GREENE'S FAREWELL TO FOLLY 1 Modern spelling tran

GREENE’S FAREWELL TO FOLLY 20
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Rodento, speaking for the rest, made answer that as the County Selides was banished
without cause, so he might lawfully return without pardon; that offences measured with
envy were to be salved without entreaty, & therefore did no more than they all present
were ready to justify, and further, whereas his Majesty was so sotted in self-conceit that
he held his will as a law, and made a metamorphosis of a monarchy into a flat
government of tyranny, they were come to persuade his Highness from such folly,
wherein if he resolved to persist, they were determined not only to deprive him of his
crown and kingdom, but before his face to celebrate the coronation of Selides.
Vadislaus, hearing this peremptory resolution of his lords, was nothing dismayed, but
with a countenance overshadowed with disdain, told them he feared not their braves:
For, quoth he, the treacherous attempt of a subject cannot dismay the princely courage of
a king. When the slaves of Scythia rebelled against their lords, they were not subdued
with weapons, but with whips. Cyrus punished traitors, not with the axe to infer death,
but with a fool’s coat to procure perpetual shame. Therefore, my Lords, I charge you
upon your allegiance, take hold of that outlaw Selides, put him in prison till he hear
farther of my pleasure, and for your own parts, submit yourselves and crave pardon.
The noblemen played like the deaf adder that heareth not the sorcerer’s charm, neither
could they be dissuaded from their intent by the threats of a king, but following their
purpose, presently deposed him of all regal dignity and celebrated the coronation of
Selides, who seated in the regal throne had no sooner the sceptre in his hand but envy
began to grow in his heart, and revenge haled him on to seal up his comical success with
tragical sorrow, for he commanded Vadislaus to be pulled out of his robes and put into
rags; instead of a crown, to give him a scrip; for a sceptre, a palmer’ staff, making general
proclamation that none of what degree soever should allow him any maintenance, but that
his inheritance should be the wide fields, and his revenues naught else but charity.
Vadislaus, thus at one time deposed and metamorphosed from a king to a beggar, was
now disdained of those whom before he did scorn, and laughed at by such as before he
did envy. The nobility shaked him off as a refuse, the commons used him as a bad
companion; both jointly forgat that he had been their king, and smoothly smiled at his
misfortune. Vadislaus, as a man in a trance, being passed a little from his palace, seeing
the place which whilom was the subject of pleasure now the object of discontent, that
where he did command as a king, he was controlled as an abject, he fell into these
distressed passions:
Is youth, the wealth of nature, to be wracked with every flaw? Is honour, the privilege of
nobility, subject to every fall? Hath majesty, that makes us fellow-partners with the gods
in dignity, no warrant to grant a sympathy of their deities that, as we are equal in
highness, so we may be immortal in happiness?
Why dost thou enter, Vadislaus, into such frivolous questions, when thy present
misfortune tells thee kings are but men, and therefore the very subjects of fortune? Ah,
unhappy man, hadst thou confessed as much as proof sets thee down for a principle, the
Modern spelling transcript copyright 2007 Nina Green All Rights Reserved