French town; we will therefore rather treat in Hebrew, the language of Jerusalem, whereof your master is king: and I suppose you are therein as well skilled as we are in the French."

11. The inhabitants of Tarracon, as a glad presage of prosperous success, brought tidings to Augustus, that upon his altar a young palm-tree was suddenly sprung up; to whom he made this answer;" By this it appears how often you burn incense in our honour.”

12. Thomas Aquinas came to pope Innocent the Third, in whose presence they were at that time telling a great sum of money; "Thou seest, Thomas," said the pope, "that the church need not say, as she did at her beginning, Silver and geld have Inone." Thomas, without study, replied, "You say true, holy father ; nor can the church say now, as the ancient church said to the same cripple, Arise, walk, and be whole."

13. There was in the king's wardrobe a rich piece of arras representing the sea fight in 1683, and having the lively portraitures of the chief commanders wrought on the borders thereof. A captain, who highly prized his own service, missing his picture there, complained of the injury to his friend; professing of himself that he merited a place there as well as some others, seeing he was engaged in the midde of the fight."Be content,' quoth his friend ; 'thou hast been an old pirate, and art reserved for another hanging."

14. A great lord, in the reign of queen

Elizabeth, that carried a white staff in his hand, as the badge of his office, was spoke to by her majesty, to see that such a man had such a place conferred upon him. "Madam," said that lord, the disposal of that place was given to me by your majesty at such time as I received this stat." The queen replied, "That she had not so bestowed any thing but that she still reserved herself of the Quirum." Of the Quarum, Madam?" said the earl. At which the queen,

somewhat moved, snatched his staff out of his hand : "And, sir,” said she, “ before you have this again, you shall understand, that I am of the Quoram, Quarum, Quorum :" and so kept his staff for two or three days, till, upott his submission, it was restored to him.

15. Alexander Nequam (or bad in English) was born at Saint Alban's, an excllent philosopher, rhetorician, poet, and a deep divine, insomuch that he was called Ingenii Miraculum. His name gave occasion to the wits of the age to be merry with. Nequam had a mind to become a monk in Saint Alban's, the town of his nativity; and thus laconically wrote to the abbot thereof for leave

Si vis veniam, sin autem, tu autem. To whom the abbot returned:

well

16. The pope having brought under his power the marquisate of Ancona, sent his legate to the Venetians, to know of them by what right they attributed to their seigniory alone the customs and other jurisdictions of the Adriatic sea, seeing they could show no grants or char ters for the same? They answered him cunningly, "That they wondered why any man would require them to show their privileges, seeing the popes had the original thereof, and kept them in their chests as most precious reliques; that it was an easy matter to find them, if they would look well upon the donation of Constantine, on the back-side whereof their privileges were written in great let ters.' This answer is fathered upon Jerome Donatus, ambassador of Venice: when pope Alexander the Sixth asked hi merrily, "Of whom the Venetians held those rights and customs of the sea?" he answered him presently, "Let your holiness shew me the charter of St. Peter's patrimony, and you shall find on the back thereof a grant made to the Venetians of the Adriatic sea."

17. It was the saying of a merry conceited fellow," Thatin Christendom there were neither scholars enough, gentlemen enough, nor Jews enough" and when answer was made, that of all these there was rather too great a plenty than any scarcity, he replied, that," If there were scholars enough, so many would not be double or treble beneficed; if gentlemen enough, so many peasants would not be ranked amongst the gentry; and if Jews enough, so many Christians would not profess usury."

18. A certain Roman knight came to Adrianus the emperor, to request a favour of him, but received a denial. The knight was old, and had a very grey beard: but a few days after, having coloured his beard and hair black, and put himself into a more youthful garb, he presented himself again to the emperor, about the same business. The emperor perceiving the fraud: "It is," said he, "but a few days since, that I denied

it to your father, and it will not be fair for me now to grant it to the son."

19. King Autigonus came to visit Antagoras a learned man, whom he found in his tent busied in the cooking of congers. "Do you think," said Antigonus, "that Homer, at such time as he wrote the glorious actions of Agamemnon, was boiling congers?" "And do you think," said the other, "that Agamemnon, when he did those actions, used to concern himself, whether any camp boiled congers or

man in his

not?"

20. Raphael Urbanus, an excellent painter, was reprehended by two cardi nals, for that he had represented the faces of St. Peter and St. Paul with an unbecoming and unwonted redness upon them. He replied, that "he had not expressed them in such a paleness and leanness in their faces as they had contracted (while living) with their fastings and troubles; but that he had imitated that adventitious redness which came upon them now they were amongst the blessed, where they blushed at the manners and life of their successors."

