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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	good_a	love_n	love_v	3,988	5	6.5055	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68163	A comparison of the English and Spanish nation: composed by a French gentleman against those of the League in Fraunce, which went about to perswade the king to breake his alliance with England, and to confirme it with Spaine. By occasion whereof, the nature of both nations is liuely decyphered. Faithfully translated, out of French, by R.A.; Discours politique, tres-excellent pour le temps present. English	Gentil-homme francois, fl. 1588.; Ashley, Robert, 1565-1641.	1589 (1589)	STC 13102; ESTC S120864	30,635	50

of France as England as among the rest these tetmes Cullion and French dogge which is the rethoricke of Pedlers Tinkers Coblers Rogues and such kind of people not the language of honest and ciuill persons such as we purpose to intreate of in this discourse laying aside then al such baggage and tromperie let vs speake of the naturall amitie which is betweene these two Nations In the time of the Emperors Martian Valentinian about the yeare of Christ 449. Witigerne king of great Britaine desirous to repulse the Picts and Scots called to his ayd the Angles or English who dwelt then betweene the Vites and Saxons And indeede the Welchmen at this day call the Englishmen Sasses as who would say Saxons which hath beene ensured me of some learned men of that countrie It resulteth then of this discourse that the English are come out of Germanie as the French are also according to our Histories And howbeit that in respect of the French Nation I durst not affirme that they are descended of the Saxons yet so it is that the house of our kinges which at this day swayes the scepter in France drawes his stocke from thence as is best knowen to them who are best seene in Histories For Windekind a Saxon of the line of that great Windekinde subdued by Charlemayne came into France to succour Charles the balde beeing then much molested by the Normans This young Windekind had a sonne called Robert who so fortunately followed the footsteps of his father that Charles the bald made him generall of the armie which he sent against the Normans who at that time foraged the countrie of France This Robert was slaine in battell leauing a sonne called Otho who by consent of the Emperor Arnold had the gouernement of France during the minoritie of Charles the simple Whence he got him not so much reputation as in that hee was father to Hugh the great Earle of Paris But Hugh Capet sonne of this Hugh the great exceeded in glorie and splendor all the forenamed as well in that he was chiefe of the absolute estate of France as in that he left a Royall posteritie behinde him which swayes the scepter diuided into two houses namely Valoys and Bourbon So may we conclude that if the French and English may not be called by the terme of Charondas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is liuing together or according to Epimenides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is partakers of the same smoke or as they say brought vp together at board and at bed yet may they by good right be termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is descending from the selfe same extraction And although this alliance be of it selfe sufficiently cleared by the Historiographers yet is it better confirmed by the conformitie of maners of these two Nations and the good comportmentes of the one towardes the other The Englishman as also the French is generous and by consequent as Aristotle teacheth farre from dissimulation hating or louing openly rather led by truth then by opinion louing the effect better then the appearance free in speech louing his libertie and easily forgetting iniuries moreouer he is liberall ciuill curteous and gentle of all vertuous qualities I thinke that in them are to be found as many cleare and euident testimonies as there are places that speake of their exploites in vnpassionate Historiographers For in respect of ciuilitie what better witnesse can wee haue then Philip de Commines who himselfe had experience thereof in behalfe of the lord of Vaucler I should speake of a thing but too wel knowen throughout all the world if I should spend manie words in discoursing of their magnificence and liberalitie Certainely if that be true which Herodian writes of barbarous men namely that they are naturally greedy of money Englishmen are sufficiently discharged of the blame of barbarousnes howsoeuer some ignorant or passionate writers haue endeuoured to stayne them therewith But to what purpose is it to stande long on this point seeing the experience and testimony of noble and famous personages dooth openly ratifie my saying That good Vidame of Chartres of famous memorie who for that himselfe was one of the most liberall Lo of our time might best speake of liberalitie said openly that if there were any Nation in Christendome more liberall and courteous towardes strangers then the English he would be reckoned amongst those which talke rashly of thinges which they know not He which hath succeeded him as well in his vertues as his heritage protesteth often that he dares not to speake of the humanitie