Part 36 (2/2)
------”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 amba.s.sador in England, said he saw the n.o.blemen go in their robes to the parliament house, _summa c.u.m 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 G.o.ds 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 artific.u.m opera_ (saith that [3268]interpreter of Pausanias), the rare workmans.h.i.+p 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 amba.s.sadors 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, encompa.s.sing 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 Ponta.n.u.s, _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 c.o.c.k-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, peac.o.c.ks, 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, shuttlec.o.c.k, 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 pa.s.senger 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 _c.u.m 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 c.o.c.k 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 d.a.m.nosam_, [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.”
They labour most part not to pa.s.s their time in honest disport, but for filthy lucre, and covetousness of money. _In foedissimum lucrum et avaritiam hominum convert.i.tur_, as Daneus observes. _Fons fraudum et maleficiorum_, 'tis the fountain of cozenage and villainy. [3294]”A thing so common all over Europe at this day, and so generally abused, that many men are utterly undone by it,” their means spent, patrimonies consumed, they and their posterity beggared; besides swearing, wrangling, drinking, loss of time, and such inconveniences, which are ordinary concomitants: [3295]”for when once they have got a haunt of such companies, and habit of gaming, they can hardly be drawn from it, but as an itch it will tickle them, and as it is with wh.o.r.emasters, once entered, they cannot easily leave it off:” _Vexat mentes insania cupido_, they are mad upon their sport. And in conclusion (which Charles the Seventh, that good French king, published in an edict against gamesters) _unde piae et hilaris vitae, suffugium sibi suisque liberis, totique familiae_, &c. ”That which was once their livelihood, should have maintained wife, children, family, is now spent and gone;” _maeror et egestas_, &c., sorrow and beggary succeeds. So good things may be abused, and that which was first invented to [3296]
refresh men's weary spirits, when they come from other labours and studies to exhilarate the mind, to entertain time and company, tedious otherwise in those long solitary winter nights, and keep them from worse matters, an honest exercise is contrarily perverted.
Chess-play is a good and witty exercise of the mind for some kind of men, and fit for such melancholy, Rhasis holds, as are idle, and have extravagant impertinent thoughts, or troubled with cares, nothing better to distract their mind, and alter their meditations: invented (some say) by the [3297]general of an army in a famine, to keep soldiers from mutiny: but if it proceed from overmuch study, in such a case it may do more harm than good; it is a game too troublesome for some men's brains, too full of anxiety, all out as bad as study; besides it is a testy choleric game, and very offensive to him that loseth the mate. [3298]William the Conqueror, in his younger years, playing at chess with the Prince of France (Dauphine was not annexed to that crown in those days) losing a mate, knocked the chess-board about his pate, which was a cause afterward of much enmity between them. For some such reason it is belike, that Patritius, in his _3.
book, t.i.t. 12. de reg. inst.i.t_. forbids his prince to play at chess; hawking and hunting, riding, &c. he will allow; and this to other men, but by no means to him. In Muscovy, where they live in stoves and hot houses all winter long, come seldom or little abroad, it is again very necessary, and therefore in those parts, (saith [3299]Herbastein) much used. At Fez in Africa, where the like inconvenience of keeping within doors is through heat, it is very laudable; and (as [3300]Leo Afer relates) as much frequented. A sport fit for idle gentlewomen, soldiers in garrison, and courtiers that have nought but love matters to busy themselves about, but not altogether so convenient for such as are students. The like I may say of Col. Bruxer's philosophy game, D. Fulke's _Metromachia_ and his _Ouronomachia_, with the rest of those intricate astrological and geometrical fictions, for such especially as are mathematically given; and the rest of those curious games.
Dancing, singing, masking, mumming, stage plays, howsoever they be heavily censured by some severe Catos, yet if opportunely and soberly used, may justly be approved. _Melius est foedere, quam saltare_, [3301]saith Austin: but what is that if they delight in it? [3302]_Nemo saltat sobrius_. But in what kind of dance? I know these sports have many oppugners, whole volumes writ against them; when as all they say (if duly considered) is but _ignoratio Elenchi_; and some again, because they are now cold and wayward, past themselves, cavil at all such youthful sports in others, as he did in the comedy; they think them, _illico nasci senes_, &c. Some out of preposterous zeal object many times trivial arguments, and because of some abuse, will quite take away the good use, as if they should forbid wine because it makes men drunk; but in my judgment they are too stern: there ”is a time for all things, a time to mourn, a time to dance,” Eccles. iii.
