SI philosopher c’est douter, comme ils disent, à plus forte raison niaiser et fantastiquer, comme ie fais, doit estre doubter: car c’est aux apprentifs à enquerir et à debatre, et au cathedrant de resoudre. Mon cathedrant, c’est l’authorité de la volonté diuine qui nous regle sans contredit, et qui a son rang au dessus de ces humaines et vaines contestations.
IF to philosophize is to doubt, as they say, then all the more must trifling and indulging fancies, as I do, be doubting; for it is for apprentices to inquire and debate, and for the master in the chair to resolve. My master in the chair is the authority of the divine will, which governs us beyond dispute and holds its rank above these vain human contentions.
Philippus estant entré à main armée au Peloponese, quelcun disoit à Damidas, que les Lacedemoniens auroient beaucoup à souffrir, s’ils ne se remettoient en sa grace: Et poltron, respondit-il, que peuuent souffrir ceux qui ne craignent point la mort? On demandoit aussi à Agis, comment vn homme pourroit viure libre, Mesprisant, dit-il, le mourir.
When Philip had entered the Peloponnese in arms, someone was saying to Damidas that the Lacedaemonians would have much to suffer if they did not get back into his good graces. “Why, coward,” he replied, “what can they suffer who do not fear death?” Someone also asked Agis how a man could live free. “By despising death,” he said.
Ces propositions et mille pareilles qui se rencontrent à ce propos, sonnent euidemment quelque chose au delà d’attendre patiemment la mort, quand elle nous vient: car il y a en la vie plusieurs accidens pires à souffrir que la mort mesme: tesmoing cet enfant Lacedemonien, pris par Antigonus, et vendu pour serf, lequel pressé par son maistre de s’employer à quelque seruice abiect, Tu verras, dit-il, qui tu as acheté, ce me seroit honte de seruir, ayant la liberté si à main: et ce disant, se precipita du haut de la maison. Antipater menassant asprement les Lacedemoniens, pour les renger à certaine sienne demande: Si tu nous menasses de pis que la mort, respondirent-ils, nous mourrons plus volontiers.
These propositions, and a thousand like them that one comes across on this subject, clearly ring of something beyond waiting patiently for death when it comes to us; for there are in life many accidents worse to endure than death itself. Witness that Lacedaemonian boy, captured by Antigonus and sold as a slave, who, being pressed by his master to take on some menial service, said: “You will see whom you have bought; it would be a shame for me to serve, with freedom so close at hand”; and so saying, he threw himself from the top of the house. When Antipater was harshly threatening the Lacedaemonians to bring them round to a certain demand of his, they replied: “If you threaten us with worse than death, we shall die all the more willingly.”
Et à Philippus leur ayant escrit, qu’il empescheroit toutes leurs entreprinses, Quoy? nous empescheras tu aussi de mourir?
And to Philip, who had written to them that he would thwart all their undertakings: “What? Will you also prevent us from dying?”
C’est ce qu’on dit, que le sage vit tant qu’il doit, non pas tant qu’il peut; et que le present que Nature nous ait faict le plus fauorable, et qui nous oste tout moyen de nous pleindre de nostre condition, c’est de nous auoir laissé la clef des champs. Elle n’a ordonné qu’vne entrée à la vie, et cent mille yssuës. Nous pouuons auoir faute de terre pour y viure, mais de terre pour y mourir, nous n’en pouuons auoir faute, comme respondit Boiocatus aux Romains. Pourquoy te plains tu de ce monde? il ne te tient pas: si tu vis en peine, ta lascheté en est cause: A mourir il ne reste que le vouloir. *Vbique mors est: optimè hoc cauit Deus.
This is what is meant by the saying that the wise man lives as long as he ought, not as long as he can; and that the most favorable gift Nature has given us, and the one that takes away all grounds for complaining of our condition, is to have left us the key to the fields. She has ordained only one entrance into life, and a hundred thousand exits. We may lack land to live on, but land to die in we cannot lack, as Boiocalus answered the Romans. Why do you complain of this world? It does not hold you: if you live in pain, your cowardice is the cause. To die, nothing is needed but the will. *Death is everywhere: God has provided well for that.
/ Eripere vitam nemo non homini potest, / At nemo mortem: mille ad hanc aditus patent.*
/ Anyone can take a man’s life from him, / But no one his death: a thousand ways lie open to it.*
Et ce n’est pas la recepte à vne seule maladie, la mort est la recepte à tous maux. C’est vn port tresasseuré, qui n’est iamais à craindre, et souuent à rechercher: tout reuient à vn, que l’homme se donne sa fin, ou qu’il la souffre, qu’il coure au deuant de son iour, ou qu’il l’attende. D’où qu’il vienne c’est tousiours le sien. En quelque lieu que le filet se rompe, il y est tout, c’est le bout de la fusée. La plus volontaire mort, c’est la plus belle. La vie despend de la volonté d’autruy, la mort de la nostre. En aucune chose nous ne deuons tant nous accommoder à nos humeurs, qu’en celle-là.
And it is not the remedy for one illness only: death is the remedy for all ills. It is a very safe harbor, never to be feared and often to be sought. It all comes to the same, whether a man gives himself his end or suffers it, whether he runs ahead of his day or waits for it. Wherever it comes from, it is always his own. Wherever the thread breaks, that is all of it: it is the end of the spool. The most voluntary death is the finest. Life depends on the will of others; death on our own. In nothing should we accommodate ourselves to our own temperament so much as in that.
La reputation ne touche pas vne telle entreprise, c’est folie d’en auoir respect. Le viure, c’est seruir, si la liberté de mourir en est à dire. Le commun train de la guerison se conduit aux despens de la vie: on nous incise, on nous cauterise, on nous detranche les membres, on nous soustrait l’aliment, et le sang: vn pas plus outre, nous voyla gueris tout à faict. Pourquoy n’est la veine du gosier autant à nostre commandement que la mediane? Aux plus fortes maladies les plus forts remedes. Seruius le Grammairien ayant la goutte, n’y trouua meilleur conseil, que de s’appliquer du poison à tuer ses iambes: qu’elles fussent podagres à leur poste, pourueu qu’elles fussent insensibles.
Reputation has no bearing on such an undertaking; it is folly to pay it any regard. Living is slavery if the freedom to die is lacking. The common course of healing is carried on at the expense of life: they cut into us, they cauterize us, they lop off our limbs, they withdraw our food and our blood; one step further, and there we are, cured altogether. Why is the vein in our throat not as much at our command as the median vein? For the strongest diseases, the strongest remedies. Servius the grammarian, having gout, found no better counsel than to apply poison to kill his legs: let them be gouty as they pleased, so long as they felt nothing.
Dieu nous donne assez de congé, quand il nous met en tel estat, que le viure nous est pire que le mourir. C’est foiblesse de ceder aux maux, mais c’est folie de les nourrir. Les Stoiciens disent, que c’est viure conuenablement à Nature, pour le sage, de se departir de la vie, encore qu’il soit en plein heur, s’il le faict opportunément: et au fol de maintenir sa vie, encore qu’il soit miserable, pourueu qu’il soit en la plus grande part des choses, qu’ils disent estre selon Nature.
