as I have chosen rather to suffer than by my beauty to make you a prisoner Wherewith discovering her face in complexion much altered by some colours which she had caused to be laid upon it hee vowed to relinquish his suit imagining that shee had poysoned her face to waine him from his affection This he had no sooner said then shee ran to a spring neare adjoyning to wash it off See said shee I am the same I was but you are much better for now you are brought to see your errour in being so much taken with a skin-deepe beauty which onely consists in dye and colour But howsoever that memorable Marcelles of whom wee formerly made so honourable a mention seemed in defence both of her selfe and Sex to inveigh against Disdain holding it the most unwomanly quality that could be to have an heart steeled against the perswasions of an affectionate Servant Ariosto that ingenious Poet can informe us sufficiently of many hard-hearted Ladies in Italy who prided themselves in nothing more than to make their unhappy Lovers Tragick Subjects while Some of them raved with Orestes transforming Fancy to a phrensy and amongst many other whose heavy Fates brought them to unhappy ends he brings in three distressed Lovers murdered with Disdaine The first as well as the rest under a borrowed name he calls Infeliche who to discover his infelicity and make his name and fate pertake in one quaâ—ity is presented weeping and so long till he ha's left no eyes to shed a teare The next is his Inamorato whose Disdainfull choice brought him to that disaster as hee vowed with an intentive fixing of his eyes upon the Sun-beames day by day never to looke off that Object till the reflex of the Sunne had consum'd his sight The third his Desperato one who scorn'd to protract time or make truce with Death for upon his Ladies scornefull answer as one Despairing of all future fortune because estranged from her favour he leapes headlong from a Rock which gave a period to his unhappy love Disdain then it seems hath soveraigniz'd in every countrey while poore distressed Lovers rest of all hope abandoned health rather than live a languishing life So as being so farre imbarked in this subject I must needs in this place acquaint you with a Letter writ it may well seeme by a perplexed home-spun Lover who impatient to admit any other complement in his lines than what might to life best depaint his sorrow proceedeth thus DEarest Duckling be it knowne to you and to all People that I have pissed bloud three dayes and three nights since I last saw you and received that unwomanly relentlesse answer from you so as your harsh and untoward quality was the onely cause blinke-eyed Cupid forgive you of this my misery and malady Let it now suffice you that I am utterly undone by you while I live to subscribe and loath am I to live such a Scribe Your most unfortunate Servant No lesse ruefull was the case of that pitifully-complaining Lover who discovered his Judaicall passion in this manner I lov'd a Wench and she a coy Precisian Her scorne of love brought me to Circumcision If Circumcision be the way to woo I would my Wench had my Praeputium too But since my Choyce makes mee an haplesse man England adieu I 'm now for Amsterdam Where I may finde what here I cannot move Affection in a Family of Love Though afterwards repenting himselfe of such a rash resolution he salves it with this conclusion Yet my Coy-duck take my resolve with you Losse of no Jewell can make me turne Jew But if you 'l have a Circumcised one My fore-skin onely shall bee yours or none The Lowest but not unloyall'st of your Servants Farre lesse hot in his Love but more discreet in his Choyce appeared that Seignior who having pretended love to a Shrow though shee seemed a Sheepe fell so highly in her books as in the end she became a Soliciter to her Suiter importuning him much to marry her to whom in a poeticall straine hee returned this answer covertly shadowed under the person of another My Wench o're me presuming to have power Will'd me goe with her hand in hand to th' Tower For what said I To cloze our marriage rite No to see th' Lions 't were a better sight For th' Lion Tigre Leopard Panther Beare Are all meeke Creatures to my Minivere Closing the aversion of his love with this resolve I 'd rather cope with Lions in a Grate Than in a Bed with my imperious Kate. One more I will onely here insert and so descend to the next subject which I have occasionally heard related of a wanton widdow who scornefully and in a jeering way disclosed that Disdaine which shee lodged in her heart An ancient Batchler who had been ignorant before what the working of Love was or what effects it produc'd having had formerly good accesse to her house in her husbands time which promised him as he thought no lesse successe now after his death made one day suite to this widdow she neither gave him great hope nor any just cause to despaire And thus his cold suite continued till she falling aboord with a more amiable and affectionate Suiter one whose rising-youth both seconded her expectance and promised more performance One day amongst the