Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/281

Rh did contest and expostulate with Caesar in these tenns: That seeing it is so (quoth she) that you had so long before projected and determined such a thing as to call home again your nephew aforesaid; why sent you not for him at the first, but exposed me to hatred, enmity and war with him, who another day should wear the diadem and be emperor after your decease? Well, the next morning betimes, when Fulvius came, as his manner was, to salute Caesar and give him good morrow, after he had said unto him χαίρε, Καίσαρ, that is, God save you, Caesar; he resaluted him no otherwise but this, νγίαινε, Φούλβιε, that is, God make you wise, Fulvius. Fulvius soon found him and conceived presently what he meant thereby; whereupon he retired home to his house with all speed, and called for his wife; unto whom: Caesar (quoth he) is come to the knowledge that I have not kept his counsel nor concealed his secrets; and therefore I am resolved to make myself away with mine own hands. And well worthy (quoth she), for justly you have deserved death, who having lived so long with me, knew not the incontinence of my tongue all this while, nor would take heed and beware of it; but yet suffer me first to die upon your sword; and with that, catching hold thereof, killed herself before her husband. And therefore Philippides, the comedian, did very wisely in his answer to King Lysimachus, who by way of all courtesy making much of him, and minding to do him honour, demanded of him thus: What wouldest thou have me to impart unto thee of all other treasure and riches that I have? What it shall please your majesty (quoth he), my gracious lord, so it be none of your secrets.

Moreover, there is adjoined ordinarily unto garrulity another vice no less than it; namely, busy intermeddling and curiosity, for men desire to hear and know much news, because they may report and blaze the same abroad, and especially if they be secrets. Thus go they up and down listening, inquiring, and searching if they can find and discover some close and hidden speeches, adding as it were some old surcharge of odious matters to their toys and fooleries; which maketh them afterwards to be like unto little boys, who neither can hold ice in their hands, nor yet will let it go; or to say more truly, they clasp and contain in their bosoms secret speeches, resembling serpents, which they are not able to hold and keep long, but are eaten and gnawed by them. It is said that certain fishes called the sea-needles, yea and the vipers, do cleave and burst when they bring forth their young; and even so, secrets when they be let