THE
ENGLISH
SECRETARY,
OR
Methode of writing of
Epistles and Letters:

WITH
A declaration of such Tropes, Figures,
and Schemes, as either vsually or for
ornament sake are therin required.

Also the parts and office of a
Secretarie,

Deuided into two bookes.

Now newly reuised and in many parts cor-
rected and amended:

By Angel Day.

AT LONDON
Printed by P. S. for C. Burbie and are
to be sold at his shop, at the Royall
Exchange. 1599.

CONTENTS.

To the right Honorable, Edward
de Vere, Earle of Oxenford, Vicount Bul-
becke, Lord Standford and of Badlesmere,
and Lord great Chamberlaine
of England.

T is now a fewe yeares passed (Right Honourable, & my very good Lord) since emboldned by your fauour, this booke rudely digested, and then roughly deliuered, I did in the very nonage thereof recōmend vnto your Patronage. And howbeit at that time, very little therin appeared worthy so honourable acceptance: yet pleased it your L. the same should then passe vnder your fauourable countenance.

To answer so great bountie therein shewed, I haue naught but my simple acknowledgement: and in signification of the will I haue to do vnto your Lordship any acceptable seruice, no other matter in shew, then a fresh renouation of the selfe same title by an other presentment, howbeit in far more orderly manner then formerly was deliuered.

Your Lordship may please of your owne ennobled condition to well dooing, in pardoning the presumption of the former, to vouchsafe your liking to this latter, wherein (notwithstanding the title all one) yet shall you finde the worke both in order, habit and shape, to be diuersly chaunged.

To excuse the defecte of the one, or enlarge my paines taken in publishing the other, were on either part needlesse: seeing my desire in both, hath principally sorted to one self meaning: If your L. find ought herein answerable to your iudgmēt, it is inough: and the vsers shall thereby (I hope) finde more cause to be satisfied. The wisest of all ages, haue not at one instant collected their experience: Plato in his first original was nothing so diuine: Socrates in his cradle had no taste of his after wisdome: Hercules past many yeres ere he grew famed by his labors, & onely vse and practize enableth vnto the greatest perfection.

This being so, It will, I trust, seeme in me a matter the more pardonable, to haue aduentured as I did the formost of this purposed labor, regarding that by a reuew of the same it hath now receiued some shape and proportion. Such as it is I humblie recommend as before, vnto your honorable liking. And for my selfe do remaine, alwaies

By your honorable L. to be commanded,

Angel Day.

To the learned and courteous
Readers in generall.

Entlemen, When I do begin first to speake vnto you in this action, me thinks, you doe espie in me the parts of an ill Scholler, who in all his dooinges, is forced to craue pardon, but hardly findeth the way that may purchase vnto him selfe the benefite of such a pardon.

In reformation, two notable instances are held the which as I conceiue do craue allowance, though no prerogatiue in wel doing, and these are for a man to finde his defect, and secondly to haue a will to amend it.

I will assure you, though I be not gratious, I would be loath to seeme gracelesse and this benefite I will haue to gaine your allowance, that I will blush for mine errors, where I fault in abilitie, I will shew you my will: And when in all I cannot cleare me from your censures, yet shall your courteous forbearance be in me no waies misprised.

haue to foretime as now still trauelled with the gardener, who first throweth vp his earth on a rude heape, the scattereth it, after smootheth it, next squareth it, & lastly bringeth it into knots and workmanship, before which you know, there are many weeds, loose hearbes, grasses, sticks, and rubbish to be picked vp & thrown out: And then and not before beginneth his worke to drawe towards the perfection.

As he so I, at the first threw vp this groundwork in a heape, and onely did scatter it: after, and hether vnto I haue endeuored to smooth and to square it, picking out thereof many thinges which lay to too much disordered. It onely now wanteth to be labored on by a more curious workmanship, but because it is my garden plat, & my prouision is too small to perfect on a sodaine so spacious a ground worke, I will temporize with those duties, which either by time may in me be supported or by a greater hability in others may happilie hereafter be performed.

Now because it is in all omissions the greatest omission not to bee thankefull for courtesies, I will acknowledge that as you haue hitherto benignly delt with me in the suruey of these labours, so haue you bound mee the more vnto you by your fauourable censures. And yet if after this continued trauell vnto this present, you either in mine or in the printers escapes find any thing blame worthy, couer it I pray you as before you haue done with the vaile of your courtesie. The copies before this, haue bene I confesse erroniously many wayes deliuered, and this by the blottings and interlinings had in the former amendements hath peraduenter also his escapes or mistakings: If any be, they are fewe I hope, and therefore the more easie to be tollerated. Onely correct where fault is, and the printer and I shalbe beholding vnto you.

Hauing thus performed for my selfe what vnto your worthines stoode meete to be considered, giue mee now leaue I pray you, touching the order and course in this Methode hereafter obserued, to say somthing to them which therby are to take any benefit or profite. In which case, the learner is circumspectly with himselfe to consider, the seuerall rules in the particular chapters preceeding the orders of those Epistles, in such sort as afterwards they are distinguished, & therein see, what to the better ordering and principall direction, of whatsoeuer hee shall take in hand to write, is there (for his better instruction) enioyned. By diligent animaduersion wherof, he shall the better vnderstand the seuerall natures and properties, that in the parts of euery Epistle, are ordinarily to be required, besides the vse of them in their seueral places, and what force they beare, being so sorted out, according to their speciall purposes and directions.

Next, for the better inducement and leading him into a plaine and perfect platforme of this Methode following, & to the intent he may as neere as may be, or as his capacitie (at leastwise) may any waies reach vnto, knowe (skilfully, & not by rote) how or in what sort he shall happen to doe either well or ill, I haue first (in a preamble or intermixed discourse, either preceeding or interchangeably passing, before or with the kindes of euery sorte of Epistles) declared the properties and vse of those Epistles, vpon what parts and places, they and euery of them doo consist, with what vehemencie or lesse application they are to bee inforced or quallified, so that he who seemeth to haue least knowledge at all (be it that he haue perseuerance to conceiue or to distinguish the parts he seeth there laid out before his eyes) may with great facilitie, attaine to whatsoeuer, herein prescribed, or by the circumstance thereof intended to be in any sort deliuered.

To the greater ornament whereof, I haue applied a number of Figures, Schemes, and Tropes in the margent of euery Epistle, euen with the places where they are vsed. And at the end of this worke, haue set them altogither, and therein explaned to the Learners view, and for his readier vse, their particular natures and qualities, to the end that they who (being vnlearned,& hauing a pretie conceit of inuention of themselues) haue heretofore vnknowing done well, may see how with skill and discretion hereafter to pursue the same, & the ignorant also hereof whose reach hath not been so ample as others, may be thereby informed what vnto well doing is most consonant and agreeing.

Now, for the readier finding of those Epistles, as each of their kindes are suted forth in sundrie Examples: Peruse but the head of euery page and there you shall find what in the same page is contained, viz. Where the Epistles be, you shall haue them noted in their kindes, as Epistles Hortatorie, Dehortatorie, Swasorie, or Disswasorie, &c. And likewise in the admixtions, you shall finde Places or Parts Hortatorie, Commendatorie, Petitorie, &c. as they fall out to be handled.

This booke thus shewing these parts before remembred, I haue termed as you see by the name of The Secretorie, being in the consideration thereof nothing ignorant what great perfection is to be required in such a one, by whose title the same is deliuered, neither supposing the matter herein contained to appeare so sufficient, as perfectly thereby to enable what in the same function is to bee required, but because the orderly writing of Letters, being a principall part belonging to a Secretorie, is by the Method: hereof deliuered to any Learners capacitie whereout the Scholler or any other that is vnfurnished of the knowledge thereof, may gather ayde and furtherance, I haue therefore endeuored to tearme it by the name of Secretarie.

These with my willing minde, and desire of well doing herein, I doo present to the generall and friendly regarde of all, wishing that in courtesie they repute of my trauels, as formost of all other things, I therein respected their benefites. In affoording whereof, they shall doo no more then belongeth to good mindes, and encourage me by whatsoeuer other meanes hereafter, to gratifie their fauours.

The English
Secretorie.

Of an Epistle, the commodities and vse thereof.
Chap. 1.

Orasmuch as we haue herein endeuoured to lay downe a platforme or method for writing of Epistles. It shall not be amisse, that following the order of all other writers, wee first define vnto you what an Epistle is. An Epistle therefore, is that which vsually we in our vulgar, doe tearms a Letter, and for the respectes thereof is called the messenger, or familiar speach of the absent, for that therein is discouered whatsoeuer the minde wisheth in such cases to haue deliuered. The diuersities of Epistles are manifold, as wherof ensueth a platforme to euerie motion, being in truth so infinite as are yᵉ imaginations of each ones fantasie, seeing the declaration of euerie letter, is no more then what the minde willeth in all occasions to be perfourmed, and according to such instigations wherewith at that instant men are fed when they write, taketh his formall substance, whether it be to require, counsel, exhort, command, informie, commend, entreat, aduertise, gratulate, or whatsoeuer other purpose therein pretended, as cause and matter maie fall out to be required. The antiquity is as ancient as the benefite that therof ensueth is great, whereof onlie those that are sufficientlie enabled with the qualitie, can giue the greatest testimonie. Needelesse were it for me to commend the vse, when aswell by the authorities of a number the best learned, who to aduance the efficacie thereof, haue in sundrie languages prescribed rules and methods for the same, as of others besides, whose most excellent writings of Epistles are at this present extant, it is most plentifully aduanced. And although pregnant wit ensuing by nature was the foremost cause that first bred the inuention of Letters, and that euery one naturally can speake, or in some sort or other set down their meaning: yet Art preuailing in the cause, and by cunning skill marshalling euery thing in his due order, place and proportion, how much more the same is then beautified, adorned, and as it were in a new shape transmuted by such kind of knowledge, the difference that dailie appeareth may yeeld proofe sufficient.

What is chiefelie to be respected in framing
of an Epistle. Chap. 2.

Orasmuch as by the necessarie vse of Letters before laid downe, a commendable maner of writing and framing the same hath bene already remembred: It shall not bee amisse, that in this Chapter we now endeuour to answere the purpose therein pretended. For the manifestation whereof, I haue thought good to drawe vnto your consideration certaine principall points, which thereunto are speciallie to be required: first, Aptnes of words and sentences, respecting that they be neate and choiselie picked, and orderly handled: next, Breuity of speach, according in matter and circumstance fitlie to be framed: lastly, Comlines in deliuerance, concerning the person and cause, whereupon the direction is grounded.

The first, being Aptnesse of wordes and sentences, consisteth in choice and good tearmes, in skilful and proper application of them according to their true meanings, in wel sorting and fitting them, to their seuerall purposes. Choise and good tearmes, are in words vsual, and plain for the matter in deliuerie, not improper nor new coined, nor too olde, as hauing not of long time before bene vsed. Skilfull application is, when in their setting down they haue either their true & proper signification for deliuery, or else by a more delicate or pleasant inuenton may be caried conceitedly. Well sorting & fitting them, resteth in the matter in handling, that therein be a concordance with their applications, whereof may ensue a due construction, and no disorderlie mistaking.

The next, being Breuity of speach, is not as some vndiscreetlie haue imagined, that which consisteth in fewnes of lines, & shortnes of roome in shew of a side of paper, but breuitie of matter, wherein scope sufficient remaining for the necessary demonstration and deliuerie of any needfull occasion, men are barred from friuolous circumstances, and inioined therin to abhorre all maner of tediousnes: For which cause some haue beene of opinion, that continuance of matter ought not to be vsed in an Epistle, for that it thereby looseth the shew of an Epistle, and taketh vpon it the habit of an Oration: Yet of such sort are in this method sundry Epistles, the titles wherof are, Hortatorie, Dehortatorie, Laudatorie, Vituperatorie, Suasorie, Petitorie, Monitorie, Accusatorie, Excusatorie, Consolatorie, Inuectiue and such like, whose speciall vses do of necessitie admit such scope as in euerie ordinarie Epistle is not found, and though they beare in them many Oratorie parts, yet lose they not at all for that, neither name nor habit of an Epistle. The tolleration and ordinarie vse of which, both examples of many learned, and common custome hath warranted. And therfore, when to be briefe it is herein inioyned, it is alwayes thereby to be intended, that a man with onelie necessarie speeches may bee permitted to deliuer his meaning, neither is it without the limits of breuitie, when aptlie and at full the same shall be in this sort reported.

And for the better declaration, howe farre the conceit hereof may be induced only in writing of Letters, I will first limit what may be accounted necessarie therein, and afterwards endeuour to lay downe, howe contrarie thereunto, men (aswell in the vse, as in neglecting thereof) haue heretofore erred. Necessarie speeches, I do account whatsoeuer is set downe, for the plaine and open deliuerie of euerie occasion, to the intent the minde of the writer, and what he pursueth may aptly and in good and ready sort be conceiued. The repugnancie hereof is when either with too much curtalling our arguments, in conceit to auoyde tediousnes, or with too manie or ouer often repetitions, neuer thinking to haue spokē sufficiently, either to induce remembrance, or put forward our meaning, we abbreuiate or amplifie our Epistles. And when some others also, of a conceit more curious than necessarie, striuing to excell in varietie of sentences, and copie of words, coyned all of one sute, thinke therfore in paining themselues to write more than needeth, to be counted more eloquent. These falling out to bee imperfections, as each of them are in truth to bee blamed, so where the defect remaineth, are they (for well writing) with studie to be amended.

The third and last nowe being Comelinesse in deliuerance touching the person and cause, séemeth to bee tied vnto two seuerall respects: that is, to the reputation of the partie to whome wee write, his condition, age, honour, and disposition, and to the fitnes of the matter whereof we take vpon vs to write: for as it is most decent that in the matter we make choice of, we giue vnto euerie cause his proper and orderly effect: so is it euery way as conuenient to afford a like Decorum of those to whome our letters are directed.

The reputation of each partie, is measured according to his dignitie or worthinesse, whereby hee beareth reckoning and place before vs. The condition, by the age or maner of liuing, wherein resteth either grauitie or youthfulnesse. The humour by the disposition, as whether desirous to be reuerenced, fawned on, or with plaine termes vsed. By this reason, the methode or stile of our letters falleth out diuerslie to be considered: in one sort we frame them to olde men, in an other sort to young men, one way to sad and graue persons, another to light and yong fellowes: one platforme to Courtiers, another to Philosophers. To great and notable personages, with a dutie speciall, appropriate to their calling: To our betters, alwayes with submission: To our inferiours, benignly and fauourably: To our friends, louinglie: To our enemies sharplie and nippinglie. Thus farre as touching the person, and now for the cause.

In this point it séemeth that the matter of euerie writing should still be measureed according to the writers apparance, credit or worthines, that the validity thereof should be answerable to the one or the others greatnes, or goodnesse: that the intendment be sound, lawfull, and to no euill purposes: that it containe not base, filthie, or scurrile matter, vnbeséeming a direction so worthie. Then that euerie thing to bee written of should bee deliuered according to his proper qualitie: Termes more officious than beséeming, are vnfitting: not sufficientlie to consider of each reputation, were ouer homelie. A matter of grauitie is to bee deliuered with waight: a matter of sorrowe should be reported with griefe: a matter of pastime, to be discoursed with pleasure: a matter of folly, intermingled with laughter. Now contrariwise, to a person sorrowfull to write of iests, to talke learnedly to a clowne, to salute an olde man with childish fantasies: in cases of waight, to aduance trifles: were altogither as improper as peeuish, and more absurd than fitteth to be tollerated in anie skilfull vsage.

And because I haue taken vpon me some distinguishments of writing, wherein I speciallie stand vpon choise and meete termes and spéeches, with proper applications: I thinke it not amisse to set down vnto you some shew of the contrarie inurements, wherby you may with the greater discretion conceiue the error thereof, the which I haue sometimes noted in other mens writings; And first, of vnséemly applications: as for example: one that sometimes intended not a litle of his owne inuention, tooke vpon him to write a loue letter to a woman of verie meane reckoning, in which, after he had drawne (God Cupid by the name of the blinded boy) by those parts of fauor that neuer were in her, and shewed himselfe much passionat for the loue he ought to her, he concludeth the meatter in this sort. Thus crauing your lawfull beneuolence, in not mee reiecting, your answere comfortable and not intollerable, &c. The woman not accustomed to such hote intertainment, and rather bluntlie before time pursued, then daintilie intreated, beganne here vpon (forsooth) to waxe coy, and to intende great matter of her self, and vaunting her fauour at a higher rate then he belike séemed afterwarde willing to become a purchaser of, remained as she was, and himselfe at his more profitable studies. The conclusion of his letter was verie improper, insomuch as requiring liking by the name of Beneuolence, hee both Words improper and impugning the sense.misprised his owne demand, and séemed to induce a word more sounding to a charitable reliefe, or curteous contribution of money, then to anie such purpose as he meant it. Besides, your answere comfortable, and not intollerable. If these had passed in a iest, it had béene more conuenient, but vsed bona fide, it was too bad, especiallie respecting the partie what she was, from whome one would haue supposed that such a one as himself, could neuer haue receiued (but by too much tolleration) any discontentment at all. This errourErrors commō to the learned, as well as to the vnlearned. we see is not onelie common to the vnlearned, for as well this one, who in his profession (as I was informed by him that shewed me the letter) was well reputed of, but also some of the forwarder sort, onlie by affectation of words, which they haue vsed, haue béene misliked, and yet learned ynough. Among which a Doctor of Physicke long since, intending to be verie eloquent in words, and such as euery Carter should not conceiue of, began an Epistle to a booke by him published in this sort: wherein secondly appeareth this errour of old improper or new coyned termes, and this was the forme.

Egregious Doctours and Maisters of the eximious and Archane Science of Physicke, of your Vrbanitie exasperate not your selues agaynst mee, for making of this little volume of Physicke. Considering that my pretence is for an vtilitie and a Common-wealth. And this not onelie, but also I doe it for no detriment,A ridiculous maner of writing. but for a preferment of your laudable Science, that euerie man should esteeme, repute, and regarde the excellent facultie. And also you to bee extolled and highlie preferred, that hath and dooth studie, practise and labour this saide Archane Science, to the which none inartious persons, can nor shall attaine to the knowledge: yet notwithstanding fooles and insipient persons, yea and manie the which doth think themselues wise (the which in this facultie be fooles indeed) will enterprise to smatter, &c. Was there euer seene from a learned man a more preposterous & confused kind of writing, farced with so many and such odde coyned tearmes in so little vttering? But surely, the man did it of a great conceite, for as appeareth by the course of all his Epistle following, his wittes were so pestered with an angrie mislike of the bad demeanor of some vnlearned vsers of his science (as he thought with himselfe) that euerie botcher should not be able to vent him, but hee should bee a man of some reach at least that should finde him. Neuerthelesse howe wise so euer stood his imaginations: this one thing doe I knowe, that diuerse to whome I haue shewed the booke haue verie heartilie laughed in perusing the parts of his writing. For these egregious, eximious, vrbanitie, and exasperate, although the wordes be in some sort tollerable, yet because anie of them are amongst vs verie rarelie vsed, and in this writing two of them especially very vnproperly placed, the maner thereof soundeth (in mine opinion) nothing pleasant. Insomuch as exasperate is properly to set him in a farther rage, that is alreadie furiously bent in a thing, and besides, by the action of another man then himselfe who as it were of a resolute will and meaning, would goe about to procure it, so that it maie be well saide, hee did exasperateVrbanitie and exasperate vnproperlie placed. his furies the more, by inducing such a speach, or such an acte: but it cannot bee so properlie deliuered to saie, exasperate not your selfe for such a thing, especiallie when I am not therewith so much as in anie mislike alreadie, which no man canne at anie time bee, without he first knowe an occasion: your Vrbanitie likewise being deriued of the Latine worde Vrbanus, which is ciuile, courteous, gentle, modest, or well ruled, as men commonlie are in Cities and places of good gouernement, whereof that worde taketh his originall, the worde is not common amongst vs, nor so apt to the sense as if hee had saide, your curtesie, your modestie, and so it might run thus, Let not your curtesies be agreeued against me, or, Let it not be offensiue to your modesty, that for the benefite of a great manie, I haue published this volume of Physicke. The grounde was verie good, for his intendment was, that the cause belonged to a common wealth, wherein if anie particular commoditie seemed to be lessened, wise men and such as were more studious of their Countries good, then of their owne peculiar gaine, ought not to be offended. Then saith he: And this not only, but also I doe it for no detriment, &c. What confused deliuerance is this? How much more orderlie thus, which soundeth also more to his meaning. And this also respected, in that I doe it not for anie detriment vnto you, but for a preferment of your laudable science. Then his comming in with arcane science, inartious fooles and insipient persons, had it not beene lesse improper, if hee had saide profounde science, and vnskilfull or vnlearned, for inartious, and to haue contented himselfe with his fooles, without adding to the same insipient persons. Lastlie he proceedeth: And many the which dooth thinke themselues wise (the which in this facultie are fooles indeede) will enterprise, &c. Here is the which and the which, a phrase neuer with vs accustomed, nor with anie good writer in his time (which was not manie yeares since) the sence whereof might in this sort more plainelie bee deliuered. And many who in their owne opinion doe seeme verie wise (but therein are in truth verie fooles) will enterprise, &c. But of this ynough, for that I thinke it nowe high time to proceed to the rest, these two exemples being sufficient to admonish the learner, of the congruitie of his speaches and sentences, with good phrases that bee most agreeing to the meaning, and not improperlie, to be deliuered, whereby he shall auoid the like errour, and absurditie in conueiance hereby expressed, and already so much reprehended.

Of the habite and parts of an Epistle. Cap. 3.

Eeing an Epistle hath chieflie his definition herof, in that it Character of an Epistle generall. is tearmed the familiar and mutuall talke of one absent friende to another: it seemeth the Character thereof, shoulde according thereunto bee simple, plaine, and of the lowest and meanest stile, vtterlie deuoid of anie shadow of hie and loftie speaches: yet neuerthelesse, for so much as in the argument of a great manie of them (whose seuerall distinctions hereafter shall appeare) is required (as I said before) a more high and loftie deliuerance, partaking manie waies with that kinde accustomed in Orations, and is therefore accordinglie to be necessarilie furnished with the pointes thereunto incident: we will for the present, sort all kinde of Epistles onelie into these two maner of differences, the one part whereof shall be said to be general, and the other speciall. vnder this title of generall Epistles distinguished into generall and speciall. shall bee comprehended all such, as either for fashions sake, custome, dutie, curtesie, or other familiaritie do ordinarilie passe from one part to another, rather of a pleasant conceit, or some other more district or seuere motion, then of anie extraordinarie cause, forme, or substance in either of them contained. Such are those as whome either long acquaintance, or ancient familiaritie,Letters general are familar. haue caused enterchangeablie to haue performed: or fatherly reuerence, and seruile dutie haue bound, by graue authoritie ouer children, kindred or seruants, accustomablie to be continued. These, for the common and ordinarie matter in euerie of them vsed, being vtterly exempt from anie waight or grauitie at all, are rightlie tearmed by the name of familiar letters. They nowe that be speciall are such, the matter of whome (as I said before) doe admit both higher stile, and more orderlie deliuerance, according to the waight of the argument, in anie of them to bee handled: and for this cause are tearmed speciall,Letters special. as bearing in them a resolute purpose and intendment seriouslie to discourse vpon, to answere, mittigate or auoid any certain matter or causes, importing the present affairs whereupon the direction is framed. Of them also are certaine diuisions, learnedly by skilfull Authours, that heretofore haue beene distinguished, the titles whereof I doe omit, in another place then this more opportune to be hereafter remembred.Difference of stile. These as they are from the others manie waies estranged in their seuerall argumentes: so vnto the conueiance and expressing of their causes appertaineth both other order, and diuers partes in them (then in the residue) more fullie to be considered. In whose composition, that there maie be a platforme gathered of a more certaine proceeding, we wil as others haue thought meet, distinguish their seuerall parts as they fall out to be borrowed in an oration.

In such kind therefore of Epistles, rightly and with good skil to be handled, the learner shal vnderstand, that there are three things, by meanes whereof, for the needfull expressing and orderlie deliuerie of anie matter whatsoeuer, he must of necessitie be furnished. InuentionInuention. first, wherein plentifullie is searched and considered, what kind of matter, how much varietie of sentences, what sorts of figures, how many similitudes, what approbations, diminutions, insinuations and circumstances are presentlie needefull, or furthering to the matter in handling. Then, Disposition,Disposition. whereby is orderlie, cunninglie, and perfectlie laid downe and disposed, euerie matter and cause in his due order, proportion and place. Thirdlie, Eloquution,Eloquution. whose efficacie in speaches, neate, pure and elegant, is in the other Chapter vnder aptnes of words sufficientlie alreadie described. The first and the last of these three, as they are greatlie put forwarde by nature, which in some being farre more curious of imitation and studie of the best, then in other some, whose will and conceit alike, doe (by a verie instinct) affect and couet far more baser purposes: so besides the furtherance continuallie atchieued by often vse of reading, shall herein be greatlie holpen, in that for the selfe same purpose, and to the intent the learner maie as well in his natiue tongue,Helps to Inuention and Eloquution. know the right vse of figures and Tropes heretofore neuer by him vnderstoode, as also discerne and vse them, out of others and in his own writings. I haue at the latter end of this booke, gathered together all such Figures, Schemes and Tropes hereunto needefull and conuenient, and there haue by sundrie familiar examples expressed their vses and seuerall effects. In diligent conceit and aduerting whereof, the vse vnto the practiser shall in short time bee founde greatlie auaileable, by the benefit thereby attained.

Now in as much as Eloquution is annexed vnto the stile,Stile of Epistles. which euermore is also tied to the argument and substance of euerie Epistle: it is to be regarded what stile maie generallie bee deemed meetest for the common habit, wherein each of them maie ordinarilie be published. In the recording whereof, we do find thrée sorts, especiallie in all kinds of writing and speaking, to haue bene generallie commended. Sublime,Sublime. the highest and stateliest maner, and loftiest deliuerance of anie thing that maie bee, expressing the heroicall and mightie actions of Kinges, Princes, and other honourable personages, the stile whereof is said to be tragicall swelling in choice, and those the most haughtiest tearmes, commended, described, amplified and preferred also by Orators, which manie excellent Figures and places of Rhetorique. Humile, Humile. the lowest comicall, and most simple of all others, the matter whereof is the meanest subiect of anie argument that maie be, entermedling in common causes, aduertisements and mutuall affectes of euerie one, the stile whereof sweepeth euen the very grounde it selfe, and is fittest appropriate to our familiar Letters, for that in such familiar causes and maners, the same is solely frequented, in which neuertheless is Sua faceties et elegantia quædam his certaine kind of elegancie, pleasant and neat conueiance, not altogether to be sequestred from that kinde of deliuerance. Mediocre, Mediocre. a meane betwixt high and lowe, vehement and slender, too much and too little, as we saie, in which are expressed histories, Declamations, Comentaries, and other intermingled actions, not of anie in particular, but of all in generall, this stile of all others maie be adapted vnto these speciall kinds of Epistles.

Thus then it followeth, that whether we write familiarlie, or waightilie,Skilfull vse of writing. we must endeuour as neere as maie bee that each be perfourmed skilfullie, for that to neither of them maie want learning, without the knowledge whereof, what ornament can there be at all of this expected elegancie. The particularities whereof included in these two titles Inuention and Eloquution, both Nature and Skill do put forward as we daily see byParts of an Epistle. a double instruction. This therfore sufficing for those twain, let vs see what parts are supplied in an Epistle, succéeding in the other also, and ayding to Disposition. The first place is Exordium, a beginning or introduction to the matter to be written of, Exordium. which is not always after one sort or fashion, but in diuerse maners: as sometimes by preamble, wherein either for our selues, or the cause we write of, or in respect of him, for or to whom we write, wee studie to win fauor or allowance of the matter, sometimes by insinuation, wherin couertly, either in respect that the matter requireth long debatement or that mislike may bee alreadie grounded in him to whom we direct our letters, we seeke by cunning reasons to shewe that the case so requiring is tollerable: or in the other, that rather equity then selfe opinion must and ought chieflie to be weighed. Sometimes by a similitude, wherein by manifesting the like of that we take in hand to haue bene commenced, tollerated, or equally censured, wee intend the same, or lesse force in our selues, at their hands to bee borne withall or accepted, and diuerse other wayes besides, as in the Epistles following shall be tendred. Then Narratiō, or Propositiō, Narratiō & Propositiō. each seruing to one effect, wherein is declared or proponed, in the one by plaine tearmes, in the other by inference, or comparison, the verie substance of the matter whatsoeuer to be handled. Then Confirmatiō, Confirmatiō. wherein are amplified or suggested many reasons, for the aggrauating or proof of any matter in question. After Confutatiō,Confutatiō. whereby is diminished, disproued or auoided, whatsoeuer to bee supposed, obiected or aggrauated. Lastlie, Peroratiō, Peroratiō. in which after a briefe recapitulation of that which hath beene vrged, the occasions thereof are immediatelie concluded. These are not altogither at all times vsed, but some or the most of them as occasion serueth, either admitted or reiected: besides which, others also are sometimes remembred. The vse whereof as in sundrie Epistles they may be deemed necessarie, shall in their seuerall examples hereafter perused, appeare more euidentlie and largely.

Of certaine contents generally incident to all maner of
Epistles. Chap. 4.

N writing of Epistles, four especiall contents are alwaies continuallie incident. The manner of Salutation, an order of taking leaue or farewell, the Subscription, and the outwarde direction. Salutations of auncient time were woont to bee fixed, Quasi omen faustum, a signe or inuiting to good hap, in the front or vpper part of the letter: so did the auncient Romanes, and in like manner after their examples doo at this daie some other nations. But seldome or neuer (especiallie of the learned and most curious writers) is the same in our English directions, at any time accustomed. Onelie this, where letters are directed from one or more of the Councell to an inferiour Magistrate or person, or from some noble man to such, whom hee intertaineth not in any estate of societie or equall familiaritie, the maner of commendations (which with vs is retained for an order of Salutation or gréeting) runneth lightlie in the beginning of the Letter, and customablie is deliuered in this forme. After our heartie commendations vnto your L. if it bee from a number of the Counsell to a Noble man, or otherwise in the singular number vnto an inferiour person, as thus. After my heartie commendations vnto you. But otherwise writing seriouslie to anie man, Maner of salutations. the greeting if it be to one far our better is turned, to an acknowledgment of some kind of dutie, or reuerent account, and that most commonly at the end of the Letter, which likewise in equalitie falleth out in such place to be mentioned. And being in familiarities is to no place tied, but beginning, middle, or ending of the Letter, all is one, as séemeth most consonant to the vaine & disposition of the partie, and these also at all times not deliuered in the selfe worde of gréeting or commendations, but by diuerse Epithets, and fine conueiances, as falleth out to the matter of the Epistle, and the conditions of the partie to be handled. This being at the end of the Letter, there shall immediatelie follow the order of farewell, which ioyning so hard thereupon as it doeth, wee will put them both in one example of wordes and Epithets,Epithets. togither with the subscriptions, for the easier instruction of the learner, and his better remembrance, referring the notes of euerie of them to their places, where afterwards they are vsed in their seuerall Letters.

