by the quality of the blood so rare a treasure know thou art an Heretique This sparkling Planet of Mars doth not influe vigour enough The fowre elementary qualities doe not know what it is to go to blowes they hate them the bloud cannot vnderstand so high a lesson quite contrary to his beeing This apprentiship doth come from elsewhere It is true as I haue said that there bee some soules better disposed to Vertue then others and likewise some bodies more fit to receiue the faire influences of the soule Yet for all that all men generally and naturally doe feare death It is a grieuous thing to forsake this pleasing light of the day and to goe with wormes whatsoeuer is imagined This default comes from sin this weakenesse hath drawne from thence her beginning It brought death which is irkesome to man because it was not so at the first creation Without going any higher in Theologie I will follow my point The feare of death mans perpetuall Hostesse whose efficient cause matter and forme be within the bones the blood and the arteries is a miserable worker of all the irresotions which doe ariue for this subiect Feare to die the hereditary maladie the domesticall weakenes the naturall falling-sickenesse to man is the beginner of all infirmities to them that doe not thinke to liue well Now to liue well a man must cast his eyes vpon his carriage he must thinke of the end he must meditate vpon this common and last passage of men It was all the Philosophy of the Auncients which in truth is a good part of perfection though not the principall To meditate vpon death to imagine that after this short and painefull life there is an eternall and blessed life is to enter into the way of Vertue though not to goe to the ende This answereth to that diuine sentence Know thy selfe represent thy selfe that thou art a cleare beame of God that thy house is heauen that the diuine essences doe pertaine to thee of proximitie that thou art a passenger in this miserable life that Vertue is the onely image whereof thou must bee an Idolater and which must wholly gouerne thee These considerations doe open the barre to faire actions but the gate is yet shut This Vertue is excellent without doubt which prepareth the soules to good lifteth vp thy vnderstanding to all high worthy things It is not enough for all that To command a mans selfe is more then all that The other hath the tongue this the hand one the word the other the effect the one prepareth the soule to the diet the other is the diet it selfe the one mooues humours the other purges them the one guides the other executes To conclude the one beginneth the other endeth the work To know a mans selfe answereth to the meditation of death to command a mans selfe answereth to the contempt of death The auncients made their Philosophy and loue of wisdome meditation of death only whereas they should haue said that it was the meditation and contempt both together For these two be sister-germanes and inseparable to conduct to the sacred Temple of Sapience But what is this attracting brightnes what is this charmious figure what is this diuine ladder which when in hath inlightened by the discourse of reason and by the knowledge of our selues and burned by the pleasing flames of the loue of it doth make vs enter into heauen It is Magnanimitie which is the contempt of death What is the end of it to doe alwaies well If they aske what Temples what Sacrifices shee desireth She will answer that shee is all that that she hath all in her selfe If they doe presse her to tell what mooueth her she will say That it is onely her affection to cary her selfe in all things vertuously Why she doth not feare death Because she feareth her selfe more Why she doth not desire the conuersation of life so sweete Because to liue without Vertue is to be dead without any hope to liue againe Let them question her euery manner of way she shall be as ready and wise to answer as firme and couragious to resist Now as you see to know a mans selfe goeth not so forward as to command a mans selfe so it must be said that to meditate vpon death is not so much as to despise it Many doe know their own infirmities they haue euen drawne the very picture of them with all the liuely colours there wants nothing They know that they are subiect to a thousand loose passions they resolue to combate these domesticall enemies they prepare themselues thereunto and euen in the very instant that they are ready to come to handy-blowes they do as Dolon did in Homer who cast away his Buckler in the cheife time of the skirmish or like to him who after hee had made proud marches cries out against his follies I see the best and like it and doe follow the worst It is cowardize they haue not force enough to resist hauing but one feeble obscure sparke of Vertue which hath not the power to heate though it giue light They which commaund themselues doe shewe that they haue beene longer exercised in this faire Academy that they haue beene vpon the iusting or fencing place that they haue wrestled against the prodiges of vice and throwne them to the ground which makes them worthy of praise and to haue their names graued in letters of gold in the holy Temple of Honour This then answereth to the contempt of death which cannot bee familiar with a man but by Valour which doth not consist onely in marshall actions neither is enclosed with those walles alone because there bee a thousand other instruments of this cruell enemy of nature besides those of warre Socrates who swallowed hemlocke did as much contemne death as Alexander in the middest of his combates The one was as it were transported with marshall fury and the other was no more mooued seeing his death prepared then if they had come to inuite to runne at the playes of Olympus The one was almost out of himselfe with choller the other was altogether in himselfe and quite out of the frailty of man through a firme and constant resolution to this last step Both of them did it through greatnesse of courage Valour was in them both all the worke was hers Notwithstanding the one of them was inflamed with the ardour of young blood with ambition and with the desire to make himselfe venerable to posterity the other was not stupide nor insensible but he had a constant coldnes a firme resolution with discourse iudgement and meditation hauing no other end but manfully to resist fortune and death without beeing thrust on by consideration of worldly vanities Wherein is to be noted that these latter parts be euen as necessary as the others and that the great and vnheard of effects of Vertue doe proceede cheifely from the vnderstanding and intelligence Truely they which haue not learned this
