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A89527 Heptameron or the history of the fortunate lovers; written by the most excellent and most virtuous princess, Margaret de Valoys, Queen of Navarre; published in French by the privilege and immediate approbation of the King; now made English by Robert Codrington, Master of Arts. Marguerite, Queen, consort of Henry II, King of Navarre, 1492-1549.; Codrington, Robert, 1601-1665. 1654 (1654) Wing M593; Thomason E1468_2; ESTC R208683 403,927 599

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doing wrong to either sex I may be allowed to speak the truth both of Men and women and to affirm that there is nothing good at all either in the one or the other But this Man said Parlament was marvellously deceitfull for on the one side he cousened his Maid and on the other side his Wife You do not well understand the story I perceive said Hircan for that saith that he did content them both on one morning and not deceive them which I look upon as a great Act of Virtue both of body and of mind as well by deeds as by words to give content unto two divers persons In that said Parlament he is doubly to be blamed in satisfying the simplicity of the one by Dissimulation and and the longings of the other by Lust but I understand well enough that such Sins as these being brought before such a Judge as you will find an easie pardon You may assure your self said Hircan to please two at once is no easie task and for my own part I will never undertake so great and difficult an enterprise I have given you my Account already and think herein I have not ill imployed my days work If a mutual Love said Parlament cannot content the heart I know no other thing in the world that can give content unto it To speak the truth said Simontault I do believe that there is not a greater punishment in the world than to love and not to be beloved again I do believe you said Oysilla and to that purpose I do remember a Story which indeed doth not deserve to be numbred on the file of good ones but because it is for the present purpose I am content to declare it to you Of a Frier whose Custom it was to bring his complaints to several Husbands which was the occasion that they did beat their Wives The sixth Novell IN the City of Angoulesm where Count Charls the Father of King Francis had oftentimes his residence there was a Frier called De Valles a very knowing Man and so great a Preacher that upon all Sundays in the Advents he preached in the City before the Count by means whereof his Reputation was much increased It so fell out that during the Advent a lusty young fellow of the City having married a handsom young Wench did not desist for all that to ramble up and down and to live as dissolutely if not more than those who were unmarried of which the young Woman being advertised could not hold her peace so that following him up and down and exclaiming on him she received such tokens from him as she would not willingly have and neverthelesse for all that she did not forbear to continue her exclamations and oftentimes would speak very high words and most passionately rail against him The young Man being much incited at it did begin to lay about him and to leave on her shoulders the marks of his displeasure whereat she began to cry out far louder than before and her Neighbours also that knew the occasion of it would inveigh against him and making a great noise in the streets would cry out Now fie on all such Husbands Let them go all to the Devil The Frier De Valles passing by that way and understanding the noise and the occasion of it did determine with himself to speak one word of it in his next dayes Sermon which accordingly he did for speaking of marriage and of the love which ought to be betwixt the Husband and the Wife he did highly praise it and blamed those that did go about to violate it and making a comparison betwixt conjugal and paternal Love he said amongst other things That it was a greater danger and a more grievous punishment for a Husband to beat his Wife than to beat his Father or his Mother for said he if you beat your Father or your Mother you are sent to Rome to do penance but if you beat your Wife both she and all her Neighbours will fall a cursing of you and send you immediately to the Devil that is to say to Hell You are to observe now said he what a difference there is betwixt these two penances for from Rome they do ordinarily come back again but from Hell-Oh There is no teturning Nulla est redemptio Not long after that Sermon he was advertised that Women made their boasts of that which he preached and that their Husbands could live in no quiet for them for which in his next Sermon he did resolve to prescribe an Order for the redresse of that inconvenience And in some part of it he compared Women unto Devils and said that they two were the greatest Enemies that Man had for they did always tempt Man without any intermission and he could never get rid of them especially of the Woman for the Devils he said will fly away if they be but shewed the Crosse but Women clean contrary to them will cleave the faster to them being the greatest cross themselves that can be to their Husbands And this doth make them so to run and to go and doth throw them