of theyr intentes bycause indiscréetelye they dressed their vowes and offeringes to Ladies who afore were consecrated to other saintes To auoyde this daunger sayth Phylopolo I saye as before a pleasaunt libertie is a precious price and by so much the dearer to me by how much my nature is impacient beyng denied what I demaunde and therefore if I be enforced to make loue I will eyther angle with an enchaunted hooke or at least fishe in that streame which wil giue me no cause of complaint This is your libertie of spéech aunswereth Monophylo by which you reueale your naturall ignoraunce in loue as the fonde man in his owne braine ymagines he maye dispose all the worlde you will not loue you say otherwayes than in an imperiall respect to choose and commaunde I would to God the choyse were in our powers or our discressioÌ„ hable to moderate our authoritie defie not that seigneur Phylopolo wherevnto we are drawne by nature and destinie seeing when you accompt you most frée from the motions of loue you shall finde your selfe most forced with his violence and so sharpely persecuted that in dispite of your wanton resistaunce you shall be enioyned to doe smarting penaunce for the blasphemie which now without aduise you maintaine as eyther to like loathsomely to loue desperatelye to choose vnaduisedly to possesse Ielously to liue poorely or to hate extréemelye of all these sayth Phylopolo the greatest plague is to loue and not be encountred séeing in our lyking we haue reason and iudgement afore wée choose wée eyther knowe or enquire in our loue we haue temperaunce to auoyde iealowsye touching our state we stande vpon Gods prouidence and to hate is improper to a man of reason without great cause so that next to desperation in loue a loathsome mate is the seconde infelicitie which I doubt not to auoyde by the helpe of nature who drawes vs all to desire the fayre and leaue the foule But take héede sayth Monophylo least séeking to enter into the rules of Philosophie you stumble not vpon Thequiuox for I neuer as yet hearde of louer who estéemed not his Ladie fayre wherein notwithstanding there is a singularitie in fayrenesse and some ladyes of greater beawtie than others yet we see the sillie heardeman or poore Peasaunt woulde not leaue his preatie Katie for the fayrest Lady in the realme and why bicause in hir hée hath layde vp his heart and shée in his rurall fancie appeares more contenting fayre than all the dainetie dames of the traine And yet perhaps he is no lesse studious in beawtie than you but his minde being fixed in one place by an opinion which he hath conceiued of the partie as of late seigneur Pasquier well approoued albeit in hir doe rest all the inciuilitie and rudenesse of the worlde yet he consters hir and hir qualitie to a singuler wise and séemely behauiour wherein what better example can I prefer then out of Angeliqua figured within Arioste in his booke of Furius shée who had béene beloued courted and pursued by numbers of the best knightes of the world without vsing any mercie vpon them in the ende when she thought hir selfe most frée from passion it was then she felt hir selfe so déepely enclined in affection to a meane souldiour not comparable to the least of the other that euen in hir was forced the office and indeuour of the man which is to require and demaunde here Phylopolo desired him to passe no further in that example least sayth hée you blinde vs all with that which earst you doubted in mée which is Thequiuox For by the nature of your present example the author of Furius sekes to teache vs no other thing then that the naturall inclination of a woman is not with the man to chuse the better but as children addresse themselues alwayes to the worsse as wée sée the shée Woolfe who amongst the whole troupe of Woolues doth commonlye make hir singuler choyse of him in whome appeares least likeyhoode of habilitie to satisfie hir appetite euen so the experience is common in many women who rather then they will yelde to the honest friendeshippe of some worthie man will dissimule to be a Penelope but hauing the place and oportunitie frée from daunger they will not sticke to enter foule conuersation with a foule grome of the stable or some loathsome Skullion of the kitchin so that if as touching the onely regarde of women you iudge with mée in this sorte of this inclination and opinion wherof you speake so muche I am of your side but otherwise not you shall pardon mée sir sayth Monophylo if at so deare a prise you holde your societie in iudgement séeing of an infected â—ier cannot come but a corrupt gaine and where the consent is bought the matter cannot escape dishonest incredulitie but touching your comparison of the Woolfe with the woman you are eyther a sworne enimie to women â—r else ignoraunt in the secret nature of the Woolfe in whome vnder correction aboue all other creatures is directlye discerned a most full and familier instruction to loue and to whose example we ought chiefely to apply the maner and measure of our affection if the same were in our power for suche is the condicion of the she Woolfe that being pursued by many dogge Woolues chooseth out of infinite numbers the most leane and euill fauoured amongst them euen he which first began to follow hir when she entred into hir heate and who by a weary pursute and infinite labours is so mortified for hir that to recompence his deformity procéeding for hir sake shée séemes to receyue him afore all the reast as hauing aboue the reast best deserued whose maner I wishe might stand in example to certaine Dames to whome the martirdome of a poore afflicted louer is a singuler felicitie a thing in my iudgement so abhominable to God and men as I thinke the heauens close their gates the earth vomits curses against such vnnaturall in iniquitie And yet Madam I may wrongfully lay this fault vpoÌ„ them seeing they haue to alleage the supremacie of Cupido who onely lyes in ambushe to steale our heartes to the ende that leading them in his authoritie he may dispose them at his pleasure For so doth this little Godde entangle himselfe with our doings by whome all Ladies falling into such inconuenience are dispensed withall and the whole guilt layd vpon him who vnwares to vs wretches infectes the best and soundest partes in vs without any libertie of health but such and in whome it pleaseth him to graunt it This is the cause why the auncientes made him an archer without eyes as hauing no respect to the qualities of persons doth oftentimes dazell our sight and blinde our sences that without any consideration we translate our heartes to such as the common people murmuring at our destinie holdes vnworthie of vs who as blinde iudges laye the fault to our owne mocion and cléere this little inuisible théefe by whose traines
wealth of Sparta euery one bent his deuotion to hir in whome reposed his whole religion we should cutte of all the paynes and traueyles which we sée at thys day reigne amongst worldlings which in common reason woulde prooue farre more conuenient than your commoditie sir which you haue alledged in the administration of a familie you doe nothing in preparing the way to maryages if you doe not associate them vnder a mutuall friendship neyther shall any citie or state be happie vntill with the example of our auncestors we establishe our mariages vnder one hart as by which meane and not otherwayes we shall banishe not onely all the errors of such coniunctions but also euen purge the whole common wealth who tending to a perpetuall moneaccorde and generall quiet shall neuer enioy hir felicitie so long as in place of true friendship she findes secret simulation betwéene man and wyfe which if it be so and that by this maryage copulation your pollecie and whole common welth be brought to the bayte seeing that in the beginning the worlde being deuided but into the vnitie of two persons it multiplyed by little and little into villages and walled townes sure if the foundation of such boundes be corrupted the whole buylding must necessarily fall to ruyne wherein to giue you my fancie in plaine speach I cannot otherwayes thinke then that from this corruption of maryages whiche succéede in no other meaning than for money séeing in all other respectes there is no resemblaunce betwéene the partyes doth come the cause of our ordinarie iarres and disagréements betwéene brothers and sisters who béeing câ—mposed of dyuers and different humors contende as it were in contrarie qualityes and dispositions which they borrow seuerally of theyr father and mother I professe not to pretende by this to haue in my handes the reformation of our maners but this me thinkes cannot be inconuenient as well for present order sake as to banishe from vs in tyme this corruption of dowryes that a Ladie béeing in that vnhappie sort maried to haue a friende of reseruation with assuraunce to kéepe to him an indissoluble fayth and loyaltie standing as a good and faythfull example to others not to marrie themselues to goodes but to men according to the consent of loue and destinie here this forlorne Gentleman ceassed his further discourse to the great reioysing of the assistaunts amongest whome as there was none that pretended interest with him so for my part albeit I knowe not whether hée argued at voluntarie pleasure or vsed a plaine meaning yet weighing with the maiestie of the matter the nature of his reasons I coulde not so farre consent with his sayings as not to reserue a libertie to contende with him And where he mainteyned so sharpely that loue passed all ordinaunces of man his error was no lesse in it selfe than hys opinion farre from the purpose of the present question For who is so ignoraunt or leade heauie in iudgement whiche discernes not as it were by his eye that maryage was not ordeyned by man but erected by the eternall deuine pollecie as the onely meane for conseâ—uation of mankinde so to accomodate a thing so highe to our humaine fraâ—â—tie me thinkes is neyther order in discretion nor consideration in dutie which drawes me Madame on your side not onely in regarde of the societie which you haue wisely alledged but also for other déepe respects as chiefly for that God commaundes that a woman doe not make hir selfe méete for any other then him to whome the ceremonie of the Church â—ath bounde hir yea albeit there were default of loue betwéene hir husbande and hir yet in christian dutie shée is bounde to enforce hir nature to the ende to enioy an eternall peace And yet Madame if this maryage happen to be one of those in whom is such resolute imperfection and contrarietie as loue cannot be brought in I cannot in a necessarie care for hir worldly felicitie but excuse hir and approoue the aduice of this Gentleman to bequeath hirselfe to a constant friende wherein though you note me of corrupt counsayle yet I haue nature to aunswere the cause for me and maryage it selfe if it coulde speake I knowe woulde not accuse me but rather incline on my side as to sée hir nourcechilde vnder a promise of wealth defrauded by a husbande of hir true and pleasaunt inheritaunce which is loue which iustly she may exclaime to bée solde at too vile a price against all reason And if you wil néedes thrust vpoÌ„ me the defence of this cause in mine owne name without calling other warraunt doe you not sée in common wealthes well ordered séeing you call vppon the ayde of a state well gouerned that many things are suffered for necessitie sake which other wayes being estéemed euill should be also abolished referring you to consider more largely of the rest séeing this text is ticklishe ynough specially for the maryed sort wherein God graunt that as eschuing this goulph and pitte of stryfe euery one may chuse such a wyfe as nature and not money reserues for them so if other wayes their lotte prooue euill and they miscarie let them blame themselues as guiltie to suche destinie With the which Glaphyro who had heard all their discourse wyth a modest â—â—lence prepares himselfe to play his part Here doe I finde sayth he to be veryfied in vs the tale of the Poet Horace of thrée men inuited by him to a banquet they all being diuers in taste straunge in appetite and hard to be pleased but most of all the thirde because the first delited in swéete meates the seconde tooke pleasure in sowre sawce and to this were agréeable neither the one nor the other such was the delicatie of his complexion whome in this I may perhaps resemble as séeking to finde a meane betweene the two extremities so thorowly debated betwéene you For as farre as I can gather of your contention as one matter drawes on another from loue simplie as you terme it you are discended to maryage In loue seigneur Monophylo you maintaine a coniunction of one to one without enforcing the dutie by which we are bounde to our mystresses And in loue also you seigneur Phylopolo defende the contrarie to your loue seigneur Monophylo you gyue scope to ouerrunne euen maried women notwithstanding by right of maryage they concerne vs nothing laying all the fault vpon dowryes as deuesting vs of such friendship as in those actes is requisite you would haue mariages procéede vnder the onely title of loue wherein for my part in as much as concernes the first poynt I am not of opinion with you seigneur Monophylo and giue lesse fayth to the sayings of you seigneur Phylopolo not for any desire I haue to impugne eyther of you but béeing mens iudgementes diuers euery man hath also a libertie to thinke at pleasure touching the seconde tending to affection in wedlocke whereof for the dignitie of the matter I intende to speake afore
is one poynt sayth Phylopolo which might giue place to the question wherein perhappes I will one day offer you the chalenge as finding it straunge that you will make march vnder one Methode the man and the wyfe albeit for the present I will reserue it to another season onely to discharge my selfe now agaynst seigneur Glaphyro who for the better authoritie of his opinion séekes to make vs vnderstande that loue hath none other residence then in the heart and nothing at all in these naturall intemperaunces which he sayth are nourished in our mindes sure seigneur Glaphyro me thinkes you sake to leade vs in a straunge construction touching the force and vertue of loue seeing ther was neuer louer who loued not to this end which you so far estraung banish from the park of loue what other cause is there of our aâ—â—ction â–ª or what else doth induce vs to loue our Ladyes if not this last felicitie which we pretende to finde in them wherein besides common experience which of it selfe ought to suffice to iudge betweene vs how many examples haue we reade in antiquitie amongst whome we finde no one louer who at length hath not required of his mystresse that poynt which we call the fruite of loue the same in mine opinion being the motion and onely purpose of this extréeme loue nay rather it is euen loue it selfe which is none other thing then a desire to vse and possesse Great surely and gracious is the effect of the eye hande and heares but not of such force as that in them we may finde a full reliefe to the torments we endure but rather with Mars when he possessed frankely his Venus let vs directly séeke out the marke wherevnto loue leades vs And albeit from the eyes and lookes doe flowe no small contentment yet they are but dymme starres in respect of the other light wherein I holde him altogither insensuaâ—e who vnder anye other consideration pretendes to professe loue to Ladies This speach is not indecently vsed seigneur Phylopolo sayth Monophylo neyther improperly applyed to the present matter onely I thanke you that in fauouring partly my opinion you offer me simplie your ayde without the which notwithstanding I thinke Glaphyro vnderstanding my reasons woulde haue condiscended to my saying as being of it selfe sufficiently defensible And albeit I haue nowe to rest in quiet with him for the matter of loyaltie yet me thinkes notwithstanding I acknowledge somewhat vnthankefully the benefite you haue presented to me you and I shall not so easily accorde bicause in my iudgement as you séeme sinisterly to comprehende all the nature of loue so I will not resist that the louer ought not to thurst for the thing which you holde in such estimation But that to loue onely for that respect is eyther true loue or friendship of continuance I maintaine agaynst you and all chalengers hoping you will take it as from him whose nature cannot be disguised from the office of a true louer we see by experience many men who pretending onely that marke and ende in loue after they haue brought their pretence to a matter of effect as men whose natures chaunge in a moment they become no lesse colde in desire than earsâ—e they laboured in vehement meanes to aduaunce the execution of their fléeting will yea they are euill acquainted with the nature of loue who dispose him onely vnder a contentment to frayle he being in himself so diuine and wonderfull and the pray after which they hunt so passable and of no abode indéede this I will confesse that nature to multiplie this huge and rounde bodie which you sée doth kindle in vs by a secrete wisedome certaine motions or stinges which with good right some haue called brutall as béeing common to vs with other creatures and not onely with them but euen with trées and things not sensible which séeme to bloome and become fruitfull for the encrease of their 〈◊〉 which naturall vehemencie if it had not bene necessarie also in vs this huge plot and workemanship of the earth had soone taken ende This is the cause why intercepting our willes â–ª and guiding our affections by these disordered appetytes which necessitie puttes in vs we beare to the communitie of women certaine sparkes of strâ—nger good will than to men and they likewise to vs the same happening in ordinarie example séeing there was neuer personage of such deformitie if I may charge him vpon his fayth and conscience who naturally receyues not specially in a conformetie of things more contentment in the companie of women then in the felowship of men For our nature doth euen reioyce in them as séeing hirselfe by an honest and lawfull coniunction of one to another immortalised So that by this meane is founde an affection verie vehement which generally wée beare to all women But not this perticuler friendship of one to one whereof you speake which in my iudgement consistes as a more vyolent cause then that which you alleage wherein I will lay my selfe vpon the relation of certaine noble minded men who albeit doe honour their Ladyes with a setled affection pretending with all pollecie to conquere the extréeme marke and felicitie in loue yet I haue noted them to rest best satisfied with the onely vse of the sight presence and speach of theyr Ladyes and that bicause they feared that being possessed of that inuisible paradise their loue would conuert into some chauÌ„ge then much lesse that they estéemed it to be the onely cause of their affection yea it is a common perswasion among the populer sort that hauing woonne that point vpon a gentlewoman loue which the sonne when he is at the highest beginnes to decline and then better is it to hunt the chase then obtayne the pray so that according to the purpose of their reasons the selfe same subiect which as they iudge is the very spring and original of loue is also the whole and onely reuersor of the same séeing their building being pitched vpon a frayle foundation the worke and matter desolues in it selfe the same happening oftentimes to such foolish louers who rest no lesse deceyued in their enterprise than their thought was vayne But nowe seigneur Glaphyro let me aske you this rouing question if two louers not setting their minde vpon this contentment which you meane and yet one of them betray his affection as to become prodigall of his bodie elsewhere doe you thinke this abuse is not a tyring griefe to his mystresse if by chaunce she come to the knowledge of it This I say because that you establishing your loue in the heart estéemes these naturall intemperaunces as you call them not to touche or hurt in any sort such as doe loue wherein for my part suche is my opinion and in it is some conformitie with yours that loue kéepes his true and only abode in the hart not styrring by suche intemperaunces but by a certaine greater cause as ymmediately I meane to prooue
