from scorn; which must be either by virtue or malice; and therefore let it not be marvelled if sometimes they prove excellent persons; as was Agesilaus, Zanger the son of Solyman, Æsop, Gasca President of Peru; and Socrates may go likewise amongst them; with others.

XLV. OF BUILDING.

HOUSES are built to live in, and not to look on; therefore let use be preferred before uniformity, except where both may be had. Leave the goodly fabrics of houses, for beauty only, to the enchanted palaces of the poets; who build them with small cost. He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat, committeth himself to prison. Neither do I reckon it an ill seat only where the air is unwholesome; but likewise where the air is unequal; as you shall see many fine seats set upon a knap of ground, environed with higher hills round about it; whereby the heat of the sun is pent in, and the wind gathereth 2 as in troughs; so as you shall have, and that suddenly, as great diversity of heat and cold as if you dwelt in several places. Neither is it ill air only that maketh an ill seat, but ill ways, ill markets: and, if you will consult with Momus 3, ill neighbours. I speak not of many more; want of water; want of wood, shade, and shelter; want of fruitfulness, and mixture of grounds of several natures; want of prospect; want of level grounds; want of places at some near distance for sports of hunting, hawking, and races; too near the sea, too remote; having the commodity of navigable rivers 5, or the discommodity of their overflowing; too far off from great cities, which may hinder business, or too near them, which lurcheth all provisions", and maketh every thing dear; where a man hath a great living

' in colliculo paululum elevato; sed cincto undique, more theatri, collibus altioribus. 2 variis æstibus reciprocantur.

For an explanation of this allusion to Momus, about which there has been some controversy of late, I am indebted to Mr. Ellis. "In one of Æsop's fables," he writes, "Minerva makes a house; and Momus says it should have been on wheels, to get away from bad neighbours."

That is, want of mixture.

minime commistum sit.

Sterilitas soli, aut quod ex variis glebarum generibus

So in the original, and also in Ed. 1639. It seems as if not had dropped out; or as if the should be no. The translation has commoditas nulla fluviorum navigabilium. • quod victui necessaria absorbet.

laid together, and where he is scanted: all which, as it is impossible perhaps to find together, so it is good to know them, and think of them, that a man may take as many as he can 1; and if he have several dwellings, that he sort them so, that what he wanteth in the one he may find in the other. Lucullus answered Pompey well; who, when he saw his stately galleries, and rooms so large and lightsome, in one of his houses, said, Surely an excellent place for summer, but how do you in winter? Lucullus answered, Why, do you not think me as wise as some fowl are, that ever change their abode towards the winter?

To pass from the seat to the house itself; we will do as Cicero doth in the orator's art; who writes books De Oratore, and a book he entitles Orator; whereof the former delivers the precepts of the art, and the latter the perfection. We will therefore describe a princely palace, making a brief model thereof. For it is strange to see, now in Europe, such huge buildings as the Vatican and Escurial and some others be, and yet scarce a very fair 2 room in them.

First therefore, I say you cannot have a perfect palace, except you have two several sides 3; a side for the banquet, as is spoken of in the book of Hester, and a side for the household; the one for feasts and triumphs, and the other for dwelling. I understand both these sides to be not only returns, but parts of the front; and to be uniform without, though severally partitioned within; and to be on both sides of a great and stately tower in the midst of the front, that, as it were, joineth them together on either hand. I would have on the side of the banquet, in front, one only goodly room above stairs, of some forty foot high; and under it a room for a dressing or preparing place at times of triumphs. On the other side, which is the household side, I wish it divided at the first into a hall and a chapel, (with a partition between ;) both of good state and bigness; and those not to go all the length, but to have at

1 locus ubi quis latifundia ampla possideat, aut acquirere possit, et locus contra ubi pennas extendere nequeat: quæ singula minime eo animo enumeramus ac si domus aliqua his incommodis omnibus vacare possit, verum ut tot ex illis evitemus quot evitari con

cedatur.

2

4

vere magnificam. • nisi duas habeat portiones diversas. non ut latera domûs. The translation raises it to fifty feet. Eamque supra gradus ad quinquaginta pedes ad minus altam.

et subter eam cameram item alteram, similis longitudinis et latitudinis; quæ apparatum et instructionem ad festa, ludos, et ejusmodi magnificentius, actores etiam dum se ornent et parent, commode recipiat.

' amplam et pulchram.

the further end a winter and a summer parlour, both fair. And under these rooms', a fair and large cellar sunk under ground; and likewise some privy kitchens, with butteries and pantries, and the like. As for the tower, I would have it two stories, of eighteen 2 foot high a piece, above the two wings; and a goodly leads upon the top3, railed with statua's interposed; and the same tower to be divided into rooms, as shall be thought fit. The stairs likewise to the upper rooms, let them be upon fair open newel, and finely railed in with images of wood, cast into a brass colour 5; and a very fair landing-place at the top. But this to be, if you do not point any of the lower rooms for a dining place of servants. For otherwise you shall have the servants' dinner after your own: for the steam of it will come up as in a tunnel. And so much for the front. Only I understand the height of the first stairs to be sixteen foot, which is the height of the lower room.

a

8

Beyond this front is there to be a fair court, but three sides of it, of a far lower building than the front. And in all the four corners of that court fair stair-cases, cast into turrets, on the outside, and not within the row of buildings themselves. But those towers are not to be of the height of the front, but rather proportionable to the lower building. Let the court not be paved, for that striketh up a great heat in summer, and much cold in winter. But only some side alleys, with a cross, and the quarters to graze, being kept shorn, but not too near shorn. The row of return 10 on the banquet side, let it be all stately galleries: in which galleries let there be three, or five, fine cupolas in the length of it, placed at equal distance; and fine coloured windows of several works." On the household

5 gradus autem turris apertos esse, et in se revertentes, et per senos subinde divisos : utrinque statuis ligneis inauratis, vel saltem ænei coloris cinctos.

verum cavendum ne locus ubi famuli comedant sit ad imum gradum, vel prope; si enim sit, ciborum nidor ascendet, tanquam in tubo quodam.

viginti.

