I Am vexed with most greeuous woundes.

O howe lyght shoulde they seeme, wouldest thou beholde the woundes of thy soule. But suche delicate bodyes haue most commonly insensible soules. Of one part nothyng, on the other ye are re∣dy to suffer al thynges, and, whiche is most wretched, ye neuer feele them.

My woundes trouble me.

The enimies swoorde pearseth the shielde, not the soule. For she can neuer be hurt, if so be she do not bereaue her selfe of her owne weapons. It was sayde of a certaye man in a litle, but sure a learned woorke, that no man can be hurt but of hym selfe, whiche I thinke to be a true saying, albeit many mislyke the same.

I am mangled with most greeuous and manifolde woundes.

There is no wounde more greeuous then that whiche is to the death, but there is but one suche wounde: and yf but one that is most greeuous, the rest must needes be lyght. Caesar being goared with twentie and three woundes, had but one deadly wounde: and yf we should graunt them al to be deadly, yet coulde he dye but once. And albeit many and deepe are the woundes, yet but one effect is there of them all: the often woundyng of a dead body, argueth a blooddie minde in the woun∣der, but encreaseth no payne in the wounded.

With woundes I am weakened.

Woulde to God pryde with al her sisters were brought lowe, and humilitie admitted for a companion of the woundes, that we myght finde it true whi∣che was written, Thou hast humbled the proude, lyke a wounded person. It is a good wounde and profitable, whiche is a medicine to heale other and greater woundes.

I am ougly in sight through my woundes.

Hast thou forgot that young man of whom twyse in this our communication we spake? Hereafter shouldest thou doo that of thyne owne accorde, which now thou doest lament to be done vnto thee by another.

My face is disfigured with woundes.

The wounde is not to be regarded so muche as the cause thereof. Woundes receyued in a lawful war, do woonderfully adorne the face. Fayre is the wounde whiche a valiant man hath gotten in a good qua∣rel, but muche fayrer is the death.

I am lame with∣all.

Thou remembrest, I am sure, the answeare of Ho∣ratius Cocles, who after he had borne the brunt of the whole ar∣mie of the Tusca•e king vpon the brydge Sublicius, after a more valiant then credible maner, and escaped from his enimies, the brydge beyng broken by his owne countreymens handes, and leaping into the ryuer Tyber, though with some hurt vnto one of his legges, which thing, afterward suing for an office, was obiected vnto hym, thus stopped the mouth of his aduersarie: I halte not at al, quoth he, but suche is the wyt of the immortal Gods, that euery step whiche I make, shoulde bryng into my remembrance my glorious victorie: as noble an answere, as his exploite was notable.

I haue lost myne hande in fight.

If it be thy left hande, the losse is the lesse: but if it be thy ryght hande, thou may∣est doo as dyd Marcus Sergius, a man of prowesse, who hauing in fight lost his ryght hande in the Punike war, made hym one of Iron, wherewith he went to many and blooddie battayles. But yf that be not so conuenient, make thy left hande to serue thy turne in steede of a ryght. Thou remembrest howe Attilius, one of Caesars souldiers in the Massilian warre, helde with his left hande the enimies shyp tyl he was drowned, when his ryght hande was cut of.

I haue lost both mine handes.

Where fortune hath most libertie, there greatest vertue is to be showen. The power of fortune may be withstoode by the prowesse of vertue. Which if thou hast, thou art valient, though thou haue neuer an hande. Cal vnto thy mind Ciniger the Athe∣nian, who when both handes were cut of, after the Marathoni∣an battayle, beyng a great argument of his inuincible cou∣rage, held fast his enimies shyp with his teeth, as wel as he could, whiche battayle was the immortal fact of captayne Melciades. Neyther do thou forget that Souldier of Cannas, who reuenged himselfe on his enimie with his teeth when his handes were may∣med. For beyng in his armes, & depriued of the vse of his handes, Page  [unnumbered]he bit of his eares, and marred the fashion of his face afore he would let goe, and so dyed, as he thought, gloriously. These are examples of cruel mindes: but the remedies whiche nowe I prescribe are more comfortable, and meete for milde mindes: And that is, remember thy body is a frayle and mortal thyng, and speedyly also wyl forsake thee: when thou art wounded, or o∣therwyse troubled in body, be not moued, neyther maruayle thereat, but hauing lost the ministry of thyne outwarde limmes, conuert thy selfe into the inmost corners of thy soule, there shalt thou finde some great thing to be sayde and done, and that thou needest neyther handes nor tongue to helpe thee.

I am deformed with woundes.

I sayde eare whyle that yf the quarrel were good, the wounde is faire whiche is got∣ten by fight, and the face is not deformed with filthy woundes, but adorned with glorious markes: Neyther are they scarres, but starres, nor woundes, but signes of vertue fixed in the face. Cesius Scena, a captayne of an hundred in Caesars armie, a man of a woonderful courage, but of no vpryghtnesse otherwise, was had in such admiration among his enimies, that they not onely kissed his woundes, wherwith he was torne and cut through a thousande fold, in respect of his valientnesse only, but also conueied his wea∣pons and armor into the temples of their Gods, as most excel∣lent ornamentes, and reliques. If he, beyng a wicked man, was so honored, in what price are they to be had, who are aswel vertu∣ous as valiant?

I am extreamely weake through my woundes.

Heale, ye wretches, those woundes which wyl sticke by you for euer, yf in tyme they be not healed. Let earth looke to them, which shall both couer, and consume them, yea and make crooked bodyes, which it receiueth, strayght, when it resto∣reth them agayne.

I am maymed, being so wounded in this, and in that parte.

Thou stryuest about par∣tes, but thou shalt forgoe the whole.