stumbling blocks of feare of paine of lusts and desires And verily the deciding and judgement of this disputation lieth in the sense which feeleth aswell the one as the other and is touched with them both For say that the one doth surmount and hath the victorie it doth not therefore defeit utterly and destroy the other but drawen it is thereto perforce and making resistance the while As for example the wanton and amorous person when he checketh and reprooveth himselfe therefore useth the discourse of reason against the said passion of his yet so as having them both actually subsisting together in the soule much like as if with his hand he repressed and kept downe the one part enflamed with an hot fit of passion and yet feeling within himselfe both parts and those actually in combat one against the other Contrariwise in those consultations disputes and inquisitions which are not passionate and wherein these motions of the brutish part have nothing to do such I meane as those be especially of the contemplative part of the soule if they be equall and so continue there ensueth no determinat judgement and resolution but a doubt remaineth as if it were a certaine pause or stay of the understanding not able to proceed farther but abiding in suspense betweene two contrarie opinions Now if it chance to encline unto one of them it is because the mightier hath overweighed the other annulled it yet so as it is not displeased or discontent no nor contesteth obstinately afterwards against the received opinion To be short to conclude all in one generall word where it seemeth that one discourse and reason is contrarie unto another it argueth not by and by a conceit of two divers subjects but one alone in sundrie apprehensions and imaginations Howbeit whensoever the brutish and sensuall part is in a conflict with reason and the same such that it can neither vanquish nor be vanquished without some sense of grievance then incontinently this battell divideth the soule in twaine so as the warre is evident and sensible And not onely by this fight a man may know how the source and beginning of these passions differeth from that fountaine of reason but no lesse also by the consequence that followeth thereupon For seeing that possible it is for a man to love one childe that is ingenuous and towardly disposed to vertue as also affect another as well who is ill given and dissolute considering also that one may use anger unjustly against his owne children or parents and another contrariwise justly in the defence of children or parents against enemies and tyrants Like as in the one there is perceived a manifest combat and resistance of passion against reason so in the other there may be seene as evident a yeelding and obeisance thereof suffering it selfe to be directed thereby yea and willingly running and offering her assistance and helping hand To illustrate this by a familiar example it hapneth otherwhiles that an honest man espouseth a wife according to the lawes with this intention onely to cherish and keepe her tenderly yea and to companie with her duly and according to the lawes of chastitie and honestie howbeit afterwards in tract of time and by long continuance and conversing together which hath bred in his heart the affection of love he perceiveth by discourse of reason and findeth in himselfe that he loveth her more deerely and entirely than he purposed at the first Semblably yoong scholars having met with gentle and kinde masters at the beginning follow and affect them in a kinde of zeale for the benefit onely that they reape by them Howbeit afterwards in processe of time they fall to love them and so in stead of familiar and daily disciples they become their lovers and are so called The same is usually to be seene in the behaviour and carriage of men toward good magistrates in cities neighbours also kinsfolke and allies For they begin acquaintance one with another after a civill sort onely by way of dutie or necessitie and use but afterwards by little and little ere they be aware they grow into an affectionate love of them namely when reason doth concurre perswading drawing unto it that part of the mind which is the seat of passions and affections As for that Poet whosoever he was that first wrate this sentence Two sorts there be of bashfulnes the one we cannot blame The other troubleth many an hower and doth decay the same Doth he not plainely shew that he hath found in himselfe by experience oftentimes that even this affection by meanes of lingring delay and putting off from time to time hath put him by the benefit of good opportunities and hindred the execution of many brave affaires Vnto these proofes and alle gations precedent the Stoikes being forced to yeeld in regard they be so cleere and evident yet for to make some way of evasion and escape they call shame bashfulnesse pleasure joy and feare warinesse or circumspection And I assure you no man could justly finde fault with these disguisements of odious things with honest termes if so be they would attribute unto these passions the said names when they be raunged under the rule of reason and give them their owne hatefull termes indeed when they strive with reason and violently make resistance But when convinced by the teares which they shed by trembling and quaking of their joints yea by chaunge of colour going and comming in stead of naming Dolour and Feare directly come in with I wot not what pretie devised termes of Morsures Contractions or Conturbations also when they would cloke and extenuate the imperfection of other passions by calling lust a promptitude or forwardnes to a thing it seemeth that by a flourish of fine words they devise shifts evasions and justifications not philosophicall but sophisticall And yet verily they themselves againe do terme those joies those promptitudes of the will and warie circumspections by the name of Eupathies i. good affections and not of Apathies that is to say Impassibilities wherein they use the words aright and as they ought For then is it truly called Eupathie i. a good affection when reason doth not utterly abolish the passion but guideth and ordereth the same well in such as be discreet and temperate But what befalleth unto vicious and dissolute persons Surely when they have set downe in their judgement and resolution to love father and mother as tenderly as one lover may another yet they are not able to performe so much Mary say that they determine to affect a courtisan or a flatterer presently they can finde in their hearts to love such most deerely Moreover if it were so that passion and judgement were both one it could not otherwise be so soone as one had determined that he ought to love or hate but that presently love or hate would follow thereupon But now it falleth out clean contrarie for that the passion as it accordeth well with some judgements and obeieth
their children fall to gaming revelling masking and banquetting to drunkennesse wanton whooring love and such like misdemeanors So as in these regards this one Mot of Euenus in an Epigram of his deserveth to be praised and remembred See bow great paines all fathers undergo What daily griefes their chieldren put them to And yet for all this fathers cease not still to nourish and bring up children and such most of al who stand least in need of their children another day for a meere mockery it were and a ridiculous thing if a man should suppose that rich wealthy men do sacrifice unto the gods and make great joy at the nativitie and birth of their children because that one day they shall feede and susteine them in their old age and interre them after they be dead unlesse perhaps it may be said they rejoice thus and be so glad to have and bring up children for that otherwise they should leave none heires behind them as who would say it were so hard a matter to finde out and meet with those that would be willing to inherite the lands and goods of strangers Certes the sands of the sea the little motes in the sunne raised of dust the feathers of birds together with their variable notes be not so many in number as there be men that gape after heritages and be ready to succeed others in their livings Danaus who as they say was the father of 50. daughters if his fortune had beene to be childlesse I doubt not but he should have had more heires than so to have parted his goods and stare among them and those verily after another sort than the heires of his owne body For children yeeld their parents no thanks at all for being their inheritours neither in regard thereof do they any service dutie or honour unto them for why they expect and looke for the inheritance as a thing due and of right belonging unto them but contrariwise you heare how those strangers that hang and hunt about a man who hath no children much like to those in the comaedies singing this song O sir no wight shall do you any harme I will revenge your wrongs and quarrels ay Hold heare three-halfe-pence good to keepe you warme Purse it drinke it sing wo and care away As for that which Euripides saith These worldly goods procure men friends to chuse And credit most who then will them refuse It is not simply and generally true unlesse it be to those as have no children for such indeed are sure to be invited and feasted by the rich lords and rulers will make court and be serviceable to such for them great oratours and advocates will plead at the bar without fee and give their counsell gratis How mightie is a rich man with each one So long as his next heire is knowne to none where as you shall see many in the world who before time having a number of friends and honour enough and no sooner had a little childe borne unto them but they lost all their friends credit and reputation at once so that by this reckoning the having of children maketh nothing at all to the authoritie of their parents so that in regard thereof it is not that they doe so love their children but surely the cause of this their kindnesse and affection proceedeth altogether from nature and appeereth no lesse in mankind than in wilde beasts Howbeit otherwhiles this naturall love aswell as many other good qualities in men are blemished and obscured by occasion of vice that buddeth up afterwards like as we see wilde briers bushes and brambles to spring up and grow among good and kind seeds for otherwise we might as well collect and say that men love not themselves because many cut their owne throates or wilfully fall down headlong from steepe rocks and high places For Oedipus With bloudy hand his owne eie-lids did force And plucked out his eies upon remorce Hegesias disputing and discoursing upon a time of abstinence caused many of his auditours and scholars to pine themselves to death Such accidents of many sorts there be Permitted by the gods we daily see But al of them like as those other passions and maladies of the mind before named transport a man out of his owne nature and put him beside himselfe so as they testifie against themselves that this is true and that they do amisse heerein for if a sow having farrowed a little pigge devoure it when she hath done or a bitch chance to teare in peeces a puppie or whelpe of her own litter presently men are amazed at the sight thereof and woonderfully affrighted whereupon they sacrifice unto the gods certaine expiatorie sacrifices for to divert the sinister praesages thereof as taking it to a prodigious woonder as confessing thereby that it is a propertie given to all living creatures even by the instinct and institution of nature To love foster and cherrish the fruit of their owne bodies so farre is it from them to destroy the same And yet notwithstanding her corruption and depravation in this behalfe Like as in mines the gold although it be mixed with much clay and furred all over with earth shineth glittereth thorow the same and is to be seene afarre off even so nature amid the most depravate maners and corrupt passions that we have sheweth a certeine love and tender affection to little ones To conclude wheras the poore many times make no care at all to nourish and reare up their children it is for nothing els but because they feare left having not so good bringing up nor so civill education as they ought they should proove servile in behavior untaught unmanerly rude and void of all good parts and judging as they do povertie to be the extremity of all miseries that can befall to man their heart will not serve them to leave unto their children this hereditarie calamity as a most grievous and dangerous disease OF THE PLVRALITY OF FRIENDS The Summarie IN certeine discourses going before it appeareth what a benefit and good thing friendship is And now Plutarch addeth thereto a certaine correction very necessary in regard of our nature which is given alwaies to bend unto extremities and not able long to holde the golden-meane Like as therefore it bewraieth a miserable wretched and cursed mind to be desirous for to leade a life without acquaintance and familiarity with any person even so to make friends as they say hand over head and upon every occasion is peradventure unpossible but surely not expedient Our authour therefore willing to reforme this disordinate affection that is in many who because they would have a number of friends often-times have not one assured sheweth that it is farre better for a man to get one fast and faithfull friend than a great multitude of whom he can not make any certaine account propounding as aremedie for this covetous minde of entertaining such a plurality of friends the examples of those who are contented
and envie to be ever railing on all men and backe-biting them if hee chance any one time to breake out into the praise of some woorthy and excellent personage saying in this maner unto him This is a great fault that you have and a disease that followeth you thus to praise men of no woorth What is he I pray you whom you thus commend what good parts be in him hath he at any time done any doughty deed or delivered any singular speech that might deserve such praises But in amatorious and love matters they passe there you shall have them most of all to come over those whom they flatter and lay on load to them they will joine close and set them on a flaming fire For if they see brethren at some variance or setting nought by their parents or els to deale unkindly with their owne wives and to set no store by them or to be jealous and suspicious of them they never admonish chastice or rebuke them for it that they may amend but rather they will kindle more coales betweene and encrease their anger and discontentment on both sides Nay it is no great matter will they say it is even well enough you will never see and know who you are you are the cause of all this your owne selfe and selfe do selfe have you evermore have borne your selves so pliable submisse and lowly toward them that you are but rightly served But say there be some itching heat of love or smart anger upon jealousie in regard of a courtisan or married wife whom the party is amourous of then shal you see a flatterer ready at hand to display his cunning openly and to speake his minde freely unto him putting fire to fire and feeding his love you shall have him to lay the law upon this lover accusing and entring processe against him in these termes You have broken the lawes of love you have done and said many things not so kindly as beseemed a true louer but rather dealt hardly with your love and enough to lose her heart and incurre her hatred for euer Vnthankefull person that thou art For kisses so many of thy sweet hart Thus the flattering friends of Antonius when he burned in love of the Aegyptian queene Cleopatra would perswade and make him beleeve that she it was who was enamoured upon him and by way of opprobrious imputation they would tell him to his face that he was proud disdainfull hard hearted and void of all kinde affection This noble queene would they say forsaking so mighty and wealthy a kingdome so many pleasant palaces and stately houses of blessed abode such meanes and opportunities of happinesse for the love of you pineth away and consumeth herselfe trudging after your campe to and fro for to doe your Honour content and pleasure with the habit and title of your Concubine Whiles you in brest do cary an hart Which will not be wrought by any art neglecting her good lady and suffering her to perish for sorow and hearts griefe Whereupon he being well enough pleased to heare himselfe thus charged with wrong doing to her and taking more pleasure in these accusations of theirs than if they had directly praised him was so blinde that he could not see how they that seemed thus to admonish him of his duetie perverted and corrupted him thereby so much the more For this counterfeit liberty of plaine dealing and plaine speech may be very well likened to the wanton pinches and bitings of luxurious women who tickle and stirre up the lust and pleasure of men by that which might seeme to cause their paine For like as pure wine which otherwise of it selfe is a sure remedy against the poison of hemlocke if a man doe mingle it with the juice of the said hemlocke doth mightily enforce the poison thereof and make it irremediable for that by meanes of the heat it conveieth the same more speedily unto the heart even so these lewd and mischievous flatterers knowing full wel that franke speech is a singular helpe and remedy against flattery abuse it to flatter withall And therefore it seemeth that Bias answered not so well as he might have done to one that asked of him which was the shrewdest and most hurtfull beast of all other If quoth he your question be of wilde and savage a Tyrant is worse if of tame and gentle a Flatterer For hee might have said more truely that of Flatterers some be of a tame kinde such I meane as these parasites are who haunts the baines and stouphes those also that follow good cheere and keepe about the table As for him who like as the Pourcuttle fish stretcheth out his clawes like branches reacheth as farre as to the secret chambers and cabinets of women with his busie intermedling with his calumniations and malicious demeanors such a one is savage fell intractable and dangerous to be approched Now one of the meanes to beware of this flatterie is to know and remember alwaies that our soule consisteth of two parts whereof the one is addicted to the truth loving honestie and reason the other more brutish of the owne nature unreasonable given to untruth and withall passionate A true friend assisteth evermore the better part in giving counsell and comfort even as an expert and skilfull Physition who hath an eie that aimeth alwaies at the maintenance and encrease of health but the flatterer doth apply himselfe and settleth to that part which is voide of reason and full of passions this he scratcheth this he tickleth continually this he stroketh and handleth in such sort by devising some vicious and dishonest pleasures that he withdraweth and turneth it away quite from the rule and guidance of reason Moreover as there be some kind of viands which if a man eate they neither turne unto blood not ingender spirits ne yet adde vigor and strength to the nerves and the marrow but all the good they do is haply to cause the flesh or genitall parts to rise to stirre and loose the belly or to breed some foggie fantom and halfe rotten flesh which is neither fast nor sound within even so if a man looke neerely and have good regard unto a flatterer he shall never finde that all the words he useth minister or procure one jot of good to him that is wise and governed by reason but feed fooles with the pleasant delights of love kindle and augment the fire of inconsiderate anger provoke them unto envie breed in them an odious and vaine presumption of their owne wit increase their sorrow and griefe with moaning them and lamenting with them for companie set on worke and exasperate their inbred naughtinesse and lewd disposition their illiberall minde and covetous nature their diffidence and distrustfulnesse of others their base and servile timiditie making them alwaies worse and apt to conveive ill more fearefull jealous and suspicious by the meanes of some new accusations false furmises and conjecturall suggestions which they be ready to put
for that without friends societie and fellowship we are not able to live solitarie and alone as most savage beasts neither will our nature endure it and therefore in Menander he saith very well and wisely By jolly cheere and bankets day by day Thinke we to finde ô father trustie friends To whom our selves and life commit we may No speciall thing for cost to make amends I found he hath who by that meanes hath met With shade of friends for such I count no bet For to say a truth most of our friendships be but shadowes semblances and images of that first amitie which nature hath imprinted and engraffed in children toward their parents in brethren toward their brethren and he who doth not reverence nor honor it how can he perswade and make strangers beleeve that he beareth sound and faithfull good will unto strangers Or what man is he who in his familiar greetings and salutations or in his letters will call his friend and companion Brother and can not find in his heart so much as to go with his brother in the same way For as it were a point of great folly and madnesse to adorne the statue of a brother and in the meane time to beat and maime his bodie even so to reverence and honor the name of a brother in others and withall to shun hate and disdaine a brother indeed were the case of one that were out of his wits and who never conceived in his heart and minde that Nature is the most sacred and holy thing in the world And heere in this place I can not choose but call to minde how at Rome upon a time I tooke upon me to bee umpier betweene two brethren of whom the one seemed to make profession of Philosophie but he was as after it appeered not onely untruely entituled by the name of a Brother but also as falsely called a Philosopher for when I requested of him that he should carrie himselfe as a Philosopher toward his brother and such a brother as altogether was unlettered and ignorant In that you say ignorant quoth he I hold well with you and I avow it a trueth but as for Brother I take it for no such great and venerable matter to have sprung from the same loines or to have come foorth of one wombe Well said I againe It appeeres that you make no great account to issue out of the same natural members but all men else besides you if they doe not thinke and imagine so in their hearts yet I am sure they doe both sing and say that Nature first and then Law which doth preserve and maintaine Nature have given the chiefe place of reverence and honor next after the gods unto father and mother neither can men performe any service more acceptable unto the gods than to pay willingly readily and affectionately unto parents who begat and brought them foorth unto nourses and fosters that reared them up the interest and usurie for the old thankes besides the new which are due unto them And on the other side again there is not a more certaine signe marke of a verie Atheist than either to neglect parents or to be any waies ungracious or defective in duty unto them and therfore wheras we are forbidden in expresse termes by the law to doe wrong or hurt unto other men if one doe not behave himselfe to father and mother both in word and deed so as they may have I do not say no discontentment and displeasure but joy and comfort thereby men esteeme him to be profane godlesse and irreligious Tell me now what action what grace what disposition of children towards their parents can be more agreeable and yeeld them greater contentment than to see good will kinde affection fast and assured love betweene brethren the which a man may easily gather by the contrarie in other smaller matters For seeing that fathers and mothers be displeased otherwhiles with their sonnes if they misuse or hardly intreat some home-borne slave whom they set much store by if I say they be vexed and angrie when they see them to make no reckoning care of their woods and grounds wherein they tooke some joy and delight considering also that the good kind-harted old folke of a gentle and loving affection that they have be offended if some hound or dog bred up within house or an horse be not well tended and looked unto last of all if they grieve when they perceive their children to mocke find fault with or despise the lectures narrations sports sights wrestlers and others that exercise feats of activitie which themselves sometime highly esteemed Is there any likelihood that they in any measure can indure to see their children hate one another to entertaine braules and quarrels continually to be ever snarling railing and reviling one another and in all enterprises and actions alwaies crossing thwarting and supplanting one another I suppose there is no man will so say Then on the contrarie side if brethren love together and be ready one to do for another if they draw in one line and carrie the like affection with them follow the same studies and take the same courses and how much nature hath divided and separated them in bodie so much to joine for it againe in minde lending one another their helping hands in all their negotiations and affaires following the same exercises repairing to the same disputations and frequenting the same plaies games and pastimes so as they agree and communicate in all things certainely this great love and amitie among brethren must needs yeeld sweet joy and happie comfort to their father and mother in their old age and therefore parents take nothing so much pleasure when their children proove eloquent orators wealthy men or advanced to promotions and high places of dignities as loving and kind one to another like as a man shall never see a father so desirous of eloquence of riches or of honor as he is loving to his owne children It is reported of Queene Apollonis the Cyzicen mother to King Eumenes and to three other Princes to wit Atalus Philetaerus and Athenaeus that shee reputed and reported her selfe to bee right happy and rendered thankes unto the immortall gods not for her riches nor roiall port and majestie but that it was her good fortune to see those three yoonger sonnes of hers serving as Pensioners and Esquiers of the bodie to Eumenes their elder brother and himselfe living fearlesse and in as securitie in the mids of them standing about his person with their pollaxes halbards and partisanes in their hands and girded with swords by their sides On the other side King Xerxes perceiving that his sonne Ochus set an ambush and laid traines to murder his brethren died for verie sorrow and anguish of heart Terrible and grievous are the warres said Euripides betweene brethren but unto their parents above all others most grievous for that whosoever hateth his owne brother and may not vouchsafe him a good eie
with few and by that meanes thinke their estate more sure and stedfast After this he treateth of the choise of friends but especially of one Then discourseth he of that which is requisite in true friendship annexing thereto many proper and apt similitudes which represent aswell the benefit that sincere affection bringeth as the hurt which commeth of fained and counter seit amitie This done he proveth that to enterteine a number of friends is a very hardmatter yea and unpossible for that a man is not able to converse with them nor to frame and sort with them all but that he shall procure himselfe enemies on all sides and when he hath enriched and adorned the same with not able examples he proceedeth to describe what use a man is to make of friendship and with what sort and condition of men he ought to joine in amity but this is the conclusion That an honest and vertuous man can not quit himselfe well and performe his devoire unto many friends at once OF THE PLURALITIE of friends SOcrates upon a time demanded of Menon the Thessalian who was esteemed very sufficient in all litterature and a great schoole-man exercised in long practise of disputations and named to be one as Empedocles saith who had attained to the very height and perfection of wisedome and learning what vertue was and when he had answered readily and boldly enough in this wise There is a vertue quoth he of a yoong childe and of an olde gray beard of a man and of a woman of a magistrate and of a private person of a master and of a servant I con you thanke quoth Socrates againe replying unto him you have done it very well I asked you but of one vertue and you have raised and let flie a whole swarme as it were of vertues guessing and collecting not amisse by such an answere that this deepe clearke who had named thus many vertues knew not so much as one And might not a man seeme to scorne and mocke us well enough who having not yet gotten one friendship and amity certaine are afraid forsooth lest ere we be aware we fall into a multitude and pluralitie of friends for this were even as much as if one that is maimed and starke blinde should feare to become either Briareus the giant with an hundred armes and hands or Argus who had eies all over his bodie And yet we praise and commend excessively and beyond all measure the yoong man in Menander when he saith Of all the goods which I do holde To thinke ech one I would be bolde Right woonderfull if I might finde The shadow onely of a friend But certeinly this is one cause among many others the same not the least that we cannot be possessed of any one assured amity because we covet to have so many much like vnto these common strumpets and harlots who for that they prostitute their bodies so often and to so manie men cannot make any reckoning to hold reteine any one paramor or lover fast and sure unto them for that the first commers seeing themselves neglected and cast off by the enterteinment of new retire and fall away from them and seeke elsewhere or rather much after the maner of that foster-childe of lady Hypsipyle Who being set in meddow greene With pleasant flowers all faire beseene One after other cropt them still Hunting this game with right goodwill For why his heart tooke great content In their gay hew and sweety sent So little wit and small discretion The infant had and no * repletion even so every one of us for the desire of noveltie and upon a satietie and fulnesse of that which is present and in hand suffreth himselfe ever to be caried away with a new-come friend that is fresh and flowring which fickle and inconstant affection causeth us to change often and to begin many friendships and finish none to enter still into new amities and bring none to perfection and for the love of the new which we pursue and seeke after wee passe by that which we held already and let it go To begin then first and formost at antiquity as it were from the goddesse Vesta according to the old proverbe let us examine and consider the common fame of mans life which hath beene delivered unto us from hand to hand time out of minde by the succession and progresse of so many ages from the old world unto this day and take the same for a witnesse and counseller both in this matter wee shall finde in all the yeeres past these onely couples and paires of renowmed friends to wit Theseus and Pirithous Achilles and Patroclus Orestes and Pylades Pythias and Damon Epaminondas and Pelopidas For friendship is indeed as I may so say one of these cattell that love company and desire to feed and pasture with fellowes but it can not abide heards and droves it may not away with these great flocks as jayes dawes and choughes do And whereas it is commonly said and thought that a friend is another owne selfe and men give unto him the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke as if a man would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is such another what implieth all this but that friendship should be reduced within the measure and compasse of the duall number that is of twaine Well this is certaine we can buy neither many slaves nor purchase many friends with a small piece of coine but what may be this piece of money that will fetch friends Surely kinde affection or good will and a lovely grace joined with vertue things I may tell you so rare as looke thorowout the world and the whole course of nature you shall find nothing more geason No marvell then if it be unpossible either to love many or to be loved of many perfectly and in the heigth of affection But like as great rivers if they be divided into many chanels and cut into sundry riverets cary but an ebbe water and run with no strong streame even so a vehement and affectionate love planted in the minde if it be parted many and divers waies becommeth enervate and feeble and commeth in maner to nothing This is the reason in nature that those creatures which bring forth but one and no more love their yoong more tenderly and entirely than others do theirs Homer also when he would signifie a childe most dearely beloved calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say only begotten and toward old age to wit when the parents have no more betweene them nor ever are like or doe looke to have another for mine owne part I would not desire to have that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say one friend and no more but surely I could wish that with other he were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say long and late first ere he be gotten like as a sonne which is borne toward the
heralds or messengers betweene comming from far as it were to parlie and compound to wit pleasures delights negligences and amusements upon other matters by all likelihood thou maist with confidence and alacritie be assured to go forward and make an end of thy course behind Moreover say that there fall out some interruptions and staies betweene that thou live not altogether canonically and like a Philosopher yet if thy latter proceedings be more constant than the former and the fresh courses that thou takest longer than the other it is no bad signe but it testifieth that by labour and exercise idlenesse is conquered and sloth utterly chased away whereas the contrary is a very ill signe to wit if by reason of many cessations and those comming thicke one after another the heat of the former affection be cooled languish and weareth to nothing for like as the shoote of a cane or reed whiles it hath the full strength and greatest force putteth forth the first stem reaching out in length streight even smooth united in the beginning admitting few knots in great distances between to stay and put backe the growth and rising thereof in height but afterwards as if it were checked to mount up aloft by reason of short winde and failing of the breath it is held downe by many knots and those neere one to another as if the spirit therein which coveteth upward found some impeachment by the way smiting it backe and causing it as it were to pant and tremble even so as many as at first tooke long 〈◊〉 and made haste unto philosophie or amendment of life and then afterwards meet eftsoones with stumbling blocks continually turning them out of the direct way or other meanes to distract and plucke them aside finding no proceeding at al to better them in the end are wearie give over come short of their journeis end whereas theother above-said hath his wings growing still to helpe his flight and by reason of the fruit which he findeth in his course goeth on apace cutteth off all pretenses of excuse breaketh through all lets which stand as a multitude in the way to hinder his passage which he doth by fine force and with an industrious affection to attcine unto the end of his enterprise And like as to joy and delight in beholding of beautie present is not a signe of love beginning for a vulgar and common thing this is but rather to be greeved vexed when the same is gone or taken away even so many therebe who conceive pleasure in philosophie and make semblance as if they had a fervent desire to the studie thereof but if it chance that they be a little retired from it by occasion of other businesse and affaires that first affection which they tooke unto it vanisheth away and they can well abide to be without Philosophie But he who feeles indeed the pricke Of love that pierceth neere the quicke as one poet saith will seeme unto thee moderate and nothing hot in frequenting the philosophicall schoole and conferring together with thee about philosophie but let him be plucked from it and drawen apart from thee thou shalt see him enflamed in the love thereof impatient and weary of all other affaires and occupations thou shalt perceive him even to forget his own friends such a passionate desire he will have to philosophie For we ought not so much to delight in learning and philosophie whiles we are in place as we do in sweet odors perfumes and ointments and when we are away and separated therefro never grieve thereat nor seeke after it any more but it must imprint in our hearts a certeine passion like to hunger and thirst when it is taken from us if we wil profit in good earnest perceive our owne progresse and amendement whether it be that marriage riches some friendship expedition or warfare come between that may drave him away and make separation for the greater that the fruit is which he gathered by Philosophie so much the more will the griefe be to leave and forgoe it To this first signe of progresse in Philosophie may be added another of great antiquitie out of Hesiodus which if it be not the verie same certes it commeth neere unto it and this he describeth after this sort namely When a man findeth the way no more difficult rough craggy nor exceeding steep and upright but easie plaine with a gentle descent as being indeed laid even and smooth by exercise and wherein now there begins light cleerely to appeere and shine out of darkenes in stead of doubts ambiguities errors and those repentances and changes of minde incident unto those who first betake themselves to the studie of Philosophie after the manner of them who having left behinde them a land which they know well enough are troubled whiles they cannot descrie and discover that for which they set saile and bend their course for even so it is with these persons who when they have abandoned these common and familiar studies whereto they were inured before they came to learne apprehend and enjoy better oftentimes in the verie middle of their course are caried round about and driven to returne backe againe the same way they came Like as it is reported of Sexius a noble man of Rome who having given over the honorable offices and magistracies in the citie for love of Philosophie afterwards finding himselfe much troubled in that studie and not able at the beginning to brooke and digest the reasons and discourses thereof was so perplexed that he went verie neere to have throwen himselfe into the sea out of a gallie The semblable example we read in histories of Diogenes the Sinopian when he first went to the studie and profession of Philosophie for when about the same time it chanced that the Athenians celebrated a publike solemnitie with great feasting and sumptuous fare with theatricall plaies and pastimes meeting in companies and assemblies to make merrie one with another with revels and daunces all night long himselfe in an odde corner of the market place lay lapped round in his cloathes purposing to take a nap and sleepe where and when he fell into certaine fantasticall imaginations which did not a little turne and trouble his braines yea and breake his heart discoursing thus in his head That he upon no constraint or necessitie should thus wilfully betake himselfe to a laborious strange course of painful life sitting thus by himselfe mopish sequestred from all the world deprived of all earthly goods In which thoughts and conceits of his he spied as the report goeth a little mouse creeping running towards the crums that were fallen from his lofe of bread and was verie busie about them whereupon hee tooke heart againe reprooved and blamed his owne feeble courage saying thus to himselfe What saiest thou Diogenes Seest thou not this sillie creature what good cheere it maketh with thy leavings how merrie she is whiles she feedeth thereupon and thou like
we are fallen upon this discourse a man may say that any thing else whatsoever is according to common sense rather than to hold that without having notice or conception of good a man may desire and pursue after it for you see how Chrysippus himselfe driveth Ariston into these streights as to imagine and dreame of a certeine indifference in things tending to that which is neither good nor ill before that the said good and ill is sufficiently knowen and understood for so it might seeme that this indifference must needs subsist before if it be so that a man cannot conceive the intelligence of it unlesse the good were first understood which is nothing else but the onely and soveraigne good indeed DIADUMENUS But consider I pray you and marke now this indifference taken out of the Stocks schoole and which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after what maner and whereby it hath given us the meane to imagine and conceive in our minde that good for if without the said good it is not possible to conceive and imagine the indifference respective to that which is not good much lesse the intelligence of good things yeeldeth any cogitation unto them who had not before some prenotion of the good But like as there is no cogitation of the art of things which be holsome or breeding sicknesse in them who had not a precogitation before of those things even so it is impossible for them to conceive the science of good and evill things who had no fore-conceit what were good and what were evill What then is good nothing but prudence and what is prudence nothing but science and so according to that old common proverbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Jupiters Corinth is oftentimes applied unto their maner of reasoning For let be I pray you the turning of the pestill round about because you may not be thought to scoffe and laugh at them although in trueth their speech is much after that maner for it seemeth that for the intelligence of good one hath need to understand prudence againe to seeke for prudence in the intelligence of good being driven to pursue the one alwaies for the other and so to faile both of the one and the other which implieth a meere contrariety in that we must alwaies understand the thing before which cannot be understood apart Besides there is another way whereby a man may perceive and see not the perversion and distortion but the very eversion and destruction of all their reasons They hold that the very substance of good is the reasonable and considerate election of that which is according to nature now this election is not considerate which is directed to some end as is before said And what is this Nothing else say they but to discourse with reason in the elections of those things which be according to nature First and formost then the conception of the soveraigne good is perished and cleane gone for this considerate discoursing in elections is an operation depending of the habitude of good discourse and therefore being compelled to conceive this habitude from the end and the end not without it we come short of the intelligence of thē both And againe that which yet is more by all the reason in the world it must needs be that the said reasonable and considerate election was the election of things good profitable and cooperant to the atteining of the end For to chuse such things which be neither expedient nor honourable nor yet any way eligible how can it stand with reason for suppose it were as they say that the end were a reasonable election of things which have some dignity and worthinesse making unto felicitie See I beseech you how their discourse and disputation ariseth unto a trim point and goodly conclusion in the end For the end say they is the good discourse in making choise of those things which have dignity making unto happinesse Now when you he are these words thinke you not my good friend that this is a very strange and extravagant opinion LAMPEIAS Yes verily but I would willingly know how this hapneth DIADUMENUS Then must you lay your eare close and harken with great attention for it is not for every one to conceive this aenigmaticall riddle But heare you sir and make me answer Is not the end by their saying the good discourse in elections according to nature DIADUMENUS That is their saying LAMPRIAS And these things which be according to nature they chuse doe they not as good or having some dignities and preferences inducing to the end or to some other thing else DIADUMENUS I thinke not so but surely to the end LAMPRIAS Having discovered thus much already see now to what point they are come namely that then end is to discourse well of felicity DIADUMENUS They say directly that they neither have nor conceive any other thing of felicity but this precious rectitude of discourse touching the elections of things that are of worth Howbeit some there be who say that all this refutation is directed against Antipater alone and not the whole sect of the Stoicks who perceiving himselfe to be urged hardly pressed by Carneades fell into these vanities and foolish shifts for his evasion Moreover as touching that which is discoursed and taught in the Stoicks schoole Of Love ven against common notions it concerneth all the Supposts in generall of that sect who have every one of them their hand in the absurdity thereof for they avouch that yong youths are foule and deformed if they be vicious and foolish but the wise onely are beawtifull and yet of these that are thus faire and beawtifull there was never any one yet either beloved or lovely and amiable And yet this is not so absurd but they say moreover that such as are in love with those who be foule cease to love them when they are become faire And who hath ever seene or knowen such a kinde of love which should kindle and shew it selfe presently upon the discovery of the bodies deformity and the soules vice and incontinently be quenched and vanish away after the knowledge of passing beawty together with justice and temperance And verily such I suppose doe properly resemble these gnats which love to settle upon vineger soure wine or the fome thereof but the good and pleasant potable wine they care not for but flie from it As for that emphaticall apparence of beawty for that is the terme they give it which they say is the alluring attractive bait of love first and formost it carieth no probability with it nor likelihood of reason For in those who are most foule and wicked in the highest degree there can be no such emphaticall apparence of that beawty in case it be so as they say that the leawdnesse of maners 〈◊〉 in the face and infecteth the visage for there be some of them who expound this strange position as strangly saying that
a foule person is worthy to be loved because there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hope and expectance that one day he will become faire mary when he hath gotten this beawty once and is withall become good and honest then he is beloved of no man For love say they is a certaine hunting as it were after a yong body as yet rude and unperfect howbeit framed by nature unto vertue LAMPRIAS And what other thing do we now my good friend but refute the errors of their sect who do thus force pervert and destroy all our common conceptions with their actions which be senselesse and their words and termes as unusuall and strange For there was no person to hinder this love of wise men toward yong folke if affection were away although all men and women to both thinke and imagin love to be such a passion as the woers of Penelope in Homer seeme to acknowledge Whose heat of love was such that in their hart They wisht in bed to lie with her apart Like as Jupiter also said to Juno in another place of the said poet Come let us now to bed both goe and there with sweet delight Solace our selves for never earst before remember I That any love to women fatre no nor to Goddesse bright Thus tam'd my hart or prict me so with them to company DIADUMENUS Thus you see how they expell and drive morall philosophy into such matters as these So tntricate and tortuous So winding qutte throughout That nothing sound is therein found But all turnes round about And yet they deprave vilipend disgrace and flout all others as if they were the men alone who restored nature and custome into their integrety as it ought to be instituted their speech accordingly But nature of it selfe doth divert and induce by appetitions pursuits inclinations and impulsions ech thing to that which is proper and fit for it And as for the custome of Logicke being so wrangling and contentious as it is it receiveth no good at all nor profit like as the eare diseased by vaine sounds is filled with thickenesse and hardnesse of hearing Of which if you thinke so good we will begin anew and discourse else were another time but now for this present let us take in hand to run over their naturall philosophy which no lesse troubleth and confoundeth common anticipations and conceptions in the maine principles and most important points than their morall doctrine as touching the ends of all things First and formost this is apparently absurd and against all common sense to say that a thing is yet hath no being nor essence and the things which are not yet have a being which though it be most absurd they affirme even of the universall world for putting downe this supposition that there is round about the said world a certaine infinit voidnesse they affirme that the universall world is neither body nor bodilesse whereupon ensueth that the world is and yet hath no existence For they call bodies onely existent for as much as it is the property of a thing existent to doe and suffer somewhat And seeing this universall nature hath no existence therefore it shall neither doe nor suffer ought neither shall it be in any place for that which occupieth place is a bodie but that universall thing is not a body Moreover that which occupieth one and the same place is said to remaine and rest and therefore the said universall nature doth not remaine for that it occupieth no place and that which more is it mooveth not at all first because that which mooveth ought to be in a place and roome certaine Againe because whatsoever mooveth either mooveth it selfe or else is mooved by another now that which mooveth it selfe hath certeine inclinations either of lightnesse or ponderosity which ponderosity and lightnesse be either certeine habitudes or faculties powers or else differences of ech body but that universality is no body whereupon it must of necessity follow that the same is neither light nor heavy and so by good consequence hath in it no principle or beginning of motion neither shall it be mooved of another for without beyond it there is nothing so that they must be forced to say as they doe indeed that the said universall nature doth neither rest nor moove In sum for that according to their opinion we must not say in any case that it is a body and yet the heaven the earth the living creatures plants men and stones be bodies that which is no body it selfe shall by these reckonings have parts thereof which are bodies and that which is not ponderous shall have parts weightie and that which is not light shall have parts light which is as much against common sense and conceptions as dreames are not more considering that there is nothing so evident and agreeable to common sense than this distinction If any thing be not animate the same is inanimate and againe if a thing be not inanimate the same is animate And yet this manifest evidence they subvert and overthrow affirming thus as they do that this universal frame is neither animate nor inanimate Over and besides no man thinketh or imagineth that the same is unperfect considering that there is no part thereof wanting and yet they holde it to be unperfect For say they that which is perfect is finite and determinate but the whole and universall world for the infinitenesse thereof is indefinite So by their saying some thing there is that is neither perfect not unperfect Moreover neither is the said universall frame a part because there is nothing greater than it nor yet the whole for that which is whole must be affirmed like wise to be digested and in order whereas being as it is infinite it is indeterminate and out of order Furthermore The other is not the cause of the universall world for that there is no other beside it neither is it the cause of The other nor of it selfe for that it is not made to do any thing and we take a cause to be that which worketh an effect Now set case we should demand of all the men in the world what they imagine NOTHING to be and what conceit they have of it would they not say thinke you that it is that which is neither a cause it selfe nor hath any cause of it which is neither a part nor yet the whole neither perfect nor unperfect neither having a soule nor yet without a soule neither moving nor stil quiet nor subsisting and neither body nor without body For what is all this but Nothing yet what all others do affirme and verifie of Nothing the same doe they alone of the universall world so that it seemeth they make All and Nothing both one Thus they must be driven to say that Time is nothing neither Praedicable nor Proposition nor Connexion nor Composition which be termes of Logicke that they use no Philosophers so much and yet they say that they have no existence nor being
the flower and prime of age unlesse it bring foorth and yeeld such fruit which is familiar unto it even a nature disposed to amity and vertue And therefore it is that you may heare some husbaud in a comoedie speaking tragically thus unto his wife Thou hatest me and I againe thine hatred and disdaine Will eas'ly beare and this abuse turne to my proper gaine For surely more amorous than this man is not hee who not for lucre and profit but for the fleshly pleasure of Venus endureth a curst shrewd and froward wife in whom there is no good nature nor kinde affection After which maner Philippides the Comicall Poet scoffed at the Oratour Stratocles and mocked him in these verses She winds from thee she turnes away unkind Hardly thou canst once kisse her head behinde But if we must needs call this passion Love yet surely it shall be but an effeminate and bastard love sending us into womens chambers and cabinets as it were to Cynosarges at Athens where no other youthes do exercise but misbegotten bastards or rather like as they say there is one kinde of gentle faulcons or roiall eagles bred in the mountaines which Homer calleth the Blacke eagle for game whereas other kinds there be of bastard hawks which about pooles and meres catch fish or seaze upon heavie winged birds and slow of flight which many times wanting their prey make a piteous noise and lamentable cry for very hunger and famine even so the true and naturall love is that of yoong boies which sparkleth not with the ardent heat of concupiscence as Anacreon saith the other of maidens and virgins doeth it is not besmered with sweet ointments nor tricked up and trimmed but plaine and simple alwaies a man shall see it without any intising allurements in the Philosophers schooles or about publicke parks of exercise and wrestling places where it hunteth kindly and with a very quicke and piercingeie after none but yoong striplings and springals exciting and encouraging earnestly unto vertue as many as are meet and woorthy to have paines taken with them whereas the other delicate and effeminate love that keepeth home and stirreth not out of dores but keepeth continually in womens laps under canapies or within curtaines in womens beds and soft pallets seeking alwaies after daintie delights and pampered up with unmanly pleasures wherein there is no reciprocall amitie nor heavenly ravishment of the spirit is worthy to be rejected and chased farre away like as Solon banished it out of his common wealth when he expresly forbad all slaves and those of servile condition to love boies or to be anointed in the open aire without the baines but he debarred them not from the companie of women For amitie is an honest civill and laudable thing but fleshly pleasure base vile and illiberall And therefore that a servile slave should make love to a sweet youth it is neither decent civil nor commendable for this is no carnall love nor hurtfull any way as that other is of women Protogenes would have continued his speech and said more but Daphnaeus interrupting him Now surely you have done it very well quoth he and alledged Solon trimly for the purpose and wee must belike take him for the judge of a true lover and the rule to go by especially when he saith Thoushalt love boies till lovely downe upon their face doth spring Catching at mouth their pleasant breath and soft thighs cherishing Adjoine also unto Solon if you thinke good the Poet Aeschylus whereas he saith Unthankfull man unkinde thou art For kisses sweet which thou hast found Regarding not of thy deare hart The thighs so streight and buttocks round Here are proper judges indeed of love Others I wot well there be who laugh at them because they would have lovers like to sacrificers bowel-priers and soothsaiers to cast an eie to the hanches and the loines but I for my part gather from hence a very good and forcible argument in the behalfe of women for if the companie with males that is against kinde neither taketh away nor doth prejudice the amitie and good will of lovers farre more probable it is that the love to women which is according to nature is performed by a kinde of obsequious favour and endeth in amity for the voluntarie submission of the female to the male was by our ancestors in olde time ô Protogenes termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Grace or Favour which is the reason that Pindarus saith Vulcane was borne of Juno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say without the Graces And Sappho the Poetresse speaking to a yoong girle not as yet for her tender yeeres marriageable Too yoong my childe you seeme to me Withouten Grace also to be And Hercules was asked the question of one in these termes What did you force the maiden by compulsion Or win her grace and favour with perswasion whereas the submission in this kinde of males to males if it be against their will is named violence and plaine rape but if it be voluntarie and that upon an effeminate weaknesse they be so farre beside their right wits as to yeeld themselves to be ridden as it were and covered for those be Platoes words in maner of foure footed beasts I say such love is altogether without Grace without decencie most unseemly filthy and abominable And therefore I suppose verily that Solon powred out those verses when he was a lustie yoonker ranke of blood and full of naturall seed as Plato saith for when he was well stept in yeres he sung in another tune and wrote thus The sports of VENUS Lady bright And BACCHUS now are my delight In MUSICKE eke I pleasure take For why these three men joies do make when he had retired and withdrawen his life as it were out of a troublesome sea and tempestuous storme of Paederafltum into the quiet calme of lawfull marriage and studie of Philosophie Now if we will consider better looke nerer into the truth the passion of Love ô Protogenes be it in one sex or another is all one the same but if upon a froward and contentious humor you will needs divide and distinguish them you shall finde that this love of boies doth not conteine it selfe within compasse but as one late borne and out of the seasonable time of age and course of this life a very bastard and begotten secretly in darknesse it would wrongfully drive out the true legitimate naturall love which is more ancient For it was but yesterday or two daies ago as one would say my good friend and namely since yong lads began in Greece to disrobe turne themselves naked out of their clothes for the exercise of their bodies that it crept into these impaled places where youthes prepared themselves for to wrestle there closely setling it selfe lodged and was enstalled where by little and little when the wings were full growen it became so insolent that it could not be held in
unamiable For the conjunction of man and woman without the affection of love like as hunger and thirst which tend to nothing else but satiety and fulnesse endeth in nought that is good lovely and commendable but the goddesse Venus putting away all lothsome satiety of pleasure by the meanes of love engendred amitie and friendship yea and temperature of two in one And herereupon it is that Parmentdes verily affirmeth love to be the most ancient worke of Venus writing thus in his booke intituled Cosmogenia that is to say the creation of the world And at the first she framed love Before all other gods above But Hesiodus seemeth in mine opinion more physically to have made love more ancient than any other whatsoever to the end that all the rest by it might breed and take beginning If then we bereave this love of the due honours ordained for it certes those which belong to Venus will not keepe their place any longer Neither can it be truely said that some men may wrong and reproch love and forbeare withall to doe injurie unto Venus For even from one and the same stage we doe here these imputations first upon love Love idle is it selfe and in good troth Possesseth such like persons given to sloth And then againe upon Venus Venus my children hath not this onely name Of Venus or of Cypris for the same Answere right well to many an attribute And surname which men unto her impute For hellshe is and also violence That never ends but aie doth recommence And furious rage yong folke for to incense Like as of the other gods there is not one almost that can avoid the approbrious tongue of unlettered rusticity and ignorance For do but consider and observe god Mars who as it were in an Caldaean and Astronomicall table standeth in a place diametrally opposit unto love 〈◊〉 I say what great honours men have yeelded unto him and contrariwise what reprochfull termes they give him againe Mars is starke blinde and seeth not faire dames but like wilde bore By turning all things up side downe works mischeife evermore Homer calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say imbrued with blood and polluted with murders likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say variable and leaping from one side to another As for Chrysippus by ety mologizing and deriving this gods name fastneth upon him a criminous accusation saying that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so he is named in Greeke cometh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to murder and destroy giving thereby occasion unto some to thinke that the facultie and power in us prone to warre fight debate quarrell anger and fell stomacke is called 〈◊〉 that is to say Mars Like as others also will say that concupiscence in us is termed Venus our gift of speaking Mercurie skill in arts and sciences Muses and prudence Minerva See you not how deepe a pit and downefall of Atheisme and impietie is ready to receive and swallow us up in case we range and distribute the gods according to the passions powers faculties and vertues that be in us I see it very well quoth Pemptides but neither standeth it with pietie and religion to make gods to be passions nor yet contrariwise to beleeue that passions be gods How thinke you then quoth my father is Mars a god or a passion of ours Pemptides answered That he thought him to be a god ruling and ordering that part of our soule wherein is seated animositie anger and manly courage What Pemptides cried out my father then hath that turbulent warring overthwart and quarrelling part in us a deitie to be president over it and shall this that breedeth amity societie and peace be without a divine power to governe it Is there indeed a martiall and warlike god of armes called thereupon Stratius and Enyalius who hath the superintendance and presidence of mutuall murders wherein men kill and bekilled of armour weapons arrowes darts and other shot of assaults and scaling walles of saccage pillage and booties Is there never a god to be a witnesse guide director and coadjutour of nuptiall affection and matrimoniall love which endeth in unitie concord and fellowship There is a god of the woods and forests named Agroteros who doth aide assist and encourage hunters in chasing and crying after the roe-bucke the wilde goat the hare and the hart and they who lie in secret wait for to intercept woolves and beares in pitfalles and to catch them with snares make their praiers to Aristaeus Who first as I have heard men say Did grinnes and snares for wilde beasts lay And Hercules when he bent his bowe and was ready to shoot at a bird called upon another god and as Aeschylus reporteth Phoebus the hunter directed by-and-by His arrow straight as it in aire did fly And shall the man who 〈◊〉 after the fairest game in the world even to catch friendship and amitie have no god nor demi-god no angell to helpe to favorise and speed his enterprise and good endevours For mine owne part my friend Daphnaeus I take not man to be a more base plant or viler tree than is the oake the mulberie tree or the vine which Homer honoureth with the name of Hemeris considering that in his time and season he hath a powerfull instinct to bud and put foorth most pleasantly even the beauty both of body and minde Then quoth Daphnaeus who ever was there before God that thought or said the contrary Who answered my father mary even all they verily who being of opinion that the carefull industrie of plowing sowing and planting apperteineth unto the gods For certaine Nymphs they have hight Driades Whose life they say is equall with the trees And as Pindar us writeth God Bacchus who the pure resplendent light Of Autumne is and with his kinde influence Doth nourish trees and cause to graw upright And fructifie at length in affluence Yet for all this are not perswaded that the nouriture and growth of children and yong folke who in their prime and flour of age are framed and shaped to singular beauty and feature of personage belongeth to any one of the gods or demy gods Neither by their saying any deitie or divine power hath the care charge of man that as he groweth he should shoot up streight and arise directly to vertue and that his naturall indument and generous ingenuity should be perverted daunted and quelled either for default of a carefull tutour and directour or through the leawd and corrupt behaviour of bad company about him And verily were it not a shamefull indignity and ingratitude thus to say and in this behalfe to drive God as it were from that bounty and benignity of his to mankinde which being defused spred and dispersed over all is defectious in no part no not in those necessary actions and occasions where of some have their end more needfull iwis many times than lovely or beautifull to see to As for
