impossible it is not in man to determin or rest assured in iudgemēt I wil go vnto him and comfort him so well as I can that peraduenture my promises maye 〈◊〉 some parte of his payne and afterward we wil at leisure better consider vpon that which we shall promise Herevppon they went together to sée the pacient that beganne to looke vp more 〈◊〉 than he was wonted who séeyng the Gentlewoman sayde vnto hir Ah mystresse I woulde to God I had neuer proued youre fidelitie to féele the passing cruell hearte of hir that rather dothe estéeme hir honour to practyse regour and tyrannie vpon me than with gentlenesse to maintaine the life of a poore féeble knight Sir sayde she I can not tell what you meane thus to tormēt your self for I trust to cure you betwene this and to morow and wil do mine endeuor to cause you speake with hir vpon whom wrongfully perchaunce you doe complaine and who dareth not to come vnto you lest some occasion be giuen of suspition to 〈◊〉 speakers which wil make the report more slanderous when they know the cause of your disease Ah sayd the pacient howe ioyfull and pleasant is youre talke I sée wel that you desire my helth and for that purpose would haue me drinke of those liquors which superficially do appeare to be swéete afterwardes to make my life a hundred times more fainte and féeble than now it is Be you there sayde she And I sweare vnto you by my faith not to faile to kéepe my promise to cause you speke alone with mistresse Zilia Alas mystresse sayd the louer I aske no more at your handes that I may heare with myne owne eares the last sentence 〈◊〉 or defiance Well put your trust in me sayd she and take you no thought but for your health For I am assured ere it be long to cause hir to come vnto you and then you shall sée whether I am diligent in those matters I toke in hande and to what effecte myne attemptes do proue Me think already quod he that my sicknesse is not able to stay me from going 〈◊〉 hir that is the cause of my debilitie when it shal 〈◊〉 hir to commaunde me where soeuer it be sith hir only remēbrance will be of no lesse force in me than 〈◊〉 clerenesse of the sun beames is to euaporate the thicknesse of the morning mistes Euen so is she if such be hir chéere to me the 〈◊〉 wherein my day shall take increase or the night whiche eclipseth and obscureth the brādishing brightnesse of my first sunbeames With that the Gentlewoman tooke hir leaue of him who without let of his companion immediately rose vp and she went home attending oportunitie to speke to Zilia whome two or thrée dayes after shée mette at Church and they two beyng alone together in a Chapell sayd vnto hir with fained teares forced from hir eyes and sending forth a cloude of sighes Madame I nothing doubt at al but that last letters which I brought you made you conceiue some yll opinion of me which I do gesse by the frownyng face that euer sithens you haue borne me But when you shall knowe the hurte which it hath done I think you will not be so harde and voyde of pitie but with pacience to hearken that which I will say and moued to pitie the state of a pore Gentleman who by your meanes is in the pangs of death Zilia whiche til then neuer regarded the payne and sicknesse of the pacient began to sorow with such passion not to graunt him further fauour than he had alreadie receiued but to finde some means to ease him of his griefe and then to giue him ouer for euer And therfore she said vnto hir neighbor Mistresse I thought that all these sutes had bene forgotten vntil the other day a Gentlemā prayed me to go sée the Lord of Virle who told me as you do now that he was in great danger But séeing that he wareth worsse and worsse I will be ruled by you beyng well assured of your honestie and vertue and that you wil not aduise me to that which shall be hurtfull to myne honour And when you shall do what you can you shall winne so much as nothing yet shall ease him nothing at all which wrongfully plaineth of my crueltie For I do not purpose to do any priuate facte with him but that which shall be mete for an honest Gentlewoman and such as a faithfull tutor of hir chastitie may graunt to an honest and vertuous gentleman His desire is none other said the gentle woman for he intreateth but your presence to let you wit by word that he is redy to do the thing which you shall cōmand him Alas said 〈◊〉 I know not how I shal be able to do the same for it is impossible to go to him without suspition which the common people wyl lightly conceiue of such light familiar behauiour And rather wold I die than aduēture mine honor hitherto conserued with great seueritie diligēce And sith you say that he is in extremes of deth for your sake I wil not stick to go vnto him that hereafter he may haue no cause to cōplaine of my rudenesse I thank you said the messanger for the good wil you beare me for the help you promise vnto the poore passionate gentleman whome these newes wil bring on foote againe wil do you reuerence for that good turne Sith it is so saide Zilia to morow at noone let him come vnto my house where in a low chamber he shall haue leisure to saye to me hys minde But I purpose by Gods helpe to suffer him no further than that whiche I haue graunted As it shall please you sayd hir neighbour for I craue no more of you but that only fauour which as a messanger of good newes I goe to shew him recommending my selfe in the meane time to your cōmaunde And then she went vnto the pacient whom she found walking vp downe the chamber indifferently lusty of his persone and of colour metely freshe for the tyme he lefte his 〈◊〉 Now when sir Philiberto sawe the messanger he sayd vnto hir And howe nowe mystresse what newes Is Zilia so stubborne as 〈◊〉 was wonte to be 〈◊〉 may sée hir sayde she if to morrowe at noone you haue the hearte and dare goe vnto hir house Is it possible sayde hée imbracynge hir that you haue procured for me that good tourne to delyuer mée from the 〈◊〉 wherein I haue so long tyme bene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trustie and assured friende all the dayes of my life I will remember that pleasure and benefite and by acknowledgyng of the same shall be readie to render lyke when you please to commaunde or else let me be counted the moste vnkynde and vncurteous Gentleman that euer made profession of loue I wyll goe by Gods helpe to sée mystresse Zilia with intent to endure all trouble that Fortune shall send vnto me protesting to vere my self
how the pore Gentleman was resolued to finish there in the desert vnknowen to his friends all the remnāt of his life And who aswell for the euill order and not 〈◊〉 nouriture as for assiduall plaints and wé 〈◊〉 was become so pale leane as he better resembled a dry chippe than a man hauing féeling or life His eyes were soonke into his head his beard 〈◊〉 his hair staring his skin ful of filth altogither more like a wilde and sauage creature such one as is depainted in brutall forme than faire Dom Diego so much commēded and estéemed through out the kingdome of Spaine Nowe leaue we this amorous Hermite to passionate plaine his misfortune to sée to what ende the Letters came that he wrote to his cruell Mistresse The day 〈◊〉 for deliuerie of his Letters his seruaunt did his charge and being come to the house of Gineura found hir in the Hall with hir mother where kissing his maisters letters he presēted them with very great reuerence to the Gentlewoman Who so soone as she knewe that they came from Dom Diego all chaunged into raging coloure and foolishe choler threw them incontinently vpon the ground saying Sufficeth it not thy maister that already twice I haue done him to vnderstand that I haue nothing to do with his letters nor Ambassades and yet goeth he about by such assaultes to encrease my displeasure and agonie by the only remembraunce of his follie The mother séeing that vnciuile order although she vnderstoode the cause and knew that there was some discorde betwéene the two Louers yet thought it to be but light sith the Comike Poet doeth say The louers often falling out And prety wrangling rage Of pleasant loue it is no dout The sure renewing gage She went vnto hir Daughter saying What great rage is this Let me sée that letter that I may read it For I haue no feare that Dom Diego can deceiue me with the swéetenesse of his hony words And truly daughter you néede not feare to touch them for if there were any poison in them it proceaded from your beautie that hath bitten and stong the Knight whereof if he assay to make you a partaker I sée no cause why he ought to be thus rigorously reiected deseruing by his honestie a better entertainement at your handes In the meane time one of the Seruing men tooke vp the letters and gaue them to the Lady who reading them found written as foloweth The letters of Dom Diego to Mistresse Gineura MY dearest and most wellbeloued Ladie sith that mine innocency can finde no resting place within your tendre corpse what honest excuse or true reasō so euer I do alleage and sith your heart declareth it selfe to be implacable and not pleased with him that neuer offēded you except it were for ouermuch loue which for guerdon of that rare and incomparable amitie I perceiue my self to be hated deadly of you and in such wise contemned as the only record of my name causeth in you an insupportable griefe and displeasure vnspeakeable To auoid I say your indignation and by my mishap to render vnto you some 〈◊〉 and contentment I haue meant to dislodge my selfe so far from this Countrey as neither you nor any other shal euer hear by fame or true report the place of my abode nor the graue wherin my bones shall rest And although it be an 〈◊〉 hearts sorow and torment which by way of pen can not be declared to be thus misprised of you whom alone I do loue and shal so long as mine afflicted soule shall hang vpon the féeble and brittle thréede of life yet for all that this griefe falling vpon me is not so 〈◊〉 as the punishment is grieuous by imagining the passion of youre minde when it is 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 and wrathe againste me who liueth not but to wander vpon the thoughtes of youre perfections And forsomuch as I doe féele for the debilitie that is in me that I am not able any longer to beare the sowre shockes of my bitter torments and martyrdome that I presently doe suffer yet before my life do faile and death doe sease vpon my senses I haue writen vnto you this present letter for a testimoniall of your rigour which is the marke that iustifieth my vngyltinesse And although I doe complain of mine vnhappie fortune yet I meane not to accuse you only contented that eche man doe know that firme affection and eternall thraldome do deserue other recompense than a farewell so cruell And I am well assured that when I am dead you will pitie our torment knowing then although to late that my loyaltie was so sincere as the report of those was false that made you beléeue that I was very farre in loue with the daughter of Dom Ferrande de la Serre Alas shall a noble Gentleman that hath bene wel trained vp be fordidden to receiue the gifts that come from a vertuous Gentlewoman Ought you to be so incapable and voide of humanitie that the sacrifice whiche I haue made of the poore birde the cause of your disdaine my repentance my lawfull excuses are not able to let you sée the contrary of you persuation Ah ah I sée that the darke and obscure vaile of vniust disdaine 〈◊〉 anger hath so blindfold your eyes and 〈◊〉 your minde as you can not iudge the truth of my cause and the vnrighteousnesse of your quarel I will render vnto you none other certificat of mine innocencie but my languishing heart whiche you clepe betwene your hands feling such rude intertainment there of whome he loked for reioyse of his trauels But for somuch then as you do hate me what resteth for me to do but to pro cure destruction to my selfe And sith your pleasure cōsisteth in mine ouerthrowe reason willeth that I obey you and by death to sacrifice my life in like maner as by life you wer the only mistresse of my heart 〈◊〉 only thing chereth vp my heart maketh my death more miserable which is that in dying so innocent as I am you shal remaine faultie the onely cause of my ruine My life will depart like a puffe soule shal vanish like a swéete sōmers blast wherby you shal be euer déemed for a cruell womā and bloodie murderer of your deuout and faithful seruants I pray to God mine owne swete Ladie to giue you such contentation ioy pleasure and gladnesse as you do cause through your rigor discōtentation grief displeasure to the poore lan guishing creature and who for euermore shall be Your most obedient and affected seruant Dom Diego The good Ladie hauyng redde the Letter was so astoonned as hir woordes for a long space stayed within hir mouth hir heart panted and spirite was full of confusion hir minde was filled with sorow to consider the anguishes of the poore vagabund and foster hermit In the ende before the houshold dissembling hir passion which moued hir sense she toke hir daughter aside whō very sharply she rebuked
purpose he was not able to remoue but rather the more difficult and daungerous his enterprise séemed to be the more grew desire to prosecute and obiect him selfe to all dangers If peraduenture the Quéenes for their disport and pastime were disposed to walke into the fieldes or gardens of the Citie of Hispurge he failed not in company of other Courtiers to make one of the troupe being no houre at rest and 〈◊〉 if he were not in the sight of Quéene Anne or néere that place where she was At that time there were many Gentlemen departed from Lombardie to Hispurge which for the most parte followed the Lord Francesco Sforza the second by whom they hoped when the Duchie of Milane was recouered to be restored to their Countrey There was also Chamberlain to the said Lord Francesco one master Girolamo Borgo of Verona betwene whome and master Philippo was very néere friendship familiaritie And bicause it chauncethvery seldome that seruent loue can be kept so secrete and couert but in some part it will discouer it selfe master Borgo easily did perceiue the passion wherwith master Philippo was inflamed And one master Philippo Baldo many times being in the company of master Borgo and Philippo did marke and perceiue his loue yet was ignorant of the truthe or voide of coniecture with what Gentlewoman he was inamored But séeing him contrary to wonted custome altered from vsual mirth transported fetching many sighes strainings from his stomake and marking how many times he wold steale from the cōpany he was in withdraw him self alone to muse vpon hys thoughts brought thereby into a melancholy and meane estate hauing lost his sléepe and 〈◊〉 of eating meat iudged that the amorous wormes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bitterly gnawe and teare his heart wyth the nebs of their forked heads They three then being vpon a time togither debating of diuers things amōgs them selues chaunced to fall in argument of loue and 〈◊〉 Baldo Borgo the other gentlemen said to master Philippo how they were well assured that he was straūgely attached with that passion by marking and considering the new life which lately he led contrary to former vse intreating him very earnestly that he would manifest his loue to them that were his déere and faithful frends telling him that as in weightie matters otherwise hée was alredy sure what they were euē so in this he might hardily repose his hope and confidence promising him all their helpe and fauoure if therein their indeuor and trauaile might minister ayde and comfort He then like one raised from a traunce or lately reuiued from an 〈◊〉 after he hadde composed his countenaunce and gesture with teares and multitude of sobbes began to say these woordes My welbeloued friendes and trusty companiens being right well assured that ye whose sidelitie I haue already proued whose secrete mouthes be recómmended amongs the wise and vertuous will kéepe close and couert the thing which you shall heare me vtter as of such importaunce that if the yong 〈◊〉 Gentleman Papyrius had bene héere for all hys silence of graue matters required by hys mother I would vnnethes haue disclosed the same vnto hym In déede I cannot deny but must néedes consesse that I am in loue and that very ardently which I cannot in suche wise conceale but that the blinde must néedes clearely and euidently perceiue And although my mouth would 〈◊〉 kéepe close in what plight my passions doe constraine my inwarde affections yet my face and straunge manner of life which for a certayne time and space I haue led doe witnesse that I am not the man I was 〈◊〉 to be So that if shortly I doe not amend I trust to arriue to that ende whereunto euery Creature is borne and that my bitter and paynefull life shall take ende if I may call it a life and not rather a liuyng death I was resolued and throughly determined neuer to discouer to any man the cause of my cruell torment being not able to manifest the same to hir whome I doe only loue thinking better by conceling it through loue to make humble sute to Lady Atropos that shée would cutte of the thréede of my dolorous lyfe Neuerthelesse to you from whome I ought to kéepe nothyng secrete I will disgarboile and 〈◊〉 the very secretes of my minde not for that I hope to finde comfort and reliefe or that my passions by declaration of them wil lessen and diminishe but that ye knowing the occasion of my death may make reporte thereof to hir that is the only mistresse of my life that she vnderstanding the extréeme panges of the truest louer that euer liued may mourne and waile his losse which thing if my séely ghost may know no doubt where so euer it doe wander shall receiue great ioy and comforte Be it knowne vnto you therefore the first daye that mine eyes beheld the diuine beautie and incomparable sauer of that superexcellent Lady Quéene Anne of Hungarie that I more than wisdom required did meditate and consider the singular behauior and notable 〈◊〉 and other innumerable gifts wherwith she is indued the same beyònde measure did so inflame my heart that impossible it was for me to quenche the feruent loue or extinguish the least parte of my conceiued torment I haue done what I can to macerate and mortifie my vnbridled desire but all in vayne My force and puissaunce is to weake to matche wyth so mightye an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I knowe what ye wyll obiecte against me ye will say that mine ignobilitie my birth and stocke be no méete matches for such a personage and that my loue is to highly placed to sucke relief And the same I do 〈◊〉 so well as you I doe acknowledge my condition state too base I confesse that my loue nay rather I may terme it folly doth presume beyond the bounds of order For the first time that I felt my selfe wrapped in those snares I knew hir to beare the port amōgs the chiefest Quéenes to be the 〈◊〉 princesse of Christendom Againe I knew my selfe the poorest Gentleman of the world and the most miserable exile I thought moreouer it to be very vnséemely for me to direct my minde vpon a wight so honorable and of so great estate But who can raine the bridle or prescribe lawes to loue What is he that in loue hath frée will and choyse Truely I beleue no man bicause loue the more it doth séeme to accord in pleasure and delight the further from the marke he shooteth his bolte hauing no respect to degrée or state Haue not many excellent and worthy personages yea Dukes Emperours and Kings bene inflamed wyth the loue of Ladies and women of base and vile degrée Haue not most honorable dames and women of greatest renoume despised the honor of their states abandoned the companie of their husbāds and neglected the loue of their children for the ardent loue that they haue borne to men of inferiour sort All Histories
singuler vertue hauing dispersed and broken the armes and malice of all his enimies if before he were curteous and liberall after these so stout aduentures he became more than Princely in his déedes and if somtimes he had done one curteous act now he doubled the same But such was his Magnanimitie so noble were his indeuours tempred with such measure and equanimitie as the whole worlde clearely might discerne that not to contende with his soueraigne Lorde but to honour him to expresse the Maiestie of his Prince he imployed the goods and liuing which the King and Fortune had boūtifully bestowed vpon him Who vntill his dying day famously mainteined him selfe in the good grace and fauour of his Prince in such wise as the King more clerely than the shining Sunnebeames knew Ariobarzanes to be framed of Nature for a christalline mirrour of curtesie and Liberalitie and that more easie it was to berieue the fire of heate and the Sunne of light than despoile Ariobarzanes of his glorious déedes Wherefore he ceassed not continually to honour exalte and enriche him that he might vse the greater liberalitie And to say the truthe although these two vertues of 〈◊〉 and Liberalitie be commendable in all persons without the which a man truly is not he wherof he bereth the name yet very sitting and mete it is for euery riche and welthie subiect to beware howe he doth compare in those noble vertues with Princes and great men whiche béeing right noble and péerelesse vpon earth can abide no comparisons which according to the Prouerbe be odious and hateful Aristotimus the Tyrant ¶ LVCIVS one of the Garde to ARISTOTIMVS the Tirant of the Citie of 〈◊〉 fell in loue with a faire maiden called MICCA the daughter of one 〈◊〉 and his crueltie done vpon hir The stoutnesse also of a noble Matrone named MEGISTONA in defence of hir husbande and the common wealth from the tyrannie of the sayd ARISTOTIMVS and of other actes done by the subiects vpon that Tyrant The fifth Nouell YOu haue heard or as it were in a manner you haue beholden the right images curteous conditions of two well conditioned persons mutually eche towards other obserued In the one a Princely mind towards a noble Gentleman his subiecte In the other a dutiefull obedience of a louing vassall to his soueraigne Lorde and Maister In both of them the true figure of Liberalitie in liuely orient colours described Now a contrary plotte yll grounded vpon extreme tyrannie is offred to the viewe done by one Aristotimus and his clawbacks against his humble subiects of the citie of Elis standyng in Peloponessus a countrey of Achaia which at this day we call Morea This Aristotimus of nature was fierce and passing cruell who by 〈◊〉 of king Antigonus was made Tyran of that Citie And like a Tyran gouerned his Countrie by abuse of his authoritie with newe wrongs and straunge cruelties vering and afflicting the poore Citizens and all his people Which chaunced not so much for that of himself he was cruel and tyrannous as for that his Counsellours and chief about him were barbarous and vicious men to whom he committed the charge of his kingdom the guarde of his person But amongs al his mischiefes wrongfully done by him which were innumerable one committed against Philodemus the same which afterwardes was the cause of the depriuation of his life and kingdom is speciallie remembred This Philodemus had a daughter called Micca that not onelie for hir right chast and honest qualities and condicions which 〈◊〉 florished in hir but for hir extreame goodlie beautie was in that Citie of passing 〈◊〉 and admiration With this fair maiden one of the Tyrants guard called Lucius fell in loue if it deserue to be called loue and not rather as the end full well declared a most filthie and heastlie lust This Lucius was derelie beloued of Aristotimus for the flendish resemblāce and wicked 〈◊〉 of his vile abhominable condicions and therefore feared and obeyed as the Tyrants owne person For which cause this Lucius sent one of the 〈◊〉 of the kings chambre to 〈◊〉 Philodemus at an appointed houre al excuses set apart to bring his daughter vnto him The parents of the maiden hearing this sodain and fearefull message constrained by Tyrants force and fatall necessitie after many teares and 〈◊〉 sighes began to persuade their daughter to be contented to goe with hym declaring vnto hir the rigour of the magistrate that had sent for hir the 〈◊〉 that would be executed that there was no other remedie but to obey Alas how sore against their willes with what trembling gessure with what 〈◊〉 the good parents of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were affected to consider the purpose of that dreadfull message all dere fathers and naturall mothers can tell But this gētle maiden 〈◊〉 which was of nature stout 〈◊〉 lessoned with sundrie right good and holsome instructions from hir infantes age was determined rather to die than to suffer hir self to be defloured This 〈◊〉 maiden fell downe prostrate at hir fathers féete and clasping him fast about the knées louingly did pray him and pitifully besought him not to suffer hir to be haled to so 〈◊〉 and vile an office but rather with the piercing blade of a two edged sword to kill hir that thereby she might be rid from the violation of those fleshlie and 〈◊〉 varlets saying that if hir virginitie were taken from hir she should liue in eternall reproche and shame As the father and daughter were in these termes Lucius for the long tariance and 〈◊〉 dronke with the wine 〈◊〉 lechery made impacient and furious with 〈◊〉 spéede posted to the house of Philodemus and finding the maiden prostrate at hir fathers féete wéeping hir head in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with taunting voice and threatning woordes commaunded presentlie without longer delaie she should rise and goe with him She refusing his hastie request and crying out for fathers help who God wot durst not resist stoode still and would not goe Lucius séeing hir 〈◊〉 full of furie and proud disdnine began furiously to hale hir by the garments vpon whose struggling he fare hir 〈◊〉 and furnitures off hir head and shoulders that hir alablaster necke and bosome appeared naked without compassion tare and whipt hir flesh on euery side as the bloud ranne downe beating that tendre flesh of hirs with manifold and grenous blowes O 〈◊〉 tirant more 〈◊〉 and sauage than the desert beast or mountaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Could crueltie be so déepelie rooted in the hart of man which by nature is affected with reasons instinct as with out pitie to lay handes and violontly to hurt the tendre bodie of a 〈◊〉 Maiden Can such inhumanitie harbor in any that beareth about him the shape of man But what did this martyred maidē for al this force Did 〈◊〉 yeld to violence or rendre hir self to the disposition of this mercilesse man No surelie But with so great stoutnesse of minde she suffred those impressed woundes
