from Pindus by Letters of the tenth of this present month that some Poets speaking before the Perepatetick Portal of the greatness of the City of Rome in comparison of that of Naples Luigi Tansillo let these words fall from his mouth That the Suburbs of Naples was bigger then all Rome which petulant falshood being gainsaid by Caro he gave Tansillo the Poetical lie That the Nobility of Parthenope being thereat much incenst would have used violence to Caro who being succoured by the Marcheggian Poets his Countreymen both parties fell to prohibited Rhimes and even to Sonnets with stings in their tails with which they were likely to have made a bloudy bickering when the City Recorder who was soon advertised of the uprore sent Mutio Iustinopolitano speedily thither who did not only quickly appease the tumult but made both parties pass their words not to offend each other And because the Litterati have formerly taken up arms upon the same occasion and therewith caused bloudy business Apollo to the end that for the future men might know how to speak and believe touching these two great Cities committed the cause to be considered on by the Rota di Parnasso whom he commanded suddenly to fall upon the business and to decide it Wherefore upon several daies hearing of both parties the Rota three daies since publisheth this decission Coram reverendo patre Domino Cino die 10 Maii 1612. Domini unanimes tenuerunt That the City of Naples should alwaies yield for Majesty to the City of Rome and Rome to Naples for pleasantness of situation That Rome should confess there were more people in Naples and that Naples should firmly believe there were more men in Rome That the Wits and Wines of Naples had need to be sent by Sea to Rome to receive perfection in that Court and to be made more pleasing to the pallat of gallant men whereas the Roman only was perfectest at home as one which without ever going out of the City might be said to have travailed all the world over That Naples should be held the Metropolitan amongst all Cities of the Universe for breaking of Colts and Rome for managing of men That there were more Cavaliers in Naples in Rome more Commendums That in Rome they only deserved the title of Cavalier who bore the badg upon their Cloke whereas all the Gentlemen of Naples without having any badg upon the Cloke were deservedly called Cavaliers the Cross which they bore upon their naked skin making them sufficiently worthy of so honourable a prerogative The XIII ADVERTISEMENT Theodoricus that famous King of Italy having ofttimes prest very much to be admitted into Parnassus is alwayes denied by Apollo for a very important reason THe powerful King of Italy Theodoricus from the very first day that he came upon these Confines hath by several Ambassies continually prest Apollo that he might be admitted into Parnassus but still in vain for as oft as the proposal was made he received a favourable denial Which put him at last into such a rage as he had the boldness to burst forth into these blasphemous words That Apollo was partial in admitting such great Princâ—…es into Parnassus who by their vertuous actions had merited eternal fame since many Princes were seen to have glorious places in his Court only because they had governed petty Principalities in Italy and he who for many years had had the whole and sole Government thereof was shamefully kept out When Apollo had heard the complaints of so great a Prince he gave him to understand by the Delfick Chancellor that he should do well to be quiet for to be plain he did not think him worthy admittance into Parnâ—…ssus since the world ought to thank none but him for the horrible Atheism which was of late introduced in many Provinces of Europe for whereas the doubts about Religion risen up amongst Divines were after some dispute cleared and their errors taken away by the Councels which were made capable of declaring what was truth and were all extirpated out of the world by making bonefires of such as were obstinate When he as the head thereof took upon him the protection of the wicked Sect of the Arrians he did not only turn Heresies which require whole Armies to root them out into Interest of State but with unheard of affrontedness he made the whole world see that he made use of heresie to work division amongst people to weaken Princes who were his enemies to have adhearers in his neighbours States to make himself head of new Sects and to steal away the hearts of other mens subjects and that in his heart he had no other esteem of holy Religion but as of a powerful means and excellent way to obtain Government The XIV ADVERTISEMENT Apollo according to his usual custom of the first day of every month hears the Petitions of such as desire to be admitted into Parnassus APollo thinks nothing more unworthy of himself then to retard though for never so little a space the deserved reward of glory from those Vertuosi who by their learned writings have deserved eternal fame Whence it is that his Majesty doth not only give such continual audience as is requisite to such Litterati who have occasion to desire admittance into Parnassus but hath deputed many ages ago the first day of every month for the examination of their writings and persons wherein all other affairs being laid aside he only attends that business 'T is true that not to profane those vertuous places of Parnassus by bringing thereinto such as have not been yet adjudged worthy of so honorable an aboad the solemnity of so famous an action is not cellebrated in his Majesties usual Residence or Palace Royal but without the walls of Parnassus in the famous Phoebean field where yesterday morning being the first day of September great store of Pavillions being erected for his Majestie for the Illustrious Muses Prince Poets and learned Lords of this Court Apollo attended by a glorious Train came very early to the appointed place where without any delay Commencement was given to the business It is not to be believed how great a concourse of Litterati of all professions desirous to purchase so honorable an habitation appeared there that day In so much as his Majesties Guard who are strictly charged to carry themselves civilly to all men had very much to do to keep back the infinite number of those who prest to be admitted into the Audience And though the number of pretenders be infinite yet such are the indowments which are required at their hands who are to be admitted into such an habitation as there are but few that attain their desired ends For in this affair where neither the favour of friends nor yet riches avail any thing his merit who is to be admitted into the fruition of so great a happiness is weighed very censoriously in a just scale Here before he pass further in the narration which he is to
much as the wisest said that they who carry on their business handsomly with skill and dexterity are fit to bring any disordered enterprize to a good end The Vertuosi were not so much delighted in seeing the Courtiers run on foot naked For they were much troubled to see what injustice was used in the inequality of the starting-places which the ignoble and poor Vertuosi took from farr off whereas they that were noble and wealthy were so near the staff as without running they might touch it if they would but put forth their hand So as by such inequality they thought it rather a thing purchast by fortune then gotten by industrious labour when at Court a poor Litterato comes by the staff of honor and Supream dignities Yet in this last Race it was observed that many Noble and rich men came behind and the poor mean runners won the reward And though some say they did it through the humorousness of Princes and by favors backt by Court yet the more judicious sort affirm that it is necessary for such who by their dexterity and fair behaviour know how to gain their Princes love and have the wit to arive at highest preferments from them to have good legs to run withall But great was the mirth which was caused in all the people by a chance which hapned between two very noted Personages of the Court who as it often falls out whilst the one thought to keep the other back they justled one another and grew so angry as giving over the chief business of who should win the Race in the midst of the way which was very dirty they indiscreetly fell together by the ears and after having cruelly bespattered one another by foul accusations and shamefull calumnies they became a ridiculous spectacle to the lookers on and for their greater shame were hist at by them This though it appeared ridiculous to the foolish rabble was notwithstanding thought so worthy consideration by his Majestie that as being very exemplary he gave order that it should be cut in Marble by Praxiteles that it might serve everlastingly for a Lesson to wrangling Courtiers It merits memory that whilst Servius Honoratus Master of the Barbary Horse which won the Race went crying through Parnassus as the custom is Long live Virgil that gallant Personage who counts that shame which other Poets account glory caused Servius to be bastinadoed by his servant Daretes for which act though Apollo was much troubled at it Virgil justified himself saying That he had left such memory behind him in the world as his name ought to be exalted and celebrated for his own worth not for the gallantry of a horse Of former years the Prizes were readily and without any ceremony given to those that won them by the Governor of Parnassus and by the Urban Pretor but this year Apollo would give them with his own hands Wherefore he caused it to be intimated to all the Potentates that were in Parnassus by the publick Parators that they should appear in the Royal Hall that they might be present at so important a ceremony It seemed a great novelty to those Princes to hear that his Majesty would have those Princes who were summoned only upon weighty occasions assist at an action which in former years was thought but mean Yet his Majesties commands being upon pain of punishment they all appeared Then Apollo said I know my Lords that you very much wonder why I my self should now do that with so much solemnity which formerly was performed by my Officers without any manner of ceremony But because not only all your happiness but even all the greatest satisfaction which the the people over whom you command does depend on this sole action for your own advantage I would have you present at it Learn then of me all you Rulers of the earth to banish all privat passions from out your hearts and in rewarding those that serve you govern your selves by their deserts not by your own humors and giving as you see me do now the prize of dignities and reward of honours to those who by their honorable and laborious course of life have deserved them you and your posterity will reigne happily for ever When by doing otherwise you will dishonour your selves ruine your States and of great Princes which now you are you wil in time run evident danger of becoming privat foot Souldiers only for that you would be inamored of stinking carrion The XXXII ADVERTISEMENT The Militia of Ianisaries seeing one of their Souldiers ill rewarded mutiny in the Ottoman Monarchy and are by Apollo quieted TO the great terror of all the Potentates of this State of Parnassus in the Ottaman Quarter such an uproar arose as Alarms were given throughout the whole City and that potent Signory presently drew forth her numerous Armies and as if she would come to a general battle she ordered them in divers squadrons wherefore the Germans Spaniards and Princes of Italy growing very jealous took up arms also and sent out their Scouts to learn the reason of those rumors who brought back word that the whole Militia of Janisaries were mutinied against the Ottaman Monarchy Apollo who was presently advertised thereof by the Pretorian Bands of Satirical Poets who keep Corps de Gard continually in Foro Delfico caused the uprore to be quieted and then gave command that the Ottaman Monarchy and the chief Commanders of the Janisaries who had mutinied should appear before him And because the Ottaman Monarchy as also the Janisaries would present themselves before Apollo accompanied by multitudes of men they were told by the Lyrick Poets who supply the place of Porters that in such occasion of tumults people came modestly attended to Princes wherefore the Ottaman Monarchy with his chief Visier and the Gianasary who had been the occasion of this uprore without any other company were admitted unto his Majesties Audience Apollo demanded of the Janisary the true cause of that Tumult Who answered That he accompanied by a Spahi with evident danger of losing their lives had taken by surprise the important Town of Testis in Persia for which action which was of infinite advantage to the Ottaman Empire the Spahi was largely rewarded by being made Captain General of the Asian Cavallery and that he who had merited as much as the Spahi was so ingratefully dealt withall as he was only made Spahi della Porta which fowle partiallity was so much detested by the whole Militia of Janiaries as they had joyntly taken up Arms to revenge so great an injury Apollo having heard this turned to the Ottaman Monarchy and told her that he much wondred why such a Princesse as she who professed to recompence the worth and merit of her souldiers with infinite rewards had shewed her self so partial towards that Janisary To which the Ottaman Monarchy answered that she had not so highly rewarded the Janisary as he had done the Spahi though he very well knew it became him
him by a Literato which was made upon the Poem of an Italian Vertuosi A TABLE Of the CONTENTS of the Second CENTURY of ADVERTISEMENTS ADVERT 1. THe Province of Phosides doth by her Ambassadors complain to Apollo that his Majesties Officers do not any whit observe their priviledges and are not only not listened to in what they do say but receive a harsh answer 199 Advert 2. Apollo makes use of the unfortunate Count St Paul to frighten the Nobility in Kingdoms from rebelling against their natural Lords at the pressure of forreign Princes 200 Advert 3. Great Euclid for having distasted some powerfull men is cruelly beaten by their Bravoes 201 Advert 4. In a Duel which hapned between an Italian Poet and a Vertuosi of Spain the Spaniard being wounded to death did so gallant an action before he expired as Apollo gave order that he should be solemnly buried at the publick charge ibid. Advert 5. Apollo having used great diligence to come by any of the Idols of Princes proceeds with severity against one who fell inâ—… the Iudges power 203 Advert 6. All the Monarchies of the world affrighted at the over-great power and successful proceedings of the German Commonwealths consult in a general Diet how to keep themselves from being in time oppressed by them 205 Advert 7 The people of Phosides treating how they might rise in Rebellion by reason of the Relation which their Ambassadors made unto them who were formerly sent to Apollo to pray hat their priviledges might be observed the remedy fittest to be applyed to such a disorder is discussed in his Majesties Council 219 Adver 8. A great controversie arising in point of precedency between the Prince of Bisagnano and Dr. Juliano Corbelli of St Marino Apollo refers the consideration thereof to the Congregation of Ceremonies by which it is decided 220 Advert 9. Apollo publisheth a very severe Edict against some Literati who under a cloke of feigned picty cover downright avarice 221 Advert 10. The City Pretor or chief Iustice of Pernassus complains bitterly before Apollo of the Triumviri a Magistracy newly instituted by his Majesty that in an Edict of theirs published against Minius and other Ministers of Princes obscenities they have violated his Iurisdiction 222 Advert 11. The Inhabitants of Phocides fall into open rebellion by reason that the Priviledges of their Country â—…re not observed by Apollo's Officers they are pacified by a Senator and send new Ambassadors to his Majesty 223 Advert 12. Whilst some Poets paralleld the greatness of Rome with that of Naples a dangerous dispute arose between them Apollo to the end that his Vertuosi might know what to say and believe in a business of such importance commits the cause to the Rota of Pernassus who decide it 226 Advert 13. Theodoricus that famous King of Italy having oft-times prest very much to be admitted into Pernassus is a waies denied by Apollo for a very important reason 227 Advert 14. Apollo according to his usual custom of the first day of every month hears the Petitions of such as desire to be admitted into Pernassus 228 Advert 15. At a publick meeting Force contrary to the custom of the Plebeian Court pretending to take place of Reputation that beautiful Lady with excellent resolution finds a remedy for her reputation which was in great hazard 246 Advert 16. Giovan Francisco Pico Count of Mirandola that he might the more quietly attend his studies entreats Monsignor Dino da Mugello Auditor of the Exchequer in Pernassus that the Reformers by reason of the too great noise which they alwaies make in their profession may be removed further from his neighbourhood and is not heard in his desire 247 Advert 17. Tacitus being excluded from out of the most famous Commonwealths of Europe makes a grievous complaint to Apollo and is by them with much honour received again and much made of 249 Advert 18. The blindman of Forli that famous Italian Mountebank being to the wonder of all the Senat of Vertuosi admitted by Apollo into Pernassus is by his Majesty put upon an imployment of importance 250 Advert 19. Luigi Alemanni having in an elegant Oration set forth the praises of the French Nation repented that his action afterward and desired leave of Apollo to make his Recantation but was not permitted so to do 252 Advert 20. Corbulone having with much honour ended his prefixt time of Government in Pindo a Patent to continue the same Iurisdiction for one year longer is graciously sent him by Apollo which he refuseth to accept of 253 Advert 21 Sebastian Veneri Duke of Venice after his admittance into Pernassus desires Apollo that he may have the precedency given him before Hereditary Kings and Monarchs and obtains a favourable Decree from his Majesty 254 Advert 22. Apollo being greatly moved to compassion by seeing a poor souldier who had lost both his hands in the Wars go a begging doth sharply reprehend Princes for their ingratitude to Military men 256 Advert 23. Apollo greatly compassionating the lamentable shipwrack which his Vertuosi make in great Princes Courts to secure their Navigation commands some of the chief Literati of his State to make a Card whereby men may sail by land 257 Advert 24. Ariadeno Barbarossa being driven by a sudden storm splits upon the Scogli Cursolari and Maturino Romagasso Captain of the Guard of the Gulf of Lepanto endeavours his escape when he might have taken him prisoner 262 Advert 25. Epictetus a Stoick Philosopher who finding his Sect to grow much deformed asks leave of Apollo to ground a new Sect of Reformed Stoicks and is rather reprehended by his Majesty then commended 263 Advert 26. The Nobility of the Commonwealth of Achaia not being able any longer to indure the insolency of the Commons who Governed the State send Ambassadors to Apollo to obtain a Prince who may Govern them and receive a gracious answer 265 Advert 27. Apollo having for a just cause removed Gulielmo Budeo from the Lord Treasures place confers the aforesaid place upon Diego Covarruvia a Noble Spanish Literato and Dean of the College of the Grand Sages of this Court though he was much gainsaid therein by the French Monarchy 266 Advert 28. Monsieur Jovanni de la Casa having presented Apollo with his most useful Galateo meets with great difficulties in many Nations in having it observed 269 Advert 29. Apollo finding that wicked men by making use of the sword of Iustice to injure honest men do make his Tribunals become very hatefull to remedy so great a disorder institutes a Committee of the greatest subjects of this State but hath but bad success therein 272 Advert 30. Marcus Brutus desires Lucius Brutus to shew him the perfections of the Conspiracy which he so happily brought to pass against the Tarquins and the Imperfections of that Conspiracy which he so miserably executed upon Cesar. And receives desired satisfaction from him 273 Advert 31. Marcus Cato having to the infinite dislike of Princes writ
