e that you blush not at the words, ne
yet feare to reherse the same vnto my face, wherby I do perceiue
and note in you a certayne kind of stoutenes which naturally
procedeth from the greatnes of your mynd. But yet wisdome would
that you should consider the reason and cause why I haue
depryued you from your office. Do you not know that it
appertaineth vnto me in all myne affaires and deedes to be
liberal, curtious, magnificent, and bounteous? Be not those the
virtues that make the fame of a Prince to glister among his
subiectes, as the Sunne beames doe vpon the circuit of the
world? Who oughte to rewarde wel doers and recompence ech wight
whiche for any trauell haue al the dayes of their lyfe, or els
in some perticuler seruice vsed their endeuor, or aduentured the
peril of their life, but I alone being your soueraygne Lord and
Prince? To the vertuous and obedient, to the Captayne and the
Souldiour, to the pollityke and to the learned and graue,
finally, to ech wel deseruing wight, I know how to vse the noble
princely vertues of curtesie and liberality. They be the comly
ensignes of a kynge. They be the onely ornaments of a prince.
They be my perticular vertues. And will you Ariobarzanes, being
a valiaunt Souldioure, a graue counsayler, and a pollityke
personage, goe about to dispossesse me of that which is myne?
Wil you whiche are my seruaunte and Subiecte of whome I make
greateste accompt and haue in dearest estimation, vpon whom I
did bestow the greatest dignity within the compas of my whole
Monarchie, grate benefite at my handes, by abusinge those
vertues whiche I aboue other do principally regard? You do much
abuse the credite which I repose in youre greate wisedome. For
hee in whome I thought to fynde most graue aduise, and deemed to
bee a receptacle of al good counsel, doth seeke to take vppon
him the personage of his Prince, and to vsurpe the kinglye
qualitie which belongeth only vnto him. Shal I be tyed by your
desertes, or bound by curteous deedes, or els be forced to
rendre recompence? No, no, so long as this imperiall crowne shal
rest on royal head, no subiect by any curteous deede of his,
shal straine vnwilling mynde, which mente it not before. Tel me
I beseech you what reward and gift, what honour and preferment
haue I euer bestowed vpon you, sithens my first arriual to this
victorious raigne, that euer you by due desert did bynde me
thereunto? Which if you did, then liberal I cannot be termed,
but a slau