as one reporteth that was in his companie that a woman of great authoritie having first yeelded an accompt vnto her Citizens and shewed good reasons why she was resolved to end her life earnestly entreated Pompey to be an assistant at her death that so it might be esteemed more honourable which he assented vnto and having long time in vaine sought by vertue of his eloquence wherein he was exceeding ready and force of perswasion to alter her intent and remove her from her purpose in the end yeelded to her request She had lived foure score and ten yeares in a most happie estate of minde and bodie but then lying on her bed better adorned then before she was accustomed to have-it and leaning on her elbow thus she bespake The Gods Oh Sextus Pompeius and rather those I forgo then those I go vnto reward and appay thee for that thou hast vouchsafed to be both a counseller of my life and a witnesse of my death As for my part having hitherto ever tasted the favourable visage of fortune for feare the desire of living overlong should make me taste of her frownes with an happie an successefull end I will now depart and licence the remainder of my soule leaving behind me two daughters of mine with a legion of grand-children and nephewes That done having preached vnto and exhorted all her people and kinsfolks to an vnitie and peace and divided her goods amongst them and recommended her houshold Gods vnto her eldest daughter with an assuredly-staide hand she tooke the cup wherein the poyson was and having made her vowes vnto Mercurie and praiers to conduct her vnto some happie place in the other world roundly swallowed that mortall potion which done she intertained the companie with the progresse of her behaviour and as the parts of her bodie were one after another possessed with the cold operation of that venome vntill such time as shee said shee felt-it worke at the heart and in her entrals shee called her daughter to doe her the last office and close her eyes Plinie reporteth of a certaine Hiperborean nation wherein by reason of the milde temperature of the aire the inhabitants thereof commonly never die but when they please to make themselves away and that being wearie and tired with living they are accustomed at the end of a long-long age having first made merrie and good cheare with their friends from the top of an heigh-steedie rocke appointed for that purpose to cast themselves headlong into the Sea Grieving-smart and a worse death seeme to me the most excusable incitations The fourth Chapter To Morrow is a new day I Doe with some reason as me seemeth give pricke and praise vnto Iaques Amiot above all our French writers not only for his naturall puritie and pure elegancy of the tongue wherin he excelleth all others nor for his indefatigable constancie of so long and toyle-some a labour nor for the vnsearchable depth of his knowledge having so successefully-happy been able to explaine an Authour so close and thornie and vnfold a writer so mysterious and entangled for let any man tell me what he list I have no skill of the Greeke but I see through out all his translation a sense so closely-joynted and so pithily-continued that either he hath assuredly vnderstood and inned the verie imagination and the true conceit of the Authour or having through a long and continuall conversion lively planted in his minde a generall Idea of that of Plutarke he hath at least lent him nothing that doth beâ—â—e him or mis seeme him but aboue all I kon him thanks that he hath had the hap to chuse and knowledge to cull out so worthy a worke and a booke so fit to the purpose therewith to make so vnvaluable a present vnto his Countrie We that are in the number of the ignorant had been vtterly confounded had not his booke raised vs from out the dust of ignorance God-a-mercy his endevours we dare not both speak and write Even Ladies are therewith able to confront Masters of arts It is our breviarie If so good a man chance to live I bequeath Xenophon vnto him to doe as much It is an easier piece of worke and so much the more agreeing with his age Moreover I wot not how me seemeth although he roundly and clearly disinâ—angle himselfe from hard passages that notwithstanding his stile is more close and neerer it selfe when it is not laboured and wrested and that it glideth smoothly at his pleasure I was even now reading of that place where Plutarke speaketh of himselfe that Rusticus being present at a declamation of his in Rome received a packet from the Emperour which he temporized to open vntill he had made an end wherein saith he all the assistants did singularly commend the gravitie of the man Verily being on the instance of curiositie and on the greedie and insatiate passion of newes which with such indiscreet impatience and impatient indiscretion induceth vs to neglect all things for to entertaine a new-come guest and forget all respect and countenance wheresoever we be suddainly to break-vp such letters as are brought-vs he had reason to commend the gravitie of Rusticus to which he might also have added the commendation of his civilitie and curtesie for that he would not interrupt the course of his declamation But I make a question whether he might be commended for his wisedome for receiving vnexpected letters and especially from an Emperour it might verie well have fortuned that his deferring to read them might have caused some notable inconvenience Rechlesnesse is the vice contrarie vnto curiositie towards which I am naturally enclined and wherein I have seen many men so extreamly plunged that three or foure daies after the receiving of letters which hath been sent them they have been found in their pockets yet vnopened I never opened any not onely of such as had been committed to my keeping but of such as by any fortune came to my hands And I make a conscience standing neare some great person if mine eyes chance at vnwares to steal some knowledge of any letters of importance that he readeth Never was man lesse inquisitive or pryed lesse into other mens affaires then I. In our fathers time the Lord of Boâ—â—ieres was like to have lost Turwin forsomuch as being one night at supper in verie good companie he deferred the reading of an advertisement which was delivered him of the treasons that were practised and complotted against that Citie where he commanded And Plutarke himselfe hath taught me that Iulius Caesar had escaped death if going to the Senate-house that day wherein he was murthered by the Conspirators he had read a memoriall which was presented vnto him Who likewise reporteth the storie of Archias the Tyrant of Thebes how the night fore-going the execution of the enterprise that Pelopidas had complotted to kill him thereby to set his Countrie at libertie another Archias of Athens writ him a letter wherein he particularly related vnto
acted who were beseiged in Salona a Cittie which tooke partwith Caesar against Pompey must not be forgotten by reason of a rare accident that there hapned Marcus Oâ—tavius having long time beleagred the Towne they within were reduced to such extreamitie and pinching necessitie of all things that to supply the great want they had of men most of them being alreadie or hurt or dead they had set all their slaues at libertie and for the behoofe of their engines were compelled to cut-off all their womens haires to make ropes with them besides a wonderfull lacke of victualles resolving notwithstanding never to yeeld themselves After they had a long time lingered the siege and that Octavius was thereby become more carelesse and lesse heeding or attentive to his enterprise they one day about high noone having first ranged their wives and children vpon the walles to set the better face vpon the matter rushed out in such a furie vpon the beseigers that having put to rout and defeated the first the second and third corps de garde then the fourth and the rest and having forced them to quit their trenches chased them even to their shippes and Octavius with much adoe saved himselfe in Dyrrachium where Pompey was I remember not at this time to have read of any other example where the beleagred doe in grosse beate the beleagrers and get the maistrye and possession of the field nor that a sallie hath drawne a meere and absolute victory of a battell into consequence The five and thirtieth Chapter Of three good women THey are not to be had be dozens as each one knowes namely in rights and duties of mariage For it is a bargaine full of so many thornie circumstances that it is hard the will of a woman should long keepe hir selfe whole and perfect therein And although men have somewhat a better condition in the same yet have they much to doe The touchstone and perfect triall of a good mariage respects the time that the societie continueth whether it have constantly beene milde loyall and commodious In our age they more commonly reserve to enstall their good offices and set foorth the vehemence of their affections toward their lost husbands And then seeke they at least to yeeld some testimonie of their good wil. Oh late testimony out of season whereby they rather shew they never love them but when they are dead Our life is full of combustion and scolding but our disease full of love and of curtesie As fathers conceale affection toward their children so they to maintaine an honest respect cloake their love toward their husbands This mysterie answereth not my taste They may long enough scratch and dishevell themselues let me enquire of a chamber-maide or of a secretarie how they were how they did and how they have lived together I can never forget this good saying Iactantius maerent quae minus dolent They keepe a â—owling with most ostentation who are lesse sorrowfull at heart Their lowring and puling is hatefull to the living and vaine to the dead Wee shall easily dispence with them to laugh at vs when we are dead vpon condition they smile vpon vs while we live Is not this the way to reviue a man with spite that he who hath spitten in my face when I was living shall come and clawe my feete when I am dead If there be any honour for a woman to weepe for hir husband it belongs to hir that hath smiled vpon him when she had him Such as have wept when they lived let them laugh when they are dead as well outwardly as inwardly Moreover regard not those blubred eyes nor that pittie-mooving voyce but view that demeanor that colour and cheerefull good plight of those cheekes vnder their great vailes thence it is she speakes plaine French There are few whose health doth not daily growe better and better a qualitie that cannot lie This ceremonious countenance looketh not so much backeward as foreward It is rather a purchase then a payment In mine infancie an honest and most faire Ladie who yet liveth the widdowe of a Prince had somewhat more of I wot not what in hir attires then the lawes of widowehood would well permit To such as blamed hir for it â—t is said shee because I intend no more new acquaintances and have no mind at all to marry againe Because I will not altogether dissent from out custome I have heere made choise of three women who have also employed the vtmost endevor of their goodnes and affection about their husbandes deathes Yet are they examples somewhat different and so vrging that they hardly drawe life into consequence Plinie the yonger had dwelling neere vnto a house of his in Italie a neighbour wonderfully tormented with certaine vlcers which much troubled him in his secret parts His wife perceiving him to droope and languish away entreated him she might leasurely search and neerely view the qualitie of his disease and she would more freely then any other tell him what hee was to hope for Which having obtained and curiously considered the same shee found it impossible ever to be cured and all he might expect was but to lead a long dolorous and languishing life and therefore for his more safetie and soveraigne remedie perswaded him to kill himselfe And finding him somewhat nice and backeward to effect so rude an enterprise Thinke not my deare friend quoth shee but that the sorrowes and griefes I see thee feele touch me as neere and more if more may be as they selfe and that to be rid of them I will applie the same remedie to my selfe which I prescribe to thee I will accompanie thee in thy cure as I have done in thy sickenesse remoove all feare and assure they selfe we shall have pleasure in this passage which shall deliver vs from all torments for we will happily goe together That said and having cheared vp her husbands courage she determined they should both headlong throw themselves into the sea from out a window of their house that over looked the same and to maintaine this loyall vehement and never to be severed affection to the end wherewith shee had during his life embraced him shee would also have him die in her armes and fearing they might faile her and through the fall or feare or apprehension her hold-fast might be loosed shee caused herselfe to be fast bound vnto him by the middle And thus for the ease of her husbands life shee was contented to forgoe her owne She was but of meane place and low fortune and amidde such condition of people it is not so strange to see some parts of rare vertue and exemplare goodnesse extremaper illos Iustitia excedens terris vestigia fecit Iustice departing from the earth did take Of them her leave through them last passage make The other two are noble and rich where examples of vertue are rarely lodged Arria wife vnto Cecinna Paetus a man that had beene consul was mother
