Some would dress their masters in gold, pearl, and all true jewels
of majesty; others furnish them with feathers, bells, and ribands, and
are therefore esteemed the fitter servants.
of majesty; others furnish them with feathers, bells, and ribands, and
are therefore esteemed the fitter servants.
Ben Jonson - Discoveries Made Upon Men, and Some Poems
--What a sight it is to see writers committed
together by the ears for ceremonies, syllables, points, colons, commas,
hyphens, and the like, fighting as for their fires and their altars; and
angry that none are frighted at their noises and loud brayings under
their asses' skins.
There is hope of getting a fortune without digging in these quarries.
_Sed meliore (in omne) ingenio animoque quam fortuna_, _sum usus_. {23}
"Pingue solum lassat; sed juvat ipse labor. " {24a}
_Differentia inter doctos et sciolos_. --Wits made out their several
expeditions then for the discovery of truth, to find out great and
profitable knowledges; had their several instruments for the disquisition
of arts. Now there are certain scioli or smatterers that are busy in the
skirts and outsides of learning, and have scarce anything of solid
literature to commend them. They may have some edging or trimming of a
scholar, a welt or so; but it is no more.
_Impostorum fucus_. --Imposture is a specious thing, yet never worse than
when it feigns to be best, and to none discovered sooner than the
simplest. For truth and goodness are plain and open; but imposture is
ever ashamed of the light.
_Icunculorum motio_. --A puppet-play must be shadowed and seen in the dark;
for draw the curtain, _et sordet gesticulatio_. {24b}
_Principes et administri_. --There is a great difference in the
understanding of some princes, as in the quality of their ministers about
them.
Some would dress their masters in gold, pearl, and all true jewels
of majesty; others furnish them with feathers, bells, and ribands, and
are therefore esteemed the fitter servants. But they are ever good men
that must make good the times; if the men be naught, the times will be
such. _Finis exspectandus est in unoquoque hominum_; _animali ad
mutationem promptissmo_. {25a}
_Scitum Hispanicum_. --It is a quick saying with the Spaniards, _Artes
inter haeredes non dividi_. {25b} Yet these have inherited their fathers'
lying, and they brag of it. He is a narrow-minded man that affects a
triumph in any glorious study; but to triumph in a lie, and a lie
themselves have forged, is frontless. Folly often goes beyond her
bounds; but Impudence knows none.
_Non nova res livor_. --Envy is no new thing, nor was it born only in our
times. The ages past have brought it forth, and the coming ages will.
So long as there are men fit for it, _quorum odium virtute relicta
placet_, it will never be wanting. It is a barbarous envy, to take from
those men's virtues which, because thou canst not arrive at, thou
impotently despairest to imitate. Is it a crime in me that I know that
which others had not yet known but from me? or that I am the author of
many things which never would have come in thy thought but that I taught
them? It is new but a foolish way you have found out, that whom you
cannot equal or come near in doing, you would destroy or ruin with evil
speaking; as if you had bound both your wits and natures 'prentices to
slander, and then came forth the best artificers when you could form the
foulest calumnies.
together by the ears for ceremonies, syllables, points, colons, commas,
hyphens, and the like, fighting as for their fires and their altars; and
angry that none are frighted at their noises and loud brayings under
their asses' skins.
There is hope of getting a fortune without digging in these quarries.
_Sed meliore (in omne) ingenio animoque quam fortuna_, _sum usus_. {23}
"Pingue solum lassat; sed juvat ipse labor. " {24a}
_Differentia inter doctos et sciolos_. --Wits made out their several
expeditions then for the discovery of truth, to find out great and
profitable knowledges; had their several instruments for the disquisition
of arts. Now there are certain scioli or smatterers that are busy in the
skirts and outsides of learning, and have scarce anything of solid
literature to commend them. They may have some edging or trimming of a
scholar, a welt or so; but it is no more.
_Impostorum fucus_. --Imposture is a specious thing, yet never worse than
when it feigns to be best, and to none discovered sooner than the
simplest. For truth and goodness are plain and open; but imposture is
ever ashamed of the light.
_Icunculorum motio_. --A puppet-play must be shadowed and seen in the dark;
for draw the curtain, _et sordet gesticulatio_. {24b}
_Principes et administri_. --There is a great difference in the
understanding of some princes, as in the quality of their ministers about
them.
Some would dress their masters in gold, pearl, and all true jewels
of majesty; others furnish them with feathers, bells, and ribands, and
are therefore esteemed the fitter servants. But they are ever good men
that must make good the times; if the men be naught, the times will be
such. _Finis exspectandus est in unoquoque hominum_; _animali ad
mutationem promptissmo_. {25a}
_Scitum Hispanicum_. --It is a quick saying with the Spaniards, _Artes
inter haeredes non dividi_. {25b} Yet these have inherited their fathers'
lying, and they brag of it. He is a narrow-minded man that affects a
triumph in any glorious study; but to triumph in a lie, and a lie
themselves have forged, is frontless. Folly often goes beyond her
bounds; but Impudence knows none.
_Non nova res livor_. --Envy is no new thing, nor was it born only in our
times. The ages past have brought it forth, and the coming ages will.
So long as there are men fit for it, _quorum odium virtute relicta
placet_, it will never be wanting. It is a barbarous envy, to take from
those men's virtues which, because thou canst not arrive at, thou
impotently despairest to imitate. Is it a crime in me that I know that
which others had not yet known but from me? or that I am the author of
many things which never would have come in thy thought but that I taught
them? It is new but a foolish way you have found out, that whom you
cannot equal or come near in doing, you would destroy or ruin with evil
speaking; as if you had bound both your wits and natures 'prentices to
slander, and then came forth the best artificers when you could form the
foulest calumnies.
