even with Gods at strife Whose happinesse should be the most And since life somewhere must be spent Give me but Amorets Company Without which life has no content And here I could both live and die LXIV A condoling Epistle To the Dutchesse of Richmond Anno. 55. Oâ— the deaâ—h of my Lord Duke her Hâ—â—band Madam AMidst the greatest discomfort I ever had This comfort my Lady Kingsmel gave me at my arrival to Town that a more becoming sorrow nor more natural than that of your Graces as yet she never saw which made me Madam instead of condoling in some sort congratulate with your Grace that as y'av formerly performed all the parts of a most illustrious wife so now you do of a most exâ—mplar Widdow one of which is not to mourn ambitiously as others doe and with such a studied sorrow as if they courted new Husbands in mourning for the old but with such a Grief as shews them rather dying than living since those are dead whom they most lov'd alive Mean Time Madam since virtue always consists in the mean and all extrâ—mities are vitious Give me leave I beseech your Grace only to put you in mind that you grieve not too much like those who are over anxious to grieve enough but imagin amongst your other imaginations of the dead that you hear your noble Lord and Husband expostulating with you thus Why dearest heart having left thee three main businesses to do to have care of my Children to have care of my estate and to bewail me dead why wouldst thou frustrate and irritate my will in all these three by making my Children compleat Orphans by thy death by ruining my estate if thou dyest and lamenting me so dead as 't would kill me a second time were I alive Moderaâ— thy sorrow then and kâ—ll me not wholly by 't who am not wholly dead as long as thou 'rt alive but live as if 't were in thy power thou'dst have me live again so shall thou comfort me by comforting thy self so shall I more perceive thy love than if thou dyedst for me Those Madam I beseech your Grace to beleeve are rather his words than mine after which I'â— say no more but only weep whilst I write this following Elegy and subscribe my my self as really I was and shall ever be his and Your Graces most c. On the death of the Lord Duke of Richmond and Lenox ELEGIE AS when some mighty blow is given By which our Walls Towers ar shook Some all agast look up to Heaven Some wildly on each other look Nay somtimes too w' are made of such Frail brittle stuff it may so fall The violence of 't may be so much To shatter in pieces life and all So at Report that Richmonds dead Whilst some Astonisht stand at Gaze Some towards Heaven lift up their head In witnesse of their sad amaze We whom the blow does strike more neer At the report even dead do fall Whilst sad and dolefull news we hear Of such a Death that kills us all How would that Tyrant then be glad To Mankind was so great a Foe He wisht that all but one neck had To take them all off at a blow When he shâ—'d see now Lenox ' gon How dead and sprightlesse each one is As if to kill us all in one Did need no other Death but his Mean time soft rest I' th' sacred Vrn Vnto his Noble Ashes be Where lies intomb'd not to return All Vertue all Nobility Vntil the Heir h' as left behind In whom his House's hopes remain True Offspring of the Phoenix kind Revive them from his dust again Then shall his Mother tears refrain Then shall she cease to sigh and moan Seeing her Husband live again With all his Glories in her Son LXV A Consolatory Epistle To the Queen Mother of France Mary of Medices written about the year 41. Omiâ—ted in its place and inserted here Madam YOur Majesty knows whose chief study these many years has been Divinity how our B. Saviour in one place of Holy Writ says Without him we can do nothing and the Apostle in another That he could do all things in him who conforted him which two passages conferr'd together as two contrary Medicaments in mixture are a Soveraign cure for those two extream maladies of our soul a too great Presumption and too great diffidence of our selves For who will ever despair hereafter when he considers the second saying Or who will presume too much of himself who considers â—ut the first In consideration of which a â—ertain Holy man was wont to say God and I can do all things and if it seem too great a presumption in him to name himself with God certainly a greater presumption 't is for any to name themselves without him This receit Madam your Majesty has got and this consideration 't is that makes you bear all your Afflictions with so great patience as Iob will no more be mentioned for it when your Majesty is named nor David for mansuetude and forgiveness of his Enemies I having heard with Admiration of your Majesties vertue whilst one inveighing against your Enemies your Majesty interrupted them with intreating them to desist and affirming that they were persons you daily and nightly prayed for Oh generous and noble example of Christian Patience and Charity worthy perpetual Remembrance which Madam I set before your Majesties eyes knowing that nothing comforts more for the present then the recordation