insult over him debase and defame him what they can In so much as men of a ruddy colour they deride make of them a laughing stocke And as for the inhabitants of Coptos they use at a certaine feast to throw an asse headlong downe from the pitch of an high rocke because Typhon was ruddy and of a red asses colour The Busiritants and Lycopolites forbeare to sound any trumpets because they resemble the braying of an asse and generally they take an asse to be an uncleane beast and daemonicall for the resemblance in hiew that it hath with him and when they make certaine cakes in their sacrifices of the moneths Payni and Phaophi they worke them in paistry with the print upon them of an asse bound Also in their solemne sacrifice to the Sun they command as many as will be there to worship that god not to we are any brooches or jewels of gold about their bodies nor to give any meat or provander unto an asse what need soever he have thereof It seemeth also that the Pythagoreans themselves were of opinion that Typhon was some fiend or daemonicall power for they say that Typhon was borne in the even number of six and fifty againe that the triangular number or sigure is the puissance of Pluto Bacchus and Mars of the quadrangle is the power of Rhea Venus Ceres Vesta and Juno that of twelve angles belongeth to the might of Jupiter but that of fifty six angles is the force of Typhon as Eudoxus hath left in writing But the Aegyptians supposing that Typhon was of a reddish colour doe kill for sacrifice unto him kine and oxen of the same colour observing withall so precisely that if they have but one haire blacke or white they be not sacrificeable for they thinke such sacrifices not acceptable but contrariwise displeasant unto the gods imagining they be the bodies which have received the soules of leaud and wicked persons transformed into other creatures And therefore after they have cursed the head of such a sacrifice they cut it off and cast it into the river at least waies in old time but now they give it unto strangers But the oxe which they meane to sacrifice indeed the priests called Sphragistae that is to say the sealers come marke it with their seale which as Castor writeth was the image of a man kneeling with his hands drawen backe and bound behinde him and having a sword set to his throat Semblably they use the name of an asse also as hath bene said for his uncivill rudenesse and insolency no lesse than in regard of his colour wherein he resembleth Typhon and therefore the Aegyptians gave unto Ochus a king of the Persians whom they hated above all others as most cursed and abominable the surname of asse whereof Ochus being advertised and saying withall This asse shall devour your oxe caused presently their beefe 〈◊〉 to be killed and sacrificed as Dinon hath left in writing As for those who say that Typhon after he had lost the field fled six daies journy upon an asse backe and having by this meanes escaped beg at two sonnes Hierosolymus and Judaeus evident it is heerein that they would draw the story of the Iewes into this fable And thus much of the allegorirall conjectures which this tale doth affoord But now from another head let us of those who are able to discourse somewhat Philosophically and with reason consider first and formost such as deale most simply in this behalfe And these be they that say like as the Greeks allegorize that Saturne is time Juno the aire and the generation of Vulcan is the transmutation of aire into fire even so they give out that by Osiris the Aegyptians meane Nilus which lieth and keepeth company with Isis that is to say the earth That Typhon is the sea into which Nilus falling loseth himselfe and is dispatched heere and there unlesse it be that portion thereof which the earth receiveth and whereby it is made fertill And upon the river Nilus there is a sacred lamentation even from the daies of Saturne wherein there is lamenting how Nilus springing and growing on the left hand decaieth and is lost on the right For the Aegyptians doe thinke that the east parts where the day appeareth be the forefrunt and face of the world that the North part is the right hand the South part the left This Nilus therfore arising on the left hand and lost in the sea on the right hand is said truely to have his birth and generation in the left side but his death and corruption in the right And this is the reason why the priests of Aegypt have the sea in abomination and terme salt the fome and froth of Typhon And among those things which are interdicted and forbidden this is one that no salt be used at the boord by reason whereof they never salute any pilots or sailers for that they keepe ordinarily in the sea and get their living by it This also is one of the principall causes why they abhorre fishes in such sort as when they would describe hatred they draw or purtray a fish like as in the porch before the temple of Minerva within the city Sai there was purtraied and engraven an infant an old man after them a falcon or some such hauke and close thereto a fish and last of all a river-horse which Hieroglyphicks doe symbolize and signifie thus much in effect O all yea that come into the world and goe out of it God hateth shamelesse injustice For by the hauke they understand God by the fish hatred and by the river-horse impudent violence and vilany because it is said that he killeth his father and after that forceth his owne mother and covereth her And semblably it should seeme that the saying of the Pythagoreans who give out that the sea is a teare of Saturne under covert words doe meane that it is impure and uncleane Thus have I beene willing by the way to alledge thus much although it be without the traine of our fable because they fall within the compasse of a vulgar and common received history But to returne to our matter the priests as many as be of the wiser and more learned sort understand by Osiris not onely the river Nilus and by Typhon the sea but also by the former they signifie in one word and simply all vertue and power that produceth moisture and water taking it to be the materiall cause of generation and the nature generative of seed and by Typhon they represent all desiccative vertue all heat of fire drinesse as the very thing that is fully opposite and adverse to humidity and hereupon it is that they hold Typhon to be red of haire and of skin yellow and by the same reason they willingly would not encounter or meet upon the way men of that hew no nor delight to speake unto such Contrariwise they feigne Osiris to be of a blacke colour because all water causeth the earth
children be growen to that age wherin they are to be committed unto the charge of Tutors Schoolemasters and governors then parents ought to have an especial care of their state namely under whom they set them to be trained up least for want of good providence and foresight they betray them into the hands of some vile slaves base barbarians vaine and light-headed persons For most absurd and ridiculous is the practise of many men in this point who if they have any servants more vertuous or better disposed than others some of them they appoint to husbandry and tillage of their ground others they make Masters of their ships They employ them I say either in merchandise to be their factours or as stewards of their house to receive and pay all or else to be banquers and so they trust them with the exchaunging and turning of their monies But if they meete with one slave among the rest that useth to be cupshotten given to gluttony belly cheere or otherwise is untoward for any good service him they set over their children to bring them up Whereas indeed a governour over youth should be wel given of a right good nature himselfe such an one as Phoenix was who had the breeding and education of Achilles The principal point therfore and most important of all that hitherto hath bene alledged is this That choise men be sought out for to be teachers masters of our children who live in good name and without challenge whose cariage and behaviour is blameles who for their knowledge experience of the world are the best that may be found For surely the source roote of all goodnes and honesty is the good education and training up of our children in their tender age And like as good husbandmen and gardeners are woont to pitch props stakes close unto their yong plants to stay them up and keepe them streight even so discreete and wise teachers plant good precepts and holesome instructions round about their yoong schollers to the end that thereby their manners may bud foorth commendably and be framed to the rule of vertue But contrariwise you shall have some fathers now adaies that deserve no better than to be spit at in their very faces who either upon ignorance or for want of experience before any triall made of those masters who are to have the conduct and charge of their children commit them hand over head to the tuition of lewd persons and such as beare shew and make profession of that which they are not Neither were this absurditie altogether so grosse and ridiculous if so be they faulted herein of meere simplicitie default of foreknowledge But here is the heights of their folly and errour that themselves knowing otherwhiles the insufficiencie yea and the naughtines of some such Masters better than they doe who advertise them thereof yet for all that they commit their children unto them partly being overcome by the slatterie of claw-backes and partly willing to gratifie some friends upon their kinde and earnest entreatie Wherein they do much like for all the world to him who lying verie sicke in bodie for to content and satisfie a friend leaveth an expert and learned physition who was able to cure him and entertaineth another blind leech who for want of skill and experience quickly killeth him or else unto one who being at sea forgoeth an excellent pilot whom he knoweth to be very skilfull and for the love of a friend maketh choise of another that is most insufficient O Iupiter and all the gods in Heaven Is it possible that a man bearing the name of a father should make more account of a friends request than of the good education of his owne children Which considered had not that ancient Philosopher Crates 〈◊〉 you just occasion to say oftentimes that if possibly he might he would willingly mount to the highest place of the citie and there crie out aloud in this manner What meane you my Masters and whether runne you headlong carking and caring all that ever you can to gather goods and rake riches together as you do whiles in the mean time you make little or no reckoning at all of your children unto whom you are to leave all your wealth To which exclamation of his I may adde thus much moreover and say That such fathers are like unto him that hath great regard of his shoe but taketh no heed unto his foor And verily a man shall see many of these fathers who upon a covetous minde and a cold affection toward their owne children are growen to this passe that for to spare their purse and ease themselves of charge chuse men of no woorth to teach them which is as much as to seeke a good market where they may buy ignorance cheapest Certes Aristippus said verie well to this purpose when upon a time he pretily mocked such a father who had neither wit nor understanding and jibed pleasantly with him in this maner For when he demaunded of him how much he would take for the training up and teaching of his sonne He answered An hundred crownes A hundred crownes quoth the father by Hercules I sweare you aske too much out of the way For with a hundred crownes I could buy a good slave True quoth Aristippus againe Lay out this hundred crownes so you may have twaine your sonne for one and him whom you buy for the other And is not this a follie of all foliies that nourses should use their yoong infants to take meate and feed themselves with the right hand yea and rebuke them if haply they put foorth their left and not to forecast and give order that they may learne civility and heare sage holesom instructions But what befalleth afterward to these good fathers when they have first noursed their children badly then taught them as lewdly Mary I will tell you When these children of theirs are growne to mans estate and will not abide to heare of living orderly and as it becommeth honest men but contrariwise fall headlong into outragious courses and give themselves wholy to sensuality and servile pleasures Then such fathers all repent for their negligence past in taking no better order for their education but all too late considering no good ensueth thereupon but contrariwise the lewd prancks which they commit daily augment their griefe of heart and cause them to languish in sorrow For some of them they see to keepe companie with flatterers parasites and smell feasts the lewdest basest and most cursed wretches of all other who serve for nothing but to corrupt spoile and marre youth Others to captivate and spend themselves upon harlots queanes and common strumpets proud and sumptuous in expence the entertainment of whom is infinitly costly Many of them consume all in delicate fare and feeding a daintie and fine tooth Many of them fall to dice and with mumming and masking hazard all they have And divers of them againe entangle themselves
into their heads For evermore it getteth closely into some vicious passion and affection of the minde and there lurketh the same it nourisheth and feedeth fat but anon it appeereth like a botch rising estsoones upon the corrupt diseased or inflamed parts of the soule Art thou angrie with one punish him saith he Hast thou a minde to a thing buy it and make no more adoe Art thou never so little afraid let us flie and be gon Suspectest thou this or that beleeve it considently saith he But if peradventure he can hardly be seene and discovered about these passions for that they be so mightie and violent that oftentimes they chase and expell all use of reason he will give some vantage to be sooner taken in others that be not so strong and vehement where we shall find him alwaies the same and like himselfe For say a man do suspect that he hath taken a surfeit either by over liberall feeding or drinking headie wine and upon that occasion make some doubt to bathe his bodie or to eate presently againe and lay gorge upon gorge as they say A true friend wil advice him to forbeare abstaine he will admonish him to take heed to himselfe and looke to his health In comes a flatterer and he will draw him to the baine in all haste he will bid him to call for some noveltie or other to be set upon the boord willing him to fall fresh to it againe and not to punish his body and do himselfe injurie by fasting and refusing his meate and drinke Also if he see him not disposed to take a journey by land or voyage by sea or to go about any enterprise whatsoever it be slowly and with an ill will he will say unto him either that there is no such great need or the time is not so convenient but it may be put off to a farther daie or it will serve the turne well enough to send others about it Now if it fall out so that he having made promise to some familiar friend either to lend or let him have the use of some money or to give him it freely do change his minde and repent of his promise but yet be some what abashed and ashamed thus to breake his word the flatterer by and by will put himselfe to the worse and lighter end of the ballance and make it weigh downe on the purse side soone excluding and cutting off all shame for the matter What man will he say Spare your purse and save your silver you are at a great charge you keepe a great house and have many about you which must be maintained and have sufficient in such sort that if we be not altogether ignorant of our selves and wilfully blinde