and yet neyther one of our sayde two louers can impart wyth a straunger without our extreeme displeasure bicause that as the lyfe of two louers dependes mutually one vpon an other the man liuing altogither in the woman and shée likewise reposing onely in him so they could not but communicate both in equall griefe if others besides themselues woulde presse to giue pleasure not onely such as nature kindles in vs but generally to their Ladies as their Lordes And yet they spare it in themselues as in a reciprocall regarde delyting farre rather to féede themselues with a sweete and sugred desire which by this appetite they haue then with a cloyed fulnesse gathering the pleasaunt fruit one of another yea we are so déepely vowed in them and they assured in vs that if it happen in a dreame their ymaginations haue deceyued them as thinking to haue communicated with vs such is our pleasure to thinke that felicitie mooued in them by our occasion and meanes wée tryumphe in no lesse inwarde ioy and gladnesse of minde then if we had béene present to performe and execute our willes For to vse a iudgement in simple truth the pleasure doth not so much mooue vs in our selues as the desire we haue to be the cause of that wherewith our Mistresses may participate seeing as we are borne for them and not for our selues so we liue in them and not in our selues and die in them to be eftsoones reuiued in them lyke as also the benefite which we promise our selues to receyue of them although in it selfe it conteyne singuler greatnesse and merite yet is it not so highly perfite as that which we hope to procure to them and so doubt not at all sir that there is any one in loue who is not extréemely gréeued when his pretended friend or seconde himselfe findes contentment with any other whatsoeuer not that theyr loue as I sayde and still maintaine be grounded vpon such substaunce In déede we desire and thurst after that poynt bicause nature vpon great cause consideration hath taught vs so to do But as we desire it by nature so loue by a more violent reason teacheth vs a modest gouernement what is more to be sayde Although there were no hope to enter that common hauen and that my mystresse had made mée altogither desperate in accustomed expectation yet I stand in the same dutie and regarde of setled loue that was rooted in me before albeit vnder this singuler perswasion and assuraunce in my selfe that there was no default of friendship but rather some greater reason tending to entertaine our loue which induced hir to denie me wherein also if other occasion should leade hir as to be more affected to an other than to me or holding me lesse deare than eyther I haue hoped or she professed yet my loue should not diminish otherwayes then by a Metamorphesis or tragiâ—all coniunction into pyning griefe which as the Aegle vpon Promotheus should plucke and pynch my heart by péecemeale till with my loue my life were also resolued to ayre bicause I onely desâ—red to be in place to giue hir the contentment she wished more in contemplation and regard of hir than of my selfe who if my loue did not aspire but to that poynt I woulde neuer rest till I had aduaunced the issue and conquered that happie effect and yet in thrusting for it I desire it not as in desiring it I doe not long for it but as a voluble affection I make it farre inferior to other regardes I repose in hir You may aske me here what is this true loue whose pleasaunt torment so throwes the worlde into passions wherevnto the Philosophers shall aunswere for me who in a déepe insight thinking to attaine to the vnderstanding of nature ymagined loue to be a most excellent forme or plot excéeding generally the consideration of man and therefore did figure vnto vs an Androgina by whome they ment a man composed of the Masculine and Femenine sexe and he standing in his state of perfection swelled in such mortall pryde agaynst the Gods that by that meanes he was afterwardes deuided into two But it is most manifest that this vnitie of the two halfes is not ment by a coniunction of the bodyes but by the communion of the myndes bicause this superficiall forme of bodie which we sée in our selues is not the man of whome we speake but an organe of the man which we couer in our selues like as we note euen from the beginning of the worlde that God hath formed vs to his owne lykenesse as alwayes inuisible and deâ—ided from all corporall masse vntill the tyme wherein he is to accomplishe his promises If Plato were the first that preferred this opinion of Androgina as I am not resolute that he ment the onely coniunction of myndes so I dare fully assure my selfe that he figured such a myracle to represent vnto vs some heauenly matter in loue wherein it may be disputed of it in such sort as one by whose search and traueyle in Egypt he had commoned with the priestes of the lawe in the hystorie of Moyses touching his Genesis But what néede wée acknowledge this Androgina in the Gréekes and forraine Philosophers who onely as it were by certaine chinkes and creuises beholde the Sunne séeing the true light thereof remaines amongst our selues and whatsoeuer they defined of it was eyther ignorauntly or by stealth which they haue disguised since as not to be seene to borrow any thing of other straunge nations which they call barbarous The true and onely Androgina is that which was presented vnto vs not by a hystorie or ryding tale but by a marueylous effect in the person of Adam when this mightie Architâ—uctor of all thinges of a souereigne wisdome reserued onely to himselfe framed of one bodie and one spirite two bodyes and two myndes which prooues this amitie to bée more deuine and heauenly than the common sort can presume Albeit if you will that I declare more at large hauing already in short reuealed this excellent myracle vnder the which is comprehended the Image of true loue what libertie God hath left vs since to loue one another and the cause why we traueyle in affection Assure your selfe seigneur Phylopolo to note no lesse confusion in me then happened to him who vndertaking to dispute vpon the nature of God referred it alwayes from one day to another as a thing incomprehensible to our myndes Oh God what thing is loue may I say it proceedes of a similitude maners or that he takes his beginning of a constellation or influence of the selfe ascendantes vnder the which we are borne No no for then in both the one and other maner it must néedes follow by infallible consequence that no man louing should be deceyued in his loue but be encountred with reciprocall action I meane euery one that loued should be also beloued And to establish loue vpon a selfe education and mutuall nouriture woulde séeme no lesse farre
how déepely she fauoured his side wished shée might warrant his opinion with such authoritie as she woulde the rather sayth shée for that with the propertie of Archars who aduisedlie direct and leuell their arrowes to a little white in respect of the white which of it selfe is a small substaunce but in a certaine secret regarde of honour to come néerest that little marke euen so albeit your louer aspire mistically to that last and desired sacrifice in loue yet it is not the principall purpose that first induced him to loue wherein suer as your reasons holde suche conformitie with truth that if loue himselfe should discende from his temple to dispute herein he could not more liuely touch the very white of this businesse so I beléeue that in your mouth are presently reuealed the oracles of Cupido whereof seigneur Monophylo according to my prerogatiue I institute you from thinstaunt archebishop Euen now began Phoebus to chaunge complexion conuerting his rayes of warme reflexcion into a darcke dispericion inclined as it prooued to releeue the earth with some pleasaunt dewe or swéete shower which notwithstanding had no power to offende in any sort these fower valyaunt champions of loue who by his deuine prouidence had so well pauished them with trées and leaues intricatelie enterlaced togither that neyther the sunne had any hurtfull power ouer them and much lesse the winde coulde vse his vyolence by meane whereof the Ladye after a little pawse fell eftsones vpon the matter of hir last speach If sayth she Cupido be drawne to fauour you in respect of your argument I stande in doubt whether the sunne hath reason to rest contented as séeking to quenche the fire which you begunne to kindle in vs touching the deuinitie of loue which perhappes he doth for malice as séeing this little mightie God doth blowe vp more flame within our hartes than he that is estéemed the generall starre to giue light to the whole worlde vnder your correction Madam sayth Glaphyro Monophylo hath brought the sunne eftsones into memorie of his auncient loues which I sée hée can not remember without these swéete teares which you sée hée lettes fall to recorde the great vnthankefulnesse he receyued of his Ladie Daphne after so many infinite merites And so let him be excused sayth Charyclea only this condition I promise and make what teares or showers so euer he let fall not to depart from this place till our argument be further enlarged and drawne to an other yssue and alwayes will I allow your reasons seigneur Monophylo wherein you haue not onely deuinely satisfied the deuinitie of loue but also erected a notable method and meane not how the louer ought to behaue himselfe but without difficultie how he may maintaine and defende his chalenge wherein I doubt not but these gentilmen will not onely approoue the matter but ioyne with me in voyce to commende your iudgement Onely phylopolo to whome these contemplacions were of carelesse regarde as delighting rather in a libertie of minde and generall assemblyes where he might liberallie slent with all women and put them in some waspish humour desiring here to playe an other partie with the Ladye and conuert his weapons not against Monophylo but couertly to touche hir I coulde with all my heart Madam sayth he passe my consent to the opinion of Monophylo as by that meanes to be acceptable to him for the matter and not hatefull to you that so allowes it but séeing you take pleasures to sounde me so déepely I pray you let me haue fréedome of spéeche with fauour and rather equitie in iudgement then disdaine to heare my short opinion I haue listened with no small dilligence to his tedious reasons whereof as I finde some good other passable and the most part impertinent and lothsome ynough so aboue all I finde the chiefest marke wherevnto he séemed to pretende was to make vs approoue loyaltie of one man to one woman wherein seigneur Monophylo albeit modestie hath hither vnto brydeled in me that which desire offred to enforce the rather when you fell vpon that poynt wherein you haue giuen such a gloase to fayth yet séeing you are setled in this voluntarie pawse I can doe no lesse with the present oportunitie than enter the fielde against you the matter of your retoricall aunswere to seigneur Glaphyro whome you haue established iudge in his cause as to know if his Ladie commit heresie in loue against him whether he coulde quietly disgest it or not hoping by such pollecie drawing the worme from his nose to make him confused in his saying But séeing in a ciuill and respect of high curtesie you seeke to beare the state of procurer generall to the communitie of Ladies I hope my mocion will not seeme intollerable if vnder the like affection of nature I sewe to be protector to maintaine in their rightes the condicion of men wherein I doubt not with such reasons in my selfe and honest conformitie on your side to make you sée and know that albeit loyaltie is requisite in the woman to the man yet that men are not loyable to such lawes although women for many necessarie respectes stande subiect to their awe I thanke you sayth Glaphyro for that of your selfe without anye mocion or merite of mine you vndertake the defence of my cause wherein according to your liberall offer to stande me in this pleasure me thinkes Monophylo maye well assure himselfe that albeit in the charge you meane to lay vpon him he haue the better of you yet shall he with much difficultie mainetaine his proofe that loue consists not but in a thing which he cannot vnfolde séeing suche formes as are not to be reuealed doe seldome happen in loue Here I gouerning as I haue sayde their excercises and therefore concealed my selfe as rather to vse mine eares than my tongue séeing them passe ouer so lightly the last speaches of Monophylo and desirous to supply their default concluded at last to breake my first purpose of silence and therewith roosing my selfe in my place without other reuerence than if I had assisted their company all that after dinner presumed to tell them that in those two poyntes was cause of controuersâ—ie worthye such an assemblye and to the which it belonged to Monophylo in common houre to prepare his aunswere least he were noted either of insufficiency in matter or obstinacie in will and so lose in one instaunt the estimation which he had so painefully gotte and carefully kept for my part if by you others I might be admitted into the socyetie of this quarell I would easily incline to the part of you seigneur Glaphyro Phylopolo therfore let him if he list whet both his wit tongue the better to assure his credit in the defence he hath taken in hande here Madam Chariclea amazed aboue the reast with my sodaine approche but more troubled as it séemed with my boldenesse of speache what seigneur Pasquier sayth shée howe are you dropped
therefore I holde it no lesse necessarie to learne the meanes to eschewe such a place then profitable to knowe the causes for the which we enter into it A small perswation Madam sayth Glaphyro woulde drawe me to your opinion but let vs take héede least offering to make a roade or inuasion vpon loue the night charge vs not behinde whose darcke ministers may doe vs more harme than any way we can gréeue him vpon whome we haue made this warre and therefore Madam as the present season requireth it were better to make a safe retraict than a perilous follye vnder this charge notwithstanding if the companie so like to renewe this warre the next morning when I doubt not the pleasaunt dewe as the teares of Iupiter distilled will no lesse delight vs than the Sunne hath specially fauoured our exercise this afternoone And so this little band of amorous souldiours fearing the swift approche of the night and finding withall a necessarie appetite to reléeue theyr bodies aswell as their mindes were delighted with pleasaunt discourse approoued the counsayle of Glaphyro and also his condicion of returne the next morning which they performed as you may heare ⧠The second Booke of Monophylo THat was truelie a lawdable custome and most familiar with the Fathers of olde time who by how much they reposed a dignitie in their workes by so much were they curious to choose patrons of high condicion vnder whose authoritie their indeuours might spreade abroade For which cause they consecrated both their names and bookes to the Goddes onely and the Muses as assuring the world therby that the ende whervnto they aspired rested not in any mortall pretence But in your opinion Madame if the worlde might become a Metamorphosis and all those great personages eftsoones returne to lyfe woulde you not thinke that as the complexcions of men be chaunged so also generallye they woulde alter custome as leauing their Goddes and Goddesses to searche out newe protâ—ctors and yet if we waigh with the condicion of their age past the nature of the present season wherein we liue we shall finde their time more generally enclined to assist that custome of theirs then any consideration at all to follow our exercises what vertue or varietie of wit so euer they containe For as in their dayes when golde and siluer stoode not in suche authoritie as nowe hée only was estéemed aboue the rest whose vertue and science gaue best shew of a singuler wel qualified minde So being since fallen into more extréeme seasons which fauour not the facultie of good and excellent wittes vnlesse they haue a societie with welth and riches it is not also to bée merueyled if such as haue succéeded them in writing aspiring euen with them to the selfe same poynt of ymortalitie séeke to reclaime Princes to whome as to the high executors of Gods benefites they make offer of the fruites or best of their facultie as by suche meane to pertake with their high liberallities and bounties By whose example we not onely direct to Princes and great men the greatest part of our workes but also euen repose and depende the value of our wittes vpon their willes as vpon the onely poynt and ceinter vpon which all our thoughtes do rest and hang wée finde by fayth of Autentike writers what happie numbers of learned men florished in Rome in the life oâ— the Emperour Augustus the onely macaenas for science in his time and of the contrarie how naked that profession grew when the Gothes enimies to all Arte and humanitie raigned ouer Italie wherein Madam enter not into further woonder then the reason of the cause requireth séeing as euery season hath hir reuolutions so no estate is exempt from the power of voluble time and naturallye wée are all drawne to doe good vnder a hope of honour which being not estéemed vnlesse it be pricked full of the fethers of transitorie riches euery one wée sée applieth himselfe to the good pleasure and seruice of him from whome he plucks profit and commodity And yet I say he cannot be to highly recompensed whose witte and penne as the painefull handemaydes of truth trauell to set foorth the accidentes of tyme séeing all the valiaunt actes which wée sée stande vpon the heades of great men cannot be raysed into a higher degrée of fame than by the meane of a penne well disposed to whome all prescription of times hath giuen this priuiledge to embase the prowes of great men and rayse the doinges of the meaner sort at his pleasure which was not vnknowne to the great conquerour Alexander when hée lamented to be disfurnished of suche a trompet as fortune had stirred vp for Achylles in the person of Homer By what other occasion I pronounce it with reuerence and priuate gréefe are our histories become seasoned with such small value and estimation if not by the slender care of our great Lordes who flattering their time with other professions in their necligent regarde to learning take awaye also all example or courage from all men that exercise their wittes that way Kinges giue life vnto wittes and the learned in counterchaunge crowne princes with ymortalitie the trauell of writers is a monument of perpetuitie and the indeuour of the penne preserues memorie aboue time learning as sayth the Psalmes comfortes the afflicted soule and giues ayde to the frayle infirmities of the fleshe it rules betwéene Prince and Prince and directes priuate causes of meane men it is a testimonie to the matter and a iudge to the controuersie which cannot bée corrupted yea by learning we haue conuersation euen with God in writing he hath left amongest vs the wordes of his infallible will which being well obserued leades vs as the Prophet sayth aboue the heauens But Oh miserable condicion of our great men who in place to preferre learning plucke away the meanes to preserue it as in not assisting the painefull indeuours of writers are vnthankefull euen to the benefites of God whose prouidence they vse vnworthylie and are guiltie in the spoyle of their owne monumentes and eternitie For by how much God blesseth our age with men of qualitie and science a constaunt signe of his care ouer vs by so much it lyeth you in charge you noble men and states of welth so to gouerne this singuler blessing as neyther the soyle in the séede nor the séede in the fruite be vnthankefully vsed least with the plague of other tymes your monumentes be defaced and your names and actions runne in a darcke memorie as the eclipse of the Moone when shée is barred from hir naturall light But Madam amongst so manye eloquent wittes albeit I iustlye estéeme my selfe inferior euen to the woorst as standing also lesse in the fauour of nature then they yet with the Bée that yeldes honnie for his house rent I must confesse that if euer anye fruite went out of this little gardaine of myne you onelye haue planted it and as others aspire to Kinges and Princes for
