faemineo ululatu Tecta fremunt) and by frequent meditation extends so
far sometimes, [2317]they think they see their dead friends continually
in their eyes, observantes imagines, as Conciliator confesseth he saw
his mother's ghost presenting herself still before him. Quod nimis
miseri volunt, hoc facile credunt, still, still, still, that good
father, that good son, that good wife, that dear friend runs in their
minds: Totus animus hac una cogitatione defixus est, all the year long,
as [2318]Pliny complains to Romanus, methinks I see Virginius, I hear
Virginius, I talk with Virginius, &c.
[2319]Te sine, vae misero mihi, lilia nigra videntur,
Pallentesque rosae, nec dulce rubens hyacinthus,
Nullos nec myrtus, noc laurus spirat odores.
They that are most staid and patient, are so furiously carried headlong
by the passion of sorrow in this case, that brave discreet men
otherwise, oftentimes forget themselves, and weep like children many
months together, [2320]as if that they to water would, and will not be
comforted. They are gone, they are gone; what shall I do?
Abstulit atra dies et funere mersit acerbo,
Quis dabit in lachrymas fontem mihi? quis satis altos
Accendet gemitus, et acerbo verba dolori?
Exhaurit pietas oculos, et hiantia frangit
Pectora, nec plenos avido sinit edere questus,
Magna adeo jactura premit, &c.
Fountains of tears who gives, who lends me groans,
Deep sighs sufficient to express my moans?
Mine eyes are dry, my breast in pieces torn,
My loss so great, I cannot enough mourn.
So Stroza Filius, that elegant Italian poet, in his Epicedium, bewails
his father's death, he could moderate his passions in other matters,
(as he confesseth) but not in this, lie yields wholly to sorrow,
Nunc fateor do terga malis, mens illa fatiscit,
Indomitus quondam vigor et constantia mentis.
How doth [2321]Quintilian complain for the loss of his son, to despair
almost: Cardan lament his only child in his book de libris propriis,
and elsewhere in many of his tracts, [2322]St. Ambrose his brother's
death? an ego possum non cogitare de te, aut sine lachrymis cogitare? O
amari dies, o flebiles noctes, &c. Can I ever cease to think of thee,
and to think with sorrow? O bitter days, O nights of sorrow, &c.
Gregory Nazianzen, that noble Pulcheria! O decorem, &c. flos recens,
pullulans, &c. Alexander, a man of most invincible courage, after
Hephestion's death, as Curtius relates, triduum jacuit ad moriendum
obstinatus, lay three days together upon the ground, obstinate, to die
with him, and would neither eat, drink, nor sleep. The woman that
communed with Esdras (lib. 2. cap. 10.) when her son fell down dead.
fled into the field, and would not return into the city, but there
resolved to remain, neither to eat nor drink, but mourn and fast until
she died. Rachel wept for her children, and would not be comforted
because they were not. Matt. ii. 18. So did Adrian the emperor bewail
his Antinous; Hercules, Hylas; Orpheus, Eurydice; David, Absalom; (O my
dear son Absalom) Austin his mother Monica, Niobe her children,
insomuch that the [2323]poets feigned her to be turned into a stone, as
being stupefied through the extremity of grief. [2324]Aegeas, signo
lugubri filii consternatus, in mare se proecipitatem dedit, impatient
of sorrow for his son's death, drowned, himself. Our late physicians
are full of such examples. Montanus consil. 242. [2325]had a patient
troubled with this infirmity, by reason of her husband's death, many
years together. Trincavellius, l. 1. c. 14. hath such another, almost
in despair, after his [2326]mother's departure, ut se ferme
proecipitatem daret; and ready through distraction to make away
himself: and in his Fifteenth counsel, tells a story of one fifty years
of age, that grew desperate upon his mother's death; and cured by
Fallopius, fell many years after into a relapse, by the sudden death of
a daughter which he had, and could never after be recovered. The fury
of this passion is so violent sometimes, that it daunts whole kingdoms
and cities. Vespasian's death was pitifully lamented all over the Roman
empire, totus orbis lugebat, saith Aurelius Victor. Alexander commanded
the battlements of houses to be pulled down, mules and horses to have
their manes shorn off, and many common soldiers to be slain, to
accompany his dear Hephestion's death; which is now practised amongst
the Tartars, when [2327]a great Cham dieth, ten or twelve thousand must
be slain, men and horses, all they meet; and among those the
[2328]Pagan Indians, their wives and servants voluntarily die with
them. Leo Decimus was so much bewailed in Rome after his departure,
that as Jovius gives out, [2329]communis salus, publica hilaritas, the
common safety of all good fellowship, peace, mirth, and plenty died
with him, tanquam eodem sepulchro cum Leone condita lugebantur: for it
was a golden age whilst he lived, [2330]but after his decease an iron
season succeeded, barbara vis et foeda vastitas, et dira malorum omnium
incommoda, wars, plagues, vastity, discontent. When Augustus Caesar
died, saith Paterculus, orbis ruinam timueramus, we were all afraid, as
if heaven had fallen upon our heads. [2331]Budaeus records, how that,
at Lewis the Twelfth his death, tam subita mutatio, ut qui prius digito
coelum attingere videbantur, nunc humi derepente serpere, sideratos
esse diceres, they that were erst in heaven, upon a sudden, as if they
had been planet-strucken, lay grovelling on the ground;
[2332]Concussis cecidere animis, seu frondibus ingens
Sylva dolet lapsis———
they looked like cropped trees. [2333]At Nancy in Lorraine, when
Claudia Valesia, Henry the Second French king's sister, and the duke's
wife deceased, the temples for forty days were all shut up, no prayers
nor masses, but in that room where she was. The senators all seen in
black, and for a twelvemonth's space throughout the city, they were
forbid to sing or dance.
