Alcinous to Ulisses. The estimation of maiestie in countenaunce shall be declared by two examples nowe ensuinge. To Scipio, beinge in his manour place, caled Linterium, came diuers great theues and pirates, only to the intent to se his persone of whose wonderfull prowesse and sondry victories they harde the renome. But he nat knowynge but that they had come to endomage hym, armed hym selfe and suche seruauntes as he than had with hym, and disposed them aboute the imbatilmentes of his house to make defence; whiche the capitaynes of the theues perceiuyng, they despeched the multitude from them, and lainge a parte their harneise and waipons, they called to Scipio with a loude voice, sainge that they came *Ω Οδυσεύ, το μέν ούτι σ' είσκομεν εισορόωντες, Hom. Od. xi. 362-366. d'Ad Africanum eundem, in Literninâ villâ se continentem, complures prædonum duces videndum eodem tempore forte confluxerant. Quos cum ad vim faciendam venire existimasset, præsidium domesticorum in tecto collocavit ; eratque in his repellendis et animo et apparatu occupatus. Quod ut prædones animadverterunt, dimissis militibus abjectisque armis, januæ appropinquant, et clarâ voce nuntiant Scipioni, “Non vitæ ejus hostes, sed virtutis admiratores venisse : conspectum et congressum tanti viri quasi cæleste aliquod beneficium expetentes : proinde securum se nobis spectandum præbere ne gravetur.” Hæc postquam domestici Scipioni retulerunt, fores reserari, eosque intromitti jussit; qui postes januæ, tanquam aliquam religiosissimam aram sanctumque templum, venerati cupidè Scipionis dexteram apprehenderunt ; ac diu deosculati, positis ante vestibulum donis, quæ ·Deorum immortalium numini consecrari solent, læti quod Scipionem vidisse contigisset, ad lares reverterunt.'- Val. Max. lib. ii. cap. 1o, § 2. nat as enemies, but wondringe at his vertue and prowesse desired only to se hym, whiche if he vouched saufe, they wolde accounte for an heuenly benefite. That beinge showed to Scipio by his seruauntes, he caused the gates to be sette wyde open, and the theues to be suffered to entre, who kyssynge the gates and postes with moche reuerence, as they had bene of a temple or other place dedicate, they humbly approched to Scipio, who, visaged them in suche fourme that they, as subdued with a reuerent drede in beholding his maiestie, at the last ioyfully kyssyng his hande often tymes, whiche he benignely offered to them, made humble reuerence, and so departed, layinge in the porche semblable offrynges as they gaue to their goddes, and furthe with retourned to their owne habitations reioysinge incredibly that they had sene and touched a prince so noble and valiaunt. It is no litle thynge to meruaile at, the maiestie showed in extreme fortune and misery. The noble Romane Marius,a whan he had bene vii times Consul, beinge vainquisshed by Scilla, after that he had longe hidde him selfe in marises and desarte places, he was finally constrayned by famine to repaire to a towne called Minturne, where he trusted to haue bene soucoured. But the inhabitantes, dredyng the crueltie of Scilla, toke Marius and put him in to a dungeon. And after sente to slee hym their commune hangeman, whiche was borne in Cimbria, a countray some time destroyed by Marius. The hangeman beholding the C. etiam Marius in profundum ultimarum miseriarum abjectus, ex ipso vitæ discrimine, beneficio majestatis emersit. Missus enim ad eum occidendum in privatâ domo Minturnis clausum servus publicus, natione Cimber, et senem, et inermem, et squalore obsitum, strictum gladium tenens, aggredi non sustinuit: sed claritate viri occæcatus, abjecto ferro, attonitus inde ac tremens fugit. Cimbrica nimirum calamitas oculos hominis perstrinxit : devictæque suæ gentis interitus animum comminuit ; etiam Diis immortalibus indignum ratis, ab uno ejus nationis interfici Marium, quam totam deleverat. Minturnenses autem majestate illius capti, compressum jam et constrictum dirâ fati necessitate, incolumem præstiterunt : nec fuit his timori asperrima Syllæ victoria, ne in eos conservationem Marii ulcisceretur ; cum præsertim ipse Marius eos à conservando Mario absterrere posset.'