for their sakes wée desire to sée them great as then to become the staye and comfort of our old age wherein wee employe no small diligence wée feare their venterous youth as not to fall into daunger of body or infection of minde by lewde conuersation and for that cause we prouide tutors to moderate their rashnesse suche is our torment and care of minde for them that wée euen féele the displeasures they suffer and endure a share in their woes and miseries yea if wée waighe in euen ballaunce the gréeues distending with such as we bring into this worlde with the pleasures wée receyue by them we shall hardelie iudge the difference and yet such is the vehement nature of our affection as it makes vs forget the sorrow and trouble whereof they are the cause it is impossible that in matters by which wée receyue extreame contentment that sometimes also they turne vs not to heauie gréeues and annoyes what one thing in the worlde doth more necessarilye delight vs then the fier and yet by it wée sée stately cities and pallaces reuersed and consumed who denies water to be most conuenient for the necessitye of man and yet it is the element in which much people perish and great treasure is deuoured So that notwithstanding the perillous accidentes happening by these two elementes yet to hinder or take awaye their vse were to driue nature from hir course and confuse the thinges of the worlde euen so is it of loue whose profession you wish vs to leaue for certaine light inconueniences accompanying him by circumstaunce and nothing considering the soueraigne benifits which secretly lie shrowded and hidde within him wherein to offer you familiaritie of experience why wishe you not in like sort that wée were not borne at all séeing that as béeing once entred into this worlde our conuersation runnes vnder infinite and intollerable miseries euen so our destinie caries this condicion that the higher we are raysed into degrées of felicitie the redilier we encline to reuolution and féele with more gréefe the pinching stinges of displeasure which Madame me thinkes might drawe you to a fauourable consideration of loue by whome if sometimes wée are lifted into actes of high and perfit pleasure it is not out of reason if at other seasons he leade vs in effectes of more harde and straunge nature séeing that if at one time the pleasure should be litle euen so at an other season the displeasure coulde not but be lesse for so hath God vnited and paysed the one with the other as to bridle our presumption in vaunting to be happy on all sides and therefore he doth drawe ouer our calme of pleasure and felicitie a darcke clowde of gréefe calamitie and yet our voluble pleasure is farre more great without comparison in the respect of our present controuersie then the inwarde gréeues which wée féele for where the lamentable teares the strayned sighes the broken sorowes which oftentimes wée poure out in loue are not enforced by other occasion or meane then as perticipating of our mortalitie subiect to all infirmitie and miserie the pleasures on the other side which like swéete honye distilles by his suggestion laye vs in resemblaunce with Aungelles as though in that contemplacion we imparted with the heauenly powers and to vse a direct truth loue would establish vs as it were in a perfite felicitie vpō earth were not that his pleasaunt mocions be sometimes mingled with certaine light disquietes Wherein maye be discouered a great prouidence of God who to laye afore vs our humanitie hath tempered our delightes with pilles of sorowe and prouided our riuer of transitorie ioye to runne in a streame of anguishe and gréefe not that those small accurrauntes should challenge such authoritie and force as for them it shoulde bée néedefull to deuest our selues of so great beatitude But it behooues amid such distresses to prooue the heart of a true and loyall louer euen as golde is tryed in the furnace séeing that to whome so euer liuing continually nourished in pleasures suche as eyther he woulde haue or can wish for without proofe of displeasure or gréefe it is a hard experience to haue a true taste of the swéete fruite which the gardaine of such delightes doth yéelde yea it standes not with incongruent necessitie to make his taste and iudgement more perfite to entangle his pleasures with some easie and light annoyes like as to giue a good season to meate is required not onely sugar and swéete thinges but also some sharpe spices of qualitie to be hardelye disgested which applyed and tempered with other drugges doe giue a good and perfite taste to that which otherwayes woulde carrie no season at all Ah seigneur Monophylo sayth the Ladie suche is your force in spéeche and reasons to perswade that I could euen settle in your opinion were it not that for you alone ouer whome a voluntarie force holdes the heauie yoake of loue there may be founde thousandes and ten thousandes who bitterlye doe washe their mouthes in curses and complaintes against the daye and hower wherein they tooke first footing in that miserable pryson yea such is eyther theyr naturall blindenesse or prouidence of destinie that albeit they beholde their owne spoyle and ruine yet the missery of their thrall estate holdes so strayght a hande vpon them that neyther force nor pollicie can delyuer them euen like vnto the Déere entangled in nettes who the more he striues the faster contendes he against his deliuerie Why hath nature then sayth Phylopolo who valued louers with brute beastes indued man with a soule of reason as to deuide him from beastlye creatures if he loasing the custome of reason enter willingly into a place which afterwardes without hys great confusion he cannot eschewe the same resembling the condicion of the sillie birde albeit more excusable to whom onelie belonges to complaine of nature as taking from hir all knowledge to resist the swéete charme of the fowler by whome if shée escape death shée is suer at least of captiuity where man drawing to himselfe hys selfe destruction without other power of remedy then to late a repentaunce wherein I praye you is he to be deuided from other creatures but only in the outward eface vnder the which hée couereth his great beastelinesse What syr aunswereth Charyclea who here though good to cut of his ielouse spéech wished him not to presume so far of his owne felicitie séeing he had neyther pollicie nor speciall prerogatiue aboue others to auoyde the misterie if the mischiefe fell vpon him For sayth shée euen as the experience is common that many Marinors vndertaking a long voyage commit themselues to the sea vnder a showe of fayre weather smiling at the first vpon them albeit their hope being turned to heauinesse they stande at last so déepe in the daunger of the tempest that notwithstanding their indeuours they are enforced to abandon their shippe to the mercie of the waues without meane of remedie euen so
and release the bondes of our first sorrowes it may be this pollicie is nothing pleasaunt to Monophylo whose reasons yesterdaye conteyned matter of ymputation against such as were defyled in thought onely against their Ladies but for my part much lesse that I fynde cause of offence therin seing of the contrarie and yet I am not farre estraunged from your opinion I holde it the onely and readie meane to loue well and perfitely For if this loue as you say deriue from a heauenly power can you haue a better meane to knowe hir whome destenie and prouidence haue prouided for you then chaunging from one to another to fall at last vppon hir in whome your senses doe settle and your affections rest satisfied Thys is a perswasion amongst the Genetliake Phylosophers that to knowe the estate of our prouidence and followe our influence is required chaunge of habites names and diuers countries and their to pitche our staye where we encounter our best contentment and not to be obstinately bent to one place wherein if we looke to thriue we must reuerse the reuolution of the heauens who séeme to encline vs an other way And therefore seigneur Monophylo it were an error in all men of highe courage so to encomber his minde with peculier subiection that he had rather moue hys owne spoyle in the daylie pursute of a woman not predestinate to him then to searche his choyce seuerallye elsewhere whose fauours he shal obteyne at the first bicause both lot and destenie will incline to his affection This discourse of Phylopolo enuironed with miseries as to couer the opinion which he vnderstood better by effect then by spéech setting al the company on a pleasant laughter was sodainely answered by the Lady who vnder a smooth anger told him he néeded not adde an othe to make hir beléeue him muche lesse that himselfe was without experience of his owne remedie in whome shée doubted not there was fulfilled a more perfite warraunt and witnesse than in any of the companie which he denied assuring hir that he neuer embased hymselfe so much as to become the seruaunt of one mystresse onely estéeming it an act of great vnthankefulnesse to all the rest of that sex for the respect of one onelye to abandon the loue of infinite others to whome perhappes is more desert and dutie of obedience then to hir in whose regarde wée entangle our credit and consume our goods and tyme all of the contrarie aunswered I for singuler loue or affection simply and pefectly settle to one onely bréedes in vs a readie behauiour of generall curtesie to the rest where otherwayes in séeking to content all wée hazarde the displeasure of all for there is no other motion or originall cause of curtesie but of loue according to the testimonie of all the Romants and histories treating of suche affayres where you shall finde the most perfect and loyall louers to bée they that most exercise curtesie towardes all others induced onely by a reuerent respect to their onely mystresse howe many men doe we sée impotent in forme of mettall leade heauy of mind sluggishly inclined of maners loathsomely disposed in whome neyther learning siâ—nce vse custome nor example of wise conuersation can worke any honest alurement to honour yet loue whose entisements are proper spurres to ciuilitie hath so transnatured him as if hée were cast in a newe forme by which meane he becomes no lesse ciuill in life and maners then before he excelled in dumpish and lyther disposition the same agréeing with the common spéech and perswacion of the people that to fashion a yong man is necessarie to shrowde hym vnder the winges of some Lady of whome he is amorous as a sufficient meane to drawe him to honour and ciuilitie for suche is our common fault that being cladde with the mistie coulours of Philastie and selfe loue to our selues wée cannot enter into our owne errours whereof as our Ladies do giue vs often knowledge so their warninges become come commonly speciall instruments of our spéedie chauÌ„ge making their sleight corrections of farre more authoritye with vs than if wée had bene warned by any seuere preacher in a pulpet And albeit loue being once as déepely setled in the woman as in the man it is not vnlikelye that shée maye be no lesse blinded in the manners of hir friende then himselfe and that with the follye of parents towards their children for friendship sake she passe ouer necligentlye his imperfections yet the desire we haue to please the eye and iudgement of our Ladies is alwayes a quicke and cleare lantorne to leade vs to that behauiour of honor which we ymagine woulde satisfie them And euen as a good Captaine prepared to assault a towne reaposeth not altogither in his people who notwithstanding are his chiefest staye and strength but necessarilye applieth the cannon other engines of warre euen so runneth the condicion of the true louer who pretending to batter the heart of his Ladie doth not onely prepare loue to vanquish and possesse hir which is the principall of all but leades hir in many exercises of ciuilitie and honour as worthie pollecies to prefere his enterbose the same being the perswation of that auncient Poet in his art of loue who instructing him whome he would haue to faine loue giues also straight charge to him that loues indéede to vse his aduise without other art but such as he learneth of loue onely who may serue vs sufficiently as a Maske or Visor to play such a part These matters sayth Phylopolo are no lesse straunge to me in spéeche then their sence of harde vnderstanding wherein if I shoulde wade déeper I should but heape confusion and rather speake by heart then by the booke as being altogither inexperienced that waye But bycause I gouerne not my selfe in these matters so much by the booke as by mine owne contemplation and my fancie is not without singuler pleasure I praye you tell me what other signe or marke of curtesie can you discerne in these madde louers then a most solitarie and continuall care a distraughting of the witte a distemper of the body and lastly a generall contempt of all other thinges except hir to whome his thoughtes are addressed according to the late instruction of Monophylo So that seigneur pasquier you can hardly establishe honestie in your louer who you sée holdes the worlde in contempt and all thinges therein in hate yea they are eyther so rauished in passion or restrayned from reason that with the contempt of the worlde I haue séene them beare suche hate euen to themselues that their Ladies haue loathed their condicion and béene ashamed of their follye and being sometimes rebuked by them for such franticke behauiour what was the excuse of these poore fooles but that hauing no power of themselues their onely felicitie depended vpon the presence of their Ladies Suerly such haggard Pigions woulde hardlye be made tame and much lesse that their capacities stretched to
after dinner Phylopolo after the table vncouered weighing as it séemed in an ordinarie delyte such Philisophie disposed himselfe to talke with a Gentlewoman sitting next him to whome he made this rouing question Why Madame doe not we resemble these good and auncient Capitaynes who after a long proofe and practise in the affayres of their common wealthes forsaking their estates and rule in cities doe choose the fielden lyfe as there to entertaine the residue of their tyme to relieue and repose their olde bodyes and wearie mindes For so as I haue learned did in olde tyme Cyncynatus Curius and at length that great Emperor Dyoclesian to whom if the citie séemed a kinde of prison what belongs to vs to doe that in the middest of these fieldes a place of pleasaunt and quiet solace are yet stung with the prickes and miseryes of this worlde as hauing passed and learned more in this little season of dinner while then all those great personages during their most highe and waightie affayres To whome the Gentlewoman somewhat smyling as one no lesse modest in behauiour and maners than of déepe insight in all other vertues vnknowne to the ordinarâ—â— sort of women made this aunswere I knowe not sir the compasse and facultie of your iudgement and much lesse what opinion you haue of their speache but sure for my part I haue heard them not without a singuler delite and pleasure only I doubt not but such discourses séeme improper ynoughe to your age which in my iudgement delightes more naturally otherwayes as in exercises of actiuitie value of the bodie then to tye your eares to these controuersies wherevpon he desired hir that without offending their discourses they might make their walke to some pleasaunt medowe there to choose their pastimes no lesse coÌ„uenient to their humors than to here the contencions of these old Gentlemen neither concerning their facultie nor consenting with their fancie What seigneur Phylopolo aunswered Charyelea for so shall be hir name at this tyme are you yet to knowe of my purpose to erect one day a schoole of Philosophie wherewith both the one and other laughed when Glaphyro whose place was ouer agaynst hir and iealous belyke of their common pleasure till he was priuie to the occasion enforced also the appoyntment as telling hir that it belonged to hir both in reason and honour not to denie the request of the Gentleman specially concerning an equall contentment to them both and for my part sayth he if eyther I were worthie for companie or méete in other regard I would it might not offend you to name me a thirde not to holde equall place and societie with you but onely to record or at least lysten to such good matters as I ymagine will passe amongest you afore you depart I see well aunswered Charyclea who perhaps was no lesse wearie than they of the exercise at dinner that it were better to make a simple consent at the first than vsing the pollycie of long excuses to be constrayned in the ende to condiscende to your willes and therefore both the one and other of you shall be obeyed not as in your request seigneur Glaphyro to play the Register as you require but rather to stand me in stéed of defence agaynst seigneur Phylopolo if he offer to play his part according to his common custome wherewith after many protestations avowed by Phylopolo to attempt nothing contrary to hir lyking the Ladie rose and also the two Gentlemen who after an honourable reuerence to the companie ledde hir by eyther arme into a little groue where at the first they encountered the poore Monophylo languishing in heauie and doubtfull thoughtes to whome as Glaphyro yéelded compassion in respect of the martiredome he endured so Phylypolo made a skoffe at his passion as estéeming loue no other thing than a substaunce of follye Notwithstanding by the aduise of Charyclea who foresaw the wrong they should do him to trouble or breake his contemplacions they agréede to visit him The place where he had shrowded hymselfe contayned such excellent art and industrie togither with such familyar respect to the disposition of that companie that it séemed nature hir selfe prepared it of purpose to assist the recreations of so honest personages For there might you sée a gallery of conuenyent length so well vawted and pauised aboue by naturall sleight and assistaunce of little twigges and sprayes that neyther the heate of the sunne nor vehemencie of any winde coulde molest it And the gréene arboure or grasse vnderneath kept in séemelie proportion sorted with an infinite delicate and small flowers gaue also suche delight to the eye that euen the chirping birdes vsing their solace vpon the tender sprayes gaue sufficient declaration in what reuerence and value they hâ—lde that shaded temple which notwithstanding séemed far more beautified by the sacrifice of honor which Monophylo offred in consecrating there his most secret and deuoute thoughtes than by all the helpes which nature or art had brought And so finding this a conuenient palace for their deuises Chariclea vndertaking the spéech of all hir company framed hir behauiour to the poore passioned Monophylo and sayde vnto him Albeit sir in the argument and outwarde vewe of your distresse I finde no lesse cause of compassion than my selfe redily inclined therevnto yet I can not but prepare complaint against you as seeing you wholie resolued into a state of sorow and that in these fieldes of solace who in respect of their delightfull vewe ought not onelye to drawe you to a disposition of ioye and pleasure but also to consent with this honorable company in the exercise of their most honest disportes wherein by how much you sée vs delight in this paradise of ioye mutuall comfort by so much we finde you to settle and giue place to your sorrowes the same making vs suspect that eyther you gréeue in our common pleasure or else languishe in some peculyar and secret heauinesse of minde which if it pleased you to communicate I beléeue there is not one of vs whose shoulders should not be offred to ease your burthen wherein I presume to vndertake and protest for these two gentlemen But if that which I iudge worthie of pittie in you is but a pollecie of nature your selfe may as spéedily cure the cause as you séeme cunning to dissemble the smart wherevnto I leaue you with this last aduise that the readiest meane to releeue a greefe is to will to be eased Madam sayth Monophylo it is an assured libertie to a frée minde to giue aduise but very harde for a man in miserie to admit anye councell and let death be a due iustice to hym who vnder pollecye will dessemble torment albeit some euilles carry this reuerent nature rather to be concealed with griefe then reuealed in hope of remedye and it is a common wisdome to be as willing to be eased as loth to suffer smart wherein for my part good Madam I yelde