Father-Confessors of the redoubtable Selletta would sound you out a lofty word thereupon This is not all he must haue wherewithall to passe it There bee the greifes For this effect the costs and the mulcts be another kinde of Duell another cut-throate From thence proceedes the totall ruine of houses With all these punishments there were yet some forme of respite if the roote of the mischeife were pulled vp But for a heape of glory and felicitie there he is all his life time with a quarrell vpon his armes against the kinred of him that died a mortall and irreconciliable quarrell For all this by tract of time there is some remedy For that which is the most important there is none at all The cruell torture that bursteth his soule by the continuall representation of his offence receiueth no condition What Goblins what tortures what goate what Minotaure But if such a one be puft vp with vaine-glory for that he beleeues that men doe hold him for a man of courage they shall tell him that that aduantage is very common as we haue shewed But how feeble is it how shamefull hauing regard to the foundation which is nothing Christian Notwithstanding he that would yeild some thing to his opinion a man might tell him that it is a glory dearely bought and as it were to take vp at interest a hundred for a hundred There is then the pleasure there is the profit there is the honour that he reapeth of his hazardes and vnbridled ambitions For him that is dead as hath beene said there remaineth to him no shadow of good his reputation is extinguished with his life It continueth but to be odious stinking and execrable Ah! how this is to be considered For he that dies for a faire subiect hath comfort for himselfe and leaues comfort to his posterity why because his memory hath a sweete sauour They bee more excellent and durable images then those of Phydias Oh! how precious be these old sayings oh how rare they be They say he was an honest man a vertuous man fearing God louing his Prince and the Common-wealth that he died in the bed of Honour Such a one liues in the tombe in despight of death his Vertue speakes within the dumbe silence exalts him glorifies him in the midst of forgetfulnesse euen in the cold dust They hold another manner of language of them that are lost in Duell What blindnes saith euery one what rage how impious a thing it is how detestable A notable consequence ariseth from this Discourse that is That there is some honourable death that a man ought not to shun although he could To vnderstand this we must consider the speach following in presupposing this maxime If they which fight in Duell did beleeue they should die there a man might well say they would not goe thither Imagine then that two men of great courage be in presence their weapons in their hands kindled with fury respiring nothing but blood that a man whom they both know to be an excellent Soothsayer comes in the way and saith vnto them You shall die both at this conflict and the profit that shal redound thereby is that the Common-wealth shall loose much your houses shall be desolate your memory detestable There is likelihood that they beleeuing these words would bee appeased and shake hands But if these magnanimious men were in an army neere Henry the 4. the glory of Kings and great Thunder of Warre and that he himselfe should come say vnto them My friends thinke with your selues this day must be the end of your dayes But in truth it shall bee the sauing of your Prince on whose life dependeth the conseruation of this great Estate No man doubts but that generous men would bee the more enflamed but they would bee all possessed with a laudable impatience to bee grapling to produce such an action so vertuous so glorious Moments would be ages vnto them They would be like Antheus touching the earth they would take new forces they would be all trasformed body and soule into heart and ambition and the feare of death would haue much lesse power ouer them then the desire to make themselues famous to future ages inuited forced by the consideration of this act pleasing to God and men They would thinke themselues very happy it would be Scepters and Crownes vnto them for as much as the end is holy and profitable and consequently honourable as beeing a perfect worke of Vertue They will say that there will be found no plenty of these faire soules It is true But there would bee found amongst the Nobilitie of France some that haue Horaces Scevolaes and Curtiusses as well as the auncient Rome So we conclude that there is some death very honourable that is to say That which serueth to the glory of God to the honour and profit of the Prince and of the Common-wealth Now the end of them which goe to Duell without lawfull cause is simply to satisfie their passion to reuenge their particular iniuries to content themselues It followeth that that is not onely blameable but also worthy of rigorous punishment In this the Prince should know that such combates doe absolutely derogate from his Authoritie for as much as it belongs to Him or to his Magistrates to doe reason for offences for which the violent satisfaction is not permitted to particular persons in any Common-wealth well polliced They follow these steps the mischiefe groweth insensibly and of such a fashion that in the ende all Diuine and Humane Lawes shall bee banished out of France They fight in Duell for the seeking of marriage for homages for sutes for precedence in Churches in politique Assemblies in the end for all sorts of differences This is daily seene So did in old time the Scytes so did the Tartarians people without faith without God without humanity If this continue we must speake no more of Iustice nor of Pietie All France shall be a Chaos a denne of theeues So we see a generall subuersion of all Orders No man containes himselfe in his own iurisdiction the stormes whereof hath ouerthrowne all They be so execrable before God that since they haue been tolerated there haue bin seen nothing but prodigies in France Before the Duells was there euer seen blood so horribly shed as hath been since The Sunne hid it selfe thereat the Earth mooued at it and the Sea stayed the course thereupon Was it euer heard that a great King most great most magnificent had been driuen out of his house and afterward murthered by one of them that daily preachet peace Waigh this well From the Duell they come to the contempt of Lawes and Orders from this to contemne the Soueraigne then to conspire against the Estate and after that to attempt the sacred person of the Prince The reason is because ambition accustomed to blood becomes a sauage beast which hath neither bounds nor limits hauing no other moouing but it owne extrauagant desire and
