artificial wildernesses, green thickets, arches, groves, lawns,
rivulets, fountains, and such like pleasant places, like that
Antiochian Daphne, brooks, pools, fishponds, between wood and water, in
a fair meadow, by a river side, [3246]ubi variae, avium cantationes,
florum colores, pratorum frutices, &c. to disport in some pleasant
plain, park, run up a steep hill sometimes, or sit in a shady seat,
must needs be a delectable recreation. Hortus principis et domus ad
delectationem facia, cum sylva, monte et piscina, vulgo la montagna:
the prince's garden at Ferrara [3247]Schottus highly magnifies, with
the groves, mountains, ponds, for a delectable prospect, he was much
affected with it: a Persian paradise, or pleasant park, could not be
more delectable in his sight. St. Bernard, in the description of his
monastery, is almost ravished with the pleasures of it. A sick
[3248]man (saith he) sits upon a green bank, and when the dog-star
parcheth the plains, and dries up rivers, he lies in a shady bower,
Fronde sub arborea ferventia temperat astra, and feeds his eyes with
variety of objects, herbs, trees, to comfort his misery, he receives
many delightsome smells, and fills his ears with that sweet and various
harmony of birds: good God (saith he), what a company of pleasures hast
thou made for man! He that should be admitted on a sudden to the sight
of such a palace as that of Escurial in Spain, or to that which the
Moors built at Granada, Fontainebleau in France, the Turk's gardens in
his seraglio, wherein all manner of birds and beasts are kept for
pleasure; wolves, bears, lynxes, tigers, lions, elephants, &c., or upon
the banks of that Thracian Bosphorus: the pope's Belvedere in Rome,
[3249]as pleasing as those horti pensiles in Babylon, or that Indian
king's delightsome garden in [3250]Aelian; or [3251]those famous
gardens of the Lord Cantelow in France, could, not choose, though he
were never so ill paid, but be much recreated for the time; or many of
our noblemen's gardens at home. To take a boat in a pleasant evening,
and with music [3252]to row upon the waters, which Plutarch so much
applauds, Elian admires, upon the river Pineus: in those Thessalian
fields, beset with green bays, where birds so sweetly sing that
passengers, enchanted as it were with their heavenly music, omnium
laborum et curarum obliviscantur, forget forthwith all labours, care,
and grief: or in a gondola through the Grand Canal in Venice, to see
those goodly palaces, must needs refresh and give content to a
melancholy dull spirit. Or to see the inner rooms of a fair-built and
sumptuous edifice, as that of the Persian kings, so much renowned by
Diodorus and Curtius, in which all was almost beaten gold,
[3253]chairs, stools, thrones, tabernacles, and pillars of gold, plane
trees, and vines of gold, grapes of precious stones, all the other
ornaments of pure gold,
[3254]Fulget gemma floris, et jaspide fulva supellex,
Strata micant Tyrio———
With sweet odours and perfumes, generous wines, opiparous fare, &c.,
besides the gallantest young men, the fairest [3255]virgins, puellae
scitulae ministrantes, the rarest beauties the world could afford, and
those set out with costly and curious attires, ad stuporem usque
spectantium, with exquisite music, as in [3256]Trimaltion's house, in
every chamber sweet voices ever sounding day and night, incomparabilis
luxus, all delights and pleasures in each kind which to please the
senses could possibly be devised or had, convives coronati, delitiis
ebrii, &c. Telemachus, in Homer, is brought in as one ravished almost
at the sight of that magnificent palace, and rich furniture of
Menelaus, when he beheld
[3257]Aeris fulgorem et resonantia tecta corusco
Auro, atque electro nitido, sectoque elephanto,
Argentoque simul. Talis Jovis ardua sedes,
Aulaque coelicolum stellans splendescit Olympo.
Such glittering of gold and brightest brass to shine,
Clear amber, silver pure, and ivory so fine:
Jupiter's lofty palace, where the gods do dwell,
Was even such a one, and did it not excel.
