of Jasper and Porphire SONNET WHile this Heroick Mede attempts to gain O're weighty Palms be by their poyse is slain His Brow still sweats with Gallans Actions done Still do's the Blood about his Armour run His Hearts late active Flames have lost their Fire And through its reaking Blood in Smoak expire While couch'd among the Dead his Soul pursues The wand'ring Shades of those the sword subdues O hold Panthea hold thy best Relief Rests in the moderation of thy Grief Save thou at least thy Husbands second Heart And let one Death suffice your common Smart In thee he still survives and may again In thee fair Cruel by thy Hand be slain Thâ— inhumane Steel that shall dismiss thy Breath To him must needs procure a second Death ELOGIE OF PANTHEA PANTHEA had a Philosophers Spirit in a Womans Bodie and a knowing and disciplined Soul under a Barbarous Climat There was nothing weak or rustical in her Life All her Actions were full of Courage and Dexteritie Chastity Grace and Modesty excepted nothing appeared in her agreeable to her Sex Having remained a Captive after the Defeat of the Assyrians vanquished by Cyrus she was set apart as the most precious piece of the Spoil and as the choicest fruit of the Victory And in this occasion her Vertue appeared more rare and prizable then her Beauty A noble man of Persia having had the Impudence to attempt upon her Honour Discretion Chastity and Fidelity defended it And the Victory which remained to her evidently shewed that Fortune had not yet overcome her And that though she were an absolute Captive yet she had alwayes a free Heart and a soveraign Soul The Affection she bore to her Husband Abradates was serious and manly she did not consume it in affected Discourses and superfluous Apprehensions She truly loved his Life and Repose but she was jealous of his Reputation and Renown And she would rather have wished him an untimely and glorious Death then a dishonoured and compleat old Age. So far was she from making him lose in her Closet the hours of the Field and from withdrawing him from Gallant Encounters and Honourable Dangers that she sent him thither in a costly Equipage like a Conquerer that she delighted to see in him an adorned and sumptuous Valour which might both dazle and affright which might beget at once both Admiration and Fame He died likewise Victorious in the Gold Armour which she had bought for him with her Pearl and pretious Stones as if she intended thereby either to adorn his Death or to set a Value and Lustre on his Victory Being brought to her covered over with his own Blood and that of his Enemies she received him Couragiously and with a manly Constancy mixt with sorrow and Majesty She forbore not to bewail him but it was done with those modest and decent Tears which do not soften the Heart but beautifie the Face Not being able to make his Soul return into his Body she essayed to substitute her own in the place of it For that end she opened her Bosom by a wide wound and leaning on him as if she were willing to fill his Heart with her Blood and Life she dyed in two Bodies and yeelded up her Soul through her Husbands Wound and and her own MORAL REFLECTION I Put not here a Sword into Womens Hands nor invite them unto Poison a Halter or Precipice Voluntary Death might appear handsom and becoming in this Barbarian it would seem black and hideous in a Christian Woman But Chastity Fidelity and Constancie are in use with all Nations and requisite for All Sects And our Christian Women without darkning or disfiguring themselves may imitate Barbarian Let them learn of her that Conjugal Love is not an effeminate and mincing Passion That it is vigorous and serious That it is capable of great Designes and of Noble and Couragious Thoughts Let them understand that though their Sex be exempted from the Dangers and Functions of War yet their Fortunes and Mindes are not so that they ought to serve with their Goods and Possessions if not with their Persons And that it were a Disgrace for them to spare two or three Pearls and Parcels of rich Cutwork in Occasions wherein Princes are Liberal of their Blood and Kings expose their Crowns and Heads In fine let them know that their chief Ornament consists in their Husbands Glory that they ought to adorn themselves with all that contributes to their Credit and Reputation And that a man without Honour is as great a Deformity to a brave Woman as a Head of Clay to a Statue of Ivorie MORAL QUESTION Concerning the Order which a Gallant Woman ought to observe in Conjugal Love IF good Eyes and a great Light be requisite to love regularly more Courage and Vertue is yet required to it And well ordained Charity what sweetness soever it promiseth is the most powerful and the most rare perfection of a Gallant Woman There are many who tenderly love their Husbands The Heart of a Turtle or the Soul of a Dove without other Philosophie would suffice for this Tendernesse But surely few there are that love them according to measure and in order to their duties few that know how to afford just proportions to their kindnesses and to set every office in its place and in the degree which is proper to it Finally few that can boast with the Spouse in the Canticles of having a regular Love and a well ordered Charity And neverthelesse it is this regular Love and well ordered Charitie which must accomplish the Fortitude of a Woman For according to the saying of S. Augustine these give the Character and Tincture to all other Vertues of what Sex soever they be and by what Names soever they are called Morever this Order to draw the Designe of it in little and to teach it by Epitomie must be taken from the very order of those Objects that are beloved Wherein this proportion is to be exactly observed that every Object be ranked in the esteem and according to the degree of its Merit That the most pretious and important should have the first Cares and be furthest advanced in the Heart that the rest of lesse consequence should remain in the superficies and rest satisfied with the second thoughts and remaining Affections And generally that love should grow intense or remisse rise or fall act or acquiesce according to the different weight according to the several degrees according to the Value of the good which is to be affected and pursued This Rule ought to be in a Gallant Woman what the Rod was to the Angel whom Ezekiel saw measuring the Temple She ought not to Love but with proportion according to the quantity of merit And how vast soever her Heart is she must yet be wary of pouring it out rashly and at random she ought to give nothing of it but by weight and measure Not that I permit her to divide and distribute it to whom
Couragious and so little expected an Action raised a Tumult in the Temple and confusion amongst the people No person is seen there who reflects on the Goddesse or remembers the Sacrifice The Victimes which were already at the Foot of the Altar crowned with Garlands of Flowers and powdred over with fine Meal were affrighted at the Noise made about them And saving themselves with their Garlands and Ribbons threw down the Perfumes and Censors and scattered the Assistants surprized with Astonishment Superstition and Fear Instead of bringing them back the most confident accompany them in their Flight The Virgins of Diana only stayed behinde and they themselves were detained by a Terrour which tyed their feet and congealed the Blood in their Veins Their astonishment and fear appeared on their faces which bore the Color of their Garments The very flowers of their Crowns seemed to wax pale by their Example and Affrightment The Torches fallen from their Hands are extinguished by the Milk and and Wine of the Goblets which were tumbled down And of these two confounded Liquors a third is composed which retains the Colour of them both In this general tumult Camma alone remains quiet and undaunted She was never more fair and Graceful then you now behold her She never drank any thing more delicious or pleasing to the taste then that Remnant of Death she newly gave her Enemie The sweetnesse of the Revenge she took wrought upon her Heart before the poison and penetrated even to the bottom of her Soul There was spread from thence upon her face an effusion of Joy accompanied with a majestical and pleasing fiercenesse even Anger it self was there graceful and the last drops of its Gall had there a kinde of Sweetnesse Nothing is seen in her of that Death she had taken in her Couutenance resembles a Conqueresse and in her Attire something appears festival and Triumphant The very Flowers where with she is Crowned seem to rejoyce that they shall not be carried to a profane and polluted Bed And that they shall dye Ghast and without Blemish in her Company It was believed that she had taken them to sacrifice with more decencie and to render Honour to her Ministery and new Marriage And this was done to go more adorned to Sinnatus and to Triumph over Sinorix with more Pomp. The wretched Man dejected by the Guilt of his Conscience and pierced by the Reproaches of Camma falls on the Ground with the Fatal Cup which deceived him The Palenesse of Death which he drank begins to spread it self on his Face And disquieted by his Despair no lesse then by his Anger he looks upon Camma with Eyes which speak neither a Lover nor a Husband I think also that he vents forth against her all the Gall of his Spirit which is more bitter and comes from a far worse spring then the poison he drank And being able to do her no more mischief he dismembers her at least by his desires and Gesture And makes of her Bodie as many pieces as he sends forth Imprecations and Reproaches against her She hears him coldly and without Trouble It may be said that she loves him in this Condition And having never beheld him without Horrour she now sees him with Joy Meanwhile the Poison gaining on her Noble Parts and finding the Heart half open by the Effort which her Soul makes there to sally forth and reunite it self to Sinnatus behold her sinking between the Hands of her Maids They are well recovered of their first disorder but in no Condition to help her if their tears serve not for an Antidote The best they can do is to lift up their Eyes and hands to the Goddesse and to demand of her by their Gestures and Sighes the preservation of so sublime a Vertue for the Honor and Example of their Sex Do not believe that they are heard Camma opposeth their Petitions and offers up Prayers to the contrary In the Smoak of the extinguished Torches and the overturned Censors she beholds the Ghost of Sinnatus still bleeding from his VVound who gives her a signe that it is time to depart And that she is expected in the Region of Chast and Faithful Souls Her impatience redoubles at this Object And her Heart closing up she takes leave of the Goddesse Craves Pardon for having in her Temple and at the Foot of her Altar and Image sacrificed to Love and Revenge And with these last words rendred up her Spirit with a serene Countenance and such as a Conquerour would have who after the gaining of a Victory should expire in the fâ—uition of his Glory SONNET THis Queen whose noble wrath admits no rest With poison at her Lips Death neer her Breast Do's the now trembling Synnorix upbraid With that sad stroke his murd'rous Hand convey'd Her Husbands Ghost which often call'd in vain With Langnor pale yet bloody as when slain Waits to receive her in that Cloud the late Extinguish'd Torches with their smoak create Brave Soul forsake not thy fair Prison stay Do not Renowned Camma post away To thy Sinnatus ere the poisnous Draught Have on his Murd'rers Head due Vengeance wrought To which the Heav'ns and all things else conspire With his sad Fate and thy inflamed Ire And Love himself iâ— accelerate his pain Megrra's Torch and Deaths cold Shafts hath ta'ne ELOGIE OF CAMMA CAMMA Princess of Galatia and the Wife of Sinnatus was doubly Soveraign and reigned by the right of her blood and by that of her Face Her Beauty which was her first Crown drew Suters to her and furnished her with Combats and these Combats rendred her Spint sit for War and manifested her Courage and â—idelity Her Vertue made Fortune Jealous and her Beauty begot Love in Sinorix But not complying with Sinorix and abandoning all to Fortune she remained victorious over both Sollicitations and Services proving unsuccesseful to Sinorix he employed Despair and Crimes And perswaded that a vacant place would be weakly defended and with lesse obstinacie he murdered Sinnatus and of his Bodie makes a step to his Bed and Throne This Blow strengthened the Couragious Princesse instead of dejecting her She gave no Ear to the bloody Ghost of Sinnatus which summoned her And before she would follow him resolved to revenge his Death After so soul and base a Treachery Sinorix renewed his addresses and sweetned them with the Name of Marriage He presented himself to Camma with all the Artifices and Disguisement by which he thought to hide from her his Crime She failed not to discern it through all his Arts and Disguises and to scent the Murther and blood which remained still fresh upon him Nevertheless the restrained her self And for fear of losing her stroke if she lifted up her hand too high she enclosed her Designe in her Heart with her Anger In sine after many premeditated difficulties and counterfeit irresolutions she seigned to submit to the perswasions of her Kindred who sollicited her in Sinorix behalf and gave
