jovial days, splendour and magnificence, sweet music, dainty fare, the
good things, and fat of the land, fine clothes, rich attires, soft
beds, down pillows are at his command, all the world labours for him,
thousands of artificers are his slaves to drudge for him, run, ride,
and post for him: [2218]Divines (for Pythia Philippisat) lawyers,
physicians, philosophers, scholars are his, wholly devote to his
service. Every man seeks his [2219]acquaintance, his kindred, to match
with him, though he be an oaf, a ninny, a monster, a goose-cap, uxorem
ducat Danaen, [2220]when, and whom he will, hunc optant generum Rex et
Regina—he is an excellent [2221]match for my son, my daughter, my
niece, &c. Quicquid calcaverit hic, Rosa fiet, let him go whither he
will, trumpets sound, bells ring, &c., all happiness attends him, every
man is willing to entertain him, he sups in [2222]Apollo wheresoever he
comes; what preparation is made for his [2223]entertainment? fish and
fowl, spices and perfumes, all that sea and land affords. What cookery,
masking, mirth to exhilarate his person?
[2224]Da Trebio, pone ad Trebium, vis frater ab illia
Ilibus?———
What dish will your good worship eat of?
[2225]———dulcia poma,
Et quoscunque feret cultus tibi fundus honores,
Ante Larem, gustet venerabilior Lare dives.
Sweet apples, and whate'er thy fields afford,
Before thy Gods be serv'd, let serve thy Lord.
What sport will your honour have? hawking, hunting, fishing, fowling,
bulls, bears, cards, dice, cocks, players, tumblers, fiddlers, jesters,
&c., they are at your good worship's command. Fair houses, gardens,
orchards, terraces, galleries, cabinets, pleasant walks, delightsome
places, they are at hand: [2226]in aureis lac, vinum in argenteis,
adolescentulae ad nutum speciosae, wine, wenches, &c. a Turkish
paradise, a heaven upon earth. Though he be a silly soft fellow, and
scarce have common sense, yet if he be borne to fortunes (as I have
said) [2227]jure haereditario sapere jubetur, he must have honour and
office in his course: [2228]Nemo nisi dives honore dignus (Ambros.
offic. 21.) none so worthy as himself: he shall have it, atque esto
quicquid Servius aut Labeo. Get money enough and command
[2229]kingdoms, provinces, armies, hearts, hands, and affections; thou
shalt have popes, patriarchs to be thy chaplains and parasites: thou
shalt have (Tamerlane-like) kings to draw thy coach, queens to be thy
laundresses, emperors thy footstools, build more towns and cities than
great Alexander, Babel towers, pyramids and Mausolean tombs, &c.
command heaven and earth, and tell the world it is thy vassal, auro
emitur diadema, argento caelum panditur, denarius philosophum conducit,
nummus jus cogit, obolus literatum pascit, metallum sanitatem
conciliat, aes amicos conglutinat.[2230]And therefore not without good
cause, John de Medicis, that rich Florentine, when he lay upon his
death-bed, calling his sons, Cosmo and Laurence, before him, amongst
other sober sayings, repeated this, animo quieto digredior, quod vos
sanos et divites post me relinquam, It doth me good to think yet,
though I be dying, that I shall leave you, my children, sound and rich:
for wealth sways all. It is not with us, as amongst those Lacedaemonian
senators of Lycurgus in Plutarch, He preferred that deserved best, was
most virtuous and worthy of the place, [2231]not swiftness, or
strength, or wealth, or friends carried it in those days: but inter
optimos optimus, inter temperantes temperantissimus, the most temperate
and best. We have no aristocracies but in contemplation, all
oligarchies, wherein a few rich men domineer, do what they list, and
are privileged by their greatness. [2232]They may freely trespass, and
do as they please, no man dare accuse them, no not so much as mutter
against them, there is no notice taken of it, they may securely do it,
live after their own laws, and for their money get pardons,
indulgences, redeem their souls from purgatory and hell itself,—clausum
possidet arca Jovem. Let them be epicures, or atheists, libertines,
Machiavellians, (as they often are) [2233]Et quamvis perjuris erit,
sine gente, cruentus, they may go to heaven through the eye of a
needle, if they will themselves, they may be canonised for saints, they
shall be [2234]honourably interred in Mausolean tombs, commended by
poets, registered in histories, have temples and statues erected to
their names,—e manibus illis—nascentur violae.—If he be bountiful in
his life, and liberal at his death, he shall have one to swear, as he
did by Claudius the Emperor in Tacitus, he saw his soul go to heaven,
and be miserably lamented at his funeral. Ambubalarum collegia, &c.