It will laxare animos, refresh the soul of man to see fair-built
cities, streets, theatres, temples, obelisks, &c. The temple of
Jerusalem was so fairly built of white marble, with so many pyramids
covered with gold; tectumque templi fulvo coruscans auro, nimio suo
fulgore obcaecabat oculos itinerantium, was so glorious, and so
glistened afar off, that the spectators might not well abide the sight
of it. But the inner parts were all so curiously set out with cedar,
gold, jewels, &c., as he said of Cleopatra's palace in
Egypt,—[3258]Crassumque trabes absconderat aurum, that the beholders
were amazed. What so pleasant as to see some pageant or sight go by, as
at coronations, weddings, and such like solemnities, to see an
ambassador or a prince met, received, entertained with masks, shows,
fireworks, &c. To see two kings fight in single combat, as Porus and
Alexander; Canute and Edmund Ironside; Scanderbeg and Ferat Bassa the
Turk; when not honour alone but life itself is at stake, as the
[3259]poet of Hector,
———nec enim pro tergore Tauri,
Pro bove nec certamen erat, quae praemia cursus
Esse solent, sed pro magni viraque animaque—Hectoris.
To behold a battle fought, like that of Crecy, or Agincourt, or
Poitiers, qua nescio (saith Froissart) an vetustas ullam proferre
possit clariorem. To see one of Caesar's triumphs in old Rome revived,
or the like. To be present at an interview, [3260]as that famous of
Henry the Eighth and Francis the First, so much renowned all over
Europe; ubi tanto apparatu (saith Hubertus Veillius) tamque triumphali
pompa ambo reges com eorum conjugibus coiere, ut nulla unquam aetas tam
celebria festa viderit aut audieriti, no age ever saw the like. So
infinitely pleasant are such shows, to the sight of which oftentimes
they will come hundreds of miles, give any money for a place, and
remember many years after with singular delight. Bodine, when he was
ambassador in England, said he saw the noblemen go in their robes to
the parliament house, summa cum jucunditate vidimus, he was much
affected with the sight of it. Pomponius Columna, saith Jovius in his
life, saw thirteen Frenchmen, and so many Italians, once fight for a
whole army: Quod jucundissimum spectaculum in vita dicit sua, the
pleasantest sight that ever he saw in his life. Who would not have been
affected with such a spectacle? Or that single combat of [3261] Breaute
the Frenchman, and Anthony Schets a Dutchman, before the walls of
Sylvaducis in Brabant, anno 1600. They were twenty-two horse on the one
side, as many on the other, which like Livy's Horatii, Torquati and
Corvini fought for their own glory and country's honour, in the sight
and view of their whole city and army. [3262]When Julius Caesar warred
about the banks of Rhone, there came a barbarian prince to see him and
the Roman army, and when he had beheld Caesar a good while, [3263]I see
the gods now (saith he) which before I heard of, nec feliciorem ullam
vitae meae aut optavi, aut sensi diem: it was the happiest day that
ever he had in his life. Such a sight alone were able of itself to
drive away melancholy; if not for ever, yet it must needs expel it for
a time. Radzivilus was much taken with the pasha's palace in Cairo, and
amongst many other objects which that place afforded, with that
solemnity of cutting the banks of the Nile by Imbram Pasha, when it
overflowed, besides two or three hundred gilded galleys on the water,
he saw two millions of men gathered together on the land, with turbans
as white as snow; and 'twas a goodly sight. The very reading of feasts,
triumphs, interviews, nuptials, tilts, tournaments, combats, and
monomachies, is most acceptable and pleasant. [3264] Franciscus Modius
hath made a large collection of such solemnities in two great tomes,
which whoso will may peruse. The inspection alone of those curious
iconographies of temples and palaces, as that of the Lateran church in
Albertus Durer, that of the temple of Jerusalem in [3265]Josephus,
Adricomius, and Villalpandus: that of the Escurial in Guadas, of Diana
at Ephesus in Pliny, Nero's golden palace in Rome, [3266]Justinian's in
Constantinople, that Peruvian Jugo's in [3267]Cusco, ut non ab
hominibus, sed a daemoniis constructum videatur; St. Mark's in Venice,
by Ignatius, with many such; priscorum artificum opera (saith that
[3268]interpreter of Pausanias), the rare workmanship of those ancient
Greeks, in theatres, obelisks, temples, statues, gold, silver, ivory,
marble images, non minore ferme quum leguntur, quam quum cernuntur,
animum delectatione complent, affect one as much by reading almost as
by sight.
