and secured his person in the Palace putting a numerous and faithful guard upon him of the best men of the City This mean while the deputies of the Prince of Epire came to conclude the agreement to whom the Nobility of Athens answered that it was they that must be treated with in the point of surrender who were so far from making any agreement with the Prince of Epire as they willed him to know that they were resolved to defend their Country and sent away the Deputieâ—… with this resolute and stout answer The next day the young men of Athens sallyed forth armed and in a couragious assault slew many of the enemy and soon after making many other sallies put the enemies Camp into such confusion as the Prince of Epire who thought himself before to be very sure of the business began much to doubt the victory and after many months siedge in all which time the Citizens of Athens appeared to have no less resolute hearts then ready hands came to parley with the enemy who had already enough of the business and on the 11 of this present month such advantagious conditions were agreed upon for the people of Athenâ—… as became free men which being done they sent the Prince of Macedonia home to his own State who three days since came to Apollo and did not only complain bitterly of the hard proceedings used â—…to him by the Nobility of Athens but prest very hard that they should be hung up in effigies as Traytors in the great Pegasean Tower for this their execrable rebellion His Majesty thought this a very weighty business wherefore he referred it to his Counsel of War The reasons of both sides were divers times heard and discust by the Counsel which at last gave sentence That the offers of the Aâ—…tick Nobility being made so chearfully to the Prince of Macedon and they being by him refused it being apparent that he was resolved for other particular ends of his own to give over the defence of the City it was lawful for those Noble men when their Prince had abandoned that protection of the people to which all Princes stand deeply bound to use that expedient though it were very severe A thing done by il Signor Lodovico Oriosto caused much wonder in all those who were present at this so signal sentence who when he had heard the judgement given took his hat from off his head and like a mad man threw it on the ground then lifting up his eyes to heaven and fetching a deep sigh uttered these words in a sorrowful tone Dii immortale homo homini quid praestat stulte Intelligens quid interest The LXV ADVERTISEMENT A Shop-Keeper is condemned to the Gallies at the very instant that he was seised on by the Serjeants not being so much as examined THe Shop-keeper who dwelt at the signe of the two Crowns in Mercers Street was four daies since taken prisoner by the Serjeants and being immediately upon his being taken carried to the Haven and put into the Gallies whole Pernassus wondred very much hereat to see that the execution of the Judgement should precede process 'T is said that this was done at the instance of the chief Monarchs of the world then resident in this State who held themselves mightily offended with that Shop-keeper because he sold publiquely meer smoke a commodity which Princes pretend is not to be sold by private men and therefore it is thought that by his example they would affright others from not troubling them in things which concern their Jurisdiction and although the less solid sort of men thought that the Shop-keeper's fault deserved not so great a resentment yet those who see further into the interest of great Princes say that they dealt very gently with him for meer smoke serving Princes upon many occasions instead of ready money all their richest Treasure would soon be exhausted when the so current money of meer smoke becoming of no reputation amongst people Princes should be forced like to common people to pay their debts in ready coyn The LXVI ADVERTISEMENT Bernardino Rota a famous Neapolitan Poet being greatly beloved by the Vertuosi of all Professions in Pernassus is accused before Apollo for having purchast so general a good liking by some ill means BErnardino Rota a Noble Neapolitan Poet to the great wonder of all the Literati of thâ—…s Court is so strangely beloved by the whole Colledg of the Vertuosi as he is stiled by every one the delight of Pernassus And truely it appears a great miracle to every one that since there are more then capital jars divisions and enmities between the Greeks and Latins between the Latins and Italians between Physitians and Doctors of Law between the Peripatetick and Platonick Philosophers between the Grammarians and all other professions of the Vertuosi only La Rota is rather adored then beloved by all and by each of them And because it appears very strange to every one that if so amiable a nature proceed only from the vertue of the soul it be not found to be in any other of the Vertuosi of this State its being only seen to be in La Rota hath made every one suspect that this man who appears to have a candid and liberal soul is in effect otherwise and that he hath won this universal good will by the vice of playing Jack of both sides a vice which his Majesty doth so much detest and therefore being questioned by Marioulo in the Tribunal Della Vicaria he was made prisoner two daies since and it hapned that whilst the Tipstafs of the Court searched him to see whether he had any weapons about him or no they found a great deal of Storax and Incense bound up in a paper in his pocket Severe process was made by the Judges against La Rota But Apollo the better to inform himself of what was proved against this his Vertuoso commanded that he should be brought into the Quarantia Criminale where his Majesty asked him whether he did inchant mens minds by the Magick of flattery by the sacriledg of assisting others in their fowl vices or whether it was only by the chains of vertue that he did so straitly fasten unto him his Literati and chiefly that he should tell him what use he made of that Storax and Incense which was found about him To which La Rota answered that he had purchast the love of all the Vertuosi in Pernassus only by detesting to imitate others in their contentions and that he won upon the affections of all men and made them love him by the sincerity of his soul and candidness of heart by not desiring to know much less to busie himself in other mens affairs and by practicing the excellent vertue with all men in all places and at all times of seeing hearing and concealing the actions of his loving friends and companions and by divulging only such as might purchase others glory and reputation and chiefly by applying himself to every
he had been her father and that to see himself deprived of her so dearly prized conversation was the thing of the world that did most torment him Apollo answered Caro That doubtlesly Atonigi had done amiss and therefore commanded that to compleat the gift of twelve shirts and four hand-towels he should immediately add a douzen handkerchifs and eight night-caps with which demonstration of gratefulness Caro should think himself well rewarded by Atonigi When Caro heard this judgement given by Apollo he was not only as it became him to have been not appeased but growing very outragious he freely said That in this discourteous act of Atonigi Tacitus his Sentence was proved very true upon himself That Benificiaeo usque laeta sunt dum videntur exolviposse ubi multum antevenere pro gratia odium redditur Tacit. lib. 4 Ann. Benefits are so long welcom as there is any appearance of a possibility of repayment which when it is much exceeded hatred is repaid instead of love Apollo hearing this answered Caro somewhat angerly That Tacitus his Sentence was very true but very badly understood by him and by many others For great benefits were usually seen to berepaid with infinite ingratitude more through the impertinency of the Benifactor in exacting Gratitunde of anothers Obligation then through the discourtesie of the receiver Then growing more incenst his Majestie said to Caro Do not you know Signor Hanibal that the extraordinary affection which Guardians bear their women-Wards when they are once grown into their teens is usually turned into libidinous love And are you one of those special Officers whereof I have known divers That for having helpt a friend to a rich wife will be paid for their good turn by a nights lodging with the Bride And in so many years as you have lived in the well pollisht Court of Rome have not you learnt that as well wives as Principalities cannot be given to a friend with intension of reserving the use of them to ones self without running apparent danger of having the difference decided by the sword Then Apollo said thus to Atonigi My beloved Dionigi injoy thy dear wife in peace and quiet and if Caro shall at any time tax thee of ingratitude call you him Impertinent and so you shall give him his due name The XXXIV ADVERTISEMENT Publius Terentius being by order from Giasone dol Maino an Urban Pretor charged with Fornication is by Apollo freed with much derision to the Pretor PUblius Terentius lives in a little but very well accommodated house in the quarters of the Commick Poets attended only by his maid-servant Bacchide and Davus his man-servant And though Bacchide in the flowre of her age was very handsom and a great friend of Terentius of many other Commick Poets yet now being very old and therefore somewhat deform'd she lives modestly and without any scandal in Terentius his house and without offence unto the neighbours But some ten daies since Giasone Mayno a Modern Pretor of Urban commanded Terentius upon a certain penalty That he should put Bacchide out of his house and so free himself from the shame of keeping a publick Concubin Terentius did not only not obey this command but refused to pay the amercement wherefore the Pretor gave order for arresting his body and he was yesterday taken whereat Apollo was so highly offended as he said in publick that even in Parnassus the wicked abuse was brought in by his rather malitious then ignorant Officers of being quick-sighted in appearance but blind in the substance of affairs Wherefore giving order that Terentius should be forthwith set at liberty he caused Giasone to the infinite shame of so great a Lawyer to be cast into the same Prison and did not only publickly disgrace him by taking from him the place of Pretor but did exceedingly grieve him by substituting Philippo Decio in his place who was his capital enemy And Decio being gone yesterday to Apollo to receive the Mace and Tipstaff the particular ensignes of the Pretorian Dignity his Majestie told him that he might learn that by Giasons punishment that good Judges who in the administration of Justice did mind more the pleasing of God then making merry with men the Alessi were first driven out of the dores of respected Poets and then the Bacchidi The XXXV ADVERTISEMENT Publick Audience is given by Apollo wherein by wise Answers he decides many Affairs of his Vertuosi THe contentment of Princes who love to see their people well satisfied consisting chiefly in the often hearing all mens grievances Apollo to boot with his other often Audiences gives publick Audience every Thursday in his great Hall attended by his Senats Collaterals and full Parliaments of this Court. And because that therein vertuous resolutions are had and such as are worthy to be known by those who living far from this State have the curiosity to hear news from Parnassus Menante who was present at the last Audience expresly that he might satisfie his Customers will now give you a true relation of all the chief things that hapned there The first who addrest themselves to Apollo in this Audience were two honourable Ambassadors who told his Majestie that they were sent from mankind who weary of the necessity they were in of eating every morning and evening did much bewail that human Wit so highly indued and capable of understanding and knowing all things who together with their mothers milk did drink in the unexplicable curiosity of still Learning should notwithstanding be wholly busied in fordid occupation of cultivating the earth and in other painfull exercises only to provide food for himself as bruit beasts do that therefore they were sent to his Majestie to ask councel whether mankind should do well to beg of Gods Divine Majestie that he would be pleased to grant men the benefit of living long without meat as he had done to Dormise Snakes Bears and otheir Animals A thing which they desired only to the end that they might with a fasting mind or stomack which doth so much better the operations of the Intellect apply themselves to the study of all those Sciences which belonged properly to men This request which was thought to be very honorable and full of vertuous zeal by all that heard it was much derided by Apollo who answered the Ambassadors That those who through strange conceits and extravagant novelties thought to new mould the world did alwaies fancy unto themselves ridiculous things And then he asked the Ambassadors what obligation the earch had to so great a God The Ambassadors answered she was bound to propuce green grass and plants Apollo reply'd If it were so Why for the space of 6000 years and more that the earth had absolutely obeyed the will of her Creator were there no Woods seen but on Mountains and in desert places The Ambassadors said this was because men for their plowing which was the sustenance of mans life did with their Axes cut down the Woods in such
