with all the studied ornaments of learning a good part of his life hee exercised in the Court where while the Princes ears were open to Philosophy his heart and hand were both unbent to him his favour and his noblenesse like rivalls striv'd which should with most devotion serve their Soveraigne but when debauchery usurp'd upon the Emperour the Tutor was devanced and disgraced In all these extremities Seneca in himself was so well poiz'd that neither the greatnesse of fortune could bribe him into riot the height of knowledge into pride nor the Courtier into flattery nor did he know any man great enough to make him lesse nor could his mind which Philosophie had plac'd above the World decline with fortune In his old age hee married Pompea Paulina a young faire and nobly descended Roman Lady a Lady of that worth that no Roman but hee that did enjoy her did deserve her Nero having let loose the reines of reason and himselfe to all licenciousnesse so tyranniz'd as if he did perswade himselfe that an Emperour was above the Law and must also bee without it what his will prescrib'd his tyranny did execute and so as if his actions were accountable to no power but his owne Among his chiefe and most remarked cruelties it is not the least hee exprest against his Tutor Seneca to him hee sends his Satellites to denounce his death the fashion of those times was when a person of qualitie was condemn'd to die hee was allowed the liberty to chuse his death and a time proportion'd according to the Emperours rage to dispose of his affaires but if his revenge flowed so high that it would brook no delay then hee enjoyd no time to doe any thing but die if the condemned resisted his decrees then he commonly appointed that by some slave hee should bee barbarously murdered but the nobler Romans held it nearer way to honour with their owne hands to anticipate their fates and in unhappinesse staid not the enforcement of tyranny or nature Seneca with an undaunted looke receiving the sentence of his death called for inke and paper to write his last Will and Testament which the Captaine denying him he turn'd about and then bespake his friends You see my loving friends said hee I cannot gratifie your affections with my fortunes I must therefore leave you my life and my Philosophy to enrich your minds with the invaluable and nere-to-be-depriv'd-of treasure of precept and example I shall desire you by all the tyes of friendship and by the glory you shall purchase by it to endeare my life and death which shall not staine the honour of my life unto your memory then gently reproving them who seem'd too sorrowfull hee said to what other purpose have I furnished you with precepts of Philosophie then to arme your minds against the assaults of Fortune Is Nero's tyrannie unknowne to you What man is Master of his owne life under him that massacred his Brother that us'd upon his Mother that cruelty which never yet knew name Then hee turn'd him to Paulina in whom sorrow had sweld it selfe so high that rather then break out it threatned to break her heart My Deare said hee I am now going to act what I have long taught my houre is come and nothing so welcome to me as my death now I am unloaded of this flesh that clogs my soule I shall with more ease ascend unto eternity to enjoy a condition without a change an happinesse without a period wherefore my dearest Paulina forbeare thy too immoderate passion lest thy grief disgrace my end and thou seem to value my death above mine honour enjoy thy youth but still retaine those seeds of vertue â—herewith thy mind is â—â—chly stored I confesse for thy sake I could bee content to live when I consider that in my breast lives a young Lady to whom my life may bee advantage Paulina's love now raising up her courage and her courage her dejected spirit Think not Seneca said she that like your Physitian I will leave you when the hope of life forsakes you but I will follow like your Wife your fortune This resolve shall tell you how much your life and doctrine hath availed your Paulina When can I die well but then when I cannot live well When I am bereft of thee in whom all my joyes are so wealthily summ'd up that thy losse will make my life my greatest curse then will I die in honour and think it fitter for my fame then linger out my life in sorrow Trust mee my Paulina said Seneca I cannot but admire thy love knowing from what height of vertue it proceeds as I will not envie thee thy death so I wish a glory may await thy end great as the constancie that advanc'd thee to it Then he commanded his Surgeon to cut the veins of both their armes that they might bleed to death but Seneca's veines shrunk up through age and abstinence denyed his bloud a speedy course therefore his thighs were also launced but lest his pains might insinuate too farre into Paulina's torments and a new addition of sorrow meeting with her losse of bloud might make her faint hee sought to mitigate her feares by the discourse of death Why should said he this monster nothing so affright us while we are living wee are dying for life is but a dying being when we are dead wee are after death where then or what is death It is that inconsiderable atome of time that divides the body from the soule what is it then in this afflicts us Not the rarity for all the world that is not gone before will follow us is it the separation and tyed to that the jealousie how we shall bee dealt with upon this hinge I confesse turnes the wickeds fear but the Stoick whom Philosophy hath taught the art of living well death frees from misery and wafts him to the haven of his happinesse For this necessity of death wee are bound to thank the Gods for it redeems from a worse of being eternally miserable The separation as it is naturall so it is the only meanes conducing to our better being The body being the corruptible and ponderous part falls naturally to the earth whence it was first elemented the soul etheriall gaines by this losse for being purg'd from the drosse of weight and of corruption is made heavens richest ore so refin'd that the great Gods image may bee stamp'd upon it and ascends unto the skies from whence it first descended Nor doe I hold this dis-junction to be eternal for when the world by the revolution of times and ages whirls about into her first Chaos then shall they meet again never to bee sundred The soul shal be so purified by the immortall Gods that it shall neither hope nor feare nor grieve that it shall bee freed from all those discording passions and affections that here transport it from it selfe The body so spirited that it shall know no necessity of nourishment and therefore