seasonable oportunitie with vs and his terme expyred would not make place to another as the Spring tyme to Sommer the Sommer to Autumne and lastly Autumne to Winter woulde you not thinke the fatall ruine and reuersement of the worlde to be at hande euery thing is appoynted by heauenly influence to take his time as we haue séene in example most mightie Monarchies by an enterchaunge and reuolution of thinges to be translated from one people to another as the Assyrians to the Medes the same to the Persians then to the Greekes then to the Romaynes and lastly reuerted once againe to the Greekes so that you dreame in vanitie if that you thinke to establishe an eternitie in this world and much lesse plant a perpetuall will so long as you abide vpon earth neyther doth nature suffer it who to declare to vs howe much shée delighted in this great varietie became disguised hirselfe in an hundreth thousand sortes for our vse and not onely in thinges concerning our conuersation and vse but in infinite other mutations and chaunges whereof as she reserues to hirselfe the number so also we sée this first substaunce which God indeuored to make incorruptible in this worlde take notwithstanding diuers formes according to the reuolution of tymes and yet seigneur Monophylo you eyther scarcely acknowledging nature or else disdainfullye dispysing hir lore would remaine alwayes one as though there were no mutabilitie eyther by destinie or worldly casualtie Besides what profession of honour make you in embasing so much your minde as hauing practised onely one Gentlewoman you dare not aduenture vpon a higher enterprise For my part as I estéeme most in a man diligence and high courage the better to merite and winne the price of such a pray so also dwelling in the conquest of it without stomacke eftsoones to venture in a victorie of more maiestie and state cannot escape the note of a cowardly minde not vnlyke the barbarous peasant who noseled in vile and base exercises dare not lift vp his minde to aspire to greater thinges why then shall any man be of such negligent and low stomacke as to bring his minde within singuler lymit séeing the more conquestes he perfourmes the further resounds his value and estimation if Alexander had sufficed in the mightie estate of his owne kingdome had he euer come to possesse the vniuersall Monarchie and yet not contenting with the generall Empyre he sought styll to applie his victoryes to attemptes of farre more high and deepe perill if eyther by the power or pollecie of man he coulde haue sought out more worldes wherein as by his example it standes not with the nature of a valiant minde to be content with a little so he that limittes his glorie is vnworthie of it and he least meritorious of commendation with whom singularitie standes in value and will not enforce a further proofe and assay of his vertue to encroche somewhat vpon the landes and marches of an other but to establishe a perpetuall propertie me thinkes should be to cut of a trafficke and mart amongst men for a common enterteynment of this humaine societie haue you not heard of the comparison whiche the auncient Romaine exhibyted to the people of Rome to make them knitte and enter coniunction with the Senatours as representing vnto them the bodie of man which no doubt would easily dissolue and grow to end without the mutuall ayde trafficke which passeth in the members one to another in which sort were brought into all common wealthes sales bargaynes purchases disposition of places loanes borowings tributes and beneuolences vpon the which onely I pretende so to make my grounde that in acknowledging the benefite which I receyue the husbandes of the other side finde a thousande curtesies and friendships at my hande which otherwayes they should in no respect pâ—rticipate with all wherein common reason leades me in this thankefull humor that if I borrowe familiaritie on them for a time I can doe no lesse then in confessing the benefite to become thankefull for theyr friendship where you Monophylo with all others fauourers of your perswasion disposing all your studie to be come tributarie to one mistresse only all the pleasure you receyue is a short death or quick dispatch of a poore and innocent husband By which may be easily deserned what troubles rise with your reasons as accomplishing your stelthes amorous theftes with vnnaturall manslaughter where of the contrarie as well your selfe as the present assistants are able to consider I doubt not what benefite distendes with mine moouing by a greater bonde and vnitie amongst men then the lawes by their threates and commaundements wherewith hée ceassed his further spéeche not without cause of pleasaunt laughter to all the company the rather for that all his discourse runne in a vaine of such pleasaunt and franke regarde that it coulde be hardly iudged whether he argued at pleasure or spake as he thought When Madam Charyclea not yet forbearing to smile and laugh tolde hym he was a noble souldiour but perhaps sayth shée a greater conqueror then that mightie Alexander whome you professe to imitate I meane in actes of valyauncie suche as you séeke to apply your minde vnto which notwithstanding you séeme much to deface and abuse by your comparison of marchandise which vpon the ende of your spéeche you séeme to matche with your braue and high enterprises the same proouing in my feare no lesse dishonor to you than to him that of a noble man becomes a Marchant But take héede seigneur Phylopolo and sticke not to repose credyte in my councell that being as you professe a generall traficor and borowing at a highe interest that when you fall into the state of maryage your debtes be not payde with a doubble vsurie the same béeing the common experience of the present time that who burnes with the flame is commonly scorched with the smoake as euery offence hath his iust punishment in his due season But for your part seigneur Monophylo albeit I had no intent at all to make my selfe any partie to your quarell séeyng you stood on my side but rather to leaue it to the censure of you two at your pleasures yet notwithstanding I consent with you in all the rest I feare shall hardly fauor your opinion that our louer pretend and mainetaine a perfect loyaltie towards the maried Gentlewoman wherin if you had prouided a behauiour of the husbande towardes his wife of no lesse integritie than that which he desires in hir you had vsed the nature of an vpright iudge and your iudgement had stande as an indoubted authoritie But to agrée wyth you that shée on whome is layde the yoke of mariage is bounde to beare respect or reuerence to any other than to him who though not nature yet the ceremonie of the law hath tyed vnto hir were to admitte a generall and hurtfull confusion no lesse than when the negligent Phisition giuing libertie to a corrupt humour lettes it
growe to a canker to the generall hazard of the whole bodie And cutting from hir all fréedome to transgresse those lymits who dare attempt with you to giue hir libâ—rtie of loyaltie to straungers whome shée is bounde to vse but in a generall friendeshippe For be it we haue some lykelyhoode of reason to content our affection bicause nature inclines vs to it yet we ought to loue with moderation both bicause it so pleaseth the lawes and also conducible to a pollityke gouernement otherwise we shoulde bring in a huge and confused Chaos as not to be able to discerne vnder the shadow of this mutuall amitie to whome a wife is due eyther to him which loueth perfitlye and is not maried or to the husbande who onely is induced to take a wife in respect of substaunce and wealth wherewith for my part I can not consent séeing that albeit a husbande be imperfect in manye thinges to allure and drawe loue yet it is a Christian duety in the wyfe to loue him onely bicause God hath made him hir husbande and much lesse can I allowe the suttle tie of him who hauing intised a woman to confesse that the Oxe house or feelde of hir neighbour being better than hir owne shoulde be also more acceptable and welcome to hir woulde therefore successiuely conclude ymagining to holde hir in his nettes that she should owe more loue to hir neighbour if he séemed of better taste than to hir husbande his error being monstrous in it selfe is also to be defaced with sundrie reasons for the wife albeit he for whome she is prouided is neyther riche fayre nor fashioned with equall cause of delight to others yea be it that without consent of affection she be thrust to him yet in the former respectes she ought to moderate in him and so temper the passion of hir lot that no vnbrideled infirmitie appeare wherein let hir make familyer with hir selfe the modest aunswer of a vertuous matrone in Rome to hir husbande who falling into angrye tearmes with hir for that in the long season and time of their felowship togither she had not tolde him the yll sauour of his breath which in straunge company was straungely reproched against him in good fayth husbande sayth shée I thought all other mens breathe caryed the lyke sauour so that a woman ought to make the beawtie and bountie of hir husbande a looking glasse to resolue hir fancie and indgement and not to ymagine a déeper perfection then in his person yea and if shée happen by blinde concupiscence to vse neâ—ligence in this duetie let hir take aduise of reason to intercept and breake that wherevnto not hir nature but a disordered will doth inforce and thrust hir otherwise if your opinion should be fauoured with authoritie it might be applyed to other matters of no lesse iniustice when by a foolish motion they séeme acceptable to vs a thing which ought not to be suffered and therefore for our better asistaunce the lawes are deliuered as a bridle to our fleshely desires which wée coulde not sometymes subdue without feare to incurre punishment for which cause in common wealthes was alowed a cohercion of adulteries for such as shoulde offende against the statutes of mariage and that onely to encounter our humaine frailetie and not for any matter in dowries as is imputed who much lesse that they were impedimentes to maryages séeing of the contrarie they gaue quicke furtheraunce and high dignitie to wedlocke what if I prooue seigneur Monophylo by inuincible reasons that by wise discréete aduyse dowries haue béene thought necessarie for the intertainement of this societie of man will you not confesse to mée that notwithstanding for the onely consideration of dowries mariages did begin yet for all that they must not be restrayned in anye sorte in déede if we were in that golden time when was erected the first institution of mariage I confesse a certaine conformytie of reason to your present opinion and that we ought to knit with our wiues for fauour sake onely without respect bicause in that first time people were not subiect to such varietie of afflictions and miseries as at this daye séeing without labour or paine they lyued in the fauour and good pleasure of the earth who not then drawne into custome nor yet wearie to beare fruites refused to be tilled as since she hath required by meanes whereof they enioyed all thinges in common without discorde neyther was there any seperation or distinction of thinges and therefore it was lawfull for them in such foyson and masse of welth to make their pleasure pryuye to their choyse and maye onely for affection without couenaunt or condition of golde or siluer which as we sée at this daye happen to some great Lordes who want neyther power nor meane to entertaine their wyues in what proporcion they like best So touching vs whome nature and fortune haue so liberally imparted there treasors methinkes we stande vpon a weake vnderstanding if vnder the onelye consideration of loue without other necessarie care we enter this bonde of mariage we must lyue with our wiues I meane wée are bounde to continue the port of their estate to féede them and norish our children and famuly and so succor their diseases as no inconuenience happen of all which trauels and paines the onely burthen restes vpon the husâ—â—â—â—e according to the prouision of the eternall and infallible wisdome of that mightie and soueraigne iudge in Hauen Will you then confounde your selfe and reuerse your whole house through a vaine and fonde suggestion stirring sinisterly in your minde if in your common wealth of Lacedemonia whose authoritie you haue vsed the people had bene so disordered as was the nation of Rome when the wise Lawyers brought in dowries I beléeue your Lycurgus so peculyarly estéemed aboue the rest woulde haue vsed no lesse pollecie to his Lacedemonians than the other magistrates to reduce and establish their people for the Lawyer to such as he woulde forme and institute prescribes with the good Phisition to his pacient whome hée suffreth sometimes to taste vnholesome brothes to the ende to giue him a quicke appetite to better meates but if hée shoulde restraine or tie him to one singuler obseruation of his straight preceptes his perill might prooue mortall and his recouerie doubtfull euen so is it with the Lawyers who in a generall corruption of maners applying themselues oftentimes to the willes and humours of their subiectes finde it necessarie to tollerate vice in respect to aduaunce vertue and good things the same happening in the example of dowries which for such respect and reason haue bene founde necessarie in mariage being no other thing than a common socyetie And if amongest marchauntes the better to entertaine their traficke yet be lawfull for one to furnish the charge in counterchaunge of another that affordes his diligence what ought we to thinke in this association of man to woman whereof as I haue sayde all the brunt
I enter into that seruitude of loue which you haue set out it séemes seigneur Monophylo y albeit you comprehend in part the mocions of the troubles in maryage yet you builde to muche vppon your grounde of nature For to abolishe altogither the benifite of dowyres as you pretend were no lesse straunge in respect of the maner than preiudiciall as touching the matter because that as we ought not in deede to settle our chiefest stay in them but marry altogither for the conseruation of our selues in our kinde yet we may vse them as an ayâ—e and ornament for the tyme to come our will in entring into this bond of mutuall coniunction is to giue being to oâ—r children that are to come But in dowryes as well our children as our selues find both present being and future benifit in this behalfe we may consent with Madame Câ—aryclea that to vse regarde of loyaltie to a maried women by any other then by hir husband is not lawfull to any degree for albeit those affections as also they of loue seeme to bée inâ—used into vs by a heauenly influence which willingly would vsurpe a dominion ouer vs yet ought they to be brideled by reason who was giuen vs in a semblance and similitude of him to whome is due the souereigne Empire ouer all the worlde séeing that euen as this vniuersall circuit or compasse is no other thing than a great bodie wherein the rest séeme to holde place of passions bicause that as the affections in vs so also the celestiall passions by their courses and reuolutions do gouerne altogither the bridle of this huge creature which we call the worlde in respect of which proximitie the Romaynes gyuing as well to the stars as to the passions commoÌ„ names called them indifferently motions And albeit these powers are esteemed to hold a partie gouernmeÌ„t of this round wonder yet we sée all remaynes in the hand of him to whom as an vniuersal reason of this huge body is due a general supréeme empire euen thus may we resemble a man who being a little worlde composed in his qualitie as an ymage of the whole notwithstanding he séemed sometimes enclyned to certaine mocions of nature procéediâ—g as some holde of the stars vnder which he is borne yet nature hath erected as it were a trone in his braine wherein reason bearing chiefe rule he should in his litle kingdom gouerne ouer this heauenly influence which seemed to drawe him from any vertuous operation in which respect albeit your loue pertycipat neuer so much with nature as you saye yet wée must néedes resolue and ende our actions in the lawe who albeit for some singular cause that mooues you condiscendes not in your iudgement with reason yet the same reason teacheth you to obey it bycause you are so commaâ—nded by those that haue power to direct you And therfore séeing adulteries are forbidden not onelye in these dayes but also in all auncient memorye we must not suffer to fall into our thoughtes to beare loue to hir whome the lawe hath assigned to another which notwithstanding bycause you giue such a freedome to our naturall inclinacions there restes onelye to finde a guide to leade reason thyther as to méete the defectes falling in mariages by occasion of these straunge loues on which you haue ronne so long a discourse wherein you and I shall not yet agrée bycause that to applye a remedie you woulde haue such coniunctions performed by that reciprocall loue which you call instinct of nature but the auncients in an apter phrase tearme it passion And of the contrarie I thinke suche vehement affections ought not to fall in mariage but onely a simple friendship procéeding of reason For if being ledde in this extréeme loue which you figure and set out here you thinke to take from maried women those inintemperaunces which you pretende to remedie yt were also necessarie that our passions varie not and being caryed in affection to one singuler person that we remayne alwayes firme and constaunt which as we finde notwithstanding mâ—st ordenarely to fayle so also neyther by paine nor pollycie nor assistaunce of any time shall you be able to roote out of the fancies of eyther the men or women those defaultes which you note and much lesse shall you be able to let that many of frée and disposed myndes I say not voluble and light by continuance of tyme doe not fasten their loue on another aswell as they fixed it on you in the beginning By which meane and reason I coulde haue better alowed if to warrant mariages and entertaine them in this loyall friendship you woulde haue fashioned their beginning not by this loue which you speake of as being to light but by good graue aduise counsell taken at large the better to knowe how to liue loue afore they enter into that indissoluble conuersation For euen as a good man of warre preparing himselfe to an enterprise where he pretendes to make proufe of his prowesse and value afore he buie horses he runnes them traynes them and makes manye tryalles of them refusing the vnlykelye and making choyse of such as he lykes at what pryce so euer he buyeth them euen so in this short race of lyfe which we meane to performe with our wyues in comfort solace and pleasure we must not so much stande vppon contemplation of a wauering loue which possiblye crept into vs in a dreame or at vnwares as with déepe aduise and consideration waigh the maners and conditions of the Ladie with whome we pretende that waye consideringe withall hir parentage and maner of bringing vp from hir youth by which order of choyse we shall easily finde meane to make hir entertaine the thing which she ought to holde in most deare estimation which is hir honor the same being the glorie of hir husbande as in his honor is conteyned the estymation of his wife The man of warre examynes his horse with great consideration albeit he may depart with him at his pleasure But we are negligent to cyfte and search our wyues with precise iudgement with whome we are tyed to an eternall societie and abode vnto death wée reade the mariages in time past dissolued vpon verie slender occasions some renounced their wyues bicause they went amongst companie without their vailes or barefaced some for that they satte at gase without the knowledge of their husbandes and some bycause they went to the common Bathes Which kinde of people as they had good meanes to reléeue themselues of the paines in mariage so they ought not to stande in example with vs who drawing at this day in another course as restrayned of that lybertie both by Gods and mans lawe are bounde to another consideration in the highe interprise of maryage which afterwardes is eyther to reuert to our full felicitie or else resolue to our extréeme torment and mishappe I haue heard often an olde perswasion of the people that who hath a pretence of mariage ought to
