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I Am greeued for the absence of my friendes.
It hapneth so many tymes: but he that hath learned to take in∣differently the death of his friende, may somewhat more mode∣rately beare his absence, neither can the absence of a friende o∣uerthrow him, whom the death of a friende could not ouerthrowe.
My most deare friend is absent, my right hand, and my
right eye.
Though he were so absent that he woulde neuer returne, yet woulde I say that there is nothing but a man ought to take it indifferently: but he wyl come a gayne, and thyne inte∣gritie shalbe restored vnto thee.
My frende is absent, the one moitie of my selfe.
Horace the poet tearmeth Virgil the one halfe of his soule, whiche phrayse beyng afterward vsed of many, is nowe growen into a prouerbe. But if a freend be not naturally only, but ciuilly also had in possession, wherein doth absence hurte frendshyp, but that wheresoeuer thou be, he may sit, walke, talke, and confer with thee in pleasant and serious matters? For if ye sawe nothing else but what lyeth before your eyes, and only the thinges that are present delited you, then should your sight be very short and narrowe.
I am sorie for the absence of my sweete freende.
But you vse rather to be sorie for the absence of beloued, then sweete thinges. Hearken now vnto that which wil scarce enter in the common peoples eares. It is a strange case, howe ticklish and loathsome somtime is the presence yea of mens dearest freendes: manie times men are of∣fended at a smal matter, and those whom they loue berie wel, or whose presence they earnestly desire, not only their friendes, but al∣so their brethren or children, for that perhapes they are some hin∣drance vnto their studies and businesse, they had rather sometime that they were absent. In their absence there is nothing bitter, nothing that greeueth our desire, but that they are away, whiche notwithstandyng thou canst not deny to be pleasant.
The absence of my belooued frende greeueth me.
This is a common thing, I confesse, among women & suche as loue af∣ter a womanish maner, whose whole delite consisteth in the senses. Notwithstandyng, of these the poet spake where he saith, He that is absent, heareth and seeth another that is absent. Which if it be so, why should not also a freende see and heare his freende that is ab∣sent, vnlesse peraduenture your eyes be more bright and cleare to beholde the visions of lasciuiousnesse then of vertue, or els there is more honoure to be ascribed vnto mad then chast loue, which be∣sides honest and quicke thoughtes, which no distance of place, nor necessitie of force can restrayne to wander, and be conuersant where soeuer it pleaseth them, there is a prouision made by the
benefite of sendyng letters, then whiche I knowe not whether there be any presence more acceptable. Marcus Cicero was in Rome, whyles wryting vnto his brother. Quintus Cicero who as deputie gouerned the countrey of Asia, when I reade thy let∣ters, sayth be, me thinkes I heare thee speake, and when I wryte vn∣to thee, me thinkes, I talke with thee. And anon exhortyng hym vn∣to the excellencie of glory, he sayth, that he hath founde it very effectuous, in al his woorkes and deedes to imagine vnto hym∣selfe that his brother was present with hym. I cannot tel whether he were at Athens, or in some other place where Epicurus was present, whyles wryting vnto his freende, So behaue thy selfe in al matters, sayth he, as if Epicurus hym selfe beheld thee. True∣ly Anneus Seneca was in Campania, whiles by his letters com∣muning with his freend that soiourned in Sicilia, he exhorteth him to studie, to dyne, and walke with him, which he coulde not do but in minde only, and thervnto wanted neyther the assistance of the eyes, nor of the eares, nor of the handes, nor of the feete.
Myne eyes do greedily requyre myne absent freende:
I cannot deny, but that by absence there is some delite taken from the eies, but nothing from the minde, neyther from the eyes in a manner, as I sayde before, yf it be true freendshyp. From hence it commeth, that in the same Poet we reade & com∣mende this saying, Pallas, Enander, they al stande before his eyes. And Cicero hym selfe also in a certayne epistle, sayth, that he bea∣reth not onely in his minde his freend Balbus, who serued vnder Caesar in Fraunce, but also in his eyes.
My freende is absent.
Sometyme a freende is not knowen, vnlesse he be absent. As in al other thinges, so lykewyse in freendshyp, great plentie dulleth the sense, and scarcitie sharpneth it. And yf the schoolemaister of loue sayth, that intermission of loue is profi∣table vnto louers, whose vniuersal pleasures consist in presence, why should not the same also be auaile able vnto freendes, whose whole delite is reposed in vertue, and feeleth no discommoditie in absence, since it is present in euery place? Do not therefore geue ouer vnto desire, but embrace thy freend in thy remembrance, whom neither departure nor death it selfe can take from thee.
I suffer greeuously the absence of my sweete freende.
Suffer it onely, and confirme the softer partes of thy minde with present vertue. For this bitter absence, whiche thou nowe bewaylest, perhappes in time shal make thy freende more deare vnto thee, and his presence more acceptable.