not seeing that we be covetous shamelesse timorous and base minded we cannot choose but start and finde out a flatterer neither is it possible that he should escape us For surely he will evermore defend and maintaine these imperfections and frankly will he speake his minde in favour there of if he perceive us to over passe our selves therein But thus much may suffice as touching these matters Let us come now to the uses and services that a flattere is employed in For in such offices he doth confound trouble and darken much the difference betweene him and a true friend shewing himselfe in apparence alwaies diligent ready and prompt in all occurrences without seeking any colourable pretenses of shifting off and a refusing to do any thin As for a faithfull friend his whole carriage and behaviour is simple like as be the words of truth as faith Eurypides without welts and gards plaine without plaits and nothing counterfeit whereas the conditions of a flatterer to say a truth By nature are diseased much And medicines needfull are for such not only with wisdome to be ministred and applied but also many in number and those I assure you of a more exquisite making and composition than any other And verily as friends many times when they meet one another in the street passe by without good-morrow or god speed or any word at all betweene them onely by some light some looke cheerefull smile or amiable regard of the eie reciprocally given and taken without any other token els there is testified the good-will and mutuall affection of the heart within whereas the flatterer runneth toward his friend to meet him followeth apace at his heeles spreadeth foorth both his armes abroad and that afarre off to embrace him and if it chance that he be saluted and spoken to first because the other had an eie on him before he will with brave words excuse himselfe yea and many times call for witnesses and bind it with great oathes good store that he saw him not Even so likewise in their affaires and negociations abroad in the world friends omit and overslip many small and light things not searching narrowly into matters not offering or expecting againe any exquiquisit service nothing curious and busie in ech thing ne yet putting themselves forward to everie kinde of ministerie but the flatterer is herein double diligent he will be continually emploied and never rest without seeming at any time to be weary no place no space nor opportunity will he give the other to do any service he looketh to be called unto and commanded and if he be not bidden he will take it ill and be displeased nay you shall have him then out of heart and discouraged complaining of his ill fortune and protesting before God and man as if he had some great wrong done unto him These be evident marks and undoubted arguments to such as have wit and understanding not of a friendship sound sober honest but rather smelling of wanton and whorish love which is more ready to embrace and clip than is decent and seemely Howbeit to examine the same more particularly let us consider what difference there is betweene a flatterer ahd a friend as touching the offers and promises that they make They who have written of this theame before us say very well that a friends promise goeth in this forme If that I can or if it may be done Fulfill I will your minde and that right soone but the offer of a flatterer runneth in this maner What would you have say but the word to me Without all doubt effected it shall be For such franke promisers and braggers as these the Poets also use to bring unto the Stage in their Comedies after this sort Now of all loves Nicomachus this I crave Set me against this souldier here so brave I will so swinge his coat you shall it see That like a pompion his flesh shall tender be His face his head I shall much softer make Than is the spunge that growes in sea or lake Moreover you shall not see a friend offer his helping hand or aide in any action unlesse he were called before to counsell and his opinion asked of the enterprise or that he have approoved and
owne part whether I did well or ill I know not but surely when I began my cure of choler in my selfe I did as in olde time the Lacedaemonians were woont to do by their Ilotes men of base and servile condition For as they taught their children what a soule vice drunkennesse was by their example when they were drunke so I learned by observing others what anger was and what beastly effects it wrought First and formost therefore like as that maladie according to Hippocrates is of all others woorst and most dangerous wherein the visage of the sicke person is most disfigured and made unlikest it selfe so I seeing those that were possessed of choler and as it were beside themselves thereby how their face was changed their colour their countenance their gate and their voice quite altered I imagined thereupon unto my selfe a cerreine forme and image of this maladie as being mightily displeased in my minde if haply at any time I shoule be seene of my friends my wife and the little girles my daughters so terrible and so farre mooved and transported beside my selfe not onely fearefull and hideous to beholde and farre otherwise than I was woont but also unpleasant to be heard my voice being rough rude and churlish like as it was my hap to see some of my familiar friends in that case who by reason of anger could not reteine and keepe their ordinary fashions and behavior their force of visage nor their grace in speech ne yet that affability and pleasantnesse in company and talke as they were woont This was the reason that Caius Gracchus the Oratour a man by nature blunt rude in behaviour and withall over-earnest and violent in his maner of pleading had a little flute or pipe made for the nonce such as Musicians are woont to guide and rule the voice gently by little and little up and downe betweene base to treble according to everie note as they would themselves teaching their scholars thereby to have a tunable voice Now when Gracchus pleaded at the barre at any time he had one of his servants standing with such a pipe behinde him who observing when his master was a little out of tune would sound a more mild and pleasant note unto him whereby he reclaimed and called him backe from that loude exclaiming and so taking downe that rough and swelling accent of his voice Like as the Neat-heards pipes so shrill made of the marrishreeds so light The joints whereof with waxe they fill resound a tune for their delight Which while the heard in field they keepe Brings them at length to pleasant sleepe dulced and allaied the cholericke passion of the orator Certes my selfe if I had a pretie page to attend upon me who were diligent necessarie and handsome about me would not be offended but verie well content that when he saw me angrie he should by and by present a mirror or looking glasse unto me such a one as they use to bring and shew unto some that newly are come out of the baine although no good or profit at all they have thereby But certainely for man to see himselfe at such a time how disquieted he is how farre out of the way and beside the course of nature it were no small meanes to checke this passion and to set him in hatred therewith for ever after They who are delighted in tales and fables doe report by way of merrie speech and pastime that once when Minerva was a piping there came a Satyre and admonished her that it was not for her to play upon a flute but she for the time tooke no heed to that advertisement of his notwithstanding he spake thus unto her This forme of face becomes you not lay up your pipes take armes in hand But first this would not befor got your cheekes to lay that puft now stand But afterwards when she had seene her face in a certaine river what a paire of cheekes she had gotten with her piping she was displeased with her selfe and flung away her pipes And yet this art and skill of playing well upon the pipe yeeldeth some comfort and maketh amends for the deformitie of disfigured visage with the melodious tune and harmonie that it affoordeth yea and afterwards Marsyas the Minstrell as it is thought devised first with a certaine hood and muzzle fastened round about the mouth as well to restraine and keepe downe the violence of the blast enclosed thus by force as also to correct and hide the deformitie and undecent inequalitie of the visage With glittring gold both cheekes as farre as temples he did binde The tender mouth with thongs likewise fast knit the necke behinde But anger contrariwise as it doth puffe up and stretch out the visage after an unseemely maner so much more it sendeth out undecent and unpleasant voice And stirs the strings at secret note of heart Which touched should not be but by a part The sea verily when being troubled and disquieted with blustring winds it casteth up mosse reits and such like weeds they say it is cleansed andpurged thereby but the dissolute bitter scurrile and foolish speeches which anger sendeth out of the minde when it is turned upside downe first pollute and defile the speakers themselves and fill them full of infamy for that they be thought to have their hearts full of such ordure and filthinesse at all times but the same lurketh there untill that choler discovereth it And therefore they pay most deerely for their speech the lightest matter of all others as Plato saith in that they suffer this heavie and grievous punishment to be held and reputed for malicious enemies cursed speakers and ill conditioned persons Which I seeing and observing well enough it falleth out that I reason with my selfe alwaies call to mind what a good thing it is in a feaver but much better in a fit of choler to have a tongue faire even and smooth For in them that be sicke of an ague if the tongue be not such as naturally it ought to be an ill signe it is but not a cause of any harme or indisposition within Howbeit if their tongues who are angry be once rough foule and running dissolutely at random to absurd speeches it casteth foorth outragious and contumelious language the verie mother and work-mistresse of irreconciliable enmitie and bewraieth an hidden and secret maliciousnes As for wine if a man drinke it of it selfe undelaied with water it putteth foorth no such wantonnesse no disordinate and lewd speeches like to those that proceed of ire For drunken talke serveth to make mirth and to procure laughter rather than any thing else but words of choler are tempered with bitter gall and rankor Moreover he that sitteth silent at the table when others drinke merrily is odious unto the companie and a trouble whereas in choler there is nothing more decent and beseeming gravitie than to be quiet and say nothing according as Sappho doth admonish When furious choler once is up
and wisely therefore did the Law-giver of the Thurians when he gave order and forbad expressely That no citizen should be taxed noted by name or scoffed at upon the Stage in any Comedie save onely adulterers and these busie persons For surely adulterie may be compared well to a kinde of curiositie searching into the pleasures of another seeking I say and enquiring into those matters which are kept secret and concealed from the view of the whole world And as for curiositie it seemeth to be a resolution or loosenes like a palsie or corruption a detection of secrets and laying them naked For it is an ordinarie thing with those who be inquisitive and desirous of many newes for to be blabs also of their tongues and to be pratling abroad which is the reason that Pythagor as injoyned yoong men five yeeres silence which he called Echemychia Abstinence from all speech or holding of their tongue Moreover it can not otherwise be chosen but that foule and cursed language also should accompany curiosity for looke what thing soever busie bodies heare willingly the same they love to tell and blurt out as quickly and such things as with desire and care they gather from one they utter to another with joy Whereupon it commeth to passe that over and above other inconveniences which this vice ministreth unto them that are given to it an impediment it is to their owne appetite For as they desire to know much so every man observeth them is beware of them and endevoureth to conceale all from them Neither are they willing to doe any thing in their sight nor delighted to speak ought in their hearing but if there be any question in hand to be debated or businesse to be considered and consulted of all men are content to put off the conclusion and resolution unto another time namely untill the curious and busie person be out of the way And say that whiles men are in sad and secret conference or about some serious businesse there chance one of these busie bodies to come in place presently all is husht and every thing is remooved aside and hidden no otherwise than folke are woont to set out of the way victuals where a cat doth haunt or when they see her ready to run by insomuch as many times those things which other men may both heare and see safely the same may not be done or said before them onely Therefore also it followeth by good consequence that a busie and curious person is commonly so farre out of credit that no man is willing to trust him for any thing in such sort that we commit our letters missive and signe manuell sooner to our servants and meere strangers than to our friends and familiars if we perceive them given to this humor of much medling But that woorthy knight Bellerophontes was so farre from this that he would not breake open those letters which he caried though they were written against himselfe but forbare to touch the Kings epistle no lesse than he abstained from the Queen his wife even by one and the same vertue of Continence For surely curiosity is a kinde of incontinency aswel as is adultery and this moreover it hath besides that joined there is with it much folly and extreame want of wit For were it not a part thinke you of exceeding blockish senselessenesse yea and madnesse in the highest degree to passe by so many women that be common and every where to be had and then to make meanes with great cost and expense to some one kept under locke and key and besides sumptuous notwithstanding it fall out many times that such an one is as ill-favored as she is foule Semblably and even the same do our curious folke they omit and cast behinde them many faire and goodly sights to beholde many excellent lectures woorth the hearing many disputations discourses honest exercises and pastimes but in other mens letters they keepe a puddering they open and reade them they stand like eavesdroppers under their neighbours walles hearkening what is done or said within they are readie to intrude themselves to listen what whispering there is betweene servants of the house what secret talke there is among seely women when they be in some odde corner and as many times they are by this meanes not free from danger so alwaies they meet with shame and infamie And therefore very expedient it were for such curious folke if they would shift off and put by this vice of theirs eftsoones to call to mind as much as they can what they have either knowen or heard by such inquisition for if as Simonides was woont to say that when hee came after some time betweene to open his desks and coffers he found one which was appointed for gifts and rewards alwaies full the other ordeined for thanks and the graces void and empty so a man after a good time past set open the store-house of curiosity and looke into it what is therein and see it toppe full of many unprofitable vaine and unpleasant things peradventure the very outward sight and face thereof will discontent and offend him appearing in every respect so lovelesse and toyish as it is Goe to then if one should set in hand to turne over leafe by leafe the books of ancient writers and when he hath picked forth and gathered out the woorst make one volume of all together to wit of those headlesse and unperfect verses of Homer which haply beginne with a short fyllable and therefore be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of the solaecismes and incongruities which be found in Tragedies or of the undecent and intemperate speeches which Archilochus framed against women wherby he defamed and shamed himselfe were he not I pray you woorthy of this Tragicall curse A Foule ill take thee thou lewd wretch that lovest to collect The faults of mortall men now dead the living to infect but to let these maledictions alone certes this treasuring and scoring up by him of other mens errors and misdeeds is both unseemly and also unprofitable much like unto that city which Philip built of purpose and peopled it with the most wicked gracelesse and incorrigible persons that were in his time calling it Poneropolis when he had so done And therefore these curious meddlers in collecting and gathering together on all sides the errours imperfections defaults and solaecismes as I may so say not of verses or Poëmes but of other mens lives make of their memorie a most unpleasant Archive or Register and uncivile Record which they ever carie about them And like as at Rome some there be who never cast eie toward any fine pietures or goodly statures no nor so much as make any account to cheapen beautifull boies and faire wenches which there stand to be sold but rather go up and downe the market where monsters in nature are to be bought seeking and learning out where be any that want legs whose armes and elbowes turne the contrary way like unto