which secretely they thought was about to escape away giuing them straight charge that by no meanes they shoulde returne without hir When the 〈◊〉 drew neare the shippe Poris bent him self to encourage the mariners to hoyse by saile againe and to make way with their oares into the sea if it were possible to auoide the imminent and present danger to saue the life of him selfe his wife children then he erected his handes vp vnto the heauens to implore the healpe and succor of the Gods which the stoute Gentlewoman Theoxena perceiuing and manifestly séeing the daunger wherein they were callyng to hir mynde hir former determinate vengeance which she ment to do and beholding 〈◊〉 in his prayers she prosecuted hir intente preparing a poysoned drinke in a cuppe and made redie naked swordes All which bringyng forth before the childrens face she spake these words Death alone must bée the reuēge of your siely liues whervnto there be two wayes poison or the sworde Euery of you choose which ye list to haue or of whether of them your heart shall make the frankest choyse The Kings crueltie and pride you must auoyde Wherfore dere children be of good 〈◊〉 raise vp your no ble courage ye the elder aged boyes shew now your selues like men and take the sword into your handes to pierce your tender hearts but if the bloudie smart of that most dreadfull death shal feare and fright your gréene and vnripe age then take the venomed cuppe and gulpe by sundrie draughts this poisoned drinke Be franke and lusty in this your destenied death sith the violence of Fortune by sea doeth let the lengthning of your life I craue this request of choise and let not the same rebound with fearful refuse of this my craued hest Your mother afterwardes shal passe that straight wherof she prayeth hir babes to bée the poastes yée the vaunt currours and shée with your louing 〈◊〉 shall ende and finishe Philips rage bent agaynst vs. When shée had spoken these wordes and 〈◊〉 the enimies at hand this couragious dame the 〈◊〉 of the death egged prouoked these yong 〈◊〉 childrē not yet wel resolued what to do with hir encharmed words in such wise as in the ende some dranke the poison and other strake them selues into the bodie and by hir commaundement were throwen ouer boorde not altogether dead and so she set them at libertie by death whom tenderly she had brought vp Then she imbracing hir husbande the companion of hir death both did voluntarily throw them selues also into the sea And when the Kings espials were come aboorde the ship they found the same abandoned of their praye The crueltie of which fact did so moue the cōmon people to detectation and 〈◊〉 of the king as a generall cursse was pronounced against him his children which heard of the Gods aboue was afterwardes terribly reuenged vpon his stock 〈◊〉 This was the end of good Poris and his stout wise Theoxena who rather than she would fall into the lapse of the Kings furie as hir father Herodicus and hir other husbande did chose violently to die with hir owne handes and to cause hir husbands children and hir owne to berieue them selues of life which although agaynst the louing order of naturall course and therefore that kinde of violence to be abhorred as horrible in it selfe yet a declaration of a stoute minde if otherwise she had ben able to reuenge the same And what coward heart is that that dare not vpon such extremitie whé it séeth the mercilesse ennimie at hand with shining blade redie bent to strike the blowe that without remedie muste ridde the same of breath specially when it séeth the trembling babe naturally begotten by his owne kinde and nature before the face imploryng fathers rescue what 〈◊〉 heart dare not to offer himself by singular fight though one to twētie either by desperate hardinesse to auoide the same or other anoyance aduenture what he can which in Christians is admitted as a comely fight rather than with that Pagane dame to doe the death it selfe But now returne we to describe a facte that passeth all other forced déedes For Theoxena was compelled in a maner thus to do of méere constraint to eschue the greater torments of a tyrants rage and thought it better by chosen death to chaunge hir life than by violent hands of bloudie butchers to bée haled to the slaughter But this Hidrusian dame was wearie of hir life not for that shée feared losse of life but desperate to think of Fortunes 〈◊〉 staye which 〈◊〉 Fortunes darlings would regarde in time they would foresée their slippery hold A Gentlewoman of Hidrusa ¶ A Straunge and maruellous vse which in olde time was obserued in HIDRVSA where it was lawfull with the licence of a Magistrate ordeined for that purpose for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and woman that list to kill them selues The nynth Nouell BAndello amongs the company of his 〈◊〉 telleth this Historie and in his owne person speaketh these woords If I should begin to tell those things which I sawe in the time that I sailed alōgs the leuāt seas very tedious it would be for you to heare and I in reporting could not tell which way to ende bicause I saw and heard things right worthy to be remembred Notwithstanding for satisfaction of diuers that be my frendes I will not sticke to reherse some of them But first of all one straunge custom which in the Romans time was vsed in one of the Ilandes of the sea Aegeum called Hidrusa in these dayes by the trauailers called Cea or Zea and is one of the Ilandes named Ciclades whilome full of populous and goodly Cities as the rumes thereof at this day do declare Ther was in old time in that Iland a very strange lawe and ordinaunce which many hundred yeares was very well and perfectly kepte and obserued The Lawe was that euery person inhabitant within the sayde 〈◊〉 of what sexe and condition so euer béeing thorough age infirmitie or other accidents wearie of their life might choose that kinde of death which liked them best howbeit it was prouided that the partie before the dooing of the same shoulde manifest the cause that moued hym therevnto before the Magistrate elected by the people for that speciall purpose which they ordeyned bycause they sawe that diuers persons had volūtarily killed themselues vpon triflyng occasions and matters of little importance accordyng to whiche lawe very many men and women hardily with so mery chere went to their death as if they had gone to some bankette or mariage It chaunced that Pompeius Magnus that dreadfull Romane vetwene whō and Iulius Caesar were foughte the greatest battailes for superioritie that euer were Pompeius I say sailing by the sea Aegeum arriued at Hidrusa and there goyng a land vnderstode of the inhabitants the maner of that law and how the same day a woman of great worship had obteined licence of the Magistrate to poison hir selfe Pompeius hearing tell hereof
the best Empresse and Quéene of the worlde or be she full of any other vertue if the want the name of chast she is not worthie so much as to beare the title of honour nor to be entertained in honest company Ye shall peruse hereafter an historie of a Countesse of Celant that was a passyng faire dame singularly adorned with Natures gifts She was faire pleasant 〈◊〉 comely and 〈◊〉 not altogether barraine of good erudition and learning shée could play vpon the instruments 〈◊〉 daunce make and compose wittie and amorous Sonets and the more hir companie was frequented the more amiable and gracious the same was 〈◊〉 But bicause she was 〈◊〉 fast and lesse 〈◊〉 she was of no regard and estimation Such as be dishonest do not onely hurt them selues but gyue cause to the 〈◊〉 people to mutter and grudge at their parentes education at their husbandes gouernement and institution of their children causing them most cōmonly to leade a 〈◊〉 and heauy life Think you that Augustus Caefar albeit he was a victorious Emperour and led a triumphant raigne liued a contented life when he saw the two Iuliae one of them his daughter the other his Niece to vse them selues like cōmon 〈◊〉 constrained through their shameful 〈◊〉 to pin and close vp himselfe and to shunne the conuersation of men and once in minde to cut his daughters vaynes to let cut hir lustie bloud Was not he wōt the teeres trickling down his Princely face to say that better it was neuer to haue children to be dead without them than to haue a fruteful wife children so disordred He 〈◊〉 his daughter to be a carrion lumpe of fleshe full of 〈◊〉 filthinesse But if I list to speake of woms̄ of this age from noble to vnnoble from an Emperors daughter to a plough mans modder whose liues do frame after Iulia 〈◊〉 lore my pen to the stumpes would weare and my hande bée wearied with writing And so likewise it would of numbres now no doubt that folowe the trace of Lucrece 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 and chastly contriue the day and nightes in pure and godly exercise But of the naughtie sorte to speake leauing to voide offence such as do flourish in our time I wil not concele the Empresse Messalina that was wife to the Emperour Claudius not onely vnworthie of Empresse degrée but of the title of woman who being abused by many at length arriued to suche abhominable lust that not contented with daily adulterous life wold resort to the cōmon stewes where the ruffians and publike harlots haunted for litle hire and there for vilest price with eche slaue would humble hir selfe and at night not satisfied but wearied would returne home to hir Palace not ashamed to disclose hir selfe to any that list to looke vpon hir And for victorie of that beastly game cōtended with hir like But not to say so much of hir as I finde in 〈◊〉 his naturall historie in Suetonius and Cornelius Tacitus I leaue hir to hir selfe bycause I haue made promise to remember the dishonest loue for example sake which I reade of Faustina whose beautie of all Writers is 〈◊〉 to bée moste excellent if excellencie of good life had thervnto bene coupled She was the daughter and wyfe of two holie and vertuous Emperours the one called Antonius Pius the other Marcus Antonius This M. Antonius in all vertuous workes was perfecte and godly and singulerly loued his wife 〈◊〉 and although she was 〈◊〉 to the worlde and a 〈◊〉 to the people yet cared not for the same suche was the passyng loue hée bare vnto hir Leaue we to speake of hir beastly behauiour with the noble sort without regard vnto hir most noble husbande and come wée to treate of a certain sauage kind of lust she had 〈◊〉 one of the Gladratores which were a certain sort of Gamsters in Rome which we terme to be masters of Defense She was so far in 〈◊〉 with this Gladiator that she could not eat drink or slepe ne take any kind of rest And albeit Faustina was thus vnshamfast she thought that the 〈◊〉 disordinate loue deserued 〈◊〉 and ingendred shame vnto the noble house wherof she came that she 〈◊〉 the daughter and wife of two famous Emperours woulde subdue hir state to a man so base and many times woulde goe to Caieta a Citie and hauen of Campania to ioyne hir selfe with the Galie slaues there Hir husbande which loued hir dearely comforting his wife so well as he coulde caused the best Physicians he could finde to repaire vnto hir for recouerie of hir health But all the deuised Physike of the world was not able to cure hir she was so louesick In the end knowing by long experience the fauour and loue hir husbande bare vnto hir and knowing that nothyng coulde withdraw his continued minde she tolde him that al the torment and paine 〈◊〉 sustained was for the loue of a Gladiator towards whom hir loue was so miserable that except she had his company death was she next 〈◊〉 for hir disease The good husband which beyond measure loued his wife comforted hir with so louing words as he coulde deuise and bad hir to be of good cheare promising he would prouide remedie Afterwards consulting with a wise mā a Chaldee born opened vnto him the effect of his wiues disease how she was louesick with such a person one of 〈◊〉 Gamsters of the Citie promising great rewards if he coulde by his secretes serche out redresse to saue hir life The Chaldee could tell him none other remedie but that he must cause the Gladiator to be slaine and with the bloud of him to anoint the body of the Empresse not beknowing vnto hir what it was which done that he must goe to naked bed to hir and doe the acte of matrimonie Some Historiographers do write that the Chaldee gaue him counsel that Faustina should drinke the bloud of the Gladiator but the most part that hir body was bathed in the same But how so euer it was it wold haue cooled the hottest 〈◊〉 stomack in the world to be anointed with like 〈◊〉 To conclude the Gladiator was 〈◊〉 and the medicine made and applied to the pacient and the Emperour lay with the Empresse and begatte hir with childe And immediatly she forgot the Gladiator and neuer after that tune remēbred him If this medicine 〈◊〉 applied to our carnall louing dames which God defend they would not onely folowe Faustine in forgetfulnesse but also would mislike such Physike and not greatly regarde the counsell of such 〈◊〉 By meanes of this medicine and copulation was the emperour Commodus borne who rather resembled the Gladiator than his father In whose breast rested a storehouse of mischief and 〈◊〉 as Herodian and other writers plentifully do write Two Maydens of Carthage ¶ CHERA hid a tresure ELISA going about to hang hir selfe and tyeng the halter about a beame founde that treasure and in place thereof left the halter PHILENE the
recouer the 〈◊〉 which hir mother had hidden there to 〈◊〉 she might obtaine if not by other meanes with some rich dowrie the yong Gentleman to husband whome she so derely loued And then re-enforcing hir complaint she said that 〈◊〉 Fortune had 〈◊〉 hir of that which might haue accomplished hir desire resting no cause why she shoulde any longer liue the halter was prepared for hir to ende hir dayes and to rid hir life from troubles And therfore she prayed hir to be cōtented that she might make that end which hir misaduenture and wicked fortune had predestinate I doubt not but there be many which vnderstading that the treasure did belong to Philene if they had 〈◊〉 the like as Elisa did would not only not haue forbidden hir the deth but also by spéedie méanes haue 〈◊〉 the same for so much as by that occasion the hidden tresure should haue bene out of strife and contention so great is the force of Couetousnesse in the minde of man But good Elisa knew full well the mutabilitie of Fortune in humaine things for so much as she by séeking death had founde the thing which not onely deliuered hir from the same but made hir the best contented woman of the worlde And Philene séeking hir contentation in place therof and by like occasion found the thing that would haue ben the instrumēt of hir death And moued with very greate compassion of the mayden desired to haue better aduertisement howe that treasure could belong to hir Then Philene shewing forth hir mothers writing which particularly remēbred the parcels within the casket and Elisa séeing the same to be agreable to the hand wherwith the other was writen that was founde in the casket was assured that all the gold and Iewels which she had found did belong vnto 〈◊〉 and sayde vnto hir selfe The Gods defende that I should prepare the halter for the death of this innocent wench whose substance hath yelded vnto me so gret contentation And comforting the maiden in the end she sayd Be contented Philene and giue ouer this thy desperate determination for both thy life shal be prolonged and thy discontented minde appeased hoping thou shalte receyue the comforte thou desirest And with those words she losed the halter from hir neck and taking hir by the hande brought hir to the place where hir father and husbande were and did them to vnderstand the force terms whervnto the fier of loue and desperation had broughte that amorous maiden telling them that all the treasure and Iewels which she had found where she left the halter and wherwith Philene was minded to hang hir self did by good right and reason belong to hir then shée did let them sée the counterpaine of that bil which was in the 〈◊〉 in all pointes agreable thervnto declaring moreouer that very mete and reasonable it were like 〈◊〉 should be vsed vnto hir as by whome they had receyued so great honor contentation Hir husband which was a Carthaginian borne very churlish and couetous albeit by conferring the writings together he knewe the matter to be true and that Philene ought to be the possessor therof yet by no meanes wold agrée vnto his wines request but fell into a rage calling hir foole and 〈◊〉 and saying that he had rather that she 〈◊〉 ben a thousand times hanged than he would giue hir one peny and although she had saued hir life yet she ought to be banished the Citie forsomuch as the same and all the 〈◊〉 therof was brought into the Romanes handes and amongs the same hir mothers house and all hir goodes in possession of the victors and euery part therof at their disposition pleasure And moreouer for so much as hir mother and shée had departed Carthage and would not abide the hazarde and extremitie of their countrey as other Citizens did and hauyng concealed and hidden those Riches whiche ought to haue ben brought forth for the common defense of their countrey and gone out of the citie as though she had ben a poore simple woman poorely therfore she ought to liue in Scicilia whither she was fled Wherfore he was of opinion that she in this maner being departed when the citie had greatest nede of hir helpe was disfranchised of all the rightes and customes of the countrey and that like as a straunger can recouer nothing in that citie except he haue the priuiledge and fréedom of the same euen so Philene for the considerations before sayde ought to be compted for a stranger not to participate any thing within the citie accordingly as the lawes forbid When he had so sayd he was like by force to 〈◊〉 the sorowful maiden out of the house These wordes greatly grieued Philene who doubted least his father in law would haue toyned 〈◊〉 him and agrée vnto hys alleaged reasons which séemed to be of great importaunce and effect and therfore thought newly to returne to the halter for 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 griefs but it otherwise chaunced for the father of Elisa whiche was a Romane borne and affected with a Romane minde and therfore of a gentle and well disposed nature knew full well that although the house was giuen vnto him by the cōsent of Scipio and other the captains yet he knew that their pleasure was not to 〈◊〉 on him the treasure hidden in the same and therefore ought to be restored to the true owner or else 〈◊〉 and proprely due to the Romane 〈◊〉 or cōmon treasure house of the same And albeit that it was true that hir mother went out of Carthage in the time of the siege and therfore had forfaited the same yet he determined to shew some 〈◊〉 vnto the yong mayden and to be thankful to fortune for the benefite which by hir meanes he had receyued thynkyng that she would be displeased with him if he with vngratefull minde or dishonourable intent should receiue hir giftes For in those dayes the Romanes highly reuerenced lady Fortune and in hir honor had directed Temples and dedicated Aultars and in prosperous time and happy aduentures they 〈◊〉 vowes and did sacrifices vnto hir thinking although supersticously that like as from God there proceded none euill euen so from him all goodnesse was deriued that all felicitie and other good happes which chaunced vpon the Romane common wealth proceded from Fortune as the fountaine and moste principall occasion and that they which would not confesse hir force and be thankfull vnto hir godhead incurred in the ende hir displeasure and daungers very great and heinous This Romane then hauing this opinion being as I sayd before of a gentle 〈◊〉 would at one instant both render thankes to Fortune and vse curtesie vnto that maiden by 〈◊〉 ches and goodes from lowe degrée he was aduaunced to honourable state Wherefore turning his face vnto hir with louing countenance he spake these wordes Kight gentle damosel albeit by the reasons alleged by my sonne in lawe none of the treasure hidden by thy mother and founde by my
wyth immortall same fame glorie hath in it self these only marks and propertyes to bée knowne by Chastitie toleration of aduersitie For as the mynd is constant in loue not variable or giuen to chaunge so is the bodie continent comely honest and 〈◊〉 of Fortunes plagues A true cōstant mynd is moued with no sugred persuasions of friendes is diuerted with no eloquence terrified with no threates is quiet in all motions The blustering blastes of parents wrath can not remoue the constant mayde from that which she hath peculiarly chosen to hir selfe The rigorous rage of friendes doth not dismay the louing man from the embracement of hir whom he hath amongs the rest selected for his vnchanged féere A goodly exāple of constant noble loue this history ensuing describeth although not like in both yet in both a semblable cōstancie For Euphimia a Kings daughter abandoneth the great loue borne vnto hir by Philon a yong Prince to loue a seruant of hir fathers with whome she perseuered in greate constancie for all his 〈◊〉 and ingrateful dealings towards hir Philon séeyng his loue despised neuer maried vntill hée maried hir whome afterwardes hée deliuered from the false surmised treason of hir cancred and malicious husbande Euphimia fondly maried against hir fathers wil and there fore deseruedly after wards bare the penaunce of hir fault And albeit she declared hir selfe to bée constant yet dutie to louing father ought to haue withdrawen hir rashe and headie loue What daungers doe ensue such like cases examples be 〈◊〉 and experience teacheth A great dishonour it is for the 〈◊〉 and Gentlewomā to disparage hir no 〈◊〉 house with mariage of hir inferior Yea and great grief to the parents to sée their children obstinate wilfull in carelesse loue And albeit the 〈◊〉 Propertius describeth the vehemente loue of those that be noble and haue wherwith in loue to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these verses Great is the 〈◊〉 of Loue the constant mynde doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he that is well fraught with wealth in Loue doth much preuaile Yet the tender damosell or louing childe be they neuer so noble or riche ought to attende the fathers time and choise and naturally encline to their 〈◊〉 liking otherwise great harme and detriment ensue For when the parents sée that disobediēce or rather rebellious minde of their childe their conceiued sorowe for the same so gnaweth the rooted plante of naturall loue as either it hastneth their vntimely death or else ingēdreth a heape of melancholie humors which force them to proclaime 〈◊〉 and bitter cursse against their 〈◊〉 fruite vpon whome if by due regarde they had 〈◊〉 ruled they woulde haue pronounced the swéete blessyng that Isaac gaue to Iacob the mothers best beloued boye yea and that displeasure may chaunce to dispossesse them of that which should haue bene the only comfort and stay of the future age So that negligence of parents 〈◊〉 and carelesse héede of youthful head bréedeth double woe but specially in the not aduised childe who tumbleth him selfe first into the breach of diuine lawes to the cursses of the same to parents wrath to orphans state to beggers life and into a sea of manifold miseries In whome had obedience ruled and reason taken place the hearte mighte haue bene 〈◊〉 the parent well pleased the life ioyfully spent and the posteritie successiuely tast the fruits that elders haue prepared What care and sorrow 〈◊〉 what extremitis the foresayde noble Gentlewoman 〈◊〉 for not yelding to hir fathers minde the sequele shal at large declare There was sometimes in Corinth a Citie of 〈◊〉 a King which had a daughter called Euphimia very tenderly beloued of hir father and being arriued to the age of mariage many noble men of Grecia made sute to haue hir to wife But amongs all Philon the yong king of Peloponessus so fiercely fell in loue wyth hir as hée thought he coulde no longer liue if hée were maried to any other For which cause hir father knowing him to be a King and of singular beautie and that he was far in loue with his daughter woulde gladly haue chosen him to be his sonne in law persuading hir that she shold liue with him a life so happie as was possible for any noble lady matched with Gentleman were he neuer so honorable But the daughter by no meanes woulde consent vnto hir fathers will alleaging vnto him diuers sundry considerations wherby hir nature by no means woulde agrée nor heart consent to ioyne with Philon. The king aboue al worldly things loued his fair daughter and albeit he woulde faine haue broughte to passe that she should haue taken him to husband yet he wold not vse the fathers authoritie but desired that Loue rather than force should match his daughter and therfore for that tyme was contented to agrée vnto hir will There was in the Court a yong mā borne of hir fathers bondman which hight Acharisto and was manumised by the King who made him one of the Esquiers for his bodie and vsed his seruice in sundry enterprises of the warres and bicause he was in those affaires very skilfull of bolde personage in conflictes and 〈◊〉 verie hardie the King did very much fauor him aswell for that hée had defended him from manifold daungers as also bycause he had deliuered hym from the 〈◊〉 pretended against him by the king of the Lacedemonians Whose helpe and valiance the king vsed for the murder and destruction of the sayde Lacedemonian King For which valiant enterprise hée bountifully recompenced him with honorable prefermentes and stately reuenues Upon this yong man Euphimia fired hir amorous eyes and fell so farre in loue as vpon him alone she bent hir thoughtes and all hir louing cogitations Wherof Acharisto béeing certified and well espying and marking hir amorous lookes nourished with like flames the fire wherewith she burned Notwithstandyng his loue was not so 〈◊〉 bent vpon hir personage as his desire was ambicious for that she shoulde be hir fathers onely heire and therfore thought that he shold be a most happie man aboue all other of mortall kynde if hée might possesse that inheritance The king perceuing that loue told his daughter that she had placed hir mynde in place so straunge as hée had thought hir wisdome wold haue more warely forséen and better wayed hir estate birth as come of a princely race and would haue demed such loue farre vnworthie hir degrée requiring hir with fatherly words to withdraw hir settled mynde to ioyne with him in choise of husbande for that he had none other worldly heire but hir and tolde hir howe he meant highly to bestowe hir vpon such a personage as a moste happie life she should leade so long as the destenies were disposed to weaue the webbe of hir predestined life And therefore was resolued to espouse hir vnto that noble Gentleman Philon. Euphimia hearkned to this vnliked tale with vnliked words refused hir fathers hest protesting vnto him such reasons