for all his enemies threates without speaking one word returned onely an assured sterne and disdainefull countenance vpon him which silent obstinacie Alexander noting said thus vnto himselfe What would hee not bend his knee could he not vtter one suppliant voyce I will assuredly vanquish his silence and if I can not wrest a word from him I will at least make him to sobbe or groane And converting his anger into rage commanded his heeles to bee through-pierced and so all alive with a cord through them to be torne maâ—gled and dismembred at a carts taile May it be the force of his courage was so naturall and peculiar vnto him that because he would no-whit admire him he respected him the lesse or deemed he it so proper vnto himselfe that in his height he could not without the spight of an envious passion endure to see it in an other or was the naturall violence of his rage incapable of any opposition surely had it received any restraint it may be supposed that in the ransacking and desolation of the Citie of Thebes it should have felt the same in seeing so many Worthies lost and valiant men put to the sword as having no meanes of publike defence for aboue six thousand were slaine and massacred of which not one was seene either to runne away or beg for grace But on the contrary some here and there seeking to affront and endevouring to check their victorious enemies vrging and provoking them to force them die an honourable death Not one was seene to yeelde and that to his last gaspe did not attempt to revenge himselfe and with all weapons of dispaire with the death of some enemie comfort and sweeten his owne miserie Yet could not the affliction of their vertue find any ruth or pitie nor might one day suâ—â—ice to glut or asswage his revengefull wrath This burcherous slaughter continued vnto the last drop of any remaining blood where none were spared but the vnarmed and naked the aged and impotent the women and children that so from amongst them they might get thirtie thousand slaves The second Chapter Of Sadnesse or Sorrowe NO man is more free from this passion than I for I neither love nor regard it albeit the world hath vndertaken as it were vpon covenant to grace it with a particular favour Therewith they adorne age vertue and conscience Oh foolish and base ornament The Italians have more properly with it's name entitled malignitie for it is a qualitie ever hurtfull ever sottisâ— and as ever base and coward the Stoikes inhibit their Elders and Sages to be therewith tainted or have any feeling of it But the Storie saith that Psamneâ—icus king of Aegypt hauing been defeated and taken by Cambises king of Persia seeing his owne daughter passe before him in base and vile aray being sent to draw water from a well his friends weeping wailing about him he with his eies fixed on the ground could not be mooved to vtter one word and shortly after beholding his sonne led to execution held still the same vndaunted countenance but perceiving a familiar friend of his haled amongst the captives he began to beat his head and burst forth into extreame sorrow This might well be compared to that which one of our Princes was lately seene to doe who being at Trent and receiving newes of his elder brothers death but such a brother as on him lay all the burthen and honour of his house and shortly after tidings of his yonger brothers decease who was his second hope and having with an vnmatched countenance and exemplar constancie endured these two affronts it fortuned not long after that one of his servants dying he by this latter accident suffered himselfe to be so far transported that quitting and forgetting his former resolution he so abandoned himselfe to all maner of sorrow and griefe that some argued only this last mischance had toucht him to the quicke but verily the reason was that being otherwise full and over plunged in sorrow the least surcharge brake the bounds and barres of patience The like might I say be judged of our storie were it not it followeth that Cambises inquiring of Psamneticus why he was nothing distempered at the misfortune of his sonne and daughter he did so impatiently beare the disaster of his friend It is answered he Because this last displeasure may be manifested by weeping whereas the two former exceede by much all meanes and compasse to bee expressed by teares The invention of that ancient Painter might happily fitte this purpose who in the sacrifice of Iphigenia being to represent the griefe of the by-standers according to the qualitie and interest each one bare for the death of so faire so yong and innocent a Lady having ransacked the vtmost skill and effects of his art when he came to the Virgins father as if no countenance were able to represent that degree of sorrow he drew him with availe over his face And that is the reason why our Poets faine miserable Niobe who first having lost seaven sonnes and immediately as many daughters as one over-burthened with their losses to have beene transformed into a stone Diriguisse malis And grew as hard as stone By miserie and moane Thereby to expresse this mournfull silent stupiditie which so doth pierce vs when accidents surpassing our strength orewhelme vs. Verily the violence of a griefe being extreame must needs astonie the mind hinder the liberty of her actions As it hapneth at the sudden alarum of some bad tidings when wee shall feele ourselves surprised benummed and as it were deprived of al motion so that the soule bursting afterward forth into teares and complaints seemeth at more ease and libertie to loose to cleare and dilate it selfe Et via vix tandem voci laxata dolore est And scarse at last for speach By griefe was made a breach In the warres which king Ferdinando made against the widow of Iohn king of Hungaria about Buda a man at armes was particularly noted of all men forsomuch as in a certaine skirmish he had shewed exceeding prowesse of his body and though vnknowne beeing slaine was highly commended and much bemoaned of all but yet of none so greatly as of a Germane Lord called Raisciac as he that was amased at so rare vertue his body being recovered and had off this Lord led by a common curiositie drew neere vnto it to see who it might be and having caused him to be disarmed perceived him to be his owne sonne which knowne did greatly augment the compassion of all the camp he only without framing word or closing his eyes but earnestly viewing the dead body of his sonne stood still vpright till the vehemencie of his sad sorrow having suppressed and choaked his vitall spirits fell'd him starke dead to the ground Chipuo dir com'egli arde è in piâ—ciâ—l fâ—oÌ„co He that can say how he doth frie In pettie-gentle flames doth lie say those Lovers that would liuely
grose imposture of religions wherwith so many great nations and so many woorthy sufficient men have bin besotted and drunken For being a thing beyond the compasse of our humane reason it is more excusable if a man that is not extraordinarily illuminated thereunto by divine favour do loose mis-carrie himselfe therin or of other opinions is there any so strange that custome hath not planted and established by lawes in what regions soever it hath thought good And this auncient exclamation is most just Non pudet physicum id est speculatorem venatorémque naturae ab animis consuetudine imbutis quaerere testimonium veritatis Is it not a shame for a naturall Philosopher that is the watch-man and hunts-man of nature to seeke the testimonie of truth from mindes endued and double dide with custome I am of opinion that no fantasie so mad can fall into humane imagination that meetes not with the example of some publike custome and by consequence that our reason doth not ground and bring to a stay There are certaine people that turne their backs towards those they salute and never looke him in the face whom they would honour or worship There are others who when the King spitteth the most favoured Ladie in his court stretched forth her hand and in an other countrey where the noblest about him stoupe to the ground to gather his ordure in some fine linnen cloth Let vs here by the way insert a tale A French Gentleman was ever woont to blow his nose in his hand a thing much against our fashion maintaining his so doing and who in wittie jeasting was very famous He asked me on a time what priviledge this filthie excrement had that wee should have a daintie linnen cloth or handkercher to receive the same and which is woorse so carefully folde it vp and keepe the same about vs which should be more loathsome to ones stomacke than to see it cast away as wee doe all our other excrements and filth Mee thought he spake not altogether without reason and custome had taken from me the discerning of this strangenesse which being reported of an other countrie we deeme so hideous Miracles are according to the ignorance wherein we are by nature and not according to natures essence vse brings the â—ight of our judgement a sleepe The barbarous heathen are nothing more strange to vs then we are to them nor with more occasion as every man would avow if after he had traveiled through these farre-fetcht examples hee could stay himselfe vpon the discourses and soundly conferre them Humane reason is a tincture in like waight and measure infused into all our opinions and customes what form soever they be of infinite in matter infinite in diversitie But I will returne to my theame There are certaine people where except his wife and children no man speaketh to the King but through a trunke Another nation where virgines shew their secret parts openly and married women diligently hide and cover them To which custome this fashion vsed in other places hath some relation where chastitie is nothing regarded but for marriage sake and maidens may at their pleasure lie with whom they list and being with childe they may without feare of accusation spoyle and cast their children with certaine medicaments which they haue onely for that purpose And in another country if a Marchant chance to marrie all other Marchants that are bidden to the wedding are bound to lie with the bride before her husband and the more they are in number the more honor and commendation is hers for constancie and capacitie the like if a gentleman or an officer marrie and so of all others except it be a day-labourer or some other of base condition for then must the Lord or Prince lie with the bride amongst whom notwithstanding this abusive custome loyaltie in married women is highly regarded and held in speciall account during the time they are married Others there are where publike brothel-houses of men are kept and where open marte of marriages are ever to be had where women goe to the warres with their husbands and have place not onely in fight but also in commaund where they doe not onely weare jewels at their noses in their lips and cheekes and in their toes but also big wedges of golde through their pappes and buttocks where when they eate they wipe their fingers on their thighs on the bladder of their genitories and the soles of their feet where not children but brethren and nephewes inherite and in some places the nephewes onely except in the succession of the Prince Where to order the communitie of goods which amongst them is religiously observed certaine Soveraigne Magistrates have the generall charge of husbandry and telling of the lands and of the distribution of the fruites according to every mans neede where they howle and weepe at their childrens deaths and joy and feast at their olde mens decease Where ten or twelve men lie all in one bed with all their wives where such women as loose their husbands by any violent death may marrie againe others not where the condition of women is so detested that they kill all the maiden children so soone as they are borne and to supply their naturall neede they buy women of their neighbours Where men may at their pleasure without alledging any cause put away their wives but they what just reason soever they have can never put away their husbands Where husbands may lawfully sell their wives if they be barren Where they cause dead bodies first to be boyled and then to be brayed in a morter so long till it come to a kind of pap which afterward they mingle with their wine and so drinke it Where the most desired sepulcher that some wish for is to be devoured of dogges and in some places of birds Where some thinke that blessed soules live in all liberty in certaine pleasant fields stored with all commodities and that from them proceedes that Echo which we heare Where they fight in the water and shute exceeding true with their bowes as they are swimming Where in signe of subjection men must raise their shoulders and stoope with their heads and put off their shooes when they enter their kings houses Where Eunuches that have religious women in keeping because they shall not be loved have also their noses and lips cut off And Priests that they may the better acquaint themselves with their Demons and take their Oracles put out their eyes Where euery man makes himselfe a God of what he pleaseth the hunter of a Lion or a Fox the fisher of a certaine kinde of Fish and frame themselves Idols of every humane action or passion the Sunne the Moone and the earth are their chiefest Gods the forme of swearing is to touch the ground looking vpon the Sunne and where they eate both flesh and fish raw Where thâ— greatest oath is to sweare by the name of some deceased man that hath lived in
