a perpetuall memorie What contempt of world what forgetfulnesse of himselfe what stroke of fortune what whippe for the flesh what little regard of life O what bridle for the vertuous O what confusion for those that loue life O how great example haue they left vs not to feare death Sithens those here haue willingly despised their owne liues it is not to be thought that they dyed to take the goods of others neither yet to thinke that our life should neuer haue end nor our couetousnesse in like manner O glorious people and ten thousand fold happy that the proper sensuality being forsaken haue ouercom the naturall appetite to desire to liue not beleeuing in that they saw and that hauing faith in that they neuer saw they striued with the fatall Destenies By the way they assaulted fortune they changed life for death they offered the body to death and aboue all haue wonne honour with the Gods not for that they shoulde hasten death but because they should take away that which is superfluous of life Archagent a Surgeon of Rome and Anthonius Musus a Physition of the Emperour Augustus and Esculapius father of the Phisicke should get little money in that Countrie Hee that then should haue sent to the barbarous to haue done as the Romanes at that time did that is to say to take sirrops in the mornings pils at night to drinke milke in the morning to annoint themselues with gromeâ—seed to bee let bloud to day and purged to morrow to eate of one thing and to abstaine from many a man ought to thinke that hee which willingly seeketh death will not giue money to lengthen life CHAP. XXII The Emperour concludeth his letter and shewed what perils those olde men liue in which dissolutely like young children passe their dayes and giueth vnto them wholesome counsell for the remedy thereof BVt returning to thee Claude and to thee Claudine me thinketh that these barbarous men beeing fifty yeares of age and you others hauing aboue threescore and tenne it should be iust that sithence you were elder in yeares you were equall in vertue and though as they you wil not accept death patiently yet at the least you ought to amend your euill liues willingly I doe remember that it is many yeares sithens that Fabritius the young sonne of Fabritius the olde had ordayned to haue deceiued mee of the which if you had not told me great inconueniences had happned and sithens that you did me so great a benefite I would now requite you the same with another the like For amongst friends there is no equal benefite then to deceiue the deceyuer I let you know if you do not know it that you are poore aged folks your eyes are sunke into your heads the nostrels are shut the haires are white the hearing is lost the tongue faultereth the teeth fall the face is wrinkled the feete swolne and the stomacke cold Finally I say that if the graue could speake as vnto his Subiects by iustice he might commaund you to inhabite his house It is great pitty of the yong men and of their youthfull ignorance for then vnto such their eies are not opened to know the mishaps of this miserable life when cruell death doth end their dayes and adiorneth them to the graue Plato in his booke of the Common wealth sayde that in vaine wee giue good counsels to fond and light young men for youth is without experience of that it knoweth suspitious of that it heareth incredible of that is tolde him despising the counsell of an other and very poore of his own For so much as this is true that I tell you Claude and Claudine that without comparison the ignorance which the young haue of the good is not so much but the obstination which the olde hath in the euill is more For the mortall Gods many times doe dissemble with a thousand offences commited by ignorance but they neuer forgiue the offence perpetrated by malice O Claude and Claudine I doe not maruell that you doe forget the gods as you doe which created you and your Fathers which begot you and your parents which haue loued you and your friends which haue honoured you but that which I most maruell at is that you forget your selues For you neuer consider what you ought to bee vntill such time as you bee there where you would not bee and that without power to returne backe againe Awake awake since you are drowned in your dreames open your eyes since you sleepe so much accustome your selues to trauels sithence you are vagabonds learne that which behoueth you since now you are olde I meane that in time conuenient you agree with death before he make execution of life Fifty two yeeres haue I knowne the things of the world and yet I neuer saw a Woman so aged thorough yeares nor old man with members so feeble that for want of strength could not if they list doe good nor yet for the same occasion should leaue to bee euill if they list to be euill It is a maruellous thing to see and worthy to note that all the corporall members of Man waxeth old but the inward hart and the outward tongue For the heart is alwayes giuen to inuent euills and the tongue is alwayes able to tell Lyes Mine opinion is that the pleasaunt Summer beeing past you should prepare your selues for the vntemperate winter which is at hand And if you haue but fewe dayes to continue you should make hast to take vp your lodging I meane that sith you haue passed the dayes of your life with trauell you should prepare your selues against the night of death to be in the hauen of rest Let mockeryes passe as mockeries and accept trueth as truth that is to say that it were a very iust thing and also for your honour necessarie that all shose which in times past haue seen you young and foolish should now in your age see you graue and sage For there is nothing that so much forgetteth the lightnesse and follyes of youth as doth grauity and constancie in Age. When the Knight runneth his carriere they blame him not for that the Horses mane is not finely combed but at the end of his race he shold see his horse amended and looked vnto What greater confusion can be to any person or greater slaunder to our mother Rome then to see that which now a dayes therein we see That is to say that the old which can scarcely creepe through the streetes to beholde the playes and games as young men which search for nought else but onely pompe and vanitie It grieueth mee to speake it but I am much more ashamed to see that the olde Romaines do daylie cause the white haires to be plucked out of their heads because they would not seeme old to make their beard small to seem yong wearing their hosen very close their shyrts open before the gowne of the Senatour embrodered the Romane signe richly enamelled the
of her Husband doe spoyle her of her goods For in this case their heires oftentimes are so disordered that for a worne cloake or a broken shirt they wil trouble and vexe the poore widdowe If perchance the miserable widdow haue children I say that in this case shee hath double sorrow For if they are young shee endureth much paine to bring them vp so that each houre and moment theyr Mothers liue in great sorrows to bethinke them only of the life death of their children If perhaps the Children are olde truely the griefes which remaine vnto them are no lesse For so much as the greatest part of them are either proud disobedient malicious negligent Adulterers gluttons blasphemers false lyars dull-headed wanting witte or sickly So that the ioy of the woefull Mothers is to bewaile the deaths of their well beloued Husbands and to remedy the discordes of theyr youthfull children If the troubles which remaine vnto the careful mothers with their sonnes be great I say that those which they haue with their Daughters bee much more For if the Daughter be quicke of wit the Mother thinketh that shee shall be vndone If shee be simple she thinketh that euery man will deceyue her If she be faire shee hath enough to doe to keepe her If shee be deformed she cannot marrie her If she be well mannered she will not let her go from her If shee be euill mannered she cannot endure her If she be too solitary she hath not wherewith to remedy her If she be dissolute she will not suffer her to bee punished Finally if she put her from her she feareth she shal be slaundered If she leaue her in her house she is afraid she shal be stollen What shall the wofull poor widdow doe seeing herselfe burdened with daughters and enuironed with sonnes and neyther of them of sufficient age that there is any time to remedy them nor substance to maintaine them Admit that shee marrie one of her sonnes and one daughter I demand therfore if the poor widdow wil leaue her care anguish truly I say no thogh she chuse rich personages wel disposed she cānot scape but that day that shee replenished her selfe with daughters in law the same day she chargeth her heart with sorrows trauels and cares O poore widdowes deceyue not your selues and doe not imagine that hauing married your sonnes and daughters from that time forwardes yee shall liue more ioyfull and contented For that layde aside which their Nephewes doe demaund them and that their sonnes in Law do rob them when the poore olde woman thinketh to be most surest the young man shall make a claim to her goods what daughter in Law is there in this world who faithfully loueth her stepmother And what sonne in Law is there in the world that desireth not to bee heyre to his father in Lawe Suppose a poore widdow to be fallen sicke the which hath in her house a sonne in Law and that a man aske him vpon his oath which of these two things hee had rather haue eyther to gouerne his mother in Law with hope to heale her or to bury her with hope to inherite her goods I sweare that such would sweare that he could reioyce more to giue a ducket for the graue then a penny for a Physition to cure and heale her Seneca in an Epistle sayeth That the Fathers in Law naturally do loue their daughters in Law and the sons in Law are loued of the mothers in Law And for the contrary he saieth that naturally the sonnes in law doe hate their mothers in Law but I take it not for a generall rule for there are mothers in Law which deserue to be worshipped and there are sonnes in Law which are not worthie to be beloued Other troubles chaunce dayly to these poore widdowes which is that when one of them hath one onely sonne whom she hath in steade of a husband in stead of a brother in steade of a sonne shee shall see him dye whom sith shee had his life in such great loue shee cannot though she would take his death with patience so that as they bury the deade body of the innocent childe they burie the liuely heart of the woefull and sadde mother Then let vs omit the sorrowes which the mothers haue when their children dye and let vs aske the mothers what they feele when they are sicke They will aunswere vs that alwayes and as oftentimes as their children bee sicke the death of their husband then is renued imagining that it will happen so vnto them as it hath done vnto others And to say the truth it is no maruell if they doe feare For the vine is in greater perill when it is budded then when the grapes are ripe Other troubles oftentimes increase to the poore widdowes the which amongst others this is not the least that is to say the little regard of the Friendes of her Husband and the vnthankfulnes of those which haue been brought vp with him The which since hee was layde in his graue neuer ented into the gates of his house but to demaund recompence of their old seruices and to renew and beginne new suites I would haue declared or to say better briefly touched the trauells of widdowes to perswade Princes that they remedie them and to admonish Iudges to heare them and to desire all vertuous men to comfort them For the Charitable worke of it selfe is so Godly that hee deserueth more which remedyeth the troubles of the one onely then I which write their miseries altogether CHAP. XXXVII Of a letter which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius wrote to a Romane Lady named Lauinia comforting her for the death of her husband MArcus of mount Celio Emperour of Rome chiefe Consull Tribune of the people high Bishop appointed against the Daces wisheth health and comfort to thee Lauinia noble and worthy Romane matron the late wife of the good Claudinus According to that thy person deserueth to that which vnto thy husband I ought I thinke well that thou wilt suspect that I weigh thee little for that vnto thy great sorrowes complaints and lamentations are now arriued my negligent consolations When I remember thy merites which cannot fayle and imagine that thou wilt remember my good will wherewith alwayes I haue desired to serue thee I am assured that if thy suspition accuse mee thy vertue and wisdome will defend me For speaking the truth though I am the last to comfort thee yet I was the first to feele thy sorrowes As ignorance is the cruell scourge of vertues and sputre to all vices so it chaunceth oft times that ouer much knowledge putteth wise mē in doubt and slaundereth the innocent For as much as wee see by experience the most presumptuous in wisedome are those which fall into most perilous vices We find the Latines much better with the ignorance of vices then the Greekes with the knowledge of vertues And the reason hereof is for that of things
their trauell and with a good will it should be granted for the gods vse for a little seruice to giue a great reward Triphon and Agamendo aunswered vnto the god Apollo that for their good will for their trauell and for their expences they demaunded no other reward but that it would please him to giue them the best thing that might bee giuen vnto man and that vnto them were most profite saying That the miserable men haue not the power to eschew the euill nor wisedome to chuse the good The god Apollo answered that he was contented to pay them their seruice which they had done and for to grant them that which they had demaunded By reason whereof Triphon and Agamendo hauing dined suddenly at the gates of the temple fel down dead so that the reward of their trauel was to plucke them out of their miserie The reason to declare these two examples is to the ende that all mortall men may knowe that there is nothing so good in this worlde as to haue an ende of this life and though to lose it there be no sauour yet at the least there is profite For wee would reproue a traueller of great foolishnes if sweating by the way he would sing and after at his iourneyes ende hee should beginne to weepe Is not hee simple which is sorry for that hee is come into the Hauen is not hee simple that giueth the battell and fighteth for that hee hath got the victorie Is not he stubborne which is in great distresse and is angry to be succoured Therefore more foolish simple and stubborn is hee which trauelleth to dye and is loath to meete with death For death is the true refuge the perfect health the sure Hauen the whole victorie the flesh without bones Fish without scales and corne without slrawe Finally after death wee haue nothing to bewayle and much lesse to desire In the time of Adrian the Emperour a Phylosopher called Secundus being meruellously learned made an oration at the funerall of a Noble Romaine Matrone a Kins-woman of the Emperours who spake exceedingly much euill of life and maruellous much good of death And when the Emp demanded him what death was The phylosopher aunswered thus Death is an eternall sleepe a dissolution of the bodie a terror of the rich a desire of the poore a thing inhetitable a pilgrimage vncertaine a Theefe of men a kinde of sleeping a shadow of life a separation of the liuing a companie of the dead a resolution of all trauels and the end of all ydle desires Finally Death is the scourge of all euill and the chiefe reward of the good Truely this Phylosopher spake very well and hee should not doe euill which profoundly would consider that hee had spoken Seneca in an Epistle declareth of a Phylosopher whose name was Bessus to whom when they demanded what euill a man can haue in Death since men feare it so much Hee aunswered If any damage or feare is in him who dyeth it is not for the feare of death but for the vice of him which dyeth Wee may agree to that the Phylosopher saide that euen as the deafe cannot iudge harmony nor the blind colours so likewise they cannot say euill of death especially he which neuer tasted it For of all those which are dead none returned again to complaine of Death and of these fewe that liue all complaine of life If any of the dead returned hither to speak vvith the liuing and as they haue proued it so they vvould tell vs. If there were any harme in secrete death it were reason to haue some feare of death But though a man that neuer saw heard felt nor tasted death doeth speake euill of Death should wee therefore feare Death Those ought to haue done some euill in their life which doe feare speake euill of death For in the last houre in the streight iudgement the good shal be known the euill discouered There is no Prince nor Knight rich nor poore whole nor sicke lucky nor vnluckie which I see with their vocations to be contented saue onely the dead which in theyr graues are in peace rest and are neither couetous proud negligent vain ambicious nor dissolute So that the state of the dead ought to bee best since wee see none therein to bee euill contented And since therefore those which are poore â—oe seek the meanes wherwith to endch themselues those which are sad rio seeke wherby to reioyce and those which are sicke to seeke to be healed why is it that those which haue such feare of Death doe seeke remedie against that feare In this case I would say that he which will not feare to die let him vse himself well to liue For the guyltles taketh away feare from death The diuine Plato demaunded Socrates how hee behaued himselfe in life and how he would behaue himselfe in death He answered I let thee know that in youth I haue trauelled to liue well and in age I haue studyed to die well and sith my life hath been honest I hope my death shall be ioyfull And although I haue had sorrow to liue I am sure I shall haue no paine to dye Truely these wordes are worthie of such a man Men of stout harts suffer maruellously when the swear of theyr trauell is not rewarded when they are faithful and their rewards aunswereth nothing to their true seruice when for their good seruices their Friends become vnthankefull to them when they are worthy honour and that they preferre them to honorable room and office For the noble and valiant harts doe not esteeme to loose the rewarde of their labour but thinke much vnkindenesse when a man doeth not acknowledge theyr trauells Oh happie are they that dye For without inconuenience and without paine euery man is in his graue For in this Tribunall iustice to all is so equally obserued that in the same place where wee haue deserued life in the same place we merited death There was neuer nor neuer shall be iudge so iust nor in iustice so vpright that giueth reward by weight and paine by measure but that somtimes they chasten the innocent absolue the guiltie they vexe the faultlesse and they dissemble with the culpable For little auaileth it the playntife to haue good iustice if conscience want to the iudge that should minister it Truely it is not so in Death but all ought to account themselues happie For he which shall haue good iustice shall bee sure on his parte to haue the sentence When great Cato was Censor in Rome a famous Romaine dyed who shewed at his death a maruellous courage and when the Romains praised him for that hee had so great vertue and for the words he had spoken Cato the Censor laughed at that they sayd for that they praised him And he being demanded the cause of his laughter annswered Yee maruell at that I laugh and I laugh at that yee maruell For the perills
his arme so that from thence forwards hee could not put on his gowne nor draw his sword and much lesse carrie a staffe The good Empreour being so loaden with yeres and no lesse with cares the sharpe Winter approching more and more great aboundance of water and snow fell about the Tents so that another disease fell vpon him called Litargie the which thing much abated his courage and in his Hoast caused great sorrow For he was so beloued of all as if they had been his owne Children After that he had proued all medicines and remedyes that could bee found and all other things which vnto so great and mightie Princes were accustomed to be done he perceyued in the end that all remedie was past And the reason heereof was because his sicknes was exceeding vehement and hee himselfe very aged the Ayre vnwhol-some and aboue all because sorrowes and cares oppressed his hart Without doubt greater is the disease that proceedeth of sorrowe then that which proceedeth of the Feuer quartaine And thereof fensueth that more easily is hee cured which of corrupt humours is full then hee which with profound thoughts is oppressed The Emperour then beeing sicke in his chamber and in such sort that hee could not exercise the feates of armes as his men ranne out of their Campe to skyrmish and the Hungarians in like manner to defend the fight on both sides was so cruell through the great effusion of bloud that neither the Hungarians had cause to reioyce nor yet the Romaines to be merrie Vnderstanding the euill order of his and especially that v. of his Captaines were slaine in the conflict and that he for his disease could not bee there in person such sorrows pierced his hart that although he desired forthwith to haue dyed yet hee remained 2. dayes and 3. nights without that hee would see light or speak vnto any man of his So that the heat was much the rest was small the sighes were continuall and the thyrst very great the meate little and the sleepe lesse and aboue all his face wrinckled and his lips very blacke Sometimes he cast vp his eyes and at other times he wrong his hands alwayes hee was silent and continually hee sighed His tongue was swollen that hee could not spit and his eyes very hollow with weeping So that it was a great pittie to see his death and no lesse compassion to see the confusion of his pallace and the hinderance of the warre Many valiant captains many noble Romaines many faithfull seruants and many old friends at all these heauines were present But none of them durst speake to the Emperour Marke partly for that they tooke him to be so sage that they knewe not what counsell to giue him and partely for that they were so sorrowful that they could not refraine their heauie teares For the louing and true Friendes in their life ought to bee beloued and at theyr death to be bewailed Great compassion ought men to haue of those which dye not for that we see them dye but because there are none that telleth them what they ought to doe Noble Princes and great Lords are in greater perill when they dye then the Plebeyans For the counseller dare not tell vnto his Lorde at the houre of death that which hee knoweth and much lesse will tell him how he ought to die and what things hee ought to discharge whiles hee is aliue Manie goe to visite the sicke that I would to GOD they went some other where And the cause heereof is that they see the sicke mans eyes hollowe the flesh dryed the armes without flesh the colour enflamed the ague continuall the paine great the tongue swollen nature consumed and besides all this the house destroyed and yet they say vnto the sicke man Be of good cheere I warrant you you shall liue As young men naturallie desire to liue and as death to all olde men is dreadfull so though they see themselues in that distresse yet they refuse no Medecines as though there were great hope of life And therof ensueth oftentimes that the miserable creatures depart the worlde without confessing vnto GOD and making restitutions vnto men Oh if those which doe this knewe what euill they doe For to take away my goods to trouble my person to blernish my good name to slaunder my parentage and to reproue my life these works are of cruell enemies but to bee occasion to lose my soule it is the works of the diuell of hell Certainly hee is a Diuell which deceyueth the sicke with flatteryes and that in steed to helpe him to dye well putteth him in vain-hope of long life Herein hee that sayeth it winneth little and he that beleeueth it aduentureth much To mortall men it is more meete to giue counselles to reform their consciences with the truth then to hazard their houses with lyes With our friends wee are ashamelesse in their life and also bashfull at their death The which ought ought not to be so For if our Fathers were not dead and that wee did not daylie see these that are present die mee thinketh it were a shame and also a feare to say to the sicke that hee alone should die But since thou knowest as well as he and he knoweth as well as thou that all doe trauell in this perillous iourney what shame hast thou to say vnto thy friend that hee is now at the last point If the dead should now reuiue how would they complain of their friends And this for no other cause but for that they would not giue them good counsell at their death For if the sicke man bee my Friend and that I see peraduenture he will dye Why shall not I counsell him to prepare himselfe to dye Certainly oftentimes we see by experience that those which are prepared and are ready for to dye doe escape and those which thinke to liue doe perish What should they doe which goe to visite the sicke perswade them that they make their Testaments that they confesse their sinnes that they discharge their conscience that they receyue the Communion and that they do reconcile themselues to their enemies Certainely all these things charge not the launce of death nor cut not the threed of life I neuer saw blindenesse so blinde nor ignorance so ignorant as to be ashamed to counsell the sicke that they are bound to do when they are whole As we haue sayd here aboue Princes and great Lords are those aboue all others that liue and dye most abusedly And the onely cause in this that as their Seruants haue no hearts to perswade them when they are merrie so haue they no audacity to tell them truth when they are in perill For such seruants care little so that their masters bequeath them any thing in their willes whether they die well or liue euill O what miserie and pitie is it to see a Prince a Lord a gentleman and a rich person die if they haue no