of our good Deeds past as nothing incourages us more to those that are to come And this I desire to set before the eyes of all the world that the joynt concurrency of the Greatnesse of the person and example might nore move them to Imitation Be pleas'd to go on then Madam in being a pattern as you aâ—e not only to these but also to future Times â—f Longanimitie Patience and Sufferance Gâ—â— ever from time to time renewing in his â—hurcâ— such examples as these that beholding them near at hand we might believe them possible which else beheld a far off might be imagined Fabulous and but the illusions of Fancy and Imagination so shall you receive Madam of our B. Saviour who has said he is the way the truth and the life for your following his way and his Example Truth for your Guide and Eternal life for your reward which is the wish Mâ—dam of Your Majestiâ—â— most c. FINIS
it worth burning at least so shall it but die a natural death and but return to its first being being begot in flames I will detain your Lordship no longer from reading it being able to write no more but only that I am Your Lordships most c. On his choosing Valentines HOw great a Freedom he injoyes Who loves not without Counterpoise Since be th' attraction what it will He stands upon firm basis still So tother day my chance it was Choosing Valentines in a place T' have one draw me and I an other Who so counterballanc't t'other Neithers Captive I was made Both such equal Beauty had Eithers Captive else had been Had I both assunder seen So true tis when two such as those We to our equal choice propose We should dye e'r we could choose Which to take or which refuse No danger 's then of eithers harms Whilst th' one undoes the others charms But when these Circes are alone Then all the loving harm is done So she who made Alcides spin His Club layd by and Lions skin Should soon have seen with what disdain He would have snatcht them up again And thrown his servile work aside Soon as some Dame he had espy'd I' th' room with Omphale appear At all parts equalizing her So great a freedom he enjoys Who loves not without counterpoise Since be th' attraction what it will He stands upon firm basis still LXII To the Countess of Desmond On the Death of the Lady Theophyla Carey Daughter to Henry Earle of Monmouth Anno 55. Madam I Saw so many Graces and Perfectâ—ons in the Lady Theophyla Carey for she was all transparent and her very Soul did shine thorough her Body as I must wish with her noble Familie and the rest of her Honourers and Admirers that either I had never known her or that we had never been depriv'd of her But being fair as an Angel having an Angels mind and singing too Angelically as she did we might well imagine her one of those Celestial Quires and cease wondring being all Angel as she was that we had onely a Glympse of her on Earth and that she should straight vanish like some Heavenly Apparition into Heaven It dealing so ordinarily with us in this manner to shew us such as she only and straight to snatch them away agen as I begin to suspect 't is but a bait to make us desire to follow them knowing us so Earthly minded as there 's no other way to intice us unto Heaven For my part at least upon her death I 've left the Town so much I am displeas'd with it could no better conserve the choicest Rarity it had and that after Times might know what a losse they had in her as well as the present have made this Epitaph on her before I went into the Country REader if th' art courteous stay And understand before thou go Here lies th' admir'd Theophila More of her if thou wilt know For Beautious features lovely Grace For candid breast and purest mind She Glory was of Careys race And excellentest of Woman kind LXIII To Mr. Thomas Higgins With his Ode in praise of the Country life Noble Sir IF those on whose soyl the Tree grows have most right to the fruit none has more right than your self to this following Ode in praise of the Country life since 't was made at Grewel with you in the Country After which I know not what excuse to allege for my living in the Town but that self-accusing one of Phedra Video meliora pâ—j rasequor or this that when I would live to my friends and self I go into the Country when to others I goe to Town However I being of that Amphibean Gender with those who are now in one now in tother do receive this benefit at least by it that the one but begets an appetite to tother all pleasures in this life consisting in a certain change and vicissitude which indeed is but a pause and respite of pain or relaxation from misery none taking pleasure in rest but the weary nor in eating but the hungry c. which you 'll easily perceive when continue them but too long and you make a pain of that pleasure and begin to long for the pleasure of the pain you had before such is our humane infirmity as like sick men in their beds we lye tossing and tumbling up and down and restlesly change place only to find rest which we can never find because we carry unrest along with us quod è re nascitur vix evitatur the purest company which I find without lassitude is the