The Lord Marques idlenes conteining manifold matters of acceptable deuise; as sage sentences, prudent precepts, morall examples, sweete similitudes, proper comparisons, and other remembrances of speciall choise. No lesse pleasant to peruse, than profitable to practise: compiled by the right Honorable L. William Marques of Winchester that now is.

What Man and his life is, with fortune and hir frailtie.

IF man would deepelye consider what man is, he should finde more things in him to mooue him to humilitie, than to stir him to be proud.

O miserable and fraile nature of man,* 1.1 which taken by it selfe is little woorth, and compared with another thing is much lesse.

Man seeth in brute beasts many things which reioi∣ceth him, and if beasts had reason they should see in man many things which they would shame at.

Man being borne can neither go, mooue, or stand, where all other beasts assoone as they are disclosed can do and performe all these.

As the euil doer is imprisoned with his hands bound,* 1.2 and his feete in the stocks: so likewise to the miserable man, when he entereth into the charter of this life, im∣mediately they bind both his hands and feete, and lay him in the cradle; and so they vse him at his departure out of this world.

It is to be noted that at the hower wherein the beast is brought foorth, though it know not the father, yet it

findeth the mother: for that it presently sucketh the teats if it haue milke; if not, it shrowdeth it selfe vnder hir wings: it is not so with man; for the day wherein he is borne, he knoweth not the nurse that giueth him milke; the father that begat him; nor mother that bare him; nor the midwife that receiued him. Moreouer, cannot see with his eies; heare with his eares; iudge with his taste, and knoweth not what it is to taste or smell: so that we see him to whom the seigniorie of all things doth appertain, to be borne the most vnable of all other beasts.

To beasts nature hath giuen clothing wherwith they may keepe them from the heate in sommer,* 1.3 and defend the cold in winter, as to sheepe, wooll; to birds, fethers; to horses, haire; to trees, barke; to fishes, scales, to snails, shelles.

Of all this man is depriued; who is borne all naked, and dieth all naked, not carrieng with him one onely garment: and if in the time of his life he vseth any gar∣ments, he must demand it of the beast both leather and wooll, and thereto must put his labour and industrie.

What care and trauell had man beene discharged of,* 1.4 if the trauel to apparel himselfe, and to search for things to eate had been taken from him: before he eateth he must till, sow, reape, and thresh, he must winnow, grind, and bake: and this cannot be done without the care of mind, and sweat of browes.

We see the sheepe flieth the wolfe; the cat flieth the dog; the rat flieth the cat; and the chicken the kite. O miserable creatures that we are, we know not how to flie our enimies, bicause they are in our owne shape.

When man thinketh oftentimes tht he hath entered a sure hauen,* 1.5 within three steppes afterwards he falleth headlong into the deepe sea.

O poore and miserable man, who for to sustaine this wretched life is inforced to craue the beasts helpe: they

draw him water; they soile his lande; they plough his lande; they carrie his corne; and beare himselfe from place to place.

What state liueth man in, that cannot but bewaile the vnthankfulnes of his friends,* 1.6 the death of his children, the want of necessaries, the case of aduersity that succee∣deth them, the false witnes that is brought against thē, and a thousand calamities that do torment their harts.

The innocencie of the brute beasts considered, and the malice of the malicious man marked, without com∣parison the companie of the brute beast is lesse hurtfull than the conuersation of euill men: for in the end if yee be conuersant with a beast, ye haue not but to beware of him; but if yee be in companie with a man, there is nothing wherein yee ought to trust him.

Treasure consumed in making a mans graue is verie vaine,* 1.7 for there is no greater lightnes or vanitie in man, than to be esteemed much for his sumptuous graue, and little for the life he hath led.* 1.8 It profiteth little the bodie to be among the painted and carued stones, when the miserable soule is burning in the firie flames of hell.

The man that presumeth to be sage in all things, and well prouided goeth not so fast that at euerie step he is in danger of falling, not so softly that in long time he cannot arriue at his iourneies ende: for false fortune gawleth in steede of striking, and in steede of gawling striketh.

What euill happened to Hercules that after so manie dangers, came to die in the armes of an harlot; Alexan∣der after his great conquest ended his life with poison; Agamemnon that woorthie Greeke, after ten yeeres wars against the Troians,* 1.9 was killed entring into his owne house; Iulius Caesar after two and fiftie battels was killed in the Senate house with xxiij. wounds; Hanniball slew himselfe in one moment, bicause he would not be∣come a pray to his enimies. What mishap is this after so

many fortunes; what reproch after such glorie; what perill after such suretie; what euill lucke after such good successe; what darke night after so cleare day; what euil entertainment after so great labor; what cruell sentence after so long proces; what inconuenience of death after so good beginning of life?

The miserable life of man is of such condition that dai∣lie our yeeres do diminish, and our troubles encrease; life is so troublesome that it wearieth vs, and death is so doubtefull that it feareth vs.

The philosopher Appollonius being demanded what he woondered most at in al the world, answered but at two things, the one was, that in all parts wherein he had tra∣uelled he saw quiet men troubled by seditious persons; the humble subiect to the proud; the iust obedient to the tyrant; the cruell commanding the mercifull; the coward ruling the hardie; the ignorant teaching the wise; and aboue al, I saw the most theeues hang vp the innocent.

The other was that in all the places and circuite that he had bin in, I know not, neither could finde anie man euerlasting, but that all are mortall; and that both high & low haue an end, for many enter the same night into the graue which the day ensuing thought to be aliue.

Aristotle saith, that man is but a tree planted with the rootes vpward, whose roote is the head,* 1.10 and the stock is the bodie, the branches are the armes, the barke is the flesh, the knots are the bones, the sap is the hart, the rottennes is malice,* 1.11 the gum is loue, the flowers are words, and the fruits are good woorks.

We see the vapors to ascend high; the plants growe high; the trees budde out on high; the sourges of the sea mount high; the nature of the fire is alwaies to ascende vpwarde; onelie the miserable man gro∣weth downewarde, and is brought lowe by reason of the feeble and fraile flesh, which is but earth, and com∣meth

of earth, and liueth on earth, and in the end retur∣neth to the earth from whence it came.

Generallie there is no man so good but a man may find in him somwhat reprooueable, nor any man so euill but he hath in him something commendable.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Mans nature considered, is nothing.
• * 1.2

  Man bound hand and foot at first comming and last going.
• * 1.3

  The apparell of beasts.
• * 1.4

  The care of man.
• * 1.5

  Danger in our safetie.
• * 1.6

  Sorrowes of man.
• * 1.7

  The making of costly se∣pulchres is vaine.
• * 1.8

  A painted case for a stinking carkase.
• * 1.9

  Mans ende is in the hand of God.
• * 1.10

  Man descri∣bed as a tree.
• * 1.11

  The fruits of this tree.