L’INCONSTANCE du bransle diuers de la fortune, fait qu’elle nous doiue presenter toute espece de visages.
THE inconstancy of fortune’s shifting motion means that she is bound to show us every kind of face.
Y a il action de iustice plus expresse que celle cy? Le Duc de Valentinois ayant resolu d’empoisonner Adrian Cardinal de Cornete, chez qui le Pape Alexandre sixiesme son pere, et luy alloyent soupper au Vatican: enuoya deuant, quelque bouteille de vin empoisonné, et commanda au sommelier qu’il la gardast bien soigneusement: le Pape y estant arriué auant le fils, et ayant demandé à boire, ce sommelier, qui pensoit ce vin ne luy auoir esté recommandé que pour sa bonté, en seruit au Pape, et le Duc mesme y arriuant sur le point de la collation, et se fiant qu’on n’auroit pas touché à sa bouteille, en prit à son tour; en maniere que le Pere en mourut soudain, et le fils apres auoir esté longuement tourmenté de maladie, fut reserué à vn’ autre pire fortune.
Is there any act of justice more express than this? The Duke of Valentinois had resolved to poison Adrian, Cardinal of Corneto, with whom he and his father, Pope Alexander VI, were going to dine at the Vatican. He sent ahead a bottle of poisoned wine and ordered the butler to guard it very carefully. The Pope arrived before his son and asked for a drink; the butler, who thought the wine had been entrusted to him only for its quality, served some of it to the Pope. And the Duke himself, arriving just at the time of the meal and trusting that no one would have touched his bottle, drank some in his turn. So the father died suddenly, and the son, after being tormented by illness for a long time, was kept for another, worse fortune.
Quelquefois il semble à point nommé qu’elle se ioüe à nous. Le Seigneur d’Estree, lors guidon de Monsieur de Vandosme, et le Seigneur de Liques, Lieutenant de la compagnie du Duc d’Ascot, estans tous deux seruiteurs de la sœur du Sieur de Foungueselles, quoi que de diuers partis (comme il aduient aux voisins de la frontiere) le Sieur de Licques l’emporta: mais le mesme iour des nopces, et qui pis est, auant le coucher, le marié ayant enuie de rompre vn bois en faueur de sa nouuelle espouse, sortit à l’escarmouche pres de S.
Sometimes she seems to play tricks on us on purpose. The Seigneur d’Estrées, then standard-bearer to Monsieur de Vendôme, and the Seigneur de Licques, lieutenant of the Duke of Aerschot’s company, were both suitors of the sister of the Sieur de Foungueselles, though they were of different parties (as happens with neighbors on the frontier). The Sieur de Licques won her; but on the very day of the wedding, and what is worse, before the wedding night, the bridegroom, wanting to break a lance in honor of his new bride, went out to skirmish near Saint-
Omer, où le Sieur d’Estree se trouuant le plus fort, le feit son prisonnier: et pour faire valoir son aduantage, encore fallut-il que la Damoiselle, Coniugis antè coacta noui dimittere collum, / Quàm veniens vna atque altera rursus hyems / Noctibus in longis auidum saturasset amorem, luy fist elle mesme requeste par courtoisie de luy rendre son prisonnier: comme il fit, la noblesse Françoise, ne refusant iamais rien aux Dames.
Omer, where the Sieur d’Estrées, proving the stronger, took him prisoner. And to make the most of his advantage, the young lady, Forced to let go of her new husband’s neck / Before one winter, and then another, coming round / Had sated her eager love in the long nights, had to come herself and beg him, as a courtesy, to hand over his prisoner to her. This he did, for French nobility never refuses ladies anything.
Semble-il pas que ce soit vn sort artiste? Constantin fils d’Helene fonda l’Empire de Constantinople: et tant de siecles apres Constantin fils d’Helene le finit. Quelquefois il luy plaist enuier sur nos miracles. Nous tenons que le Roy Clouis assiegeant Angoulesme, les murailles cheurent d’elles mesmes par faueur diuine. Et Bouchet emprunte de quelqu’autheur, que le Roy Robert assiegeant vne ville, et s’estant desrobé du siege, pour aller à Orleans solemnizer la feste Sainct Aignan, comme il estoit en deuotion, sur certain point de la Messe, les murailles de la ville assiegee, s’en allerent sans aucun effort en ruine.