[2334]Non ulli pastos illis egre diebus
Frigida (Daphne) boves ad flumina, nulla nec amnem
Libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attigit herbam.
The swains forgot their sheep, nor near the brink
Of running waters brought their herds to drink;
The thirsty cattle, of themselves, abstained
From water, and their grassy fare disdain'd.
How were we affected here in England for our Titus, deliciae, humani
generis, Prince Henry's immature death, as if all our dearest friends'
lives had exhaled with his? [2335]Scanderbeg's death was not so much
lamented in Epirus. In a word, as [2336]he saith of Edward the First at
the news of Edward of Caernarvon his son's birth, immortaliter gavisus,
he was immortally glad, may we say on the contrary of friends' deaths,
immortaliter gementes, we are diverse of us as so many turtles,
eternally dejected with it.
There is another sorrow, which arises from the loss of temporal goods
and fortunes, which equally afflicts, and may go hand in hand with the
preceding; loss of time, loss of honour, office, of good name, of
labour, frustrate hopes, will much torment; but in my judgment, there
is no torture like unto it, or that sooner procureth this malady and
mischief:
[2337]Ploratur lachrymis amissa pecunia veris:
Lost money is bewailed with grief sincere.
it wrings true tears from our eyes, many sighs, much sorrow from our
hearts, and often causes habitual melancholy itself, Guianerius tract.
15. 5. repeats this for an especial cause: [2338]Loss of friends, and
loss of goods, make many men melancholy, as I have often seen by
continual meditation of such things. The same causes Arnoldus
Villanovanus inculcates, Breviar. l. 1. c. 18. ex rerum amissione,
damno, amicorum morte, &c. Want alone will make a man mad, to be Sans
argent will cause a deep and grievous melancholy. Many persons are
affected like [2339] Irishmen in this behalf, who if they have a good
scimitar, had rather have a blow on their arm, than their weapon hurt:
they will sooner lose their life, than their goods: and the grief that
cometh hence, continueth long (saith [2340]Plater) and out of many
dispositions, procureth an habit. [2341]Montanus and Frisemelica cured
a young man of 22 years of age, that so became melancholy, ab amissam
pecuniam, for a sum of money which he had unhappily lost. Sckenkius
hath such another story of one melancholy, because he overshot himself,
and spent his stock in unnecessary building. [2342]Roger that rich
bishop of Salisbury, exutus opibus et castris a Rege Stephano, spoiled
of his goods by king Stephen, vi doloris absorptus, atque in amentiam
versus, indecentia fecit, through grief ran mad, spoke and did he knew
not what. Nothing so familiar, as for men in such cases, through
anguish of mind to make away themselves. A poor fellow went to hang
himself, (which Ausonius hath elegantly expressed in a neat
[2343]Epigram) but finding by chance a pot of money, flung away the
rope, and went merrily home, but he that hid the gold, when he missed
it, hanged himself with that rope which the other man had left, in a
discontented humour.
At qui condiderat, postquam non reperit aurum,
Aptavit collo, quem reperit laqueum.