The country hath his recreations, the city his several gymnics and
exercises, May games, feasts, wakes, and merry meetings, to solace
themselves; the very being in the country; that life itself is a
sufficient recreation to some men, to enjoy such pleasures, as those
old patriarchs did. Diocletian, the emperor, was so much affected with
it, that he gave over his sceptre, and turned gardener. Constantine
wrote twenty books of husbandry. Lysander, when ambassadors came to see
him, bragged of nothing more than of his orchard, hi sunt ordines mei.
What shall I say of Cincinnatus, Cato, Tully, and many such? how they
have been pleased with it, to prune, plant, inoculate and graft, to
show so many several kinds of pears, apples, plums, peaches, &c.
[3269]Nunc captare feras laqueo, nunc fallere visco,
Atque etiam magnos canibus circundare saltus
Insidias avibus moliri, incendere vepres.
Sometimes with traps deceive, with line and string
To catch wild birds and beasts, encompassing
The grove with dogs, and out of bushes firing.
———et nidos aviumscrutari, &c.
Jucundus, in his preface to Cato, Varro, Columella, &c., put out by
him, confesseth of himself, that he was mightily delighted with these
husbandry studies, and took extraordinary pleasure in them: if the
theory or speculation can so much affect, what shall the place and
exercise itself, the practical part do? The same confession I find in
Herbastein, Porta, Camerarius, and many others, which have written of
that subject. If my testimony were aught worth, I could say as much of
myself; I am vere Saturnus; no man ever took more delight in springs,
woods, groves, gardens, walks, fishponds, rivers, &c. But
[3270]Tantalus a labris sitiens fugientia captat
Flumina;
And so do I; Velle licet, potiri non licet.[3271]
Every palace, every city almost hath its peculiar walks, cloisters,
terraces, groves, theatres, pageants, games, and several recreations;
every country, some professed gymnics to exhilarate their minds, and
exercise their bodies. The [3272]Greeks had their Olympian, Pythian,
Isthmian, Nemean games, in honour of Neptune, Jupiter, Apollo; Athens
hers: some for honour, garlands, crowns; for [3273]beauty, dancing,
running, leaping, like our silver games. The [3274]Romans had their
feasts, as the Athenians, and Lacedaemonians held their public
banquets, in Pritanaeo, Panathenaeis, Thesperiis, Phiditiis, plays,
naumachies, places for sea-fights, [3275]theatres, amphitheatres able
to contain 70,000 men, wherein they had several delightsome shows to
exhilarate the people; [3276] gladiators, combats of men with
themselves, with wild beasts, and wild beasts one with another, like
our bull-baitings, or bear-baitings (in which many countrymen and
citizens amongst us so much delight and so frequently use), dancers on
ropes. Jugglers, wrestlers, comedies, tragedies, publicly exhibited at
the emperor's and city's charge, and that with incredible cost and
magnificence. In the Low-Countries (as [3277]Meteran relates) before
these wars, they had many solemn feasts, plays, challenges, artillery
gardens, colleges of rhymers, rhetoricians, poets: and to this day,
such places are curiously maintained in Amsterdam, as appears by that
description of Isaacus Pontanus, rerum Amstelrod. lib. 2. cap. 25. So
likewise not long since at Friburg in Germany, as is evident by that
relation of [3278]Neander, they had Ludos septennales, solemn plays
every seven years, which Bocerus, one of their own poets, hath
elegantly described:
[3279]At nunc magnifico spectacula structa paratu
Quid memorem, veteri non concessura Quirino,
Ludorum pompa, &c.