no weight alteration or mortality Of great consequence then is death to our wel-being since before it wee can account none happy we see it end all miseries we see it make none miserable why then should we feare it or condemne it What have the wisest thought it but the Port wee all must touch He that scarce arrives at half a man hath as little to quarrell at his fate as hee that in a weeke reacheth his haven whereas by the troubled winds he might bee bound up in the more troubled seas a year Nor is hee that is his owne death being condemn'd to die shipwrack'd even at the very shoare for honour and the Emperour allow the liberty and to die by the most abject of men an hangman is to die dishonourable For this boone I gratulate the Gods but more that they are pleas'd to call the perfect Seneca unto their joyes the Seneca that hath not yet outliv'd himselfe nor return'd into his infancy There Paulina not through feare knowing none but what proceeded from her love but through decaying nature fainted therefore Seneca taking his leave caus'd her to be remov'd into the next chamber In Seneca all these incisions were not of force to force out life he therefore commanded his Physitian to poyson him but wanting naturall heat to convey it to his heart the poyson was rather a nourishment then a destruction to his nature then he was laid in warme bathes by this forc'd heat the poyson in his full source and violence raged in his witherd body While he had life he discours'd freely of life and death his end approaching all bloudy in his bath hee bath'd his head and said I vow this to Iupiter the Deliverer Nature at the last conquerd by those strong assaults yeelded up her Fort which weaknesse had so song fortified to death her common enemy So liv'd the famous Seneca and so hee died that with the Gods his soul 's immortaliz'd with the world his fame Nero informed of Paulina for whom hee seem'd much troubled for though pitie had no entrance at his yron breast yet feare the Tyrants tyrant â—old him that her death being one of the most nobly allyed in Rome would make his tyranny and hate the greater hee therefore sent with all possible speed to recall her life now posting to her stage and entring the dark confines of death Her servants receiving the command unbound her and clos'd up her incisions she more than halfe dead devoyd of sense thus against her will return'd unto her life and very honourably for that of life shee lost did witnesse to the world that nothing but want of power restrain'd her from her death Pro Paulina PAulina when Seneca was condemn'd to die would die her selfe was ever constancie raisd higher in a womans breast She did not die there shee exprest the true valour that derives it selfe from vertue and that spirit that issues from the truest honour That shee would but could not die are both Nero's act that shee could live or die her owne That she was Mistris of her fortune witnesse that shee did live how she valued her Husbands death that shee would die Fame and vertue did both attend her in the progresse of her actions had she died it had been thought the wretched times had interest in her end but in her life shee conquer'd the extremities of life and death The rule of vertue ties us to live so long as we ought not as we list then is the fittest time to die when we can live no longer To die is at the height but like a Roman but to dare to live when life is tedious this is as much above the Roman as the true substance of vertue that false shade of honour Had shee then died she had acted but the Roman but she liv'd to exceed the noblest of all Romans but her selfe Contra Paulinam VVHY revolted shee from her resolve when Seneca himself allowed it Did hee teach her so to live that shee durst not die or did shee distrust his happinesse that shee would not follow him Shee had too much of death to have more and those pangs so much endeared her to her life that she would live at any rate rather then break through fleeting torments into honour While Seneca was yet alive she was dying he dead she return'd to life Was her life vowed to him when his death reviv'd her Nero call'd her back the greater was her shame to take Sanctuary in her Husbands murtherer Sure death was far more terrible then Seneca did speak it she fled to a most inhumane Tyrant for protection Seneca did not force her to die nor Nero to live one day gave her her liberty she had as much strength as life and that little power she could use was able to force out that little life she did detain She would dy in the extremity of sorrow for her husbands fate but she did live to repent her both of her sorrow and her death LVCRECIA WHen Rome in the glory of her active Spirits had prest out her youth more ambitious of honour then life for the common exployt the siege of Ardea Sextus Tarquinius entertain'd the night with the Roman Nobility in the pride of luxury and riot The ruines of Kingdomes were sacrificed to Bacchus the sea and land plow'd up to appease ingenuous gluttony They as frolick as youth and wine that made them so unlock the treasures of their hearts their Wives and their beauties to the admiration of unsound eares But Collatine the most justly prodigall of his Wives fame tels them nor Italy nor the World holds her that stands in parallell of wonder with the faire and vertuous Lucrecia Tarquin divided between astonishment and rage that Collatine his servant should be his Soveraigne in happinesse mounted upon the wings of lust and fury flies to Rome where his eyes having encountred the Idoll of his heart and he the noone of night to enjoy it with his sword and taper breaks into her chamber into her presence shee affrighted at the sword and blasted by the light that lust gave life to trembling like a prey with more horrour then attention hears him thus bespeak her Madam wonder not at my unlookt for arrivall at Collatium or at this visit so unseasonable but applaud the wonder of your beauty the silent night will speak my purpose when in my restlesse bed a flame kindled from your fair eyes burn'd through my soule consum'd my Countries service my hopes of honour then which nothing but your faire selfe is so near unto my thoughts Let not the slave Fear intrude upon your princely breast nor this steele divorce those Roses from the Lilies drawne to hew out a way through all obstacles to encounter Paradise The same love that arm'd those eyes with Lightning armes these hands with Thunder bids them grapple with great Iove were hee rivall in my affection This night I must enjoy thee Lucrecia or on thy name engrave an