of an honest man which both for the present and also all the rest of our life may leave in our soule the cicatrice or skar of repentance sorrow and heavinesse In conclusion to the end that we should not commit those deeds in haste which afterwards we may repent at leasure he sheweth that we ought to have before our eies the hurts and inconveniences caused before by evil bashfulnesse that the consideration thereof might keepe us from falling into fresh and new faultes OF UNSEEMELY AND naughtie bashfulnesse AMong those plants which the earth bringeth foorth some there are which not onely by their owne nature bee wilde and savage and withall bearing no fruit at all but that which woorse is in their growth doe hurt unto good seeds and fruitfull plants and yet skilful gardiners and husbandmen judge them to be arguments and signes not of bad ground but rather of a kinde and fat soile semblaby the passions and affections of the minde simply and in themselves are not good howbeit they spring as buds and flowers from a towardly nature and such as gently can yeeld it selfe to be wrought framed and brought into order by reason In this kinde I may raunge that which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as a foolish and rusticall shamefastnes no evill signe in it selfe howbeit the cause and occasion of evill and naughtinesse For they that be given to bash and shame over-much and when they should not commit many times the same faults that they doe who are shamelesse and impudent heere onely is the difference that they when they trespasse and do amisse are displeased with themselves and grieve for the matter where as these take delight pleasure therin for he that is gracelesse and past shame hath no sense or feeling of griefe when he hath committed any foule or dishonest act contrariwise whosoever be apt to bash be ashamed quickly are soone moved troubled anon even at those things which seeme onely dishonest although they be not indeed Now lest the equivocation of the word might breed any doubt I meane by Dysopia immoderate bashfulnesse whereby one blusheth for shame exceedingly and for every thing whereupon such an one is called in Greeke Dysopetus for that his visage and countenance together with his mind changeth falleth and is cast downe for like as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke is defined to be a sacred heavinesse which causeth a downe-looke even so that shame and dismaiednesse which maketh us that we dare not looke a man in the face as we should and when we ought the call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And hereupon it was that the great Oratour Demosthenes said of an impudent fellow that he had in his eies not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. harlots playing pretily upon the ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth both the round apple in the eies and also a maiden or virgine but contrariwise the over-bashfull person whom wee speake of sheweth in his countenance a minde too soft delicate and effeminate and yet he flattereth himselfe therein and calleth that fault wherein the impudent person surpasseth him Shamefastnesse Now Cato was woont to say That he loved to see yoong folke rather to blush than to looke pale as having good reason to acquaint and teach youth to dread shame and reproch more than blame and reproofe yea and suspition or obloquie rather than perill or danger Howbeit we must abridge cut off the excesse and over-much which is in such timidity and feare of reproch for that often-times it commeth to passe in some who dreading no lesse to heare ill and be accused than to be chastised or punished for false hearts are frighted from doing their duty and in no wise can abide to have an hard word spoken of them But as we are not to neglect these that are so tender nor ought to feed them in their feeblenesse of heart so againe we must not praise their disposition who are stiffe and inflexible such as the Poët describeth when he saith Who fearelesse is and basheth not all men fast to beholde In whom appeares the dogged force of Anaxarchus bolde but we ought to compound a good mixture and temperate medley of both extremities which may take away this excessive obstinacie which is impudence and that immoderate modestie which is meere childishnesse and imbecilitie True it is that the cure of these two maladies is difficult neither can this excesse both in the one and the other be cut off without danger For like as the skilfull husbandman when he would rid the ground of some wilde bushes and fruitlesse plants he laieth at them mainely with his grubbing hooke or mattocke untill he have fetched them up by the roote or else sets fire unto them and so burneth them but when he comes to proine or cut a vine an appletree or an olive he carrieth his hand lightly for feare of wounding any of the sound wood in fetching off the superfluous and ranke branches and so kill the heart thereof even so the Philosopher entending to plucke out of the mind of a yoong man either envie an unkind and savage plant which hardly or unneth at all may be made gentle and brought to any good use or the unseasonable and excessive greedines of gathering good or dissolute and disordinate lust he never feareth at all in the cutting thereof to draw blood to presse and pierce hard to the bottom yea and to make a large wound and deepe skarre But when he setteth to the keene edge of remonstrance and speech to the tender and delicate part of the soule for to cut away that which is excessive or overmuch to wit wherein is feated this unmeasurable and sheepish bashfulnesse he hath a great care and regard lest ere he be aware he cut away therewith that ingenuous and honest shamefastnesse that is so good and commendable For we see that even nourses themselves when they thinke to wipe away the filth of their little infants and to make them cleane if they rub any thing hard otherwhiles fetch off the skin withall make the flesh raw and put them to paine And therefore we must take heed that in seeking by all meanes to do out this excessive bashfulnesse utterly in yoong people we make them not brasen faced such as care not what is said unto them and blush thereat no more than a blackdog and in one word standing stiffe in any thing that they do but rather we ought to doe as they who demolish and pull downe the dwelling houses that be neere unto the temples of the gods who for feare of touching any thing that is holy or sacred suffer those ends of the edifices and buildings to stand still which are next and joined close thereto yea and those they underprop and stay up that they should not fall downe of themselves even so I say beware and feare we must
him and in this maner began to perswade Above all things my good childe quoth he studie and endevour to imitate the humanitie and sociable nature of your noble father unlesse haply you have me in jealousie and suspition as if I went about to compasse your death The youth was abashed to heare him say so and went with him well supper was no sooner ended but they made an end of the yoong gentleman also and strangled him outright so that it is no ridiculous and foolish advertisement as some let not to say but a wise and sage advise of Hesiodus when he saith Thy friend and lover to supper do invite Thy foe leave out for he will thee requite Be not in any wise bashfull and ashamed to refuse his offer whom thou knowest to hate thee but never leave out and reject him once who seemeth to put his trust and confidence in thee for if thou do invite thou shalt be invited againe and if thou be bidden to a supper and go thou canst not choose but bid againe if thou abandon once thy distrust and diffidence which is the guard of thy safty and so marre that good tincture and temperature by a foolish shame that thou hast when thou darest not refuse Seeing then that this infirmitie and maladie of the minde is the cause of many inconveniences assay we must to chase it away with all the might we have by exercise beginning at the first like as men do in other exercises with things that are not very difficult nor such as a man may boldly have the face to denie as for example if at a dinner one chance to drinke unto thee when thou hast drunke sufficiently already be not abashed to refuse for to pledge him neither force thy selfe but take the cup at his hand and set it downe againe on the boord againe there is another perchance that amids his cups chalengeth thee to hazzard or to play at dice be not ashamed to say him nay neither feare thou although thou receive a flout and scoffe at his hands for deniall but rather do as xenophanes did when one Lasus the sonne of Hermiones called him coward because he would not play at dice with him I confesse quoth he I am a very dastard in those things that be lewd and naught and I dare do nothing at all moreover say thou fall into the hands of a pratling talkative busie bodie who catcheth hold on thee hangeth upon thee and will not let thee go be not sheepish and bashfull but interrupt and cut his tale short shake him off I say but go thou forward and make an end of thy businesse whereabout thou wentest for such refusals such repulses shifts and evasions in small matters for which men cannot greatly complaine of us exercising us not to blush and be ashamed when there is no cause do inure and frame us well before-hand unto other occasions of greater importance And heere in this place it were not amisse to call unto remembrance a speech of Demosthenes for when the Athenians being sollicited and mooved to send aid unto Harpalus were so forward in the action that they had put themselves in armes against king Alexander all on a sodaine they discovered upon their owne coasts Philoxenus the lieutenant generall of the kings forces and chiefe admirall of his Armada at sea now when the people were so astonied upon this unexpected occurrent that they had not a word to say for very feare What wil these men do quoth Demosthenes when they shall see the sunne who are so afraid that they dare not looke against a little lampe even so I say to thee that art given much to blush and be abashed What wilt thou be able to do in weightie affaires namely when thou shalt be encountred by a king or if the bodie of some people or state be earnest with thee to obtaine ought at thy hand that is unreasonable when thou hast not the heart to refuse for to pledge a familiar friend if he chance to drinke unto thee offer thee a cup of wine or if thou canst not find meanes to escape and wind thy selfe out of the company of a babling busie bodie that hath fastened and taken hold of thee but suffer such a vaine prating fellow as this to walke and leade thee at his pleasure up and downe having not so much power as to say thus unto him I will see you againe hereafter at some other time now I have no leasure to talke with you Over and besides the exercise and use of breaking your selves of this bashfulnesse in praising others for small and light matters will not be unprofitable unto you as for example Say that when you are at a feast of your friends the harper or minstrell do either play or sing out of tune or haply an actour of a Comedie dearely hired for a good piece of money by his ill grace in acting marre the play and disgrace the authour himselfe Menander and yet neverthelesse the vulgar sort doe applaud clap their hands and highly commend and admire him for his deed in mine advice it would be no great paine or difficulty for thee to give him the hearing with patience and silence without praising him after a servile and flattering maner otherwise than you thinke it meet and reason for if in such things as these you be not master of your selfe how will you be able to hold when some deare friend of yours shall reade unto you either some foolish rime or bad poësie that himselfe hath composed if he shal shew unto you some oration of his owne foolish and ridiculous penning you will fall a praising of him will you you will keepe a clapping of your hands with other flattering jacks I would not els And if you doe so how can you reprove him when he shall commit some grosse fault in greater matters how shall you be able to admonish him if he chance to forget himselfe in the administration of some magistracie or in his carriage in wedlocke or in politike government And verily for mine owne part I do not greatly allow and like of that answere of Pericles who being requested by a friend to beare false witnesse in his behalfe and to binde the same with an oath whereby he should be forsworne I am your friend quoth he as far as the altar as if he should have said Saving my conscience and duety to the gods for surely he was come too neere already unto him But he who hath accustomed himselfe long before neither to praise against his owne minde one who hath made an oration nor to applaud unto him who hath sung nor to laugh heartily at him who came out with some stale or poore jest which had no grace hee will I trow never suffer his friend and familiar to proceed so farre as to demand such a request of him or once be so bolde as to move him who before had refused in smaller trifles to satisfie his desire in
