discend of the Linage of the Troyans and therefore when king Eneas and prince Turnus had great Warres betweene them which of them should haue the Princesse Lauinia in Marriage the which at that time was onely heyre of Italie king Euander ayded Eneas not only with goods but also sending him his owne Sonne in person For the friendes ought for their true friendes willingly to shead their bloud and in their behalfe without demaunding they ought also to spend their goods This King Euander had a Wife so well learned that that which the Greekes sayde of her seemeth to bee fables That is to say of her eloquence and wisedome for they say that if that which this woman wrote of the warres of Troy had not been through enuie cast into the fire the name of Homer had at this day remayned obscure The reason hereof is because that woman was in the time of the destruction of Troy and wrote as a witnesse of sight But Homer wrote after the destruction of Troy as one affectioned vnto the Prince Achilles as a friend of the Greekes and enemie of the Troians And truely when a Writer is affectioned to any person his writing of force must be suspected The wife of this King Euander was called by her name Nicostrata albeit others called her Carmenta for the eloquence shee had in her verses For they say that she made as easily in meeter as others doe in prose The Historiographers of the Gentiles say that shee prophefied the destruction of Troy fifteen years before She tolde the comming of Aeneas into Italy and spake of the warres that should be before the marriage of Lauinia and said how Ascanius the sonne of Enea should builde Alba longa She sayde further that of the Latine Kings should descende the Romaines and that the reuenge which Rome should take of Greece should bee greater then that which Greece did take of Troy And shee sayde also that the greatest Warre which Rome should haue should be against the Princes of Affricke and that in the end Rome should triumph ouer all the Realmes of the earth and finally a nation vnknowne should triumph for euer in Rome As Eusesebius Caesarten saith The Routaines kept these writings in as great estimation in the high capitoll as the Christians kept their faith vnto GOD. King Darius after he was vanquished in the first Battell by King Alexander the great before he was in the second battel vtterly destroyed trauelled and sought many wayes and means to the ende he might be friend vnto Alexander And in very deede King Darius was sage to seeke it but not so happie to obtain it For to Princes the peace is more worth that is honest then is the victorie which is bloudie Betwixt these two so stoute Princes Truce was made for three moneths and in the meane time the Priests of the Chaldeans treated peace with these conditions that the great Alexander should marry the daughter of king Darius and that Darius should giue her a great quantity of gold and besides this that he should endow her with the third part of his realme And truely these meanes were good For among Princes there is nothing that sooner pacifieth olde iniuries then to make betweene them newe Mariages King Alexander excused himselfe of this marriage saying that hee was but xxiiij yeares of age and that hee was too young to bee marryed because amongst the Macedonians there was a custom that the woman could not be marryed vntill xxv yeares of age nor the man vntill xxx The Daughter of King Darius was faire rich and noble but the best she wanted for she was not wise And this was the cause why K Alexander refused her for his wife for in those dayes women were not marryed because they were rich but beloued because they were wise And finally the woman that had studyed best came commonly to the highest Marriage Antonius Rusticus and Quintus Seuerus say that the great Alexander after he had forsaken the daughter of king Darius marryed a wife which was a poore woman and deformed called Barsina which indeede was neyther with riches nor beautie endued but without doubt in the Greeke and Latine tongue most excellently learned And when the Princes of Macedonie would haue withdrawn him from that marriage asking him why hee esteemed the rich lesse then the poore he aunswered thus I see my Friends in Marriage it suffiseth the husband to bee rich and the woman wise For the Office of the husband is to winne that which is lost and the Office of the wife is to keepe safe that which is wonne Strabo de situ Orbis saith that the fifte Queene of Lides was Mirthas the which of her bodie was so little that shee seemed to bee a Dwarffe and in quicknes of wit so high that they called her a giant For the man that hath a stout stomack and a little body may well be called a giaunt and hee that hath a great body and a cowards hart may iustly be named a Dwarffe For that this excellent Queen Mirtha was such a wise wife when she was marryed and afterwards also a widowe very honest and aboue all things in Phylosophie excellently learned The Lides counted this Queen Mirtha amongst the seuen Kings of the which they vaunted themselues to be gouerned as of glorious Princes For the Auncients gaue as much glorie to Women learned in Letters as vnto the valiant and stoute men expert in Armes Cornificius the Poete as Laertius saieth had a sister called Cornificia the which in Greeke Latin letters was not onely learned but also in making Metre and Epigrames very expert They write that of this Woman which of few men the like hath been heard That is to say that she made verses and Epigrams better at the first sight then her brother did with much study And it is not too much incredible to put any doubt in that that is spoken for the penne hath more swiftnesse of the liuely spirit then the tongue hath of the small vnderstanding This Poet Cornificius was resident a long time in Rome and was alwayes poore and voide of all fauour thogh indeede hee was better learned then others which were in greater estimation the which thing dayly chaunceth in the Court of Princes For there is no difference whether they bee fooles or wise but whether they be acceptable to the Princes Aristotle sayeth Vbi multum de intellectu ibi parum de fortuna Meaning thereby that men which of memory and vnderstanding are most rich of the goods of this world are commonly most poore This Poet Cornificius therefore going through Rome little set by of any by chaunce a Romane named Calphurnius to scoffe at him sayd Tell me Cornificius hast thou had any fortunate day since thou wert borne for in these twenty yeers that I haue known thee I neuer saw thee in fauour and if I bee not deceyued it is fifteene yeeres since I knew thee haue
that land so euil tilled so barren cold and little and that they should come and enhabite Italy which was a plaine Country fertile and ample temperate and very rich and that now or neuer they should conquer it And Narsetes therewith not contented but to prouoke his friends the more and make them the more couetous sent them part of euery good thing that was in Italy that is to say light horses rich armour sweet pleasant and daintie fruites fine mettals and may kindes of ointments very odoriserous silkes and Marchandises of many and diuers sorts The Ambassadors arriued in Pannony which now is called Hungarie were honourably receyued and the Lumbardes seeing that there were such and so many goodly things in Italy determined to leaue Pannonia and goe spoyle and conquer Italy although it belonged to Rome and were at that season friends with the Romanes yet notwithstanding they had little respect to this And hereat no man ought to maruell for in that place there is neuer perfect friendship where he that commandeth is constrayned to demaund helpe of others The Lumbards determined for to passe into Italy and at that time there was seene of the Italians visibly in the ayre sundry Armies of fire that one cruellie killed the other Which thing greatly feared the hearts of the people For by this they knew that within a short space much of theyr bloud of their enemies also should be shed for it is an olde ancient custome that when any great matter doth chance to any Realme first the Planets and Elements do declare the same by secret tokens the ingratitude of the Emperour Iustinian against Narsetes his Captaine and the euill words which Sophia spake vnto him were the occasion that the Lumhards inuaded and destroied all Italy which thing valiant Princes ought well to note to keepe themselues from ingratitude towards their seruants who hath done them great seruice For it is a generall rule That the ingratitude of a great benefite maketh the seruants despayre of recempence or of a faithfull jeruant maketh him become a cruell and mortall enemie And let not Princes trust men because they bee natiue of their realms brought vp nourished in their Pallaces and alwayes haue been faithfull in their seruices that therefore they will not of good subiects be turned to euill nor yet of faithfull become disloyall For such imagination is vaine For the Prince that in his doings is vnthankfull cannot keepe nor retaine any honest man long in his seruice One thing the noble Iustintan did with Narsetes whereof all noble and sage Princes ought to beware that is to know hee did not onely giue eare vnto his enemies and beleeued them but also before them he did dishonour him and shame him to his power which thing made him vtterly to despayre For there is nothing that spiteth a man more then to haue before his enemies any iniury or dishonour done vnto him of his superiour The Empresse Sophia therefore deserued great reproach for speaking such dishonest words to Narsetes to send him to thread the needles in that occupation where the damsels wrought For it is the duety of a Noble Princesse to mitigate the yre of Princes when they are angry and not to prouoke thē further to anger Narsetes then alwayes doubting the Empresse Sophia neuer after returned into Naples where shee was but rather came from Naples to Rome a yeare before the Lambards came into Italy where hee receyued all the Sacraments and like a deuout Christian hee dyed His body was carried to Alexandria in a cossin of siluer all set with precious stones and there was buried And a man cannot tell whether the displeasure were greater that all Asia had not to see Narsetes aliue or the pleasure that Sophia had to see him dead For the vnpatient heart especially of a woman hath no rest vntill shee see her enemie dead CHAP. XVII Of a Letter the Emperour Marcus Aurelius sent to the King of Sicilie in which he recordeth the trauels they endured together in their youth and reproueth him of his small reuerence towards the Temples MArcus Aurelius sole Emperour of Rome borne in Mount Celio called the old Tribune wisheth health and long life to thee Gorbin Lord and King of Sicilie As it is the custome of the Romane Emperours the first yeare of my raigne I wrote generally to all the Isle the second yeare I wrote generally vnto thy Court and Pallace and at this present I write more particularlie to thy person And although that Princes haue great Realmes yet they ought not therefore to cease to communicate with their olde friendes Since I tooke my penne to write vnto thee I stayed my hand a great while from writing and it was not for that I was slothfull but because I was ashamed to see all Rome offended with thee I let thee to know most excellent Prince that in this I say I am thy true friend for in my hart I feele thy trouble and so sayd Euripides That which with the heart is loued with the heart is lamented But before I shew thee the cause of my writing I will reduce into thy memory some thinges past of our youth and thereby we shall see what wee were then and what we are now for no man doth so much reioyce of his prosperity present as hee which calleth to mind his miseries past Thou shalt call to mind most excellent Prince that wee two together did learne to reade in Capua and after we studyed a little in Tarentum and from thence wee went to Rhodes where I reade Rhethorike and thou heardest Philosophy And afterwardes in the end of ten yeares wee went to the wars of Pannonia where I gaue my selfe to musicke for the affections of young men are so variable that dayly they would know strange Realmes and change offices And in all those iournies with the force of youth the sweete company with the pleasant communication of Sciences and with a vaine hope wee did dissemble our extreame pouerty which was so great that many times and often we desired not that which many had but that little which to few abounded Doest thou remember that when wee sayled by the gulfe Arpin to goe into Hellespont a long and tempestuous torment came vpon vs wherein we were taken of a Pirate and for our ransome hee made vs row about nine moneths in a Galley whereas I cannot tell which was greater eyther the want of bread or the aboundance of stripes which wee alwayes endured Hast thou forgotten also that in the City of Rhodes when wee were besieged of Bruerdus puissant King of Epirotes for the space of fourteene monethes wee were ten without eating flesh saue onely two cats the one which wee stole and the other which wee bought remember that thou and I beeing in Tarent were desired of our Host to go to the feast of the great Goddesse Dtana into the which Temple none could enter that day but
noble courages Of Antisthenes the Philosopher ANtisthenes the Philosopher put al his felicity in renowne after his death For sayeth hee there is no losse but of life that flitteth without fame For the Wise man needeth not feare to die so he leaue a memory of his vertuous life behinde him Of Sophocles the Philosopher SOphocles had al his ioy in hauing children which should possesse the inheritance of their Father saying that the graft of him that hath no children surmounteth aboue all other sorrowes for the greatest felicity in this life is to haue honour riches and afterwardes to leaue children which shall inherite them Of Euripides the Philosopher Euripides the Philosopher had all his ioy in keeping a fayre woman saying his tongue with wordes could not expresse the griefe which the hart endureth that is accombred with a foule woman therefore of of truth hee which hapneth of a good vertuous woman ought of right in his life to desire no more pleasure Of Palemon the Philosopher PAlemon put the felicity of men in eloquenee saying and swearing that the man that cannot reason of all things is not so like a reasonable man as he is a brute beast for according to the opinions of many there is no greater felicity in this wretched world then to be a man of a pleasant tongue and of an honest life Of Themistocles the Philosopher THemistocles put all his felicity in discending from a Noble lynage saying that the man which is come of a meane stocke is not bound to make of a renowmed fame for truly the vertues and prowesses of them that are past are not but an example to moue them to take great enterprises which are present Of Aristides the Philosopher ARistides the Philosopher put all his felicity in keeping temporal goods saying that the man which hath not wherwith to eate nor to sustaine his life it were better coūsell for him of his free will to goe into the graue then to do any other thing For he onely shall bee called happy in this world who hath no neede to enter into an other mans house Of Heraclitus the Philosopher HEraclitus put al his felicity in heaping vp treasure saying that the prodigall man the more begetteth the more he spendeth but he hath the respect of a wise man who can keep a secret treasure for the necessitie to come Thou hast now sufficiently vnderstood my friend Pulio that 7. moneths since I haue been taken with the feuer quartaine and I sweare vnto thee by the immortall Gods that at this present instant writing vnto thee my hand shaketh which is an euident token that the colde doth take mee wherefore I am constrained to conclude this matter which thou demaundest mee although not according to my desire For amongst true friendes though the workes doe cease wherewith they serue yet therefore the inward parts ought not to quaile wherwith they loue If thou doest aske mee my friend Pulio what I thinke of all that is aboue spoken and to which of those I doe sticke I answere thee That in this World I doe not graunt any to bee happy and if there be any the gods haue them with them because on the one side chosing the plaine and drye way without clay and on the other side all stony and myerie wee may rather call this life the precipitation of the euill then the safegard of the good I will speake but one word onely but marke well what thereby I meane which is that amongst the mishaps of fortune wee dare say that there is no felicitie in the World And hee onely is happy from whom wisdome hath plucked enuious aduersity and that afterwards is brought by wisedome to the highest felicitie And though I would I cannot endure any longer but that the immortall Gods haue thee in their custody and that they preserue vs from euill fortune Sith thou art retired now vnto Bethinie I know well thou wouldest I should write thee some newes from Rome and at this present there are none but that the Carpentines and Lusitaines are in great strife dissention in Spaine I receiued letters how that the barbarous were quiet though the Host that was in Ilium were in good case yet notwithstanding the Army is somwhat fearefull and timorous For in all the coast and borders there hath beene a great plague Pardon me my friend Pulio for that I am so sickly that yet I am not come to my selfe for the feuer quartane is so cruel a disease that he which hath it contenteth himselfe with nothing neyther taketh pleasure in any thing I send thee two of the best horses that can be found in al Spaine and also I send thee two cups of gold of the richest that can bee found in Alexandria And by the law of a good man I sweare vnto thee that I desire to send thee two or three howers of those which trouble mee in my feuer quartane My wife Faustine saluteth thee and of her part and mine also to Cassia thy olde mother and noble Widdow we haue commended Marcus the Romane Emperour with his own hand writeth this and againe commendeth him vnto his deere friend Pulio CHAP. XLI That Princes and great Lords ought not to esteeme themselues for being fayre and well proportioned IN the time that Ioshua triumphed amongst the Hebrewes and that Dardanus passed from great Greece to Samotratia and when the sons of Egenor were seeking their sister Europe and in the time that Siculus raigned in Scicil in great Asia in the realme of Egypt was builded a great City called Thebes the which K. Busiris built of whom Diodorus Siculus at large mentioneth Plinie in the 36. Chapter of his naturall history and Homer in the second of his Iliades Statius in al the booke of his Thebiade doe declare great maruels of this City of Thebes which thing ought greatly to bee esteemed for a man ought not to thinke that fayned which so excellent authours haue written For a truth they say that Thebes was in circuit forty miles and that the walles were thirty stades hie and in bredth sixe They say also that the City had a hundred gates very sumptuous and strong and in euery gate two hundred Horsemen watched Through the midst of Thebes passed a great riuer the which by milles and fish did greately profite the City When Thebes was in his prosperity they say that there was two hundred thousand fires and besides all this all the Kings of Egypt were buried in that place As Strabo sayeth De situ orbis when Thebes was destroyed with enemies they found therein seuenty seuen Tombes of Kings which had bin buried there And here is to bee noted that all those tombes were of vertuous kings for among the Aegyptians it was a law inuiolable that the King which had beene wicked in his life should not bee buried after his death Before the noble and worthy Numantia
doth not weigh vs as we are but as wee desire to bee And let no man say I would and cānot be good for as wee haue the audacitie to commit a faulte so if we list wee may enforce our selues to worke amendes All our vndoing proceedeth of this that wee outwardly make a shewe of vertue but inwardly in the deede wee employ our whole power to vice which is an abuse wherewith all the world is corrupted and deceiued For Heauen is not furnished but with good deedes and hell is not replenished but with Euill-desires I graunt that neyther man nor beast desireth to die but all trauell to the ende they may liue But I aske now this question What doth it auayle a man to desire his life to be prolonged if the same be wicked vngodly and defamed The man that is high-minded proude vnconstant cruell disdainfull enuious full of hatred angry malicious full of wrath couetous a Lyer a Gluton a Blasphemer and in all his doings disordred Why will wee suffer him in the world The life of a poor man that for need stealeth a gowne or any other small trifle is forthwith taken away Why then is hee that disturbeth the whole Common-wealth left aliue Oh would to GOD there were no greater theeues in the world thē those which robbe the temporall goods of the Rich and that wee did not winke continually at them which take away the good renowne as well of the Rich as of the Poore But wee chastise the one and dissemble with the other which is euidently seene how the theefe that stealeth my neighbours gown is hanged forthwith but hee that robbeth mee of my good-name walketh still before my doore The diuine Plato in the first booke of laws saide We ordaine and commaund that hee which vseth not himselfe honestly and hath not his house well-reformed his Riches well gouerned his family well instructed and liueth not in peace with his neighbors that vnto him bee assigned Tutours which shall gouerne him as a Foole and as a vacabonde shall he be expulsed from the people to the intent the common-wealth be not through him infected For there neuer riseth contention or strife in a commonwealth but by such men as are alwayes out of order Truely the diuine Plato had great reason in his sayings for the man that is vicious in his person and doth not trauell in things touching his House nor keepeth his Familie in good order nor liueth quietly in the Commonwealth deserueth to be banished and driuen out of the countrey Truely we see in diuers places mad men tyed and bound fast which if they were at libertie would not doe so much harme as those doe that daylie walke the streetes at their owne willes and sensualitie There is not at this day so great or noble a Lord nor Ladie so delicate but had rather suffer a blow on the head with a stone then a blot in their good-Name with an euilltongue For the wound of the head in a month or two may well bee healed but the blemish of their good-name during life will neuer be remoued Laertius sayth in his booke of the liues of Phylosophers that Dyogenes being asked of one of his neighbours what they were that ordayned theyr Lawes Aunswered in this wise Thou shalt vnderstand my friend that the earnest whole desire of our Fore-fathers and all the intentions of the phylosophers was only to instruct them in their Common-wealth how they ought to speake how to be occupyed how to eate how to sleepe how to treat how to apparrel how to trauell and how to rest And in this consisteth all the wealth of worldly wisedome In deede this Phylosopher in his aunswer touched an excellent point For the Law was made to none other end but only to brydle him that liueth without Reason or Law To men that will liue in rest and without trouble in this life it is requisite and necessarie that they chuse to themselues some kinde and manner of Liuing whereby they may maintaine their house in good-order and conforme their liues vnto the same That estate ought not to be as the folly of the person doth desire nor as may bee most pleasant to the delights of the bodie but as reason teacheth them and God commaundeth them for the surer saluation of theyr soules For the Children of vanitie embrace that onely which the sensuall appetite desireth and reiect that which Reason commaundeth Since the time that Trees were created they alwayes remaining in their first nature vntill this present day doe beare the same leafe and fruite which things are plainly seen in this that the Palme beareth Dates the Fig-tree figs the Nut-tree Nuttes the Peare-tree Peares the Apple-tree Apples the Chestnut-tree chest-nuts the Oke Acornes and to conclude I say all things haue kept their first nature saue onely the Sinnefull-Man which hath fallen by malice The Planettes the Starres the Heauens the Water the Earth the Ayre and the Fire the brute beasts and the Fishes all continue in the same estate wherein they were first created not complaining nor enuying the one the other Man complaineth continually hee is neuer satisfyed and alwayes coueteth to chaunge his estate For the shepheard would be a Husbandman the husbandman a Sqiure the Squire a Knight the Knight a King the King an Emperour c. Therefore I say that fewe is the number of them that seeke amendment of life but infinite are they that trauell to better their estate and to increase their goods The decay of the Common-wealth at this present through all the world is that the drye and withered Okes which haue been nourished vpon the sharpe mountains would now seeme to be daintie Date-trees cherished in the pleasant gardains I meane that those which yesterday could haue bin pleasant with drye Acornes in a poore cottage at home at this day will not eate but of delicate Dishes in other mens houses abrode What estate men ought to take vpon them to keepe their conscience pure and to haue more rest in theyr life a man cannot easily describe For ther is no state in the Church of God but men may therin if they will serue God and profite themselues For there is no kinde of life in the world but the wicked if they perseuer and continue therein may slaunder their persons and also lose their soules Plinie in an Epistle that hee wrote to Fabatus his friend saith There is nothing among mortall men more common and daungerous then to giue place to vaine imaginations wherby a man beleeueth the estate of one to bee much better then the estate of another And hereof it proceedeth that the World doeth blinde men so that they will rather seeke that which is an other mans by trauell and daunger then to enioy their owne with quiet and rest I say the state of Princes is good if they abuse it not I say the state of the people is good if they behaue themselues obediently I say
farre and how great is the difference betweene the estate of Phylosophers and the state of Captaines betweene the skyll to reade in Schooles and the knowledge to rule an Armey betweene the science that wise men haue in bookes and the experience that the others haue in warre betweene their skill to write with the penne and ours to fight with the Sword betweene one that for his pastime is set round with deskes of bookes and an other in perill of life encompassed with troups of Enemyes For many there are which with great eloquence in blazing deeds don in warres can vse their tongues but fewe are those that at the brunte haue hearts to aduenture their liues This Phylosopher neuer saw man of war in the field neeer saw one Armey of men discomfited by an other neuer heard the terrible Trumpet sound to the horrible cruel slaughter of men neuer saw the Treasons of some nor vnderstood the cowardnes of others neuer saw how few they be that fight nor how many ther are that run away Finally I say as it is seemly for a Phylosopher and a learned man to praise the profite of peace Euen so it is in his mouth a thing vncomely to prate of the perills ' of warre If this Phylosopher hath seene no one thing with his Eyes that hee hath spoken but onely read them in sundry bookes let him recount them to such as haue neyther seene nor read them For warlike feates are better learned in the bloudy fields of Affricke then in the beautifull schooles of Greece Thou knowest right well king Antiochus that for the space of thirty and sixe yeares I had continuall and daungerous warres as well in Italie as in Spayne In which Fortune did not fauour mee as is alwayes her manner to vse those which by great stoutnesse and manhood enterprise things high and of much difficultie a witnesse whereof thou seest mee here who before my beard beganne to growe was serued and now it is hoare I my selfe beginne to serue I sweare vnto thee by the God Mars king Antiochus that if any man did aske mee how hee should vse and behaue himselfe in warre I would not aunswer him one word For they are things which are learned by Experience of deedes and not by prating in words Although Princes beginne warres by justice and followe them with wisedome yet the ende standeth vppon fickle Fortune and not of force nor pollicie Diuerse and sundrie other things Hannibal sayde vnto king Antiochus who so bee desirous to see let him reade in the Apothegmes of Plutarche This example Noble Prince tendeth rather to this end to condemne my boldnesse and not to commend my enterprise saying that the affayres of the common wealth bee as vnknowne to mee as the dangers of the warres were to Phormio Your Maiestie may iustly say vnto me that I being a poor simple man brought vp a great while in a rude Countrey doe greatly presume to describe how so puissant a Prince as your Highnes ought to gouerne himselfe and his Realme For of truth the more ignorant a man is of the troubles and alterations of the world the better he shall be counted in the sight of God The estate of Princes is to haue great traines about them and the estate of religious men is to bee solitary for the seruant of God ought to be alwaies void from vaine thoughts to be euer accompanied with holy meditations The estate of Princes is alwayes vnquiet but the state of the religious is to bee enclosed For otherwise he aboue all others may be called an Apostata That hath his body in the Cell and his heart in the market place To Princes it is necessary to commune and speake with all men but for the religious it is not decent to be cōuersant with the world For solitary men if they do as they ought should occupy their hands in trauel their bodies in fasting their tongue in prayer and their heart in contemplation The estate of Princes for the most part is employed to war but the estate of religious is to desire procure peace For if the Prince would study to passe his bounds and by battell to shed the bloud of his enemies the religious ought to shed teares and pray to God for his sinnes O that it pleased Almighty God as I know what my bounden duty is in my heart so that hee would giue me grace to accomplish the same in my deedes Alas when I ponder with my selfe the weightines of my matter my Pen through slouth and negligence is readie to fall out of my hand and I halfe minded to leaue off mine enterprize My intent is to speake against my selfe in this case For albeit men may know the affaires of Princes by experience yet they shall not know how to speake nor write them but by science Those which ought to counsell princes those which ought to reforme the life of princes and that ought to instruct them ought to haue a cleare iudgement an vpright minde their words aduisedly considered their doctrine wholesome and their life without suspition For who so wil speake of high things hauing no experience of them is like vnto a blinde man that would leade and teach him the way which seeth better then hee himselfe This is the sentence of Xenophon the great which saieth There is nothing harder in this life then to know a wise man And the reason which hee gaue was this That a wise man cannot bee knowne but by another wise man wee may gather by this which Xenophon sayeth That as one wise man cannot be knowne but by another wise man so likewise it is requisite that he should be or haue bin a Prince which should write of the life of a Prince For hee that hath bin a marriner and hath sailed but one yeare on the Sea shall bee able to giue better counsell and aduise then he that hath dwelled ten yeares in the hauen Xenophon wrote a booke touching the institution of princes bringeth in Cambyses the king how hee taught and spake vnto king Cyrus his sonne And he wrote an other book likewise of the Arte of Chiualry and brought in king Philip how he ought to teach his sonne Alexander to fight For the philosophers thought that writing of no authoritie that was not entituled and set foorth vnder the Names of those Princes who had experience of that they wrote Oh if an aged Prince would with his penne if not with word of mouth declare what misfortunes haue happened since the first time hee beganne to raigne how disobedient his subjects haue bin vnto him what griefes his seruants haue wroght against him what vnkindnesse his Friendes haue shewed him what wiles his enemies haue vsed towards him what daunger his person hath escaped what jarres hath bin in his Pallace what faultes they haue layde against him how manie times they haue deceyued straungers Finally what griefes hee hath had by day and what sorrowfull sighs