God gives us leave enough when he puts us in such a state that living is worse for us than dying. It is weakness to give way to ills, but folly to nourish them. The Stoics say that it is living in accordance with Nature for the wise man to depart from life, even when he is in full happiness, if he does it at the right moment; and for the fool to hold on to his life, even if he is wretched, provided he is in possession of the greater part of the things they say are according to Nature.
Comme ie n’offense les loix, qui sont faictes contre les larrons, quand i’emporte le mien, et que ie coupe ma bourse: ny des boutefeuz, quand ie brusle mon bois: aussi ne suis ie tenu aux loix faictes contre les meurtriers, pour m’auoir osté ma vie. Hegesias disoit, que comme la condition de la vie, aussi la condition de la mort deuoit dependre de nostre eslection. Et Diogenes rencontrant le Philosophe Speusippus affligé de longue hydropisie, se faisant porter en littiere: qui luy escria, Le bon salut, Diogenes: A toy, point de salut, respondit-il, qui souffres le viure estant en tel estat. De vray quelque temps apres Speusippus se fit mourir, ennuié d’vne si penible condition de vie.
Just as I do not break the laws made against thieves when I carry off my own property and cut my own purse, nor those against arsonists when I burn my own wood, so I am not answerable to the laws made against murderers for having taken my own life. Hegesias said that as the condition of life, so the condition of death should depend on our choice. And Diogenes, meeting the philosopher Speusippus, who was afflicted with a long dropsy and was having himself carried in a litter, was hailed by him: “Good health, Diogenes!” “None to you,” he replied, “who put up with living in such a state.” And indeed, some time later Speusippus had himself put to death, worn down by so painful a condition of life.
The case against suicide
Many hold that we may not leave our post without God’s leave, and that enduring is braver.
Mais cecy ne s’en va pas sans contraste. Car plusieurs tiennent, que nous ne pouuons abandonner cette garnison du monde, sans le commandement expres de celuy, qui nous y a mis; et que c’est à Dieu, qui nous a icy enuoyez, non pour nous seulement, ains pour sa gloire et seruice d’autruy, de nous donner congé, quand il luy plaira, non à nous de le prendre: que nous ne sommes pas nays pour nous, ains aussi pour nostre païs: les loix nous redemandent compte de nous, pour leur interest, et ont action d’homicide contre nous. Autrement comme deserteurs de nostre charge, nous sommes punis en l’autre monde, Proxima deinde tenent mœsti loca, qui sibi lethum / Insontes peperere manu, lucémque perosi / Proiecere animas.
But this does not go unchallenged. For many hold that we cannot abandon this garrison of the world without the express command of him who placed us in it; and that it is for God, who sent us here not for ourselves alone but for his glory and the service of others, to give us leave when it pleases him, not for us to take it; that we are not born for ourselves, but also for our country. The laws call us to account for ourselves, in their own interest, and have an action for homicide against us. Otherwise, as deserters from our post, we are punished in the other world: Next, those sad ones hold the nearest places who, guiltless, / Brought death on themselves by their own hand, and, hating the light, / Flung away their lives.
Il y a bien plus de constance à vser la chaine qui nous tient, qu’à la rompre: et plus d’espreuue de fermeté en Regulus qu’en Caton. C’est l’indiscretion et l’impatience, qui nous haste le pas. Nuls accidens ne font tourner le dos à la viue vertu: elle cherche les maux et la douleur, comme son aliment. Les menasses des tyrans, les gehennes, et les bourreaux, l’animent et la viuifient. Duris vt ilex tonsa bipennibus / Nigræ feraci frondis in Algido / Per damna, per cædes, ab ipso / Ducit opes animúmque ferro. Et comme dict l’autre: Non est vt putas virtus, pater, / Timere vitam, sed malis ingentibus / Obstare, nec se vertere ac retro dare.
There is far more constancy in wearing out the chain that holds us than in breaking it, and more proof of firmness in Regulus than in Cato. It is indiscretion and impatience that hasten our steps. No accidents make living virtue turn its back: it seeks out ills and pain as its nourishment. The threats of tyrants, tortures and executioners rouse it and bring it to life. Like the holm oak lopped by hard axes / On Algidus, rich in dark foliage, / Through losses, through slaughter, from the very steel / It draws strength and spirit. And as the other says: Virtue, father, is not, as you think, / To fear life, but to stand up against great ills, / And not to turn one’s back and retreat.
/ Rebus in aduersis facile est contemnere mortem, / Fortius ille facit, qui miser esse potest.
/ In adversity it is easy to despise death; / He acts more bravely who can bear to be wretched.
C’est le rolle de la couardise, non de la vertu, de s’aller tapir dans vn creux, souz vne tombe massiue, pour euiter les coups de la Fortune. Elle ne rompt son chemin et son train, pour orage qu’il face: Si fractus illabatur orbis, / Impauidam ferient ruinæ. Le plus communement, la fuitte d’autres inconueniens, nous pousse à cettuy-cy. Voire quelquefois la fuitte de la mort, faict que nous y courons: Hic, rogo, non furor est, ne moriare, mori? Comme ceux qui de peur du precipice s’y lancent eux-mesmes. *Multos in summa pericula misit / Venturi timor ipse mali: fortissimus ille est, / Qui promptus metuenda pati, si cominus instent, / Et differre potest.
It is the part of cowardice, not of virtue, to go and crouch in a hole, under a massive tomb, to avoid the blows of Fortune. Virtue does not break off its road and its course, whatever storm may blow: Should the world break and fall upon him, / The ruins will strike him unafraid. Most commonly, it is flight from other troubles that drives us to this one. Indeed, sometimes flight from death makes us run to it: Is it not madness, I ask, to die so as not to die? Like those who for fear of the precipice throw themselves over it. *The very fear of evil to come has sent many / Into the gravest dangers: the bravest man is he / Who is ready to suffer what is to be feared, if it presses close, / And yet can put it off.
/ Vsque adeo, mortis formidine, vitæ / Percipit humanos odium, lucisque videndæ, / Vt sibi consciscant mærenti pectore lethum, / Obliti fontem curarum hunc esse timorem.*
/ So far, through fear of death, does hatred of life / And of seeing the light seize human beings, / That with grieving heart they decree their own death, / Forgetting that this fear is the source of their cares.*
Platon en ses loix ordonne sepulture ignominieuse à celuy qui a priué son plus proche et plus amy, sçauoir est soy mesme, et de la vie, et du cours des destinées, non contraint par iugement publique, ny par quelque triste et ineuitable accident de la Fortune, ny par vne honte insupportable, mais par lascheté et foiblesse d’vne ame craintiue. Et l’opinion qui desdaigne nostre vie, elle est ridicule. Car en fin c’est nostre estre, c’est nostre tout. Les choses qui ont vn estre plus noble et plus riche, peuuent accuser le nostre: mais c’est contre Nature, que nous nous mesprisons et mettons nous mesmes à nonchaloir; c’est vne maladie particuliere, et qui ne se voit en aucune autre creature, de se hayr et desdaigner.