Diuerse orders of greetings, farewels and sub-
scriptions. Cap. 5.

Cknowledging my selfe deepelie boundeGreetings of humilitie or acknowledgment of dutie. vnto your L. for manie sundrie fauours: I doe remaine in all humble reuerrence. Finding my selfe manie wayes beholding vnto your exceeding courtesies, I ende. Remembring howe much I am indebted vnto your L. for your sundrie benefites: I conferre the regard thereof to my present imaginations, and doe beseech thereof at your honourable handes an euerlasting continuance. All humble loyaltie and seruice protested vnto your honorable calling, I rest nowe and perpetuallie your L. &c. Fearing in speeches, neuer with sufficiencie to manifest the conceit I haue of your most honourable fauours: I solace my selfe with the remembrance, and humblie leaue your L. to your woonted perseuerance. Praying the Almightie to haue your L. euermore in his gratious protection, I humblie take my leaue. Your worship in this, besides manie other occasions hauing perpetuallie bound mee, how can I but rest such, as you haue expected and shall euer find me. Eftsoones recording my bounden seruice vnto your worship and my good Ladie, I remaine as euer before. Not forgetting howe manie wayes I am charged, in dutifull remembrance towards you, I rest as I haue protested. More grieued at my mishap and disabilitie, then wanting either will or liking to doe seruice vnto you: I affix my selfe euermore vpon the acceptance of your woonted cuʳtesie, and humblie there withall do take my leaue: Commending the safetie and good estate of your worship to the Almighties protection, I rest in all dutifull regard to the same. Rather desirous to shewe my selfe thankful, then otherwise able in like sort to giue you any requital, I continue, &c. Binding my self by all possible indeuors, neuer to be fréed from the charge of so excéeding benefites, I wish I might as I would, be vnto you in verie deed, &c. Wishing vnto you and yours, as much happinesse, as my selfe am clogged with carefulnesse, I surcease. Desiring vnto you no worse successe in these and all other your laudable endeuors, Greetings familiar. then my selfe haue eftsoones craued in performance of my chiefest trauels, I recommend you to the tuition of the Almightie. Not forgetting our accustomed gréetings and interchangeable welwishings, my hastie Letter taketh ende. Weighing howe much you are alreadie busied, and not willing to keepe you further occupied, I ende my long and tedious discourse, beeing in nothing exempted from woonted salutations, and accustomed kind of greetings. Thinke not though my haste be such, but that I remember (notwithstanding all this breuitie) how greatlie I stand charged both to you and yours, to whome, and all the rest to you knowne I eftsoones commend me. Reioycing not a little at the health of you and all other our friends, I hartily bid you fare well. Reiocing my self on your wel-wishing, and the hope I haue to be returned in safetie I commend my hap to fortune, and our gouernement to the Almightie. Rendring vnto you as manie thankes, as I conceiued comfort of your good intreatings, I leaue to detaine you. Omitting what else to bee amplified in these or anie other occasions I expect your happie returne, and in hope thereof doe bid you farewell. Knowing howe well I loue you, the lesse ceremonies I néede to vse in greeting you, onlie you shall remember to your parents in most hartie maner to commend mee. Salute I praie you your friendes in my name, and thinke in my best and serious wishes I neuer forget you. My father willed me in his behalfe to salute you, and all the rest of your acquaintance here do most hartilie greete you. Forget not in what sort I haue heretofore receiued you, and thinke in the selfe same maner I do still intertaine you. My gréetings to our friend R. let not bee vnremembred, and deeme that in all my vowes I haue (vnto you all) most heartilie wished. I had almost let slip my commendations vnto your brother, which for anie thing I would not had bene forgotten, vpon whom, as of greatest choic, I will make my reposing.

The liking I haue to N. maketh mee here to remember him whose good demeanour as your own, I haue in chiefest reckoning. My gréetings and paper haue all one ende togither, onelie our friendship indissoluble can neuer be forgotten.

Thinke how exceedinglie I haue alwaies well wished vnto you, and accordinglie thereunto measure the rest of mine affections towards you. Haste compelleth mee to ende sooner than I would, wherin notwithstanding I can neuer omit sufficientlie to gréete you, eftsoones recognizing as behooueth, your especall good liking towards me, &c.

Innummerable of these and such like might be imagined both in greetings and farewels, the course whereof beeing furnished with such varietie as it is, I haue left the residue vnto the conceit of the learner, accounting the plentie herein set down, for anie studious follower to be alreadie sufficient.

And now to the Subscriptions, the diuersities whereof are (as best they may be allotted in sence) to either of these to bee placed, forwarned alwaies vnto the vnskilfull herein,Subscriptions. that writing to anie person of account, by howe much the more excellent hee is in calling from him in whose behalfe the Letter is framed, by so much the lower, shall the subscription thereunto belonging, in any wise be placed.

And if the state of honour of him to whome the Letter shall be directed doe require so much, the verie lowest margent of paper shall do no more but beare it, so be it the space bee seemelie for the name, and the roome fairre inough to comprehend it, which Subscriptions in all sortes to be handled shall passe in this or the like order or substance.

Your L. most deuoted and loyallie affected. Maner and varietie of subscriptions. Your Honours most assured in whatsoeuer seruices. Your L. in whatsoeuer to be commanded. The most affectionate vnto your L. of all others. Hee that hath vowed to liue and die in your Honourable seruice. Your L. most faithfull and obedient Sonne. Your La. louing and obedient Daughter. Who but by your L. is onelie to be commaunded. Whose heart is your Honours, and his life by your L. to be disposed. He that liueth not but for your worship, and to doe you seruice. Whose regard stretcheth vnto your Worship more then vnto anie others. He that vnto your worship hath vowed to become most assured. Whome none haue euer bound so much, as the deserts of your L. Your L. in all humblenes. Your Honours euer to be commaunded. At your worships command. Your La. most bounden and affectionate. At your honourable direction. Alwaies attendant vpon your L. pleasure. Your worships in all good account. Yours euer louing and most assured. To none so much as your selfe. Hee that in all accounts tendereth your welfare. Whome by your onelie curtesie you haue conuinced. The same which I accept from you, and not otherwise. Such as I am, or as you wish to finde me. He that in his liking is onlie yours. Whome you haue euer knowne, but neuer prooued. Whose liking onelie accounteth of your worthinesse. Such as you haue euer founde me, and not otherwise. Yours in what soeuer to bee imploied. More chary of your welfare, then carefull of himselfe. Yours as you like to haue me. Yours faithfull and euer assured. Yours or not his owne. He who found you, but neuer knew you. He that once fauoured you, but sithence hath vowed neuer to regarde you. Whose liking by your ingratitude hath beene quenched. In whose account you once were, but now abandoned. Who once wished to loue, but could neuer hate thee. Whom thy deserts haue made an enemie. Whom hereby you may win, (if you list) for euer to become a friend. To each one louing, but to the most charie. Whose heart shall faile in any thing, sooner then in conceit towardes thee. Hée, whose in loialtie thou didst protest to be. Who liueth not but to pursue thee. Who euer looked on, but neuer loued thee. The same as you left me. Such as you saw when you departed from me. The same and none other, which I haue euer seemed to be. Whose worde hath bounde him, and faith shall assure him. Yours most affectionate. Yours deuoted till death. Yours while life swaieth within me. Yours as far forth as anie others. &c. with manie other applications, whose Epithets are infinite, and rather vpon the cause suggested then otherwise, to bee euermore added, altered, or conceiued. These and the others may only suffice for the present purpose, referring what else to be expected, to the regarde of a more curious or delicate inuention.

And herein I thought good to aduertise the learner, that sometimes it falleth out, that this acknowledgement Acknowledgemēt of duty in the Exordium. of dutie, mentioned in the beginning of the greetings and farewels, is in diuers Letters expressed in the foremost part, and the Exordium thereupon framed: (for that the same in truth is one of the parts thereunto belonging effected in the person or condition of him to whom we write) which to doe, if in his writing also the same maie be deemed necessarie, he maie then vse some other order of farewell or taking leaue, either by imitation of others, or if hee thinke meete, what herein else prescribed, consonant and agreeing to the state and reputation of the same partie to whome hee writeth. Now then shall followe the directions, which on the outside of euerie Letter (the same being made vp and sealed) are alwaies fired, and commonlie are termed by the name of Superscriptions.

Of Superscriptions and Directions. Cap. 6.

Mong the auncient Romanes, when learning first grewe vnto skilfull perfecton,Superscriptions and directions of the Romanes. and men first deuised excellentlie to write, then there began to be extant in memorie, diuers formes of writing immediatlie, by the name and title of Epistles, to be published to the posterity. In the directions whereof, animated as I thinke with the vertues of their parents, and accounting it (as in truth it was then so reputed) to be a great honour vnto them, to be intituled with the name of the principall author of their families, they sought no farther stile of magnificence, but (were his parentage neuer so statelie or honorable) being therewith contented, did onlie vpon such regard intitle their directions. For who that hath bin but ordinarilie acquainted with the histories of their actes, but knoweth and hath read, with what reuerence, those times (greedy of vertue,) entertained the honorable desertes of such, as for the common-wealth, and publicke aduancement of the state, had either aduenturouslie hazarded, or couragiouslie lost a fraile, vncertaine, or transitorie life, to the intent to purchase vnto their country quiet, honour, or victorie, and to themselues and posteritie, eternized fame and euer flourishing glorie. Neither was their country vnkind vnto them herein, which for their sakes, and for the reuerend regarde of their vertues, haue compensed the loue which to their parents they could not shewe, to their children and succession in manie degrées after them.

Such were the families of the Gracchi, Fabij, Cornelij, Hortentij, Horatij, Metelli, Amilij, Scipiones and Fabritij. Whereby I coniecture that the custome hereof, by such emulation adorned, became afterwardes a dignitie, and so succeeded in honour to euerie posteritie.

These Romans therefore, vsed onlie, in the front of their letters to write first their owne names, titles adoptiue, and surnames, after that, his to whom they wrote, and lastlie their salutation or maner of greetings: giuing also like aditions vnto the other as to him belonged, whether it were by familie, office, or some other dignitie. And this was the forme. M. T. Cicero. M. Varoni. Sal. dicit, or C. Cæsar: Comelio Balbo salutem dicit. But that custome according to the antiquity of the time, is long since worne out, and these dates and seasons haue induced vnto vs for euerie estate of calling, a more statelie reuerence according to the dignitie and worthines of the same.

The reuerend maiesty of Emperours, Kings and Princes, being aduāced with a more excellency and supreame magnificence. The names of Dukes, Marquises, Earles, barons and other magistrates, with more solemne and honourable titles.

Diuersity of Estates.

The offices of estate and places most noble, amplified with larger honours, and names accordant to their seuerall dignities.

And albeit few are the number, that herein shall be occasioned to occupy their pen, but (knoweth on almost euerie daie) maie vnderstand the formall application of euerie personages honour or worship: yet in so much as all sortes are not perfectlie skilled, nor euerie man liueth in place so conuenient to vnderstand it, and that it hath beene parcell of a prescribed order so to doe, by those that haue written the like methode, I will set downe so manie examples of estates for directions, as to the matter and purpose hereof maie be adiudged conuenient, beginning from the highest that are or haue beene latelie accustomed in our common wealth (the soueraign Maiestie excepted) vnto the meaner and most ordinary bred, and in present practise amongst vs. And first, with the dignitie of Archbishop, to whom in this sort we frame our direction.

To the most reuerend Father in God, the L. Archbishop of Canturburie,Directions to an Archbishop. Bishop.
Duke. or York, Primate of England, and Metropolitane his verie good grace. To the right reuerende Father in God, and my verie good Lorde, the L. Bishop of London. To the high and mightie Prince, L. Duke of B. his most noble grace. To the right honourable and my especiall good L. the Lorde Chauncellor,L. Chancellor. L. Treasurer. Earles and in office. or Lord high Treasurer of England. To the right Honorable the Lorde Marquese of W. To the right Honourable the Earle of E. Lorde Lieutenant for her maiestie in the, &c. To the right Honourable the Earle of H. Lorde President of her Maiesties most honorable Councell established in the North. To the right Honorable, and my singular good L. the lorde B.Lords knights of the priuie councell. one of the lords of her highnes most honourable priuy Councell. To the right honorable sir W. M. knight, Chancellour of the Exchequer, and of her Maiesties most honorable priuy Councel. To the right honorable and my singular good Lord and father, or ladie mother, the Earle or Countesse of N. To the right honourable and my verie good ladie, the ladie A. Countesse of W. To the most noble ladie and Paragon of all vertue, the ladie M. H. To the right vertuous ladie endued with all singularitie, the ladie F. D. To the most noble and towardlie yong Gentleman G. T. esquire, if hee be a noble mans sonne vnder the degrée of a Baron. To the right honourable sir W. S. knight, L. Maior of the citie of L. To the right worshipfull W. L. esquire, one of the Iudges of her Maiesties court of common Pleas. To the right worshipfull and my singular good ladie mother, the Ladie D. H. To my verie good father, W. C. Marchant of the citie of B. To the right worshipfull his especiall good maister, M. R. Marchant and Alderman of L. To my seruant R. D. at C. &c.

Other examples besides these were needelesse to set downe, for that if any alteration at all happen herein, it is by reason of familiaritie, addition of offices, or change of titles. Onlie let herewith be noted, that when Letters doe passe from some number of the Counsell, or from any Lord of the same, to a noble man or knight, these directions of honour and worship are seldome vsed. But rather thus. To our verie good L. sir W. R. knight, lord Deputie of Ireland. To our verie good L. the L. Maior of the citie of L. and to our verie louing friends W. C. and R. P. Aldermen of the same. To my verie good lord, the L. T. H. To my verie louing friend, sir. T. P. knight. To our verie louing friends sir R. S. knight, Custos rotulorum of her Maiesties Count. of B. and R. W. and S. P. esquires, Iustices of peace of the same Shire. The like directions also are vsed of an Earle, to any of these estates to him inferiour in calling, and of a Baron to a Iustice of peace, but commonlie they will adde the title of worship.

The diuisions of Letters and vnder what titles all sortes
of Epistles are contained. Cap 7.

Lbeit the diuersitie of Epistles are (as I saide before) as manifold as are the sundrie occurrents, or rather imaginations of mens fantasies: yet for so much as it seemeth pertinent vnto this Method to induce their varieties vnto some particular titles, by such meanes the rather to bring the learner into a speciall forme, whereby for his necessitie or present turne to applie the same. I haue thought good in imitation of the best and most learned iudgements of our time, to drawe the sundrie parts thereof, vnder foure especiall heads, that is to saie: Demonstratiue, Deliberatiue, Iudiciall, and Familiar Letters. And howbeit the rules prescribed vnto either of these, maie vnder their seuerall heads séeme to be particularlie allotted, yet are they in nature so neerelie conioyned togither, as hardlie shall you in anie of the first three fall into their particular distinctions, but lightlie in one sort or other, you shall run into the natures of the others.

For proofe whereof, and this to open more plainlie, let vs first lay downe their properties in seuerall, and then sée by association each with other how néerlie they do participate in their qualities. You shall then vnderstande that this Demonstratiue kinde, hath the name of a declaration, deliuerie or shewing of some one thing or other, the distinctions of the Epistles thereunder contained, are Descriptorie, in which bee described the manners and conuersations of men, all vertues, vices and qualities both of bodie and mind. Honorable chalenges, combats, entertainmēts, attempts, orders of common weales, gouermnents, and estates, countries, cities, hilles, valleies, fields, prospects, buildings and walkes, with their pleasures and scituations. Laudatorie, wherein is speciallie praysed anie thing, and Vituperatorie, in which is misliked or condemned whatsoeuer maie be thought worthie either to bee abhorred or dispraysed.

The Deliberatiue is so named, of the large comprehension it hath of sundry causes and matters, being not almost tied to any particular occasion or purpose: His distinctions are Hortatorie, and Dehortatorie: Swasorie and Disswasorie, not much vnlike together in their orders and properties: the natures of the first being to exhort, counsell, aduise, or perswade to anie thing, of the other, to withdraw, disswade or reduce to another meaning. Conciliatorie, which serueth in acquiring of friendship of acquaintance. Reconciliatorie, in reconcilement of kinred, friends, or other persons. Petitorie, in suing for, or crauing of anie thing. Commendatorie, in preferring the seruices, persons or good qualities, of anie one. Consolatorie, in comforting at times of troubles, sorrowe, or mishaps. Monitorie, in forewarning, admonishing, or counselling from mischiefs. Reprehensorie, in reprehending or correcting of errours and behauiours. Amatorie, in matters of louing.

The Iudiciall is so called, in that it comprehendeth matters lawfull, vnlawfull, or questionable to be handled: The distinctions thereof are, Accusatorie, containing matter of accusation. Excusatorie, which is occupied in excusing. Expostulatorie, in reasoning of causes. Purgatorie, in clearing or auoydance of thinges charged. Defensorie, in defence of the action. Exprobatorie, in reproching or obtruding of benefites vpon cause of vnthankfulnes. Deprecatorie, in praying of pardon of a thing committed, and Inuectiue, inueighing agaynst ill natures, qualities, occasions or persons.

Now the distinctions of these heades being thus laide open by particular titles, we will see how neere in writing they concurre or fall in, each with others. True is it, (as shall be séene in some examples hereafter following) that touching the first head beeing Demonstratiue, it sometimes falleth out in causes of aduertisement, or relation of thinges made, that the title Descriptorie is manie times meerlie in it selfe handled, without entring into anie other particular addition or occasion, but in the other titles of Laudatorie and Vituperatorie, not so. For how can I either praise or discommend anie thing, without falling into a Description of those persons, things or qualities, which I disallow or commend. Againe, for the Deliberatiue kinde in Hortatorie, Dehortatorie, Swasorie and Disswasorie, Commendatorie, Monitorie or Reprehensorie, how can I exhort, counsell, aduise, withdraw, commend, admonish or reprehende, if therein I set not forth what is woorthie or vnfit, what to be praysed, estéemed, disallowed, or eschued: which can not bee, without of necessitie I fall into the partes Descriptorie, Laudatorie and Vituperatorie. Likewise in matters Consolatorie, Conciliatorie & Reconciliatorie, howe I maie comfort seeke friends, or reconcile, if the partes Hortatorie and Swasorie, be absent. So also for the iudiciall, if either I accuse, excuse, expostulate, defende, reproach, intreate, or inueigh, it must be done with the laying out of vices, and aduauncement of vertues, in manifesting what is good, and setting forth what is euill, neither of which, can be without matter Descriptorie, Laudatorie, and Vituperatorie. By all which it appeareth, that (howbeit these seuerall titles stand thus diuided) yet are the matters of the same diuerslie wrapped togither, and the precepts seruing to the one, must of necessitie by a like conueyance be drawne into an obseruation with the other: notwithstanding for ease of the learner, and to the end he may with more readines find out what best fitteth and beseemeth the cause hee hath in handling, they bee thus drawne forth as you see into so many particular distinctions.

Touching nowe our Familiar Letters, they also are to bee drawne vnder their seuerall titles, as Narratorie, and Nunciatorie, somewhat falling into the demonstratiue kind before remembred, wherein we expresse and declare to those farre from vs, the matters or newes presentlie in hand amongst vs: Gratulatorie, wherein wee reioyce each with others of the good happes of fortune betiding vs. Remuneratorie, being a gratefull relation of cortesies, benefites or good turnes receiued. Iocatorie, wherewith by a pleasant and swéete kinde of deliuerie of some pretie conceit or iest, the minde is recreated. Obiurgatorie, in which wee rebuke the ill demeanours of our children, seruants, kindred, or acquaintance. Mandatorie, whereby wee commit expreslie our affaires to such as we haue authoritie, either to commaunde or intreate to be dispatched. To these and the others before mentioned are manie Epistles Responsorie, the titles whereof cannot be certaine, but examples and occasions plentifull: all which I referre to their peculiar places each one, as they are suted forth to be in their kindes deliuered. And now will we passe vnto the other hereafter to bee obserued in deliuerie of Examples, accordant vnto the seuerall titles of all these forenamed Epistles, and first of Epistles Descriptorie.

Of Epistles meerely Descriptory and the parts
thereof. Chap. 8.

Orsomuch as in Descriptions, are (as I saide before) onelie declared and set foorth at large, the maner, order, state, gouernment, proportion goodnesse or value of anie thing: the Epistles consisting solie thereof, be commonlie without addition at all, either of praise or mislike, or anie other intendment, in respect whereof they might in anie one iote varie from that title of Descriptorie. Parts in Epistle Descriptory. The force hereof besides the Exordium, comprehendeth chieflie a narration, throughout, in which is contained (by laying out the seuerall parts thereof) a perfect and plain demonstration or description of any thing: In these sortes of Epistles, the excellency of the writer, and painter concurreth in one, who the more that each of them studieth by perfection,Comparison of the writer and painter. to touch al things to the quick, by so much the more neerer doe they both aspire to that exquisit kind of cunning, that in each of these differences, is absolutely to be required. The curious painterPainter. in drawing a perfect peece of Lantskip, presenteth many things vnto the eie, the conceit whereof is maruellous: for with great admiration we do there séeme to behold, the most pleasant and goodlie vallies: Woods hie and decked with statelie trées (some tops whereof the wind seemeth to wreath and turne at one side) then goodly riuers, hie waies and walkes, large situate & high climing hils and mountains, far prospects of Cities, steeples, and Towers, ships sayling on seas, and waues blown vp aloft, the element cleere, faire and temperate, with some shining beames shadowing and spreading ouer all these, wherein seemeth the delight so rare, and climate so perfect, as verie desire prouoketh a man to gaze of it, as a thing in present life, and most certaine viewe. And do I praie you, our excellent writers degenerate at all from anie part of these? Doeth not the learned Cosmographer in acquainting vs with the vnknowne delights,Writer. scituation, plenty and riches of Countries which we neuer sawe, nor happilie maie euer approch vnto, rauish vs oftentimes, andPtolemy and other writers, de situ orbis. bring in contempt the pleasures of our owne soyle: and manie times a huge woonder, of the vnheard secrets neuer before reported of, the incredible operations of diuers thinges, and state so high and magnificent, such as the verie description and liuelie deliuery whereof, maketh vs beleeue that our eies do almost witnes the same, and that our verie sences are partakers of euerie delicacie in them contained. But omitting the wight hereof, consisting in these worlds of such strange accompt, with that fine inuention doeth Virgil Virgil in his Aenidos. manie times in his Aeneidos, and with howe much varietie describe vnto vs the tides of the morning? Howe greatlie in his first booke doth he amuse the reader, with the lamentable shipwracke, and euen then (as it were) appearing surges, and intollerable turmoils vpon the sea happening to Aeneas? What darknesse, what tempestes, what rising and deepest fall of waues againe, what winds, what mingling of heauen and earth together doth hee there relate? Then after, his arriuall on shore and presenting to Queene Dido, howe is the destruction of Troy in the person of Aeneas to her described? In the fourth booke likewise, what an excellent description maketh he of Fame? How he sheweth the banquet by the Queene to Aeneas made, and how liuelie is the state and magnificence thereof deliuered? Innumerable of these, both from him and the Transformed shapes of OuidOuidii Metamorphoseos. coulde I here recorde, the excellencie of each being such, as by the forceable vtterance thereof bréedeth as great delight as astonishment vnto the curious searcher of the same. And in as much as I haue vndertaken to conduct the learner by example,Example. howe to behaue himselfe in some sort herein, we will proceed with our Epistles Descriptory, the first wherof following, maie seeme to bee sent from a traueller to a friend of his in England, the mater whereof ensueth.

An example of a latter Descriptory, wherein is particu-
larly described an ancient City, by laying down the
seuerall parts thereof.

MY good Vncle, the remembrance of your charge giuen me, & my promise Exordium Or a charge giuen, and promise made. to you made at my departure out of England, bindeth me (at my nowe being in quiet, and with good leasure setled in Germany) that I should returne vnto you againe, my accustomed and dutifull regard, in sort as I haue euer endeuoured my selfe to do vnto you.Narratio. It may then please you, that remaining with my L. the Duke but a fewe daies at Geneua, wee hasted thence to a Citie, called Noremberge, being imperiall, scituate in the high partes of Germany, where sithence wee haue almost continually remained. And albeit I could somewhat write vnto you of our passages through diuers places of the Country, yet insomuch as there is no part thereof so memorable as this citie wherein we now remaine, the description thereof at this present may solie content you. The Citie therefore, as it seemeth is most ancient, and as many doe suppose and affirme, at that time when the Country was first in subiection to the Empire of Rome, was builded by Nero the Emperour, and of him taketh his name, as Noremberghe, in signification Neros berghe, and so much the rather doth it appeare, by sundry auncient monumentes therein yet remaining. The Citie (besides that it is situate in a most delicate and pleasant soyle,Scituation. wooded and watered most plentifully on euerie side, with goodlie Trees, faire and delicate Riuers and springes,) is both of great strength in the walles of the same, and plentifully builded with high and statelie Towers on euerie part. The edificies of the Citie are rare,Buildings. and of most sumptuous and statelie appearaunce, insomuch that there is no one house in any rowe that exceedeth another in height, but all of them builded leuell, by a verie Geometricall proportion. The insides are not more polished with riches and ornamentes of great beauty, then the outsides with brauerie, the verie frontsDeckings. of all which, aswell of rich as poore, are most curiously embossed in a hard kinde of substance (such I thinke as is our plaster of Paris) with artificiall and liuely pictures, conteining histories of diuers memorable, and strange effectes, and that with such wonderfull excellency, as any waies may bee conceiued. The cost hereof is continually maintayned, repaired, enlarged, and preserued, by a generall contribution of the most worthy and honourable of the Citie. Besides, the colours so fresh, so braue, and delicate laide in oyle, for defence against weather, wherewith they are beautified and set forth, are verie straunge. The streetesStreets. are wide, faire, and excellentlie well paued. The stone they vse for the most part is marble, white, gray, and blacke, whereof is great plentie, besides other kindes, which verie wonderfully they cut and square in diuers small proportions artificiallie pointed and shaped. The houses are not high, but backwarde builte, and inwardelie large. This Citie retaineth yet the auncient gouernement of the Romanes, for at this instant they haue theirGouernment Consuls, Tribunes, Senators, Pretors, Quæstors, Aediles and other interchangeable offices, as sometimes had Rome, beeing in her greatest prosperitie. The attire also alike to their dignities of all sortes of honourable personages, accustomed to their callinges. Plaine are their habitesHabit of the people. for the most part, and nothing sumptuous, retaining still one, and the selfe same ancient fashion. The constitution of their bodies as wel men as women, are faire, cleare, and of sounde complexion. Frugall in diet and expence, and nothing prodigall. My L. the Duke is here of great sway, and entertained with honorable accompt. ConclusoThus much haue I thought good to aduertise you in discharge of my debt and your desire, attending by the returne of this messenger the newes of your good health. To whom & al other our friends, in sound and good affection I eftsoones do recommend me. At Noremberghe this of, &c.

Another example wherein the state of a Coun-
trey is soly described.

I Doubt not N. but that thy hart longeth, and mind is yet vnquieted, Exordium. Of their accustomed friendship.because of my suddaine departure from thee, and ignorance of my estate and present being, whereof that thy desires may nowe at full be resolued: know my good N. that not hauing beene scarce sixe moneths from thee, I did long since perceiue my selfe to bee out of England, and that it may appeare vnto thee, that I haue iust cause so to say, thou shalt somewhat vnderstande by mee the state of this Countrey. Wee liue heere in a soile delicate I must confesse for the ayre, Narratio. Pleasant ayre vnfrequented. and pleasant for the situation: with good leasure (I must tell thee) may we here attend our deuotions, as hauing no care wherewith to encumber vs, but the needlesse search of that whereof wee neuer find likelihood to annoy vs.In voluntary abstinence. As vncompelled by seuere decrees and interdictions, we limit vnto ourselues an abstinence, thou mightst think we do it of zeale, but in truth it is of want, wherein we haue more fasting daies by a great manie then ability to beare them. Our conuersation is with elements, with waters, with fieldes, with trees, with valleyes, with hilles, with beasts, in the general vse whereof, wee find nothing else but their proper shapes. And if by chaunce any other sorts of creatures do appeare, they are naked shapes formed as men and women, fierce, sauage, wilde, not capable of anie our reasons, nor we of their speeches. Our foode is rootes, dried fishes, berries, and I knowe not what other harshHard feeding. kind of fruits, and sometime foules, besides a kind of graine growing in great cods wherby we somtimes obtain (though not the naturall) yet some vse of bread, vnlike to that you eat, in taste, goodnes, or propertie. Our lodgingsIll lodging. and places of repose are caues, entrenched in the ground, the earth our beds, and clothes our couerings. And these also hard as they are, enioy wee not in quiet, but being awaited of the naked multitude (whose policies insinuate by nature are farre greater then their strength)Danger. wee are faine by much industrie to preuent them: into whose hands if any of vs doe chaunce to fall, our dead carkasses in hastie morsels are conueied into their intrailes. Hereby iudging of our estate, thou mayest accordinglie deeme of our pleasures. The next message that thou shalt attend from mee, shall bee my speedie returne, the seas and windes being not lesse fauourable then they were at my going forth. Meane while recommend my selfe to thy wel-wishing, and our safeties to God, I ende as thou knowest, this of, &c.

An example wherein the death of a nobleman
is onelie described.

