UERY NECESSARY FOR EUERYE PERSONNE, AND MUCHE
REQUISITE TO BE HAD IN THE HANDES OF AL
SORTES, FOR THEIR BETTER INSTRUCTION,
PREPARACION AND DEFENCE, AGAINST
THE SOUBDEIN COMYNG, AND FEARFUL
ASSAULTING OF THE SAME
DISEASE.
1552.
TO THE RIGHTE HONOURABLE
WILLIAM EARLE OF PENBROKE,
LORDE HARBERT OF CARDIFE, KNIGHT OF THE
HONOURABLE ORDRE OF THE GARTER, AND
PRESIDENT OF THE KYNGES HIGHNES
COUNSEILL IN THE MARCHES
OF WALES:
JHON CAIUS
WISHETH HELTH AND HONOUR.
In the fereful tyme of the sweate (ryghte honourable) many resorted vnto me for counseil, among whōe some beinge my frendes & aquaintance, desired me to write vnto them some litle counseil howe to gouerne themselues therin: saiyng also that I should do a greate pleasure to all my frendes and contrimen, if I would deuise at my laisure some thīg, whiche from tyme to tyme might remaine, wherto men might in such cases haue a recourse & present refuge at all nedes, as thē they had none. At whose requeste, at that tyme I wrate diuerse counseiles so shortly as I could for the present necessite, whiche they bothe vsed and dyd geue abrode to many others, & further appoynted in my self to fulfill (for so much as laye in me) the other parte of their honest request for the time to come. The whiche the better to execute and brynge to passe, I spared not to go to all those that sente for me, bothe poore, and riche, day and night. And that not only to do thē that ease that I could, & to instructe thē for their recouery: but to note also throughly, the cases and circumstaunces of the disease in diuerse persons, and to vnderstande the nature and causes of the same fully, for so much as might be. Therefore as I noted, so I wrate as laisure then serued, and finished one boke in Englishe, onely for Englishe mē not lerned, one other in latine for men of lerninge more at large, and generally for the help of thē which hereafter should haue nede, either in this or other coūtreis, that they may lerne by our harmes. This I had thoughte to haue set furth before christmas, & to haue geuē to your lordshippe at new-yeres tide, but that diuerse other businesses letted me. Neuertheles that which then coulde not be done cometh not now out of season, although it be neuer so simple, so it may do ease hereafter, which as I trust this shal, so for good wil I geue and dedicate it vnto your good Lordshippe, trustyng the same will take this with as good a mind, as I geue it to your honour, whiche our Lorde preserue and graunt long to continue.
At London the first of Aprill.
1552.
THE
BOKE OF JHON CAIUS
AGAINST
THE SWEATYNG SICKNES.
Man beyng borne not for his owne vse and cōmoditie alone, but also for the commō benefite of many, (as reason wil and al good authoures write) he whiche in this world is worthy to lyue, ought al wayes to haue his hole minde and intente geuen to profite others. Whiche thynge to shewe in effecte in my selfe, although by fortune some waies I haue ben letted, yet by that whiche fortune cannot debarre some waies again I haue declared. For after certein yeres beyng at cambrige, I of the age of xx. yeres, partly for mine exercise and profe what I coulde do, but chefely for certein of my very frēdes, dyd translate out of Latine into Englishe certein workes, hauyng nothynge els so good to gratifie theim wt. Wherof one of S. Chrysostome de modo orandi deum, that is, of ye manner to praye to god, I sent to one my frende then beyng in the courte. One other, a woorke of Erasmus de vera theologia, the true and redy waye to reade the scripture, I dyd geue to Maister Augustine Stiwarde Alderman of Norwiche, not in the ful as the authore made it, but abbreuiate for his only purpose to whome I sent it, Leuyng out many subtile thinges, made rather for great & learned diuines, thē for others. The thirde was the paraphrase of the same Erasmus vpon the Epistle of S. Jude, whiche I translated at the requeste of one other my deare frende.