THE FIRST BOOK. 49 



adoptive brethren Lucius Commodus Verus, son to 

 Verus, who delighted much in the softer kind of learning, and 

 was wont to call the poet Martial his Virgil ; and Marcus 

 Aurelius Antoninus : whereof the latter, who obscured his col- 

 league and survived him long, was named the &quot;Philosopher,&quot; 

 who. as he excelled all the rest in learning, so he excelled them 

 likewise in perfection of all royal virtues ; insomuch as Julianus 

 the emperor, in his book entitled Ccesares, being as a pasquil or 

 satire to deride all his predecessors, feigned that they were all 

 invited to a banquet of the gods, and Silenus the jester sat at the 

 nether end of the table and bestowed a scoff on everyone as 

 they came in ; but when Marcus Philosophus came in Silenus 

 was gravelled and out of countenance, not knowing vhere to 

 carp at nim, save at the last he gave a glance at his patience 

 towards his wife. And the virtue of this prince, continued with 

 that of his predecessor, made the name of Antoninus so sacred 

 in the world, that though it were extremely dishonoured in 

 Commodus, Caracalla, and Heliogabalus, who all bare the 

 name, yet, when Alexander Severus refused the name because 

 he was a stranger to the family, the Senate with one acclamation 

 said, Quomodo Augustus, sic et Antoninus. In such renown 

 and veneration was the name of these two princes in those days, 

 that they would have had it as a perpetual addition in all the 

 emperors style. In this emperor s time also the Church for the 

 most part was in peace ; so as in this sequence of six princes we 

 do see the blessed effects of learning in sovereignty, painted 

 forth in the greatest table of the world. 



(9) But for a tablet or picture of smaller volume (not pre 

 suming to speak of your Majesty that liveth), in my judgment 

 the most excellent is that of Queen Elizabeth, your immediate 

 predecessor in this part of Britain ; a prince that, if Plutarch 

 were now alive to write lives by parallels, would trouble him, I 

 think, to find for her a parallel amongst women. This lady was 

 endued with learning in her sex singular, and rare even amongst 

 masculine princes whether we speak of learning, of language, 

 or of science, modern or ancient, divinity or humanity and 

 unto the very last year of her life she accustomed to appoint set 

 hours for reading, scarcely any young student in a university 

 more daily or more duly. As for her government, I assure my 

 self (I shall not exceed if I do affirm) that this part of the island 

 never had forty-five years of better times, and yet not through 

 the calmness of the season, but through the wisdom of her 

 regiment. For if there be considered, of the one side, the 

 truth of religion established, the constant peace and security, 

 the good administration of justice, the temperate use of the 



