¶ A dialogue between the plaintiff and the Defendant. Compiled by William Caluerley/ whiles he was prisoner in the tower of London. decorative border depiction of coronation ¶ To the kings highness. O Excellent prince of my life chief patron medicin to sick men in their great distress To all needy: both shield and protection Refuge to wretches their damage to redress Men that are half deed/ restoring to quickness Sith your grace of god was choose to be so good O excellent prince forgive my offencesse In th'honour of god that bought you with his blood ¶ Black is my weed/ of complaint & mourning As a man cast from all felicity Like one of a funeral/ bedewed with weeping Clad in the mantel of froward adversity Trymbling and quaking/ of my life no surety But if I drink of your most merciful flood Than shall I never offend/ by your sovereignty But save that which god bought with his precious blood ¶ O mirror of light/ suffer not to perish Thy poor subject: but to his prayer incline Which hereafter thy laws shall cherish And keep them as most holly and divine Sith your grace hath been treacle & chief medicine To other offenders which in mischief stood Pardon me Solomon/ I will obey thy doctrine And save the which god bought with his precious blood ¶ And for my part/ of one heart abiding Void of change/ and all mutability I do present this book/ with hand shaking Of hole affection/ kneeling on my knee desiring the lord/ which is persons three By whose magnificence we receive all food That by your grace I may have liberty And save the which god bought with his pci▪ blood ¶ For all my purpose combined in to one Of which this book shall make mencioun Is to void ill weed/ and to take the good corn As reason hath taught me by discretioune Putting no trust in the wheel of fortune But in this dialogue comprehend that persons good By grace and virtue may here contune And save the which god bought with his pcioꝰ blood ¶ Go forth little book for fere trembling Pray the prince to have on the pity Void of all picture/ or of any cunning To compile any curious ditty Causing thy prince to take on the mercy Pray god grant his grace that died on the road To preserve his high nobleness and magnanimity And to be partaker of Christ's precious blood. ¶ Thus endeth the supplication / and here followeth the Dialogue between the Playntyf and defendant. ❧ The plaintiff AS I sat musing/ calling to remembrannce And considered in mine own fantasy The unsure trust of worldly variance Of men and women/ the change and the folly Thought in my mind to compile some ditye Like one troubled in heart with heaviness No succour finding/ me for to redress. ¶ Blaming fortune/ why she stood not certain But with her double wheel brought men in doubt Causing me for to suffer moche pain Reporting how she had cast me out From her favour/ as she turned about Taking a wrong turn/ where I thought me sure By her double means/ and my hard adventure ¶ saying lady: thou settest by me no price For by thy froward and furious violence Thou hast turned thy wheel/ & visage of malice bringing me clean from all credence Having nothing to make resistance Thus by the fortune/ and thy mutability Sole adiect●/ and cast in to poverty ¶ What have I offended thou art so contrarious Which hath caused me in mischief to fall Thus to be tormented in thy siege perilous My sweet sugar is tempered with gall Wherefore to thee/ I reply my hurts all But this as I wrote/ I heard a voice cry Peace I say/ thou beginnest for to lie ¶ Deffendant soothly I perceive well thy condition Thou dost as unthriftꝭ/ almost every chone Will them excuse/ without exception And blame fortune/ as their chief fone saying/ it is in her power alone The to rule/ as a lady of destiny Which is a sect of plain Idolatry ¶ Nature hath taught thee/ the wrong is to excuse Under a curtain/ your falsehood to hide little good corn amongs your chaff to use On your faults you list not to abide The gall touched/ all that you set a side Sowing roses fresh/ the nettles you let pass Under fortune to cover your trespass ¶ And if you may tell your own tale How that all came by fortunes wheel Lockinge your falseness fast in a male Showing of your vices but a small percele Is brickle glass/ showeth brighter than steel Though upon fortune you would set your pntence He is a fool that giveth to you credence ¶ Playntyffe THus was I pensive/ the water from my eye For fere sprung forth/ & made pale my vi sage