never to doe so as they which called us Barbarians and got alwaies as much by their Treaties as they lost by our Victories have found at last that there is wisdome on this side the Alpes as well as beyond and are driven to acknowledge that we had a man amongst us now able to hinder them from deceiving us as they had done They wondred to see a servant that could not endure there should be a greater Master then his owne that felt the least evils of his Country as if they were his proper wounds and thought it a hurt to himselfe if there were but an offer made to touch the Dignity of this Crowne but when they saw that you applyed remedies upon the suddaine to all inconveniencies which they thought you could never have avoyded that you not onely answered all objections they made but prevented all they intended to make that you dived into their soules and tooke hold of their intentions there and at the first conference made answer to that which they reserved for the second then in truth their fleame turned into choller and then you quite rooted all their humane Prudence and all their politicke Maximes c. I am not able to dissemble the joy I take to heare that your good services are acknowledged that when divers counsels had beene tryed yet yours at last was still faine to be followed and that in guiding the fortune of France you are no lesse President of all affaires of Europe It is true that of all externall contentments I have none so sensible to me as this but on the other side when I heare that your health is continually assaulted or at least threatned by some accident or other that the rest which the quietnes of your Conscience ought to afford you keepes you not from having unquiet Nights and that in the midst of all your glory and good successes yet you oftentimes are as it were weary of your life then in deede c. And can it not be that you should come to heare the publicke acclamations but in the unquietnesse of your watchings nor of your praises but in your paines Must the Sense suffer and the Spirit rejoyce Must you be upon the Rocke when you are in your Triumphs Must you doe two contrary workes at once and at the same time have neede both of moderation and of Patience if vertue could be miserable and that the sect which accounts nothing evill but paine nothing good but pleasure were not universally condemned Certainely the divine Providence would at this day be complained upon by all places of this Kingdome and all honest men would in your behalfe finde something amisse in the worlds governement But my Lord you know better then I that it is the happinesse of beasts onely of which we must beleeve the body for as for ours which resides in our highest part it is as little sensible of disorders that are below her as they which are in Heaven are uncapable of offences by stormes of the aire or by vapours of the earth And this being so God forbid that I should judge of your condition by the state of your health and not thinke him perfectly happy whosoever is perfectly wise Doe but imagine with your selfe that you have made a division of the infirmities of humane nature with other men and then you shall finde the advantage is on your side seeing there is in you but a small portion of paine for infinite passions and defects that are in others Yet I cannot but thinke that the tearme of your patience is neere expired and that the time to come is preparing contentments for you that are wholy pure and wil make you young again after the time as before the time you have made your selfe old The King that hath need of your long life makes no wishes in vaine and heaven heares not the prayers of the enemies of our state Wee know of no successour fit to undertake what you leave unfinished and if it be true that our Armies are but the armes of your head and that God hath chosen your counsaile for establishing the affaires of this age why should we feare a losse which hath no right to come but to our posteritie he will not in this only point leave imperfect the happinesse he hath promised us he loves men too well to deprive them of that good which you are borne to doe them When Armies are defeated there may new be levied and a second Fleet may be set forth when the first is lost but if you my Lord should faile us c. It shall be in your time that people oppressed shall come from the worlds end to seeke the protection of this crowne that by your meanes our Allies shall bee well payed for their losses that the Spanyards shall be no conquerours but the Fronch shall be the fâ—…rs of all the earth It shall be in your time that the holy seate shall have her opinions free that the inspirations of the holy Ghost shall be no more oppugned by the cunning of our adversaries and that there shall be raised up couragious hearts worthy of the antient Italia and able to defend the