glorious effusion ariseth it is certain that Cicinna is penetrated by it and his soul which fear had imprisoned being now inflamed and attracted by the power of this light expects only the fatall stroke which was to set it at liberty To give this blow Arria presents him a Dagger still warm with her blood and courage Love is the mediator of this commerce and at the same time and by the same inspiration infuseth courage into the mind of Arria and resolution into the spirit of Cicinna Take not this Love for one of those nice ones in whom Poppy causeth the head-ach and who would not adventure to touch a Rose unless it be disarmed It is one of those couragious and magnanimous Loves of those which have produced Heroes and Heroesses of those which know no other Garlands but Helmets no other Posies but Swords of those which take delight in Frost and Rain in Chains and Prisons And I am much mistaken if it be not the very same Love which led Euadne to the flaming pile of her Husband which sparkled the Sword wherewith the true Dido guarded her self from a second Marriage and which lately also cut off the Hair of the Vertuous Hypsicratea put the Helmet on her head and made a Queen become a Foot-soldier in the Army of Mithridates At present this Love playes the Exhorter and Philosopher it speaks to Cicinna of liberty and glory and animates him to follow the Example and Courage of his wife You would say that in guiding his hand to the Dagger which is offered him she assures him that it will cut off the ligaments of his soul without hurting him that it hath been mollified in the bosome of Arria and by the fire of her heart that her blood hath qualified it and take from thence all that it had of malignity and sharpness and that not only so Noble and Honourable a weapon as that but even a Cord presented by the hand of so gallant a woman would be more glorious then many Diadems wrought by the hand of Fortune and presented by those of Messaline Cicinna seems fully perswaded by these reasons and confirms them by his gesture and countenance He is no longer the same fearfull and irresolute man as before He hath still the same head and body but another heart is placed in this body and another spirit in this head He hath no longer any blood in his veins which is not Romane All his thoughts are triumphant and all his sentiments worthy of a Consul and shortly his soul greater then Fortune and stronger then Death will depart victorious over both and re-unite it self to the soul of Arria This Example of constancy and conjugall Fidelity is very precious to Rome at this time and no doubt but the young Arria and Trascus her Husband who are spectators thereof will make good use of it They greedily and studiously collect the circumstances thereof and look upon it as the principal piece of their Patrimony Truly it is wonderfull to behold a wisdom at the age of eighteen to behold maturity and youth in one and the same head To see a woman couragious and constant a woman grave and serious in an age of divertisements and pleasures She conceives her self more rich from the lessons and examples of her mother then from the succession of all the Consuls of her House and three drops of her blood and four syllables of her last words have something in them which is dearer to her then all the Pearls of her Ancestors She likewise stores up these words and layes up about her heart all that she can gather of his blood and of the spirit which is mingled with it Surely this must needs be her good Genius who inspires her so timely to arm her self thereby and she cannot choose but foresee the occasions wherein it will be usefull to her to have conserved the memory of her Mother and fortified her self with her Blood and Courage Traseus was no less solicitous to reap benefit by this illustrious Example The present misfortune of Cicinna is a presage to him of his future mishap and not finding himself so weak as to crouch under the age nor so powerfull as to alter it he clearly sees that the least he can expect is to be ruined by it after the rest He restifies at least by his countenance that he will not fall cowardly nor expect till they push him on and all the rules of Phisiognomy are deceitfull or he will be an Original of his time and his death will have one day a place amongst the Heroick Examples SONNET ARRIA speaks ARria instructs her Husband by her wound That in a gallant Death no smart is found The Noble Blood which from her Bosome flows Of her Chaste Fire the heat and tincture shows Conjoynth with this blood of matchless worth A Fate-subduing Love hath issu'd forth Who thus Cicinna's coldness doth exhort To close thus gallant Scene with like effort Thy Honour now Cicinna is at slake No less then is thy Life then Courage take Beware lest abject fear restrain thy hand And put thy Glory to a shamefull stand Arria thy wound upon her self hath taâ—ne To her own Death she hath annext the pain Of thâ—â—e and by 〈…〉 extreamly rare Hath only leâ—t it's Glory to thy share Elogy of Arria IT is true that the Reign of the fift Caesar was but a perpetual Comedy But the Interludes thereof were bloody and Traâ—â—call And cruelty was almost continually mixed there with the loves of Messalâ—â— and the Impostures of Narâ—issa The Spectators grew at length weary of so ill composed and represented a Scene And some of the least patient and most Couragious amongst them resolved to force the Republike out of the hands of these Stage-Players Nevertheless the Conspirators failing in the success they promised themselves 〈◊〉 who was their Head happened to be killed in 〈◊〉 And his Complices abandoned by reason of his death remained in the power of the Beast whom they had inraged Afterwards 〈◊〉 who was the most ingaged in the Plot was apprehended and brought to Rome The Couragious and Faithful Arria did not deliberate whether she ought to follow him It came not into her thoughts that Adversity was a Divorce she did not believe that bad Fortune ought to be more powerful then Love nor that it could Lawfully dissolve Marriages On the contrary she believed that she was the Wife of Cicinna a Criminal and Prisoner as she had been of Cicinna's a Favourite and Consul and that she ought to have as great a share in his Chains and Punishments as she had in his Fortunes and Glory She accompanied him to the Ship And at the instant of Imbarking seeing her self put back by the Guards You will permit at least saith she that a Senator of an ancient Consulary Race may have some body to wait upon him during so long a Voyage I alone will supply the Places of his Attendants And the Ship will not be
most Luminous and highest part of Heaven He is next to God the Mediator of holy Marriages and well united Pairs He is the common Spirit of Christian Sympathyes and the Moderator of Chaste Agreements and Vertuous Harmonies Such an Exhorter is most powerful and his Inspirations leave nothing to be acted by Reason However he is not the sole perswader of the Princess Her Husband though fast asleep is no less Perswasive nor Eloquent them he If Prince Edward speaks not with his mouth he speaks by the paleness of his face He speaks from the Ardour of his Feaver and the Palpatation of his heart He speaks from his wound which hath a Voice of Blood and words of Passion In silence the Princess yields attention to this Voice and to these VVords And Answereth them with her Sighs and Tears which are no less Eloquent nor less Passionate And ere long when she shall thrust her Tongue and Mouth into this VVound her Heart will descend upon her Lips to bid the last adieu to the Princes Heart and to transmit into it her last Flame together with her Life But fear nothing in her behalf This Love her Inciter will preserve them both He put a secret Antidote in to her Mouth and gave her Spirit the gift of Healing Her Lips which he purified with a Spiritual and Sacred Fire will Exorcise Death and dispossess it of this Body without taking it into her own And one day Edward Cured and Eleonor Preserved will be reckoned amongst the miracles of Heroick Charity SONNET ON some Exploit Prince Edward Dreaming lyes VVith Death in 's Wound and slumber in his Eyes His Spouse to Cure him is resolv'd to Dy VVith Heart like those of her brave Ancestry Love more then Nature skill'd in Life's repairs Makes him a precious Balsome of her Tears VVhose Soul already heals him in Designe And at his VVound do's with his Soul conjoyne Approach thy Mouth and Heart couragious VVife 'T is that must save thy gallant Edwards life That Heart of thine with true Affection Crown'd Shall make thy Tongue a Plaister for his Wound To Cure thy Prince employ no other Skill The Fire the Blood the Spirits that Distill From thy fair Soul shall from his Body drive Th' empoyson'd VVound and keep thy Prince alive Elogy of Eleonor HEroick Vertue doth not alwaies Kill not imploys Fire and Sword in all she takes in hand All her Exploits are not stained with Blood she knows how to perform them of more then one fashion and colour and acts not everywhere with Noise though in every place with Force There are Obscure victories without witnesses wherein she hath need of no less boldness then in those which are gained in the view of whole Nations and with the noise of Canons and Trumpets The victorie represented in this Picture is one of these Edward Prince of Wales was come back from the Holy Land with a wound he had received from an Impoysoned Arrow The Physitians had allayed all their speculations and practises and all those ways having been unprofitably tryed they declared to him that he could not be cured but by the destruction of some Person who might have the courage to suck in death with the poyson of his wound Being condemned by this Declaration he prepares himself to dye resolving not to preserve life by the death of another nor to make a remedy of an Impoysonment The Princess his Wife Daughter unto the King of Castile conceiving her self condemn'd by the same sentence received it as if love it self had pronounced it to her And seeing her self necessitated to dye either by the death or cure of her Husband She resolved to chuse of these two deaths that which seemed to her the most Honourable and least bitter and which ought of the two moyties of her life to conserve to her self that which was most dear and precious This resolution taken with her love she defers the Execution to the next night And as soon as the Prince was prepared for it by rest she gently discovers his wound and begins to cure it by the purest blood of her soul which she pours into it with her Tears That done she set her mouth to the wound and with her tongue plunged her heart into it By little and little she sucks out the Poyson and so seasonably casts it forth as she drew from thence all that was Mortal without retâ—â—ning any part thereof to her self Whether that this malignant humour were consumed by the subtile and penetrating fire which her heart diffused by her mouth Or whether God who is Life and Charity had laid his Spirit upon her lips she preserved her Husbands life without loosing her own and by one act cured two sick Persons and wrought two Miracles MORAL REFLECTION THere is a large 〈◊〉 in this Picture and an excellent lesson for married Women This couragious Spaniard added to the Romans Greciams and even to those Barbarians who dyed for their husbands will speak Eternally for the constancy and fidelity of their Affections And wil highly prove and in an Heroick fule that the loving portion of the heart is more vigorous and couragious in their Sex then in Ours But she will also prove for their instruction that nothing is impossible to well ordered Charity That her hands have the gift of Cures and that the vertue of Miracles resides on her Lips That she single and unarmed hath more Force then Death with all his swords and poysons and that Barbarous and heathenish Love which knew onely how to dye vainly and with Audacity was but an impatient and desperate Love compared to a Chaste One which knows how to save in dying and to reap benefit even by its Dangers and Losses But this saving and Wonder-working Love ought not to be a busie and Effeminate Love or a Love of Interest and propriety It must be a Philosophick and Couragious Love Extatick and Prodigal Elevated above all that pleaseth and affrights This Torch must be like that represented in the Canticles not a wandring and Volatile fire but a fire ever Equal and Active A fire which consumes all the little threds of Interests all Forraign tyes all Chains and Fetters even those precious Chains which Fortune frames nay those very Fetters which are more worth then Diadems and which fasten Princes on Thrones Some will have it that it consumes even the tyes of the Soul and Body And alleadge that place of the Canticles where the power of Love is equalled with that of Death This point is both important and instructive And because one might be dangerously mistaken therein it is fit to make a Question of it apart MORAL QVESTION Whether it appertains to the Duty and Fidelity of VVomen to expose themselves to Death for their Husbands IF in this point we believe Antiquity Conjugal Love was heretofore very Tyrannical And married Women who subjected themselves to it ought to be well resolved It was not satisfied that they should bear with