good reputat on in the countrie touching his grave with the hand Where the new-yeares gifts that Kings send vnto Princes their vassals euery yeare is some fire which when it is brought all the old fire is cleane put out of which new fire all the neighbouring people are bound vpon paine laesae matestatis to fetch for their vses Where when the King which often commeth to passe wholy to give himselfe vnto devotion giveth over his charge his next successor is bound to doe like and convaieth the right of the kingdome vnto the third heire Where they diversifie the forme of policie according as their affaires seeme to require and where they depose their Kings when they thinke good and appoint them certaine ancient grave men to vndertake and wealde the kingdoms government which sometimes is also committed to the communaltie Where both men and women are equally circumcised and alike baptised Where the Souldier that in one or divers combate hath presented his King with seven enemies heads is made noble Where somelive vnder that so raâ—e and vnsociable opinion of the mortalitie of soules Where women are brought a bed without paine of griefe Where women on both their legs weare greavs of Copper and if a louse bite them they are bound by duty of magnanimitie to bite it againe and no maide dare marrie except she have first made offer of her Virginitie to the King Where they salute one another laying the forefinger on the ground and then lifting it vp toward heaven where all men beare burthens vpon their head and women on their shoulders Where women pisse standing and men cowring Where in signe of true friendshippe they send one another some of their owne bloud and offer insense to men which they intend to honour as they doe to their Gods where not onely kindred and consanguinitie in the fourth degree but in any furthest off can by no meanes be tolerated in marriages where children sucke till they be foure and sometimes twelve yeares olde in which place they deme it a dismall thing to give a childe sucke the first day of his birth Where fathers have the charge to punish their male-children and mothers only maide-children and whose punishment is to hang them vp by the feete and so to smoke them Where women are circumcised where they eat all manner of hearbes without other distinction but to refuse those that have ill savour where all things are open and how faire and rich soever their houses be they have neither doores nor windowes nor any chests to locke yet are all theeves much more severely punished there than any where else where as monkies doe they kill lice with their teeth and thinke it a horrible matter to see them crusht between their naâ—les where men so long as they live never cut their haire nor paire their nales another place where they only paire the nailes of their right hand and those of the left are never cut but very curiously maintained where they indevour to cherish all the haire growing on the right side as long as it wil grow and very often shave away that of the left side where in some Provinces neere vnto vs some women cherish their haire before and othersome that behinde and shave the contrarie where fathers lend their children and husbands their wives to their guests so that they pay ready mony where men may lawfully get their mothers with childe where fathers may lie with their daughters and with their sonnes where in solemne assemblies and banquets without any distinction of bloud or alliance men will lend one another their children In some places men feede vpon humane flesh and in others where it is deemed an office of pietie in children to kill their fathers at a certaine age in other places fathers appoint what children shall live and be preserved and which die and be cast out whilest they are yet in their mothers wombe where old husbands lend their wives to yong men for what vse soever they please In other places where all women are common without sinne or offence yea in some places where for a badge of honour they weare as many frienged tasâ—els fastened to the skirt of their garment as they have laine with severall men Hath not custome also made a severall common-wealth of women hath it not taught them to manage Armes to leavie Armies to marshall men and to deliver battles And that which strickt-searching Philosophie could never perswade the wisest doth she not of her owne naturall instinct teach it to the grofest headed vulgare For we know whole nations where death is not only condemned but cherished where children of seven yeares of age without changing of countenance or shewing any â—igne of dismay endured to be whipped to death where riches and worldly pelfe was so despised and holden so contemptible that the miserablest and need est wretch of a Citie would have scorned to stoope for a pursefull of gold Have we not heard of divers most fertile regions plenteously yeelding al maner of necessary victuals where neverthelesse the most ordinary cates and daintiest dishes were but bread water-cresses water Did not custome worke this wonder in Chios that during the space of seven hundred yeres it was never found or heard of that any woman or maiden had her honor or honestie called in question And to conclude there is nothing in mine opinion that either she doth not or can not and with reason doth Pindarus as I have heard say Call her the Queene and Empresse of all the world He that was met beating of his father answered It was the custome of his house that his father had so beaten his grandfather and he his great-grandfather and pointing to his sonne said this child shall also beate mee when he shall come to my age And the father whom the sonne haled and dragged through thicke and thinne in the streete commanded him to stay at a certaine doore for himselfe had dragged his father no further which were the bounds of the hereditarie and iniurious demeanours the children of that family were wont to shew their fathers By custome saith Aristotle as often as by sicknesse doe we see women tug and teare their haires bite their nailes and eate cole and earth and more by custome then by nature doe men meddle and abuse themselves with men The lawes of conscience which we say to proceede from nature rise and proceede of custome every man holding in speciall regard and inward veneration the opinions approved and customes received about him can not without remorse leave them nor without applause applie himselfe vnto them when those of Creete would informer ages curse any man they besought the Gods to engage him in some bad custome But the chiefest effect of her power is to seize vpon vs and so to entangle vs that it shall hardly lie in vs to free our selves from her holde-fast and come into our wits againe to discourse and reason of her ordinances verily
certè semper amabo O brother reft from miserable me All our delight 's are perished with thee Which thy sweete love did nourish in my breath Thou all my good hast spoiled in thy death With thee my soule is all and whole enshrinde At whose death I have cast out of minde All my mindes sweete-meates studies of this kinde Never shall I heare thee speake speake with thee Thee brother then life dearer never see Yet shalt thou ever be belou'd of mee but let-vs a little heare this yong man speake being but sixteene yeares of age Because I have found this worke to have since bin published and to an ill end by such as seeke to trouble and subvert the state of our common-wealth nor caring whether they shall reforme it or no which they have fondly inserted among other writings of their invention I have revoked my intent which was to place-it here And lest the Authors memory should any way be interessed with those that could not thoroughly know his opinions and actions they shall vnderstand that this subject was by him treated of in his infancie onely by way of exercise as a subject common bare-worne and wyer-drawne in a thousand bookes I will never doubt but he beleeved what he writ and writ as he thought for hee was so conscientious that no lie did ever passe his lips yea were it but in matters of sport or play and I know that had it bin in his choyce he would rather have bin borne at Venice than at Sarlac and good reason why But he had an other maxime deepely imprinted in his minde which was carefully to obey and religiously to submit himselfe to the lawes vnder which he was borne There was never a better Citizen nor more affected to the welfare and quietnesse of his countrie nor a sharper enemie of the changes innovations newfangles and hurly-burlies of his time He would more willingly have imployed the vtmost of his endevours to extinguish and suppresse then to favour or further them His minde was modelled to the patterne of other best ages But yet in exchange of his serious treatise I will here set you downe another more pithie materiall and of more consequence by him likewise produced in that tender age The eight and twentieth Chapter Nine and twentie Sonnets of Steven de la Boetie to the Ladie of Grammont Countesse of Guissen MAdame I present you with nothing that is mine either because it is already yours or because I finde nothing therein woorthy of you But wheresoever these verses shall be seene for the honor which thereby shall redound to them by having this glorious Corisand◠of Andoms for their guide I thought it good to adorne them with your woorthie name I have deemed this present fit for your Ladiship forsomuch as there are few Ladies in France that either can better judge of Poesie or fitter apply the vse of it then your woorthy selfe and since in these her drooping daies none can give it more life or vigorous spirit than you by those rich and high-tuned accords wherewith amongst a million of other rar◠beauties nature hath richly graced you Madame these verses deserve to be cherished by you and I am perswaded you will be of mine opinion which is that none have come out of Gaskonie that either had more wit or better inuention and that witnesse to have proceeded from a richer vaine And let no jealousie possesse you inasmuch as you have but the remainder of that which whilome I caused to be printed vnder the name of my Lord of Foix your woorthy noble and deare kinsman For truely these have a kinde of livelinesse and more piercing Emphasis than any other and which I can not well expresse as hee that made them in his Aprils youth and when he was enflamed with a noble-glorious flame as I will one day tell your honour in your care The other were afterward made by him in favour of his wife at what time he wooed and solicited her for mariage and began to feele I wot not what martiall-chilnesse and husbands-coldnesse And I am one of those whose opinion is that divine Poesie doth no where fadge so well and so effectually applaudeth as in a youthfull wanton and vnbridled subject The above-mentioned nine and twentie Sonnes of Boetie and that in the former impressions of this booke were heere set downe have since beene printed with his other works The nine and twentieth Chapter Of Moderation AS if our sense of feeling were infected wee corrupt by our touching things that in themselves are faire and good We may so seize on vertue that if we embrace it with an over greedie and violent desire it may become vitious Those who say There is never excesse in vertue because it is no longer vertue if any excesse be in it doe but jeast at words Insani sapiens nomen ferat aequus iniqui Vltra quà m satis est virtut em si pet at ipsam A wise man mad just vnjust may I name More then is meet ev'n vertue if he claime Philosophie is a subtile consideration A man may love vertue too much and excessively demeane himselfe in a good action Gods holy word doth apply it selfe to this byase Be not wiser then you should and be soberly wise I have seene some great men blemish the reputation of their religion by shewing themselves religious beyond the example of men of their qualitie I love temperate and indifferent natures Immoderation towards good if it offend me not it amazeth and troubleth me how I should call it Neither Pausanias his mother who gave the first instruction and for her sonnes death brought the first stone Not Posthumius the Dictator that brought his owne sonne to his end whom the heate and forwardnesse of youth had haply before his ranke made to charge his enemies seeme so just as strange vnto me And I neither love to perswade or follow so savage and so deare a vertue The Archer that overshootes his marke doth no otherwise than he that shooteth short Mine eies trouble me as much in climbing vp toward a great light as to goe downe in the darke Caliscles in Plato saith The extremitie of Philosophie to bee hurtfull and perswades no man to wade further into it then the bounds of profit And that taken with moderation it is pleasant and commodious but in the end it makes a man wilde and vicious disdainfull of religion and of common lawes an enemie of civill conversation a foe to humane sensualitie and worldly pleasures incapable of all politike administration and vnfit to assist others or to helpe himselfe apt to be without revenge buffeted and bassled He saith true for in her excesse she enthralleth our naturall libertie and by an importunate wile diverts vs from the faire and plaine path which nature traceth out for vs. The love we beare to women is very lawfull yet doth Divinitie bridle and restraine the same I remember to have read in Saint Thomas in a
perswaded his Master could erre We reade of those of the Towne of Arras at what time king Lewis the eleventh tooke it that amongst the common people many were found who rather than they would say God save the King suffered themselves to be hanged And of those base-minded jesters or buffons some have bin seene that even at the point of death would never leave their jesting and scoffing He whom the heads-man threw off from the Gallowes cried out Rowe the Gally which was his ordinary by-word Another who being at his last gaspe his friends had laid him vpon a pallet alongest the fire-side there to breathe his last the Physitian demanding where his griefe pained him Answered betweene the bench and the fire And the Priest to give him the last vnction seeking for his feet which by reason of his sickenesse were shruncken vp he told him My good friend you shall finde them at my legges ends if you looke wel To another that exhorted him to recommend himself to God he asked who is going to him And the follow answering your selfe shortly If it be his good pleasure I would to God it might be to morrow night replied he Recommend but your selfe to him said the other and you shall quickly be there It is best then answered he that my selfe carry mine owne commendations to him In the Kingdome of Narsinga even at this day their Priests wives are buried alive with the bodies of their dead husbands All other wives are burnt at their husbands funerals not only constantly but cheerfully When their king dieth his wives his concubines his minions together with all his officers and servants which make a whole people present themselves so merrily vnto the fire wherein his bodie is burned that they manifestly seemâ— to esteeme-it as a great honour to accompanie their deceased master to his ashes During our last warres of Millaine and so many takings losses miseries and calamities of that Citie the people impatient of so manie changes of fortune tooke such a resolution vnto death that I have heard my father say he kept accompt of five and twentie chiefe housholders that in one weeke made them-selves away An accident which hath some affinitie with that of the Xanthians who being besieged by Brutus did pell-mell-headlong men women and children precipitate them-selues into so furious a desire of death that nothing can be performed to avoid death which these did not accomplish to avoid life So that Brutus had much adoe to save a verie small number of-them Euery opinion is of sufficient power to take hold of a man in respect of life The first Article of that couragious oath which the Countrie of Greece did sweare and keep in the Median warre was that every particular man should rather