rest upon more familiarity betwixt them shee began to acquaint him how such a Batchlers-button had her in chace and if his arguments did not disswade her for ought shee knew shee meant to make him her Choice This shee never intended for her affection begunne now to be free towards this active youth and to scorne nothing more than a doublet with a Monsieurs Belly a payre of Trunk-hose an inclining hamme and a mouted beard for so was this old Batchler accommodated Notwithstanding all this her young choice feared much to suffer a defeat which to prevent so soone as he came to his chamber rapt with a poetick fury or amorous fancy he addresseth these Lines unto her DORICLES to DULCINA Deare where is thy discretion to ingage Thy matchlesse beauty to decrepit age Dew-dropping Violets hang downe their head When their prime Leaves are too much moistened But thy pure-featur'd Orbe shall never finde Any such pearled moisture in a Rinde Beleeve me Sweet no colour may beseem Thy Virgin-veile worse than a Frost on greene This Letter sent and delivered to her hand who had already devoted her heart the selfe-same day she chanc't to leave it upon the drawing-cupboord while she went into her Orchard to take a walke Her over-worne wooer as one impatient of longer delay came as it happened that same time into her chamber as he was formerly accustomed to doe where finding this Letter open and directed with an amorous inscription he dispenced so farre with civility and her patience now in her absence as to peruse the contents which did not a little nettle him howbeit to shroud all things with as much secrecy as
strength of fancy yet no lesse usefull in another faculty by reading Principles of House-wivery to their well order'd family ib. 317 14 These welcome their husbands home with a smile and entertaine his friend without a thought of ill ib. 15 To gaine themselves more improvement they taske themselves to some imploiment ib. 16 They read not to dispute but to live not to talke but to know ib. 17 A man ill-married and finding in himselfe a willingnesse to suffer may boast that he possesses in the person of his wife all necessary qualities to be put into the List of Martyrs 318 A man well-married is so far from that opinion as he ha's a Consort ever ready to afford him sweet Musick without Division ibid. 18 In the conclusion of this Section he exhorts Ladies to reteine a memory and resemblance of those he ha's described and he shall acknowledge this his Labour and Service addressed to them highly requited ib. 1 Menippus his Madrigall to his Coy-duck Clarabell 2 Loves Festivall at Lusts Funerall Ar't asleep Husband A BOULSTER LECTURE Stored with all variety of witty Jests merry Tales and other pleasant passages extracted from the choycest Flowers of Philosophy Poesy ancient and moderne History SECTION I. The Excellency of Women in their Creation DIscourses taking life from purest and refinedst Subjects beget ever in the Reader most affection in the Hearer most attention Now what Subject more pure than that which is of the most affable nature amiable feature and pliable temper A smooth thinne skin promiseth saith the Philosopher a free and ingenuous disposition And where shall we find this philosophicall Idaea but in a woman This caused the Oracle to give sentence in a businesse which highly imported the Spartan State that the approaching calamity of their principall Citie could not possibly be diverted but by scattering the purest dust upon their Altars which all their countrey afforded Upon which Answer it was long debated what dust the Oracle meant by to expiate the fury of the Gods where as it ever falls out in affaires of that nature as many men so many minds Some and those were rich Groundlins who preferred Wealth before Wit and esteemed Gold for the most absolute Good were of opinion that the Oracle meant by the purest dust the foile of Gold Others that no purer dust could bee scattered on their Altars than the ashes of such honest and pious Patriots who had exposed themselves to whatsoever Fortune could inflict upon them to secure their Countrey and become her safetie who bred them Other mettall-men there were who closed with that relation of Plutarch who reporteth that when Dionysius the Tyrant asked the Wisemen of his Court which Copper was the best Antiphon answered very readily that in his opinion that was the most excellent and the dust most restorative whereof the Athenians had made the pictures of those Tyrants which for their Countries delivery from such an insupportable tyranny Armodius and Aristogyton had dispatched to their succeeding glory But in the end making recourse to the most esteemed Sage in all Greece they were told that it was the Dust of a Virgin which was no sooner scattered than their maladie was removed What excellent Cures have beene produced what happie deliveries effected by these meanes may appeare every where in the Poets As in Andromeda Polyxena Iphigenia This confirmes that pure mould of a Virgin that refined dust or substance of her Composition reflecting ever upon the Excellency of Women in their