Q. What is the charge of a Courtier A. Truth in Religion care in his Seruice loue to his Master and secrecy in his trust Q. What is the care of a Courtier A. To deserue well to keepe well to liue well and to dye well Q. What qualities are chiefely required in a Courtier A. Wisdome Valour Learning and Bounty Q. What learning is most fit for a Courtier A. Diuinity Philosophy Policy and History Q. What are the Ornaments of a Courtier A. Variety of Languages obseruation of Trauels experience of Natures and the vse of Vnderstanding Q. What is a Courtier most to take heed of A. Enuious Ambition malicious Faction palpable Flattery and base Pandarisme Q. What is a Courtier chiefely to take note of A. The disposition of the best the words of the wisest the actions of the noblest and the carriage of the fairest Q. What things chiefely is a Courtier to be charie of A. His tongue and his hand his purse and his midle finger Q. What conuersation is fittest for a Courtier A. Wise wits noble spirits faire eyes and true hearts Q. How should a Courtier hope of aduancement A. With prayer to God diligence in his seruice respect of persons and iudgment in affections Q. What discourses are fittest for a Courtier A. Admiration of wisdome defert of honour truth of valour and life of loue Q. What friends are fittest for a Courtier A. The wise and the wealthy the valiant and the honest Q. What seruants are fittest for a Courtier A. The expert the faithfull the diligent and the carefull Q. What is the true valour in a Courtier A. To feare no fortune to be patient in aduersity to master affections and to forgiue offenders Q. What are the follies in a Courtier A. Vaine discourses idle complements apish fancies and superfluous expences Q. What are most dangerous in a Courtier A. To bee inquisitiue of Occurrents to reueale Secrets to scorne Counsaile and to murmur at Superiority Q. What things are most profitable to a Courtier A. A sharpe wit and a quicke apprehension a smoth speech and a sound memory Q. What should a Courtier chiefely obserue in a King A. His wisdome his valour his disposition and affection Q. What in a Councellor A. His religion his reason his care and his iudgment Q. What in a Lord A. His title his worthines his spirit and his carriage Q. What in a Lady A. Her beauty her portion her parentage and her disposition Q. What in an Officer A. His knowledge his care his diligence and his conscience Q. What time is best spent in a Courtier A. In prayer in study in graue discourse and in good exercise Q. And what time is worse spent A. In deuising of fashions in fitting of fancies in faining of Loue and in honouring vnworthines Q. What is commendable in a Courtier A. Concealing of discontentments mitigating of passions affability in speech and courtesie in behauiour Q. What most delighteth a Ladies eye in a Courtier A. Neat apparell wise spéech to mannage a Horse well to dance well Q. What most contenteth a King in a Courtier A. Religious valour reuerent audacity humble loue and faithfull seruice Q. What is most troublesome to the minde of a Courtier A. Conscience and patience continence and abstinence Q. What are most grieuous to a Courtier A. The frowne of a King the displeasure of a Lady the fall of honour and the want of wealth Q. What friend shall a Courtier most rely vpon A. His God his King his wit and his purse Q. What foes should a Courtier most stand in feare of A. Wanton eyes glib tongues hollow hearts and irreligious spirits Q. What things are necessary for a Courtier to haue euer in memory A. Temperate speeches moderate actions deliberate inuentions and discreete resolutions Q. What delights are most fit for a Courtier A. Riding and Tilting hunting and hauking Q. What is most comely in a Courtier A. A stayed eye a faire hand a straight body and a good legge Q. What should be hated of a Courtier A. Rudenes and basenes sloathfulnesse and slouenlinesse Q What speciall seruants of name are most fit for a Courtier A. A Barbour for his Chamber a Taylor for his Wardrobe a Groome for his Stable and a Foote-man for his Message Q. What is the hapinesse of a Courtier A. To feare God to haue the fauour of a King to be able to lend and to haue no néede to borrow Q. What is the shame of a Courtier A. To take much and giue nothing to borrow much and lend nothing to promise much and performe nothing and to owe much and pay nothing Q. What should a Courtier be alwaies iealous of A. In sinuating spirits intruding wits alluring eyes and illuding tongues Q. What is the life of a Courtier A. The labour of pleasure the aspiring to greatnes the ease of nature and the commaund of reason Q. What is the same of a Courtier A. A cleare conscience and a frée spirit an 〈◊〉 heart and a bountifull hand FINIS
