VVits miserie, and the vvorlds madnesse discouering the deuils incarnat of this age.

Of the great Deuill Belzebub, and what monstrous and strange Deuils he hath bred in our age.

BElzebub the enuious, grand God of flies, Archduke of Grecian fantasies, and patron of the Pharisies, thou Prince of Deuils, I must straine your patience a little to rec∣kon vp your pedigrée: and though your in∣fecting* 1.1 Cain, peruerting Esau, seducing Saul, incensing Absolon, and gathering al the he∣resies in the church were enough to condemne your hornes to be sawed off of your head for villanie: yet it shall suffise mee to find out the beginning of your sinfull progenie. Your wife I trow was Iealosie the daughter of a corrupt spirit, who could neuer find in her heart to dresse her selfe, for feare a pin should kill her; nor look into the aire, for feare she should be blasted▪ nor drink of water, in doubt she should be poisoned: God amercy for that nod hornd beast for it showes thy confession. Wel then, Ie∣lousie thy wife, how were thy childrē gotten? for sooth it fortuned (as some poetical humor inspires me) that being vexed with a se∣uer & passion of the spléen, thou wert by the aduice of Wrath (the Phisition in ordinary in thy houshold) let blood on the back of thy hand, in that vaine which is next the little finger, out of which hauing gathered much bloud, Iealousie (that was still afraid of

thee, and shunned thy company for feare in lubberlepping her thou shouldst presse her to death) drunke vp this corrupt excre∣ment fasting, & after one stolne kisse from thy mouth, fell in such sort a swelling, that within the space of one month at one birth (now the deuil blesse them) brought thée forth these sons as I or∣derly describe thē. The first by Sathan (his grandsire) was cal∣led Hate-Vertue, or (in words of more circumstance) Sor∣row for another mans good successe) who after he had learnt to lie of Lucian, to flatter with Aristippus, & coniure of Zoroastes, wan∣dred a while in France, Germanie, & Italy, to learn languages & fashions, & now of late daies is stoln into England to depraue all good deseruing. And though this fiend be begotten of his fa∣thers own blood, yet is he different frō his nature, & were he not sure y^• Iealousie could not make him a cuckold, he had long since published him for a bastard: you shall know him by this, he is a soule lu•…•…ber, his tongue tipt with lying, his heart stéeld against charity, he walks for the most part in black vnder colour of gra∣uity, & looks as pale as the Uisard of y^• ghost which cried so mise∣rally at y^e Theator like anoisterwife, Hamlet, reuenge: he is full of infamy & slander, insomuch as if he ease not his stomack in de∣tracting somwhat or some man before noontide, he fals into a fe∣uer that holds him while supper time▪ he is alwaies deuising of Epigrams or scoffes, and grumbles, murmures continually, al∣though nothing crosse him, he neuer laughes but at other mens harmes, briefly in being a tyrant ouer mens fames, he is a very Titius (as Virgil saith) to his owne thoughts.

Titij{que} vultur intus Qui semper lacerat comest{que} mentem.

The mischiefe is that by graue demeanure, and newes bea∣ring, hée hath got some credite with the greater sort, and manie fooles there bée that because hée can pen prettilie, hold it Gospell what euer hée writes or speakes: his custome is to preferre a foole to credite, to despight a wise man, and no Poet liues by him that hath not a flout of him. Let him spie a man of wit in a Tauerne, he is an arrant dronckard; or but

heare that he parted a fray, he is a harebraind guarreller: Let a scholler write, Tush (saith he) I like not these common fel∣lowes: let him write well, he hath stollen it out of some note booke: let him translate, Tut, it is not of his owne: let him be named for preferment, he is insufficient, because poore: no man shall rise in his world, except to féed his enuy: no man can con∣tinue in his friendship, who hateth all men. Diuine wits, for many things as sufficient as all antiquity (I speake it not on slight surmise, but considerate iudgement) to you belongs the death that doth nourish this poisen: to you the paine, that en∣dure the reproofe. Lilly, the famous for facility in discourse: Spencer, best read in ancient Poetry: Daniel, choise in word, and inuention: Draiton, diligent and formall: Th. Nash, true English Aretine. All you vnnamed professours, or friends of Poetry, (but by me inwardly honoured) knit your industries in priuate, to vnite your fames in publike: let the strong stay vp the weake, & the weake march vnder conduct of the strong; and all so imbattell your selues, that hate of vertue may not imbase you. But if besotted with foolish vain glory, emulation, and contempt, you fall to neglect one another, Quod Deus omen auertat, Doubtles it will be as infamous a thing shortly, to pre∣sent any book whatsoeuer learned to any Maecenas in England, as it is to be headsman in any frée citie in Germanie:

Claudite iam riuos pueri sat prata viuerunt.

