254 The Duchess of Newcastle 



but Madam, I will leave this discourse, for though 

 I am one of H^onen's subjects, being a married wife, 

 yet I am none of Venus 's customers, but Madam, 



Your faithful friend and servant. 



THE PLAGUE 



Madam, — I am sorry the plague is much in the city 

 you are in, as I hear, and fear your stay will indanger 

 j^our life, for the plague is so spreading and penetrating 

 a disease, as it is a malignant contagion, and dilates 

 it self throughout a city, nay, many times, from city 

 to city, all over a kingdom, and enters into every 

 particular house, and doth arrest almost every par- 

 ticular person with death, at least, layes grievous 

 sores upon them; indeed great plagues are death's 

 harvest, where he reaps down lives like ears of corn; 

 wherefore. Madam, let me perswade you to remove, 

 for certainly life is so pretious, as it ought not to be 

 ventured, where there is no honour to be gained in 

 the hazard ; for death seems terrible, I am sure it doth 

 to me. There is nothing I dread more than death, I 

 do not mean the strokes of death, nor the pains, but 

 the oblivion in death, I fear not death's dart so much 

 as death's dungeon, for I could willingly part with 

 my present life, to have it redoubled in after memory, 

 and would wilhngly die in my self, so I might live 

 in my friends. Such a life have I with you, and you 

 with me, our persons being at a distance, we hve to 

 each other no otherwise than if we were dead, for 

 absence is a present death, as memory is a future 

 life ; and so many friends as remember me, so many 

 lives I have, indeed so many brains as remember me, 

 so many lives I have, whether they be friends or foes. 



