517 Of famous Astrologians 518 Of Women Orators that have pleaded their own causes or others 523 Of women studious in Divinity 525 Of women excellent in Philosophy other Learning 529 A discourse of Poetry 536 Of women excellent in Poetry 538 Of Minerva and others 542 Of Sapho 543 Of Cleobule Lindia and other Poetesses 550 Of Telesilla Poetria 552 Of Perhilla c. 554 A discourse of Witches 556 How the Devil rewards his servants 558 The wretched ends of sundry Magicians 559 Severall sorts of superstitious Jugling 560 Of Cyrce Medea and other Witches remembred by the Poets 563 Of Witches transported from one place to another by the Devil 567 Of Witches that have either changed their own shapes or transformed others 572 Lycantropia 573 A piper transformed into an Asse 574 Other miraculous transformations 575 Of she Devils 576 A Witch of Amsterdam 581 A Witch of Geneva 582 Examples of strange kinds of Witchcraft 583 Witches called Extasists ibid. Divers things to be observed in witches 585. The Contents of the ninth Book inscribed Calliope Entreating of Women in generall with the Punishments of the Vitious and Rewards due to the Vertuous interlaced with sundry Histories A Discourse of Death 586 Of women ravished 589 Of Handmaids Nurses Midwives and Stepdames 592 The punishment of Incest in the sister of Leucippus 603 The punishment of Adultery 605 Sisters that have murthered their brothers 606 The punishment of Fratricides 607 Of mothers that have slain their children and wives their husbands 608 Punishment due to Regicides 609 Punishment of unjust Divorce 611 Whoredome punished 612 Loquacity punished 613 Lying punished 614 Perjury punished ibid. Prodigality and Excesse punished 616 Witchcraft punished 619 Honor and Reward due to Fortitude 627 Honor and Reward due to Temperance 629 Reward due to fertility or many children illustrated in divers Histories 630 Of Beauty and the Reward thereof 638 A Convertite rewarded 641 Of Cura or Care 647 Rewards due to women Philosophers Orators or Poetesses 648 Nine Books of various History only concerning Women Inscribed by the names of the nine Muses The first Book which is CLIO treating of the Goddesses Coelestiall Terrestriall Marine and Infernall BEfore we enter into a particular tractare of these Goddesses it shall not be amisse to speak something of the opinions setled in sundry Nations concerning them Who were their first Adorers and Worshippers the multiplicity of their gods and what several Rights and Customs Observations and Ceremonies they used in their Oblations and Sacrifices The Aethiopians are said to be the most ancient and first beginners of Divine adoration as Diodorus is of opinion Imagining in themselves and verily beleeving some of their gods to be everlasting and others to participate of a mortall and corruptible nature The Phoenicians they delivered admirable and strange things concerning their gods and the first beginning and Creation of things above all others having in Divine worship Dagona and Chamas The Atlantides a people of Affrica they are confident that the generation of the gods proceeded from them and the first that reigned amongst them they called Coelum which is heaven The Augitae another Nation in the Affrick Continent acknowledged no other Deities then the Ghosts of such Noble persons as were deceased to whose Sepulchres they usually repaired to demand answers of al such things wherein they doubted The Theology of the Phrygians was not much different from theirs The Persians neither erected Statues nor Altars they worshipped the Heaâ—ens which they called Jupiter the Sun by the name of 〈◊〉 the Moon Venus the Fire the Earth the Winds and the Water Isiodorus saith the Graecians first honoured 〈◊〉 whom they stiled Jupiter and were the first devisâ—rs 〈◊〉 Images erecters of Altars and offerers of Sacrifice The Jewes as Cornelius Tacitus relates apprehended but one divine power and that onely they acknowledged The German of old as the same Author affirms were of opinion That the gods could not be comprehended within wals not have any humane shape appropriated unto them measuring theâ—â— incomprehensible power by the magnitude of the heavens Now concerning the divers opinions of men what this supreme Deity should be some held it the universe or the globe of the world of which opinion was Origenes in his fifth book against Câ—â—sus The Stoicks held it to be the first world the Platonists a second world and divers other Sâ—ctâ—sts of Greece to be a third world Thales Mâ—lesius called God a Mind that fashioned all creatures out of the water that knew â—o beginning and was not capable of end Anaximander he ascribed a Deity to the Stars and the Planets and these coelestiâ—ll bodies attributing no honour to that Mind of which Thales dreamed Anaximenes thought it to be Infinite 〈◊〉 to which he attributed the Originall of all causes and derived the birth of the gods from thence for so Saint Augustine and Cicero affirms Democritus Abderites as Cicero and Arnobius testifie of him was of opinion that it was a Mind of fire and the soule of the world Plutarch in the 〈◊〉 of Numa sets down Pythagoras his opinion concerning this godhead and thus defines it A Mind still travelling never out of motion but dispers'd and diffus'd through all the parts of the world and things naturall 〈◊〉 which all creatures whatsoever that are born take life â—ysis and Philolaus call it an unspeakable number or a summity of the greatest or smalest number for so Origenes saith Archelaus Physicus would have all things to be created of earth and as Epiphanius testates of him the beginning of all things to proceed from thence Phâ—recidas taught that the earth was before all other things and therefore to that he appropriated a divinity Heraclius Ephesius contested the gods to be made of 〈◊〉 so Varro writes of him of the same beleefe was Hippasus Metapontinus witnesse Simplicius Anaxagorâ—s Clazâ—â—en called his god Homoeomeria that is Lâ—â—â—â—esse of parte and that a divine thought was the producter of all things whatsoever So Augustine reports of him others that he held an infinite mind to be the first mover Prodicus Coeus as Epiphaenius tels us plac'd his god in the foure Elements likewise in the Sun and the Moon in which two Planets there existed a living vertue Diogenes Apollonaites derived his god from the Air as the matter from whence all things had their reality as likewise that it did participate of divine reason without which nothing could be created Cleanthes Assius would have his god of the Firmament as divers others of the Stoicks And as Arnobius witnesseth of him sometimes he call'd him the Will now the Minde then that part of the aire which is above the fire and sometimes again the reason Straton made Nature his summum bonum Antisthenes Atheniensis he taught that there were many popular gods but one onely Architector of the fabricke of the world Chrysippus Silix the Stoick hee taught that God was a naturall power endued with divine reason and