to bridle the folly of selfe will But for the great wisdome of Councellors of State Iudges of Lawes Gouernours of Citties Generals of Armies or such great People in such great places they go so farre beyond our wits that wee had rather be obedient to their wills then enter into the depth of their discretions and content our selues with that wisdome which is most necessary for vs to loue God aboue all our neighbours as our selues to rise with the day raies and goe to bed with a candle to eate when we are hungry drinke when wee are thirsty trauell when we are lusty and rest when we are weary feare God be true to the Crowne keepe the lawes pay scot and lot bréed no quarrels doe no wrongs and labour all we may to haue peace both with God and man speake truth and shame the Diuell pitch and pay say and hold trye and trust belieue no lies tell no newes deceiue not an enemy nor abuse a friend make much of a little and more as it may increase These are the points of wisdome that we runne the course of our Card by Now for valour it is seene best in the best quarrells and Saint Paul said that hee had fought the good fight to fight for the preseruation of a state the person of a King or Prince to keepe my house from thieues my children from dogs and my family from famine and my faith from fainting in the word of God this hold we the good fight and the true valour not to stand vpon puntos not to endure a lye without death challenge for a frowne and kill for a fowle word aduenture all for nothing or perhaps worse then nothing loose lands goods life and soule and all in a murther or a bloody bargaine to please a Punke and to be counted a Captain of the Diuels army or a Gallant of the damned crew except some few howers before his end while the worme of Conscience bites him at the heart a sparke of grace enter into his soule and make him at the Gallowes make a repentant rehearsall of a lewd life and leaue a fayre example at his death to all behoulders perhaps with these good words at his departing All yee that heere bee take example to be hang'd by me Oh braue valour that makes many a weeping eye when my mother for my sonne and my sister for my brother or my wife for my husband or my father for my daughter or mine vncle for mine aunt sit and howle like dogs to see the workes of the Diuel in the wicked of the world Such kinde of valour I haue heard my father say that he hath mark't in some places where he hath trauel'd I know not where a great way hence when he was young where he found among a hellish company of accursed spirits they were called valliant fellowes that durst say any thing doe any thing or be any thing till they were worse then nothing durst quarrell with any man abuse any man strike any man kill any man and care for no man durst prate lye sweare and forsweare scoffe and swagger drinke and dice drab and stab durst be hang'd and damn'd for a horrible fit of a franticke humour and this was their valour I pray God there be none such among yee where you keepe I am sure there keepe none such among vs. Now for truth I hope there are more true hearts in the Country then there are tongues in the City in many places yea and in greater places then I will speake of but where they be God blesse them and where they are not God send them and that is all that I say to them But for ought I sée there is so much falshood in the world that I feare there is littletruth on the earth and in great places where protestations are without performances and excuses are better then lies Where is either truth of loue or loue of truth but a little I thinke I would there were more But with vs truth is so beloued that a Lyer is held little better then a theefe and it is a lesson we learne our little Children speake truth tell truth take heed you lie not the Diuell is the father of lies and little better be his Children deale truly with all men let your tongues and your hearts goe together Christ is truth in his holy name be true euer tell truth and shame the Diuell be true to God in your beliefe and obedience to his word bee true to your King in the loyalty of your hearts bee true to your wiues in the honesty of your bodies and bee true to your friends in performing your promises this is the loue we haue to truth if you haue it so it is a good blessing of God and makes a happy people And for loue if it bee in the world I thinke it is in the Country for where enuy pride and malice and Iealousie makes buzzes in mens braines what loue can bee in their hearts howsoeuer it slip from their tongues No no our Turtles euer flie together our Swannes euer swimme together and our louers liue and die together Now if such loue be among you it is worthy to be much made of but if you like to day and loath to morrow if you fawne to day and frowne to morrow if all your loue bee to laugh and lye downe or to hope of gaine or reward that