these and many others which ye left aliue ful high in rome are now become wormes meat ful low vnder the yearth death also doth summon me vnto the graue If you my childreÌ„ did consider what shal become of you herafter truly you will thinke it better to weape .1000 yeares with the dead then to laugh one houre with those that be aliue Remembryng that I baâ—e ye in great payne and haue nourished you in great trauell that ye came of my proper intrailles I would haue you as children about me for the confort consolation of my paines But in the end beholdyng the prowesses of those that are paste that bindeth their heires I am coÌ„tent to suffer so long absence your persons only to the end you may get honour in chiualrye For I had rather here tell you should liue like knightes in Afrik theÌ„ to se you vtterly lost here in Rome My childreÌ„ as you are in the warres of Afrike so I doubt not but that you desire to se the pleasurs of rome for ther is no man in this world so happy but at his neyghbours prosperity had som enuy enuie not the vitious nether desier to be amoÌ„g vices for truly vices ar of such a coÌ„dition that they bring not with theÌ„ so much plesure wheÌ„ they com as they leaue sorow behind theÌ„ wheÌ„ they depart for that true delight is not in the pleasure which sodeÌ„ly vanisheth but in the truth which euermore remaineth I thank the immortal gods for all these thinges first for that they made me wise not folish for to a woman it is a small mater to be called so fraile that in dede she be not folish The secoÌ„d I thank the gods bicause in al times of my troubles they haue geueÌ„ me pacieÌ„ce to endure theÌ„ for the maÌ„ only in this lif may be called vnhappy to whom the gods in his troubles hath not giueÌ„ pacience The third I thank the gods for that those .lxv. yeares which I haue liued I neuer hytherto was defamed for the woman by no reason can coÌ„plaine of her fortune if in none of her troubles she hath loste her honour The fourthe I thanke the Gods that in this forty yeres I haue lyued in Rome remained widow ther was neuer man nor woman the contended with me for since we women profite litle the commoÌ„ wealth it is but reason that she whych with euill demeanoures hath passed her lyfe shoulde by iustice receaue her death The fift I giue the gods tankes that they gaue me children the whych are better contented to suffer the trauailes of Affrik theÌ„ to inioy the pleasurs of Rome Do not counte me my childreÌ„ for so vnlouing a mother that I wold not haue you alwayes before my eyes but considering that many good meÌ„s children haue bene lost only for being brought vp in the excessiue pleasures of Rome I do content my selfe with your absence For that man that desireth perpetuall renowne thoughe he be not banished he ought to absent him self froÌ„ his natiue countrey My deare children I most earnestly desire you that always you accoÌ„panie your selues with the good with the most auncientes and with those which ar graue most expert in councel and with those that haue most sene the world and do not vnderstand most of the world by those that haue sene most countreis For the rype councel proceadeth not from the man that hath traueiled in many contreis but from him that hath felte him selfe in many daungers Since the nature of the countrey my children dothe knocke with the haÌ„mer at the gate of the hart of man I feare that if you come and se your frendes parentes you shal always lyue in care pensifnes and being pensife you shal always lyue euil coÌ„tented you shal not do that whiche becommeth Romain knights to do And you not beyng valiaunt knightes your enemies shal alwayes reioice ouer you your desires shall neuer take effect for of those men which are careful heauy proceadeth always seruices vnworthy I desire you hartely by this present letter I counsell you that you wil not in any wise seke to come to rome for as I haue saied you shal know few of those that did know you for eyther they are dead or banished poore or sicke aged or coÌ„me to nought sad or euil coÌ„tented so that sithens you are not able to remedy their grefes it is best you should not come hyther to se their troubles For no man coÌ„meth to Rome but to weape with the liuing and to sigh for theÌ„ that be dead Truly my children I know not what pleasure is in Rome that should cause any good man to come hyther and to forsake Affrik for if there you haue enemies here you shall want frendes If you haue the sworde that perceth the body we haue that tong here that destroyeth the renowme If you be vexed with the theues of Affrike we are wounded with the traitours Flatterers and liers of Italy If you lack rest we haue here to much trouble Finallye seyng that that I doe se in Rome and hearynge that which I heare of Affrik I commende your warre and abhorre our peace If you do greatly esteme that which I haue sayd esteme much more that whiche I shall say which is that we alwayes here that you are conquerours of the Africkans you shall here always that we are conquered by vyces Therfore if I am a true mother I had rather se you winne a perpetuall memory amonge straungers theÌ„ to liue with infamy at home in your couÌ„trey Peraduenture with hope that you shal enherit some goodes you wil take occasioÌ„ to come to Rome When this thing shall come to your mindes remember my children that your father being aliue had not much and that vnto your mother being a widow many thinges wanted And remember that your father bequethed you nothing but weapons and know that from me you shall enherite nothing but bookes For I had rather leaue my children good doctrine wherby they may liue them euil riches wherby they may perysh I am not riche nor I neuer trauailed to be rich and the cause was that I saw many mens children vndone only through the hope they had to enherite their pareÌ„tes goods and afterward went a huntinge after vices For they seldome times do any worthy feates which in their youth enherit great treasurs This thing therfore being true as it is in dead I do not say only that I would watche and toile as many do to get riches and treasurs but also if I had treasour before I would gyue them vnto you I would as the philosopher did cast theÌ„ into the fyre For I had rather haue my children pore and vertuous in Affrike theÌ„ riche and vitious in Rome You know very wel my children that there was amongest the Tharentins a law wel obserued that the sonnes shoulde not inherit any other thyng of their fathers but weapons to fight and
but also before them he did dishonour hym and shame him to his power whiche thinge made him vtterly to dispaire For there is nothing that spiteth a man more then to haue before hys enemies any iniurie or dishonoure done vnto him of his superiour The empresse Sophia therfore deserued great reproche for speakinge suche dishonest wordes to Narsetes to send him to thread the nedels in that occupacion where the damsels wrought For it is the duty of a noble princesse to mitigate the ire of Princes when they are angry and not to prouoke them further to anger Narsetes then alwaies dowting the empresse Sophia neuer after retourned into Naples where she was but rather came from Naples to Rome a yeare before the Lumbardes came into Italy where he receiued all the sacramentes and like a deuout ChristiaÌ„ dyed His body was caried to Alexandria in a coffine of siluer al sette with precious stones and ther was buried And a man cannot tel whither the displeasour were greater that all Asia had not to see Narsetes aliue or the pleasour that Sophia had to see him deade For the vnpacient hart especially of a woman hath no rest vntill she see her enemye dead ¶ Of a letter the Emperour Marcus Aurelius sente to the Kynge of Scicile in which he recordeth the trauailes they endured togethers in their youth and reproueth him of his small reuerence towardes the temples Chapter xvii MArcus Aurelius sole Emperour of Rome borne in mouÌ„te Celio called the old tribune wisheth health and long lyfe to the Gorbin Lord kynge of Sicile As it is the custome of the Romaine Emperoures the firste yeare of my reigne I wrate generallye to all that I le the seconde yeare I wrate generallye vnto thy courte and palace and at this presente I write more particulerlye to thy parsone And although that Princes haue greate Realmes yet they ought not therfore to cease to coÌ„municate with their old frendes Since I toke my penne to write vnto the I stayed my hande a great while from writing and it was not for that I was slouthfull but because I was a shamed to see all Rome offended with the. I let the to weâ—e most excellent prince that in this I say I am thy true frend for in my hart I fele thy trouble and so sayd Euripides that whiche with the harte is loued with the hart is lamented But before I shew thee the cause of my writing I will reduce into thy memory some thinges past of our youth and therby we shall see what we were then and what we are now for no man dothe so muche reioyce of his prosperitie present as he whiche calleth to minde his miseries past Thou shalt call to minde most excellent Prince that we two togethers did learne to reade in Capua and after we studyed a litle in Tarentum and from thense we went to Rhodes where I redde Rhethorike and thou hardest philosophie And afterwardes in the ende of x. yeres we went to the warres of Pannonia where I gaue my selfe to musike for the affectioÌ„s of yong men is so variable that daily they would know straunge realmes and chaunge offices And in all those iourneis with the forse of youth the swete company with the pleasaunte communicacion of sciences and with a vaine hope we did dissemble our extreme pouerty which was so great that many times and ofte we desired not that whiche manye had but that litle which to few abounded Doest thou remember that when we sayled by the goulfe Arpin to goe into Helesponte a long and tempestuous torment came vpon vs wherin we were taken of a pirate and for our raunsome he made vs rowe about .ix. monethes in a gally wheras I cannot tell whiche was greater either the wante of bread or the abundaunce of stripes whiche we alwaies endured Hast thou forgotten also that in the citie of Rhodes when we were beseged of Bruerdus puissaunt kyng of Epirotes for the space of fourtene monethes we were tenne withoute eatyng fleshe saue onely .ii. cattes the one whiche we stole and the other whiche we bought remember that thou and I being in Tarent were desired of our host to go to the feast of the great goddesse Diana into the whiche temple none coulde enter that day but those which were new apparelled And to say the trouthe we determined not to go thither thou because thy garmentes were torne and I because my shoes were broken and that bothe the tymes we were sicke in Capua they neuer cured vs by dyet for our dyseases neuer proceded of excesse but of extreame hunger An often times Retropus the phisician for his pleasour spake to vs in the vniuersitie and sayd Alas children you dye not through surfeting and muche eatinge And truly he sayde trouth for the contrey was so dere and our mony so scarse that we did neuer eate vntyl the time we could endure no lenger for famine Dost thou not remember the great famine that was in Capua for the which cause we were in the warre of Alexandria wherin my fleshe dyd tremble remembring the great perilles whiche we passed in the goulfe of Theberynthe What snowes all wynter what extreme heate all sommer what general famine in the fieldes what outragious pestilence amongest the people and worste of all what persecution of straungers and what euill will we had of ours remember also that in the citie of Naples when we made our prayer to the profetesse Flauia she told vs what shoulde become of vs after we lefte our studies She tolde me that I should be an Emperour and sayde that thou shouldest be a kynge To the whiche aunswere we gaue suche credite that we toke it not onelye for a mocke but also for a manifest iniurye And nowe I doe not merueile in that then we bothe marueled wonderfull muche For enuyous fortune practised her power more in pluckyng downe the ryche then in setting vp the poore Beholde excellente Prince the greate power of the goddesse the whele of fortune the variety of times who would haue thought when I hadde my handes all rough and scuruy with rowing in the galley that betwene those handes the scepter of the Romayne Empire should haue ben put who would haue thoughte when I was so sicke for lacke of meat I should euer haue surfited by to muche eating who would haue thought when I could not be satisfied with cattes fleshe that I shoulde haue then glutted with to moch dainty meates who wold haue thought at that time when I left going into the temple because my shoes were broken that another tyme should come when I shoulde ryde triumphyng in chariotes and vppon the shoulders of other menne who woulde haue thought that that which with my eares I hard of the prophetesse in Campagnia I should see here with my eyes in Rome O how many dyd hope at the time we were in Asia to be gouernours of Rome and lords of Sicille which not only fayled of the honour that they desired
to be blamed for those which haue credit for their euil are many and those whych haue power to do well are very fewe ¶ Of the golden age in times past and worldly miserie which we haue at this present Cap. xxxi IN the first age golden world al liued in peace ech man toke care for his owne lands euery one planted sowed their trees corne eueryone gathered his frutes and cut his vynes kned their breade and brought vp their children and finally all liued by their owne proper swette trauaile so that they all liued without the preiudice or hurt of any other O worldly malice O cursed wicked world that thou neuer sufferest things to remaine in one estate and thought I cal the cursed maruaile not therat for when we are in most prosperitie then thou with death persecutest vs most cruelly Without teares I say not that I wil say that 2000 yeres of the world wer past before we knew what the world ment god suffering it and worldly malice inuenting it ploughes were turned into weapons oxen to horses goades to lances whippes to arrowes slinges to crosbowes simplycitye into malice trauaile into Idlenes rest to paine peace to warre loue to hatred charitie to crueltie Iustice to tyranny profite to domage almes to theft aboue al fayth into Idolatrie And finallye the swete they had to profite in their owne goods they tourned to bloud sheading to the domage of the comon wealth And herein the world sheweth it selfe to be a world herein worldly malice sheweth it selfe to be malicious in somuch as the one reioyceth the other lamenteth the one reioceth to stomble to the end the other may fall breake his necke the one reioyceth to be poore to the end the other maye not be riche the one reioyseth to be dispraised to the end the other may not be honored the one delighteth to be sad to the ende the other shoulde not be merye to conclude we are so wicked that we banishe the good from our owne house to the end that the euill might enter in at the gates of an other man When the creator created the whole world he gaue to eche thinge immediatly his place that is to wete he placed intelligence in the vppermoste heauen he placed the starres in the firmament the planettes in the orbes the byrdes in the ayre the earth on the center the fyshes in the water the serpentes in the holes the beastes in the mountaines and to al in generallye he gaue place to reste them selues in Now let princes and great Lordes be vaine glorious sayenge that they are Lords of the earth for truly of all that is created god only is the true Lord therof because the miserable man for his part hath but the vse of the fruit for if we thinke it reasonable that we should enioy the profite of that which is created then were it more conuenient we should acknowledge god to be the Lord therof I do not deny but confesse the God created al things to the end they should serue man vpoÌ„ condicion that maÌ„ shold serue God likewise but wheÌ„ the creature riseth against god immediatly the creator resisteth against man For it is but reason that he be disobeyd who one only coÌ„maundemeÌ„t wil not obey O what euil fortune hath the creature only for disobeying the comaundement of his creator For if man had kept his coÌ„maundement in Paradise god had conserued to the world the signorie but the creatures whome he created for his seruice are occasion to him of great troubles for the ingratitude of benefit heapeth great sorow to the discret hart It is great pitie to behold the man that was in paradise that might haue bene in heauen now to se him in the world aboue al to be interred in the intrailes of the earth For in terrestiall paradise he was innocent in heauen he had bene blessed but nowe he is in the worlde enuirouned with cares and afterwardes he shal be throwen into hys graue and gnawen of the wormes Let vs nowe see the disobedience wee hadde in the commaundemente of GOD and what fruite we haue gathered in the world For he is very simple that dare commit any vice taking no delight nor pleasure therof in his body In my opinion through the sinnes whiche our forefathers committed in paradise the seruitude remaineth in vs their children which are on the earth For so much as if I entre into the water I drowne if I touche the fire I burne if I cone neare a dog he biteth me if I threaten a horse he casteth me if I resiste the wynde it bloweth me downe if I persecute the serpent he poysoneth me if I smite the beare he destroieth me and to be brief I saie that the man that without pitie eateth men in his life the wormes shal eate his intrailes in the graue after his death O princes great lordes lode your selues with cloth of gold heape vp your great treasours assemble many armies inuente Iustes Torneis seke your pastimes reueÌ„ge your selues of your enemies serue your selues with your subiectes marrye your children to mighty kinges set them in great estate cause your selues to be feared of your enemies imploye your bodies to al pleasures leue great possessions to your heires rayse sumptuous buildinges to leaue memory of your persons I sweare by him that shal iudge me that I haue more compassion to see your sinfull soules then I haue enuy to see your vicious liues For in the end all pastimes will vanishe away and they shal leaue you for a gage to the hungry wormes of the earth O if princes did consider though they haue bene borne princes created norished in great estates that the day thei are borne death immediatly commeth to seke the end of their life and taketh them here and there when they are whole when they are sicke now tombling then rising he neuer leaueth them one houre vntill their woful burial Therfore sith it is true as in dede it is that that whiche princes possesse in this life is but small that which they hope in the other is so great truly I marueile why princes the which shal lie so straight in the graue dare liue in such so great largenes in their life To be riche to be lordes to haue great estates men should not therof at al be proude since they see how fraile mans condicion is for in th end life is but lone but death is enheritage Death is a patrimonie heritage which successiuely is inherited but life is a righte which daily is surrendred For death counteth vs somuche his owne that oftimes vnwaâ—es he coÌ„meth to assault vs life taketh vs such straungers that oftetimes we not doubting therof it vanisheth away If this thing theÌ„ be true why wil princes great lordes presume to coÌ„maunde in a straunge house which is this life as in their own house which is the
she goeth out of the house she ought to thinke that her maydens will stray abrode the children wil ronne out to play the varlettes and seruaunts wil be out of order the neighbours wil take occasions to speake euill and that which is worst of al some will steale the goodes out of the house and the others wil speake euyl of the renowne of the wife Oh god giueth a goodly gift grace to that man which hath such and so good a wife that of her owne nature loueth to kepe her selfe within the house And truly I say that such one doth excuse many griefes saueth much money For she spendeth not the goodes in apparel nor giueth occasion to men to iudge euil of her personne The greatest debate that is betwene man and wife is for that he desireth to get and kepe his goodes to bringe vp his chyldren and to maintaine his family and on the other part that she desireth to spend all vppon apparell For women in this case are so curious in louinge of themselues that they would absteine from meates that should mainteyne their life onlye to bye a new gowne to set out their pride Women naturally do loue to keape and wil not spend any thinge except it be in apparell For euery houre that is in the day and the night they desire to haue a new gowne to chaunge My entencyon is not to speake of apparell only but to perswade Princesses and great Ladyes that they would kepe themselues in their houses and in so doing they should excuse these superfluous wastes expenses For her neighbour seing her better apparelled then she is loketh vpon her husband as she were a Lyon It chaunceth oftentymes I would to god I had no cause to speake it that if by chaunce there commeth anye great or solempne feast or mariage she wil neuer loke louyngly on his face before he hath geuen her a new gowne to her backe and when the poore gentleman hath no money to paye of necessity he must runne in credit And when the vanytie of the woman is past then the time of payment draweth nere and they come to arest all his goodes so that they haue cause to lament one hole yeare for that whych they haue spent in one houre Women seldome contende for that one is fairer more nobler of lynage better maried or more vertuous then an other but onely for that an other goeth better apparailed then she For touching apparell there is no woman cā endure that an other meaner woman shoulde make comparison with her nor that in like maner her equal should excell her Lycurgus in the lawes that he gaue to the Lacedemonians commaunded that their wiues should not goe out of their houses but at dyuers solempne feastes in the yere For he sayde that the women ought to be makinge their prayers in the Temples to the gods or els in their houses bringing vp their children For it is not honest nor commendable that the wife shold passe her time abroade trotting from strete to strete as common women I say that the Princesses and great Ladies are much more bound to kepe them selues at home in their houses then other women of meaner degre without a cause I speake it not for therby they shal get them more reputacion For ther is no vertue wherby the woman winneth more reputacion in the common wealth then alwayes to be sene resident in her house I say also that a wife ought the most part of her time to keape her house bycause she hath lesse occasion then other haue to go abroade For if the poore wife the Plebian go out of her house she goeth for no other cause but for to seke meate but if the riche and noble woman goeth out of her house it is for nothing but to take her pleasure Let not princesses maruel nor let not great ladies wonder if they dispose their feete to trotte occupye their eyes to behold though their ennemyes and neighbours with cankered hartes doth iudge them and with euil tongues defame them for the fond dedes that women do maketh men to be rash of iudgement I like it wel that the husbands should loue their wiues that they should comfort them and make much of them and that they should put their trust in them but I do discommend that the women should go gadding abroad in visitacion from house to house that their husbands dare not gaine say them For admyt that they be good in their personnes yet in this doing they giue occasion for men to esteme them vaine and light Seneca saieth in an epistel that the great Romaine Cato the censor ordeyned that no woman shold go out of her house being alone if perhappes it were in the night she should not go alone without company that the company shold not be such as she would chose but such as her husband or parent would assigne so that with the same coūtenaunce we behold now a comen woman with the selfe same lookes then we beheld her that went oft out of her house Noble ladies which loue their honour ought greatly to consider way the great incōueniences that may ensue by often gadding abroad for they spend much to apparel them they lose much time in trimming them they kepe gentlewomen to wait vpon them they wil striue with their husbands to goe whiles she is out of the dores the house shal be euil kept and al the enemyes frendes therby haue matter wherupon to talke finally I say that the woman that goeth out of her house doth not wey the losse of her honour so much as she doth the pleasure she taketh abroad Presuming as I presume to write with grauitie I say that I am ashamed to speake it yet for al that I wil not refraine to write of the walkes of these dames that visite desire to be visited amongest whom ther is moued oftentimes such vaine cōmunication that it causeth their husbands to become ennemyes and on the other parte they remember more the gossippinges that they haue to go then their sinnes which they ought to lament ¶ Of the commodities and discommodities which folowe Princesses and great Ladyes that go abroade to vysite or abyde in the house Cap. viii LUcretia by the consent of all was counted the cheafest of all other Matrones of Rome and not for that that she was more faire more wise of greater parentage or more noble But because she did withdrawe her selfe from company and abode solitary For she was such a one that in the heroical vertues there could be nothing more desired nor in womens weakenes there was nothinge in her to be amended The historye of the chast Lucretia is euident in Titus Liuius that when the husbandes of diuers Romaines came home from the warres to their houses they founde their wiues in such sort that some were gasing out of the windowes others devising vainely at their doores others in the field wandering others
a man haue hys desire that is to say to haue his wife great with child and redy to bring forth good fruite afterward to se the woful mother through some sodeine accident peryshe the innocent babe not to be borne When the woman is healthful bigge with child she is worthy of great reproch if eyther by runnyng leaping or dauncing any mischaunce hap vnto her And truly the husband hath great cause to lament this case for without doubt the gardiner fealeth great grefe in his hart when in the prime time the tre is loden with blosomes and yet by reason of some sharpe and bitter froste it neuer beareth fruit It is not only euyl that women should runne leape when they are bigge great with chyld but it is also dishonest and specially for great Ladies for alwayes women that be common dauncers are esteamed as light housewiues The wiues in general princesses and great ladies in particuler ought to go temperately to be modest in their mouinges for the modeste gate argueth discretnes in the person Al women naturally desire to be honoured reuerenced touching that I let them know that ther is nothing which in a common wealth is more honor for a woman then to be wise ware in speaking moderate quyet in going For it is vnpossible but that the woman which is lyght in her going and malycious in her talking should be dispised and abhorred In the yere of the foundacion of Rome .466 the romaines sente Curius Dentatus to make warre agaynst king Pirrus who kept the city of Tharent did much harme to the people in Rome for the Romaines had a great corage to conquere straunge realmes therfore they could haue no pacience to suffer any straunger to inuade theirs This Curius Dentatus was he which in the end ouercame king Pirrus was the fyrst that brought the Oliphantes to Rome in his tryumphe wherfore the fiercenes of those beasts astonyed the Romaine people much for they weyed lytel the sight of the kyngs loden with irons but to se the Oliphants as they did they wondered much Curius Dentatus had one only sister the which he intierly loued They wer seuen children two of the which dyed in the warres other thre by pestilence so that ther were none left him but that sister wherfore he loued her with al his hart For the death of vnthriftye children is but as a watch for childrē vnprouided of fauoures This sister of Curius Dentatus was maried to a Romaine consul was conceiued gone .7 moneths with child and the day that her brother triumphed for ioy of her brothers honor she leaped daunced so much that in the same place she was deliuered so vnluckely that the mother toke her death the chyld neuer lyued wherupon the feast of the triumphe ceased and the father of the infant for sorow lost hys speach For the hart which sodainly feleth grefe incontinently loseth vnderstanding Tibullus the Grecian in the third booke De casibus triumphi declareth the hystorie in good stile how and in what sorte it chaunced Nyne yeares after that the kings of Rome weare bannyshed from the rape that Tarquine dyd to the chast Lucretia the Romaine created a dignytie whiche they called DICTATVRA and the Dictatoure that hadde this office was aboue al other lord chiefe for the Romaines perceiued that the common wealth could not be gouerned but by one head alone And because the Dictatour had so great aucthority as the Emperour hath at this present to th end they should not become tirauntes they prouided that the office of the Dictatoursship should last no longer then vi moneths in the yeare the which past and expired they chose another Truly it was a good order that that office dured but vi moneths For oft tymes princes thinkinge to haue perpetual aucthority become necligent in vsing iustice The first dictatour in Rome was Largius Mamillus who was sent against the Volces the which at that time were the greatest enemies to the Romaines for Rome was founded in such a signe that alwayes it was beloued of fewe and abhorred of many As Titus Liuius saith this Largius Mamillus vanquished the Volces triumphed ouer theym in the end of the warre distroyed their mighty citye called Curiola and also distroyed and ouerthrewe many places and fortresses in that prouince for the cruel hartes do not only distroy the personnes but also take vengeaunce of the stones The hurtes which Largius Mamillus did in the country of the Volces were maruelous and the men which he slewe were many and the treasories he robbed were infinite and the captiues which he had in his triumphe were a great nomber amongest whom inespecial he brought captiue a noble mans doughter a beautiful gentlewoman the which he kept in his house for the recreacion of his person for the aunciente Romaines gaue to the people al the treasours to maintayne the warre they toke to them selues al the vycious things to kepe in their houses The case was that this damsel being with child Largius Mamillus brought her to solace herselfe in his orchard wher were sondry yonge fruites and as then not ripe to eate wherof with so great affection she did eate that forthwith she was delyuered in the same place of a creature so that on the one part she was delyuered and on the other part the chylde died This thinge chaunsed in the gardeins of Vulcan two dayes after the triumphe of Largius Mamillus a ruful and lamentable case to declare forasmuch as both the child that was borne the mother that was delyuered and also the father that begat it the selfe same day dyed and were buried all in one graue and this thing was not wythout great waylyng lamenting throughout al Rome For if with teares their lyues myght haue bene restored wythout doubt none of them should haue ben buried The first sonne of Rome which rebelled against rome was Tarquin the proud The second that wythstode Rome being as yet in Lucania was Quintus Marcius The third that went agaynst Rome was the cruel Silla The domages which these thre did to their mother Rome were such and so great that the thre seueral warres of Affricke were nothing to be compared to those thre euil children for those enemyes could scarcely se the walles of Rome but these vnnatural chyldrē had almost not left one stone vpon another A man ought not greatly to esteme those buildings that these tirauntes threw to the ground nor the buildings that they distroyed neither the men that they slew nor the women that they forced ne yet the orphanes which they made but aboue al things we ought to lament for that that they brought into Rome For the comon wealth is not distroyed for lacke of riches sumpteous buildings but because vices abound vertuous want Of these thre Romaynes he whose name was Quintus Marcius had ben consul thrise once Dictatour