one of which he shews the lesser Princes with what wariness they ought to preserve themselves from a greater Potentate and in the other lets Senators of Republicks know how ill advised they are who through partiality side with a subject of their own faction who notoriously aims at Tyranny 329 Advert 62. Lewis de la Tremoglia a Noble French Baron renounceth his Nobility and all the priviledges which he thereby enjoyed in presence of the Monarchy of France 332 Advert 63. Don Ferrante Gonsaga being Governor of Corinthus is exhorted by Domitio Corbulone severely to resent a great excess committed by a chief personage of that City which Counsel Gonsaga wisely refutes 333 Advert 64. The Prince of Macedon accuseth the Nobility of Athens of Treason before Apollo who are freed from that imputation by his Majesties Councel of War 335 Advert 65. A Shop-keeper is condemned to the Gallies at the very instant that he was seised on by the Serjeants not being so much as examined 3â—…7 Advert 66. Bernardino Rota a famous Neapolitan Poet being greatly beloved by the Vertuosi of all professions in Pernassus is accused before Apollo for having purchased so general a good liking by some ill means 338 Advert 67. A Carpenter being cudgeled somewhat severely for having uttered certain insolent words against the most noble Scaliger to his greater calamity complains first of him to the Lord chief Iustice and afterwards appeals to Apollo 339 Advert 68. The great Emperor Maximilian the first having said in a great Assembly of the chiefest Princes of this State that the Mahometan Religion was nothing but Policy proves by excellent reasons to the very teeth of the Ottoman Monarchy who complained hainously thereof to Apollo that he had said nothing but truth 341 Advert 69. Anneus Seneca after having read Moral Philosophy in the publick Schools of Pernassus obtains a Writ of Ease from Apollo and being desirous to endow the Philosophy-School with a rich Revenue is not suffered by his Majesty so to do 345 Advert 70. Diego Covarruvia after having for a short space exercised the place of his Majesties chief Treasurer betakes himself to the Stoicks Sect. 346 Advert 71. Cornelius Tacitus being imprisoned at the complaint of some great Princes for having made some Politick Spectacles which were very prejudicious to their Government is freed by Apollo 347 Advert 72. Many Carriers who contrary to the Laws brought great store of Beans into Pernassus are taken prisoners by the scouts 349 Advert 73. Seneca having bought great store of Poultrey in a Countrey-house of his which lies in the Gnides Territories those people come to the true reason of that his forestalling the Market 350 Advert 74. The Grand-child to the Prince of the Laconicks asks counsel of Apollo what course he should take to live with reputation in Laconia 351 Advert 75. Isabella of Aragon Dutchess of Milan being continually prosecuted by adverse Fortune is brought to a very unhappy condition in the City of Ephesus 352 Advert 76. Many of the Literati who do much apprehend the severity of the Reformation which by order from Apollo is now in Treaty in Pernassus do seditiously rise in rebellion against the Reformers and his Majesty appeaseth the tumult by applying a fitting remedy 353 Advert 77. Many Princes believing that the disorder of their Courts which were abandoned by Courtiers proceeded from the injurious speeches used by Cesar Caparoli in his Chapter Della Corte desire Apollo that it may be remedied and obtain their desire 357 Adveâ—…t 78. Learned Seneca seeing that his late Reformation of his former too splendid way of living was ill taken by the Universality of Pernassus distributes his immense riches in a work which was greatly commended by all men 358 Advert 79. Some Princes of Pernassus having spent a great mass of wealth n a stinking sort of Merchaudize and having thereby incurred great debts are forced to confess themselves Bankrupts and to leave Pernassus 359 Advert 80. Certain prime Politicians of Pernassus pray the Ottoman Monarchy to tell them the true reason why she makes short war with her enemies and are by her satisfied 361 Advert 81. The Vertuosi of Pernassus after having paid in the accustomed Donative of a million of conceits to his Majesties Treasurer according to their wont ask a favour of him 363 Advert 82. The Arcadians being up in arms against their Prince for certain new Taxes imposed upon them he wisely appeaseth them by delivering up unto them him who had perswaded him thereunto 364 Advert 83. Marcus Portius Cato whilst he reprehends Salustius Crispus for flattering the Emperor Tiberius is severely taxed by him for beingtoo obstinate 366 Advert 84. Apollo having by a new Edict inhibited Poets to make use of any fabulous creature in their Verses at the fervent intreaties of the Poets his Majesty revokes the said Edict 368 Advert 85. Giovangirolimo Aquaviva having overcome a very great difficulty is with much honour admitted into Pernassus 369 Advert 86. The Duke of Laconia to revenge himself by way of Law upon a chief Senator of State for some private distastes that he had taken at him commanded Fleminio Cartaro his Iudge of Assize to proceed severely against him upon some heads which he would give him and he denies to obey him 371 Advert 87. Some Princes of this State having presented Apollo with a Book of the Reason of State the Vertuosi of Pernassus not approving of the definition of State therein given publish a new one which was very much displeasing to those Princes 372 Advert 88. Marcantonio Moreto desires Apollo that he may have leave to make an Oration in the publick Schools of Pernassus in the praise of the â—…lemency of the most glorious King of France Henry the fourth but is denied it 375 Advert 89. A Literato presents Apollo with an Oration made by him in praise of the present Age which is laid aside by his Majesty as not grounded upon truth 377 Advert 90. Christopher Columbus and other famous discoverers of the new world desire Apollo that Immortality may be aecreed them for their noble daring but are denied it 378 Advert 91. Sigismond King of Polonia prefers a Paladine to the prime dignities of his Kingdom who proving persidious the Polack Nobility thinking the publick reputation was concern'd in this private Palatines misdemeanor revenge themselves severely upon him 382 Advert 92. Apollo having a notorious hypocrite in his hands punisheth him severely 383 Advert 93. Apuleius his Ass having given his Master two kicks in the breast is severely punished by him 384 Advert 94. Paulus Jovius presents Apollo with his most elegant Histories which give full satisfaction to his Majesty and the College of Vertuosi and notwithstanding some opposition that is made he is admitted with great applause into Pernassus 386 Advert 95. A very famous Literato who was imprisoned by the Iudges of Assise for being a pratler is freed by Apollo as not guilty of such a crime 388 Advert 96. Philip
the receivers and that it had been often seen that the Noble Venetians upon any urgent occasion of the Commonwealth rather then to lay any new impositions upon the people would open their own Coffers and did this in so ample a manner and with so strange alacrity for the publick liberty as this action deserved the preheminence over all the miracles which were observed to be in the fortunate Venetian freedome as that which made it appear clearly to the whole world that they were fully indued with that excellent quality which doth eternise Republicks of having their Nobility so hugely in love with living free as they did chearfully prefer the publick interest before their own profit Next said Bernardo Tasso that he had lived long in Venice where he found nothing to be more wondred at then to see those very noble Venetians who did so much delight in pleasures pastimes and Idleness govern the publick affairs with such gallantry as they seemed to others to be men of exemplary lives and Lords born to perpetual labour When Tasso had done Francisco Berny according to his wonted pleasantness which did much delight the Venetian liberty said That the rarest and most admirable thing that great wits were to admire in the State of Venice was that all the Channels of that City being full of Gudgins the Venetian Senators did notwithstanding take so few of them as they were deservedly held by all Nations to be the salt of the earth Then Sabilico followed and said that whilst he writ the Venetian History having diligently observed the excellent institutions of that glorious liberty he found nothing more to wonder at therein then that the publick Treasury should be so faithfully managed even by needy Senators as to have their hands greased with one penny of St. Marks was held by the Nobility not onely to be a capital excess but great infamy Iaccopo Sanazzarro said then that it appeared strange to him in the Venetian Commonwealth that there being many of the Nobility but of mean fortunes they did notwithstanding with incredible patience tolerate their private miseries not so much as in a thought coveting the mass of publick wealth by those seditious Frumentary and Agrarian Laws with which the famous Commonwealth of Rome was so much vexed by her Citizens and that it was a thing praise worthy and to be wondred at to see that in Venice the poor Nobleman strove only through vertue and worth to comfort himself amidst his miseries studdying to make himself worthy to be imployed by his Country in advantagious imployments which made that vertue worth and honesty served instead of a rich Patrimony to the poor Noble Venetian Iovanni Ioviano Pontano added that all that had been said was very miraculous but that the greatest thing which he had alwaies observed in the Venetian Liberty was that the immense wealth which some of the Nobility possessed did not puff them up with pride and vain glory as many were seen to be in other Commonwealths that therefore it was a rare custome in Venice that such Senatours who were as rich as Princes knew how to live at home in their own houses like private Citizens and did not differ at all in the Piazza's from the poorest men And that the Venetians onely know how to separate the evils of ambition and pride and the being attended by multitudes of the meaner sort of Citizens from great riches which the famous Roman liberty either could not or would not prohibit in Caesar in Pompey and in many other wealthy Senators When Pontano had ended his discourse the Commendador Hannibal Caro said that above all other stupendious things in the Commonwealth of Venice he had alwayes much admired to see the mighty Prince of so famous a liberty observed with so much obsequiousness reverence King-like Majesty and Citizen Authority and that the coherence of so great veneration with limited Authority the long extent of the Prince his Empire with modesty was a temper not known to the wisdome of the ancient Legislators of former Republicks and which was happily practised onely by the Venetian Senate Bartolomeo Cavalcanti replyed next that as Pontano had observed it for a great rarity in the Venetian Commonwealth that store of wealth did not make rich Senators wise so was it a much greater portent to see that the orders of that excelse liberty the sacred laws of that eternal Commonwealth were such as even the chiefest Places did not fasten any thing of ambition or pride to them who did exercise them with great authority a particularity the more worthy of observation for that the like was never seen in whatsoever other Principallity or well constituted Common-wealth as being a thing which did directly oppugne nature And that when he was in Venice he did not admire the rich Treasure of St. Mark the Arsenal the grand Cannale with the stately Palaces of the Cornari Grimani Foscari and other magnificent buildings built at vast expence in that miraculous City wonders onely obvious to the eye of ordinary men but that it appeared marvelous to him to see Signior Sebastiano Vinieri lately General of so powerful a Fleet so famous for the glorious Naval Victory which he obtained against the Turks to return a private man to Venice and to walk the Piazza with that decent Modesty as he appeared not to differ in any thing from those Senators who never stird from the City and that it was a singular thing that in the Venetian Common-wealth the Nobles therof could behave themselves so modestly and civilly at home who when they were imployed abroad in important Magistracy and great commands could with splendid and Princely liberality make themselves known to the world not to be barely Citizens of a well regulated Republick but men born to command those who were descended from Royal bloud and that therefore he believed that there was no Nation in the world that knew better how to obey modestly and command gallantly then the Venetian Nobility A thing so true that whereas in other states they were forced for the honour of their publick Magistrates to put their Senators in mind with what magnificency of spirit they should make good the Majesty of their publick imployments the Venetian Senate had several times been necessitated to make severe Laws to inhibit those who did exercise any authority or jurisdiction out of the City the using of any splendid Magnificency Thus said Cavalcanti when Flavio Biondo added That when he was in Venice he was much amazed to see that in a meer Aristocrasie the Citizens and Plebeains lived with such satisfaction in that happy Country as that for many months that he tarried there he could never discern whether the publick Venetian Liberty was better beloved and held dearer by the Nobility which commanded or by the bare common sort of Citizens who obeyed Then followed Paulus Iovius who said that not only to himself but to many great Princes with whom he had discoursed
at large of the miraculous Government of the State of Venice it seemed very strange that the Senat of that Commonwealth studied nothing more then peace and yet with great vigilancy and asseduity did perpetually prepare for Warr and that Armed Peace was only seen in the flourishing Venetian State Iovius was followed by Iohn Bocatchio who said that the true Salt which preserved the Venetian Liberty from the putrifaction and corruption of all abuse was that Supreme Queen of all Laws that excellent Institution so inviolably observed by her that neither the greatness of Parentage abundance of wealth nor the merits of fore-Fathers were considered in the preferment of Senators to high places but the sole worth of him who pretended to the Magistracy was weighed whence it was that there was many vitious and ignorant Gentlemen of Venice but only the most vertuous and well-deserving commanded and governed with that wisdom which was known to all the world But Leonardo Aretine after having much commended Bocatchios opinion added that the excellent custom of the State of Venice in not conferring places upon her Nobility by skips and leaps but by degrees and gradation was that sound Basis whereon the greatness and eternity of such Liberty was grounded and that it was an excellent rule that whatsoever Noble man would arive at the Supreme Dignities he must even from his youth begin at the meanest Magistracies A wholsom custom which produceth the important effect of maintaining that true and essential equality amongst the Nobles of an Aristocracy which makes Liberty long-liv'd For with those that understand State Affairs the parity of wealth is not that which equals Senators in a Commonwealth but the making all the Nobles march on towards the grandeur of the highest Dignities beginning at the meanest Imployments A Law well worthy the Venetian Wisdom which because the ancient Roman Commonwealth did want her Liberty was but short-liv'd and yet was still molested with dangerous infirmities and tumultuous insurrections For the base abuse of giving the Consulship of a Free Country and the chief places in the Army to Pompey and Cesar and other rich Subjects in the prime of their youth was no better then to deal with them rather like men born of Royal bloud like Lords and Masters of their Countries Liberty then like Senators of a well regulated Republick For since it is a certain truth that that is a well ordered Commonwealth where the hopes of some yet higher dignity remains even to the worthyest Senators and men of great merit which may serve for sharp spurs to such as are ambitious of glory to make them make haste in the streight path of Vertue that they may the sooner arive at the Gole of the desired Magistracy what greater preferment remained to be hoped for in their age by Cesar and Pompey who in their youth obtained from the Commonwealth of Rome not without much imprudency the highest honours and supremest dignities then that absolute Tyrannical Power to which Cesar openly and Pompey more cunningly did afterwards aspire A great mis-government and from which the famous Roman Liberty might presage her death Though the most glorious Venetian Liberty gave great signes that she was very well pleased with Aratines opinion she notwithstanding commanded the remainder of the Vertuosi to speak theirs Then thus began Benedetto Varchi My Republick of Florence which never had the luck to work peace and union between her noble Families and that mutual love which doth perpetuate the liberty of Commonwealths was at last compelled to fall into servitude Wherefore this appears to me to be the rarest of humane Miracles that a noble Venetian though never so highly offended by the murder of his children and in his own person being more violently wrought upon by his fervent charity towards the freedom of his Country then frighted by the rigor of Magistrates can with a free soul put on the hard resolution of forgiving his enemy at that very instant the injury which he hath received Certainly a most admirable resolution and so much the more worthy of wonder as that it is evidently seen that the noble Venetian knows how to trust the Senat willingly with the revenge of any injury he can receive when sensual men are very loath to remit the like into the hands of God from whom we receive all that we have of good Thus said Varchi when Lodovico Dolci added That if that were true which is confessed by all men that the rarest and most considerable vertue in a Prince was to be able with ease and without any danger to disarm his Captain General and to receive perfect obedience from him even then when he knew he was sent for back by an incensed Prince and one who did much suspect his Loyalty his opinion was that of all other things which the rest had mentioned of rare in the State of Venice this was to be preferred That she did not only with great ease disarm her Captain Generals at Sea but that when her chiefest Ministers knew that the Senat was highly displeased with them and that therefore they were sure to be severely punished though they were absent well arm'd and in great command if it should so happen that they should be sent for by the State they would with great readiness obey and laying down their Arms and Authority of Chief Magistrates hasten to Venice to receive Judgement from their friends and kinâ—…ed though it might cost them their lives The examples whereof had been so often seen in Venice in his time as it had filled the whole world with wonder That therefore he thought he might justly say he should be much injured if the so great Authority of the State of Venice the so great submission obedience and unheard of charity of the Venetian Nobility to the Publick Liberty were not preferred before all those admirable Laws and excellent Institutions which others had spoken of before him The most Sâ—…ene Venetian Liberty which without replying any one word to these Vertuosi had heard all these her so many lawdable Customs and her so many miraculous Prerogatives said to Lodovico â—…olci that what he had said was very considerable but that it was a benefit which the Ottaman Emperors likewise enjoyed but that she acknowledged all her Grandesta from one only Prerogative which she was exactly Mistress of and wherein she knew she did excell all Principalities and all Commonwealths as well past as present which had not yet been touched upon by any of those Vertuosi Then said Dionigi Antonigi That the greatest wonder and which ought to be praised even to the skies was To see that the dreadful Tribunal of the Councel of Ten and the Supreme Magistracy of the State-Inquisitors could with three Balleting Balls easily bury alive any Cesar or Pompey which began to discover himself in that well-governed State Attonigi had no sooner spoke his opinion but Ierolimo Mercuriali added That whilst he exercised his charge of reading in the