from it daily is highly to be reckoned and accounted of and therefore neither can the Delphians be noted for follie in that they terme Venus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a chariot by reason of this yoke-fellowship nor Homer in calling this conjunction of man and wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say amity and friendship Solon likewise is deemed by this to have beene an excellent law-giver and most expert in that which concerneth mariage when he decreed expresly that the husband should thrice in a moneth at the least embrace his wife and company in bed with her not for carnall pleasures sake I assure you but like as cities and states use after a certeine time betweene to renew their leagues and confederacies one with another so he would have that the alliance of mariage should eftsooones be enterteined anew by such solace and delectation after jarres which otherwhiles arise and breed by some bone cast betweene Yea but there be many enormious and furious parts will some one say that are plaied by such as are in love with women And be there not more I pray by those that are enamoured upon boies do but marke him who uttereth these passionate words So often as these eies of mine behold That beardlesse youth that smooth and lovely boy I faint and fall then wish I him to hold Within mine armes and so to die with joy And that on tombe were set where I do lie An Epigram mine end to testifie But as there is a furious passion in some men doting upon women so there is as raging an affection in others toward boies but neither the one nor the other is love Well most absurd it were to say that women are not endued with other vertues for what need we to speake of their temperance and chastity of their prudence fidelity and justice considering that even fortitude it selfe constant confidence and resolution yea and magnaminity is in many of them very evident Now to holde that being by nature not indisposed unto other vertues they are untoward for amitie onely and frendship which is an imputation laid upon them is altogether beside all reason For well knowen it is that they be loving to their children and husbands and this their naturall affection is like unto a fertile field or battell soile capable of amitie not unapt for perswasion nor destitute of the Graces And like as Poesie having sitted unto speech song meeter and thime as pleasant spices to aromatize and season the same by meanes whereof that profitable instruction which it yeeldeth is more attractive and effectuall as also the danger therein more inevitable Even so nature having endued a woman with an amiable cast and aspect of the eie with sweet speech and a beautifull countenance hath given unto her great meanes if she be lascivious and wanton with her pleasure to decive a man and if she be chaste and honest to gaine the good will and favour of her husband Plato gave counsell unto Xenocrates an excellent Philosopher and a woorthy personage otherwise howbeit in his behavior exceeding soure and austere to sacrifice unto the Graces and even so a man might advise a good matron and sober dame to offer sacrifice unto Love for his propitious favour unto mariage and his residence with her and that her husband by her kind loving demeanour unto him may keepe home and not seeke abroad to some other and so be forced in the end to breake out into such speeches as these out of the Comoedie Wretch that I am and man unhappy I So good a wife to quit with injury For in wedlocke to love is a better and greater thing by farre than to be loved for it keepeth folke from falling into many faults slips or to say more truly it averteth them from all those inconveniences which may corrupt marre ruinate a mariage as for those passionate affections which in the beginning of matrimoniall love moove fittes somewhat poinant and biting let me entreat you good friend Zeuxippus not to feare for any exulceration or smart itch that they have although to say a trueth it were no great harme if haply by some little wound you come to be incorporate and united to an honest woman like as trees that by incision are engraffed and grow one within another for when all is said is not the beginning of conception a kinde of exulceration neither can there be a mixture of two things into one unlesse they mutually suffer one of the other be reciprocally affected And verily the Mathematical rudiments which children be taught at the beginning trouble them even as Philosophie also at the first is harsh unto yong men but like as this unpleasantnesse continueth not alwaies with thē no more doeth that mordacity sticke still among lovers And it seemeth that Love at the first resembleth the mixture of two liquors which when they begin to incorporate together boile and worke one with another for even so Love seemeth to make a certaine confused tract and ebullition but after a while that the same be once setled and throughly clensed it bringeth unto Lovers a most firme and assured habit and there is properly that mixtion and temperature which is called universall and thorough the whole whereas the love of other friends conversing and living together may be very well compared to the mixtion which is made by these touching and interlacings of atomes which Epicurus speaketh of and the same is subject to ruptures separations and startings a sunder neither can it possibly make that union which matrimoniall love and mutuall conjunction doeth for neither doe there arise from any other Loves greater pleasures nor commodities more continually one from another ne yet is the benefit and good of any other friendship so honorable or expetible as When man and wife keepe house with one accord And lovingly agree at bed and bord Especially when the law warranteth it and the bond of procreation common betweene them is assistant thereto And verily nature sheweth that the gods themselves have need of such love for thus the Poets say that the heaven loveth the earth and the Naturalists hold that the Sunne likewise is in love with the Moone which every moneth is in conjunction with him by whom also she conceiveth In briefe must it not follow necessarily that the earth which is the mother and breeder of men of living creatures and all plants shall perish and be wholly extinct when love which is ardent desire and instinct inspired from god shall abandon the matter and the matter likewise shall cease to lust and seeke after the principle and cause of her conception But to the end that we may not range too farre nor use any superfluous and nugatory words your selfe doe know that these paederasties are of all other most uncertaine and such as use them are wont to scoffe much thereat and say that the amitie of such boies is in manner of an egge divided
passion who either upon pitie surprising them or joy presented unto them might immediately slide as it were and fall into a melodious and singing voice insomuch as their feasts were full of verses and love songs yea and their books and compositions amatorious and savoring of the like And when Euripides said Love makes men Poets market it when you will Although before in verse they had no skill He meaneth not that love putteth Poetrie or Musicke into a man in whom there was none before but wakeneth stirreth and enchafeth that which before was drowsie idle and cold Or else my good frend let us say that now a daies there is not an amorous person and one that skilleth of love but all love is extinct and perished because there is no man as Pindarus saith Who now in pleasant vaine Poeticall His songs and ditties doeth addresse Which just in rhime and meeter fall To praise his faire and sweet mistresse But this is untrue and absurd for many loves there be that stirre and moove a man though they meet not with such minds as naturally are disposed and forward to Musicke or Poetrie and well may these loves be without pipes without harpes violes lutes and stringed instruments and yet no lesse talkative nor ardent than those in old time Againe it were a shame and without all conscience to say that the Academie with all the quire and company of Socrates and Plato were void of amorous affection whose amatorious discourses are at this day extant to be read although they left no Poems behinde them And is it not all one to say that there was never any woman but Sappho in love nor had the gift of prophesie save onely Sibylla and Aristonice or such as published their vaticinations and prophesies in verse For vertue as Chaeremon was woont to say is mingled and tempered with the maners of those that drinke it And this Enthusiasme or spirit of prophesie like unto the ravishment of love maketh use of that sufficiencie and facultie which it findeth ready in the subject and mooveth ech one of them that are inspired therewith according to the measure of their naturall disposition and yet as we consider God and his providence we shall see that the change is ever to the better For the use of speech resembleth properly the permutation and woorth of money which is good and allowable so long as it is used and knowen being currant more or lesse and valued diversly as the times require Now the time was when the very marke and stampe as it were of our speech was currant and approoved in meeter verses songs and sonets Forasmuch as then all historie all doctrine of Philosophie all affection and to be briefe all matter that required a more grave and stately voice they brought to Poetry and Musicke For now onely few men hardly and with much a doe give eare and understand but then all indifferently heard yet and take great pleasure to heare those that sung The rurall ploughman with his hine The fowler with his nets and line as Pindarus saith but also most men for the great aptitude they had unto Poetrie when they would admonish and make remonstrances did it by the meanes of harpe lute and song withall if they ment to rebuke chastise exhort and incite they performed it by tales fables and proverbes Moreover their hymnes to the honour and praise of the gods their praiers and vowes their balads for joy of victory they made in meeter and musicall rhime some upon a dexterity of wit others by use and practise And therefore neither did Apollo envie this ornament and pleasant grace unto the skill of divination neither banished he from this three-footed table of the oracle the Muse so highly honored but rather brought it in and stirred it up as affecting and loving Poeticall wittes yea and himselfe ministred and infused certeine imaginations helping to put forward the loftie and learned kinde of language as being much prized and esteemed But afterwards as the life of men together with their fortunes and natures came to be changed thrist and utilitie which remooveth all superfluity tooke away the golden lusts and foretops of perukes the spangled coifes caules and attires it cast off the fine and deinty robes calld Xystides it clipped and cut away the bush of haire growing too long it unbuckled and unlaced the trim buskins acquainting men with good reason to glory in thriftinesse and frugalitie against superfluous and sumptuous delicacies yea and to honour simplicitie and modesty rather than vaine pompe and affected curiositie And even so the maner of mens speech changing also and laying aside all glorious shew the order of writing an historie therewithall presently came downe as one would say from the stately chariot of versification to prose and went a foot and by the meanes especially of this fashion of writing and speaking at liberty and not being tied to measures true stories come to be distinguished from lying fables and Philosophie embracing perspicuity of stile which was apt to teach and instruct rather than that which by tropes and figures amused and amased mens braines And then Apollo repressed Pythia that she should not any more call her fellow citizens Pyricaos that is to say burning fires nor the Spartanes Ophioboros that is to say devourers of serpents nor men Oreanas nor river Orempotas and so by cutting off from her prophesies verses and strange termes circumlocutions and obscuritie he taught and inured her to speake unto those who resorted to the oracles as lawes do talke with cities as kings devise and commune with their people and subjects and as scholars give eare unto their schoole-masters framing and applying his maner of speech and language so as it might be full of sense and perswasive grace for this lesson we ought to learne and know that as Sophocles saith God to the wise in heavenly things is ay a light some guide But fooles so briefely he doth teach that they goe alwaies wide And together with plainnesse and diluciditie beliefe was so turned and altered changing together with other things that beforetime whatsoever was not ordinary nor common but extravagant or obscurely and covertly spoken the vulgar sort drawing it into an opinion of some holinesse hidden underneath was astonied thereat and held it venerable but afterwards desirous to learne and understand things cleerely and easily and not with masks of disguised words they began to finde fault with Poesie wherein oracles were clad not onely for that it was contrary and repugnant to the easie intelligence of the truth as mingling the darknesse and shadow of obscurity with the sentence but also for that they had prophesies already in suspicion saying that metaphors aenigmaticall and covert words yea and the ambiguitles which Poetry useth were but shifts retracts and evasions to hide and cover all whensoever the events fell not out accordingly And many you may heare to report that there be certeine Poeticall persons practised in versifying
and with his dagger gave him such a stabbe as he laied him along and killed him out of hand but see the malice of Fortune there runnes me forth out of a milihouse or backhouse thereby another villaine with a pestle and comming behinde him gave him such a souse upon the very necke bone that he was astonished therewith and there lay along in a swoone having lost his sight and other senses for a time But vertue it was that assisted him which gave both unto himselfe a good heart and also unto his friends strength resolution and diligence to succour him for Limnaeus Ptolemeus and Leonnatus with as many besides as either had clambred over the walles or broken thorow came in and put themselves betweene him and his enemies they with their valour were to him in stead of a wall and rampier they for meere affection and love unto their king exposed their bodies their forces and their lives before him unto all dangers whatsoever For it is not by fortune that there be men who voluntarily present themselves to present death but it is for the love of vertue like as bees having drunke as it were the amatorious potion of naturall love and affection are alwaies about their king and sticke close unto him Now say there had beene one there without the danger of shot to have seene this sight at his pleasure would not he have said that he had beheld a notable combat of fortune against vertue wherein the Barbarians by the helpe of fortune prevailed above their desert and the Greeks by meanes of vertue resisted above their power and if the former get the better hand it would be thought the worke of fortune and of some maligne and envious spirit but if these become superior vertue fortitude faith and friendship should cary away the honour of victory for nothing els accompanied Alexander in this place As for the rest of his forces and provisions his armies his horses and his fleets fortune set the wall of this vile towne betweene him and them Well the Macedonians in the end defaited these Barbarians beat the place downe over their heads and rased it quite and buried them in the ruins and fall thereof But what good did all this to Alexander in this case Caried he might well be and that speedily away out of their hands with the arrow sticking still in his bosome but the war was yet close within his ribbes the arrow was set fast as a spike or great naile to binde as it were the cuirace to his bodie for whosoever went about to plucke it out of the wound as from the root the head would not follow withall considering it was driven so sure into that solid brest bone which is over the heart neither durst any saw off that part of the steile that was without for feare of shaking cleaving cracking the said bone by that means so much the more and by that means cause exceeding and intolerable paines besides the effusion of much bloud out of the bottome of the wound himselfe seeing his people about him a long time uncerteine what to doe set in hand to hacke the shaft a two with his dagger close to the superficies of his cuirace aforesaid and so to cut it off cleane but his hand failed him and had not strength sufficient for to do the deed for it grew heavie and benummed with the inflammation of the wound whereupon he commanded his chirurgians to set to their hands boldly and to feare nought incouraging thus hurt as he was those that were sound and unwounded chiding and rebuking some that kept a weeping about him and bemoned him others he called traitours who durst not helpe him in this distresse he cried also to his minions and familiars Let no man be timorous and cowardly for me no not though my life lie on it I shall never be thought and beleeved not to feare dying if you be affraied of my death ***************** OF ISIS AND OSIRIS The Summarie THe wisdome and learning of the Aegyptians hath bene much recommended unto us by ancient writers and not without good cause considering that Aegypt hath bene the source and fountaine from whence have flowed into the world arts and liberall sciences as a man may gather by the testimony of the first Poets and philosophers that ever were But time which consumeth all things hath bereft us of the knowledge of such wisdome or if there remaine still with us any thing at all it is but in fragments and peeces scattered heere and there whereof many times we must divine or guesse and that is all But in recompence thereof Plutarch a man carefull to preserve all goodly and great things hath by the meanes of this discourse touching Isis and Osiris maintained and kept entier a good part of the Aegyptians doctrine which he is not content to set down literally there an end but hath adjoined thereto also an interpretation thereof according to the mystical sense of the Isiake priests discovering in few words an in finit number of secrets hidden under ridiculous monstrous fables in such sort as we may cal this treatise a cōmentary of the Aegyptians Theologie and Philosophy As for the contents thereof a man may reduce it into three principall parts In the first which may serve insted of a preface he yeeldeth a reason of his enterprise upon the consideration of the rasture vesture continence and ab stinence of Isis priests there is an entrie made to the rehearsall of the fable concerning Isis Osiris But before he toucheth it he sheweth the reason why the Aegyptians have thus darkly enfolded their divinity Which done he commeth to descipher in particular the said fable relating it according to the bare letter which is the second part of this booke In the third he expoundeth the fable it selfe and first discovereth the principles of the said Aegyptian Philosophy by a sort of temples sepulchers and sacrifices Afterwards having refuted certaine contrary opinions he speaketh of Daemons ranging Isis Osiris and Typhon in the number of them After this Theologicall exposition he considereth the fable according to naturall Philosophy meaning by Osiris the river Nilus and all other power of moisture whatsoever by Typhon Drinesse and by Isis that nature which preserveth and governeth the world Where he maketh a comparison betweene Bacchus of Greece and Osiris of Aegypt applying all unto naturall causes Then expoundeth he the fable more exactly and in particular maner conferring this interpretation thereof with that of the Stoicks wherupon he doth accommodate and fit all to the course of the Moone as she groweth and decreaseth to the rising also and inundation of Nilus making of all the former opinions a certaine mixture from whence he draweth the explication of the fable By occasion hereof he entreth into a disputation as touching the principles and beginnings of all things setting downe twaine and alledging for the proofe and confirmation of his speech the testimony of
representeth a godlesse man 24.50 K KAimin what it signifieth 1310.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Poets of divers significations 32.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what place 717.10 Kalends whereof they tooke the name 857.50.858.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what exercise or feat of activitie 716.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 680.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wallnut tree why so called 683.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1166.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 746.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 953.10 Killing of a man but upon necessitie 863.50 to be a King what a trouble and burden it is 392.1 Kings abused by flatterers and parasites 94.1 Kings sonnes learne nothing well but to ride an horse 96.40 Kings ought to be milde and gracious 125.10 Kissing the eare 53.20 Kissing of kinsfolke by women how it first came up 484.20 why women Kisse the lips of their kinsfolke 852.20.30 Knowledge simply is the greatest pleasure 588.40.50 much Knowledge breedes manie doubts 784.1 KNOVV THY SELFE 84. 40. 346.1 526.50 240.40 1120.30 1201.10 this Mot hath given occasion of manie questions disputations 1354 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who they were 679.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 785.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth 670.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kinde of Sophisme or masterfull syllogisme 622.20 not fit for feasts 645.1 Kyphi a certeine composition 1308.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 775.1 L L. who pronounce in stead of R. 869.1 Laarchus usurped the tyrannie of Cyrenae 504.30 murdered ib. Labotas his apophthegmes 461.1 Labour with alacrity 619.1 Labour See Diligence Lacedaemonians bountifull to the Smyrnians 103.10 their modestie to them ib. how they scared their children from drunkennesse 121.50 they shewed their Ilotae drunke to their children 1091.10 why they sacrifice to the Muses before battell 125.50 Lacedaemonian apophthegms 469. 50 444.1 Lacedaemonians reverence old age 473.20 Lacedaemonian customes and orders 475. 10. how they lost their ancient reputation 479.1 10 Lacedaemonian womens apophthegmes 479.30 Lacedaemonians forbid torchlights 475.30 the Laconisme or short speech of the Lacedaemonians 103.10.20 Lachares a tyrant over the Athenians 586.10 Lachesis her function 1184.40 1219.30 Lachesis 679.50.797.40.1049 10 Lacydes a fast friend to Cephisocrates and made no shew thereof 102.40 Lacydes noted for effeminate wantonnesse 241.20 Ladas the famous runner 356 Laelius advanced Scipio 357.50 Laesmodias 759.20 Lais a famous courtisan 61.1 Lais became a maried wife 1154.10 stoned to death for envie of her beauty ib. Lamachus 378. 10. his apophthegme 419.50 Lamentation for the dead how to be moderated 521.40 Lamia the witch 135.1 Lamps why the Romans never put forth but suffer to goe out of their owne accord 875. 10. 748.30 the golden Lampe of Minerva 765.10 Lampe burning continually at the temple of Jupiter Ammon 1322. 10. why lesse oile was consumed therein every yeere than other ib. c. Lampon 759.30 the rich merchant 388.1 Lampsace the daughter of Mandron her vertuous act 497. 40. honored as a goddesse 498.1 Lampsacum the city how it tooke that name 497.50 Lapith of the Stoicks 1055.30 Lares what images 868.10 Largesses 377.20 Lasus what he conferred to musick 1257.20 Lautia what presents they were 865.50 Law of what power it is 294.295 Leaena her rare taciturnitie 196.30 Leager 902.50 Lead why it causeth water to bee more cold 735.10 Lead plates and plummets seeme to sweat and melt in hard winters 740.10 Leander bewitched with the love of Aretaphilaes daughter 499 20. hee exerciseth tyrannie ib. 30.40 betraied by Aretaphila into the hands of Anabus 500.10 put to death ib. 30 Leaves of trees not to be plucked 683.10 Left-hand Auspices presage best 876.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lenity of parents to their children 16.10 Leon the sonne of Eucratidas his apophthegmes 461.30 Leon the Bizantine a mery conceited person 355.30 Leonidas the sonne of Anaxandridas his apophthegmes 461. 40. his valiant death 907.40 his heart all hairy ib. his vision with the temple of Hercules at Thebes 1239.1 his noble acts not able apophthegmes 1239 10.20 Leontidas together with Archias tyrannized in Thebes 1204. 30. a valiant man 1225.50 he killeth Cephisodorus ib. he was killed himselfe by Pelopidas 1226.1 Lcontis a tribe 660.30 Leotychidas the first his apophthegmes 461.10 Leotychidas the sonne of Ariston his apophthegmes 461.20 Leschenorius an epithet of Apollo 1353.50 Lethe 609.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say The common-wealth 872.40 Letters in Aegypt invented by Mercurie 789.20 Letters in the alphabet just 24. how they arise 789.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gorge or we sand 744.10 Leucippe 899.30 Leucippidae 902.50 Leucippus killed by Poemander 899.20 Leucomantis 1152.20 Levites whereof they tooke that name 712.20 Leucothea what it is 64.50 Leucothea kind to her sisters children 191.20 Leucothea or 〈◊〉 temple admitteth no maide servant to enter into it 855.30 Liberality what it is 69.10 Libitina supposed to be Venus 857.40 her temple how emploied ib. Libs what winde 829.30 P. Licinius vanquished by Perseus 431.40 his demaunde of Perseus ib. Lictors officers of Rome why so called 872.30.40 Life and language ought to concur in a governour 352.1 Life is but an illusion 603.40 Life solitary and hidden discommended 606.20 Life hidden or unknowen a sentence full of absurdities 607.30.40 of Life three sorts 9.40 long Life not best 521.20 Life of man transitory and 〈◊〉 585.40 Light how delectable it is 608.40 Lightning how it is shot foorth 1022.30 Lightning 704.20 what effects it worketh 705.1.10 bodies smitten with Lightning 〈◊〉 not 705.20 folke a sleepe never blasted with Lightning 705.40 what things be smitten with Lightning ib. 50 Lightning how it cōmeth 827.40 Line or flaxe the herbe 1289.10 Linus of what Musicke he was the inventor 〈◊〉 Lion how stout he is in 〈◊〉 of his whelpes 218.30 Lion why the Aegyptians consecrated to the sunne 710.50 Lions heads gaping serve for 〈◊〉 of fountains in Aegypt 710.50 Lion how he goeth in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 959.1 Lions kinde one to another 966.1 Lions portraied with mouthes 〈◊〉 open in the porches of the Aegyptians temples 1302.30 Literature compared with the 〈◊〉 of fortune and nature 7.1 Liver diseased how it is discovered 782.50 Lochagas his apophthegmes 462.20 Lochia a surname of Diana 1142 1.697.20 Locrians law against curiositie 139.1 Locrus 130.1 what cities he built 893.1 Locusts engendred in Sicilie 671.30 Lode-stone how it draweth iron 1022.30 Logicke or Dialecticke 804.40 Lotos the herbe in Homer 1057 50 Love of yoong boies how permitted 14.1 Love of what power it is 294.295.1143.40 against Love-drinks 316.40 Love in yoong persons soone hot and quickly cold ib. of Love or amity foure branches 1142.30 Love lively described 1143.30 Love of boies compared with that of women 〈◊〉 Love 〈◊〉 commended ib. Love a violent affection 1138.50 Cato his saying of Lovers 1143.30 The bounty and goodnesse of Love 1146.50 how it comes to be called a god 1139.10 Love an ancient god 1140.20 Love covereth defects and imperfections 59.40 Love the most
lamentable and in no wise to be wished for Likewise when we read in Homer thus Thy part of weale and woe thou must ô Agamemnon have For Athens did not thee beget alwaies to winor save We verily are thus to say rather Thou art to joy and never for to grieve But in a meane estate delight to live For Athens did not Agamemnon get The world at will to have and finde no let Againe when we meet with this verse Alas what mischiefe sent to men is this from gods above That they should see what thing is good and it not use nor love Sent from gods above nay rather it is a brutish unreasonable yea a wofull and lamentable thing that a man seeing that which is better should for all that be caried away and transported to the worse by reason of intemperance slouth and effeminate softnesse of the minde Also if we light upon this sentence Behaviour t' is and good cariage That do perswade and not language Not so iwis but maners and words together are perswasive or rather the maners by meanes of speech like as the horse is ruled by the bit and bridle and as the Pilot guideth the ship by the rudder or helme For surely vertue is furnished with no instrument or meanes so gracious with men and so familiar as speech is Moreover where you encounter these verses For wanton love how stands his minde To male more or to female kinde Answer Both hands are right with him where beauty is Neither of twaine to him can come amis Nay rather thus he should have answered Where vertue is seated and continence Both hands are like there is no difference And to speake truely and more plainly in equall balance poised he is indeed inclining neither the one way nor the other Whereas contrariwise he that with pleasure and beautie swaieth to and fro is altogether left handed inconstant and incontinent Read you at any time this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religion true and right godlinesse Make wise men too fearefull alwaies more or lesse In no wise admit thereof but say thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religion true and right godlinesse Make wise men bolde and hardy more or lesse For in trueth feare and despaire by the meanes of religion ariseth in the hearts of none but of fooles unthankfull and senselesse persons who have in suspition and do dread that divine power which is the first cause of all good things as hurtfull unto them Thus much concerning correction of sentences There is besides an amplification of that which we read whereby a sentence may be stretched farther than the bare wordes import And thus Chrysippus hath rightly taught us how to transfer and apply that which was spoken of one onely thing to many of the like kinde and so to make a profitable use thereof for after this manner when Hesiodus saith An oxe or cow a man shall never loose If neighbour his be not malicious He meaneth by oxe or cow his dog likewise and asse yea and all things else that may perish Semblably whereas Euripides saith thus A slave indeed whom may we justly call Even him of death who thinketh not all We must understand that he meant and spake aswell of labour affliction and sicknesse as of death And verily as physitians finding the vertue and operations of a medicine applyed and fitted to one maladie by the knowledge thereof can skill how to accommodate the same to all others of the like nature and use it accordingly even so when we meete with a sentence that is common and whereof the profit may serve to many purposes we ought not to oversee and neglect the manifold use thereof and leave it as appropriate to one onely matter but to handle the same so that it may be applyed to all of like sort and herein we must inure and exercise yoong men to see and know readily this communion and with a quicke conceit to transferre that which they finde apt and proper in many and by examples to be practised and made prompt therein so as they be able to marke at the first hearing the semblable To the ende that when they come to read in Menander this verse A happie man we may him call Who hath much wealth and wit withall They may verie well thinke that in naming wealth he meant and included Honor authoritie and eloquence Also that the imputation which Vlysses charged upon Achilles sitting idlely in the Iland Scyros among the yoong maidens and damosels in these words You sir whose father was a knight the best that ever drew His sword of all the Greekes in fight and many acaptaine slew Sit you here carding like a wench and spinning wooll on rocke Thereby the glorious light to quench of your most noble stocke may be aptly said unto any loose liver and voluptuous wanton unto a covetous and wretched miser unto an idle luske an untaught or ignorant lozell As for example in lieu of this verse in the foresaid imputation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What what good sir are you become a spinster now for need Whose father was of all the Greekes a knight of doughtiest deed A man may read and not unfitly thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Can you carrouse so lustily and tosse the pot so round Whose father knew to shake a speare and stoutly stand his ground Or after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Your courage serves to hazard all at casting of three dies Your fathers heart was tried in war and martiall ieopardies Either thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. You cunning are to play at quoites the game Where as your sire by prowesse wan much same Or in this wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Are you become indeed a Tavernour Whose father was a woorthy governour Or lastly thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. In hundred ten you can full well call for at such a day Your father tens and hundreds knew to range in battellray And in one word so well as you are descended there is no goodnes nor great thing in you worthy thy the noble parentage Moreover where you happen upon these verses What tell you me of Pluto and his chievance For such a god as he with all his puissance Iworship not since that the lewdest wreach In all the world to wealth may quickly reach A man may say as much of glory of outward beauty of the rich mantels of a captaine generall of a Bishops miter and the sacred coronet of a priest which we see the wickedest wretches in the world may attaine unto Againe whereas the words of another verse import thus much onely That children gotren of cowardise Be foule and those whom men despise The same verily do imply also that Intemperance Superstition Envie and all other vices and maladies of the minde bring foorth no better ofspring Now whereas Homer saide excellent well in one place Paris a coward thou art for sooth For all thy face
our neighbours eie so we ought by the forme maner of other mens orations to take the patterne and representation of our owne to the end that we be not too forward and bolde in despising others but may more carefully take heed to our selves when wee likewise come to speake To this purpose also it would dec very well to make a kinde of conference and comparison in this maner Namely to retire our selves apart when we have heard one make an oration and to take in hand some points which wee thinke had not beene well and sufficiently handled and then to assay either to supply that which was defective in some or to correct what was amisse in others or els to varie the same matter in other wordes or at leastwise to discourse altogether thereof with new reasons and arguments like as Plato himselfe did upon the oration of Lysias For I assure you no hard matter it is but very easie to contradict the oration and reason by another pronounced mary to set a better by it that is a piece of worke right hard and difficult Much like as when a certaine Lacedaemonian heard that Phlip king of Macedon had demolished and rased the city Olynthus Hath he so quoth he But is not able to set up such another Now when as we shall see that intreating of the same subject and argument there is no great differenece betweene our owne doings and other mens before us and that we have not farre excelled them we shall be reclaimed much from the contempt of others and quickly represse and stay our owne presumptuous pride and selfe love seeing it thus checked by this triall and comparison And verily to admire other mens doings as it is a thing adverse and opposite to despising so it is a signe of a milder nature and more enclined to indifferencie and equitie But even herein also there would be no lesse heed taken if not more than in the contempt beforesaid for as they which are so presumptious bolde and given so much to dispraise and despise others receive lesse good and smaller profit by hearing to the simple and harmelesse sort addicted overmuch to others and having them in admiration are more subject to take harme and hurt thereby verifying this sentence of Heraclîtus A foolish sot astonied is anone A shall he hear's or seeth done As for the praises therefore of him that speaketh we ought favorablie and of course without great affectation to passe them out of our mouthes in giving credite unto their reasons and arguments we are to be more warie and circumspect and as touching the phrase utterance and action of those that exercise to make speeches we must both see and heare the same with a single hart and a kind affection As for the utilite and truth of those matters which are delivered we should examine and weigh the same exactly with more severitie of judgement Thus we who be hearens shall avoid the suspitions of evill will and harted they againe that are speakers shall do usno harme For oftentimes it falleth out that upon a speciall faustine and good liking unto those that preach unto us we take lesse heed to our selves and by our credulitie admit embrace from their lips many false erroneous opinions The Lacedaemonian rulers Lords of the Counsel of estate upon a time liking wel of the good advise and opinion of a person who was an ill liver caused the same to be delivered openly by another of approoved life and good reputation wherein they did very wisely as prudent politicians to accustome the people for to affect the behavior and honest cariage of their counsellors rather than to respect their words onely But in Philosophie it is otherwise For we must lay aside the reputation of the man who hath in publike place spoken his minde and examine the matter apart by it selfe For that like as in warre we say there be many false ahrmes so also in an auditorie there passe as many vanities The goodly grey beard and hoafie hard of the speaker his solemne gesture and composing of his countenance his grave eie browes his glorious words in behalfe of himselfe but above all the acclamations the applause and clapping of hands the leaping and shouting of the standersby and those that are present in place are enough otherwhiles to trouble and astonish the spirits of a yoong hearer who is not well acquainted with such matters and carie him away perforce as it were with a streame Over and besides there is in the very style and speech it lelfe a secret power able to beguile and deceive a yoong novice namely if it runne round away smooth and pleasant and if withallthere be a certeine affected gravitie and artificiall port and loftinesse to set out and grace the matter And even as they that play upon the pipe be it corner recorder of fife fault many times in musioke and are not perceived by the hearers so a brave and elegant tongue a copious and gallant oration dazeleth the wits of the hearer so a she can not judge fourdly of the matter in hand Melanthus being demaunded upon a time what he thought of a Tragaedie of Diogenes Prould not see it quoth he for so many words where with it was choaked up But the Orations declamations for the most part of these Sophisters who make shew of their eloquence not onely have their sentences covered as it were with vailses and curtaines of words but that which more is they themselves do dulce their voice by the meanes of I wot not what devised notes soft sounds exquisite and musicall accents in their pronuntiation so as they ravish the wits of the hearers and transport them beside themselves leading and carying them which way they list and thus for a certeine little vaine pleasure that they give receive againe applause and glorie much more vaine Insomuch as that befalleth properly unto them which by report Dionysius answered upon a time who seemed to promise unto a famous minstrell for his oxcellent play in an open Theatre to reward him with great gifts gave him in the end just nothing but said he had recompensed him sufficiently already For looke quoth he how much pleasure I have received from thee by thy song and minstrelsy so much contentment and joy thou hast had from me by hoping for some great reward And verily such recompense as this have those Sophisters and great Orators at their hearers hands For admired they are so long as they sit in their chaire and give delight unto their auditorie No sooner is their speech ended but gone is the pleasure of the one and the glorie of the other Thus the Auditours spend their time and the speakers employ their whole life in vaine For this cause it behooveth a yoong hearer to sequester and set aside the ranke superfluitie of words and to seeke after the fruit it selfe and heerein not to imitate women that plait and make garlands
others be most rash audacious and bolde shewing thereby their shamelesse impudencie which is no good nor true argument of courage and fortitude As for a pretie scoffe pleasantly delivered and in mirth without any wrong meant or touch of credit if a man know how to take it well and be not moved thereby to choler and displeasure but laugh it out it doth argue no base minde nor want of wit and understanding but is a liberall and gentelman-like qualitie savouring much of the ingenuous maner of the Lacedaemonians But to heare a sharpe checke that toucheth the very quicke and a reprehension to reforme maners delivered in cutting and tart words much like unto an egar and biting medicine and therwith not to be cast downe and shrinke together for feare nor to run all into a sweat or be ready to 〈◊〉 and stagger with a dizinesse in the head for very shame that hath set the heart on fire but to seeme inflexible and nothing thereat moved smiling in some sort and drily scoffing after a dissembling maner is a notable signe of a most dissolute and illiberall nature past all grace and that basheth for nothing being so long wonted and inured to euill doing in such sort as the heart and conscience is hardened and overgrowen with a certaine brawne and thicke skinne which will not receive the marke or wale of any lash be it never so smart And as there be many such so you shall meet with other youthes of another nature meere contrary unto them who if they happen but once to be checked and to heare ill are soone gone and will not turne againe but quit the Philosophie schooles for ever These being endued by nature with the good rudiments and beginnings of vertue tending unto felicity another day to wit Shamefastnesse and Abashment loose the benefit thereof in that by reason of their overmuch delicacy and effaeminate minds they can not abide reproofs nor with generositie endure correctious but turne away their itching eares to heare rather the pleasant and smooth tales of some flatterers or sophisters which yeeld them no fruit nor profit at all in the end For as hee who after incision made or the fear of dismembring performed by the Chyrurgian runneth away from him and will not tary to have his wound bound up or seared sustaineth all the paine of the cure but misseth the good that might ensue thereof even so he who unto that speech of the Philosopher which hath wounded and launced his follie and untowardnesse will not give leasure to heale the same up and bring it to a perfect confirmed skin againe goeth his waies with the painfull bit and dolorous sting but wanteth all the helpe and benefit of Philosophie For not onely the hurt that Telephus received as Euripides saith By skales of rust both ease and remedie found Fil'd from the speare that first didmake the wound but also the pricke inflicted upon a towardly yoong man by Philosophie is healed by the same words that did the hurt And therefore when hee findeth himselfe checked and blamed feele he must and suffer some smart abide I say he ought to be bitten but not to be crushed and confounded therewith not to be discouraged and dismaide for ever Thus he is to thinke of himselfe being now inducted in Philosophie as if he were a novice newly instituted and prosessed in some religious orders and sacred mysteries namely that after he hath patiently endured a while the first expiatorie purifications and troubles he may hope at the end thereof to see and finde some sweete and goodly fruit of consolation after this present disquietnesse and agonie Say also that he were wrongfully and without cause thus snubbed and rebuked by the Philosopher yet he shall do well to have patience and sit out the end And after the speech finished he may addresse an Apologie unto him and justifie himselfe praying him to reserve this libertie of speech and vehemency of reproofe which he now used for to represse and redresse some other fault which he shall indeed have committed Moreover like as in Grammar the learning to spel letters and to reade in Musicke also to play upon the Lute or Harpe yea and in bodily exercise the feat of wrestling and other activities at the beginning be painefull cumbersome and exceeding hard but after that one be well entred and have made some progresse therein by little and little continuall use and custome much after the manner of conversing and acquaintance among men maketh maistrie engendreth further knowledge and then everie thing that was stronge and difficult before prooveth familiar and easie ynough both to say and doe Even so it fareth in Philosophie whereat the first there seemeth no doubt to be some strangenesse obscuritie and I wot not what barrennesse aswell in the termes and words as in the matters therein contained Howbeit for all that a yoong man must not for want of heart be astonied at the first entrance into it nor yet for faintnesse be discouraged and give over but make proofe and triall of every thing persevere and continue in diligence desirous ever to passe on still and proceed further and as it were to draw well before waiting and attending the time which may make the knowledge thereof familiar by use and custome the onely meanes which causeth everie thing that is of it selfe good and honest to be also sweete and pleasant in the ende And verily this familiaritie will come on apace bringing with it a great cleernesse and light of learning it doth ingenerate also an ardent love and affection to vertue without which love a man were most wretched or timorous if he should apply himselfe to follow another course of life having once given over for want of heart the studie of Philosophie But peradventure it may fall out so that young men not well experienced may find at the beginning such difficulties in some matters that hardly or unneth at all they shall be able to comprehend them Howbeit they are themselves partly the cause that they doe incurre this obscuritie and ignorance who being of divers and contrarie natures yet fall into one and the selfesame inconvenience For some upon a certaine respectuous reverence which they bare unto their Reader and Doctour or because they would seeme to spare him are afraid to aske questions and to be confirmed and resolved in doubts arising from the doctrine which he delivereth and so give signes by nodding their heads that they approove all as if they understood everie thing verie well Others againe by reason of a certaine importune ambition and vaine emulation of others for to shew the quicknesse and promptitude of their wit and their readie capacitie giving out that they fully understand that which they never conceived by that meanes attaine to nothing And thus it commeth to passe that those bashfull ones who for modestie and shamefastnes are silent and dare not aske that whereof they are ignorant after they be departed out of
in him somewhat better and somewhat worse And verily by that meanes he that hath the worse part obedient to the better hath powre over himselfe yea and better than himselfe whereas he that suffreth the brutish and unreasonable part of his soule to command and go before so as the better and more noble part doth follow and is serviceable unto it he no doubt is worse than himselfe he is I say incontinent or rather impotent and hath no power over himselfe but disposed contrary to nature For according to the course and ordinance of nature meet and fit it is that reason being divine and heavenly should command and rule that which is sensuall and voide of reason which as it doth arise and spring out of the very bodie so it resembleth it as participating the properties and passions thereof yea and naturally is full of them as being deepely concorporate and throughly mixed therewith As it may appeere by all the motions which it hath tending to no other things but those that be materiall and corporall as receiving their augmentations and diminutions from thence or to say more properly being stretched out and let slacke more or lesse according to the mutations of the body Which is the cause that young persons are quicke prompt and audacious rash also for that they be full of bloud and the same hot their lusts and appetites are likewise firy violent and furious whereas contrariwise in old folke because the source of concupiscence seated about the liver is after a sort quenched yea and become weake and feeble reason is more vigorous and predominant in them as much as the sensuall and passionate part doth languish and decay together with the body And verily this is that which doth frame and dispose the nature of wilde beasts to divers passions For it is not long of any opinions good or bad which arise in them that some of them are strong venterous and fearelesse yea and ready to withstand any perils presented before them others againe be so surprised with feare and fright that they dare not stirre or do any thing but the force and power which lieth in the bloud in the spirits and in the whole bodie is that which causeth this diversitie of passions by reason that the passible part growing out of the flesh as from a roote doeth bud soorth and bring with it a qualitie and pronenesse semblable But in man that there is a sympathie and fellow mooving of the body together with the motions of the passions may be prooved by the pale colour the red flushing of the face the trembling of the joints and panting and leaping of the heart in feare and anger And againe on the contrary side by the dilations of the arteries heart and colour in hope and expectation of some pleasures But when as the divine spirit and understanding of man doeth moove of it selfe alone without any passion then the body is at repose and remaineth quiet not communicating nor participating any whit with the operation of the minde and intendement no more than it being disposed to studie upon any Mathematicall proposition or other science speculative it calleth for the helpe and assistance of the unreasonable part By which it is manifest that there be two distinct parts in us different in facultie and power one from another In summe Go through the universall world althings as they themselves affirme and evident experience doth convince are governed and ordred some by a certeine habitude others by nature some by sensuall and unreasonable soule others by that which hath reason and understanding Of all which man hath his part at once yea and was borne naturally with these differences above said For conteined he is by an habitude nourished by nature reason understanding he useth he hath his portion likewise of that which is unreasonable and inbred there is together with him the source and primitive cause of passions as a thing necessarie for him neither doth it enter into him from without in which regard it ought not to be extirped utterly but hath neede onely of ordering and government whereupon Reason dealeth not after the Thracian maner nor like king Lycurgus who commanded all vines without exception to be cut downe because wine caused drunkennes it rooteth not out I say all affections indifferently one with another the profitable as well as the hurtfull but like unto the good gods 〈◊〉 and Hemorides who teach us to order plants that they may fructifie and to make them gentle which were savage to cut away that which groweth wilde and ranke to save all the rest and so to order and manage the same that it may serve for good use For neither do they shed and spill their wine upon the floure who are afraid to be drunke but delay the same with water nor those who feare the violence of a passion do take it quite away but rather temper and qualifie the same like as folke use to breake horses and oxen from their flinging out with their heeles their stiffenes curstnes of the head stubburnes in receiving the bridle or the yoke but do not restreine them of other motions in going about their worke and doing their deed And even so verily reason maketh good use of these passions when they be well tamed and brought as it were to hand without over weakning or rooting out cleane that part of the soule which is made for to second reason and do it good service For as Pindarus saith The horse doth serve in chariot at the thill The oxe at plough doth labour hardin field Who list in chase the wild Bore for to kill The hardy hound he must provide with skill And I assure you the entertainment of these passions and their breed serve in farre better stead when they doe assist reason and give an edge as it were and vigour unto vertues than the beasts above named in their kind Thus moderate ire doth second valour and fortitude hatred of wicked persons helpeth the execution of Iustice and indignation is just and due unto those who without any merit or desert enjoie the felicitie of this life who also for that their heart is puffed up with foolish arrogancie and enflamed with disdainfull pride and insolence in regard of their prosperitie have need to be taken downe and cooled Neither is a man able by any meanes would he never so faine to separate from true friendship naturall indulgence and kind affection nor from humanitie commiseration and pitie ne yet from perfect benevolence and good will the fellowiship in joy and sorrow Now if it be true as it is indeed that they do grossely erre who would abolish all love because of foolish and wanton love surely they do amisse who for covertousnes sake and greedines of money do blame and condemne quite all other appetites and desires They do I say asmuch as those who would sorbid running altogether because a man may stumble and catch a fall as he runneth
them pleasantly are straight waies to be attainted as flatterers no lesse then if they were taken in the very act of flatterie For surely a friend should not be unpleasant unsavorie without any seasoning as it were of delightsome qualities neither is friendship to be accounted venerable in this respect that it is austere or bitter but even that verie beauty and gravitie that it hath is sweet and desircable and as the Poet saith About her alwaies seated be Delightsome Love and Graces three And not he onely who is in calamitie Doth great content and comfort find To see the face of trustie friend according as Euripides saith but true amitie addeth nolesse grace pleasure and joy unto those that be in prosperitie than it easeth them of sorrow and griefe who are in adversitie Evenus was woont to say that of all pleasant sauce fire was the best and most effectuall And even so God having mingled friendship with this life of ours hath made all things joious sweete pleasant and acceptable where a friend is present and enjoieth his part For otherwise a man can not devise nor expresse how and in what sort a flatterer could insilnuate himselfe and creepe into favour under the colour of pleasure if he saw that friendship in the owne nature never admitted any thing that was pleasant and delectable But like as false and counterfeit peeces of gold which will not abide the touch represent onely the lustre and bright glittering of gold So a flatterer resembling the sweete and pleasant behaviour of a friend sheweth himselfe alwaies jocund mery and delightsome without crossing at any time And therefore we ought not presently to suspect all them to be flatterers who are given to praise others For otherwhiles to commend a man so it be done in time and place convenient is a propertie no lesses befitting a friend than to blame and reprehend Nay contrariwise there is nothing so adverse and repugnant to amitie and societie than testinesse thwarting complaining and evermore fault-finding whereas if a man knoweth the good will of his friend to be ever prest and readie to yeeld due praises and those in full measure to things well done he will be are more patiently and in better part another time his free reprehensions and reproofe for that which is done amisse for that he is verily perswaded of him that as he was willing ynough to praise so he was as loth to dispraise and therefore taketh all in good woorth A difficult matter then it is will some one say to discerne a flatterer from a friend seeing there is no difference betweene them either in doing pleasure or yeelding praise for otherwise we see oftentimes that in many services courtesies and kindnesses besides a flatterer is more readie and forward than a friend True it is indeed we must needs say a right hard matter it is to know the one from the other especially if we speake of a right flatterer indeed who is his owne crafts-master and can skill how to handle the matter artificially and with great cunning and dexteritie if I say we make no reckoning of them for flatterers as the common people doe who are these ordinarie smell-feasts and as ready as flies to light in everie dish these parasites I say whose toong as one said verie well will be walking so soone as men have washed their hands and be readie to sit downe to meat cogging and soothing up their good masters at everie word who have no honestie at all in them and whose scurrilitie profane and irreligious impuritie a man shall soone finde with one dish of meat and cup of wine For surely there was no great need to detect and convince the flatterie of Melanthius the Parasite and Iester of Alexander Pheraus the Tyrant who being asked upon a time how Alexander his good Lord and master was murthered Mary with a thrust quoth he of a sword which went in at his side and ranne as farre as into my belly neither of such as a man shall never see to faile but where there is a good house and plentifull table kept they will be sure to gather round about it in such sort as there is no fire nor iron grates or brasse gates can keepe them backe but they will be readie to put their foot under the boord no nor of those women who in times past were called in Cypres Colacides i. Flatteresses but after they were come to Syria men named them Climacides as one would say Ladderesses for that they used to lie along to make their backs stepping stooles or ladders as it were for Queenes Great mens wives to get upon when they would mount into their coatches Whatkinde of flatterer then is it so hard and yet needfull to beward of Forsooth even of him who seemeth none such and professeth nothing lesse than to flatter whom a man shall never finde about the kitchin where the good meate is dressed nor take measuring of shadowes to know how the daie goes and when it is dinner or supper time ne yet see drunken and lying along the ground untowardly and full like a beast But for the most part sober he is enough he loveth to bee a curious Polypragmon he will have an oare in every boat and thinks he is to intermedle in all matters he hath a minde to be privie and partie in all deepe secrets and in one word he carrieth himselfe like a grave Tragedian and not as a Comicall or Satyricall player and under that vision and habit he counterfeiteth a friend For according to the saying of Plato it is the greatest and most extreame injustice for a man to make semblance of being just when he is not even so we are to thinke that flatterie of all others to be most dangerous which is covert and not apert or professed which is serious I say and not practised by way of jest and sport And verily such glozing and flatterie as this causeth men oftentimes to mistrust true friendship indeed and doth derogate much from the credit thereof for that in many things it jumpeth so even therewith unlesse a man take verie good heed and looke narrowly into it True it is that Gobrias being runne into a darke and secret roome together with one of the usurping Tyrants of Persia called Magi whom he pursued hard and at handy gripes strugling grappling and wrestling close together cried out unto Darius comming into the place with a naked sword and doubting to thrust at the Vsurper for feare he should runne Gobrias thorough also Thrust hardly and spare not quoth he though you dispatch us both at once But we who in no wise can allow of that common saying Let a friend perish so he take an enemie with him but are desirous to plucke and part a slatterer from a friend with whom he is coupled and interlaced by meanes of so many resemblances we I say have great cause to feare and beware that we doe not cast and reject
his actions wholly to the humor of another is never simple uniforme nor like himselfe but variable and changing alwaies from one forme to another much like as water which is powred out of one vessel into another even as it runneth forth taketh the forme and fashion of that vessell which receiveth it And herein he is cleane contrarie to the ape for the ape as it should seeme thinking to counterfeit man by turning hopping and dauncing as he doth is quickly caught but the flatterer whiles he doth imitate and counterfeit others doth entice and draw them as it were with a pipe or call into his net and so beguileth them And this he doeth not alwaies after one maner for with one he daunceth and singeth with another he wil seeme to wrestle or otherwise to exercise the bodie in feats of activitie if he chance to meet with a man that loveth to hunt and to keepe hounds him he will follow hard at heeles setting out a throat as loud in a maner as Hippolytus in the Tragedie Phoedra crying So ho this is my joy and onely good With crie to lure with tooting horne to winde By leave of gods to bring into the wood My hounds to rouse and chase the dapple Hinde And yet hath he nothing to do at all with the wilde beasts of the forrest but it is the hunter himselfe whom hee laieth for to take within his net and toile And say that hee light upon a yoong man that is a student given to learning then you shall see him also as deepe poring upon his booke and alwaies in his Studie you shall have him let his beard grow downe to his foot like a grave Philosopher who but he then in his side thred-bare students cloake after the Greeke fashion as if he had no care of himselfe nor joy of any thing els in the world not a word then in mouth but of the Numbers Orthangles and Triangles of Plato If peradventure there fall into his hands an idle do-nothing who is rich withall and a good fellow one that loveth to eat and drinke and make good cheere That wily Fox Vlysses tho His ragged garments will off do off goes then his bare and overworne studying gowne his beard he causeth to be cut shorne as neere as a new mowen field in harvest when all the corne is gone no talke then but of flagons bottels pots and cooling pans to keepe the wine cold nothing now but merie conceits to moove laughter in everie walking place and gallerie of pleasure Now hee letteth flie srumpes and scoffes against schollers and such as studie philosophie Thus by report it fell out upon a time at Syracusa For when Plato thither arrived and Denys all on a sodaine was set upon a furious fit of love to Philosophie his palace and whole court was full of dust and sand by reason of the great recourse thither of Students in Geometrie who did nothing but draw figures therein But no sooner had Plato incurred his displeasure and was out of favor no sooner had Denys the tyrant bidden Philosophie farewell given himselfe againe to belly-cheere to wine vanities wantonnesse and all loosenesse of life but all at once it seemed the whole court was transformed likewise as it were by the sorcerie and enchantment of Cyrces into hatred and detestation of good letters so as they forgat all goodnesse and betooke themselves to folly and sottishnesse To this purpose it were not amisse for to alledge as testimonies the fashions and acts of some notorious flatterers such I meane as have governed Common-welths and affected popularitie Among whom the greatest of all other was Alcibiades who all the while he was at Athens used to scoffe and had a good grace in merrie conceits pleasant jests he kept great horses and lived in jollitie most gallantly with the love and favor of all men when he sojourned in Sparta he went alwaies shaven to the bare skin in an overworne cloke or else the same very course and never washed his bodie but in cold water Afterwards being in Thrace he became a soldior and would carrouse and drinke lustily with the best He came no sooner to Tisaphernes in Asia but he gave himselfe to voluptuousnes and pleasure to riot wantonnes and superfluous delights Thus throughout the whole course of his life he wan the love of all men by framing himselfe to their humors and fashions wheresoever he came Such were not Epaminondas and Agesilaus For albeit they conversed with many sorts of people travailed divers cities and saw sundry fashions and maners of strange nations yet they never changed their behavior they were the same men still reteining evermore a decent port which became them in their apparel speech diet and their whole cariage and demeanor Plato likewise was no changeling but the same man at Syracuasa that he was in the Academie or College at Athens and looke what his cariage was before Dion the same it was and no other in Denys his court But that man may very easily finde out the variable changes of a flatterer as of the fish called the Pourcuttle who will but straine a little and take the paines to play the dissembler himselfe making shew as if he likewise were transformed into divers and sundry fashions namely in misliking the course of his former life and sodainly seeming to embrace those things which he rejected before whether it be in diet action or speech For then he shall soone see the flatterer also to be inconstant and not a man of himselfe taking love or hatred to this or that joying or greeving at a thing upon any affection of his owne that leadeth him thereto for that he receiveth alwaies as a mirrour the images of the passions motions and and lives of other men If you chance to blame one of your friends before him what will he say by and by Ah well You have found him out I see now at last though it were long since I wis I liked him not long a great while ago Contrariwise if your minde alter so that you happen to fall a praising of him againe Very well done will he say and binde it with an oth I con you thanke for that I am very glad for the mans sake and I beleeve no lesse of him Do you breake with him about the alteration of your life and beare him in hand that you meane to take another course as for example to give over State affaires to betake your selfe to a more private and quiet life Yea marie quoth he and then you do well it is more than high time so to do For long since we should have beene disburdened of these troubles so full of envie and perill Make him beleeve once that you will change your copie and that you are about to shake off this idle life and to betake your selfe unto the Common-weale both to rule and also to speake in publike place you shall have him to sooth you up and second
