report sometimes he did " go from door to door, and sing ballads, with a company of boyes about him." This common misery of theirs must needs distract, make them discontent and melancholy, as ordinarily they are, wayward, peevish, like a weary travailer, for "* Fames & mora bilem in nares conciunt," still murmuring and repining: Ob inopiam morosi sunt, quibus est malè, as Plutarch quotes out of Euripides, and that comical Poet well seconds, "Omnes quibus res sunt minùs secundæ, nescio quomodo 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 +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. "ad summam inopiam redactus, Itaque è conspectu omnium abijt Græciæ in terram ultimam.” Neither is it without cause, for we see men commonly respected according to their means, (an dives sit omnes quærunt, nemo an bonus) and vilified if they be in bad clothes. Philophæmen the Orator was set to cut wood, because he was so homely attired, Terentius was placed at lower end of Cecilius table, because of his homely outside. f Dantes 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, Hominem video pannis, annisque obsitum, hic ego illum contempsi pre me. King Persius overcome sent a letter to § Paulus Æmilius, the Roman General; Persius P. Consuli. Š. but he scorned him any answer, tacitè exprobrans fortunam suam (saith mine author) upbraiding him with a present fortune. Carolus Pugnax, that great Duke of Burgundy, made H. Holland, late Duke of Exeter, exil'd, run after his horse like a lackey, and would take Herodotus vita ejus. Scaliger in poct. Potentiorum ædes ostratim adiens, aliquid accipiebat, canens carmina sua, concomitante cum puerorum choro. *Plautus Ampl. Ter. Act. 4. Scen. 3. Adelph. Hegio. + Donat. vita d Plutarch. vita ejus. • Vita Ter. ejus. + Euripides. hb. 3. c. 21. de sale. Comineus. Ter. Eunuch. Act. 2. Scen. 2. Gomesius § Liv. dec. 9. 1. 2. no no notice of him: h'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 * Solomon, "Give me O Lord neither riches nor poverty; feed me with food convenient for me." SUBSECT. VII. An heap of other Accidents causing Melancholy, Death of Friends, Losses, &c. this Labyrinth of accidental causes, the farther I wander, the more intricate I find the passage, multe 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 thred; 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 *Vives well observes, post delicias, convivia, dies festos, many are melancholy after a feast, holy-day, 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 howle, and look after them as a Cow lowes after her calf, or a child takes on that goes to school after holidayes. Ut me levárat tuus adventus, sic discessus afflixit, (which + 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 then his appointed time, or break his houre, they take on presently with sighs and tears, he is either robed, or dead, some mischance or other is surely befaln him, they cannot eat, drinke, sleep, or be quiet in minde, 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, He that hath 51. per annum coming in more then others, scornes him that hath less, and is a better man. Prov. 30. 8. * De anima, cap. de mærore. +Lib. 12. epist. extinguisheth all delights, it causeth deep sighs and groans, tears, exclamations, ("O dulce germen matris, ô sanguis meus, howling, roaring, many bitter pangs, (* lamentis gemitùque & fæmineo ululatu Tecta fremunt) and by frequent meditation extends so far sometimes," they think they see their dead friends continually in their eyes," observantes imagines, as Conciliator confesseth he saw his mother's ghost presenting her self still before him. Quod nimis miseri volunt, hoc facilè credunt, still, still, still, that good father, that good son, that good wife, that dear friend runs in their mindes: Totus animus hac und cogitatione defixus est, all the year long, as + Pliny complains to Romanus, "me thinks I see Virginius, I hear Virginius, I talk with Virginius," &c. "Te sine, væ misero mihi, lilia nigra videntur, 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," as if that they to water would," and will not be comforted. They are gone, they are gone, Abstulit atra dies & funere mersit acerbo, What shall I do? Accendet gemitus, & acerbo verba dolori? Pectora, nec plenos avido sinit edere questus, Magna adeò jactura premit," &c. Fountains of tears who gives, who lends me groans, Mine eyes are dry, my breast in pieces torn, So Stroza Filius that elegant Italian Poet in his Epicedium, bewailes his father's death, he could moderate his passions in other matters, (as he confesseth) but not in this, he yeelds wholly to sorrow, "Nunc fateor do terga malis, mens illa fatiscit, *Virg. 4. Æn. * Patres mortuos coram astantes & filios, &c. Marcellus