valiant but all these giftes are but meanes to make them vicious And in such case if the Fathers would bee gouerned by my counsell I would rather desire that members should want in them then that vices should abound Of the most fairest children which are borne in the Empire my sonne Commodus the Prince is one But I would to the immortall Gods that in face hee resemble the blackest of Ethiope and in manners the greatest Philosopher of Greece For the glory of the Father is not nor ought not to bee in that his child is fayre of complexion and handsome of person but that in his life hee bee very vpright Wee will not call him a pittifull Father but a great enemy who exalteth forth his child for that he is faire and doth not correct him though hee be vicious I durst say that the father which hath a child endued with many goodly gifts and that hee doth employ them all to vices such a child ought not to bee borne in the world and if perchance he were borne hee ought immediately to be buried CHAP. LIII The Emperour Marcus Aurelius concludeth his matter and sheweth that sondry young Princes for being vicious haue vndone themselues and empouerished their Realms O What great pitty is it to see how the father buyeth his child of the gods with sighes how the mother deliuers thē with pain how they both nourish them with trauels how they watch to sustain them how they labour to remedy them afterwards they haue so rebelled and be so vicious that the miserable Fathers oftentimes do die not for age but for the griefes wherewith their children torment them I doe remember that the Prince Commodus my sonne beeing young and I aged as I am with great paines we kept him from vices but I feare that after my death hee will hate vertues I remember many yong Princes which of his age haue inherited th' Empire of Rome who haue bin of so wicked a life that they haue deserued to loose both honour and life I remember Dennys the famous tyraunt of Scycile of whom is saide that as great reward hee gaue to those that inuented vices as our Mother Rome did to those which cōquered realms Such worke could not be but of a tyraunt to take them for most familiar which are most vicious I remember foure young Princes which gouerned the Empyre but not with such valiauntnes as the great Alexander that is to say Alexander Antiochus Syluius and Ptholomeus vnto whom for their vanity and lightnes as they called Alexander the Great Emperour in Greece so likewise do they call these young men tyrants in Asia Very happie was Alexander in life and they vnhappy after his death For all that which with glorious triumphs hee wanne with vile vices they lost So that Alexander deuided betweene them foure the worlde and afterwards it came into the handes of moe then foure hundreth I doe remember that king Antigonus little esteemed that which cost his Lorde Alexander much Hee was so light in the behauiour of his person and so defamed in the affayres of the Common-wealth that for mockerie and contempt in the steed of a crown of golde hee bare a garland in the steed of a scepter hee carryed nettles in his hand and of this sort and manner he sate to iudge among his counsellors vsed to talke with strangers This yong Prince doth offend me much for the lightnes he committed but much more I maruell at the grauitie of the Sages of Greece which suffered him It is but meete hee be partaker of the paine which condescended to the faulte I do remember Caligula the fourth Emperor of Rome who was so young and foolish that I doubt of these two things which was greatest in his time That is to say The disobedience that the people bare to their Lorde or the hate which the Lord bare to his people For that vnhappie creature was so disordered in his manners that if all the Romaines had not watched to take life from him hee would haue watched to take life from them This Caligula wore a brooche of gold in his cap wherein were written these wordes Vtinam omnis populus vnam precise ceruicem haberet vt vno ictu omnes necarem Which is to say would to God all the people had but one necke to the ende I might kill them all at a stroke I remember the Emperour Tiberius th'adoptiue sonne of the good Caesar Augustus which was called Augustus because hee greatly augmented the Empyre But the good Emperor did not so much augment the state of his Common-wealth during his life as Tyberius did diminish it after his death The hate and malice which the Romain people bare to Tiberius in his life was manifestly discouered after the time of his death For the day that Tyberius dyed or better to say when they killed him the Romaine people made great processions and the Senators offered great presents in the temples and the priests gaue great Sacrifices to their Gods and all to the end their gods shold not receiue the soule of this Tyraunt amongst them but that they would sende it to be kept among the Furyes of hell I remember Patrocles 2. K. of Corinth inherited the realm at xxii yeres of his age who was so disordred of his flesh so indiscret in his doings so couetous of goods such a coward of his person that wher his father had possessed the Realm 40. yeres the sonne did not possesse it thirtie moneths I remember Tarquine the prowde who though among eight Knights of Rome was the last and comlyest of gesture valiaunt in Armes Noblest of bloud and in giuing most liberall yet he employed all his gifts and grace◠which the Gods had giuen him euill For hee employed his beautie to ryot and his forces to tyrannie For through the treason villanie which hee committed with the Romaine Lucretia he did not only lose the realme and flying saued his life but also for euer was banished and all his Linage likewise I remember the cruell Emperour Nero who liued inherited and dyed young and not without a cause I say that hee liued and dyed young For in him was graffed the stocke of the noble worthie Caesars and in him was renued the memory of those tyrants To whom thinkest thou Panutius this Tyrant would haue giuen life since he with his owne hand gaue his Mother her death Tell mee I pray thee who thinkest thou hath made that cursed heart who slewe his Mother out of whose wombe he came opened the breasts which gaue him sucke Shedde the bloud wher of he was born Tore the armes in which hee was carryed saw the entrails wherin he was formed The day that the Emperour Nero slewe his mother an Orator said in the Senate Iure interficienda erat Agrippina qua tale portentum peperit in populo Romano Which is to say iustly deserued Agrippina to bee put to death which brought forth
ΑΡΧΟÎΤΟΡΟΛΟΓΙΟΠOR THE DIALL OF PRINCES CONTAINING THE GOLDEN AND FAMOVS BOOKE OF MARCVS AVRELIVS Sometime Emperour of Rome DECLARING What Excellency consisteth in a Prince that is a good Christian And what euils attend on him that is a cruell Tirant WRITTEN By the Reuerend Father in God DON ANTONIO of Gueuara Lord Bishop of Guadix Preacher and Chronicler to the late mighty Emperour CHARLES the fift First translated out of French by THOMAS NORTH Sonne to Sir EDWARD NORTH Lord NORTH of Kirthling And lately reperused and corrected from many grosse imperfections With addition of a Fourth Booke stiled by the Name of The fauoured Courtier LONDON Imprinted by Bernard Alsop dwelling by Saint Annes Church neere Aldersgate 1619. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE SIR HENRY MOVNTAGVE Knight Lord Chiefe Iustice of the Pleas Holden before his most Royall Maiestie c THe Emperour Traiane Right Honourable writing a Letter to the Senate of Rome concerning the weightie and carefull condition of Princes among many other matters vsed these wordes of himselfe I doe freely confesse vnto you that since I tasted the cares and trauels attending on this Imperiall dignitie I haue repented a thousand times that euer I did vndertake it because if it bee accounted Honour to enioy an Empire there consisteth farre greater paine and labour to order and gouerne it as it ought to be But beside what enuie doth hee expose himselfe to multitude of mislikes that hath the charge of gouerning others If hee be iust hee is branded with cruelry if mercifull hee is contemned if beautifull tearmed lauish and prodigall if hee hoorde vp money then basely couetous if inclined to peace then hee is a coward If full of courage proudly anbitious if discreetly graue surly and scornefull if affably courteous silly and simple if affecting solitude a dissembling hypocrite if addicted to mirth and pleasure then wantonly dissolute In the end of all te worthy Emperour thus concluded Although willingly I accepted this high office at the first yet sorrow hath since made mee shrinke vnder so brdensom a charge For the Sea and dignitie are thinges pleasing to looke â—n but very perillous to meddle withall I haue alledged his example worthie Lord because present vnto your gracious acceptance his ancient and famous Booke called The Diall of Princes wherein is at lige and amply set downe what care and respect awayteth on the liues of Prinâ—â—s and great persons for if they canot runne into the smallest errour but redoundeth to the hurt of many nor neglect their duty without other mens userie Then sayde the Philosopher well A Prince should not appropriate the Common-wealth to himselfe but shape himselfe wholy to the Common wealth And so much the rather because he standing accountable to no man in this Life ought to remember a farre stricter account before him that maketh no respect of Princes saue onely in this that they shall finde the Iudge the more seuere against them by how much they haue abused their place of eminencie as also their power and princely authority In the learned Discourses following set downe by that good Emperour Marcus Aurelius the honourable Argument of all this worke are three especiall duties and actions obserued necessarily required in an absolute and perfect Prince as namely In Ruling Iudging and Defending To rule by iust lawes and good Example To Iudge by Wisedome Prouidence and Iustice And Defend by valour care and vigilancy And this is that which the Spirit of God so often intimateth by the Prophet Ieremie â—ap 22. verse 3. To execute Iudgement and righteousnesse To deliuer the oppressed from the handes â—â— the oppressour Not to vexe the Stanger fatherlesse or Widdow Neyther to doe violence or shedde the innocent bloud Into infinite other famous presidents for Princes I could enter and set them downe expressely but that I know they are so frequent to your Honour both in reading and memorie that it were as lost labour as to hold a burning Taper in the bright Sunne at Noone-day and therefore these few shall suffice Nor doe I dedicate this vnto your graue and learned iudgement as a new labour of mine owne or as a worke neuer seene before because it hath already past diuers impressions albeit not in so exact a maner nor with the like paines as hath now bin bestowed vpon it from many absurde and grosse imperfections and yet not so cleanely purged as I could wish it were nor as it shall bee if euer it come to the Presse againe Wherefore I humbly entreate your Honour to accept it as it is and as an oblation of my loue vnfainedly to you which gladly would shew it selfe by any possible meanes as time hereafter may better enable me Til when I remain ready at your Honours seruice to the very vtmost of my best abilitie Your Honors in all duty A. M. A GENER ALL PROLOGVE VPON THE BOOKE ENTITVLED THE DYALL OF PRINCES WITH THE FAmous Booke of MARCVS AVRELIVS Compyled by the Reuerend Father in GOD the Lord ANTONY of GVEVARA Byshop of Guadix Confessor and Chronicler to Charles the fifth Emperour of Rome vnto whom and to all other Princes and Noble-personages this worke was directed APolonius Thianeus disputing with the schollers of Hiareas said that among all the affections of nature nothing is more naturall then the desire that all haue to preserue life Omitting the dispute of these great Phylosophers herein wee our selues hereof haue daily proofe that to liue men do trauell to liue byrds do flie fishes do swimme and to liue beasts do hide themselues for feare of death Finally I say there is no liuing creature so brutish that hath not a naturall desire to liue If many of the auncient Paynims so little regarde life that of their owne free willes they offered themselues death they did it not for that they despised life but because they thought that for their little regarding life wee would more highly esteem their fame For wee see men of hauty courages seeke rather to winne a long-during-Fame then to saue a short lasting-life How loth men are to die is easily seen by the great paines they take to liue For it is a naturall thing to all mortall men to leaue their liues with sorrowe and take their deaths with feare Admit that all doe taste this corporall death and that generally both good and euill doe die yet is there great difference between the death of the one and the death of the other If the good desire to liue it is onely for the greater desire they haue to do more good but if the euill desire to liue it is for that they would abuse the world longer For the children of vanity call no time good but onely that wherein they liue according to their owne desires I let you vnderstand that are at this present and you also that shall come heereafter that I direct my writings vnto those which embrace vertue and not vnto such as are borne away with vice GOD
day of October in the high Capitoll of Rome at the sute of the whole Romane people with the assent of the sacred Senate Marcus Aurelius Antonius was proclaimed Emperour vniuersall of the whole Romane Monarchie This noble Prince was naturally of Rome borne in the mount Celio on the sixt day before the Calends of May which after the Latines account is the 26. day of Aprill His Grandfather was called Annius Verus and was chosen Senatour in the time of the Emperours Titos and Vespasian His great Grandfather was named Annius Verus which was borne in Spaine in the free town of Gububa when the wars were most cruell betweene Caesar and Pompeius at what time many Spaniards fledde to Rome and many Romaines ranne into Spaine By this meanes this Emperour had a great Grandfather a Romane and a great Grandmother a Spaniard His Father was named Annius Verus after his Grandfather and Great Grandfather by reason whereof the ancient Historiographers call him Marcus Antonius Verus And true it is that the Emperour Adrian called him Marcus Verissimus for that hee neuer forged lye nor swarued at any time from the truth These Annti Veri were a kindred in Rome as Iulius Capitolinus reporteth which vaunted themselues to come of Numa Pompelius and Quintus Curtius the famous Romane which to worke the Romane people safety and his owne person euerlasting memory willingly threw himselfe into the Gulfe which afterwards was called Curtius which as then was seene in Rome This Emperours mother was called Domitta Camilla as recounteth Cinna in the bookes that hee wrote of the Romaine pedigrees That stocke of Camilli was in those daies highly honoured in Rome for that they conuayed their discent from that Camillus which was the renowmed and valiant Romane Captaine who deliuered Rome when the Gaules had taken it and besieged the Capitoll The men that sprang of this linage bare the name of Camilli for remembrance of this Camillus And the woman that came of the same stocke kept the name of Camilla in memory of a daughter of the said Camillus This Camilla refused mariage and chose to liue among the vastall virgins and there long space remained enduring a sharpe and hard life And shee was so vertuous a Romane and precise in her life that in the time of Seuerus Emperour of Rome her Tombe was honoured as a Relique whereon was engraued this Epitaph Camillus loe doth here engraued rest That onely was Camillus daughter deere Twice twenty yeares and sixe she hath possest A couert life vntoucht of any feere The King of Trinacry could not her moue To taste the sweet delight of Wedlocks band Nor traine by sute her sacred mind to loue Inclosdâ— in brest so deepe did chastnesse stand But oh great wrong the crawling worms below To gnaw on that vnspotted senselesse corse That rage of youth spent vndefiled so With sober life in spite of Cupids force And this was written in Heroycall verse in the Greeke tongue with a maruellous haughty stile But to our matter yee shall vnderstand that the Romanes kept a certaine Law in the 12. Tables the words whereof were these Wee ordaine and commaund that all the Romanes shall for euer haue speciall priuiledge in euery such place where their ancestors haue done to the Romane people any notable seruice For it is reason that where the Citizen aduentureth his life there the City should doe him some honour after his death By vertue of this law all the family of Camilli euer enioyed the keeping of the high Capitoll for that by his force and policie he chased the French men from the siege Truly it is not vnknowne that this noble Knight and valiant Captaine Camillus did other things as great and greater then this but because it was done within the circuit of Rome it was esteemed aboue all his other acts and prowesse And herein the Romanes swarued not far from reason for that amongst all princely vertues is esteemed to bee the chiefest and worthiest which is employed to the profit of the common-wealth The Romane Chronaclers with tears cease not to lament the ruine of their Country seing that variety of time the multitude of Tyrants the cruelty of ciuill wars were occasion that the ancient state of the Romane gouernement came to vtter destruction and in steade thereof a new and euill trade of life to bee placed And hereof no man ought to maruell for it chanceth throughout all Realmes and Nations by oft changing gouernours that among the people dayly springeth new vices Pulto sayth That for no alteration which befell to the common weale for no calamity that euer Rome suffered that priuiledge was taken away from the linage of Camilli I meane the gouernment of the high Capitoll except it were in the time of Silla the Consull when this family was sore persecuted for none other cause but for that they fauored the Consull Marius This cruell Silla being dead and the pittifull Iulius Caesar preuayling all the banished men from Rome returned home againe to the common-wealth As touching the Auncestors of the Emperour Marcus Aurelius what hath beene their trade of life estate pouerty or riches standing in fauor or displeasure what prosperity or aduersity they haue had or suffered wee finde not in writings though with great diligence they haue beene searched for And the cause hereof was for that the ancient writers of the Romane Histories touched the liues of the Emperors fathers specially when they were made Princes more for the good merites that were in the children then for the great estimation that came from the Fathers Iulius Capitolinus sayth That Annius Verus father of Marcus Aurelius was pretor of the Rhodian Armies and also warden in other Frontiers in the time of Trayan the good Adrian the wise and Anthony the mercifull Which Emperours trusted none with their Armies but discreet valiant men For good Princes chose alwayes such Captaines as can with wisdom guide the Armie and with valiantnes giue the battell Though the Romanes had sundry wars in diuers places yet chiefly they kept great Garrisons alwayes in foure parts of the world That is to say in Bizantium which now is Constantinople to resist the Parthiens in Gades which now is called Galizia to withstand the Portugales in the riuer of Rein to defend themselues from the Germaines and at Colossus which now is called the I le of Rhodes for to subdue the Barbarians In the moneth of Ianuarie when the Senate distributed their offices the Dictator being appointed for sixe monethes and the two Consuls chosen for one yeare incontinently in the third place they chose foure of the most renowmed persons to desend the said foure daungerous Frontiers For the Romanes neyther feared the paines of hell nor trusted for reward in heauen but sought by all occasions possible in their life time to leaue some notable memory of them after their death And the Romaine was counted most valiant
that infamed Idoll and violated the sacred Temples For to God this is the most haynous offence to forsake the holy Catholike faith in his life and to despaire in his mercy at the houre of his death Would to God wee had so much grace to acknowledge our offences as God hath reason to punish our sins For if it were so then wee would amend in time to come and God would graunt vs a general pardon for all that is past I see one thing wherin as I thinke I am not deceiued which is this that the fraylties and miseryes which we cōmit wee thinke them naturall and in the satisfaction and amendment of the same wee say they are strange so that we admit the fault and condemne the paine which thereby we doe deserue The secret iudgements of God doe suffer it and our offences do deserue it I doe not denie but that the euill may holde and possesse this life at their pleasure but I sweare vnto them when they shall least thinke of it they shall lose theyr life to their great displeasure for the pleasures of this life are so vnconstant that wee scarce beginne to taste them when they fade out of our sight It is a rule infallible which both of the good and euill hath bin proued that all naturallie desire rather to abound then to want all that which greatly is desired with great diligence is searched and through great trauell is obtained and that thing which by trauell is attained with loue is possessed that which by loue is possessed with much sorrow is lost bewailed lamented For in the end wee cannot deny but that the watry eies do manifestly shew the sorrowfull harts To the fine wits and stout harts this is a continuall torment and endles paine and a worme that alway gnaweth to call to minde that he must lose the ioyfull life which he so entirely loued tast the fearfull death which so greatly he abhorred Therfore to proue this matter which I haue spoken of before it is but reason that Princes knowe if they doe not know that men as the diuine Prouidence exalteth them to high Estates they not deseruing them So likewise his rigorous iustice will bring thē to nought if they bee vnthankfull for his benefits For the ingratitude or benefits receiued maketh that man not worthy to receyue any moe The more a man throgh benefits is bound the more grieuous punishment if he be vnthankfull hee deserueth All wise men should finde if they apply their mindes therevnto that in chastising God calleth those offences first to his minde which are furthest from the thoughts of men For before the Tribunall of God our secret faults are alwayes casting out bloud to the end hee should execute on our person open iustice And further I say that in this case I do not see that the Prince is exempted more though hee liue in great felicitie then the poore labourer who liueth in extreame miserie And also we see it eft-soones by experience that the sudden Lightning Tempests and terrible Thunder forsaketh the small and lowe Cottages and battereth forthwith the great and sumptuous buyldings Gods will and determination is that foras-much as hee hath exalted them aboue all others so much the more they should acknowledge him for Lord aboue all others For GOD did neuer create high Estates because they should worke wickednes but he placed them in that degree to the end they should thereby haue more occasion to doe him seruice Euery Prince that is not a good Christian a seruent louer of the Catholike faith nor wil haue any respect to the Diuine seruice let him be assured that in this world hee shall lose his renowme and in the other he shall hazard his soule For that all euill Christians are the Parishioners of Hell CHAP XXIII The Anthour proueth by twelue examples that Princes are sharpely punished when they vsurpe boldly vpon the Churches and violate their temples Why the children of Aaron were punished IT is now time that wee leaue to perswade with wordes and reasons and to beginne to proue that which we haue sayd by some excellent histories and notable examples For in the end the hearts of men are stirred more through some little examples then with a great multitude of words In the first booke of Leuiticus the 10. Chapter is declared how in the time of Moses the sonne in law of Iethro the Priest that was of Media who was chiefe Prince of all the lynage of Seph with whom the brother of Mary the Leper had charge of the high Priesthood For among all the lawes where God at any time put his hands vnto hee prouided alwayes that some had the gouernement of ciuill affayres and others the administration of the diuine misteries This high Priest then had towe children whose names were Nadab and Abihu which two were yong and beautifull stout and sage and during their infancie serued their Father helped him to doe sacrifice For in the old law they suffered that Priests should not onely haue wiues children but also that their children should succeed them in their Temples and inherite their benefices There came a great mischance for the two children being apparrelled in white their bodies bound with stolles their hands naked in one hād holding a Torch and in the other the Sencer being negligent to light the new fire and contrary to that the law had ordayned and taking coales which were prohibited a maruellous thing was seene in the sight of the people which was that sodenly these two childrē fel flat on the earth dead and all their sacrifice burned Truly the sentence was maruellous but it was iust in ough For they well deserued to loose their liues sithence they durst sacrifice the coales of an other This thing seemed to be true for these young children saued theyr soules and made satisfaction of the fault with their liues but other wicked men God permitteth to liue a short time because they shall loose their soules for euer The cause why the Azotes were punished THe Realme of Palestine being destitute of a King at that time an honorable olde man gouerned the realme which was Father to two Knights named Albino and Phinides for at that time the children of Israel were not gouerned by Kings that did molest them by iniuries but by sage men which did maintaine them by iustice It chaunced that the Azotes made warre against the Palestines and were a kind of the Arabians stout and warlike the which fought so couragiously that the Palestines and Hebrewes were constrained to bring their Arke into the middest of the Battell which was a Relicke as a man should haue put the holie Sacrament to deuide a great multitude of people But Fortune shewed her countenaunce vnto them so frowningly that they were not onely ouer-come but also were spoyled of the Arke which was their chiefe relicke And besides that there were 4000. Palestines slaine The