Such feral accidents can want and penury produce. Be it by suretyship,
shipwreck, fire, spoil and pillage of soldiers, or what loss soever, it
boots not, it will work the like effect, the same desolation in
provinces and cities, as well as private persons. The Romans were
miserably dejected after the battle of Cannae, the men amazed for fear,
the stupid women tore their hair and cried. The Hungarians, when their
king Ladislaus and bravest soldiers were slain by the Turks, Luctus
publicus, &c. The Venetians when their forces were overcome by the
French king Lewis, the French and Spanish kings, pope, emperor, all
conspired against them, at Cambray, the French herald denounced open
war in the senate: Lauredane Venetorum dux, &c., and they had lost
Padua, Brixia, Verona, Forum Julii, their territories in the continent,
and had now nothing left, but the city of Venice itself, et urbi quoque
ipsi (saith [2344]Bembus) timendum putarent, and the loss of that was
likewise to be feared, tantus repente dolor omnes tenuit, ut nunquam,
alias, &c., they were pitifully plunged, never before in such
lamentable distress. _Anno_ 1527, when Rome was sacked by Burbonius,
the common soldiers made such spoil, that fair [2345]churches were
turned to stables, old monuments and books made horse-litter, or burned
like straw; relics, costly pictures defaced; altars demolished, rich
hangings, carpets, &c., trampled in the dirt. [2346]Their wives and
loveliest daughters constuprated by every base cullion, as Sejanus'
daughter was by the hangman in public, before their fathers and
husbands' faces. Noblemen's children, and of the wealthiest citizens,
reserved for princes' beds, were prostitute to every common soldier,
and kept for concubines; senators and cardinals themselves dragged
along the streets, and put to exquisite torments, to confess where
their money was hid; the rest, murdered on heaps, lay stinking in the
streets; infants' brains dashed out before their mothers' eyes. A
lamentable sight it was to see so goodly a city so suddenly defaced,
rich citizens sent a begging to Venice, Naples, Ancona, &c., that erst
lived in all manner of delights. [2347]Those proud palaces that even
now vaunted their tops up to heaven, were dejected as low as hell in an
instant. Whom will not such misery make discontent? Terence the poet
drowned himself (some say) for the loss of his comedies, which suffered
shipwreck. When a poor man hath made many hungry meals, got together a
small sum, which he loseth in an instant; a scholar spent many an
hour's study to no purpose, his labours lost, &c., how should it
otherwise be? I may conclude with Gregory, temporalium amor, quantum
afficit, cum haeret possessio, tantum quum subtrahitur, urit dolor;
riches do not so much exhilarate us with their possession, as they
torment us with their loss.
Next to sorrow still I may annex such accidents as procure fear; for
besides those terrors which I have [2348]before touched, and many other
fears (which are infinite) there is a superstitious fear, one of the
three great causes of fear in Aristotle, commonly caused by prodigies
and dismal accidents, which much trouble many of us, (Nescio quid
animus mihi praesagit mali.) As if a hare cross the way at our going
forth, or a mouse gnaw our clothes: if they bleed three drops at nose,
the salt falls towards them, a black spot appear in their nails, &c.,
with many such, which Delrio Tom. 2. l. 3. sect. 4. Austin Niphus in
his book de Auguriis. Polydore Virg. l. 3. de Prodigas. Sarisburiensis
Polycrat. l. 1. c. 13. discuss at large. They are so much affected,
that with the very strength of imagination, fear, and the devil's
craft, [2349]they pull those misfortunes they suspect, upon their own
heads, and that which they fear, shall come upon them, as Solomon
fortelleth, Prov. x. 24. and Isaiah denounceth, lxvi. 4. which if
[2350]they could neglect and contemn, would not come to pass, Eorum
vires nostra resident opinione, ut morbi gravitas ?grotantium
cogitatione, they are intended and remitted, as our opinion is fixed,
more or less. N. N. dat poenas, saith [2351]Crato of such a one, utinam
non attraheret: he is punished, and is the cause of it [2352] himself:
[2353]Dum fata fugimus fata stulti incurrimus, the thing that I feared,
saith Job, is fallen upon me.
