head, and then to be persuaded by his judicious friends,
to give ear to their good counsel and advice, and
wisely to consider, how much he discredits himself,
his friends, dishonours his children, disgraceth his
family, publisheth his shame, and as a trumpeter of
his own misery, divulgeth, macerates, grieves himself
and others; what an argument of weakness it is, how
absurd a thing in its own nature, how ridiculous, how
brutish a passion, how sottish, how odious; for as
[6172]Hierome well hath it, Odium sui facit, et
ipse novissime sibi odio est, others hate him,
and at last he hates himself for it; how harebrain
a disease, mad and furious. If he will but hear
them speak, no doubt he may be cured. [6173]Joan, queen
of Spain, of whom I have formerly spoken, under pretence
of changing air was sent to Complutum, or Alcada de
las Heneras, where Ximenius the archbishop of Toledo
then lived, that by his good counsel (as for the present
she was) she might be eased. [6174]"For a disease
of the soul, if concealed, tortures and overturns
it, and by no physic can sooner be removed than by
a discreet man’s comfortable speeches.”
I will not here insert any consolatory sentences to
this purpose, or forestall any man’s invention,
but leave it every one to dilate and amplify as he
shall think fit in his own judgment: let him
advise with Siracides cap. 9. 1. “Be not
jealous over the wife of thy bosom;” read that
comfortable and pithy speech to this purpose of Ximenius,
in the author himself, as it is recorded by Gomesius;
consult with Chaloner lib. 9. de repub. Anglor.
or Caelia in her epistles, &c. Only this I will
add, that if it be considered aright, which causeth
this jealous passion, be it just or unjust, whether
with or without cause, true or false, it ought not
so heinously to be taken; ’tis no such real
or capital matter, that it should make so deep a wound.
’Tis a blow that hurts not, an insensible smart,
grounded many times upon false suspicion alone, and
so fostered by a sinister conceit. If she be not
dishonest, he troubles and macerates himself without
a cause; or put case which is the worst, he be a cuckold,
it cannot be helped, the more he stirs in it, the
more he aggravates his own misery. How much better
were it in such a case to dissemble or contemn it?
why should that be feared which cannot be redressed?
multae tandem deposuerunt (saith [6175]Vives)
quum flecti maritos non posse vident, many
women, when they see there is no remedy, have been
pacified; and shall men be more jealous than women?
’Tis some comfort in such a case to have companions,
Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris; Who
can say he is free? Who can assure himself he
is not one de praeterito, or secure himself
de futuro? If it were his case alone,
it were hard; but being as it is almost a common calamity,
’tis not so grievously to be taken. If
a man have a lock, which every man’s key will
open, as well as his own, why should he think to keep