whereby the good were fauoured and also institutions of grieuous paines wherewith the wicked were punished Although truely I had rather and it were better that the good should loue reason then feare the law I speake of those which leaue to doe euill workes for feare onely of falling into the punishments appoynted for euill doers For although men approue that which they do for the present yet God condemaeth that which they desire Seneca in an epistle hee wrote vnto his friende Lucille saide these wordes Thou writest vnto mee Lucille that those of Scicile haue carryed a great quantitie of Corne into Spaine and into Affrike the which was forbidden by a Romaine law and therefore they haue deserued most grieuous punishment Now because thou art vertuous Thou mayest teache mee to doe well and I that am olde will teach thee to say well and this is because that amongst wise and vertuous men it is enough to say that the Law commaundeth appoynteth and suffereth this thing but in as much as it is agreeing with reason For the crowne of the good is reason and the scourge of the wicked is the law The fourth thing that commonly through the worlde amongst all men was accepted was the Barbers And let no man take this thing in mockery For if they doe reade Plinie in the 59. chapter and the seuenth booke there they shall finde for a Trueth that in those former times the Romaines were in Rome 454. yeares without eyther powling or shauing the hâ—ires off the bearde of anie man Marcus Varro said that Publius 〈◊〉 was the first that brought the barbers from Scicilie to Rome But admit it were so or otherwise yet notwithstanding there was a great contention among the Romaines For they sayd they thought it a rash thing for a man to commit his life vnto the curtesie of another Dyonisius the Syracusian neuer trusted his Beard with any barbor but when his Daughters were very little they clipped his beard with sisers but after they became great hee would not put his trust in them to trimme his beard but hee himselfe did burne it with the shales of nuttes This Dyonisius Syracusan was demaunded why hee would not trust any Barbours with his beard He aunswered Because I know that there bee some which will giue more to the Barbor to take away my life then I will giue to trimme my beard Plinie in the seuenth booke sayeth that the great Scipio called Affrican and the Emperour Augustus were the first that caused them in Rome to shaue their beards And I thinke the end why Plinie spake these things was to exalt these two Princes which had as great courage to suffer the rasours to touch their throats as the one for to fight against Hanniball in Affricke and the other against Sextus Pompeius in Scicilie The fifte thing which commonly throgh the world was accepted were the Dyalls and clockes which the Romains wanted a long time For as Plinie and Marcus Varro say the Romaines were without clockes in Rome for the space of 595. yeares The curious Hystoriographers declare three manner of dyalls that were in old time that is to say Dyalls of the houres Dyalls of the Sunne and Dyalls of the Water The dyall of the Sunne Aneximenides Millesius inuented who was great Animandraes scholler The dyall of the water Scipio Nasica inuented the dyall of houres one of the Schollers of Thales the phylosopher inuented Now of all these Antiquities which were brought into Rome none of them were so acceptable to the Romaines as the Dyalls were whereby they measured the day by the houre For before they could not say we will rise at seuen of the clocke wee will dine at ten we will see one the other at twelue at one wee will doe that wee ought to doe But before they sayde after the Sunne is vp wee wil doe such a thing and before it goe downe wee will do that wee ought to doe The occasion of declaring vnto you these fiue antiquities in this preamble was to no other entent but to call my Booke the Diall of Princes The name of the Booke beeing new as it is may make the learning that is therin greatly to be esteemed God forbid that I should bee so bolde to say they haue been so long time in Spaine without dayes of learning as they were in Rome without the Diall of the Sunne the water and of the houres For that in Spaine haue beene alwaies men well learned in Sciences and very expert in the warres By great reason and of greater occasion the Princes ought to bee commended the knights the people their wits and the fertility of their Countrey but yet to all these goodnesse I haue seen many vnlearned bookes in Spaine which as broken Dials deserue to bee cast into the fire to bee forged anew I doe not speake it without a cause that many bookes deserue to bee broken and burnt For there are so many that without shame and honesty doe set forth bookes of loue of the world at this day as boldlie as if they taught them to despise and speake euill of the world It is pitty to see how many dayes and nights be consumed in reading vaine bookes that is to say Orson and Valentine the Court of Venus and the foure sonnes of Amon and diuers other vaine bookes by whose doctrine I dare boldly say they passe not the time but in perdition for they learne not how they ought to flye vice but rather what way they may with more pleasure embrace it This Diall of Princes is not of sand nor of the Sunne nor of the houres nor of the water but it is the Diall of Life For the other Dials serue to know what houre it is in the night and what houre it is of the day but this sheweth and teacheth vs how wee ought to occupie our minds and how to order our life The property of other Dials is to order things publike but the Nature of this dyal of Princes is to teach vs how to occupie our selues euerie houre and how to amend our life euery moment It little auaileth to keepe the dyalls well and to see thy Subiects dissolutely without any order to range in routes and dayly rayse debate and contention among themselues The End of the generall Prologue THE AVTHOVRS PROLOGVE SPEAKETH PARTICVLARLIE of the Booke called MARCVS AVRELIVS which he translated and dedicated to the Emperour CHARLES the fift THe greatest vanity that I finde in the world is that vaine men are not onely content to be vaine in their life but also procure to leaue a memory of their vanity after their death For it is so thought good vnto vaine and light men which serue the world in vain works that at the houre of death when they perceyue they can do no more and that they can no longer preuaile they offer themselues vnto death which now they see approch vpon them Many of the World are so fleshed in the World that
works as moueth vs rather to pitty their follie then to enuie their vertue I aske of those that reade or heare this thing if they will be in loue with Nembroth the first Tyrant with Semiramis which sinned with her owne sonne with Antenor that betrayed Troy his countrey with Medea that slew her children with Tarquine that enforced Lucretia with Brutus that slew Caesar with Sylla that shed so much bloud with Catilina that played the Tyrant in his countrey with Iugurtha that strangled his brethren with Caligula that committed incest with his sisters with Nero that killed his mother with Heliogabalus that robbed the Temples with Domitian that in nothing delighted so much as by straunge handes to put men to death and to driue away flyes with his owne hands Small is the number of those that I haue spoken in respect of those which I could recite of whom I dare say and affirme that if I had beene as they I cannot tell what I would haue done or what I should haue desired but this I know it would haue beene more paines to mee to haue wonne that infamie which they haue wonne then to haue loste the life which they haue lost It profiteth him little to haue his Ponds full of fish and his parkes full of Deere which knoweth neyther how to hunt nor how to fish I meane to shewe by this that it profiteth a man little to be in great auctoritie if hee be not esteemed nor honoured in the same For to attaine to honour wisedome is requisite and to keepe it patience is necessarie With great considerations wise men ought to enterprise daungerous things For I assure them they shall neuer winne honour but where they vse to recouer slander Returning therefore to our matter puissant Prince I sweare and durst vndertake that you rather desire perpetuall renowme through death then any idle rest in this life And hereof I doe not maruell for there are some that shall alwayes declare the prowesses of good Princes and others which will not spare to open the vices of euill tyrants For althogh your Imperial estate is much and your Catholike person deserueth more yet I beleeue with my heart and see with these eyes that your thoughts are so highly bent vnto aduenturous deedes and your heart so couragious to set vpon them that your Maiesty little esteemeth the inheritance of your predecessors in respect of that you hope to gaine to leaue to your successors A Captaine asked Iulius Caesar as he declareth in his Commentaries why he trauelled in the Winter in so hard frost and in the summer in such extreame heate Hee aunswered I will doe what lyeth in mee to doe and afterward let the fatall destinies doe what they can For the valiant knight that giueth in battel the onset ought more to bee esteemed then fickle fortune whereby the victory is obtained since fortune giueth the one and aduentur guideth the other These words are spoken like a stout and valiant Captaine of Rome Of how many Princes doe we reade whom truely I much lament to see what flatteries they haue heard with their eares being aliue and to reade what slaunders they haue sustained after their death Princes and greate Lordes should haue more regard to that which is spoken in their absence then to that which is done in their presence not to that which they heare but to that which they would not heare not to that which they tell them but to that which they would not bee told of not to that which is written vnto them beeing aliue but to that which is written of them after their death not to those that tell them lyes but to those which if they durst would tell them truth For men many times refrayne not their tongues for that Subiects bee not credited but because the Prince in his authority is suspected The Noble and vertuous Prince should not flitte from the truth wherof hee is certified neyther with flatteries and lyes should he suffer himselfe to bee deceyued but to examine himselfe and see whether they serue him with truth or deceyue him with lyes For there is no better witnes and iudge of truth and lyes then is a mans owne conscience I haue spoken all this to the entent your Maiesty might know that I will not serue you with that you should not bee serued That is for to shew my selfe in my Writing a flatterer For it were neyther meete nor honest that flatteries into the eares of such a noble Prince should enter neyther that out of my mouth which teach the truth such vaine tales should issue I say I had rather bee dispraysed for true speaking then to bee honoured for flattery and lying For of truth in your Highnesse it should bee much lightnesse for to heare them and in my basenesse great wickednesse to inuent them Now againe following our purpose I say the Histories greatly doe commend Lycurgus that gaue lawes to the Lacedemonians Numa Pompilius that honoured and addorned the Churches Marcus Marcellus that had pitty and compassion on those which were ouercome Iulius Caesar that forgaue his enemies Octautus that was so welbeloued of the people Alexander that gaue rewardes and gifts to all men Hector the Troian became hee was so valiant in wars Hercules the Thebane because hee employed his strength so well Vlisses the Grecian because hee aduentured himselfe in so many dangers Pyrrhus king of Epirotes because hee inuented so many engines Catullns Regulus because he suffred so many torments Titus the Emperour because he was father to the Orphanes Traianus because he edified sumptuous goodly buildings The good Marcus Aurelius because he knew more then al they I doe not say that it is requisit for one Prince in these dayes to haue in him all those qualities but I dare be bolde for to affirme this that euen as it is vnpossible for one Prince to follow all so likewise it is a great slaunder for him to follow none Wee doe not require Princes to doe all that they can but for to apply themselues to do som thing that they ought And I speake not without a cause that which I haue sayde before For if Princes did occupie themselues as they ought to doe they should haue no time to be vicious Plinie sayeth in an Epistle that the great Cato called Censor did weare a Ring vpon his finger wherein was written these words Esto amicus vnius inimicus nullius which is be friend to one and enemy to none He that would deepely consider these few words shall finde therein many graue sentences And to apply this to my purpose I say the Prince that would well gouerne his common weale shew to all equall iustice desire to possesse a quiet life to get among all a good fame and that coueteth to leaue of himselfe a perpetuall memorie ought to embrace the vertues of one and to reiect the vices of all I allow it very wel that Princes should bee equall
much as I might nor studyed so much as I ought yet notwithstanding all that I haue read hath not caused me to muse so much as the doctrine of Marcus Aurelius hath sith that in the mouth of an heathen God hath put such a great treasure The greatest part of all his works were in Greeke yet hee wrote also many in Latine I haue drawn this out of Greeke through the helpe of my friends and afterwards out of latine into our vulgar toung by the trauell of my hands Let all men iudge what I haue suffered in drawing it out of Greeke into Latine out of the Latine into the vulgar and out of a plaine vulgar into a sweete and pleasant Stile For that banquet is not counted sumptuous vnlesse there be both pleasant meates and sauoury sauces To call sentences to minde to place the wordes to examine languages to correct sillables What swet I haue suffered in the hote summer what bitter colde in the sharpe winter what abstinence from meats when I desired for to eate what watching in the night when I would haue slept What cares I haue suffered in stead of rest that I might haue enioyed Let other proue if mee they will not credit The intention of my painefull trauels I offer vnto the diuine Maiesty vpon my knees and to your Highnesse most Noble Prince I present this my worke and do most humbly beseech the omnipotent and eternall GOD that the Doctrine of this Booke may bee as profitable vnto you and to the common wealth in your Life as it hath beene vnto me tedious and hinderance to my health I haue thought it very good to offer to your Maiestie the effect of my labours though you peraduenture will little regarde my paines for the requiring of my travell and rewarde of my good will I require nought else of your Highnesse but that the rudenesse of my vnderstanding the basenesse of my Stile the smalnesse of my eloquence the euill order of my sentences the vanity of my words bee no occasion why so excellent and goodly worke should bee little regarded For it is not reason that a good Horse should bee the lesse esteemed for that the Rider knoweth not how to make him runne his carrere I haue done what I could doe do you now that you ought to doe in giuing to this present worke grauity and to mee the Interpretor thereof authority I say no more but humbly doe beseech God to maintaine your estimation and power in earth and that you may afterward enioy the fruition of his Diuine presence in Heauen The End of the Authors Prologue THE ARGVMENT OF THE BOOKE CALled THE DIALL OF PRINCES Wherein the Authour declareth his Intention and manner of proceeding ARchimenedes the great and famous Philosopher to whom Marcus Marcellus for his knowledge sake granted life and after vsing Nigromancy deserued death being demanded what time was sayde That Time was the inuentor of all nouelies and a Register certaine of Antiquities which seeth of it selfe the beginning the middest the ending of all things And finally time is he that endeth all No man can deny but the definition of this Philosopher is true for if Time could speake he would certifie vs of sundry things wherin we doubt and declare them as a witnes of sight Admit all things perish and haue an end yet one thing is exempted and neuer hath end which is truth that amongst all things is priuiledged in such wise that shee triumpheth of time and not time of her For according to the diuine saying It shal bee more easie to see heauen and earth fall then once truth to perish There is nothing so entier but may bee diminished nothing so healthfull but may bee diseased nothing so strong but may bee broken neyther any thing so wel kept but may be corrupted And finally I say There is nothing but by time is ruled gouerned saue onely truth which is subiect to none The fruits of the Spring time haue no force to giue sustenance nor perfect sweetnesse to giue any fauour but after that the Summer is past and haruest commeth they ripe and then all that wee e ate nourisheth more giueth a better taste I meane by this when the world began to haue wise men the more Philosophers were esteemed for their good manners the more they deserued to bee reproued for their euill vnderstanding Plato in his second booke of the Common-wealth sayde That the auncient Philosophers as well Greekes as Egyptians and Caldees which first began to behold the starres of heauen and ascended to the toppe of the mount Olimpus to view the influences and motions of the Planets of the earth deserued rather pardon of their ignorance then prayse for theyr knowledge Plato sayde further that the Philosophers which were before vs were the first that gaue themselus to search out the truth of the Elements in the Heauen and the first which sowed errors in thinges naturall of the earth Homer in his Ilyades agreeing with Plato saieth I condemne all that the auncient phylosophers knewe but I greatly commend them for that they desired to know Certes Homer saide well and Plato saide not amisse for if amongst the first Phylosophers this ignorance had not raigned there had not beene such contrary Sects in euery Schoole He that hath read not the books which are lost but the opinions which the auncient Phylosophers had will graunt mee though the knowledge were one yet their sects were diuerse that is to say Cinici Stoyci Academici Platonici and Epicurei which were as variable the one from the other in their opinions as they were repugnant in their conditions I will not neither reason requireth that my Pen should bee so dismeasured as to reprooue those which are dead for to giue the glory all onely to them that are aliue For the one of them knew not all neyther were the other ignorant of all If hee deserue thanks that sheweth mee the way whereby I ought to goe no lesse then meriteth hee which warneth mee of that place wherein wee may erre The ignorance of our fore-Fathers was but a guide to keepe vs from erring for the errour of them shewed vs the Trueth to their much praise and to our great shame Therefore I dare boldly say If wee that are now had been then wee had knowne lesse then they knewe And if those were now which were then they would haue knowne more then we know And that this is true it appeareth well for that the auncient Phylosophers through the great desire they had to knowe the Truth of small and large wayes the which wee now will not see nor yet walke therein Wherefore wee haue not so much cause to be wayle their ignoraunce as they had reason to complaine of our negligence For truth which is as Aulus Gellius saith the daughter of Time hath reuealed vnto vs the errours which wee ought to eschewe and the true doctrines which wee ought to follow
What is there to see but hath bin seene what to discouer but hath bin discouered what is there to read but hath bin read what to write but hath bin written what is there to knowe but hath bin knowne Now-adayes humaine malice is so experte men so well able and our wittes so subtill that wee want nothing to vnderstand neyther good nor euill And wee vndoe ourselues by seeking that vaine knowledge which is not necessary for our life No man vnder the pretence of ignoraunce can excuse his fault since all men know all men reade and all men learne that which is euident â—n this case as it shall appeare Suppose the Plough-man and the Learned-man do goe to the Law and you shall perceyue the Labourer vnder that simple garment to forge to his Counsellour halfe a dozen of malitious trickes to delude his aduersarie as finely as the other that is learned shall bee able to expound two or three Chapters of this booke If men would employ their knowledge to honesty wisedome patience and mercy it were well but I am sorry they know so much onely for that they subtilly deceiue and by vsury abuse their neighbours and keepe that they haue vniustly gotten and dayly getting more inuenting new trades Finally I say if they haue any knowledge it is not to amend their life but rather to encrease their goods If the deuil could sleep as meÌ„ do he might safely sleepe for whereas he waketh to deceyue vs wee wake to vndo our selues Well suppose that all this heretofore I haue sayde is true Let vs now leaue aside craft and take in hand knowledge The knowledge which we attaine to is small and that which wee should attain to so great that all that wee know is the least part of that wee are ignorant Euen as in things naturall the Elements haue their operations according to the varietie of time so morall Doctrines as the aged haue succeeded and sciences were discouered Truly all fruites come not together but when one fayleth another commeth in season I meane that neyther all the Doctors among the Christians nor all the Philosophers among the Gentiles were concurrant at one time but after the death of one good there came another better The chiefe wisdome which measured all thinges by iustice and dispearseth them according to his bounty will not that at one time they should bee all Wisemen and at another time all simple For it had not beene reason that one should haue had the fruit and the other the leaues The old world that ranne in Saturnes dayes otherwise called the golden world was of a truth much esteemed of them that saw it and greatlie commended of them that wrote of it That is to say it was not guided by the Sages which did guild it but because there was no euill men which did vnguilde it For as the experience of the meane estate and Nobility teacheth vs of one onely person dependeth as well the fame and renowne as the infamy of a whole house and parentage That age was called golden that is to say of gold and this our age is called yron that is to say of iron This difference was not for that gold then was found and now yron nor for that in this our age there is want of them that be sage but because the number of them surmounreth that be at this day malicious I confesse one thing and suppose many will fauour mee in the same Phauorin the Philosopher which was master to Aulus Gelius and his especiall friend saide oft-times that the Phylosophers in olde time were holden in reputation Because there were fewe teachers and many learners We now-adayes see the contrarie For infinite are they which presume to bee Maisters but fewe are they which humble themselues to be Schollers A man may know how little Wise-men are esteemed at this houre by the great veneration that the Phylosophers had in the olde time What a matter is it to see Homer amongst the Grecians Salomon amoÌ„gst the Hebrewes Lycurgus amongst the Lacedemonians Phoromeus also amongst the Greeks Ptolomeus amongst the Egiptians Liuius amongst the Romaines and Cicero likewise amongst the Latines Appolonius amongst the Indyans and Secundus amongst the Assyrians How happie were those Phylosophers to bee as they were in those dayes when the world was so full of simple personnes and so destitute of Sage men that there flocked great numbers out of diuers countreys and straunge Nations not onely to heare their doctrine but also to see theyr persons The glorious Saint Hierome in the prologue to the Byble sayth When Rome was in her prosperitie then wrote Titus Lyuius his deedes yet notwithstanding men came to Rome more to speake with Titus Linius then to see Rome or the high capitol therof Marcus Aurelius writing to his friend Pulio saide these wordes Thou shalt vnderstand my Friende I was not chosen Emperor for the Noble bloud of my predecessors nor for the fauour I had amongst them now present For there were in Rome of greater bloud and Riches then I but the Emperour Adrian my Maister set his eyes vpon mee and the Emperor Anthonie my Father in law chose mee for his Sonne in law for none other cause but for that they saw me a friend of the Sages and an enemie of the ignoraunt Happie was Rome to chuse so wise an Emperour and no lesse happie was he to attaine vnto so great an Empire Not for that hee was heire to his predecessours but for that hee gaue his minde to studie Truely if that Age were then happie to enioy his person no lesse happie shall ours bee now at this present to enjoy his doctrine Salust saith they deserued great glory which did worthie feates and no lesser merited they which wrote them in high stile What had Alexander the great bin if Quintus-Curtius had not written of him what of Vlysses if Homer had not bin borne what had Alcybiades bin if Zenophon had not exalted him what of Cyrus if the phylosopher Chilo had not put his actes in memorie what had been of Pyrrus king of the Epyrotes if Hermicles chronicles were not what had bin of Scipio the great Affricane if it had not bin for the Decades of Titus Liuius what had been of Traian if the renowmed Plutarch had not bin his friend what of Nerua and Anthonius the meeke if Phocion the Greeke had not made mention of them How should wee haue knowne the stoute courage of Caesar and the great prowesse of Pompeius if Lucanus had not written them what of the twelue Caesars if Suetonius Tranquillus had not compyled a booke of their liues And how should we haue knowne the antiquities of the Hebrues if the vpright Ioseph had not beene Who could haue knowne the comming of the Lombardes into Italie if Paulus Dyaconus had not writ it How could we haue knowne the comming in and the going out of the Gothes in Spayne if the curious Roderious had not showed it vnto
against the Romaines who without cause or reason had conquered his Countrey Approouing mainifestly that through offending the Gods they had thus preuayled And the Oration is diuided into chapt 3. fol. 362. ch 4. fol 366. And ch 5. f 366 That Princes and Noble-men ought to be very circumspect in choyce of their Iudges and Officers because therein consisteth the benefite of the weale publique chapt 6. fol 373 Of a Letter which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius wrote to his friend Antigonus answering an other which hee sent him out of Scicile concerning the crueltie exercised by the Romaine Iudges The letter is diuided in chap 7. fol 379. cha 8. fol. 381. chap 9. fol. 385 chapt 10. fo 387 cha 11. fol. 391 An exhortation of the Authour vnto great Princes and Noble-men to embrace peace and to auoyde all occasions of warre chap 12 fol. 394 Of the commodities which ensue by peace declaring that diuers Princes vppon light occasions haue made cruell warres chap 13 fol. 397 The Emperour Marcus Aurelius wryteth to his friende Cornelius wherein hee describeth the discomodities which come by warres and the vanitie of Triumphes Chap 14 fol. 406 Marcus Aurelius proceedeth on further in his letter declaring the order which the Romains vsed in setting forth their men of warre And of the outragious villainyes which Captaines and Souldiours vse in warre chap 15 fo 408 The Emperours further pursuite in the same letter shewing what great dammages haue ensued by warre begun with strange and forraigne Realmes ch 16 fo 409 Ad admonition of the Author to Princes and great Lordes to the intent that the more they growe in yeares the more they stād bound to refrain frō vices ch 17. 415 That Princes whē they are aged should be temperate in eating sober in drinking modest in apparel aboue al things else true in their cōmunication ch 18. fo 418 Of a letter written by the Emperour M. Aurelius to Claudius Claudinus reprouing them being olde men because they liued ouer youthfully chap 19 fo 423 A prosecution of the Emperours letter perswading Claudius and Claudinus beeing now aged to giue no more credite to the world nor to any of his deceiptfull flatteries chap 20. fol 430 A further continuation of the Emperour in the same Letter approouing by good reasons that in regard aged persons will bee serued and honoured of younger people they ought therefore to be more vertuous and honest then they of younger degree chap 21. fol 433 The Emperours conclusion of his Letter shewing what perills those olde men liue in that dissolutely like young Children spend their dayes And he giueth wholesome councell vnto them for better means and remedy therof ch 22. 438 How Princes ought to take heede that they bee not noted guiltie of Auarice because the Couetous man is hated both of God and man ch 24 441 Great reasons to discommend the vices of couetous men ch 24 444 Of a letter which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius wrote to his friend Cincinnatus who being a Romaine Knight became a Marchaunt of Capua reproouing such Gentlemen as take vppon them the trade of Marchaundise contrarie to their owne vocation declaring what vertuous men ought to vse and the vices which they ought to shunne instructing also how to despise the vanities of the world And although a man bee neuer so wise yet hee shall haue neede of another mans councell ch 25. fol 447. c. 26. fo 449. c. 27. 451. A perswasion to Princes great Lords to shunne couetousnes and to become liberall bountifull which vertue should alwayes appertaine to a Royall personage chap 28 fol. 454 A perswasion to Gentlemen and such as follow Armes not to abase themselues for gaynes-sake in taking vpon them any vile office or function ch 29 458 Of a Letter which the Emperour wrote to his Neighbour Mercurius a Marchant of Samia instructing men in those daungers which ensue by traffique on the Seas and the couetousnes of them that Trauell by Land chap 30 461 The conclusion of the Emperours Letter reprouing Mercurius because he tooke thought for the losse of his goods Shewing him the nature of Fortune and conditions of couetous men ch 31 fol 464 That Princes and Noble-men ought to consider the miserie of mans nature And that brute Beasts are in some pointes reason excepted to bee preferred with men chapt 32. fol. 466 A further comparison of the miseryes of men with the liberty of beasts ch 33. 469 A letter of the Emperour M. Aurelius to Domitius a cittizen of Capua comforting him in his Exile being banished for a quarrell betweene him and an other about the running of a Horse Comfortable for such as haue bin in great fauour afterward falne into disgrace ch 34 fo 474 That princes and Noble men ought to be aduocates for widdowes fathers of Orphans and helpes to the comfortlesse chap. 35 479 That the troubles sorrowes and griefes of widdows are much greater then those of Widdowers wherefore Princes and Noble men ought to haue more compassion vpon such women then men ch 36 fol. 462 Of a letter which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius wrote to a Romane Lady named Lauinia comforting her in her husbands death ch 37 486 A perswasion to widdowes to depend onely vpon Gods will and exhorting them to liue honestly chap. 38 489 That Princes and Noble men ought to despise the world because there is nothing in it but plaine deceit ch 39 493 A vehement inuectiue against the deceites of the world with a further proofe by strong and weightie reasons perswading all men that liue in the world not to trust it or any thing therein verefied by a letter of the Emperour to his friend Torquatus chap. 40. 41. 42. fol. 498. 501. 504 Princes and Nobles ought not to beare with Iuglers Iesters parasites and cōmon players nor with any such kind of rascals and loyterers And of the Lawes which the Romanes made especially on that behalfe chap. 43 507 How some Iesters were punished by our graue Ancients and of the Iesters loyterers in our time chap 44. 510 Of a letter which the Emperour wrote to Lambartus his friend then Gouernour of Hellespont certifying him that hee had banished from Rome all fooles and loy terieg players a notable lesson for them that keepe counterfeit fooles in their houses chap. 45 514 Marcus Aurelius proceedeth on in his letter declaring how he found the Sepulchres in Hellespont of many learned philosophers whereunto he sent all those loiterers chap. 46 517 The Letters conclusion relating the cause and time why and when Iuglers Iesters were admitted into Rome ch 47. 520 How Princes and Noble men ought to remember that they are mortall and must die with notable consolations against the feare of death chap. 48. 522 Of the death of the Emperour Marcus Aurelius and how there are few friendes that dare speake the truth to sicke men chap. 40 527 Of the comfortable wordes which the Secretarie Panutius spake to the
