Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	age_n	life_n	old_a	5,148	5	5.6715	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16240	Certaine secrete wonders of nature containing a descriptio[n] of sundry strange things, seming monstrous in our eyes and iudgement, bicause we are not priuie to the reasons of them. Gathered out of diuers learned authors as well Greeke as Latine, sacred as prophane. By E. Fenton. Seene and allowed according to the order appointed.; Histoires prodigieuses extraictes de plusiers fameux auteurs grecs & latins. English	Boaistuau, Pierre, d. 1566.; Fenton, Edward.	1569 (1569)	STC 3164.5; ESTC S105563	173,447	310

.vij. Emperour proued during his life such an impediment to the state of his health as the cruell and subtill disposition of an abhominable Monk who gaue ende to his dayes by the impoisoning of an hoste he ministred to him Iohn the .xj. Pope ended not his days by the painful reading of the holy scripture or preaching Gods worde to his flock and charge but he finished his terme in a cruell prison smoothered with a pillow Pope Benet the sixte died not in pāpering himself with sundry delicious and daintie banquets as the moste part of those Romishe prelates do at this day but he ended his dayes in prison by the pinching and gnawing pain of extreme famine Pope Victor the thirde deceased not from this vaine and transitorie life as sommoned by the messanger of olde age but celebrating the Masse was cōpelled to yelde vp his vitall breath by an infectious poyson giuen him in the Chalice Then if so many Monarchs and renoumed princes haue ended their liues by so sundry and straunge kindes of death it is nedeful for those which folow exactly to consider of the warnings iudgements of God and especially such by whose vile and detestable order of liuing may be sene as in a glasse the due reward appointed for the same for as y e noble Marcus Aurelius sayth that after euery euil fortune foloweth a good hap and after euery ignominie ensueth great glory euen so I assure you sayth he that for my self I had rather my lyfe were lesse glorious and my death more honorable for as by an vnfortunate death groweth greate suspition of a good life so a good death often times excuseth an euill life Wherein if so many kindes of deathes bothe of Kings and Emperours by vs written séeme strange and feareful vnto you then those folowing wil deserue more admiratiō the same agreeing with our intent for they be wonders by y ● which we are instructed that when the Iustice of God is inflamed against vs and that hée shootes his arowes as a sharpe punishment for our offences he maketh his ministers and executers of his iust anger the litle and insensible worms of the earth neither doth his wrathe fall altogether vpon the vulgar or people of meane condition but hath also like force vpon Princes and degrées of greate callings whereof appeares a familiar experience in the monstrous death of a King Bishop recorded alreadie vnder the seale and authoritie of 40. or 50. Historians of no lesse credite than vndoubted truthe all whiche agrée in one that King Popeil raigning in Poloniae 246. yeres after Christ was wont amongst his particular curssyngs to vse this blasphemous othe If this be not true I would the Ratts might gnaw me wherin he receiued the iust hier of so execrable an oth for in the ende he was deuoured as you shall reade hereafter The father of King Popeill féeling himselfe to decline from the vanities of this miserable and vncertain pilgrimage lefte the gouernement and state of the Realme to the disposition of the two vncles of his sonne men no lesse honored of al the cuntrie for the noblenesse of their hearts than wel liked for their sinceritie of life towards God Popeill being come to his full age his father deceassed and the yong man hauing caught betwixte his téeth the bitte of the bridell beganne to gyue hym selfe vnto all wantonnesse and riottous lyuyng in suche sorte that in fewe dayes he became so shamelesse in euill and abhominable doinges that hée lefte no kynde of vice vnassayed in so much that in the ende he cruelly poisoned his two vncles which wicked and vnnaturall facte performed caused himself to be crouned with a cap of floures perfumed with precious ointments the more to solemnize the first entrie of his reigne he caused to be prepared a sūptuous delicate banquet wherunto all the Princes and nobles of his Realme were somoned And as they were banquetting beholde an infinite multitude of Ratts risyng from the dead and putrified corpses of his two vncles the which he with his wife had impoysoned began to assaile that cruell tyrāt amidst his delites the Archers of hys Garde offering to resist the same with maine hande trauailed in vaine for they encountred hym day and nyghte that the poore men cried alas being altogether vnable to defend their maister from the rage of these beastes by reason whereof it was thought good by the aduise of his counsell to enuiron the Prince with fire not knowing that the power of man is any way able to resist Gods appointment they performed their deuise which was no impediment or let to the ratts who passing the hotte flames of fire without any let to