuredly liuing in heauen so shall the memorie of his vertues haue an eternall being in the spéech of men A complement ful of acknowledgement of courtesies receiued SIr with many fauours as continually you do you may augment my obligation but you cannot adde any thing to the loue I beare you or the desire I haue to do you seruice for neither the one nor the other can be greater And would the time could accommodate me as wel with means to satisfie these debts as it giues you occasion to increase them I am indebted to you in much and my abilitie is very small but it shal be better if like a rich and liberall Creditour you will bee contented to take kinde words and the good affection of an honest heart in paiment of your courtesies I haue receiued M. G. his Letter which you sent mee vnto whom if you please returne the inclosed answer with that one office you shall gratifie two friends and of them two if it were possible make me alwaies more readie than I am To be commanded by you A graue intercession to a father for a sonne that hath offended with friendly testimonie of his hopefull towardnesse To my reuerend friend M. c. SIr the friendship which hath béen betwixt vs from our youth commands mee to write the present for to aduertise you how your sonne R. doth euery day more and more applie himselfe to the course you desire of his studies I would not beleeue that which my boies reported of him but sounded him my selfe vpon the sudden in his lesson And if the hunters saying bee true that the Deare is knowen by his tract I will promise you as much contentment from him as you wish Wherfore I would counsell you forgetting matters past heereafter to embrace his actions like a louing father All that I labour in is to become caution to you both to you that hee shall be so good a sonne that as in age so in well doing hee shall goe before the rest of his brothers and sisters to him that hence forward you shall fauour him not only as your eldest but as your best beloued It is no small victorie for you to haue subdued and reduced him according to your desire to studie after he had for a time followed armes whereunto he séemed to be naturally inclined neither was it a lesse victorie for him to haue subdued himselfe for to obey you And in truth you reape no little commoditie by his fault in that now you know how good a sonne you haue Such as in the holy Scripture were sinners and afterwards truly repented them were no lesse estéemed of God nay many times more than those which had not sinned at all I will not stand vpon any application but commending both it and my selfe vnto you very kindly take my leaue A short complement vpon receit of some new courtesie SIr I haue receiued the Greyhound you sent me wherewithall I am as much pleased as hee was kindly deriued although I must confesse that in receiuing him I was somewhat ashamed by reason I thought this new courtesie did vpbraid me with my not acknowledging as yet in action how much I am your seruant in will But howsoeuer I thanke you very kindly for him and with such affection as hee that amongst your friends most desireth to appeare how readie hee is alwaies to vndergoe your commandements and commend your liberalitie as much as all your other vertues are aboue all your like generally commended And so for this time I humbly take my leaue Excuse for too rare writing vrging withall the prosecution of some businesse and vpon occasion of the death of a friend the election of another in his stead SIr you may perceiue by my former that although I am your debter for many Letters yet am I nothing behinde to you in good will and the more my slacknes is in that the more is my readinesse to serue you in great matters I am to desire you to second the request I haue made vnto M. H. your vnkle and my very good friend concerning the businesse wherof I haue now written to him which is verie easie for him and without meanes impossible for mée to effect The death of M. P. your kinsman very much troubled mee at the first but I consider that with glorie and reputation hee hath satisfied God his Prince and the debt which he ought vnto nature And no doubt but hee is now at peace in heauen whereas we amidst the troubles and corruptions of the world are continually tossed with the tribulations of this miserable life And séeing it hath pleased God to take from mee so good and faithfull a friend I beséech you to accept of the election I make of you in his stead with such a minde and affection to serue and honour you as I haue alwaies carried towards him May you bee
your owne possession and you haue as little néede of fortaine vertnes as the sea hath of the water of little riuers Héereupon I will leaue to be a further trouble vnto you but not to assure you that I desire to liue no longer than I shall desire To serue you Thankfull acknowledgement of kindnesse vnto ones Sonne SIr the fauours you haue latelie done me are of such effect and merit that I shall neuer be at quiet till I haue made some requitall of them I am ashamed you should be so troubled with this sonne of mine whom I haue charged to obey you in all things as my selfe and I pray you doe so much as haue an eye vpon him as if you were his Father I thanke you very kindly for the apparell you haue made him and the money you haue paied for him you may accommodate him with the rest of it as you shall thinke good For for my part I giue you all power ouer him séeing you are pleased to take the trouble vpon you and so wishing but to méet with some good occasion to acknowledge how much I am beholding vnto you I commit you to God A priuate taxation of the publike ingratitude of great persons toward such as haue best deserued of them SIr Wheras you think it strange that I write no oftner vnto the Lady you wot of I haue alwaies told you and now tell you again that which I was wont to say of great Lords at such time as they deserued it at my hands that I remember their greatnesse and reputation no longer than they are mindfull of my necessities Hée that makes no reckoning