Plato in his Laws ordains an ignominious burial for one who has deprived his nearest and dearest friend—namely himself—both of life and of the course of his destiny, not compelled by public judgment, nor by some sad and inevitable accident of Fortune, nor by unbearable shame, but by the cowardice and weakness of a fearful soul. And the opinion that disdains our life is ridiculous. For after all, it is our being, it is our all. Things that have a nobler and richer being may find fault with ours; but it is against Nature that we despise ourselves and hold ourselves of no account. It is a peculiar malady, and one not seen in any other creature, to hate and disdain oneself.
C’est de pareille vanité, que nous desirons estre autre chose, que ce que nous sommes. Le fruict d’vn tel desir ne nous touche pas, d’autant qu’il se contredit et s’empesche en soy: celuy qui desire d’estre faict d’vn homme ange, il ne faict rien pour luy. Il n’en vaudroit de rien mieux, car n’estant plus, qui se resiouyra et ressentira de cet amendement pour luy? Debet enim, miserè cui fortè ægréque futurum est, / Ipse quoque esse in eo tum tempore, cum male possit / Accidere. La securité, l’indolence, l’impassibilité, la priuation des maux de cette vie, que nous achetons au prix de la mort, ne nous apporte aucune commodité.
It is from a like vanity that we desire to be something other than what we are. The fruit of such a desire does not reach us, inasmuch as it contradicts and obstructs itself: he who desires to be turned from a man into an angel does nothing for himself. He would be none the better for it; for, being no more, who will rejoice in this improvement and feel it on his behalf? For he to whom misery and suffering are to come / Must himself also exist at that time, when ill / Can befall him. Security, freedom from pain, impassivity, the absence of the ills of this life, which we buy at the price of death, bring us no benefit.
Pour neant euite la guerre, celuy qui ne peut iouyr de la paix, et pour neant fuit la peine qui n’a de quoy sauourer le repos.
In vain does he avoid war who cannot enjoy peace; and in vain does he flee toil who has nothing with which to savor rest.
Entre ceux du premier aduis, il y a eu grand doubte sur ce, quelles occasions sont assez iustes, pour faire entrer vn homme en ce party de se tuer: ils appellent cela, ευλογον εξαγωγην. Car quoy qu’ils dient, qu’il faut souuent mourir pour causes legeres, puis que celles qui nous tiennent en vie, ne sont gueres fortes, si y faut-il quelque mesure. Il y a des humeurs fantastiques et sans discours, qui ont poussé, non des hommes particuliers seulement, mais des peuples à se deffaire.
Among those of the first opinion there has been great doubt as to what occasions are just enough to make a man take this course of killing himself. They call it a well-reasoned departure. For although they say that we must often die for slight causes, since those that keep us alive are hardly strong, still some measure is needed. There are fanciful and unreasoning moods that have driven not only individual men but whole peoples to do away with themselves.
I’en ay allegué par cy deuant des exemples: et nous lisons en outre, des vierges Milesienes, que par vne conspiration furieuse, elles se pendoient les vnes apres les autres, iusques à ce que le magistrat y pourueust, ordonnant que celles qui se trouueroyent ainsi penduës, fussent trainées du mesme licol toutes nuës par la ville.
I have cited examples of this earlier; and we read besides of the maidens of Miletus that, by a frenzied conspiracy, they hanged themselves one after another, until the magistrate took measures, ordering that any found hanged in this way should be dragged naked through the town by the same rope.
Quand Threicion presche Cleomenes de se tuer, pour le mauuais estat de ses affaires, et ayant fuy la mort plus honorable en la bataille qu’il venoit de perdre, d’accepter cette autre, qui luy est seconde en honneur, et ne donner point loisir au victorieux de luy faire souffrir ou vne mort, ou vne vie honteuse: Cleomenes d’vn courage Lacedemonien et Stoique, refuse ce conseil comme lasche et effeminé: C’est vne recepte, dit-il, qui ne me peut iamais manquer, et de laquelle il ne se faut seruir tant qu’il y a vn doigt d’esperance de reste: que le viure est quelquefois constance et vaillance: qu’il veut que sa mort mesme serue à son païs, et en veut faire vn acte d’honneur et de vertu.
Therycion urged Cleomenes to kill himself because of the bad state of his affairs: having escaped the more honorable death in the battle he had just lost, he should accept this other one, which is second to it in honor, and not give the victor the leisure to make him suffer either a shameful death or a shameful life. Cleomenes, with Lacedaemonian and Stoic courage, rejected this advice as cowardly and spineless. “It is a remedy,” he said, “that can never fail me, and one that must not be used as long as there is a finger’s breadth of hope left”; living, he said, is sometimes constancy and valor; he wanted even his death to serve his country, and meant to make it an act of honor and virtue.
Threicion se creut dés lors, et se tua. Cleomenes en fit aussi autant depuis, mais ce fut apres auoir essaié le dernier point de la Fortune.
Therycion took his own advice then and there, and killed himself. Cleomenes did the same later, but only after having tried Fortune to the very last.
Tous les inconueniens ne valent pas qu’on vueille mourir pour les euiter. Et puis y ayant tant de soudains changemens aux choses humaines, il est malaisé à iuger, à quel poinct nous sommes iustement au bout de nostre esperance: Sperat et in sæua victus gladiator arena, / Sit licet infesto pollice turba minax.
Not all troubles are worth wanting to die to escape them. And then, since there are so many sudden changes in human affairs, it is hard to judge at what point we have truly come to the end of our hope: The beaten gladiator in the cruel arena still hopes, / Though the crowd threatens him with hostile thumb.
Toutes choses, disoit vn mot ancien, sont esperables à vn homme pendant qu’il vit. Ouy mais, respond Seneca, pourquoy auray-ie plustost en la teste cela, que la Fortune peut toutes choses pour celuy qui est viuant; que cecy, que Fortune ne peut rien sur celuy qui sçait mourir? On voit Iosephe engagé en vn si apparent danger et si prochain, tout vn peuple s’estant esleué contre luy, que par discours il n’y pouuoit auoir aucune resource: toutefois estant, comme il dit, conseillé sur ce point, par vn de ses amis de se deffaire, bien luy seruit de s’opiniastrer encore en l’esperance: car la Fortune contourna outre toute raison humaine cet accident, si qu’il s’en veid deliuré sans aucun inconuenient.
“All things,” said an ancient saying, “are to be hoped for by a man while he lives.” “Yes, but,” replies Seneca, “why should I keep in mind this, that Fortune can do all things for the living, rather than that, that Fortune can do nothing against one who knows how to die?” We see Josephus caught in a danger so evident and so imminent, a whole people having risen against him, that by reasoning there could be no way out. Nevertheless, when, as he says, one of his friends advised him on this point to do away with himself, it served him well to persist in hope; for Fortune turned this accident around beyond all human reason, so that he found himself delivered from it without any harm.