Creation Yet it may be objected Man deserves precedency because in his Creation he had priority It is confest yet might Woman seeme if we may safely incline to the opinion of some Rabbies to have a preeminence in the manner of her Creation For whereas Dust gave Man his Composition Woman took hers from Mans perfection Yea but the Matter shee was made of fore-told what shee would bee Shee was made of a Crookt Subject a Rib and out of her crooked disposition will some say who stand ill-affected to the Salique state shee will not stick to tyrannize over a sheepish husband and give him rib-roast A poore Objection An equall and ingenuous exposition would rather frame this conclusion That the Subject whereof she was made begot not in her a crookednesse but pliablenesse of nature ever ready to bend her will and apply her affection to the mould of Man not cruelly to domineere but constantly to adhere to her Mate Well did that wisest of Kings observe this when he so definitely concluded Where a woman is not the house grones This differed much from the opinion of that hard-hearted man whereof I have sometimes heard this Tale Who being one day asked by his Neighbour how it was with him at home and how his sick wife did made this answer Surely Neighbour the case is pitifull my wife she feares shee shall die and I feare she shall not die which makes an heavie doleful house Thus grounded they their sorrows upon two coÌ„trary fears That divine Plato whom even in his cradle Bees fed with honey to give a presage to his sweet Philosophy retained a better conceipt of so necessary a Consort When he closed his Desires in this Orison So I may have but my eyes to read with a mind to conceive a memory to retaine whatsoever I shall reade or conceive and a Woman to serve me that what necessity shall injoyne I may seasonably receive what fortune soever encounter mee though she assayle me she cannot soyle me though she assault me she cannot foile me Hee is a weake Proficient in Philosophy who enjoying the freedome of his inner house cannot smile at adversity When Philogenes heard how without society the world was a wildernesse The Maxime is true said hee if you meane a mixt society without which all Society would soone become a wildernesse But will some harsh Timonist or Women-hater say Well had it been for the world if there had never been an Eve in the world it was her Consent that brought a staine to the perfection and integrity of our state Yet for all this if you will beleeve that ancient Cabalist who shew'd himselfe an exquisite discourser and discusser of conjecturall Causes he will tell you that in his opinion the Woman shewed not so much levity in consenting to the Serpent as the Man did facility in giving eare to the Woman Shee expostulated the cause with the Sâ—rpent e're shee consented Whereas hee without any more adoe weakly received what shee so unhappily offered Howsoever neither of them are to be excused the one in not resisting the Serpents subtilty an act no doubt of greater difficulty the other in inclining to the Womans perswasion which might have been prevented with more facility What an excellent State accompanies the presence of a goodly Woman What attractive beauty in the eye What an admirable disposure in the contexture of every part So as I cannot sufficiently wonder at the stupidity of that meere Scholasticall
roughly with her veile or hoâ—sing up her skirts and scourge those Aeolian scouts for being so saucy She wonders that Venus should be for a Goddesse recorded and she never remembred When she sees our countrey-Beauties with a scornefull pity she lookes on them and returnes her judgement thus Alas poore home-spun beauties A civill requisite curtsy shee will not deagne to bestow on more deserving lips than her owne with a seeming aversenesse she forgets that winning salute of those Noble Trojan Ladies holding it too high a favour to afford a lip to the compleatest Lover This that passionate Amorist well discovered in this Canto Beautious was Shee but too coy Glorious in her tyres and toyes But too way-ward for that Boy Who in Action Spheard his joyes Love-tales shee could deagne to heare And relate them weeke by weeke But to kisse when you came neare Lippe was turn'd into the cheeke Beauty that is too precize Though it should attractive be Darting beamelins from her eyes 'T were no Adamant to me Shee it is I onely love Shee it is I onely seeke That do'es bill it like a Dove And will make her lippe her cheeke Honour is a rising baite But not rudely to be pull'd Give me Her at any rate Who loves to be kist and cull'd Countrey Ducks scorne to be nice To those Swaines their fancy seeke Though their honour they doe prize Lippe they tender not their cheeke Thus can Sheepheards Swainlings love And expresse what they desire Live to love and love to prove Height and hâ—at of Cupids fire When a Sillâ—bub they make While their youngsters woo and seeke For their love they may partake Of their lippe as well as cheeke Now did that incensed Gentleman shew lesse passion upon the like re-greet from a disdainfull Lady whose long