Majesties pardon Lipsius whilst in this very desperate condition did so increase in constancy and boldness as he bad Apollo use his pleasure he could not make him die ignorant who was possest with gratitude the Queen of all Human Vertues that therefore the flames which should consume his body would give a greater splendor of glory then of fire and that he protested at that very last minute of his life he was so far from acknowledging the fault which was laid to his charge of having loved and honored his Tacitus too much that in commemoration of the infinite obligations which he ought him it grieved him more then death to think he should die ungrateful and that the present agony which they might all perceive him to be in arose not from the terror of death but from his immense sorrow to have heard his Tacitus termed by his Majesty a wicked Atheist an injury which if it had been done to that most wise Writer by any other then his Majesty he would not though in that his last moment of life have left it unrevenged at least by words and that with the liberty which most properly belonged to him who desired not to live he witnessed to all the world that Tacitus did so far know God as being he alone who of all the Writers of the Gentiles had by his great wisdom arived at the knowledg How much the faith of things unseen avails in matters of Religion or which cannot be proved by reason he had said Sanctiusque ac reverentius visum de actis Deorum credere quam scire Tacit. de Morb. Germ. Most holy words and worthy to be considered by those Divines who in their Writings were at a loss through too sophistical subtilties Apollo being full of wonder and infinitely astonished at the things he had heard caused Lipsius immediately to be set at liberty and straitly imbracing him said O my dear Vertuoso with how much consolation to my self and how much to your advantage have I tried your patience and constancy and by the injurious speeches which I have uttered against Tacitus which are the very same which they accuse him with who neither study him nor understand him have I made proof of your devotion towards that excellent Historian who even deserves my wonder And by what I have heard you say I find that you have been delighted in reading him and long studied him to your profit For I know that the defence which so much to your glory you have made is your own but taken out of my and your dearly beloved Tacitus Apollo then turned towards the Vertuosi who out of a curiosity to hear that Judgement were flockt in great numbers to the Hall and said O my beloved Litterati admire and ever imitate the honored constancy of this my glorious Vertuoso and let the infinite love and everlasting veneration of that Prince be ingraven in your hearts who keeps up your reputation and forget not that his power precipitates more easily who loseth his Princes good will then houses doe whose foundations fail Therefore you who follow the Court learn to know that Nihil rerum mortalium tam instabile ac fluxum est quam fama potentiae non sua vi nixae Tacit. lib. 13. Annal. A most certain rule which teacheth every one to imitate Lipsius in loving honoring and in ever faithfully serving their Prince For as it is great impiety in holy things to have any other God save him who created man the heavens and earth so ought you never to have any devotion for any Prince not expect or desire any good from any other Lord save from him who out of confidence in your loyalty and out of the extraordinary affection which he bears you owns you to all the world not for his servants but for his dear friends and by the Supreme Authority which he suffers you to exercise in his State makes you appear unto his Vassals no less Princes then himself And because the wisdom of Princes out of their jealousies of those that rule is usually accompanied with suspition and Court-favorits being alwaies envied alwaies narrowly observed by their rivals and alwaies persecuted by such as malign them That you may overcome so many difficulties and still preserve your selves in the favors which you have won love your Princes with all your heart observe them with all your soul and serve them with all possible loyalty And like my Lipsius chuse rather to die then to think much less to do any thing which may indanger the least loss of their favours And believe for certain that then your ruine begins when you suffer your selves to be perswaded that you may better your condition by using simulation and falshood with your Princes who both know see and understand more then is possible to be exprest For those who think to live securely by dissembling with Princes who though they should know nothing themselves have so many who can put them in mind and who want not a thousand Malignant spirits to wake them when they are asleep are like those fools who think to confine Gypsies and hope to cheat Mountebanks The LXXXVII ADVERTISEMENT The Queen of Italy being much intreated by her chiefest Princes and by Apoll's self to pardon the injuries done by those Italian Commanders who took up arms against her in assistance of Forrein Nations denies to do it DOubtlesly the Palace wherein the Queen of Italy keeps her residence is even by the testimony of Vitruvio's self acknowledged to be the most magnificent and richliest adorn'd Palace in all Parnassus Here amongst other stupendious and delightful things is the fore Court to a large Amphitheatre at the upper end whereof stands the Statue of the Queen of Italy on horseback all of pure gold dedicated to the great Bellizarius a Grecian and that of Narses a Grecian also which was erected at the lower end of the Court for his perpetual glory by the same Queen but is now thrown to the ground and is broken all in pieces for that notorious injury which she received from him so that whereas it was formerly the envie of great men and served to put men in mind of so great a Commanders merit it now serves to shew his shame who out of the rage of privat disdain did profane so great a merit and observed that glory which deserved envie On the right hand of the fore-front of this so miraculous Court are the faces of those famous Italian Commanders drawn by Apelles and other prime Painters who having by their arms and by their expence of bloud delivered Italy from the slavery of Barbarians are by their grateful Country kept in ever honored memory And on the left hand of the same Court to the perpetual shame of ungratefull persons those Italian Captains are hung upon Gallowses by the heels who forgetting the obligation due to a mans Country which equals that of children to their parents took up arms in assistance of babarous Nations
certain news is come of the Commandment given by Order from his Majesty to Titerus Coâ—…idon Miâ—…as Melibeus and the rest of the Shepherds of that Country that upon pain of severe punishment they must no longer dare to fatten Hogs The people of those parts were generally so troubled at this news as this morning Montanus and Damon two of the chiefest Shepherds of that Province came to Apollo in name of all the Arcadian Shepherds who humbly desired his Majesty not to deprive them of their choicest cates and of their hogs-flesh wherewith they did so plentifully feed their Families To this Apollo answered that he loved Husbandmen and Shepherds better then Nobility because men that bring in profit and advantage deserve to be better beloved by Princes then such as are rather prejudicial then of any use but that having publisht his Edict for many respects and by mature delibration he would by no means recall it for that Pagan avarice had learnt an execrable politick precept from the usefull custom of Husbandmen of fatning Hogs in the Autumn that they might kill them at Winter The XCIII ADVERTISEMENT It being observed that Pero Trasea in company of his son in Law Elvidius Priseo frequented the houses of the chiefest Poet esses of Parnassus He is severely reprehended for it by Apollo IT hath been observed by such Vertuosi who delight to pry into other mens actions that Pero Trasea accompanied by his son in Law Elvidius Priseo did very much frequent the houses of the Lady Victoria Colonna the Lady Veronica Gambera and other chief Lady-Poets of this Court And although the extraordinary good opinion which is generally held of Trasea's honesty makes it very hard to believed that so grave a Senator can commit a foul fact yet the great frequency of his visits and the length of them hath occasioned such scandal even amongst the best men as the unseemliness thereof hath come to Apollo's knowledg Who to quench the flames of murmur sent for Tresea two daies ago to come to him and charged him to acquaint him with the business which he had with those Ladies Trasea answered That he went to those Ladies only to exercise his charity in reading every day a Chapter in Boetius Severinus De Consolatione Philosophiae Apollo seemed to be much offended with this answer wherefore he said Trasea if you will merit favour from God and love from men by using your endeavors to consolate the afflicted go comfort those miserable wretches who lie perishing in Hospitals and those unfortunate people that are led to the Gallows for to spend whole daies like Sardenapalus amongst women and hope to make men believe that you exercise there only your spiritual parts is a piece of hypocrisie able to move laughter in fools and to make those burst for anger who know that men who go often to the Mill are easily bemealed and a man of your parts ought to know that when a woman conceives twins if they be both male children they are wrapt within one Filme and so likewise if they be both females but if the one be male and the other female wise Nature parts the female from the male in a particular Filme So as Nature by not confiding in the cohabitation of a brother with a sister in so tender age teacheth all men that people cannot be secure even of such as you are and he who relies upon his own strength Trasea in such like occasions is more rash then wise And because these disorders ought to be corrected both for your reputation and mine I straitly command you That for the future you forbear such dangerous doings for the world is not so great a blockhead as I perceive you foolishly conceive but that it very well knows that visits made to handsom women by such as you are after a second time grow suspitious to those that know that all men are pleased with what is handsom stimulus carnis is a natural vice in all men and that lust is no waies better refrained then by keeping far from fair creatures Therefore let him that will keep from committing error avoid all occasion And all your Philosophy cannot make a man believe but that every man made of flesh is pleased with a savory morsel Wherefore I put you in mind that one like you who make such profession of not staining your reputation with the spots of lasciviousness ought to shun all that allure thereunto for it is not only a great piece of folly but an infinite rashness worthy to be punisht to make gun-powder in a Smiths shop with hope to make people believe there is no danger in it The XCIV ADVERTISEMENT A chief Senator of Poland whilst he corrects another Senator who is a friend of his is made aware that be himself is he who goes astray and needs amendment THere are at this time in the King of Polands Court two Senators who are very great friends the one of them professeth openly to be ill satisfied with his King and therefore blameth the manner of his Government and even to the point of malice censures and cavils at all his actions The other Senator was much displeased with this his friends manner of proceeding and went so counter-bias to this his friend as he did not only praise such actions of his Kings as deserved blame but to purchase his favour stuck not to do unworthy things himself This man being much scandalized at his friends dangerous way of proceeding told him one day that it was not only imprudency but great rashness by thus carping at his Princes actions to irritate his hatred from whom he might expect all good and that to serve in Court meerly to demerit the Princes favour was the greatest folly that could be committed The other Courtier answered him thus Your so free reprehending me clearly shews the cordial affection you return for the great love I bear you and I thank you for it But know that both we aim at the same end of acquiring the highest preferments and dignities in Court though we take contrary courses You walk the usual and beaten way but I take a neerer cut which is only known to the most accomplisht Courtiers and I foretell you that I am likely to compass my ends sooner then you In hereditary Monarchies where the brother children and others of the bloud-royal do together with the State inherit usually the friendships enmities and all the Interests of the deceased Prince the way you take and which was first taught you by Tacitus that the favor of them that rule must be forced from them even by indignities is admirable good But in an elective State as our Poland is and particularly under an old King who may justly be thought not likely to live long the way I take to seem displeased at the Court proceedings is the safer for such a one as I am And the advertisement given to men to be either exceeding hot or passing cold in their actions and
