Part 14

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he listed, whan Varros name amongest others was brought in a schedule vnto him, to be noted to death, he tooke his penne and wrote his warrant of sauegard with these most goodlie wordes, Viuat Varro vir doctissimus. In later tyme, no man knew better, nor liked and loued more Varros learnyng, than did S. Augustine, as they do well vnderstand, that haue diligentlie read ouer his learned bookes de Ciuitate Dei: Where he hath this most notable sentence: Whan I see, how much Varro wrote, I meruell much, that euer he had any leasure to read: and whan I perceiue how many thinges he read, I meruell more, that euer he had any leasure to write. &c. And surelie, if Varros bookes had remained to posteritie, as by Gods prouidence, the most part of Tullies did, than trewlie the Latin tong might haue made good comparison with the Greke.

Saluste.

Salust, is a wise and worthy writer: but he requireth a learned Reader, and a right considerer of him. // Salust. My dearest frend, and best master that euer I had // Syr Iohn or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as // Chekes if I should liue to see England breed the like // iudgement againe, I feare, I should liue ouer long, did once // and coun- giue me a lesson for Salust, which, as I shall neuer // sell for rea- forget my selfe, so is it worthy to be remembred // dyng of of all those, that would cum to perfite iudgement // Saluste. of the Latin tong. He said, that Salust was not verie fitte for yong men, to learne out of him, the puritie of the Latin tong: because, he was not the purest in proprietie of wordes, nor choisest in aptnes of phrases, nor the best in framing of sentences: and therefore is his writing, sayd he neyther plaine for the matter, nor sensible for mens vnderstanding. And what is the cause thereof, Syr, quoth I. Verilie said he, bicause in Salust writing, is more Arte than nature, and more labor than Arte: and in his labor also, to moch toyle, as it were, with an vncontented care to write better than he could, a fault common to very many men. And therefore he doth not expresse the matter liuely and naturally with common speach as ye see Xenophon doth in Greeke, but it is caried and driuen forth

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artificiallie, after to learned a sorte, as Thucydides doth in his orations. And how cummeth it to passe, sayd I, that Cæsar and Ciceroes talke, is so naturall & plaine, and Salust writing so artificiall and darke, whan all they three liued in one tyme? I will freelie tell you my fansie herein, said he: surely, Cæsar and Cicero, beside a singular prerogatiue of naturall eloquence geuen vnto them by God, both two, by vse of life, were daylie orators emonges the common people, and greatest councellers in the Senate house: and therefore gaue themselues to vse soch speach as the meanest should well vnderstand, and the wisest best allow: folowing carefullie that good councell of Aristotle, loquendum vt multi, sapiendum vt pauci. Salust was no soch man, neyther for will to goodnes, nor skill by learning: but ill geuen by nature, and made worse by bringing vp, spent the most part of his yougth very misorderly in ryot and lechery. In the company of soch, who, neuer geuing theyr mynde to honest doyng, could neuer inure their tong to wise speaking. But at last cummyng to better yeares, and bying witte at the dearest hand, that is, by long experience of the hurt and shame that commeth of mischeif, moued, by the councell of them that were wise, and caried by the example of soch as were good, first fell to honestie of life, and after to the loue of studie and learning: and so became so new a man, that Cæsar being dictator, made him Pretor in Numidia where he absent from his contrie, and not inured with the common talke of Rome, but shut vp in his studie, and bent wholy to reading, did write the storie of the Romanes. And for the better accomplishing of the same, he red Cato and Piso in Latin for gathering of matter and troth: and Thucydides in Greeke for the order of his storie, and furnishing of his style. Cato (as his tyme required) had more troth for the matter, than eloquence for the style. And so Salust, by gathering troth out of Cato, smelleth moch of the roughnes of his style: euen as a man that eateth garlike for helth, shall cary away with him the sauor of it also, whether he will or not. And yet the vse of old wordes is not the greatest cause of Salustes roughnes and darknesse: There be in Salust Lib. 8. // some old wordes in deed as patrare bellum, ductare Cap. 3. // exercitum, well noted by Quintilian, and verie De Orna- // much misliked of him: and supplicium for suppli- tu. // catio, a word smellyng of an older store than the

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other two so misliked by Quint: And yet is that word also in Varro, speaking of Oxen thus, boues ad victimas faciunt, atque ad Deorum supplicia: and a few old wordes mo. Read Saluste and Tullie aduisedly together: and in wordes ye shall finde small difference: yea Salust is more geuen to new wordes, than to olde, though som olde writers say the contrarie: as Claritudo for Gloria: exactè for perfectè: Facundia for eloquentia. Thies two last wordes exactè and facundia now in euery mans mouth, be neuer (as I do remember) vsed of Tullie, and therefore I thinke they be not good: For surely Tullie speaking euery where so moch of the matter of eloquence, would not so precisely haue absteyned from the word Facundia, if it had bene good: that is proper for the tong, & common for mens vse. I could be long, in reciting many soch like, both olde & new wordes in Salust: but in very dede neyther oldnes nor newnesse of wordes maketh the greatest difference // The cause why betwixt Salust and Tullie, but first strange phrases // Salust is not made of good Latin wordes, but framed after the // like Tully. Greeke tonge, which be neyther choisly borowed of them, nor properly vsed by him: than, a hard composition and crooked framing of his wordes and sentences, as a man would say, English talke placed and framed outlandish like. As for example first in phrases, nimius et animus be two vsed wordes, yet homo nimius animi, is an vnused phrase. Vulgus, et amat, et fieri, be as common and well known wordes, as may be in the Latin tong, yet id quod vulgò amat fieri, for solet fieri, is but a strange and grekish kind of writing. Ingens et vires be proper wordes, yet vir ingens virium is an vnproper kinde of speaking and so be likewise,

