table Idem Of Lechery This bewitching euill beeing an vnbrideled appetite in whomsoeuer it raigneth killeth all good motions of the minde altereth dryeth weakeneth the body shortning lyfe diminishing memory and vnderstanding CYrena a notorious strumpet vvas sirnamed Dode camechana for that shee inuented and found out tvvelue seuerall waies of beastly pleasure Cor. Arip Proculeius the Emperour of an hundred Sarmatian virgins he tooke captiue he deflowred tenne the first night and all the rest vvithin fifteene dayes after Hercules in one night deflowred fiftie Theophrastus writeth of an Indian hearbe vvhich who so eateth is able to performe 70. seuerall actions Iohannes á Casa Archbishop of Beneuento and Legate in Venice vvrit a booke in praise of the abhominable vice of Sodomitrie Sigismond Malatesta striued to haue carnall knowledge of his sonne Robert vvho thrusting his dagger into his fathers bosom reuenged his wickednes Cleopatra had the vse of her brother Ptolomeus company as of her husbands Antiochus stayed a whole vvinter in Chalcidea for one mayde which he there fancied Lust vvas the cause of the vvarres between the Romaines and the Sabines Liuius Thalesthis Queene of the Amazons came 25. dayes iourney to lie vvith Alexander Iustinus Adultery in Germany is neuer pardoned Tacitus Messalina and Popilia vvere so incontinent that they coÌ„tended vvith most shamefull harlots prostrating themselues without respect of time place or company to any though neuer so base Plut. Claudius deflowred his owne sisters and Semiramis burned in beastly lust tovvards her sonne Ninus Nero caused Atticus a Romaine Consull to be slayne that hee might the more conueniently enioy the company of his wife Corn. Tacitus Commodus not contented with his three hundred Concubines coÌ„mitted incest vvith his owne sisters Herodian Caligula dyd the like but the one vvas slaine by his vvife the other by his Concubine Adultery was the cause of the first alteration of the Citty of Rome Eutrop. Sempronia a vvoman well learned in the Greeke and Sappho no lesse famous defended luxurie and lust by their writings Cleopatra inuited Anthony to a banquet in the prouince of Bithinia in the vvood Sesthem where at one instance of threescore young virgines fiftie and fiue were made mothers Cleophis a Queene of India saued her kingdome and subiects from destruction by a nights lodging with Alexander by whom she had a sonne called Alexander vvho was afterward King of India shee was euer after called Scortum Reginum Iustine Heliogabalus not onely deflowred but also married a virgine Vestall saying it vvas reason that Priests shoulde marry Nunnes because that in times past hee had beene Priest of the Sunne Iane Queene of Naples was hanged vp for her aduoutry in the very same place vvhere shee had hanged her husband Andreas afore because he was not as shee sayd able to satisfie her beastly desire Feron King of Egypt had beene blind 10. yeeres and in the eleuenth the Oracle told hym that he should recouer his sight if hee washed his eyes in the vvater of a vvoman vvhich neuer had to doe with any but her husband vvhereupon hee first made tryall of his owne vvife but that dyd him no good after of infinite others which did him all as little saue onely one by whom hee recouered his sight and then hee put all the rest to death Herodot Iulia the daughter of Augustus vvas so immodest shamelesse and vnchast that the Emperour was neuer able to reclaime her and vvhen shee was admonished to forsake her bad kinde of lyfe and to follow chastitie as her Father dyd shee aunswered That her Father forgotte that hee was Caesar but as for herselfe shee knew well enough that shee was Caesars daughter Cornelius Gallus and Q. Elerius tvvo Romaine Knights dyed in the very action of theyr filthy lust Plinie Arichbertus eldest sonne vnto Lotharius King of Fraunce dyed euen as hee was embracing his whores Alcibiades was burned in his bed with hys Curtezan Timandra Plut. The Egyptians punishments against adultery was to cut of the nose of the vvoman and the priuie parts of the man Alexander when a woman was brought to him one euening demaunded of her vvhy shee came so late she aunswered that shee stayed vntill her husband was gone to bed VVhich he no sooner heard but he sent her away being angry with theÌ„ that had almost made him commit adultery He was angry with Cassander because hee would by force kisse a minstrels maid Rodolphus King of Lombardie beeing taken in adultery was slaine by the vvomans husband whom he abused Roderigo King of Spayne was depriued of his kingdome life by the Sarazins who vvere called in by an Earle called Iulian that he might be auenged of the king for forcing his daughter Caelius Rhodoginus in his 11. booke of antiquities telleth of a certain man that the more he vvas beaten the more he feruently desired vvomen The vvidowe of the Emperour Sigismund intending to marry againe one perswaded her to spende the remainder of her life after the manner of the Turtle-Doue who hath but one make If you counsell mee quoth shee to followe the example of byrds why doe you not tell me of Pidgions Sparrowes which after the death of their