into such an infinity of passions But good people be ruled by me and I will tell you what you shall do When you do find that your Wives do torment you in this manner without cease as I have said they are accustomed to do take off the handle from your crucisix and with that handle drive them as far from you as you can Do as I bid you and vigorously make experience of it three or four times and you shall find the good that will come of it you shall find that in the same manner that you doe chase away the Devil by the virtue of the Crosse you shall also chase away and make your Wives to hold their peace by the Virtue of the handle of the Crosse and they will no more presume to come too near unto you Loe here some part of the Preachments of that venerable de Valles of whose life I will make here no larger a recital but I can tell you whatsoever appearance he made to the contrary for I knew the man very well yet in his heart he took the Womens parts more than the Mens Madem said Parlament he did not shew it in that last Sermon in which he gave instructions unto Men to beat their Wives You do not understand his drift in it said Hircan had you been exercized in the discipline and the Stratagems of War you would have found that one of the greatest policies that is required is to make a Civil sedition in the Camp of the Enemy because it is then most easie to overcom● him In the like manner this Monk the Master of his Arts did understand well enough that the Anger and the Hatred betwixt the Husband and the Wife is the Cause oftentimes that makes the Wife to let loose the reigns of her honesty which being governed no more by virtue doth fall into the hands of
and Spurs on The Gentlewoman awaking was as sorry and as much ashamed as possibly could be but whatsoever remonstances she could make he took her by force and told her that if she revealed that affair he himself would disclose it to all the World and declare that she had sent for him on purpose The young Gentlewoman was so amazed at what he said that she durst not cry out Not long afterwards one of the Chambermaids came into the Chamber whereupon the Gentleman hearing her to come up the Stairs did rise up so suddenly that he had not been discovered but only by his Spur which taking hold on the upper sheet did dragg it about the Chamber insomuch that the poor young Gentlewoman having nothing to cover her was left almost stark naked in the bed And in speaking those words although she pretended to give an Account of another yet she could not take such heed to her tongue but it blabbed forth There was never Woman more ashamed than my self when I found that I was so naked Immediatly the Lady who had listned very attentively to the Account she made without laughing could not forbear at the last words she spake to say unto her For ought that I can perceive you have good reason to relate this story for it properly belongs unto you The poor Gentlewoman blushing did allege what ever she could imagine to recover her Honour but it was already flown away and so far that she could not recall it Ladies I do perswade my self that if it had been so unpleasing to her to commit the Act as she represented she would willingly have lost the memory of it and have taken no delight to have repeated it But as I have said Sin will easily be discovered by it self and sind eyes enough to disclose it when it is not covered with that coverture which David affirmeth doth render a Man blessed In good earnest said Emarsuite this is one of the most notorious and most ridiculous Fools that ever I heard of to make others laugh at the expence of her own follies I find it nothing strange said Parlament that the word should follow the deed for it is more easie to speake than to do What a businesse do you make of it said Guebron What Sin had she committed she was fast afleep in her bed and he did threaten her with Death and Shame Lucretia who is so famous amongst you would have done the like It is true said Parlament there is no Woman so pure and innocent who needs not to wear an Apron But when we take a great displeasure in the Act We do also take as great a displeasure to have it in our memory but we find it was the pleasure of this Gentlewoman to make others laugh at the follies she committed Neverthel●sse said Nomerfide It appears that this Woman was a good Woman because she had oftentimes been sollicited by the Gentleman and yet would never consent unto him insomuch that the Gentleman was constrained to assist himself with force and threatnings to deceive her How said Parlament do you think that a Lady may be excused for losing her Honour when she doth let it go after the second or the third denyal There would be then many virtuous Women which are now esteemed to be clean contrary For we see sufficiently every day that there are Women who do a long time refuse and put off those whom in their hearts they do desire Some for fear of their Honour others that more ardently they may be followed and loved and more highly be esteemed Wherefore if you speak indeed of Virtue you should make no reckoning of that Woman who doth not continue firm unto the end Where is that Phoenix said Saffredant let us know and we shall extol that miracle in earnest But what said Dagou●in if a young