and stones should condemne vs of too much forgetfulnesse Sith neither Syracusa with their conuoyes and prouision to the Romanes at Thrasymenum neither Tyre nor Sydon with their Caedars of Lybanon to Ierusalem were so forward as Denmark was of late to England but as Masinissa sayd of the Romanes that there was one kind of people vpon the earth the people of Rome and among that one people one Scipio to whom he fully deuoted himselfe as one whose soule rested in Scipioes bodie the like sayd Hyra King of Tyre of Salomon King of Israel But neither Hyra with his Sydonians was more grateful to Salomon King of Israel nor Masinissa with his Numidians more louing to Scipio the Romane Consul than Christianus King of Denmarke was to Iames King of great Britane whom neither heauens earth nor seas neither Kingdomes nor Court could keepe that louing King from his loue to come from Denmark as a crowned starre of the North to shine in England and to come to celebrate and to renew the name of great Britane to see the Queene his Sister his Nephew and the rest of the Kings children the sound and sacred anchor of three Kingdomes O loue immortall not to be wayed in ballance not with measure to be measured not knitted with Gordius knot to be cut by Alexanders sword neither with Hercules knot to be vnknitted by Phoebus sith all prophane Histories cannot allow but eight onely of the like loue but not eight Kings most seldome two For to see a King out of his kingdome is as strange as to see the Sunne out of the skie Let England bee of equall loue with Denmarke sith loue is recompensed with loue iustly weyed in equall ballance not with Philips siluer swords in Greece not with Artaxerxes golden Archers in Persia but with Pythagoras weapons one minde one heart and one soule perpetuall weapons the triumphes thereof haue their euerlasting tropheis Among such what needs such leagues and couenants to dippe our weapons in blood as the Scythians did or die our clothes in blood as the Armenians did or to drinke blood out of our armes as the Medians and Lydians did Sith the league between great Britane and Denmarke is consecrated with inward blood of mutuall hearts and confirmed with the entrals and bowels of naturall Parents that two Sunnes may be sooner found to agree in the skie than these two Kings to disagree on earth This God hath appointed nature confirmed fates allowed and fortune thereto agreed Hence grow the cause of our publicke Iubilies and crowned feasts our dayly tropheis and perpetuall triumphes that as the Romans loued and agreed with the Sabins yeelding thanks to their God in the Feast Consualia so the Britanes with the Danes yeelding thanks to their God Iehouah in their Feasts Scaenopegia The Choyse of Iewels THE Empire of Women and Courts of Queenes euen froÌ„ Semiramis time haue gouerned countries and kingdomes subdued Realmes ruled States and brought vnder their obeysance both Kings and kingdomes as also before Semiramis time it may â—eeâ—e probable for that Asia the greatest part of the world was named Asia by a Queene of that name which then dwelt in Asiâ— whose fame continued vntill Semiramis the second Empresse whose martiall exploytes and gouernment hath been such if authorities may serue as neither Alexander the great could exceede in magnanimitie nor Cyrus in victories nor Xerxes in multitude of souldiers Wee leaue the Court of Sardanapalus King of Assiria who during his life exceeded in all effeminate wantoÌ„nesse hauing his Court full of such Iewels as he was wont to â—it amongst them in womans apparell among such light and shamelesse women where women were in mens apparell and men in womens apparell of which I will omit to speake But I will begin with those women that were speciall Iewels appointed not only to saue his people but to saue kingdomes and countryes not only among christiâ—ns but among Heathens and Pagans DEBORA a woman which dwelt in Mount Ephraim and iudged Israel fourty yeares vanquished the Chananites and slue Sisera HVLDAH a Prophetesse which dwelt in Ierusalem to whome king Iâ—siaâ— after the law booke was found sent for Councell to know how and what way God might be pleased with Israell Who knoweth not but Rebecca by God appoynted councelled her sonne Iacob to flee from his brother Esau to Mâ—sopotamia where God appoynted such two Iewels for him as made him the father of the 12 Tribes of Israell in whome he and his posteritie was blessed by the seede of LEA a woman IOSEPH a man sent by God to Egipt though sold by his brethren where the like Iewell was appoynted him to weete Assanetha an Egiptian the mother of Manasses and Ephraim two adopted Tribes in Israell by whome during Iosephs life the Hebrews were Lords of the land of Goshen and free from their bondage in Egipt Was not THERMVTIS the Kings daughter of Egipt a Iewell appointed to saue Moses from drowning in Nilus to name him Moses to bring him vpp as her sonne adoptiue to possesse the Crowne in spight of their Priests of Memphis ESTHER an Hebrew