Hen. 8. the lives, the fafter the friends. At a tilting in Paris, to which many young noblemen were licenfed to go, Brandon overcame others every day, and one day himself, (against a gyant Almain) where the lords looked not on him with more envious, than the ladies with gracious eyes; who (faith my author) darted more glances in love, than the other did fpears in anger against him. He is the compleat courtier, in whom beauty and valour, Mars and Venus, are joined in one happy constitution, which awes and allures beholders. Being employed to bring over queen Mary, king Lewis the twelfth's relict, to her brother, he won her to himself: whether his affections were fo ambitious as to climb up to her, or hers fo humble as to condefcend to him, may be the fubject of a more amorous difcourfe: and confidering with himself that matters of this nature are never fure till finished, that fo royal an opportunity happened but feldome, and that leave for fuch an enterprize was easier gained when it's done, than when doing; he humbly requested his majesty to give way to that match, which was indeed already concluded: who, after fome ftate-difcontent, was quickly pleased; the duke being no less esteemed by him for many years, than he was beloved by the people. His genius was more martial than mercurial; and we hear of him oftner in the French wars, than in the English councils. And in both, his plain overtures went farther than others fair harangues; because these only hovered in mens fancies, thofe came home to mens bufinefs and bofoms. He wondered at the 14 men men that pleased themselves in the liberty of gid- Hen. 8 dy fancies; and dreaded the ties of a fixed beleif, for the publick good, not his own advantage, affecting (as one faid well) free will in thinking, as well as in acting; and at the new difcourfing wits, that were as unfettled, though not fo rational as the old fcepticks, until he confidered the difficulty of difcerning truth; the hardship of confining the quick-filver thoughts within the limits it prefcribeth, or fubmitting them to the burthen it impofeth. "One of the "latter fchools of the Grecians examineth the "matter, [it is the lord Verulum's obfervation] " and is at a stand to think what fhould be in "it, that men fhould love lies; where neither "they make for pleasure as with poets; nor for "advantage as with the merchant, but for the "lies fake. But I cannot tell why, this fame "truth is a naked and open day-light, that "doeth not shew the mafques and mummeries, " and triumphs of the prefent world halfe fo stately and daintily as candlelights: truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl that "fheweth beft by day; but it will not rife to "the price of a diamond or carbuncle that "fheweth beft in varied lights: a mixture of "lies doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man "doubt that if there were taken of mens minds "vain opinions, flattering hopes, falfe valua"tions, imaginations as one would, and the "like vinum demonum, as a father calls poetry, "but it would leave the minds of a number of "men, poor fhrunken things, full of melancholy, and indifpofition, and unpleafing to them 66 "felves." * An Infernal Potion. "Clear Hen. 8. 66 66 "Clear and round dealing, this noble man's temper, is the honour of man's nature; and "that mixture of falfehood is like allay in coyn of gold and filver, which may make the "metal work the better, but embafeth it." For thefe winding and crooked courts are the goings of the ferpent, which goeth bafely upon the belly, and not upon the foot. There is nothing of fo ill confequence to the publick, as falfehood or (fpeech being the currant coyn of converfe) the putting falfe money upon the world; or of fo much prejudice to a man's own intereft, as perfidioufnefs which weakeneth his great fecurity, which ftands by him when his estate and friends cannot; or fo dark a blot as diffembling, which, as Montaign faith prettily, is only to be brave towards God, and a coward towards man : for a lye faceth God, and fhrinketh from man. His heart was too ftout, and his head too clear to use those arts of clofenefs and diffimulation, which those need who have not judgment and wit enough to difcern all the circumstances of an affair, fo as to know when to tell a truth; nor courage and valour enough to look in the face of all the confequences of a bufinefs, fo as to own it: a man better made for the open arts, and generous policy of H. 8. than the fufpicious clofenefs, and the wary reservedness of H. 7. His father loft his life in completing the union of roses, I mean York and Lancafter and he in beginning the union of kingdoms, viz. England and Scotland by treaty; and England and France by war: he being the first that durft fasten the royal standard in the fides of Bul leign; and the laft that advanced the St. George Hen. 8. in the middle of it, both taking and governing it. The greatest thing that ever that age faw, was, if we believe Sleidan, the delivery of the keys of Bulleign by a French governour to the duke of Suffolk's hand; and the greatest thing king H. 8. faw, he faith, was the delivery of those keys by the duke, into his hand: infomuch that defpairing of greater, the one died that year, the other the next. Queen Elizabeth being to employ a famous embaffage into France, made choice of two of the noblest peers of her realm; equal in rank, equal in virtue: but the one excused it by a defect in his hearing, and the other by an ignorance and want of the French language. To which the queen fmilingly replied: that it was a miferable eftate when her fpeaking peers were deaf, and her hearing peers were dumb. Our duke used to complain, that two of the most eminent men in the council in his time, had two different, but unhappy, qualities: the one a well-fpoken man, had fuch a humour, that he pretended he understood hardly any body; the other a perfon of an excellent judgment, but fpeaking fo darkly that hardly any body underftood him. He avoided two things, firft, catching too foon at an offence: fecondly, yeilding too easie a way to anger; the one fhewing a weak judgment, the other a perverse nature: which rendereth great men as ridiculous, as it did the ambaffadors of Spain and Venice, who drew blood from one another in the most auguft affembly at the coronation of K. H. 4ths. queen Hen. 8. in France, because one of them ufed the word excellency instead of the word Seigniory. But in these cafes he obferved the roman difcipline * nec fequi, nec fugere, to be more prudent than to catch at such trifling cavils: and more courageous than to fhun, if they were offered to him being very cautious alfo in mentioning the name of God in fmall matters [nec deus Interfit nifi dignus vindice nodus, Inciderit.] and more willing to build his refolution on the experience of former ages, than his own thought; being very unwilling to be of the number of thofe people, who, like the Chinois, think they have two eyes; their friends, as thofe think of the Europeans, one; and other men, as they think of the reft, blind. Being vexed with the delays at Rome, and the delufions at Bridewel, (where the cardina's proceeded according to their inftructions at Rome), one day he knocks on the table in the prefence of the two cardina's, and binds it with an oath, that it was never well in England fince cardinals had any thing to do therein: and from that time forward, as an active instrument, he endeavoured the abolishing of the pope's power in England; against whom he was not more active in the parliament 1534, than he was vigilant in the committee, 1535: in the one, cutting off the head: in other, weakening the members of that church. He made provident, yet moderate ufe of his master's favours; thereby obliging others, and fecuring himself, being above * Neither to follow nor fly. Nor let a God in perfon ftand difplay'd mer Francis's Hor. Art. Poet. 191. |