Does it not seem like a fate with an artist’s touch? Constantine, son of Helena, founded the Empire of Constantinople; and so many centuries later Constantine, son of Helena, brought it to an end. Sometimes she likes to outdo our miracles. We hold that when King Clovis was besieging Angoulême, the walls fell of their own accord by divine favor. And Bouchet takes from some author the story that King Robert, besieging a town, slipped away from the siege to go to Orléans to celebrate the feast of Saint Aignan; and while he was at his devotions, at a certain point in the Mass, the walls of the besieged town fell into ruin without any effort.
Elle fit tout à contrepoil en nos guerres de Milan: car le Capitaine Rense assiegeant pour nous la ville d’Eronne, et ayant faict mettre la mine soubs vn grand pan de mur, et le mur en estant brusquement enleué hors de terre, recheut toutes-fois tout empenné, si droit dans son fondement, que les assiegez n’en vausirent pas moins.
She did just the opposite in our wars in Milan. Captain Renzo, besieging the town of Arona for us, had a mine laid under a great stretch of wall; and the wall, abruptly lifted off the ground, nevertheless fell back all in one piece, so squarely onto its foundation that the besieged were none the worse for it.
Quelquefois elle fait la medecine. Iason Phereus estant abandonné des medecins, pour vne aposteme, qu’il auoit dans la poitrine, ayant enuie de s’en défaire, au moins par la mort, se ietta en vne bataille à corps perdu dans la presse des ennemis, où il fut blessé à trauers le corps, si à point, que son aposteme en creua, et guerit. Surpassa elle pas le peintre Protogenes en la science de son art?
Sometimes she plays the doctor. Jason of Pherae, given up by the physicians because of an abscess in his chest, and wanting to be rid of it, at least by death, threw himself recklessly into the thick of the enemy in a battle, where he was wounded right through the body so aptly that his abscess burst and he was cured. Did she not surpass the painter Protogenes in the mastery of his art?
Cettuy-cy ayant parfaict l’image d’vn chien las et recreu, à son contentement en toutes les autres parties, mais ne pouuant representer à son gré l’escume et la baue, despité contre sa besongne, prit son esponge, et comme elle estoit abreuuee de diuerses peintures, la ietta contre, pour tout effacer: la fortune porta tout à propos le coup à l’endroit de la bouche du chien, et y parfournit ce à quoy l’art n’auoit peu attaindre. N’adresse elle pas quelquefois nos conseils, et les corrige?
He had finished the picture of a tired, exhausted dog, and was satisfied with it in every other respect, but could not render the foam and slaver to his liking. Vexed with his work, he took his sponge, which was soaked with various paints, and threw it at the picture to wipe everything out. Fortune carried the blow precisely to the dog’s mouth, and there completed what art had been unable to achieve. Does she not sometimes guide our plans and correct them?
Isabel Royne d’Angleterre, ayant à repasser de Zelande en son Royaume, auec vne armee, en faueur de son fils contre son mary, estoit perdue, si elle fust arriuee au port qu’elle auoit proietté, y estant attendue par ses ennemis: mais la fortune la ietta contre son vouloir ailleurs, où elle print terre en toute seureté. Et cet ancien qui ruant la pierre à vn chien, en assena et tua sa marastre, eut-il pas raison de prononcer ce vers: Ταυτοματον ἡμων καλλιω βουλευεται; La fortune a meilleur aduis que nous.
Isabella, Queen of England, had to cross back from Zeeland to her kingdom with an army, on behalf of her son and against her husband. She would have been lost if she had reached the port she had planned on, for her enemies were waiting for her there; but fortune threw her elsewhere against her will, and there she landed in complete safety. And that ancient who threw a stone at a dog and struck and killed his stepmother—was he not right to pronounce this line: Chance takes better counsel than we do? Fortune has better judgment than we have.