man should for once or twice refuse a young Lady would you not esteem that to be a great Virtue Truly said Oysilla if a young Man and in health should continue to use that Virtue I should esteem it as excellent and glorious as it is difficult to believe But I have known one said Dagoucin who hath refused those pleaasures which all his Companions with greediness did pursue I must desire you said Longaron that you will take my place to account unto us the particulars thereof but withall remember that we are here all bound to speak the truth I professe unto you said Dagoucin that I will deliver it to you so clearly that therein ther shall be no colour at all that shall disguise it The notable Temperance and Chastity of a French Lord. The third Novel IN the City of Paris there lived four young Maids two whereof were Sisters and of so great a beauty and youth and such a fresh complexion that they were courted with multitudes of Suters A Gentleman whom the King who then reigned had made Provost of Paris observing his young Master the King to be of age to desire such Company did so mannage his design amongst them all that every one of them believing they should be for the King they all accorded to that which the Provost desired which was that on such a day they would come altogether to a Feast to which he would invite his Master and in the mean time he did acquaint him with what he had done who did like it very well The King also did impart it to two other great Personages of the Court who did agree to have their pennyworth in the Market with him And looking for the fourth Companion for the fourth Maid there came in by accident a young Lord a courteous and most lovely Gentleman and ten years younger than any of the other three he was also invited to the Banquet and made an outward appearance to be very willing to attend upon the King although in his heart he had no desire to be present at such a meeting for on one side he had newly married a beautiful Wife who was the Mother of two lovely Infants with which he was very much contented and they lived together in such peace and unity that he would not for any thing that his Wife should entertain the least suspition of him On the other side he was a perfect Servant to one of the fairest Ladies who were at that time in France whom so much he loved and so highly esteemed that all others did appear but imperfect and deformed to him insomuch that at the beginning of his youth before he was married it was impossible to perswade him to see or frequent the Company of any other Lady how beautiful so ever she were and took far more pleasure to see her and perfectly to love her than in all the delight whatsoever it were that he could receive from any other This young Lord came to his Wife and acquainted her with the enterprize which the King had undertaken assuring her that for his part he had rather die than accomplish what he had
wherefore did she give him such a promise to entertain him after the seven years were passed I am of your opinion said Longaren for those who for love will not return love again will give no occasion of love to those that bear love unto them It may be said Nomerfide that she loved another who was in deserts far inserior to this honest Gentlemen and that she left the better for the worse Upon my credit said Saffredant I conceive that hereby she made good provision for her self to take him in an hour when she had left off the other whom peradventure at that present she loved better I see very well said Oysilla that the more we examine and debate upon this Subject the more those who will have all things go on their side will take occasion to speak the worst of us that possibly they can wherefore Dagoucin I request you to give your voice to some one I do give it said he to Longaren being assured that she will acquaint us with some grateful novelty and will not to speak the Truth forbear either Man or woman Since you do esteem me to be so impartial said Longaren I will assume the hardinesse to acquaint you with the Fortune which happened to a very great Prince who in virtue surpassed all others of his time Understand withall that the thing which we ought least to use but in the case only of extreme Necessity is Dissimulation It is a Vice both vile and infamous especially amongst Potencates and Princes in the mouths and countenances of whom Truth is far more becomming than in any other person But there is no Frince so great although he hath all the honours and the riches that he can desire who is not subject unto the Empire and the Tyranny of Love insomuch that the more noble the Prince is and of greater spirit the more Love delighteth to make him to stoop under his powerful hand for that wanton and glorious little God doth take no care of small or common things and his Majesty doth make it his exercise every day to do wonders as to make weak the strong and to make strong the weak to give understanding to the ignorant and to take it away from the wise to savour passions and to destroy reason and all his delight is in such changes And because Princes are not exempt from love no more are they from the extremity into which the servitude of Love doth throw them And therfore by force they may be permitted to use Dissimulation