Civile History

For Civile History, it is of three kinds, not unfitly to be compared with the three kinds of Pictures or Images: for of Pictures or Images, wee see some are Unfinished, some are parfite, and some are defaced: So of Histories, wee may finde three kindes, Memorialls, Parfite Histories, and Antiquities: for Memorialls are Historie unfinished, or the first, or rough draughts of Historie, and Antiquities are Historie defaced, or some remnants of History, which have casually escaped the shipwrack of time.

Memorialls or Preparatory History are of 2 sorts, wherof the one may be tearmed Commentaries, & the other Registers: Commentaries are they which set downe a continuance of the naked events & actions, without the motives or designes, the counsells, the speeches, the pretexts the occasions, and other passages of action: for this is the true nature of a commentarie (though Cæsar in modestie mixt with greatnesse, did for his pleasure apply the name of a commentarie to the best Historie of the world) Registers are collections of Publique Acts, as Decrees of counsell, Judiciall proceedings, Declarations and Letters of estate, Orations, and the like, without a perfect continuance, or contexture of the threed of the Narration.

Antiquities, or Remnants of History, are, as was saide, tanquam Tabula Naufragij, when industrious persons by an exact and scrupulous diligence and observation, out of Monuments, Names, Wordes, Proverbes, Traditions, Private Recordes, and Evidences, Fragments of stories, Passages of Bookes, that concerne not storie, and the like, doe save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time.

In these kindes of unperfect Histories I doe assigne no deficience, for they are tanquam imperfectè Mista, and therefore any deficience in them is but their nature. As for the Corruptions and Mothes of Historie, which are Epitomes, the use of them deserveth to be banisht, as all men of sound Judgement have confessed, as those that have fretted and corroded the sound bodies of many excellent Histories, and wrought them into base and unprofitable dregges.

History which may be called Just and Parfite Historie, is of three kinds, according to the object which it propoundeth, or pretendeth to represent: for it either representeth a Time, or a Person, or an Action. The first we call Chronicles, The second Lives, and the third Narrations, or Relations. Of these although the first bee the most compleate and absolute kinde of Historie, and hath most estimation and glory: yet the second excelleth it in profit and use, and the third in veritie & sinceritie. For History of Times representeth the magnitude of Actions, & the publique faces and deportments of persons, & passeth over in silence the smaller passages and Motions of men and Matters. But such beeing the workemanship of God, as he doth hang the greatest waight upon the smallest Wyars, Maxima è Minimis suspendens, it comes therfore to passe, that such Histories doe rather set forth the pompe of busines, then the true and inward resorts thereof. But Lives if they be well written, propounding to themselves a person to represent, in whom actions both greater and smaller, publique & private have a commixture; must of necessitie containe a more true, native, and lively representation: So againe Narrations, and Relations of actions as the War of Peloponnesus, the Expedition of Cyrus Minor, the Conspiracie of Catiline, cannot but be more purely and exactly true, then Histories of Times, because they may choose an argument comprehensible within the notice and instructions of the Writer: whereas he that undertaketh the story of a time, specially of any length, cannot but meet with many blankes, and spaces, which hee must be forced to fill up, out of his own wit and conjecture.

For the History of Times, (I meane of civil History,) the providence of God hath made the distribution: for it hath pleased God to ordaine and illustrate two exemplar States of the worlde, for Armes, learning, Morall Vertue, Policie, and Lawes. The State of Grecia, and the State of Rome: The Histories whereof occupying the Middlepart of time, have more auncient to them, Histories which may by one common name, be tearmed the Antiquities of the World; and after them, Histories which may bee likewise called by the name of Moderne Historie.

Nowe to speake of the deficiences: As to the Heathen Antiquities of the world, it is in vaine to note them for deficient: deficient they are no doubt, consisting most of fables and fragments: but the deficience cannot bee holpen: for Antiquitie is like fame, Caput inter nubila condit, her head is muffled from our sight: For the Historie of the Exemplar States, it is extant in good perfection. Not but I could wish there were a perfect Course of Historie for Grecia from Theseus to Philopæmen, (what time the affaires of Grecia drowned and extinguished in the affaires of Rome) and for Rome, from Romulus to Justinianus, who may be truly saide to be Ultimus Romanorum. In which sequences of storie the Text of Thucidides and Xenophon in the one, & the Texts of Livius, Polybius, Salustius, Cæsar, Appianus, Tacitus, Herodianus in the other to be kept intyre without any diminution at all, and onely to be supplied and continued. But this is Matter of Magnificence, rather to be commended then required: and wee speake nowe of parts of Learning supplementall, and not of supererogation.