kill and put into the shambles all the euill men and weigh them as wee doe the flesh of sheepe or other like be asts all the neighbours and Inhabitants of Italy should haue meate sufficient for to eate Behold Censour in this land of Campania they call none good but those which are quiet sober wise and discreet men They call none good but the patient honest and vertuous men Finally I say that wee call none good but these men which will doe no harme and will occupie themselues in good workes Without teares I speake not that which I will say that is if wee seeke for any of them wee shall find none but in their graues For the iust iudgement of God it was they should repose themselues in the entrailes of the earth whom the publike weale deserued not to haue aliue Thou commest to visite this land where thou shalt immediately be serued with the wicked and to hide their faults their desolute life and their vices thou shalt not be a little solicited Beleeue mee if thou wilt not vndoe thy selfe and be deceyued Trust thou rather these rotten bones then their deceitfull hearts For in the end the examples of the dead that were good doe profite men more to liue well then the counsell of the liuing that bee wicked doe interre and bury all those that be now liuing CHAP. III. Marcus Aurelius concludeth the letter and declareth at large the sciences he learned and all the Masters which he had And in the end hee reciteth fiue not able things in the obseruance of which the Romanes were very curious I Haue recited these things vnto thee my friend Pulio to the end thou shouldest know what an infinit number there is of the wicked sort in the world and how small scant a number there is in Italy of the good and this proceedeth of none other thing but because the Fathers doe not bring vp their children as our Ancesters did It is vnpossible a yong child should be vicious if with due correction he had been instructed in vertues Annius Verus my Father in this case deserueth as much prayse as I doe reproach For whiles I was young he neuer suffered me to sleepe in bed to sit in chayre to eate with him at his Table neyther durst I lift vp mine eies to looke him in the face And oftentimes he sayde vnto mee Marcus my sonne I had rather thou shouldest bee an honest Romane then a dissolute Philosopher Thou desirest mee to write vnto thee how many Masters I had and what sciences I learned in my youth Know thou that I had many good Masters though I am become an euill Scholler I learned also diuers sciences though presently I know little not for that I forgot them but because the affaires of the Empire of Rome excluded mee from them and caused me to forsake them For it is a general rule That Science in that place is neuer permanent where the person is not at liberty I studyed Grammer with a Master called Euphermon who sayde he was a Spaniard borne and his head was hoare for age In speech he was very temperate in correction somewhat seuere and in life exceeding honest For there was a law in Rome that the childrens Masters should bee very old So that if the Disciple were ten yeares of age the Master should bee aboue fifty I studyed a long time Rethoricke and the Law vnder a Greeke called Alexander borne in Lycaonya which was so excellent an Oratour that if hee had had as great a grace in writing with his pen as he had eloquence in speaking with his tongue truly hee had beene no lesse renowmed among the Grecians then Cicero was honored among the Romans After the death of this my Maister at Naples I went to Rhodes heard Rhetoricke again of Orosus of Pharanton of Pulio which truly were men expert and excellent in the art of Oratorie and especially in making Comedies Tragedies Enterludes they were very fine and had a goodly grace Commodus Calcedon was my first Maister in naturall Phylosophy He was a graue man and in great credite with Adrian he translated Homer out of Greeke into Latin After this man was dead I tooke Sextus Cheronensis for my Maister who was Nephew to Plutarch the great which Plutarch was Traianus Maister I knew this Sextus Cheronensis at 35. yeares of age at what time I doubt whether there hath beene any Phylosopher that euer was so well esteemed throughout the Romane Empire as he I haue him here vvith me and although hee be fourescore years old yet continually he vvriteth the Histories and gests done of my time I let thee know my friend Pulio that I studyed the law two yeers and the seeking of the lawes of many nations was occasion that I knew many Antiquities and in this science Volucius Mecianus vvas my master a man vvhich could reade it vvell and also dispute of it better So that on a time hee demaunded of me merily and said Tel mee Marke doest thou thinke there is any Law in the World that I knovv not and I answered him Tell mee Master is there any Lavv in the World that thou obseruest The sift yeere that I vvas at Rhodes there came a marnellous pestilence vvhich vvas the occasion of the dissolution of our Schoole vvhich vvas in a narrovv and little place and being there a certaine Painter painting a rich and excellent Worke for the realme of Palestine I then for a truth learned there to dravv and paint and my Master vvas named Diogenetus vvho in those dayes vvas a famous Painter He painted in Rome sixe worthie Princes in one Table and 6. other tirannous Emperours in an other And amongst those euill Nero the cruel was painted so liuely that he seemed aliue to all those that savv him and that Table vvherein Nero vvas so liuely dravvne vvas by decrees of the sacred Senate commanded to be burnt For they sayde That a man of so wicked a life deserued not to be represented in so goodly a Table Others sayde that it was so naturall and perfect that hee made all men afrayde that beheld him and if he had been left there a few dayes that hee would haue spoken as if he had been aliue I studyed the art of Necromancy a while with all the kindes of Gyromancy and Chiromancie In this science I had no particular Master but that sometimes I went to heare Apolonius Lecture After I was married to Faustine I learned Cosmography in the City of Argelata which is the chiefest towne of Illyrta and my Masters were Iunius Rusticus and Cyna Catudus Chroniclers Councellours to Adrian my Master and Antoninus my Father in Law And becaused I would not be ignorant in any of these things that mans abilitie might attaine to being at the wars of Dalia I gaue my selfe to Musicke and was apt to take it and my Master was named Geminus Comodus a man of a quicke hand to play and of
I see Fathers conscript that I haue bin iudged here of worldly malice because I accompanyed the captiues in procession and also because I suffered my selfe to bee touched with them to the ende they might enioye the priuiledge of their libertie and in this case I render most humble thanks vnto the immortall Gods because they made mee a mercifull Emperour to set those at Libertie that were in prison and that they made me not a cruell tyrant to set those in prison which were at liberty For the prouerb saith that with one bean a man may take 2. pigeons euē so chanced the like herein yesterday For the benefite was don for those miserable Captiues but the example of humanitie was shewed to all strange nations And know ye not that whē the prince vnloseth the irons frō the feet of the captiues he bindeth the harts goods and lands of his subiects Concluding therefore I say that to the Princes it were more safety and to the Common wealth more profite to be serued in their Pallaces by free hearts with loue then by subiects which are kept vnder by feare CHAP. XL. Of a Letter which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius sent to his friend Pulio declaring the opinion of certaine Philosophers concerning the felicitie of man MArcus Aurelius Emperour of Rome tribune of the people high Bishop secōd Consull and Monarche of al the Romane Empire wisheth to thee Pulio his olde friend health to thy person and prosperitie against thy euill fortune The letter that thou wrotest vnto mee from Capua I receyued here at Bethinia and if thou diddest write it with a good heart I did reade it with willing eyes wherof thou oughtest somewhat to content thee For it is an olde saying of Homer That that which is well viewed with the eyes is tenderly beloued of the heart I protest vnto thee by the faith of the immortall gods that I do not write vnto thee as a Romane Emperour that is to say from the Lord to the seruant for in this sorte I should write vnto thee briefe and touching the purpose which thing ought not to bee done to the peculiar friend For the Letters of graue men should neuer beginne and the Letters of vs friends should neuer end I write vnto thee my friend Pulio as to a priuate friend to an olde companion of mine and as to him which is a faithfull secretary of my desires and in whose company I was neuer displeased in whose mouth I neuer found lye and in whose promise there was neuer breach made And the thing being thus I shuld commit treason in the law of friendship if I keepe secret from thee any of my inward conceites for all the griefes which lye buried in the wofull heart ought not to bee communicated but with a faithfull friend Doest thou thinke Pulio that the Romane Emperour hath little trauell to write vnto thee as Emperour to speake as Emperour to walke as Emperour and to eate as Emperour and finally to bee as Emperour indeed Certes I do not maruell hereat For truely the life of the vertuous Emperour is but a Dyall which ordereth or disordereth the Common-wealth and that whereof I maruell is of the folly of Rome and vanity of the Common wealth For as much as all say that the Prince if he will seem graue and be well esteemed of the people ought to goe softly to speake little to write briefly so that for writing of letters they will he be briefe and for conquering of strange Realmes they doe not rebuke him although hee be long Wise men should desire that their Princes be of gentle condition to the end they fall not to tyranny That they haue their mind vncorrupted to minister to all equall iustice that their thought bee good not to desire straunge Realms that they haue their hearts voide from wrath that they bee sound within to pardon iniuries that they loue their Subiects to bee serued of them that they know the good to honour them and that they know the euill to punish them and as for the surplus we little regard whether the King go fast whether he eate much or write briefe For the danger is not in that which is in the lacke of his owne person but it is in the negligence that he vseth in the common-wealth I haue receyued my Friend Pulio great comfort of thy letter but yet much more I should haue receiued of thy presence for the letters of auncient friends are but as a remembrance of times past It is a great pleasure to the Mariner to talke of the perils past being in the hauen and to the Captain to glorie of the battell after the victorie I meane aboue all pleasures this is the greatest to men beeing now faithfull friends to talke of the trauells dangers which they had passed when they were young men Belieue me in one thing do not doubt therof There is no man that knoweth to speak that knoweth to possesse nor that cā iudge or take any pleasure neyther that well knoweth how to keep the goods which the gods haue giuen him vnlesse it be hee that hath bought it deerely with great trauell For with all our hearts wee loue that thing which with our owne proper labour and trauell wee haue gotten I aske thee one thing who is hee that oweth most to the Gods or that is most esteemed amongst men of Traian the iust which was brought vp in the Warres of Dace Germanie and Spaine or of Nero the cruell which was nourished in all the deliciousnes of Rome Truely the one was none other then a Rose among bryers and the other was but a Nettle amongst flowers I spake this because the good Traian hath gouerned his life in such sorte that alwayes they will smell the Rose by the pleasant sauour but the cruell Nero hath left the sting the nettle of his infamie I will not speake all because many are and were made good but for the most part the princes which were brought vp deliciously gaue euery man occasion that al shuld be offended for the euill gouernance of their liues in their Realmes and because they neuer experimented any kinde of trauell in themselues they do little esteeme the paines of another I will not that thou thinke my friend Pulio that I haue forgotten the time that is past though the Gods brought me to the Empire present For thogh we together were tossed with the torments of youth yet now wee may repose our selues in the calmes of our age I do remember that thou and I did study in Rhodes in letters and after we had sowen weapons in Capua it hath pleased the gods that the seedes of my Fortunes should ripen heere in Rome and to thee and to others better then I Fortune would not giue one only eare I doe not giue thee licence that thy thought be suspicious of me sith thou of my hart art made a faithfull Friend for if vnconstant Fortune doth trust mee
liue honest and temperate the which cannot well bee done vnlesse they bee marryed or that they see themselues to bee conquerors of the flesh and being so they are satisfyed but if they be not marryed and the flesh doth assault them then they liue immediately conuered Wherefore of necessitie they must goe by their Neighbours houses or else by some other dishonest places scattered abroad to the reproach and dishonor of them and their kindred and oftentimes to the great perill and danger of their Persons CHAP. III. Of sundry and diuers Lawes which the Ancients had in Contracting Matrimony not onely in the choyse of Women but also in the manner of celebrating Marriage IN all Nations and in all the Realmes of the World Marriage hath alwayes beene accepted and marueilously commended for otherwise the world had not beene peopled nor yet the number of men multiplyed The ancients neuer disagreed one from another in the approbation and acception of Marriage but there was amongst them great difference and strife vpon the contracts ceremonies and vsages of the same For they vsed as much difference in contracting Matrimony and choosing their wiues as these Epicures do desire the varietie of sundry delicate meates The diuine Plato in his Booke hee made of the Common-wealth did counsell that all thinges should be common and that not onely in bruit beasts in moueables and heritages but also that womē should be common for he sayd that if these two words thine and mine were abolished and out of vse there should not bee debates nor quarels in this world They cal Plato Diuine for many good things which he spake but now they may call him Worldly for the counsel profane which he gaue I cannot tell what beastlinesse it may be called nor what greater rudenes may be thought that the apparrell should be proper and the wiues common The bruite beast doth not know that which came out of her belly longer then it sucketh of her brests And in this sort it would chance to men yea and worse too if women were common in the Common-wealth for though one should know the Mother which hath borne him hee should not know the Father which hath begotten him The Tharentines which were wel renowmed amongst the ancients and not a little feared of the Romanes had in their Citie of Tharente a law and custome to marry themselues with a legitimate wife to beget children but besides her a man might yet chuse two others for his secret pleasures Spartianus sayd that the Emperour Hellus Verus as touching women was very dissolute and since his wife was young and faire and that she did complaine of him because he led no honest life with her hee spake these words vnto her My wife thou hast no cause to complayne of me since I remaine with thee vntill such time as thou art quicke with childe for the residue of the time we husbands haue licence and priuiledge to seek our pastimes with other women For this name of a wife containeth in it honour but for the residue it is a grieuous burden and painefull office The like matter came to Ptolomeus King of Egipt of whom the Queene his wife did greatly complaine Admit that all the Greekes haue beene esteemed to bee very wise amongst all those the Athenians were esteemed of most excellent vertue for the Sages that gouerned the Common-wealth remained in Athens with the Philosophers which taught the Sciences The Sages of Athens ordeyned that all the neighbours and inhabitants might keepe two lawfull wiues and furthermore vpon paine of grieuous punishments did commaund that none should presume nor be so hardy to maintain any concubine for they sayd when men haunt the companie of light women comonly they misuse their lawfull Wiues As Plutarch saith in his Politiques the cause why the Greekes made this lawe was considering that man could not nor ought not to liue without the companie of a woman and therefore they would that a man should marrie with two wines For if the one were diseased and lay in yet the other might serue in bed waite at the Table and doe other businesses in the house Those of Athens had another great respect and cōsideration to make this law which was this that if it chanced the one to be barren the other should bring forth children in the Common-wealth and in such case shee that brought forth Children should be esteemed for Mistresse and the other that was barren should be taken for a seruant When this law was made Socrates was marryed to Xantippa and to accomplish the law hee tooke another called Mirra which was the daughter of the Phylosopher Aristides and sith those two women had great quarrells and debates together and that thereby they slaundered their Neighbours Socrates saide vnto them My wiues yee see right well that my eyes are hollow my legges are withered my hāds are wrinckled my head is balde my bodie is little and the haires are white Why doe yee then that are so faire stand in contention and strife for mee that am so deformed Though Socrates saide these wordes as it were in ieast yet such words were occasion that the quarrells and strifes betweene them ceased The Lacedemonians than in the time of peace and warre were always contrary to the Athenians obserued it for an inuiolable lawe not that one man should marry with two wiues but that one woman should marrie with two husbands and the reason was that when one Husband should goe to the warre the other shold tarry at home For they saide that a man in no wise should agree to leaue his Wife alone in the common-wealth Plinie writing an Epistle vnto his friend Locratius and Saint Hierome writing to a Frier called Rusticus saith That the Atbenians did vse to marry Bretheren with the Sisters but they did not permitte the Auntes to marrie with their Nephewes neither the Vnckles with their Nieces For they sayd that brothers and sisters to marrie together was to marry with their semblables but for vnckles to marry Nieces Aunts with Nephews was as of fathers to daughters and of mothers to sonnes Melciades which was a man of great renowme amongst the Grecians had a sonne called Cimonius who was marryed to his owne sister called Pinicea and being demaunded of one why hee tooke his sister in marriage hee answered My sister is faire sage rich and made to my appetite and her Father and mine did recommend her vnto mee and since by the commaundement of the Gods a man ought to accomplish the behests and requests of Fathers I haue determined since Nature hath giuen mee her for my sister willingly to take her for my lawfull Wife Dyodorus Siculus saith that before the Egiptians receyued any Lawes euery man had as manie Wiues as hee would and this was at the libertie of both partyes for as much as if she would goe shee went liberally and forsooke the man and likewise hee left her when
procure to be hated of God Truely to loue to serue and content God it is not hurtful to the woman for that she should bee the better beloued of her husband but yet God hath suffered and doth permit oftimes that the women being feeble deformed poore and negligent should bee better beloued of their husbands then the diligent fayre and rich And this is not for the seruices they doe to their husbands but for the good intention they haue to serue and loue GOD which sheweth them this speciall fauour for otherwise God doth not suffer that he being with her displeased she should liue with her husband contented If womē would take this counsel that I giue them in this case I will teach them furthermore a notable enchauntment to obtayne the loue of their husbands which is that they bee quiet meeke patient solitary and honest with which fine herbes they may make a confection the which neither seene nor tasted of their husbands shall not onely cause them to be beloued but also honoured For women ought to know that for their beautie they are desired but for their vertue only they are beloued CHAP. VI. That Princesses and great Ladyes ought to be obedient to their Husbands and that it is a great shame to the Husband that his wife should command him MAny ancient Historiographers trauailed greatly consumed long time in writng to declare what authoritie the man ought to haue ouer the woman and what seruitude the woman oweth to the man and some for to aduance the dignitie of the man and others to excuse the frailtie of the woman alleadged such vaine things that it had beene more honour for them not to haue written at all then in such sort as they did for it is not possible but the Writers should erre which write not as reason teacheth but rather as their fantasie leadeth Those that defend the frailtie of the woman sayd that the woman hath a body as a man she hath a soule as a man shee hath reason as a man dyeth as a man and was as necessary for generation as man she liueth as a man and therefore they thought it not meete that shee should bee more subiect to man then man to her for it is not reason that that which nature hath made free should by any lawes of man be made bond They said furthermore that God created not the creatures but to augment the generation of mankinde and that in this case the woman was more necessarie then the man for the man engendereth without paine or trauaile but the woman is deliuered with perill and danger and with paine and trauaile nourisheth vp the childe Wherefore it seemeth great vnkindnesse and crueltie that the women which are deliuered with perill and danger of their liues and bring vp their children with labour and toyle of their bodies should bee vsed of their husbands as slaues They sayd further that men are those that curse that moue seditions that make warres that maintaine enmitie that weare weapons that shed mans bloud and commit sundry other mischiefes which the women do not but in stead of killing men shedding bloud and other notorious euils that men do they imploy themselues to encrease men And since it is so then women rather then men ought to haue dominion and command in the Common-wealth for women increase the Cōmon-wealth and men diminish it for neyther diuine nor humane law commaundeth that the foolish man should bee free and gouerne and that the wise woman should bee bond and serue Those of Achaia affirmed this opinion and groundeth themselues vpon this reason and obserued it as a custome That the husbands should obey and the wiues commaund And so they did as Plutarch sayth in the Booke of Consolation for the husband swept made cleane the house made the bed washed the buck couered the table dressed the dinner and went for water And of the contrary part his wife gouerned the goods answered the affayres kept the money and if shee were angry shee gaue him not onely foule words but also oftimes laid her hands on him to reuenge her anger And heereof came this ancient Prouerb the which of many is read and of few vnderstood that is to say Vita Achaiae The life of an Achaian When in Rome the husband suffered to be ruled and commanded of his wife the neighbours would say vnto him in manner of a reproach Vita Achaia which is as much as if a man would say Goe goe as thou art since thou liuest after the law of Achaia where men haue so little discretion that they suffer themselues to bee gouerned bee it well or euill of their Wiues and that euery woman commandeth her Husband Plinie in an Epistle that hee wrote reprooued greatly his friend Fabatus for that hee kept in his house a wife the which in all his doings ruled and commanded him wherein hee told him that hee durst doe nothing without her commaundement And to make the matter to seeme more heynous in the latter ende of his Epistle he sayd these words Me valde poenitet quod tu solus Rome polles vita Achaia which is It grieueth mee much that thou alone in Rome shouldest leade the life of one of Achaia Iulius Capitolinus saith that Anthonius Caracalla being in loue with a faire Lady of Persia and seeing that he could not enioy her nor obtayne his desire promised to marrie her according to the law of Achaia and truly shee shewed her selfe more wise in her answere then hee did in his demand telling him that shee would not nor might not marry for because shee had promised her selfe to the goddesse Vesta and that she had rather be a seruant of the gods then a Mistresse of men The Parthes had a law contrary to them and likewise those of Thrace the which so little esteemed women that their husbands vsed them none otherwise then like seruants And in this case men had so great liberty or to say better lightnesse that after a woman had borne and brought foorth twelue children the children remained in the house and the husbands sold their wiues to them that would giue most or else they changed them for others that were more young And the children agreed to the selling of their owne mother to the intent that their father might refresh himselfe with another that was more young and the olde and barren woman should eyther be buried quicke or else serue as a slaue Dionisius Halicarnaseus saith that the Lides had a law and the Numiaians in like manner that the woman should command things without the house and the man should prouide for those that were within but according to my poore iudgement I cannot tell how this law was kept nor how they could fulfill it for by reason the wife should not goe out of the house but very little and therefore me thinks that they ought not to command any thing abroad nor the husband should enter
mee whether thou wert aliue or dead Wherefore thy friends did imagine that some mishap had befallen thee and thy ship or else for the misliking of the Country thou shouldest returne againe because that men which doe sayle as thou goe alwayes in dangar to be drowned by some tempest and if they doe escape they despayre in that strange Countrey by Tolitarinesse but when I saw Fronton thy seruant I was very ioyfull and much more when I vnderstood thou wert aliue after thy great trauell Truely I receiued great pleasure of that thou writest in thy letter that thou art contented with the Countrey for that to mee it is a strange thing that a man beeing nourished in the delitiousnesse of Rome should finde himselfe contented in in an other strange Realme and nation When Rome was Rome and Italy was named great Greece thither came of all sorts of people and Nations to learne vertues and Noblenesse and others for to giue themselues to vices and pleasures Because if Titus Liuins deceyue mee not Rome spent all her treasures in Asia and Asia employed all her vices and delicatenes in Rome Thou writest to mee in thy letter of so many thinges and Fronton thy seruant hath tolde mee so many newes of that land that by the immortall Gods I sweare vnto thee I cannot tell what for to write vnto thee nor what to aunswere thy seruant For the more the straunge newes doe please the eares in hearing them so much the more doe they seeme to bee vncredible The noble and stout personages though they would bee esteemed and iudged true in their saying hauing seene many wonders with their eyes yet when they come to count them then they ought to bee very moderate in their tongues For it is a shame to the honest man to declare a thing wherein may bee any doubt whether it bee true or not I will briefly answere al the things of thy Letter and the answere shall bee not according to thy desire but according to that I perceyue of thee and the World And before I beginne I beseech thee if my penne shall erre in writing that thy heart pardon mee For thy few yeares as yet doe not let thee know the World and my white hayres and hoarie beard doth giue mee authority to aduertise thee of that which is to come and to condemne thee of that which is past Thou sayest that in the Sea thou hast past many perils and dangers and that for to lighten the shippe thou diddest cast much of thy goods into the sea In this case me thinketh thou oughtest greatly to thanke the tempestuous waues which hauing power to drowne thee contented themselues with thy Marchandize For they which sayle vpon the foming Seas ought not to regarde so much the goods they loose as the life which they saue Thou sayest that on the Seas thou werte greatly accompanyed with passengers and that thou hast tarryed longer in thy voiage then thou thoghtest or diddest desire This I say vnto thee my friend Dedalus that though the dayes were manie thou diddest stay yet notwithstanding the griefes were more which thou receyuedst For it is vnpossible that those men which sayle much should not be troubled with the Marriners and also in feare of tempests To that I aunswere thee the more thou wert loaden with companyons the lesse thy money weighed for it is a general rule that where the iourney is long and the companie great there the purse of necessitie must needes wexe thinne Thou sayest that through the moysture of the sea as soone as thou wert landed thou diddest feele thy selfe taken with the goute To this I answere thee that thou hast the gout in thy feet or else in thy hands and if thou hast it in thy feete it shall be an occasion that thou shalt keepe thy house and if thou hast it in thy hands it shall bee an occasion that thou shalt play no more at Tables as thou werte wont to doe and also thou shalt not waste as thou hast done thy owne money And if thou hast not changed thy coÌ„dition which thou haddest I am assured that onely for to encrease thy goods thou wilt thinke thy goute welcome Thou sayest in that Countrey thou hast found many soueraigne expert Physitians for to remedy thy diseases To that I answere as Plato sayeth that in the Countrey where there is many Physitians there are many vices and many vicious for man by excessiue delicatenes commeth to sicknesse and by that meane trauell hee is healed As long as our auncient Fathers were without Physitians in Rome which was foure hundred yeares so long and no more they shewed them selues sober in eating and drinking For euen as by temperance health proceedeth so of Physicke proceedeth gluttonie Thou sayest that the Country is verie fertile and that amongst other things there is much wood which we lacke here in Rome To this I answer that if thou hast much wood thou hast little bread for it is an ancient Prouerbe that where the fires are great the barnes are few And if thou sayst thou art content with the wood of that Country I let thee know that I am not discontented with the bread of Italy for in the ende a man shall sooner finde wood to heate the euen then corne to carrie to the â—â—ill Truly it is a good thing to haue woode for the winter but it is better to haue corne for the Winter and Summer for they call it no hunger when wood lacked for the aged but when bread wanteth for the young Thou sayest in that Country there are many waters and that the water is verie cleare and cold and further that the aboundance thereof is such that euery house hath a fountain To this I answere thee that where the waters doe abound there wanteth health continually And I doe not maruell thereat for the moyste and dankish places are alwayes most daungerous vnhealthfull and noysome If this had beene in the time of the Golden World when men know not what wine meant but that all dranke Water without comparison that Countrey would haue beene better then this For the more the drunkennes of Wine is infamous the more sweeter and profitable is that of the water Thou knowest well that a Fountaine which I haue in my gardaine by the streete Salaria was occasion that at one time seuen of my House dyed together And if I had not made a conduit to voyde the standing water I thinke it had made an ende of mee and of my Family Wherfore I pray thee haue respect vnto the health of thy person rather then to enioy the freshnes of the water For my part I thinke him onely happie who hath his bodie healthfull and his heart at ease Prayse as much the land as they will enioy thou the freshnes thereof as much as thou canst and fill thee with the fresh and cold water and write vnto thy friends how plentie it is in the end I sweare vnto
thee so much to keepe thy children from witches For otherwise the cursed Women will doe them more harme then the good milke shal profite them I haue beene moued and prouoked to write thus much vnto thee for the great loue which I do beare thee and also calling to minde that which thou when we were in the sacred Senate oft times toldest me which was that thou diddest desire a sonne And since now thou hast thy petition I would not thou shouldst prouoke the Gods wrath by sorceries For in the faith of a good man I doe sweare vnto thee that when the Fathers are in fauour with the Gods there needeth no sorceries vnto the Children I had manie other things to write vnto thee Some of the which I will cōmunicate with thy seruant Fronton rather then to send them by letters And maruel not at this for letters are so perillous that if a man be wise hee wil write no more in a close letter thē he would declare openly in Rome Pardon me my friend Dedalus though indeede I write not vnto thee as thy appetite would nor yet as my will desireth For thou hast need to know many things and I haue not leaue by letter to put thee in trust therewith I cannot tell what I should write vnto thee of me but that alwayes the Goute doth take me and the worst of all is that the more I growe in yeares the more my health diminisheth For it is an old course of mans frailtie that where wee thinke to goe most surest there haue we most lets The Popinjay which thou didst send me as soone as I receyued it my wife did seaze it and truely it is a maruellous pleasure to heare what thinges it doth speak but in the end the women are of such power that when they wil they impose silence to the liuing and cause that in the graues the dead men speake According to that I doe loue thee and according to that I owe thee and as I haue vsed that which I doe sende thee is very little I say it because that presently I do send thee but two horses of Barbarie twelue swords of Alexandrie and to Fronton thy seruant for a new yeares gift for his good newes I haue giuen him an Office which is worth to him 20. thousand Sexterces of Rent in Cecyl Faustine did bid mee I should send thy wife Perusa a cofer full of odoriferous odours of Palestine and another cofer full of her owne Apparrel the which as I thinke thou wilt not a little esteeme For naturally Women are of theyr owne Goods niggardes but in wasting spending of others very prodigall The Almighty gods bee with thee and preserue thee from euill fortune The which I humbly beseech to graunt that vnto thee and mee and vnto my wife Faustine and to thy wife Pertusa that we all meete merily together in Rome for the heart neuer receyueth such ioy as when hee seeth himselfe with his desired friend Marcus of Mount Celio writeth to thee with his own hand CHAP. XXV How excellent a thing it is for a Gentleman to haue an eloquent tongue ONe of the chiefest things that the Creatour gaue to man was to know and be able to speake for otherwise the soule reserued the brute beasts are of more value then dumbe men Aristotle in his Aesconomices without comparison prayseth more the Pythagoricall sort then the Stoicall saying that the one is more conforme to reason then the other is Pythagoras commaunded that al men which were dumbe and without speech should immediately and without contradiction be banished and expulsed from the people The cause why this Phylosopher had commanded such things was for so much as he saide that the tongue is moued by the motions of the soule and that he which had no tong had no soule And hee which hath no soule is but a brute beast and he that is a beast deserueth to serue in the fieldes among brute beasts It is a good thing not to bee dumbe as bruite beasts are and it is a greater thing to speake as the reasonable men doe but it is much more worthy to speake wel as the eloquent Philosophers doe For otherwise if hee which speaketh doth not weigh the sentences more then the wordes oft times the Popingayes shall content thē more which are in the cage then the men which doe reade in Schooles Iosephus in the booke De Bello Iudaico sayeth That King Herod not onely with his person and goods but also with all his friends and parents followed and gaue ayde to Marcus Anthonius and to his louer Cleopatra howbeit in the end Octauian had the victory For the man which for the loue of a woman doth enterprise conquests it is impossible that eyther he lose not his life or else that hee liue not in infamy Herod seeing that Marcus Antonius was dead determined to go towards the Emperour Octauian at whose feet he layd his crowne and made a notable Oration wherein hee spake so pleasant words and so high sentences that the Emperour Octauian did not onely pardon him for that hee was so cruell an enemie but also hee confirmed him again vnto his realm and tooke him for his deare and speciall friend For among the good men and noble hearts many euill workes are amended by a few good works If Blundus in the booke intituled Roma triumphante do not deceiue me Pirrus that great King of the Epirotes was stoute and hardy valiant in armes liberall in benefices patient in aduersities and aboue al renowned to be very sweet in words and sage in his answeres They sayde that this Pirrus was so eloquent that the man with whome once hee had spoken remained so much his that from that time forward in his absence hee tooke his part and declared his life and state in presence The aboue named Blundus sayed and Titus Liuius declareth the same That as the Romaines were of all things prouided seeing that King Pyrrus was so eloquent they prouided in the Senate that no Romane Ambassadour should speake vnto him but by a third person for otherwise he would haue perswaded them through his sweet words that they should haue returned againe to Rome as his procurers and soliciters Albeit Marcus Tullius Cicero was Senatour in the Senate Consull in the Empire rich amongst the rich and hardy amongst men of warre yet truely none of these qualities caused him eternall memorie but onely his excellent eloquence This Tullius was so esteemed in Rome for the eloquence of his tongue onely that oft times they heard him talke in the Senate three houres together without any man speaking one word And let not this bee little esteemed nor lightly passed ouer for worldly malice is of such condition that some man may easily speake foure houres then another man shal haue patience to heare him one minute Antonius Sobellicus declareth that in the time of Amilcares the Affrican a Philosopher named Afronio flourished in