Trimalcionis topanta in Petronius recta in caelum abiit, went right to
heaven: a, base quean, [2235]thou wouldst have scorned once in thy
misery to have a penny from her; and why? modio nummos metiit, she
measured her money by the bushel. These prerogatives do not usually
belong to rich men, but to such as are most part seeming rich, let him
have but a good [2236]outside, he carries it, and shall be adored for a
god, as [2237]Cyrus was amongst the Persians, ob splendidum apparatum,
for his gay attires; now most men are esteemed according to their
clothes. In our gullish times, whom you peradventure in modesty would
give place to, as being deceived by his habit, and presuming him some
great worshipful man, believe it, if you shall examine his estate, he
will likely be proved a serving man of no great note, my lady's tailor,
his lordship's barber, or some such gull, a Fastidius Brisk, Sir
Petronel Flash, a mere outside. Only this respect is given him, that
wheresoever he comes, he may call for what he will, and take place by
reason of his outward habit.
But on the contrary, if he be poor, Prov. xv. 15, all his days are
miserable, he is under hatches, dejected, rejected and forsaken, poor
in purse, poor in spirit; [2238]prout res nobis fluit, ita et animus se
habet; [2239]money gives life and soul. Though he be honest, wise,
learned, well-deserving, noble by birth, and of excellent good parts;
yet in that he is poor, unlikely to rise, come to honour, office, or
good means, he is contemned, neglected, frustra sapit, inter literas
esurit, amicus molestus. [2240]If he speak, what babbler is this?
Ecclus, his nobility without wealth, is [2241]projecta vilior alga, and
he not esteemed: nos viles pulli nati infelicibus ovis, if once poor,
we are metamorphosed in an instant, base slaves, villains, and vile
drudges; [2242]for to be poor, is to be a knave, a fool, a wretch, a
wicked, an odious fellow, a common eyesore, say poor and say all; they
are born to labour, to misery, to carry burdens like juments, pistum
stercus comedere with Ulysses' companions, and as Chremilus objected in
Aristophanes, [2243] salem lingere, lick salt, to empty jakes, fay
channels, [2244]carry out dirt and dunghills, sweep chimneys, rub
horse-heels, &c. I say nothing of Turks, galley-slaves, which are
bought [2245]and sold like juments, or those African Negroes, or poor
[2246]Indian drudges, qui indies hinc inde deferendis oneribus
occumbunt, nam quod apud nos boves et asini vehunt, trahunt, &c.
