produced to him, he faid, If a Lyon had made Hen.8. this picture, he would have made the lyon above, and the man beneath. *Nihil eft quin male narrando poffit depravarier. One thing he advised young men to take care of in their publick deliveries, viz. that they should rather proceed, though more inaccurately, than stop fenfibly; few being able to difcerne the failure of a continued fpeech, when all understand the mischance of a grofs filence. A fellow having made a long oration to his hearers, of the virtues of a feather, which he affirmed to have dropped from the wing of Michael the arch-angel; and the feather being stolen from under his fleeve out of drollery, and a cinder put in the place of it to trye his humour, he went on confidently with his difcourfe; telling them, that though it was not the feather which he had mentioned; yet it was one of the coles which St. Laurence was broyled with; and had all those virtues which he had formerly ascribed to the feather. When good men die fuddenly, it is faid they are poyfoned; and when the bad fall unexpectedly, as he did, it is faid they poyson themselves. He died unpitied, because he had lived feared; being the great bias of the chriftian world. Too fuddain profperity in the beginning, undoeth us in the end: while we expect all things flowing upon us at first, we remit our care, and perish by neglecting. Every head cannot bear wine, nor every spirit a fortune: fuccefs eats up circumfpection. How many a man had ended better, if he he had not begun fo well? it's the emphasis * Many a good caufe fuffers by misrepresentation. Hen. 8. emphasis of mifery, to be too foon happy: profperity growing up with experience, makes a man in a firm fettlement, inured to all events. I will ever suspect the fmooth waters for deepness: in my worst estate I will hope, in the beft I will fear; in all, I will be circumfpect and stil. Ruffling ambition reacheth great honour, a fedate humility fupports it: the lower the bafis, the higher and ftronger the pyramide. Love, the iffue of humility, guardeth the weakeft; hatred, the daughter of pride, ruines the strongest. *Ego & Rex meus, was good grammar for Wolfey a school-mafter; but not for the cardinal a ftates-man. To be humble to fuperiors, is duty; to equals, is courtefie; to inferiours, is noblenefs; and to all, fafety; it being a virtue that for all her lowlinefs commandeth thofe fouls it ftoops to. In a word, as I love virtue, fo I hate vice, for her infide and her end. Cardinal Wolfey is famous for two things; that he never fpoke a word too much, and but one too little. The Lord Herbert's Character of Cardinal Wolfey, in the Life of Henry the Eighth, pag. 314. AND thus concluded that great Cardinal: a man in whom ability of parts and industry were equally eminent; though, for being employed wholly in ambitious ways, they became dangerous inftruments of power, in active and mutable times. By By thefe arts yet be found means to govern not Hen. 8. onely the chief affairs of this this kingdom, but of Europe; there being no potentate, which, in his turn, did not feek to him; and as this procured bim divers penfions, fo, when he acquainted the king therewith, his manner was, fo cunningly to difoblige the prince who did fee him last, as he made way thereby oftentimes to receive as much on the other fide. But not of fecular princes alone, but even of the pope and clergy of Rome he was no little courted; of which therefore he made efpecial use, while he drew them to fecond him on moft occafions. His birth being otherwise so obscure and mean, as no man had ever ftood fo fingle: for which reafon alfo his chief endeavour was not to difpleafe any great perfon; which yet could not fecure him. For as all things paffed through his hands, fo they who failed in their fuits generally bated him: all which, though it did but exafperate his ill nature, yet this good refultance followed, that it made him take the more care to be juft: whereof alfo be obtained the reputation in his publick bearing of caufes: for as he loved no body, fo his reafon carried him. And thus he was an useful minifter of his king in all points, where there was no question of deferting the roman church; of which (at what price foever) I finde he was a zealous Servant; as hoping thereby to afpire to the papacy, whereof (as the factious times then were) be feemed more capable than any, had he not fo immoderately affected it. Whereby alfo it was not hard to judge of his inclination; that prince, who was ableft to help him to this dignity, being ever preferred by him; which therefore was the ordinary baite, by which the emperour and the French king, Hen. 8. one after the other did catch him. And, upon thefe terms, he doubted not to convey vaft treasures out of this kingdome, especially unto Rome, where be had not a few cardinals at his devotion; by whofe help, though he could not attain that fupreme dignity be fo paffionately defired, yet he prevailed himfelf fo much of their favour, as he got a kinde of abfolute power in fpiritual matters at home: wherewith again be fo ferved the king's turn, as it made him think the lefs of using his own authority. One error feemed common to both, which was, that fuch a multiplicity of offices and places were invested in him. For as it drew much envy upon the cardinal in particular, fo it derogated no little from the regal authority, while one man alone feemed to exhauft all: fince it becometh princes to do like good bufbandmen, when they fow their grounds; which is, to fcatter, and not to throw all in one place. He was no great diffembler, for fo qualified a perfon; as ordering his bufineffes (for the most part) fo cautiously, as he got more by keeping his word than by breaking it. As for his learning, (which was far from exact) it confifted chiefly in the fubtilties of the Thomifts, wherewith the king and himself did more often weary than fatisfie each other. His ftile, in miffives, was rather copious than eloquent, yet ever tending to the point. Briefly, if it be true (as Polydore obferves) that no man ever did rife with fewer virtues, it is true that few that ever fell from fo high a place had leffer crimes objected against him: though yet Polydore (for being at his first coming into England committed to prifon by him, as we have faid) may be fufpected as a partial author. So that in all probability he might have fubfifted longer, if either his pride and immenfe wealth had not made him ob- Hen. 8. noxious, and fufpected to the king, or that other, than women had oppofed him: who, as they are vigilant and clofe enemies, fo for the most part they carry their bufineffes in that manner as they leave fewer advantages against themselves than men do. In conclufion, as I cannot affent to those who thought him happy for enjoying the untimely compaffion of the people a little before his end, so I cannot but account it a principal felicity, that during his favour with the king, all things fucceeded better than afterwards; though yet it may be doubted whether the impreffions he gave, did not occafion divers irregularities which were observed to follow. He died Nov. 29, 1529. Obfervations on the Life of Charles Brandon, SIR William Brandon dying in king Henry Lloyd. the feventh's fervice, as his standard-bearer in Bofworth-field, no wonder if his fon lived in his favour; it being as prudent to continue his loyal fpirit in his fon, as it was just to reward it. He was as intimate with Henry the eighth in his pleasures when a child, as in his councels when a man. There was a fympathy between their active fpirits, which improved the familiarity of their tender years to a firm friendship in their age; men of quick and large ftriding minds loving to walk together: not to say the loofer D 2 the |