great Carthage who being of the yeares of 81 dyed in the first yeere of the wars of Punica they demaunded this Philosopher what it was that he knew he answered He knew nothing but to speake well They demaunded him againe what hee learned He answered Hee did learne nothing but to speake well Another time they demaunded him what hee taught Hee answered He taught nothing but to speake well Me thinketh that this good Philosopher in fourescore yeares and one said that he learned nothing but to speake well hee knew nothing but to speake well and that he taught nothing but to speake well And truely hee had reason for the thing which most adorneth mans life is the sweet pleasant tongue to speake well what is it to see two men in one counsell the one talking to the other the one of them hath an euill grace in propounding and the other excellent in speaking Of such there are some that in hearing them talke three houres wee would neyther be troubled nor wearied and of the contrary part there are others so tedious and rude in their speech that as soone as men perceiue they beginne to speake they auoyde the place And therefore in mine opinion there is no greater trouble then to hearken one quarter of an houre a rude man to speake and to be contrary there is no greater pleasure then to heare a discreete man though it were a whole weeke The diuine Plato in the Booke of Lawes sayde that there is nothing whereby a man is known more then by the words he speaketh for of the wordes which we heare him speake we iudge his intention eyther to bee good or euil Laertius in the life of the Phylosopher saieth that a young childe borne at Athens was brought vnto Socrates the great phylosopher being in Athens to the ende he should receyue him into his companie and teach him in his Schoole The yong childe was strange and shamefast and durste not speake before his Maister wherefore the Phylosopher Socrates sayd vnto him Speake friend if thou wilt that I know thee This sentence of Socrates was very profound I pray him that shall reade this writing to pause a while thereat For Socrates will not that a man be known by the gesture he hath but by the good or euill wordes which he speaketh Though eloquence and speaking well to euery man is a cause of augmenting their honour and no diminisher of their goods yet without comparison it shineth much more is most necessary in the Pallaces of Princesses and great Lords for men which haue common offices ought of necessity hearken to his naturall Countrimen and also to speake with strangers Speaking therefore most plainely I say that the Prince ought not to trauell onely to haue eloquence for the honour of his person but also it behoueth him for the Common-wealth For as the Prince is but one and is serued of all so it is vnpossible that hee haue so much as will satisfie and content them all And therefore it is necessary that hee requite some with money and that hee content others with good words For the Noble heart loueth better a gentle worde then a reward or gift with the tong of a rude man Plato Liuius Herodotus Vulpicius Eutropius Diorus Plinie and many other innumerable ancient Historiographers doe not cease to prayse the eloquence of Greeke princes and Latines in their workes Oh how blessed were those times when there were sage Princes and discreete Lordes truely they haue reason to exalt them For many haue obtayned and wonne the royall crownes and scepters of the Empire not so much for the great battels they haue conquered nor for the high bloud and generation from whence they are discended as for the wisedome and eloquence which they had Marcus Aurelius was naturall of Rome borne in Mount Celio hee was poore in patrimony and of base lynage little in fauour left and forsakē of his parents and besides all this onely for being vertuous in this life profound in doctrine and of so high eloquence the Emperour Antonius called Pius gaue him his daughter Faustine for wife who being reproued of many because he gaue his daughter to so poore a Philosopher answered I had rather haue a poore Philosopher then a rich foole Pulio in his seuenth booke of the Romaine lawes sayth that in Rome there was a law very well kept and obserued of the Consels by a custom brought in that the Dictators Censor and Emperors of Rome entred into the Senate once in the weeke at the least and in this place they should giue and render account in what state the common wealth remayned O would to God that at this present this Law were so kept and obserued for there is none who doth minister so good iustice as he which thinketh to giue account of his doings They say that Caligula the fourth Emperour of Rome was not onelie deformed infamous and cruell in his life but also was an Idiot in eloquēce and of an euill vtterance in his communication so that hee among all the Romane Princes was constrained to haue others to speake for him in the Senate This wicked man was so vnfortunate that after his cruell and infamous death they drew him throughout Rome and set vpon his graue this Epitaph Caligula lyeth here in endlesse sleepe That stretcht his raigne vpon the Empires head Vnfitte for rule that could such folly heape And fitte for death where vertue so was dead I Cannot tell why Princes do praise themselues to be strong and hardie to bee well disposed to bee runners to iust well and doe not esteeme to be eloquent since it is true that those gifts doe profite them onely for their life but the eloquence profiteth them not onely for to honour their life but also to augment their renowne For wee doe reade that by that many Princes did pacifie great seditions in the common wealth and besides that they deserued immortall memory Suetonius Tranquillus in the first book of Caesars sayth that the aduenturous Iulius Caesar being as yet but 16. yeares of age when there dyed in Rome an aunt of his called Cornelia at her buriall hee made an Oration in the which hee beeing so young shewed maruellous great eloquence which was so accepted that day in al people that in the end euery man iudged him to bee a valiant Romane Captaine And as Appianus declareth they say that Silla spake these words That which I perceyue of this young man Caius Caesar is that in the boldnesse of his tongue he declareth how valiant he ought to bee in his person Let therefore Princes and great Lordes see how much it may profite them to know to speake well and eloquently For wee see no other thing dayly but that a man of base lynage by his eloquence commeth to be exalted and the other which of linage is nobly borne for want of speaking well and being eloquent is the first that discendeth most vilest of all other
were of immortall memorie of letters I will not deny that in the common wealth of Rome there hath not beene nourished and taught many women of great science but that the difference of the one and the other was that the Grecian women were learned in Philosophy and the Romane women in Rethoricke and Poetrie And hereof came that in Athens they esteemed to know how to teach well and in Rome they vaunted how to speake well Euphronius in the third booke of the Romane gestes sayeth that in the third yeare of the Consulship of Lelius Sylla by chance a Greeke Ambassador and an Ambassadour of Rome were at wordes in the Senate of the Rhodians the Greeke Ambassadour sayd to the Romane Ambassador It is true that amongst you other Romanes you are aduenturous in armes but for all that you are vnable in sciences For truely the women of Greece know more in letters then the men of Rome in weapons As soone as the Senate of Rome vnderstoode those words immediatly hereupon grew the cruell wars betweene Rome and Carthage about the possession of Sicill And no man ought hereat to maruell for in the end we see more wars arise by iniurious words then for to recouer the good that is lost The Romanes and the Grecians therefore being ready the one to defie the other the Rhodians came in the middest and kept them from such debate and in the end appointed them in this sort That is to say that as this iniurie should by weapons haue been determined they ordayned that by the disputations of women it should bee argued And truely the Romanes were counselled well for it was greater shame to the Greekes to bee ouercome with the tongues of women then with the swords of men The cause thereof was such that by appointment assembled at Rhodes ten Roman women and ten Greeke women All women very well learned the which in their chairs read certain lessons euery one after other and afterwardes the one disputed against the other of sundry and diuers matters And finally there was betweene them great difference for the Greeks spake very high things not so profound but with an excellent stile We ought not to maruell that such giftes were in those women for wee dayly see it by experience that profound science and high eloquence seldome meeteth in one personage The Greekes were very well pleased to heare the Romane women and the Romaines remained astonied to heare the Greekes And vpon this occasion the Rhodians iudged in this sort that euery one of them should be crowned with a crowne of Lawrel as vanquishers And they iudged that in graue sentences the Grecians had the best and in eloquent speech the Romanes had the victory As the aboue named Euphronius sayeth the disputations beeing ended the Romane women returned to Rome the Greeke women to Greece where they were receiued with such triumph and glory as if they had won a battel The Senate of the Rhodians for the memory of those women in the place of the disputations caused to bee set vp 20. pillers in euery one of the which were the names of the women Which was so sumptuous a building that in Rhodes there were none like to it saue only the Collyseo Those pillers stood vntill the time of Heliogabalus the Emperour who was so euill that he inuented new vices and destroied the ancient memories The writers which write in that time declare yet another thing wherin the women of Greece were differēt from the women of Rome That is to say that the Greeke women were foūd more fairer then the Romane women but the Romanes had a better grace more rich in apparel then the Greeks They sayd also that the Greekes were more hardy and stout then the Romanes but the Romanes were more honest pleasant and gracious then the Greekes And if this be true I do counsell Princesses and great Ladies that they haue no more enuy at the honesty of the Matrones of Rome then at the boldnes of the Ladies of Gretia For women were not born to slay men in the warre but to spin sowe and liue well like good housewiues in the house CHAP. XXVIII That women may bee no lesse wise then men and though they bee not it is not through default of nature but for want of good bringing vp CEasing to speake in generally it is but reason wee speake particularly and that wee reduce to memory some ancient histories of wise and discreete women as well Greekes as Romans for that these Ladies seeing what others were in times past may know what their duty is at this present In mine opinion the duty that the men of this present haue to follow the courage that the Ancients had in fighting the selfe same desire ought women of this present to haue to follow the ancient women in deuout liuing for there is no good thing in the world at this present day but the like hath been seene of our ancients heretofore When any sudden new and vnaccustomed thing doth happen men that neuer saw the like vse to say that there was neuer the like in the world yet indeed they say not true for though the thing bee vnto them new it is through their ignorance and simplenesse which neither haue read it by themselues nor heard it of others or this excellency hath the man that is learned that for what soeuer hee heareth or sayth hee is nothing abashed at Since women now a dayes are so ignorant that scarcely any of them can reade well hee that shall reade this will maruell why I doe perswade them to learne but the truth known what the Ancients were and what they did know from this time forward I beleeue they would greatlie reproue the women of this present for the time which the ancient women spent in vertues and studies These of this present consume in pleasures and vices Bocchas in the prayse of Women sayth that Lucius Sylla was a great companion of Marius the Consull in the time of the warre of Iugurtha and was no lesse a friend of Caius Caesar in the time of the first ciuill warres My penne needeth not to be occupied to write any thing of the life of Sylla For all the Historiographers doe not onely reproue the cruelties which he vsed to his enemies but also condemne him for the little faith he obserued his friends This Consull Sylla had three daughters the one of them was named Lelia Sabina the which of all the sisters was least fayre but amongst all the Romanes shee was the most sagest for shee read openly in Rome in a chayre both Greeke and Latine After the warres of Mithridates Lucius Sylla came to Rome where he beheaded three thousand Romanes which came to salute him although before by his word he had assured them all And in deed and also iustly Lucius Sylla had been vtterly vndone for his fact if his daughter had not made to the Senate a wise Oration for
that in earnest matters any man should accuse them of pride and in things of sport they should count them for light For the Noble and valiant Prince in thinges of importance ought to shew great wisdome and in meane things great stoutenes The case was such that Alexander the Great hunting on the wilde mountaines by chance met with a cruell Lyon and as the good Prince would winne his honor with the Lyon and also the Lyon preserue his owne life they were in griepes the one of the other so fast that both fell to the earth where they striued almost halfe an houre but in the ende the Lyon remayned there dead and the hardy Alexander escaped all bloudy This hunting of Alexander and the Lyon through all Greece was greatly renowmed I say greatly renowned because the Grauers and Painters drew a portrait forthwith in stone-worke of this hunting and the grauers hereof were Lisippus and Leocarcus maruellous grauers of anticke workes which they made of mettall where they liuely set forth Alexander and the Lyon fighting and also a familiar seruant of his named Crotherus being among the dogges beholding them So that the worke seemed not onely to represent an ancient thing but that the Lyon Alexander Crotherus and the dogges seemed also to bee aliue in the same chase When Alexander fought with the Lyon there came an Ambassadour from Sparthes to Macedonie who spake to Alexander these Wordes Would to God Immortall prince That the force you haue vsed with the lyon in the mountain you had employed against some Pr for to be lord of the earth By the words of the Embassadour and the deedes of Alexander may easily bee gathered That as it is comely for Princes to bee honest valiant and stout so to the contrary it is vnseemly for them to be bolde and rash For though Princes of theyr goods be liberall yet of their life they ought not to be prodigall The diuine Plato in the tenth booke of his laws saith that the two renowmed Phylosophers of Thebes whose names were Adon and Clinias fell at variance with themselues to knowe in what thing the Prince is bound to aduenture his life Clinias saide that hee ought to die for any thing touching his honor Adon saide the contrarie That hee should not hazard his life vnlesse it were for matters touching the affaires of the cōmonwealth Plato saith those two philosophers had reason in that they said but admit that occasion to dye should be offered the Prince for the one or the other he ought rather to die for that thing touching iustice then for the thing touching his honor For there is no great differēce to die more for the one then for the other Applying that wee haue spoken to that we will speake I say that we doe not desire nor we will not that Princes and great lords doe destroy themselues with Lions in the chace neither aduenture their persons in the warres nor that they put theyr liues in perill for the cōmon-weale But wee onely require of them that they take some paines and care to prouide for thinges belonging to iustice For it is a more naturall hunting for Princes to hunt out the vices of their commonweales then to hunt the wilde boares in the thicke woods To the end Princes accomplish this which we haue spoken we will not aske them time when they ought to eate sleepe hunt sporte and recreate themselues but that of the 24 houres that bee in the day and night they take it for a pleasure and commodity one houre to talke of iustice The gouernment of the comonweale consisteth not in that they should trauell vntill they sweate and molest their bodyes shead their bloud shorten theyr liues and loose their pastimes but all consisteth in that they should be diligent to foresee the dammages of their common-wealth and likewise to prouide for good mimisters of iustice Wee doe not demaund Princes and great Lordes to giue vs their goods Nor wee forbidde them not to eate to forsake sleepe or sport to hunt or put their liues in daunger but we desire and beseeche them that they would prouide good ministers of iustice for the common-weale First they ought to be very diligent to search them out and afterwards to be more circūspect to examin them For if wee sigh with teares to haue good Princes we ought much more to pray that we haue not euil officers What profiteth it the knight to be nimble and if the horse be not ready What auayleth it the owner of the ship to be sage and expert if the Pilot be a foole and ignorant What profiteth the king to be valiant and stout the captain of the warre to be a coward I meane by this I haue spoken what profiteth it a prince to be honest if those which minister iustice bee dissolute What profiteth it vs that the Prince be true if his Officers be lyers what profiteth it vs that the Pr be sober if his ministers be drūkards what profiteth it that the P be gentle louing if his officers be cruell malicious what profiteth it vs that the Pr be a giuer liberall and an almes-man if the iudge which ministreth justice be a briber and an open Theefe What profiteth it the prince to bee carefull and vertuous if the Iudge bee negligent and vicious Finally I say that it little auayleth that the prince in his house be secretly iust if adioyning to that hee trust a tirant open theefe with the gouernment of the Common-weale Princes and great Lords when they are within their pallaces at pleasure their mindes occupied in high things doe not receyue into theyr secret company but their entire friends Another time they will not but occupie themselues in pastimes and pleasure so that they know not what they haue to amend in their persons and much lesse that which they ought to remedy in their common-weales I will not bee so eager in reprouing neyther so Satyricall in writing that it should seeme I would perswade princes that they liue not according to the highnesse of their estates but according to the life of the religious for if they wil keepe themselues from being tyrants or being outragiously vitious we cannot deny them sometimes to take their pleasures But my intention is not so straightly to commaund Princes to be iust but only to shew them how they are bound to doe iustice Common-wealthes are not lost for that their princes liue in pleasure but because they haue little care of iustice In the end people doe not murmur when the Prince doth recreate his person but when he is too slacke to cause iustice to be executed I would to God that Princes took an account with God in the things of their conscience touching the common wealth as they doe with men touching their rents and reuenues Plutarch in an Epistle hee wrote to Traian the Emperor saith It pleaseth mee very well most puissant prince that the Prince be such
one as al may say that in him there is nothing worthy of reprehension but adding therunto It displeaseth me much more that he should haue so euill Iudges that all should say in them were nothing worthy of commendation For the faults of Princes very well may be excused but the offences of the officers can by no meanes bee endured Many princes and great Lords deceiue themselus in thinking that they do their duety in that they be vertuous in their persons but it is not so for it sufficeth not a prince to draw vnto him all vertues but also hee is bound to root all vices out of the cōmon wealth Admit that princes will not or of themselues cannot govern the common-wealth yet let vs desire and admonish them to seeke good Officers to doe it for them For the poore Plebeian hath no account to render but of his good or euil life but the prince shall render account of his vitious life which he hath led and of the little care that he hath had of his common wealth Seneca in an Epistle he wrote to Lucilla sayth My deare friend Lucilla I would gladly thou wouldest come and see me heere in Rome but I pray thee recommend to good Iudges the Isle of Scicile for I would not desire to enioy thy sight if through my occasion thou shouldest leaue the Common-wealth out of order And to the entent thou mayest know what conditions they ought to haue whom thou shouldest choose for Gouernors or Iudges I will let thee vnderstand that they ought to be graue in their sentences iust in their wordes honest in their workes mercifull in their iustice and aboue all not corrupted with bribes And if I do aduertise thee of this it is because if thou diddest take care to gouerne thy Common-wealth well thou shouldest now bee circumspect to examine them vnto whom presently thou must recommend the gouernement thereof I would say afterwardes that all that which the ancient philosophers haue written in many books and haue left by diuers sentences Seneca did rehearse in these few wordes the which are so graue and necessarie that if Princes retayned them in their memory to put them in execution and Iudges had them before their eyes for to accomplish them they would excuse the common wealth of diuers slaunders and they should also deliuer themselues from a great burthen of their conscience It is not a thing voluntary but necessary that the ministers of iustice be vertuous well established and very honest For to Iudges nothing can bee more slaunderous and hurtfull then when they should reproue young men of their youth others may iustly reprehend them of theyr lightnesse He which hath a publike Office in the Common wealth and sitteth openly to iudge therein ought to obserue a good order in his person lest hee bee noted dissolute in his doing For the Iudge which is without honesty and consideration ought to consider with himselfe that if hee alone haue authoritie to iudge of other mens goods that there are a thousand which will iudge of his life It is not onely a burden of Conscience to princes to committe the charge of gouernance of the people to dissolute persons but also it is a great contempt and disprayse of Iustice For the sentence giuen of him who deserueth to bee iudged is among the people little esteemed Plutarch in his Apothegmes sayeth that Philip King of Macedonie Father of the Great Alexander created for Iudge of a prouince a friend of his who after hee saw himselfe in such office occupyed himselfe more in kemming his head then in working or studying his bookes King Philip being enformed of the vanitie and insolency of this Iudge reuoked the power which he had giuen him and when hee complayned to all of the wrong and griefe which was done vnto him taking his office from him K. Philip sayde vnto him If I had giuen the office to thee for none other cause but being my friend beleeue mee that nothing in the world could haue sufficed to haue taken it from thee because I louing thee so entirely as I did reason would not I should haue depriued thee of this office wherewith I honoured thee I gaue thee this office thinking that thou werte vertuous sage honest and also a man well occupied and me thinketh thou rather occupiest thy selfe in beholding thy person thē in gouerning well my Common-wealth which thou oughtest not to consent vnto and much lesse doe in deed for the Iudge ought to bee so occupied in the administration of the Common wealth that hee should haue no leasure at any time for to combe his heade These wordes the good Philip spake vnto the Iudge whom hee displaced of his office for beeing too fine diligent in combing his head and trimming his person It is not onely decent for ministers of Iustice to bee graue and honest but also it behoueth them to bee true and faithfull For to Iudge whose office is to iudge the truth there can bee no greater infamie then to be counted a lyer When two Plebeyans bee at variance together for one thing they come before the iudge for naught els but that hee should iudge who hath right and iustice therevnto Therefore if such a Iustice bee not counted true but a lyer all take his iudgement for false so that if the plaintife hath no more power hee will obey iustice yet at the least he will blaspheme him that gaue sentence There are some Iudges that presently to get more money to drawe vnto them more friends and to continue also in their Offices vse such shamefull shifts with the poore plaintifes and take such large bribes of the defendant that both partyes are by himselfe assured of the Sentence in their fauour before hee come vnto the Barre Many goe to the houses of Iudges some to demaund others to giue instructions others to worke deceyte others to win them others to importune thē but few to go to visite them so that for those and such semblables I doe aduise and admonish Officers that they be iust in their sentences vpright in their wordes The ministers of Iustice ought to be such and so good that in their life nothing be worthie of rebuke neyther in their words any thing worthy of reproche For if heerein they be not very circumspect oftentimes that shall happen which the Gods vvould not which is that to the preiudice of the iustice of another hee shall denie the words of himselfe It sufficeth not Iudges to be true in their words but it is very necessarie that they bee vpright in their sentences That is to say that for loue they bee not too large neyther for couetousnes they should be corrupted nor for feare drawne backe nor with prayers to bee flattered nor with promises blinded For otherwise it were a great shame and inconuenience that the Yarde which they carrie in theyr hands should bee streight and the life which they lead should be very
crooked To the end Iustices be vpright they ought much to trauell to bee liberall I meane in things wherein they ought to giue sentence It is vnpossible that those which haue respect in theyr sentences to fauour their Friendes should not accustomably vse to bee reuenged of theyr enemyes Truely such a Iudge ought not to bee called iust but a priuate tyrant Hee that with affection iudgeth and passion punisheth is greatly deceyued Those in like manner which haue authority to gouerne and doe thinke that for borrowing a little of Iustice they should therby encrease and multiplie friends in the common wealth are much abused For this acte before men is so heynous and before GOD so detestable that though for a space he refraine his hands yet in the ende hee will extend his power For the Redeemer of the world onely Father of Trueth will not permit that such doe take vppon them the title of Iustice which in their Offices do shew so extreame wrong Helius Spartianus in the life of Anthonius saith that the good Emperour going to visite his Empire as he was in Capua and there demaunding of the state of the Censours whether they were vniust or rightfull A man of Capua saide in this wise By the immortall Gods most noble Prince I sweare that this Iudge who presently gouerneth here is neither iust nor honest and therefore mee thinks it necessarie that wee depriue him of his dignitie and I will recount vnto thee what befell betweene him and mee I besought him that for my sake hee would graunt me foure things which were all vniust and hee willingly condescended therevnto wherof I had no lesse maruell in my hart then vexation in my bodie For when I did desire him I thought nothing lesse then to obtaine them but only for the contentation of those which instantly desired me to doe it And further this Capuan saide By the God Genius I sweare likewise that I was not the more friendly vnto him for that he sayde he did it for my sake more then for another For hee that to mee would graunt these foure it is to bee beleeued that vnto others hee would graunt them foure hundreth For the which thou oughtest to prouide most noble Prince because good Iudges ought to be patient to heare and iust to determine By this notable example Iudges ought to haue a great respect not to those which doe desire them but to that which they demaund For in doing their duty their enemyes will proclaime them iust and contrary wise if they doe that they should not doe their nearest friends wil account them as tyrants Iudges which pretend fauour vnto the common-wealth and to bee carefull of their consciences ought not to content themselues simply to doe Iustice but that of themselues they should haue such an opinion that none durste presume to come and require at their hands any vile or dishonest thing For otherwise if we note the demaunder to bee vnshamefaste we must needes somewhat suspect the Iudge in his iustice Princes ought also to bee very circumspect that the Iudges be not onelie contented to bee iust honest and true but also in them there ought to remaine no auarice nor couetousnes For Iustice and Auarice can seldome dwell in one house Those that haue the charge of the gouernement of the people and to iudge causes ought to take great heed that with bribes and presentes they be not corrupted For it is vnpossible but that the same day that Riches and Treasures in the houses of Iudges begin to increase that the same day the true administration of Iustice should not decay Lycurgus Prometheus and Numa Pompylius did prohibite nothing in their Law so much neyther for any other cause they ordained so many punishments but to the intent Iudges should not bee so couetous nor yet thieues And of truth they had great consideration to foresee and forbid it For the iudge that hath receyued parte of the Thefte will not giue sentence against the stealers thereof Let not iudges be credited for saying they receyue no siluer nor golde neyther silkes nor iewells but that they take onely small presentes as fruites fowles and other trifles For oftentimes it chaunceth that the iudges doe eate the fruite and the poore Suter doeth feele the morsell Cicero in the booke of lawes saith that Cato the Censor beeing very aged the Senators said vnto him one day in the Senate Thou knowest now Cato that presently wee are in the Calendes of Ianuary wherein wee vse to deuide the Offices among the people Wherefore wee haue determined to create Manlius and Calidanus Censors for this yeare wherefore tell vs as thou thinkest if they be able and sufficient to supplye the rowme Cato the Censour answered them in this wise Fathers conscript I let you knowe that I do not receyue the one nor admit the other For Manlius is very rich and Calidanus the citizen extream poore and truly in both there is great perill For we see by experience that the rich Officers are too much subiect to pleasures and the poore Officers are too much giuen to auarice And further hee said in this case me thinketh that your Iudges whom yee ought to chuse should not bee so extreame poore that they should want wherewith to care neither so rich that they should surmount in superfluity to giue themselus too much to pleasurs For men by great aboundance become vitious and by great scarcitie become couetous The Censor Cato beeing of such authoritie it is but reason that wee giue credite to his words since hee gouerned the Romane Empire so long space though in deed all the poore bee not couetous nor all the rich vitious yet hee spake it for this intent because both those Romans were noted of these two vices For the poore they desire to scrape and scratch and the rich to enioy and keepe Which of those two sortes of men Princes should chuse I cannot nor dare not rashly determine And therefore I doe not counsell them eyther to despise the poore or to chuse the rich but that they giue the authoritie of iustice to those whom they know to bee of good conscience and not subiect to couetousnesse For the iudge whose Conscience is corrupted it is vnpossible hee should minister equall iustice A man may giue a shrewde guesse of suspition in that iudge whether hee bee of brittle conscience or no if hee see him procure the office of iustice for himselfe For that man which willingly procureth the charge of conscience of another commonly little regardeth the burthen of his owne CHAP. VII Of a Letter which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius wrote to Antigonus his friend answering another which hee sent him out of Scicile wherein hee aduertised him of the cruelty of the Romane Iudges and this Letter is diuided into v. Chapters MArcus Aurelius companion in the Empire Tribune of the people presently being sicke wisheth vnto thee Antigonus health comfort in the
