defile them nor sell them but caused them to bee apparrelled and safely to bee conducted to their owne natiue Countries And let not this liberty that he did be had in litle estimation to deliuer the captiues and not to defloure the virgins For many times it chaunceth that those which are ouercome with the weapons of the Conquerours are conquered with the delights of them that are ouercome This deede amongst the Greekes was so highly commended and likewise of their enemies so praysed that immediatly the Metinences sent Ambassadors to demaund peace of the Prienenses And they concluded together a perpetuall peace vpon condition that they should make for Bias an immortall Statue sith by his hands and also by his vertues hee was the occasion of the peace and ending of the wars betweene them And truely they had reason for hee deserueth more prayse which winneth the hearts of the enemies in his tents by good example then hee which getteth the victory in the field by shedding of bloud The hearts of men are noble and wee see dayly That oftentimes one shal sooner ouercome many by good then many ouercome one by euill And also they say that the Emperour Seuerus spake these words By goodnesse the least slaue in Rome shall leade mee tyed with a hayre whether hee will but by euill the most puissant man in the world cannot moue mee out of Italy For my heart had rather bee seruant to the good then Lord to the euill Valerius Maximus declareth that when the City of Priene was taken by enemies and put to sacke the wife of Bias was slaine his children taken prisoners his goods robbed the City beaten downe and his house set on fire but Bias escaped safe and went to Athens In this pittifull case the good Philosopher Bias was no whit the sadder but rather sang as he went by the way and when hee perceyued that men maruelled at his mirth hee spake vnto them these words Those which speake of mee for wanting my City my wife and my children and loosing all that I had truely such know not what Fortune meaneth nor vnderstand what Philosophie is The losse of children and temporall goods cannot bee called losse if the life bee saued and the renowne remaine vndefiled Whether this sentēce be true or no let vs profoundly consider if the iust God suffer that this City should come into the hands of the cruell Tyrants then this prouision is iust For There is nothing more conformable vnto Iustice then that those which receiue not the Doctrine of the Sages should suffer the crueltite of the Tirants Also though my enemies haue killed my wife yet I am sure it was not without the determination of the Gods who after they had created her body immediately appointed the end of her life Therfore why shuld I bewayle her death since the Gods haue lent her life vntill this day The great estimation that we haue of this life causeth that death seemeth vnto vs sodayne and that the life vnwares with death is ouertaken but these are words of the children of vanitie for that by the will of the Gods death visiteth vs and against the willes of men life for saketh vs. Also my Children bee vertuous Philosophers and albeit they be now in the hands of tirants we ought not therefore to call them captiues for a man may not call him a captiue which is laden with yrons but him which is ouerwhelmed with vices And although the fire haue burnt my house yet I know not why I ought to be sad for of truth it was now olde and the winde did blowe downe he tiles the wormes did waste the wood and the waters that ranne downe perished the walles and it was olde and like to fall and perchaunce would haue done greater displeasure For most commonly enuie malice and old houses suddenly without any warning or knocking at the dore assaulteth men Finally there came the fire which quited mee of many troubles First of the trouble that I should haue had in repayring ◠Secondarily it saued mee money in plucking it downe Thirdly it saued me and mune heyres frō much cost and many daungers For ofentimes that which a man consumeth in repayring an old house would with aduantage buy him a new Also those which say that for the taking away of my goods I lacke the goods of Fortune such haue no reason so thinke or say for fortune neuer giueth temporall goods for a proper thing but to those whom shee list when shee will dispose them therefore when Fortune seeth that those më whom shee hath appointed as her distributers do hoarde vp the same to them and to theyr heyres then shee taketh it from them to giue it to another Therfore by reason I should not complaine that I haue lost any thing for Fortune recommendeth vnto any other the temporall goods but I carrie patience and Philosophie with me so that they haue discharged me from all other and haue no more charge but for my selfe alone Laertius declareth in his fifth booke of the sayings of the Gretians That this Byas determined to goe to the Playes of the Mount Olympus wherevnto resorted people of all Nations and he shewed himselfe in this place of so high an vnderstanding that hee was counted supreame and chiefe of all Phylosophers and wonne the name of a true Phylosopher Other Philosophers then being in the same Playes called Olymp calles asked him many questions of diuerse and sundry matters where of I will make mention here onely of some of the chiefest The Questions demaunded of the Phylosopher Byas THE first Question was this Tell mee who is the vnhappiest man in the Worlde Byas answered Hee is most vnhappie that is not patient in aduersitie For men are not killed with the aduersities they haue but with the impatience which they suffer The second was What is most hardest and most troublesome to iudge He aunswered There is nothing more difficult then to iudge a contention betwixt two Friends For to iudge between two enemyes the one remaineth a Friende but to iudge betweene two Friendes the one is made an enemie The third was What is most hardest to measure Wherevnto Byas answered There is nothing that needeth more circumspections then the measuring of Time For the Time should bee measured so iustly that no Time should want to doe well nor any time should abound to doe euill The fourth was What thing is that which needeth no excuse in the accomplishment thereof Byas answered The thing that is promised must of necessitie be performed For otherwise hee that doth loose the credite of his word should lose more then he that should lose the promise to him made The fifth was What thing that is wherein the men as well good as euill should take care Then Byas answered Men ought not in any thing to take so great care as in seeking counsell and counsellours For the prosperous Times cannot bee maintained nor the multitude of enemyes
whom he neyther lifted speare nor sword because all yeelded to his cōmandment With these and such other like things they would haue feared them for that words oft times maketh men more afraide especially when they are spoken of braue stoute men then doe the swords of cowards Lucius Bosco saith in his third booke of the antiquityes of the Grecians of whom the originall of this hystorie is drawne that after the Embassadours of Alexander had spoken to the Garamantes they were nothing at all troubled for the message neither did they fly away from Alexander nor they prepared any warre neyther tooke they in hand any weapon nor yet they did resist him Yea and the chiefest of all was that no man of the Countrey euer departed out of his house Finally they neyther answered the Ambassadors of Alexander to theyr right message nor yet spake one word vnto them concerning their coming And truly the Garamantes had reason therein and did in that right wisely For it is but meere follie for a man to perswade those men with words who enterprise any thing of will It is a maruellous matter to heare reported the hystories of these Garamantes that is to say that all theyr houses were of equall height all men were apparelled alike the one had no more authority then another in feeding they were no glouttons in drinking wine they were temperate concerning pleas and debates they were ignorant they would suffer no idle man to liue among them they had no weapons because they had no enemyes and generally they spake few words but that which they spake was alwayes true King Alexander being somwhat informed of those Garamantes and their life determined to send for them and called them before his presence and instantly desired them if they had any wise men among them to bring them vnto him and by writing or by word of mouth to speake somewhat vnto him For Alexander was such a friend to sage men that all the realms which he ouercame immediately he gaue to his men excepting the Sages which he kept for his owne person Quintus Curtius by king Alexander sayth that a Prince doth wel spende his treasors to conquer many Realms only to haue the conuersation of one wise man And truely he had reason for to princes it is more profit in their life to bee accompanied with Sages then after their deaths to leaue great treasours to their heires Certaine of those Garamantes thē being come before the presence of Alex the great one among them as they thoght the most ancientst himselfe alone the residue keeping silence in the name of them all spake these words CHAP. XXXIII Of an Oration which one of the Sages of Garamantia made vnto King Alexander a goodly lesson for all ambitious men IT is a custome king Alexander amongst vs Garamantes to speake seldome one to another scarsely neuer speake to strangers especially if they be busie and vnquiet men For the tongue of an euil man is no other but a plaine demonstration of his enuious heart When they tolde vs of thy comming into this countrey immediately wee determined not to goe out to receyue thee nor to prepare our selues to resist thee neyther to lifte vp our eyes to beholde thee nor to open our mouthes to salute thee neyther to moue our hands to trouble thee nor yee to make warre to offend thee For greater is the hate that we beare to riches and honours which thou louest then the loue is that thou hast to destroy men and subdue Countreyes which we abhorre It hath pleased thee we shuld see thee not desiring to see thee and wee haue obeied thee not willing to obey thee and that we should salute thee not desirous to salute thee wherewith wee are contented vppon condition that thou be patient to heare vs. For that which we will say vnto thee shall tend more vnto amendmēt of thy life then to disswade thee frō conquering our countrey For it is reason that Princes which shal come hereafter doe know why wee liuing so little esteeme that which is our owne and why thou dying takest such paines to possesse that which is another mans O Alexander I aske thee one thing and I doubt whether thou canst aunswer me thereunto or no For those hearts which are proud are also most commonly blinded Tell me whether thou goest from whence thou commest what thou meanest what thou thinkest what thou desirest what thou seekest what thou demandest what thou searchest and what thou procurest and further to what Realms Prouinces thy disordinate appetite extendeth Without a cause do I not demand thee this question what is that thou demandest and what it is that thou seekest For I think thou thy selfe knowest not what thou wouldest For proud and ambicious hearts know not what will satisfie them Sith thou art ambitious honor deceiueth thee sith thou art prodigall couetousnes beguyleth thee sith thou art yong ignorance abuseth thee and sith thou art proude all the world laugheth thee to scorne in such sort that thou followest men and not reason thou followest thine owne opinion and not the counsell of an other thou embracest flatterers and repulsest vertuous men For Princes and Noble men had rather bee commended with lyes thē to be reproued with truth I cannot tell to what ende you Princes liue so deceyued and abused to haue keepe in your pallaces more flattrers iuglers and fooles then wise and sage men For in a princes pallace if there bee any which extolleth theyr doings there are ten thousand which abhorre their tyrannies I perceiue by these deeds Alexander that the gods will sooner end thy life then then wilt end thy wars The man that is brought vp in debates discentions and strife all his felicitie consisteth in burning destroying and bloud shedding I see thee defended with weapōs I see thee accōpanied with tirants I see thee rob the tēples I se thee without profit wast the treasors I see thee murder the Innocent and trouble the patient I see thee euill willed of all and beloued of none which is the greatest euill of all euils Therefore how were it possible for thee to endure such and so great trauels vnlesse thou art a foole or else because God hath appointed it to chastice thee The Gods suffer oftentimes that men being quiet should haue some weighty affayres and that is not for that they should be honoured at this present but to the end they should be punished for that which is past Tell mee I pray thee peraduenture it is no great folly to empouerish many to make thy selfe alone rich It is not peraduenture folly that one should commaund by tyranny and that all the rest lose the possession of their Seigniory It is not folly perchance to loue to the damnation of our soules many memories in the world of our body It is not folly perchance that the Gods approue thy disordinate appetite alone and condemne the will and opinion of all the
by themselues the Maidens by them the Vestall Virgins by themselues and all the straunge Embassadors went with the captiues in procession there was a custome in Rome that the same day the Emperor shold weare the Imperiall robe all the captiues which could touch him with their hands were deliuered and al the transgressors pardoned exiles and outlawries were called againe For the Roman Princes were neuer present in any feast but they shewed some noble example of mercie or gentlenes toward the peeple At this time Marcus Aurelius was Emperor of Rome and married with the beautifull Lady Faustina who in the feast of Ianus leauing in procession the company of the Senators came into the procession of the Captiues the which easily touched his robe whereby they obtayned liberty the which they so greatly desired I say desired for truly the Captiue is contented with a small thing And because there is no good thing by any good man done but immediately by the wicked it is repined at this deede was so contrary to the euill as ioyfull to the good for there is nothing bee it neuer so good not so well done but forthwith it shall bee contraried of them that be euill Of this thing I haue seene by experience in this miserable life sundry examples that euen as among the good one onely is noted to be chiefe so likewise among the euill one is noted principall aboue the rest And the worst I finde herein is that the vertuous doe not so much glory of their vertue as the euill and malitious hath shame and dishonour of their vice for vertue naturally maketh a man to bee temperate and quiet but vice maketh him to bee dissolute and retchlesse This is spoken because in the Senate of Rome there was a Senatour called Fuluius whose beard hayres were very white but in malice hee was most cankered blacke so that for his yeares hee was honoured in Rome of many and for his malice he was hated of all The Senator Fuluius made friends in the time of Adrian to succeede in the Empire and for this cause he had alwayes Marcus Aurelius for his competitor and wheresoeuer hee came he alwayes spake euill of him as of his mortall enemy For the enuious heart can neuer giue a man one good word This Senators heart was so puffed with enuy that hee seeing Marcus Aurelius to obtaine the Empire being so young and that hee being so olde could not attaine thereunto there was no good that euer Marcus Aurelius did in the Common-wealth openly but it was grudged at by Fuluius who sought alwayes to deface the same secretly It is the nature of those which haue their hearts infected with malice to spitte out their poison with wordes of spite Oft times I haue mused which of these two are greater the duety the good haue to speake against the euil or else the audacity the euill haue to speake against the good For in the World there is no brute beast so hardy as the euill man is that hath lost his fame Oh would to God the good to his desire had as much power to doe good works as the euill hath strength to his affection to exercise wicked deedes for the vertuous man findeth not one hand to helpe him in vertue to worke yet after hee hath wrought it hee shall haue a thousand euill tongues against his honest doings to speake I would all these which reade this my writing would call to memory this word which is that among euill men the chiefest euill is that after they haue forgotten themselus to be men and exiled both truth and reason thē with all their might they goe against truth and vertue with their words against good deeds with their tongs for though it bee euill to bee an euill man yet it is worse not to suffer an other to bee good which aboue all things is to bee abhorred and not to bee suffered I let you know and assure you Princes and Noble men that you in working vertuous deeds shall not want slaunderous tongues and though you bee stout yet you must bee patient to breake theyr malice For the Noble heart feeleth more the enuie of another then hee doth the labour of his owne body Princes should not be dismayed neither ought they to maruell though they bee tolde of the murmuring at their good works For in the end they are men they liue with men cannot escape the miseries of men For there was neuer Prince in the World yet so high but hee hath beene subiect to malitious tongues Truly a man ought to take great pitty of Princes whether they bee good or euill for if they bee euill the good hate them and if they bee good the euill immediately murmureth against them The Emperour Octauian was very vertuous yet greatly persecuted with enuious tongues who on a time demaunded since he did good vnto al men why he suffered a few to murmur against him hee answered you see my friends hee that hath made Rome free from enemies hath also set at liberty the tongues of malitious men for it is not reason that the hard stones should be at liberty and the tender stones tyed Truly this Emperour Octauian by his words declared himselfe to bee a Wise man and of a noble heart and lightly to waigh both the murmurings of the people and also the vanities of their words which thing truly a wise and vertuous man ought to doe For it is a generall rule that vices continually seeke defendors and vertues alwayes getteth enemies In the Booke of Lawes the diuine Plato sayth well that the euill were alwayes double euill because they were weapons defensiue to defend their malitious purpose and also carry weapons offensiue to blemish the good works of others Vertuous men ought with much study to follow the good and with more diligence to flye from the euill For a good man may commaund all other vertuous men with a backe of his finger but to keepe himselfe onely from one euill man hee had neede both hands feet and friends Themistocles the Thebane sayde that hee felt no greater torment in the World then this that his proper honour should depend vpon the imagination of an other for it is a cruell thing that the life and honor of one that is good should be measured by the tongue of an other that is euill for as in the Forge the coales cannot bee kindled without sparkes nor as corruption can not bee in the sinckes without ordure so hee that hath his heart free from malice his tongue is occupied alwayes in sweete and pleasant communication And contrariwise out of his mouth whose stomack is infected with malice proceedeth alwayes words bitter and ful of poyson for if out of a rotten furnace the fire burneth it is impossible that the smoake should be cleare It is but a small time that in prophane loue he that is enamored is able to refraine his loue and much lesse time is the
in keeping them they haue great expences and for to defray such charges they haue but little money For in this case let euery man doe what hee will and let them take what counsel they like best I would counsell all others as my selfe haue experimented that is that the Prince shuld be of so good a conuersation amongst those which are his and so affable and familiar with all that for his good conuersation onely they should thinke themselues well apaide For with rewards Princes recompence the trauells of theyr Seruants but with gentle and faire words they steale and robbe the harts of their subiects Wee see by experience that diuers Marchants had rather buye dearer in one shop because the merchaÌ„t is pleasant then to buy better cheap in an other wheras the merchant is churlish I meane that there are manie which had rather serue a prince to gaine nothing but loue onely then to serue an other prince for money For there is no seruice better imploied theÌ„ to him which is honest good and gracious and to the contrary none worse bestowed then on him which is vnthaÌ„kfull and churlish In Princes Pallaces there shall neuer want euill and wicked men malicious and diuelish flatterers which will seeke meanes to put into theyr Lords heads how they shal raise their rents leuy Subsidies inuent tributes and borrow money but there are none that will tell them how they shal winne the hearts and good willes of their Subiects though they know it more profitable to bee well beloued then necessary to be enriched He that heapeth treasure for his Prince and separateth him from the loue of his people ought not to bee called a faithfull seruant but a mortall enemy Princes and Lords ought greatly to endeauour themselues to bee so conuersant among their Subiects that they had rather serue for good Will then for the payment of money for if mony want their seruice wil quaile and hereof proceedeth a thousand inconueniences vnto Princes which neuer happen vnto those that haue seruants which serue more of good will then for money for hee that loueth with all his heart is not proude in prosperity desperate in aduersity neyther complayneth he of pouertie nor is discontented being fauourles nor yet abashed with persecution finally loue and life are neuer separated vntill they come vnto the graue Wee see by experience that the rablement of the poore Labourers of Sicill is more worth then the money of the Knight of Rome For the Labourer euery time he goeth to the field bringeth some profit froÌ„ thence but euery time the Knight sheweth himselfe in the market place he returneth without money By the comparison I meane that Princes should bee affable easie to talke with all pleasant mercifull benigne and stout and aboue all that they bee gratious and louing to the end that through these qualities and and not by money they may learne to winne the hearts of their subiectes Princes should greatly labour to bee loued specially if they will finde who shall succour them in aduersity and keepe them from euill will and hatred which those Princes caÌ„not haue that are hated but rather euery man reioyceth at their fall and misery for each man enioyeth his owne trauel and truly the furious and sorrowfull hearts take some rest to see that others haue pitty and compassion vpon their griefes Princes also should endeauour themselues to bee loued and well willed because at their death they may of all their seruants and friends bee lamented For Princes ought to bee such that they may be prayed for in their life and lamented and remembred after their death How cursed is that Prince and also how vnhappy is that Common-wealth where the seruants will not serue their Lord but for reward and that the Lorde dooth not loue them but for theyr seruices For there is neuer true loue where there is any particular interest With many stones a house is builded and of many men and one Prince which is the head of all the Common wealth is made For hee that gouerneth the Common wealth may be called a Prince and otherwise not and the Common-wealth cannot bee called or sayde a Common wealth if it hath not a Prince which is the head thereof If Geometrie do not deceyue me the lime which ioyneth one stone with an other suffereth well that it bee mingled with sand but the corner-stone that lyeth on the toppe ought to bee medled with vnslâ—ked lime And it soundeth vnto good reason For if the nether-stones seperate the wall openeth but if the corner stone should slippe the building incontinently falleth I suppse Fathers conscript you vnderstand very well to what end I applie this comparison The loue of one neighbour with an other may suffer to be cold but the loue of a Prince to his people should bee true and pure I meane that the loue amongst frends may passe sometimes although it bee colde but that loue betweene the King and his people at al times ought to be perfect For where there is perfect loue there is no fayned wordes nor vnfaithfull seruice I haue seene in Rome many debates and hurly-burlyes among the people to haue bin pacified in one day and one onely which betweene the Lorde and the Commonwealth ariseth cannot be pacified vntill death For it is a dangerous thing for one to striue with many and for many to contend against one In this case where the one is proud and the other rebelles I will not excuse the Prince nor yet let to condemne the people For in the end he that thinketh himselfe most innocent deserueth greatest blame And from whence thinke you commeth it that Lords now adayes commaund vniust things by furie and the Subiects in iust matters will not obey by reason I will tell you The Lord doing of will and not of right would cast the wills of all in his own braine and deriue from himselfe all counsell For euen as Princes are of greater power then all the rest so they thinke they knowe more then all the rest The contrary hapneth to subiects who beeing prouoked I cannot tell you with what Frensie despising the good vnderstanding of theyr Lorde will not obey that which their prince willeth for the health of them all but that which euery man desireth particularly For men now a dayes are so fonde that euery man thinketh the Prince should looke on him alone Truely it is a strange thing though it be much vsed among men that one man should desire that the garments of all others should be meete for him which is as vnpossible as if one mans Armour should arme a whole multitude But what shall we be Fathers conscript and sacred Senate sith our Fathers left vs this world with such follie and that in these debates and strifes wee theyr children are alwayes in dissention and controuersie and in this wilfalnes wee shall also leaue our children and heyres How many Princes haue I seen and read
to gather with trauell the grape know thou that heere in my palace thou shalt not want of the wine The Gods will not suffer that now in this moment thou shuldst find my heart shut from thee whose gates I found alwaies for the space of twentie yeares open vnto mee Sith that my Fortunes wrought me to the Empire I haue alwayes had two things things before mine eyes that is to say not to reuenge my selfe of mine enemies neither to bee vnthankfull to my friends For I pray to the Gods daylie rather then hereafter through vnthankfulnes my renowm should be defamed that euen now with forgetfulnes my bodie should be buryed Let a man offer to the Gods what sacrifices he will let him doe as much seruice to men as he can yet if he be vnthankfull to his friend hee ought in all and for all to bee vtterly condemned Because thou shouldest see my friend Pulio how greatly the auncient friend ought to bee esteemed I will declare thee an example of a Philosopher the which to heare thou wilt somewhat reioyce The auncient Histories of the Grecians declare that among the seuen Sages of Greece there was one named Periander who was Prince Gouernour a great while and he had in him such liuelinesse of Spirit on the one side and such couetousnesse of worldly goods on the other side that the Historiographers are in doubte whether was the greater the Philosophy that hee taught reading in the Schooles or the tyranny that hee vsed in robbing the Common-wealth for truly the science which is not grounded of truth bringeth great damages to the person In the second yeare of my Empire I was in the City of Corinth where I saw the Graue which contained the bones of Periander where about was engrauen in Greeke verses and old letter this Epitaph Within the compasse of this narrow graue Wretched Periander enclosed lyes Whose cruel facts could Greece alone not haue So small a soyle his hunger could suffice Here lodgeth oke loe Periander dead His filthy flesh the hungry wormes doe eate And liuing he with Orphelines good was fed His greedy guts did craue such dainty meate The Tyrant Periander stayeth here Whose life was built to hinder all the rest And eke whose death such profit large did bear As brought reliefe to him that had the least Here wicked Periander resteth now His life did cause great peopled realmes decay His death that forst his liuing sprite to how Assurde them life that stoode in brittle stay The cursed Periander heere doth lye Whose life did shed the poore and simple blood And eke that clambe to riches rule so hye By others swette they sought for wasting good Of Corinth loe here Periander rest To seeme for iust that equall Lawes did frame Yet flitting from the square that they possest By vertues doome deserude a Tyrants name The Catiue Periander sleepeth here That finisht hath his 80. years with shame And though his life that thousands bought so deer Be faded thus yet bloometh stil his blame There was more letters on the graue but because it was alone in the fielde the great waters had worne it so that scarsely the letters could bee roade and truely it was very olde in his time it seemed to bee a sumptuous thing but the negligence of reparation lost it quite and it is not to bee maruelleed at for in the end time is of such power that it causeth renowmed men to be forgotten and all the sumptuousbuildings to decay and fall to the earth If thou wilt know my friend Pulio in what time the tyrant this Philosopher was I will thou know that when Catania the renowned City was builded in Cicilia neere the Mount Ethna and when Perdica was the 4. King of Macedonia and that Cardiced was the third King of the Medes and when Candare was fift king of the Libeans and that Assaradoche was ninth King of the Assyrians and when Merodache was twelfth King of the Caldeaus and that Numa Pompilius raigned second King of the Romanes and in the time of those so good Kinges Periander raigned amongst the Assirians And it is meete thou know an other thing also which is this That this Periander was a Tyrant not only in deede but also in renowme so that they spake of no other thing thorow Greece but it tended hereunto Though hee had euill works hee had good words and procured that the affayres of the Common-wealth should bee well redressed For generally There is no man so good but a man may finde somewhat in him to bee reproued neyther any man so euill but hee hath some thing in him to bee commended I doe yet remember of my age being neyther too yong nor too old that I saw the Emperour Traian my Lord suppe once in Agrippine and it so chanced that wordes were moued to speake of good and euill Princes in times past as wel of the Greekes as of the Romans that all those which were present there cōmended greatly the Emperour Octauian and they all blamed the cruell Nero for it is an ancient custom to flatter the princes that are present and to murmur at Princes that are past When the good Emperour Traian was at dinner and when he praied in the Temple it was maruell if any man saw him speake any word and that day since hee saw that they excessinely praysed the Emperour Octauian and that the others charged the Emperour Nero with more then needed the good Traian spake vnto them these words I am glad you commend the Emperour Octauian but I am angry you should in my presence speake euill of the Emperour NERO and of none other for it is great infamy to a Prince being aliue to heare in his presence any Prince euill reported after his death Truely the Emperour Octauian was very good but yee will not deny me but hee might haue beene better and the Emperour Nero was very euill but you will graunt mee hee might haue beene worse I speake this because Nero in his first fiue yeares was the best of all and the other nine following he was the worst of all so that there is both cause to disprayse him and also cause to commend him When a vertuous man will speake of Princes that are dead before Princes which are aliue hee is bound to prayse onely one of their vertues that they had and hath no licence to reueale the vices whereof they were noted for the good deserueth reward because he endeauoureth himselfe to follow vertue and the euill likewise deserueth pardon because through frailety he hath consented to vice All these wordes the Emperour Traian spake I being present they were spoken with such fiercenes that all those which were there present both chaunged their colour and also refrayned their tongues For truly the shamelesse man feeleth not so much a great stripe of correction as the gentle heart doth a sharpe worde of admonition I was willing to shew thee these things my
