Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A37911
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The fellow-traveller through city and countrey
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Edmundson, Henry, 1607?-1659.
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1658
(1658)
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Wing E181; ESTC R38856
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87,865
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322
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weeping And being asked by a Cardinall riding that way why he wept I Weep saith he to think that I never yet have thanked God for his blessing in making me a man and not such an odious beast as this is See saith the Cardinall how these Countreymen steal away heaven from us LXV To this we may adde what M. Fuller hath from report of a Gentleman travelling in a misty morning that ask'd a Shepheard What Weather it would be It will be said the Shepheard what weather pleaseth me and being courteously requested to expresse his meaning Sir saith he it shall be what Weather pleaseth God and what weather pleaseth God pleaseth me This is the only sure way to have our wils LXVI Pope Paul the third riding once out of Rome to take the air met a Countreyman who was an ancient proper man of a lively fresh colour with a Beard down to the Girdle in homely but comely clothes the Pope cals him to him and ask'd him of his age and condition of life The man saies that he was above fourscore and ten that he was an husbandman and lived upon a small Farm he had and that every day for business or the exercise of his body he walked on foot a mile or two that he had a Wife and Children Grand children and great Grand-children which made him stirre about for them And being asked by what means he kept that strength of Body at that Age He answered He had no changes of meat or clothes he used no sawces and he drove away all care from his heart as much as he could The Pope pleased with the man and his answer assign'd him a yearly pension of an hundred Crownes that he might spend the rest of his time the more cheerfully He thanks the Pope in these words I deny not Holy Father but that I owe you most humble thanks for your great Bounty yet I know that this will rather take away from the years of my life then adde any thing to them LXVII The Lord Verulam in that excellent work of his History of Life and Death among others tels a story of an ancient man above an hundred years old who was brought into the Court for a witnesse upon some ancient prescription who when the Testimony was finished was asked familiarly by the Judge By what means he came to live so long the man answers cross to expectation and with the laughter of the company by eating before I was hungry and drinking before I was thirsty LXVIII Stories of long lived Countreymen in our Countrey are needlesse for as the same Authour observes in England there is scarce a Village with any store of people where there is not to be found some one man or woman of fourscore And not long since in Herefordshire there was a Morrice-dance by eight men whose age reckoned together made up eight hundred years compleat some having over and above what the other wanted of an hundred LXIX Two Citizens being rid abroad in the Spring by chance they heard the Cuckow singing Now it is known who are noted by that Birds name where a poor injur'd man must suffer more also by the scorns of foolish wantons The Citizens hearing this Bird began to laugh one upon another and to ask To which of them the Bird dies sing and from contesting they felâ— to contending from jest to earnest and to a Sute of Law at last where the Lawyers having tam'd their purses sufficiently the Judge in the end pronounced this Sentence that the Cuckow did sing to neither the one nor the other of them but to her self only LXX There is an old superstitious saying among common people that if an Hare crosse the way it is bad luck but if a Woolf it is good luck unto which it is not amisse to adde this Story which I finde of a Countrey-man who going with his Cart and Horses to fetch wood an Hare meeting him he drew back again The next day going again his man spies a Woolf in the Wood and came and told him O saith he Master never fear good luck good luck Pliny is witnesse A little while after they being about their work and the horses let loose for grasing the Woolf comes and singles out one of them and after he had saluted the Horse clawing him after his manner he suddenly thrust his head into his belly and pulled out his guts which the Servant having seen runs to his Master and tels him that good luck was gotten into the middle of their Horses belly which the good man found true and became a sport to his neighbours Of such and thousands more of these Vulgar Errours there is a Learned Work extant of an excellent man Doctor Brown as likewise of D. Primrose in Points of Physick but concerning the originall of this in hand there is another learned man which gives a pretty guesse that the observation is true indeed yet no more but this that if an Hare crosse our way and scape our catching it is bad luck but if a Woolf crosss our way and be gone and so we escape his setting upon us it is good luck and this being thus spoken at first in jest by some witty fellow came after to be taken in earnest by the simpler sort LXXI A certain Countesse of the City Cosence in Calabria her Husband lately dead being to certifie by letter the Corporation who were her Subjects of their new Tenure subscribed The sad and unhappy Widow c. They thinking to imitate her and that they must give her her own Titles direct their letter back The Aldermen Magistrates and Governours c. To the sad and unhappy Widow our Lady c. and in the beginning Most illustrious and sad Lady c. These people although they bred the famous Telesius yet why they were called Brutii you may partly guesse by this story LXXII Nic. Picinninus a great Souldier but a blunt man meeting Antonius Panormitanus a famous Scholar and intending to passe a Complement thus bespeaks him May I not live Antony if I do not wish my self blinde as oft as I see you Panormitan troubled at these words sayes Why so my Lord since there is none that does honour your valour and brave actions more than I Picinninus smiling and straing to expresse himself most eloquently Thus it is saith he As oft as I see you with so great store of Learning and then again consider my self with so great store of little wit I both hate my self as contrary to you and I also reverence you as a learned man LXXIII A Woman whose childe was a naturall Fool was directed in waggery to a Gentleman in Florence who had been distracted she comes to him and saies Sir I was told that you were once out of your wits and I have a childe that is now in that case I pray you tell me how you were cured The Gentleman perceiving the simplicity of the woman said O good woman do not go about
