Scilicet vltima semper / Expectanda dies homini est, dicique beatus / Ante obitum nemo supremáque funera debet.
Truly, a man must always await / his last day, and no one ought to be called happy / before his death and his final funeral rites.
Les enfans sçauent le conte du Roy Crœsus à ce propos: lequel ayant esté pris par Cyrus, et condamné à la mort, sur le point de l’execution, il s’escria, O Solon, Solon: cela rapporté à Cyrus, et s’estant enquis que c’estoit à dire, il luy fit entendre, qu’il verifioit lors à ses despends l’aduertissement qu’autrefois luy auoit donné Solon: que les hommes, quelque beau visage que fortune leur face, ne se peuuent appeller heureux, iusques à ce qu’on leur ayt veu passer le dernier iour de leur vie, pour l’incertitude et varieté des choses humaines, qui d’vn bien leger mouuement se changent d’vn estat en autre tout diuers.
Children know the story of King Croesus on this subject. Taken prisoner by Cyrus and condemned to death, he cried out at the moment of execution: “O Solon, Solon!” When this was reported to Cyrus and he asked what it meant, Croesus explained that he was now proving, at his own expense, the warning Solon had once given him: that men, however fair a face Fortune shows them, cannot call themselves happy until they have been seen to pass the last day of their lives, because of the uncertainty and changeability of human affairs, which with a very slight movement shift from one state to another quite different.
Et pourtant Agesilaus, à quelqu’vn qui disoit heureux le Roy de Perse, de ce qu’il estoit venu fort ieune à vn si puissant estat: Ouy-mais, dit-il, Priam en tel aage ne fut pas malheureux. Tantost des Roys de Macedoine, successeurs de ce grand Alexandre, il s’en faict des menuysiers et greffiers à Rome: des tyrans de Sicile, des pedants à Corinthe: d’vn conquerant de la moitié du monde, et Empereur de tant d’armees, il s’en faict vn miserable suppliant des belitres officiers d’vn Roy d’Ægypte: tant cousta à ce grand Pompeius la prolongation de cinq ou six mois de vie.
And so Agesilaus, when someone called the King of Persia happy for having come so young to so mighty a throne, said: “Yes, but Priam at that age was not unhappy.” We see kings of Macedonia, successors of the great Alexander, turned into carpenters and clerks in Rome; tyrants of Sicily into schoolmasters at Corinth; the conqueror of half the world and commander of so many armies into a wretched suppliant of the beggarly officers of a king of Egypt. That is what five or six more months of life cost the great Pompey.
Et du temps de nos Peres ce Ludouic Sforce dixiesme Duc de Milan, soubs qui auoit si long temps branslé toute l’Italie, on l’a veu mourir prisonnier à Loches: mais apres y auoir vescu dix ans, qui est le pis de son marché. La plus belle Royne, vefue du plus grand Roy de la Chrestienté, vient elle pas de mourir par la main d’vn Bourreau? indigne et barbare cruauté! Et mille tels exemples. Car il semble que comme les orages et tempestes se piquent contre l’orgueil et hautaineté de nos bastimens, il y ayt aussi là haut des esprits enuieux des grandeurs de ça bas.
And in our fathers’ time, Ludovico Sforza, tenth Duke of Milan, under whom all Italy had so long been shaken, was seen to die a prisoner at Loches—but only after living there ten years, which was the worst of his bargain. Has not the most beautiful queen, widow of the greatest king in Christendom, just died at the hands of an executioner? Unworthy and barbarous cruelty! And a thousand such examples. For it seems that, just as storms and tempests take offense at the pride and loftiness of our buildings, there are also spirits up above who are envious of greatness here below.
Vsque adeò res humanas vis abdita quædam / Obterit, et pulchros fasces sæuásque secures / Proculcare, ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur. Et semble que la fortune quelquefois guette à point nommé le dernier iour de nostre vie, pour montrer sa puissance, de renuerser en vn moment ce qu’elle auoit basty en longues annees; et nous fait crier apres Laberius, Nimirum hac die vna plus vixi mihi, quàm viuendum fuit.
So true is it that some hidden power crushes human affairs / and seems to trample on the splendid rods and cruel axes / and make sport of them. And it seems that Fortune sometimes lies in wait for precisely the last day of our lives, to show her power to overturn in a moment what she had built over long years; and she makes us cry out with Laberius: Clearly, on this one day I have lived one day longer than I should have.
Ainsi se peut prendre auec raison, ce bon aduis de Solon. Mais d’autant que c’est vn Philosophe, à l’endroit desquels les faueurs et disgraces de la fortune ne tiennent rang, ny d’heur ny de malheur, et sont les grandeurs, et puissances, accidens de qualité à peu pres indifferente, ie trouue vray-semblable, qu’il ayt regardé plus auant; et voulu dire que ce mesme bon-heur de nostre vie, qui dépend de la tranquillité et contentement d’vn esprit bien né, et de la resolution et asseurance d’vne ame reglee ne se doiue iamais attribuer à l’homme, qu’on ne luy ayt veu ioüer le dernier acte de sa comedie: et sans doute le plus difficile.