this Subiect You are a King the light of Kings an excellent Title a holy Title Seeing that Kings be the liuely Images of the greatnes of God and that Truth an incorruptible Virgin ought to be their eldest daughter we doe promise our selues that your Maiestie who haue alwaies entirely cherished it and who in that condition and a thousand others haue made your selfe admirable will not reiect it Giue then if it please you some time from your employments to our holy remonstrances to our aduise to our plaints for the common safetie Permit vs to speake truely you are obliged thereunto by this faire qualitie of King and by Magnanimity the capitall enemie of vntruth The Subiect is of the most important and most notable of the Realme but yet which regards that more properly then all the rest Your Maiestie giues euery day pardons for murthers committed in Duell If wee did respire againe in mortall bodies wee would craue one of you which without doubt you would iudge equitable that is to pardon vs speaking freely thereupon It is a libertie not insolent animated onely with zeale to the good of the State and whose motions doe carry nothing but Obedience and Iustice In the time of Tiberius they held their finger on their mouthes but Augustus permitted them to tell him his faults Hee thanked the Censors did them good and which is more he corrected himselfe This Crowne hath had no Tiberiusses but many Augustusses Hee which hath begunne to make the most magnanimious Branch of Bourbon to waxe greene and flourish will succeed as well in goodnesse and iustice as in the Scepter A man cannot speake more mildely of so great a mischiefe Some haue said of old that Kings must haue words of silke But in this matter there must bee words of gall of wormewood tart pricking And what can be said too sharpely too boldly thereupon Euery one knowes that your Maiestie hath found this miserable disorder of Duells and haue gone about to remedie it by holy Ordinances as your Maiesties Predecessors Henry 2. Charles the 9. Henry 3. haue done Euery one knowes how your Maiestie is displeased at it Euery one knowes that this violence is produced by the libertie which so long and so wofull ciuill wars as haue been these forty yeares in this Kingdome hath brought which haue been spunges sucking all sorts of confusions especially in these last times the very sinke of times past and of all humane malice So wee doe assure our selues that your Maiestie will take in good part what wee shall present vnto you in this behalfe seeing that your Maiestie doth desire withall your affection and power to redresse it Sir when any man offends you he is accused of high Treason and presently punished and there is nothing more reasonable If any Prince of your Realme or Stranger would be so presumptuous to giue pardons he had need bee stronger to vsurpe that Iurisdiction vpon your Maiestie and so hee should be a Tyrant If he were weaker hee would be mocked Yet that is not all hee should be rigorously punished for it You would bee loath neither were it iust that any should encroach vpon your Authoritie why because you are the Image of God that doth represent his greatnes and iustice The symmetries of his Image and of his principall Type ought to be obserued In the meane time you giue pardons against the Law of GOD and Man against the Diuine Law for the Commandements doe expressely forbid them against the humane Law for as much as it cuts the knot of publike societie and is quite contrary to the order of all the Estates of Christendome Wee speake that which your Magistrates your Confessors and all the pillers of the Catholique romish Church are bound especially to admonish you of It is for your seruice it is for the common good it is for the safetie of your soule Pardon great King giue vs leaue if it be your pleasure to tell you Your Pardons are grounded neither vpon Reason Example nor Authoritie Vpon Reason not at all nay on the contrary they doe destroy and demolish the magnificent edifice built by diuine Iustice in all her proportions and dimensions Vpon example In no wise for no Kingdomes no Common-wealths doe suffer these bloody and horrible acts fitter for the most barbarous heathen then for them that vaunt themselues to be the most Christian Christians Vpon Authoritie No all the Ciuill and Canonicall Lawes are directly repugnant thereunto and these were established for the common good Let vs looke into the profit of this spirituall madnesse Let vs enquire of experience what commoditie comes of it to the Common-weale So many houses desolated wholly ruinated so many widowes so many orphanes so many sutes so many quarrels or rather an eternitie of Quarrels These are the fruites of this mortall tree most bitter fruits and a lamentable tree which groweth continually by his losse flourisheth in his winter and whose greennesse will drie vp his rootes There is not almost any house in France where this marke of the wrath of God is not read in great Characters in Characters of blood Nothing but teares mournefull lights sighes and tombes In what time euen when all the Kingdome els are at quiet In what age euen in the most flourishing age of life For what subiect For false imaginations for fantasies Euery thing is sufficient to make these quarrellers goe into the field be the occasion great or small They be like the Naphta of Babylon which takes fire as farre off as it is presented They haue their hearts and spirits full of blood For a glasse of water for gloues for silke stockins for a feather for a crabbed looke for a thing of nothing they are ready to cut throats They which haue receiued great hurts are mooued vpon the least change of the time and these wretches bee prouoked by the least occasion to go loose their bodies and soules not knowing how nor why Doe they not goe about to kill one another for that which is not yet in nature and which they as little know as the day of iudgement It is an exorbitant frensie Whosoeuer would consider all should enter into a profound depth one folly hath so begotten others what vanitie what presumption what brabling language what brauadoes of ostentation wherefore is all this good The words are foolish and the effects prodigious we are ashamed to speake it There haue been some who hauing their enemie vnder them haue held their weapon at their throat and with execrable blasphemies bidding them pray to God haue therewithall killed them what Christian vertue is this call you this Gentilitie count you this to be aboue the common sort The most eager are lost by these light occasions many times the most valiant and almost at all times the most happy and most at hearts ease What pitty what desolation is this After so much care had to bring them vp euen when they beginne to know the light and