THE decease (good Madame)Exordium. Of the cause it selfe. of my Lorde your brother, hath occasioned vnto your Lad. the sight of these Letters, wherein I haue rather acquited my selfe of that whereunto by your honourable commaunde I was enioyned, then anie wayes satisfied the griefe that by my selfe among manie others, for his losse is intirelie conceyued. The manner whereof may please you nowe to bee informed of,Narratio. which was thus. On Tuesday beeing the thirteenth of this instant, hauing as it then seemed vnto his L. and others, beene reasonablie well recouered from the woonted force of his long consuming disease, beeing importuned by the dispatch of some present affayres, as otherwise to haue some conference with her Maiestie, hee went from his house of B. to the Court, where all that day hee remained, and returned againe at night, not for all this, finding himselfe at all disquieted at the least motion of anie the pangs wherewith before time hee had so often been vexed. The most part of that night hee was verie well reposed.Sudden sickenesse. Towardes morning the next daie, he beganne somewhat to be agreeued, but nothing as accustomed: in which state the most part of that day hee continued. At night againe hauing eaten some small pittance to supper, towardes nine of the clocke hee beganne most vehementlie to bee passioned, till which time wee all had verie good expectation of his health and recouerie, which his L. perceyuing, after hee had beene a while set vp in his bedde, hee sayde, I knowe my good friendsDeclaration of his speeches. and faithfull louing seruaunts, that the great zeale and loue you doo beare vnto mee, is a vehement occasion to kindle in you a desire of wel-wishing, and intendment of assured safetie towardes mee, wherein I haue more cause to thanke your good willes, then meane thereby to imagine the force of my disease to bee lesse then long since I expected, and exceedinglie in my selfe haue euer doubted, what wordes of comfort, protraction and delayes so euer, haue by the Physitions to the contrarie beene vsed. One great and exceeding comfort vnto mee is, that liuing, I euer loyallie demeaned my selfe: and dying, I shall depart this worlde in her Maiesties good grace, and especiall fauour. Next vnto that, the loue of you my dearest friendes and entirelie beloued seruants and followers, whose hearts I knowe doe pursue mee, and whose affections euen to the last gaspe of death I am perswaded to bee euer firme and fixed towardes mee. Your desires are, I knowe, that I shoulde liue, according vnto which the least mitigation that may bee of my griefe, you measure by & by to the hope of amendment, which is not so. For that in all the comfortable speeches, that sundrie times I haue receiued from you, my selfe to whome the inwarde effects thereof haue beene found most forcible, haue euer mistrusted, and by manie probable circumstances adiudged the contrarie. Long time endure I cannot, this knowe I well, happelie a daie, two or three, I may yet bee conuersant among you, for my disease, that standeth assured (the messenger whereof continuallie knocketh at the doore of my imaginations, readie euerie houre to assault my heart, and to carrie away with him the spoyles of a dying carkasse) will not permit I shall long time trauell in this sort among you. And for my selfe, stand ye all assertained, that hauing long since poyzed in equall ballance, the long continuance of a fraile, wretched, and trauelled life, the most part whereof is caryed away Mislike of the world.in sleepe, sorrowe, griefe sickenesse, daunger, and the residue also neuer freed of care and all maner of disquiet, with the hope of an euerlasting ioy, happines, rest peace, and immortall residence: I finde no reason whie I should at all affect the toyle of such earthlie tediousnesse. Insomuch as hauing liued nowe almost threescore and thirteene yeares, and borne my selfe (honourablie I trust) in all mine actions and seruices, and further in the progression of my ripest yeares, yea in this verie instant more then at anie other time am regarded of my Prince, and esteemed of my Countrey, and among my Peeres reputed in the highest degree of my fidelitie: I shall nowe die as becommeth my person, woorthilie and honourablie. Bee you therefore recomforted I pray you, as I am, and thinke that for all the loue you haue ought me, the seruices you haue done mee, or tender care you doe yet in my heauiest pangs beare vnto mee, the chiefest content you can doe vnto mee, is that you bee satified herein with mee.Certain notice and liking of death. That beeing verelie resolued in my soule, of all that I haue here sayde vnto you, and hauing ordered mine actions, and prepared my selfe thereto accordinglie, I doe willinglie and with a right contented mind, leaue this transitorie world so replenished as it is, with so manie grieuous casualties, & hartilie do giue my bodie to his naturall course, and my soule into the handes of the mightie Creator, for euer in his glorie (I trust) to bee eternized. This speech ended, hee continued till after midnight, at which time hee had about two houres slumber, and so beganne his paine to encrease againe. In which till Wednesday following, almost in one state, hee for the most part remained, oftentimes accustoming himselfe with those that were about him to prayer, manie times, recording to himselfe the goodnesse of God, and his mercies to him remembred, and that with such zeale and intire regarde of his hoped repose, as that it still seemed and was euidentlie apparant howe muche hee longed and thirsted for the same. In fine, drawing by little and little towardes an ende, euen in the verie last pang, ioyning his handes vp to heauen, his heart and eyes thitherwarde fixed, hee recommended eftsoones himselfe to the mercie of his Redeemer, and on Thursday last about two in the morning died, to the lamentable griefe of all that were about him, who heartily sorrowing his losse, were forced to shed teares aboundantly. The day of the funerall is not yet certaine, but the same is intended verie honorablie. Recommending my selfe vnto your La. in all humblenesse, I take my leaue. At our sorrowfull house of B, this of, &c.

Of Epistles Laudatorie and Vituperatorie.
Chap. 9.

Owe followeth it next, that after these Letters, meere Descriptorie as you see, we doe treate of the other two partes appertaining also to this forme, which are Laudatorie and Vituperatorie, the vse whereof either solelie or intermixed in any other kind of Epistles, shal of one or more of these causes take their originall, that is to say, of the Person, Praise of the person. deeds or thing it selfe to bee commended, misliked or dispraysed. 1The person of anie one is to be preferred or disabled, by his birth, 2descent, shewe, or abilitie. Secondlie, by his childhoode, or 3good education from his infancie. Thirdlie, of his youth, in which he is either conuersant in studies of honest life, seriously giuen to the knowledge of letters, affecting alwayes vnto laudable exercises, temperat and sober in demeanour, or otherwise accounted dissolute and wanton, vnhappilie led to the search of whatsoeuer mischiefes, affectionate to the most basest conditions and practises, not tied to anie order, but wholie pursuing an vncontroulled 4libertie. Fourthlie, of his manly yeares being frequented with ciuill gouernment, or liuing altogether without account. Priuately and publikely in all manlie actions demeaned, or by apparant5 loosenes in each place discredited. Fiftlie, of his olde age, the course whereof is with ancient grauitie continued, or by al kind of euils most hainously misprised, whose siluer haires are shining in vertuous happines, or miserable estate drowned in lothsomnes. Sixtly, in his 6ende or departure out of this world, agreeing to the saying of Solon, No man may be counted happie before his death. For that in the expectatiō or attaining therof, as at no time more in all the life of a man, then chiefly appeareth, his vertue, constancy, strength & worthinesse, or otherwise his imbecility, ouerthrow, shame and ignominious filthines. Besides all these, many likelihoods are often taken either to the praise or dispraise of the person, by occasion of the nation or soile from whence he came, where hee was borne or trained. From the generall condition or application of himselfe or of the people thereof, by the habite, constitution of the bodie, complexion, looks, fame, or other circumstances thereunto incident, by the actiuitie, strength, swiftnes, nimblenes, fauor or beauty of the body. By the gifts of fortune, as honor, wealth, worship, reputation and kindred. And forasmuch as these demonstrations of persons are wholy occupied either in praise or dispraise of their conditions or behauiours: the chiefest part hereof shall also consist in Narration, without peraduenture it falleth out in the life of anie one to haue some one or mo things hapned or of them supposed, ill beseeming or vnworthy their reputation, which either by defence, excusation, or Confutation must bee coloured, diminished, or cleerely auoided. Examples whereof do follow according to their particular occasions: and thus much for the Persons.

In commendation or vituperation of the déeds of any one,Of the deeds. we shall weigh with our selues what notable actions haue bin, wherein he or she haue honorably or worthily behaued themselues, or by perpetual infamy therof haue deserued in each posteritie for euer to be contemned. Touching things likewise by themselues to bee extolled or disabled, they are euer measured by the consonance and agréement they haue either with reputation or dignitie.

The goodnesse or badnes,Honest which is tied to vertue. excellencie or basenesse of any thing, is gathered from the places of Honestum, Inhonestie, vnder which is comprehended what is iust or vniust, godlie or wicked, direct or indirect, worthy or to be dispraised. Honest is alwaies linked to vertue. For whatsoeuer is either vertue it selfe, or affined with vertue or deriued from vertue, or conducing to vertue, is absolutelie declared honest.

The distinguishment of these falleth out to be sorted into foure principall excellencies, that is, Prudence, Iustice, fortitude and Temperance, it is therefore to be intended, that not onelie deedes and actions, but also thinges themselues are solelie of these, and for these either praised or debased. Whatsoeuer then by sounde and wholesome perswasion tendeth either to the embracing of the good, or shunning of the euill.Honest, what it is. Whatsoeuer includeth either fidelitie, true friendship, equitie, obedience or gratitude. Whatsoeuer conduceth to true pietie to God, thy Countrie, Parents, children, and friends. Whatsoeuer appertaineth to the seueritie of the law, to the admonishing of the wicked, and to the remuneration and defence of the well deserued. Whatsoeuer tendeth to a tolleration or patient forebearance of euils, to longanimitie, entring into hazard and dangers for conscience, for thy countrey, kindred or friends. Whatsoeuer concerneth chastitie, sobrietie or frugalitie, and seemely moderation in all thinges, that in each of these is adiudged honest and none others.

The contrarie hereof, which is Inhonestum, includeth likewise whatsoeuer is not vertue, or is estranged from vertue, hindering to vertue,Vnhonest. or in nothing furthering towards vertue, whatsoeuer is pertinent to follie, iniustic, pusillanimitie, or excesse, whatsoeuer by the euill therein committed is exempted from praise. Whatsoeuer carieth perswasion to mischiefe & seducement from the good. Whatsoeuer appertaineth to infedilitie, falshood, treason, disobedience, slander, or ingratitude. Whatsoeuer withdraweth from naturall regard and loue of thy Countrie, parents, children and friends. Whatsoeuer impugneth the wholesome lawes and estate of euerie common-wealth, tendeth to a notorious example of euill, hindereth or blemisheth any others good deseruing. Whatsoeuer enforceth reuengement vpon euerie small offence, hath in it no meane of sufferance, or forbearance at all, entertaineth a lawlesse libertie of conscience to perpetrate or yéeld to any vnlawfull action, or to become iniurious to thy Country, state or calling. Whatsoeuer is furthering to a dissolute liuing, vnbrideled lust, couetous tenacitie, prodegality, or detestable excesse. These and such like, as confounders of all ciuilitie and humane gouernment, are confirmed to be vnhonest.

Now these deedes, actions or thinges are by manie Oratory partes to bee handled, or commended, according to the matters or occasions whereout their praises are deriued, and because examples are the best I might sort out diuers: as of Dauid, I coulde commend his combate against Goliah, first ab honesto, in that he being the seruant of god fought against a blasphemer, Laus ab honesto.also in his Princes quarell & defence of his countrey: ab æquo, Ab æquo.because it is meet and conuenient, that in causes so perillous, the strength of each one be applied. A necessitate,A necessitate. insomuch as thereon depended the sauegard of the Prince and people. Ab vtilitate,Ab vtiltiate. for that he killing such an enemie, brought to their owne country peace and quiet, and also draue the other part in subiection to his king and people. A difficili,A difficili. because the vndertaking thereof was so much the more waighty, by howe much himselfe was as it were an infant agaynst a mightie giant, vnarmed against him that was armed, vnfurnished against him that had al maner of complements of warre: weake, where the other was strong: besides that the terrour of his chalenge and hugenes of stature had before daunted the armie, & put them all out of conceit, in so much that the doubt was so generall, as no man dared to vndertake the quarell. Besides, herein is praised of bodily force, his Actiuitie, and courage: of Vertues, his woonderfull Magnanimitie, who by couragious desire durst to vndertake the same: also his affiance in Iustice, and equitie of the cause: His Pietie to God, his Prince and countrey: Lastly, his Fidelitie, whose life was not spared when each one drew backe for feare to be brought in hazard. And as to this action of Dauid, I haue vsed all these Oratorie parts, so in causes of sway and gouernment, a man might by the like parts and places be praised for his great wisdome, whereby in handling of some notable action in ambassage or consultation, he hath onely by graue aduise, industrie, discreete search, perswasion or circumspection, compassed weightie matters to the common weale, or thence auoyded huge and imminent dangers: Cicero in the coniuration of Catiline, beeing a mightie enemie agaynst his owne Citie of Rome, might herein be an excellent patterne, who without stirring the people at all, without any maner of bodilie resistance or force of armes, without passing by any priuate or indirect means, did by the sole matter of his wisedome, waightines of spéech, forcible reasons, enforcements, rebukes, and perswasions driue him cleane out of the Citie, and being expulsed (to the common peace, tranquilitie and surety of the same Citie) did afterwarde by like demeanour, industrie, and circumspection, so preuent his purposes, so circumuent his policies, so turne him vpside downe, as he dared not, he could not, he shamed to perpetrate what so often hee had sworne, and so many wayes intended: in which action of Ciceroes, all these Oratorie parts are in like maner included. So likewise, for some one rare & singular point of Iustice another might be extolled, as beside common expectation exercising the same. A president hereof might bee the L. chiefe Iustice of Englande in the time of King Henrie the fourth, who was so streictlie bent to the obseruation of iustice, as hauing one of the Princes seruants arraigned before him at the Kings Bench barre, for a fellon, and beeing one that the young Prince greatlie (at that time of his youth) fauoured. The prince came to the barre, and at the Iudges hands required his seruant; who answered that he was the King his fathers prisoner, and stoode there vpon his triall by lawe for his offences, that he could not in iustice, nor would (by his pardon) deliuer him without his triall. The Prince mooued with such deniall, stroke the Iudge on the face, and woulde by force haue withdrawne the prisoner. The Iudge withstoode him, and aduertising him mildlie of the offence he had done to the seate and place wherin he sate of iustice, in such sort to strike him, stoutlie commanded him to Warde, whereunto (uppon such admonition) the Prince obeyed, and accordinglie remayned in durance, attending the aduertisement and knowledge of his fathers pleasure. Here might bee a great contention, whether the worthie Iudge in his equall administration and execution of iustice, without feare, whereon stoode the hazard of his owne life, beeing vpon him that was in succession to become his soueraigne Lord, were more to be commended: or the Prince, in his subiection, and of all other most singular obedience, more highly to bee extolled: the one daring to doe what was lawfull vpon whatsoeuer hazard, the other humbling himselfe to authoritie which he might easilie haue impugned: and yet both actions such, as by many excellent Oratorie parts séeme fit to be inlarged. For no doubt there was as much vertue in the ones obedience, as there was excellency in the others sentence.

And as these, so the honor, worship, or wealth of anie man, his deedes of charitie, either in Erection, conuersion or repayring of any thing, whereby the common wealth is benefited, vertue furthered, or the néedy prouided for, might bee in like sort aduanced.

Finallie, Wisdome, Iustice, Bountie, Liberalitie, Curtesie, Chastitie, might each of them as things by themselues, & of themselues without the person of any one be alike commended. Whereof I think it néedlesse to amplifie any further, seeing by the examples hereafter set downe, the learner may sufficientlie bee enabled in whatsoeuer, for those causes he shall vndertake to proceed vpon.

An example of a laudatorie epistle soly touching the person.

THE feruent loue, and entire zeale and regarde, wherewith your L. euen in these tender and as yet vnripened yeares,Exordium, by insinuation. seemeth to pursue the vertues and honourable worthinesse of the most renowned and famous, and the reuerend account, wherewith in your most secret imaginations you haue euer admired, & as it were emulated their highest progressions: hath mooued me in recordation thereof (and the rather to deliuer vnto your L. the verye true image and liuely counterfeit indeede,Allegoria. of vnblemished honour, adorned with all princely and most surpassing noblenes) to propose vnto your view, a paragon so peerlesse, and of so rare and excellent performaunce, as whereof no hystorie hath the semblable, no region the match, nor any worlde hereafter may eftsoones be supposed to produce the like.Hyperbole. You shall not neede my L. to ransacke volumes,Procatalepsis. to search out the liues of the most honoured Scipio, amongst the Romanes, nor out of Greece to fetche Themistocles or Alcibiades from Lacedemon or Athens. Let Haniball rest with his predecessors,Epitheton. who sometimes by vnbearded fortune did honor to mightie Carthage, and (before them all) Achilles and Hector, that made the fall of Troy so famous: And come wee into our owne Countrey,Synonymia. the land wherein our selues inhabite, the soyle to vs natiue, and of all others most deerest, and see you here my L. a Prince of so rare and incomparable worthinesse, as your selfe will confesse throughout all the course of his life, to haue beene of all others the moste happie and vertuous.Anadiplosis. Edwarde, my L. young EdwardNarratiō. (so helde in his fathers life) vnder whose raigne he died in Englande, surnamed for his noted excellencie, sometymes the blacke Prince.Hypotiposis. This is hee on whome Nature, Fortune and Vertue, to the intent to yeelde some apparaunt shewe of theyr woonderfull and mightie operations, had aboue all others so especially enrichedPraise of the Prince in generall. with all kinde of wished and most exquisite perfections, as in that present season, in which the delicacie of his aspiring minde reste vnto himselfeEpitheton. the highest branch of honour from out her loftie seate of dignityMetanoia., it was denied to any other whatsoeuer, to exceede? nay, but so much as to become partaker with so rare a patterne of the like fruites of vertue and neuer dying glory. And to the ende (in rehearsing some fewe of the many particularities of such sounde and vncorrupted maiestie)Metaphora. the radiant shining beames resiant in so high a personage, may with more facilitie the sooner bee discouered: wee will first beginne with his originall and foremost infancie, that by deducing from thence his complementes of princelie excellencie, euen in the verie mouth of his entombed graue, his bones may not bee reposed without an immortall recordation, and the fame of his vertue celebrated by an endlesse memorie. Needlesse were it my L. that I shoulde tell you of this statelie Prince,Præteritiō. that hee were sonne and heire in succession, to the most mightie and most renowmed Edward the thirde, king of this noble realme of England, the most regarded vertues and inuincible chiualrie of whome, beeing then euerie where so surpassing, and of such redoubted force, as (were it not such memorable issue had sprong out of his Kingly loynes, Parenthesis. as wherewith the states of the mightie were daunted, and Europe made to woonder) might hitherto haue remained of-fame compotent ynough, to haue bene compared vnto the mightiest: but that I may rather imparte vnto you, that as golde, in the riches and glorie of it selfe,Parabola. beareth price and value with the most precious, yet hauing annexed vnto his proportion, a Diamonde of inestimable beautie, valour and goodnesse, becommeth thereby farre more excellent then before, more shining and glorious: so this soueraigne and puissant Monarch (admirable no doubt by himselfe) yet hauing thus tied vnto the sunne-shine of his happie raigne, the obscurer and eclipsing glorie of all other nations,Metapora. the verie Loadstarre and direction of all other Tropheis, the Sunne it selfe of worthinesse, and absolute concluder of euerie honourable enterprise: howe coulde it bee but that this prerogatiue of his must of force exceede, and goe beyonde all others,Antimetabole. when himselfe, by the verie chaire of honours selfe was so farre aduaunced aboue any others?Periphrasis. And albeit the high and kingly worthinesse of so statelie offspring and parentage, might no question in sundry sortes, yeelde greate and mightie glorie to the issue: yet that it might not bee alleadged that in taking vppon vs to commende the personage of one, wee shoulde intimate the soueraigntie of the other, as it were by a defect of praise sufficient, to supply the wante of our owne, and that the honourable reputation of another cannot fitly bee saide to bee this mans worthinesse, without by the braunch of his owne deserte, hee hadde in his owne proper right most effectually caried the same. Vnderstand you then of him, that which all men deeme most princely and honourable, and there is none, were it the stoutest enemie that euer liued, but will most highlie commende. This Prince, my L. who euen from the verie cradle seemed to bee addicted to the knowledge, and feare of God, and verie pietie of a sincere and Christian religion (besides that hee was naturally so well formed and instructed in good documentes as anie might bee) became in those verie tender yeares also, so apte vnto learning, as the match or like of him therein, was seldome or neuer in those dayes any where found, and in these times also may not easily bee hearde of. Insomuch as of those that then knewe him verie well, it certainely is deliuered, that beeing but the age of twelue yeares, his vnderstanding and knowledge in the Latine tongue, was so perfect, his progression in the Greeke so excellent, his skill and deliuerie of forraigne languages so woonderfull, his Princelie towardnesse in all thinges so rare and so plentiful, as many times mooued all the regarders to admire him, but founde none of all his associates in the same exercises, that were able to follow him.

Nowe if wee shall come to his riper yeares,Of his adolescence. and howe therein hee profited in the towardlie exercise and vse of armes, beeseeming a Prince of so high and exspected admiration, what coulde bee wished in anie one that in him was not fullie accomplished. So comelie, and with such vncontrouled dexteritie coulde hee sitte, ride and gouerne his horse, so couragiously, and with such nobilitie coulde hee welde and vse any weapon, either at tilte, barriers or turney, with such high and woonderfull direction, ordered hee all his complementes to either of these belonging, as did well manifest the magnanimitie and worthinesse of his minde, and what manner a one hee woulde afterwardes become toward the beautifying of his countrie. A more plaine and euident demonstration whereof, did at any one time in nothinge so much appeare as euen then, when hee was yet in his minoritie. For when there was remaining as then, no signe or token at all of manlie shewe in his face (beeing neuer the lesse of stature seemelie and tall, and of goodlie constitution in his bodie, well beseeming the yeares hee then caried) also attendante on the mightie King his father in the warres of Fraunce: what thinges did hee there perfourme?Erotema. what weightie enterprises, and those beyonde all expectation would hee vndertake, in honour of his royall progenie: was it not too straunge, that beeing in comparison of yeares, as it were a childe, deuoide of so confirmed and auncient graffed experience as beseemed the warres, hee vndertooke notwithstanding at eighteene yeares of age, with halfe his fathers power (by a most couragious desire of an euerthirsting glorie, with condition and charge either there to eternizeParenthesis. his death by an euerlasting memorie, or backe to returne againe with triumphant gained victorie) to ioine with the whole and mightie power of Fraunce, and all the Chiualrie thereof, where (to his immortall and surpassing high renowne) hee attained vppon them by the high permission of God, a most memorable Tropheie? But why dwell I in these slender discourses (small God knowes in respect of those mightie conquestesMeiosis. by him afterwards atchieued) in deteining you from the sweete and ardente remembrance of the rest?Auxesis. If he being yet sequestred in years from any ripenes at all, when it was thē to be supposed he most needed gouernmente, coulde by such stately and inuincible valour, so moderate his great and waightiest actions, as to become at that verie instant so redoubted and famous: what might we deem of him afterward, being once perfectly established in all kinde of manly directions, but that of necessity he should by manie degrees exceed and go beyond the formost shewe of all his excellencies, and the greatest expectation that might be of all his progressions? & so vndoubtedly he did. For being once attained to mans estateEpanodus.
His mans estate. hee grewe immediatly to become a Prince. sage, discreet, politike & wise, in all his actiōs of rare & singular circūspectiō and prouidence, benigne: & of all others most fauourable and courteous: fortunate, and euer inuincible in the warres, liberall to his followers, and of a high replenished bountie to euerie one, a verie Patrone and defender of innocents,His outward actions. absolutelye fauouring alwayes the right, Magnanimious as touching his estate and the high and waightie enterprises he tooke in hande, exceedinglie feared abroad, woonderfullie beloued at home,His inward vertues. mixing alwayes the enterchangeable exercise of Armes, with continuall studie of learning. Of such rare modestie and temperance as is maruellous: In so much as the King his father beeing here in England,Hypotiposis. when in the great fight of Poictiers, hee had discomfited and ouerthrowne in one day three mightie battels of the French, and taken in the last of them king Iohn and his sonne prisoners: he was not puffed vp at all with the honour of so statelie and triumphant victorie, neither grewe he insolent vpon the same, but entertayned the King and his sonne in his owne Tent so honourablie,His bounty & great humility. and therewithall with so great nobilitie and surpassing courtesie, as that hee neglected not to serue them himselfe at Supper, and seemed verely at that season in all things, to haue beene reputed in his owne intendment, as if hee had neuer beene conquerour. The shewe whereof, so much increased his incomparable bountie: and so mightilie honoured the estate of his victorie, as that the King then confessed, that to become the prisoner of such a one, it could bee no disparagement vnto so mightie a soueraigne as himselfe, seeing that hee was by the force of that onely ouerthrowe, made companion of the greatest NobilitieHis modestie. that euer hee sawe. Manie Honourable partes could I here inferre vnto you of him (infallible arguements of his incredible modestie) for long after this, when this mightie Prince had atchieued so manie and waightie honours throughout all Fraunce, as that the regard thereof made his name a terrour, and his becke a commaunde to compell theyr Soueraigntie vnto his fathers obedience: he was required by Don Petro, king of Castile, to helpe him agaynst Henrie his bastard brother, who had then expulsed him vnlawfully; and vsurped vpon his kingdome. Whereupon hauing by the couragious endeuour of him selfe, and his Knightes, and by their sole and onely prowesse, brought downe the vsurper, and driuen him cleane out of the Countrey,Parenthesis. (albeit his strength was such, and the admirable fauour of the people so greate, as might easilye haue inuited him there, to the wearing of a crowne) hee neuerthelesse of a high and noble disposition, holding itSententia. farre more honourable to make a king then to be a king, so farre foorth declared his temperance at that verie instant (not commonlie happening vnto euerie one,Parenthesis. especially in causes of a kingdome) as that hee vtterlie abstained so much as to beare an appetite or liking therunto, howbeit good occasiō was therunto ministred by the breach of Don Petro in paiment of his souldiors: but to his immortall renowne, placed and restored therin againe the true & lawful inheritour of the same setling him (according as was intended) in his crowne and kingdome. Could there my L. in any one haue appeared greater arguments of Magnanimitie, Iustice, and Temperaunce, then was remaining in this Prince?Merismus. And yet if continuall happinesse in all worldly attempts, if neuer ceasing and eternized famous victories, if the commendation and honour done vnto him of his mightiest enemies, if strength and glorie of his countrey, and honoured titles of his victorious father, if confirmed leagues of diuers mightie Princes, Confederates and Alies, if feruent and of all others the moste principall and ardent loue of his Knightes, subiects and followers, if all or anie of these might anie wayes haue induced him to the breach of eyther of these vertues, what wanted to the furtheraunce thereof, that in and vppon him, was not alwayes attendant and (as it were)Allegoria. continuallie powred. Was hee not then wedded to honour, euen in his formost Cradle? Did not Fortune immediately acknowledge him, and confesse that he was her darling? Seemed vertue euer prowde, but in his greatest perfection? Grew Fame at any time so impatient as euen then, when (as the most conuenient harbour of all her worthinesse) she sought out his dwelling? Agreed they not all with one voice to abandon the statelinesse of all others, onelie to bee resiant with him whome they helde most charie of all others?Confirmatiō. Witnesse among manie other his more then ordinarie attemptes, the three battels (then which no one thing throughout the worlde before or since became of more greater remembraunce) by him in his moste youngest yeares, so miraculouslie foughten, the one of which was at Cressay agaynst the French, when he was but eighteene yeares of age (as you haue before remembred.) the second at Poictiers, where died the King of Bohemia, and King Iohn of Fraunce became his prisoner: the thirde against the bastard Henrie, for the kingdome of Castile,Hypotiposis. where in one whole intire fight the same Henry bearing a mightie hoste, was by meere surpassing valour and moste woorthie prowesse of this Prince discomfited, and by maine force thereof expulsed his Seignorie. All which exploytes, and manie more besides, celebrating thereby his eternall prayses, when he had with greater glorie, then well may bee conceyued, furnished and finished to the aduauncement of his immortall dignitie: See death,Epiphonema. dispightfull death,Emphasis. who ioyning with the malignitie of the wicked world, hatefull alwayes to vertue, and satisfying euer to malicious enuie, bereft the vnwoorthie earth of his most worthie life. But howe? Not as falleth out to euerie common creature, deuoyde of after memorie: for why?Antipophora. the soueraigne commaunder of earth and skyes, allowed it otherwise: neither beseemeth such stately patternes of honoured vertue, whose spirites caried with greater efficacie of aspiring eternitie, then those whose duller conceytes are adapted to more terrene and grosse validities, shoulde bee exempted their perpetuitie. And albeit in all the progression of the wished life of this mightie Prince,Commoratiō. anie one thing was neuer founde contrarying, blemishing, or in one sort or other impugning his honour (one sole imposition or taxe contraried in his gouernement of Gascoigne excepted)Confutatiō. yet in the highest estate of happinesse wherein hee alwayes liued, was hee neuer more happie or glorious, then euen in his verie death. Insomuch as hee then dyed,Synonymia. at which time in most honour and highest, toppe of all prosperitie, hee was principallie established and chieflie florishing: at that instant in which the type of his excellencie was in no one tytle or iote obscured:Praise of his death. at that verie season when in the whole course and practise of his life, hauing still addicted himselfe to sounde out the incertaine and momentarie pleasures of the worlde, he had by perfect tryall found out the small validitie and little affiaunce that was to bee reposed in transitorie and fading glorie of the same. Euen then, when in the exchaunge of the eternall habitation (the incomprehensible ioyes whereof no eye hath seene, eare hath heard, nor tongue can expresse,) hee best knewe howe to leaue this wretched life, and to compasse the sweete and wholesome meditation of the other. He died (my L.)Epiphonema. as hee euer liued, vertuouslie and honourablie, the determination of whose deceasing corps, was preparation to newe ioyes: and commutation of momentarie pleasures, an assurance of euer flourishing gladnesse. Thus,Peroratiō. see you (my good L.) before your eyes, the most certaine and assured counterfeite of verie true Nobilitie, furnished in the discouerie of such a one, whose personage beeing in no kinde of excellencie inferiour, to that in the highest degree may bee of any other imagined: deserueth by so much the more of all honourable estates accordingly to be embraced.Ecphonesis. Great is the ornament of prayse, and precious the renowne that longeth to such vertue: the Diamond glimpse whereof equalleth in beautie the fairest, and dimmeth by the verie shadowe thereof the glittering pompe of the mightiest.Articulus. Beautie, strength, comelinesse fadeth, yea, the worlde decayeth, pleasure vanisheth, and the verie face of heauen it selfe perisheth: Onlie sacred vertue is immortall, she neuer dieth, euer quickeneth, absolutely triumpheth, and ouer all other earthly monuments euen out of the deepest graue for euer flourisheth. Liue therefore my L. vertuouslie, and die wheresoeuer and whensoeuer, yet howsoeuer honourablie. My paper burthened with his long discourse, desirous rather to recreate then toyle your L. enforceth an ende. Recommending my humble duetie in whatsoeuer to your honourable acceptance.

THe respects of this Epistle argued in the personage of so noble a Prince, haue caried in the matter thereof, the very shew of the highest and chiefest vertues, whereupon all commendation may bee principallie gathered. The next hereunto shall be Vituperatorie also touching the person. Wherein as wee haue in the other, sought by all occasions and circumstances therunto incident, what to the furtherance of such requisite commendation might be alledged: so will we herein imagin vpon what groundes or respects the occasions of dispraise, may as farre forth otherwise in anie other qualitie be remembred.

An example of an Epistle vituperatorie, concerning
also the person.