common cause Finally my Lord it shall be by your wisâ—…dome that there shall be no more tyrannie in Christendome nor rebellion in this kingdome That the people shall leave in their superiours hands both liberty and religion and that from this legall government and from this perfect obedience there shal arise that happinesse which Polititians seeke for and which is the end of all civill societies My hope is that all these things shall come to passe thorough your wise government and that after you have made sure our peace and our neighbours you shall your selfe enjoy the benefit of your good deeds with pleasure and at your case and shall see the state of things continue flourishing whereof none but your selfe have beene the Author I earnestly entreate you so to deale with Mounsieur de that he may rest contented with this and dispense with me for any new meditation which would require more leasure then I am like to have This bearer will deliver you the History of Queene Elizabeth which may serve you for a recreation till the end of the weeke and then I shall come and aske your opinion and desire you to give me some light of that time out of the great experience you have of many things I desire of God with all my heart that he will be pleased to afford you yet some great matter to exercise your selfe in and that this wise old age of yours which wee so much admire may long continue to be a strength and ornament to your family These are my earnest wishes and withall to make you by a perfect acknowledgement of your favours a perfect proofe that I am Sir my deare Father Your c. At Balzac 7. Iune 1634. To Mounsieur de Boisrobert LETTER LI. SIR the Muses never favoured man as they doe you you
that being but of a meane stature he hath yet by his knowledge in the Mathematicks found a meanes to make himselfe as high as Heaven But I will content my selfe to say that he is my friend and your Oratour that if my commendation and your own glory be deare unto you you cannot but very shortly send him backe with full satusfactuib I promised to send you the two Sonnets you have heard so much spoken of but my bad memory makes me fayle in a part of my promise and I can send you but one and a halfe The one entyre is this Tu reposois Dephnis au plus haut de Parnasse Couronné de lauriers si touffus fivers Qu'ils sombloit te Couurir des orages divers Dont la rigueur du sort trouble nostre bonacâ—… Quand l'injuste Menalque a been eu cett ' audace D'employer les poysons sans sarabe couuerts Pour corrumpre ton Noâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…plit l'univerâ—… Et me sprise du temps la fatale menace Mais si durant la paix tes Innocents Escrits Forcerant d'avouer les plus â—…ares asprits Que Florence devoit tu Temple ata memoire Ce style de combat Cet Efford plus qu'humain Feravoir aqual poyut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mettre ta gloire Qu'and l'iujure t' a mis les armes a la main The halfe one is this Quelque fois ma raison par des foibles discans M'incite a la revolte me promet secours Mais lors que tout de bon je me veur servir d'elle Apres beaucoup de peine et a'efforts impuissants Elle dit qu' vrâ—… est seule aymable belle Et m'y rengage plus que ne font tous mes sens The Authour of this last Sonnet hath made one in Spanish which in the Court of Spaine goes under the Name of Lopez de Vega and another in Italian which Marino verily beleeved he had read in Petrarke It is a Spirit that changeth himselfe at pleasure and transformes himselfe into what shape he list yet he deserves better prayses than this and his Morall qualities are nothing behinde his Intellectuall I will tell you his Name when it shall be lawfull to love him openly and to make his Encomium without soruple But first it is needfull that Fortune which hath cast him upon an Enemies Countrey should bring him backe to Paris where both of us meane to waite upon you to make our Court and from whence I desire not over to returne but onely to testifie to you more carefully than heretofore I have done that I am Madam my deare Cousin Your c. 〈◊〉 Balzâ—…e 4. May 1633. To Madam de Campagnole LETTER LIII MY most deare Sister I send you the Book which you required of mee for my Niece and I beleeve that this and her Prayer-Booke make her whole Librarie shee shall finde in it a Devotion that is not too mysticall nor too much refined and which hath nothing but Morall and reasonable I like this popular Divinitie which meets us halfe way and stoops a little that we may not strayne our selves too much It followes the example of its Authour who made himselfe familiar with common people and put not backe so much as Courtisans and Publicans farre from making division in families and withdrawing women from obedience to their mothers and their husbands It commends this obedience as their