The meane hath discoursed, let the mighty preuent the mis∣chiefe. But to our Deuill, by his leaue, we can not yet shake him off: hearke what Martial saith to thée, thou deprauer:

Omnibus inuideas, inuide nemo tibi.Enuy thou all men, let none enuy thee.

And why thinkest thou, wisheth hée thus? Mary to the end thou maist be the more tormented. Thou vice of nature; thou errour without excusation: though it nothing profiteth me to speake truth against thée, yet shall it hinder thy venime to molest & poison many. Know thou (scum of imperfections) that

howsoeuer thou defraut est other of praise, thou be wraiest thine owne infirmities: and although I am past hope to reforme thée by my iust reasen, yet (false deuill as thou art) I leaue thée to the martyrdome of thy thoughts, and since example expres∣seth imperfection, Ile tell the world a storie wherein with Lira I will prettily discouer thy nature.

A great and mighty Lord desirous to know the difference be∣twixt an enuious & couetous man commāded a seruant of his to bring one of both sorts to his presence: to whom (after some courtly salutations) he made this offer, that aske what they would he would grant it them, on that condition, that he might giue the second the double of that the first demanded: these two vnderstanding the summe of the Noblemans intent, fell at de∣bate betwixt themselues which of them should wish first; the couetous, desiring to wish last, by reason of the commoditie de∣pending thereon, and the enuious disdaining the other should haue more then he. At last the Nobleman séeing their contenti∣on without end, & desirous to sée the issue of his expectation, cō∣manded the enuious to begin, reseruing the couetous the latter choice; But what desired he thinke you, being preferred to this election? Forsooth, nought els but that one of his eies might bée pulled out, to the end the other might loose both his, chusing ra∣ther the losse then the profit, to the end that he whom he enui∣ed might haue mischiefe with the aduantage: whereby wée may easilie vnderstand, in what blindnesse and error that miserable man is, that suffereth himselfe to bée conque∣red by this cursed humor: to conclude with Iob, this sort* 1.2 of maligning enuie killeth a foole, I wish therefore that all wise men should flie it.

The next Deuill incarnate of this bréed is Malitious hatred, whose fouedelicity is to reioice at other mēs harms, giuing affliation* 1.3 to those y^• are troubled w^t afflictiō. This fellow still walks with his hat ouer his eies, confirming that of Iohn, He y^• hateth his brother liueth in darknes. If a man offend him, he admits no re∣concilement. Hée was a persecutor in the primitiue Church, when blindnes of heart was executioner of the saints: and to cause any mans confusion is his chiefest felicitie. It was hée

drew the French king to inuade Cicilie, Italie, and Naples: and some say his councell ma•…•…e the Spaniard enter into Na∣uar. It was he that flesht the Turke vpon the Christians, and wrought that deadly debate betwixt the Tarter & Muscouite: when he heares of peace, then is he pensiue, and if he want cre∣dit with y^• mighty, he fals at working among the comminalty: he neuer coulors with anyman, but to betray him; nor lends a∣ny man mony but to vndoe him, nor contriues any stratagem without murther, or dwels by any neighbor, but to hurt him: he hath a cause at law in euery court, and prefer him conditions of accord, he will fret himselfe to death. His enuies the older they be, the better they please him▪ for inueterate wrath still •…•…oileth in his breast: if he counsel any man in his owne humor, he laboreth him to mistake all courtesies, to misconsture all re∣concilements: if a man salute him, it is in mockerie; if a man salute him not, he is prowd and shall be puld lower: if a man ad∣uise him in worldly affaires, he infinuates; to be briefe, nothing can please him but to heare of other mens perdition. Flie this fiend and his humor, you that loue peace or looke for selicitie, for he y^• loueth not (saith Iohn) remaineth in death: follow the course of the Hermit Agathon, who neuer slept in anger, nor to his▪ power suffered any displeased man to part from him with∣out reconciliation: rather make thine enemie ashamed by thy courtesies, thē incensed by thy hatreds; & being thy selfe mortal, let not thy hate be immortal. The last deuil of this race (for Iea∣lousie is barren, but in increasing hir own mischiefs) is Worldly fear, he neuer walks abroad but in suspition, if a butchers hook do but catch him by the sléeue, he cries out, At whose sute? he is stil in iealousie that euery man wil excéed him, & attēpreth nothing in vertue, through y^• suspect of his corrupt nature: because he wan∣teth charity, he is stil in dread, & the only fée of his fortune is the suspect of his ability: he hath courage inough to aduenture on a∣ny sinne, but touching the domages of his bodie, there is not an arranter coward. He trusts no man for fear he deceiue him, if he heare of any of his equals in election of an office, he trembles like an aspen leafe, in doubt that his aduancement should be a hinderance to him: according to that in Claudian,

Est malus inter pres rerum metus, omne trahebat Augurum peiore vid.—

Feare misseinterprets things, each Augury The worser way he fondly doth imply.