places are Arbours and Gardeins to wofull and heauie hearts A slaue hath nothing to care for but himselfe alone but you that be princes haue to satisfie and please all men For the Prince should haue a time for himselfe and also for those which are about him The diuine Plato said well that hee that should haue the least parte of a Prince and belonging to a Prince ought to be the Prince himselfe For to that ende the Prince should bee all his owne he ought to haue no part in himselfe Though a slaue work trauel in the day yet he sleepes without care in the night but you Princes passe the time in hearing importunate suites and the nights in fetching innumerable sighs Finally I say that in a slaue be it well or be it euill all his paine is finished in one yeare or is ended at his death but what shall a wofull Prince doe when he dyeth If he were good there is but a short memory of his goodnesse and if hee hath beene euill his infamy shall neuer haue end I haue spoken these things to the end that great and small Lords and seruants should confesse and acknowledge the true Seigniory to be onely vnto him who for to make vs Lords aboue became a seruant heere beneath CHAP. XXX When the Tyrants beganne to ratgne and vpon what occasion commaunding and obeying first begann And how the authority which the Prince hath is by the ordinance of God CEasing to speake any further of the Poeticall Histories and auncient faynings and speaking the truth according to the diuine Histories the first that did liue in this World was our Father Adam who did eate of the fruite forbidden and that not so much for to trespasse the commaundement of one as for not to displease his wife Eue For many now a dayes had rather suffer theyr conscience a long time to bee infected then one onely day to see theyr wiues displeased The first homicide of the worlde was Caine The first that dyed in the World was Abel The first that had two wiues in the World was Lamech The first City of the World was by Enoch built in the fields of Edon The first Musition was Tubalcaim The first which sayled in the World was Noe The first Tyrant of the World was Nembroth The first Priest was Melcrisedech The first King of the World was Anraphel The first Duke was Moyses The first which was called Emperour in the World was Iulius Caesar For vntill this time they which gouerned were called Consuls Censors and Dictators And from Iulius Caesars hitherto haue beene called Emperours The first battell that was giuen in the world as wee reade was in the wilde valleyes which now they call the dead and salt sea For a great part of that that then was the maine land is novv the dead sea The holy Scriptures cannot deceyue vs for it is full of all truth and by them it is declared that eighteene hundred yeares after the World beganne there was no battell assembled nor company that met to fight in the field for at that time when they had no ambition nor couetousnesse they knew not what battell meant It is reason therefore that in this writing we declare the cause why the first battell was fought in the world to the end Princes may thereof bee aduertised and the curious Reader remaine therein satisfied The manner was this that Bassa being King of Sodome Bersa King of Gomorrhe Senaab King of Adamee Semebar King of Seboime and Vale King of Segor were all fiue Tributaries to Chodor Lanmor King of the Elamites which fiue Kings conspired against him because they would pay him no tribute and because that they would acknowledge no homage vnto him For the realmes paying tribute haue alwayes rebelled and sowed sedition This rebellion was in the 13 yeare of the raigne of Chodor Laomor King of the Elamites and immediately the yeare following Anraphel king of Sernaar Arioch king of Ponte and Aradal King of the Allotali ioyned with Chodor Laomor All which together beganne to make warres to destroy Cities and Countries vpon their enemies For the olde malice of the warre is That where they cannot haue their enemies which are in the fault they put to sacke and destroy those which are innocent and guiltlesse So the one assaulting and the other desending in the end all come to the field they gaue battell as two enemies and the greatest part was ouercome of the fewest and the fewest remayned victorious ouer the greatest which thing God would suffer in the first battell of the world to the end Princes might take example that all the mishappes of the Warres come not but because they are begun of an vniust occasion If Chodor Laomor had helde himselfe contented as his Predecessors did and that hee had not conquered Realmes in making them subiect and had not caused them to pay tribute neyther they vnto him would haue denyed reason nor hee with them would haue waged battell For thorow the couetousnesse of the one and the ambition of the other enmities grew betweene the people This considered which wee haue spoken of Sygnorie and of those which came into contentions for signories Let vs now see from whence the first originall of seruitude came and the names of seruantes and Lordes which were in the old time and whether seruitude was by the discorde of vertuous men first brought into the World or else inuented by the ambition of tyrants for when the one commaundeth and the other obeyeth it is one of the nouelties of the world as the holy Scripture declareth vnto vs in this manner The holy Patriarch Noah had three sons which were Sam Ham and Iaphet and the second sonne which was Ham begot Cusn and this Cusn begotte Nimrod Nimrod made himselfe a Hunter of wilde beasts in the woodes and mountaines Hee was the first that beganne to play the Tyrant amongst men enforcing their persons and taking their goods and the Scripture called him Oppressor hominum which is to say an Oppressor of men For men of euill life alwaies commit much euill in a Common-wealth He taught the Chaldeans to honor the fire hee was the first that presumed to be an absolute Lord and the first that euer required of men homage and seruice This cursed tyrant ended his life in the golden World wherein all things were in common with the Common-wealth For the Auncients vsed their goods in common but their wils onely they reserued to themselues They ought not so thinke in a light matter for his persō to haue been a tyrant but they ought to think it a greater matter to haue beene a rebel in a Common-wealth much more they ought to esteeme it as an euill matter in him which hath beene as hee was a disturber of the good customes of his country but the most vniust of all is to leaue behind him any euil custom brought into the common wealth for if hee deserue great
our time and that wee hadde deserued to haue beene in their time although our time for being Christians is better they had saued vs from this trauell For they were so temperate in eating meates and so abstinent in drinking wines that they did not only refraine the drinking thereof but also they would not abide to smell it For it was counted a greater shame vnto a Romane Woman to drinke wine then to be diuorced from her Husband Dyonisius Alicarnaseus in his booke of the lawes of the Romaines said that Romulus was the first founder of Rome and that hee occupyed himselfe more in buylding faire Houses to amplifye Rome then in constituting Lawes for the gouernement of the Common-wealth But amongst fifteene Lawes which hee made the seuenth thereof was that no Romaine woman on paine of death should be so hardie to drinke wine within the walls of Rome The same Hystorian sayth that by the occasion of this Law the custome was in Rome that when any Romane Ladie would drinke wine or make any solemne feast she must needs goe out of Rome where euery one had theyr Gardens and dwelling place because the smel also of Wine was prohibited and forbidden women within the circuit of Rome If Plinie do not deceiue vs in his 24. booke of his natural historie it was an ancient custom in Rome that at each time that Parents met both men and women they did kisse the one the other in the face in token of peace and this ceremonie beganne first for that they would smell whether the woman had drunke any wine And if perchance she sauored of wine the Censor might haue bannished her from Rome And if her kinsman found her without Rome hee might freely without any daunger of law put her to death because within the Circuit and walles of Rome no priuate man by Iustice could put any Romaine to death as aboue is rehearsed Romulus was he which ordained the paine for Drunkardes and Ruptilius was hee which ordained the penaltie for Adulterers And betweene Romulus and Ruptilius there was xxxii yeares So that they ordyaned this streight Law for Drunkardes a long time before they did the law for adulterers For if a woman be a drunkard or Harlot truely they are both great faultes and I cannot tell whether of them is worst For being a harlot the woman loseth her name and for being a drunkarde shee loseth her fame and the Husband his goods Then if women for the honestie of their pesons onely are bound to bee temperate in eating and drinking the woman which nourisheth and giueth the Childe sucke ought to bee much more corrected and sober in this case For in her is concurrant not only the grauity of their own persons but the health and life also of the Creature which she nourisheth Therefore it is meete that the Nurse bee kept from wine since the honor of the one and the life of the other is in perill Sixtly the Princesses and great Ladyes ought to take heede that theyr Nurses be not gotten with child And the reason hereof is that in that time when the woman is with Childe her naturall course is stopped and that corruption is mingled with the pure bloud So that shee thinking to giue the childe milke to nourish it giueth it poyson to destroy it And nothing can bee more vniust then to put the childe which is alreadie borne and aliue in danger for that which is as yet vnborne and dead It is a wonderfull thing for a man that will curiously note and mark things to see the brute beasts that all the time they bring vp theyr little ones they will not consent to accompanie with the Males nor the males will follow the females And that which is most to hee noted it is to see what passeth betweene the Byrds for the she Sparrow will not suffer the Male in any wise to touch nor to come neere her vntill her little ones be great able to flie and much lesse to sit vpon any Egges to hatche them till the other be fled and gone Plutarch in the seuenth of his Regiment of Princes saith that Gneus Fuluius Couzin germaine of Pompeyus beeing Consull in Rome fell in loue with a young maidē of Capua being an orphā whether he fled for the plague This Mayden was called Sabina and when she was great with child by this Consull shee brought forth a daughter whom they called faire Drusia truely she was more commended for her beautie then shee was for her honestie For oft times it happeneth that the fayre and dishonest women leaue their Children so euill taught that of their Mothers they inherite little goods and much dishonour This Sabina therefore beeing deliuered as it was the custome of Rome she did with her own breasts nourish her daughter Drusia During the which time shee was gotten with childe by one of the Knights of this Consul to whome as to his Seruant hee had giuen her to keepe Wherefore when the Consull was heereof aduertised and that notwithstanding she gaue her daughter suck he commanded that the knight shold be immediatly beheaded his louer Sabina forthwith to be cast into a wel The day of Execution came that both these parties should suffer wherfore the wofull Sabina sent to beseech the Consull that it would please him before her death to giue her audience of one sole worde that shee would speake vnto him the which beeing come in the presence of them all shee said vnto him O Gneus Fuluius know thou that I did not call thee to the ende thou shouldest graunt me life but because I would not die before I had seene thy face though thou of thy selfe shouldest remember that as I am a frayle Woman and fell into sinne with thee in Capua so I might fall now as I haue done with another here in Rome For wee Women are so fraile in this case during the time of this our miserable life that none can keepe herselfe sure from the assaultes of the weake Flesh The Consull Gneus Fuluius to these words answered The Gods immortall know Sabina what griefe it is to my wofull hart that I of my secret offence should be an open scourge For greater honestie it is for men to hyde your frailnesse then openly to punish your offences But what wilt thou I should doe in this case considering the offence thou hast committed By the immortall Gods I sweare vnto thee and again I sweare that I had rather thou shouldest secretly haue procured the death of some man thē that openly in this wise thou shouldst haue slaunderd my house For thou knowest the true meaning of the common prouerbe in Rome It is better to die in honour then to liue in infamie And think not Sabina that I do condemne thee to die because thou forgotest thy Faith vnto my person and that thou gauest thy selfe vnto him which kept thee For since thou wert not my wife the liberty thou haddest
to come with me from Capua to Rome the selfesame thou hadst to goe with another from Rome to Capua It is an euill thing for vicious â—eâ— to reprooue the vices of others wherein themselues are faulty The cause why I condemn thee to dye is onely for the remembrance of the old Law the which commandeth that no nurse or woman giuing sucke should on paine of death be begotten with childe truly the Law is very iust For honest women do not suffer that in giuing her child sucke at her breast she shold hide another in her entrails These words passed between Gneus Fuluius the Consul and the Ladie Sabina of Capua Howbeit as Plutarche saith in that place the Consull had pitie vpon her and shewed her fauour banishing her vpon condition neuer to returne to Rome againe Cinna Catullus in the fourth booke of the xxij Consulls saith that Caius Fabricius was one of the most notable Consulles that euer was in Rome and was sore afflicted with diseases in his life onely because hee was nourished foure moneths with the milke of a Nurse being great with Childe and for feare of this they locked the nurse with the Childe in the Temple of the Vestall virgines where for the space of iij. yeares they were kept They demaunded the Consul why he did not nourish his children in his house He answered that children being nourished in the house it might bee an occasion that the Nurse should begotteÌ„ with child and so she should destroy the children with her corrupt milke and further giue me occasion to do iustice vpon her person wherefore keeping them so shut vp wee are occasion to preserue their life and also our children from perill Dyodorus Siculus in his librairy and Sextus Cheronensis saith in the life of Marc. Aurelius that in the Isles of Baleares there was a custom that the nurses of young children whether they were their owne or others should be seuered from their Husbands for the space of two yeares And the woman which at that time though it were by her husband were with child though they did not chasten her as an adulteresse yet euery man spake euill of her as of an offender During the time of these two yeares to the ende that the Husband should take no other wife they commanded that hee should take a concubine or that hee should buye a Slaue whose companie hee might vse as his wife for amongst these barbarous hee was honoured most that had two Wiues the one with child and the other not By these Examples aboue recited Princesses and great Ladyes may see what watch care they ought to take in choosing their Nurses that they be honest since of them dependeth not onely the health of their children but also the good fame of their houses The seueÌ„th condition is that Princesses and great ladies ought to see their nurses haue good conditions so that they be not troublesome proud harlots liars malicious nor flatterers for the viper hath not so much poyson as the woman which is euil coÌ„ditioned It little auaileth a man to take wine from a woman to entreate her to eate little and to withdrawe her from her husband if of her owne nature she be hatefull and euill mannered for it is not so great daÌ„ger vnto the child that the nurse be a drunkard or a glutton as it is if she be harmfull malitious If perchaunce the Nurse that nourisheth the child be euil conditioned truly she is euill troubled the house wherin she dwelleth euil coÌ„bred For such one doth importune the Lorde troubleth the Lady putteth in hazard the childe aboue all is not contented with her selfe Finally Fathers for giuing too much libertie to their nurses oft times are the causes of manie practises which they doe wherewith in the ende they are grieued with the death of their childreÌ„ which foloweth Amongst all these which I haue read I say that of the ancient Roman Princes of so good a Father as Drusius Germanicus was neuer came so wicked a son as Caligula was being the iiij Emp of Rome for the Hystoriographers were not satisfied to enrich the praise the excellencies of his Father neyther ceased they to blame and reprehend the infamies of his Sonne And they say that his naughtines proceedeth not of the mother which bare him but of the nurse which gaue him sucke For often times it chaunceth that the tree is green and good when it is planted and afterwardes it becometh drie and withered onely for being carryed into another place Dyon the Greeke in the second book of Caesars saieth that a cursed woman of Campania called Pressilla nourished and gaue suck vnto this wicked child Shee had against all nature of women her breasts as hayrie as the beardes of men and besides that in running a Horse handling her staffe shooting in the Crosse-bowe fewe young men in Rome were to bee compared vnto her It chaunced on a time that as shee was giuing sucke to Caligula for that shee was angrie shee tore in pieces a young child and with the bloud therof annoynted her breasts and so she made Caligula the young Childe to sucke together both bloud and milke The saide Dyon in his booke of the life of the Emperour Caligula saieth that the women of Campania whereof the saide Pressilla was had this custom that wheÌ„ they would giue their Teat to the childe first they did annointe the nipple with the bloud of a hedge-hog to the ende their children might be more fierce and cruell And so was this Caligula for hee was not contented to kill a man onely but also hee sucked the bloud that remained on his Sworde and licked it off with his tongue The excellent Poet Homer meaning to speake plainely of the crueltyes of Pyrrus saide in his Odisse of him such wordes Pyrrus was borne in Greece nourished in Archadie and brought vp with Tygers milke which is a cruell beast as if more plainely he had saide Pyrrus for being borne in Greece was Sage for that hee was brought vp in Archadie he was strong and couragious for to haue sucked Tygars milke he was very proud and cruell Hereof may be gathered that the great Grecian Pyrrus for wanting of good milke was ouercome with euill conditions The selfe same Hystorian Dyon saith in the life of Tiberius that hee was a great Drunkard And the cause hereof was that the Nurse did not onely drinke wine but also she weyned the childe with soppes dipped in Wine And without doubt the cursed Woman had done lesse euill if in the stead of milke she had giuen the child poyson without teaching it to drinke wine wherefore afterwardes he lost his renowne For truely the Romane Empire had lost little if Tiberius had dyed being a childe and it had wonne much if he had neuer knowne what drinking of Wine had meant I haue declared all that which before is mentioned to the intent that Princesses and great Ladyes might
your Bookes full of lawes and the common wealth full of vices Wherefore I sweare vnto you that there are more Thebaines which follow the delitiousnesse of Denis the tyrant then there are vertuous men that follow the lawes of Lycurgus If you Thebaines doe desire greatly to know with what lawes the Lacedemonians doe preserue their Common-wealth I will tell you them all by word and if you will reade them I will shew you them in writing but it shall bee vpon condition that you shall sweare al openly that once a day you shall employ your eyes to reade them and your persons to obserue them for the Prince hath greater honour to see one onely law to be obserued in deed then to ordaine a thousand by writing You ought not to esteeme much to be vertuous in heart nor to enquire of the vertue by the mouth nor to seeke it by labour and trauell of the feet but that which you ought greatly to esteeme is to know what a vertuous law meaneth and that knowne immediately to execute it and afterwards to keepe it For the chiefe vertue is not to doe one vertuous worke but in a swet and trauell to continue in it These therfore were the words that this Philosopher Phetonius sayde to the Thebaines the which as Plato sayeth esteemed more his words that hee spake then they did the Lawes which he brought Truly in mine opinion those of Thebes are to bee praysed and commended and the Philosopher for his word is worthy to be honoured For the ende of those was to search lawes to liue well and the end of the Philosopher was to seeke good meanes for to keepe them in vertue And therefore he thoght it good to shew them and put before their eyes the gibbet and the sword with the other Instruments and torments for the euill do refraine from vice more for feare of punishment then for any desire they haue of amendment I was willing to bring in this history to the end that all curious and vertuous men may see and know how little the Ancients did esteeme the beginning the meane and the end of vertuous works in respect of the perseuerance and preseruation of them Comming therefore to my matter which my penne doth tosse and seeke I aske now presently what it profiteth Princesses and great Ladies that God doe giue them great estates that they be fortunate in marriages that they bee all reuerenced and honoured that they haue great treasures for their inheritances and aboue all that they see their wines great with Childe and that afterward in ioy they see them deliuered that they see their mothers giuing their children sucke and finally they see themselues happy in that they haue found them good nurses health full and honest Truly all this auayleth little if to their children when they are young they doe do not giue masters to instruct them in vertues and they also if they doe not recommend them to good guides to exercise them in feates of Chiualry The Fathers which by sighes penetrate the heauen by praiers importune the liuing God onelie for to haue children ought first to thinke why they will haue children for that iustly to a man may be denied which to an euill end is procured In mine opinion the Father ought to desire to haue a child for that in his age he may sustaine his life in honour and that after his death hee may cause his fame to liue And if a Father desireth not a sonne for this cause at the least he ought to desire him to the end in his age hee may honour his hoary head and that after his death hee may enherite his goods but we see few children do these thinges to their fathers in their age if the fathers haue not taught them in their youth For the fruit doth neuer grow in the haruest vnlesse the tree did beare blosoms in the spring I see oftentimes many Fathers complaine of their children saying that they are disobedient and proude vnto them and they do not consider that they themselues are the cause of all those euils For too much abundance and liberty of youth is no other but a prophesie and manifest token of disobedience in age I know not why Princes and great Lords do toyle oppresse so much scratch to leaue their children great estates and on the other side wee see that in teaching them they are and shewe themselues too negligent for Princes and great Lordes ought to make account that all that which they leaue of their substance to a wicked heyre is vtterly lost The wise men and those which in their consciences are vpright and of their honours carefull ought to bee very diligent to bring vppe their children and chiefly that they consider whether they bee meete to inherite their estates And if perchance the fathers see that their children bee more giuen to folly then to noblenes and wisdome then should I bee ashamed to see a father that is wise trauell all the dayes of his life to leaue much substance to an euill brought vp childe after his death It is a griefe to declare and a monstrous thing to see the cates which the Fathers take to gather riches and the diligence that children haue to spend them And in this case I say the sonne is fortunate for that hee doth enherite and the Father a foole for that he doth bequeath In my opinion Fathers are bound to instruct their children well for two causes the one for that they are nearest to them and also because they ought to be their heyres For truly with great griefe and sorrow I suppose hee doth take his death which leaueth to a foole or an vnthrift the toyle of all his life Hyzearchus the Greeke Hystorian in the booke of his Antiquities Sabellicus in his generall hystory sayeth that a father and a sonne came to complain to the famous Philosopher and ancient Solon Solinon the Sonne complained of the father and the father of the sonne First the sonne informed the quarrell to the Philosopher saying these words I complaine of my Father because hee being rich hath disinherited mee and made me poore and in my steade hath adopted another heyre the which thing my father ought not nor cannot doe for since he gaue me so frayle flesh it is reason hee giue me his goods to maintaine my seeblenes To these wordes answered the father I complaine of my sonne because hee hath not beene as a gentle sonne but rather as a cruell enemie for in all things since hee was borne hee hath beene disobedient to my will wherefore I thought it good to disinherite him before my death I would I were quit of all my substance so that the gods had quit him of his life for the earth is very cruell that swalloweth not the child aliue which to his father is disobedient In that he sayeth I haue adopted another child for mine heyre I confesse it is true and for so much
as hee sayeth that I haue disinherited him and abiected him from my heritage hee beeing begotten of my body hereunto I answere That I haue not disinherited my sonne but I haue disinherited his pleasure to the entent hee shall not enioy my trauell for there can bee nothing more vniust then that the young and vicious sonne should take his pleasure of the swet and droppes of the aged father The sonne replyed to his Father and sayde I confesse I haue offended my Father and also I confesse that I haue liued in pleasures yet if I may speake the truth though I were disobedient and euill my Father ought to beare the blame and if for this cause hee doeth dishenherite mee I thinke hee doth me great iniurie for the father that instructeth not his son in vertue in his youth wrongfully disinheriteth him though he be disobedient in his age The Father againe replyeth and sayeth It is true my sonne that I brought thee vp too wantonly in thy youth but thou knowest well that I haue taught thee sundry times and besides that I did correct thee when thou camest to some discretion And if in thy youth I did not instruct thee in learning it was for that thou in thy tender age diddest want vnderstanding but after that thou hadst age to vnderstand discretion to receyue and strength to exercise it I beganne to punish thee to teache thee and to instruct thee For where no vnderstanding is in the child there in vaine they teach doctrine Since thou art old quoth the sonne and I young since thou art my Father and I thy sonne for that thou hast white hayres on thy beard and I none at all it is but reason that thou be belieued and I condemned For in this world wee see oft times that the small authoritie of the person maketh him to loose his great iustice I graunt thee my Father that when I was a childe thou diddest cause mee to learne to reade but thou wilt not denie that if I did commit any faulte thou wouldst neuer agree I should be punished And hereof it came that thou suffering me to do what I would in my Youth haue bin disobedient to thee euer since in my age And I say vnto thee further that if in this case I haue offended truely mee thinketh thou canst not bee excused for the fathers in the youth of their children ought not onely to teach them to dispute of vertues what vertue is but they ought to inforce thē to be vertuous in deed For it is a good token when Youth before they knowe vices haue been accustomed to practise vertues Both partyes then diligently heard the good Phylosopher Solon Solinon speake these words I giue iudgement that the Father of this childe be not buryed after his death and I commaund that the Sonne because in his youth hee hath not obeyed his Father who is olde should be disinherited whilest the Father liueth from all his substance on such condition that after his death his sonnes should inherite the Heritage and so returne to the heyres of the Sonne and liue of the Father For it were vniust that the innocencie of the Sonne should be condemned for the offence of the Father I do commaund also that all the goods be committed vnto some faithfull person to the end they may giue the Father meat and drinke during his life and to make a graue for the Sonne after his death I haue not without a cause giuen such iudgement the which comprehendeth life and death For the Gods will not that for one pleasure the punishment bee double but that wee chastise and punish the one in the life taking from him his honour and goods and that wee punish others after their death taking from them memorie and buryall Truely the sentence which the Philosopher gaue was very graue and would to GOD wee had him for a iudge of this world presently For I sweare that hee should finde manie Children now a dayes for to disinherite and moe Fathers to punish For I cannot tell which is greater The shame of the children to disobey their Fathers or the negligence of the Fathers in bringing vp their children Sextus Cheronens in the second book of the sayings of the Philosophers declareth that a Citizen of Athens saide vnto Dyogenes the Phylosopher these wordes Tell mee Dyogenes What shall I doe to be in the fauour of the Gods and not in the hatred of men For oft times amongst you Phylosophers I haue hearde say that there is a great difference between that that the gods will and that which men loue Dyogenes answered Thou speakest more then thou oughtest to speake that the Gods will one thing and men another for the Gods are but as a center of mercy and men are but as a denne of malice if thou wilt enioy rest in thy dayes and keepe thy life pure and cleane thou must obserue these three things The first honour thy Gods deuoutely for the man which doeth not serue and honour the Gods in all his enterprises hee shall be vnfortunate The second bee very diligent to bring vp thy children well for the man hath no enemie so troublesome as his owne sonne if hee bee not well brought vp The third thing bee thankefull to thy good benefactors and friends for the Oracle of Apollo sayth that the man who is vnthankefull of all the world shall be abhorred And I tell thee further my friend that of these three things the most profitable though it be more troublesome is for a man to teach and bring vp his children well This therefore was the answere that the Philosopher Diogenes made to the demaund of the Citizen It is great pitty and griefe to see a young childe how the bloud doth stirre him to see how the flesh doth prouoke him to accomplish his desire to see sensuality goe before and he himselfe to come behind to see the malitious World to watch him to see how the Diuell doth tempte him to see how vices binde him and in all that which is spoken to see how the Father is negligent as if hee had no children whereas in deede the olde man by the fewe vertues he hath had in his Youth may easily knowe the infirmityes and vices wherewith his Sonne is incompassed If the expert had neuer beene ignorant if the Fathers had neuer beene children if the vertuous had neuer been vicious if the fine wittes had neuer been deceiued it were no maruell if the Fathers were negligent in teaching their children For the little experience excuseth men of great offences but since thou art my Father and that first thou wert a Sonne since thou art old and hast bin young and besides all this since that pride hath inflamed thee lechery hath burned thee wrath hath wounded thee Negligence hath hindred thee Couetousnes hath blinded thee Glotonie surfetted thee Tell mee cruell Father since so many vices haue reigned in thee why hast thou not an