waste to their treasures what pouerty to their friends what pleasures to their enemies what destruction of the good what liberty of the euill and what occasion they giue to strangers to speake what vniuersall euill they sow in their naturall Countries and what euill poyson they do leaue to their heires I sweare by the faith of a good man that if as I feele it Princes did feele it and as I taste it Princes did taste it and also as I haue proued it princes did proue it I doe not say that with effusion of bloud I would take realmes by force but also they offering them to mee with teares I would not take them willingly For speaking the truth It is not the point of valiant Princes for to sustain an other mans to put their owne in ieopardy I aske now what profite tooke Rome of the conquest of Asia I admit that it durst conquer it that it was hardy in winning it obstinate in fighting and happy in taking it should it therefore be fortunate in maintayning it I say and affirme and of that I say I doe not repent mee That it is possible to take Asia but it is but a follie to presume to maintaine and defend it Doest thou not thinke it a great folly to presume to maintaine Asia since there neuer commeth newes of a victory but that it is occasion of an other battell and that for to sustaine watre they robbe all Italy In Asia our money is spent our children are perished In Asia dyed our Fathers for Asia they make vs pay tributes In Asia the good horses are consumed Into Asia they carry all our corne In Asia all the theeues are nourished From Asia commeth all the seditious persons In Asia all the good doe perish From Asia they send vs all the vices And finally in Asia all our treasures are spent and in Asia all our excellent Romanes are killed And sith this is the seruice that Asia doth to Rome why will Rome continue warre with Asia Other Princes before vs haue conquered Asia taken Asia and possessed Asia but in the end when they saw that it was a Countrey where they feared not the Gods nor acknowledged subiection to their Princes neyther that they were apt to retaine lawes they determined to forsake them because they found by experience that they neyther weary their bodies with warres neither winne their harts with benefits Those Princes being hardy nor so bold to sustain Asia by land should we others presume to succour it by sea They forsake it being neighbours and will wee others maintaine it beeing strangers In my opinion Asia is a Country where all the valiant men haue employed their valiantnesse where all the fooles haue proued their folly where al the proud haue shewed their pride where all the Princes entered in with might where all thetyrants haue employed theyr Life but in the end it neither profiteth the one to will it nor to the others to knowe it and yet much lesse to vanquish it I know not the man that loueth Asia that willeth well to Asia that speaketh well of Asia or that fauoureth the things of Asia since shee giueth vs occasion to speake daily to sigh nightly and to weepe hourely If men attayned to the secrete to know the Fatall Destenyes with the which the Goddes haue created Asia they would not striue so much in the conquest therof For the Gods haue created it in such a signe that it shold be a common pasture where all feede a common Market where all sell a common-Inne where all rest a common table where all play a common House where all dwell a common Countrey where all remaine and thereof it commeth that Asia is desired of manie and gouerned of fewe For beeing as it is a common countrey euery man will make it his owne proper Peraduenture thou wilt thinke my friende Cornelius that I haue spoken now all the euils of Asia but hearken yet I will fourme thee a new question againe For according to the dammages which haue followed from Asia to our mother Rome time shall rather want to write then matter to declare Not without teares I say that which I will say that there was neuer any Romane captaine that did kill tenne thousand Asians with the weapons he brought into Asia but that hee lost a hundreth thousand Romanes with the vices they brought to Rome So that the Asians by the hand of their enemyes dyed with honour and left vs Romanes aliue full of their vices with infamie I aske now what they were that inuented to dine in common places to suppe in secret gardens to apparel the women as men in the Theaters to colour the flesh of Priests with yeallow to noynte the Women as men in the Bath the Senatours going smelling to the Senate Princes to be apparelled with purple against the auncient decree To eate twice in the day as the tyraunt Dennys did to keepe Harlots and concubines as they of Tyre doe to speak blasphemie against the gods which were neuer hearde of before in the Empire These said vices of Asia Asia hath presently sent to Rome At the same time when in those parts of the Orient the warre was kindeled tenne valiant captains brought these vices to Rome whose names my penne shall pardon to tell because their vile offences should not obscure theyr valiaunt deedes Before that Rome conquered Asia we were rich wee were pacient wee were sober we were wise we were honest and aboue all we liued well contented But now since that time we haue giuen our selues to forget the pollicyes of Rome and to learne the pleasure of Asia so that all vices may be learned in Rome as all Sciences may be heard in Greece By this aboue rehearsed all warlike Princes may see what profite they haue to conquer straunge Realms c. Let vs now leaue the vices which in the warres are recouered and talke of mony which the princes couet and loue And in this I say that there is no Prince brought into such extreame pouertie as hee which conquereth a straunge countrey Oh Cornelius thou hast not seene how Princes more of a will then of necessitie doe waste their treasures how they demaund that of another mans and how their owne doeth not suffice them they take those of Churches they seeke great Lones they inuent great Tributes they demaund great Subsidies they giue strangers occasion to speake and make themselues hated of their subjects Finally they pray theyr subiects and humble themselues to their enemies Since I haue declared the dammages of warre I will now declare what the originall of warre is For it is vnpossible that the physition applye vnto the sicke agreeable medecine if we know not of what humour the sicknes doth proceed Princes since they came of men are nourished with men doe counsell with men and liue with men and to conclude they are men Sometimes through pride which aboundeth in them somtimes through want
giue any words to any that shall offend him For the officers of Princes can by no other meanes so well assure their offices and authority they haue as by doing good continually to some and to suffer others no way making any countenance of displeasure for the iniuries done them by others And if it happen as many times i doth that a follower and hanger on of the Court hauing spent all that he hath and driuen now to seeke a new banke chaunce to speake dishonest words and frame great quarrels against the Kings Officers In this case the Courtier and wise Officer should neuer answer him with anger and displeasure and much lesse speake vnto him in choller For a man of honour and respect will be more grieued with a dishonest word that is spokē against him then hee will bee for the deniall of that he asketh Those that are beloued and beliked of Princes aboue all other things ought to bee very patient courteous and gentle in all things For all that the followers of the Court and suiters cannot obtaine in the Court let them not lay the fault to the Prince that denyed it them but onely to the fauoured of the Prince and those about him for that they neuer moued it to the Kings Maiestie nor once thought of the matter as the poore Suters supposed they had The paines and troubles of Court are infinite and insupportable For how quyet soeuer the Courtyer bee they will trouble and molest him if hee be pacient they will be impacient and in stormes saying That such a man spake yll of him and seekes continually to defame him Which things wee will the Courtyer heare with patience and dissemble with wisdome For the wise Courtyer should not bee angrie for the yll wordes they speake of him but onely for the vile and wicked actes they doe vnto him Let not the Courtyer and Fauourite of the Prince be deceiued in thinking that doing for this man and for that man in shewing them fauour that for all that hee can binde or stay their tongues that they speak not ill of him and their hearts that they hate them not extreamly For the Enemie receyueth not so much pleasure of that the Courtyer giueth him as hee doeth griefe and displeasure for that that is behinde yet in the Courtyers hands to giue him Now in the pallaces of Princes it is a naturall thing for eache man to desire to aspire and to creepe into the Princes fauour to bee able to doe much and to bee more worth then others and to commaund also And as there are manie that desire it so are they very few in number that by their vertues and demerits come to obtaine that high fauour It is a thing most sure and vndoubted that one alone enioying his Princes grace and fauour shall be hated in manner of the most part of the people The more they are Rich Noble and of great power that are beloued and accepted of Princes so much the more ought they to bee circumspect and to liue in feare and doubt of such disgraces and misfortunes that may happen to them sith all euery mans eye is vppon them and that they are the more enuyed for that they can do much and desire also to take from them that authoritie and credite they haue and to spoyle them of such treasures as they possesse or haue gotten by the Princes fauour And in this case the Fauourite of the Courte must not truste in the pleasures hee hath done them neyther in the fauor he hath shewed thē much lesse the fayned friendships they seeme to beare him and that hee thinks he hath gotten of them neither must he trust too much his Friends Neighbors and Kinsfolkes no nor his owne Brethren But let him bee assured that all those that are not in the like ranke of Fauour and estimation that hee is be hee of what degree or parentage hee will be yea and as neere a kinne as may bee they will all bee in that his very mortall foes Authority to commaund being the chiefe and highest point of honor and whereto euery man seekes to aspire and which was cause that Pompey became the deadly enemy of Iulius Caesar his father in Law Absolon of Dauid his naturall father Romulus of his brother Remus Alexander of Darius who shewed himselfe before a father in loue in bringing on him vp and Marke Anthony of Augustus Caesar his great friend So that I say it may well bee saide that after disdain and cankered ire haue once possest the delicate brest of man onely concerning honour and commaundement that it is neuer thenceforth recured of that infested sore neyther by gifts promises and much lesse by prayers and requests It is true the accepted of the prince may well bee free from all thyrste and hunger colde and heate warres plague and pouertie and from all other calamityes and troubles of this our wretched life but hee shall neuer be free from detractions of venomous and wicked tongues and from spightfull and enuious persons For no lesse is Enuie ioyned to fauour then is thyrst to a burning ague In this case it is impossible but that the Courtyer should receyue manie times displeasure and disgraces in the Court but not to giue eare to these detracters and ill-speakers of men To remedy these things the Courtyer must needes seeme to let them know by his lookes and aunswers that hee is more offended with them that come and tell him these lewde tales then with those that in deed did truely report them of him This counsell would I giue the courtyer that what ill so euer hee heareth spoken of him I would wish him not seeme to know it and much lesse to be angrie withall nor once giue a distastfull word to the reporters thereof For his choller ouer-paste the euill words hee hath spoken to them in his anger may turne him to more displeasure then he hath done him hurt that caused him speake these words And therefore surely to bridle the Tongue is rather a diuine then a humane vertue and chiefly in that instant when the heart is maistered and subdued with Chollericke passions For afterwards it happeneth many times that being quiet againe in our mindes we are sorry for that wee haue spoken in our anger yea against them that haue angred vs. If the Courtyer should weigh euery worde that is spoken against him and esteeme euery thing that is done to him he should purchase himselfe a continuall and sorrowfull life yea and out of measure a troublesome and vnpleasant sith Princes courts are euer full of Serpents-tongues and venomous harts and that it lyeth not in mans power to let that the hearts of men hate vs not and that their tongues speake not ill of vs. I would aduise the Courtyer to take all the ill that is spoken of him in sporte and mirth and not in anger Seneca sayde and that wisely spoken that there is no greater reuenge
to leaue their heyres and successors And therfore I haue appointed euery thing in common among subiects because that during their liues they might haue honestly to maintaine themselues withall and that they should not leauy any thing to dispose by will after their deathes Herodotus sayth also that it was decreede by the Inhabitants of the Isles Baleares that they should suffer none to come into their Country to bring them any golde siluer Iewels or precious stones And this serued them to great profite For by means of this Law for the space of foure hundred yeares that they had great warres with the Romanes the Carthagenians the French and the Spaniards neuer any of these Nations once stirred to goe about to conquere their land being assured that they had neyther golde nor siluer to robbe or conuey from them Promotheus that was the first that gaue Lawes to the Egyptians did not prohibite golde nor siluer in Egypt as those of the Isles Baleares did in theyr territories neyther did he also commaund that all things should be common as Licurgus but also commanded that none in all his Kingdome should be so hardy once to gather any masse or quantitie of golde or siluer together and to hoord it vp And this he did vpon great penalties for as hee sayde Auarice is not shewed in building of fayre houses neyther in hauing rich moueables but in assembling and gathring together great treasure and laying it vp in their coffers And Plutarch in his booke De Consolatione sayth also That if a rich man dyed among the Rhodians leauing behind him one onely sonne and no more suruiuing him they wold not suffer that he should bee sole heyre of all that his Father left but they left him an honest heritage liuing to his state and calling and to marry him well withall and the rest of all his Fathers goods they dissipated among the poore and Orphans The Lydians that neyther were Greekes nor Romanes but right barbarous people had a law in their common weale that euery man should be bound to bring vp his children but not to be at charges in bestowing thē in marriage So that the sonne or daughter that was now of age to marry they gaue them nothing to theyr marriage more then they had gotten with their labour And those that will exactly consider this laudable custome shall finde that it is rather a Law of true Philosophers then a custome of barbarous people Since thereby the children were enforced to labour for their liuing and the parents also were exemted from all manner of couetousnesse or auarice to heape vp gold and siluer and to enrich themselues Numa Pompilius second King of the Romanes and establisher of their Lawes and decrees in the law of the seuen Tables which he made hee left them order onely which way the Romanes might rule their Common-weale in tranquilitie and put in no clause nor chapter that they should make their willes whereby their childrē might inherit their fathers goods And therefore being asked why hee permitted in his lawes euery man to get as much goods as he could and not to dispose them by will nor leaue them to their heyres He aunswered because wee see that albeit there are some children that are vnhappy vicious and abominable yet are there few fathers notwithstanding this that wil depriue and disinherite them of theyr goods at their death onely to leaue them to any other heere and therefore for this cause I haue commanded that all the goods that remaine after the death of the owner of them shold be giuen to the Common-weale as sole heyre and successor of them to the end that if their children should become honest and vertuous they should then bee distributed to them if they were wicked and vnhappy that they should neuer bee owners of them to hurt and offende the good Macrobius in his booke De somno Scipionis sayth that there was in the olde time an old and ancient Law amongst the Tuscans duely obserued and kept and afterwards taken vp of the Romanes that in euerie place where soeuer it were in towne or village within their territories on new-yeares day euerie man should present himselfe before the Iudge or Magistrate of the place hee was in for to giue him account of his manner of life and how hee maintained himselfe and in these examinations they did accustome to punish him that liued idely and with knauery and deceipt maintayned themselues as Minstrels Ruffians Dicers Carders Iuglers Coggers Foyster Coseners of men and filching knaues with other loytering vagabonds and rogues that liue of others swet and toyle without any paine or labour they take vpon them to deserue that they eate I would to God if it were his will that this Tuscan Law were obserued of Christians then we should see how few they be in number that giue them selues to any faculty or science or other trade to liue by their owne trauell and industry and how many infinite a number they bee that liue in idle sort The diuine Plato in his Timee sayeth that although an idle man bee more occasion of many troubles and inconueniences in a Common-weale then a couetous man yet is it not alwayes greater for the idle man and that gladly taketh his ease doth but desire to haue to eate but the couetous man doth not only desire to eate but to bee rich and haue money enough All the eloquence and pleasaunt speech that the Orators studied in their Orations the Lawyers in theyr Law and the famous Philosophers in their doctrine and teaching was for no other cause but to admonish and perswade those of the Common-weale to take very good heed in chusing of their gouernours that they were not couetous and ambitious in the administration of their publike affayres Laertius reciteth also that a Rhodian iesting with Eschines the Philosopher sayde vnto him By the immortall Gods I sweare to thee O Eschines that I pitty thee to see thee so poore to whom he aunswered By the same immortall Gods I sweare to thee againe I haue compassion on thee to see thee so rich Sith riches bring but paine and trouble to get them great care to keepe them displeasur to spend them perill to hoorde them and occasion of great daungers and inconueniences to defend them and that that grieueth me most is that where thou keepest thy treasure fast lockt vp there also thy heart is buried Surely Eschines words seemed rather spoken of a Christian then of a Philosopher In saying that where a mans treasure is there is also his hart For there is no couetous man but dayly hee thinkes vpon his hidde treasure but he neuer calleth to mind his sinnes he hath committed Comparing therefore those things wee haue spoken with those thinges wee will speake I say that it becommeth the fauoured of Princes to know that it is lesse seemely for them to bee couetous then others For the greatnesse of their fauour ought not to bee
vice and sinne But the further we seeke to flye from it the more daunger we finde to fall into it And albeit to auoyd other vices and sinnes it shall suffice vs to bee admonished yet against that alone of the flesh it behoueth vs to bee armed For there is no sinne in the world but there are meanes for men to auoyd it This only excepted of the flesh wherewith all wee are ouercome and taken Prisonners And to proue this true it is apparant thus Where raigneth Pride but amongst the Potentates where Enuie but amongst equalls Anger but amongst the impacient Gluttony but amongst gourmands auarice but amongst the Rich slouth but amongst the ydle And yet for all these the sinne of the Flesh generally reigneth in all men And therefore for not resisting this abhominable vice we haue seen kings lose their kingdoms Noblemen their Lands and possessions the marryed wiues their auowd faith the religious nunnes their professed virginitie So that wee may compare this sinne to the nature and condition of the venemous serpent which being aliue stings vs and after hee is dead offendeth vs with his noysome stinke Examples by Dauid who for all his wisedome could not preuaile against this sinne nor Salomon for al his great knowledge nor Absolon for all his diuine beautie nor Sampson with his mighty force which notwithstāding the great Fame they had for their renowmed vertues yet through this only defect they lost all accompanying with harlots licentious women Into which shameful felowship fell also Holofernes Haniball Ptholomeus Pyr-Pirrhus Inlius Caesar Augustus Marcus Antonius Seuerus and Theodorius and many other great Princes with these aboue recited the most part of the which we haue seene depriued of their Crownes and afterwards themselues haue come to their vtter shame and dishonour on their knces to yeelde themselues to the mercy of these their infamed louers crauing pardon and forgiuenesse Many graue Writers of the Grecians say that the Ambassadours of Lidia comming one day into the chamber of Hercules vpon a suddaine to speake with him they found him lying in his Curtesans lappe she pulling his rings off on his fingers hee dressed on his head with her womanly attire and she in exchnnge on hers bedect with his royall crowne They write also of Denis the Syracusian that albeit of nature hee was more cruell then the wild beast yet he became in the end so tractable and pleasant by meanes of a Curtezan his friend called Mirta that she only did confirme all the prouisions and depeches of the affayres of the Weale publike and he onely did but ordaine and appoint them And if the Histories written of the Gothes deceyne vs not wee finde that Antenaricus the famous king of the Gothes after he had triumphed of Italy and that hee had made himselfe Lord of all Europe hee became so farre in loue with a Louer of his called Pincia the whilest shee combed his head hee made cleane her slippers Also Themistocles the most famous Captaine of the Greekes was so enamoured of a woman hee had taken in the Warres of Epirns that shee beeing afterwardes very sicke when shee purged her selfe hee would also bee purged with her If shee were let bloud hee would also bee let bloud and yet that that is worst to bee liked is that hee washed his face with the bloud that came out of her Arme so that they might truly say though shee were his prisoner yet hee was also her slaue and subiect When King Demetrius had taken Rhodes there was broght to him a faire gentlewomen of the Cittie which he made his friend in loue and this loue betwixt them in time grewe so great that she shewing her selfe vpon a time to be angry with Demetrius and refusing to sit neare him at the Table and also to lye with him Demetrius vtterly forgetting himselfe and his royall estate did not onely on his knees pray her to pardon him but also imbracing her conueighed her in his armes into his chamber Myronides the Grecian albeit hee had made subiect to him the kingdom of Boetia yet hee was notwithstanding made subiect with the beautie of Numidia his louer Hee enflamed thus with loue of her she likewise strucken with couetous desire of his goods in fine they agreed that he shold giue her all the spoyle he had wonne in the warres of Boetia and that she should let him lye with her in hir house onely one night Hanniball made warres xvii yeares with the Romaines and in all that time he was neuer vanquished till hee was ouercome with the Loue of a young mayden in the cittie of Capua which proued a most bitter loue to him sith thereby it happened that whereas hee had so many yeares kept in subiection all Italie hee now was made a subiect at home in his owne countrey Plutarch in his booke De Republica writeth That Phalaris the Tyraunt would neuer graunt a man any thing that he desired neyther euer denyed any thing that a dissolute Woman requested No small but great disorder happened to the Common-weale of Rome by the occasion of the Emperour Caligula who gaue but 6000. Sexterces onely to repayre the Walls of Rome and gaue otherwise for furring one one gowne alone of his Lemmans a 10000. sexterces By all these examples aboue recited wee may easily vnderstand how daungerous a thing it is for the Courtier to haue friendshippe and acquaintance with women of so vile a facultie For the woman is of like quality that a knot tyed of corde is which is easily tyed of sundry knots and very hardly afterwards to bee vndone againe Heretofore wee haue besought Courtiers and the fauoured of Princes that they should not bee so liberall in commaunding and now once againe wee pray them to beware of fornication and adultery for albeeit this sinne of the flesh be not the greatest in fault yet it is the most daungerous in fame There is no King Prelate nor knight in this World so vicious and dishonest of life but would be glad to haue honest vertuous and well conditioned seruants so that it is impossible therefore for the fauoured Courtier liuing dishonestlie to continue any long time in fauour with his Prince For wee haue seene many in Princes Courts and Common Weales also that haue lost their honour fauour riches not for any pride they shewed in themselues nor for enuy that they had nor for any treasure nor riches that they robbed nor for any euil words that they should speake neither for any treason that they committed but onely through the euill fame that went of them for haunting the company of naughty women for women be of the right nature of Hedge-hogs which without seeing or knowing what they haue in their heart do notwithstanding drawe bloude of vs with their prickes And let not any man deceyue himselfe hoping that if hee did commit a fault through the flesh that it shal be kept from the Princes cares or
if they will pretend any lightnes burie them quicke death ought to be giuen to an euill Daughter in steade of a dowrie for gyftes giue her wormes and for her house a graue Take heed Faustine if you will haue much ioy of your daughter take from her all the occasions wherby she shall be euil To vnderset a house behoueth diuers proppes and if the principalls be taken away it will fall downe I say you women are so fraile that with keepers with great paine they can keepe themselues and for a small occasion they will lose altogether Oh how many euill hath there bin not for that they would be so but because they followed such occasions the which they ought to haue eschewed It is at my pleasure to enter into this battel but yet it is not in my power to attaine the victorie it is for mee to enter into the Sea yet it lyeth not in my hands to escape the perill it is in the hands of a woman to enter into the occasion and after that shee is therin it is not in her power to escape from euill nor to deliuer her from tongues Peraduenture Faustine thou wilt say vnto mee none can speake to your daughter Lucilla vnlesse thou hearest it nor see her but thou seest him nor conuey her but thou knowest where nor make any appoyntment without thy consent and yet thou knowest that those which will her euill seeke with their tongues to dishonour her and those that with their heartes loue her speake only in their harts Wee loue in young bloud in the spring time and flourishing youth is a poyson that forthwith spreadeth into euery vaine it is an herbe that entreth into the entrailes a swouning that incontinently mortifieth all the members and a pestilence that slaieth the hearts and finally it maketh an end of all vertues I know not what I say but I feele that which I would say for I would neuer blaze loue with my tongue except I were sore wounded therewith in my heart Ouid sayeth in his booke of the art of loue Loue is I wot not what it it commeth I know not from whence who sent it I wot not it engendreth I know not how it is satisfied I know not wherewith it is self and I know not how oft it slayeth I know not wherefore and finally without breaking the flesh outwardly loue taketh roote and molesteth the heart inwardly I know not what Ouid meaneth hereby but I know when he sayde these words he was as farre banished from himselfe as I am at this time from my selfe O Faustine they that loue together vtter the secrets of their hearts by diuers wayes and in sleeping they reason and speake by signes they vnderstand each other The many wordes outwardly declare small loue inwardly and the seruent inward loue keepeth silence outward The entrailes within embraced with loue cause the tongue outward to be mute hee that passeth his life in loue ought to keepe his mouth close And to the entent that you shall not thinke that I speake Fables I will prooue this by auncient histeries we find anciently that in the yeare cclxx after the foundation of Rome Etrasco a young Romane that was dumbe and Verona a fayre Lady of the Latines which was dumb also These two saw each other on the mount Celio at the Feastes and there fell in loue together and their hearts were as sore fixed and entangled in Loue as their tongnes were tyed from speech It was a maruellous thing to see then and fearefull to note now that this young Lady came from Salon to Rome and he went from Rome to Salon sundry times by the space of 30. yeares without the knowledge of any person and neuer spake together It chanced at the last that the husbande of the Lady Verona dyed and the wife of Etrasco also and then they discouered their loue and treated a marriage betweene them And these two dumbe persons had issue a sonne of whom descended the noble lynage of our Scipions which were more famous in the seates of Armes then their Father and mother were troubled for want of words Then Faustine marke this thing it had little auayled to haue cut out the tongues of the two dumbe persons to haue remedied their loue and not to haue cut our their hearts And I shall tell you of Masinissa a worthy knight of Numidie and Sophonissa a famous Lady of Carthage all onely by one sight as they saw each other on a Ladder hee declareth his desire vnto her and she knowing his lust breaking the ores of feare and lifting vp the anchors of shame raysed incontinent the sayles of their hearts and with the shippes of their persons they ioyned each to other heere wee may see how the first sight of their eyes the knowledge of their persons the consent of their hearts the copulation of their bodies the decay of their estates and the losse of their names in one day in one houre in one moment and in one steppe of a Ladder were lost What will you that I say more to this purpose Doe you not know what Helen the Greeke and Paris the Troian of two straunge Nations and of farre Countries with the one onely sight in a Temple their willes were so knitte together that hee tooke her as his Captiue and shee abode his prisoner In Paris appeared but small sorce and in Helene but small resistance so that in a manner those two yong persons the one procuring to vainquish and the other in suffering to bee vanquished Paris was the causer of his Fathers destruction and both of their own deaths losse and damage to both their Realmes and slaunder to all the world All this loue grew of one onely sight When great King Alexander would haue giuen Battell to the Amazones the queene captaine of them no lesse faire then strong and vertuous came to a Riuers-side and the space of an houre each of them beheld the other with their eyes without vttering of any worde And when they returned to theyr Tents their fiercenes was turned into sweete amorous words When Pyrrus the faithfull defender of the Tharrentines and renowmed king of the Epyrotes was in Italie he came into Naples and had not beene there but one day but hee was enamoured of a faire lady named Gemelicia of a high linage and greatly esteemed for her beautie and the very same day she was gotten with childe and shamed throughout all Italie and cast out of the cittie and after that she was deliuered of childe she was slaine by one of her owne bretheren Also queene Cleopatra in the Prouince of Bythinia in the wood Sechin made a goodly banket to Marcus Anthonius her Louer and though shee was not very honest of her selfe yet had shee with her chast women And thus the Banket endured a great parte of the night Now the wood being thicke young damzels were not so wily to hide thē but the yōg men Romains found them so that of