the good manners the conscience or the Honour of a Body it ought to be put in the first point If it bee honest and that it doth not regard these three heads we must laugh as others doe learne to talke or to be patient and he that is too weake shall take some refrigeratiue drugs or else he must depriue himselfe of the societie of men Let them that shall challenge be condemned to die and let their goods be confiscate They are a thousand times more punishable then those that are troubled beeing invenomed by the imagination of the offence For these there is some feeble shadow of excuse but none for the other whether they fight or no they be alwaies the principall instruments of the disaster The first motiues be not in the power of man whose fraile choller and blood doe soueraignly command him Being out of himselfe full of blindnesse he sweares his owne ruine and vses himselfe like a stranger as an enemie as being no more his owne but his furious passions and almost alwayes depending more of an others opinion then of his owne knowledge and least of all of reason He is for that time in some sort excusable Let men that are wronged or doe beleeue they are wronged vpon heate runne to their sword be possessed be transported with fury and goe about to hurt themselues that is humane and practised euery where But if they go to their death after they haue had time to digest their choller vpon cold blood against their own conscience knowing that they doe cuill that is deuillish and not practised in any place of the World but in this Realme From this let vs draw a consequence The parties offended are not without blame and without crime when they come to such effects lesse then ought they to be so who doe execute them not being wronged This consideration hath made that since the last Edict of Fountaine-blean no man hath fought with a second at least very few for they haue been ashamed to put in hazard the life of their friend without any occasion In fight it is necessary that the blood be troubled Now this is a beginning to take the Duell quite away the reason because that heretofore it would haue been suspected yea a shame to sight without a second So your Edict and the knowledge of this folly haue corrected this abuse The seconds then are taken away as a barbarous thing The conclusion of this speach is notable Euen as it hath been a custome not to employ a mans friend in a matter of iniustice and impietie so may a man accustome himselfe to demaund reason of wrongs as we haue said Time brings all order corrects all and mischiefes goe vp and downe by degrees Let euery seruant that shall carry a Bill or Challenge of defiance be hanged When they haue been ashamed to lead their friends into the Churchyard and to employ them they haue recourse to the bill of defiance If the remedie that wee propound be not sufficient there is no need to seeke any other Let them that shall fight in Duell be degraded from Nobility and them and their posteritie declared infamous let their houses bee rased and their goods confiscate They that shall die let them not be buried but drawne through the streetes and then cast vpon the lay-stall the common dunghill of a Towne There must be these strong sluces to stay the ouerflowing of these violent torrents For extreame mischiefes extreame remedies The example will bring feare to generous soules and apprehension of the ignominie for their name and for their houses will preuaile more with them then death So in a certaine towne of Greece the women transported with a deuillish madnesse did hang themselues so strangely that they knew not how to remedie it They deuised to make them be drawne after their death starke naked through the Towne This villanous and infamous spectacle stayed the despaire of others It were very fitting that Fencing were forbidden It is the mother of pride of rashnesse of vanity for them that haue more force or disposition then others or both and makes them with hope of grace more outragious and more insolent For ought else it is vnprofitable for a man is neuer helped therby in Combates in troupe either against strangers or his owne Yet it may bee vsed for an exercise as Tennis and such like and would doe no great hurt if the order which we propound were obserued It is well enough known what mischiefe this exercise hath brought The Fencers at Rome desperate men condemned men made the people sport with the losse of their liues These new Fencers make the enemies of the Estate merry and make the people of France to weepe They are full of winde and smoake with these great words to ward to shift away to enter to plunge or thrust farre into to incartade vpon the left foot to digge into to freeboote They thinke all the world are indebted to them Can there be any thing more weake more impertinent These Sir are directions that we thinke fit to smother quite this wicked monster if they be well obserued with denying of pardon and other lawes necessary which your Maiestie can much better establish assisted with the Officers of her Crowne and other Lords of her Counsell They that dwell neere the violent fall of waters from the riuer Nile doe not heare the noyse and the wife of the Tyrant of Syracusa perceiued not the default of her husband the one is an effect of custome the other of ignorance And a pernitious habite for want of iudgement hath made the French deafe and obstructed without reason without sence like frantickes like them that haue the Lethargie not willing to vnderstand not able to comprehend the deplorable estate that vanity hath brought them vnto The Frenchmen be worse then the Heathen in time past They sacrificed euery yeare to their gods some humane creature these doe sacrifice many euery day to their blindnes and to their furies which they hold for their god They did it to appease their anger these doe it to kindle it more They did it for the conseruation of the publique these for the ruine of it They are more sauage then the sauages of America They eate men but they are either strangers or their enemies these kill themselues among themselues kinred neighbours friends conuersing together and then are eaten by confiscations and mulcts They doe it not knowing the mischiefe these doe it knowing and reproouing it They doe it vpon some cause these doe it for the winde for a shadow for imagination They that doe wickednesse hide themselues seeke darkenes and the French committing execrable murthers for which there is neither Diuine nor Humane ground doe runne vpon the Theatre in the sight of the Sunne before the house of the Flower de Luce to sacrifice themselues to the end that the wicked fact being more manifest more exemplary may be more scandalous and consequently lesse
