great estimation For Princes did not vse to be serued at their Tables nor in their chambers with any vnlesse they were of his owne Kinred or auncient Seruants And concerning the other childe which was his companion the Emperour returned againe to his father saying That when hereafter hee should bee more shamefaste hee would receyue him into his seruice And certainely the Emperour had great reason for good graue Princes ought not to be serued with light shamelesse children I would now demaund Fathers which loue their children very well and would they should bee worthy what it auayleth their children to be faire of countenance wel disposed of body liuely of spirit white of skinne to haue yellow hayres to bee eloquent in speech profound in science if with all these graces that nature giueth them they bee too bolde in that they doe and shameles in that they say The Author hereof is Patritius Senensis in the first booke De Rege et regno One of the most fortunate princes was the great Theodosius the which amongst all other vertues had one most singular the which was that hee was neuer serued in his pallace with any young man that was vnshamefast or seditious nor with any olde man which was dishonest for he sayde oft times that Princes shall neuer bee well beloued if they haue about them lyers or slaunderers This good Emperour spake as a man of experience and very sage for if the Councellers and familiars of Princes bee euill taught and vnpatient they offend many and if they bee lyers they deceyue al and if they be dishonest they slaunder the people And these offences bee not so great vnto them that commit them as they bee vnto the Prince which suffereth them The Emperour Theodose had in his palace two Knights the one called Ruffinus and the other Stelliconus by whose prudence and wisedome the Common wealth was ruled and gouerned And as Ignatius Baptista sayeth they two were the Tutours and Gouernours of the children of Theodose whose names were Archadius and Honorius for as Seneca saith When good Princes doe die they ought to bee more carefull to procure Masters and Tutours which shall teach their children then to procure realmes or kingdomes for to enrich them The two Masters Stelliconus and Ruffinus had in the palace of Theodose each of them a sonne the which were maruellous well taught and very shamefast and for the contrary the two Princes Honorius and Arcadius were euill mannered and not very honest And therefore the good Emperour Theodose tooke these children oft times and set them at his Table and contrary hee would not once behold his owne Let no man maruel though a Prince of such a grauity did a thing of so small importance for to say the truth the shamefast children and well taught are but robbers of the hearts of other men Fourthly the Tutors and Masters of Princes ought to take good heed that when the young princes their Schollers waxe great that they giue not themselues ouer to the wicked vice of the flesh so that the sensuality and euill inclination of the wanton child ought to bee remoued by the wisedome of the chaste Master For this cursed flesh is of such condition that if once by wantonnes the wicket be opened death shall sooner approch then the gate shall be shut againe The trees which budde and cast leaues before the time our hope is neuer to eate of their fruit in season I meane that when children haunt the vice of the flesh whiles they be yong there is small hope of goodnesse to bee looked for in them when they be olde And the elder we see them waxe the more wee may be assured of their vices And where wee see that vice encreaseth there wee may affirme that vertue diminisheth Plato in his second booke of laws ordayneth and commaundeth that young men should not marry before they were 25. yeares of age and the young maydens at 20. becaust at that age their fathers abide lesse dangers in begetting them giuing of them life and the children also which are borne haue more strength against the assaults of death Therefore if it bee true as it is true indeed I aske now if to bee married and get children which is the end of marriage the Philosophers doe not suffer vntill such time as they bee men then I say that Masters ought not to suffer their schollers to haunt the vices of the flesh when they bee children In this case the good fathers ought not alone to commit this matter to their Tutors but also thereunto to haue an eye themselus For oft times they will say they haue been at their deuotions in the Temples when in deed they haue offered veneriall sacrifice to the Curtezan The vice of the flesh is of such condition that a man cannot giue himselfe vnto it without grudge of Conscience without hurt of his renowne without losse of his goods without shortning of his life and also without offence to the Common-wealth for oft times men enclined to such vice doe rebell trouble and slaunder the people Seneca satisfied me greatly in the which he writeth in the second booke De Clementia to Nero where hee sayeth these words If I knew the Gods would pardon me and also that men would not hate mee yet I ensure thee for the vilenes therof I would not sinne in the flesh And truly Seneca had reason for Aristotle sayeth That all Beastes after the act of Venerie are sorry but the Cocke alone O Gouernours and Masters of great Princes and Lords by the immortal Gods I sweare which created vs I coniure you and for that you owe to the Nobility I desire you that you will bridle with a sharpe snafle your charge and giue them not the reine to follow vices for if these young children liue they will haue time ynough to search to follow to attaine and also to cast off those yokes for through our frailety this wicked vice of the flesh in euery place in all ages in euery estate and at all times bee it by reason or not is neuer out of season What shall I say to you in this case if the children passe the furiousnes of their youth without the bridle then they bee voyde of the loue of God they follow the trumpet of sensuality after the sound whereof they runne headlong into the yoake and loose that that profiteth to win that which hurteth For in the carnall vices he that hath the least of that which sensuality desireth hath much more therof then reason willeth Considering that the Masters are negligent the children bolde their vnderstandings blinded and seeing that their appetites do accomplish beastly motions I aske now what remayneth to the childe and what contentation hath hee of such filth and naughtinesse Truly since the fleshly and vicious man is ouercome with his appetite of those that escape best I see none other fruit but that their bodies
was not the sobrest in drinking wine commaunded all the cups of gold siluer with the treasure hee had to be brought and set on the table because all the bidden guests should drinke therein King Balthasar did this to the end the Princes and Lords with al his Captains should manfully helpe him to defend the Siege and also to shew that hee had much treasure to pay them for their paines For to say the truth there is nothing that encourageth men of warre more then to see their reward before their eyes As they were drinking merily at the banquet of these cups which Nabuchodonozar had robbed from the Temple of Hierusalem suddenly by the power of God and the desert of his offences there appeared a hand in the wall without a body or arme which with his fingers wrote these words Mane Thetel Phares which signifieth O King Balthasar God hath seene thy life and findeth that thy malice is now accomplished Hee hath commaunded that thou and thy Realme should bee weighed and hath found that there lacketh a great deale of iust weight wherfore he commaundeth that thy life for thine offences bee taken from thee and that thy Realme bee put into the hands of the Persians and Medes which are thine enemies This vision was not frustrare for the same night without any longer delay the execution of the sentence was put in effect by the enemies The King Balthasar dyed the Realme was lost the treasures were robbed the Noble men taken and al the Chaldeans captiues I would now know sith Balthasar was so extreamely punished onely for giuing his Concubines friends drinke in the sacred cups what paine deserueth Princes and Prelates then which robbe the Churches for prophane things how wicked soeuer Balthasar was yet hee neuer chaunged gaue sold nor engaged the treasures of the Synagogue but what shall wee say and speake of Prelates which without any shame waste change sell and spend the Church goods I take it to be lesser offence to giue drinke in a Chalice as King Balthasar did to one of his Concubines then to enter into the Church by Symony as many do now a daies This Tyrant was ouercome more by folly then by couetousnesse but these others are vanquished with folly couetousnes and Symony What meaneth this also that for the offence of Nabuchodonozar in Ierusalem his sonne Balthasar should come and bee punished For this truely mee thinke not consonant to reason nor agreeable to mans Lawe that the Father should commit the Theft and the sonne should requite it with seuen double To this I answer That the good child is bound to restore all the goods that his Father hath left him euill gotten For hee that enioyeth the theft deserueth no lesse punishment then hee that committeth the theft For in the end both are theeues and deserue to bee hanged on the gallows of the diuine iustice Why King Ahab was punished IN the fifth Booke of Malachie that is to say in the third booke of Kings the 8. Chapter It is declared that Asa being King of Iudea and prophesying in Ierusalem at the time Omri was King of Israel and after him succeeded Ahab his sonne being of the age of 22 yeares This Ahab was not onely young of yeares but younger of vnderstanding and was numbred among the wicked Kings not onely euill but too euil for the Scriptures doe vse to call them by names infamed whose liues deserued no memory The vices of this King Ahab were sundry and diuers whereof I will declare some as hereafter followeth First of all hee followed altogether the life and steps of the King Ieroboam who was the first that entised the children of Israel to commit Idolatrie which thing turned to great reproach and infamy For the Prince erreth not imitating the pathes of the good but offendeth in following the wayes of the euill Secondarily this King Ahab married the daughter of the King of the Idumeans whose name was Iezabel which was of the stocke of the Gentiles and he of the Hebrewes And for a truth the marriage was vnaduisedly considered for sage Princes should take wiues conformable to their lawes and conditions vnlesse they wil repent themselus afterwards Thirdly hee built againe the City of Hierico which by the commaundement of God was destroyed and cōmanded that vpon grieuous pains it should not bee reedefied againe because the offences that were therein committed were so great that the Inhabitants did not onely deserue to lose their liues but also that in Hierico there should not one stone remaine vpon another Fourthly King Ahab built a sumptuous Temple to the Idol Baal in the City of Samaria and consecrated a wood vnto him which he had very pleasant and set in the Temple his Image of fine gold so that in the raign of this cursed King Baal the wicked Idol was so highly esteemed that not onely secretly but also openly they blasphemed the true liuing God The case was such that one day Ahab going against the King of Syria to take him and his City called Ramoth Gilead being in battell was shot into the brest with an arrow wherewith he not onely lost his life but also the dogges did lap vp his bloud that fell to the earth O Princes and great Lords if you will giue credite vnto mee you shall haue nothing more in recommendation then to bee good Christians Sith yee see that as this Prince in his life did serue strange Idols so it was reason that after his death his bloud should bee buried in the entrals of rauenous dogs why King Manasses was punished THe King Manasses was the sonne of Ezechias and Father of Amō which were all Kinges And truly they differed so much in manners and conditions that a man could scarcely iudge whether the vertues and prowesses of the Father were more to be desired or the vice and wickednesse of the children to bee abhorred This Manasses was a wicked Prince for as much as he built new Temples to Baal and in the Cities made Hermitages for the Idols and in the mountaines repayred all the Altars that heretofore were consecrated to the Deuill Hee consecrated many Forrests and Woods to the Idolls he honoured the Starres as the Gods did sacrifice to the Planets and Elements for the man that is abandoned by the hand of God there is no wickednesse that his obstinate heart doth not enterprise So that hee had in his Pallace all manner of false Prophets as Southsayers Prophesiers Witches Sorcerers Enchaunters and Coniurers the which dayly hee caused to giue sacrifice to the Idols and gaue such credite to Sorcerers and Inchaunters that his seruants were all for the most part Sorcerers and in them was his chiefe delight and pleasure And likewise he was skilfull in all kind of mischiefe and ignorant in all vertues He was so cruell and spilt so much innocent bloud that if it had beene water put together and the bodies of them that he slew layd