should best like Apollo seemed to all men rather to laugh at the harm and 〈◊〉 that was done to this man then any way to compassionate him and asked by what art of Divination he had foretold this calamity to Bentivoglio Guarico answered By the excellent Science of Judicial Astrologie which he had very much studied Apollo replyed Why did not the same Astrology which made you foresee other mens misfortunes admonish you of your own mishaps Guarico answered Because through his Parents negligence he knew not what day he was born on Apollo then laught and greatly despising Guarico's vain and unfortunate study told him he was a great fool and worthy the misfortune which had befallen him for wise men hated to be the first bringer of ill news even to men of the meanest sort much more to Princes whose ears were so delicate as they delighted in nothing but good news wherefore it was better to flatter them by foretelling them a long and happy life and to assure them that they should quickly enjoy many things which they desired and be very happy For to foretel Princes who were jealous of their lives and good fortunes that their death was near at hand or any other bad accidents and to profess the doing of this by a false Art which onely became foolish people was to shew that a man did desire all those misfortunes should befal them which he did prognosticate Guarico was no sooner dispatcht but Count S. Paul appeared a noble Prince of France who sorely complained unto his Majestie against Lodowick the eleventh King of France who after having pardoned him and sealed his pardon with many oathes had made his head be struck off Apollo with much cruelty answered the Count That he ought not to blame King Lodowick so much for this his misfortune as his own imprudency for when Subjects arrive once at so great rashness as to take up arms against their Lords and Masters they were very great fools if they did trust them at any time after For nothing of more shameful being to be seen in a State then that a man should walk therein who had plotted his Princes death and the ruine of his State all Princes thought it less shameful to break their words then to live with such a blur in their face That therefore they onely ought to confide in such like pardons as made a Prince be praised for clemency but that for such as brought shame with them they ought to trust no more unto them then to a rotten rope As Apollo was a little advanced Iovan-paolo Lancellotto a famous Perugian Lawyer appeared who presented unto his Majestie his compleat commentaries which he had lately made upon his admirable Canonical Institution This noble Vertuoso was chearfully and lovingly received by his Majestie yet Apollo told him He had been very ill advised to gloss upon the Argument of his well filed Institution for such eminent wits as he who were absolutely Masters of the Matters which they write upon using very artificially a succinct and pithy brevity as if they gave others the substance and quintescence by them extracted not without much pains from the difficultest Sciences shewed and that much to their honour that they writ to such as were learned who did fully understand the subject they treated on which leaving without any Commentaries they made it appear unto the world that what seemed hard and obscure to others was very easie and clear to themselves That if it hapned afterwards that other Vertuosi commenting upon the learned labours of other men for the publike benefit of the lovers of learning they did so wittily adorn them with various acceptions of several significations as they made them oft times speak excellent things and which their Authors never dreamt of as it luckily befel Aristotle illustrated by Averoe's his eminent wit and Homer who being most happy of all other writers in having learned Commentators was very much inriched by the learned labours of other men The last that appeared was Claudius Nero the Emperor who signified to Apollo That being at last aware of his wife Agrippina's shameful incontinency who blinded by the violent ambition of Government had given her self over to the imbracements of his base servant Paâ—…antes he was resolved to take such revenge upon her as the world saw he had done upon Messalina who had likewise been an unchaste wife of his But that this wicked woman being gotten into Thaliâ—…'s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a safe sanctuary by reason of the great respect which was given to that Illustrious Muse he could not get Agrippina into his hands He therefore earnestly desired his Majestie to command that that dishonourable woman might be put out from thence to the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he might wash away the shameful stain wherewith she had tainted his reputation Apollo was never seen to rage more no 〈◊〉 when in the fiery house of Leo then at this 〈◊〉 of the Emperor 〈◊〉 to whom with a threatning voyce and gesture he said He might do well to hasten quickly out of that Audience for he whose first wiâ—…e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fell by marrying another into the same â—…it of Infamy deserved rather to be buried there alive then to be holpen out by any one The XXXVI ADVERTISEMENT Harpocrates being found by Apollo to be ignorant is driven out of Pernassus THis morning Apollo sent for Harpocrates that great Mâ—…ster of Silence to come unto him and told him that he had still admired his perpetural Taceturnety but that now he much desired to hear him discourse for that silence was to be wondered at in him who upon occasion could give content to the curious Litterati by his copious speaking Harpocrates hearing this shrunk up his shoulders and made signs that he could not speak Apolloâ—…ad â—…ad him lay aside his affected silence and discourse upon some elegant subject Harpocrates still continued to put his finger to his mouth When Apollo with somewhat an angry countenance commanded him to speak Harpocrates drew then near to his Majesties ear and in a very submiss voyce said That the world was grown so depraved in its customs â—…as they deserved chiefly to be esteemed wise who had eyes to see judgement to observe and mouth to hold their peace Apollo being mightily offended at this Answer turned to those that were about him and said He had at last discovered that Harpocrates was a piece of useless flesh and commanded him to be packing out of Pernassus for he had discovered him to be one of those gross pated coxcombs whereof there were very many in the world who under colour of a vertuous silence did hide and palliate gross Ignorance The XXXVII ADVERTISEMENT A learned Roman desires a receipt from Apollo to make him forget certain great injuries which he had received at a great Prince his Court His Majestie gives him some of the water of Lethe to drink but with bad faccess THe learned Roman who some days ago came to Pernassus
in Princes with the Title of Excellency and in Doctors those of the mind The Dukes thought then that the sentence was favorable on their behalf wherefore with a scornful smile they said to the Doctors These Judges have cleared the question once for ever At the hearing whereof the Doctors who smiled inwardly at the simplicity of these Titolati not to give themselves any further trouble answered nothing But when the Princes had conferred with their Learned Councel who told them that the sentence made for the Doctors they prest his Majestie that they might be suffered to appeal Apollo troubled at the Princes pressures bad them be quiet for they vilified the Title of Excellency who bought it with their monies not they who had won by their labour and study And that if the Dukes and other Tâ—…tolati would purchase infinite honor to themselves they should open their purses and by rewarding the Professers of Learning acquire unto themselves the Title of Liberal which with men of sound judgement and perfect understanding was thought to be much above that of Excellency Highness nay even that of Cesars sacred Imperial Majesty The LI. ADVERTISEMENT A Marquiss who caused his Genealogy to be made by Scipio Ammerati found himself so ill dealt with by him as he redemands the reward he gave him AT Scipio Ammerato's first entrance into Parnassus he opened a publick shop where he still professes the mystery of making Genealogies and Pedigrees for principal Families at which he is so expert as he hath the chief work in this Court of that nature Wherefore some months ago a Marquiss of some condition desired him that he would draw a Pedigree of all his Family and endeavor carefully to find out the first original thereof for which he would not be unthankful to him and in part of payment he presently gave him 200 crowns of Gold Ammerato spent divers months in this business and at last found all that was possible to be found of that Lords Family and drew it up into an exact form By that Genealogy it was seen that this Lords Predicessors had been Marquisses for above one hundred years and that the first of his Family that possessed any Estate was a Captain who for his good service done to an Emperor of Germany had a Castle given him which was called Marquiss Ammeratus found that this Captains Father was a Physitian that this Physitian was the son of a Notary that the Father of this Notary was an Oyl-man descended from a Serjeant who for some roguery was hanged that this Serjeant was son to a Matrix-maker who was descended from a Gentleman of Savoy who for having conspired against his Prince was put to death Whose son when he was very young being sent by the Prince of Savoy to shift for himself was taken into the house of meer charity by the said Matrix-maker who having taught him his Art adopted him his son The Gentleman of Savoy was son to a great Count whose Father Grand-father great Grand-father and great great Grand-father had been of good esteem in that County which was purchast by a Courtier a great favorit to the Prince of that time This Courtier was found by authentick Records to be the son of a certain Jew whose name was Salamon who becoming afterwards a Christian was called Arnoldo and this Jew being come from Rhodes his pedigree could be no further pried into Ammirato having arived at this presented the Lord with this Genealogy who seeing the great bulk thereof not looking into the contents seemed to be well satisfied and gave Ammirato a thousand crowns But when he read the loathsomness of his Family and the mean condition of divers who were registered in his Genealogy he returned to Ammirato and told him that instead of an honorable pedigree which he had desired him to make he had composed an infamous Libel against him Then giving him back his Genealogy re-demanded the moneys which he had given him saying he used to reward those who would cover his shame not those who would lay it open to the world But he was soon quieted when Ammirato told him he should do wisely in not being over-curious in seeking far into the Antiquity of his house for that the wheel of this world turning continually round and in a short space of time laying those low who a little before were at the highest pitch they who were too ambitiously desirous to know who their progenitors were from the flood would find many in their Genealogy stained with the like blemishes as his was The LII ADVERTISEMENT A dispute arising amongst the Vertuosio touching the truth of certain Sayings and Speeches of wise men their true meanings were argued and resolved in the General Dyet celebrated in Helicon THe Sayings Sentences and Answers of the wise are the Laws Acts and Statutes which are observed by the Vertuosi in this State and therefore Apollo is very careful that they may be perfectly true and exactly good And because many days since a great dispute arose amongst the Literati touching the truth of some of them according to custom in a business of so great weight the General Diet of the Vertuosi was intimated in Helicon Wherein the first thing that was called in question was whether or no the common saying was true That wise men and fools are cozened by fair words and foul deeds Many were for the Affirmative saying that the cunning of divers modern wits was arrived at that height of double dealing as there were many good people who being fed with good words were afterwards paid with bad performances and that it was daily seen that double dealers did by their fallacious speeches turn and winde plain meaning men as they listed and led them by the nose at their pleasure though they were held generally to be wise men Yet it was resolved by the major part of the Dyet that in times past the saying was allovv'd of with much reason and practised as a true one but that novv adays by the overdaring boldness of dissemblers vvho vvere openly seen to cheat and cozen the eyes of the simplest and very Ideots vvere so opened as believing onely such things as they savv plainly by noon-day and touched vvith their hands none but fools vvere cheated vvith good vvords and bad deeds for vvise men vvho vvere avvare of these vvicked mens vvays did not onely not at all believe them but holding them to be Crosbiters and Cutpurses shunn'd them as they vvould do the Plague So as such as these being upbraided with their double dealing durst no longer shevv their faces amongst honest men but like Ovvls and Bats appeared onely by night to hide their shame by darkness It vvas next taken into consideration vvhether the proverb Omne solum Forti patria est To a stout man all the vvorld is his Countrey vvere absolutely true or no. The first day vvhich vvas vvholly spent in hot disputation upon this point the Dyet seemed to think it vvas
a blockhead as he was so notoriously stupid unfit for Government which he had totally turned over to a vitious favorite of his The Prince hearing this advanc'd with unexpressible rage and told Aratine Tune dirai e farai tante e tante Lingua Fracida marcia senza sale Ch'al fin si trovera pur un pugnale Meglior di quel d'Achille epiu calzante Saggio son Io et tu sei un Fortante Nutrito del pan d'altri del dir male Un piede hai in Chiasso l'altro allo spedale Stropecciato ignorante et arrogante Thou 'lt talk and do so many sottish things With that thy rotten base unworthy tongue As that a Dagger will be found ere long Better then that Achilles with him brings I 'm wise and thou a rascal underling Bred up at others Tables men t' abuse One foot i' th' Hospital th' other i' th' Stews Thou art an arrogant sot Aratine The Attorney-General the Notaries and all the other Officeres were so incenst to hear such words given to a Judge the Court sitting as they all fell with violent hands upon the Prince to carry him to prison But he that was better at his hands than head-piece did not only defend himself but assisted by his attendance struck one of Aratines eyes almost out broke Iuvenals arm and Berna's jaw-bone and poor Ariosto who betook himself to his heels when he saw the scuffle begin fell down the stairs and bruised himself terribly When Apollo heard of this disorder he was not so much grieved at the affront done to the Tribunal nor the harm done to his Poets as for that he now evidently saw that there was no cure for flattery nor no punishment to be found for it since men were become so blind as they esteemed the fawnings of flatteries not injuries but favours worthy of reward Whereupon much to his grief he abbrogated the Tribunal and confest it was impossible to punish a fault which no body would complain of The LIX ADVERTISEMENT Apollo being very far in love with Torquato Tasso's good conditions creates him Prince Poet and Lord High Constable of Italian Poetry TOrquatus Tasso being every day more and more admired in Parnassus for his Heroick and Lyrick Verses for his Prose Poetry and finally in all sorts of Compositions Apollo was so iâ—…mar'd of the smoothness of his pen of the newness of his conceptions his easie vain and of his pleasant wit as he used the other day extraordinary signes of affection towards him For of his own meer motion he created him Prince-Poet and Lord High-Constable of all Italian Poetry And at the same time with great solemnity gave him the Royal Ensigns used to be given to Poets Laureat of being allowed to keep Parrets in his windows and Apes at his gate It is strange that upon this occurrency Tasso did not only make himself known to deserve the honour which his Majestie had done him but worthy of much higher preferments For he did not as many others do who being exalted by Fortune or by the pleasure of Princes from a mean condition to Supreme Dignities think it is sufficient if they put on the Stately Robe of that new Magistracy though they leave their souls covered with an old base jacket made of course cloth and all tattered but he immediately after having received so high an honour clothed his soul with those Heroick and Royal Vertues which becomes a Poet Laureat For at the very instant that he received those Royal Ensignes from his Majesty he kept open Court in his house for 40 daies together in all which time the Vertuosi of all professions were fed with such abundance and curiosity of delightfull Viands as there was not any one Litterato in all Parnassus who did not gorge himself with vertuous Composures more then his stomack could digest and who was not drunk with his savory conceptions And all this with so great plenty of all exquisite Science as his Majesty and all the Muses marvailed very much how the unexhausted multitude of so many elegant conceits disht in with the choicest phrases and smoothest way of delivery could be served out by so fruitfuul a wit But during this Jubile and this Feassio'â—… celebration which gave general satisfaction some pilfering Poets broke open Tassos most privat desk where he kept his choicest Compositions and stole away Aminta which they divided amongst themselves an injury whereat Tasso was so much grieved as it imbittered all his past delights And the Authors of so shameful a theft being discovered and pursued by the Sergeants they fled into the house of immitation as into a secure sanctuary from whence they were taken by the Provost Marshal by Apollos express command and shamefully led to prison And one of them being found with the Prologue of the said Pastoral about him he was forthwith punished according to the Sergeants custom and questioned super aliis complicibus Whereupon the wretch having the rope on named 40 of his companion pick pocket Poets all of them base people who being given over to play and to all lewdness tend nothing else but to steal away the conceits of others labours making themselves merry therewithall abhorring to live gloriously in the world by the labour of their own studies Urbanus the chief Justice using the due rigor of the Law upon these sawcy companions sentenced them to the Gallows and the other morning many Gibbits were set up in the chief Market-place at the number whereof Apollo being much moved he told the Judge that though those thieves deserved the utmost punishment he should notwithstanding give them some other severe exemplary chastisement for the detested cross-bars of Gallowses made Justice be interpreted cruelty They therefore deserved the name of good Officers who made themselves known to be well sighted in forbidding faults whereas such as thirsted after bloud seemed to take delight in having Gallowses often seen in the Piazzas thinking that they had betterd their condition when they had got the name of being great Hangmen The LX. ADVERTISEMENT A Litterato desires of Apollo the Art of Memory for which he is laught at by his Majesty ON last Tuesdaies Audience a poor thread-bare Litterato presented himself before Apollo and told his Majesty that by reason of his small learning he durst not appear in the common Schools and that his ignorance in Sciences proceeded from his very bad memory for he remembred but very little of what he read And that having a great desire to be a Scholar he humbly craved some remedy which might produce in him as tenacious a memory as those great Litterati have who remember whatsoever they do read And be chiefly desireth the gift of Local memory whereby he had heard that they reaped great honor who had it Apollo told him That the lovers of Learning got good Memories by perpetual reading and that Local Memory was a thing onely practised by Mountebanks and by the common sort of Litterati who are