the admiration of al men ceassed not to gnaw deuoure this miserable murtherer of his vncles His counsel seing their first intent frustrate of none effecte caused him to be caried in a boate into the middst of a riuer But these beasts not fearyng the rage of the water assailed the boate on euery syde with such rage and impetuositie that the boate-men defending the same in vaine vnderstanding it to procede of some diuine furie were constrayned to thrust the boate to lande committing the king to the mercy of these beasts and he seing himself abandoned of al humaine succour not knowing what to do he and his wife fled into a tower where in the ende by the furie of these little creatures they receyued the iust guerdon of their vnnaturall malicious murder In like maner the Almain● in al their Chronicles and reportes make mention of the like hystorie of one Hato the .xxxij. Archbishop of Magence at what time there was a cruell famine in the land this Bishop or rauening Woulfe seing the poore people surpressed wyth the gnawing rage of famine and especially those of hys prouince determined I can not tell by what instincte of the diuel to gather together a great number of them into a graunge where in stede of reliefe in this their great and miserable dearth and hunger he committed them to the mercie of the furious and raging flames of fyre whervpon he being asked why he had shewed so vile and execrable tirannie on these miserable and innocent creatures he answered That he burned them for that they differed litle or nothing from Ratts which serued for no other vse than to consume corne Albeit God as witnesseth the Prophet hauing care of the litle sparow wold not suffer this great tyrannie vnpunished for immediately he stirred vp an infinite numbre of Ratts to the vtter destruction and ruine of this vile murderer who fléeing for his more safegarde into a towre builte in a water was by the expresse commaundement of God eaten by these ratts to the very bones which remaine at this day enterred in the monasterie of S. Albyn in Magence and the Towre where this abhominable pastor ended his dayes is yet in being and is called Ratts towre Wherof Munster amongst many others makes mention in

more frankly affirming by the authoritie of scripture that angels haue appered to certaine men with mortal shape and haue not only bene séene of them but suffred them selues to be touched by such as they haue appeared vnto Bysides there be many of opinion now a days by report of others and thousandes who haue proued it true by experien●e in themselues that there be certain impes and gliding spirites in the woods and sauage places which the cōmon sorte call Nimphes who desire the companie of women haue had to do with them deliting chiefly in such vncleane and filthy exercise which albeit is sufficiently and absolutely approued by so many that it is not almost to be denied yet for my part I dare not affirme and much lesse assure that the spirites that haue their bodies of the ayre participate with that element can either desyre or performe effects of such vnclean plesure wherein notwithstandyng who séeketh to be more largely resolued let him reade Guilielmus Parisiensis in y e third part of his treatise de succubis and Incubis who albeit he hath gathered the opiniō of most of the Theologians yet Lodouicus Viues in the .xxiij. chapter of his fifte booke de ciuitate Dei despising suche vanitie maketh them of the Ile of Cypres a mockyng stocke bicause they glorifie their originall as mouyng first from the Dyuels succubi and incubi wherof you haue hearde a large description before ¶ A wonderfull discourse of precious stones their nature and propretie which resoneth of their procreation and other straunge things breedyng in the bowels of the earth CHAP. xvj AMongest all and euery cause of wonder in Nature there is none that more moueth maruel in men nor halfe so meritorious of philosophicall contemplation than the excellente propretle of precious stones who being once drawne out of the intrailes and wombe of theyr mother and nurse the earth do so amaze our sighte and rauishe oure senses that they séeme to contain some charme or newe mysterie sent by nature to dazell our eyes ▪ Ludouicus Vartomanus a Romain writeth that he hath seene the king of P●g● a famous citie in India haue Carbuncles which the Gretians call Pyropi so great shining that who behelde them in any darke or shaded place seemed to haue his body distempered and almost transformed by imagination suche was the lighte and piercing glimmers of these stones séeming of no lesse force to penetrate than if they had bene assisted with the moste hoate and vehement reflection of the Sunne The moste part of the Greeke and Latine philosophers as Theophrastes Mutianus Plinie Ruffus wyth other of no lesse credite than they haue so precisely searched the propretie and procreation of stones that they affirmed that they doe not onely engender but also do suffer diseases olde Age and Death And touching the procreation they are of diuerse opinions For some say they engender betwéene rockes when the sappe or iuyce of other stones distilles within the creuices or hollow places of she same euen as the