in the Church like a Bishop but as he was Duke going guarded like a Tyrant Whither thinkest thou the Bishop shall go when the Duke shall be damned King Edward the 3d. having the King of France prisoner here in England and feasting him one time most sumptuously pressed him to be merry The French King answered How can we sing songs in a strange Land Calvin answered his friends with some indignation when they admonished him for his healths sake to forbear studying so hard What said he would you that my Master when he comes should find me idle Spiridion a godly Bishop in Cyprus having not what else to set before a guest that came to him in Lent set him a piece of pork to feed on and when the stranger made a scruple of eating flesh in Lent saying I am a Christian and may not do it Nay therefore thou mayst do it said he because to the pure all things are pure Dr. Preston on his death-bed said He should change his place not his company A certain stranger comming on Embassage to Rome and colouring his hair and pale cheeks with vermilion hue a grave Senator espying the deceit stood up and said What sincerity are we to expect at this mans hands whose locks and looks and lips do lye Sir Horaetio Vere when in the Palatinate a Council of War was called and debated whether they should fight or not Some Dutch Lords said That the enemy had many peeces of Ordnance in such a place and therefore it was dangerous to fight That Nobleman replyed My Lords if you fear the mouth of the Cannon you must never come into the field Sir John Burroughs receiving a mortal wound in the Island of Rhees and being advised not to fear death but to provide for another world He answered I thank God I fear not death and these thirty years together I never arose in the morning that ever I made account to live while night A learned Frier at a Council complaining of the abuse of the Clergy Preaching before the Emperor wished him to begin a reformation of the Clergy à minoribus The Emperor thanked him for his Sermon and said He had rather begin à majoribus from the better sort of the Clergy Aristippus being told that Lais loved him not No more saith he doth wine nor fish yet I cannot be without them The Lord Burleigh being at Cambridge with Queen Elizabeth viewing the several Schools said Here I find one School wanting and that is the School of Discretion Henry the 4th told the Prince his Son Getting is a chance but keeping is a wit A Philosopher that hearing his creditor was dead kept the money which he had borrowed without witnesses a night or two but after some strugling with his conscience he carried it to his Executor saying Mihi vivit qui aliis mortuus est though he be ded to others he 's still alive to me Severus the Emperor having passed through many adventures at last died in our land overladen with troubles weighing with himself what his life had been he brake forth into these speeches I have been all that might be and now am nothing the better Scipio viewing his army said There was not one who would not throw himself from the top of a tower for love of him Hildebert Bishop of Mentz said of the Roman Courtiers Employ them not and they hinder you Employ them in your causes and they delay them if you sollicite them they scorn you if you enrich them they forget you When Antonius had made away his brother Geta after the first year of their joynt Empire he entreated Papinianus a famous Lawyer to plead his excuses Who answered It is easier Paricidium facere quam excusare thou mayst said he command my neck to the block but not my tongue to the bar I prize not my life to the pleading of an evil cause Simonides being asked what did soonest grow old among men Made answer A benefit Apollonius â—hianaeus having travelled over all Asia Africk and Europe said There were two things whereat he marvelled most in all the world the first was that he always saw the proud man command the humble the quarrellous the quiet the tyrant the just the cruel the pitiful the coward the hardy the ignorant the skilful and the greatest thieves hang the innocent A Philosopher being asked how he could endure so ill a Wife as he had The answer which he gave was I have hereby a School of Philosophy in my house and learning daily to suffer patiently I am made the more milder with others Alexander seeing Diogenes tumbling among dead bones he asked him what he sought To whom the other answered That which I cannot find the difference between the rich and the poor Demonax asked one a question who answered him in old obsolete affected words Prethee fellow said he where are thy wits I ask thee a question now and thou answerest 400 years ago Albertus Duke of Saxony was wont to say that he had three wonders in one City viz. three Monasteries For the Fries of the first had children and yet no wives the Friers of the second had a great deal of corn and yet no land the Friers of the third abounded with moneys and yet had no rents A Captain sent from Caesar unto the Senators of Rome to sue for the prolonging of his government abroad understanding as he stood at the Council-chamber-door that they would not condiscend to his desire clapping his hand upon the pummel of his sword Well said he seeing you will not grant it him this shall give it him When Anne Bolen that vertuous Lady had received a message from Henry the 8th that she must instantly prepare her self for death answered That she gave him humble thanks for all his favours bestowed upon her as for making her of a mean woman a Marchioness of a Marchioness a Queen but especially seeing he could not on earth advance her to any greater dignity that he would now send her to rest and reign upon Gods high and holy throne When Tully was asked which Oration of Demosthenes he liked best He answered The longest Diogenes said of one That he cast his house so long out at the window that at last his house cast him out of the door having left nothing rich except a nose There are two saying fathered on two great Counsellors Secretary Walsingham and Secretary Cecil one used to say at the Council-Table My Lords stay a little and we shall make an end the seoner The other would oft-times speak of himself It shall never be said of me that I will defer till to morrow what I can do to day Adrian the Sixt said A Physician is very necessary to a populous Country for were it not for the Physician men would live so long and grow so thick that one could not live for the other It was a bold answer Captain Talbot returned Henry the 8th from Calais who having received special
no home-bred broyles frighting the Husbandman from his Plough or the Tradesman from his Shop but peace and plenty crowned all their endeavours they being married in our Kingdome as nearly as in the French Proverb Every man sate under his own Vine and Fig-tree eating the fruit of his own labours No loading taxes made their trade move slowly or clogged the wheels of their honest industry No polings no plundrings no spies to catch at every whisper and make a man an offendour for a word but Law was duly administred Religion mainteined Learning encouraged the arts liberally professed and rewarded Our Merchants traffickt with safety and honour wheresoever the necessity of their employments lead them and no corner of the world so barbarous but the name of an Englishman was welcome and pleasant It is reported that Henry the 8th confessed on his death bed that he had never spared man in his wrath nor woman in his lust But of Charles let me ask whose house did he plunder whose wife did he abuse whose right did he wrong may it not be more truly affirmed of him what the Historian flatteringly spake of Livia the wife of Augustus Ejus potentiam nemo sensit nisi aut levatione periculi aut accessione dignitatis No man felt his hand unless in raising the oppressed from the pit of misery or advancing the deserving to the hill of honour To such a pitch of felicity were we then arrived by the virtues and indulgence of a gracious Soveraign that nothing could render us more happy but a continuance of our happinesse Never was Prince more beloved or better obeyed by loyall Subjects Nothing but the want of him could render him more glorious or desired But the greatest felicities are shortest lived and the most glorious summer is followed by the sharpest winter the clearest skie is not without its clouds the longest day must have a night The sunne of our glory was arrived to the Meridian and Verticall point it must now decline labour under a sad and almost total Ecclipse and at last set in a cloud of bloud darkness and confusion O nulla longi temporis foelicit as But as the sun is no less glorious in it self when labouring under the darkest Ecclipse nor leaves his wonted course for all the clouds and vapours that flie in his face So neither was our Charls less great and admirable under the most fatall Ecclipses of his glory nor less constant and unwearied in all the royall Offices of a King when the clouds and vapours of calumny and sedition endeavored most to obscure and darken his brightnesse As he was a lover of Peace he was no lesse valiant in War if we confesse at least valour consists not onely in doing but also in suffering As he was moderate in prosperity so was he couragious and patient in adversity his virtue courage and Christian patience having carried him with an unwearied course through both the Hemispheres of prosperity and adversity compassing as I may say the whole globe of both fortunes and rendring him an unparalleld pattern of such vertues as were formerly undiscovered to the world and had still remained as a Terra incognita to all other Princes had not his admirable example taught them and all others that no Cross is too heavy for a Christian resolution nor any difficulty too hard for vertue to conquer On the Sepulcher of Possenius Niger was placed this Epitaph Here lieth Poss Niger an antient Roman who in merit was equal with the virtuous but in misfortune exceeded the most unfortunate We may affix the same with very little alteration to the Statue of Charles the first second Monarch of Great Britain That he was equal in merit with the most virtuous but in misfortunes exceeding the most unfortunate yet did the brightness of his virtue shine through and his piety gild and enamel the darkest clouds of his afflictions baffling all the daring mists of malice and envy and converting them into well-placed shadows which rendred his Picture more lively and admirable Naturalists write of a precious stone called Caraunias that it is found onely in a day of thunder glistering when the Sky is overcast with darkness such are the virtues of faith hope charity patience and magnanimity of Charles which perhaps had never so gloriously appeared had not the darkness of his fortune brought them to light and being like winter flowers produced between storms and tempests and grown up like the noble Palm under the pressures of weights and burthens Prolixum est enumerare omnes cognoscite aliquas as St Ambrose said of Judiths virtues I shall only cull out some few of those many rich jewells to adorn his Panegyrick and leave the rest to be collected by his Historians and thredded by their more diligent hands upon the string of their more lasting stories The eye of mine observation fixeth first upon the orient gem of his Patience in affliction which made him so ductile and plyant to the