ave little else beside
their household business, or to play with their children to drive away
time, but to dally with their cats, which they have _in delitiis_, as many
of our ladies and gentlewomen use monkeys and little dogs. The ordinary
recreations which we have in winter, and in most solitary times busy our
minds with, are cards, tables and dice, shovelboard, chess-play, the
philosopher's game, small trunks, shuttlecock, billiards, music, masks,
singing, dancing, Yule-games, frolics, jests, riddles, catches, purposes,
questions and commands, [3283]merry tales of errant knights, queens,
lovers, lords, ladies, giants, dwarfs, thieves, cheaters, witches, fairies,
goblins, friars, &c., such as the old woman told Psyche in [3284]Apuleius,
Boccace novels, and the rest, _quarum auditione pueri delectantur, senes
narratione_, which some delight to hear, some to tell; all are well pleased
with. Amaranthus, the philosopher, met Hermocles, Diophantus and Philolaus,
his companions, one day busily discoursing about Epicurus and Democritus'
tenets, very solicitous which was most probable and came nearest to truth:
to put them out of that surly controversy, and to refresh their spirits, he
told them a pleasant tale of Stratocles the physician's wedding, and of all
the particulars, the company, the cheer, the music, &c., for he was new
come from it; with which relation they were so much delighted, that
Philolaus wished a blessing to his heart, and many a good wedding,[3285]
many such merry meetings might he be at, "to please himself with the sight,
and others with the narration of it." News are generally welcome to all our
ears, _avide audimus, aures enim hominum novitate laetantur_ ([3286]as
Pliny observes), we long after rumour to hear and listen to it,
[3287]_densum humeris bibit aure vulgus_. We are most part too inquisitive
and apt to hearken after news, which Caesar, in his [3288]Commentaries,
observes of the old Gauls, they would be inquiring of every carrier and
passenger what they had heard or seen, what news abroad?

------"quid toto fiat in orbe,
Quid Seres, quid Thraces agant, secreta novercae,
Et pueri, quis amet," &c.

as at an ordinary with us, bakehouse or barber's shop. When that great
Gonsalva was upon some displeasure confined by King Ferdinand to the city
of Loxa in Andalusia, the only, comfort (saith [3289]Jovius) he had to
ease his melancholy thoughts, was to hear news, and to listen a