SUBSECT. 7. An heap of other Accidents causing Melancholy, Death of Friends, losses, &c.

IN this Labyrinth of accidental causes, the farther I wander, the more intricate I finde the passage, multæ ambages, & new causes as so many by-paths offer themselves to be discussed: to search out all, where an Herculean work, and fitter for Theseus: I will follow mine intended thred; and point only at some few of the chiefest.

Amongst which, loss and death of friends may challenge a first place, multi tristantur, as Vives well observes, post delicias, convivia, dies festos, many are melancholy after a feast, holy-day, merry meeting, or some pleasing sport, if they be solitary by chance, left alone to themselves, without employment, sport, or want their ordinary companions, some at the departure of friends only whom they shall shortly see again, weep and howle, and look after them as a Cow lowes after her calf, or a child takes on that goes to school after holidayes.

Ut me levarat tuus adventus, sic discessus afflixit, (which Tully writ to Atticus) thy coming was not so welcome to me, as thy departure was harsh.

Montanus consil.132. makes mention of a country woman that parting with her friends and native place, became grievously melancholy for many years; and Trallianus of another, so caused for the absence of her husband.

Which is an ordinary passion amongst our good wives, if their husband tarry out a day longer then his appointed time, or break his houre, they take on presently with sighs and tears, he is either robed or dead, some mischance or other is surely befaln him, they cannot eat, drinke, sleep, or be quiet in minde, till they see him again.

If parting of friends, absence alone can work such violent effects, what shall death do, when they must eternally be separated, never in this world to meet again? This is so grievous a torment for the time, that it takes away their appetite, desire of life, extinguisheth all delights, it causeth deep sighs and groans, tears, exclamations,

(O dulce germen matris, ô sanguis meus, Eheu tepentes, &c. —— ô flos tener)

howling, roaring, many bitter pangs, (lamentis gemituque & fæmineo ululatu Tecta fremunt) and by frequent meditation extends so far sometimes, they think they see their dead friends continually in their eyes, observantes imagines, as Conciliator confesseth he saw his mothers ghost presenting her self still before him.

Quod nimis miseri volunt, hoc facile credunt, still, still, still, that good father, that good son, that good wife, that dear friend runs in their mindes: Totus animus hâc unâ cogitatione defixus est, all the year long, as Pliny complains to Romanus, me thinks I see Virginius, I hear Virginius, I talk with Virginius, &c.

Te sine, væ misero mihi, lilia nigra videntur, Pallentesque rosæ, nec dulce rubens hyacinthus, Nullos nec myrtus, nec laurus spirat odores.

They that are most staid and patient, are so furiously carried headlong by the passion of sorrow in this case, that brave discreet men otherwise, oftentimes forget themselves, and weep like children many months together, as if that they to water would, and will not be comforted. They are gone, they are gone.

Abstulit atra dies & funere mersit acerbo, What shall I do?

Quis dabit in lachrymas fontem mihi? quis satis altos Accendet gemitus, & acerbo verba dolori? Exhaurit pietas oculos, & hiantia frangit Pectora, nec plenos avido sinit edere questus, Magna adeò jactura premit, &c.

Fountains of tears who gives, who lends me groans, Deep sighs sufficient to express my moans? Mine eyes are dry, my breast in pieces torn, My loss so great, I cannot enough mourn.

So Stroza Filius that elegant Italian Poet in his Epicedium, bewailes his fathers death, he could moderate his passions in other matters (as he confesseth) but not in this, he yeelds wholly to sorrow,

Nunc fateor do terga malis, mens illa fatiscit, Indomitus quondam vigor & constantia mentis.

How doth Quintilian complain for the loss of his son, to despair almost: Cardan lament his only childe in his book de libris propriis, and elsewhere in many other of his tracts,

S. Ambrose his brothers death? an ego possum non cogitare de te, aut sine lachrymis cogitare? O amari dies, ô flebiles noctes, &c. Gregory Nazianzen that noble Pulcheria? O decorem, &c. flos recens, pullulans, &c.