21. Licinius Crassus is said to have loved a lamprey he kept in a pond, in such manner, that when it died he wept, and put on mourning apparel; whereupon his colleague Domitius (being one day in altercation with him) spitefully asked him, "Are not you he who shed so many tears for the death of a lamprey?" The other as bitterly replied, "And are not you he who have buried three wives without shedding so much as one tear?"

22. I well knew that wealthy man, who being a great improver of ground, used to say, that "he would never come into that place which might not be made better;" to which one tartly returned, "that it should seem then, that he would never go to heaven, for that place was at the best."

23. I remember when I was at Cambridge, saith the same doctor Fuller,

some

See, this little mistress here
Did never sit in Peter's chair,
Or a triple crown did wear,

And yet she is a Pope.
No benefice she ever sold,
Nor did dispense with sins for gold,
She hardly is a se'nnight old,

And yet she is a Pope.
No king her feet did ever kiss,
Or had from her worse look than this,
Nor did she ever hope

To saint one with a rope,

And yet she is a Pope.

A female Pope, you'll say, a second Joan; No sure, she is Pope Innocent, or none.

CHAP. LII.

Of Recreations some Men have delighted in, or addicted themselves unto at leisur: Hours, or that they have been immoderate in the use of

THE bow that is always kept bent, will suffer a great abatement in the strength of it; and so the mind of man would be too much subdued, and humbled, and wearied, should it be always intent upon the cares and business of life, without the allowance of something whereby it may divert and recreate

man uses to

itself. But then, as no make a meal of sweetmeats, so we must take care, that we be not excessive and immoderate in the pursuit of those pleasures we have made choice of; a thing that hath happened to some who were otherwise great men.

:

1. Leo the Tenth, that hunting pope, is much discommended by Jovius, in his life, for his immoderate desire of hawking and hunting; "insomuch that," as he saith, "he would sometimes live about Ostia weeks and months together, leave suitors unrespected, bulls and pardons unsigned, to his own prejudice, and many private inen's loss and if he had been by chance crossed in his sport, or his game not so good, he was so impatient, that he would revile and miscall many times men of great worth, with most bitter taunts; and look so sour, be so angry and waspish, so grieved and molested, that it is incredible to relate it. But if, on the other side, he had good sport, with unspeakable bounty and mu nificence he would reward his fellow huntsmen, and deny nothing to any suitors, when he was in that mood.”

2. It is reported of Philip Bonus, the good duke of Burgundy, that at the marriage of Eleonora, sister to the king of Portugal, at Bruges in Flanders, which was solemnized in the depth of winter, when by reason of unseasonable weather he could neither hawk nor hunt, and was tired with cards and dice, the ladies dancing, and such other domestic sports, he would, in the evening, walk disguised all about the town. It so fortuned, as he was walking late one night, he found a country fellow dead drunk, snoring ona bulk; he caused his followers to bring him to his palace, and there stripping him of his own clothes, and attiring him after the court fashion, when he awaked he and they were all ready to attend upon his excellency, and persuade him he was some great duke, The poor fellow admiring how he came there, was served in state all the day long: after supper he saw them dance, heard music, and the rest of those courtpleasures; but late at night, when he was

(25.) Full. Worth,

well

ed.

3. Hartabus, king of Hircania, caught moles; Bias, king of the Lydians, stabbed frogs; ropus, king of the Macedoaians, made little tables, lanthorus or lamps; and the kings of Parthia used to sharpen the points of arrows and javelins, and with that dexterity, as not only to delight themselves, but also to gain the applause of others.

4. That Mahomet, who subverted the empire of Greece, used to carve and cut cut wooden spoons; and even in that time, wherein he gave audience to ambassadors, he was either employed that way, or else drew out something with a pencil upon some little tablet that was before him for that purpose.

5. Socrates at his leisure hours used to play upon the harp, and to sing to it, saying, "It is not absurd to learn that whereof a man is ignorant." Besides, he spent some time daily in dancing, supposing that exercise to conduce much to the health of the body.

6. Attalus Philometor made it his recreation to plant venomous and poisonous herbs, not only henbane and hellebore, but monk's-hood, hemlock, and doreynium, an herb wherewith they poison the heads of arrows aud darts. These he sowed and planted in the royal gardens ; and he made it a part of his entertainment to know the juice, seeds, and fruits of these herbs, and to gather each of them in its due time.