and diverteth us calling and transporting us sundry waies not permitting the commixture and sodering as it were of good will and kinde affection to grow into one and make a perfect joint by familiar conversation enclosing fastning every part together But the same anon bringeth withall a great inequalitie in offices and reciprocall services meet for friends and breedeth a certeine foolish bashfulnesse and streining of courtesie in the performance thereof for by occasion of many friends those parts in amitie which otherwise are casie and commodious become difficult and incommodious And why All men do not agree in humor one Their thoughts their cares bend diversly ech one and no 〈◊〉 for our verie natures do not all incline in affection the same way neither are we at all times conversant and acquainted with the like fortunes and adventures To say nothing of their sundrie occasions and occurrences which serve not indifferently for all our actions but like as the windes unto sailers they are with some and against others sometimes on our backes and other whiles full in our face And say that it may fall out so that all our friends at once do stand in need and be desirous of one and the same helpe and ministerie at our hands it were verie hard to fit all their turnes and satisfie them to their content whether it be in taking our advice and counsell in any negotiations or in treating about State matters or in suite after dignities places of government or in fearsting and entertaining strangers in their houses But suppose that at one the same instant our friends being diversly affected troubled with sundrie affaires request all of them together our helping hand as for example one that is going to sea for to have our companie in that voiage another who being defendant to answere for himselfe in the law to assist him in the court and a third that is a plaintife to second him in his plea a fourth who either is to buy or sell for to helpe him to make his markets a fift who is to marrie for to sacrifice with him and be at his wedding dinner and a sixt who is to inter a dead corps for to mourne solemnize the funerals with him in such a medley and confusion as this as if according to Sophocles A citie smoakt withinsence sweet And ring with songs for murth so meet With plaints also and groanes resound And all in one and selfe same stound Certes having so many friends to assist and gratifie them all were impossible to pleasure more were absurd and in serving ones turne to reject many others were offensive and hurtful for this is a rule Who to his friend is well affected Loves not himselfe to be neglected and yet commonly such negligences and foregetfull defaults of friends we take with more patience and put up with lesse anger and displeasure when they shall come to excuse themselves by oblivion making these and such like answeres Surely you were but forgotten it was out of my head and I never thought of it but he that shall alledge thus and say I was not your assistant in the court nor stood to you in your cause by reason that I attended another friend of mine in a triall of his or I came not to visite you whiles you had an ague for that I was busilie employed at a feast that such a one made to one of his friends excusing his negligence to one friend by his diligance to others surely he maketh no satisfaction for the offence already taken but increaseth the same and maketh it woorse than before by reason of jealousie added thereto howbeit most men as it should seeme aime at nothing else but at the profit and commoditie which friendship bringeth and yeeldeth from without never regard what care it doth imprint and worke within neither remember they that he whose turne hath beene served by many friends must likewise reciprocally be ready to helpe them as their need requireth Like as therefore the giant Briareus with his 100 hands feeding 50 bellies had no more sustenance for his whole bodie than we who with two hands furnish and fill one belly even so the commoditie that wee have by many friends bringeth this discommoditie withall that we are to be emploied also to many in taking part with them of their griefs and passion in travailing and in being troubled together with them in all their negotiations and affaires for we are not to give care unto Euripides the poet when he saith thus In mutuall love men ought a meane to keepe That it touch not heart roote nor marrow deepe Affections for to change it well befits To rise and fall now hot now coole by fits giving us to understand that friendship is to be used according as need requireth more or lesse like to the helme of a ship which both holdeth it hard and also giveth head or the tackling which spread and draw hoise and strike saile as occasion serveth But contrariwise rather good Euripides we may turne this speech of yours to enmitie admonish men that their quarrels contentions be moderate and enter not to the heart and inward marrow as it were of the soule that hatted I say and malice that anger offences defiances and suspitions be so intertained as that they may be soone appeased laid downe forgotten A better precept is that yet of Pythagoras when he teacheth us not to give our right hand to many that is to say not to make many men our friends nor to affect that popular amitie common to all and exposed or offred to every one that commeth which no doubt cannot chuse but bring many passions with it into the heart among which to be disquieted for a friend to condole or grieve with him to enter into troubles and to plunge ones felfe into perils for his sake are not very easie matters to be borne by those that cariean an ingenuous minde with them and be kind hearted but the saying of wise Chilon a prosessour of philofophie is most true who answering unto a man that vaunted how he had not an enimie It should seeme then quoth he that thou hast never a friend for certeinly enmities ensue presently upon amities nay they are both interlaced together neither is it the part of a friend not to feele the injuries done unto a friend not to participate with him in all ignomines hatred and quarrels that he incurreth and one enimie evermore will be sure to suspect the friend of another yea and be ready to malice him as for friends oftentimes they envie their owne friends they have them in jealousie and traduce them every way The oracle answered unto Timesias when he consulted about the planting and peopling of a new colonie in this wife Thou think'st to lead a swarmc of bees full kind But angrie waspes thou sbalt them shortly find Semblablie they that seeke after a bee-hive as it were of friends light ere they be aware
if we have in admiration good and vertuous men not onely in their prosperitie but also like as amorous folke are well enough pleased with the lisping or stammering tongue yea and do like the pale colour of these whom for the flower of their youth and beautie they love and thinke it beseemeth them as we reade of Ladie Panthea who by her teares and sad silence all heavie afflicted and blubbered as she was for the dolor and sorrow that she tooke for the death of her husband seized Araspes so as hee was enamoured upon her in their adversitie so as we neither start backe for feare nor dread the banishment of Aristides the imprisonment of Anaxagoras the povertie of Socrates or the condemnation of Phocion but repute their vertue desireable lovely and amiable even with all these calamities and runne directly toward her for to kisse and embrace her by our imitation having alwaies in our mouth at everie one of these crosse accidents this notable speech of Euripides Oh how each thing doth well become Such generous hearts both all and some For we are never to feare or doubt that any good or honest thing shall ever be able to avert from vertue this heavenly inspiration and divine instinct of affection which not onely is not grieved and troubled at those things which seeme unto men most full of miserie and calamitie but also admireth desireth to imitate thē Hereupon also it followeth by good consequence that they who have once received so deepe an impression in their hearts take this course with themselves That when they begin any enterprise or enter into the admininstration of government or when any sinister accident is presented unto thē they set before their eies the examples of those who either presentlyl are or hereto fore have bene worthy persons discoursing in this maner What is it that Plato would have done in this cafe what would have Epaminondas said to this how would Lycurgus or Agesilaus have behaved themselves herein After this sort I say will they labour to frame compose reforme and adorne their manners as it were before a mirrour or looking-glasse to wit in correcting any unseemly speech that they have let fall or repressing any passion that hath risen in them They that have learned the names of the demi-gods called Idaei Dactyly know how to use them as counter-charmes or preservatives against sudden frights pronouncing the same one after another readily and ceremoniously but the remembrance and thinking upon great and worthy men represented suddenly unto those who are in the way of perfection and taking holde of them in all passions and perplexions which shall encounter them holdeth them up and keepeth them upright that they can not fall and therefore this also may go for one argument and token of proceeding in vertue Over and besides not to be so much troubled with any occurrent nor to blush exceedingly for shame as before-time nor to seeke to hide or otherwise to alter our countenance or any thing els about us upon the sudden comming in place of a great or sage personage unexpected but to persist resolute to go directly toward him with bare and open face are tokens that a man feeleth his conscience setled and assured Thus Alexander the great seeing a messenger running toward him apace with a pleasant and smiling countenance and stretching foorth his hand afarre off to him How now good fellow quoth hee what good newes canst thou bring me more unlesse it be tidings that Homer is risen againe esteeming in trueth that his woorthy acts and noble deedes already atchieved wanted nothing els nor could be made greater than they were but onely by being consecrated unto immortalitie by the writings of some noble spirit even so a yoong man that groweth better and better every day and hath reformed his maners loving nothing more than to make himselfe knowen what he is unto men of worth and honour to shew unto them his whole house and the order thereof his table his wife and children his studies and intents to acquaint them with his sayings and writings insomuch as other-whiles he is grieved in his heart to thinke and remember either that his father naturall that begat him or his master that taught him are departed out of this life for that they be not alive to see in what good estate he is in and to joy thereat neither would he wish or pray to the gods for any thing so much as that they might revive and come againe above ground for to be spectators and eie-witnesses of his life and all his actions Contrariwise those that have neglected themselves and not endevoured to do wel but are corrupt in their maners can not without feare and trembling abide to see those that belong unto them no nor so much as to dreame of them Adde moreover if you please unto that which hath beene already said thus much also for a good token of progresse in vertue When a man thinketh no sinne or trespasse small but is very carefull and wary to avoid and shunne them all For like as they who despaire ever to be rich make no account at all of saving a little expense for thus they thinke That the sparing of a small matter can adde no great thing unto their stocke to heape it up but contrariwise hope when a man sees that he wanteth but a little of the marke which he shooteth at causeth that the neerer he commeth thereto his covetousnesse is the more even so it is in those matters that perteine to vertue he who giveth not place much nor proceedeth to these speeches Well and what shall we have after this Be it so now It will be better againe for it another time and such like but alwaies taketh heed to himselfe in every thing and whensoever vice insinuating it selfe into the least sinne and fault that is seemeth to pretend and suggest some colourable excuses for to crave pardon is much discontented and displeased he I say giveth hereby good evidence and proofe that he hath a house within cleane and neat and that he would not endure the least impuritie and ordure in the world to defile the same For as Aeschylus saith an opinion conceived once that nothing that we have is great and to be esteemed and reckoned of causeth us to be carelesse and negligent in small matters They that make a palaisado a rampier or rough mud wall care not much to put into their worke any wood that commeth next hand neither is it greatly materiall to take thereto any rubbish or stone that they can meet with or first commeth into their eie yea and if it were a pillar fallen from a monument or sepulchre semblably doe wicked and leawd folke who gather thrumble heape up together all sorts of gaine all actions that be in their way it makes no matter what but such as profit in vertue who are alredy planted and whose golden foundation of a good life is laid as it
same doth shew in every street All signes of griefe with plaints and groanes among he looketh with a pale face under his chaplet of flowers upon his head he sacrificeth yet quaketh for feare he maketh his praiers with a trembling voice he putteth incense into the fire and his hand shaketh withall to be short he maketh the speech or sentence of Pythagoras to be vaine and foolish who was wont to say That we are then in best case when we approch unto the gods and worship them For verily even then it is when superstitious people are most wretched miserable to wit whē they enter into the temples sanctuaries of the gods as if they went into the dennes of beares holes of serpents and dragons or caves of whales such monsters of the sea I marvel much therfore at them who call the miscreance sinne of atheists Impiety give not that name rather to superstition And yet Anaxagoras was accused of impietie for that he held and said that the Sun was a stone wheras never man yet called the Cimmerians impious or godlesse because they suppose beleeve there is no Sunne at all What say you then shall he who thinketh that there be no gods at all be taken for a profane person and excommunicate and shall not he who beleeveth them to be such as superstitious folke imagine them be thought infected with more impious and wicked opinions For mine owne part I would be better pleased and content if men should say of me thus There neither is nor ever was in the world a man named Plutarch than to give out of me and say Plutarch is an unconstant man variable cholericke full of revenge for the least occasion that is or displeased and given to grieve for a small matter who if when you invite others to supper he be left out and not bidden or if upon some businesse you be let and hindered so that you come not to his doore for to visit him or otherwise do not salute and speake unto him friendly will be ready to eat your heart with salt to set upon you with his fangs and bite you will not sticke to catch up one of your little babes and worry him or will keepe some mischievous wild beast of purpose to put into your corne-fields your vineyard or orchards for to devoure and spoile all your fruits When Timotheus the musician one day in an open Theater at Athens chanted the praises of Diana giving unto her in his song the attributes of Thyas Phoebus Moenas and Lyssas that is to say Furious Possessed Enraged and Starke mad as Poets are wont to doe Cinesias another minstrell or musician rose up from out of the whole audience and said thus aloud unto him Would God thou haddest a daughter of those quallities And yet these superstitious folke thinke the same of Diana yea and worse to neither have they a better opinion of Apollo Iuno and Venus for all of them they feare and tremble at And yet what blasphemie uttered Niobe against Latona like unto that which superstition hath perswaded foolish people to beleeve of that goddesse to wit that she being displeased with the reprochfull words that Niobe gave her killed with her arrowes all the children of that silly woman Even daughters sixe and sonnes as many just Ofripe yeeres all no helpe but die they must so insatiable was she of the calamities of another so implacable was her anger For grant it were so that this goddesse was full of gall and choler say that she tooke an hatred