is none of our loue wee loue all goodnes and onely for goodnes first God then our selues then our wiues and children then our family and then our friends and so hath loue his course in our liues and therefore if there be any obseruation in affection I pray you let it bee rather in the Country then in any place where faith is not so fast but fancy can alter loue vpon a little humour of dislike Now for your fauour when one Begger growes rich by it how many rich grow beggers through the hope of fortune and therefore in my minde better be Lord ouer a little of a mans owne then to follow a Lord for the bare name of a Gentleman and better with a little to bee counted a good man then with gaping after Gudgions to be thought I know not what Truly Cousin I thinke euery thing is best in his owne nature as one is bred so let him bée for as a Courtier cannot hold the plough but he wil be soone séene to be no work-man so a Country-man cannot court it but hee will shewe in somewhat from whence he comes And for a Ladies looke I thinke wee haue wenches in the Country that haue as faire eyes as finer creatures who when they list to looke kindly will make many glad though few gay fellowes And for apparell plaine russet is our wearing while pied coats among vs we account players or fooles except they be better men then the best of our parish except our Landlord Now for preferment and aduancement they be encouragements to some Spirits that are
The Court and Country OR A briefe Discourse Dialogue-wise set downe betweene a Courtier and a Country-man Contayning the manner and condition of their liues with many Delectable and Pithy Sayings worthy obseruation Also necessary Notes for a COVRTIER Written by N. B. Gent. The Country-man The Courtier LONDON Printed by G. E LD for Iohn Wright and are to be sold at his shop at the Signe of the Bible without Newgate 1618. To the Worshipfull and worthy Knight the fauourer of all good Vertues and Studies Sir STEPHEN POLL of Blackmoore in Essex and to his worthy Lady Health Honour and eternall Happinesse Worthy KNIGHT BEing well acquainted with your true knowledge of the Honour of the Court and the Pleasure of the Countrey your iudiciall Obseruation in your Trauels abroad and your sweet retyred Life at home Finding my Seruice indebted to many of your vndeserued bountifull Fauours and willing in some fruites of my Labour to shewe the thankfulnesse of my Loue I haue aduentured to present your Patience with a short Discourse in the manner of a Dialogue betweene a Courtier and a Countriman touching the Liues of either What Matter of worth is in it I will leaue to your discretion to consider of with my bounden Seruice to the honour of your Commaund hoping that either heere or in the Country it will be a pretty passage of idle time with some matter of mirth to remoue melancholy And so in Prayer for your health and your good Ladies to whom with your selfe Dedicating this short Dialogue I rest Yours humbly deuoted to be Commanded NICH. BRETON To the READER AMong many Passages that I haue met with in the world it was my hap of late to light on a kinde Controuerfie betweene two Kinsmen a Courtier and a Countryman who meeting together vpon a time fell to perswading one another from their courses of Life the Courtier would faine haue drawne the Country-man to the Court and the Countryman the Courtier to the Country The reasons for their delights and loue to their manner of liues I haue set downe as I found them but whatsoeuer they alledged for their contentments it seemed they were resolued vpon their Courses for in the end they left where they begunne euery man to his owne humour and so brake off Now what Profit or Pleasure may arise by the reading of them I referre to their discretion that can best make vse of them Matter of state is not here medled with scurrillity heere is none no taxing of any Person nor offence iustly to any whosoeuer But passages of witte without the malice of any euill minde And in summe matter of good substance and mirth enough to driue away a great deale of melancholy and so leauing it to your Patience to read and to your Pleasure to esteeme of as you see cause both to Courtiers and Countrimen that are kinde and honest men I rest to wish content in the course of a happy life and so remaine Your well wishing Countryman N. B. The COVRTIER AND The COVNTRYMAN COVRTIER COUSIN Well met I see you are still for the Country your habite your countenance your footing and your carriage doe all plainly shew you are no changeling but euery day alike one and the same COVNTRY-MAN I am so indéede and wish that you were so too for then should you not be so great an eye-sore to your friends nor such an enemy to your selfe for I feare the place you liue in is more costly then profitable where for one that goes vp