will of Heaven that he willingly exchanged his Crown for the Crosse and made his Scepter stoop to the Rod of affliction In his March after Essex to the West it hapned that one of the carriages brake in a long narrow Lane which they were to pass and gave his Majesty a stop at a time of an intolerable showre of rain which fell upon him some of his Courtiers and others which were near about him offered to hew him out a way through the hedges with their Swords that he might get shelter in some of the villages adjoyning but he resolved not to forsake his Canon upon any occasion At which when some about him seemed to admire and marvail at the patience which he shewed in that extremity his Majesty lifting up his Hat made answer That as God had given him afflictions to exercise his patience so he had given him patience to bear his afflictions A Speech so heavenly and divine says my Author that it is hardly to be parallel'd by any of the men of God in all the Scripture We may observe him in his divine Meditations like the industrious Bee sucking the Hony of comfort and consolation out of the bitter flowers of his unequall fortune An Ancient said he that can bear an injury is worthy an Empire But if we consider with how even and equall a temper with how constant and Christian a fortitude his Majesty bore all the injurious insolencies and insolent injuries which the tongues and pens of his malitious adversaries continually loaded him withall we must be forced to confesse that if merit herein might have won or justice have been Elector he had not been King of an inconsiderable Island but Emperor of the whole world So far was He from repining at his afflictions or being angry at the injuries of his ignorant and insolent enemies that he never esteemed himself more glorious than when dressed up in the robe of their scorn and mockery alwayes fencing himself with that royall Maxime as with a
last and most glorious act of his life wherein we shall see him out-do himself as he had done all others in his former actions God fitting him with a Couragious and Christian patience as much above all other men as his case and condition was transcending all former examples Trees that grow on the tops of rocks they say have stronger roots than other trees because they are more exposed to the boisterousness of the winds and weather His Sacred Majesty was now to act a part beyond all president and God fitted him with a virtue and constancy beyond all parallel En horret animus pavor membra excutit refugit loqui mens aegra tantis atque inhorrescit malis My thoughts are distracted and my pen falls out of my hand with amazement I must there-therefore draw a veil of silence over and Comment upon this Tragical Scene with tears instead of words I will onely adventure to draw the curtain so far as may let in the Readers eye to discover the King singly maintaining his own Innocence his Successors Rights and his peoples Liberty against a Legion of his adversaries who were at once his Judges and Accusers Scipio being one day accused before the Roman people of a capital offence instead of excusing himself or flattering the Judges turning to them he said It will well beseem you to judge of his head by whose means you have authority to judge of all the world Private persons have many Judges Kings none but God said M. Antonius But our King had to do with people of another principle who too well knew that politick maxime of Monsieur de Foy That a man must not trust a reconciled enemy especially his King against whom when he draws his sword he must throw the scabbard into the river It was not enough that he had granted whatever they desired which his conscience and the safety of his subjects would permit or that his Royal Concessions went beyond the foremost of their hopes and wishes or that his reasons were unanswerable and that they had no greater plea against him but that of the rapacious wolf to the innocent lamb Thou hast the better cause but I have the better teeth Though Charls was innocent it was crime enough that he was King and stood in the place that ambition aimed at Semiramis as Aelian tells the Story was an humble Petitioner to the King of the Assyrians whose Concubine she was that she might take upon her the government of Asia and command the Kings servants but for the transitory space of five dayes it was granted she came forth with a Princely robe and her first words were ingrateful wretch Go take the King and kill him and so by one venturous step climbed up to a setled state of Imperial Government I leave the parallel to the readers thoughts and go on to observe what is truly observable that notwithstanding the natural impediment of the Kings Speech God at this time of his extremity so loosed his tongue that he delivered his thoughts without the least stammering or haesitation enough to have convinced any but a Pilat and a Jurie of Jewes that by that miracle God seemed to say to them in the language of that dumb man Rex est ne occide But it was argument enough to them to cut off that head that it wore three Crowns A thing so strange and unheard of before our times that though they made a President they could never find an Example for it in all the Histories of the world So sacred and inviolable was the Person of the Prince amongst the Romans that when Nero made valiant by his own fear ran himself through Epaphroditus his Secretary at his request helping to dispatch him the sooner for that service was afterwards put to death by Domitian who thought it not meet to suffer any man to live who had in any sort lent his hand to the death of a Prince The Kings of Peru were so reverenced by their subjects and so faithfully served that never any of their subjects were found guilty of Treason Indeed the people of Niceragua in America had no law for the killer of a King but it was for the same reason that Solon appointed none for a mans killing of his Father both of them conceiting that men were not so unnatural as to commit such crimes But such is the miserable condition of Princes as the Emperor Domitian complained that they cannot be credited touching a Conspiracy plainly detected until they be first slain More strange and sad it is that men should commit murther with the sword of Justice and treason execute justice as a malefactor Such actions seldome want their reward and many times receive it from the Actors own hands It is the observation of Causabon in his Annotations upon Suetonius that all they who conspired against Caesar slew themselves with the same poniards wherewith they had stabbed the Emperor Such a death saith he may all have who so wickedly and disloyally enterprize upon the lives of Princes For a man to attempt upon the life of a forreign or neighbour Prince may perhaps passe with the guilt of simple murther but for a subject to assassinate his own native King is no less than Paracide in the superlative degree At the Solemn Coronation of the Prince every Peer of the Realm hath his station about the Throne and with the touch of his hand upon the Royal Crown declareth the personal duty of that honour which he is called unto namely to hold on the Crown on the Head of his Soveraign to make it the main end of his greatnesse to endeavour the establishment of his Princes Throne Justly may those branches wither that contrive the ruine of the Stock that feeds them and well may they prove falling stars who endeavour the ecclipsing of that Sun from whom they have received their light and lustre Rodolphus D. of Suevia having usurped the Empire of the Romans in a Conflict with Henry the right Emperor his right hand was struck off in battel which being brought to him lying upon his death-bed in the horrour of his guilt he cryed out This is the hand wherewith I confirmed my promised loyalty to the Emperor Such as repay hatred where they owe love and return disloyalty where they owe allegiance may expect a payment in their own coin from the hand of Divine Justice But to disguise Majesty into an habit of treason and to dress up treason in a robe of justice to place guilt on the bench and set innocence at the bar and by a mockery of Law to condemn the Fountain of Law is like the Italian Physician who boasted he had kill'd a man with the fairest method in the world è morto said he canonicamente è con tutti gli ordini He is dead says he regularly and with all the rules of art To dwell no longer on this unpleasant subject we had sinned and Charls must suffer Dilirant Archivi plectuntur Reges
He who had worn a Crown of Gold must now admit a crown of thornes that might fit him for the Crown of Glory They had promised to make him a glorious King and now was the time come Sit divus modo non sit vivus say they His Kingdom was not to be any longer of his world and therefore he prepares himself with humility piety charity and magnanimity to bear this earthly cross that be might attein his heavenly crown His enemies curse him he prays for them they slander him he forgives them they load him with affronts he carries them with patience And now his pious soul is on the wing and makes many a sally to the place where she longed to be at rest and in the fire of an ardent devotion he offers up himself an Holocaust being kindled with the flames of Divine Love and is fill'd with a large measure of celestial joy and holy confidence witnesse that admirable Anagram made by himself on the day before his death Carolus Rex Cras ero Lux. Hermigildus Son of Levigildus King of the Visogoths forsaking the Arrian Heresie which his Father maintain'd and embracing the Catholick truth was threatned by his Father with death unless he returned to his former errors To whom the pious Son Poteris saith he in me statuere pater quod lubet regno privas sed periturae tantum immortale illud eripere non potes In vincula me rapis ad coelum certè patet via ibimus illuc ibimus Vitam eripitis restat melior aeterna Such were the pious resolves of the most Christian Charls You may doe with me what you will ye may deprive me of my Kingdomes alas these are perishing things but mine immortal Crown ye cannot reach If ye confine me to the narrow walls of a prison my soul vvill mount to Heaven thither thither vvill vve goe If ye take avvay this life I shall but exchange it for a better and eternal one Thus prepared he vvith all humility and Christan resignation offers up himself the peoples Martyr to the grief of his friends the shame of his enemies and the amazement of all the world Quis talia fando temperet à lachrymis Many wiped up his blood with their handkercheifs which experience proved afterwards an admirable Collirium to restore the sight even to those I could name some of the recovered patients from whom I received the relation who were almost blind this wants not truth so much as a Roman pen to make it a miracle Sure I am his death opened thousands of eyes which passion and prejudice had blinded and those who whilst he lived wish'd him dead now he was dead wish'd him alive again That so great a Prince who yet chose rather to be good than great to be holy rather than happy might not die unattended many loyal subjects left this life with the very news of His death as it is reported of Hugh Scrimiger servant to S. W. Spotswood beheaded by the Covenanters of Scotland passing by the Scaffold before it was taken down fell into a swound and being carried home