opinion the chiefe cause that bréedes loue some notwithstanding will not sticke to maintaine that they haue a certayne ymagination and sparke to whome if they haue prooued the condicion of beastes I leaue the matter to their beastlye iudgement séeing it is not for the respect of beastes I speake but for men which loue wherwith Phylopolo dissembling his thought yet haue I learned alwayes sayth he that louers were beastes I know not quod I eyther what sortes of louers you meane or with what formes of beastes you resemble them but well may I vaunt for my selfe by the honour and loue which of long I haue borne and yet with all reuerence do owe to a singuler mistresse of mine of a simple ydyot I am béecome better instructed then if I hadde runne ouer all the preceptes of the Courtyer But not to wander in variety of matter as I holde with you seigneur Monophylo that loue kindles of this naturall instinct so there restes onelye in proofe betwéene you and me and the same to be handled by some sufficient meanes whether the onelye ende of loue consider the sweete vse wherein if I might strengthen my selfe by the common opinion of the worlde you should not onely loase your chalenge but resigne at one instaunt both the fielde and the fight for except your selfe what is he in the worlde that loues not chiefelye for that ende and yet sir not to assure my selfe vpon so fraile a iudgement I praye you tell me if the loue of a man to a woman pretended not but to the minde why shoulde we féele the same to passion vs sometime with a whire winde of ioye and from thence to a storme of sorrowe and then sodainelye become as ouerwhelmed with quailenesse of feare And in the friendeship of man to man we are touched with no such torment sauing that in this last wée holde our selues satisfied to be beloued of them and the same béeing knowne vnto vs we haue alreadie touched the poynt of our pretence but in the last besides the mind we accompany our desires with a hope which leades vs in a promise to bring vs one day to the porte of pleasaunt possession Besides I pray you tell me if this loue were guided onely by a bonde and coniunction of mindes ought wée not by naturall iudgement rather loue him whome God hath fashioned in euerie degrée like to our selues then to folowe the woman whome it séemes he created one degrée inferiour to our selues But we prooue the contrarie in common example and experience seing without comparison wée rather doate of the woman than loue the man yea we sée by this feminine loue that the lawe of true friendeship which was betwene man and man hath béene violated and corrupted wherein I coulde commende vnto you the tragedye of Gysippus and Tytus which Tytus notwistanding the auncient and setled friendship betwéene him and his companion which was such as their séemed to remaine betwéene them a common will in all things yet such was the violent furie of loue towardes the future spowse of his friende that it dissolued that strong and long league betwéene them and notwithstanding the order and helpe of his companion he prepared his owne destruction the same moouing for that he proued in his minde two extremities of contrarie qualitie albeit the one more vehement than the other which was loue whose sharpe stinges so prickt him forwarde that albeit he woulde haue refrayned in fauor of the friendshippe to his déere Gysippus yet he hadde no power to applye other remedye than by his death wherevnto he prepared him selfe A like example doe I finde in Iustine of the sonne of a King who defyling all lawes of men nature was so enchaunted in loue to a stepmother of his that notwithstanding his office of obedience to his father yet coulde he neuer be purged of that euill but eyther by the accomplishment of his desire or that death had applyed a playster to his raging sore what set abroche these vesselles of frensie in these two men for so maye I call them as by whome was violated all right of friendship and nature but that in the friendshippe of man to man is comprehended but a cōformitie of minds and this loue contaynes a sympathia communicating both with the minde and the bodie I meane as touching the bodie this fleshly copulation the onely ende and purpose of our loue for euen as in all other thinges being come to the ende we aspire to we resolue into a contentment and absolute quiet euen so by this onelye meane these two afore named attained to the execucion of their passioned desires and not onely they but all others arriuing in that desired port of pleasaunt vse wherein in place and proofe of our former perplexities in these extreame desires being in this hauen the stormes of our violent passions do eyther absolutely dissolue or partelye qualefie and loue takes in vs a newe forme and habite as our nature is disposed abyding still notwithstanding in his essence of loue this is the cause why the Ethnicks haue figured the same Androgina by you alleaged as when the two parts moyties seperated séeke to reioyne themselues as an auncient poet of that time helde that the sowles were therevpon coopled togither to whose opinion you coulde willinglye haue condiscended were it not you feared to entangle your selfe when you confessed to vs that the Androgina was a desire to vnite and knitte the two moyties being deuided and if you will discende to that which God from the beginning of the worlde propoundes vnto vs whereof you haue thought to make your profite albeit vpon credite is it not prouided in the same that we should be rather two mindes in one bodie and one fleshe then one spirite within two bodies I will not denie that to forme thandrogina both the one and other are requisite but the same is to proue vnto you that if you desire one minde onlie in two bodies you séeke to mak this our Androgina defectiue and imperfit And wherevpon the yssue of your discourse to giue a greater grace to your opinion you séeme to alleage the auctoritie of your lawes as in that they require the onelye consent to establish mariage I say that consent procéeding of this coniunction of mindes not common bréedes and engendreth this loue but the communion of the bodies consomates and makes it perfite for so did our lawes vnderstand who in euery respect maintained the true ende of mariage to bee the multiplying of the worlde and yet I stande in some doubt in what sence they construed this consent you speake of séeing we haue in example that it hath béene suffred to men and women to enter mariage euen in the age of indiscression wherein they séemed not so precise in knowledge so that onelye there were habilitie of cohabitation and therefore it séemed the lawes vnderstoode by this consent a mutuall foreknowledge to this coniuction of the bodies the same being
the Lady and yet nothing forgotten I sée nowe your iudgement is ledde by your owne opinion and that which earst the worlde noted as a respectiue modestie in you I see turnes to a vomit and you infected with a popular errour But where is seigneur Monophylo will he leaue vs in this plaine waye without succour suer I must appeale to you the rather for that vnder this generalitie me thinkes is comprehended that goddesse which you daylye worshippe where so euer she abyde yea though shée sitte euen in the middest of your heart and for my part I coulde not thus long haue refrayned from aunswere were not that both I must not pleade in mine owne cause and also it was latelye defended by your goodly ordinaunces it is not Madam sayth Monophylo long since you preuented that when you tolde vs that wée stoode not now vpon suche scrupulous iudgement besides in encountring seigneur Phylopolo you shall not be noted to defende your proper cause but to giue charitable ayde to me and mine séeing it pleaseth you to endue mée with that honour and estimation here the Ladye tooke some pawse as though she eyther doubted the matter or feared the successe which I thinke might be rather layde to hir want of exercise in such affaires and therfore she wisely foresaw that hardly shée should gouerne hir affection to the cause But Phylopolo vsing the offer of his oportunitie vrged hir eftsones with this seconde chalenge I sée sayth he your cause is like to quaile for want of a good Champion if your selfe vndertake not the defence of your quarell which in it selfe is so perilous that by good reason Monophylo eschewes the listes least hée be made recreant wherewith the Lady kindling in a soft anger as appeared by a fresh bloode drawne into hir face tolde him she would rather put hir simplicitye on the iudgement of the companie than suffer him to steale awaye the victorie from hir in a cause of no lesse equitie on hir side than altogither vniust touching his part wherein sayth shée somewhat rising from the seate where shée sat◠albeit by your wisdome you thinke to reuerse the innocencie of my cause yet if I fayle in force I hope the matter will not faint in value and goodnesse as being in it selfe hable to defende it selfe without eyther orator or aduocate and séeing from the spéeche of that libertie which you laboured to attribute to men you are distended into many other circumstances far impertinent to the matter of your surmised question I will not prepare to satisfie onely the motion of our present argument but euen all the residue of your reasons to the ende your selfe maye iudge that you haue put nothing to mée of credite nor I vnwilling to repaye it with money no lesse curraunt than yours Wherein if you will enter into necessarie consideration of the difference in our two causes I doubt not neyther is my fancie vaine but you will finde them of no lesse inequalitie and dissemblaunce then betwene a paineted ymage and a liuely creature For as your reasons are grounded vpon transitorie opinions of men so I haue euen nature hirselfe to enter defence with me who to prooue she hath not altogither exempted vs from actes of vertue and worthynesse I praye you looke into the liues of Semyramys and Tomyrys for the direction of a pollicie or common wealth with infinite others by whose womanly wisedome not onelye their Monarchies and states haue bene well established but also had such a valyaunt dexteritie in armes that by them their posteritie is made noble so long as the worlde remaines a worlde we reade also of Panthasile and the Amazones of high renowne for actiuitie in warrre for the gift of Poesie we haue Sapho and in our owne time a Ladie of high memorie Margeret de valoys besides the learned rowte in Italie whose works remaine as lanternes to guide the studies of learned wittes if you séeke for examples of eloquence the verie pillour of euerie common welth well guided beholde what maiestie the Romaynes haue giuen to Cornelia and fame to Hortensia to the ayde of whose naturall wittes was ioyned such facilitie in eloquence that they were valued with the best Orators in Rome yea what numbers might also be founde in these dayes of equall merite that way were not for the malicious lawes of men who knowing the great mindes of women weake notwithstanding in bodilie force euen with the example of the sillie fishes who are deuoured by the great forbidde vs all charge ouer polliticke states making vs of so frayle iudgement that we are bereaued from all libertie of grauntes and alienations of our goodes without the expresse consent of our husbandes And yet oh howe common is the experience that great and mightie howses decline by the wilfull prodigalitie of men which are eftsones restored and entertayned by the wise foresight and behauioer of the women the same being a probable inducement that if it were lawfull to vs to applye our wittes with your exercises if the direction of a publike state may resemble the order of a priuate or familiar family our capacitie may stretch aswell to the greater as we are thought sufficient to gouerne that of common moment But to leaue the examples of the Ethnikes what state of more maiestie haue you than the supremasie and throne of Rome wherein notwithstanding we haue read that a woman vnder the attire of a man hath discharged a gouernement equall with any that succéeded hir yea it was necessarie both to hir and Semyramys aswell to content the worlde as to intercept the popular opinion to disguise themselues in the proportion of a man which state so long as they exercised nothing was euill done all their attemptes were vertuous and helde for true examples of high magnanimitie But as sone as they fell into the discouery of men and that they were knowne for women their auncient praise of vertue prowesse and holinesse began to take contrarie qualities and béecame no lesse loathsome than the parties hatefull by whom they were performed suche is the setled malice of men towardes vs that fearing least by our vertue and wisedeme they might perhappes fall into some decaye of credite wyth the worlde with the maner of tyrauntes who destroye all such as they feare haue taken from vs the possession wherein we had as large an interest as they it may bée you will encounter me heare with the herisies of these two women by me alleaged as the one pretending an vnseemelye luste in the person of hir sonne and the other in the ende stained with manye grose follyes for such is the common saying of men as thinking by this onely reason to triumph ouer our weakenesse But Oh holy argument Oh well disposed people Oh subtitye worthie your sex as if euen those of whome you holde most eyther for valyauntnesse or wisedome haue not more fallen into these vices as first your worthie Hercules by whose meane you might well haue
loue any prorogatiue aboue vs séeing also if I may waigh my reasons with the opinions of the worlde that as by common voyce the woman is estéemed aboue him who offereth court to hir as shée being called mistresse and he seruaunt so it standes him more in duetie not to offende his Ladie to whome he is bounde then she to feare him whome shée maye commaunde lyke as in common reason there is alwayes more libertie alowed in generall respectes to the mayster than a simple licence to him that professeth the state of a seruaunt and yet for my part bicause I will be no partie to that fonde opinion I neyther can nor will perswade that in loue there is or ought to be prorogatiue of power For where the woman is not equallie plunged with the man nor he likewise as déepely touched with affection as the woman how so euer they embrace one another yet such colde banquets can no waye merit the name of loue but rather méere dissimulation sturring I know not by what motion whose continuaunce is not long I can make no reckening of that woman who séeing hir poore friende endure extréeme passions of loue for hir sake will sometimes embrace him to drawe him the rather within hir nettes and then vpon the sodayne will turne the cart against the horse and not vouchsafe one looke of fauour vpon him For my part much lesse that I can commend this order séeing if I were alowed president in that cause as Phylopolo woulde haue earst established me hir crueltie should be punished with a continuaunce of banishment from the societie of all honest Ladies I cannot denie for all this that sometimes we shall not be constrayned to receyue such troubles in loue as it is possible then to entertaine our Ladies or friendes as wée were woont but in that we ought to be ignoraunt and much losse procéede by any artificiall pollicie the soner to giue them a Bée to buze withall but rather by a certaine naturall instinct sturred vp of an extréeme loue vnder the which are comprehended feare and sorrowe Thus much I holde Gentlemen against the opinion of suche as rashly pretende inequalitie in loue which I can neuer admit and much lesse alowe that the woman be called mystresse of the man vnlesse in like sort he bee in déede the peaceable possessor and Lorde of the hart of his Ladie maintaining also by the same contrarie to Phylopolo that it is no more lawfull to the man than to the woman vnder couler of my fonde opinion conceyued amongst men to communicate themselues in manye places Indéede Madam quod I you may well call it opinion but not nature how soeuer the common sort estéeme of it wherein for a better declaration I wish Phylopolo to looke vpon Solon a true folower of nature who by his lawâ—s as one in this companie did earst affirme made lawfull to the wife not hauing meane to conceaue by hir husbande to procure hir generation by other helpes and yet you say it is a natural thing that the woman participate not but with one onelie if I should aleage vnto you the cuntrie of Cipres wherein maydes win their dowries by the sweate of their bodyes woulde you holde our custome to be more founded vpon nature than that yea if I shoulde bring forth Plato in whose common wealth was suffred a communitie of women woulde you not assure your saying vpon worldelye opinion séeing that great Philosopher thought he ruled himselfe altogither by the reasons of nature I lyke not of that lawe sayth the Lady by reason of the confusion of children as being not able to be discerned in this qualitie no more than the request of the good matrones of Rome in the time of Papyrius pretending to haue two husbandes for such sought to muche to satisfie their disordinat lustes yet you sawe sayth Phylopolo with what oportunities these good dames enforced their sute to the Senate and I doubt they woulde not haue béene contented with two husbandes but abusing that libertie woulde at length haue fallen into the vice of all those women which passed through the handes of those two erraunt Knightes Astolphe and Ioconde represented within that excellent Italyan Homer Arioste herein you are disceyued sayth Chariclea for if all those Ladies had béene stricken with suche loue as wée speake of they had neuer fallen and in mine opinion we finde more felicitie in one frinde simplie and truly affected than in a number others whose loues be eyther ordinarye or for necessitie wherein what better example can I aleage that out of the place you speake of for the same Astolphe Ioconde chose in the ende one Ladie to content them both and yet a little quidam who afore had gaged the vessell of loue to them both notwithstanding their precise héede did cutte the grasse from vnder their féete the same bicause loue by this former ambushe had giuen him a first conquest there But as these examples doe not touche me in care so are they also out of the course of my first argument which tenden onelie to this ende that as I woulde not alowe to a woman libertie of communion with euerye one so that I woulde not also haue you to thinke that the same is caused more by a naturall reason wherein you may establish some aduauntage to our preiudice than by a bountie and sinceritie of hart which guiding vs therevnto in time doth so settle in the heartes of most men that if we offer to withstande it they make it a matter of sinister ymputation to vs albeit in déede the act it selfe there is neyther cause of discredite nor reason of such disaduauntage as you pretende but rather it includes matter of honor and commoditie to our honest meanings in déede Madame sayth Glaphyro it can not but giue you a singuler value of honor But for my part I beléeue that lawe was neuer erected but to our great confusion neyther doe I sée anye other cause why a woman should be embrased or counted by so manye honest personages and not attaine to the swéete vse of their pleasaunt attemptes but the tyrannie of this wicked lawe raysed as it séemes in despite both of man and woman bicause the woman fearing the note of dishonour by the worlde dares not performe the last acte of the league but by woonderfull pollicie heare Phylopolo stoode still vpon the iustructions of nature and that we were not directed by mans ordynaunce wherein he layde the examples of beastes amongst whome notwithstanding the long pursute of the male to hys mate yet is shée hardlye brought to obey his will by whome sayth he we maye be taught that the woman ought not to be so familiar that way as the man This is but a voluble fancie sayth Charyclea and rather an error by ignorance then a true iudgement of the propertie of beastes of whom the example of the turtle is against you in whom be he male or be shée female is suffred
no singuler prorogatiue one aboue an other wherewith the Ladye retyred to silence not as wearie with any long spéech but as it séemed bicause Phylopolo in an inreuerent lightnesse intercepted hir further discourse a thing no lesse displeasaunt to the whole felowship then singulerly grieuous to me who wondering at the readie shift of learning in this Lady could not but say in my selfe oh singuler wit not common to women oh déepe iudgement aspyring supernaturally oh modestie worthye of the subiect wherein thou abydest ▪ oh woman no way imperfect by this doest thou make knowne notwithstanding the malicious murmure of the worlde the nobylitie of thy minde by which thou doest not onely enoble all thy sex but also defacest that little worthynesse which remayned to vs And albeit during this whole discourse I ment not to play other part then to discharge the office of a faithfull Secretorie to so honorable a company yet according to my desire to doe good to my power in this oportunitie of matter and place but call all you deare damosels standing in the profession of honor and vertue to beholde as in a glasse the conuersation of my Charyclea whose example I wishe might leade you in no lesse modestie of behauiour then by hir discourses I wishe you drawne to a desire of equall knowledge And yet I doubt not but some will be estéemed euill employed as in respect of the maiestie of hir presence and chaste honor to hir sex to be the first raysers of the spéech and talke vttered in the fauor of loue to whome I aunswere for hir that it is no lesse commendable to séeke out the true propertie of loue wherein nature euen from the begynning of our age hath hid within vs a secret instruction then by a dissembled arte to be guyded and taught by an Orator or Phisition who in tymes past haue bene dryuen out of common wealthes the one for corrupting the bodyes the other for infecting the mindes and manners of men where loue being imprinted in vs by so excellent a mistresse and workewoman hath had alwayes an Empire ouer vs by him the worlde had his being and in him it hath multiplyed and by him euen trées and other insensible things séeme to take their encrease one of an other so that right necessarie and noble is the desire of my Charyclea to séeke out his condition and nature And for myne owne part hauing thus enregistred their reasons I hope that no one man will turne that to a singuler vice in me by which all men receyue a common profite or at least an honest pleasure but me thinkes I heare such as know me not chalenge thys exercise as inconuenient to the state of my profession to whome if they will not satisfie with the honestie of my meaning I aunswere that albeit it be indecent to my facultie yet not impertynent to my yeares who afore their tyme are loath to participate wyth olde age And heare I put my selfe of the beadroll of the happiest crewe in the worlde seing it is the pleasure of the mightie God of loue to chose me for one of his to the ende to instruct and acquaint me with his armes which hereafter wyll be more intollerable to me than if he had called me to his trayne when eyther by age or other néedefull occasions I should be lesse apt to attende him And herein good Ladies you may beleeue me as one to whom vntrue reportes are hatefull that such is the straunge and haggarde nature of loue that if we defie him in our tender yeres he will punishe our olde age with such sharpe passions and plagues of his power that in the common gase and skoffe of the world he will bring vs at last to marche vnder his banner being on the other side of such compassion and iust consideration that if he haue entertayned and nousseled from his youth a good and loyall seruaunt and knowing him to be setled in some state of persite rypenesse according to the maner of olde souldyours whome their common wealth after many good seruices doth make frée from all charges of warre he gyues vs some release and consolation as not to match his tyranny with the iudgement of the people who if they had not prooued him may one daye runne vnder a smarting experience wherein lastly I beséech that God by whome I was first mooued to employe my Pen in these exercises that if anye crabbed Saturnus chaunce to steale a pyll of hys confection that he may finde it of hard digestion and so to my Champions whose most spéeche if I be not deceyued gathered alwayes to this point of loyaltie which Phylopolo would not should be so requisite in the man as in the woman by which occasion Charylea in waspishe termes wished him one daye to fall vppon a wyfe in whome in steade of mercy he should finde a minde equall to this merite I hope Madame sayth Phylopolo your wordes are without meaning of cursse or at least your curse not to carie such enchauntment as you wishe me but in his am I best contented that being at libertie I meane neuer to come in bondes bycause I haue alwaies dwelt in this opinion that as it is a thing impossible to make of a common a perticular so if a woman once corrupt hir bondes of honor with prostitution of hir bodye to one she maye vse the like libertie of fauour to another then to a thirde and so become generall ah sayth Monophylo to whome this iudgement was most hatefull God forbid that in my presence I suffer you so inaduisedly to blaspheme against the truth howe meane you seigneur Phylopolo to make of a common a peculiar the same being the common error of the people who thinke to sacrifice loue by that onely reason as though it were impossible that loyalty could abide in the braine of a woman in which who woulde alledge to you infinite honest Ladyes wherewith the hystories doe infinitely swarme that haue consecrated their honor to one saint I thinke you would eyther holde the authorities false or such women for monstruous yea you woulde estéeme them rare monsters as neuer proouing the vertue of women otherwayes then by the report of the worlde which for the most part is malicious But for suche in whome experience hath planted an vpright iudgement they will rather repose a resolute loyalty in their Ladies than once presume of suspicion of treason And yet your argument is to weake to reuerse true loue séeing yf my hart be alreadie setled in one place there followes not by that reason any duetie of diuision into diuers places But of the contrarie bicause naturally it inclines to one me thinkes the same shoulde be a sufficient bar against all other as hauing imprinted within it this true loue whereof we spake euen nowe yea this degrée of pryoritie as I thinke is the onely cause why we sée at this daye so many poore suffring louers not to atchiue the happie plot