the weather a number goe downe the winde and perhaps the place not so truly full of delight as the passage through a meaner compasse COVRT Oh Cousin you cannot but confesse that blinde men can iudge no coulours and you that liue plodding to purchase a pudding cannot but distast any meat that may compare with it though in many degrées of goodnes it excéede it for should I tell you truly what I know of it you would soon after your opinion to a point of better iudgment Oh the gallant life of the Court where so many are the choices of contentment as if on earth it were the Paradise of the world the maiesty of the Soueraigne the wisdome of the Councell the honour of the Lords the beauty of the Ladies the care of the Officers the courtsey of the Gentlemen the diuine Seruice in the Morning and Euening the witty learned noble and pleasant discourses all day the variety of wits with the depth of iudgments the dainty fare sweetly dressed and neatly serued the delicate wines and rare fruites with excellent Musique and admirable Voyces Maskes and Playes Dauncing and Riding deuersity of games delightfull to the Gamsters purposes and Riddles Questions and Answers Poems Histories and strange Inuentions of Witt to startle the Braine of a good vnderstanding rich Apparell precious Iewells fine proportions and high Spirits Princely Coaches stately Horses royall Buildings and rare Architecture sweete Creatures and ciuill Behauiour and in the course of Loue such carriage of content as so luls the Spirit in the lap of pleasure that if I should talke of the praise of it all day I should be short of the worth of it at night COVNT And there withall you wak't or else you are like a Musitian that onely playes vpon one string but touch the Basse with the Treble the Meane with the Counter Tenor and then see how the strings will agree together and whether the Voyces doe not rather faine then sing plaine for feare the Ditty may disgrace the Note and so the Musicke be not worth the hearing But if all be as you say yet take the Euening with the Morning and all the weeke with the holy-day the sower with the sweet and the cost with the pleasure and tell me then if once in seauen yeares when your state is weakened and your Land wasted your Woods vntimberd your Pastures vnstored and your Houses decayed then tell me whether you find the prouerbe true of the Courtier young and old though sometime a Bell-weether may bee fat when many a better sheepe cannot hit on so good a feeding But since you speake so scornefully of the Country life if you were or could be so happy as to apprehend the true content in the course of it you would shake the head and sigh from the heart to be so long from the knowledg of it and neuer be at rest till you were gotten to it Oh the swéete of the Country life in which are so many and so true varieties of pleasures as kéeps the spirit euer waking and the senses euer working for the full content of the whole Creature in so much that if there may be a similie of heauen vpon earth it is onely in the precinct of the Country passage where both nature and reason behold and enuy that satiety of pleasure that is not easily to be expressed And to answer directly to some of your points of praise let me tell you though we sée
no such diuelish deuises when womens eyes will bewitch mens hearts and the breath of Tongues will poison a mans wits And for your rauishing delights it is a word that I well vnderstand not or at least as I haue heard this rauishing is a word that signifieth robbing of wenches of the inner lining of their linnen against their wills and if it be so it is a perilous delight that brings a man to the Gallowes if not to the Diuell for a little fit of pleasure but if there be any better sence in it I would be glad to vnderstand it though at this time I care not to be troubled with it Now for Princes Pallaces they are too high buildings for our Brickes plaine people are content with Cottages and had rather pay tributes to their maintenance then haue them too much in our view for blinding of our eies with their golden brightnes Now for life and death hee that liues at quiet and will not be contented may change for the worse and repent it when he cannot helpe it Oh Cousin I haue heard my father say that it is better to sit fast then to rise and fall and a great wise man that know the world to a hayre would say that the meane was sure better be in the middle roome then either in the Garret or the Sellor and an other of an excellent worlds wit that ranne the ring with him in the walke of the world would say that honour was but ancient riches and in high places where frownes are deadly and fauours are vncertaine there was more feare of the one then hope of the other and a laborious weekes wages well payde was better then a yeares hope in