the Physitians will soon be made whole and will become sincere and plain in their proceedings true in what they say and such in their sanctity of life as they were in former times The true and immediate cure then for these present evils consists only in necessitating men to live with candor of mind and purity of heart which you will all confess with me cannot be better effected then by making that little window in mens brests which as being most requisite his Majesty hath often promised to his most faithful Vertuosi For when those who use such art in their modern proceedings shall be forced to speak and act having a window wherein one may see into their hearts they will learn the excellent vertue of being and not appearing to be and will conform their deeds to their words their tongus which are accustomed to dissembling to sincerity of heart and all men will banish lies and falshood and the infirnal spirit of hypocrisie will abandon many who are now possest with so foul a fiend Talete's opinion did so please he whole Congregation as being put to the vote it was clearly carried for the affirmative and Secretary Mazzoni was commanded to give Apollo a sudden account thereof who perfectly approved the opinion and gave command that that very day the little window should be begun to be made in mans brest But at the very instant hat the Surgeans took their instruments in hand to open mens brests Virgil Plato Aristotle Averoes and other of the chief Litterati went to Apollo and told him that he was not ignorant that the prime means whereby men do with much ease govern the world was the reputation of those who did command and that so pretious a jewel not being to be exposed to danger at any time by wise Princes they beseeched his Majesty to consider in what esteem of holy life and good demeanor the reverend Philosophical Synod and the honorable Colledge of the Vertuosi were held by all the Litterati of Parnassus that therefore they earnestly desired him as it became him to do to have a care of their honors who by the fame of their goodness increase the glory of Parnassus And that if his Majesty should unexpectedly open every mans brest the greater and better sort of those Philosophers who formerly were highly esteemed ran evident hazard of being shamed and that he might peradventure find fowlest faults in those whom he had formerly held to be immaculate That therefore before a business of such importance should be taken in hand he would be pleased to afford his Vertuosi a competent time to wash and cleanse their souls Apollo was greatly pleased with the advice of so famous Poets and Philosophers and by a publick Edict prorogued the time of making the wind ows for eight daies during which time every one did so attend the cleansing and purging of their souls from all fallacies from a hidden vice from conceal'd hatred and counterfeit love as there was no more hony of roses succory cassia scena scamony nor laxative syrups to be found in any Grocers or Apothecaries shop in all Parnassus And the more curious did observe that in the parts where the Platonicks Peripateticks and moral Philosophers did live there was then such a stink as if all the Privies of those Countries had been emptied Whereas the quarters of Latin and Italian Poets stunk only of Cabbadg-porrage The time allotted for the general purging was already past when the day before they were to begin making the windows Hippocrates Galen Cornelius Celsus and other the most skilfull Physitians of this State went to Apollo and said Is it then true Sir you that are the Lord of the Liberal Sciences that this Microcosme must be deformed which is so nobly and miraculously framed as if any chief muscle any principal vein be but touched the human creature runs evident danger of being slain and that so much mischief should be done only for the advantage of a few ignorant people For not only the wiser sort of men but even those of an indifferent capacity who have converst but four daies with any Quacksalver know how to penetrate even into the innermost bowels This memorandum of the Physitians wrought so much with Apollo as he changed his former resolution and by Ausonius Gallus bad the Philosophers of the Reformation proceed in delivering their opinions Then Solon thus began In my opinion Gentlemen that which hath put the present age into so great confusion is the cruel hatred and spitefull envy which in these daies is seen to reigne generally amongst men All help then for these present evils is to be hoped for from infusing charity reciprocal affection and that sanctified love of our neighbour which is Gods chiefest commandment into mankind we ought therefore to imploy all our skill in taking away the occasions of those hatreds which in these daies reign in mens hearts which if we be able to effect men will do like beasts who by the instinct of nature love their own species and will consequently drive away all hatred and rancor of mind I have been long thinking my friends what the true springs head may be of all human hatred and am still more established in my old opinion that it proceeds from the disparity of means from the hellish custom introduced amongst men of meum and tuum the rise of all scandal an abuse which if it were introduced amongst the beasts of the earth I assure my self that even they would consume and waste themselves with the self-same hatred and rancor wherewith we so much disquiet our selves The not having any thing of propriety and the equallity which they live in is that which maintains that peace among them which we so much envie in them Men as you all know are likewise creatures but rational this world was created by Almighty God only that mankind might live thereupon as bruit beasts do not that avaritious men should divide it amongst themselves and should turn what was common into that meum and tuum which hath put us all into such confusion So as it clearly appears that the depravation of mens souls by avarice ambition and tyranny hath occasioned the present inequality and disproportionate division And if it be true as we all confess it is that the world is nothing else but an Inheritance left to mankind by one only Father and one only Mother from whom we are all descended like brethren what justice is it that every one should not have a share thereof equal with his companion And what greater disproportion can there be imagined by those that love what is just then that this world should be such as that some possess more thereof then they can govern and others have not so much as they could govern But that which doth infinitely aggravate this disorder is that usually good and vertuous men are beggars whereas wicked and ignorant people are wealthy From the root of this inequality it then ariseth
he might use his pleasure for they were resolved willingly to undergo any calamity rather then to give his Majesty any distaste These reasons alleadged by the Ambassadors with such generous humility did so convince Apollo as he told them they might live secure that Ephesus should never be commanded by any but himself because he very well knew that those who had driven their Prince out of their State and had dealt so ill with him had much reason to apprehend the being made Tributary a second time for every new Prince how meek or gentle soever he were must be necessitated to use severity and exercise all those cruel resentments which the seditious Neopolitan Baron received from the austere Kings of Aragon so to secure himself from being treated as was his predecessor The LXXXVI ADVERTISEMENT Justus Lipsius to make amends for his fault in having accused Tacitus is so intent thereupon as he is accused before Apollo to have Idolatrized him for which after a feigned punishment he is at last praised and admired by his Majestie THe most observing Litterati of this State have often noted That when any Vertuosi hath through human frailty committed an error he doth for the hatred he beats to vitious actions amend it by falling into the other extream And divers affirm that Democritâ—…s did not put out his eyes for the benefit of contemplation but to make amends for a fault which he had commited in having looked upon a handsom young woman with a more wanton eye then became a Philosopher And it is also reported that Harpecretes to correct an error which he had committed in having been too loquacious at a Feast for which he was greatly blamed fell into the other extream of never speaking again Nor ought the Poets Sentence to be held true Dum vitant stulti vitia in contrâ—…ia currunt Since the dogg which hath been scalded with boyling water is esteemed wise for staying within dores when it rains As also it is the councel of a wise man to hate Eels after a man hath been bitten with a Snake This is said because Iustus Lipsius was so heartily sorry for and did so repent his having so unfortunately accused Tacitus as to amend a fault for which he was much blamed by all the Vertuosi of this State he soon after went to Tacitus and humbly asked him pardon for the injury he had done him Who knowing what honour a man wins by being ready to forgive which magnanimity becoming a Roman Senator did not only freely forgive Lipsius but did heartily thank him for having afforded him an occasion of doinâ—… so glorious an act as sincerely to forgive an injury received The wonder of so great indulgency and the easiness in obtaining his so much desired pardon being added to the ancient great devotion which Lipsius who was alwaies very partial to Tacitus bore to so sublime an Historian did so much encrease his love and veneration as he frequented Tacitus his house more then his own delighted to discourse with him more then with any other of the Litterati was not better pleased with any other conversation did not celebrate any Historian more and did all this with such partiality of inward affection as he strove to imitate him in his quaintness of speaking more by conceits then words in his brevity of succinct speaking full of gravity matter sententiousness and so as was only perspicuous to good understanders procuring thereby the envy and hatred of all the Vertuosi depending upon Cicero and the Cesarian Faction who did not approve thereof and presumed by an Antonomasia to call him his Author and not caring for what others said of him he affected nothing more then to appear a second Tacitus This unusual affection amongst friends not used to Masters and which did exceed all love born to consanguinity begot such jealousie in Mercerus Beatus Rhenenus Fulvius Orsinus Marcus Antonius Muretas and in other of Tacitus his followers as for meer envie though under the colour of revenging the injury which Lipsius had formerly done their friend Tacitus they accused Lipsius before Apollo of the same impiety which he had accused Tacitus of Saying to his Majesty that he did not love Tacitus as a friend did not honor him as a Master and Patron but did adore him as his Apollo as his God This accusation which as it fares in faults of high Treason seems through the atrocity thereof to be sufficiently proved by bare allegation did much trouble Apollo who esteeming himself offended by Lipsius he made be forthwith brought bound unto him by a Pretorian Cohort of Lyrick Poets and with an angry countenance and threatning way asked him what he thought of one Cornelius Tacitus an Oylmans son of Ternio To this â—…ipsius answered That he held Tacitus to be the chief of all Intelligent Historians the Father of human wisdom the Oracle of the true Reason of State the Master of Polititians the Coryfeus of all such Writers as had arived at the glory of using more conceits then words in their Writings the true rule whereby to learn to write the actions of great Princes with the learned light of their true occasion a great piece of art and which was only known by the noblest sort of Historians as that which rendred them very glorious who knew how to make use of it and him learned who had the judgement to consider it the Idea of Historical truth the true Teacher of Princes Schoolmaster of all Courtiers the true touchstone whereby the world might try the genius of Princes the Standard whereby men might exactly weigh the real worth of privat men the Book which Princes who would learn how to command Subjects wel who desired to know how to obey wel ought to have continually in their hands Apollo knew by this so affected encomium and by so exaggerated praises that Lipsius did openly and with a bare face adore Taâ—…itus Wherefore being highly incenst he said What think you then of me Lipsius who am the Father of Learning the supreme Master of all Sciences absolute Prince of the Liberal Arts and the Monarch of Vertue if with such impiety and impudence you Idolatrize a Writer who is so hateful to all good men and so much detested by the professers of the Latin Tongue for the newness of his phrase the obscurity of his speech his vitious brevity and for his so cruel Political Doctrine by which he rather forms severe Tyrants then just Princes vitious subjects then such as are indued with that naked goodness which makes Government so easie to Princes it being clearly seen that he by his impious precepts converts lawful Princes into Tyrants transforms natural subjects who ought to be mild and obedient sheep into wily foxes and creatures which Nature hath wisely ordained without or teeth or horns into ravenous wolves and head-strong buls a great Doctor of Fallacies the only Artificer of Tyranny a new Zenofon of a cruel and execrable Tiberipedia the
true forger of cunning cheating of saying things which he intends not of perswading that to others which he himself believes not of seeming fervently to covet that which he desires not and of appearing to hate what he loves an excellent Master to teach men the wicked Doctrine of concealing what they think and of speaking falshoods the Architecture of Fallacies and the only and so excellent Author of rash Judgements as most commonly he interprets mens wicked actions for sanctified ones and their good ones for diabolical And wilt thou alone amongst so many of my faithful Vertuosi even to my very face adore one for thy God who by his Writings shews he does not know that there is a God who being composed of nothing but impiety hath divulged that cruel and desperate Policy which doth so shame Princes that practice it and so much afflict people that make trial of it Who hath taught Princes as well as privat men the wicked art of double dealing the fraudulency to do what they do not say and to say what they mean not to do which is practised by some only that they may learn the wicked doctrine to paint out that for black which is white how to wind people about by fair speeches and foul deeds of deceiving all men by laughing when a man is angry and weeping when well pleased and of measuring love hatred and all human vertue only by the wicked compass of self-interest one vvho is read by good men only that they may knovv the nevv and deep fetches by vvhich unhappy mankind in this present age so miserably and vvith such publick calamity vvhirld about and to discover the execrable hypocrisie vvhich many Disciples of such a Master have practised that they may be esteemed by the simpler sort of people to live the lives of Saints though by obeying Tacitus his precepts they doe things vvhich even the devils of hell vvould blush to doe Are not you Lipsius avvare hovv since your Tacitus is so frequently read many Princes svverve from the wonted fashion of governing their people with meekness and clemency many privat men have forsaken their former purity of life many of â—…acitus his Writings were not lost as divers ignorant people affirm by the deluge of Barbarians which came to conquer Italy they were missing before then not by the ignorance of people who in those troublesom times were busied in War but for that those ancient people in whom the sincerity of soul and purity of the new Christian Religion did reign did detest that Writer which is now so much beloved and set up by many as I see he is by you to be adored for their golden Calf Tacitus is in all his parts unworthy to be read by honest men for there be more impieties in him then leaves lines words sillables nay then letters But it must be