maide maried to Aâ—ashuerosh the great King of Persia a Iewell of God not only appointed to saue Mâ—rdocheus her vnckle but all the Iewes her country-men within an hundred seauen and twenty Prouinces with the daunger of her owne life and the destruction of Seauenty and fiue thousand Persiâ—ns and the hanging of Hâ—man and his ten sonnes In Bethulia a woman widdow ventured more then any man either Cyrus Alexander Or Caesar in their owne persons as shee did who brought Holoferâ—â—â— head in a bagge through the Assirian campe to 〈◊〉 whereby the whole Assirian army was ouerthrowne A famous victorie for a woman to be recorded for the fame of women Obserue therefore how God chiefly by women in all countries saued and defended his people In Mesopotamia by Labans daughters Lea Rachell In Egipt by THERMVTIS King Pharoes daughter In Ethiopia by Tharbis the King of Ethiops daughter whom Moses maried and made her a christian whome Pharaoh and the Priests of Egipt gaue him to th' end to slay him as Saul sent Dauid to the Philistians for the like purpose In Persia by ESTHER King Ahashuerosh wife In Bethulia by Iudith a widdow these were peculier women by God appoynted What should wee seeke proofes far off when we haue examples at home Had we not in England such a Iewell as combined Fraunce vnto England And another Iewell that brought Scotland vnto England being two women Had we not such a Iewell of a woman in England after tenne terrible battels wherein there were a Hundred Knights and Barons slayne tenne Princes and Dukes destroyed and one Hundred thousand Englishmen slayne in the field between the houses of Lancaster and Yorke a woman being the onely cause of a perpetuall League betweene both houses And euen at this present wee enioye such a Iewell that will blesse
in token they should liue and loue one with another without offending the lawe of marriage So the other Goddesse of mariage is called Iuno iugalis signifying concord and agreement and be yoaked together during life The Lusitanians which are Portugales the women must be drawne and forced out of dores before they came to be married to shew how vnwilling they were to forsake their Parents their friends and their Countreys and now must follow a stranger hauing before her a Musitian and one that â—inges a songe of Hymaeneus carrying with her a Distaffe a spindle and flaxe The people about mount Taurus had this custome that the women should gird them before they were maried with a woollen girdle full of Hercules knots vppon it which should bee loosed by the Bridegroome the first night in token hee should be the Father of so many children as Hercules had who left behind him when he died 70. sonnes and yet not so many as Herotinus king of Arabia who had 600 sonnes Solon made a law that the man might not come vnto his newe married wiues companie before hee had eaten Ex malo Cydonio which was a notable Towne in Candie And so the custome among the Babilonians was that the young married folkes might not lye together before both had tasted of a secret gum called Storiae Such customes of these Countreys were carefully obserued and kept In Greece they had these Ceremonies as Pausanius affirmeth that the Bride should bee carried from her Parents and Friends in a Coach and the Axeltree of this Coach should bee burned at the dore of the house before the Bride would enter into the house signifying that there shee should stay and tarrie and thence neuer to depart But if they were not carried in a coach but went on foot her husband should euer be called Chamoepus being a word of great reproach for that he made mariage honorable of no account considering that the first miracle that Christ did was at a mariage in Chanaan and so honored mariage with his owne presence It was lawfull in Persia for the young married man to lye with his newe married wife before he had eaten 〈…〉 the marrow of a Camell neither any thing else but an Apple and the marrow of a Camell The â—ewes at their marriages the glasse that they drink in that day they are maried the Bride and Bridegrome both ioyntly at night breake that glasse to signâ—fie the frailtie of life A young woman not married might neither amonge the Lacedemonions or amonge the Romanes come amonge married women or to the sacrifice and feasts of Câ—rus Venus but the â—â—rier should openly charge and command all vncleane women â—uch as had the Leprosie or any breaking out of their bodies or â—ensâ—rium should avoide the â—acred and secret sâ—ruice and after all this hee commaunded sayd to the woman vnmarried 〈…〉 that the maides vnmarried should goe out of the â—emple as an enemie to mankinde And therefore the â—awe of Moses was that if a man should strike a woman with child the child being quicke and thereby borne abortiue the man should die for it The law was that he should yeeld Animam pro anima And if the childe had life the man should bee punished Pecunia mulctetur as much as the womans husband would This condemneth the absurd opinion of the