died at his own door The truth of this Relation I leave to the credit of the Historian the former I attest upon mine own knowledge my self being assistant at the Funeral of a Kinsman who with divers others died of no other disease than the newes of the Kings death on whom as I then bestowed I here deposite this Epitaph Here lies a loyal member dead Who scorned to survive his Head Thus died Charls Aliorum majori damno quam suo It being hard to determine whether the Church and State were more happy to have had or more miserable to lose so incomparable a King who wanted nothing but to have lived in an Age when it was in fashion to Deifie their Worthies or in a Country where it is a trade to be Sainted But alas He lived in an Age when vices were in fashion and virtues accounted vices Of whom his worst enemies sayes one who was none of his best friends cannot but give this civil yet true Character That he was a Prince of most excellent natural parts an universal Gentleman very few men of any rank or quality exceeding him in his natural endowments and the most accomplished King this Nation had ever since the Conquest FINIS Doloris nullus Oweni Epigr. in Regicidas Si manus offendat te dextra abscindito dextram Offendat si pes abjice Christus ait Corpus in errorem dexter si ducat ocellus Ipse oculus peccans effodiendus erit Quaelibet abscindi pars corporis aegra jubetur Excipiunt medici Theologique Caput An Elegie on Charls the First c. COme saddest Muse tragick Melpomine Help me to weep or sigh an Elegie And from dumb grief recover so much breath As may serve to express my Sovereigns death But that 's not all had Natures oil been spent And all the treasury of life she lent Exhausted had his latest sand been run And the three fatal Sisters thred been spun Or laden with yeares and mellow had he dropt Into our mothers bosome not thus lopt We could have born it But thus hew'd from life B'an Axe more hasty than the cruel knife Of grisly Atropos thus to be torn From us whom loyal death would have sorborn This strikes us dead Hence Nero shall be kind Accounted he but wished and that wish confin'd Within the walls of Rome but here we see Three Kingdoms at one blow beheaded be And instead of the one head of a King Hundreds of Hydra headed Monsters spring Scarce can I think of this and not engage My Muse to muster her Poetick rage To scourge those Gyants whose bold hands haâ—e renâ— This glorious Sun from out our Firmament Put out the light of Israel that they might Act their black deeds securely in the night When none but new and foolish lights appear Not to direct but cheat the traveller But biting births are monstrous Ours must be My Midwife Muse a weeping Elegie Well may we like some of whom Stories write From this Sun-set in mourning spend our night Until we see a second Sun arise That may exhale those vapours from our eyes Since the breath of our nostrils we have lost We are but moaning statues at the most Our wisedome reason justice all are dead As parts that liv'd and died with our Head How can we speak him praise or our loss when Our tongue of language silenc'd is with him Or can our fainter pensils hope to paint Those rayes of Majesty which spake him Saint In mortal weeds not man As great a King Of virtues as of men A sacred thing To such an heighth of eminency rais'd Easier by far to be admir'd than prais'd 'T would puzzle the sage Plutarch now to tell Or finde on earth our Charls 's parallel Let Rome and Greece of Heroes boast no more To make our One would beggar all their store Weep ye three Orphan Kingdoms weep for
to brag of his own Kingdom of France that it far exceeded all other Kingdoms wanting but one thing and being requested to know what that was he answered Truth The great Antiochus brought Hannibal to his treasures and shewed him his gold his silver his wealth and treasures and asked him if all that would not please the Romans Yea said Hannibal it would please the Romans but not satisfie the Romans A Councellor of State said to his Master the King of Spain that now is upon occasion Sir I will tell your Majesty thus much for your comfort your Majesty hath but two enemies whereof the one is all the World and the other is your own Ministers Domitian perceiving many of his Predecessors in the Empire to be hated asked one how he might so rule as not to be hated the party answered Tu fac contra By not doing what they did When M. Cicero stood for the Consulship of Rome Q. Cicero wished him to meditate on this Novus sum Consulatam peto Roma est Alexander having a souldier of his name that was a coward He bad him either leave off the name of Alexander or be a souldier A brave Roman Captain told his souldiers That if they could not conquer Britain yet they would get possession of it by laying their bones in it It was a smart answer which Mr. Durant a witty and learned Minister of the Reformed Church of Paris gave a Lady of suspected chastity and since revolted when she pretended the hadness of the Scripture Why said he Madam What can be more plain then Thou shalt not commit adultery It was the saying of the dying Emperor Julian He that would not die when he must and he that would die when he must not are both of them cowards alike Aristippus told the Sailers that wondred why he was not as well as they afraid in the storms that the odds was much For they feared the torments due to a wicked life and he expected the rewards of a good one It was cold comfort Diogenes gave a lewd liver that banished complained he should die in a forreign soil Be of good cheer man wheresoever thou art the way to hell is the same It was the admonition of dying Otho to Cocceius Neither too much to remember nor altogether to forget that Caesar was his Vncle Isocrates of a Scholar full of words asked a double Fee One he said to learn him to speak well another to teach him to hold his peace Euripides when he brings in any woman in his tragedies makes them alwayes bad Sophocles in his tragedies maketh them alwayes good whereof when Sophocles was asked the reason he made this answer Euripides saith he represents women as they be I represent them as they ought to be Sir Henry Wotton was wont to say of Sir Philip Sydneys wit that it was the very measure of congruity Having in Italy acquaintance with a pleasant Priest who invited him one evening to hear their Vesper musick at Church the Priest seeing Sir Henry standing obscurely in a corner sends to him by a boy this question writ in a small piece of paper Where was your Religion to be found before Luther To which Sir Henry Wotton presently under-writ My Religion was to be found then where yours is not to be found now in the written word of God To another that asked him whether a Papist may be saved He replied You may be saved without knowing that look to your self To another that was still railing against the Papists he gave this advice Pray Sir forbear till you have studied the points better for the wise Italians have this Proverb He that understands amiss concludes worse To one being designed for the office of an Embassador requesting from him some experimental rules for his prudent and safe carriage in his Negotiation Sir Henry Wotton gave this for an infallible Aphorisme That to be in safety himself and serviceable to his Country he should alwayes and upon all occasions speak the truth for said he you shall never be believed and by this meanes your truth will secure your self if you shall ever be called to any account and it will also put your adversaries who will still hunt counter to a loss in all their disquisitions and undertakings He directed this sentence onely to be inscribed on his Tomb-stone Hic jacet hujus sententiae Author Disputandi pruritus fit Ecclesiarum scabies Bolislaus the 4th King of Poland who bearing the picture of his Father hanged about his neck in a plate of gold when he was to speak or doe any thing of importance he took his picture and kissing it said Dear Father I wish I may not doe any thing remissly unworthy of thy name A gentile spirit said to an old man who caused his grisly hairs to be painted with the lustre of green youth Poor fool although thou couldst deceive the whole world with thy hair yet death well knoweth they are grey Sit te Proserpina canem It is said a French King enquiring one day of a Wise-man after divers instructions to govern himself and guide his Kingdome this Wise-man took a fair large sheet of paper and for an infinite number of precepts which others use to produce upon this subject he onely wrote this word Modus measure or mean One who having lived free from the bonds of mariage caused to be set on his Tomb Vixit sine impedimento He lived without hinderance A mother grieving for the death of her son said That all her evil came from loving too much what she might lose Amabam misera periturum c. An old humourist vapouring once that women had no souls was answered by a modest Lady Sure Sir you are deceived for I can produce a good text to the contrary My soul doth magnifie the Lord and it was a woman that spoke it Isocrates had an excellent wit notwithstanding finding himself destitute of countenance gesture and confidence he never durst to speak in publique contenting himself to teach even to his decrepit dayes and commonly saying He taught Rhetorick for a 1000 Rials but would give more than 10000 to him who would teach him confidence It was the saying of Lewis the French King to Henry the third of England who asking him in those times of implicit faith whether he would goe sooner to the Eucharist or to a Sermon He answered I had rather see my friend than hear him onely spoken of One said that Aristotles School was a great Scold It was not said improperly of him who having passed his grand Climacterique That he was got loose from his unruly passions as from so many lyons and wolves A French Baron not long since meeting two Capuchins going bare-foot in cold frosty weather with their scrips upon their backs a begging and knowing them to be Gentlemen of a good Family he said How grossly are these men cozen'd if there be no heaven An Italian Prince being upon his death-bed and comforted by his friends