works as moueth vs rather to pitty their follie then to enuie their vertue I aske of those that reade or heare this thing if they will be in loue with Nembroth the first Tyrant with Semiramis which sinned with her owne sonne with Antenor that betrayed Troy his countrey with Medea that slew her children with Tarquine that enforced Lucretia with Brutus that slew Caesar with Sylla that shed so much bloud with Catilina that played the Tyrant in his countrey with Iugurtha that strangled his brethren with Caligula that committed incest with his sisters with Nero that killed his mother with Heliogabalus that robbed the Temples with Domitian that in nothing delighted so much as by straunge handes to put men to death and to driue away flyes with his owne hands Small is the number of those that I haue spoken in respect of those which I could recite of whom I dare say and affirme that if I had beene as they I cannot tell what I would haue done or what I should haue desired but this I know it would haue beene more paines to mee to haue wonne that infamie which they haue wonne then to haue loste the life which they haue lost It profiteth him little to haue his Ponds full of fish and his parkes full of Deere which knoweth neyther how to hunt nor how to fish I meane to shewe by this that it profiteth a man little to be in great auctoritie if hee be not esteemed nor honoured in the same For to attaine to honour wisedome is requisite and to keepe it patience is necessarie With great considerations wise men ought to enterprise daungerous things For I assure them they shall neuer winne honour but where they vse to recouer slander Returning therefore to our matter puissant Prince I sweare and durst vndertake that you rather desire perpetuall renowme through death then any idle rest in this life And hereof I doe not maruell for there are some that shall alwayes declare the prowesses of good Princes and others which will not spare to open the vices of euill tyrants For althogh your Imperial estate is much and your Catholike person deserueth more yet I beleeue with my heart and see with these eyes that your thoughts are so highly bent vnto aduenturous deedes and your heart so couragious to set vpon them that your Maiesty little esteemeth the inheritance of your predecessors in respect of that you hope to gaine to leaue to your successors A Captaine asked Iulius Caesar as he declareth in his Commentaries why he trauelled in the Winter in so hard frost and in the summer in such extreame heate Hee aunswered I will doe what lyeth in mee to doe and afterward let the fatall destinies doe what they can For the valiant knight that giueth in battel the onset ought more to bee esteemed then fickle fortune whereby the victory is obtained since fortune giueth the one and aduentur guideth the other These words are spoken like a stout and valiant Captaine of Rome Of how many Princes doe we reade whom truely I much lament to see what flatteries they haue heard with their eares being aliue and to reade what slaunders they haue sustained after their death Princes and greate Lordes should haue more regard to that which is spoken in their absence then to that which is done in their presence not to that which they heare but to that which they would not heare not to that which they tell them but to that which they would not bee told of not to that which is written vnto them beeing aliue but to that which is written of them after their death not to those that tell them lyes but to those which if they durst would tell them truth For men many times refrayne not their tongues for that Subiects bee not credited but because the Prince in his authority is suspected The Noble and vertuous Prince should not flitte from the truth wherof hee is certified neyther with flatteries and lyes should he suffer himselfe to bee deceyued but to examine himselfe and see whether they serue him with truth or deceyue him with lyes For there is no better witnes and iudge of truth and lyes then is a mans owne conscience I haue spoken all this to the entent your Maiesty might know that I will not serue you with that you should not bee serued That is for to shew my selfe in my Writing a flatterer For it were neyther meete nor honest that flatteries into the eares of such a noble Prince should enter neyther that out of my mouth which teach the truth such vaine tales should issue I say I had rather bee dispraysed for true speaking then to bee honoured for flattery and lying For of truth in your Highnesse it should bee much lightnesse for to heare them and in my basenesse great wickednesse to inuent them Now againe following our purpose I say the Histories greatly doe commend Lycurgus that gaue lawes to the Lacedemonians Numa Pompilius that honoured and addorned the Churches Marcus Marcellus that had pitty and compassion on those which were ouercome Iulius Caesar that forgaue his enemies Octautus that was so welbeloued of the people Alexander that gaue rewardes and gifts to all men Hector the Troian became hee was so valiant in wars Hercules the Thebane because hee employed his strength so well Vlisses the Grecian because hee aduentured himselfe in so many dangers Pyrrhus king of Epirotes because hee inuented so many engines Catullns Regulus because he suffred so many torments Titus the Emperour because he was father to the Orphanes Traianus because he edified sumptuous goodly buildings The good Marcus Aurelius because he knew more then al they I doe not say that it is requisit for one Prince in these dayes to haue in him all those qualities but I dare be bolde for to affirme this that euen as it is vnpossible for one Prince to follow all so likewise it is a great slaunder for him to follow none Wee doe not require Princes to doe all that they can but for to apply themselues to do som thing that they ought And I speake not without a cause that which I haue sayde before For if Princes did occupie themselues as they ought to doe they should haue no time to be vicious Plinie sayeth in an Epistle that the great Cato called Censor did weare a Ring vpon his finger wherein was written these words Esto amicus vnius inimicus nullius which is be friend to one and enemy to none He that would deepely consider these few words shall finde therein many graue sentences And to apply this to my purpose I say the Prince that would well gouerne his common weale shew to all equall iustice desire to possesse a quiet life to get among all a good fame and that coueteth to leaue of himselfe a perpetuall memorie ought to embrace the vertues of one and to reiect the vices of all I allow it very wel that Princes should bee equall
nor to come to so high an estate For those which by vertues deserue great Dignities are but fewe and sewer are those which attaine vnto them though they deserue them But if this matter be iudged according to sensualitie I tell you truely Dame Augusta that I thought not onely to deserue it but also I thought to come vnto it And hereof maruell not for it is an infallible rule Where least desert is often-times there is most presumption You say you esteemed mee for a wise man and that by wisedome I could ouer-come any difficult or disordinate appetite To this I answere that you knewe my wisedome either in mine owne busines or else in other mens affaires If in other mens affaires where it did cost mee nought I was alwayes a louer of iustice For there is no man in the world so euill that doth not desire if it bee without his owne cost to be counted liberall But if you iudge mee Dame Augusta on mine owne businesse giue not too light credit For I will that you know there is no man so iust nor of so cleare a iudgement that doth not shewe himselfe fraile in matters which touch his owne interest You say that men which haue their thoughts high and their Fortunes base liue alwayes a pensiue life Truely it is as you say But in mine opinion as the members of the bodyes are but instruments of the minde so is it necessary for men to haue quicke and sharpe wittes if they will not be negligent For if Alexander Pyrrhus Iulius Caesar Scipio and Hanniball had not beene high minded they had neuer bene as they were so Famous Noble and stoute Princes I let you vnderstand most Noble Princesse that men are not to be esteemed as lost for hauing theyr thoughtes high nor yet for hauing their hearts couragious neither for being hardie and stout but they are vndone because they beginne things through folly pursue them without wisedome and atchieue them without discretion For Noblemen enterprising great things ought not to employ theyr force as their noble heart willeth but as wisedome and reason teacheth You say you maruell why I waste the Treasures without care which Iustinian and you gathered together with great paine Now to this I answere you ought not to maruell if all the Treasours you heaped together of so long time were spent and consumed in one day For there is an ancient Malediction on riches hidden and Treasours buryed which Epimenides casteth out saying these words All the Treasours hoorded vp by the Couetous shall bee wasted by the Prodigall You say Through that I wast in fewe dayes you shall haue neither to giue to waste nor yet to eate at the yeares ende To this I answere most gracious Princesse that if you had beene as ready to relieue the Poore as you and Iustinian were diligent to robbe the rich then you should iustly haue complained and I worthily might well haue had iust cause to repent Till now wee haue not seene but that of the Rich you haue made Poore and notwithstanding this yet you haue not gotten enough to builde an Hospitall for the Poore You say that Princes to resist theyr enemyes had neede of great Treasures To this I answer if Princes be proud greedy and of strange Realmes ambicious it is most certaine that they had need of great substances and Treasours to accomplish and maintaine theyr disordinate appetties For the enae of a tyran nous Princâ—â—s that he careth not whether by hooke or by crooke hee make himselfe rich in his life But if the Prince be or will be a man reposed quiet vertuou patient peaceable and 〈◊〉 couetous of the goods of an other man what need hath he of great treasurs For to speake truly in Princes houses there is more offence in that which aduaunceth then in that which wanteth I will not waste many wordes in answering sith I am much more liberal of deeds then of wordes But to conclude that there is no Prince which in vertuous deedes wasteth so much but if hee will hee may spend much more For in the ende Princes become not poore for spending their goods and Treasours vpon necessaries but for making waste vpon things superfluous And take this word for all that for this hee shall not be the poorer but rather the richer For most certainely it is a generall rule in Christian Religion that God will giue more to his Seruants in one houre then they will waste in 20. yeares Iustinian beeing Emperour 11 yeares who being a Foole and very obstinate in the heresie of the Pelagians dyed to the great offence of the Romaine people whose death was as much desired as his life abhorred For the Tyrannous Prince that maketh many weeping eyes in his life shall cause many reioycing bearts at his death Iustinian being dead Tiberius was elected Emperour who gouerned the Empire through so great wisedome and Iustice that no man was able to reproue him if the Hystories in his time did not deceyue vs. For it seldome happeneth to a Prince to be as he was vpright in Iustice pure in life and cleane in Conscience For fewe are those Princes which of some vices are not noted Paulus Diaconus in his 18. booke of the Romaine Gests declareth a thing both strange and maruellous which besel vnto this Emperour at that time and very worthie to recite at this present And it was that in the Cittie of Constantinople the Romaine Emperours had a Pallace very sumptuous and beseming the authoritie of the Imperiall maiestie which was begun in the time of Constantine the Great and afterwardes as the succession of good and euil Emperors was so were the Buyldings decayed or repayred For it is the deede of a vertuous Prince to abolish vices of the Common-wealth and to make great and sumptuous buildings in his countrey This Emperour Tiberius had spent much of his substance and Treasour for the redeeming of poore captiues to build Hospitals to erect Monasteries to marry and prouide for the Orphares to sucour poore people and widdowes In this and such like hee was so prodigall that it came almost to passe that hee had nothing to eate in his Pallace And truely this was a blessed necessity For Catholike Princes ought to think that wel imployed which in the Seruice of Christ is bestowed And hereof this Emperour was not ashamed but he thought it a great honour and that which onely grieued him was to see the Empresse reioyce so much at his misery For the High and Noble hearts which feele themselnes wounded do not so much esteeme their owne payne as they do to see their enemyes reioyce at theyr griefe God neuer forsooke them that for his sake became poore as appeareth by this It chanced one day that euen as the Emperor Tiberius walked in the middest of his Pallace he saw at his feete a Marble-stone which was in forme of the Crosse of the Redeemer of the world And because it had
those which were new apparrelled And to say the truth we determined not to goe thither thou because thy garments were torne and I because my shoes were broken and that both the times wee were sicke in Capua they neuer cured vs by diet for our diseases neuer proceeded of excesse but of extreame hunger And oftentimes Retropus the Physition for his pleasure spake to vs in the Vniuersity sayd Alas children you dye not through surfetting and much eating And truely hee sayde truth for the Country was so deare and our mony so scarce that wee did neuer eate vntill the time we could endure no longer for famine Doest thou not remember the great famin that was in Capua for the which cause wee were in the war of Alexandria wherein my flesh did tremble remembring the great perils which wee passed in the gulfe of Theberinth What snowes at winter what extreame heate all Summer what generall famine in the fields what outragious pestilence amongst the people and worst of all what persecution of strangers and what euill will we had of ours remember also that in the city of Naples when wee made our prayer the Prophetesse Flauia shee tolde vs what should become of vs after vvee left our Studies Shee tolde mee that I should bee an Emperour and sayde that thou shouldest be a King To the which answere wee gaue such credite that wee tooke it not onely for a mocke but also for a manifest iniury And now I do not maruell in that then we both maruelled wonderfull much For enuious fortune practised her power more in plucking downe the rich then in setting vp the poore Beholde excellent Princes the great power of the Goddesse the wheele of fortune and the variety of times who would haue thought when I had my hands all rough and scuruy with rowing in the Galley that betweene those hands the Scepter of the Romane Empire should haue been put Who vvould haue thought when I was so sicke for lacke of meate that I should euer haue surfetted by too much eating Who vvould haue thought when I could not bee satisfied vvith cattes flesh that I should haue then glutted with too much dainty meates Who vvould haue thought at that time when I left going into the Temple because my shooes were broken that another time should come when I should ride triumphing in Chariots and vpon the shoulders of other men who would haue thought that that which with my eares I heard of the Prophetes in Campagnia I should see heere with my eyes in Rome O how many did hope at the time we were in Asia to be gouernours of Rome Lords of Sicille which not onely fayled of the honour that they desired but also obtayned the death which they neuer feared for oftentimes it chaunceth to ambitious men that in their greatest ruffe and when they thinke their honour spun and wouen then their estate with the webbe of their life in one moment is broken If at that time one had demaunded the Tirant Laodicius aspiring to the Kingdome of Sicille and Ruphus Caluus who looked to be Emperour of Rome what they thought of themselues assuredly they would haue sworne their hope to haue been as certaine as ours was doubtfull For it is naturall to proud men to delight themselues and to set their whole mind vpon vaine deuises It is a strange thing and worthy of memory that they hauing the honour in their eyes fayled of it and wee not thinking thereof in our hearts should obtaine it But herein fortune shewed her might that shee prouided hope for those which looked for least and despayre for others that hoped for most vvhich thing grieued them at the very heart For no patience can endure to see a man obtaine that without trauell which hee could neuer compasse by much labour I cannot tell if I should say like a simple Romane That those things consist in fortune or if I should say like a good Philosopher That all the Gods doe ordaine them For in the end no Fortune nor chaunce can doe any thing without the Gods assent Let the proud and enuious trauell asmuch as they will and the ambitious take as much care as they can I say and affirme that little auayleth humane diligence to attaine to great estates if the Gods bee theyr enemies Suppose that euill Fortune doe ordaine it or that the God and Gods doe suffer it I see those which haue their thoughts high oftentimes are but of base estate and so in fine to come to mischiefe or extream pouerty those that haue their thoghts low are humble of heart and for the more part are greatly exalted by fortune For many oftentimes dreame that they are Lords and men of great estate which when they are awake finde themselues slaues to all men The condition of honour is such as I neuer read the like and therfore such as haue to doe with her ought to take good heed For her conditions are such shee enquireth for him whom she neuer saw and she runneth after him that flyeth from her she honoureth him that esteemeth her not and she demaundeth him which willeth her not she giueth to him that requireth her not and she trusteth him whom she knoweth not Finally Honour hath this custome to forsake him that esteemeth her to remaine with him which little regardeth her The curious Trauellers aske not what place this or that is but doe demand what way they must take to leade them to the place they goe I meane the Princes and Noble men ought not directly to cast their eyes vpon honour but in the way of vertue which bringeth them to honour For dayly wee see many remaine defamed onely for seeking honour and others also exalted and esteemed for flying from her O miserable World thou knowest I know thee well and that which I know of thee is That thou art a Sepulchre of the dead a prison of the liuing a shoppe of vices a Hangman of vertues obliuion of antiquity an enemy of things present a pittefall to the rich and a burden to the poore a house of Pilgrimes and a denne of theeues Finally O World Thou art a slaunderer of the good a rauenour of the wicked and a deceyuer and abuser of all and in thee O world to speake the trueth It is almost impossible to liue contented and much lesse to liue in honour For if thou wilt giue honour to the good they thinke themselues dishonoured and esteeme thy honour as a thing of mockerie And if perchance they bee euill and light thou sufferest them to come often to honour by way of mockery meaning infamy dishonour vnto them O immortall Gods I am oftentimes troubled in my thought whose case I should more lament eyther the euill man aduanced without desert or the good man ouerthrowne without cause And truely in this case the pitifull man will haue compassion on them both For if the euill liue hee is sure to fall and if
thing very dishonest most noble Prince the which to write vnto thee I am ashamed which is for to enlarge thy new Palace thou hast plucked down an old Temple the which thing thou shouldest neyther haue done nor yet haue thought for in the end though the stones of the Temple be of small importance yet the Gods to whom they were dedicated were of much value Pardon me excellent Prince though I et thee vnderstand that this fact hath beene done in such sort that thereby I was amased and all Rome also offended the sacred Senate thou hast greatly vexed and further all iudge thee a dissolute man and all men procure that thou mayst be extreamly punished and hereof maruell not For in Rome they beleeue that the Prince which dareth plucke downe Temples doth little feare the Gods For that thou art a noble Prince and an olde friend of mine I haue trauelled to bring thee in fauour with the Senate and because thou hast no means to excuse thy errour committed they doe not determine to forgiue thee this fault before they see in thee a token of amendment And of truth me thinketh they haue reason For there is nothing that troubleth poore men more then to see that they and not the rich for theyr offences are chastised and punished That which the sacred Senate hath ordayned is that forthwith thou begin to build the Temple a new and that it should be more large hie beutifull and richer then euer it was So that thou take as much of thy Pallace to enlarge the Temple as thou tookest of the Temple to beautifie thy Pallace After thou hast performed this though now thou thinke thy selfe halfe dishonoured thou wilt then thinke thy selfe very happy For not thou of the Gods but the Gods of thee shall haue taken thy house to make their Temple I beleeue well it will be great cost and charges vnto thee before thou hast finished the Temple Wherefore I send thee 40. thousand sexterces to helpe thy building to the end it should be more secret I send thee them by my Secretary Panuntius to whom in all and for all thou shalt giue credite I send thee likewise a coller of gold which one brought me from the riuer of Nyle and because it was too narrow for mee I suppose it will be fit for thee one hath brought me moyles out of Spaine whereof I send thee two Panuntius my Secretary bringeth with him a very good Moyle the which hee esteemeth much so that there is no man that can eyther buy her or borrow her I delight in her so much that I desire thou cause her eyther to be bought or stollen and sent vnto mee here in Rome My wife Faustine saluteth thee to the excellent Queene thy Wife of her part and mine as much as is possible do our commendations these Popingeyes Faustine presenteth vnto her Marcus the Romane Emperour writeth to thee with his owne hand CHAP. XIX How the Gentiles honoured these which were deuout in the seruice of the Gods THe ancient Romane Historiographers agree that at the beginning there were seuen Kinges which gouerned Rome for the space of 24. yeares The second whereof was named Pompilius who amongst all the other was most highly esteemed for none other cause but for that hee was a great worshipper of the Gods and a sumptuous builder of the Temples For the Romane Princes were as much beloued for seruing the Gods as they were honoured for vanquishing their enemies This maÌ„ was of such sort that he allowed Rome wholy for the Gods made a house for himselfe without the City For it was an ancient Law in Rome that no man should bee so bolde to dwell in any house consecrated for the gods The fift King of the Romanes was Tarquinius Priscus And as Tarquinius Superbus was vicious and abhorred of the people so was this vertuous and welbeloued of the Gods was greatly praysed in all his doings because hee feared God and continually visited the Temples and not contented with those which were finished but built also in the High Capitoll the sacred Temple of Iupiter For no Prince could build any house in Rome for himselfe vnlesse first hee made a Temple for the Gods of the Common-wealth This Temple was had in so great reuerence that as the Romanes honored Iupiter for the God aboue all other Gods so was that Temple esteemed aboue all other Temples In the warres betweene the â—alisques the Carpenates two Romane Captaines were vanquished or the which the one named 〈◊〉 dyed whereupon rose such a great 〈◊〉 among theÌ„ that many flying 〈…〉 the warres came backe againe to Rome For the victorious hath alwayes this Priuiledge That though they bee fewe yet they are alwayes feared of them that be ouercome This occasion mâ—ued the Romanes to chuse new Captaines and truely they did like wise men For oftentimes it haâ—neth by 〈◊〉 the Captaines of the warres fortune likewise chaungeth her doings And the Captaine that was elected for the wars was Marcus Purius Camillus who though he were stout and hardy yet before he went to the wars he offered great sacrifices to the Gods and made a vow that if hee returned to Rome victorious hee would build a solemne Temple For it was the custome in Rome that immediately when the Romane Captaine would enterprise to doe any notable thing he should make a vow to build Temples Now when Camillus returned afterwards victorious hee did not onely build a Temple but also furnished it with all manner of implements thereunto belonging which he got by spoyle and vanquishing his enemies And sith he was for this reprehended of some saying that the Romane Captaines should offer theyr hearts to the Gods and diuide the Treasures among the Souldiers hee answered these words I like a man did aske the Gods but one triumph and they like Gods did giue mee many Therefore considering this it is but iust sâ—th I was 〈◊〉 in promising that I should be large in persoâ—â—ing For euen as I did thanke them for that they gaue me double in respect of that I demaunded so likewise shall they esteeme that which I doe giue in respect of that which I promised At that time when the cruell war was betwixt Rome and the City of Neye the Romanes kept it besieged 5. yeares together and in the end by policie tooke it For it chaunceth sundrie times in warre that that City in short time by policie is won which by great strength a long time hath been defended Marcus Furius Dictator of Rome and at that time Captaine commanded a Proclamation to be had throgh his Host that incontinently after the City was taken none should be so hardy as to kill any of the Citizens but those which were found armed Which thing the enemies vnderstanding vnarmed themselues and so escaped And truly this example was worthy of nothing For as the Captaines ought to shew themselues fierce and cruell at
sage men should naturally be Lords ouer others For in the world there is nothing more monsterous then that Fooles should commaund and wise men obey The third reason taketh his ground on beasts For wee see by experience that diuers beasts by the onely knowledge of men are gouerned therefore it is but meete that many men which are more liker Beastes then the beasts themselues do suffer themselues to be gouerned and ruled by wise men For the Commonweale is more profited by a brute beast then it is by witles men The 4. reason proceedeth of women For we see that they being created to the image of GOD God cōmandeth ordaineth that they should be subiect to man presupposing their knowledge not to be so great as the knowledge of men Therefore if this thing bee thus why could not diuers mortasl men who without comparison know lesse then women take themselues for happy that one alone would commaund and gouerne them so that such a one were a sage and vertuous person Sith man is naturally politique which is to bee a friend of company the company engendreth enuie and afterwardes discord nourisheth war and warre bringeth in tyranny and tyranny destroyeth the Common-wealth and the Common-wealth being lost all men thinke their liues in perill Therefore it is very necessary that in the Common-wealth many bee gouerned by one alone For to conclude There is no Common-wealth well gouerned but by one alone The great trauels and inconueniences which the Auncients found in times past were the occasision that it was ordayned in the publike weale that all should obey one Sith that in a Campe one onely Captaine is obeyed and in the Sea one Pilot followed In the Monastery all obey one Prelate and in the Church all obey one Bishoppe and since in a Hiue of Bees one Bee onely leadeth all the rest It were not reason that men should bee without one King nor the Common-wealth without a Gouernour These men that will not haue a King in a Common-wealth are like vnto drones and waspes which without trauell eate the sweate of others And my opinion in this case should be that euery man that will not bee commanded as an abiect of the common weale should bee expulsed and cast out thereof For in a common-wealth there can bee no greater enemie then hee that desireth that many should rule therein In that publike Weale where one alone hath care for all and all obey the commandements of one onely there God shall bee serued the people shall profit the good shal bee esteemed and the euill despised and besides the Tyrantes shall bee suppressed For a gouernance of many is not profitable vnlesse they refer themselues to the iudgement of a few and to the arbitrement of one alone Oh how many people realms because they would not obey their Princes by iustice haue since by cruell tyrants been gouerned with tyranny For it is euen a iust plague that they which desire the scepters of righteous Princes should feele and proue the scourge of cruell tyrants Alwaies it was and shall be that in the world there was one to command another to obey one to gouerne and another to be gouerned In this case let no man say I am excepted for vntill this day there hath no Prince nor Knight bin seene but hath trauelled vnder this yoake I warne and pray and importunately require you all that you be loyall and faithfull seruants to the end you may deserue to haue louing Lords For the Prince that is wicked causeth his subiects to rebel the seditious subiect maketh his Lord becom a tyrant It is a great thing to the people their Princes be good or euill For there are no Princes so stable that alwayes wil disemble the euill nor there is no gouernor so very a tyrant but somtimes will acknowledge the good Oftentimes God suffereth that there be Emperors in the Empire Kings in Realms Lords in Cities and Prelates in Churches not all only as the Common wealth desireth nor as the good gouernment requireth but as the offence of the multitude deserueth For we see many that haue the charge of soules which deserue not to keepe the sheepe That to be true plainly appears For such doe not gouerne but disorder they doe not defend but offend they doe not resist the enemies but engage and fell the innocent they are no Iudges but Tyrants they are not gentle Pastors but cruell Hangmen they are not encreasers of the Common-wealth but destroyers of Iustice they are not ordayners of the Lawes but inuentors of tributes their hearts wake not to good but to inuent and worke all mischiefe And finally God sendeth vs such Prelates and Gouernours not for that they should bee Ministers of his lawes but for that they should bee scourgers of our offences CHAP. XXIX That in a publike weale there is no greater destruction then where Princes dayly consent to new orders and change olde customes IN the first booke of the Kings the 8. Chapter of the holy and sacred scripture is sayde that Samuel when hee was olde in his stead placed his two sonnes to gouerne the people whose names were Iohel and Abiah for that naturally the Fathers are desirous to aduance their childrē to honour The sonnes of Samuel were resident and held the iudgement in the City of Beersheba which was the furthest part of Iudea and the olde Samuel went to dwell in the City Ramah The honourable and most auncient men among the people of Ierusalem assembled together and decreede to send Ambassadours to Samuel which should bee the wisest men of all the Synagogue for the ancients in those dayes were so circumspect that they neuer committed any affayres in the common wealth into the handes of young men The Ancients then being arriued at Ramah spake these words vnto Samuel Samuel thou art now olde and for thy yeares thou canst not gouern the people therefore thou like a pittifull Father hast committed the gouernement of the people into the hands of thy children Wherfore we let thee know in this case that thy children are couetous First they doe receyue bribes of the suters And secondarily they doe great iniurie to the people Therefore wee are come to require thee to giue vnto vs a King that may gouerne vs and that might leade vs in battell for we will no more Iudges to iudge vs but Kings for to gouerne vs. The aged Samuel hearing the ambassage was ashamed of that the Ancients of Iudea had tolde him first seeing his children to bee euill Secondarily because they would take their offices from them And truely herein Samuel had iust occasion both to bee ashamed and also sorry For the enormities vices and wickednesse of the young children are swords that passe through the hearts of the old and auncient Fathers Samuel seeing that the Hebrewes were determined to depriue them of their office and gouernement of the people had none other remedy but euen to make
World beside peraduenture it is not folly to winne with the tears of the poore and comfortlesse widdowes so great and bloudy victories peraduenture it is no folly willingly to wet the earth with the bloud of Innocents onely to haue a vaine glorie in this World Thou thinkest it no folly peraduenture God hauing diuided the World into so many people that thou shouldest vsurpe them to thee alone O Alexander Alexander truly such workes proceede not from a creature nourished among men on the earth but rather of one that hath beene brought vp among the infernall Furies of Hell for wee are not bound to iudge men by the good nature they haue but by their good and euill works which they do The man is cursed if hee haue not been cursed hee shal be cursed that liueth to the preiudice of all others in this world present onely to be counted couragious stoute and hardie in time to come For the gods seldome suffered them to enioy that quietly in peace which they haue gotten vniustly in the warres I would aske thee what insolencie moued thee to reuolte against the lord K. Darius after whose death thou hast sought to conquer all the world and thus thou doest not as a King that is an inhertitor but as a tyrant that is an oppressor For him properly we cal a tirant that without iustice reason taketh that which is another mans Eyther thou searchest iustic or thou searchest peace or else thou searchest riches and our honor Thou searchest rest or els thou searchest fauour of thy frends or thou searchest vengeance of thine enemies But I sweare vnto thee Alex that thou shalt not find any of all these things if thou seekest by this meanes as thou hast begun For the sweet Sugar is not of the nature of the bitter gumbe How shall wee belieue thou searchest iustice sith against reason and iustice by Tiranny thou rulest al the earth how shal we belieue thou searchest peace sith thou causest them to pay tribute which receiue thee and those which resist thee thou handlest thē like enemies How can we belieue that thou searchest rest sith thou troublest all the world How can wee belieue thou searchest gentiles sith thou art the scourge and sword of humaine frailnes how can we belieue that thou searchest riches sith thine owne Treasures suffiseth thee not neyther that which by thee vāquished cōmeth into thy hands nor that which the conque rors offer thee How shall we belieue thou searchest profit to thy friēds sith that of thy old friends thou hast made new enemies I let thee vnderstand Alex that the greatest ought to teache the least the least to obey the greatst And Friendship is onely amongst equalls But thou sith thou sufferest none in the World to bee equall and like vnto thee looke not thou to haue any Friend in the world For Princes oftentimes by ingratitude loose faithfull Friends and by ambition winne mortall enemies How shall we belieue thou searchest reuēge of thine enemies sith thou takest more vengeance of thy selfe beeing aliue then thine enemyes would take of thee if they tooke thee prisoner though perchance in times past they vsed thy Father Philip euill and haue now disobeyed thee his Sonne It were farre better counsel for thee to make them thy Friends by gentlenes then to confirme them Enemyes by crueltie For the Noble and pitifull harts when they are reuenged of any make of themselues a butcherie Wee cannot with truth say that thy Trauells are well employde to winne such honor sith thy conuersation and life is so vnconstant For truely honour consisteth not in that Flatterers say but in that which Lords doe For the great Familiaritie of the wicked causeth the life to be suspected Honour is not gotten by liberall giuing of Treasours at his death but by spending it well in his life For it is a sufficient profe that the man which esteemeth renowme doth little regard Money and it is an apparant token that man who little esteemeth Money greatly regardeth his renowme A man winneth not honor by murdering Innocents but by destroying Tyrants for all the harmony of the good gouernment of princes is in the chastising of the euil rewarding the good Honour is not wonne in taking and snatching the goods of an other but in giuing and spending his owne For there is nothing that beautifieth the Maiestie of a Prince more then for to shew his noblenes in extending mercie and fauour vnto his subiects and giuing gifts and rewards to the vertuous And to conclude I will let thee know who hee is that winneth true honour in this life and also a perpetuall memorie after his death and that is not hee which leadeth his life in Warres but hee that taketh his death in peace O Alexander I see thou art young and that thou desirst honour wherefore I let thee vnderstand that there is no man farther from true honor then hee which greedily procureth and desireth the same For the ambitious men not obtaining what they desire remaine alwaies defamed and in winning and getting that which they search true honour notwithstanding will not follow them Belieue mee in one thing Alexander that the most truest honor ought through worthie deedes to bee deserued and by no meanes to bee procured For all the honour which by tyrannie is wonne in the ende by infamy is lost I am sorrie for thee Alexander For I see thou wantest Iustice since thou louest Tyrannie I see thou lackest peace because thou louest warre I see thou art not Rich because thou hast made all the world poore I see thou lackest rest because thou seekest contention and debate I see thou hast no honour because thou winnest it by infamie I see thou wantest friends because thou hast made them thine enemies Finally I see thou doest not reuenge thy selfe of thine enemyes because thou art as they wold be the scourge to thy selfe Then since it is so why art thou aliue in this World sith thou lackest vertues for the which life ought to be desired For truely that man which without his owne profite and to the dammage of an other leadeth his life by Iustice ought forthwith to lose his breath For there is nothing that sooner destroyeth the Weale publike then to permit vnprofitable men therein to liue Therefore speaking the truth you Lords and Princes are but poore I beleeue thou conquerest the World because thou knowest not thy superiour therein and besides that thou wilt take life from so many to the end that by their death thou mayest win renowne If cruell and warlike Princes as thou art should inherite the liues of them whom they slay to augment prolong their liues as they doe inherite goods to maintaine their pride although it were vnmeete then warre were tollerable But what profiteth the seruant to lose his life this day and his Masters death to bee differred but vntill the morrow O Alexander to be desirous to