and their sheerers would learn to handle their sheers without cutting their skins Wherefore the whole generation of sheep that they might no longer undergo such calamities and oppressions did earnestly beglong horns and sharp teeth wherewith to procure respect To this request Apollo answered with a chearful countenance That the sheep had in this their request shewed their simplicity since they knew not that of all the four footed beasts that were upon the earth there were not any that were more favoured by God nor which received greater priviledges from him then they For whereas the rest were forced to seek their meat with cark and care and a thousand dangers many of them spending the night season which was destined for sleep and rest in eating for that it was not safe for them to be seen by day pasture grounds were reserved and bought at dear rates onely for sheep by men who had the command of all beasts and were Lords of the earth that in the night season they were with great care and diligence defended from their enemies in their folds and whereas other beasts were persecuted even by beasts themselves and by men and that to procure their death many did nothing but make nets feed dogs and lay snares sheep out of a particular grace injoyed the noble prerogative to have all these things done by men to secure them from their enemies And that the Creator of the world having â—…hewed exceeding great love towards sheep instead of ravenous teeth and swift legs had granted them the powerful weapons of wool cheese and of their riches wherewith they did so aquire mans love as that men did perpetually persecute Wolves Lyons Tygers and all their other cruel enemies with all sort of weapons meerly for the affection which they bore to sheep And that sheep being reputed the Worlds delight and wealth for the singular advantages which they afforded mankind they hapned to be the most numerous of any sort of beasts so as sheep being fed and defended by their Shepherds vigilancy and charity they were foolish to desire ravenous teeth and sharp horns And finally Apollo said That they ought to revenge themselves for the severity which some shepherds used towards them in milking and sheering them onely by their obedience and humility by yielding them great store of wool and much cheese and by studying how to be fruitful it being sheeps greatest felicity that those Shepherds that dealt ill with their flocks were cheifly cruel to themselves for it was a certain truth that wounds shamefully given to sheep did usually kill the Shepherd Wherefore he wished them to keep more from being desirous to bite their shepherds then they would do from the Wolves teeth For such sheep could not esteem themselves so happy who by their humility and obedience did secure their Shepherds from all harm as those were unhappy who delighted to put them in fear The LXXXIX ADVERTISEMENT Nicholas Machiavel being banished Parnassus upon pain of death was found hidden in a friends Library for which his former sentence of being burnt was excuted THough Nicholas Machiavel was banished Parnassus and the Territories thereof many years ago upon severe punishment as well to whosoever durst give receptacle to so pernicious a man in his Library yet was he found the last week secretly hidden in a friends study where he was made Prisoner He was presently sentenced by the Judges of Assize and was this day to have been burnt when he signified unto his Majestie his desire that he might first be permitted to say somewhat in his defence before the Tribunal-seat which had condemned him Apollo using his wonted clemency bad him send his Advocates and he should have fair hearing Machiavel replyed he desired to be heard himself and that Florentines needed no advocates to speek for them and his demand was granted Machiavel was then brought to the Bar where he spoke thus in his own defence Lo here you Soveraign of Learning That Nicholas Machiavel who hath been condemned for a Seducer and Corrupter of mankind and for a dispercer of scandalous politick Precepts I intend not to defend my writings I publikely accuse them and condemn them as wicked and execrable documents for the government of a State So as if that which I have printed be a doctrine invented by me or be any new Precepts I desire that the sentence given against me by the Judges be put in execution But if my writings contain nothing but such Politick precepts such rules of State as I have taken out of the actions of Princes which if your Majestie will give me leave I am ready to name whose lives are nothing but doing and saying of evil things what reason is there that they who have invented the mad desperate policies written by me should be held for holy and that I who am onely the publisher of them should be esteemed a Knave and an Atheist For I see not why an original should be held holy and the Copy thereof beburnt as execrable and why I should be so much persecuted when the reading of History which is not onely permitted but commended by all men hath the particular vertue of turning as many as do read them with a politick eye into so many Machiavels for people are not so simple as many believe them to be but that those who by the greatness of their wits have been able to find out even the most hidden secrets of Nature may not also have the judgement to discover the true ends of all Princes actions though they be cunningly hidden And if Princes that they may do what they will with their subjects will have them to be block-heads and dunces they must do as the Turks and Muschovites do inhibit Learning which is that which makes blinde understandings quick sighted otherwise they will never compass their ends for Hypocrisie which is now so familiarly used in the world hath onely a star-like vertue to incline not to force men to believe that which likes them best that use it These speeches wrought much upon the Judges and they were ready to revoke the sentence when the Atorney General told them That Machiavel was deservedly condemned for the abominable and execrable precepts which were contained in his writings and that he ought again to be severely punished for that he was found by night amongst a flock of sheep whom he taught to put false teeth dogs teeth in their mouthes thereby indangering the utter ruine of all shepherds a people so necessary as it was an indescent and angersom thing to think that they must by means of this wicked Machiavel be forced to put on breast-plates and gauntlets when they would milk or sheer their sheep and to what price would wool and cheese grow hereafter if shepherds were to be more aware of their sheep then of wolves and if they could no longer keep their flocks in obedience with thâ—… whistle and their wand but must make use of a Regiment of murrions and
Liberty after six hundred years did at last fall vvhich not to speak any thing of the infinite acquisitions vvhich she made in Italy and elsevvhere by the last conquest vvhich she vvoud make of France a Kingdom vvhich hath alvvays proved fatal to Foreigners vvho endeavoured to subjugate it fell headlong into Caesars Tyranny And the Florentines by their obstinate ambition of making those of Pisa slaves did so disorder their ovvn Common-vvealth as they may serve to teach the World that it is better and safer for Republiques to have their neighbouring Cities and Nations Confiderates and Friends then subjects and enemies This disorder is not seen in the Hans-Tovvns of Germany vvho resting content vvith their own liberty suffer those who joyn vvith them to live free under the Government of their ovvn Lavv vvhence it is that in Germany and in universal concerns there appears but one onely Commonvvealth to be in Germany but many in particulars and the Arms of the Freemen of that Warlike Nation serve onely for instruments of peace and to preserve their ovvn not to intrench upon the liberties of other men A thing which certainly forbodes much evil to Monarchy for what more pernitious or cruel enemy can a Prince have then he who assaults him with pretence of communicating liberty to a subjugated people These are the arms by which the German Hans-Towns have so dilated themselves And certainly not without good reason for people cannot kill that enemy who instead of death fire and plunder brings them liberty which by instinct of nature is so much desired by all men Lo then illustrious Monarchs how the German Hans-Towns are little in particular each of them contenting themselves with their own liberties but immensly great in general for that they do all communicate in the interests of publique liberty So as a Prince cannot have to do with one but he must offend all a disorder which is so much the greater for that like a contagious disease or enraged cancer it every day encreaseth by degrees taking in new Cities and new people and assembling them all to their own liberty the first day of their purchase naturalize foreign Nations make enemies dear friends wherefore it may well be doubted that in a short time the whole world will be infected with this contagious disease and the danger is the more dreadful in these unfortunate times wherein the liberty of Commonwealths is gotten into so high an esteem as our own subjects fear not to call it the onely filicity of mankind Whence it is that when men can think to enjoy it quietly and that as it is in the Hans-Towns of Germany every one may live in liberty under the Laws of their own Countrey it is so infinitely coveted as it is purchased though at the expence of much blood And if such a disease hath been able to enlarge it self so far in so short a time amongst dissolute people people so given over to gluttony and drunkenness what shall we think it may do if it should fasten in Italy or Spain or in the other sober Nations of Europe the most of which as we all know are so affected to Monarchy The business about which you are here met is as you have heard most mighty Monarchs of importance and requires the more speedy remedy for that if the Hollanders and Zealanders shall once have laid a good foundation and shall have perpetuated themselves in that liberty which they have usurpt against the powerful King of Spain their natural Lord you may well from so foul a scandal fear your utter extirpation And you as well the most Christian as the most powerful Kingdom of France which in this so majestical an Assembly do deservedly hold the first place amongst the greatest Monarchs of the world you very well knew that in your last troubles it was oft talk of and perhaps agreed upon by your seditious enemies how to kindle in your bosom and amongst your faithful French men the fire of the German liberty so far are the evils advanced which to those that understand so much it may suffice me to have touch upon This Discourse made by the Lord Chancellor did infinitely trouble those great Monarchs And many Princes whose States lay neerest those Republicks finding what danger they were in were extraordily afflicted Wherefore they fell suddenly to think upon remedies and as the most immediate a strait League was propounded to be made by all Monarchies against Commonwealths hoping that by open force of so many Princes joyned together they might easily be mastered But in this opinion which at first seemed very plausable to every one great difficulties were afterwards discovered for some Princes put the Dyet in mind that it was not onely indiscretion but great rashness to affront with mercenary Souldiers whose interest in the war was but the poor pay of six pence a day a Nation which took up Arms for the defence of liberty and which was that important reason of mens proving so couragious And to this purpose Charls Duke of Burgundies unfortunate case was instanced in who though he was held to be the thunder of War the Orlando and Mars of his times was notwithstanding together with the greatest part of his Army cut in pieces by the Switzers onely because each man that fights in defence of liberty hath twenty hands and as many hearts And it was considered that it being impossible for the Princes to vanquish so many Commonwealths in as short time as the business required the expence of much time would likewise make it altogether infeasable for that the Hollanders and Zealanders had taught all Princes that if people who defended their liberties were long trained up in war they became unconquerable and this was said to happen because the charity of a free Countrey doth not onely make the hearts of the Citizens thereof undaunted and their hands nimble but makes their souls faithful and quickens their wits And it was further said That that Prince took a bad business in hand who could not fight his enemy with Canons loaded or charged with gold which was that which routed all Armies and won all Battels and which had the wonderful effect of destroying a mans Loyalty And concerning this particular reflection was had upon the modern actions of the Hollanders and Zealanders who out of the very great affection which they bore to the liberty of their Countrey had so gallantly resisted not onely the steel and iron but even the gold of that valiant and rich Spanish Nation which knows so well how to make use both of the one and the other as it was held a thing almost miraculous that at one and the same time they could defend their new Common-wealth no less against the open force of the Spaniards then against the concealed designs of the French and English and cheifly against the subtil cunning of that crafty Fox the Prince of Orange All which though under various and specious pretences of liberty
had as great a mind to make themselves masters of those States as the King of Spain had to reduce them under his ancient Dominion To this a second and much more important difficulty was added for consultation was had what the Colleague Monarchs should do with the German Commonwealths when by their forces they should have conquered them For answer to which the common reason of Nations and the ordinary use of leagues was urged which is that the acquisition of enemies States made by Colleagues if any of them be of the number of the colleaguing Princes that they should be restored to their ancient Lords by vertue of which law the Roman Empire desired that when the victory should be gotten those Cities and Hans-Towns should be restored to her which had withdrawn themselves from her authority And the house of Austrea pretended with good reason to repossess her ancient Dominion over the greatest part of the Switzers and other people who to make themselves free had shook off the yoke of her Government Though all these pretensions were by the Senate acknowledged to be just yet did the Princes so much stomach them as after a long dispute it was at last resolved that no more should be spoken thereof And it was then said that it being impossible for the two aforesaid reasons that the Monarchies should by open Force subjugate the Commonwealths of Germany they should for the future so wisely strengthen and fortifie themselves as that the malady of the German Hans-Towns which till then had made such and so prejudicial progress should grow no greater And it was resolved that it being very palpable that the many large priviledges which were granted by some too prodigal Princes to their vassals in a middle way of living free and this not without great occasion had made them affect total liberty that therefore such priviledges as being scandalous and very pernitious to Monarchy should not onely not be granted hereafter no not to any desert how great soever but that every Potentate should cunningly by little and little endeavor to take them from their people and bring them so wholly into servitude as they should not have any the least ken of those priviledges which had heightned their minds to affect total Freedom And hereupon some former Emperors of Germany and Dukes of Burgony were severely reprehended who were not onely fools in granting their people prejudicial exemptions but ignorantly avaritious in selling them for a small sum of money vvhereby they had put themselves and other Monarchies upon great difficulties And for their greater severity these Princes decreed that all form all footsteps of levelling should from the very root be extirpated from amongst their subjects the wisest of the Dyet affirming that the great inequality of the Gentry in a Kingdom was that which secured them from ever bringing in a form of free Government and the Monarchy of Spain was so stiff in this Opinion as she freely said she spoke it knowingly that nothing had more preserved the Dukedom of Millan from living in that freedom after the death of Philip Maria Viscount which was then talked of being instituted therein then the great disproportion of wealth which hath always been observed to be in that noble Dukedom not onely between the Nobility and people of Millan but even between the Nobility it self which had also been the reason why in the rich Kingdom of Naples no speech was ever heard to be made by those Barons of levelling or living free no not when they had so fair an occasion presented them of doing so by the failing of the blood Royal and by many other interregni which they had had in their troubles for that the Nobility of Kingdoms had this of natural instinct rather to admit of any subject how barbarous soever for their King then to see not onely Barons of late edition but even Doctors and Shop-keepers made equal which liberty would do like to them Moreover it was hinted as an excellent means whereby to weaken the German Hans-Towns that the Potentates of Europe would forego the so pernitious custom of buying at a deer and dishonorable rate the schum of the Switzers Grisouns and other German Nations it being sure that if they should be left in their own Countreys those unquiet seditious and disorderly spirits which much to their profit they send abroad would cause such fractions at home as they would be seen to turn those weapons upon themselves which now they sell to unwise Princes at the weight of gold But the many jealousies which have always reigned which reign now more then ever and which it is to be believed will for ever reign amongst the greatest Kings of Christendom wrought so as for fear lest the one might leave all the refuse to be made use of by the other so salutiferous a memorandum was publiquely praised by all and in private abhorred by every particular But it is true that to make Monarchy as pleasing to the people as it was possible for Princes to do these underwritten Articles were with great solemnity penned established and sworn unto in the Dyet to be inviolably kept I. THat since to love and fear God with all ones heart was the wisest piece of Policy and the most perfect State-Reason which could be learned and practised by Princes they should not for the future make use of his most holy name as many had formerly done as a means whereby to get money from their people and to hurry them or wheel them about with divers Sects and new Religions such as made most for their worldly interests but to obtain that favour from his Divine Majestie which brings abundance of all that is good to Princes who fear God and to people who obey his holy Laws II. That for the future they should be content so to milk and shear the sheep of their Flock as that they should not onely not flea them but not so much as touch a bit of their skin being mindful that men were creatures which had understanding not beasts which knew nothing that therefore there was a great deal of difference between Shepherds who shore and milked sheep and Prince-shepherds who shore and milked men the latter being to use the shears of discretion instead of those of meer interest which are onely made use of and that always unfortunately by greedy Shepherds it having been often seen that publike hatred hath been able to metamorphize the simple sheep of subjects into skittish Mules who have driven their indiscrete shepherd out of the fold with kicking III. That they should keep their people within the bounds of fear not with such a caprichious beastiality as makes the Government of one man alone dreadful and then totally pernitious when he will judge mens lives by his sole arbitrary power but by being inexorable in those faults onely which not deserving pardon had need to be punished with all the severity that the Law allows IV. That they should be