change his life vnto death than the Persian lawes for theirs What a world of people are daily seene in the Turkish warres and the Graecians more willing to embrace a sharpe a bitter and violent death then to be vncircumcized and baptized An example whereof no religion is incapable The Kings of Castile having banished the Iewes out of their Countrie king Iohn of Portugall for eight crownes a man sold them a retreit in his dominion for a certaine time vpon condition the time expired they should avoid and he find them ships to transport them into Affrike The day of their departure come which past it was expressed that such as had not obeyed should for-ever remaine bond-slaves shippes were provided them but very scarse and sparingly And those which were imbarked were so rudely churlishly and villainously vsed by the passengers and marriners who besides infinit other indignites loitred so long on the seas now forward now backward that in the end they had consumed all their victuals and were forced if they would keepe themselves alive to purchase some of them at so excessive a rate and so long that they were never set a shore til they had brought them so bare that they had nothing lâ—â—t them but their shirts The newes of this barbarous inhumanity being reported to those that were yet on land most of them resolved to yeeld and continue bound-slaves whereof some made a semblance to change their religion Emanuel that immediately succeeded Iohn being come to the Crowne first set them at libertie then changing his minde commanded them to depart out of his dominions and for their passages assigned them three ports He hoped as Bishop Osorius reporteth a Latine Historian of our ages not to be despised that the favor of the libertie to which he had restored them having failed to convert them vnto Christianity the difficultie to commit themselves vnto marriners and pyrates robberies to leave a Country where they were setled with great riches for to go seeke vnknowen and strange regions would bring them into Portugall againe But seeing all his hopes frustrate that they purposed to passe away hee cut off two of the three ports he had promised them that so the tedious distance and incommoditie of the passage might retaine some or rather that he might have the meane to assemble them all together in one place for a fitter opportunitie of the execution he intended which was this Hee appointed that all their children vnder fourteene yeeres of age should be taken from out the handes of their parents and remooved from their sight and conversation to some place where they might be brought-vp and instructed in our religion He saith that this effect caused an horrible spectacle The naturall affection betweene the fathers and the children moreover the zeale vnto their ancient faith striving against this violent ordinance Diverse fathers and mothers were ordinarily seene to kill themselues and with a more cruell example through compassion and love to throw their yong children into pittes and welles thereby to shunne the Law The terme which he had prefixed them being expired for want of other meanes they yeelded vnto thraldome Some became Christians from whose faith and race even at this day for it is a hundred yeares since few Portugalles assure themselves although custome and length of time be much more forcible counsellors vnto such mutations that any other compulsion In the Towne of Castelnaw Darry more then fifty Albigeois all heretikes at one time with a determined courage suffred themselves to be burned alive all in one same fire before they would recant disavow their opinions Quoties non modò ductores nostri sed vniversi etiam exercitus ad non dubiam mortem concurrerunt How often have not only our Leader saith Tully but also our whole armies run roundly together to an vndoubted death I have seene one of my samiliar friends runne furiously on death with such and so deepely in his heart rooted affection by diverse visages of discourse which I could never suppresse in him and to the first that offered it selfe masked with a lustre of honour without apprehending any sharpe or violent end therein to precipitate himsefe We have many examples
were easie to be made As is seene in yoong Cato He that toucht but one step of it hath touched all It is an harmony of well according tunes and which cannot contradict it self With vs it is cleane contrary so many actions so many particular judgements are there requir'd The surest way in mine opinion were to refer them vnto the next circumstances without entering into further search and without concluding any other consequence of them During the late tumultuous broiles of our mangled estate it was told me that a yoong woman not farre from mee had head-long cast hir selfe out of a high window with intent to kill hirselfe onely to avoide the ravishment of a rascaly-base souldier that lay in hir house who offred to force hir and perceiving that with the fall she had not killed hirselfe to make an end of hir enterprize she would have cutte hir owne throate with a knife but that she was hindered by some that came-into her Neverthelesse having sore wounded hirselfe she voluntarily confessed that the Souldier had yet but vrged hir with importunate requests suing-solicitations and golden bribes but she feared he would in the end have obtained his purpose by compulsion by whose earnest speaches resolute countenance and gored bloud a true testimony of hir chaste vertue she might appeare to be the lively paterne of an other Lucrece yet know I certainly that both before that time and afterward she had beene enjoyed of others vpon easier composition And as the common saying is Faire and soft as squemish-honest as she seemes although you misse of your intent conclude not rashly an inviolable chastitie to be in your Mistresse For a groome or a horse-keeper may find an houre to thrive in and a dog hath a day Antigonus having taken vppon him to favour a Souldier of his by reason of his vertue and valour commaunded his Phisicians to have great care of him and see whether they could recover him of a lingring and inward disease which had long tormented him who being perfectly cured he afterward perceived him to be nothing so earnest and diligent in his affaires demaunded of him how he was so changed from himselfe and become so ocwardish your selfe good sir answered he have made me so by ridding me of those in firmities which so did grive me that I made no accompt of my life A Souldier of Lucullus having by his enemies been robbed of all he had to revenge himself vndertooke a notable and desperat atempt vpon them and having recovered his losses Lucullus conceived a very good opinion of him and with the greatest shewes of assured trust and loving kindnesse he could bethinke himselfe made especiall accompt of him and in any daungerous enterprize seemed to trust and employ him onely Verbis quae timido quoque possent addere mentem With words which to a coward might Adde courage had he any spright Imploy said he vnto him some wretch-stripped and robbed souldier quantumvis rusticus ibit Ibit eò quo vis qui zonam perdidit inquit None is saith he so clownish but will-on Where you will have him if his purse be gone and absolutely refused to obey him When we reade that Mahomet having outragiouslie rated Chasan chiefe leader of his Ianizers because he saw his troup wel-nigh defeated by the Hungarians and hee to behave himselfe but faintly in the fight Chasan without making other reply alone as he was and without more adoe with his weapon in his hand rushed furiously in the thickest throng of his enemies that the first mette withall of whom hee was instantly slaine This may haply be deemed rather a rash conceit than a justification and a new spight then a naturall pâ—owes He whom you saw yesterday so boldly-venturous wonder not if you see him a dastardly meacoke to morrow next for either anger or necessitie company or wine a sodaine fury or the clang of a trumpet might rowze-vp his hart and stir vp his courage It is no hart nor courage so framed by discourse or deliberation These circumstances haue setled the same in him Therefore is it no marvell if by other contrary circumstance he become a craven and change coppy This supple variation and easie yeelding contradiction which is seene in vs hath made some to imagine that wee had two soules and others two faculties whereof every one as best she pleaseth accompanieth and doth agitate-vs the one towards good the other towards evil For somuch as such a rough diversitie cannot wel sort and agree in one simple subject The blast of accidents doth not only remove me according to his inclination for besides I remove and trouble my selfe by the instability of my posture and whosoever looketh narrowly about himselfe shall hardly see himselfe twise in one same state Somtimes I give my soule one visage and sometimes another according vnto the posture or side I lay hir in If I speake diversly of my selfe it is because I looke diversly vpon my selfe All contrarieties are found in hir according to some turne or remooving and in some fashion or other Shamefast bashfull insolent chaste luxurious peevish pratling silent fond doting labourious nice delicate ingenious slowe dull froward humorous debonaire wise ignorant false in wordes true speaking both liberall co vetous and prodigall All these I perceive in some measure or other to bee in mee accorning as I stirre or turne my selfe And whosoever shall heedefully survay and consider him selfe shall finde this volubilitie and discordance to be in himselfe yea and in his very judgement I have nothing to say entirely simply and with soliditie of my selfe without confusion disorder blending mingling and in one word Distinguo is the most vniversall part of my logike Although I ever purpose to speake good of good and rather to enterprete those things that will beare it vnto a good sense yet is it that the strangenes of our condition admitteth that we are often vrged to doe wel by vice it selfe if wel doing were not judged by the intention only Therefore may not a couragious acte conclude a man to be valiant He that is so when just occasion serveth shall ever be so and vpon all occasions If it were an habitude of vertue and not a sodaine humour it would make a man equally resolute at all assayes in all accidents Such alone as in company such in a single combate as in a set battell For whatsoever some say valour is all alike and not one in the street or towne and another in the campe or field As couragiously should a man beare a sickenes in his bed as a hurt in the field and feare death no more at home in his house then abroad in an assault We should not then see one same man enter the breach or charge his enemie with an assured and vndouted fiercenesse and afterward having escaped that to vexe to grive and torment himselfe like vnto a seely woman or faint-hearted milke-soppe for the losse of a sute or death of a
refuseth this counsell as base and effeminate It is a receipt saith he which can never faile me and whereof a man should make no vse so long as there remaineth but one inch of hope That to live is sometimes constancie and valour That he will have his verie death serve his Countrie and by it shew an act of honour and of vertue Threicion then believed and killed himselfe Cleomenes did afterwards as much but not before he had tried and assayed the vtmost power of fortune All inconveniences are not so much worth that a man should die to eschue them Moreover there being so many suddaine changes and violent alterations in humane things it is hard to judge in what state or point we are justly at the end of our hope Sperat in sâ—va victus gladiator arena Sit licet infesto pollice turba minax The Fencer hopes though downe in lists he lie And people with turn'd hand threat's he must die All things saith an ancient Proverb may a man hope-for so long as he liveth yea but answereth Seneca wherefore shall I rather have that in minde that fortune can do all things for him that is living then this that fortune hath no power at all over him who knoweth how to die Ioseph is seen engaged in so an apparant-approaching danger with a whole nation against him that according to humane reason there was no way for him to escape notwithstanding being as he saith counselled by a friend of his at that instant to kill himselfe it fell out well for him to opinionate himselfe yet in hope for fortune beyond all mans discourse did so turne and change that accident that without any inconvenience at all he saw himselfe delivered whereas on the contrarie Brutus and Cassius by reason of the down-fall and rashnesse wherewith before due time and occasion they killed themselves did vtterly loose the reliques of the Roman libertie whereof they were protectors The Lord of Angâ—â—â—â— in the battell of Serisolles as one desperate of the combates successe which on his side went to wracke attempted twise to run himselfe through the throat with his rapier and thought by precipitation to bereave himselfe of the enjoying of so notable a victorie I have seen a hundred Hares save themselves even in the Gray-hounds jawes Aliquis carniâ—ics suo superstes suit Some man hath out-lived his Hang-man Multa dies variúsque labor mutabilis evi Rettulit in melius multos alterna revisens Lusit in solido rursus fortuna locavit Time and of turning age the divers straine Hath much to better brought fortunes turn'd traine Hath many mock't and set them fast againe Plinie saith there are but three sorts of sicknesses which to avoide a man may have some colour of reason to kill himselfe The sharpest of all is the stone in the bladder when the vrine is there stopped Seneca those onely which for long time disturbe and distract the offices of the minde To avoide a worse death some are of opinion a man should take it at his owne pleasure Democritus chiefe of the Aetolians being led captive to Rome found meanes to escape by night but being pursued by his keepers rather then he would be taken againe ran himselfe through with his Sword Antinoüs and Theodotus their Citie of Epirus being by the Romans reduced vnto great extreamitie concluded and perswaded all the people to kill themselves But the counsell rather to yeeld having prevailed they went to seeke their owne death and rushed amidst the thickest of their enemies with an intention rather