of in my time of my predecessors which were vtterly vndon by too much pride and presumption but I neuer read nor hearde of any which were destroyed for being courteous and louing to his subiects I will declare by some examples which I haue read in bookes to the end that the Lords may see what they win by theyr good conuersation and what they loose by being too hautie The Realme of the Sidonians was greater then that of the Chaldeans in weapons and inferiour in antiquitie vnto that of the Assyrians In this Realme there was Debastia which was called a King of Kings that endured two hundred and xxv yeeres because all these Kings were of a commendable conuersation And another of Debastia endured no longer then forty yeares And our ancients tooke pleasure of peace wherof we are 〈◊〉 and were ignorant of the 〈…〉 which wee now vse so much Alwayes they desired to haue Kings which should bee good for the Common-wealth in peace rather then valiant and couragious in the warre as Homere in his Ilyades saith The auncient Egiptians called theyr Kings Epiphanes and had a custom that Epiphanes should enter into the temples barefoote And because it chanced the Epiphane on a time to come into their Church hoased hee was immediately for his disobediēce depriued and expulsed the Realme and in his stead an other created Homere declareth here that this king was prowde and euill conditioned wherfore the Egyptians depriued him and banished him the Realme taking oceasion that hee did not enter into the temple barefoot For truely when Lordes are euill-willed and not beloued for a little trifle and occasion the people will arise and rebell against them The said Homer saide also that the Parthes called theyr Kings Assacides and that the sixt of that name was depriued and expulsed the Realme for that of presumption hee bad himselfe to the marriage of a knight and being bidden and desired would not goe to the marriage of a poore Plebeyan Cicero in his Tusculanes sayth That in olde time the people perswaded theyr Princes to communicate with the poore and that they should abstaine flye from the rich For among the poore they should learne to bee mercifull and with the rich they shall learne nothing but onely to bee prowd Yee knowe right well Fathers conscript how this our countrey was first called Great Greece afterwards it was called Latium and then Italie And when it was called Latium they called their kings Marrani and truely although theyr borders were but narrow yet at the least theyr stoutnesse was great The Annales of those times say that after the thirde Syluius succeeded a Marrine who was proude ambicious and euill conditioned in such sorte that for feare of the people alwaies he slept locked vp and therefore they both depriued him and banished him the Realme For the auncients sayd That the king should locke his dores at no houre of the night against his Subiects neyther he should refuse in the day to giue them audience Tarquine which was the last of the seuen Kings of Rome which was very vnthankfull towards his Father in law he was an infamie to his bloud a traitour to his countrey and cruell of his person who also enforced the Noble Lucretia and yet notwithstanding this they doe not call him vnthankfull infamous cruell traitour nor adulterer but Tarquine the proude onely for that he was euill conditioned By the faith of a good man I sweare vnto you Fathers conscript that if the miserable Tarquin had bin beloued in Rome hee had neuer bin depriued of the Realme for committing adulterie with Lucretia For in the end if euery light offence which in youth is committed should bee punished within short space there should be no Common-wealth All these euils both before and after Tarquine were committed by the ancients in the Romaine Empire which were such as these of this young and light prince and were nothing in comparison vnto thee For truly considering the youth of the one and the experience of the other the greatest offence of the young is but a counterfeit to the least that the olde committeth Iulius Caesar last Dictatour and first Emperour of Rome beeing a thing commendable both to Senatours to salute the Emperour on theyr knees and to the Emperour to rise against them and resalute eache one according to this order because of presumption and that he would not obserue this ceremonie with xxiii woundes they dispatched him of his life Tiberius was an Emperour whome they blame for drunkennes Caligula was an Emperor also whome they accuse of Incest with his Sisters Nero was an Emperour who for that hee slew his Mother and his maister Seneca hath for euer bin named cruell Sergius Galba was a deuouring and a gluttonous Emperor for that he caused for one onely Banket seuen thousand Bynds to be killed Domitian was an Emperour who was greatly noted of all euils For all euils which in manie were scattered in him alone were found All these miserable Princes in the ende were betrayed hanged and beheaded And I sweare vnto ye Fathers conscript that they died not for theyr vices but because they were proud and euill conditioned For finally the Prince for one vice onely cannot much endamage the people but for being too haultie and presumptuous and of euill conditions they may destroy a Commonwealth Let Princes and great Lords be assured that if they giue many occasions of euill example afterwardes one onely-suffiseth to stirre theyr subiects to destroy them For if the Lord shew not his hatred it is for that hee will not but if the subiect do not reuenge it is for that he cannot Beleue me fathers conscript sacred Senate that euen as the Physition with a little triacle purgeth many euil humors of the body so the sage Princes with very litle beneuolence draw out of theyr Subiects much rancour and inward filthinesse of heart diuerting their euill wills into true and faithfull loue And because the members should be agreable with the head in mine opinion it behoueth the people to obey the commaundements of theyr Prince and to doe honour and to reuerence his person and the good Prince to bee iust and equall to all in generall and gentle in conuersation with euery one O happy commonwealth wherein the Prince findeth obedience in the people and the people in like manner loue in the Prince For the loue of the Lord springeth obedience in the subiect and of the obodience of the Subiects springeth loue in the Lord. The Emperour in Rome is as the Spyder in the midst of her Cobweb the which beeing touched with the needles point by one of the threedes of the same bee it neuer so little immediately the spyder feeleth it I meane that all the worke which the Emperor doth in Rome are immediately published throughout all the countrey For in fine since princes are the myrrour of all they can not well cloake theyr vices
I see Fathers conscript that I haue bin iudged here of worldly malice because I accompanyed the captiues in procession and also because I suffered my selfe to bee touched with them to the ende they might enioye the priuiledge of their libertie and in this case I render most humble thanks vnto the immortall Gods because they made mee a mercifull Emperour to set those at Libertie that were in prison and that they made me not a cruell tyrant to set those in prison which were at liberty For the prouerb saith that with one bean a man may take 2. pigeons euē so chanced the like herein yesterday For the benefite was don for those miserable Captiues but the example of humanitie was shewed to all strange nations And know ye not that whē the prince vnloseth the irons frō the feet of the captiues he bindeth the harts goods and lands of his subiects Concluding therefore I say that to the Princes it were more safety and to the Common wealth more profite to be serued in their Pallaces by free hearts with loue then by subiects which are kept vnder by feare CHAP. XL. Of a Letter which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius sent to his friend Pulio declaring the opinion of certaine Philosophers concerning the felicitie of man MArcus Aurelius Emperour of Rome tribune of the people high Bishop secōd Consull and Monarche of al the Romane Empire wisheth to thee Pulio his olde friend health to thy person and prosperitie against thy euill fortune The letter that thou wrotest vnto mee from Capua I receyued here at Bethinia and if thou diddest write it with a good heart I did reade it with willing eyes wherof thou oughtest somewhat to content thee For it is an olde saying of Homer That that which is well viewed with the eyes is tenderly beloued of the heart I protest vnto thee by the faith of the immortall gods that I do not write vnto thee as a Romane Emperour that is to say from the Lord to the seruant for in this sorte I should write vnto thee briefe and touching the purpose which thing ought not to bee done to the peculiar friend For the Letters of graue men should neuer beginne and the Letters of vs friends should neuer end I write vnto thee my friend Pulio as to a priuate friend to an olde companion of mine and as to him which is a faithfull secretary of my desires and in whose company I was neuer displeased in whose mouth I neuer found lye and in whose promise there was neuer breach made And the thing being thus I shuld commit treason in the law of friendship if I keepe secret from thee any of my inward conceites for all the griefes which lye buried in the wofull heart ought not to bee communicated but with a faithfull friend Doest thou thinke Pulio that the Romane Emperour hath little trauell to write vnto thee as Emperour to speake as Emperour to walke as Emperour and to eate as Emperour and finally to bee as Emperour indeed Certes I do not maruell hereat For truely the life of the vertuous Emperour is but a Dyall which ordereth or disordereth the Common-wealth and that whereof I maruell is of the folly of Rome and vanity of the Common wealth For as much as all say that the Prince if he will seem graue and be well esteemed of the people ought to goe softly to speake little to write briefly so that for writing of letters they will he be briefe and for conquering of strange Realmes they doe not rebuke him although hee be long Wise men should desire that their Princes be of gentle condition to the end they fall not to tyranny That they haue their mind vncorrupted to minister to all equall iustice that their thought bee good not to desire straunge Realms that they haue their hearts voide from wrath that they bee sound within to pardon iniuries that they loue their Subiects to bee serued of them that they know the good to honour them and that they know the euill to punish them and as for the surplus we little regard whether the King go fast whether he eate much or write briefe For the danger is not in that which is in the lacke of his owne person but it is in the negligence that he vseth in the common-wealth I haue receyued my Friend Pulio great comfort of thy letter but yet much more I should haue receiued of thy presence for the letters of auncient friends are but as a remembrance of times past It is a great pleasure to the Mariner to talke of the perils past being in the hauen and to the Captain to glorie of the battell after the victorie I meane aboue all pleasures this is the greatest to men beeing now faithfull friends to talke of the trauells dangers which they had passed when they were young men Belieue me in one thing do not doubt therof There is no man that knoweth to speak that knoweth to possesse nor that cā iudge or take any pleasure neyther that well knoweth how to keep the goods which the gods haue giuen him vnlesse it be hee that hath bought it deerely with great trauell For with all our hearts wee loue that thing which with our owne proper labour and trauell wee haue gotten I aske thee one thing who is hee that oweth most to the Gods or that is most esteemed amongst men of Traian the iust which was brought vp in the Warres of Dace Germanie and Spaine or of Nero the cruell which was nourished in all the deliciousnes of Rome Truely the one was none other then a Rose among bryers and the other was but a Nettle amongst flowers I spake this because the good Traian hath gouerned his life in such sorte that alwayes they will smell the Rose by the pleasant sauour but the cruell Nero hath left the sting the nettle of his infamie I will not speake all because many are and were made good but for the most part the princes which were brought vp deliciously gaue euery man occasion that al shuld be offended for the euill gouernance of their liues in their Realmes and because they neuer experimented any kinde of trauell in themselues they do little esteeme the paines of another I will not that thou thinke my friend Pulio that I haue forgotten the time that is past though the Gods brought me to the Empire present For thogh we together were tossed with the torments of youth yet now wee may repose our selues in the calmes of our age I do remember that thou and I did study in Rhodes in letters and after we had sowen weapons in Capua it hath pleased the gods that the seedes of my Fortunes should ripen heere in Rome and to thee and to others better then I Fortune would not giue one only eare I doe not giue thee licence that thy thought be suspicious of me sith thou of my hart art made a faithfull Friend for if vnconstant Fortune doth trust mee
by vices and deliciousnesse but by weapons and prayers The Romanes were very sore grieued with the and a city of this Consull Lucius Pius and not contented to haue beheaded him and to haue set on his graue so defamous a title but made proclamation forthwith thorow out all Rome by the sound of a Trumpet how al that Lucius Pius had done the sacred Senate condemned for nothing and should stand to no effect For there was an auncient Law in Rome when they beheaded any by iustice they should also take away the authority hee had in Rome After the warres were ended and all the land of Sarmatia subiect the Consull Lucius Pius came to Rome for reward of his trauell required the accustomed triumph the which was not onely denyed him but also in recompence of his fact hee was openly beheaded and by the decree of all the Senate about his graue was written this Epitaph And not contented with these things the sacred Senate wrote to the Sarmates that they did release them of their homage making themselues subiects of the Romanes wherefore they restored them againe to their liberty They did this thing because the custome among the stoute and valiant Romanes was not to gette nor winne Realmes in making their enemies drunke with delicate Wines but in shedding their proper bloud in plaine field I haue tolde thee this my friend Pulio because the Consull Lucius Pius did perceyue that the Sarmates put all their felicity to ingorge themselues with wine Of the Philosopher Chylo IN the 15. Dinastia of the Lacedemonians and Deodeus beeing King of Medes Gigion being king of Lides Argeus being king among the Macedonians and Tullius Hostilius king of the Romaines in the Olympiade 27. there was in Athens a Phylosopher borne in Greece whose name was Chylo one of the seuen Sages which the Greekes had in theyr treasurie In that time there was great warres betweene the Athenians and the Corinthians as wee may perceyue by the Greeks histories which we see written Since Troy was ruinated and destroyed there was neuer peace in Greece for the warres betwixte the Greeks and Troyans was neuer so great as that which afterwards they made among themselues Sith the Greekes were now wise mē they did deuide the offices of the Commonwealth according to the ability of euery person that is to know that to the stoute and hardy men they gaue the gouernment to the sage they recommended the Embasies of of strange countreys And vpon this occasion the Athenians sent the Phylosopher Chilo to the Corinthians to treate of peace who came vnto the cittie of Corinth By chaunce on that day there was celebrated a great Feast wherefore hee found all men playing at dice the women solacing themselues in theyr gardens the Priestes shorte with theyr crosse-bowes in the Temples the Senatours played in the consistory at tables the maisters of Fence played in the streetes And to conclude hee found them all playing The Philosopher seeing these things without speaking to any man or lighting off from his horse returned to his countrey without declaring his message and when the Corinthians went after him and asked him why hee did not declare the cause of his comming he aunswered Friends I am come from Athens to Corinth not without great trauell and now I returne from Corinth to Athens not lattle offended and yee might haue seene it because I spake neuer a word to any of you of Corinth For I haue no commission to treate of peace with vnthrifty players but with sage gouernours Those of Athens commaunded mee not to keepe company with those that haue theyr hāds occupyed with Dyce but with those that haue theyr bodyes loden with harnes and with those which haue theyr Eyes dazeled with Bookes For those men which haue warres with the Dyce it is vnpossible they should haue peace with theyr Neighbours After he had spoken these words he returned to Athens I let thee vnderstand my friende Pulio that the Corinthians thinke it to be the greatest felicity in the world to occupy dayes and nights in playes and maruel not hereat neither laugh thou them to scorne For it was told mee by a Greeke being in Antioche that a Corinthian esteemed it more felicitie to winne a game then the Romaine Captaine did to winne a Triumph As they say the Corinthians were wise and temperate men vnlesse it were in Playes in the which thing they were too vicious Me thinke my friend Pulio that I answer thee more amply then thou requirest or that my health suffereth that which is little so that both thou shalt be troubled to read it and I here shall haue paine to write it I will make thee a briefe summe of all the others which now come to my remembrance the which in diuersethings haue put theyr ioy and chiefest felicities Of Crates the Philosopher CRates the Philosopher put his felicity to haue good fortune in prosperous nauigation saying that hee which sayleth by sea can neuer haue perfect ioy at his his heart so long as hee confidereth that between death and life there is but one bourd Wherefore the heart neuer feeleth so great ioy as when in the Hauen he remembreth the perils which hee hath escaped on the sea Of Estilpho the Philosopher EStilpho the Philosopher put all his felicity to bee of great power saying that the man which can doe little is worth little and he that hath little the gods doe him wrong to let him liue so long For hee onely is happy which hath power to oppresse his enemies and hath wherewithall to succour himselfe and reward his friendes Of Simonides the Philosopher SImonides the Philosopher put all his felicity to bee well beloued of the people saying That churlish men and euill conditioned should bee sent to the mountaines amongst brute beasts For there is no greater happinesse or felicity in this life then to bee beloued of all in the Common-wealth Of Archita the Philosopher ARchita the Phylosopher had all his felicitie in conquering a Bartell saying that naturally man is so much friend to himselfe and desireth so much to come to the chiefe of his enterprise that though for little trifles he played yet he would not bee ouercome For the heart willingly suffereth all the trauels of the life in hope afterwardes to win the victory Of Gorgias the Philosopher GOrgias the Philosopher put al his felicity to heare a thing which pleased him saying That the body feeleth not so much a great wound as the heart doth an euill word For truely there is no musicke that soundeth so sweete to the eares as the pleasant wordes are sauourie to the heart Of Chrysippus the Philosopher CHrysippus the Philosopher had all his felicity in this Worlde in making great buildings saying that those which of themselues left no memory both in their life and after their death deserued infacny For great and sumptuous buildings are perpetuall monuments of
danger In the olde time when vertuous Princes dyed and that they left their children for Successors in their Realmes and besides that forasmuch as they saw their children young and euill instructed in the affayres of their Realmes they committed them to Tutours that should teach them good works and doctrine rather then they would giue them Suruayors which should encrease and augment their Cofers and Rents For truely if the Common-wealth bee defended with great treasures it is not gouerned with good counsels The princes which are young accustomely are giuen to vices for in the one part youth raigneth and on the other part honesty wanteth And to such truely vices are very dangerous specially if they want Sages to counsel them to keepe them from euill company For the couragious youth will not bee brideled nor their greate liberty can bee chastised Princes without doubt haue more neede of wise and stayed men about them to profite them in theyr counselles then any of all their other Subiects for since they are in the view of all they haue lesse licence to commit vice then any of all For if you behold all and that they haue authority to iudge all will they nill they they are beholden and iudged of all Princes ought to be circumspect whom they trust with the gouernement of their Realmes and to whom they commit the leading of their Armies whom they send as Ambassadours into strange Countries and whom they trust to receyue and keepe their treasures but much more they ought to bee circumspect in examining of those whom they choose to bee their Counsellours For looke what is he that counselleth the prince at home in his pallace so likewise shall his renowne be in strange countries and in his owne Common-wealth Why should they not then willingly examine and correct theyr owne proper palace Let Princes know if they do not know that of the honesty of their seruants of the prouidence of their Counsels of the sagenesse of their persons and of the order of their house dependeth the welfare of the Common-wealth for it is impossible that the branches of that tree whose rootes are dryed vp should bee seene to beare greene leaues CHAP. XLIIII How the Emperour Theodosius prouided â—ise men at the houre of his death for the edification of his two sonnes Archadius and Honorius I Gnatius the Historian in the booke that he made of the two Theodosij of the 2. Archadij and of the 4. Honorii declareth that the first great Theodosius being â—0 yeares olde and hauing gouerned the empire 11. years lying on his death bed called Archadius and Honorius his two sons and committed them to Estilconius and Ruffâ—nus to be instructed and ordayned them likewise for gouernours of their estates and signiories Before that the father dyed hee had now created his children Caesars being then of the age of 17. yeares Therefore the Father seeing them not as yet ripe nor able to gouerne their Realms and Signiories he committed them vnto masters and tutors It is not alwayes a generall rule though one be of 25. yeares of age that he hath more discretion to gouerne realms then another of fifteene for dayly wee see that wee allow and commend the ten yeeres of one and reproue the forty yeares of an other There are many Princes tender of yeares but ripe in counsels and for the contrary there are other Princes olde in yeares and young in counsels When the good Emperour Vespatian dyed they determined to put his sonne Titus in the gouernement of the Empire or some other aged Senatour because they sayde Titus was too young And as they were in controuersie of the matter the Senator Rogerus Patroclus said vnto the Senate For my part I require rather a Prince which is young and sage then I do a Prince which is olde and foolish Therefore now as touching the children of Theodosius one day Estiltorius the tutor of Archadius speaking to a Greeke Philosopher very sage whose name was Epimundus sayd thus vnto him Thou and I long time haue beene acquainted together in the Palace of the Emperour Theodose my Lord who is dead and we are aliue thou knowest it had been better that we two had dyed and that he had liued for there bee many to bee seruants of Princes but there are few to be good Princes I feele no greater griefe in this world then to know many Princes in one Realme For the man which hath seene many Princes in his life hath seene many nouelties and alterations in the common wealth Thou knowest well that when Theodosius my master dyed hee spake to mee these words the which were not spoken without great sighes and multiplying of teares O Estilconus I dye and am going into an other world wherin I shall giue a streight account of the Realmes and Seignories which I had vnder my charge and therefore when I thinke of mine offences I am maruellously afrayde But when I remember the mercy of God then I receyue some comfort and hope As it is but meet wee should trust in the greatnesse of his mercy so likewise is it reason wee should feare the rigour of his iustice For truely in the christian law they are not suffered to liue as we which are Princes that liue in delights of this world without repentance to goe to Paradise Then when I thinke of the great benefites which I haue receyued of God and of the great offences which I haue committed and when I thinke of the long time I haue liued and of the little which I haue profited and also that vnprofitably I haue spent my time On the one part I am loath to dye for that I am afrayde to come before the tribunall seate of Iesus Christ and on the other part I would liue no longer because I doe not profite The man of an euill life why doth hee desire to liue any longer My life is now finished and the time is short to make amends And sith God demaundeth nought else but a contrite heart with all my heart I doe repent and appeale to his iustice of mercy from his iustice to his mercy because it may please him to receyue mee into his house and to giue mee perpetuall glory to the confusion of all my finnes and offences And I protest I dye in the holy catholike faith and commend my soule to God and my body to the earth and to you Estilconus and Ruffinus my faithfull seruants I recommend my deere beloued children for hereby the lone of the children is seene in that the Father forgetteth them not at the houre of his death In this case of one onely thing I doe warne you one onely thingâ—â— require you one thing I desire you and one onely thing I command you and that is that you occupie not your minds in augmenting the realms and seignories of my children but onely that you haue due respect to giue theÌ„ good education and vertuous seruaÌ„ts for
Bull and that the cruelty of the torment shuld be experimented in none saue onely on the inuentor Truely in this case Phalaris shewed himselfe not a cruell tyrant but rather a mercifull Prince and a Sage Phylosopher for nothing can bee more iust then that the inuention of the maâ—ce bee executed on the fraile flesh the inuentor Now because Phalaris was a greate friend of Sages the Philosophers of Greece came oftentimes to see him which were very gently receyued of him Though to say the trueth they profited more with his goods then he did with their Philosophy This tyrant Phalaris was not onely a friend of Sages but also hee was very well learned and deepely seen in morall Philosophy the which thing appeareth well in the Epistles which he wrote with his owne hand I can not tell wherein hee shewed himselfe greater eyther in the sentences and doctrines which hee wrote with his penne or in the slaughter and cruelties which he did with his sword O how many companions had Phalaris the tyrant in this case in times past and that as I would there were none also at this time present which in their pleasant wordes did resemble the Emperour Nero. I neuer read other thing of those that are gone neither haue I seene otherwise of those that are present but many they are that blase vertues and infinite which runne after vices For of truth wee are very light of tongue and too feeble of flesh The Epistles which this Phalaris wrote are knowne to al men I meane of those which know Greek or Laten and for those that know them not I was willing to draw these that are present and to put them in our vulgar tongue for two causes The one to the end Princes might see how good a thing it is to be Sage and how tyrants â—were praysed for being Sages and giuing good counsell The other to the end the people might see how easie it is to speake wel and how hard it is to worke well For there is nothing better cheape in the world then counsell The sententences therefore of the Epistles of Phalaris are these which follow in such sort as I could most briefly gather them to reduce them in good and profitable stile to write them The particular loue which princes shew to one more then to another breedeth oftentimes much enuy in their realmes For the one being loued and the other hated of this commeth hatred and of hatred commes euill thoughts of euill thoughts proceedeth malice and of malice commeth euill words the which breake out into worse deeds Finally when a Prince sheweth not to equals his fauour indifferently he setteth fire in his commonwealth Princes ought to forbid and sages ought to consent that rebels and quarellers shuld trouble those which are quiet and peace makers for when the people rise immediatly couetousnesse is awaked When couetousnesse groweth iustice falleth force and violence ruleth snatching reigneth lecherie is at libertie the euill haue power and the good are oppressed finally all do reioyce one to liue to the preiudice of another and euery man to seeke his owne priuate commoditie Manie vaine men do raise discentions and quarrels amongst the people thinking that in troubled water they should augment their estates who in short space doe not onely lose the hope of that they sought but also are put out of that they possessed For it is not onely reasonable but also most iust that those by experience feele that which their blinde malice will not suffer them to know It is much good for the people that the gouernours bee not vnfortunate but that of their nature they were happy For to luckie princes fortune giueth many things euen as they demand yea and giueth them better then they locke for The noble and valiant Princes when they see themselues with other princes or that they are present in great acts ought to shew the freenes of their hearts the greatnesse of their realme the preheminence of their person the loue of their commonwealth and aboue all the discipline of their court and the grauitie of their counsell and pallace For the Sage and curious men should not behold the prince in the apparrell which hee weareth but the men which he hath to counsell him The Sage men and those that be not couetous if they doe employ their forces to heape vp treasures ought to remember in their hearts how to employ themselues to spende their money well Sith fortune is Mistresse in all things and that to her they doe impute both good and euill workes hee alone may be called a princely man who for no contrariety of fortune is ouercome For truly that man is of a stout courage whose heart is not vanquished by the force of Fortune Though we prayse one for valiant with the sword wee will not therefore prayse him for excellent with the penne Although hee bee excellent with his penne hee is not therefore excellent with his tongue Though he haue a good tongue hee is not therefore well learned And though hee be learned hee hath not therfore a good renowm And thogh hee hath a good renowme he is not therefore of a good life For wee are bound to receiue the doctrine of many which write but we are not bound to follow the liues which they doe leade There is no worse office amongst men then for to take the charge to punish the vices of another and therefore a man ought to fly from it as for the pestilence for in correcting vices hatred is more sure to the corrector then amendment of life is to the offender He hath possesseth much that hath good friends for many aide their friends when they would haue holpeÌ„ them more if they could For the true loue is not wearyed to loue nor ceaseth not to profite Though Sage men haue lost much they ought not therfore to dispaire but that they shall come to it againe in time For in the ende time doth not cease to doe his accustomed alterations nor perfect friends cease not to doe that which they ought The proud disdainfull man for the most part alwayes falleth into some euill chaunce therefore it is a commendable medecine some times to be perseecuted for aduersitie maketh a wise man liue more safely to walke in lesse daunger For so much as wee doe excuse him which coÌ„mitteth the fault there is neither the offender nor the offence but deserueth paine For such a one that committeth the faulte through sudden anger did euill and if hee did commit it by deliberation he did much worse To desire to doe all things by reason is good and likewise to lay them all in order is good but it is very harde For temperate men haue such respect in compassing their doings and by weight to cast all the inconueniences that scarcely they euer determine to goe about it To the man which hath gouernement two things are dangerous that is to say too soone or too late