more to deceive men then to please God The X. ADVERTISEMENT The City Pretor or Chief Iustice of Parnassus complaiâ—… bitterly before Apollo of the Triumviri a Magistracy newly instituted by his Majesty That in an Edict of theirs published against Mignus and other Ministers of Princes obsenities they have violated his Iurisdiction APollo having learnt by many sad examples which have hapned that Printing which it is to be believed was at first by Divine Councel suggested into the Cavalier Iohn of Mentz only to facilitate the learning of the most illustrious Sciences to such as are desirous of knowledge is made use of by wicked men not onely as an excellent instrument to staine mens minds with impiety obsceneness and evil speaking but that ambitious men serve themselves thereof for damn'd weapons to make people rebel against their natural Princes Apollo I say by wholsom and Divine Councel as the event hath shewn did many years ago institute the remarkable Magistracy of the Triumviry whose Office it is to send such books as are infected with impiety sedition and such obscenities as corrupt good manners to the Pest-house This Magistracy some three daies ago under pain of grievous punishment sent express command to all favorits bawds flatterers and others whom their Princes do Idolize who live desolutely that they should not dare any more to stir out of dores to the end that these monsters of nature might not to the great scandal of good men be seen to go so vain-gloriously trampling the street upon their pacing horses and in their rich Coaches as if they triumphed over the world who by their lewd manner of living having extorted those rewards from vitious Princes which are only due to deserving men are not worthy to eat bread The City Pretor made a great complaint to Apollo of this novelty accusing the Triumviry of having exceeded the bounds of their Authority and very much intrencht upon his Jurisdiction The Triumviry were immediately sent for by his Majesty who defending their cause exceedingly well said that they had by length of time clearly learnt that certain obscene living books which walked up and down the streets caused greater scandal in well composed minds and free from all pollution then did Machiavil Bodin Aratin and other writers of wickedness and obsceneness which were found hid in many Libraries a disorder which ought the rather to be corrected for that the wicked manners of living men made a much greater impression in mens minds then the filth that was read in dead Authors whose damn'd writings many forbore to read out of meer abhorition of such things many for fear of offending God and of being punisht by men many for that they had not many of those forbidden books or for want of curiosity or love of idleness but that men of holy lives much against their wils and not without offence were forced to read study contemplate and honour these Bawds Flatterets and other Ministers of vitious Princes who neither cared for Gods honor nor their own reputation who were scandalous two leg'd books which were daily seen to walk the streets and that he must be armed with more then humane vertue who would not be contaminated and scandalized to see the sole aspects of these hateful men The XI ADVERTISEMENT The Inhabitants of Phocides fall into open Rebellion by reason that the Priviledges of their Country are not observed by Apollo's Officers they are pacified by a Senator and send new Ambassadors to his Majesty THe Polititians precept is very true That people who have lived long in a half Liberty with large priviledges are very hardly reduced to tollerate whole slavery This is said because the uproars of Phocides occasioned by the not observancy of their priviledges as you heard at large by the last Post have still increased more and more in so much as on the ninth of this present month more incenst then over since such satisfaction as was desired was denied them by Apollo's Officers the Phocidians took up arms and running through the City cryed out Liberty Liberty When the chief Magistrate of Phocides much troubled at such a novelty desired a Parley of the people that were in arms who when they were all assembled in the chief Piazza t is said that the uprightest and most experienced Senator of Phocides spake thus The most dangerous enterprise my most beloved Phocidians which Subjects can undertake is to grow stubborn and rebel against their Prince For Princes are not so merciful as to pardon injuries of so high a nature which though they sometimes forgive they never forget Whence it is that such excesses never pass without their condigne punishment For as it falls out in all offences which are either through wisdom winkt at or pardoned per force they are in their due time and place the more severely revenged by having their vindication retarded to a more opportune time And God deliver us and all other people that suffer such calamities as we do from those cruel revenges which Princes who are offended in State-affairs use after long meditation to take against their disloyal people and rebellion is so far from being forgotten even by most merciful Princes as an amendment of many hundred years loyalty cannot so cancel it cut of exasperated minds but that the memory of such signal injuries are transmitted over to the twentieth generation since by their importance they infuse such diffidence into him that reigns and such suspitions as occasion perpetual odium between the Vassal and the Soveraign Lord from whence afterwards the great disorder ariseth as that natural subjects which are no other then the Princes beloved children and therefore ought to be treated with terms of fatherly love and governed by Laws of Charity are reputed cruel enemies conquered people subjugated by force of arms and therefore according to the politick Precept treated like slaves Which things at last produce that great inconvenience that even lawful Princes grievously moved by such hainous offences against their rebellious subjects become cruel Tyrants I fellow Citizens speak not now as an Officer of the Prince in aggravating the condition of our slavery but as one who would produce peace in this our Country and if you shall not think my councel good I will willingly be one of the first who will joyn with you in your resolution being better contented to err with many then to be wise with a few But before you proceed further in a business of such importance I earnestly intreat you and heartily beg of you even by these tears which fall so abundantly from mine eyes that you will maturely consider that for the most part popular insurrections meet with unfortunate ends Which happens not only because resolutions in so weighty affairs are taken in hot bloud when men are most incenst and when mens minds are most incombred with the foolish passion of fury whereas they ought to be put on in cold bloud and when the mind is most maturely setled
ready friend to the Vertuosi And this being said his Majesties Lord Treasurer came to Berni accompanied by the chief Exchequer Officers of this State who by the agreement made by the Lord Chancellor obliged his Majesties Royal Delfick Treasury that when the pleasant Tersets Clomira the life of St. Longinus La Vernata La Meditation Poetica a Noble Panegyrick upon Cosmo the second great Duke of â—…uscany and the other elegant Works of the Vertuoso Giorolimo Magagnati should be lost either by fire deluges or any other imaginable way Apollo should out of his own Royal Patrimony alwaies keep the name and fame of so famous a Poet alive and glorious amongst men The solemnity of this Covenant being ended the famous Petrarch mounted the same Chair and turning towards Apollo said Sir The most polished neat polite Writer which we in these times have of Italian Lyrick Poetry is that reverend Father Don Angelo Grillo a Noble Vertuoso of Genua whom I so much glory to have amongst the number of my followers as I find a particular ambition in me that I may now name him in this place and in this age wherein the Guidiccioni the Bembi and my beloved Iovan di Casa failing and all the rest of the most observed former Italian Poets nothing is usually seen in the modern ones but a certain natural abounding vein without the solidity of those Poetical precepts which put a difference in the opinion of the Litterati betwixt the Verses of one that is born a Poet which are sung on the sodain from those which such Vertuosi who having study and art joyned to the natural Talent of Poetry are continually filing and by candle-light severely censuring their Composures This being said every one might perceive by a certain humming that was heard amongst the Litterati of so honorable a Senat how much every one was pleased at the nomination of a personage of such splendor Wherefore Apollo in whose face great joy might be discerned said to Petrarch Well beloved you have named a Vertuoso who is indeed worthy of your choice and whoâ—…ly conformable to our desire And though we love Don Angelo dearly and consequently wish such length of daies unto him as he himself desires yet great is our curiosity of quickly enriching this our Senat by the purchase of so cryed up a personage to the end that my Vertuosi may see and know how they are qualified who deserve to be beloved by stones much more by men Then the Rime Morale Pietosi affetti Pompee Funebri and other sacred Poems together with the Prose of so flourishing a Wit being read in publick by Petrarch they for their delicacy deserved so the publick praise as though it were unusual the Senat not being able to tolerate that where there was so much worth Votes should be given in privat Viva voce vivisque suffragiis Immortality was with extraordinary applause granted to the name and writings of the reverend Father Don Angello Grillo with all the solemnity of Proclamations Oaths and Allegiance and the Lord Treasurers obligations before mentioned Petrarch being retired to his own place Cornelius Tacitus mounted the aforesaid Chair but with great trouble of soul to his Majesty the Muses and the whole Colledg of Litterati for remembring that after the entrance made by so miraculous a writer into Parnassus so many ages ago he having enjoyed the prerogative of taking out the Golden Ball 46 times he had never had the fortune to name any Latin Historian who might be truely stiled a Polititian they were very much troubled that modern Histories which write the naked bare narration of things should want that Politick salt which makes the Reading of History very delightful and him very wise and Learned who delights in such like studies But wary Tacitus being much pleased with the trouble which he perceived to be in them all said to Apollo At last most serene Monarch of the Stars though to my great affliction it hath been long first that happy day so much by me desired is come that my detractors who have imputed the failing or want of Politian Historians of my Classis to my harsh short and therefore obscure stile to my defect of alwaies joyning the reason of things to the things written a way of writing which they said was shun'd as vitious and rash rather then not imitated for its difficulty shall have reason to know their great error and to be quiet when at this present time in that famous Court of Rome which having alwaies been that true Trojan horse hath sent forth continually Heroes of singular vertue and more then humane valour there lives an Elegant Politick Historian at last a well relishing Latin Writer of the Annals of his times one who for the shortness of his stile for his frequent Sentences for the pith of Policy his handsom way of Narration and document and for knowing how in the very Narratives to shew in two words the occasion thereof hath known how to imitate me so as for the grace of this Senat and for the glory of the Liberal Sciences far be all boasting from these my expressions I will not call him by his own proper name of Paulus Emillius Santorius a famous Prelat in the Court of Rome but I will boldly term him another Tacitus It is not to be believed how overjoy'd Apollo and all the Litterati were when Tacitus nam'd one who was as acceptable to them as the imitaters of Tacitus are rare to be found So as Tacitus having with a lowd audable voice read the Annals of so delightsom an Author they gave such satisfaction to ever one as with publick and gracious suffrages the name of Paulus Emillius Santorius was judged by the Colledg of the Litterati to deserve the same Immortality of Fame and the same glory with which Maximus Cornelius Tacitus had formerly been honored When Tacitus had given the accustomed Oath of Allegiance and the Lord Treasurer had performed his part for the greater security of the Immortality of so famous a Writer an end was put to t he nomination of such Writers as were yet alive Whereupon they fell immediately to the admission of such Litterati as had arived at Parnassus after their deaths for the writings and actions which they had done whilst they were living The first then who presented himself before Apollo was Marius Equicola who spake thus unto his Majesty I most gloricus Prince of Planets very well know my own affrontedness in pretending for the rich reward and pretious Patrimony of that eternal fame which they enjoy who you think worthy of the glorious patrimony of Parnassus by my weak endeavors in those my writings wherin I was made to shew the nature of Love but the great benignity which your Majesty useth towards the lovers of Learning doth so largely supply the smallness of mens merits as I do thereby dare to crave the exorbitant usury of receiving much for the little that I give When
immature death both bad him comfort himself in the benign Laws of Parnassus since thereby for the better encouragement of his Litterati the good mind and vertuous intention of his beloved Poets being had in more regard then the quality of the Compositions which they brought to Parnassus they gave with the same liberality the reward of intire Immortality to Poems which were but begun by the pregnant brains of the Litterati and which were interrupted not by lasiness but by death as if they had been brought to their full perfection Thus was Immortality favorably decreed to the Name and Writings of Baldo Cataneo who being with wonted solemnity placed by the Masters of the Pegasean Cerimonies amongst the demi Gods who enjoy the signal Prerogative of Immortality to their Names and Fames a Litterato appeared in the Royal Audience who by his Gown after the Grecian fashion and by the evident signe of his beard was known by the greatest part of the Senat for that famous Timotheo Greco who having gaged his beard about the dispute of a syllable with Francisco Filelfo that famous Poet of Marcha it was by the severe Victor cut off whereupon all the spectators began again to laugh and greatly to wonder how Timotheo who had never been very wise had so much to his prejudice dared to present himself in that place to demand a Residence in Parnassus which is only granted to the Litterati of highest esteem Yet Timotheo spake boldly thus to Apollo I may truely say I have been rather a lover of Learning then that by my perpetual study I may have deserved the name of a perfect Litterato though I come empty-handed before your Majesty and I dare demand a place in Parnassus amongst your Litterati yet I hope I shall not part from your Royal presence without receiving some favour from that your immense benignity which doth largely reward the bare intense desire which men have of knowledg Timotheo was upon his knees as the custom is whilst he made this his Petition to Apollo when a thing that was never at any time before observed to be done to any personage how eminent soever his Majesty beckned to him to stand up and bad him be covered And then commanded that according to the custom the Senat should give their suffrages touching Timotheus admittance The Litterati who had but an ill opinion of Timotheo and therefore were sorry to see him enter the Court firmly believed that by the extraordinary favour done to one whom Filelfo had so affronted his Majesty would try the stedfastness of his Senators opinions in giving their Votes and whether they would be diverted by his extraordinary usage towards any whosoever Wherefore they did not only all of them joyntly give him the repulse but many of them shewing themselves more zealous of the glory of Parnassus then they needed said freely that the great affront put by Filelfo upon Timotheo did not only mark him out to every one for an ignorant person but for a great babler a thing which his Majesty and the whole Senat did much detest You my faithful Litterati answered Apollo have given a very ill Judgement of this my Vertuoso one than whom and let not this be offensive to any one mine eyes never beheld a more glorious personage and to whom the glory of eternal Fame with all the most priviledged prerogatives ought rather to be given O how signal how immense how praise-worthy was the glory which thou my dear Timotheo didst get in the loss of the wager which thou didst lay with Filelfo how much ought it to be commended admired and rewarded by me and by these my Litteratio more then all the actions ever done by any whoever thirsted after glory Thou art he alone who to this day hast known how by keeping constant to thy Oath made and by making good thy word to purchase that Crown of glory of maintaining promise both to God and man which most commonly is so abusefully measured by the compass of Interest both by Princes and privat men as there can no so strict form of Oath be found no faith whereby to bind men from which they cannot tell how to acquit themselves not only by a thousand evasions but even by affronted impiety Thine then Timotheo be the chief and most honorable place of this my Senat and let all men learn by the glory which 〈◊〉 this day adjudge thee worthy of that men win so much honour by constantly keeping their word when it is once given yea though it be prejudicial to their own affairs as glory is by all men esteemed beyond comparison greater then the love of any thing that is earthly This was the end of fortunate Timotheus his business when Ferdinando of Aragon the Catholike King of Spain appeared with great gravity in the Court and attended by a great many Lords who complained grievously that it being a hundred years since he had earnestly prest to be admitted into Parnassus he could never obtain his desire and that it was not only he alone but even all those that knew him that thought it a great injury done him to be denied that abode which was easily granted to many that were inferior to him both in merit and State Apollo answered King Ferdinando That it was the antient custom of Parnassus that Princes who desired to be admitted into his State should be chosen by the Votes of the Litterati of their own Nation as those who knew best their Kings deserts and that he would by no means break those orders which by so long a concourse of time had still proved good and then his Majesty having commanded that they should again go to their votes he in a grave manner minded the Nation of Arragon how straitly she was bound both to God and man to weigh the merits of her Kings with the ballance of a soul free from all passion The Votes being given they were all found to be negative for which reiterated injury Ferdinando being highly incensed Sir said he Can then such a King as I be so ill dealt withall and scorned by his ungrateful Nation without being able to receive remedy for such injustice for so manifest injury from Apollo's self What other Nation either in antient or modern times is there in all the world which ought to acknowledg it self more obliged unto its Prince then is Arragon to me its King and so great Benefactor who from that obscurity of fame which every one knows she was in have made her to be held in high esteem by all the Nations of the earth by the glorious union which I made between the powerful Kingdom of Castiel and her by Queen Isabels Marriage Whilst King Ferdinando with strange alterations of mind said these things it was observed that some of the chief Arragon Senators shook their heads which he taking to be done to his yet greater disgrace grew so incenst as Apollo observing it to avoid some foul inconvenience