to leawd and wicked persons or grieved could not endure to heare herselfe reproched or to laugh at humane follie and ignorance certes she should have bene offended and angry yea and discharged her arrowes upon these who untruely impute and ascribe unto her that bitternesse and exceeding crueltie and sticke not both to deliver in words and also to set downe in writing such things of her Wee charge Heccuba with beastly and barbarous immanitie for saying thus in the last booke of Homers Iliads O that I could his liver get Amid his corps to bite and eat As for the Syrian goddesse superstitious folke are perswaded that if any one do eate Enthoises or such little fish as Aphyae she will likewise gnaw their legs fill their bodies with ulcers and putrifie or rot their liver To conclude therefore is it impiously done to blaspheme the gods and speake badly of them and is it not as impious to thinke and imagine the same considering that it is the opinion and conceit of the blasphemer and foule mouthed profane person which maketh his speech to be reputed naught and wicked For even we our selves detest and abhorre foule language for nothing so much as because it is a signe of a malicious minde and those we take for to be our enemies who give out bad words of us in this respect that we suppose thē to be faithlesse and not to be trusted but rather ill affected unto us and thinking badly of us Thus you see what judgement superstitious folke have of the gods when they imagine them to be dull and blockish treachetous and disloiall variable and fickle minded full of revenge cruell melancholike and apt to fret at every little matter whereupon it must needs follow that the superstitious man doth both hate and also dread the gods for how can it otherwise be considering that he is perswaded that all the grearest calamities which either he hath endured in times past or is like to suffer heereafter proceed from them now whosoever hateth and feareth the gods he is no doubt their enemie neither is it to be woondred at for all this that although he stand in dread of them yet he adoreth and worshippeth them he praieth and sacrificeth unto them frequenteth duly and devoutly their temples and is not willingly out of them for do we not see it ordinarily that reverence is done unto tyrants that men make court unto them and crie God save your grace yea and erect golden statues to the honour of them howbeit as great devotion and divine honour as they doe unto them in outward apparence they hate and abhorre them secretly to the heart Hermolaus courted Alexander and was serviceable about him Pausanias was one of the squires of the bodie to king Philip and so was Chaereas to Caligula the Emperour but there was not of these but even when he served them said thus in his heart Certes in case it did now lie in mee Of thee thou tyrant revenged would I be Thus you see the Atheist thinketh there be no gods but the superstitious person wisheth that there were none yet he beleeveth even against his will that there be nay he dare not otherwise doe for feare of death Now if he could like as Tantalus desired to goe from under the stone that hung over his head be discharged of this feare which no lesse doth presse him downe surely he would embrace yea and thinke the
services and sacrifices be acceptable which a woman will seeme to celebrate by stealth and without the knowledge and privitie of her husband 18 Plato writeth that the citie is blessed and happie wherein a man shall never heare these words This is mine and This is not mine for that the inhabitants thereof have all things there especially if they be of any woorth and importance as neere as possibly they can common among them but these words ought rather to be banished out of the state of matrimonie unlesse it be as the Physicians holde that the blowes or woundes which are given on the left side of the body are felt on the right even so a wife ought to have a fellow-feeling by way of sympathie and compassion of her husbands calamities and the husband of his wives much more to the end that like as those knots are much more fast and strong when the ends of the cords are knit and interlaced one within another even so the bond of marriage is more firme and sure when both parties the one aswell as the other bring with them a mutuall affection and reciprocall benevolence whereby the fellowship and communion betweene them is mainteined jointly by them both for nature herselfe hath made a mixture of us of two bodies to the end that by taking part of one and part of another and mixing all together she might make that which commeth thereof common to both in such sort as neither of the twaine can discerne and distinguish what is proper to the one or peculiar to the other This communion of goods especially ought principally to be among those who are linked in wedlocke for that they should put in common and have all their havorie incorporate into one substance in such wise as they repute not this part proper to one and that part peculiar to another but the whole proper to themselves and nothing to another and like as in one cuppe where there is more water than wine yet we say neverthelesse that the whole is wine even so the goods and the house ought to beare the name of the husband although peradventure the wife brought with her the bigger portion 19 Helene was covetous and Paris lascivious contrariwise Ulysses was reputed wise and Penelope chaste and therefore the mariage of these last named was blessed happie and beloved but the conjunction of those two before infortunate bringing upon the Greeks and Barbarians both a whole Iliad that is to say an infinite masse of miseries and calamities 20 A gentleman of Rome who espoused an honest rich faire and yoong ladie put her away and was divorced from her whereupon being reprooved and sharply rebuked by all his friends he put forth his foot unto them and shewed them his shoo What finde you quoth he in this shoo of mine amisse new it is and faire to see to howbeit there is not one of you all knoweth where it wringeth me but I wot well where the fault is and feele the inconvenience thereof A wife therefore is not to stand so much upon her goods and the dowrie shee brings nor in the nobilitie of her race and parentage ne yet in her beautie as in those points which touch her husband most and come neerest to his heart namely her conversation and fellowship her maners her carrage demeanor in all respects so disposed that they be all not harsh nor troublesome from day to day unto her husband but pleasant lovely obsequious and agreeable to his humor for like as Physicians feare those feavers which are engendred of secret and hidden causes within the bodie gathering in long continuance of time by little and little more than such as proceed from evident and apparent causes without even so there fall out otherwhiles petie jarres daily and continuall quarels betweene man and wife which they see and know full little that be abroad and these they be which breed separation and cause them to part sooner than any thing els these marre the pleasure of their cohabitation more than any other cause whatsoever 21 King Philip was enamoured upon a certaine Thessalian woman who was supposed and charged by her sorceries and charmes to have enchanted him to love her whereupon queene Olympias his wife wrought so that she got the woman into her hands now when she had well viewed her person and considered her beautifull visage her amiable favour her comely grace and how her speech shewed well that she was a woman of some noble house and had good bringing up Out upon these standerous surmises quoth she and false imputations for I see well that the charmes and sorceries which thou usest are in thy selfe In like maner we must thinke that an espoused and legitimate wife is as one would say a fort inexpugnable namely such an one as in her selfe reposing and placing all these things to wit her dowrie nobilitie charmes and love-drinks yea and the very tissue or girdle of Venus by her study and endevour by her gentle behavior her good grace and vertue is able to win the affectionate love of her husband for ever 22 Another time the same queene Olympias hearing that a certaine yoong gentleman of the Court had married a ladie who though she were faire and well-favoured yet had not altogether the best name This man quoth shee hath no wit at all in his head for otherwise hee would never have married according to the counsell and appetite of his eies only And in trueth we ought not to goe about for to contract marriage by the eie or the fingers as some doe who count with their fingers how much money or what goods a wife bringeth with her never casting and making computation of her demeanour and conditions whether she be so well qualified as that they may have a good life with her 23 Socrates was woont to counsell yoong men who used to see their faces and looke upon themselves in mirrours if they were foule or ill-favoured to correct that deformitie by vertue if they were faire not to soile and staine their beautie with vice semblably it were very well that the mistresse of an house having in her hand a looking glasse should say thus unto her selfe if she be foule and deformed What a one should I be if I nought or leawd withall if faire and well-favoured How highly shall I be esteemed if I be honest and wise besides for if an hard-favoured woman be loved for her faire and gentle conditions she hath more honor thereby than if she wan love by beautie onely 24 The tyrant of Sicily Dionysius sent upon a time unto the daughters of Lysander certeine rich robes costly wreathes and precious jewels as presents but Lysander would not receive these gifts saying These presents would bring more shame than honour to my daughters And the Poet Sophocles before Lysanders time wrote to the like effect in these verses This will ô wretch to thee none honour bring But may be thought a foule and shamefull
primitive nourishment of mankinde and namely among other things very common and which grow of themselves without mans hand the Mallow and the Asphodell which two hearbs it is verie probable and like that Hesiodus also recommended unto us for their simplicitie profit Not in those regards onely quoth Anacharsis but for that they both the one as well as the other are commended as especiall hearbs for the health of man True quoth Cleodemus and great reason you have so to say for Hesiodus was well seene in Physicke as may appeare by that which he hath written so exactly and skilfully of diet and the regiment of our feeding of the manner of tempering wine of the vertue and goodnesse of water the use of baines bathes and women of the time of keeping companie with them and of the positure of infants in the wombe and when they should be borne But to judge aright Aesope had more reason than Epimenides to avow himselfe the disciple of Hesiodus for the talke which the hauke had with the nightingall gave unto Aesope the first beginning of his faire variable and many tongued learning of his But willing I am to heare Solon for verie like it is that he having lived and conversed so familiarly many yeeres together with Epimenides at Athens asked of him oftentimes and knew full well upon what accident or occasion and for what purpose he chose and followed this strait course of life And what need was there quoth Solon to demaund that of him for all the world knoweth and most evident it is that as the greatest and most soveraigne good of man is to have no need at all of nouriture so the next unto it is to require the least nourishment that is Not so quoth Cleodemus if I may be so bold as to speake my mind For I do not thinke that the soveraigne good of man is to eate nothing especially when the table is laide and furnished with meat for to take away the viands set thereupon is as much as to subvert the altar and sacrifice unto the gods and to overthrow the amity and hospitalitie among men And like as Thales saith That if the earth were taken out of the world there must of necessitie ensue a generall confusion of all things even so we may say put downe the boord you doe as much as ruinate the whole house for with it you abolish fire which keepeth the house the tutelar-deitie of Vesta the amiable custome of drinking together out of one boll and cup the laudable manner of feasting friends the kind fashion of entertaining strangers and all reciprocall hospitalitie and mutuall usage of guests which be the principalland most courteous conversations that can bee devised among men one with another and to speake in summe more truely farewell then all the sweetnes of humane life and societie in case there be allowed any retrait at all solace and passion apart from businesse and affaires whereof the need of sustenance and the preparation thereto belonging yeeldeth most matter and affoordeth the greatest part Moreover the mischiefe hereof would reach as far as to agriculture and that were great pity considering that if husbandrie were laid downe with the decay ruine therof there would ensue againe a rude deformed face of the whole earth as being neglected not clensed from fruitlesse trees bushes weeds and overflowed with the inundation of waters rivers running out of their chanels to and fro without order for want of good husbandrie and the diligent hand of man over and besides perish there shall with it all arts and handicrafts which the table mainteineth and keepeth in traine giving unto them their foundation matter in such sort as they will come all to nothing if you take it away nay more than that What will become of religion and worship done to the gods for surely men will exhibit but little or none honour at all unto the Sunne and much lesse unto the Moone as having nought els from them but their light heat onely and who will ever cause an altar to be reared and furnished as it ought to be to Jupiter for sending downe seasonable raine or to Ceres the patronesse of agriculture or to Neptune the protectour of trees and plants who will ever-after offer any sacrifices unto them how shall Bacchus be the authour of joy and mirth if we have no more any need of that pleasant liquor of wine which he giveth what shall we sacrifice what shall wee powre upon the altars what oblations shall we offer unto the gods and whereof shall wee present any first fruits In one word this abuse would bring with it a totall subversion and generall confusion of the best and chiefest things True it is that to follow all kinde of pleasures and in every maner were bruitishnesse and even so to flie them all and in no wise to embrace them were no lesse follie and sottishnesse The soule may well enough enjoy other pleasures and delights which are better and more noble but the bodie can finde none at all more harmlesse and honest to content it selfe with than to eat and drinke whereby it is fed and nourished a thing that there is no man but he both knoweth and acknowledgeth in regard whereof men use to set and spread their tables in publicke and open places for to eat and drinke together in the broad day-light whereas to take the pleasure of Venus they wait for the night and seeke all the darknesse they can supposing it to be as beastly and shamelesse to do the one in publike and common as not at all to doe the other but forbeare it altogether When Cleodemus herewith brake off and ended his speech I followed in the same traine and seconded his words in this wise But you overpasse one thing besides namely that by this meanes together with our food and nourishment we banish and drive away all sleepe now if there be no sleepe there will be no dreames so by consequence we may bid farewell to a most ancient kinde of oracle and divination which we have by them Over and besides our life will be alwaies after one fashion and to no purpose but in vaine shall the soule be clad as a man would say within the bodie seeing that the greatest number and the principall parts of the said bodie were made and framed by nature for to serve as instruments of nourishment as for example the tongue the teeth the stomacke and the liver c. for there is nothing in the whole structure and composition of mans body that either lieth still idle or is ordeined for any other use insomuch as whosoever hath no need of food needeth not the body also which is as much to say as that hee standeth in no need of himselfe for every one of us doth consist aswell of bodie as soule Thus much may serve for my part to have spoken in the defence of the bellie now if Solon or any