Et Cassius et Brutus au contraire, acheuerent de perdre les reliques de la Romaine liberté, de laquelle ils estoient protecteurs, par la precipitation et temerité, dequoy ils se tuerent auant le temps et l’occasion. A la iournée de Serisolles Monsieur d’Anguien essaïa deux fois de se donner de l’espée dans la gorge, desesperé de la fortune du combat, qui se porta mal en l’endroit où il estoit: et cuida par precipitation se priuer de la iouyssance d’vne si belle victoire. I’ay veu cent lieures se sauuer sous les dents des leuriers: Aliquis carnifici suo superstes fuit. Multa dies variúsque labor mutabilis æui / Rettulit in melius; multos alterna reuisens / Lusit, et in solido rursus fortuna locauit.
And Cassius and Brutus, on the contrary, completed the ruin of the last remnants of Roman liberty, of which they were the protectors, by the haste and rashness with which they killed themselves before the time and occasion. At the battle of Ceresole, Monsieur d’Enghien twice tried to stab himself in the throat with his sword, despairing of the outcome of the fight, which was going badly where he was; and by his haste he nearly deprived himself of the enjoyment of so fine a victory. I have seen a hundred hares escape from right under the greyhounds’ teeth: Many a man has outlived his executioner. Time and the shifting toil of changing ages / Have often brought things to a better state; Fortune, visiting many by turns, / Has mocked them, and set them again on solid ground.
Examples of voluntary death
Peoples and individuals who chose death to escape pain, capture, dishonor or defeat.
Pline dit qu’il n’y a que trois sortes de maladie, pour lesquelles euiter on aye droit de se tuer. La plus aspre de toutes, c’est la pierre à la vessie, quand l’vrine en est retenuë. Seneque, celles seulement, qui esbranlent pour long temps les offices de l’ame. Pour euiter vne pire mort, il y en a qui sont d’aduis de la prendre à leur poste. Damocritus chef des Ætoliens mené prisonnier à Rome, trouua moyen de nuict d’eschapper. Mais suiuy par ses gardes, auant que se laisser reprendre, il se donna de l’espee au trauers le corps. Antinoüs et Theodotus, leur ville d’Epire reduitte à l’extremité par les Romains, furent d’aduis au peuple de se tuer tous.
Pliny says there are only three kinds of illness to escape which one has the right to kill oneself; the harshest of all is the stone in the bladder, when the urine is blocked by it. Seneca says only those that unsettle the functions of the soul for a long time. To avoid a worse death, some are of the opinion that one should take it at one’s own choosing. Damocritus, chief of the Aetolians, brought as a prisoner to Rome, found a way to escape by night. But, pursued by his guards, rather than let himself be recaptured, he ran his sword through his body. Antinous and Theodotus, when their city in Epirus had been reduced to extremity by the Romans, advised the people to kill themselves, all of them.
Mais le conseil de se rendre plustost, ayant gaigné, ils allerent chercher la mort, se ruants sur les ennemis, en intention de frapper, non de se couurir. L’isle de Goze forcée par les Turcs, il y a quelques années, vn Sicilien qui auoit deux belles filles prestes à marier, les tua de sa main, et leur mere apres, qui accourut à leur mort. Cela faict, sortant en ruë auec vne arbaleste et vne arquebouze, de deux coups il en tua les deux premiers Turcs, qui s’approcherent de sa porte: et puis mettant l’espée au poing, s’alla mesler furieusement, où il fut soudain enuelopé et mis en pieces: se sauuant ainsi du seruage, apres en auoir deliuré les siens.
But when the advice to surrender instead won the day, they went to seek death, hurling themselves on the enemy with the intention of striking, not of protecting themselves. When the island of Gozo was taken by the Turks a few years ago, a Sicilian who had two beautiful daughters of marriageable age killed them with his own hand, and afterward their mother, who came running at their death. That done, he went out into the street with a crossbow and an arquebus and with two shots killed the first two Turks who came near his door; and then, sword in hand, he flung himself furiously into the fray, where he was at once surrounded and cut to pieces—thus saving himself from slavery after having delivered his family from it.
Les femmes Iuifues apres auoir faict circoncire leurs enfans, s’alloient precipiter quant et eux, fuyant la cruauté d’Antiochus. On m’a compté qu’vn prisonnier de qualité, estant en nos conciergeries, ses parens aduertis qu’il seroit certainement condamné, pour euiter la honte de telle mort, aposterent vn prestre pour luy dire, que le souuerain remede de sa deliurance, estoit qu’il se recommandast à tel sainct, auec tel et tel vœu, et qu’il fust huict iours sans prendre aucun aliment, quelque deffaillance et foiblesse qu’il sentist en soy. Il l’en creut, et par ce moyen se deffit sans y penser de sa vie et du danger.
The Jewish women, after having their children circumcised, went and threw themselves headlong to their deaths together with them, fleeing the cruelty of Antiochus. I have been told that when a prisoner of rank was in our jails, his relatives, warned that he would certainly be condemned, to avoid the shame of such a death set up a priest to tell him that the sovereign remedy for his deliverance was to commend himself to such-and-such a saint, with such-and-such vows, and to go eight days without taking any food, whatever faintness and weakness he felt. He believed him, and by this means, without thinking of it, rid himself of his life and of the danger.
Scribonia conseillant Libo son nepueu de se tuer, plustost que d’attendre la main de la Iustice, luy disoit que c’estoit proprement faire l’affaire d’autruy que de conseruer sa vie, pour la remettre entre les mains de ceux qui la viendroient chercher trois ou quatre iours apres; et que c’estoit seruir ses ennemis, de garder son sang pour leur en faire curée.
Scribonia, advising her nephew Libo to kill himself rather than await the hand of justice, told him that to preserve his life only to hand it over to those who would come looking for it three or four days later was really doing someone else’s business; and that to keep his blood only to throw it to his enemies as their quarry was to serve them.
Il se lict dans la Bible, que Nicanor persecuteur de la Loy de Dieu, ayant enuoyé ses satellites pour saisir le bon vieillard Rasias, surnommé pour l’honneur de sa vertu, le Pere aux Iuifs, comme ce bon homme n’y veist plus d’ordre, sa porte bruslée, ses ennemis prests à le saisir, choisissant de mourir genereusement, plustost que de venir entre les mains des meschans, et de se laisser mastiner contre l’honneur de son rang, qu’il se frappa de son espée: mais le coup pour la haste, n’ayant pas esté bien assené, il courut se precipiter du haut d’vn mur, au trauers de la trouppe, laquelle s’escartant et luy faisant place, il cheut droictement sur la teste.
We read in the Bible that Nicanor, persecutor of the law of God, sent his henchmen to seize the good old man Razis, who was called, in honor of his virtue, the Father of the Jews. When this good man saw no other way out, his door burned, his enemies ready to seize him, he chose to die nobly rather than fall into the hands of the wicked and let himself be mauled against the honor of his rank, and he struck himself with his sword. But the blow, in his haste, was badly aimed, so he ran and threw himself from the top of a wall into the midst of the troop; and as they scattered and made way for him, he fell straight on his head.