pardonable before God and Men. This is to cut a purse before the Prouost to coyne money in open market and to serue as a false witnesse before the Magistrate In a word it is properly to mocke God and their King Who be they that precipitate themselues by these mischieuous occasions The creame the quintessence the floure the suttle of the suttle they that tearme themselues of the race of Iupiter who despise all the rest as the lees and the mire and discourse so hotly of Honour of Vertue of Reputation But yet such as are the most firme and most necessarie pillers of the Estate This is extrauagant Yet they are oftentimes those who haue reason to content themselues with the reputation which they haue bought by a thousand hazards in iust and lawfull occasions Yet for all that they cast themselues with bowed heads vpon these which they embrace with passion as if they were famished for Honour whereas they should enioy that which they haue acquired with so good assurance They do like Aesop his dog they leaue the body for the shadow the solid glory for that which is fantasticall They likewise runne the fortune of Ixion who in stead of Iuno had to doe with a cloud In the end all these proud vanities bee reduced into clouds of vanity and most commonly the miserable wheele of shame and losse remaines with them for a full recompence We are simple shadowes and cloudes that haue no disguise Your Maiesty will not be displeased Sir that we speake without flattery you neuer loued it They doe not often tell Kings the truth It is with that as it was ere while with your treasure when as fifty came to fiue They disguise it They plaister it before it hath passed so many hands so many conuerts with a lie with passion with cunning you haue nothing but the shadow Flattery is a mortall plague cheifely in a man of state that is in credit with his Master such a one neuer speakes true A coozening of greatest consequence and worthy of punishment These parasites are very pernicious We then that haue nothing but simplicity will speake truely They call the Kings of France most Christian ô excellent ô venerable title It surpasseth the magnificence of all the Diadems and Thyaras of the world This Diuine title hath beene attributed for some great causes to your auncient predecessors They had well deserued it But the disorders the Eclipses of ciuill warres haue much shaken and much obscured the foundations and light thereof Among such a prodigious multitude of arguments as strangers aleadge this holds the first ranke that the Nobility is abandoned to butchery by the Prince It is true as we haue said that your Maiesty haue found this disorder and many others which it desireth to take away It is your Maiesties greatest ambition What marke is it say they of most Christian to suffer such impieties This is the shamefull reproach they giue to all France They be miserable sacrifices that you offer daily so freely to death Is it not because you are more ashamed of the censure of mad men who haue put dreames and giddy conceits for principles of Honour then for feare to be rebells to God You would not doe that for his glory which you doe for the opinion of braine-sickemen You would not for that suffer a scratch And you are paid according to your deserts For after your death the most part of your inward friends and euen those who in appearance doe fauour so wicked a custome doe make a conscience to assist at your funeralls to lament you to speake of you yea those who the next day after would hazard themselues for as feeble an occasion They lift vp the shoulders turne the eyes knock with hands and feet grieuing and deploring this end You are to feele eternall punishment and you make your memorie also infamous to posteritie Had it not been better neuer to haue seene light You are farre from your accompt if you beleeue that your name is thereby more famous or more illustrious If you knewe the iudgement that they make of your end you would die yet an other time Some doe attribute these effects to enuie others to reuenge others to a foule and furious passion of loue the most part to the hope to remaine victorious by the aduantages of naturall force or dexteritie some to the hope to be hindred There is no mention of vertue in these actions How abiect how shamefull a thing it is And all men generally speakes of them as it were of dogs and beares that should strangle one an other Is it not a triumphant Epitaph to celebrate the last effects of men what men Such as thinke themselues aboue other men by brutish comparisons Proude soules mad soules If you could againe reuest your bodies how you would despise these actions how you would be offended with your selues how you would hate your false iudgements and your abhominable resolutions No man praiseth you after your death no man esteemes you few bewailes you if it be not in consideration of the losse of your saluation and then you are alwayes blamed for beeing so irreligious If such an action were vertuous the Historiographers would make volumes thereof would praise you would exalt you you should finde Homers and Virgils But alas your history is as of people lost If any bewaile you it is as of damned soules These words should be an earth-quake for these miserable quarrellers If any write your accident it is for an example of terrour in time to come a mirrour of temerity and of the corruption of the age a testimony of the wrath of God and not to approoue much lesse to exalt so execrable a folly You that be vpon the bloody Theatre of France in danger euery moment to represent pittifull tragedies of your selues consider this Euery thing is done to some end euery ende is profitable delectable or honourable Let vs see for your contentment what ende they propound to themselues that hazard themselues without iust cause in Duell If both remaine there men presently play vpon this great string It is for their sinnes it is a iust iudgement of God If the one die and the other remaine conquerour let vs exactly calculate the honour and profit that they reape thereby For him that is dead there is none of these three ends Let vs enquire of the conquerour if he doe better his condition thereby He answers that he is forthwith in danger of his life executed if they take him in the meane time condemned proclaimed hang'd in picture What a hard thing is this to digest he must haue recourse to his Soueraigne the onely remedy is a Pardon He must haue it whatsoeuer it cost with so much toyle with so many submissions begging the fauour of great ones He must passe it with so much feare with so much disquiet with so many difficulties it is the true image of hell They that haue passed through the examination of