makes doe ordinarilie couple themselues with the next they meet Hiero King of Syracusa banished the Poet Epicharmus for speaking vvantonly before his vvife and that very iustly for hys vvife vvas a true mirrour of chastitie Sulpitius Gallus put away his wife by deuorce because shee went abroad vnmasked Pompey caused one of his souldiers eyes to be put out in Spaine for thrusting his hand vnder a womans garment that was a Spanyard and for the like offence did Sertorius commaund a footeman of his band to be cut in peeces Sabellicus If Caracalla had not seene his mothers thigh he had not married her Suetonius Speusippus the Phylosopher one of Platoes followers vvas slaine for his adulterie Tertullianus Tigellinus dyed amongst his Concubines Tacitus Rodoaldus King of Lombardy was slaine with a certaine matrone euen in the action of their concupiscence Paulus Diaconus By the law of Moses adulterers were stoned with rigour which our law doth not obâ—erue for were it to bee so in these dayes wee should not finde stones enough to fulfill it A Nunne finding in her Booke at the bottome of the leafe these vvordes Bonum est omnia scire determined to try what the carnall copulation of man and woman might â—ee but turning ouer the leafe shee sawe in the beginning thereof Sed non vti vvhereâ—pon to her greefe shee altered her purpose and her ioy lasted but a while Rutilius Consull of Rome caused the temple of Lucina to bee burned because his daughter great with child made her vow and kept her 9. vigils and vpon more deuotion was desirous to bee deliuered in the temple The Persians would not shew their wiues vnto strangers Iosephus The Tarentines and the Capuans were very mortall ennemies by chaunce one one day in the campe of the
assemble themselues together The Hebrews vsed Trumpets of horn in remembrance of the deliuerance of Isaac what time an horned vveather was offered and sacrificed in his stead Tibia was an instrument of sorrowe and lamentation which men did vse in office and sepultures of dead men beeing like vnto a Shalme or Flute Lyra hath the name for diuersity of sounds and was first inuented by Mercury The Harpe is called Cythera first found by Apollo which Virgill writeth to haue seauen strings that is seauen soundes seauen differences of voyces The Psalterie hath the name of Psallendo for the consonant aunswereth to the note therof in singing The Hebrewes called the Psalterie Decachordon an instrument hauing ten strings according to the number of the ten Commaundements Cymballs are instruments of musick compassed like an hoope and on the vpper compasse vnder a certaine hollownesse hangeth halfe bells fiue or seauen in number Sistrum hath the name of a Lady that first founde the same who vvas Isis Queene of Egypt Among the Amazons the hoast of vvemen is called to battaile with this instrument It is like a horne vsed in battaile in sted of a Trumpet The Bell is also reckoned among the Instruments of musick who whilst hee profiteth others in sounding hee is himselfe consumed and wasted by often smiting Thys was inuented by the Parthians Of Wemen Although Pandora had wisedome from Pallas eloquence from Mercurie beautie from Venus personage from Iuno and from euery other God some gift where-vpon shee is so called yet in the nature of a woman shee brought the whole world to confusion ALthough Eue transgressed before the man yet is the originall of sinning ascribed to Adam because the succession is accounted in men and not in wemen Thucidides was of opinion that those vvemen vvere most honest of whose commendation and disprayse there is least speech vsed Harmonia daughter to Hiero the Syracusan woulde vvillingly haue dyed in the defence of her Country Epicharia a libertine of Rome being made priuie to a conspiracie intended against Nero vvas so constant in secrecie that beeing rent with most cruell torments yet neuer vvould shee bewray any of the parties Tacitus Laeena bitte her tongue in sunder spette it in the face of Hippias the Tyrant in whose honour the Athenian dedicated before the Castle gate a Lyonesse of brasse vvithout a tongue to betoken the steady vertue of silence in her Plinie Araetia taught her Sonne Aristippus phylosophy Mithridates vvife and sisters shewed a far lesse feare of death then Mithridates hymselfe Appian The wife of Asdruball of Carthage ouercome by Scipio shewed a greater resolution to die then Asdruball himselfe Aspasia and Diotima with sacrifice droue of a plague ten yeeres which shoulde haue hapned in Athence Aspasia loued and taught the eloquent Pericles of Athence Nichostrata mother to Euander shevved the Latines their Letters The Sabine women were no lesse helpe to increase Rome then the Troyans at the first beginning The conspiracie of Cataline for which Cicero is so praised was first disclosed by a woman Salust Philip the sonne of Demetrius laying siege to the citty of Scio proclaimed that what bond-man soeuer woulde forsake the Citty and come to him they should haue liberty theyr Maisters wiues the vvemen hearing this came to the walls weaponed fought so fiercely that they repulsed Philip. A deede the men could not doe The Erythians made war vpon