confest that the life which he hath written of Tiberius a fit Prince for the pen of such an Historian is altogether unsufferable which to the great benefit of mankind was for many ages hidden in some secret parts of Germany till by the pestiferous curiosity of a German which proved more fatal to the world then his compatriot the inventer of guns it was brought to light at the same time when that Noble Province began to be infected by the modern heresie only that Tacitus might by so great a prodigie subvert profane things when Luther molested the sacred ones Writings integrally wicked and lost for a while because the ancients liked them not And now to the great shame of the present age only admired by those Polititians who being followers of so great impiety have learnt from the Master of fallacies the doctrine of entertaining men with words as long as they live of feeding them with smoak of filling them with wind and of bringing them by vain hopes to utter beggery Certainly an infernal doctrin which being sowed by the husbandman Tacitus only for the benefit of Princes is now so greedily imbraced by every privat man as Tacitus who was formerly esteemed an Author only fit for Princes is now so frequently handled by all men as Shop-keepers and Porters seem to understand nothing better then reason of State and to the great derision of an art so highly esteemed by gallant men the world is full of base teachers of Policy Lipsius was half dead to hear Apollo speak thus bitterly Yet taking courage at his very last gasp he beg'd pardon of his Majesty for any other fault that he had committed and then freely said That his obligations to Tacitus were such so great the honor which by means of this his beloved Author he had won amongst the Flemmish Germans English French Spaniards and Italians as though he should love and honour him as his earthly God he thought he should not do enough to discharge his duty to the full and exactly shew his gratitude For having left ordinary writings behind him in the world they were only his labours upon Tacitus which had made him merit an admittance into Parnassus and immortal renown amongst men And that if he who drove a great Trade with another mans money was to be born withall if he did even adore him who at his pleasure might make him turn bankrupt how much more did he deserve at least to be excused if not commended by his Majesty if he were extravagant and did exceed the bounds of duty in his loving and honoring of Tacitus since his whole stock of credit with the Vertuosi was founded only in him And that since his entrance into Parnassus he had been so beloved and respected by the Litterati as his house had been as much frequented as those of the most famous Writers but that since he committed the gross fault of offending Tacitus Statim relictum illius limen nemo adire nemo sâ—…lari Tacit. lib 3. Annal. That therefore he would rather hate himself and die then lessen the reverence he bore to that his Author for he thought it a lesser loss to lose his life then the height of honor which by Tacitus his means he was arived at Apollo was scandalized to hear Lipsius speak thus and growing still more angry blamed him for that in his presence he had by so impudent an asseveration rather shewed his stif-neckt stubbornness of persevering in so wicked obstinacy then repent and ask pardon for his fa ult And chiefly his Majesty could not indure that he should term idolatry gratitude and obstinacy constancy Wherefore he commanded the same Cohort of Lyrick Poets to drag him out of dores who was not worthy to look upon his Lord and Master whom he had so highly offended and that having first stript him of all his Learning they should declare him to be shamefully ignorant and then burn him as a wicked Idolater Lipsius was already brought to the place of execution when his dearest friends advised him to bethink himself better and save both his life and reputation by craving his
by some disguised Vertuosi is relieved by the great French Ronsard VVHilst famous Dante Allegieri was the other day in a Country-house of his which he had built in a very solitary place to exercise his Poetry in some Litterati got secretly into his house where they did not only take him prisoner but holding a dagger at his throat and harquebuses at his sides they threatned to kill him unless he would tell them the true Title of his Poem whether he called it Comedy Tragi-Comedy or Heroick Poem And Dante answering them that they used him not like one of his quality and that if they would ask him the question in Parnassus he would satisfie them The Litterati that they might have their desire immediately beat and buffeted him and not being able by these insolencies to compass their intents they grew so outragious as taking the rope which hung upon the bucket by the well side they fastned it to a beam of the house and went about to hang Dante therewith who cry'd out Help help murder murder and so great was the noise he made as it was heard by Ronsard the Prince of French Poets who had a Country-house not far from that of Dante This generous Frenchman took up his sword immediately and ran towards the noise whereupon the Litterati fearing lest some others might be with Ronsard ran away but not so soon but that the Frenchman both saw and knew them Dante was set at liberty clothed and brought to Parnassus by Ronsard where the news of so foul a riot being heard Apollo was very much grieved at it and his honor pressing him to know the Delinquents he first examined Dante who told him all that had past and said he knew not who they were that had dealt so inhumanly with him but that it might be that Ronsard who had not only seen them but had severely reprehended them for that their insolency might peradventure know them Ronsard was forthwith sent for who denied not only that he knew any of them but said he had not seen them The Judges by reason of this contrariety between what Dante had said and Ronsards Deposition feared that the Frenchman thinking it a base thing to accuse any man would not discover the Delinquents When Apollo heard of this he was very angry with Ronsard and commanded to give him the Rack Wherefore Ronsard was quickly secured who persisting in his denial the Judges gave order that he should be put to the rack as one who was likely to know somewhat Ronsard being stript bound and bidden to speak the truth was raised from the ground The generous Frenchman instead of complaining as is usual in such cases desired the Judges that they would not let him down all that day affirming that he held it too inestimable a content rather to suffer so then to offend any one The Judges finding by this his constancy that they should do no good by the rope caused Ronsard to be let down and began to think upon some other torment and of as many as were propounded the Judges liked none better then that which Perillo's devilish wit found out who said that a better way to torment a Frenchman then either ropes or fire was to set him without either spur or switch upon a slow dul horse and so they did It was a miraculous thing to see that Ronsard was no sooner set on horseback but belabouring him with his legs wrying his body twenty several waies and shaking the bridle to make the horse go fast he grew to such impatiency and was surprised with such an agony of mind as being quite out of breath he cryed to the Serjeants that were by his side Take me down friends for I am dead take me down quickly and I will tell all and let them suffer the punishment that have done the fault Those you enquire after were Monsignor Carrieri of Padua Iacapo Mazzoni of Cesena and another whom I know not but you may know from the other two that I have named The XCIX ADVERTISEMENT All the Princes of the world beseech Apollo that he wil insert into their people the love of their Country THe Ambossador from all the Princes of the Universe who came long since to Parnassus had on Thursday long audience from his Majesty and the common report is That in the name of all his Princes he made a sore complaint that their people committed every day such shameful excesses so inormous actions as that they had made the art of Reigning much more difficult then it was That they were so far advanced in their disorders as a Prince could not now give a City or any strong Hold in custody to a Souldier without running evident danger of being in a short time treacherously assassinated and that they could not be so circumspect nor wary in chusing a Captain-General or other Officer of War but that they were soon brought into the sad condition of being forced to fear their servant friend then their Prince enemy and that the peoples iniquity was no less then the Commanders perfidiousness For their people were so shamefully given over to a vitious curiosity as they began in a short time to hate any Prince how good soever shewing the same desire and liking to change Princes as they had to change meat at their tables That hence it arose that Princes in their greatest needs were not only not assisted by their people and defended by them with that affection and charity as they were bound to do but it was every day seen how they were shamefully betrayed by them and for a little money sold to their enemies And that the Princes had at last learnt that for certain all these evils were occasioned through the little love which people bore unto their Countries and that Rome the Queen of the World and Mother of Empire could succesfully extend the Confines of her Dominion from the East to the West only by means of the cordial love which her Citizens bore her That whereas amongst them banishment was as terrible as death many modern Princes that they may not be without Subjects nor have their Countries unpeopled were forced to forbid men the forgoing of their Country upon pain of forfeiting their Estates That therefore all the Princes of the world did jointly signifie unto his Maj. that all the remedies they could use against this so grievous evil had proved invalid and that therefore they humbly intreated him that he would be pleased to insert into the hearts of subjects that fervent charity and that immence love unto their Countries as was seen to be in the Subjects of Commonwealths and wherein doubtlesly the chief greatness and richest treasure lay of whosoever reigned Apollo answered the Ambassador That Princes might make their Subjects love their Countries much better then he could by good Government and equal Justice and by liberality and procuring them perpetual abundance For that all men who by natural instinct bore an excessive love to
came to Court he used all possible diligence to observe his Princes genius and finding that he vvas mightily given to lasciviousness he used all his Rhetorick to praise a vice so misbecoming a King making it appear to be an egregious vertue and then all his industry to be imployed by him therein vvhich vvhen he had obtained he studied diligently hovv to fit him vvith those vvho mig ht satisfie his lust That aftervvards under divers pretences as that they vvere either vitious or enemies to the Prince he had by degrees removed all the Princes honest servants from the Court vvho he knevv might have reduced him to have lived vertuously and that he had put Confidents of his own in their places who were likewise given to carnallity and to all other sorts of vice by whose means he had endeavoured that his Master should quite lose some signal endowments which he had by nature and which he had received by his former good education That then under pretence that they were unfaithful he had so wrought it as all the old State-Ministers were turned out whose just sorrows for their Prince his loose life he had made the Prince believe were but seditious backbitings and so had made their places be conferred upon men void of counsel or wisdom and who cared not for their Princes interest for he onely desired confidence in them and that they would stick close to him and that he had so surrounded his Master with such as these as it was impossible for him to hear truth from any one that was faithful to the common good which truth ought always to be joyned to a Prince as is his shadow to his body That then to the end that he himself might alone govern the State he had brought his Prince to be so in love with idleness as taking delight in nothing but pleasant Gardens Conntrey-houses and hunting he hated to hear of business or of any thing that concerned his State That moreover he had brought him to believe that his having made him fall out with his own son and the Princes of the blood proceeded from his great zeal unto his service and his love to the publique good of his people and that he had so besotted him by his cunning tricks as the unfortunate Prince called that the vigilancy of a faithful servant an ease to his labours charity towards the publike affairs which was known by the veriest fools of his State to be Tyranie and as such abhord And had made him believe that his idleness slothfulness and negligence was honourable repose That besides all this to the end that the Prince might never awake out of so shameful a sleep and opening his eyes might be aware of his own simplicity and of other mens wicked ambition he had filled his house with flatterers who by their infamous perswasions cryed up his folly for great worth the peoples universal hatred for immeasurable love publique fault finding for exagerated praise confusion for excellent Government the tyrany of a wicked personage for excellent service termed extortions justice prodigallity liberallity his slothfulness and baseness in having quite given over the Government of his State honorable labour and diligent rule All the Princes who heard the wickednesses confest by this perfidious man were so astonished at the hearing thereof as they said it was charity to hang him and that therefore Perillous should be desired to invent some new torment whereby this monster of nature might be by piece-meal torn in pieces and made to dye a lingring death to the end that no man might ever commit such wickedness hereafter And the Princes were so moved with the foulness of this process as they earnestly desired his Majestie to use extraordinary rigour to such who should suffer themselves to be so shamefully treated by their fraudilent servants And because Apollo being so touched at the