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220 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
doth in generall tearmes allow, this last remedy which
she ordaineth for all manner of necessities; that is, to
make an end of that life which we cannot endure.
Placet? pare: Non placet? quacunque vis ewi. Pungit
dolor ? vel fodiat sane: si nudus es, da jugtdum : sin
tectus armis vulcanite, id est, fortitudine, resiste :¹ ' Doth
it like you ? obey: doth it not like you? get out as
you will; doth griefe pricke you ? and let it pierce you
too: if you be naked, yeeld your throat: but if you
be covered with the armour of Vulcan, that is, with
fortitude, resist.' And that saying used of the Grsecians
in their banquets, which they aply unto it, Aut
bibaty aid abeat: 2 ' Either let him carouse, or carry
him out of the house :' which rather fitteth the mouth
of a Gascoine, who very easily doth change the letter
B into V, than that of Cicero :
Vivere si rede nescis, discede per it is:
Lusistv satis, edtsti satis, atque bibisti:
Tempus abire tibi est, ne potum largius aequo
Rideat, et pulset lascivia decentius cetas: ²
Live well you cannot, them that can, give place;
Well have you sported, eaten well, drunke well:
'Tis time you part; lest wanton youth with grace
Laugh at, and knock you that with swilling swell:
what is it hut a confession of his insufficiency, and a
sending one backe not only to ignorance, there to be
shrowded, but unto stupidity it selfe, unto unsensiblenesse
and not being?
Democritum postquam matura vetustas
Admonuit memorem, motus languescere mentis:
Sponte sua letho caput obvius ootulit ipse.*
When ripe age put Democritus in minde,
That his mindes motions fainted, he to finde
His death went willing, and his life resign'd.
¹ CIC. Tusc. Qu. 1. ii.
² CIC. lb. 1. v. ³ HOR. 1. ii. Epist. ii. nlt.
4 LUCK. 1. iii. 1083.