As much we may say of them that are troubled with their fortunes; or
ill destinies foreseen: multos angit praecientia malorum: The
foreknowledge of what shall come to pass, crucifies many men: foretold
by astrologers, or wizards, iratum ob coelum, be it ill accident, or
death itself: which often falls out by God's permission; quia daemonem
timent (saith Chrysostom) Deus ideo permittit accidere. Severus,
Adrian, Domitian, can testify as much, of whose fear and suspicion,
Sueton, Herodian, and the rest of those writers, tell strange stories
in this behalf. [2354]Montanus consil. 31. hath one example of a young
man, exceeding melancholy upon this occasion. Such fears have still
tormented mortal men in all ages, by reason of those lying oracles, and
juggling priests. [2355]There was a fountain in Greece, near Ceres'
temple in Achaia, where the event of such diseases was to be known; A
glass let down by a thread, &c. Amongst those Cyanean rocks at the
springs of Lycia, was the oracle of Thrixeus Apollo, where all fortunes
were foretold, sickness, health, or what they would besides: so common
people have been always deluded with future events. At this day, Metus
futurorum maxime torquet Sinas, this foolish fear, mightily crucifies
them in China: as [2356]Matthew Riccius the Jesuit informeth us, in his
commentaries of those countries, of all nations they are most
superstitious, and much tormented in this kind, attributing so much to
their divinators, ut ipse metus fidem faciat, that fear itself and
conceit, cause it to [2357]fall out: If he foretell sickness such a
day, that very time they will be sick, vi metus afflicti in
aegritudinem cadunt; and many times die as it is foretold. A true
saying, Timor mortis, morte pejor, the fear of death is worse than
death itself, and the memory of that sad hour, to some fortunate and
rich men, is as bitter as gall, Eccl. xli. 1. Inquietam nobis vitam
facit mortis metus, a worse plague cannot happen to a man, than to be
so troubled in his mind; 'tis triste divortium, a heavy separation, to
leave their goods, with so much labour got, pleasures of the world,
which they have so deliciously enjoyed, friends and companions whom
they so dearly loved, all at once. Axicchus the philosopher was bold
and courageous all his life, and gave good precepts de contemnenda
morte, and against the vanity of the world, to others; but being now
ready to die himself, he was mightily dejected, hac luce privabor? his
orbabor bonis?[2358]he lamented like a child, &c. And though Socrates
himself was there to comfort him, ubi pristina virtutum jactatio O
Axioche? where is all your boasted virtue now, my friend? yet he was
very timorous and impatient of death, much troubled in his mind,
Imbellis pavor et impatientia, &c. O Clotho, Megapetus the tyrant in
Lucian exclaims, now ready to depart, let me live a while longer.
[2359]I will give thee a thousand talents of gold, and two boles
besides, which I took from Cleocritus, worth a hundred talents apiece.
Woe's me, [2360] saith another, what goodly manors shall I leave! what
fertile fields! what a fine house! what pretty children! how many
servants! who shall gather my grapes, my corn? Must I now die so well
settled? Leave all, so richly and well provided? Woe's me, what shall I
do? [2361]Animula vagula, blandula, qua nunc abibis in loca?
To these tortures of fear and sorrow, may well be annexed curiosity,
that irksome, that tyrannising care, nimia solicitudo,
[2362]superfluous industry about unprofitable things, and their
qualities, as Thomas defines it: an itching humour or a kind of longing
to see that which is not to be seen, to do that which ought not to be
done, to know that [2363]secret which should not be known, to eat of
the forbidden fruit. We commonly molest and tire ourselves about things
unfit and unnecessary, as Martha troubled herself to little purpose. Be
it in religion, humanity, magic, philosophy, policy, any action or
study, 'tis a needless trouble, a mere torment. For what else is school
divinity, how many doth it puzzle? what fruitless questions about the
Trinity, resurrection, election, predestination, reprobation,
hell-fire, &c., how many shall be saved, damned? What else is all
superstition, but an endless observation of idle ceremonies,
traditions? What is most of our philosophy but a labyrinth of opinions,
idle questions, propositions, metaphysical terms? Socrates, therefore,
held all philosophers, cavillers, and mad men, circa subtilia
Cavillatores pro insanis habuit, palam eos arguens, saith
[2364]Eusebius, because they commonly sought after such things quae nec
percipi a nobis neque comprehendi posset, or put case they did
understand, yet they were altogether unprofitable. For what matter is
it for us to know how high the Pleiades are, how far distant Perseus
and Cassiopeia from us, how deep the sea, &c., we are neither wiser, as
he follows it, nor modester, nor better, nor richer, nor stronger for
the knowledge of it. Quod supra nos nihil ad, nos, I may say the same
of those genethliacal studies, what is astrology but vain elections,
predictions? all magic, but a troublesome error, a pernicious foppery?
physic, but intricate rules and prescriptions? philology, but vain
criticisms? logic, needless sophisms? metaphysics themselves, but
intricate subtleties, and fruitless abstractions? alchemy, but a bundle
of errors? to what end are such great tomes? why do we spend so many
years in their studies? Much better to know nothing at all, as those
barbarous Indians are wholly ignorant, than as some of us, to be so
sore vexed about unprofitable toys: stultus labor est ineptiarum, to
build a house without pins, make a rope of sand, to what end? cui bono?