of me teaches me to neglect him he that looks vpon me with respect giues me occasion and desire to serue him so that I alwaies goe as others goe and no otherwise You may alledge the many commodities of their fauour and countenance and I may answer that it were an idle thing for me to trouble my head with a matter I am not sensible of Do vt des facio vt facias saies the loue of Lawers but hauing done so many seruices and neuer receiued so much as a taste of liberality is the composition of a water able to quench the fire of an hundred Aetnaes much more to discourage mée that otherwise am most readie by all offices of courtesie to kéepe the good will of such as please to honor me with the friendship of which number to you as to one of the most especial with all affection I commend mee and bid you farewell Excuse for not saluting a friend passing by vs endeuouring by the way to wipe away his imputation of pride and of forgetfulnesse SIr you told my Cosen that either I was growne proud or had forgotten you because I passed along by you the other day and did not speake Now this I perceiue was the cause why you came not along with the rest of the company to honour mée with your presence But you shall vnderstand that when I met you I was so farre out of patience with the ingratitude of a wicked friend which was newly parted from me that I continued a whole wéeke together without the remembrance not onely of you but my selfe which together with the knowledge you are to haue of my naturall humors may sufficiently excuse me to either of your opinions Besides I could not forget a Gentleman well deriued happily married liuing with all modesty of his owne a friend to euery man not medling nor making with any one that is contented with his estate loues vertue and the vertuous passeth away his time with choice of good companie is perfect in mind and memory but of body to my great griefe somwhat weak and indisposed Now iudge Sir whether I remember you or no and be no longer perswaded that either I am proud or forgetful of you whose many courtesies haue bound me to be alwaies Your affectionate friend and Seruant A sad commemoration of some worthy friend deceased To my singular good friend M. c. SIr the griefe of my kinsmans death hath gotten so much interest in my apprehension that the comfort I was wont to giue vnto others is not able now to doe my selfe any seruice Reason disswades mee from sorrow and sense prouokes mée to teares my power is small the frailty of the flesh great I desire to obey vnto the one the other I cannot resist so that in the sedition of so many contratiâ—ties I neither vnderstand nor sée any thing may content mée In regard of him I haue no cause to complaine he lead the life of a good man and died the death of the righteous for as the Romane Orator saith It is hard to liue well and dye ill But for my part I haue asmuch reason to lament as his vertues were without number and end Howbeit if for mine owne particular I should grieus wheras for his I am much to reioyce I shal be thought rather enuious of his good then a friend of his happines I assure my selfe also that you take no pleasure in the death of so curteons and worthy a Gntleman nor in the losse you haue made of one that for your owne good parts and my sake loued you as a friend and respected you as vertuous But not to bée a cause either of more trouble to you or heauinesse to my selfe I will cease to speake further of him and commending you to God very kindly take my leaue A gratefull acknowledgement of an especiall fauour from any great man To my very Honourable good Lord the Lord c. MY Lord I haue receiued the commendations you were pleased to send mee by my brother C. than the which there is no fauour I could more desire Henceforward I shall begin to think better of my selfe séeing so noble and honourable a person hath thought mee worthy of a place in his remembrance which intruth was more requisite for a continuance of your goodnesse then for any merit at all of mine Howsoeuer I giue your Lordship as humble thanks for it as possibly I may albeit I am perswaded that neither with words nor effects I shall euer bée able to satisfy so great an obligatiou This fauor hath cleared mee of some doubt I was in for that I receiued no answere to the letter I wrote not long since in congratulation of your Lordships so deserued aduancements together with an humble presentation of my seruices but now I perceiue the cause of it procéeded either from the fault of your Secretary or the negligence of the post being alwaies well assured that no greatnes whatsoeuer could elate your mind more then it would be deiected by any aduersity the worst of time could bring I haue nothing to adde hereunto but an humble entreaty that as you were pleased to remember mee with your commendations so you would vouchsafe to honour mee with your commandements thereby to giue action to the desire I alwaies haue of appearing vnto the world how much I
am Vnfainedly deuoted to your seruice A short and sweet consolation in the death of Friends SIr as soone as I vnderstood of the death of M. G. I began to thinke of you and how many times I had sayd to my selfe séeing you alwaies in company together like the signe of Gemini behold an example of true and perfect friendship But since it hath pleased heauen to diuide you I would wish you to beare it with patience and be comforted For wée are not to grieue at who goes first or last in the way which euery man is to take by a necessity of nature The world is a residence lent vs by the good pleasure of God 〈◊〉 that continues least in it is the longer liuing in happinesse For death doth determine in life so soone as a righteous spirit doth leaue that prison wherein all the miseries imagination can reach vnto are inclosed What is there to be séene héere vpon earth but enuy iniustice ambition strife but good manners corrupted into barbarous conditions children gréefe to rich a care to poore parents and a desire for to haue vnto those that haue none What is there to