fool the more wise I am still accounted and on the other side I have a boy that sets his wits to seem wise and yet every one takes him for a very fool CXXVI When Cardinal Pool was at Rome there was discourse of a young Nobleman there who was commended by some for his learning and ingenuity but taxed more by others because he was bold and censorious and would be too ready extempore to answer Quodlibets Unto whom the Cardinal replies Do not you consider that Learning in youth is like New wine in the must while it is working it boils and swels yeelds barm and froth and must have his vent but when it is purged and setled it becomes excellent and wholsome wine CXXVII Marcellus Virgilius saith merrily that Old men carry their Ears in their bosome therefore in his time they had auricular helps their feet in their hands and their teeth in their girdle He had questionlesse added and their eyes in a box if spectacles were not a later invention of which they that are not assured may consult Pancirolus CXXVIII Another used to say that old men were endowed by Nature with three speciall prerogatives that they can see more that they can do more that they command more These you will take to be rather three Paradoxes till you look within the mystery First They see more for because of the weaknesse of their sight they see all things double Then they can do more for being to get up on horseback and having their foot in the stirrop they can draw the saddle quite round unto themselves And lastly They command more for of ten things which they ask for ten times over they will scarce be serv'd in one CXXIX One Roderigo Carrasio a Citizen of Valentia being fourscore years old was learning to play upon the Flute There passed by his house an acquaintance of his who asked of his Servants who that was in his house learning to play They told him it was their master O saith he perhaps Roderigo hath heard News that he is to be provided for balls and Revels in the other world CXXX M. Herbert out of Gerson brings in a Frenchman asking another man in Latine Quot annos habes how many years old are you the man answered I am of no years at all but Death hath forborn me this fifty And he writes there that an holy man in the primitive-times being asked how long he had lived made this answer A few years to God but between fourty and fifty among gnats and flies Of the differences of young men and old men in body and minde See briefly but fully the L. Verulam in the close of his History of Life and Death CXXXI There coming an Embassadour from Millain to Florence Laurentius of the house of Medices caused to be brought in a childe of five or six years old of a strange wit far above his age And every one wondring at his answers and to hear what he could do Laurentius ask'd the Embassadour what he thought of the childe Certainly said the Embassadour as he grows in years he will grow the more sottish for commonly such little ones that are so witty when they are grown men prove block-heads The childe hearing him presently turns to the Embassadour and said Sir when you were a little one you should have had a very great wit Tempora quippe Virtutem non prima negant non ultima donant A like reply we have heard of one to whom it being objected in scorn that his Beard came before his wit his answer was Yours is a mannerly beard and stayes for your wit CXXXII One being asked how he came to be so gray on his head and there was not one gray hair in his beard answered that is no wonder for my Beard is twenty years younger then the hairs of my head CXXXIII One being observed by Cardinall Pool to be very curious to a hair in his beard and it being told him by one of his house that it might well be neat for he bestowed every moneth two Duckats in trimming If it be so said the Cardinall his beard will shortly be more worth then his head CXXXIV One Alexander a Sophister being sent in Embassage from Seleucia to Marcus Antonius when in his speech he saw him not sufficiently attentive to him he spoke out aloud Hearken to me Caesar do you not take notice of Alexander Antonius being moved with this as a reprehension answered I do hear thee and know thee very well thou art that Alexander that powderest thy hair and stinkest of perfumes CXXXV Philip of Macedon put one of his Officers out of his place for colouring his Beard and said He that is not true to his own hairs how shall I trust him in my businesse CXXXVI King James saith In clothes I would have a Fashion should chuse a man and not a man the Fashion But commonly a Fashion comes from some great one out of fashion CXXXVII Augustus the Emperour would very sharply finde fault with his daughters gawdy and gay clothes and say That bravery and finenesse in apparell was but a banner of pride and a Nest of lust Pars minima est ipsa puella sui and many times the feathers are more worth then the bird CXXXVIII Cicero's daughter used to go in a manly great and stalking gate on the other side his son in Law in a dancing wincing and ambling pace Cicero once meeting his daughter trotting along said to her Daughter go softly as your Husband goes and so jeered them both at once CXXXIX Cicero's Son in Law Lentulus was but little in stature and wore a very long sword Cicero seeing him said Who hath tyed my Nephew to his sword Cicero's Brother had his Picture drawn to the breast in great dimensions though he himself was but a little man Cicero spying it as he passed by it by chance said My half Brother is greater then the whole one CXL One that thought himself a proper man by being tall jesting upon another whom he did overlook said to him that he must be the Pawn in the Tables yes said the other little low man and to make the Jest compleat you must be the Rook. CXLI One that looked asquint being told by one in scorn that he did not see right Indeed saith he I am afraid I shall never see thee right Another having a blemish in one of his eyes being asked by another With which of his eyes he could see farthest answered Even with whether it please you for sooth CXLII Cardinall Woolsey sent one to Fox B. of Winchester who had advanced the Cardinal into the Kings favour for to move him to resigne to him his Bishoprick because of his age and blindenesse The Bishop not willing to put off his clothes till he went to bed sent him this Answer Though Age hath made me blinde not to know white from black yet I can discern right from wrong and I can espy what before I could not perceive his