So Solon’s good advice may reasonably be taken in this way. But he is a philosopher, and for philosophers the favors and disgraces of Fortune rank as neither good fortune nor bad, and greatness and power are accidents of almost indifferent quality. So I find it likely that he looked further, and meant that this same happiness of our life, which depends on the tranquility and contentment of a well-born spirit and on the resolution and assurance of a well-ordered soul, should never be attributed to a man until he has been seen to play the last act of his play—and doubtless the hardest.
En tout le reste il y peut auoir du masque: ou ces beaux discours de la Philosophie ne sont en nous que par contenance, ou les accidens ne nous essayant pas iusques au vif, nous donnent loisir de maintenir tousiours nostre visage rassis. Mais à ce dernier rolle de la mort et de nous, il n’y a plus que faindre, il faut parler François; il faut montrer ce qu’il y a de bon et de net dans le fond du pot. Nam veræ voces tum demum pectore ab imo / Eiiciuntur, et eripitur persona, manet res. Voyla pourquoy se doiuent à ce dernier traict toucher et esprouuer toutes les autres actions de nostre vie.
In everything else there may be some mask. Either those fine reasonings of philosophy are only a pose with us, or our misfortunes, not testing us to the quick, give us leisure to keep our faces always composed. But in this last scene, between death and ourselves, there is no more pretending. We must speak plain French; we must show what is good and clean at the bottom of the pot. For only then are true words drawn from the depths of the heart; / the mask is torn away, the reality remains. That is why all the other actions of our life must be tried and tested against this final stroke.
C’est le maistre iour, c’est le iour iuge de tous les autres: c’est le iour, dict vn ancien, qui doit iuger de toutes mes années passées. Ie remets à la mort l’essay du fruict de mes estudes. Nous verrons là si mes discours me partent de la bouche, ou du cœur.
It is the master day, the day that judges all the others. It is the day, says one of the ancients, that must judge all my past years. I leave it to death to test the fruit of my studies. We shall see then whether my reasonings come from my mouth or from my heart.
I’ay veu plusieurs donner par leur mort reputation en bien ou en mal, à toute leur vie. Scipion beau-pere de Pompeius rabilla en bien mourant la mauuaise opinion qu’on auoit eu de luy iusques alors. Epaminondas interrogé lequel des trois il estimoit le plus, ou Chabrias, ou Iphicrates, ou soy-mesme: Il nous faut voir mourir, fit-il, auant que d’en pouuoir resoudre. De vray on desroberoit beaucoup à celuy là, qui le poiseroit sans l’honneur et grandeur de sa fin. Dieu l’a voulu comme il luy a pleu: mais en mon temps trois les plus execrables personnes, que ie cogneusse en toute abomination de vie, et les plus infames, ont eu des morts reglées, et en toute circonstance composées iusques à la perfection.
I have seen many men give their whole lives a good or a bad reputation by their death. Scipio, Pompey’s father-in-law, by dying well repaired the poor opinion people had had of him until then. Epaminondas, asked which of three men he esteemed most, Chabrias, Iphicrates or himself, said: “You must see us die before you can decide.” Indeed, we would rob that man of a great deal if we weighed him without the honor and greatness of his end. God has willed it as he pleased; but in my time three of the most execrable and infamous people I have known, steeped in every abomination of life, have had well-ordered deaths, composed to perfection in every circumstance.
Il est des morts braues et fortunées. Ie luy ay veu trancher le fil d’vn progrez de merueilleux auancement, et dans la fleur de son croist, à quelqu’vn, d’vne fin si pompeuse, qu’à mon aduis ses ambitieux et courageux desseins n’auoient rien de si hault que fut leur interruption. Il arriua sans y aller, où il pretendoit, plus grandement et glorieusement, que ne portoit son desir et esperance. Et deuança par sa cheute, le pouuoir et le nom, où il aspiroit par sa course. Au iugement de la vie d’autruy, ie regarde tousiours comment s’en est porté le bout, et des principaux estudes de la mienne, c’est qu’il se porte bien, c’est à dire quietement et sourdement.
There are gallant and fortunate deaths. I have seen death cut the thread of one man’s marvelous rise, in the very flower of his growth, with so splendid an end that in my opinion his ambitious and courageous designs had nothing so lofty about them as their interruption. Without going there, he arrived where he was aiming, more grandly and gloriously than his desire and hope had reached. By his fall he outstripped the power and the name he was aspiring to in his course. In judging another man’s life, I always look at how its end went; and one of my main concerns for my own is that its end go well—that is to say, quietly and without fuss.