practise in painting and delicate tooth together had so corrupted her breath as Cocytus could not have a worser savour A Lady gave me once her cheeke to kisse Being no lesse than I my selfe did wish For this I 'le say and binde it with an oath Her cheeke tastes sweeter farre than do'e's her mouth But there is nothing so much discovereth the vaine Pride of these Beauties as a coynesse to their Servants in their wooing and winning If they affect you that affection must bee so shrowded and shadowed as Lynceus eyes could not disclose it Walke from them their eyes are on you walke to them their eyes are from you There is no argument be it never so well-relishing nor sorting with their liking that they will give eare to no posture be it never so gracefull they will afford an eye to Opposition suiteth best with their condition To a stranger they will shew themselves familiar to you whose intimacy hath got a roome in their hearts they will seeme a stranger If you appeare merry it must bee expounded trifling childishnesse if grave Stoick sullennesse It were a gift above apprehension in every particular to fit their humour And yet they must be humour'd or they are lost for ever This would make any man thinke if he cast his cards aright that a mans only sweet Bed-fellow were a Bed without a fellow But that would spoile all humane society better an inconvenience than a mischiefe better one perish than a multitude Beauty is no such Phoenix as she can generate from her owne ashes Suppose her then disdainfull thing resolved to take one though with a queasy stomach and such an one as of all her choice shee could not entertaine a worse And this youth she rather affects because all her friends dis-relish him For she measures not her Love by others discretion nor her fancy by the line of others direction Shee is too wise to bee taught and if she repent it shall be at leasure and if shee have cause to put finger ith'eye she will chuse rather to dye than discover it to any other Yet for all this through a seeming indifferency and coldnesse of affection the marriage-day must be protracted by them till they cannot endure Whale-bone becomming as Pregnant as Nature could make them This makes me remember the Tale of the Westerne Pedler who having one daughter was sought after by many amorous Suiters but one amongst the rest she preferred in her choice feeding his longing appetite with hopes and following her fathers course who had got in his time as much by Consideration as Principall told him ever and anon that shee would consider of it till at last her Consideration falling into a Conception and being asked the selfe-same question she never returned any other than that she would still take it into her Consideration Oh quoth her Suiter being guilty of the Bill consider your pregnant present state and your Consideration Comater comes too late But of all others there is nothing to be admired more in this their trifling with Love than those nice conditions they stand upon which though their hearts stand indifferent whether they be ever observed or no they will peremptorily conclude without assent to such conditions no Bargaine Now the principall Article must be that He who is prickt to be the man must hold his Distance Too much familiarity breeds contempt and to avoid this He must observe a kind of reverend state in her presence Give her way in all arguments of discourse And for as much as her brave disposition retaines in it selfe thoughts of Majesty shee must have her Side for her selfe and her women or what Male she pleaseth divided Beds seasons of repairing one to another that every new visit may seeme a fresh kind of wooing In which Encounter as he is to shew himselfe importunate in his Suite so is his spouse to shew her selfe reluctant to his desires But the issue proves fearfull for her long practise of Soveraignty over his weaknesse brings this Faire one to that passe as she begins to distaste him Though the man be tollerable for his part and of promising satisfaction she cannot brooke him yet if you should aske her the cause it is onely this Hee is her Husband Like that great favorite Flaviano who having taken to wife a noble Florentine Lady grew in short time to dislike her and being asked the reason why he could not affect her being every way so brave and compleat a Lady I grant said hee her parts deserve love and as I live there is none breathing that I could more constantly love did she not beare that name which I so much loath and being further demanded what name that was O replyed he with a sigh A Wife Neither for all this would I have you to mistake me as if I restrained affection onely to Beauty for I have knowne Fancy taken as much though not so often with Deformity as ever it was with Beauty Yea One in whom not so much as the least glympse or shew of favour appeared ha's wrought no lesse impressive Effects in the heart of a deluded Lover than if shee had been the Astrophel of the age
