children haunt the vice of the flesh whilest they be yong there is small hope of goodnes to be looked for in them when they be old for the older they waxe the riper be their vices Masters would correct the childe but fathers and mothers forbid them Little auaileth one to pricke the horse with the spurre when he that sitteth vpon him holdeth backe with the bridle Of Death O If we would consider the corruption wherof we are made the filth wherof we are engendred the infinite trauell whereunto we are borne the long tediousnes wherwith we are nourished the great necessities and suspicions wherein we liue and aboue all the great peril wherein we die we find a thousand occasions to wish death not one to desire life The excellencie of the soule laid aside and the hope which we haue of eternall life if man do compare the captiuitie of men to the libertie of beasts with reason we may see that the beasts do liue a peaceable life and that which man doth lead is but a long death I had rather chuse an vnfortunate life and an honorable death than an infamous death and an honorable life That man which will be accounted for a good man not noted for a brute beast ought greatly to trauell to liue well and much more to die better for that euill death maketh men doubt that the life hath not been good and the good death is an excuse of an euill life The dead do rest in a sure hauen and we saile as yet in raging seas If the death of men were as beasts that is to wit that there were no furies nor diuels to torment them that God should not reward the good yet we ought to be comforted to see our friends die if it were for none other cause but to see them deliuered from the thraldome of this miserable world The pleasure that the Pilote hath to be in a sure hauen the glory that the captaine hath to see the day of victory the rest that the traueller hath to see his iorney ended the contentation that the workman hath to see his worke come to perfection all the same haue the dead seeing themselues out of this miserable life If men were born alwaies to liue it were reason to lament them when we see them die but since it is truth that they are borne to die we ought not to lament those which die quickly but those which liue long since thou knowest he is in place where there is no sorrow but mirth where there is no paine but ease where he weepeth not but laugheth where he sigheth not but singeth where he hath no sorowes but pleasures where he feareth not cruel death but enioyeth perpetuall life The true widow ought to haue hir conuersation among the liuing and hir desire to be with the dead Death is the true refuge the perfite health the sure hauen the whole victory finally after death we haue nothing to bewaile and much lesse to desire Death is a dissolution of the body a terror to the rich a desire of the poore a thing inheritable a pilgrimage vncertain a theefe of men a kind of sleeping a shadow of life a separatiō of the liuing a company of the dead a resolution of all a rest of trauels and the end of all idle desires If any dammage or feare be in him who dieth it is rather for the vice he hath committed than feare of death There is no prince nor knight rich nor poore whole nor sicke luckie nor vnluckie with their vocations contented saue onely the dead which are in their graues at rest and peace If in youth a man liue well and in age studie to die well and his life hath been honest his hope is that death will be ioyfull and although he hath had sorow to liue he is sure he shall haue no paine to die This equal iustice is distributed to all that in the same place where we haue deserued life in the same we shal be assured of death Cato being praised of the Romanes for his courage at his death laughed they demaunded the cause why he laughed he answered Ye maruell at that I laugh and I laugh at that you maruel for the perils and trauels considered wherein we liue and the safetie wherein we die it is no more needfull to haue vertue and strength to liue than courage to die We see shamefast and vertuous persons suffer hunger cold thirst trauel pouertie inconuenience sorow enmities and mishaps of the which things we were better to see the end in one day than to suffer them euery hower for it is lesse euill to suffer an honest death than to endure a miserable life The day when we are born is the beginning of death and the day wherein we die is the beginning of life If death be no other but an ending of life and that whiles we liue we carrie death than reason perswadeth vs to thinke that our infancie dieth our childhood dieth our manhood dieth and our age shall die whereof we may conclude that we are dying euery yeere euery day euery houre and euery moment Diuers vaine men are come into so great follies that for feare of death they procure to hasten death Hauing thereof due consideration me seemeth that we ought not greatly to loue life nor with desperation to