great Carthage who being of the yeares of 81 dyed in the first yeere of the wars of Punica they demaunded this Philosopher what it was that he knew he answered He knew nothing but to speake well They demaunded him againe what hee learned He answered Hee did learne nothing but to speake well Another time they demaunded him what hee taught Hee answered He taught nothing but to speake well Me thinketh that this good Philosopher in fourescore yeares and one said that he learned nothing but to speake well hee knew nothing but to speake well and that he taught nothing but to speake well And truely hee had reason for the thing which most adorneth mans life is the sweet pleasant tongue to speake well what is it to see two men in one counsell the one talking to the other the one of them hath an euill grace in propounding and the other excellent in speaking Of such there are some that in hearing them talke three houres wee would neyther be troubled nor wearied and of the contrary part there are others so tedious and rude in their speech that as soone as men perceiue they beginne to speake they auoyde the place And therefore in mine opinion there is no greater trouble then to hearken one quarter of an houre a rude man to speake and to be contrary there is no greater pleasure then to heare a discreete man though it were a whole weeke The diuine Plato in the Booke of Lawes sayde that there is nothing whereby a man is known more then by the words he speaketh for of the wordes which we heare him speake we iudge his intention eyther to bee good or euil Laertius in the life of the Phylosopher saieth that a young childe borne at Athens was brought vnto Socrates the great phylosopher being in Athens to the ende he should receyue him into his companie and teach him in his Schoole The yong childe was strange and shamefast and durste not speake before his Maister wherefore the Phylosopher Socrates sayd vnto him Speake friend if thou wilt that I know thee This sentence of Socrates was very profound I pray him that shall reade this writing to pause a while thereat For Socrates will not that a man be known by the gesture he hath but by the good or euill wordes which he speaketh Though eloquence and speaking well to euery man is a cause of augmenting their honour and no diminisher of their goods yet without comparison it shineth much more is most necessary in the Pallaces of Princesses and great Lords for men which haue common offices ought of necessity hearken to his naturall Countrimen and also to speake with strangers Speaking therefore most plainely I say that the Prince ought not to trauell onely to haue eloquence for the honour of his person but also it behoueth him for the Common-wealth For as the Prince is but one and is serued of all so it is vnpossible that hee haue so much as will satisfie and content them all And therefore it is necessary that hee requite some with money and that hee content others with good words For the Noble heart loueth better a gentle worde then a reward or gift with the tong of a rude man Plato Liuius Herodotus Vulpicius Eutropius Diorus Plinie and many other innumerable ancient Historiographers doe not cease to prayse the eloquence of Greeke princes and Latines in their workes Oh how blessed were those times when there were sage Princes and discreete Lordes truely they haue reason to exalt them For many haue obtayned and wonne the royall crownes and scepters of the Empire not so much for the great battels they haue conquered nor for the high bloud and generation from whence they are discended as for the wisedome and eloquence which they had Marcus Aurelius was naturall of Rome borne in Mount Celio hee was poore in patrimony and of base lynage little in fauour left and forsakē of his parents and besides all this onely for being vertuous in this life profound in doctrine and of so high eloquence the Emperour Antonius called Pius gaue him his daughter Faustine for wife who being reproued of many because he gaue his daughter to so poore a Philosopher answered I had rather haue a poore Philosopher then a rich foole Pulio in his seuenth booke of the Romaine lawes sayth that in Rome there was a law very well kept and obserued of the Consels by a custom brought in that the Dictators Censor and Emperors of Rome entred into the Senate once in the weeke at the least and in this place they should giue and render account in what state the common wealth remayned O would to God that at this present this Law were so kept and obserued for there is none who doth minister so good iustice as he which thinketh to giue account of his doings They say that Caligula the fourth Emperour of Rome was not onelie deformed infamous and cruell in his life but also was an Idiot in eloquēce and of an euill vtterance in his communication so that hee among all the Romane Princes was constrained to haue others to speake for him in the Senate This wicked man was so vnfortunate that after his cruell and infamous death they drew him throughout Rome and set vpon his graue this Epitaph Caligula lyeth here in endlesse sleepe That stretcht his raigne vpon the Empires head Vnfitte for rule that could such folly heape And fitte for death where vertue so was dead I Cannot tell why Princes do praise themselues to be strong and hardie to bee well disposed to bee runners to iust well and doe not esteeme to be eloquent since it is true that those gifts doe profite them onely for their life but the eloquence profiteth them not onely for to honour their life but also to augment their renowne For wee doe reade that by that many Princes did pacifie great seditions in the common wealth and besides that they deserued immortall memory Suetonius Tranquillus in the first book of Caesars sayth that the aduenturous Iulius Caesar being as yet but 16. yeares of age when there dyed in Rome an aunt of his called Cornelia at her buriall hee made an Oration in the which hee beeing so young shewed maruellous great eloquence which was so accepted that day in al people that in the end euery man iudged him to bee a valiant Romane Captaine And as Appianus declareth they say that Silla spake these words That which I perceyue of this young man Caius Caesar is that in the boldnesse of his tongue he declareth how valiant he ought to bee in his person Let therefore Princes and great Lordes see how much it may profite them to know to speake well and eloquently For wee see no other thing dayly but that a man of base lynage by his eloquence commeth to be exalted and the other which of linage is nobly borne for want of speaking well and being eloquent is the first that discendeth most vilest of all other
follow the straunge follie of another then to furnish and supplie their owne proper necessitie Therefore returning againe to my purpose most excellent Prince by this example you may coniecture what I would say that is that if this writing were accepted vnto Princes I am assured it would be refused of no man And if any man would slanderously talke of it hee durst not remeÌ„bring that your Maiesty hath receyued it For those things which Princes take to their custody wee are bound to defend and it is not lawfull for vs to diminish their credite Suppose that this my worke were not so profound as it might be of this matter nor with such eloquence set out as many other bookes are yet I dare bee bolde to say that the Prince shall take more profit by reading of this worke then Nero did by his loue Pompeia For in the end by reading and studying good bookes men turn and become sage and wise and by keeping ill company they are counted fooles and vitious My meaning is not nor I am not so importunate and vnreasonable to perswade Princes that they should so fauour my doctrine that it should be in like estimation now in these parts â—a the amber was there in Rome But that onely which I require and demaund is that the time which Nero spent in singing and telling the hayres of his loue Pompeia should now bee employed to redresse the wrongs faults of the common wealth For the noble and worthy Prince ought to employ the least part of the day in the recreation of his person After hee hath giuen audience to his Counsellours to the Ambassadours to the great Lords and Prelates to the rich and poore to his own countrey men strangers and after that he be com into his Priuy Chamber then my desire is that hee would reade this Treatise or som other better then this for in Princes chambers oftentimes those of the Priuie Chamber and other their familiars lose great time in reciting vaine and trifling matters and of small profit the which might better bee spent in reading some good good booke In all worldly affayres that wee do and in all our bookes which we compile it is a great matter to bee fortunate For to a man that fortune doth not fauour diligence without doubt can little auaile Admit that fortune were against mee in that this my worke should bee acceptable vnto your Maiesty without comparison it should be a great griefe and dishonour vnto mee to tel you what should be good to reade for your pastime if on the other part you would not profite by my counsell and aduise For my mind was not onely to make this booke to the end Princes should reade it for a pastime but to that end in recreating themselues sometimes they might thereby also take profit Aulus Gelius in the 12. Chapter of his third booke entituled De nocte attica sayde that amongst all the Schollers which the diuine Plato had one was named Demostenes a man among the Greekes most highly esteemed of the Romanes greatly desired Because hee was in his liuing seuere and in his tongue and doctrine a very Satyre If Demosthenes had come in the time of Phalaris the tyrant when Grecia was peopled with tirants and that hee had not beene in Platoes time when it was replenished with Philosophers truely Demosthenes had been as cleare a lanterne in Asia as Cicero the great was in Europe Great good hap hath a notable man to bee born in one age more then in another I meane that if a valiant Knight come in the time of a couragious and stout Prince such a one truly shall bee esteemed and set in great authority But if hee come in the time of an other effeminate and couetous Prince bee shall not bee regarded at all For hee will rather esteeme one that wel augment his treasure at home then him that can vanquish his enemies abroad So likewise it chanceth to wise and vertuous men which if they come in the time of vertuous and learned princes are esteemed and honoured but if they come in time of vaine and vicious Princes they make small account of them For it is an auncient custom among vanities children not to honour him which to the Common wealth is most profitable but him which to the Prince is most acceptable The end why this is spoken Most puissant Prince is because the two renowmed Philosophers were in Greece both at one time and because the diuine Philosopher Plato was so much esteemed and made of they did not greatly esteeme the Philosopher Demosthenes For the eminent high renowne of one alone diminisheth the fame and estimation among the people of many Although Demosthenes was such a one indeed as wee haue sayde that is to witte eloquent of tongue ready of memory sharpe and quicke of witte in liuing seuere sure and profitable in giuing of counsell in renowne excellent in yeares very auncient and in Philosophy a man right well learned yet hee refused not to goe to the Schooles of Plato to heare morall Philosophie He that shall reade this thing or heare it ought not to maruel but to follow it and to profit likewise in the same that is to vnderstand that one Philosopher learned of another and one wise man suffred himself to be taught of another For knowledge is of such a quality that the more a man knoweth dayly there encreaseth in him a desire to know more All things of this life after they haue beene tasted and possessed cloyeth a man wearieth and troubleth him true science onely excepted which neuer doth cloy weary nor trouble them And if it happen wee weary any it is but the eyes which are wearied with looking and reading and not the spirite with seeling and tasting Many Lords and my familiar friends doe aske mee how it is possible I should liue with so much study And I also demaund of them how it is possible they should liue in such continuall idlenes For considering the prouocation and assaults of the flesh the daungers of the world the temptations of the deuil the treasons of enemies importunity of friends what hart can suffer so great and continuall trauell but onely in reading and comforting himselfe in bookes Truely a man ought to haue more compassion of a simple ignorant man then of a poore man For thereis no greater pouerty vnto a man then for to lacke wisedom whereby he should know how to gouerne himselfe Therefore following our matter the case was such one day Demosthenes going to the schoole of Plato saw in the market place of Athens a great assembly of people which were hearing a Philosopher newly come vnto that place and hee spake not this without a cause that there was a great company of people assembled For that naturally the common people are desirous to heare new and strange things Demosthenes asked what Philosopher hee was after whom so many people went and when it was