Sore a bashed I being solitary Should here a voice/ and see no image It parted atwayne/ both colour and courage But by the voice/ I thought by nature That it should be some mortal creature. ¶ I sat full still and marked what it said fearful of cheer/ sad in countenance thinking to answer/ soon at abraid And to that saying gave diligent attendance Thus than I said with good remembrance If thou wilt argue/ against fortune's strength It will beseen upon the at the length ¶ Fortune hath lift many men aloft To high estate and worldly dignity Another sort she hath griped full unsoft And cast them down in to great adversity By other proved/ now verified in me Which is cast down into strong prison There to abide of the law correction ¶ defendant GOod reason that/ for laws first was found Insondry wise and busy occupation Virtue to cherish/ vices to confound Men chosen/ of power and good intention Which of offenders should see done execution So that the virtuous should be reserved And have promosyons/ such as they deserved. ¶ Dedalus was the first that prisons wrought Full of ingyns/ called Laborinthus All offenders thither to be brought A crooked place/ to get forth dangerous For such as to good laws were contrarious And Tarquinus/ as I written find Found first shaccles men for to bind ¶ These were ordained virtue to prefer And to maintain true labour and business Besides that/ to punish such as should err Which have no joy but upon Idleness And for other in their labours reckless Purposing to punish sardanapal Which of mischiefs/ may be reckoned principal ¶ Playntyffe OF sardanapal I never had acqueyntesse I ever loved to a void his company Knowing him to be vicious Idleness Which is destruction/ to all manner of degree Therefore thou offendest to atwyte me With him whom I never yet loved Nor yet them/ which him in household cherished ¶ And where thou sayest that prisons ordained be Offenders to chastise/ to maintain the right For the welfare of every commonalty To prefer virtue to his clear light That to denay it were not in my might But one thing would I demand of the Whether such rob not a hole commonalty ¶ That hath sheep in pastures going Which ground before this hath be put to tillage Having thousands/ his poor neighbour lacking He and his shepherds alone in a village Thus getteth his goods/ by extortion & pillage If a man part of his goods withdraw Shall he make answer therefore by god's law ¶ defendant NAy not so I say/ it is all otherwise I may not suffer you to go there among Lest that you would perilous things devise Under a colour/ to occupy you with wrong What should I longer draw the matter a long Of god's laws thou art not executor Nor of thy sovereigns/ no good reformator. ¶ God gave a law/ and with this a precept That no man should his neighbours good desire Thou hast not the office them to corecte But with god thou runnest in great Ire. But what thou meanest/ now son I can conspire Thou thinkest to make a cloak for the rain. It will not be/ for it is all in vain. ¶ Of such conspiracy began first robbers thieves by high ways/ extortion with violence Murder/ slaughter/ and covert bribers Descension/ grudging/ and disobedience Now of thy tale to touch thy pretence It is not fortune that causeth their ill chance But them/ selves for lack of good governance. ¶ Playntyffe ¶ Nat fortune? yes/ and that shall well be seen For by her ever/ men do possess treasures Fallen hath to ruin both king and queen And raised again by her only succour Exalted she hath/ many great conquerors And to such as she would natses Hath cast them down in great adversity ¶ Look who she embraceth & holdeth in her chain Worldly people/ and their goods transitory And rich merchants under her demean To knighthood she giveth conquest and victory She giveth to other worldly prosperity Look who her favour hath recured In this life/ of wealth they be assured. ¶ These bishops which be of low birth borne And spiritual prelate's in Rome town She hath them exalted other before But now a little she hath brought them down Thus when she list herself to frown She spareth neither manhood nor kindred For of all persons she will be dread ¶ Deffendant Such be wretches/ and to god unkind That putteth them under her subjection From god's precepts making themself blind submitting them to fortune/ above good reason And as touching the prelate's that are brought down Fortune pulled them not from that place It is the scourge of