seeke death for the strong and valiant man ought not to haue life so long as it lasteth nor to be displeased with death when it commeth In such sort therefore ought men to liue as if within an houre after they should die If we trauell by long wayes and want any thing we borow of our company if they haue forgotten ought they returne to seek it at their lodging or els they write vnto their friends a letter but if we once die they will not let vs returne againe we cannot and they will not agree that we shall write but such as they shall find vs so shall we be iudged and that which is most fearful of all the execution and sentence is giuen in one day Let not men leaue that vndone till after their death which they may do during their life nor trust in that they command but in that they do whilest they liue nor in the good works of an other but in their owne good deeds for in the ende one sigh shall be more woorth than all the friends of the world I exhort therefore all wise and vertuous men and also my selfe with them that in such sort we liue that in the end we liue for euer Those that visite the sicke ought to perswade them that they make their testaments confesse their sinnes discharge their conscience receiue the sacraments and reconcile themselues to their enimies Many in our life time do gape after our goods few at our death are sory for our offences The wise and sage before nature compelleth them to die of their own wils ought to die that is
and in steede of gawling striketh What euill happened to Hercules that after so manie dangers came to die in the armes of an harlot Alexander after his great conquest ended his life with poison Agamemnon that woorthie Greeke after ten yeeres wars against the Troians was killed entring into his owne house Iulius Caesar after two and fiftie battels was killed in the Senate house with xxiij wounds Hanniball slew himselfe in one moment bicause he would not become a pray to his enimies What mishap is this after so many fortunes what reproch after such glorie what perill after such suretie what euill lucke after such good successe what darke night after so cleare day what euil entertainment after so great labor what cruell sentence after so long proces what inconuenience of death after so good beginning of life The miserable life of man is of such condition that dailie our yeeres do diminish and our troubles encrease life is so troublesome that it wearieth vs and death is so doubtefull that it feareth vs. The philosopher Appollonius being demanded what he woondered most at in al the world answered but at two things the one was that in all parts wherein he had trauelled he saw quiet men troubled by seditious persons the humble subiect to the proud the iust obedient to the tyrant the cruell commanding the mercifull the coward ruling the hardie the ignorant teaching the wise and aboue al I saw the most theeues hang vp the innocent The other was that in all the places and circuite that he had bin in I know not neither could finde anie man euerlasting but that all are mortall and that both high low haue an end for many enter the same night into the graue which the day ensuing thought to be aliue Aristotle saith that man is but a tree planted with the rootes vpward whose roote is the head and the stock is the bodie the branches are the armes the barke is the flesh the knots are the bones the sap is the hart the rottennes is malice the gum is loue the flowers are words and the fruits are good woorks We see the vapors to ascend high the plants growe high the trees budde out on high the sourges of the sea mount high the nature of the fire is alwaies to ascende vpwarde onelie the miserable man groweth downewarde and is brought lowe by reason of the feeble and fraile flesh which is but earth and commeth of earth and liueth on earth and in the end returneth to the earth from whence it came Generallie there is no man so good but a man may find in him somwhat reprooueable nor any man so euill but he hath in him something commendable What man and his life is O Blindnes of the world ô life which neuer liueth nor shall liue ô death which neuer hath end I know not why man through the accident of his beautie should take vpon him any vaine glory or presumption sith he knoweth that all the perfitest and most faire must be sacrificed to the worms in the graue It is to be maruelled at that all men are desirous that all things about them should be cleane their gownes brushed their coats neat the table handsome and the bed fine and onely they suffer their soules to be spotted and filthie The faire and well proportioned man is therfore nothing the more vertuous he that is deformed and euill shapen is nothing therfore the more vicious Corporall beautie early or late perisheth in the graue but vertue and knowledge maketh men of immortall memorie Although a man be great it followeth not that he is strong so that it is no