to like effect as she did before therby to draw him frō his cōceiued purpose whervnto the wise King hauing made replie continuing his intended mynde at length in ragyng wordes and stormed mind he sayd vnto Euphimia How much the swéeter is the wine the sharper is the egred sawe thereof I speake this Parable for that thou not knowyng or greatly regarding the gentle disposition of thy fathers nature in the ende mayst so abuse the same as where hitherto he hath bene curteous and benigne he may become through thy disordered déedes ryghte sowre and sharpe and without vtterance of further talke departed Who resting euil content with that fond fixed loue thought that the next way to remedie the same was to tel Acharisto how 〈◊〉 he toke his presumed fault and in what heinous part he conceiued his ingratitude and how for the benefites which liberally hée had bestowed vpon him he had brought and enticed his daughter to loue him that was farre vnagreable hir estate And therfore he called hym before him and with reasons first declared the duetie of a faithfull seruant to his souerain Lord and afterwards he sayd That if the receyued benefits were not able to lette him know what were conuenient and séemely for his degrée but would perseuere in that which he had begonne he would make him féele the iust displeasure of a displeased Prince whereby hée shoulde repent the tyme that euer hée was borne of womans wombe These wordes of the King semed grieuous to Acharisto not to moue him to further anger hée séemed as though that being fearfull of the kinges displeasure hée did not loue his daughter at all but sayd vnto hym that hée deserued not to bée so rebuked for that it lay not in his power to withstande hir loue the same proceding of hir owne good will and libertie And that hée for his part neuer required loue if she did bend hir mynde to loue him 〈◊〉 could not remedie that affection for that the fréewill of such vnbridled appetite rested not in him to reforme Notwithstāding bycause hée vnderstoode his vnwilling mynd 〈◊〉 from that time forth would so indeuor himselfe as hée shoulde well 〈◊〉 that the vnstayde mynde of the yong gentlewoman Euphimia was not incensed by him but voluntarily conceyued of hir selfe You shall doe well sayde the King if the effect procede according to the promise And the more acceptable shall the same bée vnto me for that I desire it shold so come to passe The king liked wel these words although that Acharisto had conceiued within 〈◊〉 plat of his intended minde some other treason For albeit that hée affirmed before the kings owne face that hée would not loue his daughter yet knowing the assured will of the louing gentlewoman hée practised the mariage and like an vnkind wretched man deuised cōuenient tyme to kill him And fully bent to execute that cruell enterprise hée attempted to corrupt the chiefest men about him promising promocions vnto some to some hée assured restitucion of reuenewe which by fathers fault they had lost béefore and to other golden hilles so that hée might attaine by slaughter of the King to 〈◊〉 a kingly state and kingdome Which the sooner he persuaded himselfe to acquire if in secrete silence they coulde put vp that which by generall voice they hadde agréed And although they thought themselues in good assurāce that their enterprise coulde take no yll successe by reason of their sounde and good discourse debated amonges them selues for the accomplishement thereof yet it fortuned that one of the conspiracie as commonly in suche lyke traiterous attemptes it chaunceth béeyng with his beloued ladie and she making mone that little commoditie succéeded of hir loue for hir aduauncement brake out into these woordes Holde thy peace sayde hée for the time will not bée long before thou shalt bée one of the chiefest Ladies of this lande Howe can that be sayde his woman No more adoe quod the Gentleman Cease from further questions and bée merrie for wée shall enioye together a verie honourable and a quiete lyfe When hir Louer was departed the gentlewoman went to an other of hir gossips very iocunde and tolde hir what hir louer had sayd and she then not able to kepe counsell went and told an other In such wise as in the ende it came to the cares of the Kings stewards wife and she imparted the same vnto hir husband who marking those words like a mā of great wisedome experience did verily beléeue that the same touched the daunger of the Kings person And as a faithfull seruant to his lorde and maister diligently harkned to the muttering talke murmured in the court by him which had tolde the same to his beloued ladie knowing that it proceded from Acharisto which was an 〈◊〉 and sedicious varlet and that he with thrée or foure other his familiars kept secrete companie in corners iudged that which he first coniectured to be most certaine and true Wherefore determined to moue the King therof and vpon a day finding him alone he sayde vnto him that the fidelittie and good will wherwith hée serued him and the desire which he had to sée him liue in long and prosperous estate made him to attende to the safegarde of his person to hearken vnto such as shold attempt to daūger the same For which cause marking and espying the doings of certain of his chamber whose common assemblies and priuie whisperings mislyking he feared least they conspiring with Acharisto shoulde worke treason for berieuyng of his life and to the intent their endeuors might be preuented and his safetie foreséene he thought good to reueale the same to his maiestie Then he tolde the King the words that were spoken by the first Gentlewomā to one or two of hir companions and disclosed the presumptions which hée 〈◊〉 séene and perceyued touching the same Amongs the yll conditions of men there is nothing more common than poyson conspiracies and treason of Princes and great lordes and therefore euery little suspicion presumyng such 〈◊〉 is a great demonstration of like mischiefe Which made the Kyng to giue credite to the wordes of his Steward hauing for his long experience knowen him to be faithfull and trustie And sodainly he thought that Acharisto attempted the same that after his death by mariage of Euphimia he might be the inheritour of his kingdome The beliefe wherof and the singular credite which he reposed in his Steward besides other thinges caused him to cōmaunde the captaine of his Guard to apprehend those iiii of whom his Steward told him and Acharisto cōmitting them to seuerall prisons Then be sent his officers to examine them and founde vpon their confessions the accusation of his Stewarde to be true But Acharisto although the whole 〈◊〉 of the treason was confessed by those foure conspirators that were apprehēded and aduouched to his face and for all the tormentes wherewith he was racked and cruciated yet still denied that either he
wold set vpon him to sée him and heare him speake made toward him and catching him by that band vpon his 〈◊〉 said vnto him Did 〈◊〉 thou art dead Wherevnto Nathan made none other an̄swere but I haue then deserued it When Mithridanes heard his voyce and looked him in the face he knewe by by that it was he which had courteously receiued him familiarly kept him company and faithfully had giuen him counsel Wherupon his fury asswaged and his anger conuerted to shame By meanes wherof throwing downe his sword which he had drawne to strike him he lighted of from his horsse and did prostrate himselfe at Nathan his fathers 〈◊〉 sayd vnto him wéeping Imanifestly perceiue right louing father your great liberalltie and by what policie you be come hyther to render to me your life Whereunto I hauing no right declared my self desirous to haue the same But our Lord God more carefull of my deudir than my self hath euen at the very point when it was moste néedefull opened the eyes of mine vnderstanding which curssed spite and cancred enuie had closed vp and therfore the more you were ready to gratifie my desire the greater punishmēt I knowledge my selfe to deserue for my fault Take then of me if it please you such vengance as you thynke méete for mine offence Nathan caused Mithridanes to rise vp kissing and imbracing him tenderly then he sayde vnto him 〈◊〉 sonne thou nedest not to demaund pardon for the enterprise done good or euill as thou list to name it For thou diddest not goe about to rid me of my life for any hatred thou didst beare me but only to be accompted the better Be assured then of me and verily beleue that there is no liuing man that I loue better than thy selfe considering the greatnesse of thine heart not inclyned to hoorde or gather togither the drossie mucke of Syluer as the myserable doe but to spende that whych is gathered Be not ashamed for hauing a will to kill me thereby to gette renowme For Emperoures and greatest kings neuer streatched forthe their power and racked their Kealmes and consequently aspired fame for other purpose but to kill not by murdering one man as thou 〈◊〉 meane but of an infinite number bysides the burning of Countries and rasing of Cities Wherefore if to make thy selfe more famous thou wouldest haue killed me alone thyne enterprise was not new to be wondred at but a thing in daily practise Mithridanes no more excusing his wicked intent but praising the honest excuse which Nathan had deuised drewe neare vnto hym to enter into further talke wyth him which was howe he greatly maruelled that he durst approche the place with so little rescue where hys deathe was sworne and what he meant him selfe to tell the waye and meanes wherein he required him to say his minde for disclosing of the cause Whereunto Nathan replied maruell not Mithridanes of mine intent and purpose for 〈◊〉 I was at age disposed to mine owne frée will and determined to doe that which thou hast gone about to doe neuer any came to me but I haue contented them so farre as I was hable of that they did demaunde Thou art come hyther with desire to haue my life wherefore séeing that thou diddest craue it I forthwith did meane to giue it that thou alone mightest not be the man that shoulde departe from hence wythout atchieuing thy request and to bring to passe that thou myghtest haue the same I gaue thée the best Counsell I coulde aswell for bereuing of my life as for enioying of thine owne And therefore I saye to thée againe and praye thée for to take it thereby to content thy selfe if thou haue anie pleasure therein I doe not knowe whiche way better to imploye it I haue all readye kepte it foure score yeares and haue consumed the same in pleasures and delyghtes and doe knowe by course of nature in other men and generallye in all things that long it can not reast in breathyng dayes Wherefore I thinke good that better it is to giue as I haue dailye done and departe with my Treasures than kéepe it till nature carye it awaye in despite of my téethe and maugre that I haue It is a little gifte to giue one hundred yeares howe much lesse is it then to giue 〈◊〉 or eighte of those I haue to liue Take it then if it please thée I thée beséeche For neuer yet found I mā that did desire the same ne yet do know when I shall finde such one if that thy selfe which 〈◊〉 desire it doe not take it And if it chaunce that I do finde some one I know ful well that so much the longer as I shall 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 the lesse estéemed it shal be and therfore before the same be vile and of little price take it I beséeche thée Mithridanes sore ashamed sayd God 〈◊〉 that by separating so dere a thing as is thy life that I should take it or only to desire the same as I did erst from which I would not diminish yeares but willingly would of mine owne adde therto if I could Whereunto Nathan by and by replied And if thou couldest wouldest thou giue them And woldest thou cause me doe to 〈◊〉 that which I neuer did to any mā that is to say to take of thy things which neuer I did of any liuing person Yea verily answered Mithridanes Then sayd Nathan Thou shouldest do then that which I wil tell thée Thou shouldest remaine here in my house so yong as thou art and shouldest haue the name of Nathan and I wold goe to thine and still be called Mithridanes Then Mithridanes answered If I had also so great experience as thou hast I would not refuse that which thou dost offer but bicause I am assured that my déedes would diminish the renoume of Nathan I will not marre that in another which I can not redresse in my self and therefore I 〈◊〉 not take it After this talk a great deale more betwene them they repaired to the Palace vpon the request of Nathan wher many dayes he did great honor to Mithridanes incoraging counselling him so wel as he could daily to perseuere in his high great indeuor And Mithridanes desirous to returne home with his company Nathan after that he had let him wel to know that he was not able to surpasse him in liberalitie gaue him leaue Mistresse Katherine of Bologna ¶ Master GENTIL of CARISENDI being come from MODENA toke a woman out of hir graue that was 〈◊〉 for deade who after she was come againe broughte forth a sonne which Master GENTIL rendred 〈◊〉 with the mother to master NICHOLAS 〈◊〉 hir husband The. xix Nouel REading this Historie I consider two straunge rare chaunces the one a lyberall and courteous acte of an 〈◊〉 louer towardes his beloued hir husband in leauing hir vntouched and not dishonored although in full puissance to doe his pleasure to hir husband or presenting him with 〈◊〉 whome he
Prince or Lord which in times passed did commaund or rule the Common wealthe in all the Countrey of Thuscan In this wise that modestie made him worthy of the Principalitie which almost against all right hée had vsurped and of a praise which shall no lesse continue than the memorie of man is able to extende the same from one generation to an other and which Couetous of the praise of a Prince so vertuous iust and modest shall not cease to illustrate and gloriously aduance him in open euidence to the end that hys like exercise the same in like things or of greater consequence for not sufferyng venemous and vnprofitable herbes to grow in their Common wealth Within the Garden wherof a little nuldew or vntimely raine is able to marre and corrupt all the good séedes plants sowen and grifted before Considering that wycked wéedes and daungerous impes take déeper roote than those that beare a good and sauorous frute for the conseruation whereof the diligent husbandman imployeth almost all the seasons of the yeare The Duchesse of Malfi ¶ The Infortunate mariage of a Gentleman called ANTONIO BOLOGNA with the Duchesse of MALFI and the pitifull death of them bothe The. xxiij Nouel THe greater Honor and authoritie men haue in this world the greater their estimation is the more sensible notorious are the faultes by them committed the greater is their 〈◊〉 In lyke manner more difficult it is for that man to tolerate and sustaine Fortune which all the dayes of his life hathe liued at his 〈◊〉 if 〈◊〉 chaunce hée fall into any great necessitie than for hym which ncuer felt but woe mishappe and aduersitie Dyonisius the Tyrant of Sicilia felte greater payne when hée was expelled his kingdome than Milo did being vanished from Rome For so muche as the one was a Soueraigne Lord the sonne of a King a Iusticiarie on earth and the other but a simple Citizen of a Citie wherein the people had Lawes and the lawes of Magistrates had in reuerence So likewyse the fall of a high and loftie Trée maketh a greater noyse than that whiche is lowe and little Highe Towers and stately Palaces of Princes be séene further off than the poore Cabans and hontely shephierds Shéepecotes The Walles of loftie Cities salute the viewers of the same farther of than the simple caues which the poore doe dig belowe the Mountaine rocks Wherefore it behoueth the Noble and such as haue charge of Common wealth to liue an honest lyfe and beare their port vpryght that none haue cause to take ill example vpon dyscourse of their déedes and naughtie life And aboue all that modestie ought to be kept by women whome as their race Noble birth authoritie and name maketh them more famous euē so their vertue honestie chastitie and continencie more praise worthy And behouefull it is that like as they wishe to be honoured aboue all other so their life do make them worthy of that honour without disgracing their name by déede or woorde or blemishing that brightnesse which may commende the same I greatly feare that all the Princely factes the exploits and conquests done by the Babylonian Quéene Semyramis neuer was recōmended with such praise as hir vice had shame in records by those which left remēbrāce of ancient acts Thus I say bicause a woman being as it were the Image of swéetenesse curtesie shame fastnesse so soone as she steppeth out of the right trade and leaueth the smel of hir duetie and modestie bisides the denigration of hir honor thrusteth hir self into infinite troubles and causeth the ruine of such which should be honored and praised if womens allurement solicited them not to follie I wil not here indeuor my self to séeke for examples of Samson Salomon or other which suffred thē selues fondly to be abused by women and who by meane of them be tumbled into great faults and haue incurred greater perils Contenting my self to recite a right pitifull Historie done almost in our time when the French vnder the leading of that notable 〈◊〉 Gaston de Foix vanquished the force of Spaine and Naples at the iourney of Rauenna in the time of the French king called Levves the twelfth who married the Lady Marie daughter to king Henry the seuenth and sister to the victorious Prince of worthy memory king Henry the eight wife after the death of the sayd Levves to the puissant Gentleman Charles late Duke of Suffolke In that very time then liued a Gentleman of Naples called Antonio Bologna who hauing bene Master of houshold to Federicke of Aragon sometime King of Naples after the French had expelled those of Aragon out of that Citie the sayde Bologna retired into Fraunce thereby recouered the goods which hée possessed in his countrey The Gentleman bisides that he was valiant of his persone a good man of warre wel estemed amongs the best had a passing numbre of good graces which made him to be beloued cherished of euery wight for riding managing of great horse he had not his fellow in Italy he could also play excéeding well and trim vpon the Lute whose faining voyce so well agréed therunto that the most melancholike persons wold forget their heauinesse vpon hearing of his heauenly noise and bisides these qualities hée was of personage comely and of good proportion To be short Nature hauing trauailed and dispoyled hir Treasure house for inriching of him he had by Arte gotten that which made him most happy worthy of praise which was the knowledge of good letters wherin hée was so well trained as by talke and dispute thereof he made those to blushe that were of that state and profession Antonio Bologna hauing left Federicke of Aragon in Fraunce who expulsed out of Naples was retired to king Levves went home to his house to liue at rest and to auoyd trouble forgetting the delicates of Courtes and houses of great men to be the only husband of his owne reuenue But what It is impossible to eschue that which the heauēs haue determined vpon vs and lesse the vnhappe whych séemeth to followe vs as it were naturally procéeding from our mothers wombe In such wise as many times he which séemeth the wisest man guided by misfortune hasteth himself wyth stouping head to fall headlong into his deathe ruine Euen so it chaūced to this Neapolitane Gentleman for in the very same place where he attained his aduācement he receiued also his diminution and decay and by that house which preferred hym to what he had he was depriued both of his estate and life the discourse whereof you shall vnderstand I haue tolde you already that this Gentleman was Maister of the King of Naples houshold being a gentle person a good Courtier wel trained vp and wise for gouernment of himself in the Court and in the seruice of Princes the Duchesse of Malfi thought to intreat him that hée would serue hir in that office which he serued the king This Duchesse
sent for him vp into hir chamber as commonly she did for the affaires and matters of hir house and taking him a side vnto a 〈◊〉 hauing prospect into a garden she knew not how to begin hir talk for the heart being seased the minde troubled and the wittes out of course the tongue failed to doe his office in such wise as of long time she was vnable to 〈◊〉 one onely woord Hée surprised with like affection was more astōned by séeing the alteration of his Ladie So the two Louers stoode still like Images beholding one another without any meuing at all vntil the Ladie the hardiest of them bothe as féeling the most vehement and greatest grief tooke Bologna by the hād and dissembling what she thought vsed this or such like language If any other bisides your self Gentleman should vnderstand the secretes which now I purpose to disclose I doubt what spéeche were necessary to colour my woords But being assured of your discretion and wisdom and with what perfection nature hath indued you and Arte hauing accōplished that in you which nature did begin to work as one bred and brought vp in the royall Court of the second Alphonse of Ferdinando and Federick of Aragon my cousins I wil make no doubt at all to manifest to you the hidden secretes of my heart being well persuaded that when you shall both heare and 〈◊〉 my reasons and tast that light which I bring for the for me easily you may 〈◊〉 that mine 〈◊〉 cannot be other than iust and reasonable But if your conceits shall straye from that which I shal speak déeme not good of that which I determine I shall be forced to thinke say that they which estéeme you wise sage and to be a man of good and ready 〈◊〉 be maruelously deceiued Notwithstāding my heart foretelleth that it is impossible for maister Bologna to wandre so farre from equitie but that by and by he wil enter the lystes discerne the white from black and the wrong from that which is iust and right For so much as hitherto I neuer saw thing done by you which preposterated or peruerted the good iudgement that all the world estéemeth to shine in you the same well manifested declared by your tongue the right iudge of the mind you know and sée how I am a widow through the death of that noble Gentleman of good remembrance the Duke my Lord husband you be not ignoraunt also that I haue liued and gouerned my self in such wise in my widow state as there is no man so hard and seuere of iudgement that can blason reproche of me in that which appertaineth to the honesty reputation of such a Ladie as I am bearing my port so right as my conscience yeldeth no remorse supposing that no man hath where with to bite accuse me Louching the order of the goods of the Duke my sōne I haue vsed them with such diligence and discretion as bisides the dettes which I haue discharged sithens the death of my Lord I haue purchased a goodly Manor in Calabria and haue annexed the same to the Dukedom of his heire and at this day doe not owe one pennie to any creditor that lent mony to the Duke which he toke vp to furnish the charges in the warres which he sustained in the seruice of the Kings our soueraine Lords in the late warres for the kingdome of Naples I haue as I suppose by this meanes stopped the slaunderous mouth and giuen cause vnto my sonne during his life to accōpt himself bound vnto his mother Now hauing till this time liued for other and made my self subiect more than Nature could beare I am entended to chaunge both my life and condition I haue till thys time run trauailed remoued to the Castels Lordships of the Dukedome to Naples and other places being in mind to tary as I am a widow But what new affaires and new councel hath possest my mind I haue trauailed and pained my self inough I haue too long abidden a widowes life I am determined therefore to prouide a husband who by louing me shal honor cherish me according to the loue which I shal bear to him my desert For to loue a man without mariage God defend my heart should euer think shall rather die a hundred thousand deathes thā a desire so wicked shald soile my conscience knowing well that a woman which setteth hir honor to sale is lesse than nothing deserueth not that the cōmon aire shold breathe vpō hir for all the reuerence that men do beare or make them I accuse no person albeit that many noble women haue their forheds marked with the blame of dishonest life being honored of some be neuerthelesse the cōmon fable of the people To the intent then that such mishap happē not to me perceiuing my self vnable stil thus to liue being yong as I am God be thāked neither deformed nor yet painted I had rather be the louing wife of a simple féere than that Concubine of a king or great Prince And what is the mightie Monarche able to wash away the fault of his wife which hath abādoned him cōtrary to that duty honest which the vndefiled bed requireth no les thē Princesses that whilom trespassed with those which wer of baser stuffe than thēselues Messalina w e hir imperial robe could not so wel couer hir faults but that the Historiās do defame hir with that name title of a cōmon woman Faustina the wife of that sage Monarch Marcus Aurelius gained lyke report by rendring hir self to others pleasure bisides hir lawful spouse To mary my self to one that is mine equall it is impossible for so much as there is no Lord in all this Countrey méete for my degrée but is to olde of age that rest being dead in these later warres To mary a husband that yet is but a child is follie extréeme for the inconueniences which daily chaūce therby the euil intreatie that Ladies do receiue whē they come to age their nature waxe cold by reson wherof imbracements be not so fauorable their husbāds glutted with ordinary meat vse to rū in exchāge Wherefore I am resolued without respite or delay to choose some wel qualitied and renoumed Gentleman that hath more vertue than richesse of good Fame and brute to the intēt I may make him my Lord espouse and husband For I cannot imploy my loue vpon treasure which may be taken away where richesse of the minde do faile and shall be better content to sée an honest Gentleman with little reuenue to be praised and cōmended of euery man for his good déedes than a rich carle curssed and detested of all the world Thus much I say and it is the summe of all my secretes wherin I pray your Councell and aduise I know that some wil be offended wyth my choise the Lords my brothers specially the Cardinall will think it straunge and receiue
not néede to fear any hurt But if you do tary you wil be the cause of the ruine and ouerthrow of vs all receiue therby no profit or aduaūtage take this purse therfore saue your self attending better Fortune in time to come The poore gentleman Bologna knowing that his wife had pronounced reason perceiuing that it was impossible from that time forth that she or hir traine could escape their hāds taking leaue of hir kissing his childrē not forgetting the money which she offred vnto him willed his seruants to saue thēselues by such meanes as they thought best So giuing spurrs vnto his horse he began to flée amaine and his eldest sonne séeing his father gone began to followe in like sorte And so for that time they two were saued by breaking of the intended yll luck like to light vpon them And in a place to rescue himself at Venice hée turned another way in great iourneys arriued at Millan In the meane time the horsemē were approched 〈◊〉 the Duchesse who séeing that Bologna had saued himself very courteously began to speake vnto the Ladie were it that the Aragou brethren had giuen them that charge or feared that the Ladie wold trouble them with hir importunate cries lamentatiōs One therfore amongs them sayd vnto hir Madame we be commaunded by the Lordes your brethren to conducte you home vnto your house that you may receiue again the 〈◊〉 of the Duchie and the order of the Duke your sonne doe maruell very much at your folly for giuing your self thus to wander the Countrey after a man of so small reputation as Bologna is who whē he hath glutted his lusting lecherous mind with the comelinesse of your Noble personage wil despoil you of your goods honor and then take his legs into some strange countrey The simple Ladie albeit grieuous it was vnto hir to heare such spéech of hir husbād yet held hir peace and dissembled what she thought glad and well contēted with the curtesy done vnto hir fearing before that they came to kill hir and thought hir self already discharged hoping vpon their courteous dealings that she and hir Children from that time forth should liue in good assuraunce But she was greatly deceyued and knew within shorte space after the good will hir brethren bare vnto hir For so soone as these gallants had conducted hir into the kingdome of Naples to one of the Castels of hir sonne she was committed to prison with hir children and she also that was the secretarie of hir infortunate mariage Till this time Fortune was contented to procéede with indifferent quiet 〈◊〉 those Louers but benceforth ye shall heare the issue of their little prosperous loue and how pleasure hauing blinded them neuer forsoke them vntill it 〈◊〉 giuen them the 〈◊〉 It booteth not héere to recite fables or histories contiting my self that ladies do read without too many weping teares the pitiful end of that miserable princesse who séeing hir self a prisoner in the companie of hir litle children and welbeloued Maiden paciently liued in hope to see hir brethren appaised comforting hir self for the escape of hir husband out of that hands of his mortal foes But hir assurance was changed into an horrible feare hir hope to no expectation of suretie when certain dayes after hir 〈◊〉 hir Gaoler came in and sayd vnto hir Madame I do aduise you henceforth to consider vpon your conscience for so much as I suppose that euen this very day your life shall be taken from you I leaue for you to thinke what horrour and traunce assailed the feeble heart of this pore Lady and with what eares she receiued those cruell newes but hir cries and mones together with hir sighes and lamentations declared with what chéere she receiued that aduertisement Alas sayd she is it possible that my brethren should so farre forget themselues as for a fact nothing preiudiciall vnto them cruelly to put to death their innocent sister and to imbrue the memory of their fact in the bloud of one which neuer did offend them Must I against all right and equitie be put to death before the Judge or Magistrate haue made trial of my life known the vnright eousnesse of my cause Ah God most righteous and bountiful father beholde the malice of my brethren and the tyrannous crucltie of those which wrongfully doe séeke my bloud Is it a sinne to mary Is it a fault to flie and auoide the sinne of whoredome What lawes be these where mariage bed and ioyned matrimony is pursued with like seueritie as murder theft and aduoutrie And what Christianitie in a Cardinall to shed that bloud which he ought to 〈◊〉 What profession is this to assaile the innocent by the hie way side in place to punish théeues and murderers O Lord God thou art iust dost al things right cously I sée well that I haue trespassed against thy Maiestie in some other notorious crime than by mariage I most humbly therfore beséeche thée to haue compassion vpon me and to pardon mine 〈◊〉 accepting the confession and repentance of me thine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for satisfaction of my sinnes which it pleased thée to wash away in the precious bloud of thy sōne our Sauior that being so purified I might appere at the holy banket in thy glorious kingdome When she had thus 〈◊〉 hir prayer two or thrée of the ministers which had taken hir 〈◊〉 Forly came in and sayd vnto hir Now Madame make ready your self to goe to God for beholde your houre is come Praised be that God sayd she for the wealth and woe which it pleaseth him to send vs. But I beséeche you my friendes to haue pitie vpon these lyttle children and innocēt creatures Let thē not feele the smarte which I am assured my brethrē beare against their poore vnhappie father Well well Madame sayd they we will conuey them to such a place as they shal not want I also recōmend vnto you quod she this poore maiden and entreat hir wel in consideration of hir good seruice done to the infortunate Duchesse of 〈◊〉 As she had ended those woords that two Ruffians did 〈◊〉 a corde about hir neck and strangled hir The mayden 〈◊〉 the piteous tragedie commensed vpon hir 〈◊〉 cried out a main and cursed the cruell malice of those tormenters and besought God to be witnesse of that 〈◊〉 and crying 〈◊〉 vpon his diuine Maiestie she besought him to 〈◊〉 his iudgement against them which causelesse being no 〈◊〉 hadde killed such innocent creatures Reason it is said one of the tyrants that thou be partaker of the ioy of thy mistresse innocencie sith 〈◊〉 hast bene so faithfull a minister and messanger of hir follies And sodainly caught hir by the hair of the head in stead of a carcanet placed a roape about hir necke How now quod she is this the promised faith which you made vnto my Ladie But those woords flew into the air with hir soule in companie of the