[2247]Id omne misellis Indis, they are ugly to behold, and though erst
spruce, now rusty and squalid, because poor, [2248]immundas fortunas
aquum est squalorem sequi, it is ordinarily so. [2249]Others eat to
live, but they live to drudge, [2250]servilis et misera gens nihil
recusare audet, a servile generation, that dare refuse no
task.—[2251]Heus tu Dromo, cape hoc flabellum, ventulum hinc facito dum
lavamus, sirrah blow wind upon us while we wash, and bid your fellow
get him up betimes in the morning, be it fair or foul, he shall run
fifty miles afoot tomorrow, to carry me a letter to my mistress, Socia
ad pistrinam, Socia shall tarry at home and grind malt all day long,
Tristan thresh. Thus are they commanded, being indeed some of them as
so many footstools for rich men to tread on, blocks for them to get on
horseback, or as [2252]walls for them to piss on. They are commonly
such people, rude, silly, superstitious idiots, nasty, unclean, lousy,
poor, dejected, slavishly humble: and as [2253]Leo Afer observes of the
commonalty of Africa, natura viliores sunt, nec apud suos duces majore
in precio quam si canes essent: [2254]base by nature, and no more
esteemed than dogs, miseram, laboriosam, calamitosam vitam agunt, et
inopem, infelicem, rudiores asinis, ut e brutis plane natos dicas: no
learning, no knowledge, no civility, scarce common, sense, nought but
barbarism amongst them, belluino more vivunt, neque calceos gestant,
neque vestes, like rogues and vagabonds, they go barefooted and
barelegged, the soles of their feet being as hard as horse-hoofs, as
[2255]Radzivilus observed at Damietta in Egypt, leading a laborious,
miserable, wretched, unhappy life, [2256]like beasts and juments, if
not worse: (for a [2257]Spaniard in Incatan, sold three Indian boys for
a cheese, and a hundred Negro slaves for a horse) their discourse is
scurrility, their summum bonum, a pot of ale. There is not any slavery
which these villains will not undergo, inter illos plerique latrinas
evacuant, alii culinariam curant, alii stabularios agunt, urinatores et
id genus similia exercent, &c. like those people that dwell in the
[2258]Alps, chimney-sweepers, jakes-farmers, dirt-daubers, vagrant
rogues, they labour hard some, and yet cannot get clothes to put on, or
bread to eat. For what can filthy poverty give else, but [2259]beggary,
fulsome nastiness, squalor, contempt, drudgery, labour, ugliness,
hunger and thirst; pediculorum, et pulicum numerum? as [2260] he well
followed it in Aristophanes, fleas and lice, pro pallio vestem laceram,
et pro pulvinari lapidem bene magnum ad caput, rags for his raiment,
and a stone for his pillow, pro cathedra, ruptae caput urnae, he sits
in a broken pitcher, or on a block for a chair, et malvae, ramos pro
panibus comedit, he drinks water, and lives on wort leaves, pulse, like
a hog, or scraps like a dog, ut nunc nobis vita afficitur, quis non
putabit insaniam esse, infelicitatemque? as Chremilus concludes his
speech, as we poor men live nowadays, who will not take our life to be
[2261] infelicity, misery, and madness?
If they be of little better condition than those base villains,
hunger-starved beggars, wandering rogues, those ordinary slaves, and
day-labouring drudges; yet they are commonly so preyed upon by [2262]
polling officers for breaking the laws, by their tyrannising landlords,
so flayed and fleeced by perpetual [2263]exactions, that though they do
drudge, fare hard, and starve their genius, they cannot live in
[2264]some countries; but what they have is instantly taken from them,
the very care they take to live, to be drudges, to maintain their poor
families, their trouble and anxiety takes away their sleep, Sirac.
xxxi. 1, it makes them weary of their lives: when they have taken all
pains, done their utmost and honest endeavours, if they be cast behind
by sickness, or overtaken with years, no man pities them, hard-hearted
and merciless, uncharitable as they are, they leave them so distressed,
to beg, steal, murmur, and [2265] rebel, or else starve. The feeling
and fear of this misery compelled those old Romans, whom Menenius
Agrippa pacified, to resist their governors: outlaws, and rebels in
most places, to take up seditious arms, and in all ages hath caused
uproars, murmurings, seditions, rebellions, thefts, murders, mutinies,
jars and contentions in every commonwealth: grudging, repining,
complaining, discontent in each private family, because they want means
to live according to their callings, bring up their children, it breaks
their hearts, they cannot do as they would. No greater misery than for
a lord to have a knight's living, a gentleman a yeoman's, not to be
able to live as his birth and place require. Poverty and want are
generally corrosives to all kinds of men, especially to such as have
been in good and flourishing estate, are suddenly distressed,
[2266]nobly born, liberally brought up, and, by some disaster and
casualty miserably dejected. For the rest, as they have base fortunes,
so have they base minds correspondent, like beetles, e stercore orti, e
stercore victus, in stercore delicium, as they were obscurely born and
bred, so they delight in obscenity; they are not thoroughly touched
with it. Angustas animas angusto in pectore versant. [2267]Yet, that
which is no small cause of their torments, if once they come to be in
distress, they are forsaken of their fellows, most part neglected, and
left unto themselves; as poor [2268]Terence in Rome was by Scipio,
Laelius, and Furius, his great and noble friends.