condicion I say not al that if a man giue not spedely that whiche they desire they chaunge their coullour their eyes looke read their tongues runne quycke their voyces are sharpe they frete with them selues they trouble their neighbours abroade and are so out of order that no man dare speake vnto them within You haue this good trade among ye womē that vnder coullour of being with child you wil that we husbands graunt ye al your desires When the sacred senate in the time of the valyaunt Camillus made a law in the fauour of the Romaine Matrones with child the women at that time longed not so much as they do at this present but I can not tel what this presently meaneth that al ye are annoynted with that that is good that ye are all desirous of that that is euyl I wil tel the Faustine the occasiō why this law was made in Rome therby thou shalt se if thou deseruest to enioy the priuyledge therof or no For the lawes are but as yokes vnder the which the euyl doth labour and they are winges wherwith the good doth flye The case therof was such that Camillus the valyaunt captaine went forth to the warres he made a solempne vow to the mother Berecinthia that if the gods gaue him the vyctorie he would offer vnto her an Image of siluer and after Camillus wanne the victory that he would haue accomplished his vow to the mother Berecinthia nother he had any riches nor Rome had any siluer For at that time Rome was rich of vertues and poore of money And know thou Faustine that our aunciēt fathers were deuout towards the gods curious in repairing the temples the which they estemed to be great deuocions they were in such sort obserued of their vowes that neither for slouth nor pouerty they would obmitte their promises towards their gods And in these things they were so precise that they graunted to no man any triumphe onlesse he did sweare that he had vnto the gods made a vow afterward also proued how he performed it At that time florished in Rome manye vertuous Romaynes and manye greeke phylosophers manye hardye Captaynes and manye sumptuous buildinges and aboue all thinges Rome was vnpeopeled of malyces and adorned with vertuous Ladies The Historiographers made and not withoute a cause greate accompte of these vertuous matrones For the commonne wealthe hathe as muche neade of vertuous women as the warres haue of valyaunte Captaynes They beynge therefore as they weare soo vertuous and noble Matrones without the motion of anye woman determined all to go into the high Capitoll ther to offer al their Ieuelles and treasours that they had their cheynes their ringes their garmentes their bracelettes their girdels their buttons and hangers of golde of siluer and precious stones of all sortes with al their tablettes The Annales of this time say that after the Romaine women had layed so greate a multitude of riches at the feete of the sacret senate in the name of them all one of them spake whose name was called Lucina said in this sort Fathers cōscript esteme not much these our Iewelles which we geue you to make the ymage of the mother Berecinthia but esteme much this that we willynglye put in ieopardye our husbandes and children to win you the vyctory And if in this case you accept our poore seruyce haue no respect to the lytel which we do offer but to the great which if we were able we would giue Truly the Romains though the treasure which their wiues offered was great Yet notwithstāding they did more esteme the good wil wherwith they gaue it then they did the giftes them selues For ther was so much in dede that sufficed both to make the ymage of the goddesse Berecinthia and also for a long time to maintaine the warres Therfore from that day that those matrones presented their Iewelles in the highe Capitoll the senate foorthwith in remembraunce of the gentlenes graunted them these fiue thinges as a priuyledge For at that time Rome neuer receyued seruice or benefyt of any person but she rewarded it with double payment The first thing that the senate graunted the Romaine women was that in the day of their burial the Oratours might openly make oracions in the praise of their lyues For in old time men vsed neyther to exalt theym when they were dead nor yet to accompany them to their graues The second thing that was graunted them was that they might syt in the temples for in the old time when the Romaynes did offer sacrifices to their gods the aged did alwayes syt the priestes kneele the maried men did leane but the women though they were of noble and high linage could neither be suffered to talke sit nor to leane The third thing that the senate graunted the women of Rome was that euery one of them might haue .ii. rich gownes and that they should not aske the Senate leue to weare them for in the olde time if any women were apparelled or did bye any newe gowne withoute askinge licence of the Senate shee shoulde immedyatlye loose her Gowne and bycause her husbande did condiscende vnto the same he was bannyshed the common wealthe The fourth thing which they graunted them was that they shold drinke wine when they were sicke for there was in Rome a custome inuyolable that thoughe their lyfe was in hazard they durst not drinke wine but water For when Rome was wel corrected a woman that druncke wine was asmuch slaundered among the people as if she had committed adulterye towardes her husband The fift thing graunted by the senate vnto the women was that a man might not denay a Romaine being with chyld any honest and lawful thing that she demaunded I cannot tell why the auncientes of Rome esteamed more women with child then others that had no children Al these fiue things were iustly graunted to the Matrones and noble Romaine Ladyes And I can tel the Faustine that they were of the Senate most willingly graunted For it is reason that women which in vertues do excell should with all meanes be honoured I wil tel the Faustine the especiall cause that moued the Romaynes to graunte vnto you Matrones this last pryuyledge that is to wete that a man cannot denay them any thinge being with child Thou oughtest to know that the others aswel Grekes as Latynes did neuer giue lawes nor institutions vnto their people without great occasions For the great multitude of lawes are comonly euill kept and on the other part are cause of sondrye troubles We cannot denaye but that the auncientes did wel auoyde the great nomber of institucions For it is better for a man to lyue as reason commaundeth him then as the lawe constrayneth him The case therfore was that in the yere of the foundacion of Rome .364 Fuluius Torquatus then being Consul in the warre againste the Volces the knightes of Mauritania broughte to Rome an huge monster with
the negligence of the fathers in bringing vp their childrē Sextus Cheronensis in the second boke of the sainges of the Philosophers declareth that a citezen of Athens sayed on daye to Dyogenes the Phylosopher these wordes Tel me Diogenes what shall I doe to be in the fauour of the gods and not in the hatred of men for oft tymes amonges you Philosophers I haue hard saye that there is great difference betwene that that the Goddes wil and that which men loue Diogenes aunswered Thou speakest more then thoughtest to speake that the gods will one thinge and men another for the gods are but as a center of mercy and men are but as a denne of malice if thou wilte inioye rest in thy dayes and keape thy lyfe pure and cleane thou must obserue these thre thinges The first honour thy gods deuoutly For the man which doeth not serue and honour the gods in all his enterprises he shal be vnfortunate The second be very diligent to bring vp thy children well For the man hath no enemy so troublesome as his owne son if he be not wel brought vp The third thyng be thankefull to thy good benefactours and frendes For the Oracle of Apollo sayeth that the man who is vnthankefull of all the worlde shal be abhorred And I tell the further my frend that of these thre thinges the most profitable though it be more troblesome is for a manne to teache and bring vp his children well This therefore was the aunswere that the Philosopher Diogenes made to the demaunde of the Cytezen It is great pytie and griefe to see a yonge child how the bloud doth stirre him to se how the fleshe doth prouoke him to accomplishe his desire to se sensualyte go before and he himselfe to come behinde to se the malicious world to watche him to se howe the deuill doth tempt him to se how vyces bynde him and in all that whych is spoken to se how the father is negligent as if he had no children wher as in deed the old man by the few vertues that he hath had in his youth may easely know the infirmites and vices wherewith his sonne is compassed If the expert had neuer ben ignoraunt if the fathers had neuer ben children if the vertuous had neuer ben vicious if the fyne wittes had neuer ben deceiued it were no meruaile if the Fathers were negligent in teachyng their children For the lytell experience excuseth men of great offences but synce thou arte a father and that fyrst thou were a sonne synce thou arte old and hast ben yong and besides al this synce that pride hath enflamed the lechery hath burned the wrath hath wounded the negligēce hath hindred the couetousnes hath blinded the and glotonie surfeted the tell me cruell father since so manye vices haue reigned in the why hast thou not an eye to thy childe whom of thy owne bloud thou hast begotten And if thou doest it not bycause he is thy childe thou oughtest to do it bycause he is thy nearest For it is vnpossible that the child whych with many vyces is assaulted and not succoured but in the end he should be infamed and to the dishonour of the father most wickedly ouercome It is vnpossible to kepe flesh well fauored vnlesse it be first salted It is vnpossible that the fishe should liue without water It is vnpossible but that the Rose should wyther whiche is of the thorne ouergrowen So like it is vnpossible that the fathers should haue any comforte of their chyldren in their age vnlesse they haue instructed them in vertue in their youth And to speake further in this matter I saye that in the Christian catholike religion where in dede there is good doctrine ther alwayes is supposed to be a good conscience Amongest the wryters it is a thinge well knowen howe Eschines the philosopher was banished from Athens and with all his family came to dwell at Rhodes The occasion was because that he and the philosopher Demosthenes were in great contention in the common wealth Wherefore the Athenians determined to banish the one and to keape the other with them And truly they dyd well for of the contentions and debates of sages warres most commonly aryse amongest the people This philosopher Eschines being at Rhodes banished amongest others made a solempne oration wherein he greatly reproueth the Rhodians that they were so negligente in brynging vp their children saiyng vnto them these wordes I let you vnderstande Lordes of Rhodes that your predecessours aduaunced them selues to discende and to take their beginning of the Lides the whiche aboue all other nations were curious and diligent to bring vp their children and hereof came a lawe that was among them which sayed We ordeine and commaunde that if a father haue many chyldren that the moste vertuous should enherite the goods and riches and if there were but one vertuous that he alone should inherite the whole And if perchaūce the children were vitious that then al should be depriued from the heritage For the goods gotten with trauaile of vertuous fathers ought not by reason to be inherited with vitious children These were the wordes that the philosopher spake to the Senate of the Rhodes and because he sayde in that Oration many other thinges whiche touche not our matter I wyll in this place omitte them For among excellent wryters the wryting loseth muche authoritie when the authour from his purpose digresseth into an other matter To saye the truthe I doe not maruayle that the children of princes and great lordes be adulterers and belly gods for that on the one parte youth is the mother of Idlenes and on the other litle experience is the cause of great offences And furthermore the fathers being once dead the children enherite their goodes as quietly being loden with vices as if in dede they were with all vertues endued If the younge children did knowe for a certaine that the lawes of the Lydes should be obserued that is to witte that they shoulde not enherite vnlesse they be vertuous it is vnpossible but that they would leade a good life and not in this wyse to runne at large in the worlde For they doe absteine more from doing euill fearyng to lose that whiche they doe possesse then for any loue to doe that whiche they ought I doe not denaye but according as the natures of the fathers is dyuers so the inclinations of the chyldren are variable For so muche as some folowyng their good inclination are good others not resisting euil sensualities are euill But yet in this matter I saye that it lieth muche in the father that doeth brynge them vp when as yet they are younge so that the euill whiche nature gaue by good bryngyng vp is refrayned For oftetymes the good custome doeth ouercome all euill inclination Princes and great lordes that wylbe diligent in the instruction of their chyldren ought to enforme their maisters and tutors that shall teache theim to what vyces and
shall esteme it more that when I doe geue you my sonne to teache I geue you more then if I gaue you all the ryches of the Realme For in him that hath the reformacion of the childes life dependeth the fame of the Father after he is deade So that the Father hathe no greater renowme then to see hys chylde leade an honeste lyfe I praye the Gods that they maye be so mercyful and the fatall destinies so fortunate that if tyll thys time you haue watched to teache the children of others that from hence forwarde you watche to teache thys my sonne Comodus whyche I truste shal be to the comforte of all For the thynge that is vniuersally good to all oughte to be preferred before that whyche tendeth but to the commoditie of some You see my frendes that there is a greate difference to teache the chyldren of Prynces and to teache the children of the people the cause hereof is that the greatest parte of those come to the scooles and vniuersities to learne to speake but I doe not geue you my sonne Comodus to the ende you should teache hym to speake many wordes but that you should learne him to do good workes For all the glorye of the Prynces is that in the workes whyche he doth he be vprighte and in the woordes that he speaketh he be very discrete After that the children haue spente manye yeares in scooles after their Fathers haue spente muche money vppon them yf perchaunce the chylde can dispute in Greeke or Latin anye thyng at all thoughe he be lyghte and vitious the Father thynketh hys goodes well imployed For in Rome nowe a dayes they esteme an Oratour more whyche can doe nought but bable then a philosopher whyche is vertuous O wofull men that now lyue in Rome and muche more wofull shall those be whyche hereafter shall succede For Rome is no more that Rome whyche it was wont to be that is to wete that the fathers in olde tyme sente their children to scooles and studies to learne them to be silent and nowe they sende them to learne to speake to muche They learned them then to be sage and temperate and nowe they learne them to be dissolute And the worste of all is that the scooles where the sage and pacient were wont to be and from whence issued the good and vertuous workes are nowe full of bablynge Oratours and none issue oute from thence at this present but the euill and vitious So that if the sacred Romain lawes are exalted once in a weeke with their tongues they are broken tenne tymes in the daye in their workes What will you I say more since I can not tel you any thing without hurting my mother Rome but that at this present al the pleasures of vain men is to see their children ouercome others by disputing but I let you vnderstand that all my glory shal be when my son shal surmount others not in wordes but in silence not to be troublesome but to be pacient not in speakyng subtill wordes but in doing vertuous workes For the glorie of good menne is in workyng muche and speakyng littell Consider my frendes and do not forget get it that this daye I committe my honour vnto you I put into your handes the estate of Comodus my sonne the glory of Rome the rest of the people which are my subiectes the gouernement of Italye which is your countrey and aboue all I referre vnto your discretions the peace and tranquillitie of the hole common wealth Therefore he that hath suche a charge by reason ought not to slepe For as the wise men say to great trust is required much diligence I will saye no more but that I would my sonne Comodus shoulde be so well taught that he should haue the feare of god and the science of philosophers the vertues of the auncient Romaynes the approued councell of the aged the corage of the Romaine youth and the constancy of you whiche are his masters Fynally I would that of al the good he shold take the good as of me he ought to take the heritage and succession of the Empyre For he is the true prince and worthy of the empyre that with his eyes doth beholde the great signories he ought to enherite and dothe employe his harte howe to gouerne it wherby he shal lyue to the great profit of the common wealth And I proteste to the immortall gods with whom I hope to goe and to the goodnes of my predecessours whose faith I am bound to kepe I proteste to the Romaine lawes the whyche I dyd sweare to obserue in the conquest of Asia wherein I bound my selfe to continue and to the frendeshyppe of the Rhodiens the whiche I haue offered my selfe to kepe to the ennemitye of the Affricans the whyche not for me but for the oth of my predecessours I haue bounde my selfe to mainteine And I proteste vnto the vessell of the hyghe Capitall where my bones ought to be burnt that Rome do not complaine of me beyng alyue nor that in the worlde to come she curse me after my death If perchaunce the prince Comodus my sonne by his wicked lyfe should be occasion of the losse of hinderaunce to the common wealth And thoughe you whych are his masters vndoe it for not geuyng hym dew punishement and he thoroughe hys wicked gouernement destroye it yet I discharge my selfe by all these protestations that I haue made whyche shal be witnesses of my will For the father is bound no more towardes his child but to banyshe hym from his pleasures and to geue him vertuous masters And if he be good he shal be be the glory of the father the honor of him selfe the wealth of you and the profite and comoditie of the hole common wealth That tutours of Princes and noble mens children ought to be very circumspect that their scollers doe not accustome them selues in vices whilles they are yonge and speciallye they must kepe them from foure vices Chap. xxxix THe good and experte Surgeons vnto greate and daungerous woundes do not onelye applye medycynes and oyntementes whyche doe resolue stop but also do minister other good playsters for to restraine and heale them And verelye they shewe them selues in the one no lesse sage then in the other experte for as greate dylygence ought to be had to preserue the weake fliesh and to purge the rotten wounde to the end it maye be healed so lykewise the wyse trauailers learne diligentely the waye before they take vppon them any iourney that is to wete yf there be any daungers in the waye eyther of robbynge or sleyinge wherein there is anye by pathe that goeth oute of the hyghe waye Truly he that in this point is circumspecte is woorthy to be counted a sage man For accordyng to the multitude of the perylles of the world none can be assured vnlesse he know first where the daunger is wherin he may fal To shew therfore that which by these parables I meane
vertues men ought to vse and the vyces which they ought to eschew Cap. xxvi IN tymes past I beeing yong and thou old I did succor thee with money and thou mee with good counsell but now the world is otherwise chaunged in that thy white hears doo iudge thee to bee old and thy woorks doo cause thee to bee yong Therefore necessity compelleth mee that wee chāge our stile which is that I succor thee with good counsell though thou geeue mee no money therfore for I count thy couetousnes to bee such that for all the good counsel coūselers of Rome the wilt not vouchsafe to geeue one quatrine of Capua Now for the good that I wish thee for that which I owe to the law of frendship I will presently geeue thee a counsel wherby thou mayst know what a good mā ought to doo to bee loued of god feared loued of mē If the wilt quietly lead thy life in this miserable world retain this well in memory which I write vnto thee First the good deedes thou hast receiued of any those shalt thou remember the wrongs thou hast sustained them shalt thou forget Secondarely esteeme much thy own little way not the much of an other Thirdly the company of the good always couet the conuersation of the euill dayly fly Fourthly to the great shew thy self graue to the small more conuersant Fiftly to those which are present doo always good woorks and of those that bee absent always speak good woords Sixtly way little the losse of fortune esteeme much things of honor The seuenth to win one thing neuer aduenture thou many nor for many things doubtfull doo not thou aduēture any one thing certain Finally lastly I pray thee aduertise thee that thou haue no enemy that thou keepe but one frend Hee which among the good wil bee counted for good none of these things hee ought to want I know well that thou wilt haue great pleasure to see these my counsels well writen But I ensure thee I shal haue greater pleasure to see them in thy deedes well obserued For by writing to geeue good counsel it is easy but by woorks to folow the same is maruelous hard My faithful frendship to thee plighted thy great ability considered caused mee always for thee in Rome to procure honorable offices by my suyt thou hast been Edite tribune maister of the horses wherin thou behauedst thy self with such wisdom that all the senate therfore yelded mee most harty thanks I procuring them for thee thou for thy self winning such perpetual renowm One thing of thee I vnderstand which with good wil I woold not haue knowen much lesse that any such thing by thee shoold haue been cōmitted that is to weet that thou leauing thy office of the pretorship in the warre by land hast taken vpon thee traffike of a marchāt by sea so that those which in Rome knew thee a knight doo see thee now in Capua a marchant My pen indyting this my letter for a tyme stood in suspence for no other cause but only to see what thing in thee first I might best blame either the noble office which thou didst forsake or the vyle base estate which thou hast chosen And though thou bee so much bereued of thy sences yet call to mynd thy auncient predecessors which dyed in the warres only to leaue their children and nephews armed knights and that thou presently seekest to lose that liberty through thy couetousnes which thei wanne by their valyauntnes I think I am not deceiued that if thy predecessors were reuiued as they were ambicious of honor so woold they bee greedy to eat thee in morsels sinnues bones and all For the children which vniustly take honor from their fathers of reason ought to lose their lyues The castels towns housen mountains woods beasts Iewels and siluer which our predecessors haue left vs in the end by long cōtinuance doo perish and that which causeth vs to haue perpetuall memory of them is the good renowm of their lyfe And therfore if this bee true it is great shame for the parents to haue such children in whom the renowm of their predecessors dooth end In the florishing time of Cicero the oratour when by his counsell the whole common wealth was gouerned hee beeing then of power both in knowledge and of money Salust said vnto him in his inuectiue that hee was of base stock wherunto hee aunswered Great cause haue I too render thāks vnto the gods that I am not as thou art by whom thy high linage is ended but my poore stock by me doth now begin too rise It is great pity to see how many good noble valiant men are dead but it is more greef to see presently their children vitious and vnthrifts So that there remaineth asmuch memory of their infamy as there doth of the others honesty Thou makst mee ashamed that thou hast forsaken to conquer the enemies as a romain knight and that thou art become a marchant as a poore plebeian Thou makest mee to muse a littel my freend Cincinnatus that thou wilt harme thy familiars and suffer straungers to liue in peace Thou seekest to procure death to those which geeue vs life and to deliuer from death those which take our life To rebels thou geeuest rest to the peace makers thou geeuest anoyaunce To those which take from vs our own thou wilt geeue and to those which geeueth vs of theirs thou wilt take Thou condemnest the innocent and the condemned thou wilt deliuer A defender of thy countrey thou wilt not bee but a tirant of thy common welth To al these things aduentureth hee which leaueth weapons and fauleth to marchandise With my self oft times I haue mused what occasion should moue thee to forsake chiualry wherein thou hadst such honor and to take in hand marchandise whereof foloweth such infamy I say that it is asmuch shame for thee to haue gon from the warres as it is honor for those which are born vnto office in the common welth My freend Cincinnatus my end tendeth not to condemne marchandise nor marchaunds nor to speak euill of those which traffick by the trade of bying and selling For as without the valiant knights warre cannot bee atchyued so likewise without the diligent marchants the comon wealth cannot bee maintained I cannot imagin for what other cause thou shooldst forsake the warre traffique marchandise vnlesse it were because thou now being old wantest force to assault men openly in the straits shooldst with more ease sitting in thy chayer robbe secretly in the market place O poore Cincinnatus sithens thou byest cheap sellest deare promisest much performest litle thou byest by one measure sellest by an other thou watchest that none deceiue thee playest therin as other marchants accustom And to conclude I swear that the measure wherwith the gods shall measure thy lyfe shal bee much iuster