7. De.netrius, who was surnamed Poliorcetes, made it his recreation to invent

new engines for war; and his vulgar exercise was to frame such things as ships, or otherwise, that both to his friends and enemies they seemed to have that magnificence and beauty, that they were judg ed worthy of a royal hand.

8. Alexander the Great, when at liber. ty from his more weighty affairs, used often to play at hand-ball with such as he made choice of for his associates in that recreation; and though he was exceeding liberal by nature, he was yet more so at these times, and rarely would he deny any thing to his fellow gamesters when they asked him. Hereupon it was, that Serapion, a modest and witty young man, (when he had divers times played with the king, and yet got nothing of him, because he never asked) one time struck the ball to all on the king's side, but never to himself; which Alexander observing, "Why," said he, "do you strike the ball to all the rest, and never to me?" "Because," replied he," you never ask." The king apprehended his meaning, and smiling, commanded great gifts to be brought him, whereat Serapion became more pleasant, and struck the ball usually to the king: "I perceive," said Alexander, "that gifts are more ac ceptable to them that ask not, than to those that ask."

9. Julius Cæsar, as he resembled Alexander in other things, so also in this, he played at ball too, and at such times was so bountiful to those that played with him, that once he gave one hundred thousand sesterces to each of them, save only to Cæcilius, to whom he gave only fif ty thousand. "What," said Cæcilius, "do I alone play but with one hand?" Cæsar, smiling hereat, gave order that he should receive the same sum with the rest.

10. Octavius Augustus, after he had obtained the empire, was noted for this, that he was overmuch addicted to play ing at dice; "and," saith Suetonius, "he could never wipe off that report that

VOL. IL

3 T

went of him for it; so that in the Sicilian war, when he was twice overcome, and had lost both times a good part of his ships, an epigram was made of him, and in every man's mouth, part whereof as, He plays at dice daily, that at last he may overcome.' Even when he was grown old, he played and openly; nor only in the month of December, wherein greater licence was commonly taken, but upon other festival days, and their eves; and used in his letters to his children to boast of his victories herein, and the money he had won. He was also delighted with meaner matters: for he would play with nuts in the company oflittle children; the prettiest for face, and most talkative whereof, he caused to be found out for him for this purpose: with which also he used to bathe himself, and to say laughing, that "he swam amongst his little fish." 11. The games at chess and tables were supposed to be invented by Diomedes, to pass away the time at the siege of Troy. Mutius Scævola, the great civilian, is said to be much delighted herewith at his spare time from his studies at table or board; for this game was brought to Rome by Pompey amongst his Asiatic spoils, a table three feet broad, and four feet long, made up of two precious stones, and all the men of several colours of precious stones.

12. Divers great wits have, for their recreation, chosen the most barren subjects, and delighted to show what they were able to do in matters of greatest improbability, or where truth lay on the other side. Thus the description of a war betwixt frogs and mice is written by Homer; the commendation of a tyrant by Polyerates; the praise of injustice by Phavorinus; of Nero by Cardan; of an ass by Apuleius and Agrippa; of a fly, and of a parasitical life, by Lucian; of folly by Erasmus; of a gnat by Michael Psellus of clay by Antonius Majoragius; of a goose by Julius Scaliger; of a sha dow by Janus Dousa the son; of a louse by Daniel Heinsius; of an ox by Liba-, nius; and of a dog by Sextus Empiricus. 13. Nicholaus the Third, a Koman,

ton.

Thus also did the celebrated Warbur

Galileo read Ariosto; and Christina, queen of Sweden, Martial.

Guy Patin wrote letters to his friends, an usual relaxation among men of letters. Others have found amusement in composing treatises on odd subjects. Seneca wrote a burlesque narrative on Claudian's death. Prenius has written an eulogy on beards. A guat formed a subject for the sportive muse of Virgil, and frogs and mice for that of Homer.

Holstein nas written an eulogy on the north wind; Heinsiuson the ass; Menage the transmigration of the parasitical pe dant into a parrot, and also the petition of the Dictionaries.

Erasmus has written a panegyric on Moria, or folly, which, authorized by the pun, he dedicated to sir Thomas More.

Montaigne found a very agreeable play mate in his cat. Cardinal de Richelies, amongst all his great occupations, found amusement in violent exercises, and he was once discovered jumping with his servant, to try who could reach the highest side of a wall. De Gramont, observing the cardi nal to be jealous of his powers in this re

spect