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with their bodie, and not to behave themselves youthfully SECOND in their age: and when they are arived to their ende, not BOOKE to seeke to turne backe, but rather to give themselves to consider that age naturally maketh them crooked and stooping towardes the grounde, to the ende they may thinke to returne from whence they came, and to remember that at that time their breath even hangeth at their lippes.* They have further to take heede, least they contemne young folke (a fault common to many of them) for it is their parte too make account of them, and to use great discretion in their behaviour towardes them, to the ende, that young folke (if for nothing else) may therby be mooved to doe them honour otherwise they may assure themselves they shall bee had in contempt and derision. They must bee sure (being amongest youth) to use great respect as well in wordes as jestures, remembring that the intemperancie of olde men maketh young men more disordered and dissolute. *And to conclude, that they have regarde to the commaundement of Paule, that they bee sober, chast, wise, sound in faith, in charitie, and in patience, which vertues will make them acceptable to all honest companies.* But nowe let us speake of Gentlemen and yeomen, betweene whom by reason of their difference and inequalitie, there are divers thinges to be observed in company.

GUAZ. I thinke that labour lost, or at least a thing not woorthie your labour, to goe about to instruct the base people, about whom, being by nature uncivill, rude, untowarde, discurteous, rough, savage, as it were, barbarous, and voide of understanding, you shall loose your labour, and according to the Proverbe, both water and soape.

ANNIB. If you meane by those of base birth, only labourers and rustikes, our speeche in deede woulde bee spent in vaine: but if you consider the infinite number of persons which reache not to the degree of Gentlemen, and yet are not far from it, you will not deny but that both for the good minde they carie with them, and the good calling they live in, they are woorthie some place in company, and that they ought to bee put in the middest betweene Gentlemen

and clownes. And truely I knowe many men of meane THE calling, who in Gentlemanlike and courteus conditions, SECOND in good bringing up, and all their talke and behaviour, BOOKE excell many Gentlemen. And contrariwise, I am sure you know many Gentlemen more uncivill then the Clownes themselves.

GUAZ. If they be uncivill, howe are they Gentlemen ? And if they be Gentlemen, howe are they uncivill? I pray you even at once undoe mee the knot of this gentry, which I see to be verie intricate by reason of the diversitie of opinions which are about it, and so consequently you shall come to set foorth manifestly the Conversation betweene gentlemen and yeomen.

ANNIB. Having this day to speake of many thinges and being alredie late, I cannot fully satisfie your request. For I shoulde be driven to stay heare long time to bring in all that, which many authors have at large written of it, especially that great Tiraquel one of the kinges counsellours in the Parliament at Paris, yet somewhat to followe your minde, and not much to hinder our course, I say unto you (as it were in passing by) that some falling to define gentry, have sayde it be the dignitie of the fathers and auncestours, others the auncient patrimonie, others riches joyned with vertue, others vertue onely. Besides that the woorthie maister George Carretto an Academike alleaged the other day in his discourse the authoritie of Balde who maketh three sortes of gentrie, the first in respect of blood, as the common sorte understandeth it: the other in respect of good conditions, as the Philosopher taketh it: the thirde in respecte of both, and that I call true gentrie.

GUAZ. There might be added here that other sorte of gentrie, which is gotten by the Priviledge of Princes.

ANNIB. Perchaunce he joyned that with the Philosophers gentrie. For it may be sayde that the prince by that priveledge doeth approove the vertue and merites of him he rayseth to the state of gentrie. But the excellencie of gentry hath ben much more restrained by Diogenes, who being asked, who were the best Gentlemen, answered,

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those which set naught by riches, honours, pleasures, and SECOND life, and which overcame their contraries, to wit, povertie, BOOKE ignominie, payne, and death.

GUAZ. I thinke the race of such Gentlemen is at this
day extinguished.

ANNIBALL. Nowe for that there are many distinctions of
gentry according to the diversitie of opinions, albeeit some
Philosophers assigne foure sortes and some five, I will bee
so bolde devising familiarly with you, to make yet one sorte
more according to myne owne fancy, though I swarve a
little from their opinion. There are then three sortes of
gentry, whereof I derive three sortes of Gentlemen, to witte :
Gentlemen of the first, second, and third degree. I will
give to those of the first degree, the name of halfe Gentle
men, having at this tyme no more proper terme.
the second, Gentlemen: and the third, right Gentlemen.
Nowe of halfe Gentlemen, I ordaine three sorts, the first
those which are Gentlemen only by birth, comming of some
auncient house, but having in themselves neither good
conditions nor good behaviour, nor so much as any shew
of gentry.