not proceed so farre in displeasing him that thereby he breake or undo the knot of friendship he ought I say to use a sharpe rebuke as a Physician doth some bitter or tart medicine to save or peserve the life of his patient And a good friend is to play the part of a Musician who to bring his instrument into tune and so to keepe it setteth up these strings and letteth downe those and so ought a friend to exchange profit with pleasure and use one with another as occasion serveth observing still this rule often times to be pleasing unto his friend but alwaies profitable whereas the flatterer being used evermore to sing one note and to play upon the same string that is to say To please and in all his words and deeds to aime at nothing els but the contentment of him whom he flattereth can not skill either in act to resist or in speech to reproove and offend him but goeth on still in following his humor according alwaies with him in one tune and keeping the same note just with him Now as Xenophon writeth of king Agesilaus that he was well apaied to be commended of them who he knew would also blame him if there were cause so we are to thinke well of friendship when it is pleasant delightsome and cheereful if otherwhiles also it can displease and crosse againe but to have in suspition the conversation and acquaintance of such as never doe or say any thing but that which is pleasing continually keeping one course without change never rubbing where the gall is nor touching the sore without reproofe and contradiction We ought I say to have ready alwaies in remembrance the saying of an ancient Laconian who hearing king Charilaus so highly praised and extolled And how possibly quoth he can he be good who is neuer sharpe or severe unto the wicked The gad-flie as they say which useth to plague bulles and oxen setleth about their eares and so doth the tick deale by dogges after the same maner flatterers take holde of ambitious mens eares and possesse them with praises and being once set fast there hardly are they to be removed and chased away And here most needfull it is that our judgement be watchfull and observant and doe discerne whether these praises be attributed to the thing or the person wee shall perceive that the thing it selfe is praised if they commend men rather absent than in place also if they desire and affect that themselves which they do so like and approve in others again if they praise not us alone but all others for the semblable qualities likewise if they neither say nor do one thing now and another time the contrary But the principall thing of all other is this If we our selves know in our owne secret conscience that we neither repent nor be ashamed of that for which they so commend us ne yet wish in our hearts that we had said or done the contrary for the inward judgement of our mind and soule bearing witnesse against such praises and not admitting thereof is void of affections and passions wherby it neither can be touched nor corrupted and surprised by a flatterer Howbeit I know not how it commeth about that the most part of men can not abide nor receive the consolations which be ministred unto them in their adversities but rather take delight and comfort in those that weepe lament and mourne with them and yet the same men having offended or being delinquent in any duetie if one come and find fault or touch them to the quicke therefore do strike and imprint into their hearts remorse and repentance they take him for no better than an accuser and enemie contrariwise let one highly commend and magnifie that which they have done him they salute and embrace him they account their wel-willer and friend in deed Now whosoever they be that are ready to praise and extoll with applause and clapping of hands that which one hath done or said were it in earnest or in game such I say are dangerous and hurtfull for the present onely and in those things which are next hand but those who with their praises pierse as faire as to the maners within and with their flatteries proceed to corrupt their inward natures and dispositions I can liken unto those slaves or housholde servants who rob their masters not onely of that corne which is in the heape heth in the garners but also of the very seed for the inclination and towardnesse of a man are the seed that bring forth all his actions and the habitude of conditions and maners are the very source and head from whom runneth the course of our whole life which they pervert in giving to vices the names of vertues Thucydides in his storie writeth That during civill seditions and warres men transferred the accustomed significations of words unto other things for to justifie their deeds for desparate rashnesse without all reason was reputed valour and called Love-friend provident delay and remporizing was taken for decent cowardise Modestie and temperance was thought to be a cloke of effeminate unmanlinesse a prudent and wary circumspection in all things was held for a generall slouth and idlenesse According to which precedent we are to consider and observe in flatterers how they terme prodigalitie by the name of liberalitie cowardise is nothing with them but heedfull warinesse brainsicknesse they entitle promptitude quicknesse and celeritie base and mechanicall niggardise they account temperate frugalitie Is there one full of love and given to be amorous him they call good fellow a boun-companion a man of a kinde and good nature See they one hastie wrathfull and proud withall him they will have to be hardie valiant and magnanimous contrariwise one of a base minde and abject spirit they will grace with the attribute of fellow-like and full of humanity Much like to that which Plato hath written in one place That the amorous lover is a flatterer of those whom he loveth For if they be flat nosed like a shoing borne such they call lovely and gracious be they hawk-nosed like a griffin ôh that is a kingly sight say they those that be blacke of colour are manly white of complexion be Gods children And as for the terme Melichriis that is Hony-coloured it is alwaies verily a flattering word devised by a lover to mitigate and diminish the odiousnesse of a pale hue which he seemeth by that sweet name not to mislike but to take in the best part And verily if hee that is foule ill favoured be borne in hand that he is faire and beautifull or one of small lowe stature made beleeve that he is goodly tall he neither continueth long in this his error neither is the damage that he susteineth thereby greevous great nor unrecoverable but the praises which induce inure a man to beleeve That vice is vertue insomuch that he is nothing at all discontented in his sinne and greeved therefore
into their heads For evermore it getteth closely into some vicious passion and affection of the minde and there lurketh the same it nourisheth and feedeth fat but anon it appeereth like a botch rising estsoones upon the corrupt diseased or inflamed parts of the soule Art thou angrie with one punish him saith he Hast thou a minde to a thing buy it and make no more adoe Art thou never so little afraid let us flie and be gon Suspectest thou this or that beleeve it considently saith he But if peradventure he can hardly be seene and discovered about these passions for that they be so mightie and violent that oftentimes they chase and expell all use of reason he will give some vantage to be sooner taken in others that be not so strong and vehement where we shall find him alwaies the same and like himselfe For say a man do suspect that he hath taken a surfeit either by over liberall feeding or drinking headie wine and upon that occasion make some doubt to bathe his bodie or to eate presently againe and lay gorge upon gorge as they say A true friend wil advice him to forbeare abstaine he will admonish him to take heed to himselfe and looke to his health In comes a flatterer and he will draw him to the baine in all haste he will bid him to call for some noveltie or other to be set upon the boord willing him to fall fresh to it againe and not to punish his body and do himselfe injurie by fasting and refusing his meate and drinke Also if he see him not disposed to take a journey by land or voyage by sea or to go about any enterprise whatsoever it be slowly and with an ill will he will say unto him either that there is no such great need or the time is not so convenient but it may be put off to a farther daie or it will serve the turne well enough to send others about it Now if it fall out so that he having made promise to some familiar friend either to lend or let him have the use of some money or to give him it freely do change his minde and repent of his promise but yet be some what abashed and ashamed thus to breake his word the flatterer by and by will put himselfe to the worse and lighter end of the ballance and make it weigh downe on the purse side soone excluding and cutting off all shame for the matter What man will he say Spare your purse and save your silver you are at a great charge you keepe a great house and have many about you which must be maintained and have sufficient in such sort that if we be not altogether ignorant of our selves and wilfully blinde not seeing that we be covetous shamelesse timorous and base minded we cannot choose but start and finde out a flatterer neither is it possible that he should escape us For surely he will evermore defend and maintaine these imperfections and frankly will he speake his minde in favour there of if he perceive us to over passe our selves therein But thus much may suffice as touching these matters Let us come now to the uses and services that a flattere is employed in For in such offices he doth confound trouble and darken much the difference betweene him and a true friend shewing himselfe in apparence alwaies diligent ready and prompt in all occurrences without seeking any colourable pretenses of shifting off and a refusing to do any thin As for a faithfull friend his whole carriage and behaviour is simple like as be the words of truth as faith Eurypides without welts and gards plaine without plaits and nothing counterfeit whereas the conditions of a flatterer to say a truth By nature are diseased much And medicines needfull are for such not only with wisdome to be ministred and applied but also many in number and those I assure you of a more exquisite making and composition than any other And verily as friends many times when they meet one another in the street passe by without good-morrow or god speed or any word at all betweene them onely by some light some looke cheerefull smile or amiable regard of the eie reciprocally given and taken without any other token els there is testified the good-will and mutuall affection of the heart within whereas the flatterer runneth toward his friend to meet him followeth apace at his heeles spreadeth foorth both his armes abroad and that afarre off to embrace him and if it chance that he be saluted and spoken to first because the other had an eie on him before he will with brave words excuse himselfe yea and many times call for witnesses and bind it with great oathes good store that he saw him not Even so likewise in their affaires and negociations abroad in the world friends omit and overslip many small and light things not searching narrowly into matters not offering or expecting againe any exquiquisit service nothing curious and busie in ech thing ne yet putting themselves forward to everie kinde of ministerie but the flatterer is herein double diligent he will be continually emploied and never rest without seeming at any time to be weary no place no space nor opportunity will he give the other to do any service he looketh to be called unto and commanded and if he be not bidden he will take it ill and be displeased nay you shall have him then out of heart and discouraged complaining of his ill fortune and protesting before God and man as if he had some great wrong done unto him These be evident marks and undoubted arguments to such as have wit and understanding not of a friendship sound sober honest but rather smelling of wanton and whorish love which is more ready to embrace and clip than is decent and seemely Howbeit to examine the same more particularly let us consider what difference there is betweene a flatterer ahd a friend as touching the offers and promises that they make They who have written of this theame before us say very well that a friends promise goeth in this forme If that I can or if it may be done Fulfill I will your minde and that right soone but the offer of a flatterer runneth in this maner What would you have say but the word to me Without all doubt effected it shall be For such franke promisers and braggers as these the Poets also use to bring unto the Stage in their Comedies after this sort Now of all loves Nicomachus this I crave Set me against this souldier here so brave I will so swinge his coat you shall it see That like a pompion his flesh shall tender be His face his head I shall much softer make Than is the spunge that growes in sea or lake Moreover you shall not see a friend offer his helping hand or aide in any action unlesse he were called before to counsell and his opinion asked of the enterprise or that he have approoved and
But very few there be among many others who dare freely and plainely speake unto their friends but rather sooth them up and seeke to please them in every thing And even in those as few as they be hardly shall you find any that know how to do it well but for the most part they thinke that they speake freely when they do nothing but reproove reproch and raile Howbeit this libertie of speech where of I speake is of the nature of a medicine which if it be not given in time convenient and as it ought to be besides that it doth no good at all it troubleth the body worketh greevance and in stead of a remedie prooveth to be a mischiefe For even so he that doth reprehend and find fault unseasonably bringeth foorth the like effect with paine as flatterer doth with pleasure For men are apt to receive hurt and damage not onely by overmuch praise but also by inordinate blame when it is out of due time for it is the onely thing that of all others maketh them soonest to turne side unto flatterers and to be most easily surprised by them namely when from those things that stand most opposite and highest against them they turne aside like water and run downe those waies that be more low easie and hollow In which regardit behooveth that this libertie in fault finding be tempered with a cettaine amiable affection and accompanied with the judgement of reason which may take away the excessive vehemencie and force of sharpe words like the over-bright shining of some glittering light for feare lest their friends being dazeled as it were and frighted with the flashing beames of their rebukes seeing themselves so reprooved for ech thing and blamed every while may take such a griefe and thought thereupon that for sorrow they be ready to flie unto the shadow of some flatterer and turne toward that which will not trouble them at all For we must avoid all vice ô Philopappus and seeke to correct the same by the meanes of vertue not by another vice contrary unto it as some do who for to shun foolish and rusticall bashfulnesse grow to be overbold and impudent for to eschew rude incivilitie fall to be ridiculous jesters and pleasants and then they thinke to be farthest off from cowardise and effeminate tendernesse when they come neerest to extreme audacitie and boasting braverie Others there be who to proove themselves not to be superstitious become meere Atheists and because they would not be though and reputed idiots and fooles proove artificiall conny-catchers And surely in redressing the enormities of their maners they do as much as those who for want of knowledge and skill to set a peece of wood streight that twineth and lieth crooked one way do curbe and bend it as much another way But the most shamefull means to avoid shun the suspicion of a flatterer is to make a mans selfe odious troublesom without profit and a very rude and rusticall fashion this is of seeking to win favor and that with favour of no learning skill and civilitie to become unpleasant harsh and sowre to a friend for to shunne that other extreame which in friendship seemeth to be base and servile which is as much as if a freed slave newly franchised should in a Comedie thinke that he could not use and enjoy his libertie of speech unlesse he might be allowed licenciously to accuse another without controlment Considering then that it is a foule thing to fall to flatterie in studying to please as also for the avoiding of flatterie by immoderate libertie of speech to corrupt and marre aswell the grace of amitie and winning love as the care of remedying and reforming that which is amisse and seeing that we ought to avoid both the one and the other and as in all things else so free speaking is to have the perfection from a meane and mediocritie reason would and by order it were requisit that toward the end of this Treatise we should adde somewhat in maner of a corollarie and complement as touching that point Forasmuch as therefore we see that this libertie of language and reprehension hath many vices following it which doe much hurt let us assay to take them away one after another and begin first with blinde self-selfe-love and private regards where we ought especially to take heed that we be not seene to do any thing for our owne interest and in respect of our selves and namely that we seeme not for wrong that we have received our selves or upon any griefe of our owne to reproch upbraid or revile other men for they will never take it as done for any love or good will that we beare unto them but rather upon some discontentment and heart-burning that we have when they see that our speech tendeth unto a matter wherein we are interessed our selves neither will they repute our words spoken by way of admonition unto them but rather interpret them as a complaint of them For surely the libertie of speech whereof we treat as it respecteth the welfare of our friend so it is grave and venerable whereas complaints savour rather of selfe-love and a base minde Hereupon it is that we reverence honour and admire those who for our good deliver their minds frankly unto us contrariwise we are so bolde as to accuse chalenge and charge reciprocally yea and contemne those that make complaints of us Thus we reade in Homer That Agamemnon who could not beare and endure Achilles when he seemed to tell him his minde after a moderate maner but he was well enough content to abide and suffer Ulysses who touched him neere and bitterly rebuked him in this wise Ah wretch would God some abject hoast beside us by your hand Conducted were so that in field you did not us command As sharpe a checke as this was yet being delivered by a wise man proceeding from a carefull minde and tendering the good of the common weale he gave place thereto and kicked not againe for this Ulysses had no private matter nor particular quarell against him but spake frankly for the benefit of all Greece whereas Achilles seemed to be offended and displeased with him principally for some private matter betwene them twaine And even Achilles also himselfe although he was never knowen for to be a man of a gentle nature and of a milde spirit But rather of a stomacke full and one who would accuse A guiltlesse person for no cause and him full soone abuse endured Patroclus patiently and gave him not a word againe notwithstanding he taunted and tooke him up in this wise Thou mercilesse and cruell wretch sir Peleus valiant knight Was never sure thy father true 〈◊〉 yet dame Thetis bright Thy mother kinde but sea so greene or rocks so steepe and hard Thee bare thy heart of pittie hath so small or no regard For like as Hyperides the Oratour required the Athenians who complained that his orations were bitter to consider of
If hee were not a spie Yes marie quoth hee and come I am to spie out your inconsiderate folly ô Philip and want of forecast who being not urged nor compelled by any man are come thus farre to hazard in one hower the State of your kingdome and your owne life and to lay all upon the chance and cast of adie But some man peradventure will say This was a speech somewhat with the sharpest and too much biting Moreover another fit time and occasion there is of admonition when those whom we minde to reproove having beene reproched and taunted already by others for some faults which they committed are become submisse and cast downe to our hands Which opportunitie a wise and skilfull friend will not omit but make especial good use of namely by seeming in open place to check those that thus have standered them yea and to repulse and put backe such opprobrious imputations but privatly he will take his friend apart by himselfe and put him in minde to live more warily and give no such offence if for no other thing else yet because his enemies should not take vantage and beare themselves insolently against him For how shall they be able to open their mouthes against you what mis-word can they have to say unto you if you would leave these things and cast them behinde you for which you heare ill and are growen to some obloquie In this sort if the matter be handeled all the offence that was taken shall light upon the head of the first slanderer and the profit shall be attributed unto the other that gave the friendly advertisement and he shall goe away with all the thankes Some there be moreover who after a more cleanly and fine maner in speaking of others admonish their owne familiar friends for they will accuse strangers in their hearing for those faults which they know them to commit and by this meanes reclaime them from the same Thus Ammontus our master perceiving when he gave lecture in the after-noone that some of us his scholars had taken a larger dinner and eate more than was meet for students commanded a servant of his franchised to take up his owne some and to beate him and why so He cannot for sooth make his dinner quoth he but he must have some vineger to his meat And in saying so he cast his eie upon us in such sort that as many as were culpable tooke themselvesto be rebuked thought that he meant them Furthermore this good regard would be observed that we never use this fashion of free speech and reprooving our friend in the presence of many persons but we must remember that which befell unto Plato for when upon a time Socrates in a disputation held at the table inveighed somwhat too bitterly against against one of his familiars before them all had it not beene better quoth Plato to have told him of this privately but thus to shame him before all this companie But Socrates taking him presently therewith And you also might have done better to have saide this to my selfe when you had found me alone Pythagor as report gave such hard tearmes by way of reproose to one of his scholars and acquaintance in the hearing of many that the yoong man for very griefe of heart was weary of his life and hanged himselfe But never would Pythagor as after to his dying day reproove or admonish any man if another were in place And to say a truth as well the detection as the correction of a sinne ought to be secret and not in publike place like as the discoverie and cure also of some filthie and foule disease it must not I say be done in the veiw of the world as if some shew or pompe were to be exhibited unto the people with calling witnesses or spectators thereto For it is not the part of a friend but a tricke of some Sophister to seeke for glorie in other mens faults and affect outward shew and vaine ostentation in the presence of others much like to these Mount-bank Chirurgians who for to have the greater practise make shew of their cunning casts and operations of their art in publike Theatres with many gesticulations of their handy-worke Moreover besides that there should no infamie grow to him that is reprooved which in deed is not to be allowed in any cure or remedie there ought also to be some regard had of the nature of vice and sinne which for the most part of it selft is opinionative contentious stubborne and apt to stand to it and make meanes of defence For as Euripides saith We daily see not onely wanton love Doth presse the more when one doth it reprove But any vice whatsoever it be and everie imperfection if a man do reproove it in publike place before many and spare not at all putteth on the nature of impudence and turneth to be shamelesse like as therefore Plato giveth a precept that elder folke if they would imprint shame and grace in their yoong children ought themselves first to shew shamefast behavior among them even so the modest and bashfull libertie of speech which one friend useth doth strike also a great shame in another Also to come and approch by little and little unto one that offendeth and after a doubting maner with a kind of feare to touch him is the next way to undermine the vice that he is prone and given unto and the same whiles he can not choose but be modestly disposed who is so modestly and gently entreated And therefore it would be alwaies verie good in those reprehensions to observe what he did who in like case reprooving a friend Held head full close unto his eare That no man els but he might heare But lesse seemly and convenient it is for to discover the fault of the husband before his wife of a father in the presence of his sonnes of a lover before his love or of a schoolmaster in the hearing of his scholars that were enough to put them beside their right wits for anger and griefe when they shall see themselves checked and discredited before those of whom they desire to be best esteemed And verily of this mind I am hat it was not the wine so much that set king Alexander in such a chafe rage against Clitus whē he reproved him as for that he did it in the presence and hearing of so many Aristomenes also the master and tutor of king Ptolomaeus for that in the sight of an embassador he awaked him out of a sleepe willed him to give eare unto the embassage that was delivered ministred unto his evil-willers and the flatterers about the court great vantage who thereupon tooke occasion to seeme discontented in the kings behalfe and thus to say What if after so many travels that your Majestie doth undergo and your long watching for out sakes some sleep do overtake you otherwhiles our part it were to tell you of it privatly not thus rudely to
a sort to minister unto them some honest and colourable pretenses to excuse and justifie their facts and when a man seeth them do amisse by reason of some woorse cause indeed to lay the fault upon another occasion that is more tolerable As Hector when he said unto Paris Unhappie man alas you do not well To beare in brest a heart so fell As if his brothers retire out of battell and refusall to combat with Menclaus had not beene a meere flight and running away but verie anger and a curst slomake Likewise Nestor unto Agamemnon But you gave place unto your haughty mind And feed those fits which come to you by kind For in mine advice a more milde reprehension is this than to have said This was injuriously done of you or this was a shamefull and vilanous part of yours As also to say unto one You could not tel what you did you thought not of it or you were altogether ignorant what would come thereof is better and more civill than bluntly to charge him and say This was a meere wrong and a wicked act of yours Also thus Do not contest and quarrell in this wise with your brother is lesse offensive than to say Deale not thus enviously and spitefully against your brother Likewise it were a more gentle manner of reproofe to say unto a man Avoid this woman that spoileth and abuseth you than thus Give over this woman spoile and abuse her no more Thus you see what meanes are to be used in this libertie of speech when a friend would cure a maladie But for to prevent the same there would be practised a cleane contrarie course for when it behooveth to avert and turne our friends from cominitting a fault whereto they are prone and enclined or to withstand some violent and disordinat passion which carrieth them a cleane contrarie way or when we are desirous to incite and stirre them forward unto good things being of themselves slow and backward when I say we would give an edge unto them who are otherwise dull and heat them being could we ought to transferre the thing or act in hand to some absurd causes and those that be unseemely and undecent Thus Ulysses pricked on Achilles in a certaine Tragedie of Sophocles when he said thus unto him It is not for a supper Achilles that you are so angrie but For that you have already seene The wals of Troy your fearfull teene And when upon these words Achilles tooke greater indignation and chafed more and more saying that he would not saile forward but be gone backe againe he came upon him a second time with this rejoynder I wote well why you gladly would depart T is not because at checks or taunts you chafe But Hector is not far he kils your hart For dread of him to stay it is not safe By this meanes when we scar a valiant and hardy man with the opinion of cowardise an honest chaste and civill person with the note of being reputed loose incontinent also a liberall and sumptuous Magnifico with the feare to be accounted a niggard or a mechanicall micher we do mightily incite them to wel doing and chase them from bad waies And like as when a thing is done and past and where there is no remedie there should be borne a modest and temperate hand in such sort that in our libertie of speech we seeme to shew more commiseration pittie and fellow-griefe of minde for the fault of a friend than eager reprehension so contrariwise where it stands upon this point that should not fault where I say our drift is to fight against the motion of his passions there we ought to be vehement inexorable and never to give over nor yeeld one jot unto them And this is the very time when we are to shew that love of ours and good will which is constant setled and sure and to use our true libertie of speech to the full For to reproove faults already committed we see it is an ordinary thing among arrant enimies To which purpose said Diogenes very well That a man who would be an honest man ought to have either very good friends or most shrewd and bitter enimies for as they do teach and instruct so these are ready to finde fault and reproove Now far better it is for one to abstaine from evill doing in beleeving and following the sound counsell of his friends than to repent afterwards of ill doing when he seeth himselfe blamed and accused by his enimies And therefore if it were for nothing els but this great discretion and circumspection would be used in making remonstrances speaking freely unto friends and so much the rather by how much it is the greater and stronger remedie that friendship can use and hath more need to be used in time and place convenient and more wisely to be tempered with a meane and mediocrity Now forasmuch as I have said sundry times already that all reprehensions whatsoever are dolorous unto him that receiveth them we ought in this case to imitate good Physicians and Chirurgians for when they have made incision or cut any member they leave not the place in paine and toment still but use certeine fomentations and lenitive infusions to mitigate the anguish No more do they that after a civill maner have chid or rebuked run away presently so soone as they have bitten and pricked the partie but by changing their maner of speech entertaine their friends thus galled and wounded with other more mild and pleasant discourses to aswage their griefe and refresh their hart againe that is cast downe and discomforted and I may well compare them to these cutters and carvers of images who after they have rought hewen and scabbled over certeine peeces of stone for to make their statures of do polish and smooth them faire yea and give them a lightsome lustre But if a man be stung and nipped once or touched to the quicke by some objurgatorie reprehension and so left rough uneven disquieted swelling and pussing for anger he is ever after hardly quieted or reclaimed and no consolation will serve the turne to appease and comfort him againe And therefore they who reproove admonish their friends ought to observe this rule above all others Not to forsake them immediately when they have so done nor to breake off their conference sodainly or to conclude their speech with any word that might greeve and provoke them OF MEEKENES OR HOW A MAN SHOVLD REFRAINE CHOLER A TREATISE IN MANER of a Dialogue The persons that be the Speakers SYLLA and FUNDANUS The Summarie of the Dialogue AFter we are taught how to discerne a flatterer from a friend it seemeth that this Treatise as touching Mildnesse and how we ought to bridle Anger was set heere in his proper place For like as we may soone erre grosly in choise of those whom we are willing and well content to have about us and in that respect are to be circum spect and
about the table refused it as it came to his turne saying I will not I trow drinke so to your health Alexander that I shall have need thereby of Aesculapius i. a Physician A fire that newly hath caught a flame with hares or conies haire drie leaves hurds and light straw stubble and rakings it is an easie matter to put out and quench but if it have once taken to sound fewell and such matter as hath solidity substance and thicknesse in it soone it burneth and consumeth as Aeschylus saith By climbing up and mounting hie The stately works of Carpentrie Semblably he that will take heed unto choler at the beginning when he seeth it once to smoke or flame out by occasion of some merry speech flouting scoffes and foolish words of no moment needs not to strive much about the quenching of it for many times if he do no more but hold his peace or make small account or none at all of such matters it is enough to extingnish and make it go out For he that ministreth not fewell to fire putteth it out and whosoever feedeth not his anger at the first and bloweth not the coales himselfe doth coole and represse the same And therefore Hieronimus the Philosopher although otherwise he have taught us many good lessons and instructions yet in this point he hath not pleased and satisfied me when he saith That a man is not able to perceive in himselfe the breeding of anger so quicke and sudden it is but onely when it is bred then it may be felt for surely there is no vice or passion in us that giveth such warning or hath either so evident a generation or so manifest an augment whiles it is stirred and mooved as anger according as Homer himselfe right skilfully and as a man of good experience giveth us to understand who bringeth in Achilles sore mooved to sorrow and griefe of heart even with a word and at the very instant when he heard the speeches of Agamemnon for thus reporteth the Poet of him Out of the king his sovereignes mouth the word no sooner past But straight a blacke and mistie cloud of 〈◊〉 him over cast But of 〈◊〉 himselfe he saith that it was long ere he was angrie namely after he had beene kindled with many hard speeches that were dealt to and fro which if any third person stepping betweene would have staied or turned away certes their quarrell and debate had not growen to such tearmes of extremity as it did And therefore Socrates so often as he felt himselfe somewhat declining and more mooved than he should against any one of his friends and avoiding as it were a rocke in the sea before the tempest came and the billowes arose would let fall his voice shew a smiling countenance and compose his looke and visage to mirth and lenitie and thus by bending and drawing another away to that whereunto his affection enclined and opposing himselfe to a contrary passion he kept upright on his feet so that he fell not nor was overthrowen For there is my good friend a ready neanes in the very beginning to breake the force of choler like as there is a way to dissolve a tyrannicall rule and dominion that is to say not to obey at the first not to give eare and be ruled by her commandement when she shal bid thee to speake cry out aloud or to looke with a terrible countenance or to knocke or beat thy selfe but to be still and quiet and not to re-enforce and encrease the passion as men do exasperate a sicknesse with strugling striving tossing and roaring out aloud For those things which ordinary lovers and amourous yoong men practise that is to say to go in a wanton and merry maske to sing and daunce at the doores of their sweet hearts and mistresses to bedecke their windowes with coronets floure-garlands bring some ease and alleviation such as it is of their passions and the same not altogether undecent and uncivill according to that which we reade in the Poet And when I came aloud I cried not And asked who she was or daughter whose But kist my love full sweetly that I wot If this be sinne but sinne I can not choose Also that which we permit those to doe who are in sorrow namely to mourne to lament and weepe for losses or mishaps certeinly with their sighs which they setch teares that they shed they do send out and discharge a good part of their griefe and anguish But it is not so with the passion of anger for surely the more that they stirre and speake who are surprised there with the more hote it is and the flame burneth out the rather and therefore the best way is for a man to be quiet to flie and keepe him out of the way or els to retire himselfe into some haven of surety and repose when he perceiveth that there is a fit of anger toward as if he felt an accesse of the falling evill comming This I say we ought to do for feare lest we fall downe or rather runne and rush upon some one or other But who be they that we run upon Surely our very friends for the greatest part those we wrong most As for our affection of love it standeth not to all things indifferently neither do we hate ne yet feare we every thing alike But what is it that ire setteth not upon nothing is there but it doth assaile and lay hands on we are angry with our enemies we chafe with our friends with children with parents are we wrath nay the very gods themselves we forbeare not in our cholericke mood we flie upon dumbe and brute beasts we spare not so much as our utensile vessels and implements which have neither sense nor life at all if they stand in our way we fare like Thamyris the Musician Who brake his cornet finely bound And tipt with golde his lute he hent Well strung and tun'd to pleasant sound And it anon to fitters rent Thus did Pandarus also who cursed and betooke himselfe to all the fiends in hell if he did not burst his bowe and arrowes with his owne hands and throw them into the fire when he had so done As for Xerxes he stucke not to whip to lash and scourge the sea and to the mountaine Athos he sent his minatorie letters in this forme Thou wretched and wicked Athos that bearest up thy head aloft into the skie see thou bring foorth no great craggie stones I advise thee for my works and such as be hard to be cut and wrought otherwise if thou doe I shall cut thee through and tumble thee into the maine sea Many fearefull and terrible things there be that are done in anger and as many for them againe as foolish and ridiculous and therefore of all passions that trouble the minde it is both hated and despised most In which regards expedient it were to consider diligently aswell of the one as the other for mine
every thing appeereth greater than it is through anger And therefore at these and such like faults we should winke for the time and make as though we sawthem not and yet thinke upon them neverthelesse and beare them in minde But afterwards when the storme is well overblowen we are with out passion do not suspect our selves then we may do well to consider thereof and then if upon mature deliberation when our mind is staied and our senses setled the thing appeere to be naught we are to hate and abhor it and in no wise either to for-let and put of or altogether to omit and forbeare correction like as they refuse meats who have no stomacke nor appetite to eat For certeinly it is not a thing so much to be blamed for to punish one in anger as not to punish when anger is past and alaied and so to be retchlesse and desolute doing as idle mariners who so long as the sea is calme and the weather faire loiter within the harbor or haven but afterwards when a tempest is up spread sailes and put themselves into danger For even so we condemning and neglecting the remissenesse and calmnesse of reason in case of punishment make haste to execute the same during the heat of choler which no doubt is a blustring and turbulent winde As for meat he calleth for it in deed and taketh it naturally who is a hungrie but surely he executeth punishment best who neither hungreth nor thirsteth after it neither hath he need to use choler as a sauce or deintie dish for to get him a stomacke and appetite to correct but even when he is farthest off from desire of revenge then of necessitie he is to make use of reason and wisdome to direct him for we ought not to do as Aristotle writeth in his time the maner was in Tuskane To whip servants with sound of flutes and hautboies namely to make a sport and pastime of punishing men and to solace our selves with their punishment for pleasures sake and then afterwards when we have done repent us of it for as the one is brutish and beastlike so the other is as womanish and unmanly but without griefe and pleasure both at what time as reason and judgement is in force we ought to let justice take punishment and leave none occasion at all for choler to get advantage But peradvenure some one will say that this is not properly the way to remedie or cure anger but rather a putting by or precaution that we should not commit any of those faults which ordinarily follow that passion Unto whom I answere thus That the swelling of the Spleene is not the cause but a symptome or accident of a fever howbeit if the said humour be fallen and the paine mitigated the feaver also will be much eased according as Hieronymus saith Also when I consider by what meanes choler is engendred I see that one falleth into it upon this cause another upon that but in all of them it seemeth this generall opinion there is that they thinke themselves to be despised and naught set by And therefore we ought to meet with such as seeme to defend and mainteine themselves as being angry for just cause and to cure them after this maner namely by diverting and remooving from them as far as ever we can all suspicion of contempt and contumacie in those that have offended them and mooved their anger in laying the fault upon inconsiderate follie necessitie sicknesse infirmitie and miserie as Sophocles did in these verses For those my Lords whose state is in destresse Have not their spirits and wits as heretofore As fortune frownes they waxen ever lesse Nay gone are quite though fresh they were before And Agamemnon albeit he laid the taking away of Briseis from Achilles upon Ate that is to say some fatall infortunitie yet He willing was and prest him to content And unto him rich gifts for to present For to beseech and intreat are signes of a man that despiseth not and when the partie who hath given offence becometh humble and lowly he remooveth all the opinion that might be conceived of contempt But he that is in a fit of choler must not attend and waite until he see that but rather helpe himselfe with the answer of Diogenes These fellowes here said one unto him do deride thee Diogenes but I quoth he againe do not finde that I am derided even so ought a man who is angry not to be perswaded that he is contemned of another but rather that himselfe hath just cause to contemne him and to thinke that the fault committed did proced of infirmitie error heady-rashnesse sloth and idlenesse a base and illiberall minde age or youth And as for our servants and friends we must by all meanes quit them hereof or pardon them at leastwise For surely they cannot be thought to contemne us in regard that they thinke us unable to be revenged or men of no execution if we went about it but it is either by reason of our remissenes and mildnesse or else of our love and affection that we seeme to be smally regarded by them whiles our servants presume of our tractable nature easie to be pacified and our friends of our exceeding love that cannot be soone shaken off But now we are provoked to anger not onely against our wives or servitors and friends as being contemned by them but also many times in our choler we fall upon In-keepers Mariners and Muliters when they be drunke supposing that they despise us And that which more is we are offended with dogs when they bay or barke at us and with asses if they chance to fling out and kicke us Like unto him who lifted up his hand to strike and beat him that did drive an asse and when the man cried that he was an Athenian But thou I am sure art no Athenian quoth he to the asse and laid upon the poore beast as hard as he could and gave him many a blow with his cudgell But that which chiefly causeth us to be angrie and breedeth a continuall disposition thereto in our minds causing us so often to breake out into fits of choler which by little and little was ingendred and gathered there before is the love of our owne selves and a kinde of froward surlinesse hardly to be pleased together with a certaine daintinesse and delicacie which all concurring in one breed and bring foorth a swarme as it were of bees or rather a waspes neast in us And therefore there cannot be a better meanes for to carrie our selves mildly and kindly towards our wives our servants familiars and friends than a contented minde and a singlenesse or simplicitie of heart when a man resteth satisfied with whatsoever is present at hand and requireth neither things superfluous nor exquisite But he that never is content With rost or sod but cooke is shent How ever he be serv d I meane With more with lesse or in a meane He is not
pleas'd nor one good word Can give of viands set on boord Without some snow who drinks no draught Nor eateth bread in market bought Who tastes no meate b' it never so good Serv'd up in dish of earth or wood And thinkes no bed nor pillow soft Unlesse with downe like sea aloft Stird from beneath it strut and swell For otherwise he sleepes not well who with rods and whips plieth and hastneth the servitors at the table making them to runne untill they sweat againe crying and bawling at them to come away apace as if they were not carying dishes of meat but plasters and cataplasmes for some inflammation or painfull impostume subjecting himselfe after a slavish manner to a servile kinde of diet and life full of discontentment quarrels and complaints little knoweth such an one how by a continuall cough or many concussions distemperatures he hath brought his soule to an ulcerous and rheumatike disposition about the seat and place of anger And therfore we must use the body by frugalitie to take up and learne to be content with a competent meane forasmuch as they who desire but a little can never be disappointed nor frustrat of much finding no fault nor keeping any stir at the beginning about meat but standing satisfied without saying a word with that which God sendeth whatsoever it be not fretting vexing and tormenting our selves at the table about everie thing and in so doing serving both our selves and our companie about us of friends with the most unsavorie messe of meat that is to wit choler A supper woorse than this I do not see How possibly one can devised bee Namely whiles the servants be beaten the wife chidden and reviled for the meat burnt for smoke in the parlor for want of salt or for the bread over stale and drie But Arcesilaus upon a time with other friends of his feasted certaine strangers and hosts of his abroad whose guest he had beene and after the supper was come in and meat set upon the boord there wanted bread by reason that his servants had forgotten and neglected to buy any for such a fault as this which of us here would not have cried out that the walles should have burst withall and beene readie to have throwen the house out of the window And he laughing at the matter He had need be a wise man quoth he I see well that would make a feast and set it out as it should be Socrates also upon a time when he came from the wrestling schoole tooke Euthydemus home with him to supper but Xantippe his wife fel a chiding and scoulding with him at the boord reviling him with most bitter tearmes so long until at last in an anger downe went table and all that was upon it Whereupon Euthydemus arose and was about to depart but Socrates Will you be gone quoth he Why do you not remember that the other day as we sat at supper in your house there flew up to the boord a hen and did as much for you and yet were not we offended nor angrie for the matter And in verie truth we must entertaine our friends and guests with courtesie mirth a smiling countenance and affectionate love and not to brow-beat them not yet put the servitors in a fright and make them quake and tremble with our frowning lookes Also we ought so to accustome our selves that we may be content to be served with any kinde of vessels whatsoever and not upon a daintinesse to have a minde to this rather then to that but to like all indifferently And yet there be some so diyers that although there be manie cups and goblets standing upon the boord choose onefrom the rest and cannot drinke forsooth but out of that one according as the Stories doe report of Marius who loved one mazar and could drinke out of no other Thus they doe by their oile cruets and currying combs or rubbers when they are at the baines or stouphes taking a fancie and affection to some one above the rest but if it chaunce that one of them be crackt broken or be lost and miscarie any way then they are exceeding angrie and fall to beating of their servants Such men therefore as finde themselves to be cholerike should do well to forbeare all rare and exquisite things to wit pots cups seale rings of excellent workmanship and pretious stones For that such costly jewels if they be marred or lost breed more anger and set men out of order more than those which be ordinarie and easie to be come by And therefore when Nero the Emperour had caused to be made a certaine pavilion or tabemacle eight square which was both for the beautie and cost exceeding faire and sumptuous and indeed an admirable piece of worke In this Tabernacle quoth Seneca unto him you have bewraied ô Caesar that you are but a poore man for if you lose this once you shall never be able to recover and get the like againe And so it fell out indeed for the ship whetein the same Tabernacle was chanced to be cast away upon the sea and all was drowned But Nero calling to minde the words of Seneca tooke the losse more patiently Moreover this contentment of mind and easinesse to be pleased with any thing in the house causeth a man also to be more gentle milde and better contented with his servants and people about him now if it worke this effect in us toward our housholde servants evident it is that we shal be likewise affected to our friends those that be under our government We see also that slaves new bought are inquisitive as touching him who hath bought them not whether he be superstitious and envious but whether he be cholerike and hasty or no. And to be briefe neither can husbands endure the pudicity and honesty of their wives nor wives the love of their husbands ne yet friends the mutuall conversation one with another if there doe an angry and cholerike humor goe withall Thus we see that neither mariage nor amity be tollerable with choler Contrariwise if anger be away even drunkennesse it selfe is tollerable and we can easily abide it for the very ferula of god Bacchus is a sufficient punishment of drunkennesse if so be there be not choler therewith which may cause Bacchus that is Strong wine in stead of Lyaeus and Chorius that is to say The Looser of cares and Leader of daunces which are his surnames to be called Omestes and Maenoles which signifie Cruell and Furious As for simple madnesse of it selfe alone the Ellebore growing in Antycira is sufficient to cure but if it be mingled with choler it causeth Tragicall fits and those so strange that a man would repute them for meere fables And therefore we must not give place to anger neigher in sport and pastime for in lieu of good will it breedeth enmitie nor in conference and disputations for it turneth the love and desire of knowledge into debate and contention nor in
and kinde looke can not choose but in his heart blame the father that begat him and the mother that bare him We read that Pisistratus married his second wife when his sonnes whom he had by the former were now men growen saying That since he saw them proove so good and towardly he gladly would be the father of many more that might grow up like them even so good and loyall children will not onely affect and love one another for their parents sakes but also love their parents so much the more in regard of their mutuall kindnesse as making this account thinking also and saying thus to themselves That they are obliged and bounden unto them in many respects but principally for their brethren as being the most precious heritage the sweetest and most pleasant possession that they inherit by them And therefore Homer did verie well when he brought in Telemachus among other calamities of his reckoning this for one that he had no brother at all and saying thus For Jupiter my fathers race in me alone Now ended hath and given me brother none As for Hesiodus he did not well to wish give advice to have an only begotten sonne to be the full heire and universall inheritour of a patrimonie even that Hesiodus who was the disciple of those Muses whom men have named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that by reason of their mutual affection and sister-like love they keepe alwaies together Certes the amitie of brethren is so respective to parents that it is both a certaine demonstration that they love father and mother also such an example lesson unto their children to love together as there is none other like unto it but contrariwise they take an ill president to hate their owne brethren from the first originall of their father for he that liveth continually waxeth old in suits of law in quarrels and dissensions with his owne brethren and afterward shall seeme to preach unto his children for to live friendly lovingly together doth as much as he who according to the common proverbe The sores of others will seeme to heale and cure And is himselfe of ulcers full impure and so by his owne deeds doth weaken the efficacie of his words If then Eteocles the Thebane when he had once said unto his brother Polynices in Euripides To starres about sunne-rising would I mount And under earth descend as farre againe By these attempts if I might make account This sovereigne roialtie of gods to gaine should come afterwards againe unto his sonnes and admonish them For to mainteine and honour equall state Which knits friends ay in perfect unitie And keeps those link't who are confederate Preserving cities in league and amitie For nothing more procures securitie In all the world than doth equalitie who would not mocke him and despise his admonition And what kinde of man would Atreus have bene reputed if after he had set such a supper as he did before his brother he should in this maner have spoken sentences and given instruction to his owne children When great mishap and crosse calamitie Upon a man is fallen suddenly The onely meed is found by amitie Of those whom blood hath joined perfectly Banish therefore we must and rid away cleane all hatred from among brethren as a thing which is a bad nurce to parents in their olde age and a woorse fostresse to children in their youth besides it giveth occasion of slander calumniation and obloquie among their fellow-citizens and neighbours for thus do men conceive and deeme of it That brethren having bene nourished and brought up together so familiarly from their very cradle it can not be that they should fall out and grow to such termes of enmity and hostility unlesse they were privie one to another of some wicked plots and most mischievous practises For great causes they must bee that are able to undoe great friendship and amitie by meanes whereof hardly or unneth afterwards they can bee reconciled and surely knit againe For like as sundry pieces which have beene once artificially joined together by the meanes of glue or soder if the joint bee loose or open may bee rejoined or sodered againe but if an entire body that naturally is united and growen in one chaunce to bee broken or cut and slit asunder it will be an hard piece of worke to finde any glew or soder so strong as to reunite the same and make it whole and sound even so those mutuall amities which either for profit or upon some neede were first knit betweene men happen to cleave and part in twaine it is an easie matter to reduce them close together but brethren if they bee once alienated and estranged so as that the naturall bond of love can not hold them together hardly will they peece againe or agree ever after and say they be made friends and brought to attonement certeinly such reconciliation maketh in the former rent or breach an ill favoured and filthy skar as being alwaies full of jealousie distrust and suspicion True it is that all jars and enmities betweene man and man entring into the heart together with those passions which be most troublesome and dangerous of all others to wit a peevish humor of contention choler envie and remembrance of injuries done and past do breed griefe paine and vexation but surely that which is fallen betweene brother and brother who of necessitie are to communicate together in all sacrifices and religious ceremonies belonging to their fathers house who are to be interred another day in one and the same sepulchre and live in the meane time otherwhiles under one roofe and dwel in the same house and enjoy possessions lands and tenements confining one upon another doth continually present unto the eie that which tormenteth the heart it putteth them in minde daily and howerly of their follie and madnesse for by meanes thereof that face and countenance which shoulde bee most sweete best knowne and of all other likest is become most strange hideous and unpleasant to the eie that voice which was woont to be even from the cradle friendly and familiar is now become most fearefull terrible to the eare and whereas they see many other brethren cohabit together in one house sit at one table to take their repast occupie the same lands and use the same servants without dividing them what a griefe is it that they thus fallen out should part their friends their hoasts and guests and in one word make all things that be common among other brethren private and whatsoever should be familiar acceptable to become contrarie odious Over and besides here is another inconvenience and mischiefe which there is no man so simple but he must needs conceive and understand That ordinary friends and table companions may be gotten and stollen as it were from others alliance and acquaintance there may be had new if the former be lost even as armour weapons and
childe but rather to knit up fast or sow up the mouth of a purse that it may hold and keepe the better whatsoever is put into it This onely is the difference that a purse or money-bag becommeth foule sullied and ill-savoring after that silver is put it but the children of covetous persons before they receive their patrimonies or atteine to any riches are filled alreadie even by their fathers with avarice and a hungrie desire after their substance and verily such children thus nourtred reward their parents againe for their schooling with a condigne salarie and recompense in that they love them not because they shall receive much one day by them but hate them rather for that they have nothing from them in present possession alreadie for having learned this lesson of them To esteeme nothing in the world in comparison of wealth and riches and to aime at nought els in the whole course of their life but to gather a deale of goods together they repute the lives of their parents to be a blocke in their way they wish in heart that their heads were well laid they do what they can to shorten their lives making this reckoning That how much time is added to their olde age so much they lose of their youthfull yeeres And this is the reason why during the life of their fathers secretly and under-hand they steale after a sort by snatches their pleasure and enjoy the same They wil make semblance as if it came from other when they give away money and distribute it among their friends or otherwise spend it in their delights whiles they catch it privily from under the very wing of their parents and when they goe to heare and take out their lessons they will be sure to picke their purses if they can before they goe away but after their parents be dead and gone when they have gotten into their hands the keies of their coffers and signets of their bags then the case is altered and they enter into another course and fashion of life you shall have my yoong masters then put on a grave and austere countenance they will not seeme to laugh nor be spoken to or acquainted with any body there is no talke now of anointing the body for any exercise the racket is cast aside the tennis court no more haunted no wrestling practised no going to the schooles either of the Academie or Lycene to heare the lectures and disputations of Professors and Philosophers But now the officers and servants be called to audit and account now they are examined what they have under their hands now the writings billes obligations and deeds are sought up and perused now they fall to argue and reason with their receivers stewards factours and debters so sharpe-set they are to their negotiations and affaires so full of cares and businesse that they have no leasure to take their dinners or noone-meales and if they sup they can not intend to go into the baine or hot-house before it be late in the night the bodily exercises wherein they were brought up and trained in be laid downe no swimming nor bathing any more in the river Dirce all such matters be cast behinde and cleane forgotten Now if a man say to one of these Will you go and heare such Philosopher reade a lecture or make a sermon How can I go will he say againe I have no while since my fathers death O miserable and wretched man what hath hee left unto thee of all his goods comparable to that which he hath bereaved thee of to wit Repose and Libertie but it is not thy father so much as his riches flowing round about thee that environeth and compasseth thee so as it hath gotten the masterie thee this hath set foot upon thy throat this hath conquered thee like unto that shrewd wife in Hesiodus Who burnes a man without a match or brand of scorching fire And driveth him to gray-old age before that time require causing thy soule as it were to be full of rivels and hoarie haires before time bringing with it carking cares and tedious travels proceeding from the love of money and a world of affaires without any repose whereby that alacrity cheerefulnesse worship and sociable courtesie which ought to be in a man are decayed and faded cleane to nothing But what meane you sir by all this will some one haply say unto me See you not how there be some that bestow their wealth liberally with credit and reputation unto whom I answere thus Have you never heard what Aristotle said That as some there are who have no use at all of their goods so there be others who abuse the same as if he should say Neither the one nor other was seemely and as it ought to be for as those get neither profit nor honour by their riches so these susteine losse and shame thereby But let us consider a little what is the use of these riches which are thus much esteemed Is it not I pray you to have those things which are necessary for nature but these who are so rich and wealthy above the rest what have they more to content nature than those who live in a meane and competent estate Certes riches as Theophrastus saith is not so great a matter that wee should love and admire it so much if it be true that Callias the wealthiest person in all Athens and Ismenias the richest citizen of Thebes use the same things that Socrates and Epaminondas did For like as Agathon banished the flute cornet and such other pipes from the solemne feasts of men and sent them to women in their solemnities supposing that the discourses of men who are present at the table are sufficient to enterteine mirth euen so may he aswell rid away out ofhouses hangings coverlets and carpets of purple costly and sumptuous tables and all such superfluities who seeth that the great rich worldlings use the very same that poorer men do I would not as Hesiodus saith That plough or helme should hang in smoake to drie Or painfull tillage now be laid aside Nor works of oxe and mule for ever die Who serve our turnes to draw to till to ride but rather that these goldsmiths turners gravers perfumers and cooks would be chased and sent away forasmuch as this were indeed an honest and civill banishment of unprofitable artificers as forreiners that may be spared out of a citty Now if it be so that things requisite for the necessitie of nature be common aswell to the poore as the rich and that riches doe vaunt and stand so much upon nothing els but superfluities and that Scopas the Thessalian is worthily cōmended in this That being requested to give away and part with somwhat of his houshold stuffe which he might spare and had no need of Why quoth he in what things els consisteth the felicitie of those who are reputed happie and fortunate in this world above other men but in these supersluities that you seeme