generall rule that the bigge body hath always a valiant and couragious hart nor the little man a faint and false hart Iulius Caesar was big of body yet euill proportioned for he had his head bald his nose sharp one hand more shorter than the other and being yoong had a riueled face yealow of colour went crooked and his girdle half vndone Hannibal was called monstrous both for his deeds and euil proportion for of his two eies he lacked the right and of the two feet he had the left foote crooked fierce of countenance and little of body Truly he feeleth the death of another which always is sorowfull and lamenting his own life To esteeme thy selfe to be handsome and proper of person is no other thing but to esteeme thy selfe that dreaming thou shalt be rich and mightie and waking thou findest thy self poore and miserable What shall we say to this little flower that yesterday florished on the tree whole without suspicion to be lost and yet one little frost wasteth and consumeth it the vehement wind ouerthroweth it the knife of enuy cutteth it the water of aduersitie vndoeth it the heate of persecutions pineth it the putrifaction of death decayeth it and bringeth it down to the ground O mans life that art alwayes cursed I count fortune cruel thee vnhappy since she wil not that thou stay on hir which dreaming giueth thy pleasures and waking giueth thy displeasures which giueth into thy handes trauell to taste and suffereth thee to listen after quiet which will that thou approoue aduersitie and agree not that thou haue proseritie but after hir will she giueth thee life by ounces and death without measure The yoong man is but a new knife the which in processe of time cankereth in the edge one day he breaketh the point of vnderstanding another he looseth the edge of cutting and next the rust of diseases taketh him and afterwards by aduersities he is writhen and by infirmities diseased by riches he is wheted by pouerty he is dulled againe and oftentimes it chanceth that the more sharpe he is whetted so much the more the life is put in hazard It is a true thing that the feet and hands are necessary to clime to the vanities of youth and afterwards stumbling a little immediatly rowling the head downwards we descend into the miseries of age What thing is more fearfull or more incredible than to see a man become miserable in short space the fashion of his visage changeth the beautie of the face lost the beard waxe white the head bald the cheeks forehead full of wrinkles the teeth as white as Iuorie becommeth blacke as a cole the light feete by the goute are crepeled the strong arme with palsey weakened the fine and smooth throte with wrinkles plaited and the body that was straite and vpright waxeth crooked The beautie of man is none other but a veile to couer the eyes a paire of fetters for the feete manacles for the hands a lime rod for the wings a theese of time an occasion of danger a prouoker of trouble a place of lecherie a sinke of all euill and finally it is an inuenter of debates and a scourge of the affectioned man O simple simple and ignorant persons how our life consumeth
to say before they see or feele the pangs of death they haue their consciences ready prepared What loseth a wise man to haue his wil wel ordained what loseth he of his credite who in his life time restoreth which at his death he shall be constrained to render Wherein may a man shew his wisedom more than willingly to be discharged of that which otherwise by processe they will take from him How many lordes which for not spending one day about their testament haue caused their heires all the days of their life after to be in trauerse in the law so that in supposing to haue left them wealthie haue left them but attorneis in the law The true christian and vnfained ought euery morning so to dispose his goods and correct his life as if he should die the same night and so to commit himselfe to God at night as if he hoped for no life vntil the morning Princes and Lords ought to be perfect before they be perfect to end before they end to die before they die to be mortified before they be mortified if they do this they shal as easily leaue their life as if they changed from one house to another The most part of men delight to talke with leisure to drinke with leisure to eate with leisure and to sleepe with leisure but they die in haste for we see them send for their ghostlie father in haste to receiue the sacrament in haste to make their wils by force to vse conference so out of season that oftentimes the sicke hath lost his senses and giuen vp the ghost before any thing be perfectly ordered What auaileth the shipmaister after the ship is sunke what do weapons auaile after the battell is done what pleasure after men are dead likewise what auaileth the godlie instructor when the sicke is heauie and bereft of his senses or to vnlocke his conscience when the key of his toong