but endeavoured by dilligence and assiduous labour to make it fruitful again and never resolved upon the planting of a new Vinyard till he clearly found that it was impossible to reduce the impair'd Vinyard to its former condition by any whatsoever diligence In which case at the same time that he plants his new vinyard he plucks up the old one by the very roots and turns it into earable ground for otherwise in a short time he would have foolishly encombred his whole Patrimony with wild Grapes Apollo said also That Epictetus should reflect much upon the unfortunate condition of the present times wherein the whole world being infected with the pernitious disease of Polititians whose particular profession it is not to adhibit faith to such actions as have a certain affected appearance of extraordinary goodness it was shrewdly to be feared that they would interpret his good will and excellent intention of laying a new foundation of reformed Stoicks to be but Hypocrisie giving it out as it is their custom to do in every corner that Epictetus a Philosoper of so well a compos'd soul would forsake the old Stoick Sect whereof he was but the tail out of ambition to become the head of a new one The XXVI ADVERTISEMENT The Nobility of the Commonwealth of Achaia not being able any longer to indure the insolency of the Commons who Governed the State send Ambassadors to Apollo to obtain a Prince who may govern them and receive a gracious answer THe Modern Commonwealth of Achaia which as all men know is meerly Democratical is by reason of the insolent peoples great sedition so full of tumults slaughters rapine and all other sort of confusion as the Nobility opprest by the violence of the seditious people to free their Countrey from so cruel Tyranny thought it a more tolerable condition to live under the command of any one Prince how cruel or avaritious soever then to suffer the insolency of a domineering people Insomuch as they said it was necessary for the common good to call in a Forreign Prince who might govern the afflicted State and might curb the insolency of the rabble-rout And to this purpose they summoned the people to a Parley and deplored the publick miseries the sole remedy whereof they said was to submit the Countrey unfortunately free to the command of a Prince The ignorant people who in weighty resolves know not what they grant nor what they deny easily assented that a Forreign Prince should be sent for who re-ordering the confused State might govern their Country which was incapable of living free In this Assembly two Ambassadors were chosen who were to obtain from Apollo a Prince fitting for their urgent affairs The Ambassadors came to this Court three daies ago who having made their desires known in a publick audience they were answered in his Majesties name That he would quickly send them away contented Many prime Subjects of this State used all the means they could to be sent to command so Noble a Principality amongst the most remarkable whereof were Anna Momoranci a famous French Baron very much assisted by Francis the first King of France and Don Ferdinando di Toledo Duke of Alva befriended by the most Catholike King Philip the second not so much out of any affection he bore to that his servant as to rid his Court of one who not able to tolerate an equal much less a superior was very troublesom to him and to his Court Apollo resolutely chose the Duke of Alva wherein he did so highly displease the King of Franceâ—… who complained grievously that Apollo's Majesty had preferred the Duke of Alva a man in rigour of Justice not only severe but inexorable as had plainly appeared in his Government of Flanders before one of so exquisite goodness and of so exact judgement in State-Government as Momoranci was known to be Apollo answered King Francis That he had preferred the Duke of Alva before Momoranci who was a Gentleman of a mild and sweet spirit only by reason of his extraordinary severity which was very requisite in this present occasion the other being unaccustomed to the difficulty of taming a coltish people born free with the cudgel of new servitude And the K. of France not being herewithall satisfied but saying with some commotion of spirit that his French men when occasion did require could also not only be severe but cruel Apollo in an angry tone bad him hold his peace and told him he wondred that sheep and lambs should pretend to play the part of wolves as if there had never been any Gaspero Colonni any Monsieur de la Nove and so many other great and little flies which none of his generation could ever find the way how to keep from about their noses The XXVII ADVERTISEMENT Apollo having for a just cause removed Gulielmo Budeo from the Lord Treasurers place confers the aforesaid place upon Diego Covarruvia a Noble Spanish Literato and Dean of the Colledg of the Grand Sages of this Court though he was much gainsaid therein by the French Monarchy GUlielmo Budeo a Parisian who for his being very expert in the knowledg of monies hath for many years and with much reputation exercised the place of Lord Treasurer in this Court was on the sudden on Munday last not only with great disgrace removed from that place but by express order from his Majesty banisht for ever out of Parnassus which affront was the greater for that it is said that the occasion of this so high resentment was because he was infected with those modern heresies which being invented by ambitious men only to make subjects rebel against their Princes are not worthy to be followed by those who professing Learning ought to let the world see that they do not only know but do infinitely abhor the popular errors of the ignorant who are apt to be carried about by the impostures of impiety After Budeo his expulsion it was suddenly noised in Parnassus that his Majesty had destin'd Diego Covarruvio to be Treasurer a great Spanish Lawyer a man as excellent for Learning as for his plain-dealing and sincerity of an irreprehensible life As soon as this Apollo's resolution was known in Parnassus it begot great jealousies in the French Monarchy who thought it stood not with her advantage that a Spaniard should be called up to so high a Magistracy wherein she was much interessed The jealousie and suspition of so great a Queen was the more augmented by Covarruvia's austerity his steadfastness to what was just his inflexibility and for that alwaies preferring his Princes honour and service before all other respects he seemed to value the favour or hatred of any whatsoever Prince in this Court very little or not at all as long as he with uncorrupt sincerity discharged the place of primo Savio Grande This powerful Monarchy sent first according to the fashion of great Courts divers of her friends to Apollo who appearing to be well wishers to
if they were sufficient to purchase a man the Title of Magnus there were so many Bellisarii Narsetti Carli Martelli Scanderbegs and other famous Captains in Parnassus who had done more memorable acts as their would be more Magni in the world then Parvi to this Gonsolvo replyed that he thought that in the Neapolitan war they ought not to reflect upon particular actions but to the whole noble work and enterprise which he had gloriously brought to an end by winning a flourishing and strong kingdom unto his King and Master Livy replyed that they had also taken into their consideration his winning of the whole Kingdom of Naples wherein he seemed to suffer much in his reputation as having therein used more fraud then true Military valor and th at therefore the History Colledge had adjudged that Neapolitan enterprise not to deserve the name of an honorable atchievement and that he was therefore to know that the glorious Title of Magnus was by a particular Prerogative onely granted to those who had atchieved valiant enterprises by their meer Military worth and vertue that therefore the Colledge could not possibly think that Gonsalva could pretend to have won the kingdom of Naples by force of Arms whereinto being called but a little before as a friend by the ill-advised Neapolitan Kings and that he might defend them afterwards when those unfortunate Kings stood in greatest need of help and just then when they had put the whole kingdom into his hands he had the heart to declare himself their Enemy which whether it was an action fitting to confer the Title of Magnus upon him that did effect it the History Colledge would make Gonsalva himself judge Livy said moreover that his obscuâ—…e Catastrophe might be added to what had been said misbecoming such a one as Gonsalvo who desiring to be stiled Magnus desired to be the Protosavio of the world since after the acquisition of such a kingdom not knowing how to secure his reputation he most ignorantly suffered himself to be disarmed to have the government of Naples afterwards taken from him and to be brought back to Spain and be confined and dye there mad Gonsalva then exclaimed and said That Pompey had made a much more unfortunate end then he and yet had obtained the title of Magnus To which Livy answered that according to the institutions of Parnassus those who to compass an Empire lost their lives or came by any other unfortunate end lost no reputation nor had Pompey the great any ways done so who had always the same generous thought though he knew how to conceal it as Câ—…sar had In fine Livy said That the two inexcusable errors which Gonsalva made in his managing the taking of the kingdom of Naples did much derogate from his desire for that he did not onely exceed the bounds of a Commanders Liberality and Authority when after the conquest of so great a kingdom by rewarding so many Barons Commanders and other deserving men he had purchast unto himself an attendance of so many signal subjects not having the requisite head of leaving means unto his King to shew himself thankful to those who had served him and that with affability and behavior far differing from the austerity of his Nation he had appeared openly to affect that attendance and love of the Neapolitan Barons which ought mainly to be avoided by such a oneas he who was the Officer of a King naturally very jealous by which foolish proceeding he raised in him those jealousies which he could not free himself of without Gonzalva's ruine of reputation and that the apprehension of affecting the government of other mens kingdoms was neither given nor born withal in wise men for to be lukewarm in such cases proved always a mortal advice to them that used it Gonsalvo was much incenst to hear Livy speak thus who could not forbear saying that he had served his King with such Loyalty as became a Castilian Baron that the cunning how to betray a mans Prince was not known in Spain and that the Lords of his Nation reputed it a greater honor to receive injuries from their Kings then to betray them To this Livy replyed that if he were of so well a composed mind he might do well to desire to be stiled an honest man which should willingly be granted him and not Magnus which he should have then deserved when he should have thought it more glorious to dye King of Naples then to be confined to a poor Castle of Spain onely for having deserved such a reward as could not be countercambiated by any thing else then by the ingratitude which was used towards him Then Gonsalva without bearing any respect to the place wherein were so many eminent persons said that they proceeded unjustly with him for that blaming his constant loyalty they affirmed unto him in publike that he should have received a better reward in â—…arnassus if he had been guilty of a thousand trecheries and that King Ferdinando's ingratitude did not onely not obscure his reputation but did infinitely add unto his glory and that the reason of state which taught men that to measure their actions onely by the compass of interest not by the yard of reputation was a Doâ—…e which better became great Kings and Princes then such Captains as he was in whom Perjuries Treasons and I recherie were always accounted infamous whereas the gaining of kingdoms by supreme Potentates though by foul means were termed glorious atchievements Livy then replyed unto Gonsalva in bitter language that the Italians were not so ignorant but that they very well knew that the Title which was given him in the business of Naples was Capitano Major which in Italian or in English is General not Magnus that he put too great a value upon himself and that the History Colledge had rather bereave Bawdy-houses of the Title of Signoria where it was buryed through the vanity of Ambitious men then that they would send the so highly esteemed name of Magnus thither The XXXIX ADVERTISEMENT Many of the French Nobility intreat their Monarchy that according as the Nobility of Commonwealths do it may be lawful for them to use Marchandizing and are by her shamefully denyed MAny of the Nobility of France went some few days ago to visit the illustrious Venetian Liberty and though they did much admire the Laws of living free the excellent orders by which she maintains her self in that Liberty which is now so hard to be found amongst men yet they infinitely admire and envy the greatness of the Noble Venetians and did chiefly wonder that the prime Senators of so excelse a Commonwealth did freely exercise marchandising which their Kings of France had declared to be mechanick and they thought it very strange that the French Nobility should be made to believe that the exercise of Arms wherein men usually lose all their own estate should be more Noble then that of Marchandise which doth very much inrich men Wherefore some
Prince did not consider what he asked for it seemed he did not well know what it imports in a state by rich patrimonies and Pretence of Nobility to put the Bulls horns upon the head and Woolves teeth in the mouths of meek sheep ready to be milkt with both hands and shorn to the very quick when they wanted the pretension of that vain-glorious Nobility which teaching others onely how to command like Lords made the base slavery of obeying known and that those Potentates who had indeavoured to found and maintain a great Nobility in their states by the institution of birth-right were at last aware that they had foolishly made them the heads of those people who when they had wealthy men for their guides and such as were remarkable for their Nobility were dreadful to all Princes and that great Families in all States served onely for Lanterns which in the obscuâ—…est times of revolutions gave light to the common people who walked in the dark Wherefore in States where there was a numerous Nobility it behoved Princes to live with the punctilio of respect which was an unsufferable burthen which those kingdoms wanted where no such impediments being found their possessors might justly and with much reason term themselves true and absolute masters of their States and that there wanted not examples of Noble men in France Flanders and elsewhere who in foul Insurrections made by themselves durst take upon them the Title of Fathers of their Country and the peoples Protectors and who that they might Tyrannise over the people and give Laws even to their natural Princes were not ashamed to guild over their seditious taking up of Arms against their King with the specious and charitable pretence of publick good To this the Embassador answered that the example of the warlike Nobility of France was the only thing which had induced his Prince to desire it so much in his State for he found cleerly that the trechery of those who had made insurrections against their King had been overcome by the glorious French Noblesse and that the noble kingdom of France being armed by a no less numerous then warlike Noblesse had taught the whole world how much a numerous Noblesse imports in a kingdom for 't was they alone who by their unvanquishable swords had quenched the fire of those French Insurrections which in a kingdom that had wanted so great a benefit would have burnt eternally Apollo answered that all this would have been true if the French Insurrections of which he spake had been raised onely by the people but that being apparently kindled by a great many of the Noblesse of that kingdom the Physician would prove very ridiculous who should glory in the cure of a malady of which through his gross ignorance he had been the onely cause and that every wise Prince ought to keep from the fault of nursing up and nourishing Companions and brothers in his kingdom since those Monarchs reigned most securely who put the greatest distance between their greatness and the lowliness of their subjects That it nauseated his Majesty as much as ignorance it self did to see that there should be so arrogant and vain-glorious subjects in one of the chiefest kingdoms of Europe who by the proud pretence of their Nobility durst affirm they were as nobly born as the King himself as if any comparison which was not infinitely ridiculous and hateful could be made between a spindle and the Mast of a Tree between Flyes and Elephants between commanding and obeying And Apollo added that it was this monstrous petulancy which made the Ottoman Emperors hold it the chief means of their security and greatness and that not without reason not to allow any the least shadow of Pretence to Nobility in their Dominions and that those who would see narrowly into the effects which the Noblesse occasion in a kingdom did not so much blame the resolution of those Emperors as some did who understood very little of worldly affairs For those great Princes who in their affairs minded onely substance and not appearance did infinitely abhor the boasting and vain-glory of those things which seemed to be and were not and they abhord to see that a Nobleman who had no experience or was not any ways skild in the affairs either of war or peace should notwithstanding through the sole pretence of his empty Nobility think those qualifications in the Militia to be due to him which a Prince is so necessitated to confer upon the only worth and merit of such Commanders whose hairs were grown gray under a Murrion and who by perpetually wearing of Curasses in actions of war had made their breasts and backs as hard as horn and that that which above all other things made such people hateful was to see them so wilful as not to obey antient Commanders of a less noble extract though they themselves were but young it being certainly an insufferable pretension to desire thorow foolâ—…sh ostentation that the gifts of fortune should be esteemed by a Prince to be indowments of minde In fine Apollo said that he though tit was greater cruelty high inâ—…ustice that the estate should not be equally divided amongst those brothers who had one and the same Father and Mother That he thought it fit some Prerogative should be given to the Primogeniture but that it should be such as should make him appear to be the head of his house not the Master of his Brethren and that the rich and just right of Eldership which Fathers ought to leave in their Families was love and concord between his Children And that it would be both great folly and cruelty to introduce that primogeniture amongst private men which occasioning such scandals in the blood of Princes as might be seen registred in history was onely born withal for the publike peace sake which the people would not enjoy if kingdoms were divided and that Primogeniture being onely advantagious to Princes subjects who were excluded from Paternal Inheritance were necessitated for their subsistance to take pay of them and to be trained up in war by which Princes secured their States that they might be furnisht with the same abundance of Military men as now they had with high injustice and the peoples ill will if they should admit all Brothers to Paternal Inheritances for that was onely the laudable Primogeniture which neither Princes nor Parents but brothers themselves by joynt agreement do erect in their Families when one onely of them betaking himself to propagation all the rest labour to augment the common Patrimony Apollo concluded his answer with this that he absolutely denyed to grant the Prince of Helicon the Primogeniture which he desired because he could no longer behold those horrid Tragedies and cruel machinations which were plotted amongst Brethren in those States where the use of Primogeniture was practised for those who were excluded from paternal Inheritance left no sort of cruelty or trechery unindeavoured to recompence the foul