god/ for that they lacked grace. ¶ The fall of one/ should be a clear light To teach the other what they should eschew It is god that punisheth with his might And trieth out the false from the true Who that is here punished for his offence dew Happy may be/ if he say with good intent Welcome from god/ the scourge of chastisement ¶ O what unkind people should them betake And put their wills unto fortunes cure Of god above the power to forsake And with fortune all thing will assure Thinking alway by her to endure Like as she were of destiny a goddess That could bring man to wealth or wretchedness ¶ Playntyffe THy words strong I may not well debar Thy name I desire before that I do spek I think thou hast been some man of war Thy wind causeth my heart to break Out from my eyen the water doth out leek Thinkige I have begun/ against one to reply Which by his strength will have the mastery ¶ For like as ronnde drops of the south rain Which that descend/ and fall from a loft On stones hard/ at the eye as it is sayne Peerseth the hardness/ with their falling oft Albert in touching/ the water is but soft The piercing causeth by force no puissance But by falling/ the long continuance ¶ So semblaby of right I dare rehearse Thy words marked with full and good intent A hole in to my heart doth pierce For I fear lest that I might be shent And by my excusing run in a contempt More worthy for that to be punissheable Than by the fault I should have been culpable ¶ defendant IN wars truly there have I been oft But my nature is alway to make pease Without me most things do prove nought How so ever it be/ by hardness or ease Look who that loveth me not to please Here he can not long be in tune Although he think to marry with fortune ¶ I have me so used/ that thorough my nobleness Clerks in learning/ which clearly can concern Daughter of god/ lady/ and prince's Reason they call me/ good folk to govern atween good and evil/ justly to decern I have departed plainly to conclude The life of man/ from the life of beasts rude. ¶ With me I conserve/ both virtue and measure considering things/ what shallbe fall Taking no enterprise: but with me discretion sure And upon prudence/ found my works all Than to counsel/ attemperance I do call Warily providing/ in myself within The end of things/ before that I begin. ¶ Playntyffe. Helas'/ alas/ to write in words few Longer to live/ I have no fantasy For where should I my face out show Sith against reason/ I have held champerty Now dare I appear in to no company For to my body/ death I have provided Leving reason & virtue/ which should me have gided ¶ Now this matter troubleth my memory Better to die than to live in shame For my offences thus stand I in jeopardy From my mortal body/ gone is my name Youth and frailness was moche to blame Wherefore better it were from this life dissever Than with slanderous fame/ for to live ever. ¶ Some tongues there be venomous of nature When they perceive a man from state moved With their wills do their busy cure By ill report/ to make men more grieved There is no poison so well expert and proved Therefore now heart/ why breakest thou not asunder Of this world to rid the from this wonder. ¶ defendant NAt so/ for I can break a castle down And build it after more fresh to the sight Exile a man from divers region And him revoke when I list by right Thus may I do by my power and might So that thou wilt obey to me reason I shall the teach/ this trouble to overcome ¶ A thief may rob a man of his richesses And by some mean make restitution Another may by might oppress The poor man from his possession Yet after to him make satisfaction Be it with life or else with death. Cor contritum et humiliatum deus non dispiciet. ¶ Thus I now beginning/ darked with ignorance My wit is dull this thing to discern Quenched a● the torches of parceveraunce Clean extinct the light of my lantern Lacking learning my style to govern dread and uncunning maketh a battle With dullness of wit/ to hinder my travail ¶ Support have I none my dullness to guide poverty hath written my name in his book Dispere standeth also by my side Which paleth my cheer/ and astonyeth my look Thus I hot/ dry/ and weary/ findeth no bo●e How I should to reason my promise fulfil Standing wavering between good and ill ¶ defendant Despair/ I say nay/ that is contrary It is Idleness here in this present life Which hath drawn many from their library And will not suffer them to be contemplative