Ce neantmoins se sentant encore quelque reste de vie, il ralluma son courage, et s’esleuant en pieds, tout ensanglanté et chargé de coups, et fauçant la presse donna iusques à certain rocher couppé et precipiteux, où n’en pouuant plus, il print par l’vne de ses playes à deux mains ses entrailles, les deschirant et froissant, et les ietta à trauers les poursuiuans, appellant sur eux et attestant la vengeance diuine.
Nevertheless, feeling some remnant of life still in him, he rekindled his courage and, rising to his feet, all covered in blood and wounds, he broke through the crowd and reached a certain steep, sheer rock. There, at the end of his strength, he seized his entrails with both hands through one of his wounds, tearing and crushing them, and threw them at his pursuers, calling down divine vengeance upon them and calling it to witness.
Des violences qui se font à la conscience, la plus à euiter à mon aduis, c’est celle qui se faict à la chasteté des femmes; d’autant qu’il y a quelque plaisir corporel, naturellement meslé parmy: et à cette cause, le dissentement n’y peut estre assez entier; et semble que la force soit meslée à quelque volonté. L’histoire Ecclesiastique a en reuerence plusieurs tels exemples de personnes deuotes qui appelerent la mort à garant contre les outrages que les tyrans preparoient à leur religion et conscience. Pelagia et Sophronia, toutes deux canonisées, celle-là se precipita dans la riuiere auec sa mere et ses sœurs, pour euiter la force de quelques soldats: et cette-cy se tua aussi pour euiter la force de Maxentius l’Empereur.
Of the violences done to conscience, the one most to be avoided, in my opinion, is that done to the chastity of women, inasmuch as some bodily pleasure is naturally mixed in with it; and for that reason the refusal cannot be complete enough, and it seems that the force is mixed with some willingness. Ecclesiastical history holds in reverence many such examples of devout persons who called on death to protect them from the outrages tyrants were preparing against their religion and conscience. Pelagia and Sophronia, both canonized: the former threw herself into the river with her mother and sisters to escape being forced by some soldiers; and the latter also killed herself to escape being forced by the Emperor Maxentius.
Il nous sera à l’aduenture honnorable aux siecles aduenir, qu’vn sçauant autheur de ce temps, et notamment Parisien, se met en peine de persuader aux Dames de nostre siecle, de prendre plustost tout autre party, que d’entrer en l’horrible conseil d’vn tel desespoir. Ie suis marry qu’il n’a sceu, pour mesler à ses comptes, le bon mot que i’apprins à Toulouse d’vne femme, passée par les mains de quelques soldats: Dieu soit loüé, disoit-elle, qu’au moins vne fois en ma vie, ie m’en suis soulée sans peché. A la verité ces cruautez ne sont pas dignes de la douceur Françoise. Aussi Dieu mercy nostre air s’en voit infiniment purgé depuis ce bon aduertissement.
It will perhaps be to our honor in centuries to come that a learned author of our time, and a Parisian at that, takes pains to persuade the ladies of our age to take any other course rather than enter into the horrible counsel of such despair. I am sorry he did not know, to put among his stories, the good saying I learned at Toulouse from a woman who had passed through the hands of some soldiers: “God be praised,” she said, “that at least once in my life I have had my fill of it without sin.” In truth these cruelties are not worthy of French gentleness. And so, thank God, our air has been infinitely purged of them since this good warning.
Suffit qu’elles dient Nenny, en le faisant, suyuant la regle du bon Marot.
It is enough for them to say “No” while doing it, following the rule of good Marot.
L’Histoire est toute pleine de ceux qui en mille façons ont changé à la mort vne vie peneuse. Lucius Aruntius se tua, pour, disoit-il, fuir et l’aduenir et le passé. Granius Siluanus et Statius Proximus, apres estre pardonnez par Neron, se tuerent: ou pour ne viure de la grace d’vn si meschant homme, ou pour n’estre en peine vne autre fois d’vn second pardon: veu sa facilité aux soupçons et accusations, à l’encontre des gents de bien. Spargapizés fils de la Royne Tomyris, prisonnier de guerre de Cyrus, employa à se tuer la premiere faueur, que Cyrus luy fit de le faire destacher: n’ayant pretendu autre fruit de sa liberté, que de venger sur soy la honte de sa prinse.
History is full of those who in a thousand ways have exchanged a painful life for death. Lucius Arruntius killed himself, as he said, to flee both the future and the past. Granius Silvanus and Statius Proximus, after being pardoned by Nero, killed themselves, either so as not to live by the grace of so wicked a man, or so as not to be troubled another time over a second pardon, given how readily he entertained suspicions and accusations against good men. Spargapises, son of Queen Tomyris, a prisoner of war of Cyrus, used the first favor Cyrus did him, that of having him unbound, to kill himself, having sought no other fruit of his freedom than to avenge on himself the shame of his capture.
Bogez gouuerneur en Eione de la part du Roy Xerxes, assiegé par l’armée des Atheniens sous la conduitte de Cimon, refusa la composition de s’en retourner seurement en Asie à tout sa cheuance, impatient de suruiure à la perte de ce que son maistre luy auoit donné en garde: et apres auoir deffendu iusqu’à l’extremité sa ville, n’y restant plus que manger, iecta premierement en la riuiere de Strymon tout l’or, et tout ce dequoy il luy sembla l’ennemy pouuoir faire plus de butin. Et puis ayant ordonné allumer vn grand bucher, et d’esgosiller femmes, enfants, concubines et seruiteurs, les meit dans le feu, et puis soy-mesme.
Boges, governor of Eion for King Xerxes, besieged by the Athenian army under the command of Cimon, refused the terms of returning safely to Asia with all his wealth, unable to bear surviving the loss of what his master had given into his keeping. After defending his town to the last extremity, with nothing left to eat, he first threw into the river Strymon all the gold and everything from which it seemed to him the enemy could make the most booty. And then, having ordered a great pyre to be lit and the women, children, concubines and servants to have their throats cut, he put them in the fire, and then himself.
Ninachetuen seigneur Indois, ayant senty le premier vent de la deliberation du vice-Roy Portugais, de le deposseder, sans aucune cause apparante, de la charge qu’il auoit en Malaca, pour la donner au Roy de Campar: print à part soy, cette resolution. Il fit dresser vn eschaffault plus long que large, appuyé sur des colomnes, royallement tapissé, et orné de fleurs, et de parfuns en abondance. Et puis, s’estant vestu d’vne robbe de drap d’or chargée de quantité de pierreries de hault prix, sortit en ruë: et par des degrez monta sur l’eschaffault en vn coing duquel il y auoit vn bucher de bois aromatiques allumé. Le monde accourut voir, à quelle fin ces preparatifs inaccoustumés.