Alexander, a man of a most invincible courage, after Ephestions death, as Curtius relates, triduum jacuit ad moriendum obstinatus, lay three daies together upon the ground, obstinate, to dye with him, & would neither eat, drink, nor sleep.

The woman that communed with Esdras (lib.2.cap.10.) when her son fell down dead, fled into the field, and would not return into the city, but there resolved to remain, neither to eat nor drink, but mourn and fast untill she died. Rachel wept for her children, and would not be comforted because they were not, Mat.2.18.

So did Adrian the Emperor bewaile his Antinous; Hercules, Hylas; Orpheus, Euridice; David, Absolon; (O my dear son Absolon) Austin his mother Monica, Niobe her children, insomuch, that the Poets faigned her to be turned into a stone, as being stupified through the extremity of grief.

Ægeus, signo lugubri filii consternatus, in mare se præcipitem dedit, impatient of sorrow for his sonnes death, drowned himself.

Our late Physicians are full of such examples. Montanus consil.242. had a patient troubled with this infirmitie, by reason of her husbands death many years together: Trincavelius l.1.c.14. hath such another, almost in despair, after his mothers departure, ut se fermè præcipitem daret; and ready through distraction to make away himself:

and in his 15. counsel, tels a story of one fifty years of age, that grew desperate upon his mothers death, and cured by Phalopius, fell many years after into a relapse, by the sudden death of a daughter which he had, and could never after be recovered.

The fury of this passion is so violent sometimes, that it daunts whole kingdoms and cities. Vespasians death was pittifully lamented all over the Roman Empire, totus orbis lugebat, saith Aurelius Victor. Alexander commanded the battlements of houses to be pulled down, Mules and Horses to have their manes shorne off, and many common souldiers to be slain, to accompany his dear Ephestions death.

Which is now practised amongst the Tartars, when a great Cham dieth, 10. or 12. thousand must be slain, men and horses, all they meet; and among those Pagan Indians, their wives and servants voluntarily dye with them.

Leo Decimus was so much bewailed in Rome after his departure, that as Jovius gives out, communis salus, publica hilaritas, the common safety, all good fellowship, peace, mirth, and plenty died with him, tanquam eodem sepulchro cum Leone condita lugebantur; for it was a golden age whilst he lived, but after his decease an iron season succeeded, barbara vis & fæda vastitas, & dira malorum omnium incommoda, wars, plagues, vastity, discontent.

When Augustus Cæsar died, saith Paterculus, orbis ruinam timueramus, we were all afraid, as if heaven had fallen upon our heads. Budæus records, how that at Lewes the 12th his death, tam subita mutatio, ut qui prius digito cœlum attingere videbantur, nunc humi derepente serpere, sideratos esse diceres, they that were erst in heaven, upon a sudden, as if they had been planet strucken, lay groveling on the ground;

Concussis cecidere animis, seu frondibus ingens Sylva dolet lapsis —— they look’t like cropt trees.

At Nancy in Lorain, when Claudia Valesia, Henry the second French kings sister, and the Dukes wife deceased, the temples for fourty dayes were all shut up, no Prayers nor Masses, but in that room where she was. The Senators all seen in black, and for a twelve months space throughout the city, they were forbid to sing or dance.

Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus Frigida (Daphne) boves ad flumina, nulla nec amnem Libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attigit herbam.

How were we affected here in England for our Titus, deliciæ humani generis, Prince Henries immature death, as if all our dearest friends lives had exhaled with his? Scanderbegs death was not so much lamented in Epirus.

In a word, as he saith of Edward the first at the news of Edward of Caernervan his sonnes birth, immortaliter gavisus, he was immortally glad, may we say on the contrary of friends deaths, immortaliter gementes, we are divers of us as so many turtles, eternally dejected with it.