banishment To flye the extreame heate of Rome and to reade some bookes which are brought mee from the realme of Palestine I am come hither to Capua and for the haste I made to ride great iourneyes the Ague hath ouertaken me which is more troublesome then perillous For it taketh me with cold and plucketh my appetite from me The 20 day of Ianuary I receyued thy second letter and it hapned that thy letter and my feuer tooke mee both at one instant but the feuer grieeued me in such wise that I could not long endure to reade thy letter Mee thinketh wee haue no stay nor meane thou beeing so briefe and I so long for my long letter hath taken thy grieuous sorrows from mee but thy short letter could not take my feuer from me now that my mind is beating of thy trauell the desire that I haue to remedy it is enflamed I would tel thee one thing succor thee with som counsel but I find that the consolation which thou wantest I cannot giue thee and that which I can giue thee thou needest not In this letter shall not be written that which was in the first but herein I will trauell the best I can to answer thee I wil not occupie my self to comfort thee because I am so out of course with this disease that I haue neyther will to write ne yet any fauour in any pleasant things If perhaps this letter bee not sauoury nor compendious neither so comfortable as those which I was wōt to write vnto thee attribute not the blame vnto my good will which desireth to serue thee but to the sicknes that giueth no place thereunto For it sufficeth the sicke to be contented with medicines without satisfying theyr friendes If thy comfort consisted in writing many letters and offering thee many words truely I would not sticke to doe that for my feuer but it neither profiteth thee nor satisfieth mee since I haue little to proffer thee much Talking now of this matter I doe remember that the ancient lawes of the Rhodians sayd these words We desire and admonish all men to visite the Captiues the Pilgrimes and the comfortlesse and further we ordaine and commaund that none in the Common wealth be so hardy to giue counsell vnlesse therewith hee giue remedy For to the troubled heart words comforteth little when in them there is no remedy Of a truth the Law of the Rhodians is good and the Romane which shall obserue them much better Assure thy self that I am very desirous to see thee and also I know that thou wouldest as gladly speake vnto me to recount mee all thy griefes Truely I doe not maruell because the wounded heart quieteth himselfe more declaring his owne griefes thē hearing another mans consolations Thou writest vnto me of sūdry things in thy letter the effect whereof that thou certifiest me is that the Iudges and Officers in that Realme bee very rigorous and extreame and that therefore the Cicilians are greatly displeased with the Senate Hitherto thou hast neuer tolde mee lye the which moueth me to beleeue all that thou writest now in thy letter Wherefore I take it for a thing most true that forasmuch as all those of Cicill are malitious and enuious they giue the Iudges fitte occasion to bee cruell For it is a generall rule where men are out of order the Ministers of iustice ought to bee rigorous And though in other realms it chaunced not it is to be beleeued that it is true in this Realme whereof the ancient Prouerbe sayth All those which inhabite the Isles are euill but the Cicilians are worst of all At this day the wicked are so mighty in their malice and the good are so much diminished in their vertues that if by Iustice there were not a bridle the wicked would surmount al the world and the good should vanish immediately But returning to our matter I say that considering with what how many euils wee are enuironed and to how many miseries wee are subiect I doe not maruell at the vanities that men commit but I am ashamed of the cruelty which our iudges execute so that wee may rather call them tyrants which kill by violence then Iudges which minister by iustice Of one thing I was greatly astonied and almost past my sense which is that iustice of right pertayneth to the Gods and they being offended will bee called pittifull and wee others borrow iustice and not beeing offended doe glorifie our selues to be called cruell I know not what man will hurt another since wee see that the Gods forgiuing their proper iniuries haue obtained the renowne of mercifull and wee others punishing the iniuries done vnto another doe remaine with the name of the tirants If the punishment of the Gods were so seuere as our sinnes are filthy and that they should measure vs with this measure the only desert of one offence is sufficient to take life from vs. With reason hee cannot be called a man amongst men but a sauage amongst the sauages that forgetting to be of feeble flesh tormenteth the flesh of his brother If a man he helde himselfe from toppe to toe he shall finde not one thing in him to moue him to cruelty but he shall see in him many instruments to exercise mercy For hee hath his eyes wherewith hee ought to behold the needy and indigent hee hath feete to goe to the Church and Setmons he hath hands to helpe all hee hath his tongue to fauour the Orphanes he hath a heart to loue God And to conclude hee hath vnderstāding to know the euill and discretion to follow the good If men owe much to the Gods for giuing them these Instruments to be pittifull truely they are bound no lesse vnto them for taking from them all occasions to be cruell For hee hath not giuen them hornes as to buls neither nailes as to the cat nor yet hee hath giuen them poyson as to the Serpent Finally hee hath nor giuen them so perilous feet as to a horse to strike nor hee hath giuen them such bloudie teeth as to the Lyons to bite Then sith the Gods bee pittifull and haue created vs pittifull and commaunded vs to bee pittifull why do our Iudges desire then to be cruell O how many cruell and seuere Iudges are there at this day in the Romane Empire which vnder the colour of good zeale to iustice aduenture to vndo the common wealth For not for the zeale of iustice but for the desire to attaine to renowne they haue beene ouercome with malice and denyed their owne proper Nature I doe not maruell that a Romane Censor should enuie my house will euill to my friends fauour mine enemies dispise my children with euill eyes behold my daughters couet my goods speake euill of my person but that which I am ashamed of is that diuers Iudges are so greedy to teare mens flesh as if they were Beares mans flesh were nointed with honey CHAP. VIII The Emperour
the diligence which the Iudges vsed towards the Senat to the end they might giue them offices the selfe same ought the Senate to haue to seeke vertuous men to commit such charge into their hands For the office of iustice ought to be giuen not to him which procureth it but to him that best deserueth it In the yeare of the foundation of Rome 642. yeares the Romane people had many warres throughout all the world That is to say Caius Celius against those of Thrace Gneus Gardon his brother against the Sardes Iunius Scilla against the Cimbres Minutius Rufus against the Daces Seruilius Scipio against the Macedonians and Marius Consull against Iugurtha King of the Numedians and amongst all these the warre of the Numidians was the most renowmed and also perillous For if Rome had many Armies against Iugurtha to conquer him Iugurtha had in Rome good friends which did fauour him King Boco at that time was king of the Mauritans who was Iugurthas friend in the end hee was afterwards the occasion that Iugurtha was ouerthrowne and that Marius tooke him These two Kings Marius the Consull brought to Rome and triumphed of them leading them before his triumphant chariot their neckes loaden with yrons their eyes full of teares The which vnlucky fortune al the Romaines which behelde lamented and tooke great pitie of the strangers whō they heard The night after the triumph was ended it was decreede in the Senate that Iugurtha should bee beheaded leauing king Boco aliue depriued of his Country And the occasion thereof was this The Romaines had a custom of long time to put no man to execution before that first with great diligēce they had looked the ancient bookes to see if any of their predecessors had done any notable seruice to Rome whereby the poore prisoner might deserue his pardon It was found written in a booke which was in the high Capitoll that the Grandfather of King Boco was very sage and a speciall friend to the Romane people and that once hee came to Rome and made diuers orations to the Senate and amongst other notable sentences there was found in that book that he had spoken these words Woe be to that realme where all are such that neyther the good amongst the euill nor the euil amongst the good are known Woe vpon that realme which is the entertainer of all fooles and a destroyer of all Sages Woe is that Realme where the good are fearefull and the euill too bold Wo on that realme where the patient are despised and the seditious commended Wo on that Realm which destroyeth those which watch for the good and crowneth those that watch to doe euill Woe to that realme where the poore are suffered to bee proud and the rich tirants Wo to that realme where all know the euil and no man doth follow the good woe to that realme where so many euill vices are openly committed which in another countrie dare not secrrtly bee mentioned Wo to that realm where all procure that they desire where all attaine to that they procure where all thinke that this is euill where al speake that they thinke and finally where all may doe that which they will In such and so vnfortunate a realm where the people are too wicked let euery man beware hee bee not inhabitant For in short time they shall see vpon him eyther the yre of the Gods the fury of the men the depoputation of the good or the desolation of the Tirants Diuers other notable thinges were contained in those Orations the which are not at this present touching my letter But forasmuch as we thought it was a very iust thing that they should pardon the folly of the Nephew for the deserts of the wise grandfather Thou shalt reade this my letter openly to the Pretours and Iudges which are resident there and the case shall bee that when thou shalt reade it thou shalt admonish them that if they will not amend secretly wee will punish them openly I wrote vnto thee the last day that as touching thy banishment I would be thy friend and be thou assured that for to enioy thy old friendshipp and to performe my word I will not let to danger my person I write vnto Panutius my Secretary to succour thee with two thousand Sesterses wherewith thou mayest releeue thy pouerty and from hence I send thee my letter wherewith thou mayest comfort thy sorrowfull hear I say no more to thee in this case but that thorough the Gods thou mayest haue contentation of all that thou enioyest health of thy person and comfort of thy friends the bodily euils the cruell enemies the perillous destenies bee farre from me Marke In the behalfe of thy Wife Rufa I haue saluted my wise Faustine shee and I both haue receyued with ioy thy salutations and with thankes wee sent them you againe I desire to see thy person here in Italy and wish my feuer quartens there with thee in Scicilie CHAP. XII An exhortation of the Author to Princes and Noble men to embrace peace and to eschew the occasions of warre OCtauian Augustus second Emperour of Rome is commended of all for that hee was so good of his person and so wel beloued of all the Romane Empire Suetonius Tranquillus sayth that when any man dyed in Rome in his time they gaue great thanks to the Gods for that they tooke their life from them before their Prince knew what death meant And not contented onelie with this but in their Testaments they commaunded their heires and children that yearely they should offer great sacrifices of their proper goods in all the Temples of Rome to the end the Gods shold prolong the dayes of their Prince That time indeed might bee called the golden age and the blessed land where the Prince loued so well his subiects and the subiects so much obeyed their prince for seldome times it hapneth that one will be content with the seruices of all neyther that all will bee satisfied with the gouernement of one The Romans for none other cause wished for the good Prince more then for themselues life out because he kept the commonwealth in peace The vertue of this Prince deserued much prayse and the good will of the people merited no lesse commendation he for deseruing it to them they for giuing it to him for to say the truth there are few in number that so heartily loue others that for theyr sakes will hate themselues There is no man so humble but in things of honour wil be content to goe before saue only in death where he can be content to come behinde And this seemeth to bee very cleare in that that now dyeth the father now the mother now the husband now the wife now the sonne now his neighbour in the end euery man is content with the death of an other so that he with his owne life may escape himselfe A Prince which is gentle patient stout sober honest and
knew that there was in Spaine great mynes of gold and siluer immediately arose betweene them exceeding cruell warres so that those two puissant Realmes for to take from each other their goods destroied their owne proper Dominions The Authors of the aboue saide were Plutarchus Paulus Diaconus Berosus and Titus Liutus O secrete iudgements of God which sufferest such things O mercifull goodnes of thee my Lord that permitteth such things that through the dreame of one prince in his chamber another for to robbe the treasures of Spaine another to flye the colde of Hungarie another to drinke the Wines of Italy another to eate figs of Greece should put all the Countrey to fire and bloud Let not my penne bee cruell against all Princes which haue vniust warres For as Traianus sayd Iust warre is more worth then fained peace I commend approue and exalt princes which are carefull and stout to defend and keepe that which their predecessors left them For admitte that for dispossessing them hereof commeth all the breach with other princes Looke how much his enemy offendeth his conscience for taking it so much offendeth he his Common-wealth for not defending it The wordes which the diuine Plato spake in the first booke of his Lawes did satisfie me greatly which were these It is not meete we should be too extream in commending those which haue peace nor let vs bee too vehement in reproouing those which haue warre For it may bee now that if one haue warre it is to the end to attaine peace And for the contrary if one haue peace it shall be to the end to make warre Indeed Plato sayd very true For it is more worth to desire short warre for long peace then short peace for long warre The Philosopher Chilo being demanded whereby a good or euill Gouernour might be knowne he answered There is nothing whereby a good and euill man may bee better known then in that for which bey striue For the tyrannous Prince offereth himselfe to aye to take from another but the vertuous Prince trauelleth to defend his owne When the Redeemer of this world departed from this world hee sayde not I giue yee my warre or leaue yee my warre but I leaue you my peace and giue you my peace Thereof ensueth that the good Christian is bound to keepe the peace which Christ so much commaunded then to inuent warre to reuenge his proper iniurie which God so much hated If Princes did that they ought for to doe and in this case would beleeue mee for no temporall thing they should condiscend to shedde mans bloud if nothing else yet at the least the loue of him which on the Crosse shedd his precious bloud for vs should from that cleane disswade vs. For the good Christians are commaunded to bewayle their owne sinnes but they haue no licence to shed the bloud of their enemies Finally I desire exhort and further admonish all princes and great Lords that for his sake that is prince of peace they loue peace procure peace keepe peace and liue in peace For in peace they shall bee rich and their people happie CHAP. XIIII The Emperour Marcus Aurelius writeth to his friend Cornelius wherein hee describeth the discommodities of warre and the vanitie of Triumph MArcus Aurelius wisheth to thee Cornelius his faithfull friend health to thy person and good lucke against all euil fortune Within fifteene dayes after I came from the warre of Asia whereof I haue triumphed here in Rome remembring that in times past thou wert a companion of my trauell I sent immediately to certifie thee of my triumphes For the noble hearts doe more reioyce of their friends ioy then they do of their owne proper delights If thou wilt take paines to come when I send to call thee bee thou assured that on the one part thou shalt haue much pleasure to see the great abundance of riches that I haue brought out of Asia and to beholde my receiuing into Rome and on the other thou canst not keepe thy selfe from weeping to see such a sorte of Captiues the which entred in before the triumphant chariots bound and naked to augment the conquerours most glory and also to them vanquished to be a greater ignomie Seldome times we see the Sun shine bright all the day long but first in the Summer there hath beene a mist or if it be in the winter there hath beene a frost By this Parable I meane that one of the miseries of this world is that wee shall see few in this world which now bee prosperous but before haue had fortune in some cases very malitious For wee see by experience some come to bee very poore and other chaunce to attaine to great riches so that through the empouerishing of those the other become rich and prosperous The weapon of the one causeth the other to laugh so that if the bucket that is empty aboue doth not goe downe the other which is ful beneath cannot come vp Speaking therefore according to sensuality thou wouldest haue beene glad that day to haue seene our triumph with the abundance of riches the great number of Captiues the diuersity of beasts the valiantnes of the Captaines the sharpenesse of wittes which wee brought from Asia and entred into Rome wherby thou mightest well know the daungers that wee escaped in the ware Wherefore speaking the truth the matter betweene vs and our enemies was so debated that those of vs that escaped best had their bodies sore wounded and their veins also almost without bloud I let thee know my Cornelius that the Parthians are warlike men in dangerous enterprises very hardie and bold And when they are at home in their Country euery one with a stout hart defendeth his house and surely they doe it like good men and valiant Captaines For if we other Romanes without reason and through ambition doe goe to take an other mans it is meete and iust that they by force doe defend their owne Let no man through the aboundance of malice or want of wisedom enuie the Romane Captaine for any triumph that is giuen him by his mother Rome for surely to get this onely one dayes honour he aduentureth his life a thousand times in the field I will not speake all that I might say of them that wee ledde foorth to the warres nor of them which wee leaue here at home in Rome which bee all cruell Iudges of our fame for theyr iudgement is not vpright according to equity but rather proceedeth of malice and enuie Though they take mee for a patient men and not farre out of order yet I let thee know my Cornelius that there is no patience can suffer nor heart dissemble to see many Romanes to haue such great enuie which through their malitious tongues passe not to backebite other mens triumphes For it is an olde disease of euill men through malice to backebite that with theyr tongue which through their cowardnesse they neuer durst enterprise with their
of counsel they themselues imagine and other flattrers telleth that thogh they haue much in respect of other princes yet they can doe little Also they say vnto them that if their substaunce bee great their Fame ought to bee greater Further they tell them that the good Prince ought little to esteeme that hee hath inherited of his predecessors in respect of the great deale more hee ought to leaue to his successours Also they tell them that neuer prince left of him any great memory but inuenting some cruell Warre against his enemie Also they tell them that the houre that one is chosen Emperour of Rome hee may boldely conquer the whole earth These vaine reasons being heard of the princes afterwardes as their Fortune is base and their mindes high immediately they defie their enemies they open their Treasures they assemble great armies and in the end of all the Gods suffer that they thinking to tkae an other mans goods they waste and lose their owne Oh Princes I knowe not who doth deceyue yee that you which by peace may be rich and by war wil be poore Oh Princes I know not who doth deceiue you that you which may be loued doe seeke occasions to be hated Oh princes I knowe not who doth beguyle yee that yee which may enioy a sure life doe aduenture your selues to the mutabilitie of Fortune Oh princes I knowe not who doeth deceyue you that you so little esteeme and weigh your owne aboundance and so greatly set by the wants of others Oh princes I know not who doth deceiue you that all hauing need of you you should haue neede of others I let thee to knowe my Cornelius though a prince bee more quicke and carefull then all other his predecessors haue bin in Rome yet it is vnpossible that all things touching warre should succeede vnto him prosperously For in the greatest neede of warres eyther he wanteth money or his subiects do not succour him or time is contrarie vnto him or he findeth perilous pasges hee lacketh Artillerie or the captaines rebell or else succour commeth to his aduersaryes so that hee seeth himselfe so miserable that thoughtes doe more oppresse his heart then the enemies do harme his land Though a prince had no warre but for to suffer men of warre yet he ought to take vpon him no warre I aske thee now my Cornelius what trauell so great to his person or what greater damage to his Realme can his Enemies do then that which his own men of warre doe c The Enemies to doe the worst they can will but robbe our Frontiers but our men of War do robbe the whole countrey The Enemies we dare and may resist but to ours we cannot nor dare not speake The Enemyes the worst they can do is once in a moneth to robbe and runne their wayes but ours daily do robbe and remaine still The Enemyes feare their enemies only but ours doe feare their enemyes and haue no pitie on their friends The enemies the further they goe on the more they diminish but ours the further they goe the more they encrease I know no greater warre that Princes can haue then to haue men of warre in their realmes For as experience doth shew vs before the Gods they are culpable to Princes importunate and to the people troublesome so that they liue to the damage of all and to the profit of none By the God Mars I swear vnto thee my friend Cornelius as hee may direct my hands in the war that I haue more complaints in the Senate of the thefts which my Captaines did in Illyria then of all the enemies of the Romane people Both for that I say and for that I kept secret I am more afraid to create an Ensigne of two hundred men of warre then to giue a cruell battell to thirty thousand men For that battell fortune good or euill forthwith dispacheth but with these I can bee sure no time of all my life Thou wilt say vnto me Cornelius that since I am Emperour of Rome I should remedy this since I know it For that Prince which dissembleth with the fault of another by reason hee will condemne him as if it were his owne To this I answere that I am not mighty enough to remedy it except by my remedy there should spring a greater inconuenience And since thou hast not beene a Prince thou couldest not fall into that I haue nor yet vnderstand that which I say For Princes by their wisdom know many things the which to remedy they haue no power So it hath beene so it is so it shall be so I found it so I keepe it so will I leaue it them so I haue reade it in bookes so haue I seen it with my eyes so haue I heard it of my predecessors And finally I say our Fathers haue inuented it and so will wee their children sustaine it and for this euill wee will leaue it to our heyres I will tell thee one thing and imagine that I erre not therein which is considering the great dammage and little profite which men of warre do bring to our Common wealth I thinke to doe it and to sustaine it eyther it is the folly of men or a scourge giuen of the Gods For there can be nothing more iust then for the Gods to permit that wee feele that in our owne houses which wee cause others in strange houses to lament All those thinges I haue written vnto thee not for that it skileth greatly that I know them but that my heart is at ease for to vtter them For as Alcibiades sayde the chests and the hearts ought alwayes to be open to their friends Panutius my Secretary goeth in my behalfe to visite that Land and I gaue him this Letter to giue thee with two Horses wherewith I doe thinke thou wilt be contented for they are Genets The Weapons and riches which I tooke of the Parthians I haue now diuided notwithstanding I do send thee two Chariots laden with them My wife Faustine greeteth thee and shee sendeth a rich glasse for thy Daughter and a iewell with stones for thy sister No more but I doe beseech the gods to giue thee a good life and me a good death CHAP. XVII An Admonition of the Author to Princes and great Lordes to the entent that the more they grow in yeares the more they are bound to refrayne from vices AVlus Gelius in his booke De noctibus Atticis sayeth that there was an auncient custome among the Romanes to honour and haue in great reuerence aged men And this was so inuiolate a Law amongst them that there was none so noble of bloud and linage neyther so puissant in riches neyther so fortunate in battels that should go before the aged men which were loden with white hayres so that they honoured them as they did the Gods Amongst other the aged men had these preheminences that is to say that in feasts they sate highest in the
Triumphes they went before in the Temples they did sit downe they spake to the Senate before all others they had their garments furred they might eate alone in secret and by their onely word they were credited as witnesses Finally I say that in all thinges they serued them and in nothing they annoied them After the people of Rome beganne warre with Asia they forsooke all their good Romane customes immediately And the occasion hereof was that since they had no men to sustaine the Common-wealth by reason of the great multitude of people which died in the warre they ordained that all the young men should marry the young maides the widdows the free and the bond and that the honour which had beene done vntill that time vnto the olde men from henceforth should bee done vnto the maried men though they were yong So that the most honoured in Rome was hee not of most yeares but he that had most children This Law was made a little before the first battell of Carthage And the custome that the married men were more honoured then the old endured vntil the time of the Emperour Augustus which was such a friend of Antiquities that hee renued all the walles of Rome with new stone and renued all the auncient customes of the Common-wealth Lycurgus in the lawes which he gaue to the Lacedemonians ordayned that the young men passing by the olde should doe them great reuerence and when the old men did speake then the younger should be silent And hee ordained also that if any olde man by casualtie did lose his goods and came into extreame pouertie then hee should be sustained of the Common wealth and that in such sustentation they should haue respect not onely to succour him for to sustain him but further to giue him to liue competently Plutarch in his Apothegmes declareth that Cato the Censor visiting the corners of Rome found an olde man sitting at his dore weeping and shedding many teares from his eyes And Cato the Censour demanding him why he was so euill handled and wherefore hee wept so bitterly the good olde man answered him O Cato the Gods beeing the only Comforters comfort thee in all thy tribulations since thou art ready to comfort mee at this wofull houre As well as thou knowest that the consolations of the Heart are more necessarie then the physicke of the bodie the which being applyed sometimes doeth heale and an other time they do harme Behold my scabby hands my swollen legs my mouth without Teeth my peeled Face my white beard and my balde head for thou beeing as thou art discreete shouldest be excused to aske mee why I weepe For men of my Age though they weepe not for the little they feele yet they ought to weep for the ouermuch they liue The man which is loaden with teares tormented with diseases pursued with Enemies forgotten of his friends visited with mishaps and with euill will and pouertie I know not why he demandeth long life For there can be no sharper reuengement of vices which wee commit then to giue vs long life Though now I am aged I was young and if any young man should doe me any iniurie truely I would not desire the Gods to take away his life but that they would rather prolong his life For it is great pittie to heare the man which hath liued long recount the troubles which he hath endured Know thou Cato if thou doest not know it that I haue liued 77. yeares and in this time I haue buryed my Father my Grand-father two Aunts and fiue vncles After that I had buryed 9. Systers and 11. Bretheren I haue buryed afterwards two lawfull wiues and fiue bond-women which I haue had as my lemmans I haue buryed also 14. children and 7. marryed daughters and therewith not contented I haue buryed 37. Nephewes and 15. Nieces and that which grieueth me most of all is that I haue buryed two good friendes of mine One of the which remayned in Capua and the other which remained was resident heere at Rome The death of whome hath grieued me more then all those of my alyance and parētage For in the world there is no like losse to that where a man looseth him whom entierly he loueth and of whome also hee is deerely beloued The fatall Destenyes ought to content themselues to haue annoyed my house with so many misfortunes But all this and aboue all this they haue left me a wicked nephewe which shall be mine heyre and they haue left vnto me that all my life I shall lament Oh Cato for that thou owest to the Common-wealth I doe desire thee and by the immortal Gods I doe conjure thee that since thou art a vertuous Romane and Censor of the people that thou prouide for one of these two things that is to say that this my nephew doe serue me or else ordeyne that I dye forthwith For it is a great crueltie that those doe pursue mee which are aliue since it is now fourtie yeares that I ceased not to bewayle the dead Cato beeing well informed of that the olde man had tolde him and since he found all that true which he spake he called vnto his presence the young Nephewe and sayde vnto him these wordes If thou wert such a Childe as thou oughtest to bee thou shouldest excuse mee of paine and thy selfe of trauell But since it is not so I pray thee take paciently that which I shall commaund thee and bee thou wel assured that I will not commaund thee any thing but that which shal be correspondent to Iustice For the vicious younglings as thou art ought to be more ashamed of the vnbrideled youthfulnesse they haue committed then for all the punishments which is giuen vnto them First I commaund thou bee whipt because thou art become so disobedient and troublesome to thy Graundfather Secondly I commaunde that thou bee banished the limites of Rome because thou art a vicious young man Thirdly I commaund that of all the goods which thou hast enherited thou shalt bee disinherited because thou doest not obey thy Graundfather And the cause why I giue such seuere sentence is to the ende that from henceforth the young shall not disobey the Aged and also that those which haue inherited great treasours shall not thinke that men should permit them to bee more vicious then others Phalaris the Tyraunt writing to a Friende of his which was very aged saide these words the which seemed rather spoken of a Phylosopher then of a tyrant I haue maruelled at thee and am offended with thee my friend 〈◊〉 to know as I doe that in yeares thou art very aged and in workes very young and also it grieueth mee that thou hast lost the credit of knowledge in the Schooles It grieueth me more that through thee the priuiledges should bee lost which the olde men haue accustomed to haue in Greece that is to say that all the thieues all the periured and all the murtherers were