shew it selfe as it was the staulking horse to his covert The ceremonies of hospitality finished hee retires to his lodging though not to himselfe now when the brother of death had summon'd to still musick all but foule ravishers theeves and cares with his drawne sword hee leaps from his owne enters Lucrecia's bed her hee ravisheth Shee having possess'd us with a full relation of her mis-fortunes Shee Empresse of a mind unconquer'd of sinne or sorrow with this poniard let out the life Tarquin had made loathed And now O Countrimen awake your Roman vertue flesh your swords and valours upon the revenge of the proud usurper of publick liberty the cruell murderer of private innocence you cannot offer to the Gods a more gratefull sacrifice nor will they ever in requitall forsake that State that forsakes not the defence of vertue Such impression strikes Thunder upon Oakes Earthquakes on Mountaines as Collatine on the Roman hearts Their thoughts were torne and divided from themselves anger boyled into malice the policie of passion both flowed into resolution then like an unpent torrent from some high precipice the multitude violently ran to precipitate him made high for a precipice which in the perpetuall exile of the Tarquins was accomplish'd Pro Lucrecia THE Roman Story big with varietie of wonder writes Lucrecia the female glory shee forcibly abus'd by Tarquin declares her innocence to the world and confirmes it by her death There were two in the act one in the sinne one adulterer and one chast her body conquer'd her mind truely heroicall not stooping to the lure of false pleasure that remained as untainted as unforced Why dyed shee being innocent to bee innocent Why received shee her death from her owne hands haply to prevent it from anothers then had shee subscribed to guilt and not left life without staine For a Roman to outlive honour was dishonourable for her to survive her infamie was to act it Curtius spur'd on by honour did ride into the Gulfe Regulus rather then his faith would prostitute himselfe to the witty cruelty of the Carthaginians To honour did the three hundred Fabii sacrifice their lives Honour chased the Tarquins out of Rome but Lucrece out of life To wipe off all thought of guilt which maligne censure might imprint upon the act she slew her selfe Hee that condemnes her for the murder accuseth her of the adultery life had been her guilt whereas death was her innocence through her life shee made way to her fame to which life and fortune are slaves not to be entertained farther then they tend to her advancement I confesse torne haire and face and eyes bankrupt of teares and her owne vertue was of force to possesse the world shee had been ravished without the witnesse of her death why then died shee Her shame was too great to bee supported by her life nor any thing but her death revenged her and all Rome of the insulting Tarquins Then Lucrece in the hight of glory sacrificed her selfe as well to the State as to her innocence Contra Lucreciam WHy dyed shee if shee were innocent why if an adulteresse is death due to innocence or to adulterie was it that her crime was greater then Tarquins that shee was slain and hee banished The Roman Law puts not to death the adulteresse but what law screwd to tyranny destroyes the innocent The body might be purg'd by the adultery not soule of the adultery by murder This revenge may argue chastitie before and after but not in the nick of the act which yeelding to some secret enticement might staine her thought then loathing her selfe for the act held death a more satisfactory revenge then repentance But it was Tarquins lust staind her no it was Lucrece if Tarquins lust slained her it was not Tarquins but her own The will left free by divine providence is not constraind by humane power If her will was ravished why doe wee extoll her for murder who died for adultery had she slaine Tarquin her act had been no way to be justified but how is this aggravated Lucrece is her chast and innocent self Tarquin her foul ravisher and greatest enemy She then did sacrifice her life to her honour could not her insatiate thirst of glory bee slak'd but by her bloud Was it not unworthy Tarquin to bee her conquerour against her wil and was it not more unworthy Lucrece not to endure the conquerour against her honour Her vertue was more debased by being enslav'd to common praise then her selfe to carnall delight Had shee kept her mind unconquered she had liv'd the mirrour of women but her weaknesse press'd her downe to die in her despaire rather then live after shee was dishonoured DIDO BElus King of Tyre left Pigmalion Dido heires to his Kingdome but the Tyrians as impatient of of a Duarchie as Pigmalion of a Rivall yeelded allegeance solely to him not of years to write man Dido was married to her Uncle Sichaeus Hercules Priest this Sichaeus the sponge of Fortune filled only to be squeesed was slaine by his Nephew and Brother Pigmalion Hee a man of treasure vast enough to betray his life jealous of the security of his greatnesse trusted it to the earth but Fame the most injurious Hyperbole drew it up perhaps greater then it was the many fathomes of earth where it lay ramm'd from the eye not the envie of the Prince Unkind Fortune that deal'st with us as the Persian with their slaves crownest us for a Sacrifice Dido a Dowager by her Brothers tyranny begins to feele a tyranny of sorrow that had not nature resolved to keep perfect as much of her as was hers had made her a Widdow also to her beauty her faire face clouded with discontent but her fairer soule with no more passion then betraid mortality shee betakes her to the male contented of the Tyrian Lords Since Brothers said shee are enemies let us seeke to our enemies for Brothers since pitie is fled humane brests let us seeke it for such a creature there is nature tels mee among salvages Though we cannot expect it from his nature yet his youth might enfeeble him to it but his very infancy is a monster what then will his riper yeares produce but the exile of all humanity What distant respects will hee know that wades through his owne bloud to his ends if an innocent Uncle and Brother be slaine if a Sister be not where is a Subject secure Miserable Strato thou wert a Prince by thy slave to beget a Prince to make slaves of Princes Miserable Tyre now more oppress'd by one Tyrant then before by a thousand slaves Wretched wealth to thee quiet poverty is a Prince thou hast divorced mee from my Sichaeus thou hast made mee the foot-ball of a Tyrant Brother toss'd from his Kingdome into what unhappy shore is not yet knowne unto my thoughts My Lords I speake to minds too noble to be stifled in the narrow confines of fear follow your Princesse whose vertue the