to strike than to warde themselves The Iland of Gosa being some yeares since surprised and over run by the Turkes a certaine Sicilian therein dwelling having two faire daughters readie to be married killed them both with his owne hands together with their mother that came in to help them That done running out into the streets with a crossebow in one hand and a caliver in the other at two shoots slew the two first Turks that came next to his gates then resolutely drawing his Sword ran furiously among them by whom he was suddainly hewen in peeces Thus did he save himselfe from slavish bondage having first delivered his owne from-it The Iewish women after they had caused their children to be circumcized to avoide the crueltie of Antiochus did headlong precipitate themselves and them vnto death I have heard-it crediblie reported that a gentleman of good qualitie being prisoner in one of our Gaoles and his parents advertized that he should assuredly be condemned to avoide the infamie of so reproachfull a death appointed a Priest to tell him that the best remedie for his deliverie was to recommend himselfe to such a Saint with such and such a vow and to continue eight daies without taking any sustenance what faintnesse or weaknesse soever he should feel in himselfe He believed them and so without thinking on it was delivered both of life and danger Scribonia perswading Lâ—bo his nephew to kill himselfe rather then to expect the stroke of justice told him that for a man to preserve his owne life to put it into the hands of such as three or foure dayes after should come and seek it was even to dispatch another mans businesse and that it was no other then for one to serve his enemies to preserve his blood therewith to make food We read in the Bible that Nicanor the persecutor of Gods Law having sent his Satellites to apprehend the good old man Rasiâ—s for the honour of his vertue surnamed the father of the Iewes when that good man saw no other meanes left him his gate being burned and his enemies readie to lay hold on him chose rather then to fall into the hands of such villaines and be so basely abused against the honour of his place to die noblie and so smote himselfe with his owne sword but by reason of his haste having not throughly slaine himselfe he ran to throw himselfe downe from an high wall amongst the throng of people which making him roome he fell right vpon his head All which notwithstanding perceiving life to remaine in him he tooke heart againe and getting vp on his feet all goared with bloud and loaden with strokes making way through the prease came to a craggie and downe-steepie rocke where vnable to goe any further by one of his wounds with both his hands he pulled out his guts and tearing and breaking them cast them amongst such as pursued him calling and attesting the vengeance of God to light vpon them Of all violences committed against conscience the most in mine opinion to be avoyded is that which is offred against the chastitie of women forasmuch as there is naturally some corporall pleasure commixt with it And therefore the dissent cannot fully enough be joyned thereunto And it seemeth that force is in some sort intermixed with some will The ecclesiasticall Storie hath in especiall reverence sundrie such examples of devout persons who called for death
him all that was conspired and complotted against him which letter being delivered him whilst he â—ate at supper he deferred the opening of it pronouncing this by-word To morrow is a new day which afterward was turned to a Proverb in Greece A wise man may in mine opinion for the interest of others as not vnmannerly to breake companie like vnto Rusticus or not to discontinue some other affaire of importance remit and defer to vnderstand such newes as are brought him but for his owne private interest or particular pleasure namely if he be a man having publike charge if he regard his dinner so much that he will not break-it off or his sleepe that he will not interrupt-it to doe it is inexcusable And in former ages was the Consulare-place in Rome which they named the most honourable at the table because it was more free and more accessible for such as might casually come in to entertaine him that should be there placed Witnesse that though they were sitting at the board they neither omitted nor gave over the managing of other affaires and following of other accidents But when all is said it is verie hard chiefely in humane actions to prescribe so exact rules by discourse of reason that fortune do not sway and keepe her right in them The fifth Chapter Of Conscience MY brother the Lord of Bronze and my selfe during the time of our civill wars travelling one day together we fortuned to meet vpon the way with a Gentleman in outward semblance of good demeanour He was of our contrarie faction but forasmuch as he counterfaited himselfe otherwise I knew it not And the worst of these tumultuous intestine broyles is that the cards are so shuffled your enemie being neither by language nor by fashion nor by any other apparant marke distinguished from you nay which is more brought vp vnder the same lawes and customes and breathing the same ayre that it is a verie hard matter to avoide confusion and shun disorder Which consideration made me not a little fearfull to meet with our troopes especially where I was not knowne lest I should be vrged to tell my name and happly doe worse As other times before it had befalne me for by such a chance or rather mistaking I fortuned once to loose all my men and horses and hardly escaped my selfe and amongest other my losses and servants that were slaine the thing that most grieved me was the vntimely and miserable death of a yoong Italian Gentleman whom I kept as my Page and verie carefully brought-vp with whom dyed as forward as budding and as hopefull a youth as ever I saw But this man seemed so fearfully-dismaid and at every encounter of horsemen and passage by or through any Towne that held for the King I observed him to be so strangely distracted that in the end I perceived and ghessed they were but guiltie alarums that his conscience gave him It seemed vnto this seely man that all might apparantly both through his blushing selfe-accusing countenance and by the crosses he wore vpon his vpper garments read the 〈◊〉 intentions of his faint-hart Of such marvailous-working power is the sting of conscience which often induceth vs to bewray to accuse and to combate our selves and for want of other evidences shee produceth our selves against our selves Occultum quatsente animâ— tortore flagellum Their minde the tormentor of sinne Shaking an vnseen whip within The storie of Bessus the Poenian is so common that even children have it in their moâ—ths who being found fault withall that in mirth he had beaten-downe a neast of yong Sparrowes and then killed them answered he had great reason to do-it forsomuch as those yong birds ceased not â—alsely to accuse him to have mâ—rthered his father which parricide was never suspected to have been committed by him and vntill that day had layen secret but the revengefull suries of the conscience made the same partie to reveal it that by all right was to doe penance for so hatefull and vnnaturall a murther Hesiodus correcteth the saying of Plato That punishment doth commonly succeed the guilt and follow sinne at hand for he affirmeth that it rather is borne at the instant and together with sinne it selfe and they are as twinnes borne at one birth together Whosoever expects punishment suffereth the same and whosoever deferveth it he doth expect it Impâ—eâ—se doth invent and iniquitie dooth frame torments against it selfe Malum consilium consultori pessimum Bad counsell is worst for the counceller that gives the counsell Even as the Waspe stingeth and offendeth others but hir selfe much more for in hurting others she looseth hir force and sting for ever vitásque in vulnere ponunt They while they others sting Death to themselves doe bring The Canâ—harides have some part in them which by a contrarietie of nature serveth as an antidot or counterpoison against their poison so likewise as one taketh pleasure in vice there is a certaine contrarie displeasure engendred in the conscience which by sundrie irksome and painfull imaginations perplexeth and tormenteth vs both waking and asleep Quippe vbi se multi per somnia saepe loquentes Aut morbo delirantes procraxe ferantur Et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse Many in dreames oft speaking or vnhealed In sicknesse raving have themselves revealed And brought to light their sinnes long time concealed Apollodorus dreamed he saw himselfe first flead by the Scythians and then boyled in a pot and that his owne heart murmured saying I onely have caused this mischiefe to light vpon thee Epicurus was wont to say that no lurking hole can shroud the wicked for they can never assure themselves to be sufficiently hidden sithence conscience is ever readie to disclose them to themselves prima est haec vlâ—io quód se Iudice nemo nâ—cens absolvitur This is the first revenge no guiltie mind Is quitted though it selfe be judge assign'd Which as it doth fill vs with feare and doubt so doth it store vs with assurance and trust And I may boldly say that I have waded through many dangerous hazards with a more vntired pace onely in consideration of the secret knowledge I had of mine owne will and innocencie of my desseignes Conscia mens vt cuique sua est ita concipit intra Pectora pro facto spèmque metúmque suo As each mans minde is guiltie so doth he Inlie breed hope and feare as his deeds be Of examples there are thousands It shall suffice vs to alleage three onely and all of one man Scipio being one day accused before the Romane people of an vrgent and capitall accusation in stead of excusing himselfe or flattering the Iudges turning to them he said It will well beseeme you to vndertake to judge of his head by whose meanes you have authoritie to judge of all the world The same man another time being vehemently vrged by a Tribune of the people who charged him with sundrie imputations in
we see them following vs at our heeles supposing they solicite vs to be gone hence And if we were to feare that since the order of things beareth that they cannot indeede neither be nor live but by our being and life we should not meddle to be fathers As for mee I deeme it a kind of cruelty and injustice not to receive them into the share and society of our goods and to admit them as Partners in the vnderstanding of our domesticall affaires if they be once capable of it and not to cut off and shut vp our commodities to provide for theirs since we have engendred them to that purpose It is meere injustice to see an old crazed sinnow-shronken and nigh dead father sitting alone in a Chimny-corner to enjoy so many goods as would suffice for the preferment and entertainment of many children and in the meane while for want of meanes to suffer them to loose their best daies and yeares without thrusting them into publike service and knowledge of men whereby they are often cast into dispaire to seeke by some way how vnlawfull soever to provide for their necessaries And in my daies I have seene divers yong-men of good houses so given to stealing and filching that no correction could divert them from it I know one very well alied to whom at the instance of a brother of his a most honest gallant and vertuous Gentleman I spake to that purpose who boldly answered and confessed vnto me that onely by the rigor and covetise of his father he had beene forced and driuen to fall into such lewdnesse and wickednesse And even at that time he came from stealing certaine jewels from a Lady in whose bed-chamber he fortuned to come with certaine other Gentlemen when she was rising and had almost beene taken He made me remember a tale I had heard of an other Gentleman from his youth so fashioned and inclined to this goodly trade of pilfering that comming afterward to be heire and Lord of his owne goods resolved to giue over that manner of life could notwithstanding if he chanced to come neere a shop where he saw any thing he stood in neede of not chuse but steale the same though afterward he would ever send mony and pay for it And I have seene diverse so inured to that vice that amongst their companions they would ordinarily steale such things as they would restore againe I am a Gascoine and there is no vice wherein I have lesse skill I hate it somewhat more by complexion then I accuse it by discourse I doe not so much as desire another mans goods And although my Country-men be indeed somewhat more taxed with this fault then other Provinces of France yet have we seene of late daies and that sundry times men well borne and of good parentaeg in other parts of France in the hands of justice and lawfully convicted of many most horrible robberies I am of opinion that in regard of these debauches and lewd actions fathers may in some sort be blamed and that it is onely long of them And if any shall answer mee as did once a Gentleman of good worth and vnderstanding that he thriftily endevored to hoard vp riches to no other purpose nor to have any vse and commodity of them then to be honoured respected and suingly sought vnto by his friends and kinsfolkes and that age having bereaved him of all other forces it was the onely remedy he had left to maintaine himselfe in authority with his houshold and keepe him from falling into contempt and disdaine of all the world And truely according to Aristotle not onely old-age but each imbecility is the promoter and motive of couetousnesse That is something but it is a remedie for an evill whereof the birth should have beene hindered and breeding a voyded That father may truely be said miserable that holdeth the affection of his children tied vnto him by no other meanes then by the neede they have of his helpe or want of his assistance if that may be termed affection A man should yeeld himselfe respectable by vertue and sufficiency and amiable by his goodnesse and gentlenesse of maners The very cinders of so rich a matter have their value so have the bones and reliques of honourable men whom we hold in respect and reverence No age can be so crazed and drooping in a man that hath lived honourably but must needes prove venerable and especially vnto his children whose mindes ought so to be