paper and therefore hee that would leaue possessions for promises and assurances for hope were more full of wit then vnderstanding and of conceipt then iudgement for though there is no seruice to the King nor no fishing to the Sea yet there are so many suitors for rewards and so many beaters of the water that delayes may be cold comforts of long hopes to the one and the other angle all day and catch a Gudgion at night and therefore though the world be like a Well with two Buckets that when one falleth another riseth yet the fall is much swifter then the rysing and good reason because the one goes downe empty and the other comes vp laden But to be plaine I haue so long beene vsed to a quiet life that I would not leaue it for a world Now for your notes of worth that you haue set downe in your Court commendations I allow that all may bee true and they that thriue in it may thinke well of it and hold it a kind of heauen vpon earth but for my selfe I remember certaine notes that I read in a Booke of my Fathers owne writing that shall goe with me to my graue there were not many but in my mind to good purpose as first for greatnes My minde to me a Kingdome is so that the quiet of the minde is a greater matter then perhaps many great men possesse Then for wealth Godlines is great riches to him that is contēt with that hee hath which many great men somtime perhaps haue lesse then meaner people Then for a good rule of life Feare God and obay the King which perhaps some doe not so well in the Court as the Country Then for the course of the Law Loue God aboue all and thy neighbour as thy selfe which if you doe in the Court as wee doe in the Country Enuy would worke no hatred nor malice mischiefe but loue in all persons would make a pallace a Paradise which in the best is more euident then in the meanest apprehended but God whose loue is the life of all bréed such loue in the liues of all that peace may euer liue among all Now for learning what your néede is thereof I know not but with vs this is all we goe to schoole for to read common Prayers at Church and set downe common prises at Markets write a Letter and make a Bond set downe the day of our Births our Marriage day and make our Wills when we are sicke for the disposing of our goods when we are dead these are the chiefe matters that we meddle with and we find enough to trouble our heads withall for if the fathers knowe their owne children wiues their owne husbands from other men maydens keepe their by your leaues from subtle batchelors Farmers know their cattle by the heads and Sheepheards know their sheepe by the brand What more learning haue we need of but that experienee will teach vs without booke We can learne to plough and harrow sow and reape plant and prune thrash and fanne winnow and grinde brue and bake and all without booke and these are our chiefe businesse in the Country except we be Iury-men to hang a théefe or speake truth in a mans right which conscience experience wil teach vs with a little learning then what should we study for except it were to talke with the man in the Moone about the course of the Starres No Astronomy is too high a reach for our reason we will rather sit vnder a shady tree in the Sunne to take the benefit of the cold ayre then lye and stare vpon the Starres to mark their walke in the Heauens while wee loose our wits in the Cloudes and yet we reuerence learning as well in the Parson of our parish as our Schoolemaster but chiefely in our Iustices of peace for vnder God and the King they beare great sway in the Country But for great learning in great matters and in great places wee leaue it to great men If wee liue within the compasse of the Law serue God and obey our King and as good Subiects ought to doe in our duties and our prayers dayly remember him What néede we more learning Now for wisdome I heard our Parson in our Church read it in the holy Booke of God That the wisdome of the world is but foolishnes before God And why then should a man séeke to befoole himselfe before God with more wit then is necessary for the knowledge of the world the wise man must dye as well as the foole and when all are the Sonnes of Adam wee haue a faire warning to bee too busie with tasting of the Tree of too much knowledge I haue read in the Booke of the best wisdome that the feare of God is the beginning of wisdome and surely he that begins his lesson there may continue his learneng the better and come to bee a good Scholler at last Salomon the wisest man that euer was said that all was vanity and vexation of the Spirit and why then should a man vex his spirit with séeking to be as wise as a Woodcocke in beating his braines to get the possession of vanity And yet I must confesse that least vanity turne to villanie it is good that the authority of wisdome haue power