Effort of Courage Seneca affirms that for this much Vertue is required and that the bravest men ought to employ therein the whole vigour of their Souls And this Stoack who was as severe by his own inclination as by the Genius of his Sect who had been inured to the Axioms and opinions of the strongest Philosophy who had so frequent trials of himself against grief and death freely confesseth and in good earnest that he was become a thrifty dispoler of his bad remainders and had spared the dirt and dreggs of his Old Age to the end he might preserve the Spirit and youth of Paulâ—â—s who lived in him To this first Decision Which allows not to Women the use of poyson and Steel and imposeth an absolute necessity on them to survive their husbands I add a second which replaceth them in the freedom even in the Right and Duty of dying for them And the strength of this second Decision is not repugnant to the moderation of the former I say then that albeit the Law which forbids murther and especially all self-murther be express and general Yet in a perilous occasion where the life of a husband should be in danger his wife would be obliged to expose her self for him to this hazard and to give her own life for the preservation of his if there were an occasion of making this exchange I do not ground this obligation upon the right of Common Justice nor on the Duties of Charity in general Common and Universal Charity doth not extend so far I ground it upon the Right and Duties of Conjugal Love which is of greater rigour then the most rigorous justice and imposeth more Obliging and strict Laws then the strictest Charity And to begin with what is more particular and essential We know that the proper effect the specifical Function of Conjugal Love is to reunite two Moyties which the Creation hath severed and to reassemble Man and Woman into one body Moreover we see in all Natural bodies that the less Noble parts expose themselves by instinct to fire and sword in the defence of the Nobler We see that the Arms and Hands stuffen and extend themselves to meet the danger which menaceth the head to receive the blows directed against it To protect it even by their wounds even by their death and torture What our Members do by this instinct which is a more ancient duty then all Laws Law makers which is a blinde Love and a Natural Charity without merit a married Woman ought to do it freely and by election through the duty of this strict and rigorous Charity which Conjugal Love imposeth on her She is but the second part of the body composed by marriage Man to whom the Command belongs is the Head thereof and the Law which from the begining was imposed upon Woman to apply her self to this Head not onely ordains her to take light and Conduct from thence but also wils that to preserve this principle of her Conduct and this source of her light she should lay aside the care of her own safety and repose that she should take upon her self his dangers and wounds and even save him by her death if it will be received in Exchange Besides Love of its own Nature is a general Alienation of the whole Person that loveth It is a Transport without Contract or Hope of a Return by which one gives himself all entire and makes a free Donation of all that he hath and is to the Person he affects Now if this Alienation and Transport may be valid and of force in any kinde of love it is doubtless in Conjugal Love which leaves no right of reserve in Married Persons Which takes from them even the free use of their Bodies and engageth them in a mutual Dependency And this Dependency is yet more strict and indispensible on the Wives part who owes unto her Husband even the hairs of her Head and the very Dreams and Fancies which are within it Whether by Reason the subjection is greater and the Duties more Natural and necessary of the Body towards the Head and of the Accessory toward the Principal then of the Head towards the Body and the Principal towards the Accessory or whether because Wives give themselves with less reserve and love more Sincerely and with more Fidelity then Men This Alienation when it is free and compleat doth not only establish on a Husband a just Title over all the Cares and Affections of his Wife but it also establishes in him a new Right over her Blood and Life And albeit this Right cannot be exacted by Justice yet it may be done by Love which is a far less severe and vexatious Exacter but yet more pressing and more efficatious then Justice Nevertheless this Exacter ought to know that he cannot make use of this Right but in the Extremity of Hope and after the Tryal of all other Remedies An arm of a Man is not cut off to cure him of Rhume and Head-ach And one may say truly that this kinde of Love would play the Tyrant and Executioner and even cut the throat of a Wife to make a Bath for her Husband sick of the Sciatica or the Stone In the third place Love is a true and sensible Transmigration of the Soul or as some define it grounded on the Doctrine of St. Deâ—ys It is an Extasie by which the Soul ceaseth to live in the Body which she animates to live in that which she Loves Upon which it is not necessary to make a Commentary in this place nor to say by way of gloss that the Word to live ought not to be understood of the first and Substantial but of the second and Active Life of this sweet and sensible Life which affords Gust and Delight to the first Every one ought to know that Love is the Original and as it were the Fountain of Joy Pleasure and Satisfaction and of whatsoever hath a share in the sweetness of Life And therefore the sweet life of Lovers cannot subsist but in the place where they love Their minds are sick and languishing every where else All their thoughts which tend not thither are heavy and Terrestrial are Melancholy and burthened with Anxiety Their Musings and their Cares can follow no other Track And of those Souls it may well be said that they are Aliens and Incommodated at home And that their Bodies are to them as bad Innes nay Prisons and Sepulchres Hence it grows that it doth not only belong to the Duty but also to the Interest and Repose of a good Wife to Sacrifice her own life for her Husband and that the gain which may be made thereby is by two thirds greater then the loss Thereby she only hazards the most unquiet and worst part of her two lives She exposeth nothing but her Sorrows and Vexations for the preservation of her Joyes and Pleasures Of the two places where her Soul lives she only forsakes that which is sad and
through two contrary Elements who fall at once into two opposite extreams I perceive that you are troubled about the Couragious Captive who saved her self by this Fire You could wish that it were in your power to finish her deliverance and to pluck her out of the hands of Death as she forced her way out of bondage and shame In vain do your eyes seek her in this confusion of variously shaped and coloured Deaths The fire begins its effects by her and as if it had a mind to fire her all entire it left nothing but her Soul and Reputation which are no longer in a condition to be either inflamed or stained So chaste and generous a Beauty ought not to be disfigured or to dye by parcels and it was not only necessary to preserve the Honour and Purity of her Body but even the Comeliness thereof It was requisite to conserve even the Grace and Dignity of her Countenance and her Death ought to be at least gracefull and glorious Let us speak more justly she must not dye she must only disappear like those Heroes who were carryed away all entire And nothing ought to remain of her but a name of good odour and a most Illustrious Memory At present her Soul discharged of the burthen of Matter and freed from the Chains of Fortune enjoys in repose the fruit of the Tempest which she newly raised and offers to the God of the Christians a Sacrifice of four Turkish Gallies and of more then four hundred Innocent Souls which she redeemed from Slavery and saved from Apostacy All these beautifull Souls glorious by their Liberty and Innocence ascend with the fire and smoak of this great Holocaust Doubt not but in ascending they applaud their Deliveress and look down with joy upon their broken Fetters and the pieces of their burnt Prisons which float upon the waves with the bodies of their Guards Meanwhile Mustapha overcome in his turn beholds from the shore the spoyl of his Victory and Gallies He knew not as yet upon whom to lay the blame And before hand out of despite he bites his lips blasphemes against the Alchoron and his false Prophet The confusion appears barbarous and stained with blood in his eyes And the disorder of his mind augments the fierceness of his Action and the cruelty of his Looks If he were not so far off you might hear the reproaches he vents forth against Heaven for permitting the fire to seize upon his Fortune and suffering the Ensigns of his Valour and the subject of his Triumph to be burnt The Captains and Souldiers which accompany him are in no less disorder nor less furious then himself And their despair is no less to see the treasure of their Souls and the recompence of their blood and wounds thus perishing The People of the neighbouring Towns and the Parents of the Captive VVomen ordained for the Sâ—raglio have very different resentments The People assembled upon the VVall look with astonishment upon the Smoak of then Spoyles and the confusion of the Barbarians Avarice and they that clap their hands seem willing to adde force to the fire which is come to punish them The surprised Fathers and astonished Mothers suffer on the shore all that their Children endure in the fire and upon the waves Tears of joy distill from their eyes for the deliverance of their Daughters Tears also of compassion and sorrow flow from them for their loss And the one mingled with the other make upon their Cheeks an expression answerable to their Courage and Tenderness These Tears nevertheless have not extinguished the sense of Honour Even the Mothers render Thanks for the adventure which they deplore And you would say that on the shore they expect to receive with the Ashes of their Daughters their unstained Memory and their most pure and glorious Souls SONNET Vpon these flaming Piles with billows tost Nicosia saves her self by being lost A brave revenging fire which in the Main Blows up this Fleet consumes her Thraldom 's Chaiâ— The boyling Flaâ—â—s and the inflamed waves Of Slave and Lord become the common graves A world of various treasures and of fair Rich movables are turn'd to smoke and ayr In this 〈◊〉 heat of waves and fires Eudoxia flies to the Celestial Quires And in repose enjoys with just renown The flame that