Ninachetuen, an Indian lord, having caught the first wind of the Portuguese viceroy’s plan to strip him, without any apparent cause, of the office he held in Malacca, in order to give it to the King of Campar, came to this resolution on his own. He had a scaffold built, longer than it was wide, supported on columns, royally hung with tapestries and adorned with flowers and perfumes in abundance. Then, having dressed in a robe of cloth of gold loaded with a quantity of precious stones of great price, he went out into the street and climbed the steps up onto the scaffold, in one corner of which a pyre of aromatic wood had been lit. People came running to see what these unaccustomed preparations were for.
Ninachetuen remontra d’vn visage hardy et mal contant, l’obligation que la nation Portugaloise luy auoit: combien fidelement il auoit versé en sa charge: qu’ayant si souuent tesmoigné pour autruy, les armes à la main, que l’honneur luy estoit de beaucoup plus cher que la vie, il n’estoit pas pour en abandonner le soing pour soy mesme: que Fortune luy refusant tout moyen de s’opposer à l’iniure qu’on luy vouloit faire, son courage au moins luy ordonnoit de s’en oster le sentiment: et de ne seruir de fable au peuple, et de triomphe, à des personnes qui valoient moins que luy. Ce disant il se iecta dans le feu.
Ninachetuen, with a bold and angry face, set forth what the Portuguese nation owed him and how faithfully he had conducted himself in his office: having so often shown for others, weapons in hand, that honor was far dearer to him than life, he was not going to neglect it for himself; since Fortune denied him any means of resisting the injury they meant to do him, his courage at least commanded him to rid himself of the feeling of it, and not to become a tale for the people and a triumph for persons worth less than he. So saying, he threw himself into the fire.
Sextilia femme de Scaurus, et Paxea femme de Labeo, pour encourager leurs maris à euiter les dangers, qui les pressoient, ausquels elles n’auoyent part, que par l’interest de l’affection coniugale, engagerent volontairement la vie pour leur seruir en cette extreme necessité, d’exemple et de compagnie. Ce qu’elles firent pour leurs maris, Cocceius Nerua le fit pour sa patrie, moins vtilement, mais de pareil amour. Ce grand Iurisconsulte, fleurissant en santé, en richesses, en reputation, en credit, pres de l’Empereur, n’eut autre cause de se tuer, que la compassion du miserable estat de la chose publique Romaine. Il ne se peut rien adiouster à la delicatesse de la mort de la femme de Fuluius, familier d’Auguste.
Sextilia, the wife of Scaurus, and Paxaea, the wife of Labeo, wanted to encourage their husbands to escape the dangers pressing on them. The women had no share in those dangers except through the bond of married love, yet they willingly laid down their lives, to serve their husbands in that extreme necessity as example and as company. What they did for their husbands, Cocceius Nerva did for his country, less usefully but with equal love. This great jurist was flourishing in health, wealth, reputation and standing with the Emperor, and he had no other reason to kill himself than pity for the wretched state of the Roman commonwealth. Nothing could be more delicate than the death of the wife of Fulvius, an intimate of Augustus.
Auguste ayant descouuert, qu’il auoit esuenté vn secret important qu’il luy auoit fié: vn matin qu’il le vint voir, luy en fit vne maigre mine. Il s’en retourne au logis plain de desespoir, et dict tout piteusement à sa femme, qu’estant tombé en ce malheur, il estoit resolu de se tuer. Elle tout franchement, Tu ne feras que raison, veu qu’ayant assez souuent experimenté l’incontinance de ma langue, tu ne t’en és point donné de garde. Mais laisse, que ie me tue la premiere: et sans autrement marchander, se donna d’vne espée dans le corps.
Augustus discovered that Fulvius had let out an important secret he had confided to him, and one morning when Fulvius came to see him, he gave him a cold look. Fulvius goes back home full of despair and tells his wife, most piteously, that since he had fallen into this misfortune he was resolved to kill himself. She answered quite frankly: “You will only be doing what is right, since you have often enough experienced how loose my tongue is, and yet you did not guard against it. But let me kill myself first.” And without further haggling she ran a sword into her body.
Vibius Virius desesperé du salut de sa ville assiegée par les Romains, et de leur misericorde, en la derniere deliberation de leur Senat, apres plusieurs remonstrances employées à cette fin, conclud que le plus beau estoit d’eschapper à la Fortune par leurs propres mains. Les ennemis les en auroient en honneur, et Hannibal sentiroit de combien fideles amis il auroit abandonnés.
Vibius Virius despaired both of saving his city, which the Romans were besieging, and of their mercy. At the last deliberation of their senate, after many speeches had been made to that end, he concluded that the finest course was to escape Fortune by their own hands. The enemy would honor them for it, and Hannibal would feel how faithful were the friends he had abandoned.
Conuiant ceux qui approuueroient son aduis, d’aller prendre vn bon souper, qu’on auoit dressé chez luy, où apres auoir fait bonne chere, ils boiroyent ensemble de ce qu’on luy presenteroit; breuuage qui deliurera noz corps des tourments, noz ames des iniures, noz yeux et noz oreilles du sentiment de tant de villains maux, que les vaincus ont à souffrir des vainqueurs tres cruels et offencez. I’ay, disoit-il, mis ordre qu’il y aura personnes propres à nous ietter dans vn bucher au deuant de mon huis, quand nous serons expirez. Assez approuuerent cette haute resolution: peu l’imiterent.
He invited those who approved his advice to come and eat a good supper that had been prepared at his house. There, after a good feast, they would drink together whatever would be brought to him: “a drink that will deliver our bodies from torments, our souls from insults, our eyes and ears from witnessing all the vile evils that the vanquished must suffer from victors who are utterly cruel and have been offended. I have arranged,” he said, “for there to be suitable people to throw us onto a pyre in front of my door once we have breathed our last.” Plenty approved this lofty resolution; few imitated it.
Vingt sept Senateurs le suiuirent: et apres auoir essayé d’estouffer dans le vin cette fascheuse pensée, finirent leur repas par ce mortel mets: et s’entre-embrassans apres auoir en commun deploré le malheur de leur païs: les vns se retirerent en leurs maisons, les autres s’arresterent, pour estre enterrez dans le feu de Vibius auec luy: et eurent tous la mort si longue, la vapeur du vin ayant occupé les veines, et retardant l’effect du poison, qu’aucuns furent à vne heure pres de veoir les ennemis dans Capouë, qui fut emportée le lendemain, et d’encourir les miseres qu’ils auoyent si cherement fuy.
Twenty-seven senators followed him. After trying to drown that grim thought in wine, they ended their meal with that deadly dish. They embraced one another, after lamenting together the misfortune of their country; then some went home, while others stayed to be buried with Vibius in his fire. And all of them had so long a death, since the fumes of the wine had filled their veins and slowed the effect of the poison, that some came within an hour of seeing the enemy inside Capua, which was taken the next day, and of incurring the miseries they had fled at such cost.
Taurea Iubellius, vn autre citoyen de là, le Consul Fuluius retournant de cette honteuse boucherie qu’il auoit faicte de deux cents vingtcinq Senateurs, le rappella fierement par son nom, et l’ayant arresté: Commande, fit-il, qu’on me massacre aussi apres tant d’autres, afin que tu te puisses vanter d’auoir tué vn beaucoup plus vaillant homme que toy.