from the bottom of his hart fetched a heauy sigh and hee beeing demaunded of those which were at his table why hee sighed so sore hee aunswered Wee haue lost at this day my frends By the which woords the emperor ment that hee counted not that day amongst those of lyfe wherein hee had geeuen no reward nor gyft Truely this noble prince was valyaunt and myghty since hee sighed and had displeasure not for that which in many days hee had geeuen but beecause that one day hee had failed to geeue any thyng Pelopa of Thebes was a man in his time very valiaunt and allso rich sith hee was fortunat in getting liberall in spēding one asked him why he was so prodigal to geeue hee aunswered If to thee it seemeth that I geeue much to mee it seemeth yet I shoold geue more sithens the goods ought to serue mee not I to honor them Therefore I wil that they cal mee the spender of the goods not the steward of the house Plutarche in his apothemes saieth that kyng Darius floutyng at king Alexander for being poore sēt to know where his treasures were for such great armies to whō Alexander the great aūswered Tel king Darius that hee keepeth in his cofers his treasures of metal that I haue no other treasures then the harts of my frinds And further tel him that one man alone can rob al his treasures but hee al the world can not take my treasures frō mee which are my frinds I durst say affirming that Alexander sayd that hee cānot bee called poore which is rich of frinds neither can hee bee called rich which is poore of frinds For wee saw by experience Alexander with his frinds toke kyng Darius treasures from him king Darius with all his treasures was not puissaūt inough to take Alexanders frends from him Those which of their natural inclinacion are shamefast in estate noble they ought aboue all things to fly the slaūder of couetousnes for wtout doubt greater is the honor which is lost then the goods that are gotten If princes and great lords of their own natural dispositions bee lyberal let thē follow their nature but if perchaunce of their own nature they are enclined to couetousnes let them enforce their wil. And if they wil not doo it I tel them which are present that a day shal come whē they shal repent for it is a general rule that the disordinat couetousnes doo raise against them selues al venemous tongues Think that whē you watch to take mens goods the others watch in like maner to take your honor And if in such case you hazard your honor I doo not think that your life cā be sure for there is no law that dooth ordein nor pacience that can suffer to see my neighbor liue in quiet by the swet of my brows A poore man esteemeth asmuch a cloke as the rich man doth his delicious life Therefore it is a good consequent that if the rich man take the gown from the poore the poore man ought to take life frō the rich Phocion amongst the Greeks was greatly renowmed this not so much for that he was sage as for that hee did despise al worldly riches vnto whom when Alexander the great king of Macedony had sent him a hundreth marks of siluer hee said vnto those that brought it Why dooth Alexander sēd this money vnto mee rather then to other philosophers of Grece they aūswered him He dooth send it vnto thee for that thou art the least couetous most vertuous Then aunswered this philosopher Tel Alexander that though he knoweth not what belongeth to a prince yet I know wel what perteineth to a philosopher For the estate office of philosophers is to dispise the treasures of prynces the office of princes is to ask counsel of philosophers And further Phocion said you shal say also to Alexander that in that hee hath sent mee hee hath not shewed him self a pitiful frend but a cruel enemy for esteeming mee an honest man such as hee thought I was hee shoold haue holpen mee to haue been such These woords were worthy of a wise man It is great pity to see valyāt noble men to bee defamed of couetousnes only for to get a few goods hee abaseth him self to vile offices which appertein rather to mean parsons then to noble men valiant knights Whereof ensueth that they liue infamed al their frends slaūdered Declaring further I say that it seemeth great lightnes that a knight shoold leaue the honorable state of chiualry to exercise the handycraft of husbandry that the horse shoold bee changed into oxen the speres to mattocks the weapons into plows Finally they doo desire to toyl in the field refuse to fight in the frontiers O how much some knights of our time haue degenerated frō that their fathers haue ben in times past for their predecessors did aduāce them selues of the infidels which in the fields they slew their children brag of the corne shepe they haue in their grounds Our auncient knights were not woont to sigh but when they saw thē selues in gret distres their successors weepe now for that it rained not in the month of May. Their fathers did striue which of them could furnish most men haue most weapons keepe most horses but their children now adaies contend who hath the finest witte who can heape vp greatest treasour who can keepe most sheep The auncients stryued who should keepe most men but these worldlings at this day striue who can haue greatest reuenues Wherefore I say synce the one dooth desyre asmuch to haue great rents as the other dyd delyght to haue many weapons it is as though fathers shoold take the sweord by the pomell and the children by the scaberd All the good arts are peruerted and the art of chyualry aboue all others is despysed and not wythout cause I called it an art for the auncyent phylosophers consumed a great tyme to write the lawes that the knights ought to keepe And as now the order of the Carthagians seemeth to be most streight so in times past the order of knighthod was the streightest To whom I swere that if they obserued the order of chiualry as good and gentill knights there remayned no time vacant for them in life to be vitious nor wee should accuse them at their death as euil christians The trew and not fayned knight ought not to be prowd malicious furious a glutton coward prodigal nigard a lyer a blasphemer nor negligent Finally I say that all those ought not to bee iudged as knights which haue golden spurs vnlesse hee hath there with an honest life O if it pleased the king of heauen that princes would now adays examin as straitly those which haue cure of souls as the Romains dyd those which had but charge of armies In old time they neuer doubbed any man knight vnlesse he were of noble blood proper of
to take if ther by hee think hee may bee healed I pray thee I exhort thee I aduise thee my soÌ„ne that thy youth beeleue mine age thy ignorancy beeleue my knowledge thy sleepe beeleue my watch the dimnes of thy eyes beeleue the clearnes of my sight thy imaginacioÌ„ beeleue my vertue thy suspicion beeleue my experieÌ„ce For otherwise one day thou shalt see thy selfe in soÌ„e distresse where smal time thou shalt haue to repent none to find remedy Thou maist say vnto mee my sonne that sins I haue beene yong I let thee to bee yong that when thou shall bee aged thou wilt ameÌ„d I answer thee that if thou wilt liue as yong yet at the least gouerne thy self as old In a prince which gouerneth his common wealth wel mani myseries are dissembled of his parson Euen as for mighty affaires ripe couÌ„sayles are necessary so to endure the troubles of the empire the person needeth some recreacion For the bowe string which always is stretched either it lengthneth or it breaketh Whether princes bee yong or old there can bee nothing more iust then for the recreacioÌ„ of them selues to seeke some honest pastimes And not without a cause I say that they bee honest For sometimes they accompany with so dishonest persons and so vnthrifty that they spend their goods they loose their honor weary their persons more than if they were occupied in the affaires of the common wealth For thy youth I leaue thee children of great lords with whom thou maist past the tyme away And not without cause I haue prouided that with thee they haue beene brought vp from thy infancy For after thou camest to mannes estate enheriting my goods if perchauÌ„ce thou wooldst accompany thy selfe with yong men thou shouldst find them well learned For thy warres I leaue thee valiaunt captaines though indeede things of war are beegoon by wisdome yet in the end the issue faleth out by fortune For stuards of thy treasures I leaue thee faithful men And not wtout cause I say they are faythfull For oftentimes greater are the theeues which are receyuers tresorers then are they that doo robbe among the people I leaue thee my sonne expert auncieÌ„t men of whome thou maist take couÌ„saile with whome the maist coÌ„municat thy trobles For there can bee fourmed no honest thing in a prince vnlesse hee hath in his coÌ„pany auncieÌ„t men for such geeue grauity to his parsoÌ„ auctority to his pallace To inueÌ„t theaters to fish ponds to chase wild beasts in the forrests to renne in the fyelds to let thy haukes fly to exercise weapoÌ„s al these things wee can deny thee as to a yong maÌ„ the beeing yong mayst reioyce thy self in al these Thou oughtst also to haue respect that to ordeine armies inueÌ„t warrs folow victories accept truces coÌ„firm peace raise brutes to make laws to promote the one put downe the others to punish the euill first to reward the good the counsaile of al these things ought to bee taken of cleare iudgements of persons of experience of white heads Thinkest thou not that it is possible to passe the time with the yong to counsail with the old The wise and discreete princes for all things haue time inough if they know well how to measure it Bee ware my sonne that they note thee not to vse great extremities For the end occasion why I speake it is beecause thou shouldst know if thou knowest not that it is as vndecent a thing for a prince vnder the colour of grauity to bee ruled gouerned wholy by old men as vnder semblaunce of pastime alwayes to accompany hym selfe with the yong It is no general rule that all yong men are light nor all old men sage And thou must according to my aduise in such case vse it thus if ani old man lose the grauity of his age expulse him from the if that find any yong men sage dispise not their counsaile For the bees doo draw more hony out of the tender flowers then of the hard leaues I doo not condemne the aged nor I doo commend the yong but it shal bee wel doone that alwayes thou choose of both the most vertuous For of troth there is no company in the world so euil ordered but that there is meane to liue with it without any suspicion so that if the yong are euil with folly the old are worse through couetousnes On s againe I retourne to aduertise thee my sonne that in no wise thou vse extremity For if thou beeleeue none but yong they will corrupt thy maners with lightnes if thou beeleeue none but the old they will depraue thy iustice through couetousnes What thing can bee more monstruous then that the prince which commaundeth all should suffer him to bee commaunded of one alone Beeleeue mee sonne in this case that the gouernments of many are seldome times gouerned wel by the head of one alone The prince which hath to rule gouerne many ought to take the aduise and counsaile of many It is a great inconuenience that thou beeing lord of many realmes shouldst haue but one gate wherin all doo enter into to doo their busines with thee For if perchauÌ„ce hee which shall bee thy familiar bee of his owne nature good and bee not mine enemy yet I would bee afraid of him beecause hee is a freend of mine enemies And though for hate they doo mee no euil yet I am afraid that for the loue of an other hee will cease to doo mee good I remember that in the annalles of Pompeius I found a litle booke of memoryes which the great Pompeiê° bare about him wherin were many things that hee had read other good counsayles which in diuers parts of the world hee had learned and among other words there were these The gouernour of the common wealth which committeth al the gouernment to old men deserueth very litle hee that trusteth al yong is light Hee that gouerneth it by him selfe alone is beeyonde him self hee which by him self others doo gouerne it is a wise prince I know not whither these sentences are of the same Pompeius or that hee gathered them out of soome booke or that any philosopher had told him them or some freend of his had geeuen him them I meane that I had them writteÌ„ with his hands and truely they deserued to bee written in letters of gold When thy affaires shal bee weighty see thou dispatche theym alwayes by counsayle For when the affaires bee determined by the counsaile of many the fault shal bee deuided among them all Thou shalt find it for a truth my sonne that if thou take counsaile of many the one wil tel the inconuenience the other the peril other the feare the other the domage the other the profit the other the remedy finally they will so debate thy affaires that playnly thou shalt know the good see the daunger therof I
thyng wherein they lyue so long deceyued And allbeeyt in deede this present woork sheweth to you but a few contriued lines yet god him self dooth know the payns wee haue taken herein hath been exceedyng great and this for two causes th one for that the matter is very straunge and dyuers from others thother to thynk that assuredly it should bee hated of those that want the taste of good discypline And therefore wee haue taken great care it should come out of our hands well refoormed and corrected to the end that courtiers might fynd out many sentences in yt profitable for thē and not one woord to trouble them Those noble men or gentlemen that wil from hencefoorth haue their children brought vp in princes courts shall fynd in this kooke all things they shall neede to prouide them of those also that haue been long courtiers shall fynd all that they ought to doo in court And such also as are the best fauored of princes and cary greatest reputacion of honor with them shall fynd likewise excellent good councells by meane whereof they may always maynteyn and continue them selues in the cheefest greatnes of their credit and fauor so that it may wel bee called a mitridatical electuary recuering and healing all malignaunt opilations Of all the bookes I haue hitherto compyled I haue dedicated some of them to the Imperiall maiesty others to those of best fauor credit with him where the readers may see that I rather glory to bee a satire then a flatterer for that in al my sentences they can not fynd one cloked woord to enlarge and imbetter my credit and estate But to the contrary they may read an infynyt number of others where I doo exhort them to gouern their persons discreetly and honorably and to amend their lyues thencefoorth Whan I imprinted the Dyal of princes together with Marcus Aurelius and brought them to lyght I wanted not backbyters and detracters that beeganne foorthwith to teare mee in peeces neither shal I want at this present as I beeleeue such as will not spare wyth venomus tongues to poyson my woork But lyke as then I litle wayd their sclaunderous speaches of mee euen so much lesse doo I now force what they can say against mee beeing assured they shal fynd in the end they haue yl spoken of mee and my poore woorks proceedyng from them rather of a certayn enuy that gnaweth their hart then of any default they fynd in my doctryne comforting my self yet in the assuraunce I haue that al their spight shal one day haue an end and my woorks shal euer bee found good and perdurable Here endeth the Argument ¶ The fourth booke of the Dyall of Princes Compiled by the Lord Antony Gueuara Bysshop of Mondogueto ¶ That it is more necessary for the courtyer abydyng in court to bee of lyuely spirit audacity then it is for the souldior that goeth to serue in the warres Cap. i. PLutarch Plinie and Titus Liuius declare that kyng Agiges one day requested the oracle of Appollo to tell hym who was the happiest man in the world to whom aunswer was made that it was a man they called Aglaon bee knowen of the gods and vnknowen of men This kyng Agiges makyng then search for this man thorough all Greece who was called Aglaon found at length that it was a poore gardyner dwellyng in Archadia who beeing of the age of three score years and twoo neuer went aboue a myle from his house keepyng hym self and his famyly contynually wyth hys onely labor and tyllage of hys gardeyn Now all bee it there were in the world of better parentage and lynage then hee better accompanyed of seruaunts and tenaunts better prouyded of goods and ryches hygher in dygnyty and of greater authoryty then hee yet for all this was this Aglaon the happyest of the world And thys was for that hee neuer haunted Prynces courts neyther by enuy to bee ouerthrowen nor yet by auaryce to bee ouercome For many tymes it chaunceth to men that when they would least geeue them selues to acquayntaunce then come they most to bee knowen and when they make least account of them selues then commeth there an occasyon to make them to bee most reputed of For they wynne more honor that dispyse these goods honors and ryches of thys world then those doo that continually gape and seeke after the same And therefore wee should more enuy Aglaon wyth hys lytel gardeyn then Alexander the great wyth hys myghty Asia For trew contentacion consysteth not in hauyng aboundaunce but in beeyng contented with that lytle hee hath Yt is a mockry and woorthely hee deserueth to bee laughed at that thynketh contentacion lyeth in hauyng much or in beeyng of great authoryty for such ways are redyer to make vs stumble yea and many tymes to fall down ryght then safly to assure vs to goe on our way The punyshment that God gaue to Cain for murderyng of his brother Abel was that his body contynually trembled and hee euer after wandered thorough the world so that hee neuer found ground wheare hee might enhabyt nor house where hee might herber And albeeit this malediction of Cain was the fyrst that euer god ordeyned I durst affirme notwythstandyng that it remayneth as yet vntyll this present day amongst courtyers syth wee see them dayly traueyle and runne into straunge countreis dayly chaungyng and seekyng new lodgyngs Which maketh mee once agayn to say that Aglaon was counted happy for that onely hee neuer romed farre frō hys house For to say truely there is no mysery comparable to that of the courtier that is bound dayly to lye in others howses hauyng none of hys own to goe too And hee onely may bee called happy that putteth not hym self in daunger to serue others Iulius Cesar beeyng councelled to wayt vppon the consull Silla to the end that by seruyng or beeyng about hym hee myght doo hym self great good and yt myght bee very profytable to hym aunswered thus I sweare by the immortall gods I wyll neuer serue any on hope to bee more woorth and greater then I am For thys I am suer of that where lyberty is exiled there myght nor power can preuayle Hee that forsaketh his own countrey where hee lyued at ease and in health and the place where hee was knowen and beeloued the neyghbors of whom hee was visyted the frends of whom hee was serued the parents of whom hee was honored the goods wherewith hee mayntayned him self hys wife and children of whom hee had a thousand pleasures and consolations and that commeth to serue and dye in the court I can not say otherwise of hym but that hee is a very foole or that hee commeth to doe penaunce for some notable cryme hee hath commytted And therefore not wythout great cause was thys name of court whych in our tongue sygnyfyeth short adhibited to the pallace of prynces where all things in deede are short onely enuy and malice excepted which contynue long Hee
but al that Marcus Aurelius sayd or dyd is worthy to be knowen necessary to be folowed I do not meane this prynce in his heathen law but in hys vertuous dedes Let vs not staye at hys belyef but let vs embrace the good that he did For compare many chrystians wyth some of the heathen loke howe farre we leaue them behynd in faith so farre they excel vs in vertuous works Al the old prynces in times past had som phylosophers to their familiars as Alexander Aristotle King Darius Herodotus Augustus Pisto Pompeius Plauto Titus Plinie Adrian Secundus Traian Plutarchus Anthonius Apolonius Theodotius Claudius Seuerus Fabatus Fynally I say that philosophers then had such authority in princes palaces that children acknowledged them for fathers and fathers reuerenced them as maysters These sage meÌ„ wer aliue in the coÌ„pany of princes but the good Marcus Aurelius whose doctrine is before your maiestie is not aliue but dead Yet therfore that is no cause why his doctrine shold not be admitted For it may be paraduenture that this shal profit vs more which he wrate with his hands then that which others spake with their tongues Plutarche sayth in the time of Alexander the great Aristotle was aliue and Homere was dead But let vs see how he loued the one reuerenced the other for of truth hee slept alway with Homers booke in his hands waking he red the same with hys eyes alwayes kept the doctrine therof in his memory layed when he rested the booke vnder his head The which priuiledge Aristotle had not who at al times cold not be heard much lesse at al seasons be beleued so that Alexander had Homere for his frend and Aristotle for a maister Other of these phylosophers wer but simple men but our Marcus Aurelius was both a wyse phylosopher and a valiaunt prynce and therfore reason would he should be credited before others For as a prince he wyl declare the troubles as a phylosopher he wil redresse them Take you therefore Puisaunt Prince this wise phylosopher and noble emperour for a teacher in your youth for a father in your gouernment for a captayne general in your warres for a guide in your iourneys for a frend in your affayres for an example in your vertues for a maister in your sciences for a pure whyte in your desyres and for equal matche in your deedes I wil declare vnto you the lyfe of an other beinge a heathen and not the lyfe of an other being a chrystian For how much glory this heathen prince had in this world being good and vertuous so much paynes your maiestie shal haue in the other if you shal be wicked and vycious Behold behold noble prince the lyfe of this Emperour you shal se how clere he was in his iudgement how vpright in hys iustyce howe circumspect in hys life how louing to his frends how pacient in his troubles how he dissembled with hys enemies how seuere agaynst Tyraunts how quyet among the quiet how great a frend to the sage and louer of the simple how aduenturous in his warres and amyable in peace and aboue al thinges how high in words and profound in sentences Many tymes I haue bene in doubt with my selfe whether the Eternal maiesty which gyueth vnto you princes the temporal maiestie to rule aboue al other in power and authorytie did exempt you that are princes more from humaine frayltye then he did vs that be but subiects and at the last I knew he did not For I see euen as you are chyldren of the world so you do lyue according to the world I see euen as you trauaile in the world so you can know nothing but things of the world I se because you liue in the fleshe that you are subiect to the myseryes of the fleshe I see though for a tyme you prolong your lyfe yet at the last you are brought to your graue I see your trauaile is great and that within your gates there dwelleth no rest I se you are cold in the wynter and hote in the sommer I se that hunger feeleth you and thirst troubleth you I se your frendes forsake you and your ennemyes assault you I se that you are sadde and lacke ioy I se you are sicke and be not wel serued I see you haue muche and yet that which you lacke is more What wil ye se more seyng that princeâ— die O noble princes great Lordes syns you must die and become wormes meat why do you not in your lyfe tyme serche for good counsayle If the prynces and noble men commit an â—rroure no man dare chastice them wherfore they stand in greater nede of aduyse counsaile For the trauailer who is out of his waye the more he goeth foreward the more he errethe If the people do amisse they ought to be punyshed but if the prince erre hee shoulde bee admonished And as the Prynce wyl the people shoulde at his handes haue punyshment so it is reason that he at their hands should receyue counsayle For as the wealthe of the one dependeth on the wealthe of the other soo trulye if the prince bee vycious the people can not be vertuous If youre maiestie wyl punyshe your people with words commaund them to prynt this present worke in their harts And if your people would serue your hyghnes with their aduise let them likewyse beseche you to reade ouer this booke For therin the subiectes shal fynd how they may amende and you Lordes shal se al that you ought to do wdether this presente worke be profytable or noo I wyll not that my penne shal declare but they whyche reede it shall iudge For we aucthours take paines to make and translate others for vs vse to giue iudgement and sentence From my tender yeres vntil this present I haue liued in the world occupieng my selfe in reading and studieng humaine deuyne bookes and although I confesse my debilitie to be such that I haue not reade so much as I might nor studied so much as I ought yet not withstandinge al that I haue red hath not caused me to muse so muche as the doctrine of Marcus Aurelius hath sith that in the mouth of an heathen god hath put such a great treasor The greatest part of al his workes were in Greke yet he wrote also many in latin I haue drawen this out of greke throughe the helpe of my frends afterwards out of latin into our vulgare tongue by the trauaile of my hands Let al men iudge what I haue suffred in drawing it out of Greke into latin out of the latin into the vulgar and out of a plaine vulgar into a swete and pleasaunt style For that banket is not counted sumptuous vnlesse ther be both pleasaunt meates and sauory sauces To cal sentences to mynd to place the wordes to examine languages to correct sillables what swette I haue suffred in the hote sommer what bytter cold in the sharpe wynter what
in great felicitie than the poore labourer who liueth in extreme misery And also we see it eftsones by experience that the sodaine lightning tempestes and the terrible thonder forsaketh the small lowe cotages battereth forthwith the great sumptuous buildinges Gods wil determination is that for as much as he hath exalted them aboue al others somuch the more they should acknowledge him for lorde aboue all others For god did neuer create high estates because they should worke wickednes but he placed them in that degree to th end they should therby haue more occasion to do him seruice Euery prince that is not a good Christian a feruente louer of the catholike faith nor will haue any respect to the deuine seruice let him be assured that in this world he shall loase his renowme and in the other he shall hazarde his soule For that all euill Christians are the parishioners of hell ¶ The authour proueth by twelue examples that princes are sharply punished when they vsurpe boldly vpon the churches and violate the tēples Cap. xxiii ¶ Why the children of Aaron were punished IT is now time that we leaue to perswade with wordes reasons and to begin to proue that which we haue said by some excellēt histories notable examples For in th end the hartes of mē are stirred more through some litle examples then with a great multitude of words In the first booke of the Leuitici the .x. chap is declared how in the time of Moyses the sonne in law of Iethro priest that was of Media who was chiefe prince of all the image of Seph with whom the brother of Mary the Iepre had charge of the high priesthod For among al the lawes where god at any time put his handes vnto he prouided always that some had the gouernement of ciuile affaires and others thadministration of the deuine misteries This high priest had then two children whose names were Nadab Abihu which two were yonge beautiful stout sage during their infancy serued their father helped him to do sacrifice For in the old law they suffred that priestes should not onely haue wiues children but also that their children should succede thē in their temples and inherite their benefices There came a great mischaunce for the two childrē being apparailed in whyte their bodies bound with stoels their handes naked in one hand holding a torche in thother the senser being negligent to light the new fyre contrary to that the law had ordeined taking coles which were prohibited a marueilous thing was sene in the sight of the people which was that sodainly these two children fel flat on the earth dead al their sacrifice burned Truly the sentēce was marueilous but it was iust enough For they wel deserued to lose their liues sithen they durst sacrifice the coles of an other This thing semed to be true for those yonge children saued their soules made satisfaction of the fault with their liues but other wicked men god permitteth to liue a short time because they shal loose their soules for euer ¶ The cause why the Azotes were punished THe realme of Palestine being destitute of a kyng at that time an honourable old man gouerned the realme whiche was father to two knightes named Albino and Phinides for at that tyme the children of Israell were not gouerned by kinges that did moleste them by iniuries but by sage men whiche did mainteine theym by iustice It chaunced that the Azotes made warre against the Palestines and were a kynde of the Arabians stoute and warrelyke the whiche fought so couragiously that the Palestines and Hebrues were constrayned to bringe their Arke into the middes of the battaile whiche was a relicke as a man should haue put the holy sacrament to deuide a great multitude of people But fortune shewed her countenaunce vnto them so frowningly that they were not onely ouercome but also were spoyled of the Arke whiche was their chiefe relicke And besides that there were .400 Palestines slayne The Azotes caried awaye the Arke ful of relicks vnto their temple in the citie of Nazote and set it by Dagon their cursed Idol The true God whiche wyll not suffer any to be coequall with him in comparison or in any thing that he representeth caused this Idoll to be shaken throwen downe and broken in pieces no man touching it For our god is of suche power that to execute his iustice he nedeth not worldly helpe God not contented thus though the Idoll was broken in pieces caused those to be punished likewyse whiche worshipped it in suche sorte that all the people of Azote Ascalon Geth Acharon and of Gaza whiche were fiue auncient and renowmed cities were plaged both man and woman inwardly with the disease of the Emerodes so that they could not eate sitting nor ryde by the wayes on horsebacke And to th ende that al men might see that their offences were greauous for the punishment they receiued by the deuine iustice he replenished their houses places gardeins seedes and fieldes full of rattes And as they had erred in honouring the false Idoll and forsaken the true god so he would chastise them with two plagues sending them the Emerodes to torment their bodies and the rattes to destroye their goodes For to him that willingly geueth his soule to the deuill it is but a small matter that god against his wyll depriue him of his goodes This then being thus I would nowe gladly knowe whether of them committed moste offence eyther the Azotes whiche set the Arke in the temple whiche as they thought was the moste holiest or the Christians whiche without the feare of God robbe and pylle the Churche goodes to their owne priuate commoditie in this worlde Truly the lawe of the Azotes differed as muche from the Christians as the offence of the one differeth from the other For the Azotes erred not beleuing that this Arke was the figure of the true God but we beleue it and cōfesse it and without shame committe against it infinite vices By this so rare sodaine a punishement me thinkes that Princes and great Lordes should not onely therfore acknowledge the true god but also reuerence and honour those thinges which to him are dedicated For mans lawes speaking of the reuerence of a Prince doe no lesse condemne him to die that robbeth his house then him whiche violently layeth handes on his persone ¶ The cause why Prince Oza was punished IN the booke whiche the sonne of Helcana wrote that is the seconde booke of the kynges and the sixt Chapter he saieth that the Arke of Israell with his relikes which was Manna the rodde and two stones stode in the house of Aminadab whiche was the next neighbour to the citie of Gibeah the sonne of Esaye who at that tyme was kyng of the Israelites determined to transpose the relickes into his citie and house for it semed to him a great infamy that to a mortall