But for Moderne Histories, whereof there are some fewe verie worthy, but the greater part beneath Mediocritie, leaving the care of forreyne stories to forreyne States, because I will not bee Curiosus in aliena Republica, I cannot faile to represent to your Majestie, the unworthinesse of the Historie of Englande in the Maine continuance thereof, and the partialitie, and obliquitie of that of Scotland, in the latest and largest Author that I have seene; supposing that it would be honour for your Majestie, and a worke very memorable, if this Iland of great Brittanie, as it is now joyned in Monarchie for the ages to come: So were joyned in one Historie for the times passed, after the manner of the sacred Historie, which draweth downe the storie of the Tenne Tribes, and of the Two Tribes, as Twinnes together. And if it shall seeme that the greatnesse of this worke may make it lesse exactly performed, there is an excellent Periode of a much smaller compasse of time, as to the storie of England that is to say, from the Uniting of the Roses, to the Uniting of the Kingdomes: a Portion of time wherin, to my understanding, there hath bin the rarest varieties, that in like number of successions of any hereditary Monarchie hath bin known: For it beginneth with the mixt Adeption of a Crowne, by Armes and Tytle: An entry by Battaile, an Establishment by Mariage: and therefore times answerable, like waters after a tempest, full of working and swelling, though without extreamitie of Storme; but well passed through by the wisedome of the Pylote, being one of the most sufficient kinges of all the number. Then followeth the Raigne of a King, whose actions howsoever conducted had much intermixture with the affaires of Europe: balancing and inclyning them variably, in whose time also beganne that great alteration in the State Ecclesiasticall, an action which seldome commeth uppon the Stage: Then the Raigne of a Minor, then an offer of an usurpation, (though it was but as Febris Ephemera). Then the Raigne of a Queene Matched with a Forreyner: Then of a Queene that lived solitary, and unmarried, and yet her government so masculine, as it had greater impression, and operation uppon the States abroad, then it any waies received from thence; And now last, this most happie, and glorious event, that this Iland of Brittany devided from all the world, should bee united in it selfe; And that Oracle of Rest given to Aeneas, Antiquam enquirite Matrem, should nowe bee performed and fulfilled upon the Nations of England and Scotland, being now reunited in the auncient Mother name of Brittany, as a full periode of all instabilitie & peregrinations: So that as it commeth to passe in Massive bodies, that they have certaine trepidations and waverings before they fixe and settle: So it seemeth, that by the providence of God, this Monarchy before it was to settle in your Majestie, and your generations, (in which I hope it is nowe established for ever,) it had these prelusive changes and varieties.

For Lives, I doe finde strange that these times have so litle esteemed the vertues of the times, as that the Writings of lives should be no more frequent. For although there be not many soveraigne Princes or absolute commanders, and that States are most collected into Monarchies; yet are there many worthy personages, that deserve better then dispersed report, or barren Elogies: For herein the Invention of one of the late Poets is proper, and doth well inrich the auncient fiction; for he faineth, that at the end of the threed or Webbe of every mans life, there was a little Medall containing the Persons name, and that Time waited upon the sheeres, and assoone as the threed was cut, caught the Medalls, and carried them to the River of Lethe, and about the banke there were many Birds flying up and downe, that would get the Medals and carry them in their Beke a little while, and then let them fall into the River. Onely there were a fewe Swannes, which if they got a Name, would carrie it to a Temple, where it was consecrate. And although many men more mortall in their affections, then in their bodies, doe esteeme desire of name and memory, but as a vanitie and ventositie;

Which opinion commeth from that Root, Non prius laudes contempsimus, quam laudanda facere desiuimus: yet that will not alter Salomons judgement, Memoria Justi cum laudibus, at impiorum nomen putrescet: The one flourisheth, the other either consumeth to present oblivion, or turneth to an ill odor: And therefore in that stile or addition, which is & hath bin long well received, and brought in use, Fælicis memoriæ, piæ memoriæ, bonæ memoriæ, we do acknowledge that which Cicero saith, borrowing it from Demosthenes, that Bona Fama propria possessio defunctorum, which possession I cannot but note, that in our times it lieth much wast and that therein there is a Deficience.