Nil Publius Scipio profuit, nil ei Laelius, nil Furius,
Tres per idem tempus qui agitabant nobiles facillime,
Horum ille opera ne domum quident habuit conductitiam.[2269]
'Tis generally so, Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris, he is left
cold and comfortless, nullas ad amissas ibit amicus opes, all flee from
him as from a rotten wall, now ready to fall on their heads. Prov. xix.
1. Poverty separates them from their [2270]neighbours.
[2271]Dum fortuna favet vultum servatis amici,
Cum cecidit, turpi vertitis ora fuga.
Whilst fortune favour'd, friends, you smil'd on me,
But when she fled, a friend I could not see.
Which is worse yet, if he be poor [2272]every man contemns him, insults
over him, oppresseth him, scoffs at, aggravates his misery.
[2273]Quum caepit quassata domus subsidere, partes
In proclinatas omne recumbit onus.
When once the tottering house begins to shrink,
Thither comes all the weight by an instinct.
Nay they are odious to their own brethren, and dearest friends, Pro.
xix. 7. His brethren hate him if he be poor, [2274]omnes vicini
oderunt, his neighbours hate him, Pro. xiv. 20, [2275]omnes me noti ac
ignoti deserunt, as he complained in the comedy, friends and strangers,
all forsake me. Which is most grievous, poverty makes men ridiculous,
Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se, quam quod ridiculos homines
facit, they must endure [2276]jests, taunts, flouts, blows of their
betters, and take all in good part to get a meal's meat: [2277]magnum
pauperies opprobrium, jubet quidvis et facere et pati. He must turn
parasite, jester, fool, cum desipientibus desipere; saith
[2278]Euripides, slave, villain, drudge to get a poor living, apply
himself to each man's humours, to win and please, &c., and be buffeted
when he hath all done, as Ulysses was by Melanthius [2279]in Homer, be
reviled, baffled, insulted over, for [2280]potentiorum stultitia
perferenda est, and may not so much as mutter against it. He must turn
rogue and villain; for as the saying is, Necessitas cogit ad turpia,
poverty alone makes men thieves, rebels, murderers, traitors,
assassins, because of poverty we have sinned, Ecclus. xxvii. 1, swear
and forswear, bear false witness, lie, dissemble, anything, as I say,
to advantage themselves, and to relieve their necessities: [2281]
Culpae scelerisque magistra est, when a man is driven to his shifts,
what will he not do?
[2282]———si miserum fortuna Sinonem
Finxit, vanum etiam mendacemque improba finget.
he will betray his father, prince, and country, turn Turk, forsake
religion, abjure God and all, nulla tam horrenda proditio, quam illi
lucri causa (saith [2283]Leo Afer) perpetrare nolint. [2284]Plato,
therefore, calls poverty, thievish, sacrilegious, filthy, wicked, and
mischievous: and well he might. For it makes many an upright man
otherwise, had he not been in want, to take bribes, to be corrupt, to
do against his conscience, to sell his tongue, heart, hand, &c., to be
churlish, hard, unmerciful, uncivil, to use indirect means to help his
present estate. It makes princes to exact upon their subjects, great
men tyrannise, landlords oppress, justice mercenary, lawyers vultures,
physicians harpies, friends importunate, tradesmen liars, honest men
thieves, devout assassins, great men to prostitute their wives,
daughters, and themselves, middle sort to repine, commons to mutiny,
all to grudge, murmur, and complain. A great temptation to all
mischief, it compels some miserable wretches to counterfeit several
diseases, to dismember, make themselves blind, lame, to have a more
plausible cause to beg, and lose their limbs to recover their present
wants. Jodocus Damhoderius, a lawyer of Bruges, praxi rerum criminal.