no sporte nor lightnes inuented in Rome but first it is registred in your house And finally they say that you giue your selues so vnto pleasures as though you neuer thought to receyue displeasures O Claude and Claudine by the God Iupiter I sweare vnto you that I am ashamed of your vnshamefastnes and am greatly abashed of your manners and aboue all I am exceedingly grieued for your offence For at that time that you ought to lift your hands you are returned againe into the filth of the world Manie things men commit which though they seeme graue yet by moderation of the person that cōmitteth them they are made light but speaking according to the truth I finde one reason whereby I might excuse your lightes but to the contrarie I see tenne whereby I may condemne your follies Solon the Phylosopher in his Lawes said to the Athenians that if the young offended hee should be gently admonished and grieuously punished because he was strong and if the olde erre hee should bee lightly punished and sharply admonished sith hee was weake and feeble To this Lycurgus in his lawes to the Lacedemonians sayd contrarie That if the young did offend hee should be lightly punished and grieuously admonished since through ignorance he did erre and the olde man which did euill should bee lightly admonished and sharply punished since thorough malice hee did offend These two phylosophers beeing as they haue bin of such authority in the worlde that is past and considering that their lawes and sentences were of such weight it should bee much rashnes in not admitting the one of them Now not receiuing the one nor rereprouing the other Mee thinketh that there is no great excuse to the young for their ignorance and great condemnation to the aged for their experience Once againe I returne to say that you pardon me my friends and you ought not greatly to weigh it thogh I am somewhat sharpe in condemnation since you others are so dissolute in your liues for of your blacke life my penne doth take inke I remember wel that I haue heard of thee Claude that thou hast beene lusty and couragious in thy youth so that thy strength of all was enuyed and the beauty of Claudine of all men was desired I will not write vnto you in this letter my friends and neighbours nether reduce to memory how thou Claude hast employed thy forces in the seruice of the comonwealth and thou Claudine hast won much honor of thy beauty for sundry times it chāced that men of many goodly giftes are noted of grieuous offences Those which striued with thee are all dead those whom thou desirest are deade those which serued thee Claudine are dead those which before thee Claudine sighed are dead those which for thee dyed are now dead and since all those are deade with theyr lightnesse doe not you others thinke to die and your follies also I doe demand now of thy youth one thing and of thy beauty another thing what do you receiue of these pastims of these good entertainements of these aboundances of these great contentations of the pleasures of the world of the vanitie that is past and what hope you of all these to carry into the narrow graue O simple simple and ignoraunt persons how our life consumeth and wee perceiue not how wee liue therein For it is no felicitie to enioy a short or long life but to know to employ the same eyther well or euill O children of the earth and Disciples of vanitie now you know that Time flyeth without mouing his wings the life goeth without lifting vp his feete the World dispatcheth vs not telling vs the cause men doe beguile vs not mouing their lippes our flesh consumeth to vs vnawares the heart dyeth hauing no remedie and finally our glorie decaieth as it it had neuer beene and death oppresseth vs without knocking at the dore Though a man be neuer so simple or so very a foole yet hee cannot deny but it is impossible for to make a fire in the bottome of the sea to make a way in the ayre of the thinne bloud to make rough sinewes and of the soft veines to make hard bones I meane that it is vnpossible that the greene flower of youth be not one day withered by age CHAP. XX. The Emperour followeth his Letter and perswadeth Claudius and Claudinus being now olde to giue no more credite to the World nor to any of his deceitfull flatteryes THat which I haue spoken now tendeth more to aduertise the young then to teach the olde For you others haue now passed the prime time of childhood the summer of youth and the haruest of adolescency and are in the winter of age where it seemeth an vncomely thing that those your hoary haires should bee accompanied with such vaine follies Sithens young men know not that they haue to end their youth it is no maruell that they follow the world but the olde men which see themselues fall into this guile why will they runne after vices againe O world for that thou art the world so smal is our force so great our debilitie that thou willing it and we not resisting it thou dost swallow vs vp in the most perillous gulfe and in the thornes most sharpe thou dost pricke vs by the priuiest wayes thou leadest vs by the most stony waies thou carriest vs. I meane that thou bringest vs to the highest fauours to the end that afterwards with a push of thy pike thou mightest ouerthrow vs. O world wherein all is worldly two and fifty yeeares haue passed since in thee I was first borne during which time thou neuer toldest mee one truth but I haue taken thee with ten thousand lyes I neuer demanded the thing but thou diddest promise it me and yet it is nothing at all that euer thou diddest perform I neuer put my trust in thee but euer thou beguiledst me I neuer came to thee but thou diddest vndoo me finally neuer saw I ought in thee wherby thou deseruest loue but alwayes hatred This presupposed I know not what is in thee O world or what we worldlings want for if thou hatest vs we cannot hate thee if thou doest vs iniury we can dissemble it if thou spurne vs with thy feet wee wil suffer it if thou beatest vs with a staffe wee wil hold our peace also though thou persecutest vs we will not complain though thou take ours wee will not demand it of thee though thou dost beguile vs we will not call ourselues beguiled and the worst of all is that thou doest chase vs from thy house yet we will not depart from thence I know not what this meaneth I know not from whence this commeth I know not who ought to prayse this same that wee couet to follow the world which wil none of vs and hate the gods which loue vs oft times I make account of my yeares past somtimes also I turne and tosse my booke to see what
on the earth with the goods and the miserable father goeth weeping to hell with his sinnes CHAP. XXV Of a letter which the Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote to his friend Cincinnatus who beeing a Romane Knight became a marchant of Capua wherein hee toucheth those Gentlemē which take vpon them the trade of Marchanaize against their vocation It is diuided into three Chapters MArke the Emperour with his brother Annius Verus felow in the Empire wisheth to thee Cincinnatus of Capua health to thy person and grace against thy euill fortune From the feast of our mother Berecinthe I haue seene neyther seruāt of thy house nor read letter of thy hand which maketh me suspect greatly that thy health is in danger or that thou mistrustest our friendshipp for earnest friendship requireth dayly communication or visitation I pray thee be not so carelesse from henceforth and doe not forget vs in such wise I meane that thou wilt come and see vs or at the least that thou wilt write vnto vs often for the letters of faithfull friends though vtterly they doe not take from vs the desire of the presence yet at the least they make vs hope for a meeting I know that thou mayest answere mee that in the Common wealth of Capua thou art so busied that it is impossible thou shouldest write vnto mee hereto I answere thee That in no affayres thou canst be so occupied that it bee a lawfull let not to communicate or write vnto thy friend For we may well call the time which wee liue to bee well employed which is spent in the seruice of God and in the conuersation of our friends All the residue that we waste in talking trauelling sleeping eating resting wee ought not to write it in the booke of life but in the Register of death For albeit that in such sēblable works the body is refreshed yet therewith the heart cannot be comforted I sweare vnto thee therefore my friend that it is impossible that man take any contentation of any worldly thing where the heart is not at rest for our comfort is not in the sinewes or in the bones of the body but in the liuely power of the soule It is long sithence that you and I haue knowne together it is long time likewise that I loued thee and thou me and sith wee are so true olde friends it is but reason that with good works wee doe renue our friendship For falsly they vsurpe the name of friendshippe which are not conuersant one with the other no more then if they were strangers The man which speaketh not to me which writeth not to mee which seeth me not which visiteth me not which giueth me not and to whome I giue not I would not hee were my enemy but it little auaileth mee that hee cal mee friend for particular friendship consisteth not in abundance but that friends do open their harts and talke with their persons Peraduenture thou wilt say that the great distance which is from Rome to that Country hath been occasion to diminish our friendshippe for the noble hearts are on fire with the presence of that they loue and haue great pain with the absence of that they desire I answere that the farther the delicious wines are sent from the place where they grow the greater strength they haue I meane that herein true friends are knowne when their persons are surthest seuered for then are their wills most conioyned Tell mee I pray thee Cincinnatus sithence alwayes thou hast found mee a diligent friend in thy seruice why doest thou mistrust my faithfull good will The greene leaues outwardly doe shew that the tree inwardly is not drie I meane that the good workes outwardly doe declare the feruentnes of the heart inwardly If thou Cincinnatus presumest to bee a true friend of thy friend I will thou know this rule of friendship which is where perfect loue is not there wanteth alway faithfull seruice and for the contrary he that perfectly loueth assuredly shall be serued I haue beene am and will be thine therfore thou shalt doe me great iniurie if thou art not mine CHAP. XXVI The Emperour proceedeth in his Letter declareth what vertues men ought to vse and the vices which they ought to eschew IN times past I beeing yong and thou olde I did succour thee with money and thou me with good counsell but now the world is otherwise changed in that thy white hayres doe iudge thee to be old and thy works doe cause thee to be yong Therefore necessity compelleth mee that we change our stile which is that I succour thee with counsell though thou giue me no money therefore for I count thy couetousnesse to bee such that for all the good counsell and Counsellours of Rome thou wilt not vouchsafe to giue one quatrine of Capua Now for the good that I wish thee and for that which I owe to the Law of friendshippe I will presently giue thee a counsell whereby thou maiest know what a good man ought to doe to bee beloued of God and feared and loued of men If thou wilt quietly leade thy life in this miserable World retaine this well in memory which I write vnto thee First the good deeds thou hast receyued of any those shalt thou remember and the wrongs thou hast sustained them shalt thou forget Secondarily esteeme much thy owne little and weigh not the much of an other Thirdly the company of the good alwaies couet and the conuersation of the euill dayly flye Fourthly to the great shew thy selfe graue and to the small more conuersant Fiftly to those which are present do alwaies good works and of those that be absent alwaies speake good words Sixtly weigh little the losse of fortune and esteeme much things of honour The seuenth to winne one thing neuer aduenture thou manie nor for many things doubtful do not aduenture any one thing certaine Finally and lastly I pray thee and aduertise thee that thou haue no enemie and that thou keepe but one friend He which among the good will bee counted for good none of these things hee ought to want I know well that thou wilt haue great pleasure to see these my counsels well written but I ensure thee I shal haue greater pleasure to see them in thy decdes well obserued For by writing to giue good counsell it is easie but by workes to follow the same is maruellous hard My faithfull friendship to thee plighted and thy great ability considered caused mee alwayes for thee in Rome to procure honourable offices and by my sute thou hast beene Edite and Tribune and master of the horses wherein thou behauedst thy selfe with such wisedome that all the Senate therefore yeelded mee most hearty thanks I procuring them for thee and thou for thy selfe winning such perpetuall renowme One thing of thee I vnderstand which with good will I would not haue knowne and much lesse that any such thing by thee should haue bin committed that is to say
A poore man esteemeth as much a cloake as the rich man doeth his delicious life Therefore it is a good consequent that if the Rich man take the gowne from the poore the poore man ought to take the life frō the rich Phocion amongst the Greekes was greatly renowmed and this not so much for that hee was sage as for that hee did despise all worldly riches vnto whome when Alexander the great king of Macedonte had sent him an hundred markes of siluer he said vnto those that brought it Why doth Alexander sende this Money vnto me rather then to other Phylosophers of Greece They aunswered him Hee doth send it vnto thee for that thou art the least couetous and most vertuous Then aunswered this Phylosopher Tell Alexander that though he knoweth not what belongeth vnto a Prince yet I knowe well what pertayneth to a Phylosopher For the estate and office of Phylosophers is to despise the treasurs of Princes and the office of Princes is to aske counsell of Phylosophers And further Phocion said You shall say also to Alexander That in that hee hath sent mee hee hath not shewed himselfe a pittyfull Friend but a cruell Enemie for esteeming mee an honest man such as hee thought I was he should haue holpen me to haue been such These wordes were worthie of a wise man It is great pittie to see valiaunt and Noble men to be defamed of couetousnes and onely for to get a fewe goods hee abaseth himselfe to vile offices which appertaine rather to meane persons then to noble men and valiaunt knights Whereof insueth that they liue infamed and all their friēds slandered Declaring further I say that it seemeth great lightnes that a knight should leaue the honorable estate of chiualrie to exercise the handycrafte of Husbandrie and that the Horses should bee chaunged into Oxen the speares to mattockes and the weapons into ploughes Finally they doe desire to toyle in the fields and refuse to fight in the Frontiers Oh how much some Knightes of our time haue degenerated from that their fathers haue bin in times past for their predecessors did aduance themselues of the Infidells which in the the fields they slew and their children brag of their Corne and Sheepe they haue in their grounds Our auncient knights were not wont to sigh but when they saw themselues in great distresse and their successors weepe nowe for that it rayned not in the moneth of May. Their Fathers did striue which of them could furnish most men haue moste weapons and keepe most horses but their children now a dayes contend who hath the finest witte who can heape vp greatest treasours and who can keepe most sheepe The Auncients striued who should keepe most men but these worldlings at this day striue who can haue greatest reuenues Wherefore I say since the one doeth desire as much to haue great Rents as the others did delight to haue many weapons It is as thogh Fathers should take the Sword by the pomell and the children by the scabberd All the good arts are peruerted and the arte of Chiualrie aboue all others is despised And not without cause I called it an art for the ancient philosophers cōsumed a great time to write the lawes that the knights ought to keepe And as now the order of the the Carthaginiās seemeth to bee most streight so in times past the order of Knighthood was the streightest To whom I sweare that if they obserued the order of chiualry as good gentle Knights there remained no time vacant for them in life to bee vitious nor wee should accuse them at theyr death as euil christians The true and not fayned Knight ought not to bee prowde malicious furious a glutton coward prodigall niggard a lyer a blasphemer nor negligent Finally I say that all those ought not to bee iudged as Knights which haue golden spurs vnlesse he hath therewith an honest life O if it pleased the King of Heauen that Princes would now a daies examine as straightly those which haue cure of soules as the Romanes did those which had but charge of armies In old time they neuer dubbed any man Knight vnlesse hee were of noble bloud proper of person moderate in speech exercised in the war couragious of heart happy in armes and honest in life Finally he ought of all to bee beloued for his vertue and of none hated for his vice The Knights in whom these vertues shined bright in Rome had diuers liberties that is to say that they onely might weare rings ride on horsebacke through the streetes they might haue a shield shut the gates at dinner they might drinke in cupps of siluer speake to the Senate and make defyances they might demand the ensigne weare weapons take the charge of Embassage and ward at the gates of Rome The Author hereof is Blondus in the booke De Italia illustrata If Plinie deceyue vs not in an Epistle Plutarch in his Politikes Seneca in a Tragedy and Cicero in his Paradoxes There was nothing wherein the Ancients were more circumspect then in electing of their knights now it is not so but that one hauing money to buy a Lordship immediately he is made Knight it is not to fight against the enemies in the field but more freely to commit vices and oppresse the poore in the towns To the end he may be a good Christian hee ought to thinke vpon Iesus crucified to be a good knight he ought alwayes to behold the armes of his shield the which his Grandfather or great Grandfather wanne For they they shall see that they wanne them not beeing in their houses but in shedding of the bloud of their enemies in the Frontiers CHAP. XXX Of a Letter which the Emperour wrote to Mercurius his neighbour a Marchant of Samia wherein men may learne the daungers of those which traffique by sea and also see the couetousnesse of them that trauell by land MArcus Aurelius Emperor of Rome born in mount Celio wisheth to thee Mercurius his speciall friend health and consolation in the Gods the onely Comforters It seemeth well that we are friends sithens wee doe the works of charity For I vnderstanding here thy mishap immediatly sent a messenger to comfort thee and in hearing my disease thou sendest a friend of thine to visite me Wherefore men may perceiue if thou haddest me in mind I did not forget thee I vnderstand that the messenger that went and the other that came met in Capua the one carried my desire for thee and the other brought thy letter for me And if as diligently thou haddest read mine as I attentiuly haue heard thine thou shouldest thereby plainely know that my heart was as full of sorrow as thy spirite was full of paine I was very glad great thanks I yeeld thee that thou sendest to comfort me in my feuer tertian thy visitation came at the same houre that it left mee But if the Goddes did leaue this fact in my hands
vpon the needle and thrust it into her breast whereby the mother dyed Gneus Ruffirius which was a very wise man and also my Kinsman one day combing his white hayres strake a tooth of the combe into his heade wherewith hee gaue himselfe a mortall wound so that in short space after his life had end but not his doctrine nor memory How thinkest thou Domitius By the immortal Gods I do sweare vnto thee that as I haue declared to thee this small number so I could recite thee other infinite What mishappe is this after so many fortunes what reproch after such glory What perill after such surety what euill lucke after such good successe what darke night after so cleare a day what euill entertainement after so great labour what sentence so cruell after so long processe O what inconuenience of death after so good beginning of life Being in their steade I cannot tell what I would but I had rather chuse vnfortunate life and honorable death then an infamous death and honourable life That man which will bee counted for a good man and not noted for a brute beast ought greatly to trauell to liue well and much more to dye better for the euill death maketh men doubt that the life hath not bin good and the good death is the excuse of an euill life At the beginning of my Letter I wrote vnto thee how that the gowte troubleth mee euill in my hand I say it were to much to write any longer and though the Letter bee not of my owne hand these two dayes the loue that I beare thee and the griefe that holdeth me haue striued together My will desireth to write and my fingers cannot hold the penne The remedy hereof is that since I haue no power to doe what I would as thine thou oughtest to accept what I can as mine I say no more herein but as they tell mee thou buildest now a house in Rhodes wherefore I do send thee a thousand sexterces to accomplish the same My wife Faustine saluteth thee who for thy paine is sore grieued They tell vs thou hast beene hurt wherefore she sendeth thee a weight of the Balme of Palestine Heale thy face therewith to the end the scarres of that wound doe not appeare If thou findest greene Almonds new nuts Faustine desireth thee that thou wilt send her some By another man shee sendeth a gowne for thee and a kirtle for thy wife I conclude and doe beseech the immortall Gods to giue thee all that I desire for thee and that they giue me all that thou wishest me Though by the hands of others I write vnto thee yet with my heart I loue thee CHAP. XXXV That Princes and Noble men ought to bee aduocates for widdowes Fathers of Orpnans and helpers of those which are comfortlesse MAcrobius in the 3. booke of the Saturnals sayeth That in the noble Citie of Athens there was a temple called Misericordia which the Athenians kept so well watched and locked that without leaue licence of the Senate no man might enter in There were the Images of pittifull Princes onely and none entered in there to pray but pittifull men The Athenians abhorred always seuere and cruell deeds because they would not be noted cruell And thereof commeth this manner of saying that the greatest iniurie they could say vnto a wan was That hee had neuer entred into the Schoole of the Philosophers to learne nor into the Temple of Misericordia to pray So that in the one they noted him for simple and in the other they acused him for cruell The Historiographers say that the most noble linage that was at that time was of a King of Athens the which was exceeding rich and liberall in giuing and aboue all very pittifull in pardoning Of whom it is written that after the great Treasures which he had offred in the temples and the great riches he had distributed to the poore hee tooke vpon him to bring vp all the Orphans in Athens and to feede all the widdowes O how much more did that statute of the sayde pittifull King shine in that Temple who nourished the Orphanes then the Ensignes which are set vp in the Temples of the Captains which had robbed the widows All the auncient Princes I say those that haue beene noble and valiant that haue not had the name of Tyrants though in some thinges they were noted yet they alwayes haue beene praysed esteemed and commended to be mercifull and gentle so that they recompenced the fiercenesse and cruelty which they shew to their enemies with the mercy and clemency which they vsed to the Orphans Plutarch in his Politiques sayeth that the Romanes among themselues ordained that all that which remayned of banquets and feastes which were made at mariages and triumphs should bee giuen to Widdows and orphanes And this custome was brought to so good an order that if any rich man would vse his profite of that which remayned the Orphanes might iustly haue an action of felony against him as a thing robbed from them Aristides the Philosopher in an Oration hee made of the excellency of Rome sayth That the Princes of Persia had this custome neuer to dine nor suppe but first the Trumpets should blow at their gates the which were more loude then harmonius And it was to this end that all the Widdowes and Orphanes shoulde come thither for it was a Law amongst them that all that which was left at the royall tables should bee for the poore and indigent persons Phalaris the Tirant writing to a friend of his sayde these wordes I haue receyued thy briefe Letter with the rebuke likewise which thou gauest me therein more bitter then tedious And admit that for the time it grieued mee yet after I came to my selfe I re ceyued thereby great comfort For in the ende one louing rebuke of his friēds is more worth then a fayned flattery of his enemie Amongst the things whereof thou accusest mee thou sayest that they take mee for agreat tyraunt because I disobey the Gods spoyle the Temples kyll the Priestes pursue the innocents robbe the people and the worst of all that I doe not suffer mee to be entreated nor permit that any man be conuersaunt with mee To that they say I disobey the Gods in very deede they say true For if I did all that the Gods would I should doe I should doe little of that men doe aske mee For as much as they say I robbe the Temples there vnto also I graunt For the immortall Gods doe demaund rather of vs pure hearts then that wee should buylde their Temples For that they say I kill the priests I confesse also that it is true For they are so dissolute that I thinke I doe more seruices to the Gods to put them to death then they doe in doing their Sacrifices while they liue For that they say I robbe the Temples I also confesse it For I defending it as I doe
from Enemyes it is but meete and reasonable they finde me and my Seruāts For that they say I suffer me not to be entreated it is true For daily and hourely they aske mee so many vniust and vnreasonable things that for them and for mee it is better to denye them then for to graunt them For that they say that I am not conuersant with any I confesse it is true for euer when they come into my Pallace it is not so much to doe mee seruice as to aske some particular thing for their profite For that they say I am not pittifull among the miserable and will not heare the Widdowes and Orphanes in no wise to that I will agree For I sweare vnto thee by the immortall Gods that my gates were neuer shut to Widdowes and Orphanes Pulto in the life of the Emperour Claudius sayth that once a poore widdow came before Claudius the Emperour with weeping eyes to desire him of iustice The good Prince being moued with compassion did not onely weepe as shee but with his owne hands dried her teares And as there was about the Emperour many Noble Romaines one amongst them saide thus vnto him The authority grauitie of Romaine Princes to heare their Subiects in iustice sufficeth onely though they drye not the teares of theyr faces This Emperour Claudius aunswered Good Princes ought not to bee contented to doe no more then iust ludges but in doing iustice a man must know that they are pittiful For oftentimes those which come before Princes doe returne more contented with the loue they shewe them then with the Iustice they minister vnto them And further he saide For as much as you say That it is of small authority also of lesse grauitie that a Prince doe weepe with a widdowe and with his hands wipe her eyes I aunswere thee that I desire rather to bee partaker of the griefes with my Subiectes then to giue them occasion to haue their eyes full of teares Certainely these wordes are worthie to bee noted and no lesse followed Admit that clemencie in all things deserueth to bee praised yet much more ought it to be cōmended when it is executed on women And if generally in all much more in those which are voyde of health and comfort For Women are quickly troubled and with greater difficultie comforted Plutarche and Quintus Curtius say that good entertainment which Alexander the great shewed vnto the wise and children of king Darius after hee was vtterly vanquished exalted his clemencie in such sort that they gaue rather more glorie to Alexander for the pittie and honesty which hee vsed with the children then for the victorie he had of the Father And when the vnhappie King Darius knewe the clemencie and pittie which the good King Alexander vsed towards his wife and his children hee sent vnto him his Embassadors to the ende that on his behalfe they should thanke him for that that is past and should desire him that hee would so continue in time to come Saying that it might chaunce that the Gods and Fortune would mittigate theyr wrath against him Alexander aunswered vnto the Embassadours these wordes Yee shall say in my behalfe to your king Darius that hee giue mee no thankes for the good and pittifull worke which I haue shewed or done to his captiue Women since hee is certaine I did it not for that hee was my friend and that I would not cease to doe it for that he is mine enemie But I haue done it for that a gentle Prince is bound to doe in this case For I ought to employe my clemencie vnto Women which can doe nought but weepe and my puissant power Princes shall feele which can doe nought else but wage battell c. Truely those wordes were worthie of such a Prince Manie haue enuie at the surname of Alexander which is great And he is called Alexander the great because if his heart was great in the enterprises hee tooke vppon him his courage was much more greater in Citties and Realmes which he gaue Manie haue enuie at the renowme which they giue Pompeyus because they call him great for this excellent Romaine made himselfe conquerour of xxii Realmes and in times past hath bin accompanyed with xxv Kings Manie haue enuie at the renowme of Scipto the Africane because hee ouercame and conquered the great and renowmed cittie of Carthage the which citty in riches was greater then Rome in Armes and power it surmounted all Europe Many haue enuie at Scipio the Asian who was called Asian because he subdued the prowd Asia the which vntill his time was not but as a church-yarde of Romaines Many haue great enuie at the immortall name of Charles the great because being as he was a little king he did not only vanquish and triumph ouer many Kings and Realms but also forsooke the royall Sea of his owne Realme I doe not maruell that the prowde Princes haue enuie against the vertuous and valiant Princes but if I were as they I would haue more Enuie at the renowm of Anthoninus the Emperour then of the name and renowme of all the Princes in the worlde If other Princes haue attained such prowd names it hath bin for that they robbed many Countreys spoyled many Temples cōmitted much tiranny dissembled with many Tyrants pesecuted diuers Innocents and because they haue takē from diuers good men not onely their goods but also theyr liues For the world hath such an euill propertie that to exalte the name of one onely he putteth downe 500. Neyther in such enterprises nor yet with such Titles wanne the Emperour Anthoninus Pius his good name and renowme But if they call him Authoninus the pittifull it is because hee knewe not but to bee the Father of Orphanes and was not praysed but because hee was the onely Aduocate of Widdowes Of this most excellent Prince is read that he himselfe did heare and iudge the complaints and proces in Rome of the Orphanes And for the poore and Widdowes the gates of his Pallace were alwayes open So that the porters which hee kept within his Pallace were not for to let the Entrie of the poore but for to let and keepe backe the rich The Hystoriographers oftentimes say that this good Prince sayde That the good and vertuous Princes ought alwayes to haue theyr Hearts open for the poore and to remedie the Widdowes and Father-lesse and neuer to shutte their Gates against them The God Apollo sayeth that the Prince which will not speedily iudge the causes of the poore the Gods will neuer permit that hee be well obeyed of the rich O high and worthie wordes that it pleased not the God Apollo but our Liuing GOD that they were written in the hearts of Noble Princes For nothing can be more vniust or dishonest then that in the pallaces of Princes and great Lordes the rich and the fooles should be dispatched and the Widdowes and Orphanes friendes should haue no audience Oh happie