be ne more faithful more affectionate or otherwise moued than the rest yet I am contēt for respect of your honor somewhat to beleue you and to accept you for mine owne sith your discretion is such I trust as so Noble a Gentleman as you be will himself declare in those affairs and whē I sée the effect of my hope I can not be so vnkinde but with all honesty shall assay to satisfie that your loue The Counte seing hir alone and receiuing the Ladies language for his aduauntage and that hir countenance by alteration of hir minde did adde a certaine beautie to hir face and perceiuing a desire in hir that hée shold not vse delay or be too squeimish she demaūding naught else but execution tooke the present offred time forgetting all ceremonies and reuerence he embraced hir and kissed hir a hundred thousand times And albeit she made a certain simple and prouoking resistance yet the louer séeing thē to be but preparatiues for the sport of loue he strayed from the bounds of honestie and threw hir vpon a fielde bed within the Chambre where he solaced himselfe with his long desired sute And finding hir worthy to be beloued and she him a curteous gentleman consulted together for continuance of their amitie in such wise as the Lord Ardizzino spake no more but by the mouth of Bianca Maria and did nothing but what she commaunded being so bewrapped with the heauie mantell of beastly Loue as hée still above night and day in the house of his beloued whereby the brute was noised throughout the Citie and the songs of their Loue more common in eche Citizens mouthe than the Stanze or Sonnets of Petrarch played and sained vpon the Gittorne Lute or Harpe of these of Noble house more fine wittie than those vnsauery 〈◊〉 that be tuned and chaunted in the mouthes of the foolish common sort Behold an Earle well serued and dressed by enioying so false a woman which had already falsified the faith betrouthed to hir husbād who was more honest milde and vertuous than she deserued Beholde ye Noble Gentlemen the simplicitie of this good Earle how it was deceiued by a false and filthy strumpet whose stincking life and common vse of body woulde haue withdrawen each simple creature from mixture of their owne with such a Carrion A lesson to learne all youth to refraine the whoorishe lookes and light conditioned Dames a number the more to be pitied shewing forthe them selues to the portsale of euery cheapener that list demaunde the price the grosenesse whereof before considered were worthy to be defied and loathed This Ladie séeing hir Louer noussed in hir lust dandled him with a thousande trumperies and made hym holde the Mule while other enioyed the secrete sporte which earst hée vsed himself This acquaintance was so daungerous to the Counte as she hir self was shamelesse to the Counte of Celant For the one bare the armes of Cornwall and became a second Acteon and the other wickedly led his life lost the chiefest of that he loked for in the seruice of great princes by the treason of an arrant common 〈◊〉 Whiles this Loue continued in all pleasure and like contentation of either parts Fortune that was ready to mounte the stage and shew in sight that hir mobilitie was no more stable than a womans will For vnder such habite and sere Painters and Poets describe hir made Ardizzino suspecte what desire she had of chaunge and within a while after sawe himself so farre misliked of his Ladie as though he had neuer bene acquainted The cause of that recoile was for that the Countesse was not contented with one kinde of fare and whose eyes were more gredie than hir stomake able to digest and aboue all desired chaunge not séeking meanes to finde him that was worthy to be beloued and intertained of so great a Ladie as she estéemed hir selfe to be and as such women of their owne opinion thinke themselues who counterfaicte more grauitie and reputation than they doe whome nature and vertue for their maiestie and holinesse of life make Noble and praise worthie That desire deceiued hir nothing at all for a certaine time after that Ardizzino possessed the forte of this faire Countesse there came to Pauia one Roberto Sanseuerino Earle of Gaiazzo a yong faire and valiant Gentleman whose Countrey lieth on this side the Mountaines and very familiar with the Earle of Massino This vnfaithful Alcina and cruell Medea had no sonet cast hir eye vpon Signor di Gaiazzo but was pierced with his loue in such wise as if forthwith shée had not attained hir desires she would haue run mad bicause that Gentleman bare a certaine stately representation in his face promised such dexteritie in his déedes as sodainly she thought him to be that man that was able to staunch hir filthy thirst And therfore so gentlely as she could gaue ouer hir Ardizzino with whome she vtterly refused to speake and shunned his cōpanie when she saw him and by shutting the gates against him the Noble man was not able to forbeare from throwing forth some words of choler wherby she tooke occasion both to expell him and also to beare him such displeasure as then she cōspired his death as afterwards you shall perceiue This great hatred was the cause that she being fallen in Loue as you haue heard with the Counte of Gaiazzo shewed vnto him all signe of amitie and séeing that hée made no great sute vnto hir she wrote vnto him in this manner The Letter of Bianca Maria to the Counte of Gaiazzo SIr I doubt not by knowing the state of my degrée but that ye be abashed to sée the violēce of my mind when passing the limites of modestie which ought to guard such a Ladie as I am I am forced uncertain of the cause to doe you vnderstand the griefe that doeth torment me which is of such constraint as if of curtesie ye doe not vouchsafe to visite me you shall commit two faultes the one leauing the thing worthy for you to loue and regard and which deserueth not to be cast off the other in causing the death of hir that for Loue of you is bereft of rest And so loue hath very little in me to sease vpon either of heart or libertie but that ease of grief procéedeth from your only grace which is able to vanquishe hir whose victorious hap hath conquered all other and who attēding your resolut answer shall rest vnder the mercifull refuge of hope which deceiuing hir shall sée by that very meanes the wretched end of hir that is all your owne Bianca Maria Countesse of Celant The yong Lorde much maruelled at this message were it for that already hée was in loue with hir and that for loue of his friend Ardizzino wold not be known thereof or for that he feared she would be straught of wits if she were despised he determined to goe vnto hir yet stayed thought it not to be the
shame or feare can make them blush which was the cause that this Ladie continuing still in hir mischiefe so much pradised the friends of him whom she desired to kil and made such fit excuse by hir ambassades as he was cōtent to speak to hir and to heare hir iustifications which were easy inough to doe the iudge being not very faultie She promised and swore that if the fault were proued not to be in him neuer man should sée Bianca Maria so lōg as she liued to be other than a friend and slaue to the Lord Ardizzino wholly submitting hir self vnto his will and pleasure See how peace was capitulated betwene the two reconciled louers and what were the articles of the same the Lord of 〈◊〉 entring possession againe of the Fort that was reuolted and was long time in the power of another But when hée was seased againe the Ladie saw full wel that hir recouered friend was not so hard to please as the other was and that with him she liued at greater libertie Continuing then their amorous daunce and Ardizzino hauing no more care but to reioyse himselfe nor his Ladie but to cherish and make much of hir friend behold eftsones the desire of bloud and wil of murder newly reuiued in that new Megera who incited I know not with what rage 〈◊〉 to haue him flain which refused to kill him whome at this present she loued as hir self And he that had inquired the cause therof I think none other reason could be rendred but that a brainelesse head and reasonlesse mind thought most notable murders mischief were easy to be brought to passe and so strangely to procede in disordred lusts which in fine caused miserable shame ruine with the death of hir self him whom she had stirred to that fact boldening him by persuasion to make him beleue vice to be vertue gloriously cōmēded him in his follies which you shal hear by reading at lēgth that discourse of this history Bianca Maria séeing hir self in ful possession of hir Ardizzino purposed to make him the chief executioner of the murder by hir intended vpon Gaiazzo for that doing wherof one night holding him betwene hir armes after she had long time dalied with him like a cunning mistresse of hir Art in the end weauing training hir treasō at large she said thus vnto him Syr of lōg time I haue bene desirous to require a good turne at your hands but fearing to trouble you therupon to be denied I thought not to be importunat albeit that mater toucheth you yet did I rather hold my peace thē to here refusall of a thing which your self ought to profer the same cōcerning you Madame said hir louer you know that matter néede to be hainous of great importance that I shold denie you specially if it cōcerne the blemish of your honor But you say the same doth touch me somewhat néerely therefore if abilitie be in me spare not to vtter it I will assay your satisfaction to the vttermost of my power Syr said she is the Counte of Gaiazzo one of your very frends I think answered Valperga that he is one of that surest friends I haue and in respect of whose friendship I will hazarde my self for him no lesse than for my brother being certaine that if I haue néede of him he will not faile to do that like for me But wherfore do you aske me that questiō I wil tel you said that traitresse kissing him so swetely as euer he felt that like of any woman for somuch as you be so deceiued of your opinion and frustrate of your thought as he is wicked in dissēbling that which maliciously lieth hiddē in his heart And briefly to say that effect Assure your self he is the greatest most mortall enimy that you haue in that world And that you do not thinke this to be some forged tale or light inuention or that I hard the report therof of some not worthy of credit I wil say nothing else but that which himself did tell me whē in your absence he vsed my cōpany He sware vnto me without declaratiō of that cause that he could neuer be mery or his mind in rest before he saw you cut in pieces shortly would giue you such assault as all that dayes of your life you shold neuer haue lust or mind on ladies loue And albeit thē I was in choler against you and that you had ministred some cause reason of hatred yet our first loue had takē such force in my heart as I besought him not to do that enterprise so lōg as I was in place wher you did remain bicause I cānot abide wtout death to sée your finger ake much lesse your life beriued frō you 〈◊〉 which tale his eare was deaf swering stil protesting that either he wold be slain himself or else dispatch that Counte Ardizzino I 〈◊〉 not quod she ne wel could as thē aduertise you therof for the smal accesse that my scruāts had vnto your lodging but now I pray you to take good héede to your self to preuēt his diuelish purpose for better it were for you to take his life than he to kil and murder you or otherwise work you mischief you shal be estemed the wiser man he pronoūced a traitor to seke that death of him that bare him such good will Do thē according to mine abuise before he begin do you kil him whereby you shall saue your self and doe the part of a valiant Knight bisides that satisfying of the minde of hir that aboue al pleasures of the world doth chiefly desire the same Experience now will let me proue whether you loue me or not and what you will doe for hir that loueth you so dearly who openeth this 〈◊〉 murder aswell for your safetie as for lengthening of the life of hir which without yours cannot endure 〈◊〉 this my sute O friend most deare and suffer me not in sorowful plight to be despoiled of thy presence And wilt thou suffer that I shold die and that yōder 〈◊〉 traiterous and vnfaithfull varlet should liue to laugh me to 〈◊〉 If the Ladie had not added those last woords to hir foolish sermon perchance she might haue prouoked Ardizzino to folow hir Counsell but 〈◊〉 hir so obstinately bent in hir request and to prosecute the same with such violence concluding vpon hir own quarel his conscience throbbed and his mind measured the malice of that woman with the honestie of him against whome that tale was tolde who knew his friend to be so sound and trustie as willingly he wold not do the thing that should offend him therefore wold giue no credit to false report without good apparāt proofe For which cause he was persuaded that it was a malicious tale made to please his Ladie deuised by some that went about to sowe debate betwéene those two friendly Earles Notwithstanding vpō further pause not to
make hir chafe or force hir into rage he promised the execution of hir cursed will thanking hir for hir aduertisement and that he would prouide for his defense surety And to the intent that she might thinke he went about to performe his promise he tooke his leaue of hir to goe to Milan which he did not to folow the abhominable will of that rauenous mastife but to 〈◊〉 the matter to his companion and direct the same as it deserued Being arriued at Milan the 〈◊〉 Citie of Lombardie he imparted to Gaiazzo from point to point the discourse of the Countesse and the 〈◊〉 she made vnto him whē she had done hir tale O God sayd the Lord Sanseuerino who can beware the traps of such whoores if by thy grace our hands be not forbidden and our hearts and thoughts guided by thy goodnesse Is it possible that the earth can bréede a mōster more pernicious than this most Pestilent beast This is truely the grift of hir fathers vsurie and the stench of all hir predecessors villanies It is impossible of a Bite to make a good Sparhauk or Tercel gentle This 〈◊〉 no doubt is the daughter of a vilain sprōg of the basest race amongs the common people whose mother was more fine than chaste more subtile than sober This mynion hath forsaken hir husband to erect bloudy skaffoldes of murder amid the Nobles of Italy And were it not for the dishonor which I should get to soile my 〈◊〉 in the bloud of a beast so corrupt I wold feare hir with my téethe in a hundreth thousand pieces How many times hath she entreated me before in how many sundrie sorts with ioyned hāds hath she besought me to kill the Lord Ardizzino Ah my companion and right well beloued friend shold you think me to be so traiterous and cowarde a knaue as that I dare not tel to thē to whom I beare displeasure what lieth in my heart By the faith of a Gentleman sayd Ardizzino I would be sory my minde should 〈◊〉 on such a follie but I am come to you that the song might sound no more wtin mine eares It behoueth vs then sith God hath kept vs hitherto to auoid the air of that infection that our braines be not putrified and from henceforth to flie those bloudsuckers the schollers of Venus for the goodnesse profit and honor that youth 〈◊〉 of them And truely great honor wold 〈◊〉 to vs to kill one an other for the only pastime and sottish fansie of that mynion I haue repented me an hundred times when she first moued me of the deuise to kill you that I did not giue hir a hundred Poignaladoes with my dagger to stop the way by that example for al other to attempt such but cheries For I am wel assured that the malice which she beareth you procedeth but of the delay you made for satisfaction of hir murderous desire wherof I thank you and yeld my self in al causes to imploy my life and that I haue to do you pleasure Leaue we of that talke sayd Gaiazzo for I haue done but my duety and that which eache Noble heart ought to euery wight doing wrong to none but proue to helpe and doe good to all Which is the true marke and badge of Nobilitie Touching that malignant strumpet hir own life shal reuenge the wrongs which she hath gone about to 〈◊〉 on vs. In meane while let vs reioyce and thinke the goods and richesse she hath gotten of vs will not cause hir bagges much to strout and swell To be shorte she hath nothing whereby she may greatly laughe vs to scorne except our good entertainment of hir both night and day 〈◊〉 peouoke hir Let other coine the pens henceforth to fill the coafers for of vs so farre as I see she is deceyued Thus the two Lordes passed for the their time and in all companies where they came the greatest part of their talke and communication was of the disordered life of the Countesse of Celant the whole 〈◊〉 rang of the sleights and meanes she vsed to trappe the Noble men and of hir pollicies to be rid of them whē hir thirst was stanched or diet grew lothsome for wāt of chaunge And that which griued hir most an Italian 〈◊〉 blased forth hir prowesse to hir great dishonor whereof the copy I cannot get and some say that Ardizzino was the author For it was composed whē he was dispossessed of pacience And if she coulde haue wreaked hir will on the Knights I beleue in hir rage she would haue made an 〈◊〉 of their bones Of which hir two enimies Ardizzino was the worsie against whom hir displeasure was the greater for that he was the first with whome she entred skirmish Nothing was more frequent in Pauie than villanous 〈◊〉 and playes vpon the filthy behauior of the Countesse which made hir ashamed to 〈◊〉 out of hir gates In the end she purposed to chaunge the aire and place hoping by that alteration to stay the infamous brute slaunder So she came to Milan wher first she was 〈◊〉 with state of honor in honest fame of chast life so long as 〈◊〉 Hermes liued and then was not pursued to staunche the thirst of those that did ordinarily draw at hir fountaine About the time that she departed frō Pauie Dom Pietro de Cardone a Scicilian the bastard brother of that Coūte of Colisano whose lieutenant he was their father slaine at that battail of Bicocca with a band of 〈◊〉 arriued at Milan This Scicilian was about the age of one or two twenty yeres somwhat black of face but well made and sterne of countenāce Whiles the Coūtesse soiorned at Milan this gentleman fell in loue with hir and searched al means he could to make hir his friend to enioy hir Who perceiuing him to be yong a nouice in skirmishes of loue like a Pigeon of the first coate determined to lure him and to serue hir turne in that which she purposed to doe on those against whome she was outragiously 〈◊〉 Now that better to entice this yong Lord vnto hir fātasy and to catch him with hir bait if he passed through the streat and saluted hir sighed after the maner of the 〈◊〉 roming before his Ladie she she wed him an indifferent mery countenance and sodainly restrained that cheere to make him 〈◊〉 the pleasure mingled 〈◊〉 the soure of one desire which he could not tel how to accomplish And the more faint was his hardinesse for that hee was neuer practised in daltance and seruice of Ladie of so great house or calling who thinking that Gētlewoman to be one of the principall of Milan was strangely vered tormented for hir loue in such wise as in that night he could not rest for fantasing and thinking vpon hir and in that day pased vp downe before the doore of hir lodging One euening for his disport he went forth to walk in 〈◊〉 of another gentleman which wel could play
to asswage mine offended minde In the meane time I shall lament the rest of my heauie life with such store of teares as my body dried vp from all humiditie shall shortly search reliefe in earth And hauing made an ende of those hir woords hir heart was so grieuously strained as she could neither wéepe nor speake and stoode so 〈◊〉 as if she had bene in a traunce Then being somewhat come againe vnto hir self with 〈◊〉 voyce she sayde Ah 〈◊〉 tong of other mennes 〈◊〉 howe 〈◊〉 thou so 〈◊〉 to speake of him whome his very enimies doe commend and praise How presumest thou to impute the blame vpon Rhomeo whose vngiltinesse and innocent déede euery man alloweth Where from henceforth shal be his refuge sith she whiche ought to be the only bulwarke and assured rāpire of his distresse doth pursue defame him Receiue receiue then Rhomeo the satisfactiō of mine ingratitude by that sacrifice which I shall make of my proper life and so the fault which I haue committed against thy loyaltie shal be made open to the world thou being reuenged my self punished And thinking to vse some furder talke all the powers of hir body failed hir with signes of present death But the good olde woman which could not imagine that cause of Iulietta hir long absence doubted very much that she suffred some passion and sought hir vp and downe in euery place within hir fathers palace vntill at length she found hir lying a long vpon hir bed al the outward parts of hir body so colde as Marble But the good olde woman which thought hir to be dead began to cry like one out of hir wittes saying Ah deare daughter and 〈◊〉 how much doeth thy deathe now grieue me at the very heart And as she was séeling all the partes of hir body she perceiued some sparke of life to be yet within the same which caused hir to call hir many times by hir name till at length she brought hir out of hir sounde Then she sayd vnto hir Why Iulietta myne own deare dareling what meane you by this turmoiling of your self I can not tel from whēce this your behauior that immoderate heauinesse doe procede but wel I wote that within this houre I thought to haue accompanied you to the graue Alas good mother aunswered wofull Iulietta doe you not most euidently perceiue and sée what iuste cause I haue to sorrow and complaine losing at one instant two persons of the worlde which were vnto me moste deare Me thinke answered the good woman that it is not semely for a Gentlewoman of your degrée to fall into such extremitie For in time of tribulation 〈◊〉 shoulde most preuaile And if the Lord Thibault be dead do you thinke to get hym againe by teares What is he that doth not accuse his ouermuch presumption would you that Rhomeo had done that wrong to him his house to suffer himselfe outraged assailed by one to whome in manhode and prowesse he is not inferiour Suffiseth you that Rhomeo is aliue and his affaires in such estate who in time may be called home again from banishment for he is a great lorde and as you know wel allied and fauored of all men wherfore arme your self from henceforth with pacience For albeit that Fortune doth 〈◊〉 him from you for a time yet sure I am that hereafter shée will restore him vnto you againe with greater ioy and contentation than before And to the end that we be better assured in what state he is if you will promise me to giue ouer your heauinesse I will to day knowe of Frier Laurence whether he is gone To whiche request Iulietta agréed and then the good woman repaired to S. Frauncis where she foūd Frier Laurence who told hir that the same night Rhomeo would not faile at his accustomed houre to visite Iulietta and there to do hir to vnderstand what he purposed to doe in time to come This iorney then fared like the voyages of mariners who after they haue ben tost by great troublous tempest séeing some Sunne 〈◊〉 pierce the heauens to lighten the land assure them selues agayne and thynkyng to haue auoyded shipwracke and sodainly the seas begin to swell the waues do roare with such vehemence and noyse as if they were fallen againe into greater daunger than before The assigned houre come Rhomeo fayled not according to his promise to bée in his Garden where he found his furniture prest to mount the chamber of Iulietta who with displayed armes began so straightly to imbrace hym as it séemed that the soule woulde haue abandoned hir body And they two more than a large quarter of an houre were in such agonie as they were not able to pronounce one worde and wettyng eache others face faste closed together the teares trickeled downe in suche abundaunce as they séemed to bée thoroughlye bathed therein Whiche Rhomeo perceyuing and thynkyng to staye those immoderate teares sayde vnto hir Myne owne dearest friende Iulietta I am not nowe determined to recite the particulars of the straunge happes of frayle and inconstaunte Fortune who in a 〈◊〉 hoystethe a man vp to the hyghest degrée of hir whéele and by and by in lesse space than in the twynckelyng of an eye shée throweth hym downe agayne so lowe as more miserie is prepared for him in one day than fauour in one hundred yeares whyche I nowe proue and hauc experience in my selfe whiche haue bene nourished delicately amonges my friendes and mainteyned in suche prosperous state as you doe little knowe hopyng for the full perfection of my felicitie by meanes of oure maryage to haue reconciled oure parentes and friends and to conducte the residue of my lyfe accordyng to the scope and lotte determined by Almyghty GOD and neuerthelesse all myne enterprises bée put backe and my purposes tourned cleane contrarye in suche wyse as from henceforthe I muste wander lyke a vagabonde thorough dyuerse 〈◊〉 and sequestrate my selfe from my friendes withoute assured place of myne abode whiche I desyre to lette you wete to the intente you maye be exhorted in tyme to come pacientely to beare so well myne absence as that which it shall please God to appointe But Iulietta all affrighted with teares and mortall agonies woulds not suffer hym to passe any further but interruptyng hys purpose sayde vnto hym Rhomeo howe canst thou bée so harde hearted and voyde of all pitie to leaue mée héere alone besieged with so many deadly myseries There is neyther houre nor Minute wherein Death dothe not appeare a thousande tymes before mée and yet my missehappe is suche as I can not dye and therefore doe manyfestelye perceyue that the same Deathe preserueth my lyfe of purpose to delyghte in my griefes and triumphe ouer my euyls And thou lyke the mynister and tyrant of hir crueltie doest make no conscience for oughte that I can sée hauynge atchieued the summe of thy desyres and pleasures on me to abandon and forsake me Whereby I well perceyue