principall verue and calles it a second worship and a second religion I shall be glad to see my Neece make profession of a pietie so conformable to naturall reason and so good a counsellour of all other duties But let her not I pray climbe higher and undertake Meditations of her owne head Grenada whom I sent her hath taken this paines for her and hath meditated for her and for all other that shall reade his Bookes There is nothing more dangerous than to mount up to Heaven without a helper and a guide and it is a great confidence one must have in his Spirit to let it goe so farre and be assured it will ever come backe againe It is not long agoe there was in a Towne of Spaine a Societie of devoted persons who continued in meditation so many houres a day leaving off all base works to live as they sayd a more heavenly life but what thinke you became of it even a thousand domesticall disorders and a thousand publike extravagancies The lesse credulous tooke the pricke of a pinne for a Saints marke the more humble accounted their husbands prophane the wiser sort spake what came in their heads and made faces perpetually In so much that when in the moneth of May there did not past three or foure runne madde it was counted a good yeare It is fit to stay ones selfe upon the true vertue and not to follow the vaine Phantasmes of holinesse And it is farre safer to ground ones selfe upon a solid and certaine reading than to goe wandring in a hollow and unsteady contemplation If I had more time you should have more words but hee that brings you the letter calls upon mee for it and I can no more to it but that I perfectly am My deare sister Your c. At Balzac 15. April 1635. Another to her LETTER LIIII MY dearest Sister all the world tells meâ—… that my Niece is fayre and you may beleeve I will challenge no man for saying so Beautie is in Heaven a qualitie of those glorious bodies and in Earth the most visible marke that comes from Heaven It is not fit therefore to slight these gifts of God nor to make small account of this sparke of the life to come It is not fit to be of so crosse an humour to blame that which is generally praysed Marke when a comely personage comes in place having but this advantage of her birth you shall presently see all that were talking to hold their peace and what noyse soever there was before you shall have all husht and an universall calme upon a suddaine you shall see a whole great multitude all busie in different labours to make presently but one body and that onely to stand to gaze and wonder some leave to make up the reckoning they had begunne some curtoll their complements and cut them off in the midst every man puts off his conceits to some other time onely to take a full view and to contemplate this divine thing that presents it selfe If it be at a Sermon they leave hearkening to the Preacher and they are no longer the auditours of M. de Nantes but the spectatours of Calista The fayre can never be seene without respect without prayses without acclamations They triumph as often as they appeare and their youth hath not morâ—… dayes than their beautie hath Festivalls But the mischiefe is my deere Sister that the Festivals are short the youth is not lasting and the fayre at last come to be ill favoured Queenes and Princesses grow old and there is no old beautie but that of God of the Sunne and of the
and am Sir Your c. At Balzac 10. Febr. 1633. Another to him LETTER XL. SIR I love you better than I thought since you parted from hence I have had a number of Alarums for you and though I stand in convert yet that keepes mee not from the foule weather of your voyage But I hope by this time you are upon returning and that shortly we shall sit by the fires side and heare you tell your adventures of Beausse and of Mantelan Whatsoever Mounsieur de have said unto you when you tooke leave of him I doe not thinke that in all the whole Discourse there can one passage be found that is subject to any badde interpretation if it be considered as a member depending upon the body and not as a piece that is broken off There may perhappes be found some proposition a little bold but never to goe so farre as rashnesse the Antecedents and the Consequents so temper it that if a man will not be too witty in another mans intentions hee can never make any doubt of mine It was never intended you know but onely to prove a Monarchie to be the best forme of governement and the Catholike Church to be the onely Spouse of Christ Neither yet doe I write so negligently but that I am ready to give a reason of that I write and am able to defend my opinions against those particular persons that oppugne them for as for the soveraigne authority you can witnesse for me with what humility I submit my selfe unto it The day after your departure Mounsieur de came to Balzac whom