Taurea Jubellius, another citizen of that place, saw the consul Fulvius returning from the shameful butchery he had made of two hundred and twenty-five senators. He called him back proudly by name and, having stopped him, said: “Order them to slaughter me too, after so many others, so that you can boast of having killed a much braver man than yourself.”
Fuluius le desdaignant, comme insensé: aussi que sur l’heure il venoit de receuoir lettres de Rome contraires à l’inhumanité de son execution, qui luy lioient les mains: Iubellius continua: Puis que mon païs prins, mes amis morts, et ayant occis de ma main ma femme et mes enfants, pour les soustraire à la desolation de cette ruine, il m’est interdict de mourir de la mort de mes concitoyens: empruntons de la vertu la vengeance de cette vie odieuse. Et tirant vn glaiue, qu’il auoit caché, s’en donna au trauers la poictrine, tumbant renuersé, mourant aux pieds du Consul.
Fulvius disdained him as a madman; besides, he had just that moment received letters from Rome condemning the inhumanity of his executions, which tied his hands. Jubellius went on: “My country is taken, my friends are dead, and I have slain my wife and children with my own hand to spare them the desolation of this ruin. Since I am forbidden to die the death of my fellow citizens, let us take from courage our revenge on this hateful life.” And drawing a blade he had hidden, he drove it through his chest and fell backward, dying at the consul’s feet.
Alexandre assiegeoit vne ville aux Indes, ceux de dedans se trouuans pressez, se resolurent vigoureusement à le priuer du plaisir de cette victoire, et s’embraiserent vniuersellement tous, quand et leur ville, en despit de son humanité. Nouuelle guerre, les ennemis combattoient pour les sauuer, eux pour se perdre, et faisoient pour garentir leur mort, toutes les choses qu’on fait pour garentir sa vie.
Alexander was besieging a city in India. Those inside, finding themselves hard pressed, resolved vigorously to deprive him of the pleasure of this victory, and set themselves on fire, every one of them, together with their city, in defiance of his humanity. A new kind of war: the enemy fought to save them, they fought to destroy themselves, and to make sure of their death they did all the things one does to make sure of one’s life.
Astapa ville d’Espaigne se trouuant foible de murs et de deffenses, pour soustenir les Romains, les habitans firent amas de leurs richesses et meubles en la place, et ayants rengé au dessus de ce monceau les femmes et les enfants, et l’ayants entouré de bois et matiere propre à prendre feu soudainement et laissé cinquante ieunes hommes d’entre eux pour l’execution de leur resolution, feirent vne sortie, où suiuant leur vœu, à faute de pouuoir vaincre, ils se feirent tous tuer.
The Spanish city of Astapa had walls and defenses too weak to withstand the Romans. So the inhabitants heaped up their riches and goods in the public square. They placed the women and children on top of this heap and surrounded it with wood and other material that would catch fire quickly. Then, leaving fifty young men from among them to carry out their resolution, they made a sortie in which, as they had vowed, since they could not conquer, they all got themselves killed.
Les cinquante, apres auoir massacré toute ame viuante esparse par leur ville, et mis le feu en ce monceau, s’y lancerent aussi, finissants leur genereuse liberté en un estat insensible plus tost, que douloureux et honteux: et montrant aux ennemis, que si Fortune l’eust voulu, ils eussent eu aussi bien le courage de leur oster la victoire, comme ils auoient eu de la leur rendre et frustratoire et hideuse, voire et mortelle à ceux, qui amorsez par la lueur de l’or coulant en cette flamme, s’en estants approchez en bon nombre, y furent suffoquez et bruslez: le reculer leur estant interdict par la foulle, qui les suiuoit.
The fifty massacred every living soul still scattered through their city, set fire to the heap, and threw themselves into it too. So they ended their noble liberty in a state that was insensible rather than painful and shameful. They showed the enemy that, had Fortune willed it, they would have had the courage to take the victory from them, just as they had had the courage to make it both futile and hideous for them, and even deadly. For many Romans, lured by the gleam of the gold melting in that flame, came near in great numbers and were suffocated and burned there, unable to retreat because of the crowd pressing behind them.
Les Abydeens pressez par Philippus, se resolurent de mesmes: mais estans prins de trop court, le Roy qui eut horreur de voir la precipitation temeraire de cette execution (les thresors et les meubles, qu’ils auoyent diuersement condamnez au feu et au naufrage, saisis) retirant ses soldats, leur conceda trois iours à se tuer, auec plus d’ordre et plus à l’aise: lesquels ils remplirent de sang et de meurtre au delà de toute hostile cruauté: et ne s’en sauua vne seule personne, qui eust pouuoir sur soy.
The people of Abydos, hard pressed by Philip, made the same resolution. But they were caught too short. The king was horrified to see the rash haste of this execution, and once the treasures and goods they had condemned some to the fire and some to the sea had been seized, he withdrew his soldiers and granted them three days to kill themselves in better order and at greater leisure. They filled those days with blood and slaughter beyond any cruelty of an enemy, and not a single person who had power over himself escaped.
Il y a infinis exemples de pareilles conclusions populaires, qui semblent plus aspres, d’autant que l’effect en est plus vniuersel. Elles le sont moins que separées. Ce que le discours ne feroit en chacun, il le fait en tous: l’ardeur de la societé rauissant les particuliers iugements.
There are countless examples of such resolutions taken by whole peoples, which seem harsher because their effect is more universal. In fact they are less harsh than when each person acts alone. What reasoning would not achieve in each individual, it achieves in all: the ardor of the group sweeps away individual judgments.
Les condamnez qui attendoyent l’execution, du temps de Tibere, perdoyent leurs biens, et estoyent priuez de sepulture: ceux qui l’anticipoyent en se tuants eux mesmes, estoyent enterrez, et pouuoyent faire testament.
Under Tiberius, condemned men who waited for their execution lost their property and were denied burial; those who forestalled it by killing themselves were buried and could make a will.
Mais on desire aussi quelquefois la mort, pour l’esperance d’vn plus grand bien. Ie desire, dict Sainct Paul, estre dissoult, pour estre auec Iesus Christ: et, Qui me desprendra de ces liens? Cleombrotus Ambraciota ayant leu le Phædon de Platon, entra en si grand appetit de la vie aduenir, que sans autre occasion il s’alla precipiter en la mer. Par où il appert combien improprement nous appellons desespoir cette dissolution volontaire, à laquelle la chaleur de l’espoir nous porte souuent, et souuent vne tranquille et rassise inclination de iugement.
But we also sometimes desire death in the hope of a greater good. “I desire,” says Saint Paul, “to be dissolved, to be with Jesus Christ”; and “Who will deliver me from these bonds?” Cleombrotus of Ambracia, having read Plato’s Phaedo, was seized with so great an appetite for the life to come that, with no other reason, he went and threw himself into the sea. This shows how wrongly we call despair this voluntary dissolution, to which we are often carried by the warmth of hope, and often by a calm and settled inclination of our judgment.