but death now I must die I am unprovided to die Gerson brings in an Englishman asking a Frenchman Quot annos habes His answer was Annos non habeo I am of no years at all but death hath for born me this 50 years A man said Luther lives forty years before he knows himself to be a fool and by that time he sees his folly his life is finished Anaxamander said of the Athenians That they had good Laws but used ill Augustus lamented for Varus death being asked why He said Now I have none in my Country to tell me truth A certain King of Tartaria writ to the Polonians then wanting a King that if they would choose him their King he would accept of it upon these terms Vester Pontifex meus Pontifex esto vester Lutherus meus Lutherus esto But the Polonians rejected him with this wise answer Ecce hominem paratum omni à sacra deos deserere regnandi causa Marius being accused by the Senate of treason tears open his garments and in the sight of them all shews them his wounds received in the service and defence of his Country saying Quid opus est verbis ubi vulner a clamant Sir William Stanly railing against his native Country a Spanish Verdugo gave him this answer Though you have offended your Country your Country never offended you It is storied of a wicked City which fearing the invasion of a potent enemy sought relief of a neighbouring Prince charging their Embassadors to relate unto him what forces they were able to levy of their own The Prince replying to the Message demanded of them what coverture they had to defend their heads from the wrath of heaven telling them withal That unless they could award Gods anger he durst not joyn with them God being against them The Mother of peter Lombard when having transgressed her vow of Continency she told her Confessor plainly that when she saw what a Son she had brought forth she could not repent that she had sinned in having him But her Confessor sadly answered her Dole saltem quod dolere non possis Caracalla said to them that desired that some honours might be spent upon his brother Geta now dead out of his way Sit divus saith he modo non sit vivus Edward the Third of England having sent to France to demand the Crown by Maternal Right the Council there sent him word That the Crown of France was not tied to a distaff which scoffing answer he replyed That then he would tie it to his sword Scaliger said He had rather have been the Author and Composer of one Ode in Horace than King of all Arragon Cato would say He wondred how one of their aruspices could forbear to laugh when he met with any of his fellows to see how they deceived men and made a great number of simple ones in the City King Lewis the 11th looking upon a Tapistry wherein a certain Nobleman who from a mean Clerk of the Exchequer was advanced to be Lord Treasurer of France had pourtray'd the steps and degrees whereby he had ascended himself represented sitting on the top of Fortunes wheel Whereupon King Lewis told him He might do well to fasten it with a good strong nail for fear lest turning about it brought him to his former estate again Which proved a true Prophecie of him One who before he was Pope was the most crouching submiss Cardinal that ever was His manner was to eat upon a net as it were in a way of devout humility but after he had obtein'd the Popedom he commanded them to take away the net saying He had caught that which he fish'd for When a French King seeing the Persian pomp of the Popes Court and pride of the Cardinals asked a Cardinal of Avinion Whether the Apostles ever went with such a Train after them He answered No verily but you must consider Sir that they were Apostles the same time that Kings were shepherds It was the saying of Rabbi Gamaliel He that multiplie servants multiplies thieves Melancthon said when he furthered the Edition of the Alchoran that he would have it printed Vt videamus quale poema sit That the World might see what a piece of poetry the Alchoran was Artabazus a Courtier received from King Cyrus a cup of gold At the same time Chrysantas the beloved Favourite received a kiss from him which the other observing said The cup which you gave me was not so good gold as the kiss you gave Chrysantes It was the Speech of an ancient Rabbi I learned much of my Rabbies or Masters more of my companions most of my Scholars The Emperor Sigismond demanding of Theodoricus Arch-Bishop of Collen the directest course to happiness Perform saith he when thou art well what thou promisedst when thou wert sick A certain King of the Lacedemonians being one day private in his garden was teaching one of his children of five years old to ride on a stick and unawares a great Embassador came to speak with him in that manner at which both the King and the Embassador in the Kings behalf began to blush at first but soon after the King putting away the blush and the hobby-horse together and with a pretty smile asked the Embassador if he had any children of his own He answered No. Then said he I pray you tell not what you found me doing till you have some little ones of your own and then tell it and spare not The Scouts of Antigonus relating unto him the multitude of his enemies and advising by way of information the danger of a Conflict that should be undertaken with so great an inequality He replyed And at how many do ye value me A West-Indian King having been well wrought upon towards his conversion to the Christian Religion and having digested the former Articles when he came to that He was crucified dead and buried had no longer patience but said If your God be dead and buried leave me to my old god the Sun for the Sun will not die Pythagoras said He that knoweth not what he ought to know is a brute beast among men he that knoweth no more than he hath need of is a man among brute beasts he that knoweth all that is to be known is a god among men The Lord Treasurer Burleigh was wont to say That he used to overcome envy and ill will more by patience than pertinacy The Embassadors of the Council of Constance being sent to Pope Benedict the 11th when he laying his hand upon his heart said Hic est arca Noae they tartly and truly replyed In Noahs ark were few men but many beasts When one seemed to pity an one ey'd man He told him he had lost one of his enemies a very thief that would have stolen away his heart The King of Navarre told Beza He would launch no farther into the Sea than he might be sure to return safe to the Haven A clown said to the Bishop of Collen praying
Statist who had excellently deserved of the City he lived in that the City had chosen 24 Officers and yet left him out I am glad saith he the City affords 24 abler than my self When one of Antipaters friends who was an imperious and tyrannous Governor commended him to Alexander for his moderation that he did not degenerate into the Persian pride in the use of Purple but kept the ancient habit of Macedon of black Trus saith Alexander but Antipater is all purple within Alexander when he gave large gifts to his friends and servants and one asked him what he did reserve for himself He answered Hope One asked a grave Gentlewoman how her maids came by so good husbands and yet seldome went abroad Oh said she good husbands come home to them One having a shrewd wife yet loth to use her hardly awed her by telling her That he would beat her when he was dead Meaning that he would leave her no maintenance One complaining that never had father so undutiful a child as he had Yes said his son with less grace than truth my Grand-father had A Farmer rented a grange generally reported to be haunted with Fairies and paid a shrewd rent for the same at each half-years end Now a Gentleman asked him how he durst be so hardy as to live in the house and whether no Spirits did trouble him Truth said the farmer there be two Saints in heaven vex me more than all the Devils in hell namely the Virgin Mary and Michael the Arch-angel on which days he paid his rent When a Professor pressed an Answerer a better Christian than a Clerk with an hard argument Reverende Profeffor said he ingenuè confiteor me non posse respondere huic argumento To whom the Professor Rectè respondes When one told Latimer that the Cutler had cozend him in making him pay two pence for a knife not in those dayes worth a penny No quoth Latimer he cozened not me but his own Conscience When Buchanan lay on his death-bed King James sent to know how he did He returned this answer That he was going whither few Kings came Q. Metellus Pius to one wondring at what he intended to do and demanding of him what he meant Let alone saith he farther to enquire for if my shirt knew what I meant to doe I would burn it Pericles being requested by his souldiers to fight and that with vile reproachful terms replyed thus That if he could repair losses and recover life he would as gladly adventure as they But you see said he trees being cut they grow again but men once slain revive no more Henry the 4th King of France seeing the Chappel which the family of Bassom Pierre had builded and reading this verse of the Psalm which was set down for an Embleme Quid retribuam Domino pro omnibus quae retribuit mihi He said Bassom Pierre as a German should have added Calicem accipiam To one telling him that there is nothing doth sooner make those who are out of their wits to become temperate than the punishment which is inflicted upon them the King interrupted his speech and told him Mercy pardoneth those who have not deserved it and the juster that wrath is the more commendable is mercy When men spake of the insolencies and ryots of the City during the troubles c. He said The people of Paris are good it goeth as it is led mischief commeth from those which go before and not from their simplicity which follow after and grow bad by infection Considering on a time that Taxes were excessive in sundry places of the Kingdome He said My people are made to pay a double tax one to me and another to my Officers The second makes the first insupportable for the expence of the Officers amount to more than the tax It is a hard matter to keep my self unrob'd and almost impossible but that my people should be so He was wont to say That he would not see them suffer harm which were not in case to doe any Some one besought him to give him leave to carry the Cannon against some that held his house The King demanded of him what he would do when he had forced them His choller made him answer That he would hang them all Whereupon the King sent him away with this mild reply I have no Cannon to that use A maker of Anagrams presenting something unto him upon his name and telling him that he was very poor I believe it said the King for they that use this trade cannot grow very rich He was wont to say That it was an offence to God to give credit to those Prognosticks and that having God for his guard He feared no man The same Henry being at the Siege of Amiens amongst others of the Nobles which he summoned for that service he sent also to the Count Soissons a Prince of the Blood to whom the King gives 5000 crowns pension The Count at that time discontented returned the King answer That he was a poor Gentleman and wanted meanes to come to that service as became one of his birth and place being a Prince of the Blood and Peer of France He therefore most humbly craved pardon and that he would most humbly pray for his Majesties prosperous successe which was all he could do Well saith the King seeing prayer is not acceptable without fasting my Cousin shall hereafter fast from his pension of 5000 crowns He used much this noble Speceh When I was born there were a thousand other souls more born what have I done unto God to be more than they It is his meer grace and mercy which doth often bind me more unto his justice for the faults of great men are never small When certain Romans practised by secret counsel to kill the Emperor Domitian and gave part thereof to Trajane He did answer I do well see that Domitian deserved not to be elected Emperor and much less to be susteined in the same yet never the more shall I consent unto his death for that I will rather endure a tyrant than procure the renown of a traytor The Emperor Adrian said That he remembred not since the age of ten yeares whether he stood still or walked by the way that he had not either a book to read in or some weapon to fight with Being demanded why he was so bountiful unto his Ministers of Justice He answered I make the Ministers of Justice rich because by robbery of Justice they shall nos make other men poor When Favorinus having an old house at the entry thereof he had raised a stately porch painted with white The Emperor said unto him This house of thine seemeth a gilded pill which outwardly giveth pleasure but within is full of bitterness Another friend of Adrians named Silvius very black of face and of evil shape of body comming one day unto the Palace all clad in white Adrian said unto those that were present That black face with that