I kept with me three whole dayes I never saw man lesse interessed lesse ambitions lesse dazeled with the splendour of the Court and to speake generally better cured of all popular diseases By this I come to know the noblenesse and even the soveraigntie of reason when it is well schooled and instructed we neede not mount up to heaven to finde cause of scorne in the littlenesse of the earth the study of wisedome will teach it as well A wise man counts all things to bee below him Pallaces to him appeare but Cottages and Scepters but baubles it pitties him to see that which is called the greatnesse and fortune of Princes and from the heighth of his spirit Il void comme fâ—…rmis mâ—…rcher nos legions Dans ce petit aâ—…as de poussiere de bove Dont nostre vanite fait tant de regions I have at last found the Letter you required of me which I now send you by this Post our good father hath taken a coppie of it and saith it is fit to be kept for an eternall monument in our house and addes moreover that Erasmus never had so much honour done him by the Sorbone which instead of condemning my divinitie hath given a faire testimony in praise of my eloquence for so hee pleaseth to call the little ability I have in writing for it is his custome to make choyce of very noble termes for expressing of very vulgar qualities For your selfe Sir you know it very well and I intreate you to advertise our other friends that know it not that all this testimony and all this honour that is done me is happened to mee by a meare mistaking I had satisfied the desire of the Sorbone long before it if I had understood they desired any satisfaction from me but two Editions of my booke comming forth at one time my charitable neighbours in my absence delivered the Sorbone the lesse corrected Copy in which indeede my proposition was not so fully cleared unfoulded as was fit but never told them that in the other Copy I had cleane taken away all colour of wrangling and justified before hand that wherein I imagined they could finde any thing to say against mee I expect to heare by the next messenger of your comming to Paris and am with all my heart Sir Your c. At Paris 25. Ianu. 1632. Clarissimo Balzacio Facultas Theologiae Parisiensis S. REdditae sunt nobis ad Calendas Aprilis abs te Litterae vir clarissime omnibus quidem gratissimae non eo solum nomine quod multam in ordinem nostrum observantiam praese ferrent sed etiam vel maxime quod propensissimam tuam voluntatem immutandi ea quae in Principe tâ—…o offendere mentes Christianas possent Hunc in librum inquirendi Fama quae nec te latere potuit non tam occasionem nobis quam necessitatem attulit In quo sane uti nulla nisi disertissimo sic incogitanti quaedam excidisse deprehensa sunt ex eorum relatione quibus recensendi ejusdem delegata provincia fuerat Praecipua eaque maxime instituti nostri huic Epistolae subnectemus quae si judicabantur minus ad orthodoxa doctrine a nussim quadrare aequum tamen pro Christiana charitate ac dignitate tua duximus ut omnem judicij aequitatem amicae monitionis humanitas praecederet quo tu ipse operi tuo emendando quaqua operam dares Istud vero quam pro voto nostro succâ—…sserit vel ex eo intelleximus ipse quod tua sponte in idem consilium conspiraveris docilitatem facultati nostrae ad id tua Epistola pollicitus Quod maxime tibi gratulamur neque velimus tamen in Illud incumbas ordinis nostri duntaxat authoritate motus uti benevole recipis sed ipsius veritatis cui nunquam faelicius triumphant ingeâ—…ia quam dum cedunt summissis praesertim per religionis obsequium armis quorum usus quantum subsidii ad decertandum conferret tantum non posset non affere Impedimento ad victoriam siquidem hoc in genere Uincere nisi victi non possâ—…mus Nae tu etiam talem deinceps debebis Modestie tuae gloriam Cujus laude non minor inter Christianos audies quam inter mortales Facundia audiisti hactenus ejusdem merito lubentissimos laudatores habebis quos à lias multa urgente querimonia offâ—…oii ratio coegisset velinvitos esse Censores De Mandato D. D. Decani Magistrorum Sacrae Facultatis Theologiae Parisiensis Prt. Bouuot Apud Sorbonam Anno Christi 1632. Another to him LETTER XLI SIR my Philosophy is not of so little humanity but that I grieved exceedingly at the reading of your Letter and was touched to the very quicke for the death of yet seeing he is happier then they that mourne for him and that he hath left the world in an age when he yet knew it not I thinke it no wisedome to be obstinate in an ill grounded sorrow or to account that an evill to another which is the greatest good could have happened to my selfe Christianity will not let me say Optimum non nasci Bonum vero quam citissime interire but it hinders me not to believe that one day of life with Baptisme is better then a whole age of iniquity I write this letter to you from whether I am come to lodge after I had entertained my