griev'd her not that it was gone but returned she thus bespake them You see how vainly you imploy your care to keep a prisoner that will be free you may make mee die with more paine and lesse honour but not to die at all this is beyond your power whilst I wear a hand commanded by a heart that knowes no feare I shall not despaire of death nor shall I long protract a loathed breath in such wretched times that make life but the nursery of sorrowes and seminary of misfortunes Some few dayes she wasted in comforting and condoling with her friends the generall calamities wherein the most vertuous were involv'd under that monster of men Nero then tyrannizing Then she retired into Paetus lodging and there thus spake her last The soule imprison'd in a necessity of being miserable must break through all fence of nature into an honourable end This very precept nature her selfe imprinteth in us shee denyeth not the iron-bound Slave a death to free him from the toylsome Oare doth she deny the Sun-scorch'd Pilgrim his nights sleep no nor the world-beaten man his eternall rest Surely then shee allowes us to shake off her interest when we are sunke below her succour Paetus thy life is not link'd to nature but to fame fall then by thine owne sword and thy spirit wound up in thine honour mounts to the Palaces of the immortall Gods If thou faintest under so brave a resolution or enviest thy selfe the glory of thy end know that ere two dayes expire thou thy selfe expirest but how by whose hands beheaded by a base hangman offered up a tame sacrifice to insated tyranny Awake the Roman in thee shall high Paetus whom when the World unworthy of his Vertue ingratefully flung off claspe broken hopes and fortunes to save himselfe with the shipwrack of his fame shall hee to whom thousand servile necks did bow stoop to the basenesse to beg life while his death is in his hands Cato and Scipio whom this age is more prone to adore then admire held it not honourable to begg life though they might expect more from Caesars Vertue But what canst thou hope for from a Tyrant abjur'd by all the Vertues one that approves nothing in Soveraigntie but Power and that guided by Passion to insatiate revenge Then as if shee had distrusted her Husbands spirit shee drew out the poyniard from his side Paetus said shee how I have not entertain'd life nor death but for thy sake this last act of honour be my witnesse Doe this Paetus then she plung'd the dagger into her heart and having drawne it out shee delivered it to him againe trust my departing breath Paetus said shee not the wound it gives mee but thee afflicts mee There died the noble Arria there did that soule flie to eternity that soule that was too great to owe her liberty to any power but to her owne Paetus blushing to be indebted to a president for his death especially his Wife took to him the dagger that was so lately guilded in his Arria's bloud and with these words hastned to his end Had fortune answered my resolution and crown'd my enterprize with happinesse I had entered Rome envied by the most noble not pitied by the basest I now see how the successe of humane affaires depends not upon valour but uncertain fates and our actions elevated by the height of spirit do but intrench us deeper into misery But though I am bereft of all the advantages of fortune and of honour yet am I Master of a mind unconquered over which nor Tyrannie nor Fate shall triumph Then embracing her dead hee sigh'd and said Pardon blest spirit my too long absence from thee I have borrowed this little leave of life but to admire thy Vertue which being above my wonder I must soare unto that height where it is ascended to search out her true perfection Pardon my soule that she ascends not to thee in an extasie faine would shee but this dagger claimes her liberty that gave thee thine Then he thrust it into his heart and there the dagger acted his last and most faithfull service slew his Master Pro Arria THE first Being tyed the first two into one and formed two different sexes into one body and one soule the bodies by alternate use so proprietated not to one but both the soules so sympathizing in affections and in passions as both became one to both They that keep this mystery inviolable know no outward respects of power to divide them into two If Paetus be unhappy Arria is unfortunate Paetus is doom'd to die and shall Arria live to see him slaine Hath hee outliv'd his hopes and can shee hope to outlive him But why would she die was the feare of the Emperours cruelty mingled in her cause What feares she that feares not death what Emperour is cruell to her that dares die what cruelty is to be parallel'd to that which bereft her of her life It was Paetus slew her Paetus had Arria liv'd Paetus had not slaine himselfe therefore Arria died died because Paetus should die Oh unheard of cruelty oh unparallel'd affection Arria died because Paetus could not live Paetus by death redeem'd himself from what was worse than death from torture Arria redeem'd her honour and her Paetus from torture and dishonour Fortune made her miserable that Vertue might make her happie her faith so firmly tyed her love that death could not undo it with her life Her fortunes were so ingrafted in her Paetus that with his they did bud flourish and wither Her life was fastned to his strings of life with him she liv'd with him she died Contra Arriam THrough what forbidden pathes doth passion hurrie us when once our reason is unseated Arria would die rather then bee led in triumph did death redeem her No death was but fortunes headsman to execute her she had condemn'd The Emperors power extended no faerther then to afflict her withred body not able to endure this weak revenge shee yeelded up her mind a triumph to her fortune and her selfe unto her sorrow If fear did not surprize her then engag'd in Paetus treason she was her own wrack and torture scorning all Executioners but her self Who then condemns her death when it was due to justice But what law exacts of her this justice The Gods forbid her to kill another much more her self being nearer to her selfe than any other Nature by her law claims life as her due debt payable when shee demands it If she died because Paetus should die shee did but invite him to her rage not to her vertue But I think fear the common defect of Nature in women depriv'd her of her life for death appeard so accoutred in the terrours of wrack and hangman that she died for fear of death PAVLINA LVcius Annaeus Seneca the Philosopher and Tutor to Nero the Emperour was Lord of great Revenues to which his vertue not his fortune was his title his mind was richly embroydered