liberalitie and courtesie of the English Nation fearing to begin a discourse the entrie whereof were found much easier then the issue Odet Cardinall of Chastilion had ordinarily this saying in his mouth that courtesie had once imparked her selfe in France but that now she was passed ouer the sea This discourse would demand longer deduction but I am a Frenchman and iealous of the honor of my countrie Plutarch writes that the great Rethoritian Molon hauing on a day heard Cicero declaiming in Greeke saide lamenting that he deplored the estate of Greece whose richest ornament meaning eloquence Cicero carryed away with him For my part though I am no lesse affectionate towards the English Nation then commands the desert of their vertues yet so is it that I am sorrie to see them so richly arayed with our spoiles In so much that England may by good right be accounted at this day the very Sanctuarie of all ciuilitie kindnesse and courtesie the testimonies whereof may be seene not only towardes their friends and in time of peace but euen in time of warre and towardes their enemies Of many examples I will chuse one so notable as I knowe not whether the like be to be found in the Greeke or Latine Historiographers Amongest all the battels which were euer fought in France that of Poytiers is worthy the remēbrance not onely for the inestimable losse of the vanquished but much more for the courtesie and generositie of the vanquisher For the Nobilitie of France was there hewen in peeces many Princes and great Lordes made prisoners and namely king John himselfe fell into the handes of the Prince of Wales who had him afterwardes into England where hereceiued so good and gracious intertainement of king Edward father to the Prince of Wales that being on his fayth and hostages returned into France to giue order for his affaires after he had thoroughly considered the intertainement that was made him he sauoured and liked so well of the English courtesie that he esteemed it more honorable to die neere so noble a Prince then to liue as king of the greatest and mightiest kingdome in Christendome Porus an Indian king being taken by Alexander and being asked of him how hee desired to be dealt with at his handes I am sayth he a king let me be vsed Royally as belongeth to a king Alexander being farther instant on

more their libertie but are not so fit to beare rule ouer their neighbor Nations Contrariwise the Nations of Asia are more quickspirited but being of baser courage they yeelde their necke sooner vnto the yoke of bondage And therefore hee concludeth that the Greekes holding the midst betweene extreme heate and extreme colde are partakers of both complexions But as his proposition is founded on so good a consideration that all men of vnderstanding will alwayes yeelde vnto it so dare I to affirme that in the applying thereof the loue of truth gaue place to the loue of his countrie For the most Northerne part of Greece is of fortie foure degrees which is the eleuation of that quarter where Constantinople is situated and also of the mountaines Pyrenees which separate France from Spaine And therefore the fiue and fortith degree which is the very bound of temperature marking out the middest of France we may well say that our countrie is more temperate then Greece But although Englande be as much or more northernly then any part of France yet being on euerie side enuironed with the Ocean the colde is nothing so excessiue there as it is in France which Caesar very well obserued And therefore it is easie to conclude that by reason of the situation of the place that the Englishmen are both warlike and wise that is to say accomplished with whatsoeuer is necessarie to a ciuill life For the force of bodie is no lesse requisite in execution than the dexteritie and vigour of wit in deuise and deliberation as very well sayde the Poet Pindarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though doughtie deedes are done by might With counsell graue the minde giues light And it is not sufficient to say as Commines doth that the Englishmen are very cholericke a passion which of all others doth most trouble a mans iudgement especially when he is at point to resolue himselfe For well it might be so in the time of Comines when Englishmen were not yet so well polished as they haue bin since by the knowledge of good letters But since that by the liberalitie of king Edward wee haue seene two Athens in one England that is to wit Oxford and Cambridge it were hard to iudge whether that so mightie a realme hath beene more plentifull in the fruites of the earth then aboundant in fine subtile and most excellent wits meete for the managing of matters of estate It is about three or foure score yeares past that the Italian made the same reproch to the Frenchmen that Comines dooth to the Englishmen namely that they could not skill of matters of estate But since the time that king Francis replenished France with learned men by meanes of the professors which hee caused to come from all partes of Paris the Italians should flatter themselues ouer much if they thought that in conduct of ciuill affaires the Frenchmen were any whit behind them Therefore it is that Petrus Ramus a man whose renowne flyeth daily through out all the coastes of the world