stripping his body and joining it to the corse of his wife and adding more combustible matter to the fire burnt them both together Over the urn that covered their ashes the Tarentines erected a famous sepulcher which they called The two lovers By Plantius and Horestilla it may appeare that where the greatest and most honest love is setled betwixt man and wife it is oft times more happy to be joined in death then to be separated in life Artimesia Queen of Caria so much honoured the remembrance of her husband Mausolus being dead that after meditation and deliberate counsell which way she might best decorate his hearse and withall to expresse to perperuity her unmatchable love she caused to be erected over him a tombe so magnificent that for the cost and state it was not doubted to be worthily reckoned amongst the nine wonders But what do I speak of so rich a structure when she her selfe became the living sepulcher of her dead husband by their testimonies who have recorded that she preserved his bones and having beaten them to pouder mingled their dust with her wine in remembrance of him every morning and evening Cicer. Tusc lib. 3. and Plin. lib. 36. cap. 5. Of womans fortitude and magnanimity I will add one admirable president in two virgins of Syracusa equally resolute when by the intestine sedition and civill wars in Syracusa the stock and family of Gelo in these combustions was quite extirpt and rooted out even to his only daughter Harmonia and all the seditious weapons of the enemy now drawn and aim'd at her bosome her nurse piâ—ying her threatned ruin made choice of a young virgin like to her in favour and of equall stature and attiring her in the habit and ornaments of a Princesse offered her to the points of their yet bloody weapons this damsel was of that constancy and noble resolution that notwithstanding she saw eminent death before her was not affrighted with the terror thereof nor would reveal her name or tell of what condition she was Which Harmonia seeing and admiring at her loialty and faith she call'd out to the murdereâ—s and discovering her selfe to preserve her handmaid offered her own naked breast to the slaughter telling them she was present whom they sâ—ught for so that a covered â—allacy to the one and open troth the other in both an admirable and undanted constancy was the cause of their deaths This Hormisda was a great and mighty man amongst the Persians and of one of the most noblest families amongst them as Zozimus Mercellinus and others commemorate He being confin'd unto a certain 〈◊〉 and fettered was there kept with a strict guard of 〈◊〉 who against the lawes of the Kingdom had purpose 〈◊〉 invest his younger brother in the state imperiall 〈◊〉 that in the time of his 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 the remembrance of whose name it is pity time hath abolisht and not left it to posterity thus devised for his enlargement she sent to him a fish as a present of an extraordinary bignesse in whose belly she had hid an iron file and other like engines fit for his purpose committing it to the charge of one of her most faithfull Ennuchs desiring her husband by his mouth not to have the fish cut up in the presence of any only to make happy use of such things as he found enclosed therein To his keepers the better to hide her stratagem she sent Camels laden with sundry kind of meats and severall wines Hormisdâ— apprehending the plot gave it a bold and resolute performance for having first filed off his irons he changed his habit with that of his Eunuchs and taking the advantage of their feasting and healthing past safe through them all and by study and policy of his wife came after to the possession of his right which his younger brother had usurped Alexander the Great amongst his many other conquests having besieged the great City Halicarnassus and by reason of opposition made against him leveld it with the ground He entred Caâ—ia where Ada then reigned Queen who being before opprest by Orontobas imploied by Darius was almost quite beaten out of her Kingdome having at that time no more of all her large dominions left her saving Alynda the most defenced City into which she had retired her selfe for safety She hearing of Alexanders approach gave him a roiall meeting and submitted her selfe her subjects and her City into his power withall adopting him by the name of son The King neither despising her liberality nor the name gave her back the City entire as it was and made her keeper and governesse thereof who soon after recovering all those Cities Darius by invasion had usurped from her in gratitude of her former curtesie reduced her Country and people to their pristine estate and stablisht her in her former Empire This Zenocrita was born in Cuma whose father was at that time amongst many other oppressed Citizens in exile Her the bloody Tyrant Aristodemus was much enamoured of but not daining so much as to court her or to perswade her to his love he imagined in the pride of his heart that the damosell would think it grace and honour sufferent to her to be seen in his company and only for that cause to be held blest and fortunate of all such as should behold her But far other cogitations troubled her more noble mind being tormented in soule to lead such an unchast life though with a Prince who never had motioned contract or promised her marriage her apprehensions were rather how to purchase her Countries freedome and rid the earth of a Tyrant About the same time that she was busied in these and the like imaginations it hapned Aristodemus would needs compasse in a certaine spatious peece of ground with a broad and deep ditch not that it was any way necessary or profitable but only to vex and weary the Citizens with extraordinary pains and insufferable labours for to every man was so much ground limited as a daily task which whosoever in the least kind neglected he was fined in a great mulct either of purse or person It hapned she being abroad to take the aire neer to the place where the Citizens were hard at work that Aristodemus with his traine came thither also to over-look his laborers who after some faults found and other directions given left the place and in his return past by where Zenocrita was then standing she spying him come towards her made him a low obeisance and withall covered her face with her apron The Tyrant being gone the young men in the way of jesting and sport and seeming a little to touch her inchastity demanded the reason why to all other men her face was bare and free only to him vailed intimating that something had past betwixt them which might discover her blushes to whom she made this plain and serious answer I did it to him as an honour because amongst all the