and of the Senate best fauoured to whom they committed the charge of the most cruell and dangerous warres For their strife was not to beare rule and to be in office or to get money but to be in the Frontiers to ouercome their enemies In what estimation these foure Frontiers were wee may easily perceyue by that wee see the most noble Romanes haue passed some part of their youth in those places as Captaines vntill such time that for more weighty affaires they were appointed from thence to som other places For at that time there was no word so grieuous and iniurious to a Citizen as to say Goe thou hast neuer beene brought vp in the wars and to proue the same by examples The great Pompey passed the Winter season in Constantinople The aduenturous Scipio in Colonges the couragious Caesar in Gades and the renowmed Marius in Rhodes And these foure were not only in the Frontiers aforesaid in their youth but there they did such valiant acts that the memory of them remaineth euermore after their death These thinges I haue spoken to proue sith wee finde that Marcus Aurelius father was Captain of one of these 4. Frontiers it followeth that he was a man of singular wisdome and prowesse For as Scipio sayd to his friend Masinissa in Affrike It is not possible for a Romane Captaine to want eyther wisdome or courage for thereunto they were predestined at their birth Wee haue no authenticke authorities that sheweth vs frō whence when or how in what countries and with what persons this captaine passed his youth And the cause is for that the Romane Chroniclers were not accustomed to write the things done by their Princes before they were created but onely the acts of yong men which from their youth had their hearts stoutly bent to great aduentures and in my opinion it was well done For it is greater honour to obtaine an Empire by policy and wisdome then to haue it by discent so that there be no tyranny Suetonius Tranquillus in his first booke of Emperours counteth at large the aduenturous enterprises taken in hand by Iulius Caesar in his yong age and how far vnlikely they were from thought that he should euer obtaine the Romane Empire writing this to shew vnto Princes how earnestly Iulius Caesars heart was bent to win the Romane Monarchy and likewise how wisdom fayled him in behauing himselfe therin A Philosopher of Rome wrote to Phalaris the Tirant which was in Cicilia asking him Why hee possessed the realme so long by tyranny Phalaris answered him againe in another Epistle in these few wordes Thou callest mee tyrant because I haue taken this realme and kept it 32. yeares I graunt then quoth hee that I was a tyrant in vsurping it For no man occupyeth another mans right but by reason he is a tyrant But yet I will not agree to be called a Tyrant sith it is now xxxii yeares since I haue possessed it And though I haue atchieued it by tyranny yet I haue gouerned it by wisdome And I let thee to vnderstand that to take another mans goods it is an easie thing to conquere but a hard thing to keepe an easie thing for to keepe them I ensure thee it is very hard The Emperour Marcus Aurelius married the daughter of Antoninus Pius the 16. Emperour of Rome and she was named Faustina who as sole Heyre had the Empire and so through marriage Marcus Aurelius came to be Emperour This Faustine was not so honest and chast as shee was faire and beautifull Shee had by him two sonnes Commodus and Verissimus Marcus Aurelius triumphed twice once when he ouercame the Parthians and another time when hee conquered the Argonants He was a man very well learned and of a deepe vnderstanding Hee was as excellent both in the Greeke and Latine as hee was in his mothers tongue Hee was very temperate in eating and drinking hee wrote many things full of good learning and sweete sentences He dyed in conquering the realme of Pannonia which is now called Hungarie His death was as much bewayled as his life was desired And hee was loued so deare and entirely in the City of Rome that euery Romane had a statue of him in his house to the end the memory of him among them should neuer decay The which was neuer read that they euer did for any other King or Emperour of Rome no not for Augustus Caesar who was best beloued of all other Emperours of Rome Hee gouerned the Empire for the space of eighteene yeere with vpright iustice and died at the age of 63 yeeres with much honor in the yeere Climatericke which is in the 63. years wherein the life of man runneth in great perill For then are accomplished the nine seuens or the seuen nines Aulus Gelius writeth a Chapter of this matter in the booke De noctibus Atticis Marcus Aurelius was a Prince of life most pure of doctrine most profound and of fortune most happy of all other Princes in the world saue only for Faustine his wife and Commodus his sonne And to the end we may see what Marcus Aurelius was from his infancy I haue put here an Epistle of his which is this CHAP. II. Of a letter which Marcus Aurelius sent to his friend Pulio wherein he declareth the order of his whole life and amongst other things he maketh mention of a thing that happened to a Romane Censor with his Host of Campagnia MAreus Aurelius only Emperour of Rome greeteth thee his old friend Pulio wisheth health to thy person peace to the common-wealth As I was in the Temple of the Vestall Virgins a letter of thine was presented vnto me which was written long before and greatly desired of me but the best therof is that thou writing vnto me briefly desirest that I should write vnto thee at large which is vndecent for the authority of him that is chiefe of the Empire in especiall if such one be couetous for to a Prince there is no greater infamy then to be lauish of words and scant of rewards Thou writest to me of the griefe in thy leg and that thy wound is great and truly the paine thereof troubleth me at my heart and I am right sorry that thou wantest that which is necessary for thy health and that good that I do wish thee For in the end all the trauels of this life may be endured so that the body with diseases be not troubled Thou lettest me vnderstand by thy letters that thou art arriued at Rhodes and requirest me to write vnto thee how I liued in that place when I was yong what time I gaue my minde to study and likewise what the discourse of my life was vntill the time of my being Emperor of Rome In this case truly I maruell at thee not a little that thou shouldest aske me such a question and so much the more that thou didst not consider that I cannot with out great trouble and
paine answere thy demand For the doings of youth in a yong man were neuer so vpright honest but it were more honest to amend them then to declare them Annius Verus my father shewing vnto me his fatherly loue not accomplishing yet fully 13. years drew me frō the vices of Rome and sent mee to Rhodes to learn science howbeit better accompanied with books then loden with money where I vsed such diligence and fortune so fauored me that at the age of 26. years I read openly natural and moral Philosophy and also Rhetoricke and there was nothing gaue mee such occasion to study and reade books as the want of money For pouerty causeth good mens children to be vertuous so that they attaine to that by vertue which others com vnto by riches Truely friend Pulio I found great want of the pleasures of Rome especially at my first comming into the Isle but after I had read Philosophy x. yeares at Rhodes I tooke my selfe as one born in the countrey And I think my conuersation among them caused it seeme no lesse For it is a rule that neuer faileth That vertue maketh a stranger grow naturall in a strange country and vice maketh the naturall a stranger in his owne countrey Thou knowest well how my Father Annius Verus was 15. years a Captain in the Frontiers against the barbarous by the commandement of Adrian my Lord and Master and Antoninus Pius my Father in Law both of them Princes of famous memory which recommended mee there to their olde friends who with fatherly counsell exhorted me to forgette the vices of Rome and to accustome my selfe to the vertues of Rhodes And truely it was but needfull for mee For the naturall loue of the country oft times bringeth damage to him that is borne therein leading his desire still to returne home Thou shalt vnderstand that the Rhodians are men of much courtesie and requiting benenolences which chanceth in few Isles because that naturally they are persons deceitfull subtill vnthankefull and full of suspition I speake this because my Fathers friends alwaies succored me with counsel mony which 2 things were so necessary that I could not tell which of them I had most need of For the stranger maketh his profite with money to withstand disdainefull pouerty profiteth himself with counsel to forget the sweet loue of his country I desired then to reade Philosophie in Rhodes so long as my Father continued there Captaine But that could not bee for Adrian my Lord sent for me to return to Rome which pleased me not a litle albeit as I haue said they vsed me as if I had beene borne in that Iland for in the end Although the eyes bee fedde with delight to see strange things yet therefore the heart is not satisfied And this is all that touched the Rhodians I will now tell thee also how before my going thither I was borne and brought vp in mount Celio in Rome with my father from mine infancie In the common wealth of Rome there was a law vsed and by custome well obserued that no Citizen which enioyed any liberty of Rome after their sonnes had accomplished tenne yeares should bee so bold or hardy to suffer them to walke the streetes like vacabonds For it was a custome in Rome that the children of the Senators should sucke till two yeares of age till foure they should liue at their own willes till sixe they should reade till eight they should write til ten they should study Grammer and ten years accomplished they should then take some craft or occupation or giue themselues to study or goe to the warres so that throughout Rome no man was idle In one of the lawes of the twelue Tables were written these words Wee ordaine and commaund that euery Citizen that dwelleth within the circuite of Rome or Liberties of the same from ten yeares vpwards to keepe his son well ordered And if perchance the child being idle or that no man teaching him any craft or science should thereby peraduenture fall to vice or commit some wicked offence that then the Father no lesse then the Sonne should bee punished For there is nothing so much breedeth vice amongst the people as when the Fathers are too negligent and the children bee too bold And furthermore another Law sayde Wee ordaine and commaund that after tenne yeares bee past for the first offence that the child shall commit in Rome that the Father shall bee bound to send him forth some where else or to bee bound surety for the good demeanour of his Sonne For it is not reason that the fond loue of the Father to the Sonne should bee an occasion why the multitude should bee slaunred Because all the wealth of the Empire consisteth in keeping and maintaining quiet men and in banishing and expelling seditious persons I will tell thee one thing my Pulio and I am sure thou wilt maruell at it and it is this When Rome triumphed and by good wisdome gouerned all the world the inhabitants in the same surmounted the number of two hundred thousand persons which was a maruellous matter Amongst whom as a man may iudge there was a hundred thousand children But they which had the charge of them kept them in such awe and doctrine that they banished from Rome one of the sonnes of Cato Vticensis for breaking an earthen pot in a Maydens hands which went to fetch water In like manner they banished the sonne of good Cinna only for entring into a garden to gather fruit And none of these two were as yet fifteene yeeres old For at that time they chastised them more for the offences done in iest then they do now for those which are don in good earnest Our Cicero sayth in his booke De Legibus That the Romanes neuer tooke in any thing more pains then to restrain the children as well olde as the young from idlenes And so long endured the feare of their Law and honour of their common wealth as they suffered not their children like vagabonds idlely to wander the streetes For that country may aboue all other bee counted happy where each one enioyeth his owne labour and no man liueth by the sweate of another I let thee know my Pulio that when I was a child although I am not yet very old none durst bee so hardy to goe commonly through Rome without a token about him of the craft and occupation hee exercised and wherby hee liued And if any man had beene taken contrary the children did not onely crie out of him in the streets as of a foole but also the Censour afterwards condemned him to trauell with the captiues in common workes For in Rome they esteemed it not lesse shame to the child which was idle then they did in Greece to the Philosopher which was ignorant And to the end thou mayest see this I write vnto thee to be no new thing thou oughtest to know that the Emperour caused
was a Goddesse of the bars and hinges of the gates and the cause why the Auncients did sacrifice to her was that no man should breake the gates nor lift vp the hinges and that if they went about to put to their hands immediately the hinges should make a noyse to awake the Master of the house that hee might heare it and know that his enemies were at the gate There was another God who was called Siluanus and was most honored among the Auncients especially among all the Romanes This God had the charge to keepe those from perill and misfortune that went for their pleasures and recreation to the Gardens as Plinie sayth in an Epistle he wrote to Rutilius The first that built a Temple for the God Siluanus was Mecenas which was in the time of Augustus And hee desired aboue all other men to make feasts and banquets in Gardens This Temple was in the eleuenth Warde in the field of the Goddesse Venus neare vnto the house of Murcea which was destroyed in the time of the Emperour Antoninus Pius through an Earthquake whereby many buildings and houses fell in Rome Iugatiuus was the God of marriages who had charge to make the loue which begunne in youth to endure till the olde age It was wonderful to see how the women newly married went on pilgrimage for Deuotion vnto this God and what gifts and presents they offered in his Temple Suetonius Tranquillus sayeth that there was a Temple of this God but I finde not in writing by whom it was built saying that Helius Spartanus sayeth that the Emperour Heliogabalus found much riches in the Temple of Iugatibus the which hee tooke away to maintaine his wars Bacchus was the God of drunkards and the custome in Rome was that only mad men and fooles celebrated the feast of this God and if there were found any of wit and vnderstanding were it neuer so little they thrust him forthwith out of the Temple and sought in his steade another drunkard The Temple of Bacchus was in the 10. Warde in the meadowes which they call Bacchanales without the City in the way of Salaria by the Altars of the goddesse Februa and it was built by the Gaules when they besieged Rome in the time of Camillus Februa was a Goddesse for the feuers and they vsed in Rome when any was taken with the feauer immediately to send some sacrifice vnto her This Goddesse had no Temple at all but her Image was in Pantheon which was a Temple wherein all the Gods were and in this place they sacrificed vnto her Pauor was the God of feare who had the charge to take feare from the Romanes hearts and to giue them stoute courage against their enemies The Temple of this God Pauor was