keepe for mee your faithfulnesse is more then my negligence and I am more assured of your honestie then of my owne notwithstanding what certainty soever I have of your love it is no trouble to me to have new assurances Men that are well enough perswaded yet will goe to a Sermon and take a pleasure to heare that they know already For my selfe I can never be weary of reading a thing that gives mee satisfaction and though it were as feigned as it is true yet you write it with so good a grace that it would bee a pleasure to be so deceived yet it is fit to stay my selfe there and not to fall from joy into presumption how can you looke my spirit should containe it selfe within its bounds knowing that I am talked of at Rome and that my name is sometimes pronounced by the most eloquent mouth of Italy you should have concealed the expresse charge you had from M. the Cardinall of Bentivoglio to send me his History or at least for a temper to my vanitie you should have told mee at the same time that I must not impute a favour to my owne sufficiencie for which I am beholding to your good offices I may beleeve Sir that he had never had this thought of me if you had not stirred it up in him by some favourable mention you made of my person and I know he puts so great a trust in you that after you have once made a commendation hee would make a conscience to use his owne judgement in examining my worth From what ground soever my happinesse comes I am bound to acknowledge the visible cause and to that I destinate my first good dayes journey that God shall send me I will not faile to give thankes to M. the Cardinall and to give him an account of my reading that hee may see I know as well how to receive as hee to give In the meane time I offer him a present farre unworthy of the magnificence of his and which will shew him how with his hooke of Gold hee hath fished but grasse such as it is you shall doe mee a favour to present it to him and to let mee hold the possession I have in your love whose I am all my life Sir Your c. At Balzac 10. May 1634. To Mounsieur de Nesmond Controller of the Princes house LETTER XVII SIR my deare Cousin your Letter hath told me no newes it hath onely confirmed mee in my opinion and testified that you are alwayes good and alwayes doe mee the honour to love me You have qualities of greater luster then this but you have none of greater use and they that could live without your wisedome yet cannot beare the misse of your goodnesse My sister and I continue to implore it in a businesse which is already set on foote by your commendation and which attends a full accomplishment by your second endeavour It is neither without example nor without reason it needes but such an undertaker as your selfe and you may easily save it from rigorous justice if you will but lend a little ayd to its equity Of your will I make no doubt it is the continuall agitation of the court that makes me feare which drives men one way and their affaires another But if the heavens helpe us not wee are not like in hast to see it in any state of consistence it will bee alwayes floting like the Island of Greece untill a great birth shall make it stay and that God make sure the Kings victories by the Queenes fruitfulnesse In the meane time it is not fit you should stay at home but that you should make one in all voyages but you must not bee of these voyages that get many hoasts and few friends You are in a state of obliging and making men beholding to you by doing alwayes good and now for feare you should want matter to worke upon I offer you matter here to set you aworke Be pleased Sir my deare Cosin that I intreate you to deliver to the Letter I writ unto him and when you deliver it to testifie withall unto him that having the honour to bee to you as I am the things that touch me must needs concerne you Heretofore I have held good place in his confidence and to use the termes of a man you hate not Vetus mihi cum eo consuetudo cum privatus eraet Amici vocabamur Even lately at Paris hee offered mee courtesies that might have contented a prouder mans vanitie then mine and I received from him more good words then was possible for mee to returne him But these illustrious friendships require continuall cares and an assiduitie without cessation I know they are subject to a thousand inconveniences and that they grow cold if they be not stirred up and kindled continually Three words of your mouth spoken with a due accent may save me the solliciting of three moneths and my requests ought not to seeme uncivill seeing I desire nothing but this that should not doe mee the honour to make a promise and then leave there and think that enough To this purpose I send you a short instruction for and you may be pleased to be a meanes that hee cast his eyes upon it at such time as the businesse hee hath about your person shall permit him I would not sollicite you so boldly nor presse upon you so burdensome a familiarity if you had not your selfe made the overture first It is a persecution you have drawne upon your selfe by the liberall offers you made mee in your Letter and I conceive you speak as you meane as I doe in protesting that I honour you with my soule and am Sir my deare Cosin Your c. From Balzac 20. Octob. 