melts her Chains and makes her Crown By nobler Act no Hero ever flew Above the Stars â—o not the gallant Iew Who with an Arm whose vigour much out-vy'd A Pillars strength slew thousands when he dy'd Elogy of the Victorious Captive THis Picture represents a generous Captive who burnt her chain which she could not break and took revenge for the pillaging of her miserable Country by firing the Booty with the Pirats which were carrying it away Within the memory of our Fathers the loss of Cyprus began by the taking of 〈◊〉 And God permitted it to advertise Christian Princes that they ought to stand upon theâ—â— Guards and to mistrust any Peace made with the Common Enemy It is a wild Beast which seems sometimes to be glutted and sometimes to be â—ul'd asleep but is never tamed in good earnest His very Freindships are deceitfull and dangerous And even his Kindnesses leave behind the print of his claws And when all other Pretences fail him his Greediness is his Common Right and the General Wrong of his Neighbours This City which was so rich so ancient and renowned which contained more then Sixty Thousand Inhabitants and no less stately by an immemorial Magnificence became a Prey to Mustapâ—â—â— and his Army And that Greatness which so many Ages and Generations had raised being ruined and cut in peices in one Day satiated with its Spoyl and Blood the Avarice and Cruelty which shared therein After that the fury of the 〈◊〉 was extinguished by the Ruines it had made the Basâ—â— caused the Booty to be brought before him still moist and dropping with the Blood of the Dead and Tears of the Living which were more to be pittyed then the Dead He culled out of these sad Remnants all that was precious He caused all the rare and entire Booties either taken in the Town or in the desolate Country to be put into four great Vessels and sent them to 〈◊〉 as the most glorious and certain Dispatches he could receive of his Victory These unhappy Innocents did imbarque with fears and were with tears carryed from the sight of their Mothers who knew not what Wishes to make for these unfortunate Creatures who ought equally to fear both a Calm and Tempest who could not arrive but to an infamous servitude by a prosperous Wind who could gain nothing but a deplorable Death by Shipwrack The Signal of putting to Sea was given and the Vessels were already under Sayl when the fairest and most couragious of this miserable â—â—oop reflecting on her Liberty her Honor and her captive and â—alf-burnâ— Country left in the Reer and seeing nothing before her but Bondage
then the Statues and Triumphs of many Emperours but of what esteem soever it be the Infanta deserved it by a better title then Victorius she was not only the Mother of her Armies but even the Preserver of them her charitable acts made them subsist her presence and Piety made them overcome To these imployment of the field we must joyn the inclination and dexterity she had in that innocent war and pastime which is used in Woods without effusion of human blood and without leaving Widows and Orphans She there gave a little more freedom to her modesty and suffered its bounds to be a little more enlarged we know likewise that she there performed all that a most couragious and dexterous person could have done And as if she had delighted in a danger wherein she might be humanly valiant and overcome without doing hurt she was seen to encounter chafed Wilde-boats with a javelin in her hand And to shew in this single sport aâ— serious a valour and as true courage as would have been requisite on a breach or in a set Battel There is a haughty capacity and a swelling Pride There is a savage Courage and a magnanimity which would fain strike a terrour into others This alliance of vices with vertues was not observed in the Infanta she was both modest and capable she was humble and prudent and her magnanimity though high and couragious was yet sweetned by a goodnesse victorious without Arms and conquering without violence which gained her more hearts then all the forces of Spain could overcome This goodness did onely acquire her the love of her Subjects but it gained her Subjects where she had no Jurisdiction It entertained her servants without Pensions or Wages It made her Dominion of a larger extent then her own Country It made her reign of a longer durance then her life Besides it was an universal goodnesse for all uses a goodnesse without delay or resence at all howers and in all proportions a spring of goodnesse which could not be exhausted by any effusion a goodnesse ingenious to do good and to do it seasonably and to the purpose to do it with a good grace and Majesty It is wonderfull that this awful Princess who at her pleasure gives limits to Fortune and Ambition and extinguishes the most enflamed Passions it is wonderfull I say that even death it self could not suspend the inclination she had to do good and the last breach of her life was a spirit of grace and an effusion of good deeds She had received the last Sacraments and her soul strengthned with the bread of the strong and prepared by extream unction expected only the moment of expiring when she remembred that many petitions were remaining in her Cabinet unanswered These were petitions of the afflicted and miserable who were apparently in danger of never coming out of their misery if she drew them not forth before the alteration which her death was ready to produce in affairs she gave order that these petitions should be brought her and causing her head and hand to be raised up she imployed all that remained of her sight and motion to signe them in the best manner she was able Surely she could not die more gloriously nor with a more noble and natural essusion of goodness And this makes me remember the Sun which still enlightens the Earth and doth good to it even when it is in the Eclipse Thereby she supports whole houses which are ready to sall she raiseth up some which were already fallen and this last trembling of her head supported Communities and wrought the preservation of many Families This was the right way of reigning charitably and exercising a most benigne Soveraignty to give pardons and grant favours in the very sight and even in the arms of death This was the true way of dying Royally and after an Heroick manner to rise up out of the bed of death that she might save Families from shipwrack which were readie to perish and to employ the last breath of her life to make the miserable revive to restore them hope goods repose and Fortunes at the very rendring up her soul. Surely those ancient Heroes who took a vanity to die standing and to have their bodies upright and their souls elevated never died so nobly nor in so good a posture And that Prince the delight of Mankinde who reckoned amongst his acquisitions the goods he had bestowed and counted amongst his losses all those which were remaining how thristy a manager soever he were of favours and benefits yet he never arrived to that height as to oblige by his last breath and to do good in the last motion of his Soul There are forced favours and constrained benefits which fall but by drops there are some which carry with them as it were the stings of repulses and â—ll Language and serve onely to distaste those that receive them Nothing of this Nature came from the Infanta Her favours were without delay and often prevented the asking they were all pure and without thorns and her benefits resembled gold which should grow without earth and ordure they were not only of great value and solidity but they had besides much lustre they surprized the heart and dazled the sight This Grace of doing good was the particular character and as it were the proper Beauty and Mark of the Infanta All her actions I say her most serious and vigorous actions were imbued therewith her piety it self had taken a tincture of it and though her vertue were one of the highest and â—reest from ostentation yet she never did any thing fiercely and with shagrin she acted nothing which was not gallant and civill which was not done with reflection and study which relished not of quaintnesâ—e and magnificence Nay it is said that even her seventies did not distaste and that her very rigours were obliging Whereupon it is related that when she was in Spain a certain Knight less wounded in his heart then head having entertained her with some discourses into which there entred fire and adoration the wise Princesse who knew very well that there was something of Eudimien and of the Moon in this man had more pity then anger for him And to free her self dexterously from his importunities procured the King her Father to give him an honourable employment attended with a great Revenue which carried him far enough off from Spain Thereby she satisfied Vertue without exaspirating the Graces and proved at once so rigorous and indulgent to this melancholly person that with one stroke she punished his love and made him a Fortune Above all this goodness of the Infanta appeared admirable in supporting ruined Powers in comforting great wounded Fortunes in conserving the Lustre and Dignity of eclipsed Planets put out of their Houses and Courses To perform the like acts of mercy another sort of charity is required then is practised in Hospitals and the pain of an ulcerated Prince demands other lenitives then the
and obedience when the Dutchess of Parma arrived there and there was then no speech of Factions or States Guex or Hereticks But this calm lasted not long And the Heresies of Germany and 〈◊〉 which had crept into those Provinces quickly drew thither Rebellion after the dissention This alteration of time gave work enough to the Governess but it was a glorious work and full of reputation wherein she had Kings for her Encouragers and was looked on by all Europe with astonishment It was likewise to the wise and speculative of that time a wonderful spectacle to see a woman wrastle alone against so great and dangerous a storm Yet she got the upper hand at last and after nine yeers of agitation she brought back the vessel into the Haven in despite of the windes and tides which had forced it out I say that she was to wrastle alone against the storm because the Councel it self had begun the trouble and the Ministers hired to save the vessel were the first that split it and made way for the waves Grauâ—â—lle Archbishop of Arraâ— whom King Philip had assigned to the Governeâ—s for an honourable Spye and a Pedagogue raised to the degree of a Minister of State gave her more jealousie and distrust then good advice and proved rather obstructive then assistant to her His Corrivals and Enemies accused him of all the ill had hapned Such as stood indifferent suspected him for raising a tumult in the vessel to the end the stern might be wholly left to himself As for the Prince of Orange the Earls of Iâ—â—mond and Hâ—rn the Marquesse of Berg and other Dâ—tch Lords being all declared enemies against Granville and secret Corrivals to each other all suspected of Rebellion and ill affected to the Domination of strangers they brought nothing to the Councel but a spirit of contradiction and confusion nothing but interested and partial opinions nothing but hidden conspiracies and open animosities By which means they more imbroyled then assisted the Governess and not daring either to reject or take their advice she might be truly said to be abandoned amongst all these guides because they were either â—uspected or disloyal and that it was equally dangerous either to leave or follow them Nevertheless she forcibly overcame all these difficulties she deâ—teâ—ously loosned her self from these incombrances And after diâ—erted and discovered conspiracies after extinguished and chastised â—â—ditions after the revolt of Towns reduced to obedience she chased away Rebellion and Heresie out of Flanders she sweetly and deâ—â—erously tyed up again the 〈◊〉 which gaped after liberty and had already broken a piece of his chain The States of Holland would have been at present but a Republick in Idea and Leyden would have been 〈…〉 to Spain as to Bruxels if King Philip had left for a longer time the Government unto the Dutchess of Parma Ruy 〈◊〉 and the Duke 〈◊〉 were indeed of this opinion Likewise none but indulgent and popular Ministers were ignorant that clemency is more persuasive and makeâ— it 〈◊〉 better obeyed then severity But the advice of Cardinal Spinosa and the Duke of Alâ—a carrying it against their opinions the King concluded upon