bée séene but peace engendring war war shedding bloud soueraignty a pray to suspition subiection the slaue of misery and despaire pouerty despised riches detracted youth puffed vp with rage and insolency and age oppressed with infirmity and diseases wherfore the best is not to be at al or not to be long in the way prouided that it all procéed from the good will of God whom I humbly beséech to giue you that comfort and content I alwaies wish you A modest complement extenuating our owne desert in any fauour done our friend acknowledging all to be but dutie SIr I sée no reason why by your letters you should thanke mée for the pleasures you say you haue receiued of me vnlesse it be to encourage me that haue béen but slack that way héeretofore to doe better héereafter To say the truth it procéeds from no merit of mine but from a courtesie that was born with you and will accompany you to your graue For for my part I doe not thinke one can bée beholding to a man for doing his duty If you please then you shall not put these thanks vnto account but turne them into commandements vpon him that will alwaies most gladly employ himselfe for you and yours induced thereunto both by the friendship that hath euer béene betwixt vs and a thousand other particularities the recitall wherof would but wast time and paper And wheras you write that you feare you are troublesome vnto mee considering the greatnesse of my affairs the greatest trouble I can haue is when I shall not be troubled for you if at any time you haue occasion to vse mee as shall be approoued to your experience in all matters where the least of my abilities may doe you seruice A gentle and easie submission to some new direction or alteration of our commission To the right honourable my especiall good Lord and Master The Lord c. MY honourable Lord your last of the fourth of Iulie came not before this morning to my hands whereby I vnderstand the change of your minde concerning my voyage into France and although for mine owne particular I could haue wished it otherwise yet reason perswades me to be contented assuring my selfe that this reuocation is deriued from some better resolution Wherefore I had rather my desires should want their end than your pleasure that your L. may alwaies know I hold more of modesty and discretion than of appetite and will and that mine owne satisfactions are nothing to the respect of your greatnes and seruice Assoone as I receiued your dispatch I began to negotiate about the other matter and by the next your Lordship shall vnderstand what may bée done In the meane time and euer I remaine Your honours very humble and faithfull seruant Recommendation of a forward sonne to the fauour and entertainment of some famous Captaine in the warres SIr albeit it were reason that your not knowing me should frée you from the trouble of my Letters yet since it hath pleased Sir William I. to recommend my sonne vnto you I thought I should haue wronged my dutie if I had not accompanied him with the present I haue destined him to the warres and hée hath béene about some thrée yéeres abroad in trauell during which time hée hath giuen himselfe vnto diuers noble exercises well be fitting his profession At his returne I thought if hee could receiue so much honour as to be fauoured by you hee might facilitate a way for the time to come which euery good and valiant minde is to propound vnto it selfe And because I know that you are the example of vertue not onely in the subiect of Armes but in euery other I beséech you to respect him as the sonne of a father that excéedingly desires to find a place in the number of your humble and most deuoted seruants A Complement most officious and affectionate to a Lady concerning some serious affaires of hers To the noble and euery way excellent Lady the Ladie c. MAdam I had rather effects should testifie the desire I haue to doe you seruice than the courtesie of that good gentleman M. B. for so should I both serue you and satisfie my selfe whereas by the other neither of vs reapes any commoditie at all You are no way beholding to me for solliciting my Lord of N. or putting Sir George L. in minde of your affaires For to the one you haue no néed of recommendation nor to the other of remembrance The former according to his noble inclination much respects you and desires your honour and profit as much as his owne and the other as well to gratifie my said Lord as for his particular obligation to your Ladiship wisheth for nothing more than occasion to doe you pleasure It is not therefore in so small a matter as that I desire to obey you but in things of such difficultie as may shew how I am euen couetous of receiuing your commandements I will say no more at this time but wish my praiers could obtaine you such fortunes as your vertues deserue and then I am sure you should be no lesse than Empresse of the world Only as I was making vp the present this inclosed paper came to my hands which I haue sent you as a thing I know you would very faine sée After you haue read it I must intreat for some reasons it may be committed to the custodie of the fire and so in all dutie and affection I kisse your hand By the humble seruant of your commandements A pleasant Ironie in commendation of Law and the commodity of Law Suites To my dearely beloued brother M. c. GOod brother I would neuer haue thought that a suit in law could haue brought so many blessings with it as it doth Are you slothfull and lazie make no doubt but you shall finde