directed by the parents that reason and wisedome not necessity and neede nor rudenesse and compulsion may make them know and performe their duty errat longè mea quidem sententia Qui imperium credat esse gravius aut stabilius Vi quod fit quà m illud quod amicitia adiungitur In mine opinion he doth much mistake Who that command more graue more firme doth take Which force doth get then that which friendships make I vtterly condemne all maner of violence in the education of a yong spirit brought vp to honour and liberty There is a kinde of slavishnesse in churlish-rigor and servility in compulsion and I hold that that which can not be compaessed by reason wisedome and discretion can never be attained by â—orce and constraint So was I brought vp they tell mee that in all my youth I never felt rod but twice and that very lightly And what education I have had my selfe the same have I given my children But such is my ill hap that they die all very yong yet hath Leonora my onely daughter escaped this misfortune and attained to the age of six yeares and somewhat more for the conduct of whose youth and punishment of hir childisn faults the indulgence of hir mother applying it selfe very mildely vnto it was never other meanes vsed but gentle words And were my desire frustrate there are diverse other causes to take hold-of without reproving my discipline which I know to be just and naturall I would also have beene much more religious in that towards male-children not borne to serve as women and of a freer condition I should have loved to have stored their minde with ingenuity and liberty I have seene no other effects in rods but to make childrens mindes more remisâ—e or more maliciously head-strong Desire we to be loved of our children Will we remove all occasions from them to wish our death although no occasion of so horrible and vnnaturall wishes can either be just or excusable nullum scelus rationem habet no ill deede hath a good reason Let vs reasonably accommodate their life with such things as are in our power And therfore should not we marry so yoong that our age doe in a maner confound it selfe with theirs For this inconvenience doth vnavoidably cast vs into many difficulties and encombrances This I speake chiefly vnto Nobility which is of an idle disposition or loâ—tering condition and which as we say liveth onely by hir lands or rents for else where life standeth
to like purpose And Kings ought often to be put in minde of it to make them feele that this great charge which is given them of the commandement over so many men is no idle charge and that there is nothing may so justly distaste a subject from purting himselfe in paine and danger for the service of his Prince then therewhilst to see him given to lazinesse to base and vaine occupations and to have care of his conservation seeing him so carelesse of ours If any shall goe about to maintaine that it is better for a Prince to manage his warres by others then by himselfe Fortune will store him with sufficient examples of those whose Lieutenants have atchieved great enterprises and also of some whose presence would have beene more hurtfull then profitable But no vertuous and coragious Prince will endure to be entertained with so shamefull instructions Vnder colour of preserving his head as the statue of a saint for the good fortune of his estate they degrade him of his office which is altogether in military actions and declare him vncapable of it I know one would rather chuse to be beaten then sleepe whilst others fight for him and who without jelousie never saw his men performe any notable act in his absence And Selim the first had reason to say that he thought victories gotten in the masters absence not to be compleate So much more willingly would he have said that such a master ought to blush for shame who onely by his name should pretend any share in it having therevnto employed nothing but his thought and verbal direction Nor that since in such a busines the advises and commandements which bring honor are only those given in the field and even in the action No Pilote exerciseth his office standing stil The princes of Otomans race the chefest race in the world in warlike fortune have earnestly embraced this opinion And Baiazeth the second with his sonne who ammusing themselves about Sciences and other private home-matters neglected the same gave diverse prejudiciall blowes vnto their Empire And Amurath the third of that name who now raigneth following their example beginneth very well to feele their fortune Was it not the King of England Edward the third who spake these words of our King Charles the fifth There was never King that lesse armed himselfe and yet was never King that gave me so much to doe and put me to so many plunges He had reason to thinke it strange as an effect of fortune rather then of reason And let such as will number the Kings of Castile and Portugall amongst the warlike and magnanimous conquerors seeke for some other adherent then my selfe forsomuch as twelve hundred leagues from their idle residence they have made themselves masters of both Indias onely by the conduct and direction of their factors of whom it would be knowne whether they durst but goe and enjoy them in person The Emperor Iuhan said moreover that a Philosopher and gallant minded man ought not so much as breath that is to say not to give corporall necessities but what may not be refused them ever holding both minde and body busied about notable great and vertuous matters He was ashamed any man should see him spitte or sweat before people which is also said of the Lacedemonian youths and Xenphon reporeth it of the Persian forasmuch as he thought that continuall travel exercise and sobriety should have concocted and dried vp all such superfluities What Seneca saith shall not impertinently be alleaged here That the ancient Romanes kept their youth vpright and taught their children nothing that was to be learned sitting It is a generous desire to endevor to die both profitable and manlike But the effect consisteth not so much in our good resolution as in our good fortune A thousand have resolved to vanquish or to die fighting which have missed both the one and other Hurts or emprisonment crossing their desseigne and yeelding them a forced kinde of life There are diseases which vanquish our desires and knowledge Fortune should not have seconded the vanitie of the Romane Legions who by othe bound themselves either to die or conquer Victor Marce Fabi revertar ex acie Si fallo lovem patrem Gradiuumque Martem alâ—osque iratos inveco Deos. I will O Marcus Fabius returne conqueror from the armie If in this I deceive you I wish both great Iupiter and Mars and the other Gods offended with me The Portugalles report that in certaine places of their Indian conquests they found some Souldiers who with horrible execrations had damned themselves never to enter into any composition but either they would be killed or remaine victorious and in signe of their voweâ—ore their heads and beards shaven We may hazard and obstinate our selves long enough It seemeth that blowes shunne them who over-joyfully present themselves vnto them and vnwillingly reach those that overwillingly goe to meete them and corrupt their end Some vnable to loose his life by his adversaries force having assaied all possible meanes hath beene enforced to accomplish his resolution either to beare away the honor or not to carie away his life and even in the fury of the fight to put himselfe to death There are sundrie examples of it but nete this one Philistus chiefe Generall of yong Dionisius his navie against the Siracusans presented them the battle which was very sharply withstood their forces being alike wherein by reason of his prowesse he had the better in the beginning But the Siracusans flocking thicke and threefold about his gally to grapple and board him having performed many worthie exploytes with his owne person to riddâ— himselfe from them disparing of all escape with his owne hand deprived himselfe of that life which so lavishly and in vaine he had abandoned to his enemies hands Moleâ— Moluch King of Fez who not long since obtained that famous victorie against Sebastian King of Portugall a notable victorie by reason of the death of three Kings and transmission of so great a Kingdome to the crowne of Castile chansed to be grievously sicke at what time the Portugales with armed hand entred his dominions and afterward though hee foresaw it approching nearer vnto death empaired worse and worse Never did man more stoutly or more vigorously make vse of an vndanted courage than he He found himselfe very weake to endure the ceremonious pompe which the Kings of that Country at their entrance into he Camp are presented withall which according to their fashion is full of all magnificence and state and charged with all maner of action and therefore he resigned that honour to his brother yet resigned he nothing but the office of the chiefe Captaine Himselfe most gloriously executed and most exactly perfourmed all other necessarie duties and profitable Offices Holding his body laid along his cowch but his minde vpright and courage constant even to his last gaspe and in some sort after He might have vndermined his enemies who were fond-hardily
sorte our ancient French leaving the high Countries of Germanie came to possesse Gaule whence they displaced the first Inhabitants Thus grew that infinite confluence of people which afterward vnder Brennus and others over-ranne Italie Thus the Gothes and Vandalles as also the Nations which possesse Greece left their naturall countries to go where they might have more elbow-roome And hardly shall we see two or three corners in the worlde that have not felt the effect of such a remooving alteration The Romanes by such meanes erected their Colonies for perceiving their Cittie to growe over-populous they were wont to discharge it of vnnecessarie people which they sent to inhabite and manure the Countries they had subdued They have also sometimes maintained warre wiâ—h some of their enemies not onely thereby to keepe their men in breath lest Idlenesse the mother of Corruption should cause them some worse inconvenience Et patimur longae pacis mala saevior armis Luxuria incumbit We suffer of long peace the soking harmes On vs lies luxury more fierce then armes But also to let the Common-wealth bloud and somewhat to allay the over vehement heat of their youth to lop the sprigs and thin the branches of this over-spreading tree too much abounding in ranknesse and gaillardise To this purpose they maintained a good while war with the Carthaginians In the treaty of Bretigny Edward the third King of England would by no meanes comprehend in that generall peace the controversie of the Dutchie of Britany to the end he might have some way to disburthen himselfe of his men of war and that the multitude of English-men which he had emploied about the warres of France should not returne into England It was one of the reasons induced Philip our King to consent that his sonne Iohn should be sent to warre beyond the seas that so he might carry with him a great number of yong hot-blouds which were amongst his trained military men There are divers now adaies which will speake thus wishing this violent and burning emotion we see and feele amongst vs might be derived to some neighbour war fearing lest those offending humours which at this instant are predominant in our bodie if they be not diverted elsewhere will still maintaine our fever in force and in the end cause our vtter destruction And in truth a forraine warre is nothing so dangerous a disâ—ase as a civill But I will not beleeve that God would favour so vnjust an enterprise to offend and quarrell with others for our commodity Nil mihi tam valdè placeat Rhammusia virgo Quòd temerè invitis suscipiatur heris That fortune likes me not which is constrained By Lords vnwilling rashly entertained Notwithstanding the weaknesse of our condition doth often vrge vs to this necessity to vse bad meanes to a good end Lycurgus the most vertuous and perfect Law-giver that ever was devised this most vnjust fashion to instruct his people vnto temperance by force to make the Helotes which were their servants to be drunke that seeing them so lost and buried in wine the Spartanes might abhor the excesse of that vice Those were also more to be blamed who anciently allowed that criminall offendors what death soever they were condemned vnto should by Phisitians all alive be torne in pieces that so they might naturally see our inward parts and thereby establish a more assured certainty in their arte For if a man must needes erre or debauch himselfe it is more excusable if he doe it for his soules health then for his bodies good As the Romans trained vp and instructed their people to valour and contempt of dangers and death by the outragious spectacles of Gladiators and deadly fighting Fencers who in presence of them all combated mangled sliced and killed one another Quid vesani aliud sibi vult ars impia luds Quid mortes iuvenum quid sanguine pasta voluptas What else meanes that mad arte of impious fense Those yong-mens deaths that blood-fed pleasing sense which custome continued even vntill the time of Theodosius the Emperour Arripe delatam tua dux in tempora famam Quódque patris superest successor laudis habeto Nullus in vrbe cadat cuius sit poena voluptas Iam solis contenta feris infamis arena Nulla cruentatis homicidia ludat in armis The fame defer'd to your times entertaine Enherite praise which doth from Sire remaine Let none die to give pleasure by his paine Be shamefull Theaters with beastes content Not in goar'd armes mans slaughter represent Surely it was a wonderfull example and of exceeding benefit for the peoples institution to see dayly one or two hundred yea sometimes a thousand brace of men armed one against another in their presence to cut and hacke one another in pieces with so great constancy of courage that they were never seene to vtter one word of faintnesse or commiseration never to turne their backe nor so much as to shew a motion of demissenesse to avoide their adversaries blowes but rather to extend their neckes to their swords and present themselves vnto their strokes It hath hapned to diverse of them who through many hurts being wounded to death have sent to aske the people whether they were satisfied with their duty before they would lie downe in the place They must not onely fight and die constantly but jocondly in such sort as they were cursed and bitterly scolded at if in receiving their death they were any way seene to strive yea maidnes encited them to it consurgit adictus Et quoties victor ferrum iugulo inserit illa Delicias ait esse suas pectúsque iacentis Virgo modesta iubet converso pollice rumpi The modest maide when wounds are giv'n vpriseth When victors sword the vanquisht throate surpriseth She saith it is hir sport and doth command T'embrue the conquer'd breast by signe of hand The first Romans disposed thus of their criminals But afterward they did so with their innocent servants yea of their free-men which were sold to that purpose yea of Senators and Roman Knights and women also Nunc caput in mortem vendunt fumus arenae Atque hostem sibi quisque parat cùm bella quiescunt They sell mens lives to death and Stages sight When wars doe cease they finde with whom to fight Hos inter fremitus novósque lusus Stat sexus rudis insciúsque ferri Et pugnas capit improbus viriles Amidst these tumults these strange sporting sights That Sex doth sit which knowes not how sword bites And entertaines vnmov'd those manly fights Which I should deeme very strange and incredible if we were not dayly accustomed to see in our wars many thousands of forraine nations for a very small some of mony to engage both their blood and life in quarrels wherein they are nothing interessed The foure and twentieth Chapter Of the Roman greatnesse I Will but speake a word of this infinite argument and slightly glance at it to shew