For Narrations and Relations of particular actions, there were also to be wished a greater diligence therein, for there is no great action but hath some good penne which attends it. And because it is an abilitie not common to Write a good History, as may well appeare by the small number of them: yet if particularitie of actions memorable, were but tolerably reported as they passe, the compiling of a complete Historie of Times mought be the better expected, when a Writer should arise that were fit for its for the collection of such relations mought be as a Nursery gardein, whereby to plant a faire and stately gardein, when time should serve.

There is yet another portion of Historie which Cornelius Tacitus maketh, which is not to be forgotten specially with that application, which hee accoupleth it withal, Annals, and Journals, appropriating to the former, Matters of estate, and to the later, Acts, and Accidents of a meaner Nature. For giving but a touch of certaine Magnificent Buildings, he addeth, Cumex dignitate populi Romani repertum sit, res illustres annalibus, talia diurnis urbis Actis mandare. So as there is a kinde of contemplative Heraldry, as well as Civill. And as nothing doth derogate from the dignitie of a state more then confusion of degrees: So it doth not a little imbase the Authoritie of an Historie, to intermingle matters of triumph, or matters of ceremony, or matters of Noveltie, with matters of State; But the use of a Journall hath not onely been in the Historie of Time, but like wise in the Historie of Persons, and chiefely of actions; for Princes in ancient time had upon point of honour and policie both, Journalls kept, what passed day by day: for we see the Chronicle which was red before Ahassuerus, when he could not take rest, contained matter of affaires indeede, but such as had passed in his own time, and very lately before; But the Journall of Alexanders house expressed every small particularitie, even concerning his Person and Court: and it is yet an use wel received in enterprises memorable, as expeditions of Warre, Navigations; and the like, to keepe Dyaries of that which passeth continually.

I cannot likewise bee ignorant of a forme of Writing, which some grave and wise men have used, containing a scattered History of those actions, which they have thought worthy of memorie, with politique discourse and observation thereupon; not incorporate into the History, but seperately, and as the more principall in their intention: Which kind of Ruminated History, I thinke more fit to place amongst Bookes of policie, whereof we shall hereafter speake, then amongst Bookes of History: for it is the true office of History to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations, and conclusions thereupon, to the liberty and facultie of every mans judgement: But Mixtures, are things irregular, whereof no man can define.

So also is there another kinde of History manifoldly mixt, and that is History of Cosmography, being compounded of Naturall History in respect of the Regions themselves, of History civill, in respect of the Habitations, Regiments, and Manners of the people; and the Mathematiques in respect of the Climats, and configurations towards the Heavens, which part of learning of all others in this latter time hath obtained most Proficience. For it may be truly affirmed to the honor of these times, and in a vertuous emulation with Antiquitie, that this great Building of the world, had never through lights made in it, till the age of us and our fathers: For although they had knowledge of the Antipodes:

Illic sera rubens accendit lumina vesper, yet that mought be by demonstration, and not in fact, and if by travaile, it requireth the voiage but of halfe the Globe. But to circle the Earth, as the heavenly Bodies doe, was not done, nor enterprised, till these later times: And therefore these times may justly beare in their word, not onely Plus ultrà in precedence of the ancient Non ultrà, and Imitabile fulmen, in precedence of the ancient: Non imitabile fulmen,

Demens qui nymbos et non imitabile fulmen, &c. But likewise,—Imitabile Cælum: in respect of the many memorable voyages after the maner of heaven, about the globe of the earth.

And this Proficience in Navigation, and discoveries, may plant also an expectation of the furder proficience, and augmentation of all Scyences, because it may seeme they are ordained by God to be Coeualls, that is, to meete in one Age. For so the Prophet Daniel speaking of the latter times foretelleth: Plurimi pertransibunt, & Multiplex erit Scientia, as if the opennesse and through passage of the world, and the encrease of knowledge were appointed to be in the same ages, as we see it is already performed in great part, the learning of these later times not much giving place to the former two Periods or Returnes of learning, the one of the Græcians, the other of the Romanes.