in adulterie And that he would neuer graunt his voyce nor bee in place where they committed any charge in the warres to a man that had not a lawfull wife I say therefore that if the Gentiles and Infidels esteemed Marriage so much and despised the deedes of the adulterers so greatly much more true Christians should be in this case warie and circumspect For the gentiles feared nothing but onely infamy but all true Christians ought to feare both infamie and also paine Since that of necessitie mans seede must increase and that wee see men suffer themselues to bee ouercome with the flesh it were much better that they should maintaine a good Houshold and liue vprightly with a wife then to waste theyr goods and burden theyr conscience with a Concubine For it is oftentimes seene that that which a Gentleman consumeth abrode vpon an Harlot with shame would keepe his Wife and Children at home with honestie The third commoditie of Marryage is the laudable and louing companie the which is or ought to bee betweene them that are Matryed The anciēt Philophers defining what Man was saide That hee was a creature the which by nature was sociable communicable reasonable wherof it followeth that the man beeing solitarie and close in his conditions cannot bee in his stomacke but enuious We that are men loue the good inclination and doe also commend the same in beasts for all that the sedicious man and the resty horse eate wee thinke it euill spent A sad man a sole man a man shut in and solitary what profite can hee doe to the people For if euery man should be locked vp in his house the Common-wealth should forthwith perish My intention is to speake against the Vacabonds which without taking vpon them any craft or facultie passe the age of fortie of fiftie yeares and would not nor will not marrie yet because they would be vicious all the daies of their life It is a great shame and conscience to many men that neuer determine with themselues to take vpon them any estate neyther to bee Marryed chaste secular or Ecclesiasticall but as the corke vpon the water they swimme whether their Sensualitie leadeth them One of the most laudable and holy companyes which is in this life is the companie of the Man and the Woman in especiallie if the woman bee vertuous For the noble and vertuous wife withdraweth all the sorowes from the heart of her Husband and accomplisheth his desires whereby he liueth at rest When the wife is vertuous and the husband wise wee ought to belieue that betweene them two is the true loue For the one not being suspect with the other and hauing childrē in the midst it is vnpossible but that they should liue in concord For all that I haue read seene I would say that if the mā the wife doe liue quietly together a man may not only cal them good maried folks but also holy persons for to speake the truth the yoke of matrimony is so great that it cannot be accomplished without much merite The contrarie ought and may be said of those which are euill marryed whom we will not call a companie of Saintes but rather a companie of diuells For the wise that hath an euill husband may say shee hath a diuell in her house and the Husband that hath an euill Wife let him make account that hee hath a Hell it selfe in his house For the euill wiues are worse then infernall Furies Because in hell there are none tormented but the euill onely but the euill woman tormenteth both the good and the euill Concluding therefore this matter I say also and affirme that betwixt the Husband and the wife which are wel married is the true and very loue and they onely and no others may be called perfit and perpetuall friends The other Parents and Friendes if they do loue and praise vs in our presence they hate and despise vs in our absence If they giue vs faire words they beare vs euill hearts Finallie they loue vs in our prosperitie and forsake vs in our aduersitie but it is not so amongst the Noble and vertuous married persons For they loue both within and without the house in prosperity and in aduersitie in pouertie and in riches in absence and in presence seeing themselues merrie and perceyuing themselues sad and if they doe it not truely they ought to doe it For when the Husband is troubled in his foote the wife ought to be grieued at her heart The fourth commoditie of Marriage is that the men and women marryed haue more authoritie and grauitie then the others The lawes which were made in olde time in the fauour Marriage were manie and diuers For Capharoneus in the lawes that hee gaue to the Egyptians cōmanded and ordained vpon grieuous paines that the man that was not maryed should not haue any office of gouernment in the Common-wealth And he saide further that hee that hath not learned to gouern his house can euil gouerne a common-wealth According to the Lawes that hee gaue to the Athenians hee perswaded all those of the Common-wealth to marry themselues voluntarily but to the heads and Captaines which gouerne the affaires of warre hee commaunded to marrie of necessitie saying That to men which are lecherous God seldome giueth victoryes Lycurgus the renowmed gouernor and giuer of the lawes to the Lacedemonians commaunded that all Captaines of the armyes and the Priestes of the temples should bee marryed saying That the sacrifices of Marryed men were more acceptable to the Gods then those of any other As Plinie saith in an Epistle that hee sent to Falconius his friend rebuking him for that hee was not marryed where he declareth that the Romaines in olde time had a law that the Dictatour and the Pretor the Censour and the Questour and all the Knights should of necessity be marryed For the man that hath not a wife and children Legitimate in his house cannot haue nor hold great authoritie in the Common-wealth Plutarche in the booke that he made of the praise of Marriage saith that the Priests of the Romaines did not agree to them that were vnmarryed to come and sit downe in the temples so that the young-Maydens prayed without at the Church dore and the young men prayed on theyr knees in the Temple onely the marryed men were permitted to sit or stand Plynie in an Epistle that hee wrote to Fabarus his father in law saith that the Emperor Augustus had a custom that he neuer suffered any yong man in his presence to sitte nor permitted any man Marryed to tell his tale on foote Plutarch in the booke that hee made in the praise of women saieth that since the Realme of Corinth was peopled more with Batchelours then with Marryed men they ordayned amongst them that the man or woman that had not bene marryed and also that had not kept Children and House if they liued after a certaine age after theyr
when they brought out these Innocent wiues from prison to execute iustice supposing they were men the Lacedemonians vnderstaÌ„ding the faith fulnes of the women determiued that they should not onely bee pardoned but also that they should bee greatly rewarded and honored for the good examples of other women to whom they were marryed The ancient and great renowmed Panthea when newes was brought her that her husband was dead in battaile shee her owne selfe determined to goe seeke him out with hope that as yet he was not vtterly dead and finding him dead with the bloud of him she washed all her body and likewise her face strikeing with a knife her selfe to the heart and imbracing her husband she yeelded vp the ghost and so together they were carried to the graue Porcia the daughter of Marcus Porcia the great when shee heard that her husband Brutus was taken and slaine she felt for that newes so great sorrow that all her friends seeing her take the matter so grieuously hid from her all Iron wherewith shee might kill her selfe and did labour to keep and preserue her from danger wherein shee might fall and shorten her life For she was so excellent a Romane and so necessary to the Common-wealth that if they had lamented the death of Brutus her husband with teares of their eyes they ought to bewaile the losse of his wife Porcia with drops of bloud in their hearts Porcia therefore feeling in her selfe a wofull and afflicted heart for the death of her entirely beloued husband to declare that that which shee did was nor fayned nor for to please the people but to satisfie her great and maruellous loue since shee found neyther sword nor knife to kill her selfe nor cord to hang her selfe neither well to drowne her in she went to the fire and with as great pleasure did eate the hot fiery coales as an other would haue eaten any delicate meates We may say that such kinde of death was very strange and new which the Romane found to encrease augment and manifest her loue Yet wee cannot deny but that shee wanne to the posteritie of her name a perpetuall memorie For as a Noble Dame she would quench with coales of fire her burning heart that enflamed was with fiery brands of loue As Diodorus Seculus sayth it was a law and custome amongst the Lidians to marry themselues with many wiues and when by chance their husbands dyed the wiues which they had met together and fought in some plaine place And the women which remained onely aliue and of the conflict had the victory cast themselues into the graue of their husband so that those women then fought for to dye as men now fight for to liue CHAP. V. Of the reuenge a woman of Greece tooke of him that had killed her husband in hope to haue her in marriage PLutarch in the Booke that he made of the Noble and worthy Women declareth a thing worthy of rchearsall and to be had in memory In the Citie of Galacia were two renowmed Citizens whose names were Sinatus and Sinoris which were by bloud Cousins and in familiaritie friends and for the loue of a Greekes daughter being very Noble beautifull and exceeding gracious they both striued to haue her in marriage and for to attaine to their desires they both serued her they both followed her they both loued her and for her both of them desired to dye For the dart of loue is as a stroke with a clod of earth the which being throwne amongst a company doth hurt the one and blinde the others And as the fatal destinies had ordained it Sinatus serued this Lady called Camma in â—uch sort that in the end he obtained her in marriage for his lawfull wife which thing when Sinoris perceiued he was ashamed of his doings and was also wounded in his hart For he lost not onely that which of so long time he had sought loued and serued but also the hope to attaine to that which chiefly in his life he desired Sinatus therefore seeing that his wife Camma was noble meeke gratious faire and louing and that in all things shee was comely and well taught decreed to offer her to the Goddesse Diana to the end that shee would preserue her from perill and keepe her from infamie Truly we caÌ„not reproue the knight Sinatus for that hee did nor wee ought to note him for rash in his councell for hee sawe that his wife was very faire and therefore much desired For with great difficultie that is kept which of many is desired Though Camma was now maryed and that shee was in the protection of the goddesse Diana yet notwithstanding her olde friend Sinoris died for her sake and by all means possible he serued her continually he importuned her dayly he followed her and hourely he required her And all this he did vpon certaine hope he had that such diligent seruice should suffice to make her change her sacred minde and as shee had chosen Sinatus for her husbande openly so hee thought she should take him for her friende secretly For many women are as men without tast through sicknes the which eate more of that that is hurtfull and forbiddeÌ„ then of that which is healthsome and commaunded Not without a cause Camma was greatly renowmed throughout al Galatia for her beauty and much more amonge the vertuous esteemed for her honestie The which euidently in this was seene that after she was married Sinoris could neuer cause her to receiue any Iewell or other gift nor that she would hear him speake any word nor that shee would shew her selfe in the window eyther to him or to any other to the end to bee seene in the face For it is not sufficient for Ladyes to bee pure good but also to giue no occasion for men to iudge that if they durst they would be euill As it is true indeede that the heart which is entangled with loue dare boldly aduenture himselfe in many kinde of dangers to accomplish that which he desired so Sinoris seeing that with fayre words he could not flatter her nor with any gifts winne her determined to kill Sinatus her husband vpon hope that when she should be widdow he might easily obtaine her in matrimony For he thought although Camma was not euill it was not for that she wanted desire to doe it but because she had no commodious place to accomplish it And to be short Sinoris would needes execute and bring to effect his deuilish and damnable entent so that soone after hee vilely slew his said companion Sinatus After whose death the Noble Lady Camma was of Sinoris greatly desired and by his Parents much importuned that she would condiscend to take and marry him and that she would forgiue him the death of her husband Sinatus which then was buried And as she was in all her doings such a Princely woman she imagined with her selfe that vnper the pretence of marriage she might haue
great Ladies which of their patrimonie and heritage possesse manie Townes and Citties for to such I wil not take away the seruices which are due vnto them by their Subiects but I doe perswade them to the obedience which they ought to beare to theyr Husbandes It is not maruell though that women of meane estate haue sometimes quarrelled with their Husbands For they haue small Riches to loose and lesse honour to aduenture then the Princesses and great Dames haue the which since they do aduenture to commaund manie why wil not they humble themselues to obey one speaking with due reuerēce It is for aboundance of follie and want of wisedome that a Woman should haue presumption to gouerne a whole Realm and that she hath not grace to obey one Husband Seneca in a Tragedie saieth thus that in the time of the warre of Mithridates it chanced in Rome that the Consulls sent to the olde Knightes and commanded that they should all be in a readinesse to go with Silla the Consull into the warres And it happened that when they came into ones house in Rome to publish the Edict to warne him to bee ready they found not the husband but the wife who made answere and sayd That her husband ought not nor could not goe to the warres and though hee would hee should not neither would see giue him licence for hee was an old and ancient Knight and therefore hee ought to be exempted from the warres With this answer those that heard it were greatly abashed and the whole Senate no lesse offended wherefore they commaunded that the husband should bee banished Rome and the wife to bee carryed to the Prison Mamortine not for that he excused himselfe for going to the warres but because she commanded her husband and because he suffered himselfe to be commanded of her The Senate did this to that end that from that time forwards no woman should presume or contend with her husband and that no husband should giue his wife any occasion to be bold with him CHAP. VII That Women and especially Princesses and great Ladyes should be very circumspect in going abroad out of their houses and that through the resort of them that commeth to their houses they bee not euill spokenof AMong all the counsels that may or ought to be giuen to Princesses and great Ladies this is the first that they do what they can to haue rest in their houses and that they goe not as strayes to the mansions of other men for if such Ladyes are good they get much reputation and if perchance they bee euill they take from men all occasion Whether the husband be present or absent it is a most necessary and honest thing that the wife be for the most part in the house for by this meanes the household shal be well gouerned and from the heart of the husband shall bee withdrawne all kinde of suspitions Sithens the office of the husband is to gather goods and riches and the office of a wife to keepe and preserue them the houre that she goeth out of the house she ought to thinke that her Maydens will stray abroad the Children will runne out to play the Varlats and Seruants will bee out of order the Neighbours wil take occasions to speake euill and that which is worste of all some will steale the goods out of the house and the others will speake euill of the reeowne of the wife Oh God giueth a goodly gift and grace to that man which hath such so good a wife that of her own nature loueth to keepe her selfe within the house And truely I say that such a one doeth excuse many griefes and saueth much mony for she spendeth not the goods in Apparel nor giueth occasion to men to iudge euill of her person The greatest debate that is betweene man and wife is for that hee desireth to get and keepe his goods to bring vp his children and to maintayne his familie and on the other part that she desireth to spend all vpon apparrell for women in this case are so curious in louing of themselues that they would abstaine from meates that should maintaine their life onely to buy a new Gowne to set out their pride Women naturally do loue to keepe and will not spend any thing except it be in apparrell for euery houre that is in the day and the night they desire to haue a new Gowne to change My intention is not to speake of Apparrell only but to perswade Princesses and great Ladyes that they would keepe themselues in their houses and in so doing they should excuse these superfluous wastes and expences for her neighbour seeing her better apparrelled then shee is looketh vpon her husband as she were a Lyon It chanceth oftentimes I would to God I had no cause to speake it that if by chaunce there commeth any great or solemne Feast or Marriage shee will neuer looke louingly on his face before he hath giuen her a newe gowne to her backe and when the poore Gentleman hath no money to pay of necessitie hee must runne in credite And when the vanity of the woman is past then the time of payment draweth neere and they come to arrest all his goods so that they haue cause to lament one whole yeare for that which they haue spent in one houre VVomen seldome contend for that one is fairer more nobler of linage better married or more vertuous then another but only that another goeth better apparelled then shee For touching apparell there is no woman can endure that another meaner woman should make comparison with her nor that in like manner her equall should excell her Lycurgus in the lawes that he gaue to the Lacedemonians commaunded that their Wiues should not goe out of their houses but at diuers solemne Feasts in the yeare For he saide that the women ought to be making their prayers in the Temples to the Gods or else in their houses bringing vppe their children For it is not honest nor cōmendable that the wife should passe her time abroade trotting from street to streete as common women I say that the Princesses and great Ladyes are much more bound to keepe themselues at home in their Houses then other women of meaner degree and without a cause I speak it not for thereby they shall get them more reputation For there is no vertue whereby the woman winneth more reputation in the Common-wealth then alwaies to be seen resident in her house I say also that a Wife ought the most part of her time to keepe her house because she hath lesse occasion then others haue to goe abrode For if the poore wife the Plebian goe out of her house shee goeth for no other cause but for to seeke meat but if the rich and Noble-woman goeth out of her house it is for nothing but to take her pleasure Let not Princesses maruell nor let not great Ladyes wonder if they dispose their feete to trotte and occupie
all the time wee haue beene together thy will and mine hath alway beene one If thou wilt not giue me thy key for that I am thy welbeloued Faustine if thou wilt not let mee haue it since I am thy deare beloued wife if thou wilt not giue it me for that I am great with childe I beseech thee giue it mee in vertue of the ancient law for thou knowest it is an inuiolate lawe among the Romanes that a man cannot deny his wife with child her desires I haue seene sundry times with mine eyes many women sue their husbands at the lawe in this behalfe and thou my Lord commandest that a man should not break the priuiledges of women Then if this thing bee true as it is true indeede why wilt thou that the lawes of strange children should bee kept and that they should be broken to thine owne children Speaking according to the reuerence that I owe vnto thee though thou wouldest I will not though thou doest it I will not agree therunto though thou dost command it in this case I will not obey thee for if the husband doe not accept the iust request of his wife the wife is not bound to obey the vniust commaundement of her husband You husbands desire that your wiues should serue you you desire that your wiues should obey you in all and ye will condiscend to nothing that they desire You men say that wee women haue no certaintie in our loue but indeede you haue no loue at all For by this it appeareth that your loue is fayned in that it no longer continueth then your desires are satisfied You say furthermore that the women are suspitious and that is true in you all men may see and not in vs for none other cause there are are so many euill marryed in Rome but because their husbands haue of them such euill opinions There is a great difference betweene the suspition of the woman and the jealousie of the man for a man will vnderstand the suspition of the woman it is no other thing but to shew to her husband that she loueth him with all her heart for the innocent women know no others desire no others but their husbands onely and they would that their husbands should know none others nor search for any others nor loue any others nor will any others but them onely for the heart that is bent to loue one only would not that into that house should euter any other But you men know so many means and vse so many subtilties that you praise your selues for to offend them you vaunt your selues to deceiue them and that it is true a man can in nothing so much shew his noblenes as to sustaine and fauour a Curtizan The husbands please their wiues speaking vnto thē some merry words and immediately their backes being turned to another they giue both their bodies and their goods I sweare vnto thee my Lord that if women had the libertie and authoritie ouer men as men haue ouer women they should finde more malice deceitfulnesse and craft by them committed in one day then they should find in the women all the dayes of their life You men say that women are euill speakers it is true indeede that your tongues are none other but the stings of Serpents for yee doe condemne the good men and defame the Romane women And thinke not if you speake euill of other women to excuse your owne for the man that by his tongue dishonoureth strange women doth not so much euill as he doth by defaming his owne wife by suspition for the husband that suspecteth his wife giueth all men licence to account her for naught Sith wee women goe little out of the house wee trauaile not farre and sith wee see few things though wee would wee cannot bee euill tongued But you men heare much you see much you know much you wander abroad much and continually you murmure All the euill that wee silly women can doe is to listen to our friendes when they are vexed to chide our seruants when they are negligent to enuy our neighbours if they be fayre and to curse those that doe vs iniurie finally though wee speake euill wee cannot murmure but at those that dwell in the same Streete where wee dwell But you men defame your wiues by suspition you dishonour your neighbours in your words you speake against strangers with crueltie you neyther keepe faith nor promise to your wiues you shew your selues extreme against your enemies you murmure both at those that bee present and also at them that be absent finally on the one part you are so double and on the other part you are so vnthankefull that to those whom you desire you make fayre promises and those whose bodies you haue enioyed you little esteeme I confesse that the woman is not so good as shee ought to bee and that it is necessary that she should be kept in the house and so shee shall leade a good life and being of good life she shall haue good renowme and hauing good renowme shee shall bee well willed but if chaunce any of those doe want in her yet for all that shee ought not to bee reiected of her husband For the frailenesse that men finde in women is but little but the euils that women taste in men is very great I haue talked longer then I thought and haue saide more boldly then I ought but pardon me my Lord for my intention was not to vex thee but to perswade thee for in the end he is a foole that taketh that for iniury which passeth betweene the man and the wife in secret I stick alwaies to my first point if it neede once againe I require thee that thou wilt giue me the Key of thy studie and if thou doe otherwise as thou mayest thou shalt doe such a thing as thou oughtest not to doe I am not angry so much for that thou doest as for the occasion thou giuest me Therefore to auoyde the perill of my deliuerie and to take from me all suspition I pray thee my Lord deliuer me the key of thy studie for otherwise I cannot be perswaded in my hart but that you haue a woman locked in your studie For men that in their youth haue beene vnconstant though the apparell that they haue be not worne yet notwithstanding they desire to haue new Therefore once againe to preserue mee from perill in my deliuery and to lighten my heart of this thought it shall be well done that you let mee enter into your studie CHAP. XV. ¶ The Aunswere of the Emperour to Faustine concerning her demand of the key of the Studie THe Emperor hearing the wordes of Faustine and seeing that shee spake them so earnestly that shee bathed her woefull words with bitter teares determined also to answere her as earnestly and saide vnto her these wordes Wife Faustine thou hast tolde mee all that thou wouldest and I haue hearde all thy
thee my deare Friende Dedalus that more Money shall issue out of Rome to buye wine in Candia then buttes of the cold water of that countrey shall enter into Rome Againe thou sayest that in that countrey there is such aboundance of fruites and that thou thinkest thou shalt neuer be satisfied therewith To that I answer That thing which I best like is a winter fruite yet neyther seeing it nor eating it I can content my selfe For the country where Fruits abound in winter is neuer without feuers and sicknesses in Summer Octauian Augustus that Noble Emperour of famous memorie seeing that Rome in Summer was very much subiect to diseases gaue commaundement vpon grieuous penalties that the fruites of Salon should not enter into Rome to be solde And this is a maruellous thing that the Citie of Rome by this meanes did not only finde her selfe sound and whole but also the Physitians went out of Rome of their owne wills and affections For it is a great token that the people is healthfull when the Phisitians are poore Thou sayest that in that Countrey there are many Iugglers and Players To this I aunswer thee That theyr pastimes shall not bee vnto thee such and so pleasaunt as the griefs and displeasures thou shalt haue when they cunningly and craftily shall picke thy purse For most commonly Iugglers and plaiers make Playes and sportes in jeast but they will be payde in good earnest Furthermore thou sayest in that Countrey there is great aboundance of Vines and that the wine is sauourie to smell and very sweete and pleasaunt for theyr taste whereunto I answer That there shall not bee so manie vynes in the Fieldes as Drunkardes amongst the people For as thou knowest the day that I marryed Torpina my Niece my vnckle Getellius had but onely one vine tree and yet with the Wine that came thereof he made himselfe his household and all those that were at the marriage drunke That which I will say is not without weeping in the olde time Mars was the God moste honoured and esteemed being the God of Battells but now Bacchus which is God of wine is the most honoured serued and exalted For the time that a Romane was wont to employ in the Martial Camp to handle Warlike weapons now they consume in playing and drinking in the rauernes Titus Liuius in his Annales sayeth that those of Gallia Transalpina vnderstanding how that the Italians had planted many vines came to conquer the Countety So that if they had neuer planted vines in Italie the French-men had neuer destrolyed the Countrey The auncient Romaines which were prouided against all inconueniences considering that Wine was the cause of their destruction commaunded to destroy all the Vynes of the Empyre through the which pollicie they were deliuered from all the French-men for when the Warres were ended there remained not one French-man in all Italie when they knewe that there were no more Vynes therein Thou sayest that in that Countrey there are many Gentlemen and honorable Senators with whom thou talkest and passest away the time To this I answere that if it be true there are many idle men and also few true talkers For those men which haue spent their youth in the warres when they are aged doe not employe their time but in hearing newes and telling lyes Thou sayedst that there are very faire women in that countrey of gesture seemely and of their persons comely To this I answere That if there be many which be faire there are as manie which are dishonest For if the woman with her beautie hath not wisdome and honestie in her selfe she putteth her selfe in perill and her husband in much care Thou sayest that in that Countrey there are women which are Soothsayers Sorcerers and Enchantours the which do boast and vaunt themselues that they will heale Infants and that they can weyne them better then others can doe To this I answere that I would iudge it much better that Children should neuer be healed by the hands of such euill women For the profite that they doe by their experience openly is nothing in respect of the danger wherin they put the creatures by their Sorceries secretly Torquatus Laertius my Vnckle had a Daughter of a maruellous beautie the which because he had none other Childe was heyre of all his Patrimonie The case therefore was such that as the Daughter one day cryed and wept a little too much the Nurse which gaue her sucke to appease and still her thinking to giue her sorceries to cast her in a sleepe gaue her poyson which destroyed her So that when the teares of the innocent babe ceased then the cryes of the woefull mother beganne Calligula which was the sonne of the good Germanicus the great though amongst the Caesars hee was the fourth and amongst the Tyrants the first when in Rome they vsed to giue little scrowles written which they saide to bee of such vertue that they could heale all manner of Agues and diseases of young children hee gaue commaundement by the consent of the sacred Senate that whosoeuer eyther man or woman which should make them should immediately by iustice be put to death and that he which would buye them and carrie them about to sell or giue them through the citie of Rome should be whipt and bashed for euer Thy seruant Fronton hath told me newes that thou hast a Sonne borne whereof I am very glad and moreouer he saide that a woman of Sannia did nourishit and gaue it sucke the which as by an euill chaunce hath a spice of Sorcerie Now by the immortall Gods I do conjure thee and for the loue which I beare thee againe I most earnestly desire thee that immediatly thou put her away out of thy house and suffer not that so wicked a woman should eate Bread there one day For euery creature which is nourished by sorceries and Charmes shal eyther haue his life short or else Fortune shall be contrarie vnto him I let thee know my friend Dedalus that I haue not maruelled a little at many Romains the which doe permit and also procure that their Children should bee healed and cured with charmes and sorceries For my part I take it to bee a thing certaine that the men which by the will of God fall sicke shall neuer heale for any diligence that man can do And whereas children are sicke by euill humors or that they are not very healthful because the gods wil take life from them in this case if their disease proceed of any euill humour let them aske Physitions for naturall medicines And if their diseases come because the Gods are prouoked then let their Fathers appease the Gods with sacrifices For in the end it is vnpossible that the diseases of the heart should be healed by the meanes of any Medicines of the bodie Doe not maruell my Friend Dedalus if I haue spoken more in this article then in others that is to say to perswade
