whatsoever goeth alone or moveth upon greater means, if they have never so little hand in it, they think it is they that carry it. They that are glorious must needs be factious;[1] for all bravery stands upon comparisons. They must needs be violent, to make good their own vaunts. Neither can they be secret, and therefore not effectual; but according to the French proverb, Beaucoup de bruit, peu de fruit; Much bruit,[2] little fruit. Yet certainly there is use of this quality in civil affairs. Where there is an opinion and fame to be created either of virtue or greatness, these men are good trumpeters. Again, as Titus Livius noteth in the case of Antiochus[3] and the Ætolians, there are sometimes great effects of cross lies;[4] as if a man that negociates between two princes, to draw them to join in a war against the third, doth extol the forces of either of them above measure, the one to the other:
- ↑ Factious. Given to faction; inclined to form parties, or to act for party purposes; seditious.
"He is a traitor; let him to the Tower,
And chop away that factious pate of his."
Shakspere. II. King Henry VI. v. 1.
- ↑ Bruit. Noise; din; clamour. "Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons." Jeremiah x. 22.
- ↑ Antiochus III., surnamed 'the Great,' was born about 238 B.C. and died in 187 B.C. He was King of Syria from 223 to 187 B.C.
- ↑ For the "cross lies" between Antiochus III. and the Aetolians, see Livy, Liber XXXVII. Capita 48, 49, and 50. After the defeat of the Macedonians at Cynocephalae, 197 B.C., by Flamininus, the Aetolian confederation attempted to form an alliance with Antiochus III., King of Svria. It proved to be disastrous, for Antiochus was defeated by Porcius Cato at the pass of Thermopylae, 191 B.C., and by the brothers, Cornelius and Africanus Scipio, at Magnesia, 190 B.C.
book of Latin fables published in Lyons in Henry the Eighth's time: Aesopi Phrygis et Aliorum Fabulae, quorum nomina sequenti pagella uidere licet. Accessit huic editioni Alterum Laurentii Abstemii Hecathomythium, hoc est, centum fabularum libellus alter. Lugduni Apud Haeredes Simonis Vincentii M. D. XXXVII.