perillous skirmish And that which a man ought most to maruell at is that I neuer perceyued any feare or cowardlinesse to bee in those barbarous people whereby they were constrained to demaund peace of the people of Rome These Lygures pursued with such fiercenesse the wars that often times they tooke away from vs all hope to winne the victory for betweene Armies the great might of the one doth put alwayes the others in feare And I wil tell you Fathers conscript their bringing vp to the ende the Romaine youth should take heereby example When they are young they are put to bee Sheapheardes because they should accustome their flesh in those mountaines to endure trauell by the which custome they are so much masters of themselues the countrey being alwayes full of snow and Ise in the winter and also noysom through the extreame heate in the Summer that I sweare by the God Apollo in all this time of fiue yeares of those wee haue not seene one prease to the Fire in the winter nor couet the shadow in the Summer Doe not yee thinke worthie Senators that I was willing to declare vnto you these things in the Senate for any desire I haue that you should esteeme any thing the more my Triumph but I doe tell it you to this ende that you may haue an eye and take heede to your men of warre to the ende they may alwayes be occupied and that you suffer them not to be idle For it is more perillous for the Romaine Armyes to bee ouercome with vices thē to be discomfited with their enemies And to talke of these matters more at large me thinketh they should prouide and commaund that Rich men should not be so hardie to bring vppe their children too delicately for in the ende it is vnpossible that the delicate person should win with his hands the honour of many victories That which moued me to say somuch as I haue sayd worthie Senatours is to the ende you may knowe that the Lygures were not ouercome by the power of Rome but because Fortune was against them And since in nothing Fortune sheweth her selfe so variable as in the things of the warre mee thinketh that though the Ligures are nowe vanquished and ouercome yet notwithstanding you ought to entertain them in loue and to take them for your confoederates For it is not good counsell to hazzard that into the handes of Fortune which a man may compasse by friendship The Authour of this which is spoken is called Iunius Pratus in the Booke of the concord of Realmes and hee saieth in that place that this captaine Gneus Fabritius was counted no lesse sage for that he spake then esteemed valiant for that hee did In the olde time those of the Isles Balleares which now are called Maiorque and Minorque though they were not counted wise yet at the least in bringing vp their Children they shewed rhemselues not negligent Because they were broght vp in hardnes in their youth and could endure all painefull exercises of the warres Those of Carthage gaue fiue prisoners of Rome for one slaue of Maiorque Dyodorus Siculus saith in those Iles the mother did not giue the children bread with their own hands but they did put it on a high poale so that they might see the Bread with theyr eyes but they could not reach it with their hāds Wherfore when they would eat they should first with hurling of stones or slinges win it or else fast Though the worke were of children yet the inuention came of a high wit And hereof it came that the Baleares were esteemed for valiant mē as well in wrastling as in slinges for to hurle for they did hurle with a sling to hit a white as the Lygures shoot now in a Crosse-bow to hit the pricke Those of Great Brittaine which now we cal England amongst all the barbarous were men most barbarous but you ought to know that within the space of few yeares the Romanes were vanquished of them many times for time in all things bringeth such change and alteration that those which once wee knew great Lords within a while after wee haue seene themslaues Herodian in his history of Seuerus Emperour of Rome sayeth That an Ambassadour of Brittaine being one day in Rome as by chance they gaue him a froward answer in the Senate spake stoutely before them all and saide these words I am sorry you will not accept peace nor graunt Truce the which thing shall bee for the greater iustification of your warre For afterwardes none can take but that which fortune shall giue For in the end the delicate flesh of Rome shall feele if the bloudy swords of Brittaine will cut The English history sayeth and it is true that though the country be very cold that the water freezeth oft yet the women had a custome to carry theyr children where the water was frozen and breaking the Ice with a stone with the same Ise they vsed to rubbe the body of the Infant to the end to harden their flesh and to make them more apter to endure trauels And without doubt they had reason for I wish no greater pennance to delicate men then in the Winter to see them without fire and in the Summer to want fresh shadow Sith this was the custome of the Brittaines it is but reason we credite Iulius Caesar in that hee sayeth in his Comentaries that is to say that he passed many daungers before hee could ouercome them for they with as little feare did hide themselues diued vnder the colde water as verily a man would haue rested himselfe in a pleasant shadow As Lucanus and Appianus Alexandrinus say amongst other Nations which came to succour the greate Pompey in Pharsalia were the Messagetes the which as they say in their youth did suck no other but the milke of Camels and eate bread of akorns These barbarous people did these things to the end to harden their bodies to bee able to endure trauell to haue their legges lighter for to runne In this case wee cannot cal them barbarous but wee ought to call them men of good vnderstanding for it is vnpossible for the man that eateth much to runne fast Viriatus a Spaniard was King of the Lusitaines and a great enemy of the Romaines who was so aduenturous in the war and so valiant in his person that the Romaines by the experience of his deedes found him inuincible for in the space of 13. yeares they coulde neuer haue any victory of him the which when they saw they determined to poyson him did so indeed At whose death they more reioyced then if they had wonne the Sgniorie of all Lusitania For if Viriatus had not dyed they had neuer brought the Lusitanians vnder their subiection Iunius Rusticus in his Epitomie sayeth that this Viriatus in his youth was a Heard-man kept cattell by the riuer of Guadiana and after that he waxed older vsed to robbe and assault men by
more sure when by white hayres they seemed to bee olde when they retired to the Aultars of the Temples Oh what goodnesse Oh what wisedome what valiantnesse and what innocencie ought the aged men to haue in the auncient time since in Rome they honoured them as Gods and in Greece they priuiledged those whyte haires as the temples Plinie in an Epistle he wrote to Fabarus saith that Pyrrus king of the Epyrotes demaunded of a phylosopher which was the best citie of the world who aunswered him thus The best Citie of the world is Molerda a place of three hundreth Fyres in Achaia because all the walles are of blacke stones and all those which gouerne haue hoary heads And further he saide Woe bee vnto thee Rome Woe be vnto thee Carthage Woe be vnto thee Numantia Wo be vnto thee Egipt and woe bee vnto thee Athens Fyue Cittyes which count themselues for the best of the Worlde whereof I am of a contrary opinion For they auaunte themselues to haue whyte Walles and are not ashamed to haue young Senatours This phylosopher saide very well and I thinke no man will say lesse then I haue saide Of this word Senex is deriued the name of a Senatour For so were the gouernours of Rome named because the first King that was Romulus chose an hundred aged men to gouerne the Common-wealth and commaunded that all the Romane youth should employ themselues to the warres Since wee haue spoken of the honour which in the old time was giuen to the auncient men it is reason wee know now from what yeares they accounted men aged to the end they should reuerently bee honoured as aged men For the makers of lawes when they hadde established the honours which ought to be done to the Aged did as well ordain from what day and yeare they should beginne Diuers auncient phylosophers did put six ages from the time of the birth of man vntill the houre of his death That is to say Childe-hood which lasteth vntill seuen yeares Infancie which lasteth vntill seuenteene yeares Youth which continueth till thirtie yeares Mans estate which remaineth till fiftie and fiue yeares Age which endureth till three-score and eighteene yeares Then last of all Crooked-age which remaineth till death And so after man had passed fiue and fifty yeares they called him aged Aulus Gelius in his tenth booke in the 27 Chapter sayth that Fuluius Hostilius who was King of the Romanes determined to count all the olde and yong which were amongst the people and also to know which should be called Infants which yong and which old And there was no little difference among the Romane Philosophers and in the end it was decreed by the King and the Senate that men till seuenteene years should bee called Infants and till sixe forty should be called young and from sixe and forty vpwards they should be called olde If wee will obserue the Law of the Romanes wee know from what time we are bound to call and honor the aged men But adding hereunto it is reason that the olde men know to what prowesses and vertues they are bound to the end that with reason and not with fainting they bee serued for speaking the truth if wee compare duty to duty the olde men are more bound to vertue then the young to seruice Wee cannot deny but that all states of Nations great small young and old are bound to bee vertuous but in this case the one is more to bee blamed then the other For oftentimes if the young men doe offend it is for that hee wanteth experience but if the old man offend it is for the aboundance of malice Seneca in an Epistle sayde these words I let thee know my friend Lucillus that l am very much offended and I doe complaine not of any friend or foe but of my selfe and none other And the reason why I thinke this is that I see my selfe old in vices so little is that wherein I haue serued the Gods and much lesse is that I haue profited him And Seneca sayeth further Hee which prayseth himselfe most to bee aged and that would bee honoured for being aged ought to bee temperate in eating honest in appartell sober in drinking soft in words wise in counsell and to conclude he ought to be very patient in aduersity and far from vices which attempt him Worthy of prayse is the greate Seneca for those wordes but more worthy shall the olde men if they wil conforme their workes according to these words For if wee see them for to abandon vices and giue themselus to vertues we will both serue them and honour them CHAP. XVIII That Princes when they are aged should be temperate in eating sober in drinking modest in apparrell and aboue all true in communication IT is consonant to the counsell of Seneca that the aged should bee temperate in eating which they ought to doe not onely for the reputation of their persons but also for the preseruation of theyr liues For the olde men which are drunke and amorous are persecuted with their owne diseases and are defamed by the tongues of other That which the ancient men should eate I meane those which are noble and vertuous ought to bee very cleane and well dressed and aboue all that they doe take it in season time for otherwise too much eating of diuers things causeth the young to bee sicke and enforceth the olde to die Young men though they eate dishonestly very hastily and eate speaking we can doe no lesse but dissemble with them but the olde men which eate much and hastily of necessitie we ought to reproue them For men of Honour ought to eate at table with a great grauitie as if they were in any counsell to determine causes It is not mine intention to perswade the feeble olde men not to eate but onely to admonish them to eate no more then is necessarie We doe not prohibite them to eate delicate things but to beware of superfluous things We doe not counsell them to leaue eating hauing need but to withdraw themselues from curiositie For though it bee lawfull for aged men to eate sufficient it is not honest for them to eate to ouercome theyr stomacks It is a shame to write it but more shame ought they to haue which doe it which is that the goods which they haue wonne and inherited by their predecessours they haue eaten and drunken so that they haue neyther bought House not vyne nor yet marryed any Daughter but they are naked and their poore children goe to the Tauernes and Innes and the miserable Fathers to the Hospitalles and Churches When any man commeth to pouertie for that his house is burned or his shippe drowned or that they haue taken all from him by Lawe or that hee hath spent it in pleading against his enemies or any other in conueniēce is come vnto him me thinketh we are all bound to succor him and the hart hath cōpassion to behold him
but he that spendeth it in Apparel not requisite to seeke delitious Wines and to eate delicate meates To such a one I would say that the pouertie which he suffereth is not sufficient for his deserts For of all troubles there is none so great as to see a man suffer the euil whereof hee himselfe hath bin the occasion Also according to the counsell of Seneca the Auncients ought to be wel aduertised in that they should not only be temperate in eating but likewise they should be sober in drinking and this both for the preseruation of theyr health as also for the reputation of their honestie For if the olde physitians doe not deceyue vs humaine bodyes doe drye and corrupt because they drinke superfluously and eate more then Nature requireth If I should say vnto the olde men that they should drinke no wine they might tell mee that it is not the counsell of a Christian But presuppose they ought to drinke and that for no opinion they should leaue it yet I admonish exhorte and desire them that they drinke little and that they drinke very temperate For the disordinate and immeasurate drinking causeth the young men to be drunke and the olde men both drunke and foolish Oh howe much authoritie lost they and what grauitie doe honorable and ancient men lose which in drinking are not sober Which seemeth to be true forasmuch as the man being loden with wine although he were the wisest in the world he should bee a very foole that would take counsel of such one in his affaires Plutarche in a booke which he made of the Fortunes of the Romaines saied that in the Senate of Rome there was an Auncient man who made great exclametions that a certaine young man hadde in such heinous sort dishonoured him that for the iniuryes hee had spoken he deserued death And when the yong man was called for to answere to that he had said vnto him he answered Fathers conscript though I seeme young vnto you yet I am not so young but that I knew the Father of this olde man who was a vertuous and noble Romane and somewhat a kinne to mee And I seeing that his Father had gotten much goods fighting in the warres and also seeing this oldeman spending them in eating and drinking I sayde vnto him one day I am very sorry my Lord and vncle for that I heare of thy honour in the market place and am the more sorry for that I see done in thy house wherein we saw fifty men armed before in our houre and now wee see a hundred knaues made drunke And worse then that as thy Father shewed to all those that entered into his house the Ensignes hee had wonne in the Warres so now to those that enter into thy house thou shewest them diuers sorts of Wines My vncle complayned of mee but in this case I make the Plaintife iudge against mee the defendant And I would by the immortall Gods hee deserued no more paine for his workes then I deserue by my words For if hee had been wise he would haue accepted the correction which secretely I gaue him and had not come openly to declare his faults in the Senate The complaint of the old man being heard by the Senate and the excuse in like manner of the yong-man they gaue iudgement that they should take all the goods from the olde man and prouide him of a Tutour which should gouerne him and his house And they commaunded the Tutour That from hence forward hee should not giue him one cuppe of Wine since hee was noted of drunkennesse Of truth the sentence which the Senate gaue was very iust For the olde man which giueth himselfe to wine hath as much neede to haue a Gouernour as an Infant or a foole Laertius made a booke of the Feasts of Philosophers and declareth sundry auncient banquets among the which hee putteth one where were assembled many great Philosophers And admit that the meates were meane and simple yet the bidden guests were sage And the cause why they did assemble was not to eate but to dispute of some graue doctrines whereof the Philosophers did somewhat doubt For in those dayes the greater the Stoyckes and the Peripatetikes were in number so much the more were the Philosophers diuided amongst themselues When they were so assembled truly they did not eate nor drinke out of measure but some pleasant matter was moued betweene the masters and the schollers betweene the young and the olde that is to say which of them could declare any secret of Philosophy or any profounde sentence O happy were such feasts and no lesse happy were they that thether were bidden But I am sorry that those which now bidde and those that are bidden for a truth are not as those Ancients were For there are no feastes now a dayes of Philosophers but of gluttons not to dispute but for to murmure not to open doubtfull things but to talke of the vices of others not to confirme auncient amities but to beginne new dissentions not to learne any doctrines but to approue some nouelty And that which worst of all is the old striue at the table with the yong not on him which hath spoken the most grauest sentence but of him which hath drunke most wine and hath rinsed most cups Paulus Diaconus in the history of the Lumbards declareth that foure olde Lumbards made a banquet in the which the one dranke to the others yeares and it was in this manner They made defyance to drinke two to two and after each man had declared how many yeares olde hee was the one dranke as many times as the other was yeeres olde and likewise his companion pledged him And one of these foure companions had at the least 58. yeares the second 63 the third 87. the fourth 92. so that a man knoweth not what they did eate in this banquet eyther little or much but wee know that hee that dranke least dranke 58. cups of wine Of this so euill custome came the Gothes to make this Law which of many is read and of a few vnderstood where it sayeth We ordaine and commaund on paine of death that no olde man drinke to the others yeares being at the table That was made because they were so much giuen to Wine that they dranke more oft then they did eate morsels The Princes and great lords which now are old ought to be very sober in drinking since they ought greatly to be regarded honoured of the yong For speaking the truth and with liberty when the olde man shall be ouercome with wine hee hath more necessity that the young man leade him by the arme to his house then that hee should take off his cappe vnto him with reuerence Also Princes and great Lordes ought to bee very circumspect that when they become aged they bee not noted for young in the apparrel which they weare For although hat for wearing a fine and riche garment the Prince
banishment I did helpe him with money and moreouer he was banished another time for the lightnes hee did commit in the night in the Citie and I maruell not hereof For we see by experience that Olde men which are fleshed in vices are more obstinate to correct then the young Oh what euill fortune haue the old men which haue suffered themselues to waxe olde in vice For more dangerous is the fire in an old house then in a newe and a great cut of a sword is not so perillous as a rotten Fistula Though olde men were not honest and vertuous for the seruice of the Gods and the commonwealth for the saying of the people nor for the example of the young yet he ought to bee honest if it were but for the reuerence of their yeares If the poore old man haue no teeth how shall he eate If he haue no heate in his stomacke how can he disgest If hee haue no taste how can he drinke if he be not strong how can hee be an adulterer if he haue no feet how can he goe if he haue the palsey how can he speake if he haue the gowte in his hands how can he play Finally such like worldly vicious men haue employed their forces being young desirous to proue al these vices and when they are old it grieueth thē extreamly that they cānot acomplish their desire Amongst all these faultes in olde men in myne opinion this is the chiefest that since they haue proued all things that they should still remaine in theyr obstinate follie There is no parte but they haue trauelled no villanie but they haue essayed no Fortune but they haue proued no good but they haue persecuted no euill but hath chanced vnto them nor there is any wickednes but they haue attēpted These vnhappie men which in this sort haue spent all their youth haue in the ende theyr combes cut with infirmities and diseases yet they are not so much grieued with the vices which in them doe abound to hinder them from vertues as they are tormented for want of corporall courage to further them in their lustes Oh if wee were Gods or that they would giue vs licence to knowe the thoughtes of the olde as wee see with our eyes the deedes of the young I sweare to the God Mars and also to the Mother Berecynthia that without comparison wee would punish more the wicked desires which the aged haue to be wicked then the light deedes of the young Tell mee Claude and Claudine doe you thinke though you behaue your selues as young you shall not seme to be olde Knowe you not that our nature is the corruption of our bodie and that our bodie hindereth our vnderstandings and that the vnderstandings are kept of our soule and that our soule is the mother of desires and that our desires are the scourge of our youth and that our youth is the ensigne of our age and age the spye of death and that death in the end is the house where life taketh his harbor from whēce youth flyeth a foot frō whence age cānot escape a horseback I would reioyce that you Claude and Claudine would but tell mee what you finde in this life that so much therwith you should be contented since no we you haue passed foure-score yeares of life during the which time either you haue bin wicked in the worlde or else you haue bin good If you haue bin good you ought to thinke it long vntill you bee with the good Gods if you haue bin euill it is iust you dye to the ende you be no worse For speaking the truth those which in threescore and ten yeares haue bin wicked in workes leaue small hope of their amendment of life Adrian my Lord beeing at Nola in Campania one brought vnto him a nephew of his from the studie whereas the yong childe had not profited a little for hee became a great Grecian and Latinist and moreouer hee was faire gratious and honest And this Emperour Adrian loued his Nephew so much that he saide vnto him these wordes My Nephewe I knowe not whether I ought to say vnto thee that thou art good or euill For if thou be euill life shall be euill employed on thee and if thou be good thou oughtest to dye immediately and because I am worse then all I liue longer then all These words which Adrian my Lord said doe plainly declare and expresse that in short space the pale and cruell death doth assault the good and lengtheneth life a great while to the euill The opinion of a phylosopher was that the gods are so profound in their secrets high in their mysteries and so iust in their works that to men which least profite the commonwealth they lengthen life longest and though he had not saide it we others see it by experience For the man which is good and that beareth great zeale friendship to the Commonwealth eyther the Gods take him from vs or the Enemyes doe slay him or the daungers doe cast him away or the trauells doe finish him When the great Pompeyus and Iulius Caesar became enemyes and from that enmitie came to cruell warres the Gronicles of the time declare that the kings and people of the occidental part became in he fauour of Iulius Caesar and the mightiest and most puissant of al the oriental parts came in the ayde of great Pompeius because these two Princes were loued of a few and serued and feared of all Amongst the diuersity and sundry nations of people which came out of the Orientall part into the hoast of the great Pompeius one nation came maruellous and cruell barbarous which sayde they dwelled on the other side of the mountaine Riphees which goe vnto India And these Barbarians had a Custome not to liue no longer then fifty yeares and therefore when they came to that age they made a greater fire and were burned therin aliue and of their owne wils they sacrificed themselues to the Gods Let no man be astonied at that we haue spoken but rather let them maruell of that wee will speake that is to say that the same day any man had accōplished fifty yeares immediately hee cast himselfe quicke into the fire and his friends made a great feast And the feast was that they did eate the flesh of the dead halfe burned and dranke in wine and water the ashes of his bones so that the stomacke of the childrē being aliue was the graue of the Fathers being dead All this that I haue spoken with my tongue Pompeius hath seene with his eyes for that some being in the camp did accomplish fifty yeares and because the case was strange hee declared it oft in the Senate Let euery man iudge in this case what he will and condemne the barbarians at his pleasure yet I will not cease to say what I thinke O golden world which had such men O blessed people of whom in the World to ome shall be
