[54] “The array of the death-bed has more terrors than death itself.” This quotation is from Seneca.
[55] He probably alludes to the custom of hanging the room in black where the body of the deceased lay, a practice much more usual in Bacon’s time than at the present day.
[56] Tacit. Hist. ii. 49.
[57] Ad Lucil. 77.
[58] “Reflect how often you do the same things; a man may wish to die, not only because either he is brave or wretched, but even because he is surfeited with life.”
[59] “Livia, mindful of our union, live on, and fare thee well.”—Suet. Aug. Vit. c. 100.
[60] “His bodily strength and vitality were now forsaking Tiberius, but not his duplicity.”—Ann. vi. 50.
[61] This was said as a reproof to his flatterers, and in spirit is not unlike the rebuke administered by Canute to his retinue.—Suet. Vespas. Vit. c. 23.
[62] “I am become a Divinity, I suppose.”
[63] “If it be for the advantage of the Roman people, strike.”—Tac. Hist. i. 41.