an hundred thousand deathes did stande about hir haling hir on euery side and plucking hir in pieces féelyng that hir forces diminyshed by litle and litle fearing that through to great debilitie she was not able to do hir enterprise like a furious and insensate womā without further care gulped vp the water within the viol then crossing hir armes vpon hir stomacke she lost at that instant al the powers of hir body and remained in a traunce And when the mornyng light began to thrust his head out of his Orient hir chamber woman which had lockte hir in with the key did open the doore and thinking to awake hir called hir many times and sayde vnto hir Mistresse you sléepe to long the Counte Paris will come to raise you The poore olde woman spake vnto the wall and 〈◊〉 a song vnto the deafe For if all the horrible and tempestuous soundes of the worlde had bene canoned forth oute of the greatest bombardes and sounded through hir delicate eares hir spirits of lyfe were so fast bounde and stopt as she by no meanes coulde awake wherewith the poore olde woman amazed beganne 〈◊〉 shake hir by the armes and handes which she founde so colde as marble stone Then puttyng hande vnto hir mouthe sodainely perceyued that she was deade for she perceyued no breath in hir Wherfore lyke a woman out of hir wyttes shée ranne to tell hir mother who so madde as Tigre bereft of hir faons hyed hir selfe into hir daughters chaumber and in that pitifull state beholdyng hir daughter thinking hir to be deade cried out Ah cruell death which hast ended all my ioye and blisse vse thy laste scourge of thy wrathfull ire against me least by suffering me to lyue the rest of my woful dayes my tormente do increase then she began to fetchsuch straining sighes as hir heart dyd séeme to cleaue in pieces And as hir cries beganne to encrease beholde the father the Counte Paris and a greate troupe of Gentlemen and Ladies which were come to honour the feast hearing no soner tell of that which chaunced were stroke into such sorowfull dumpes as he whiche had behelde their faces wold easily haue iudged that the same had bē a day of ire pitie specially the lord Antonio whose heart was frapped with such surpassing wo as neither teare nor word could issue forth knowing not what to doe streight way sēt to seke that most expert phisitians of the towne who after they had inquired of the life past of Iulietta déemed by common reporte that melancolie was the cause of that sodaine death then their sorowes began to renue a 〈◊〉 And if euer day was lamentable piteous vnhappie and fatall truely it was that wherin Iulietta hir death was published in Verona for shée was so bewailed of great small that by the cōmon plaintes the common wealth séemed to be in daunger not without cause For besides hir natural beautie accompanied with many vertues wherewith nature had enriched hir she was else so humble wise and debonaire as for that humilitie and curtesie she had stollen away the heartes of euery wight and there was none but did lamente hir misfortune And whilest these things were in this lamented state Frier Laurence with diligence dispatched a Frier of his Couent named Frier Anselme whome he trusted as himselfe and deliuered him a letter written with his owne hande commaunding him expressely not to gyue the same to any other but to Rhomeo wherein was conteyned the chaunce which had passed betwene him and Iulietta specially that vertue of the pouder and commaunded him the nexte ensuing night to spéede him self to Verona for that the operation of the pouder that time would take ende that he should cary with him back again to Mantua his 〈◊〉 Iulietta in dissembled apparell vntill Fortune bad otherwise prouided for them The frier made such hast as too late he ariued at Mantua within a while after And bicause the maner of Italie is that the Frier trauailing abroade oughte to take a companion of his couent to doe his affaires within the Citie the Frier went into his couent but bicause he was entred in it was not lawfull for him to come out againe that day for that certain dayes before one religious of that couent as it was sayd did die of the plague Wherefore the magistrates appointed for the healthe and visitation of the sicke commaunded the warden of the house that no Friers shold wander abrode the Citie or talke with any citizen vntill they were licenced by the officers in that behalfe appointed which was the cause of the great mishap which you shal heare hereafter The Frier being in this perplexitie not able to goe forth and not knowing what was cōtained in the letter deferred his iorney for that day Whilest things were in this plight preparation was made at Veronna to doe the obsequies of Iulietta There is a custome also which is common in Italie to place all the beste of one lignage and familie in one Tombe wherby Iulietta was layde in the ordinarie graue of the 〈◊〉 in a Churcheyarde harde by the Churche of the Friers where also the Lorde Thibault was interred And hir obsequies honourably done euery man returned whereunto Pietro the seruant of Rhomeo gaue hys assistance For as we haue before declared his master sente him backe againe from Mantua to Verona to do his father seruice and to aduertise hym of that whiche shoulde chaunce in his absence there who séeing the body of Iulietta inclosed in tombe thinkyng with the rest that she had bene dead in déede incontinently toke poste horse and with diligence rode to Mantua where he founde his maister in his wonted house to whome he sayde with his eyes full of teares Syr there is chaunced vnto you so straunge a matter as if so bée you do not arme your selfe with constancie I am afrayde that I shal be the cruell minister of your death Bée it knowne vnto you syr that yesterday morning my mistresse Iulietta left hir lyfe in this world to seke rest in an other and wyth these eyes I saw hir buried in the Churchyarde of S. Frauncis At the sounde of which heauie message Rhomeo began wofully to 〈◊〉 as though his spirites grieued with the 〈◊〉 of his passion at that instant woulde haue abandoned his bodie But strong Loue whiche woulde not permitte hym to faint vntill the extremitie framed a thoughte in his fantasie that if it were possible for hym to dye besides hir his death shoulde be more glorious and 〈◊〉 as he thought better contented By reason whereof after 〈◊〉 had washed his face for 〈◊〉 to discouer hys sorrow he went out of hys chamber and commaunded hys man to 〈◊〉 behynde hym that hée might walke thorough oute all the corners of the Citie to fynde propre remedie if it were possyble for hys griefe And 〈◊〉 others beholdyng an Apoticaries shoppe of lytle furniture and lesse store of boxes and other thynges requisite
of him which doth abuse it Thus much I haue thought good to tell you to the intent that neyther teares nor iron ne yet suspected houre are able to make me guiltie of the murder or make me otherwise than I am but onely the witnesse of mine owne conscience which alone if I were guilty should be the accuser the witnesse and the hangman which by reason of mine age and the reputation I haue had amongs you and the litle time that I haue to liue in this world should more torment me within than all the mortall paines that could be deuised But thankes be to mine eternall God I féele no worme that gnaweth nor any remorse that pricketh me touching that fact for which I sée you all troubled amazed And to set your hearts at rest and to remoue the doubts which hereafter may torment your consciences I sweare vnto you by al the heauenly parts wherein I hope to be that forth with I will disclose frō first to last the entire discourse of this pitifull tragedie which peraduenture shall driue you into no lesse wondre and amaze than those two pore passionate louers were strong and pacient to expone themselues to the mercy of death for the feruent and indissoluble loue betwene them Then the Fatherly Frier began to repeate the beginning of the loue betwene Iuhetta and Rhomeo which by certaine space of time confirmed was prosecuted by woordes at the first then by mutuall promise of mariage vnknowne to the world And as wythin fewe dayes after the two louers féeling themselues sharpned and incited with stronger onset repaired vnto him vnder colour of confession protesting by othe that they were both maried and that if he would not solempnize that mariage in the face of the Church they should be constrained to offend God to liue in disordred lust In consideration whereof and specially seeing their alliance to be good and conformable in dignitie richesse and Nobilitie on both sides hoping by that meanes perchance to reconcile the Montesches and Capcllets and that by doing such an acceptable worke to God he gaue them the Churches blessing in a certaine Chappell of the Friers Church whereof the night following they did consummate the mariage fruites in the Palace of the Capellets For testimony of which copulation the woman of Iuliettaes chamber was able to depose Adding moreouer the murder of Thibault which was cosin to Iulietta by reason whereof the banishment of Rhomeo did 〈◊〉 and how in the absence of the said Rhomeo the mariage being kept secrete betwene them a new Matrimonie was intreated wyth the Counte Paris which misliked by Iulietta she fell downe prostrate at his féete in a Chappell of S. Frauncis Church with full determination to haue killed hir selfe with hir owne hands if he gaue hir not councel how she should auoide the mariage agréed betwene hir father and the Counte Paris For conclusion he sayd that although he was resolued by reason of his age and nearenesse of death to 〈◊〉 all secrete Sciences wherein in his yonger yeares hée had delight notwithstanding pressed with importunitie and moued with pitie fearing least Iulietta should doe some crueltie against hir self he stained his conscience and chose rather with some little fault to grieue his minde than to suffer the yong Gentlewoman to destroy hir body and hazarde the daunger of hir soule And therefore he opened some part of his auncient cunning and gaue hir a certaine pouder to make hir sléepe by meanes wherof she was thought to be 〈◊〉 Then he tolde them how he had sent Frier Anselme to cary letters to Rhomeo of their enterprise whereof hitherto he had no answere Then briefly he concluded how hée founde Rhomeo deade within the graue who as it is most likely did impoison himselfe or was otherwise smothered or suffocated with 〈◊〉 by finding Iulietta in that state thinking she had bene dead Then he tolde them how Iulietta did kill hir selfe with the dagger of Rhomeo to beare him company after his death and howe it was impossible for them to saue hir for the noise of the watche which forced them to flée from thence And for more ample approbation of his saying he humbly besought the Lord of 〈◊〉 and the Magistrates to send to Mantua for Frier Anselme to know the cause of his 〈◊〉 returne that the content of the letter sent to Rhomeo might be séene To examine the woman of the chamber of Iulietta and and Pietro the seruaunt of Rhomeo who not attending for 〈◊〉 request sayd vnto them My Lordes when Rhomeo entred the graue he gaue me this 〈◊〉 written as I suppose with his owne hand who gaue me expresse commaundemēt to deliuer them to his father The pacquet opened they found the whole 〈◊〉 of this story specially the Apothecaries name which solde him the poyson the price and the cause wherfore he vsed it and all appeared to be so cleare and euident as there rested nothing for further verification of the same but their presence at the doing of the particulers therof for the whole was so wel declared in order as they were out of doubt that the same was true And then the Lord Bartholomew of 〈◊〉 after he had debated with that Magistrates of these euents decréed that the woman of Iulietta hir chamber should be 〈◊〉 bicause she did conceyle that priuie mariage from the father of Rhomeo which if it hadde bene knowne in time had bred to the whole Citie an vniuersal benefit Pietro bicause he obeyed his masters commaundemēt and kept close his lawful secrets according to the wel 〈◊〉 nature of a trusty 〈◊〉 was set at liberty The Poticarie taken rackt and founde guiltie was hanged The good olde man Frier Laurence as well for respect of his auncient seruice which he had done to the common wealth of Veronna as also for his 〈◊〉 lyfe for the which he was specially recōmended was let goe in peace withoute any note of infamie Notwithstandyng by reason of his age he voluntarily gaue ouer the worlde and closed him selfe in a hermitage two miles from Veronna where he liued v. or vj. yeares and spente his tyme in cōtinuall prayer vntil he was called out of this transitorie worlde into the blisfull state of euerlasting ioy And for the compassion of so straunge an infortune the Montesches and Capellettes poured forth such abundance of teares as with the same they did euacuate their auncient grudge and choler whereby they were then reconciled And they which coulde not bée broughte to attonement by any wisedome or humane councell were in the ende vanquished and made friendes by pitie And to immortalizate the memorie of so intier and perfect amitie the lorde of Veronna ordeined that the two bodies of those miraculous louers shold be 〈◊〉 intombed in the graue where they ended their 〈◊〉 where was erected a high marble 〈◊〉 honoured with an infinite numbre of excellent 〈◊〉 which 〈◊〉 this day be apparant with such noble memorie as amongs all
by the cōsent of the whole state as euery of thē were about to rise vp sayd vnto them My Lordes there resteth one thing yet to be moued which peraduenture hitherto hath not bene thought vpon There are before vs two complaints the effect whereof in my iudgement is not throughly cōceiued in the opinions of diuers Anselmo Barbadico and Girolamo Bembo betwene whome there hath bene euer continuall hatred left vnto them as a man may say euen by fathers enheritance both of thē in either of their chambers were apprehēded in a maner naked by our Sergeants and without torments or for feare to be racked vpon the onely interrogatories of our ministers they haue voluntarily confessed that before their houses they killed Aloisio our Nephew And albeit that our sayd Nephew yet liueth was not striken by them or any other as shold apeare yet they 〈◊〉 themselues guiltie of the murder What shall be sayd thē to the matter doth it not séeme doubtfull Our Nephew againe hath declared that in going about to robbe the house of Mistresse Gismonda Mora whome he ment to haue slaine he fell downe to the ground from the toppe of a window wherefore by reason so many robberies haue bene discouered within the Citie it may be presumed that he was the 〈◊〉 and malefactor who ought to be put to the torments that the truthe may be knowne and being found guiltie to féele the seuere punishment that he hath deserued Moreouer when he was founde lying vpon the ground he had neither ladder nor weapon whereupon may be thought that the fact was otherwise done than hitherto is confessed And bicause amongs morall vertues temperāce is the chiefest and worthy of greatest commendation and that iustice not righteously exercised is iniustice wrong it is méete and conuenient for vs in these strange accidents rather to vse temperāce than the rigor of iustice And that it may appere that I do not speake these words without good ground mark what I shal say vnto you These two most mortal enimies do cōfesse that which is impossible to be true for that our Nephew as is before declared is a liue and his wounde was not made by sworde as hée himself hath confessed Nowe who can tell or say the contrary but that shame for being taken in their seuerall Chambers and the dishonesty of bothe their wiues hathe caused them to despise life and to desire death We shall finde if the matter be diligently inquired and searched that it will fall out otherwise than is already supposed by common opinion For the contrariety of examinations vnlikelihoode of circumstances and the impossibility of the cause rendreth the matter doubtful Wherfore it is very néedful diligētly to examine these attempts and thereof to vse more aduised consideration On the other side our Nephew accuseth himself to be a 〈◊〉 and which is more that he ment to kill mistresse Mora when he brake into hir house Under this grasse my Lords as I suppose some other Serpent lieth hidden that is not yet thought of The Gentleman ye know before this time was neuer defamed of such outrage ne suspected of the least offēse that may be obiected Besides that all ye doe knowe thanks therefore be giuen to almightie God that he is a man of great richesse and possessions and hath no néede to robbe For what necessitie should driue him to robbe a widowe that hath of his owne liberally to bestow vpon the succour of widowes Were there none else of substance in the Citie for him to giue attempt but to a widowe a comfortlesse creature contented with quiet life to liue amongs hir family within the boundes of hir owne house What if hir richesse Iewels and plate be great hath not Aloisio of his owne to redouble the same But truely this Robberie was done after some other manner than he hath confesfessed To vs then my Lords it appertaineth if it so stande with your pleasures to make further inquirie of the same promising vnto you vppon oure Faith that we shal imploy our whole diligence in the true examination of this matter and hope to bring the same to such good ende as none shall haue cause to blame vs the finall sentence whereof shall be reserued to your iudgement This graue request and wise talke of the Duke pleased greatly the Lords of the Councel who referred not only the examination but also the finall sentence vnto him Wherupon the wise Prince being fully enformed of that chaunce happened to his Nephewe attended only to make search if he could vnderstand the occasion why Bembo and Barbadico so folishly had accused thēselues of that which they neuer did And so after much counsaile sundry deuises examined and made his nephew then was wel recouered and able to goe abrode being set at libertie After sundry examinations I say he also had learned the trothe of the case touching the other two prisoners which he cōmunicated to the Lords of the aforesaid councel called Dieci Then he caused with great discretion proclamation to be made throughout Venice that Anselmo and Girolamo should be beheaded betwene the two Pillers and Aloisio hanged wherby he thought to know what sute the women wold make either with or against their husbands what euidence mistresse Gisinonda would giue against Aloisio The brute hereof dispersed throughe Venice diuers talke therupon was raised no communication of any thing else in open streats and priuate houses but of the putting to death of those men And bicause all thrée were of honorable houses their kinsmē friends made sute by all possible meanes for their pardon But their confessions published that rumor was made worse as it daily chaūceth in like cases than the mater was in déede the same was noised how Foscari had confessed so many theftes done by him at diuers times as none of his friends or kin durst speake for him Mistresse Gismonda which bitterly lamented the mischaunce of hir louer after she vnderstode the confession hée had made and euidently knew that bicause he would not blemish hir honor he had rather willingly forgo his own and therwithall his life felt hir self so inflamed with feruent loue toward him as she was ready presently to surrēder hir ghost Wherfore 〈◊〉 sent him word that he shold comfort himselfe bicause she was determined to manifest the very trouth of the matter and hoped vpon hir declaration of true euidence sentence shoulde be reuoked for testimonie wherof she had his louing letters yet to 〈◊〉 written to hir with his owne hands and would bring forth in the iudgement place the corded ladder which she had kept still in hir chamber Aloisio hearing these louing newes and of the euidēce which his Ladie would giue for his defense was the gladdest man of the world and caused infinite thanks to be rendred vnto hir with promise that if he mighte be rid and discharged out of prison he woulde take hir for his louing spouse and wife Wherof
presence of that honourable assemblie cōceiued courage and crauing licence of the Duke to speake with mery countenance and good vttrance began thus to say hir minde Most excellent Prince and ye right honorable lordes perceiuing how my deare husband vncomely and very dishonestly doth vse himselfe against mée in this noble companie I do thinke maister Girolamo Bembo to be affected with like rage minde against this gentlewoman mistresse Lucie his wife although more tēperate in wordes he do not expresse the same Against whom if no replie be made it may séeme that he hath spoken the trouthe and that we by silence should séeme to condemne our selues to be those moste wicked women whom he alleageth vs to be Wherfore by youre gracious pardon and licence moste honourable in the behalfe of mistresse Lucie and my selfe for our defense I purpose to declare the effect of my mind although my purpose be cleane altered from that I had thought to say beyng now iustly prouoked by the vnkinde behauiour of him whome I doe loue better than my selfe which had he bene silent and not so rashly runne to the ouerthrow of me and my good name I wold haue conceiled and onely touched that which shoulde haue concerned the purgation and sauegard of them both which was the onely intent meaning of vs by making our hūble supplication to your maiesties Neuerthelesse so so farre as my féeble force shall stretch I will assay to do both the one and the other although it be not appropriate to our kinde in publike place to declame or yet to open such bold attempts but that necessitie of matter and oportunitie of time and place dothe bolden vs to enter into these termes wherof we craue a thousād pardons for our vnkindely dealings and rēder double thanks to your honors for admitting vs to speake Be it knowne therfore vnto you that our husbandes against duetie of loue lawes of mariage and against all reason do make their heauie complaints which by by I wil make plaine and euident I am right well assured that their extreme rage bitter heartes sorow do procéede of y. occasions The one of the murder wherof they haue falsly accused thē selues the other of iealosy which grieuously doth gnawe their hearts thinking vs to be vile abhominable womē bicause they were surprised in eche others chāber Concerning the murder if they haue soiled their hāds therin it appertaineth vnto you my lords to rēder their desert But how can the same be layd to our charge for somuch as they if it wer done by thē cōmited the same without our knowlege our help coūsel And truly I sée no cause why any of vs ought to be burdened with that outrage and much lesse cause haue they to lay the same to our charge For méete it is that he that doth any vnlawful act or is accessarie to the same shold suffer that due penaltie seuere chastisement accordingly as the sacred lawes do prescribe as an example for other to abstein from wicked facts But herof what néede I to dispute wherin the blind may sée to be none offense bicause thanks be to God Maister Aloisio liueth which declareth the fond cōfession of our vngitle husbands to be cōtrary to trouth And if so be our husbāds in dede had done such an abhominable enterprise reason and duetie had moued vs to sorowe and lament them bicause they be borne of noble blood and be gentlemen of this noble citie which like a pure virgin inuiolably doth cōserue hir laws customs Great cause I say had we to lamēt them if like homicides murderers they had spotted their noble blood with such fowle 〈◊〉 therby deseruing death to leaue vs yong womē widowes in woful plight Now it behoueth mée to speake of the iealoufis they haue conceiued of vs for that they were in ech others chāber which truly is the doubtful knot scruple that forceth al their disdaine griefe This I knowe well is the naile that pierceth their heart other cause of offense they haue not who like men not well aduised without examination of vs and oure demeanour bée fallen into despaire and like men desperate 〈◊〉 wrongfully accused themselues But bicause I may not consume words in vain to stay you by my long discourse from matters of greater importāce I humbly beséech you right excellent prince to cōmaunde them to tel what thing it is which so bitterly doth tormēt them Then the Duke caused one of the noble men assistant there to demaund of them the question who answered that the chiefest occasion was bicause they knew their wiues to be harlots whō they supposed to be very honest for somuch as they knew them to be such they conceiued sorow and grief which with suche extremitie did gripe thē at that heart as not able to sustain that great infamy ashamed to be sene of mē wer induced through desire of deth to cōfesse that they neuer did Mistresse Isotta hering thē say so begā to speke againe turning hir self vnto them Were you offended then at a thing which ye thought incōueniēt not mete to be done We then haue greatest cause to cōplaine Why then 〈◊〉 husbande went you to the chamber of mistresse Lucie at that time of the night What had you to do there what thyng thought you to finde there more than was in your own house And you master Girolamo what cōstrained you to forsake your wiues bed to come to my husbands wher no man euer had or at this present hath to do but him self were not that shetes of the one so white so fine neat swéet as the other I am moste noble Prince sorie to declare my husbands folie and ashamed that he should forsake my bed to go to an other that did accompt my selfe so wel worthy to entertaine hym in myne owne as the best wife in Venice and now through his abuse I abstaine to shewe my selfe amongs the beautiful and noble dames of this Citie The like misliking of hir selfe is in mistresse Lucie who as you sée may bée numbred amongs the fairest Either of you ought to haue ben cōtented with your wiues not as wickedly you haue done to forsake them to séeke for better bread than is made of wheate or for purer golde than whereof the Angel is made O worthy dede of yours that haue the face to leaue your owne wiués that be comely faire honest to séeke after strange carrion O beastly order of men that can not content their lust within the boūdes of their owne house but must go hunt after other women as beasts do after the next of their kinde that they chaunce vpon What vile affection possessed your harts to lust after others wife You make complainte of vs but wée with you haue right good cause to bée offended you ought to be grieued with youre owne disorder and not with others offense and this youre affliction paciently to beare bycause you wente about