our heartes are betrayed and yet seigneur Phylopolo if some fewe mistreses chaunce to fall into that inconuenience God defende that eyther in their example or iudgement shoulde be comprehended a generalitie of women as you séeme to maintaine which if it shoulde be so into this common errour shoulde wee fall to thinke that neuer manne of honour and value was beloued of a woman but suche onelye as deserued the names of villaines then many hundred thousand gentlemē were neuer beloued then men of noble high attempts were neuer estéemed yea then any sort of people in whome nature had planted a value of minde haue bene dissembled withall which is not onelye vnlikelye in common reason but altogither vntrue in familiar common proofe And yet I will not denie that manye valiaunt and noble knightes yea euen the verie Peragons of a kingdome may not sometimes and in some places bestowe their loue in vaine and euen so againe without longe or manye matches receyue a pleasaunt rewarde of their painefull merites the same lot or destinie being altogither gouerned by that little god Cupid who in his quiuer doth cary two sortes of arrowes whereof the one is tipped with golde to molyfie and allure the heartes of his subiectes and the other dipped in leade to harden the heartes of such to whome we pretend most affection by which fiction I finde no other signification then that the one féeleth himselfe in a mocion stricken with desire of a thing which he séeth in the other the same by a certaine secret instinct drawing him vnto him and in the other I can discerne nothing by which he may cleaue to his loue Here you haue preuented mée sayth Glaphyro for that according to my promisse I had prepared freshe charge for you as to reuerse your opinion that loue is not kindled but by a certayne thing which you coulde not well expresse wherein I hadde thought to haue contended with you bythe authoritie of certaine olde Philosophers who holde that loue dependes not but vppon a certaine desire of beautie wherewith he directed his spéech and countenaunce to me as to whome as he sayde this cause did most duely appertaine séeing as in my difinicion of loue he charged me to haue giuen that nature so hauing set forth a large and generall purtraict of him it belonged to me also to dissipher at full his seuerall qualities But I tolde hym this season of after dinner was due onely to him wishing him to remember the felicitie that fortune had purchased for him as to haue conquered the fauour of hir who standes as iudge ouer our exercises in whome happie Monophylo quod I you néede doubt no fauour to heare nor delaye in iudgement séeing I feare she will entangle his estate of a iudge with the office of an aduocate to defende you God forgiue you seigneur Pasquire sayth Charyclea the goodnesse of any cause is a iudgement in it selfe so that you nede not bée ielouse of my inclination to Monophylo whome I take to be of that merite as I can not thinke my selfe deceyued if I beare him fauour ah good Madam aunswereth Monophylo that the effect of this friendeshippe which you pretende to beare mée might be reserued for mine absence séeing I doubt not so to moderate the present season and ooportunitie as if you finde want of dutie in action you shall not fayle of readie good will which onelie is in my power to performe which if it bée not so much as I ought and you looke for at least I hope you wil satisfie in my good meaning But to drawe Glaphyro out of suspence séeing seigneur Pasquire séemes to feare the touche I am content to aunswere him in the poynt of beautie whereof he thinkes loue to take his beginning and not that instinct which you haue preferred albeit afore wée wade further I praye you let vs haue your fancie howe and in what sort you vnderstande this beautie I am consent sayth Glaphyro and to leade you to a more subtill and true sense of it you haue to note that beautie lyeth not altogither in the bodie but hath also hir residence in the partes of the minde the one is called beautie simplie and the other good behauiour which consistes not onely in good maners and outward fashions of conuersation but also hath a speciall perticipation wyth vertue euen as the beautie of the bodie restes not altogither in the lineamentes and feature of the face but also in a good composition and vniuersall proporcion of all the other parts of the bodie And thus beautie being vnderstanded as it is by this short and true signification my opinion is that the verie first daye wherein we are betrayed by loue we féele a certaine sparke of this beautye which is in our Ladies a thing which afterwardes by succession of time setles so in vs that with our ignoraunt confusion to all other respectes we come euen to loase the knowledge of our selues wherin as there is diuersitie of beauties so also euerie one enclining according to his perticuler fancie some delightes in the properties of the minde other takes pleasure in the personage to some the state and maiestie of the countinaunce are a singuler felicitie and to other the facilitie and promptnesse of spéeche is the onely cause to kindle affection but aboue all the eye hath a supreme power about the which the little Cupid flies and fléetes in ten thousande sortes and shapes By this I perswade we delight not in foule things neither can any be allured to loue hir in whome is a want of all these qualities so that as an imperfect and counterfeit woman cannot set hir selfe forth with cause to be beloued so I thinke she is exempted from all fortune and fauour of any to honour hir as a mistresse in loue this is the poynt in which I taried for you saith Monophylo séeing by your talke you séeme to establishe certaine kindes of beautie a thing notwithstanding not to bée done in déede I cannot but consent with you that euerie one pretendes to the fayrest but in case of loue to holde that one thing ought to be fairer then an other is a manifest errour séeing euery woman ingenerall findes a friend to endure losse passiōs for hir sake than may happen to any special louer on the behalfe of some singuler Ladie more fayre and perfit than shée and if your opinion should chalenge place of a law we might say that onely shée is honoured with seruauntes in loue to whome is alotted by nature a singularitie in one of these proportions you speake of and the more she is indued with them the more doth shée make hir selfe to merite in the fancie of men although we se the contrary in euery successe of time wherin let vs make an example by two Gentlewomen whereof the one by cōmon iudgement is thought to be singularly fayre to the other is giuen a comendation of meane or indifferent beauty if wée be inticed
offer a goodlye and acceptable sacrifice and of farre more merite then the supersticious oblations of the olde ydolâ—tours for penance and satisfaction of their sinnes wherein I coulde wishe the societie of Aryadne by whose pollicie the poore desperate Theseus founde meanes to winde out such a Dedalus as Monophylo hath figured vnto vs ah Madam quod I how religious you are in opinion from which much lesse that the night your absence or chaunge of place haue taken any authoritie but rather haue added as it séemes an inuincible force the better to establishe your fancie in the matters of our conuersation yesterdaye yea who woulde haue thought that by your meanes and counsayle our louer woulde haue enforced the gates of so honest a prison to hope to settle himselfe eftsoones in libertie Oh seigneur Pasquier sayth Phylopolo are you yet to knowe that tormentes can make men tell truth and a pinching sore cannot abide a smarting playster euen so oftentimes the rude and harde handeling which we finde of our friendes or Ladyes bringes occasion to eschewe their societie or at least to labour to auoyde it and yet I dare not bring Madam Chariclea within the compasse of that condicion whether shée be or not sayth the Ladie I accompt you without commission to enquire and my selfe without reason to yeld your reckoning And yet I hope you wil not note it strange in mée if according to the care I haue ouer the state of poore louers the same concurring with the nature of our present exercise I vse the compassion of my sexe and calling to wishe them rather a plawsible libertie then this darcke and hydeous prison wherin I sée them so martired not that I chalenge any propertie in these spéeches or that such matters resemble me aboue the reast as you thinke But because I haue dwelt alwayes in this minde that notwithstanding the pleasures distending with loue is great in the highest degrée in respect of other felicities yea without comparison yet in coÌ„mon experience it comes not néere the least part of the sorrowes tormentes which of it are nouzled and trayned as a thousand suspicions ten thousand ielowsies with infinite distempered feares the proper substitutes of loue with whome as raine in a mightie wind is brought such passions panges that to a man of sounde iudgement there séemes no difference betwéene the laborinth of this endelesse traueyle and the infernall gulphe which continually castes vp nothing but loathsome vapors and flames of sulphur For my part I neuer knew louer fauored with anye hower or moment of happye time which he bought not both before and after the act at an vnlawfull price and vsurie For before he trauelles in a confusion with incertaintie of successe as being not yet come to the assurance of his vnbrideled affections and after hauing got with charge that which he kéepes with care he lyues in feare to loase what he hardelye holdeth in déede the perfite louer who standes assured in his felicity liues without the compasse of those doubtes But whome maye we tearme this assured louer yea who can giue vnto himselfe such certaine warraunt of the will of his Ladie as of his owne fayth and constancie I spare here to aleage vnto you the speeche of the people which for the single honour of his mistresse hâ—e ought to satisfie For if such be the malice of the worlde now a dayes as a simple conuersation of a young man and a woman doth drawe people into opinion and suspicion what trauell of minde and inconuenience of pollicie is he tyed vnto who being vowed to a mystresse must both supplye hir will and satisfie the popular spéeches séeing the nature of loue making men properly silent and sorrowfull serues here as a proper trumpet to discouer their passions What make you heare also of a sharpe repulse after a long sute yea how disgest you a false reporte whether of spite touching your selfe to your mystresse or of disdaine of hir to your selfe Suer those pilles and ague fittes are of more bitter qualities then all the pleasures that can be ymagined in loue containe felicitie and albeit the ioyes be great in number and pleasaunt in condicion yet are they not without their continuall propertie of fretting melancholie I coulde here enlarge further in the ordinarie accidentes in loue whose number is no lesse infinite then their qualitie intollerable and theyr actions most true in example were not I shoulde doe wrong to the experience of your other Gentlemen whose practise proues you in those affaires déepe iudgement onely in my knowledge I neuer sawe or knewe any one truely transfigured into the state of a perfite louer on whome notwithstanding he had possessed the actuall felicitie in loue did not attende inwarde perplexities and outwarde disquietnesse confused counsayles and carelesse execution broken spéeche and vnsounde iudgements yea suche a generall necligence in all his actes and conuersation of lyfe that in a due consideration of the effectes of loue in his example it may be easily discerned that there is more gall than honye lesse pleasure then payne farre more care care than commoditie and more want of courage than any true commendation of a noble minde You are not far from the truth sayth Glaphyro and for that selfe cause certaine auncient Philosophers fayned loue to be borne of Porus and Penius as making him the sonne of aboundance and penurie to figure vnto vs that louers in their greatest contentment are notwithstanding miserable by a certaine insatiable lust yea euen he that possesseth is neuer absolutely contented and that was the cause aunswered the Ladie why I woulde wishe this louer to finde some issue in loue if it were to be founde Here Monophylo the onelye protector of this little murderer by whome mooued all his gréefe I knowe not Madam sayth hée by what occasion you happen into these tearmes yea I meruell so much the more as I knowe your wisedome and high discression to cary no smal praise amongst men of iudgement and yet by the manner and phrase of your spéeche you séeme to resemble him who for a small transitorie delight which he promised himselfe by the vewe of his mistresse dispised an imortalitie prepared for him by the Goddes this I saye as séeing you wish a louer to leaue his profession for certaine light disquiets of minde which being banished from him you estéeme him more then happie But good Madam what is hée in whome this disease hath not béene incurable or who hath euer béene vnfurnished of those passions yea generallie I aske what state of mortalitie hath bene euer so absolutely happie on whome in the greatest delight of the worlde hath not attended some discontentment I meruell that by the same meane you desire not that children shoulde not be borne séeing the more wée loue and estéeme them aboue others so much the more doe they bring vnto vs care and gréefe doe we not feare desier hope and trauell our bodies and mindes
spéeche to iustifie them further for sayth hée if women were as haggardlike as they séeme and as manye poore fondelinges in loue full simplie doe beléeue their pompe and vanitie woulde be lesse in attire and themselues not so Popingaye like in conuersation as now a dayes we sée them For who I pray you hath first brought in this caull or coronet of gold more curious than comely more precious than necessarie for the modest attyre of the heade vnlesse with the olde superstition you would decke an artificial ydoll to draw the world to vaine worshipping who deuised this curling of hayrâ— so deuided and layd into lockes that it séemes to cary precepts and proportion of Arte who first inuented this hooue such a maske or vaile for the face that it leades men in ymagination of a greater beawtie then is in déede euen as in times past the papistes although to inforce a more religion to their pilgrimes they were curious to reueale their saint yet when the doores of his shrine were disclosed there apeared nothing but a counterfeyte ymage for what cause haue they drawne to them of late suborned bodies eyther of horne or wood according to the minde of the Carpenter yea what other purpose is in their huge vertingale with infinite other vanities in their common attire but onely to please men and pleasing them to bée desired of them yea what other misterie is contayned in these curiosities then that they are inuented as helpes and instrumentes to supplye the tongue who eyther fearâ—â—g or shamefast to exercise his office to require is for the â—ost part reuealed by these aluring ministers most famyliâ—â— in these times with most women Be that as it maye bee quod I and yet perhappes seigneur Phylopolo you are eyther not well informed in this matter or to forwarde in iudgement séeing this curiositie as you tearme it is allowed to women with more authoritie then you thinke For being created only for the ayde and pleasure of man it is lyke that God sturs that opinion in hir to rayse hir into indeuour not to please hir selfe but to giue contentment to the eyes of him for whose sake shée was brought into the worlde as for example is it not a tollerable behauiour in a mayde to prepare hir beautie the better to please those that pretende mariage to hir the same being allowed by Licurgus in his common wealth that maydes shoulde go bare faced to the ende they might bée sâ—ene and desired and by the same meane the maried wyfe laboreth to please not the populer sort but hir husbande to whome shée is predestinate it is written that the good Emperour Augustus seeing his daughter attired one daye aboue hir custome of modestie wherein albeit hée toke no delight yet for the present he gouerned his iudgement by silence as attending a more fitte season to warne hir whome when hée founde an other time in habit more simple and conuenient as he thought for the condicion of women oh sayth hée how far more seemelye is this attire for the daughter of Augustus then that which shée ware the other daye to the disguising of nature and deface of both our estates to whome shée aunswered and that with reuerence rather to beléeue hir reasons then enter into woonder séeing syr sayth shée I vsed my time to please the desire of my husbande and now I stande to satysfie my duetie to you such was in effect the example of the good Ladye Esther when shée protested before God that the sumptuous atires which sometimes shée vsed caried no other purpose then to féede the liking of that great king Assuerus who had chosen hir for his owne All this I bringe in albeit as matter impertinent to our present purpose yet occasioned by you to shew howe wrongfully women are charged with theyr sumptuous attire when both their estate requires it and their husbandes consent to it For to that ought they to apply their fancie not to delight the eies of straungers to whome as they owe but common regarde so if they should fall from the fancie of their husbandes to follow the willes of others their fault rather deserues punishment then rebuke indéede I must holde a difference betwéene the order of the wyddowe and maner of the maryed woman and mayde seing as she ought not to pretende further obiect of contentment so albeit she féele sturre in hir a vehement desyre and wyll to enter maryage agayne yet is she more acceptable both to God and the worlde in hir séemely and modest simplicitie yea the teares of hyr wydowhead continuing a carefull memorie of hyr deade husbande ought to serue hir as an honest brydle to drawe hir from pompe or vanitie whose example also I wishe might direct the behauyour of the maryed wyfe in the absence of hir husbande seing that lyuing wythout him she ought also to lay a part all occasions to delight others And why sayth Phylopolo should not maydes be as commendable in their modestie as wydowes Let vs not I pray you disguyse or cloake their thought seing we lyue not at this present in that common welth of Sparta but are exercised in a tyme of other maners and condicions of lyfe And yet howsoeuer you wrest the lawes of Lycurgus you neuer founde them to giue libertie to maydes although they went without vailes to vse this visor and maske of garments which now a dayes we sée in common custome And to vse a simple truth if in such consideration of mariage such disguised garmentes should be practised as you seigneur pasquior presume were it not as hurtefull in example as hatefull in sufferaunce and most of all to be scoffed at in the parties themselues seing that to a mayde pretending to get a husbande these confused attyres are but as Popingay feathers prickt on a black Crowe which notwithstanding when she flyeth doe fall awaye with the winde For as wisedome and honestie ought to be the proper vertues in a mayde to allure the affection of a husbande so if by arte shée séeke rather to flatter the worlde then follow the vertues in nature she shall hardly wynne preferment and not easilye shake of the spéeche of people who as they note hir garments indecent will iudge hir also dissolute in condicion as being a common experience in our conuersation to set our iudgementes vpon that which we sée with our eye an example well obserued by that good Captaine Lysander to whome a certayne tyrant of Cycylie hauing sent many precious garmentes to aduaunce the bewtie of hys daughters he refused them with this wise and commendable aunswere that those attyres did rather conteyne dyshonor then ornament whether doth he better resemble the state and name of a gray Fryer or a Iacobyn who in swashe apparell wandreth like a Vacabond in the world or he who kéeping alwayes his cloysture doth fashion his life according to the forme of his order euen so in the iudgement of the world a mayde shall not be holden