white garment seemeth no other but a flie drowned in a spoonfull of milk There was in Rome a certain man named Enatius somewhat entred in age and of natural condition mutinous ambitious importune intermedling quarrellous and full of garboyl The Emperor Adrian being advertised that Enatius was dead He fell into a great laughter and sware That he could not a little marvel how he could intend to die considering his great business both night and day There was a Senator named Fabius Cato a man of a small stature which would soon be offended and as soon be pleased unto whom Adrian said Since your chimney is so small you must beware to lay much wood upon the fire for otherwise it will be always smokie When a certain cunning man made offer to Emperour Antonius Pius to place him teeth wherewith to eat or speak Antonius made answer Since never from my heart proceeded feigned or double words there shall never enter into my mouth feigned teeth Antonius alwayes for the most part went bare-headed and one advising him the air of Rome to be very hurtful and therefore necessary to have his head covered answered assure me from troubles of men on earth and I am assured that nothing shall trouble me which the gods shall send me from heaven He sent Fulvius Tusculanus as Praetor into the Province of Mauritania whom within half a year he deprived of his Office for that he was both impatient and covetous who complaining of the injury said that in times past he had been a friend unto Antonius but now it was forgotten Whereunto Antonius answered Thou hast no reason thus unjustly to blame me because the office was given thee by the Emperor and not by Antonius and since thou didst not offend as Fulvius but as Praetor so I discharge thee of thy Office not as Antonius thy old friend but as Emperor of the Roman Empire Some speaking in his presence of Wars and Battels that Julius Caesar Scipio Hannibal had fought and overcame in the field Antonius Pius answered Let every man hold opinion what he thinketh good and praise what it pleaseth him but for my own part I do more glory in conserving peace many yeares than with wars to conquer many battels Before he gave any government unto Praetors Censors or Questors he caused them to give an Inventory of their own proper goods that when their charges were finished the increase of their wealth might be considered Saying unto them That he sent them to administer Justice and not by fraud to rob Counâ—ries The Emperour Pertinax used to say That of Princes charging their Kingdomes with unjust tribute there succeedeth a wilful denial of due and most just payments He had a Son whom the Romans would have Created Augustus which he would never like of or consent unto saying The gods never grant that with the hopes of the Empire my son should be nourished unto vice and idleness The Emperor Bassianus would often say I know not what man having bread to eat or garments to wear and cover himself on land would to become an Emperor go to Sea The Emperor Alexander Severus was wont to say Princes are not to be known by their vassals by their rich robes but by their good works performed in their Common-wealths Lewis the 12th King of France when he heard that the Pope had extreamly cursed him He said That this was a Pope made to curse but not to pray He had in King Charls his time been evilly used by divers of whom he was advised to take revenge at his comming to the Crown Whereunto he answered That it became not a King of France to revenge the injuries done to a Duke of Orleans Looking upon the Roll of King Charls his servants he found two that had been his dead enemies upon each of whose names he made a cross wherewith they being in great perplexity supposed the gallows to be prepared for them Which their fear being discovered to the King He sent them word To be of good cheer for he had crossed all their evil deeds out of his remembrance When a certain Courtier complained grievously of his wives unchastness The King bad him be of good cheer for he that respected his wives incontinencie or the Popes curse should never sleep quiet night Charls of Bourbon had often in his mouth the Apothegme of a Gascoigne Gentleman who being demanded by Charls the 7th what reward might win him to break his faith with him whereof he had made trial in so many important affairs I could not be drawn thereunto answered he though I might have your Kingdom given me or the Empire of the Earth and all the treasures of the world but I might be moved to doe it by an outrage that might be offered me and for some injury that might touch mine Honour Plancus being told that Asinius Pollio had written certain Invective Orations against him which should not be published till after Plancus his death to the end they might not be answered by him There is none saith he but Ghosts and Goblins that fight with the dead Peter Earl of Savoy who to do his Liegehomage to the Emperor Otho the 4th came before him in a two-fold attire for he had on the one half of his body on the right side from the top downward set out with cloth of gold and the other half on the left side covered with shining armour The Emperor asking him what such a divers furniture meant Sir answered he the attire of the right side is to honour your Imperial Majesty this of the left sheweth me ready to fight until the last gasp against those that wish you ill and speak ill of you Pope John the third being asked what thing was farthest from the truth The opinion of the common people answered he for all that they praise deserve blame all that they think is nothing but vanity all that they say is nothing but lying they condemn the good they approve the evil they magnifie nothing but infamy Lewis the 11th used this Apothegme Where pride and presumption goe before shame and loss follow after Dionysius having taken the City Reggio and in it the Captain Phyton he told him how the day before he had caused his son and his kinsfolks to be drowned To whom Phyton answered nothing But that they were more happy than himself by the space of one day Thales being asked how a man might be cheerful and bear up in afflictions Answered If he can see his enemies in worse case than himself A souldier being demanded by Nero why he hated him Answered him thus I loved thee whilst thou wert worthy of love but since thou becamest a paracide a jugler a player and a coach-man I hate thee as thou deservest Another being asked why he sought to kill him answered Because I find no other course to hinder thy uncessant outrages and impious deeds Francis Duke of Britanny Son to John the 5th when he was spoken unto
tongue Hereby do I talk with thee now absent and if thou wilt vouchsafe me the like thereby shall I see thee Pardon me if I challenge nay expect your your promise which if you perform not I shall suspect your humour something of kin to that of an excellent Archer that would rather lose his life than shew a trial of his skill Letters are like those mutual pawns the Grecians gave as Symbols of their friendship like Dido's little Aeneas to supply their absence Hereby are they present in England Spain or France all in an instant and at once Let it not be thought a Paradox for Love goes beyond Art But what do I talk of love and friendship in this Age wherein fast friends are gone on pilgrimage and their returns uncertain But I grow tedious 'T is the fault of parting friends and now like one in that extasie I know not what to say next whether to commend thy diligence in outvying Vlysses in that which the Poet sayes made him wise Whilest I am like the silly Grashopper that lives and dies in the same ground Or shall I fear thy danger and with Charonidas wonder not at those that go to Sea once but at those that go again Or shall I dare to assume the presumption for me who am no Traveller to counsel thee that art no I dare not Yet let me remember thee of the Speech of one that was That a Traveller must have Eagles eyes Asses ears the tongue of a Merchant a Camels feet a Hogs mouth and an Asses back In a word mayst thou measure thy happiness by the Ell of thine own desires which shall not exceed the wishes of T. F. To Mr. J. H. Sir YOur Letter was as welcome to me as your absence is tedious Complements suit not the reality of my intentions but imagine all the meer complemental expressions of flattering Courtship put into truth and all fall short of my affections To obey your command if your patience will pardon the tediousness I will give you as brief an account as I can of my present estate I have read that one Philostratus lived seven yeares in his Tomb to acquaint himself with Death Truly I have conversed above two seven years among the Dead for so are our Authors esteemed and indeed our Shops may not unfitly be resembled to a Charnel-house and there and thus have I gotten such a familiaritie with those faithful and unflattering Counsellours that I rather chose to lie in the valley of obscurity than to climb the dangerous Alps of aspiring greatness so long as the wind blows so high and the stream runs so swift Rather had I sit still by their perswasion than rise to fall or to fare hardly than feed on others bread And me thinks I find my self very well decypher'd by the Emblems which represented certain Grashoppers that suck the dew and pass their time singing with this Motto Di questo mi contento è megilio spero With this I am content and hope better when God shall so order the tide of occasions and the blasts of my friends favour to lanch me from the poor harbour where I now lie wind-bound Thus Sir I hope I have made you reparation for my late silence not doubting but you will make it but a Parenthesis which shall break no sence in our friendship And this I shall esteem a very great addition to your former Engagements to all which I shall without scruple Subscribe T. F. To E. W. Esquire Sir COuld my messenger have delivered his errand in but intelligible non-sense I should willingly have spared you this trouble But since it must be so I shall endeavour to make a virtue of necessity and from hence take occasion to tell you that so many have been your favours and so few the returns of my thanks hitherto that they have rendred mine ingratitude as superlative as your goodness Though you write your courtesies in running water to which a Forde is of very near kin I desire to write my thanks in marble and had I so advantagious an occasion I would make the whole world the Witness of mine Obligations To this purpose I could wish this poor paper immortal that my gratitude at least might rival your bounty But Sir you have endeavoured to make me live and die in your debt which I shall rather resolve to suffer than to slander your nobleness with a thought of my slender requital Now Sir if you please to honour me with the additional courtesie of your Cambden you shall hereby infinitely add if they surmount not that piece of Arithmetick already to your former favours and my engagements And may this serve for my Surety that I will keep it