thee so much to keepe thy children from witches For otherwise the cursed Women will doe them more harme then the good milke shal profite them I haue beene moued and prouoked to write thus much vnto thee for the great loue which I do beare thee and also calling to minde that which thou when we were in the sacred Senate oft times toldest me which was that thou diddest desire a sonne And since now thou hast thy petition I would not thou shouldst prouoke the Gods wrath by sorceries For in the faith of a good man I doe sweare vnto thee that when the Fathers are in fauour with the Gods there needeth no sorceries vnto the Children I had manie other things to write vnto thee Some of the which I will cōmunicate with thy seruant Fronton rather then to send them by letters And maruel not at this for letters are so perillous that if a man be wise hee wil write no more in a close letter thē he would declare openly in Rome Pardon me my friend Dedalus though indeede I write not vnto thee as thy appetite would nor yet as my will desireth For thou hast need to know many things and I haue not leaue by letter to put thee in trust therewith I cannot tell what I should write vnto thee of me but that alwayes the Goute doth take me and the worst of all is that the more I growe in yeares the more my health diminisheth For it is an old course of mans frailtie that where wee thinke to goe most surest there haue we most lets The Popinjay which thou didst send me as soone as I receyued it my wife did seaze it and truely it is a maruellous pleasure to heare what thinges it doth speak but in the end the women are of such power that when they wil they impose silence to the liuing and cause that in the graues the dead men speake According to that I doe loue thee and according to that I owe thee and as I haue vsed that which I doe sende thee is very little I say it because that presently I do send thee but two horses of Barbarie twelue swords of Alexandrie and to Fronton thy seruant for a new yeares gift for his good newes I haue giuen him an Office which is worth to him 20. thousand Sexterces of Rent in Cecyl Faustine did bid mee I should send thy wife Perusa a cofer full of odoriferous odours of Palestine and another cofer full of her owne Apparrel the which as I thinke thou wilt not a little esteeme For naturally Women are of theyr owne Goods niggardes but in wasting spending of others very prodigall The Almighty gods bee with thee and preserue thee from euill fortune The which I humbly beseech to graunt that vnto thee and mee and vnto my wife Faustine and to thy wife Pertusa that we all meete merily together in Rome for the heart neuer receyueth such ioy as when hee seeth himselfe with his desired friend Marcus of Mount Celio writeth to thee with his own hand CHAP. XXV How excellent a thing it is for a Gentleman to haue an eloquent tongue ONe of the chiefest things that the Creatour gaue to man was to know and be able to speake for otherwise the soule reserued the brute beasts are of more value then dumbe men Aristotle in his Aesconomices without comparison prayseth more the Pythagoricall sort then the Stoicall saying that the one is more conforme to reason then the other is Pythagoras commaunded that al men which were dumbe and without speech should immediately and without contradiction be banished and expulsed from the people The cause why this Phylosopher had commanded such things was for so much as he saide that the tongue is moued by the motions of the soule and that he which had no tong had no soule And hee which hath no soule is but a brute beast and he that is a beast deserueth to serue in the fieldes among brute beasts It is a good thing not to bee dumbe as bruite beasts are and it is a greater thing to speake as the reasonable men doe but it is much more worthy to speake wel as the eloquent Philosophers doe For otherwise if hee which speaketh doth not weigh the sentences more then the wordes oft times the Popingayes shall content thē more which are in the cage then the men which doe reade in Schooles Iosephus in the booke De Bello Iudaico sayeth That King Herod not onely with his person and goods but also with all his friends and parents followed and gaue ayde to Marcus Anthonius and to his louer Cleopatra howbeit in the end Octauian had the victory For the man which for the loue of a woman doth enterprise conquests it is impossible that eyther he lose not his life or else that hee liue not in infamy Herod seeing that Marcus Antonius was dead determined to go towards the Emperour Octauian at whose feet he layd his crowne and made a notable Oration wherein hee spake so pleasant words and so high sentences that the Emperour Octauian did not onely pardon him for that hee was so cruell an enemie but also hee confirmed him again vnto his realm and tooke him for his deare and speciall friend For among the good men and noble hearts many euill workes are amended by a few good works If Blundus in the booke intituled Roma triumphante do not deceiue me Pirrus that great King of the Epirotes was stoute and hardy valiant in armes liberall in benefices patient in aduersities and aboue al renowned to be very sweet in words and sage in his answeres They sayde that this Pirrus was so eloquent that the man with whome once hee had spoken remained so much his that from that time forward in his absence hee tooke his part and declared his life and state in presence The aboue named Blundus sayed and Titus Liuius declareth the same That as the Romaines were of all things prouided seeing that King Pyrrus was so eloquent they prouided in the Senate that no Romane Ambassadour should speake vnto him but by a third person for otherwise he would haue perswaded them through his sweet words that they should haue returned againe to Rome as his procurers and soliciters Albeit Marcus Tullius Cicero was Senatour in the Senate Consull in the Empire rich amongst the rich and hardy amongst men of warre yet truely none of these qualities caused him eternall memorie but onely his excellent eloquence This Tullius was so esteemed in Rome for the eloquence of his tongue onely that oft times they heard him talke in the Senate three houres together without any man speaking one word And let not this bee little esteemed nor lightly passed ouer for worldly malice is of such condition that some man may easily speake foure houres then another man shal haue patience to heare him one minute Antonius Sobellicus declareth that in the time of Amilcares the Affrican a Philosopher named Afronio flourished in
the time past Wherin thou being a woman shewest thy selfe more then a woman because the nature of women is to cast their eyes onely in that that is present and to forget that is past They tell me that thou doest occupy thy selfe now in writing of our Country And truely in this case I cannot say but that you haue matter enough to write on For the warres and trauels of our times haue beene such and so great that I had rather reade them in bookes then to see them with my eyes And if it bee so as I suppose it is I beseech thee heartily and by the immortall Gods I coniure thee that in writing the affayres of thy Countrey thou doest vse thy penne discreetely I meane that thou doe not in this case blemish thy writing by putting therein any flattery or lesing For oft times Historiographers in blasing more then truth the giftes of their Countrey cause worthily to be suspected their writing Thou knowest very well how that in the battell past the Rhodians were ouercome and that ours remained victorious Mee thinketh thou shouldst not in this case greatly magnifie extoll or exalt ours because in the end they fought to reuenge their iuiury neyther thou oughtest to blame the Rhodians for they did not fight but in the ayde of Rome I speake this my sister because for to defend their owne women shew themselues Lyons and for to defend the things of another man men shew themselus chickens For in the end hee onely may bee counted strong the which defendeth not his owne house but which dyeth defending his and another mans I will not deny the naturall loue of my Country nor I will not deny but that I loue them that write and speake well thereof but mee thinketh it is not reason that they should disprayse the goodnesse and truth of other Countries nor that they should so highly commend the euill and vilenesse of their owne For there is not in the world this day so barren a realme but may bee commended for something therein nor there is so perfect a nation but in somthings may be reproued Thou canst not deny me but that amōgst thy brethren I am the eldest and thou canst not deny but that amongst all thy Disciples I am the youngest and since that for being thy Disciple I ought to obey thee thou likewise for that I am thy eldest brother oughtest to beleeue me By the faith of a people I doe counsell thee my sister that thou do trauell much to be profound in thy words vpright in thy life and honest of thy person and besides all this true in thy writing For I let thee vnderstand that if the body of the man without the soule is little regarded I sweare vnto thee that the mouth of a man without truth is much lesse esteemed CHAP. XXX The Authour followeth his purpose perswading Princesses and other Ladies to endeauour themselues to be wise as the women were in olde time THis therefore was the letter which Pythagoras sent to his sister Theoclea whereby is shewed the great humility of him and the hie eloquence of her Hierchus the Greeke and Plutarch also in the booke of the gouernement of Princes say that Pythagaras had not onely a sister which was called Theoclea of whom he learned so much Philosophy but also he had a daughter the wisedome and knowledge of whom surmounted her Aunt and was equall to her Father I thinke it no lesse incredible which is spoken of the daughter then that which is spoken of the Aunt which is that those of Athens did reioyce more to heare her speake in her house then for to heare Pythagoras reade in the Schoole And it ought to bee beleeued for the saying of the graue Authours on the one part and by that wee daily see on the other part For in the end it is more pleasure to heare a man tell mery tales hauing grace and comelynes in his words then to heare a graue man speake the truth with a rude and rough tongue I haue found in many writings what they haue spoken of Pythagoras and his Daughter but none telleth her name saue only in an Epistle that Phalaris the Tyrant wrote I found this worde written where hee saith Polychrata that was the Daughter of the Phylosopher Pythagoras was young and exceeding wise more faire then rich and was so much honoured for the puritie of her life and so highly esteemed for her pleasaunt Tongue that the word which shee spake spinning at her Distaffe was more esteemed then the Phylosophie that her Father read in the schoole And he saide more It is so great a pittie to see and heare that women at this present are so dishonest and in their tongues so malicious that I haue greater pleasure in the good renowme of one that is dead then in the infamie of all them which are aliue For a good woman is more worth with her distaffe spinning then a hundred euill Queenes with their royall Scepters reigning By the words which Phalaris said in his letter it seemed that this Daughter of Pythagoras was called Polichrate Pythagoras therefore made manie Commentaryes as well of his owne countrey as of strangers In the end he dyed in Mesopotamia where at the houre of his death hee spake vnto his Daughter Polichrate and saide these wordes I see my Daughter that the houre wherein I must ende my life approcheth The Gods gaue it mee and now they will take it from mee Nature gaue me byrth and now shee giueth me death the Earth gaue me the bodie and now it returneth to ashes The woefull Fatall destenyes gaue mee a little goods mingled with many trauells So that Daughter of al things which I enioyed here in this world I carrie none with mee For hauing all as I had it by the way of borrowing now at my death eache man taketh his owne I die ioyfully not for that I leaue thee rich but for that I leaue thee learned And in token of my tender heart I bequeathe vnto thee all my Bookes wherein thou shalt finde the treasure of all my trauells And I tell thee that that I giue thee is the riches gotten with mine owne sweate and not obtained to the preiudice of another For the loue I beare vnto thee Daughter I pray thee and by the immortall Gods I conjure thee that thou bee such and so good that although I die yet at the least thou mayst keepe my memorie For thou knowest well what Homer sayth speaking of Achilles and Pyrrhus That the good life of the Childe that is aliue keepeth the renowne of the Father which is dead These were the wordes which the Phylosopher spake to his daughter lying in his death bed And thogh perhaps hee spake not these wordes yet at the least this was the effect and meaning As the great Poet Mantuan sayth King Euander was father of the grant Pallas and he was a great friend of king Eneas he vaunted himselfe to
the wicked which remaine still are so manie in number that if all those should be hanged that deserue it by Iustice a man could hardly finde hang-men sufficient nor gallowes to hang them vpon Admit according to the varietie of realmes and prouinces that diuers lawes and customes haue beene instituted therein yet for a truth there was neuer nor shall bee found any nation or Common wealth in the world so barbarous but hath beene founded of iustice For to affirme that men can bee preserued without iustice is as much as to say the fish can liue without water How is it possible that a Common Wealth may liue without iustice sith without her cannot bee ruled one onely person Plinie in an Epistle sayeth that he himselffe hauing the charge of a prouince in Affricke demaunded an old man and in gouernement expert what he might doe to administer iustice the aged man answered Doe iustice of thy selfe if thou wilt be a minister thereof For the good iudge with the right yeard of his owne life ought to measure the whole state of the common-wealth And hee sayde further If thou wilt be right with men and cleane before God beware of presumption in thine office For the proud and presumptuous Iudges oftentimes doe contrarie to their wordes and also exceede in their deedes Plinie also sayeth that hee profited more with the counsell this olde man gaue him then with all that euer he had read in his bookes O to how much is hee bound that hath taken vpon him to administer Iustice For if such a one be an vpright man hee accomplisheth that where vnto hee is bound but if such a one of himself be vniust iustly of God hee ought to be punished and likewise of men to bee accused When great Princes commaund their seruants or Subiects any thing that they cannot accomplish them in such sort as they had charge to do then he ought to haue them excused those excepted which gouern realms and prouinces for no man leaueth to administer iustice but for want of knowledge or experience or else through aboundance of affection or malice If a Captaine lose a battel he may excuse himselfe saying his men were fled when they should haue assaulted their enemies A poast may excuse himselfe for that the waters were so high A hunter may say that beast is escaped another way and others such like but a gouernour of a Common wealth what excuse can he haue that he doth not iustice Cōscience ought to burden him and also he ought to bee ashamed to take vpon him the charge of any thing if hee doubt to bring it to effect for shamefast faces and haughty courages either ought to put that in execution which they take vpon them or else they ought to shew a lawful cause why it tooke no effect Let vs knowe what iustice is then we shall know what is meete for the administration thereof The office of a good Iudge is to defend the cōmon wealth to helpe the innocent to aide the simple to correct the offender to helpe the orphanes to doe for the poore to bridle the ambitious finally by iustice he ought to giue each one his owne and to dispossesse those which holde any thing wrongfully of others When a prince commandeth any man to take the charge of iustice and such one doth not seek it of himselfe if perchance he did not in all pointes vprightly in the administration therof he might haue some excuse saying that though hee hath accepted it it was not with intent to erre but because he would obey what shal we say of many which without shame without knowledge experiēce without conscience do procure the office of iustice O if Princes knew what they giue when they giue the charge to any to gouern the Common-welth I sweare vnto you that they were better to giue them goods to find them for twenty yeares then for to trust them with the charge of iustice twenty daies What a thing is it to see some men shamelesse dishonest great talkers gluttons ambitious and couetous the which without any reasonable cause authority or knowledge demaund of Princes an office of iustice as if by iustice they did demaund their owne Would to God the giuer would haue an eye to those which in this case do demaund But what shall wee say of those that doe solicite them procure them importune them beseech them and more then that euen as without shame they doe demaund it so without conscience likewise they buy it There remaineth in this case more as yet that is that if those cursed men doe not attaine to that which they demaund and if those hauing no conscience do not giue it them then they blaspheme and complain of those which are in fauour with princes as if they had done them great iniurie O what trouble is it to good men to accomplish the desires of the euill For the couetous ambitious persons doe but desire that the good mē had the like paine in giuing that they haue in demaunding Many times I haue thought with my selfe wherein so many damages of the Common-wealth should consist such disobedience such contrarieties and so many thefts and in the end I finde that all or the most part proceed in that that they prouide for ministers of iustice not for conscience sake but for couetousnesse onely Admit that it appertaine to all to desire and procure iustice yet to none it appertaineth so much to procure and defend it as to the royall person which the subiects ought sometime to feare but princes are bound to minister it equally to all It is a great matter that princes be pure in life and that their houses bee well ordered to the end that their iustice be of credite and authoritie For he which of himselfe is vniust giueth no hope that another at his hands shold haue iustice He which cannot gouerne his owne house can euill gouerne the common-wealth Those princes which are true in their words cleane in their liues and iust in their works though sometime they erre in the administration of the Common wealth all excuse them saying that they erre not thorough the malice of themselues but rather thorow the euill counsell of others So that all which the good prince doth they commend and all the euill that chanceth they excuse Plutarch in the second Booke of his Common wealth sayeth That herein some Princes differ from others For the euill Prince is onely obeyed but the good Prince is obeyed feared and loued And moreouer hee that is good maketh heauy things light with his goodnesse and the Tyrant that is euill maketh things which are light to be very heauy through his naugh tinesse Happie is the prince which is obeyed but much more happy is he which is obeyed feared and loued for the body is weary oftentimes to obey but the heart is neuer constrained to loue Titus the Emperour was once demanded of these two things
yee heare our oppressions yet thereby you lose not your pastime but wee others can neuer drye the teares of our eyes nor ceale to bewayle our infinit misfortunes CHAP. V. The Villaine concludeth his Oration against the Iudges which minister not iustice and declareth how preiudiciall such wicked men are vnto the publike weale YEe would thinke I haue sayde that I can say but certainly it is not so For there remaineth many thinges to speake which to heare yee will bee astonied yet be ye assured that to speake them I will not bee afrayde sith you others in doing them are not ashamed For open offence deserueth not secret correction I maruell much at yee Romaines what yee meant to send vs as you did such ignorant Iudges the which by the immortall God I swear can neyther declare vs your Lawes and much lesse they can vnderstand ours And the cause of all this euill is that yee sent not those which be best able to minister to vs iustice in Germany but those which haue best friendes with you in Rome presuppose that to those of the Senate yee giue the office of Censor-ship more for importunity then for ability It is little that I can say heere in respect they dare do there That which yee commaund them here I know not but of the which they doe there I am not ignorant which is Your Iudges take al bribes that are brought vnto them openly and they powle and shaue as much as they can secretly They grieuously punish the offences of the poore and dissemble with the faults of the rich they consent to many euils to haue occasion to commit greater thefts they forget the gouernment of the people to take theyr pleasure in vice And beeing there to mittigate sclaunders they are those which are moste sclaunderous and without goods it auayleth to man to aske iustice And finally vnder the colour that they be Iudges of Rome they feare not to rob all the land of Germanie What meaneth this yee Romanes shall your pride neuer haue end in cōmāding nor your couetise in robbing Say vnto vs what ye will in words but oppresse vs not so in deeds If you do it for our children loade them with yrons make them slaues For ye cannot charge them with more then they are able to carry but of commandements and tributs ye giue vs more thē wee are eyther able to carrie or suffer If you do it for our goods go thither and take them all For in our countrey we doe not vse as ye Romanes doe nor haue such conditions as ye haue here in Rome For yee desire to liue poore that ye may die rich If ye say that we will rebell I maruell what yee should meane to thinke so sith yee haue spoyled vs robbed vs and handled vs yll Assure me ye Romaines that ye wil not vnpeople vs and I will assure you we will not rebell If our seruice doe not content yee strike off our heads as to the euil men For to tell ye the truth the knife shall not be so fearfull to our neckes as your tyrannies be abhorred in our hearts Doe ye know what you haue done ye Romains yee haue caused vs of that miserable realme to sweare neither to dwell with our wiues and to sley our owne children rather then to leaue them in the handes of so wicked and cruell tirants as yee be As desperate men we haue determined to suffer endure the beastly motiōs of the flesh during the time we haue to liue to the ende wee will not get our wiues with child For we had rather liue chast 20 or 30. yeares then to leaue our childrē perpetuall slaues If it be true that the children must endure that which the miserable fathers doe suffer It is not onely good to sley them but also it should bee better not to agree they shold be borne Ye ought not to doe this Romanes for the lād taken by force ought the better to bee gouerned to the intent that the miserable captiues seing iustice duly administred presently should thereby forget the tyrannie passed content themselues with per petuall seruitude And sith it is true that we are come to complaine of the oppressions which your Officers doe here vpon the riuer of Danuby peradnenture yee which are of the Senate will heare vs and thogh you are now determined to heare vs yet you are slow to remedy vs so that before ye began to reforme an euil custome the whole common-wealth is already vndone I will tell you of some things therof to thintent you may know thē and then to reforme them If there come a right poore man to demaund Iustice hauing no money to giue nor wine to present nor Oyle to promise not friends to helpe him nor reuenues to succour him and maintaine him in expences after he hath complayned they satisfie him with words saying vnto him that speedily hee shall haue Iustice What will you I should say but that in the meane time they make him spend that little which he hath and giue him nothing though hee demaund much they giue him vaine hope and they make him waste the best of his life euery one of them doth promise him fauour and afterwards they all lay hands vpon him to oppresse him The most of them say his right is good and afterwards they giue sentence against him so that the miserable person that came to complaine of one returneth home complaining of all cursing his cruell destinies and crying out to the iust and mercifull Gods for reuengement It chanceth also that oft times there commeth to complaine heere in the Senate some flattering man more for malice then by reason of right or iustice and yee Senatours crediting his double wordes and his fained teares immediately ordaine a Censor to goe and giue audience on their complaints who being gone and returned yee seeke more to remedie and giue eare to the complaints of the iudge then to the slanders which were among the people I will declare vnto you my selfe O ye Romanes and thereby you shall see how they passe their life in my country I liue by gathering akorns in the winter and reaping corn in the sommer sometime I fish as well of necessity as of pleasure so that I passe almost all my life alone in the fields or mountaines And if you know not why heare me and I will shew you I see such tiranny in your iudges and such robberies as they commit amōg the poore people and there are such dissentions in the realme such iniuries committed therein the poor cōmon wealth is so spoyled there are so few that haue desire to do good and also there are so few that hope for remedy in the Senate that I am determined as most vnhappy to banish my selfe out of mine own house and to separate my selfe from my sweete company to the end my eyes should not behold so miserable a change for I had rather wander solitary in the
knew that there was in Spaine great mynes of gold and siluer immediately arose betweene them exceeding cruell warres so that those two puissant Realmes for to take from each other their goods destroied their owne proper Dominions The Authors of the aboue saide were Plutarchus Paulus Diaconus Berosus and Titus Liutus O secrete iudgements of God which sufferest such things O mercifull goodnes of thee my Lord that permitteth such things that through the dreame of one prince in his chamber another for to robbe the treasures of Spaine another to flye the colde of Hungarie another to drinke the Wines of Italy another to eate figs of Greece should put all the Countrey to fire and bloud Let not my penne bee cruell against all Princes which haue vniust warres For as Traianus sayd Iust warre is more worth then fained peace I commend approue and exalt princes which are carefull and stout to defend and keepe that which their predecessors left them For admitte that for dispossessing them hereof commeth all the breach with other princes Looke how much his enemy offendeth his conscience for taking it so much offendeth he his Common-wealth for not defending it The wordes which the diuine Plato spake in the first booke of his Lawes did satisfie me greatly which were these It is not meete we should be too extream in commending those which haue peace nor let vs bee too vehement in reproouing those which haue warre For it may bee now that if one haue warre it is to the end to attaine peace And for the contrary if one haue peace it shall be to the end to make warre Indeed Plato sayd very true For it is more worth to desire short warre for long peace then short peace for long warre The Philosopher Chilo being demanded whereby a good or euill Gouernour might be knowne he answered There is nothing whereby a good and euill man may bee better known then in that for which bey striue For the tyrannous Prince offereth himselfe to aye to take from another but the vertuous Prince trauelleth to defend his owne When the Redeemer of this world departed from this world hee sayde not I giue yee my warre or leaue yee my warre but I leaue you my peace and giue you my peace Thereof ensueth that the good Christian is bound to keepe the peace which Christ so much commaunded then to inuent warre to reuenge his proper iniurie which God so much hated If Princes did that they ought for to doe and in this case would beleeue mee for no temporall thing they should condiscend to shedde mans bloud if nothing else yet at the least the loue of him which on the Crosse shedd his precious bloud for vs should from that cleane disswade vs. For the good Christians are commaunded to bewayle their owne sinnes but they haue no licence to shed the bloud of their enemies Finally I desire exhort and further admonish all princes and great Lords that for his sake that is prince of peace they loue peace procure peace keepe peace and liue in peace For in peace they shall bee rich and their people happie CHAP. XIIII The Emperour Marcus Aurelius writeth to his friend Cornelius wherein hee describeth the discommodities of warre and the vanitie of Triumph MArcus Aurelius wisheth to thee Cornelius his faithfull friend health to thy person and good lucke against all euil fortune Within fifteene dayes after I came from the warre of Asia whereof I haue triumphed here in Rome remembring that in times past thou wert a companion of my trauell I sent immediately to certifie thee of my triumphes For the noble hearts doe more reioyce of their friends ioy then they do of their owne proper delights If thou wilt take paines to come when I send to call thee bee thou assured that on the one part thou shalt haue much pleasure to see the great abundance of riches that I haue brought out of Asia and to beholde my receiuing into Rome and on the other thou canst not keepe thy selfe from weeping to see such a sorte of Captiues the which entred in before the triumphant chariots bound and naked to augment the conquerours most glory and also to them vanquished to be a greater ignomie Seldome times we see the Sun shine bright all the day long but first in the Summer there hath beene a mist or if it be in the winter there hath beene a frost By this Parable I meane that one of the miseries of this world is that wee shall see few in this world which now bee prosperous but before haue had fortune in some cases very malitious For wee see by experience some come to bee very poore and other chaunce to attaine to great riches so that through the empouerishing of those the other become rich and prosperous The weapon of the one causeth the other to laugh so that if the bucket that is empty aboue doth not goe downe the other which is ful beneath cannot come vp Speaking therefore according to sensuality thou wouldest haue beene glad that day to haue seene our triumph with the abundance of riches the great number of Captiues the diuersity of beasts the valiantnes of the Captaines the sharpenesse of wittes which wee brought from Asia and entred into Rome wherby thou mightest well know the daungers that wee escaped in the ware Wherefore speaking the truth the matter betweene vs and our enemies was so debated that those of vs that escaped best had their bodies sore wounded and their veins also almost without bloud I let thee know my Cornelius that the Parthians are warlike men in dangerous enterprises very hardie and bold And when they are at home in their Country euery one with a stout hart defendeth his house and surely they doe it like good men and valiant Captaines For if we other Romanes without reason and through ambition doe goe to take an other mans it is meete and iust that they by force doe defend their owne Let no man through the aboundance of malice or want of wisedom enuie the Romane Captaine for any triumph that is giuen him by his mother Rome for surely to get this onely one dayes honour he aduentureth his life a thousand times in the field I will not speake all that I might say of them that wee ledde foorth to the warres nor of them which wee leaue here at home in Rome which bee all cruell Iudges of our fame for theyr iudgement is not vpright according to equity but rather proceedeth of malice and enuie Though they take mee for a patient men and not farre out of order yet I let thee know my Cornelius that there is no patience can suffer nor heart dissemble to see many Romanes to haue such great enuie which through their malitious tongues passe not to backebite other mens triumphes For it is an olde disease of euill men through malice to backebite that with theyr tongue which through their cowardnesse they neuer durst enterprise with their
