NOTE

21 The cure of witchcraft: "When as therefore they who be infected with envy do cast their eyes upon others, which because they are seated near unto the soul do catch and draw unto them very easily this vice and so shoot their venomous rays like poisoned darts upon them; if such chance to be wounded and hurt thereby, whom they look upon and wistly behold, I see no strange thing, nor a matter incredible. . . . And hereupon it is that those preservatives against witchcraft called probaskania [amulets] are then thought to do good against envy." Plutarch, Symposiacs, v, quest. 7.

22 Remove the lot: take away the spell. If sorcerers healed a bewitched man, they had to pass on the lot or spell to another.

23 Plausible: deserving of applause or approval.

24 The state itself: Lat. "the king or the state itself." At the conclusion of his interview with the King before his condemnation, B. took leave with these words: "Those that will strike at your Chancellor, it is much to be feared, will strike at your Crown." Life, vii, 199.

25 Most depraved: Plutarch says much the same thing in his treatise Of Envy and Hatred, Morals, p. 235.

26 The envious man: cf. Matthew xiii, 25.

X. OF LOVE

!

1 Like a siren: the story is told in The Wisdom of the Ancients, xxxi. "The fable of the Sirens is truly applied to the pernicious allurements of pleasure. These Sirens had their dwelling in certain pleasant islands, whence they kept watch for ships; and when they saw any approaching, they began to sing; which made the voyagers first stay to listen, then gradually draw near, and at last land; when they took and killed them."

2 Like a fury: the Furies were fearful winged maidens, daughters of Earth or of Night, who punished mortals for various crimes, such as disobedience toward parents, disrespect for age, murder, perjury, and violation of the laws of hospitality.

3 Marcus Antonius (83-30 B. C.) loved Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt. See Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. 4 Appius Claudius: a Roman decemvir. In 449 B. C. Virginius, a plebeian, slew his daughter to prevent her falling into the power of Appius. See Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. B. has apparently confused him with a later Appius Claudius, censor 312-308 B. c. and consul in 307 and 296 B. C., from whom is dated the beginning of Roman jurisprudence. Cf. the following note.

5 Lawgiver: Lat. "chief of law-makers among the Romans." 6 A poor saying: Lat. "mean and feeble." A curious perver

NOTE

sion of the original. "It was well said by Epicurus, when writing to one of his companions in study: 'This,' said he, 'I intend not for the crowd but for you; for we are theatre enough for each other.'"' Seneca, Epistles, vii.

7 A little idol: the eye, the slave of which the lover becomes. 8 The lover doth: “But he that loveth (according as Plato saith) is always blinded by the thing which is loved." Plutarch, Morals, p. 245.

9 It was well said: by Publius the Syrian, On Love and Woman "God scarcely grants a man both to love and to be wise." In Plutarch (Lives, iv, 174) Agesilaus says much the same thing.

10 Reciproque: mutual.

11 He that preferred: Paris. When Peleus and Thetis were married, all the gods except Eris (Strife) were invited to the wedding. In a rage, Eris threw among the guests a golden apple inscribed "To the fairest." Thereupon Hera (Juno), Aphrodite, and Pallas Athene each claimed the apple. Paris had to settle the dispute. Hera promised him the sovereignty of Asia; Athene, renown in war; and Aphrodite, the most beautiful of women (Helen). Paris decided in favor of Aphrodite. His abduction of Helen led to the Tro jan War. See Tennyson's Enone.

12 Quitteth both riches and wisdom: "He that was a sordid miser before, falling once in love becomes liberal and loftyminded." Plutarch, Morals (ed. Goodwin), iv, 288.

13 Keep quarter: Lat. "reduce to order." Quarter, originally “a fourth part," came to mean the fourth part of the world, then of any place; cf. headquarters, the Latin Quarter, to give quarter, etc.