In Italy they have solemn declamations of certain select young
gentlemen in Florence (like those reciters in old Rome), and public
theatres in most of their cities, for stage-players and others, to
exercise and recreate themselves. All seasons almost, all places, have
their several pastimes; some in summer, some in winter; some abroad,
some within: some of the body, some of the mind: and diverse men have
diverse recreations and exercises. Domitian, the emperor, was much
delighted with catching flies; Augustus to play with nuts amongst
children; [3280]Alexander Severus was often pleased to play with whelps
and young pigs. [3281]Adrian was so wholly enamoured with dogs and
horses, that he bestowed monuments and tombs of them, and buried them
in graves. In foul weather, or when they can use no other convenient
sports, by reason of the time, as we do cock-fighting, to avoid
idleness, I think, (though some be more seriously taken with it, spend
much time, cost and charges, and are too solicitous about it)
[3282]Severus used partridges and quails, as many Frenchmen do still,
and to keep birds in cages, with which he was much pleased, when at any
time he had leisure from public cares and businesses. He had (saith
Lampridius) tame pheasants, ducks, partridges, peacocks, and some
20,000 ring-doves and pigeons. Busbequius, the emperor's orator, when
he lay in Constantinople, and could not stir much abroad, kept for his
recreation, busying himself to see them fed, almost all manner of
strange birds and beasts; this was something, though not to exercise
his body, yet to refresh his mind. Conradus Gesner, at Zurich in
Switzerland, kept so likewise for his pleasure, a great company of wild
beasts; and (as he saith) took great delight to see them eat their
meat. Turkey gentlewomen, that are perpetual prisoners, still mewed up
according to the custom of the place, have little else beside their
household business, or to play with their children to drive away time,
but to dally with their cats, which they have in delitiis, as many of
our ladies and gentlewomen use monkeys and little dogs. The ordinary
recreations which we have in winter, and in most solitary times busy
our minds with, are cards, tables and dice, shovelboard, chess-play,
the philosopher's game, small trunks, shuttlecock, billiards, music,
masks, singing, dancing, Yule-games, frolics, jests, riddles, catches,
purposes, questions and commands, [3283]merry tales of errant knights,
queens, lovers, lords, ladies, giants, dwarfs, thieves, cheaters,
witches, fairies, goblins, friars, &c., such as the old woman told
Psyche in [3284]Apuleius, Boccace novels, and the rest, quarum
auditione pueri delectantur, senes narratione, which some delight to
hear, some to tell; all are well pleased with. Amaranthus, the
philosopher, met Hermocles, Diophantus and Philolaus, his companions,
one day busily discoursing about Epicurus and Democritus' tenets, very
solicitous which was most probable and came nearest to truth: to put
them out of that surly controversy, and to refresh their spirits, he
told them a pleasant tale of Stratocles the physician's wedding, and of
all the particulars, the company, the cheer, the music, &c., for he was
new come from it; with which relation they were so much delighted, that
Philolaus wished a blessing to his heart, and many a good
wedding,[3285] many such merry meetings might he be at, to please
himself with the sight, and others with the narration of it. News are
generally welcome to all our ears, avide audimus, aures enim hominum
novitate laetantur ([3286]as Pliny observes), we long after rumour to
hear and listen to it, [3287]densum humeris bibit aure vulgus. We are
most part too inquisitive and apt to hearken after news, which Caesar,
in his [3288]Commentaries, observes of the old Gauls, they would be
inquiring of every carrier and passenger what they had heard or seen,
what news abroad?
———quid toto fiat in orbe,
Quid Seres, quid Thraces agant, secreta novercae,
Et pueri, quis amet, &c.
as at an ordinary with us, bakehouse or barber's shop. When that great
Gonsalva was upon some displeasure confined by King Ferdinand to the
city of Loxa in Andalusia, the only, comfort (saith [3289]Jovius) he
had to ease his melancholy thoughts, was to hear news, and to listen
after those ordinary occurrences which were brought him cum primis, by
letters or otherwise out of the remotest parts of Europe. Some men's
whole delight is, to take tobacco, and drink all day long in a tavern
or alehouse, to discourse, sing, jest, roar, talk of a cock and bull
over a pot, &c. Or when three or four good companions meet, tell old
stories by the fireside, or in the sun, as old folks usually do, quae
aprici meminere senes, remembering afresh and with pleasure ancient
matters, and such like accidents, which happened in their younger
years: others' best pastime is to game, nothing to them so pleasant.
[3290]Hic Veneri indulget, hunc decoquit alea—many too nicely take
exceptions at cards, [3291]tables, and dice, and such mixed lusorious
lots, whom Gataker well confutes. Which though they be honest
recreations in themselves, yet may justly be otherwise excepted at, as
they are often abused, and forbidden as things most pernicious; insanam
rem et damnosam, [3292]Lemnius calls it. For most part in these kind of
disports 'tis not art or skill, but subtlety, cony-catching, knavery,
chance and fortune carries all away: 'tis ambulatoria pecunia,
[3293]———puncto mobilis horae
Permutat dominos, et cedit in altera jura.