no sporte nor lightnes inuented in Rome but first it is registred in your house And finally they say that you giue your selues so vnto pleasures as though you neuer thought to receyue displeasures O Claude and Claudine by the God Iupiter I sweare vnto you that I am ashamed of your vnshamefastnes and am greatly abashed of your manners and aboue all I am exceedingly grieued for your offence For at that time that you ought to lift your hands you are returned againe into the filth of the world Manie things men commit which though they seeme graue yet by moderation of the person that cōmitteth them they are made light but speaking according to the truth I finde one reason whereby I might excuse your lightes but to the contrarie I see tenne whereby I may condemne your follies Solon the Phylosopher in his Lawes said to the Athenians that if the young offended hee should be gently admonished and grieuously punished because he was strong and if the olde erre hee should bee lightly punished and sharply admonished sith hee was weake and feeble To this Lycurgus in his lawes to the Lacedemonians sayd contrarie That if the young did offend hee should be lightly punished and grieuously admonished since through ignorance he did erre and the olde man which did euill should bee lightly admonished and sharply punished since thorough malice hee did offend These two phylosophers beeing as they haue bin of such authority in the worlde that is past and considering that their lawes and sentences were of such weight it should bee much rashnes in not admitting the one of them Now not receiuing the one nor rereprouing the other Mee thinketh that there is no great excuse to the young for their ignorance and great condemnation to the aged for their experience Once againe I returne to say that you pardon me my friends and you ought not greatly to weigh it thogh I am somewhat sharpe in condemnation since you others are so dissolute in your liues for of your blacke life my penne doth take inke I remember wel that I haue heard of thee Claude that thou hast beene lusty and couragious in thy youth so that thy strength of all was enuyed and the beauty of Claudine of all men was desired I will not write vnto you in this letter my friends and neighbours nether reduce to memory how thou Claude hast employed thy forces in the seruice of the comonwealth and thou Claudine hast won much honor of thy beauty for sundry times it chāced that men of many goodly giftes are noted of grieuous offences Those which striued with thee are all dead those whom thou desirest are deade those which serued thee Claudine are dead those which before thee Claudine sighed are dead those which for thee dyed are now dead and since all those are deade with theyr lightnesse doe not you others thinke to die and your follies also I doe demand now of thy youth one thing and of thy beauty another thing what do you receiue of these pastims of these good entertainements of these aboundances of these great contentations of the pleasures of the world of the vanitie that is past and what hope you of all these to carry into the narrow graue O simple simple and ignoraunt persons how our life consumeth and wee perceiue not how wee liue therein For it is no felicitie to enioy a short or long life but to know to employ the same eyther well or euill O children of the earth and Disciples of vanitie now you know that Time flyeth without mouing his wings the life goeth without lifting vp his feete the World dispatcheth vs not telling vs the cause men doe beguile vs not mouing their lippes our flesh consumeth to vs vnawares the heart dyeth hauing no remedie and finally our glorie decaieth as it it had neuer beene and death oppresseth vs without knocking at the dore Though a man be neuer so simple or so very a foole yet hee cannot deny but it is impossible for to make a fire in the bottome of the sea to make a way in the ayre of the thinne bloud to make rough sinewes and of the soft veines to make hard bones I meane that it is vnpossible that the greene flower of youth be not one day withered by age CHAP. XX. The Emperour followeth his Letter and perswadeth Claudius and Claudinus being now olde to giue no more credite to the World nor to any of his deceitfull flatteryes THat which I haue spoken now tendeth more to aduertise the young then to teach the olde For you others haue now passed the prime time of childhood the summer of youth and the haruest of adolescency and are in the winter of age where it seemeth an vncomely thing that those your hoary haires should bee accompanied with such vaine follies Sithens young men know not that they haue to end their youth it is no maruell that they follow the world but the olde men which see themselues fall into this guile why will they runne after vices againe O world for that thou art the world so smal is our force so great our debilitie that thou willing it and we not resisting it thou dost swallow vs vp in the most perillous gulfe and in the thornes most sharpe thou dost pricke vs by the priuiest wayes thou leadest vs by the most stony waies thou carriest vs. I meane that thou bringest vs to the highest fauours to the end that afterwards with a push of thy pike thou mightest ouerthrow vs. O world wherein all is worldly two and fifty yeeares haue passed since in thee I was first borne during which time thou neuer toldest mee one truth but I haue taken thee with ten thousand lyes I neuer demanded the thing but thou diddest promise it me and yet it is nothing at all that euer thou diddest perform I neuer put my trust in thee but euer thou beguiledst me I neuer came to thee but thou diddest vndoo me finally neuer saw I ought in thee wherby thou deseruest loue but alwayes hatred This presupposed I know not what is in thee O world or what we worldlings want for if thou hatest vs we cannot hate thee if thou doest vs iniury we can dissemble it if thou spurne vs with thy feet wee wil suffer it if thou beatest vs with a staffe wee wil hold our peace also though thou persecutest vs we will not complain though thou take ours wee will not demand it of thee though thou dost beguile vs we will not call ourselues beguiled and the worst of all is that thou doest chase vs from thy house yet we will not depart from thence I know not what this meaneth I know not from whence this commeth I know not who ought to prayse this same that wee couet to follow the world which wil none of vs and hate the gods which loue vs oft times I make account of my yeares past somtimes also I turne and tosse my booke to see what
a perpetuall memorie What contempt of world what forgetfulnesse of himselfe what stroke of fortune what whippe for the flesh what little regard of life O what bridle for the vertuous O what confusion for those that loue life O how great example haue they left vs not to feare death Sithens those here haue willingly despised their owne liues it is not to be thought that they dyed to take the goods of others neither yet to thinke that our life should neuer haue end nor our couetousnesse in like manner O glorious people and ten thousand fold happy that the proper sensuality being forsaken haue ouercom the naturall appetite to desire to liue not beleeuing in that they saw and that hauing faith in that they neuer saw they striued with the fatall Destenies By the way they assaulted fortune they changed life for death they offered the body to death and aboue all haue wonne honour with the Gods not for that they shoulde hasten death but because they should take away that which is superfluous of life Archagent a Surgeon of Rome and Anthonius Musus a Physition of the Emperour Augustus and Esculapius father of the Phisicke should get little money in that Countrie Hee that then should haue sent to the barbarous to haue done as the Romanes at that time did that is to say to take sirrops in the mornings pils at night to drinke milke in the morning to annoint themselues with gromeâ—seed to bee let bloud to day and purged to morrow to eate of one thing and to abstaine from many a man ought to thinke that hee which willingly seeketh death will not giue money to lengthen life CHAP. XXII The Emperour concludeth his letter and shewed what perils those olde men liue in which dissolutely like young children passe their dayes and giueth vnto them wholesome counsell for the remedy thereof BVt returning to thee Claude and to thee Claudine me thinketh that these barbarous men beeing fifty yeares of age and you others hauing aboue threescore and tenne it should be iust that sithence you were elder in yeares you were equall in vertue and though as they you wil not accept death patiently yet at the least you ought to amend your euill liues willingly I doe remember that it is many yeares sithens that Fabritius the young sonne of Fabritius the olde had ordayned to haue deceiued mee of the which if you had not told me great inconueniences had happned and sithens that you did me so great a benefite I would now requite you the same with another the like For amongst friends there is no equal benefite then to deceiue the deceyuer I let you know if you do not know it that you are poore aged folks your eyes are sunke into your heads the nostrels are shut the haires are white the hearing is lost the tongue faultereth the teeth fall the face is wrinkled the feete swolne and the stomacke cold Finally I say that if the graue could speake as vnto his Subiects by iustice he might commaund you to inhabite his house It is great pitty of the yong men and of their youthfull ignorance for then vnto such their eies are not opened to know the mishaps of this miserable life when cruell death doth end their dayes and adiorneth them to the graue Plato in his booke of the Common wealth sayde that in vaine wee giue good counsels to fond and light young men for youth is without experience of that it knoweth suspitious of that it heareth incredible of that is tolde him despising the counsell of an other and very poore of his own For so much as this is true that I tell you Claude and Claudine that without comparison the ignorance which the young haue of the good is not so much but the obstination which the olde hath in the euill is more For the mortall Gods many times doe dissemble with a thousand offences commited by ignorance but they neuer forgiue the offence perpetrated by malice O Claude and Claudine I doe not maruell that you doe forget the gods as you doe which created you and your Fathers which begot you and your parents which haue loued you and your friends which haue honoured you but that which I most maruell at is that you forget your selues For you neuer consider what you ought to bee vntill such time as you bee there where you would not bee and that without power to returne backe againe Awake awake since you are drowned in your dreames open your eyes since you sleepe so much accustome your selues to trauels sithence you are vagabonds learne that which behoueth you since now you are olde I meane that in time conuenient you agree with death before he make execution of life Fifty two yeeres haue I knowne the things of the world and yet I neuer saw a Woman so aged thorough yeares nor old man with members so feeble that for want of strength could not if they list doe good nor yet for the same occasion should leaue to bee euill if they list to be euill It is a maruellous thing to see and worthy to note that all the corporall members of Man waxeth old but the inward hart and the outward tongue For the heart is alwayes giuen to inuent euills and the tongue is alwayes able to tell Lyes Mine opinion is that the pleasaunt Summer beeing past you should prepare your selues for the vntemperate winter which is at hand And if you haue but fewe dayes to continue you should make hast to take vp your lodging I meane that sith you haue passed the dayes of your life with trauell you should prepare your selues against the night of death to be in the hauen of rest Let mockeryes passe as mockeries and accept trueth as truth that is to say that it were a very iust thing and also for your honour necessarie that all shose which in times past haue seen you young and foolish should now in your age see you graue and sage For there is nothing that so much forgetteth the lightnesse and follyes of youth as doth grauity and constancie in Age. When the Knight runneth his carriere they blame him not for that the Horses mane is not finely combed but at the end of his race he shold see his horse amended and looked vnto What greater confusion can be to any person or greater slaunder to our mother Rome then to see that which now a dayes therein we see That is to say that the old which can scarcely creepe through the streetes to beholde the playes and games as young men which search for nought else but onely pompe and vanitie It grieueth mee to speake it but I am much more ashamed to see that the olde Romaines do daylie cause the white haires to be plucked out of their heads because they would not seeme old to make their beard small to seem yong wearing their hosen very close their shyrts open before the gowne of the Senatour embrodered the Romane signe richly enamelled the
will but hauing it with him it profiteth him nothing Wee may say of these rich and couetous men that if they heape and keepe they say it is for deere and drye yeares and to relieue theyr parents and friends We may aunswer them that they doe not heape vp to remedie the poore in like necessityes but rather to bring the Common-wealth to greater pouerty For then they sell all things deere and put out their money to great vsurie so that this couetous man doth more harme with that he doth lend them then the drie yeare doth with that it hath taken frō them The noble and vertuous men ought not cease to doe well for feare of dry yeares For in the ende if one deare yeare come it maketh al deere and at such a time and in such a case he onely may be called happie which for being free and liberall in Almes shall reioyce that his table should be costly Let all couetous men beware that for keeping of much goods they giue not to the diuell theyr soules For it may bee that before the deare yeare commeth to sel their Corne their bodyes shal be layd in the graue Oh what good doeth GOD to the Nobles giuing them liberal harts and what ill lucke haue couetous men hauing as they haue their harts so hard laced For if couetous men did taste how sweet and necessarie a thing it is to giue they could keepe little for themselues Now sithens the miserable and couetous men haue not the heart to giue to their friendes to depart to their parents to succour the poore to lend to their neighbours nor to sustaine the Orphanes It is for to bee thought that they will spend it on themselues Truly I say no more for there are men so miserable and so hard of that they haue that they thinke that as euill spent which among themselues they spend as that which one robbeth from them of their goods How will the couetous and miserable wretch giue a garment to a naked man which dare not make himselfe a coate How will hee giue to eate to the poore familiar which as a poore slaue eateth the bread of branne and selleth the flower of meale How shal the Pilgrims lodge in his house who for pure misery dare not enter and how doth he visite the Hospitall and releeue the sicke that oft times hazardeth his owne health and life for that hee will not giue one penny to the Physition how shall hee succour secretly the poore and needy which maketh his owne children goe barefoote and naked how can hee helpe to marry the poore maides being orphanes when he suffereth his owne daughters to waxe olde in his house how will hee giue of his goods to the poore Captiues which will not pay his owne men their wages how will he giue to eate to the children of poore Gentlemen which alwayes grudgeth at that his owne spend how should wee beleeue that hee wil apparrell a widdow which will not giue his owne wife a hoode How doth hee daily giue almes which goeth not to the Church on the Sunday because hee will not offer one penny how shall the couetous man reioyce the heart sith for spending of one penny oft times hee goeth supperlesse to bed And finally I say that hee will neuer giue vs of his own proper goods which weepeth alwayes for the goods of another CHAP. XXIIII The Author followeth his matter and with great reasons discommendeth the vices of couetous men ONe of the thinges wherein the diuine prouidence sheweth that we do not vnderstand the maner of her gouernement is to see that shee giueth vnderstanding to a man to know the riches shee giueth him force to seeke them subtilly to gather them vertue to sustaine them courage to defend them and also long life to possesse them And with all this shee giueth him not licence to enioy them but rather suffereth him that as without reason hee hath made himselfe Lord of an other mans of right hee should bee made slaue of his owne thereby a man may know of how greater excellency vertuous pouerty is then the outragious couetousnesse for so much as to the poore God doth giue contentation of that little hee hath from the rich man he taketh contentation of the great deale hee possesseth So that to the couetous man wee see troubles encrease howerly and the gaine commeth vnto him but monethly Let vs compare the rich and couetous man to the poore potter and wee shall see who shall profite most eyther the potter with his pots that he maketh of the earth or else the couetous with his money which he hath in the earth Though I make no answere to this yet answer herein hath already been made that the one is much better at ease with the earth then the other is with the good For the Potter getteth his liuing by selling pots and the couetous man loseth his soule by keeping riches I humbly require the high Princes and also I beseech the great Lordes and further I admonish the other nobles and Plebeians alwayes to haue this word in memory I say and affirme that the more strongly the man keepeth and locketh his treasure the more strongly and priuily is he kept for if hee put two keyes to keepe his treasure he putteth seuen to his heart not to spend them Let the noble and valiant men beware that they giue not their mindes to heape vp treasures for if once their hearts bee kindled with couetousnes for feare of spending a halfe penny they will dayly suffer themselues to fall into a thousand miseries The Plebeians which are very rich may say that they haue not heaped vp much treasures sithence they cannot behold a hundred or two hundred duccats To this I answere that the estates considered ten duccates doe as much harme to a Treasurer as to others ten thousand For the fault consisteth not in keeping or hiding much or litle riches but forsomuch as in keeping them we cease to doe many good workes To mee it is a strange matter that niggardlinesse hath a greater force to the couetous then conscience hath in others For there are many which notwithstanding conscience do profite with the goods of others and the couetous hauing more misery then conscience cannot yet profite with their owne With much care and lesse diligence the couetous men doe prouide that the millers do not rob the meale that their beasts make no wasts that the Hunters run not through the corne that their wine perish not that those which owe them any thing doe not go and make themselues bankroutes that wynets do not eate their corne and the theeues rob not their goods but in the end they watch none so well as themselues for all the others earely or late haue alwayes oportunitie to robbe from them somewhat but the couetous hath neuer the heart to change a duccate Men ought to take great pitty of a couetous man who by his own will
princes ought carefully to beware For if in such case one man alone should be found which would commende his liberality there are ten thousand which would condemne his couetousnes It happeneth ofte times to princes and great Lordes that indeede they are free to recompence but in giuing they are very vnfortunate And the cause is that they giue it not to vertuous persons and wel conditioned but to those which are vnthankefull and doe not acknowledge the benefite receyued So that in giuing to some they they haue not made them their frieÌ„ds and in not giuing vnto others they haue made them their Enemyes It sufficeth not vnto Princes and great Lordes to haue a great desire to giue but to know when how or where and to whom they ought to giue For if they bee accused otherwise to heape vp treasures they ought also to be condemned for that they doe giue When a man hath lost all that he hath in play in Whores in Banquets and other semblable vices It is but reason they bee ashamed but when they haue spent it like noble stout and liberall men they ought not to bee discontented for the wise man ought to take no displeasure for that he loseth but for that hee euill spendeth and hee ought to take no pleasure for that hee giueth but for that he giueth not well Dion the Grecian in the life of the Emperour Seuerus sayth That one day in the Feast of the God Ianus when hee had giuen diuers rewardes and sundry gifts as well to his owne seruants as to strâ—ngers and that he was greatly commended of all the Romanes he sayde vnto them Doe you thinke now Romans that I am very glad for the gifts rewards and recompences which I haue bestowed and freely giuen and that I am very glorious for the prayses you haue giuen mee by the God Mars I sweare vnto you and let the God Ianus bee so mercifull vnto vs all this yeare that the pleasure I haue is not so great for that I haue giuen as the griefe is for that I haue no more to giue CHAP. XXIX The Author followeth his intention and perswadeth Gentlemen and those that professe Armes not to abase themselues for gaines sake to take vpon them any vile function or office PLutarch in his Apothegmes sayeth that King Ptolomeus the first was a Prince of so good a nature and so gentle in conuersation that oft times he went to supper to the houses of his familiar friendes and many nights he remayned there to sleepe And truely in this case hee shewed himselfe to be welbeloued of his For speaking according to the truth a Prince on whose life dependeth the whole state of the CommoÌ„wealth ought to credite few at the Table and also fewer in the bed Another thing this Ptolomeus did which was when he inuited his friendes to dinner or supper or other strangers of some he desired to borrow stools of others napkins and of others cups and so of other things for hee was a prodigall Prince For all that his seruants in the morning had bought before the night following he gaue it away One day all the Nobles of his Realme of Egypt assembled together and desired him very earnestly that hee would bee more moderate in giuing for they sayd through his prodigality the whole Realme was empouerished The king answered You others of Egypt are maruellously deceiued that the poore and needy prince is troubled In this I dare say vnto you that the poore and needie Prince ought to thinke himselfe happie For good Princes ought more to seeke to enrich others then to heape vp Treasures for themselues Oh happie is the Common-wealth which deserueth to haue such a prince and happy is that tongue which could pronounce such a sentence Certainly this Prince to all princes gaue good example and counsell That is to say that for them it was more honor and also more profite to make others rich then to be rich themselues For if they haue much they shal want no crauers and if they haue little they shall neuer want seruants to serue them Suetonius Tranquillus in the booke of Caesars sayth that Titus the Emperour one night after supper from the bottome of his heart fetched a heauie sighe and hee being demaunded of those which were at his table why hee sighed so sore hee aunswered Wee haue lost at this day my Friendes By the which wordes the Emperour meant that he counted not that day amongst those of his life wherin he had giuen no reward nor gift Truly this Noble Prince was both valiaunt and mightie since hee sighed and had displeasure not for that which in many dayes hee had giuen but because that one day he had failed to giue any thing Pelopa of Thebes was a man in his time very valiaunt and also Rich and sith hee was fortunate in getting and liberall in spending one asked him why hee was so prodigall to giue he aunswered If to thee it seemeth that I giue much to mee it seemeth yet I should giue more sithens the goods ought to serue me and not I to honor them Therefore I will that they call mee the spender of the goods and not the stewardes of the house Plutarche in his Apothegmes saith that K. Darius flouting at K. Alexander for beeing poore sent to know where his Treasures were for such great Armyes To whom Alexander the great aunswered Tell King Darius that hee keepeth in his coffers his treasours of mettall and that I haue no other Treasours then the hearts of my Friendes And further tell him that one man alone can robbe all his treasors but he and all the world can not take my Treasures from mee which are my Friendes I durst say affirming that Alexander saide That hee cannot bee called poore which is rich of Friends For we say by experience Alexander with his Friendes tooke king Darius treasures from him and king Darius with all his treasures was not puissant enough to take Alexanders friendes from him Those which of theyr naturall inclination are shamefast and in estate Noble they ought aboue all things to flye the slaunder of couetousnes For without doubt greater is that honour which is lost then the goods that are gotten If Princes and great Lordes of their owne naturall inclination be liberall let them followe their nature but if perchaunce of their own nature they are enclyned to couetousnes let them enforce their will And if they will not doe it I tell them which are present that a day shall come when they shall repent For it is a generall rule that the disordinate couetousnes doe raise against themselues all venemous tongues Thinke that when you watch to take mens goods that others watch in like manner to take your honor I doe not thinke that your life can be sure For there is no law that doeth ordaine nor pacience that can suffer to see my neighbour liue in quiet by the sweat of my browes
thinke thou wilt do so For by the faith of a good man I sweare vnto thee that my heart neither suspected iâ— nor yet the aucthority of so graue a Romane doth demand it for to thee onely the fault should remaine and to me the wonder Heartily I commend vnto thee thy honesty which to thy selfe thou oughtest and the care which behooueth so worthy and notable a widow For if thou art tormented with the absence of the dead thou oughtest to comfort thee with the reputation of the liuing At this present I will say no more to thee but that thy renowne among the present be such and that they speake of thee so in absence that to the euill thou giue the bridell to be silent and to the good spurres to come and sefue thee For the widow of euill renowne ought to be buried quicke Other things to write to thee I haue none Secret matters are dangerous to trust considering that thy heart is not presently disposed to heare newes It is reason thou know that I with thy parents and friends haue spoken to the Senate which haue giuen the office that thy husband had in Constantinople to thy sonne And truly thou oughtest no lesse to reioyce of that which they haue said of thee then for that they haue giuen him For they say though thy husband had neuer beene Citizen of Rome yet they ought to haue giuen more than this onely for thy honest behauiour My wife Faustine saluteth thee and I will say I neuer saw her weepe for any thing in the world so much as shee hath wept for thy mishap For shee felt thy losse which was very great and my sorrow which was not little I send thee foure thousand sexterces in money supposing that thou hast wherewith to occupy them as well for thy necessaries as to discharge thy debts For the complaints demaunds and processes which they minister to the Romane Matrons are greater then are the goods that their husbands doe leaue them The gods which haue giuen rest to thy husband O Claudine giue also comfort to thee his wife Lauinia Marcus of mount Celio with his owne hand CHAP. XXXIX That Princes and Noble men ought to despise the world for that there is nothing in the world but plaine deceit PLato Aristotle Pythagoras Empedocles Democrates Seleucus Epicurus Diogenes Thales and Methrodorus had among them so great contention to describe the world his beginning and propertie that in maintaining euery one his opinion they made greater wars with their pens then their enemies haue done with their lances Pythagoras sayde that that which wee call the World is one thing and that which wee call the vniuersall is an other the Philosopher Thales said that there was no more but one World and to the contrarie Methrodorus the Astronomer affirmed there were infinit worlds Diogenes sayd that the world was euerlasting Seleucus sayd that it was not true but that it had an ende Aristotle seemed to say that the world was eternall But Plato sayde clearely that the world hath had beginning and shall also haue ending Epicurus sayd that it was round as a ball Empedocles saide that it was not as a bowle but as an egge Chilo the Philosopher in the high Mount Olimpus disputed that the world was as men are that is to say that hee had an intellectable and sensible soule Socrates in his Schoole sayeth and in his doctrine wrote that after 37 thousand yeares all things should returne as they had beene before That is to say that he himselfe should bee borne anew and should be nourished and should reade in Athens And Dennis the Tytant should returne to play the Tyrant in Syracuse Iulius Caesar to rule Rome Hannibal to conquer Italy and Scipio to make warre against Carthage Alexander to fight against King Darius and so foorth in all others past In such and other vaine questions and speculstions the auncient Philosophers consumed many yeares They in writing many bookes haue troubled their spirites consumed long time trauelled many Countryes and suffered innumerable dangers and in the end they haue set forth few truthes and many lyes For the least part of that they knew not was much greater then all that which they euer knew When I tooke my penne in my hand to write the vanity of the world my intention was not to reproue this material world the which of the four Elements is compounded that is to say of the earth that is cold and drie of the water that is moist and cold of the ayre that is hote and moist of fire that is drie and hote so that taking the world in this sort there is no reason why we should complaine and lament of it since that without him we cannot liue corporally When the Painter of the world came into the world it is not to be beleeued that he reproued the water which bare him when hee went vpon it nor the ayre that ceased to blow in the sea nor the earth that trembled at his death nor the light which ceased to light nor the stones which brake in sunder nor the fish which suffered themselues to bee taken not the trees which suffered themselues to be drie nor the monuments that suffered themselues to bee opened For the creature acknowledged in his Creator omnipotency and the Creator founded in the creature due obedience Oftentimes and of many persons wee heare say O woefull world O miserable world O subtill world O world vnstable and vnconstant And therefore it is reason wee know what the world is whereof the world is from whence this world is whereof this world is made and who is lord of this world since in it all things are vnstable all things are miserable all things deceitfull all things are malicious which cannot be vnderstood of this materiall worlde For in the fire in the aire in the earth and in the water in the light in the Planets in the stones and in the Trees there are no sorrowes there are no miseryes there are no deceytes nor yet any malice The world wherein wee are borne where we liue and where we die differeth much from the world whereof we doe complaine for the world against whom wee fight suffereth vs not to be in quyet one howre in the day To declare therefore my intention this wicked World is no other thing but the euill life of the Worldlings the Earth is the desire the fire the couetise the water the inconstancie the ayre the folly the stones are the pride the flowers of the Trees the thoughts the deepe Sea the heart Finally I say that the Sunne of this world is the prosperity and the moon is the continuall change The Prince of this so euill a world is the diuell of whom IESVS CHRIST laid The prince of this world shall now be cast out and this the Redeemer of the World sayeth For he called the worldlings and their worldly liues the world For since they be seruants of sinne of
and so curious to buye that that which hee taketh shall be of great measure and that which hee selleth vs shal want much weight CHAP. XLI ¶ Of a Letter which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius wrote vnto his friend Torquatus to comfort him in his banishment which is notable for all men to learne the vanities of this World MArcus Emperour of Rome companion in the Empire with his Brother Annius Verus to thee Torquatus of the citie of Gaietta wisheth all health to thy person and strength against thy euill Fortunes I beeing in the Temple of the Vestall virgines about three moneth since I receyued a Letter of thine the which was in such sorte that neyther mine eyes for that time could make an ende to read it or since I haue had the heart to answer it For in the incoÌ„nueniences of our friends if we haue no facultie nor might for to remedie it at the least we are bound to bewayle it Thy sorrow maketh me so heauie thy paine doeth trouble mee so much I am so carefull of thy anguish so tormented with thy griefe that if the Gods had giuen power to wofull men to imparte theyr sorrowes as they haue giuen to rich men to imparte their goods by the faith I owe to God I sweare that as I am the greatest of thy Friendes I would bee hee which should take the most parte of thy griefes I know right well and as well as he that hath proued it that asmuch difference as there is betweene the baâ—ke and the tree the marow and the bone the corne and the straw the gold and the drosse the trueth and the dreams so much is there to heare the Trauells of another and to taste his own Notwithstanding comfort thy selfe my friend Torquatus for where the friends bee true the goods and the euills are common betwixt them Oftentimes with my selfe I haue maruelled to what ende or intention the immortall Gods haue giuen Trauell and torments to men since it is in their powers to make vs liue without them I see no other thing why the mishaps ought paciently to bee suffered but because in those wee know who are our faithfull friendes In battell the valiant man is knowne in tempestuous weather the Pylot is known by the Touch-stone the gold is tryed and in aduersitie the true Friende is knowne For my friende doth not enough to make me merrie vnles also he doth take part of my sorrow I haue heard say here and now by thy letter I haue seene how they haue banished thee from Rome and confiscated thy goods and that for pure sorow thou art sicke in thy bed wherof I maruel not that thou art sicke but to be as thou art aliue For saying to thee the Trueth where the heart is sore wounded in shorte space it hath accustomed to yeelde vp vnto the bodie I see well that thou complaynest and thou hast reason to complain to see thy selfe banished from Rome and thy goods confiscate to see thy selfe out of thy countrey without any parentage yet therfore thy sorrowes ought not to be so extreame that thou shouldst put thy life in hazzard For hee alone ought to haue licence and also is bounde to hate life which doeth not remember that hee hath serued the Gods nor hath done any profite to men If the affayres of the Empire did not occupie me and the Emperiall Maiestie did not withdraw me I would immediately haue come to comforte thy person where thou shouldest haue seen by experience with what griefe I feele thy troubles And therefore if thou takest mee for thy friende thou oughtest to belieue of mee that which in this case I would of thee which is that as thou hast been the most entier Friend which I had in Rome So is this the thing that most I haue felt in this life Tell me my friend Torquatus what is it thou sufferest there that I do not lament here It may be that sometime thou laughest but I alwayes weepe sometimes thou comfortest thy selfe but I am alwayes sad It may be that thou lightnest thy paine but I am in sighing It may bee that sometimes thou castest from thee sorrow but for mee I cannot receyue consolation It may bee that thou hopest remedie of long life but for mee I finde no remedie more healthfull then present death Finally I say that here I feele all that thou feelest there and furthermore I suffer all that which as a friend I ought to suffer here so that both our paynes are made one moste cruell sorrowe wherewith my woefull life is tormented I would greatly desire to come and see thee and to help to disburden thee of this charge And since it is vnpossible that thou shalt finde some comfortable wordes For thou knowest that if the true Friendes cannot doe that which they ought yet they doe accomplish it in doing that they can If my memory deceyue me not it is well two and thirty yeares since we two haue known together in Rome during the which Fortune hath made here betweene vs diuers alterations in the which time I neuer saw thee one day contented For if thou were sad nothing did make thee merrie but wert as a man without taste and if thou were ioyfull thou esteemedst it little as a man being troubled Therefore if the trueth be so as indeed it is that in trauells thou were loden with sorrows and in prosperities thou wert euill content so that of nothing in the world thou takest any taste why is it my friend Torquatus that now again thou art in despaire as if thou camest new into this world Thou didst reioyce thy selfe xxxii yeares with the Triumphes and prosperitie of Rome and thou complainest onely of three moneths that Fortune hath been contrary vnto thee O Torquatus Torquatus dost thou knowe that the wise men in whome wisedome raigneth haue more feare of two vnhappie dayes in this life then of two hundreth of prosperous Fortune Oh how many haue I seene go out of their prosperities with the charges of another man and theyr owne proper vices so that the vaine-glory and the fayling prosperities endured fewe dayes but the griefe of that they haue lost and the enmities which they haue recouered endure many yeares The contrary of all this commeth to vnfortunate men which escape out of their tribulations spoyled of vices enuironed with vertues persecutors of euills zealous of good friends of all and enemyes of none contented with theirs and not desiring others Finally they are escaped wisely from the snare and haue gathered the Rose not hurting themselues with the prickes What wilt thou that I say more vnto thee but that the most Fortunate ate vanquished in peace and the vnfortunate are conquerors in warre One of the Sentences which moste haue contented me of those which the Auncients haue spoken is this of the diuine Plato That those which are in prosperity haue no lesse need of good counsell then the vnhappy haue of remedie For