did so much enforce himselfe in his familiar talke to extoll the liberalitie and other excellent vertues of king Edwarde and Queene Elizabeth that he thought he neuer had a matter worthie to worke on with his wonderfull eloquence except he were discoursing of the nature of a Princely and Heroicall vertue whereof he represented a true and liuely portraiture in the actions and behauiour of these two Princes But the desire which I haue with the meanes to showe that the Spaniarde is no warlike man makes me to be somewhat the shorter in discoursing of the wisedome of the Englishmen I take that reason which I alleaged out of Aristotle to be sufficient to put backe the Spaniarde frō that place which he pretendes to haue amongest the warlike Nations Yet if any man chuse rather to referre himselfe to experience then to these Philosophicall reasons I haue sufficient to content him if he be a man that will be contented with reason I say then that before this last hundred yeares the Spanish Nation was had in no reputation for feates of armes And for proofe I report mee to the testimonie of Histories I say moreouer that since that time looke how often the Princes of Spaine haue placed the chiefest strength of their armies in bandes of the Spanish Nation they haue alwayes receiued the ouerthrow The battels of Rauenna Serizoles do sufficiently prooue my saying On the contrarie if they haue had any aduantages ouer vs as at Pauie saint Quintins and at Graueling they ought to thanke the Almaynes and Englishmen for it I confesse that vnder the conduct of the Emperour Charles they were brought to some order of discipline which they do yet and shall continue as long as it shall please God to vse them for the execution of his iust vengeance For it is he that both giueth and taketh vertue to and from men when and as oftentimes as he himselfe listeth as the Poet Homer hath very well noted saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God vertue giues God vertue takes from men As often as it pleaseth him and when And although the Spaniardes surpasse all other Nations in the world in vaine and foolish bragging when they fall in question of their owne prowesse and valiancie yet do they labour to surmount themselues in this impudent boasting when they once come to speake of their treasors and riches And for as much as this is the chief foundatiō of their imaginatiue greatnesse I will stand somewhat the longer on this point and will make it knowen that if they had but the third part of that riches which they imagine they haue they should be three times richer then they are The Aegyptians reported in their Histories that in the Temple of Iupiter there was a piller made of foure Emerauds hauing euerye one of them fortie cubites of length whereat Theophrastus iested pleasantly and with great reason Such like tales are found in the Spanish Historiographers concerning the Ile of Zipangrie where these good fellowes would faine make vs to beleeue that flies carrie double pike staues Touching the treasures of Peru to make vs vnderstande that their reportes are made by imitation of Lucians true tales they seeme not to haue forgotten anything vntolde sauing that in the Cabinet of Atapaliba they found a whole hundred of Diamonds euery one of them as bigge at least as an Ostriches egge But laying aside these lyes which can not be beleeued of any but of such as beleeue the reall veritie of Ouid his Metamorphosis Let vs consider that these riches come not into the king of Spaine his coffers like grasse in a medowe that is to say without any cost but on the contrarie that the carriage cost him deere Let vs consider farther that other Nations and especially the Frenchmen haue learned the way to Peru who fearing perhaps least the Spaniardes might perish in the sea by

remayned in arrerages But laying aside these colours of Castillan Rhetorick I say roundly that our French tongue is so bare that it hath no other tearme fit enough to specifie the good dealing of the Duke of Alua but theft and robberie And therefore if at this day he practise as well in Spaine with the lute as he hath doone with the harpe in Flanders king Phillip may well sende backe his Seuerino into Italy But howsoeuer it be the king his master hath reprehended his auarice but yet not with rigour hauing respect peraduenture to the order of the fleece which I dare well say hee hath no better reason to beare then because he first fleeced and then deuoured as a rauening Wolfe the innocent sheepe of a good shepheard For we must not thinke that hee and the rest of that Spanish rascall spared any more the bloud then the purses of the poore people of the lowe countries for they had commandement so to do And their Prince was not with anything so much moued as in that they did not handle thē yet more extreemely That soone mayest thou O new Pharao by thy miserable death make an end of the waylings of so many desolate persons But if any one thinke that the courages of the Spaniards haue been so inuenomed against those of the low countries for the different of Religion he showes that he is as little acquainted with their naturall disposition as with the state of their affaires It is about a hundred yeares since they discouered a new world vnder the conduct of