childe taketh his begynnyng of hys mother some affirme that they conceiue of the sap mary of precious mettals like as oftētimes is found the reason in diuerse mynes of gold syluer some agayn who take vpon them to sifte more narrowly the secretes of Nature are of opinion that they come and grow in the earth as knots in wood waxkernels in men or séede in herbes whervnto as there may be credit giuen according to reason that moueth it so there be other Philosophers eyther more ignorant of the truthe or more precise than standeth eyther with learning or naturall persuasion who doubt not to assure absolutely that they haue sense motiō wherof they proue the first by the Adamant which smelles yron draweth it to him whose vertue shal folow at full hereafter And for the second they make good their opinion by a common experience in a litle stone not rare in Fraunce Italye called by them Astroites which being put within either vineger or wine moueth of himselfe with crooked pace not vnlike to an Oxe or Cowe réeling here and there and yet I thinke these seueral opinions intēde rather to aduaunce the estimation and propertie of stones than to persuade a credit that they haue either motion or féeling albeit touching this stone called Astroites it is most certaine that it stirres being put in wyne whereof notwithstāding mine eyes haue bene often witnesses yet is it not sufficient to assure albeit it is not altogether voyde of cause reason in nature to proue his mouing séeing it is not cleare nor shining but couered with spots or staines like ashes presēting a duskish hue or cōplexion y e same being made of an humour very subtil which may be conuerted into vapour by force of the wine which vapour searching wayes to go out and can finde no issue thrustes as it were and giueth motion to the stone whiche is light like as the true signe and argumēt of the subtill vapour is proued chiefly in that y e stone is ful of litle knobbes which persuades it to be corrupte or rotten and to haue both hoales and conduites ▪ Here as it may be that some haue a precise opinion of my diligence in searching so narrowly the cause of mouing in this stone which notwithstāding as I accōpte such Philosophie neither vnnecessarie nor vnprofitable seeing it giueth cause of wonder to suche as sée it stirre alone without vnderstanding the reason So were it not that tediousnesse woulde take awaye the delight of the readers and peraduenture include some discredite touching the thing it selfe I could preferre matters of more wonder in stones and such as haue passed by proofe and familiar experience Hector Boetius makes mention of a spunging stone in Scotlande whiche being dipped in the Sea altereth the taste therof and makes it pleasant Other historiās bring in a kinde of stone which is piercing and somewhat pale which they call Nicolaus the same making him that weareth it sad and melancholike and so wrestes the sprites and inwarde partes that it stirres vp wonderfull passions in the minde they haue lefte also remembraunce of a wonderfull vertue in the Iewell hanging about the necke of Hermion which makes as many perish as weare it it is most certaine that in Archadie a cuntrie in Scotland there is a kinde of stone which being laide any small time vpon strawe or other like drye substance it kindles and growes to flame without the assistance of fire all which bicause thy séeme wonders excéeding our reason things rather mysticall than agréeing with our capacitie I will nowe stay to cōmitte them any more to the iudgement or contemplation of the reader and enter into the searche and discourse of the being and propertie of those that be both familiar with our selues cōmon in our vse Amongest the most riche precious treasures which the earth bred in hir intrailles or caste vp for the vse

vnto hir who had so greuously tormented hym wherin she shewed hir selfe very liberall and bountifull seing that the Historians write that all the treasures which she had gathered by little and little duryng all hir life of those whiche loued hir was melted and put into that Chaine whiche was of monstrous greatnesse and also kept of hir with great care for the only relief of hir in hir old age if fortune suffred hir to be pinched with pouertie The yong man hauyng thus caught the praie he moste desired went to fynde out Plangon to whome he offered the chaine making hir to vnderstande the liberalitie of his aūcient friend betwéene whō neither time nor distance of place nor other sinister accident coulde extinguishe their friendship wherewith Plangon maruelling of the loue and liberalitie of hir companion hauyng a noble heart and not willing to giue place to Bacchide neither in good wil nor bountie sent to hir again hir chaine louyng then more feruently the yong man thā she had done at any tyme before and that which is moste wonderfull imparted hir loue to Bacchide being contente the yong man shoulde be common to them bothe Whiche made the Greekes with great admiration to name hir after Pasiphyle Wherin being now so ancred in maters of wōderfull loues we must search the most rare maruellous histories amongst whome I do not remember there haue bene any dames in all the worlde whiche haue