straunge knyghtes whiche of their owne free wylles voluntarely were made citezins of Rome Fiftly all the olde souldiours whiche had serued xxxvi yeares continually in the warres For those which were retired home to their owne houses were honourably founde of the common wealth The .xii. yeares paste I my selfe was in Tarenthe and caried thee to Rome where I redde vnto thee Rethorike Logike and Philosophie and also the Mathematicall sciences keping thee in my house in my company at my table and in my bedde and furthermore I hadde thee in my harte and in my minde The whiche thinge thou shouldest esteme more then if I gaue thee my house and all my goodes For the true benefite is that onely whiche is done without any respect of profite or interest I kepte thee with me thus in this sorte in Laurente in Rhodes in Naples and in Capua vntil such tyme as the gods created me Emperour of Rome And then I determined to sende thee to Grece because thou shouldest learne the Greeke tongue and also to the ende thou shouldest accustome thy selfe to worke that whiche true philosophie requireth For the true and vertuous philosophers ought to conforme their workes to that they say and publishe their wordes with their deades There is nothing more infamous then to presume to be sage and to be desirous to be counted vertuous principally for him that speaketh much worketh litle For the man of a pleasant tongue euil life is he which with impostumes vndoeth the cōmon wealth When I sent thee to Grece withdrew thee from Rome it was not to exyle thee out of my company so that thou hauing tasted of my pouertie shouldest not reioyce at my prosperitie but it was that considering thy youthfull disposition and lightnes I was afrayd to vndo thee in the palace chiefly least thou wouldest haue presumed to haue bene to bolde familiar because thou werte my nephew For truly princes which take pleasure that their children be familiar with thē thei giue occasion that men shal not count thē wise cause also the yoūg mē to be estemed for light I haue tolde thee that I did for thee in Italy I will nowe let thee knowe what thou hast done and doest in Grece so that I wyl shewe thee to be notorious that is to knowe that thou taking and esteming thy selfe to be wel disposed in thy youthe thou haste forsaken thy studie and despised my counsayles thou arte accompanied with vayne and light men and hast viciously employed the money which I had sent thee to bie bookes All the whiche thinges to thee being hurtfull are to me no lesse dishonour and shame For it is a generall rule when the childe is foolishe and ill taught the blame and fault is layde on the maisters necke who hath taught him and brought him vp It greueth me not for that I haue broughte thee vp neither for that I haue taught thee to reade and cause thee to study neither likewyse to haue kept thee in my house to haue set thee at my table nor also to haue suffred thee to lye with me in bedde neither it greueth me to haue consumed so muche money on thee but with all my harte it greueth me that thou haste not geuen me occasion to doe thee any good For there is nothing that greueth a noble prince more then not to finde parsons able of capacitie to doe them any good They tell me that thou art well made of thy body and fayre of countenaunce and that thou presumest also in those thinges wherefore to enioye the pleasurs of thy persone thou hast forsaken philosophie wherwith I am not contented For in the ende the corporall beautie earely or late perisheth in the graue but vertue and science maketh men to be of immortall memory The gods neuer commaunded it neither the studies and vniuersities of Italy suffred it to haue the body fine and trimme the visage fayre cleare and the harte full of philosophie for the true philosopher of all other thinges estemeth leste the setting forth of the body For that the demonstrations tokens of a true perfect philosopher is to haue his eies troubled his eiebries burnte the head bauld the bal of his eies sonke into his head the face yellow the body leane and feble the fleshe drie the feete vnhosed the garment poore the eating litle and the watching great Finally he ought to liue as a Lacedemonian and speake as a Grecian The tokens of a valiaunt and renowmed captaine are his woundes and hurtes and the signe of a studious philosopher is the despising of the world For the wyse man ought to thinke him selfe as muche dishonoured if they call him stoute and sturdy as a captaine when they call him a cowarde and negligent I like well that the phylosopher studie the auncient antiquities of his forefathers that wrote the profounde thinges for the time to come that he teache profitable and holsom doctrines to those whiche are nowe aliue that he diligently enquire of the mocion of the starres that he consider what causeth the alteration of the elementes But I sweare vnto thee Epesipus that neuer sage of Rome came to those thinges nor philosopher of Grece likewyse but in searching the quietnes of the soule and despising the pleasurs of the body Touching the body I am like to beastes but concerning the spirite I am partely like to the gods sithe that following the thinges of the fleshe I am made lesse than my selfe and in following the motions of the spirite I am made more then I am For truly sensualitie maketh vs inferiour to beastes and reason maketh vs superiour vnto men The worldly malice and presumption naturally desireth rather to mounte then to descende and to commaunde rather than to be commaunded And since it is so why doe we by vices abase our selues to doe lesse then beastes being possible for vs by vertues to doe more then men Amongest all the members which men can haue there is nothing more tender to breake nor any thing more easy to corrupte then is the handesomenes of the body wherof we are so proude For in mine opinion to esteme him self to be handsome propre of persone is no other thing but to esteme our selues that dreaming we shal be riche and mighty and afterwardes awaking we finde our selues to be poore and miserable And me thinketh this thing to be true because I will declare what it is to se a young man in his first age the hed litle the heere yeallowe the browe long the eies grene the chekes white the nose sharpe the lips coloured the bearde forked the face liuely the necke smal the body of good proportion the armes litle the fingers longe to conclude so wel proportioned in his members that mens eies shoulde alwayes desire to beholde him and the hartes alwaies seke to loue him If this young man so faire and wel proportioned remained long time in this beautie and disposition it were
so swift as he that is naked Aristotle in the sixt booke de Animalibus saith when the Lionesse is bigge with whelpe the Lyon doth not only hunt for her him self but also both night daye he wandreth continually about to watche her I meane that princesses great Ladies when they be with child should be of their husbande 's both tended serued for the man can not do the woman so great a pleasure before her lieng down as she doth to him when she bringeth forth a sonne Considering the daunger that the woman abideth in her deliuerance beholding the paines that the husbād taketh in her seruice without cōparison that is greater which she suffereth then that which he endureth For when the womā deliuereth she doth more then her power and the husband though he serueth her well doth lesse then his dutie The gentle and louing husband ought not one moment to forsake his wife specially when he seeth she is great for in the law of a good husbād it is written that he should set his eies to behold her his handes to serue her he should spende his goods to cherishe her should geue his harte to cōtent her Let not men thinke it paines to serue their wiues when they are with childe for their labour consisteth in their strengthe but the trauell of their wiues is in their intrailes And that whiche is moste pitifull is that when the sorowfull women will discharge their burden on the earthe they often times bryng them selues vnto the graue The meane women of the Plebeians ought no lesse to be reproued for that when they are with childe they would be exempted from all busines of the house the whiche neither they them selues ought to desire nor yet their husbandes to suffer For idlenesse is not only an occasion not to deserue heauen but also it is a cause whereby womē ofte times haue ill successe in their trauaile For considering bothe the deintie Ladie with childe that hath her pleasure and doth litle and on the other side the poore mans wyfe whiche moderatly laboureth you shall see that the great Ladies for all their pleasures abydeth more daunger then the other doth with all her labour The husbande ought to keape his wyfe from takyng to muche paines for so ought he to doe and the wyfe lykewyse ought to flee to much pleasure for it behoueth her For the meane trauaile is no other but occasion of a safe deliuerie The women with childe also ought to take hede to them selues and in especially noble and great ladies that they be not to gredy nor hasty in eating For the woman being with childe ought to be sobre and the woman whiche is a great eater with great paines shall liue chaste Women with childe ofte times doe disordre them selues in eating licorous meates and vnder the colour of feedinge them selues and their infant they take to excessiuely which is not onely vnholsome for the childe but also dishonour for their mothers For truly by the great excesse of the mother being with child commeth many diseases to the infant when it liueth The husbande 's also ought neither to displease nor greue their wiues specially when thei see them great with child for of truth ofte times she deliuereth with more daunger by reason of the offences that mē do vnto them then by the abondaunce of meates which they doe eate Though the woman when she is with childe in some thinges doth offend her husband yet he like a wise man ought to forbeare her hauing respect to the child wherwith she is great and not to the iniurie that she hath committed for in th end the mother can not be so great an offender but that the childe is muche more innocent For the profe of this it neadeth not bookes to reade but only our eies to see how the brute beastes for the moste parte when the females are bigge doe not touche them nor yet the females suffer thē to be touched I meane that the noble and high estates ought to absent them selues from their wiues carnally beyng great with child and he that in this case shal shewe him selfe moste temperate shall of all men be deamed most vertuous I do not speake this to thend it should bind a man or that it were an offence then to vse the company of his wyfe but vnto men that are vertuous I geue it as a counsel For some things ought to be done of necessitie others ought to be eschewed for honestie Diodorus Siculus saith that in the realme of Mauritania there were so few men so many women that euery man had fiue wiues where there was a law amōgest them that no man should mary vnder thre wiues furthermore they had a wonderful folishe custome that when any husband died one of these women should cast her selfe quick in to the graue be buried with him And if that within a moneth she did it not or that she died not by iustice she was then openly put to death saiyng that it is more honestie to be in company with her husband in the graue then it is to be alone in her house In the Isles of Baliares the cōtrary is sene for there increase so many men and so few women that for one woman there was seuen men and so they had a custome specially amongest the poore that one woman should be maried with fiue men For the ryche men sent to seke for women in other straunge Realmes wherfore then marchauntes came heuie loden with women as now they do with marchaundise to sell Vpon which occasion there was a custome in those Isles that for as muche as there were so fewe women when any woman with chylde drewe nere the seuen monethes they were seperated from their husbandes and shut and locked vp in the Temples where they gaue them suche thinges as were necessary for them of the commen treasure For the auncientes had their goodes in suche veneration that they would not permitte any personne to eate that whiche he brought but of that whiche vnto the goddes of the Temple was offered At that tyme the Barbarous kepte their wyues locked in the churche because the gods hauing them in their Temples should be more mercifull vnto them in their deliuery and also to cause them to auoyde the daungers at that tyme and besydes that because they tooke it for a great vilany that the women during that tyme should remaine with their husbandes The famous and renowmed philosopher Pulio in the fift booke De moribus antiquorum said that in the Realme of Paunonia whiche nowe is Hongarie the women that were great with childe were so highly estemed that when any went out of her house al those which met with her were bounde to returne backe with her in such sorte as we at this present do reuerence the holy Comunion so did these Barbarous then the women with child The women of Carthage being with child whē Carthage was
speake many thinges in companye the which they do lament after whē they are alone Al the contrary commeth to wofull men for they doe not speake the halfe of their grefes because their heauy and woful hartes commaundeth their eyes to wepe and their tongs to be silent Vaine and foolish men by vaine and foolish wordes do publishe their vaine and light pleasurs and the wise men by wise wordes doe dissēble their greauous sorowes For though they fele the troubles of this lyfe they dissemble them as men Amongest the sages he is most wisest that presumeth to know least amongest the simple he is most ignoraunt that thinketh to know most For if ther be foūd one that knoweth much yet always ther is found an other that knoweth more This is one difference wherby that wise men are knowen from those that be simple that is to wete that the wise man to one that asketh him a questiō aūswereth slouly grauely and the simple mā though he be not asked aunswereth quicke lightly For in that house wher noblenesse wisdom ar they giue riches without measure but they giue words by ounces I haue told the al this Faustine bicause thy wordes haue wounded me in such sorte thy teares in such wise haue cōpelled me and thy vayne Iudgementes haue weryed me so much that I can not say what I would nor I thynke thou cāst perceiue what I say Those which wrote of mariage wrote many things but they wrote not so many troubles in al their bokes as one womā causeth her husbād to fele in on day The auncientes spake well when they reasoned of mariages For at all tymes when they talked of mariage at the beginnyng they put these wordes Onus Matrimonij That is to saye thc yoke of mariage For truly if the man be not well maried all the troubles that maye happen vnto him in all the time of hys lyfe are but small in respect to be matched one daye with an euyll wyfe Doest thou thinke Faustine that it is a small trouble for the husbande to suffre the brawlinges of his wife to indure her vayne wordes to beare with her fonde wordes to gyue her what she requireth to seeke that she desireth and to dissemble with all their vanities trulye it is so vnpaciēt a trouble that I would not desyre any greater reuengement of my enemye then to see him maried with a brawlynge wyfe If the husbande be proude you doe humble him For there is no proude man what so euer he be but a fyerce woman will make him stoupe If the husbande be foolyshe you restore him his sences againe For there is no greater wysedome in the world then to know how to endure a brawlynge woman If the husbande be wylde you make him tame For the time is so much that you occupie in brawling that he can haue no time to speake If the husbande be slow you make him runne for he desireth so much your contentation in harte that the wofull man can not eate in quiete nor sleape in rest If the husband be a great talker in shorte space you make him dōme For the floutes and mockes that you gyue hym at euery worde are so many in nombre that he hath none other remedye but to refraine his tonge If the husband be suspitious you make him chaunge his minde For the tryfelles that you aske at euery houre are such and so many and you therwith so selfe willed that he dare not tell what he seeth in hys owne house If the husband be a wanderer abroade you make him forthwith to be abider at home for you looke so yll to the house and goodes that he findeth no other remedye but to be alwayes at home If the husband be vitious you restraine him immediatly for you burden his hart with so manye thoughtes that his bodye hath no delighte to vse any pleasurs Finally I say that if the husbande be peacible within shorte space you make hym vnquiete for your paines are suche so many and so continuall that there is no harte can wholye dissemble them nor tong that vtterly can kepe them secret Naturally women haue in al thinges the sprite of contradiction for so muche as if the husbandes wil speake they wil hold their peace If he go forth they wil tarye at home If he will laughe they will weape If he will take pleasure they will vexe him If he be sorowfull they will be merye If he desire peace they would haue warre If he would eate they will fast If he would faste they would eate If he woulde slepe they will watche and yf thou wilte watche they will sleape Fynally I say that they are of so euill a condicion that they loue all that we dispise and dispise al that we loue In mine opinion the men that are wise and will obteine that which they desire of their wiues let them not demaunde of them that whiche they would obtaine yf they will come to their desire For to them which are diseased the letting of bloud is most profitable when the vaine in the contrarye side is opened It is no other thing to be let bloud in the contrary side but to aske of the woman with his mouthe the contrary of that whiche he desireth with his harte for otherwyse neither by fayre wordes of his mouth nor by the bitter teares of his eyes he shall euer obtayne that whiche his harte desireth I confesse Faustine it is a pleasaunte sporte to beholde the younge Babes and thou canste not denaye me but it is a cruell torment to endure the importunities of their mothers Chyldren nowe and then ministre vnto vs occasions of pleasures but you that are their mothers neuer doe any thinge but that whiche turneth vs to trouble It is muche pleasure to the husbande when he commeth home to fynde the house cleane swepte to fynde the table couered and to fynde the meate ready dressed this is to be vnderstanded if all other thinges be well But what shall we saie when he seeth the contrarie and that he findeth his children weaping his neighbours offended his seruauntes troubled and aboue all when he findeth his wyfe brauling Truly it is better to the wofull husbande to goe his waye fastinge then to tary and eate at home with brauling I durst take vpon me to cause that al maried men would be content to forbeare all the pleasures of the children with cōdition that they might be fre from the annoiaunce of the mothers for in the end the pleasures of the children endeth quickly with laughter but the griefes of the mothers endureth al their life with sorow I haue sene one thing in Rome wherin I was neuer deceiued which is that though men commitie great offences in this worlde yet God alwayes deferreth the punishmente thereof vntyll another But if for any womans pleasure we committe any faulte God permitteth that by the same women in this worlde we shall suffer the payne There is no
this good Emperour sucking her dugge but a while was constrained to passe all his lyfe in paine Thirdely Princesses great Ladies ought to know and vnderstand the complexion of their children to the end that accordyng to the same they myghte seke pitieful nources that is to wete if the child wer cholorycke flegmaticke sanguine or melancolye For looke what humour the child is of of the same qualitie the milke of the nource should be If vnto an old corrupted mā they ministre medecines conformable to hys diseases for to cure hym why then should not the mother seeke a holesome nource to the tender babe agreable to his complexion to nourish hym And if thou sayest it is iuste that the flesh old and corrupted be susteined I tel the likewise that it is much more necessary that the children should be curiously well nourished to multiplye the world For in the end we do not say it is time that the yong leaue the bread for the aged but contrarye it is time that the old leaue the bread for the yong Aristotle in the booke De secretis secretorum Iunius Rusticus in the .x. boke de gestis Persarum say that the vnfortunat king Darius who was ouercome by Alexander the great had a doughter of a merueilous beautie And they saye that the nource which gaue sucke to this doughter all the time that she did nourishe it did neither eate nor drinke any thing but poison and at the end of .iii yeares when the child was weyned plucked from the dugge she did eate nothing but Colubers and other venemous wormes I haue heard say many times that the Emperours had a custome to nourish their heires children with poysons when they were yong to the entent that they should not be hurt by poyson afterward whē they wer old And this errour commeth of those which presume much and know litel And therfore I say that I haue heard say without sayeng I haue read it For some declare histories more for that they haue heard say of others then for that they haue read them selues The truth in this case is that as we vse at this present to were Cheynes of gold about our necks or Iewels on our fingers so did the Gentils in times past a rynge on their fingers or some Iewel in their bosome replenished with poison And bycause the Panims did neither feare hel nor hope for heauen they had that custome for if at any times in battaile they should find them selues in distresse they had rather end their liues with poison then to receyue any iniury of their enemies Then if it were true that those Princes had bene nourished with the poison they would not haue caried it about thē to haue ended their lyues Further I saye that the princes of Persia did vse when they had any child borne to geue him milke to sucke agreable to the complectiō he had Since this doughter of Darius was of melancholye humour they determined to bring her vp with venim and poyson because all those which are pure malancolye do liue with sorow dye with pleasure Ingnacius the Venetian in the life of the .v. emperours Palleolus which wer valiaunt emperours in Constantinople saieth that the second of the name called Palleolles the hardie was after the .xl. yeares of his age so troubled with infirmities and diseases that alwayes of the .xii. monethes of the yeare he was in his bed sycke ix monethes and beyng so sicke as he was the affaires and busines of the empire were but slenderly done loked vnto For the prince can not haue so small a feuer but the people in the commen wealth must haue it double This Emperour Palleolus had a wyfe whose name was Huldouina the which after she had brought all the Phisitions of Asia vnto her husbande and that she had ministred vnto him all the medecins she could learne to healpe him and in the end seyng nothing auaile ther came by chaunce an olde woman a Gretian borne who presumed to haue great knowlege in herbes and sayd vnto the empresse noble Empresse Huldouina If thou wilt that the Emperour thy husband doe liue longe see that thou chafe angre and vexe him euerye weeke at the least twyse for he is of a pure malancoly humour and therfore he that doth him pleasure augmenteth his disease he that vexeth him shal prolong his life The empresse Huldouina folowed the counsel of this Greeke woman which was occasion that the emperour lyued afterwardes sounde and hole many yeres so that of the .ix. monethes which he was accustomed to be sicke euery yeare in .xx. yeares afterwardes he was not sicke .iii. monethes For wher as this Greke woman commaunded the empresse to angre her husbande but twise in the weeke she accustomeablye angred hym .iiii. times in the daye Fourthly the good mother ought to take hede that the nource be verye temperate in eatyng so that she should eate litell of diuerse meates and of those few dishes she should not eate to much To vnderstand that thyng ye must know that the white milke is no other then blod which is soden and that whiche causeth the good or euill bloud commeth oft tymes of no other thyng but that eyther the personne is temperate or els a glutton in eating and therfore it is a thyng both healthfull and necessary that the nource that nourisheth the child do eate good meates for among men and women it is a general rule that in litle eating ther is no daunger and of to much eating there is no profit As all the Philosophers saye the wolfe is one of the beastes that deuoureth most and is most gredyest and therfore he is most feared of al the sheppardes But Aristotle in his third booke de Animalibus sayeth that when the wolfe doth once feele her selfe great with yong in all her lyfe after she neuer suffereth her selfe to be couppled with the wolfe againe For otherwyse if the wolfe should yearely bryng forth .vii. or .viii. whealpes as commonly she doth and the shepe but one lambe there woulde be in shorte space more wolues then shepe Besides all this the wolfe hath an other propertie whyche is that though she be a beast most deuouryng and gredy yet when she hath whealped she eateth very temperately and it is to the end to nouryshe here whealpes and to haue good milke And besydes that she doth eate but once in the day the whych the dogge wolfe doth prouide both for the byche and her whealpes Truly it is a monsterous thyng to see and noysome to heare and no lesse sclaunderous to speake that a wolfe whyche geueth sucke to .viii. whealpes eateth but one onely kynde of meate and a woman whych geueth sucke but to one chylde alone will eate of eyght sortes of meates And the cause hereof is that the beast doth not eate but to susteine nature and the woman doth not eate but to satisfie her pleasure Princesses and great Ladies ought to