For her condition is to hold strife With every virtuous occupation Which men should void/ by wisdom & reason ¶ Remember thy business/ look thou take heed proceed with thy work thou hast take in hand Grace shall cross thy sail with good speed And keep thy ship from negligences sand Good counsel shall bring thy ship to land And hope shall bring unto the succour Trusting some man shall acquit thy labour ¶ I mean as thus/ the ship of thy travail Which hath passed the great dangerous seven Cast not anchor/ till thou hast good rival Let no tempest/ thunder/ nor levyn Nor no winds of the cloudy heaven cause idleness to lay thy pillow/ even nor morrow Void her/ and let her go with sorrow ¶ Playntyffe THis writing my letter/ I wrapped all in dread In my right hand/ my pen beginneth to quake And for fere/ my heart is like to bleed Yet must I forth/ and this undertake For to Reason promise did I make The tears distilling fro mine eyes brink At this beginning I temper with my ink But hope and trust putteth away despair In to my mind/ of new I 'gan redress To make the wether bright and fair Reasons promise/ with his bounteous largeness Brought in to my heart so much gladness That without any manner of delay As is this tenor/ this first I 'gan say. Creature's all/ in your first providence Be right well aware/ any thing to attame Which unto god should be offence For if ye do the end of it is shame And in this world appalled is your name But you repent/ god of his justice your vicious living unwarely will chastise ¶ Except you follow virtue with diligence Forsaking vice/ the mother of Idleness your end you may see/ by other experience Which is nought/ but misery and wretchedness Forsake wrong/ and follow rightwiseness Or else of one thing be you sure God will not suffer you long to endure ¶ Unto false prophets give no credence Following man's learning/ and their tradition But to god's precepts with all reverence Put thy mind and hole intention Forsake not god for all their punission For they be wolves wrapped in a lambs skin Honey without/ and poison within ¶ The wily wolves that casteth to devour The silly lambs/ which can no defence Nor no help/ them for to succour So feeble they are to make resistance Which denieth truth/ by false appearance What wonder is it/ the fraud not conceived Though such lambs unwarely be deceived ¶ Lambs they are i she wing/ shadowed with meekness Cruel as tigers/ who doth them offence Of great holiness pretending a likeness But woe (alas) what harm doth appearance What damage doth counterfeit innocence Under a mantel of false simplicity Very hypocrites full of cruelty ¶ Remember Rome/ call now unto thy mind The days are passed of thy felicity Thy great conquests are left behind To light is come all thy iniquity Thy decrees sent forth in to every country Such as agreed not with Christ's scripture Are clean extyncke/ no longer may endure ¶ Fron Theest to the Weest thy lybertꝭ did attain Above all power most excellent and royal But now truth brought out/ so evident and plain Hath hindered fore thy seat imperial In people's hearts to remain perpetual Your high prides are now defaced Your bulls and pardons/ almost out razed. ¶ Kings and princes were to the tryputary Of all wealth/ so great was your flood Until from god/ so far you did vary That all creatures/ knowing ill from good perceived you bore two faces in one hood Than by good reason soon they provided From your burdens/ for to be divided ¶ O Rome/ Rome/ look all thy old abusion Of thy Ceremonies/ and false disgysing Say them aside/ and now inconclusion Cry god mercy/ thy trespass repenting Trust he will not at length refuse thy asking The to receive to work in his vine And to have asmuch/ as he that came at prime. Unto the king with faithful obeisance Towards his grace/ show thy humility Against him nor his/ hold no variance But fight for him/ in every country Desire to see him in joy and felicity Keep his precepts/ as thy lord and sovereign Ever as pleasure/ thinking them no pain. ¶ Thy obeisance plainly/ at a word By god thou art commanded to owe in sovereignty Unto thy king/ thy governor & thy lord In pain of deadly sin/ so he commandeth the Both to him/ and to such as he agree Of his people to take the governance Them to follow with their good ordinance ¶ Consider thou/ it is a heartily rejoicing To serve a prince/ that well doth advertise Of his servants the faithful just meaning And will consider to guerdon