SIR, the straungenesse of an accident happening of lateExordium.
Of the cause mouing admiration. amongst vs, hath occasioned at this instaunt, this discourse to come vnto your handes. There was, if you remember, at your last beeng with mee in the Countrey, a man of great abilitie,Narratiō. dwelling about a mile from me, his name was B. and if I faile not of memorie therein, wee had once at a dinner together sitting (by occasion of a pleasaunt Gentleman then beeing in our companie) greate speaches of him: the man I knowe is not cleane out of your conceite, and therefore I will cease in further speaches at this presente to reuoke him. What generall hate the people bare him, and howe ill hee deserued from his first conuersing among them, you haue not (I am sure) forgotten, in so much as he was called the Hell of the world, the Plague of a common-weale, the Mischiefe of men, and the Bondslaue of the deuill.Metaphora. And no maruaile, for what iniurie mighte bee conceiued, that was not by him imagined?Erotema. what euill coulde there bee that hee shunned to practise? What mercilesse dealing that hee woulde not proffer? What apparant wrong that hee ceased to inferre? What execrable extortion that hee cared not to committe? What villanie so damnable that he durste not put forwarde?Paradoxon. O God, it is incredible to thinke, and vnpossible to bee surmised, howe greate, howe forcible, howe manifolde, howe mischieuous, howe insufferable,Auxesis. howe detestable hath beene the originall, progression, continuation, and determination of his most wicked and shamelesse life, and were it not that by the incessant outcries, continuall cursinges, and horrible denuntiations of the innumerable multitude of those, whome in his life time hee yoked, whome with his actions he feared, whom with the weighte of his endelesse wealth, hee poized downe, that they durste not then whisper in secrete, what nowe they openlie discouer, whereby the force of his wickednesse being then secrete, became not as nowe so open and apparant.Epiphonema. I durste not me thinkes of my selfe so much as surmize but the one halfe of that,Paradoxon. wherein he became so notorious, so rare and vnused are the euils, wherein hee seemed so throughly to bee fleshed. I haue woondered sithence with my selfe many times: what soyle it might bee, or what constellation so furious, as effected their operations in production of so bad and vile a creature, at the time when hee was first put forwarde with liuing into the worlde: In the search whereof I haue beene the lesse astonied, in so much as thereby I haue growne into some particular knowledge of his originall and parentes.His Parents. His sire I haue vnderstoode was a villaine by birth,Auxesis. by nature, by soyle, by discente, by education, by practise, by studie, by experience:Allegoria.
Epanodis. his damme the common sinke of euerie rakehels filthinesse: the one of whome (after innumerable offences committed, whereby hee deserued a thousande deathes) was at the last for a detestable and notorius crime burned peecemeale vppon a stage in Holland, and the other (after sundrie consuming and filthie diseases, neuer able to rid her) was in like manner hanged aliue in chaines for a most horrible murder in England. Expect you not then, that the procreation and generation of such an issue, must by argumente of the Parentes condition,Antiphrasis. sorte to some notable purpose: you doe I know, and in trueth howe coulde it otherwise bee likely. Nowe if hereby wee shoulde conceiue of his education,Apostrophe. and howe his childehoode past away beeing fostered vp as hee was, from one place to another, without any certaine abiding, but onely Cœlum omnibus commune, the common habitation of the worlde. We must no doubte suppose that he sawe much, knewe much, practised much, ouerpassed much, and was glutted with verie much. And surely if I shoulde giue credite to some whome I durst beleeue, that knewe him euen then when hee was not much more then a childe, the verie yeares he lastly bare,His childhood. gaue not more assured testimonie of what hee nowe was, then the season in which he then passed, did yeelde an inuiolable approbation, what in time following he would become,Ecphonesis. for euen thē; what rapine, what theft, what iniurie, what slaunder, what lying, what enuie, what malice, what desperate boldnesse, and daring to enter into any mischiefe, was in him throughly planted? There was not (by reporte) any one thinge whereby a man might afterwarde bee coniectured to become infamous, but was in him fully replenished.Omoioteleton. Credite mee, I coniecture so manifoldly of the sequell of his actions, as when I vnderstande what hee was so ripely, I maruaile that hee liued thus long so wickedly. But shall I turne here from, to his Adolescencie, and shew what therein I haue hearde?Adolescencie. Truely it passeth all capacitie to be censured: and it is too much to bee thought vppon. His pride, his bouldnes, his shameles countenance, his lookes, his gesture, his shew, his liuing, his conuersation, his companie, his hauntes shewed still what hee was:Sinathrismus. There was no rake-hell, no ruffian, no knaue, no villaine, no cogging raskall, no hatefull companion, no robber on high waies, no priuy pilferer, but his hande was in with him, and that hee was a copesmate for him, no brothell house but he haunted, no odde corner but hee knewe, no cutter, but hee was a sharer with, no person so lasciuious,Parison. abiect, vilde, or dissolute, but hee would bee a copartner with. Yet after all these trades, hauntes, sharinges, and partakings,Brachiologia. hee became at last to serue an olde miser, aged for his yeares and miserable for his couetousnes. This wretched olde man (as each one fancieth as hee liketh) conceiued so much of the odde youth,Ironia. that hee took him into his seruice, where, with badde attire, and thredbare diet, hee liued with him a prettie season, somewhat more then quarter maister. In the ende (by whose thefte God knowes) the man had a chist broken vp, and a little coyne and plate stolne, where with (becomming desperate) it was deliuered hee hung himselfe for griefe, and beeing nowe deade, lefte no issue or other heire, to succeede his wretchednesse and double barred hoorde,Metaphora. but B. his man, who being a strong lubber,Epiheton. was by this time growne a sturdie knaue, and would needes bee counted a man, and thereupon hee became owner and intruder to his maisters pelfe,Allegoria. wretchednes and miserie. To reckon to you since, howe hee came into the countrie here,His youth and age. beecame a purchaser, howe hee hath spente his youth, passed his olde age, what bribery, extortion, wrong, crueltie, rapine, mischiefe, and all kinde of villanie,Asyndeton. hee hath bolstered, perpetrated, followed: what infidelitie, falshoode, reuenge, priuy guile, treacherie, betraying the innocent, beating downe the poore, fatherlesse and widowes: howe much euill hee hath done and what litle good he hath deserued, what shoulde I clogge my selfe with the remembrance,Antipophora. or trouble you with the rehearsall. It is too much, I am not able, I cannot, nay, it were vnpossible to perfourme it. What resteth then, but that I hasten to the scope which in my foremost purpose was intended,Transitiō. that hauing deliuered his shamefull life, I doe reporte vnto you his shamelesse and vnaccustomed death. See then the incomprehensible power and iustice of God, see the weight of his measure, see the woonderfull demonstration of his secrete iudgement,Prosonomasia. howe of a carelesse life ensueth a cankered death: of a wilfull liuing a wretched ending: of such money misers so manifolde miseries; as whereof I sigh to thinke, and grieue to remember. The man somewhat before his sicknesse grew into an extreame numnesse, in so much as hee that neuer lusted to helpe others, was not nowe able to helpe himselfe, nor any cared to relieue him: afterwardes fretting and fuming with him selfe as it seemed, that not withstanding his greate masse of money, and huge heape of wealth, none could bee entreated with prayers, or hiered with guiftes, so much as to meddle with him, he grew into such a frensie, and consequently, into so ranck a madnes, that hee sate swearing and blaspheming,Hypotyposis. crying, cursing, and banning, and that most execrable, his lookes were grimme, furious and chaunged, his face terrible, his sight fiery and pearcing,His inordinarie sicknes. they that sawe him feared, and they that heard of it durst not come nigh him. In conclusion, some that pittied him more then his deseruing, and grieued to see that, they coulde not redresse in him, caused a companie to watch him, others to prouide warme brothes, and in conclusion vsed all meanes possible to comforte him. But what can man doe to preuent the secret determination of the almightie? For loe whilst all men lefte him, and each one stoode in doubt of him, a companie of rattes vpon a sudden possest his house,Merismus. his tables, his chymnies, his chambers, yea his verie bed and his lodging, vpon which & about which, they were so bold, as in the sight of the beholders they durst appeare and come before them, and beeing stroken, aboade, and were killed, and others come in their places: What shall I say, the sight became so vncouth, as all men shunned, ech one feared, and none durst abide it;Epiphonema.
His death. whereupon the miser beeing lefte alone, thus pittifully died. The stench of his corpes admitted neither day-light nor companie wherein to bee buried. Two onely that were the conueyers of him, sickened vehemently,Metaphora. and one of them dyed, the other is yet scarcely recouered. The matter hereof seemed vnto me so straunge, and therewithall so opportune to warne vs of our actions,Epilogus. considering how seuerely God punisheth when hee is once bent to correction, as I coulde not but deeply consider of it, weighing with my self that such as was his life, such was his death, the one beeing hated of manie, the other not to be tolerated of any. The circumstance whereof, referring herewith to your deep consideration, I doe bid you hartily farewell.

Of Epistles deliberatiue.
Chap. 10.

He next vnto these laste of this Demonstratiue kinds are nowe the Deliberatiue, the first titles whereof in order suted forth, appeare to bee Hortatorie, Dehortatorie, Swasorie, and Disswasorie. These beeing as I saide before, neerlie affined together (sauing onelie that the Hortatorie and Dehortatorie are a little more vehement, stirring and pricking then the others, yet both consisting in well aduising and counselling, the one by necessitie, the other as an inducement to thinges laudable and worthie) neede therefore in all seeming but one maner of direction in them to be followed. You shall then vnderstand that the seuerall partes in either of these Hortatorie or Swasorie, to be considered, doe principally stand vppon a diuersitie of affections, which nature as it seemeth, hath from the beginning ordained, to bee as it were stirrings or prouocations within vs, thereby to propose a direct and most readie waie vnto Vertue, or to terrifie by like degrees, or withdrawe vs from the pursuing of vices.

The motions or effects herein frequented, may bee said to bee either of praise or mislike, of hope or reward, or feare of euill to folow, of loue to well doing, or of hate vnto badnes, of emulation of others praise, glory, or reputation, of expectation thereon depending, of examples or of intreatie. By laying out of all or either of these, as occasion shall serue, consisteth the efficacie of all exhortation or aduising, pulling backe or disswading. Now how the qualities of these, or any other in generall touching the propertie they haue with Vertue or Vice, may for any turne be allotted: I must as well for this Deliberatiue kind ensuing, as for all other titles whatsoeuer, the same hereafter requiring, wholy referre the learner to the places in the chapter preceeding the Epistles Laudatorie and Vituperatorie in all things to be directed.

As touching these particularities, which wee haue tearmed Motions and affects, let vs consider if you will in seuerall, and see what efficacie by distinguishment of all their properties & partes they may beare in this writing. Praise (no doubt) in matter of exhortation or stirring vp to well doing is of most singular force, and so questionlesse is Mislike, when generallie it may bee drawne from a regarded conceite of the greatest and woorthiest, to the withdrawing from euill. For if we shall but enter into, or consider of our owne common passages: what is it I pray you that preferreth or disalloweth, giueth grace or disableth the actions and endeuours of men, but the speciall allowance or mislike that is euery where had of them? Is it not account alone that giueth encouragement vnto Vertue? Is Vertue so fullie aduaunced in anie thing as in the estimate prayse and reputation, that is attributed vnto her? No surelie. And this by insight had into the verie woorst and lowest sort of men shall you find, that there is hardlie anie lyuing of so base and contemptible a spirite, but that by Prayse and commendation, hee may bee drawne vppe to some liking of well dooing. And howebeit the issues of mens actions doe at anie time seeme to bee spotted with euill, yet desire they at the least wise for their reckoning sake, that they might bee esteemed as good.

By this appeareth the singularitie of thinges excellent, in so much as nothing is, or séemeth rightlie prayse-woorthie, but what is accounted good, so little reputation haue the perpetratours of euilles, as that of necessitie they are compelled to seeke credite, by falselie attributing vnto themselues the name of good. Howe much more then true Prayse and Mislike of thinges woorthie, or to bee despysed, may by all lykelihoode bee auailable with those of good spirite, to drawe them to Vertues.

To applie nowe this prayse in exhorting or counsailing anie one, it behooueth wee first conceyue what disposition, habiliments, or other matter of value are in him whome wee haue to deale with, furthering or conuenient to such a purpose, whereunto wee woulde exhort or perswade him, and the likelihoode of the same, greatlie to put foorth or commende: or if before time he haue behaued himselfe anie wayes well, we shall incourage him in praysing of that alreadie done; and in shewing that the more excellent the thing is, the more difficult it is to bee attained, for Difficilia quæ pulchra, and yet the difficultie not so great as the prayse, glorie and recordation thereof, shall thereby afterwards be returned honourable.

Likewise, if the state of the partie doe serue thereunto, it shall not bee amisse to put him in minde of his parentage, or that fayling, of his Fortune, Vertue, Nobilitie of minde, Wit, towardnesse, his great expectation, abilitie, age, and Discretion, all of them no lesse requiring, but this with great modeste to be deliuered, least in séeming to preferre the certaintie of those vertues which are of good account to be in him, we doe not palpably gloze with the partie, and as it were seeke to drawe from his person, or account, the things that neuer came neare him.

Now as Prayse, and the laudable estimate of euerie good action, together with the iust mislike of thinges euill, spurreth and eggeth forward to great purposes, so verie much thereunto preuaileth this other of Hope, not that which of a seruile and base humour or condition ensueth, which expecteth nothing that is frustrate of gain, and performeth all endeuours by expectation of reward, but that vertuous kinde of Hope, which enableth to the perfection and absolute summe of all worthinesse, and whose limit is honour, reputation, estimate and account: A like Companion whereunto is Loue, beeing a zealous affectation of thinges singular, which Loue produceth likewise in it selfe, not a mislike onelie, but a burning Hateof things vile, contemptible, and vnbeseeming.

As these in themselues doe each particularlie thrust forwards to goodnes, so many times Feare, or doubt of inconuenience that may ensue, terrifieth or disswadeth from euils. Commiseration of the lamentable estate of any one, prouoketh also sometimes to pittie, and disturneth in like sort manie times from reuenge. Expectatiō, as wel of Loue as of Hate, of good opinion as mislike in compassing of any thing is not the least. Shame & ignomie of the action also, the dependance whereof is oftentimes occasion sufficient of well doing, and hindrance alike, and withdrawing from euill purposes. But aboue all is the spur of Emulation, whose force gathered by a certaine kind of Enuie, of others proceedings kindleth flames of regarde to aspire vnto the like, but not that sluggish and execrable enuie bred of most wicked and detestable malice, which when it selfe cannot, nor is able to doe any thing worthie, snatcheth and continuallie gnaweth on the deserts of others, but that generous and noble kind of enuie which discreete Nature and vertue haue insinuated in our mindes, emulating by a feruent desire to compasse, or possibly to go beyond what mightily by others hath béene performed.

The authoritie of Example is also very weightie, giuing warrant to any vertuous imitation that may be prescribed, and lastly requests and intreatie which euer more preuaileth according to the writers credit or grauity. These being sufficently considered, we will nowe according to such like directions, endeuour to suite foorth vnto you some particular examples.

An Example of an Epistle Exhortatorie for
the attaining of vertue.

I Haue manie times desired with my selfeExordium. (good Cosin) to obtaine some necessarie meanes, whereby to manyfest the greate good will I doe owe vnto you, and in some sorte or other to giue you to vnderstande, howe much and howe greatly I haue tendred those good partes, that manie times I haue seene and prooued to bee in you. And for as much as Fortune hath denied vnto mee the estate, reputation and wealth, that manie haue gained, and the most doe couet, whereby I cannot if I woulde, bestowe vppon you such riches and treasures as might breede content vnto others: I am determmined to imparte vnto you, that, which vnto your present condition seemeth most requisite, and wherewith vse and common experience hath heretofore inured mee,Prosonomasia. in steede of wealth to giue you wordes, in steede of golde, good, for riches, reason, and in lue of liuing, to affoord you a louing and constant hearte. And whereas I am enfourmed, that contrarie to the expectation of some (who ouer peremptorily haue heretofore deemedInsinuatiō. of these your young yeares to be laden with loosenesse, and led forwarde by libertie) you haue of your selfe, and of your owne motion and free will, obtained license and allowance of your father to go to Cambridge, in minde to giue your selfe whollie to studie, and the sole fruition of learning, I mused with my selfe whether I might more commende the motion, or attende your perseuerance in the action that thereby you haue taken in hande, in so much as the memorie of the one cannot bee for the worthinesse more permanent, thē the glorie of the other, to your euerlasting commendation, will appeare to be most excellent.Auxesis. It is reported of the mightie Alexander of Macedon, that he was a King, that he was puissant, that he was warlike, that hee was famous, that he was a Conqueror, and that hee subdued the whole worlde:Meiosis. but when he came to himselfe, to the conuincing of his owne appetite, to rule reason by the square of right he became a meacocke, a childe, an infant, what should I say?Synonymia. he was no bodie. Howe much greater then hee was, hadde the woorthie Prince appeared, if as in the conquest of sundrie mightie kinges, regions and prouinces, so in all other thinges tending to the suppression of his owne peculiar affectes, he had bene no lesse or fullie so much as Alexander. Scipio, the most renowned amongst the Romanes, and for his sundrie great exploites in Affrica,Hypotyposis. surnamed Affricanus, we doe reade, atchieued many valiant and incomparable victories, and were it but that sole battell which hee fought (when Rome was nowe at wracke, her Nobilitie spoyled, and her glorie trode vnder foote, readie almost vppon any reasonable condition to bee deliuered into the handes of the enemie) in which hee then freed his citie, repulsed Haniball by a mightie ouerthrowe, and thereby daunted so farre foorth his pride for euer, as expelled from him all hope thence forwarde, at anie time else to become a Conquerour: It coulde not otherwise bee saide without question, but herein, yea in this onelie action, hee deserued eternall memorie: But was hee herein,Antipophora. thinke you, and for this onely matter throughout all the prouinces recounted so famous? No assuredlie. It was also his rare and most singular vertues otherwise, that fullie perfected and polished the glorie thereof. It was his rare Temperance, Modestie, Continencie, and Sobrietie, wherein with woonderfull admiration hee exceedinglie flourished, and became extolled aboue all others. This was it, wherein more then Alexander hee became regarded and famous. The conquestes that by this meanes hee daylie made of himselfe, returned more glorie to Rome, more firme faith and reuerence, then the forcible progression of all other his fattall ouerthrowes and victories: of so greate and woonderfull reputation is Vertue to all her followers.Epiphonema.
Praise of the person. This beeing so, how can I then say, but in this your action, you haue of your selfe right wel begun, how can I think, but aboue many others you haue therein verie well deserued? Wherein shoulde I augmente your praise if not in that which you haue heereby so well performed, the force, operation, and effect of all which, hath onely consisted in subduing your owne appetite? Great commendation haue you won I must needes confesse, and more then with common worthines haue you in this thinge demeaned your selfe, but (my good Cosen) it is not ynough to haue well begun in a matter, without also therein you doe vse perseuerance.Paræmia. Hanniball knew well how to subdue, but he knew not howe to entertaine his victories. As you haue alreadie in this your resolution gotten great good liking, so behooueth both for the preseruation of what alreadie woone, and to induce a perpetuall increase to the same, that you doe euermore frequente and by earnest and zealous prosecution seeke still to entertaine the fruits thereof. Proceede then a Gods name,Exhortatiō. and goe on with good lucke in your enterprise, the more harder and greater you finde the difficulty in attaining to vertue, the more vehemente shall bee your glorie, and the more honourable the reputation that thereby is pursued. For, what hath a man of allConfirmatiō. that may be left vnto him in this worlde, whereof to vaunt himselfe, but the memorie of that wherein he hath most worthily trauailed. The rich reape possessions, which when themselues are once passed away, are immediately distributed to others. The pleasures of the worlde are momentarie, and after wee are once deade wee perceiue them no more. Worship, honour and dignitie, perisheth euen in the verie selfe remembrance. The reuenues of the mightie, when life is once fled, are no more to be tendred. Shall wee then for a number of fruitelesse vanities,Antipophora. (the regarde whereof doeth neuer last longer, then whilest wee are in present vse of them) neglect the search of that which is of all others most permanent? No surely. So behooueth notAb æquo. such as your selfe,praise of his ancestors. that of your auncestours haue had so many good encouragements, beseemeth not the remembrance of their excellencies in you alone to bee perished. Tis vertue, beleeue me, that procureth Fame, and soly Fame that makes men immortall. All other meanes are feeble as the originall from whence they are deriued is vncertaine. At leaste wise, it shall many other waies stande you greatly vppon,A necessitate. to continue this course, in so much as by the æmulation of the vertues of others, you shall thereunto be constrained, besides the loue and regarde that all men haue borne,Of expectation. and euer doe beare to the remembrance of vertue, the expectation of your entirely fauouring and carefull louing friendes, who with greate longing doe attende the prosequution of your woorthinesse,Of loue and hate. the ill conceite, malice and spite that some haue hadde towardes you, whereby to ouerthrowe the good opinion of your father, who with greater greedinesse than Woolues themselues,Hyberbole. with more enuie than the Crocodile, and farre more poyson than the serpent, doe lie in waite but onely to hearken after the newes of your declination, and the dissolued purpose of your good intention.Epilogus. Finally, my dearest and best fauoured kinsman,entreatie. I doe adiure you, pray you, and as earnestly as I can beeseech you, by the verie pure and entire loue of vertue, whereof you nowe shall become partaker, by the immortall fame thereunto onely awarded, by the care you are bounde and ought to haue of your selfe, by all the kindred that hath tied vs in affinitie together, by all the loues and possible entreatie that I can, you doe persist, continue and remaine firme in this your intended purpose. In pursuite whereof you shall minister vnto your friendes ioy and comforte, to your enemies shame and reproch, to your selfe praise and eternall regarde, and to all sortes of your acquaintance occasion to admire you. Preferring many times my care and earnest affection towards you, with my manifolde greetings vnto your good selfe. I doe bid you farewell. &c.

Of Epistles Responsorie.
Chap. 11.

Or asmuch as the knowledge of letters Responsorie are as méete to bee vnderstoode in the ordinarie occasions hereof as any others: I deeme it not amisse amongst the passages of these seuerall titles of Epistles to sorte you foorth also of them some particular Examples, the better in their disposition to enable yᵉ learner as occasion may serue. Touching which, it is to bee vnderstoode that the matter of euerie answere taketh his originall of a letter precéeding, and dependeth principally on the parts thereof. The ordering whereof (except in Letters Excusatorie or Defensorie) is wholy exempted, the course in those other letters prescribed, and the obseruation in these, is principally to consider on what partes the letter which ought to be answered consisteth or is chiefly grounded. Those, howebeit it behooueth we doe fully answere, yet shall you not (as some ignorant of weldoing haue done) recite in your answere the whole circumstance of the matter charged, verbatim in a manner as it is written before you, for that woulde bréede tediousnesse, besides a ridiculous disorder by such meanes frequented, but you shall (if néede so vrge) capitulate the principall partes of euerie seuerall matter charged, and thereupon frame you to answere the points, in sorte as before you, shall be deliuered. Or sometimes not needing any rehersall at all, if the pointes be but fewe, you shall answere onely as the matter you haue in hande is to bée deliuered. Or otherwise in this sorte: Touching the pointes in your Letter to bee answered: for the first I say, or it is thus or thus, &c. In the second, it is so or so. For the thirde, in this manner or that. Touching the fourth, &c. And so answere the partes by their number. By which meanes you shall both drawe your selfe to a breuitie therein, and become far more pithie in the matters you haue to write of then otherwise can be expressed. And this béeing sufficient for all matters hereafter, touching these Responsorie kindes, we will nowe for the first Example set you downe an answere to the epistle precéeding.

An example Responsorie to the last Epistle be-
fore remembred.

THe regard of your exceeding good will, and weight of your aduise and good exhortationsProsonomasia. (my verie good Cosen) haue mooued me many times to thinke on you, and to thank you for the same, I take no litle comfort of your great good liking of my determination, and that the endeuour therof beareth so forcible allowance at your handes, as to reckon the same in so hie and great accompte, as you doe.Dichologia. I did (I confesse) erre a while, but howe? as a young man, I went astraie I graunt, but not with perseuerance, for I reclaimed my selfe ere I fell, and stoode vpright ere by ouer much weight I slided too far in my purposes, Errare est humanum, sed persistere belluinum. The course I haue taken in hand as it was estranged from the opinion of many: so in the prosecutiō thereof, I hope to vse such pursuit, as willingly by declination therein, I meane not to become offensiue to any. Feare you not sir,Allegoria. the account is alreadie set downe, for notwithstanding my greene yeares must yet of force continue their note of imbecilitie: This prerogatiue yet remaineth, that I may as I liste adapt my opinion to grauitie. You shall (good Coosen) doe mee a great pleasure, if as I am partner of your loue and entyre affection, so I may sometymes bee partaker with you of those exercises and sweet pleasures, wherewith your studie is frequented: I meane that with some discourses of yours you will nowe and then remember mee. By expectation whereof, you shall often prouoke mee to aunswere you. Thus assuring my selfe of that I neuer yet distrusted at your handes, your zeale and fidelitie towardes mee; I regarde you as faithfull as I haue euer found you, and so will alwayes account of you, &c.

An example of an Epistle hortatorie, to the studie of learning.

IT is no little pleasure vnto me,Exordium. to consider with my selfe my good N. the great trauaile, cost, and paine, dayly employed by your dearest beloued parents,Insinuatiō. to induce vnto you the precious, and of all other most delicate and sweete pleasure of learning: the value whereof, is without all estimate, and the comfort therein conceiued, in no wise to bee comprehended: the louing regarde of whome, and the most lamentable want of the other, when I doe see you either with some ill fauouring aspect not to incline vnto, or with some more then straunge or vnused tearmes not to account of, I cannot but greeue with my heart, respecting the linke whereby I stand charged to either of you, in so great apparance as I doe to behold the same. True it is, that you are a Gent.Propositiō. that you are heire apparant to large and verie great possessions,Merismus. that you are (for the yeares you beare) of comely and goodly personage, that you are in all things well accomplished, and euerie way as beseemeth: but yet when I behold this fauour, this comlinesse, these accomplishments, and know you to bee a Gent. and thinke vpon your large ensuing reuenues and possessions, me thinkes there should yet be an ornament of all these, and a thing of farre more goodly shewe, and more surpassing value wanting to the same, that might if it were well entertained ad more glorie vnto all the others, then the waight of the rest were euer able to purchase.Procatalepsis. For suppose that all these complements of yours are of large price, and verie necessarie, as they are indeede, and such wherewith the state of man is greatly beautified, yet are they all but thinges pertinent vnto the bodie, by force whereof (setting onelie our shape aside) wee doe communicate in euerie thing with beastes, for with them wee liue,Synonymia. wee mooue, wee go, wee eate, and enioie the sensuall appetite of inward or outward abilities. But by the benefit of learning, of knowledge,Asyndeton. of skill, wee make difference of things, and are onely thereby in our selues distinguished from beastes. And if man which is the principal worke of God,Paradigma. was from the beginning a chosen creature indued aboue any others, and therefore poynted to excell and go beyond all others, howe much more needefull shall it bee for euerye one according to such appoyntment to preferre and put forwarde the vse thereof vnto his owne profite. And seeing as well by the ordinance of God,Commoratiō. as common vse of reason, whereby we are gouerned and ledde, euerie man is induced to propose vnto himselfe the exercise of thinges that are good and honest, and that the same also among these, which maketh a man nearest to his Creatour in perfection, is of all others the moste to bee desired: howe much auaylable then and importaunt is it to euerie man to bee frequented with learning, the vse whereof freeth him of common ignoraunce, and maketh him capable of the high and loftie mysteries.Ab honesto. And if in anie studie whatsoeuer, the reputation of honest and good is to bee sought for, what I pray you then learning, may bee iudged more honest, which hauing with it a certaine kinde of diuine and sacred originall, hath from the beginning of the worlde, beene with all men in greatest price and estimation.Allegoria. What may bee deemed more good then that which from verie Asses and blockes, and (if it were lawfull to say) from bruite men and beastes also themselues maketh distinction, and without the which, there were left vnto vs from such, no place at all of difference. What then that can bee sayde to bee more honest, which draweth a man vppe to the diuine contemplation of the sacred Maiestie, to the knowledge of high and heauenly thinges, of woorthie and honourable vertues, and beeing sequestred by the wante thereof, hee becommeth no otherwise than as a hogge, still groueling on the earth, searching onely wherewith to fill his bellie, neglecting in the meane time the expectation or regarde of any other statelie or eternall Soueraintie. Nowe therefore, if the vse of learning, as the thinge of greatest accompt and most woorthie, is heere sette downe to bee so generallie, commended to all sortes of men, howe much more consonant and agreeing is it then to the reputation of a Gentleman, who by what distaunce so euer hee is measured in capacitie,Synathrismus. minde, order, state and gouernment from anie other common or ordinarie person,Anthesis. by so much the more ought hee in all endeuours to aspyre and seek to goe beyond them. For whereas all other men in their seuerall vocations are for the most parte,Etiologia. as it were withdrawne from the speciall notice and eye-marke of all publique administration and gouernement: the Gentl. contrariwise, the more woorthie and noble that hee is in calling, the more neerer is hee to that aduauncement whereunto by nothing so much as learning hee is enabled to bee preferred. For what profitable member can hee bee in such a place, whose ignoraunce is farre greater then his witte, and whose knowledge is lesse then the least of that, whereof hee ought to take notice and experience. And seeing learning is of all other thinges, a store-house so plentifull and precious,Epanodis. as whereof the wiseman maketh his treasure, the poore man his riches, and the wealthy one his pastime and pleasure, shall the Gentleman who in all other thinges, by Nature striueth to bee excellent, bee in the greatest action of all others so carelesse and negligent?Paramologia. Admit that you will heere alledge the tediousnesse of studie, and a certaine impossibilitie almost to attaine thereunto, I must aunswere vnto you againe, that this commeth not of the labour thereof, which to those that willingly aspire to the delicate taste of the same, yeeldeth great facilitie with pleasure to bee receyued: but to a slouthfull and sluggish endeuour and disposition. Far be it therefore (good Sir) that you beeing a Gentleman in all other thinges so towardly, and the sonne of such a one as you are, shoulde with the touch of so great a blemish, bee so throughly stained.Epiphonema. So woorthie a discente as whereof you are deriued, such infancie and child-hoode wherein so worthily you haue beene trained, so great loue and charge of parents wherewithe you may bee animated, doe inuite you farre otherwise, and to a more excellent purpose. Let the sweete and yet vnknowne delight thereof prouoke you,Auxesis. the praise and commendation solye to vertue appropriate and belonging, once prick you forward, the honour and aduancement thereby continually happening egge you. And if none of all these preuaile, yet the riches and rewarde farre greater then anie earthly treasure, which are therunto incident, tie you to a desire thereof. Thinke of the worthines of those, who by howe much the more noble they were in birth,Dignitie and zeale of others. by so much the more zealouslie they haue trauelled, not shunning any labour, sweate, tediousnesse, scorning, yea bondage it selfe,Auxesis. whereby to compasse vnto themselues the glorie and rewardes annexed to the dignitie heereof. And if no other remembrance may be sufficient to establish you, regard yet your liuing father and grandfather,By example. the one of whom neglecting his ease and quiet at home, trauailed all Fraunce, Germanie, and Italie, to the intent to attaine vnto the greatnesse of that whereunto you are so hardly perswaded. Neither thinke I that you in whome all other good actions do so plentifully flow, wil herein alone with a little labour be terrified:Peroratiō. Wherefore my good N. I eftsoones entreate you againe, and againe, by all the loue you haue ought to your name, fame, parentage and stocke, and by all the expectation that in them, or anie of them, is of your happinesse conceiued, you will proceede in this purpose: the weight whereof besides the commoditie and pleasure redounding to your selfe, shall vnto your parents and all others returne most comfortable and pleasing. All which recommending to your courteous consideration to bee entertained, I doe herewith take my leaue, &c.