hypocrifie and fiction which are the means to overcome their Enemies according to the Doctrine of Master Iohn de-Moon And since in such an act the Condition of a Prince is pardonable which in no other act is to be allowed because it layes them open to Disrepute I will in this place give an account unto you of the Inventions of a young Prince by which he deceived those who are accustomed to deceive all the world The subtilty which a great Prince used to delight himself in the Company of the Wife of an Advocate of Paris The Fifth Novell IN the City of Paris there was an Advocate more esteemed than nine Men of his profession and by reason of his great sufficiency being sought after by all he was the richest man of all those of his Robe who finding that he had no children by his first Wife did hope to have issue by his second And although his Body was old and dryed up yet his heart and his hope were not dead wherefore he did choose to wife a young Geutlewoman of the City of about eighteen or nineteen years of Age very fair and of a delicat complexion whom he loved and tendred as much as possibly he could but she had no more Children by him than he had by the former which at the last did much trouble her Wherefore her youth which was not suitable to Melancholy did cause her to seek out recreations in other places than in her own house and she repaired oftentimes to Feasts and Dancings but she always deported her self so civilly that her Husband could not entertain any bad opinion of her For she was alwayes in the company of those in whom he had great confidence Being one day invited to a Marriage there was present a great Prince who in rehersing the account did for bid me to use his name But I may well say unto you that he was so brave a Prince and of such a Grace that the like was never seen before in France nor ever I do believe will after him be seen again This Prince beholding this young Gentlewoman whose eys and whose Countenance did incite him to affect her did come unto her and did court her with such fine language that she her self was much taken with him and it and did not conceal from him that for a long time she had that love in her heart for which he did intreat her and that he should not take pains to perswade her to that to which at the first sight Love had made her to consent The young Prince by the courage of Love having obtained that happinesse the purchase whereof did well deserve a longer time he thanked the blind little God who so much favoured him And after that hour he so well followed his affair that they did both agree upon the means how they might come together without the observation of any The place and time being agreed upon the young Prince did not fail to come and to preserve the honour of the Gentlewoman he did come disguized but by reason of the dissolute boyes who did run up and down the streets in the night by whom he would not be known he took some Gentlemen with him to attend him And in the entrance into the street where she lived he did dismisse them saying to them If you hear no noise at all within this quarter of an hour you may retire into your own lodgings and about three or four hours hence fail not to expect me in this place again This they did accordingly and hearing not any noise they withdrew themselves into their own Chambers The young Prince did directly take his Course to the House of his Advocate and found the Door open as it was promised him But going up the stairs he did meet with her Husband by reason whereof he was more seen than he desired Neverthelesse Love which giveth understanding and boldnesse in the greatest necessities did so dispose it that the young Prince came directly to him and said Monsieur the Advocate You know the confidence which I and all those of my House do repose in you and that I do esteem you to be one of the best and most faithfull Servants that I have I was willing to come privatly to you to visit you as well to recommend my affairs unto you as to desire a Cup of your wine for I stand in need of it and not to acquaint any whomsoever that I am here for
were by Death did goe both to bed also to sleep out their fill And when she heard them to sleep so soundly that they did snort again she did rise in her Smock and did goe out of the Chamber listning if she could hear any noise about the House but being assured that all was quiet she took a Staff in her hand and did goe out at a little Garden door which was not shut and all that night in her Smock only she travelled bare foot towards Autun to her Saint that did preserve her from death But because the way was long she could not reach to the end of her journey before the break of day Not long afterwards she looked behind her and observed two Horsemen in a full gallop riding towards Autun and suspecting that it was her Husband who did ride in the pursute of her she did hide her self in the Fens hard by and covered her head with the Rushes and her Husband in full speed passing clole by she heard him to speak unto his Man as if he were in some great perplexity O wretched Woman who would have thought that under the covert of the holy Sacraments of the Church she would cover so wicked and so abhominable a design His Servant said unto him Sir Judas who was one of the