very soul with the vertuous desire made unto him by these Princes let fall some tears the foolisher sort of people believed that it was occasioned through his great joy to see the Princes so much detest that vice which he desired they might shun but the wiser sort of Vertuosi who were there present knew very well that Apollo bewailed the blindness of Princes who are so drunk as hating their own errors in others did earnestly desire that those vices should be punished with extraordinary severity in which the most of them without being aware of it were dipt even up to the eyes So pernitious is it in Princes to idolatrize Minnions as knowing it and blaming it in their companions they are not aware of it in themselves but do highly commend it and they who boast themselves to be the onely Aristarchi of the world are those who fall into this shameful error The VI. ADVERTISEMENT All the Monarchies of the world affrighted at the over-great power and successful proceedings of the German Common-wealths consult in a general Dyet how to keep themselves from being in time opprest by them THe general Dyet which all the Monarchies of the World intimated four moneth ago to be held at Pindo the 15 of the last moneth and which by excluding all the Commonwealths of Europe occasioned great jealousies in them lest a general league might be concluded against all free Countreys Being at last dissolved on the 20 of the present moneth and the Princes being already returned to their own States it is known for certain that it was called for no other end but against the infinite number of Commonwealths which have of late been instituted amongst the Switzers Grisouns Bearnois and other people of Germany particularly against those which with so much scandal to Monarchy begin to rise between the Hollanders and Zealanders in the Low-Countreys When all the Monarchies of the World according to their custom were set down in a great Hall it is said their Lord Chancellor spoke thus Most high and mighty Monarchs and Rulers of mankind it may clearly be seen by the sad and dangerous condition which you are in that there is nothing under the Sun which is perpetual nor which doth not threaten present ruine Since Monarchy her self which by all understanding Polititions hath always been held for the sovereign Queen of all Policy hath got so great a rent and cleft in her Fabrick as it is not onely evidently seen that she is not of that Eternal Foundation which those who understand State affairs have continually asserted her to be but seems to be neer ruine Monarchies from the very beginning of the World to this present day have governed so happily and won such reputation as of all sorts of Governments they have been cheifly praised and have always had the victory over Commonwealths their enemies And though it was thought that the immence Roman Liberty by having destroyed so many famous Monarchies would have put the whole World at Liberty yet at last though after a long time she her self turned into a Principality which is the certain end
Apollo had heard the request of this Vertuoso If you have brought nothing else with you friend Mario said he then that little volume which you have there of the nature of love I am sorry that I must tel you you have taken pains to no purpose having laboured to shew the world the nature of that love which is so well knoâ—…n to all men as that there is not any one that knows not in some sort how to conceal it you might have deserved a chief place in this my State I tell you if you had bestowed your labour in writing the nature of hatred which every ignorant common person knows so well how to palliate with the name of good-will and cover with the false cloke of love as the world is full of the complaints and appeals of those unfortunate people who for having trusted too much exclaim of being assassinated by their friends Marius Equicola departed much afflicted from the Court by reason of this his Majesties resolute answer next to whom came Sforza Oddo a famous Perugian Doctor of Law who laid at his Majesties feet his compleat Treatises Della Compendiosa sostitutione and Della restitutione in Integro and the Volumes of his learned Conciglis which in a short but pithy Oration he desired might be consecrated to Immortality This Litterato was very acceptably and graciously received by his Majesty and by the Colledg of the Vertuosi but but little honour was done to those his Works not for that they were not compleatly learned but for that Treatise of Law being of very little esteem in this State Sforza was only admired for the sweetness of his disposition and for his being very much verst in all the most commendable Sciences Immortality was therefore but coldly and with weak applause decreed to Sforza and to his writings and when he had taken the accustomed Oath of Allegiance between the Chancellors hands he was told by the Master of the Pegasean Ceremonies that his business being ended he might be gone Sforza replyed that he could not nor ought not to be gon before his Majesties Exchequer was bound to keep his name and fame alwaies alive in mens memories as he had seen done to Magagnati and others Apollo hearing this dispute he spake thus to Sforza Know most honored Litterato that I willingly bind my Royal Exchequer for security of perpetual fame to those my Vertuosi who are admitted into Parnassus but this belongs not to Doctors of the Law with whose writings I out of good reason proceed otherwise for knowing that the infinite volumes of modern Lawyers have put those Laws into so great confusion in the clearness and perspicuity whereof mans greatest felicity lies as to end suits which are made everlasting the capricio s of privat men are more imbraced and followed then the Decrees of Princes and in the multitude of the variety of common opinions the opinions of writers are rather imbraced then weighed I foresee that within a short time Princes will be forced to free mankind afflicted by so great disorder with extirpating out of the world the writings of those Iurisconsulti who by their infinite cavilings have turned the administration of sacred Justice into an execrable Merchandize Wherefore I should too much injure my Exchequer if I should oblige it to keep the fame of those infinite volumes written by the Doctors of Law perpetually alive which I foresee for certain will shortly all be burnt as being publike prejudicial enemies to mankind Sforza by reason of this unexpected answer of Apollo looked very pale and being much afflicted reassumed his Writings consecrated to immortality and putting them under his left arm took from out his bosom three excellent Comedies made by him De Morti vivi and Della Erofilamacchia and della Prigione d'Amore Andshewing them to his Majheld up in his right hand said Most Illustrious Prince of the Zodiack I rather desire to obtain certain Immortality amongst the Italian Comick Poets then that of the Doctors of Law which as your Majesty hath said is so manifestly exposed to the danger of fire I am so delighted with the sight of this so glorious abode in Parnassus as I will not leave any thing unindeavoured that I may never depart from thence I therefore humbly beseech your Majesty not to think me unworthy thereof Apollo then commanded the Vertuosissimo Alexandro Picolommeni called Lo Stordito Intronato the Prince of Italian Comick Poets that he should acquaint the Colledg of the Litterati with his opinion of those commodities which Picolommini having done and therein highly exaggerated sforza's wit Immortality was again decreed unto him by all the Litterati of Parnassus and all the aforesaid solemnities being performed Sforza departed very much joy'd from the Royal Audience Giovanni Despâ—…uterio a Dutch Schol-master presented Apollo next with his Grammer and earnestly desired to be admitted into Parn ssus To whom Apollo answered That being cloy'd with so nausty a generation by reason of the musty mouldy disputations and questions which daily arose in Parnassus between the Pedanticks he was resolved rather to lessen their number which was grown too great then ever to adde any one more to them that therefore he might depart when he pleased Though Apollo had so clearly excluded Despauterius yet was not he a whit discouraged but with a Pedantick petulancy answered Sir if your Majestie shall please to give such satisfaction to my demands as I desire I am so far from intending to displease your Majestie or any of your Litterati in Parnassus as I promise and oblige my self to teach my easie Grammar to all such children as shall come to my School Gratis Appollo replyed That he was not the first who under pretence of so charitable a work had intruded themselves into Parnassus that Donato first then Guarin Scopa and Mâ—…rcinello next and many other Grammarians who by their excessive number had so defiled Parnassus had made use of the same fair pretence who being afterwards grown wealthy by the profuse liberallity of their Schollars Parents whereas their large Donatives ought to have encouraged them in so good a work they contrary to all mens expectation had wrought the contrary effect for being already become rich as soon as they saw they could live plentifully upon their own incomes they abandoned their profession of teaching and impiously spurn'd at that charity which seemed first to be so deeply graven in their hearts so as such being become unuseful in Parnassus were a visible incumbrance to him and to his Litterati Apollo further added that notwithstanding all that had been said that he would willingly allow Despauterius an abode in Parnassus but upon condition that whensoever he should shut up his school he should restore all the moneys to the Parents which he had taken for instructing their children When Despauterius had heard this proposal made by Apollo he without further replying made all the haste he could out of the Court and answered Iohn Baptist
which might ensue thereupon made him aware of his great error which blinded with passion he committed in that his Cause telling him That Princes did then make their Nations great and powerful when they united them to an inferior Nation as the Kings of France had done by the important acquisition of Britany and not to a more numerous and potent Kingdom For in the first case by aggrandizing her Empire men made their Nation Mistriss whereas in the other by lesning her Dominion they made her a slave Whilst King Ferdinando departed the Audience no waies appeased by this his Majesties wise answer to the great admiration of the whole Colledg a Sparrow-Hawk came flying into the Court and lighting upon the publick Chair infused wonder into all the spectators who took it for some prodigious thing which signified some great matter And the Souldiers of the Guard running to drive her out of the Pavillion his Majestie commanded them to let her alone Then the Roman Augures or Southsayers rose up and desired Apollo that they might interpret that Augury Apollo laught at the request of those vain men and told them that futurities were so hidden by immortal God from men as he was a meer fool who pretended he could foretell them by the flying of birds or any such like thing which hapned by chance and that if they would make use of their Art of Augury by their ordinary interessed ends of making ignorant men more obedient and ready in the execution of such things as they desired shewing them that the will of God concurred with mans command they should know that Parnassus was no aboad for such fools as could be whirld about by the holy and sacred pretences of malitious interessed men Apollo having said these things and great silence insuing thereupon the Hawk spake thus That Vertue which is thought to be only peculiar to man is not only known by other Animals but loved by them and greedily imbraced is clearly proved by the aptness which is seen in birds to learn several tunes which they hear sung by others and by their learning to speak like man by the corveting and dancing of four-footed beasts and by other things which they see or are taught the which they do as gracefully imitate as they do easily learn This truth most glorious Prince of the Planets is sufficient to make the wonder cease in all those that hear me why I a savage bird who live by rapine and am therefore thought to have a cruel heart and to be fiercely minded should desire the so happy and blessed aboad of Parnassus To adorn the soul with vertue the desire of good conversation is not only infused by God into men who are indued with an understanding able to know all things but into all sorts and conditions of Creatures And since I very well know that those are only admitted into Parnassus who by their words and acts either have taught or are able to teach holy precepts good doctrine and vertuous things I certainly may with much reason pretend to be thought very worthy to live in these fortunate habitations I know that all these glorious Litterati will grant me that mans subsistence that the good beginnings better progress and best end of all vertuous life depends upon the education which parents give their children this as necessary as badly known Science of breeding up children well is notwithstanding very ill practised by men and very well known by the instinct of nature to bruit animals I if it may stand with your Majesties approbation am come to instruct in Parnassus listen therefore Gentlemen and admire Amongst us birds there is no more immense love then that which children bear to their fathers but I find mans ignorance to be so gross that amongst them the greatest enemies which children have are their fathers For the unbowel'd love which they bear unto them is more prejudicial to them then is their enemies implacable hatred Love even to ones own children hath its bounds and limits which those who exceed occasion ruine to their children and that you may judge of other animals by the example which I shall shew you of us birds we do so affectionately love our young ones as to feed them upon urgent necessity with flesh torne out of our own breasts is not our utmost charity to them but we do notwithstanding as men unfortunately do love them when they are old but by the wise instinct of nature only so long as they must of necessity be fed by us for when we find their claws begin to grow sharp and their wings strong the first fit for