spite of Fortune shall not wrack into despaire Her words proceeding from the height and sweetnes of her mind were as great a spur as the hope of liberty to advance them into action then as in a thoughtfull mind refresh'd with wine Care it selfe keeps her revels so were their thoughts before dejected now lifted to that pitch that valiantly affronts the hard affronts of Fortune then with all speed they rig'd a fleet and Dido with her treasure and the Tyrian Lords in the advantage of night hoised saile The Cyprian was the first shore they touched where as the fashion of the Countrey was their Virgins were assembled to sacrifice for their chastities to Venus before their marriage Fourscore of these untouch'd Dido ravisheth from the barbarous sacrifice and sailes with them into Affrica where when she was arriv'd shee purchased as much land of the Inhabitants as might bee covered by an Oxes hide which cut in thin pieces made a great extent of ground but scarce to containe a City two and twenty miles in compasse There was the famous Carthage built by Dido which after times dilated into a great Empire By the consent of all there was a yearly rent paid for the land on which the City was founded The concourse of Affricans which hope of gaine brought thither was great as their gaine they received by traffick which invited them to settle themselves there The many conspiring hands in no great space of time wrought it to a perfect Citie but in the interim their wealth that flowed thither in high tide made Carthage the envie of Hiarbus King of the Mauritanians Hee summons ten of the Carthaginian Princes and with them treats of marriage with their Queen which if fairely may not bee obtain'd hee resolves to try the force of armes Dido hearing this unwelcome message desires respite of resolution till the City was finished which accomplished shee in no wise would yeeld unto Hiarbus whom lust linkt to rage and avarice had arm'd against her and his honour Dido now the creature which melancholly divorceth from society desires three months absence from her friends whom shee tels she must goe whither her owne and the Cities fate did drive her in which time a little remote from the Citie shee erected a stately Pyre which having kindled and invok'd Sichaeus ghost shee a little eased her selfe against her fortune What a monster of misery said shee received life with Dido The World hath dealt with mee as Love with those it hath distracted allowed mee happinesse but by some short intervals First I was borne Princesse of Tyre then by my Brothers tyranny I was exil'd after long conflicts with the Winds and Seas I arrived here in Affrica here I built this great Carthage of which I am intitled Queene then I thought me plac'd above my envie or my fate but as those wretched creatures that are drawne higher the more to bee strapado'd so was I made great great for Hiarbus envie so was I wound up to the height of happinesse and honour only to fall never to rise againe Prosperity and adversity might bee termed the fever of life did not our best dayes aflict us more then our worst In our happinesse the feares that doe attend it make us miserable the hopes that await our unhappinesse make us happy in our lowest unhappinesse which estate would a wise man chuse that which will be better or that which will bee worse then to be happy is to bee miserable As the pain of the soule transcends the paine of sense so is misery to be valued above happinesse For as what shall be is the greatest wrack of thought so what is is the clearest reliefe the clearest satisfaction In our height of happinesse we know wee shall bee in our lowest misery wee know wee cannot bee worse then to bee miserable is to bee happy If I desire felicitie I desire misery for I rise onely to fall If misery then happinesse this makes me Fortune's that makes Fortune my triumph Where is then content since banished the height of State If in the low estate then must I seek it in the Wildernesse and in some un-sun-seen Cave waste out the remnant of my dayes there Pigmalion and Hiarbus follow mee there reignes as great a confusion of thoughts as at the Court then welcome Death thou didst divorce mee thou shalt unite mee to my Love Purged from earth to the Skies I flie and intwine my soule forever to my lov'd Sichaeus Then she leap'd into the Pyre and there consum'd The meeting of Dido and Aeneas in which Virgils Muse hath sweat to the dishonour of them both her for love him for ingratitude is so meerly fabulous that it is scarce worth the expence of paper to disprove it onely I am bound to vindicate her honour Rome as Eutropius writes was built three hundred ninetie foure yeares after the destruction of Troy none computes the time lesse Carthage was built seventie two years before Rome so Iustine writes So there must bee of necessity two hundred yeares betweene the Trojan Prince and the Carthaginian Queen Seven hundred yeares this Citie stood unconquered so long they sacrificed to Dido as their tutelar Goddesse at last by Scipio thence called Affricanus it was burnt there their devotion ended with their fortune and themselves Pro Dido WAS it the Queen of Carthage or the Queen of beauty that Hiarbus coveted If Carthage was his end money was his matrimony if beauty hee sought a woman not a wife if a wife to make his lust warrantable Dido in Sichaeus buried all husband in Hiarbus all man Love is the good which by being diffused is corrupted shee that loves one another and a third takes men in at the coile and loves only for her pleasure The object of true love is but one from the infancy of time to her decrepitude the love between two hath been held most honourable Hee that tooke from the first man his wife did not make every rib a wife not onely to shew us how out of the least of numbers he could draw infinites upon infinites but especially that our desires might move within the narrow compasse of love not expatiate themselves to lust that as the first man was all the men in the world to his wife so now the husband should bee the wives Horizon that where ere shee is plac'd hee may bee all shee sees The objects of lust are as various as numerous as there are lovely beauties and to attend them fond desires The wanton woman darts forth her unruly heats more freely then the lesse-offending Sun his beams he with the day in courtesie to nature withdrawes his fires shee day and night carries the rage of dog-dayes in her breast and never sets but then when shee can rise no more Dido would not wed Hiarbus because she thought all nuptiall rites had not their period in Sichaeus Death is the divorce of man and woman not of husband and wife that contract flesh