carefully use it warily and return it speedily Thus Sir kissing the hands of your fair Venus and her three Graces I humbly take my leave who am proud to wear the livery of Sir your and their most obliged Servant T. F. To Mr. E. H. Sir HAving armed my self cap à pe with patience to receive as you promised your most rigid censure I finde in stead of arms you encounter me with flowers and like Paris make me stoop to your golden ball Nor do I less wonder at it than the poor Norvegian did the first time he saw roses who durst not touch them for fear of burning his fingers being much amazed to see as he supposed trees to bear fire With little less wonder do I behold your learned lines nor with less amazement to see flames of love and streams of eloquence so Homogenial To your Letter I shall return nothing but onely tell you that what I understand is excellent and so I believe and admire the rest Your Allegory of the Cook is neatly dress'd but except you be pleased to tinde one of his lights I shall fear to remain in darkness and discover no farther than his superficies The censures of those blind-minded Jewes you speak of I shall account my greatest commendations Like Crates the Philosopher who having received a blow on the face by one Nicodromus a man full of base condition and as base conditions was contented for revenge to set these words on his wound Nicodromus faciebat To those large Encomiasticks you bestow on my poor Pamphlets I shall onely say I am sorry they had no fitter subjects yet am I glad I was so happy to afford you any ground for your nimble fancy to work on and shall here promise you that if you please to continue this literal commerce you shall not want a whetstone to sharpen your sythe as you are pleased to desire and this property I may have like the whetstone though blunt my self to sharpen another Nor need you fear that you can use too much ingenuity to me for I am no whit affected with the heresie of the Times which count learning and wit as you say the scum of the bottomless pit but know how to honour it as much as I want it In a word
my promises should not prove abortive but it hath staid so long by the Carriers Midwifry that what you expected as a gift will amount to a purchase for a courtesie delay'd is dearly bought Besides I cannot expect it should arise to the merit of a gift since it will hardly amount to the least mite that I owe you Your courtesies have been so many your favours so large and the continuance so long that I despair of discharging the Interest should your goodness abate me the Principal But if a thousand thanks and ten thousand good wishes may pass for pay you shall never have cause to call me ingrateful for herein I can be as liberal as your self I remember the Dutch History tells us that at the Siege of Alcmar the souldiers within being without pay the Magistrates caused dollers of tin to be coyned of three shillings a piece with promise that the Town being delivered they would redeem them for good silver at the rate I will wrap up this poor present with a faithful promise that when propitious Heaven shall transmute my tin and copper into gold and silver payments shall be more proportionate to your merits and my obligations by which I stand firmly bound to profess my self Sir your Servant T. F. To M. J. W. Madam NEither out of sloth nor slighting not out of forgetfulness nor unwillingness have I hitherto delay'd this debt of duty which you may justly have expected sooner Believe me I have not yet forgot those many many favours whereby you have perpetually bound me to serve you My silence thus long hath been not out of negligence but designe I was not willing to meet your sorrow in its full careere resolving rather to await the turning of the tide and expect an ebb of your passion lest in stead of a lenitive I had brought a corrosive and in stead of abating encreased your grief By this time I hope your Reason hath subdued your Passion and natural affection given place to Religion which as it allows a moderate sorrow for the death of our friends and relations so it appoints bounds to our tears and commands us Not to weep as those without hope When my thoughts reflect upon your losse of so dutiful a daughter so good a wife so pleasant a companion so true a friend in the fair flower of her youth in the pleasant Spring of her age me thinks I could mingle my tears with yours and forget what I intended But when agen I consider the miseries of this life the troubles of this world the losses and crosses the corroding cares the doubtful fears that attend us here when I ballance our loss with her gains the miseries she is past with the happinesses she enjoyes I can find so little cause to mourn that I must confess we have infinitely more reason to rejoyce Alas what is our life but a sea of troubles a pilgrimage of dangers a race a warfare a banishment the world a prisonfull of chaines and captives at best an Inn no habitation Death is our quiet harbour an end of our journey a conclusion of our warfare that brings us from exile to our native home that gives us a Kingdome for a prison crowns for chains and for this poor baiting-place of earth an everlasting habitation in Heaven Shall we then grieve for those are gone before us who are released from the evils present and secured against those to come who are taken from labour to rest from expectation to fruition from death to life Is it not unjust Is it not envious The Philosopher who was asked Which was the best ship wisely answered That which is safely arrived Shall we weep for those who have already made their voyage or rather for our selves who are still tossed upon the waters of strife who are still subject to those storms and tempests which they have happily past They are not lost but gone before not perished but perfected not dead but departed A long-sick man commanded this Epitaph to be written upon his grave Here I am well Fortune they say most hurts whom she seems to favour Death most favours those he seems to hurt Nor may we account an early death untimely The fruit which to our apprehension is blown down green and untimely is gathered full ripe in Gods providence The fairest flowers soonest fade The Sun and Moon the most bright and glorious of these heavenly bodies fulfill their courses in a short season whilest the dimmer and duller Planets are longer time wheeling about It is sometimes the happiness of young John to out-run old Peter to the Sepulchre This is Gods will and therefore not to be resisted not to be repined at It is their happiness therefore not to be lamented Can our teares profit them where they are or bring them back to us I could allow you to be lavish of your sighs to be prodigal of your tears were they not unfruitful were they not unlawful I can easily believe your loss of her to be as great as your love to her but your meeting again will be more joyous than your parting was grievous But what do I do I forget that I write to one whose Christian carriage hath I doubt not already prevented me this office and whose excellent parts are able to anticipate whatsoever I am able to say Give me leave onely to kisse your hands and once more to assure you that I am still as much as ever Madam the most humble and the most real of your Friends and Servants T. F. To Mr. T. C. Sir IT is informed from several parts that the Butchers have knock't down the Excise-men and cut the throat of the Excise upon meat And they have so generally thrown off that yoke that it is believed they will hardly be brought to admit the putting of it on again Whither do these confusions tend Where will they end We are like the poor Ass in the Fable who often changed his Master but alwayes for the worse Will not all these miseries yet open the eyes of the blinded multitude I would be-speak them in the words of Ananus one of the Jewish Priests inciting the people against the factious Zealots amongst other passages which you may find in Josephus he thus questions them But why should I exclame against the tyrants Did not you your selves make them great and nourish their power and authority by your patience Did not you by despising those who before were in authority being but a few make all these who are many in number tyrants over your selves When Consuls succeeded the Roman Kings the Historian sayes they changed gold for brass and loathing one King suffered many tyrants scourging their folly with their fall and curing a fester'd sore with a poysoned plaister Do we not plainly see the Fable moralized by our selves The Serpents Tail would needs one day fall a quarrelling with the Head saying that she would by turns goe before and not alwayes come lagging behind which the Head having
Hither I came drawn by that forcible Attractive for to offer up my self A sacrifice at th' altar of her love Tost with a sea of miseries I came To anchor in the haven of her heart And if this be treason I shall not blush To be esteem'd a traytor But if not Then pardon me if bolder innocence Doth force me tell you 't is not just in you Thus to oppose what Heavens have decreed Believe me Sir it 's neither safe nor just For you to violate the lawes of fate Kin. Let not your pride so far transport you that You tax our justice I shall scourge your haste Into a leisurely repentance when The sea shall teach you that your teares and th' wind That sighs become your headlong rash attempts Max. Great Sir lay what you will on me I scorn To crave your favour for my self but yet Let Nature prompt you to be merciful To her who is a chief part of your self Kin. No as ye have joyn'd your selves in mirth so Will I joyn ye too in mourning and because Two no good consort make my brother shall Bear a third part in your grave harmonie Seph Father let me the heavy burthen bear Of this sad song alone let all your fierce Justice center in my breast Kin. No more Our sentence is irrevocable nought Shall satisfie me else I 'll have it done 1 Lo. My Liege the barque is ready and attends Your pleasure the commands of Kings are not To be gain-said or broken for the will Of heaven is obey'd in doing them Seph We do obey it then and willingly Father for yet I can't forget that name Although these injuries would raze it out My memorie I will not now dispute But readily obey your will and know The pleasures of your Court should not entice Me shun this comming terrour which will be More welcome to me by my companie And thus I take my leave Here may you find She kneels That happiness you wish and we shall want Whilest that we prove our selves loves Confessors If not his Martyrs Kin. I will hear no more Away with them my Lord you know the place Our sentence and the time I long to see Me and my Kingdom from these monsters free Max. Arcadia adieu Thou hast before Been famous for the happiness of loves Now mischief hath usurp't the seat and may It be the object of the gods hatred Since Love's the subject of their crueltie Come dearest let us winde our selves so close That envie may admire and so despair To enter here where love possession keeps Exe in t Scaen. 