prey the other for flying we use the last and most perfect bounds of charity in not loving them any longer not for that that paternal affection which lives in fathers even after their childrens death ceaseth to be amongst birds but because that infinite affection of parents to do what is best and most convenient for their children requires it should be so the love of fathers to their children is not only useful but necessary but only so long as they are not able of themselves to get their living and harmful and directly pernitious if they assist them when they are able by their own labours and industry to live plentifully of themselves For certainly mens children would be very industrious if their parents would only love them till that time which God hath prefixt unto us and that they would do like me who when I see my young ones can fly currantly I shew them hedges full of Sparrows that they may live plentifully So men when their children are become men like themselves should shew them Princes Courts and chief Metropolitan Cities wherein much business is transacted to the end that they might maintain themselves not like idle and unusefull lumps of flesh buried in sloathfulness and total ignorance but by their own vertuous industry Apollo having heard so necessary a lesson for men after having highly praised the Sparrow-hawk and deputed it a safe and honourable place in Parnassus he said Now at last my beloved Vertuosi we find clearly that the immortal God having infused full and perfect wisdom into bruit-beasts for what concerns their preservation and propagation the true Philosophy which makes men wise and to which by continual study and speculation they ought to attend is to observe their natural instincts and diligently to practice them in what concerns themselves for so they might lead their lives happily not by the capriciousness of several sects of Philosophers so far differing in opinion amongst themselves but by living according to holy and prudent natural precepts and as it would be a foul disorder if birds and other bruit animals should feed their children till they grow old in their nests and dens so it must be confest that parents do very ill who taking more care how to accumulate wealth and riches for their children then to leave them the pretious and alwaies permanent patrimony of
they at last overcame all hindrances and past over the dangerous passage Apollo then bad Morone turn back and to consider well the dangerous hole which guided by a blind man he had happily escaped which when he had done he run full of amazement and apprehension and threw himself down before his Majesties feet and humbly craving pardon for his having laughed confest that by the guidance of a silly blind man he had prosperously past over that deadly Ford of the fraudulent Marquiss of Piscara wherein himself who was judged to be one of the best guides of all the Italian Princes broke his neck The XIX ADVERTISEMENT Luigi Alemanni having in an Elegant Oration set forth the Praises of the French Nation repented that his action afterward and desired leave of Apollo to make his Recantation but was not permitted so to do LUigi Alemanni a Noble Florentine Poet gave himself to hate the Spanish Nation deadly ever since his Country was overcome by the Forces of the Emperor Charls the fifth an action which would have purchast him much love amongst the Italians had he not obscured this his glory with the common ignorance of many modern Italians of not knowing how to hate the Spaniards without declaring partiality to the French of whom Alemanni grew so inamoured as much to his Majesties admiration he asked leave to make a publick Oration in Praise of them a resolution which did not only redound to his own particular shame but to the shame of all Italy every one being scandalized that so famous a Florentine Poet should extoll the praise of that Nation from whose sole ambition Italy may justly acknowledg all her present slavery to proceed Alemanni made this his Oration and did therein very much exaggerate the glory of the French Nation terming it the overthrow of the famous Roman Liberty only because it gave the Arms of Tyranny into Cesars hands wherewith that ambitious man did afterwards slay the Liberty of his Country He said that the French had in their Wars perpetual victory in Africa Asia and Europe and ruled with infinite glory He stiled the French Monarchy the Triumphant Princess over the whole world her enemies scourge and the only means and instrument of the yet remaining Liberty of Italy He attested for truth That France was the most numerous Nation that was under the Sun he said it was rich fruitful well armed united strong well peopled with such as were most devoted to their King all which he said were things requisite in a Kingdom which will be held to be formidable and lasting This Oration made Alemanni be followed by an infinite number of French so as being made strangely much of by many of the Barons of that Nation he was easily perswaded to go into France where he found that true which his best friends had taught him that if he desired to love the French men he should by all means shun going to France for he had not been twenty daies in the French Court when he was so used by those people and so distasted at them as he was forced to fly from France as full of ill affection to it as he went thither with ravishment insomuch as he presented himself the other day with a much imbittered mind before Apollo and told him that having in that his Oration very falsly exaggerated the praise of the French Nation to the end that truth might prevail he desired leave to make his Recantation for by the unfortunate experience which he had made of the French he had found them to be so indiscreet so furious impertinent and so phantastically humerous and ingratefull beyond all human creatures as that they were no less capital enemies to the Italians though they knew they had many there that sided with them then they were to the English Spaniards Germans Dutch and all other forein Nations To this Apollo readily answered him That he did not only deny him the leave he had asked but straitly charged to repeat the same Oration again in praise of the French and that amongst the other singular vertues of that Warlike Nation he should mention the infinite glory which they had won by appearing to be mortal enemies to all forein Nations Which singular vertue he said the Italians were so far from as they were not ashamed to become the apes of all the most barbarous parts of the world in their discourse aparrel feeding and in all other their actions In so much as if the Jews did rule in any part of the earth it was to be believed that to curry favour with that base generation many of them would not be ashamed to wear yellow hats The XX. ADVERTISEMENT Corbulone having with much honour ended his prefixt time of Government in Pindo a Patent to continue the same Iurisdiction for one year longer is graciously sent him by Apollo which he refuseth to accept of DOmitio Corbulone having happily ended the first year of his Government of Pindo Apollo who was very well satisfied with him sent him his Letters Patents to continue in the same Government the next year though Corbulone knew very well that all the people of his Government did very much desire his continuance in Pindo yet he had importuned Apollo to send one with all speed to succeed him in that place And though he foresaw that Apollo would interpret his refusal sinisterly yet he again desired to be changed and had his request granted Being returned to Parnassus his friends desired to know why he had refused to continue still in that imployment which many other great personages were ambitious of Corbulone answered them That he who would preserve his body in health and keep up his reputation must be so much master of himself as to be able to rise from the Table with an appetite and to quit Governments when people seemed to be best satisfied with him For Officers though they were foolish and untoward were alwaies adored by the people the first six months well enough believed the second six months but that though they were good they were hated the third six months and at the end of two years the people grew sick of those that were best not for any misdemerits of the Governor but through the peoples too great curiosity who as easily grow weary of good things as they do of bad That therefore that Servant or Officer of a Prince deserved to be esteemed wise who havng done some special good service to his Prince could resolve to leave the Court and leave his Master in love with him and not to tarry till that unfortunate time which will at last happen in all Courts of being shamefully driven out of dores either for some small fault which is able to cancel any former merit how great soever or else for that not only privat men but Princes are subject to be glutted with the same conversation still and do daily love new things and take delight in growing worse The XXI ADVERTISEMENT Sebastian
desire every one to consider that those who boasting of their worth and great vertue in the Roman Senate would be known to be of a better condition then the rest did it not for that they were inamored of Vertue not out of that onely nobleness of minde which ought to be in every one who can be content to dye a private man but that they might have a noble retinue to win popular favour the Armies love a great truth which hath not been better taught to such a Prince as my self by any writer then by thee Tacitus for thou freely sayst that new Princes meet with no worser nor more wicked a subject then that worthy Senator who makes use of Vertue to chalk out the way to the ambition which he hath of Government For after thou in thy Annals hast painted to the life the demeanor of that Traytor Sejanus thou sayst these following words which cleerly prove my intention Palam compositus pudor intus summa adipiscendi libido ejusque causa modo largicio luxus saepius industria ac Vigilantia haud minus noxiae quoties parando Regno finguntur Tacit. lib. 4. Ann. And thou hast said well for in a new State not being yet secured in an hereditary descent and where the tumultuous choosing of a Prince hath so large a scope as it is lawful even for him that murders the Prince to aspire unto the Empire those great subjects those worthy and all-deserving Officers who are so much admired by private men as they are thought by them to merit their Princes integral love the highest preferments best rewards are notwithstanding known by him that reigns to be most pernitious fit to be rooted out So as the condition of the Roman Empire being no less disorderly in her hereditary succession then greatly tumultuous in her election required in me that severe way of proceeding which was onely able to save my life and preserve the State Nor can I see how any man can blame the cruelty which I used towards the Roman Nobility and the worthiest subjects of the Empire since it would have been thought a great defect and much mis-becoming such a one as me if I should have used that clemency towards them that mildness and familiarity which Caesar to his cost did whose miserable end dos cleerly teach all men that states which are fraudulently possest ought to be establisht by extraordinary severity For the Nobility of subjugated Commonwealths make use of the new Princes Clemency only as of an excellent means to suppress him by Conspiracies nor doth it any whit at all avail as a man would think it should do for the allaying of that rage of hatred or quenching the great and perpetual desire which they have to vindicate the injury done them in their lost liberties though thereby they run the greatest hazards and danger that can be incur'd The Judges did much approve of Tiberius his defence for they did not onely allow of Augustus his last Will and Testament and consequently of the legitimacy of Tiberius his succession but they also considered that he being a new Prince no ways allyed in blood to Augustus and there being many Roman Senators better born then himself according to the true rules of Tyrannical Policy he was forced to use cruelty there where that veneration and Majesty was wanting which the being born of Royal blood brings with it and made his way by sword and poyson making himself be dreaded by those who presumed too much upon themselves and dared to paragonise their privat Nobility with his immense fortune who reigned and that where to use clemency was prejudicial to the new Princes the use even of unusual severity ought to be esteemed lawdable The XXXIV ADVERTISEMENT Hyppocrates having advised Apollo how to prevent the frequent deaths of sick folks occasioned through the ignorance of Physicians and proving unfortunate in that his advice is in great danger of being severely punisht by his Majesty HYppocrates that great Physician told Apollo some few days ago that the world was so pesterd with ignorant Physicians as unless some suddain remedy were taken for it all mankind would be destroyed for that sick folks were cured by ignorant Physicians by new experiments by contrary medicines and rather by Mounte banks receits then by canonical and true rules of Art whence it was that many sick folks dyed who if they had been administred unto by learned Physicians might easily have been restored to their former healths Apollo being advised by so famous a man resolved to remedy so great an evil Wherefore some six months ago he constituted a Colledge of the most famous Physicians that the world ever had the chief whereof were Cornelius Caelsus Galen Avesine Fracastoro Filopio l'Altozmari and the most meritorious Girolimo Mercuriale and made Hyppocrates that Prince of Physick head of the Colledge which he endowed with ample Authority to provide experimented Physick and of known vertue for mankinde These Physicians first distributed out their orders and Physicians were sent into all places who for the greater safety of mens healths and long lives were commanded to use nothing to their Patients but common Glisters Roman Oyntments usual Purges and in pestilent Feavers pectoral waters but that when they should have occasion to let blood to cure malignant Feavers double Tertians or other grievous maladies they should be commanded to acquaint the Colledge speedily with every particular accident that befel the sick party with the condition of his sickness with his several accesses of Feaver and that in such cases they should be very careful of sending the water and excrements of the sick person every morning and evening to the Colledge to the end that they might with better satisfaction to the sick party take order for necessary Medicaments The Physicians very willingly did what they were commanded by the Colledge But it was not long ere the world was aware that those orders which were given with so much zeal to the publike good wrought not that good effect which his Majesty perswaded himself they would have done for the Physicians who administred Physick to the sick were so perplext in putting on due resolutions in their observations of the several alterations and changes of the maladies as they durst not upon any suddain accident that should arrive succor the sick parties with any requisite and speedy help but shewing more obedience to the Colledge then charity to their Patients refused to meddle with those maladies which would admit of no delay without express Order from their superiors and truely it was sad to see that the time which should have been spent in the cure of their Patients was imployed to no purpose by those Physicians in writing eloquent relations and many learned advices to those of the Colledge to whom with all dilligence they sent the water and excrements of the sick which altering by reason of the length of the way it unfortunately fell out that the