ties and unties but this is that of soules which eternity cannot undoe it is as immortall as themselves not deaded in being singled from earth but reviv'd to a greater perfection if then her soule did intirely love the soule of her soule must be her only love But Hiarbus sought lawfull marriage Why did he force it Dido refused marriage shee could not love Marriage to her had been a rape another had enjoy'd her against her will if a rape must bee avoyded with the losse of life through how many death must she flie a loathed bed where every night she shall be ravished Did her vertue attract Hiarbus why did he not covet her vertue in her prosperity as in her misery He that hath lost the effect and quality of vertue in himselfe will not value it in another and with reason for her vertue was his greatest enemy forc'd her chastity so to whom she had been married that like the Phoenix shee would marry to nothing but her ashes Contra Dido WHy refus'd she marriage because it was lawfull it was not incestuous was it a crime because it was no sin Religion and honour allow her to marry Hiarbus neither Sichaeus hee was a King a stranger this a Subject an Vncle. Marriage is the tie of strange blouds not of the same Nature bids us affect not love our kindred in this affection screwd to love is unnaturall could she then marry Sichaeus and not Hiarbus did she think the Priest in Sichaeus a warrant for her incest and not the King in Hiarbus for a lawfull contract Hath the King the liberty to make the Law and the Priest to transgresse it Hiarbus desires the establishment of the law of Nations but Sichaeus violates the law which Nature wrote within him The Gods suffer her to outlive her incest she will murther her selfe rather then entertain a vertuous Love Hiarbus us'd force Why should shee refuse it The safety of Carthage depended on the marriage she livâ—d to build it and would die to ruine it Had shee burnt a Martyr to her Countrey her act had been too great for Chronicle but she would die to satisfie her passion rather then live to preserve the Citie Her love to Sichaeus was that she valued above Hiarbus Shee would vexe a living King to appease a livelesse Trunke and rather obey a Block then a Storke But Sichaeus stands in competition with Carthage Oh unequall ballance a womanish fancy poiz'd against a publick good What other reason then had she to burn but because shee would not marry THEVTILLA FRance the richest embroydery of beauties bred a maid from heaven inspir'd with all those excellencies which first made the virtues of her sexe History writes her birth ignoble but as it is the greatest Solâ—cisme in honour for high blouds not to flow into high attempts so it is a reall ennobling of meannesse of birth to be guilty of more then noble actions Nobility and beautie are a fair varnish of vertue the lively shadowes of that unseen substance which were it visible nothing so lovely but being the true Idaea of the mind cannot bee discern'd with the eyes of the body Without this so much of nothing hath the unworthy honourable they are but the complements of man serve onely to fill up this vast vacuum of honour She basely noble not nobly base born under a smoak-dried roof which though of it selfe it receiv'd no more of heavens influence then through the loope-holes made by the rage thereof yet her presence made perpetuall day But let her birth bee strangled in the wombe of History Shee was Natures fairest paper not compounded of the rags of common mortality but so searsed and refined that it could receive no impression but that of spotlesse innocence How unfortunate had her beauty been had shee had no other championesse then her selfe the sequell of Theutilla will declare Amalius Dynasta of France rich in treasure magnificent in retinue Lord of all the world admires but himselfe which hee most admires there was no deity to whom hee should owe his fortune but his unworthinesse for he was more hospitable to himselfe then to others and freelyer feasted his senses then strangers In summe hee was what a vertuous man is not what a voluptuous man should be It hapned one time the time pointed at in Chronicle when his soul the slave of his sense dancing and floating like a toast in his wine was seiz'd on by sleepe the wine it selfe had paid the drawer of his wine his appetite Then was he quiet when hee was dead drunk How fruitlesly were spent those thousand lamps of oyl those thousand pen-plowed reams of paper about the immortality of the soule Who hath a soule that will not here question it what is become of it is it onely for this interim metamorphized into a beast or doth it die if into a beast since the prince of man let it bee transmigrated into the prince of beasts the Prince's beast Who so sottish so grosse of conceit to think the Lyon a creature of that invincible valour and now commanded by reason having rescued so faire a Lady from so foul tyranny will transgresse the lawes of honour let her loose to her losse of liberty her loath some dungeon Or doth she die or will you mince it into an intervallum of life a three hours death it then followes the soule thus dying will dye eternally But to returne to Theutilla Amalius servants have made the neighbouring Villages their rendevouz where having discovered Theutilla and in her as much as the world could boast of they ra vish'd her from the weak resistance of her parents and laden with the rich triumph of nature returne unto their Lord and lock her up in his lodging whose sense and fancy was so strongly lock'd up in yron-sleep hee had not power to dreame of what he would have acted She thus forfeited to dishonour and night the friend of dishonour enjoying no more of light then the courteous candle which betraid to her eye and hand a sword which shee taking to her revolves her present condition If the soule straightned said shee in a necessitie of ill-doing must trie all her power to gain her libertie surely shee must not refuse any opportunity conduceable to the preservation of her purity Death is then an honourable freedome when it takes us from the danger of living ill As we came into the world with nature so wee must goe out with honour wee must not rest on nature for our ends since before her summons thousands of extremities doe beset our lives There shee paus'd Welcome said shee my deare deare Preserver to thee I owe this last this most glorious act of my well-spent life to thee posterity shall be as much beholding as Theutilla thou shalt redeem the errours of after times in women Then shee borne for what shee did drew the sword anvil'd and filed for her sexes glory no sooner said she have I unsheath'd thee but I