whom hee stands ingaged nay religiously devoted by an inviolable tye of affection I have heard of a domestick combat betwixt two who afterwards became such loving affectionate Turtles as nothing could displease the one what the other affected But before this continued peace could bee procured or these Civill-warres quenched many domestick bickerings and skirmishes were there who might weare the buckler and returne quarter-master The more he laboured to soveraignize the quarrell ever became more implacable for she ever ended that dayes conflict with this peremptory cloze Trust me Husband this will not doe it At last as later considerations prove ever wisest hee recollected himselfe beginning to expostulate the cause with himselfe in this manner How long shall I intangle my selfe in this intricate Maze of endlesse miseries To what purpose is it that I contest with my owne flesh Raise a Pad in the straw and awake a sleeping Lyon It may bee her disposition is more generously tempered than to be thus haled Turne then the Scale and let her enjoy the freedome of her selfe This will relish better to any well condition'd nature than ever to be contending for mastery and make the whole Countrey ring with our folly Upon which resolution they closed together in such an equall Concord and Harmony of their minds as they were never knowne to bee angry both together The one giving way to the others passion with such sobriety and discretion as they never afterwards needed any neighbourly Mediation This I have the longer insisted on because I am not ignorant how many surly and rough dispositions doe abuse by their harshnesse the easy and well-tempered Natures of their unhappy Consorts which might bee instanced and illustrated with many Tragick and dolefull examples both in our owne and other Countreyes where weake and fearefull natures were so disheartned as they inclined to strange melancholick fits and such incurable distempers as they were never rest of them till their tedious life left them Others of higher Spirits but of more vindicative natures impatient of longer suffering have woven up the Tragick Scene of their miseries with the ruine of their cruell husbands Indeed were all Women of that servile condition whereof the ingenious Barcley in his Mirror of Minds reports those women to bee of who cannot be perswaded that their Husbands love them unlesse they beate them Correction then would bee found the only introduction to affection But these Nations are more Civile and our womanish Spirits more Virile to endure such affronts It is worthy our observation to relate what happned to one Iordan in his marrying in those parts being a native German and one who had accompanied Barcley in his Travaile He reports it thus Being in those parts one Iordan a German and who had kept me Company in my Travaile fell in love with a woman there married her Demeaning himselfe to her as became a loving and respective Husband but the more she was tendered by him the more shee seemed to be discontented with him No dalliance nor all the tokens of love or affection that he could shew to her could either winne or waine her from that discontented humour to which his too much kindnesse had brought her At last seeing that the more he laboured to content her the lesse she seem'd to be pleased he takes her aside one day demanding of her the reason of her distaste O Sir saith she how should I bee well pleased when you shew no argument of love towards me Not of love replyed he what more Signes of respect can I show you than these I already doe I am sure you want nothing Yes Husband said she I want Correction And if you did truly love me you would beate me as you see other husbands in these parts use their wifes for I must freely tell you for all your professions of love and respect toward mee till you begin to beate me I shall never bee perswaded that you love me This could not chuse but beget admiration in him yet least hee should lose his Wifes good opinion at last hee began to follow the Countrey-fashion and to give her such correction as might sufficiently perswade her of his affection Although in the end his disciplinary Love grew to be too bitter For he brake her neck before he left her But no modest eare can endure any such breake-necke-love Wives are not to bee made Slaves but Companions And as their constitutions are soft and delicate so should their usage bee mildly tempered and affectionate Sweet and gentle is their Speech albeit no Rule so generall but admits some exception full of rich delight is their Fancy No storme of adversity so violent but their pleasant society will allay it No losse so heavy but by the enjoyment of them supplyed Those dispersed Trojan Dames how soone had they pacified their incensed Husbands with a winning kisse and a friendly salute Their anger was soone done when they saw those pearled teares distilling those amorous armes spred abroad to imbrace them those pretty witty prattles they had to entertaine them These were such harmelesse carelesse Charmes as they wrought farre stronger on the affection than any other forcible Conclusion Now as I have formerly observed seeing there is no Society that can possibly subsist without speech divers qualifications are to