and discommodities of our life And Plutarch entring into this matter sheweth first in generallity That men learne as it were in the schoole of brute beasts with what affection they should beget nourish and bring up their children afterward he doth particularise thereof and enrich the same argument by divers examples But for that he would not have us thinke that he extolled dumbe beasts above man and woman he observeth and setteth downe verie well the difference that is of amities discoursing in good and modest tearmes as touching the generation and nouriture of children and briefly by the way representeth unto us the miserable entrance of man into this race upon earth where he is to runne his course Which done he proveth that the nourishing of infants hath no other cause and reason but the love of fathers and mothers he discovereth the source of this affection and for a conclusion sheweth that what defect and fault soever may come betweene and be medled among yet it can not altogether abolish the same OF THE NATURALL LOVE OR KINDNES OF PARENTS to their children THat which mooved the Greeks at first to put over the decision of their controversies to forraine judges and to bring into their countrey strangers to be their Umpires was the distrust and diffidence that they had one in another as if they confessed thereby that justice was indeed a thing necessarie for mans lite but it grew not among them And is not the case even so as touching certaine questions disputable in Philosophie for the determining whereof Philosophers by reason of the sundry and divers opinions which are among them have appealed to the nature of brute beasts as it were into a strange city and remitted the deciding thereof to their properties and affections according to kinde as being neither subject to partiall favour nor yet corrupt depraved and polluted Now surely a common reproch this must needs be to mans naughtie nature and leawd behaviour That when we are in doubtfull question concerning the greatest and most necessary points perteining to this present life of ours we should goe and search into the nature of horses dogs and birds for resolution namely how we ought to make our marriages how to get children and how to reare and nourish them after they be borne and as if there were no signe in maner or token of nature imprinted in our selves we must be faine to alledge the passions properties and affections of brute beasts and to produce them for witnesses to argue and prove how much in our life we transgresse and go aside from the rule of nature when at our first beginning and entrance into this world we finde such trouble disorder and confusion for in those dumbe beasts beforesaid nature doth retaine and keepe that which is her owne and proper simple entire without corruption or alteration by any strange mixture wheras contrariwise it seemeth that the nature of man by discourse of their reason and custome together is mingled and confused with so many extravagant opinions and judgements fet from all parts abroad much like unto oile that commeth into perfumers hands that thereby it is become manifolde variable and in every one severall and particular and doeth not retaine that which the owne indeed proper and peculiar to it selfe neither ought we to thinke it a strange matter and a woonderfull that brute beasts void of reason should come neerer unto nature and follow her steps better than men endued with the gift of reason for surely the verie senselesse plants heerein surpasse those beasts beforesaid and observe better the instinct of nature for considering that they neither conceive any thing by imagination nor have any motion affection or inclination at all so verily their appetite such as it is varieth not nor stirreth to and fro out of the compasse of nature by meanes whereof they continue and abide as if they were kept in and bound within close-prison holding on still in one and the same course and not stepping once out of that way wherein nature doth leade and conduct them as for beasts they have not any such great portion of reason to temper and mollifie their naturall properties neither any great subtiltie of sense and conceit nor much desire of libertie but having many instincts inclinations and appetites not ruled by reason they breake out by the meanes thereof other-whiles wandering astray and running up and downe to and fro howbeit for the most part not very farre out of order but they take sure holde of nature much like a ship which lieth in the rode at anchor well may she daunce and be rocked up and downe but she is not caried away into the deepe at the pleasure of windes and waves or much after the maner of an asse or hackney travelling with bit and bridle which go not out of the right streight way wherein the master or rider guideth them whereas in man even reason herselfe the mistresse that ruleth and commandeth all findeth out new cuts as it were and by-waies making many starts and excursions at her pleasure to and fro now heere now there whereupon it is that she leaveth no plaine and apparant print of natures tracts and footing Consider I pray you in the first place the mariages if I may so terme them of dumbe beasts and reasonlesse creatures and namely how therein they folow precisely the rule and direction of nature To begin withall they stand not upon those lawes that provide against such as marrie not but lead a single life neither make they reckoning of the acts which lay a penaltie upon those that be late ere they enter into wedlocke like as the citizens under Lycurgus and Solon who stood in awe of the said statutes they feare not to incurre the infamie which followed those persons that were barren and never had children neither doe they regard and seeke after the honours and prerogatives which they atteined who were fathers of three children like as many of the Romains do at this day who enter into the state of matrimonie wedde wives 〈◊〉 beget children not to the end that they might have heires to inherit their lands and goods 〈◊〉 that they might themselves be inheritors capable of dignities immunities But to proceed unto more particulars the male afterwards doth deale with the female in the act of generation not at all times for that the end of their conjunction and going together is not grosse pleasure so much as the engendring of young and the propagation of their kinde and therefore at a certeine season of the yeare to wit the very prime of the spring when as the pleasant winds so apt for generation do gently blow and the temperature of the aire is friendly unto breeders commeth the female full lovingly and kindly toward her fellow the male even of her owne accord and motion as it were trained by the hand of that secret instinct and desire in nature and for her owne part she doth what
themselves a dogge or a serpent come in their way they flie from them let their brood be about them when such a danger is presented it is woonderfull how ready they will be to defend the same yea and to fight for even above their power Do we thinke now that nature hath imprinted such affections and passions in these living creatures for the great care that she hath to mainteine the race and posteritie as it were of hens dogs or beares or doe we not rather make this construction of it that she shameth pricketh and woundeth men thereby when we reason and discourse thus within our selves that these things bee good examples for as many as follow them and the reproches of those that have no sense or feeling of naturall affection by which no doubt they do blame and accuse the nature of man onely as if she alone were not affectionate without some hire and reward nor could skill of love but for gaine and profit for admired he was in the theaters that thus spake first For hope of gaine one man will love another Take it away what one will love his brother This is the reason according to the opinion and doctrine of Epicurus that the father affecteth his sonne the mother is tender over her childe and children likewise are kind unto their parents but set-case that brute beasts could both speake and understand language in some open theater and that one called to meet together a sufficient assembly of beefs horses dogs and fowles certes if their voices were demanded upon this point now in question hee would set downe in writing and openly pronounce that neither bitches loved their whelpes nor mares their foles heas their chickens and other fowles their little birds in respect of any reward but freely and by the instinct of nature and this would be found a true verdict of his iustified and verified by all those passions and affections which are observed in them and what a shame and infamie unto mankind is this to grant and avouch that the act of generation in brute beasts their conception their breeding their painfull deliverie of their young and the carefull feeding and cherishing of them be natures works meerely and duties of gratuitie and contrariwise that in men they be pawnes given them for securitie of interest hires gages and earnest pennies respective to some profit and gaine which they draw after them But surely as this project is not true so it is not woorth the hearing for nature verily as in savage plants and trees to wit wilde vines wilde figge trees and wilde olives she doth ingenerate certeine raw and unperfect rudiments such as they be of good and kinde fruits so she hath created in brute beasts a naturall love and affection to their young though the same be not absolute nor fully answerable to the rule of justice ne yet able to passe farther than the bonds and limits of necessitie As for man a living creature endued and adorned with reason created and made for a civill societie whom she hath brought into the world for to observe lawes and justice to serve honour and worship the gods to found cities and governe common-wealths and therein to exercise and performe al offices of bountie him she hath bestowed upon noble generous faire and fruitfull seeds of all these things to wit a kinde love and tender affection toward his children and these she followeth still and persisteth therein which she infused together with the first principles and elements that went to the frame of his body and soule for nature being every way perfect and exquisite and namely in this inbred love toward infants wherein there wanteth nothing that is necessarie neither from it is ought to be taken away as superfluous It hath nothing as Erasistratus was woont to say vaine frivolous and unprofitable nothing inconstant and shaking too and fro inclining now one way and then another For in the first place as touching the generation of man who is able to expresse her prudence sufficiently neither haply may it stand with the rule of decent modestie to be over-curious and exquisite in delivering the proper names and tearmes thereto belonging for those naturall parts serving in that act of generation and conception secret as they be and hidden so they neither can well nor would willingly be named but the composition and framing thereof so aptly made for the purpose the disposition and situation likewise so convenient we ought rather to conceive in our minde than utter in speech Leaving therefore those privie members to our private thoughts passe we to the confection disposition and distribution of the milke which is sufficient to shew most evidently her providence in desire and diligence for the superfluous portion of blood which remaineth in a womans bodie over and above that which serveth for the use whereunto it is ordeined floting up and downe within her afterwards for defect or feeblenesse of spirits wandereth as it were to and fro and is a burden to her bodie but at certaine set-times daies to wit in every monthly revolution nature is carefull and diligent to open certeine scluces and conducts by which the said superfluous blood doth void and passe away whereupon shee doth not onely purge and lighten all the bodie besides but also cleanseth the matrice and maketh it like a piece of ground brought in order and temper apt to receive the plough and desirous of the seed after it in due season now when it hath once conceived and reteined the said seed so as the same take root and be knit presently it draweth it selfe strait and close together round and holdeth the conception within it for the navill as Democritus saith being the first thing framed within the matrice and serving in stead of an anchor against the waving and wandering of it to and fro holdeth sure the fruit conceived which both now groweth and heereafter is to be delivered as it were by a sure cable and strong bough then also it stoppeth and shutteth up the said riverets and passages of those monethly purgations and taking the foresaid blood which otherwise would run an void by those pipes and conducts it maketh use thereof for to nourish and as it were to water the infant which beginneth by this time to take some consistence and receive shape and forme so long untill a certaine number of daies which are necessarie for the full growth thereof within be expired at which time it had need to remove from thence for a kinde of nutriment else-where in another place and then diverting the said course of blood with all dexterity a skilfull hand no gardener nor fountainer in drawing of his trenches and chanels with all his cunning so artificiall and employing it from one use to another she hath certeine cesternes as it were or fountaine-heads prepared of purpose from a running source most readie to receive that liquor of blood quickly and not without some sense of pleasure and contentment but
withall when it is received they have a power and facultie by a milde heat of the naturall spirits within them and with a delicate and foeminine tendernesse to concoct digest change and convert it into another nature and qualitie for that the paps have within them naturally the like temperature and disposition answerable unto it now these teats which spout out milke from the cocks of a conduct are so framed and disposed that it floweth not foorth all at once neither do they send it away suddenly but nature hath so placed the dug that as it endeth one way in a spongeous kinde of flesh full of small pipes and made of purpose to transmit the milke and let it distill gently by many little pores and secret passages so it yeeldeth a nipple in maner of a faucet very fit and ready for the little babes mouth about which to nuzzle and nudgell with it prety lips it taketh pleasure and loveth to be tugging and lugging of it but to no purpose and without any fruit or profit at all had nature provided such tooles and instruments for to engender and bring foorth a childe to no end I say had she taken so good order used so great industry diligence and forecast if withall she had not imprinted in the heart of mothers a woonderfull love and affection yea and an extraordinarie care over the fruit of their wombe when it is borne into the world for Of creatures all which breath and walke upon the earth in sight None is there wretched more than man new borne into this light And whosoever saith thus of a yoong infant newly comming forth of the mothers wombe maketh no lie at all but speaketh trueth for nothing is there so imperfect so indigent and poore so naked so deformed so foule and impure than is man to see to presently upon his birth considering that to him in maner alone nature hath not given so much as a cleane passage and way into this light so furred he is all over polluted with blood so ful of filth and ordure when he entreth into the world resembling rather a creature fresh killed slaine than newly borne that no bodie is willing to touch to take up to handle dandle kisse and clip it but such as by nature are lead to love it and therefore whereas in all other living creatures nature hath provided that their udders and paps should be set beneath under their bellies in a woman onely she hath seated them aloft in her breasts as a very proper and convenient place where shee may more readily kisse embrace coll and huggle her babe while it sucketh willing thereby to let us understand that the end of breeding bearing and rearing children is not gaine and profit but pure love and meere affection Now if you would see this more plainly proved unto you propose if you please and call to remembrance the women and men both in the olde world whose hap was either first to beare children or to see an infant newly borne there was no law then to command and compell them to nourish and bring up their yoong babes no hope at all of reciprocall pleasure or thanks at their hands that indured them no expectance of reward and recompense another day to be paied from them as due debt for their care paines and cost about them nay if you goe to that I might say rather That mothers had some reason to deale hardly with their yoong infants and to beare in minde the injuries that they have done them in that they endured such dangers and so great paines for them As namely when the painfull throwes as sharpe as any dart In travell pinch a woman neere and pierce her to the hart Which midwives Iunoes daughtersthen do put her to poore wretch With many a pang when with their hand they make her body stretch But our women say It was never Homerus surely who wrote this but Homeris rather that is to say some Poetresse or woman of his poeticall veine who had bene herselfe at such a busines and felt the dolourous pangs of child-birth or els was even then in labour and upon the point to be delivered feeling a mixture of bitter and sharpe throwes in her backe belly and flanks when shee powred out these verses but yet for all the sorow and deare bargaine that a mother hath of it this kinde and naturall love doth still so bend incline and leade her that notwithstanding she be in a heat still upon her travell full of paines and after-throwes panting trembling and shaking for very anguish yet she neglecteth not her sweet babe nor windeth or shrinketh away from it but she turneth toward it she maketh to it she smileth and laugheth upon it she taketh it into her armes she hugleth it in her bosome and kisseth it full kindly neither all this whiles gathereth she any fruits of pleasure or profit but painfully God wot and carefully She laps it then in raggs full soft With swadling bands shewraps it oft By turnes she cooles and keeps it warme Loth is she that it should take harme And thus aswell by night as day Paives after paines she taketh ay Now tell me I pray you what reward recompense and profit do women reape for all this trouble and painfull hand about their little ones None at all surely for the present and as little in future expectance another day considering their hopes are so farre off and the same so uncertaine The husbandman that diggeth and laboureth about his vine at the Acquinox in the Spring presseth grapes out of it and maketh his vintage at the Aequinox of the Autumne He that soweth his corne when the starres called Pleiades doe couch and goe downe reapeth and hath his harvest afterwards when they rise and appeare againe kine calve mares foale hennes hatch and soone after there commeth profit of their calves their colts and their chickens but the rearing and education of a man is laborious his growth is very slow and late and whereas long it is ere he commeth to proofe and make any shew of vertue commonly most fathers die before that day Neocles lived not to see the noble victorie before Salanus that Themistocles his sonue atchived neither saw Miltiades the happie day wherein Cimon his sonne won the fielde at the famous battell neere the river Eurynidon Xantippus was not so happy as to heare Pericles his sonne out of the pulpit preaching and making orations to the people neither was it the good fortune of Ariston to be at any of his sonne Platoes lectures and disputations in Philosophie the fathers of Euripides and Sophocles two renowmed Poets never knew of the victories which they obteined for pronouncing and rehearsing their tragedies in open theater they might heare them peradventure when they were little ones to stammer to lispe to spel and put syllables together or to speake broken Greeke and that was all But ordinary it is that men live to see heare and know when
he have not wisedome withall There was one that cavilled upon a time with Captaine Iphicrates and by way of reproch minding to proove that he was of no reckoning demaunded what he was For quoth he you are not a man at armes nor archer nor yet targuetier I am not indeed I confesse quoth Iphicrates but I am he who commaund all these and employ them as occasion serveth even so wisedome is neither gold nor silver it is not glorie or riches it is not health it is not strength it is not beautie what is it then Surely even that which can skill how to use all these and by means whereof each of these things is pleasant honorable and profitable and contrariwise without which they are displeasant hurtfull and dangerous working his destruction and dishonor who possesseth them And therefore right good counsell gave Prometheus in Hesiodus to his brother Epimetheus in this one point Receive no gifts at any time which heavenly Iove shall send But see thou do refuse them all and backe againe them send Meaning thereby these outward goods of fortunes gift as if he would have said Goe not about to play upon a Flute if thou have no knowledge in Musicke nor to reade if thou know never a letter in the booke mount not on horsebacke unlesse thou canst tell how to sit him and ride and even so he advised him thereby not to seeke for office and place of government in common-weale wanting wit as he did nor to lay for riches so long as he bare a covetous minde and wist not how to be liberall nor to marrie a wife for to bee his maister and to lead him by the nose for not onely wealth and prosperitie hapning above desert unto unadvised folke giveth occasion as Demosthenes said unto them for to commit many follies but also wordly happines beyond all reason and demerit causeth such as are not wise to become unhappie and miserable in the end OF ENVIE AND HATRED The Summarie IN this briefe Treatise concerning Envie and Hatred Plutarch after he hath shewed in generall tearmes that they be two different vices and declared withal the properties of the one and the other prooveth this difference by diversreasons and arguments ranged in their order he discovereth the nature of envious persons and malicious and sheweth by a proper similitude that the greatest personages in the world be secured from the clawes and pawes of envious persons and yet for al that cease not to have many enemies And verily it seemeth that the Author began this little worke especially for to beat downe envie and that the infamie thereof might so much more appeere in comparing andmatching it with another detestable vice the which notwithstanding he saith is lesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than it OF ENVIE AND HATRED IT seemeth at the first sight that there is no difference betweene envie and hatred but that they be both one For vice to speake in generall having as it were many hookes or crotchets by meanes thereof as it stirreth to and fro it yeeldeth unto those passions which hang thereto many occasions and opportunities to catch holde one of another and so to be knit and enterlaced one within the other and the same verily like unto diseases of the body have a sympathie and fellow-feeling one of anothers distemperature and inflammation for thus it commeth to passe that a malicious and spightfull man is as much grieved and offended at the prosperitie of another as the envious person and so we holde that benevolence and good-will is opposite unto them both for that it is an affection of a man wishing good unto his neighbour and envie in this respect resembleth hatred for that they have both a will and intention quite contrary unto love but forasmuch as no things like to the same and the resemblances betweene them be not so effectuall to make them all one as the differences to distinguish them asunder let us search and examine the said differences beginning at the very source and originall of these passions Hatred then is ingendred and ariseth in our heart upon an imagination and deepe apprehension that we conceive of him whom we hate that either he is naught wicked in general to every man or els intending mischiefe particularly unto our selves for commonly it falleth out that those who thinke they have received some injurie at such an ones hand are disposed to hate him yea and those whom otherwise they know to be maliciously bent and wont to hurt others although they have not wronged them yet they hate and can not abide to looke upon them with patience whereas ordinarily they beare envie unto such onely as seeme to prosper and to live in better state than their neighbours by which reckoning it should seeme that envie is a thing indefinite much like unto the disease of the eies Ophthalmia which is offended with the brightnesse of any light whatsoever whereas hatred is determinate being alwaies grounded upon some certeine subject matters respective to it selfe and on them it worketh Secondly our hatred doeth extend even to brute beasts for some you shall have who naturally abhorre and can not abide to see cats nor the flies cantharides nor todes nor yet snakes and any such serpents As for Germanicus Caesar he could not of all things abide either to see a cocke or to heare him crow The Sages of Persia called their Magi killed all their mice and rats aswell for that themselves could not away with them but detested them as also because the god forsooth whom they worshipped had them in horror And in trueth all the Arabians and Aethiopians generally holde them abominable But envie properly is betweene man and man neither is there any likelihood at all that there should be imprinted envie in savage creatures one against another because they have not this imagination and apprehension that another is either fortunate or unfortunate neither be they touched with any sense of honour or dishonour which is the thing that principally and most of all other giveth an edge and whetteth on envie whereas it is evident that they hate one another they beare malice and mainteine enmitic nay they go to warre as against those that be disloiall treacherous and such as are not to be trusted for in this wife doe eagles warre with dragons crowes with owles and the little nonner or tit-mouse fighteth with the linnet insomuch as by report the very bloud of them after they be killed will not mingle together and that which is more if you seeme to mixe them they will separate and run apart againe one from the other and by all likelihood the hatred that the lion hath to the cocke and the elephant also unto an hogge proceedeth from feare for lightly that which creatures naturally feare the same they also hate so that herein also a man may assigne and note the difference betweene envie and hatred for that the nature of beasts is capable of the one but not
hapneth it that you never told me of it the woman being a simple chaste harmlesse dame Sir saith she I had thought all mens breath had smelled so Thus it is plaine that such faults as be object and evident to the senses grosse and corporall or otherwise notorious to the world we know by our enemies sooner than by out friends and familiars Over and besides as touching the continence and holding of the tongue which is not the least point of vertue it is not possible for a man to rule it alwaies and bring it within the compasse and obedience of reason unlesse by use and exercise by long custome and painfull labour be have tamed and mastered the woorst passions of the soule such as anger is for a word that hath escaped us against our willes which we would gladly have kept in of which Homer saith thus Out of the mouth a word did fly For all the range of teeth fast-by And a speech that we let fall at aventure a thing hapning often-times and especially unto those whose spirits are not well exercised and who want experience who runne out as it were and breake forth into passions this I say is ordinary with such as be hastie and cholerike whose judgement is not setled and staied or who are given to a licentious course of life for such a word being as divine Plato saith the lightest thing in the world both gods and men have many a time paied a most grievous and heavie penalty whereas Silence is not only as Hippocrates saith good against thirst but also is never called to account nor amerced to pay any fine and that which more is in the bearing and putting up of taunts and reproches there is observed in it a kinde of gravitie beseeming the person of Socrates or rather the maghanimity of Hercules if it be true that the Poet said of him Of bitter words he lesse account did make Than dath the flie which no regard doth take Neither verily is there a thing of greater gravitie or simply better than to heare a malicious enemie to revile and yet not to be moved nor grow into passions therewith But to passe-by a man that loves to raile Asrocke in sea by which we swimme or saile Moreover a greater effect will ensue upon this exercise of patience if thou canst accustome thy selfe to heare with silence thine enemie whiles he doth revile for being acquainted therewith thou shalt the better endure the violent fits of a curst and shrewd wife chiding at home to heare also without trouble the sharpe words of friend or brother and if it chance that father or mother let flie bitter rebukes at thee or beat thee thou wilt suffer all and never shew thy selfe displeased and angrie with them For Socrates was woont to abide at home Xanthippe his wife aperillous shrewd woman and hard to be pleased to the end that he might with more ease converse with others being used to endure her curstnesse But much better it were for a man to come with a minde prepared and exercised before-hand with hearing the scoffes railing language angrie taunts outragious and foule words of enemies and strangers and that without anger and shew of disquietnesse than of his domesticall people within his owne house Thus you see how a man may shew his meeknesse and patience in enmities and as for simplicity magnanimitie and a good nature in deed it is more seene here than in friendship for it is not so honest and commendable to do good unto a friend as dishonest not to succout him when he standeth in need and requesteth it Moreover to forbeare to be revenged of an enemie if opportunitie and occasion is offered and to let him goe when he is in thy hands is a point of great humanitie and courtesie but him that hath compassion of him whē he is fallen into adversity succoreth him in distresse at his request is ready for to shew good will to his children and an affection to susteine the state of his house and familie being in affliction whosoever doth not love for this kindnesse nor praise the goodnesse of his nature Of colour blacke no doubt and tincture sweart Wrought of stiffe steele or yron he hath an heart Or rather forg'd out of the Diament Which will not stirre hereat nor once relent Casar commanded that the statues erected in the honour of Pompeius which had bene beaten downe and overthrowen should be set up againe for which act Cicero said thus unto him In rearing the images of Pompeius ô Caesar thou hast pitched and erected thine owne And therefore we ought not to be sparie of praise and honour in the behalfe of an enemie especially when he deserveth the same for by this meanes the partie that praiseth shall winne the greater praise himselfe and besides if it happen againe that he blame the said enemie his accusation shall be the better taken and carie the more credit for that he shall be thought not so much to hate the person as disallow and mislike his action But the most profitable and goodliest matter of all is this That he who is accustomed to praise his enemies and neither to grieve or envie at their well-fare shall the better abide the prosperitie of his friend and be furthest off from envying his familiars in any good successe or honour that by well-doing they have atchieved And is there any other exercise in the world that can bring greater profit unto our soules or worke a better disposition and habit in them than that which riddeth us of emulation and the humour of envie For like as in a city wherein there be many things necessarie though otherwise simply evill after they have once taken sure sooting and are by custome established in maner of a law men shall hardly remove and abolish although they have bene hurt and endammaged thereby even so enmity together with hatred and malice bringeth in envie jealousie contentment and pleasure in the harme of an enemie remembrance of wrongs received and offences passed which it leaveth behinde in the soule when it selfe is gone over and besides cunning practises fraud guile deceit and secret forlayings or ambushes which seeme against our enemies nothing ill at all nor unjustly used after they be once setled and have taken root in our hearts remaine there fast and hardly or unneth are removed insomuch as if men take not heed how they use them against enemies they shall be so inured to them that they will be ready afterwards to practise the same with their verie friends If therfore Pythagoras did well wisely in acquainting his scholars to forbeare cruelty and injustice even as farre as to dumb and brute beasts whereupon he misliked fowlers and would request them to let those birdes flie agine which they had caught yea and buy of fishers whole draughts of fishes and give order unto his disciples to put them alive into the water againe insomuch as hee expressely forbad the killing of any
a trim man indeed as thou art doest waile weepe and lament that thou drinkest not thy selfe drunke as those doe yonder nor lie in soft and delicate beds richly set out with gay and costly furniture Now when such temptations and distractions as these be returne not often but the rule and discourse of reason presently riseth up against them maketh head turneth upon them suddenly againe as it were in the chace and pursued in the route by enemies and so quickly discomfiteth and dispatcheth the anxietie and dispaire of the minde then a man may be assured that he hath profited indeed in the schoole of Philosophie and is well setled and confirmed therein But forasmuch as the occasions which doe thus shake men that are given to Philosophie yea and otherwhiles plucke them a contrarie way doe not onely proceed from themselves by reason of their owne infirmitie and so gather strength but the sad and serious counsels also of friends together with the reproofes and contradictorie assaults made upon them by adversaries betweene good earnest and game doe mollifie their tender hearts and make them to bow bend and yeeld which otherwhiles have beene able in the end to drive some altogether from Philosophie who were well entred therein It may be thought no small signe of good proceeding if one can endure the same meekly without being mooved with such temptations or any waies troubled and pinched when hee shall heare the names and surnames of such and such companions and equals otherwise of his who are come to great credit and wealth in Princes courts or be advanced by mariages matching with wives who brought them good dowries portions or who are wont to go into the common Hall of a citie attended upon and accompanied with a traine and troup of the multitude either to attaine unto some place of government or to plead some notable cause of great consequence for he that is not disquieted astonied or overcome with such assaults certaine it is and we may be bold to conclude that he is arrested as it were and held sure as he ought to be by Philosophie For it is not possible for any to cease affecting and loving those things which the multitude doth so highly honor and adore unlesse they be such as admire nothing else in the world but vertue For to brave it out to contest and make head against men is a thing incident unto some by occasion of choler unto others by reason of folly but to contemne and despise that which others esteeme with admiration no man is able to performe without a great measure of true and resolute magnanimitie In which respect such persons comparing their state with others magnifie themselves as Solon did in these words Many a wicked man is rich And good men there be many poore But we will not exchange with sich Nor give our goodnes for their store For vertue ay is 〈◊〉 Whereas riches be 〈◊〉 And Diogenes compared his peregrination and flitting from the city of Corinth to Athens and againe his removing from Thebes to Corinth unto the progresses and changes of abode that the great king of Persia was wont to make who in the Spring season held his Court at Susis in Winter kept house at Babylon and during Summer passed the time and sojourned in Media 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hearing upon a time the said king of Persia to be named The great king And why quoth he is he greater than my selfe unlesse it be that he is more just and righteous And 〈◊〉 writing unto Antipater as touching Alexander the great said That it became not him onely to vaunt much and glorifie himselfe for that his dominions were so great but also any man els hath no lesse cause who is instructed in the true knowledge of the gods And Zeno seeing Theoplird stus in great admiration because he had many scholars Indeed quoth he his auditory or quite is greater than mine but mine accordeth better and makes sweeter harmonie than his When as therefore thou hast so grounded and established in thine heart that affection unto vertue which is able to encounter and stand against all externall things when thou hast voided out of thy soule all envies jealousies and what affections soever are woont either to tickle or to fret or otherwise to depresse and cast downe the minds of many that have begunne to professe philosophie this may serve for a great argument and token that thou art well advanced forward and hast profited much neither is it a small signe thereof if thou perceive thy language to be changed from that it was wont to be for all those who are newly entred into the schoole of philosophie to speake generally affect a kinde of speech or stile which aimeth at glory and vaine ostentation some you shall heare crowing aloud like cocks and mounting up aloft by reason of their levity and haughty humour unto the sublimitie and splendor of physicall things or secrets in nature others take pleasure after the maner of wanton whelps as Plato saith in tugging and tearing evermore whatsoever they can catch or light upon they love to be doing with litigious questions they goe directly to darke problemes and sophisticall subtilties and most of them being once plunged in the quillits quidities of Logicke make that as it were a means or preparative to flesh themselves for Sophistrie mary there be who goe all about collecting and gathering together sententious sawes and histories of ancient times and as Anacharsis was wont to say That he knew no other use that the Greeks had of their coined pieces of mony but to tell and number them or els to cast account and reckon therewith even so do they nothing els but count and measure their notable sentences and sayings without drawing any profit or commodity out of them and the same befalleth unto them which one of Platoes familiars applied unto his scholars by way of allusion to a speech of Atiphanes this Antiphanes was wont to say in merriment That there was a city in the world whereas the words so soone as ever they were out of the mouth and pronounced became frozen in the aire by reason of the coldnesse of the place and so when the heat of Summer came to thaw and melt the same the inhabitants might heare the talke which had bene uttered and delivered in Winter even so quoth he it is with many of those who come to heare Plato when they be yoong for whatsoever he speaketh and readeth unto them it is very long ere they understand the same and hardly when they are become olde men and even after the same sort it fareth with them abovesaid who stand thus affected universally unto Philosophie untill their judgement being well setled and growen to sound resolution begin to apprehend those things which may deepely imprint in the minde a morall affection and passion of love yea and to search and trace those speeches whereof the tracts as Aesope was woont to say leade rather in
done well ô fortune quoth he to drive us to our studying gowne and Philosophers life againe even so in mine opinion there is no reason that a man unlesse he be very much besotted and transported with the vaine wind of popularity when he is confined and inclosed within an island should complaine of fortune therefore but rather praise her for that she hath rid him of much anguish of spirit and trouble of his head delivered him from tedious travell and wandring pilgrimages up and downe in the world from place to place freed him from the perils of sea remooved him from the tumultuous stirs of the multitude in judiciall courts and publicke assemblies of the citie and reduced him to a setled and staied life full of rest and tranquillitie not distracted with any superfluous and needlesse occupations wherein he may live indeed properly to himselfe being raunged within the center and circumference of those things which are required onely for necessitie For what island is there which hath not housen walking places stouphes and baines or that is without fishes or hares if a man be disposed to passe the time in fishing or hunting and that which is the greatest matter of all you may oftentimes there enjoy fully your rest and repose which other do so much thirst and hunger after for whereas when we are haply playing at dice or otherwise keeping close at home there will be some of these sycophants or busie priers and curious searchers into all our actions ready to draw us out of our houses of pleasure in the suburbes or out of our delightsome gardens to make our apparence judicially in the common place or to performe our service and give attendance in the court there will be none such about to faile into the Island where thou art confined for to trouble thee none wil come to thee to demaund or crave any thing to borrow monie to request thy suretiship or thy assistance for to second him in the sute of any office and magistracie unlesse peradventure some of thy best friends onely and neerest kinsfolke of meere love and affectionate desire to see thee saile over for thy sake for the rest of thy life besides is permitted to be as free and safe as a sanctuarie not subject to any spoile trouble or molestation if thou be willing can skill to use thy liberty and repose As for him who thinketh those to be happy who trudge up and downe in the world abroad spending most part of their time out of their owne houses either in common innes and hostelries or els in ferrying from place to place he is much like unto him that supposeth the wandring planets to be in a better state than the other starres which be fixed in the firmament and remoove not and yet there is not one of the said planets but is carried round in a peculiar and proper sphaere of the owne as it were in a certeine Isle keeping alwaies a just order in their revolution for according as Heraclitus saith The very sunne himselfe will never passe beyond his bounds and if he do the furies which are the ministers of justice will finde him out and be ready to encounter him But these and all such like reasons my good friend we are to alledge unto them and sing in their eares who being sent away and confined to some one Isle can not possibly change for another countrey nor have commerce and dealing in any place els whatsoever those I say Whom surging waves of sea both night and day Enclose perforce and cause them there to stay As for you unto whom no certeine place is limited and assigned for to inhabit but who are debarred and excluded onely out of one are thus to thinke that the exclusion out of one citie alone is an overture and ready way made unto all others Now if any man will object and say In this case of exile and banishment we are disabled for bearing rule and office of State we sit not at counsell table in the Senate house we are not presidents in the publicke plaies and solemnities c. You may answere and reply againe in this maner neither are we troubled with factions and civill dissentions we are not called upon nor charged with paiments in publike levies and exactions neither be we bound to make court unto great governors and to give attendance at their gates nor to take care and regard whether he who is chosen to succeed us in the government of our province be either hastie and cholericke or otherwise given to oppression and hard dealing but as Archilochus making no account at all of the fruitfull corne-fields and plenteous vineyards in Thasos despised and contemned the whole Isle because of some other rough hard and uneven places in it giving out thereof in these termes This Island like an asses backe doth sticke All over spred with woods so wild and thicke even so we casting our eies and fixing them upon that part onely of exile which is the woorst and vilest of the rest doe contemne and make no reckoning of the repose from businesse the libertie also and leasure which it doth afford And yet the kings of Persia be reputed happy in that they passe their winter time in Babylon the summer in Media and the most sweet and pleasant part of the spring at Susae May not hee likewise who is departed out of his owne native country during the solemnitie of the mysteries of Ceres make his abode within the city 〈◊〉 all the time of the Bacchanales celebrate that feast in Argos and when the Pythian games plaies are exhibited go to Delphos as also when the Isthmain pastimes be represented make a journey likewise to Corinth in case he be a man who taketh pleasure in the diversitie of shewes and publike spectacles if not then either sit still and rest or else walke up and downe reade somwhat or take a nap of sweet sleepe without molestation or interruption of any man and according as Diogenes was wont to say Aristotle dineth when it pleaseth king Philip but Diogenes taketh his dinner when Diogenes thinketh it good himselfe without any businesse affaires to distract him and no magistrate ruler or captaine there was to interrupt his ordinary time and maner of diet This is the reason why very few of the wisest and most prudent men that ever were have beene buried in the countries where they were borne but the most part of them without any constraint or necessitie to enforce them have willingly weighed anker and of their owne accord failed to another rode or haven to harbour in and there to lead their life for some of them have departed to Athens others have forsaken Athens gone to other places for what man ever gave out such a commendation of his owne native countrey as did Euripides in these verses in the person of a woman Our people all at first no strangers were From forraine parts who thither did arrive Time
the other Therefore I have made a certaine collection of such rules and precepts which your selves have heard already oftentimes being both of you trained up and nourished in the studie of philosophie and reduced them all in few words to certaine principall heads and articles to the end that they might be more easily remembred the which I send as a common present to you both beseeching withall the Muses that they would vouchsafe in your behalfe and for your owne sake to assist and accompanie the goddesse Venus forasmuch as their office is to make a good consonance and accord in marriage and house-keeping by the meanes of reason and harmonie philosophicall no lesse than to set in tune a lute or harpe or any musicall instrument 1 And to begin withall This is the reason that our auncients ordeined that the image of Venus should be placed jointly with that of Mercurie as giving us thereby to understand that the delight and pleasure of marriage had need especially to be maintained with good language and wise speeches they used to set also with these two images the Graces and Goddesse of Eloquence Ladie Pitho that is Perswasion intending thereby that those folke whom the bond of matrimonie had linked together might obtaine what they desired one at the others hand gently and by faire meanes not by debate chiding and brawles 2 Solon gave order and commanded that the new-wedded bride should eate of a quince before that she came in bed with her bridegrome signifying covertly in mine opinion by this darke ceremony that first and above all the grace proceeding from the mouth to wit the breath and the voice ought to be sweete pleasant and agreeable in everie respect 3 In the countrey of Boeotia the custome was upon the wedding day when the nuptial vaile was put over the bride for to set also upon her head a chaplet made of wilde preckie Spirach branches for that this plant out of a most sharpe and pricking thorne putteth foorth a most pleasant and delectable fruit even so the wedded wife in case her husband do not reject and flie her companie for the first difficulties and troublesome inconveniences incident to marriage shall bring unto him afterwards a sweete and amiable societie but they that can not endure at first the jarres and quarrels of their yoong wives whom they married virgins may for all the world be resembled to those who give away ripe grapes from themselves to others because they be sowre before they are ripe semblably many new wedded-wives who take a disdaine to their husbands by reason of some debates and encounters at the first doe much like unto those who having abidden the sting of the Bee cast away the honie-combe out of their hands It behooveth therefore new-married solke to take heed especially in the beginning that they avoide all occasions of dissention and offence giving considering this with themselves and seeing daily that the pieces of woodden vessels which are newly joined and glued together at the first are soone disjoined and go asunder againe upon the least occasion in the world but after that in continuance of time the joint is strongly settled and soundly confirmed a man shall hardly part and separate one piece from another with fire or yron edged toole 4 And like as fire kindleth soone catcheth a flame if it meet with light stubble chaffe or the haire of an hare but it quickly goeth out againe if there be not put thereto some matter or fewell anon which may both hold in and also maintaine and feede the same even so we are to thinke that the love of yoong-wedded persons which is enflamed and set on fire by youth and the beawtie of the bodie onely is not firme and durable unlesse it be surely founded upon the conformitie of good and honest maners and take hold of wisedome whereby it may engender a lively affection and reciprocall disposition one toward the other 5 Fishes are soone caught and taken up by baites made of empoysoned paste or such like medicines but their meat is naught and dangerous to be eaten semblably those women who compound certaine love drinkes or devise other charmes and sorceries for to give their husbands and thinke by such allurements of pleasure to have the hand and command over them it is all to nothing that afterwards in their life together they shal find them to be blockish foolish sensles companions Those men whom Circe the famous sorceresse enchanted with hir witchcraft did her no pleasure neither served they her in any stead being transformed as they were into swine and asses whereas she loved and affected entirely and exceedingly Ulysses an ingenious man and who conversed wisely with her but such wives as had rather bee mistresses and over-rule their doltish husbands than obey them that be wise men of understanding may very properly be compared unto them who choose rather to leade and conduct the blind than to be guided by those that see and to follow them that have knowledge These women will never beleeve that Pasiphaë being a Kings wife loved a bull notwithstanding they see some wives that can not endure their husbands if they be any thing austere grave sober and honest but they abandon and give themselves over more willingly to accompanie with such as be composed altogether of luxurious loosenesse of filthie lust and voluptuousnesse like as if they were dogs or goats 6 Some men there be so tender feeble and effeminate that being not able to mount up their horse-backes as they stand teach them to stoupe and rest upon their knees that they may get upon them and even so you shall finde divers husbands who having espoused rich wives and descended of noble houses never studie to make them better but keepe downe their wives and hold them under being perswaded that they shall rule them the better when they are thus humbled and brought low whereas indeed they should as well maintaine the dignitie of their wives as regard and keepe the just stature and height of their horses as well in the one as the other make use of the bridle 7 We see that the moone the farther that she is from the sunne the brighter she shineth and is more cleere and when she approcheth neere unto his raies and beames she loseth her light and is darkened but a chaste honest and wise woman must do cleane contrarie for shee ought to be most seene with her husband and if he be away to keepe close and hold her selfe within house 8 It was not well said of Herodotus That a woman casteth off her pudicitie when she putteth off her smocke or inner garment for cleane contrarie it is in a chaste and sober matron for in stead thereof she putteth on shamefastnes and honestie and the greatest signe of all other that married folke do love reciprocally is this when they have most reverence and shamefast regard one to the other 9 Like as if one take two
favors at his hands ceased not to backbite and slander him made them this answer What thinke you will they doe then if I should worke them a shrewd turne semblablie when make-bate women shall come twatling and say How doth your husband misuse you loving him and making so much of him as you doe in all dutie and loialty your answere must be What will become of me then if I should begin to hate him and doe him injurie 36 A certeine master there was upon a time who espied a slave of his that was long before runne away and when he had set his eie upon him ranne apace for to take hold of him the poore slave fled still and gat at length a mil-house over his head That 's happie quoth the master to himselfe I would not wish to meet with him in a better place even so a woman who upon jealousie is upon the point to be divorced and depart from her husband and being ill appaid in her mind for being driven to this hard exigent should thus speake unto herselfe What is it that my concurrent who is the cause of this my jealousie can wish in her heart to content her better than to see me do this whereabout I am namely to vexe and torment my selfe thus as I do to be so far out and in such tearmes with my husband abandoning his house and forsaking our mariage bed 37 The Athenians observe and celebrate three seasons of sacred seednesse in the yeere the first in the isle Scyros in memoriall of the first invention of tillage and sowing in that countrey the second in a place called Raria and the third under their owne citie walles which they call Buzygion in remembrance of yoking oxen to the plough but the nuptiall tillage as I may so say which is imploied for issue and procreation of children and to mainteine our race and posterity is the most sacred of all other and ought to be observed with all holinesse And therefore Sophocles well and wisely gave this attribute unto Cytherea or Venus when hee named her Eucarpos that is Fertile or Fruitfull in which regard man and wife lawfully joined in matrimonie are to use the same religiously and with all precisenesse absteining wholly from all incestuous illegitimate and forbidden conjunctions and not plowing or sowing there whereas they are not willing to reape or if it chance that there come up any fruit they are ashamed thereof and willing to hide and conceale it 38 Gorgias the oratour in a great assembly at the Olympian games made a solemne oration to the Greeks who were met there from all parts exhorting them to live in peace unitie and concord one with another at which speech of his one Melanthius there present This man quoth he telleth us a tale of unitie and exhorteth us all to concord here in publike who can not perswade in his private house at home himselfe his owne wife her chamber-maid to agree and live peaceably together being but three in all and no more for it should seeme that Gorgias cast a fancie to the said wench and his wife was jealous of her and therefore his house and familie ought to be in good order who will busie himselfe and intermeddle in ordering of publike affaires or composing of matters among friends for commonly it falleth out that the faults which we commit against our wives be more divulged abroad in the world than the misdemeanours of our wives 39 Cats are much offended they say with the odour and sent of sweet perfumes insomuch as they will runne mad therewith if it chance likewise that a woman can not away with such perfumes but that her braines be thereby troubled and ready to overturne her husband were of a very strange nature and should deale hardly with her in case he would not forbeare to use sweet ointments or strong senting odours but for a little pleasure of his owne to suffer her for to fall into so great inconvenience and to neglect her contentment Now if it be so that such accidents of brain-sicknesse happen unto women not when their busbands be perfumed but when they are given to keepe queanes and love harlots it were meere injustice in them for a small pleasure of their owne to offend and disquiet their wives and not to doe so much for their sake as those who come among bees who for that purpose will not touch their owne wives for the time because bees as it is said hate such and are ready to sting them above all others but cary so bad a minde with them as to come and lie by their owne wives side being polluted and defiled with the filthie companie of other strumpets 40 They that have the government of elephants never put on white raiment when they come about them no more do they weare red clothes who approch neere unto bulles for that these beasts before named are afraid of such colours especially and grow fierce and wood therewith It is said moreover that tygers when they heare the sound of drummes or tabours about them become enraged and in a furious madnesse all to teare themselves Seeing it is so therefore that there be some men who can not abide but are highly displeased to see their wives in their scarlet purple robes and others againe who can not away with the sound of cymbals or tabours what harme is it if their wives wil forbeare both the one and the other for feare of provoking and offending their husbands and live with them without unquiet brawles and janglings in all repose and patience 41 A certeine yong woman when king Philip plucked and haled her unto him against her will Hand off good sir quoth she and let me goe all cats be gray in the darke and when the candle is out all women are alike It is not amisse to say so I confesse unto dissolute persons and adulterers but an honest married dame ought especially when the light is gone not to be all one with other common naughty packs but even then when as her body can not be seene to let her chastitie honestie and pure love to her husband appeare most that it may be well seene that she keepeth herselfe for him alone 42 Plato exhorted elder folke to behave themselves more modestly before yong persons than any other that so they might learne also to reverence their elders and be respecteous of them for where olde people be shamelesse it is not possible to imprint any shame or grace in the yonger Now ought an husband evermore to cary in remembrance this precept To have none in the world in better respect and more reverence than his owne wife forasmuch as the bed-chamber is unto her a schoole-house either of chastity and pudicity or els of loosenesse and incontinence for the husband that followeth those pleasures himselfe which he debarreth his wife of doth as much as bid his wife to fight with those enemies unto whom he hath already yeelded
Athenian who said unto him after a boasting and vaunting maner We have driven you oftentimes from the river Cephasus but we quoth he never yet drave you frō the river Eurotas In like sort replied Phocion pleasantly upon Demades when he cried aloud The Athenians will put thee to death if they enter once into their raging fits But they quoth he will doe the same by thee if they were in their right wits and Crassus the oratour whē Domitius demanded this question of him When the lamprey which you kept and fed in your poole was dead did you never weepe for it and say true came upon him quickly againe in this wise And you sir when you had buried three of of your wives one after another did you ever shed teare for the matter tell troth And verilie these rules are not onely to be practised in matters of State-affairs but they have their use also in other parts of mans life Moreover some there be who will intrude and thrust themselves into all sorts of publike affaires as Cato did and these are of opinion that a good citizen should not refuse any charge or publike administration so farre foorth as his power will extend who highly commend Epaminondas for that when his adversaries and evill willers upon envie had caused him to be chosen a bailife and receiver of the citie revenues thereby to doe him a spight and shrewd turne hee did not despise thinke basely of the said office but saying that not onely magistracie sheweth what maner of man one is but also a man sheweth what the magistracie is he brought that office into great dignitie and reputation which before was in no credite and account at all as having the charge of nothing els but of keeping the streetes cleane of gung-farming and carying dung foorth out of the narrow lanes and blinde allies and turning water-courses And even I Plutarch my selfe doubt not but I make good sport and game unto many who passe through our citie when they see me in the open streetes otherwhiles busie and occupied about the like matters but to meete with such I might helpe my selfe with that which I have found written of Antisthenes for when some there were that meruailed much at him for carrying openly in his hands through the market place a peece of salt fish or stock-fish which he had bought It is for mine own selfe quoth he alowd that I carie it but cōtrariwise mine answer is to such as reprove me when they finde me in proper person present at the measuring and counting of bricks and tiles or to see the stones sand and lime laid downe which is brought into the citie it is not for my selfe that I builde but for the city and common-wealth for many other things there be which if a man exercise or manage in his owne person and for himselfe hee may bee thought base minded and mechanical but in case he do it for the common-wealth and the State and for the countrey and place where he liveth it cannot be accounted a vile or ungentleman-like service but a great credite even to bee serviceable ready and diligent to execute the meanest functions that be Others there are who thinke the fashion that Pericles used to be more starely grave and decent and namely Critelaus the peripateticke among the rest who was of this mind that as the two great galiasses to wit Salaminia at Athens and Paralos were not shot or lanched into the sea for every small matter but onely upon urgent and necessarie occasions even so a man of government should be emploied in the chiefe greatest affaires like as the soveraigne and king of the worlde according to the poet Euripides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For God himselfe doth manage and dispence things of most weight by his sole government But matters high and of small consequence he doth referre to fortunes regiment For we cannot commend the excessive ambition the aspiring and contentious spirit of Theagenes who contented not himselfe to have gone through all the ordinary games with victory and to have wonne the prizes in many other extraordinary mastries and feats of activity to wit not onely in that generall exercise Pancratton wherein hand and foote both is put to the uttermost at once but also at buffets at running a course in the long race Finally being one day at a solemne anniversarie feast or yeeres-maund in the memorial of a certaine demi-god as the manner was when he was set the meat served up to the boord he would needs rise from the table for to performe another general Pancratium as if forsooth it had belonged to no man in the world to atchieve the victorie in such feats but himselfe if hee were present in place by which profession he had gotten together as good as twelve hundred coronets as prizes at such combats of which the most part were of small or no valew at all a man would say they had beene chaffe or such refuse and riffe raffe Like unto him for all the world be those who are readie as a man would say at all howers to cast of all their clothes to their verie single wastcot or shirt for to undertake all affaires that shall be presented by which meanes the people have enough and too much of them they become odious and yrkesome unto them in such sort that if they chance to do well and prosper they envie them if they do otherwise than well and miscarrie they rejoice and be glad at heart therefore Againe that which is admired in them at their first entrance into government turneth in the end to a jest and meere mockerie much after this order Metiochus is the Generall captaine Metiochus looketh to the high waies Metiochus bakes our bread Metiochus grinds our meale Metiochus doth everie thing and is all in all finally Metiochus shall pay for this one day and crie woe is me in the end Now was this Metiochus one of Pericles his followers and favorites who making use of his authoritie out of measure and compasse by the countenance thereof would employ himselfe in all publike charges and commissions whatsoever untill at the last he became contemptible and despised For in truth a man of government ought so to carrie himselfe as that the people should evermore have a longing appetite unto him be in love with him and alwaies dosirous to see him againe if he be absent This policie did Scipio Africanus praclife who aboad the most part of the time in the countrey by this meanes both easing himselfe of the heavie loade of envie and also giving those the while good leasure to take breath who seemed to bee kept downe by his glorie Timesias the Clazomenian was otherwise a good man and a sufficient polititian howbeit little wist he how he was envied in the citie because he would seeme to do everie thing by himselfe untill such time as there befell unto him such an accident as this There chanced to