and the house wherein she dwelleth euell combred For suche one doeth importune the lorde trobleth the ladye putteth in hazard the childe and aboue all is not contented with her selfe Finallye fathers for geuynge to much libertie to their nources oftetimes are the cause of many practises which they do wherwith in the end they are greued with the death of their children which foloweth Amongest all these which I haue red I saye that of the auncient Romaine princes of so good a father as Drusius Ge manicus was neuer came so wycked a sonne as Caligula was beyng the fourth Emperour of Rome for the historiographers were not satisfyed to enryche and prayse the excellencies of hys father neither ceased they to blame and reprehende the infamyes of his sonne And they say that hys naughtines proceadeth not of the mother which bare hym but of the nource which gaue hym sucke For oftimes it chaunceth that the tree is grene and good when it is planted and afterwardes it becommeth drye and wythered only for beyng caryed into another place Dion the greke in the second boke of Cesars sayeth that a cursed woman of Campania called Pressilla nouryshed and gaue sucke vnto thys wycked childe She had agaynst al nature of women her breastes as heary as the berdes of men and besides that in runnyng a horse handelyng her staffe shoting in the Crosbowe fewe yong men in rome were to be compared vnto her It chaunced on a time that as she was geuyng sucke to Caligula for that she was angry she tore in peces a yong child with the bludde there of annoynted her breastes and so she made Caligula the yong childe to sucke together both blud and milke The sayed Dion in hys booke of the lyfe of this Emperour Caligula sayeth that the women of Campania whereof the sayed Prescilla was had this custome that when they would geue their teat to the childe firste they dyd anoynte the nipple with the bludde of a hedge hogge to the end their children myght be more fyerce and cruell And so was this Caligula for he was not contented to kyll a man onely but also he sucked the bludde that remayned on his swerde and lyked it of with his tong The excellent Poet Homer meanyng to speake playnely of the crueltyes of Pirrus sayed in his Odisse of him suche wordes Pirrus was borne in Grece nourished in Archadye and brought vp with tigers milke whiche is a cruel beast As if more plainelye he had sayed Pirrus for beyng borne in Grece was Sage for that he was brought vp in Archadie he was strong and couragyous and for to haue sucked Tigars milke he was veray proude and câ—uell Hereof maye be gathered that the great Gretian Pirrus for wantinge of good milke was ouercome with euell condicions The selfe same historian Dion sayeth in the lyfe of Tiberius that he was a great dronckarde And the cause herof was that the nource dyd not onelye drynke wyne but also she weined the child with soppes dypped in wyne And wythout doubte the cursed woman had done lesse euill if in the steade of milke she had geueÌ„ the child poison wythout teachinge it to drinke wine wherfore afterwardes he lost his renowme For truly the Romayne Empire had lost lytell if Tiberius had died beyng a child and it had wonne muche if he had neauer knowen what drinkyng of wyne had mente I haue declared all that whyche before is mencioned to thentente that Princesses and great Ladyes myghte be aduertised that sinse in not nouryshyng their children they shewe them selues crewel yet at the least in prouidyng for them good nourses they should shew them selues pitifull For the children oftetymes folow more the condicion of the milke which they sucke then the condicion of their mothers whyche broughte them forth or of thâ—ir fathers whych begot them Therfore they oughte to vse much circumspectioÌ„ herin for in them consisteth the fame of the wyues the honoure of the husbande and the wealth of the children Of the disputations before Alexander the great concernyng the time of the suckyng of babes Chap. xxii QVintus Curtius sayeth that after the great Alexander whych was the last kyng of the Macedonians and first Emperour of the grekes hadde ouercome kynge Darius and that he sawe hym selfe onely lorde of all Asia he went to rest in babylon for among menne of warre there was a custome that after they had ben long in the warres euery on should retire to his owne house King Philip whych was father of kyng Alexander always councelled his sonne that he should lead with him to the warres valiaunt captaines to conquere the world and that out of his realmes and dominioÌ„s he should take chose the wysest men and best experimented to gouerne the empire He had reason in such wyse to councell hys sonne for by the councell of Sages that is kept and mainteined whych by the strengthe of valiaunt men is gotten and wonne Alexander the great therefore beyng in Babilon after he had conquered all the countrye since all the citye was vitious and hys armye so long without warres some of his owne men began to robbe one another others to playe their owne some to force women and others to make banquettes and feastes and when some were droncke others raysed quarels striffes and dyscentions so that a man could not tell whether was greater the ruste in their armours or the corruptions in their customes For the property of mans malice is that when the gate is open to idlenes infynite vyces enter into the house Alexander the great seing the dyssolution which was in his armye and the losse which myght ensewe hereof vnto his great empire commaunded streightly that they should make a shew and iuste thoroughe Babilon to the end that the men of warre should excersise their forces thereby And as Aristotle sayethe in the booke of the questions of Babylon the turney was so muche vsed amongest them that sometimes they caryed awaye more dead and wounded men then of a bloudy battaile of the enemy Speaking accordyng to the law of the gentiles whiche loked not glorie for their vertues nor feared hell to dye at the torney the commendemant of Alexander was veray iuste for that doyng as he dyd to the armye he defaced the vyce whych dyd wast it and for him selfe he got perpetuall memorye and also it was cause of muche suretye in the common weale This good Prince not contented to excersise his armye so but ordeined that daily in his presence the philosophers should dispute and the question wherin they shold dyspute Alexander him selfe would propounde â–ª wherof folowed that the great Alexander was made certayne of that wherin he doubted and so by his wisedom all men exercysed their craftes and wittes For in this tyme of idlenes the bokes wer no lesse marred with dust because they were not opened then the weapons were with rust which were not occupied There is a booke of Aristotle intituled the
how to punishe the folyshe captaines and suffereth to be commaunded and gouerned by sage phylosophers Ye know right wel that al our warre hath not bene but only for the possessions of cityes and lymites of the riuer Milina Wherfore by this letter we declare vnto you and by the immortal Gods we sweare that we do renownce vnto you al our right on such condicion that you do leaue vs Heuxinus your embassadour philosopher The great Athens desyreth rather a phylosopher for her scholes then a hole prouince of your realmes And do not you other Lacedemonians thinke that that which we of Athens do is light or foolishe that is to wete that we desire rather one man to rule then to haue a whole prouynce whereby we may commaunde many For this philosopher shal teach vs to lyue wel and that land gaue vs occasion to dye euil and syth we now of your old enemies do become your true frends we wyl not onlye geue you perpetual peace but also counsayle for to keape it For the medycine which preserueth health is of greater excellencye then is the purgacion which healeth the disease Let the counsaile therfore be suche that as ye wyll the yonge men do exercise theym selues in weapons that so ye do watche and se that your children in time do learne good letters For euen as the warre by the cruell sword is followed so likewise by pleasaunt wordes peace is obteyned Thinke not ye Lacedemonians that without a cause we do perswade you that you put youre children to learne when as yet they are but yong and tender and that ye do not suffer them to ronne to vyces For on the one part wise men shall want to counsaile and on the other fooles shal abound to make debate We Athenians in lyke maner will not that ye Lacedemonians do thinke that we be frendes to bablers For our father Socrates ordeyned that the first lesson which should be geuen to the scholer of the vnyuersity should be that by no meanes he shold speake any word for the space of ii yeares for it is vnpossible that any man should be wise in speaking vnlesse he haue pacience to be sylente We thinke if you thinke it good that the phylosopher Heuxinus shal remaine in our Senate and thinke you if we profite by his presence that ye may be assured yee others shal not receyue any domage by the counsayles he shal geue vs. For in Athens it is an auncient law that the senate cannot take vpon them warres but that by the Philosophers first it must be examined whither it be iust or not We write none other thinge but that we beseche the immortal Gods that they be with you and that it please theym to contynewe vs in this perpetual peace For that only is perpetual which by the gods is confirmed ¶ That nurces which giue sucke to the children of Princes ought to be discret and sage women Chap. xxvii THE pilgrimes which trauaile through vnknowen contries straung mountaynes with great desire to go forward and not to erre do not only aske the way which they haue to go but also do importune those whom they mete to point them the way with theyr finger For it is a greuous thing to trauaile doubtfully in feare and suspicion By this comparison I meane that since I haue much perswaded that the fathers do learne teach their childrē to speake wel it is but reason that they do seke them some good maisters For the counsaile hath no authoritie if he which geueth it seketh not spedely to execute the same It is much for a man to be of a good nature or els to be of an euil inclinacion to be rude in vnderstanding or els to be lyuely in spirite and this not only for that a man ought to do but also for that he ought to say For it is no smal thing but a great good benefite whē the man is of a good nature of a good vnderstanding and of a cleare iudgemēt This notwithstandyng I say that al the good and cleare iudgements are not alwayes eloquent nor al the eloquentest of liuely spirites and vnderstanding We se many men which of a smal mater can make much for the contrary we se many men which haue great knowledge yet no meanes to vtter it So that nature hath geuen them highe vnderstanding through negligence of bringinge vp it is hidde Oftentimes I do meruaile that the soule of the babe when it is borne for th one parte is of no lesse excellencye then the soule of the old man when he dyeth And on the other side I muse at the babe which hath the members so tender wherwith the soule dooth worke his operacyons that they lytle seme to participate with reasonable creatures For wher the soule doth not shew her selfe mistres it wanteth lytle but that the man remaineth a beast It is a wonder to se the children that as yet beinge .ii. yeares of age they lyft their feete for to go they hold themselues by the walles for faulyng they wil open their eyes to know and they fourme a defused voice to speake so that in that age a creature is none otherwise then a tre at the first spring For the tree .ii. moneths being past beareth leaues immediatly and the child after ii yeres beginneth to frame his words This thing is spoken for that the Fathers which are wise should beginne to teache their children at that age For at that time the vynes beare grapes and other trees their fruite For the perilles of this lyfe are such that if it were possible the father before he see his sonne borne ought to admonishe them how he shold liue In mine opinion as they conuey the water about to turne the mille so from the tender youth of the infant they ought to shew and teach him to be eloquent affable For truly the child learneth distinctly to pronounce his words when he doth sucke the milke of his nource We cannot deny but that the children being but ii or iii. yeres old it is to sone to giue them maisters or correcters For at that age a nourse to make them cleane is more necessarie then a maister for to correct their speache On the one part the children are very tender for to learne to speake wel and on the other part it is necessarie that when they are very yong and lytle they shold be taught and learned I am of that opinion that princesses and great Ladyes should take such nources to giue their children sucke that they should be sound to giue them their milke and sage for to teache them to speake For in so yong and tender age they do not suffer but that she which giueth them sucke doth teache them to speake the firste wordes As Sextus Cheronensis in the Booke of the diuersityes of the Languages saythe The Toscans were the firste whiche called the natural tongue of the contrey the mother tongue which is to
wisest but these of our daies cōtend who shal be fairest For at this day the ladies would chose rather to haue the face adorned with beautie then the heart endued with wisedome The auncient ladies contented which should be better able to teache others but these ladies nowe a daies contend how they may moste finely apparel them selues For in these daies they geue more honour to a woman richely appareled then they geue to an other with honestie beautified Finally with this worde I doe conclude and let him marke that shall reade it that in the olde time women were such that their vertues caused al men to kepe silence and now their vices be such that they cōpell al men to speake I will not by this my word any man should be so bolde in generally to speake euil of all the ladies for in this case I sweare that there are not at this day so many good vertuous women in the world but that I haue more enuy at the life they lead in secreat then at al the sciences whiche the auncient women red in publike Wherfore my pen doth not shewe it selfe extreme but to those which onely in sumptuous apparell and in vayne wordes do consume their whole lyfe and to those whiche in readyng a good boke wold not spend one only houre To proue my intencion of that I haue spoken the aboue written suffiseth But to the ende princesses and great ladies maye se at the lest howe muche better it shal be for them to know litel then to haue and possesse much and to be able to do more I will remembre thē of that whych a Romaine woman wrate to her children wherby they shal perceyue how eloquent a woman she was in her sayinges and how true a mother in her counsel For in the end of her letter she perswadeth her children to the trauailes of the warre not for any other cause but to auoyd the pleasures of Rome Of the worthines of the ladye Cornelia and of a notable epistle she wrote to her .ii. sonnes which serued in the warres Tyberius and Caius diswadyng them from the pleasures of rome and exorting them to endure the trauailes of warre Chap. xxxi ANnius Rusticus in the boke of the antiquities of the Romaines saith that in Rome ther wer .v. principal linages that is to wete Fabritij Torquatij Brutij Fabij and Cornelij thoughe there were in Rome other newe linages wherof ther were many excellent personages yet alwayes these which came of the .v. linages were kept placed and preferred to the first offices of the common wealth For Rome honored those that were present in such sort that it was without the preiudice of those that are gone Amongest those .v. linages the romaines alwayes counted the Cornelij most fortunat the which were so hardy and couragious in fight and so modest in lyfe that of theyr familie there was neuer found any cowardly man in the feld nor any defamed woman in the towne They saye of this linage of the Cornelij amonge many other there were .iiii. singular and notable women among the whiche the chiefe was the mother of Gracchi whose name was Cornelia and liued with more honour for the sciences she red in Rome then for the conquestes that her children had in Affricke Before her children wer brought into the empire they talked of none other thing but of their strēgth hardines throughout all the worlde and therfore a Romaine one daye asked this woman Cornelia wherof she toke most vaine glory to se her selfe mistres of so many disciples or mother of so valiant children The lady Cornelia aunswered I doe esteme the science more whiche I haue learned then the Children whyche I haue brought forth For in the end the children kepe in honour the lyfe but the disciples continue the renowne after the death And she sayd further I am assured that the disciples dayly will waxe better and better and it maye bee that my Children wil waxe worse and worse The desyres of yong men are so variable that they daily haue newe inuentions With one accord all the wryters do greatly commende this woman Cornelia inespecially for being wyse and honest and furthermore bycause shee red philosophy in Rome openlye And therfore after her death they set vp in Rome a Statue ouer the gate Salaria whereupon there was grauen this Epigrame This heape of earth Cornelie doth encloose Of wretched Gracches that loe the mother was Twyse happye in the sckollers that she choose Vnhappye thrise in the ofspringe that she has AMong the latines Cicero was the Prince of al the Romaine rethorike and the chiefest with his pen inditing of Epystles yet they say that he did not only se the writinges of this Cornelia but red them and did not onely read them but also with the sentences therof profited him selfe And hereof a man ought not to meruaile for there is no man in the world so wise of him selfe but may furder his doynges with the aduice of another Cicero so highly exalted these writinges that he said in his rethorike these or such other like wordes If the name of a woman had not bleamyshed Cornelia truly she deserued to be head of all philosophers For I neuer sawe so graue sentences procede from so fraile flesh Since Cicero spake these wordes of Cornelia it can not be but that the writinges of such a woman in her time were very liuely and of great reputacion yet notwithstāding there is no memory of her but that an author for his purpose declareth an epistel of this maner Sextus Cheronensis in his booke of the prayse of women reciteth the letter whiche she sente to her children She remaynyng in Rome and they beyng at the warres in Affrike The letter of Cornelia to her .ii. sonnes Tiberius and Caius otherwise called Gracchi COrnelia the Romaine that by thy fathers side am of the Cornelij one the mother syde of the Fabij to you my .ii. sonnes Gracchii which are in that warres of Affrik such health to you do wish as a mother to her childrē ought to desire Ye haue vnderstode right well my children how my father died I being but .iii. yeres of age and that this .xxii. yeares I haue remained wydow and that this .xx. yeares I haue red Rethorike in Rome It is .vii. yeres sins I sawe ye and .xii. yeares sins your bretherne my children dyed in the great plage You know .viii. yeres ar past since I left my study and came to se you in Cicilia bycause you should not forsake the warres to come se me in rome for to me could come no greater paine thē to se you absent from the seruice of the common welth I desire my children to shew you how I haue passed my life in labour trauaill to the intent you should not desire to spēd youres in rest and idlenes For if to me that am in rome there can want no trobles be ye assured that vnto you which are in the warres shall
that the doughters should inherit the goodes for to mary them selues with all Truly this law was very iust for the sonne that hath alwayes respect to the enheritaunce will not haue to his father any great confidence For he ought to be called a valiant Romaine knight that with his life hath wonne honour and by the sword hath gotten riches Since you are in straung realmes I praye you hartely that you be conuersaunt with the good as good brethren remēbring alwayes that you wer my children and that I gaue you both sucke of myne owne propre breastes And the daye that I shall here of your disagrement the same day shal be the end of my life For the discord in one citie of parentes doth more harme then a hole armie of enemys It is good for you my childrē to liue in loue concord togethers but it is more requisit to kepe you with the Romaine knightes The which with you you with thē if you do not loue together in the warres you shall neuer haue the vpper hand of your enemies For in great armies the discordes which rise emongest thē do more harme then the enemys do against whō they fight I think wel my children that you wold be very desirous to know of my estate that is to wete whether I am in health whether I am sick whether I am poore whether I am pleased or whether I am miscontented In this case I know not why you shold desire to know it since you ought to presuppose that accordyng to the troubles which I haue passed the miseries that with mine eyes I haue sene I am filled with this world for wise men after .50 yeres and vpwarde ought rather to apply their mindes how to receiue death thē to seke pleasurs to prolong life When mans flesh is weake it always desireth to be wel kept euen vnto the graue And as I am of flesh bone so I do feale the troubles of the world as al mortal men do But for al this do not think that to be pore or sick is the greatest misery neither thinke that to be hole riche is the chefest felicity for ther is none other felicity of the old fathers but for to se their childrē vertuous In my opiniō it is an honour to that countrey that the fathers haue such children which wil take profit with their counsell contrary wyse that the children haue such fathers which can giue it them For the child is happy that hath a wise father more happy is the father that hath not a folish sonne I do write oft times vnto you my children but there is a law that none be so hardy to write to men of war in the field except first they inrowle the letters in the senate Therfore since I write vnto you more letters then they would they do send lesse then I desire Thoughe this law be painefull to mothers which haue children yet we must confesse it is profitable for the weale publik For if a man should write to one in the warre that his family is not well he would forsake the warres to remedye it Yf a man wryte vnto him that it is prosperous he hath then a desire to enioye it Be not displeased my children thoughe all the letters I do sende vnto you come not to your handes For all that I do not cease to visite the temples for your owne health nor yet to offre sacrifices to the Gods for your honour For if we do please the gods we haue not cause to feare our enemies I say no more in this case my children but that I beseche the immortall Gods that if your lyues maye profyte the common wealth then they shorten my dayes and lēgthen your yeres but if your lyues should be to the domage of the common wealth then those immortall gods I desire that first I may vnderstand the end of your dayes before that the wormes should eate my flesh For rather then by your euill lyfe the glory of our predecessours should be bleamished it were much better both your liues wer ended The grace of the Gods the good renowme amongest men the good fortune of the Romains that wisedom of the greekes the blessing of Scippio of al other your predecessours be alwayes with you my children Of the education and doctrine of children whiles they are yong Wherein the auctour declareth many notable histories Chap. xxxii ALl mortall men which will trauell and see good fruite of their trauell ought to do as the chefe artificer did that painted the world For the man that maketh god the head of his workes it is vnpossible that he should erre in the same That whych we beleue and reade by wrytinge is that the eternall created the world in short space by his mighte but preserued it a lōg time by his wisedome Wherof a man may gather that the time to do a thing is short but the care and thought to preserue it is long We see daily that a valiaunt captaine assaulteth his enemies but in the end it is god that giueth the victorye but let vs aske the conquerour what trauell it hath bene vnto him or wherin he hath perceaued most daunger that is to wete either to obteine the victory of his enemies or els to preserue them selues amongest the enuious and malicious I sweare and affirme that such a knight wil swere that ther is no comparison betwene the one and the other for by the bloudy sweard in an houre the victorye is obteined but to kepe it with reputation the swete of al the life is required Laertius in the booke of the lyfe of the philophers declareth and Plato also hereof maketh mention in the bookes of hys common wealth that those of Thebes vnderstandyng that the Lacedemonians hadde good lawes for that whych they were of the godes fauoured and of menne greatly honoured determined to send by common assent and agreement a wise philosopher the beste esteamed amongest them whose name was Phetonius to whome they commaunded that he should aske the lawes of the Lacedemonians and that he shoulde be verye circumspecte and ware to see what their rules and customes were Those of Thebes were then very noble valliant and honest so that their principal end was to come to honour renowme to erect buildinges to make them selues of immortall memory for beyng vertuous For in buildyng they were very curious and for vertues they had good Philosophers The philosopher Phetonius was more thē a yeare in the realme of the Lacedemonians beholding at sondry times all thinges therin for simple men do not note thinges but onely to satisfye the eyes but the wise menne beholdeth them for to know and vnderstand their secrettes After that the philosopher had well plainely sene and behelde all the thinges of the Lacedemonians he determined to returne home to Thebes and beyng arriued all the people came to see him and here him For the vanitie of the common people is
of such a qualitie that it foloweth new inuentions and despiseth auncient customes All the people therfore gathered togethers the good philosopher Phetonius set vp in the middest of the market place a gybet hoote yrons a swerd a whip and fetters for the feete the whiche thyng done the Thebains were no lesse as they thought slaundered thē abashed To the which he spake these wordes You Thebains sente me to the Lacedemonians to the entent I should learne their lawes and customes and in dede I haue bene ther more then a yere beholdyng al thinges very diligentely for we Philosophers are bound not onely to note that whyche is done but also to know why it is done knowe ye Thebains that this in the aunswere of my Imbassage That the Lacedemonians hang vpon this Gybet theues with this same sworde they behede traytors with these hoote Irons they torment blasphemers and lyers with these roddes they whippe vacabondes and with these Irons do keape the rebels and the others are for players and vnthriftes Finally I say that I do not bryng you the lawes written but I bring you the Instrumentes wherwith they are obserued The Thebains were abashed to se these thinges and spake vnto hym such wordes Consider Phetonius wee haue not sent the to the Lacedemonians to bring instrumentes to take away life but for the good lawes to gouerne the common wealth The philosopher Phetonius replyed again aunswered Thebains I let you wete that if ye know what we philosophers knew you shold see how far your mindes wer from the truth For the Lacedemonians are not so vertuous thoroughe the lawes whych wer made of them that be dead as for the meanes they haue sought to preserue them that be alyue For maters of Iustice consiste more in execution then in commaundyng or ordeinynge Lawes are easely ordeyned but with difficultie executed for there are a thousande to make them but to put them in execution there is not one Ful lytle is that whych men knowe that are present in respect of that those knewe which are past But yet accordyng to my litle knowledge I proffer to gyue as good lawes to you Thebains as euer wer obserued among the Lacedemoniās For there is nothing more easy then to know the good and nothynge more commen then to folow the euill But what profiteth it if one will ordeyne and none vnderstand it Yf ther be that doth vnderstand thē there is none that excuteth them Yf there be that executeth them there is none that obserueth thē Yf there be one that obserueth them ther is a thousand that reproueth them For without comparison mo are they that murmure grudge at the good then those whych blame and despise the euyll You Thebains are offended bycause I haue brought suche Instrumentes but I let you wete if you wyll neyther Gybet nor sworde to kepe that which shal be ordeyned you shall haue your bookes full of lawes and the common wealth full of vices Wherfore I sweare vnto you that there are mo Thebains whiche folowe the deliciousnes of Denis the tyraunt then there are vertuous men that folowe the lawes of Lycurgus If you Thebains do desire greatly to know with what Lawes the Lacedemonians doe preserue their common wealthe I will tel you them all by worde and if you will reade them I will shew you them in writyng But it shal be vpon condition that you shall sweare all openly that once a daye you shall employ your eyes to reade them and your parsonnes to obserue them For the prince hath greater honour to se one onely law to be obserued in dede then to ordeyne a thousand by wryting You ought not to esteame muche to be vertuous in harte nor to enquire of the vertue by the mouth nor to seeke it by labour and trauaille of the feete but that whyche you ought greatly to esteame is to know what a vertuous lawe meaneth and that knowen immediatly to execute it and afterwardes to kepe it For the chefe vertue is not to do one verteous work but in swet and trauayl to continue in it These therfore wer the wordes that this philosopher Phetonius sayde to the Thebains The whyche as Plato sayeth estemed more his wordes that he spake then they dyd the lawes whyche he brought Truly in my opinion those of Thebes are to be praysed and commended and the philosopher for his wordes is worthy to be honoured For the end of those was to searche lawes to liue well and the ende of the Philosophet was to seke good meanes for to kepe them in vertue And therfore he thought it good to shew thē and put before their eyes the gibbet and the sword with the other instrumentes and tormentes For the euill do refraine from vice more for feare of punyshement then for any desire they haue of amendement I was willyng to bring in this Historie to th ende that all curious and vertuous men may see and know how litell the auncientes did esteme the beginnynge the meane and the ende of vertuous workes in respect of the perseueraunce and preseruacion of them Commyng therfore to my matter whych my pen doth tosse and seke I aske now presentely what it profiteth princes and great ladyes that God do gyue them great estates that they be fortunate in mariages that they be all reuerenced and honored that they haue great treasures for their inheritaunces and aboue al that they se their wiues great with child that afterwardes in ioy they se them deliuered that they se theyr mothers geuing their childrē sucke finally they se them selues happy in that they haue found them good nources helthful honest Truely al this auaileth litle if to their children when they are yong they do not giue masters to enstruct thē in vertues and also if they do not recomend them to good guides to exercise thē in feates of Chiualry The fathers which by syghes penetrat the heauē by prayers importune the Liuing god only for to haue children ought first to thinke why they wil haue childrē for that iustly to any man may be denayed which to an euil end is procured In my opinion the father ought to desire to haue a child for that in his age he may susteine his life in honour that after his doth he may cause his fame to liue And if a father desireth not a son for this cause at the least he ought to desire him to the end in his age he may honour his horye hed and that after his death he may enheryte his goodes but wee see few children do these thynges to their fathers in theyr age if the fathers haue not taught them in their youth For the fruite doeth neuer grow in the haruest vnlesse the tree dyd bere blosommes in the spryng I see oftentimes many fathers complaine of their Children sayenge that they are disobedient and proude vnto theim and they doe not consydre that they them selues are the cause of all those euilles For
