Moreouer, you may, if you please to consider that souldiers, of whiche I am one by profession, wee be not alwayes lusking in our forte or castle, but be as tyme and occasion wyll permyt, here to-day, wee knowe least our selues where tomorrowe. And I wyll ensure you, the most part of these my Princes dyd pleade their causes vnto me euen in the sea, a place, in fayth, not meete to penne Tragedies. And as for bookes, I was altogether destitute: for when I, to please my fantasie, trauayled (as you knowe) I could not beare about with me a library: but for cariage sake, contented myself with these foure: With the third Decade of Titus Liuye, with Bossewell’s Concordes of Armorie, with Monsignor de Lange, that notable warriour, and with the vnperfect Mirrour for Magistrates: which bookes made nothing to this purpose. I had not those Chronicles whiche other men had: my Memorie and Inuention were vnto me in stead of Grafton, Polidore, Cooper, and suche like, who dyd greatly ayde other men. And last of al you must consider, that the other part of the miseries of those miserable Princes were written, I sittyng on a rocke in the sea, not in Spaine, Italie, Fraunce, Scotlande, or Englande, but in Garnzie Castle, where although there be learned men, yet none whiche spende their tyme so vainely as in Poetrie. So that the complaintes of these men were written (as I say) where the want of helpe dyd diuersly daunt me with despayre. You haue greatly requested me by your last letter, to make vnto you a discourse of the Ile of Garnzie, and howe it is possible for the castle to be a place so pleasaunt for habitation, as I haue reported it, seeing it standeth in the Sea, separate from any lande. Good Syr, to write thereof (so manyfolde be the commodities and thinges woorthy the writyng of) woulde rather require a good volume, then a peece of an epistle. Let it therefore suffice for this tyme, that I by writyng vnto you some fewe lines of the Gouernour, I may briefely declare what the gouernement and commodities be. The right woorshipful Maister Thomas Leighton is her Maiesties Lieutenaunt there.
Syr, I doo remember, howe constant Constantine the Great was in religion, and howe that noble Emperour mynded the reformation thereof. You knowe howe carefull Licurgus and Solon were, for making of good lawes, and ministring of iustice. And histories doo recorde, howe passing happye Epaminundas was in al his affayres: but what a seemely sight is it, to see al these vertues so to concurre in one man, that hee who shoulde compare hym with them, should, I wyl ensure you, doo hym great iniurie? for (that I may briefly conclude) vndoubtedly a few such men as he is, being plaste at a Princes’ elbow, were sufficient to keepe the most ruinous commonweale that is, from ruine and destruction. And now iudge you the commodities of the countrey, by the goodnesse of the Gouernour, for as Seneca sayeth:—
Where Gouernours be good, and rule their charge aright,
Without an ebbe there flowes the flood, which vertuous minds delight.
And heere I doo turne me from these thinges, vntill by talke with you, I may dilate more at large therof, and returning myselfe vnto my former purpose, I haue not thought it conuenient to write the complaynts of these men, with so obscure a stile as some other haue done, but with so playne an exposition, that he who doth reade them, shall not neede to be an Oedipus, for euery playne Dauus shall by reading them, easily vnderstand the authour’s drift. And because Diligence and Memorie bee all the helpers that I haue, therefore I haue ordayned them, as the chief workers of my wyll. Higgins vsed (I know not what) Morpheus, the god of dreames, but I dreamt not. The other had Baldwine for their hearer, but I haue diligent Inquisition, who can finde out al things, and Memorie, who knoweth al thinges, for the arbiters of my matter. Take you therefore, the fruites of these my idle howres, sent vnto you with a good wyll, and according vnto the trust reposed in you, keepe these trifles from the view of all men, and as you promysed, them not raunge out of your priuate study. And thus wishing vnto you honour, and long lyfe, I ende, the 15 daye of Maye, An. 1577.
Your Friende to vse.
Thomas Blener Hasset.
[[1166]THE INDUCTION.
“Diligent Inquisition,” saieth Memorie, “beholde in the bottom lesse pyt of blind Obliuion: there remayneth as yet a multitude, who although in their tyme, they were of all men most famous, and euen in this our time, their ensamples be patternes passing singular, to refourme the deformities of this age, notwithstanding they are so couered and hidden with those mistie cloudes of fylthy forgetfulnes, that if thou Inquisition doest not with all dilygent inquiry, and I Memorye, (who haue howrded vp in my treasury the knowledge of all thinges) except wee with all our industrye, doo endeuour our selues, they are not lyke euer to come into the light. For at what time those barbarous nations, (I meane the Gothes, Hunes, and Danes) dyd with so great outrage ouerrunne all the worlde: euen then the auncient historyes and recordes of time, were by them vtterly defaced: so that Princes before that time, how renowmed so euer they were, be at this present, euen by their meanes, buryed so deepe in obliuion, that I Memorye cannot without a new inquirye of many most noble Princes, repeate a few wordes: speake you therfore Inquisition, and declare your mynde, how we mighte renew the decayed Memory of those men.” “See heere,” quoth Inquisition, “with great and diligent Memorye, I haue founde out diuers, who with their continuall complayinges, haue euen for conscience sake made me their procleare, to exhibite vnto you in their behalfe a supplycation, in which they complayne of the great iniurie they suffer, because they bee excluded out of the English Mirrour of Magistrates: their only desire is that you would once agayne, by celebrating their decayed names, with a fresh memoryall geue them libertie to declare their estates themselues. Of which, as fyrst though not chiefest Guidericus the thyrde king of the subdued Brittaynes: and the fyrst that refused to pay trybute to Rome, desyreth to bee harde.” “Wee will,” sayth Memory, “assist hym in what wee may, and not onely geue them leaue, but also intreate them to declare their estates. But where is that Guidericus, the exployts of whose lyfe were so passing singular, that had hee not beene moued with two much boldnesse, euen hee had brought vnder his rule the whole worlde: wee wyll heare hym wyllingly, for his death is a great ensample of God’s vengeaunce, vnto all them which thinke by their owne courage and abilitie, to compasse their desyres.” “Beholde,” quoth Inquisition, “hee is euen heere, his body rent and torne dooth declare, that great was his mishappe.” “Speake then, Syr Knight,” quoth Memory, “and let vs heare what you wil saye.” Wherewith the sorrowfull Prince sayde as followeth.]
[1167]THE COMPLAINT OF GUIDERICUS.
How Guidericus refused to paye tribute vnto Claudius Cæsar: howe he subdued Galba: how hee became desyrous to winne all the worlde: spoyled France, Germany, and a great part of Italy: and lastly, how hee was miserably slayne in a tempest of thunder, euen at what time hee shoulde have dealt with Cæsar. This History is a synguler ensample of God’s vengeance against pride and arrogancy.