c. 112. hath some notable examples of such counterfeit cranks, and
every village almost will yield abundant testimonies amongst us; we
have dummerers, Abraham men, &c. And that which is the extent of
misery, it enforceth them through anguish and wearisomeness of their
lives, to make away themselves; they had rather be hanged, drowned,
&c., than to live without means.
[2285]In mare caetiferum, ne te premat aspera egestas,
Desili, et a celsis corrue Cerne jugis.
Much better 'tis to break thy neck,
Or drown thyself i' the sea,
Than suffer irksome poverty;
Go make thyself away.
A Sybarite of old, as I find it registered in [2286]Athenaeus, supping
in Phiditiis in Sparta, and observing their hard fare, said it was no
marvel if the Lacedaemonians were valiant men; for his part, he would
rather run upon a sword point (and so would any man in his wits,) than
live with such base diet, or lead so wretched a life. [2287]In Japonia,
'tis a common thing to stifle their children if they be poor, or to
make an abortion, which Aristotle commends. In that civil commonwealth
of China, [2288]the mother strangles her child, if she be not able to
bring it up, and had rather lose, than sell it, or have it endure such
misery as poor men do. Arnobius, lib. 7, adversus gentes,
[2289]Lactantius, lib. 5. cap. 9. objects as much to those ancient
Greeks and Romans, they did expose their children to wild beasts,
strangle, or knock out their brains against a stone, in such cases. If
we may give credit to [2290]Munster, amongst us Christians in
Lithuania, they voluntarily mancipate and sell themselves, their wives
and children to rich men, to avoid hunger and beggary; [2291] many make
away themselves in this extremity. Apicius the Roman, when he cast up
his accounts, and found but 100,000 crowns left, murdered himself for
fear he should be famished to death. P. Forestus, in his medicinal
observations, hath a memorable example of two brothers of Louvain that,
being destitute of means, became both melancholy, and in a discontented
humour massacred themselves. Another of a merchant, learned, wise
otherwise and discreet, but out of a deep apprehension he had of a loss
at seas, would not be persuaded but as [2292]Ventidius in the poet, he
should die a beggar. In a word, thus much I may conclude of poor men,
that though they have good [2293]parts they cannot show or make use of
them: [2294]ab inopia ad virtutem obsepta est via, 'tis hard for a poor
man to [2295] rise, haud facile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat res
angusta domi. [2296]The wisdom of the poor is despised, and his words
are not heard. Eccles. vi. 19. His works are rejected, contemned, for
the baseness and obscurity of the author, though laudable and good in
themselves, they will not likely take.
Nulla placere diu, neque vivere carmina possunt,
Quae scribuntur atquae potoribus.———
No verses can please men or live long that are written by
water-drinkers. Poor men cannot please, their actions, counsels,
consultations, projects, are vilified in the world's esteem, amittunt
consilium in re, which Gnatho long since observed. [2297]Sapiens
crepidas sibi nunquam nec soleas fecit, a wise man never cobbled shoes;
as he said of old, but how doth he prove it? I am sure we find it
otherwise in our days, [2298] pruinosis horret facundia pannis. Homer
himself must beg if he want means, and as by report sometimes he did
[2299]go from door to door, and sing ballads, with a company of boys
about him. This common misery of theirs must needs distract, make them
discontent and melancholy, as ordinarily they are, wayward, peevish,
like a weary traveller, for [2300] Fames et mora bilem in nares
conciunt, still murmuring and repining: Ob inopiam morosi sunt, quibus
est male, as Plutarch quotes out of Euripides, and that comical poet
well seconds,
[2301]Omnes quibus res sunt minus secundae, nescio quomodo
Suspitiosi, ad contumeliam omnia accipiunt magis,
Propter suam impotentiam se credunt negligi.