most Iust the Ballance to the most Valiant the Sword To whom may this Discourse of Valour be more lawfully dedicated then to your Maiestie Kings and People giue Her place They all with one consent doe giue Her this advantage without enuie knowing that Shee hath well deserued it It was dedicated to your Maiestie eleven yeares since since which time there hath not one yeare passed but I haue giuen your Maiestie some thing and you haue not giuen me any thing This disproportion did put me backe your Maiestie hauing done me the honour to say often That I was one of the olde seruants of her house and an honest man At this second Edition I would addresse it to some other I looked among Srangers among 〈◊〉 In the ende I found it behooued not to change the North. Strangers doe atttribute this glory vnto You to bee the perfect modell of Valour Your owne doe confesse that that which they know of this excellent Vertue hath been learned vnder the lightnings and invincible force of your Armes they bee Triumphes vnto them to haue profited in so famous a Schoole So I doe cansecrate it to your Maiestie for the second time The Worlds eyes are vpon your Maiestie for Valour The World lookes vpon you for Iustice Men doe attend to see how your Maiestie will effect the solemne Oath you made to take away the horrible confusion of Quarrels They hope for the execution of it and then the complaint which I make for my particular whereof I doe attribute the cause rather to my selfe then to your inclination absolutely Royall and Heroicall and that which Christendom makes for the generall shall be effaced by the most rare Trophy that euer was erected to any Prince of the earth Euen as you are the Greatest I pray God prosper your Maiestie for euer remayning SIR Your most humble most obedient and most faithfull subiect and seruant CHEVALIER A DISCOVRSE of VALOVR THe Ignorance of the Time is the first cause of all Mischiefes It is admired because it pleaseth followed as a Law a testimonie of the brutishnesse of the Age entertained by obstinacie an infallible argument of her continuance as also of the blindnes of soules To driue away the false appearance of Vertue and to bring in the true knowledge of it to please ones selfe with that which is only worthy of admiration to resolue to a firmenesse of the knowledge which wholly lighteneth the vnderstanding were very hard in a time wherein violence onely raigneth with hypocrisie wherein that aboue all is perfect which contents the weake and wherein error is defended by passion onely and reuerenced as an Oracle Yet we must not forbeare to take away the vayle to shew the way and to giue light to these darkenesses For him that doth enterprise it there can nothing happen worse For the others they that wil not vnblindfold themselues nor enter into a good course nor follow the true ship-lanterne though they remaine confused though they goe astray though they fall through this darkenesse yet will it be a pleasure to them whose soueraigne good is blindnes and error Among all the false opinions that haue slid into vs and that this beast without eies Ignorance hath brought in with so much authoritie there is not any one either more remarkeable or more important then this that they haue now of Valour of this Vertue the Queene of Vertues of this stable basis of soules of this rampier from mischiefes of this scourge of fortune of this contempt of death There is nothing more common amongst vs then these words of Valiant and Valour so many people are honoured with this venerable title and so few deserue it This is the Philosophers stone which men seeke no more But which hath been found by many thousands If this conquest be so easie let faire soules firme and full of iudgement speake their opinion thereof when I shall haue traced out the ground-plot of it There be three necessary pillars to this Vertue and builded with such symmetrie and proportion that if you take but one of them away you shall haue ruine in stead of building For her accomplishment and entire perfection the pieces required be comprised in this diuine number wherewith heauen is so well pleased they be matter forme compasse and the rule of this excellent Pallace of Wonders There be three principles necessary to the action of all Vertues and more particularly to this then to all the rest that is to say knowledge will and habitude Magnanimity greatnes of courage or Valour as men doe commonly call it hath for her subiect things which bring feare that is her iurisdiction there is the extent of her dominion He then that goeth in danger must first know it or else the effect that followeth shall be a worke of Fortune or of rashnes Will comes after which is the first issue of our affections and of our designes The third part is Habitude that is to say an action done many times These circumstances must be waighed to see in what principally consisteth a Vertue so diuine Knowledge which is the eye of the vnderstanding as this is of the soule this radiant light is first required as the guide which sheweth the way and the iust Sunne-dyall which conducteth by the true way with certaine knowledge Ignorance of the perill makes an infinite number hazard by want of Iudgement and experience that happneth to young men that are transported with passion who giue themselues no time to consider of that they enterprise It commeth also to others for that they doe not comprehend how hot a businesse it is Let vs leaue the first branch to represent the second in all the parts It is requisite that he that goeth to a danger which he knoweth which he hath well waighed that he doe it willingly and not be forced thereunto by any strange and forraine cause that no other consideration but onely the vertuous action doe put him forward Then Will the beginner of our actions comes after Knowledge This inflaming of our soule this violent loue to laudable things this first wheele which turneth all the parts of the soule it must be simple and pure not mooued but of it selfe It must not enterprise vpō that which is out of her gouernement that is it must follow that which is most perfect It must containe it selfe within her owne bounds and iurisdiction Vertue onely must be her sacred and inuiolable Law she knowes no other way but that If the intention to make a mans selfe immortall by renowne if desperate necessity if the defence of his life and of his liberty if the hope of gaine if loue if iealousie if ambition if despaire if obstinacy if enuie if the presence of the Prince and other forraigne causes doe make a man goe into a perillous action this is no action purely vertuous and worthy of praise Now Vertue is content with her selfe she hath all at her owne home she borroweth not is infinitely