- Val. Max. lib. ii. cap. 10, $ 6. honourable porte and maiestie that remayned in Marius, nat withstandynge that he was out of honorable apparaile, and was in garmentes torne and filthie, he thought that in his visage appiered the terrible bataile wherein Marius vainquisshed his countray men; he therfore all tremblyng, as constrayned by feare, dyd lette falle out of his hande the swerde wherewith he shulde haue slayne Marius, and leuyng hym untouched, fledde out of the place. The cause of his feare reported to the people, they meued with reuerence, afterwarde studied and deuised howe they moughte delyuer Marius from the malice of Scilla. In Augustus, emperour of Rome, was a natiue maiestie. For, as Suetonius writeth, from his eien proceded rayes or beames, whiche perced the eien of the beholders. The same emperour spake seldome openly, but out of a comentarie, that is to say, that he had before prouided and writen, to the intente that he wolde speke no more ne lasse than he had purposed.” More ouer towarde the acquiring of maiestie, thre thinges be required to be in the oration of a man hauyng autoritie; that it be compendious, sententious, and delectable, hauyng also respecte to the tyme whan, the place where, and the persones to whom it is spoken. For the wordes perchance apte for a bankette or tyme of solace, be nat commendable in • Oculos habuit claros ac nitidos, quibus etiam existimari volebat inesse quiddam divini vigoris; gaudebatque, si quis sibi acrius contuenti, quasi ad fulgorem Solis, vultum summitteret.'--Suet. Octavius, 79. b "Sermones quoque cum singulis, atque etiam cum Liviâ suâ graviores, nonnisi scriptos, et è libello habebat, ne plus minusve loqueretur ex tempore.'— Ibid. 84. • Patrizi says : 'Regia oratio brevis, dilucida, et jucunda esse debet, cum verborum pondere et sententiarum gravitate.'— De Regno et Reg. Instit. lib. ii. tit. II. And Puttenham, who devotes a whole chapter to this subject, says : ‘By reason of the sundry circumstances that man's affaires are, as it were, wrapt in, this decencie, comes to be very much alterable and subject to varietie, in so much as our speach asketh one maner of decencie, in respect of the person who speakes ; another of his to whom it is spoken ; another of whom we speake; another of what we speake, and in what place and time and to what purpose.'- Arte of Engl. Poesie, lib. iii. p. 220, ed. 1811. tyme of consultation or seruice of god. That langage that in the chambre is tollerable, in place of iugement or great assembly is nothing commendable." CHAPTER III. Of apparaile belongynge to a noble man, beinge a gouernour or great counsailour. APPARAILE may be wel a parte of maiestie. For as ther hath bene euer a discrepance in vesture of youthe and age, men • Non enim omnis fortuna, non omnis honos, non omnis auctoritas, non omnis dignitas, nec ætas, nec tempus, nec jocus, nec auditor omnis, eodem aut verborum genere tractandus est aut sententiarum, sed semper cogitandum est quid deceat.'— Patrizi, De Regno et Reg. lib. ii. tit. 10. Erasmus, in his hints on preaching, says : ‘Jam ut magni refert, quas gemmas quo loco inseras, ita plurimum interest quod sententiæ genus ubi intertexas. Vitandum et illud ne præter decorum adhibeantur. Absurdum enim fuerit, si quis adolescentulo aut lenoni graves attribuat sententias, aut in re ludicrâ levique Stoicorum adhibeat paradoxa.'-Opera, tom. v. col. 1006, ed. 1704. • Wilson has some amusing illustrations of the neglect of this precaution. 'In waightie causes graue woordes are thought moste nedeful, that the greatnesse of the matter maie the rather appere in the vehemencie of their talke. So likewise of other like order must be taken. Albeit some not onely doe not obserue this kind of aptnesse, but also thei doe fall into muche fondnes by usyng wordes out of place, and applying them to diuers matters without all discretion. As thus : an ignorant fellowe comming to a gentleman's place and seyng a great flocke of shepe in his pasture, said to the owner of them, “Nowe by my truth, sir, here is as goodly an audience of shepe as euer I sawe in my life.” Who will not take this fellowe meeter to talke with shepe then speake among men? An other likewise, seyng an house faire builded, saied to his fellow thus : “Good lord, what a handsome phrase of buildyng is this?” There are good wordes euill used when thei are not well applied and spoken to good purpose. Therefore I wishe that suche untowarde speakyng maie giue us a good lesson to use our tongue warely, that our wordes and matter maie still agree together.'