the Sciots vvho not able to holde out compounded to depart theyr Citty without armour vvhich when the women heard of they vvould not suffer but counsailed them to carry theyr shield and speare and leaue theyr clothes aunswer their enemies that this was theyr array which they followed auoyding the sâ—ame of the other The Spartane wemen delighted to see their children die valiantly in defence of their country The vvemen of Sagunt in the destruction of theyr Country tooke wepons in hand against Haniballs souldiers VVhen the Armie of the Germaines vvas vanquished by Marius theyr vvemen not obtayning to liue free in Rome in seruice with the Vestals killed themselues and their chidren Portia the wife of Brutus and daughter of Cato when she heard that they both vvere deade beeing carefully watched of her seruants tooke the fire from the harth swallowed the coales Appian The wemen of India are so couragious and bold that they dare leape into the fire with the dead bodies of theyr husbands Alexandra wife to Alexander was Bishop in Iurie nine yeers Antiochus King of Siria had a seruant called Arteon so like him of face and person that when King Antiochus dyed the Queen Laodicea his wife dissembled the matter vntill shee of her owne decree had made another King in Syria Zenobia Queene of the Palmerins beeing very well learned in the Greeke Latine and Egiptian tongues taught them to her tvvo sonnes and wrote an Epitome of the Easterne Histories Chrisostome made a sermon against all wemen because Eudoxia the Emperour Arcadius wife had bolstered Epiphanius against him he mocked at her picture for vvhich cause she endeuoured to banish him againe vvhereof he vnderstanding made a notable Sermon with this beginning Herodias rageth a fresh stomaketh a new daunceth againe seeketh as yet the head of Iohn Baptist. Euseb. In the war that Conradus a Germane Emperour had with the Caâ—ulies hee tooke the Castle and Towne of VVeimsburge then the Emperour commaunded to take all the Gentlemen but the Gentlevvomen should be let goe with as much goods as they could carry but they forsaking their goods carried away their children which the Emperour hearing of commended their vertue and gaue theÌ„ likewise leaue to take their goods The Romans had a law that what soeuer a vvoman with childe longed for shee should haue it the cause was for that Fuluius Torquatus wife longed to see a vvilde man that passed by her doore whom the Knights of Mauritania had taken in hunting in the deserts of Egypt and not seeing him she dyed Aurelius VVhen the Romans vpon a certaine vvager dyd send from the vvarres to Rome to vnderstand what euery mans vvife dyd at home amongst them all the most praysed was the chast Lucrecia for that shee onelie was founde vveauing and all the rest idle Liuius Assiria coÌ„plaineth of the scandall of Semyramis Armenia for Pincia Greece for Helena Rome for Agrippina In the societie of the Druides of Fraunce vvere very many learned wemen of vvhom the Romaine Emperour Aurelian did aske counsaile Vopiscus The greatest part of Asia was conquered gouerned more by the wemen Amazons then with any barbarous people P. Diaco Porus king of India for want of men and too many wemen was ouercome of Alexander Curtius Haniball was alwayes Lorde of Italie vntill hee suffered vvemen to goe to the vvarres vvith him and vvhen hee fell in loue vvith Tamyra at Capua hee immediatly turned his backe to Rome Sylla in the warres against Mithridates and Marius in the warres of the Cimbres had ouer his
sometimes leading him sometimes bearing him he brought him safe to Sicelie so did Aeneas for Anchises his father Idem Metellus the father and the sonne the one Captaine vnder Anthony the other vnder Caesar the Father being prisoner and beeing condemned his sonne sayde to Caesar Thys hath beene thy enemy ô Caesar and I thy friend him thou must punish and me rewarde I desire thee to saue my father for mee or let mee die for him at whose request he was saued Idem Crates Thebanus deliuered a stock of mony to his friends vpon this condition that if it shoulde happen his children to bee fooles they should therewith be maintained but if they became learned and phylosophers then to distribute it to the poore Dem. Mag. Periander one of the 7. Sages of Greece and a Tyrant sent for his sonne Licophorna that with his owne hands hee might kill him because he mourned for the death of his mother which when the Cittizens of Corcyra knew they put him to death themselues to deliuer him from his Fathers tiranny Vale. Maximus Priamus had by Hecuba fifty Sonnes and Daughters Orodes king of Parthians thirtie Artaxerxes a hundred and fifteene Erothinus King of the Arabians seauen hundred in confidence of whom he inuaded the confines of his enemies and with seuerall inroads he wasted the Lands of Egypt and Syria Petrarch Petrarch writeth of a married woman that had twelue seuerall children by twelue seuerall men one of them a yeere elder then the other who ready to die tolde her husband of them all he was Father but to the eldest and reckoning vp the Fathers of the other the youngest cryed to her good mother giue me a good Father to whom she sayde that