sundry prognostications that one Phocas a Souldier at that time yet vnknowne should kill him demanded of Philip his sonne in law who that Phocas was his nature his conditions and customes and how amongst other things Philip told him he was a fainte cowardly and timorousfellow The Emperour thereby presently concluded that he was both cruell and a murtherer What makes tyrants so bloud-thirstie it is the care of their securitie and that their faint-hart yeelds them no other meanes to assure themselves then by rooting out those which may in any sort offend them yea silly women for feare they should or bite or scrach them Cuncta ferit dum cuncta timet Of all things he afraide At all things fiercely laide The first cruelties are exercised by themselves thence proceedeth the feare of a just revenge which afterward produceth a swarme of new cruelties by the one to stisâ—le the other Philip the King of Macedon who had so many crowes to pull with the Romanes agitated by the horrour of so many murthers committed by his appointment and vnable to make his partie good or to take any saue resolution against so many families by him at severall times injuried resolved at last to seize vpon all their children whom he had caused to be murthered that so he might day by day one after another rid the world of them and so establish his safety Matters of worth are not impertinent wheresoever they be placed I who rather respect the weight and benefite of discourses then their order and placing neede not feare to place here at randone a notable storie When they are so rich of their owne beautie and may very well vpholde themselves alone I am content with a haires end to fitte or joyne them to my purpose Amongst others who had beene condemned by Philip was one Herodicus Prince of the Thessalians After whome he caused his two sonnes in lawe to bee put to death each of them leaving a yoong sonne behinde him Theoxena and Arco were the two widdowes Theoxena although shee were instantly vrged therevnto coulde never be induced to marry againe Arco tooke to husbande Poris a chiefe man amongst the Aenians and by him had diverse children all which she left very yoong Theoxena moved by a motherly charitie toward her yoong nephewes and so to have them in her protection and bringing vp wedded Poris Vpon this came out the proclamation of the Kings Edict This noble-minded mother distrusting the kings crueltie and fearing the mercilesnes of his Satelities or officers towards these noble hopefull and tender youths feared not to say that shee would rather kil them with her owne hands then deliver them Poris amazed at her protestations promiseth her secretly to convey them to Athens there by some of his faithfull friends to be kept safely They take occasion of an yearely feast which to the honor of Aeneas was solemnized at Aenia and thither they goe where having all day-long assisted to the ceremonies and publike banket night being come they convay themselves iuto a shippe appointed for that purpose in hope to save themselves by Sea But the winde fell out so contrarie that the next morning they found themselves in view of the towne whence the night before they had hoised sailes where they were pursued by the guarders and Souldiers of the Porte Which Poris perceiving laboured to hasten and encourage the Mariners to shift away But Theoxena enraged through love and revenge remembring her first resolution prepared both weapons and poison and presenting them to their sight thus shee bespake them Oh my deere children take a good heart death is now the onely meane of your defence and libertie and shall be a just cause vnto the Gods for their holy justice These bright-keene blades these full cuppes shall free you the passage vnto it Courage therefore and thou my eldest childe take this sworde to die the strongest death Who on the one side hauing so vndaunted a perswader and on the other their enemies ready to cut their throates in furious manner ranne all to that which came next to his hand And so all goared and panting were throwne into the Sea Theoxena prowde shee had so gloriouslie provided for her childrens safety lovingly embracing her husband saide thus vnto him Oh my deare heart let vs follow these boyes and together with them enjoy one selfe same graue And so close-claspt-together they flung themselves in to the maine So that the ship was brought to shoare againe but emptie of hir Maisters Tyrants to act two things together that is to kill and cause their rage to be felt have employed the vtmost of their skill to devise lingring deaths They will have their enemies die yet not so soone but that they may have leisure to feele their vengeance Wherein they are in great perplexitie for if the torments be over-violent they are short if lingring not grievous inough In this they imploy their wits and devises Many examples whereof we see in antiquitie and I wot not whether wittingly we retaine some spice of that barbariâ—me Whatsoever is beyond a simple death seemeth to mee meere crueltie Our justice cannot hope that he whom the terror of death cannot dismay be he to be hanged or beheaded can in any sort be troubled with the imagination of a languishing fire of a wheele or of burning pincers And I wot not whether in that meane time we bring him to despaire For what plight can the soule of a man be in that is broken vpon wheele or after the olde fashion nailed vpon a Crosse and xxiiij houres together expects his death Iosephus reporteth that whilest the Romane warres continued in Iurie passing by a place where certaine Iewes had beene crucified three dayes before he knew three of his friends amongst them and having gotten leave to remoove then two of them died but the third lived long after Chalcondylas a man of credite in the memories he left off matters happened in his time and thereabouts maketh report of an extreame torment the Emperor Mechmed was often wont to put in practise which was by one onely blow of a Cimitary or broad Persian Sword to have men cutte in two parts by the waste of the body about the Diaphragma which is a membrane lying ouerthwart the lower part of the breast separating the heart and lights from the stomake which caused them to dy two deaths at once and affirmeth that both parts were seene full of life to moove and stirre long time after as if they had beene in lingring torment I doe not thinke they felt any great torture in that mooving The gastliest torments to looke vpon are not alwaiâ—s the greatest to be endured And I finde that much more fiercely-horrible which other Historians write and which he vsed against certain Lords of Epirus whom faire and leasurely he caused to be fleade all over disposed by so malicious a dispensation that their lives continued fifteene daies in that languor and anguish And these two
of another Arria wife to Thrasea Paetus whose vertue was so highly renowmed during the time of Nero and by meane of his sonne-in-lawe grandmother to Fannia For the resemblance of these mens and womens names and fortunes hath made diverse to mistake them This first Arria her husband Cecinna Paetus having beene taken prisoner by the Souldiers of Claudius the Emperour after the overthrow of Scribonianus whose faction hee had followed entreated those who led him prisoner to Rome to take her into their ship where for the service of her husband shee should be of the lesse charge and incommoditie to them then a number of other persons which they must necessarily have and that she alone might supply and steade him in his chamber in his kitchin and all other offices which they vtterly refused and so hoised sailes but shee leaping into a Fishers boate that she immediately hired followed him aloofe from the further shoare of Sclavonia Being come to Rome one day in the Emperours presence Iunia the widdow of Scribonianus by reason of the neerenesse and societie of their fortunes familiarly accosted her but she rudely with these wordes thrust her away What quoth shee shall I speake to thee or shall I listen what thou saiest Thou in whose lappe Scribonianus thy husband was slaine and thou yet livest and thou breathest These words with divers other signes made her kinsfolkes and friendes perceive that shee purposed to make herselfe away as impatient to a abide her husbands fortune And Thrasea her sonne in law taking hold of her speeches beseeching her that she wold not so vnheedily spoile her selfe he thus bespake her What If I were in Cecinnaes Fortune or the like would you have my wife your daughter to doe so What else make you a question of it answered she Yes mary would I had she lived so long and in so good-agreeing sort with thee as I have done with my husband These and such-like answeres encreased the care they had of her and made them more heedfully to watch and neerely to looke vnto her One day after she had vttered these wordes to her keepers you may looke long enough to mee well may you make mee die worse but you shall never be able to keepe me from dying and therewith furiously flinging her selfe out of a chaire wherein shee fate with all the strength shee had she fiercely ranne her head against the next wall with which blowe having sore hurt her selfe and falling into a dead swowne after they had with much adoe brought her to her selfe againe Did I not tell you quoth she that if you kept me from an easie death I would choose another how hard and difficult soever The end of so admirable a vertue was this Her husband Paetus wanting the courage to doe himselfe to death vnto which the Emperors crueltie reserved him one day having first employed discourses and exhortations befitting the counsell she gave him to make himselfe away shee tooke a Dagger that her husband wore and holding it outright in her hand for the period of her exhortation Doe thus Paetus said shee and at that instant stabbing herselfe mortally to the heart and presently pulling the Dagger out againe shee reached the same vnto her husband and so yeelded vp the ghost vttering this noble generous and immortall speech Paete non dolet shee had not the leasure to pronounce other than these three wordes in substance materiall and worthy her selfe Holde Paetus it hath done me no hurt Casta suo gladium cùm traderet Arria Paeto Quem de visceribus traxerat ipsa suis Si qua fides vulnus quod feci non dolet inquit Sed quod tu facies id mihi Paete dolet Chast Arria when she gave her Paetus that sharpe sword Which from her bowells she had drawne forth bleeding new The wound I gave and have if you will trust my word Griev's not said she but that which mill be made by you It is much more lively in his owne naturall and of a richer Sense for both her husbands wound and death and her owne hurts shee was so farre from grieving to have beene the counselor and motive of them that shee rejoiced to have performed so haughtie and couragious an act onely for the behoofe of her deere husband and at the last gaspe of her life she onely regarded him and to remove all feare from him to follow her in death which Paetus beholding he immediatly wounded himselfe with the same dagger ashamed as I suppose to have had need of so deare an instruction and precious a teaching Pompea Paulina an high and noble-borne yong Roman Lady had wedded Seneca being very aged Nero his faire disciple having sent his Satellites or officers toward him to denounce the decree of his death to him which in those dayes was done after this maner When the Roman Emperors had condemned any man of qualitie to death they were wont to send their officers vnto him to chuse what death he pleased and to take it within such and such a time which according to the temper of their choller they prescribed vnto him sometimes shorter and sometimes longer giving him that time to dispose of his affaires which also by reason of some short warning they divers times tooke from him And if the condemned partie seemed in any sort to strive against their will they would often send men of purpose to execute him either cutting the vâ—iâ—s of his armes and legs or compelling him to take and swallow poison But men of honor stayed not that enforcement but to that effect vsed their own Phisitions or Surgeons Seneca with a reposed and vndanted countenance listned attentively to their charge and presently demaunded for paper and inke to make his last will and testament which the Captaine refusing him hee turned toward his friends and thus bespake them Sâ—â—h my loving friends I cannot bequeath you any other thing in remembrance or acknowledgement of what I owe you I leave you at least the richest and best portion I have that is the image of my maners and my life which I beseech you to keepe in memory which doing you may acquire the glory and purchase the name of truly sincere and absolutely-true friends And therewithall somâ—â—mes appeasing the sharpnes of the sorow he saw them endure for his sake with mild and gentle speaches sometimes raising his voyce to chide thâ—m Where are said he those memorable precepts of Philosophy What is becom of those provisions which for so many yeares together we have laid vp against the brunts and accidents of Fortune Was Neroâ—s innated cruâ—ly vnknowen vnto vs What might we expect or hope-for at his hands who hath murdered his Mother and massacred his Brother but that he would also do his Tutor and Governor to death that hath fostred and brought him vp Having vttered these words to all the by-standers he turned him to his wife as she was ready to sinke downe and with the burthen of hir
