There is not any slavery which these villains will not undergo. Inter illos pleriq; latrinas evacuant, alii culinariam curant, alii stabularios agunt, urinatores, & id genus similia exercent, &c. like those people that dwell in the Alps, Chimney-sweepers, Jakes-fermers, Dirt-daubers, Vagrant rogues, they labour hard some, and yet cannot get clothes to put on, or bread to eat.

For what can filthy poverty give else, but beggery, fulsom nastiness, squalor, contempt, drudgery, labour, ugliness, hunger and thirst: pediculorum, & pulicum numerum? as he well followed it in Aristophanes, fleas and lice, pro pallio vestem laceram, & pro pulvinari lapidem bene magnum ad caput, rags for his rayment, and a stone for his pillow, pro cathedra, rupta caput urnæ, he sits in a broken pitcher, or on a block for a chair, & malvæ ramos pro panibus comedit, he drinks water, and lives on wort leaves, pulse, like a hogg, or scraps like a dog,

ut nunc nobis vita afficitur, quis non putabit insaniam esse, infelicitatemq;? as Chremilus concludes his speech, as we poor men live now adayes, who will not take our life to be infelicity, misery and madness?

If they be of little better condition then those base villains, hunger-starved beggars, wandring rogues, those ordinary slaves, and day-labouring drudges; yet they are commonly so preyed upon by poling officers for breaking laws, by their tyrannizing Land-lords, so flead and fleeced by perpetuall exactions, that though they do drudge, fare hard, and starve their Genius, they cannot live in some countries; but what they have is instantly taken from them, the very care they take to live, to be drudges, to maintain their poor families, their trouble and anxiety takes away their sleep, Sirac. 31.1. it makes them weary of their lives:

when they have taken all pains, done their utmost and honest endeavors, if they be cast behinde by sickness, or over-taken with years, no man pities them, hard-hearted and mercilesse, uncharitable as they are, they leave them so distressed, to beg, steal, murmur and rebell, or else starve.

The feeling and feare of this miserie compelled those old Romanes, whom Menenius Agrippa pacified, to resist their governours: outlaws, and rebels in most places, to take up seditious armes, and in all ages hath caused uproares, murmurings, seditions, rebellions, thefts, murders, mutinies, jarres and contentions in every common-wealth: grudging, repining, complaining, discontent in each private family, because they want meanes to live according to their callings, bring up their children, it breakes their hearts, they cannot do as they would.

No greater misery then for a Lord to have a Knights living, a Gentleman a Yeomans, not to be able to live as his birth and place requires. Poverty and want are generally corrosives to all kind of men, especially to such as have been in good and flourishing estate, are suddenly distressed, nobly born, liberally brought up, and by some disaster and casualty, miserably dejected.

For the rest, as they have base fortunes, so have they base mindes correspondent, like Beetles è stercore orti, è stercore victus, in stercore delicium, as they were obscurely born and bred, so they delight and live in obscenity; they are not so throughly touched with it. Angustas animas angusto in pectore versant.

Yea, that which is no small cause of their torments, if once they come to be in distress, they are forsaken of their fellows, most part neglected, and left unto themselves; as poor Terence in Rome was by Scipio, Lælius, and Furius, his great and noble friends.

Nil Publius Scipio profuit, nil ei Lælius, nil Furius, Tres per idem tempus qui agitabant nobiles facillime, Horum ille opera ne domum quidem habuit conductitiam.

’Tis generally so, Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris, he is left cold and comfortless, nullus ad amissas ibit amicus opes, all flee from him as from a rotten wall, now ready to fall on their heads. Prov. 19.4. Poverty separates them from their neighbours,

Dum fortuna favet, vultum servatis amici, Cum cecidit, turpi vertitis ora fugâ.

Whil’st fortune favour’d, friends, you smil’d on me. But when she fled, a friend I could not see.

Which is worse yet, if he be poor every man contemns him, insults over him, oppresseth him, scoffs at, aggravates his misery.

Quum cæpit quassata domus subsidere, partes In proclinatas omne recumbit onus.

When once the tottering house begins to shrink, Thither comes all the weight by an instinct.

Nay they are odious to their own brethren, and dearest friends, Pro. 19.7. His brethren hate him if he be poor, omnes vicini oderunt, his neighbours hate him, Pro. 14.20. omnes me noti ac ignoti deserunt, as he complained in the Comedy, friends & strangers, all forsake me. Which is most grievous, poverty makes men ridiculous. Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se, Quam quod ridiculos homines facit,

they must endure jests, taunts, flouts, blowes of their betters, and take all in good part to get a meales meat: magnum pauperies opprobrium, jubet quidvis & facere & pati. He must turn Parasite, jester, fool, cum desipientibus desipere; saith Euripides, slave, villain, drudge to get a poor living, apply himself to each mans humors, to win & please, &c. and be buffeted, when he hath all done, as Ulysses was by Melanthius in Homer, be reviled, bafled, insulted over, for potentiorum stultitia perferenda est, and may not so much as mutter against it.

He must turn rogue, and villain, for as the saying is, Necessitas cogit ad turpia, poverty alone makes men theeves, rebels, murderers, traitors, assassinates, because of poverty we have sinned, Ecclus. 27.1. swear & forswear, bear false witness, lye, dissemble any thing, as I say, to advantage themselves, and to relieve their necessities: Culpæ scelerisque magistra est, when a man is driven to his shifts, what will he not do?

— si miserum fortuna Sionem Finxit, vanum etiam mendacemq; improba finget.

he will betray his father, Prince, and countrey, turn Turk, forsake Religion, abjure God and all, nulla tam horrenda proditio, quam illi lucri causa (saith Leo Afer) perpetrare nolint. Plato therefore cals poverty, theevish, sacrilegious, filthy, wicked and mischievous; and well he might.

For it makes many an upright man otherwise, had he not been in want, to take bribes, to be corrupt, to do against his conscience, to sell his tongue, heart, hand, &c. to be churlish, hard, unmerciful, uncivil, to use indirect means to help his present estate. It makes Princes to exact upon their subjects, Great men tyrannize, Landlords oppress, Justice mercenary, Lawyers vultures, Physicians Harpyes, friends importunate, tradesmen lyars, honest men theeves, devout assassinates, great men to prostitute their wives, daughters & themselves, middle sort to repine, commons to mutiny, all to grudge, murmur and complain.

A great temptation to all mischief, it compels some miserable wretches to counterfeit several diseases, to dismember, make themselves blinde, lame, to have a more plausible cause to beg, and lose their limbs to recover their present wants. Jodocus Damhouderius a Lawyer of Bruges, praxi rerum criminal. c. 112. hath some notable examples of such counterfeit Cranks, and every village almost will yeeld abundant testimonies amongst us; we have Dummerers, Abraham men, &c.

And that which is the extent of misery, it enforceth them through anguish and wearisomness of their lives, to make away themselves: They had rather be hanged, drowned, &c. then to live without means.

In mare cætiferum, ne te premat aspera egestas, Desili, & à celsis corrue Cerne jugis.

Much better ’tis to break thy neck, Or drowne thy self i’th’ Sea, Then suffer irksome poverty, Goe make thy self away.

A Sybarite of old, as I finde it registred in Athenæus, supping in Phiditijs in Sparta, & observing their hard fare, said it was no marvel if the Lacedæmonians were valiant men; for his part he would rather run upon a sword point (and so would any man in his wits) then live with such base diet, or lead so wretched a life. In Japonia ’tis a common thing to stifle their children if they be poor, or to make an abort, which Aristotle commends.