ch one, usury another, treason a third, witchcraft a
fourth, flattery a fifth, lying, stealing, bearing false witness a sixth,
adultery the seventh," &c. One makes a fool of himself to make his lord
merry, another dandles my young master, bestows a little nag on him, a
third marries a cracked piece, &c. Now may it please your good worship,
your lordship, who was the first founder of your family? The poet answers,
[3636]_Aut Pastor fuit, aut illud quod dicere nolo._ Are he or you the
better gentleman? If he, then we have traced him to his form. If you, what
is it of which thou boastest so much? That thou art his son. It may be his
heir, his reputed son, and yet indeed a priest or a serving man may be the
true father of him; but we will not controvert that now; married women are
all honest; thou art his son's son's son, begotten and born _infra quatuor
maria_, &c. Thy great great great grandfather was a rich citizen, and then
in all likelihood a usurer, a lawyer, and then a--a courtier, and then a--a
country gentleman, and then he scraped it out of sheep, &c. And you are the
heir of all his virtues, fortunes, titles; so then, what is your gentry,
but as Hierom saith, _Opes antiquae, inveteratae divitiae_, ancient wealth?
that is the definition of gentility. The father goes often to the devil, to
make his son a gentleman. For the present, what is it? "It began" (saith
[3637]Agrippa) "with strong impiety, with tyranny, oppression," &c. and so
it is maintained: wealth began it (no matter how got), wealth continueth
and increaseth it. Those Roman knights were so called, if they could
dispend _per annum_ so much. [3638]In the kingdom of Naples and France, he
that buys such lands, buys the honour, title, barony, together with it; and
they that can dispend so much amongst us, must be called to bear office, to
be knights, or fine for it, as one observes, [3639]_nobiliorum ex censu
judicant_, our nobles are measured by their means. And what now is the
object of honour? What maintains our gentry but wealth? [3640]_Nobilitas
sine re projecta vilior alga._ Without means gentry is naught worth,
nothing so contemptible and base. [3641]_Disputare de nobilitate generis,
sine divitiis, est disputare de nobilitate stercoris_, saith Nevisanus the
lawyer, to dispute of gentry without wealth, is (saving your reverence) to
discuss the original of a merd. So that it is wealth alone that
denominates, money which maintains it, gives _esse_ to it, for