to moch aboundaunce and libertie of youth is no other but a prophesie manifest token of disobedience in age I knowe not why princes and great lordes do toile and oppresse so much and scratche to leaue their children great estates and on the other syde we see that in teachyng them they are and shew theim selues to negligent for princes great lordes ought to make account that all that whych they leaue of their substaunce to a wicked heyre is vtterly lost The wise men and those which in their coÌ„sciences are vpright and of their honours carefull oughte to be very diligent to bring vp their children chiefly that they consyder whether they be mete to inherite their estates And if perchaunce the fathers se that their children be more giueÌ„ to follie then to noblenes and wysdome then should I be ashamed to se a father that is wise trauaile al the dayes of his life to leaue much substaunce to an euill brought vp child after his death It is a griefe to declare and a monstrous thyng to se the cares whych the fathers take to gather ryches and the diligence that children haue to spende them And in this case I saye the sonne is fortunate for that he doeth inherite and the Father a foole for that he doth bequeth In my opinion Fathers ar bound to enstructe theyr Children well for two causes the one for that they are nearest to them and also bycause they ought to be theyr heyres For truely with great greyfe and sorow I suppose he doth take his death which leaueth to a foole or an vnthrifte the toile of all his life Hyzearcus the Greeke hystorien in the booke of his antiquities and Sabellyquus in his generall history sayeth that a father and a sonne came to complaine to the famous phylosopher and auncient Solon Solinon the sonne complayned of the father and the father of the sonne First the son informed the quarel to the Phylosopher sayeng these wordes I complayne of my father bycause he beyng ryche hath dysheryted me and made me poore and in my steade hath adopted another heyre the whyche thyng my father oughte not nor cannot doe For sence he gaue me so frayle flesh it is reason he geue me hys goods to maintayne my feblenes To these wordes aunswered the father I complayne of my sonne bycause he hathe not bene as a gentle sonne but rather as a cruell enemye for in all thynges since he was borne he hath bene disobedient to my will wherfore I thought it good to dysheryte hym before my death I woulde I weâ—e quite of all my substaunce so that the goddes hadde quyte hym of hys lyfe for the earthe is very cruell that swalloweth not the chyld alyue whyche to hys father is dysobedyent In that he sayeth I haue adopted another chyld for myne heyre I confesse it is true and for somuche as he sayeth that I haue dysinheryted hym and abiected hym from my herytage he beynge begotten of my owne bodye hereunto I aunswere That I haue not disinheryted my sonne but I haue disinheryted his pleasure tothentent he shal not enioy my trauaile for there can be nothing more vniust then that the yonge and vitious sonne should take his pleasure of the swette and droppes of the aged father The sonne replyed to his father and sayd I confesse I haue offended my father and also I confesse that I haue lyued in pleasures yet if I maye speake the trueth thoughe I were disobedient and euill my father oughte to beare the blame and if for this cause he doeth dysherite me I thynke he doth me great iniurye For the father that enstructed not hys sonne in vertue in hys youthe wrongfullye dysheryteth hym though he be disobedient in hys age The father agayne replyeth and saieth It is true my sonne that I brought the vp to wantonly in thy youth but thou knowest well that I haue taughte the sondrye tymes and besydes that I dyd correcte the when thou camest to some discretion And if in thy youth I dyd not instructe the in learnyng it was for that thou in thy tender age dydest wante vnderstandyng but after that thou haddest age to vnderstand discrecion to receiue and strength to exercyse it I began to punyshe the to teache the and to instructe the. For where no vnderstandyng is in the chyld there in vaine they teache doctrine Sence thou arte old quoth the sonne and I yong sence thou arte my father and I thy sonne for that thou hast whyte heres of thy bearde and I none at all it is but reason that thou be beleued I condemned For in this world we se oftetimes that the smal aucthoryty of the parson maketh hym to lose hys great iustyce I grauÌ„t the my father that when I was a childe thou dydst cause me to learne to reade but thou wylte not denye that if I dyd coÌ„mit any faulte thou wouldest neauer agree I should be punyshed And hereof it came that thou sufferyng me to doe what I woulde in my youth haue bene dysobedient to the euer since in my age And I saye to the further that if in this case I haue offended trulye me thinketh thou canst not be excused for the fathers in the youthe of their children oughte not onely to teache them to dispute of vertues and what vertue is but they ought to inforce them to be vertuous in dede For it is a good token when youth before they know vyces hath bene accustomed to practice vertues Both parties thou diligentlie hard the good Philosopher Solon Solinon spake these wordes I geue iudgement that the father of thys child be not buried after hys death and I commaunde that the sonne bycause in hys youth he hath not obeyed his father who is olde should be dysinheryted whiles the father lyueth from all hys substaunce on suche condition that after hys death hys sonnes should inheryte the heritage and so returne to the heires of the sonne and line of the father For it were vniust that the innocencie of the sonne should be condempned for the offence of the father I doe commaunde also that all the goods be committed vnto some faithful parson to th end they may geue the father meate and drinke durynge hys lyfe and to make a graue for the sonne after hys death I haue not with out a cause geuen suche iudgement the which comprehendeth lyfe and death for the Gods wyll not that for one pleasure the punyshement be double but that we chastyse and punyshe the one in the lyfe takynge from hym hys honour and goods and that we punyshe others after there death takyng from them memorye and buriall Truly the sentence which the Philosopher gaue was graue and would to God we had him for a iudge of this world presentlye for I sweare that he should finde many children now a dayes for to disheryte and mo fathers to punishe For I cannot tell which is greater the shame of the children to disobey their fathers or
vertues their children are moste inclined and this ought to be to encourage them in that that is good and contrary to reproue them in all that is euill For men are vndone for no other cause when they be olde but for that they had so much pleasures when they are younge Sextus Cheronensis in the seconde booke of the saiynges of the auntientes saieth that on a daye a citezen of Athens was byenge thinges in the market and for the qualitie of his persone the greatest parte of them were superfluous and nothing necessary And in this case the poore are no lesse culpable then the ryche and the ryche then the poore For that is so litle that to susteyne mans lyfe is necessary that he which hath lest hath therunto superfluous Therfore at that tyme when Athens and her common wealth was the lanterne of all Grece there was in Athens a lawe long vsed and of great tyme accustomed that nothing should be bought before a philosopher had set the pryce And truly the lawe was good and would to God the same lawe at this present were obserued for there is nothing that destroyeth a cōmon wealth more then to permitte some to sell as tyrauntes and others to buye as fooles When the Thebane was buying these thinges a philosopher was there present who sayed vnto him these wordes Tell me I praye thee thou man of Thebes wherefore doest thou consume and waste thy money in that whiche is not necessary for thy house nor profitable for thy persone the Thebane aunswered him I let the knowe that I doe buye all these thynges for a sonne I haue of the age of .xx. yeares the whiche neuer did thinge that seamed vnto me euill nor I neuer denayed hym any thing that he demaunded This philosopher aunswered O howe happy were thou if as thou arte a father thou were a sonne and that which the father saieth vnto the sonne the sonne would saye vnto the father but I am offended greatly with that thou hast tolde me For vntill the childe be .xxv. yeares olde he ought not to gaynesaye his father and the good father ought not to condescende vnto the appetites of the sonne Nowe I call the cursed father since thou arte subiect to the wyll of thy sonne and that thy sonne is not obedient to the wyl of his father so that thou alterest the order of nature For so muche as the father is sonne of his sonne and the sonne is father of his father But in the end I sweare vnto thee by the immortall Gods that when thou shalt become old thou shalt weape by thy selfe at that whiche with thy sonne thou diddest laughe when he was younge Though the wordes of this philosopher were fewe yet a wyse man wyll iudge the sentences to be many I conclude therfore that princes and great lordes ought to recōmende their children to their maisters to th ende they may teache them to chaunge their appetites and not to folowe their owne wil so that they withdrawe them from their own will and cause them to learne the aduise of an other For the more a man geueth a noble man sonne the brydle the more harder it is for them to receiue good doctrine ¶ Princes ought to take hede that their children be not brought vp in vayne pleasures and delightes For oftetimes they are so wicked that the fathers would not only haue them with sharpe discipline corrected but also with bitter teares buried Chap. xxxiii BY experience we see that in warre for the defence of men rampiers fortes are made according to the qualitie of the enemies those which sayle the daungerous seas doe chose great shippes whiche may breake the waues of the raging Sea so that all wyse men according to the qualitie of the daunger doe seke for the same in time some remedy Oftetymes I muse with my selfe and thynke if I coulde finde any estate any age any lande any nation any realme or any worlde wherein there hath bene any man that hath passed this life without tasting what aduersitie was for if suche a one were founde I thinke it should be a monstrous thing throughout all the earth and by reason both the dead and liuing should enuie hym In the ende after my counte made I finde that he whiche yesterdaye was ryche to daye is poore he that was hole I see hym to daye sicke he that yesterdaye laughed to daye I see hym wepe he that had his hartes ease I see hym nowe sore afflicted he that was fortunate I see hym vnlucky finally hym whom we knewe aliue in the towne now we see buried in the graue And to be buried is nothing els but to be vtterly forgotten for mans frendshyp is so frayle that when the corps is couered with earth immediatly the dead is forgotten One thinge me thinketh to all men is greuous to those of vnderstandyng no lesse payneful whiche is that the miseries of this wicked worlde are not equally deuided but that oftetymes all worldly calamities lieth in the necke of one man alone For we are so vnfortunate that the world geueth vs pleasures in sight troubles in profe If a man should aske a sage man now a daies who hath liued in meane estate that he would be contented to tel him what he hath paste since three yeares that he began to speake vntill fifty yeares that he began to waxe olde what thinges thinke you he would tel vs that hath chaunced vnto him truly al these that here folowe The grefes of his children the assaultes of his enemies the importunities of his wife the wantonnes of his doughters sicknes in his person great losse of goods general famine in the citie cruel plagues in his coūtrey extreme colde in wynter noysome heate in sommer sorowful deathes of his frendes enuious prosperities of his enemies finally he wil say that he passed such so many thinges that oftimes he bewailed the wofull life desired the swete death If the miserable man hath passed such things outwardly what would he saye of those which he hath suffred inwardly the whiche though some discrete men may know yet truly others dare not tell For the trauailes which the body passeth in fifty yeres may wel be counted in a day but that which the hart suffereth in one day cannot be counted in a hundred yeres A man cannot denay but that we would coūte him rashe which with a rede would mete an other that hath a sword him for a foole that would put of his shoes to walke vpō the thornes But without cōparison we ought to esteame him for the most foole that with this tender fleshe thinketh to preuaile against so many euil fortunes for without doubt the man that is of his body delicate passeth his life with much paine O how happy may that mā be called which neuer tasted what pleasure meaneth For men whiche from their infancy haue bene brought vp in pleasures for want of wisdome know not how to
only they are made euil This worthy woman kepyng alwaies such a faythful gard of her chyld that no flatterers should enter in to flatter him nor malicious to tel hym lyes bychaunce on a day a Romaine sayd vnto her these words I thinke it not mete most excellente princesse that thou shoulde be so dyligente aboute thy sonne to forget the affaires of the common wealth for prynces ought not to be kept so close that it is more easye to obtaine a sute at the gods then to speake one word with the prince To this the Empresse Mamea aunswered and said They which haue charge to gouerne those that do gouerne withoute comparison oughte to feare more the vyces of the kinge thenne the ennemyes of the Realme For the ennemyes are destroyed in a battaile but vyces remayne durynge the life and in the end enemyes do not destroy but the possessions of the land but the vycious prince destroyeth the good maners of the comon wealth These wordes were spoken of this worthye Romaine By the histories which I haue declared and by those which I omitte to recite al verteous men may know how much it profiteth them to bring vp their children in trauailes or to bring them vp in pleasures But now I ymagine that those which shall read this will praise that which is wel writen and also I trust they wil not giue their children so much their owne willes For men that read much worke litle are as belles the which do sound to cal others and they theim selues neuer enter into the church If the fathers did not esteame the seruice they do vnto God their owne honour nor the profite of their owne children yet to preserue them from disseases they ought to bring them vp in vertue withdraw them from vices For truly the children which haue bene brought vp daintely shal alwayes be diseased and sikely What a thinge is it to se the sonne of a labourer the cote without pointes the shyrte tottered and torne their feete bare their head without a cappe the body withoute a girdle in sommer without a hat in winter without a cloke in the day ploughing in the night driuing his herd eating bread of Rye or Otes lyeng on the earth or els on the strawe and in this trauaile to se this yong man so holy vertuous that euery man desireth and wisheth that he had such a sonne The contrarie commeth of noble mens sonnes the which we se are nourished brought vp betwene two fine holland sheetes layed in a costly cradel made after the new fashion they giue the nourse what she wil desire if perchaunce the child be sicke they chaunge his nource or els they appoint him a diet The father and the mother slepe neither night nor daye all the house watcheth they let him eate nothing but the broth of chyckins they kepe hym diligentely that he fal not downe the stayres the child asketh nothing but it is geuen him immediatly Finally they spend their time in seruyng them they waste their riches in geuyng them their delights they occupie their eyes but to behold them they imploye not their harts but to loue them But I sweare that those fathers whiche on this wise do spend their riches to pomper theim shal one day water their eyes to bewaile theym What it is to se the wast that a vaine man maketh in bringinge vp his child specially if he be a man sumwhat aged that at his desire hath a child borne He spendeth so muche goodes in bringing his vp wantonly whyles he is yong that oft times he wanteth to mary him when he commeth to age And that which worst of al is that that which he spendeth and employeth he thynketh it wel bestowed and thinketh that to much that he geueth for gods sake Though the fathers are very large in spendinge the mothers very curious and the norces ful of pleasures and the seruauntes very dilygente and attentiue yet it foloweth not that the children should be more hole then others For the more they are attented the more they be disseased the more they eate the more they are weake the more they reioyce the worse they prosper the more they wast and spend soo muche lesse they profite And all this is not without the secret permission of God For God wil not that the cloutes of children be of greater value then the garments of the poore God without a greate misterie toke not in hande the custodye of the poore and doth not suffer that the children of the rich men should prosper For the good bringeth vp his children without the preiudyce of the rich and to the profit of the comon wealth but the rich bringeth vp his children wyth the swet of the poore and to the domage of the common wealth Therfore if this thyng be true as it is it is but reason that the wolfe whych deuoureth vs do dye and the shepe which clotheth vs do lyue The fathers oft times for tendernes wyl not teach nor bryng vp their children in doctrine sayeng that as yet he is to yong and that there remayneth time enough for to be learned and that they haue leysure enough to be taught and further for the more excuse of their error they affirme that when the chyld in his youth is chastned he ronneth in daunger of his health But the euil respect which the fathers hath to their chyldren God suffereth afterwards that they come to be so slaunderous to the common wealth so infamous to their parents so disobedient to their fathers so euyl in their condicions so vnaduised and light in their behauiour so vnmeate for knowledge so vncorrigible for disciplyne so inclined to lies so enuyeng the truth that their fathers would not only haue punished them with sharpe correction but also they woulde reioyce to haue them buryed with bytter teares An other thyng ther is in this matter worthy to be noted and much more worthyer to be commended that is that the Fathers and mothers vnder the couller that their chyldren should be somewhat gracious they learne them to speake to bable to be great mockers and scoffers the which thing afterwards redoundeth to the great infamye and dishonour of the Father to the great peril of the sonne and to the greatest griefe and displeasure of the mother For the child which is brought vp wantonly without doctrine in his youth of necessity must be a foole when he is old If this which I haue sayd be euil this which I wil say is worse that the Fathers and mothers the gouernours or nources do teach them to speake dishonest things the which are not lawful and therfore ought not to be suffered to be spoken in that tender age nor the grauitie of the auncients ought not to lysten vnto them For there are no men vnlesse they be shamelesse that wil permit their children to be great bablers Those which haue the charge to gouerne good mens children ought to be very
and more profyte of the scoller he maye be soner vertuous then vitious For there is more courage required in one to be euil then strenght in another for to be good Also the maisters commenly haue another euill property worse then this whyche is they beare with their scollers in some secreat vices when they are yong from the whiche they cannot be withdrawen afterwarde when they are olde For it chaunceth oftetimes that the good inclination is ouercome by the euill custome and certainly the maisters whych in such a case should be apprehended ought to be punished as traitors pariured For to the mayster it is greater treason to leaue his disciple amongest vices then to delyuer a forte into the handes of the enemyes And let no man maruaill if I call such a mayster a treator for the one yeldeth the forte whych is but of stones builded but the other aduentureth hys sonne who is of his proper body begotten The cause of al this euill is that as the children of Princes ought to enherite realmes and the children of greate lordes hope to inherite the great estates so the maisters are more couetous then vertuous For they suffer their puples to runne at their own willes whē they be yong to thend to winne their hartes when they shal be olde so that the extreame couetousnes of the maisters now a dayes is suche that it causeth goodmens sonnes commonly to be euil and vitious O tutors of princes and maisters of great lordes I do admonyshe you and besides that I counsell you that your couetousnes deceiue you not thynkynge that you shal be better estemed for being clokers of vices then louers of vertues For there is none old nor yong so wicked but knoweth that good is better then euill And further I say to you in this case that oftetimes God permitteth when those that wer children become old their eyes to be opened wherby they know the harme that you haue done them in suffering them to be vitious in thier youth at what tyme your dutye had bene to haue corrected their vices You thought by your goods to be honored for your flattery but you find the contrary that you are despised worthely For it is the iust iudgement of god that he that committeth euill shall not escape without punyshment and he that consealeth the euill committed shal not liue vndefamed Diadumeus the Historiographer in the lyfe of Seuerus the .xxi. Emperour de clareth that Apuleius Rufynus who hadde ben consull twise and at that tyme was also tribune of the people a man who was very aged and likewise of greate aucthoritie thoroughe oute Rome came one daye to the Emperour Seuerus and sayed vnto him in this sorte Moste inuicte Prince alwayes Augustus know that I had .ii. children the whiche I committed to a mayster to bring vp and by chaunce the eldest increasinge in yeares and diminishing in vertues fell in loue with a Romaine ladye the which loue came to late to my knowledge for to such vnfortunat men as I am the disease is alwayes past remedy before the daunger thereof commeth to our knowledge The greatest grefe that herein I fele is that his mayster knew and consealed the euill and was not onely not a meanes to remedye it but also was the chefe worker of the adultery betwene them to be committed And my sonne made hym an oblygation wherin he bounde hym selfe if he woulde bryng hym that romaine lady he would geue hym after my death the house and herytages whych I haue in the gate Salaria and yet herwith not contented but he and my sonne together robbed me of much money For loue is costlye to hym that maynteineth it and alwayes the loues of the children are chargefull to the fathers Iudge you now therefore noble Prince thys so heinous and slaunderous cause for it is to muche presumption of the subiecte to reuenge any iniury knowyng that the lorde hym selfe will reuenge all wronges When the Emperour Seuerus hadde vnderstode this so heynous a case as one that was both in name and dede seuere commaunded good inquisition of the matter to be hadde and that before his presence the shoulde cause to appeare the father the sonne and the mayster to the ende eche one should alledge for his owne right for in Rome none could be condemned for anye offence vnlesse the plainetife had first declared the faulte before hys presence and that the accused shold haue no tyme to make hys excuse The trueth then knowen and the offenders confessyng the offences the Emperour Seuerus gaue iudgement thus I commaunde that this mayster be caste alyue amonge the beastes of the parke Palatine For it is but mete that beastes deuoure hym whyche teacheth others to lyue lyke beastes Also I doe commaunde that the sonne be vtterly dysinheryted of all the goodes of hys father and banyshed into the Iles Balleares and Maiorques For the chylde whiche from hys youth is vitious oughte iustlye to be banyshed the countrey and dysherited of hys fathers goods This therfore of the maister and of the sonne was done by the complaint of Apuleius Rufinus O howe vnconstant fortune is and howe oft not thynkyng of it the threde of lyfe doth breake I saye it bicause if this maister had not bene couetous the father hadde not bene depriued of his sonne the childe hadde not bene banished the mother had not bene defamed the common weale had not bene slaundered the master of wylde beastes hadde not bene deuoured neyther the Emperour hadde bene so cruell agaynst them nor yet their names in Hystories to their infamies hadde alwayes continued I doe not speake thys without a cause to declare by writyng that whyche the euyll do in the world For wyse menne ought more to feare the infamye of the litle penne then the slaunder of the bablyng tongue For in the ende the wicked tongue can not defame but the lyuynge but the litle penne doth defame them that are that were and the shal be To conclude thys my mynde is that the mayster shoulde endeuour hym selfe that hys scooller shoulde be vertuous and that he doe not dispayre though immediately for hys paines he be not rewarded For thoughe he be not of the creature let hym be assured that he shal be of the creatour For God is so mercyefull that he ofte tymes takynge pitie of the swette of those that be good chastneth the vnthankfull and taketh vpon him to require their seruices Of the determination of the Emperour when he committed his childe to the tutours whyche he had prouided for his education Chapter xxxviii CInna the Hystorien in the first booke of the times of Comodus declareth that Marcus Aurelius the Emperour chose .xiiii. masters learned and wise men to teache hys sonne Comodus of the whyche he refused fyue not for that they were not wyse but for that they were not honeste And so he kepte these nyne onely whyche were both learned in the sciences and also experte in bringyng vp the chyldren of