of the worlde by the fond arguments wee drawe from our owne weakenesse drooping and declination Iamque adeo affecta est â—tas affectaque tellus And now both age and land So sicke affected stand And as vainly did another conclude it's birth and youth by the vigour he perceived in the wits of his time abounding in novelties and invention of divers Arts Verùm vt opinor habet novitatem summa recensque Natura est mundi neque pridem exordia cepit Quare etiam quaedam nunc artes expoliuntur Nunc etiam augescunt nunc addita navigijs sunt Multae But all this world is new as I suppose Worlds nature fresh nor lately it arose Whereby some arts refined are in fashion And many things now to our navigation Are added daily growne to augmentation Our world hath of late discovered another and who can warrant vs whether it be the last of his brethren since both the Daemons the Sybilles and all we have hitherto beene ignorant of this no lesse large fully-peopled all-things-yeelding and mighty in strength than ours neverthelesse so new and infantine that he is yet to learne his A. B. C. It is not yet full fifty yeeres that he knew neither letters nor waight nor measures nor apparell nor corne nor vines But was all naked simply-pure in Natures lappe and lived but with such meanes and food as his mother-nurce affoorded him If wee conclude aright of our end and the foresaid Poet of the infancie of his age this late-world shall but come to light when ours shall fall into darknesse The whole Vniverse shall fall into a palsey or convulsion of sinnowes one member shall bee maimed or shrunken another nimble and in good plight I feare that by our contagion wee shall directly have furthered his declination and hastened his ruine and that wee shall too dearely have sold him our opinions our new-fangles and our Arts. It was an vnpolluted harmelesse infant world yet have wee not whipped and submitted the same vnto our discipline or schooled him by the advantage of our valour or naturall forces nor have wee instructed him by our justice and integritie nor subdued by our magnanimitie Most of their answers and a number of the negotiations wee have had with them witnesse that they were nothing short of vs nor beholding to vs for any excellencie of naturall wit or perspicuitie concerning pertinencie The woonderfull or as I may call it amazement-breeding magnificence of the never-like seene Cities of Cusco and Mexico and amongst infinite such like things the admirable Garden of that King where all the Trees the Fruits the Hearbes and Plants according to the order and greatnesse they have in a Garden were most artificially framed in golde as also in his Cabinet all the living creatures that his Countrey or his Seas produced were cast in gold and the exquisite beautie of their workes in precious Stones in Feathers in Cotton and in Painting shew that they yeelded as little vnto vs in cunning and industrie But concerning vnfained devotion awefull observance of lawes vnspotted integritie bounteous liberalitie due loyaltie and free libertie it hath greatly availed vs that wee had not so much as they By which advantage they have lost cast-away sold vndone and betraied themselves Touching hardinesse and vndaunted courage and as for matchlesse constancie vnmooved assurednesse and vndismaied resolution against paine smarting famine and death it selfe I will not feare to oppose the examples which I may easily finde amongst them to the most famous ancient examples wee may with all our industrie discover in all the Annalles and memories of our knowen old World For as for those which have subdued them let them lay aside the wiles the policies and stratagems which they have emploied to cozen to cunny-catch and to circumvent them and the iust astonishment which those nations might iustly conceive by seeing so vnexpected an arrivall of bearded men divers in language in habite in religion in behaviour in forme in countenance and from a part of the world so distant and where they never heard any habitation was mounted vpon great and vnknowen monsters against those who had never so much as seene any horse and lesse any beast whatsoever apt to beare or taught to carry either man or burden covered with a shining and hard skinne and armed with slicing-keene weapons and glittering armour against them who for the wonder of the glistring of a looking-glasse or of a plaine knife would have changed or given inestimable riches in Gold Precious Stones and Pearles and who had neither the skill nor the matter wherewith at any leasure they could haue pierced our steele to which you may adde the flashing-fire and thundring roare ofshotte and Harguebuses able to quell and daunt even Caesar himselfe had hee beene so sodainely surprised and as little experienced as they were and thus to come vnto and assault silly-naked people sauing where the inuention of weauing of Cotton cloath was knowne and vsed for the most altogether vnarmed except some bowes stones staues and wodden bucklers vnsuspecting poore people surprised vnder colour of amity and well-meaning faith over-taken by the curiosity to see strange and vnknowne things I say take this disparity from the conquerors and you depriue them of all the occasions and cause of so many vnexpected victories When I consider that sterne-vntamed obstinacy and vndanted vehemence wherewith so many thousandes of men of women and children doe so infinite times present themselves vnto inevitable dangers for the defence of their Gods and liberty This generous obstinacie to endure all extremities all difficulties and death more easily and willingly then basely to yeelde vnto their domination of whome they haue so abhominably beene abvsed some of them choosing rather to starue with hunger and fasting being taken then to accept foode at their enemies hands so basely victorious I perceaue that whosoeuer had vndertaken them man to man without ods of armes of experience or of number should haue had as dangerous a warre or perhaps more as any we see amongst vs. Why did not so glorious a conquest happen vnder Alexander or during the time of the ancient Greekes and Romanes or why befell not so great a change and alteration of Empires and people vnder such handes as would gently haue polished reformed and incivilized what in them they deemed to be barbarous and rude or would haue nourished and fostered those good seedes which nature had there brought foorth adding not onely to the manuring of their grounds and ornaments of their citties such artes as wee had and that no further then had beene necessary for them but therewithall ioy ning vnto the originall vertues of the country those of the ancient Grecians and Romanes What reputation and what reformation would all that farre-spredding worlde haue found if the examples demeanors and pollicies wherewith wee first presented them had called and allured those vncorrupted nations to the admiration and imitation of vertue and had
but now being so olde beginne to threaten mee I have from my infancie learnd to rubbe them with my napkin both in the morning when I rise and sitting downe and rising from the table God doth them a grace from whom by little and little he doth substract their life It is the onely benefite of old age Their last death shall be so much the lesse full languishing and painefull it shall then kill but one halfe or quarter of a man Even now I lost one of my teeth which of it selfe fell out without strugling or paine it was the naturall terme of it's continuance That part of my being with diuerse others are already dead and mortified in mee others of the most active halfe dead and which during the vigor of my age held the first ranke Thus I sinke and scape from my selfe What foolishnes will it be in my vnderstanding to feele the start of that fall already so advaunced as if it were perfectly whole I hope it not verely I receive a speciall comfort in thinking on my death and that it shall be of the most just and natural and cannot now require or hope other favor of destinie concerning that then vnlawfull Men perswade themselves that as heretofore they have had a higher stature so their lives were longer But they are deceived for Solon of those ancient times though he were of an exceeding high stature his life continued but 70. yeeres Shal I that have so much so vniversally adored that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meane is best of former times and have ever taken a meane measure for the most perfect therefore pretend a most prodigious and vnmeasurable life whatsoever commeth contrary to Natures course may be combersome but what comes according to her should ever please Omnia quae secundum naturam fiunt sunt habenda in bonis All things are to be accompted good that are donne according to nature And therefore saith Plato is that death violent which is caused either by woundes or sicknesses but that of all others the easiest and in some sort delitious which surprizeth vs by meanes of age Vitam adolescentibus vis aufert senibus maturitas A forcible violence takes their life from the yoong but a ripe maturitie from the old Death entermedleth and every where confounds it selfe with our life declination doth preoccupate her houre and insinuate it selfe in the very course of our advauncement I have pictures of mine owne that were drawne when I was five and twenty and others being thirty yeeres of age which I often compare with such as were made by mee as I am now at this instant How many times doe I say I am no more my selfe how much is my present image further from those then from that of my decease It is an over-great abuse vnto nature to dragge and hurry her so farre that shee must bee forced to give vs over and abandon our conduct our eyes our teeth our legges and the rest to the mercy of a forraine help and begged assistance and to put our selves into the hands of arte wearie to followe vs. I am not overmuch or greedily desirous of sallets or of fruites except melons My father hated all manner of sawces I love them all Overmuch eating doeth hurt and distemper me but for the qualitie I have yet no certaine knowledge that any meate offends me I never observe either a full or wained Moone nor make a difference betweene the Spring time or Autumne There are certaine inconstant and vnknowne motions in vs. For by way of example I have heeretofore found redish-rootes to be very good for mee then very hurtfull and now againe very well agreeing with my stomacke In diverse other things I feele my appetite to change and my stomacke to diversifie from time to time I have altred my course of drinking sometimes from white to claret wine and then from claret to white againe I am very friand and gluttonous of fish and keepe my shroving dayes vpon fish dayes and my seasts vpon fasting-dayes I believe as some others doe that fish is of lighter disgestion than flesh As I make it a conscience to eate flesh vpon a fish day so doth my taste to eate fish and flesh together The diversity betweene them seemes to mee over-distant Even from my youth I was wont now and then to steale some repast either that I might sharpen my stomake against the next day for as Epicurus was wont to fast and made but sparing meales thereby to accustome his voluptuousnesse to neglect plenty I contrarie to him to enure my sensualitie to speede the better and more merrily to make vse of plentie or else I fasted the better to maintaine my vigor for the service or performaunce of some bodily or mentall action for both are strangely dulled and ideled â—â— me through over-much fulnesse and repleatenesse And above all I hate that foolish combination of so sound and bucksome a Goddesse with that indigested and belching God all puffed with the â—ume of his liquor or to recover my crazed stomake or because I wanted some good companie And I say as Epicuria said that A man should not so much respect what he eateth as with whom hee eateth And commend Chilon that he would not promise to come to Periander's feast before he knew certainely who were the other bidden gâ—â—sts No viends are so sweetely pleasing nor no sauce so tastefull as that which is drawne from conversable and mutuall societie I thinke it wholesome to eate more leisurely and lesse in quantity and to feede oftner But I will have appetite and hunger to be endeared I should finde no pleasure after a phisicall maner to swallow three or foure forced and spare meales a day Who can assure me if I have a good taste or stomake in the morning that I shall have it againe at supper Let vs old men let vs I say take the first convenient time that commeth Let vs leave hopes and prognostikes vnto Almanacke-makers The extreame fruite of my health is pleasure Let vs hold fast on the present and to vs knowne I eschew constancie in these Lawes of fasting Who so will have a forme to serue him let him avoyd continuance of it but wee harden our selves vnto it and therevnto wholy apply our forces sixe moneths after you shall finde your stomake so enured vnto it that you shall have gotten nothing but this to have lost the liberty to vse it otherwise without domage I vse to goe with my legges and thighs no more covered in Sommer than in Winter for I never weare but one paire of single like-stockins For the easing of my rheume and helpe of my chollike I have of late vsed to keepe my head and belly warme My infirmities did in few dayes habituate themselves thereunto and disdained my ordinary provisions From a single night-cappe I came to a double coverchef and from a bonnet to a lined and quilted hat The bum basting of my doublet serves me now for