thinke thou wilt do so For by the faith of a good man I sweare vnto thee that my heart neither suspected iâ— nor yet the aucthority of so graue a Romane doth demand it for to thee onely the fault should remaine and to me the wonder Heartily I commend vnto thee thy honesty which to thy selfe thou oughtest and the care which behooueth so worthy and notable a widow For if thou art tormented with the absence of the dead thou oughtest to comfort thee with the reputation of the liuing At this present I will say no more to thee but that thy renowne among the present be such and that they speake of thee so in absence that to the euill thou giue the bridell to be silent and to the good spurres to come and sefue thee For the widow of euill renowne ought to be buried quicke Other things to write to thee I haue none Secret matters are dangerous to trust considering that thy heart is not presently disposed to heare newes It is reason thou know that I with thy parents and friends haue spoken to the Senate which haue giuen the office that thy husband had in Constantinople to thy sonne And truly thou oughtest no lesse to reioyce of that which they haue said of thee then for that they haue giuen him For they say though thy husband had neuer beene Citizen of Rome yet they ought to haue giuen more than this onely for thy honest behauiour My wife Faustine saluteth thee and I will say I neuer saw her weepe for any thing in the world so much as shee hath wept for thy mishap For shee felt thy losse which was very great and my sorrow which was not little I send thee foure thousand sexterces in money supposing that thou hast wherewith to occupy them as well for thy necessaries as to discharge thy debts For the complaints demaunds and processes which they minister to the Romane Matrons are greater then are the goods that their husbands doe leaue them The gods which haue giuen rest to thy husband O Claudine giue also comfort to thee his wife Lauinia Marcus of mount Celio with his owne hand CHAP. XXXIX That Princes and Noble men ought to despise the world for that there is nothing in the world but plaine deceit PLato Aristotle Pythagoras Empedocles Democrates Seleucus Epicurus Diogenes Thales and Methrodorus had among them so great contention to describe the world his beginning and propertie that in maintaining euery one his opinion they made greater wars with their pens then their enemies haue done with their lances Pythagoras sayde that that which wee call the World is one thing and that which wee call the vniuersall is an other the Philosopher Thales said that there was no more but one World and to the contrarie Methrodorus the Astronomer affirmed there were infinit worlds Diogenes sayd that the world was euerlasting Seleucus sayd that it was not true but that it had an ende Aristotle seemed to say that the world was eternall But Plato sayde clearely that the world hath had beginning and shall also haue ending Epicurus sayd that it was round as a ball Empedocles saide that it was not as a bowle but as an egge Chilo the Philosopher in the high Mount Olimpus disputed that the world was as men are that is to say that hee had an intellectable and sensible soule Socrates in his Schoole sayeth and in his doctrine wrote that after 37 thousand yeares all things should returne as they had beene before That is to say that he himselfe should bee borne anew and should be nourished and should reade in Athens And Dennis the Tytant should returne to play the Tyrant in Syracuse Iulius Caesar to rule Rome Hannibal to conquer Italy and Scipio to make warre against Carthage Alexander to fight against King Darius and so foorth in all others past In such and other vaine questions and speculstions the auncient Philosophers consumed many yeares They in writing many bookes haue troubled their spirites consumed long time trauelled many Countryes and suffered innumerable dangers and in the end they haue set forth few truthes and many lyes For the least part of that they knew not was much greater then all that which they euer knew When I tooke my penne in my hand to write the vanity of the world my intention was not to reproue this material world the which of the four Elements is compounded that is to say of the earth that is cold and drie of the water that is moist and cold of the ayre that is hote and moist of fire that is drie and hote so that taking the world in this sort there is no reason why we should complaine and lament of it since that without him we cannot liue corporally When the Painter of the world came into the world it is not to be beleeued that he reproued the water which bare him when hee went vpon it nor the ayre that ceased to blow in the sea nor the earth that trembled at his death nor the light which ceased to light nor the stones which brake in sunder nor the fish which suffered themselues to bee taken not the trees which suffered themselues to be drie nor the monuments that suffered themselues to bee opened For the creature acknowledged in his Creator omnipotency and the Creator founded in the creature due obedience Oftentimes and of many persons wee heare say O woefull world O miserable world O subtill world O world vnstable and vnconstant And therefore it is reason wee know what the world is whereof the world is from whence this world is whereof this world is made and who is lord of this world since in it all things are vnstable all things are miserable all things deceitfull all things are malicious which cannot be vnderstood of this materiall worlde For in the fire in the aire in the earth and in the water in the light in the Planets in the stones and in the Trees there are no sorrowes there are no miseryes there are no deceytes nor yet any malice The world wherein wee are borne where we liue and where we die differeth much from the world whereof we doe complaine for the world against whom wee fight suffereth vs not to be in quyet one howre in the day To declare therefore my intention this wicked World is no other thing but the euill life of the Worldlings the Earth is the desire the fire the couetise the water the inconstancie the ayre the folly the stones are the pride the flowers of the Trees the thoughts the deepe Sea the heart Finally I say that the Sunne of this world is the prosperity and the moon is the continuall change The Prince of this so euill a world is the diuell of whom IESVS CHRIST laid The prince of this world shall now be cast out and this the Redeemer of the World sayeth For he called the worldlings and their worldly liues the world For since they be seruants of sinne of
and so curious to buye that that which hee taketh shall be of great measure and that which hee selleth vs shal want much weight CHAP. XLI ¶ Of a Letter which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius wrote vnto his friend Torquatus to comfort him in his banishment which is notable for all men to learne the vanities of this World MArcus Emperour of Rome companion in the Empire with his Brother Annius Verus to thee Torquatus of the citie of Gaietta wisheth all health to thy person and strength against thy euill Fortunes I beeing in the Temple of the Vestall virgines about three moneth since I receyued a Letter of thine the which was in such sorte that neyther mine eyes for that time could make an ende to read it or since I haue had the heart to answer it For in the incoÌ„nueniences of our friends if we haue no facultie nor might for to remedie it at the least we are bound to bewayle it Thy sorrow maketh me so heauie thy paine doeth trouble mee so much I am so carefull of thy anguish so tormented with thy griefe that if the Gods had giuen power to wofull men to imparte theyr sorrowes as they haue giuen to rich men to imparte their goods by the faith I owe to God I sweare that as I am the greatest of thy Friendes I would bee hee which should take the most parte of thy griefes I know right well and as well as he that hath proued it that asmuch difference as there is betweene the baâ—ke and the tree the marow and the bone the corne and the straw the gold and the drosse the trueth and the dreams so much is there to heare the Trauells of another and to taste his own Notwithstanding comfort thy selfe my friend Torquatus for where the friends bee true the goods and the euills are common betwixt them Oftentimes with my selfe I haue maruelled to what ende or intention the immortall Gods haue giuen Trauell and torments to men since it is in their powers to make vs liue without them I see no other thing why the mishaps ought paciently to bee suffered but because in those wee know who are our faithfull friendes In battell the valiant man is knowne in tempestuous weather the Pylot is known by the Touch-stone the gold is tryed and in aduersitie the true Friende is knowne For my friende doth not enough to make me merrie vnles also he doth take part of my sorrow I haue heard say here and now by thy letter I haue seene how they haue banished thee from Rome and confiscated thy goods and that for pure sorow thou art sicke in thy bed wherof I maruel not that thou art sicke but to be as thou art aliue For saying to thee the Trueth where the heart is sore wounded in shorte space it hath accustomed to yeelde vp vnto the bodie I see well that thou complaynest and thou hast reason to complain to see thy selfe banished from Rome and thy goods confiscate to see thy selfe out of thy countrey without any parentage yet therfore thy sorrowes ought not to be so extreame that thou shouldst put thy life in hazzard For hee alone ought to haue licence and also is bounde to hate life which doeth not remember that hee hath serued the Gods nor hath done any profite to men If the affayres of the Empire did not occupie me and the Emperiall Maiestie did not withdraw me I would immediately haue come to comforte thy person where thou shouldest haue seen by experience with what griefe I feele thy troubles And therefore if thou takest mee for thy friende thou oughtest to belieue of mee that which in this case I would of thee which is that as thou hast been the most entier Friend which I had in Rome So is this the thing that most I haue felt in this life Tell me my friend Torquatus what is it thou sufferest there that I do not lament here It may be that sometime thou laughest but I alwayes weepe sometimes thou comfortest thy selfe but I am alwayes sad It may be that thou lightnest thy paine but I am in sighing It may bee that sometimes thou castest from thee sorrow but for mee I cannot receyue consolation It may bee that thou hopest remedie of long life but for mee I finde no remedie more healthfull then present death Finally I say that here I feele all that thou feelest there and furthermore I suffer all that which as a friend I ought to suffer here so that both our paynes are made one moste cruell sorrowe wherewith my woefull life is tormented I would greatly desire to come and see thee and to help to disburden thee of this charge And since it is vnpossible that thou shalt finde some comfortable wordes For thou knowest that if the true Friendes cannot doe that which they ought yet they doe accomplish it in doing that they can If my memory deceyue me not it is well two and thirty yeares since we two haue known together in Rome during the which Fortune hath made here betweene vs diuers alterations in the which time I neuer saw thee one day contented For if thou were sad nothing did make thee merrie but wert as a man without taste and if thou were ioyfull thou esteemedst it little as a man being troubled Therefore if the trueth be so as indeed it is that in trauells thou were loden with sorrows and in prosperities thou wert euill content so that of nothing in the world thou takest any taste why is it my friend Torquatus that now again thou art in despaire as if thou camest new into this world Thou didst reioyce thy selfe xxxii yeares with the Triumphes and prosperitie of Rome and thou complainest onely of three moneths that Fortune hath been contrary vnto thee O Torquatus Torquatus dost thou knowe that the wise men in whome wisedome raigneth haue more feare of two vnhappie dayes in this life then of two hundreth of prosperous Fortune Oh how many haue I seene go out of their prosperities with the charges of another man and theyr owne proper vices so that the vaine-glory and the fayling prosperities endured fewe dayes but the griefe of that they haue lost and the enmities which they haue recouered endure many yeares The contrary of all this commeth to vnfortunate men which escape out of their tribulations spoyled of vices enuironed with vertues persecutors of euills zealous of good friends of all and enemyes of none contented with theirs and not desiring others Finally they are escaped wisely from the snare and haue gathered the Rose not hurting themselues with the prickes What wilt thou that I say more vnto thee but that the most Fortunate ate vanquished in peace and the vnfortunate are conquerors in warre One of the Sentences which moste haue contented me of those which the Auncients haue spoken is this of the diuine Plato That those which are in prosperity haue no lesse need of good counsell then the vnhappy haue of remedie For
their Lordes boorde but they must needs haue a cast at my Lord himselfe to cheare him withall which intollerable abuse ought not to be suffred but with most sharpe correction punished But what shall wee say that for the most part the Lords are so vaine and the Iesters so presumptuous and arrogant that the Lords haue more care to content them then they haue to please the Lords In the house of a Lord a foole at the end of the yeare will aske more then any other of those which are most auncient so that the follies of the one are more acceptable then the seruices of all It is shame to speake it and no lesse for to write it that the children of vanity are so vaine that they bribe a foole or a Iester no lesse in these dayes to the entent he may bee a meane for them vnto the Prince then they did in times past desire Cicero to make an Oration for them before the Senate It is for want of vnderstanding and through the vilety of the person oppression of the heart and disprayse of renowne to be desirous by the means of fooles to attaine to any thing For he can haue no great wisdom which putteth his hope in the fauour of a foole What remaineth for me to say when I haue sayde that which I will say And it is that if a Iester or foole say openly to some Lord God saue your life my good Lord. Oh hee is a Noble man indeed he will not sticke to giue him a gowne of silke and entring into a Church hee would not giue a poore man a halfe penny O what negligence is there of Princes O what vanity of Lordes since they forsake the poore and wise to enrich the Iesters and fooles they haue enough for the world and not for Iesus Christ they giue to those that aske for his Louers sake and not to those which aske for the health of the soule Hee ought not to doe so for the Knight which is a Christian and not a worldling ought rather to will that the poore doe pray for him at the houre of death then that the fooles and Iesters should prayse him in his life What doth it profite the soule or the body that the Iesters do praise thee for a cote thou hast giuen them and that the poore accuse thee for the bread thou hast denied them Peraduenture it will profite thee as much that a foole or a flatterer goe before a Prince apparrelled with a new liuerie of thine as the poore man shall do thee damage before God to whom thou hast denyed a poore ragged shirt All Gentlemen and Noble Parsonages in the name of our Sauiour Iesus Christ I admonish exhort and humbly require that they consider well what they spend and to whom they giue for the good Princes ought to haue more respect of the necessities of the poore then of the follyes of counterfeytes Giue as yee will diuide as yee list for at the houre of death as much as yee haue laughed with the fooles for that yee haue giuen them so much shall yee weepe with the poore for that you haue denyed them At the houre of death it shall bee grieuous paines to him that dyeth to see the flesh of the Orphanes all naked and to he holde counterfaite fooles loden with their garments Of one thing I am amazed that indifferently euery man may become a foole and no man let him and the worst of all is if once a foole become couetous all the world afterwards cannot make him to bee in his right sences Truely such one which hath no reason to bee a foole at the least he hath good occasion since hee getteth more to eat playing then the others doe by working O what negligence of the Princes and what smal respect of the Gouernours of the Common wealth is this that a yong man whole stoute strong and valiant should be suffered to goe from house to house from table to table and onely for babling vaine wordes and telling shamefull lyes hee should bee counted a man of an excellent tongue Another folly there is in this case that their words are not so foolish as their deedes are wicked though they haue a good or euill grace yet in the end they be counted in the Common wealth as loyterers and fooles I know not whether in this case is greater eyther their folly or our lightnesse for they vse vs as fooles in telling vs lyes and wee pay them good money The Romanes did not permit in their Common wealthes olde stale Iesters nor wee Christians ought to retaine into our houses idle loiterers Yee ought to know that more offendeth hee which sinneth with a deformed woman then hee which sinneth with a beautifull Lady And he which is drunke with sowre Ale offendeth more then hee which is drunke with sweet wine And so in like manner greater offence commit they which lose their times with fooles that haue no grace then with Iesters which haue good wits for it may be permitted sometime that the Sage man for the recreation of his Spirits doe frequent the company of some pleasant man CHAP. XLIV Of a Letter which the Emperour wrote to Lambertus his friend Gouernour of Hellespont certifying him that he had banished from Rome all fooles and loytering Players and is diuided into three Chapters a notable Letter for those that keepe counterfeyte fooles in their houses MArcus Aurelius onely Emperour of Rome Lord of Asia confederate with Europe friends of Affricke and enemy of the wars wisheth health to thee Lambert Gouernor of the Isle of Helespont With the furres which thou didst send mee I haue caused my gowne to be furred and am girded with the girdle which thou didst present me and am greatly contented with thy hounds For all is so good that the body doth reioyce to possesse it and the eyes to beholde it and also the heart to render thanks for it Where I did aske a few things of thee in iest thou hast sent me many in earnest wherein not as a seruant but as a friend thou hast shewed thy selfe For the office of noble and worthy hearts is to offer to their friends not onely that which they demaund but that also which they doe thinke they will demaund Truly thou hast better measured thy seruices by thy noblenesse then I thee demaund by my couetousnesse For if thou doest remember I did demaund of thee onely 12. skinnes and thou hast sent mee 12. dozen I tolde thee that I desired 6. hounds for to hunt thou hast sent mee 12. of the best that can bee found in the Isle In such sort that I had honour and thou hast wonne renowne For in the little I haue demaunded thou shalt see my little couetousnesse and in the much thou hast sent mee they shall perceiue thy great liberalitie I esteeme highly that which thou hast sent mee and I beseech the Gods send thee good lucke For thou knowest wee may
and trauells considered wherein wee liue and the safetie wherein wee dye I say that it is more needefull to haue vertue and strength to liue then courage to dye The Authour hereof is Plutarch in his Apothegmes Wee cannot say but that Cato the Censor spake as a wise man since daylie we see shamefast and vertuous persons suffer hunger cold thyrst trauell pouerty inconuenience sorrows enmities and mishaps of the which things wee were better to see the ende in one day then to suffer them euery houre For it is lesse euill to suffer an honest death then to endure a miserable life Oh how small consideration haue men to thinke that they ought to dye but once Since the truth is that the day when wee are born and come inthis worlde is the beginning of our death and the last day is when we do cease to liue If death bee no other but an ending of life then reason perswadeth vs to thinke that our infancie dyeth our childhood dyeth our manhoode dyeth and our Age shall dye wherof we may consequently cōclude that we dye euery yeare euery day euery houre and euery moment So that thinking to leade a sure life we taste a new death I know not why men feare so much to dye since that from the time of their birth they seeke none other thing but death For time neuer wanteth for any man to dye neyther I knew any man that euer fayled of this way Seneca in an Epistle declareth that as a Romaine Woman lamented the death of a Childe of hers a Phylosopher saide vnto her Woman why bewaylest thou thy childe She aunswered I weepe because hee hath liued xxv yeares and I would he should haue liued till fiftie For amongst vs mothers wee loue our Children so hartily that we neuer cease to behold them nor yet ende to bewaile them Then the Phylosopher said Tell me I pray thee woman Why doest thou not complame of the Gods because they created not thy Sonne manie yeares before he was borne as well as thou complavnest that they haue not let him liue fiftie yeares Thou weepest that hee is deade so soone and thou dost not lament that he is borne so late I tell thee true Woman that as thou doest not lament for the one no more thou oughrest to bee sorrie for the other For without the determination of the Gods we cannot shorten death and much lesse lengthen our life So Plinie saide in an Epistle that the chiefest law which the Gods haue giuen vnto humane nature was that none shold haue perpactual life For with dis-ordinate desire to liue long wee should reioyce to goe out of this paine Two Phylosophers disputing before the great Emperor Theodose the one saide that it was good to procure death and the other likewise sayde it was a necessary thing to hate life The good Theodose taking him by the hand sayd All wee mortalles are so extreame in hating and louing that vnder the colour to loue and hate life wee leade an euill life For we suffer so many trauells for to preserue it that sometimes it were much better to loose it And further hee sayde Diuers vaine men are come into so great follyes that for feare of Death they procure to hasten death And hauiwg consideration to this me seemeth that wee ought not greatly to loue life nor with desperation to seeke Death For the strong and valiant men ought not to hate Life so long as it lasteth nor to bee displeased with death when hee commeth All commended that which the Emperour Theodose spake as Paulus Dyacon saith in his life Let euery man speake what he will and let the Phylosophers counsell what they lift in my poore iudgment hee alone shall receyue death without paine who long before is prepared to receyue the same For sudden death is not onely bitter vnto him which tasteth it but also it seareth him that hateth it Lactantius saide that in such sorte man ought to liue as if from hence an houre after he should dye For those men which will haue Death before their eyes it is vnpossible that they should giue place to vaine thoughts In my opinion and also by the aduise of Apuleius It is as much follie to flie from that which we cannot auoyd as to desire that wee can not attaine And this is only spoken for those that would flye the voyage of death which is necessarie and desire to come againe which is vnpossible Those that trauell by long wayes if they want any thing they borrow it of their companie If they haue forgotten ought they returne to seeke it at their lodging or else they write vnto their friends a letter But I am sorrie that if wee once dye they will not let vs returne again we cannot speake and they will not agree we shall write but such as they shall finde vs so shall wee bee iudged And that which is most fearfull of all the execution and sentence is giuen in one day Let Noble Princes and great Lords beleeue mee in this Let them not leaue that vndone til after their death which they may doe during their life And let them not trust in that they commaund but in that whiles they liue they doe Let them not trust in the workes of an other but in theyr owne good deedes For in the end one sigh shall be more worth then all the friendes of the world I counsell pray and exhort all wise and vertuous men and also my selfe with them that in such a sort wee liue that at the houre of death wee may say we liue For wee cannot say that wee liue when we liue not well For all that time which without profite wee shall liue shall be counted vnto vs for nothing CHAP. XLIX ¶ Of the death of Marcus Aurelius the Emperour and how there are fewe Friendes which dare say the truth to sicke men THe good Emperor Marcus Aurelius now beeing aged not onely for the yeares he had but also for the great trauells hee had in the warres endured It chaunced that in the xviii yeare of his Empire and lxxij yeares from the day of his birth and of the foundation of Rome fiue hundreth xliii beeing in the warre of Pannonie which at this time is called Hungaria besieging a famous cittie called Vendeliona suddenly a disease of the palsey tooke him which was such that hee lost his life and Rome her Prince the best of life that euer was borne therein Among the Heathen princes some had more force then he others possessed more riches then hee others were as aduenturous as hee and some haue knowne as much as hee but none hath bin of so excellent and vertuous a life nor so modest as hee For his life being examined to the vttermost ther are many princely vertues to follow and fewe vices to reproue The occasion of his death was that that in going one Night about his Campe suddenly the disease of the palsey tooke him in
sufficient to protect and defende mee in all my causes And shortly after these words passed betweene tham Marke Anthonie shewed the friendship hee bare to the one and the enmitie hee had to the other For he caused Tullie to be put to death and raysed Salust to great honour A Friend may well imparte to the other all his owne as bread wine money time conuersation and such like but hee cannot notwithstanding giue him part of his heart for that suffereth it not to be parted nor deuided because it cā be giuē but to one alone This graunted to bee true as needs it must doubtles that the heart cannot bee deuided but onely giuen to one then is it of necessitie that hee that will seeke to haue many Friends must needs repaire to the shambles to prouide him of many hearts Many vaunt themselues and thinke it a glory to haue numbers of friends but let such well consider to what vse that legendarie of Friendes doe serue them they shall then easily finde they stand them in no oeher steede but to eate to drinke to walke to babble and to murmure togethers and not one to helpe the other with their goods fauour and credite at their neede nor friendly to reprooue them of theyr faults and vices which doubtles ought not to bee so For where true and perfect friendship raigneth neyther I with my friend nor hee with mee should dissemble any vice of faulte Ouide sayth in his booke De Arte amandi that the law of true and vnfained Loue is so streight that no friendship but mine in thy heart should harbour and in mine should lodge none others loue but thine for loue is none other thing But one heart liuining in two bodyes and two bodyes obeying in one heart In this World there is no treasure comparable to a true and sure Friend sith to a faithfull Friende a man may safely discouer the secrets of his heart bewray vnto him his gryping griefes trusting him with his honour committing to his guyde and custodie all his goods hee shall succour him in his miserie counsell him in perill reioyce at his prosperitie and mourne at his aduersitie And in fine I conclude such a friend neuer wearyeth to serue him in his life nor to lament him after his death I graunt that Golde and Siluer is good Kinsefolkes are good and Money is good but true friends exceede them all without comparison For all these things cannot warrant vs from necessitie if sinister Fortune plunge vs into it but rather encrease our torments and extreamitie Also they doe not reioyce vs but rather heape further griefes vpon vs neither doe they succour vs but rather eache houre giue vs cause to complaine and much lesse do they remember and aduise vs of that that is good but still doe deceyue vs not directing vs the right way but still bringing vs out of our way and when they haue led vs awry out of the High-way they bring vs into Desart woods and high and dangerous mountaines whence from we must fall downe headlong A true friend is no partaker of these conditions but rather hee is sorry for the least trouble that happeneth to his friend hee feareth not neither spareth his goods nor the daunger of his person he careth not to take vpon him any painfull iourney quarrels or sutes nor yet to put his life in euery hazard of death And yet that that is most of all to bee esteemed is that like as the heart and bowels euer burne with pure and sincere loue so doth hee wish and desire with gladsome mind to beare the burthen of all his friends mishaps yea more then yet is spoken of Alexander the Great offered great presents to the Philosopher Zenocrates who would not vouchsafe to receyue them much lesse to beholde them And beeing demaunded of Alexander why he would not receyue them hauing poore kinsfolkes and parents to bestow them on hee answered him thus Truely I haue both brothers and sisters O Alexander yet I haue no kinsman but him that is my friend and one onely friend I haue who hath no need of any gifts to bee giuen him For the onely cause why I chose him to be my sole and only friend was for that I euer saw him spise these worldly things Truly the sentence of this good Philosopher Zenocrates is of no small efficacy for him that will aduisedly consider of it sith that not seldome but many times it happeneth that the great troubles the sundry dangers the continuall necessities and miseries wee suffer in this vale of misery haue for the most part procceded from our parents and afterwards by our friends haue beene mediated and redressed Therefore since wee haue thought it good and necessary to chose a friend and that hee bee but one onely each man must bee wise lest in such choise hee be deceyued For oft times it happeneth that those that take little regarde herein grant their friendship to such a one as is too couetous impatient a great babler seditious and presumptuous and of such conditions that sometimes it should be lesse euill for vs to haue him our enemie then to account of him as of our deer friend Him whom wee will chuse for our faithfull friend amongst other manners and conditions hee must chiefly and before all bee indued with these that he be courteous of nature fayre spoken hard and stout to indure pain patient in troubles sober in diet moderate in his words graue and ripe in his counsels and aboue all stedfast in friendshippe and faithfull in secrets And whom wee shall find with these laudable vertues and conditions adorned him may wee safely take and accept for our friend But if wee see any of these parts wanting in him wee ought to shun him as from the plague knowing for certainety that the friendshippe of a fayned and fantasticall friend is much worse and perillous then the enmity of a knowne and open enemy for to the hands of one wee commit our heart and faith and from the deceites and treasons of the other wee defend our selues with our whole force and power Seneca writing to his deere and faithfull friend Lucillus sayeth vnto him I pray thee O Lucillus that thou order and determine thine affayres by the aduice and counsell of thy friend but also I doe remember thee that first thou see well what manner of friend thou hast chosen thee for there is no marchandise in the world this day that men are so soone beguiled in as they are in the choise of friends Therfore the graue sentence of Seneca wisely wayed wee should assent with him in opinion that sith no man buyeth a Horse but hee first causeth him to bee ridden nor bread but first hee seeth and handleth it nor wine but hee tasteth it nor flesh but first he wayeth it nor corne but hee seeth a sample nor house but hee doth first value it nor Instrument but that first hee playeth on it
and iudgeth of his sound It is but reason hee should be so much the more circumspect before hee choose his Friend to examine his life and condition since all the other things wee haue spoken of may bee put in diuers houses and corners but our Friend we lodge and keepe deerely in our proper be wells Those that write of the Emperour Augustus say that he was very strange and scrupulous in accepting Friends but after hee had once receyued them into his friendship hee was very constant and circumspect to keepe them For hee neuer had any friend but first he had some proofe and tryall of him neyther would hee euer after forsake him for any displeasure done to him Therefore it shold alwayes be so that true friends should beare one to an other such loue and affection that the one beeing in prosperitie should not haue occasion to complaine of himselfe in that hee did not relieue his friends necessitie being in aduersitie nor the other being poore and needy should grudge or lament for that his friend being rich and wealthie would not succour him with all that hee might haue done for him For to say the trueth where perfect friendship is there ought no excuse to be made to doe what possible is the one for the other The friendship of young men commeth commonly or for the most part at the least by beeing companions in vice and follie and such of right ought rather to be called vacabonds then once to deserue the name of true friends For that cannot bee called true friendship that is continued to the preiudice or derogation of vertue Seneca writing againe to Lucillus saith these words I would not haue thee thinke nor once mistrust O my Lucillus that in all the Romaine Empire I haue any greater Friende then thuo but with all assure thy selfe that our Friendship is not so straight between vs that I would take vpon mee at any time to doe for thee otherwise then honesty should lead mee For though that loue I beare thee hath made thee Lord of my libertie yet reason also hath left mee vertue free The Authour proceedeth on Applying that wee haue spoken to that wee will now declare I say I will not acknowledge my selfe your seruant for so should I bee compelled to feare you more then loue you much lesse will I vaunt my selfe to bee your Kins-man for so I should importune and displease you and I will not brag that heretofore wee haue beene of familiar acquaintaunce for that I would not make any demonstration I made so little account of you and lesse then I am bound to doe neyther will I boaste my selfe that I am at this present your familiar and welbeloued For indeed I should then shew my selfe to bee too bolde and arrogant but that that I will confesse shall be that I loue you as a Friend and you mee as a Kins-man albeeit this friendship hath succeeded diuersly till now For you being Noble as you are haue bountifully shewed your friendship to mee in large and ample gifts but I poore and of base estate haue onely made you sure of mine in wordes Plutarch in his politikes sayd That it were far better to fell to our friends our workes and good deedes whether they were in prosperitie aduersitie or necessitie then to feede them with vaine Flattering wordes for nothing Yet it is not so generall a rule but that sometimes it happeneth that the loftie and high words on the one side are so profitable and the workes so few and feeble on the other side that one shal be better pleased and delighted with hearing the sweete and curteous wordes of the one then he shall be to be serued with the colde seruice and workes of the other of small profite and value Plutarche also in his booke De animalibus telleth vs that Denis the Tyrant beeing one day at the Table reasoning of diuers and sundrie matters with Chrysippus the Phylosopher it chaunced that as hee was at dinner one brought him a present of certaine Sugar-cakes wherefore Chrysippus ceasing his former discourse fell to perswade Denis to fall to his cakes To whome Denis aunswered on with your matter Chrysippus and leaue not off so For my heart is better contented with thy sweete and sugred wordes then my Tongue is pleased with the delicate taste of these mountain-cakes For as thou knowest these cakes are heauie of digestion and doe greatly annoy the stomack but good workes doe meruellously reioyce and comfort the heart For this cause Alexander the great had the poet Homer in greater veneration beeing dead then all the other that were aliue in his time not for that Homer euer did him seruice or that hee knew him but onely because of his learned Bookes hee wrote and compiled and for the graue sentences he found therein And therefore he bare about him in the day time the booke of the famous deedes of Troy called the Illyades hanged at his neck within his bosome and in the night hee layde it vnder his bolster at his beds-head where hee slept In recompence therefore Syr of the many good turnes I haue receyued at your hands I was also willing to compyle and dedicate this my little Treatise to you the which I present you with all my desires my studyes my watches my sweatte and my troubles holding my selfe fully satisfyed for all the paines I haue taken so that this my simple trauell be gratefull vnto you to whom I offer it and to the publike weale profitable Being well assured if it please you to trust me and credite my wryting you shall manifestly know how freely I spake to you and like a friend and not deceyue you as a flatterer For if the beloued and Fauourites of Princes chaunce to bee cast out of fauour it is because euery man flattereth him and seeketh to please him and no man goeth about to tell him trueth nor that that is for his honour and fittest for him Salust in his booke of the warres of Iugurtha sayth that the high heroycall facts and deedes were of no lesse glorie to the Hystoriographers that wrote them then they were to the captaine that did them For it happeneth many times that the Captaine dying in the battell hee hath wonne liueth afterwardes notwithstanding by the Fame of his noble attempt And this proceedeth not only of the valiant deeds of Arms he was seene doe but also for that wee read of him in worthy Authors which haue written thereof Wee may well say therefore touching this matter that as well may wee take him for a true friend that giueth good counsell as hee which doeth vs great pleasure and seruice For according to the opinion of the good Emperor Marcus Aurelius who who saide to his Secretarie Panutius that a man with one pay may make full satisfaction and recompence of many pleasures and good turns shewed but to requite a good counsell diuers thankes and infinite seruices are requisite If we