An other example Hortatorie, wherein an honourable Gentleman
is egged forward in the profession of Armes, and seruice
of his Prince and Country.

SIthence the time of my little abode heere in LondonExordium. being scarce twentie dayes, vnderstanding of the being in town of my La. your mother, I repaired thereupon to her presence to visite her: there did I receiue notice of your being in Ireland, and that vpon your honourable behauiour, and good seruice there done: The L. D. did not onely testifie the same by his owne hand-writing vnto diuers of the priuie Counsell, but also in especiall letters besides commended the weight thereof, vnto the regard of her most excellent Maiestie.

I did not a little reioyce to see that in such young yearesInsinuatiō
by praise of the action. wherein commonlie falleth out a contempt of all excellencies, and a fantasticall desyre of counterfeyte vanities, you coulde (besides the common trade and custome of the worlde)Parenthesis. addict your selfe wholie vnto so weightie and honourable an exercise,Epitheton. as by laboursome trauaile in the seruice and honour of your Prince and countrie, to put forwarde your selfe so timely. Credite mee, it is not a little pleasing vnto mee to thinke thereon,Metaphora. neither standeth my affection so slender vnto your fathers off-spring, but that I must euer holde the reputation of their weldoing, an aduauncemente to my imaginations, and the sounde of their good successe the verie harmonie of mine inwarde soule.

It is no newe thing I confesse, euen in these dayes to see a Gentleman honourablie descended as your selfe, and of like worthie education, to attaine vnto learning, to become practised in Armes, to put forward themselues in seruice, but to continue with resolution, to performe it with labour,Auxesis. to atchieue it with valour, to beare it with honour, here is the excellencie, this is the rarenesse, hence springeth the noueltie.

Vertue retaining yet her ancient Maiestie, though not pursued as in olde time, with such woonted vehemencie,Hypotyposis.
vertue hath three entrances. hath three entraunces, leading directly vnto her beautifull passage, by the portes whereof, whosoeuer is desirous to attaine her, in her purest and most glorious estate, must of necessitie enter. First, Fortitude,Fortitude. whereby hee must be enabled to endure whatsoeuer labour and trauell to be imposed, accounting nothing difficult, to the end and sweet rewarde whereof her excellencie is appropriate. Next, Magnanimitie,Magnanimitie. which by a vehement and haughtie desire, reacheth vnto thinges most excellent & of highest and stateliest value, not regarding the hard, tough, & maine force of the passage, with what pursuit soeuer it must bee followed, so be it by such meanes it may be wonne, and the glorie thereunto due, may at last be attained: the reach wherof, tending to the last end and scope of al his determinatiōs, sweetneth all maner of trauel, and induceth therewithal a contempt of whatsoeuer lesse valued or hindering, to the worthines of the same. Then Longanimity,Longanimitie. enabling by greate constancie with rare and accustomed patience, to awaite and endure the end, neuer giuing ouer vpon whatsoeuer assaults, til the determined scope be by all kind of industry fullie and perfectly furnished.

For this cause,Etiologia. the most renowmed parte of vertue is saide to bee excellent, for that manie doe contemplate her a far off, but few or none at all doe almost come so nigh her, as perfectly to see and discerne her, in so much as some, nothing regarding the singularitie of that, whose sweetnesse they neuer tasted of, become forcelesse of the pursuit of so diuine an excellencie: and some other fauouring a litle the daintines thereof, yet ouer-reached with the tediousnes of the enterprise, and hindered by the opposition of a thousand vanities, are so astonished in the first onset, as being therewith ouercome, doe by and by giue ouer their purposes.

Now therefore my C. if you will bee a right fauourer of vertueAdhortation to vertue. indeede, it behooueth that by these possibilities you doe (as a faithful regarder of her diuine & sacred essence) only seeke to pursue her, and that with such and none other respectes, and to no other ende and purpose, but for the sole fruition of her stately and immortall deitie.

The time now calleth you forth,Merismus. your Countrie and soyle wherein you were borne and nourished inuiteth you, your praise alreadie gotten, and hope of renowne euer after to followe, perswade you, the honour of your house and parentage constraineth you, yea euerie of these solie and altogether doe exhort and commaund you, that becomming the selfe same you vowed, and they long since haue looked for, you doe nowe shewe your selfe such as was promised, and wherein the expectation first conceiued of you, may in no wise bee frustrated.

Consider I pray you, that the rewarde of vertue is honour,Clymax. the guerdon of honour, Fame, the scope of Fame, Eternity, the seat of eternity, immortall and euerlasting glory. In liuing in the seruice of your Prince and countrie, the profession you haue taken in hand is honourable,Antistrophe. the charge honourable, the purpose honourable, and the ende and successe thereof must needes be honourable: behooueth then that your continuance therein and your owne deserts be also deemed honourable.

Thinke when you tooke vpon you to beare Armes,Metaphora. you then receiued the full cognizance of Vertue, you were entertained with honour, you became apprentise to fame, and it was assured (that beeing with loyaltie demeaned) you shoulde at length receiue the rewarde of euer flourishing glorie.Commoratiō. It is (beleeue me) no small matter, that being a particular member, you are put foorth as a piller, vpon the prop whereof reposeth one parte of the weight of the common-weale, that the ioyes of your whole countrie are fixed vpon your wel-doing, that in pursuite hereof your priuate cause is not your owne, (the secrete reuenge whereof may happelie turn to an infamed mischiefe) but the cause of the common good, the publike matter of al, and that where the scope is of all others most famous and honoured.

Being entertained in a sorte as you are,Of right and meet. you shoulde highly wrong the opinion of a greate manie, in drawing backe from that wherein you haue beene alreadie so worthilie behaued, and in becomming lesse than that whereunto in your cradle you were at the beginning so principally ordained:Auxesis. for vnseemelie were it that you shoulde not haue beene hereunto at the first committed, vnlawfull not to haue persisted, and dishonourable (in due sorte) not to see it accomplished.

Proceede then my C. in that whereunto your vertue, your Parentage, your soile,Of example.
Paradigma. and your fidelitie haue called you, thinke what, how much, and how greatlie it importeth you, that hauing had so manie of your auncestours since their first originall, who haue beene deemed so woorthie, it fitteth not your selfe alone (in so important actions, concerning especially the honour of your prince and countrie) to bee founde otherwise then equall vnto them in the highest qualitie. So and in such maner,Epiphonema. and by such kind of meanes haue the most auncient and renowned worthies of the world be come to be tearmed honored, and mightie. So Epaminondas and AlcibiadesParadigma. among the Grecians, Æmilius Paulus, Fabii and Scipiones among the Romanes, haue bin deemed most statelie. For such cause the acts of your predecessors & nobilitie of your deceased fatherProsopopœia. haue bin registred with the most worthy. O so sweetly might sound from out his breathing ghost vnto your liuing eare, that excellent verse of Virgill.

Disce puer virtutem ex me verumque laborem,

Fortunam ex aliis.

Learne vertue (Child) of me and labours true,

But Fortunes chaunce, from others do pursue.

The signification whereof, what other thinge may it else importe, but that betweene themHis Parents. who beeing neuer eternized by anie memorable action, as hauing confounded their liues with obscuritie, and such as neuer were borne, there resteth in maner no difference at all. Ardua virtutis est via.Sententia. T’is labours force that maketh way vnto Vertue: great matters vnto the furtherance of her are but easie,Auxesis. the meaner, trifles; the lowest of no value. To ouercome others by vertue is a thinge most honourable, but in pursuite thereof to bee conuinced of any other, is a thinge most vituperable: You are nowe brought by Fortune into a straight passage,Dialysis. whereby of necessitie you must either by reputation of most excelling worthinesse finish the iourney, or recreant and discomfited, confesse the vttermost of your imbecilitie. But what doe I conferre vnto your viewe, the notes of such and so manie doubtes and hazardes, knowing a minde insinuate in your selfe by nature,Anthypophora. that coulde neuer so much as thinke or imagine of thinges contemptible, or of anie vile or seruile qualitie at all? truelie for no woorse meane, nor to anie other ende or purpose, but thereby to egge you forwarde by all kinde of possibilities, to the encrease of your highest woorthinesse, that by howe much the more you shall goe about to excell any others, by so much the more greater you may be commended and extolled aboue others.

Ease and securitie,Parœmia. are two pernicious enemies of euer flourishing glorie, and industrie preuenteth all circumuention, which either by slouth or negligence may bee imposed: the victorie is not any others, but your owne, nor the honour to any other appertaining but vnto your selfe. Bee therefore such in continuance, as may fullie bee answerable to each part of your noblenesse, and God who is the creator of all thinges, and fauourer of each worthie enterprise, blesse your endeuours with the sustentation of Vertue, which is euer permanent. At B. this of &c.

An Epistle Swasorie, wherein a
Gentlewoman is counsel-
led to mariage.

THe extreame griefe wherein my selfe was a partaker with you,Exordium. of the death of your late husbande, woulde not suffer mee (good Mistresse E.) at my last beeing with you, to deliuer what then I thought meete for your estate, & sithence I haue more at large considered vppon to bee for your profite. And albeit your selfe are, I knowe of discretion sufficient, and the number of your friendes of regarde compotent,Insinuatiō. both to consider and counsell, what vnto your present affayres may bee deemed most correspondent: yet may it not bee ill accepted, if my selfe of a great manie, that haue wyshed well to your person, and fauoured euermore your good condition, doe heerein also among the rest, put forwarde my meaning, and perswade you thereby vnto that, which (though not alreadie may bee fitting to your instant lyking)Parenthesis. yet to your present behoofe may returne no question of soundest and best consideration.

And first, I deeme it not impertinent to referre vnto your knowledge what I haue throughly conceyued with my selfe of your beeing, viz. that you are a widowe,Merismus. a Gentlewoman of verie worshipfull parentage and discent, the wife before time of a Gentleman of as good reputation as liuing, as good alliaunce as credite, that you are knowne to bee modest, discreete, wise and well gouerned, that you are and ought to bee warie in your actions, and such as whereof the babling multitude may reape no aduauntage, and finallie that by reason of the ouerhastie determination of his life (whose continuaunce might haue ridde you of innumerable cares) you are pestred with some troubles, the most part of your liuing in suspence, and that whereof you deeme your selfe most assured, hanging vppon so manie hazardes, as hitherto remayneth doubtfull, in what sort you shall compasse it, or with what liking to your selfe you may happily ouerpasse the same.

Touching the first, I warne you not that according to your present estate, you do minde what you are, what you haue bin, of whom you are discended, and in what sort you may best prouide with warinesse, to deale for all these: but drawing to the latter, and weighing on what tearmes you stande, howe hardly you are bestead, howe slender meanes to auoid it, I repute him not the worst wel-willer, that coulde aduise you with contentment and litle hazard, in what sort you might best endeuour in all effectes to aunswere it.Narratiō. It is reported vnto mee, that by the procurement of some, fauouring your aduauncement, there is nowe profered vnto your lyking a young Gentleman, vertuous, discreete, and well ordered, the sonne and heyre of a worshipfull Knight, on the choyce and regarde of whose Parents, dependeth the best assuraunce of your whole portion, in whose condition and behauiour, albeit you finde no one thing to bee reprehended, yet disclaime you to bee married,Synonymia. you will heare of no suters, there must bee in your presence no speech at all of lyking, and you meane not so soone forsooth to set forwarde for a husband.

The course you doe take herein, seemeth in my opinion verie euill,Merismus. insomuch as contrarie to that, which both your yeares, your estate, your liuing and present occasions doe require, you forciblie are endeuoured to make so vndiscreete and setled a resistance:Erotema. Whie La. doe you thinke it profiteth at all, the deceased ghost of him that loued you (a young Gentlewoman as you are, scarce exceeding twentie yeares) to liue thus solitarie? Hangeth the censuring of your modestie, and acceptaunce of that which your best friendes doe wish for, and the wisest doe allowe of, on the tatling humours of common supposes?Commoratiō. if it bee deemed once fit for you to marry againe, and that vpon the warie and circumspect choyse thereof dependeth a manner of necessitie, and that nowe, before anie one of yours almost suspected it, the plenty of that might bee charily wished for, is layde alreadie into your bosome, behooueth the respect of a little time, which (beeing sooner or later, so it bee perfourmed with modestie and aunswered with discretion)Parenthesis. mattereth not at all to detaine you so much, as thereby you are not able to see into your owne profite? Is it not, I pray you, a purpose honest that is tendered? Is it not a matter lawfull to bee accepted? Is it a thing vnmeete for your present yeares at this instant to be reputed? Nay, is it not all in all whatsoeuer,Auxesis. that in the best sort as the case now standeth, may vnto you be offered? Why then abstaine you the entertainment of your owne good? Why drawe you thus backeward from your owne aduauncement? Why cease you to accept that, whereunto in the ende you must by meere force bee compelled? If you will beleeue mee in any thing, or doe suppose the waight of my credite to be auaylable vnto you in ought, I would aduise you in other sort, considering that by declyning from a selfe-opinion of that whereunto without anie manifest reason you are induced, you shall doe most good vnto your selfe, and giue occasion to them that loue you, to thinke that by so doing, their good counselles haue happely preuailed with you and wrought such aduauncemente vnto you, I haue thought with my selfe many times sithence the death of your husbād, howe much imported the vnsetled reach of your liuing to be renued in match with one of good calling: see nowe God and Fortune more fauouring your hap, then your selfe, your owne wel doing, haue sente you such a one, as of whome you might vaunt, and iustly in all thinges be occasioned to accompt of. It now appertaineth that either by fond self-wil, or too much vnkindnes, you shake not off from you the foremost occasion of your succeeding happines. I reck not what of the cōmon sortProcatalepsis. (more of ignorance then wit) may insuppose of the hastie conclusion be in secret alleadged, their errours like their fancies, are as incertaine as peeuish. Be you onely herein perswaded, to what most of all beseemeth you, and think that both in the waightines, and regard attributed to his and your own worthines, you can for the present frame your selfe to nothing,Vtilitie. that to your estate may returne so cōmodious, whereunto though no other matter at all enioyned you, it were sufficient that so forcedNecessitie. a necessitie constraineth you, to which the regard of your selfe and your owne good fortune willeth to obey.Epilogus. Longer coulde I debate vnto you the greate liking of many, conceiued of the partie, to the deliuerie whereof by the report of your neerest kinsmen, I doe solie refer you, onelie studying in this, and whatsoeuer els I may, by all indeuours to pleasure you, whereof praying you to be most assured, I doe in all curtesie leaue to detaine you. At B. this of, &c.

Another Example of an Epistle Swasorie perswading
the carefull acceptance and regard
of one brother to
another.

THE sounde and entire familiaritieExordium, by insinuation. wherewith your parents in their life time sometimes entertained me, and the neerenes of neighbourhoode twixte both our friendes and long education wherein iointly we haue conuersed together, mooueth mee at this instant somewhat to write vnto you in respect of the reputation credit, and accompt that in the worlde you nowe beare, and also the rather to win you to the regarde of that, which to the estate of your presente being, and worthinesse of your parents, might be found meetest and conuenient.

It is giuen me to vnderstand of a younger brother you haue here in London,Narratiō. who at the time of your fathers death beeing committed to your charge, is for the defaulte of maintenaunce, badly inured, woorse trained, and most perillously by all kinde of likelihood (through such sufferaunce) in the loosnesse of his liuing alreadie hazarded.

I woondered not a little when I hearde it,Liptote. and so much the more was the matter troublesome vnto mee, in that respecting it was not tolde in secrete, it seemed by the lookes and gestures of the whole companie that heard it, your good demeanor thereby was very hardly censured, for that standing in such case of credite as you doe, your wealth so aboundant, and your parentes so well accompted of, you woulde in this sort,Prosonomasia. and in that place of all others suffer him to wander carelesse, whome you ought to the contrarie to haue constrained, by any possible carefulnes. How ill beseeming it is both to you & yours, that it shoulde so fall out, you may by supposes coniecture. For my parte, it grieued mee when I heard it, and I was not quiet till I found conuenient time to aduertise you of it. And if my opinion may at all preuaile with you, you shoulde quickly call him home from hence, and see him more better to be prouided for, and more worthily trained.Merismus. Consider I pray you, the life hee taketh in hand, befitteth not such a one, whose originall was so honest, is ill beseeming the younger brother of your selfe, vnwoorthie his birth or name of a Gentleman, and altogether repugnant to the qualitie of your behauior or the greatnesse of your liuing. You are to remember that hee is yet verie greene, nowe pliable to whatsoeuer may bee impressed in him, as chafed waxe apte to receiue anie figure,Parabola. like vnto a newe vessell to bee seasoned with whatsoeuer liquor, what hee now taketh taste and sauour of, that hee holdeth,Allegoria. what habite you nowe cast vpon him, the same shadow he lightly beareth. Great cause haue you therfore now to be warie how and in what sort he liueth.

Your industrie,Congeries. your brotherlie care, your loue, your especiall regarde and kindnesse it is, that must bee ayding in this, you and none but you are the man on whome hee relieth,Emphasis. you are to prouide for him, and it is your selfe that must answere for him. Think that nature, loue, dutie yea verie piety bindeth you vnto him, who hath none other left to depend on, but such as by possibilitie your self may become vnto him. In the consideration of which let (I pray you) my wordes become thus much regarded vnto you, that herein as in all other things you performe that beseemeth you.Peroratiō. Longer could I occupie my selfe to trauell in this action with you, but that I deem it (more then impertinent) any further therein to require you. Greeting your selfe manie times in my name, I bid you therefore farewell. From my house in B. this of, &c.

Of Epistles Dehortatorie, and Disswasorie. Chap. 12.

Nnecessary were it to wade further in either of these titles hortatorie or Swasorie, the examples alreadie laide downe being for them sufficient, wherfore we will now passe vnto the contraries of these, being Dehortatorie and disswasorie. The partes and places exhorting or perswading hauing as you sée bene drawne from the qualities of praise, fortified in diuers sortes, as well by the person, by the action, as by the thing it selfe, where vnder was comprehended what might be called honest or good: So these on the contrarie parte pulling backe or disswading, shall by the vnhonestie of the action or thing as before hath bin said, and by the indignitie, vniustnes, wickednes, insufferablenes, hate, mislike, contempt, or hazard of danger, reputation or good name that thereof ensueth, be euermore measured.

In the handling whereof it is tolerable, by all sortes of arguments, to infer and obiect any thinge to the diminution or defacing of that which we go about to impugne. Yea, if need be, to inuert the good also that in such a person may be supposed vnto a worser sence. As if in dehorting or disswading a man from infidelity towards his country I might first touching the action tender vnto him, how vnnatural the cause is he taketh in hand, being against his natiue soile: how vnhonest, by laying out the quality of the offence, how vniust, in respect that it is against his allegiance to his Prince, how impious, in that it retaineth no piety, turneth to the disturbance of a quiet state, & bréedeth the subuersion of al peaceable gouernment, how insufferable, by reason that good and wholesome lawes are thereby infringed, all sortes of honest and good men wronged, and consequently the common wealth by such meanes topsie turuie turned.

For the Person if he were at any time of worth I might shewe then the indignitie, or ill beséeming of such a thinge vnto him, for that actions of such kinde are alwaies vnto the noble and best endued mindes vtterly repugning. And so thereupon if in him there was euer reputed any wisdome, I might diuert it now vnto follie, his Fortitude, I might challenge to be Temeritie, his moderation crueltie, his stoutnes arrogancie, his haughtines pride, his Freedome loosnes,and consequently, for euerie other vertue induce or lay downe vnto him a contrarie vice, respecting that by committing of actions so vile & contemptible, all properties whatsoeuer of former esteemed worthines doe vtterly loose the partes they haue of good, and immideately are disturned there withall vnto euill.

And as in Epistles Exhorting or Perswading, the intended vertue of goodnesse of euerie thing is more amplie set foorth by the opposite euil: So in these of withdrawing or disswading the intended euil by the opposite good, is euer made more hatefull. Besides, as there bee some thinges that are expresly good in themselues or expresly euil, so are there some thinges that for themselues are helde indifferent. In these, to perswade or withdrawe, there is a prettie skill to be vsed, in which the discretion of the writer may not passe vncommended, wherof (for so much as to a learner they may happely passe vnregarded) I entende in this chapter to affoorde some application. For in thinges alwaies knowne to be of themselues either good or euill, there is no great cunning to make a shew of them as they are: but of things which either by times, by liking, by place, by allowance, by conuersation may be deemed good or bad, to be commended or disalowed, in the setting foorth thereof appeareth both skill and discretion.

For example, that mariage is a thinge much to be preferred, and to the increase of man of so greate necessitie, as without which there could bée no orderlie estate or societie, no man I am sure will denie mée. And to a man vnwilling to enter thereinto, I might (with intent to drawe him to a liking thereof) besides a number of necessarie causes to be alleadged, as the decay of his house, the continuance of a solitary, loose or bad kind of liuing, the end of his wealth and name together hauing no issue to succéede him, infer also as much pertinent to such a perswasion the sacred solemnization thereof in Paradise, first by the eternall Wisdome himselfe thought méet and appointed, then his pleasure to inioine the same to the worlds increase, then the care that naturally we haue of issue to succéed vs, the indignity for a man of value not to haue respect therof, the loue likewise & mutuall societie betwixt man & wife, being of such mightie efficacie, as wherunto no liking is to be compared, the swéet pleasures, cares & delights, interchangeably passing betwéene them, each dearly affying? them selues in the others contentment, solace or pleasing, the ioy of procreation, when there shall be a childe produced, whose infancie tatling with a pleasant lisping sound, shall become an incredible delight to the parents hearing, with sundrie other like inforcements and suggestions, all which might certainlie shewe and declare the same to be as it is a matter of much woorth, and sufficientlie set forth vnto the partie why it ought to be embraced.

Now, as the same is out of all doubt not onelie tollerable, as I said before, but by the necessitie thereof among many thinges held to be praise worthy: so in another place, & to another person might I againe find as much occasion for matter, why the selfe same marriage should be alike dispraised, as (not reckoning the age of man or woman, which many times more of dotage then discretion pursueth the same) there might be opposed thereagainst the swéetnes of libertie, the vse wherof (nothing more) conduceth principally vnto the estate & life of man, who naturally coueteth vnrestrained & without controlment to do that him liketh, the benefit wherof enioying, he may ride, go, walke, rest, eat, drinke, studie, recreate, solace, and whersoeuer, and in whatsoeuer companie pleaseth him best, vse the conceit thereof to his owne appetite.

Now, hauing a wife (suppose she haue all the perfections you will giue her) yet is the delicacie hereof bereft a man: for being once married, hee thenceforth is no more vnto himselfe, but vnto her, for her pleasure, to her choyce, at her liking, with her contentment, must he then order his humours, his houres, his gestures, his companies, his iourneys, his recreations, and what els he before time might fréelie haue vsed, his owne liking is quenched, his libertie restrained, and yet the losse hereof a heauen to that which followeth, if by great good fortune he bee not the better matched, For imagin the woman chosen, do prooue a scolde, wayward, self-willed, malicious, frowning, or suspitious, what a hell is hee then driuen into, whose serpentine and more then Adderlike disposition shall be such as would terrifie a thousande Diuelles. If she bee wanton, dissolute, lewde, or loose in liuing, howe on the other side shall he then be turmoyled: what is it that she will not presume vpon, & dare to hazarde? how infamous shall her life then become to his liuing? how little will shee esteeme of him, in respect of the large account she holdeth of many others? If she be proude, then may she be vnsupportable: if her wit be more then his, then arrogant: if she be foolish, then a mocking stocke: if she be faire, then a spectacle to gaze on: if foule, then a simpring puppet to wonder on: if shee be rich, presumptuous: if poore, then happilie odious. But being what shee may bee, or touching her owne person the best she can bee, what intollerable charge bringeth shee with her, what cost of apparel, what care of diet, what houshold of seruants, what expence for attendance, what prouision for children; what furniture for house, what daily, continual & neuer ceasing cark & toile for her & hers: in conclusion, what one discommoditie may be reckoned, that with her or for her is not in short space a thousande times hazarded?

Thus doe you see how out of one selfe thing both praise and dispraise by admittance may be gathered. A like thereunto may be added in the vsage of wine. To a crazed man of weak disposition, or such a one whose constitution of bodie for Phisicks sake should require it, I might, to perswade him to the vse thereof, vrge the necessarie meane, the goodnesse, propertie, vertue and wholesomnesse of the same, the operation, howe it recreateth, driueth away heauinesse from the minde, prouoketh appetite, comforteth, and many wayes (moderatelie taken) helpeth and relieueth. But now to disswade againe the intermedling therewith, what might bee imagined that coulde not bee rehearsed: by manifesting the hurt and manifold inconueniences thereby ensuing, as that it causeth drunkennes, dulleth the wits, making ill digestion, ingendreth superfluities, weakneth the spirits, hurteth the braine, driueth a man to forget himselfe, enforceth to commit that which many times is filthie and often vnbeseeming, of a reasonable creature frameth a beast, discouereth counsels, causeth slaughters, and consequentlie ladeth both the bodie and minde with a thousand mischiefes, impediments and diseases.

As of these twain, so might I stand vpon many others the like, which for breuitie I omit, holding these applications sufficient for the present intendment: adding herewithall, that the exhorter, perswader or withdrawer from any thing, ought touching things indifferent, specially to haue before his eyes the reputation of the partie to whome he writeth, considering that some things are lesse meete in one person then in another, and that which well fitteth and agreeth with the state or condition of some one, is altogether vnmeet and disagréeing in the behauiour of another. To consider in like sort this old adage, ne quid nimis, whereby in reprouing the vse of any thing he may prefer the moderation, and inueigh against the nimium. Finally, to respect, that of sundry indifferent occasions not the vse, but the abuse is it which ought to bee reprehended. These beeing admitted, wee will come to the Examples of both kindes aswell Dehortatorie as Disswasorie, and see what therein may be tendred.

An example of an Epistle dehortatorie, wherein a noble Gentleman
is withdrawne from infidelitie or rebellion.

MY good G.Exordium. my faithfull louing Countriman, and dearest of account By insinuation.(whilome all and either of these vnto me, so bee it the frowning Metaphora.heauens and dispiteful wicked fate had not harboured the contrarie) what shall I write vnto thee, or by what tearmes may I now salute thee? Erst woonted were my letters to pursue thee, carelesse in any cost,Allegoria. and familiarly and boldly to regard thee, now blushing at thy vncouth hap, and carefull of they carelesse vsage, they cannot without griefe approch thee, nor once without sorrowe intentiuely behold thee.

Alas, my G. what furie hath ledde thee,Ecphonesis. what madnes hath bewitched thee, what hatefull destinie hath pursued thee, that beeing such as thou wert, on whome Nature and the heauens as it seemed, had powred all their giftes moste plentifullie, thou wouldest yet be ledde to deface so many partes of excellencie, with one hatefull, ignominious and shamefull blott, of wicked, and most heynous treacherie.

Diddest thou for this cause take vppon theeErotema. the profession of Armes, to become iniurious to thy Countrey, to bereaue men of their patrimonie,Auxesis. to bee a destroyer of vnitie, a patterne of infidelitie, the dishonour of thy familie, and consequently to thy selfe and dearest soile,Ecphonesis. a professed and open enemie? Ah happie in all other things, but in this sole enterprize, in the broaching whereof thou wast put forwarde to bee made the onelie vnhappie, behooueth with such ingratitude to rewarde the first Authour of thy familie? Was this the ende of thy birth, thy parents, education, thy estate, thy wealth, thy possibilitie, to become a Traytour to thy Prince, and rebell to thy Countrey?Sinathrismus. No, no, my G. vilde and too ill beseeming is the drift that hath so ouertaken thee, and ignorant was he of that became thee, that first thereunto perswaded thee.

When thou liest armed in the fields andDialogismus. (mustering thy ranks in the day time) beholdest and lookest around about thy Countrey, thinkest thou not then with thy selfe, in this soyle was I borne, within this land lieth my patrimonie, heere had I first sucke, and sithence haue the fruits thereof nourished me, and could I then become so ingratefull and vnkinde, as for all these benefits to destroy thee? Not so, nor in such maner haue the vertuous in field beene accounted so woorthie, not for this cause in such actions, haue men beene said to beare themselues honourably. Coriolanus, thou wast conuinced by the view of the Citie and mothers intreatie, and shall I vnhappie man for all this, persist in this crueltie?

Iustlie and by great occasion credit me, mightest thou thus complaine of so great an iniurie, and all this being so true, as nothing more true; can it be said in prosecuting the same, thou maist be freed frō infamie?Anthypophora. What I pray thee hath made men famous, and canonized their memorie,Epanodus. was it not their munificence and valiant demerits in and for the good of their country? For in what one thing are we more likened vnto God himselfe, then in the worthines of our minds, the resolutions whereof, ought in no wise to be stained with such hatefull obloquie? The Asse runneth through fire for the safegard of her issueParadigma. and shall the valiant man then become negligent to the ayde of his Countrey? Howe farre more waightilie shall hee bee accused, who not onelie giueth no ayde at all to his Countrey,Antithesis. but also is therunto an inconsiderate and most cruell enemie? Howe carelesse are such men of their fame, and howe vnlike of all others to those memorable woorthies, the precious regard whereof, vnto them hath beene such, as then goods,Auxesis. possessions, riches, kingdomes, yea life it selfe hath beene helde most dearest. Peruse but the auncient hystories of Rome, and looke there of Mutius Scæuola,Paradigma. the most inuincible Romane, with what confidence hee went solie into the Tent of Prosenna, his and their Countryes capitall enemie, in minde onelie to destroie him. The good Furius Camillus, who after manie high and honourable seruices by him done to the Common-wealth of Rome, was by his owne Citizens vniustlie banished: howe farre off was hee thinke you, from this your opinion? For the GallesEtiologia. whom before he had expulsed, hauing in the time of this his banishment assieged the Citie of Rome, and beeing then verie likely to haue distressed the same, insomuch as they had alreadie forraged, burnt and destroyed the whole Countrey round about, hee more sorrowfull at the likely ruine of his Citie, then grieued at his owne banishment, (mooued thereunto of verie pietie to his natiue soyle and Countrey) entred counsell with the Ardeats, and by his wisedome, policie, and great manhood, so perswaded those people, that in feare of their mishap, they were content to leuie a mightie armie vnder his conduct, wherewith hee not onely put backe the enemie, but therewith so mightilie pursued them, as by such meanes he vtterly freed and set at libertie his Citie and Conntrey.

