He that begetteth a fool [doeth it] to his sorrow: and the father of a fool hath no joy.
Ver. 21. He that begetteth a fool, doeth it to his sorrow.] Solomon might speak this by experience, and wish, as Augustus did, utinam caelebs vixissem, aut orbus periissem. Oh that I had either lived a bachelor or died childless! To "bring forth children to the murderer," Hos 9:13 children to the devil, that old manslayer; oh, what a grief is this to a pious parent! how much better were a "miscarrying womb, and dry breasts!" What heavy moan made David for his Absalom, dying in his sin! How doth many a miserable mother weep and warble out that mournful ditty of hers in Plutarch over her deceased children, Quo pueri estis profecti? Poor souls, what is become of you!
And the father of a fool hath no joy.] No more than Oedipus had, who cursed his children when he died, and breathed out his last with
“Per coacervatos pereat domus impia luctus.”
No more than William the Conqueror had in his ungracious children, or Henry II, who, finding that his sons had conspired against him with the king of France, fell into a grievous passion, cursing both his sons, and the day wherein himself was born; and in that distemperature departed the world, which himself had so oft distempered. a
a Daniel, fol. 112.