in Rome in the sixth Ward in the place of Mamuria neare to the olde Capitoll and euer when they had any enemies the Romaines forth with offered in this place sacrifices and there was in the same Temple a statue of Scipio the Affricane all of siluer which hee offered there when hee triumphed ouer the Carthagenians Meretrix was the Goddesse of dishonest women and as Publius Victor sayeth There was in Rome forty streetes of common women In the middest whereof the Temple of this Meretrix was It chanced in the time of Ancus Martius the fourth King of the seuen Romane Kinges that there was in Rome a Curtezan Natiue of Laurento which was so fayre that with her body shee gained great riches wher of shee made all the Romane people partakers Wherefore in the memory of her the Romanes built there a temple and made her Goddesse of all the common women in Rome Cloatina was Goddesse of the stoole and to this Goddesse all those commended themselues which were troubled with the Collycke to the ende shee would helpe them to purge their bellies Quies was the Goddesse of rest and to her the Romanes did offer great Sacrifices because that she should giue them pleasure and rest especially on that day when there was any triumph or solemnitie in Rome they gaue in this Temple many gistes because shee should preserue the glory and ioy of the triumphes Numa Pompilius second King of the Romaines built the Temple of this Goddesse and it was without the City for to note that during the life of man in this world hee could neyther haue pleasure nor rest Theatrica was a Goddesse which had the charge to keepe the Theaters and Stages when the Romanes celebrated their Playes and the occasion of inuenting of this Goddesse was because when the Romaines would set foorth theyr Tragedyes they made so solemne Theaters that there might well stand twentie thousand men aboue and as manie vnderneath for to behold the spectacle And sometime it hapned that for the great weight of them aboue the wood of the Theaters and Stages brake and killed all those which were vnderneath and so after this sort all their pastime turned into sorrow The Romanes which vvere prouided in all things agreed to doe Sacrifice vnto the Goddesse Theatrica to the ende shee should preserue them from the dangers of the Theaters and built her a Temple in the ninth ward in the market-place of Cornelia neere to the House of Fabij Domitian the twelfth Emperour of Rome destroyed this Temple because in his presence one of the Theaters brake and killed manie people And for that the Goddesse Theatrica had not better preserued them hee made this Temple to be beaten down Peraduenture those that haue read little shall finde these things now ynough but let them reade Cicero in his booke De Natura Deorum Ihon Bocchas of the Genealogie of Gods and Pulio of the Auncients Gods And Saint Augustine in the first the eleuenth and the eighteenth booke of Citie of God and they shall finde a great number more then is heere spoken of CHAP. XIII ¶ How Tiberius the Knight was chosen Gouernour of the Empyre and afterwards created Emperour onely for being a good Christian And how GOD depriued Iustinian the younger both of his Empyre and Senses for beeing an Heretique THe fiftie Emperour of Rome was Tiberius Constantinus who succeeded Iustinian the younger which was a cruell Emperour And Paulus Dyaconus sayeth That hee was an enemie to the poore a Thiefe to the Rich a great louer of riches and an enemie to himselfe in spending them For the propertie of a couetous man is to liue like a Beggar all the dayes of his life and to be found rich at the houre of his death This Iustinian was so exceeding couetous that hee commaunced strong coffers and chests of yron to be made and brought into his Pallace to keepe in safety the euil-gotten treasures that he had robbed And of this you ought not to maruell for Seneca saith That couetous Princes do not only suspect their Subiects but also themselues In those daies the Church was greatly defiled by the heresie of the Pelagians and the maintayner of that Sect was
and had memorie fresh being meanely learned in Philosophy but he was of much eloquēce and for to encourage and counsell the Athenians he was sent to the warres For when the Ancients tooke vpon them any warres they chose first Sages to giue counseil then Captains to leade the souldiers And amongst the Prisoners the Philosopher Epicurus was taken to whom the tyrant Lysander gaue good entertainement and honoured him aboue all other and after hee was taken hee neuer went from him but read Philosophy vnto him and declared vnto him histories of times past and of the strength and vertues of many Greekes and Troians The tyrant Lysander reioyced greatly at these things For truly tyrants take great pleasure to heare the prowesse and vertues of Ancients past and to follow the wickednesse and vices of them that are present Lysander therefore taking the triumph and hauing a Nauie by sea and a great Army by land vpon the riuer of Aegeon he and his Captaines forgot the danger of the wars and gaue the bridle to the flothfull flesh so that to the great preiudice of the Common wealth they led a dissolute and idle life For the manner of tyrannous Princes is to leaue off their ownt trauell and to enioy that of other mens The Philosopher Epicurus was alwayes brought vp in the excellent Vniuersity of Athens whereas the Philosophers liued in so great pouerty that naked they slept on the ground their drinke was colde water none amongst them had any house proper they despised riches as pestilence and labored to make peace where discord was they were onely defenders of the Common wealth they neuer spake any idle word and it was a sacriledge amongst them to heare a lye and finally it was a Law inuiolable amongst them that the Philosopher that should bee idle should bee banished and he that was vicious should be put to death The wicked Epicurius forgetting the doctrine of his Master and not esteeming grauity whereunto the Sages are bound gaue himselfe wholly both in words and deedes vnto a voluptuous beastly kind of life wherin he put his whole felicity For hee sayde There was no other felicity for slothfull men then to sleepe in soft beds for delicate persons to feele neyther hote nor cold for fleshly men to haue at their pleasure amorus Dames for drunkards not to want any pleasant wines and gluttons to haue their fils of al delicate meats for herein hee affirmed to consist all worldly felicity I doe not maruell at the multitude of his Schollers which hee had hath and shall haue in the world For at this day there are very few in Rome that suffer not themselues to be mastered with vices and the multitude of those which liue at their owne wils and sensuality are infinite And to tell the truth my friend Pulio I do not maruell that there hath been vertuous neither doe I muse that there hath beene vitious for the vertuous hopeth to rest himselfe with the Gods in an other World by his well doing and if the vitious bee vitious I doe not maruell though he will goe and engage himselfe to the vices of this world since he doth not hope neyther to haue pleasure in this not yet to enioy rest with the gods in the other For truly the vnstedfast beleefe of an other life after this wherein the wicked shall bee punished and the good rewarded causeth that now a dayes the victous and vices raigne so as they doe Of the Philosopher Eschilus ARtabanus beeing the sixt king of Persians and Quintus Concinatus the husbandman beeing onely Dictator of the Romanes in the Prouince of Tharse there was a Philosopher named Aeschilus who was euill fauoured of countenance deformed of body fierce in his lookes and of a very grosse vnderstanding but hee was fortunate of credite for he had no lesse credite amongst the Tharses then Homer had among the Greekes They say that though this Philosopher was of a rude knowledge yet otherwise he had a very good naturall wit and was very diligent in harde things and very patient with these that did him wrong hee was exceeding couragious in aduersity and moderate in prosperities And the thing that I most of all delighted in him was that hee was courteous and gentle in his conuersation and both pithie and eloquent in his communication For that man onely is happy where all men prayse his life and no man reproueth his tongue The auncient Greekes declare in their Histories that this Philosopher Aeschilus was the first that inuented Tragedies and that got money to represent them and sith the inuention was new and pleasant many did not onely follow him but they gaue him much of their goods And maruel not thereat my friend Pulio for the lightnesse of the Common people is such that to see vaine things all will runne and to heare the excellency of vertues there is not one will goe After this Philosopher Aeschylus had written many bookes specially of Tragedies and that he had afterward trauelled through many Countries Realmes at the last hee ended the residue of his life neare the Isles which are adioyning vnto the Lake of Meatts For as the diuine Plato saveth when the auncient Philosophers were young they studied when they came to be men they trauelled and then when they were old they retyred home In mine opinion this Philosopher was wise to do as he did and no lesse shall men now a dayes bee that will imitate him For the Fathers of wisdome are Science and Experience and in this consisteth true knowledge when the man at the last returneth home from the troubles of the World Tell me my friend Pulio I pray thee what dooth it profite him that hath learned much that hath heatd much that hath knowne much that hath seene much that hath beene farre that hath bought much that hath suffered much and hath proued much that had much if after great trauell he doth not retire to repose himselfe a little truly hee cannot be counted wise but a foole that willingly offereth himselfe to trauell hath not the wit to procure himselfe rest for in mine opinion the life without rest is a long death By chance as this ancient Philosopher was sleeping by the lake Meatis a Hunter had a Hare with him in a Cage of woode to take other Hares by whereon the Eagle seazed which tooke the Cage with the Hare on high and seeing hee could not eate it hee cast it downe againe which fell on the heade of this Philosopher and killed him This Philosopher Aeschylus was demaunded in his life time wherein the felicity of this life consisted hee answered that in this opinion it consisted in sleeping and his reason was this that when wee sleepe the entisements of the flesh do not prouoke vs nor the enemy persecute vs neyther the friends do importune vs nor the colde winter oppresse vs nor the heate of long Sommer doth annoy vs nor yet wee
in adulterie And that he would neuer graunt his voyce nor bee in place where they committed any charge in the warres to a man that had not a lawfull wife I say therefore that if the Gentiles and Infidels esteemed Marriage so much and despised the deedes of the adulterers so greatly much more true Christians should be in this case warie and circumspect For the gentiles feared nothing but onely infamy but all true Christians ought to feare both infamie and also paine Since that of necessitie mans seede must increase and that wee see men suffer themselues to bee ouercome with the flesh it were much better that they should maintaine a good Houshold and liue vprightly with a wife then to waste theyr goods and burden theyr conscience with a Concubine For it is oftentimes seene that that which a Gentleman consumeth abrode vpon an Harlot with shame would keepe his Wife and Children at home with honestie The third commoditie of Marryage is the laudable and louing companie the which is or ought to bee betweene them that are Matryed The anciēt Philophers defining what Man was saide That hee was a creature the which by nature was sociable communicable reasonable wherof it followeth that the man beeing solitarie and close in his conditions cannot bee in his stomacke but enuious We that are men loue the good inclination and doe also commend the same in beasts for all that the sedicious man and the resty horse eate wee thinke it euill spent A sad man a sole man a man shut in and solitary what profite can hee doe to the people For if euery man should be locked vp in his house the Common-wealth should forthwith perish My intention is to speake against the Vacabonds which without taking vpon them any craft or facultie passe the age of fortie of fiftie yeares and would not nor will not marrie yet because they would be vicious all the daies of their life It is a great shame and conscience to many men that neuer determine with themselues to take vpon them any estate neyther to bee Marryed chaste secular or Ecclesiasticall but as the corke vpon the water they swimme whether their Sensualitie leadeth them One of the most laudable and holy companyes which is in this life is the companie of the Man and the Woman in especiallie if the woman bee vertuous For the noble and vertuous wife withdraweth all the sorowes from the heart of her Husband and accomplisheth his desires whereby he liueth at rest When the wife is vertuous and the husband wise wee ought to belieue that betweene them two is the true loue For the one not being suspect with the other and hauing childrē in the midst it is vnpossible but that they should liue in concord For all that I haue read seene I would say that if the mā the wife doe liue quietly together a man may not only cal them good maried folks but also holy persons for to speake the truth the yoke of matrimony is so great that it cannot be accomplished without much merite The contrarie ought and may be said of those which are euill marryed whom we will not call a companie of Saintes but rather a companie of diuells For the wise that hath an euill husband may say shee hath a diuell in her house and the Husband that hath an euill Wife let him make account that hee hath a Hell it selfe in his house For the euill wiues are worse then infernall Furies Because in hell there are none tormented but the euill onely but