14 Martial men: Plutarch, Morals (ed. Goodwin), iv, 283, 286, speaks of the power of love over soldiers.

15 Friendly love: A. remarks that B. here follows Greek and Roman tradition, though the ancient ideal of friendship was higher and the ancient ideal of marriage lower than with us.

XI. OF GREAT PLACE

1 No freedom: "They that govern in the commonwealth for honor's sake are no better than honorable slaves of the people, having no more but the bare name of a governor." Plutarch, Lives, v, 180.

2 Cum non sis: Cicero, Letters to Various Persons, vii, 3. "This was written after the battle of Pharsalia [48 B. C.] and the ruin of the cause with which Cicero had at that time identified himself." R.

3 When they would: Plutarch, Morals (ed. Goodwin), v, 98, refers to this difficulty.

4 To can: strictly it should be "to cun (Old English infinitive cunnan "to know how," preterite-present tense cann).

NOTE

5 Conscience: consciousness; so used by Milton in his second sonnet to Cyriack Skinner.

6 God's theatre: spectacle, i. e. can see what God saw.

7 Et conversus Deus: cf. Genesis i, 31; quoted from the Vulgate.

8 Neglect not also: Plutarch (Lives, v, 373) gives similar advice.

9 Without bravery: Lat. "but without boastfulness of thyself." 10 Helps and advices: Plutarch, Morals (ed. Goodwin), v, 115, gives similar counsel.

11 Facility: readiness to comply or be led. Cf. Essay xiii, p. 39, 1. 8 f. b.

12 Solomon saith: Proverbs xxviii, 21.

13 A place showeth the man: a Greek saying of disputed authority, attributed to Demosthenes, Solon, and Bias. Cf. Plutarch, Lives, v, 369.

14 Saith Tacitus: History, i, 49.

15 Of Vespasian: History, i, 50.

16 Rather call them: this was done by Agesilaus; cf. Plutarch, Lives, iv, 163.

XII. OF BOLDNESS

1 Question was asked: the story is told by Cicero, On the Orator, iii, 56, sec. 213; and by Plutarch, Lives of the Ten Orators, Morals, p. 932.

2 Mountebanks: those who mount benches to show off, quacks.

3 Grounds: principles.

4 If the hill: a common Spanish proverb. The story has not been traced to its origin.

5 Shrunken and wooden posture: Lat. "for then he gets a face reduced to its former state but misshapen."

6 A stale: stalemate, a move by which the pieces are so placed that one's opponent cannot move without exposing one of his pieces to check.

XIII. OF GOODNESS AND GOODNESS OF NATURE

1 The angels to fall: cf. Essay iii, note 26. 2 Busbechius: Busbec, a Flemish scholar and diplomatist (1522-1592), twice sent by Ferdinand I, emperor of Germany, as ambassador to Solyman, about 1555. The story occurs in his Letters from a Turkish Legation, iii. The offender was not a boy but a Venetian goldsmith. Busbec says nothing of his being stoned. The bird was, Busbec thought, a goatsucker, with a short bill and very widegape. 3 Doctors: teachers; cf. doctrine.

4 Machiavel: Florentine statesman and author (1469-1527); wrote The Prince, History of Florence, and other works,

NOTE

which had much influence on the ethical thought of Elizabethan England. The quotation is from his Discourses on Titus Livius, ii, 2 (Detmold's trans., ii, 232, 233). Machiavelli says that Christianity places the supreme happiness in humility and contempt for the world, and requires fortitude to enable us to suffer rather than achieve great deeds. These principles, he thinks, have made men feeble, and a prey to the evil-minded.

5 Æsop's cock: Plato, Phædrus, iii, 12; Bullokar's Æsop, 1585, fable 1. Cf. casting pearls before swine, Matthew vii, 6; and Adv. viii, 7.

6 He sendeth his rain: Matthew v, 5. 7 Sell all thou hast: Mark x, 21.

8 A disposition: Aristotle (Nichomachean Ethics, vi, 13) distinguishes between natural virtue and virtue proper; the latter is not produced without prudence.