those spectacles as possible he could which were indeed so pernitious to Princes and that he should chiefly be sure not to part with any but to choice personages to the Secretaries and privy Councel of Princes to the end that they might know the more easily how to Govern the people and that above all things as he valued his Majesties favour he should keep from communicating them to such seditious people who in troublesom times might serve for Lanterns to the simpler sort of people who suffered themselves easily to be governed when not being inlightned by Learning they might be said to be blind and want a guide The LXXII ADVERTISEMENT Many Carriers who contrary to the Laws brought great store of Beans into Parnassus are taken Prisoners by the Scouts THis morning being the twentieth of this present moneth the Field-Scouts met with some Carriers who brought store of beans into Pernassus a sort of Pulse which was long since banished out of all Apollo's Dominions for his Majesty having found in many unfortunate former occasions that many passionate Literati that they might vent their mad passions which burn'd within their bosoms whilst they made use of these beans in the Senat have utterly undone themselves and their whole Families to the end he might maintain peace and concord amongst his Vertuosi did many years since forbid the sale of any such Pulse under pain of severe punishment it having been used by divers instead of musket-bullets only to blast the reputation of honest men It was learn'd from the same Carriers that this Inhibited Merchandize was sent from ignorant and malignant Countries to such perfidious Courtiers of this State who study nothing else but how to scatter beans upon other mens stairs only to make such simple people fall and break their necks who firmly believe that no man can walk safely any where but with the feet of upright meaning and good conscience Whereupon Apollo did very much wonder to see that through the malignity of the times all Princes Courts are so pestered with these malignant spirits as they study more how to discompose other mens affairs then how to accommodate their own The LXXIII ADVERTISEMENT Seneca having bought great store of Poultrey in a Countrey-house of his which lies in the Gnides Territories those people come to the true reason of that his forestalling the Market SOon after that as you have heard the most excellent Annaeus Seneca obtained a Writ of Ease from his Majesty from further exercising his place of Chairman in the Moral Philosophy-School he that he might refresh his eminent wit which was much harras'd in his perpetual studies withdrew himself to a pleasant Countrey-house of his seated in the Territories of Gnido from whence they write That this so famous Literato at his very first coming thither made so great a provision of Cocks Hens and Capons as they that saw them in the place where they were kept judged them to amount to the number of above five hundred a thing which all the Inhabitants of Gnido did much wonder at and those speculative Wits who spend more time in vainly prying into other mens actions then in the well governing of their own were of opinion that Seneca had avarice joyned to the other faults which were imputed to him and that therefore he had forestalled and bought up all those Poultrey which was an action misbecoming a man of his parts only that he might inhance the price of them And it was said by the same Letters that some thought that he had added the detestable vice of gluttony to his infinite thirst after riches But it being observed in process of time that Seneca spent three hours daily after dinner in looking upon those his Poultrey it was at last known that this great Philosopher learn'd from that sort of Poultrey the art wherein he did not only exceed all other Writers but hath been followed therein by an infinite number of others of crowing well and scraping ill The LXXIV ADVERTISEMENT The Grand-child to the Prince of the Laconicks asks counsel of Apollo what course he should take to live with reputation in Laconia THat Grand-child of the Prince of Laconia who as you heard by the last Post through the froward stubbornness of his mind betook himself to the general scandal of his Government to lead a privat life being much afflicted and troubled in mind is this morning returned to Pernassus and presenting himself before his Majesty told him that much to his sorrow and trouble he had at last found that to be true which had been often told him by his best and dearest friends That most men were so full of ingratitude as they loved Fortune only and not the persons of their beneficent Princes a fault which occasioned that which good men were sorry to see that they were as sure to fail their friends when their fortunes failed them as Tacitus had reason to say That Intuta erant adversa Tacit. lib. 12. Annal. for much to his grief he found the Chain of Munificence whereby he had endeavoured to fasten unto him the affection of an infinite number of friends in his Uncles Kingdom from whom he expected a return of much gratitude to be but very weak And that if it were true which many Elective Princes had together with himself experienced to be true That a stroke of ingratitude gave the deadliest wound which could be received by a Noble mind and that to sow benefits and reap neglects was the saddest and most sorrowful exercise which could be practised by a Prince he deserved not only to be pittied by his Majesty and by all good men but to be assisted by advice And that in this his horrid change of fortune to see himself not only little respected by those whom he knew not but wounded by the speeches of those his dearest friends whom he had endeavoured to oblige and scorn'd by the actions of those which had formerly adored him was an affliction which did so inwardly grieve him as he was not able to support to strange a Metamorphosis That therefore since he was forced to pass from Principality to a privat life from commanding to obeying he greatly desired to know from his Majesty what course he should take to live with reputation in Laconia To this Apollo briefly answered That he should first inform himself in the Court of Rome where all the examples of the most heroick vertues did abound and then imitate the great splendor of Edward Cardinal Fernese who by a Princely generosity and profuse liberality used towards all men had made the Court and the whole Nobility of Rome so in love with him as he was now more honoured and observed in anothers Popedom then the great Alexander Cardinal Fernese was formerly in the Popedom of his Uncle Paul the third To this the Prince reply'd That he knew the counsel which his Majesty gave him to be very true but that the receit being very costly he thought it to be
inclin'd to wantonness would shew himself circumspect if he liked it better that a houshold-servant of his which was a spruce gallant should rather be infinitely hated then much beloved of his wife And as for that tediousness of coming to a resolution in her affairs which she knew to be faulty and full of danger it was not in her power to remedy it For â—…od Almighty having not without important reasons created her Spaniards in all and every thing of a geniâ—…s differing from that of the â—…rench as long as these were in their determinations rather hair-brain'd then good at action she by being slow and unresolved obey'd the will of God who had appointed that it should be so Presently after was drawn the Monarchy of Poland to whom Count Baldassare said That all the Princes of Europe desired that the present King Sigismond should have used against those sediâ—…ious Nobles which lately rebelled against him some severity worthy of so grievous an offence only that he might thereby terrifie other Nobles from committing the like To this the Polack Monarchy answered That in her Elective Kingdom those punishments inflicted upon the Nobility had alwaies proved dangerous which in an Hereditary State were beneficial And that Kingdom which one hath received as a Donative from a Nobility that had the election of the King in her own power could not be governed with that rigor which in hereditary States was necessâ—…ry without running an evident hazard of â—…umbling down headlong from his greatness â—…or that Senat whose election of love gave one a Kingdom if it were throughly moved by that most powerful passion of hate knew as well how to take it away again For the wary Senators used to reserve to themselves those necessary instruments whereby they might be able upon every occasion of dissatisfaction to repent their liberality Aâ—…d that the preâ—…ent Kiâ—…g Sigismond being the fiâ—…st of his stock that Reigned in Poland was in all his thoughts to aim at nothing more then wiâ—…h extraordinary diligence to get the good will of the Nobility of his State that so by his dearly esteemed memory he might perpetuate the succession of so great a Kingdom in his own stock An advice so much the more necessary for her King Sigismond in that the Polacks though they had their King by way of election yet they never defrauded the bloud-Royal of the succession if he that reigned knew but how by his gentleness to gain the universal good-will of the Nobility For Poland being a Nation which knew not how to live in an absolute freedom yet so much abhor'd total servitude as that King a thing common to all elective Principalitiâ—…s was amongst them the most sharp-fighted and vigilant in the affairs of his State that most of all made as if he did not see and made the greatest shew that he desired not to know all things Not only the Censor but the whole College of the Vertuosi admitted for excellent the Justification of the Polack Monarchy And because the most famous English Monarchy was drawn out of the Urn the Censor with something an angry countenance yet in gentle words told her That if humane wisdom were necessary for any person it was was most necessary for Princes because of the important business which they had in hand of governing mankind And that the chiefest and truest wisdom of men being the fear of God little store of discreet government could be expected from him who had committed the impious and detestable â—…olly of falling away from his Divine Majesty That therefore he required her to let the present Iames the sixth know that the politick precept which England and Scotland had impudently put in practice of conforming Religion to Ambition and making use of her for a Winch to turn and wind the people was a point of Policy that either was unknown to the Antients or which they durst not use for fear of offending God That therefore she should put him in mind to have alwaies before his eyes the deplorable calamities of the Greek Empire which although for ampleness of State for multitude of Subjects and wealthiness of Treasure it did vastly surpass the Kingdom of England yet because to avoid being subject to the Divine Supremacy of the Pope it disagreed from the Catholike Religion it so much deserved the Divine anger that the world hath beheld it made slave to the basest and most barbarous Nation as ever since the memory of men reigned upon the earth That therefore she should give notice to the now-King Iames that he ought so much the more to reconcile himself to God in that he being Soveraign over two Kingdoms so great enemies to one another it was not possible for him without especial assistance from God to establish the union of those two great Crowns That therefore he should know that every day he did more and more provoke him against himself when spending the greater part of the day in defending the manifest errors of his Sect he busied himself in nothing but Disputations of Religion At this severe and just censure of Castiglione the English Monarchy was seen to fall a crying And after this the Censor turning towards the vast Ottoman Empire told him That the cruelty which he used so much upon slight suspicions against his most principal Officers was judged by all the world to be a savage action every one being of opinion that men of extraordinary worth and high deserts should never be questioned but for grievous delinquencies and such as had been proved against them And that if the Ottoman Princes might be justified in taking away their Officers lives yet the custom of seizing upon their goods and making them to be carried to the Royal Treasury or Casna and so utterly to deprive the children of them had no colour of justice in it for every one conceived that by this cruel rigor mens Estates were rather proceeded against then their demerits With admirable gravity answered the Ottoman Empire to this so open reproof saying That he was grown up to that greatness in which all men saw him only by those two powerful means of Reward without measure and of Punishment without limit And that the only foundation of the tranquillity of every State being laid in the fidelity of the more important Ministers thereof Princes were to seek after nothing with greater care then by immense rewards to allure them to Loyalty and by infinite chastisements to frighten them from treachery And that it not being possible for those Officers which had in their power the Forces of Emperors and Government of States to trespass but in matters of greatest moment it were the course of a simple Prince in suspicions of highest consequence to draw up Processes to allow Apologies and to hear the Defendants Justifications Whereas in such cases as these the Prince that will not endanger all must strive to take his Officer unawares and secure his own affairs by making the execution of the