which we are ignorant we haue no paine to attaine vnto them and lesse griefe also to lose them My intention to tell thee this was because that I knew that which I would not haue knowne and haue heard that which I would not haue heard that is to say that the dayes and troubles of Claudinus thy husband are ended and now thy sorrowes Lauinia his wife doe beginne It is now a good while that I haue known of the death of the good Claudinus my friend and thy husband though I did dissemble it And by the God Mars I sweare vnto thee that it was not for that I would not bewaile him but because I would not discomfort thee For it were extreame cruelty that shee which was so comfortlesse and sorrowfull for the absence of so long time should bee killed with my hand through the knowledge of the death of her so desired husband It were too vnkind and vnseemely a thing that shee of whom I haue receyued so many good works should receiue of me so euill newes The auncients of Carthage held for an inuiolable Law that if the Father did tell the death of his sonne or the sonne the death of the Father or the woman the death of her husband or the husband the death of his wife or any other semblable wofull and lamentable death that he should bee cast into the prison among them which were condemned to die It seemed to those of Carthage that he which sayde vnto another that his brother kinsman or friend was dead immediately they should kill him or hee ought to dye or at the least hee should neuer bee seene in his presence If in this case the Law of the Carthaginians was inst then I ought to be excused though I haue not told this heauie newes For as oft as we see him who hath brought vs any euill tidinges our sorrowes by his sight is renewed againe Since Claudinus thy Husband dyed I haue not had one houre of rest for to passe the time away for feare least such woefull and sorrowfull newes should come to thy knowledge But now that I know that thou knowest it I feele double paine For now I feele his death my care and thy want of consolation and the dammage by his death shall followe the Romaine Empire Thou hast lost a noble Romaine valiaunt in bloud moderate in prosperities pacient in aduersities couragious in daungers diligent in affaires wise in counsels faithful to his friends subtill and wary of his Enemyes a louer of the common-wealth and very honest in his person and aboue all and wherof I haue most enuie is that hee neuer offended man in his life nor hurt any with his tongue We finde seldome times so many vertues assembled in one man For saying the truth if a man doe narrowly examine the vices of manie which presume to be very vertuous I sweare that he should finde more to reproue then to praise Since thou hast lost so good a Husband and I so faithfull a Friend wee are bound thou to bewaile so great a losse and I to sigh for so good a companion And this I do not desire for Claudine who now resteth among the Gods but for vs others which remaine in daunger of so many euills For the dead doe rest as in the sure Hauen and we others doe faile as yet in raging Sea O thou heauy heart how doe I see thee betweene the Bell and the clappers that is to say that thou wantest the companie of the good and art enuironned with the flocke of euill For the which occasion I doubt often times whether I may first bewaile the euill which liue or the good which are dead because in the ende the euill men do offend vs more which we finde then doth the good men which we loose It is a great pittie to see the good and vertuous men dye but I take it to be more sorrow to see the euill and vitious men liue As the diuine Plato sayeth the gods to kill the good which serue them and to giue long life to the euill which offend them is a mysterie so profound that daily wee doe lament it and yet wee can neuer attayne to the secretes thereof Tell me I pray thee Lauinia knowest thou not now that the Gods are so mercifull with whom we go when we dye and that men are so wicked with whom we be whiles we liue that as the euill were borne to dye so the good dye to liue For the good man though hee dye liueth and the euill man though he liue dyeth I sweare vnto thee by the Mother Berecynthia and so the God Iupiter do preserue mee that I speake not this which I will speake fainedly which is that considering the rest that the dead haue with the Gods and seeing the sorrowes and troubles wee haue here with the liuing I say and affirme once againe that they haue greater compassion of our life then wee others haue of their death Though the death of men were as the death of beasts that is to say that ther were no Furyes nor diuels which should torment the euill and that the Gods should not rewarde the good yet wee ought to be comforted to see our friends die if it were for no other but to see them deliuered from the thraldome of this world The pleasure that the Pilot hath to bee in sure Hauen the glorie that the captaine hath to see the day of victorie the rest that the Traueller hath to see his journey ended the contentation that the workeman hath to see his work come to perfection all the same haue the dead seeing themselues out of this miserable life If men were borne alway to liue it were reason to lament them when we see them dye but since it is true that they are borne to dye I would say since needes dye wee must that wee ought not to lament those which dye quickly but those which liue long I am assured that Clandine thy Husband remembring that which in this life hee hath passed and suffered and seeing the rest that hee hath in the other though the Gods would make him Emperour of Rome he would not be one day out of his graue For returning to the worlde hee should dye againe but being with the Gods hee hopeth to liue perpetually Ladie Lauinia most earnestly I desire thee so vchemently not to pierce the heauens with thy so heauie sighes nor yet to wette the earth with thy so bitter teares since thou knowest that Claudine thy husband is in place where there is no sorrowe but mirth where there is no paine but rest where hee weepeth not but laugheth where hee sigheth not but singeth where he hath no sorrowes but pleasures where hee feareth not cruell death but enioyeth perpetuall life Since therefore this is true it is but reason the widdow appease her anguish considering that her husband endureth no paine Oftentimes with my selfe I haue thought what the Wddowes ought to imagine
and so curious to buye that that which hee taketh shall be of great measure and that which hee selleth vs shal want much weight CHAP. XLI ¶ Of a Letter which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius wrote vnto his friend Torquatus to comfort him in his banishment which is notable for all men to learne the vanities of this World MArcus Emperour of Rome companion in the Empire with his Brother Annius Verus to thee Torquatus of the citie of Gaietta wisheth all health to thy person and strength against thy euill Fortunes I beeing in the Temple of the Vestall virgines about three moneth since I receyued a Letter of thine the which was in such sorte that neyther mine eyes for that time could make an ende to read it or since I haue had the heart to answer it For in the incoÌ„nueniences of our friends if we haue no facultie nor might for to remedie it at the least we are bound to bewayle it Thy sorrow maketh me so heauie thy paine doeth trouble mee so much I am so carefull of thy anguish so tormented with thy griefe that if the Gods had giuen power to wofull men to imparte theyr sorrowes as they haue giuen to rich men to imparte their goods by the faith I owe to God I sweare that as I am the greatest of thy Friendes I would bee hee which should take the most parte of thy griefes I know right well and as well as he that hath proued it that asmuch difference as there is betweene the baâ—ke and the tree the marow and the bone the corne and the straw the gold and the drosse the trueth and the dreams so much is there to heare the Trauells of another and to taste his own Notwithstanding comfort thy selfe my friend Torquatus for where the friends bee true the goods and the euills are common betwixt them Oftentimes with my selfe I haue maruelled to what ende or intention the immortall Gods haue giuen Trauell and torments to men since it is in their powers to make vs liue without them I see no other thing why the mishaps ought paciently to bee suffered but because in those wee know who are our faithfull friendes In battell the valiant man is knowne in tempestuous weather the Pylot is known by the Touch-stone the gold is tryed and in aduersitie the true Friende is knowne For my friende doth not enough to make me merrie vnles also he doth take part of my sorrow I haue heard say here and now by thy letter I haue seene how they haue banished thee from Rome and confiscated thy goods and that for pure sorow thou art sicke in thy bed wherof I maruel not that thou art sicke but to be as thou art aliue For saying to thee the Trueth where the heart is sore wounded in shorte space it hath accustomed to yeelde vp vnto the bodie I see well that thou complaynest and thou hast reason to complain to see thy selfe banished from Rome and thy goods confiscate to see thy selfe out of thy countrey without any parentage yet therfore thy sorrowes ought not to be so extreame that thou shouldst put thy life in hazzard For hee alone ought to haue licence and also is bounde to hate life which doeth not remember that hee hath serued the Gods nor hath done any profite to men If the affayres of the Empire did not occupie me and the Emperiall Maiestie did not withdraw me I would immediately haue come to comforte thy person where thou shouldest haue seen by experience with what griefe I feele thy troubles And therefore if thou takest mee for thy friende thou oughtest to belieue of mee that which in this case I would of thee which is that as thou hast been the most entier Friend which I had in Rome So is this the thing that most I haue felt in this life Tell me my friend Torquatus what is it thou sufferest there that I do not lament here It may be that sometime thou laughest but I alwayes weepe sometimes thou comfortest thy selfe but I am alwayes sad It may be that thou lightnest thy paine but I am in sighing It may bee that sometimes thou castest from thee sorrow but for mee I cannot receyue consolation It may bee that thou hopest remedie of long life but for mee I finde no remedie more healthfull then present death Finally I say that here I feele all that thou feelest there and furthermore I suffer all that which as a friend I ought to suffer here so that both our paynes are made one moste cruell sorrowe wherewith my woefull life is tormented I would greatly desire to come and see thee and to help to disburden thee of this charge And since it is vnpossible that thou shalt finde some comfortable wordes For thou knowest that if the true Friendes cannot doe that which they ought yet they doe accomplish it in doing that they can If my memory deceyue me not it is well two and thirty yeares since we two haue known together in Rome during the which Fortune hath made here betweene vs diuers alterations in the which time I neuer saw thee one day contented For if thou were sad nothing did make thee merrie but wert as a man without taste and if thou were ioyfull thou esteemedst it little as a man being troubled Therefore if the trueth be so as indeed it is that in trauells thou were loden with sorrows and in prosperities thou wert euill content so that of nothing in the world thou takest any taste why is it my friend Torquatus that now again thou art in despaire as if thou camest new into this world Thou didst reioyce thy selfe xxxii yeares with the Triumphes and prosperitie of Rome and thou complainest onely of three moneths that Fortune hath been contrary vnto thee O Torquatus Torquatus dost thou knowe that the wise men in whome wisedome raigneth haue more feare of two vnhappie dayes in this life then of two hundreth of prosperous Fortune Oh how many haue I seene go out of their prosperities with the charges of another man and theyr owne proper vices so that the vaine-glory and the fayling prosperities endured fewe dayes but the griefe of that they haue lost and the enmities which they haue recouered endure many yeares The contrary of all this commeth to vnfortunate men which escape out of their tribulations spoyled of vices enuironed with vertues persecutors of euills zealous of good friends of all and enemyes of none contented with theirs and not desiring others Finally they are escaped wisely from the snare and haue gathered the Rose not hurting themselues with the prickes What wilt thou that I say more vnto thee but that the most Fortunate ate vanquished in peace and the vnfortunate are conquerors in warre One of the Sentences which moste haue contented me of those which the Auncients haue spoken is this of the diuine Plato That those which are in prosperity haue no lesse need of good counsell then the vnhappy haue of remedie For
and trauells considered wherein wee liue and the safetie wherein wee dye I say that it is more needefull to haue vertue and strength to liue then courage to dye The Authour hereof is Plutarch in his Apothegmes Wee cannot say but that Cato the Censor spake as a wise man since daylie we see shamefast and vertuous persons suffer hunger cold thyrst trauell pouerty inconuenience sorrows enmities and mishaps of the which things wee were better to see the ende in one day then to suffer them euery houre For it is lesse euill to suffer an honest death then to endure a miserable life Oh how small consideration haue men to thinke that they ought to dye but once Since the truth is that the day when wee are born and come inthis worlde is the beginning of our death and the last day is when we do cease to liue If death bee no other but an ending of life then reason perswadeth vs to thinke that our infancie dyeth our childhood dyeth our manhoode dyeth and our Age shall dye wherof we may consequently cōclude that we dye euery yeare euery day euery houre and euery moment So that thinking to leade a sure life we taste a new death I know not why men feare so much to dye since that from the time of their birth they seeke none other thing but death For time neuer wanteth for any man to dye neyther I knew any man that euer fayled of this way Seneca in an Epistle declareth that as a Romaine Woman lamented the death of a Childe of hers a Phylosopher saide vnto her Woman why bewaylest thou thy childe She aunswered I weepe because hee hath liued xxv yeares and I would he should haue liued till fiftie For amongst vs mothers wee loue our Children so hartily that we neuer cease to behold them nor yet ende to bewaile them Then the Phylosopher said Tell me I pray thee woman Why doest thou not complame of the Gods because they created not thy Sonne manie yeares before he was borne as well as thou complavnest that they haue not let him liue fiftie yeares Thou weepest that hee is deade so soone and thou dost not lament that he is borne so late I tell thee true Woman that as thou doest not lament for the one no more thou oughrest to bee sorrie for the other For without the determination of the Gods we cannot shorten death and much lesse lengthen our life So Plinie saide in an Epistle that the chiefest law which the Gods haue giuen vnto humane nature was that none shold haue perpactual life For with dis-ordinate desire to liue long wee should reioyce to goe out of this paine Two Phylosophers disputing before the great Emperor Theodose the one saide that it was good to procure death and the other likewise sayde it was a necessary thing to hate life The good Theodose taking him by the hand sayd All wee mortalles are so extreame in hating and louing that vnder the colour to loue and hate life wee leade an euill life For we suffer so many trauells for to preserue it that sometimes it were much better to loose it And further hee sayde Diuers vaine men are come into so great follyes that for feare of Death they procure to hasten death And hauiwg consideration to this me seemeth that wee ought not greatly to loue life nor with desperation to seeke Death For the strong and valiant men ought not to hate Life so long as it lasteth nor to bee displeased with death when hee commeth All commended that which the Emperour Theodose spake as Paulus Dyacon saith in his life Let euery man speake what he will and let the Phylosophers counsell what they lift in my poore iudgment hee alone shall receyue death without paine who long before is prepared to receyue the same For sudden death is not onely bitter vnto him which tasteth it but also it seareth him that hateth it Lactantius saide that in such sorte man ought to liue as if from hence an houre after he should dye For those men which will haue Death before their eyes it is vnpossible that they should giue place to vaine thoughts In my opinion and also by the aduise of Apuleius It is as much follie to flie from that which we cannot auoyd as to desire that wee can not attaine And this is only spoken for those that would flye the voyage of death which is necessarie and desire to come againe which is vnpossible Those that trauell by long wayes if they want any thing they borrow it of their companie If they haue forgotten ought they returne to seeke it at their lodging or else they write vnto their friends a letter But I am sorrie that if wee once dye they will not let vs returne again we cannot speake and they will not agree we shall write but such as they shall finde vs so shall wee bee iudged And that which is most fearfull of all the execution and sentence is giuen in one day Let Noble Princes and great Lords beleeue mee in this Let them not leaue that vndone til after their death which they may doe during their life And let them not trust in that they commaund but in that whiles they liue they doe Let them not trust in the workes of an other but in theyr owne good deedes For in the end one sigh shall be more worth then all the friendes of the world I counsell pray and exhort all wise and vertuous men and also my selfe with them that in such a sort wee liue that at the houre of death wee may say we liue For wee cannot say that wee liue when we liue not well For all that time which without profite wee shall liue shall be counted vnto vs for nothing CHAP. XLIX ¶ Of the death of Marcus Aurelius the Emperour and how there are fewe Friendes which dare say the truth to sicke men THe good Emperor Marcus Aurelius now beeing aged not onely for the yeares he had but also for the great trauells hee had in the warres endured It chaunced that in the xviii yeare of his Empire and lxxij yeares from the day of his birth and of the foundation of Rome fiue hundreth xliii beeing in the warre of Pannonie which at this time is called Hungaria besieging a famous cittie called Vendeliona suddenly a disease of the palsey tooke him which was such that hee lost his life and Rome her Prince the best of life that euer was borne therein Among the Heathen princes some had more force then he others possessed more riches then hee others were as aduenturous as hee and some haue knowne as much as hee but none hath bin of so excellent and vertuous a life nor so modest as hee For his life being examined to the vttermost ther are many princely vertues to follow and fewe vices to reproue The occasion of his death was that that in going one Night about his Campe suddenly the disease of the palsey tooke him in
faithfull friend about them to helpe them to passe that paine And not without a cause I say that he ought to be a faithfull friend For many in our life do gape after our goods few at our deaths are sory for our offences The wise and sage men before nature compelleth them to die of their owne will ought to die That is to say that before they see themselues in the pangs of death they haue their consciences ready prepared For if we count him a foole which wil passe the sea without a ship truely we will not count him wise which taketh his death without any preparation before What losest a wisest man to haue his will well ordained in what aduenuenture of honour is any man before death to reconcile himselfe to his enemies and to those whom he hath borne hate and malice What loseth he of his credite who in his life time restoreth that which at his death they will command him to render wherein may a man shew himselfe to bee more wise then when willingly hee hath discharged that which afterwards by processe they will take from him O how many Princes and great Lords are there which onely not for spending one day about their testament haue caused their children and heires all the dayes of their life to bee in trauerse in the Law So that they supposing to haue left their children wealthy haue not left them but for Atturneyes and Counsellers of the law The true and vnfained Christian ought euery morning so to dispose his goods and correct life as if he shold dye the same night And at night in like manner he ought to commit himselfe to GOD as if he hoped for no life vntill morning For to say the truth to sustaine life there are infinite trauels but to meete with death there is but one way If they will credite my wordes I would coūsell no man in such estate to liue that for any thing in the worlde he should vndoe himselfe The Riche and the poore the great and the smal the Gentlemen and the Plebeyans all say and sweare that of death they are exceeding fearefull To whome I say and affirm that he alone feareth death in whome we see amendment of life Princes and great Lords ought also to be perfect to ende before they ende to dye before they die and to be mortified before they bee mortified If they doe this with themselues they shall as easily leaue their life as if they channged from one house to another For the most parte of men delight to talke with leysure to drinke with leysure to eate with leysure and to sleepe with leysure but they die in haste Not without cause I say they die in haste since wee see them receiue the sacrament of the Supper of the Lord in haste male their willes by force and with speede to confesse and receyue So that they take it and demaund it so late and so without reason that often times they haue loste their Sences and are readie to giue vp the spirite when they bring it vnto them What auaileth the Ship-master after the ship is sunke what doe weapons after the battell is lost What auaileth pleasures after men are dead By this which I haue spoken I will demaund what it auayleth the sicke being heauie with sleepe and berefte of their sences to call for Confessors vnto whome they confesse their sinnes Euill shall hee bee confessed which hath no vnderstanding to repent himselfe What auaileth it to call the confessor to vnderstand the secrets of his Conscience when the sicke man hath lost his speech Let vs not deceyue our selues saying in our age we will amend hereafter and make restitution at our death For in mine opinion it is not the poynt of wise men nor of good Christiās to desire so much time to offend and they will not espie any to amend Would to GOD that the third parte of the precious time which men occupie in sinne were employed about the meditations of Death and the cares which they haue to accomplish their Fleshly lusts were spent in bewayling their filthie sinnes I am very sorrie with my heart that they so wickedly spend and passe their-life in vices and pleasures as if there were no GOD vnto whom they shold render account for their offences All worldlings willingly doe sinne vpon a vaine hope onely in Age to amend and at death to repent But I would demaund him that in this hope sinned what certainty he hath in age of amendment and what assurance he hath to haue long warning before hee die Since we see by experience there are moe in number which dye young then olde it is no reason wee should commit so many sinnes in one day as that wee should haue cause to lament afterwards all the rest of our life And afterwards to bewayle the sins of our long life we desire no more but one space of an houre Considering the the Omnipotencie of the Diuine mercie it sufficeth yea and I say that the space of an houreis to much to repent vs of our wicked life but I would counsel all since the sinner for to repent taketh but one houre that that be not the last houre For the sighes and repentance which proceed from the bottome of the heart penetrate the high Heauens but those which come of necessity doeth not pierce the bare seeling of the House I allow and commende that those which visit◠the sick do counsell them to examin their consciences to receiue the Communion to pray vnto GOD to forgiue their enemyes and to recommend themselues to the deuoute prayers of the people and to repent them of their sinnes Finally I say that it is very good to doe all this But yet I say it is better to haue done it before For the diligent and careful Pyrate prepareth for the Tempest when the Sea is calme Hee that deepely would consider how little the goods of this life are to be esteemed Let him go to see a rich man when hee dyeth and what he doeth in his bed And he shall finde that the wife demandeth of the poore husband her dowrie the Daughter the third parte the other the fifth the childe the preheminence of age the Sonne in law his Marriage the physition his duetie the Slaue his libertie the Seruaunts their wages the creditours their debtes and the worst of all is that none of those that ought to inherite his goods will giue him one glasse of water Those that shall heare or read this ought to consider that that which they haue seene done at the death of their neighbours the same shall come vnto them when they shall be sicke at the poynt of death For so soone as the Rich shutteth his eyes forthwith there is great strife betweene the children for his goods And this strife is not to vnburthen his soule but which of them shall inherite most of his possessions In this case I will not my pen trauell any