9 Lazarus' sores: Luke xvi, 21.

10 Timon: a frank Athenian misanthrope. Cf. Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, v, 1, 208-215. B. means, "yet they do not, like Timon, openly profess their misanthropy."

11 Gives the balm: B. refers here to the frankincense tree, the aromatic gum resin (olibanum) from which was formerly much used for burning as incense. Pliny describes it in his Natural History, xii, 14.

12 St. Paul's perfection: cf. Romans ix, 3, where the Greek anathema is translated "accursed."

XIV. OF NOBILITY

1 Estate: Lat. rei publicæ, "state."

2 The Switzers: when B. wrote this (1625), the Swiss confed. eration, founded at the beginning of the fourteenth century, consisted of thirteen German districts and cities united by a somewhat lax federal bond. Two-fifths of the people are still Roman Catholics.

3 Respects: Lat. "dignity."

4 The Low Countries: the Netherlands and Flanders (now Belgium). Of their government Sir Thomas Overbury says: "They have upon occasion an assembly of the general states, like our Parliament. Then is there besides a Council of State. . . . And besides both these, every province and great town have particular councils of their own. To all which assemblies, as well of the general states as the rest, the gentry is called for order's sake, but the state indeed is democratical. . . . Neither are the gentry so much engaged in the cause, the people having more advantages in a free state, they in a monarchy. Their care in government is very exact and particular, by reason that every one hath an immediate interest in the state; such is the equality of justice that it renders every man satis

NOTE

fied." Observations upon the Seventeen Provinces as They Stood A. D. 1609, pp. 3, 4.

5 The memory of their virtues: cf. the opposite statement of Antony, Julius Cæsar, iii, 2, 73, 74; also Henry VIII, iv, 2, 45. Which is nearer right?

XV. OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES

1 Calendars: Lat. prognostica, "weather indications." 2 Ille etiam: Virgil, Georgics, i, 464, 465.

3 Virgil: Eneid, iv, 178–180. B. means "that when princes and monarchs have suppressed actual and open rebels, then the malignity of people (which is the mother of rebellion) doth bring forth libels and slanders, and taxations of the state, which is of the same kind with rebellion, but more feminine." Wisdom of the Ancients, ix.

4 Tacitus saith: History, i, 7.

5 Tacitus speaketh of: History, ii, 39.

6 Machiavel: possibly a reference to Discourses on Livy, iii, 27, which treats of factions and the methods of dealing with them. The Italian translation substitutes for Machiavel the words "a writer."

7 Entered league: the League of the Holy Trinity, formed in 1575 for the defence of the Catholic faith; at its head was the house of Guise. It was supported by Henry III for a time in 1576. Under its influence the Parisians drove him out of the city in 1588.

8 Primum mobile: see Essay i, note 9.

9 Tacitus expresseth it: Annals, iii, 4.

10 Who threateneth: Isaiah xlv, 1; cf. Job xii, 18.

11 Estates: fortunes, as is evident from the previous line.

12 Lucan noteth: Pharsalia, i, 181; instead of rapidum Lucan wrote avidum, "greedy.' "Lucan lived 39-65.

13 The Civil War: between Cæsar and Pompey, in 49 B. C.; cf. Essay xxvii, note 13.

14 Of the belly: Lat. "which have their origin in the belly," i. e. in hunger.

15 Dolendi modus: Pliny, Epistles, viii, 17.

16 Mate: stupefy; cf. Essay ii, p. 8, 1. 20.

17 The cord breaketh: cf. "The last straw breaks the camel's back."

18 To be foreseen: Lat. "guarded against in advance." 19 Scholars: in his Advice concerning Sutton's Estate (Life, iv, 252) B. speaks in the same vein: he thinks there are already too many grammar schools; and the scholars they train, being unfit for other vocations, will become indigent and furnish material for revolutions.

20 Somewhere lost: based on the mercantile theory that wealth means gold and silver. This idea is found also in Aristotle, in Publius Syrus, and in Montaigne.