their service Which at a need will them not despise But from all danger that should them noye or grieve Be ever ready to help them and relieve. ¶ As in this land/ I dare affirm a thing Henry the eight/ full mighty of puissance Of England and France/ our most noble king Defensor of the faith/ havig Ireland in governance To all his subjects/ greatest joy & pleasance By whose noble policy/ and also discretion Conserved is this most noble region ¶ During his time/ long by his prudence Pease and quiet/ he sustaineth by right That not withstanding his noble providence In this world liveth not a better knight Eyed as Argus/ with reason and foresyth And in good learning/ I dare of him tell Of his predecessors/ the most he doth excel ¶ This with his prudence/ and his manhood Truth he sustaineth/ favour setting a side To Christ's scripture/ a mayntenour with deed That in this land/ false prophets dare not bide A very supporter/ upholder/ and also guide Of Christ's church defence/ & noble champion To chastise all though/ that be Christ's fone ¶ observing always/ the testament of Jesus studying ever to have the true intelligence Gyvenge his subjects the light of virtue Hypocrisy excluding under false appearance Thus of the truth he hath experience Knowing himself/ in many sundry wise Where they trespass/ their error to chastise ¶ Revolve how our sovereign/ a mirror of light Transcendeth all other/ by virtuous exellence eschewing all visions/ seeking the right By his noble discretion/ & natural providence tempering his nature/ by mercy & clemence Keeping dangers from his subjects in all thing As appertaineth to a most noble king ¶ Things long passed/ he keepeth in remembrance Conserving all things/ with honour in presence For things to come/ maketh good ordinance Following the traces of virtuous continence Against rained miracles making resistance By the great virtue/ and magnanimyte Which is apropred to his royal majesty ¶ Also his manhood/ showeth him like a king From other princes by manner of appearance Of goodly stature as ever was reigning Spoken long and far of men/ from his presence I know not whether with dew reverence The region should be happier/ that hath such a governor Or else by god chosen/ his grace to the honour ¶ About him he hath for our great avail Daily and hourly in his presence Prudent and valiant to be of his counsel Such of this world as hath most experience Between good and evil knowing the difference Tha giving Res publica/ to us his subjects With reverent fere & love/ obeying his precepts. ¶ What heart so indurate/ should not love such one Which so nobly conserveth his royal dignity Although he were made of the Adamant stone Yet would it give/ for he with prosperity Is not gladder/ nor for no adversity Changeth no countenance/ his courage to renew Both to god and man/ yielding that is dew. ¶ Thus a man that perfit is and stable As scripture with good reason doth prove Nothing there is so fair nor agreeable Than finally this vicious life to leave On very god rightfully to be leave Him to love and worship above all thing And next to him/ thy most redoubted king ¶ Old examples of men that hath fall If they with grace brought them to mind Might be a mirror to creatures all How they in virtue shall remedies find To eschew vices/ of such as were made blind from sudden falling themselves to preserve Long to contune/ and thank of god deserve ¶ But such as list not corrected to be By example of other for vicious governance Other of him shall the correction see Because they should mend their misgovernance Say not that it is by fortune's variance Colouring such guilts/ which they do use Their demerits by colour so to excuse ¶ Who followeth virtue longest shall persever Be it in riches or else in poverty Light of troth/ his clearness keeping ever Against the assaults of long prosperity Make youth and virtue together to agree For when a man from virtue doth decline Hard it is/ if he make a good fine ¶ Virtue conserveth all men in their glory And here confirmeth their habitations Where vices putteth their price out of memory For their trespases/ and also transgressions Than are they taken and cast in prisons soon after/ for their great punition Brought to their end/ by just execution ¶ looking about them/ there shall they see Their friends/ and other for dolour sobbing With their hands wring thy sore adversity Some wondering/ some bedewed with weeping Of strangers a noise/ and