note of insolencie and presumption because he forgat or omitted so small a demonstration and token of humanitie how can it be that he who goeth about to impaire the dignitie and credit of his companions in government or discrediteth and digraceth him in those actions especially which proceed from honour and bountie or upon an arrogant humour of his owne will seeme to do all and attribute the whole to himselfe alone how can such an one I say be reputed either modest or reasonable I remember my selfe that when I was but of yoong yeres I was sent with another in embassage to the Proconsul and for that my companion staid about I wot not what behind I went alone and did that which we had in commission to do together after my returne when I was to give an account unto the State and to report the effect of my charge message back againe my father arose and taking me apart willed me in no wise to speak in the singular number say I departed or went but We departed Item not I said or quoth I but We said in the whole recitall of the rest to joine alwaies my companion as if he had been associat at one hand with me in that which I did alone And verily this is not onely decent convenient and civill but that which more is it taketh from glorie that which is offensive to wit envie which is the cause that great captaines attribute and ascribe their noble acts to fortune and their good angell as did Timoleon even he who overthrew the Tyrannies established in Sicilie who founded and erected a temple to Good-Fortune Pythou also when he was highly praised and commended at Athens for having slaine king Cotys with his owne hand It was God quoth he who for to doe the deed used my hand And Theopompus king of the Lacedemonians when one said unto him that Sparta was saved and stood vpright for that their kings know how to rule well Nay rather quoth he because the people know how to obey well and to say a truth both these depend one upon the other howbeit most men are of this opinion and so they give out that the better part of policie or knowledge belonging to civill government lieth in this to fit men and frame them meete to be well ruled and commanded for in every citie there is alwaies a greater number of subjects than rulers and ech one in his turne especially in a popular state is governour but a while and for it afterwards continueth governed all the rest of his life in such sort that it is a most honest and profitable apprentiship as it were to learne for to obey those who have authoritie to command although haply they have meaner parts otherwise and be of lesse credite and power than our selves for a meer absurditie it were that wheras a principall or excellent actour in a Tragedie such as Theodorus was or Potus for hire waiteth oftentimes upon another mercenarie plaier who hath not above three words in his part to say and speaketh unto him in all humilitie and reverence because peradventure he hath the roiall band of a diademe about his head and a scepter in his hand in the true and unfained actions of our life and in case of policie and government a rich and mightie person should despise and set light by a magistrate for that he is a simple man otherwise and peradventure poore and of meane estate yea and proceede to wrong violate and impaire the publike dignitie wherein he is placed yea and to offer violence thereby unto the authoritie of a State whereas he ought rather with his owne credite and puissance helpe out the defect and weakenesse of such a man and by his greatnesse countenance his authoritie for thus in the citie of Lacedemon the kings were woont to rise up out of their thrones before the Ephori and whosoever els was summoned called by them came not an ordinary foot-pace or faire and softly but running in great haste in token of obedience and to shew unto other citizens how obeisant they were taking a great joy and glorie in this that they honour their magistrates not as some vaine-glorious and ungracious sots voide of all civilitie and manners wanting judgement and discretion who to shewe forsooth their exceeding power upon which they stande much and pride themselves will not let to offer abuse unto the judges and wardens of the publike games combats and pastimes or to give reprochfull termes to those that leade the dance or set out the plaies in the Bacchanale feast yea and mocke captaines and laught at the presidents wardens of the publik exercises for youth who have not the wit to know That to give honour is oftentimes more honorable than to be honored for surely to an honourable person who beareth a great sway carieth a mightie port with him in a citie it is a greater ornament grace to accompany a magistrate and as it were to guard and squire him than if the said magistrate should put him before or seeme to waite upon him in his traine and to say a truth as this were the way to worke him displeasure and procure him envie from the hearts of as manie as see it so the other would win him true glorie which proceedeth of love and benevolence And verily when such a man is seene otherwhiles in the magistrates house when he saluteth or greeteth him first and either giveth him the upper-hand or the middle place as they walke together he addeth an ornament to the dignirie of the citie and looseth thereby none of his own Moreover it is a popular thing and that which gaineth the hearts of the multitude if such a person can beare patiently the hard tearmes of a magistrates whiles he is in place and endure his cholericke fits for then he may with Diomedes in Homer say thus to himselfe How ever now I little do say It will be mine honor another day Or as one said of Demosthenes Well he is not now Demosthenes onely but he is a law-giver he is a president of the sacred plaies and solemne games and a crowne he hath upon his head c. and therefore it is good to put up all nowe and to deferre vengeance untill another time for either we shall come upon him when he is out of his office or at least wise wee shall gaine thus much by delay that choler will be well cooled and allaied by that time Moreover in any government or magistracie whatsoever a good subject ought to strive as it were a vie with the rulers especially if they be persons of good sort and gracious behaviour in diligence care and fore-cast for the benefit of the State namely in going to them to give notice and intelligence of whatsoever is meet to be done in putting into their hands for to be executed that which he hath with mature deliberation rightly resolved upon in giving meanes unto them for to
Romans thinking thereby to recover his state and among the rest in the end wrought so effectually with Porsena king of the Tuskanes that he perswaded him to laie siege to the citie of Rome and to beleaguer it with a puissant power Now over and besides this hostilitie the Romans within were afflicted also and sore pressed with famine but hearing that the said Porsena was not onely a valiant captaine in armes but withall a good and righteous prince they were willing to make him the indifferent umpire and judge betweene them and Tarquin but Tarquin standing stiffe in his owne opinion and highly conceited of himselfe giving out also that Porsena if he continued not a fast and constant ally he would not afterwards be a just equal judge whereupon Porsena forsaking him and leaving his alliance capitulated and promised to depart in good tearmes of amitie peace with the Romans upon condition to recover of them all those lands which they had occupied in Tuskane to have away with him those prisoners whom they had taken in those wars now for the better assurance of this composition so concluded there were delivered into his hands as hostages ten boies and as many yoong maidens among whom Valeria the daughter of Poplicola the consull was one which done presently he brake up his campe and dislodged yea and gave over preparation of farther warre notwithstanding that all the articles of the said capitulation were not yet accomplished These yong virgins before said being in his campe went down as it were to bath and wash themselves unto the river side which ran a good way from the campe and by the motion and instigation of one among the rest named Cloelia after they had wrapped and wreathed their clothes fast about their heads they tooke the river which ran with a very strong streame and swift current and by swimming crosse over it helping one another what they could amid the deepe channell and surging whirlpoles thereof untill with much travell they hardly recovered the banke on the other side Some report that this damosell Cloclia made meanes to get an horse mounted his backe and gently by little and little passed overthwart the river shewing the way unto the rest of hir fellowes encouraging yea and supporting them as they swomme on each side and round about her but what the reason is of this their conjecture I will shew anon when the Romans saw that they were gotten over in safetie they woondered at their boldnesse and rare vertue howbeit they were nothing well pleased with their returne neither could they endure to be chalenged and reproched that in fidelitie and troth they all should be inferior to one man and therefore gave commandement that these virgins should returne from whence they came and sent with them a guard to conduct them but when they were passed over the river Tybris againe they escaped very hardly of being surprized by an ambush that Tarquin had laid for them by the way as for Valeria the consull Poplicolaes daughter she fled at first with three servants into the campe of Porsena and the rest Arnus the sonne of king Porsena who ran presently to the rescue recovered out of the hands of the enemies now when they were all presented and brought before the king he demaunded which of them it was who had encouraged her companions to swim over the river and given them counsell so to doe all the rest fearing lest the king would doe Cloelia some harme would not speake a word but she her selfe confessed all Porsena highly esteeming her valour and vertue caused one of the fairest horses to be fetched out of his stable richly trapped and set out with costly furniture which he bestowed upon her yea and that which more is for her sake and to grace her curteously and kindly dismissed all her fellowes and sent them home This is the gesse I say by which some thinke that Cloelia passed over the river on horse-back but others say no who deliver the storie thus That the king marvelling at this valour and extraordinarie hardinesse above the proportion of that sex thought her woorthy of a present which is woont to be given unto a valiant man at armes and a brave warrior but how ever it was for a memoriall of this act there is to be seene her statue at this daie to wit a maiden sitting on horse-backe and it standeth in the street called Via sacra which some say representeth Cloelia others Valeria MICCA and MEGISTO ARistotimus having usurped tyranny and violent dominion over the Elians bare himselfe much upon the favor and countenance of king Antigonus established the same but so cruelly and excessively he abused this power and authoritie under him that in nothing he was tolerable for over and besides that he was a man by nature given to violence by reason that he stood in some servile feare and was glad to please the guard that he had about him of mixt Barbarians whom he had gotten together from divers parts for the defence of his state and person he suffered them also to commit many insolent parts and cruell outrages upon his subjects and among the rest that unhappie indignitie which befell to Philodemnus who had a faire damosell to his daughter named Micca unto whom one of the captaines of the said tyrant named Lucius seemed to make court not for any true love and heartie affection that he bare unto her but upon a wanton lust to abuse and dishonour her bodie so he sent for this maiden to come and speake with him her parents seeing that whether they would or no constrained they should be to let her goe gave her leave but the damosell her selfe of a generous spirit and magnanimous heart clasped them about and hung upon them fell downe at their feet and humbly besought them all that ever she could rather to kill her out of hand than to suffer her thus shamefully to be betraied and villanously to be despoiled of her maidenhead but for that she staied longer than was to the good liking of the foresaid Lucius who burned all this whiles in lust and had withall taken his wine liberally he rose from the table in great choler and went himselfe toward her when he came to the house he found Micca with her head upon her fathers knees and her he commanded to follow him which she refused to do whereupon he rent her clothes from her bodie and whipped her starke naked and she without giving one word againe endured for her part with patience and silence all the smart and paine but her father and mother seeing that with all their piteous praiers and tender teares they could not prevaile nor boot anie thing with this wretch turned to call and implore the helpe both of God and man crying with a loud voice Out upon such injurious indignity and intolerable villany whereupon this barbarous villaine growen now to be furious and enraged partly with choler and in part with
and hardly to be endured although the tyrant was otherwise kinde enough unto her and led her a faire life letting her have her owne will for the love he bare unto her insomuch as the tyrant suffied her to enjoy a great part of his puissance and regall power for love had enthralled and subdued him unto her and not one there was but she alone who knew how to use and handle him for to all the others he was untractable inflexible and savage beyond all measure but it grieved her most of all to see her native countrey so miserably abused and so unwoorthily intreated by this tyrant for there was not one day went over his head but he caused to be executed one citizen or other neither was there to be seene any hope of revenge or deliverance out of these calamities on any side for that the exiled persons and such as fled being weake and feeble every way and altogether heartlesse and fearefull were scattered some in this place others in that Aretaphila therefore building upon her-selfe alone the onely hope of recovering and raising the State of the common-weale and proposing the magnanimous and renowmed acts of Theba the wife of the tyrant Pheres as examples to imitate but wanting and destitute altogether of faithfull friends and trustie kinsfolke for to helpe and second her in any enterprise such as the present times and affaires did affoord unto the other assaied to make away the tyrant by some poison but as she was about the provision heereof and assaied to make proofe of the forces of many strong poisons she could not carrie her desseigne so secretly but it came foorth and was discovered now when the thing was averred evidently proved by strong presumptions Calbia the mother of Nicocrates a bloudy woman and of nature implacable thought to have her put to many exquisite torments and then to bring her soone after to her death but the affection that Nicocrates bare unto her wrought some delay in revenge and dulled the edge of his anger and withall Aretaphila who constantly and resolutely offered her-selfe to answer all imputations that were laid unto her charge gave some colourable excuse unto the passionate affection of the tyrant but in the end seeing that she was convinced by certaine proofes and evidences which she knew not how to answer neither could she denie that she had some drugs in her closet did temper certaine medicines but confessed that indeed she had prepared certaine drugs yet such as were neither deadly nor dangerous But my good lord quoth she unto her husband the tyrant I am much perplexed and troubled with many things of great consequence and namely how to preserve the good opinion which you have of me the kinde affection also which of your gracious favour you beare unto me by meanes wherof I have this honour as to enjoy a good part of your power and authoritie jointly with you this maketh me to be envied of wicked women at whose hands I fearing sorceries charmes enchantments and other cunning divellish casts by which they would goe about to withdraw and distract you from the love that you beare me resolved at the length with my selfe for to seeke meanes how to meet encounter and prevent their devices foolish peradventure they may be as indeed the very inventions of a woman but in no wise worthy of death unlesse haply sir in your judgement it be just and reasonable to put your wife to death for that she mindeth to give you some love drinks and amatorious cups or deviseth some charmes as desirous to be more loved of you than haply it is your pleasure for to love her Nicocrates having heard these excuses alledged by Aretaphila thought good and resolved to put her to torture whereat Calbia her mother was present who never relented nor seemed to be touched with her dolorous torments but remained inexorable now when she was laid upon the racke and asked sundrie questions she yeelded not unto the paines that she sustained but continued invincible and confessed no fault in the height of all extemities untill at lenght Calbia herselfe even against her will was forced to give over tormenting her any longer and Nicocrates let her goe being not fully perswaded that the excuses alledged by her were true to be credited repenting that he had put her to such paine as he did and it was not long after so deepely was the passion of love imprinted in his heart but he returned to her and affaied to win her grace and good will againe by all honours favours courtesies and kindnesse that possibly he could shew unto her but she who had the power and strength to resist all torments and yeeld unto no paines would not be overcome with all his flatteries but joining now unto her former desire of doing some vertuous deed the animositie for to be revenged and to effect her purpose assaied other meanes One daughter she had mariageable and beautifull she was besides her she suborned and set as an alluring bait to entrap and catch the tyrants brother a yong gentleman easie to be caught with the pleasures delight of youth and many are of opinion that she used certeine charmes and amatorious potions aswell as the object of her daughters beautie whereby she enchanted and bewitched the wits and senses of this yong man whom they called Lander when he was once enamoured with the love of this yoong damofell hee prevailed so much by praiers and entreatie with his brother that he permitted him to wed her no sooner was he married but his fresh spouse having instructions before-hand from her mother began to be in hand with him and to perswade him for to enterprise the recoverie of freedome unto the citie shewing by good remonstrance that himselfe enjoied not libertie so long as he lived under tyrannie neither had he power of himselfe either to wed a wife or to keepe her when he had her if it pleased not the tyrant on the other side his friends and other of his familiar acquaintance for to gratific Aretaphila and to doe her pleasure repaired unto him continually forging some new matter of quarrels and suspitions against his brother the tyrant when he perceived that Aretaphila was also of the same minde and had her hand therein he resolved to execute the enterprise and thereupon he set one Daphnis a servant of his owne in hand with the businesse by whose meanes he killed Nicocrates but after he was thus murdered Leander would no more be advised by Aretaphila nor follow her counsell in the rest but shewed incontinently by his deportments and carriage in all action that a brother indeed hee had murdered but not-killed a tyrant for in his owne government he bare himselfe like a foole and ruled insolently and furiously howbeit unto Aretaphila he shewed alwaies some honour and reverence conferring upon her some part of his authoritie in management of State affaires for that she made no semblant at all
sect both men and women pray and request Pythocles for Epicurus sake not to make any account of those arts which we name liberall And in praising our Apelles among other singular qualities that they attribute unto him they set downe this for one That from his first beginning he had forborne the studie of the Mathematicks and by that meanes kept himselfe unspotted and undefiled As for histories to say nothing how of all other sciences they have neither heard nor seene any I will cite onely the words Metradorus writing of Poets Tush quoth he be not abashed nor thinke it a shame to confesse that thou knowest not of whether side Hector was of the Greeks part or of the Trojans neither thinke it a great matter if thou be ignorant what were the first verses of Homers Poeme and regard thou as little those in the mids Now for as much as Epicurus wist well inough that the pleasures of the body like unto the aniversarie Etesian minds doe blow over and passe away yea and after the flower of mans age is once gone decay sensibly and cease altogether therefore he mooveth a question Whether a wise man being now farre stept in yeeres and not able any more to keepe company with a woman taketh pleasure still in want on touching feeling or handling of faire and beautifull persons Wherein verily he is farre from the minde and opinion of Sophocles who rejoiced and thanked God that hee had escaped from this voluptuous and fleshly love as from the yoke chaine or clogge of some violent and furious master Yet rather ought these sensuall and voluptuous persons seeing that manie delights and pleasures corporall doe fade and decaie in old age And that with aged folk in this Dame Venus much offended is as saith Euripides to make provision then most all of other spirituall pleasures and to be stored before-hand as it were against some long siege with such drie victuals as are not subject to putrefaction and corruption Then I say should they hold their solemne feasts of Venus goodly morrow-minds to passe the time away by reading some pleasant histories delectable poemes or pretie speculations of musick or geometrie And verily they would not so much as thinke any more of those blind feelings and bootlesse handlings as I may tearme them which indeed are no more but the pricks and provocations of dead wantonnesse if they had learned no more but as Aristotle Heraclides and Dicaearchus did to write of Homer and Euripides But they being never carefull and provident to purvey such victuals and seeing all the rest of their life otherwise to be unpleasant and as drie as a kex as themselves are woont to say of vertue yet willing to enjoy still their pleasures continually but sinding their bodies to say nay and not able to performe the same to their contentment they bewray their corruption in committing foule and dishonest acts out of season enforcing themselves even by their owne confessions to awaken stirre up and renew the memorie of their former pleasures in times past and for want of fresh and new delights making a shift to serve their turne with the old stale as if they had beene long kept in salt-pickle or compast untill their goodnesse and life were gone desirous they are to stirre kindle and quicken others that lie extinct in their flesh as it were raked up in dead and cold ashes long before cleane against the course of nature and all for default that they were not provided before of some sweet thing laid up in their soule proper unto her and delightsome according to her worthinesse As for other spirituall pleasures wee have spoken of them already as they came into our minde but as touching musick which bringing with it so many cōtentments so great delights men yet reject flie fro no man I now would willingly passe it over in silence considering the absured and impertinent speeches that Epicurus giveth out for in his questions he maintaineth That a wise man is a great lover of shews spectacles delighting above all others to heare and see the pastimes sports sights exhibited in theatres during the feast of Bacchus yet wil not he admit any musical problemes any disputatiōs or witty discourses of Criticks in points of humanitie learning so much as at the very table in dinner and supper time but giveth counsell unto kings and princes that be lovers favorers of literature to abide rather the reading hearing of military narrations stratagemes at their feasts banquets yea and scurrill talke of buffons pleasants and iesters than any questions propounded or discussed as touching musicke or poetrie for thus much hath he delivered in his booke entituled Of Royaltie as if hee had written the same to Sardanapalus or Naratus who was in times past a great potentate and lord of Babylon Certes neither Hiero nor Attalus ne yet Archelaus would ever have bene perswaded to remove and displace from their tables such as Eruiptdes Simonides Melanippides Crates or Diodorus for to set in their roomes Cardax Ariantes and Callias knowen jesters and notorious ribauds or some parasiticall Thrasonides and Thrasyleons who could skill of nothing els but how to make folke laugh in counterfaiting lamentable yellings groanes howlings and all to move applause and clapping of hands If king Ptolomeus the first of that name who also first erected a librarie and founded a colledge of learned men had light upon these goodly rules and royall precepts of his putting downe would not he have exclamed and said unto the Samians O Muses faire ô ladies deere What envie and what spight is heere For beseeming it is not any Athenian thus maliciously to be bent unto the Muses and be at warre with them but according to Pindarus Whom Jupiter doth not vouchsafe His love and favour for to have Amaz'd they stand and quake for feare When they the voice of Muses beare What say you Epicurus you goe early in the morning by breake of day unto the Theater to heare musicians playing upon the harpe and lute or sounding shawmes and hautboies if then it fortune at the table in time of a banquet that Theophrastus discourseth of Symphonies and musicall accords or Aristoxenes of changes and alteration of tunes or Aristophanes of Homers works will you stop your eares with both hands because you would not heare for that you so abhorre and detest them Surely there was more civillity yet and honestie by report in that barbarous king of Scythia Ateas who when that excellent minstrell Ismenias being his captive taken prisoner in the warres plaied upon the flute before him as hee sat at dinner sware a great oath that he tooke more pleasure to heare his horse neigh. Doe not these men thinke you confesse and grant when they be well charged that they have given defiance to vertue and honestie proclaming mortall and irreconcilable warre without all hope of truce parle composition and peace for surely
still bee somewhere and continue though they indured otherwise all maner of paines and calamities than wholy to bee taken out of the universall world and brought to nothing yea and willing they are and take pleasure to heare this spoken of one that is dead How he is departed out of this world into another or gone to God with other such like manner of speeches importing that death is no more but onely a change or alteration but not a totall and entire abolition of the soule And thus they use to speake Then shall I call even there to mind The sweet acquaintance of my friend Also What shall I say from you to Hector bold Or husband yours right deere who liv'd so old And herof proceeded and prevailed this errour that men supposed they are well eased of their sorrow and better appaied when they have interred with the dead the armes weapons instrustruments and garments which they were wont to use ordinarily in their life time like as Minos buried together with Glaucus His Candiot pipes made of the long-shanke bones Of dapple doe or hinde that lived once And if they be perswaded that the dead either desire or demand any thing glad they are and willing to send or bestow the same upon them And thus did Periander who burnt in the funerall fire together with his wife her apparell habilliments and jewels for that he thought she called for them and complained that she lay a cold And such as these are not greatly affraid of any judge Aeacus of Ascalaphus or of the river Acheron considering that they attribute unto them daunces theatricall plaies and all kinde of musicke as if they tooke delight and pleasure therein and yet there is not one of them all but is readie to quake for feare to see that face of death so terrible so unpleasant so glum and grizly deprived of all sense and growen to oblivion and ignorance of all things they tremble for very horrour when they heare any of these words He is dead he is perished he is gone and no more to be seene grievously displeased and offended they be when these and such like speeches are given out Within the earth as deepe as trees do stand His hap shall be to rot and turne to sand No feasts he shall frequent nor heare the lute And harpe ne yet the sound of pleasant flute Againe When once the ghost of man from corps is fled And pass'd the ranks of teeth set thicke in head All meanes to catch and fetch her are but vaine No hope there is of her returne againe But they kill them stone dead who say thus unto them We mortall men have bene once borne for all No second birth we are for to expect We must not looke for life that is eternall Such thoughts as dreames we ought for to reject For casting and considering with themselves that this present life is a smal matter or rather indeed a thing of nought in comparison of eternitie they regard it not nor make any account to enjoy the benefit thereof whereupon they neglect all vertue and the honourable exploits of action as being utterly discouraged and discontented in themselves for the shortnesse of their life so uncerteine and without assurance and in one word because they take themselves unfit and unworthy to performe any great thing For to say that a dead man is deprived of all sense because having bene before compounded that composition is now broken and dissolved to give out also that a thing once dossolved hath no Being at all and in that regard toucheth us not howsoever they seeme to be goodly reasons yet they rid us not from the feare of death but contrariwise they doe more confirme and enforce the same for this is it in deed which nature abhorreth when it shal be said according to the Poet Homers words But as for you both all and some Soone may you earth and water become meaning thereby the resolution of the soule into a thing that hath neither intelligence nor any sense at all which Epicurus holding to be a dissipation thereof into I wot not what emptinesse or voidnesse small indivisible bodies which he termeth Atomi by that meanes cutteth off so much the rather all hope of immortalitie for which I dare well say that all folke living men and women both would willingly be bitten quite thorow and gnawen by the hel-dog Cerberus or cary water away in vessels full of holes in the bottome like as the Danaides did so they might onely have a Being and not perish utterly for ever and be reduced to nothing And yet verily there be not many men who feare these matters taking them to be poeticall fictions and tales devised for pleasure or rather bug beares that mothers and nourses use to fright their children with and even they also who stand in feare of them are provided of certeine ceremonies and expiatorie purgations to helpe themselves withall by which if they be once cleansed and purified they are of opinion that they shall goe into another world to places of pleasure where there is nothing but playing and dauncing continually among those who have the aire cleere the winde milde and pure the light gracious and their voice intelligible whereas the privation of life troubleth both yoong and old for we all even every one of us are sicke for love and exceeding desirous To see the beautie of sunnes light Which on the earth doth shine so bright as Euripides saith neither willing are we but much displeased to heare this And as he spake that great immortall eie Which giveth light thorowout the fabricke wide Of this round world made haste and fast did hie With chariot swift cleane out of sight to ride Thus together with the perswasion and opinion of immortallity they bereave the common people of the greatest and sweetest hopes they have What thinke wee then of those men who are of the better sort and such as have lived justly and devoutly in this life Surely they looke for no evill at all in another world but hope and expect there the greatest and most heavenly blessings that be for first and formost champions or runners in a race are never crowned so long as they be in combat or in their course but after the combat ended and the victory atchieved even so when these persons are perswaded that the proofe of the victorie in this world is due unto them after the course of this life wonderfull it is and it can not be spoken how great contentment they finde in their hearts for the privitie and conscience of their vertue and for those hopes which assure them that they one day shall see those who now abuse their good gifts insolently who commit outrage by the meanes of their might riches and authoritie and who scorne and foolishly mocke such as are better than themselves paie for their deferts and suffer woorthily for their pride and insolencie And forasmuch as never any of them who
there is thither at that time who converse familiarly one with another feasting mutually and taking the benefit of that great 〈◊〉 of victuals and abundance of all good things where having nothing els to doe of great importance they passe the most part of the time in devising and discoursing together of good letters and matters of learning but whensoever Callistratus the professour of thetoticke is at home hardly may a man sup any where els but at his house for a man so full of courtesie he is and hospitalitie that there is no saying of him nay Now for that willingly he used to bring those together who were learned and professed scholars his company was so much more pleasant and delectable for many times he would seeme among other ancient persons of olde time to imitate Cimon making his whole and onely pleasure to feast many in his house and those from all parts but most of all and in maner continually he followed the example and steps of Celeus of whom it is written that he was the first who daily assembled to his house a number of honourable persons and of good marke which assembly he called Prytanium The speeches ordinarily at these meetings in Callistratus his house was sorting well and sutable to such companie but one day above the rest when the table stood furnished with all maner of dishes that a mans heart could wish for it ministred matter and occasion to enquire as touching viands whether were better those of the land or those of the sea And when all others in maner with one accord and voice commended them which the land did yeeld as being of so divers and sundry sorts yea and those innumerable Polycrates calling Symmachus by name You sir quoth hee who are as one would say a water-animall bred and fed within so many seas environing round about your sacred citie Nicopolis will not you mainteine and defend your tutelar god Neptune Yes that I will quoth Symmachus I heartily pray and beseech you to joine with me in this cause whom I take for mine adjoint and assistant considering that you enjoy the benefit of the sweetest and most pleasant coast of all the sea Beginne we then quoth Polycrates our discourse with our usuall custome and manner of speech For like as among so many poets as there be wee give but one by way of excellencie simply the name of poet to wit Homer for that of all others he is the principall so there being in the world many daintie cates and exquisit viands yet use of speech hath caried it so that fish alone or especially is named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say meat for that indeed it is the chiefe and very best heereupon it comes that we call those gluttons that love belly cheere so well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not for that they love beefe so well as Hercules did who as the poet saith When that he had fedde well of flesh Did eat greene new figges gathered fresh Neither doe wee name such an one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a lover of figges as Plato was or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say one that loveth grapes as well like as Arcesilaus did but such as haunt ordinarily the fish stalles and have a quicke eare to heare the market bell or listen to the clock that giveth warning when the fish-market is open And Demosthenes when hee objected unto Philocrates That with the money that hee received for betraying his countrey hee bought whoores fishes reproched the man no doubt for his lecherie and gluttony and it is pretily said of Ctesiphon when as one of these gluttons and bellie-gods in the court or counsell house cried out That he should cracke and burst in the middes Doe not so quoth hee my good friend in any case make us not a bait heere for to be devoured of fishes and he that made these little verses Thou liv'st of capers as thy meat When as of Sturgeon thou maist eat What was his meaning thinke you or what meaneth this common word of the people when they speake one to another for to be merry and make good cheere Come shall wee to the strond or shore to daie Is it not as much as if they meant that to suppe by the water side had no fellow for pleasure and delight as in truth it hath not for surely their purpose is not to goe unto the shore for the love that they have to see the billowes of the sea or the gravell stones and sands cast up why then because they would eat some good pease pottage there or make their meales with capers no forsooth for who goes thither for that purpose but it is because they that dwell along the banke by the water-side are provided alwaies of foison and store of good fish the same fresh sweet Moreover sea-fish carieth an higher price beyond al reason than other meat that commeth to the market insomuch as Cato declaming and inveighing openly before the people against the superfluitie and excesse in Rome citie brake out into this speech not hyperbolically and over-reaching the truth but as it was indeed That a fish at Rome was deerer sold than a fatte oxe for they sell a little barrell of fish at such an high price as an hundred oxen would not cost so much at a solemne sacrifice where they goe before bores goates and other beasts yea and the strewing of sacred meale Certes the best judge of the vertue and strength of medicinable drougues and spices is the most expert physician likewise no man is able so well to judge of song and harmonicall measures as the best and most experienced musician and consequently we may inferre that the meetest judge as touching the goodnesse and deintinesse of meats is he who loveth them best for we must not take to arbitrate and determine such a controversie and question as this Pythagoras or Xenocrates but rather Antagoras the poet Philoxenus the sonne of Eryxis and Androcydes the painter who being to make a picture for to represent the gulfe Scylla drew even the fishes about it most emphatically with a kinde of affectionate minde unto them and in one word more lively and naturally than all the rest because he loved fish so well and fedde upon them with such contentment Antagoras the poet was upon a time in the campe of king Antigonus who finding him verie busie all untied unbuttoned in seething of congers in a pan came close unto him rounding him in the eare Sirha quoth hee thinkest thou that Homer thy master when hee described the noble acts of Agamemnon was busie about boiling of congers unto whom Antagoras turned againe and replying in this wise presently And thinke you sir quoth he that when Agamemnon exploited those brave feats of armes he went up and downe in his campe spying peeping and prying into every corner so busily as you doe for to
the eie insomuch as he or she that is surprised therewith doth even resolve and melt with beholding the beautie of those persons whom they love as if they would run and enter into them and therefore a man may verie well marvell at those who confessing that we suffer and receive hurt by the eie thinke it a strange matter to doe harme by the same for the very aspect and regard of such persons as are in the flower of their beautie and that which passeth from their eies whether it be light or flowing of of the spirits doth liquefie and consume those who be enamoured on them with a certeine pleasure mingled with paine which they themselves call Bitter-sweet for nothing so much are they wounded or affected either by hearing or feeling as by seeing and being seene so deepe is the penetration and so strong the inflamation by the eie which maketh mee other-whiles to thinke that no experience and proofe they have ever had what love is who wonder at the Median Naphtha neere to Babylon that it should burne and catch a flame being a great way off from the sire for even so the eies of faire and beautifull creatures kindle fire within the very hearts and soules of poore lovers yea though they looke not upon them but a farre off but we know full well and have often seene the remedy of those who are troubled with the jaundice namely that if they can have a sight of the bird Charadrios they are presently cured for this bird hath such a nature and temperature that it draweth to it selfe and receiveth the maladie passing from the patient as it were a fluxion and that by the conduit of the eies which is the reason that these 〈◊〉 are never willing to see a person who hath the jaundice neither can they endure so to doe but turne aside and avoid it all that ever they can by closing their eies together not envying as some thinke the cure of that disease by them but fearing to be hurt and wounded themselves and of all other maladies it is well knowen that they who converse with them whose eies be inslamed and bleered are soonest and most of all infected therewith so quicke a power and so readie hath the sight to set upon another and inflict the contagion of that infirmitie Then Patrocleas True it is that you say quoth he in bodily passion and diseases but as for those which be more spirituall and concerne the soule among which I reckon this kind of witching how can it be and how is it possible that the only cast and regard of the eie should transmit any noisance or hurt into the bodie of another Why know you not quoth I that the soule according as it is disposed doth likewise affect and alter the bodie the very congitation of Venus causeth the flesh to rise the ardent heat in couragious mastives and band-dogges which are put upon wilde beasts for to encounter them when they are baited dimmeth their eie-sight and oftentimes makes them starke blinde sorrow avarice and jealousie alter the colour and complexion of the face drie up the habit and constitution of the bodie and envie no lesse sublile than the rest and piercing directly to the very soule filleth the body also with an untoward and badde disposition which painters lively doe represent in those tables which conteine the picture of envies face when as therefore they who be infected with envie doe cast their eies upon others which because they are feated neere unto the soule doe catch and draw unto them verie easilie this vice and so shoot their venemous raies like unto poisoned darts upon them if such chance to be wounded and hurt thereby whom they looke upon and wistly behold I see no strange thing nor a matter incredible for verilie the biting of dogges is much more hurtfull and danderous when they be angry than otherwise and the sperme or naturall seed of men doth sooner take effect and is more apt for generation when they meddle with women whom they love and generally the passions and affections of the soule doe fortifie and corroborat the powers and faculties of the bodie and heereupon it is that those preservatives against witchcraft called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are then thought to do good against envie when the eie-sight of the envious person is withdrawen and turned away by some filthie and absurd object that it cannot make so strong an impression upon the patient whom he would hurt Lo seigneur Florus quoth I heere is mine escot for our good cheere at this meeting in ready coine paid downe upon the naile head Well done quoth Soclarus but first before you goe we must allow the money for good and currant for I assure you there be some pieces that seeme counterset for if we suppose that to be a truth which is commonly reported as touching those who are thus bewitched and eie-bitten it is not I am sure unknowen to you that many are of opinion that there be of their friends and kinsfolke yea and some of their fathers also who carrie about them witching eies in such sort as their very wives will not so much as shew unto them their owne babes nor suffer such to looke upon them any while together how then should this effect of witcherie proceed from envie Nay what will you say to those I pray you who are named for to eie-bite and bewitch their owne selves You have heard I am sure thus much or at leastwise you have read this Epigram Faire was sometime Eutelidas His face and haire full lovely was But see one day when needs he would Unhappy man himselfe be hold In river streame that softly ran His beautie than be soone began So to admire that for envie Bewitch't he was by his owne eie And fell anon by malady To pine away and so to dv For it is reported of this Eutelidas that looking upon himselfe in the river water he was so farre in love with his owne beautie and so deepely affected with the sight thereof that he fell sicke and so both beautie and the good plight of his bodie went away at once but see now what shift you can make to salve these absurdities or what answer you will devise to avoid them As for that quoth he I shall doe it at some other time sufficiently but now drinking thus as you see me out of so great and large a boule I dare be bold to averre and that confidently that all perturbations and passions of the minde if they settle and continue long in the soule doe ingenerate therein evill habitudes these after they have in processe of time gotten the strength and become another nature upon every small occasion are stirred and oftentimes drive men perforce and even against their willes to those familiar and accustomed passions for doe but marke timorous and fearefull cowards how they be affrighted even with such things as be safe and doe preserve them
Cinesias in his comedies and what is meant by Lampon in Cratinus likewise one or other for the purpose to give the hearers to understand who they be whom the actours let flie their scurrile scoffes at so that by this meanes our feast must be like a Grammar schoole or els all the frumps and mocks that be flung and discharged will light in vaine and lose their grace for want of being understood But to come unto the new comedie what shold a man say any thing of it but this that it is so incorporate in feasts and banquets that a man may better make a supper without wine that without Menander for why the phrase or maner of speech in these comedies is sweet pleasant and familiar the matter such as neither can be despised of the sober nor offensive to the drunken besides the vertuous and sententious sayings therein delivered in simple and plaine tearmes runne so smooth that they are able to soften and make pliable everie way the 〈◊〉 and hardest natures that be by the meanes of wine like as barres of yron in the fire and to reduce them to humanitie To be short the temperature thorowout of mirth and gravitie together is such as it seemeth that this comedie was devised first for nothing els but both to pleasure and profit those who had taken their wine liberally and were now well disposed to mirth moreover even the amatorious objects therein presented are not without a singular use and benefit for those who being already set in an heat with wine are within a while after to goe to bed and sleepe with their wedded wives neither shall you finde among all his comedies as many as he hath written any filthy love of a yoong faire boy and as for the deflowring of yong 〈◊〉 and virgins about which there is such adoe in his comedies they ordinarily doe end in marriages and all parties be pleased As touching the love of harlots and professed courtesans if they be proud disdainfull and presumptuous queanes certeinly our wanton affection that way is well cooled and danted by certeine chastisements or repentances of yong men who are represented in these comedies to come againe unto themselves and acknowledge their follies but as for those kinde harlots which are of good natures and for their parts doe answere againe in true love either you shall have in the end their owne fathers found who may provide them husbands or els there is some measure of time set out for to gage their love which at the last after a certeine revolution and course run turneth unto civill and bashfull behavior I know well that all these matters and observations unto those who are otherwise occupied and busied in affaires be of no importance but at a table where men are set of very purpose to be merrie and to solace themselves I would wonder if their dexteritie delight and good grace doth not bring with it some amendment and ornament into the minds and conditions of those who take heed unto them yea and imprint a certeine zeale and emulation to frame and conforme themselves unto those that be honest and of the better sort At these words Diogenianus paused a while were it for that he had made an end of his speech or to take his winde and breathe himselfe a little and when the sophister beganne to replie and came upon him againe saying that in his opinion there should have bene some places and verses recited out of Aristophanes Philip speaking unto me by name This man quoth he hath his desire satisfied now that he hath so well recommended his friend Menander in whom he taketh so great delight and in comparison of whom he seemeth to have no care nor regard at all of any other but there remaine yet many other matters which wee are woont to heare for our pleasure which hitherto have not bene examined and yet very willing I am to heare some discourse of thē as for the prety works of imagers who cut out grave small living creatures if it please this stranger here Diogenianus we wil put over the controversie the decision thereof untill to morow morning when we are more sober Then began I to speake and said There be yet other kinde of sports and plaies named Mimi of which some they call Hypotheses as it were moralities and representations of histories others Paegnta that is to wit ridiculous fooleries but neither of them both doe I take meet for a banquet the former both because they require so long time in the acting and also for that they require so costly furniture and preparation the other are too ful of ribaudry of filthy and beastly speeches not wel beseeming the mouthes of pages and lackies that carry their masters slippers and pantofles after them especially if their masters be honest and wise men and yet many there are who at their feasts where their wives sit by their sides and where their yoong children be present cause such foolish acts and speeches to be represented as trouble the spirits and disorder the passions of the minde more than any drunkennesse whatsoever But for the play of the harpe which is of so great antiquitie and ever since before Homers time hath beene a familiar friend and companion with feasts and alwaies enterteined there it were not meet nor honest for to dissolve that ancient friendship and of so long continuance but we would request those minstrels that play and sing to the harpe to take out of their songs those dolefull plaints dumps and sorrowfull lamentations which be so ordinarie in them and to chaunt pleasant ditties and fresh galliards meet for those who are met to be merrie and jocund Moreover as touching the flute and hautboies they will not be kept out do what a man will from the table for if we do but offer our libations by powring out wine in the honour of the gods we must needs have our pipes or els all were marred yea and chaplets of flowers upon our heads and it seemeth that the gods themselves doe sing thereto and accord moreover the sound of the flute doth dulce the spirits it entreth into the eares with so milde and pleasant a tune that it carrieth with it a tranquillitie and pacification of all motions even unto the soule in such sort that if there did remaine in the understanding and minde any griefe any care or anxietie which the wine had not discussed and chased away by the gracious and amiable noise thereof and the voice of the musician singing thereto it quieteth it and bringeth it asleepe provided alwaies that this instrument keepe a meane and mediocritie so that it move not the soule too much and make it passionate with so many tunes and notes that it hath at what time as the said soule is so drenched and wrought soft with wine that it is readie to be affected therewith for like as sheepe and other cattell understand not any articulate language of a man
mooveables belonging to a man Not I quoth he for I am bound to succour what I can mine owne grand-father rather than the very grandsire of Bacchus for my grand-father Lamprias was wont to say That the first distinct and articulate voice which a man pronounceth is by the power of Alpha seeing that the breath and spirit within the mouth is formed principally by the motion of the lips which as they are opened and divided a sunder yeeld by that simple overture this voice first which of all others likewise is most simple and performed with least adoe calling neither for the tongue to helpe it nor waiting for the use thereof 〈◊〉 foorth even when it lieth still and stirreth not out of the owne place and therefore it is the first voice that infants utter heereupon also commeth this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke which signifieth as much as to heare any voice for that alwaies such a sound as A is usually heard yea and many other like vocables as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to sing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to pipe and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to crie or holla yea and these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to elevate or lift up and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to open not without good cause tooke these names upon the deduction and lifting up of the lips whereby such a sound as A is let foorth and falleth out of the mouth and therefore the names of other mute consonants all save one are helped by this A which serveth as a light to cleere their blindnesse for there is but 〈◊〉 or P onely wherein the power of this letter or sound is not emploied as for Phi and Chi the one of them is P and the other K pronounced with h or an asperation THE FOURTH QUESTION Whether hand it was of Venus that Diomedes wounded AFter this when Hermias addressed himselfe to propose unto Zopyrion a question we inhibited and staied him But Maxmus the Rhetorician came with a long fetch a farre off out of Homer and demaunde of him Whether hand it was of Venus that Dimedes wounded With that Zopyrion to quit him againe asked him presently Of whether legge king Philip haulred The case quoth Maximus is not all one and the same for Demosthenes hath left unto us no meanes for to answer this question but if you confesse once that you know not others there be who will shew you the very place where Homer telleth them who have any wit to conceive which hand of hers was hurt Zopyrion at this speech seemed to be astonied and stand in a maze whereupon whiles he help his peace we requested Maximus to point unto us the place aforesaid First and formost quoth Maximus then considering that the verses runne in this wise Then leapt aside bold Tideus sonne and traversing his ground Stept to and with sharpe pointed speare her hand aloft did wound It is plaine and evident that if he had meant to have smitten her left hand hee needed not to have leapt at one side for he had the left hand of Venus just opposite unto his owne right hand when he directly affronted her and more propable it is and stands to greater reason that his intent was to hurt the stronger hand and that which held Aeneas her sonne whom shee seemed with violence to carie away and which being wounded she might be forced to forgoe her hold and let his body goe Secondly when Venus was returned up into heaven Minerva by way of scoffing laughed at her and said to Jupiter in this wise No doubt faire Venus hath suborn'd some Greekish dame to love And follow one of these Troy knights whom she affects above All other wights and whiles she stroak't this lady gently see Her soft hand met with some gold-clasp and so came ras'd to bee And verily I suppose that even your selfe good sir an excellent regent and professour as you are if at any time you would seeme in making much of one of your scholars to stroake and softly to handle him will not doe it with your left hand but with the right and even so verie like it is that Venus the most gentle and courteous goddesse of all others in this manner dealt with the Grecian ladies when she perswaded them unto her minde THE FIFTH QUESTION What is the reason that Plato said how the soule of Ajax came to the lot in the 20. place THis prettie discourse aforesaid pleased the whole company and made them all merrie but one Grammarian named Hylas whom Sospis a professour in Rhetoricke seeing to sit all silent sad and heavy for that in deed he had sped not very well whensoever he made proofe of his scholars proceedings came out with these verses aloud Ajax soule the sonne of Telamon Remained still and all alone and the rest of the verses following he delivered in an higher note than ordinarie and rehearsed them aloft unto him in this wise But now good sir come hither that my words you may well heare Represse your ire this anger quench and tame your moodie cheere But Hylas grumbling still in anger bewraied no lesse by his crosse and impertinent answer saying That the ghost of Ajax in hell tooke her turne in the 20. place and her lot was according to Plato to be transmuted into the nature of a lion But for mine owne part quoth he I thinke many times of the old mans saying in the comedie Better it were an asse to bee Indeed than for a man to see Those live preferd in worldy pelfe Who are for woorth behinde himselfe Heereat Sospis laughing heartily But I beseech you good Hylas quoth hee meane while that we are turning into asses and taking pack-saddles on our backs if you regard and respect any thing the honour of Plato declare unto us the reason why hee said That the soule of Ajax him I meane who was Telamons sonne came in the twentieth place to have her choice from the lottery Which when Hylas flatly refused to doe for he thought that they made a mocking stocke of him because he had but bad successe in his former trials my brother tooke the matter in hand And what say you quoth he to this may it not bee for that Ajax caried the name alwaies for beautie greatnesse and valour Next after Peleus sonne I say Who was sans-peere for prowesse ay And you know that twentie makes up the second decade and the decade or number of ten is of all numbers principall and most puissant like as Achilles was among the princes of the Greeks With that we al set up a laughter Then Ammonius Well quoth he Lamprias you are disposed thus to jest and play with Hylas 〈◊〉 of your owne accord you have undertaken the charge to deliver the cause hereof let us intreat you to impart it unto us not by way of sport and meriment but in good earnest Lamprias was at the first not
calling one Atropos another Lachesis and a third Clotho for as touching the motions and revolutions of the eight heavenly Sphaeres hee hath attributed as presidents unto them so many Syrenes in number and not Muses Then Menephylus the Peripateticke comming in with his speech There is quoth hee some reason and probabilitie in the Delphians saying but surely the opinion of Plato is absurd in that unto those divine and eternall revolutions of the heavens he hath assigned in stead of Muses the Syrenes which are daemons or powers not verie kinde and good nor beneficiall either leaving out as he doth the Muses altogether or els calling them by the names of the Destinies and saying they be the daughters of Necessitie for surely Necessitie is a rude thing and violent whereas Perswasion is gentle and gracious by the meanes of Muses amiable taming what it will and in my minde Detesteth more the duritie And force of hard necessitie than doth that grace and Venus of Empedocles That is true indeed quoth Ammonius it abhorreth that violent and involuntarie cause which is in our selves enforcing us to doe against our evils but the necessitie which is among the gods is nothing intollerable nor violent nor hard to be obeied or perswaded but to the wicked no more than the law of a citie that unto good men is the best thing that is which they cannot pervert or transgresse not because it is impossible for them so to do but for that they are not willing to change the same Moreover as touching those Syrenes of Homer there is no reason that the fable of them should affright us for after an aenigmaticall and covert sort even he signifieth very well unto us that the power of their song and musicke is neither inhumane nor pernicious or mortall but such as imprinteth in the soules which depart from hence thither as also to such as wander in that other world after death a vehement affection to divine and celestiall things together with a certeine forgetfulnesse of those that be mortall and earthly deteining and enchanting them as it were with a pleasure that they give unto them in such sort as by reason of the joy which they receive from them they follow after and turne about with them now of this harmonie there is a little echo or obscure resonance commeth hither unto us by the meanes of certeine discourses which calleth unto our soule and putteth into her minde such things as then and there are whereof the greatest part is enclosed and stopped up with the abstructions of the flesh and passions that are not sincere howbeit our soule by reason of the generositie wherewith it is endued doth understand yea and remember the same being ravished with so vehement an affection thereof that her passion may be compared properly unto most ardent and furious fits of love whiles she still affecteth and desireth to enjoy but is not able for all that to loosen and free her-selfe from the bodie howbeit I doe not accord and hold with him altogether in these matters but it seemeth unto me that Plato as he hath somewhat strangely in this place called the axes and poles of the world and heavens by the names of spindels rocks and distaves yea tearmed the starres wherves so to the Muses also he hath given an extraordinarie denomination of Syrens as if they related and expounded unto the soules and ghosts beneath divine and celestiall things like as Ulysses in Sophocles saith that the Syrenes were come The daughters who of Phorcis were That doth of hell the lawes declare As for the Muses they be assigned unto the eight heavenly sphaeres and one hath for her portion the place and region next to the earth those then which have the presidences charge of the revolution of those eight sphaeres do keepe preserve and mainteine the harmony and consonance aswell betweene the wandering planets and fixed starres as also of themselves one to another and that one which hath the superintendence of that space betweene the moone and the earth and converseth with mortall and temporall thinges bringeth in and infuseth among them by the meanes of her speech and song so farre forth as they be capable by nature and apt to receive the same the perswasive facultie of the Graces of musicall measures and harmonie which facultie is very cooperative with civile policie and humane societie in dulsing and apeasing that which is turbulent extravagant and wandering in us reducing it gently into the right way from blind by-pathes and errors and there setleth it but according to Pyndarus Whom Iupiter from heaven above Vouchsafeth not his gracious love Amaz'd they be and flie for feare When they the voice of Muses heare Whereto when Ammonius had given acclamation alluding as his maner was unto the verse of Xenophanes in this wise These things doe cary good credence And to the trueth have reference and withall mooved us every one to opine and deliver his advice I my selfe after some little pause and silence began thus to say That as Plato himselfe by the etymologie of names as it were by traces thought to finde out the properties and powers of the gods even so let us likewise place in heaven over celestial things one of the Muses which seemeth of the heaven to to be called Urania Certes it standeth to great reason that these heavenly bodies require not much variety of governmēt for that they have but one simple cause which is nature but whereas there be many errors many enormities trespasses thither we must transfer those eight one for to correct one sort of faults and disorders and another for to amende reforme another and for that of our life one part is bestowed in serious grave affaires and another in sport game throughout the whole course thereof it hath need of a moderate temperature musicall consent that which in us is grave serious shall be ruled and conducted by Calliope Clio and Thalia being our guides in the skill and speculation as touching gods and goddesses as for the other Muses their office and charge is to support and hold up that which is inclined and prone to pleasure plaie and disport not to suffer it through weaknesse and imbecillity to runne headlong into loosnesse and bestiality but to keepe in represse and hold it in good and decent order with dauncing singing and playing such as hath their measures and is tempered with harmonie reason and proportion For mine owne part considering that Plato admitteth and setteth downe in every one two principles and causes of all our actions the one inbred and naturall to wit a desire and inclination to pleasures the other comming from without foorth to wit an opinion which covereth the best insomuch as the one he calleth sometime Reason and the other Passion and seeing that either of these againe admitteth distinct differences I see certainly that both of them require a great government and in verie