Jubile of content then by forgetting injuries pardoning offences and embracing enemies to live in a free Country in such peace as eterniseth Commonwealths so to keep from falling by desire of revenge into those mischiefs into which we are ran who out of our capricious humors having lost the Liberty of our Country have wickedly precipitated our Families and our blood into those dire miseries which we are bound to behold and have learnt to know at last by the blood which you have lost that great dignities and supreme Magistracies in a free Country ought to be conferred upon the vertue and merit of honorable Senators and ought to be sought for by such not upon those who endeavor the procurement thereof as we have wickedly done by private disorders sedition and civil wars there not being any greater folly then for a Senator to adhere unto a friend that is a Tyrant out of vain hopes of bettering his condition and Family in publike slavery The LXII ADVERTISEMENT Lewis de la Tremoglia a Noble French Baron renounceth his Nobility and all the priviedges which he therby injoyed in presence of the Monarchy of France VVHen the Illustrious French Monarchy was like the King of Bees invironed the other day by an infinite number of the Barons of his Nation Monsignior Lewis de la Tremoglia a Noble French Lord came before her Majesty and boldly said That though he were born a Noble man of France yet he freely renounced his Nobility and all the priviledges thereunto belonging contenting himself to be numbred in the third rank of the people of France Those who were present at this so great Novelty say that the French Monarchy which never knew what fear meant shewed manifest tokens of Apprehension at the hearing of this his so resolute deliberation and some are of opinion that it was occasioned for that Tremoglia being known by all the Nobility of France to be greatly wiâ—…e the French Monarchy doubted lest this example might make many others take the same resolution a disorder which might if not altogether deprive him of the gallant and couragious sword of his warlike Nobles might at least very much weaken it by the admirable worth whereof she had not onely founded and augmented so powerful a kingdom but did maintain it in great tranquility This opinion was increased for that the French Monarchy seemed not onely not to be offended at this scandalous resolution of Tremoglio's but taking him by the hand led him into his privat Cabinet where for a good while he had private discourse with him The French Barons who stood without though they were very desirous to 〈◊〉 what past between Tremoglia and their Monarchy yet could 〈◊〉 â—…t possibly learn any thing of it they onely observed by Tremoglia's laying often his hand upon his breast that he seemed as if he made some Oath to the French Monarchy to keep some certain promise which those â—…arons thought might be that he would never discover the reason to any one which had made him put on so strange a resolution Every one wondered to see that so gallant a personage could resolve to relinquish the honor of the French Nobility which is held in so great esteem as those who have purchased it at the prise of much blood thought they came cheaply by it But some great men of this Court whose usual custom it is to indeavour to know and freely to speak their minds of all mens actions said that Trâ—…moglia having found at last vvith vvhat tricks the French Monarchy doth fetch about her Nobility vvould by renouncing his Nobility let the vvorld knovv that the condition of the common people of France vvho satisfie their impositions by ready mony vvas much better then that of the Nobility who being bound to serve their King in his vvars pay it vvith their blood The LXIII ADVERTISEMENT Don Ferrante Gonsaga being Governor of Corinthus is exhorted by Domitio Corbulone severely to resent a great excess committed by a chief personage of that City which Counsel Gonsago wisely refutes DOn Ferrante Gonsaga was sent some weeks ago to be Governour of Corinthus an important and difficult charge that Province abounding in a powerful and wealthy Nobility given to be proud and lovers of Arms who do not onely according to the usual custom deal hardly with those that are less powerful but by reason of their ancient Factions living still contentiously it seldom happens that the Governour is of such intellectuals as to give full satisfaction both to Apollo and to the people Gonsaga had not past over his first months government when one of the chief of the Nobility chanced to commit a very inconsiderate insolency Don Ferrante seemed not onely to be much perplext how to revenge but appeared to many to be very sad for what had happened Domitio Corbulone a gallant Roman and a great friend to Gonsaga told him that he had now another fair occasion which required the same resolution which he took when he was Governor of Cicily against those Spanish souldiers who mutinyed that therefore he ought rather to rejoyce then to be troubled for what had now happened in his government for Governors of Provinces where there was a seditious Nobility might think themselves Fortunate when at the entrance into their Government any great personage should commit some heynous fault by whose exemplary punishment the unquiet Nobility might be so terrifyed as the government of the whole Province might be the better for it a long time after which he said was so true a Document as others who had practised it had reaped much honor thereby For when the charge over tâ—… Roman Forces which were afterwards to fight in Armenia was givâ—…â—…im he finding that through the meer simplicity of those who had the care thereof the souldiers were grown to be very Licentious not observing any manner of Military Discipline by his meer resolution which he put on in the very beginning of his charge of condemning two souldiers to undergo the severest punishment the oneor that when he was working in the Trenches he had not any Arms at all about him the other because he wore a dagger without a sword he reduced that so licencious Army to the exact obedience of the good ancient Military discipline and he further said that the world was so well pleased with this his severity as Tacitus himself having authenticated it in his Annals as an undoubted maxim in Policy fit to be imitated by all Officers had transmitted it to Posterity in these words Intentumque magnis delictis inexoâ—…abilem scias cui tantum asperitatis etiam adversus levia credebatur Ferrante answered Corbulone that one sort of government was to be used with souldiers in Armies and an other sort with Citizens in the Government of Provinces That Commanders in war judged according to their humors and with free authority but Governors of Cities were bound to observe Laws and having their hands thereby bound they must be thereby
regulated That he very well knew that many Officers to the end that they might humble the insolent quiet the seditious and pacifie the tumultuous used unheard of severities at their very entrance into command upon such Delinquents as fell first into their hands but that he had likewise observed that those that did so ran danger at last by their bruitish way of proceeding For he strayed very far from the right way who thought to attain good ends by unjust means For God who did abhor that faults should be punished by greater faults could not any ways tolerate without exemplary punishment upon the Judges that injustice should be done to any one though it tended to the universal quiet That he loved onely such understanding Officers who could conscienciously apply fitting punishments to faults that he desired rather that men might err on the charitable side then exceed in rigor and that he had observed that those who begin their government with too much severity must either continue it with too barbarous cruelty or lose their credit by altering their maner of government that he had rather leave Corinth with the reputation of being a too indulgent then too severe an Officer That all times places and persons not being alike that Officer was very unwise who would put himself upon a necessity to proceed always after one the same maner him wise who being sometimes indulgent sometimes severe sometimes cruel who knew how to keep himself free in all his ways of proceeding could upon any excess suddainly committed or by too powerful a personage or in times of trouble or when to punish insolency with usual severity would rather aggravate then amend the malady make men believe that he had past over such a fault meerly out of his own clemency which he could not possibly punish according to the rigor of the Laws out of important respects That he confest he might infuse the same terror into the Nobility of his government by using extraordinary rigor toward that powerful Delinquent which Corbulone had infused into his whole Army by his severe proceeding with those two soldiers but that then Corbulone must likewise confess that upon another occasion at another time or in another place that same noble man or any other mâ—…â—…ommit a greater insolency which was for the good of the Counâ—… 〈◊〉 be winkt at nay sometimes praysed and rewarded that this was a great advantage which was gotten by the advised Officer only by a judicious variety in his proceedings and that too much rigor in a government to frighten delinquents was only then good when it was used towards the meaner sort of people who through their innate timerousness do more dread punishment then love reputation But that the nobly born who usually erred more in revenging the injuries done unto his honor then through any malignity of minde thought himself injured by the too great severity of the Law and together with his kindred and friends who account that shame whotever it be as done to their whole generation grevv so incenc'd and inraged as to affâ—…ont the too humerous Officer in his reputation and study revenge By all vvhich he cleerly savv that the Officer vvas ill advised vvho vvhilst he might carry himself freely in all his actions should by his cruel usage of the Nobiliy exceed the terms of that equal Justice which ought to be so adequate to the crime committed That to proceed otherwise was foolishly to put fetters upon a mans own feet by obliging him to be equally severe to all sorts and conditions of men and make himself slave to shameful dangerous cruelty To this Corbulone replyed that he was not wise enough to weigh businesses with the distinctions of time place and persons but that practice being the rule that he went by he knew that the punishment of those two foot souldiers had kept him from being trouâ—…led with using many the like severities But said Gonsaga it would have proved otherwise if you had used the same cruelty to any of the chief Officers of the Army and that the custom used by Gardners was excellently good and very fit to be imitated by all wise Governors of Provinces who make scare-crows of the filthiest rags and â—…outs about the house to frighten birds from eating their fruit and not of rich silks and velvets The LXIV ADVERTISEMENT The Prince of Macedon accuseth the Nobility of Athens of Treason before Apollo who are freed from that imputatoon by his Majesties Councel of war THe Duke of Athens dyed about the last of September and difference arose between the Prince of Macedon and the Lord of Epire touching the succession of that State The Prince of Macedon being called in by the people took possession of Athens against whom the Lord of Epire came with a numerous Army and besieged his enemy in the City of Epire and according to the modern way of warfare begirt it with Trenches and Forts and that he might bring the defendants the sooner to yield he assaulted Macedonia with an other flourishing Army making great progress there and doing much harm The Prince of Macedon who knew he could not long maintain himself in the besieged City and defend his own Patrimony to keep from loosing both resolved to yield and was contented to deliver up possession of whole Athens to the enemy upon condition he should restore such place unto him as he had taken in Macedon As soon as the Nobility of thâ—…â—…esieged City heard of this resolution the chief of them came unâ—… Prince and told him that as they had called him in to be their Lord and Master so would they never acknowledge any other Prince but he and that if he would but be of good courage he should find them ready to defend that State even to the last drop of their bloods To this the Panswered that the danger of his becoming a private foot souldier was too great that therefore for the better security of his fortune he was resolved to deliver up Athens to the Lord of Epire. Those Lords did then again beseech their Prince to confide in his subjects who did not onely assure him that they would defend Attica but that they would likewise recover Macedon and lastly conjured him to remember that they who with such readiness and singular affection had chosen him to be their Prince did not deserve in this their urgent necessity to be so ungratefully abandoned and given up in prey to the Prince of Epire who was much inraged against them for being rejected by them in that Election The offers and intercedings of these noble men did not only not at all incourage this Prince but at the very self same time he dispatched away a Herald to the enemies Camp to conclude the agreed on Capitulation Then the people of Athens that they might not be sold as slaves to that their enemy whom they knew they had so hainously offended seised on their Prince and made him prisoner
great friends to this glorious Vertuoso when they heard so strange a novelty went to Covarruvia and seemed very sorry that by quitting a place of such dignity he had forgone the fair occasion which he had of making himself famous and gratifying his friends Then they bad him consider his own reputation which by this unexpected resolution he did totally bury since not only such as did envie and maligne him but even his very best friends might blame that action and peradventure not without reason as proceeding rather from a melancholy humour from fickleness of mind as a lover of novelties from weakness of wit as unfit for such an imployment and uncapable thereof then to the lawdable desire of a solitary life whereby he would cloke his being unfit for such a place It is well known that Covarruvia answered these objections very resolutely thus My friends the resolution which you see I have taken is not as you believe any new caprichio but an antient resolution which I have ever had since I learnt by Court-fallacies by the perfidiousness of Courtiers and by the instability of earthly affairs that this worlds greatness which is gotten with so much toyle and labour managed with such cark and care and possest with so much danger was nothing else but meer vanity and I did not that at my first entrance into the Court which I have done of very late only that I might enter into this famous Sect with all the reputation that becomes one like me for I did not desire that the world should imagin that I had imbraced the Stoick Sect out of a meanness of spirit which is a friend to idleness and an enemy to labour for weakness of parts as not fit to attain the most supreme dignities for not being able to bear with the bitter distastes of Court or for any dislike that my home-affairs had occasioned in me but only that I might attain to that happiness as is usually enjoy'd in a solitary and vertuous life by such who being given to Learning desire nothing but much knowledg Now that I have abandoned the happy condition that you all know I was in only that I might retreat to a better life my friends enemies and enviers will certainly praise my resolution for then doth a man with much honour embrace poverty when he forgoes riches and when to enjoy a solitary life he gives over weighty and gainful Negotiations And such men as I do with glory spurn at the pomp and vanity of this world when by their honourable labour and service in Princes Courts they have known how to compass the prime places and supreme dignities The LXXI ADVERTISEMENT Cornelius Tacitus being imprisoned at the complaint of some great Princes for having made some Politick Spectacles which were very prejudicious to their Government is freed by Apollo THe whole Colledg of the Literati were much astonished when they heard that Cornelius Tacitus one so famous in Pernassus one so well beloved by Apollo the first Counseller of State chief Chronicler and Master of his Majesties Sentences was seised upon the last night by express Order from the Lords Censors It was soon after known that this had hapned by reason of a complaint made by divers great Princes that Tacitus by his seditious Annals and Histories had made certain Spectacles which were very pernitious to Princes for let the simplest person put them on his nose they would make him so sharp-sighted as to see into the very hearts of other men and discover their most secret thoughts And that which they said they neither could nor would any waies indure was that he shewed unto the people the very essence and quality of Princes-souls what they were indeed inwardly and not what through the necessary tricks of Government they were forced to make themselves appear to be outwardly Yesterday morning the Counsel of the chief Monarchs of this State came before the Censors amongst which for Tacitus his greater honour who was to be tryed Apollo would make one This Advocate told them that all the understanding men of the State knew very well that Princes for the peace and quiet of their Kingdoms were oft times necessitated to do unwarrantable actions which to maintain the peoples opinion of their being good Princes as is fitting for all to do that will govern they had wont to palliate with specious pretences of good intentions and great zeal towards the publick good those pieces of Policy which they would be no longer able to use if the true meaning of their minds were known to all men and that if it were possible for people to be governed without submitting themselves to their Jurisdiction Princes would willingly renounce their Princely â—…itles and their power of Command as having found at last that Principalities are nothing but unsupportable burthens affairs so full of difficulty and danger as they could not taste any one savory bit at those their plentiful Tables which jealous men do so envie which did not stink of Arsnick but that if experience had made the world know that all mankind would soon suffer under sad confusion were it not for wise Princes who do govern them it was fitting that they should be permitted to use all those just waies which were requisite for them for the well-governing their Subjects For if for cultivating grounds Husbandmen were not denied Oxen Ploughs and Mattocks if Tailors for the cutting out and making up of clothes were allowed needle and sheers and Smiths hammers and pincers wherefore should Monarchs be henceforward denied to throw dust in their Subjects eyes or cast a mist before them which was the best advantage and the most necessary Instrument for the right Government of States which any Polititian had ever yet found out in any of the most excellent Reasons of State All which things Princes by reason of Tacitus his seditious inventions should now be no longer able to do it being clearly seen that the devillish spectacles invented by that alwaies seditious Tacitus to boot with what hath been said of their making the people sharp-sighted had also another pernitious effect by sticking so close to mens noses as Princes were now no longer able as formerly they had with as much ease as advantage done to throw dust in their Subjects Eyes though it were most artificial and super-fine but that they would be aware of their being abused The Complaints made by the Monarchs seemed to be very just both to Apollo and all the Censors and they therefore thought worthy of mature consideration and after a long discourse had about so weighty a business their opinion seemed to prevail who voted that Tacitus with his scandalous Annals and seditious Histories should be banished the company of man But his Majesty that he might not disgrace the Prince of Political History and not to distast gallant men by depriving them of their delights was content that Tacitus should be told he might do well to make as few of