1632. To Mounsieur de Borstell LETTER XVIII SIR I doe not know my selfe in your Letters you are like those Painters that care not for making a face like so they make it faire Certainely you thought upon some honester man than my selfe when you tooke the paines to write unto mee and your Idaea went beyond your subject or else you meant to excite mee to vertue by a new subtilty and the praises you give mee are but disguised exhortations They could not be Sir either more fine or more delicate and I doe not thinke that your pretended Barbarisme comes any thing behind the Grecian eloquence But tell me true Is it not as artificiall as Brutus his folly And are not you in plaine termes a Cosener to make us beleeve you come from that climate from whence the cold and foule weather comes Whereas it cannot be you should be borne any where but in the heart of Paris or if any place be more French then Paris that certainely must needes have beene your Cradle You speake too well not to speake naturally this garbe and this purity in which you expresse your selfe is not a thing that can be learned by Bookes you owe it to a neerer cause and study goes not so farre
he ought not to thinke any thing strange that happens in this inferiour world and upon inferiour I persons what consideration soever may otherwise make them deaâ—… unto him If you have vouchsafed to keepe the Letters I have written to you I humbly 〈◊〉 you to send them to me that I may see what volume II can make for the impression that is required of mee 〈◊〉 Madam it shall be if you please upon this condition that parting with the Letters you shall never let your memory part with the truthes they containe but hold undoubtedly that I very firmely am though I doe not very often say I am Madam Your c. 25. Decemb. 1630. Another to her LETTER XXXVII MAdam my labour is happie since it is never from before you and since I am told you make it your ordinary entertainment The end of all fayre Pictures and good Bookes is but onely to please your eyes and to delight your spirit and the good you have not yet set a price upon is not yet come to its uttermost perfection I have therefore all that an ambitious man could wish for I may perhaps have fortune from others but glory I can have from none but you and another perhaps may pay me but none but you can recompense mee The paines I have hytherto taken have beene but ill required I have tilled a ground that brings mee forth but thornes yet Madam since they grow for your service I am contented to be pricked by them and I love the cause of my disgraces if they proove a cause of your recreations The first Newes you shall heare will tell you what I meane and that my patience never makes my persecutours weary You shall see Madam that there is no conscience made to contradict you and that that which you call excellent and admirable hath yet at Paris found enemies and at Bruxells hangmen I will say no more at this time but that I am Madam Your c. At Balzac 6. Jan. 1631. Another to her LETTER XXXVIII MAdam I writ unto you about six weekes since but my packet not being delivered where I appointed it I perceive some curious body hath seazed on it and sought for secrets which he could not find The losse is not great to loose nothing but a few untoward words and small comforting would serve me for so small a crosse yet because they were full of the passion I owe to your service and carried in them the markes of my dutie I cannot but be troubled they came not to your hands and that my mis-fortune gives you cause to complaine of my negligence I dare not undertake to cleare my selfe altogether for though in this I committed no fault yet I cannot forget some other faults committed before The truth is Madam I have been for some time so continually taken up with businesse that I have beene wanting in the principall obligations of a civill life and I have drunke besides so many bitter potions and tasted so many bitter Pills that I should but have offended you with my complements which could not choose but carrie with them at least some tincture of my untoward humour What pleasure could you have taken to see a medley of choler and melancholy powred out vpon paper and instead of pleasing Newes to reade nothing but pittifull Stories and mortall Predictions But enough of this unpleasing matter I expect here within