He studies on, but as the boy told St. Austin, when I have laved the
sea dry, thou shalt understand the mystery of the Trinity. He makes
observations, keeps times and seasons; and as [2365]Conradus the
emperor would not touch his new bride, till an astrologer had told him
a masculine hour, but with what success? He travels into Europe,
Africa, Asia, searcheth every creek, sea, city, mountain, gulf, to what
end? See one promontory (said Socrates of old), one mountain, one sea,
one river, and see all. An alchemist spends his fortunes to find out
the philosopher's stone forsooth, cure all diseases, make men
long-lived, victorious, fortunate, invisible, and beggars himself,
misled by those seducing impostors (which he shall never attain) to
make gold; an antiquary consumes his treasure and time to scrape up a
company of old coins, statues, rules, edicts, manuscripts, &c., he must
know what was done of old in Athens, Rome, what lodging, diet, houses
they had, and have all the present news at first, though never so
remote, before all others, what projects, counsels, consultations, &c.,
quid Juno in aurem insusurret Jovi, what's now decreed in France, what
in Italy: who was he, whence comes he, which way, whither goes he, &c.
Aristotle must find out the motion of Euripus; Pliny must needs see
Vesuvius, but how sped they? One loseth goods, another his life;
Pyrrhus will conquer Africa first, and then Asia: he will be a sole
monarch, a second immortal, a third rich; a fourth commands. [2366]
Turbine magno spes solicitae in urbibus errant; we run, ride, take
indefatigable pains, all up early, down late, striving to get that
which we had better be without, (Ardelion's busybodies as we are) it
were much fitter for us to be quiet, sit still, and take our ease. His
sole study is for words, that they be—Lepidae lexeis compostae, ut
tesserulae omnes, not a syllable misplaced, to set out a stramineous
subject: as thine is about apparel, to follow the fashion, to be terse
and polite, 'tis thy sole business: both with like profit. His only
delight is building, he spends himself to get curious pictures,
intricate models and plots, another is wholly ceremonious about titles,
degrees, inscriptions: a third is over-solicitous about his diet, he
must have such and such exquisite sauces, meat so dressed, so
far-fetched, peregrini aeris volucres, so cooked, &c., something to
provoke thirst, something anon to quench his thirst. Thus he redeems
his appetite with extraordinary charge to his purse, is seldom pleased
with any meal, whilst a trivial stomach useth all with delight and is
never offended. Another must have roses in winter, alieni temporis
flores, snow-water in summer, fruits before they can be or are usually
ripe, artificial gardens and fishponds on the tops of houses, all
things opposite to the vulgar sort, intricate and rare, or else they
are nothing worth. So busy, nice, curious wits, make that insupportable
in all vocations, trades, actions, employments, which to duller
apprehensions is not offensive, earnestly seeking that which others so
scornfully neglect. Thus through our foolish curiosity do we macerate
ourselves, tire our souls, and run headlong, through our indiscretion,
perverse will, and want of government, into many needless cares, and
troubles, vain expenses, tedious journeys, painful hours; and when all
is done, quorsum haec? cui bono? to what end?
[2367]Nescire velle quae Magister maximus
Docere non vult, erudita inscitia est.
_Unfortunate marriage_.] Amongst these passions and irksome accidents,
unfortunate marriage may be ranked: a condition of life appointed by
God himself in Paradise, an honourable and happy estate, and as great a
felicity as can befall a man in this world, [2368]if the parties can
agree as they ought, and live as [2369]Seneca lived with his Paulina;
but if they be unequally matched, or at discord, a greater misery
cannot be expected, to have a scold, a slut, a harlot, a fool, a fury
or a fiend, there can be no such plague. Eccles. xxvi. 14, He that hath
her is as if he held a scorpion, &c. xxvi. 25, a wicked wife makes a
sorry countenance, a heavy heart, and he had rather dwell with a lion
than keep house with such a wife. Her [2370]properties Jovianus
Pontanus hath described at large, Ant. dial. Tom. 2, under the name of
Euphorbia. Or if they be not equal in years, the like mischief happens.
Cecilius in Agellius lib. 2. cap. 23, complains much of an old wife,
dum ejus morti inhio, egomet mortuus vivo inter vivos, whilst I gape
after her death, I live a dead man amongst the living, or if they
dislike upon any occasion,
[2371]Judge who that are unfortunately wed
What 'tis to come into a loathed bed.