the way of rigour and force The duke of Alâ—a being sent to put them in execution opened afresh with fire and sword those wounds which lenitives had closed up and what the dextentâ— and mildeness of a wise and obliging woman had re-established was â—â—â—ned by the violenceâ— of a bloody and rigorous Minister of State Philip to 〈◊〉 this errour resolved to send back the Dutchess into â—landeâ—â— which very earnestly demanded her believing that its cure could come from no other hand then hers But he desired it too late and out of season God thought that she had laboured enough and sufficiently overcome and therefore called her to give her repose and the crowns she had merited The Flemings being out of hope to have her Person conserved her Memory They honoured her in Publick and in their houses and whereas they had solemnly and with ringing of Bells thrown down that insolent and proud statue which the Duke of Alâ—a had caused to be set up in the Citadel of Antwerp they erected in their hearts which were stronger then Citadels a statue of pure esteem and glory to the Dutchess of Parma IAHEL 〈…〉 Iahel THERE is now an end of the Cananites and of their Fortune their Armie composed of so many Troops and Engins of war was defeated by the Israelites who are still pursuing the remainder of it And all the presages are deceitful nay even Prophesie it self is a lyer or their Empire shaken by this Blow will not much longer expect its fall the Earth is covered over with the bloody parcels of so formidable a Bodiâ— some of them have fallen upon all the Mountains and into all the Valleys of the Countrey and the stately Head thereof which hath hitherto rolled along happens to be broken in pieces by the Hand of this Woman It is Jahel who hath finished the overthrow of the Canaanites by the death of their General whom she killed with a Nail in her own â—ent where he had sheltred himself after the routing of his Armie she is still moved with the blow she so lately struck Certainly she could not have given a more hazardous one nor of greater consequence and the Age of our fore-fathers which was an Age of Miracles and of prodigious Adventures hath never seen any thing of like Courage nor of greater Fame The joy she felt at the successe of so high an enterprise adds new lustre to her eyes and a second grace to her face The confidence of her looks corresponds with the boldnesse of the Action her hands armed with the fatal Hammâ—r which proved of more force then the warlike Engines of the Enemies and performed more then all the Lances and Swords of the Israelites prepared themselves to gain a second Victory And yet her Hands all heated as they are with breaking the Chain and Yoak of Israel upon the Head of Sisera seem willing to give the like blow even unto the Ghost of the Cananean King whom her imagination hath brought Captive to her and loaden with Chains Neverthelesse Sisera wrastleth in vain against the Earth At the same time he pushes with his arms as it were to force her to give back and by a contrary effort he seems willing to carry her away with his head His heart strives within to succour the wounded part and not being able of himself to assist it with all the remainder of his force he conveyes thither Anger Rage and Despair These impotent and furious Passions appear confusedly and with horror on his face swollen with the blood and spirits which are there poured out from the whole bodie It would be hard to distinguish them by their proper features and by the Colours which are natural to them All of them have participated of the Anguish which is mingled with them and are grown either pale
be not prepared against the 〈◊〉 misfortune And if you have afforded a place of retreat to some Soveraign passion to some Capital and commanding vice Remember that you are bound in honour both to betrâ—y it and to keep no faith with it as it is a Sisera to you so ought you to be a Jahel to it and you shall be to it an Heroick and victorious Jahel if you â—ull it asleep with the blood of the Lamb and plane a Nail of the Cross in the Head of it A MORAL QUESTION Whether there was Infidelity in the Act of Jahel THe act of Jahel is not numbred amongst those which instantly gain approbation and which at first sight informs the understanding The colour of it is not so beautifull nor the face of it so taking There appeareth therein much dexterity and courage but there is deâ—â—ipt in this address and this courage hath something of barbarous in it 〈◊〉 the breach of faith seems in that action very evident cabinet and chamber 〈◊〉 cannot fail to fill their Common places therewith and to compose a piece against the infidelity of women But here and every where else we must defie seeming illusions and the false lights of the superficieâ—â— We must beware of fastning our opinions upon the 〈◊〉 of things and of judging by the colour The outside 〈◊〉 deceitful and 〈◊〉 into beliefe And very often colours are more 〈◊〉 and have more Justice about vice then vertue Moreover since the holy Ghost himself hath set forth the praise of Jahel since he hath inspired her with a prophetick mouth and hath even dictated it to one of his writers we need not fear to hazard our esteem upon his approbation not make a scruple to honour the memory of a vertue whereof he hath lest us the 〈◊〉 and picture after his own manner There was then prudence and conduct addresse and courage in this action of Jahel and particularly fidelity which is questioned was herein couragious and magnanimous It was fortified with zeal and consecrated to Religion I know not whether Jahel might owe something to Sisera and the Canaanites who were the enemies of God Tyrants over his people and publick oppressors of the posterity of the Patriarchs But I know very well that she could not engage unto them a second faith against the first which she owed to God against the Law of her forefathers and to the ruine of that holy nation A treaty of this nature had been an Apostaâ—ie of State and Religion and she could not have kept her word without the breach of her saith without betraying her brethren without sinning against God and Moses The Holy Scripture very well observes that there was some kinde of peace between the house of her husband Hebar and the Canaanites But this was not a regular peace and according to usual forms It was but a good interval hardly and dearly purchased by the weakest side It was but 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and pillages which the Canaanites accorded to the house of Hebar in respect of the contributions they drew from them And doubtlesse this Accord on Hebars part was without preâ—udice to the faith he owed to God and his people and this particular repose which he purchased was not a falling off from the common cause It was in all probability of the same nature as particular Treaties are now adayes between common people residing upon Frontiers who 〈◊〉 and sword with money who divert the â—undation and inâ—oad of the Enemie by contributions which they lay upon them this is properly called and without abusing the term so conâ—ure a tempest and charm wilde beasts But these charms and comutations do not binde the Common people who put them in practise They live within the limits of 〈◊〉 and under the duty of joyning as occasion serves with the Troop of their 〈◊〉 of maâ—â—hing against the common enemie of 〈◊〉 the same beasts which they themselves had enchanted The Treatie of Hebar with the Canaanites was in this form It was not a surrender of his right not a dispensation of his duty It was an innocent Charm against 〈◊〉 and sword against Tyrants and oppressors And the waâ— undertaken against them proceeding from the will of God 〈◊〉 by expresse revelation and declared by the Regâ—nâ— Prophetâ—â— as he might list himself without any â—reachers amongst the Troops and â—oyn hiâ— Arms with the common Armâ— for the liberty of the people In Jahel with a good Conscience and meâ—â—t might let her hand to the same work the might be aâ—ding by her 〈◊〉 and forces to break the Chaâ—â— of her brethren she might finish by a particular inspiration the victory which Debora had begun with publick Authority and by the Spirit of Prophesie This particular inspiration supported the common Interest and strengthened natural reason And Jahel exâ—ited on the one side and perswaded on the other exposed for the people both her life and reputation to a hazardouâ— enterprise and which might leave her an ill â—ame Thereby the performed an 〈◊〉 Act of fidelity towards God whom she obeyed towards the â—aw of her Ancesters which she established by the ruine of the opposite Power towards her people whole â—oke she brake and whose chainâ— she rent in pieces towards posterity to which she conserved both Religion and the Sanctuary Freedom and Hope Neverthelese this Act is reckoned amongst those extrâ—ordinary oneâ— which surpaâ—â— received Laws and exceed such measures as are in use It may well 〈◊〉 us admiration and respect but we cannot 〈◊〉 a model of it and draw copies from thence And since Fidelity is an essential part in a Gallant Woman it is proper to produce some exampleâ— whereby vertue all Pure and without the least appearance of stain may serve as well for Imitation as Shew EXAMPLE Joan of Beaufort Queen of Scotland and Catherine Douglas IT is with the History of Scotland as with those frightful pictures wherein nothing is represented but dead and wounded Bodies nothing but fired houses and ruines One cannot ingage himself in it without passing over blood and murthers nay even upon sacred blood and paracide murthers and it is very strange that so little a crown should be divided by so many factions and so often stained with the death of those who have worn it That of James the First was a Tragedy which might passe for an Oriâ—â— either in the time of 〈◊〉 or in the Age of Oedipus But as there is never any Age represented so cruel wherein some person of good life doth not interâ—â—ne who reads not upon the stage lessons of Vertue and corrects the scandal which others give Two women who were present at the death of this good Prince gave an example of Fidelity which cannot be seen now adayes in history without applauding and 〈◊〉 it at least in thought The 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 a Scotchman being possessed with the Ambition of 〈◊〉 which is a bloody Devil and the Instigator of Paracid◠〈◊〉 against his Nephew King
James and because he could not depose him but by death resolved to have his head to obtain his crown This resolution 〈◊〉 taken and obstinately determined he seeks out trusts and resolute Executioners and without going out of his own 〈◊〉 he found some who were truly fit instruments for such an undertâ—â—â—â— At the appointed day a Groom of the Kings Bed-chamber 〈◊〉 them in and shews them the door without defence This Traitor 〈◊〉 the â—arl had taken away the bolt as if he meant to corrupt and 〈…〉 it to his crime All things being preparâ—d for the Execution and the moment of the last Act approaching an Officer discovered the Conspirators and desiring to 〈◊〉 the Kings Bedchamber from whence he newly came he drew upon himself their first blows and the prologue of their fury At the 〈…〉 Assassinate Catherine Dâ—â—glas who was attending on the 〈…〉 to the door and finding it without any stay and uncapable 〈…〉 her courage and necessity which is inventive 〈…〉 thing defensive makes her arm supply the place of 〈…〉 Groom of the Chamber had taken away 〈…〉 had been as strong as her heart the door would have 〈…〉 and sword nay even against Engines and Canon◠〈…〉 for this use it was broken at the first assault and the 〈…〉 over the belly of the faithful Lady entred furiously 〈…〉 who had no other guard then his Queen This good and couragious Princess was no way frighted at the glittering of so many swords already staind with blood and even reaking with the murther which was newly committed at the door She boldly advanced before her husband and alone acted the part of al the Archers of his Guard But the match was too unequal and fidelity being abandoned and without arms could not resist a multitude nor overcome an armed Furie The King being thrown on the ground the Queen cast herself upon him and covered him with her body to the end at least he might not be wounded but through her wounds nor receive death but through her own Her Sex was not respected the Vertues and Graces of her person proved no Sanctuary to her she received two blows upon her