rich with that which groweth in her owne territory her rents doe suffice her to operate according to her flight although in certaine things she may haue need of Fortune Yet I doe not say that she is in perfection or that she may be for then a man should put off his humanity and that were to seeke a Valour in the aire as the Commonwealth of Plato or the perfect Oratour of Cicero But I say that the first and principall end of him that doth vertuously ought to be an action simple and purely vertuous That should be the end of it Let not the first intention of him that goeth to an exploit of danger knowing it well be the hope of immortality but let him goe thereto although he should know that that effect would remaine in the graue that his birth and death should be both at a time that he should haue his reward with the wormes and sad silence let him not forbeare to doe well because it is his duty Among the heathen they were perswaded that they ought to die for the Commonwealth and that that voluntary sacrifice of their liues for the publique which they did in a moment brought vnto them a perpetuall sacrifice among men who put such men in the ranke of the gods It was not onely a prouocation it was a furious transportation a desperate madnes which rapt them to all sorts of dangers by the hope of immortality It was a sweete vsury So Curtius cast himselfe into the fearefull gulph of Rome to make the inundation cease which following the answer of the Oracle could not be stayed but by that meanes So Sceuola went into the Campe of Porsena to kill him thinking by the death of this King to make the Romanes victorious So Horace who was called one eyed since that remarkeable effect stayed alone vpon the bridge of the town of Rome and sustained the violent assault of enemies with astonishment of all So the three twin-brothers did fight against three puissant Frenchmen to decide the difference betweene them and the people of Rome by the mutuall consent of both armies It was the hope to make themselues immortall by a famous renowne It was the statues and temples of Honour which were promised them that caused in them the contempt of death If a man should haue come and said to the first poore Romane Knight When thou shalt be cast into this horrible gulph which threateneth all thy towne with shipwracke there shall be no more remembrance of thee thou shalt haue no other oblation but those of thy selfe and thy horse And thou Sceuola thou deceiuest thy selfe to thinke that the Romanes doe erect statues and altars to thy Vertue Horace if thou diest to defend thy Country the earth the common Sepulture or Tiber shall be thy proud monuments and the only trumpets of thy glory You twin-brothers who runne to death for the Commonwealth of Rome all the Laurells that shall remaine vnto you shall be the complaints of your kinred and the teares of your wiues It is to be presumed that Curtius vpon the brimme of that fearefull gulph would haue giuen a musroll to his horse The second beeing ready to roote out this barbarous Kings soule from his body would haue told him the secret in his care so farre would he haue been from puting his hand in the fire with so incredible a constancy The third would not haue lost his eye as he did he would haue bin troubled with a phillip as a man would say not caring otherwise for the iournall of Land which he should haue had in recompence of so admirable a prowesse He would haue cast himselfe at the beginning into the water all whole as he did at the end all peirced with blowes The three brothers would haue all eadged their wiues their children and the vnmeasurable greatnesse of those French-bodies to be exempt from fightings or rather would haue faigned themselues sicke But the desire to make themselues as gods to posterity made them hazard their liues by a foolish hope and a vaine opinion of immortality It was then a false Valour In that case the Honourable desire to serue the Commonwealth should onely haue put them forward the desire to doe well and not to get a famous name after death or recompence after victory Yet notwithstanding that is the least imperfect Valour which is built vpon the beleife of a perpetuall renowne a worke of faire laudable hope and worthy of reward because of the example and of the profit that may come thereby to Commonwealths The Turkes who are so couragious and make no account of their liues doe not deserue by this meanes in any fashion whatsoeuer the name of Valiant because they hazard themselues vpon the hope that they haue to tast the agreeable delights which are promised them in that pleasant Paradise of Mahomet They be workes of faith the strong wings of a false perswasion that hath so charmed them and hauing plucked out the eyes of their soule doe couer also the eyes of their body to make a bloody sacrifice of all Should they haue the apples and the faire maides of the Alcoron taken from them they would haue much more affection to life then now they haue of brutish resolution to death If the desire to gaine glory and to perpetuate a mans name doe not deserue a perfect praise comming alone in consideration much lesse is the effect which proceedeth from a desperate necessity worthy of Honour The banished men at Antwerp beeing but sixe thousand did wonders because they knew well that by the military Lawes of Spaine they should neuer finde mercy with their Prince no more then the English with the Spaniards at Sea who for that cause haue recourse to the cruell element of fire But if pardon might be for the one and courtesie for the other it is to be supposed they would not make so good reckoning of their skins There be a thousand considerations in this deed which would be too long to deduce of which we must waigh some onely Ambition Loue and Couetousnes doe produce great effects cheifely Ambition at the Courts of great ones It is furie that carrieth away the soule that troubleth the braine that bewitcheth a strange Magitian which ouerthroweth all and sometimes giues the lyons courage to Harts To enter into credit to be honoured and esteemed of great Ones and likewise of the Prince to attaine to gouernements There be some that doe despise death and oftentimes these three causes that I haue named doe concurre to end the tragedy the sooner All these effects be false Valours because they be forced and if not altogether at the least somewhat like those of pyoners It ariueth also vnto them as to those that play vpon Theaters who haue the headbands royall and the clubbe of Hercules but this is neither so heauie nor so massy as that of this great mans was neither doe these Purple-robes and these Scepters make them Kings that doe weare