a very rich man was his father wherevpon the childe was glad saying If hee be rich I haue a good father Astapus Amphorinus bare such loue to their parents that their Citty beeing burned they tooke them vpon their shoulders and carried them through the midst of the fire A woman of Athence her father called Cymon being in pryson where he was like to be famished craued so much leaue of the Keeper that shee might haue accesse to her Father whō with her milke shee preserued long time from death Harpalice her father being takē prisoner by the Getes redeemed him with more celerity then can be thought in a woman Seruius It is written that three bretheren striuing vvho should enioy their fathers land vvere content to be agreed by the King swearing that they vvould stand to that which hee determined the King commaunded the dead body of the Father to bee taken vp saying that hee vvhich shot neerest the hart should be the right successor the eldest shotte him in the throate the second in the breast neere the hart but the third abhorring this damned resolution sayd I had rather yeeld all to my brothers then bee so degenerate To whom for his vertue and reuerence to his father the King adiudged the land Israell many yeeres lamented the losse of one of his sonnes for whom when hee vvas 120. yeeres old he vvent downe with al his family into Egypt Dauid greatly lamented the death of his rebellious sonne Absalon Orodes King of Persia hearing that his son Pacorus was slaine in the wars against Ventidius vvith extreame greefe therof became mad Rauisius Auctolia the daughter of Sinon and wife of Laertes vnderstanding a false report of Vlisses death her sonne at Troy dyed for sorrow Idem Anius King of Thuscans had a Daughter called Salia whom when Oritheus had stoln away threvve himselfe violently into a Riuer called afterward by his own name Plutarch Lucius Gellius when in a maner he knew that his sonne had beastly abused himselfe with his stepmother and attempted to bereaue him of life became himselfe this wretches defender and before the Senate acquited him both of fault and punishment Val. Maximus Dioschorus put to death his vertuous and religious Daughter Barbara for imbracing the Christian fayth Ptolomeus Euergetes beeing expulsed his kingdome for his crueltie killed his sonne in Cyprus whom hee had by his sister Cleopatra sent her his head feete for a token Liuius Apteras Saturnus caused his owne Father to be gelded killed his owne sonnes held continuall vvarres against his bretheren Berosus Deiotarus hauing many sonnes murthethered all saue one that he which suruiued al the rest might be mightier and of greater power Gellius Hippomenes an Athenian Prince for that his daughter Lima was founde in adulterie caused her to be close shutte vp with a horse giuing her no releefe but the horse almost famished deuoured his daughter Laertius Oppianicus contrary to the common nature of Parents was content for money to forsake his children Cicero Domitius detested his sonne Nero for no other cause but that hee had begotten him vpon Agrippina Suetonius Medea beeing forsaken of Iason murdered her owne sonnes Ouid. Herod commaunded his onely child to be killed among the general massacre of the innocents in Iurie vvhich vvhen Augustus heard he sayd That he had rather bee Herods hog then his child Iosephus Prusius King of Bithinia was murthered of his owne sonne when he had committed the rule vnto him P. Malleolus for killing of his mother was the first amongst the Romans that vvas sowed in a sacke and cast into the sea Liuius Cham the youngest sonne of Noah his Father being drunke lying naked called his brethren to that vnnatural sight who going backwards couered theyr fathers secrets for the which they were blessed the posterity of Cham accursed Gene. 6. Absalon rising against his father Dauid expelled him his kingdome afterward assayled by Ioab fled and was hanged by his haire vpon an Oake Helie the Prophet winking at the faultes of his children though forewarned of Samuel died a violent death and his sonnes both in one howre were slaine in battaile by the Philistines as a iust reuenge for their former disobedience Regum 11. Adramelach and Sarazar murdered theyr Father Senacharib for which they were driuen out of theyr kingdome and ended theyr dayes in exile 4. Reg. Irene pulled out her sonne Constantines eyes because hee began to beare himselfe ouer proudly in the Empire Eristhenes was famished of his mother because he fought in battaile with no courage Rauisius Damatria when shee heard that her sonne had not behaued himselfe in battaile as the sonne of so woorthy a mother shoulde haue doone at his returne killed him Orchanus caused his daughter to be buried aliue because Apollo had rauished her Ouid. Tigranes killed one of his sons because he would not take him vp when hee had a fall at hunting for that hee set the crowne vpon his head Appian Machates the sonne of Mithridates for feare of his father killed himselfe Mithridates killed his sonne Siphares to be reuenged of the mother Gripus who was king after Seleucus made his mother drinke the poyson vvhich shee had prepared for him Medullina whose body was