vs to a new builded Pallace And what other thing is the graue but a strong fort wherin we shut our selues from the assaults of life and broyles of fortune Truely wee ought to bee more desirous of that wee finde in death then of that wee haue in life If Helia Fabricia thy wife doe greeue thee for that thou leauest her yong doe not care for shee presently hath little care of the perill wherein thy life dependeth And in the end when she shall know of thy death shee will be nothing greeued Trouble not thy selfe for that she is left a widdow for yong women as shee is which are married to olde men as thou when their husbands die they haue their eyes on that they can robbe and their hearts on them whom they desire to marrie And speaking with due respect when with their eyes they outwardly seeme most for to bewayle then with their hearts inwardly doe they most reioyce Deceiue not thy selfe in thinkeing that the Empresse thy wife is yong and that she shall finde none other Emperor with whom again she may marrie For such and the like will change the cloth of gold for gownes of skinnes I meane that they would rather the young shepheard in the field then the olde Emperour in his royall pallace If thov takest sorrow for the children whom thou leauest I know not why thou shouldst do so For truely if it greeue thee now for that thou diest they are more displeased for that thou liuest The sonne that desireth not the death of his father may be counted the onely Phenix of this world for if the father bee poore he wisheth him dead for that he is not maintained and if hee rich he desireth his death to enherite the sooner Since therefore it is true as indeed it is it seemeth not wisedome that they sing and thou weepe If it greeue thee to leaue these goodly pallaces and these sumptuous buildings deceiue not thy selfe therein For by the god Iupiter I sweare vnto thee that since that death doth finish thee at the end of threescore and two yeeres time shall consume these sumptuous buildings in lesse then 40. If it greeue thee to forsake the company of thy friends and neighbors for them also take as little thought since for thee they will not take any at all For amongst the other compassions that they ought to haue of the dead this is true that scarcely they are buried but of their friends and neighbours they are forgotten If thou takest greatest thought for that thou wilt not die as the other Emperours of Rome are dead me seemeth that thou oughtest also to cast this sorrow from thee for thou knowest right well that Rome hath accustomed to bee so vnthankefull to those which serue her that the great Scipio also would not be buried therein If it greeue thee to die to leaue so great a Seignory as to leaue the Empire I cannot thinke that such vanity be in thy head for temperate and reposed men when they escape from semblable offices doe not thinke that they lose honour but that they be free of a trouble some charge Therefore if none of all these things moue thee to desire life what should let thee that throgh thy gates enter not death it greeueth men to dy for one of these two things either for the loue of those they leaue behinde them or for feare of that they hope Since therefore there is nothing in this life worthy of loue nor any thing in death why we should feare why doe men feare to die According to the heauy fighes thou fetchest the bitter teares thou sheddest and according also to that great paine thou shewest for my part I thinke that the thing in thy thought most forgotten was that the gods should commaund thee to pay this debt For admit that all thinke that their life shall end yet no man thinketh that death wil come so soon For that men think neuer to die they neuer begin their faults to amend so that both life and fault haue end in the graue together Knowest not thou most noble Prince that the long night commeth the middest morning Doest thou not know that after the moist morning there cometh the cleare Sun Knowest not thou that after the cleare Sun commeth the cloudy Element Doest thou not know that after the darke myst there commeth extreme heate And after the heate commeth the horrible thunders and after the thunders the sodaine lightnings and after the perilious lightnings commeth the terrible haile Finally I say that after the tempestuous and troublesome time commonly commeth cleare and faire weather The order that time hath to make himselfe cruell and gentle the selfe same ought men to haue to liue and die For after the infancy commeth childhood after childhood commeth youth after youth commeth age and after age commeth the feareful death Finally after that feareful death commeth the sure life Oftentimes I haue read and of thee not seldome heard that the gods onely which had no beginning shall haue also no ending Therefore mee thinketh most noble Prince that sage men ought not to desire to liue long Formen which desire to liue much either it is for that they haue not felt the trauels past because they haue bene fooles or for that they desire more time to giue themselues to vices Thou mightest not complaine of that since they haue not cut thee in the flower of the herbe nor taken thee greene from the tree nor cut thee in the spring tide and much lesse eate thee eager before thou wert ripe By that I haue spoken I meane if death had called thee when thy life was sweetest though thou hadst not had reason to haue complayned yet thou mightest haue desired to haue altered it For it is a greater griefe to say vnto a yong man that he must die and forsake the world What is this my Lord now that the wall is decaied ready to fall the flower is an hered the grape doth rot the teeth are loose the gowne is worne the lance is blunt the knife is dull and dost thou desire to returne into the world as if thou hadst neuer knowne the world These threescore and two yeeres thou hast liued in the proportion of this body and wilt thou now that the yron fetters haue rot thy legges desire yet to lengthen thy daies in this so wofull prison They that will not be contented to liue threescore yeeres and fiue in this death or to die in this life will not desire to liue threescore thousand yeeres The Emperour Augustus Octauian saide That alter men had liued fiftie yeeres either of their owne will they ought to dye or else by force they should cause themselues to bee killed For at that time all those which haue any humaine felicitie are at the best Those which liue aboue that age passe their daies in grieuous torments As in the death of children in the losse of goods and importunitie of
so straunge a Monster amongst the Romaine people Thou oughtst not therefore to maruell Panutius at the nouelties which thou hast seene in mee For in these three dayes that I haue been troubled in my minde and altered in my vnderstanding all these things are offered vnto me and from the bottome of my hart I haue digested them For the carefull men are not blinded but with their owne imaginations All these euill conditions which these Princes had scattred amongst them of whom I haue spoken doe meete together in my Sonne Commodus For if they were young he is young if they were rich hee is rich if they were free he is free if they were bold he is bolde if they were wilde he is wilde if they were euill certainely I doe not thinke that hee is good For wee see manie young Princes which haue beene well brought vp and well taught yet when they haue inherited and come to their Lands they become immediately vicious and dissolute What hope haue wee of those which from their infancie are dissolute and euill enclined Of good wine I haue made oft times strong vivineger but of pure vineger I haue neuer seene good wine This childe keepeth mee betweene the sailes of Feare and the Ancker of hope hoping he shall be good since I haue taught him well and fearing he shall be euill because his mother Faustine hath nourished him euill And that which is the worst that the yong childe of his owne nature is inclined to all euill I am moued to say thus much for that I see his naturall inclination increase and that which was taught him diminish For the which occasion I doubt that after my death my sonne shall returne to that wherin his mother hath nourished him and not to that wherein I haue taught him O how happy had I beene if neuer I had had childe or not to be bounde to leaue him the Empire For I would chuse then among the children of the good Fathers would not be bound to such a one whom the gods haue giuen me One thing I aske thee Panutius whom wouldest thou call most fortunate Vespatian which was naturall father of Domitius or Nerua the adopted father of the good Traiane both those two Vespatian and Nerua were good Princes but of children Domitian was the head of all mischiefe and Traiane was the mirrour of all goodnesse So that Vespatian in that he had children was vnhappy and Nerua in that hee had none was most fortunate One thing I will tell thee Panutius the which by thee considered thou wilt little esteeme life and shalt lose the feare of death I haue liued threescore and two yeares wherein I haue read much hard much seene desired attained possessed suffered and I haue much reioyced my selfe And in the end of all this I see my selfe now to die and I must want my pleasures and my selfe also Of all that I haue had possessed attained and whereof I haue enioied I haue only two things to say paine for that I haue offended the gods and sorrow for the time which I haue wasted in vices There is great difference between the rich and the poore in death and more in life For the poore dieth to iust but if the rich die it is to their treat paine So that the gods take from the one that which he had and putteth the other in possession of that he desired Great care hath the heart to seeke the goods and they passe great troubles to heape vp them together and great diligence must bee had in keeping them and also much wit to encrease them but without comparison it is greater griefe to depart from them O what paine intollerable and griefe it is to the wise man seeing himselfe at the point of death to leaue the sweet of his family the maiestie of his Empire the honour of his present the loue of his friends the payments of his debts the deserts of his seruants and the memory of his predecessors in the power of so euill a childe the which neither deserueth it nor yet will deserue it In the ninth Table of our auncient Lawes are written these words Wee ordaine and commaund that the father which shall be good according to the opinion of all may disherite his sonne who according to the opinion of all is euill The Law said further The childe which hath disobeyed his father robbed any holy Temple iniuried any widdow fled from any battle and committed any treason to a straunger that hee should bee banished from Rome and dsinherited from his fathers goods Truly the law was good thogh by our offences it bee forgotten If my breath faile mee not as it doth faile me for of troth I am greatly pained I would declare vnto thee how many Parthes Medians Egyptians Assirians Caldeans Indians Hebrewes Greekes and Romaines haue left their children poore beeing able to haue left them rich for no other cause but for that they were vitious And to the contrary other beeing poore haue left them rich for that they were vertuous By the immortall gods I sweare vnto thee that when they came from the warre of Parthia and triumphed in Rome and confirmed the Empire to my sonne if then the Senate had not withstood mee I had left Commodus my sonne poore with his vices wold haue made heir of all my Realmes some vertuous man I let thee know Panutius that fiue things oppresse my heart sore to the which I wold rather see remedy my selfe then to command other to remedie it The first for that in my life time I cannot determine the processes that the vertuous widdow Drusia hath with the Senate Because since she is poore and deformed there is no man that will giue her iustice The second because I die not in Rome And this for none other cause thē that which the sound of the trumpet should bee proclaimed that all those which haue any quarrel or debt against me and my family should come thither to be paid or satisfied of their debts and demands The third that as I made foure tyrants to bee put to execution which committed tiranny in Asia and Italy so it greeued mee that I haue not also punished certaine pirates which roued on the seas The fourth for that I haue not caused the temple to bee finished which I did beginne for all the gods For I might haue sayde vnto them after my death that since for all them I haue made one house it were not much that any of them shuld receiue one into his which passe this life in the fauour of the gods and without the hatred of men For dying after this sort men shall susteine our honours and the gods shall prouide for our soules The fifth for that I leaue in life for my onely heire Commodus the Prince yet not so much for the destruction which shall come to my house as for the great dammage which shall succeed in the commonwealth For the true
iustice but none do reioyce that they execute it in his house And therfore after the Prince endeth his life the people will take reuenge of those which haue beene ministers thereof It were great infamy to the Empire offence to the gods iniurie to mee vnthankefulnes to thee hauing found the armes of my seruants ready eighteene yeers that thy gates should be shut against them one day Keepe keepe these things my sonne in thy memory and since particularly I doe remember them at my death consider how heartily I loued them in my life CHAP. LVII The good Marcus Aurelius Emperour of Rome endeth his purpose and life And of the last words which he spake to his sonne Commodus and of the table of Counsels which he gaue him WHen the Emperor had ended his particular recommendations vnto his sonne Commodus as the dawning of the day beganne to appeare so his eyes beganne to close his tongue to faulter and his handes to tremble as it doth accustome to those which are at the point of death The Prince perceyuing then little life to remaine commaunded his Secretary Panutius to goe to the coffers of his bookes and to bring one of the coffers before his presence out of the which hee tooke a table of 3. foote of bredth and 2. of length the which was of Eban bordered all about with Vnicorne And it was closed with 2. lids very fine of red wood which they call rasing of a tree where the Phenix as they say breedeth which did grow in Arabia And as there is but one onely Phenix so in the world is there but one onely tree of that sort On the vttermost part of the Table was grauen the god Iupiter and on the other the goddesse Venus and in the other was drawne the god Mars and the goddesse Diana In the vppermost part of the table was carued a Bull and in the nethermost part was drawne a King And they sayde the painter of so famous and renowmed a worke was called Apelles The Emperour taking the Table in his handes casting his eyes vnto his Sonne said these words Thou seest my sonne how from the turmoyles of Fortune I haue escaped and how I into miserable destinies of death do enter where by experience I shall know what shall be after this life I meane not now to blaspheme the Gods but to repent my sinnes But I would willinglie declare why the Gods haue created vs since there is such trouble in life and paine in death Not vnderstanding why the Gods haue vsed so great crueltie with creatures I see it now in that after lxij yeares I haue sayled in the daunger and perill of this life now they commaund mee to land and harbour in the graue of death Now approcheth the houre wherein the band of Matrimonie is loosed the threede of Life vntwined the key doth locke the sleepe is wakened my life doth ende and I goe out of this troublesome paine Remembring mee of that I haue done in my life I desire no more to liue but for that I knowe not whether I am carryed by death I feare and refuse his darts Alas what shall I doe since the Gods tell mee not what I shall do What counsell shall I take of any man since no man will accompanie mee in this iourney Oh what great disceipt Oh what manifest blindnes is this to loue one thing all the dayes of our life and to cary nothing with vs after our death Because I desired to be rich they let me dye poore Because I desired to liue with companie they let me die alone For such shortnes of life I know not what hee is that will haue a house since the narrow graue is our certaine mansion place Belieue mee my sonne that manie things past doe grieue mee sore but with nothing so much I am troubled as to come so late to the knowledge of this life For if I could perfectly belieue this neyther should men haue cause to reproue me neyther yet I now such occasion to lament me Oh how certaine a thing is it that men when they come to the point of death doe promise the Gods that if they prerogue their death they will amend their life but notwithstanding I am sorry that we see them deliuered from death without any manner of amendment of life They haue obtained that which of the Gods they haue desired and haue not performed that which they haue prornised They ought assuredly to thinke that in the sweetest time of their life they shall be constrained to accept death For admit that the punishment of ingrate persons be deferred yet therefore the fault is not pardoned Be thou assured my Sonne that I haue seene ynough hearde selte tasted desired possessed eaten slept spoken and also liued ynough For vices giue as great troubles to those which follow them much as they do great desire to those which neuer proued them I confesse to the immortall Gods that I haue no desire to liue yet I ensure thee I would not die For life is so troublesome that it wearyeth vs and Death is so doubtfull that it feareth vs. If the Gods deferred my death I doubt whether I should reforme my life And if I do not amend my life nor serue the gods better nor profit the commonwealth more and if that euery time I am sick it should grieue mee to dye I say it is much better for mee now to accept death then to wish the lengthening of my life I say the life is so troublesom so fickle so suspicious so vucertaine and so importunate Finally I say it is a life without life that hee is an obstinate foole which so much desireth it Come that that may come for finally notwithstanding that I haue spoken I willingly commit selfe into the hands of the gods since of necessitie I am therunto constrained For it proceedeth not of a little wisedome to receiue that willingly which to doe wee are constrained of necessitie I will not recommend my selfe to the Priests nor cause the Oracles to be visited nor promise any thing to the temples nor offer sacrifices to the gods to the end they should warrant me from death and restore mee to life but I will demaund and require them that if they haue created mee for any good thing I may not lose it for my euill life So wise and sage are the gods in that they say so iust true in that they promise that if they giue vs not that which wee others would it is not for that they will not but because wee deserue it not for wee are so euill and worth so little and we may doe so little that for many good works wee deserue no merite and yet with and euill worke wee be made vnworthy of all Since therefore I haue put my selfe into the hands of the gods let them doe with me what they will for their seruice for in the end the worst that they will do is much better then
one meale a day but I saw him suppe many times in the night O diuine Plato if thou wert aliue as thou art dead and present with vs in this our pestilent age as thou werte then in that golden how many shouldest thou see that doe not onely dine and sup well but before dinner breake their fast with delicate meates and wines banket after dinner and supper also before they goe to bed So wee may say though Plato saw then but one Tyrant suppe hee might see now euery body both dine and suppe and scant one that contenteth him with one meale a day in which the brute beasts are more moderate then reasonable men Sith we see that they eate but so much as satisfieth them and are not contented to eate inough yea till they be full but more then nature will beare And brute beasts haue not also such diuersity of meates as men haue neyther seruants to wait on them beds to lye in wine to drinke houses to put their heads in money to spende nor Physitions to purge them as men haue And yet for all these commodities wee see men the most part of their time sicke And by these things recited we may perceyue that there is nothing preserueth so much the health of man as labour and nothing consumeth sooner then rest And therefore Plato in his time once spake a notable sentence and worthy to be had in minde and that is this That in that City where there are many Physitions it must needs follow of necessitie that the Inhabitāts there of are vicious and riotous persons And truly we haue good cause to carry this saying away sith wee see that Physitions commonly enter not into poore mens houses that trauell and exercise their body dayly but contrarily into the rich and wealthy mens houses which liue continually idely and at ease I remember I knew once a Gentleman a kinsman of mine and my very friend which hauing taken physicke I came to see how he did supposing hee had beene sicke and demaunding of him the cause of his purgation he tolde mee hee tooke it not for any sicknesse hee had but onely to make him haue a better appetite against hee went to the feast which should be two or three daies after And within sixe dayes after I returned again to see him and I found him in his bedde very sicke not for that he had fasted too much but that hee had inglutted him selfe with the variety of meates hee did eate at the feast So it happened that when hee purged himselfe once onely to haue better stomacke to eate hee needed afterwards a dozen Purgations for to discharge his loaden stomacke of that great surfet hee had taken at the feast with extreame eating And for the foure howres hee was at the Table where this Feast was hee was lodged afterwardes in his Chamber for two monethes to pay vsury for that hee had taken and yet it was the greate grace and mercy of GOD hee escaped with Life For if that it bee ill to sinne It is farre worse to seeke procure occasions to sinne And therefore by consequent the sin of Gluttonie is not onely dangerous for the conscience hurtfull to the health of the body and a displeasing of God but it is also a worm that eateth and in fine consumeth wholy the goods and faculties of him that vseth it Besides that these gurmands receiue not so much pleasure in the eating of these dainty morsels as they do afterwards griefe and displeasure to heate the great accounts of their stewards of their excessiue expences It is a sweet delight to bee fed daylie with daintie dishes but a sowre sauce to those delicate mouthes to put his hand so oft to the purse Which I speake not without cause sith that as wee feele great pleasure and felicitie in those meats that enter into our stomackes so doe we afterwards thinke that they plucke out of our heart the money that payeth for these knackes I remember I saw written in an Inne in Catalogia these words You that hoast here must say when you sit downe to your meate Salue regina Yea and when you are eating vitae dulcedo yea and when you reckon with the hoste Ad te suspiramus yea and when you come to pay him Gementes flentes Now if I would goe about to describe by parcels the order and maner of our feasts and banquets newly inuented by our owne Nation there would rather appeare matter to you to lament and bewayle then to write And it had beene better by way of speech to haue inuented diuers fashiōs of tables formes and stooles to sit on then such diuersity of meates to set vpon the Tables as wee doe vse now a dayes And therefore by good reason did Licurgus king of Lacedemonia ordaine and command that no stranger comming out of a strange Countrey into his should be so hardy to bring in any new customes vpon paine that if it were knowne he should be straite banished out of the Countrey and if he did vse and practise it he should be put to death I will tell you no lye I saw once serued in at a feast 42. sorts and kindes of meates in seuerall dishes In an other feast of diuers sortes of the fish called Tuny And in an other feast being flesh day I saw diuers fishes broyled with larde And at an other feast where I saw no other meat but Troutes and Lamperies of diuers kinds of dressing And at an other feast where I saw onely vi persons agree together to drinke each of them three pottles of wine a peece with this condition further that they should bee 6. houres at the table and he that dranke not out his part should pay for the whole feast I saw also an other feast where they prepared three seuerall Tables for the bidden guests the one boorde serued after the Spanish manner the other after the Italian and the thirde serued after the fashion of Flanders And to euery table there was serued 22. sorts of meates I saw also at an other feast such kinds of meates eaten as are wont to bee seene but not eaten as a horse rosted a cat in gely little lysers with hote broth frogges fryed and diuers other sorts of meats which I saw them eat but I neuer knew what they were till they were eaten And for Gods sake what is he that shall reade our writings and see that is commonly eaten in feastes now a dayes that it will not in a manner breake his heart and water his plantes The onely Spices that haue beene brought out of Calicut and the manner of furnishing of our boordes brought out of Fraunce hath destroied our Nation vtterly For in the old time they had no other kinds of Spices in Spaine but Saffron Comin Garlicke and Onions and when one friend inuited an other they had but a peece of beefe and a peece of veale and no more and it was a rare and dainty
her hate I ioy not a little that other Ladies in Rome as well as I doe know thy small wisedome Behold Marke I will not mocke thee for thou art such a one as neuer deserued that one should beginne to loue nor end to hate Wilt thou haue stability in loue and thou vnthankfull of thy seruice wilt thou serue in mockerie and be beloued faithfully wilte thou enioy the person without spending any of thy goods wilt thou haue no complaints on thee and thou ceasest not thy malice Thou knowest the il of women I will that thou know that wee bee not so foolish as yee suppose vs to be nor thou so wise as thou praysest thy selfe to be Hitherto we haue seen more men follow the desire of women then women haue liked to follow men I haue seene a thousand times yea and thou thy selfe that one man hath not so mighty a heart as to ouercome three wise women and one woman holdeth her self strong enough to subdue three hundred light persons Thou sayest thou art ashamed of my lightnesse to see mee forsake Rome and come to thee into the wars Great is the loue of the Countrey and many leaue much goods which they haue in straunge lands to liue poorely in their owne but greater is thy loue sith I would leaue Rome with the delights therin and come to seeke thee in strange lands among the rude souldiers O malitious Marke O straunge friend if I leaue Rome it were to goe seeke my heart which is with thee in the warres And certainly oftentimes when I thinke of thy absence I fall into a swound as one that had no hart but I neuer finde remedy I thinke our loue is not like to these beastes which haue their mindes onely vpon sensuall pleasures without the conioyning of the louing hearts I sweare to thee by the goddesse Vesta and the mother Berecinthia that thou owest more to me for the loue I haue borne to thee in one day then for the seruice I haue done to thee in 22. yeares Behold vnhappy Marke how much and dearely I loued thee In thy presence I alwayes beheld thee and absent I alwayes thought of thee sleeping I dreamed on thee I haue wept for thy sorrowes and laught at thy pleasures and finally all my welth I wished thee and all thy misfortunes I tooke as mine I assure thee of one thing that I feele not so much the persecution thou hast done mee as I doe the wailing forgetfulnesse thou shewest vnto mee It is a great griefe to a couetous man to lose his goods but without comparison it is a greater torment for the Louer to see his euil bestowed It is a hurt that is alwayes sore and a paine alwayes painefull a sorrow alwayes sorrowfull and it is a death that neuer endeth Oh if men knew how dearely and faithfully women doe loue when they are bent to loue and with what malicious hart they hate being set to hate I sweare vnto you yee would neuer companie with them in loue or if ye did loue them yee would neuer leaue for feare of their hate And as there is neuer great hate but where there was first much loue euen so thou shalt neuer bee greatly hated for that thou wert neuer truly beloued of the ladies The sorrowfull Boemia hath loued thee xxii yeares of her life and now shee hateth thee till after her death Thou sayest I may bee eaten for vertiuyce and yet would be sold for wine I knowe I haue erred as one both young and light and when I found me to stray out of the way I was too farre gone and my mishap could no other way nor remedie It is a great losse of all losses when there is no remedy I haue offended as a weake and fraile woman but thou as a man strong I erred by simple ignoraunce but thou of a purposed and wilfull malice I sinned not knowing that I did amisse but thou knowest what thou diddest I gaue eare and credite vnto thy words as a faithfull Knight and thou betrayedst mee with a thousand Lyes and protestations as a common lyer Tell me diddest not thou seeke occasion to come into my mother Getuliaes house to entice me her daughter Boemia to thy minde Diddest thou not promise my Father to teach me to read in one yeare and readdest mee Ouide of the arte of Loue Diddest not thou sweare to marrie mee and after withdrewe thy hand as a false Adulterer Diddest thou not know that thou neuer foundest in my person any villanie nor in thy mouth any trueth At the least thou canst not denye but thou hast offended the Gods thou art defamed amongst men odious to the Romaines a slaunderer of the good folkes an Example to the ill and finally a Traytour to my Father a breaker of thy faith to my mother and to me the vnhapy Boemia an vnkind louer Oh malicious Marke hast thou not cut me in leaues offering to my father to keepe his vines safe Euill may the chicken trust the Kyte or the Lambs the wolfe or the Doues the Faulcon but thou art worse to bring vppe the daughters of good men Oh cursed Marke a hurtfull keeper of vines hath the matrone of Rome fouÌ„d thee in keeping their Daughters I sweare that there was neither grape or cluster but it was eyther eaten or gathered by thee Thou didst cut mee greene for the which I promise thee it hath set thy teeth on edge Thou sayst I was riped by power of heat straw It grieueth mee not so much that thou sayest it as that thou giuest mee occasion to say vnto thee thy shame is so shamelesse and thy euill so malicious that I cannot make aunswere to thy purpose vnlesse I rubbe thee on the quicke I aske thee when thou marryedst Faustine whether thou foundest them green or ripe thou knowest well and so doe I also that others gaged the vessell and thou drankest the Lees others had the meate and thou the huskes others did eate them beeing greene and with the refuge set thy teeth on edge Oh cursed Marke beholde how great thy euills are and how the gods haue iustly punished thee that being young couldst not deserue to be beloued â—f thy Zouers nor yet now in thy Age thy wife keepe her faith to thee For me to be reuenged of thy person I need no more but to see thee marryed to Faustine By the Mother Berecynthia I promise thee that if thy small wisedome might attain to know at the full what they say of thee and her in Rome thou wouldest weepe both day and night for the life of Faustine and not leaue the wofull Boemia Oh Marke little care is taken for thee and how farre is our vnderstanding vncoupled from thy thoughts For through thy great Learning thy house in the day time is a schoole of phylosophers and the wantonnesse of thy wife Faustine in the night maketh it a receyte of Ruffians It is a iust iudgement of the gods sith that