5. Kin. Now shall I live secure for now there is None left whose nearness to our blood might edge Their hopes by killing us to gain our Crown Kings lives are never safe from those that wish Their ends which must initiate them into Th' enjoyment of a Kingdom this same crown Is such a bait unto ambitious spirits 'T is never safe upon the wearers head Enter Artaxia weeping Why weeps my dear Art Ask why I do not weep Poor Artaxia are my tears denied me Ask why I do not rave tear my hair thus Why such a weight of sorrow doth not rob So much of woman from me as complaints Or rather why do I not cloud the skie With sighs till at the last with one bold stab My own hand take from insulting fortune This miserable object of her sport Ask why I do not this not why I weep Kin. Or stint thy teares or mingle mine with them By a relation of their cause these eyes Trust me Artaxia are not yet drawn dry Nor hath strong sorrow e're exhausted them To make them bankrupt of a friendly tear But not a fond one Why Artaxia Why dost thou hasten those that come too fast Sorrow and age clear up thy clouded brow Art Ah Damocles how hast thou lost thy self And art become a monster not a man Thus to deprive me of my onely joy The onely stay and comfort of mine age Which now must fall Break heart and give My sorrows vent Ah! my Sephestia's gone For ever lost unto the world and me Kin. Content thy self not I but justice hath Depriv'd us of her Justice that is blind To all relations and deaf to intreats Of fond nature or fonder affection Art Ah cruel justice Justice no tyranny This is Death be my friend joyn once more My dear Sephestia and me I come Stabs her self Sephestia I come curs'd world farewel Kin. Help help Artaxia my dear help help Sephestia doth live she is not dead Art Oh 't is too late oh-oh-oh She dies Enter 2 Lords 2 Lor. Heavens what a sight is here The Queen she 's dead stark dead what shal we do This wretched land is fruitful grown of late Of nothing else but miseries and woes Jove sends his darts like hail-shot no place free Kin. Ah miserable man I am a wretch Who thus have lost two jewels that the world Can't recompence I know not what to do Now could I tear my self in pieces that I have Thus parted friends left my self alone Offers to kill himself I am resolv'd I will no longer live 2 Lo. Stay good my Liege live repent of what Y'have done you have killd enough already Kin. If I should kill my self and lose my crown I were better live Call us a Council quickly But my wife my dearest Artaxia That I could breath life into thee again Or else were with thee 2 Lo. He 's not yet so mad Kin. O ye powers above what mean ye thus To wrack us mortals with such blacker deeds Than hell it self or remove them or take All senses from us Bear the bodie in And summon all our Lords with speed t' attend Upon us that we may find out from whence It is we suffer this sad influence Exit 2 Lo. Unhappy King he hath undone himself And all the Land His sublimated rage Hath sowne a crop of mischiefs which no age Can parallel great-belly'd time is big With sorrows and our next succeeding times Must reap the harvest of his bloody crimes Exit Finis Actus primi Act. 2. Scaen. 1. Enter Menaphon and Doron Men. HOw mad a thing is Love Is makes us lose Our senses whilest we wander in a maze Of endless torments sometime with his smiles The cunning thief doth flatter us with hopes And tantalize our expectations when Strait our winged joyes are gone and we Do wrack our selves with future coming fears A mistris frowns doth cloud our clearer skie 1. Fond love no more Will I adore Thy feigned Deity Go throw thy darts At simple hearts And prove thy victory 2. Whilst I do keep My harmless sheep Love hath no power on me 'T is idle soules Which he controules The busie man is free Enter Doron Dor. Ah Menaphon my Sister Pesana a pies On her I had almost forgot her name with come Thinking on her business Men. VVhy what 's thy business Doron tell me Dor. My business 't is
flower of thy hopes And to repay thy folly with thy shame Do not go on to kindle such a fire Within my breast as shall consume both thee And all that cross the current of my will Sam. I have already sad experience of The wilde effects of his enraged will aside Yet such the crosness of my fortune is I must again be made the subject of His furious tyrannie but I 'm resolv'd Know Sir I value more my minds content Than all the gawdie shows Courts can present I am too well confirmed in the bliss And sweet content attends a Country life To leave it for the giddy-headed Court. Besides my true affections are so riveted Unto my Melecertus that nor frowns Nor flatteries shall part my heart from him Cease therefore farther to commence a suit Nature forbids me grant and you to ask Kin. And have I with my Kingly robes laid by My Kingly mind No it shall ne're be said A womans will hath contradicted mine But 't is by policie that I must work Since I have laid my Kingly power aside I 'll set my brains o'th'tenter hooks and stretch Them to their uttermost abilities To win this scornful beautie to my wife Or else revenge it with her dearest life Exit Scaen. 3. Sam. My life hath hitherto been chequer'd with Varietie of fortunes sometimes with A white of happiness and then a black Of miserie thus loves bright day of mirth Is follow'd with a darker night of woe How fair of late my fortune seem'd to be And now alas o're-cast with blackest clouds Of discontents wherein I labour with Important suits I cannot may not grant No no my Melecertus I am firm To thee nor shall the rain of tears Or winds of threats remove me from thy love Be thou but constant nay I know thou art I will not wrong thee with so foul a thought As once to doubt thou canst be otherwise Enter Plusidippus Plu. You 're from your shepherds now or their defence Presume not they can rescue you 't is past Their skill or power to force you from mine arms Sam. Alas fond boy I scorn thy threats as much As I hate thee or slight thy boasted strength Were but my Melecertus here he would Whip thy rudeness into better manners Plu. 'T is well you are a woman not a man And have no other weapon but your tongue Which you are priviledg'd to use and we To laugh at But in short if you 'l accept My love and service then shall you be safe And happy Souldiers cannot talk but with Their swords and then they strike gain-sayers dumb Sam. All this is nothing for your words nor swords Shall not remove me from my dearest friend He hath my heart and I have nothing left But hate if you 'l accept of that 't is all That I can give or you receive from me Plu. You must be dealt with as we use to do With sullen birds I 'll shut you up and then Perhaps you 'l sing another note you are Not yet in tune you are too high for me But I will take you lower I will plough Your heart with grief and then perhaps it will Better receive the seed of my true love Sam. Sooner the turtle shall forget her mate Than I my Melecertus and when I Can't see him with mine eys my mind shall rove Wing'd with desire throughout the spacious world And find no rest until it meet with him And though our bodies never meet our souls Shall joyn and love each other after death Thus is true love immortal and shall never Die but with our souls shall live for ever Plu. Shepherd who e're thou art I cannot chuse But envie thee thy happiness who hast So true a love I cannot but admire This noble soul and love her though she hate Me for 't I 'll treat her civilly and it I can't obtain her for a wife she shall My goddess be and I 'll adore her name Though at a distance Lady will you walk Exeunt Scaen. 4. Enter King Damocles It is an ill wind that blows no man good Though the Thessalian lad have got the prize In his possession it shall not be long But I will have them both in mine I have Dispatch'd a letter to my Lords to send Me suddenly some servants to assist Enter Menaphon My plot Now Menaphon what is the newes Men. Great Sir the messenger 's return'd and brought The men you sent for they are here at hand Kin. 'T is well direct them to the castle that I told you of and give them charge to seize Upon the buzzard and his prey and bring Them both to me mean-time go you and find Out Melecertus that I may be sure Of him for he 's my rival in my love Men. My Liege all shall be done to your desire Exit Kin. Blest policie thou far exceed'st dull strength That wanders in the dark of ignorance Wanting the eye of wisedome both to guide And to defend it from approaching harms Thus art with ease doth move the pondrous load Which strength could never master or remove The Foxes tail must piece the Lions skin Little Ulysses with his wit did more Against the foe than Ajax with his strength Exit Scaen. 5. Enter Samela It is some comfort yet that I can change My prison though I am a pris'ner still Would I could change my companie as soon But ah most wretched Samela who wert Born to misfortunes and to nothing else As if that I alone were fortunes mark At which she onely ayms her angry darts The morning of mine age was clouded with Mishaps and now my noon is like to be The fatal night unto my miserie My Gaoler is so kind as if he meant To bribe my love but these are gilded pills I cannot swallow Should my Father get Me into his possession once again I were as bad or worse I know too well His passion to hope any help from him I 'll tell him plainly who I am and trie If time have dull'd the edge of 's crueltie Perhaps the kinder gods may move his heart To pitie and convert his rage to love He is my father still and though unkind To me yet can I not forget I am His child and owe a dutie to his name He is my King and so I must obey His will if I must suffer let it be From his rather than from a strangers hands Exit Scaen. 6. Enter Doron reading I think I am provided now if Poetrie Will do 't my Carmila is mine these Wittie knaves what fine devices they Have got to fetter maidens hearts The Poet Orpheus made the Thracian Dames dance after his pipe and Ovid Charm'd the Emperours daughter with His Poetrie there are some secret Charms in these same verses sure Enter Carmila Let me see here what I have got Ha Carmila look here I think You 'l love me now Reads Carmila A Miracle Car. A miracle for what Doron Dor. Why a miracle of beautie and I