prince ordeyned hys lyfe in suche sorte that in his absence thinges touchinge the warre were well prouided and in hys presence was nothynge but matters of knowledge argued It chaunsed one daye as Marcus Aurelius was enuironed with Senatours Philosophers phisitions and other sage men a question was moued among them howe greatly Rome was chaunged not onelye in buyldinges whyche almoste were vtterlye decayed but also in maners whiche were wholly corrupted the cause of all thys euill grewe for that Rome was full of flatterers and destitute of those whiche durste saye the trueth These and suche other lyke words heard the emperour toke vp his hand and blessed him and declared vnto them a notable example sayeng In the first yere that I was coÌ„sull there came a poore villayne from the riuer of Danubye to aske iustice of the Senate agaynst a Censour whyche dyd sore oppresse the people and in dede he dyd so well propounde hys complaint and declare the follye and iniuryes whych the iudges dyd in hys countrey that I doubt whether Marcus Cicero could vtter it better wyth hys tonge or the renowmed Homer haue written it more eloquently with his penne This villayne had a small face great lippes hollow eyes hys colour burnte curled heare bareheaded hys shoes of a Porpige skynne hys coate of gotes skynne hys girdell of bull russhes a longe bearde and thicke hys eye breyes couered hys eyes the stomacke the neck couered wyth skynnes heared as a beare and a clubbe in hys hand Without doubt when I sawe him enter into the Senate I imagined it had beene a beast in fourme of a man and after I hearde that whyche he sayde I iudged hym to be a God if there are Gods amongest menne For if it was a fearfull thyng to beholde hys personne it was no lesse monstrous to heare his wordes At that tyme there was greate prease at the dore of the Senate of manye and dyuers personnes for to solicite the affaires of theire prouinces yet notwithstanding this villayne spake before the others for twoe causes The one for that men were desyrous to heare what so monstrous a man woulde say the other because the Senatours had this custome that the complayntes of the poore should be hearde before the requestes of the riche Wherfore this villayne afterwardes in the middest of the Senate began to tel his tale and the cause of hys comminge thither in the whiche he shewed him selfe no lesse bolde in woordes then he was in his attyre straunge and saide vnto them in thys sorte O fathers conscripte and happy people I Mileno a ploughman dwelling nere vnto the ryuer of Danube doe salute you worthye Senatours of Rome which are conuented here in this Senate I besech the immortal gods my tong this day so to gouerne that I may say that which is coÌ„uenient for my countrey and that they helpe you others to gouerne well the common wealth For wythout the healpe of God we can neither learne the good nor auoid the euill The fatale destines permittinge it and our wrathefull Gods forsakinge vs our mishappe was suche to ye others fortune shewed her self so fauourable that the proud captaines of Rome byforce of armes toke our countrey of Germany And I saye not without a cause that at that tyme the gods were displeased with vs for if we Germaines had appeased our Gods ye Romaynes might well haue excused your selues for ouercomminge of vs. Greate is youre glorye O Romaynes for the victories ye haue had and tryumphes whiche of manye realmes ye haue conquered but notwithstanding greater shall your infamy be in the worlde to come for the cruelties whiche you haue committed For I let you knowe yf you do not knowe it that when the wicked went before the triumphing chariots sayeng lyue lyue inuincyble Rome on the other syde the poore captyues went sayeng in theire hartes iustice iustice My predecessours enhabited by the ryuer of Danubye for when the drye earth annoyed them they came to recreate them selues in the freshe water and if perchaunce the vnconstant water dyd annoy them then they woulde returne againe to the mayne lande And as the appetites and condicions of men are variable so there is a tyme to flye from the lande to refreshe our selues by the water And tyme also when we are annoyed with the water to retourne agayne to the lande But howe shall I speake Romaynes that whyche I woulde speake your couetousenes of taking other mennes goods hath bene so extreme your pryde of commaunding straunge countreis hath bene so disordinate that neither the sea can suffise you in the depenes thereof neyther the lande assure vs in the fieldes of the same O how great comforte it is for the troubled men to think and be assured that there are iust gods the which will do iustice on the vniust For if the oppressed menne thought them selues not assured that the gods would wreke their iniury of theire enemies they with their owne handes woulde destroy them selues The ende why I speake this is for so much as I hope in the iust gods that as you others with out reason haue cast vs out of our houses so by reason shal others come after vs and cast you others out of Italy Rome bothe There in my countrey of Germany we take it for a rule vnfallyble that he whiche by force taketh the good of another by reason ought to lose his owne proper right And I hope in the gods that that which we haue for a prouerb in Germany you shal haue for experience here in Rome By the grosse woordes I speake by the strange apparell which I weare you may well immagine that I am some rude vâ—â—laine or barbarous borne but yet notwithstandinge I want not reason to know who is iust and righteous in holdyng his owne and who is a tyraunt in possessing of others For the rude menne of my profession though in good stile they cannot declare that whiche they would vtter yet notwithstandinge that we are not ignoraunt of that whiche ought to bee allowed for good nor whiche ought to bee condemned for euill I woulde saye therfore in this case that that which the euyll with all their tiranny haue gathered in many daies the gods shall take from them in one houre and contrarywyse all that which the good shall lose in many yeres the gods will cestore it them in one minute For speaking the trueth the euill to prosper in ryches is not for that the gods will it but that they doe suffer it and though at this houre we complaine disseÌ„bling we suffer much but the tyme shal come that will paye for all Beliue me in one thing O Romaynes and doubt not therin that of the vnlawfull gaine of the fathers foloweth after the iust vndoing of their children Manye often tymes doe marueile in my countrey what the cause is that the gods doe not take from the wicked that which they winne immediatlye as soone as
moue mee to speake and the faythe whyche I owe vnto you dothe not suffer mee that I shoulde keepe it close For manye thinges oughte to be borne amonge friendes thoughe theye tell them in earnest whiche ought not to be suffered of others thoughe theye speake it in gest I come therefore to shewe the matter and I beseche the immortall goddes that there bee noe more then that whiche was tolde mee and that it bee lesse then I suspecte Gaius Furius youre kinsman and my especiall friende as hee went to the realme of Palestyne and Hierusalem came to see mee in Antioche and hathe tolde mee newes of Italy and Rome and among others one aboue al the residewe I haue committed to memorye at the whiche I coolde not refraine laughinge and lesse to bee troubled after I hadde thought of it O how manye thinges doe wee talke in gest the whiche after wee haue well considered geeue occasion to be sorye The emperoure Adrian mye good lorde had a Iester whose name was Belphus yonge comelye and stoute allbeeit hee was verye malicious as suche are accustomed to bee and whiles the imbassadours of Germaine supped with the Emperour in greate ioye the same Belphus beeganne to iest of euery one that was present according to his accustomed manner with a certeine malicious grace And Adrian perceiuing that some chaunged colour others murmured and others weare angrye hee saide vnto thys Iester frinde Belphus if thou loue mee and mye seruice vse not these spytefull iestes at our supper which being considered on may turne vs to euil rest in our beddes Gaius Furius hath tolde me so many slaunders chaunced in Italy such nouelties done in Rome such alteracion of our Senate such contentiō strife betwene our neighbours suche lightnes of yow twoo that I was astonied to here it ashamed to writ it And it is nothing to tell after what sort he told thē vnto me onlesse you had sene how earnestly he spake them imagining that as he told thē without taking anye paine so did I receiue them as he thought with out any griefe though in deede euerye woorde that he spake seemed a sharpe percinge arrowe vnto my hart For oft times some telleth vs thynges as of small importaunce the whiche do pricke our hartes to the quicke By the oppynion of all I vnderstande that you are verye olde and yet in your owne fantasies you seame verye yonge And further theye saye that you apparell youre selues a newe nowe as thoughe presentlye you came into the worlde moreouer they saye that you are offended with nothinge so muche as when theye call you olde that in theaters where comedies are played and in the fieldes where the brute beastes do runne you are not the hindmost and that there is no sport nor lightnes inuented in Rome but first is registred in youre house And finally they say that you geue your selues so to pleasures as thoughe you neuer thought to receiue displeasures O Claude and Claudine by the god Iupiter I sweare vnto you that I am a shamed of your vnshamefastnes am greatly abashed of your maners and aboue all I am excedingly greeued for your great offence For at that time that you ought to lift vp your handes yow are returned againe into the filth of the world Many thinges men commyt which though they seme graue yet by moderacion of the person that committeth them they are made light but speaking according to the trouthe I fynde one reason wherebye I mighte excuse youre lightnes but to the contrarye I see tenne wherebye I maye condempne youre follyes Solon the phylosopher in hys lawes sayde to the Athenians that if the yonge offended hee shoulde bee gentlye admonished and grieuouslye punished beecause hee was strong and if the olde dydde erre he shoulde be lightlye punished and sharpelye admonished sithe he was weake and feble To this Licurgus in his lawes to the Lacedemonians sayde contrarye that if the yonge did offende hee shoulde bee lightly punished and greuously admonished sins through ignoraunce he dyd erre and the olde manne whiche did euill shoulde be lightly admonished and sharpely punished sins through malice he did offend These two phylosophers being as theye haue bene of suche authoritie in the worlde that is paste and consideringe that their lawes and sentences were of suche weighte it shoulde be muche rashenesse in not admittinge the one of them Nowe not receyuyng the one nor reprouynge the other mee thynketh that there is greate excuse to the yonge for theire ignoraunce and greate condempnacion o the aged for theire experience Once agayne I retourne to saye that you pardone me mye friendes and you oughte not greatlye to weye it thoughe I am somewhat sharpe in condempnation since you others are so dissolute in youre liues for of youre blacke lyfe mye penne dothe take ynke I remember well that I haue harde of thee Claude that thou haste bene lusty and couragious in thye youthe so that thye strengthe of all was enuyed and the beauty of Claudine of all men was desired I will not write vnto you in this letter mye frindes and neigheboures neither reduce to memorye howe thou Claude haste imployed thy forces in the seruice of the common wealth and thou Claudine hast wōne muche honoure of thy beautye for sundrye tymes it chaunced that men of manye goodlye gyftes are noted of greuous offences Those whiche striued with thee are all dead those whom thow desiredst are dead those which serued thee Claudine are deade those whiche before thee Claudine sighed are deade those which for thee died are nowe dead and sins all those are dead withe they re lightnesse do not you others thinke to dye your follyes allso I demaunde nowe of thy youthe one thinge and of thy beauty another thinge what do you receiue of these pastimes of these good interteinmentes of these abundances of these great contentacions of the pleasures of the worlde of the vanytye that is paste and what hope you of all these to carye into the narrowe graue O simple simple and ignoraunt persones howe oure life consumeth and we perceiue not howe we liue therein For it is no felicitie to enioy a short or long life but to knowe to employe the same well or euill O children of the earthe and disciples of vanytie nowe you knowe that tyme flyethe without mouing his wynges the life goeth without liftinge vppe hys feete the worlde dispatcheth vs not tellinge vs the cause men beegile vs not mouinge theire lippes our flesh consumeth to vs vnwares the heart dieth hauing no remedy finally our glory decayeth as if it had neuer bene and death oppresseth vs wythoute knockinge at the doore Thoughe a man be neuer so simple or so very a foole yet he can not denaye but it is impossible to make a fier in the botome of the sea to make a waye in the ayre of the thinne bloude to make roughe sinewes and of the softe vaines to make harde bones I
are old For how can hee loue hys health which hateth vertu All that which I haue spoken heere beefore is to the end you may know and beeleeue that I am sick and that I cannot write vnto the so loÌ„g as I would and as thou desirest so that hereof it followeth that I shall bewayle thy payne and thou shalt bee greeued with my gowte I vnderstood here how at the feast of the god Ianus through the running of a horse great stryfe is rysen beetweene thee and thy neighbour Patriciê° And the brute was such that they haue confiscated thy goods battered thy house banished thy children depriued thee from the Senate for x. years And further they banished thee out of Capua for euer haue put thy felow in the prison Mamortine so that by this lytle fury thou hast cause to lament all the dayes of thy lyfe All those which come from thens doo tell vs that thou art so wofull in thy hart and so chaunged in thy parson that thou doost not forget thy heauy chaunces nor receiuest consolation of thy faithfull freends Think not that I speak this that thou shouldest bee offended for according to the often chaunges which fortune hath shewed in mee it is long since I knew what sorow ment For truly the man which is sorowfull sigheth in the day watcheth in the night delyteth not in company and with only care hee resteth The light hee hateth the darkenes hee loueth with bitter tears he watereth the earth with heuy sighes hee perceth the heaueÌ„s with infinite sorows he remembreth that that is past and forseeth nothing that that to coÌ„e is Hee is displeased with hym that dooth comfort hym and hee taketh rest to expresse his sorowes Fynally the vnfortunat man is coÌ„tented with nothing and with hym self continually hee doth chafe Beeleue mee Domitiê° that if I haue well touched the condicions of the sorowfull man it is for no other cause but for that my euill fortune hath made mee tast them all And herof it commeth that I can so wel dyscribe them for in the end in things which touche the sorrows of the spiryte and the troubles of the body there is great dyffereÌ„ce from hym that hath read them and from hym that hath felt them If thou dydst feele it there as I doo fele it heer it is suffycient to geeue thee and thy frends great dolor to think that for so small a trifle thou shouldest vndoo thee and all thy parentage And speaking with the trouth I am very sory to see thee cast away but much more it greeueth mee to see thee drowned in so litle a water When men are noble and keepe their harts high they ought to take their enemies agreable to their estates I meane that when a noble man shal aduenture to hazard hys person and hys goods he ought to doo it for a matter of great importaunce For in the end more defamed is hee that ouercommeth a laborer then hee which is ouercome with a knight O how variable is fortune and in how short space dooth happen an euill fortune in that which now I wyll speake I doo condemne my self and accuse thee I complayne to the Gods I reclayme the dead and I call the lyuing to the end they may see how that before our eyes wee suffer the greeses and know them not with the hands wee touch them and perceue them not wee goe ouer theÌ„ and see them not they sound in our eares and wee heare them not dayly they doo admonysh vs and wee doo not beeleue them fynally wee feele the peryl where there is no remedy of our greefe For as experyence dooth teach vs with a lytell blast of wynde the fruit doo fall with a lytell spark of fyer the house is kyndled with a lytell rock the shipp is broken at a lytell stone the foot doth stumble with a lytell hook they take great fysh and with a lytell wound dyeth a great person For all that I haue spoken I meane that our lyfe is so frayl and fortune so fykcle that in that parte where wee are surest harnessed wee are soonest wouÌ„ded Seneca wrytyng to hys mother Albina which was banished froÌ„ Rome sayd Thou Albina art my mother and I thy sonne thou art aged and I am not yong I neuer beeleued in fortune though shee woold promise to bee in peace with mee And further hee sayd al that which is in mee I count it at the dysposition of fortune aswell of ritches as of prosperitye and I keep them in such a place that at any hour in the night when shee listeth shee may carye them away neuer wake mee So the though shee cary those out of my cofers yet shee should not rob mee of this in my intrails With out doubt such woords were merueylous pythy and verye decent for such a wise man The Emperor Adryan my Lord did weare a rynge of gold on his fynger which hee sayd was of the good Drusius Germanicus and the woord about the ring in latin letters sayd thus Illis est grauis fortuna quibus est repentina Fortune to them is most cruell whom sodenly she assaulteth Wee see oftentimes by experience that in the fystula which is stopped and not in that which is open the Surgion maketh doubt In the shallow water and not in the deepe seas the Pilot despayreth The good man of armes is more afrayd of the secreate ambushment then in the open battayle I mean that the valiant man ought to beware not of straungers but of his owne not of enemyes but of frends not of the the cruel warre but of the fayned peace not of the manyfest domage but of the pryuy perill O how manye wee haue seene whome the myshaps of fortune coold neuer chaunge and yet afterward hauyng no care she hath made them fall I ask now what hope can man haue which wyll neuer trust to the prosperity of fortune Since for so lyght a thing wee haue seene such trouble in Capua and so great losse of thy person and goods If we knew fortune wee woold not make so great complaynt of her For speakynge the trouth as she is for all and would contente all though in the end she mock all shee geeueth and sheweth vs all her goods and wee others take them for inherytaunce That which shee lendeth vs wee take it for perpetuall that which in iest she geeueth vs wee take it in good earnest in the end as she is the mocker of all so shee goeth mockyng of vs thinkynge that she geeueth vs another mans and she taketh our owne proper I let thee wete that knowing that of fortune which I know I fear not the turmoyles of her traueyles neyther dooth her lightnings or thuÌ„ders astony mee nor yet wyll I not esteme the pleasantnes of her goodly fayr flatteryes I wyll not trust her sweete reioysings neither wyll I make accompt of her frendshyps nor I wyll ioyne my selfe with her enemyes nor I wyll take any
mother in the chariot to the temple So after that the feast was ended the mother not knowyng how to requite the benefite of her children with many teares beesought the goddesse Iuno that shee with the other gods woold bee contented to geeue her .ii. children the best thing that the gods coold geeue to their frends The goddesse Iuno aunswered her that shee was contented to require the other gods and that they woold doo it And the reward was that for this noble fact the gods ordeyned that Cleobolus and Biton shoold sleepe one day well and in the morning when they shoold wake they shoold dye The mother pitifully beewayling the death of her children and complaining of the gods the goddesse Iuno sayd vnto her Thou hast no cause why to complayn sins wee haue geeuen thee that thou hast demaunded and hast demaunded that which wee haue geeuen thee I am a goddesse and thou art my seruaunt therefore the gods haue geeuen to thy children the thing which they count most deare which is death For the greatest reuenge which amongst vs gods wee can take of our enemies is to let them liue long and the best thing that wee keepe for our frends is to make them dye quickly The auctor of this history is called Hisearchus in his politikes and Cicero in his first book of his Tusculanes In the I le of Delphos where the Oracle of the god Apollo was there was a sumptuous temple the which for want of reparacion fell down to the ground as often times it chaunceth to high sumptuous buyldings which from tyme to tyme are not repayred For if the walles dungeons castels and strong houses coold speak as well woold they complayn for that they doo not renew them as the old men doo for that wee doo not cherish them Triphon and Agamendo were two noble personages of Greece and counted for sage and rich men the which went vnto the temple of Apollo and buylt it new agayn as well with the labor of their persons as with the great expenses of their goods When the buylding was atchiued the god Apollo said vnto them that hee remembred well their good seruice wherefore hee woold they shoold demaund him any thing in reward of their trauail and with a good will it shoold bee graunted For the gods vse for a little seruice to geeue a great reward Triphon and Agamendo aunswered vnto the god Apollo that for their good will for their trauell and for their expenses they demaunded no other reward but that it woold please him to geeue them the best thing that might bee geeuen vnto man and that vnto them were most profit saying that the miserable men haue not the power to eschew the euill nor wisedom to choose the good The god Apollo aunswered that hee was contented to pay them their seruice which they had doon and to grant them that which they had demaunded By reason whereof Triphon and Agamendo hauing dyned sodeinly at the gates of the temple fell down dead So that the reward of their trauell was to pluck them out of their misery The end to declare these two examples is to th end that al mortal men may know that there is nothing so good in this world as to haue an end of this lyfe and though to lose it there bee no sauor yet at the least ther is profit For wee woold reproue a traueler of great foolishnes if sweating by the way hee woold sing and after at his iorneys end hee shoold beegin to weepe Is not hee simple which is sory for that hee is comen into the hauen is not hee simple that geeueth the battell and fighteth for that hee hath got the victory Is not hee stubbern which is in great distresse and is angry to bee succored Therefore more foolish simple and stubbern is hee which traueleth to dye and is loth to meet with death For death is the true refuge the perfect health the sure hauen the whole victory the flesh wythout bones fysh wythout scales and corne without straw Fynally after death wee haue nothing to beewail and much lesse to desire In the tyme of Adrian the emperor a philosopher called Secundus beeing marueilously learned made an oration at the funerall of a noble Romayn matrone a kinswoman of the emperors who spake exceeding much euill of lyfe marueilous much good of death And when the emperor demaunded him what death was the philosopher answered Death is an eternal sleepe a dissolucion of the body a terror of the rich a desire of the poore a thing inheritable a pilgrymage vncertain a theef of men a kynde of sleaping a shadow of lyfe a seperacion of the lyuing a company of the dead a resolution of all a rest of trauels and the end of all ydle desires Fynally death is the scourge of all euyll and the cheef reward of the good Truely this philosopher spake very well hee shoold not doo euill which profoundly woold consider that hee had spoken Seneca in an epistle declareth of a philosopher whose name was Bassus to whom when they demaunded what euil a man can haue in death since men feare it so much hee aunswered If any domage or fear is in him who dyeth it is not for the fear of death but for the vyce of him which dieth Wee may agree to that the philosopher sayd that euen as the deaf can not iudge harmony nor the blynd colours so lykewise they cannot say euill of death in especially hee which neuer tasted it For of all those which are dead none returned again to complayn of death and of these few that lyue all complayn of lyfe If any of the dead returned hyther to speak with the liuing and as they haue proued it so they woold tel vs. If there were any harm in secret death it were reason to haue some fear of death But though a man that neuer saw hard felt nor tasted death dooth speak euil of death shoold wee therefore fear death Those ought to haue doon some euil in their life whych doo fear and speak euill of death For in the last hour in the streight iudgement the good shal bee knowen and the euill discouered There is no prince nor knight rich nor poore whole nor sick lucky nor vnlucky whych I see with their vocacions to bee contented saue only the dead which in their graues are in peace and rest and are neyther couetous proud negligent vayn ambitious nor dissolute So that the state of the dead ought to bee best since wee see none therin to bee euil contented And since therefore those which are poore doo seeke wherewith to enrich them selues those which are sad doo seeke wherby to reioice and those which are sick doo seeke to bee healed why is it that those which haue such fear of death doo seeke some remedy against that fear In this case I woold say that hee which will not fear to dye let him vse him self well to liue For the giltles