I wil cal

GUAZ. Those in my opinion may rather be saide to bee discended of Gentlemen, then to be Gentlemen indeede : and these bee those which straine themselves to sweare at every worde by the fayth of a Gentleman, when there is no oth required of them, by meanes whereof they make them. selves suspected, as witnesses which offer themselves before they bee asked for: and they seeme to bee afeard least they should not be taken for Gentlemen, as those who are knowen in lookes, in wordes, and in deedes to bee very clownes. And though they take upon them the name of Courtiers, yet in their behaviour they shewe themselves little better then Carters.

ANNIB. There is no cause why wee should mervaile at those differences, for like as in fieldes, so in houses, there springeth up fruite in great fertilitie, and in some processe of time, there come thereof excellent and famous men and after by little and little they fall to decay and become barren,

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so that the sharpenesse and goodnesse of the wit is chaunged, and degenerating is made grosse and blockish. Yea, it is SECOND evidently seene, that not onely houses and families waxe olde, but even whole Cities, yea the worlde it selfe. Howe many auncient houses have there been, wherof there is not at this day any remembrance? or else they are brought into poore and vile estate.

GUAZ. Dant saith therof wel, that

Races razed are, and houses runne to wracke.

ANNIB. Thereuppon it is saide not without greate reason, that if one have respect to the first originall, there is no king but is discended of slaves, nor slave, but commeth of kings. And if you call to minde things of the tyme past, and compare them with the present, yea if you but have regarde onely to the revolution of our tymes, you shall see that as all other things, so houses turne like the wheele, beeing nowe ascending, nowe at the highest, nowe discending, nowe at the lowest. So that it may be sayde to be gentry, both which beginneth, which increaseth, which diminisheth, and which vanisheth.

Guaz. A man might also wel compare the state of gentry to the course of the moone. But wherefore is it thinke you, that God causeth this alteration and chaunge in families?

ANNIB. Perhaps to this end, that we should not hoorde up for our selves any treasure on earth: and that wee shoulde lift up our selves to the contemplation of heavenly thinges, in which only a man may put his assurance. But there may be here alledged another occasion, whiche is, that God will suffer no evil to remaine unpunished. For a famous writer, speaking of the nobilitie of the world, maketh it nothing else then auncient richesse, and addeth, that every rich man is either unjust him selfe, or else the heire of some unjust man. Whereuppon hee concludeth, that the gentry of ones house, taketh beginning of injustice: and therefore wee must not mervaile if things ill gotten are ill spent. But to returne to my purpose, these halfe

THE Gentlemen, who beeing not by nature indued with any SECOND vertue, make boast of the woorthinesse of their auncestours, BOOKE are to bee laughed at: For the more they set foorth the woorthinesse of them, the more they lay open the imperfection of themselves, for that there is nothing that maketh the childrens faultes more to bee seene, then the bright shewe and glorious shyning of their fathers and graundfathers. And no doubt hee that hath no commendable thing in him, the more he speaketh of the gentry of his auncestours, the more vile and contemptible hee sheweth himselfe. And thereupon it is growen into a Proverbe that unfortunate children extoll the vertues of their parents. God therefore keepe us from the state of these halfe Gentlemen, whose deedes beeing not answereable to the nobilitie of their house, they are little accounted of in the worlde, and taken as it were for Bastardes. Wherefore we will conclude that in veritie and trueth wee ought to respect the qualities and vertues whiche are in the parties themselves, and that it is in vaine to stand upon the renowme of our progenitours. Next unto this first kind foloweth the second of Gentlemen by good conditions.

GUAZ. Which take you to be the best of those two?

ANNIB. Whether do you more account of those things which are gotten with labour and industrie, or of those which nature or fortune bestoweth upon us?

GUAZ. Why the first?

ANNIB. And whether doe you thinke more excellent of the giftes of the mind, or of the body?

GUAZ. The giftes of the minde.

ANNIB. Consider now that gentry by byrth costeth you nothing, but that you have it by succession, mary gentry by vertue you have gotten hardly, having first passed thorowe the pykes, and a thousande daungers. Moreover wee are to consider that gentry by blood belongeth to the body, but gentry by good conditions hath relation to the mind. Which made the tyrant Phalaris say, beeing demaunded what hee thought of gentry, that hee acknowledged gentry to come onely by the meanes of vertue, and al other things