And that of Tullie in his Epistle to Torquatus, Plus in metuendo est mali, quam in eo ipso quod timetur: There is more euill in fearing, then in that which is feared. This fiend was he that possessed Di∣onysius the elder, giuing him a greater hell by his suspicion, then danger by his enemies hatred. Of all other deuils let good men blesse them from this; for though he séeme contemptible in his owne abiectiues, yet whatsoeuer mind hée seazeth vpon, (as Granatensis saith) hée shewes himselfe to be a powerfull pertur∣bation, making of litle things, great; and of great, monstrous. The children of Beelzebub thus briefly brought in knowledge, let vs with some consideration examine the workings, & giue remedie against the assaults of the father. Enuie in his nature is agrieued at the prosperity of another man; he enuieth y^• great, since he can not equall them: hée enuieth the weake, dreading they should compare themselues with him: finally, he enuieth his equals, because he were very loth they should be his compa∣nions. In Kingdoms, Common-weales, Princes courts, and priuat families, he is still working; no man hunteth after ho∣nour, but he affronts him: only the miserable man he malig∣neth not, because he suspects not his risings; yet hath he a scorne for him, such as Phalaris had to heare Perillus groning and roa∣ring in his brasen Bull. This capitall sin of all other is of most antiquity, and shall be of longest continuance. Grieuous were the warres raised by this fiend betwixt the Romans and Car∣thaginians, and as fatall those betwixt Caesar and Pompey, who contended not vpon iniuries but vpon enuies. Hée it was that poisoned Socrates, slew Crassus, destroied Darius, ouerthrew Pyrrhus, brought Cyrus to his end, made Cataline infamous, and Sophomy be vnfortunate. Hermocrates the tyrant of Cicely knowing the venim of this vice, gaue his sonne this last, and not the least instruction: That he should not be enuious, (ad∣ding thereunto this consequence) But do thou (saith hée) such déeds, that others may enuy thée: for to be euuied is the token

of good deserts; but to be enuious, the signe of a corrupt nature. It is Tullius in his Orator; that the most flourishing fortune is al∣waies enuied: agréeing with that in Quid,

Summa petit liuor, perflant altissima venti:Hate climes vnto the head: winds force the tallest towers.

This infirmitie is compared to a simple feuer, that is now hot, straight cold; for now doth the enuious man reioice at the aduersitie of the good, now waxe sad at the prosperitie of the righteous. Cain was sicke of this disease, enuying the prosperi∣ty of Abel: Rachel enuied the fecunditie and fruitfulnesse of Lea; Saul, the felicity of Dauid. To conclude, the fall of y^• world, and the death of Christ, was wrought by this sinne. Wisely saith Cassiodorus, Quicquid ex inu•…•…dia dicitur, veritasnon reputatur: For who hath enuy in his heart, is neuer without lying in his tōgue. There is no man rightly enuieth another mans knowledge, but hée that suspecteth his owne. The remedie of this vice (as Albertanus saith). Is the loue of God, and of our neighbour: and in ascribing all things to the goodnes of God, we shall haue no∣thing to maligne at, which is good in his creatures. Besides, if we hate death (as a thing most contrary and grieuous to na∣ture) we must néedly hate Enuie, that first brought it into the world. The blessed soules (saith Gregory) do as much reioice at the felicitie of others, as their owne. It is then consequently an act of the cursed, to be agrieued at any mans prosperity. Not to detaine you long, with this I end with Tully, Est buius seculi* 1.4 labes quaedam & macula virtuti inuidere, It is a certaine infirmitie and deformity of this world, to enuy vertue. And not to forget Horace,

Virtutem incolumen odimus, Sublatum ex oculis quaerimus inuidi.

Vertue assignd we enuy cursedly, But rest from vs, we seeke for greedily.

Notes

• * 1.1

  〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.2

  Iob. 5.
• * 1.3

  •…•…oh. •…•….
• * 1.4

  Ci•…•…. pr•…•… L. Cornel. O•…•…a. 24. li. 3