chast in such great superfluitie of garments and lesse likelye by the same reason to wynne a contented husbande seing that so precious a vertue is chastitie eyther in mayde or maryed wife that it is as easily defyled in garmentes thought and the eyes as in the act For if she reapose in hir attire such a speciall bayte to allure a husbande she may on the otherside accompt hir selfe so much lesse lykely or worthye as he séeth hir vanitie and voyde of true argumentes of chastitie what néede we anye more disguise or suspende our purpose seing such spiced follies were neuer inuented but to aduaunce the last act in loue For to God hath bene alwaies more acceptable a woman in hir simple modestie or modest simplicitie then being imboast with such curious insolencie which we reade hath bene paineally forbidden to the wise matrones in Rome as the onely encomber of their common welth as fell out in example when by little and little it gat footing amongst them great is the follie of that husbande if we may touch the maried estate who not content with that bewtie which nature hath giuen his wyfe will set a newe forme vppon hir to abuse himselfe and make hir desired of others if she be fayre may not hir naturall bewtie content him if she be fowle or deformed forbeare to resist the will of God in séeking to suborne in hir an other forme then according to hir first creation least in gyuing an edge to the tongues of the multitude he be also subiect to the common destinie of the maried sort by this he helpes forward the rumours of the people to whome euerie light occasion is matter sufficient to set abroche their vessels of infamous spéeche yea by this the euill sort will take ready cause to make court to his wyfe in whome pyed attyre is like a marke in the fielde that leades the eyes of the Archer Ah manye be the examples of olde time and ten times so many are the miseries of the present season and ten times ten so manye infelicities will thunder vpon vs if there be not discipline to reforme this generall abuse what other cause rooted out the auncient kings of Rome if not the follye of the husbande of Lucrece who washed his fond mouth with such a flattering praise of his wyfe in the presence of Tarquyn that it wrought like a violent Medicine in the heart of the raâ—isher wherein what necessary occasion could draw him to such spéeche speciallye in a thing which touching himselfe in peculiar ought not to concerne others in common talke the rather if to him onely belong the vse and benefite of the bewtie of his wife how excellent or imperfect soeuer it be what néede he to blase it and so bring it into the desyre of the worlde whose nature is daungerous to allure such lipsubtill people I maye laye in comparison with that auncient Candaules who lesse prouident then was necessarie and more arrogant in the bewtie of his wife then able to vse it worthylie discouered hir immodestly to one Giges his supposed friende who to returne his deare familiaritie setled so déepely in loue with hir that to enter mariage with hir he prepared death for hir husbande But what such people are not perhappes to be resembled with that Candaules on whom fell such hyer for his desert seing of the contrarie those that I speake of more happie then wise receyue vpon credite a thousand fauors for their sakes to whome manye honest people make loue and so are they cherished of euery one for their wyues whome they besmeare with all painted brauerie A thing so hatefull to God and abhominable in reason that who suffreth it merites euen with beastes But whye stande I so long vppon this matter which is so conuenient for vs and preiudiciall to husbandes let them féede and flatter themselues with so fonde suffraunce and we in the meane while as errant knightes will trauayle in the conquests of their wyues For to beléeue that in the fauour of them these sumptuous pompes were fyrst drawne into vse were a faith without a reason But to holde them inuented onely as a visor to couer their wantonnesse is no lesse lykely in iudgement then most true in proofe as is directly manifest in the aunswere which Augustus daughter practised with hir father yea I saye and by this I leaue you to sée how farre I differ from you that lesse is the wydowe to be accused in this habite of immodestie then eyther the maide or maryed wyfe bicause that as she is a better warrant to make loue with more suretye so wyth lesse daunger shée may disguise hir selfe with these artificiall vanities then eyther of the other two whereof the one is commonly discouered by hir waspishe parentes and the other daungerously suspected by a shaded husbande yea and the wyddowe quoth I lyeth open to the whole popular sorte whose eyes are so much the more exercised vpon hir as hir vaile and visor is taken away which was hir husband whose affection blynded him in manye respectes to hys wyfe which lye naked to the worlde whose propertie is to vse the eyes of Argus in the discouerie of other mens dealings But you must consider aunswereth Phylopolo that the oportunitie eyther to speake or execute fauour not so familiarly the maried women as the wydowes who depend not but of themselues and therefore hauing a more due propertie to loue as well for the oportunitie as in a naturall heate and forwardnesse to that businesse whereof the mayde hath made no proofe and the maried wyfe fyndes some satisfaction with hir husbande it is also more conuenient for them to vse garmentes necessary for loue then the other two Here the Ladie suffring with a modest impacience this chalenge of their prerogatiue in attyre tolde him that his reasons might fynde place in such as woulde agree that this curiositie of attire was inuented as an instrument or occasion to loue the same beyng neyther indifferent in truth nor likely in resemblance as being a weake grounde in iudgement to resolue vpon an inwarde effect by an outwarde apparaunce of cause seing with the olde prouerbe as the feather makes not the byrde so our renowne ought not to be assured but vpon vertue For as the Frocke makes the Fryer neuer the more deuoute but is rather a signe of religion then a proofe of hys holynesse so in the attyre of a woman lyeth no true argument of incontinencie and much lesse ought hir garmentes to bréede any opinion of lewde lyfe And albeit they are matters apt to wher the suspicions of the worlde yet our conscience being cléere what other reckning haue we to make of wicked spéeches then that they are rather of custome then of credite Besides such is the bable of the enimyes to our behauiour if a Ladie should attyre hir selfe contrarie to the order and vse of others she should be noted eyther disdainfull of the present fashion or at least an
hypocrite in hir conuersation and no lesse blame shoulde she haue of the multitude who amid so many pompes would disclaime the vse then an other entangled with innouation would play the Courtier among a companie of seuere Noones bycause if all such newfangled deuises carie a propertie of hate in their beginning yet time and practise gettes them such authoritie that they are as easilie disgested as the other fashions And as those light challenges consist not but in the opinion of men so seigneur Phylopolo seing such fashions make their owne authoritie and by little and little become both tollerable in vse and séemely in conuersation I pray your with the propertie of an vpright iudgement misâ—yke not if we practise them by generall and common accorde some vppon a lewde will and others without euill thinking but most part for that vse and custome so require you knowe also how commonly it happeneth in our worldly experience that any thing howe good so euer it be yet if it be wrested to euill may be as easily fashioned thervnto as to good whereof the example is more then lamentable euen in the gospell the which with griefe I speake it we wrest and apply according to our wauering affections And so seigneur pasquyor to cut of this waspishe and wearie discourse I praye you worke vs out of thys encombred laborinth with a freshe onset of your fyrst beginning least with wandering in vnknowne wayes we lose the lynes that should leade vs to our fyrst entry Then Madame quoth I my opinion holdes it impossible that a woman throughly touched with loue notwithstanding all resistaunce at fyrst be not brought at last to reason and made tractable to the will of hir friend wherein notwithstanding I wishe you to holde my iudgement imperfite if the loue be not reciprocall betwéene the two parties as we presume for if it shoulde want on eyther side a thing likely to happen eyther by a preuention of some other or by a disconformitie in the persons there is no lesse impossibilitie to plant affection there then to kyndle a flame where is no fyre a sentence notwithstanding which I will not iustifie to the death seing I haue séene ere now most strong Castels inuincible by imagination brought to submission by time and pollicy such Ladies sayth Phylopolo would I practise with the Engine of Phylip king of Macedonia whose common saying was when he came afore any towne inassaultable by force that if an Asse loaden with Golde could enter he and his armie woulde not be kept out as aduising vs thereby that what friendship or force coulde not mollefie might be made soft by money who gouerning the thinges of the worlde doth also commaunde oure men euen so I beléeue there are fewe women whose vertue are not vanquished by this meane and in whome although loue can worke no power yet money bearing the nature of the Adamant is an instrument to drawe them to the pleasures of men ah seigneur Phylopolo aunswered I how vnnaturall is such pleasure whose price and value being vyle in it selfe the loue also is most abhominable that runnes vnder such hope yea they are to be condemned with the damnable pollicies of such who by magicall brothes and drinkes séeke to force the nature of women as a meane to induce them to loue For loue resting not but in the heart of small value is the vse of the body where wantes the consent of the minde and as what Ladye so euer bequeathes hir bodye to vse vnder a price and pretence of money cannot merite better than with a common strumpet So of the contrarie the honor were greater in hir not onely to withdrawe all affection from such a friende but also to settle in hate agaynst him as to holde hir in such vile estimation that rather money then other merite had power to leade hir affection yea this ought to stande in such high consideration with Ladies as not once to fall into the thought of any noble mynde the same being the cause whye some making a question whether it were better to offer loue to a gentlewoman or a Marchaunts wife maintaine that to the gentlewoman belongs a more propertie to loue as whose fancie is not defiled with vile respect of money nor hir pleasure subiect to other tribute then loue for loue and yet I will not excuse those people of their errors seing that as we sée commonly good high flying Hawkes of all sortes of plumes so I haue heard that the effect of money is no lesse hatefull to many marchauntes wiues then to most gentlewomen on whom in this case may be throwne a more suspition bicause their estate being great and of nature like to birdes desiring costly feathers requires a highe proportion and continuall supply of money where the condition of the other being lesse chargeable hath also lesse néede of reliefe and yet both liues and loues in no lesse felicitie then the gentlewoman and yet for my part I can not iudge eyther sort of those women hauing their affections setled in places worthie of them to owe more delight to welth then desyre to the persons And therfore to a man not being beloued and yet continuing in his purpose to possesse hir whome he pursueth a most proper and fitte waye were in my experience to stande vpon encrease of merites and by his readie seruices to declare the vehement nature of his loue to his mistresse seing that nature teacheth vs to holde reckning of such as be our well willers as also to be desirous of reuenge against those who prepare violence against vs yea euen as God fashioning man of matter more massye indued him with a force which the woman doth want so hauing framed the woman with a nature more tender and subtill hath made hir most familiar with mercy and pittie ah sayth Phylopolo how eyther you abuse your experience or are ignoraunt in the condition of women to whome in all other respectes mercie and pittie are most familier but in this their tirannie excéedes the naturall crueltie of beastes yea such is the violence of their spite that with the Salymander they séeme to haue a felicitie in the torment of their seruauntes whose presence they féede with a flattering hope and in their absence make a skoffe at their honest affection This I speake not without cause as being warranted by the maner of many Ladies who albeit haue their hartes setled in anye one place yet being courted by diuers honest gentlemen and desirous in a common humour to be séene to haue many seruaunts sue to them the same being in their fancie the chiefe testimonie of their bewtie they will not stick to imbrace euerye one with a perticuler affection and that with such cunning as the wisest shall be ledde in a blinde hope of their good willes yea such is the violence of this coossenage in loue that their louers falling from one hope to an other into infinite fancies happen at last into
well deserued here Charyclea vsing hir authority tolde Glaphyro that if he intercepted not the quarrell Monophylo was like to giue the Canuesado to Phylopolo and therefore as well to cut of their grudge as satisfie the rest of the societie she wylled him to renue his late discourse touching the remedie of a louer wherevpon Glaphyro whose quiet hearing of their controuersies had brought him to a setled iudgement of their argumentes although he made it harde to iudge in so doubtfull a cause yet he tolde them generally that it were best not to loue at all but to giue spéedie remedie to hym that were alreadie entangled was in the hande of God of whome onely counsell is to be taken But seing sayth he you will néedes haue my medicine applyed to your louer I say as before let him retire with spéede least his miserie be incurable For encountring the cause in the beginning he easely may gouerne the effect neyther néede he any medicine to restore him againe to his nature But if he be so farre spent with passion that his forces are to weake to helpe his desire out of that perill then let him resort to a good and long dyot I meane an absence long and farre from the place of his infection and with the pollecie of Gallen to eschue the place let him flée farre tarie long and not returne till eyther chaunge of ayre haue purged his minde or suffraunce of time seasoned his disease This medicine albeit in the beginning may carie a little tast yet his effect is not least pleasaunt and most soueraigne of all other against the state of this daunger for if the presence of our Ladyes kindle and féede the flame of our torment it can not be but absence as an antidot to purge a poyson brings health or at least mortifieth our passion And albeit to some absence is rather a bellowes to renewe the coales of affection then a sufficient lyquor to quenche them and that absence stayeth the course of all other sorrowes sauing onely the miserie of manye consumed louers whose reprobate state prooues it without force against their condition yea it may be that generally our first dayes griefe of absence maye séeme more intollerable then a whole yeare yet singuler experience makes no generall authoritie nor the miserie of one prooues no communitie of destenie and by reason we finde that there is no loue so violent nor sorrowe so vehement which giue not place to time who estraungeth all things from their present nature onely in this remedie must be obserued a constant and continuall pacience For if for one two thrée or foure Monethes you absent your selfe and then fall into the presence of your Ladye it is as if you should cast séede into a grounde and not giue it conuenient time to rype to the ende you might reape perfite fruite seing in this newe presence are renewed such sparkes of your olde miserie that you are not onely negligent in your late preseruatiue of health But with the nature of hote ymbers sprinckled with droppes of waters you fall into a more violent heate then before All Phisitions feare much the seconde returne of a sickenesse And euen as a sicke man to whom the ayre is forbidden aduenturing afore his time falles into a more daungerous feuer so if your diseased louer be not well confirmed when he encountreth a second presence of his mistris his pollecy of absence wil profite him nothing where if he be well purged and cleared of all passions which time and discresion will bring to passe then with no paine and lesse feare he maye safely encounter hir and yet not indure to much felowship with hir seing to a delicate stomack a surfet comes as soone with to much of a good meate as to eate a very litle of that which is euil So that euen as a little sight is much daungerous if he be not altogither cured of loue so notwithstanding he be thorowly healed yet to much familiar societie can not but bring him great disquiet seing the eyes of our Ladies I knowe not by what arte are farre more hurtfull to vs then the mortal sight of the basilicque by whom we die but of one death onely but with the eyes of our mistris we are striken ten thousande times a daye without power notwithstanding to dye considering that euen the best partes in them are to vs more venemous then the bytings of a poysoned Serpent and where they serue to them for a bewtie and necessarie sence it séemes of the contrarie that nature hath not placed them there but as instrumentes of our common destruction I may resemble the mischiefe in them with the miserie of Promotheus whose lyuer did daylie increase notwithstanding Iupiters Egle prayed daylie vppon it yea it is woorse then Sysiphus whose penaunce is without ceassing to turne and role a stone and more horrible then the monster Hydra So that let him be wise who standeth of himselfe to vanquishe these passions seing his trouble will be no lesse if they be once rooted in him to subdue them then to that valyaunt Hercules against the forces of the monster And therfore let him stande specially vpon his garde that if he haue discontynued the presence of his mystris some long time he renewe not eftsoones hir company but with precise distression least eyther the charme in hir eyes or enchauntment of hir tongue set a newe edge of those sorowes which time had made dull It maye be seigneur pasquier that my aduise caryeth small credite with you and lesse authoritie with Monophylo as both the one and the other being without proofe of such a medicine But as all other things stande in awe of time so doubt not but time also makes loue waxe olde according to the example of a fertill soyle which for want of due tyllage falles at last into sterrilitie euen so loue being not enterteyned of his sinewes nor fedde wâ—th that which should mainteyne him in his iolytie becomes no lesse colde in his heate then the grounde withrede in fruite Al things haue their time which time is the proper trompe to sounde euery secret and therefore a Ladye cannot take sufficient counsell against the daunger she entreth into when she bequeathes hir bodye to the mercie of a man seing as the worlde sayth the value of a woman consistes in the innocencie of hir honor and hir worthynesse of no longer date then that treasure is kept vndefiled And not onely as you sayde earst seigneur Monophylo for the disguisings of men which is a right good consideration but also in respect of others pretending for a time a better affection to them for that as men like men be fraile and weake in their counsels so their willes are full of variety and the most wisest nowe a dayes not least infected with reuolution or chaunge And seing Madame your chiefe request runnes that we procéede to mortifie loue altogither I coulde not auoyde the name of vnthankfull if I