husbands body and these furious Murtherers having at last by Violence taken her from him the poor Prince being mangled all over with wounds rendered up his soul in the tears and blood of his wife The Author of this execrable Patricide and the cruel executioners who had assisted him with their hands carried not far the blood of their Prince Divine Justice and the revenging Angel of Kings followed them by the track and voice of this blood which cryed out against them and there was none of them which was not brought to condigne punishment there was made the same example in several spectacles and the people had full leasure to be instructed and to glut themselves with their punishment The detestable Earl of Athâ—e was reserved for the last act of the Tragidy which lasted three dayes in each of which he appeared under several Engines of torment and terrour with a Crown of hot iron upon his head And thereby unfortunatly and contrary to his own sense was verified the vain prediction of a woman who had assured him that he should be one day solemnly crowned and before a great assembly of people We may learn by this History that the Majesty of Kings is sacred that their blood and lives are holy things and that there is in Heaven a particular Tribunal and selected Executioners established against those who violate them From hence also it is learnt that the end of Ambition is commonly bloody and tragical and that it is a dangerous thing and full of hazard to commit crimes and to attempt upon the promises of a Fortune-Teller In fine to return to my subject we are taught thereby that the strength of hands is not necessary for the force of Action that delicate and polished Graces can do as much as couragious and strong Vertues and that Women are no lesse capable of an Heroick and eminent fidelity then Men. IVDITH 〈…〉 Iudith THIS strong place which seems to be borne upon the top of this Rock is the Citie of Bethulia And this Camp which takes up all the Plain about it is the Camp of the Asâ—yrians who besiege it You may boldly approach it and pass securely and without fear even to the Tent of Holofernes Wine and sleep have defeated all the Courts of Guards They have not left a Centinel which was not laid on the ground even the Fires which should watch for the whole Camp become drowsy and are half extinguished You would say that they have been corrupted or forgotten the ancient Discipline Do not accuse the liberty of the Souldiers nor the negligence of the Commanders A stronger vertue then the Souldiers and a greater Authority then the Officers hath overcome them both and conâ—ounded the duties and orders of War This defeat without murther or effusion of blood is a blow from the Angel of Israel who is come in person to defend the Frontiers of his Countrey He hath made darknesse which hath something I know not what of resemblance with that which he heretofore caused in Egypt And the Night was advanced by his command to contribute its silence and obscurity to the great Action which he prepares But this obscurity serves onely for the enemies of the people of God this intelligent night is discreet like that of Egypt it knows how to distinguish the faithful and to put a difference of persons That which is cloudy and dark for other shall be light for us And were there nothing but the brightnesse of these luminous spirits added to the resplendency of the zeal and eyes of Judith which seem to infire all the pretious stones of that stately Pavillion yet there would be enough to discern from thence the Tragedie which is begun in the Tent of Holofernes All things are disposed there to a strange revolution and this fatal conjuncture hath in an instant reduced to extremity the life of Holofernes the honour of Judith and the safety of Bethulia The gallant and victorious Widow who so couragiously exposeth her honour for the safety of her people hath but this moment to manage and if she doth not happily manage it and with successe there is an end of her honour and the safety of her people there is an end of Bethulia even of Jerusalem it self and of the Temple besieged in Bethulia It is her work to save all this and all this cannot be done but by one stroak and by the death of Holofernes Behold how she is prepared to give this fatal and important blow which must cut of an hundred and fifty thousand-heads and restore spirit and heart to twelve desolate Provinces She did not cause Legions or armed Elephants to march before her she came not accompanied with Giants or Engins of war she is only invironed with Beauty and Graces But it is a bold and victorious Beauty they are magnanimous
them nothing but the exteriour to burn Neither do I know whether they respect not the very marks which appear upon these bloody and torn reliques Surely they owe this and more to that Fire superiour to all others And the impression of Charitie ought to be at least in like reverence and no less sacred then the impression of Lightning Heretofore the Flames of the Babylonian Furnace had this discretion either Natural or Divinely inspired They respected the three Jews whom Faith and Charity had consecrated And by a violent breaking out like that of a Lion who should leave his prey and fall upon his Keeper they devoured those Ministers of Impiery who kindled them But nothing but Miracles of Courage and Patience will be wrought here God will permit the Consummation of the Sacrifice and receive all the Smoak of it Salomona her self who hath hitherto fought but in heart and been only tryed against Compassion shall be suddenly tryed against Grief By the same Force wherewith she restrained all her Tears she will pour out all her Blood She will overcome Cruelty as she hath vanquished Nature And after seven Deaths suffered in Minde and by Piece-meal she will endure the last which shall be the Recompence and Coronation of all the rest SONNET IN Natures sight in sight of Heav'n above Brave Salamona combats Grief and Love Which through her seven Sons Breasts with deadly Smart Have made a Rent in her undaunted Heart Nor Blood nor Tears do trickle from her wound All that 's in her is with true Valour Crown'd Her Faith dâ—â—ends that Breach â—midst horrid pains Her Soul much more believes then it sustains What cannot Love improve its force unto What hath not Faith abundant pow'r to do The Love of seven brave Sons dear as her Eyes Makes her endure seven Deaths before she dies Yet Faith does more and by a rare â—ffort Which Love should emulate in its transport Makes her seven times a Martyr ere paâ—e Death Constrains her to forsake her vital Breath ELOGIE OF SALOMONA THe Mother of the Macchabees was peradventure the first Gallant Woman who sought without Arms and overcame by death She was the Daughter of holy Conquerers and the Mother of Martyrs and gave to Judâ—â— a Christian Heroess before Christianity In the common ruine of her Countrey and general Martyrdom of her Nation all sorts of Enginâ— were applyed to withdraw her Children from the Religion of their Parents They were put to defend themselves against objects both of delight and terrour and to overcome a Tyrant armed with favours and punishments The Couragious Mother assisted at all their Combats and contributed her voice her â—eal and spirit to their Victory so far was she from concealing them from Torments and Death that she produced them one after another armed with her Vertue and fortified with her Admonitions she animated them with her faith and warmed them with her tears she gathered together their â—lead skins and their mutâ—lated members as the matter both of their Crowns and of her own and as many deaths as she numbred so many accomplished Victories she counted in her Thoughts Not that she was lesse a Mother then the tender and weeping ones 〈◊〉 Her soul endured Iron and Fire in the bodies of her Children she â—ell in 〈◊〉 with their Members and her Heart melted away through theâ—â— Wounds But she knew the order and quality of her obligation It was her belief that she owed more to God then to her own blood and more to Religion then to her Race And knowing that a 〈◊〉 Death is more happy then a sinner who lives and reigns she chose rather to make a Family of Saints then of Apostates and to be rather a Mother in Heaven then upon Earth MORAL REFLECTION LEt our Ladies learn of this Jew to be Mothers and Christians Let them learn by her Example that Children given to God are not lost That it would be much better to have them innocent in a Grave then vitious on a Throne That a good Death is the best Fortune they can attain to And that it is for the glory of the Macchabees and the good of Children to be saved even before their time even with many pains even by their own blood and through all the Engines of Death and not to be damned after their old Age loaden with sorrows and sins It is a glory to the Earth that Marble stones which come out of its Bosom should become excellent Figures under the Hammer And it is better that a Shute should be cut off when it is yet tender and that it be grafted in the Garden of a Prince then to have it wither upon the Stem and serve only for matter of Fuell MORAL QUESTION Whether Religion be the Principal Vertue of a Gallant Women THere are some Vertues indeed of greater noise and carrying a saâ—er Glose then Religion but none of greater use not more necessary for a Gallant Woman All the rest what 〈◊〉 soever they make and what colour soever they have are without her but Stage-Vertues They resemble those superficial bodies made only for shew which are all Mask and Garment they have neither life nor spirit they are without form and consistence And though they seem to be active and full of motion yet they act to no purpose nor move but by Artificial wheels Even Force and Valour which are not supported by Religion are feeble and impotent At the most they have but a Flash of Choller and a precipitous Brutallity Prudence 〈◊〉 blinde without her â—â—ght And the Graces cannot please if Religion hath not adorned and instructed them There is then no solid and perfect Vertue without Religion and by this common reason 〈◊〉 all the rest should 〈◊〉 Religion ought to be the principal Form and the predominant Quality of a Gallant and sollidly Vertuous Woman But that is effected by a more 〈◊〉 and which reflects particularly upon the Courage which 〈…〉 this place there are 〈◊〉 functions of courage and 〈◊〉 were 〈◊〉 general duties which supportall particular ones and give a solid state and consistence to the whole life By the first it makes us act equally and with a constant and regulated â—â—ennesse by the second it fortifies the Mind against either Fortune and keeps it up what winde soever bloweth between the elevation and the fall By the third it arms the Heart against the corruptions of flesh and blood and preserves it from maternal Passions By the last it secures it against the apprehensions of Death 〈…〉 it victorious over this dreadful thing which is the common 〈◊〉 Bear of mankinde and the terrour of Nature These duties are noble and sublime But force should impertimently strive to use extraordinary violences it could never acquit it self with the aid of Morality alone it hath need of a more powerful assistance to support it of a supernatural and Divine Coadâ—â—â—esse to labour joyntly with it And this Coadjuâ—â—ess can be no other then Religion whose