Icetes auoit prattiqué deux soldats, pour tuer Timoleon, seiournant à Adrane en la Sicile. Ils prindrent heure, sur le point qu’il feroit quelque sacrifice. Et se meslans parmy la multitude, comme ils se guignoyent l’vn l’autre, que l’occasion estoit propre à leur besoigne: voicy vn tiers, qui d’vn grand coup d’espee, en assene l’vn par la teste, et le rue mort par terre, et s’en fuit. Le compagnon se tenant pour descouuert et perdu, recourut à l’autel, requerant franchise, auec promesse de dire toute la verité. Ainsi qu’il faisoit le compte de la coniuration, voicy le tiers qui auoit esté attrapé, lequel comme meurtrier, le peuple pousse et saboule au trauers la presse, vers Timoleon, et les plus apparents de l’assemblee.
Hicetas had bribed two soldiers to kill Timoleon while he was staying at Adranum in Sicily. They chose their moment for when he would be performing a sacrifice. And as they were mingling with the crowd, signaling to each other that the opportunity was right for their business, along comes a third man who, with a great sword stroke, strikes one of them on the head, lays him dead on the ground, and runs off. The accomplice, thinking himself discovered and lost, ran to the altar asking for sanctuary and promising to tell the whole truth. While he was giving his account of the conspiracy, along comes the third man, who had been caught; the people, taking him for a murderer, were shoving and jostling him through the crowd toward Timoleon and the leading men of the assembly.
Là il crie mercy: et dit auoir justement tué l’assassin de son pere: verifiant sur le champ, par des tesmoings que son bon sort luy fournit, tout à propos, qu’en la ville des Leontins son pere, de vray, auoit esté tué par celuy sur lequel il s’estoit vengé. On luy ordonna dix mines Attiques, pour auoir eu cet heur, prenant raison de la mort de son pere, de retirer de mort le pere commun des Siciliens. Cette fortune surpasse en reglement, les regles de l’humaine prudence.
There he cries for mercy, and says he has justly killed his father’s murderer; and he proves on the spot, through witnesses whom his good luck supplied most opportunely, that in the town of the Leontines his father had indeed been killed by the man on whom he had taken revenge. They awarded him ten Attic minas for having had the good fortune, in avenging his father’s death, to rescue from death the common father of the Sicilians. This fortune surpasses in its ordering the rules of human prudence.
Pour la fin: en ce faict icy, se descouure il pas vne bien expresse application de sa faueur, de bonté et pieté singuliere? Ignatius Pere et fils, proscripts par les Triumuirs à Rome, se resolurent à ce genereux office, de rendre leurs vies, entre les mains l’vn de l’autre, et en frustrer la cruauté des Tyrans: ils se coururent sus, l’espee au poing: elle en dressa les pointes, et en fit deux coups esgalement mortels: et donna à l’honneur d’vne si belle amitié, qu’ils eussent iustement la force de retirer encore des playes leurs bras sanglants et armés, pour s’entrembrasser en cet estat, d’vne si forte estrainte, que les bourreaux couperent ensemble leurs deux testes, laissans les corps tousiours pris en ce noble neud; et les playes iointes, humans amoureusement, le sang et les restes de la vie, l’vne de l’autre.
To finish: in this case, do we not see a very express application of her favor, of singular goodness and piety? The Ignatii, father and son, proscribed at Rome by the triumvirs, resolved on this generous office: to give up their lives into each other’s hands, and so cheat the cruelty of the tyrants. They ran at each other, sword in hand. She guided the points and made of them two equally mortal blows; and she granted to the honor of so beautiful a friendship that they had just enough strength left to pull their bloody arms, swords still in hand, out of the wounds, and to embrace each other in that state, so tightly that the executioners cut off both their heads together, leaving the bodies still held in that noble knot, and their wounds joined, lovingly drinking in each other’s blood and the last of each other’s life.