For this reason, all those that otherwise approve of jests in some cases, and facete Companions, (as who doth not?) let them laugh and be merrie, rumpantur & ilia Codro, ’tis laudable and fit, those yet will by no meanes admit them in their companies, that are any way inclined to this malady; non jocandum cum iis qui miseri sunt, & ærumnosi, no jesting with a discontented person, ’Tis Castilio’s caveat, Io. Pontanus, and Galateus, and every good mans.

Play with me, but hurt me not: Jest with me, but shame me not.

Comitas is a vertue betwixt Rusticity and Scurrility, two extremes, as Affability is betwixt Flattery and Contention, it must not exceed; but be still accompanied with that ἀβλάβεια or innocency, quæ nemini nocet, omnem injuriæ oblationem abhorrens, hurts no man, abhors all offer of injury. Though a man be liable to such a jest, or obloquie, have been overseene, or committed a foule fact, yet it is no good manners or humanity, to upbraid, to hit him in the teeth with his offence, or to scoffe at such a one; ’tis an old axiome, turpis in reum omnis exprobratio.

I speak not of such as generally taxe vice, Barclay, Gentilis, Erasmus, Agrippa, Fishcartus, &c. the Varronists and Lucians of our time, Satyrists, Epigrammatists, Comœdians, Apologists, &c. but such as personate, rayle, scoffe, calumniate, perstringe by name, or in presence offend;

Ludit qui stolidâ procacitate, Non est Sestius ille sed caballus;

’Tis horse-play this, and those jests (as he saith) are no better then injuries, biting jests, mordentes & aculeati, they are poysoned jests, leave a sting behinde them, and ought not to be used.

Set not thy foot to make the blinde to fall, Nor wilfully offend thy weaker brother: Nor wound the dead with thy tongues bitter gall, Neither rejoice thou in the fall of other.

If these rules could be kept, we should have much more ease and quietnesse then we have, lesse melancholy: whereas on the contrary, we study to misuse each other, how to sting and gaul, like two fighting bores, bending all our force and wit, friends, fortunes, to crucifie one anothers souls; by means of which, there is little content and charity, much virulency, hatred, malice, and disquietnesse among us.