than they themselues did of their life by committing the same to the hands of a woman so cruell This Gentleman being come home to his lodging enquired what faire widow that was of what calling and of what behauior but he heard tell of more truely than he would of good will haue knowne or desired to haue ben in hir whom he did presently choose to be the onely mistresse of his moste secrete thoughts Now vnderstanding wel the stubburne nature and vnciuile maner of that widow hée coulde not tell what parte to take nor to what Sainct to vow his deuotion to make sute vnto hir he thought it time lost to be hir seruant it was not in his power hauing already inguaged his libertie into the handes of hir which once holdyng captiue the hearts of men will not infraunchise them so soone as thoughte and will desire Wherefore bayting hymselfe wyth hope and tickled with loue hée determined what soeuer chaūced to loue hir and to assay if by long seruice he coulde lenifie that harde hearte and make tender that unpliant will to haue pitie vpon the paine which she saw him to endure to recompense his laborsome trauels which he thought were vertuously imployed for gayning of hir good grace And vpon this settled deliberation he retired againe to Virle so was his house named where disposing his things in order he retorned again to Montcall to make his long resiance there to put in readinesse his furniture and to welde his artillerie with suche industrie as in the ende he mighte make a reasonable breach to force and take the place For surprisyng whereof he hazarded great dangers the rather that he hym selfe might first be taken And where hys assaultes and pollicies could not preuaile he mynded to content him selfe with the pleasure and passetyme that hée myght receiue in the contemplation of a thyng so fayre and the ordinarie sight of an image so excellent The memorie of whome rather increased hys paine than yelded comfort dyd rather minister corrosiue poyson than gyue remedie of ease a cause more of cruel and sodaine death than of prolonged life Philiberto then being become a citizen of Mōtcall vsed to frequent the Churche more than hée was wont to doe or his deuotion serued hym and that bycause he was not able elsewhere to enioy the presence of his Sainct but in places and temples of deuotion whiche no doubt was a very holie and woorthie disposition but yet not méete or requisite to obserue suche holy places for those intentes whiche oughte not to be prophaned in thyngs so fonde and foolishe and actes so contrary to the institution and mynde of those which in tymes paste were the fyrst founders and erectours of temples Signior Philiberto then moued with that religious superstition made no conscience at all to speake vnto hir within the Churche And true it is when she wente out of the same he moued with a certaine familiar curtesie naturall to eche Gentleman of good bryngyng vp many tymes conducted hir home to hir owne house not able for all that what so 〈◊〉 he sayd to winne the thing that was able to ingender any litle contentation which grieued him very much For the cruell woman fained as though 〈◊〉 vnderstode nothing of that he sayde and turnyng the wayne against the oxen by contrary talke she began to tell him a tale of a tubbe of matters of hir householde whervnto he gaue so good héede as she did to the hearing of hys complaintes Thus these two of dyuers affections and moued with contrary thoughtes spake 〈◊〉 to an other without apt answere to eithers talk Wherby the Gentleman cōceiued an assured argument of his ruine which voide of al hope meanes he sawe to be ineuitable and therfore practised with 〈◊〉 dames of the Citie that had familiar resort vnto hir house and vsed frequent conuersation with 〈◊〉 rebellious lady Zilia To one of them then he determined to communicate his secrets and to do hir to vnderstande in dede the only cause that made him to 〈◊〉 at Montcall and the griefe which he sustained for that he was not able to discouer his torment to hir that had giuen him the wounde This Gentleman therfore repaired to one of his neighbors a woman of good corage which at other 〈◊〉 had experimented what meates they fede on which 〈◊〉 at Venus table and what bitternesse is intermingled amid those drinkes that Cupido quaffeth vnto his guestes 〈◊〉 whom hauing before coniured hir to kepe secret that which he wold declare he disclosed the secrets of his minde expressing his loue without naming of his lady before he herd the answer of his neighbor who vnderstanding almoste to what purpose the affections of the pacient were directed said vnto him Sir nedefull it is not to vse long orations the loue that I bear you for the honest qualities which hitherto I haue knowne to be in you shall make me to kéepe silent that wherof as yet I do not knowe the matter and the assurance you haue not to be abused by me constraineth me to warrant you that I will not spare to do you all the pleasure honest seruice I can Ah mistresse answered sir Philiberto so lōg as I lyue I will not faile to acknowledge the liberalitie of your 〈◊〉 by offering your selfe pacientely to heare and secretely to kepe the wordes I speake accorduigly as they deserue and that which is more than I require you doe assure me that I shall finde suche one of you as will not spare to giue your ayde Alas I resemble the good and wyse Captaine who to take a 〈◊〉 doth not onely ayde himselfe with the forwardenesse and valiance of his souldiers but to spare them and to auoyde slaughter for makyng of way planteth his cannon and battereth the wall of the fort whiche he woulde assayle to the intent that both the souldier and the ordinaunce maye perfourme and suffise the perfection of the platte whyche hée hath framed and deuised within his politike heade I haue already encouraged my souldiers and haue lost the better part truly in the skirmish which hath deliuered vnto me my swéete cruell enimie Now I am driuen to make redy the fire which resteth in the kindled match of your cōceipts to batter that fort hitherto 〈◊〉 for any assault which I can make I vnderstand not sayde she smiling these Labyrinthes of your complaints except you speake more plain I neuer haunted the warres 〈◊〉 knewe 〈◊〉 thing it is to handle weapons improper and not séemely for myne estate and kynde The warre quod he whereof I speake is so naturall and common as I doubt not but you haue somtymes 〈◊〉 with what 〈◊〉 and camisados men vse to take their enimies how they plant their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what meanes bothe the assaylant and 〈◊〉 ought to vse So far as I sée sayd she there 〈◊〉 nothing for vs but the assurance of the fielde sith we be ready to enter in combat and do thinke
no more although I sée my 〈◊〉 happe otherwise to ende than my desert required and that good lucke hath cause to worke againste me But yet against Fortune to contend is to war against my self wherof the victorie can be but 〈◊〉 Thus he passed al the day which séemed to last a thousand yeres to him that thought to receiue some good intertainmēt of his lady in whose bonds he was catched before he thought that womās malice could so farre excede or display hir venomous sting And truly that mā is void of sense whych suffreth him selfe so fondly to be charmed 〈◊〉 the peril of the abused ought to serue him for example They be to the masculine kinde a great confusion and vnwares for want of due forsight the same 〈◊〉 suffer it self to be bound taken captiue by the very thing which hath no being to worke effecte but by his own fréewil But this inchantmēt which riseth of womens beautie being to men a pleasant displeasure I thinke to be decked with that drawing vertue and allurement to punish and torment the faults of men for they once fed and baited with a fading fauor poisoned swetenesse forget their owne perfection and nousled in their foolishe fansies séeking felicitie and soueraigne gyfte in the matter wherein dothe lie the summe of their vnhappes In like maner the vertuous and shamfast dames haue not their eyes of mynd so blindfolde but that they sée whervnto those franke seruices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faithes and vices coloured and stuffed with exterior vertue do tende and doubt not but those louers do imitate the Scorpion whose venome lyeth in hys taile the ende of such loue beyng the ruine of good renoume and the decay of former vertues For whych cause the heauens the friende of their sexe haue gyuen them a prouidence which those gentle vnfauoured louers terme to be rigor that by those meanes they may proue the desert of a suter both for their great contentation and praise and for the rest of them that do them seruice This iuste right and modeste prouidence that cruell Gentlewoman vsed not to the good and faithfull louer the Lord of Virle who was so humble a seruant of his vnkinde mistresse as his goodnesse redounded to his great 〈◊〉 and folie as manifestly may appere by that which foloweth Sir Philiberto then thinkyng to haue gained muche by hauing made promise liberally to speake to 〈◊〉 Ladie went vnto hir at the appointed time so wel a contented man truely of that grace as al the vnkindnesse past was quite forgot Nowe being come to the lodging of mistresse Zilia he found hir in the deuised place with one of hir maides wayting vpon hir When shée saw him after a litle colde entertainement she began to say vnto hym with fained ioy that neuer moued hir within these wordes Nowe syr I sée that youre late 〈◊〉 was not so straunge as I was giuen to vnder stande for the good state wherin I sée you presently to be which from henceforth shall make me beleue that the passions of men endure so long as the cause of their affections continue within their fansies much like vnto looking glasses which albeit they make the equalitie or 〈◊〉 of things represented to apere yet when the thing séene doth passe vanish away the formes also do voide out of remembraunce like the wind which lightly whorleth too fro through the plain of some depe valey Ah madame answered he how easie a matter it is for the 〈◊〉 person to counterfait both ioy dissimulatiō in one very thing which not only may forget that conceit that moueth his affections but the obiect must 〈◊〉 remaine in him as painted and 〈◊〉 in his mind Which truly as you say is a loking glasse not such one for all that as the counterfaited apparance of represented formes hath like vigor in it that the first and true 〈◊〉 shapes can so soone vanish without leauing the trace of most perfect impression of such formes wtin the mind of him which liueth vpon their only remembrance In this mirror then which by reason of the hiddē force I may wel say to be ardent burning haue I loked so wel as I can thereby to forme the sustentation of my good 〈◊〉 But the imagined shape not able to support suche perfection hath made the rest of the body to faile weakned through the minds passions in such wise as if that hope to recouer this better part half lost had not cured both the whole decay of the one had folowed by thinking to giue some accōplishmēt in the other And if you sée me Madame attain to some good state impute not the same I beséeche you but to the good will fauor which I receiue by seing you in a priuate place wherin I cōceiue greater ioy than euer I did to say vnto you the thing which you would not beleue by woords at other times procéeding from my mouth ne yet by aduertisemēt signified in my 〈◊〉 letters Notwithstāding I think that my Martyrdome is known to be such as euery man may perceiue that the summe of my desire is only to serue and obey you for so muche as I can receiue no greater comfort thā to be cōmaunded to make repaire to you to let you know that I am hole although 〈◊〉 ouer by 〈◊〉 whē you vouchsafed to employ 〈◊〉 in your seruice and thinke my self raised vp againe 〈◊〉 one 〈◊〉 thousande deathes at once when it shall please you to haue pitie vpon the grief passion which I 〈◊〉 Alas what causeth my 〈◊〉 to sée that 〈◊〉 beautie of yours to make the proofe of a crueltie so great 〈◊〉 you determined Madame thus to 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 gentleman that is ready to sacrifice himself in your 〈◊〉 whē you shal depart to him some fauor of your 〈◊〉 Do you thinke that my passions be 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 Alacke alacke the teares which I haue shed the losse of 〈◊〉 to eate and drinke the weary passed nights the long contriued sléepelesse time the restlesse turmoile of my self may well assure that my 〈◊〉 heart is of better merite than you estéeme Then séeing hir to fire hir eyes vpon the groūd and thinking that he had already wonne hir he reinforced his faire talke sighing at 〈◊〉 betwéene not sparing the 〈◊〉 which trickled 〈◊〉 alongs his face he prosecuted his talke saying Ah faire amongs the fairest would you blot that diuine beautie with a cruelty so furious as to cause the death of him which loueth you better thā him selfe Ah mine eyes which hitherto haue bene 〈◊〉 with two liuely springs to expresse the hidden griefes within my heart if your vnhappe be such that the only dame of your contemplatiōs and cause of your teares doe cause the humor to encrease which hitherto in such wise hath emptied my braine that there is no more in me to moisten your drouthe I am content to endure the same vntill my hearte shall féele the laste pangue 〈◊〉 thēe of
and Physitian dwelling at Cutiano a Citie of Boeme where plenty of siluer Mines and other mettals is The knight whose Castle was not farre from Cutiano had occasion to repaire vnto that Citie and according to his desire found out Pollacco which was a very olde mā and talking with him of diuers things perceiued him to be of great skill In end he entreated him that for so much as he had done pleasure to many for 〈◊〉 of their loue he wold also instruct him how he might be assured that his wife did kéepe hir self honest all the time of his absence and that by certaine signes he might haue sure knowledge whether she brake hir faith by sending his honesly into Cornwall Such vain trust this Knight reposed in the lying Science of Sorcery which although to many other is found deceitfull yet to him serued for sure euidence of his wiues sidelitie This Pollacco which was a very cunning enchaunter as you haue hard sayd vnto him Sir you demaund a very straūge matter such as where with neuer hitherto I haue bene acquainted ne yet searched the depthe of those hidden secretes a thing not commonly sued for ne yet practised by me For who is able to make assurance of a womans chastitie or tel by signes except he were at the déede doing that she hath done amisse Or who can gaine by proctors wryt to summon or sue a sprituall Court peremptorily to affirme by neuer so good euidence or testimony that a woman hath hazarded hir honesty except he sweare Rem to be in Re which the greatest 〈◊〉 that euer Padua bred neuer sawe by processe duely tried Shall I then warrant you the honesty of such 〈◊〉 cattell prone and ready to lust easy to be vanquished by the suites of earnest pursuers But blame worthy surely I am thus generally to speake for some I know although not many for whose pore honesties I dare aduenture mine owne And yet that number howe small so euer it be is worthy all due reuerence and honoure Notwithstanding bicause you séeme to be an honest Gentleman of that knowledge which I haue I will not be greatly 〈◊〉 A certaine secrete experiment in déede I haue wherwith perchaūce I may satisfie your demaunde And this is it I can by mine Arte in small time by certaine compositions frame a womans Image which you continually in a little boxe may carry about you and so ofte as you list beholde the same If the wife doe not breake hir mariage faith you shall still sée the same so faire and wel coloured as it was at the first making séeme as though it newly came from the painters shop but if perchaūce she meane to abuse hir honesty the same wil waxe pale and in déede committing that filthy facte sodainely the colour wil be black as arayed with cole or other 〈◊〉 the smel wherof wil not be very plesāt but at al times when she is attempted or pursued the colour wil be so yealow as gold This maruellous secrete deuise greatly pleased the Knight verely beleuing the same to be true specially much moued assured by the fame bruted abrode of his science wherof the Citizens of 〈◊〉 told very strange incredible things When the price was paid of this precious iewel he receiued the Image ioyfully returned home to his castle wher tarying certain dayes he determined to repair to that Court of the glorious king Mathie making his wife priuy to his intent Afterwards whē he had disposed his houshold matters in order he cōmitted that gouernment therof to his wife hauing prepared all necessaries for his voyage to the great sorow griefe of his beloued he departed arriued at Alba Regale where that time the King lay with Quéene Beatrix his wife of whom he was ioyfully receiued entertained He had not long continued in the Court but he had obtained won the fauor good will of all men The King which knew him full well very honorably placed him in his court by him accōplished diuers and many waighty affaires which very wisely and trustely he brought to passe according to the kings mind pleasure Afterwards he was made Colonel of a certaine nūber of footemen sent by the king against the Turks to defend a holde which the enimies of God begā to assaile vnder the conduct of Mustapha Basca which cōduct he so wel directed therin stoutly behaued himself as he chased al the Infidels out of those coastes winning therby that name of a most valiant soldier prudent captain Whereby he meruellously gained the fauor grace of the king who ouer and besides his daily intertainement gaue vnto him a Castle and the Reuenue in fée farme for euer Such rewards deserue all valiāt men which for the honor of their Prince countrey do willingly imploy their seruice worthy no dout of great regard cherishing vpō their home returne bicause they hate idlenesse to win glory deuising rather to spēd hole dayes in field than houres in Courte which this worthy Knight deserued who not able to sustaine his pore estate by politik wisdō prowesse of armes endeuored to serue his Lord and countrey wherin surely he made a very good choise Then he deuoutly serued and praised God for that he put into his minde such a Noble enterprise trusting daily to atchieue greater fame and glory but the greater was his ioy and contentation bicause the image of his wife inclosed within a boxe which still he caried about him in his pursie continued freshe of coloure without any alteration It was noysed in the Court that this valiant Knight Vlrico had in Boeme the fairest and goodliest Lady to his wife that liued either in Boeme or Hungarie It chaūced as a certaine company of yong Gentlemen in the Court were together amongs whome was this Knighte that a 〈◊〉 Earon sayd vnto him How is it possible syr 〈◊〉 being a yeare and a half since you departed out of Boeme that you haue no minde to returne to sée your wife who as the common fame reporteth is one of the goodliest women of all the Countrey truely it séemeth to me that you care not for hir which were great pitie if hir beautic be correspondent to hir fame Syr quod Vlrico what hir beautie is I referre vnto the worlde but how so euer you estéeme me to care of hir you shall vnderstande that I doe loue hir and will doe so during my life And the cause why I haue not visited hir of lōg time is no little proofe of the great assurance I haue of hir vertue and honest life The argument of hir vertue I proue for that she is contented that I shold serue my Lord and king and sufficient it is for me to giue hir intelligence of my state and welfare which many times by letters at opportunitie I faile not to doe the proofe of my Faith is euident by reason of my bounden duety to our soueraigne Lord of whome
to point the particulers of this intended iorney this poore deceiued Baron in short time proued a very good Spinner by exercise wherof he felt such solace as not onely the same was a comfortable sporte for his captiue tyme but also for wante of better recreation it séemed so ioyfull as yf he had bene pluming and 〈◊〉 his Hauke or doing other sportes belongyng to the honourable state of a Lorde Whiche his well arriued labour the maiden recompensed with abundance of good and delicate meates And although the Ladie was many tymes required to visite the Baron yet she woulde neuer to that request consent In whiche time the Knight Vlrico ceased not continually to viewe and reuewe the state of his image which appeared still to bée of one well coloured sorte And although thys vse of his was diuers times marked and séene of many yet being earnestly demaunded the cause thereof hée would neuer disclose the same Many coniectures thereof 〈◊〉 made but none coulde attaine the trouthe And who would haue thought that a Knight so wise and prudent had worne within his pursse any inchanted thing And albeit the King and Quéene hadde intelligence of thys frequent practise of the Knight yet they thoughte not mete for any priuate and secret mysterie to demaund the cause One Moneth and a halfe was passed nowe that the Lord Alberto was departed the Court and become a castle knight and cunning spinster which made the Lord Vladislao to muse for that the promise made betwene them was brokē and heard neither by letter or messanger what successe he had receiued After diuers thoughts imagined in his mind he conceiued that his companion had happily enioyed the end of his desired ioy and had gathered the wished frutes of the Lady and drowned in that maine sea of his owne pleasures was ouerwhelmed in the bottome of obliuion wherefore he determined to set forwarde on his iourney to giue onset of his desired fortune who without long delay for execution of his purpose prepared all necessaries for that voyage and mounted on horsebacke with two of his men he iourneyed towards Boeme within few dayes after arriued at the Castle of the faire and most honest Lady And when he was entred the Inne where the Lord Alberto was first lodged he diligently enquired of him and hard tell that he was returned into Hungarie many dayes before wherof much maruelling could not tel what to say or thinke In that end purposing to put in proofe the cause wherefore he was departed out of Hungarie after diligent inquirie of the maners of the Lady he vnderstoode the general voyce that she was without comparisō the most honest wise gentle and comely Ladie within the whole Countrey of Boeme Incontinently the Ladie was aduertised of the arriuall of this Baron and knowing the cause of his cōming she determined to pay him also with that money which she had already coyned for the other The next day the Baron went vnto the Castle knocking at the gate sent in woord how that he was come from the Court of King Mathie to visite and salute the Lady of that Castle and as she did entertain the first Baron in curteous 〈◊〉 and with louing countenaunce euen so she did the seconde who thought thereby that he had attained by that pleasant entertainment the game after which he hunted And discoursing vpon diuers matters the Lady shewed hir self a pleasant and familiar Gentlewoman which made the Baron to thinke that in short time he shold win the price for which he came Notwithstanding at the first brunt he would not by any meanes descend to any particularitie of his purpose but his words ran general which were that hearing tel of the fame of hir beautie good grace and come linesse by hauing occasion to repaire into Boeme to doe certaine his affaires he thought it labor well spent to ride some portion of his iourney though it were besides the way to digresse to doe reuerence vnto hir whome fame aduaunced aboue the skies and thus passing his first visitation he returned againe to his lodging The Ladie when the Baron was gone from hir Castle was rapte into a rage greatly offended that those two Hungarian Lordes so presumptuously had bended them selues like common Théeues to wander and roue the Countreys not onely to robbe and spoile hir of hir honoure but also to bring hir in displeasure of hir husbande and thereby into the daunger and perill of deathe By reason of which rage not without cause conceiued she caused an other Chamber to be made ready next wal to the other Baron that was become suche a Notable spinster And vpon the next returne of the Lord Vladislao she receiued him with no lesse good entertainment than before and when night came caused him to be lodged in hir owne house in the Chamber prepared as before where hée slept not very soundly all that night through the continuall remembraunee of his Ladies beautie Next morning hée perceiued himselfe to be locked fast in a Prison And when hée had made him ready thinking to descend to bidde the Ladie good morrow séeking meanes to vnlocke the doore and perceiuing that he could not he stoode still in a dumpe And as hée was thus standing maruelling the cause of his shutting in so faste the Maiden repaired to the hole of the dore giuing his honor an 〈◊〉 salutation which was that hir Mistresse commaunded hir to giue him to vnderstand that if he had any lust or appetite to his breakefast or minded from thence for the to ease his hunger or conteine life that he should giue him selfe to learne to réele yarne And for that purpose she willed him to looke in such a corner of the Chamber and he shoulde finde certaine spindles of thréede and an instrument to winde his yarne vpon Wherefore quod she apply your self thereunto and lose no time He that had that time beholden the Baron in the face woulde haue thought that hée hadde séene rather a Marble stone than the figure of a man But conuerting hys colde conceiued moode into madde anger he fell into tenne times more displeasure wyth himselfe than is before described by the other Baron But séeing that hys madde béhauioure and beastly vsage was bestowed in vaine the next day he began to réele The Ladie afterwardes when she hadde intelligence of the good and gainefull spinning of the Lorde Alberto and the well disposed and towardly réeling of the Lorde Vladislao greately reioyced for making of suche two Notable woorkemen whose woorkemanship excéeded the laboures of them that hadde béene apprentyzes to the occupation seuen yeares together Suche be the apte and ready wittes of the Souldioures of loue Where in I would wishe all Cupides dearlings to be nousled and applied in their youthly time thē no doubt their passions would appease and rages assuage and would giue ouer their ouer bolde attemptes for which they haue no thank of the chast and honest And to this goodly
