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I Haue a very good Sonne in law.
Thou oughtest to loue him more deere then thine owne sonne, for thine owne sonne commeth to thee by chaunce, but thy sonne in lawe by choyce. Thanke therfore thy Daughter, who owing vnto thee Nephewes, hath now brought thee a sonne.
Fortune hath brought vnto me a very good sonne in lawe.
In this kinde of affinitie, there be examples of notable fayth, and treason.
Seldome or neuer hath any Sonne been so faythfull to his father, as way Marcus Agrippa to Augustus Caesar, as Marcus Aurelius to Antonius Pius, vnto whom euen vnto his liues ende, whiche was the space of three and twentie yeeres, he so behaued hym selfe, that not onely he deserued his loue and his Daughter, but also the succession in his Empire as his Sonne, through his continuall fayth and diligence. But Nero was no suche sonne in lawe vnto Claudius, although he not by his de∣sartes, but by his mothers policie, obtayned the Emperours daughter, and Empire.
I haue founde a courteous, and agreeable Sonne in lawe.
Beware least ey∣ther the hope of succession, or the seekyng after goodes, doo in∣fringe this agreement. Who wyll not wyshe that he may lyue, whose lyfe he seeth to be profitable vnto hym selfe? But yf he once begynne to attempt any thyng, so that perhappes he suppose thy lyfe to be an hynderaunce, or thy death begynne or seeme to be profitable vnto hym, then the affections of the mynde are changed, and secret hatred wyll soone breake foorth. And of what force the discorde is betweene the Father and the Daughters husbande (to say nothyng of the auncient Fable of Danaus, and Nummianus, who was slayne by the wycked treason of Aprimus his Father in lawe, and likewyse Stilico, who through the desyre to reigne forgat his Father in lawe that was dead, and his Sonne in lawe that was lyuing) the most memorable example of Caesar and Pompei, doth suffici∣ently declare.