company and conversation of a frend which is the more pure the more spiritual they are and that Sir I never enjoy in greater perfection than when I am with your company ODE In praise of the Country life O Happinesse of Country life Which â—own nor Palace ne'r could boast Where men are even with Gods at strife Whose happinesse should be the most Whilst innocently all live there Lords of themselves as well as Land Out of the Road of Hopes and Fear And out of Fortunes proud command Where to deprive men of their own Is crime which yet they never saw Nor more injustice e'r was known Than not to give Beasts hunted Law Where but for fish ther 's none lays baits Nor traps but for some ravenous Beast And but for Foul there 's no deceipts So harmlesse th' are in all the rest Where of false dealings none 's afraid And soothing flattery none allowes But only in the Dairy Maid Who whilst she milks them stroaks her Cows Where only in Sheep-sheering Time The Rich the Poor do seem to Fleece And of oppression all their crime Is only whilst they make their Cheese Then for the pleasant do but think Th' vast difference there is twixt both Whilst men in Towns live in a sink A life even very beasts would loath Where nothing on the Earth does grow To speak the seasons but in Summ By Dirt they only Winter know And only dust shews Summers come Then for serenating the mind Without which no contentment is Where in lowd Cities shall you find A recollection like to this Where on some Object whilst X stay And hidden cause of it would find No noice does fright my thoughts away Nor sudden sight distract my mind Or if that any noise there be 't is such as makes me not afâ—ard Of Waters fall Birds Melody O' th' bleating flock or lowing heard Mean time how highly are they blest Whose conversations all with them Who only but for th' name of Beast Are in effect lesse beasts than Men For no ambition makes them fight Nor unto mutual slaughter run Invading one anothers right Till t' one or both be quite undone None others acts calumniate Nor mis-interpret every word For others lives none lies in wait Nor kills with poyson nor with sword Then to conclude the Country life Has happinesse Towns could never boast Where men are
Governor oâ— the Cittadel his Lady the Baron Reâ—â—urt her noble Brother the Blangelvals the Mâ—rquiss of Libourgâ— with divers others of the Nobility extremely curteous and obliging as most commonly they are all when out of Court and Competency with others amongst these I am daily Conversant there is no Feast nor party without me In all their sports and Exercises I must make one for their Games they teach them me and make me win or if I chance to lose they are as much concern'd as for their own losses and more than I am for mine It were too great a vanity to tell you this if it were not a greater Ingratitude to conceal it and you know Sir I can so little conceal the honour my Frends do me as I publish every wher the honour you do me in being one of them as that I have in being Sir Your c. II. To the Lord from Gant An. 41. With the Character and Epitaph of the Earl of STRAFFORD My Loâ—d YOu would not believe me when I told you which way things tended and see what comes of it One of you is brought unto the block already for whom I have made this following Epitaph To see such Heads off on the Scaffold lie Only to keep on th' Head of Majestie What is 't but Admonition to his Peers Sâ—ch Heads once off 't is time to look to theirs As for this following Character because I know my Lord amongst your many other commendable qualities you have this not to Envy others commendations I send it you withall The Character of the Earl of Strafford He was the fullest Man of all the Eminent parts and qualities of a Great Minister of State as England ever bred and both in Cabinet and abroad exprest it as fully too his unhappinesse 't was or rather ours that he liv'd not in happier Times might have rather Admir'd than Envyed those parts of his so as that Epitaph of Adrian the 6th might well be applyed to him Proh dolor quantum refert in que Tempora vel optimi cujusque virtus incidat Many Envyed him because few understood him and 't is almost to be wisht that his Prince had not don 't so well since 't was his overthrow so much more it imports the People than the Prince be Good they being many and he but one He was a Iewel sit for the Crown of any Prince to wear and that his Prince well knew and therefore wore him him there but being matcht and overmatcht too with counterfeit ones they fearing his splendor should dim and offuscat them snacht him thence and cast him into the obscurity of a Prison from whence he might have escap'd had he preferr'd his Life before his Fame but he had higher Thoughts and look't only after Eternitie and the perpetuating his Memory so while 't was irreparable losse unto the Crown 't was his gain to die with the glorious title and high reputation of his Princes Martyr Nor wanted there as great prodigies at his death as ever fore-run any Heroes yet all the Laws of the Land being first subverted the King losing his Authority and