and his false fire spends Diana and Phoebus were therefore said to be the children of Latona because in that the ancient Poets would signifie the beginning of the world so when the matter whereof it was made was a meer confused Masse and without shape because all things were obscure and hid that darknesse is signified in Latona and whereas they make Iupiter their Father it imperts as much as if they should fetch Iupiter out of this darknesse called the Sun and the Moon More plainly the Spirit of the Lord said Let there be light of which light Apâ—â—llo and Diana the one by day and the other by night are the greatest by this inferring that the generation of the world began first from Light Ceres THE Goddesse of fruits and grain and daughter to Saturn and Ops a Law-giver to the Sicilians therefore by Virgil called Segifera In Eleusis a City of Artica she had divine worship because she there taught plantation and agriculture and of that place had the name of â—lusina she was honoured in the mount Aetna in Aeona and Catana two Cities of Cicily From whence as Claudian â—â—lates she had the name of Aetnaea Aennaea and Catanensis the like doth Selius c. Lactantius reports that into these her Temples erected in these Cities it was not lawfull â—o any man to enter The manner of the rights among the Philagenses were that no sacrifices should be slain only the fruits of planted trees Honycombs and new shorn wool were laid upon the Altar and sprinkled with sweet oile and were set a fire burnt and offered these Customes were privately and publickly observed yearly as Pausanias left recorded The Argives sacrifice to this goddesse by the name of Ceres Clithonia upon certain set daies in the Summer after this manner Their sacrificial pomp is attended by the chiefe Magistrats of the City after which company the women and children next followed the boies all in white robes with chaplers about their browes of Hyacinthes interwoven and in the lag end of the same troop were driven a certain number of faire and goodly Oxen but bound in the strict bands and drag'd towards the Temple being thither come one of these beasts with his cords loosed was driven in the rest of the people standing without the gates and looking on who no sooner see him entred but shut the gates upon him within the Temple are four old women Priests with hatches and knives by whom he is slain and one of them hath by lot the office to cut off the head of the sacrifice This done the doors are againe set open and the rest one by one forc'd in and so in order by the same women slain and offered In a book of the scituation of Sicily composed by Cl. Marius Aretius a Patritian and of Syracula Intituled Charographia Siciliae In the City Aenna saith he as Strabo consenting with him were born Ceres and her daughter Libera whom some call Proscrpina From which place she was rapt and therefore is this City to her sacred Neer to this City is a river of an infinite depth whose mouth lieth towards the North from whence it is said Dis or Pluto with his chariot made ascent and hurrying the virgin thence to have penetrated the earth againe not far from Syracusa This is that most ancient Ceres whom not Sicilia only but all other nations whatsoever celebrated Most certain it is that she was Queen of the Sicilians and gave them lawes taught them the use of â—illage and husbandry and that her daughter Libera was transported thither by Oâ—cus or Dis King of the Molossians In her Temple part of which not many years since was standing were two statues of Marble one sacred to her another to Proserpina another of brasse beautifull and faire but wondrous ancient At the entrance into the Church in an open place without were two other faire portraictures one of her another of Triptolemus large and of exquisite workmanship In Ceres right hand was the image of victory most curiously forged This History with many other is with much nimble and dextrous with fabulated by Ovid to whose Metamorphosis I refer you In Ceres is figured to us an exhortation to all men to be carefull in the manuring and â—illing of the earth since Ceres is taken for the Earth the treasuress of all riches whatsoever and just is that usury and commendable which ariseth from thence for the fertility that growes that way is begot by the temperature of the weather and the industry of mans labours She is therefore said to wander round about the earth and over the spacious Universe because of the obliquity of the sign-bearing circle and the progress of the Sun beneath that by which Summer is in some parts of the world at all seasons of the year and elsewhere when not here Besides from hence this morality may be collected No man unpunished can despise the gods for miseries are the hand-maids of dishonesty therefore of force a wicked and irreligions man is subject and incident to fall into many distresses and casualties therefore Piety towards heaven Wisdome in managing our affairs and Thriâ—â—◠〈◊〉 in the disposing of our private fortunes me all requisite in an honest religious a parsimonious and well disposed man Proserpina THE daughter of Iupiter and Ceres she was honoured in Sicily of which Province she was called Sicula of whom Seneca thus speaks Vâ—disti Siculae regna Proserpinae Hast thou seen the Kingdomes of Sicilian Proserpine She is likewise called by Lucan Ennaea of the City Enna Eloquar 〈◊〉 terrae sub pondere quae te Contineant Ennaea dapes Shall I 〈…〉 discover on what dainties thou seedest Beneath the huge waight of the Massie earth Many fâ—â—les of Proserpina have been introduc'd for our better instruction by the ancient Poets which is onely to express to us the nature of the seeds and plants for Proserpina by whom is signified the Moon shining to us one halfe of the month and lying the other halfe in the arms of her husband Pluto that iâ— being halfe the year in Heaven and the other in Hell six months beneath 〈…〉 and as many above so is it 〈…〉 whose 〈◊〉 for six months space is by 〈…〉 cold forc'd and 〈◊〉 upword 〈…〉 and branches agâ—ine by the extremity of the Winters upper cold it is compulsively driven back downward into the â—oot beneath the earth for so doth nature 〈◊〉 her power and vertue to all creatures and naturall bâ—dies whatsoever that thâ—â— may observe a mutuality if I may tearm it so in their cooperation After the like manner iâ— the day sorted out for our labours and affairs the â—ight for our rest and repose So likewise in explicating the power of Luna or the Moon some call her the daughter of Hâ—perion or the Sun because she being Corpus diaphanes that is a body christallâ—n like reflective glass transfers the light received from her father upon the earth to us for which cause