gaue great sacrifyces to their Gods and all to the end their Gods shoold not receyue the soule of thys tiraunt amongst them but that they woold send it to bee kept among the furies of hell I remember Patrocles second kyng of Corinthe inheryted the realme at two twenty years of his age who was so dysordered of hys flesh so vndyscreete in hys doings so couetous of goods and such a coward of hys person that where hys father had possessed the realme forty yeares the sonne dyd not possesse it thyrty moneths I remember Tarquine the proud who though among eyght knyghts of Rome was the last and comlyest of gesture valyaunt in armes noblest of blood and in geeuyng most lyberall yet hee employed all hys gyfts and graces which the Gods had geeuen hym euyll For hee employed hys bewty to ryot and hys forces to tyranny For through the treason and vyllany whych hee commytted with the Romayn Lucretia hee dyd not onely lose the realme and flying saued hys lyfe but allso for euer was banyshed and all hys lynage likewise I remember the cruell emperor Nero who lyued enherited and dyed yong and not without a cause I say that hee lyued and dyed yong For in him was graffed the stock of the noble and worthy Cesars and in him was renewed the memory of those Tyraunts To whom thinkest thou Panutius this tiraunt woold haue geeuen lyfe since hee with his own hands gaue his mother her death Tel mee I pray thee who thinkest thou hath made that cursed hart who slew hys mother out of whose womb hee came opened her breasts which gaue hym suck shed the blood whereof hee was born tore the armes in which hee was caryed saw the intrails wherein hee was formed The day that the emperour Nero slew his mother an orator said in the senat Iure interficienda erat Agrippina que tale portentum peperit in populo romano Which is to say iustly deserued Agrippina to bee put to death which brought foorth so straunge a monster amongst the Romayn people Thou oughtst not therefore to marueil Panutius at the nouelties whych thou hast seene in mee for in these three days that I haue beene troubled in my mynd and altered in my vnderstandyng all these things are offred vnto mee and from the botom of my hart I haue digested them For the carefull men are not blynded but with their own ymaginacions All these euil condicions which these Princes had scattered amongst them of whom I haue spoken doo meete togethers in my sonne Commodus For if they were yong hee is yong If they were rych hee is rych If they were free hee is free If they were bold hee is bold If they were wilde hee is wilde If they were euill certaynly I doo not think that hee is good For wee see many yong princes which haue been well brought vp and well taught yet when they haue inherited and come to their lands they beecome immediatly vitious and dissolute What hope haue wee of those which from their infancy are dissolute and euill enclined of good wyne I haue made oft times strong vineger but of pure vineger I haue neuer seene good wine This childe keepeth mee beetwene the sayles of feare the anker of hope hopyng hee shal bee good since I haue taught him wel fearing hee shall bee euill beecause his mother Faustine hath norished him euil And that which ys the woorst that the yong childe of his own nature is inclined to al euil I am moued to say this much for that I see his naturall inclinacion increase and that which was taught him dimynish for the which occasyon I doubt that after my death my sonne shal return to that wherin his mother hath norished him not to that wherein I haue taught him O how happy had I been if neuer I had had childe for not to be boūd to leaue him thempire for I woold chose then among the children of the good fathers woold not bee bound to such a one whom the gods haue geeuen mee One thing I ask thee Panutius whom wooldst thou cal most fortunat Vespasian which was naturall father of Domitius or Nerua the adopted father of the good Traiane both those two Vespasian Nerua were good princes but of children Domitian was the head of al mischief Traiane was the mirrour of al goodnes So that Vespasian in that hee had children was vnhappy Nerua in that hee had none was most fortunat One thing I wil tel thee Panutius the which by thee considered thou wylt litle esteeme life and shalt lose the feare of death I haue lyued lxii years wherein I haue read much hard much sene desired attained possessed suffred I haue much reioysed my self And in the end of al this I see my self now to dye and I must want my pleasures and my self allso Of all that I haue had possessed attained whereof I haue enioyed I haue only two things to weete payn for that I haue offended the gods and sorow for the time which I haue wasted in vices There is great difference beetweene the rych and the poore in death and more in lyfe For the poore dyeth to rest but yf the rich dye it is to their great payn So that the gods take from the one that which hee had putteth the other in possession of that hee desired Great care hath the hart to seeke the goods and they passe great troubles to heap vp them togethers and great diligence must bee had in keeping them and also much wyt to encrease them but without comparison it is greater grief to depart from them O what payn intollerable and grief it is to the wise man seeing hym self at the poynt of death to leaue the swet of his famyly the maiesty of his empire the honor of his present the loue of his frends the payment of his debts the deserts of his seruaunts and the memory of hys predecessours in the power of so euill a chyld the which neither deserueth it nor yet wil deserue it In their table of our auncyent laws were writen these woords Wee ordeyn and commaund that the father which shall bee good according to the oppinion of all may disheryt his sonne who according to the opinion of all is euill The law sayd further The chyld which hath dysobeyed hys father robbed any holy Temple iniuryed any wyddow fled from any battaile and committed any treason to a straunger that hee shoold bee banished from Rome and dysenherited from his fathers goods Truely the law was good though by our offences it bee forgotten If my breath fayled mee not as it dooth fayle mee for of trouth I am greatly payned I woold declare vnto thee how many Parthes Medians Egiptians Assirians Caldeans Indians Hebrues Greekes and Romains haue left their children poore beeing able to haue left them rych for no other cause but for that they were vicious And to the contrary other beeyng poore haue left them rych
remouing of the court for some courtiers there are that bee so poore that for wāt they canne hardli follow the court and others also that are rych are compelled to beare many of their charges with whome they are in company with by the way and some of those are so rude ill brought vp that they had rather beare their charge al their iourny then once againe to haue them in their company But a godsname what shall wee say yet of the wretched courtier whose coffers and horse are arrested at his departing for his debts Truly I ly not for once I sawe a courtiers moyle sold for her prouinder shee had eaten that mony not sufficient to pay the host the courtier remaining yet detter of an ouerplus the poore man was stripped euen of his cappe and gloues for satisfaction of the rest Also there is an other sorte of needy courtiers so troblesome and importune that they neuer cease to troble their freends to borow money of their acquayntance soome to fynd themselues soome to apparell them selues others to pay their dets others to play and others to geeue presents so that at the remouing day when they haue nothing wherwith to pay nor content their crediters then are they sued in lawe and arrested in theyr lodging and the credyters many tymes are not satisfyed with theyr goods but take execution also of theyr bodyes laying them in fast prison till they bee payd and satisfied of their whole dett O what a folly may bee thought in those that cannot moderat theyr expences according to theyr ability For to say vprightly hee should cut his garments according to his cloth and measure his expences with his reuenues and not followyng his affection and desire For the gentleman or courtier in the end hath not the meane nor commodity to spend as the contry man hath that lyueth at home at ease in his contry spēdeth such commodityes as hee brings into his howse but the courtier consumeth in court not his owne alone but also that of others And therfore in courte or els where let euery wise man bee diligent to bring his affaires to end but yet let him so moderate and vse his expences as hee shall not neede nor bee driuen to morgage and gage that hee hath For hee that feasteth and rowteth with others purse of that that is lent hym cannot choose but in the end hee must breake and deceyue his crediters Therfore all woorthy men that loue their honor and feare reproche ought rather to suffer honger cold thirst care paine and sorow then to bee had in the check rowle of riotous and prodigall spenders trustles of their promise and suspected of their woords There is yet an other great troble in the court of princes and that is the exceding derth of vittels the vnresonable wāt of howses and the great price of horses for many times they spend more for straw and litter for their horse then they doo in other places for hey otes and bread And further if the courtier bee a poore gentillman and that hee would feast and bancket his frends or companions hee shall spend at one dinner or supper somuch that hee shal bee constrained to fast a hole weeke after Therfore if the courtier wil be wel vsed in folowing of the court hee must not only know and speake too but also loue and inuite at tymes the bouchers vittlers fruterers keepers and softers Fishmongers and poulterers and other purueiers of the same of whōe hee shall alwaies haue asmuch neede of his prouision as hee shall haue of the iudges to shew him Iustice when hee shal neede it For meate bread wyne wood hey otes straw are comōly very deare in court For fewe of al these things are to bee bought in court but of others infinit things to bee sold to profit and gaine the poore courtiers that els had no shyft to liue And yet is there a litle more trouble in court and that is that continually letters are sent to the courtier from his frends to obtaine of the prince or his counsel his dispatch in his priuate affaires or for his seruants or tenants or other his frends And manie times these sutes are so ill welcome to the courtier that hee had rather haue pleasured his frend with a peece of mony then they should haue layd vpon him so waighty a matter And beesides this there is yet an other troble that the bringet of the letter must needes ly at the courtiers house attending his dispatch so that the courtier delaiyng his frends busines augmenteth his greefe and keeping the messenger there increaseth his charge And if perchanse his busines bee not dispatched and the sute obteyned those that wrote to him will not think hee left it of for that bee would not doo it or take paines therin but for that hee wanted fauour and credit or at least were very negligent in following their cause And that that vexeth them thorowly yet is that their parents and frends weene which are in the contry farr from court that this courtier hath all the courtiers at his commaundement that hee may say and doo what hee wil there And therfore his frends when they haue occasion to imploie him in court and that they wryte to him touching their affaires and that hee hath now taken vpon him the charge and burden of the same seeing him selfe after vnable to discharge that hee hath enterprised and can not as hee would satisfie his frends expectacion then hee faleth to dispaire and wissheth hee had been dead when hee first tooke vpon him this matter and that hee made them beeleeue hee could go thorough with that they had cōmitted to him beeing vnpossible for him hauing small credit and estimation amongst the nobility and councellers Therefore I would neuer councell him that hath brethern frends or other neere kynsfolks in court to go seeke them out there albeeyt they had matters of great weight and importance on hope to bee dispatched the sooner by their credite fauour and sute and for this cause for that in court there is euer more priuy malice and Enuy then in other places wherefore they can not bee reuenged one of the other but must tary a tyme and then when they see oportunity they set in foote to ouerthrow and secretly to put back their enemyes sute Now lo these things and other infinite plagues doo light on these poore vnfortunate courtiers incredible happely to any but the old and experienced courtier Yf the old and wise courtier would count all the fauors and mischances the derth and aboundance the frendships and enmities the contentation and displeasures the honor infamy hee hath endured in the court I beeleeue assuredly wee should not bee a litle sory for that body that had suffryd somuch but much more for that hart that had abidden al those stormes and broyls Whan the courtier seeth that hee is not hard of the prince nor spoken to of the
the Egiptians nor Licurgus to the Lacedemonians nor Plato to his disciples nor Apolonius to the poets of Nemsis nor Hiarcus to the Indians coold euer tech it them and much lesse coold they tell how to fynd any way to write it in their bookes of common wealth The cause why these famous men did not fynd it was beecause this science coold not bee learned by studying of dyuers bookes nor by traueling through dyuers countreys but only by framing great suites and processes and by infinite charge and expence of money Happy yea truely most happy were those ages in whych they neither knew nor coold tell what strife or contentionment For in deede from that tyme hetherto the world hath fallen to decay and cheefely since men haue growen to quarel and contend ech other with his neighbor Plato was wont to say that in that comon weale where there were found many Phisitians it was also an euydent token that there were many vicyous people and lykewise wee may say that in the city where there are many suters it is to bee thought it folowes also that there are many yll disposed people That only may bee called a blessed and fortunat common weale where men lyue quietly and haue not to doo with Iustices nor iudges For it is a true rule when phisitians are much frequēted and iudges much occupyed that amongst that people there is lyttle health and lesse quiet But to returne to the troubles of our suters I say that the disciples of the famous Philosopher Socrates were not bound to bee sylent in Athens aboue two yeres but the vnfortunat suters were bound to hold their peace tenne yeres if their sutes did continue so long For albeeit the Iudge doo them open iniury yet they may not seeme to complayn but rather say hee thinketh hee hath doon him the best iustice in the world And if for his mishapp or plague of his offences hee woold not so approue and speak them let him bee assured the Iudge will perceiue it by his countenaunce and afterwards lett hym know it by his iudgement Some suters say they are great sinners and I say they are saints For of the seuen dedly sinnes that are committed only of three they are but to bee accused For in the other iiii although they woold they doo not geeue him tyme nor leaue to offend How can the suter euer offend in Pryde since hee must poore man goe from house to house with hys capp in his hand and all humility to solicite his cause How can hee euer offend in Auarice syth hee hath not many tymes a peny in his purse to by him his dyuer nor to pay for the infinit draughts and coppyes proceeding out of the Chauncery How can hee offend in Sloth and ydlenes sith hee consumeth the long nights only in sighes and complaynts and the whole day in trotting and trudging vp and down How can hee offend in Gluttony since hee woold bee content to haue only to suffyse nature and not to desyre pyes nor breakfastes nor to lay the table euery day That sinne they most easely and commonly offend in is Ire and in deede I neuer saw suter paciēt and although hee bee angry wee may not maruell at yt a whit For if euer once in the end of half a yere hee happen to haue any thyng that pleaseth hym I dare bee bound euery weeke after hee shall not want infinit troubles to torment and vex hym These men also offend much in enuy for in deed there is no man that pleades but ys enuious and thys proceedeth many tymes to see an other man by fauor dispatched of hys sute that hath not contynued only two moneths in court a suter and of hys that hath continued aboue two yeres synce yt beganne not a woord spoken They offend also in the sinne of backbyting and murmuryng agaynst their neyghbors For they neuer cease complayning of the partiality of the Iudges of the slouthfulnes and tymorousnes of his Counseller that pleades hys cause at the barre of the little consideration of the attorny of the payments of the notary and of the small curtesies or rather rudenes of the officers of the Iudge So that it may well bee sayd that to striue in law and to murmure are nere kinsfolkes togeethers The Egiptians were in tyme past plaged only wyth tenne plagues but these miserable woful suters are dayly plaged with a thowsand torments And the difference beetwixt their plague these is that the Egiptians came from the diuine prouydence and these of our poore suters from the inuention of mans malyce And it is not without cause wee say that it is mans inuention not diuine For to frame inditements to geene delays to the party to allege accions to deny the demaund to accept the proofe to examin witnesses to take out proces to note the declaration to prolong the cause alleging well or prouing yll to refuse the iudge for suspect to make intercession to take out the copy of the plea and to call vppon it agayn wyth a 1500. dudles Surely all these are things that neither god commaundeth in the old testament neither Ihesus Christ our sauiour dooth allow in his holy Gospell The writings of Egipt although they were to the great losse and detriment of the seignory of the Egiptians yet were they neuerthelesse very profitable for the liberty of the Egiptians But the miserable playntifes are yet in an other greater extremity for notwithstanding the plagues and miseries the poore wretches suffer daily yet do they leaue their soules buried in the courts of Chauncery and cannot notwithstanding haue their goods at liberty And if the plague of the Egiptians was by ryuers of blood froggs horse flyes death of cattell tempests leprosy locusts mists flyes and by the death of the first borne children The plague of the plaintifes is to serue the presidents to beare with the auditors to intreat the notaries to make much of their clarks to please the counsellers to follow their heeles that must open their cause to pray the vsshers to borow money to goe from house to house to sollicite their attorneys all these things are easy to tell but very hard to suffer For after they are once prooued and tryed by experience they are enough to make a wyse man contented rather to lose a peece of hys ryght then to seeke to recouer it by any such extremity For hee may bee well assured that hee shall neuer want fayre countenaunce sugred woords and large promyses but for good dooings it is a maruelous woonder if euer they meete togeethers And therefore beefore all other thyngs it is necessary hee pray to God for hys own health and preseruation and next to him for the preseruacion and long continuaunce of the Iudge if hee will obteyn his suite Therefore I aduise him that hath not the Iudge for hys frend to beeware as from the deuyll hee doo not commence any suite beefore him For to dispatch him the
vppon not aboue two yoke of oxen to till his land Titus Liuius Macrobius Cicero Plutarch Salust Lucan Seneca Aulus Gelius Herodian Eutropius Trebellius Vulpitius and all the other romayn writers doo neuer cease to praise the auncient romain pouerty saying the common wealth of Rome neuer lost one iott of her greatnes honor during the tyme that they went abroad to conquer other realmes and dominions but only since they began to geather treasor together Licurgus the Philosopher who afterwards was king of the Lacedemonians ordeined in his lawes hee made that no neighbor shoold haue any more goods then an other but that all houses lands vynes possessions gold siluer apparell mouables and generally all other things what soeuer shoold bee indifferently holden among them to the common vtilitie of all And beeing asked why hee woold not consent the common weal shoold haue her own priuate commodities and particulers answered thus The payns and trauels men indure in this mortall life and the great troubles disorders that come dayly to the comon weal chaunce not so much for that men haue neede of lyuing to maintain them selues with all but for that they doo desire to leaue to their heirs and successors And therefore I haue appointed euery thing in cōmon amōg subiects because that during their liues they might haue honestly to maintain them selues with all that they shoold leaue any thing to dispose by will after their deaths Herodotus sayth also that it was decreed by thinhabitans of the Iles Baleares that they shoold suffer none to come into theyr countrey to bring them any gold siluer silk iewels or precious stones And this serued them to great profit For by means of this law for the space of .iiii. C. yeres that they had warres with the Romains the Carthagians the Frēch the Spaniares neuer any of these nations once stirred to goe about to conquer their land beeing assured that they had neither gold nor siluer to robbe or conuey from them Promotheus that was the first that gaue lawes to the Egiptians did not prohibit gold nor siluer in Egipt as those of the Iles Baleares did in their territories neither did hee also comand that all thing shoold bee common as Licurgus but only commanded that none in all his kingdom shoold bee so hardy once to gather any masse or quantity of gold or siluer together to hoard it vp And this hee did vpon great penalties for as he said auarice is not showed in buylding of fair houses neither in hauīg rich moueables but in assembling gathering together great treasure laying it vp in their coffers And Plutarche in his booke De consolatione saith also that if a rich man dyed among the Rhodians leauing behind him one only sonne no more suruyuing him they woold not suffer that hee shoold bee sole heyre of all that his father left but they left him an honest heritage lyuing so hys state call to mary him well withall and the rest of all his sethers goods they dissipated among the poore orphans The Lydians that neither were Greekes nor Romains but right barbarous people had a law in their common weal that euery man shoold bee bound to bring vp his children but not to bee at tharges in bestowing them in mariage So that the sonne or daughter that were now of age to mary they gaue them nothing to their mariage more then they had gottē with their labor And those that will exactly consider this lawdable custom shal fynd that it is rather a law of true philosophers then a custom of barbarous people Since thereby the childrē were inforced to labor for their lyuing the parents also were exempted from al maner of couetousnes or auarice to heap vp gold siluer to enrich them selues Numa Pompilius second king of the romains establisher of their laws decrees in the law of the seuen tables which hee made hee left them order only which way the Romayns might rule their comon weal in tranquility put in no clause nor chapter that they shoold make their willes wherby their children might inherit their fathers goods And therfore being asked why hee permitted in his laws euery man to get asmuch goods as hee coold not to dispose them by wil nor leaue them to their heirs Hee answered because wee see that albeeit there are some children that are vnhappy vicious abhominable yet are there few fathers notwtstanding this that will depriue disherit them of their goods at theyr death only to leaue them to any other heir therefore for this cause I haue comaunded that al the goods that remain after the death of the owner of thē shoold bee geuen to the comon weal as sole heir successor of them to th end that if their children shoold become honest vertuous they shoold then bee distributed to them if they were wicked vnhappy that they shoold neuer be owners of them to hurt offend the good Macrobius in his booke De somno Scipionis saith that there was in the old tyme an old and ancient law amōgst the Tuscans duly obserued kept afterwards taken vp of the Romayns that in euery place where so euer it were in town or village within their territories on new yeres day euery man shoold present him self beefore the iudge or magistrate of the place hee was in to geeue him account of his maner of lyfe now hee mainteined himself in this examinatiōs they did accustome to punish him that lyued ydlely with knauery deceipt maintayned them selues as minstrels ruffyans dycers carders iuglers coggers foysters cosiners of men sylching knaues with other loytering vacabōds rogues that lyue of others swett toyl without any pain or labor they take vpon them to deserue that they eat I woold to god if it were his will that this Tuscan law were obserued of christians then wee shoold see how few they be in nomber that geeue them selues to any faculty or science or other trade to lyue by their own trauell industry and how many infinit a nomber they bee that liue in ydle sort The diuine Plato in his Timee sayth that although an ydle man bee more occasion of many troubles inconueniences in a common weal then a couetous man yet is it not alwais greater for the ydle mā that gladly taketh his ease dooth but desire to haue to eat but the couetous man dooth not only desire to eat but to bee rich and haue money enough All the eloquence and pleasant speche that the Orators studyed in their orations the lawyers in their law and the famous philosophers in their doctryne and teaching was for no other cause but to admonish and perswade those of the common weal to take very good heede in choosing of their gouernors that they were not couetous and ambitious in thadministration of their publyke affairs Laertius recyteth also that a
circumspect that they kepe them in awe feare subiection that they ought not to be contented though the fathers say they are pleased For the disordinate loue that the fathers haue to them is the cause that they caÌ„not se whether they be mockers or euil brought vp And if it chaunced as ofttimes it doth that the father shold come to the maister to cause him to withdraw correction in this case if the master be a wise maÌ„ he ought no lesse to reproue admonish the father then to correct the sonne And if this did not auaile I councel him to forsake and leaue his charge For the man of an honest nature after he hath taken anye charge in hand wil eyther bring it to passe or els he wil dye in the same I wyl not denaye but that it is reason noble mennes sonnes be more gently brought vp handled and honoured then the sonnes of the Plebeiens for more delicately is the palme tree which bringeth forth dates cherished then the oke which bringeth forth Akornes wherwith the hogges are nourished Let princes and great lordes beware that the pleasures which they gaue their childre in theyr youthe be not so excessyue nor of soo longe continuaunce that when they would withdraw them the world hath not alredy festered them For the children brought vp with to much delicatenesse are disobedient to their fathers and mothers or els they are sicke in their bodyes or worse then that they are vicious in their behauiours so that their fathers shold be better to burye theym quycke then to bring them vp vycious ¶ That princes and greâ—te Lordes oughte to be carefull in seking wyse men to bryng vp their children Of .x. conditions that good Schole maisters ought to haue Cap. xxxiiii WHen he that is without end gaue beginning to the world in this sort he beganne The Sonday he created heauen and earth The Mondaye he created the element the Tuesday he created the Planettes the Wednesday he created the Sonne and the Mone the Thursday he created the birdes in the ayre and the fishes in the sea the fryday he created Adam and Eue hys wife and truly in that he created and how he created hee shewed himselfe as God For as sone as the house was made he fornished peopled it with that that was necessarie as he could wel do Omitting therfore the creator and talking of creatures we se by experience that a householder in planting a vineyarde immediatly maketh a hedge to the ende that the beasts do not hurt it and eate it vp And when it is wel growen he hyreth some poore laborer to watche that trauailers do not gather nor eate the grapes therof The rich man that traffiqueth by sea after he hath made a great shippe and bestowed vi or vii thousand ducates if he be wise he wil first prouide a man that may gouerne her before he wil seke marchaundise for to fraite her for in perilous tempestes the greatnes of the shippe lytel auayleth if the pilot therof be not expert The householder that hath many cowes and shepe and likewise hath faire feeldes and pleasaunt pastures for his cattel doth not only seke herdmen to kepe the cattell but also dogges to feare the wolfes and cabannes to lodge the herdmen For the cabanne of the shepherdes and the baying of the dogge is but as a sauegard of the shepe from the raueninge of the wolfe The mightie and valiaunte princes whiche in the frontiers of their enemyes kepe strong fortresses seke alwayes stout and hardy captaynes to defend their walles for otherwise it were better the fort shold be battered to the grounde then it should come into the power of the enemyes By the comparisons aboue named ther is no discreat man but doth vnderstand to what end my penne doth write them that is to know to kepe and proue how that men which loue their children wel adding this vnto it haue great neade of good maisters and gouernours to teache and bring them vp For whiles the palme tre is but litle a frost doth easely destroy it I meane whiles the child is yonge if he haue no tutour he is easely deceiued with the world If the lord be wise and of vnderstanding there is no fortresse so esteamed neyther ship so fayre nor herd so profitable nor vyne so fruitful but that he better estemeth to haue a good sonne then al these thinges together or any other thing in the world For the father ought to loue his childreÌ„ as his owne proper and al residue as giftes of fortune If it be so as it is in deade since that for to keape and watche the herd they seake a good shepherde if for the vine they seake a good labourer if for to gouerne the shippe they seke a good maister and for to defend a fort they seke a good captayne why then wil not the wise fathers seke for good maisters to teach bring vp their chyldren O princes and great lords I haue now told you and agayne do say that if you trauaile one yeare to leaue your chyldren goodes you ought to sweate 50 yeres to leaue them wel brought vp For it auayleth lytle to carye much corne to the myl if the myl be out of frame I meane that in vayne riches and treasurs are gathered when the child that shal inherite them hath not witte to vse them It is no smal matter to know how to choose good gouernours For the prince is sage that fyndeth such a one and much more happie is he that of him shal be taught For in my opinyoÌ„ it is no smal charg for one man to bring vp a Prince that shal gouerne manye As Seneca sayth the wise man ought to conferre al thinges with his frend but first he ought to know who he is that is his frend I meane that the wise father oughte for his children to seke one good maister and to him he should recommende them al but first he ought to know what he is For that man is very simple which wil bye a horse before he se proue him whether he be hole or lame He ought to haue many and good condicions and qualyties that shoulde bring vp the children of princes and great lordes for by one way they nourishe the tender trees in the orchard after another sort they plant the wild trees in the mountaynes Therfore the case shal be this that we wil declare here what condicions and behauiours the maisters and gouernours of noble mens sonnes ought to haue which may bring them to honour and their disdoundeth to the honour and praise of his mayster The first condicion is that he which ought to be tutor to noble mens sonnes shold be no lesse then 40. yeres of age no more then 60 bicause the maister that is yong is ashamed to comaund if he be aged he is not able to correct The .2 it is necessary that tutors be very honest that not only in