-- Arte of Rhet. p. 168, ed. 1584. • Puttenham must have had this passage in his mind when he wrote of Omament,' for his language is almost identical. •In the use of apparell there is no litle decency and undecencie to be perceiued, as well for the fashion as the stuffe, for it is comely that euery estate and vocation should be knowen by the differences of their habit : a clarke from a lay man : a gentleman from a yeoman : a souldier and women, and our lorde god ordayned the apparaile of preestis distincte from seculars, as it appiereth in holy scripture, also the gentiles had of auncient time sondry apparaile to sondry astates, as to the senate, and dignities called magistrates. And what enormitie shulde it nowe be thought, and a thinge to laughe at, to se a iuge or sergeant at the lawe in a shorte cote, garded and pounced after the galyarde rom a citizen, and the chiefe of euery degree from their inferiours, because in confusion and disorder there is no manner of decencie. - Arte of Eng. Poesie, lib. iii. p. 237, ed. 1811. • On comparing this chapter with the 38th chapter of Dugdale's Origines, the reader will not fail to observe the great similarity of language. It is probable, indeed, that Dugdale had studied The Governour, the work also of a lawyer, and if the following passage be collated with that in the text the probability appears to be reduced almost to a certainty. Dugdale says : “That peculiar and decent vestments have from great antiquity been used in religious services, we have the authority of God's sacred precept to Moses : Thou shalt make holy rayments for Aaron and his sons that are to minister unto me, that they may be for glory and beauty. And reason tells us that in places of Civil judicature it is not only proper that the Magistrate should be distinguished from others, but all possible care used that a venerable respect be had to his person and office. Hence was it that the most civilized people of the world did accordingly make it their practice—the Roman Senators having the vesture much different from that of the Gentry, viz. a garment bestudded with flourishings of purple silk in manner of broad Nayl ; and the Consuls a solemn Robe of purple, by which they were known from other Magistrates and private men, with large embroydered works thereon, called Trabea, and in further honour of that their Consular dignity, xii Lictors, who bare their bundles of Rods and Axes before them, as also an Ivory Chair of State which was commonly carryed about for them in a Chariot, all which was done to draw a more awfull reverence to them than ordinary.'-- Origines, p. 98, ed. 1671. So Puttenham says : “There is a decency of apparrel in respect of the place where it is to be used : as in the Court to be richely apparrelled : in the countrey to weare more plain and homely garments. For who would not thinke it a ridiculous thing to see a Lady in her milke-house with a veluet gowne, and at a bridall in her cassock of mockado; a Gentleman of the Countrey among the bushes and briars goe in a pounced dublet and a paire of embrodered hosen, in the citie to weare a frise jerkin and a paire of leather breeches ?'-Arte of Engl. Poesie, lib. iii. p. 238, ed. 1811. This was an age of sumptuary laws, and the Inns of Court made the most stringent regulations for the government of their members in the matter of dress. A few years later, viz. in 1554 the Benchers of the Middle Temple ordered 'that none of this Society should thenceforth wear any great Bryches in their Hoses, made after the Dutch, Spanish, or Almon (i.e. German) fashion, or Lawnde upon their Capps, or cut doublets, upon pain of iiis. ivd. forfaiture for the first default, 6 |
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