and others infinite besides fourescore whose names are remembred there are others scarce to be numbered for as Zetzes saith in his History Elatos animo enim omnes omnes strenuos Filios amicos dicunt amatos à Neptuno All that are high minded and strong men were esteemed as the sons and friends and beloved of Neptune Amphitrite signifies nothing else but the body and matter of all that moist humour which is earth above below or within the earth and for that cause she is called the wife of Neptune Euripides in Cyclope takes her for the substance of water it self Orpheus cals her Glaâ—cae and Piscosa that is blew and ful of fish being attributes belonging solely to the goddesse of the Sea And by the Dolphins soliciting the love of Neptune to Amphitrite and reconciling them is meant nothing else but to illustrate to us That of all the fishes that belong to the sea he is the swiftest the most active and apprehensive Thetis or Tethies HEsiod cals her the wife of Oceanus who is stiled the father of all the floods creatures and gods because as Orpheus Thales and others are of opinion all things that are bred and born have need of humour without which nothing can be beget or made corruptible Isacius hath left recorded that besides her he had two wives Partenope and Pamphoâ—â—â—e by Parâ—â—nope he had two daughters Asia and Libia by Pampholige Europa and Thracia and besides them three thousand other children for so many Hesiod numbers in his Theogonia This Thetis was the daughter of the earth and heaven and therefore as Oceanus is called the father of the 〈◊〉 so is she is esteemed as the mother of the goddesses 〈◊〉 cals one Thetis the daughter of Chiâ—on the Câ—ntaure and Homer in his hymn to Apollo the child of Nereus which 〈◊〉 confirms as also Euripides in Aphigema and in 〈◊〉 she was the wife of Peleus and of all women living the most beautiâ—â—ll of whom Apollodorus thus speaks They say Iupiter and Neptune contended about her Nuptias but she not willing to incline to Iupiter be-because because she was educated by Juno therefore he in his rage allotted her to be the bride of a mortall man Homer writes that she was angry being a Marine goddesse to be the wife of a man therefore to avoid his embraces she shifted her selfe into sundry shapes and 〈◊〉 but Peleus being advised by Chiron notwithstanding all her transformations as into 〈◊〉 into a Lion and others never to let go his hold till she returned into her own naturall form in which he vitiated her and of her begot Aâ—â—illes the last shape she took upon her was a Sepia which is a fish called a Cuttle whose blood is as black as ink now because this was done in Magnesia a City of Thessaly the place as Zertzes in his history records is called Sepias Pithenaetus and others say that she was not compelled or forced to the marriage of Peleus but that it was solemnized in the mountain Pelius with her full and free consent where all the gods and goddesses saving Discord were present and offered at the wedding for such hath been the custome from antiquity Pluto gave a rich Smaragd Neptune two gallant steeds Xanthus and Ballia Vulcan a knife with an hast richly carved and some one thing and some another By Peleus she had more sons then Achilles which every night she used to hide beneath the fire that what was mortall in them might be consumed by which they all died save Achilles who was preserved by being in the day time annointed with Ambrosia therefore as Amestor in his Epithalamium upon Thetis 〈◊〉 relates he was called Piresous as preserved from the fire additur hinc nâ—men Piresous She was the sister of Titaa and brought forth Ephire who was after married to 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 who as Ovid relates in his book de Fastâ— was the 〈…〉 Atlas These are likewise numbred amongst the daughters of Oceanus and Thetis Acaste Admete Asia that gave name to a part of the world till now called Asia Climâ—ne Idyâ—a Ephire Eudora Eurâ—ome Jamra 〈…〉 Plexame Primno Rhodia Thea Thoe 〈…〉 who was beloved of Apollo but being jealous or his affection to Leucothoë she had discovered it to her father Orchamus Apollo therefore left her in griefe of which she vowed an abstinence from all sustenance whatsoever onlâ— with fixt eies still gazing upon the course of the Sun which the gods commiserating changed her into an Helâ—â—aropiâ—n which is called the Suns flower which still inclines to what part soever he makes his progresse But whether she be Tethies or Thetis she is no other than the reputed goddesse of the Sea her name importing that huge masse of water or element as Virgil in his Pollio saith necessary to the generation of all creatures whatsoever Towards the East she is called Indica towards the West Atlanticaâ— where she divides Spain and Mauritania towards the North Pontica and Glaciatis as likewise Rubra and Aethopica for so Strabo relates as also Rhianus in the navigation of Hanno the Carthaginian Stiphilus in his book de Thessalia hath bequeathed to memory That Chiron a wise and skilfull Astrologian to make Peleus the more famous consulted with the daughter of Acloris and Mirmidon and betwixt them published abroad that he by the consent of Jupiter should match with the goddesse Thetis to whose nuptials all the gods came in great showers and tempests for he had observed a time when he knew great store of raine would fall and from that the rumour first grew That Peleus had married Thetis But Dailochus and Pherecides report that Peleus having purged himself of the murder of his brother Phocus murdered Antigone others say that he first took Antigone and after her death Thetis and that Chiron being an excellent Chirurgeon was so called for the lightnesse and dexterity of hand which is an excellent gift in the searching and dressing of wounds in any of that profession Apollodorus saith that Thetis after many windings and turnings and transhapes to preserve her virginity was at length comprest by Iupiter The Nymphs called Dorides were her Ministers and handmaids Nereides THey were the daughters of Nereus and Doris he is said by Hesiod to be the son of Oceanus and Thetis he is stiled a Prophet or South saier who as Horace tels us did predict to Paris all the calamities that were to succeed at Troy Apollonius tels us that his chiefe mansion or place of residence is in the Aegean sea The same is that Hercules being sent to fetch the golden apples of the Hesperides and not knowing where abouts they grew went to the Nymphs that dwel by the banks of Eridamus to be resolved by them they sent him to demand of Nereus who thinking to delude him by shifting himselfe into sundry shapes was notwithstanding held so fast by Hercules that he was forced to assume his own