is lost Let vs not deceiue our selues thinking in age to amend and to make restitution at our death for it is not the point of wise men nor of good Christians to desire so much time to offend and yet will neuer spie any time to amend Would to God that the third part of time which men do occupie in sinne were imploied about the meditation of death and the cares which they haue to accomplish their fleshlie lusts were spent in bewailing their filthie sinnes All worldlings do willingly sinne vpon hope onely in age to amend and at death to repent but they that in this hope sinne what certaintie haue they of amendement and assurance to haue long warning ere they die sith in number there are more yoong than old which die The omnipotencie of the diuine mercie considered the space of an hower sufficeth yea too much to repent vs of our wicked life but yet I counsell all sith the sinner for his repentance taketh but one hower that it be not the hower too late The sighes and repentance which proceedeth from the bottom of the hart do penetrate the high heauens but those which come of necessitie do not pearce the seeling of the house What wrong doth God offer vnto vs when he calleth vs away seeing from an olde decaied house he is to change vs to a new builded pallace What other thing is the graue but a strong fort wherin we shut our selues from the assalts of life and broiles of fortune for we ought to be more desirous of that we find in death than of that we leaue in life Two things cause men loth to die the loue they haue to that they leaue or else the feare of that they deserue Now I enter into the field not where of the wilde beasts I shall be assalted but of the hungrie woorms deuoured We ought not to lament the death allotted but the life that is wicked that man is very simple that dreadeth death for feare to lose the pleasures of life There is nothing that shorteneth more the life of man than vaine hope and idle thoughts The great estimation that we haue of this life causeth that death seemeth to vs sudden and that the life is ouertaken by vnwarie death but this is a practise of the children of vanitie for that by the will of God death visiteth vs and against the will of man life forsaketh vs. To the stout harts and fine wits this is a continuall torment and endlesse paine and a woorme that alwaie gnaweth to call to mind that he must lose the ioifull life which he so entirely loued and taste the fearfull death that he so greatly abhorred O cursed and wicked world thou that sufferest things neuer to remaine in one state for when we are in most prosperitie then thou with death dost persecute vs most cruelly Death is a patrimonie which successiuely is inherited but life is a right which daily is surrendred for death accounteth vs so much his owne that oftentimes vnwares he commeth to affalt vs and life taketh vs such strangers that oftentimes we not doubting thereof vanisheth away When death hath done hir office what difference is there between the faire and the fowle in the graue The man which is loden with yeers tormented with diseases pursued with enimies forgotten of his friends visited with mishaps charged with euill will and pouertie is not to demand long life but rather to imbrace death Death is that from whence youth cannot flie a foot and from whence age cannot escape on horsebacke Discord Enimitie and Variance FOr all that we can see heare or trauell and all that we can do we did neuer see nor heare tel of men that haue lacked enimies For either they be vicious or vertuous and if they be vicious and euill they are hated of the vertuous if they be good and vertuous they are continually hated and persecuted of the euill In great armies the discord that among them arise doth more harme than the enimies against whom they fight Manie vaine men do raise dissentions and quarrels among people thinking that in troubled water they should augment their estate whereas in short space they do not onely lose their hope of that they sought but are put out of that they possessed For it is not onely reasonable but also most iust that they by experience feele that which their blind malice will not suffer them to knowe Enuie AGainst enuie is no fortresse nor caue to hide nor high hil to mount on nor thicke wood to shadow in nor ship to scape in nor horse to beare away nor monie to redeeme vs. Enuie is so venemous a serpent that there was neuer mortall man among mortals that could scape from the biting of hir tooth the scratching of hir nailes defiling of hir feete and the casting of hir poison Enuie is so enuious that to them which of hir are most denied and set fardest off she giueth most cruell strokes with hir feete The maladie of enuie rankleth to death