Immolate the jealous Penitent to executed Innocence He wished that he were able at least to tear out his Heart and to rid himself with it of his Crime and Punishment His Eyes besieged by a Death as yet warm and bloody and by two Specters equally frightful finde every where Torment and Reproaches Me thinks this Fury strikes Fear into you Surely she is frightfull And the most Resolute and Heroick Souls even those which deride Death with all its disguises cannot behold her without Trembling if she appears to them Of these Serpents which you see upon her Head some raise sinister Reports and bad Rumors others infuse suspitions and distrusts There are some which steal in by the Eyes of Husbands others which enter by the Ears of VVives The fairest Flowers wither as soon as they are touched by them The best united Hearts are severed if never so little bitten by them and from their mouth doth fall as well the Gall which imbitters the sweetest Humours as the Venom which corrupts the fairest Flowers of Marriage The Torch which she holds in her Hand is no less pernitious then the serpents about her Head All the bad Colours wherewith the most innocent Actions become darkned are compounded of this Coal Her Smoak obscureth the purest and clearest Lights and draws Tears from the fairest Eyes she robs the fairest Faces of their Lustre and Attraction Her Fire seizeth on both Souls and Bodies she causeth Frenzies and Calentures and even in this Life she makes Devils and damned Souls All this teacheth you that this Furie is Jealousie and Enemie of the Graces and the Corruptresse of Love She is come as you see to act her second part and begins to revenge that Murder to which she her self did instigate All the Serpents which are wanting on her Head are about Herods Heart and even tears his Conscience The Bloody sword which she shews him is a dreadfull Looking-glass to his Imagination He beholds there the horror of his Crime he sees there the wounds of his Heart and the stains of his Soul This Apparition indeed is frightful but the incensed Ghost which ariseth from this beautiful Bodie is much more And Herod suffers an other fire and other stings then from the Torch and Snakes of the Furie His wandring and troubled Eyes change their station at every moment They are obsest with these two Spectres which haunt them every where And thinking to repose them upon this dying Beauty wherein heretofore consisted his chief Happinesse he findes there a Tribunal and Scaffold his condemnation and punishment His Yesterdayes Idoll is to day his judge and Executioner This just Blood which still reaks is a devouring fire which fills his distemper'd Imagination and there comes out of it Imprecations and Complaints Outcries of Reproach and Vengeance These cold and tyed up Hands tear his Heart in pieces and this Beautifull Head which caused all his joyes and happy dayes is now the Principal part of his Torment Mean while she hath only changed place the blow which cast her down hath not shaken off her flower her Grace and Beauty are thereby a little faded but not defaced And her open and still â—â—rene eyes seem to expect another Death as if there needed more then one to extinguish them Thus the eclipsed Moon is still fair and the Sun sets daily without losing one single Ray or changing Countenance The mischief is that whereas the Moon recovers her defections and is cured of her Eclipses and the Sun riseth again the next day after his setting there is no renovation of Light or a new day to be expected for Mariamne And this Beautiful Head is fallen in her own Blood never to rise again SONNET MAriamne's dead her Corps is now the seat Of Whiteness only by her Souls Retreat The Royal Blood that tinctur'd it with Red In Crimson streams flowes from her sever'd Head Megaera holds before the Tyrants Eyes The murd'ring Sword He in that Glass espyes The stains wherewith his Heart is cover'd ore And sees his Image purpled with her gore The Vigorous impressions of this sad And â—atal Object render Herod mad Two vindicating Ghosts his Eyes invade With flaming Torch and with a glittring Blade But now his Fury dreads nor Flames nor Swords Her Blood that 's boyling still such Fumes affords As make him feel all Hells tormenting Evils Without the Scorch of Fire or Scourge of Devils ELOGIE OF MARIAMNE MARIAMNE hath appeared too often upon the Theater not to be known in this Picture All things were great in her Birth Beauty Vertue Courage nay bad Fortune She was the Grand-Childe of Patriarchs Prophets Kings and High Priests Her Countenance captivated Herod and inchainâ—d him for a time and her Picture stood in Competition with Cleopatra in the Heart of Anthonie Her Vertue neverthelesse did not consent to this concurrence and being far from thinking on forbidden Acquisitions she never dained to put any constraint upon her self for the preservation of that which she lawfully possessed Her Chastity was so severe and so little indulgent outwardly that there remained within something I know not what of stately and piccant which exasperated Herod and made him return to his own Nature But she was the same to the bitings of this inâ—aged Beast as she had been to his Indeerments She retained her confidence and preserved all her Majesty amidst suborned Accusers confederate and corrupted Judges The Face of the Executioner did not alter at all the serâ—â—ity of her Countenance and her Head was struck off without paling her Brow or displacing her Heart Her Constancie did not begin by her punishment it began by that which is termed her good Fortune Having espoused a jealous Tyrant it was requisite for her to be as couragious in the Palace as in the Prison and Resolution was as needful for her under the Diadem as under the Sword The Blow which struck off her Head was less her Death then the End of her punishment for one Crown it cut off it brake a dozen chains and it was a Redeemer and not an Executioner which delivered her from Herod MORAL REFLECTION HEROD glorious and tormented and Mariamne crowned and unhappy teach us that the greatest Tranquillity is not found in the Highest Regions of the World There are no priviledged Territories nor exempt from Malediction Many sufferers are seen in Prisons and upon Scaffolds but the worst treated Persons remain in Pallaces and upon Thrones These nevertheless cause more Envie then Pitty The People admire what they ought to lament and when there is occasion of drawing the Picture of Happiness they represent her upon a Throne and place a Scepter in her Hand and a Crown upon her Head But the People are ignorant Judges and very unskilful Painters Every day they judge at Random and without knowing the Cause Every day they vent Chimaera's and Caprichio's for well regulated Figures They sufficiently understand of what matter Crowns are made and discern well enough how they
and like Oblations The rest further advanced observe her action and accompany it with their respect and silence The affliction of her Minde seems to have passed even into her Garment which is black and without ornament Her sadnesse nevertheless is Majestical and becoming And upon her face still pale by the Death of her Husband there appears a kinde of pleasing languishment which demands compassion and would beget Love if it were in a subject either lesse elevated or lesse austere Two Turtle Doves which she her self newly sacrificed to the Spirit of Mausolus burn before her with her Hair upon an Altar of Porphirie And mean while the fire which seized on her Heart by degrees consumes the tyes of her Soul and prepares it to go joyn it self with the other Heart which expects it The ashes of Mausolus which she hitherto so charily preserved are moistned with her Tears in the Cup you see in her hand She takes it up to drink them And her moist and sparkling Eyes which partake something of the Sun and Rain seem to say to those that understand them that she nevertook any thing more sweet and pleasing to her tast That the richest works of Art and Nature could not worthily enough conserve so pretious a Pledge That these dear Ashes are due unto the fire of her Heart and that nothing but Artemisia alone could make a fit sepulchre for Mausolus SONNET ARTEMISIA speaks BEhold this Sepulchers proud structure where Glory and Grief do equally appear Where Asia rais'd into one Monument Tyr'd all the Arts and Natures skill outwent Love with his shafts hath wrought the Sculpture fair Love did the Cyment with his Fires prepare And makes in spite of Death my Lover have An endless life in this stupendious Grave But tell me Love what Glory do I gain By these my sumptuous Labours if I daign Marbles to be the Rivals of my Fame And share with them my Souls resplendent Flame Now if the gentle Shade with wandring Feet Among the Dead do stray it will be meet That of its Flame my Soul the Fuel be And that his Ashes live intomb'd in Me. ELOGIE OF ARTEMISIA IT is nothing strange that Artemisia speaks in this Picture She hath lived above three thousand yeers in the Memorie of Man Her Fortune and Dignity nevertheless hath not preserved it for her Whatsoever hath been said of Gold it doth not exempt those from corruption who wear it in their Crowns and the Names of Kings and Queens ought not to be more priviledged then their Persons which die upon Thrones Vertue hath made Artemisia live to this day and would have her remain to her Sex an everlasting Example of a peaceable Magnanimity and of a Widowhood Couragious without Despair and afflicted without Dejection The one Moity of her dyed with Mausolus and she burned with him that part of her Heart in which Joy resided But she reserved the other in which was Fortitude and Courage And if since the fatal Moment which had thus divided her she was never seen to delight in any thing yet no man ever observed the the least weaknesse in her Her modest and strict mourning and her well becoming and Majestical reservednesse suted with a perfect Widow But her bold and Couragious activity in War her dexterous and free Conduct in managing affairs and her constancie in rejecting all sorts of second affections was like a Woman who acted still with the Heart and Spirit of her Husband and who had even espoused his shadow But not being content to have preserved his Courage in her action and his image in her Memory she must needs have also his Ashes upon her Heart And erected his Name and Tomb into a Miracle by a structure in which all the Arts wearied themselves and Nature her self was almost exhausted MORAL REFLECTION ARTEMISIA though a Heathen and a Barbarian is to young Widows a Governesse full of Authority and of great Example She teacheth them that the most invincible and strongest Widowhood is not that which sends forth the loudest cryes and which seeks to express it self by Poisons and Precipices That it is Modesty and Fidelity which make chast Matrons and not Hairs pulld up by the root and torn Cheeks That a sober and lasting Mourning is more decent and exemplar then an unequal affliction which tears it self to day and paints it self to morrow which is furious on the day of a Husbands Buriall and will endure no Discourse but of Poison and Ropes and two Dayes after will have their Haire curled their faces painted and spotted And that a Heathen woman having in one Monument placed all the wealth of a whole Kingdom to raise unto the Name of her Husband an imaginary and fantasticall Eternity It is a very great shame that Christian women should not distribute even for the salvation of their Husbands and the Comfort of their own Souls the Remainder of what they spend upon Play Vanity and Excess And because this Truth is important and of great use I conceived that it would be very beneficial to give it a more solid foundation and to make a Discourse of it apart where it shall have all the proofs and all the light whereof it is capable MORAL QUESTION In what manner a Gallant Woman should mourn and what ought to be the duties of her Widowhood THose Women are very ill instructed in the Morality of their Sex who reduce into Shagrin and sadnesse all the Duties and Vertues of a prudent Widow A serious and constant Love doth not wholly pour it self forth into tears And all the decency of exemplar Fidelity consists not in a black cypress Veil or Gown It is not expressed by shadowed lights and weeping Tapers And it is not discovered by studied looks and by fourty hours of artificiall darkness Philosophy I say even Christian philosophy forbids not tears in like occasions It is impossible that blood should not flow from hearts which are divided and from souls which are severed by force And since man as the Scripture tells us is the head of the woman the wonder would be no lesse if a Wise should lose her Husband without weeping then if a body should not bleed when the head is cut off But she ought not also to perswade her self that her wound must run everlastingly And that it concerns her honour to have alwayes tears in her eyes and complaints in her mouth Sadness Mourning Solitude relate indeed to her duty but make not the most important and indispensable part thereof And yet by a publique Errour which time and custome have authorized this lesse important part is superstitiously observed Women are not content with a regular and discreet sadness they put on an extravagant and fantasticall kind of sorrow And Opinion beginning where Nature ends they sigh for fashions sake and weep artificially after the true mourning hath consumed the reall sighes and when tears in good earnest are exhausted A Prudent and Couragious Widow will give no way