truth an heavenly and divine conduct and first as touching Reason one part thereof is civill and roiall namely that which medleth in policke government and matters of State over which is placed as Hesiodus saith Calltope Clio is allotted for her part principally to advance colland and encourage ambition or desire of honour Polymneia ruleth and preserveth the vertue memorative and the desire of knowledge and learning which is in the soule and heereupon it is that the Sicyonians of those three Muses which they honour call one Polymathia and unto Euterpe who attributeth not the skill and speculation of trueth in nature as acknowledging no delights and recreations more pure beautifull and honest than it To come now unto appetites and affections that which concerneth eating and drinking Thalia maketh civill sociable and honest whereas otherwise it would be inhumane beastly and disordered which is the reason that we say those men doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they meet together friendly and merily to make good cheere but in no wise such as become drunke and grow to excesse and riotous misdemeanors As for the accords of love and Venus Erato is she that performeth them with her presence perswading that the action thereof should respect reason and the opportunity of time cutting off wantonnesse and quenching the furious heat of lust and pleasure making it for to determine and rest in faithfull love and amitie and not to end in dissolute and lascivious intemperance There remaineth yet the pleasure of hearing and seeing whether the same belong to reason or to passion or rather apperteine in common to both the other two Muses to wit Melpomene and Terpsichore are regents over them which they compose and order in such sort that as the one becommeth an honest delight and not an enchantment of the eares so the other contenteth the eies as much though it doe not bewitch and corrupt the same The whole chapter following is so defective and faultie in the originall that we know not by any conjecturall meanes to supply or reforme it THE FIFTEENTH QUESTION That in dauncing there be three parts Motions Gesture and Shew what every of them is also what communitie there is betweene the art of Poetry and the feat of dauncing AFter this there was proposed a tart or cake called Pyramus as the prize of victory for children who daunce best and for umpiers judges were chosen Menissus the schoolemaster and Lampryas my brother for before time he had daunced the warlike moriske verie pretily and was held in the dauncing schooles and places of exercise to have the best grace in gesticulation with his hands when he daunced above all other boies whatsoever now when as many had daunced and shewed therein more affection than elegancie and more heart than art some there were of the companie who having chosen two more expert than the rest and who affected greatly to observe the rules of art praied them to daunce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say motion after motion or one bout after another Heereupon Thrasibulus the sonne of Ammonius demanded what this tearme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say motion signified in this place which ministred matter and gave occasion unto Ammonius to discourse more at large concerning the parts of dauncing for he said That there were three parts thereof namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For that quoth he a daunce is compounded of motions gestures or countenances like as songs standeth upon sounds and times or rests betweene for pauses and staies are the ends of motions herein and verily those motions professors call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the dispositions and habitudes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto which the motions doe tend and wherein they rest and end namely when in the forme and gesture of their body they represent Apollo or Ran or some of these raging Bacchae so as a man at the first sight may acknowledge their part expresly resembled as for the third part called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not a feigned imitation but a lovely and true demonstration of the subject matters in the daunce for like as the poets when they would plainly and barely name Achylles Ulysses the Earth or Heaven use their proper tearmes to expresse them and even such as the vulgar know them by but for the greater emphasis and representation as it were to the life of that which they meane to deliver they use otherwhiles words of their owae making and borrowed Metaphors as namely when they would signifie the noise of running mates they are wont to say they doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for to expresse the flight of arrowes they tell us that they flie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say What hot desire and haste they make Of flesh and bloud their fill to take Also to shew a doubtfull battel wherein it is hard to say whether part shall have the better hand they come with these tearmes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fight two heads aloft in view Confronting equally did shew Likewise to expresse that which they would say they devise and coine many compositions of names in their verses as for example Euripides speaking of Perseus Then Gorgon-slayer mounting hie In aire of Jupiter did flie Semblably Pindarus writing of the horse What time as he with courage stout Spur-lesse his bodie gave so strong To runne a race from bout to bout Upon Alphëus banks along Yea and Homer describing a course at horse-running The chariots with brasse and tin bedight upon the plaine And draw'ne by sure swift-footed steeds were seene to runne amaine Even so it is in dauncing for that which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say gesture representeth the forme the visage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the motion expresseth emphatically some affection action or power of the minde but by the shewes which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly and promptly the very things themselves as for example the earth the heaven the assistants or standers by which being done in order number and measure resemble those proper names which otherwhiles in poetrie are used running roundly with the ornaments of their attributes and epithits in this manner Themis modest venerable Venus black-eied amiable Queene Juno with her gold-crowne honoured Faire Dion and wel-favoured Also From Helen came renowned kings of lawes protectors grave Sir Dorus Xanthus Aeolus who joied in horses brave for otherwise if poets should not thus doe their stile would be very base and their verses starke naught and without all grace as if one should pen them in this sort simply without all epithits From one descended Hercules And from another Iphytus This ladies Sire her husband eke And sonne were kings all in their course Her brethren also were the like And so were her progenitors Who first to know what dame she was Greece
maner of Gods service and worship declare the same unto us after three sorts the first naturall the second fabulous and the third civill that is to say restified by the statutes and ordinances of every city and State the naturall is taught by philosophers the fabulous by poets the civill and legall by the customes of ech citie but all this doctrine and maner of teaching is divided into seven sorts the first consisteth in the celestiall bodies appearing aloft in heaven for men had an apprehension of God by starres that shew above seeing how they are the causes of great symphonie and accord and that they keepe a certeine constant order of day and night of Winter and Summer of rising and setting yea and among those living creatures and fruits which the earth beneath bringeth forth whereupon it hath bene thought that heaven was the father and earth the mother to these for that the powring downe of showers and raine seemed in stead of naturall seeds and the earth as a mother to conceive and bring the same forth Men also seeing and considering the starres alwaies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say holding on their course and that they were the cause that we did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say beholde and contemplate therefore they called the sunne and moone c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say gods of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to run and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to behold Now they range the gods into a second and third degree namely by dividing them into those that be prositable and such as are hurtfull calling the good and profitable Jupiter Juno Mercurie and Ceres but the noisome and hurtfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say maligne spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say furies and Ares that is to say Mars whom they detested as badde and violent yea and devised meanes to appease and qualifie their wrath Moreover the fourth and fifth place and degree they attributed unto affaires passions and affections namely love Venus lust or desire and as for affaires they had hope justice good policie and equitie In the sixth place be those whom the poets have fained for 〈◊〉 being minded to set downe a father for the gods begotten and engendred devised and brought in such progenitors as these To wit 〈◊〉 Ceus and Crius Hyperion and Iapetus whereupon all this kind is named Fabulous But in the seventh place are those who were adorned with divine honors in regard of the great benefits and good deeds done unto the common life of mankind although they were begotten and borne after the maner of men and such were Hercules Castor Pollux and 〈◊〉 and these they said had an humane forme for that as the most noble and excellent nature of all is that of gods so of living creatures the most beautiful is man as adorned with sundry vertues above the rest and simply the best considering the constitution of his minde and soule they thought it therefore meet and reasonable that those who had done best and performed most noble acts resembled that which was the most beautifull and excellent of all other CHAP. VII What is God SOme of the philosophers and namely Diagor as of the isle of Melos Theodorus the Cyrenaean and Euemerus of Tegea held resolutely that there were no gods And verily as touching Euemerus the poet Callimachus of Cyrene writeth covertly in Iambique verses after this maner All in a troupe into that chapell go Without the walles the city not farre fro Whereas sometime that old vain-glorious asse When as he had the image cast in brasse Of Jupiter proceeded for to write Those wicked books which shame was to indite And what books were they even those wherein he discoursed that there were no gods at all And Euripides the tragaedian poet although he durst not discover set abroad in open 〈◊〉 the same for feare of that high court and councell of Areopagus yet he signified as much in this maner for he brought in Sisyphus as the principall author of this opinion and afterwards favourizeth even that sentence of his himselfe for thus he saith The time was when the life of man was rude And as wilde beasts with reason not endu'd Disordinate when wrong was done alway As might and force in ech one bare the sway But afterwards these enormities were laied away and put downe by the bringing in of lawes howbeit for that the law was able to represse injuries and wicked deeds which were notorious and evidently seene and yet many men notwithstanding offended and sinned secretly then some wise man there was who considered and thought with himselfe that needfull it was alwaies to blindfold the trueth with some devised and forged lies yea and to perswade men that A God there is who lives immortally Who heares who sees and knowes all woondrously For away quoth he with vaine dreames and poeticall fictions together with Callimachus who saith If God thou knowest wot well his power divine All things can well performe and bring to fine For God is not able to effect all things for say there be a God let him make snow blacke fire cold him that sitteth or lieth to stand upright or the contrary at one instant and even Plato himselfe that speaketh so bigge when he saith That God created and formed the world to his owne pattern and likenesse smelleth heerein very strongly of some old dotards foolerie to speake according to the poets of the old comedie For how could hee looke upon himselfe quoth he to frame the world according to his owne similitude of how hath he made it round in manner of a globe being himselfe lower than a man ANAXAGORAS is of opinion that the first bodies in the beginning stood still and stirred not but then the minde and understanding of God digested and aranged them in order yea and effected the generations of all things in the universall world PLATO is of a contrary mind saying That those first bodies were not in repose but that they moved confusedly and without order whereupon God quoth he knowing that order was much better than disorder and confusion disposed all these things but as well the one as the other have heerein faulted in common for that they imagined and devised that God was entangled and encumbred with humane affaires as also that he framed the world in regard of man and for the care that he had of him for surely living as he doth happy immortal acomplished with all sorts of good things and wholly exempt from all evill as being altogether implored and given to prefer and mainteine his owne beatitude and immortallity he intermedleth not in the affaires and occasions of men for so he should be as unhappy and 〈◊〉 as some 〈◊〉 mason or labouring workman bearing heavie burdens travelling and sweting about the 〈◊〉 of the world Againe this god of who they
was thought a great sinne and exceeding irreverence for a man to turne himselfe out of his apparrell naked in any church chappell or religious and sacred place 〈◊〉 so they carried a great respect unto the aire and open skie as being full of gods demi-gods and saints And this is the verie cause why we do many of our necessarie businesses within 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and covered with the 〈◊〉 of our houses and so remooved from the eies as it were of the deitie 〈◊〉 somethings there be that by law are commaunded and enjoined unto the priest onely and others againe unto all men by the priest as for example heere with us in 〈◊〉 to be crowned with chaplets of flowers upon the head to let the haire grow long to weare a sword and not to set foot within the limits of Phocis pertaine all to the office and dutie of the captaine generall and chiefe ruler but to tast of no new fruits before the Autumnall Aequinox be past nor to cut and prune a vine but before the Acquinox of the Spring be intimated and declared unto all by the said ruler or captaine generall for those be the verie seasons to do both the one the other In like case it should seeme in my judgement that among the Romans it properly belonged to the priest not to mount on horseback not to be above three nights out of the citie not to put off his cap wherupon he was called in the Roman language Flamen But there be many other offices and duties notified and declared unto all men by the priest among which this is one not to be enhuiled or anointed abroad in the open aire For this maner of anointing drie without the bath the Romans mightily suspected and were afraid of and even at this day they are of opinion that there was no such cause in the world that brought the Greeks under the yoke of servitude and bondage and made them so tender and effeminate as their halles and publike places where their yong men wrestled exercised their bodies naked as being the meanes that brought into their cities much losse of time engendred idlenesse bred lazie slouth and ministred occasion opportunity of lewdnesse and vilany as namely to make love unto faire boies and to spoile and marre the bodies of young men with sleeping with walking at a certaine measure with stirring according to motions keeping artificiall compasse and with observing rules of exquisit diet Through which fashions they see not how ere they be aware they befallen from exercises of armes and have cleane forgotten all militarie discipline loving rather to be held and esteemed good wrestlers fine dauncers conceited pleasants and faire minions than hardic footmen or valiant men of armes And verely it is an hard matter to avoid and decline these inconveniences for them that use to discover their bodies naked before all the world in the broad aire but those who annoint themselves closely within doores and looke to their bodies at home are neither faultie nor offensive 41 What is the reason that the auncient coine and mony in old time caried the stampe of one side of Ianus with two faces and on the other side the prow or the poope of a boat engraved 〈◊〉 WAs it not as many men do say for to honour the memorie of Saturne who passed into Italy by water in such a vessell But a man may say thus much as well of many 〈◊〉 for Janus Evander and Aeneas came thither likewise by sea and therefore a man may peradventure gesse with better reason that whereas some things serve as goodly ornaments for cities others as necessarie implements among those which are decent and seemely ornaments the principall is good government and discipline and among such as be necessary is reckoned plentie and abundance of victuals now for that Janus instituted good government in 〈◊〉 holsome lawes and reducing their manner of life to civilitie which before was rude and brutish and for that the river being navigable furnished them with store of all neceslary commodities whereby some were brought thither by sea others from the land the coine caried for the marke of a law-giver the head with two faces like as we have already said because of that change of life which he brought in and of the river a ferrie boate or barge and yet there was another kinde of money currant among them which had the figure portraied upon it of a beefe of a sheepe and of a swine for that their riches they raised especially from such cattle and all their wealth and substance consisted in them And heereupon it commeth that many of their auncient names were Ovilij Bubulci and 〈◊〉 that is to say Sheepe-reeves and Neat-herds and Swineherds according as Fenestella doth report 42 What is the cause that they make the temple of Saturne the chamber of the 〈◊〉 for to keepe therein the publicke treasure of gold and silver as also their arches for the custodic of all their writings rolles contracts and evidences whatsoever IS it by occasion of that opinion so commonly received and the speech so universally currant in every mans mouth that during the raigne of Saturne there was no avarice nor injustice in the world but loialtie truth faith and righteousnesse caried the whole sway among men Or for that he was the god who found out fruits brought in agriculture and taught husbandry first for the hooke or sickle in his hand signifieth so much and not as Antimachus wrote following therein and beleeving Hesiodus Rough Saturne with his hairy skinne against all law and right Of Aemons sonne sir Ouranus or Coelus sometime hight Those privy members which him gat with hooke a-slant off-cut And then anon in fathers place of reigne himselfe did put Now the abundance of the fruits which the earth yeeldeth and the vent or disposition of them is the very mother that bringeth foorth plentie of monie and therefore it is that this same god they make the author and mainteiner of their felicitie in testimonie whereof those assemblies which are holden every ninth day in the comon place of the city called Nundinae that is to say Faires or markets they esteeme consecrated to Saturne for the store foison of fruits is that which openeth the trade comerce of buying and selling Or because these reasons seeme to be very antique what and if we say that the first man who made of Saturns temple at Rome the treasurie or chamber of the citie was Valerius Poplicola after that the kings were driven out of Rome and it seemeth to stand to good reason that he made choise thereof because he thought it a safe and secure place eminent and conspicuous in all mens eies and by consequence hard to be surprised and forced 43 What is the cause that those who come as embassadours to Rome from any parts whatsoever go first into the temple of Saturne and there before the Questors or Treasurers of the citie enter their names in
seene at all with him the master beleeved this lay with her but one time above the rest desirous to know who she was with whom he companied called for a light and so soone as he knew it was his owne daughter he drew his sword and followed after this most vilanous and and incestuous filth intending to kill her but by the providence of Venus transformed she was into a tree bearing her name to wit Myrtle as Theodorus reporteth in his Metamorphoses or transmutations Valeria Tusculanaria having incurred the displeasure of Venus became amorous of her owne father and communicated this love of hers unto her nourse who likewise went cunningly about her master and made him beleeve that there was a young maiden a neighbous child who was in fancie with him but would not in regard of modestie be knowen unto him of it nor be seene when she should frequent his companie Howbeit her father one night being drunk called for a candle but the nourse prevented him and in great hast wakened her who fled therupon into the countrey great with child where she cast her selfe downe from the pitch of a steep place yet the fruit of her wombe lived for notwithstanding that fall she did not miscarie but continued still with her great belly and when her time was come delivered she was of a sonne such an one as in the Roman language is named Sylvanus and in Greeke Aegipanes Valerius the father tooke such a thought thereupon that for verie anguish of mind he threw himselfe downe headlong from a steepe rocke as recordeth Aristides the Milesian in the third booke of Italian histories 23 After the destruction of Troy Diomedes by a tempest was cast upō the coast of Libya where raigned a king named Lycus whose maner and custome was to sacrifice unto his owne father god Mars all those strangers that arrived and were set a land in his countrey But Callirohōe his daughter casting an affection unto Diomedes betraied her father and saved Diomedes by delivering him out of prison And he againe not regarding her accordingly who had done him so good a turne departed from her and sailed away which indignitie she tooke so neere to the heart that she hanged her selfe and so ended her daies this writeth Juba in the third booke of the Libyan historie Calpurnius Crassus a noble man of Rome being abroad at the warres together with Regulus was by him sent against the Massilians for to seize a stronge castle and hard to be won named Garaetion but in this service being taken prisoner and destined to be killed in sacrifice unto Saturne it fortuned that Bysatia the kings daughter fansied him so as she betraied her father and put the victory into her lovers hand but when this yoong knight was retired and gone the damsell for sorrow of heart cut her owne throat as writeth Hesianax in the third booke of the Libian historie 24 Priamus king of Troy fearing that the city would be lost sent his yoong sonne Polydorus into Thrace to his sonne in law Polymester who married his daughter with a great quantity of golde Polymester for very covetousnesse after the destruction of the city murdered the childe because he might gaine the gold but Hecuba being come into those parts under a colour and pretence that she should bestow that golde upon him together with the helpe of other dames prisoners with her plucked with her owne hands both eies out of his head witnesse Euripides the tragaedian poet In the time that Hanniball overran and wasted the countrey of Campania in Italy Lucius Jmber bestowed his sonne Rustius for safetie in the hands of a sonne in law whom he had named Valerius Gestius and left with him a good summe of money But when this Campanian heard that Anniball had wonne a great victorie for very avarice he brake all lawes of nature and murdered the childe The father Thymbris as he travelled in the countrey lighting upon the dead corps of his owne sonne sent for his sonne in law aforesaid as if he meant to shew him some great treasure who was no sooner come but he plucked out both his eies and afterwards crucified him as Aristides testifieth in the third booke of his Italian histories 25 Aeacus begat of Psamatha one sonne named Phocus whom he loved very tenderly but Telamon his brother not well content therewith trained him foorth one day into the forest a hunting where having rouzed a wilde bore he launced his javelin or bore-speare against the childe whom he hated and so killed him for which fact his father banished him as Dorotheus telleth the tale in the first booke of his Metamorphoses Cajus Maximus had two sonnes Similius and Rhesus of which two Rhesus he begat upon Ameria who upon a time as he hunted in the chase killed his brother and being come home againe he would have perswaded his father that it was by chaunce and not upon a propensed malice that he slew him but his father when he knew the truth exiled him as Aristocles hath recorded in the third booke of Italian Chronicles 26 Mars had the company of Althaea by whom she was conceived and delivered of Meleager as witnesseth Euripides in his tragoedie Meleager Septimtus Marcellus having maried Sylvta was much given to hunting and ordinarily went to the chase then Mars taking his advantage disguising himselfe in habit of a shepherd forced this new wedded wife and gat her with childe which done he bewraied unto her who he was and gave her a launce or speare saying unto her That the generositie and descent of that issue which she should have by him consisted in that launce now it hapned that Septimius slew Tusquinus and Mamercus when he sacrificed unto the gods for the good encrease of the fruits upon the earth neglected Ceres onely whereupon she taking displeasure for this contempt sent a great wilde bore into his countrey then he assembled a number of hunters to chase the said beast and killed him which done the head and the skinne he sent unto his espoused wife Scimbrates and Muthias her unckles by the mother-side offended heereat would have taken all away from the damosell but hee tooke such displeasure thereat that hee slew his kinsmen and his mother for to be revenged of her brethrens death buried that cursed speare as Menylus reporteth in the third booke of the Italian histories 27 Telamon the sonne of Aeacus and Endeis fledde by night from his father and arrived in the isle of Euboea ** The father perceiving it and supposing him to be one of his subjects gave his daughter to one of his guard for to be cast into the sea but he for very commiseration and pitty sould her to certaine merchants and when the shippe was arrived at Salamis Telamon chaunced to buy her at their hands and she bare unto him Ajax witnesse Aretados the Gnidian in the second booke of his Insular affaires Lucius Trocius had by his wife Patris a daughter
drew forth his sword and when she had wounded Chrisippus as he slept she left the sword sticking in the wound thus was Laius suspected for the deed because of his sword but the youth being now halfe dead discharged and acquit him and revealed the whole truth of the matter whereupon Pelops caused the dead body to be enterred but Hippodamia he banished as Dositheus recordethin his booke Pelopidae Hebius Tolieix having espoused a wife named Nuceria had by her two children but of an infranchised bond woman he begat a son named Phemius Firmus a childe of excellent beauty whom he loved more deerely than the children by his lawfull wife Nuceria detesting this base son of his solicited her own children to murder him which when they having the feare of God before there eyes refused to do she enterprised to execute the deed her selfe And in truth she drew forth the sword of one of the squires of the body in the night season and with it gave him a deadly wound as he lay fast asleepe the foresaid squire was suspected and called in question for this act for that his sword was there found but the childe himselfe discovered the truth his father then commanded his body to be buried but his wife he banished as Dositheus recordeth in the third booke of the Italian Chronicles 34 Theseus being in very truth the naturall sonne of Neptune had a sonne by Hippolite a princesse of the Amazones whose name was Hippolytus but afterwards maried againe and brought into the house a stepmother named Phaedra the daughter of Minos who falling in love with her sonne-inlaw Hippolitus sent her nourse for to sollicite him but he giving no eare unto her left Athens and went to Troezen where he gave his minde to hunting But the wicked and unchaste woman seeing her selfe frustrate and disapointed of her will wrot shrewd letters unto her husband against this honest and chaste yong gentleman informing him of many lies and when she had so done strangled her selfe with an halter and so ended her daies Theseus giving credit unto her letters besought his father Neptune of the three requests whereof he had the choise this one namely to worke the death of Hippolytus Neptune to satisfie his mind sent out unto Hippolytus as he rode along the sea slde a monstrous bull who so affrighted his coatch horses that they overthrew Hippolytus and so he was crushed to death Comminius Super the Laurentine having a sonne by the nimph Aegeria named Comminius espoused afterwards Gidica and brought into his house a stepmother who became likewise amorous of her son-in law and when she saw that she could not speed of her desire she hanged her selfe and left behind her certaine letters devised against him containing many untruths Comminius the father having read these slanderous imputations within the said letters and beleeving that which his jealous head had once conceived called upon Neptune who presented unto Commintus his sonne as he rode in his chariot a hideous bull which set his steeds in such a fright that they fell a flinging and so haled the young man that they dismembred and killed him as Dositheus reporteth in the third booke of the Italian historie 35 When the pestilence raigned in Lacedaemon the oracle of Apollo delivered this answer That the mortalitie would cease in case they sacrificed yeerly a young virgin of noble blood Now whē it fortuned that the lot one yeere fell upō Helena so that she was led forth all prepared and set out readie to be killed there was an eagle came flying downe caught up the sword which lay there and caried it to cerraine droves of beasts where she laid it upon an heyfer whereupon ever after they forbare to sacrifice any more virgins as Aristodemus reporteth in the third Collect of fables The plague was sore in Falerij the contagion thereof being verie great there was given out an oracle That the said affliction would stay and give over if they sacrificed yeerly a yong maiden unto Juno and this superstition continuing alwaies still Valeria Luperca was by lot called to this sacrifice now when the sword was readie drawen there was an eagle came downe out of the aire and caried it away and upon the altar where the fire was burning laid a wand having at one end in maner of a little mallet as for the sword she laid upon a young heyfer feeding by the temple side which when the young damsell perceived after she had sacrificed the said heyfer and taken up the mallet she went from house to house and gentl knocking therewith all those that lay sicke raised them up and said to everie one Be whole and receive health whereupon it commeth that even at this day this mysterie is still performed and observed as Aristides hath reported in the 919. book of his Italian histories 36 Phylonome the daughter of Nyctimus and Arcadia hunted with Diana whom Mars disguised like a shepherd got with child She having brought foorth two twinnes for feare of her father threw them into the river Erymanthus but they by the providēce of the gods were caried downe the streame without harme or danger and at length the current of the water cast them upon an hollow oake growing up on the banke side whereas a she woolfe having newly kennelled had her den This woolfe turned out her whelps into the river and gave sucke unto the two twins above said which when a shepherd named Tyliphus once perceived and had a sight of he tooke up the little infants and caused them to be nourished as his owne children calling the one Lycastus and the other Parrhasius who successively reigned in the realme of Arcadia Amulius bearing himselfe insolently and violently like a tyrant to his brother Numitor first killed his sonne Aenitus as they were hunting then his daughter Sylvia he cloistred up as a religious nunne to serve Juno She conceived by Mars and when shee was delivered of two twins confessed the truth unto the tyrant who standing in feare of them caused them both to be cast into the river Tybris where they were carried downe the water unto one place whereas a shee woolfe had newly kennelled with her yoong ones and verily her owne whelps shee abandoned and cast into the river but the babes shee suckled Then Faustus the shepherd chauncing to espie them tooke them up and nourished as his owne calling the one Remus and the other Romulus and these were the founders of Rome citie according to Artstides the Milesian in his Italian histories 37 After the destruction of Troy Agamemnon together with Cassandra was murdred but Orestes who had beene reared and brought up with Strophius was revenged of those murderers of his father as Pyrander saith in his fourth booke of the Peloponnesian historie Fabius Fabricianus descended lineally from that great Fabius Maximus after he had wonne and sacked Tuxium the capitall citie of the Samnites sent unto Rome the image of Venus Victoresse which was so highly
honoured and worshipped among the Samnites His wife Fabta had committed adulterie with a faire and well favoured yoong man named Petronius Valentinus and afterwards treacherously killed her husband Now had Fabia his daughter saved her brother Fabricianus being a verie little one out of danger and sent him away secretly to be nourished and brought up This youth when he came to age killed both his mother and the adulterer also for which act ofhis acquit he was by the doome of the Senate as Dositheus delivereth the storie in the third booke of the Italian Chronicles 38 Busiris the sonne of Neptune and Anippe daughter of Nilus under the colour of pretended hospitalitie and courteous receiving of strangers used to sacrifice all passengers but divine justice met with him in the end and revenged their death for Hercules set upon him and killed him with his club as Agathon the Samian hath written Hercules as he drave before him thorow Italy Geryons kine was lodged by king Faunus the sonne of Mercurie who used to sacrifice all strangers and guests to his father but when hee meant to do so unto Hercules was himselfe by him slaine as writeth Dercyllus in the third booke of the Italian histories 39 Phalaris the tyrant of the Agrigentines a mercilesse prince was wont to torment put to exquisite paine such as passed by or came unto him and Perillus who by his profession was a skilfull brasse-founder had framed an heyfer of brasse which he gave unto this king that hee might burne quicke in it the said strangers And verily in this one thing did this tyrant shew himselfe just for that he caused the artificer himself to be put into it and the said heyfer seemed to low whiles he was burning within as it is written in the third booke of Causes In Aegesta a citie of Sicilie there was sometime a cruell tyrant named Aemilius Censorinus whose manner was to reward with rich gifts those who could invent new kinds of engines to put men to torture so there was one named Aruntius Paterculus who had devised and forged a brasen horse and presented it unto the foresaid tyrant that he might put into it whom he would And in truth the first act of justice that ever he did was this that the partie himselfe even the maker of it gave the first hansell thereof that he might make triall of that torment himselfe which he had devised for others Him also hee apprehended afterwards and caused to bee throwen downe headlong from the hill Tarpeius It should seeme also that such princes as reigned with violence were called of him Aemylii for so Aristides reporteth in the fourth booke of Italian Chronicles 40 Euenus the son of Mars Sterope tooke to wife Alcippe daughter of Oenomaus who bare unto him a daughter named Marpissa whom he minded to keepe a virgin still but Aphareus seeing her carried her away from a daunce and fled upon it The father made suce after but not able to recover her for verie anguish of mind he cast himselfe into the river of Lycormas and thereby was immortalized as saith Dositheus in the fourth booke of his Italian historie Anius king of the Tuskans having a faire daughter named Salia looked straightly unto her that she should continue a maiden but Cathetus one of his nobles seeing this damosell upon a time as she disported herselfe was enamoured of her and not able to suppresse the furious passion of his love ravished her and brought her to Rome The father pursued after but seeing that he could not overtake them threw himselfe into the river called in those daies Pareüsuis and afterwards of his name Anio Now the said Cathetus lay with Salia and of her bodie begat Salius and Latinus from whom are discended the noblest families of that countrey as Aristides the Milesian and Alexander Polyhistor write in the third booke of the Italian historie 41 Egestratus an Ephesian borne having murdered one of his kinfmen fled into the citie Delphi and demaunded of Apollo in what place he should dwell who made him this answere that he was to inhabit there whereas he saw the peasants of the countrey dauncing and crowned with chaplets of olive branches Being arrived therefore at a certaine place in Asia where he found the rurall people crowned with garlands of olive leaves and dauncing even there hee founded a citie which he called Elaeus as Pythocles the Samian writeth in the third booke of his Georgicks Telegonus the sonne of Vlysses by Circe being sent for to seeke his father was advised by the oracle to build a citie there where he should find the rusticall people and husbandmen of the countrey crowned with chaplets and dauncing together when he was arrived therefore at a certaine coast of Italie seeing the peasants adorned with boughes branches of the wild olive tree passing the time merily and dauncing together he built a citie which upon that occurrent he named Prinesta and afterwards the Romans altering the letters a little called it Preneste as Aristotle hath written in the third booke of the Italian historie THE LIVES OF THE TEN ORATOVRS The Summarie IN these lives compendiously descibed Plutarch sheweth in part the government of the Athenian common-weale which flourished by the meanes of many learned persons in the number of whom we are to reckon those under written namely Antipho Andocides Lysias Isocrates Isaeus Aeschines Lycurgus Demosthenes Hyperides and Dinarchus but on the other side he discovereth sufficiently the indiscretion of cretaine oratours how it hath engendred much confusion ruined the most part of such personages themselves and finally overthrowen the publick estate which he seemeth expresly to have noted and observed to the end that every one might see how dangerous in the managemēt of State affaires he is who hath no good parts in him but onely a fine and nimble tongue His meaning therefore is that lively vertue indeed should be joined unto eloquence meane while we observe also the lightnesse vanitie and ingratitude of the Athenian people in many places and in the divers complexions of these ten men here depainted evident it is how much availeth in any person good in struction from his infancie and how powerfull good teachers be for to frame and fashion tender minds unto high matters and important to the weale publicke In perusing and passing through this treatise a man may take knowledge of many points of the ancient popular government which serve verie well to the better understanding of the Greeke historie and namely of that which concerneth Athens As also by the recompenses both demanded and also decreed in the behalfe of vertuous men we may perceive and see among the imperfections of a people which had the soveraigntie in their hands some moderation from time to time which ought to make us magnifie the wisedome and providence of God who amid so great darkneffe hath maintained so long as his good pleasure was so many States and governours in Greece which
and spitefull speeches for envious and malicious persons NARRATIONS OF LOVE The Summarie IN this discourse Plutarch relateth five tragicall histories which shew the pitifull accidents that befell certeine persons transported with the inordinate and irregular affection of Love leaving thereby unto the reader a faire and cleere mirrour wherein to beholde the judgements of God upon those that abandon themselves to be carried away by intemperance and loosenesse NARRATIONS OF LOVE IN the citie Aliartos situate within Boeotia there was sometime a yoong maiden of excellent beautie named Aristoclea and the daughter she was of Theophanes and two yoong gentlemen there were that made sute unto her in way of mariage to wit Straton an Orchomenian Callisthenes of Aliartos aforesaid Now was Straton the richer of the twaine and farre more enamoured of the damosell for seene her he had when she washed herselfe in the fountaine of Ercyne which is in Lebadia against the time that she was to carrie in procession to Jupiter surnamed King a sacred panier as the maner was of the Canephorae to do But Callisthenes had the vantage of him and was deeper in her love for that he was besides neere of kin unto the virgin So Theophanes her father being doubtfull what to doe for he stood in feare of Straton as one who for wealth and noble parentage went well-neere beyond all the Boeotians resolved at length to referre the choise unto the oracle of Jupiter Trophonius but Straton who was borne in hand by those of the house about Aristoclea that she inclined more unto him laboured earnestly that the matter might be put unto the election of the damosell herselfe whereupon when Theophanes the father demanded of her in the face of the world Whom she loved better and would chuse to be her husband she preferred Callisthenes whereat Straton shewed himselfe immediatly not a little discontented for this repulse and disgrace but two daies after he came unto Theophanes and Callisthenes pretending and saying that he would not fall out with them but was desirous still of their good favour and friendship how ever his ill fortune had envied him the marriage of the yoong virgin They approving well of this speech and taking his words in very good part invited him as a guest to the wedding feast meane while he provided himselfe of a good number of his friends and besides no small troupe of servants whom he disposed secretly in their houses heere and there against the time that this maiden after the custome and maner of the countrey should go downe to a certeine fountaine named Cissoeisa there to sacrifice unto the Nymphes before her marriage day now as she passed by those who lay in ambush came all running forth from every side and seized upon her bodie but Straton himselfe principally who drew and haled the damosell unto him as hard as he could Callisthenes againe on the other side for his part as became him held her fast so did they about him thus the silly maiden was tugged and pulled to and fro so long betweene them that before they were aware dead she was among them in their hands upon which strange occurrent what became of Callisthenes it is not knowen whether he presently made away himselfe or fled into voluntary exile for he was no more seene as for Straton in the very sight of all men there in the place he killed himselfe upon the very body of his espoused bride 2 There was one named Phidon a Peloponnesian affecting the seignorie of all Peloponnesus and being desirous that the citie of Argos his native seat should be ladie over all others laied an ambush first for the Corinthians to intrap them for he sent an embassage unto Corinth to demand a levie of a thousand yoong men that were the lustiest and most valourous gallants of the whole citie The Corinthians sent them accordingly under the conduct of one of their captaines named Dexander Now the purpose of this Phidon was to set upon this troupe and kill them every one to the end that he might thereby enfeeble the Corinthians and make the citie serve his owne turne as a strong bulwarke most commodiously seated to command and subdue all Peloponnesus This desseigne of his he communicated unto certeine of his friends for to be put in execution accordingly among whom there was one named Abron who being a familiar friend unto Dexander revealed unto him the conspiracie whereupon the said regiment of a thousand yong men before they were charged by the said ambush retired themselves and recovered Corinth in safetie Then Phidon bestirred himselfe to finde out the man who had thus betraied and discovered his plot which Abron fearing withdrew himselfe to Corinth taking with him his wife children and his whole familie where he setled and remained in a village named Melissa belonging to the territorie of that citie there begat he a sonne whom of the very place which he inhabited he named Melissus and this Melissus in processe of time had a sonne of his owne called Actaeon who proved the most beautifull and withall the modestest lad of all other youths and springals of his age in regard whereof many there were enamoured of him but among the rest one especially named Archias descended lineally from the noble race of Hercules and for wealth credit and authoritie the greatest person in all Corinth This Archias seeing that by no faire meanes and perswasions he could prevaile with yoong Actaeon and winne his love resolved with himselfe to use violence and forcibly to ravish and carrie away this faire boy so he came upon a time as it were to make merrie unto the house of Melissus his father accompanied with a great traine of friends and attended upon with a good troupe of his owne householde-servants where he gave the attempt to have away the boy by force but the father with his friends made resistance the neighbours also came foorth to rescue and did all what they could to holde and keepe the youth with them but what with the one side and what with the other poore Actaeon was so pulled and tugged that betweene them hee lost his lfe which done all the rest went their waies and departed but Melissus the father brought the dead corps of his childe into the market place of the Corinthians presented it there unto them and demaunded justice to be done upon those who had committed this foule outrage The Corinthians made no greater a matter of it but onely shewed that they were sory for his mishap and so he returned home as he came without effect attending and waiting for the solemne assembly at the Isthmicke games where being mounted up to the top of Neptunes temple he cried out against the whole race of the Baccharides and withall rehearsed by way of commemoration the beneficence of his father Abron unto them and when he had called for vengeance unto the gods hee threw himselfe downe headlong among the rocks and brake his necke
Not long after there fell out to be a great drouth and the the citie was sore visued with famine insomuch as the Corinthians sent unto the oracle for to know by what meanes they might be delivered from this calamitie unto whom the god made this answer That the wrath of Neptune was the cause of all their miserie who would by no meanes be appeased untill they had revenged Actaeons death which Archias hearing who was himselfe one deputed to this embassage he was not willing to returne againe to Corinth but crossed over the seas into Sicily where he founded and built the city Syracusa and there hee begat two daughters Ortygia and Syracusa but in the end was himselfe trecherously murdred by one Telephus whom in his youth he had abused as his minion and who having the conduct of a shippe had sailed with him into sicilie 3 A poore man named Scedasus who dwelt in Leuctra a village within the territorie of the Thespians had two daughters the name of the one was Hippo and of the other Miletia or as some write clepid they were Theano and Enippe Now this Scedasus was a bounteous and kind person yea and a good fellow in his house and curteous to all strangers notwithstanding he had but small store of goods about him So there fortuned to visit him two yoong men of Sparta whom hee friendly and lovingly enterteined who being fallen into fancie with his two daughters had thus much power yet of themselves that in regard of their father Scedasus and his kindnesse unto them they attempted nothing prejudiciall unto the honest pudicitie of the virgins for that time but the next morning tooke their leave and went directly toward the city of Delphos unto the oracle of Apollo Pythius for to that purpose expresly tooke they this journey and pilgrimage after that they had consulted with the god about such matters as they came for they returned backe againe into their owne country as they passed thorough Baeotia tooke Scedasus house by the way there for to lodge who at that time was not at Leuctra but gone forth howbe it his daughters according to their courteous bringing up their usual maner of intertainment received these two guests into the house who seeing their opportunitie that they were alone forced defloured the silly maidens and after this deed seeing them exceedingly offended and angry for this villany offered unto them so as by no meanes they would be appeased they proceeded farther murdred them both and when they had so done threw them into a certeine blinde pit and so departed Seedasus being returned home found all things else in his house safe and sound as hee left them onely his two daughters hee could not meet with neither wist he what to say or doe untill such time as a bitch that he had began to whine and complaine running one while to him and another while training him as it were to the pit side whereupon at length he suspected that which was and so drew foorth the dead bodies of his two daughters understanding moreover by his neighbors that the day before they had seene going into his house those two yoong men of Lacedaemon who not long before had beene lodged with him he doubted presently that they were those who had committed this crime and namely when he called to minde that the first time they came they did nothing but praise the maidens saying That they reputed them most happy whose fortune should be to espouse them for their wives Well to Lacedaemon he went for to conferre with the Ephori about this matter and by that time that he entred within the territory of Argos he was benighted so that he took up his lodging in a common inne or hostelry within which he found another poore old man borne in the city Oreos within the province Hestraea whom when Scedasus heard to sigh and groane grievously yea and to fall a cursing of the Lacedaemonians he demaunded what the Lacedaemonians had done unto him that he fared thus against them the old man set tale an end and said That a subject he was of the Spartans and that when one Aristodemus was sent as governour from the State of Sparta into the citie Oreum he had dealt very cruelly and committed many outrages and enormites for being quoth he wantonly fallen in love with a sonne of mine and seeing that he would not frame nor be induced to satisfie his will he assaied to enforce him and by violence to hale him out of the publicke wrestling place where he exercised himselfe with other his feeres and companions the warden of the exercises empeached the said governour with the assistance of many yoong men who ranne into the rescue in such sort as for that present Aristodemus retired without effect but the next morrow having set out and manned a galley of purpose hee came with a second charge and caried away my childe and no sooner was he rowed from Oreum to the otherside of the water but he offred to abuse his body which when the youth would in no wise abide nor yeeld unto he made no more adoo but cut his throat and killed him outright in the place which done he returned backe to Oreum where hee feasted his friends and made great cheere This accident was I soone advertised of quoth the old man whereupon I went and performed the last dutie unto my sonne and solemnized his funerall and so immediately put my selfe upon my journey toward Sparta where I complained unto the Ephori or lords controulers declaring unto them the whole fact but they gave no eare unto me nor made any reckoning of my grievance Seedisus hearing this tale was il appaid troubled in his mind imagining that the Spartans would make as little account of him and therewith to requite his tale related for his part likewise unto the stranger his owne case who thereupon gave him counsel not so much as once to go unto the Ephori but to returne immediately backe into Boeotia and to erect a tombe for his two daughters Howbeit Seedasus would not be ruled by him but held on his journey forward to Sparta opened his griefe unto the lords cōtroulers before said when he saw that they tooke small heed of his words he addressed himselfe to the kings of Sparta yea and afterwards to some particular burgeosies of the citie unto whom he declared the fact and bewailed his owne infortunitie But seeing that all booted not heran up and downe the streets of the citie stretching forth his hands up to heaven and to the sun and stamping upon the ground with his feet calling upon the furies of hell to be revenged and at the last killed himselfe But in processe of time the Lacedaemonians paid deerely for this their injustice for when they were growen to that greatnes that they commanded all Greece and had planted their garrisons in everie citie first Epaminondas the Theban cut the throtes of
in the hall abovesaid when all the waies and passages were shut up she brought a great deale of wood which was provided for the sacrifice and plled the same against the doores and so set it on fire But when their husbands came running for to helpe from all parts Democrita killed her two daughters and herselfe upon them The Lacedaemonians not knowing upon whom to discharge their anger caused the dead bodies of Democrita and her two daughters to be throwen without the confines and liberties of their territorie for which act of theirs God being highly displeased sent as the Chronicles do record a great earthquake among the Lacedaemonians WHETHER CREATVRES BE MORE WISE THEY OF THE LAND OR THOSE OF THE WATER The Summarie IN this treatise and discourse affoording among other things much pleasure in the reading Plutarch bringeth in two yoong gentlemen Aristotimus and Phoedimus who in the presence of a frequent companie plead the cause of living creatures Aristotimus in the first place for them of the land and Phoedimus in the second for those of the water the drift and conclusion of whose pleas commeth to this point that without resolving unto whom the prize ought to be adjudged one of the companie inferreth that the examples alledged both of the one side and of the other do prove that those creatures have some use of reason Moreover we may distinctly divide this booke into three principall parts the first conteineth a conference betweene Soclarus and Autobulus who gave eare afterwards unto the others for Soclarus taking occasion to speake of a written discourse recited in the praise of hunting commendeth this exercise and preferreth it before combats of sword plaiers and fencers which Autobulus will in no wise approove but holdeth that this warre against beasts schooleth as it were and traineth men to learne for to kill one another afterwards And for that some entrance and accesse there was to be given unto the principall disputation of the intelligence and knowledge which is in brute beasts they doe examine the opinion of the Stoicks who bereave them of all understanding passion and pleasure which opinion of theirs being at large debated is afterward refuted with this resolution that man out-goeth beasts in all subtiltie and quicknesse of wit injustice and equitie meet for civill societie and yet beasts although they be more dull and heavie than men are not therefore void of all discourse and naturall reason Then Autobulus confirmeth this by the consideration of horses and dogges enraged a sufficient testimonie that such creatures before-time had reason and understanding Soclarus opposeth himselfe against such a confirmation in the behalfe of the Stoicks and Peripateticks whereupon Autobulus distinguisheth of the arguments and inclining partly to the side of the Pythagoreans sheweth what maner of justice or injustice we ought to consider in the carriage of men toward beasts And then come the two yoong gentlemen abovenamed in place where Aristotimus taking in hand the cause of land-beasts discourseth at large thereupon which is the second part of this present treatise True it is that all the beginning of his plea is defective and wanting howbeit that which remaineth and is extant sheweth sufficiently the carefull industry of our author in searching into the history of nature and examples drawen out thereof as also out of an infinit number of books to passing good purpose Well then Aristotimus sheweth in the first place that the hunting of land-beasts is a far nobler and more commendable exercise than that of the water and comming then to the point namely to the use of reason which consisteth in the election and preference of one thing before another in provisions forecasts and prerogatives in affections aswell those which be milde and gentle as the other which are violent in diligence and industry in arts and sciences in hardinesse equitie temperance courage and magnanimitie he prooveth all this to be without comparison farre more in land-creatures than in other for the proofe and verifying whereof he produceth bulles elephants lions mice swallowes spiders ravens dogs bees geese cranes herons pismires wolves foxes mules partridges hares beares urchins and divers sorts besides of foure footed beasts of fowles likewise insects wormes and serpents all which are specified in particular afterwards In the last part Phoedimus making some excuse that be was not well prepared taketh in hand neverthelesse the cause of fishes and in the very entrance declareth that notwithstanding it be an hard matter to shew the sufficiencie of such creatures which are so divided and severed from us yet notwithstanding produce he will his proofs and arguments drawen from certeine and notable things recommending fishes in this respect that they are so wise and considerate as he sheweth by examples being not taught nor monished unto any waies framed and trained by man like as most part of land beasts be and yet by the way he prooveth by eeles lampreis and crocodiles that fishes may be made tame with men and how our auncients esteemed highly the institution of such mute creatures after this he describeth their naturall prudence both in defending themselves and also in offending and assailing others alledging infinit examples to this purpose as the skill and knowledge they have in the Mathematicks their amity their fellowship their love their kinde affection to their yoong ones alledging in the end divers histories of dolphins love unto men whereupon Soclarus taking occasion to speake inferreth that these two pleaders agree in one point and if a man would joine and lay together their arguments proofes and reasons they would make head passing well and strongly against those who would take from beasts both of land and water all discourse of reason WHETHER CREATURES BE more wise they of the land or they of the water AUTOBULUS LEonidas a king of Lacedaemon being demaunded upon a time what he thought of Tyrtaeus I take him to bee quoth he a good poet to whet and polish the courages of yoong men for that by his verses he doth imprint in the hearts of yoong gentlemen an ardent affection with a magnanimous desire to winne honour and glorie in regard whereof they will not spare themselves in battels and fights but expose their lives to all perils whatsoever Semblably am I greatly affraid my very good friends left the discourse as touching the praise of hunting which was read yesterday in this company hath so stirred up and excited beyond all measure our yoong men who love that game so well that from hencefoorth they will thinke all other things but accessaries and by-matters or rather make no account at all of other exercises but will runne altogether unto this sport and minde none other besides considering that I finde my selfe now a fresh more hotly given and youthfully affectionate thereunto than mine age would require insomuch as according to the words of dame Phaedra in Euripides All my desire is now to call And cry unto my hounds in chase The dapple stagge
with burning torches and light fire brands moreover it is said that the fish alosa hearing men to sing to clap their hands or otherwise to make a noise will arise out of the water and come abroad likewise the horne owle or bustard is as it were enchanted with the beholding of men dancing together in his sight and so far overtaken he is with the delight thereof that whiles he thinketh to counterfeit their jestures stirring and moving his shoulders according to the measures with them he suffereth himselfe like a foole to be taken by the fowler As for those who of these matters speake so foolishly and absurdly saying that beasts rejoice not are not angry nor fearefull and namely that the hightingale doth not studie meditate and prepare against her singing that the bee hath no memorie but that the swallow seemeth onely to make provision by a kinde of providence that the lion is as it were angrie and the hinde given as though she were afraied I wot not what answer they will make to those who shall urge them to this that they may aswell say that the same creatures neither see nor heare but seeme onely as it were to heare and see and to have a voice and in one word that they live not at all but seeme to live for I assure you in my judgement these are no more repugnant to evidence and daily experience than the other SOCLARUS I thinke no lesse ô Autobulus and therefore range me among those of your opinion in this point But to compare the maners lives actions behaviours and conversations of men with those of beasts to affirme that beasts herein sort with us besides that I see in this great indignitie derogatorie to mans woorthinesse I doubt much and can not conceive how nature hath given unto them the beginning of vertue which is reason and unto which reason is reserred and doth aime considering they can not attaine unto the end and besides there is not one of them all that sheweth any signe of tending thereto of progresse therein or of desire and appetite that way AUTOBULUS Yea but this my good friend Soclarus is no strange and absurd thing with these men I meane the Stoicks for notwithstanding that they put downe the naturall love and affection which we have to the issue of our owne bodies begotten for the foundation of civill societie and of justice and see the same in brute beasts very evident and puissant yet for all that they flatly and stoutly denie that they have any part of justice in them And that which more is mules are not without all the instruments of generation for nature hath given to the males generative members and to the females the parts fit for conception yea and in the use of these members and instruments they have the same delight and pleasure which other creatures have howbeit they never speed nor attaine to the end of generation Consider againe on the other side whether it were not a ridiculous absurditie for such philosophers as they would seeme to be to affirme and mainteine that Socrates and Plato and such men as they were no lesse vicious than any vile slave or wicked wretch in the world but that all were foolish witlesse lascivious and unjust alike because forsooth all sinnes with them be equall and then to lay the blame and fault in the source and beginning of vertue that is to say Reason as being not pure nor perfect in brute beasts to the accomplishment of vertue as if this were not some defect and imbecillitie of reason seeing they confesse themselves that there is an imperfection in the use of reason of which all beasts be full for we see in many of them that there is cowardise intemperance injustice and malice Now he who affirmeth that whatsoever is not apt and fitted by nature to receive reason aright and in absolute maner is simply not capable of reason first he doth as much as if he mainteined that neither the ape is capable of ilfavoured deformitie not the tortoise of slow pace because the one of them is not susceptible of beautifull favour nor the other of swiftnesse and good footmanship Againe he doth not see and marke the difference betweene reason perfect and simple reason for reason simply proceedeth from nature but honest vertuous and perfect reason commeth by industry study diligence and teaching which is the cause that all creatures endued with a sensitive soule are capable and susceptible of a kinde of discipline and learning by the meanes of this facultie of discourse and reason mary this absolute and right reason indeed which we affect and seeke for and is nothing else but sapience and wisedome they are not able to name any one man that ever attained unto it Like as therefore a difference there is betweene sight and sight betweene flight and flght for haukes see otherwise than grashoppers doe eagles also and partridges flie not alike even so all creatures endued with reason have not the like vivacity promptitude and nimblenesse of reason as to reach up to the highest pitch and perfection thereof for we may observe in some beasts many evident tokens of just societie of valour of witty industry in their provision and dispose and contrariwise in others as many signes of insociable violence and injustice of cowardise and sottishnesse as witnesseth that which now mooveth the contention and debate betweene our yoong gentlemen for as if they both supposed there was a difference in this behalfe some of them mainteine that naturally the beasts of the land are proceeded farther in vertue and others contrariwise affirme the same of those in the sea and waters a thing very evident whosoever will compare storkes with the river horses for those doe nourish and feede their fathers who engendred them whereas these doe kill them because they might ride and cover their mothers as also who will but conferre cocke-doves with partridges for doves doe oftentimes squash and marre the egges yea and otherwhiles kill the hennes when they cover or sit because they are not willing during that time to be troden whereas the male partridges take upon them part of the care and paine in sitting upon the egges and in their turne doe keepe them warme that they chill not yea and that which more is they be the first that bring meat in their billes unto the little ones newly hatched and if haply the damme raunge abroad tarie foorth too long out of the nest the male beats and pecks her with his bill drives her home to her egges and yoong birds As for Antipater who reprocheth and rebuketh both asses and sheepe for their filthinesse and being so negligent in keeping themselves cleane he hath forgotten I wot not how to speake of ounces and swallowes for the ounces seeke a by-place by themselves apart where to bestow their urine and by all meanes hide and conceale that fine stony substance called Lyncurium which is engendred of it and