a white it is no marell though I shotte at thee with the arrowes of mine eyes at the butte of thy beautie with thy rowling Eyes with thy browes bent well coloured Face incarnate Teeth ruddie lips courled hayre handes set with Rings cloathed with a thousand manner of colours hauing purses full of sweete sauours the Bracelettes and Eare-rings full of pearles and precious-stones Tell me what this meaneth The most that I can thinke of this is sith you shewe vs your bodyes openly yee would wee should know your desires in secret And if it be so as I belieue it is it seemeth to me Lady Macrine thou oughtest to loue him that liketh thee to enform him that seeketh thee to aunswere him that calleth thee to feele him that feeleth thee and to vnderstand him that vnderstandeth thee And sith thou vnderstandest me I do vnderstand thee and vnderstand that thou knowest not I doe well remember as I went by the street solitarily to see two theeues put to death mine eyes glauncing saw thee at a window on whom dependeth all my desires More iustice thou doest to mee then I to the Theeues For I beeing at iustice thou hast iusticed the iustice and none dare payne thee The gallowes is not so cruell to them which neuer knew but doing euill as thou art to mee which neuer thought other but onely to serue thee They suffer but one death and thou makest mee suffer a thousand They in one day and one houre ende their liues and I eache minute doe feele the pangs of death They dyed guyltie but I innocently They died openly and I in secrete What wilt thou that I say more vnto thee They wept for that they dyed and I weepe daily teares of bloud from my heart for that I liue This is the difference their torments spreadeth abroade through all their bodie and I keep mine together in my hart O cruell Macrine I know not what iustice this is that they kill men for robbing and stealing from manie and suffer women to liue which steale mens hearts If they take the liues from them that picke purses why then doe they suffer Ladyes which robbe our entrails By thy Noblenes I pray thee and by the Goddesse Venus I Conjure thee eyther satisfie my desire or restore me to my heart which thou hast robbed from me I would thou shouldst know Lady Macrine the cleare intention of my heart rather then this Letter written with my hand If my happe were so good as thy Loue would permit me to speak with thee I would hope by sight and speech to winne that which I am in suspect by my Letter to loose The reason whereof is because thou shalt reade my rude reasons in this letter and if thou sawest me thou shouldest see the bitter teares which I wold offer to thee in this my vnhappy life Oh that my mouth could publish my cruell paines as my heart feeleth them I sweare vnto thee Lady Macrine that my woefull plaintes would styrre vppe thy small care and as thy beautie hath made thee thyne owne so the true knowledge of thy griefes should make thee mine I desire thou wouldest regarde the beginning and therewith note the ende For of truth the same day that thou imprisonedst my hart at the window in the dungeon of my desires I had no lesse weaknesse to ouercome then thou haddest strength to enforce me and greater was thy power to take me from my selfe then my reason was to put mee from thee Now ladie Macrine I doe not aske other mercie of thee but that we may declare our mindes together But in this case what wilt thou I say vnto thee but that thou hast so much power ouer mee and I so little of my liberty that though I would not my heart must needes bee thine and that beeing thine thou wilt shew thy selfe to be mine And sith it may not be but that my life must bee condemned in thy seruice bee thou as sure of my Faith as I am doubtfull of thy good-will For I shall haue a greater honour to be lost for thy sake then to win any other Treasure I haue no more to say vnto thee now but that thou haue respect to my perdition and to drawe life out of my death and turne my teares to ioye And because I holde my Faith and will neuer despaire in thy hope I send thee x. little rings of gold with x. rings of Alexandria and by the immortall Gods I conjure thee that when thou puttest them on thy fingers thou receyuest my Loue into thy heart Marcus thy Louer wrote this with his owne hand CHAP. XI ¶ Of an other Letter which the Emperour sent to the Ladie Macrine wherein hee expresseth the Fiery-flames which soonest consume the gentle-hearts MArke thy neighbour at Rome to thee Macrine his sweete enemie I call thee Sweete for it is iust I dye for thee and enemy because thou ceassest not to kill me I cannot tell how it is but sith the feast of Ianus hitherto I haue written three letters vnto thee in the answer wherof I would haue been contented to haue receiued but two from thee If I would serue thee thou wilt not bee serued If I speak to thee thou wilt not answer me If I behold thee thou wilt not looke at mee if I call thee thou will not answer me if I visite thee thou wilt not see me if I write vnto thee thou wilt make no answer And the worst of all is if others do shew thee of my griefs thou takest it as a mockerie Oh that I had so much knowledge where to complaine to thee as thou hast power to ease my plaint then my wisdome should be no lesse praised amongst the wise then thy beautie among the fooles I beseech thee hartily not to haue respect to the rudenes of my reasons but regard the faith of my teares which I offer to thee as a witnes of my will I know not what profite may come by my harme nor what gayne of my losse thou mayest hope to haue nor what surety of my perill thou maist attaine nor what pleasure of my paine thou mayest haue I had aunswere by my messenger that without reading my Letters with thine own hands thou didst rent them in peeces it ought to suffice to thinke how manie persons are tormented If it had pleased you Ladie Macrine to haue read these few lines you should haue perceyued how I am inwardly tormented Yee women be very extreame and for the misaduenture of one man a woman will complaine of all men in generall So yee all shew crueltie for one particular cause openly yee pardon all mens liues and secretly ye procure death to all I account it nothing Ladie Macrine that thou hast done but I lament that which thou causest thy Neighbour Valerius to say to me One thing I would thou shouldest remember and not forget That is Sith my libertie is so small and thy power so great that beeing wholly mine am turned
beginner ender of all things God the giuer of all things Laert. de antiq Graec. The wisdome of Bias the Philosopher Bias the occasion of peace Laert de antiq Graec. Certaine questions resolued by Byas Laws made by Byas God the Creator of all things Rewards 〈…〉 to the 〈…〉 the wicked The mercifull goodnes of God How God punisheth ingratitude Leuit. 10. God the onely ruler of all estates The iust iudgement of God The permission of God The plague of God vpon Idolaters 2. Reg. 6. A good admonition for all Estates Babylon besieged The stout resolution of Pirius The reward due to those that contemne God A good caneat for Magistrates The wickednes of Ahab The punishment of Ahab What mischiefe followes the contemners of God The cruelty of Pompeius The punishment of sacriledge The pride of Xerxes euerthrown The misrable end of Brennus The valour of Gracian What maketh a man to be respected in this world Gracian chosen Emperour The heresie of Arian The description of a religious man The cruelty of Valente The duety of euery good Prince The folly and ouersight of the Emperour The miserable end of the Emperour Valentinian A custome among the Romanes The duty of euery good Christian The description of the Emperour Valentinian The saying of Seneca The death of the Emperour The wisedome and discretion of young Gracian The olde Prouerbe not alwayes true The Oration of the Emperour The duety of euery good Souldier The tyranny of Thyrmus The death of Thyrmus The wickednes of Valent. The death of Theodosius The iudgement of God The lawes ordained by the Counsel of Hyponense What is required of euery true Christian No respect of persons with God Man may purpose but God disposeth The speech of Appolonius A wort saving 〈◊〉 worthie obseruation What we lost by the fall of Adam The difference of opinions The soule mistresse of the body What is required in the gouernemēt of the common wealth God suffereth euill Gouernors for the offences of the people 1 Reg. 8. The folly of youth The power and 〈…〉 of a King The folly of men How much we are boūd to pray vnto God for good Gouernors The gouernment of Rome The care of Princes The reason why warres first began How seruitude began The first tyrant that euer was Belus the first inuentor of wars The mutability of the World God made al things for the vse of man What man loft by Adams fall A warning for all sorts of people Nothing so sure as death The reason wee haue to obey our Prince The pride of Alexander A compendious reprehension How wee ought to iudge of men The propertie of a tyrant In what true Honor consisteth How a Prince must winne honour How true honour is wonne The propertie of a wise man What mean a wise man should vse The greedy desires of man neuer satisfied The man is happie that hath content How a man ought to conceyue of himselfe The lawes of the Garamantes What gifts God bestoweth vp on Princes aboue other men What is required in a Prince What time Thales the Philosopher flourished Thales the first that found out the North starre Questions resolued by Thaks Princes and Magistrates supporters of the common wealth The description of Plutarch The authoritie of Princes What is most requisite in the Common wealth God the only letter vp of Princes Man differeth from all other creatures What benfite cōmeth by a good Prince Good lawes ordayned What the Prince ought to do The King compared to the Common wealth The King the onely head of all The death of Iulius Caesar A Prince ought not to be sparing in words What is required in a Prince for the gouernment of the Common-wealth The commendations of the Emperour Alexander Scue us The feasts of the Romanes The duty of euery good Christian An ancient custome in Rome An other custome in Rome Nothing so hurtfull as an enuious tongne Enuse an enemie to vertue The prayse of Marcus Aurelius Patience ouercommeth many matters True patience described The property of a wise man The replye of the Emperour How a Prince ought to behaue himselfe The Court neuer without flatterers The loue of the prince to his people The fondnes of our time Pride the ouerthrow of great personages Pride the fall of many great men Tarquine noted of vnthankfullnes The punishment of Tarqui The miserable end of euill Gouernours The true patterne of a vertuous Prince A true saying of Homer A description of a perfect friend What pleasure it is to remember dāgers past Two good properties of Marcus Aurelius The Epitaph of Periander An vsuall custome among all Nations Diuers laws made by to Periander the tyrant The punishment of ingratitude The commendation of Phylosophy The battell betweene the Athenians and Lysander The pouerty of the Philosophers of Athens The small hope of the wicked The Philosopher Aeschilus described Aeschilus the first inuenter of Tragedies Aeschilus his opinion wherein the felicity of this life consisted Wherein true felicity consisteth Of the Philosopher Zeno. The strength of Zeno. Wherein felicity consisteth No respect of persons with God The opinion of Anacharsis The felicity of the Sarmatians The Epitaph of Lucius Pius An ancient custome in Rome Warres in Greece euer since the destruction of Troy Idlenes and pastimes hated by the philosopher Crates the Philosopher Estilpho Simonides Archita Gorgias Chrysippus Antistenes Sophocles Euripides Palemon Themistocles Aristides Heraclitus No perfect felicity in this world A description of the City of Thebes Strabo de situ orbis A Law among the Aegyptians By the example of the Thebanes is shewed the duty of euery Christian An in humane custome among the Thebans Beauty the mother of vices Time the consumer of al things The smalest creatures profitable in the commonwealth What folly it is for man not to regard his own soule The vertue of the mind beautifieth the whole body The deformity of Iulius Caesar The valiant deeds of Hanniball The description of Alexander The letter of Marcus Aurelius What offence comes by much talke Learning well regarin ancient times An euill man a wicked member in a common-wealth How children should be brought The description of a yong man The of the wicked The office of death What death is The miserable estate of man The counsell of wise men euer respected among the Ancients What is required of euery Magistrate What hurt commeth by euill Counsellors What benefite proceedeth frō good Councellors Time best spent in the seruice of God How little wisedome now a dayes is regarded Youth subiect to many vices How circumspect Princes ought to be 〈…〉 Theodosius The duety of euery good Christian The loue of a master to his seruants The fault of many Princes The inconstancy of the world The younger sort must accompany with the vertuous Proud and ambitious men ought not to gouerne Plin lib. de nat hist The description of Cresus The godly minde of Cresus The letter of king Cresus The description
womē to nourish dogs giuing them Milke from theyr owne breasts They replyed in the Senate and saide Tell vs Marcus Porcia What wouldest thou wee should doe which liue now to resemble our Fathers which are dead Marcus Portio aunswered them The woman that presumeth to be a Romain Matrone ought to be found weauing in her house and out of that to bee found in the Temple praying to God and the Noble and stoute Romaine ought to be found in his House reading Bookes and out of his house fighting in the plaine Field for the honor of his countrey And surely these were wordes worthie of such a man Annius Minutius was a Noble Romaine and captaine of great Pompeius who was a great friend to Iulius Caesar after the battell of Farsalie For hee was an Auncient and one that could giue good counsell wherfore hee neuer scaped but that hee was chosen in Rome for Senatour Consull or Censor euery yeare For Iulius Caesar was so mercifull to them that hee pardoned those which had been his most enemies in the warres were of him in peace best beloued This Annius Minutius then beeing chosen Censour within Rome which was an Office hauing charge of Iustice by chaunce as hee went to visite the wife of another Friend of his the which lay in Child-bed because she had great aboundance of milke hee found that a little prettie Bitche did sucke her Vpon the which occasion they say hee saide these wordes to the Senate Fathers conscript a present mischiefe is now at hand according to the token I haue seen this day that is to say I haue seene a Romaine woman denie her owne Children her milke and gaue suck to a filthy bitche And truly this Annius had reason to esteeme this case as a wonder For the truest and sweetest loues are not but betweene the Fathers and Children and where the mother embraceth the brute beast and forsaketh her natural child which she hath brought forth it cannot bee otherwise but there either wisdome wanteth or follie aboundeth for the Foole loueth that hee ought to despise and despiseth that which he ought to loue Yet though the mothers will not giue their children sucke they ought to do it for the danger which may come to the health of their persons ' for as the women which bring forth Children doe liue more healthfull then those which beare none so these which doe nourish them haue more health then those which doe not nourish them For although the bringing vp of children be troublesome to women yet it is profitable for their health I am ashamed to tell it but it is more shame for Ladyes to do it to see what plaisters they put to theyr Breasts to drie vp their milke and hereof commeth the iust iudgements of God that in that place ofte times where they seeke to stoppe their milke in the selfe same place they themselues pocure theyr sudden death I aske now if women do not enioy their children being young what pleasure hope they to haue of them when they be olde What a great comfort is it for the Parents to see the young Babe when hee will laugh how hee twinckleth his little eyes when he will weepe how he will hang the pretie lippe when he would speake how he will make signes with his litle fingers when hee would goe how hee casteth forward his feete and aboue all when he beginneth to babble how he doubleth his words What thing is more pleasant to the Father then to see them and to the mother to agree to it when the children doe sucke they plucke forth the Breasts with the one hand and with the other they plucke their cradle and further they beat their feete together and with their wanton eyes they cast on theyr Parents a thousand louing lookes what is it to see them when they are vexed and angrie how they will not be taken of the Fathers how they strike their Mother they cast away things of gold and immediately they are appeased with a little apple or rushe What a thing is it to see the innocents how they answere when a man asketh them what follies they speake when they speak to them how they play with the dogges and runne after the Catts How they dresse them in wallowing in the dust how they make litle houses of Earth in the streetes how they weepe after the birdes when they flie away All the which things are not to the Eyes of the Fathers and Mothers but as nightingales to sing and as Bread and meate to eate The Mothers peraduenture will say that they will not bring vp their children because when they are young they are troublesome but that after they shold be nourished and brought vppe they would be glad To this I answer them that the mothers shal not deny me but that some of these things must needes meete in their children that when they be olde they shal be eyther proud enuious couetous or negligent that they shal be Lecherous or else Theeues that they shal be Blasphemers or else gluttons that they shal be rebells or fooles and disobedient vnto their Fathers I belieue that at this day there are manie Mothers in the world which did hope to be honoured and serued with the Children which they hadde brought vp and afterwards perceyuing their manners would willingly forgoe the pleasures which they hoped for so that they might also be deliuered from the troubles which for their euill demeanours are like to ensue For that time which the Parents hoped to passe with their Children in pleasures they consume seeing their vnthriftie life in sorrowfull sobbes and sighes I counsell admonish and humbly require Princesses and great Ladyes to nourish and enioy their Children when they are young and tender for after that they are great a man shall bring them newes euery day of diuers sorts and māners they vse for asmuch as the one shall say that her sonne is in prison and another shall say that hee is sore wounded another that he is hid others that hee hath played his cloke others that hee is slaundered with a common harlot another that he stealeth his goods from him another that his enemies doe seeke him another thet hee accompanieth with vnthrifts And finally they are so slurdie vnhappie and so farre from that which is good that oftentimes the fathers would reioyce to see them die rather then to see them liue so euill a life Mee thinketh that the knot of loue between the mother and the childe is so great that not onely she ought not to suffer them to be nourished out of the house one whole yeare but also she ought not to suffer them to be out of her presence one onely day For in seeing him shee seeth that which is borne of her entrailes she seeth that which shee hath with so great paines deliuered she seeth him who ought to inherite all her goods shee seeth him in whome the memorie of their Auncestors remaineth and
she seeth him who after her death ought to haue the charge of her affayres and businesse Concluding therefore that which aboue is spoken I say that which the great Plutarch saide from whom I haue drawn the most part of this chapter that the mother to bee a good Mother ought to haue and keepe her Childe in her armes to nourish him and afterwards when he shal be great she ought to haue him in her hart to helpe him For we see oft times great euills ensue to the Mother and to the Childe because she did not bring him vp her selfe and to put him to nourish to a straunge breast there commeth neither honour nor profite CHAP. XX. ¶ That Princesses great Ladyes ought to bee very circumspect in choosing of their Nurses Of seuen propertyes which a good Nurse should haue THose which ordayned Lawes for the people to liue were these Promotheans which gaue lawes to the Egyptians Solon Solinon to the Greekes Moyses to the Iewes Lycurgus to the Lacedemonians and Numa Pompilius to the Romains for before these Princes came their people were not gouerned by written lawes but by good auncient customes The intention of these Excellent Princes was not to giue lawes to their predecessors for they were now dead neyther they gaue theÌ„ onely for those which liued in their time being wicked but also for those which were to come whome they did prestippose would not be good For the more the World increaseth in yeares so much the more it is loaden with vices By this that I haue spoken I meane that if the Princesses and great Ladies euery one of them would Nourish their owne childe I neede not to giue them counsell But since I haue supposed that the women which shall be deliuered hereafter will be as proude and vaine-glorious as those which were in times past We will not let to declare here some Lawes and aduises how the Ladie ought to behaue her selfe with her Nurce and how the Nurce ought to content her selfe with the creature For it is but iust that if the mother be cruell and hardie to forsake the creature that she be sage pitifull and aduised to chose her Nurce If a man finde great treasure and afterwards care not how to keepe it but doeth commit into the hands of suspected persons truly we would call him a foole For that which naturally is beloued is alwayes of all best kept The Woman ought more wisely to keepe the treasure of her own bodie then the treasure of all the Earth if she had it And the Mother which doth the contrarie and that committeth her Childe to the custodie of a straunge Nurce not to her whome shee thinketh best but whom she findeth best cheape we will not call her a foolish beast for that name is too vnseemly out we will call her a sotte which is somewhat more honester One of the things that doth make vs most belieue that the ende of the world is at hand is to see the little loue which the mother doth beare to the childe being young and to see the want of loue which the Childe hath beare to his Mother being aged That which the childe doeth to the Father and Mother is the iust iudgement of God that euen as the Father would not nourish the child in his house being young so likewise that the sonne should not suffer the Father in his house he being olde Returning therefore to the matter that sith the woman doth determine to drie and shut vp the fountaines of milke which Nature hath giuen her shee ought to bee very diligent to search out a good nurse the which ought not only to content herselfe to haue her milke whole but also that shee be good of life For otherwise the childe shal not haue so much profite by the which hee sucketh as the nurse shall doe it harme if shee bee a woman of an euill life I doe aduise Princesses and great Dames that they watch diligently to knowe what their Nurses are before they commit their children to them for if such Nurses be euill and slaundered they are as Serpents which doe byte the Mother with their mouth and do sting the childe with her taile In my opinion it were lesse euill the Mother should suffer that her Childe should perish in deliuering it then for to keepe in her house an euill woman For the sorrow of the death of the Childe is forgotten and brought to nought in time but the slaunder of her house shall endure as long as shee liueth Sextus Cheronensis sayeth that the Emperor Marcus Aurelius commanded his Sonne to be brought vp of a woman the which was more faire theÌ„ vertuous And when the good Emperour was aduertised thereof he did not onely send her from his Pallace but also hee banished and exiled her from Rome swearing that if she had not nourished his Sonne with her pappes he would haue commaunded her to haue been torne in pieces with Beasts For the woman of an euill renowme may iustly bee condemned and put to death Princesses and great Ladyes ought not greatly to passe whether the nurses be faire or fowle For if the milke be sweete white and tender it little skilleth though the face of the Nurse be white or blacke Sextus Cheronensis saith in the booke of the nurture of children that euen as the black Earth is more fertile then is the white earth So likewise the Woman which is browne in countenance hath alwayes the most substantiall milke Paulus Dyaconus in his greatest Hystorie saieth that the Emperour Adocerus did Marrie himselfe with the daughter of another Emperour his predecessor called Zeno and the Empresse was called Arielna The which in bringing forth a Sonne had a woman of Hungarie maruellous faire to nourish it and the case succeeded in such sort that the Nurse for beeing faire had by the Emperor iij. children the one after the other and his wofull Wife neuer had any but the first alone A man ought to belieue that the Empresse Arielna did not only repent her selfe for taking into her house so faire a Nurse but also was sorry that euer shee had any at all sith the Ribalde thereby was Mistresse in the house and she remained without husband all her life I doe not say it for that there are not many foule women vicious nor yet because there are not many faire women vertuous but that Princesses and great Ladyes according to the qualities of their Husbands ought to bee profitable and tender Nurses to bring vp their Children For in this case there are some men of so weake a complexion that in seeing a little cleane water immediately they die to drinke thereof Let therefore this be the first counsell in choosing Nurses that the Nurse before shee enter into the house be examined if shee be honest and vertuous For it is a trysâ—e whether the Nurse be faire or foule but that she be of a good life and of an honest behauiour