causes devised but by the superstition of the people of ancient daies who left nothing unmeditated that might stirre up men to the adoration of the divine powers since in every thing they demonstrated a deity If they were spoken as truths I rather beleeve them to be the meer illusions of devils and spirits themselves then the genii of plants and trees that made such apparitions Of the Goddesses Infernall IT lies with much convenience in our way to make discourse of Pluto the third brother of Satuâ—n of the river Acheron and the properties thereof Of Styx a flood terrible to the gods themselves and by which they use to swear of Cocytus of Charon of Cerberus of the three infernall judges Minos Aeacus and Rhadamant of Tartarus with divers others out of all which many excellent fables pleasant to read and profitable to make both morall and divine use of might be collected but I skip them of purpose since I am injoined to it by promise for but women only I have now to deal with It therefore thus followes Of the Parcae OF Proserpina we have treated already amongst the supernall goddesses above and therefore must necessarily spare her here amongst these below The Paâ—cae or fatall goddesses are three Cloâ—ho Lachesis and Atropos Ceselius Vindex he gives them three other names Nona Decima and Morta and cites this verse of Livius a most ancient Poet Quaendo dies venit quam praefata Morta est When the day commeth that Morta hath presaged Some cals them the daughters of Demorgorgon others as Cicero of Herbus and Noz Hell and Night by another name they are called Fata the Fates as Seneca Multa ad Fata venere suum dum fata timeant As much as to say Many come to their death whilst they feare it They are said moreover to measure the life of man with a spindle and thread which they spin from their distaffe from which they are called Lanificae by the Poets Lanificas nulli tres exorare puellas Contigit observant quem statuere diem The three wool-weaving sisters none can pray To change their time they fix a constant day They are said to be inexorable and by no praiers or intreaties be moved to alter the limit of the fixed time or prorogue the life of man one minute after the date be expired which was proposed at our births therefore Seneca Nulli susso cessare licet Nulli scriptum proferre diem The Poets thus distinguish their offices one begins the life of man and plucks the towe from the distaffe the second makes the thread and continues it the third cuts it off and so ends it The first is Clotho whom Satius cals Ferrea or hard hearted Seneca Grandaeva or extreamly aged Pontanus Improba and Sedula obstinate and yet carefull and diligent The second Lachesis called by Ovid Dura hard by Martiali Invida envious by Claudian Ferrea obdure and rude The third Atropos of whom Statius Hos ferrea neverat annos Atropos Some number Illithia amongst the Parcae Plutarch speaking of the face that is visible within the Orb of the Moon saith some are of opinion that the soules of men are resolved into the Moon as their bodies into the Earth Aliquanto post tempore eas quoque animas in se recepit Luna at quae composuit 1. After some time the Moon receives into her selfe those souls which she had before framed restoring their mindes before lost for they are all in a dream like the soule of Endimion and by coadjuting with the Seminary and vitall powers of the Sun makes them as new soules The Tetra that is the number of Foure supplying the body for she gives nothing after death who receives towards generation The Sun takes nothing from but receives again the mind which he gives the Moon both receives and gives and composeth or makes and divides when she makes she is called Lucina when she divides Diana So of the 〈◊〉 Parcae Atropos is placed about the Sun as the beginning of this new birth Clotho is carried about the Sun to collect and mingle Lachesis the last her office is upon the Earth but these are riddles rather to trouble the brain than profit the understanding Parcae the mother of these three sisters is said to be the daughter of Necessity doubtlesse the Ethick writers held these to be most powerfull goddesses because all things born or that had subsistence were thought to be under their jurisdiction and power and therefore they were imagined by some to be the daughters of Jupiter and Themis because as the Pythagoreans taught Jove gave to every one a body and form suitable to the merits or misdeeds of their former life or else because the divine Wisdome allotted to every soule rewards or punishments as their good deeds or bad deserved the cause of which division the ancient Writers not truly understanding appropriated all to â—ate and the Parcae Furiae or the Eumemides THose whom the Poets call Furiae Virgil terms the daughters of Night and Acheron Therefore Galtreus in his twelfth book de Alexand. cals them by a sit Epithite Noctiginae Ego si dea sum qua nulla potentior inter Noctigenus si me vestram bene nostis alumnam If I a goddesse be of whom Amongst the night born none More potent is it 's well you knew Me for your nurse alone By the same law Mantuan cals them Achecontiginae as born of Acheron they are called by Lucan amongst the infernals Canes dogs Stygiasque Canes in luce superna Destiluana In the upper light I will forsake the Stygian dogs meaning the sisters Amongst mortals they are called Furiae because they stir up and spur on rage and malice in the hearts of men They are called also Eumenides by an Antiphrasis in a contrary sence for Eumenis signifieth Bene volens or well wishing therefore Ovid Eumenides tenuere faces de funere raptas Their temples and foreheads instead of hair are said to crawle with snakes and serpents as witnesseth Catullus Statius Mantuanus in Apollon and others By Virgil they are called Dirae Vltricesque sedent in Limine dirae Lactantius in his sixt book de Vero Cultu writes after this manner There be three affections or passions which precipitate into all violent and facinerous actions therefore Poets call them Furies Ire which covets revenge Covetousnesse which desires riches and Lust whose itching appetite is after all unlawfull pleasure The first of these Furies called Alecto discovered by Virgil where he terms her Luctifica as making strife and contention The second is Tesiphone or Tisiphone the daughter of Acheron whom Ovid thus delineates Nec mora Tesiphone madefactam sanguine sumit Importuna facem stuidoque cruore madentem Induitur pallam tortoque incingitur angue Egreditur que domo luctus comitatur euntem Et pavor terror trepidoque insania vultu Importunate Tesiphone without delay makes speed And snatcheth up a smoaking brand which burning seems to bleed A