publike exercises The Lacedaemonians likewise would never have put up the insolent behaviour and mockerie of Stratocles who having perswaded the Athenians to sacrifice unto the gods in token of thankesgiving for a victorie as if they had beene conquerours and afterwards upon the certaine newes of a defeature and overthrow received when he saw the people highly offended and displeased with him demaunded of them what injurie he had done them if by his meanes they had beene merrie and feasted three daies together As for the flatterers that belong to Princes courts they play by their-lords and masters as those fowlers do who catch their birds by a pipe counterfeiting their voices for even so they to winde and insinuate themselves into the favour of kings and princes doe resemble them for all the world and by this devise entrap and deceive them But for a good governour of a State it is not meet and convenient that he should imitate the nature and the manners of the people under his government but to know them and to make use of those meanes to every particular person by which he knoweth that he may best win and gaine them to him for the ignorance and want of skill in this behalfe namely how to handle men according to their humours bringeth with it all disorders and is the cause of irregular enormities as well in popular governments as among minnions and favorites of princes Now after that a ruler hath gotten authoritie and credit once among the people then ought he to strive and labour for to reforme their nature and conditions if they be faultie then is he by little and little to lead them gently as it were by hand unto that which is better for a most painefull and difficult thing it is to change and alter a multitude all at once and to bring this about the better he ought first to begin with himselfe and to amend the misdemeanours and disorders in his owne life and manners knowing that he is to live from thence foorth as it were in open Theater where he may be seene and viewed on everie side Now if haply it be an hard matter for a man to free his owne mind from all sorts of vices at once yet at least wise he is to cut-off and put away those that bee most apparent and notorious to the eies of the world For you have heard I am sure how Themistocles when hee minded to enter upon the mannaging of State-matters weaned himselfe from such companie wherein hee did nothing but drinke daunce revell and make good cheere and when he fell to sitting up late and watching at his booke to fasting and studying hard hee was woont to say to his familiars that the Tropheae of Miltiades would not suffer him to sleepe and take his rest Pericles in like case altered his fashions in the whole course and maner of his life in his person in his sober and grave going in his affable and courteous speech shewing alwaies a staied and setled countenance holding his hand ever-more under his robe and never putting it foorth and not going abroad to any place in the citie but onely to the tribunall and pulpit for publike orations or els to the counsell house For it is not an easie matter to weld and manage a multitude of people neither are they to be caught of every one and taken with their safetie in the catching but a gracious and gainfull piece of worke it were if a man may bring it thus much about that like unto suspicious craftie wilde beasts they be not affrighted nor set a madding at that which they heare and see but gently suffer themselves to be handled and be apt to receive instruction and therefore this would not in any wise be neglected neither are such to have a small regard to their owne life and maners but they ought to studie and labor as much as possibly they can that the same be without all touch and reproch for that they who take in hand the government of publike affaires are not to give account nor to answere for that onely which they either say or doe in publike but they are searched narrowly into and manie a curious eie there is upon them at their boord much listening after that which passeth in their beds great sifting and scanning of their marriages and their behaviour in wedlocke and in one word all that ever they doe privately whether it be in jest or in good earnest For what need we write of Alcibiades who being a man of action and execution as famous and renowmed a captaine as any one in his time and having borne himselfe alwaies invincible and inferiour to none in the managing of the publike State yet notwithstanding ended his daies wretchedly by meanes of his dissolute loosenes and outragious demeanour in his private life and conversation at home insomuch as he bereft his owne countrey of the benefit they might have had by his other good parts and commendable qualities even by his intemperance and sumptuous superfluitie in expence Those of Athens found fault with Cimon because he had a care to have good wine and the Romaines finding no other thing in Scipio to reproove blamed him for that hee loved his bed too well the ill-willers of Pompey the Great having observed in him that otherwhiles he scratched his head with one finger reprochedhim for it For like as a little freckle mole or pendant-wert in the face of man or woman is more offensive than blacke and blew marks than scars or maimes in all the rest of the bodie even so small and light faults otherwise of themselves shew great in the lives of Princes and those who have the government of the weale-publike in their hands and that in regard of an opinion imprinted in the minds of men touching the estate of governours and magistrates esteeming it a great thing and that it ought to be pure and cleere from all faults and imperfections And therefore deserved Julius Drusus a noble Senatour and great ruler in Rome to be highly praised in that when one of his workemen promised him if he so would to devise and contrive his house so that whereas his neighbours overlooked him and saw into many parts thereof they should have no place therein exposed to their view and discoverie and that this translating and alteration thereof should cost him but five talents Nay quoth he thou shalt have ten talents and make mine house so that it may bee seene into on everie side to the end that all the citie may both see and know how I live for in trueth he was a grave wise honest and comely personage But peradventure it is not so necessarie that a house lie so open as to be looked into on all sides for the people have eies to pierce and enter into the verie bottom of governours manners of their counsels actions and lives which a man would thinke to be most covert secret no lesse quick-sighted are
expert warriours indeed whether of them twaine performed his service and devoir better Being created censour he deprived a yoong gallant of his horse for that being given excessively to feast and make good cheere whiles the citie of Carthage was besieged he had caused a certeine marchpaine to be made by pastry-worke in forme of a citie and called it Carthage and when he had so done set it upon the boord to be spoiled and sacked forsooth by his companions and when this youth would needs know of him why he was thus disgraced and degraded as to lose his horse of service which was allowed him from the State Because quoth he you will needs rifle and pill Carthage before me During the time that he was censour he seeing one day C. Licinius as he passed by Now surely I knew this man quoth he for a perjured person but for that there is none to accuse him I will not be both his judge and a witnesse also to give evidence against him Being sent by the Senate a third commissioner with other Triumvirs according as Clitomachus said Mensmanners to observe and oversee Where they doe well and where they faultie bee to visit also and looke into the States of cities nations and kings When he was arrived at Alexandria and disbarked as he came first to land he went hooded as it were with his robe cast over his head but the Alexandrians running from all parts of the citie to see him requested him to discover his head that his face might be the better seene and he had no sooner uncovered his visage but they all cried out with great acclamations applauding and clapping their hands in signe of joy And when the king himselfe of Alexandria streined and strived with great paine so grosse so idle and delicate he was otherwise to keepe pace with him and the other commissioners as they walked Scipio rounded Panaetius softly in the eare and said The Alexandrians have reaped already the frure and enjoied the benefit of my voyage for that by our meanes they have seene their king to walke and go afoot There accompanied him in this voiage a friend of his and a Philosopher named Panaetius and five servitors besides to wait upon him and when one of these five hapned to die in this journey he would not buy another in a foreine countrey for to supply his place but sent for one to Rome to serve in his turne It seemed to the people of Rome that the Numantines were invincible and inexpugnable for that they had vanquished and defeated so many captaines and leaders of the Romans whereupon they chose this Scipio Consull the second time for to manage this warre now when many a lustie yoong gallant made meanes and prepared to follow him in this service the Senat empeached them alleaging colourably that Italy thereby should be left destitute of men for the defence of the countrey what need soever should be so they would not suffer him to take that money out of the treasurie which was prest and ready for him but assigned and ordeined certaine monies from the Publicanes and fermers of the cities customes and revenues to furnish him whose daies of paiment were not yet come As for money quoth Scipio I stand not in such need thereof that I should stay therefore for out of mine owne and my friends purses I shall have sufficient to defray my charges but I complaine rather that I may not be allowed to levie leade forth my soldiors such as I would and be willing to serve considering that it is a dangerous warre which we are to wage for if it be in regard of our enemies valour that our people have so often beene beaten and foiled by them then we shall finde it a hot peece of service and a hard to encounter such but if it be long of our owne mens cowardize no lesse difficult will it be because we are to fight with the slender helpe of such When he was newly arrived at the campe he found there great disorder much loosenesse superstition and wastfull superfluity in all things so he banished presently all diviners prophets and tellers of fortune he rid out of the way all sacrificing priests all bauds likewise that kept brothel-houses he chased foorth and he gave slreight charge that every man should send away all maner of vessels and utensils save onely a pot or kettle to seeth his meat in a spit to roast and a drinking jugge of earth as for silver plate he allowed no man more in all than weighed two pounds he put downe all baines and stouphes but if any were disposed to be annointed he gave order that every man should take paine to rubbe himselfe for he said that beasts who had no hands of their owne needed another for to rub and currie them he ordeined that his soldiers should take their dinner standing and eate their meat not hot and without fire but at supper they might sit downe who that list and feed upon bread or single grewell and plaine potrage together with one simple dish of flesh either boiled or rost as for himselfe he wore a cassocke or soldiors coat all blacke buttoned close or buckled before saying That he mourned for the shame of his armie He met with certaine garrons and labouring beasts belonging to one Memmius a collonel of a thousand men carying drinking cups and other plate enriched with precious stones and wrought curiously by the hands of Thericles whereupon he said unto him Thou hast made thy selfe unsit to serve me and they countrey for these thirtie daies being such an one as thou art and surely being given to these superfluities thou art disabled for doing thy selfe good all the daies of thy life Another there was who shewed him what a trim shield or target he had finely made and richly adorned Here is a faire goodly shield indeed quoth he my yoong man but I 〈◊〉 thee a Romane soldior ought to trust his right hand better than his left There was one who carying upon his shoulder a bunch of pales or burden of stakes for to pitch in the rampar complained that he was over-laden Thou art but well enough served quoth he in that thou reposest more confidence in these stakes than in thy sword Seeing his enemies the Numantines how they grew rash desperate and foolishly bent he would not in that fit charge upon them and give battell but held off still saying That with tract of time he would buy the surety and securitie of his affaires For a good captaine quoth he ought to doe like a wise physician who will never proceed to the cutting or dismembring of a part but upon extremitie namely when all other means of physicke doe faile howbeit when he espied a good occasion and fit opportunitie he assaulted the Numantines and overthrew them which when the old beaten soldiers or elders of the Numantines saw they rebuked and railed upon their owne men thus defaited asking them