bee used whereby that Cement of society may be better seasoned and in all Companies better accepted which I will divide into these two necessary precepts The first is to know what you are to speake The second is to know when you are to speake In the former is Deliberation In the later is Moderation necessarily required He that knoweth how to speake well knoweth also when hee must hold his peace which may serve for an excellent Rule to the Later Thinke an houre before you speake and a day before you promise and this may usefully serve for a direction of high importance to the Former These observed many errors incident to indeliberate speech may be prevented which our too free and glib-tongued Dames are usually subject to I have noted a kinde of pleasing Dialect used by our City Dames to their Husbands and delivered in that loving familiar way as it infinitely became them a kinde of fondling speech as I may properly tearme it or apish toying neither unpleasing to their Husbands nor unusefull to themselves as thus trust mee Chick thou shalt not Now pray thee Prick doe not iffaith you 'r a sleake youth you playd the wag with mee last night well God forgive thee wiltst buy mee this toy my Pigsny These pretty prattles make me remember that free and ingenuous confession of that rich Millanoise That the strings of his purse were never so hard tyed but his Nansy had a Charme to loose them Which brings us no lesse properly than occasionally to fall upon that dangerous Attendant to Gentle Speech which we formerly particuliz'd to be Dissimulation a smooth Orator and such an one as makes her
divine vertue which is an Abstract of all the rest that noble Thracian Lady well expressed when unurged shee professed That if shee were conscious to her selfe of any Crime deserving death her owne actions should not need to receive any other sentence than her owne So impartiall a Judge would shee demeane her selfe in her owne particular as not the severest Court should pronounce upon her an heavier Censure When that just Alban Lady heard what Demadis saying was that Draco's Lawes were written with blood and not with inke Farre be such Rubricks quoth shee from our Calendar Let mercy and truth kisse each other That royall Empresse shewed her selfe a Patronesse of Iustice when on a time the Emperour her husband had presented to him the Names of sundry Delinquents to receive from him his pleasure how they should be disposed of which as one minding more a game at Tables than pronouncing judgement on those offenders hee commanded without any further deliberation that they should suffer death O quoth that worthy Empresse let not my Lord bee so forward in pronouncing judgement upon an untryde delinquent the life of a man is to bee valued above a game at dice. Just was that Dame towards her owne when hearing how her daughter had violated that Order whereto shee was Vestally devoted she came before the Senate and beseeched them for Iustice who when they had understood the quality of the Offence and how the offender was her owne Daughter They made answer you need little doubt of Justice in a Crime of such a nature yet might this personall offence have well deserv'd a Stranger rather than a Mother to be an Accuser O answer'd shee but Nature must forget her selfe when unnaturall Children forget God Shee was my daughter so long as she preserv'd her honour my part is now quite lost in her Bee it your Iustice to vindicate the Wrong which my blood hath received from her Else shall I conclude that your unjust mercy is to mee a cruelty which Vesta will revenge to redresse her injury Excellent was that resolution of those Almaine Sisters who professed in a publicke Place of Judicature That they would rather suffer the utmost extreames of want and misery than share in the Fortune of any other unjustly The like example might wee her produce of a noble Gentlewoman in our owne Coast who by the prodigall and dissolute Course of her Husband falling into great poverty was so far from inclining to any thought of Basenesse as when her powerfull friends commiserating her present Condition wished her to enquire of something that might raise her Fortunes and they would use meanes for procuring it O quoth shee I know well how to shape my minde unto my Fortune but I hope my thoughts shall never know how to scrue themselves into an others possession What shall it benefit me said that noble Matron to enjoy what belongs unto another and betray my Fame which I should preferre before all other I cannot live and be unjust for life consists not in beeing breathing or performing any outward action but in a pure and undefiled Soul raising her thoughts to an higher Motion When the Sabines had suffered that infinite injury in being deprived of the beauty of their virgins though they might probably have taken fit opportunity for revenge O said those antient Matrons let us first see how these Strangers use our Daughters if they demeane themselves lovingly unto them it were unjust for us to take revenge of their Husbands for the Love they beare to their Wives Honest Love should be rewarded