three or foure dayes my Lord the Bishop of Nantes and I would to God Madam you could be here at that time and that you were at leisure to come and taste the doctrine of this rare personage I have heard you say heretofore you never saw a more holy countenance than his and that his very looke was a Prologue of perswasion This conceit makes mee hope that he is the man whom God hath ordained to be your Converter and to bring you into the bosome of our Church Beleeve mee Madam and you shall not be deceived trust that enemy who wounds not but onely to draw out the bloud that causes a Feaver and never make difficultie to commit your selfe to one that intends your freedome The triumph which the world makes you feare is no way injurious to those that be the captives nor like unto that of which Cleopatra tooke so sadde an apprehension but in this case the vanquished are they that are crowned and all the glory and advantage of the victory rests on their side I am not out of hope to see so good a dayes worke and seeing you are rather layd asleepe in the opinion of your mother than obstinate in a wrong cause I intreat you that you will not be frighted with phrases Wee will not use this hard terme to say you have abjured your heresie wee will onely say you are awaked out of your â—…umber and if our deare friend Monsieur du Moulin would doe so too than would be the time of a great festivallâ—… Heaven and the Angels would rejoyce at the prosperitie of the Church My zeale Madam is not out of ostentation for it is most true that such a change is one of my most violent wishes and to see you say your prayers upon your Beads I would with all my heart give you a payre made of Diamonds though I am not rich yet I hope you doubt not of the truth of these last words and that I am with all my foule Madam Your c. At Balzac 7. May. 1632. Another to her LETTER XXXIX MAdam it hath beene as much my shame as my glory to reade your Letter having so ill deserved it and the remorse of the fault I committed makes mee that I dare not yet rejoyce in the honour I received You are good and gracious even to the not hating oâ—…evill actions Your delinquents not onely obteine impunitie but you allow them recompence and idlenesse hath more respect with you than diligent service with ordinary Masters This is the faelicitie of the Golden age where Plentie had no neede of tilling and where there was reaping without sowing Yet Madam I must not so abandon my cause that I forbe are to alledge the good it hath in it it is long since I writ unto you it is true but the cause hath beene for that these six moneths I have every day been upon comming to see you and according to the saying of the Oratour your acquaintance I have dispenced with my ordinary dyet in hope of a great Feast and to performe my devotion with the more solemnitie If Monsieur de have kept his word with mee he hath told you how often he hath found me upon the very poynt of comming but as many journeys as I intended to make so many crosse accidents alwayes happened to hinder them and the mis-fortune that accompanies me makes every dutie though never so casie to another impossible to me Yet Madam I have never ceased from doing continuall acts of the reverence I beare you and I never sweare but by your merit My
of your friendship I am infinitely beholding to you and make account to reape no small benefit by it for having a soule as you have full of vertue you make me a Present that is invaluable to bring mee in to so worthy a possession and whilest you offer me â—…eenesse and fiâ—…elity you offer me the two greatest rarities this age affords I beleeve you speake more seriously in Prose than you doe in Verse and that you are content to be a Poet but have no meaning to be a Sophister I likewise entreare you to beleeve that the least word I speake is accompanied with a Religion which I never violate and that there is nothing more true than the promise I here seale you most perfectly to be Sir Your c. At Balzac 6. Octob. 1635. To Mounsieur Souchote LETTER XXII SIR by your reckoning you have written to me thrice for nothing when indeede I knew not of your first Letters but by your last if I had received them you may be sure I should have answered them for though I be not very regular in observing compliments yet I am not so negligent of necessary duties that I should commit so many faults together How profound soever my slumber be yet I awake presently assoone as I am once stirred and specially when it is by so deare a name and by so pleasing a voyce as yours is Never therefore require me to give it in charge to some other to let you heare from me such a request would be an offence to our friendshippe an action fitter for a Tyrant than a Citizen it were to take me for the great Mogull who speakes to none but by an Interpreter I like not