so vnto others of more vertue worth for so I should shew my selfe more a friend of mine owne profit then your reputation What could you offer to one that indeed were worthy if you thinke this but a trifle for me that am of so little valew Wee should so giue as wee may alwaies haue wherewithall to giue and so well manage the gates of liberality that they may neither be open nor shut to any With all thankfulfulnesse I accept of your gelding which comes verie fit for the iourney I haue in hand but the mony I haue returned back again to the fountaine of your bounty that there may not lacke water for those that deserue it better then I and that it may be are more athirst If you come not hither before my departure I will be with you assoone as conuenientlie I may to acknowledge some part of those manie fauours I continually receiue at your hands In the meane time I wish your fortunes answerable to your free and generous disposition An earnest disswasiue from a cruell and couetous course of life SIr the affection that I beare you is the onelie cause to make mee so desirous of your good as presently I am Reputation me thinks is one of the principall and chiefest happinesses we enioy in this world and as easie to get as hard to keepe With these few lines then I purpose to doe rather the office of a friend then of a flatterer and no whit to disguise the truth vnto you desiring you as from a true and honest friend to take this aduertisement which shall bring you if not much commodity at least wise much honor and credit and I doubt not if you haue that iudgement yet remaining which I haue promised to my selfe out of the ability of your spirit but you will acknowledge that euerie pettie honour is to bee preferred to the greatest profit It appertaines to the office not of a meane creature but of a cruell and inexorable man to follow that profession you doe by séeking the death of men and conuerting into their ruine that eloquence which nature for the good of the liuing hath so liberally imparted vnto you and I know it cannot bée done without great offence vnto God Who though hée bee very iustice it selfe yet as singular and vnspeakeable mercy he enclines more to pittie and pardon then to paine and punishment And how can you without offence of his diuine maiesty so often call into iudgement the life it may be of the innocent Retire your selfe from this course and applying your wit the gift of God and nature to a better vse make more account of reputation then wealth which indéed is the onely motiue that carries you thereunto For if you please you cannot want many other good meanes both for the one and the other I am constrained euen out of friendship hearing the bad and in famous report that goes of you euerie where that too accompanied with the danger of your life to write thus plainely vnto you I should bée very glad if it could draw you from so detestable a practise and restore you your wonted reputation Otherwise I pronounce you vnworthy of our friendship desire the world should know that I loued you no longer then I saw you walking in the way of vertue And so I bid you farewell An expostulation of vnkind misconceipts and iealousies in friendship SIr Your wisdome well known of al and approued vnto many with the experience I haue made of it would neuer haue suffered me to beléeue that which was often deliuered vnto me by the letters of my friends had I not vnderstood as much by the last I receiued from you more fraught with choller then reason I cannot imagine how a man of such knowledge and more iudgement brought vp in Court and continuallie employed in affairs should be carried to an opinion of me so far from truth and the bent of my disposition which hath euer béene most desirous to make good vnto the world in what estéem I haue alwaies held the friendship of so worthy a gentleman as your selfe You may be perswaded then I neuer committed any thing against you which might any way offend the reputation of an honest and vertuous man and thereof I wish no better testimony then mine owne thoughts Of all actions some be voluntary and some necessarie If my will shen haue neuer drawne me to offend you nor any necessity how great soeuer it were would euer permit me to wring our ancient friendship would you haue me giue credit to the perfidious and wicked impressions of men or by your fauour to some light and inconsiderate suspition that possesseth you rather then to mine owne conscience Nay sir be assured I am your friend and that I deserue you should be mine yet more then you are desiring you that héerin you will neither doe iniurie to the integritie of my nature nor your owne discretion vnlesse that weary of me and oppressed with my vnseruiceablenesse and inutilities you will make this an occasion to cleere your hands of me which at all times would appeare most vnworthy your iudgement and my desert Consolation for the death of a Brother or other friend GOod Sir I feare this Letter will worke effects contrarie to my desire and in stead of drying vp your teares raise vp new stormes of heauinesse in vs both vpon discourse of your brothers so vnexpected and much to be lamented death I haue put off the doing of this office vntill now as well in regard of the greatnesse of mine owne sorrow which would not suffer me to write as also in that I attended a conuenient time when as the extremitie of yours should be so qualified that it might giue way to that little comfort I desire to minister vnto you But how should I offer you comfort when as I haue as much or more neede of it then your selfe For if he were your brother he was my very deare and singular friend if hee were kinde to you he was much more to mee for his affection to you was deriued from nature and bloud but to mee out of election and will He alwaies embraced you with an extraordinarie respect because hee was thereunto bound but vpon me he conferred all offices of loue and liberalitie which I neuer deserued Let vs then with one consent lament our infinite losse and not only ours but euerie mans that delighted in vertue and honour Poore gentleman when hee was in greatest expectation of gathering the fruit which his vertues had promised him like a fresh and new blowen rose euen in the entrance to his best daies to bee cut off by the vnluckie hand of vntimely death Howbeit this is no little comfort that hee departed this world with the hope hee had giuen his friends of his vertues with the fruit whereof he was a debtor to his parents with the honour he expected from his Countrie and with the good he had promised al good men