notwithstanding that he cast him bread and other meat he would none so the night following the theese laid him downe to sleepe the dog likewise kept all night hard by him and the morrow morning when he tooke his way againe the dog likewise arose and went after Met he any passengers or waifaring men hee would fawne upon them and wag his taile contrariwise he barked eagerly at the theese and was readie to fly upon him They who had the charge to follow with huy and crie being enformed thus much by the travellers whom they met as also of what bignes colour and haire the dog was continued their chase more willingly and made such hot pursute that they evertooke the fellow at Crommyon from thence brought him to Athens The dog he marched before them all and leade them the way as jocound pleasant and gamesome as possibly could bee as taking great joy that this church-robber had beene the game and prey that he had hunted and gotten The Athenians when they heard the truth of this matter related unto them ordained that the said dog should have a certaine measure of corne allowed him at the cities charges for his bread and gave an especially charge to the priests of that temple to have a care of him so long as he lived following herein the kindnesse and liberallitie of their ancestours which they extended in times past to a mule For what time as Pericles caused to be built the temple of Minerva named Hecatompedon within the castle of the citie there were is ordinarie for such buildings conveighed thither daily stones timber and other stuffe in carts and wagons drawen with beasts Now when many of those mules which before time had willingly and painefully served were now for verie age discharged and sent away to pasture one there was among the rest who everie day would come into the high broad street Ceramicum and go before those draught beasts which drew up stones to the mount yea accompanie them as if he encouraged and hartned them to labour and travell The people of Athens commending and admiring the good heart and industrious mind of the beast gave order by a publike decree for his maintenance and keeping at the cities cost no lesse than they would have done for an old bruised souldier who now was past service And therefore we must say that those philosophers who hold That there is no communion nor societie of justice betweene us and bruit beasts say true if they restraine theirspeech unto those creatures onely which live in the sea and deepe bottomlesse waters with who m in deed we can have no fellowship at all of good will love and affection as being beasts farre remote from all gentlenesse sweet converse and good nature and therefore Homer speakingunto a man who seemed to be inhumane cruell and unsociable said elegantly thus The blackish blew sea Ithinke well Engendred thee thou art so fell as if he would thereby give us to understand that the sea brings forth no creature that is milde lovely meek and gentle but he that should say as much and apply the former proposition unto the land-beasts were himselfe cruell and savage if I say he denied that there was no reciprocall commerce of amitie and justice betweene king Lysimachus and his dog Hyrcanus who remained continnally alone about his corps when he was dead yea and at the time that it was burned in the funerall fire lept into it and was consumed into ashes with him for company And reported it is that there was another dog named Actus did no lesse which Pyrrhus kept I meane not the king of that name but another private person for after his master was dead he would never stirre from the bodie and when the corps was carried forth in a couch upon the biere he leapt upon it and was borne withall and finally sprung himselfe into the fire and was burnt with him When king Porus was sore wounded in a battell against king Alexander the Great the elephant upon whose backe he rode and fought drew foorth with his trunke right gently for feare of doing harme many darts arrowes and javelins wherewith hee was shot and albeit himselfe was grievously hurt yet never fainted he and gave over before he perceived that his lord the king was readie to reele and sinke downe by reason of the effusion of blood which hee had lost and then fearing that he would fall from on high to the ground he gently couched and yeelded with his bodie downeward to the earth that he might alight with ease and without all danger King Alexanders horse called Bucephalus all while he was bare without his saddle and caparison would wel enough abide that his keeper should mount upon his backe was he trapped once and richly set out with the kings royall furniture harnesse and ornament hee would suffer none to sit him but Alesander alone And if others came neere him and went about to get upon his backe he would runne a front upon them snuffing snorting and neighing rising up all afore at them and if they made not good haste to retire behind him and fly hee would bee sure to have them under his feet and trample over them I know full well that you thinke these examples are hudled together in a confused varietie but surely it is no easie matter to find any action of these noble beasts which representeth one bare vertue and no more for together with their kindnesse and naturall love there is to be seene a certaine desire of honour amid their generositie a man may perceive a kind of industrious sagacitie and wisedome neither is their wit and subtiltie void of courage and magnanimitie howbeit if men be disposed to distinguish and separate one from another by themselves the dogs do represent an example of a mild and gentle nature together with an haughtie courage and high mind namely when they passe by and turne aside from those that submit themselves before them according to that which Homer saith in one place The dogs ran foorth with open mouth they cried and bark't amaine Ulysses wise his slafe let fall and stirred not againe For their manner is not to fight any longer against those who humbly fall downe prostrate or shew any semblance of lowly suppliants Certes the report goeth of a principall Indian dogge who being for a singularitie above all other sent to fight a combat before king Alexander the Great when there was let loose at him first a stag then a wild boare and afterwards a beare made no reckoning of them nor deigned once to stirre out of his place nor rise up but when hee saw a lion presented unto him then incontinently he stood upon his feet and addressed himselfe to the combat shewing evidently that he esteemed the lion alone worthie to fight with him and disdained all the rest As for those here among us which are woont to hunt hares if they themselves chaunce to kill them with faire
and understanding the elephants as king Juba writeth shew unto us an evident example for they that hunt them are woont to dig deepe trenches and thatch them over with a thinne cote of light straw or some small brush Now when one of the heard chanceth to fall into a trench for many of them use to go and feed together all the rest bring a mighty deale of stones rammell wood and whatsoever they can get which they fling into the ditch for to fill it up to the end that their fellow may have meanes thereby to get up againe The same writer recordeth also that elephants use to pray unto gods to purifie themselves with the sea water and to adore the sunne rising by lifting up their trunked snout into the aire as if it were their hād all thus of their own accord untaught And to say a truth of all beasts the elephant is most devout religious as K. Ptolemaeus Philopater hath wel testified for after he had defaited Antiochus was minded to render condign thanks unto the gods for so glorious a victorie among many other beasts for sacrifice he slew foure elephants but afterwards being much disquieted and troubled in the night with fearefull dreames and namely that God was wroth and threatned him for such an uncouth and strange sacrifice hee made meanes to appease his ire by many other propitiatorie oblations and among the rest hee dedicated unto him fower elephants of brasse in steed of those which were killed no lesse is the sociable kindnesse and good nature which lions shew one one unto another for the yoonger sort which are more able and nimble of body lead forth with them into the chace for to hunt and prey those that be elder and unweldy who when they be weary sit them downe and rest waiting for the other who being gone forward to hunt if they meet with game and speed then they all set up a roaring note altogether much like unto the bellowing of bulles and thereby call their fellowes to them which the old lions hearing presently runne unto them where they take their part and devour they prey in common To speake of the amatorious affections of brute beasts some are very savage and exceeding furious others more milde and not altogether unlike unto the courting and wooing used betweene man and woman yea I may say to you smelling somewhat of wanton and venerious behaviour and such was the love of an elephant a counter suter or corrivall with Aristophanes the grammarian to a woman in Alexandria that sold chaplets or garlands of flowers neither did the elephant shew lesse affection to her than the man for hee would bring her alwaies out of the fruit market as he passed by some apples peares or other fruit and then he would stay long with her yea and otherwhiles put his snout as it were his hand within her bosome under her partlet and gently feele her soft pappes and white skinne about her faire brest A dragon also there was enamoured upon a yoong maiden of Aetolia it would come to visit her by night creepe along the very bare skinne of her body yea and winde about her without any harme in the world done unto her either willingly or otherwise and then would gently depart from her by the breake of day now when this serpent had continued thus for certeine nights together ordinarily at the last the friends of the yoong damosel remooved her and sent her out of the way a good way off but the dragon for three or fower nights together came not to the house but wandred and sought up and downe heere and there as it should seem for the wench in the end with much adoo having found her out he came and clasped her about not in that milde and gentle maner as before time but after a rougher sort for having with other windings and knots bound her hands and armes fast unto her body with the rest of his taile he flapped and beat her legges shewing a gentle kinde of amorous displeasure and anger yet so as it might seeme he had more affection to pardon than desire to punish her As for the goose in Aegypt which fell in love with a boy and the goat that cast a fansie to Glauce the minstrell wench because they are histories so wel knowen and in every mans mouth for that also I suppose you are wearie already of so many tedious tales and narrations I forbeare to relate them before you but the merles crowes and perroquets or popinjaies which learne to prate and yeeld their voice and breath to them that teach him so pliable so tractable and docible for to forme and expresse a certeine number of letters and syllables as they would have them me thinks they plead sufficiently and are able to defend the cause of all other beasts teaching us as I may say by learning of us that capable they be not onely of the inward discourse of reason but also of the outward gift uttered by distinct words and an articulate voice were it not then a meere ridiculous mockerie to compare these creatures with other dumbe beasts which have not so much voice in them as will serve to houle withall or to expresse a groane and complaint but how great a grace and elegancie there is in the naturall voices and songs of these which they resound of themselves without learning of any masters the best musicians and most sufficient poets that ever were do testifie who compare their sweetest canticles and poems unto their songs of swannes and nightingals now forasmuch as to teach sheweth greater use of reason than to learne wee are to give credit unto Aristotle who saith that brute beasts are endued also with that gift namely that they teach one another for hee writeth that the nightingale hath beene seene to traine up her yoong ones in singing and this experience may serve to testifie on his behalfe that those nightingales sing nothing so well which are taken very yong out of the nest and were not fedde nor brought up by their dammes for those that be nourished by them learne withall of them to sing and that not for money and gaine nor yet for glory but because they take pleasure to sing well and love the elegance above the profit of the voice and to this purpose report I will unto you a storie which I have heard of many as well Greeks as Romans who were present and eie witnesses There was a barber within the city of Rome who kept a shoppe over against the temple called Grecostisis or Forum Graecum and there nourished a pie which would so talke prate and chatte as it was woonderfull counting the speech of men and women the voice of beasts and sound of musicall instruments and that voluntarily of her selfe without the constreint of any person onely she accustomed her selfe so to doe and tooke a certeine pride and glory in it endevouring all that she could to leave nothing
or that particular coast to wit either of Bizantine or of Cyzicum but generally all in what seas soever namely how against a tempest and storme when they see that the sea will bee very much troubled they charge and ballast themselves with little stones for feare of being overturned or driven to and fro for their lightnesse by the billowes and waves of the sea and thus by the meanes of this weight they remaine firme and fast upon the little rocks whereto they are setled As for the cranes who change their maner of flying according to the winde I say this is a skilfull quality not proper and peculiar to one kinde of fishes but common unto them all namely to swimme evermore against the waves the current yea and very warie they be that the winde blow not their tailes and raise their skales and so hurt and offend their bodies laid bare and naked yea and made rugged by that meanes Heereupon they carie their snouts and muzzels alwaies into the winde and so direct their course and thus the sea being cut afront at their head keepeth downe their finnes and gliding smoothly over their body laieth their scales even so as none of them stand staring up This is a thing as I have said cōmon unto al fishes except the Elops whose nature is to swimme downe the winde and the water neither feareth he that the winde will drive up his scales in so swimming because they doe not lie toward his taile but contrary to other fishes to ward his head Moreover the tuny is so skilfull in the solstices and equinoxes that he hath taught men to observe them without need of any astrologicall rules for looke in what place or coast of the sea the winter tropicke or solstice finds him there resteth he and stirreth not untill the equinox in the spring But a woonderfull wisedome quoth he there is in the crane to hold a stone in his foot that by the fall thereof he may quickly awaken How much wiser then my good friend Aristotimus is the dolphin who may not abide to lie still and cease stirring for that by nature he is in continuall motion and endeth his mooving and living together but when he hath need of sleepe he springeth up with his body to the toppe of the water and turneth him upon his backe with the belly upward and so suffreth it partly to flote and hull and in part to be caried through the deepe waving to and fro as it were in a hanging bedde with the agitation of the sea sleeping all the while untill he settle downe to the bottom of the sea and touch the ground then wakeneth he and mounting up with a jerke a second time suffreth himselfe to bee caried untill he be setled downe againe and thus hath he devised to have his repose and rest intermingled with a kinde of motion And it is said that the tunies doe the like and upon the same cause And now forasmuch as we have shewed already the mathematicall and astrologicall foreknowledge that fishes have in the revolution and conversion of the sunne which is confirmed likewise by the testimonie of Aristotle listen what skill they have in arithmeticke but first beleeve me of the perspective science whereof as it should seeme the poet Aeschylus was not ignorant for thus he saith in one place Like tuny fish he seemes to spie He doth so looke with his left eie For tunies in the other eie are thought to have a dimme and feeble sight and therefore when they enter Mer major into the sea of Pontus they coast along the land on the right side but contrariwise when they come foorth wherein they doe very wisely and circumspectly to commit the custody of the body alwaies to the better eie Now for that they have need of arithmeticke by reason of their societie as it may be thought and mutuall love wherein they delight they are come to that height and perfection in this arte that because they take a woondrous pleasure to feed together and to keepe one with another in sculles troupes they alwaies cast their company into a cubicke forme in maner of a battailon solid and square every way close and environed with six equall sides or faces and arranged in this ordinance as it were of a quadrat battell doe they swim as large before as behind of the one side as of the other in such sort as he that lieth in espiall to hunt these tunies if he can but take the just number how many there be of that side or front that appeereth next unto him may presently tell what the number is of the whole troupe being assured that the depth is equall to the bredth and the bredth even with the length The fish called in Greeke Hamiae tooke that name it may be thought for their conversing in companies al together and so I suppose came the Pelamydes by their name As for other fishes that be sociable love to live are seene to converse in great companies together no man is able to nūber thē they be so many Come we rather therfore to some particular societies inseparable fellowships that some have in living together amōg which is that Pinnotheres which cost the philosopher Chrysippus so much inke in his descriptiō for in al his books as wel of morall as naturall philosophie he is ranged formost As for the Spongetheres I suppose he never knew for otherwise he would not have left it out Well this Pinnotheres is a little fish as they say of the crabs kind which goeth commeth evermore with the Nacre a big shel fish keeping still by it and sits as it were a porter at his shell side which he letteth continually to stand wide open untill he spie some small fishes gotten within it such as they are woont to take for their food then doth he enter likewise into the Nacres shell and seemeth to bite the fleshy substance thereof whereupon presently the Nacre shutteth the shell hard and then they two together feed upon the bootie which they have gotten prisoners within this enclosure As touching the spongotheres a little creature it is not like unto the crabbe fish as the other but rather resembling a spider it seemeth to rule and governe the spunge which is altogether without life without bloud and sense but as many other living creatures within the sea cleaveth indeed heard to the rocks and hath a peculiar motion of the owne namely to stretch out and draw in it selfe but for to do this need she hath of the direction and advertisement of another for being of a rare hollow and soft constitution otherwise and full of many concavities void so dull of sense besides idle withal that it perceiveth not when there is any substance of good meat gotten within the said void and emptie holes this little animall at such a time giveth a kind of warning and with it she gathereth in her body
sent by king Ptolomaeus surnamed Soter to the city Sinope for to carie the god Serapis together with their captaine Dionysius were by force of winde and tempest driven against their willes beyond the cape or promontorie Malea where they had Peloponnesus on the right hand and when they wandered and were tossed to and fro upon the seas not knowing where they were making account they were lost and cast away there shewed himslefe before the prow of their ship a dolphin which seemed to call unto them and who guided them unto those coasts where there were many commodious havens and faire baies for ships to harbour and ride in with safetie and thus he conducted and accompanied their ship from place to place untill at length he brought it within the rode of Cirrha where after they had sacrificed for their safe arrivall and landing they understood that of two images there they were to have away that of Pluto and carrie it with them but the other of Proserpina to leave behinde them when they had taken onely the mould and patterne thereof Probable it is therefore that the god Apollo carried an affection to this dolphin for that it loveth musicke so well whereupon the poet Pindarus comparing himselfe unto the dolphin saith that he was provoked and stirred up to musicke by the leaping and dauncing of this fish Like as the dolphin swimmes apace Directly forward to that place Whereas the pleasant shawmes do sound And whence their noice doth soone rebound What time both winds and waves do lie At sea and let no harmonie or rather we are to thinke that the god is well affected unto him because he is so kind and loving unto man for the onely creature it is that loveth man for his owne sake and in regard that he is a man whereas of land-beasts some you shall have that love none at all others and those that be of the tamest kinde make much of those onely of whom they have some use and benefit namely such as feed them or converse with them familiarly as the dogge the horse and the elephant and as for swallowes received though they be into our houses where they have enterteinment and whatsoever they need to wit shade harbour and a necessary retrait for their safetie yet they be afraied of man and shun him as if he were some savage beast whereas the dolphin alone of all other creatures in the world by a certeine instinct of nature carrieth that sincere affection unto man which is so much sought for and desired by our best philosophers even without any respect at all of commoditie for having no need at all of mans helpe yet is he neverthelesse friendly and courteous unto all and hath succoured many in their distresse as the storie of Arion will testifie which is so famous as no man is ignorant thereof and even you Aristotimus your owne selfe rehearsed to very good purpose the example of Hesiodus But yet by your good leave my friend Of that your tale you made no end for when you reported unto us the fidelitie of his dogge you should have proceeded farther and told out all not leaving out as you did the narration of the dolphins for surely the notice that the dogge gave by baying barking and running after the murderers with open mouth was I may tell you but a blinde presumption and no evident argument About the citie Nemium the dolphins meeting with the dead corps of a man floting up and downe upon the sea tooke it up and laied it on their backs shifting it from one to another by turnes as any of them were wearie with the carriage and very willingly yea and as it should seeme with great affection they conveied it as farre as to the port Rhium where they laied it downe upon the shore and so made it knowen that there was a man murdered Myrtilus the Lesbian writeth that Aenalus the Acolian being fallen in fansie with a daughter of Phineus who according to the oracle of Amphirite was by the daughters of Pentheus cast downe headlong into the sea threw himselfe after her but there was a dolphin tooke him up and brought him safe unto the isle Lesbos Over and besides the affection and good will which a dolphin bare unto a yoong lad of the citie Iasos was so hot and vehement in the highest degree that if ever one creature was in love with another it was he for there was not a day went over his head but he would disport play and swimme with him yea and suffer himselfe to be handled and tickled by him upon his bare skinne and if the boy were disposed to mount aloft upon his backe he would not refuse nor seeme to avoide him nay hee was verie well content with such a carriage turning what way soever hee reined him or seemed to encline and thus would hee doe in the presence of the Iasians who oftentimes would all runne foorth to the sea side of purpose to behold this sight Well on a daie above the rest when this ladde was upon the dolphins backe there fell an exceeding great shower of raine together with a monstrous storme of haile by reason whereof the poore boy fell into the sea and there died but the dolphin tooke up his bodie dead as it was and together with it shut himselfe upon the land neither would he depart from the corps so long as there was any life in him and so died judging it great reason to take part with him of his death who seemed partly to be the cause thereof In remembrance of which memorable accident the Iasians represent the historie thereof stamped and printed upon their coine to wit a boy riding upon a dolphin which storie hath caused that the fable or tale that goeth of Caeranus is beleeved for a truth for this caeranus as they say borne in Paros chanced to be upon a time at Byzantium where seeing a great draught of dolphins taken up in a casting-net by the fishers whom they meant to kill and cut into pieces bought them all alive and let them go againe into the sea Not long after it hapned that he sailed homeward in a foist of fiftie oares which had aboord by report a number of pyrates and rovers but in the streights betweene Naxos and Paros the vessel was cast away and swallowed up in a gust in which shipwracke when all the rest perished he onely was saved by meanes as they say of a dolphin which comming under his bodie as he was newly plunged into the sea bare him up tooke him upon his backe and carried him as farre as to a certaine cave about Zacynthus and there landed him which place is shewed for a monument at this day and after his name is called Coeranium upon this occasion Archilachus the poet is said to have made these verses Of fiftie men by tempest drown'd And left in sea all dead behind Coeran alone alive was found God Neptune was to him so kind
the tyrant Demylus and having no good successe therein but missing of his purpose maintained the doctrine of Parmenides to be pure and fine golde tried in the fire from all base mettal shewing by the effect that a magnanimous man is to feare nothing but turpitude and dishonour and that they be children and women or else effeminate and heartlesse men like women who are affraid of dolor and paine for having bitten off his tongue with his owne teeth he spit it in the tyrants face But out of the schoole of Epicurus and of those who follow his rules and doctrines I doe not aske what tyrant killer there was or valiant man and victorious in feats of armes what lawgiver what counsellour what king or governour of state either died or suffred torture for the upholding of right and justice but onely which of all these Sages did ever so much as imbarke and make a voiage by sea in his countries service and for the good thereof which of them went in embassage or disbursed any mony thereabout or where is there extant upon record any civill action of yours in matter of government And yet because that Metrodorus went downe one day from the city as far as to the haven Pyraeaeum tooke a journey of five or six miles to aide Mythra the Syrian one of the king of Persias traine and court who had bene arrested and taken prisoner he wrot unto all the friends that he had in the world of this exploit of his and this doubty voiage Epicurus hath magnified exalted in many of his letters What a doe would they have made then if they had done such an act as Aristotle did who reedified the city of his nativity Stagira which had bene destroied by king Philip or as Theophrastus who twice delivered and freed his native city being held and oppressed by tyrants Should not thinke you the the river Nilus have sooner given over to beare the popyr reed than they bene weary of discribing their brave deeds And is not this a grievous matter and a great indignity that of so many sects of Philosophers that have bene they onely in maner enjoy the good things and benefits that are in cities without contributing any thing of their owne unto them There are not any Poets Tragedians or Comedians but they have endevoured to doe or say alwaies some good thing or other for the defence of lawes and policie but these here if peradventure they write ought write of policie that we should not intermeddle at all in the civill government of state of Rhetoricke that we should not plead any causes eloquently at the barre of Roialty that we should avoid the conversing and living in kings courts neither doe they name at any time those great persons who manage affaires of common weale but by way of mockerie for to debase and abolish their glorie As for example of Epaminondas they say that he had indeed some good thing onely in name and word but the same was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say as little as might be for that is the very terme that it pleaseth them to use Moreover they name him heart of yron demaunding why he marched up and downe through out all Peloponnesus with his armie as he did and sat not rather quiet at home in his owne house with a dainty chaplet upon his head given wholly to make good chere and to sleepe with his belly full in a whole skin But me thinks I should not for any thing omit in this place to rehearse what Metrodorus hath written in his booke of philosophy wherein abjuring all dealing in government of state he saith thus Some there be of these wisemen quoth he who being full of vanity and arrogancy had so deepe an insight into the businesse thereof that in treating of the rules of good life and of vertue they suffer themselves to be carried away with the very same desires that Lycurgus and 〈◊〉 fell into What was this vanity indeed and the aboundance of vanity and pride to set the city of Athens free to reduce Sparta to good policy and the government of holsome lawes that yong men should doe nothing licenciously nor get children upon curtisans and harlots and that riches wanton delicacie intemperance loosenesse dissolution should beare no sway nor have the commaund in cities but law onely and justice for these were the desires of Solon And thus Metrodorus by way of scorne and contumelious reproch addeth thus much more for a conclusion to the rest And therefore quoth he it is well beseeming a gentleman to laugh a good and right heartly at all other men but especially at these Solones and Lycurgi But verily such an one were not a gentleman Metrodorus nor well borne but servile base unruly and dissolute and who deserved to be scurged not with the whip which is for free borne persons but with that whip Astragalote where with the maner was to whip and chastice those gelded sacrificers called Gally when they did amisse in the cerimonies and sacrifices of Cylote the great mother of the gods Now that they warred not against the lawgivers but the very lawes themselves a man may heare and learne of Epicurus for in his questions he demaundeth of himselfe whether a wise man being assured that no man ever should know would doe and commit any thing that the law forbiddeth and he maketh an answere which is not full nor an open plaine and simple affirmation saying doe it I will marry confesse it and be knowen thereof I will not Againe writing as I suppose unto Idomeneus he admonisheth him not to subject and enthrall his life unto lawes and the opinions and reputations of men unlesse it be in this regard onely that otherwise there is prepared odious whipping chere and that neere at hand If then it be so that they who abolish lawes governments and policies do withall subvert and overthrow mans life if Metrodorus and Epicurus doe no lesse withdrawing and averting their friends and followers from dealing in publicke affaires and spitefully hating those who doe meddle therein miscalling and railing at the chiefe and wisest lawgivers that ever were yea and willing them to contemne the lawes so that they keepe themselves out of the feare of the whip and danger of punnishment I cannot see that Colotes hath in any thing so much belied others and raised false imputations against them as he hath indeed and truely accused the doctrine and opinions of Epicurus OF LOVE The Summarie THis Dialogue is more dangerous to be read by yoong men than any other Treatise of Plutarch for that there be certeine glaunces heere and there against honest marriage to upholde indirectly and under hana the cursed and 〈◊〉 filthinesse covertly couched under the name of the Love of yoong boyes But minds guarded and armed with true chastitie and the feare of God may see evidently in this discourse the miserable estate of the world in that there be found
reproch or touch notwithstanding shee was yoong and therewith beautifull This fresh widow whiles she treated of a mariage to be made betweene Bacchon a yoong gentleman a neighbours childe whose mother was a very familiar friend of hers a certeine yoong maiden a kinswoman of her owne by often talking with him and frequenting his company much fell herselfe in some fancie with the yoong man Thus both hearing and speaking much good and many kinde speeches of him and seeing besides a number of other gentlemen and persons of good woorth to be enamoured upon him by little and little she also fell to bee in hot love with the youth howbeit with a full intention and resolution to doe nothing that should be dishonest or unbeseeming her place parentage reputation but to be wedded unto Bacchon lawfully in the open sight of the world and so to live with him in the estate of wedlocke As the thing it selfe seemed at the first very strange so the mother of the yoong man of one side doubted and suspected the greatnesse of her state and the nobility magnificence of her house linage as not meet correspondent to his cōdition for to be a lover or to be matched there and on the other side some of his companions who used to ride forth a hunting with him considering that the yoong age of Bacchon was not answerable to the yeeres of Ismenodora buzzed many doubts in his head and frighted him from her what they could saying That she might be his mother and that one of her age was not for him and thus by their jesting and scoffing they hindered the mariage more than they who laboured in good earnest to breake it for hee began to enter into himselfe and considering that he was yet a beardlesse youth and scarcely undergrowen he was abashed and ashamed to mary a widow Howbeit in the end shaking off all others he referred himselfe to Anthemion and Pisias for to tell him their minds upon the point and to advise him for his best Now was Anthemion his cousen german one of good yeeres and elder than himselfe farre and Pisias of all those that made love unto him most austere and therefore he both withstood the mariage and also checked Anthemion as one who abandoned and betraied the yoong man unto Ismenodora Contrariwise Anthemion charged Pisias and said he did not well who being otherwise an honest man yet heerein imitated leawd lovers for that he went about to put his friend beside a good bargaine who now might be sped with so great a mariage out offo worshipfull an house and wealthy besides to the end that he might have the pleasure to see him a long time stripped naked in the wrestling place fresh still and smooth and not having touched a woman But because they should not by arguing thus one against another grow by little and little into heat of choler they chose for umpiers and judges of this their controversie my father and those who were of his company and thither they came assistant also there were unto them other of their friends Daphnaeus to the one and Protogenes to the other as if they had beene provided of set purpose to plead a cause As for Protogenes who sided with Pisias he inveighed verily with open mouth against dame Ismenodora whereupon Daphnaeus O Hercules quoth he what are we not to expect and what thing in the world may not happen in case it be so that Protogenes is ready heere to give defiance and make warre against love who all his life both in earnest and in game hath beene wholy in love and all for love which hath caused him to forget his booke and to forget his naturall countrey not as Laius did who was but five daies journey distant for that love of his was slow and heavy and kept still upon the land whereas your Cupid Protogenes With his light wings displaied and spred Hath over seafull swiftly fled from out of Cilicia to Athens to see faire boies and to converse and goe up and downe with them for to say a trueth the chiefe cause why Protogenes made a voiage out of his owne countrey and became a traveller was at the first this and no other Heere at the company tooke up a laughter and Protogenes Thinke you quoth he that I warre not against love and not rather stande in the defence of love against lascivious wantonnesse and violent intemperance which by most shamefull acts and filthy passions would perforce chalenge and breake into the fairest most honest and venerable names that be Why quoth Daphnaeus then do you terme mariage and the secret of mariage to wit the lawfull conjunction of man and wife most vile and dishonest actions than which there can be no knot nor linke in the world more sacred and holy This bond in trueth of wedlocke quoth Protogenes as it is necessary for generation is by good right praised by Polititians and law-givers who recommend the same highly unto the people and common multitude but to speake of true love indeed there is no jot or part therof in the societie and felowship of women neither doe I thinke that you and such as your selves whose affections stand to wives or maidens do love them no more than a flie loveth milke or a bee the hony combe as caters and cookes who keepe foules in mue and feed calves and other such beasts fatte in darke places and yet for all that they love them not But like as nature leadeth and conducteth our appetite moderately and as much as is sufficient to bread and other viands but the excesse thereof which maketh the naturall appetite to be a vicious passion is called gourmandise and pampering of the flesh even so there is naturally in men and women both a desire to enjoy the mutuall pleasure one of another whereas the impetuous lust which commeth with a kinde of force and violence so as it hardly can be held in is not fitly called love neither deserveth it that name For love if it seise upon a yoong kinde and gentle heart endeth by amity in vertue whereas of these affections and lusts afterwomen if they have successe and speed never so well there followeth in the end the fruit of some pleasure the fruition and enjoying of youth and a beautifull body and that is all And thus much testified Aristippus who when one went about to make him have a distaste and mislike of Lais the curtisan saying that she loved him not made this answer I suppose quoth he that neither good wine nor delicate fish loveth me but yet quoth he I take pleasure and delight in drinking the one and eating the other For surely the end of desire and appetite is pleasure and the fruition of it But love if it have once lost the hope and expectation of amity and kindnesse will not continue nor cherish and make much for beauty sake that which is irksome and odious be it neverso gallant and in
but offer injury and outrage to that nuptiall love which is a coadjutresse with nature to immortalize mankind in kindling it immediately againe by generation according as the same is extinguished and put out by death But this Protogenes heere would seeme to deny that the said love tendeth to any pleasure The truth is this he is ashamed to confesse and afraid to avow so much But there must needs be devised some pretie reason and cleanly excuse for the touching feeling and handling of these faire yoong boies Wel the pretence and colour to cover al is amity and vertue He bestreweth himselfe with dust against he should wrestle he doth bath and wash in cold water he knitteth bendeth his browes full gravely he giveth it out and maketh his boast that he studieth Philosophie that he is chaste and continent and all this is abroad and before folke for feare of the lawes but when the night comes and that every man is retired to his rest Sweet is the fruit that stollen is secretly And gather'd close while keeper is not by And if as Protogenes saith this Paederastium aimeth not at carnall conjunction how then can it be love if Venus be not there considering that of all other gods and goddesses her alone Cupid is destined and devoted to serve and attend upon having neither honour power nor authoritie no farther than she will impart and bestow upon him And if you say unto mee that there may be some love without Venus like as there is drunkennesse without wine for a man may drinke of a certein decoction of figs or barly made into malt be drunke therewith I answer you that as this is but a flatulent exagitation so the motion of such love is fruitlesse unperfect bringing lothsome satietie and wearisome fulnesse soone Whiles Daphnaeus thus spake it appeered evidently that Pisias found himselfe galled and was 〈◊〉 against him Therefore so soone as he had made an end of his speech after some little pause O Hercules quoth hee what intollerable impudency and inconsiderate rashnesse is this that men should confesse and avow that like dogs they be tied to women by their naturall parts and so chase and banish this god Cupid out of the publicke places of exercise out of the open galleries and walks from the pure conversation in open aire sunne-shine and before the whole world for to be ranged and brought to little spades hatchets drogues medicines charmes and sorceries of these wanton and lascivious women For to speake of chaste and honest dames I say it is not beseeming that they should either love or be loved And heereat verily my father said that himselfe tooke Protogcnes by the hand reciting this verse out of the Poet Such words as these no doubt will make The Argives armes anon to take For surely Pisias through his insolencie causeth us to side with Daphnaeus and undertake to mainteine his part seeing he so farre exceedeth the bonds of all reason as to bring into mariage and wedlocke a society without love and void of that divine instinct of amity and inspired from heaven above which we see how we have enough to doe for to mainteine and hold with al the yokes bittes and bridles of feare and shame if this hearty affection and grace be away Then Pisias I passe little quoth he for all these words and as for Daphnaeus me thinks I see how it fareth with him as it doth with a piece of brasse which melteth not so much by force of fire as it doth by another piece of brasse melted if a man power the same upon it for then anon it will be liquefied and runne together with it And even so the beauty of Lysandra doth not so greatly affect and trouble him as this that conversing along time with one that is enflamed and full of fire by touching her he is himselfe all fire and evident it is that unlesse hee retire with speed unto us he will melt and 〈◊〉 to liquor But I perceive quoth he that I do that which Anthemion should most desire and wish namely that I am offensive both to the judges and to my selfe wherefore I will hold my peace say no more You say true indeed quoth Anthemion you do me a great pleasure for you should at the very first have said somwhat to the point and upon the particular matter now in question I say therefore quoth Pisias but I protest before hand that aloud that for mine owne part I will be no hinderance but that every woman may have her lover that this yoong man Bacchon had need to take heed and beware of the riches and wealth of Ismenodora otherwise if wee match him with such an house of so great state and magnificence we shall ere we be aware consume him to nothing like a piece of tinne among brasse For a great matter I may tell you it were if being so yoong as he is and espousing a wife of meane and simple degree he should in such a mixture hold his owne and keepe the predominance as wine over water But we may see that this gentlewoman heerel seemeth alreadie to looke for to commaund and be his master otherwise she would never have refused and rejected so many husbands as she hath done of such reputation so nobly descended and so wealthy withall for to woo and sollicite as she doth a very boy new crept out of the shell no better than a page but the other day one iwis that had more need to goe to schoole still and be under a tutour and governour And heereupon it is that those husbands who are of the wiser sort doe of themselves cast away or else clip and cut the wings of their wives that is to say their goods and riches which cause them to be proud and insolent sumptuous and wasteful full of shrewdnesse vaine light and foolish and with these wings they mount many times take their flight and away or if they stay at home better it were for a man to be bound with fetters of gold as the maner is to encheine prisoners in Aethiopia than to be tied with the wealth and riches of his wife But he hath said nothing as yet quoth Protogenes heereof nor once touched this string namely how in admitting this mariage we shall in maner invert and that ridiculously and with absurdity enough the sentence of Hesiodus who giveth counsell in these words At thirty yeeres not much above nor under of thine age Wed thou a wife this is the time most meet for mariage At foureteene yeeres a damosell doth signes of ripenesse shew At fifteene would she maried be and her bedfellow know And we heere cleane contrary almost will match a yoong man before he be ready for mariage unto a woman as old againe well neere as himselfe as if one should set dates or figges upon old stocks to make them ripe And why not some one will haply say for she is enamoured upon him she burnes
is ready to die for love of him I marvel much who hinders her that she goeth not to his house in a maske that she sings not lamentable ditties at his dore amorous plaints that she adorneth not his images with garlands and chaplets of flowers and that she entreth not into combat with her corrivals and winne him from them all by fight and feats of activity for these be the casts of lovers let her knit her browes let her forbeare to live bravely and daintily putting on the countenance and habit meet for this passion but if she be modest shamefaced sober and honest as that she is abashed so to doe let her sit womanly and decently as it becommeth at home in her house expecting her lovers and woers to come and court her there For such a woman as doth not dissemble but bewraieth openly that she is in love a man would avoid and detest so farre would he be from taking her to be his wife or laying for the ground of his mariage such shamelesse incontinence Now when Protogenes had made an end of his speech and paused a while See you not ô Anthemion quoth Daphnaeus how they make this a common cause againe and matter of disputation enforcing us to speake still of nuptiall love who denie not our selves to be the mainteiners thereof nor avoid to enter into the daunce as they say and to shew our selves to be the champions of it Yes mary do I quoth Anthemion I pray you take upon you to defend at large this love and withall let us have your helping hand about this point as touching riches which Pisias urgeth especially and wherewith he seemeth to affright us more than with any thing else What can we doe lesse quoth my father then for were it not a reproch offred unto woman kind and would it not greatly redound to their discredit and blame in case we would reject and cast off Ismenodora for her love and her wealth sake But she is brave she is sumptuous costly and bearing a great port What matters that so long as she is faire beautifull and yoong But she is come of a noble house and highly descended What harme of that if she live in good name and be of good reputation for it is not necessary that wives to approove their honesty and wisdome should be sower austere curst shrewd for chaste dames and sober matrons doe indeed detest bitternesse as an odious thing and intollerable And yet some there be that call them furies and say they be curst shrewes unto their husbands when they be modest wise discret and honest Were it not best therefore to espouse some od Abrotonon out of Thracia bought in open market or some Bacchis a Milesian passing in exchange for raw hides and prized no deerer And yet we know there be many men whom such women as these hold most shamefully under their girdles and rule as they list For even minstrell wenches of Samos and such as professed dauncing as Aristonica Oenanthe with her tabour and pipe Agathocleia have over-topped kings and princes yea troaden their crownes and diademes under foot As for Semiramis a Syrian she was at first no better than a poore wench servant and concubine to one of the great king Ninus slaves but after that the king himselfe had set his 〈◊〉 and fancie upon her he was so devoted unto her she againe so imperiously ruled over him and with such contempt that she was so bold to require at his hands that he would permit her to sit one day upon her roiall throne under the cloth of estate with the diademe about her head and so to give audience and dispatch the affaires of the kingdome in stead of him which when Ninus had graunted given expresse charge withall that all his subjects whatsoever should yeeld their loiall obedience to her as to his owne person yea and performe whatsoever she ordeined and decreed she caried herselfe with great moderation in her first commandements to make triall of the pensioners and guard about her and when she saw that they gainsaid her in nothing but were very diligent and serviceable she commanded them to arrest and apprehend the body of Ninus the king then to binde him fast and finally to doe him to death Al which when they had fully executed she reigned indeed for a long time in great state and magnificence ruled all Asia And was not Belestie I pray you a Barbarian woman bought up even in the very market among other slaves and yet those of Alexandria have certeine temples chappels altars which king Ptolomaeus who was enamoured upon her caused to be entituled by the name of Venus Belestie And Phryne the famous courtensan who both heere and also at Delphos is shrined in the same temple and chappell with Cupid whose statue all of beaten gold standeth among those of kings and queenes by what great dowry was it that she had all her lovers in such subjection under her But like as these persons through their effeminate softnesse and pusillanimity became ere they were aware a very prey and pillage to such women so on the other side we finde others of base degree and poore condition who being joined in mariage to noble rich wives were not utterly overthrowen with such matches nor struck saile or abated ought of their generositie and high spirit but lived alwaies loved and honored by those wives yea and were masters over them to their dying day But he that rangeth and reduceth his wife into a narrow compasse and low estate as if one bent a ring to the slendernesse of his finger for feare it should drop off resembleth those for all the world who clip and shave the maines of their mares and plucke the haire off their tailes and then drive them to water into some river or poole for it is said that when they see themselves in the water so ill favouredly shorne and curtailed they let fall their courage stomacke and hautie spirit so as they suffer themselves afterward to be covered by asses And therefore like as to preferre the riches of a woman above her vertue or to make choise thereof before nobility of birth were base and illiberall so to reject wealth joigned with vertue and noble parentage is meere folly King Antigonus writing unto a captaine of his whom he put with a garison into the fortresse Munichia in Athens the which he fortified with all diligence possible commanded him not onely to make the collar and cheine strong but the dogge also weake and leane giving him thereby to understand that he should empoverish the Athenians and take from them all meanes whereby they might rebell or rise against him But a man who hath taken to wife a rich and beautifull woman ought not to make her either poore or foule and ill-favoured but rather by his discretion good government wisdome and by making semblance that he is ravished with no admiration of any
example even our very birth at first is nothing sightly at all nor pleasant in regard of the bloud and bitter pangs that do accompany it yet hath the same a goddesse to be the president overseer thereof to wit Lucina called thereupon Lochia and Ilithyta Besides better it were for a man never to have bene borne than to become evill and naught for want of a good governor and guardian Moreovor the deitie and devine power leaveth not man destitute when he is sicke no nor when he is dead but some God there is or other that hath an office and function even then and is powerfull in those occasions there is one I say that helpeth to convey the soules of such as have ended their life from hence into another world and to lay them in quiet repose who for bestowing and transporting of them in that sort is called Catunastes and Psychopompos according as he saith The shady night never bare The harps to sound a fine musician Nor prophet secrets to declare Ne yet in cures a good phisitian But for the soules of dead below In their due place them to bestow And yet in these ministeries and functions many odious troubles and incombrances there be whereas contrariwise there can be named no worke more holy no exercise game of price or profession of maisteries whatsoeuer whereof it beseemeth a god better to have the dispose presidence and oversight than is the charge and regard to order and rule the desires of lovers affecting and pursuing beautifull persons in the floure and prime of their age For herein their is nothing foule nothing forced not by constraint but that gentle perswasion attractive grace which yeelding in trueth a pleasant and sweet labor leadeth all travell whatsoever unto vertue and amitie which neither without a god can attaine unto the desired end which is meet and convenient nor hath any other god for the guide master and conductor than Love which is the companion of the Muses graces and Venus For Cupid sowing secretly In heart of man a sweet desire And heat of Love immediatly By kindling milde and gentle fire According as Menalippedes saith tempereth the pleasantest things that be with those that are most faire and beautifull How say you Zeuxippus is it not so Yes verily quoth he I am altogether of that minde for to hold the contrary were very absurd Then quoth my father againe and were it not as monstrous that whereas amitie hath foure severall kindes and branches according as the ancient Philosophers haue divided it The first in nature then that of propinquity and locall affinity the third of society and the last this of love every one of the rest should have a god to be the president and governour thereof to wit surnamed either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this amorous amitie onely or love as accursed interdicted and excommunicate be left without a lord and ruler considering that it requireth more care solicitude and government than all the rest It doth indeed quoth Zeuxippus and need it hath out of that which is strange but proper and familier of the owne Moreover quoth my father a man may here take hold by the way of Plato his opinion and doctrine to this purpose to wit that there is one kind of furie transmitted from the body to the soule proceeding from certaine indispositions and malignant distemperatures of ill humours or else occasioned by some hurtfull winde or pernitious spirit that passeth and entreth into it and this furie is a sharpe and dangerous disease There is another not without some divine instinct neither is it engendred at home and within us but a strange inspiration it is comming from without a very alienation of reason sense and understanding the beginning and motion whereof ariseth from some better power and a certaine divine puissance And this passion in generall is named Enthusiasmus as one would say a divine inspiration for like as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke signifieth repletion with spirit or winde And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is full of prudence and wit Even so saith he an agitation and shaking of the soule is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the participation and society of some more heavenly and divine power Now this enthusiasme is subdevided for one part thereof is propheticall and can skill of foretelling naturall things when one is inspired and possessed by Apollo A second is Bacchanall sent from Bacchus whereof Sophocles speaketh in one place thus And see you dance With Corybants For those furies of dame 〈◊〉 the mother of the gods as also Panique terrors frights hold 〈◊〉 of the Bacchenall sacred ceremonies The third proceedeth from the Muses which meeting with a tender and delicate soule not polluted with vice stirreth up and raiseth a poeticall spirit and musicall humour as for that raging and martiall Enthusiasme for Arinianius it is called that furious inspiration breathing warre is well knowen to every man for to proceed from god Mars a furie wherein there is no grace no musicall sweetnesse hindring the generation and nourishment of children and inciting people to take armes There remaineth one alienation more of the understanding ô Daphnaeus and an exstacie or transportation of mans spirit and the same not obscure nor quiet and calme concerning which I would demand of Pemptides heere What god is he that shakes the speare In hand which doth so faire fruit beare Even this ravishment of love setled as well upon faire and goodboies as honest and sober dames which is the hottest and most vehement transportation of the minde for see you not that even the very soldier and warrior himselfe comming once to be surprised therewith laide downe his armes presently and cast off his warlike furie For then his servants joy did make And corselet from his shoulders take and himselfe having no more minde to battell sat still looking upon others that fought And as for these Bacchanail motions these wanton skippings and frisks of the Corybantes they use to appease and stay by changing onely in dauncing of the measures the foot Trochaeus into Spondaeus and in song the Phrygian tune into the Dorique semblably Pythia the priestresse of Apollo being once come downe from her three footed fabricke upon which she receiveth that incentive spirit of furie remaineth quiet and in calme tranquillity whereas the rage of love after it hath once in good earnest caught a man and set him on fire there is no musicke in the world no charme no lenitive song no change of place able to stay it for amorous persons when they be present doe love if they be absent doe long in the day time they follow after their sweet hearts by night they lie and watch at their doores fasting and sober they call upon their faire paramours full and drunken they sing and chant of them neither are poeticall
fancies and inventions as one sometimes said for their lively and effectuall expression the dreams of persons waking but rather this may be verified of lovers imaginations who devise and talke with their loves absent as if they were present they salute embrace chide and expostulate with them as if they saw them in place for it seemeth that our ordinarie sight doth depaint other imagination with liquid and waterish colours which quickly passe away are gone and departed out of our minds but the fancies and visions of Lovers being imprinted in their cogitations by fire or enambled leave in their memorie lively images surely engraved which move live breath speake remaine and continue euer after like as Cato the Romane said that the soule of the lover lived dwelt in the soule of the loved for that there is setled sure in him the visage countenance manners nature life and actions of the person whom he loveth by which being led and conducted he quickly dispatcheth and cutteth off a long jorney as the Cynicks are wont to say finding a short compendious and directway unto vertue for hee passeth speedily from love to amity and friendship being caried on end by the favour of this God of Love with the instinct of his affection as it were with winde and tide with weather and water together in summe I say that this enthusiasme or ravishment of lovers is not without some divine power and that there is no other god to guide and governe it than he whose feast we solemnize and unto whom we sacrifice this very day howbeit for that we measure the greatnesse of a god by puissance especially profit according as among all humane goods we holde roialty and vertue to be most divine and so to call them It is time now to consider first and formost whether Love be inferior to any other god in power And verily Sophocles saith Venus in power doth much availe To win a prise and to preuaile Great also is the puissance of Mars and verily we see the power of all other gods to be after a sort divided in these matters two waies the one is allective and causeth us to love that which is beautifull and good the other is adversative and maketh us to hate that which is soule and bad which are the first impressions that from the beginning are engraven in our mindes according as Plato in one place speaketh of the Idea Let us now come to the point and consider how the very act alone of Venus may be had for a groat or some such small piece of silver neither was there ever man knowen to endure any great travell or to expose himselfe to any danger for the enjoying of such a fleshly pleasure unlesse he were amorous withall and love sicke And to forbeare heere to name such curtisanes as Phryne and Lais were we shall finde my good friend that Gnathaenium the harlot At lanterne light in euening late Waiting and calling for some mate is many time passed by and neglected but otherwhiles againe If once some sudden spirit moove The raging fit of fervent love it maketh a man to prize and esteeme the foresaid pleasure which erewhile he reckoned nothing woorth comparable in value to all the talents as they say of Tantalus treasure and equall to his great seignorie and dominion so enervate is the delight of Venus and so soone bringeth it lothsome sacietie in case it be not inspired with the power of love which we may see yet more evidently by this one argument namely that therebe many men who will be content to part with others in this kind of venereous pleasure yea and can find in their harts to prostitute unto them not only their mistresses and concubines but also their owne espoused wives as it is reported of that Galba or Cabbas a Romane who if I doe not mistake invited Maecenas upon a time unto his house feasted him where perceiving how from him to his wife there passed some wanton nods and winkings which bewraied that hee had a minde and fancie to her he gently rested his head upon a pillow or cushion making semblance as though he would take a nap and sleepe whiles they dallied together in the meane time when one of the servants which were without spying his time came softly to the table for to steale away some of the wine that stood there avaunt unhappy knave quoth Galba being broad awake and open eied knowest thou not that I sleepe onely for Maecenas sake But peradventure this was not so strange a matter considering that the said Galba was no better than one of the buffons or pleasants that professe to make folke merry and to laugh I will tell you therefore another example At Argos there were two of the principall citizens concurrents and opposite one to the other in the government of the city the one was named Philostratus the other Phaulius now it fortuned upon a time that king Philip came to the towne and commonly thought it was that Phaulius plotted and practised to atteine unto some absolute principallity and sovereignty in the city by the meanes of his wife who was a yoong and beautifull ladie in case he could bring her once to the kings bed and that she might lie with him Nicostratus smelling and perceiving as much walked before Phaulius doore and about his house for the nonce to see what he would do who indeed having shod his wife with a paire of high shooes cast about her a mantle or mandilion and withall set upon her head a chaplet or hat after the Macedonian fashion and dressed her every way like unto one of the kings pages sent her secretly in that habit and attire unto his lodging Now considering there hath beene in times past and is at this present such a number of amourous persons and lovers have you ever read or knowen that any one of them hath beene the bawd to prostitute his owne love though he might thereby have gained sovereigne majesty and obteined the divine honours of Jupiter I verily beleeve no for why there is not a person dare quetch to contradict and oppose himselfe in government of State against the actions of princes and tyrants But on the other side corrivals they have and concurrents many in love such as will not sticke to beard them in the question of faire yong and beautifull persons whom they affect and fancie For it is reported that Aristogiton the Athenian Antileon the Metapontine and Menalippus of Agrigentum never contended nor contested with the tyrants for all they saw them to waste and ruinate the common-weale yea to commit many 〈◊〉 outrages but when they began once to sollicit and tempt their paramors and loves then they rose up as it were in the defence of their sacred temples and sanctuaries then they stood against them even with the hazzard and perill of their lives It is said that king Alexander wrote unto Theodorus the brother of Proteas in this