Is taken at the first rebound And like an aiëry bubble blown By vainer breath till it be grown Too big to be conceal'd it flies About a while gaz'd at then dies Something he tells and hasts away He could not and fame would not stay To near the rest for she well knew By mixing of false tales with true To make it more To Rome she plyes Her greatest Mart of truths and lyes The gods says she will dwell on earth And give themselves a mortal birth But they of fame had got the ods For they themselves made their own gods And car'd not to encrease their store For they had gods enough before To Solyma she takes her flight And puts the Citie in a fright Unwelcome newes fills Herods ears And then his head with thoughts and fears The King of whom the Sages told And all the Prophecies of old Is born sayes fame a King who shall Deliver Judah out of thrall Kings shall his subjects be and lay Their scepters at his feet his sway Shall know no bounds nor end but he Beyond all time so fates decree By this the Sun had cross'd the seas And told the newes to th' Antipodes The aiëry spirits pack'd hence away Chas'd by the beams of this bright day The fiends were in an uproar hell Trembl'd with the dismal yell The Prince of darkness was in doubt The Lord of light would find him out And that the word of truth being come His oracles must all be dumb Pale death foresaw he was betray'd That King of terrors was afraid Glory be to God above For this miracle of love Ever blessed be the morn When the God of Love was born Love so charming that it can Contract a God into a Man And by the magick of his birth Make an Heaven of the Earth Ever ever sing we thus Till Angels come and joyn with us They rejoyce with all their powers Yet the Benefit is Ours They with joy the tydings bring Shall We be silint when They sing The 25. Cap. of Job Paraphras'd Then Bildad answers dominion and fear Which rule us mortals loe his In-mates are Can numbers shallow bounds confine his hoasts Or does his light baulk any unknown coasts Can man be Gods Corrival to be just Can he be clean that is defiled dust The Moon in th' ocean of his light is drown'd The stars impure in his bright eyes are found Then what is man alas poor worthless span Or what 's his son a worm less than a man 35. Cap. of Job Then 'gan Elihu speak vileness dost dare Thy righteousness with Gods thus to compare Thou sayst what gain will righteousness bring in Or shall I thrive by that more than by sin I 'll answer thee Behold the clouds that stand His surer guard against thy sinning hand Legions of doubled sins cannot assault Thy God or pierce his statry guarded vault Nor can thy stock of good encrease his store Thy hand may hurt or help like thee the poor c. On the Widows 2 Mites How comes it that the widows mites are more Than the abundance the rich gave the poor Whilst they their worldly goods lib'rally hurl'd She gave her heart more worth than all the world On Christs Cross As from a Tree at first came all our woe So on a tree our remedie did grow One bare the fruit of death the other life This was a well of Salem that of strife On Christs Death and Resurrection What can God die or man live being slain He dy'd as man as God he rose again Gen. 2.18 When man was made God sent an helper to him And so she prov'd for she help'd to undoe him On the miracle of the Loaves This was a miracle indeed when bread Was by substraction multiplied Why wonder we at this strange feast When Gods's both giver and a guest On Christ's Resurrection The Lord of life lay in a tomb as in the womb His Resurrection was a second birth from th'womb of th' earth On M. M. weeping at Christs death What weep to see thy Saviour die Whereby thou liv'st eternally But now I know 't was cause thy sins Were the sharp spears that wounded him Mark 12. Give to God c. And to Caesar c. Give God and Caesar both how shall I do Give Gods receiver and thou giv'st him too On the world That the worlds goods are so inconstant found No wonder is for that it self is Round Similis simili gaudet Wherefore doth Dives love his Money so That 's earth So 's Hee Like will to like we know On Calvus Calvus of late extream long locks doth wear The reason is Calvus hath lost his Hair On Malfido Malfido on his neighbour looks so grim Proximus is Postremus sure with him On Will who had run through all trades and was now a Cobler I prethee Will whither wilt thou so fast Thou canst not farther for th' art at thy Last Better fortune Whilst that the Huntsman stared he became Unto his dogs their banquet and their game But from Acteons fortune I am free Because whilst I saw her she could not me On Cornuto Cornuto cries Hee 's weary of his life He cannot bear the Lightness of his wife She wants so many Grains she 'l go with loss Yet a Light Woman is an Heavie Cross Mart. Ep. 24. lib. 2. If unjust fortune hale thee to the bar In rags paler than guilty prisoners are I 'll stick to thee banishd thy native soyl Through Seas and Rocks I will divide thy toyl On one who fell in love with Julia throwing Snow-balls at him I 'me all on fire strange miracle of Love These Watry Snow-bals Hand-Granadoes prove If from cold clouds thou dost thy lightnings dart Julia what Element will fence my heart J. Cesaris Epigram A Thracian lad on Ice-bound Heber playes The glassie Pavement with his waight decayes Whilsts with his lower parts the river fled The meeting Ice cut off his tender head Which having found the Son-less mother urnd Those to be drownd were born this to be burnd Hensii Epitaph Trina mihi juncta est variis aetatibus vxor Haec Juveni illa viro tertia nupta seni est Prima est propter Opus teneris sociata sub annis Altera propter Opes tertia propter Opem Englished Three wives I had in severall ages Past A Youth a Man an old man had the last The first was for the Work a tender maid The second was for VVealth the third for Ayd Out of Italian My Mistris hath my heart in hold But yet 't is under locks of gold In which the wind doth freely play But my poor heart doth prisoner stay What happier prison can there be Confinement is my libertie H. Grotius S. Petri Querela Quae me recondet recondet regio quâ moestum diem Fallam latebrâ quaero nigrantem specum Quâ me sepeliem vivus ubi nullum videns Nulli videndus lachrymas foveam meas Englished What place will hide my guilt
the Virgin saluted him and bad him Good morrow Bernard whereat he well knowing the jugling of the Friers made answer again out of St. Paul Oh said he your Ladiship hath forgot your self it is not lawful for women to speak in the Church John King of England being wished by a Courtier to untomb the bones of one who whilst he was living had been his great enemy Oh no said the King would all mine enemies were as honour ably buried The Egyptian Calyph offering an English Embassador his hand in his glove the Embassador answered Sir we come not to treat with your glove but your self When a Pyrate said to one of his fellows Woe to us if we be known an honest man in the same ship replyed And woe to me if I be not known Luther was wont to say He would be unwilling to be a souldier in that army where Priests were Captains because the Church not the Camp was their proper place Plato being demanded how he knew a wise man answered When being rebuked he would not be angry and being praised he would not be proud Marquess Pawlet there being divers factions at Court in his time yet was he beloved of all parties and being asked how he stood so right in the judgment of all He answered By being a willow and not an oak Diogenes was wont to say when the people mock't him They deride me yet I am not derided I am not the man they take me for Rather than want exercise of his patience he would crave alms of dead mens Statues and being demanded why he did so He answered That I may learn to take denial from others the more patiently Marius was never offended with any report went of him because he said If it were true it would sound to his praise if false his life and manners should prove it contrary A Steward once replyed to his passionate Lord when he called him knave c. Your Honour may speak as you please but I believe not a word that you say for I know my self an honest man Philip of Macedon professed himself much beholden to his enemies the Athenians for speaking evil of him For said he they made me an honest man to prove them lyars When Diogenes was told by a base fellow that he once had been a Coiner of money He answered 'T is true such as thou art now I once was but such as I am now thou wilt never be Socrates when one asked him why he took such a ones bitter railing so patiently Answered It is enough for one to be angry at a time Dion of Syracuse being banished came to Theodorus Court suppliant where not presently admitted he turned to his companion with these words I remember I did the like when I was in like dignity Socrates being perswaded to revenge himself of a fellow that kick'd him answered If an ass had kick'd me should I have set my wit to his and kick'd him again Another time being told that one spake evil of him He replyed Alas the man hath not as yet learned to speak well but I have learned to contemn what he speaks Diogenes being told that many despised him answered It is the wise mans portion to suffer of fools When Dionysius the Tyrant had plotted the death of his Master Plato and was defeated by Plato's escape out of his Dominions when the Tyrant desired him in writing not to speak evil of him the Philosopher replyed That he had not so much idle time as once to think of him knowing there was a just God would one day call him to a reckoning When once an hot-spur was perswaded to be patient as Job was He replyed What do ye tell me of Job Job never had any suits in the Chancery Mr. Bradford was wont to say that in Chricts cause to suffer death was the way to he aven on horsback Jugo an ancient King set all his Nobles being Pagans in his Hall below and certain poor Christians in his Presence-chamber with himself at which all wondring he told them this he did not as King of the Drones but as King of another world wherein these were his fellow-Princes It was the saying of a merry fellow That in Christendom there were neither Scholars enough Gentlemen enough nor Jewes enough because if there were Scholars enough so many would not be double and treble beneficed if Gentlemen enough so many peasants would not be ranked among the Gentry and if Jewes enough so many Christians would not profess usury Socrates was wont to say to Alcibiades when he met him among gallants like himself I fear not thee but thy company Alexander when a Commander of his in the Wars spake loudly but did little told him I entertained you into my service not to rail but to fight Illyricus when one asked him why the old Translations of the Bible had no vowels I think saith he that they had no consonants for they could not agree among themselves Doctor Reynolds his Lecture in Oxford ceasing by reason of his sickness some desired him to read before he was well recovered The Doctor said He desired so to serve God that he might serve him long Erasmus was wont to say in his time That to Preach with many Ministers was but Perfricare frontem linguam voluere Epiphanius having stayd long at Constantinople and being to take ship to return home again said He was leaving three great things a great City a great Palace and great Hypocrisie Charls the Great when he was shewed by a Duke a Royal Palace and all the rings and sumptuous ornaments and jewels said Haec sunt qui nos invitos faciunt mori These are the things that make us unwilling to die Erasmus was used to say That the dunsery and idleness of the Monks of his time made him a Student The Athenian Commander being asked what God was said He was neither bow-man nor pike-man nor hors-man nor footman but one that did know istis omnibus imperare A noble Commander in the Wars having taken great spoils said to a souldier behind him Tolle istos Ego Christianus When Cajetan told Luther he should be banished Luther answered Si non capiat terra capiat coelum A great man comming to Aquinas and offering him a Bishoprick he leaning on his elbow in his Study replyed Mallem Chrysostomam in Matthaeum The same Aquinas when he was entreated to take a Cardinals place answered Sepulchrum cogito non gradum sublimiorem Luther and his Wife with four children were in a boat and being in a great storm were like to be cast away Luther laughing aloud said Oh how the Devil would rejoyce if we were all drowned Plato discoursing unto one of the contempt of death and speaking strangely upon it was answered That he spake more couragiously than he lived To whom Plato replyed that he spake not as he lived but as he should live Caesar Borgia being sick to death said When I lived I provided for every thing