the euill woman tormenteth both the good and the euill Concluding therefore this matter I say also and affirme that betwixt the Husband and the wife which are wel married is the true and very loue and they onely and no others may be called perfit and perpetuall friends The other Parents and Friendes if they do loue and praise vs in our presence they hate and despise vs in our absence If they giue vs faire words they beare vs euill hearts Finallie they loue vs in our prosperitie and forsake vs in our aduersitie but it is not so amongst the Noble and vertuous married persons For they loue both within and without the house in prosperity and in aduersitie in pouertie and in riches in absence and in presence seeing themselues merrie and perceyuing themselues sad and if they doe it not truely they ought to doe it For when the Husband is troubled in his foote the wife ought to be grieued at her heart The fourth commoditie of Marriage is that the men and women marryed haue more authoritie and grauitie then the others The lawes which were made in olde time in the fauour Marriage were manie and diuers For Capharoneus in the lawes that hee gaue to the Egyptians cōmanded and ordained vpon grieuous paines that the man that was not maryed should not haue any office of gouernment in the Common-wealth And he saide further that hee that hath not learned to gouern his house can euil gouerne a common-wealth According to the Lawes that hee gaue to the Athenians hee perswaded all those of the Common-wealth to marry themselues voluntarily but to the heads and Captaines which gouerne the affaires of warre hee commaunded to marrie of necessitie saying That to men which are lecherous God seldome giueth victoryes Lycurgus the renowmed gouernor and giuer of the lawes to the Lacedemonians commaunded that all Captaines of the armyes and the Priestes of the temples should bee marryed saying That the sacrifices of Marryed men were more acceptable to the Gods then those of any other As Plinie saith in an Epistle that hee sent to Falconius his friend rebuking him for that hee was not marryed where he declareth that the Romaines in olde time had a law that the Dictatour and the Pretor the Censour and the Questour and all the Knights should of necessity be marryed For the man that hath not a wife and children Legitimate in his house cannot haue nor hold great authoritie in the Common-wealth Plutarche in the booke that he made of the praise of Marriage saith that the Priests of the Romaines did not agree to them that were vnmarryed to come and sit downe in the temples so that the young-Maydens prayed without at the Church dore and the young men prayed on theyr knees in the Temple onely the marryed men were permitted to sit or stand Plynie in an Epistle that hee wrote to Fabarus his father in law saith that the Emperor Augustus had a custom that he neuer suffered any yong man in his presence to sitte nor permitted any man Marryed to tell his tale on foote Plutarch in the booke that hee made in the praise of women saieth that since the Realme of Corinth was peopled more with Batchelours then with Marryed men they ordayned amongst them that the man or woman that had not bene marryed and also that had not kept Children and House if they liued after a certaine age after theyr
Empire were but slenderly done and looked vnto For the Prince cannot haue so small a Feuer but the people in the common-wealth must haue it double This Emperour Palleolus had a wife whose name was Huldonina the which after she had brought all the Physitions of Asia vnto her Husband and that shee had ministred vnto him all the medicines shee could learne to helpe him and in the end seeing nothing auaile there came by chaunce an old woman a Grecian borne who presumed to haue great knowledge in hearbes and sayd vnto the Empresse Noble Empresse Huldouina If thou wilt that the Emperour thy husband liue long see that thou chafe anger and vexe him euery weeke at the least twise for hee is of a pure melancholy humour and therefore hee that doth him pleasure augmenteth his disease and hee that vexeth him shall prolong his life The Empresse Huldouina followed the counsell of this Greeke woman which was occasion that the Emperour liued afterwardes sound and whole many yeeres so that of the nine monethes which hee was accustomed to be sicke euery yeere in twenty yeeres afterwards he was not sicke three monethes For where as this Greeke woman commaunded the Empresse to anger her husband but twice in the week she accustomably angred him iiii times in the day Fourthly the good mother ought to take heede that the nurse be very temperat in eating so that she should eate little of diuers meates and of those few dishes she should not eate too much To vnderstand the thing yee must know that the white milke is no other then bloud which is sodden that which causeth the good or euill bloud commeth oft times of an other thing but that eyther the person in temperate or else a glutton inâ—ating and therefore it is a thing both healthful and necessary that the nurse that nourisheth the child doe eate good meates for among men and women it is a generall rule that in litle eating there is no danger and of too much eating there is no profite As all the Phylosophers say the wolfe is one of the beasts that denoureth most and is most greedyest and therefore hee is most feared of all the Shepheards But Aristotle in his third booke De Animalibus saith That wheÌ„ the wolfe doeth once feele her selfe great with young in all her life after shee neuer suffereth herselfe to bee coupled with the wolfe againe For otherwise if the wolfe shold yearely bring forth vij or viij whelps as commonly she doth and the Sheepe but one lambe there would be in short space more wolues theÌ„ sheepe Beside all this the wolfe hath an other propertie which is that although she be a Beast most deuouring and greedie yet when she hath whelped she feedeth very temperately and it is to the ende to nourish her whelps and to haue good milke And besides that she doth eate but once in the day the which the dogwolfe doth prouide both for the Bitch whelps Truly it is a monstrous thing to see and noysome to heare and no lesse slaunderous to speake that a Wolfe which giueth sucke to viij whelps eateth but one only kinde of meate and the woman which giueth sucke but to one Childe alone will eate of vii or viii sortes of meates And the cause hereof is that the Beast doth not eate but to sustain nature a womaÌ„ doth not eate but to satisfie her pleasure Princesses and great Ladyes ought to watche narrowly to know when how much the Nurses do eate which doe nourish their children For the child is so tender and the milk so delicate that with eating of sundry meats they become corrupt and with eating much they waxefat If the childreÌ„ suck those which are fat grosse they are coÌ„monly sicke and if they sucke milke corrupted they oft times goe to bed whole in the morne be found dead Isidor in his etimologies saith that the men of the prouince of Thrace were so cruell that the one did eate the other and they did not onely this but also further to shew more their immanity in the sculs of those that were dead they dranke the bloud of him that was lately aliue Though men were so cruell to eate mens flesh and to drinke the bloud of the veines yet the Women which nourished their children were so temperate in eating that they did eate nothing but netles sodden and boiled in Goates milk And because the women of Thrace were so moderate in eating the Phliosopher Solon Solynon brought some to Athens for the Auncients sought no lesse to haue good women in the common-wealth then to haue hardy and valiant Captaines in the warre CHAP. XXI The Author addeth three other conditions to a good nurse that giueth sucke that they drinke no wine that shee be honest and chiefly that shee bee well conditioned THe Princesses and great Ladies may know by this example what difference there is between the women of Thrace which are fedde with nettles only and haue brought forth such fierce men and the womeÌ„ of our time which throgh their delicate and excessiue eating bring forth such weake and feeble children Fiftly the Ladies ought to bee very circumspect not onely that Nurses eate not much and that they bee not greedy but also that they be in wine temperate the which in olde time was not called wine but venom The reason hereof is apparant and manifest enough For if wee doe forbid the fatte meates which lyeth in the stomacke wee should then much more forbid the moyst Wine which washeth all the veynes of the bodie And further I say that as the Childe hath no other nourishment but the milke only and that the milke proceedeth of bloud and that bloud is nourished of the wine and that wine is naturally hote from the first to the last I say that Woman which drinketh wine and giueth the child sucke doth as shee that maketh a great Fire vnder the panne where there is but a little milke so that the pan burneth and the milke runneth ouer I will not denie but that somtimes it may chaunce that the childe shal be of a strong complexion and the Nurse of a feeble and weake nature and then the childe would more substantial milke when the woman is not able to giue it him In such a case though with other things Milke may be conferred I allow that the nurse drinke a little wine but it should bee so little and so well watered that it should rather bee to take away the vnsauorinesse of the water then for to taste of any sauour of the wine I do not speake this without a cause for the nurse being sicke and feeble of herselfe and her milke not substantial it oftentimes moueth her to eat more then necessity requireth and to drinke wine which is somewhat nutritiue So that they supposing to giue the Nurse Triacle doe giue her poyson to destroy her childe Those excellent and Auncient Romaines if they had been in
to come with me from Capua to Rome the selfesame thou hadst to goe with another from Rome to Capua It is an euill thing for vicious â—eâ— to reprooue the vices of others wherein themselues are faulty The cause why I condemn thee to dye is onely for the remembrance of the old Law the which commandeth that no nurse or woman giuing sucke should on paine of death be begotten with childe truly the Law is very iust For honest women do not suffer that in giuing her child sucke at her breast she shold hide another in her entrails These words passed between Gneus Fuluius the Consul and the Ladie Sabina of Capua Howbeit as Plutarche saith in that place the Consull had pitie vpon her and shewed her fauour banishing her vpon condition neuer to returne to Rome againe Cinna Catullus in the fourth booke of the xxij Consulls saith that Caius Fabricius was one of the most notable Consulles that euer was in Rome and was sore afflicted with diseases in his life onely because hee was nourished foure moneths with the milke of a Nurse being great with Childe and for feare of this they locked the nurse with the Childe in the Temple of the Vestall virgines where for the space of iij. yeares they were kept They demaunded the Consul why he did not nourish his children in his house He answered that children being nourished in the house it might bee an occasion that the Nurse should begotteÌ„ with child and so she should destroy the children with her corrupt milke and further giue me occasion to do iustice vpon her person wherefore keeping them so shut vp wee are occasion to preserue their life and also our children from perill Dyodorus Siculus in his librairy and Sextus Cheronensis saith in the life of Marc. Aurelius that in the Isles of Baleares there was a custom that the nurses of young children whether they were their owne or others should be seuered from their Husbands for the space of two yeares And the woman which at that time though it were by her husband were with child though they did not chasten her as an adulteresse yet euery man spake euill of her as of an offender During the time of these two yeares to the ende that the Husband should take no other wife they commanded that hee should take a concubine or that hee should buye a Slaue whose companie hee might vse as his wife for amongst these barbarous hee was honoured most that had two Wiues the one with child and the other not By these Examples aboue recited Princesses and great Ladyes may see what watch care they ought to take in choosing their Nurses that they be honest since of them dependeth not onely the health of their children but also the good fame of their houses The seueÌ„th condition is that Princesses and great ladies ought to see their nurses haue good conditions so that they be not troublesome proud harlots liars malicious nor flatterers for the viper hath not so much poyson as the woman which is euil coÌ„ditioned It little auaileth a man to take wine from a woman to entreate her to eate little and to withdrawe her from her husband if of her owne nature she be hatefull and euill mannered for it is not so great daÌ„ger vnto the child that the nurse be a drunkard or a glutton as it is if she be harmfull malitious If perchaunce the Nurse that nourisheth the child be euil conditioned truly she is euill troubled the house wherin she dwelleth euil coÌ„bred For such one doth importune the Lorde troubleth the Lady putteth in hazard the childe aboue all is not contented with her selfe Finally Fathers for giuing too much libertie to their nurses oft times are the causes of manie practises which they doe wherewith in the ende they are grieued with the death of their childreÌ„ which foloweth Amongst all these which I haue read I say that of the ancient Roman Princes of so good a Father as Drusius Germanicus was neuer came so wicked a son as Caligula was being the iiij Emp of Rome for the Hystoriographers were not satisfied to enrich the praise the excellencies of his Father neyther ceased they to blame and reprehend the infamies of his Sonne And they say that his naughtines proceedeth not of the mother which bare him but of the nurse which gaue him sucke For often times it chaunceth that the tree is green and good