starre most bright Now sith my willing vow is made I humbly pray hir grace To end th'accord betwene vs pight no longer time to tracte Which if it be by sured band so haply brought to passe I must my self thrice happy coūt for that most heauenly fact This song made the company to muse who commided the trim inuention of the Knight and aboue al Gineura praised him more than before could not so well refraine hir lokes from him he with countre change rendring like againe but that the two widowes their mothers conceiued great héede therof reioysing greatly to sée the same desirous in time to couple them together For at that present they deferred the same in cōsideration they were both very yong Notwithstāding it had bene better that the same coniunction had bene made before fortune had turned the whéele of hir vnstablenesse And truely delay and prolongation of time sometimes bringeth such and so great missehaps that one hundred times men cursse their fortune and little aduise in foresight of their infortunate chaunces that commonly do come to passe As it chaūced to these widowes one of them thinking to loose hir sonne by the vaine behauior of the others daughter who without that helpe of God or care vnto his will disparaged hir honor and prepared a poyson so daungerous for hir mothers age that the foode therof prepared the way to the good Ladies graue Nowe whiles this loue in this maner increased and that desire of these two Louers flamed forth ordinarily in fire and flames more violent Dom Diego all chaunged and transformed into a newe man receiued no delite but in the sight of his Gineura And she thought that there could be no greater felicitie or more to be wished for than to haue a friend so perfect and so wel accomplished with all things requisite for the ornament and full furniture of a Gentleman This was the occasion that the yong Knight let no wéeke to passe without visiting his mistresse twice or thrice at the least and she did vnto him the greatest curtesie and best entertainment that vertue could suffer a maiden to doe who is the diligent treasurer and carefull tutor of hir honor And this she did by consēt of hir mother In like manne rhonestie doth not permit that chaste maidens should vse long talke or immoderate spéeche with the first that be suters vnto them much lesse séemely it is for them to be ouer squeimishe nice with that man which séeketh by way of marriage to winne power and title of the body which in very dede is or ought to be the moitie of their soule Such was that desires of these two Louers which notwithstanding was impéeched by meanes as hereafter you shal heare For during the rebounding ioy of these faire couple of loyall louers it chaunced that the daughter of a noble man of the Countrey named Ferrando de la Serre which was faire comely wise and of very good behauior by kéeping daily company with Gineura fel extréemely in loue with Dom Diego and assayed by all meanes to do him to vnderstand what the puissance was of hir loue which willingly she meant to bestowe vpon him if it wold please him to honor hir so much as to loue hir with like 〈◊〉 But the Knight which was no more his own man 〈◊〉 rather possessed of another had lost with his libertie his wits and minde to marke the affection of this Gentlewoman of whome he made no accompt The Maiden neuerthelesse ceased not to loue him and to 〈◊〉 al possible wayes to make him hir owne And knowing how much Dom Diego loued Hawking she bought a 〈◊〉 the best in all the Countrey and sent the same to Dom Diego who with all his heart receiued the same and effectuously gaue hir thanks for that desired gift praying the messanger to recommend him to the good grace of his Mistresse and to assure hir selfe of his faithfull seruice and that for hir sake he would kepe the hauk so tenderly as the balles of his eyes This Hauk was the cause of the ill fortune that afterwards chaunced to this pore louer For going many times to sée Gineura with the Hauke on his fist bearing with him the tokens of the goodnesse of his Hauke it escaped his mouthe to say that the same was one of the things that in all the world he loued best Truely this worde was taken at the first bound contrary to his meaning wherwith the matter so fell out as afterwards by despaire he was like to lose his life Certaine dayes after as in the absence of the Knight talke rose of his vertue and honest conditions one prainsing his prowesse valiaunce another his great beautie and curtesy another passing further extolling the sincere 〈◊〉 and constācy which appeared in him touching matters of loue one enuious person named Gracian spake his minde thē in this wise I wil not deny but that Dom Diego is one of the most excellent honest and brauest Knightes of Catheloigne but in matters of Loue he séemeth to me so waltering and inconstant as in euery place where he commeth by and by he falleth in loue and maketh as though he were sick and wold die for the same Gineura maruelliing at those woords sayd vnto him I pray you my friende to vse better talke of the Lorde Dom Diego For I do thinke the loue which the Knight doth beare to a Gentlewoman of this Countrey is so firme and assured that none other can remoue the same out of the siege of his minde Lo how you be deceiued gentlewoman quod Gracian for vnder coloure of 〈◊〉 seruice he and such as he is doe abuse the simplicitie of yong Gentlewomen And to proue my saying true I am assured that he is extremely enamored with the daughter of Dom Ferrando de la Serre of whome he receiued an Hauke that he loueth aboue all other things Gineura remembring the words which certaine dayes before Dom Diego spake touching his Hauke began to suspect and beleue that which master Gracian alleaged and not able to support the choler which colde iealosie bred in hir stomake went into hir Chamber full of so great grief and heauinesse as she was many times like to kill hir self In the end hoping to be reuenged of the wrong which she beleued to receiue of Dom Diego determined to endure hir fortune paciently In the meane time she conceiued in hir minde a despite and hatred so great and extreame against the pore Gentleman that thought little héereof as the former loue was nothing in respect of the reuenge by death which she then desired vpon him Who the next day after his wonted maner came to sée hir hauing to his great damage the Hauke on his fiste which was the cause of all that iealosse Nowe as the Knight was in talke with the mother séeing that his beloued came not at all according to hir custome to salute him and bid him welcome inquired how she
once Dom Diego hearing the truth of his missehap the occasion of the same made light of the matter for that time till at length the choler of his mistresse shold begin to coole that therby she might know vpō how brittle grounde she hadde planted a suspition of hir most faithfull and louing seruaunt and so retiring towards his house altogether vexed and ill contented he went into his Chamber where with his dagger he paunched the gorge of the pore Birde the cause of his Ladies 〈◊〉 saying Ha vile carraine Kite I sweare by the bloud of him that thou shalt neuer be the cause againe to make hir fret for such a trifling thing as thou art I beleue that what so euer furie is hidden within the body of this curssed Kite to engender a Plague the same now is seased on me but I hope to doe my mistresse to vnderstande what Sacrifice I haue made of the thing which was sent me ready to do the like vpō mine own flesh where it shal please hir to commaund So taking inke paper he made answer to Gineura as foloweth The letters of Dom Diego to Gineura the faire BUt who would euer haue thought my Lady deare that a light opinion could so soone haue diuided and disparkled your good iudgement to condempne your Knight before you had heard what he was able to say for himselfe truely I thought no more to offend you than the man which you neuer knewe although you haue bene deceiued by colored words vttered by those that be enuious of my happe and enimies of your ioy who haue filled your minde ful of false report I swear vnto you by God my good Lady that neuer thing entred into my fantasie more than a desire to serue you alone and to auoide the acquaintaunce of all other to preserue for you a pure and entire heart Wherof long agone I made you an offer In witnesse wherof I humbly 〈◊〉 you to beleue that so soone as you sée this Birde the cause of your anger and occasion of my mishap torne and pluckte in pieces that my heart féeleth no lesse alteration or torment for so long as I shal vnderstand your displeasure to endure against me assure your selfe my life shall abide in no lesse paine than my ioy was great when I frankly possessed your presence Be it sufficient madame for you to knowe that I neuer thought to offende you Be contēted I besech you with this sacrifice whiche I send you if not that I doe the 〈◊〉 vpon mine own body which without your good wil and grace can not longer liue For my lyfe depending vpon that onely benefite you ought not to bee astoonned if the same 〈◊〉 his nourishmente dothe perishe as frustrate of that foode propre and apte for his appetite and by like meanes my sayd life shall reuiue if it may please you to spreade your beames ouer mine obscure and base personage and to receiue this 〈◊〉 for a fault not cōmitted And so waiting a gentle answere from your great 〈◊〉 I humbly kisse your white 〈◊〉 delicate handes with all humilitie praying God swéete ladie to let you se how much I suffer without desert and what puissaunce you haue ouer him that 〈◊〉 all your Faithfull and euer seruant most obedient Dom Diego The letter closed and sealed he deliuered to one of his faithfull and secrete seruantes to beare with the deade Hauke vnto Gineura chargyng him diligentely to take héede to hir countenaunce and aboue all that faithfully he should beare away that which she dyd saye vnto him for aunswere His man fayled not to spéede himself with diligence and being come before Gineura he presented that which his master had sent hir She ful of wrath and indignation woulde not once 〈◊〉 to reade the letter and much lesse to accept the present whiche was a witnesse of the contrary of that she dyd 〈◊〉 and tournyng vnto the Messanger she sayde My friende thou mayest goe gette thée backe agayne wyth the selfe same charge whiche thou hast brought and say vnto thy maister that I haue nothyng to doe with his Letters his excuses or any other things that commeth from hys handes as one hauyng good expeperience of hys sleightes and deceipts Tell hym also that I prayse God in good tyme I haue taken héede to the little fayth and truste that is in him for a countergarde in tyme to come lightly neuer to bée deceyued The seruyng man woulde fayne haue framed an Oration to purge his master but the fierce Gentlewoman brake of his talke saying vnto hym that she was well resolued vpon hir intente which was that Dom Diego shoulde neuer recouer place in hir minde and that shée hated hym as much at that tyme as euer shée loued him before Upon which aunswere the Messanger returned so sorowfull for the misfortune of his master knowing him to be very innocent as he knew full well into what despaire his master wold 〈◊〉 when he vnderstode those pitiful and heauie newes not with standing nedes he must know them and therfore when he was come before Dom Diego hée recited vnto hym from poynt to poynt his ambassage and deliuered him againe his letters Whereof the infortunate Gentleman was so sore assooned as he was like to haue fallen downe dead at that instant Alas sayde he what yll lucke is this that when I thought to enioye the benefite of my attempte Fortune hath reuolted to bryng me to the extremitie of the moste desperate man that euer lyued Is it possible that my good seruice shoulde bée the cause of my approached ouerthrowe Alas what may true and faithfull louers henceforthe hope for if not the losse of their time when after long deuoire and duetie an Enuious foole shall come to depriue them of their ioy and gladnesse and they féeling the bitternesse of theyr abandoned farewell one that loueth lesse shall beare away the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of suche hope and shall possesse without deserte the glorie due to a good and faithfull 〈◊〉 Ah fayre Gineura that thou séest not the griefe whych I doe 〈◊〉 and the affection wherewith I serue thée and howe muche I woulde suffer to gayne and recouer thy good grace and fauor Ha vayne hope whyche vntyll nowe haste fylled me wyth myrthe and gladnesse altogether spente and powdred in the gaulle of operation of thy bytter sauoure and the taste of thy corrupted lycour better it hadde bene for mée at the begynnyng to haue refused thée than afterwardes receyued cherished and sincerely beloued to be banished for so lyght occasion as I am full sore ashamed to conceyue the same wythin remembraunce but Fortune shall not haue hir wyll ouer me for so long as I shall lyue I wyll continue the seruaunt of Gineura and my lyfe I will preserue to lette hir vnderstande the force of Loue By continuance whereof I will not sticke to sette my selfe on fyre with the liuely flames of my passion and then withdrawe the 〈◊〉 of my ioye by the rigour
the fault to conceiue no sinister suspicion of thy running away crauing thyne acquaintaunce and is contented to sacrifice him self vnto thyne anger to appease and mitigate thy rage Nowe to speake no more hereof but to procede in that which I began to say I offer vnto thée then bothe death and loue choose whether thou liste For I sweare againe by hym that séeth and heareth al things that if thou play the foole thou shalt féele and proue me to be the cruellest enimie that euer thou hadst and such a one as shall not feare to imbrue 〈◊〉 handes with the bloode of hir that is the deathe of the chiefest of all my friendes Gineura hearing that resolute answere 〈◊〉 hir selfe to be nothing afraide nor declared any token of feare but rather 〈◊〉 to haue encouraged Roderico in braue and mannish sort farre diuers from the simplicitie of a yong and tender maidē as a man wold say such a one as had neuer felt the assault es and troubles of aduerse fortune Wherfore frouncing hir browes and grinning hir téeth with closed 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 very bolde she made hym aunswere Ah thou knight which once gauest assault to cōmit a villanie treason thinkest thou now without remorse of conseience to cōtinue thy mischief I speake it to thée villain which 〈◊〉 shed the blood of an honester mā thā thou art fearest not nowe to make mée a companion of his death Which thing spare not hardily to 〈◊〉 to the intent that I liuing may not be such a one as thou falsly iudgest me to be for neuer man hitherto 〈◊〉 and neuer shall that he hathe hadde the spoyle of my virginitie from the frute whereof lyke an arrant thiefe thou hast depriued my loyall spouse Nowe doe what thou list for I am farre better content to suffer death be it as cruel as thou art mischeuous borne for the 〈◊〉 vexation of honest maidēs not withstanding I humbly beséech almightie God to gyue 〈◊〉 so muche pleasure contentation and ioy in thy loue 〈◊〉 thou hast done to me by hastening the death of my dere husbande O God if thou be a iust God suche a one as from whome wée thy poore creatures do beleue all 〈◊〉 to procéede thou I say which art the rampire and refuge of all iustice poure downe thy vengeance and plague vpon these pestiferous thieues and murderers which haue prepared a worldely plague vpon me thine innocent damsell Ah wicked Roderico thinke not that death can be so fearefull vnto mée but that wyth good heart I am able to accept the same trusting verily that one daye it shall be the cause of thy ruine and ouerthrowe of hym for whom thou takest all these pains Dom Roderico maruellously rapte in sense imagined the woman to be fully bent against hym who then had puissaunce as he thought ouer hir owne hearte and thynkyng that he sawe hir moued with like rage against hym as she was against Dom Diego stode still so perplered and voyde of righte minde that hée was constrained to sitte downe so feeble he felt him self for the onely remembrance of hir euill demeanor And whilest this was a doing the handemayde of Gineura and hir Page inforced to persuade their mystresse to haue compassion vpon the knight that hadde suffered so muche for hir sake and that she would consente to the honest requestes and good counsell of Roderico But she which was stubbornly bente in hir foolishe persuasions sayd vnto them What fooles are you so much be witched either with that fained teares of this disloyal knight which colorably thus doth torment himself or els ar ye inchāted with the venomous honie tirānical brauerie of the thief which murdered my husband and your master Ah vnhappie caytife maiden is it my chaunce to endure the 〈◊〉 of suche Fortune when I thoughte to liue at my beste case and thus cruelly to tomble into the handes of hym whome I hate so much as he fayneth loue vnto me And morcouer my vnluckie fate is not herewith content but redoubleth my sorrowe euen by those that be of my frayn who ought rather to incourage me to die than consente to so vureasonable requests Ah loue loue how euil be they recompenced which faithfully do homage vnto thée why should not I forget al 〈◊〉 neuer hereafter to haue mind on mā to proue beginning of a pleasure which tasted and 〈◊〉 bringeth more displeasure than euer ioy engendred 〈◊〉 Alas I neuer knewe what was the frute of that which so straungely did attache me and thou O 〈◊〉 and thieuishe Loue haste ordeined a banket 〈◊〉 with such bitter dishes as forced I am perforce to taste of their egre swéetes Auaunt swéete foly auant I doe henceforth for euer let thée 〈◊〉 to imbrace the death wherein I hope to finde my greatest reste for in thée I fynde noughte else but heapes of straynyng 〈◊〉 Auoyde from me all my myssehap 〈◊〉 from me ye furious ghostes and 〈◊〉 most vnkynde whose gaudes and toyes dame loue hath wrought to kéepe occupied my louing minde and suffer me to take ende in thée that I may lyue in an other life without thée being now charged with cup of grief which I shal 〈◊〉 in venomous drink soaked in the soppes of 〈◊〉 Sharpen thou thy selfe O death vnkinde prepare thy darte to strike the corpse of hir that she may voyd the quarels shot against hir by hir aduersarie Ah pore hart strip thy self from hope and qualifie thy desires Cease henceforth to wishe thy lyfe séeing and féeling the appointed fight of loue and life combattyng within my minde elsewhere to séeke my peace in an other world with him to ioy which for my sake was sacrificed to the treason of varlets hands who for the persite 〈◊〉 of his desires nought else didde séeke but to soile his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the purest bloode of my loyall friend And I this abundance of teares do sheade to saciate his felonous moode which shall be the iuste shortenyng of my doleful dayes When she had thus complained she began horribly to torment hir selfe and in furious guise that the cruellest of the companie were moued wyth compassion séeing hir thus strangely straught of wits 〈◊〉 they did not discontinue by duetie to sollicite hir to haue regarde to that whiche poore fayntyng Dom Diego dyd endure Who so sone as with fresh 〈◊〉 water hée was reuiued 〈◊〉 stil the heauinesse of his Ladie and hir incresed disdain and choler against him vanished in diuers soundings which moued Roderico frō studie 〈◊〉 wherin he was to ryse wherevnto that rage of Gineura had cast him down bicause forgetting all imaginarie affection of his Ladie and proposing his dutie before his eyes which eche Gentleman oweth to gentle damsels and women kind stil beholdyng with honourable respect the griefe of the martyred wyldernesse Knight sighyng yet by reason of former thought he sayde vnto Gincura Alas is it possible that in the heart of so yong and delicate a maiden there
was called Angēlica a name of trouth without offense to other due to hir For in very déede in hir were harbored the vertue of curtesy and gentlenesse and was so wel instructed and nobly brought vp as they which loued not the name or race of hir could not forbeare to commend hir and wish that their daughter were hir like In suche wise as one of hir chiefest foes was so sharpely beset with hir vertue and beautie as he lost his quiet sléepe lust to eate drinke His name was Anselmo Salimbene who wold willingly haue made sute to marry hir but the discord past quite mortified his desire so sone as he had deuised the plot within his braine and fansie Notwithstāding it was impossible that the loue so liuely grauen and 〈◊〉 in his minde could easily be defaced For if once in a day he had not séene hir his heart did fele the tormēts of tosting flames and wished that the Hunting of the Bore had neuer decayed a familie so excellent to the intent he might haue matched himself with hir whome none other coulde displace out of his remembraunce which was one of the richest Gentlemen and of greatest power in Siena Now for that he ourst not discouer his amorous grief to any person was the chiefest cause that martired most his heart for the auncient festred malice of those two families he despaired for euer to gather either floure or fruit of that affection presupposing that Angelica would neuer fire hir loue on him for that his Parents were the cause of the defaite ouerthrow of the Montanine house But what There is nothing durable vnder the heauens Both good and euill 〈◊〉 their reuolution in the gouernement of humane affaires The amities and hatreds of Kings and Princes be they so hardned as commonly in a moment he is not 〈◊〉 to be a hearty friend that lately was a 〈◊〉 foe and spired naught else but the ruine of his aduer farie We sée the varietie of humane chaunces and then 〈◊〉 iudge at eye what great simplicitie it is to stay settle certain and infallible iudgemit vpon 〈◊〉 vnstayed doings He that erst gouerned a king made all things to tremble at his word is sodainly throwne downe dieth a shamefull death In like sort another which loketh for his owne vndoing séeth himselfe aduaunced to his estate againe and vengeaunce taken of his enimies Calir Bassa gouerned whilom that great Mahomet that wan the Empire of Constantinople who attempted nothing without the aduise of that Bassa But vpon the sodain he saw himself reiected the next day strangled by commaundement of him which so greatly honored him without iust cause did him to a death so cruell Contrariwise Argon the T artarian entring armes against his vncle Tangodor Caui when he was vpon the point to lose his life for his rebellion and was conueyed into Armenia to be executed there was rescued by certain T artarians the houshold seruaūtes of his dead vncle and afterwards proclaimed king of T artarie about the yere 1285. The example of the Empresse Adaleda is of no lesse credit than the former who being fallen into the hands of Beranger the vsurper of that Empire escaped his fury and cruelty by flight in the end maried to Otho the first saw hir wrong reuenged vpō Beranger and al his race by hir sonne Otho the second I aduouch these histories to proue the mobility of fortune the chaunge of worldly chaunces to the end you may sée that the very same miserie which followed Charles Montanine hoisted him aloft again when he loked for least succor he saw deliueraunce at hād Now to prosecute our history know ye that while Salimbenc by little litle pined for loue of Angelica wherof she was ignorāt carelesse and albeit she curteously rendred health to him when somtime in his amorous fit he beheld hir at a window yet for al that she neuer gessed the thoughts of hir louing enimy During these haps it chaūced that a rich citizen of Siena hauing a ferme adioyning to the lāds of Montanine desirous to encrease his patrimonie annere the same vnto his owne and knowing that the yong gentleman wanted many things moued him to sel his inheritaunce offring him for it in redy mony a M. Ducates Charles which of all the wealth substaunce left him by his auncester had no more remaining but that countrey ferme a Palace in the Citie so the rich Italians of eche city terme their houses and with that litle liued honestly maintained his sister so wel as he could refused flatly to dispossesse himselfe of that porcion which renewed vnto him that happy memory of those that had ben the chief of al the cōmon wealth The couetous wretch seing himself frustrate of his pray conceiued such rancor against Montanine as he purposed by right or wrōg to make him not only to for fait the same but also to lose his life following the wicked desire of tirannous Iesabel that made Naboth to be stoned to death to extorte and wrongfully get his vineyarde About that time for the quarels cōmon discordes raigning throughout Italy that nobilitie were not assured of safety in their countreis but rather the cōmon sort rascall nūber were that chief rulers and gouerners of the cōmon wealth whereby the greatest part of the nobilitie or those of best authoritie being banished the villanous band and grosest kind of common people made a law like to the Athenians in the time of Solon that all persons of what degrée cōditiō so euer they were which practized by himselfe or other meanes the restablishing or reuocation of such as wer banished out of their Citie shold lose forfaite the sum of M. Florens and hauing not wherewith to pay the condempnation their heade should remaine for gage A law no dout very iust and righteous scenting rather of the barbarous cruelty of the Gothes and 〈◊〉 thā of true christians stopping the retire of innocents exiled for particular quarels of Citizens incited one against another and rigorously rewarding mercy and curtesie with execution of cruelty incomparable This citizen then purposed to accuse Montanine for offending against the lawe bicause otherwise he could not purchase his entent and the same was easy inough for him to compasse by reason of his authority and estimation in the Citie for the enditement and plea was no sooner red and giuen but a number of post knightes appeared to depose against the pore gentleman to beare witnesse that he had trespassed the lawes of the Countrey and had sought meanes to introduce the banished with intent to kill the gouerners and to place in state those 〈◊〉 that were the cause of the Italian troubles The miserable gentleman knew not what to do ne how to defend himself There were against him the Moone the. vy starres the state of the Citie the Proctor and Iudge of the court the witnesses that gaue
haue 〈◊〉 to present with too excéeding prodigall liberalitie and I would to God that life might satisfie the same then be sure it should so soone be imployed as the promise made thereof Alas good God I thought that when I 〈◊〉 my brother out of prison the neare distresse of death wherunto vniustly he was throwne I thought I say and firmely did beleue that fortune the enimy of our ioy had vomited al hir poison and being despoiled of hir fury and crabbed nature had brokē the bloudy and venemous arowes wherewith so long time she hath plaged our family and that by resting of hir self she had giuen some rest to the Montanine house of al their troubles misaduētures But I O miserable wight do see féele how far I am deuided from my hope and deceiued of mine opinion sith that furious stepdame appereth before me with a face more fierce thretning then euer she did sharpening hir selfe against my youth in other sorte than euer against any of our race If euer she persecuted our auncesters if she brought them to ruine and decay she now doth purpose wholly to subuert the same and throw vs headlong into that bottomlesse pit of all miserie exterminating for all togither the remnaunt of our consumed house Be it either by losse of thée good brother or the violent death of me which cannot hazard my chastitie for the price of mine vnhappie life Ah good God into what anguishe is my minde exponed how doe I féele the force and violence of frowarde fortune But what speake I of fortune How doth hard lucke insue that is predestinated by the heauens vpon our race Must I at so tender yeres and of so féeble kinde make choise of a thing which woulde put the wisest vpon earth vnto their shifts My heart doth faile me reason wanteth and iudgement hangeth in ballaunce by continuall agitations to sée how I am driuen to the extremitie of two daungerous straits enuironned with fearefull ieoperdies forcibly compelled either to be deuided and separated frō thee my brother whome I loue aboue mine owne life in whom next after God I haue sixed and put my hope and trust hauing none other solace comfort and helpe but thée or else by keping thée am forced to giue vnto another know not howe that precious treasure which being once lost cānot be recouered by any meanes for the garde and conseruation wherof euery woman of good iudgement that loueth vertue ought a thousand times to offer hir self to death if so many wayes she could rather than to blot or soile that inestimable iewell of chastitie wherewith our life is a true life contrariwise she which fondly suffreth hir self to be disseazed and spoiled of the same looseth it without honest title albeit she be a liue yet is she buried in the most obscure caue of death hauing lost the honoure which maketh Maidens marche with head vpright But what goodnesse hath a Ladie gentlewoman maiden or wife wherein she can glory hir honor being in doubt and reputation darkened with infamie Wherto serued the imperiall house of Augustus in those Ladies that were intituled with the Emperours daughters when for their vilany their were vnworthy of the title of chaste and vertuous What profited Faustina the Emperiall crowne vpon hir head hir chastitie through hir abhominable life being rapt and despoiled What wrong hath bene done to many simple women for being buried in the tombe of darke obliuion which for their vertue and pudique life merited eternall praise Ah Charles my brother deare where hast thou bestowed the eye of thy fore séeing minde that without foresight and care of the fame due to the honest dames and chast damosels of our family hauing lost the goods fathers inheritaunce wilt haue me in like sort sorgoe my chastitie which hitherto I haue kept with héedeful diligence Wilt thou dear brother by the price of my virginity that Anselmo shal haue greater victorie ouer vs than he hathe gotten by fight of sword vpon the allied remnaunt of our house Art thou ignorant that the wounds and diseases of the minde be more vehement than those which afflicte the body Ah I vnhappy maiden and what yll lucke is reserued for me what destiny hath kept me till this day to be presented for Venus Sacrifice to satissie a yong mannes lust which coueteth peraduenture but the spoile of my virginitie O happy the Romane maid slain by the proper hands of hir wofull father Virginius that she might not be soiled with infamie by the lecherous embracements of rauenous Appius which desired hir acquaintaunce Alas that my brother doe not so rather I would to God of his owne accord he be the 〈◊〉 minister of my life ready to be violated if God by 〈◊〉 grace take not my cause in hand Alas death why 〈◊〉 thou not throwe against my heart thy most pearcing darte that I may goe waite vpon the shadowes of my thrice happy parents who knowing this my grief wil not be void of passion to help me waile my woful state O God why was not I choaked and strangled so sone as I was taken forth the secrete imbracements of my mothers wombe rather thā to arriue into this mishap that either must I lose the thing I déeme most deare or die with the violence of my proper hands Come death come and cut the vnhappy thréede of my wofull life stoppe the pace of teares with thy trenchant darte that streame outragiously downe my face and close the brething wind of sighs which hinder thée from doing thine office vpon my heart by suffocation of my life and it When she had ended those words hir spéeche did faile and waxing pale and faint sitting vpon bi r stoole she fared as though that very death had sitten in hir place Charles thinking that his sister had bene deade 〈◊〉 with sorow and desirous to liue no longer after hir seing he was the cause of that sowning fell downe dead vpon the ground mouing neither hand nor foote as though the soule had bene departed from the bodie At the noise which Montanine made by reason of his fall Angelica reuiued out of hir sown and seing hir brother in so pitifull plight and supposing he had bene dead for care of his request for being berieued of hir brother was so moued as a little thing wold haue made hir do as 〈◊〉 did when she viewed Pyramus to be slaine But conceiuing hope she threw hir selfe vpon hir brother cursing hir fortune banning the starres of cruelty and hir lauash spéeche and hir self for hir litle loue to hir brother who made no refusal to die to saue his land for relief of hir wher she denyed to yeld hir self to him that loued hir with so goodaffection In the end she applied so many remedies vnto hir brother sometimes casting cold water vpon his face sometimes pinching and rubbing the temples and pulses of his armes his mouth with vineger that she made him to