the houses made the bed washed the buck couered thetable dressed the dinner and went for water On the contrary part his wife gouerned the goodes answered the affaires kept the money and if she were angry she gaue him not onely foule words but also oftentimes laid hir hands on him to reuenge hir anger whereof came this prouerbe vita Achaiae Where men haue so little discretion that they suffer themselues to be gouerned be it well or euill of their wiues and that euery womā commandeth hir husband there can be nothing more vaine or light than by mans law to giue that authoritie to a woman which by nature is denied hir The lawes are as yokes vnder the which the euill do labor and they are wings vnder the which the good do flie The great multitude of lawes are commonly euill kept and are on the other part cause of sundry troubles The Romanes did auoid the great number of lawes and institutions for that it is better for a man to liue as reason commaundeth him than as the law constraineth him Lawes are easily ordained but with difficultie executed and there be thousands that can make them but not one that will see the execution of them The law of Athens was that nothing should be bought before a Philosopher had set the price I would the same law at these daies were obserued for there is nothing that destroieth a common wealth more than to permit some to sell as tyrants and others to buy as fooles Of Loue. BEleeue not that loue is true loue but rather sorow not ioy but perplexitie not delite but torment not contentment but griefe not honest recreation but confusion seeing that in him that is a louer must be looked for youth libertie and liberalitie Strawe that is rotten is fitter for the land than the house so in a broken body and aged sorow and infirmities are fitter passions than loue for to Cupid and Venus no sort of people is acceptable but yong men to serue them The liberall which spares for no cost the patient to endure discreet to speake secret to conceale faithfull to deserue and constant to continue to the end It is a miserie to be poore and proud to be reuengefull and dare not strike to be sicke and farre from succor to be subiect to our enimies and lastly to suffer perill of life without reuenge but for an old man to be in loue is the greatest wretchednes that can occupy the life of man for the poore sometimes findeth pitie but the old man standeth always reiected The coward findeth friends to beare out his quarell but the amorous old man liueth always persecuted with passions The sicke liues vnder the climate of Gods prouidēce and is relieued by hope but the old amorous man is abandoned all succor He that is subiect to his enimies is not somtimes without his seasons of consolation and quiet where to the old louer is no time of truce or hope of reconcilement There is nothing more requireth gouernment thā the practise of loue seeing that in cases of hūger thirst cold heat and all other natural influences they may be referred to passions sensible only to the body but the follies imperfections and faults in loue the hart is subiect to suffer feele and bewaile them since loue more than all other things natural retaineth always this propertie to exercise tyrannie always against the hart of his subiects There is no doubt but vnperfit loue will resolue into iarres contention and continuall disquietnes for that where is not conformitie of condition there can be no contented loue no more than where is no true faith can be no true operation of good life and maners Say what you will and surmise the best to please fancie but according to experience the best remedie in loue is to auoid occasion and to eschew conuersation for that of the multitude that follow him there are few free from his bondage where such as abandon him liueth alwaies in libertie Behold how deerly I loued thee in thy presence I alwaies behold thee and absent I alwaies thought of thee sleeping I dreamed of thee I haue wept at thy sorowes and laught at thy pleasures finally all my wealth I wished thee and all thy misfortunes I wished to me I feel not so much the persecutiō thou hast done to me as I do the wailing forgetfulnes thou hast shewed to me It is a great griefe to the couetous man to lose his goods but without comparison it is a greater torment for the louer to see his loue euill bestowed for it is a hurt alwaies seene a paine alwaies felt a sorow alwaies gnawing and a death that neuer endeth As the loue of a couetous woman endeth when goods faileth so doth the loue of the man when beautie decaieth That woman which neuer loued for goods but was beloued for beautie did then loue with all hir hart and now abhor with all hir hart The gallowes is not so cruell to the euill doer as thou art to me which neuer thought otherwise than well they which suffer there do endure but one death but thou makest me to suffer a thousand they in one day and one hower do end their liues and I euery minute do feele the pangs of death they die guiltie but I innocently they die openly and I secretly What wilt thou more I say they for that they died and I shed hartie