after that her sonne was slaine when certaine embassadors from the citie Amphipolis came to Sparta and visited her demaunded of them whether her sonne died like a valiant man and as became a Spartan now when they praised him exceedinly saying that he was the bravest man in armes in all Lacedaemon she said againe unto them My sonne was indeed a knight of valour and honour my good friends but Lacedaemon hath many others yet more valiant than he was GORGO the daughter of king Cleomenes when Aristagoras the Milesian was come to Sparta for to sollicit Cleomenes to make warre upon the king of Persia in the defence of the Ionians freedome and in consideration heereof promised him a good round summe of money and the more that he contradicted and denied the motion the more he still augmented the summe of money which he promised Father quoth she this stranger heere will corrupt you if you send him not the sooner out of your house Also when her father willed hir one day to deliver certaine corne unto a man by way of a reward and recompence saying withall For this is he who hath taught me how to make wine good How now good father quoth she shall there be more wine drunke still considering that they who drinke thereof become more delicate and lesse valorous When she saw how Aristagoras had one of his men to put on his shooes Father quoth she heere is a stranger that hath no hands When she saw a foreiner comming toward her who was wont to goe softly and delicatlie shee thrust him from her and said Avaunt idle luske as thou art and get thee gone for thou art not so good of deed as a woman GYRTIAS when Acrotatus her nephew or daughters sonne from out of a braule and fray that was betweene him and other yoonkers his companions was brought home with many a wound insomuch as no man looked for life seeing his familiar friends and those of his acquaintance waile and take on piteously What quoth she let be this weeping and lamentation for now hath he shewed of what bloud he is descended neither ought wee to crie out and bewaile for the hurts of valiant men but rather to goe about their cure and salve them if haply we may save their lives When a messenger comming out of Candia where he served in the warres brought newes that the said Acrotatus was slaine in fight Why quoth she what else should he do being once gone foorth to warre but either die himselfe or else kill his enemies yet had I rather heare and it doth me much more good that he died woorthy my selfe woorthy his native countrey and his progenitours than that he should live as long as possiblie a man could like a coward and man of no woorth DEMETRIA hearing that her sonne prooved a dastard and indeed not woorthy to be her sonne so soone as ever he was returned from the wars she killed him with her owne hands whereupon was made this epigram of her By mothers hand was slaine one Demetrie For that he brake the lawes of chivalrie No marvell she a noble Spartan dame Disclaimd her sonne unwoorthy of that name Another woman of Lacedaemon being given to understand that her sonne had abandoned his ranke made him likewise away as unwoorthy of that countrey wherein he was borne saying That he was no sonne of hers And thereupon this epigram also was composed of her Amischiefe take thee wicked impe be gone in divils name Through balefull darknesse Hatredis too good and earthly shame For cowards such of craven kind like hinds are not to drinke Nor wash in faire Eurotas streame their bodies as I thinke Avaunt thou cur-dogge whelpe to hell thou divils limme unmon'd Unwoorthy Sparta soile thou art ' for thee I never gron'd Another hearing that her sonne was saved and had escaped out of the hands of his enemies wrote thus unto him There runneth a naughtie rumor of thee either stop the course thereof or else live not There was another likewise whose children had fled out of the battell and when they came home unto her she welcomed them in this manner Whither goe you running leawd lozels and cowardly slaves as you are thinke you to enter hither againe from whence you first came and therewith plucked up her cloaths and shewed them her bare belly Also another espying her sonne new returned from the wars and comming toward her What newes quoth she how goeth the world with our countrey and common-wealth and when he answered We have lost the field and all our men be slaine she tooke up an earthen pot let it fly at his head killed him out-right saying And have they sent thee to bring us the newes There was one brother recounted unto his mother what a noble death his brother died unto whom his mother answered And wert not thou ashamed that thou didst not accompanie him in so faire a journey Another there was who had sent her sonnes and five they were in number to the warres and she stood waiting at the townes end about the suburbs and hamlets neere unto them for to hearken what was the issue of the battell and of the first man whom she encountred from the campe she asked what newes and who had the day hee told her that her sonnes were slaine all five Thou leaud varlet quoth shee and base slave as thou art I did not demaund that question of thee but in what state the affaire of the common-wealth stood The victorie quoth he is ours Then am I well appaid saith shee and contented with the losse of my children Another there was unto whom as she buried her sonne slaine in the warres there came a silly old woman and moaned her saying Ah good woman what fortune is this Why good quoth she by Castor and Pollux I sweare for I bare him into this world for nothing else but that he should spend his life for Sparta and loe this is now hapned A ladie there was of Ionia who bare herselfe verie proud of a worke in tapistrie which she herselfe had made most costly and curiously but a Laconian dame shewed unto her foure children all verie well given and honestly brought up Such as these quoth she ought to be the works of a ladie of honour and herein should a noble woman in deed make her boast and vaunt herselfe Another there was who heard newes that a sonne of hers behaved himselfe not well in a strange countrey where hee was unto whom she wrote a letter in this wise There is blowen a bad brute of thee in these parts either proove it salfe or else die I advise thee Certaine fugitives or exiled persons from Chios came to Sparta who accused Paedaretus and laid many crimes to his charge his mother Teleuria hearing thereof sent for them to come unto her at whose mouthes when she heard the severall points of their imputations and judging in herselfe that hee was in fault and had done great wrongs
upon the land which had remained a long time among them and had passed by descent from father to sonne and by their forefathers had beene first brought unto them from Brauron unto the isle Lemnos and which they caried with them from thence into all places wheresoever they came after this sudden fright and tumult was passed as they sailed in the open sea they missed the said image and withall Pollis also was advertised that a flouke of an anker was wanting and lost for that when they came to weigh anker by great force as commonly it hapneth in such places where it taketh hold of the ground among rocks it brake and was left behinde in the bottome of the sea whereupon he said that the oracles were now fulfilled which foretold them of these signes and therewith gave signall to the whole fleete for to retire backe and so he entred upon that region to his owne use and after he had in many skirmishes vanquished those who were up in armes against him he lodged at length in the citie Lyctus and wan many more to it Thus you see how at this day they call themselves the kinsfolke of the Athenians by the mothers side but indeed by the father they are a colonie drawne from Lacedaemon THE LYCIAN WOMEN THat which is reported to have beene done in Lycia as a meere fable and tale devised of pleasure yet neverthelesse testified by a constant same that runneth verie currant For Amisodarus as they say whom the Lycians name Isarus came from about the marches of Zelea a colonie of the Lycians with a great fleet of rovers and men of warre whose captaine or admirall was one Chimaerus a famous arch-pirate a warlike man but exceeding cruell savage and inhumane who had for the badges and ensignes of his owne ship in the prow a lion and at the poope a dragon much hurt hee did upon all the coasts of Lycia insomuch as it was not possible either to saile upon the sea or to inhabit the maritime cities and townes neere unto the sea side for him This man of warre or arch-rover Bellerophontes had slaine who followed him hard in chase with his swift pinnace Pegasus as he fled untill he had overtaken him and withall had chased the Amazones out of Lycia yet for all this he not onely received no worthy recompence for his good service at the hands of Iobates king of Lycia but also which was woorse sustained much wrong by him by occasion whereof Bellerophontes taking it as a great indignitie went to sea againe where he praied against him unto Neptune that he would cause his land to be barraine and unfruitfull which done hee returned backe againe but behold a strange and fearfull spectacle for the sea swelled overflowed all the countrey following him everie where as he went and covering after him the face of the earth and for that the men of those parts who did what possibly they could to entreat him for to stay this inundation of the sea could not obtaine so much at his hands the women tooke up their petticots before went to meet him shewed their nakednes wherupon for very shame he returned back the sea likewise by report retired with him into the former place But some there be who more civilly avciding the fabulosity of this tale say That it was not by praiers imprecations that he drew after him the sea but because that part of Lycia which was most sertill being low and flat lay under the levell of the sea there was a banke raised along the sea side which kept it in and Bellerophon cut a breach thorow it and so it came to passe that the sea with great violence entred that way and drowned the flat part of the countrey whereupon the men did what they could by way of praiers and intrearie with him in hope to appease his mood but could not prevaile howbeit the women environing him round about by great troups companies pressed him so on all sides that he could not for verie shame deny them so in favour of them said downe his anger Others affirme that Chimaera was an high mountaine directly opposite to the sunne at noon-tide which caused great reflections and reverberations of the sunne beames and by consequence ardent heats in manner of a fire in the said mountaine which comming to be spread and dispersed over the champion ground caused all the fruits of the earth to dry fade and wither away whereof Bellerophontes a man of great reach and deepe conceit knowing the cause in nature caused in many places the superfice of the said rocke or mountaine to be cloven and cut in two which before was most smooth even and by that reason consequently did send back the beames of the sun cansed the excessive heat in the countrey adjoining now for that he was not well considered and regarded by the inhabitants according to his demerit in despite he meant to be revenged of the Lycians but the women wrought him so that they allaied his fury But surely that cause which Nymphus alleageth in his fourth booke as touching Heraclea is not fabulous nor devised to delight the Reader for he saith That this Bellerophontes having killed a wilde bore that destroied all the fruits of the earth all other beasts within the Xanthiens countrey had no recompense therefore whereupon when he had powred out grievous imprecations against those unthankfull Xanthiens unto Neptune hee brought salt-water all over the land which marred all and made all become bitter untill such time as he being wonne by the praiers and supplications of the women besought Neptune to let fal his wrath Loe whereupon the custome arose and continueth still in the Xanthiens countrey That men in all their affaires negotiate not in the name of their fathers but of their mothers and called after their names THE WOMEN OF SALMATICA ANnnibal of the house of Barca before that he went into Italic to make warre with the Romaines laid siege unto a great citie in Spaine named Salmatica the besieged were at the first affraid and promised to do whatsoever Annibal would commaund them yea and to pay him three hundred talents of silver for securitie of which capitulation to be performed they put into his hands three hundred hostages but so soone as Anmbal had raised his siege they repented of this agreement which they had concluded with him and would do nothing according to the conditions of the accord whereupon hee returned againe for to besiege them afresh and to encourage his souldiers the better to give the assault he said That hee would give unto them the saccage and pillage of the towne whereupon the citizens within were wonderfully affraid and yeelded themselves to his devotion upon this condition That the Barbarians would permit as many as were of free condition to goe foorth every man in his single garment leaving behind them their armes goods money slaves and the citie Now the dames
affaires which passed about the time of the battell at Mantinea or a little after namely in that yeere when Charicles was provost and Demosthenes somewhat before that had given his tutors and guardians the overthrow at the barre When as Aeschines upon his condemnation was fledde toward Athens there to live in exile Demosthenes being advertised thereof made after him on horse-backe whereupon Aeschines imagining that he should be taken prisoner fell downe at his feet and covered his face but Demosthenes willed him to arise and stand up gave him comfortable words and besides put a talent of silver into his hands He gave counsell unto the Athenians to enterteine a certeine number of mercenarie souldiers strangers in the isle of Thasos and to this effect he sailed thither as captaine with the charge of a great galley under his hands He was chosen another time chiefe purveior of corne and being accused for demeaning himselfe badly and purloining the cities money he cleared himselfe and was acquit When Philip had forced the city Elatia and was master of it Demosthenes abandoned the said city together with those who had sought in the battell of Cheronaea whereupon is thought that he forsooke his colours and sledde now as he made haste away there chanced a bramble to take hold of his cassocke behinde whereat he turned backe and said unto the bramble Save my life and take my ransome Upon his target he had for his mot or device Good fortune And verily he it was that made the oration at the funerals of those who lost their lives in the said battell After this he applied his minde and bent his chiefe care to the reparations of the citie and being chosen commissarie for repairing the walles he laide out of his owne besides the defraying of the cities money an hundred pounds of silver over and above that he gave ten thousand for to be emploied in the setting out of shewes games and plaies which done he embarked himselfe in a galley and sailed up and downe from coast to coast for to levie money of the allies and confedetates for which good services hee was crowned many times first by the meanes and motion of Demoteles Aristonicus and Hyperides who propounded that he should be honoured with a coronet of gold and last of all at the instant sute of Ctesiphon which decree was empeached and blamed as contrarie to the lawes by Diodotus and 〈◊〉 against whom he defended and maintained it so well that he carried it cleane away so as his accuser had not the fifth part of the suffrages and voices of the people on his side Afterwards when Alexander was passed onward his voyage into Asia Harpalus sled into Athens with a great summe of money at the first hee would not suffer him to bee entertained and kept safely but after he was once arrived and set aland and that he had received of him a thousand good pieces of gold called Dariks then he changed his note and sung another song for when the Athenians were minded to deliver the man into the hands of Antipater he withstood them and withall set downe under his hand-writing that his money was laid up safe in the Citadel the summe whereof he had declared already unto the people whereas Harpalus had specified it to be seven hundred and fiftie talents or somewhat above as saith Philocharus But after this when Harpalus had broken prison wherein hee should have beene kept untill some messenger and newes came directly from Alexander and was escaped and retired as some say to Candie or as others to Tenarus in Laconia Demosthenes was called into question for corruption briberie and taking his money for that he neither declared the just quantitie and summe of coine that thither was brought not the negligence of those who had the custodie of it and him thus I say was he brought to his answere judicially by Hyperides Pytheus Menesechmus Hymeraeus and Patrocles who followed the sute so hard that they caused him to be condemned in the high court and chamber of Ariopagus and thus condemned he went into exile being not able to pay five fold for charged he was to have taken thirtie talents others say that he would not abide the issue of judgement and therefore went voluntarie before the day of triall into banishment After this time the Athenians sent Polyeuctus in embassage to the communaltie of the Arcadians for to