a present so precious of such value and regarde as both of them be such as a right puissant prince and lord may be contented with a duetie so liberall and iewell in estimable of two offered things The assistants that were there coulde not tell what to say the discourse hadde so muche drawne their myndes into dyuers fantasies and contrary opinions seing that the same required by deliberation to be considered before lightly they vttred their mindes But they knew not the intent of him which had called them thither more to testifie his fact than to iudge of the thyng he went about or able to hynder and let the same True it is that the Ladies viewyng and marking the amiable countenance of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 woulde haue iudged for hir if they feared not to bée refused of hym whome the thyng didde touche moste néere Who withoute longer staye opened to them all what he was purposed to do saying Sith ye do spende time so long vpon a matter alreadie meant and determined I wil ye to know that hauing 〈◊〉 of mine honour and desirous to satisfie the honestie of the brother and sister I minde to take Angelica to my wife and lawful spouse vniting that which so lōg time hath bene diuided and making in two bodies whilom not wel accorded agréed one like and vniforme wil praying you eche one ioyfully to ioy with me and your selues to reioyse in that alliaunce whyche séemeth rather a woorke from heauen than a déede concluded by the counsell and industrie of men So lykewyse all wedded féeres in holie Wedlocke by reason of the effecte and the Author of the same euen G O D him selfe whiche did ordaine it first bée written in the infallible Booke of hys owne prescience to the intente that nothyng may decay which is sustained wyth the myghtie hand of that Almightie God the God of wonders which verily hée hath displayed ouer thée deare brother by makyng thée to fall into distresse and danger of death that myne Angelica béeing the meane of thy dyliueraunce myght also bée cause of the attonement whiche I do hope henceforth shall bée betwéene so noble houses as ours be Thys finall decrée reueled in open audience as it was agaynst their expectation and the ende that the kynred of Anselmo looked for so was the same no lesse straunge and bathful as ioyfull and pleasaunt féelyng a sodaine ioy not accustomed in their mynde for that vnion and alliaunce And albeit that their ryches was vnequall and the Dowrie of Angelica nothyng néere the greate wealth of Salimbene yet all men dyd déeme hym happie that hée hadde chaunced vpon so vertuous a mayden the onely modestie and integritie of whome deserued to bée coupled wyth the moste honourable For when a man hathe respecte onely to the beautie or riches of hir whome he meaneth to take to wyse he moste commonly dothe incurre the mischiefe that the spirite of dissention intermeddleth amydde theyr householde whereby pleasure vanishing with age maketh the riueled face beset with a thousand wrinkeled furrowes to growe pale and drie The wife likewyse when she séeth hir goodes to surmoūt the substāce of hir wedded husband she aduaunceth hir heart she swelleth to make himselfe a conquerour by mariage but she diminyshing no iote of hir noble minde he must seke else where his price of victorie To hir a desire to kyll hir selfe if things succéeded contrary to hir minde myght haue stopped the way to hir great glorie had she not regarded hir virginitie more than hir owne life The seconde seemeth to go halfe constrained and by maner of acquitall and had his affection bene to render himselfe 〈◊〉 to his foe his patron and preseruer it would haue diminished his praise But sithens inough wée haue hereof discoursed and ben large in treatie of Tragicomicall matters intermixed and suaged in some parte with the enteruiews of dolor modestie and indifferent good hap and in some wholy imparted the dreadfull endes like to terrible beginnings I meane for a reliefe and after suche sowre swéete bankettes to interlarde a licorous refection for sweeting the mouthes of the delicate And doe purpose in this Nouell insuing to manifest a pleasant disporte betwéene a Widowe and a Scholer a passyng practise of a craftie dame not well schooled in the discipline of Academicall rules a surmountyng science to trade the nouices of that forme by ware foresight to incountre those that by laborsome trauaile and nightly watch haue studied the rare knowledge of Mathematicalls and other hydden and secrete Artes. Wishing them so well to beware as I am desirous to let them know by this 〈◊〉 the successe of suche attemptes Mistresse Helena of Florence ¶ A Widowe called Mistresse HELENA with whome a Scholer was in loue she louyng an other 〈◊〉 the same Scholer to stande a whole 〈◊〉 nyghte in the Snowe to wayte for hir who afterwardes by a 〈◊〉 and pollicie caused hir in Iuly to stande vpon a Tower starke 〈◊〉 amongs Flyes and Gnattes and in the 〈◊〉 The. xxxi Nouel DIuerte we nowe a litle from these sundrie happes to solace our selues with a 〈◊〉 deuise and pleasaunt circumstance of a Scholers loue and of the wily guily 〈◊〉 of an amorous Widow of Florence A Scholer returned from Paris to 〈◊〉 his knowlege at home in hys owne Countreye learneth a more cunnyng lecture of Mystresse Helena than he didde of the subtillest Sorbone Doctor or other Mathematicall from whenee hée came The Scholler as plainly hée had applied his booke and earnestly herkned his readings so he simply meant to be a faithfull louer and deuoute requirant to this ioily dame that had vowed hir deuotion promised pilgrimage to an other saint The scholer vpon the first view of the widowes wandring lookes forgetting Ouides lessons of loues guiles pursued his conceipt to the vttermost The scholer neuer remembred how many valiaunt wise and learned men wanton womē had seduced and deceiued He had forgot howe Catullus was beguiled by Lesbia Tibullus by Delia Propertius by Cynthia Naso by Corinna Demetrius by Lamia Timotheus by Phryne Philippe by a Greeke mayden Alexander by Thais Hannibal by Campania Caesar by Cleopatra Pompeius by Flora Pericles by Aspa ga Psammiticus the king of Aegipt by Rhodope and diuers other very famous by women of that stampe He had not ben well trained in holy writ or heard of Samsons Dalida or of Salamons concubines but like a plaine dealing man beleued what she promised folowed what she bad him wayted whiles she mocked him attended till she laughed him to scorne And yet for all these ioily pastimes inuented by this widowe to deceiue the poore Scholer the scaped not frée from his Logike rules nor safe from his philosophie He was forced to turne ouer Aristotle to reuolue his Porphyrie and to gather hys wittes about him to requite this louing peate that had so charitably delt with him He willingly serched ouer Ptolome perused Albumazar made haste to Haly yea for a
this time of the night to take vpon me without daunger to bring him to his Palace Wherfore said the King Wherefore quod you bicause the Marshes be so daungerous as in the day time if one knowe not well the way the 〈◊〉 be he neuer so strong and lusty may chaunce to sticke fast tary 〈◊〉 for gage And I wold be sory if the King were héere that he shold fall into my perill or sufler anoyance therwithal wold deme my self vnhappy if I did let him to incur such euil or incōbrance Mansor that delighted in the cōmunication of this good mā and desirous to know the cause that moued him to speake with such affection sayd vnto him And why carest thou for the life health or preseruation of our king What hast to do with him that art so sory for his state and carefull of his safety Ho ho sayd the goodman doe you say that I am careful for my prince Uerily I loue him a hundred times better than I do my self my wife or children which God hath sent me and what sir doe not you loue our Prince Yes that I doe replied the King for I haue better cause than thou for that I am many times in his company and liue vpon his charge and am entertained with his wages But what 〈◊〉 thou to care for him Thou knowest him not he neuer did thée any good turne or pleasure nor yet thou nedest not hope henceforth to haue any pleasure at his hands What sayd the fisher man must a Prince be loued for gaine and good turnes rather than for his iustice curtesie I sée wel that amongs you master Courtiers the benefits of kings be more regarded and their gifts better liked than their vertue and nobility which maketh them wonderful vnto vs and ye do more esteeme the gold honor and estates that they bestow vpon you than their health and sauegarde which are the more to be considered for that the King is our head and God hath made him suche one to kepe vs in peace and to be careful of our states Pardon me if I speak so boldly in your presence The King which toke singulare delite in this Coūtrey Philosopher answered him I am not offended bicause thy woords aproche so neare the troth but tel me what benefit hast thou receiued of that king Mansor of whome thou makest suche accompte and 〈◊〉 so wel For I cannot thinke that euer he did thée good or shewed thee pleasure by reason of thy pouerty and the little furniture within thy house in respecte of that which they possesse whom he loueth and fauoreth and vnto whome he she weth so great familiaritie and benefite Doe 〈◊〉 me sir replied the good man for so much as you so greatly regard the fauoures which subiectes receiue at their Princes handes as in déede they ought to doe What greater goodnesse 〈◊〉 or benefite ought I to hope for or can receiue of my King being suche one as I am but the profit and vtilitie that all we which be his vassalles doe apprehend from day to day in the iustice that he rendreth to euery wight by not suffering the puissant and riche to suppresse and 〈◊〉 the feeble and weake and him that is 〈◊〉 of fortunes goodes that indifferency be maintained by the officers to whome he committeth the gouernment of his prouinces and the care which he hathe that his people be not deuoured by exactions and intollerable tributes I do esteme more his goodnesse clemency and loue that he beareth to his subiects than I doe all your delicates and ease in following the court I most humbly honor and reuerēce my king in that he being farre from vs doeth neuerthelesse so vse his gouernment as we féele his presence like the Image of God for the peace and vnion wherein we through him doe liue and enioy without 〈◊〉 that little which God and fortune haue giuen vs. Who if not the King is he that doeth preserue vs and defend vs from the 〈◊〉 and pillages of those Theues and Pirates of Arabie which make warre and inuade their neighbors and there is no frend they haue but they wold displease if the King wisely did not forbio preuent their villanies That great Lord which kepeth his Court at Constantinople and maketh himselfe to be adored of his people like a God brideleth not so muche the Arabians as our King doeth vnder the Protection and sauegarde of whome I that am a pore Fisher man do ioy my pouertie in peace and without 〈◊〉 of théeues do norish my little familie applying my selfe to the fishing of Eeles that be in these diches and fenny places which I cary to the market townes and sell for the sustenaunce and féeding of my wife and children and 〈◊〉 my selfe right happy that returning to my cabane and homely lodge at my pleasure in what so euer place I do abide bicause albeit farre of from neighboures by the bene 〈◊〉 and diligence of my Prince none staye my iourney or offendeth me by any meanes which is the cause sayd he lifting vp his hāds and eyes aloft that I pray vnto God and his great Prophet Mahomet that it may please them to preserue our King in health and to giue him so great happe and contentation as he is vertuous and debonaire and that ouer his ennimies flying before him 〈◊〉 may euermore be victorious for norishing his people in peace and his children in ioy and Nobilitie The King séeing that deuout 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 and knowing it to be without guile or 〈◊〉 would gladly haue discouered himself but yet willing to reserue the same for better oportunitie he sayd vnto him For somuch as thou 〈◊〉 st that king so wel it is not impossible but those of his house be welcome vnto thee and that for thy Mansors sake thou wilt helpe and doe seruice to his Gentlemen Let it 〈◊〉 you replied he that my heart is more inclined to the King than to the willes of those that serue him 〈◊〉 hope of preferment Now being so affectionate to the King as I am thinke whither his housholde seruaunts haue power to commaund me and whither my willing minde be prest to doe them good or not But me thinke ye néede not to stay héere at the gate in talke being so wet as you be wherefore vouchsafe to come into my house which is your own to take such simple lodging as I haue wher I wil entreat you not according to your merite but with the litle that God and his Prophet haue departed to my pouertie And to morow morning I wil conduct you to the Citie euen to that royal Palace of my Prince Truely answered the King albeit necessitie did not prouoke me yet 〈◊〉 honestie deserueth wel other reputation than a simple Countrey man and I do thinke that I haue profited more in hearing thée speake than by hearkening to the flattering and 〈◊〉 tales of Courting triflers which daily imploy thēselues to corrupt the eares
sorowfull husband gaue sufficient witnesse of hir paine and grief And if none had heard hir I thinke hir playntes woulde haue well expressed hir inwarde smarte of minde But like a wise Ladie séeing the alleaged reasons of hir husband licensed him although against hir minde not without vtterance of these few words before hée went out of hir Chamber Deare husband if I were so well assured of the affection of my brethren as I am of my maides fidelitie I would entreat you not to leaue me alone specially in the case I am being with childe But knowing that to be iust true which you haue sayd I am content to force my wil for a certaine time that hereafter we may liue at rest together ioyning our selues in the companie of our children and familie voide of those troubles which great Courts ordinarily beare within the compasse of their Palaces Of one thing I must intreat you that so oftē as you can by trustie messenger you send me woord intelligence of your health and state bicause the same shal bryng vnto me greater pleasure contentation than the welfare of mine owne and bicause also vpon such occurrentes as shall chaunce I may prouyde for mine owne affaires the suretie of my self and of our childrē In saying so she embraced him very amorously and he kissed hir wyth so great sorrow and grief of heart as the soule thought in that extasie out of his body to take hir flight sorowful beyōd mesure so to leue hir whome he loued for the great curtesies and honor which he had receiued at hir hands In the end fearing that the Aragon espials wold come and perceiue them in those priuities Bologna tooke his leaue and bad hys Ladie and spouse Farewell And thus was the second Acte of this Tragicall Historie to sée a fugitife husband secretely to mary especially hir vpon whom he ought not so much as to loke but with feare and reuerence Beholde here O ye foolish louers a Glasse of your lightnesse and ye women the course of your fonde behauior It behoueth not the wise sodainly to execute their first motiōs and desires of their heart for so much as they may be assured that pleasure is pursued so neare with a repentāce so sharp to be suffred and hard to be digested as their voluptuausnesse shall vtterly discontent them True it is that mariages be done in Heauen and performed in earth but that saying may not be applied to fooles which gouerne themselues by carnall desires whose scope is but pleasure the reward many times equal to their follie Shall I be of opinion that a housholde seruaunt ought to sollicite nay rather suborne the daughter of his Lord without punishment or that a vile and abiect person dare to mount vpon a Princes bed No no pollicie requireth order in all and eche wight ought to be matched according to their qualitie without making a pastime of it to couer our follies know not of what force loue and desteny be except the same be resisted A goodly thing it is to loue but where reason loseth his place loue is without his effect and the sequele rage madnesse Leaue we that discourse of those which beleue that they be constrained to folowe the force of their minde and may easily subdue themselues to the lawes of vertue and honesty like one that thrusteth his head into a sack and thinks he can not get out such people do please themselues in their losse and think all well that is noisom to their health daily folowing their cōtrarie Come we againe then to sir Bologna who after he had left his wife in hir Castell went to Naples and hauing sessed a rent vpon his landes and leuied a good summe of money he repaired to Ancona a Citie of the patrimonie of the Romane Church whither he caried his two children which he had of the Duchesse causing the same to be brought vp with such diligēce and care as is to be thought a father wel affectioned to his wife would doe and who delighted to sée a braunche of the trée that to him was the best beloued fruit of the world There he hired a house for his train and for those that waited vpon his wife who in the meane time was in great care could not tell of what woode to make hir arowes perceiuing that hir belly began to 〈◊〉 and grow to the time of hir deliuerie séeing that from day to day hir brothers seruaunts were at hir back 〈◊〉 of councel and aduise if one euening she had not spokē to the Gentlewoman of hir chāber touching the douts and peril wherin she was not knowing how she might be deliuered from the same That maiden was gentle of a good minde and stomake and loued hir mistresse very derely séeing hir so amazed and tormenting hir self to death minding to fray hir no further ne to reproue hir of hir fault which could not be amended but rather to prouide for the daunger wherunto she had hedlong cast hir self gaue hir this aduise How now Madame said she is that wisdom which from your childhode hath bene so familiar in you dislodged from your brest in time when it ought chiefly to rest for incountring of those mishaps that are cōming vpon vs Thinke you to auoid the dangers by thus tormenting your self except you set your hands to the work thereby to giue the repulse to aduerse fortune I haue heard you many times speake of the constancie force of minde which ought to shine in the dedes of Princesses more clerely than amōgs those dames of baser house which ought to make thē appere like the sunne amid that litle starres And yet I sée you now astonned as though you had neuer forséene that aduersitie chaunceth so wel to catch the great within his clouches as that base simple sort Is it but now that you haue called to remembraunce that which might insue your mariage with sir Bologna Did hys only presence assure you against the waits of fortune was it the thought of paines feares frights which now turmoileth your dolorous mind Ought you thus to vexe your self when nede it is to think how to saue both your honor and the frute within your 〈◊〉 If your sorow be so great ouer sir Bologna and if you feare your childbed wil be descried why séeke you not meanes to attempt some voyage for couering of the sad to 〈◊〉 the eyes of them which so diligently do watch you Doth your heart faile you in that matter Whereof do you dreame Why sweat and freat you before you make me answer Ah swéete heart answered the Duchesse if thou feltest the paine which I do suffer thy tongue wold not be so much at will as thou shewest it now to be for reprofe of my smal cōstancie I do sorow specially for that causes which thou alleagest and aboue all for that I know wel that if my brethrē had neuer so litle intelligence of
my being with child I were vndone my life at an end and peraduenture poore wench thou shouldest beare the penaūce for my sinne But what way can I take that stil these cādles may not giue light and I may be voided of the traine which ought to wayt vpon my brethren I thinke if I should descend into Hel they would know whither any shadowe there were in loue with me Now gesse if I should trauaile the Realme or retire to any other place whither they wold leaue me at peace Nothing lesse sith they would sodainly suspect that the cause of my departure procéeded of desire to liue at libertie to dallie wyth him whome they suspect to be other than my lawfull husbande And it may be as they be wicked and suspicious and will doubt of my greatnesse so shall I be farre more infortunate by trauailyng than here in miserie amidde myne anguishe and you the rest that be kéepers of my Councell shall fal into greater daunger vpon whome no doubt they wil be reuenged and flesh themselues for your vnhappy waiting and attendance vpon vs. Madame said the bolde maiden be not afraide and follow mine aduise For I hope that it shall be the meanes both to sée your spouse to rid those troublesome verlets out of your house in like manner safely to deliuer you into good assuraunce Say your minde sayd the Ladie for it may be that I will gouerne my self according to the same Mine aduise is then sayd that Gentlewoman to let your houshold vnderstand that you haue made a vow to visite the holy Temple of our Lady of Loretto a famous place of Pilgrimage in Italie and that you commaund your traine to make themselues ready to waite vpon you for accōplishment of your deuotion from thence you shall take your iourney to soiorne at Ancona whither before you depart you shall send your moueables and plate with such money as you shall think necessarie And afterwardes God will performe the rest and through his holy mercy will guide direct all your affaires The Duchesse hearing the maydē speake those woords and amazed of hir sodaine inuention could not forbeare to embrace and kisse hir blessing the houre wherin she was borne and that euer she chaunced into hir companie to whome afterwardes she sayd My wēch I had well determined to giue ouer mine estate and noble porte ioyfully to liue like a simple Gentlewoman with my deare and welbeloued husband but I could not deuise how I should conueniently departe this Countrey wythout suspition of some follie and sith that thou hast so well instructed me for bringing that same to passe I promise thée that so diligently thy coūcel shal be performed as I sée the same to be right good and necessarie For rather had I sée my husband being alone without title of Duchesse or great Lady than to liue without him beautified with the graces and foolish names of honor and preheminence This deuised 〈◊〉 was no soner groūded but she gaue such order for execution of the same brought it to passe wyth such 〈◊〉 as that Ladie in lesse than viij dayes had conueyed and sent the most part of hir moueables and specially the chiefest and best to Ancona taking in that meane time hir way towards Loretto after she had bruted hir solempne vow made for that Pilgrimage It was not sufficiēt for this foolish woman to take a husband more to glut hir libidinous appetite than for other occasion except she added to hir sinne an other execrable impietie making holy places and dueties of deuotion to be as it were the ministers of hir follie But let vs consider the force of Louers rage which so soone as it hath seased vpon the minds of men we sée how maruelious be the effects thereof and with what straint and puissaunce that madnesse subdueth the wise and strongest worldlings Who wold think that a great Ladie wold haue abandoned hir estate hir goods and childe would haue misprised hir honor and reputation to folow like a vagabond a pore and simple Gentleman and him bisides that was the houshold seruaunt of hir Court And yet you sée this great and mightie Duchesse trot run after the male like a female Wolfe or Lionesse whē they goe to sault and forget the Noble bloud of Aragon wherof she was descēded to couple hir self almost with the simplest person of all the trimmest Gentlemen of Naples But turne we not the example of follies to be a matter of cōsequence for if one or two become bankrupt of their honor it foloweth not good Ladies that their facte should serue for a matche to your deserts much lesse a patron for you to folow These Histories be not written to train and trap you to pursue the thousand thousand slippery sleightes of Loues gallantise but rather carefully to warn you to behold the semblable faultes and to serue for a drugge to discharge the poyson which gnaweth and fretteth the integritie and soūdnesse of the soule The wise skilfull Apothecary or compositor of drugges dresseth Uipers flesh to purge the patient from hote corrupted bloude which conceiueth and engendreth Leprosie within his body In like manner the fonde loue wicked ribauldrie of Semiramis Pasiphae 〈◊〉 Faustina and Romida is shewed in wryt that euery of you should feare to be numbred and recorded amōgs such common and dishonorable women You Princes and great Lordes read the follies of Paris the adulteries of Hercules the daintie and effeminate life of Sardanapalus the tirannie of Phalaris Busiris or Dionysius of Scicile and sée the History of Tiberius Nero Caligula Domitian and Heliogabalus spare not to numbre them amongs our 〈◊〉 youthes which soile thēselues with such villanies more filthily than the swine do in the durt Al this intendeth it an instruction for your youth to follow the infection and whoredome of those 〈◊〉 Better it were all those bokes were drēched in bottōlesse depth of seas than christiā life by their meanes shold be corrupted but the exāple of that wicked is induced for to eschue auoid them as that life of the good honest is remēbred to frame addresse our behauior in this world to be praise worthy cōmēded Otherwise the holinesse of sacred 〈◊〉 shold 〈◊〉 for an argument to the vnthrifty luxurious to confirm approue their heastly licencious wickednesse Come we again thē to our purpose the good Pilgrime of Loretto went forth hir voyage to atchieue hir deuotions to visite the Saint for whose Reliques she was departed that Countrey of that Duke hir sonne When she had done hir suffrages at 〈◊〉 hir people thought that the voyage was at an end that she wold haue returned again into hir Countrey But she said vnto them that sith she was so néere 〈◊〉 being but. xv miles off she would not returne before she had séen that auncient goodly city which diuers Histories do greatly recōmend as wel for the