demeaned their loue with more greate wonder neither which haue ●●te a more eternall witnesse to their posteritie of their wanton and lasciuious liues than Lamie Flora and Lays of whome I will write the life according as Pausanias the Greeke and Manilius the Latin haue writen in their bookes entreating of noble louing women But aboue all others I will folow Anthonius of Gueuare Bishop of Mon●demo in a learned treatise which he hath made of this matter These three Dames haue bene thrée of y e most faire most famous women of the worlde whiche at any time were either borne in Asia or nourished in Europe and of whome the Historiographers haue moste talked and by whome moste Princes haue come to ruine and perdition It is written of them for a wonder that they so well charmed those which loued them that they were neuer lefte of any Prince whiche loued them nor denied at any time anye thing they required further it is written that these .iij. women as they neuer mocked any man so they were not mocked of any The Historians write that these .iij. Courtizans during their life were .iij. of the moste riche Courtizans of the worlde after their decease lefte most great memorie of them for euery of them where they dyed did erecte a great pillour of stones to continue a remembrāce of them and besides that euery one of them were by Nature beautiful yet had they a further particular gyfte to allure entice their louers to loue thē The engin wherewith Lamie entrapped hir louers procéeded of regarde for by the drawing of hir eyes she enflamed the beholders Flora wanne hirs by hir wonderful eloquence And Lays allured by hir swéete pleasant hermonie Wherefore the King Demetrius sodainely receiuing y e glaunce of the eye of Lamie was taken in the net and that newe fire in processe of time gained so much ouer him y t he liued not but in hir not only gaue hir all he had but also abandoned his wife Euxonie to followe his Lamie Wherefore Plutarke reciteth in the life of Demetrius that the Athenians hauing gyuen vnto him .xj. talents of siluer to ayde and paye his great armie he made a present of all the saide sūme to his Lamie wherat y e Athenians wer maruellously greued to sée their mony so euil imployed This miserable King Demetrius doated so extremely in the loue of his Lamie that he honored hir as a God swering by hir as he accustomed to do by his Gods till death fortune which cuts asunder the fillet of those delites sends ende to all such enterprises suffred Lamie to die whereupon that poore King felt himself so griped that as some write of him he kissed hir and embraced hir after hir death and not content with this Idolatrie he made hir be buried before one of y e windowes of his house and when any of his friends asked the occasion wherefore he buried hir in that place he aunswered them sighing dipely the law of friendship of Lamie is so strōgly graffed in my heart that I knowe not wherein to satisfie the loue she bare me the bonde which I owe to hir for y e same if not to put hir in such a place that by viewe therof my poore eyes may bewaile dayly the death of hir and my sorowful harte continually thinke thereof Whereby the dolor sorow that Demetrius had for y e death of Lamie was so great and extreme that all the Philosophers of Athens were to dispute thereof whether of these twoo things were most to be estéemed either the teares sorow which he suffred for hir or the riches which he spent in the obsequies pomps of hir burial Within a yere .ij. monethes after the death of Lamie died King Demetrius The second amorous Dame named Lays spoken of before was the daughter of a great Sacrificatour of the Tēple of Apollo a mā so expert in the arte Magicall that he prophecied the perdition of his daughter incontinent after hir natiuitie This Lays as hir companion had a King for hir friende who was the renoumed Pirrhus with whome she went into Italie in the expedition and warres he made against the Romains remaining there a long time in his campe after returned with him from the warres notwithstanding it is written of hir that she neuer gaue hir selfe to one man alone This Lays was so sufficiently furnished with al perfections of beautie and ornaments of Nature that if she would haue bene continent and not common in hir loue there had not bene so constant a Prince in y e world which woulde not haue desired hyr and not denied to perfourme what she had demaunded of him Being returned from Italie into Grece ▪ she remained at Corinthe as Aulus Gelius writeth and there was soughte vnto of many Kings and noble men whome she courted and dandled with such dissimuled sleightes in loue that if hir louers were vnfainedly passioned and burned extremely in the desire of hir beautie she tooke a singular pleasure to smile and ieste at their simplicitie and folly being besides noted for one of the women of the worlde who excéeded the reste in making gayne proffit of hir loue I haue red one wonder of hyr whiche I neuer hearde of in any but in hir that is that she neuer shewed affection to any man neither was she in loue with anye man whiche coulde be knowen This Lays died in y e Citie of Corinthe being of the age of lxxij yeares the death of whome as it