divert and withdraw them from the league and confederacie of the Macedonians but when Polyeuctus could not perswade them to revolt Demosthenes came upon them and shewed himselfe to second the motion where he spake so effectually that he prevailed with them for which service he was highly admired and thereby wanne such favour and reputation that after a certaine time by vertue of a publicke decree he was called home againe out of exile and a galley was set out of purpose to bring him backe to Athens and the Athenians moreover ordained that whereas he owed unto the State thirtie talents in which he was condemned he should cause an altar to be built unto Jupiter the Saviour in the port Pyreaeum in so doing be held aquit and discharged This decree was propounded by Daemon the Paeanian his cousen germain By this meanes he returned to the politicke mannaging of affaires as before Now when as Antipater was streightly besieged by the Greeks and enclosed within the citie Limia whereupon the Athenians offered sacrifices for the good and joyfull tidings thereof he chaunced to let fall a word in talking with Agesistratus a familiar friend of his and to say that he was not of the same mind and opinion with other as touching the State For I know full wel quoth he that the Greeks are skilfull and able both to run a short carriere and good to make a skirmish for a spurt and away but to hold on a long race and to continue the warre unto the end they can never abide But afterwards when Anipater had wonne Pharsalus and threatned the Athenians to lay siege unto their citie unlesse he would deliver into his hands those oratours who had inveighed against him Demosthenes for feare of himselfe left the citie of Athens and fled first into the Isle Aegina for to put himselfe within the liberties and franchises of the temple or sanctuarie called Aeacium but afterwards being affraid that he should be fetched out from thence by the eares he passed over into Calauria where having intelligence that the Athenians were resolved and had concluded to deliver those oratours and himselfe principally among the rest hee rested as a poore distressed suppliant within the temple of Neptune and when there came unto him thithere Archias the pursuvant surnamed Phygadotheres that is to say the hunter of Fugitives who was a disciple and sectarie of Anaximenes the philosopher perswading him to arise and that no doubt he should be reckoned one of the friends of Antipater he answered thus When you play a part in a
wise Convey unto me that Musicall wench of thine that sings so daintily and receive for her ten talents which I send by this bearer let me have her I say unlesse thou thy selfe be in love with her When Antipatrides another of his minions came in a maske on a time to his house accompanied with a prety girle that plaied upon the psaltery sung passing well Alexander taking great delight contentment in the said damosell demanded of Antipatrides whether he were not himselfe enamoured of her And when he answered Yes verily and that exceeding much A mischiefe on thee quoth he leud varlet as thou art and the divell take thee but the wench he absteined from and would not so much as touch her But marke moreover besides of what power even in martiall feats of armes Love is Love I say which is not as saith Euripides Of nature slow dull fickle inconstant Nor in soft cheeks of maidens resiant For a man that is possessed secretly in his heart with Love needeth not the assistance of Mars when he is to encounter with his enemies in the field but having a god of his owne within him and presuming of his presence Most prest he is and resolute to passe through fire and seas The blasts of most tempestuous windes he cares not to appease And all for his friends sake and according as he commandeth him And verily of those children aswell sonnes as daughters of lady 〈◊〉 who in a Tragoedie of Sophocles are represented to be shot with arrowes and so killed one there was who called for no other to helpe and 〈◊〉 her at the point of death but onely her paramor in this wise Oh that some god my Love would send My life to save and me defend Ye all know I am sure doe ye not how and wherefore Cleomachus the Thessalian died in combat Not I for my part quoth Pemptides but gladly would I heare and learne of you And it is a storie quoth my father worth the hearing and the knowledge There came to aide the Chalcidians at what time as there was hot warre in Thessalie against the Eretrians this Cleomachus now the Chalcidians seemed to be strong enough in their footmen but much adoe they had and thought it was a difficult piece of service to breake the cavallerie of their enemies and to repell them So they requested Cleomachus their allie and confederate a brave knight and of great courage to give the first charge and to enter upon the said men of armes With that he asked the youth whom he loved most entirely and who was there present whether he would beholde this enterprise and see the conflict and when the yong man answered Yea and withall kindly kissing and embracing him set the helmet upon his head Cleomachus much more hardy and fuller of spirit than before assembled about him a troupe of the most valourous hosemen of all the Thessalians advanced forward right gallantly and with great resolution set upon the enemies in such sort as at the very first encounter he brake the front disarraied the men of armes and in the end put them to flight Which discomfiture when their infanterie saw they also fled and so the Chalcidians woon the field and archieved a noble victorie Howbeit Cleomachus himselfe was there slaine and the Chalcidians shew his sepulchre and monument in their Market place upon which there standeth even at this day a mighty pillar erected And whereas the Chalcidians before-time held this paederastie or love of yoong boies an in famous thing they of all other Greeks ever after affected and honoured it most But Aristotle writeth that Cleomachus indeed lost his life after he had vanquished the Eretrians in battell but as for him who was thus kissed by his lover he saith that he was of Chalcis in Thrace sent for to aide those of Chalcis in 〈◊〉 and hereupon it commeth that the Chalcidians use to chant such a caroll as this Sweet boies faire impes extract from noble race Endued besides with youth and beauties grace Envie not men of armes and bolde courage Fruition of your prime and flowring age For here aswell of Love and kinde affection As of prowesse we all do make profession The lover was named Anton and the boy whom he loved Philistus as Dionysius the Poet writeth in his booke of Causes And in our city of Thebes ô Pemptides did not one Ardetas give unto a youth whom he loved a complet armour the day that he was enrolled souldier with the inscription of Ardetas his owne name And as for Pammenes an amorous man and one well experienced in love matters he changed and altered the ordinance in battell of our footmen heavily armed reprooving Homer as one that had no skill nor experience of love for ranging the Achaeans by their tribes and wards and not putting in array the lover close unto him whom he loveth for this indeed had beene the right ordinance which Homer describeth in these words The Morians set so close and shield to shield So iointly touch'd that one the other held And this is the onely battalion and armie invincible For men otherwhiles in danger abandon those of their tribe their kindred also and such as be allied unto them yea and beleeve me they forsake their owne fathers and children but never was there enemie seene that could passe through and make way of evasion betweene the lover and his darling considering that such many times shew their adventerous resolution in a bravery and how little reckoning they make of life unto them being in no distresse nor requiring so much at their hands Thus Thero the Thessalian laying and clapping his left hand to a wall drew forth his sword with the right and cut off his owne thumbe before one whom he loved and challenged his corrivall to doe as much if his heart would serve him Another chanced in fight to fall groveling upon his face and when his enemie lifted up his sword to give him a mortall wound he requested him to stay his hand a while untill he could turne his body that his friend whom he loved might not see him wounded in his backe part And therefore we may see that not onely the most martiall and warlicke nations are most given to Love to wit the Boeotians Lacedaemonians and Candiots but also divers renowmed princes and captaines of olde time as namely Meleager Achilles Aristomenes Cimon Epaminondas And as for the last named he had two yong men whom he deerely loved Asopicus and Zephiodorus who also died with him in the field at Mantinea and was likewise interred neere unto him And when Asopicus became hereupon more terrible unto his enemies and most resolute Euchnanus the Amphyssian who first made head against him resisted his furie and smote him had heroique honors done unto him by the Phocaeans To come now unto Hercules hard it were to reckon and number his loves they were so many But among others men honour and worship to
of law unlesse some urgent necessitie enforced them thereto And otherwise it were very meet and expedient for the comminaltie of Thebes that there should be some not culpable of this massacre but innocent and cleare of all that then shall be committed for so these men will be lesse suspected of the people and be thought to counsell and exhort them for the best We thought very well of this advice of his and so he repaired againe to Simmias and we went downe to the place of publicke exercises where we met with our friends and there we dealt one with another apart as we wrestled together questioning about one thing or another and telling this or that every one preparing himselfe to the execution of the dessigne and there we might see Archias and Philippus all anointed and oiled going toward the feast For Phyllidas fearing that they would make haste and put Amphitheus to death so soone as ever hee had accompanied Lysanoridas and sent him away tooke Archias with him feeding him with hope to enjoy the lady whom he desired and promising that she should be at the feast whereby he perswaded him to minde no other thing but to solace himselfe and make merry with those who were woont to roist and riot with him By this time it drew toward night the weather grew to be colde and the winde rose high which caused every man with more speed to retire and take house I for my part meeting with Damoclidas Pelopidas and Theopompus enterteined them and others did the like to the rest For after that these banished persons were passed over the mountaine Cythaera they parted themselves and the coldnesse of the weather gave them good occasion without all suspition to cover their faces and so to passe along the city undiscovered And some of them there were who as they entred the gates of the city perceived it to lighten on their right hand without thunder which they tooke for a good presage of safetie and glorie in their proceedings as if this signe betokened that the execution of their designment should be lightsome and honourable but without any danger at all Now when we were all entred in and safe within house to the number of eight and fortie as Theocritus was sacrificing apart in a little oratorie or chappell by himselfe he heard a great rapping and bouncing at the doore and anon there was one came and brought him word that two halberds of Archias guard knocked at the outward gate as being sent in great haste to Charon commanding to open them the doore as greatly offended that they had staied so long Whereat Charon being troubled in minde commanded that they should be let in presently who meeting them within the court with a coronet upon his head as having newly sacrificed unto the gods and made good cheere demanded of these halberds what they would Archias and Philippus say they have sent us willing and charging you with all speed to repaire unto them Why what is the matter quoth Charon that they should send for me in such haste at this time of the night and what great newes is there We know not said these sergeants but what word would you have us to carry backe unto them Mary tell them quoth he that I will cast off my chaplet and put on another robe and presently follow after for if I should goe with you it might be an occasion of trouble and moove some to supect that you lead me away to prison You say wel answered the officers againe do even so for we must goeanother way to those souldiers that watch and ward without the city and deliver unto them a commandement from the head magistrates and rulers Thus departed they With that Charon returned to us and made relation of these newes which strucke us into our dumps and put us in a great affright supposing for certeine that we were betraied and our plot detected most of the company suspected Hipposthenidas for that he went about to impeach the returne of the exiled persons by the meanes of Chlidon whom he meant to send unto them who seeing that he missed of his purpose by all likelihood upon a fearefull and timorous heart might reveale our conspiracie now when it was come to the very point of execution for come hee was not with others into the house where we were all assembled and to be short there was not one of us all that judged better of him than of a wicked and trecherous traitor howbeit we agreed all in this that Charon should go thither as he was commanded and in any wise obey the magistrates who had sent for him Then he commanding ô Archidamus his owne sonne to be present a stripling about fifteene yeeres of age and the fairest youth in all the city of Thebes very laborious and affectionate to bodily exercises and for stature and strength surpassing all his fellowes and companions of that age made this speech unto us My masters and friends this is my sonne and onely child whom I love entirely as you may well thinke him I deliver into your hands beseeching you in the name of the gods and all saints in heaven that if you finde any perfidious treacherie by me against you to doe him to death and not spare him And now I humbly pray you most valiant and hardy knights prepare your selves resolutely against the last feast that ever these tyrants shall make abandon not for want of courage your bodies to be villanously outraged and spoiled by these most leud and wicked persons but be revenged of them and now shew your invincible hearts in the behalfe of your countrey When Charon had delivered these words there was not one of us all but highly commended his magnanimitie and loialtie but we were angry with him in that he doubted of us that we had him in suspition and distrust and therefore willed him to have away his sonne with him And more than that me thinks quoth Pelopidas you have not done well and wisely for us in that you sent him not before to some other house for what reason or necessitie is there that he should either perish or come into perill being found with us and yet it is time enough to convey him away that in case it fall out with us otherwise than well he may grow up after his kinde for to be revenged of these tyrants another day It shall not be so quoth Charon he shall even stay here and take such part of fortune as we shall do and besides it were no part of honesty or honour to leave him in danger of our enemies And therefore my good sonne quoth he take a good heart and a resolute even above these yeeres of thine enter in Gods name into these hazzards and trials that be thus necessarie together with many valiant and hardy citizens for the maintenance of liberty and vertue And even yet great hope we have that good successe will follow and that some blessed angell will