teares of blood for that I liue their torments spreadeth abrode through all the bodie but I keepe mine altogither in my hart O vnhappie hart of mine that being whole thou art diuided being in health thou art hurt being aliue thou art killed being mine owne thou art stolen and the woorst of all thou being the onely helpe of my life dost onely consent vnto my death Loue bewitcheth the wisest and blindfoldeth reason as appeereth in many wise philosophers as for example Gratian was in loue with Tamira Solon Selaminus was in loue with a Grecian Pitacus Mitelenus left his owne wife and was in loue with a bond woman that he brought from the war Periander prince of Achaia and chiefe philosopher of all Greece at the instance of his louers slew his owne wife Anacharsis the philosopher a Scithian by his father and a Greeke by his mother loued so deerly a friend of his called Thebana that he taught hir all that he knew in so much that he being sicke on his bed she read for him in the schooles Tarentinus the maister of Plato and scholler of Pithagoras occupied his mind more to inuent new kinds of loue than to imploy his mind to vertue and learning Borgias Cleontino borne in Cicill had more concubines in his house than bookes in his studie All these were wise and knowen for no lesse Yet in the end were ouercome with the flesh O how many times did Hercules desire to be deliuered from his loue Mithrida Menelaus from Dortha Pyrrhus from Helena
habite craueth pardon for so bold an attempt as also becommeth an humble petitioner to be admitted to supplie the place of his absent and diseased master who in all humilitie and loialtie of hart prostrateth himself at your Maiesties feete most humbly beseeching the continuance of your Highnes former fauors and clemencie without which neither he nor his shall be in case to performe such offices as in dutie and honor appertaineth And thus ac-acknowledging my selfe most bounden vnto your right gracious and excellent Maiestie do according to duetie beseech the Almightie for the long continuance of your Maiesties prosperous Estate and raigne in all happinesse and felicitie Your Maiesties most humble and loiall subiect WINCHESTER To the friendly Readers THIS worke is not intituled my good friends The L. Marques Idlenes for your eies to gaze on or your minds to be amazed at but as by your leaue it may be spoken by antiphrasin so by your patience I discouer no monster In shewing an vnnaturall generation happily you will imagine that Idlenes can bring foorth no good action and therefore an vnkinde issue to be called by the name of Idlenes But I answere though your surmise or imagination may engender such a report in the life of the L. Marques yet you see my conception and deliuery sheweth the contrarie in that I obserued the former idle time in reading perusing the learned and wise whose sentences and good saiengs I so greatly affected that I did not onely reade them but also committed many of them to writing which being done onely for my owne recreation and benefite I assure you good Readers was earnestly requested by diuers my louing friends to make the same more manifest to the world by cōmitting it to the presse In which doing if I haue neither done well nor satisfied your expectation blame them that prouoked my euulgation and deceiued your hope and yet for mine own part I wil be excused by the title of my booke which can warrant no more to you than it afoorded to my selfe which is enough if it keepe you onely from idlenes and yet I wil assure you something more for you shall heare many wise learned and well experienced men which I haue painefully requested to giue you some aduertisement And if your fantasies be not ouer curious or your minds to scornefull I doubt not but among so many variable blossoms you may happily catch one sauoring flower if not though it seemeth to be against all reason that idlenes can beget some fruitefull trauell yet you shall see a greater miracle which is that The dead liueth I meane that they whose carcases are consumed many yeeres since do now as it were viua voce speake aduertise counsell exhort and reprooue I assure you I perused them to my no smal contentation and delight not onely to be instructed but also to the end that idlenes might not attach me whose great burden of vanities and suggestions doth not onely surcharge vs with the manifolde heape of sin but also with the lamentable losse of golden time for indeed the want of some exercise bringeth vs in open question with the world and in hazard of condemnation either to be barren of knowledge or slow of wil for as the slanderer his toong cannot be tied though he oftentimes vtter follies so the will of man should not be barren whereby ill toongs might be occasioned to take hold and to say the truth as we our selues esteeme not the knife that is rustie nor account of the trees that are fruiteles so we must thinke that if