Iacques du Chastel Euesque de Soissons, au voyage d’outremer que fit Sainct Loys, voyant le Roy et toute l’armée en train de reuenir en France, laissant les affaires de la religion imparfaictes, print resolution de s’en aller plus tost en Paradis; et ayant dict à Dieu à ses amis, donna seul à la veuë d’vn chacun, dans l’armée des ennemis, où il fut mis en pieces.
Jacques du Chastel, Bishop of Soissons, was on Saint Louis’s crusade overseas. Seeing the king and the whole army on the point of returning to France with the cause of religion left unfinished, he resolved to go off to Paradise instead. He bade farewell to his friends and charged alone, in full view of everyone, into the enemy army, where he was cut to pieces.
En certain Royaume de ces nouuelles terres, au iour d’vne solemne procession, auquel l’idole qu’ils adorent, est promenée en publicq, sur vn char de merueilleuse grandeur: outre ce qu’il se void plusieurs se detaillants les morceaux de leur chair viue, à luy offrir: il s’en void nombre d’autres, se prosternants emmy la place, qui se font mouldre et briser souz les rouës, pour en acquerir apres leur mort, veneration de saincteté, qui leur est rendue. La mort de cet Euesque les armes au poing, a de la generosité plus, et moins de sentiment: l’ardeur du combat en amusant vne partie.
In a certain kingdom of these new lands, there is a solemn procession on a day when the idol they worship is paraded in public on a chariot of marvelous size. Many people can be seen cutting pieces from their own living flesh to offer to it, and besides them a number of others can be seen throwing themselves down in the middle of the square and having themselves ground and crushed under the wheels, so as to win after their death the veneration due to holiness, which is duly paid them. The death of this bishop, weapons in hand, has more nobility and less suffering, since the heat of combat took his mind off part of it.
Il y a des polices qui se sont meslées de regler la iustice et opportunité des morts volontaires. En nostre Marseille il se gardoit au temps passé du venin preparé à tout de la cigue, aux despens publics, pour ceux qui voudroient haster leurs iours; ayants premierement approuué aux six cens, qui estoit leur Senat, les raisons de leur entreprise: et n’estoit loisible autrement que par congé du magistrat, et par occasions legitimes, de mettre la main sur soy. Cette loy estoit encor’ ailleurs.
Some governments have taken it upon themselves to regulate when voluntary deaths are just and timely. In our own Marseille, in times past, poison prepared from hemlock was kept at public expense for anyone who wished to hasten his days, once he had first justified the reasons for his undertaking to the Six Hundred, which was their senate. It was not permitted to lay hands on oneself in any other way, except by leave of the magistrate and for legitimate reasons. This law existed elsewhere too.
The old woman of Cea
Watched by Sextus Pompeius, a ninety-year-old woman calmly drinks poison among her family.
Sextus Pompeius allant en Asie, passa par l’Isle de Cea de Negrepont; il aduint de fortune pendant qu’il y estoit, comme nous l’apprend l’vn de ceux de sa compagnie, qu’vne femme de grande authorité, ayant rendu compte à ses citoyens, pourquoy elle estoit resolue de finir sa vie, pria Pompeius d’assister à sa mort, pour la rendre plus honorable: ce qu’il fit, et ayant long temps essayé pour neant, à force d’eloquence, [qui luy estoit merueilleusement à main] et de persuasion, de la destourner de ce dessein, souffrit en fin qu’elle se contentast.
Sextus Pompeius, on his way to Asia, passed through the island of Cea, near Negropont. It happened by chance while he was there, as one of his company tells us, that a woman of great standing, having explained to her fellow citizens why she had resolved to end her life, begged Pompeius to attend her death to make it more honorable. This he did. For a long time he tried in vain, by force of eloquence (which came to him wonderfully readily) and persuasion, to turn her from this plan; in the end he allowed her to have her way.
Elle auoit passé quatre vingts dix ans, en tres-heureux estat d’esprit et de corps, mais lors couchée sur son lict, mieux paré que de coustume, et appuyée sur le coude: Les Dieux, dit elle, ô Sextus Pompeius, et plustost ceux que ie laisse, que ceux que ie vay trouuer, te sçachent gré dequoy tu n’as desdaigné d’estre et conseiller de ma vie, et tesmoing de ma mort. De ma part, ayant tousiours essayé le fauorable visage de Fortune, de peur que l’enuie de trop viure ne m’en face voir vn contraire, ie m’en vay d’vne heureuse fin donner congé aux restes de mon ame, laissant de moy deux filles et vne legion de nepueux.
She was over ninety and had lived in a very happy state of mind and body. Now, lying on her bed, which was more finely decked than usual, and propped on her elbow, she said: “O Sextus Pompeius, may the gods, rather those I am leaving than those I am going to meet, reward you for not disdaining to be both the counselor of my life and the witness of my death. For my part, I have always known the favorable face of Fortune; and for fear that the desire to live too long might make me see her other face, I am going, by a happy end, to dismiss what remains of my soul, leaving behind me two daughters and a legion of grandchildren.”
Cela faict, ayant presché et enhorté les siens à l’vnion et à la paix, leur ayant departy ses biens, et recommandé les Dieux domestiques à sa fille aisnée, elle print d’vne main asseurée la coupe, où estoit le venin, et ayant faict ses vœux à Mercure, et les prieres de la conduire en quelque heureux siege en l’autre monde, auala brusquement ce mortel breuuage. Or entretint elle la compagnie, du progrez de son operation: et comme les parties de son corps se sentoyent saisies de froid l’vne apres l’autre: iusques à ce qu’ayant dict en fin qu’il arriuoit au cœur et aux entrailles, elle appella ses filles pour luy faire le dernier office, et luy clorre les yeux.
That done, she preached to her family and urged them to unity and peace, divided her goods among them, and commended the household gods to her eldest daughter. Then she took the cup containing the poison with a steady hand, made her vows to Mercury and prayed him to guide her to some happy dwelling in the other world, and briskly swallowed the deadly drink. After that she kept the company informed of how it was working, and of how the parts of her body felt the cold seize them one after another; until at last, having said that it was reaching her heart and her innards, she called her daughters to perform the last office for her and close her eyes.
Pline recite de certaine nation Hyperborée, qu’en icelle, pour la douce temperature de l’air, les vies ne se finissent communément que par la propre volonté des habitans; mais qu’estans las et saouls de viure, ils ont en coustume au bout d’vn long aage, apres auoir faict bonne chere, se precipiter en la mer, du hault d’un certain rocher, destiné à ce seruice.
Pliny tells of a certain Hyperborean nation where, thanks to the mild temperature of the air, lives commonly end only by the inhabitants’ own will. When they are weary and sated with living, at the end of a long life, it is their custom to have a good feast and then throw themselves into the sea from the top of a certain rock set aside for this purpose.
La douleur, et vne pire mort, me semblent les plus excusables incitations.
Pain, and a worse death, seem to me the most excusable incentives.