Apostles taking such a Morsel did not fear to betray his Master think not the treachery of a Woman to be so strange and speaking those words her Husband passed by and his Wife continued amongst the rushes more joyfull that she had deceived him than she was at home in a bed of down in Slavery Her poor Husband searched over the whole City of Autun and found for certain that she was not there Wherefore he returned by the same way which he came and did nothing but complain of her all the way he did ride and of the losse which he received threatning her with death without mercy if ever he should find her again of which she had no more fear in her Soul than she felt cold in her body although the season of the year and the place wherein she covered her self might give her just reason to complain of her cold and melancholy voyage And by the imagination only how the fire of Hell doth burn those who are punished therein we may conceive the wonder how this poor wretch coming out of a Warm bed could be able to continue a whole day together in that extremity of cold Howsoever she lost not her resolution or her way for as soon as ever night appeared she did begin her journey again and in the dusk of the Evening when the Gate of the City was about to be shut this poor pilgrim arrived and failed not to goe directly to the place where her Saint lived who was so amazed at the sight that he could hardly believe that it was she but having diligently examined her with his eye and found by his hand that she had flesh and bones which a Spirit hath not he did rest himself assur'd that it was no Apparition and immediately did comply so well with her that she after wards did continue with him fifteen years together Having concealed her self for a certain time at the last she lost all fear and modesty and which is worse she took such a glory that she had such a friend that she shewed her self openly at the Church before the greatest part of the Ladies of that City and before the Magistrates the Officers and others and had many children by the Canon and amongst others a Daughter who was married to a very rich Merchant and so gorgeously apparelled at her Wedding day that all the good women of the City did murmur very greatly at it but it was not in their power to give any redresse unto it It so came to pass that in those dayes Queen Claudia Wife to the late King Francis travelling that way did lodge in that City and had in her Company Madam the Regent Mother to the King and the Dutchesse of Alençon who was her Daughter A Gentlewoman of the Chamber named Peretta did come unto the Dutchess and said unto her Madam I must beseech you to hear me you may peradventure do a greater work than if this day you had heard the Masses in all the Churches of France The Dutchess stayed very willingly to give ear unto her knowing that from her nothing but good Counsels could proceed Peretta immediately declared to her That she had taken a little Girl to assist her in the Queens Landry and having asked of her what was the Newes in the City she acquainted her with the Indignation of a great many Ladies and Gentlewomen of that City to see the Canons Lemman to be so impudent as to take the wall of them and informed her of a great part of her incontinent life The Dutchesse immediatly repaired to the Queen and to Madam the Regent and repeated the story unto her and they without any form of processe at all did send to seek out this ungracious Woman who did not conceal her self from them for she had turned her shame and her infamy into a glory to be the Mistresse of the house of so reverend and so rich a Man And being nothing dismayed she came without the least alteration of her Countenance to present her self before the Ladies who were so amazed at her Impudence that on the sudden they knew not what to say unto her And after that Madam the Regent had made such Demonstrations to her that they would have fetched tears from the eyes of any Woman that was of a modest understanding she stood before them without the least apprehension at all and with an extreme confidence did say unto them I must beseech you Ladies to take care that my Honour may not be brought into Question for God be praised I have lived with Monseiur the Canon so well and vertuously that there is neither man nor woman living that can reprove me neither ought any one to think but that I live after the will of God for it is now full three years since the Canon hath had any carnal knowledge of me and we do live as chastly and in as great love as two Angels there being not betwixt him and me the least crosse word or contrariety of disposition And they who shall go about to part us shall commit a great sin for the good Man who is almost fourscore years of age will never endure to live without me who am my self five and forty yeers of age You may conceive with your selves that these Ladies could not forbear to speak unto her as she deserved and what were the Remonstrances which every one of them did make unto her seeing her obstinatenesse which could not be molified by the words which they did speak unto her nor by the consideration of her own Age nor by the presence of those honourable personages Wherefore to humble her they did send for the Archdeacon who did condemn her