when it is planted and afterwardes it becometh drie and withered onely for being carryed into another place Dyon the Greeke in the second book of Caesars saieth that a cursed woman of Campania called Pressilla nourished and gaue suck vnto this wicked child Shee had against all nature of women her breasts as hayrie as the beardes of men and besides that in running a Horse handling her staffe shooting in the Crosse-bowe fewe young men in Rome were to bee compared vnto her It chaunced on a time that as shee was giuing sucke to Caligula for that shee was angrie shee tore in pieces a young child and with the bloud therof annoynted her breasts and so she made Caligula the young Childe to sucke together both bloud and milke The saide Dyon in his booke of the life of the Emperour Caligula saieth that the women of Campania whereof the saide Pressilla was had this custom that wheÌ„ they would giue their Teat to the childe first they did annointe the nipple with the bloud of a hedge-hog to the ende their children might be more fierce and cruell And so was this Caligula for hee was not contented to kill a man onely but also hee sucked the bloud that remained on his Sworde and licked it off with his tongue The excellent Poet Homer meaning to speake plainely of the crueltyes of Pyrrus saide in his Odisse of him such wordes Pyrrus was borne in Greece nourished in Archadie and brought vp with Tygers milke which is a cruell beast as if more plainely he had saide Pyrrus for being borne in Greece was Sage for that hee was brought vp in Archadie he was strong and couragious for to haue sucked Tygars milke he was very proud and cruell Hereof may be gathered that the great Grecian Pyrrus for wanting of good milke was ouercome with euill conditions The selfe same Hystorian Dyon saith in the life of Tiberius that hee was a great Drunkard And the cause hereof was that the Nurse did not onely drinke wine but also she weyned the childe with soppes dipped in Wine And without doubt the cursed Woman had done lesse euill if in the stead of milke she had giuen the child poyson without teaching it to drinke wine wherefore afterwardes he lost his renowne For truely the Romane Empire had lost little if Tiberius had dyed being a childe and it had wonne much if he had neuer knowne what drinking of Wine had meant I haue declared all that which before is mentioned to the intent that Princesses and great Ladyes might
remaine diseased and their vnderstanding blinded their memory dulled their sense corrupted their will hurted their reason subuerted and their good fame lost and worst of all the flesh remaineth alwayes flesh O how many young men are deceyued thinking that for to satisfie and by once engaging themselues to vices that from that time forwarde they shall cease to bee vicious the which thing not onely doth not profite them but also is very hurtfull vnto them For fire is not quenched with drye wood but with cold water But O God what shall wee doe since that now a dayes the Fathers doe as much esteeme their children for being fine and bolde minions among women as if they were verie profound in science or hardie in feates of Armes and that which is worst they oft times make more of their bastards gotten in adulterie then of their legitimate childe conceiued in matrimony What shall wee say then of mothers Truely I am ashamed for to speake it but they should bee more ashamed to doe it which is because they would not displease their husbands they hide the wickednesse of their children they put the children of their harlots to the Nurse they redeeme their gages they giue them money to play at dice they reconcile them to their fathers when they haue offended they borrow them money to redeeme them when they are indebted Finally they are makers of their bodies and vndoers of their soules I speake this insidently for that the masters would correct the children but the Fathers and mothers forbid them For it little auayleth for one to pricke the horse with the spurre when hee that sitteth vpon him holdeth him back with the bridle Therfore to our matter what shall we do to remedy this ill in the young man which in his flesh is vicious Truely I see no other remedie but with the moist earth to quench the flaming fire and to keepe him from the occasions of vice For in the warre honour by tarrying is obtained but in the vice of the flesh the victory by flying is obtayned The end of the second Booke THE THIRD BOOKE OF THE DIALL OF PRINCES WITH THE FAMOVS BOOKE OF MARCVS AVRELIVS WHERE HEE entreateth of the vertues which Princes ought to haue as Iustice Peace and Magnificence CHAP. I. How Princes and great Lordes ought to trauell to administer to all equall iustice EGidius Frigulus one of the most famous and renowmed Philosophers of Rome sayde that that betweene two of the Zodaicall signes Leo and Libra is a Virgine named Iustice the which in times past dwelled among men in earth and after that shee was of them neglected shee ascended vp to Heauen This Philosopher would let vs vnderstand that Iustice is so excellent a vertue that she passeth al mens capacitie since shee made heauen her mansion place and could finde no man in the whole earth that wold entertaine her in his house During the time they were chaste gentle pittifull patient embracers of vertue honest and true Iustice remayning in the earth with them but since they are conuerted vnto adulterers tyrants giuen to be proud vnpatient lyers and blasphemers shee determined to forsake them and to ascend vp into heauen So that this Philosopher concluded that for the wickednesse that men commit on earth Iustice hath leapt from them into Heauen Though this seeme to bee a Poeticall fiction yet it comprehendeth in it high and profound doctrine the which seemeth to be very cleare for where wee see iustice there are few theeues few murderers few tirants and few blasphemers Finally I say that in the house or Common wealth where Iustice remaineth a man can not committe vice and much lesse dissemble with the vicious Homer desirous to exalt justice could not tell what to say more but to call Kings the children of the great God Iupiter and that not for that naturalty they haue but for the office of iustice which they minister So that Homer concludeth that a man ought not to call iust Princes other but the children of God The diuiue Plato in the fourth booke of his common-wealth saieth that the chiefest gift God gaue to men is that they being as they be of such vile clay should bee gouerned by justice I would to GOD all those which reade this wryting vnderstoode right well that which Plato said For if men were not indued with reason and gouerned by iustice amongst all beasts none were so vnprofitable Let reason be taken from man wherwith he is indued and iustice whereby he is gouerned then shall men easily perceyue in what sort he will leade his life He cannot fight as the Elephant nor defend himselfe as the Tygre nor he can hunte as the Lyon neither labour as the Oxe and that wherby he should profite as I thinke is that he should eate Beares and Lyons in his life as now he shall be eaten of worms after his death All the Poets that inuented fictions all the Oratours which made Orations all the Philosophers which wrote books all the Sages which left vs their doctrines and all the Princes which instituted Lawes meant nothing else but to perswade vs to think how briefe and vnprofitable this life is and how necessary a thing iustice is therin For the filth and corruption which the bodie hath without the soule the selfe same hath the common-wealth without iustice Wee cannot denye but that the Romaines haue been prowde enuious adulterers shamelesse and ambicious but yet with all these faultes they haue beene great obseruers of iustice So that if God gaue them so manie Triumphs beeing loaden and enuironed with so many vices it was not for the vertues they had but for the great iustice which they did administer Plinie in his second booke saith that Democrites affirmed there were two gods which gouerned the vniuersall world that is to say Reward and Punishment Whereby wee may gather that nothing is more necessarie then true and right iustice For the one rewardeth the good and the other leaueth not vnpunished the euill Saint Austine in the first Booke De Ciuitate Dei saieth these words Iustice taken away what are Realmes but dennes of Theeues Truely hee had great reason For if there were no whips for vagabonds gags for blasphemers fines for periurie fires for heretiques sword for murderers galowes for theeues nor prisons for Rebells we may boldly say there would not bee so many Beasts on the mountains as there would be thieues in the Common-wealth In many things or in the greatest parte of the commonwealth wee see that Bread Wine Corn Fish Wool and other things necessary for the life of the people wanteth but we neuer saw but malicious men in euery place did abound Therefore I sweare vnto you that it were a good bargaine to chaunge all the wicked men in the commonwealth for one onely poore sheepe in the fielde In the Common-wealth wee see nought else but whipping daylie beheading slaying drowning hanging but notwithstanding this
more sure when by white hayres they seemed to bee olde when they retired to the Aultars of the Temples Oh what goodnesse Oh what wisedome what valiantnesse and what innocencie ought the aged men to haue in the auncient time since in Rome they honoured them as Gods and in Greece they priuiledged those whyte haires as the temples Plinie in an Epistle he wrote to Fabarus saith that Pyrrus king of the Epyrotes demaunded of a phylosopher which was the best citie of the world who aunswered him thus The best Citie of the world is Molerda a place of three hundreth Fyres in Achaia because all the walles are of blacke stones and all those which gouerne haue hoary heads And further he saide Woe bee vnto thee Rome Woe be vnto thee Carthage Woe be vnto thee Numantia Wo be vnto thee Egipt and woe bee vnto thee Athens Fyue Cittyes which count themselues for the best of the Worlde whereof I am of a contrary opinion For they auaunte themselues to haue whyte Walles and are not ashamed to haue young Senatours This phylosopher saide very well and I thinke no man will say lesse then I haue saide Of this word Senex is deriued the name of a Senatour For so were the gouernours of Rome named because the first King that was Romulus chose an hundred aged men to gouerne the Common-wealth and commaunded that all the Romane youth should employ themselues to the warres Since wee haue spoken of the honour which in the old time was giuen to the auncient men it is reason wee know now from what yeares they accounted men aged to the end they should reuerently bee honoured as aged men For the makers of lawes when they hadde established the honours which ought to be done to the Aged did as well ordain from what day and yeare they should beginne Diuers auncient phylosophers did put six ages from the time of the birth of man vntill the houre of his death That is to say Childe-hood which lasteth vntill seuen yeares Infancie which lasteth vntill seuenteene yeares Youth which continueth till thirtie yeares Mans estate which remaineth till fiftie and fiue yeares Age which endureth till three-score and eighteene yeares Then last of all Crooked-age which remaineth till death And so after man had passed fiue and fifty yeares they called him aged Aulus Gelius in his tenth booke in the 27 Chapter sayth that Fuluius Hostilius who was King of the Romanes determined to count all the olde and yong which were amongst the people and also to know which should be called Infants which yong and which old And there was no little difference among the Romane Philosophers and in the end it was decreed by the King and the Senate that men till seuenteene years should bee called Infants and till sixe forty should be called young and from sixe and forty vpwards they should be called olde If wee will obserue the Law of the Romanes wee know from what time we are bound to call and honor the aged men But adding hereunto it is reason that the olde men know to what prowesses and vertues they are bound to the end that with reason and not with fainting they bee serued for speaking the truth if wee compare duty to duty the olde men are more bound to vertue then the young to seruice Wee cannot deny but that all states of Nations great small young and old are bound to bee vertuous but in this case the one is more to bee blamed then the other For oftentimes if the young men doe offend it is for that hee wanteth experience but if the old man offend it is for the aboundance of malice Seneca in an Epistle sayde these words I let thee know my friend Lucillus that l am very much offended and I doe complaine not of any friend or foe but of my selfe and none other And the reason why I thinke this is that I see my selfe old in vices so little is that wherein I haue serued the Gods and much lesse is that I haue profited him And Seneca sayeth further Hee which prayseth himselfe most to bee aged and that would bee honoured for being aged ought to bee temperate in eating honest in appartell sober in drinking soft in words wise in counsell and to conclude he ought to be very patient in aduersity and far from vices which attempt him Worthy of prayse is the greate Seneca for those wordes but more worthy shall the olde men if they wil conforme their workes according to these words For if wee see them for to abandon vices and giue themselus to vertues we will both serue them and honour them CHAP. XVIII That Princes when they are aged should be temperate in eating sober in drinking modest in apparrell and aboue all true in communication IT is consonant to the counsell of Seneca that the aged should bee temperate in eating which they ought to doe not onely for the reputation of their persons but also for the preseruation of theyr liues For the olde men which are drunke and amorous are persecuted with their owne diseases and are defamed by the tongues of other That which the ancient men should eate I meane those which are noble and vertuous ought to bee very cleane and well dressed and aboue all that they doe take it in season time for otherwise too much eating of diuers things causeth the young to bee sicke and enforceth the olde to die Young men though they eate dishonestly very hastily and eate speaking we can doe no lesse but dissemble with them but the olde men which eate much and hastily of necessitie we ought to reproue them For men of Honour ought to eate at table with a great grauitie as if they were in any counsell to determine causes It is not mine intention to perswade the feeble olde men not to eate but onely to admonish them to eate no more then is necessarie We doe not prohibite them to eate delicate things but to beware of superfluous things We doe not counsell them to leaue eating hauing need but to withdraw themselues from curiositie For though it bee lawfull for aged men to eate sufficient it is not honest for them to eate to ouercome theyr stomacks It is a shame to write it but more shame ought they to haue which doe it which is that the goods which they haue wonne and inherited by their predecessours they haue eaten and drunken so that they haue neyther bought House not vyne nor yet marryed any Daughter but they are naked and their poore children goe to the Tauernes and Innes and the miserable Fathers to the Hospitalles and Churches When any man commeth to pouertie for that his house is burned or his shippe drowned or that they haue taken all from him by Lawe or that hee hath spent it in pleading against his enemies or any other in conueniēce is come vnto him me thinketh we are all bound to succor him and the hart hath cōpassion to behold him