active this being often the fruit of a desperate dejected that ever of a well-settled mind Her valour was her crime her cowardize for as shee had the false spirit of a man unjustly to kill a man so had shee the true false spirit of a woman to act a greater lest she should sinke under a lesser evill Perhaps glorie transported her to an attempt as shee flattered her self above a man did shee not also descend into the cruell weaknesse of her sexe slay a man that had already paid earnest to a sleep never to awake that had already pawn'd himselfe to Death Did she not goe lower sacrifice his soule to the furie of furies her selfe Whither did her blind rage lead her to punish innocence to salve her honour that was not wounded This act carries little Valour in it lesse Vertue CYPRIANA THE Iland Cyprus Natures choycest storehouse where she had reposed the chiefest blessings of the earth flowing in wealth the wantonizer of the mind and by it once dedicated to the Queen of Love courted and feared of the neighbouring Nations while secure in her owne height the Othomannick Army infinite in number invincible in valour unappeas'd by cruelty breaks in like a sea that threatens to eat her into another Iland if not devoure her Christianity was their crime a wrong proud enough to unsheath a Turkish blade life was their greatest guilt which must bee wip'd off by cruell death That which to nature was preposterous the souldier made methodicall the infant torn from the mothers brest was mangled into as many atomes as it had lived minutes and hewed out into more Sacrifices then it had sins if sorrow was too weak to conquer the surviving distressed mother the sword therein courteous supplyed it and intomb'd both in the wombe from whence they did unfortunately spring Wives and Maids were first ravish'd then slaine for adultery Father and Daughter Mother and Sonne Brother and Sister were all incestuously piled up there was nothing wanting but new lives to satisfie the guilt of death The Iland was an heape of carkasses in despaire of being repeopled but by Cannibals or Crows Was ever cruelty so barbarously express'd Was ever steel refin'd for such cruelty Mustapha having almost dislimb'd the Iland bends his fury to the head besiegeth Salamina renowned for rich Citizens brave Buildings and stately Temples erected by the Telamonian Teucer during the Trojan sieige Dandalus the Governour forc'd to submit himselfe to the Turkish yoke after exquisite tortures is beheaded and to strike a greater terrour in the survivors his head is carryed upon the point of a sword through the razed Citie Nero had here seene his cruell wish accomplish'd the head of thousands of heads strooke off at one blow The highest rate the Citizen could amount to was too cheap for the securitie of life where innocence was punish'd in stead of treason Mustapha his sword now surfetted in humane bloud spurs on his sacrilegious furie to revenge him of the Gods he razeth the Temples whither the wretched Salaminians were fled for refuge the Altars are profan'd Hymens holy Tapers are lighted to rapes and adulteries at the very Altars Murders are their Sacrifices innocent lives drop like beades from their bloudy hands their more bloudy devotions Good Heaven where is your thunder awake your sleeping armory is not your whole Hoast blasphem'd Good Earth where is thy Earthquake cannot these monsters move thee The consecrated vessels are prophan'd to servile uses The shrines of Saints that call'd the adoration of farthest Pilgrims are demolish'd all holy and prophane a e miscellaniously sacrific'd to fire and sword Mustapha his rage and avarice appeas'd bethinks him of a present to appease Selimus his Masters lusts he sends captive the choicest beauties of both sexes doom'd to another destinie to the distain'd Carpathian Sea where his fleet lay at anchor The captives ship'd and ready to be wafted in their owne bloud to Byzantium when the divinely inspired Cypriana wrought the miracle worthy the memory of all time Shee servilly imployed in the powder-office with a countenance that gave a majesty to her miserie and scorn'd the subjection of sorrow resolves a powder-treason a candle shee had flaming in her hand but a purer flame shot from heaven into her breast from no other place could so generous a mind be fired This fire said shee purer then the element of fire shall both burne and cure shall extinguish the lurking inflammations of lust Nothing of Cyprus shall bee transported to Byzantium but my fame powerfull to perfume the contagion of their sin O Heaven to thee the Sanctuary of innocence flies my untainted soule if my spirit enlightned by thine act thy vengeance thy mercy reward mee if I transgresse thy Commission if I let out my life before thou requirest it pardon the weaknesse of my vertue pardon her that sacrificeth her self a spotlesse creature to thy most sacred throne If thy justice exclude mee thy pitie oh pitie these innocents rain all thy revenge on mee burie my name from the discovery of posterity let not them because they feel my fate feel thy vengeance Then gave shee fire to the Powder that knew as little mercie as the Turke The Masts and Sailes were hoysed nearer the Skies then when the boysterous element conspires a shipwrack the ribs torn from the body flew like murdering shot through the next ship where the unquench'd pitch seized the powder so that both were swallowed by the same fate Into these two ships were congested the Prime of the Turkish Souldiery the Cyprian captivitie dispatch'd by Mustapha to Selimus at Byzantium The miserable Salaminians now upon the shore paying the last office of affection to see the last of their wives and children were more delighted then terrified at the spectacle they look'd on death not as a punishment but as the most honourable divorce and last