search the lyfe of his wyfe inciuillye so hir simple innocencie standes alwayes to defende hir from those inconueniences in maryage which all men feare and most men finde vsing rather an vnstayned loyaltie wyth an honest loue vnfayned in them both then such a disordered will as you haue discribed For if in any other respect a man enter this holy estate let him not grieue if by succession of tyme his wyfe chuse A secret friende against whome I wyll not erect such harde â—awes of restraint towardes his mystris as you seigneur Monophylo desire wherewith I fall eftsoones vpon the matter of loyaltie by you preferred albeit afore I enter into the fielde of that argument bycause I wyll not couple so prophane a thing as loue wyth the holy profession of mariage it may please you Madam to vse pacience to heare and modestie in concealing your iudgement But heare Monophylo not content with the matter and lesse lyking the maner of the man as one with whome loue stoode in more deare value then all the other felicities in the worlde you haue seigneur Glaphyro saith he I knowe not by what occasion entangled our discourse wyth speach no lesse impertynent to the matter then somewhat estranged from the generall purpose of the company bycause in my aduyse to hym that woulde marrye I dyd not pretende in my plot of singularitie to bring in question that poynt vnlesse by the waye and as it were at vnwares neyther vnder hope to stande long vpon it nor to helpe my opinion the rather albeit séeing you séeme to settle in it your chalenge shall not offende me and yf you had well waighed the nature of my reasons I thinke you would haue gyuen them a higher merite then those which by your selfe are reuealed the same contayning no lesse distinction in themselues then there is common difference betwéene lyfe and death séeing your mariage is grounded vpon a voluntarie or rather artyficiall consideration and myne marcheth vnder an inclynation of nature which we cannot restraine wherein by how much lesse facilytie the bondes of nature are to be vnknit then those which we sée Arte doth couple and conioyne euen by so much more authoritie do I assure and grounde my mariage aboue yours And I praye you seigneur Glaphyro to auoyde wearie speche how many diuorses iarres and housholde strifes doe you sée happen daylye betwéene the honest and chaste wyfe and hir husbande yea I knowe at this daye a wyse and discréete Lady if there be any equally sprinckled with the fauors of nature and lyberally endued wyth the vertues and qualyties of the minde whose race of youth hath runne vnder an honest and obedient name with hir husbande and possessed betwéene them a number of fayre children yet such is his inequalitie and difference of maners with hir that notwithstanding the continuance of their loue many yeares with ende honest and chast indeuour requisit in the office and part of a wife he cannot be induced to honour hir with the affection of a husbande wherein béeing cyfted in the cause of this disagréement when he can not prooue prostitution or other such cryminall error in maryage he alledgeth onely that as he neuer loued hir with his heart so yet if another man had the lawfull interest of maryage in hir he coulde then drawe his affection thyther is not this man so much the more worthie of rebuke as eyther his wordes be hatefull or his example hurtfull to a common wealth but aboue all his offence is the greater for that vertue with the nature of the Adamant drawes to hir euen people vnknowne But for my woman being such one as I haue figured I will loue hir chastitie and vertue and not hir proper person onelye because my minde cannot applie therevnto I will honor and estéeme in my wife that wisdome which God hath breathed into hir and not such as of it selfe will offende me oftentymes happening into argument of â–ª maryage amongest sundrie men and women I heare not seldome as well the one as the other sort to marueyle of the pleasant and sweete agréement of some maryed men with their wyues for say they if such a man or such a woman had chaunced to my lotte we should haue agréed euen as fire and water So that what other cause knittes this equalitie and concorde betwéene them two who being deuided coulde hardly agrée with others but a loue a conformitie yea a kindly nature betwéene them which could not holde concorde wyth others For if you require a precise perfection of maners in your wyfe wherewith perhappes your selfe is not furnished neuer looke to agrée with hir in conuersation and behauiour other then as the Lion with the Lambe whereof the one is of humble and méeke condition and the other indued with a prowde and hawtie nature And albeit your wife discréetely assay to reforme your inciuilities â–ª and by reuerent obedience séeke to leade you in an honest affection yea thoughe with the vaile of hir modestie she couer your imperfections thinking at last to allure you with thâ—se honest traynes yet such maryage will prooue imperfect and all hir honest traueile yéeldes but a desperate fruite bicause you stande estraunged from hir in heart our nature neuer chaungeth in vs and with the opinion of the Philosophers who seekes to translate his nature laboureth with the Gyants in tyme past to make warre agaynst the Gods well may we for a time dissemble the suggestion of our thoughts as by an artificiall hypocrasie pretending an other estate than we beare but at length as with Esops Apes that brake the daunce to scamble for Nuts this nature of ours must reuart and take hir place So when loue once imprintes in hir much lesse that the man and wyfe shall iarre or disagrée betwéene themselues but of the contrary they shall bring forth in their lyues and actiâ—ns â–ª one conâ—â—nt of will yea there shall be that richesse and communitie of maners which you wishe â–ª and the wife of such chaste and reuerent behauiour to hir husbande as their conuersation shal be no lesse frée from reproch than their whole life farre from example of disobedience In which estate were it not better to liue in such sort and pleasure albeit the one be deceyued in his opinion then dwelling in the condition you haue prescribed to be alwayes plunged in paine and passion â–ª This loue doth so dazell and leade our spirites in a iudgement of affection and fauour that we value all things in the best and estéeme nothing inconuenient on the behalfe of them whome we loue where this wisedome which you wishe standes vpon such delicate and precise respectes as she holds nothing acceptable yea though in your wife were euen the very vertues of Iudith or the rare constancie of Penelope wherewith the Ladie noting their vehemencie me thinkes sayth she you leade the companie wrongfully in a cause of doubt albeit the nature of the matter requires it But to
leaue you mutually contented my iudgement is that you dwell still in your singuler opinions séeing in eyther of them is a cleare resemblance of a truth like as in coÌ„mon experience and practise of things that which is proper in one place we find oftentymes most inconuenient in an other behalfe and that by the varietie of maners order of such as handle them And therfore séeing there is a diuersity of fancie betwene you let euery one féed on his priuate opinion without séeking to disenherite his companion But for your part seigneur Monophylo if you should be driuen to abandon and exchaunge your lot I meane your Ladie and Mystresse to marye the rychest woman in the worlde I thinke it woulde disgest with you as an vnsauerie â—yll in a sounde stomacke And euen no lesse to you monsieur Glaphyro if you were to chuse a wyfe onely for wealth or altogither for loue so that as I sayde my sentence runnes still to restrayne you of speach and leaue you onely a libertie and contentment in thought recommending vnto you seigneur Glaphyro a newe memorie of your olde promise to procéede in the matter of loue whereof you haue giuen vs as it were a pleasaunt taste and séemes nowe to faint in the chalenge when you haue kindled our desires leading our appetites in imagination as though you would warme vs by a painted fyre only I pray you be not wearie in well doing nor harde to encline to honest requestes séeing there is no lesse vertue in the one then the other conducible to merite of them by whome you are required your request Madame sayth he is no lesse iust in it selfe then meritorious on your owne behalfe and your reasons so necessarie as if I shoulde denie them I should be holden eyther ignoraunt or obstinate and so leaue you vnsatisfied in my dutie and fulfill in my selfe an example of imperfection touching the partes requisite in a Gentleman And yet Madame your request séemed a fléeing authoritie séeing it preuented me in matter but not in meaning yea if I had not a grounded knowledge of you I should iudge you with those delicate creditors who if their day be not kept doe salute vs sodenly with their Sergeants or officers of areast notwithstanding you shall be satisfied as apperteyneth vpon this charge and couenaunt that you receyue my money in payment as it is séeing I will giue you no other then such as I cull out of mine owne coffers And so as farre as I remember the degrées of our beginning seigneur Monophylo allowes loue mutually of one to one and of the contrarie Phylopolo would loue in many places wherein Madam if I giue my fancie eyther simplie or as I haue partly learned of you I craue onely to be defended in my right as well as they two To make such base marchandise of his bodye as to bequeath it to the first according to the desire of seigneur Phylopolo me thinkes is neyther good nor séemely euen so I can lesse condiscend to hold so hard a hande of the bridle with ymagination of such an Idoll of constancie as you seigneur Monophylo require onely I could better alowe a meane as the Lawyers vse in causes of contention I will not denie that the principall poynt in loue and the marke whereat euery one ought to shoote is not loyaltie towardes our mystresse yet considering this great frayltie which nature hath grafted in vs as to be all in all and pertaker more with mortalitie than diuine respectes séeing our mindes be wrapped in the vaile of thys fleshly drosse if pursuing our necessarie occasions and opportunities we chaunce into a long absence from our Mystresse applying the fauor of the tyme to our desires happen to rowe in another streame I cannot make that light scape a déepe offence nor such exchaunge of pleasure only alienation of mind therfore no other fault then eyther may be pardoned or excused séeing that dwelling still in one constant minde and will towardes hir albeit I supplie a certaine suggestion and actuall appetite which nature styrres in me yet with that disordered will I doe not translate my heart to other then to the Ladie and Mystresse of my first thoughtes to whome I beare a constant reuerence as well absent as present wherein as the Sunne kéepes alwayes his clearenesse although somtimes he enter into a clowde euen so may it be of him who sometimes visites a straunge Mystresse to whome he yéeldes no other affection then to serue his present turne To be short séeing friendshippe restes in the heart and not in these small intemperances of nature me thinkes loue cannot be violated by a necessitie forced of an instinct which mooues and kindles by nature And yet will I not establish any libertie vnder the shadow of such necessitie to sâ—acke the brydle of our pleasures at all tymes and vpon euery motion for so might we runne into a negligent and carelesse regarde of our mystresse albeit there be many faultes which maye be pardoned for once but comming to an vse and custome deserue no small rebuke wherewith Monophylo to cutte of the question of maryage Let vs leaue them sayth he to such as pretende interest in that holy state and returne eft soones to the matter of loue where we pitched our beginning wherin sâ—igneur Glaphyro you are nothing so prodigall of your selfe as Phylopolo yet perhaps your opinion might find place amongst the common people as holding some simple affinitie with them shadowed with an honest and séemely couer But being here to dispute not according to popular fancie but exactly vpon things I will frankly tell you my iudgement if friendly you applie libertie to my simple meaning not onely skope of frée speache sayth Charyclea but all the authoritie I haue to warraunt and assure your cause wherein if néede be I will become pawne and pledge for you often haue I read sayth Glaphyro that women are sprinckled with many imperfections as vnable to giue aduice in causes of estate and much lesse to be receyued into iudgement in matters of this aduice those be the lawes of men sayth the Lady to whose ignoraunce is giuen a certaine supréeme authoritie least in indifferent reason they were founde eyther lesse able or more imperfect than wée and all to establish an vsurped preregatiue ouer our vertuous obedience wherewith â—ffering to procéede further in the honest defence of their simple sexe Monophylo either vnder the warrant of hir consent or at least presuming of hir condition intercepted hir speach and pursued his purpose of loyaltie in this sort if the highest vertue in loue bée actuall constancie the second felicitie in mine opinion saith he is to haue the thought cleare from all corrupt motions as neyther to aspire by ymagination nor attempt by pollicie howe so euer the season or oportunitie doe fauour for who maketh profession of true loue ought so to brydle hys sturring lustes to all other women
which is reason and the other they say possesseth the inferior partes which they name lust or desire wherein albeit that which occupieth the partes more noble ought to assist the other as being most wise and forséeing yet such is our share and part with this massie earth being tickled by their flattering and deceitfull passions communicating with them hir secrets and as it were conspiring secretly against hir submittes hir selfe oftentimes to their mercie to hir great confusion For example who ought to haue bene more deuested of all humaine passion than our originall father Adam being in his innocencie séeing our mortall nature was as then in his most great perfection and yet was not he rather ouer ruled by concupiscence then guided by reason when in an ambicious humour he rebelled against the will of God But if we distende more familiarly by what other effect I praye you are we deuided from beastes but by this reason onelie which notwithstanding we sée so abused in thousandes of men that they séeme to pertake more with beasts than with humanity wherin what better testimonie can we produce than the doinges of wisemen and such as are inraged replenished with furie in whome notwithstanding that lust or desire neuer fayled which kepes residence in vs all which makes me think that when this mightie generall architector began to fashion man he framed him deuided as it were halfe diuine halfe brutish so that as he would not make him altogither ignorant in things passed nor directly to foresée chaunces to come so he intercepted him to flie with the winges of his minde to the consideration concerning only himselfe which is the knowledge of the truth but séemes contented only with our faith and credulitie And so in the matter of beautie wée néede not much to meruaile if our iudgement wauer séeing it hapneth in all other humaine actions which I thinke procéedes by the great prouidence of God yea euen in the matter of our present question bycause such women as of certayne are estéemed fowle séeme sufficiently fayre to others as not to be wholy abandoned being as necessarie for the encrease of the worlde as those that stande in a greater estimation of beautie And yet we must thinke that although in this opinion loue makes himselfe common with all other thinges of the worlde yet he containes a certaine nature in himselfe by which he is made altogither heauenly For except this generall league of pollicie which procéedes of the vnitie of our heartes whereof I will not now speake I haue alwaies learned of suche as imagined the heauenlie felicitie that the contentment that most wée founde in this supernall region is a perpetuall contemplation of this deuine essence which makes vs forget our selues wherein albeit I ought not to applie so high a similitude to the subiect we speake of yet if we be suffred to imprint in our heartes an ymage of that diuinitie I may well say that the impression we haue of the formes and figures of our Ladies doth so rauishe vs in them that by them we doe not onely holde all the ioyes of the worlde as transitorie but also they take from vs the knowledge of the very cause why we loue as being rapt in woonder in them euen as by a dilligent beholding the sunne we loase the naturall light of our owne eyes I consent to all you saye sayth Glaphyro confessing withall that as by the imbecilitie of our sences it is not lawfull for vs to flie or aspire to this truth so I beléeue also that it is the onelye cause of the diuersitie of lawes altogither contrarie in diuers places And yet you cannot denie to me that in the question of beautie there be not thinges which by common consent of the worlde are not allowed most fayre as who in a selfe obstinate fancie will giue vnto the crooked and wrinckled a more singularity in beautie then those whome nature hath created vpright and perfite hath in mine opinion no lesse mayme in his sight then imperfection of reason and iudgement I speake not of monsters sayth Monophylo but of thinges common and indifferent for séeing nature hath created vs all vpright I will not entangle our question with suche sort of people as you speake of affirming that in what proportion so euer we are framed if we procure to our selues no other defect of members then according to Gods generall distribution we are a substaunce sufficient ynough to be beloued Bicause all other accidents happening appeare not to vs eyther fayre or foule but according to the diuersitie of our humours which leade vs to that opinion yea we perswade often times a thing to séeme fayre in some season which in an other appeares foule and loathsome So that seigneur Glaphyro if this generalitie vary according to the diuersitie of tymes let vs not thinke straunge if our mindes in the same respect differ perticulerly wherin touching women on whome your late spéech did runne I can hardelye beléeue that in this varietie of opinions they finde not some friende in affection albeit not so commonly as others bicause they are further estraunged from our common nature herein you are both deceyued sayth Phylopolo for nature neuer created thing so rare but for admiration And albeit in regarde of their bodies suche women are not so generally delitefull to vs yet they haue alwayes a helpe of the minde to satisfie that default for God was neuer so niggardly bent to any but if he raysed an imperfite bodye he supplied it with some inwarde excellencie of minde as in the nature of insensible thinges we haue an example of the Vine who albeit seemes most crooked and counterfeyt of all other sortes of woode yet he contaynes euen in his succéeding effectes the spirite and minde of vs men This is somewhat to purpose for you sayth the Ladie and albeit you had vsed no other spéeche at all yet by these last wordes you shoulde haue bene dispensed with all touching all your blasphemies wherein all this afternoone you haue taken your voluntarie pleasure beséehing you all my Gentlemen and déere friendes to suffer this last spéeche of Phylopolo to cloase vp our long question of loue wherein Monophylo séemes to chalenge a singuler triumph who least he should ouer wéene in himselfe I thinke it is not impertinent so to moderate the state of his prosperitie as by our meane hée hoyse not sayle aboue our power to embase it by discresion wherein I holde opinion with an auncient Capitaine of Athens who being asked if he tooke not pleasure to learne the art of memorie no rather sayth he I delight in the art of forgetfulnesse bicause in his iudgement hée preserued well all thinges in his minde which being learned he forgat not But aboue all if a thing once engraued in vs cannot be defaced without great paine loue only once rooted in our heartes is most hardly yea impossible drawne from vs by any humaine art or pollysie and