men would not speake ill of our idlenes verie Time it selfe passing by our doores without entertainemet would accuse our life of sluggishnes or condemne our consciences of contempt and so we may both staine our name blemish our creation and hazard our happie estate that when the iudge of all iudges shall heare the crime laide to our charge our consciences shall be assured to feele the gilte therefore the great stay of mans life requireth labor first in searching Gods word to know him secondly in bending of our endeuors for the benefit of our countrey last of all by looking into our selues and beholding the great filth which most horribly lieth stinking in mans life which for want of purge doth oftentimes smell of hypocrisie vngodlines vncharitablenes treason diuelish inuentions and wicked practizes whereof sathan hath great store to plant in the idell soile Wherfore my louing friends I haue done this for my selfe and for you and though I haue not set it foorth with profound learning fined phrases or eloquent termes which are expected but of wanton eares yet I pray you allow of me in mine olde plaine fashion in the which if I cannot to your contentation make sufficient shewe of mine assured good will pardon my present weaknes being vnder the phisitians hands and I will with all my hart wish you well and commend you to the most highest Basing this viij of Nouember Your louing friend WINCHESTER IN LAVDEM OPERIS HEXASTICON G. Ch. Nobilis esto liber quòd te tot philosophantes Tanta per antiquos philosophia beat Nobilior multò quòd tandem nobilis heros Marchio Wintoniae nobilitauit opus Nobilis es genitus nutritus nobilitate es Et genus Appiadum nobile te decorat The Table THe beginning of things 1 The history of priuate men and of townes 3 Aduersitie 5 Ambition 7 Captaines ibid. Couetousnes 8 Children and youth 13 Counsell 10 Death 18 Discord and variance 25 Enuie ibid. Euill and wicked men in which treatise all wickednes is conteined 27 Fame 32 Follie. 34 Fortune ibid. Friendship and friends 36 Iustice and punishment of God 39 Iustice and iusticers of this world with iudges 40 Knowledge wisedome foresight 46 Law and ordinances 50 Loue. 51 Man and his life 56 Mercie and pitie to the poore 62 Obedience 63 Patience 64 Peace 65 Pleasure 66 Pride 68 Princes 69 Seruants 76 Slanderer 77 Sorrow and griefe ibid. Toong 79 Time 80 Warres 81 Women 82 good Works 86 World and worldly prosperitie ibid. Manie pretie saiengs 93 THE LORD MARQVES IDLENES The beginning of beginnings THE first homicide of the world was Cain The first that died in the world was Abel The first that was blind in the world was Lamec as some learned haue collected The first that builded was Enoc in the fields of Edon The first musitian was Tubalcain The first sailer was Noe. The first tyrant was Nemrod The first priest was Melchisedec The first Duke as some affirme was Moises The first that was called by the name of Emperor was Iulius Caesar. Thales was the first that found out the pole called the North star to saile by and the first that found out the diuision of the yeere the quantitie of the sunne and moone and also said that soules were immortall He would neuer marrie for the care to content his wife and the thought to bring vp his children He was asked
and the medicine that is applied will not assure life I cannot determine which is the best or to say more properly which is the woorst extreme miserie without the danger of fortune or extreme prosperitie that is alwaies threatened to fall I had rather mine enimies had enuie at my prosperitie than my friends at my pouertie It is hard to giue a remedie against enuie sith all the world is full therof We see that we be the sonnes of enuie we liue with enuie and he that leaueth most riches leaueth the greatest enuie The riches of rich men is the seede of enuie to the poore and bicause the poore man lacketh and the rich hath too much causeth discord among the people There were two Greekes the one Achilles the other Thiestes the which Achilles being extreme rich was persecuted with enuie the other which was Thiestes sore noted of malice but no man enuied at him I had rather be Achilles with his enuie than Thiestes without it And in case all do vs dammage with enuie yet much more harme doth a friend than an enimie for of mine enuious enimie I will beware and for feare I will withdraw but my friend with his amitie will beguile me and I by my fidelitie shall not mistrust it Among all mortall enimies there is none worse than a friend that is enuious of my felicitie Honor vertue and riches in a man are but a brand to light enuie to all the world Thales being asked when the enuious man was quiet he answered When he seeth his enimie dead or vtterly vndone for truly the prosperitie of a friend is a sharpe knife to the enuious hart The outward malicious word is a token of the inward enuious hart What friendship can there be amongst