refuge of honour Death had in it more courtesie then horrour for as it was the last so it was the least of their evils Did they weepe at their misfortunes so did the Sea with a generall acclamation they thank'd the Gods that had heard their prayers desiring their friends should bee rather a prey to the mercilesse waves then Selimus lusts for which by the misfortune of beauty they were reserv'd untouch'd Mustapha now again whets his sword which before revenge had dull'd there was not a life that was not his prey till hee had left the Iland breathlesse then like a Tyger besmeard in the bloud of tamer beasts hee returnes to his Fleet and laden with the spoiles of the Countrey but most with infamie hoyseth Sailes to Bzyantium Now is he in the Carpathian sea where may hee see nothing but monsters ugly as himself may wind and water roar to him the name of bloud If sleepe charming-care steal on his restlesse mind may the Cyprian Ghosts awake him may every minute bee feare of endlesse death and may his sinne fright away his repentance then
press'd it into the low despaire of nere-below-repenting sinners Then in his fury too great for more words he had rack'd his Mother Calbia had not the vertuous Aretaphila stepp'd in betweene him and his revenge Nicocrates now gladly possest of her innocence endeavours by studied favours to raze out all the injuries imprinted on her body and her soule but shee like an Anvile too much heated by the last blowes to coole suddenly meditates upon another and more safe way for the Tyrants death She had a Daughter every way exactly perfect for she was Daughter to Aretaphila The Tyrant had a brother called Leander you have already all that commends him hee was an haire-braind wild-headed unrein'd young man one whom lust or ambition might flatter into the most desperate attempts Aretaphila wrought so far with the King that a match between her Hero-Daughter and the young Leander was by his consent concluded her shee counsels to insinuate into her Husbands rashnesse and perswade him and oh what will not this pestiferous night-geare doe to besiege his brothers Crown Leander not contented with the Kingdome hee enjoyd in her thought now nothing lesse then to raise himselfe as high as his ambition brib'd his Swiz servant Diapheries who in the first nick of opportunitie murthred Nicocrates Whither do these crowns and scepters the worlds magnalia but indeed the balls of Fortune hurrie thee fond Leander thou hast not kill'd the Tyrant for the Countrey but slaine thy brother for the Crowne Through how many restlesse nights and lesse restlesse thoughts do we encounter these sweet-bitter joyes and as the more we graspe the water into our hands the lesse wee hold so is content the farther from us the more we seeke it in these fading glories of the World which like an ignis fatuus first lights us through wild untrodden pathes unto themselves then through vaste ayrie thoughts they lead us up to that precipice from whence we fall and there they leave us Aretaphila could not appease her revenge till she had pluck'd up the Tyrant by the roots First shee incenc'd the Citizens against Leander the Traitour to his Prince the parricide of his Countrey the fratricide and lastly the muderer of her Husband They with one consent adjudged him to bee sowed up into a sack and cast into the sea Then judgement proceeded to Calbia whom they condemned to the fire and shee was burnt alive Diapheries not worth naming and therefore I think not worth hanging the Storie mentions not his punishment The Cyrenaeans now prostrate their lives and fortunes to the devotion of Aretaphila that was owner of them both they offer her divine honours and beseech her to take further protection of the Countrey But she who to doe her Countrey service could subdue her thoughts to be a Queen can fall from that height to rise above all Crowns into her owne content she shaking off those glorious loades of State retired from all the crowding tumults of the Court into a solitary and truely happy countrey-condition there to spinne out her thread of life at her homely distaffe where we will leave her a veryer wonder then the Phoenix in the Desart the alone Paragon of all peerlesse perfections Her actions so above the criticisme of my purblind judgement I am not able to comprehend much lesse contradict or controvert I am silent lest you should passe that censure upon me for her which Famianus Strada did upon Horace for Plautus that my judgement is judicium sine judicio FINIS THe Heroina hath nothing of woman in her but her sex nothing of sex but her body and that dispos'd to serve not rule her better part It is as Nature left it neglectfull not negligent neat not stretch'd upon the tenter-hookes of quaintnesse of dresse or garbe with Nature it decaies with Mechanick art the ruines are not repaired Her soule is her heaven in which she enjoyes aeternall harmony her conscience is her Sanctuary whither when shee is wounded she flies for refuge Her affections and passions in constant calme neither flow nor ebb with Fortune her hope is not screwd up to ambition nor her fear dejected to despaire Her joy is confin'd to smiles her sorrow to teares Prosperity is the type of what shee shall bee Adversity her rowling yron that smoothes her way to Paradise Outward happinesse she owes not â—o her Starres but her Vertue that rules her Stars If shee bee lash'd by Fortune it is but like a Toppe not to bee set up but kept upright Religion not Pride or weaknesse makes her chast She understands not the common conceit of love nor entertaines that familiarity with man that hee may hope it Flattery the inseparable companion of Love she scorns though she cannot flatter her selfe If Love enter her breast it is in the most noble way directed to the beauty neerest the most perfect beauty If shee marry it is onely to propagate the very act tending thereto shee singles from the thought of sinne Vertue is the reward of her Vertue her soule is not so servile as to be tyed by the hope of happinesse or fear of miserie to bee what she is but is cleerly satisfied for doing well that she doth well Shee is temperate that her soule may still be Soveraigne of her sense Shee entertains pitie as an attribute of the Divinitie not of her sex Shee is wise because vertuous She is valiant for her conscience is ungall'd and can endure the sharpest touch of tongue If shee bee inwrapped in the straight that shee may sinne shee relies upon the highest Providence which forbids her to use a remedie worse then the evill FINIS