assure his people hee shewed himselfe as hee is it was needfull for the small number that he had For the space of fowre moneths they within tooke more then those without which they knew wel The presence of this French Cesar serued for a mighty army he found himselfe sufficient His incomparable zeale to the publique good the necessity of the times and his diuine courage would haue it so All went therein according to the compasse of Vertue There was but one vnequall motion I put one knee to the ground too much courage was the most dangerous enemy both of himselfe and of France These high spirits wholly diuine which doe act by some celestial inspiration doe despise with disdaine the most dangerous accidents and doe beleeue that no mortall thing hath power ouer them The Commonwealth cries let there be regard had to the particular conseruation for the generall This is in this admirable Prince a defect which testifieth a rare perfection and a figure of humanity which surpasseth man I haue said here before that Magnamity was the Queene of Vertues I say shee is their Mother and hath engendred them all in our King It is by her that the spirit making no account of vulgar and common things penetrating the obscurities of ignorance and dispersing them can discerne the day from the night the good from the euill to be armed against all sorts of euents with the light of prudence It is shee that makes a man forgiue his enemies by setting his foot vpon the throate of that despitefull saluage beast reuenge so naturall to man a Vertue very extraordinary as being quite contrary to nature a triumph which surpasseth all the triumphs of Marius a glorious victory as rare as dificill It is shee who burying that deformed and insatiable furie couetousnes rendreth to euery one that which is his due not retaining the least displeasure for hauing the goods of another man beeing content with her selfe and not knowing any thing that may equall her It is she that driueth away Vanity despising all the smoakes which the pusilanimious doe adore Shee flies at the Kite and at the Riuer meddles with subiects that are most solide and thinkes that they which stay themselues at petty things be not capable of great ones Which is weaknes either they doe not knowe them which is ignorance or doe despise them which is folly It is she which makes no account of the flowers and fruites of fortune which be the riches that shee holds as one of her instruments wherewith she distributes magnificently thinking that to doe good to others and to make many happy makes a man approach nearest to God It is she that banisheth cruelty presumption pride and all the other deformities which makes the soule vnknowne to it selfe It is she that mockes at Fortune that afflicteth by her perseuerance the afflictions themselues that braueth necessity that laughes among hurts in the gulphes of death in the middest of blood fire sulphure the ship-pitch the harquebusses In insupportable maladies shee makes her selfe insupportable to the sicknes it selfe which cannot suffer her she findes her selfe inuincible throughout why because she beeing not accustomed to be subdued doth not know any thing in the world higher then her selfe she aspireth to heauen from whence shee beleeues shee is come shee makes enuie and all other follies of men to burst with despite which shee contemneth and driueth farre from her In good fortunes and happy successes which oftentimes makes the most temperate disordered she shewes her selfe modest So is she the Mother of courtesie and of mercy In the greatest crosses and most furious blowes of mischeifes shee is inconquerable high eleuated by her constant resolution Shee giues place to none either in bounty or force alwayes in the same ballance that is to say alwayes like her selfe It is no meruaile if fewe men be indued with this so perfect a Vertue seeing that all that is within and without in man is bent against it whole man is repugnant vnto it Nature as I haue said doth learne the quite contrary to that shee sheweth flesh and blood be her mortall enemies imagination and apprehension her capitall enemies She passeth further and makes her selfe place offring a terrible drinke of gall to the naturall distast of man That is the reason the Auncients did make Altars erect statues build Temples iudge of triumphes eleuate Pyramedes to the memory of them which had employed their liues for the Commonwealth The Scepters the Crownes and all the orders of Honour which be in the world were inuented for this end to giue courage to men to loose themselues for others These be the dazelings and the magicke inchauntments that humane weakenesse hath need of not onely to incite but to transport them to dificill and perillous actions so troublesome is this lesson to man Yet all this preparation is onely for courages least noble and for spirits least accomplished for Vertue regards nothing but her owne action shee sees no further shee is her selfe the bounds of her partition no other thing belonging to her shee giues ouer her part to weaknes neither hope of reward nor the apprehension of any blame nor the feare of punishment nor any other common or ordinary considerations doe mooue her One thing onely commaunds her with a wand the desire to doe well Yet my meaning is not that a vertuous man should refuse the iust Honours that are done vnto him as did the auncient Cato who would neuer suffer any Statues to bee erected for him but I say that should not be his intention but the consideration onely of the vertuous action The most magnanimious themselues haue need of some prouocation to awaken their spirits which otherwise would be more sleepie and more soft They be men It is a default of humanity Man that is wholly borne to miserie hath need of outward obiects to mooue his stupidity and to warme his ice Hee hath neede of a wheele with a great spring and a very sharpe fire But if there may be found any spirits of this diuine stampe it must be in this Kingdome Although ambition and anarice haue almost corrupted all There remaines yet of these incorruptible Virgins which be all of fire in laudable actions Among this faire Nobility of France there may be seene some who haue this Vertue within a little euen as I doe represent it and abundance that doe approach vnto it It is also the light of the world the quintescence of men the admiration of the earth the firme foundation of this puissant Estate the soule of the Royalty and the glistering day of this great Court She is borne wholly to Vertue Shee of whom I speake is her familiar Shee hath but too much transport in perill shee would cast her selfe into the deepe shee should rather be deiected shee flies with gallantnesse which carries her too often to timerity and to quarrells These be two maimes which doe hinder the perfection of this Vertue