dishonest revenged In that Election of Consuls when the vertuous Aurelia understood that her Husband sought indirectly for voices O said shee This argues in you a diffidence of your owne worth desist then from standing for such an honour which your personall actions can not merit nor these mercenary votes and voices obtaine without detracting from another Iustice when perverted may be compared to the Celedonie stone which retaineth her vertue no longer than it is rubbed with gold but when employed to the preserservation of the State and dispensation of what is just to every one being neither induced by amity incensed by enmity nor corrupted with hope of commodity this divine vertue may be compared to the Selenite stone a precious gemme found in Arabia which is of this nature and property that when the Moone increaseth it likewise increaseth in beauty but when the Moone decreaseth it lesseneth of her splendor and glory It retaines likewise another quality and it is this Being tied to any Tree it makes it fruitfull The application will appeare both proper and usefull When Changes in the State are most frequent when Command seemes to soveraignize most on these smaller and inferiour Lights then is shee most constant in her beauty most resplendent Neither can Might over-sway her nor a despicable Plaintiffe dis-relish her She ever shewes most Constant when times seeme most wavering and fluctuant Nor is any branch so seere any member so fruitlesse in the whole body of the State which her application cannot make fruitfull so soveraigne is shee in her selfe so commodious unto others Happy will some say were those dayes wherein Basil the Emperour of Constantinople lived that whensoever he came to his Judgement-Seat found neither Party to accuse nor Defendant to answer Here needed no Conscript Fathers to sit upon tryall of Causes no feare of Corruption because that Halcyon peace admitted no occasion What wilt thou give me was no Interrogatory in those dayes And yet me thinks that noble Princesse in the moulding of Justice and faire carriage of all businesse made her State no lesse happy who decreed That if any plaintiffe exhibited a Bill against any person and could not prove the justnesse of his Action he should pay treble costs to the Defendant and besides his pecuniary Mulet receive such corporall punishment as the quality of the complaint deserved This made commencements of Suites as rare as the former by reducing the State to such an exact Order as neighbouring Princes had her in admiration taking Presidents from her of State-Government to second her Rules in a serious imitation Thus have you heard how this Vertue which our Philosophers have resembled to the Evening Starre for beauty hath beene so carefully observed and constantly preserved by women as they addressed their endevours to no Object more seriously than how they might improve her glory Let us now then see what they did in honour of Temperance a Vertue which seasoneth and relisheth the rest with her presence TEMPERANCE EXTREAMES are those Shelves on which Vertue suffers Livia dispatch't her husband because she loved too little Lucilia hers because she loved too much But that noble Lady observed a faire and equall temper betwixt both these when she proposed this Conjugall Rule unto her selfe As I made a Contract with mine heart not to change where I made my choyce so I resolve to retaine that command
in hope of a day will come when you may freely make such an one his Heire who may suite better with your affection and in requitall share freelier in his fortune These will say too that you bedew your Husbands Corpse with Stepdames teares Those funerall flowers which bestick and bedeck his Hearse cannot be so soone with'red as your griefâ—s are vanished You bury your sorrow with him neither is that sorrow your owne but borrowed A New-husband is formalled before your old One be formally buried Now what poore traducements bee these Might Heathens have their times limited for mourning and must yours be everlasting Some will affirme too that in comparison of men your desires are more unbounded and this they say even our owne Moderne Chronicles have sufficiently confirmed But we finde Bodin worthily taxed for writing that Caesar in his Commentaries should say that the Englishmen of his time had but one woman for ten or twelve men whereas indeed Caesar never said so or could say so for that he never knew or heard of the name of Englishmen seeing their comming into Britaine was as may be clearely computed almost 500 yeares after his death Againe what might be the reason will some object why the Serpent first tempted the Woman rather than the Man and this question ever to your disadvantage is no sooner say they proposed than resolved by Chrysostome Women are naturally unwarier easier and frailer So as in that they are unwarier they are easilier deceived in that they are easier they are sooner to good or evill perswaded And in that they are frailer they are the sooner vanquished For this cause therefore would not the Devill assault the Man but the Woman for asmuch as he