The Queen of women and the best of Queens whose magnanimity in war and gentlenesse in peace resolution in the one and generous affability in the other have so sweet a correspondence that when the Canon roared loud at the gates and the bullet forced a passage even through the Palace where she lodged was no more danted in courage nor dismaied in countenance then when the gentle and soft musick melodiously sounded at the celebration of her espousâ—ls Sacred Oh Princely Lady for ever be your memory and fortunate and happy your hopefull posterity may your womb prove a bed of souldiers and your breasts the nursery of Kings may the sons victories redeem the losses or the father and the daughters surmount the fertility of their mother may your future fortunes be answerable to your former vertues that as you have the earnest praiers of all good men so you may have the successe of their wishes which millions that never yet saw you desire but all that understand you know you worthily deserve And to conclude that as you are the last of these in this my Catalogue by order posterity may reckon you the first amongst the Illustrious by merit Of divers Ladies famous for their Modesty OH thou chastity and purity of life thou that art the ornament as well of man as woman from whence shall I invoke thee thou diddest first help to kindle the sacred fires of Vesta where virginity was made Religion Thou that was wont to frequent the chambers of great Ladies with sinlesse and undefiled hands make the beds of the City Matrons and to be obsequious about the Pallats strowed in the Countrie Cottages where I shall find thee now to direct this my pen in her large and unbounded progresse or to tutor me so far that I may know what on this argument thou thy selfe wouldest have done Livy Florus Plutarch and others speaking of the wonder of the Roman chastity Lucretia accuse fortune or nature of error for placing such a manly heart in the breast of a woman who being adulterated by Sextua Tarquinius after she had sent to her friends and to them complained her injuries because she would not live a by-word to Rome nor preserve a despoiled body for so noble a husbands embraces with a knife which she had hid under her garment for the same purpose in presence of them all slew her selfe which was after the cause that the tyrannicall Monarchy of Rome was transferr'd into a Consular dignity Armenia the wife of Tygranes having been with her husband at a sumptuous banquet made by King Cyrus in his Palace Roiall when every one extoll'd the majestie and applauded the goodlinesse of the Kings person at length Tygranes askt his Queen what her opinion was of his magnitude and person She answered I can say nothing Sir for all the time of the Feast mine eies were stedfastly fixt upon you my dear husband for what other mens beauties are it becomes not a married wife to enquire Cornelia the wife of Aemilius Paulus when a great Lady of Campania came to her house and opening a rich casket as the custome of women is to be friendly one with another she shewed her gold rings rich stones and jewels and causing her chests to be opened exposed to her view great variety of costly and pretious garments which done she intreated Cornelia to do her the like curlesie and to shew her what jewels and ornaments she had stored to beautifie her selfe which hearing she protracted the time with discourse till her children came from school and causing them to be brought before her turned unto the Lady and thus said These be my jewels my riches and delights nor with any gayer ornaments desire I to be beautified Fâ—â—i bonae indolis parentum lauta supellex Viz. No domestick necessaries better grace a house then children witty and well disposed Many have been of that continence they have imitated the Turtle who having once lost her mate will ever mourn but never enter into the fellowship of another Therefore Ania Romana a woman of a Noble family having buried her first husband in her youth when her friends and kinred continually laid open the solitude of widdowhood the comfort of society and all things that might perswade her to a second marriage she answered It was a motion to which she would by no means assent For saith she should I happen upon a good man such as my first husband was I would not live in that perpetuall feare I should be in lest I should lose him but if otherwise Why should I hazard my selfe upon one so had that am so late punisht with the losse of one so good It is reported of Portia Minor the daughter of Cato That when a woman who had married a second husband was for many vertues much commended in her presence Peace saith she That woman can neither be happy well manner'd nor truly modest that will a second time time marry But I hold her in this too censorious yet the most ancient Romans only conferred on her the Crown of modesty and continence that was contented with one matrimony as making expression of their uncorrupted sincerity in their continued widdowhood Especially such were most discommended to make choice of a second husband who had children left them by the first resembling their father To which Virgil in the fourth book of his Aeneid seems elegantly to allude Dido thus complaining of the absence of Aeneas Siqua mihi de te suscepta fuisset Ante fugam soboles c. Had I by thee any issue had Before thy slight some pretty wanton lad That I might call Aeneas and to play And prate to me to drive these thoughts away And from whose smiling countenance I might gather A true presentment of the absent father I should not then my wretched selfe esteem So altogether lost as I now seem Plutarch much commends the widdowhood of Cornelia the illustrious mother of the Gracchi whose care having nobly provided for her children and family after the death of her husband she exprest her selfe every way so absolute a matron that Tiberius Gracchus of whom we spake before was not ill counselled by the gods by preserving her life to prostrate his own for she denied to marry with King Ptolomeus and when he would have imparted to her a diadem and a Scepter she refused to be stiled a Queen to keep the honour of a chast widdow Or the like purity was Valeria the sister of Mssâ—lar who being demanded by her kinred and deerest friends why her first husband dead she made not choice of a second answered that she found her first husband Servius to live with her still accounting him alive to her whom she had ever in remembrance A singular and remarkable sentence proceeding from a most excellent matron intimating how the sacred unity in wedlock ought to be dignified namely with the affections of the mind not the vain pleasures