but he that spendeth it in Apparel not requisite to seeke delitious Wines and to eate delicate meates To such a one I would say that the pouertie which he suffereth is not sufficient for his deserts For of all troubles there is none so great as to see a man suffer the euil whereof hee himselfe hath bin the occasion Also according to the counsell of Seneca the Auncients ought to be wel aduertised in that they should not only be temperate in eating but likewise they should be sober in drinking and this both for the preseruation of theyr health as also for the reputation of their honestie For if the olde physitians doe not deceyue vs humaine bodyes doe drye and corrupt because they drinke superfluously and eate more then Nature requireth If I should say vnto the olde men that they should drinke no wine they might tell mee that it is not the counsell of a Christian But presuppose they ought to drinke and that for no opinion they should leaue it yet I admonish exhorte and desire them that they drinke little and that they drinke very temperate For the disordinate and immeasurate drinking causeth the young men to be drunke and the olde men both drunke and foolish Oh howe much authoritie lost they and what grauitie doe honorable and ancient men lose which in drinking are not sober Which seemeth to be true forasmuch as the man being loden with wine although he were the wisest in the world he should bee a very foole that would take counsel of such one in his affaires Plutarche in a booke which he made of the Fortunes of the Romaines saied that in the Senate of Rome there was an Auncient man who made great exclametions that a certaine young man hadde in such heinous sort dishonoured him that for the iniuryes hee had spoken he deserued death And when the yong man was called for to answere to that he had said vnto him he answered Fathers conscript though I seeme young vnto you yet I am not so young but that I knew the Father of this olde man who was a vertuous and noble Romane and somewhat a kinne to mee And I seeing that his Father had gotten much goods fighting in the warres and also seeing this oldeman spending them in eating and drinking I sayde vnto him one day I am very sorry my Lord and vncle for that I heare of thy honour in the market place and am the more sorry for that I see done in thy house wherein we saw fifty men armed before in our houre and now wee see a hundred knaues made drunke And worse then that as thy Father shewed to all those that entered into his house the Ensignes hee had wonne in the Warres so now to those that enter into thy house thou shewest them diuers sorts of Wines My vncle complayned of mee but in this case I make the Plaintife iudge against mee the defendant And I would by the immortall Gods hee deserued no more paine for his workes then I deserue by my words For if hee had been wise he would haue accepted the correction which secretely I gaue him and had not come openly to declare his faults in the Senate The complaint of the old man being heard by the Senate and the excuse in like manner of the yong-man they gaue iudgement that they should take all the goods from the olde man and prouide him of a Tutour which should gouerne him and his house And they commaunded the Tutour That from hence forward hee should not giue him one cuppe of Wine since hee was noted of drunkennesse Of truth the sentence which the Senate gaue was very iust For the olde man which giueth himselfe to wine hath as much neede to haue a Gouernour as an Infant or a foole Laertius made a booke of the Feasts of Philosophers and declareth sundry auncient banquets among the which hee putteth one where were assembled many great Philosophers And admit that the meates were meane and simple yet the bidden guests were sage And the cause why they did assemble was not to eate but to dispute of some graue doctrines whereof the Philosophers did somewhat doubt For in those dayes the greater the Stoyckes and the Peripatetikes were in number so much the more were the Philosophers diuided amongst themselues When they were so assembled truly they did not eate nor drinke out of measure but some pleasant matter was moued betweene the masters and the schollers betweene the young and the olde that is to say which of them could declare any secret of Philosophy or any profounde sentence O happy were such feasts and no lesse happy were they that thether were bidden But I am sorry that those which now bidde and those that are bidden for a truth are not as those Ancients were For there are no feastes now a dayes of Philosophers but of gluttons not to dispute but for to murmure not to open doubtfull things but to talke of the vices of others not to confirme auncient amities but to beginne new dissentions not to learne any doctrines but to approue some nouelty And that which worst of all is the old striue at the table with the yong not on him which hath spoken the most grauest sentence but of him which hath drunke most wine and hath rinsed most cups Paulus Diaconus in the history of the Lumbards declareth that foure olde Lumbards made a banquet in the which the one dranke to the others yeares and it was in this manner They made defyance to drinke two to two and after each man had declared how many yeares olde hee was the one dranke as many times as the other was yeeres olde and likewise his companion pledged him And one of these foure companions had at the least 58. yeares the second 63 the third 87. the fourth 92. so that a man knoweth not what they did eate in this banquet eyther little or much but wee know that hee that dranke least dranke 58. cups of wine Of this so euill custome came the Gothes to make this Law which of many is read and of a few vnderstood where it sayeth We ordaine and commaund on paine of death that no olde man drinke to the others yeares being at the table That was made because they were so much giuen to Wine that they dranke more oft then they did eate morsels The Princes and great lords which now are old ought to be very sober in drinking since they ought greatly to be regarded honoured of the yong For speaking the truth and with liberty when the olde man shall be ouercome with wine hee hath more necessity that the young man leade him by the arme to his house then that hee should take off his cappe vnto him with reuerence Also Princes and great Lordes ought to bee very circumspect that when they become aged they bee not noted for young in the apparrel which they weare For although hat for wearing a fine and riche garment the Prince
a perpetuall memorie What contempt of world what forgetfulnesse of himselfe what stroke of fortune what whippe for the flesh what little regard of life O what bridle for the vertuous O what confusion for those that loue life O how great example haue they left vs not to feare death Sithens those here haue willingly despised their owne liues it is not to be thought that they dyed to take the goods of others neither yet to thinke that our life should neuer haue end nor our couetousnesse in like manner O glorious people and ten thousand fold happy that the proper sensuality being forsaken haue ouercom the naturall appetite to desire to liue not beleeuing in that they saw and that hauing faith in that they neuer saw they striued with the fatall Destenies By the way they assaulted fortune they changed life for death they offered the body to death and aboue all haue wonne honour with the Gods not for that they shoulde hasten death but because they should take away that which is superfluous of life Archagent a Surgeon of Rome and Anthonius Musus a Physition of the Emperour Augustus and Esculapius father of the Phisicke should get little money in that Countrie Hee that then should haue sent to the barbarous to haue done as the Romanes at that time did that is to say to take sirrops in the mornings pils at night to drinke milke in the morning to annoint themselues with gromeâ—seed to bee let bloud to day and purged to morrow to eate of one thing and to abstaine from many a man ought to thinke that hee which willingly seeketh death will not giue money to lengthen life CHAP. XXII The Emperour concludeth his letter and shewed what perils those olde men liue in which dissolutely like young children passe their dayes and giueth vnto them wholesome counsell for the remedy thereof BVt returning to thee Claude and to thee Claudine me thinketh that these barbarous men beeing fifty yeares of age and you others hauing aboue threescore and tenne it should be iust that sithence you were elder in yeares you were equall in vertue and though as they you wil not accept death patiently yet at the least you ought to amend your euill liues willingly I doe remember that it is many yeares sithens that Fabritius the young sonne of Fabritius the olde had ordayned to haue deceiued mee of the which if you had not told me great inconueniences had happned and sithens that you did me so great a benefite I would now requite you the same with another the like For amongst friends there is no equal benefite then to deceiue the deceyuer I let you know if you do not know it that you are poore aged folks your eyes are sunke into your heads the nostrels are shut the haires are white the hearing is lost the tongue faultereth the teeth fall the face is wrinkled the feete swolne and the stomacke cold Finally I say that if the graue could speake as vnto his Subiects by iustice he might commaund you to inhabite his house It is great pitty of the yong men and of their youthfull ignorance for then vnto such their eies are not opened to know the mishaps of this miserable life when cruell death doth end their dayes and adiorneth them to the graue Plato in his booke of the Common wealth sayde that in vaine wee giue good counsels to fond and light young men for youth is without experience of that it knoweth suspitious of that it heareth incredible of that is tolde him despising the counsell of an other and very poore of his own For so much as this is true that I tell you Claude and Claudine that without comparison the ignorance which the young haue of the good is not so much but the obstination which the olde hath in the euill is more For the mortall Gods many times doe dissemble with a thousand offences commited by ignorance but they neuer forgiue the offence perpetrated by malice O Claude and Claudine I doe not maruell that you doe forget the gods as you doe which created you and your Fathers which begot you and your parents which haue loued you and your friends which haue honoured you but that which I most maruell at is that you forget your selues For you neuer consider what you ought to bee vntill such time as you bee there where you would not bee and that without power to returne backe againe Awake awake since you are drowned in your dreames open your eyes since you sleepe so much accustome your selues to trauels sithence you are vagabonds learne that which behoueth you since now you are olde I meane that in time conuenient you agree with death before he make execution of life Fifty two yeeres haue I knowne the things of the world and yet I neuer saw a Woman so aged thorough yeares nor old man with members so feeble that for want of strength could not if they list doe good nor yet for the same occasion should leaue to bee euill if they list to be euill It is a maruellous thing to see and worthy to note that all the corporall members of Man waxeth old but the inward hart and the outward tongue For the heart is alwayes giuen to inuent euills and the tongue is alwayes able to tell Lyes Mine opinion is that the pleasaunt Summer beeing past you should prepare your selues for the vntemperate winter which is at hand And if you haue but fewe dayes to continue you should make hast to take vp your lodging I meane that sith you haue passed the dayes of your life with trauell you should prepare your selues against the night of death to be in the hauen of rest Let mockeryes passe as mockeries and accept trueth as truth that is to say that it were a very iust thing and also for your honour necessarie that all shose which in times past haue seen you young and foolish should now in your age see you graue and sage For there is nothing that so much forgetteth the lightnesse and follyes of youth as doth grauity and constancie in Age. When the Knight runneth his carriere they blame him not for that the Horses mane is not finely combed but at the end of his race he shold see his horse amended and looked vnto What greater confusion can be to any person or greater slaunder to our mother Rome then to see that which now a dayes therein we see That is to say that the old which can scarcely creepe through the streetes to beholde the playes and games as young men which search for nought else but onely pompe and vanitie It grieueth mee to speake it but I am much more ashamed to see that the olde Romaines do daylie cause the white haires to be plucked out of their heads because they would not seeme old to make their beard small to seem yong wearing their hosen very close their shyrts open before the gowne of the Senatour embrodered the Romane signe richly enamelled the