Pithagorians of their transanimation which they call Metempsuchosis that the soule should passe from one body to another and withall so grosse that it should bee transported from a man to a beast Hence grew the forbidding of eating of flesh among many of whome Tertullian spake merriâ—â— Ne quispâ—am bubulam de aliquo proauo obsonet lâ—ast some should eate of their old parents flesh Moseâ— law was that the young men should be married to maides and such as was of honest parentage vertuous and godly education Moses thought it not fit that young women of ripe yeares should be vnmarried That was the cause why Lycurgus made such sharpe laws in Sparta that the yong men which were not not would not be married in Sparta they should goe naked in the winter time round-about the market place vpon the market day neither might these vnmarried baâ—cheâ—lors come to see the games and playes among the 〈…〉 The like lawe made Plato that if any young man in Greece should be vnmarried at 35 yeares he should be so little esteemed that he should not be preferred before any man but be last man either going into any company or coÌ„ming from them without any countenance or credit giuen him This was the cause that the Lacedemonians had such Laws and customes that the parents which had three children should be freed from watch and warde But those parents which had foure ab omni onere immunis foret he should be discharged from all taskes and Subsidies And this was the cause why the Persians preferred the parents of children before others and that the King of Persia by the Persian law was bound to giue a peece of Gold to euery woman with childe in any town the King came through and this was the only cause why those Hebrew womeÌ„ which were barren brought their maids vnto their own husbands chambers for childreÌ„s â—ake As you heard of Abrahams wife and of Iacobs wiues Such was the affection and loue in Martiall countries to haue young men married to young women The warlike Romans would hardly suffer any Patrician that was not father of many children to be any Magistrate in Rome either Questor Praetor or Consull And if any should faine to be parents of children not so found he should be depriued from his office and place per Senatus consultum And therefore Furius Camillus and after him Posthumius at what time they were made Censors in Rome made such decrees that old bachelers which were found vnmarried in Rome should pay such fine to the Treasury as were imposed vpon them by their Censors Sectio 2. SEe how much all heathen lawes doe esteeme honour and make much of marriage And how much we owe to our mothers that nourish vs in their wombes and our wiues that bring vs children And therfore the mothers are as the Philosopher saith Philosturge of the great loue and affection shee beareth more then the father and wee are or ought to be more affected to our mothers Plus paulo à matre quam à patre suscipit faetus For nothing can be more repugnant to nature then a mother to hate and forget her owne children which is brought for an example by the Euangelist of Rachell whose complaint wailing and weeping was such for her children that shee would not nor could not be comforted which is easily to bee beleeued sithence women feede vs and nourish vs with the substance of their own bodies as both Hippocrates and Gallen sayd Ex Sanguine Materno faetum ali First
neuer loued a woman That is not true sith the forme and jmage of Iustice is formed like a woman with a sword in her hand Prudence with a glasse in her hand Temperance with a dyall in her hand Fortitude with a great huge Colossus on her shoulder that Hercules could not stirre her And all these are wrought in gold in siluer in Arras and in all kinde of Tapestrie The Queens of the Amazones courts were onely of women without men where men by Law and decrees made might not gouerne or beare rule but were exercised in seruile works hauing their legges and armes made so weake by their Nurces that they could not beare armor as Diodorus writes Quoinutiles fierent bello This was a pollicy of the Amazones to be carefull to keepe the anncient Lawe of Scithia that men should not gouerne them who vsed to cut off the right pappe of euery female kinde because it should not hinder them in their shot and military seruice An example of two or three Myrina one of their Queens with thirty thousand foot women and two thousand horse being armed with skins of great Serpents after that shee had subdued many Regions and confines euen vnto Libia marched vnto Egipt at what time Orus Isis sonne reigned King there so auncient a History it is with whom shee coÌ„sented to a â—eague of peace Thence she marched into 〈◊〉 whome she much wasâ—ed and spoyled from thence to Syria whome shee conquered with much slaughter Thence shee marched to Mount 〈◊〉 and ouer came the nations there about so that Queen Myrâ—â—a was as famous in Sâ—ythia as was Semiranus in Asia and both were as famous as Alexander or Cyrus In like sort may it be spoken of Queene