this savage statelinesse it is farre from me to use so little civilitie towards men of your worth when it is I that am beholding to you I pray let it not be my groome that shall thanke you for it I will take the paines my selfe to assure you I am wholly yours and whereas I did not bid you farewell at my going from Pariâ—… you must not take it for an argument of slighting your person but for an effect of the libertie I presume of and of the renouncing I have vowed to all vaine ceremonies They that are my friends give me this leave and you are too well acquainted with the soliditie of things to ground your judgement upon apparances neither doe I thinke you will require them of me who am as bad a courtier as I truely am Sir Your c. At Balzac 20. Iuly 1630. To Mounsieur Tissandier LETTER XXIII SIR you shall receive by this bearer the rest of the workes of or to speake more properly the continuation of his Follies They are now as publike as those Du grand preuost diuin que vous auez visite autres fois dans les fame uses petites maisons Hee useth me still with the same pride and insolencie he was wont and you would thinke that hee were at the toppe of the Empyriall heaven and I at the bottome of hell so farre he takes himselfe to be above mee but I doubt not ere long his pride shall be abated and his insolencie mortified He shall shortly be made to see that he is not so great a man as he thinkes himselfe and if hee have in him but one sparke of naturall justice hee shall confesse he hath triumphed without cause and must be faine to give up all the glory he hath gotten unlawfully Turno tempus erit magno cum optaverit 〈◊〉 Intactum Pallanta Mounsieur de is still your perfect friend and he never writes to me but hee speakes of you He is at this present at Venice where he meditates quietly the agitation of all the world besides and where he enjoyes the honest pleasures which Italy affoords to speculative Philosophers But Sir what meane you by speaking of your teares and of the request you make unto me Doe you not mocke mee when you pray me to comfort you for the death of your Grandfather who had lived to see so many Families so many Sects so many Nations both to be borne and die a man as old as Hereâ—… it selfe the League was younger than hee which when the Cardinall of Lorraine first conceived hee caused a Booke to be printed wherein hee advertized France of the conception of this Monster You weepe therefore for the losses of another age it is Anchyses or Laertes you weepe for at least it is for a man who did but suffer life and was in a continuall combate with death He should long agoe have bin one of the Church Triumphant and therefore you ought to have beene prepared for either the losse or the gaine that you have made Mounsieur 〈◊〉 was not of your humour I send you one of his Letters where you shall see hee was as much troubled to comfort himselfe for the life of two Grandmothers that would not die as hee was for the death of a brother that died too soone I commend your good nature but I like not your Lamentations which should indeede do him you sorrow for great wrong if they should raise him againe to be in the state in which you lost him It may suffice to tell you that he is much happier than I for he sleepes and I wake and he hath no more commerce with men unreasonable and inhumane and that are but Wolfes to one another You know I have cause enough to speake thus but out of this number I except certaine choise persons and particularly your selfe whom I know to be vertuous and whose I am Sir Most humble c. At Paris 3. Decem 1628. The Letter of Peter Bembo to Hercules Strotius AVias ambas meas effoetas deplorat as que faeminas jam prope centum annorun mulieres mihifata reliquerunt unicum fratrem meum juvenem ac florentem abstulerunt spem solatiamea Quamobrem quo in â—…rore sim facilè potes existimare Heu me miserum Vale Id. Ian. 1504. Venetijs Another to him LETTER XXIV SIR if it had not beene for the indisposition of my body I had not stayed so many dayes from thanking you for your many courtesies but for these two moneths I have not stirred from my bed so cruelly handled with the Sciatica that it hath taken from me all the functions of my spirit and made mee utterly uncapeable of any cenversation otherwise you may be sure I should not voluntarily have deprived my selfe of the greatest contentment I can have when I have not your companie and that I should not have received three Letters from you without making you three Answers Now that I have gotten some quiet moments from the violence of my torture and that my paine is turned into lamenesse I cannot chuse but take you in hand and tell you in the first place that you are an ungratefull man to leave our Muses and follow some of their sisters that are neither so faire nor so worthy of your affection I