Kingdom chang'd into Democraâ—ie Er ' he could die so as his noble House was more honour'd and illustrated by his fall than ever 't could have been even in his greatest rise And now my Lord comfort your self if you chance to be the next that you shall not want one to make your Epitaph and Chaâ—acter at least but I rather wish and hope 't may be your Elogium in celebration of your Glorious Actions For if things look towards a Warr as I 'm affraid they do 't will be as well the Glory of your Judgement to chuse the better side as of your Valour to defend it bravely for Valour is either Virtue or Vice as 't is well or ill imployed and 't is hard to determine which is the greater Crime to defend an Ill Cause well or a good one ill You then being of Brutus disposition Quicquid vult valde vult that is vehement in all you undertake I cannot end this Letter with a better Prayer than God blesse a good Cause from having you for Enemy and God blesse you from being Frend unto an Ill which is the prayer of My Lord Your c. III. To Mr. Henry Petre from Gant Anno 42. Of his Resolution â—o leave GANT Noble Sir I Have liv'd to see the day when having lost all 〈◊〉 sincâ— I may thank God for having nothinâ— now nor did I ever know how great a happinesse ' twaâ— till I saw their unhappinesâ—e wâ—â— are bemir'd and hogâ—'d in their own Lâ—â—â— and bound to theâ—r Countries by the â—ieâ— of â—â—fe and Children For what avails it such to â—â—ve their Bodies free abroad whilst their Souls are imprisoned at home or to flie the miseries of theâ—r Country whilst they have lefâ— Pledges with Fortune there to be miserablâ— still I speak this in regard of many Engliâ—â— here retir'd as they imagine from the Noyse and Tumult in England whilâ—â— their eaâ— are as much beaten with it here and theiâ— minds as much sollicited and perplex'd as they were present there They receiving weeâ—ly Intelligence from their Wives Frends and Servants there This that his house is plundered that that his Tenants refuse to pay their Rent a third that his Estate is sequestred c. when I must make sad faces with them â—or company or they cry out I care not how things go I answer If my care could remedy it I should And for their Losses I protest they touch me as neerly and â—'m as sorry for them as I should be for my own and if that suffice not I am sorry Nature made me not of another Temper and Disposition for their sakes Neither was this any Stoâ—cal Indolency in me who could suffer nay die for a Friend but yet without trouble and vexation In â—ine I 'm so wearied out with this sad sport as not to be made miserable at second hand I 'm resolv'd to quit this place and retire me to Antwerp or Bruxelles for I 'm indifferent for either you laugh now at my Indifferency but may I die or lose your Frendship which is more if I find it not an Immense happiâ—esse to say with Bias Omnia mea mecum porto and while others by heaping up wealth on wealth make themselves at last so cumbersom a load of it they cannot stir for it I by reducing all to the narrow compasse of one Portmanteau travel lightly up and down injoying that Liberty Fortune has bestow'd on me and Nature inclines me to wanting nor wishing for nothing more Sir than your Company being as I am Sir Your c. IV. To the Lady Audley from Bruxelles Anno 42. Of his Arival there Madam I Am at last arived at Bruxelles where for some Time I intend to stay having by rowling up and down like a Snow-ball contracted so many Acquaintances as I am now incompast with them
Lucca Pisa Florence Sâ—ena c. finally I am arived here at Rome admiring nothing so much in all my voyage than that from Bruxelles hitâ—er having made the Tour of Câ—lâ—s 't has cost me only two and twenty Pistâ—lles Next day after my Arival here I visited the Duke and Dutchesse of Boullon who live here very privatly since the last Popes death with the fall of the Barbarins they fâ—lling lâ—â—ewise in Credit and Authority so they being no frends of her Highnesse as you know no matter how great Enemies they are One pretty mistake I ran into at unawares treating him with Excellence as formerly I was wont to do when â—e pretends as since I have understood to be treated with Altezze which I am glad of who otherwise should be sorry to err in so main a point of Civility in giving an Ace too little rather than an Ace too much since he treats her Altezze with nothing but Excellence I have been also to visit the Marquis Rene Bentivolgâ—o who retains still a grateful memory of the Curtesy he receiv'd in Flandres of particulars though as to the general he is so little Frend as I 'm inform'd he is taking conditions under France The Marquis Matthei I saw too there being a solemn Justing or Running at Ring and Sarazen this week at the Cardinal d' Estes where all the great Ladies of Rome were present consisting of three Bolonez three Ferrarians and three Roman Knights of which the Marquis Maâ—thei was chief of the Romans and Bentivolgio of the Bolonez both doing excellent well adding somewhat of the aire of Flandres to that of Italy that made them excel the rest His Highnesse Agent