John Trapp on Esther 6:9

Verſe 9. And let this apparel and horſe be delivered, &c.] All muſt be done in ampleſt manner: and if it had been done to himſelf as he deſired,Fortè ampli[illegible: 1 letter] [illegible: 1 letter]uiſſet, niſi v[illegible: 1 letter] ri[illegible: 1 letter]as eſſet re[illegible: 1 letter] ſuſpicione n[illegible: 1 letter] tiquàm care[illegible: 1 letter] Lavat. what had all that been but a magnum nihil, as one ſaith, a great nothing, a glorious fancie, a rattle to ſtill his ambition for a while? He, ſimple man, had wrought himſelf into the fooles paradiſe of a ſublime dotage, like as the Spaniards have in their dream of a Catholick Monarchy, divinitus debita, ſaith one, ſed in Ʋtopia. They were laughed at a good by Captain Drake, and his company, when they took Sancta Domingo. Anno 1585. and in the Town-Hall found the King of Spaines armes, and under them a Globe of the world, out of which aroſe a horſe with his fore-feet caſt forth with this Inſcription, Non ſufficit orbis. Pyrrhus, that ambitious King of Epirotes, had the like thought; but was ſlain at laſt with a tileſtone thrown upon his head by a woman. And a like evil end befel Caeſar Borgia, who in imitation of Julius Caeſar, would needs be, aut Caeſar, aut nullus, and ſoon after proved to be Et Caeſar, & nullus. Had Haman but contented himſelf with his preſent condition (too good for ſuch a Caitiffe) he might have lived in the worlds account happily, and have called himſelf as that French King did Treſheureuſe, thrice bleſſed, but that inſatiable thirſt after honour, that gluttonous exceſſive deſire after more and more greatneſſe undid him. So true is that Proverb of the Ancients, Turdus ipſe ſibi malum cacat, Of the black birds dung is made the lime wherewith he is taken, ſo out of the dung of mens ſinnes doth God make his lime-twigs of judgement to take them withal.

To one of the Kings moſt noble Princes] Principibus majoribus paratimis. This would be no ſmall addition to the honour of the man, and ſplendour of the day, like as it was here in England, when Henry the ſecond, at the Coronation of his eldeſt ſonne, renounced the name of a King for that day, and, as Sewer, ſerved at the Table.

That they may aray the man withal] Setting him forth to the greateſt advantage: as our Henry the ſixth did, when he crowned the Lord Beauch[illegible: 1 letter]mp King of the Iſle of Wight, and as Xerxes did Demaratus, Sen. l. 6. de[illegible: 1 letter] when for honours ſake he granted him to enter into Sardis, the chief City of Aſia, arayed like himſelf, with a ſtraight Tiare upon his head, which none might wear but Kings only.

Through the ſtreet of the City] Of Suſa, that he might be ſeen and cried up by mamy, for Honor eſt in honorante. As the Meteor liveth in the aire, ſo doth honour in the breath of other men. Plato reckoneth it among thoſe dei ludibria quae ſurſum ac deorſum ſub coelo feruntur, like tennis-balls bandied up and down from one to another.