Donatus. +Epist. lib. 2. Virginium video audio defunctum cogito, alloquor, Calphurnius Græcus. § Chaucer. How 1 How doth Quintilian complain for the loss of his son, to despair almost: Cardan lament his only childe in his book de libris propriis, and elsewhere in many other of his tracts, * S. Ambrose his brother's death? an ego possum non cogitare de te, aut sine lachrymis cogitare? O amari dies, ó flebiles noctes, &c. Gregory Nazianzen that noble Pulcheria? O decorem, &c. flos recens, pullulans, &c. Alexander, a man of a most invincible courage, after Ephestion's death, as Curtius relates, triduum jacuit ad moriendum obstinatus, lay three daies together upon the ground, obstinate, to dye 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 untill she died.” "Rachael wept for her children, and would not be comforted because they were not." Mat. 2. 18. So did Adrian the Emperor bewaile his Antinous; Hercules, Hylas; Orpheus, Euridice; David, Absolon; (O my dear son Absolon) Austin his mother Monica, Niobe her children, insomuch that the Poets faigned her to be turned into a stone, as being stupified through the extremity of grief. "Egeus, signo lugubri filii consternatus, in mare se præcipitem dedit, impatient of sorrow for his sonne's death, drowned himself. Our late Physicians are full of such examples. Montanus consil. 242. had a patient troubled with this infirmitie, by reason of her husband's death many years together. Trincavelius l. 1. c. 14. hath such an other, almost in despair, after his mother's departure, ut se fermè præcipitem daret; and ready through distraction to make away himself: and in his 15. counsel, tels a story of one fifty years of age, "that grew desperate upon his mother's death;" and cured by Phalopius, 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 pittifully 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 shorne off, and many common souldiers to be slain, to accompany his dear Ephestion's death. Which is now practised amongst the Tartars, when a great Cham dieth, 10. or 12. thousand must be slain, men and horses, all 'Præfat. lib. 6. * Lib. de obitu Satyri fratris. m Ovid. Met. " Plut vita ejus. Nobilis matrona melancholica ob mortem mariti. P EX matris obitu in desperationem incidit. Mathias à Michou. Boter. Amphitheat. they г they meet; and among those the Pagan Indians, their wives and servants voluntary dye with them. Leo Decimus was so much bewailed in Rome after his departure, that as Jovius gives out, * 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, * but after his decease an iron season succeeded, barbara vis & fæda vastitas, & dira malorum omnium incommoda, wars, plagues, vastity, discontent. When Augustus Cæsar died, saith Paterculus, orbis ruinam timueramus, we were all afraid, as if heaven had fallen upon our heads. Budæus records, how that at Lewes the 12th his death, tam subita mutatio, ut qui priùs digito cœlum attingere videbantur, nunc humi derepentè serpere, sideratos esse diceres, they that were erst in heaven, upon a sudden, as if they had been planet strucken, lay groveling on the ground; "Concussis cecidere animis, seu frondibus ingens Sylva dolet lapsis" t they look't like cropt trees. ‡ At Nancy in Lorain, when Claudia Valesia, Henry the second French king's sister, and the Duke's wife deceased, the temples for fourty dayes were all shut up, no Prayers nor Masses, but in that room where she was. The Senators all seen in black, "and for a twelve months space throughout the city, they were forbid to sing or dance. § Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus Frigida (Daphne) boves ad flumina, nulla nec amnem How were we affected here in England for our Titus, delicia humani generis, Prince Henrie's immature death, as if all our dearest friends lives had exhaled with his? || Scanderbeg's death was not so much lamented in Epirus. In a word, as "he saith of Edward the first at the news of Edward of Caernervan his sonne's birth, immortaliter gavisus, he was immortally glad, may we say on the contrary of friends deaths, immortaliter gementes, we are divers of us as so many turtles, eternally dejected with it. T Lo Vertoman. M. Polus Venetus lib. 1. cap. 54. perimunt eos quos in via obvios habent, dicentes, Ite, & domino nostro regi servite in alia vita. Nec tam in homines insaniunt sed in equos, &c. * Vita ejus. * Lib. 4. vitæ ejus, auream ætatem condiderat ad humani generis salutem quum nos statim ab optimi principis excessu, verè ferream pateremur, famem, pestem, &c. 'Lib. 5. de assc. Ortelius Itinerario: ob annum integrum à cantu, tripudiis, & saltationibus tota civitas abstinere jubetur. § Virg. Barletius de vita & ob. Scanderbeg. lib. 13. hist. ม Mat. Paris. + Maph. || See There |