him in the comedy, _Proh Jupiter tu homo me, adigas ad insaniam_.
For all is in these things as they are taken; if he be a silly soul, and do
not perceive it, 'tis well, he may haply make others sport, and be no whit
troubled himself; but if he be apprehensive of his folly, and take it to
heart, then it torments him worse than any lash: a bitter jest, a slander,
a calumny, pierceth deeper than any loss, danger, bodily pain, or injury
whatsoever; _leviter enim volat_, (it flies swiftly) as Bernard of an
arrow, _sed graviter vulnerat_, (but wounds deeply), especially if it shall
proceed from a virulent tongue, "it cuts" (saith David) "like a two-edged
sword. They shoot bitter words as arrows," Psal. lxiv. 5. "And they smote
with their tongues," Jer. xviii. 18, and that so hard, that they leave an
incurable wound behind them. Many men are undone by this means, moped, and
so dejected, that they are never to be recovered; and of all other men
living, those which are actually melancholy, or inclined to it, are most
sensible, (as being suspicious, choleric, apt to mistake) and impatient of
an injury in that kind: they aggravate, and so meditate continually of it,
that it is a perpetual corrosive, not to be removed, till time wear it out.
Although they peradventure that so scoff, do it alone in mirth and
merriment, and hold it _optimum aliena frui insania_, an excellent thing to
enjoy another man's madness; yet they must know, that it is a mortal sin
(as [2176]Thomas holds) and as the prophet [2177]David denounceth, "they
that use it, shall never dwell in God's tabernacle."

Such scurrilous jests, flouts, and sarcasms, therefore, ought not at all to
be used; especially to our betters, to those that are in misery, or any way
distressed: for to such, _aerumnarum incrementa sunt_, they multiply grief,
and as [2178]he perceived, _In multis pudor, in multis iracundia_, &c.,
many are ashamed, many vexed, angered, and there is no greater cause or
furtherer of melancholy. Martin Cromerus, in the Sixth book of his history,
hath a pretty story to this purpose, of Vladislaus, the second king of
Poland, and Peter Dunnius, earl of Shrine; they had been hunting late, and
were enforced to lodge in a poor cottage. When they went to bed, Vladislaus
told the earl in jest, that his wife lay softer with the abbot of Shrine;
he not able to contain, replied, _Et tua cum Dabesso_, and yours with
Dabessus, a gallant young gentleman in the court, whom Ch