If they be in adversity, they are more suspicious and apt to mistake:
they think themselves scorned by reason of their misery: and therefore
many generous spirits in such cases withdraw themselves from all
company, as that comedian [2302]Terence is said to have done; when he
perceived himself to be forsaken and poor, he voluntarily banished
himself to Stymphalus, a base town in Arcadia, and there miserably
died.
[2303]———ad summam inopiam redactus,
Itaque e conspectu omnium abiit Graeciae in terram ultimam.
Neither is it without cause, for we see men commonly respected
according to their means, ([2304]an dives sit omnes quaerunt, nemo an
bonus) and vilified if they be in bad clothes. [2305]Philophaemen the
orator was set to cut wood, because he was so homely attired,
[2306]Terentius was placed at the lower end of Cecilius' table, because
of his homely outside. [2307] Dante, that famous Italian poet, by
reason his clothes were but mean, could not be admitted to sit down at
a feast. Gnatho scorned his old familiar friend because of his apparel,
[2308]Hominem video pannis, annisque obsitum, hic ego illum contempsi
prae me. King Persius overcome sent a letter to [2309]Paulus Aemilius,
the Roman general; Persius P. Consuli. S. but he scorned him any
answer, tacite exprobrans fortunam suam (saith mine author) upbraiding
him with a present fortune. [2310]Carolus Pugnax, that great duke of
Burgundy, made H. Holland, late duke of Exeter, exiled, run after his
horse like a lackey, and would take no notice of him: [2311] 'tis the
common fashion of the world. So that such men as are poor may justly be
discontent, melancholy, and complain of their present misery, and all
may pray with [2312]Solomon, Give me, O Lord, neither riches nor
poverty; feed me with food convenient for me.
SUBSECT. VII.—_A heap of other Accidents causing Melancholy, Death of
Friends, Losses, &c._
In this labyrinth of accidental causes, the farther I wander, the more
intricate I find the passage, multae ambages, and new causes as so many
by-paths offer themselves to be discussed: to search out all, were an
Herculean work, and fitter for Theseus: I will follow mine intended
thread; and point only at some few of the chiefest.
_Death of Friends_.] Amongst which, loss and death of friends may
challenge a first place, multi tristantur, as [2313]Vives well
observes, post delicias, convivia, dies festos, many are melancholy
after a feast, holiday, merry meeting, or some pleasing sport, if they
be solitary by chance, left alone to themselves, without employment,
sport, or want their ordinary companions, some at the departure of
friends only whom they shall shortly see again, weep and howl, and look
after them as a cow lows after her calf, or a child takes on that goes
to school after holidays. Ut me levarat tuus adventus, sic discessus
afflixit, (which [2314]Tully writ to Atticus) thy coming was not so
welcome to me, as thy departure was harsh. Montanus, consil. 132. makes
mention of a country woman that parting with her friends and native
place, became grievously melancholy for many years; and Trallianus of
another, so caused for the absence of her husband: which is an ordinary
passion amongst our good wives, if their husband tarry out a day longer
than his appointed time, or break his hour, they take on presently with
sighs and tears, he is either robbed, or dead, some mischance or other
is surely befallen him, they cannot eat, drink, sleep, or be quiet in
mind, till they see him again. If parting of friends, absence alone can
work such violent effects, what shall death do, when they must
eternally be separated, never in this world to meet again? This is so
grievous a torment for the time, that it takes away their appetite,
desire of life, extinguisheth all delights, it causeth deep sighs and
groans, tears, exclamations,
(O dulce germen matris, o sanguis meus,
Eheu tepentes, &c.—o flos tener.)[2315]