the sixt Emperour of the Turks but also if need were or should any future discontent arise oppose him in hostility But this politick purpose of the Kings arriving almost at the wished period seemed so distastfull to the Sultans of Casbia that they first attempted by arguments and reasons to divert the King from this intended match but finding themselves no waies likely to prevaile to make the King see with what errours he was maskt and with what sorceries deluded They diligently awaited when in the absence of the King the Tâ—â—taâ— and the Queen Begum kept their accustomed appointment of which the Sultans having notice they entered that part of the Palace brake ope the doors and rushed into the Queens bed-chamber where finding Abdilcherai in suspitious conference with the Queen they slew him with their Sables and after cutting off his privy parts most barbarously thrust them into his mouth and after as some report slew the Queen Though this history shew great remisness in the King most sure I am it was too presumptive an insolence in the subject To this Persian Queen I will join the wife of Otho the third Emperour of that name This lustfull Lady as Polycronicon makes mention was of somewhat a contrary disposition with the former For neglecting the pride and gallantry of the Court she cast her eies upon an homely hushand better supplied it seems with the lineaments of nature then the ornaments of art but with an honesty of mind exceeding both for when this libidinous Lady could by no tempting allurements abroad nor fitting opportunity sorted private insinuate with him eiâ—sieâ— to violate his allegeance to his Prince or corrupt his own vertue her former affection turned unto such rage and malice that she caused him to be accused of a capitall crime convicted and executed But the plain honest man knowing her spleen and his own innocency he called his wife to him at the instant when his head was to be cut off and besought her as she ever tendred his former love which towards her he had kept inviolate to meditate upon some course or other by which his guiltlesse and unmerited death might be made manifest to the world which she with much sorrow and many tears having promised he gently submitted to his faâ—e and his body was delivered to the charge of his widdow Within few daies after the Emperour kept a day solemn in which his custome was bring mounted upon his â—oiaâ—ll throne to examine the causes of the fatherlesse and widdowes and to 〈◊〉 whereâ—n they were oppressed and by whom and in person to do them justice Among the rest came this injured widdow and brings her husbands head in her hand humbly kneeling before the Emperors Throne demanding of him What that inhumane wretch deserved who had caused an innocent man to be put to death to whom the Emperour replied Produce that man before the judgement seat and as I am royall he shall assuredly lose his head To whom she answered Thou art that man O Emperor for by thy power and authority this murder was committed and for an infallible testimony that this poor husband of mine perisht in his innocence command red hot irons to be brought into this place over which if I pass bare footed and without any damage presume he was then as much injured in his death as I am now made miserable in his losse The irons being brought and her own innocence together with her husbands being made both apparant the Emperour before all his nobility submitted himselfe to her sentence But at the intercession of the Bishop the woman limited him certaine daies in which he might find out the murder he first demanded ten daies after eight then seven and last six in which time by inquiry and curious examinations he found his wife to be the sole delinquent for which she was brought to the bar sentenced and after burned This done Otho to recompence the woman for the loss of her husband gave her four Castles and Towns in the Bishoprick of Beynensis which still beare name according to the limit of those daies First the Tenth second the Eight third the Seventh fourth the Sixt. Olimpias OThas of Persia having defeated Nectenabus King of Aegypt and expelled him from his Kingdome he the better to secure himselfe from the Sophies tyranny shaved his head and disguising himselfe with all such jewels as he could conveniently carry about him conveied himselfe into Macedonia the authors of this history aâ—e Vincentius and Trevisa There as they say he lived as a Chaldeâ—n or Cabalist where by his Negromancie and Art Magicâ— he wrought himselfe so deeply into the brest of Olympias that taking the opportunity whilest Philip was abroad in his forrein expeditions he lay with her in the shape of Jupiter Hammon and begot Alexander the Great After the Queens conception many fowles used to flie about Philip when he was busied in his wars amongst others there was a Hen that as he sate in his Tent flew up into his lap and there laid an egg which done she cackling flew away The King rising up hastily cast it upon the ground and brake it when suddenly a young Dragon was seen to leap out of the shel and creeping round about it and making offer to enter therein againe died ere it had quite compassed it The King at this prodigie being staâ—â—led called all his Astrologers together demanding of one Antiphon the noblest Artist amongst them What the omen might be of that wonder who answered him That his wife Olympias was great with ason whose conquests should fill the world with a stonishment aiming to compass the whole universe but should die before he could reduce it into one entiâ—e Monarchy the Dragon being the 〈◊〉 of a â—oiall conquerour and the round ovâ—ll circumâ— erence the symbol of the world With this answer Philip was satisfied When the time came of Olympias her travell there were earthâ—quaâ—es lightnings and thunders as if the last dissolution had been then pâ—esent when were seen two Eagles pearched upon the top of the Pallace presaging the two great Empires of Europe and Asia Young Alexander being grown towards manhood it hapned that walking abroad with Nectenâ—bus in the presence of his father Philip the young Prince requested the Astrologian to instruct him in his art To whom Nectenabus answered that with all willingnesse he would and comming neer a deep pit Alexander thrust the Magician headlong into that descent by which sudden fall he was wounded to death yet Nectebanus calling to the Prince demanded for what cause he had done him such outrage Wâ—o answered I did it by reason of thy art for ignoble it were in a Prince to study those vain scienâ—es by which men will undertake to predict other mens fates when they have nor the skill to prevent their own To whom Nectenâ—bus answered Yes Alexander I calculated mine own destiny by which I knew I should be slain by mine own naturall son