Seneca much moved with this sharp repremand resolved he would be no longer scorned for spending so immense a wealth only upon his belly and his back divided his whole Estate consisting of three millions and a half into four equal parts wherewith he founded as many publick Hospitals and indowed them with rich Revenues and ordered that the four sorts of fools wherewith the world did abound should be therein commodiously cured The first was to be for those foolish people who throw away their Estates waste their wits and lose their reputations in seeking for the Philosophers Stone fools that are indeed to be pittied for whom all good people ought to pray The second for those ignorant hiddy giddy people who Data opera seek for riches by Exorcisms and Inchantments The third was for the cure of such idle fools worthy of punishment who not caring to know things past by the reading of History foolishly imagin they may arrive at the knowledg of foretelling things to come by Astrology The fourth was for the advantage of such simple folks who having wasted all their Estates and not having one farthing left do notwithstanding still proudly boast of their Noble Families The LXXIX ADVERTISEMENT Some Princes of Pernassus having spent a great mass of wealth in a stinking sort of Merchandise and having thereby incurred great debts are forced to profess themselves Bankrupts and to leave Pernassus IN the Exchange of Pernassus the most important Bankruptship is discovered that ever hapned in the memory of man for it fell not out as usualy between private Merchants but between the most Potent Princes of this State in so much as no payments of monies are made any where and Merchants refuse to pay Letters of Exchange every one standing at a gaze till they see where this business will end which hath drawn along with it the breaking of divers other Merchants who were considerable The rich Indian Fleet almost wholly fraught with Sugars which entred some daies ago into the Gulf of Lepanto was the cause of these so many disorders Some of the chief Princes of Pernassus bought all the Sugar which brought in great store of money and then they provided many Magazines and Ware-houses and made great provisions of Cauldrons and other brass Vessels and were at such an expence with all this as they took up monies at huge high Interest from Merchants at all Marts by exchange and bartering The true end of these Princes was to know for certain whether they could happily compass the difficult business of preserving Turds a business which had been formerly endeavoured by many great men but still unfortunately Many rich Lords were so resolved upon the undertaking of this stinking occupation as they neither spared for cost nor labour to bring this their stinking designto their desired end for they put all their minnions Hephestion idols flatterers and bawds into the great Caldrons which they had prepared to whom they were not ashamed to pay all the most abject and base slavery and obedience These unfortunate Confectioners cover over this scum of people which are so fatal to men of power with the sugar of honourable imployments and highest dignities and though it was clearly seen that by reason of their stinking lewd conditions they did not only not become ever a whit the sweeter in merit and vertue but the more sugar was heaped upon them by those unfortunate Princes the more they stunk in the nostrils of men of honour yet did they daily persist the more in that their woful occupation and the obstinacy of those ill advised Princes was so fatal as the worser they found their business to proceed the more did their diligence and expences increase together with the impossibility and shame of the fowle undertaking those foolish Merchants did still beleeve that the infinite quantity of Sugar and fragrant Musk had power to make the stink of those their shameful favorites sweet and odoriferous But at last though late they found their business impossible to be effected and having consumed all their Sugar they were aware that those their Idols had not only shamefully infected theirCourts by their insufferable stench but had infinitely defamed them who for want of caution had doated upon so unsavory carrion wherefore they quit the enterprise and because the moneys which they had taken up at use were already grown due for fear of their Creditors they have all played least in sight and the more to aggravate so great a disorder we hear that a great King who that he might confectionate a base minnion of his was for certain the first who advised to this miserable Merchandize fell unfortunately off horseback as he fled away and is since dead His Majesty was very much troubled at these disorders and to hinder the like inconveniences for the future hath commanded that on the first day of August a remarkable day since not only the universal Banckrupt but the death of that great King hapned on that day so sad a misfortune should be publickly commemorated and if the example of so great a Monarch could not deter powerful men from the like undertaking it must be granted that this calamity was occasion'd through the same weakness of brain by which privat men are blinded and for avarice undo themselves in pursuit of the Philosophers Stone The LXXX ADVERTISEMENT Certain prime Politicians of Pernassus pray the Ottoman Monarchy to tell them the true reason why she makes short war with her enemies and are by her satisfyed MEnante who for the better satisfaction of his customers to whom he sends his weekly Gasetta's is very diligent in prying into the very secretest passages of Pernassus having discovered the other day that some Politicians of this Court desired Audience of the Ottoman Monarchy was so watchful as when they went to that mighty Queen he went along with them in company and heard Scipio deCastro whom those Politicians call their File-leader beseech her Majesty that she would vouchsafe to acquaint those Politicians that were with him with the true reason wherefore she makes but short war with the Princes who are her enemies even when she was victorious and certain to make greater acquisitions and did prosecute others even to their uttermost ruine I have heard that the Ottoman Monarchy did after no barbarous manner answer them you must know Gentlemen that I never use to lay down Arms when I make war against Nations which though never so great are divided into several Principalities wherein I finde discord and faction to reign till I have totally conquered them as I did in the Grecian Empire whose division into several despoters and the intestine discord which reigned amongst them did I confess throw open the gates unto me and made way for my acquisition of that famous Empire Likewise when I go against a Prince who is abandoned by his friends I never make peace with him till I have fully conquered him as was cleerly seen in the expedition which I
same Edict Then said Sanezzarro uninteressed men people who love the publike good better then their own private affairs Officers who are not slaves to their passions Princes who are not ambitious of coveting what belongs to other men are publikely said to live by thousands and thousands in the world and yet it is better known to Apollo then to any other whether any such Phenixes be to be found in Egypt Arabia or in any other part of the Earth that therefore if his Majesty would insert these Chimera's into his Edict and make the Law general Poets would have no just cause of complaint This being said the Pretor went presently to Apollo and acquainted him with Sanezzarro's desire who did so much wonder at the request made by Sanezzarro as he said these very words to the Pretor Now I perceive the Poets have reason for their complaint and that my Edict is not universal therefore revoke it without more ado for I will rather take the shame upon my self to let my Literati know that I was inconsiderate in the publication of this Edict then shame all mankind by making it know that men absolutely uninteressed are meerly fabulous The LXXXV ADVERTISEMENT Giovangirolimo Aquaviva haveng overcome a very great difficulty is with much Honor admitted into Pernassus IN the Assembly of the Vertuosi which was held for that purpose on Thursday last the credential Letters brought by a Gentleman who was sent to this Court from Signior Givangirolimo Aquaviva Duke of Atri were read who afterwards delivering his Embassie did in very handsome language desire that the Duke his Master might be admitted into Pernassus and in the same assembly the good deserts of the said Duke were diligently examined and maturely discust and this noble Duke being found to be very well verst in all the Liberal Sciences and arrived at the height of excellency in the Mathematicks by his Majesties express order who was ever very partial to this noble Family wherein learning seems rather to be hereditary then purchas'd by long study was created superintendent of the Triangles and lineatore Maggiore di euclide after this the wonted Cavalcata was decreed unto him and being accompanyed by the Lord Poets and the other learned Princes of fruitful Parthenope with many of their servants in rich liveries the shew was very noble and worthy so deserving a Prince but the greatest wonder was to see the Duke discourse a long time with Homer and Pindarus not making use of Valla or any other interpreter certainly a very glorious action in these Times and which purchas'd the Duke the more glory for that the Vertuosi of Pernassus did consisider that this Princes learning was of the very finest sort which makes them so much respected who are therewith indued Nor did he this out of necessity to eat bread nor to make use of it as many do for a Patrimony but onely that though he was born of noble blood and very rich he might not be thought an ignorant Plebeian and an unlearned begger for this Prince always held that perfect Nobility and true riches did onely consist in vertue The Duke was already come with his noble Cavalcata into the Via Sacra when it was made known unto him in his Majesties name by a publike messenger that he must return back for there was so great an impediment found in him as by vertue of the Pegasean Pragmatical Law he could not be admitted into Pernassus Upon this unfortunate news il Rota il Tansillo and many other Neapolitan Poets of the first Classis hasted to Apollo and understood that the impediment arose for that the illustrious Octavius Cardinal Aquaviva when he was Prelate in the Court of Rome had exercised the place of Maistre d'Hostelle under Pope Gregory the fourteenth and that since it was known in Pernassus that the formerly stately Courts of Princes through the tricks and inventions of beggerly Mastre d'Hostels were infected with the sordid contagion of foul avarice it was enacted by a very severe Edict that for the future not onely such as had exercised the hateful Office of Maistre d'Hostelle in Princes Courts should never be admitted into Pernassus but that all that descended from them or were any ways allyed unto them even to the fortieth degree should be for ever excluded The Duke was very much troubled at this unfortunate rub but having known that Edict long before he had foreseen the difficulties which he might meet withal in Pernassus so as to remove away all obstacles he took a letter out of his bosom written with his own hand unto his son wherein he did expresly forbid him to accept of that place but the business of Maistre d'Hostel is so odious in this Court as the Letter in justification of the Duke was not read nor any ways taken into consideration and now the business grew desperate and the Cavalcata began to return backwards when Cesare Caporale a Poet who having been greatly obliged to the house of Aquaviva hasted to Apollo to whom he largely attested that Signior Octavio as he was nobly minded so had he always lived in a liberal manner and that he was not made Maistre d'Hostelle by that free handed Pope for having a narrow soul and given to getting but onely that by the dignity of that so honorable a degree he might shew him to be a person fit to be made a Cardinal as it soon after fell out and that whilst he did discharge that place he studyed nothing more then how to feed the Vertuosi plentifully to protect the Literati and to reward those that deserved well a piece of generosity wherin he did always shew such liberality and greatness as finding that certain roguish Butlers mingled water with wine in the Popes Cellar he commanded by a severe and noble Edict which even to this day is punctually observed that it should not be lawful for any one for the future to have any water in those Cellars Apollo was so well pleased with this decree as he commanded that it should be written in large letters of gold by Croessis that famous Millanese Scribe and chief writer of Text-hand in the Delphick Library and that for the honor and glory of the famous Family of the Aquavive and for the Dukes reputation who had inriched the present age with so deserving a son it should be carryed before him in the Cavalcata which was the noblest and most admired thing that was seen therein and to compleat the Dukes contentment and the splendor of his house his Majesty decreed the Title of Mecenas to Signior Octavio Cardinal Aquaviva and sent it him by an express Messenger yesterday in forma dignum The LXXXVI ADVERTISEMENT The Duke of Laconia to revenge himself by way of Law upon a chief Senator of State for some private distastes that he had taken at him commanded Fleminio Cartaro his Iudge of Assize to proceed severely against him upon some heads which he would give him and
to Apollo who though he much abhor'd that one of his Vertuosi should be esteemed a prater yet that he might upon better grounds judge this Literato he would know from the accused partie 's own mouth what the matter was which is certainly an excellent way of proceeding and which if it were imitated by Princes who govern the world they would not be so much troubled with other mens faults The Vertuoso acquainted Apollo with all that had been laid to his charge who having heard his confession did immediately revoke the sentence so far doth the Justice differ which God infuseth into the hearts of Princes from what Judges learn in their Decrees for finding that the digression into which that Literato had falne and wherein he had so inlarged himself was much more delicate than his first discourse his Majâ—…sty thought he had no waies misdemerited by that his forgetfulness since the error committed was not occasioned through his desire to prate but out of ambition to purchase honour to himself by making that digression And therefore he commanded the Judges to set him at liberty for he was not to be blamed for much discourse who discoursed well The XCVI ADVERTISEMENT Philip the second King of Spain being offended at what the Duke of Alva had told Apollo concerning his Government of Flanders whilst he seeks to revenge himself upon that his Minister of State is sent for by Apollo who was acquainted with what had past and is by him pacified THere was never any Court wherein there were not of those malitiously minded men who reporting what ought to be concealed are very desirous to raise scandals and to kindle enmity amongst their neighbours This is said for that Duke Alva formerly Prince of the Achaians had no sooner told Apollo that though he foresaw it would be occasion of great scandal he had caused the heads of Prince Egmont and Count Horn to be publickly shewed upon the Skaffolds in Brussels only because men are of another opinion when they govern another mans State than when their own peculiar Estate is concerned But the news thereof was forthwith brought to the wise King of Spain Philip the second who being highly offended with that his Minister of State resolved to revenge so great an injury by Arms and therefore he commanded some of the Gentlemen of his Chamber to arm themselves suddenly and evil intreat the Duke of Alva wheresoever they should meet him This resolution of the Kings was discovered and being forthwith made known to Apollo his Majesty sent for the King of Spain and the Duke of Alva to come to him who when they appeared the King being highly incensed complained bitterly upon the Duke that meerly out of ambition of perpetuating himself in the Government of Flanders he had put his patrimony into the present inextricable troubles a thing the more worthy of punishment in that he himself had confest his dealing so badly with his King with the same freedom as others glory in honorable actions The Duke answered in his own defence to this complaint made against him by the King that he had fought for his King in Africa in Germany in France in Flanders and in Italy and still with victory and that his faithful and honorable actions had been so ill rewarded in peace that not only men of the Long Robe who were unfit for War had been preferred before him in those Provinces from whence he had driven out the enemy but even women whereby he was either en tertained idlely afterwards in the Court or else in imployments misbecoming such a one as he only that he might idolatrize the power of Ruy Gomes di Selva and other Subjects who were mean in comparison of him and yet were in greater esteem then he in his Kings Court a thing which misbecoming him to suffer and which he could in no waies digest as being altogether contrary to his genius and he one that could not suffer indignities was not only interpreted by his malevolents but even by his King to be an intolerable pride in him in not being willing to tolerate an equal much less a superior to himself in Court that it was true that to preserve his reputation and to keep such a one as he from being numbred amongst the rank of ordinary Courtiers in the Court of Spain he had endeavoured to eternize himself in the Government of Flanders which he would intentively have endeavoured to have reduced into a peaceful condition if he had thought he could have governed it in peace The King of Spain was much incenst at this so resolute answer and said that his State-Minister having confest his fault twice over nothing remained but condemnation Nay rather said Apollo to the King of Spain I must by absolving the Duke from all that you lay to his charge admonish such great Kings as you to deal well with those Commanders who having purchased the glory of true Military valour at the expence of their bloud deserve their Kings full favour for it is just and reasonable that Kingdoms and great Provinces should be governed by those in times of peace who had the courage to acquire them in war or who by their Arms have defended them against the publick enemy but because many of you care not to do what is just nor what out of gratitude ought to be done since I find you slow in learning by the advantagious reading of History how you ought to satisfie and content those Commanders who with their weapons in their hands have deserved to be largely rewarded be not at least ashamed to take example in a business of such importance from the Ottoman Emperors who in the troublesom times of War give the charge of Generalissimo of their Armies and therein all usefull and advised liberty to none but to their chief Vziiers aso sublime dignity as he who possesseth it governs the vast Ottoman Empire in Supreme Authority as sole Arbitrator of Peace and War Wherefore the chief Viziers knowing that their places are much more advantagious and honourable in Peace then in War behave themselves very faithfully in their warlike expeditions to the end that through their worth they may maintain the dignity which they possess moreover they hasten to get the victory that they may discharge so great an imployment by the acquisition of new States and by subduing the enemy Philip 't is neither in my power nor yet in the power of any other Prince to make men love the advantage of other men more then their own And the true art of making Commanders eternally loyal is as I have said to shew them honorable and gainful peace at home amidst the troubles of War The XCVII ADVERTISEMENT Pompey the great having invited many Noble Lords of Rome to be present at the dedication of the magnificent Theatre which he had built in Pernassus they refuse to come POmpey the great having finished his stately Fabrick of a Theatre in Pernassus which was no whit