' ends, if by chance they
overshoot themselves, in their ordinary speeches, or actions, which may
after turn to their disadvantage or disgrace, or have any secret disclosed.
Ronseus _epist. miscel. 2_, reports of a gentlewoman 25 years old, that
falling foul with one of her gossips, was upbraided with a secret infirmity
(no matter what) in public, and so much grieved with it, that she did
thereupon _solitudines quaerere omnes ab se ablegare, ac tandem in
gravissimam incidens melancholiam, contabescere_, forsake all company,
quite moped, and in a melancholy humour pine away. Others are as much
tortured to see themselves rejected, contemned, scorned, disabled, defamed,
detracted, undervalued, or [2381]"left behind their fellows." Lucian brings
in Aetamacles, a philosopher in his _Lapith. convivio_, much discontented
that he was not invited amongst the rest, expostulating the matter, in a
long epistle, with Aristenetus their host. Praetextatus, a robed gentleman
in Plutarch, would not sit down at a feast, because he might not sit
highest, but went his ways all in a chafe. We see the common quarrelings,
that are ordinary with us, for taking of the wall, precedency, and the
like, which though toys in themselves, and things of no moment, yet they
cause many distempers, much heart-burning amongst us. Nothing pierceth
deeper than a contempt or disgrace, [2382]especially if they be generous
spirits, scarce anything affects them more than to be despised or vilified.
Crato, _consil. 16, l. 2_, exemplifies it, and common experience confirms
it. Of the same nature is oppression, Ecclus. 77, "surely oppression makes
a man mad," loss of liberty, which made Brutus venture his life, Cato kill
himself, and [2383]Tully complain, _Omnem hilaritatem in perpetuum amisi_,
mine heart's broken, I shall never look up, or be merry again, [2384]_haec
jactura intolerabilis_, to some parties 'tis a most intolerable loss.
Banishment a great misery, as Tyrteus describes it in an epigram of his,

"Nam miserum est patria amissa, laribusque vagari
Mendicum, et timida voce rogare cibos:
Omnibus invisus, quocunque accesserit exul
Semper erit, semper spretus egensque jacet," &c.

"A miserable thing 'tis so to wander,
And like a beggar for to whine at door,
Contemn'd of all the world, an exile is,
Hated, rejected, needy still and poor."

Polynices in his conference with Jocasta in [2385]