What neede wee search abroade for such forraine examples, and why draw wee not home into our owne soyle of England?Transitiō. What Chronicle shall euer remaine, or what English Hystorie shall euer bee extant, that shall not euerlastinglie report, the deserued fame of that right woorthie and verie noble indeede, Sir William Walwoorth, Knight, once Lord Maior of London, the remembraunce whereof (to his perpetuall prayse, and endlesse confusion of others, who not onely abstaine the putting in vre of such his memorable vertue, but which is woorse, doe endeuour by cruell force to tender violence vnto their Sacred Prince and Countrey) shall yet flourish for euer. Ill doe you example vnto your selfe, or thinke on the woorthinesse of that good man, who in the time of King Richard the seconde, when with a most suddaine and strange kinde of Rebellion the King was troubled,Parison. the Realme pestered, and the strongest of the Kinges subiectes greatlie feared: euen at that time when the proude fawtour and CaptaineEmphasis. of the rebellious and rascallie multitude,Periphrasis. durst hatefullie and most vndutifullie to bearde the King in his owne presence, and each man shunned to impugne the contrarie.Auxesis. This valiant, this good, this right noble and woorthie Citizen, standing by, when the wicked and presumptuous varlet, with so little reuerence approached the King, and remembring the seruices of manie worthie men, that by an honourable aduenture and hazarde of their liues had to their eternall memorie, before time freed their Countrey with libertie, grieuing that with so high an abuse his soueraigne Lorde beeing yet as it were a childe, shoulde there in his hearing, bee so farre amated, couragiouslie stept vnto the Rebell,Dialogismus. and taking him by the gorge, proude varlet (quoth hee) that darest thus contemptouslie demeane thy selfe vnto thy King and Soueraigne, foule death betide thee, and shame quicklie consume thee: Whie, aunswered the villaine in greate disdaine, is it thou that greeuest at that I haue sayde? Greeue, replyed the stoute couragious Citizen,Epizeuxis. yea, euen I, I it is that greeue at thee, and happilie shoulde thinke my selfe accurst, if thou shouldest escape from mee vnreuenged, wherewith drawing more closelie vnto him, hee pulled him from his horse by maine force, and stabbed him to the heart with his dagger. The destruction of whom, bredde such confusion vnto all the residue of his headstrong armie, and sight whereof kindeled so great a furie in the residue of the Kings companie, (who for that present vpon speciall considerations, was there attended on but meanelie) that the whole rebellious route were by such meanes euer after discomfited vtterlie: wherewith before that instaunt the whole RealmeAntithesis. had lyke to haue beene turned topsie turuie. Hee and such as hee laboured not by ambitious pride to arrogate vnto themselues a lawlesse extremitie, but studyed of meere loue and entire zeale, how and which way they might performe best seruice to their Prince and Conntrey.Ecphonesis. O more then ordinarie affection, and feruencie of high and statelie woorthinesse, in the regarde whereof, life was not sweete vnto these men, whose liuing might not redounde to become (for their dearest soyle) to bee honoured and famous.Aporia. What then may I say my G. of that by thee, and thy copartners taken in hande, whether will you be driuen, what shall become of you, how doe ye behaue your selues, who may receiue you, in whose inward conceites (not the pietie and regard of anie of theese) no nor so much as one sparke of their loialtie, coulde so deepelie bee impressed, as whereby to withdrawe you from these vnnaturall broiles?Auxesis. What haue you found in your deare prince? what in your louing countrie? what in this citie? what to anie one of al your selues in particularitie, that might in such hatefull maner incite you, & by occasion whereof you should thrust your selues into so great an enormitie? Beleeue me, & it shal verilie be auowed, the successe hereof will returne vnto you none other in the ende then the verie reward of infamie. I haue knowne thee, beeing far lesse in yeares then at this instant, to haue bene able to rule thy selfe, and with plausible moderation to bee indued in all things,Erotema. couldest thou then beeing a childe performe this in thy selfe, and beeing nowe a man art not able to endure it? There be I know about thee, that will perswade that all that thou doest herein is vertue, that herein thou hast great wisdom, much fortitude, and notable moderation, that the action is haughtie, the occasion libertie, and the end glorie. But how greatlie they doe erre in so saying, let this saying of good Camillus stand for you and vs indifferentlie, whose notable speach sprung vp from those his inuiolable vertues, spared not this, to affirme in presence of all the Senate vnto the people.Prosopopœia. Let others (quoth hee) deeme it a thinge euill and reprochfull at anie time to bee founde faultie, in not yeelding ready succors and aid to their country: Camillus for his part is & shal be of that resolute determination, that it is & ought to be reputed for euermore a thing detestable and vild, and of all other the most hatefull and replenished with all execrable miserie. How thinketh then your gentle mind, of the action by this time. Is it (suppose you) anie vertue that thereunto preferreth you? Camillus iudged that it was not reprochfull, but villanous and detestable, so much as to bee founde failing in ought to his countrie, and may it then bee thought a thinge honest to become a persecutor of your countrie?

It is not Fortitude, but Temeritie,Orismus. that conducteth your enterprises, for Fortitude aspireth to far more noble and statelier purposes. The action and determination, you preferre therein is not (as fondlie by you is conceaued) honour, but haughtines,Prosonomasia. not libertie, but loosenes, not vertue, but viciousnes: why then continue you in this sorte togethers, vpon so wicked and diuelish a purpose? Why returnest not thou rather to thy self my G. & hauing long before striued to emulate the praise of others by an vnstained gentilitie, wipe nowe quickly off this foule blemish from thee, and couering the filthinesse thereof by a most incomparable fidelitie, become once againe like vnto thy self. At the least wise,Loue. if the loue of thy coūtrie, fidelitie towards thy prince, the example of Vertue her selfe and so many her famous and renowned followers (then which no one thinge on earth ought more to allure a man) may not herewith conuince thee, let yet the execrable and immortall hate,Hate. that all good men beare to the practise of such kind of crueltie, the feareFeare. of euer harbouring shame, and erected ignomie, and neuer after hope (thy credite once consumed) againe to recouer thee, let these I say constrain thee. Whilst there is yet but one craze or slender flawAllegoria. in the touchstone of thy reputation, peece it vp, & new flourish again by a greater excellēcie, the square of thy workmanship.Sententia. A fewe daies are to bee passed in which there is yet time, fame wounded in life may once bee restored, if death doe preuente thee, thy shame and destruction is for euer shrowded.Antithesis. The next newes I hear from thee, may make thee fortunate, or me for thee alwaies vnhappie. My longing would bee satisfied of this from which I dehortEpilogus. thee. If onelie herein thou condiscende vnto mee, my selfe am thine, and to none so much as thy selfe absolutely, I loue thee, I require thee, I pray thee, and pray for thee, that thou maist as I wish, and wouldest as I bid, bee for, and to mee. Farewell if thou doest well.

An Example of a disswasorie Epistle,
wherin one is disswaded from fruit-
les vanities, to more learned & pro-
fitable studies.

I Receiued on Saturday last a letter from your Vncle,Narratiō. wherein amongst sundrie other matters I was aduertised, that leauing your former learned studies, whereunto with greate cost and charge of your parents, you had bene trained, you haue giuen your selfe wholie to certaine thinges, the regarde whereof albeit in their moderate vses, I cannot discommende, yet in respecte of your former intendmentes, I can tearme them none other then meere follies, and verie fruitles vanities.

It is reported with vs for certaine, that you are become an excellent good dauncer, that you are growne prettilie skilled on instrumentes, whereon you play reasonablie, that you spende the time limitted for more profite in the Vniuersitie, in making of songes and exquisite fine ditties, that you are verie fitlie seated for wantonnesse, and worthilie behaued in all kind of curious conueyances.

I woulde for mine owne parte nothing at all mislike what herein you haue in some sorte frequented,concession. weighing indeede that as they may bee in sorte entertained, those qualities doe not ill beseeme a Gentleman, but are in their kinde verie fit and commendable to anie youthfull reckoning:Parison. yet studying them as you doe by them selues, inuring your selfe whollie to their delighte, abandoning what else might best honour and beautifie their woorthinesse, in respect of the sole propertie of them selues and their owne peculiar goodnesse, I say that in such regarde they are vanities, trifles, thinges of no momente, and in each sounde opinion to bee heldeSynonymia. of farre lesse value and iudgement.

The intendment of your going to the Vniuersitie was for learning sake, to become an excellent scholler, not an exquisite dauncer, a Maister of ArteProsonomasia. not an artlesse maister, a good Rhetorician, not a conceited Musitian: your Vncles care, was by vilefying his wealth vnto you, (the weight whereof by imminent perilles wee see daylie perish before our eies) to purchase for you the endowment of a farre more greater and assured treasure, and that is by knowledge to teach you to discerne trifles, to procure in you a minde to despise trifles, that leauing small riches to inherit, you your selfe might gather possessions whereby to enrich you.

You then are farre misconceiued, to relinquish the hoped reckoning of that you came for, to applie your selfe to that which fewe doe accompt of, and the wisest woulde neuer sweate for, you shall therefore vppon better aduise endeuour if you doe well, to returne your conceite to a far more better purpose. You shall call to minde that all studies whatsoeuer, by how much the more excellent ech one appeareth before the other, by so much the more assured are they in their kinde, and aboue all the residue, with far greater estimate to bee preferred: if so? then must you graunt me that no one thing vpon earth (then learning, then precious and high esteemed skill, then aboue all earthly things whatsoeuer,Synonymia. heauenlie science) is of so great and surpassing excellence. To lay out vnto you herein, howe much glorious is her shining hue aboue all others,Parison. howe sugred her plantes, howe daintie her fruits, howe delicate her pleasures, howe incomparable her high and statelie reach, how she participateth the skies, the element, the venerable search and knowledgeAsyndeton. of high and sacred mysteries: I need not, you know it, you haue felt & tasted of it. But to shewe howe much you misprise the force of her vertue, howe ill conceiued, and far wandring, you are from the due esteeme of her glorie, to make loue to her handmaides, to professe liking to her seruantes, to become sole entertainer of her vassals: hereon resteth the iniurie, this is it I complaine of vnto you.

And if either the sum and type of honestie placed in the weight of the action,congeries. the necessitie, meetnes, and worthines, the vtility and benefits seuen hundred fold compensing the trauel, may (as earthly things haue often power to mooue one,Parenthesis. aboue things of far higher estimation) induce you to her most dearest and precious fruition, search then the fauor of these your louing mistresses, and (seemlie I grant you may find them) but neuer shall they proue either so wealthy or beautifull. What then should let you to returne to this glorious Ladie?Erotema. Will you because you are an earthlie substance, followe the common reason of euerie earthlie creature? humum sapere & alta spernere? or saying that the appetites of the one are much pleasanter for the time, or far lesse tedious then the other,Allegoria. welde your opinion by a peeuish conceite of ease, to become a creditor to wantonnes?

These imaginations as they are meerelie bad, so are they ten times woorse in the pursuite, then they are sweete in the foremost thought. PeeuishMeiosis. were it, simplie for you to stande vppon these vanities, thinges wherein children haue delight, and young weaklinges doe roue at cunninglie: you must suppose and harpe vpon the end that must succeede vnto your trauaile, and finding the reache thereof pursue it with feruencie: Such actions as these doe onelie beseeme men, and heerein alone shall you shewe your selfe such as you may desire to bee, and your friends doe heartilie wish you to prooue. Alexander restlesse in the day tyme,Allegoria. gaped for worldles, but in the night season was rocked a sleepe by the Muses, the pleasure hereof appeased his day labours, and the content of this gaue rest to his trauels.

Too much impertinent were it for me to hale you on with arguments,Peroratiō. who onelie go about to perswade you with warrantise: Neither thinke I in the ende you will declare your selfe otherwise, then euer I haue expected of you. Much more could I infer, that might greatlie induce you to that whereunto your owne willingnesse must in the ende, of necessitie conduce you. Onely, if in the weight hereof my perswasions may something preuaile: I shall not forget in any woorthie part thereof, at all times to commend you. In which reposing my selfe for the present, I ende: this of, &c.

An other example disswasorie, wherein the partie is by diuers rea-
sons disswaded from entring into an action in appa-
rance verie dangerous.

I Haue (good brother) receiued your letters,Exordium. dated the eight day of this instant, which were with as great diligence as celeritie, conueied to my handes, and by the fidelitie of the bearer haue vnderstoode to the vttermost what you willed, and both of that and your letter haue at large considered.Propositiō. It seemeth therin vnto mee, that whether through ignorance of your owne good,Aporia. or inconsiderate rashnesse of youth, or voluntarie intrusion of your selfe into your owne harmes, I knowe not, but the matter and action mentioned and inforced by the whole course of your letter, is altogither to be misliked, and for the extremitie thereof to bee by all reason vtterly condemned,Auxesis. as whereunto you ought not to condescende, much lesse to bee seene in publique to bee a fauourer of, or, which is more, to appeare to bee, the onelie man through whose follie and immoderate rashnesse, the same is solie to be accomplished.

O good God! what blindnes is it that leadeth you?Ecphonesis. what sencelesse furie that bewitcheth you? What matter of euill that pursueth you? By the intollerable force whereof, without anie fore-sight at all, either of the goodnesse or ilnesse of the action, the lawlesse prosecution, the matter of your owne reputation, the daunger of lawe wherein you are intruded,Auxesis. the difficultie whereby it must be attained, the vnhonest sollicitation of your friends, to so great a hazard, the discommoditie that thereon is attendant, and perill euerie way that in the execution cannot be auoyded: you will notwithstanding all this forget your selfe so much, as in the accomplishment of a purpose so farre different from the nature (I will not say of a Gentleman) but of an honest man, go about to put in proofe what in the ende must of necessitie returne to your owne confusion.

But you will say it is loue,Procatalepsis. and extreame lyking that compelleth you to so forcible an action, as without the obtaining whereof you are nobodie, Antipophora. you cannot liue. Loue say you? Alas, what loue tearme you this, that is laden with so manie disordered motions, call you this loue? Nay rather call it madnesse,Orismus. for loue is measured by no extremitie, but in the honest and vertuous encrease thereof, where not by a harebraine furie, but by a discreete and moderate ascention men by degrees doe climbe vnto that, the sweete and pleasant force whereof neuer participateth anie occasion of such vnreasonable badnesse.Erotema. Why brother, doe you loue her whome you haue sued for, and because by desert you cannot attaine her, will you vndertake thereupon to bereaue her by force? Howe vnhonest I pray you is the purpose of so great a wrong?Auxesis. Howe vnfit to bee put forwarde in the meaner sort of men?Etiologia. How intollerable in a Gentleman? For if in the account of things vnhonest, any action whatsoeuer may appeare to be vile, what then this I pray you may bee deemed more dishonest, more bad, or more vile?

And if it be punished extreamly by the lawe, the taking away of a mans goods against his will,Auxesis. what may he deserue that bereaueth the person of anie one, being also a Gentlewoman, such as to whome all humanitie forbiddeth to proffer wrong, and to the honourable entertainment of whome, is appropriate onely the nobilitie of a Gentleman, nay, in what sort may such a one bee censured in the reputation of all honest men, that in sort so violent, goeth about to rauish her, not onlie offering iniurie therein to her person, but also to her fame, reputation and offspring.

Thinke you that the intendment heereof can returne credite to your lyuing? Thinke you that by deliuerie of such fruites you may bee reputed a Gentleman? No beleeue mee,Anthypophora. it cannot bee, but according to the vnwoorthinesse thereof, it rather shall giue occasion to all that shall heare or vnderstande of it, to accuse, blame, mislike, and vtterlie to condemne you.Concessiō. But what if no manner of suppose at all of dishonestie were left therein, whereby to discourage and withdrawe you from the action, imagining that the purpose thereof were helde meete and honourable, and that to euerie one that could winne his choyce by anie force he might, it were lawfull without discredite or anie censure of law by what meanes soeuer, to compasse the same, do you thinke it a matter sleight and easie for you to performe it? No, no sir, you reckon too wide, you goe beyond the Moone, you are too much deceyued.Synonymia. Know you not the Gentlewoman is worthilie descended, that she hath parents,Asindeton. brethren, vncles, and friendes to keepe her, to rescue her, to defend her? Why sir,Erotema. is there no more to say, but you will haue her? You must haue her? and by maine force you will take her? You deale with no children I can tell you, nor weakelings as you account of, but men wise, valiaunt, well reputed, and of sound gouernment:Auxesis. who by so much the more iust and right, the occasion is of their defence, by so much the sooner will they, and are able to preuaile against you.Procatalepsis. I recke not that you haue courage sufficient, that you are hardie, bolde, and aduenturous (the vse whereof being imployed to good and laudable purposes, were I confesse much more effectuall) but herein how euer the case standeth, I see nothing so likelie as an impossibilitie, in somuch as if you be delighted to become infamous, and in the memorie of a shamelesse life to hazard your selfe to a shamefull death,Prosonomasia. then may you enter into it: once this I knowe, that her can you neuer finde so slenderlie accompanied, that with small force you can carie her, but within a moment alwayes, there will not bee wanting a number that shall bicker for her, from whose insight, you are altogither vnable, if her selfe consented thereunto, to conuey her.

But graunting vnto your wilfull imagination,Concessiō. as much in all things as you can desire, suppose you might winne her, conuey her, keepe her, and that the daunger of lawe limited at all no hazarde thereunto, (the contrarie whereof you well knowe, being guerdoned with no woorse then losse of life) doe but yet againe returne to your selfe, and call to minde your birth,Congeries. your familie, your profession, your maner of liuing:Epanodis. your birth by your parents who were worshipfull, your stocke by the reputation yet helde of the same: your profession, which is Armes: your liuing, a Gentleman. Is it then consonant or agreeing to all or anie of these,Erotema. to commit any outrage, and that such an outrage, as to any other were not so proper, as to a villaine, a wretch, a rascall, such a one as neither by nature, education, or custome, knoweth to do otherwise? What would you exercise I pray you on her, if you had her? Once you confesse she doth not loue you, then no question, would she ten times more hate you: Your answere I knowe would bee, either by entreatie to perswade her, or by force to subdue her.

The conclusion is friuolous,Dialysis. if being now her supposed wel-willer, you can by no meanes allure her, imagine you then by prayers to conuince her, after you haue once shewed your selfe so extreame vnto her? And if force be it you pretend, it is repugnant to gentlenes, yet (be it you neglect what therein to be considered) assure your selfe her malice neuerthelesse towards you will neuer be quenched. For that of our selues we cannot freelie accept of,Sententia. we neuer by compulsion can be procured to like of.Confutatiō. With you now, the case is quite contrarie, for so imminent euerie way are the perils thereof vnto you, as if her friendes should abstaine it, yet the lawes will punish it, and if no lawes were at all, yet God would reuenge it.

If then you will hearken or vnderstand what is right, you must bee disswaded from these intendments, wherin if my selfe should haue become so graceles, as to haue set in foote with you, iustly we might haue both confessed to haue beene drowned in all vnhappines togithers.

And nowe good brother,Epilogus. vse I pray you that meanes herein, that with greatest commendation maie beseeme you, weigh with your selfe, that such distemperate motions are not to bee followed, conceyue that Vertue, whose seruaunt you were in your first education, forbiddeth you to bee ledde by such sensuall appetites, thinke that honour of Armes which you haue professed, extendeth not it selfe to the frayle and weake subduing of a Womans condition, who by reason of her sexe rather chalengeth at your handes a defence, then anie man-like enforcement: besides, much vnwoorthie should it bee vnto your reputation by violence to dishonour her, whose estimate and account by reason of your liking, you oughte to preferre with all honour. In fine, frame your selfe to doe that vncompelled, which by force you shall bee constrained to wish once to haue perfourmed, so shall you euer doe that beeseemeth you, and giue me cause, as my deare and louing brother euermore to accompte of you. Our former loue and liking willeth mee euermore to greete you, your sister and mine commendeth her heartilie vnto you. Fare yee well, B. this thirteenth of Nouember, &c.

Of Epistles Conciliatorie.
Chap. 13

Fter these Epistles dehorting and disswading, followeth nowe the nexte title Conciliatorie, whose vse being preferred in acquiring vnto our selues the acquaintance, friendship or familiaritie of men worthie, haue often their directions as well from those of honourable or worshipfull name or calling, to such as are their inferiours, as otherwise betweene equals, or those that bee accompted familiars: but seldome or neuer is frequented to such as are our betters, for then it looseth the name of Conciliatorie, and because of the humilitie thereof séemeth to be Petitorie. Touching the first degree of these Epistles, it is likelie, that hee who is much our better, will either of his honour, woorshippe, or gentlenesse, in plainest tearmes alwaies offer himselfe to his inferiours, whome in such sorte hee desireth to bee knowne vnto, or otherwise willinglie woulde repute of. For the others, touching equals or familiars, order therein requireth, that pithily and plainly wee set downe the cause moouing vs to take knoweledge of him wee write vnto, and thereupon to mooue his acquaintance.

This, albeit without some assentation, it hardlie falleth with some in their writing to bee caried, yet shall our learner by all possible means indeuour to keepe such Decorum herein, that hee gloze not too palpably, least by such means he do incurre a notable suspition of flatterie.

If in our selues we do conceiue or find some one or mo things, that are vnto such a one pleasing, or whereof wee may coniecture the regarde to returne vnto him, commodious, or to confirme towards vs a more speciall liking, that shall we modestlie tender, and deuise without arrogancy in some conuenient sorte to be signified. These are the onely precepts in this kind of writing, to be considered, the effectes whereof are in this sort following by their examples deliuered.

An Epistle Conciliatorie, written
from one of good accompt to his
inferiour.

AFter my verie heartie commendations vnto you. This bearer and my seruaunt whome I greatlie credite, hath signified vnto mee manie matters tending to your great commendation, the reporte whereof, I haue often sithence hearde confirmed by others. And for asmuch as touching mine owne condition, I haue alwaies beene a fauourer of artes, and entirelie accounted of the singularitie of anie one according to his worthinesse, I haue so much the more greatlie desired your acquaintance, as one whome willinglie I would doe good vnto. Assuring you, that if at some conuenient time you will take paines to see mee, I will not onelie (as occasion serueth) bee well content to imploy you my selfe, but also in place of further accompt doe the best I may to recommende you. Meane while I woulde gladlie bee infourmed by the returne of this Messenger, at what time I may expect to see you, according to which I will appoint horses, and send some to accompanie you. And so for this present doe bid you hartilie farewell. From my house of N. this twentieth of April, &c.

An example Conciliatorie, from one e-
quall to another.

THe vniuersall reporte of your excellencie, each where declared, hath mooued mee good M. N. not onelie to admire you for the same, but among a greate manie others, that regarde and especiallie doe accompte of you, hath induced mee also hereby to praie your acquaintance. I confesse sir, sithence I first heard of you, I grewe euen then verie desirous to see and to know you, but being this other daie in companie with sir T. P. I vnderstood howe much for your singular vertue both of the good Knight and Ladie, you were hartilie commended and entirelie fauoured.

This considerate opinion of theirs, hath in my speedie determination egged mee forwarde, and caused me to salute you by these letters, the rather for that I haue sundry times bene enformed with what ioifull and friendlie conceite, you doe entertaine the familiaritie of euerie Gentleman. Little (God knoweth) resteth in mee to pleasure you, the worthines whereof I coulde wish, were as well answerable to your vertue as effectuallie you might haue power in mee to commaunde it. This one thing can I deliuer of my selfe, that since I had first capacitie to discerne of mens conditions, I haue alwaies studied to honour the vertuous, and euermore with reuerence to entertaine their actions. A fauourer I haue still beene of the learned, and a diligent regarder of their excellencies, such as in minde more then wealth wuld wish to be reputed happy, & to my vttermost power gladlie accomplish what might bee deemed most worthie. Such a one if you vouchsafe to like of, I wholie yeelde my selfe vnto you, expecting nothing more then at your conueniente leisure I might finde occasion to see you. Whereunto referring the residue of all my desires, It doe for the present cease to detaine you. London this fourth of Iune, &c.

TO these Epistles might be added two seuerall answers: in both of which there is required a special and wel demeaned modesty, in the one of humility to bee according to his better, in the other of curtesie to gratifie his equall, each of them containing, a submissiue executio of that, in either of their faculties and professions simply to be attributed, the diuersities of both of them not impertinent to these our instructions, I haue in sort following put downe to be considered.

An Epistle responsorie answering to the first of these Letters.

IT may please your Worshippe, I haue receiued your curteous Letters, and by the same, as also by your messenger haue fullie conceiued of your fauour and louing intendment towardes mee, for all which I can but render vnto you my most humble and duetiful thankes. Touching my selfe, I verie gladlie wish that there were anie thing in mee, whereof you might take pleasure, or wherewith I might anie waies bee enabled to doe you seruice: Such as it is I humblie render vnto your commaunde, and doe pray that in as good sorte as I tender it, you will bee pleased to accepte of it. Your man can witnesse, that as yet I haue some earnest occasions for a while to detaine mee, who otherwise woulde bee well contented foorthwith to waite vpon you. And were I not thereunto especiallie enioined by your good fauour, the importunitie of your seruaunt might happily in such case haue preuailed with mee. It may therefore stand with your good pleasure to pardon mee, one moneth, which tearme beeing expired, I thence forwarde will remaine at the commaunde of none so much as your Worshippe, to whose good acceptaunce I eftsoones doe recommende my selfe in all reuerente duetie. London this of, &c.

A letter responsorie answering to the latter Epistle.

Sir, I haue vnderstoode by your gentle and friendlie letters, not onelie howe much I rest beholding to your good opinion, but also to the curteous Knight, and my especiall good Ladie you write of, to each of whome I haue founde my selfe indebted exceedinglie. Manie waies might I aduertise you howe much I haue to thanke both them and you, which that my desires may appeare answerable to your wishes I doe leaue, till personallie in as present hast as conuenientlie may bee, I see you. I am not altogether ignoraunt of the good partes which by some (vnto your selfe well knowne) hath beene aduertised heretofore vnto me of you, and for which I do most willinglie embrace you. Assuring you yᵗ you haue but preuēted me in this one curtesie, which before my going out of town, I was vehementlie perswaded to haue tendred vnto you, wherein neuerthelesse I rest satisfied, in that by one so well accomplished as your selfe, I haue heerein been so farre foorth conuinced. My busines with his L. resteth I hope vpon a present dispatch, and therefore doe I reckon (by Gods grace) within these verie few dayes to visite you. Meane while, confessing howe much I stande charged vnto your selfe for this sole courtesie, I doe pray that vnto the good Knight, and his La. you will report my right humble dutie: And euen so doe commit you to the Almightie. This of, &c.

Of Epistles Reconciliatorie.
Chap. 14.

Owe after these Responsorie Letters, each answering vnto the others tendered courtesies, I thinke it meet to come to the next title, being in order Reconciliatorie. The matter whereof importeth a reconciliation to those from whom wee acknowledge in some sort or other to haue beene disseuered, contrarie to the bonde of friendshippe or dutie that therein might bee required, whether by our owne default, or by whose or what defect, as by the circumstance of the action shall bee tendered. In the framing of these Epistles wee shall recorde with our selues, in what league, amitie or dutie, wee haue before time stoode charged or bounde to him to whome wee studie to bee reconciled, thereupon shall wee according to the district obseruation at that instant helde of the same, studie eyther to qualifie, adnihilate, or vtterlie to extinguish the cause of falling of the disseuerance, or breach. Then shall we desire for the considerations thereunto inducing vs, to be retained againe in his wonted fauour or friendlie acceptance. And these as in the examples following may accordingly be suted.

An example reconciliatorie, from one friend to another.

THe regarde of our auncientExordium. amitie and long continued acquaintaunce, wherein so firmelie and manie yeares wee haue beene knit togithers, will not permit (my good D.) that wee for one slender grudge, (rather by the malice and despite of others enuying our olde friendship,Parenthesis. then by anie occasion of our selues, in ill time suggested betweene vs) shoulde in this sort bee disseuered. True it is, that before this time the like breach, or anie thing neare vnto the same was neuer seene betweene vs, but what (mischiefe) shall I nowe tearme it, or imagine to bee the occasion, that in so vnlooked time, and vpon so vnexpected occasion, hath in this vilde sort, giuen meane to vntie vs, betweene whome so great a league of loue, so long confirmed and approoued liking, so manie protestations and vowes haue ere this passed, as that by the force thereof it might well haue seemed wee should neuer haue fallen to this variance. But what cannot enuie doe?Epitheton. What is it that cruell, detestable and inueterate malice cannot performe? Credite mee, my D. for my part I am sorie that euer follie so much maistred vs, as to hearken in any sort to the stirrers vp of such bitternesse. And as my selfe was the first that by admittaunce and allowaunce of those rumours gaue the formost onset, by meanes whereof grewe this discontenting and vnkinde department betweene vs: so will I bee the first that shall endeuour to renue againe our friendshippe by a more iust reconcilement, to the intent the fruites of our vnfained liking becomming by such meanes the more forcible, may render vnto all the worlde a sufficient testimonie, how hard and difficult a thing it is to part those whome (but onelie death itselfe) hath power to disseuer. Bee onelie contented my D. once againe, to restablish that which being a little vntwisted, could neuer wholie be broken.Epilogus. Thy knowne good will, and heartie zeale vnto mee; assureth mee not to distrust the same at thy handes, which thou shalt euer finde to be graffed within me. This euening by Gods grace I meane at our lodging to see thee, whither, and to thy selfe I doe most heartilie commend me.

THis Reconciliatorie being different from that other Conciliatorie Epistle, by reason of the argument thereof tending to renue that, which formerlie might by the other before bee intreated for, carrieth the effects thereof as well as it dooth betwéene equals: so from an inferiour person to one who in reputation is somewhat more then his better. vpon presumption of whose fauor, or by negligence of his own dealing, hauing thrown himselfe into some disgrace with such a partie, he may by meanes herein offred, reconcile himselfe in any sort he list of humility. To the furtherance whereof, this example following may bee considered.

An Epistle Reconciliatorie, from an inferiour person,
to one that is his better.