Ambassadors cannot obtain Audience from Apollo but are disgracefully driven away by his Majesty IN the Port of Pindus about two daies agone there arrived a ship which set on shore some Ambassadors from Sicily sent by those of that Island to Apollo about matters of great importance who having given his Majesty notice of their arrival demanded Audience No sooner did Apollo hear Sicilians named but he shewed open signes of extream indignation against them and commanded Luigi Pulci Provost Marshal of Campania to tell them he would not so much as see them much less hear them and that therefore they should get them aboard again For because of that insupportable wrong which he had received from the Sicilians he had of a long time firmly resolved never to have any commerce more with that Nation The Ambassadors returning to their ships obeyed his Majesties commands To whom they sent an humble Petition wherein thâ—…y declared That they were sent to give his Majesty an account of the new Drudgeries the unheard of oppressions the miserable impositions which they suffer from the Spaniards And that so calamitous were the afflictions wherein the miserable Sicilians found themselves involved that they not only deserved to be graciously listened to by his Majesty but were worthy to be pittied and bewailed by the most barbarous Scythians that ever the earth bore The Petition was presented to Apollo by the reverend Father Tâ—…maso Fazzello a very elegant Writer of the Affairs of Sicily who assured his Majesty that at this present the miserable condition of the Sicilians surpassed the utmost of all humane afflictions Apollo told Fazzello again that the Sicilians demerits were such as they had thereby made themselves most worthy of the hard usages whereof they complained so much That therefore as soon as may be he should give the Ambassadors to understand That if within two hours they did not pack out of the Haven of Pindus he would have without more ado their ship sunk with his Cannon For he was absolutely resolv'd not to see the face of any that was of that most unadvised Nation which was the first Author of those horrid scandals that had brought excessive miseries upon her self and other people of Europe For having attracted that inhumane and ambitious Spanish Nation before utterly unknown to Italy and the other Provinces of Europe when with fatal resolution they made themselves subjects to the Kings of Aragon They then likewise gave the beginning to that fatal and cruel Tragedy whereof did the Italian Princes know what the conclusion of the last Scene of the fifth Act is likely to be they would keep a perpetual Fast and upon their naked knees continually pray for the obtaining of Divine aid to free themselves from those mischiefs against which it is apparent that humane remedies are not able to do any more good Fazzello then reply'd That his Majesty was not to be offended with the Sicilians but that Queen Ioane the second by her ever to be deplored adoption of Peter of Aragon had occasioned the present evils of the Spanish Government in Italy and that with very good reason he might vent his discontents against that indiscreet and unchast Lady To this Apollo answered That indeed those who had not an exact insight into Princes secret thoughts as he for his part had laid the blame of the present slavery of Italy upon that Queen but the truth was otherwise For it was a clear case that she would never to defend her self from the French Kings have fallen into that error of adopting a Spaniard for her King had she not first seen him a powerfull one by his rule over the Kingdom of Sicily and that the Kings of Aragon were no sooner called to the Government of that Island but they began those designs upon Italy which for the Italians exceeding great torment have had but too good success And that they were all so uâ—…questionably deserv'd by the Sicilians that to seek to lessen the calamities in which they did pennance for the sins of their indiscretion was as heinous a kind of impiety as it were an act of highest charity to make them yet more severe that they may serve for a manifest example to all Nations what bitter fruits the plant of wicked and cruel resolution doth in time bring forth when out of a desperate rage people run headlong into that abyss of subjecting themselves to the dominion of a forrein Nation Fazzello reply'd That all this had been very true had the Sicilians altered the rule of an Italian King to make themselves slaves to Barbarians But that having by their Vesper changed the indiscreet and hairbrain'd French into considerate and grave Spaniards it seemed that the intention of the Sicilians having been good deserved not such an odium from his Majesty At that Apollo grew extreamly incens'd againk Fazzello too and full of indignation he said to him And dost thou think that was not a very lewd ignorance of the Sicilians to remove from the insolence the prodigality the carelessness of the French Government to the cruelty to the avarice and to the insupportable strictness of the Spanish Were the Sicilians only ignorant of that which is known to every man that the Dominion of the Spanish over Countries is eternal And therefore out of all question deadly Whereas the Government of the French is just like a violent fever though it may be very dangerous yet it yields one some hope of life and there are many medicines with which it may be cured as indeed you cured it with your Sicilian Vespers A glorious Vesper certainly had you not by that Physick brought your health into an infinitely worse condition For Fazzello those people that are wise never take up the Arms of Rebellion but when they are sure to gain very well by it and to change bondage into liberty For the fish which perceives he cannot make his passage out of the boyling oyle into cold water thinks it less hurtfull for him to stay in the frying-pan than to make an escape and leap into the glowing fire Sigismondo Battori hath learned the Latine Tongue YEsterday late in the evening arrived at this Court the ordinary Post of Germany who made every one joyful with the welcom tidings he brought that the most Illustrious Sigismondo Battori late Prince of Transilvania was grown so much in love with the Latine Tongue that to his exceeding great glory he spake and wrote it with the purity and sincerity of Cesars stile Whereupon all the Vertuosi earnestly besought Apollo that for so joyful news there might be made all those demonstrations of gladness which when any Prince is become Learned were usually made to encourage great men to love Learning But because his Majesty sees into the inside of all things he denied those Vertuosi their request and told them That Pernassus then only feasted when Princes took their Learning out of the free choice of a noble mind and meer love to their
books not constrained by any necessity at all And that they must all know that Prince Battori had attained to this elegancy of the Latine Tongue not out of any ambition to shew himself learned nor out of a vertuous curiosity to know many things but out of the necessity he was put to of correcting for his credit's sake that simple boyish misconstruction which he committed in Gender Number and Case then when in the Hungarian War he made that fatal resolution of taking up arms against the Turks that he might adhere to the Emperor of Germany of whom having so strong and lively pretences upon the Principality of Transilvania he should have stood in more fear then of threescore and ten Ottoman Emperors The French are freed out of the Mad-mens Hospital by the Spaniards SOme two daies ago did Apollo now at last cause to be releas'd out of the Mad-mens Hospital a great number of French that had lain there many years During which time in their raging fits they had committed both against themselves and their friends many lamentable trespasses and had given cause sufficient for tears to all Europe Now because by Affidavit formally given in to the Court of the most illustrious Physicians or Medici of Florence who have alwaies been assisting in the cure of the dangerous malady of that Nation it was made fully to appear that they were recovered they have been dismiss'd But before their departure out of Pernassus his Majesty sent for them and told them That for the future they should understand how to enjoy so flourishing and potent a Kingdom with more discretion then formerly they had and that above all things they should remember that for the recovery of their healths they had been wholly obliged to the Spaniards who with only appearing armed in France and particularly in Paris had returned some brains into the beetle-heads of those Frenchmen that formerly had played such mad pranks in France Many and hearty thanks did then these Frenchmen return to his Majesty and said they should be so far mindful of the wholsom counsel he gave them that in measuring the distances of places they would hereafter accustom themselves to make use of the Italian mile that so they might avoid that woful name of League But as for the recovery of their brains they were altogether beholding for that to their most generous and ever victorious King Henry the fourth who with the splendor of his valour had opened the eyes of the French that had been foully blinded with Spanish hypocrisie Besides that the Spaniards which had been the first authors of that lamentable French Tragedy had so cunningly gotten a trick to make way for themselves in France with their glittering and most beloved double Pistolets that they had made both the foolish and the wise too to run out of their wits Some for examples sake are made a spectacle to the people APollo to his singular discontent was informed that the greater part of modern Princes do not for the subduing of their enemies make use according to the custom of the antient Heroes of open force but sometimes of fraud In the exercise of which they so much preval that only by the powerful means thereof they have made shift to bring their most important enterprises to pass Whence it is that the first weapon which these draw against their enemies is that so shamefull one of corrupting the Loyalty of their discontented Subjects and of stirring up the Nobility to rebellion Wherefore to remedy such grievous disorders about thirty years ago his Majesty gave command that the most unfortunate the Count St. Paul the Prince of Orange and the Duke of Guise should be brought in a wheele-barrow by Iohn Francesco Lottini privy Register of moral Precepts in this Court and set under the Porch of the Delphick Temple Whereupon these three great Princes with their hands fingerless and all pittifully mangled looking as if the dogs had gnawn them were shewn by Lottini to the people that went in and out of the Temple To whom with a loud voyce thus he spake Ye faithful Vertuosi devoted to Learning and sacred Morality take example by the so wretched calamity of these unfortunate Princes deprived of the use of their hands which God send you ever to enjoy and learn to know what comes of it when men will be perswaded to be so simple as to draw Crabs out of their holes with their own hands for the benefit of others A discovery made that the Spanish Officers are wholly concern'd in their own profits THree daies ago about one a clock at night forty Carts of Hay were seen to enter the Royal Palace of the Spanish Monarchy and because the unseasonableness of the time filled with jealousie the French the Venetians and other Potentates that live in perpetual jealousie of so formidable a Princesse's greatness with exact diligence inquiry was made whether the Carts carried any thing prejudicial under the hay And the Spies brought in word that under the hay were hidden chests full of mattocks spades and pickaxes And because these are tools that belong to Pioneers the French were resolved to stand to their arms and the Venetians would needs lanch out those Gallies that were in their Arsenal when it was resolved that before they would discover themselves they should do well to be informed whether the Spaniards had brought any other quantity of those instruments or whether they expected any from some other place And they were assured that neither formerly had they received any nor for the future did they expect any And the Spies added That as soon as those chests were taken down they were not carried into the Royal Magazine but all the Grandees of Spain and the prime Officers of that mighty Monarchy suddenly divided amongst them those mattocks those spades and those pickaxes with which the next morning very early with all speed they fell to digging of ditches to drawing of channels to making of banks and to loading the earth with a thousand Aqueducts every one with so much labour and diligence drawing the water to his own Mill as they had brought the publick affairs to such a sad condition that the Mills of the Commonalty of Spain could grind no longer for want of water Maximilian the Emperor is advertised of the tumults sprung up amongst his Sons THis last night there came in three Posts to the Emperor Maximilian the second and instantly it was divulged that they brought news how Matthias the Arch-Duke had taken up arms against his brother Rodulphus the Emperor with which he seditiously claimed the Kingdoms of Hungary of Bohemia of Austria and the absolute Soveraignty over other Provinces These unhappy tidings infinitely troubled the Emperors mind for he very well knew that the discord arisen amongst his Sons afforded to the enemies of the House of Austria that contentment which they so much desired to see Whereupon yesterday morning very early he presented himself before Apollo