seclusi_, as Bale and Hospinian well term it, such as are the Carthusians
of our time, that eat no flesh (by their order), keep perpetual silence,
never go abroad. Such as live in prison, or some desert place, and cannot
have company, as many of our country gentlemen do in solitary houses, they
must either be alone without companions, or live beyond their means, and
entertain all comers as so many hosts, or else converse with their servants
and hinds, such as are unequal, inferior to them, and of a contrary
disposition: or else as some do, to avoid solitariness, spend their time
with lewd fellows in taverns, and in alehouses, and thence addict
themselves to some unlawful disports, or dissolute courses. Divers again
are cast upon this rock of solitariness for want of means, or out of a
strong apprehension of some infirmity, disgrace, or through bashfulness,
rudeness, simplicity, they cannot apply themselves to others' company.
_Nullum solum infelici gratius solitudine, ubi nullus sit qui miseriam
exprobret_; this enforced solitariness takes place, and produceth his
effect soonest in such as have spent their time jovially, peradventure in
all honest recreations, in good company, in some great family or populous
city, and are upon a sudden confined to a desert country cottage far off,
restrained of their liberty, and barred from their ordinary associates;
solitariness is very irksome to such, most tedious, and a sudden cause of
great inconvenience.

Voluntary solitariness is that which is familiar with melancholy, and
gently brings on like a Siren, a shoeing-horn, or some sphinx to this
irrevocable gulf, [1559]a primary cause, Piso calls it; most pleasant it is
at first, to such as are melancholy given, to lie in bed whole days, and
keep their chambers, to walk alone in some solitary grove, betwixt wood and
water, by a brook side, to meditate upon some delightsome and pleasant
subject, which shall affect them most; _amabilis insania, et mentis
gratissimus error_: a most incomparable delight it is so to melancholise,