a hidyouse crying Thus is their end/ with shameful rumure Where virtue lacketh/ nothing may endure ¶ Look/ who in this world doth most desire By wrong title/ his state to magnify By an ethic of covetous/ hotter than fire Other men's goods/ as his own to occupy As I have red/ and seen with mine eye Though it hath lasted for a small time The end of it hath turned to ruin ¶ Mark in your mind/ who ever hath used To oppress truth: by power and tyranny And rightwiseness/ by will hath refused Supporting him ●elfe/ by extortion & robbery Avoiding reason/ following sensuality Coniecter ever/ if their fine and proof Were not alway/ to die. at a mischief ¶ To this I know/ no man can make descorde For well it is proved/ all such will come to nought thousands of examples I could bring to record And more I know/ if they were out sought It shall not need/ for all men in their thought Knoweth ill gotten/ worse everspent yet for their extortion/ they shall be shent ¶ Besides that/ such as loveth idleness Owinge to god/ neither love nor dread covetous people/ that men doth oppress And such as will do nothing/ but for meed As desemblers clad in double weed Who searcheth well/ nought is the end yet god suffereth long/ to have them to amend ¶ From ill counsel/ fast look thou flee For that hath brought many to mischance shedding honey first/ stinging after as the be Though the honey be sweet/ the sting is greuance So shall be the end/ who followeth the chance That he shall curse the time/ and also repent That ever with their honey/ he took any talon ¶ Such may be called/ the devils taberers With froward sounds/ the ears to fulfil Or of Cures the perilous buttelers Which gall with their honey/ down distill Whose drinks be both amorous and ill And all clerks well devise con Worse than the drink of Cerenes ton ¶ Therefore put life never in a venture But for matters just/ and also true prove them by reason that they stand sure know well the ground/ of matter old or new The best than take/ and the worst eschew After thy degree/ make thy cost and spending That in a mean/ thou make a good ending ¶ When Dedalus taught his son for to fly He bade him first of high discretion From Phoebus' heat/ to keep his wings free And from Neptunus' cold congelation Meaning hereby/ for short conclusion That who that list with joy his state assure In a good mean men should longest endure ¶ With great plenty/ men be not best assured After their lust always to live in ease And though the men great treasure hath recured With their riches they feel many a disease great ꝑsonagꝭ hath not alway things them to please Therefore as stories divers doth express Heartily is joy/ at ween poverty and riches ¶ In the earth here/ the greatest felicity For the hearts ease/ and richest possession Is with suffisance content for to be Of worldly trouble to eschew the occasion moving no quarrels/ that should cause descension Nor desire nothing/ hard to recure For here is little in this world sure. ¶ Moral Seneck/ recordeth by writing Richest of things/ is a mean from poverty Ever of one cheer/ void of all grudging Both in joy/ and also adversity Thorough this world to have their liberty And these Greek words which I written find Always remember and bear them in thy mind ¶ Diogynes was content in his little tun His conquest was more sovereign of degree Than Alexander/ for all his renown For he conquered his sensuality Making him subject to reason of duty And clerk of his kechen he made attemperance Which of his body had the hole governance ¶ Examples we have enough us to suffice In books found. xx. thousand and more To exemplyfy folk that been wise How this world is a thorough fare full of woe Tossed and tumbled with vanities to and fro Death is annexed to us by succession For Adam's offence to us conveyed down ¶ O wordly folk advertyce with good intent What vengeance/ and what punissyon God shall take in his judgement For our trespasses/ and also transgression Which breaketh his precepts against all reason forgetting how with his precious blood Us to save/ he died on the road. ¶ Here for our sakes/ and our redemption Thorough hand and foot nailed to a tree Soffred pain/ and cruel passion Nothing ask of high nor low degree Recompensed againward for to be But that we should set/ all hold our intents To fulfil all his commandments. ¶ Thus endeth the Dialogue of the Playntyf and the defendant. Printed at London by Thomas Godfray. Cum privilegio Regali.