Christopher Columbus who in my iudgment would neuer haue vndertaken this voyage if he had thought that the men whome hee brought thither as if they were charmed by the cup of Circe should straightwaies be transformed into Lions Panthers Tigres and other sauage beastes The Indians and Americans are poore barbarous and simple ones such as by good conuersation and godly perswasions might easily be wonne vnto Christ which way the Frenchmē haue since that time both wisely and happily followed But in truth we may well say that this new Indian and American world hath not beene so much vnknowen in times past as the new and enormous cruelties which these diuels incarnate comming out of Spaine do there put in practise O Turkes O Scithians O Tartarians reioyce yee now sithence at this day there is found in Christendome a Nation which by their wicked and detestable deeds go about to burie that hatred which is borne to your barbarous crueltie But I dwell too long on so tragicall a subiect which notwithstanding I do with as great griefe as with iust occasion Laying aside then such an argument as is sufficient to make Democritus weepe let vs speake of two articles eyther of which is such as hee had neede to be possessed with an humour more then Heracliticall that hearing and considering them neerely could abstaine from laughter It is of their ciuilitie and modestie Touching the first if any haue had that good hap neuer to haue beene conuersant with Spaniards and would notwithstāding be informed according to the truth of their Gothish ciuilitie hee can not see a more liuely portraiture nor a draught drawne by the hande of a happier Appelles then Terence in the description which hee makes of harlots in his Eunuch in these tearmes Quae dum foris sunt nihil videtur mundius nec magis compositum quicquam nec magis elegans And a little after he addeth Harum videre est ingluuiem sordes inopiam quàm inhonestae solae sint domi atque auidae cibi quo pacto ex iure hesterno panem atrum vorent I would say more were it not for displeasing of the delicate sort and we haue here set the Spaniardes on stage like good Apothecaries to furnish our selues with laughter at their charges And I pray you what man is there so melancholy that could forbeare laughter seeing a burden-bearer a cobler or a carter to call himselfe Caualiero or else to see a Caualiero of Spaine going thorough the fields to carrie the fragmentes of his dinner in a budget and to play a thousand other peasauntly partes which the carriers coblers and carters of our countrie would disdayne once to haue thought on The Mathematicians teach that in the operations of Algebra the most equall is often reduced vnto lesse The speeches of the Spaniardes do much resemble this diuine Algebricall misterie In so much that ordinarily these great and magnificent titles of a grand Caualiero hauing ten thousand duckets of reuenewe make as much beeing taken at their true rate and value as an vnthrift a rascall and a runnagate hauing scarse thirtie Maluedies in his purse to pay for patching of his pantofles So that one may well say to those magnificent Dom Diegos as sometimes said a great personage of Athens your discourse is like to the Cipres tree which being great and high bringeth foorth no fruite To be short he that would see a liuely picture of an Attalus a Suffenus or a Thraso without troubling himselfe too much in turning ouer Martiall Catullus and Terence let him onely consider the sterne lookes and stately speeches of a Spaniarde And although these tarcelets of Saracens be qualified as I haue sayde yet haue they with blowes of pistolets so blinded the eyes of some of our Courtiers that they are not ashamed to maintayne that wee are much bound to these honest creatures For my part I confesse I am not so sharpe witted as to see the foundation of this obligation except they will take it in the same sense that Antiochus did saying that he was much beholden to the Romains who hauing shortned his authoritie and power had eased him of a huge and heauie burden Euen so are wee indebted to the Spaniards in that they haue eased vs of such trauailes as the estates of Flanders Naples and Millayne might haue brought vnto vs. And moreouer to intreate yet farther of their good affection towardes vs is not this a testimonie of their cordiall Spanish amitie which they vsed in times past to our ancestors according to their cruell nature that hauing wonne the battell of our men they slue afterwardes all the prisoners they had in their hands as Froysard witnesseth Would any mā craue a clearer interpretation of that which heretofore I alleaged out of Guychardine that this Nation is most insolent when they haue found their aduantage to discouer themselues as they are that is to take off the maske of their hipocrisie It is also a faire testimony of their courtesie towards vs that cōtrary to their promised faith they massacred our men in Florida about twentie yeares since I had almost forgotten to produce one notable effect of their courtesie towardes vs that is the imprisonment of king Francis which himselfe tooke the more greeuously as Guichardine reportes because the remembrance of the English courtesie towardes king Iohn was deepely engrauen in his memorie What testimonie of amitie towards