couer then the riches which groweth thereon If thou hast not lost the sence of smelling as that Isle doth sauour vnto mee of Sages so doth Rome stinke of fooles For for the time it is lesse paine to endure the stinke of the beast then to heare the words of a foole When the wars of Asia were ended I returned home by that Isle wherein I visited all the liuing people and all the graues of the dead Phylosophers And for a truth I tell thee Lambert that that iourney was very troublesome vnto mee for herein my person endured much paine on the land I suffered diuers daungers and on the Sea I saw my selfe in sundrie perills In the citie of Corinthe where thou art resident at this present in the middest of the Market-place thou shalt find the graue of the phylosopher Panimio to whome the straight friendship auayled little which he had with Ouide but the enmitie greatly endammaged him which hee had with Augustus the Emperour Two myles from Theadfonte at the foote of the mountaines Arpines thou shalt finde the graue of the famous Oratour Armeno who was by the Consul Scylla vniustly banished And of trueth as heere was much bloud lost because Scylla should not enter into Rome so there were not fewe teares shedde in Italie for the banishment of this learned Phylosopher In the gate of Argonauta harde by the water on the top of a high Rocke thou shalt finde the bones of Celliodorus the philosopher who obserued all the auncient lawes and was a great enemy of those which brought in new customes and statutes This good Phylosopher was banished in the prosperity and furie of the Marians not for the euils they found in him but for the vices hee reproued in them In the fields Heliny there was a great tombe within the which were the bones of Selleno the phylosopher who was as well learned in the vii Liberall-arts as if hee himselfe had first inuented them And hee was banished by the Emperour Nero for because he perswaded this cruell Emperour to bee mercifull and pittifull In the fieldes Helini out of the Woods towardes the west parte thou shalt finde the graue of the phylosopher Vulturnus a man in Astrologie profoundly learned which little auayled him in the time of his banishment For hee was banished by Marcus Antonius not for that Marcus Antonius would haue banished him for hee was not offended by him but because his loue Qu. Cleopatra hated him as her mortall enemie For Women of an euill life doe commonly reuenge their angrie hearts with the death of their especiall friends Diuers other Tombes in that isle I saw the names whereof though in wryting I haue them yet at this present I cannot call them to memorie Well by the faith of an honest man I sweare vnto thee that thou shalt finde all true which I haue tolde thee Now I tell thee Lambert that I visiting those graues theyr Disciples did not beare them greater obedience when thee were aliue then I did reuerence now they are dead And it is true also that in al that time mine eyes were as much wet with teares as their bones were couered with earth These worthy and learned Phylosophers were not banished for any mischiefes by their persons committed nor for any slaunders they had done in the common-wealths but because the deeds of our fathers deserued that they should be taken from their companie and we their children were not worthie to haue the bones of such famous and renowmed Sages in our custodie I cannot tell if the enuie I haue to that isle bee greater or the pittie I haue of this miserable Rome for the one is immortall by the graues of the dead and the other is defamed with the bad life of the liuing I desire thee hartily as a friend and doe commaund thee as a seruant that thou keepe the Priuiledges which I gaue to that Isle without breaking any one For it is very iust that such cities peopled with such dead should be priuiledged of the liuing By this Centurion thou shalt knowe all things which are chaunced amongst the prisoners For if I should wryte vnto thee all the whole matter as it was done I ensure thee vnto mee it would be much paine to wryte it and vnto thee great trouble to read it It suffiseth presently to say that the day of the great solemnitie of the Mother Berecynthia a slaunder arose in Rome by the occasion of these Iesters Scoffers Loyterers and by the faith of a good man I sweare vnto thee that the bloud which was shead through the places surmoūted the wine which was drunk at the Feast And thinke not that which I say to be little that the bloud which was shedde surmounted the wine that was drunke For as thou now knowest the Cittizens are come to so great follie that he which was on that day most drunk they sayde that hee had offered vnto the Gods greatest sacrifices I am yet afrayde to remember the crueltyes which that day I saw with mine owne eyes But I am much more ashamed of that which they talke of vs in straunge Realmes For the Noble and worthie hearts doe not account it so much to receyue a great wound as to take it of a cowardly man There is great difference betweene the Nettes wherewith they vse to take Byrdes and no lesse is there betweene the hookes wherewith they take Fish I meane that the knife which cutteth the Flesh differeth much from the knife which hurteth the heart For the hurts of the bodie with Surgeons helpe may bee healed but the Gods onely are the physitions of the perills of the heart I behelde and saw Rome which was neuer vanquyshed by valiaunt men at that day ouercome by loyterers Rome which could neuer bee won by those of Carthage is now wonne by Iesters Players and Vacabonds Rome which triumphed of all the Realmes is now vanquished of the loyterers Iesters and idle persons Finally wee saw that Rome which in times past gaue lawes to the barbarous is now become the slaue of fooles In this case I haue beene so troubled that I cannot tell what to say and lesse what I write vnto thee One thing comforteth me that since Rome and her Romanes doe not reioyce themselues but with fooles that shee and her children be not punished but by the hands of fooles I thinke not that in this case the Gods do any wrong if Rome which laughed thorough mockery at the players doe weepe one day with the loyterers in good earnest Thou mightst demaund me Lambert since wee other Princes are bound to maintaine equall iustice with all wherefore wee doe dissemble many offences which others haue done in earnest and yet wee will not pardon those Iesters since al that they haue inuented was for mirth and pastime I promise thee though their offences were great indeed yet I doe not banish thē so much for the bloud they haue shed as for the good
sufficient to protect and defende mee in all my causes And shortly after these words passed betweene tham Marke Anthonie shewed the friendship hee bare to the one and the enmitie hee had to the other For he caused Tullie to be put to death and raysed Salust to great honour A Friend may well imparte to the other all his owne as bread wine money time conuersation and such like but hee cannot notwithstanding giue him part of his heart for that suffereth it not to be parted nor deuided because it cā be giuē but to one alone This graunted to bee true as needs it must doubtles that the heart cannot bee deuided but onely giuen to one then is it of necessitie that hee that will seeke to haue many Friends must needs repaire to the shambles to prouide him of many hearts Many vaunt themselues and thinke it a glory to haue numbers of friends but let such well consider to what vse that legendarie of Friendes doe serue them they shall then easily finde they stand them in no oeher steede but to eate to drinke to walke to babble and to murmure togethers and not one to helpe the other with their goods fauour and credite at their neede nor friendly to reprooue them of theyr faults and vices which doubtles ought not to bee so For where true and perfect friendship raigneth neyther I with my friend nor hee with mee should dissemble any vice of faulte Ouide sayth in his booke De Arte amandi that the law of true and vnfained Loue is so streight that no friendship but mine in thy heart should harbour and in mine should lodge none others loue but thine for loue is none other thing But one heart liuining in two bodyes and two bodyes obeying in one heart In this World there is no treasure comparable to a true and sure Friend sith to a faithfull Friende a man may safely discouer the secrets of his heart bewray vnto him his gryping griefes trusting him with his honour committing to his guyde and custodie all his goods hee shall succour him in his miserie counsell him in perill reioyce at his prosperitie and mourne at his aduersitie And in fine I conclude such a friend neuer wearyeth to serue him in his life nor to lament him after his death I graunt that Golde and Siluer is good Kinsefolkes are good and Money is good but true friends exceede them all without comparison For all these things cannot warrant vs from necessitie if sinister Fortune plunge vs into it but rather encrease our torments and extreamitie Also they doe not reioyce vs but rather heape further griefes vpon vs neither doe they succour vs but rather eache houre giue vs cause to complaine and much lesse do they remember and aduise vs of that that is good but still doe deceyue vs not directing vs the right way but still bringing vs out of our way and when they haue led vs awry out of the High-way they bring vs into Desart woods and high and dangerous mountaines whence from we must fall downe headlong A true friend is no partaker of these conditions but rather hee is sorry for the least trouble that happeneth to his friend hee feareth not neither spareth his goods nor the daunger of his person he careth not to take vpon him any painfull iourney quarrels or sutes nor yet to put his life in euery hazard of death And yet that that is most of all to bee esteemed is that like as the heart and bowels euer burne with pure and sincere loue so doth hee wish and desire with gladsome mind to beare the burthen of all his friends mishaps yea more then yet is spoken of Alexander the Great offered great presents to the Philosopher Zenocrates who would not vouchsafe to receyue them much lesse to beholde them And beeing demaunded of Alexander why he would not receyue them hauing poore kinsfolkes and parents to bestow them on hee answered him thus Truely I haue both brothers and sisters O Alexander yet I haue no kinsman but him that is my friend and one onely friend I haue who hath no need of any gifts to bee giuen him For the onely cause why I chose him to be my sole and only friend was for that I euer saw him spise these worldly things Truly the sentence of this good Philosopher Zenocrates is of no small efficacy for him that will aduisedly consider of it sith that not seldome but many times it happeneth that the great troubles the sundry dangers the continuall necessities and miseries wee suffer in this vale of misery haue for the most part procceded from our parents and afterwards by our friends haue beene mediated and redressed Therefore since wee haue thought it good and necessary to chose a friend and that hee bee but one onely each man must bee wise lest in such choise hee be deceyued For oft times it happeneth that those that take little regarde herein grant their friendship to such a one as is too couetous impatient a great babler seditious and presumptuous and of such conditions that sometimes it should be lesse euill for vs to haue him our enemie then to account of him as of our deer friend Him whom wee will chuse for our faithfull friend amongst other manners and conditions hee must chiefly and before all bee indued with these that he be courteous of nature fayre spoken hard and stout to indure pain patient in troubles sober in diet moderate in his words graue and ripe in his counsels and aboue all stedfast in friendshippe and faithfull in secrets And whom wee shall find with these laudable vertues and conditions adorned him may wee safely take and accept for our friend But if wee see any of these parts wanting in him wee ought to shun him as from the plague knowing for certainety that the friendshippe of a fayned and fantasticall friend is much worse and perillous then the enmity of a knowne and open enemy for to the hands of one wee commit our heart and faith and from the deceites and treasons of the other wee defend our selues with our whole force and power Seneca writing to his deere and faithfull friend Lucillus sayeth vnto him I pray thee O Lucillus that thou order and determine thine affayres by the aduice and counsell of thy friend but also I doe remember thee that first thou see well what manner of friend thou hast chosen thee for there is no marchandise in the world this day that men are so soone beguiled in as they are in the choise of friends Therfore the graue sentence of Seneca wisely wayed wee should assent with him in opinion that sith no man buyeth a Horse but hee first causeth him to bee ridden nor bread but first hee seeth and handleth it nor wine but hee tasteth it nor flesh but first he wayeth it nor corne but hee seeth a sample nor house but hee doth first value it nor Instrument but that first hee playeth on it
thy malice onely sufficeth to poyson many that bee good the euilnes only of one woman shal be enogh to spoile take away thy good renowm One difference there is betwen thee and me thy Faustine which is that my facts are in suspect yours done in deede mine bee secrete but yours known openly I haue but stumbled but ye haue fallen For one only fault I deserue punishment but you deserue pardon for none My dishonor dyed with my fact and is buryed with my amendment but your infamie is borne with your desires nourished with your malices and still with your works Finally your infamie shall neuer dye for you liued neuer well Oh Marke malicious with all that thou knowest doest thou not know that to dye well doth couer an euill fame and to make an ende of an euill life doth beginne a good fame Thou ceasest not to say euill onely of suspect which thy false iudgements giueth and yet wouldest thou wee should conceale that wee see with our eyes Of one thing I am sure that neither of thee nor of Faustine there are or haue been any false witnesses For there are so many true euils that there needeth no Lyes to be inuented Thou sayest it is an olde custome with the amorous Ladies in Rome though they take it of many yet they are the poorest of all because we want credit we are honoured for siluer It is most certaine that of holly wee looke for prickes of acornes husks of netles stinging and of thy mouth malices I haue seriously noted I neuer heard thee say well of any nor I neuer knew any that would thee good What greater punishment can I desire for thy wickednenes nor more vengeance for my iniuries then to see al the amorons Ladies of Rome discontented with thy selfe and ioy to think on thy death cursed is the man whose life many doe bewayle and in whose death euery one doth reioyce It is the property of such vnthankefull wretches as thou art to forgette the great good done to them and to repent the little they giue How much the noble hearts do reioice in giuing to other so much they are ashamed to take seruice vnrewarded For in giuing they are lords and in taking they become slaues I aske what it is thou hast giuen me or what thou hast receyued of mee I haue aduentured my good Fame and giuen thee possession of my person I haue made thee lorde of mee and mine I banished mee from my countrey I haue put in peril my life In recompence of this thou doest detect mee of miserie Thou neuer gauest mee ought with thy heart nor I tooke it with good will nor it euer did me profit As all things recouer a name not for the workes wee openly see but for the secret intention with which we work Euen so thou vnhappie man desirest mee not to enioy my person but rather to haue my money Wee ought not to call thee a cleere Louer but rather a Theefe and a wily person I had a little Ring of thine I minde to throw it into the riuer and a gowne thou gauest me which I haue burnt And if I thought my bodie were increased with that Bread I did eate of thine I would cut my flesh being whole and let out my bloud without feare Oh malicious Marke thy obscured malice will not suffer thee to vnderstand my cleare letter For I sent not vnto thee to aske mony to relieue my pouertie and solitarines but onely to acknowledge and satisfie my willing hart Such vaine and couetous men as thou are contented with gifts but the harts incarnate in loue are not satisfied with a little money For Zoue is rewarded alwayes with loue The man that loueth not as a man of reason but like a brute beast and the woman that loueth not where she is beloued but onely for the gaine of her bodie Such ought not to bee credited in words nor their personages to be honoured For the loue of her ends when their goods faileth and his loue when her beautie decayeth If the beautie of my face did procure thy loue and thy riches onely allured my good will it is right that wee should not bee called wise Louers but rather foolish persons O cursed Mark I neuer loued thee for thy goods although thou likedst me for that I was faire Thou sayedst the Gods vsed great pittie on me to giue me few children and them manie Fathers The greatest fault in women is shamelesse and the greatest villany in men is to be euill sayers Diuers things ought to bee borne in the weaknesse of women which in the wisedome of men are not permitted I say this for that I neuer saw in thee temperance to cloke thine owne maliciousnes nor wisdome to shadow the debilitie of others Then I loued with my hart and now I abhorre thee with all my heart Thou sayest my Children haue many Fathers but I sweare vnto thee that the children of Faustine shall not be fatherles although thou dye And if the Gods as thou sayest haue beene pittifull to my Children no lesse art thou vnto straunge children For Faustine keepeth thee but to excuse her faultes and to bee tutor to her Children Oh cursed Marke thou needest not to take thought for thy children haue no need to be marryed For one thing wee are bound to thee that is the example of thy patience for since thou sufferest Faustine in so manie open infamyes it is no great neede wee suffer any secretes in thee For this present I say no more I ende my Letter desiring shortly to see the ende of thy life CHAP. X. ¶ Marcus Aurelius writeth to the Ladie Macrine the Romane of whome beholding her at a window he became enamored Which declareth what force the beautie of a faire woman hath in weake man MArke the verie desirous to the Ladie Macrine greatly desired I knowe not well whither by euill chaunce or by hap of my good aduenture not long agoe I saw thee at a window where thou haddest thy arms as close is I mine Eyes displayed that cursed be they for euer for in beholding thy Face forthwith my heart abode with thee as prisoner The beginning of thy knowledge is the ende of my reason and falling in shunning one euil come infinite trauells vnto men I say it for this if I had not bin idle I had not gone out of my house and not gone out of my house I had not passed by the streete And not going through the street I had not not seen thee at the windowe and not seeing thee at the window I had not desired thy person and not desiring thy person I had not put thy fame in so great peril nor my life in doubt nor we had giuē no occasion to Rome to speake of vs. For of truth Lady Macrine in this case I condemne my selfe For very willingly I did behold thee I did not salute thee thogh thou desiredst to be seene Sith thou wert set vp as
friend Pulio because that since Traian spake for Nero and that hee found in him some prayse I doe thinke no lesse of the tyrant Periander whom though for his euill works hee did wee doe condemne yet for his good words that he spake and for the good lawes which hee made wee doe prayse For in the man that is euill there is nothing more easier then to giue good counsell and there is nothing more harder then to work well Periander made diuers lawes for the Common wealth of the Corinthians whereof here following I wil declare some Wee ordaine and command that if any by multiplying of wordes kill another so that it were not by treason that hee bee not therefore condemned to dye but that they make him slaue perpetuall to the brother of him that is slaine or to the next of his kinne or friendes for a short death is a lesse paine then a long seruitude Wee ordaine and commaund that if any thiefe bee taken hee shall not dye but with a hote yron shall bee marked on the forehead to bee knowne for a theefe for to shamelesse men long infamy is more paine then a short life wee ordaine and commaund that the man or woman which to the preiudice of an other shall tell any lye shall for the space of a moneth carry a stone in their mouth for it is not meete that hee which is wont to lye should álwayes bee authorized for to speake Wee ordaine and commaund that euery man or woman that is a quarreller and seditious person in the common wealth bee with great reproach banished from the people for it is vnpossible that hee should be in fauour with the gods which is an enemy to his neighbor Wee ordaine and commaund that if there bee any in the Common wealth that haue receyued of an other a benefite and that afterwards it is proued he was vnthankefull that in such case they put him to death for the man that of benefites receyued is vnthankefull ought not to liue in the world among men Behold therefore my friend Pulio the antiquity which I declared vnto thee and how mercifull the Corinthians were to murtherers theeues and Pirates And contrary how seuere they were to vnthankefull people whom they commaunded forthwith to be put to death And truely in mine opinion the Corinthians had reason for there is nothing troubleth a wise man more then to see him vnthankefull to him whom heo hath shewed pleasure vnto I was willing to tell thee this history of Periander for non other cause but to the end thou shouldest see and know that for as much as I do greatly blame the vice of vnthankefulnes I will labour not to bee noted of the same For hee that reproueth vice is not noted to be vertuous but hee which vtterly flyeth it Count vpon this my word that I tell thee which thou shalt not thinke to bee fayned that though I bee the Romane Emperor I will be thy faithfull friend and will not fayle to bee thankeful towards thee For I esteeme it no lesse glory to know how to keep a friend by wisdome then to come to the estate of an Emperour by Phylosophy By the letter thou sentest thou requiredst me of one thing to answere thee for the which I am at my witts end For I had rather open my treasure to thy necessities then to open the books to answer to thy demands although it be to my cost I confesse thy request to be reasonable and thou deseruest worthy prayse for in the end it is more worth to know how to procure a secret of Antiquities past then to heape vp treasures for the necessities in time to come As the Philosopher maketh Philosophie his treasure of knowledge to liue in peace and to hope and to looke for death with honour so the couetous being such a one as hee is maketh his treasure of worldly goods for to keepe and preserue life in this world in perpetual warres and to end his life and take his death with infamy Herein I sweare vnto thee that one day employed in Philosophy is more worth then ten thousand which are spent in heaping riches For the life of a peaceable man is none other then a sweet peregrination and the life of seditious persons is none other but a long death Thou requirest me my friend Pulio that I write vnto thee wherein the Ancients in times past had their felicity know thou that their desires were so diuers that some dispraysed life others desired it some prolonged it others did shorten it som did not desire pleasure but trauels others in trauels did not seeke but pleasures that which variety did not proceede but of diuers ends for the tastes were diuers and sundry men desired to tast diuers meates By the immortall gods I swear vnto thee that this thy request maketh me muse of thy life to see that my Philosophy answereth thee not sufficiently therein For if thou aske to proue mee thou thinkest mee presumptuous if thou demaund in mirth thou countest mee to bee too light if thou demaundest it not in good earnest thou takest mee to bee simple if thou demaundest mee for to shew it thee be thou assured I am ready to learne it if thou demandest it for to know it I confesse I cannot teach it thee if thou demandest it because thou mayest be asked it be thou assured that none will bee satisfied with my answere and if perchance thou doest aske it because sleeping hast dreamed it seeing that now thou art awake thou oughtest not to beleeue a dreame for all that the fantasie in the night doth imagine the tong doth publish it in the morning O my friend Pulio I haue reason to complaine of thee for so much as thou doest not regard the authority of my person nor the credite of thy Philosophy wherefore I feare least they will iudge thee too curions in demaunding and mee too simple in answering all this notwithstanding I determine to answere thee not as I ought but as I can not according to the great thou demaundest but according to the little I know And partly I doe it to accomplish thy request and also to fulfill my desire And now I thinke that all which shal reade this letter will bee cruell Iudges of my ignorance Of the Philosopher Epicurius IN the Olimpiade 103. Serges being King of Perses and the cruell tyrant Lysander Captaine of the Peloponenses a famous battell was fought betweene the Athenians and Lysander vpon the great Riuer of Aegeon whereof Lysander had the victory and truly vnlesse the histories deceyue vs the Athenians took this conflict grieuously because the battell was lost more through negligence of their Captaines then through the great number of theyr enemies For truely many winne victories more through the cowardlinesse that some haue then for the hardinesse that others haue The Philosopher Epicurus at that time florished who was of a liuely wit but of a meane stature
harme that gnaweth the wood the moth to the garments the sparke vnto the towe the Locust vnto the corne neither the wyuell to the garners as the Captaines to the people For they leaue no beast but they lull nor orchard but they robbe nor wine but they drinke nor doue house but they clime nor temple but they spoile nor chace but they hunt no sedition but they rayse no villany but that they commit And they do more then they ought to do for they eate without meaning to pay and they will not serue vnlesse they be wel payed and the worst of all is that if they haue their pay immediately they change or play it If they be not paide they robbe and mutine forthwith so that with pouertie they are not content and with riches they waxe vicious and insolent The matters is now come to such corruption and there is at this day men of warre in Rome so carelesse that here no captaine seems but an example of murderers a sturrer vp of sedicious persons an enuyer of the good a partaker with all euill a thiefe of theeues a Pirate of rouers and finally I do not say that they seeme to bee but I doe affirme that they are the scourge of your vertuous and a refuge of the vitious I would not say this but yet not withstanding I ought to say it because it is a thing so farre out of order and so much to bee laughed at that these wicked men though they are our familiar enemies there is no Prince that ruleth them nor Iustice that correcteth them nor feare that doth oppresse them nor law that subdueth them nor shame that refraineth them nor parents that correct them nor punishment that doth abase them nor yet death that dooth end them but now as men which are without remedy wee let them eate of all CHAP. XVI The Emperour Marcus Aurelius pursueth his Letter shewing the great damages that haue ensued for the wars begunne with strange realmes O Vnfortunate Rome who was not wont to haue such euill lucke but the elder thou art the more vnluckie I see thee For by writings wee reade and also with our eyes we see that the more fortunate a city or person hath beene in the beginning the more froward fortune is vnto him in the ending Truly in those ancient times and in those glorious worlds I say when they were peopled with true Romanes and not as now they which haue no children but bastards the Armies were so well taught that came from Rome as the philosophers which were in the schooles of Greece If the Greeke writings doe not lye vnto me Philip the great King of Macedony for this is so renowmed in histories and his sonne the Great Alexander for this was so fortunate in the Warres that they had their armies so well correct that it rather seemed a Senate which gouerned then a Campe which fought In that wee can gather out of Titus Liuius and other Writers from the time of Quintus Cincinnatus Dictator vntill the noble Marcus Marcellus were the most prosperous times of the Romane Empire For before Kings did trauell and afterwardes it was persecuted with Tirants In these so happy times one of the greatest felicities that Rome had was to haue the warre-like discipline well corrected And then Rome beganne to fall when our Armies beganne to doe damage For if those of the war haue truce with vices the others of the Common wealth cannot haue peace with vertues O cursed bee thou Asia and cursed bee the day that with thee wee had conquest For wee haue not seene the good that haue followed vs of thy conquest vntill this present and the losse damage which from thee come vnto vs shall be lamented in Rome for euer O cursed Asia we spend our treasures in thee and thou hast giuen vnto vs thy vices In chaunge of our valiant men thou hast sent vs thy fine mineons wee haue wonne thy Cities and thou triumphest of our vertues Wee battered thy fortes and thou hast destroyed our manners we triumph of thy Realmes and thou diddest cut the throtes of our friends Wee made to thee cruell warres thou conquerest from vs the good peace With force you were ours and with good will wee are yours Wee are vniust Lords of thy riches and iust tenants of thy vices Finally thou Asia art a wofull graue of Rome and thou Rome art a filthie sinke of Asia Since our auncient Fathers did content themselues with Rome alone why should not we their children content our selues with Rome and Italy but that wee must goe to conquer Asia where we aduentured our honour and spende our treasure If those auncient Romanes beeing as they were so princely Barons of life and so valiant in fighting and so hardy for to commaund did content themselues with this little border why shoulde not wee content our selues not beeing as they are hauing a Realme rich and vitious I know not what toye tooke vs in the head to goe conquer Asia and not to contente our selues with Rome Italy was not so poore of riches nor so destitute of Cities nor so vnpeopled of people nor so solitary of beasts nor so vndecked with buildings nor so barren of good fruits but that of all these thinges wee had more then our fathers wished and also more then wee their children deserued For mee I would say that it is for want of iudgement or aboundance of pride for vs to seeke to exceed our Forefathers in Seigniorie when wee are not coequall vnto them in vertue I was contented with all things of my forefathers saue onely that they were a little proude and seditious and herein wee their children doe resemble them well For so much as we are not onely proude and feditious but also couetous and malitious so that in vertuous things wee goe backeward and in vnlawfull workes wee goe forward What is become of the great victories that our forefathers had in Asia What is become of the infinite Treasure they haue robbed in the Countrey What is become of the great number of captiues that they tooke in the warre What is become of the riches which euery one brought home to his house What is becom of the valiant Kinges which they tooke in that Conquest What is become of the Feastes and Triumphes wherewith they entred triumphing into Rome VVhat wilt thou I say more vnto thee in this case my friende Cornelius but that all they which inuented the warre are dead all those which defended that Countrey are dead all those which entred triumphing into Rome are dead and finallie all the riches and triumphes which our Fathers brought from Asia they and those in short space had an end except the vices and pleasures whereof wee see there is no end O if the valiant Princes knew what a thing it is to inuent wars in strange Realmes what trauels they seeke for their persons what cares in their hearts what trouble to their subiects what