PLeaseth my honourable good L.Narratiō. It was giuen me to vnderstand about two daies passed by M. R. that your L. should very hardly conceiue of me, in that vpon some vrgent occasion, I delaied to yeeld that testimonie vnto his cause, which in equitie and reason I ought to doe:Propositiō. and the rather, for that by your earnest entreatie and request, I was eftsoones thereunto required. The griefe was not small I sustained thereby, in that hauing receiued many and sundrie benefits by your honourable fauour, whereby diuers waies I remaine in dutie and honestie charged during my life vnto your L. I should stand on so great a hazard, as the aduenture or losse of your good opinion, onely for a matter sinisterly suggested vnto you against mee, without anie maintainable reason. Your L. dooth I hope remember, in my last speeches had with you about the very same matter (albeit before that time, I stoode on some tearmes, doubting the malicious dealinges of the aduerse parties agaynst mee, in reuengment of my plaine and honest testimonie to bee there giuen) yet at the last I concluded, to gather together all the Notes ministring furtheraunce to the cause, and thereuppon to deliuer my true and certaine knowledge according as had beene required. Nowe, what care I haue sithence vsed in the matter, and vppon intelligence had with M. R. howe vehementlie in satisfaction of what might anie wayes content your L. and bee furthering to his right, I haue proceeded therein, I had rather himselfe shoulde deliuer, then I to become a reporter vnto you. Insomuch as I well knowe (howeuer any others haue misinformed your L.) himselfe as a Gentleman, will vppon his woorde assure the truth and certaintie.Dichologia. I did I must confesse at the first vse some delayes in immediate dispatch of the thing, but how and in what manner, and to what end and purpose, let him also relate. Your L. I hope, will therefore bee pleased to do mee that right, as not to be euill perswaded towardes mee, in a case wherein I haue vpon your honourable assuraunce and commaund, entred so farre foorth, as thereby I stande assured to haue purchased vnto my selfe matter ynough of hatred, and by those whomeAntithesis. (hauing refused to entertaine as my friendes) I haue inabled sufficiently thereby to become my heauie and bitter enemies. The hatred of whome cannot vnto mee anie wayes become so iniurious as the ill conceyte of your L. should redound to bee of all others most grieuous. For mine owne parte (so much doe I stande on the reuerent regarde and account I beare vnto your L.) as were it not I rest perswaded that vpon the equall deliueraunce conceiued of my willing minde vnto your seruice, you would againe bee reconciled in fauourable and good opinion towards me, I should so farre foorth bee discontented in my selfe, as neuer could I bee at attonement with mine actions, wherein by the least sparke of negligence whatsoeuer, I might thinke to haue ouerslipped anie thing that shoulde become displeasing, or otherwise offensiue vnto your honourable liking. Your L. woonted fauourPeroratiō. and bountie giueth mee great expectation of the contrarie, and mine innocencie and true report of maister R. doth also in some sort assure me. Whereupon remaining as he that alwaies thinketh his life no better spent, then for and in your L. vtmost seruice, I humblie surcease, this day of, &c.

Of Epistles Petitorie. Chap. 15.

He manner of these Epistles might in another purpose then herein expressed, bee also applyed, as being Reconciliatorie, in the behalfe of some other to bee written, as occasion may bee offered, but forasmuch as they in that sort beeing handled, doe for the most part, fall into the Swasorie, Disswasorie, Defensorie, or Excusatorie kinde, I deeme it besides necessitie, to write anie further examples thereof, for that when anie such shall bee brought in question, the substaunce and conueyance of the state and cause, may readily thereunto be drawne out of the places before sorted vnto each of those kindes, as in the discourse formerly set forth are at large remembred. In manifestation whereof, let it be considered, that if by an epistle of this title I shoulde endeuour to reconcile a man to his wife, or a woman to her husband, a seruaunt to his maister, or a maister to his seruant: the father to the Childe, the friende to a friende, the neighbour to neighbour, or kinsman to kindred. Needes must I for the compassing thereof shewe some reasons howe and which way to induce these, and therefor must I of necessitie run into diuers perswasions, defences or excuses, in the qualities whereof (by whatsoeuer action I goe about to transpose them) the effectes yet must néedes be concluded. Sufficeth therefore that for these Epistles I haue deliuered sufficiently, and herewith will wee wade vnto the nexte, which in order hereunto are Petitorie. And in asmuch as these Epistles are so named, for the earnest petition or requests in euerie of them contained, and that the variety of thinges are such to be demanded, and mens conditions so diuers, at whose handes or from whom the same are to be receiued: It therefore falleth out by consequence that according thereunto the maner of the Epistle must needs also be diuers and variable. For some things ther are which fauorably and with great indifferencie, are oftentimes to be graunted, required or obtained, as counsell, aid, patronage, good speeches, natural care and regard, & such other like. Some also and such semblable persons, as for which, or to whom, to aske or sue a certain kind of shame, is in a māer tied, viz. in crauing, borrowing, importuning, charging, or to vehement troubling. The stile, order, and deliuery therefore appertaining to either of these must needly be different. Touching then the generality of both, to either of them it is requisite that in the Exordium, an indeuour bee vsed whereby to adhibit vnto vs the good will, fauour, or good liking of him to whome wee write. Nexte that therein wee procéede according to our acquaintance with the partie, his estate, credite, or supporte whereby to pleasure vs. Thirdlie, that the cause we take vpon vs to preferre, bee iust, lawfull, and honest. Fourthly, that it be in his ability, or power, counsel, aid, or protection, to prefer or relieue vs. Fiftly, the order or meanes whereby the same may be wrought and accomplished. Sixtly, our gratitude and remuneration, worthily tied to the thankefull acknowledgement or requitall of the same. In the first sorte of these, the cause standing fauourable or indifferent, we may the more bolder indeuour to produce or lay forth the aptnes or beseeming therof. In the second, greater modestie, and a more shamefast deliuerance is to be retained, the preferring whereof woulde be best by insinuation, the better by couert meanes to wade into the depth of our petitiō. In this place a more then ordinarie bashfulnes would bee admitted, which giueth no small furtherance to euerie demaund, as audacious and wainscot impudencie on the other side returneth the greatest impediment in anie thing to be obtained. For no man willingly would do benefit to such a one who in maner goeth about as of duety and not of curtesie to exact the same, and rather as a commaunder then crauer, woulde impudently thrust himselfe to the obtaining thereof. And because the whole course hereof obserued by way of euerie Petition, is by inference of many circumstances to be altogither determined, the order as I haue related vnto you before, must be conueyed by places Swasorie, resting very often in confirmation of the honestie, goodnes, lawfulnes, and needfulnes of our petition. And if the Exordium be happily framed of his person to whom we direct our letters, it shall not be amisse that therein briefly wee capitulate some parte of his vertues, curtesies, humanity, bounty, readines to comfort, pleasure, or doe reliefe vnto any, whereby we may priuately draw his fauour and good acceptance vnto vs: besides, if he haue made vs before time beholding vnto him, we shall gladly acknowledge the same, and declare that being already indebted, we study more thereby to yoke our selues vnto him. If of our owne persons, then shall we lay open, with what great expectation and regard we do in our conceits entertaine the desertes and worthinesse of such a one, modestly preferring what in fauor of him, and common and equall loue or regard hath passed between vs. If of the interchangeable loue, liking and curtesie, whilome resting between our predecessors or auncistors, then the weight and force thereof we shall put forwards accordingly. If of the person of our aduersarie against whom we demaund any assistance, fauor, protection, or remedy, we may infer (if any such be) the common mislike of both of vs towardes him, and how ill he hath deserued at eithers handes and thereupon require aid against him. If of the thing or matter it selfe, the same be to be caried, we shall shew the value, godlines, goodnes, or common benefit of the same, that the matter is vnto him easie, to vs of great importance, and if without arrogancie it may be done, we may inforce some occasions of benefit or other contentment thenceforth to happen vnto him. And if any discommoditie do happily séem to appeare in laying open the same (the liklihood whereof may either alienate his minde, or withdraw his assistance or other liking from vs) that shall we either study to extinguish or otherwise, as much as we may, to qualifie or auoide; By such kind of meanes, behooueth we prepare our selues to the deliuery of our petition, which being in as apt and plaine tearms as may be laid open, we shal by such inforcements (as in moouing affections hereunto, may be deemed pertinent) with greater facilitie procure the same to be effected.

An example of an epistle Petitorie written on the
behalfe of another.

THe studie and great desire wherewith (sir) I see you bent continually to the vniuersall aid and benefit of al men,Exordium. and for which to your great praise you haue generally well deserued, and deseruedly are euerie where reputed, hath mooued me in the behalfe of this poore man to become a petitioner vnto you. About two moneths since,Narratiō. hee had dealings with a neighbour of yours, touching a farme which he was for tearme of yeares to take at his hands, and notwithstanding a promise and graunt thereof to this bearer made (in consideration whereof he paide him then in hand a good parte of his money) the iniuriousAllegoria. cormorant glutting him selfe with extorting from the pouertie of this and manie others, hath sithence that, not onelie passed a demise thereof in writing to another, but goeth about to defraud the poore man of his money, the sum whereof is the whole patrimonie, riches, and stocke of himselfe, his poore wife and familie. And for so much as without the countenance of some one fauouring the poore mans right, hee is like to bee ouerborne with the weight of the other, and so consequently to bee vndone: I haue thought good to make thus bolde to pray your lawful fauour in his furtherance, that by your authoritie and meanes, some honest satisfaction or ende may be therein to his behoofe had. You shall doe an act verie charitable, in dealing for such a one, for the procuring of whose right, his heartie praiers for your safety shall witnes wel the comfort you shall do him therein.Epilogus. I am perswaded your speach and aid may herein preuaile verie much, as a thing which with great facilitie you may cause to bee dispatched. And for my self, as I shal at no time rest vnmindful of my request tendred vnto you herein, so shall I not faile in what I may to the vttermost of my power to satisfie you, by whatsoeuer possible requitall. And euen so with my heartie commendations, I doe bid you farewel. R. this twelfth of Aprill.

An example petitorie in the nature
of Reconciliatorie, from a sonne
to his displeased
father.

IF floods of teares sealed with harde and bitter sighes,Metaphora. if continuall sorrow and neuer ceasing care,Exordium. if consuming griefes not of a diseased bodie, but of a pestred mind, might haue rendred sufficient and assured testimonie,Epitheton. whereby to perswade your laden eares surcharged by this time with the weight of my incessaunt and continuall cries: the intollerable woes wherein I liued, secluded from the right and name of a sonne, and barred quite from the sweete and gentle tearme of a louing and kinde father, hadde ere this time giuen meane of recouerie, to my daunted and dismayed spirites, and kindled in mee some wan hope, one day to haue founde an houre so happie, wherein by a right conceite conceiued of my vnkindlie pleasures, or conuinced by the importunity of those who haue pittied my euils, your naturall care might in some sorte or other haue bin renued, to the redresse of all my fore wearied and heauie groning mischiefs.Ecphonesis. But infortunate as I am, that for all the humble suit so manie times presented in these and such like blubbered lines, so hardened is the mind of him I write vnto, that whilome hauing bin a deare and louing parent, I may not heerein dare to tender, or so much as once put forwarde vnto him, the appellation of a gratious and pittifull father. If it haue so pleased vnto your grauitie,Periphrasis. in such seuere manner still to deale with me, and that the hatefull shewe of my ill desertes, is yet become of so loathed and detestable recordation, in this verie season vnto you: then as (before time) eftsoones doe confesse my letters vntimelie to haue approched vnto you: but if the long detained grace, by whose heauie want (your sonne might I say?)Metanoia. nay, the forlorne and despised issue of your aged yeares (for so I am now forced to say) is perforce driuen almost into a desperate conceite and mislike of his liuing, may by the least sparke of expectation, be annexed to the most vehement effects of his prostrate and meekest submission, then groueling vppon the lowest ground,Antithesis. and humbling my highest imaginations to the deepest bottome, wherein your implacable displeasures haue hitherto beene coueted, as meekely and with as penitent speeches, as anie grieued and passionate minde can vtter: I do beseech you sir, that at the last you will receyue (not into your accustomed fauour) but to your common and ordinarie lyking, the most disgraced of all your children, and pardoning the disobedience wherein hee dared once so far foorth to prouoke agaynst him, the weight of your knowne anger, vouchsafe hee may nowe againe bee of your familie, though not partaking with your children.

This sole benefite and last request if my burthened soule may obtaine at your handes, happilie I may then liue as comforted by the hope of that whereunto a buzie and carefull endeuour may once peraduenture enable me, otherwise dying in the ouerflowing of my desperate and continued griefes, I pray at Gods handes I may obtaine that by mercie, which cruell destinie in my life time could neuer win vnto me, by all possible intreatie.Epilogus. My submissiue dutie answerable to the regarded place of your fatherlie authoritie compelleth mee to attend with all humblenesse the resolution of your clemencie. In the hope whereof, resting my decayed and ouerwearied imagination, I liue till the receyt of your knowne lyking do ascertaine, in what sort may please you to repute me.

THe stile of this Epistle is vehement, because the passions of him from whence it came were vehement, and is deduced as you see from the nature of Reconciliatorie, which aswell for the submissiue & lowest tearmes it beareth, as also for the vrgent petition therin contained, I haue rather chosen to place among yᵉ Petitorie. The part of honest herein deliuered, is passed in wordes méekest & of great obedience, wherein he studieth by all possibilitie to mittigate towards himselfe, the too much seueritie of his father. The Exordium is carried by Insinuation, expressing the vehement affects and surcharged conceits of a mind more then ordinarilie grieued. The Possibilitie resteth in the father, which commonlie by nature is with some more facilitie then estranged diffcultie, entreated towards his sonne. The meane to compasse it, is the mitigation or satisfaction of the iust mislike of a father, whose charged authoritie affecteth nothing so much as obedience in children. Thus are the places required herein, in sort as you see performed. And for because within any one title, there is no one thing affoording matter more plentifull, or with vse more commonlie frequented, then is this petitorie kinde, (insomuch as whatsoeuer containeth any speciall request, is hereunder included) I will sort you downe so many examples of all sorts, as that there shall not faile herein wherewith sufficientlie to instruct whatsoeuer in the like occasion is or ought to be required.

An Epistle Petitorie, wherein is craued trauell and counsell
to be assistant vpon vrgent occasion.

AS one greatlie emboldned by the forwardnesseExordium. of your woonted courtesie and liking euer bent towards me, I haue dared (Sir) once again vpon presumption of the like, hereby to intreate you, wherein you may see in what degree of affection I do intertaine you, in that not contented, I haue alreadie so manie and so often times vsed you, I doe by such meanes endeuour solie to make my selfe wholy and to none other so much as beholding vnto you.Narratiō. My man hath returned me from London, how by more then common celeritie I haue in my suite beene preuented by my aduersarie, whereby it is like, my cause standing vpon so great a hazard, it will goe verie hard with mee. Nowe if your woonted counsell, and friendly assistance bee not speedilie ayding, both the hope of benefit, charge and expense thereof will be lost vtterly? In regard whereof, these may bee in as earnest maner as is possible to intreate you,Petitiō. that vpon the attendance of my man, I may (as woontedlie) vse you.Possibilitie. Your counsell ioyned with a little trauell may greatlie profite me, and now more then at any time else, exceedinglie pleasure mee. Wherein if it may please you to yoke mee further vnto you by the waight of your courtesie: I shall not onelie endeuour by all possibilitie to requite it, but also your selfe shall not faile at anie time to finde such a one of mee, as of whose trauaile, industrie, or what other abilitie to pleasure you, you may account of assuredlie. I haue by certaine other Letters mooued my L. to haue fauourable consideration touching mee, which as I am informed, his L. hath receyued. What els to bee performed heerein, my man shall make knowne vnto you. And thus doubting as little of your friendship herein, as of mine owne thankfull disposition, prest alwayes to the vttermost to requite you, I doe heartilie bid you farewell, D. of this, &c.

An other of the same.

SIR, I am so bolde in my great necessitie, vnder assurance of your forwardnes to do me good, to entreate your especiall ayde and furtherance in two things, the one whereof this bearer shall instruct you in, the other your selfe can best tell, for that I made you at my last speech acquainted with the same. Both of which consisting in your labour and deuice, I am of opinion that none then your selfe can fitte the occasion better. And trulie such is the force of imprisonment, as contrarie to that you haue woontedly knowne in me, mine vnderstanding is quite decaied, and forworne with my libertie, and where the spirits are so distuned, it must needes follow, the memorie can sounde nothing but discord.

In fine, sir it is in you to doe me good, and to make me by this onlie action for euer beholding vnto you, wherein if I may so farre foorth presume of your fidelitie, assure your selfe, that if euer God giue mee libertie, A. C. to none so much as to you shall be yoked in courtesie. Good M. D. the matter hereof requireth some haste, wherunto I most heartilie entreate you. Fare ye well, this of, &c.

A Letter responsorie to the same.

GOod M. C. needelesse were it you should entreate mee in that, wherein you haue founde mee alwayes most willing, and such whome with small perswasions you may induce to a farre greater purpose then what in your last letter is required. The Messenger I haue appointed to morrow morning to returne againe to my lodging, at which time I will not faile to finish, what in the best sort I can conceiue to bee vnto your occasions furthering. Hard will it bee for mee to accomplish that, wherein your selfe seeme so vnperfect, for that the dullest conceyte forged from the most distempered of your imaginations, cannot but sounde farre better tunes then the ripest of my inuention is anie wayes able to deliuer. Neuerthelesse, such as it is, or so much as (by dislike of your owne) you haue will to account of, that will I prepare to your view, and put forward to your good speed, thinking it better by deliuerie of a grosse deuise to satisfie the demaunde of a friend, then by concealing the simplicitie therof to bee censured as vncourteous. In conclusion, it is (sir) lawfull for you to vse mee to the vttermost, and fittest to our confirmed league of amitie, that (in whatsoeuer) you should imploy mee, wherein I desire you conceiue no more, then such as I intend to become, and you shall assuredly find me, viz. yours, &c.

HEre must I note vnto you the last of these Epistles Petitorie, in which is neither Exordium nor Narration, but formost of all the petition, and afterwards the parts folowing, the like whereof you may perchance finde hereafter. For that where practise and skill hath enabled a man to doe well, there is no necessitie that such should bee tied to rule, who being of sufficient knowledge and capacitie are able to discerne what is méetest, and accordinglie to direct the square of their owne doings, sometimes one way, sometimes another, as in the intendment thereof, may to the present occasion séeme most conuenient and readie. And as in this one Letter, so may the learner light vpon many others being different also from the obseruation herein deliuered, & somtimes abruptly entring into the matter without any limitation at all, one other example whereof shall bee next hereunto deliuered, the first beginning of which, declareth the meane of accomplishment of the request, before the petition declared, whereunto by imitation the vnskilfull may not rashlie enter, without good aduisement of what in the performance is meete to be considered; The method of which is in this sort pursued.

An example Petitorie, concluding a briefe request and curteous
remembrance of a thing before time promised.

NOwe is the time (wherein if your pleasure bee) you may perfourme what erst you haue promised. I therefore desire you as heartilie as I may, that your intent, being to doe me good, you will nowe execute the same. And albeit I doubte not of your willingnesse herein, whose curtesie hath not beene straunge towardes mee: yet rather enforced by mine owne necessitie and continuall remembraunce of my vnprouided estate then by anie other misgeuing, I prepare these lines, sollicitours of your expected promise, which bearing in their fronte a token of oportunitie, woulde praie you not to let slippe occasion, but with as much speede as willingnesse to accomplish the same. Remembring howe manie waies I am beholding vnto you, I remaine in accompt of your curtesies, rather studious to thinke on them, then anie waies able to requite them, &c.

Another example of the like effect.

EVen as a bold begger,Exordium, by comparison. the more he is relieued, the more he still presseth forward vpon the bounty of those, whom he supposeth to fauor him: so fareth it with mee, who hauing eftsoons enioied your trauel to my no small benefit, am neuertheles so shameles as stil to importune you in the same.Insinuatiō. I haue, sir, I cōfesse, by your good means recieued sundrie fauors at the hands of my Lord, which I cannot, nor euer shall be able to requite vnto you, the matter of my suite notwithstanding hetherto depending before his honour, I neither can nor may so farre foorth withdrawe my selfe, but I must needes nowe and then solicite you, as the Gentleman by whose onelie curtesie and perseuerance in woonted care and good affection towardes mee I do liue, and so liuing, continue my daies and yeares with such assured respecte, as hee that hath sworne and vowed in himselfe neuer to forget you. It doeth sir, so much stande mee vpon the procuring of his L. letter in my behalfe, for the indifferente triall and hearing of my cause, as without (in speciall and earnest speeches the same be directed for mee to the Iustices and Commissioners) I am in greate despaire howe the case will goe with mee. It is you therefore that must helpe mee herein, and by your onelie meanes I must bee warranted in this action, the intendment whereof furthering so much vnto right and cause of equitie as it doeth, I hope his L. vpon your motion will the easilier condiscende vnto.Peroratiō. This is that I require at your handes, and to the speedie dispatch whereof I may not cease to importune you. Whereon concluding for the present, I doe heartilie bid you farewel, &c.

Of Epistles Commendatorie.
Chap. 16.

Uch more might bee handled in this kinde, the method whereof is one of the most ordinarie of any sortes of Letters that are indited, for that the greatest number of directions are commonlie concluded in this matter, the requests wherof doe either especially concerne the writer, or are otherwise to be respected in the behalfe of some other. The occasion of which hath caried herein the plentie of so many examples, that by manifesting the diuersities of their orders and vses, the learner might not wante wherein to bee directed, and choice of varietie wherewith to be delighted. Now, besides these hereby alreadie deliuered, there are letters also yᵗ might be suted vnder this forme, which from Noble men or others, are many times written in fauor of sundrie persons, containing requests in their behalfs to be performed, which not withstanding the difference of estates in that the same doe for the most part passe vnto their inferiours, yet séemeth the nature thereof to be petitorie, but in a different order of these to be altogether pursued. Insomuch as neither agree-eth it, to vse like circumstances of humilitie and entreatie, nor of pleasures or curtesie, as in the other are required: but rather a necessarie supposall and assurance of their demandes to be hearkened vnto, in respect that of their honours, reputations, or credites, it is intended they will require nothing, but that with reasonable toleration may be liked of. But the vse of such kinde of directions in choise of both, I rather hold pertinent to the title Cōmendatorie, for that whatsoeuer is therein written, in fauour eyther of the person or of the cause, may in respect of the honour or reputation of those from whome they come, bee better déemed in sorte of a curteous recommendation, then otherwise by or vnder anie title of humilitie or submission: for these causes I haue thought meete to adioine immediatelie hereunto, the same Epistles Commendatorie, beeing so nearelie combined with those of Petitorie as they are. The vse whereof are not neuerthelesse so farre forth caried, but that from an inferiour to his superiour, in some causes and vpon sundrie accidentes, the same are deriued. The places appertaining vnto these kindes of Epistles be as in the Petitorie are alreadie declared, chiefely when the same, intendeth to a cause or person preferred to be fauoured. In which, when it concerneth the person, we must beware that in the credible deliuerie of whatsoeuer tending to his praise or preferment, we doe it either by warrant of our owne knowledge, or by such certaine report of others, whose opinion we deeme will not bee misled. And if neither of these doe fall out to be knowne or beleeued, then shal we shew what information wee haue besides our owne opinion, or peraduenture no other assurance at all but our owne simple liking. Petitions also are frequented in requiring fauour to these causes, wherein standeth in highest regarde the state, countenance or authoritie of him, from whome the letter is framed, who accordingly thereunto may desire that the rather at his request, or vpon his sute, or for his sake, or in regarde of his liking, the person may bee accompted of, or the action furthered. Besides, it may bee added to the increase of a more speedie performance, the loue, (if anie be, or the occasion thereunto sorting) we owe to him we commende, or in whose fauour we write, either solie for himselfe, or conueyed from his friendes, his parentes, the consideration of his charge of wife, children or seruantes, the wrong offered, benefite to be attained, or whatsoeuer other matter to bee deemed requisite or conuenient. Nowe from whence or out of what instigations, the matter of such commendation is to bee drawne, you haue in the generall chapters of this booke alreadie at large. The circumstances of which, and whatsoeuer else hereby forewarned, shall in the ensuing examples bee more at large deliuered.

An example commendatorie, wherein
is recommended to a noble man from his in-
feriour, the conditions and behauiours
of a person.

IT may please your Lordship, This Gentleman the bearer hereof, with whome a long time I haue beene acquainted,Narratiō. and of his qualities and good behauiour haue had sounde and large experiment, hauing beene a good time a sutor vnto mee, to mooue his preferment vnto your Lordships seruice: I haue nowe at the last condiscended vnto, aswell for that I know your Lordship to be now presentlie disfurnished of such a one, as also that there shall hardlie be preferred vpon a sudden any one so meete as himselfe to supplie that place. And thus much by your pardō and allowance dare I assure vnto you, yᵗ if it may please you in credit of my simple knowledge and opiniōCōmendation of the party. to imploy him, you shal find that besides he is by parētage discended from such, as of whome I knowe your Lordship will verie well accompt of, hee is also learned, discreete, sober, wise, and moderate in all his actions, of great secrecie and most assured trust, gouerned in all companies accordinglie: finallie, a man so meete, and to this present turne so apt and necessarie, as I cannot easilie imagine howe you may be serued better.Petition. Pleaseth your L. the rather for the great good will I beare him, and humble duetie I owe vnto you, to accept, imploie, and accompt of him. I nothing doubt but your L. hauing by such means giuen credit to my choice,Peroratiō. shall finde him such, as for whose good seruice, you shall haue further occasion to thinke well of mee for him. Whereof nothing doubting, I doe refer both him and my selfe in all humblenesse to your best and most fauorable opinion, from my house in B. this of, &c.

A Letter responsorie to the same.

After my verie heartie commendations vnto you. Sithence the receipt of your last letters and recommendations of P. B. into my seruice, I haue had small occasion either to write or send vnto you till this present. And for so much as vpon your certaine notice deliuered vnto mee in fauour of his preferment, I helde my selfe so well assured in all thinges of his behauiour, as I doubted not thereupon to receiue him in place of greatest fidelitie, I haue thought good heereby to let you vnderstand, what great pleasure I haue taken in his diligent attendance, assuring you that for manie vnexpected qualities, which I haue prooued to be in him, I doe woonderfullie well like of him, and that with so good affection, as I intend not to omit anie thing that may tend to his aduauncement. In beholding him oftentimes mee thinkes hee manie wayes dooth resemble his father, who in sounde troth, I doe suppose, might haue beene intertained with the best for his well deseruing. This bearer shall enforme you of some especiall causes, concerning my affayres in the Countrey, whom I doe pray you to conferre with, and to affoord your trauell for his present dispatch, which I will not faile heartily to requite vnto you. For your care had of my wants, and diligent supply of such a one I do many times thanke you, and haue promised in my selfe for the same to become a debter vnto you. And euen so I do bid you hartilie fare wel. From the Court this of, &c.

An other Epistle Commendatorie of the sort
before deliuered.

MY verie good L. I am enformed by this Gentl. the bearer hereof, that by meanes of one of your Chapleins, a motion hath beene made of his preferment vnto your L. seruice: and forsomuch as those his good friendes are not nowe in towne, who in respect of their account with your L. might stande him in verie good steade: vnderstanding his well-willing minde, and greate desire thereunto (for that I wish verie well vnto his aduauncement) I haue taken vpon me heereby to entreate (albeit I may not presume so farre, as to preferre a man vnto your L.) that it may yet please you vpon my speeches to haue the better liking of him. Assuring you that both by the credite of my La. F. who vppon verye good conceyte towardes him, wished his preferment, with her late deceased brother and last L. C. and also by the knowledge my selfe haue had of him, and others besides, whome your L. hath in speciall and chose regarde, he is one so sufficient, and euerie way so well furnished to doe seruice to anie honourable personage, as by tryall and proofe made of whose good parts and behauiour, your L. shall not reape occasion of ill conceit, to whome soeuer haue vndertaken to preferre him vnto you. And if it shall notwithstanding seeme farther conuenient vnto your L. to make stay of his acceptaunce, for some priuate causes hitherto vnsatisfied, I shall yet in his behalfe neuerthelesse become thus farre a suter vnto you, that this my recommendation may with your L. good fauour become a speedier meane the better (when it shall happen) to mooue your L. good lyking towardes him. For which I shall thinke my selfe, as in manie other occasions besides, vnto your honourable opinion most deepely beholden. In acknowledgement of which, and respect of my humble and dutifull regarde to the same, I doe nowe and euermore remaine your L. &c.

THese two examples Commendatorie, are concluded to one effect, the formost whereof with little alteration, may become a president for anie recommendation, whether it bee to fauour, friendship, choyce, or account, and not vnto seruice at all, for that herein is shewed, in what sort men for their vertues may be recommended. Now if there be anie other particular occasion in the person, besides these, inducing matter of good liking the same in place and stead of other, or togither with the other may be then alledged, and the course herein deliuered at all times indifferently to be obserued. And as these are from inferiour persons directed vnto their superiours: so will we sort out some others, that from Noblemen in like sort haue béene passed to their inferiours, examples whereof are in like maner hereunto annexed.

An Example Commendatorie, from a Noble man to his inferiour,
wherein one is recommended to an office.

AFter my verie heartie Commendations vnto you, where I am giuen to vnderstande, that you are in election, and it is also verie likelie you shall bee pricked by her Maiestie, high Sheriffe for this yeare, of the Countyes of Sussex and Surrey. This Gent. the bearer hereof, beeing one whom for manie respectes, I doe greatly fauour, and for his learning, skill, and honest vsage, haue long time vsed and reputed of, I haue thought good by these (if it so happen you shall this yeare bee named thereunto) to recommend to your good allowance to bee receyued as your vnder-sheriffe for that time, putting vnto you such good and reasonable securitie as appertaineth, for discharge of the sayde office. And hereby also to pray you, that the rather for my sake, and for the especiall choice and reckoning I haue made of him, you will nowe before hand make certaine acceptance of his skill, by refusall of whatsoeuer other that may bee recommended vnto you for the exercise of the same office, assuring you, for that I haue well knowne and prooued to be in him, you shall be so well furnished, as you would wish. And besides, in that you shall gratifie me herein, I will not faile in anie sort I may to requite you. And euen so I bid you heartily farewell.

HEerein is the honour and nobilitie of the personage greatlie to bee respected who by so much the more his estate, countenance, or authoritie requireth it, by so much the lesse may it be considered, that in the inditing of these letters hee should with ouer large entreatie bee charged, but rather with fewer spéeches, and lesse circumstances to demaunde what hee purposeth. The conformitie whereof may bee gathered out of the examples ensuing, according whereunto, hee in whose fauour such kinde of Letters are to bee directed, (especiallie if the inuention beeing of his owne procurement bee brought to bee signed) ought to take heede that the regard of his honour and calling, in whose name the Letter passeth bee not by too great humilitie of tearmes in any sort misprised.

An Epistle commendatorie, from a noble man, in prefer-
ment of his seruant.

AFter my verie heartie commendations vnto you. This bearer hauing of long time serued mee faithfullie, and beeing nowe desirous to trauaile. I haue thought good heartilie to recommend vnto you. And forasmuch as by reason of your office of Lord Gouernour of V. it is likelie there are manie places of good preferment remayning in your gift, vppon your followers to bee bestowed, I doe most heartilie pray you, that you will not onelie for my sake bee contented to receyue him into your seruice, but that also in fauour thereof, you will in anie place of preferment about you, doe him that benefite and furtherance, as to one whom you wish throughlie well vnto, you woulde performe. Herein if my request may preuaile with you, I shall not onelie bee readie to thanke you, but in whatsoeuer cause you haue to vse mee, bee as willing to requite you. And so I doe bid you right heartily fare well. At the Court this day, &c.

