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THE SECOND BOOKE 423
of Lord Oliver, whilome Chancellor of France, who
said that Frenchmen might be compared to apes, who,
climbing up a tree, never cease skipping from bough
to bough, till they come to the highest, where they
shew their bare tailes.
Turpe est quod nequeat capiti committei e pondus,
Etpiessum inflexo mox dare terga genu. 1
'Tis shame, more than it can well beare, on head to packe,
And thereby Boone oppress't with bended knee flie backe.
Such qualities as are now in me void of reproach, in
that age I deemed unprofitable. The facilitie of my
maners had been named faintnesse and weaknes, faith
and conscience would have been thought scrupulous
and superstitious : liberty and freedome, importunate,
inconsiderate, and rash. Misfortune serveth to some
purpose. It is not amiss to be born in a much depraved
age : for in comparison of others, you are judged vertuous,
very cheape. In our dayes he that is but a
parricide, or a sacrilegious person, is a man of honesty
and honor.
Nunc si depositum non injiciatur amicus,
Si reddat vetei em cum tota cerugtne follem,
Prodigiosajides, et Thuscis digna hbellis,
Quceque coronatd lust rat i debeat agnd. 2
If now a friend deny not what was laid in trust,
If wholly he restore th' old bellowes with their rust 2
A wondrous trust, to be in chionicles related,
And should with sacrifice, as strange, be expiated.
And never was there time or place wherein more
assured and great reward was proposed unto Princes
for goodnesse and justice. The first that shall be
advised by these meanes to thrust himselfe into favour
and credit, I am much deceived if in part of paiment
he get not the start of his fellowes. Force and violence
can do very much, but never all. Wee see merchants,
country justices, and artificers to march cheeke by jowl
With our nobilitie in valour and militarie discipline.
¹ PROP. 1. iii. Eleg. viii. 5. ² JUVEN. Sat. xiii. 60.