he is no sooner dead but they all contend together which of them was of him in his life time best beloved and if it cannot be determined amongst themselves they bring the controversie before the Judges and plead as earnestly to accompany him in death as for some great fortune and honour she amongst the rest that prevails exults with joy as having attained a great victory when being led by her best friends and neerest of kindred partakes with her in the same triumph unto the place where her husbands body is to be consumed with a pleasant and merry countenance she casts her selfe into the fire and is there burned with him together the rest that survive and were deprived of this last honor consume the remainder of their lives in great discontent sorrow and anguish Of this custome Cicero remembers us Tusâ— Quaest lib. 5. Valer. Maxim lib. 2. cap. 1. Alex. aâ— Alex. Alianus Egnatius and others This funerall ceremony as Fulgos lib. 2. cap. 6. is continued amongst them unto this day alluding to this purpose is that of Propert lib. 3. Foelix cöâ—s lex funeris una maritis c. Which I thus paraphrase in English You Eastern Husbands in your funerall Lawes Most happy and their first inventors wise In which you are more famous then because On you the blushing morning first doth rise When Death hath with his last mortiferous wound The Husband struck his last Rites to prepare A pious troop of wives engirt him round Drying their moist cheeks with their scatt'red hair Who strive which shall associate him in fate And bed with him together in the flame To live beyond him is a thing they hate And he once dead life is to them a shame She that can die with him hath her desire And leaps with joy into the funerall fire The like is observed by a people of Thrace that inhabit a little above the Crestonaeans They likewise are delighted with plurality of wives who after the decease of their husbands enter into the like contention as the women of India and she that is Victoresse as if glorying in some great conquest adorned in her best and richest ornaments is with great ceremonious pomp amongst all her kindred and allies conducted unto the place where his body is to be interred where being slaine by her next of Kin as the best office he can do her she is buried in the same grave with her husband Herod lib. 5. The wives amongst the Geates repair to their husbands sepulchre and holding al life tedious and burthensome without them other their bodies willingly either the sword or to the fire The Custome of the Catheoreans was That when the Bride choose her husband she made a covenant with him at his death to be burnt in the same Pile Alex. ab Alex. lib. 1. cap. 25. The women amongst the Herulians a people that inhabit beyond the river of Danubius repair to the graves of their husbands and just over against them strangle themselves Which marriage-love appears the more strange because the men are of that barbarous and inhumane incontinence that they hold it no shame to leave the society of their women and have congression with brute beasts Bonifacius in his Epistle unto King Ethelbalaus as Gaâ—â—elm Masmsbur lib. 1. cap. 64. de Anglia relates it saith That the Winedi are the worst and the most nasty people among the Germans yet their wives are of that incomparable zeâ—i and piety toward their husbands that she is held to be the most laudable and praise-worthy that with her own hand kils her selfe to burn with him to his last funerall fire From the generality of women I descend to particulars Admirable was the love of Phila towards her husband King Demetrius and haughty and magnanimous her spirit who receiving newes of his defeat in battel and that his whole army being dispersed and scattered he was retired into Cassandria drank poison and so died The wife of Straton Prince of Sydonia when the City was straitly besieged by the Persians her greatest care was lest the person of her husband should fall into the hands of the mercilesse enemy which she purposed to prevent by death When therefore she heard they had scaled the wals and were ready to be instantly possest of the Town and seize upon the person of her husband she snatcht from him his sword with which she first slew him and then laying out his body with as much comlinesse as the shortnesse of the time would permit after fell upon the same sword thus by voluntary death preventing the dishonour of captivity Fulgos lib. 4. cap. 6. Fannia the daughter of Arria the younger wife to Poetus Patavinus before remembred in her brave and heroick death with her husband was the spouse of Helvidius Priscus who followed him in all his exile even to his unfortunate and most unjust death she was the third time confin'd from the reign of Tiberius Nero. to the death of Domitian Pliny with infinite praises applauds the incomparable vertues of this Fannia with both the Arrias in Lib. 9. in his Epistle to Quadratus and in his seventh to Genitor and Priscus Triaria was the noble and chast wife of L. Vitellius brother to Aul. Vitellius the Emperor who as Hypsicrataea followed Mithridates in all his combustious wars so she never forsook her husband but was present with him in all those civil dissentions against Vespasian And the night when Vitellius her Lord with a great army of Souldiers invaded and entred the City Terecyna she presented her selfe in the middest of the slaughter not only daring but doing equally with the most valiant killing on all sides till she had hemmed her selfe in with dead bodies slaine by her own hand so bold and magnanimous a spirit had the conjugall love to her husband imprest in her Her memory is made famous by the same Author Antonia Flaxilla by some called Archona when her husband Priscus was found guilty of the Pysonian Faction and for that cause exiled by Nero and when she might have enjoied all the plenty and abundance in Rome left all the pleasures and delights of the City to accompany her desolate Lord in his penurous and uncomfortable banishment Her example Egnatia Maximilla imitated who likewise associated her husband Gallus guilty of the same conspiracy with Priscus Fulgos lib. 6. c. 7. From Jacobus the son of Vsson Cassannus amongst many other Captains that revolted there was one eminent in that rebellion called Pandoerus who had a most beautiful young wife her age exceeded not sixteen years to whom he was ardently and in conjoined love affected He being by her often earnestly entreated to forbeare all conflicts with the enemy but by no means either moved by her tears or perswaded by her intercessions and praiers persisting resolute for a present encounter she then begged of him That before he hazarded himselfe to the extremity of danger he would first take away her fears