weight and measure plentifull and chiefly if there be good doctrine for the young and little couetousnesse in the old Affro the Historiographer declareth this in the tenth booke De rebus Atheniensium Truly in my opinion the words of this philosopher were few but the sentences were many And for none other cause I did bring in this history but to profite mee of the last word wherein for aunswere hee sayeth that all the profite of the Common wealth consisteth in that there be princes that restraine the auarice of the aged and that there bee Masters to teach the youthfull We see by experience that if the brute beasts were not tyed and the corne and seedes compassed with hedges or ditches a man shold neuer gather the fruit when they are ripe I meane the strife and debate will rise continually among the people if the yong men haue not good fathers to correct them and wise masters to teach them Wee cannot deny but though the knife be made of fine steele yet sometimes it hath neede to bee whet and so in like manner the young man during the time of his youth though he doe not deserue it yet from time to time hee ought to bee corrected O Princes and great Lords I know not of whom you take counsell when your sonne is borne to prouide him of a Master and gouernour whom you chuse not as the most vertuous but as the most richest not as the most sagest but as the most vile and euill taught Finally you doe not trust him with your children that best deserueth it but that most procureth it Againe I say O princes and great Lords why doe you not withdraw your children from their hands which haue their eyes more to their owne profite then their hearts vnto your seruice For such to enrich themselus doe bring vp princes viciously Let not Princes thinke that it is a trifle to know how to finde and chuse a good Master and the Lord which herein doth not employ his diligence is worthy of great rebuke And because they shall not pretend ignorance let them beware of that man whose life is suspitious and extreame couetous In my opinion in the pallace of princes the office of Tutorshippe ought not to be giuen as other common offices that is to say by requests or money by priuities or importunities eyther else for recompence of seruices for it followeth not though a man hath beene Ambassadour in strange Realms or captaine of great Armies in warre or that hee hath possessed in the royall pallace Offices of honour or of estimation that therefore he should bee able to teach or bring vp their children For to bee a good Captaine sufficeth onely to be hardy and fortunate but for to bee a Tutour and gouernour of Princes hee ought to be both sage and vertuous CHAP. XXXV Of the two children of Marcus Aurelius the Emperour of the which the best beloued dyed And of the Masters he prouided for the other named Comodus MArcus Aurelius the 17. Emperour of Rome in the time that hee was married with Faustine onely daughter of the Emperour Antonius Pius had onely two sonnes whereof the eldest was named Comodus and the second Verissimus Of these two children the heyre was Comodus who was so wicked in the 13. yeares he gouerned the Empire that hee seemed rather the Disciple of Nero the cruell then to discend by the mothers side from Antonius the mercifull or sonne of Marcus Aurelius This wicked child Comodus was so light in speech so dishonest in person and so cruell with his people that oft-times hee being aliue they layed wagers that there was no vertue in him to bee found nor any one vice in him that wanted On the contrary part the second sonne named Verissimus was comely of gesture proper of person and in witte very temperate and the most of all was that by his good conuersation of all hee was beloued For the fayre and vertuous Princes by their beauty draweth vnto them mens eyes and by their good conuersation they winne their hearts The child Verissimus was the hope of the common people and the glory of his aged Father so that the Emperor determined that this child Verissimus should bee heyre of the Empire and that the Prince Commodus should bee dishenherited Wherat no man ought to maruell for it is but iust since the childe dooth not amend his life that the father doe dishenherite him When good will doth want and vicious pleasures abound the children oft times by peruerse fortune come to nought So this Marcus Aurelius being 52. yeares old by chance this childe Verissimus which was the glory of Rome and the hope of the Father at the gate of Hostia of a sodaine sicknesse dyed The death of whom was as vniuersally lamented as his life of all men was desired It was a pittifull thing to see how wofully the Father tooke the death of his entirely beloued son and no lesse lamentable to beholde how the Senate tooke the death of their Prince being the heyre for the aged Father for sorrow did not go to the Senate and the Senate for a few dayes enclosed themselues in the hie Capitoll And let no man maruell though the death of this young Prince was so taken through Rome for if men knew what they lose when they lose a vertuous Prince they would neuer cease to bewayle and lament his death When a Knight a Gentleman a Squire an Officer or when any of the people dyeth there dyeth but one but when a Prince dyeth which was good for all and that he liued to the profite of all then they ought to make account that all do dye they ought all greatly to lament it for oft times it chanceth that after 2. or 3. good Princes a foule flocke of Tyrants succeede Therfore Marcus Aurelius the Emperor as a man of great vnderstanding and of a princely person though the inward sorrow from the rootes of the heart could not bee plucked yet hee determined to dissemble outwardly to bury his grieues inwardly For to say the truth none ought for any thing to shewe extreame sorrow vnlesse it be that hee hath lost his honour or that his conscience is burdened The good Prince as one that hath his vineyarde frozen wherein was all his hope contented with himselfe with that which remaineth his so deerly beloued sonne being dead and commaunded the Prince Comodus to be brought into his pallace being his onely heire Iulius Capitolinus which was one of those that wrote of the time of Marcus Aurelius saide vpon this matter that when the Father saw the disordinate frailenesse and lightnes and also the little shame which the prince Comodus his Sonne brought with him the aged man beganne to weepe and shed teares from his eyes And it was because the simplenesse and vertues of his deere beloued Sonne Verissimus came into his minde Although this Noble Emperour Marcus Aurelius for the death of
his sonne was very sorrowfull yet notwith standing this hee prouided how his other sonne Comodus shold be gouerned and this before that either of age or bodie he were greater For we cannot denye but when Princes are men they will bee such as in theyr youth they haue been brought vp The good Father therefore knowing that the euill inclinations of his should doe him damage and the Empire in like manner he sent throughout all Italie for the moste sagest and expert men to be gouernours and tutours of Comodus the Prince Hee made them seeke for the moste profoundest in learning the most renowmed of good fame the most vertuous in deedes and the most deepest in vnderstanding For as the dust is not swept with fine cloth but with drye broomes so the lightnes and follyes of young men are not remedyed but by the hard discipline of the aged This commaundement being published and proclaimed in Rome and the bruite scattered through Italie there came and ranne thither diuers kinde of Sages whom he commaunded to be examined Hee being truely informed of the bloud of their predecessours of the age of their persons of the gouernement of their houses of the spending of their goods of their credite among their neighbours of the sciences they knew and aboue all they were no lesse examined of the purenes of their liues then of the grauitie of their persons for there are many men which are graue in open wordes and verie light in secrete workes Speaking therfore more particularly hee commanded they should examine the Astronomers of astronomy the Phylosophers of Phylosophie the Musitians in musicke the Orators in orations and so forth of other Sciences in order wherin euery one said hee was instructed The good Emperour was not so contented to doe this once but sundrie times and not all in one day but in many and not onely by another man but also by himselfe Finally they were all examined as if they had been all one and that the same one should haue remayned and been kept for all to bee the onely Master and Tutour of the young childe and prince Comodus To acquire a perfect knowledge and to be sure not to erre in choyce of things in my opinion is not onely required experience of himselfe and a cleare vnderstanding but also the aduise of another For the knowledge of things wholly together is easie but the choyce of them particularly is harde This thing is onely spoken because the good Emperour sent and commaunded to choose gouernours and Masters of his children Of many he chose few and of few the most wisest of the most wisest the most expert of the most expert the best learned of the best learned the most temperate of the most temperate the most ancient and of the most ancient the most noble Certainely such election is worthy prayse because they be true masters and teachers of Princes which are noble of bloud ancient in yeers honest in life men of little folly and of great experience According to the seuen liberall Sciences two masters of euery one were chosen so that the Prince was but one and the others were 14. but this notwithstanding the workes of this Prince Comodus were contrary to the expectation of his father Marcus Aurelius because the intention of the good father was to teach his son all sciences and the study of the son was to learne all vices At the bruite of so great a thing as this was that the Emperor sought to prouide tutors for the Prince Comodus and that they should not bee those which were best fauoured but those which were found the most wisest In short space there came so many Philosophers to Rome as if the diuine Plato had beene reuiued againe in Greece Let vs not maruell at all if the Sages desired the acquaintance of familiarity of this good Emperour for in the ende there is no man so sage nor so vertuous in his life but somtime will seeke after the fauours of the world Since there were many Sages and that of those he chose but foureteene It was necessary hee should honestly and wisely dispatch and giue the others leaue as did behoue him And herein the good Emperour shewed himselfe so wise that shewing to some a merry countenance to others speaking gently and to others by a certaine hope and to others by gifts and presents and all the good company of the Sages departed and the good Emperor dispatched them not one being sadd which departed but very well pleased For it is not comely for the magnificence of a Prince that the man which commeth to his Pallace onely for his seruice should returne murmuring or without reward This good Emperour shewed him selfe Sage to seeke many Sages hee shewed himselfe wise in the choyce of some and of a good vnderstanding in dispatching others and in contenting them all for as wee see dayly by experience though the election be good cōmonly great affections thereupon engender for those for not beeing chosen are sorry and to see that others chosen are shamefast In such case likewise let it not be esteemed litle to serch a good remedie for the Goldsmith oft times demaundeth more for the workemanshippe then the siluer is worth I meane that sometimes Princes doe deserue more honour for the good meanes they vse in their affaires then for the good sucesse whereunto it commeth for the one aduenture guideth but the other wisedome aduanceth The good Emperour not contented with this prouided that those foureteen Philosophers which should remaine in his Pallace should sit at the table and accompany his person the which thing he did to see if their life were comformable to their doctrine and if their words did agree to their workes for there are many men which are of a goodly tongue and of a wicked life Iulius Capitolinus and Cinna Catullus which were writers of this History say that it was a wonder to see how this good Emperour did marke them to know if they were sober in feeding temperat in drinking modest in going occupyed in studying aboue all if they were very sage in speaking and honest in liuing Would to God that Princes of our time were in this case so diligent and carefull and that in committing in trust their affayres they would not care more for one then for others For speaking with due reuerence there aboundeth no wisedome in that Prince which committeth a thing of importance to that man whom hee knoweth not whether hee is able to bring it to passe or not Many talke euill and maruel that Princes and great Lords in so many things do erre and for the contrary I maruell how they hit any at all For if they committed their weighty affayres to skilfull men though perhappes they erre once yet they hitt it a hundred times but when they commit theyr businesse to ignorant men if they hit once they misse a thousand times againe In this case I say there is nothing destroyeth
liues thenceforth When I Imprinted the Diall of Princes together with Marcus Aurelius and brought them to light I wanted not backbiters and detractors that beganne forthwith to teare me in pieces neyther shall I want at this present as I beleeue such as will not spare with venemous tongues to poyson my worke But like as then I little wayed their slaunderous speeches of me euen so much lesse do I now force what they can say against mee being assured they shall finde in the end they haue ill spoken of mee and my poore workes proceeding from them rather of a certaine enuie that gnaweth their heart then of any default they finde in my doctrine comforting my selfe yet in the assurance I haue that all their spight shall one day haue an end and my workes shall euer be found good and perdurable The end of the Argument THE FOVRTH BOOKE OF THE DYALL OF PRINCES COMPILED BY THE LORD ANTHONY Gueuara Bishop of Mondogueto CHAP. I. That it is more necessary for the Courtier abiding in Court to be of liuely spirite and audacity then it is for the Souldier that goeth to serue in the warres PLutarch Plinie and Titus Liutus declare that King Agiges one day requested the Oracle of Apollo to tell him who was the happiest man in the world to whom answere was made that it was a man they called Aglaon beknowne of the Gods and vnknowne of men This King Agiges making then search for this man through all Greece who was called Aglaon found at length that it was a poor Gardner dwelling in Archadia who being of the age of threescore and two yeares neuer went aboue a mile from his house keeping himselfe and his family continually with his onely labour and tillage of his Garden Now albeit there were in the world of better parentage and linage then he better accompanied of seruants and tenants better prouided of goods and riches higher in dignity and of greater authority then he yet for all this was this Aglaon the happiest of the world And this was for that he neuer haunted princes Courts neyther by enuy to bee ouerthrowne nor yet by auarice to be ouercome For many times it chanceth to men that when they would least giue themselues to acquaintance then come they most to bee knowne and when they make least account of themselues then cometh there an occasion to make thē to be most reputed of For they winne more honor that despise these goods honours and riches of this world then those do that continually gape and seeke after the same And therefore we should more enuy Aglaon with his little garden then Alexander the Great with his mighty Asia For true contentation consisteth not in hauing aboundance but in being contented with that little hee hath It is a mockery and worthily hee deserueth to be laughed at that thinketh contentation lyeth in hauing much or in being of great authoritie for such wayes are readier to make vs stumble yea and many times to fall down right then safely to assure vs to go on our way The punishment that God gaue to Cain for murdering of his brother Abel was that his body continually trembled and he euer after wandred thorough the world so that he neuer found where he might enhabite nor house where he might harbour And albeit this malediction of Cain was the first that euer God ordained I durst affirme notwithstanding that it remayneth as yet vntill this present day amongst Courtiers sith wee see them dayly trauell and runne into strange Countries dayly changing and seeking new lodgings Which maketh me once again to say that Aglaon was counted happy and for that onely hee neuer romed farre from his house For to say truly there is no misery comparable to that of the Courtier that is bound dayly to lye in others houses hauing none of his owne to goe to And he onely may bee called happy that putteth not himselfe in danger to serue others Iulius Caesar beeing counselled to wayre vpon the Consull Sylla to the end that by seruing or being about him hee might doe himselfe greate good and it might bee very profitable to him answered thus I sweare by the immortall Gods I will neuer serue any in hope to be more worth greater then I am For this I am sure of that where Liberty is exiled there might nor power can preuaile He that forsaketh his owne Countrey where he liued at ease in health and the place where hee was knowne and beloued the neighbours of whom hee was visited the friends of whome hee was serued the parents of whome hee was honoured the goods wherewith he maintained himselfe his wife and children of whom he had a thousand pleasures and consolations and that commeth to serue and dye in the Court I cannot say otherwise of him but that he is a very foole or that hee commeth to doe penance for some notable crime hee hath committed And therefore not without great cause was this name of Courte which in our tong signifieth short adhibited to the pallace of Princes where indeed all things are short only enuy and malice excepted which continue long He onely desireth to be a Courtier that as yet hath not tasted the sweetnesse and pleasure of his owne house nor hath yet proued and seene the troubles and pains of the Court For hee that knoweth them figheth when he is called to the Court and weepeth when he is kept long there I haue studyed in times past in the Vniuersities preached in the Courts praying in Religion and now I dwel vpon my Bishopricke teaching and instructing my Diocesians but I dare say of all these foure states recited there is none so streight and painfull as is to follow the Court. If I studyed at the Vniuersity I did it of free will to bee wiser but onely in the Court I spent my time to be more worth then I was But the greatest time I consumed in Religion was to say my prayers and to bewayle my grieuous sinnes In the Court I onely gaue my selfe to suspect my neighbour and inuented to build great Castels of wind with thought in the ayre And therefore I returne once again to say that it is a greater trouble and vexation for to become a Courtier then to bee a religious person For in religion it sufficeth to obey one but in the Court hee must serue all And in religion also they are apparrelled with lesse cost and charges and to the greater contentation of the person then they are in the Court. For a poore Gentleman Courtier is bound to haue more change and sutes of apparrell then the falcon feathers The religious persons goe alwayes to dinner and finde their meate on the Table ready prepared for them without any thought taken of their part what they shall haue but fine Courtiers many times rise out of their bed without euer a penny in their purse And albeit religious persons all their life take great paines in
rising at midnight to serue God yet haue they great hope after their death of the heauenly rest and comfort but poore Courtiers alas what should I say hard is their life and more perillous their death into greater danger truly putteth he himselfe that becommeth a Courtier then did Nasica when gee was with the Serpent then King Dauid with the Philistines then the Southsayers with Euah then Hercules with Antheon then Theseus with the Minocaure then King Menelaus with the wilde Bore then Corebus with the Monster of the marish and then Perseus with the monstrous whale of the sea For euery one of these valiant mē were not afraid but of one but the miserable Courtier standeth in feare of all For what is he in Court that seeing his neere Kinsman or deerest friend more in fauour or credit then himselfe or richer then he that wisheth not his friendes death or at the least procureth by all meanes he can he shall not equall nor goe euen with with him in credite or reputation One of the worst things I consider see in Courtiers is that they loose much time and profite little For the thing wherein they spend their dayes and hestow the nights for the most part is to speake ill of those that are their betters or excel them in vertues and to vndoe those that are their equals and companions to flatter the beloued and among the inferiour sort to murmur one against an other and alwayes to sigh and lament for the times past And there is nothing that prouoketh Courtiers more to complaine then the dayly desire they haue to see sundry and new alterations of time For they little weigh the ruine of the Common weale so they may enlarge and exalt their owne estates Also it is a thing of course in Court that the reiected and fauourlesse Courtiers meete together murmuring at their Princes and backbiting their councellers and officers saying they vndoe the Realme and bring all to nought And al this presupposed for that they are not in the like fauour and estimation that they be in which beareth office and rule in the Common-weale And therefore when it commeth in question for a Courtier to aduaunce himselfe and to come in credit in the Court one Gourtier can scarsly euer trust an other On the other side mee thinketh that the life of the Court is not the very life in deede but rather an open penance And therefore in my opinion wee should not reckon Courtiers aliue but rather dead buried in their life For then the Courtier euer findeth himselfe plunged with deaths extream passious when hee perceyueth an other to be preferred and called before him Alas what great pitty is it to see a haplesse and vnfortunate Courtier for hee seely soule awaketh a thousand times in the night tosseth from side to side of his bed sometime vpright hee lyeth lamenting his yron happe now he sigheth for his natiue soyle and sorroweth then for his lost honour so that in maner he spendeth the whole night in watch and cares imagining with himselfe all the wayes hee can to come in credite and fauour againe that he may attaine to wealth and preferment before others which maketh mee thinke that it is not a paine but a cruell torment no seruice but tribute and not once only but euer that the body of the poore miserable Courtier abideth that in despite of him his wretched heart doth beare By the Law of the Court euery Courtier is bound to serue the King to accompany the beloued of the Court to visite noble men to wayte vpon those that are at the Princes elbow to giue to the vshers to present the Auditors to entertaine the Wardens and captaines of the Ports to currey fauour with the Harbingers to flatter the Treasurer to trauell and speake for their friendes and to dissemble amongst their enemies What legges are able to doe all these things what force sufficient to abide these brunts what heart able to endure them and moreouer what purse great inough to supply all these deuises I am of opinion there was neuer any so foolish nor marchant so couetons that hath solde himselfe in any fayre or exchangde himselfe for any other Marchandize but only the vnhappy Courtier who goeth to the court to sell his liberty for a litle winde and vaine smoake of the court I graunt that a courtier may haue in the court plenty of golde and siluer sumptuous apparrell fauour cresite and authoritie yet withall this aboundance yee cannot deny me but he is as poore of liberty as rich of substance or credite And therefore I dare boldly say this word againe for one time the Courtier hath his desire in Court a thousand times they will enforce him to accomplish others desires which neyther please nor like him Surely it commeth of a base and vile minde and no lesse cowardly for any man lightly to esteeme his liberty and fondly to embrace bondage and subiection being at others commaundement And if the Courtier would aunswere mee to this that though hee serue yet at least hee is in his Princes fauour I would replye thus Though hee bee in fauour with the Prince yet is he notwithstanding slaue to all his other officers For if the Courtier will sell his horse his moyle his cloke his sworde or any other such like whatsoeuer hee shall haue ready money for all sauing for his liberty which hee liberally bestoweth on all for nothing So that hee seemeth to make more estimation of his sword or appaarrell hee selleth then he doth of his liberty which hee giueth For a man is not bound to trauell at all to make himselfe master of others more then pleaseth him but to recouer liberty or to maintaine it he is bound to dye a thousand deaths I speake not these things for that I haue read them in my bookes but because I haue seene them all with mine eyes and not by science but by experiennce and I neuer knew Courtier yet content in Court much lesse enioying any iot of his liberty which I so much esteeme that if al men were sufficient to know it and knew well how to vse it he would neuer for any Treasure on earth forgoe it neyther for any gage lendi◠were it neuer so precious Yet is there in Court besides this an other kind of trouble I haue not yet touched and that is not small For oft times thither commeth of our friends which be straungers whom of necessitie and for honesties sake the Courtier must Lodge with him at home the Court beeing already full pestered And this happeneth oft in such a time when the poore Courtyer hath neither Lodging of his owne to lodge them in nor happily six pence in his purse to welcome themwithall I would you would tell mee also what griefe and sorrowe the poore Courtyer feeleth at his heart when hee lodgeth in a blinde narrowe-lane eateth at a borrowed table sleepeth in a hyred bedde and perhaps his