knew that a Woman was sooner deceived because unwarier quicklier perswaded because easier and sooner vanquished because frailer But this Objection I have so clearely assoiled in the very first Subject of this Booke as I shall little need to stand in your Defence any further touching this particular Only thus much may suffice There is small question to be made but the Serpents cunning knew well that he might by all probability soonest prevaile upon the weaknesse of a Woman yet albeit she was first tempted and tainted so soone as she consented the Man was as soone perswaded by the Woman though she infinitely lesse subtile than the Serpent as the Woman though the weaker vessell was by the Subtility of the Serpent But we will passe from these to those obvious reproofes which the present vanities of the Age lay upon you Some here amongst other objections which groundlesse spleene is ever apt to suggest and calumny with swift wings to disperse will say that ever since that time that your teeth watred at the Apple they have ever watred at forbidden fruit A licorish and luscious tooth hath ever since that time seazed on you And were this all it were to be borne with You cannot see a proper piece of flesh promising performance no dapper youth whose strong sinnewy posture confirmes him an able complete Lover but your eye wooes him and in so hote a chace pursues him as though your tongue be silent your sight is attractively eloquent But what would these Criticks have you doe Would they have you shut those beauteous Windows and to open them to no Object that may delight you Is there such a necessity that you cannot looke on him but you must lust after him If there be any rare or prodigious Monster to be seene we flock unto it and bestow our money for the sight of it And is it lawfull for us to fix our eyes with such greedinesse on a Monster and unlawfull for you to delight that pleasing Sense with a beauteous Object of Nature Yea but will these say we direct not our censure nor judgement only by the Eye we have other arguments to evince them of lightnesse for goe to these late-licentiate Pattentary Sedans you shall finde them shrowded there for strange arrands Though their Couches have windowes to eye Spectators they would not for a World wish that which the Philosopher sometimes Wished To have windowes in their breasts that the whole World might transparantly looke through them Poore Corky fooles These can see nothing wagge but they must pâ—epe here and peepe there and thinke it is Actaeons shadow whereas it is only the shadow of their owne deluded fancy which inthrals them to this misery Nor doe these only taxe you of a various lightnesse in respect of your Change but of a jealous doubtfulnesse towards your owne Choice If you gossip it none must question it whereas if they good men to allay a tedious houre or drowne the disquiets they suffer at home in a cup of Lethe keep abroad late they must be called to a strict accompt and pay a new reckning after their mispent day in the evening Nay you will tell your innocent Husbands when God knowes there is no great cause to suspect them That you know by your Payles what way the milk goes Whereas if any rightly knew the integrity of your thoughts they should find that such jealouse surmizes were the least of your thought No you did never so much as suspect them nor conceive any such opinion of them for having such sensible experiments of their weakenesse you knew well there was no cause at all in that way to traduce them It was your desire that late distempers should not abridge their daies and make you widdows before your times It was your ayme that your Husbands should preserve their fame That they should not fall under the hazard of the Halbert or the uncivile salute of a peremptory Watch. Besides alas it is your fortune sometimes out of meere simplicity to misconster the quality of an error As that good Gentlewoman did who desiring to heare how a young Student in Cambridge and her kinsman behaved himselfe in the University and inquiring of a Collegiat of his how he did I can assure you Mistresse quoth he that he holds close to Catharine-Hall I vow said the Gentlewoman there was no vice that I so much feared in him as that for the Boy was given to wenches from his Infancy Thus tooke this good simple woman Catharine-Hall for some dainty Damsell which he constantly haunted whereas it was a Collegiat-Hall which this young Student so affectionately loved and where he so studiously frequented But let us go on with these ungrounded calumnies and discusse the strength and solidity of them to the bottome Some of these Timonists or feminine Tetters taxe you of unbounded pride These pencyle out your Borders Habilements and Embroderies your toyes tyres and dressings your wimples wyres and curlings your paintings poudrings and purflings These say they make your fathers patrimonies to shake to maintaine your bravery while you are Maids And makes your Husbands Mannors to doe you service passe the Alienation Office Alas poore Girles If you appeare carelesse in your dresse you are quickly taxed of