& turres extruantur, altitudinem laterum prædictorum nonnihil superantes, ad gradus quibus in superiora ascendatur capiendos; quæ turres non recipiantur in planum ædificii, sed extra promineant.

9 Arca autem integra lapidibus latis quadrangulis minime substernatur; nam hujusmodi pavimenta calorem molestum æstate, et similiter frigus asperum hyeme immittunt : sed habeat ambulacra, ex ejusmodi lapidibus, per latera tantum ædificii; et formam crucis ex iisdem in medio; cum quadris interpositis, quæ gramine vestiantur, detonso quidem, sed non nimis prope terram.

10 latus universum area.

11 ubi pingantur columnæ, imagines omnigenæ, flores, et similia.

side, chambers of presence and ordinary entertainments ', with some bed-chambers; and let all three sides be a double house, without thorough lights on the sides, that you may have rooms 2 from the sun, both for forenoon and afternoon. Cast it also, that you may have rooms both for summer and winter; shady for summer, and warm for winter. You shall have sometimes fair houses so full of glass, that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the sun or cold. For inbowed windows, I hold them of good use; (in cities, indeed, upright 3 do better, in respect of the uniformity towards the street ;) for they be pretty retiring places for conference; and besides, they keep both the wind and sun off; for that which would strike almost thorough the room doth scarce pass the window. But let them be but few, four in the court, on the sides only.

3

Beyond this court, let there be an inward court, of the same square and height; which is to be environed with the garden on all sides; and in the inside, cloistered on all sides, upon decent and beautiful arches, as high as the first story. On the under story, towards the garden, let it be turned to a grotta, or place of shade, or estivation. And only have opening and windows towards the garden; and be level upon the floor, no whit sunken under ground, to avoid all dampishness. And let there be a fountain, or some fair work of statua's in the midst of this court; and to be paved as the other court was. These buildings to be for privy lodgings on both sides; and the end for privy galleries. Whereof you must foresee that one of them be for an infirmary 7, if the prince or any special person should be sick, with chambers, bed-chamber, antecamera, and recamera, joining to it. This upon the second story. Upon the ground story, a fair gallery, open, upon pillars; and upon the third story likewise, an open gallery 10, upon pillars, to take

1 At latus ex parte familiæ, simul cameras præsentiales; et alias usús ac 2 cubicula et camera.

4 duæ scilicet ex utroque latere areæ. 6 latus transversum.

cum latere tertio e regione frontis, complectatur lecoris ordinarii.

3 ad planum ædificii, et minime protuberantes. 5 horto per exterius circumcincta.

'curandum vero ut aliquæ, tam ex cameris et conclavibus, quam ex porticibus, designentur ad usum infirmorum.

Habeant autem portiones singulæ ægris destinatæ, (ut moderni loquuntur) AnteCameram, Cameram ad cubile, et Re-cameram.

9 At lotus transversum solarii inferioris, versus hortum convertatur in porticum, spatiosum, &c.

10 Rursus supra solarium tertium, ex omnibus tribus lateribus, statuantur porticus elegantes, &c.

the prospect and freshness of the garden. At both corners of the further side, by way of return', let there be two delicate or rich cabinets, daintily paved, richly hanged, glazed with crystalline glass, and a rich cupola in the midst; and all other elegancy that may be thought upon." In the upper gallery too, I wish that there may be, if the place will yield it, some fountains running in divers places from the wall, with some fine avoidances. And thus much for the model of the palace'; save that you must have, before you come to the front, three courts. A green court plain, with a wall about it; a second court of the same, but more garnished, with little turrets, or rather embellishments, upon the wall; and a third court, to make a square with the front, but not to be built, nor yet enclosed with a naked wall, but enclosed with tarrasses, leaded aloft, and fairly garnished, on the three sides; and cloistered on the inside, with pillars, and not with arches below. As for offices, let them stand at distance, with some low galleries, to pass from them to the palace itself.

XLVI. OF GARDENS.

GOD ALMIGHTY first planted a Garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man; without which buildings and palaces are but gross handy works': and a man shall ever see that when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build stately sooner than to garden finely; as if gardening were the greater perfection. I do hold it, in the royal ordering of gardens, there ought to be gardens for all the months in the year; in which

I ad angulos duos lateris transversi in solario secundo.

2 Sint autem conclavia illa rebus curiosis omnigenis et spectatu dignis referta.

3 qui per secretos tubos iterum transeant. The following sentence is inserted here in the translation: Interior autem pars in solario superiore, versus aream, formetur in porticus et ambulacra, bene munita et obducta, ad usum convalescentium.

The translation adds: nam de balneis et piscinis non loquor.

5 Area viridis, gramine vestita, cum pariete in circuitu, et juxta parietem arboribus, ordine positis, sata.

6 sed ambulacris supra columnas, non arcus, erectis; in summitate vero plumbo vel lapide quadrato coopertis, et ad latera elegantibus statuis parvis, æner coloris, munitis clansam.

7 manús tantum sunt opera, nec sapiunt naturam.

8 citius pervenire ad ædificiorum pulchritudinem quam ad hortorum elegantiam et amanitatem.