Courtier in the ende hath not the meane nor commodiitie to spende as the Countrey-man hath that liueth at home at else in the countrey spendeth such commodities as hee brings into his house but the courtier consumeth in court not his owne alone but also that of others And therefore in Courte or elsewhere let euery wise man bee diligent to bring his affayres to ende but yet let him so moderate and vse his Expences as hee shall not neede nor be driuen to morgage and gage that hee hath For hee that feasteth and rowteth with others purse of that that is lent him cannot choose but in the ende he must breake and deceyue his creditours Therfore all worthiemen that loue their honour and feare reproache ought rather to suffer hunger colde thyrst care paine and sorrow then to be had in the checke-roule of ryotous and prodigall spenders trustlesse of theyr promises and suspected of their wordes There is yet another great trouble in the court of Princes and that is the exceeding dearth of victualls the vnreasonable want of houses and the great price of horses for many times they spend more for strawe and litter for their horse then they doe in other places for hay oats and bread And further if the Courtyer bee a poore gentleman and that he would feast and banquet his friends or companions he shall spend at one dinner or supper so much that he shal be constrained to faste a whole weeke after Therefore if the Courtyer will be well vsed in following of the Courte hee must not onely knowe and speake to also loue and inuite at times the Butchers Vittlers Fruitrers Keepers and Fosters Fishmongers and Poultrers and other purueyers of the same Of whom hee shall alwayes haue asmuch neede of his prouision as he shal haue neede of the iudges to shewe him Iustice when hee shall neede it For meate bread wine wood haye oats and strawe are commonly very deare it Court for fewe of all these things are to bee bought in Court but of others infinit things to be solde to profite and gayne the poore Courtyers that else had no shift to liue And yet is there a little more trouble in Court and that is that continually letters are sent to the Courtier from his Friendes to obtaine of the Prince or his Counsell his dispatch in his priuate affaires or for his seruants or tenants or other his friends And many times these sutes are so ill welcome to the courtyer that hee had rather haue pleasured his friend with a piece of mony then they should haue layde vpon him so weightie a matter And besides this there is yet another trouble that the bringer of this letter must needes lye at the Courtyers house attending his dispatch So that the Courtyer delaying his friends busines augmenteth his griefe and keeping the messenger there increaseth his charge And if perchance his busines be not dispatched and the suite obtained those that wrote to him will not thinke hee left it off for that hee would not do it or take paines therin but for that he wanted fauour and credite or at least were very negligent in following their cause And that that vexeth them throghly yet is that their parents and friends thinke which are in the countrey farre from Court that this Courtyer hath all the Courtyers at his commaundement that he may say and doe what he will there And therefore his Friendes when they haue occasion to employ him in Court and that they write vnto him touching their affayres and that hee hath now taken vpon him the charge and burden of the same seeing himselfe after vnable to discharge that hee hath enterprised and cannot as hee would satisfie his friends expectation then hee falleth to dispaire and wysheth hee had beene dead when hee first tooke vpon him this matter and that hee made them beleeue he could goe through with that they had committed to him beeing vnpossible for him hauing small credite and estimation ' amongst the Nobilitie and Councellours Therefore I would neuer councell him that hath Brethren Friendes or other neere Kinsfolkes in Court to goe seeke them out there albeit they had matters of great weight and importance on hope to be dispatched the sooner by their credit fauour and suite And for this cause for that in Court there is euer more priuate malice and enuie then in other places wherefore they cannot bee reuenged the one of the other but must tarry a time and when they see opportunitie they set in foote to ouerthrowe and secretly to put backe theyr aduersaries suite Now loe these things and other infinite plagues doe light vpon these vnfortunate courtiers incredible happely to anie but the olde and experienced Courtyer If the old and wise Courtier would count all the fauours and mischances the dearth and abundance the frendships and enmities the contentation and displeasures and the honor infamy hee hath endured in the Court I belieeue assuredly we should not be a little sorrie for that bodie that had suffered so much but much more for that heart that had abidden all those stormes and broyles When the Courtyer seeth that hee is not heard of the Prince nor spoken to of the beloued and fauoured of the Court and that the Treasurer doeth not dispatch him and the Cofferer keepe backe his wages it is a miserie to see him and on the other side a pleasure and pastime to heare what he sayes cursing the wretched life of this world And euen then in his heate and rage he teareth and blasphemeth GOD and sweares accursedly that thenceforth hee will forsake the vaine abuses of Courte and leaue also the Trompries of the deceitfull world avowing to enclose himself within precinct of Religious walles and to take vpon him also religious habite Alas if I fetched as many sighes for my sinnes as Courtyers doe for their mishaps and disgraces what a number would they come to For a Courtyer incontinent that hee feeleh himselfe sicke that hee is alone and reiected of his Friendes in Court hee becommeth so heauie and pensiue that with his deepe sighes he pierceth the heauens on hye and with his flowing teares he moystneth the Earth below So that a man might more easily number the troubles of the stout and hardy Hercules then those which the Courtyer daily suffreth And besides those manie wee haue recyted yet further these also we can recite that their seruaunts robbe them their Purse-bearers consume their money ieasters counterfait knaues lye euer vpon their reward women picke their purses and strumpets bawds spoile them of all But what shal I say more to you If the poore Courtyer be full of feathers euery man plumes him but if he want Winges there is no man hastie to plume him And to conclude in Princes Courts you shall finde no such trade of life whereby you may satisfie euery man For if the Courtier speake little they will say he is but a foole
not onely with the sicke and diseased but the whole and found And then the good Courtier must take his leaue of them when hee is euen in his most pleasant discourse to the end they may intreateth him to tarry longer and not to tarry till they seeme to licence him by outwarde signes and ceremonies and hee that shall goe visite another let him take heed hee bee not so long and tedious in his talke that the person whom hee visiteth doe rise before him For it were too plaine a token hee were wearie of his company and long tarrying sith he rose before him to giue him ocasion to depart If his wife whom hee visiteth bee not a sister or kinswomaÌ„ of the Courtiers that visites him or that they bee not of very familiar acquintance together hee should not once seeme to aske for her much lesse to desire to see her For as Scipio sayth A man should not trust any to see his Wife nor to proue his sword It is also a custome vsed among Courtiers that when they goe to any mans house to see him before they light off their horse they send to know whether he be within or no. And when the Courtier taketh his leaue of him he hath visited hee must not suffer the Gentleman for to bring him out of his Chamber to accompany him much lesse to come downe the stayres with him which if hee vse in this manner the other shall bee bound to thanke him for his comming and shall commend him for his ciuility And if it happen when wee goe to visite some Noble man or other beloued of the Court at his lodging and that at our comming hee is ready to com out of his house to ride abroad in the fieldes to take ayre or to ride vnto the Courte for to solicite some of his affayres or to ride abroade in the towne for his pleasure the diligent Courtier must willingly accompany him and offer him all the seruice hee can and so hee shall deserue double thankes of him the one for his comming and the other for his gentle offer and company To visite the Princes seruants it is not the manner for that they are alwaies occupied in the Princes seruice neyther shall they haue such time of leysure as other haue And because they haue no time commodious to see them at home at their owne houses yet at the least the good Courtier must needes accompany them at times when they goe abroade For there is more reason the esteemed Courtier should make more of him that accompanieth him then of the other that is too importunate and troublesome to him CHAP. VII Of the good countenance and modesty the Courtier should haue in behauing himselfe at the Prince or Noble mans Table in the time of his meale THose that are abiding still in Princes Courts must in any case goe seldome or not at all abroade to others Tables but alwayes to keepe their owne For that Courtier that runneth from Table to Table to eate of others cost to haue his meate free is not so sparing of his purse as hee is too prodigall and lauish of his good reputation Therefore Eschines the Philosopher being demaunded one day what a man should do to be counted good he answered thus To become a perfect Greeke he must go to the church willingly and of good deuotion and to the warres of necessity but to feasts and banquets neyther of will nor of necessity vnlesse it be to doe them honour and pleasure that doe inuite thee Suetonius Tranquillus writeth that the Emperour Augustus prohibited in Rome that no man should enuite each other to feast or banquet with an other but if his friend would do him that honour to come to his feast that then he should send him home to his house of that meat hee should haue â—ad at the feast and banquet with them at their houses And when he was asked of certain of his friends what he meant to make this Law he gaue them this answere The cause that moued mee good friend to forbidd playes and banquets in Rome was because in play no man kept himselfe from swearing and terrible blaspheming the name of God and in banquets euery man is giuen to deâ—ect and defame his neighbour Cicero recounteth of Cato the Censor that he lying on his death bed at the mercy of God should say these words Foure things I remember I haue done in my life wherein I haue rather shewed my selfe a voluptuous and negligent Barbarian then a wise and good Romane Citizen for the which I find my selfe sore grieued The first is this For that I spent a whole day and forgot to serue the Gods and did not profite my common Wealth in any thing which I should neuer haue done For it is as great a dishonor for a Philosopher to be counted an idle and negligent person as it is for a noble heart to bee counted a ranke coward The second is for that safely I might once haue gone by land and perillously I hazarded my selfe vpon the water A thing which well I should haue let alone for neuer no wise man should euer haue put himself into perill vnlesse it were only for the seruice of the Gods for the increase of his honour or for the defence of his Country The third is that I opened once a great secret and matter of importance to a woman which I ought lesse to haue done then all the rest For in graue matters and things of counsel there is no woman capable to giue counsell and much lesse to take it and least of all to keepe it secret The fourth was that another time I was contented to be ouercome by a friend of mine that earnestly inuited me to his house to dinner and thereupon I went with him which I should not haue done for to say the truth there was neuer famous nor worthie person that went to eate in an other mans house but that hee diminished his liberty hazarding also his grauity and reputation to the rumour and brute of others The which wordes being so wisely spoken by the prudent Cato were well worthy to bee noted and carried away and so much the more that being now drawing to his last home euen in his last breathing hower hee onely spake of these foure things and no more whereof although hee were a Romane yet he shewed to vs a repenting mind But woe is mee that albeit I doe beare the name of a Christian yea and that I am so indeed yet in that last day when Nature summons mee I feare me and belieue assuredly I shall haue cause to repent me of more then foure things Now by these things heretofore recyted wee may easily coniecture that albeit wee are contented to be entreated and requested in many things yet in this onely to goe to others tables to feast and in strange houses we should not bee intreated but rather compelled and against our wills And where the Courtyer
golde in the world I haue liued in the Court manie yeares and at this present I haue forsaken it quite wherefore I dare boldly say that if once a man come to enioy a qui life and reposed rest I am assured he would for euer hate and dislike to be a Courtier longer But like as these senseles Courtiers remember not the Life for to come but onely account of theyr vaine and Courtly Life present reputing that the most blessed and happie of any other So God seeing theyr folly and their fond addicted minde to the vanitie of Court to plague them and scourge them there withall withtheir owne rodde doth great them no other nor better rest then that they onely enioy in Princes Courts and so feedes them with their owne humour And therefore it is very truely sayde That rest and contentation neuer endeth into a 〈◊〉 house O you worthy and Noble Courtiers O you blessed and fauoured Courtiers I will remember you yea and againe remember that you presume not to cut or pull off the winges of Time since you neyther shall haue time nor meane to plucke one feather from him much lesse the least knowledge how to doe it And therefore it is sayde Ill cutteth the knife if the edge bee broken and ill can hee gnaw bones that lacketh his teeth And if hee seeme good vnto you and me also That to day it is Time to gather the fruit of the vine of our youth Let vs go now againe to seeke it about by the meanes of our amendment And if the Pipe or Caske wherein wee shoulde put our Wine bee fusty with the malignity and peruersnesse of our wicked doings Let vs season them with new and better Wine of good and holy desires And now to conclude if to sequester themselues from Court it be a wholesome Counsell for Courtiers much more wholesome and necessarie it is for such as beare sway and reputation about the Prince For other Courtiers doe dayly liue in hope to enlarge theyr countenance and credite and to grow in fauour and authority But these Darlinges and Beloued of Princes are continually afrade to fall and vtterly to bee put out of fauour CHAP. XVII Of the continency of fauoured Courtiers and how they ought to shunne the company and conuersation of vnhonest women and to bee carefull quickly to dispatch all such as sue vnto them TItus Liuius and Plutarch writeth that the Romanes had in such veneration those men that liued chaste and those women also that professed virgins Life that they erected statues of them in the Senate house carrying thē thorough the City in triumphant chariots recommending themselues to their deuout prayers and giuing them great gifts and presents and finally adored them as gods and this was their reason in that they honoured them as gods for that they being of flesh and liuing in flesh did leaue to vse the workes and instinct of the flesh which they helde a thing more diuine then humane Filostratus sayeth that Appoloneus Thianeus was borne without any pain or griefe to his mother in all her travell And that the gods spake to him in his eare that hee raysed the deade to life healed the sicke knew the thoughts of men diuined of things to come how hee was serued with Princes honoured of the people and followed of all the Philosophers yet they did not make so great a wonder of all these things spoken of him as they did for that hee was neuer married and moreouer neuer detected with the knowledge of any woman liuing much lesse suspected Whilest Carthage was enuironed with siege on each side a Virgine of Numidia taken prisoner was presented to Scipio and she was very fayre which Scipio notwithstanding would not onely not deflower but set her at liberty and married her very honourably Which act of his was more apprised of the Roman writers then was his conquest of Numedia the restoring of Rome her liberty the destruction of Carthage the succour and reliefe giuen to Asia and the enobling of his Common wealth For in all these enterprises hee still fought against others but in the effects of the flesh hee fought against himselfe And therefore hee must needes be maruellous wise and of good iudgement that can subdue the desires and motions of the flesh For wee doe as much couet to follow these carnall desires as wee are apt to our meate when wee are hungry Cruell and bitter are the assaultes of the flesh to the spirite and wonderful is the paine the Spirite abideth to resist the motions of the same which by no meanes can be ouercome but by eschewing the occasions thereof As in brideling the desires punishing the flesh liuing with spare dyet increasing learning giuing himselfe to tears and altogether shutting the gates of our desires O if this vice of the flesh came of aboundance of heate or rage of bloud we might soon remedy it with letting our selues bloud If it were any sicknesse of the heart it should be cured by interiour medicines If of the liuer wee would refresh it with ointments If of Melancholy humour wee would wash away al the Opilations If of choler wee would procure easie purges But alas it is a disease so farre from pitty that it misliketh wee should call for Physitians and cannot abide wee should offer it any remedy It cannot bee denyed but that ciuill warre is most grieuous and dangerous in a Common-wealth But much more perillous is that at home betwixt the husband and the wife but most ieoperdious of all is that a man hath within himselfe For wee cannot reckon any other our enemy but our owne desires I remember I saw once written in a Courties house these wordes which truely deserued to bee written in golden Letters and the words were these The dreadefull Warves that I alas sustaine Where blinde desire becomes my mighty foe Against my selfe perforce my selfe doth straine The wreckfull Gods vouchsafe it doe not so Surely hee that wrote this for his word wee thinke hee was no foole nor euill christian sith hee neither sought for money nor by sleight of witte procured to deceiue or beguile neither he called his friendes to helpe him to withstand his enemies but only craued remedy against his vnhonest and vain desires And vndoubtedly he had reason for a man may easily absent himselfe it is an impossible thing And therfore me thinks it is a thing more to be lamented then written to see that a multitude of corporall enemies cannot vanuquish vs and yet notwithstanding when wee are alone and thinke nothing of it this only vice of the flesh dooth not alone make vs stumble but fal downe on the groūd for neither to becom religious a frier nor to dwell in churches nor to be shut vp in cloysters to sequester our selues from the world nor yet to chaunge state and condition For all this I say I see none of al these things helpe vs mortall men to defende vs from this
vice and sinne But the further we seeke to flye from it the more daunger we finde to fall into it And albeit to auoyd other vices and sinnes it shall suffice vs to bee admonished yet against that alone of the flesh it behoueth vs to bee armed For there is no sinne in the world but there are meanes for men to auoyd it This only excepted of the flesh wherewith all wee are ouercome and taken Prisonners And to proue this true it is apparant thus Where raigneth Pride but amongst the Potentates where Enuie but amongst equalls Anger but amongst the impacient Gluttony but amongst gourmands auarice but amongst the Rich slouth but amongst the ydle And yet for all these the sinne of the Flesh generally reigneth in all men And therefore for not resisting this abhominable vice we haue seen kings lose their kingdoms Noblemen their Lands and possessions the marryed wiues their auowd faith the religious nunnes their professed virginitie So that wee may compare this sinne to the nature and condition of the venemous serpent which being aliue stings vs and after hee is dead offendeth vs with his noysome stinke Examples by Dauid who for all his wisedome could not preuaile against this sinne nor Salomon for al his great knowledge nor Absolon for all his diuine beautie nor Sampson with his mighty force which notwithstāding the great Fame they had for their renowmed vertues yet through this only defect they lost all accompanying with harlots licentious women Into which shameful felowship fell also Holofernes Haniball Ptholomeus Pyr-Pirrhus Inlius Caesar Augustus Marcus Antonius Seuerus and Theodorius and many other great Princes with these aboue recited the most part of the which we haue seene depriued of their Crownes and afterwards themselues haue come to their vtter shame and dishonour on their knces to yeelde themselues to the mercy of these their infamed louers crauing pardon and forgiuenesse Many graue Writers of the Grecians say that the Ambassadours of Lidia comming one day into the chamber of Hercules vpon a suddaine to speake with him they found him lying in his Curtesans lappe she pulling his rings off on his fingers hee dressed on his head with her womanly attire and she in exchnnge on hers bedect with his royall crowne They write also of Denis the Syracusian that albeit of nature hee was more cruell then the wild beast yet he became in the end so tractable and pleasant by meanes of a Curtezan his friend called Mirta that she only did confirme all the prouisions and depeches of the affayres of the Weale publike and he onely did but ordaine and appoint them And if the Histories written of the Gothes deceyne vs not wee finde that Antenaricus the famous king of the Gothes after he had triumphed of Italy and that hee had made himselfe Lord of all Europe hee became so farre in loue with a Louer of his called Pincia the whilest shee combed his head hee made cleane her slippers Also Themistocles the most famous Captaine of the Greekes was so enamoured of a woman hee had taken in the Warres of Epirns that shee beeing afterwardes very sicke when shee purged her selfe hee would also bee purged with her If shee were let bloud hee would also bee let bloud and yet that that is worst to bee liked is that hee washed his face with the bloud that came out of her Arme so that they might truly say though shee were his prisoner yet hee was also her slaue and subiect When King Demetrius had taken Rhodes there was broght to him a faire gentlewomen of the Cittie which he made his friend in loue and this loue betwixt them in time grewe so great that she shewing her selfe vpon a time to be angry with Demetrius and refusing to sit neare him at the Table and also to lye with him Demetrius vtterly forgetting himselfe and his royall estate did not onely on his knees pray her to pardon him but also imbracing her conueighed her in his armes into his chamber Myronides the Grecian albeit hee had made subiect to him the kingdom of Boetia yet hee was notwithstanding made subiect with the beautie of Numidia his louer Hee enflamed thus with loue of her she likewise strucken with couetous desire of his goods in fine they agreed that he shold giue her all the spoyle he had wonne in the warres of Boetia and that she should let him lye with her in hir house onely one night Hanniball made warres xvii yeares with the Romaines and in all that time he was neuer vanquished till hee was ouercome with the Loue of a young mayden in the cittie of Capua which proued a most bitter loue to him sith thereby it happened that whereas hee had so many yeares kept in subiection all Italie hee now was made a subiect at home in his owne countrey Plutarch in his booke De Republica writeth That Phalaris the Tyraunt would neuer graunt a man any thing that he desired neyther euer denyed any thing that a dissolute Woman requested No small but great disorder happened to the Common-weale of Rome by the occasion of the Emperour Caligula who gaue but 6000. Sexterces onely to repayre the Walls of Rome and gaue otherwise for furring one one gowne alone of his Lemmans a 10000. sexterces By all these examples aboue recited wee may easily vnderstand how daungerous a thing it is for the Courtier to haue friendshippe and acquaintance with women of so vile a facultie For the woman is of like quality that a knot tyed of corde is which is easily tyed of sundry knots and very hardly afterwards to bee vndone againe Heretofore wee haue besought Courtiers and the fauoured of Princes that they should not bee so liberall in commaunding and now once againe wee pray them to beware of fornication and adultery for albeeit this sinne of the flesh be not the greatest in fault yet it is the most daungerous in fame There is no King Prelate nor knight in this World so vicious and dishonest of life but would be glad to haue honest vertuous and well conditioned seruants so that it is impossible therefore for the fauoured Courtier liuing dishonestlie to continue any long time in fauour with his Prince For wee haue seene many in Princes Courts and Common Weales also that haue lost their honour fauour riches not for any pride they shewed in themselues nor for enuy that they had nor for any treasure nor riches that they robbed nor for any euil words that they should speake neither for any treason that they committed but onely through the euill fame that went of them for haunting the company of naughty women for women be of the right nature of Hedge-hogs which without seeing or knowing what they haue in their heart do notwithstanding drawe bloude of vs with their prickes And let not any man deceyue himselfe hoping that if hee did commit a fault through the flesh that it shal be kept from the Princes cares or
child-bearing Whether doest thou desire to goe put thy selfe then in a barrell and cast it into the Riuer so shalt thou become pure and white Wee haue eaten the fresh fish and now thou wouldest bring hither the stinking salt fish O Boemia Boemia in this case I see no trust in youth nor hope in age For vnder this thy hored age there is hid the pangues of frayle youth Thou complainest that thou hast nothing it is an old quarrel of the auncient amorous Ladyes in Rome that taking all thinges they say they haue left them nothing The cause thereofis where you do lacke credite there you would haue it accomplished with money Beleeue me louing friend the foolish estate of vnlawfull gaming both giueth an vnsure estate and also an euill fame to the person I know not how thou art so wastfull for if I pulled off my rings with the one hand thou pickedst my purse with the other greater wars haddest thou then with my Coffers then I haue now with my enemies I neuer had iewell but thou demaundedst it of mee and thou neuer askedst mee thing that I denyed thee I finde and bewaile now in my age the high parts of my youth Of trauell pouerty thou complainest I am hee that hath great neede of the medicine for this opilation and playsters for the sonne and colde water for such a burning feuer Doest thou not well remember how I did banish my necessity into the land of forgetfulnesse and placed thy good wil for the request of my seruice in the winter I went naked and in the sommer loaded with clothes In the mire I went on foot and rode in the fayre way When I was sad I laught when I was glad I wept Being afraid I drew out my strength and out of strength cowardnes The night with sighes and dayes in wayling I consumed When thou haddest neede of any thing I robbed my father for it Tell mee Boemia with whom diddest thou sulfill thine open follyes but with the misorders that I did in secret Thinke you what I thinke of the amorous Ladies in Rome that yee be mothes in olde garments a pastime for light persons a treasure of fooles and the sepulchres of vices This that seemeth to mee is that in thy youth euery man gaue to thee for that thou shouldest giue to euery one now thou giuest thy selfe to euery man because euery one should giue them to thee Thou tellest mee that thou hast two sonnes and lackest helpe for them Giue thanks to the gods for the mercy they shewed thee To xv Children of Fabritius my neighbour they gaue but one Father and to thine onely two sonnes they haue giuen fifteene Fathers Wherefore diuide them to their Fathers and euery one shall bee well prouided for Lucia thy daughter indeed and mine by suspect remember that I haue done more in marrying of her then thou diddest in bringing her forth For in the getting of her thou calledst many but to marry her I did it alone Verie little I write thee in respect of that I would write Butrio Cornely hath spoken much to mee on thy behalfe and hee shall say as much to thee on my part It is long agoe sithence I knew thy impatience I know well thou wilt sende mee another more malitious I pray thee since I write to thee in secrete discouer mee not openly and when thou readest this remember what occasion thou hast giuen me to write thus Although wee bee fallen out yet I will send thee money I send thee a gowne and the Gods bee with thee Boemia and send mee from this war with peace Marke Pretour in Daeia to Boemia his Louer and ancient friend in Rome CHAP. IX The aunswere of Boemia to the Emperour Marcus Aurelius wherein is expressed the great malice and litle patience of an euill woman BOemia thy auncient Louer to thee Mark of Mount Celio her naturall enemie desireth vengeance of thy person and euill fortune during thy life I haue receyued thy letter and thereby perceyue thy spitefull intents and thy cruell malices Such naughty persons as thou art haue this priuiledge that sith one doth suffer your villanies in secret you will hurt them openly but thou shalt not doe so with mee Marke Althogh I am not treasuresse of thy good yet at the least I am of thy naughtinesse All that I cannot reuenge with my person I will not spare to doe it with my tongue And though we women for weakenesse sake are easily ouercome in person yet know thou that our hearts are inuincible Thou sayest escaping from a battell thou receyuedst my Letter wherof thou wast sore agast It is a common thing to them that be slothful to speak of loue for fooles to treate of bookes and for Cowards to blaze of Armes I say it because the aunswere of a Letter was not needfull to rehearse to a woman whether it was before the battell or after I thinke well thou hast escaped it for thou wert not the first that fought nor the last that fled I neuer saw thee goe to the iwarre in thy youth that euer I was fearefull of thy life for knowing thy cowardlinesse I neuer tooke care for thy absence I alwayes iudged thy person safe Then tell mee Marke what doest thou now in thy age I thinke thou carriest thy lance not to serue thy turne in thy warre but to leane on when the gout taketh thee The head-peece I iudge thou hast not to defend thee from the strokes of swords but to drinke withall in tauernes I neuer saw thee strike any man with thy sword but I haue seene thee kill a thousand women with thy tong O malitious Marke if thou wert as valiant as thou art spitefull thou shouldest be no lesse feared among the barbarous nations then thou art abhorred with good reason amongst the Romanes Tell me what thou list but thou canst not deny but both thou hast beene and art a slacke louer a cowardly knight an vnknown friend auaricious infamed an enemy to all men and friend to none Moreouer wee knew thee a light young man condemne thee now for an olde doting foole Thou sayest that taking my letter into thy hands forthwith thy heart receyued the hearbe of malice I beleeue thee well vnsworne for any thing touching malice dooth straight finde harbour in thy brest the beasts corrupted do take poysō which the sound and of good complexion refufeth Of one thing I am sure thou shalt not dye of poyson For seldom times one poyson hurteth another but it driueth out the other O malicious Marke if all they in Rome knew thee as well as the vnhappy Boemia doth they should see how much the wordes that thou speakest differ from the intention of thy hart And as by the bookes thou makest thou meritest the name of a Philosopher euen so for the ilnesse thou inuentest thou doest deserue the name of a Tirant Thou sayest thou neuer sawest constancy in a Womans loue nor end in