enuious men seeing the one purchaseth and the other possesseth Euill and wicked men with their vices THe euill men doe offend vs more which we find than doth the good men which we lose for it is great pitie to see the good and vertuous men die but I take it to be more sorow to see the euill and vicious men liue The good man though he die liueth the euill though he liue dieth Let vs compare the trauels which we suffer of the elements with those which we endure of the vices and we shall see that little is the perill we haue in the sea and the land in respect of that which encreaseth of our euill life Is not he in more danger that falleth through malice into pride than he which by chance falleth from a high rocke is not he who with enuie is persecuted in more danger than he that with a stone is wounded are not they in more peril that liue among vicious men than others that liue among brute and cruell beasts Do not those which are tormented with the fire of couetousnes suffer greater danger than those which liue vnder mount Etna Finally they be in greater perils which with high imaginations are blinded than the trees which with importunate winds are shaken Traian the emperor demanding of Plutarke why there were more euill than good and more that embraced vices than followed vertues answered As our natural inclination is more giuen to lasciuiousnes and negligence than to chastitie and abstinence so the men which do enforce themselues to follow vertue are few and those which giue slack the reines to vices are many And this proceedeth that men do follow men and that they suffer not reason to follow reason The remedies which the world giueth for the troubles certainly are greater trauels than the trauels themselues so that they are salues which do not heale our wounds but rather burne our flesh Doe you not know that extreme hunger causeth heasts to deuour with their teeth the thing that was bred in their intrals by experience we see that the wormes deuour the timber wherein they were bred and the mothes the clothes wherein they were bred and so somtimes a man beingeth him vp in his house which afterwards taketh his honor and life from him As the shamefast man should not be denied in any his requests being honest so the shameles and importunate man should be denied whatsoeuer he demandeth The ill rest and conuersation of them that liue cause vs to sigh for the company of them that be dead Vniuersally the noble hart can endure all trauels of mans life vnlesse it be to see a good man decay and the wicked to prosper the which no valiant hart can abide neither toong dissemble Of right ought that common wealth to be destroied which once hath been the flower of all vertues and afterward becommeth most abhominable and defiled with all vices If the euill liue he is sure to fall if the good die not we doubt whether euer he shall come to honor The wickednesse of children are swordes that passe through the harts of their fathers Proud and stout harts obtaining that which they do desire immediately begin to esteem it as nothing Tyrannous harts haue neuer regard to the honour of another vntill they haue obtained their wicked desires The harts that be proud are most commonly blinded proud and ambitious harts know not what will satisfie them If thou be giuen to ambition honor may and will deceiue thee if to prodigalitie couetousnes often begnileth thee if to pride all the world will laugh thee to scorne in such fort that they will say thou followest will and not reason thine owne opinion rather than the councell of another embracing flatterers rather than repelling the vertuous for that most sorts had rather be commended with lies than reprooued with truth That man which is brought vp in debates dissentitions and strife all his felicitie consisteth in burning destroying and bloudshedding such works for the most part proceed not from a creature nourished among men on the earth but rather of one that hath been brought vp among the infernall furies of hell Where vices haue raigned long time in the hart there death onely and no other hath authoritie to plucke vp the rootes To whom is he more like which with his toong blaseth vertues and imploieth his deeds to all vices than to the man that in one hand holdeth poison to take away life and in the other treakle to resist death I haue mused which of these two are greater the dutie the good haue to speake against the euill or else the audacitie the euill haue to speake against the good for in the world there is no brute beast so hardie as the euill man is that hath lost his fame I would all men would call this to memorie that among euill men the chiefest euill is that after they haue forgotten themselues to be men and exiled both truth and reason with all their might they go against truth with their words and against good deedes with their toongs Though it be euill to be an euill man yet it is much woorse not