4. ”a time to embrace, a time not to embrace,” (verse 5.) ”and nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works,” verse 22; for my part, I will subscribe to the king's declaration, and was ever of that mind, those May games, wakes, and Whitsun ales, &c., if they be not at unseasonable hours, may justly be permitted. Let them freely feast, sing and dance, have their puppet-plays, hobby-horses, tabors, crowds, bagpipes, &c., play at ball, and barley-breaks, and what sports and recreations they like best. In Franconia, a province of Germany, (saith [3303]Auba.n.u.s Bohemus) the old folks, after evening prayer, went to the alehouse, the younger sort to dance: and to say truth with [3304]Salisburiensis, _satius fuerat sic otiari, quam turpius occupari_, better to do so than worse, as without question otherwise (such is the corruption of man's nature) many of them will do. For that cause, plays, masks, jesters, gladiators, tumblers, jugglers, &c., and all that crew is admitted and winked at: [3305]_Tota jocularium scena procedit, et ideo spectacula admissa sunt, et infinita tyrocinia vanitatum, ut his occupentur, qui perniciosius otiari solent_: that they might be busied about such toys, that would otherwise more perniciously be idle. So that as [3306]Tacitus said of the astrologers in Rome, we may say of them, _genus hominum est quod in civitate nostra et vitabitur semper et retinebitur_, they are a debauched company most part, still spoken against, as well they deserve some of them (for I so relish and distinguish them as fiddlers, and musicians), and yet ever retained.
”Evil is not to be done (I confess) that good may come of it:” but this is evil _per accidens_, and in a qualified sense, to avoid a greater inconvenience, may justly be tolerated. Sir Thomas More, in his Utopian Commonwealth, [3307]”as he will have none idle, so will he have no man labour over hard, to be toiled out like a horse, 'tis more than slavish infelicity, the life of most of our hired servants and tradesmen elsewhere”
(excepting his Utopians) ”but half the day allotted for work, and half for honest recreation, or whatsoever employment they shall think fit for themselves.” If one half day in a week were allowed to our household servants for their merry meetings, by their hard masters, or in a year some feasts, like those Roman Saturnals, I think they would labour harder all the rest of their time, and both parties be better pleased: but this needs not (you will say), for some of them do nought but loiter all the week long.
This which I aim at, is for such as are _fracti animis_, troubled in mind, to ease them, over-toiled on the one part, to refresh: over idle on the other, to keep themselves busied. And to this purpose, as any labour or employment will serve to the one, any honest recreation will conduce to the other, so that it be moderate and sparing, as the use of meat and drink; not to spend all their life in gaming, playing, and pastimes, as too many gentlemen do; but to revive our bodies and recreate our souls with honest sports: of which as there be diverse sorts, and peculiar to several callings, ages, s.e.xes, conditions, so there be proper for several seasons, and those of distinct natures, to fit that variety of humours which is amongst them, that if one will not, another may: some in summer, some in winter, some gentle, some more violent, some for the mind alone, some for the body and mind: (as to some it is both business and a pleasant recreation to oversee workmen of all sorts, husbandry, cattle, horses, &c.
To build, plot, project, to make models, cast up accounts, &c.) some without, some within doors; new, old, &c., as the season serveth, and as men are inclined. It is reported of Philippus Bonus, that good duke of Burgundy (by Lodovicus Vives, in Epist. and Pont. [3308]Heuter in his history) that the said duke, at the marriage of Eleonora, sister to the king of Portugal, at Bruges in Flanders, which was solemnised in the deep of winter, when, as by reason of unseasonable weather, he could neither hawk nor hunt, and was now tired with cards, dice, &c., and such other domestic sports, or to see ladies dance, with some of his courtiers, 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, snorting on a bulk; [3309]he caused his followers to bring him to his palace, and there stripping him of his old clothes, and attiring him after the court fas.h.i.+on, when he waked, he and they were all ready to attend upon his excellency, persuading 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 court-like pleasures: but late at night, when he was well tippled, and again fast asleep, they put on his old robes, and so conveyed him to the place where they first found him. Now the fellow had not made them so good sport the day before as he did when he returned to himself; all the jest was, to see how he [3310]looked upon it. In conclusion, after some little admiration, the poor man told his friends he had seen a vision, constantly believed it, would not otherwise be persuaded, and so the jest ended. [3311]Antiochus Epiphanes would often disguise himself, steal from his court, and go into merchants', goldsmiths', and other tradesmen's shops, sit and talk with them, and sometimes ride or walk alone, and fall aboard with any tinker, clown, serving man, carrier, or whomsoever he met first. Sometimes he did _ex insperato_ give a poor fellow money, to see how he would look, or on set purpose lose his purse as he went, to watch who found it, and withal how he would be affected, and with such objects he was much delighted. Many such tricks are ordinarily put in practice by great men, to exhilarate themselves and others, all which are harmless jests, and have their good uses.
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