An other example, wherein is recom-
mended the cause and speedie
furtherance of Iustice.

Fter my heartie Commendations vnto your Lordship: where I haue beene informed by this bearer, beeing a poore Tenaunt of mine, of a certaine cause of his depending before you in her Maiesties Bench, and that after manie thwartings and euill practises of his aduersarie, the matter is nowe driuen to an issue, and tryall, from the benefite whereof by corruption of some kinde of persons, hee hath these three tearmes passed beene alreadie detayned, to his great hinderance, and almost vtter vndooing. I haue thought good vppon his humble suite to mooue your L. in his behalfe, and to pray you that at my instaunce you will at some conuenient leysure examine the state of his matter, and being informed thereof at large, doe him that speedie fauour in iustice and right, as hee may not anie longer time therein bee deferred, but that notwithstanding anie cauill or obiection thereunto hindering, hee may before this tearme passed in anie wise haue a tryall. In accomplishment whereof, besides that you shall greatlie satisfie mee in respect of the poore mans right, whereunto I wish great regard to be giuen, you shal also performe a deed so charitable, as whereby you shal perpetually bind him, his poore wife, and children continually to pray for you. And albeit I nothing doubt herein your great willingnes and voluntarie disposition to Iustice, yet that by reason of my request, the matter wich more diligence may be harkened vnto, I eftsoones pray, and therwithall hartilie doe bid your L. farewel, this of, &c.

TO all these examples Commendatorie, belongeth thrée especiall sortes of Letters Responsorie, in which is either flatly denied, absolutely allowed, or doubtfully accepted of, what by force of those Epistles are seuerally commended. Of either of these sutes I haue thought good to set downe some directions, the diuersitie whereof, at the choice of him that searcheth the same, may according to his present humor be either reiected or followed.

An example responsorie, wherein is denied
what in the foremost directions may
be recommended.

PLeaseth your good L. I receiued your fauorable Letters, and cōmendation giuen in the behalfe of M. L. with whom hauing had conference at large, I doe finde nothing lesse, then what by your L. was of him deliuered, and in truth it doth not a little discontent me, that as well in regard of your honourable and earnest demand made in his fauor, as also that many great and vrgent respects, I stand deeplie charged vnto you Lord. I cannot neuerthelesse herein perfourme what I woulde: For that (besides it is yet doubtfull whether I shall bee to the same place appointed by her Maiestie or no) if I bee chosen Sheriffe, I haue two yeares since giuen my worde and assured promise to my Lord of L. that I shall then accept of such a one to the exercise of the vnder Sherifwick as shall by him to mee bee preferred. According vnto which, standing nowe in election for this yeare as I doe, I am and euer sithence haue beene yearelie sollicited to the selfe same purpose. Whereof I thought it my duetie to aduertise your L. by these, most humblie crauing pardon of the same, in that I may not as I woulde, herein satisfie your vrgente and vehemente request. And so with my right humble duetie vnto your Lordshippe doe take leaue. This x. of Nouember.

Another Letter responsorie, where-
in consent and allowance is
giuen to the matter re-
quired.

Y humble duetie remembred vnto your good Lord shippe. The Letters directed vnto mee from the same, together with the Gentleman in whose fauor they were assigned, I haue entertained. And so much the more welcome were they vnto mee, by howe much the more I repute my selfe honoured, in that it hath pleased your Lordshippe anie waies to require mee. Touching the partie recommended, your Lordshippe doubteth not I hope, but that of the least of yours, I woulde make especiall accounte, the effectes whereof you shall in this perceiue, in that for the regarde I beare vnto your Lordshippe I will both repute of, and fauour him. Besides what other aduauncement or prefermente his owne desertes, or my aide may anie waies bring vnto him, hee shall bee sure at all times to enioy it. Praying your Lordship in all other thinges as farre foorth to stande my gratious and fauourable good L. as herein I shall not faile to accomplish what to the vttermost may bee helde meete and conueniente. And thus beseeching the Almightie to haue your Lordshippe in his eternall protection, I doe in all humblenesse take my leaue, from R. this seuenth of August, &c.

The third Epistle responsorie, where-
in is doubtfullie allowed or accep-
ted of, what to the same was
recommended.

MY singular and especiall good L. I haue vnderstoode by your last Letters, of a certaine fained and vntrue suggestion, deliuered by one of your L. tenantes, against the proceedinges to him supposed to bee tendred out of this Courte, according whereunto (albeit I was before time, not altogether vnacquainted with the clamourous condition of the partie) yet did I neuerthelesse, as by your Lordship was enioined, examine at large the circumstances of the cause, and for the better satisfaction of your Lordship, haue determined to set down vnto you the trueth of the same. This R. L. whom your Lordship tearmeth to bee a verie poore man, is not (as in simple shewe hee maketh himselfe apparantlie to bee) but is rather such a one as from whome (beeing narrowlie sifted) your Lordship might sooner drawe a hundred poundes of his money, then halfe an inch breadth of his honestie. The argument whereof in nothing so much appeareth as in this one action, wherin against a poore man indeede, hee hath verie iniuriously behaued him selfe, and hauing extorted from him this bonde nowe in suite (vppon some conclusion, though no good consideration at all) of the summe of one hundred pounde, goeth about vpon a nice quillet in the condition to prosecute the forfeiture of the same, which indeed by the direct wordes of the writing, is in lawe forfeited. For reliefe whereof his aduersarie complained in the Chauncerie, by reason of the prosecution of which bill, and notice particularlie thereof giuen to my Lorde Chancellor, the saide R. L. hauing diuers time agreede to comprimit the matter, and yet greedie as it seemeth to obtaine the forfeiture, stil crieth on for triall, whilest the matter is still in debating, for which cause the same hitherto hath onelie, and not otherwise been delaied. And for as much assithence your Lordshippes letters receiued, my selfe verie earnestlie haue trauelled to make some conscionable and quiet ende betweene them, yet wil the same in no wise on his parte bee assented vnto, by occasion whereof the extremitie of the lawe beeing verie like to proceed, hee is the nexte tearme without further delaie to obtaine a iudgemente, and so the poore man on the other side, to bee vtterlie vndone: I thought it not amisse in aduertising the substance hereof vnto your good Lordshippe to praie that in credite of what here deliuered, your Lordship woulde bee pleased to procure the saide R. L. to assent to some reasonable order. So doing, what in conscience the poore man is then able to pay, in respect of the other charges, and purchase of his owne negligences: I holde not too extreame to be out of the saide bond deducted, because in lawe hee was something charged, though in equitie otherwise hee ought to haue been clearelie acquited. Thus in discharge of my conscience herein, hauing so much deliuered vnto your good Lordship, I doe recommend you to the protection of the Almightie. London this thirteenth of Maie.

NOwe after these Epistles, let vs enter into one strange commendatorie kinde, somewhat different from the order of the rest, béeing such as wherein the partie directing the same, beeing somewhat scant in deliuerie of ouer large & too credible spéeches, thought good to mittigate the force of the same by the verie partes of extremitie it self, wherein of a merry conceit, or some other pleasant humor, he appeareth verie vnwilling to flatter, in reciting the example whereof, because with many tedious precepts I haue now a good while wearied the reader, I may peraduenture occasion some matter of recreation, which by the single shewe therein gathered, appeareth in sort following to haue bene performed.

A Letter commendatorie pleasantly con-
ceited in preferring an vnprofi-
table seruant.

SIr, I do send vnto your view the bearer hereof (a man shaped as you see, & as bold in condition as he appeareth in shew)Narratiō. whome by all the superfluities of summer ale, that hath wrought in his giddie brain, I haue bin requested to cōmend vnto you. And in as much as in putting so vnworthie a worthie in substance of so incredible allowance, it somthing behooueth I hide not the giftes which by great search in many a good hosterie, tauern, & alehouse, he hath by long trauell and drowsie experiēceHirmos. ere this time gained, to his insupportable credēce. I shall not spare in some sort to signifie vnto you, what in regard of al these I am led to coniecture. Trueth is Sir, that hee is verie well studied in the mysterie of Malt-wormes, and for his peculiar skill in decerning the nappie taste by the nut-browne colour of Seller-ale in a frostie morning, hee is become a sworne brother of the rag-mans number, and thereby standeth enioyned neuer to weare furres or other lyning in the coldest winter, but onely the warmth of the good Ale, which inwardlie must hearten him: Besides Sir, if you haue occasion to credite him with a small parcell of money in dispatch of a iourney, do but say the worde that it shall once lie in his charge, and you may stand assured, that it shall be laide vp so safe, as any liquour in the worlde can safe conduct it from his bellie. Take no care for your kitchin, butterie or larder, for once a day hee loues to see all cleane before him. Little apparell wil serue him, for his leueries ensue weekly, out of the Bruers mesh-fat. His lodging hee reckes not, the Chimney floore, and Billets endes serue for a Featherbed and Coueringes. When you haue most neede of him, you shall alwayes bee sure to go without him: if you delight in a Pigs-nie,Ironia. you maie by receyuing of him, be sure of a Hogshead. Great store of small lyking you happily may haue to him, wee knowe not what woonders the worlde may rende out, for nothing is impossible where all thinges may bee compassed. It may please you for recreations sake to looke vppon him, so you be not in case to surfeit, looke what ill lyking you conceiue, report backe againe I pray you in the inner facing of his chimney Casket, Omnia sua secum portat,Prosonomasia. hee is somewhat a foolosopher, for hee carries all his possessions about him, for terram dedit filiis hominum he must needes then haue a large dwelling, I pray sir, giue him good wordes how ill-fauouredlie soeuer you fauour his acquaintance, for my part I request no remuneration for the preferment I haue tendred towards him.

Thus much, would I haue done, and more, long since to bee rid of him. His old maister beeing dead, it is necessarie some place to be pestred with him, hee makes great choyse of your housekeeping, if you can like to frame with him. Much more might bee deliuered in the condemnation of his woorthinesse, but that I leaue to rehearse it, and nowe sir for your owne appetite, I leaue to your contentment: Blame not me, but him that lead mee,Prosonomasia. and so foorth to an ende. Commend me, but not condemne me, for I shall once doe you a better turne, this is but the first, the next may be woorse (better)Metanoia. I woulde say. And so fare ye well, &c.

Of Epistles Consolatorie. Chap. 17.

Ime is it now, I should leaue this last title of epistles, as hauing thereof spoken alreadie sufficiently, & giue my selfe to the deliuery of the next, which are Consolatorie, the effects whereof are to bee bestowed on such as are grieued, according to the weight or qualitie of the matter wherewith they are perplexed. And for that the life of man is circumuented with so manie, and so vnlooked causes of sorrowe and griefe, as it many waies néedeth to haue the remedy of comforts to be applied vnto it, yet the equality of al sorts of minds not such, as in one and the selfe same degree can accept and beare it: It shall therfore be meete and conuenient, that in deuising to yéelde this swéet and gentle remedie to anie troubled conceit, we doe so moderate the matter, as that in the Discouerie therof, we rather strike not to a far greater impatience or extremitie of vnmeasurable sorrow then before, vpon vntimely thrusting forward, or ignorant pursuit of the same, seeing that the mindes of some, are of so high & incomprehensible stoutnes, as they shun in themselues and account it a slauerie to be ouerwhelmed with woes. Others againe so rife and so abundant in teares, as the least shewe of repetition in them, induceth matter inough of continual mourning for which cause, we will sort these matters of comfort, into three seuerall orders. The first whereof shall be at choice, plainelie and simply as occasion serueth to comfort or perswade, measuring our common calamities by yᵉ rule of Iudges, séeing vnto a wise man, no one thing can returne cause of disquiet so much as the shrowd of filthinesse and ignominious shame, neither can hee be hurt of anie one without himselfe. These (the more sensible they are with whome we deale, and of greater capacitie) the more vehemently may we enforce by all sorts of forcible argumentes or examples. The second of these must by insinuation be entred into, as supposing a person of a high & statelie mind, and in a cause not common to be censured, the weightinesse of whose griefe suppressed by a kinde of vnconquered fortitude, we would goe about to comfort. We may not with these deale, as in a case of ordinarie griefe with the others, but rather by a more valuable meane, as who would say, it appearing to vs the inuincible valour wee see or holde to be resiant in their mindes, shunning to bee tainted with the least touch of sweltring griefe, wee doe offer our speeches or Letters to entertaine time with them, whose hearts wee knowe cannot yeelde to anie forcible sting thereof. And nowe considering the great validitie of their wisedome, and a minde in them so vnconquered by anie stormes of Fortune, as is apparant, wee can but encourage them stoutlie to beare, what others as weaklings doe lie groueling vnder. In which wee shall finde greater cause to reioyce by the woorthinesse of so goodlie a minde, then otherwise bee occasioned to grieue for their sorrowes. The thirde and last likewise must in another sort bee conueyed, as finding the passionate and perplexed conceytes of some, yet fresh bleeding vppon the heauie wounde of their sorrowes, wee maie not abruptlie enter with them, into the iust occasion they haue so to be distempered, but rather for the lenefying of their griefes (for in sorrowe also to bee accompanied breedeth often some comfort) séeme to take vppon vs one part of their euils, by declaration how grieuous for some especiall causes the same becommeth vnto vs, either for vertue or some other praiseable condition in the partie, by occasion whereof, wee doe euen participate, as it were, with the griefes of them wee goe about to succour. For commonlie it is giuen to vs to mislike such as dissent from our affections, and loue them againe, who make themselues partakers of our euilles. It auaileth also verie greatlie sometimes to extenuate or lessen the cause of the griefe, either by the incertaintie of thinges casuall, being in some respects subiect to frailtie, or by the hope of short continuaunce, or by the necessitie of the action which may not bee withstoode, or by some comfort or expectation left to mitigate the same. The reputation also of wisedome, grauitie, the opposition of permutation of times and seasons, the diminution of the occasion being nothing so great or vrgent as we deeme it, the indurance of the thing to be a meane vnto Vertue, and finallie, the common lot and condition of all men, subiected vniuersallie to mishappe, to sorrowe, griefe, sicknesse, disquiet, iniuries, wrongs, oppressions, and all kinde of euils, the generall recordation whereof, aboue manie things that may be opposed, swaieth commonly ouer the passions of the minde, by a déepe regarde of the vniuersalitie of the same, as that it soonest of all beateth downe, the weight of all kind of il sorrowes and conceiuings whatsoeuer. Herein the quick sentences and pithie sayings of philosophers, may also be a great spurring, and finallie, all possible arguments that maie be, wherby men are anie waies perswaded or led to forget their euils. In this place it is principallie to be obserued, that in ministring comfortable spéeches to the redresse of anie mishaps, wee doe not by preferring of toies and sporting deuises, séek to relieue them, for that albeit in times of pleasure, the humour of the partie might in some sort, be therewith greatlie delighted, yet in causes of such extremitie, all persons for the most part, verie hatefullie doe endure the putting forwardes thereof, as too much impertinent to the heauinesse wherewith by sorrowfull remembrances, their mindes are commonlie amated. But if the cause be light, then may it not be much amisse to vse some pleasaunt deliueraunce to such a one, especiallie whose appetite standeth anie thing towards the same, but this also in such louing, sweete, and gentle sort to bee done, as that true comforts may seeme to be mingled with those conceited pleasures. Neither may we in anie case seeke in vaunting sort, to thrust into their priuate view, the present tranquilitie and happinesse wherein our selues repose, the obiection whereof were too rusticall. For that as societie in miserie it selfe, lenedeth the force of the greatest griefes, so the opposition of anothers pleasure and freedome, is a corosiue or sting to the want of anie one that is sequestred from the same. All these obseruations in causes Consolatorie are greatlie to be regarded, whose vses being to be imploied according to their seuerall suppositions. I leaue to the discretion of the writer in what sort hee thinketh méete to haue their efficacies performed.

An example consolatorie of the first sort, wherein a Gentlewoman
is comforted of the death of her sonne.

GOod Mistresse P. I am sorie that my selfeExordium. must become the vnluckie Messenger of mine owne infortunitie vnto you, and that in the fore fronte of my letter is planted such extreame griefe as I cannot but extreamelie bewaile, so often as I thinke of it. Neuerthelesse,Insinuatiō. knowing vnder what motions wee liue, and that aboue our reach ruleth one, vnder whose becke the mightiest doe stoope, and the greatest are made subiecte, I must as my selfe, so likewise perswade you, to tolerate all such chaunces whatsoeuer, as falling from such absolute direction, to alter anie one iote thereof is impossible, and to resist the same, fruitelesse and vtterlie vnauaileable. The care of my selfe (albeit manie doe knowe howe much I tendred that I sigh for) is not so much, seeing by reason I am led to be assured of yᵉ necessitie of our decaie, as the motherlie pitie I haue alwaies perswaded my selfe to bee in you, and that I nowe alreadie doe feare least forgetting the directe square of our certaine liuing, you will runne into such vntimelie sorrowes, as with manifolde teares will hardlie bee washed, and with innumberable sighes, will scarcelie bee wiped awaie. But what shall I rehearse vnto you a thinge so sudden and vnlooked for, as I protest by the heauenlie maker and ruler of all thinges, at the receipte of your last letters I neuer mistrusted or once looked for to haue happened? Your teares I see, euen nowe awaite what I will saie, and loe, your imaginations doe alreadie deeme the matter I must vtter. At least wise if I shoulde seeme further to dissemble the occasion of my griefe, (and by hiding the summe of all that may breede discontentmente) to conceale what nowe I am inforced to vnfolde vnto you, the discharged messenger returned vncompleate, woulde bewraie the effectes thereof before you. It is then your son, good M. P. whose want I am inforced to tolerate, and whose presence you must now henceforth determin vtterlie to forbeare. Your last presage in commanding him to be seene liuing or dead, hath now returned his liuing to be discharged, & his earthlie coarse vnlooked for, to be couered with cinders. Had I thought it theē (as by the Almighty I least mistrusted it) & had you prepared to haue receiued him, as then before was required, you could not more sooner haue assured mee his returning, then I am able now to performe him, at your present sending. He is commaunded to another, that before did expecte him, hee is swallowed in the gulfe,Allegoria. that from the foremost howre of his birth did hetherto awaite him. Nowe if you will say hee was young and might haue liued, examples doe shewe that younger then hee haue died.Antipophora. If you will say, you loued him greatlie. God by your patience shall accepte him the more woorthilie. If you will say, you are sorie for it in that hee was vertuous: consider the worlde wherein hee liued, that might haue made him more vicious. Finallie, to answere euerie obiection that by you may bee affirmed, nothing herein can more fitlie bee auerred, then that in our life time wee see daylie before our eies to happen. Knowe yee not, that all thinges doe by little and a little growe into ripenesse, and foorthwith by degrees fall into rottennesse? Hath not God vnto euerie thing after their greatest perfection, included such certaine limites, that by and by they seeme to bee appropriate to their latest confusion? Is there anie thinge on earth so assured,Erotema. that by vnstaied incertaintie is not continuallie guided? Among all fruites and blossomes on the ground, are there not some that are sooner then others, euen on their tenderest braunches, as it were alreadie ripened, and others againe that by long lying are made rotten and mellowed? Al flowers spring not at one instant, nor all blossoms with one sole blast are scattered. To man is appointed his certaine boundes, vnto which to bee attained, and beyonde the which not to passe, is alreadie limited. Your sonne as timelie fruite, so timelie ripened, and as fitte for his season was as timelie gathered.Paradigma. It was necessarie by nature hee shoulde bee perfected, and the perfection attained, by nature also he was consequentlie to bee depriued. Onelie that his sickenesse was naturall, and that in the continuance thereof hee wanted no attendaunce, the credite of others as well as my selfe can testifie. If Physicke coulde haue saued him, if Syrrops, hot potions, or other necessaries woulde haue cured him, if teares and praiers might haue kepte him, you had yet in safetie receiued him.Asyndeton. Hee is deade, hee is gone, wee must after him. Of his first sicknesse hee was whole, and perfectlie recouered, afterwardes from the Iaundise, though somewhat weakned, yet lastlie deliuered. But the inwarde moath that consumed him, would not suffer him to liue, which with extreame gripes assailed him, that beeing not able anie longer to continue, at the pleasure of God hee died. It is your parte therefore to bee nowe recomforted, and therein in with patiencePeroratiō. to referre your selfe to Gods determinate pleasure and iudgement, to which intent I haue taken in hand this mid nights labour, after the receipte of your letters, which were to bee returned the nexte morning earlie, by reason whereof I can no waie satisfie what you write for, neuerthelesse resting hereafter to my vttermost power to pleasure you, and recommending my selfe also to your woonted curtesie, I ende this fourteenth of Ianuarie, your carefull friend, &c.

An Epistle consolatorie of the same, wherein one
is comforted in case of harde
extremitie.

Eeing the instabilitie of worldely chaunces is such,Exordium. as permitteth no one thinge liuing to remaine stedfast, or in assured staie or certaine condition at all times to endure and continue: no maruaile then (good Sir) if your selfe beeing a mortall man,Synonymia. framed of the same earthlie substance and qualitie, incident to terrene frailtie, and natures imbecilitie, doe as other creatures alike participate the suddaine euils, and daielie alterations thereunto annexed: a proofe whereof resteth chiefelie in your present state and beeing, then which no one thing may induce a more serious aduertisemente, of the vile accompte and wretched contempte appropriat vnto your liuing. And albeit diuers are the calamities wherwith not onelie your selfe, but sundrie others your louing friendes carefull of your presente mishape,Epitheton. and grieued to see the vncouth and bitter chaunge whereinto you are hapned, are continuallie afflicted, in so much as there is not the stoniest and flintiest minde of all that euer haue knowne you (your desperate vowed enemies onelie excepted) but doe in some sorte or other, bewaile, and as it were grieue to see the vnacquainted yoke thereof, with such extremitie to be cast vpon you: I cannot yet but greatlie commende the inuincible fortitude of your high and noble minde, who by howe much the more, the vehemencie of these sorrowes are to you vnknowne, and therefore the more vnused,Metanoia. doe not withstanding by so much the lesse permitte, the mightie power of them to rule or beare swaie ouer you, neglecting or (which is greater) despising the sharp pricking sting thereof, who by the deepe pearcing force of the same, is woonted to gall the remembraunce of manie others, and (as it were by a forcelesse contempte of such validities) not onelie not giue anie token or signe at all in their vttermost practises, but seeme rather to triumphe ouer the strength that thereby they had wrought,Auxesis. and by an aduised, sage and woonderfull modestie and discretion, plainelie to extinguish and put from you the furie of the same. Manifoldlie I must confesse, haue you hereby deserued and much more euill,Concessiō. by the wise and moderate entertainmente of these troubles, hath to your aduersaries beene tendred, who in nothing so much do rest vnsatisfied, as that in subduing your bodie, they cannot also yoke and bring vnder by whatsoeuer extremitie the courage, and statelie progression of your high and vnconquered minde. Wherein there is lefte in my opinion great cause of comforte euen in the verie greatest of your miserie vnto you, that in constant indurance thereof, you haue power to punish them, that woulde disturbe you, and that in the perplexed imaginations of their owne wicked and malicious enuie. Neither maie this that you sustaine bee rightlie tearmed miserie,Meiosis. or such a one as your selfe seeme to bee accompted miserable, whose minde in the verie captiuitie inflicted vppon this your bodie is thus freede, and accompanied with so ample and sweetened libertie: For these kinde of troubles as they are worldlie,Etiologia. so haue they power also vpon the worldlie partes of a man, and therein are cohibitions of such earthlie delighte, as fauouring more vnto the satisfaction of a sensuall appetite, then conducing to the excellencie of the inwarde minde, doe breede that ordinarie restrainte wherewith men mortallie conceited, are for the most parte troubled. But to the sweete imaginations of a pure and innocent minde, what is left wherewith to bee discontented, but onelie to haue committed anie thing vile, wretched, or otherwise ill beseeming the vertue and excellencie wherewith the inwarde partes thereof are throughlie indued. How manie waies then are lefte vnto you to reioyce,Metaphora. vnto whose eies the continuall thirst of vertue it selfe hath long since laide open the momentarie pleasures of this worlde, the libertie whereof is vnto a woorthie conceite a meere seruage, in whose fickle and transitorie affections reposeth so slender assurance,Epitheton. and whose effecacies contemplate no other then vaine and foolish obiectes: seeing that you haue thereby so well perceiued howe much the instinct of a braue and delicate minde climbeth far aboue the reach of the body, with a pleasant and vncontroulled libertie. These things impugning I must needes say a corporall appetite) permit you not, for such losse of riches, possessions, children or friendes to become passionate, or ouercome with extreame greefe, albeit participating as we doe with such naturall causes, I doubt not but therewith you are sometimes touched, though at no time conuinced. For which cause as often as you happen to fall into the remembraunce of the same, suppose with your selfe that in time, the bitter sting may yet bee repulsed, and that the lotte that is fallen vnto you heerein, is no other but the common reward and hatefull disquiet of the worlde, wherein the most noble and worthie minds are commonlie the most vehementlie assaulted, and with deepest extremitie by such kinde of meanes pursued.

The recordation whereof, may returne vnto you one principall and great occasion of comfort, in that by distinction of your woorthinesse, though you bee partaker of common trouble, yet are you sequestred from the entertainment of a common opinion. It dooth not a little reioyce mee to see that with such impregnable stoutnesse you doe so farre foorth endeuour to resist your appetites, wherein (besides the expectation of that which is incident also to these alterations, a chaunge, I meane, and reuocation of woonted pleasures) you shall in the meane time giue greater glorie to your actions, in not appearing for anie worldlie estate, riches, or contentment to bee surprized in your imaginations. Praying the comfort of all comfortes to bestowe vppon you the deawe of his heauenlie grace in assistaunce of your extremities, I take my leaue, this of, &c.

A consolatorie Epistle of the third sort, wherein a Gentlewoman
is comforted of the death of her husband slaine
in the warres.

ALbeit my selfeExordium. (hauing receyued the sorrowfull newes of the vntimelie death of my dearest kinsman, and your deceased louing husband) was in the first hearing thereof so greatlie troubled, as by reason of the griefe then presentlie conceyued for the same, my selfe happilie might seeme to neede that comfort, which nowe I goe about to bestowe vpon others: Yet weighing in my minde the state wherein you stande, and beeing also informed with what great extremitie you haue entertayned the newes of his losse, I cannot but in respect of the great loue I ought to him, and remembraunce of the like care, wherewith hee principallie entertayned you, enforce my penne hereby to yeelde vnto you those comfortable speeches, by the veritie whereof my selfe in so great a storme of griefe,Metaphora. coulde hitherto as yet bee verie hardlie satisfied.Narratiō. It was deliuered vnto me by my brother F. B. that beeing nowe a Moneth or somewhat more passed, since by Letters out of H. the maner of your husbandes death was vnto you reported, you immediatelie vppon the reading of the Letters grewe into so great aboundance of teares, and to so woonderfull impatience, as hauing euer sithence continued the same, you will in no sort thereof bee recomforted. Assuredlie my good Coosen, I must needes conclude with your owne speeches, and the waight of your interchaungeable likinges, that there is great cause left vnto you to become sorrowfull,Paramologia. as hauing lost the chiefe and principall iewell of all your worldlie loue and liking, the fauoured Companion of all your pleasant and youthfull yeares,Allegoria. the entire comfort and solace of your present happinesse,Synonymia. and such a one, who aboue all worldes, or anie earthlie estimation at all, accounted, honoured,Auxesis. and entyrelie receyued and loued you: but that you haue so great and vrgent cause of extremitie to continue with so hard impacience as you doe, it befitteth not, it is vnnecessarie, yea it is in my iudgement of all others the most insufferable.Asyndeton. For when it is not denied vnto you,Etiologia. that you haue cause to mourne, that it is fittest vnto the matter of your loue, to weepe ouer him, and bewaile him, it is then thereby intended that there must be a meane therein, that the force thereof must be limited, that the appearance beare shew of discretion. Doe we not all know I pray you,Synonymia. and are witnesses that he was a mortall man, that as our selues he was borne, vnder the selfe same condition, that hee must once die, that hee had his time set, beyond which hee might not passe, and that God who gaue him life thus long to liue with you, hath nowe called him againe from this earth to leaue you?Climax. Are we ignorant that Nature compelleth the wife for her husbande, the husbande for his wife, parents for their children, and kindred for their kinsfolke, to weepe and lament? But followeth it not also therewith that the losse and want of them beeing layde downe by an immooueable necessitie: wee can by no meanes afterwardes bee in hope to reclaime them?Erotema. What great follie doe wee then commit in thus searching after the ghostes of our deceased friendes? Or what other thing doe wee therein performe, but yeeld a plaine demonstration, that our teares are to none other ende, but to bewaile them, because they were mortall?Metaphora. whome death could neuer haue shunned without they had beene immortall.Merismus. Are wee not eftsoones put in minde by the common casualtie of all thinges, that there is nothing stable, that continuallie Kingdomes decay, Prouinces are shaken, Countryes destroyed, Cityes burned, townes wasted, people consumed, and that it remayneth a thing ordinarie with vs, daylie to bee conuersant in these euilles, the losse of all, or eyther of which, (if they may bee accounted euilles) why then doe we giue our selues by vnmeasurable griefe, to a perpetuall continuance and renouation of those euils.Dialisis. But you will heereunto alledge, that it is loue that enforceth you vnto the same, and that such is the continuall remembraunce you haue, as you cannot forget him.Erotema. Alas, howe fruitlesse is this loue, and zealous remembrance in the deliuerance thereof? Howe farre sequestred is the vehemencie of the same, from the searched recompence? Why learne wee not rather of the wisest and woorthiest, how to mitigate the impacience of our owne imperfections? In whose precepts, examples, and counsels,Antithesis. if the immoderate vse or entertainment of anything bee forbidden, shall wee not then in this, aboue all others be chieflie reprehended, when wee enforce our selues by continuall Meditation of our losses to shedde so manie teares to no purpose?Antipophora. What if your Husbande had not nowe dyed at this instant, hee must, you know, haue dyed; hee could not alwayes haue liued. Yea, but hee died you say, vntimelie, what call you vntimelie I pray you? If in respect of the force preuayling vppon him, whereby he was slaine, you name it vntimelie: then doe I graunt vnto it: But if in regarde of the time of his life you affirme it, I denie that the same may then bee sayd vntimelie. For why?Etiologia. hath not the eternall Creatour of all thinges ordered by his diuine wisedome each matter to passe his course in sort to himselfe best beseeming and most pleasing? howe can you then say that to bee vntimelie, which by his heauenlie moderation was so appoynted? Assure your selfe if hee had then beene at home with you, hee had also died, you could not haue preuented it,Asyndeton. his houre was come, so was it determined, which way could he shun it.