this day Iolaus because they take him to have beene Hercules his derling in so much as upon his tombe the manner is of lovers to take a corporall oth and assurance of reciprocall Love Moreover it is reported of Apollo that being skilfull in Physicke he saved the life of Alcestis being desperatly sicke for to gratifie Admetus who as he loved her intirely being his wife so he was as tenderly beloved of him For the Poets doe fable that Apollo being inamoured for pure Love Did serve Admetus one whole yeere As one that his hir'd servant were And here it falleth out in some sort well that we have made mention of Alcestis for albeit women have ordinarily much dealing with Mars yet the ravishment and furious fits of Love driveth them otherwhiles to enterprise somewhat against their owne nature even to voluntarie death and if the 〈◊〉 fables are of any credit and may goe currant for trueth it is evident by such reports as goe of Alcestis of Protesilaus and Euridice the wife of Orpheus that Pluto obeieth no other god but onely Love nor doth what they command And verily howsoever in regard of all other gods as Sophocles saith He cannot skill of equity of favour and of grace But onely with him Iustice straight and rigour taketh place Yet he hath good respect and reverence to lovers and to them alone he is not implacable nor inflixible And therefore a good thing it is my friend I confesse to be received into the religious confraternity of the Eleusinian mysteries but I see that the votaries professed in Love are in the other world in better condition accepted with Pluto And this I say as one who neither am too forward in beleeving such fables of Poets nor yet so backward as to distrust and discredit them all for I assure you they speake well and by a certaine divine fortune and good hap they hit upon the trueth saying as they do that 〈◊〉 but lovers returne from hell unto this light againe but what way and how they wot not as wandring indeed and missing of the right path which plato of all men first by the meanes of philosophy found out and knew And yet among the Aegyptians fables there be certaine small slender and obscure shadowes of the truth dispersed here an there Howbeit they had need of an expert and well experienced hunter who by small tracts knoweth how to trace and finde out great matters And therefore let us passe them over And now that I have discoursed of the force and puissance of Love being so great as it appeareth I come now to examine and consider the bountie and liberality thereof to mankinde not whether it conferre many benefits upon them who are acquainted with it and make use thereof for notable they be and well knowen to all men but whether it bringeth more and greater commodity to those that are studious of it and be amorous For Euripides howsoever he were a great favourit of Love yet so it is that he promised and admired that in it which of all others is least namely when he said Love teacheth Musicke marke when you will Though one before thereof had no skill For he might as well have said that it maketh a man prudent and witty who before was dull and foolish yea valiant as hath 〈◊〉 said who before was a coward like as they that by putting into fire burning peeces of wood make them firme and straight where as they were before weake and tender Semblably every amorous person becommeth liberall and magnificent although he had beene aforetime a pinching snudge For this base avarice and micherie waxeth soft and melteth by love like as iron in the fire in such sort as men take more pleasure to give away and bestow upon those whom they love than they doe to take and receive of others For yee all know well how Anytus the sonne of Anthenion was inamoured upon Alcebiades and when he had invited certaine friends and guests of his unto a sumptuous and stately feast in his house Alcibiades came thither in a maske to make pastime and after he had taken with him one halfe of the silver cups that stood upon the boord before them went his waies which when the guests tooke not well but said that the youth had behaved himselfe vere proudly and malipertly toward him Not so quoth Anytus for he hath dealt very courteously with me in that when he might have gone away withall he left thus much behinde for me Zeuxippus taking ioy hereat O Hercules quoth he you want but a little of ridding quite out of my heart that hereditary hatred derived and received from our ancestors which I have taken against Anytus in the behalfe of Socrates and Philosophie in case he were so kinde and courteous in his love Be it so quoth my father but let us proceed Love is of this nature that it maketh men otherwise melancholicke austere and hard to be pleased or conversed withall to become more sociable gentle and pleasant for as ye know well enough More stately is that house in sight Wherein the fire burnes cleere and bright and even so a man is more lightsome and jocund when he is well warmed with the heat of love But the vulgar sort of men are in this point somewhat perversly affected and beside all reason for if they see a flashing celestiall light in an house by night they take it to be some divine apparition and woonder thereat but when they see a base vile abject mind suddenly replenished with courage libertie magnificence desire of honour with grace favour and liberality they are not forced to say as Telemachus did in Homer Certes some god I know full well Is now within and here doth dwell And is not this also quoth Daphnaeus tell me I pray you for the love of all the Graces an effect of some divine cause that a lover who regardeth not but despiseth in a maner all other things I say not his familiar friends onely his fellowes and domesticall acquaintance but the lawes also and magistrates kings and princes who is afraid of nothing admireth esteemeth and observeth nothing and is besides so hardy as to present himselfe before the flashing shot of piercing lightning so soone as ever he espieth his faire love Like to some cocke of cravain 〈◊〉 le ts fall Or hangs the wing and daunted is withall He droups I say his courage is cooled his heart is done and all his animositie quailed quite And heere it were not impertinent to the purpose to make mention of Sappho among the Muses The Romans write in their history that Cacus the sonne of Vulcane breathed and flashed flames of fire from his mouth And in trueth the words that Sappho uttereth be mixed with fire and by her verses testifieth the ardent and flaming heat of her heart Seeking for love some cure and remedy By pleasant sound of Muses melodie as Philoxenus writeth But Daphnaeus unlesse peradventure the
off unjustly to pay the debt which you have promised us for having ere while by the way and against your will made some little mention of the Aegyptians and of Plato you passed them over then and even so doe you at this present as for that which Plato hath written or rather these Muses heere have by him delivered I know well you will say nothing thereof although we should request and pray you to doe it but for that you have covertly signified thus much that the mythologie or fables of the Aegyptians accord sufficiently with the doctrine of the Platonikes concerning Love it were against all reason that you should refuse to discover reveale and declare it unto us and content will we be in case we may heare but a little of such great and important matters Now when the rest of the companie instantly intreated likewise my father began againe and said That the Aegyptians like as the Greeks acknowledge two kindes of Love the one vulgar the other celestiall they beleeve also that there is a third beside to wit the sunne and Venus above all they have in great admiration as for us we see a great affinity and resemblance betweene Love and the sunne for neither of them both is as some doe imagine a materiall fire but the heat of the one and the other is milde and generative for that which proceedeth from the sunne giveth unto bodies nouriture light and deliverance from cold winter that which commeth from the other worketh the same effects in soules and as the sunne betweene two clouds and after a foggy mist breaketh foorth most ardent even so Love after anger fallings out and fits of jealousie upon attonement and reconciliation made betweene Lovers is more pleasant and fervent and looke what conceit some have of the sunne that it is kindled and quenched alternatiuely namely that every evening it goeth out and every morning is lighted againe the same they have of Love as being mortall corruptible and not permanent in one estate moreover that habite or constitution of the body which is not exercised and inured to endure both cold and heat can not abide the sunne no more can that nature of the soule which is not well nurtured and liberally taught be able to brooke Love without some paine and trouble but both the one and the other is transported out of order yea and indisposed or diseased alike laying the weight upon the force and power of Love and not upon their owne impuissance and weaknesse this onely seemeth to be the difference betweene them that the sunne exhibiteth and sheweth unto those upon the earth who have their eie-sight things beautifull and foule indifferently whereas Love is the light that representeth faire things onely causing lovers to be lookers of such alone and to turne toward them but contrariwise to make none account of all others Furthermore they that attribute the name of Venus to the earth are induced thereto by no similitude nor proportion at all for that Venus is divine and celestiall but the region wherein there is a mixture of mortall with immortall is of it selfe feeble darke and shadie when the sunne shineth not upon it like as Venus when love is not assistant unto it and therefore more credible it is that the moone should resemble Venus and the sunne Love rather than any other god yet are not they therefore all one because the body is not the same that the souleis but divers like as the sunne is sensible visible but Love spirituall and intelligible and if this might seeme a speech somewhat harsh a man might say that the sunne doeth cleane contrary unto Love for that it diverteth our understanding from the speculation of things intelligible unto the beholding of objects sensible in abusing and deceiving it by the pleasure and brightnesse of the sight perswading it to seeke in it and about it as all other things so trueth it selfe and nothing else where being ravished with the Love thereof For that we see it shine so faire Vpon the earth amid the aire according as Euripides saith and that for want of knowledge and experience of another life or rather by reason of forgetfulnesse of those things which Love reduceth into our memorie For like as when we awake in some great and resplendent light all nightly visions and apparitions vanish away and depart which our soule saw during sleepe even so it seemeth that the sunne doeth astonish the remembrance of such things as heere happen and chance in this life yea and to bewitch charme and enchant our understanding by reason of pleasure and admiration so as it forgetteth what it knew in the former life and verily there is the true reall substance of those things but heere apparitions onely by which our soule in sleepe admireth and embraceth that which is most beautifull divine and woonderfull but as the Poet saith About the same are vaine illusions Dreames manifold and foolish visions And so the mind is perswaded that all things heere be goodly and precious unlesse haply by good adventure it meet with some divine honest and chaste Love for to be her Physicion and savior which passing from the other world by things corporall may conduct and bring it to the truth and to the pleasant fields thereof wherein is seated and lodged the perfect pure and naturall beautie not sophisticate with any mixture of that which is counterfet and false where they desire to embrace one another and to commune together as good friends that of long time have had no interview nor entercourse assisted alwaies by Love as by a Sextaine who leadeth by the hand those that are professed in some religion shewing unto them all the holy reliques and sacred ceremonies one after another Now when they be sent hether againe the soule by it selfe can not come neere and approch thereto but by the organe of the body and like as because yoong children of themselves are not able to comprehend intelligible things therefore Geometricians put into their hands visible and palpable formes of a substance incorporall and impassible to wit the representations of sphaeres cubes or square bodies as also those that be dodecaedra that is to say having twelve equall faces even so the celestiall Love doth present and shew unto us faire mirrors to behold therein beautifull things howbeit mortall thereby to admire such as be heavenly and divine sensible objects for to imagine thereby those that be spirituall and intelligible These be the severall favors and beauties faire colours pleasant shapes proportions and features of yoong persons in the floure of their age which shining and glittring as they doe gently excite and stirre up our memorie which by little and little at the first is enflamed thereby whereby it commeth to passe that some through the folly of their friends and kinsfolke endevoring to extinguish this affection and passion of the minde by force and without reason have enjoied no benefit thereof but
stranger followed after a man of a good and ingenious countenance to see to and who carried in his visage great mildnesse and humanity besides went in his apparel very gravely and decently Now when he had taken his place and was set downe close unto Simmias and my brother next unto me and all the rest as every one thought good after silence made Simmias addressing his speech unto my brother Go to now Epaminondas quoth he what stranger is this from whence commeth he and what may be his name for this is the ordinary beginning and usuall entrance to farther knowledge and acquaintance His name quoth my brother is Theanor ô Simmias a man borne in the city Croton one of them who in those parts professe Philosophy and 〈◊〉 not the glory of great Pythagoras but is come hither from out of Italy a long journey to confirme by good works his good doctrine and profession But you Epaminondas your selfe quoth the stranger then hinder me from doing of all good deeds the best For if it be an honest thing for a man to doe good unto his friends dishonest it cannot be to receive good at their hands for in thanks there is as much need of a receiver as of a giver being a thing composed of them both and tending to a vertuous worke and he that receiveth not a good turne as a tennis ball fairely sent unto him disgraceth it much suffring it to fall short and light upon the ground For what marke is there that a man shooteth at which he is so glad to hit and so sory to misse as this that one worthy of a benefit good turne he either hath it accordingly or faileth thereof unworthily And yet in this comparison he that there in shooting at the marke which standeth still and misseth it is in fault but heere he who refuseth and flieth from it is he that doth wrong and injury unto the grace of a benifit which by his refusall it cannot attaine to that which it tendeth unto As for the causes of this my voiage hither I have already shewed unto you and desirous I am to rehearse them againe unto these gentlemen heere present that they may be judges in my behalfe against you When the colledges and societies of the Pythagorean Philosophers planted in every city of our country were expelled by the strong hand of the seditious faction of the Cyclonians when those who kept still together were assembled and held a counsell in the city of Metapontine the seditious set the house on fire on every side where they were met and burnt them altogether except Philolaus and Lysis who being yet yong active and able of body put the fire by and escaped through it And Phylolaus being retired into the countrey of the Laconians saved himselfe among his friends who began already to rally themselves and grow to an head yea and to have the upper hand of the said Cyclonians As for Lysis long it was ere any man knew what was become of him untill such time as Gorgias the Leontine being sailed backe againe out of Greece into Sicelie brought certeine newes unto Arcesus that he had spoken with Lysis and that he made his abode in the city of Thehes Whereupon Arcesus minded incontinently to embarke and take the sea so desirous he was to see the man but finding himselfe for feeblenesse and age together very unable to persorme such a voiage he tooke order expresly upon his death bed with his friends to bring him over alive if it were possible into Italie or at leastwise if haply he were dead before to convey his bones and reliques over But the warres seditions troubles and tyrannies that came betweene and were in the way expeached those friends that they could not during his life accomplish this charge that he had laied upon them but after that the spirit or ghost of Lysis now departed appearing visibly unto us gave intelligence of his death and when report was made unto us by them who knew the certeine trueth how liberally he was enterteined and kept with you ô Polymnis and namely in a poore house where he was held and reputed as one of the children and in his old age richly mainteined and so died in blessed estate I being a yoong man was sent alone from many others of the ancient sort who have store of money and be willing to bestow the same upon you who want it in recompense of that great favor and gracious friendship of yours extended to him As for Lysis worshipfully he was enterred by you and bestowed in an honourable sepulchre but yet more honourable for him will be that courtesie which by way of recompense is given to his friend by other friends of his and kinsfolke Whiles the stranger spake thus the teares trickled downe my fathers cheeks and he wept a good while for the remembrance of Lysis But my brother smiling upon me as his maner was How shall we do now Caphisias quoth he shall we cast off and abandon our poverty for money and so say no more but keepe silence In no wise quoth I let us not quit and forsake our olde friend and so good a fostresse of yoong folke but defend you it for your turne it is now to speake And yet I quoth he my father feare not that our house is pregnable for money unlesse it be in regard onely of Caphisias who may seeme to have some need of a faire robe to shew himselfe brave and gallant unto those that make love unto him who are in number so many as also of plenty of viands and food to the end that he may endure the toile and travell of bodily exercises and combats which he must abide in the wrestling schooles But seeing this other heere of whom I had more distrust doth not abandon povertie nor reseth out the hereditary indigence of his father house as a tincture and unseemly slaine but although he be yet a yoong man reputeth himselfe gaily set out and adorned with srugality taking a pride therein and resting contented with his present fortunes Wherein should we any more employ out gold and silver if we had it and what use are we to make of it What would you have us to gild our armor and cover our shields as Nicias the Athenian did with purple and gold intermingled therewith And shall we buy for you father a faire mantle of the fine rich cloth of Miletus and for my mother a trim coat of scarlet coloured with purple For surely we will never abuse this present in pampering our bellie feasting our selves and making more sumptuous cheere than ordinary by receiving riches into our house as a costly and chargeable guest Fie upon that my sonne quoth my father God forbid I should ever see such a change in mine house Why quoth he againe we will not sit stil in the house keeping riches with watch and ward idle for so the benefit were not beneficiall but without all grace and
woorse To conclude therefore if Philosophers stand most upon this point and beare themselves aloft for that they are able to dulce and reforme rude maners and not polished before by any doctrine And if it be seene that Alexander hath altered and brought into order an infinite number of wilde nations and beastly natures good reason there is that he should be esteemed an excellent Philosopher Moreover that pollicie and forme of government so highly esteemed which Zeno the first founder of the Stoicks sect devised tendeth to this one principall point that we who are men should not live divided by cities towns divers countries separated by distinct laws rights customs in severall but thinke all men our felow citizens of the same country also that there ought to be but one kind of life like as there is but one world as if we were all of the same flocke under one herdman feeding in a common pasture Zeno hath set this downe in writing as a very dreame imaginarie Idea of a common-wealth well governed by Philosophicall lawes but Alexander hath put that in reall execution and practise which the other had figured and drawen out in words for he did not as his master Aristotle gave him counsell to doe namely to cary himselfe toward the Greeks as a father and toward the Barbarians as a lord likewise to have regard and care of some as of his friends and kinsfolke but to make use of others as if they were brute beasts or plants and no better for in so doing he should have pestered his dominions and empire with banishments which are evermore the secret seeds of warre of factions and sidings most dangerous but taking himselfe to be sent downe from heaven as a common reformer reconciler and governour of the whole world such as he could not draw to accord and agreement by reason and speech he compelled by force of armes and so from every side reduced all into one causing them to drinke round as one would say of one and the same cup of amitie and good fellowship wherein he tempered and mixed together their lives and maners their mariages and fashions of life commanding all men living to thinke the whole earth habitable to be their countrey his campe their citadell and castle of defence all good men to be their kinsfolke and allies all leud persons strangers and aliens He commanded them moreover to distinguish Greeks and Barbarians not by their mantle round targuet cemeter turbants or high crowned chaplets but to marke and discerne Greece by vertue Barbarie by vice in reputing all vertuous folke Greeks and all vicious persons Barbarians to thinke also their habilliments and apparell common their tables common their mariages besides and maner of life common as being united all by the mixture of bloud and communion of children Demaratus verily the Corinthian one of the friends that used to give interteinment to king Philip when he saw Alexander in the citie of Susa greatly rejoiced thereat insomuch as for very joy of heart the teares ranne downe his cheeks and he brake foorth into these words That the Greeks before departed out of this life were deprived of exceeding contentment and hearts delight in that they had not seene Alexander sitting upon theregall throne of Darius For mine owne part verily I would not repute them very happy for seeing such a sight as that considering it is the gift of fortune and as much as that befalleth ordinarily to meaner kings but I assure you much pleasure could I have taken if I had beheld those goodly and sacred espousals when under the roofe of one pavilion seeled all over and wrought with gold he enterteined at once all at one common feast and table a hundred Persian Brides maried to an hundred Bridegromes of Greece and Macedonie at which solemnitie himselfe being crowned with a chaplet of flowers was the first that began to sing the nuptiall song Hymenaeus as a canticle of generall amitie when tow of the igreatest and most puissant nations of the world came to be joined in alliance together by mariage being himselfe spouse unto one but the maker of all their mariages yea and the common father and mediator to them all being the meanes of that knot and conjunction For willingly I would have said O barbarous senselesse and blockish Xerxes that tookest so great paines and all to no purpose about making a bridge over Hellespont For after this maner should wise kings and prudent princes conjoine Europe and Asia together not with wood and timber not with boates and barges nor with those linkes and bonds which have neither life nor mutuall affection but by lawfull love by chaste and honest wedlocke by communication also of children to unite and associate two nations together To this comely or nament Alexander had an eie when he would not admit the habiliments and robes of the Medes but the attire and apparell of the Persians as being farre more sober modest and decent than the other for rejecting casting aside that outlandish unusuall pompeous and tragical excesse in the barbarous habit to wit the copped turbant Tiara the side and superfluous purple mantell Candys their wide breeches and slacke sloppes Anaxyridae he wore himselfe a certeine kinde of robe composed partly of the Macedonian and in part of the Persian habit according as Eratosthenes hath written As a Philosopher he made use of things indifferent neither good simply nor ill and as a gracious ruler and courteous king he wanne the love and heart of those whom he had subdued by gracing and honouring upon his owne person their apparell to the end that they should continue fast unto him and firme in loialtie loving the Macedonians as their naturall lords and not hating them as tyrannizing enemies For it would have bewraied a foolish minde and withall disdainfull and proud to have made great account of a selfe-coloured homely mantell and withall to have taken offence at a rich coate embrodered all over with purple or contrariwise to have had this in admiration and the other in contempt like unto some infant or little childe keeping still precisely to that apparell which the custome of the countrey as a nurse or foster-mother hath once put on whereas we see that huntsmen who use to choose deere are wont to clad themselves with the skinnes and hides of those wilde beasts which they have taken as for example of stagges and hindes foulers also that lie for to catch birds cast upon themselves gabardines and coates of fetherworke or beset with wings and fethers Those who weare red clothes beware how they come in the way of buls and such as be clothed in white are as carefull not to be seene of elephants for that these beasts fare as though they were wood and mad at the sight of such colours Now if so great a king as Alexander was minding to tame warlike nations like unto wilde beasts or to dulce and keepe them gentle who
of the soule which is subject to passions For sweet odors as they doe many times excite and stirre up the sense when it is dull and beginneth to faile so contrariwise they make the same as often drowsie and heavy yea and bring it to quietnesse whiles those aromaticall smels by reason of their smoothnesse are spred and defused in the bodie According as some Physicians say that sleepe is engendred in us when the vapour of the food which we have received creepeth gently along the noble parts and principall bowels and as it toucheth them causeth a kinde of tickling which lulleth them asleepe This Cyphi they use in drinke as a composition to season their cups and as an ointment besides for they hold that being taken in drinke it scowreth the guttes within and maketh the belly laxative and being applied outwardly as a liniment it mollifieth the bodie Over and above all this Rosin is the worke of the Sunne but Myrrh they gather by the Moone light out of those plants from which it doth destill But of those simples whereof Cyphi is compounded some there be which love the night better as many I meane as be nourished by cold windes shadowes dewes and moisture For the brightnesse and light of the day is one and simple and Pindarus saith that the Sunne is seene through the pure and solitarie aire whereas the aire of the night is a compound and mixture of many lights and powers as if there were a confluence of many seeds from every starre running into one By good right therefore they burne these simple perfumes in the day as those which are engendred by the vertue of the Sunne but this being mingled of all forts and of divers qualities they set on fire about the evening and beginning of the night OF THE ORACLES THAT HAVE CEASED TO GIVE ANSWERE The Summarie THe spirit of errour hath endevoured alwaies and assaied the best he can to mainteine his power and dominion in the world having after the revolt and fall of Adam beene furnished with instruments of all sorts to tyrannize over his slaves In which number we are to range the oracles and predictions of certaine idoles erected in many places by his instigation by meanes whereof this sworne enemy to the glory of the true God 〈◊〉 much prevailed But when it pleased our heavenly father to give us his sonne for to be our Saviour who descending from heaven to earth tooke upon him our humane nature wherein he susteined the 〈◊〉 and punishment due for our sinnes to deliver us out of hell and by vertue of his merits to give us entrance into the kingdome of heaven the trueth of his grace being published and made knovenin the world by the preaching of the Aposlles and their faithfull successours the Divell and his angels who had in many parts and places of the world abused and deceived poore idolaters were forced to acknowledge their Sovereigne and to keepe silence and suffer him to speake unto those whom he meant to call unto salvation or els to make them unexcusable if they refused to heare his voice This cessation of the Oracles put the priests and sacrificers of the the Painims to great trouble and woonderfull perplexitie in the time of the Romane Emperours whiles some imputed the cause to this others to that But our authour in this Treatise discourseth upon this question shewing thereby how great and lamentable is the blindnesse of mans reason and wisedome when it thinketh to atteine unto the secrets of God For all the speeches of the Philosophers whom he bringeth in heere as interlocutours are 〈◊〉 tales and fables devised for the nonce which every Christian man of any meane judgemeut will at the first sight condemne Yet thus much good there is in this discourse that the Epicureans are here taxed and condemned in sundry passages As touching the contents of this conference the occasion thereof ariseth from the speech of Demetrius and Cleombrotus who were come unto the Temple of Apollo for the one of them having rehearsed a woonder as touching the Temple of Jupiter Ammon mooveth thereby a farther desire of disputation but before they enter into it they continue still the former speech of the course and motion of the Sunne Afterwards they come to the maine point namely Why all the Oracles of Greece excepting that onely of Lebadia ceased To which demand 〈◊〉 a Cynique Philosopher answereth That the wickednesse of men is the cause thereof Ammonius 〈◊〉 attributeth all unto the warres which had consumed the Pilgrims that used to resort unto the said Oracles Lamprias proposeth one opinion and Cleombrotus inferring another of his fall into a discourse and common place as touching Daemons whom he verily raungeth betweene gods and men disputing of their nature according to the Philosophie of the Greeks Then he proveth that these Daemons have the charge of Oracles but by reason that they departed out of one countrey into another or died these Oracles gave over To this purpose he telleth a notable tale as touching the death of the great Pan concluding thus that 〈◊〉 Daemons be mortall we ought not to woonder at the cessation of Oracles After this Ammonius confuteth the Epicureans who holde That there be no 〈◊〉 And upon the confirmation of the former positions they enter together into the examination of the opinions of the 〈◊〉 and Platonists concerning the number of the worlds to wit whether they be many or infinit growing to this resolution after long dispute that there be many and 〈◊〉 to the number of five Which done Demetrius reviving the principall question moveth also a 〈◊〉 one Why the Daemons have this power to speake by Oracles Unto which there be many and 〈◊〉 answeres made which determine all in one Treatise according to the Platonists Philosophie of 〈◊〉 principall efficient and finall cause of those things that are effected by reason and particularly of 〈◊〉 and predictions for which he maketh to concurre the Earth the Sunne Exhalations Daemons and the Soule of man Now all the intention and drift of Plutarch groweth to this point that the earth being incited and moved by a naturall vertue and that which is proper unto it and in no wise divine and perdurable hath brought forth certaine powers of divination that these inspirations breathing and arising out of the earth have touched the understandings of mē with such efficacy as that they have caused them to foresee future things afarre off and long ere they hapned yea and have addressed and framed them to give answere both in verse and prose Item that like as there be certeine grounds and lands more 〈◊〉 one than the other or producing some particular things according to the divers and peculiar proprietie of ech there be also certeine places and tracts of the world endued with this temperature which both ingender and also incite these Enthusiaque and divining spirits Furthermore that this puissance is meere divine indeed howbeit not per petuall eternall
of Brasidas her apophthegmes 479.40 Argoi the name of all Greeks 861.40 Argos women their vertuous act 486.1 Aridaeus an unwoorthie prince 1277.30 Aridaeus a yoong prince unfit to rule 395.50 Aridices his bitter scoffe 668.10 Arigaeus his apophthegme 454.30 Arimanius 1044.1 Arimanius a martiall Enthusiasme 1143.1 Arimanius what God 1306.1 Arimenes his kindnes to Xerxes his brother 403.40 Ariobarzanes sonne of Darius a traitour executed by his father 909.50 Arion his historie 342.20 Ariopagus 396.40 Aristaeus what God 1141.20 Aristarchium a temple of Diana 902.40 Aristinus what answer 〈◊〉 had from the Oracle 852.1 Aristides kinde to Cimon 398.20 his apophthegmes 418.50 he stood upon his owne bothom ib. at enmity with Themistocles 419.1 he laieth it downe for the Common-wealth ib. Aristippus his apophthegme as touching the education of children 6.10 his answer as touching Lais the courtisan 1133.10 Aristippus and Aeschines at a jarre how they agreed 130.40 Aristoclea her tragicall historie 944.40 Aristocrates punished long after for betraying the Messenians 1540.1 Aristocraties allow no oratours at bar to move passions 72.40 Aristodemus fearefull and melancholike 296.1 Aristodemus usurpeth tyrannie over Cumes 505.50.290.1 Aristodemus Socrates his 〈◊〉 at a feast 753.50 Aristodemus tyrant of Argos killeth himselfe 265.10.205.10 his villanie 946.40 surnamed Malacos 505.30 murdered by conspiratours 506.30 Aristogiton a promoter condemned 421.10 Aristomache a Poetresse 716.30 Aristomenes poisoned by Ptolomaeus 112.20 Ariston his opinion of vertue 64.50 Ariston his apophthegmes 454.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dinner whereof it is derived 775.30 Ariston punished by God for sacriledge 545.20 Aristonicus an harper honoured after his death by K. Alexander 1274.40 Aristophanes discommended in comparison of Menander 942.40 Aristotimus a 〈◊〉 tyrant over the Elians 492.30 his treacherous vilany toward the wives of Elis. 493.10 murdered by conspiratours 494.1 his wife hung herselfe 495 Aristotle how he dealt with prating fellowes 193.30 reedifieth Stagira his native city 1128.50 his opinion of God 812.10 his opinion as touching the principles of all things 808.10 Aristotle a master in his speech 34.20 Aristotle the younger his opinion as touching the face in the Moone 1161.1 Arithmeticke 1019.1 Arithmeticall proportion chaced out of Lacedaemon by Lycurgus 767.50 〈◊〉 a great favorite of Augustus Caesar. 368.20 Aroveris borne 1292.20 Arsaphes 1302.20 Arsinoe how she was comforted by a Philosopher for the death of her sonne 521.50 Arsinoe 899.30 Artaxerxes accepted a small present graciously 402.20 Artaxerxes Long-hand his apophthegmes 404.1 Artaxerxes Mnemon his apophthegmes and behaviour 404.30 Artemisium the Promontory 906 40 Artemisia a lady adviseth Xerxes 1243.10 Artemis that is to say Diana why so called 1184.40 Article a part of speech seldome used by Homer 1028.10 Arts from whence they proceed 232.30 Artyni who they be 888.50 Aruntius carnally abused his owne daughter and sacrificed by her 912.1.10 Aruntius Paterculus executed worthily by Aemilius Censorinus 917.30 Aspis the serpent why honoured among the Aegyptians 1316.30 The Asse why honoured among the Jewes 701.10 Asses and horses having apples and figges a load be faint with the disease Bulimos 739.1 what is the reason thereof 799.40 Asander 1152.20 Asaron 645.10 Ascanius vanquished Mezentius 876.20 Asias what it was 1250.40 Aso a Queene of Arabia 1292.40 Asopicus a darling of Epaminondas 1146.10 Asphodel 339.1 Assembly of lusly gallants 898.1 Assent and the cohibition thereof argued prò contrà 1124.10.20 Astarte Queene of Byblos in Aegypt 1293.40 Aster a notable archer 908.50 Astomi people of India 1177.30 Astrologie is conteined under Geometrie 797.10 Astrologie 1019.10 Astycratidas his apophthegmes 455.50 Asyndeton 1028,40 Ate. 346.10 Ateas the king of the Scythians his apophthegmes 405.20 Ateas misliketh musicke 405.20 592.1 1273.50 〈◊〉 unto idlenesse 394.30 Atepomorus king of the Gaules 914.40 Athamas and Agaue enraged 263.20 Athenians more renowmed for martiall feats than good letters 981.50 Athenians of what disposition they be 349.30 Athenians why they suppresse the second day of August 187.40 reprooved by a Laconian for plaies 985.50 Athens and Attica highly commended 279.1.10 The Athenians would not breake open king Philips letters to his wife 350.1 Athens divided into three regions 357.20 the mother and nurse of good arts 982.20 Athenians abuse Sylla and his wife with 〈◊〉 language 196.1 Athenodorus his kindnesse to his brother Zeno. 181.20 Atheisme and superstition compared 260.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who they were 1099.1 Atheists who they were 810.40 Athisme mainteined by Epicurus 592.20 Athisme 260.40 what it is ib. 50. it arose from superstition 267. 40. 50. how engendred 260.1 Athos the mountaine 1175.20 Atlas 1163.20 Atomi 602.50.807.40.50 Athyri what it signifieth 1310.20 Atropos 1049.10.797.40 her function 1184.40 what she is and where she keepeth 1219.30 K. Attalus died upon his birth day 766.1 Attalus his reciprocall love to his brother Eumenes 188.20.416.30 Attalus a king ruled and led by Philopaemen 394.20 Attalus espouseth the wife of his brother yet living 416.30 Avarice how it differeth from other lusts 211.20 Against Avarice 299.10.20 Averruncani See Apotropoei Augurs who they be 883.10 why not degraded ib. Augurs forbidden to observe bird flight if they had an ulcer about them 874.30 Augurs and Auspices why they had their lanterns open 874.10 After August no bird-flight observed 863.30 Of August the second day suppressed by the Athenians out of the kallender 187.40.792.10 Augustus Caesar first emperour of Rome 631.50 Augustus Caesar his apophthegmes 442. 50. how he paid his father Caesars legacies 442.1 his clemency to the Alexandrians ib. 10. his affection to Arius ib. his anger noted by Athenodorus 442. 30. his praier for his nephew Tyberius Caesar 631.50 fortunes dearling ib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 901.20 In Autumne we are more hungrie than in any other time of the yeere 669.10 Autumne called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 785.10 Axiomes ten by complication how many propositions they bring foorth 782.20 B B. Vsed for Ph. 890.20 B. for P. ib. Babylon a hot province 685.20 about it they lie upon water budgets 686.50 Baccharis the herbe what vertue it hath in garlands 684.20 Bacchiadae 945.50 Bacchon the faire 1131.50 Bacchus why called by the Romans Liber pater 885.1 why he had many Nymphs to be his nurses 696.1 surnamed Dendriteus 717. 20. the sonne or father of oblivion 751.40 why called Eleuther and Lysius 764.10 Bacchanals how they were performed in old time 214.30 Bacchus how he commeth to have many denominations 1358.1 Bacchus patrone of husbandrie 797.20 not sworne by within dores at Rome 860.10 What is all this to 〈◊〉 a proverb whereupon it arose 645.1 Bacchae why they use rime and meeter 654.40 Bacchae 643.40 Bacchus taken to be the 〈◊〉 god 712.10 surnamed Lyaeus and Choraeus 722.40 he was a good captaine 722.40 a physician 683.40 why surnamed Methymnaeus 685. 40. surnamed Lysius or Libes and wherefore 692.30 what is the end thereof 337.20 why named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 726.50 Bucchus surnamed Bugenes 1301.20 Bacchus portraied with a bulles head 1301.20 Bacchus the
deciding and judging causes because to authority it addeth violence and insolency nor in the teaching and instruction of our children for it maketh them desperate and haters of learning nor in prosperity for it encreaseth the envy and grudge of men ne yet in adversity because it taketh away pitty and compassion when they who are fallen into any misfortune shew themselves testie froward and quarellous to those who come to moane and mourne with them This did Priamus as we reade in Homer Avant quoth he you chiding guests you odious mates be gone Have you no sorrowes of your owne but you come me to moane On the other side faire conditions and milde behaviour yeeldeth succour and helpe in some cases composeth and ordereth matters aright in others dulceth and alaieth that which is tart and sowre and in one word by reason of that kinde meeke and gentle quality it overcommeth anger and all waiward testinesse whatsoever Thus it is reported of Euclides in a quarrell or variance betweene him and his brother For when his brother had contested and said unto him I would I might die if be not revenged of thee he inferred againe Nay let me die for it if I perswade thee not otherwise before I have done by which one word he presently woon his brothers heart so that he changed his mind and they parted friends Polemon likewise at a certaine time when one who loved precious stones was sicke for faire costly rings such like curious jewels did raile at him outragiously answered not a word againe but looked very wistly upon one of the signets that the other had and well considered the fashion and workemanship thereof which when the party perceived taking as it should seeme no small contentment and being very well pleased that he so porused his jewell Not so Polemon quoth he againe but looke upon it thus betweene you and the light and then you will thinke it much more beautifull Aristippus fell out upon a time I know not how with Aeschines and was in a great choler and fit of anger How now Aristippus quoth one who heard him so high at such hot words where is your amity friendship all this while Mary asleepe quoth he but I wil waken it anon With that he stept close to Atschines and said Thinke you me so unhappy every way and incurable that I deserved not one admonishment at your hands No marvell quoth Aeschines againe if thought you who for naturall wit in all things els excel me to see better in this case also than I what is meet and expedient to be done For true it is that the Poet saith The boare so wilde whose necke with hristles strong Is thicke beset the tender hand and soft Of woman nice yea and of infant yong By stroking faire shall bend and turne full oft Much sooner farre and that with greater case Than wrestlers strong with all their force and peise And we our selves can skill how to tame wilde beasts we know how to make yoong woolves gentle yea and lions whelps other-whiles we cary about with us in our armes but see how we againe afterwards in a raging fit of choler be ready to fling from us and cast out of our sight our owne children our friends and familiars and all our houshold servants our fellow citizens and neighbours we let loose our ire like some savage and furious beast and this rage of ours we disguise and cloke forsooth with a colourable and false name calling it Hatred of vice But heerein I suppose we doe no otherwise than in the rest of our passions and diseases of the minde tearming one Providence and forecast another Liberalitie and a third Pietie and religion and yet for all these pretenses of goodly names we can not be cured of the vices which they palliate to wit Timorousnesse Prodigalitie and Superstition And verily like as our naturall seed as Zeno said is a certeine mixture and composition derived and extracted from all the powers and faculties of the soule even so in mine opinion a man may say that choler is a miscellane feed as it were and a dregge made of all the passions of the mind for plucked it is from paine pleasure and insolent violence Of envie it hath this qualitie to joy in the harmes of other men it standeth much upon murder but woorse it is simply than murder for the wrathfull person striveth and laboureth not to defend and save himselfe from taking harme but so he may mischiefe and overthrow another he careth not to come by a hurt and shrewd turne himselfe It holdeth likewise of concupiscence and lust and taketh of it the worse and more unpleasant part in case it be as it is indeed a desire and appetite to greeve vexe and harme another And therefore when we approch and come neere to the houses of luxurious and riotous persons we heare betimes in the morning a minstrel-wench sounding and playing the Morrow-watch by breake of day we see the muddy-grounds and dregs as one was wont to say of the wine to wit the vomits of those who cast up their stomacks we behold the peeces and fragments of broken garlands and chaplets and at the dore we finde the lackies and pages of them who are within drunken and heavie in the head with tipling strong wine But the signes that tell where hastie cholericke and angry persons dwell appeere in the faces of their servants in the marks and wales remaining after their whipping and in their clogs yrons and fetters about their feete For in the houses of hastie and angrie men a man shall never heare but one kind of musicke that is to say the heavie note of wailing grones and piteous plaints whiles either the stewards within are whipped and scourged or the maidens racked put to torture in such sort that you would pitie to see the dolors paines of yre which she suffreth in those things that she lusteth after taketh pleasure in And yet as many of us as happen to be truly justly surprised with choler oftentimes for the harted detestation that we have of vices ought to cut off that which is excessive therein and beyond measure together with our over-light beleefe and credulitie of reports concerning such as converse with us For this is one of the causes that most of all doth engender and augment choler when either he whom we tooke for an honest man prooveth dishonest and is detected for some naughtinesse or whom we reputed our friend is fallen into some quarrell and variance with us as for my selfe you know my nature and disposition what small occasions make me both to love men effectually and also to trust them confidently and therefore just as it falleth out with them who go over a false floore where the ground is not fast but hollow under their feete where I leane most and put my greatest trust for the love that I beare there I offend most and soonest catch
a fall there I say am I grieved most also when I see how I was deceived As for that exceeding inclination and frowardnes of mind thus to love and affect a man could I never yet to this day weane my selfe from so inbred it is and setled in me mary to stay my selfe from giving credit over-hastily and too much I may peradventure use that bridle which Plato speaketh of to wit wary circumspection for in recommending the Mathematician Helicon I praise him quoth he for a man that is as much to say as a creature by nature mutable and apt to change And even those who have beene well brought up in a citie to wit in Athens he saith that he is afraid likewise of them lest being men and comming from the seed of man they do not one time or other bewray the weaknesse and infirmitie of humane nature and Sophocles when he speaketh thus Who list to search through all deeds of mankind More had then good he shall be sure to find seemeth to clip our wings and disable us wonderfully Howbeit this difficultie and caution in judging of men and pleasing our selves in the choise of friends will cause us to be more tractable and moderate in our anger for whatsoever commeth sodainly and unexpected the same soone transporteth us beside our selves We ought moreover as Panatius teacheth us in one place to practise the example of Anaxagoras and like as he said when newes came of his sons death I know well quoth he that I begat him a mortall man so in every fault of our servants or others that shall whetten our choler ech one of us may sing this note to himselfe I knew wel that when I bought this slave he was not a wise Philosopher I wist also that I had gotten formy friend not one altogether void of affections and passions neither was I ignorant when I tooke a wife that I wedded a woman Now if withall a man would evermore when he seeth others do amisse adde this more unto the dittie as Plato teacheth us and sing thus Am not I also such an other turning the discursion of his judgement from things abroad to those which are with in himselfe and among his complaints and reprehensions of other men come in with a certeine caveat of his owne and feare to be reproved himselfe in the like he would not haply be so quicke forward in the hatred and detestation of other mens vices seeing that himselfe hath so much need of pardon But on the contrary side every one of us when he is in the heat of choler and punisheth another hath these words of severe Aristides and precise Cato ready enough in his mouth Steale not Sirrha Make no more lies Why art thou so idle then c. To conclude that which of all others is most unseemely and absurd we reproove in anger others for being angry and such faults as were committed in choler those our selves will punish in choler not verily as the Physicians useto do who A bitter medicine into the body poure When bitter choler they meane to purge and scoure But we rather doe encrease the same with our bitternesse and make more trouble than was before And therefore when I thinke and discourse with my selfe of these matters I endevour withall and assay to cut off somewhat from needlesse curiositie For surely this narrow searching and streight looking into everie thing for to spie and find out a fault as for example to sift thy servant and call him into question for all his idle houres to prie into every action of thy friend to see where about thy sonne goeth and how he spendeth all his time to listen what whispering there is betweene thy wife and another be the verie meanes to breed much anger daily braules and continualljarres which grow in the end to the height of curstnesse and frowardnes hard to be pleased with any thing whatsoever For according as Euripides saith in one place we ought in some forto do All great affatres God ay himselfe directeth But matters small to Fortune he committeth For mine owne part I do not thinke it good to commit any busines to Fortune neither would I have a man of understanding to be retchlesse in his owne occasions But with some things to put his wife in trust others to make over unto servants and in some matters to use his friends Herein to beare himselfe like a Prince and great commaunder having under him his Deputies Governours Receivers Auditors and Procurators reserving unto himselfe and to the disposition of his owne judgement the principall affaires and those of greatest importance For like as little letters or a small print do more offend and trouble the eies then greater for that the eies be verie intentive upon them even so small matters doe quickly moove choler which thereupon soone getteth an ill custome in weightier matters But above all I ever reckon that saying of Empedoles to be a divine precept and heavenly oracle which admonisheth us To fast from sin I commended also these points and observations as being right honest commendable and beseeming him that maketh profession of wisedome and philosophie which we use to vow unto the gods in our praiers Namely To forbeare both wine and women and so to live sober and chaste a whole yeere together and in the meane while to serve God with a pure and undefiled heart Also to limit and set out a certaine time wherein we would not make a lie observing precisely not to speake any vaine and idle word either in earnest or in bourd With these and such like observations also I acquainted and furnished my soule as being no lesse affected to teligion and godlines than studious of learning and philosophie Namely first enjoined my selfe to passe a certaine few Holy-daies without being angrie or offended upon any occasion whatsoever no lesse than I would have vowed to forbeare drunkennesse and abstaine altogether from wine as if I sacrificed at the feast Nephalta wherein no wine was spent or celebrated the solemnitie Melisponda in which Honie onely was used Thus having made an entrance I tried afterwards a moneth or two by little and little what I could do and ever I gained more and more time exercising my selfe still to forbeare sinne with all my power and might Thus I proceeded and went forward daily blessing my selfe with good words and striving to be milde quiet and voide of malice pure and cleane from evill speeches awd lewd deeds but principally from that passion which for a little pleasure and the same not verie lovely bringeth with it great troubles and shamefull repentance in the end Thus with the grace of God assisting me somewhat as I take it in this good resolution and course of mine experience it selfe approoved and confirmed my first intenr and judgement whereby I was taught That this mildnesse clemency and debonaire humanitie is to none of our familiars who live and converse daily with us so sweete so pleasant
in pursuit after him for which victorie all other Romanes made great joy only his owne sister Horatia shewed herselfe nothing well pleased herewith for that to one of the other side she was betrothed in marriage for which he made no more ado but stabbed his sister to the heart this is reported by Aristides the Milesian in his Annales of Italy 17 In the citie Ilium when the fire had taken the temple of Minerva one of the inhabitants named Ilus ranne thither and caught the little image of Minerva named Palladium which was supposed to have fallen from heaven and therewith lost his sight because it was not lawfull that the said image should be seene by any man howbeit afterwards when he had appeased the wrath of the said goddesse he recovered his eie sight againe as writeth Dercyllus in the first book of Foundations Metellus a noble man of Rome as he went toward a certaine house of pleasure that hee had neere unto the citie was slaied in the way by certaine ravens that slapped and beat him with their wings at which ominous accident being astonied and presaging some evill to be toward him he returned to Rome and seeing the temple of the goddesse Vesta on fire he ran thither and tooke away the petie image of Pallas named Palladium and so likewise suddenly sell blind howbeit afterwards being reconciled unto her he got this sight againe this is the report of Aristides in his Chronicles 18 The Thracians warring against the Athenians were directed by an oracle which promised them victorie in case they saved the person of Codrus king of Athens but he disguising himselfe in the habit of a poore labourer and carrying a bill in his hand went into the campe of the enemies and killed one where likewise he was killed by another and so the Athenians obtained victorie as Socrates writeth in the second booke of Thracian affaires Publius Decius a Romane making warre against the Albanes dreamed in the night and saw a vision which promised him that if himselfe died he should adde much to the puissance of the Romans whereupon he charged upon his enemies where they were thickest arranged and when he had killed a number of them was himselfe slaine Decius also his sonne in the warre against the Gaules by that meanes saved the Romans as saith Aristides the Milesian 19 Cyanttpus a Siracusian borne sacrificed upon a time unto all other gods but unto Bacchus whereat the god being offended haunted him with drunckennesse so as in a darke corner he deflowred forcibly his owne daughter named Cyane but in the time that he dealt with her she tooke away the ring off his finger and gave it unto her nourse to keepe for to testifie another day who it was that thus abused her Afterwards the pestilence raigned fore in those parts and Apollo gave answere by oracle that they were to offer in sacrifice unto the gods that turned away calamities a godlesse and incestuous person all others wist not whom the oracle meant but Cyane knowing full well the will of Apollo tooke her father by the haire and drew him perforce to the altar and when she had caused himto be killed sacrificed her selfe after upon him as writeth Dositheus in the third booke of the Chronicles of Cicily Whiles the feast of Bacchus called Bacchanalia was celebrated at Rome there was one Aruntius who never in all his life had drunke wine but water onely and alwaies despised the power of god Bacchus who to be revenged of him caused him one time be so drunke that he forced his owne daughter Medullina abused her bodie carnally who having knowledge by his ring who it was that did the deed and taking to her a greater heart than one of her age made her father one day drunke and after she had adorned his head with garlands chaplets of flowers led him to aplace called the altar of Thunder where with many teares she sacrificed him who had surprised her takē away her virginity as writeth Aristides the Milesian in his third booke of Italian Chronicles 20 Erechiheus warring upon Eumolpus was advertised that he should win the victorie if before he went into the field he sacrificed his owne daughter unto the gods who when he had imparted this mater unto his wife Praxithea he offered his daughter in sacrifice before the battell hereof Euripides maketh mention in his tragoedie Erechtheus Marius maintaining warre against the Cimbrians and finding himselfe too weake saw a vision in his sleepe that promised him victory if before he went to battell he did sacrifice his daughter named Calpurnis who setting the good of the weale publicke and the regard of his countrimen before the naturall affection to his owne blood did accordingly and wan the field and even at this day two altars there be in Germanie which at the verie time and hower that this sacrifice was offered yeeld the sound of trumpets as Dorotheus reporteth in the third booke of the Annales of Italy 21 Cyanippus a Thessalian borne used ordinarily to go on hunting his wife a young gentle woman intertained this fancie of jealousie in her head that the reason why he went forth so often and staied so long in the forrest was because he had the companie of some other woman whom beloved whereupon she determined with her selfe to lie in espiall one day therefore she followed and traced Cyanippus and at length lay close within a certaine thicket of the forrest waiting and expecting what would fall out and come of it It chanced that the leaves and branches of the shrubs about her stirred the hounds imagining that there was some wild beast within seised upon her and so tare in pieces this young dame that loved her husband so well as if she had beene a savage beast Cyanippus then seeing before his eies that which he never would have imagined or thought in his mind for verie griefe of heart killed himselfe as Parthenius the Poet hath left in writing In Sybaris a citie of Italy there was sometime a young gentleman named Aemilius who being a beautifull person and one who loved passing well the game of hunting his wife who was young also thought him to be enamoured of another ladie and therefore got her selfe close within a thicket and chanced to stirre the boughes of the shrubs and bushes about her The hounds thereupon that ranged and hunted thereabout light upon her and tare her body in pieces which when her husband saw he killed himselfe upon her as Clytonimus reporteth in his second booke of the Sybaritick historie 22 Smyrna the daughter of Cinyras having displeased and angred Venus became enamored of her owne father and declared the vehement heat of her love unto her nourse She therefore by a wily device went to worke with her master and bare him in hand that there was a faire damosell a neighbours daughter that was in love with him but abashed and ashamed to come unto him openly or to be
it were of a yong man himselfe who hath wit at wil to colour and excuse himselfe in that escaping out of the armes of his other lovers he is fallen into the hands of a faire yoong and wealthie Ladie Never say so quoth Anthemion nor interteine such an opinion of Bacchon for say that he were not of a simple nature as he is and plaine in all his dealings yet would he never have concealed so much from me considering that he hath made me privie to all his secrets and knoweth full well that in these matters I was of all other most ready to second and set forward the sute of Ismenodora But a hard matter it is to withstand not anger as Heraclitus saith but love for whatsoever it be that it would have compasse the same it will though it be with the perill of life though it cost both goods and reputation For setting this thing aside was there ever in all our citie a woman more wise sober and modest than Ismenodora when was there ever heard abroad of her any evill report and when went there so much as a light suspition of any unhonest act out of that house Certes we must thinke and say that she seemes to have beene surprised with some divine instinct supernaturall and above humane reason Then laughed Pemptides You say even true quoth he there is a certeine great maladie of the bodie which thereupon they call sacred is there any marvell then that the greatest and most furious passion of the minde some do terme sacred and divine But it seemes unto me that it fares with you here as I saw it did sometime with two neighbours in Aegypt who argued debated one with another upon this point that whereas there was presented before them in the way as they went a serpent creeping on the ground they were resolved both of them that it presaged good was a luckie signe but either of them tooke challenged it to himselfe for even so when I see that some of you draw love into mens chambers and others into womens cabinets as a divine and singular good thing I nothing wonder thereat considering that this passion is growen to such power and is so highly honoured that even those who ought to clip the wings thereof and chace it from them of all sides those be they that magnifie and 〈◊〉 it most And verily hitherto have I held my peace as touching this matter in question for that I saw the debate and controversie was about a private cause rather than any publicke matter but now that I see how Pisias is departed I would gladly heare and know of you whereat they aimed and tended who first affirmed that Love was a God When Pemptides had propounded this question as my father addressed himselfe and began to make his answere there came another messenger in place whom Ismenodora had sent from the citie for to bring Anthemion with him for that the trouble and tumult in maner of a sedition grew more and more within the towne by occasion that the two masters of the publicke exercises were at some difference one with another whiles the one was of this minde that Bacchon was to be redemanded and delivered the other againe thought that they were to deale no farther in the matter So Anthemion arose incontinently and went his way with all speed and diligence possible and then my father calling to Pemptides by name and directing his speech unto him You seeme Pemptides quoth he in my conceit to touch a very 〈◊〉 and nice point or rather indeed to stirre a string that would not be stirred to wit the opinion and 〈◊〉 that we have as touching the gods in that you call for a reason and demonstration of them in particular For the ancient faith and beleefe received from our ancients in the country where we are borne is sufficient than which there can not be said or imagined a more evident argument For never was this knowledge found By wit of man or sense profound But this tradition being the base and foundation common to all pietie and religion if the certitude and credit thereof received from hand to hand be shaken and mooved in one onely point it becommeth suspected and doubtfull in all the rest You have heard no doubt how Euripides was coursed and troubled for the beginning of his Tragoedie Menalippe in this maner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Jupiter whose name I know By heare-say onely and no mo And verily he had a great confidence in this Tragoedie being as it should seeme magnificently and with exquisit elegancie penned but for the tumultuous murmuring of the people 〈◊〉 changed the foresaid verses as now they stand written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God Jupiter which name in veritie Doth sort full well to his 〈◊〉 And what difference is there by our words and disputation betweene calling the opinion which we 〈◊〉 of Jupiter and of 〈◊〉 into question and making doubt of Cupid or Love For it is not now of late and never before that this God begins to call for altars or to challenge sacrifices neither is he a stranger come among us from some barbarous superstition like as certeine Attae and I wot not what Adonides and Adonaei brought in by the meanes of some halfe-men or mungrell Hermaphrodites and odde women and thus being closely crept in hath met with certeine honours and worships farre unmeet for him in such sort as he may well be accused of bastardice and under a false title to have beene enrolled in the catalogue of the gods for my good friend when you heare Empedocles saying thus And equall to the rest in length and bredth was Amitie But see in 〈◊〉 thou it beholde not with deceitfull eie you must understand him that he writeth thus of Love for that this God is not visible but apprehended onely by opinion and beleefe among other Gods which are most ancient Now if of all them in particular you seeke for a proofe and demonstration laying your hands upon echtemple and making a sophisticall triall by every altar you shall find nothing void and free from calumniation and envious slander for not to go farre off marke but these verses But Venus uneth can I see How great a goddesse she should be Of Cupid she the mother is And she alone that Love doth give Whose children we you wot wel this Are all who on the earth do live And verily Empedocles called her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say fertile or giving life Sophocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say fruitfull both of them using most fit and pertinent attributes Howbeit this great and admirable worke to wit Generation is wrought principally and directly by Venus but collaterally and as an accessary by Love which if love be present is pleasant acceptable contrariwise if love be away and not assistent thereto surely the act thereof remaineth altogether not expetible dishonorable without grace and