They that are most staid and patient, are so furiously carried headlong by the passion of sorrow in this case, that brave discreet men otherwise, oftentimes forget themselves, and weep like children many months together, [2320]as if that they to water would, and will not be comforted. They are gone, they are gone; what shall I do? Abstulit atra dies et funere mersit acerbo, Quis dabit in lachrymas fontem mihi? quis satis altos Accendet gemitus, et acerbo verba dolori? Exhaurit pietas oculos, et hiantia frangit Pectora, nec plenos avido sinit edere questus, Magna adeo jactura premit, &c.
Fountains of tears who gives, who lends me groans, Deep sighs sufficient to express my moans? Mine eyes are dry, my breast in pieces torn, My loss so great, I cannot enough mourn.
So Stroza Filius, that elegant Italian poet, in his Epicedium, bewails his father's death, he could moderate his passions in other matters, (as he confesseth) but not in this, lie yields wholly to sorrow, Nunc fateor do terga malis, mens illa fatiscit, Indomitus quondam vigor et constantia mentis.
How doth [2321]Quintilian complain for the loss of his son, to despair almost: Cardan lament his only child in his book de libris propriis, and elsewhere in many of his tracts, [2322]St. Ambrose his brother's death? an ego possum non cogitare de te, aut sine lachrymis cogitare? O amari dies, o flebiles noctes, &c. Can I ever cease to think of thee, and to think with sorrow? O bitter days, O nights of sorrow, &c. Gregory Nazianzen, that noble Pulcheria! O decorem, &c. flos recens, pullulans, &c. Alexander, a man of most invincible courage, after Hephestion's death, as Curtius relates, triduum jacuit ad moriendum obstinatus, lay three days together upon the ground, obstinate, to die with him, and would neither eat, drink, nor sleep. The woman that communed with Esdras (lib. 2. cap. 10.) when her son fell down dead. fled into the field, and would not return into the city, but there resolved to remain, neither to eat nor drink, but mourn and fast until she died. Rachel wept for her children, and would not be comforted because they were not. Matt. ii. 18. So did Adrian the emperor bewail his Antinous; Hercules, Hylas; Orpheus, Eurydice; David, Absalom; (O my dear son Absalom) Austin his mother Monica, Niobe her children, insomuch that the [2323]poets feigned her to be turned into a stone, as being stupefied through the extremity of grief. [2324]Aegeas, signo lugubri filii consternatus, in mare se proecipitatem dedit, impatient of sorrow for his son's death, drowned, himself. Our late physicians are full of such examples. Montanus consil. 242. [2325]had a patient troubled with this infirmity, by reason of her husband's death, many years together. Trincavellius, l. 1. c. 14. hath such another, almost in despair, after his [2326]mother's departure, ut se ferme proecipitatem daret; and ready through distraction to make away himself: and in his Fifteenth counsel, tells a story of one fifty years of age, that grew desperate upon his mother's death; and cured by Fallopius, fell many years after into a relapse, by the sudden death of a daughter which he had, and could never after be recovered. The fury of this passion is so violent sometimes, that it daunts whole kingdoms and cities. Vespasian's death was pitifully lamented all over the Roman empire, totus orbis lugebat, saith Aurelius Victor. Alexander commanded the battlements of houses to be pulled down, mules and horses to have their manes shorn off, and many common soldiers to be slain, to accompany his dear Hephestion's death; which is now practised amongst the Tartars, when [2327]a great Cham dieth, ten or twelve thousand must be slain, men and horses, all they meet; and among those the [2328]Pagan Indians, their wives and servants voluntarily die with them. Leo Decimus was so much bewailed in Rome after his departure, that as Jovius gives out, [2329]communis salus, publica hilaritas, the common safety of all good fellowship, peace, mirth, and plenty died with him, tanquam eodem sepulchro cum Leone condita lugebantur: for it was a golden age whilst he lived, [2330]but after his decease an iron season succeeded, barbara vis et foeda vastitas, et dira malorum omnium incommoda, wars, plagues, vastity, discontent. When Augustus Caesar died, saith Paterculus, orbis ruinam timueramus, we were all afraid, as if heaven had fallen upon our heads.