{æger consilij. {promptissimus belli. {territus animi.

and many soch like phrases in Salust, borowed as I sayd not choisly out of Greeke, and vsed therefore vnproperlie in Latin. Againe, in whole sentences, where the matter is good, the wordes proper and plaine, yet the sense is hard and darke, and namely in his prefaces and orations, wherein he vsed most labor, which fault is likewise in Thucydides in Greeke, of whom Salust hath taken the greatest part of his darkenesse. For

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Thucydides likewise wrote his storie, not at home in Grece, but abrode in Italie, and therefore smelleth of a certaine outlandish kinde of talke, strange to them of Athens, and diuerse from their writing, that liued in Athens and Grece, and wrote the same tyme that Thucydides did, as Lysias, Xenophon, Plato, and Isocrates, the purest and playnest writers, that euer wrote in any tong, and best examples for any man to follow whether he write, Latin, Italian, French, or English. Thucydides also semeth in his writing, not so much benefited by nature, as holpen by Arte, and caried forth by desire, studie, labor, toyle, and ouer great curiositie: who spent xxvii. yeares in writing his eight bookes of his history. Salust likewise wrote out of his Dionys. // contrie, and followed the faultes of Thuc. to Halycar. // moch: and boroweth of him som kinde of writing, ad Q. / which the Latin tong can not well beare, as Casus Tub. de // nominatiuus in diuerse places absolutè positus, as in Hist. Thuc. // that place of Iugurth, speaking de leptitanis, itaque ab imperatore facilè quæ petebant adepti, missæ sunt eò cohortes ligurum quatuor. This thing in participles, vsed so oft in Thucyd. and other Greeke authors to, may better be borne with all, but Salust vseth the same more strangelie and boldlie, as in thies wordes, Multis sibi quisque imperium petentibus. I beleue, the best Grammarien in England can scarse giue a good reule, why quisque the nominatiue case, without any verbe, is so thrust vp amongest so many oblique cases. Some man perchance will smile, and laugh to scorne this my writyng, and call it idle curiositie, thus to busie my selfe in pickling about these small pointes of Grammer, not fitte for my age, place and calling, to trifle in: I trust that man, be he neuer so great in authoritie, neuer so wise and learned, either, by other mens iudgement, or his owne opinion, will yet thinke, that he is not greater in England, than Tullie was at Rome, not yet wiser, nor better learned than Tullie was him selfe, who, at the pitch of three score yeares, in the middes of the broyle betwixt Cæsar and Pompeie, whan he knew not, whether to send wife & children, which way to go, where to hide him selfe, yet, in an earnest letter, amongest his earnest Ad Att. // councelles for those heuie tymes concerning both Lib. 7. Epi- // the common state of his contrey, and his owne stola. 3. // priuate great affaires he was neither vnmyndfull nor ashamed to reason at large, and learne gladlie of Atticus,

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a lesse point of Grammer than these be, noted of me in Salust, as, whether he should write, ad Piræea, in Piræea, or in Piræeum, or Piræeum sine præpositione: And in those heuie tymes, he was so carefull to know this small point of Grammer, that he addeth these wordes Si hoc mihi zetema persolueris, magna me molestia liberaris. If Tullie, at that age, in that authoritie, in that care for his contrey, in that ieoperdie for him selfe, and extreme necessitie of hys dearest frendes, beyng also the Prince of Eloquence hym selfe, was not ashamed to descend to these low pointes of Grammer, in his owne naturall tong, what should scholers do, yea what should any man do, if he do thinke well doyng, better than ill doyng: And had rather be, perfite than meane, sure than doutefull, to be what he should be, in deed, not seeme what he is not, in opinion. He that maketh perfitnes in the Latin tong his marke, must cume to it by choice & certaine knowledge, not stumble vpon it by chance and doubtfull ignorance: And the right steppes to reach vnto it, be these, linked thus orderlie together, aptnes of nature, loue of learnyng, diligence in right order, constancie with pleasant moderation, and alwayes to learne of them that be best, and so shall you iudge as they that be wisest. And these be those reules, which worthie Master Cheke dyd impart vnto me con- cernyng Salust, and the right iudgement of the Latin tong.

¶ Cæsar.

Cæsar for that litle of him, that is left vnto vs, is like the halfe face of a Venus, the other part of the head beyng hidden, the bodie and the rest of the members vnbegon, yet so excellentlie done by Apelles, as all men may stand still to mase and muse vpon it, and no man step forth with any hope to performe the like. His seuen bookes de bello Gallico, and three de bello Ciuili, be written, so wiselie for the matter, so eloquentlie for the tong, that neither his greatest enemies could euer finde the least note of parcialitie in him (a meruelous wisdome of a man, namely writyng of his owne doynges) nor yet the best iudegers of the Latin tong, nor the most enuious lookers vpon other mens writynges, can say any other, but all things be most perfitelie done by him.

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Brutus, Caluus, and Calidius, who found fault with Tullies fulnes in woordes and matter, and that rightlie, for Tullie did both, confesse it, and mend it, yet in Cæsar, they neither did, nor could finde the like, or any other fault. And therfore thus iustlie I may conclude of Cæsar, that where, in all other, the best that euer wrote, in any tyme, or in any tong, in Greke or Latin, I except neither Plato, Demosthenes, nor Tullie, some fault is iustlie noted, in Cæsar onelie, could neuer yet fault be found. Yet neuertheles, for all this perfite excellencie in him, yet it is but in one member of eloquence, and that but of one side neither, whan we must looke for that example to folow, which hath a perfite head, a whole bodie, forward and backward, armes and legges and all.

FINIS.