in this Court I have not visited yet thinking it high time after I have prepar'd my materials to assemble my Workmen for finishing the Edifice towards which one main Help I hope to have of Cardinal Carasfa newly promoted to the Cardinalat More Madamoiselle by the next Now give me leave if you please to conclude this with my must humble baise mains to her Highnesse your Sister my Lady Marque your Mother and with the Assurance that I am ever Madamoiselle Your c. XI To the same from Rome Anno 45. Containing an Historical Narration of the Mariage of the Dutchess of Lorain Madamoiselle SInce those who are to Inform others ought first to be well informed themselves you will please to correct me if anywhere I have err'd in this following Narration of her Highnesse Marriage wherein as 't is my duty I have endeavoured to vindicate the Justice of her Cause and declare her Innocence Henry Duke of Lorain dying without issue Male leaving only two Daughters Nicole and Claude The Count of Vandemort Father of the present Duke assum'd the Dutchie as next Heir unto the House by right o' th' Law Salique as he pretended in deffalance of the Masculin Line the Daughters of the last Duke but weakly reclaiming when more to strengthen the title of his House by connecting the branches of either Stock together he propos'd the Marriage of Charles his eldest Son with the Princesse Nicole eldest Daughter of the deceased Duke with Protestation in case of his refusal well perceiving his unwillingness to marry her to the Prince of Faulxburgh and disinherit him when he knowing there was no dallying with his Father of stern nature rendred more violent by opposition seemingly assented and so was forc'd to marry her yet would he no ways bed her such an Aversion he had from her til his Father perceiving it and knowing he had don nothing until he had don also that he forc'd him to bed her in his presence taking witnes of it as his son did presently after of the force thereof who though a Religious Prince was not Religious yet to that point to lose a Dukedom for want of bedding a Lady shortly after his Father dying he continued still his cohabitation with her til having assured as he thought the possession of the Dutchie they severed at last like Bodies never well joyn'd having no other Issue of their Mariage but nails and teeth as one said antiently wheÌ„ he accounting himself free from all Bonds of Matrimony being assur'd so by many grave Divines not only of his own but of others Dominions after some years sute all the precedent formalities of the Church Maried publiquely the Lady Beatrix de Cusâ—nce Princesse of Cantacroâ—x one of the considerâ—bleâ—t Mariages then for noble rich and fair under the degree of absolute Soveraigns in the Christian world her House having often allyed with that of Loraine and her Demâ—ins when he maried her as I have often heard amounting nigh to Thirty thousand pounds a year In which Mariage Celebrated by a Bishop in the face of the Publick Church they liv'd some 7 years happily together he having fair Issue by her when a storm was rais'd against them at Rome by the suscitation as was imagined of his Brother Prince Francis and the Princesse Nicole he having espous'd the second Daughter of Duke Henry by whom he had numerous Issue for the Intrest of his Children and she for emulation and Revenge on her fair Rival which proceeded so far at last as Excommunication was denounâ—'t against them not to be revok't till they mutually separating should submit their cause to the decission of the Court of Rome This occasioned many Rumours in the world some allowing no Divorce at all but only by Death as if the tie of Mariage were like that of the Gordian knot others inferring from their long Cohabitation their validating the Mariage when all Casuists agree that no length of Time can render that Mariage or Contract lawfull which was unlawfull at the first and that force or metus cadens in constantem virum as they tearm it was one of the principal Anullers of Mariage nothing being more essential to it than the free consent of the parties Their long cohabitation then was still but the same force drawn out in length And for their main objection of all the Censure of the Church What should I say But many a Veritie may be doubtfull for want of being well explicated and understood that Truth has no greater Enemy than verisimilitude and likelihood and that the condemnation may oftentimes be just and the person condemned innocent This inclosed I beseech you to her Highnesse with the most humble baise mains of Madamoiselle Your c. XII To the Dutchesse of Loraine from Rome Anno 45. Touching the state of her Affairs Madam AFter long poring in the dark I begin at last to perceive some light in your Highnesse affairs here and to find how his Highnesse Agents negotiation here is more to take off the Excommunication than to procure a Divorce from the first Mariage or Ratification of the last and this I came to light of by this occasion I recommending your Affairs the other day to the Dutchesse Matthei one who can do all here his Holinesse Governing