to him by reason of his dayly accesse to them and he shall purchase himselfe a good opinion of them besides the good example hee shal leaue to others to tread his steps and sollow his course For what is more true then when a young Gentleman commeth newly to the court you shall see immediately a company of other young fooles a company of amarous squires light and idle persons a company of troublesome Iesters and couetous praters besides other young frye in the Court that when they know a new come Courtier namely beeing of great liuing They will seeke to attend vpon him and traine him to the lure of their affects and manner bidding him to like of their qualities and conditions Wherefore cunningly to shake of the route of these needy greedy retainers he must altogether feede them with faire words shew them good countenance and yet notwithstanding seeke by all policy he can to flye their fellowship and company Noble mens sonnes Knights sons and Gentlemens sonnes may not thinke their friends sendeth them to the Court to learne new vices and wicked practises but to winne them new friends and obtaine the acquaintance of noble men whose credit estimation with the Prince may honour and countenance them and by their vertues and meanes may after a time bee brought into the Princes fauour and dayly to rise in credit and reputation amongst others Therefore such fathers as will send their children to the Court vnlesse they doe first admonish them well how they ought to behaue themselus or that they recommend them to the charge and ouersight of some deare and especiall friend of theirs that will reproue them of their faults when they doe amisse I say they were better to lay yrons on their feet and send them to Bedlam or such other like house where mad men bee kept For if they bee bound there in yrons it is but to bring them to their wittes againe and to make them wise but to send them to the Court loose and at liberty without guide it is the next way to make them fooles and worse then madde men assuring you no greater daunger nor iniury can bee done to a young man then to be sent to the court not committed to the charge of some one that shold take care of him and looke straightly to him For otherwise it were impossible hee should bee there many dayes but hee must needes runne into excesse and foule disorder by the meanes whereof he should vtterly cast himselfe away and heape vpon theyr parents heads continuall curses and griefes during their liues And therefore their Fathers supposing after they haue once placed their sonnes in the Court that they should no more carke nor care of them nor reckon to instruct them to bee wise and vertuous finde when they come home to them againe that they are laden withvices ill complexioned worse apparrelled their clothes all tattered and torne hauing vainely and fondly spent and played away their money and worst of all forsaken their Masters leauing them displeased with their seruice And of these I would admonish the young Courtier because he must of necessity accompany with other yong men that in no case he acquaint himselfe with vitious and ill disposed persons but with the honest wise and courteous amongst whom hee shall put vpon him a certaine graue and stayed modesty fitting himselfe onely to their companies being also apt and disposed to all honest and vertuous exercises decent for a right Gentleman and vertuous Courtier shuning with his best policy the light foolish and vaine toyes of others And yet notwithstanding this my intent and meaning is not for to seeme to perswade or teach him to become an hypocrite but onely to bee courteous honest and well beloued of other young Gentlemen winning this reputation with all to be esteemed the most vertuous and honestest among them gallant and liuely in his disports and pastimes of few words small conuersation amongst bosters and back-byters or other wicked and naughtie persons not to bee sad among those that are merrie nor dumme among those that talke wisely and of graue matters nor to belieue hee should be accounted a trim Courtyer to take his book in his hands to pray when others will take the ball to play or goe about some other honest recreations or pastimes for exercise of the bodie For in so doing they would rather take him for a Foole and an Hypocrite then for a vertuous and honest young man Being good reason the childe should vse the pleasures and pastimes of a childe young men disportes and actes of youth and olde men also graue and wise recreations fit for them For in the end doe the best we can wee cannot flye the motions of the Flesh wherein wee are borne into this world These young Gentle-men Courtyers must take heede that they become not troublesome importunate nor quarrellers that they be no filchers lyars vacabonds and slaunderers nor any way giuen to vice As for other things I would not seemeto take from them their pastime and pleasures but that they may vse them at their own discretion And in all other things lawfull and irreprouable obseruing times and houres conuenient and therewitall to accompanie themselues with their fellowes and companions Also the young Courtyer that commeth newly to the Court must of necessitie be very well apparelled according to his degree and calling and his seruants that follow him well appointed For in Courte men regarde not onely the House and familie hee commeth of but marke also his Apparell and seruants that follow him And I mislike one thing very much that about the Court they doe rather honour and reuerence a man braue and sumptuous in apparell being vitious then they doe a man that is graue wise and vertuous-And yet neuerthelesse the Courtyer may assure himselfe of this that few will esteeme of him eyther for that hee is vertouus or nobly borne if hee be not also sumptuously apparelled and well accompanied for them onely will euery man account and esteeme of him Wherefore I durst take vpon mee to sweare if it were possible to take oath of our bodyes that they would sweare they needed them not much lesse desire so large compassed gowns that euery puffe of winde might swell thē as the sayles of a Ship neyther so long that trayling on the ground they gather dust and cast it into our eyes Howbeit I thinke now-adayes these fine men weare them large and wide and women long with traynes vpon the ground because in the Court and else-where no man makes reckning of him that spendeth but orderly and onely vpon necessaries to goe cleanly withall but him they set by that is prodigall excessiue and superfluous And who that in his doings and apparell is moderate and proceedeth wisely they holde him in Court for a miserable and couetous mans and contrarily hee that is prodigall and lauish in expence him they count a noble and
the diuersity of meates is but a continuall and importunate awaking of dishonest thoughts Doe we not reade of S. Hierome that albeit hee remained in the wildernesse burned of the Sunne his face dryed vp and wrinkled bare footed and also bare headed clothed with sackcloth his body scourged with bitter stripes watching in the night and fasting and hungering in the day continually exercising his pen and his heart in contemplation and yet for all this grieuous penance him selfe confessed that in his sleepe hee dreamed and thought he was among the Curtezans of Rome and S. Paul the Apostle who was a man of rare exquisite knowledge and deserued to see the very secretes of Paradise neuer here to fore seene trauelling in his vocation more then any other of the Apostles did not he get his liuing with his owne hands and also went a foote preaching through all the world bringing infinite barbarous people to the faith of Christ being beaten in the day time by others for that hee was a Christian and in the night time hee beat himselfe for that he was a sinner punishing the flesh to make it subiect to the spirit And yet neuerthelesse he layth of himselfe that he coulde not defend himselfe from dishonest thoughts which did euer let him to preach and pray with a quiet minde Saint Austen reciteth of himselfe in his booke De consessionibus that all the while he inhabited in the deserts hee eate little wrote much prayed oft sharpely chastised his body with continuall fasts and grieuous disciplines But yet perceyuing that notwithstanding all this his dishonest thoughtes suppressed his holy desires he began to crye with a lowde voyce thorough the deserts and rocky hils saying O Lord my God thou commaundest me to be chast but this fraile and accursed flesh can neuer keepe it And therefore I humbly beseech thee first to indue mee with thy grace to doe that thou wilt haue me and then commaund me what shall please thee otherwise I shall neuer doe it If therefore these glorious Saints with their continual fasts and contemplations and extreame punishing of their bodies could not defend themselues from the burning motion of the flesh how shal we beleeue that a company of drunkards and gluttons can doe it which neuer linne bibbing and eating Wee may bee assured that the lesse we pamper and feede our bodies with delicacy and idlenes the morewe shall haue them obedient and subiect to our willes For though wee see the fire neuer so great and flaming yet it quickely wasteth and is brought to ashes if wee leaue for to put more wood vnto it Excesse is not onely vnlawfull for the body but it is also an occasion of a thousand diseases both to the body soule For to say the truth wee haue seene more rich men die through excesse then poore men of necessity And in mine opinion mee thinkes the sinne of Gluttonie need not to be otherwise punished by diuine iustice seeing that of it selfe it bringeth pennaunce ynough And to proue this true Let vs but require these gluttons to tell vs vpon their Oathes how they finde themselues in temper being full paunched and they will confesse vnto vs that they are worse at ease then if they had fasted That their mouth is drye their bodie heauie and yll-disposed that their head aketh their stomack is colde and that Eyes are sleepie and their bellye 's full but that yet they desire to drinke still And therefore Dyogenes Cinicus deryding the Rhodians sayde these words Oh you drunken and gluttonous Rhodians Tell mee I beseech you What occasion mooues you to go to the Church to pray to the Gods to giue you health when at al times keeping sober diet you may keepe it with you And moreouer hee sayde vnto them also and if you wil be ruled by my counsell I will tell yee you neede not goe to the Churches to beseech the gods to graunt you health but only to pray vnto them to pardon you your sinnes and iniquities you daylie commit Also Socrates the Phylosopher was wont to say to his disciples of the vniuersitie of Athens Remember Oh you Athenians that in the well-gouerned pollicies men liue not to eat to glut the bodie but doe onely eate to liue and sustaine the bodie O graue saying of the good philosopher and I would to GOD that euery good Christian would carry this lesson in minde For if we would but let Nature alone and giue her libertie and disposition of her selfe she is so honest and of such temperance that she wil not leaue to eate that that shal suffice her neyther will also trouble vs with that that is superfluous Yet an other foule offence bringeth this vice of Gluttonie and that is That many put thēselues in seruice to waite on others not so much for the Ordinary fare that is commonly vsed in their house as for the desire they haue to fill their bellies with dainty and superfluous meates And in especiall when they knowe they make any marriages or feasts for their Friends then giue double attendance not contented alone with that themselues haue eaten but further in remembrance of the worthie feast committeth to the custody of his trusty Cater his great Hose perhappes a two or three dayes store of those rare and daintie dyshes which I am ashamed to write and much more ought they to be ashamed to do it For that man that professeth to be a man ought to inforce himselfe neuer to engage his libertie for that his sensuall appetite inciteth him to but only for that reason binds him to Aristippus the Philosopher washing lettice one day with his owne handes for his supper by chance Plautus passing by that way and seeing him said If thou wouldest haue serued king Dionisius wee should not haue seene thee haue eaten Lettises as thou dost now Aristippus answered him againe O Plautus if thou wert content to eate of these Lettises that I eate thou shouldest not serue so great a Tyrant as thou dost The excesse of meates is greater in these dayes both in quantity and in dressing of them then in times past For in that golden age which the philosophers neuer cease to bewayle men had none other houses but naturall caues in the ground and apparrelled onely with the leaues of trees the bare ground for their shooes their handes seruing them in the stead of Cuppes to drinke in they dranke Water for Wine eate rootes for bread and fruites for flesh and finally for their bed they made the earth and for their couering the skie beeing lodged alwayes at the signe of the Starre When the diuine Plato returned out of Cicill into Greece hee sayde one day in his Colledge I doe aduertise you my Disciples that I am returned out of Cicil maruellously troubled and this is by reason of a Monster I sawe there And being asked what monster it was he tolde them it was Dionisius the tyrant who is not contented with