Medusa and of her Court as we did of Queene Myrina that shee likewise gouerned a Nation of warlike women named Gorgons who feared not to encounter with great King Perseus the most famous and warlike King of his time amongst the Graecians and kept him long and hard in twoo great battles The fame of these Queens grew so great that Hercules hearing the fame of them and of their courts of their womeÌ„ was much abashed that so many Nations should be subdued by womeÌ„ Hercules after Perseus in great furie began his warre against these Queenes after Myrina and Medusaes time with whome Perseus fought and slue so many I meane of the Gorgans and Amazones that Queene Myrina buried so many of her Ladies that to this day their graue is called Tumuli Amazonum which is in Greece and not in Scythia Among other Nations and Kingdomes the Court of the Queenes of Saca ought iustly for their misitary discipline their victories and gouernment to bee remembred Among many Queenes that ruled there I will onely speake of one Queene named Tarina who after shee had subdued the Nations about her and brought in subiection many countries vnder the Saceans after peace and quietnesse had made such Lawes to her Subiects that the Queenes which succeeded her altered nothing therof but one Queene after another confirmed Tarinas Lawes in Saca Such was the loue commendations of this Queene of her Subiects in her Court for her pollicy wisedome counsell and benefits done to her countrey that such a Sepulcher was made for her after her death that the Pyramides of Egipt and the Labyrinth of Creete might well giue place vnto it Neither might Mauseolum it selfe which Queene Artimesia made for King Mausolus her husbands Tombe be preferred though that Tombe was numbred one of the seauen wonders of the world The Queenes of Scythia their Court a known History whose antiquitie is such that Diodorus Cetesiâ—s and others 〈◊〉 of But the Queenes of Scythia howsoeuer they were first named enlarged their kingdomes so greatly that some were called 〈…〉 and some Arimaspi all warlike Queenes which subdued much of Asia and of Europe so that many of the Queenes of the Amazones are most renowned for the watres which they had with the greatest Conquerors of the world As Queen 〈◊〉 with Hercules Queen Tarina with Persâ—â—â— Queene 〈◊〉 with Achilles Queen 〈◊〉 with Cyrus whom she slue in battell with 200000. Persians with him And after Cyrus was slayne in Scythia King Darius thought to reueng that shame that the great King of Persea with his army should be slayne by a woman but Darius was glad to leaue Scythia vnto womeÌ„ and to returne vnto Persia. And also of Camilla who came armed against Aeneas and his Troian army with so many Kings as well of Asia as of Europe who felt the courage of the Queenes of Scythia that Kings payde Tribute to Queenes in Asia The women Laxamathae were Marshall women on horse backe the men of that country on â—oote In the field the woman fought on horsebacke with halters and short strong ropes and the men with speares and â—argats The women of Sparta are preferred before men All care and busines of Sparta are layde vpon the women For they sit in Councell they Iudge in causes and make such Lawes and decrees as to them seemed good which being obiected against by a certaine Gentleman that only the women of Sparta ruled ouer men And well worthy answered Leonidas wife wee women only of Sparta beare men only True it is as women bring their infants vp in their youth so are they found in their age The women in Persia were so much honored that they might not be seene but couered secret in Coaches So Themisâ—ocles being sought for by the 〈◊〉 and Luâ—dâ—monians escaped by fauoure and was caried among the Persian Ladies secretly For none but the Persian Ladies might haue accesse to their Coaches or presume to speake to them So much in Persia were women esteemed that in all secret Councells of States they were sent for Moreouer the Persians would haue their wiues present in place to see them fight in battells that they might at the sight of their wiues be made more couragious to fight What can be sayd of men but as much may bet sayd of women or rather more Might Herculâ—s any way haue subdued Cerberus or led him in triumph but by the helpe and councell of Proserpâ—na a woman Neither Iason could possibly winne the golden fleece and carry it away from 〈◊〉 vnto Greece without the helpe of Medea a woman Who taught Theseus the way to the Labyâ—â—â—â— at Creete to kill the monster Mino-taurus but 〈◊〉 a woman Who taught the way to werâ— ouer so many daungerous gulfes fiery 〈◊〉 frosty riuers vnto hell it selfe but 〈…〉 woman Therefore the Lawe was that they that 〈◊〉 to Carras into the Temple of Luna and offered sacrifice to the Moone such women should haue the rule gouernment of their husbands with good reason and their husbands should be ruled by them And they which made supplycation offered sacrifice to god Lunus such men had the dominion and gouernmâ—t ouer their wiues The