their Hair as if of their torne Hair Ropes were to be made to tye the Hands of Death And as if by their Tears shed in streams they were able to Ransome their Mistresse They would likewise Redeem her with their Blood if Death would be paid with the Exchange And if they could either deceive or satisfie the Jealousie of Mithridates They alone were not afflicted at the deplorable end of their Fair and Wise Mistresse The Vertues and Graces which alwayes attended her are yet more afflicted at it then they VVe might behold from hence these Fair afflicted Women and become Spectators of the Modestie of their Sadnesse and the Comlinesse of their Tears if our Eyes were purer and more accustomed to Spiritual Visions Fortune her self who hath composed all this Tragick Scene cannot look upon her without some kinde of Regret and I do not doubt but she would make another Catastrophe and conclude it by a more happy issue if she could make a Reconciliation with Vertue and be cured of the Jealousie which he hath of her SONNET MOnima here dyes her Jealous King requires Her presence with him in Hels dark Retires Love tears his wings enrag'd at that Decree And Nature curses such Barbaritie By her stand sighing the Dischevel'd Graces Affrightment pales her waiting Damsels Faces Fortune her own revolt can hardly brook She crosses and admires her with one look Behold the noble Pride that doth possess This Gallant Heart a Conquerour no less Of charming Objects then of ills that have The most of Terrour and doth Fate out-brave The Diadem which Fortune had design'd Wherewith â—enslave this Heart which nought can binde Is by it turnd ' into a Cord to free It self from Fortunes loath'd Captivity ELOGIE OF MONIMA MONIMA in a private condition was born a Princesse and before her bad Fortune had placed a Diademe on her Head she was crowned by Nature The title and power of her Regality were seated in her Mind and on her Face But it was a Regality without fears and jealousies A Regality free from conspiracies and revolts Though unarmed and tender by her Sex and Complexion she was yet more immoveable then the walls of Mileta besieged by Mithridates more Couragious then his Troups which beleaguered it and after the Fortune of her Countrey was overcome she vanquished the Victorious Mileta was taken by force Monima could not be so either by force or composition And amidst the ruines of a pillaged City she remained alone ungarded and yet impregnable Mithridâ—tes who could not think himself Victorious if he did not possess her caused her to be assaulted by fifteen thousand Crowns The like Battery would have defeated four Legions and made a breach into three of the strongest Cittadels in Asia Monima was not so much as shaken by them This generous obstinacie compleated the conquest over the Assaulter and perswaded him that his Crown was not too large for so great a heart nor too resplendant for so beautifull a Head He gives over unlawfull pursuits and sought Monima in the way of Marriage she consented thereunto through the ambition of her Kindred And rather to repair the ruines of her Countrey then to ascend to his Throne She likewise found there nothing but guilded Nails and persumed chains which proved to her a glorious punishment and a magnificent Bondage Some time after Mithridates overcome by the Romans and resolved for death caused his last will to be carried to her by which he ordained her to go and wait for him in the other World with assurance that he would presently follow her This generous Woman accepted this barbarous Testament with lesse Emotion then she had consented to the contract of her Marriage And without going farther to seek means to execute it that she might brave Fortune who had changed her Palace into a Prison and her Throne into a Wheel she resolved to make a cord for her self of her own Diadem That Regall Ornament which was made to torment the minde and not to kill the body being broken between her hands she tendred her throat to the Eunuchs sword who brought her this news And her soul went forth Victorious over Fortune Death and Mithridates himself who had done her more mischief then either Death or Fortune MORAL REFLECTION LEarn of this Woman to discern evils under the painting and thorow the masks wherewith they are disguised Take heed of wishing to your self high and splendid Miseries Beware of running after celebrious and remarkable punishments We are not scorched but by that which glisters We fall onely from high places And Fortune raises onely those upon the Stage whom she hath a minde to torment You esteem any life wearisome in a private condition and all dayes seem rainy to you and all hours clowdy in an obscure and ignoble Family Monima would have rather desired to wax old amongst the Lilies and Roses in her Fathers little Garden then to expose her self to a thousand thorns and perchance to as many blemishes in the Palace of Mithridates This Palace was to her a gallant Prison and her Soveraignty a specious Yoak She was inchain'd with her own Diadem and tormented upon her Throne And the matter of her glory was the matter of her servitude and the instrument of her punishment Her bloud retains still a voice and spirit in this Picture And if you hearken to her Ghost it will tell you that your Liberty though obscure and incommodious is of more value then the lustre and riches of her Chain that it would be better for you to be your own Mistress in a Cottage then to be a slave under a Cloth of State And that a Turtle is more happy in the Desert then an Eagle in a guilded Cage Learn then from the unfortunate Dignity of Monima that the happiness of Women consists not in those remarkable Pieces and specious Colours whereof Fortune composeth great Ladies It is made up of the tranquillity of the Minde Of the satisfaction of the Heart and the repose of Conscience And the priviledge of sitting in presence of a Queen contributes nothing to the tranquillity of the Minde Nor placeth the soul in a better seat Crowned Coats of Arms and the Title of a Palace written in golden Letters upon the gate of a House are not Defences against Adversity Discords and the exterminating Angels Canopies of State and Balisters are not respected by spight and jealousie nor by unquiet Nights and perplexing Dreams There is nothing that prohibits evil passions and detractions to follow Coaches which have right to enter the Louvre And commonly the thornes of the Heart spring from the Jewels on the Head The wounds and ulcers of the Conscience proceed from the trickings and ornaments of the face In fine if the Vertues and Graces be for you do not envie others their good Fortune And remember that flowers are more fair and continue longer fresh in Valleys then on Mountains There is another Consideration to be had upon this
and without staining his hands with her Blood Although I have said that Women will not ascend in Troops to this high degree yet some there are who have arrived to this Pitch and gone thither more innocently and couragiously then Monima she whom I shall immediately produce will finde few equals She cannot be placed in too great a light nor upon too fair a Stage She cannot have too noble Spectators and History will never give her so many applauses and Crowns as she deserves EXAMPLE The Brave Hungarian THe Wound which Hungary received at the taking of Seget was great and dangerous And if God had not reached out his hand and upheld that Kingdom it was ready to perish by this wound The siege was famous by the presence of Solymon the second who began this last Expedition with five hundred thousand men and left the finishing of it to his Reputation and Fortune dying a few dayes before the taking of the place and almost in the sight of Victory It was not the Earl of Serins fault who defended the Town that Solymons Fortune and Reputation died not there with his Person and that Victory did not abandon him in this Action and remain to the Christians The Ladies of Seget did what service they could with their Jewels and Pearls which were converted into Money for the pay of the Garrison they served also there with their persons And by a Zeal much bolder then that of the Carthaginians who gave their hair to make Ropes for Engins of War they employed their Arms to the repairing of the Walls and exposed their Heads to the defence of the breaches and Gates At the last assault given by the Turks the Earl of Serin perceiving that the hour of perishing was at hand resolved to dye most magnificently and in Pomp and to give Lustre and Reputation to his Death He â—ought in an Imbroidered Sute and with a string of Diamonds tyed about his Hat having the keyes of the Town fastned to his Scarse and a hundred Crowns in his Pocket for that Souldier who should send him to Triumph in Heaven The History renders this testimony of his Death that it was a Triumphant and Victorious Death But though it was victorious yet it did not equal the Death of a Ladie of Siget who surpasseth all that is left us of the Memory of Heroick time She was a Woman of quality and one of the fairest but she was none of those languishing Beauties and without Vigour of those Beauties which resemble the stars of the North which have no activity and shine faintly and without heat She was vigorous and bold yet vigorous with sweetnesse and bold with a good Grace and Comlinesse Her Husband who loved her passionately and even to the degree of Jealousie scared nothing but her taking in the taking of Siget The Image of captivated and inchained Hungary nay of flaming and bloody Hungary was to his apprehension a lesse dreadful apparition then the Image of his Captive Wife To rid himself of this Fantome which followed him every where and to secure the Honour and Freedom of his Wife of whom he was more Jealous then of the Honour of Christianity and the Liberty of Europe He resolved to take her out of the World before the Victorious Turk should enter the City which was no longer able to resist and had too good hearts left to yield themselves This so Tragick and soul a resolution was no sooner fixed in his Minde but the slains thereof appeared even in his Eyes and upon his Face His Wife who was discreet and quick-sighted observed them and was touched therewith she pardoned his Jealousie in consideration of his Love And though she was fully prepared for death yet she did not desire a death which might make him a Criminal whom she loved more then her own life She took him aside and made him understand that his bad intention could not be hidden from her She was so dexterous as to draw the confession of it from his own mouth and upon his Confession she strongly and efficatiously represented to him the infamie which would remain to him from so Barbarous an Act and the Scandal which he would give to his Age and leave unto posterity I confesse said she that I owe you all my blood And behold me ready to give it without reserving one drop But have patience till some other come to shed it Do not fullie your hands with it stain neither your memory nor your soul therewith Do not inkindle an eternal fire by it For my part I apprehend far more Life then Death and all the Scimiters of the Turks cause in me far less fear then their most gentle and pretious Chain were it more sweet and pretious then the Diadem of the Sultanesse But permit me to die gloriously and with Reputation Do not dishonour the Repose which you seek Disparage not your good affection My Honour is not so desperate that it cannot be preserved but by a Crime You think to justifie your self by laying the blame upon Love You are much mistaken if you take it for a murderer Do not put the Dagger into its hands Do not solicit it to commit a murder and if you cannot restore it the goods you have received from it leave it at least its Reputation and do not envie its Innocencie An honourable Death is not so hard a thing to find in a Town taken by force There enter enough of them by Gates and Breaches Let us fallie forth together with Swords in our hands to chuse an illustrious and renowned end Let it be by fire or sword let it be short or lasting it imports not It will be sweet to me provided I dye a rival to your Valour and not a Victime to your Jealousie Having said this she caused her self to be compleatly armed and went out with a Sword in her hand and a Buckler upon her arm her Husband followed her armed with the like weapons and encouraged by her words and Example which gave him a second Heart and a new Spirit They went on boldly where fire noise and danger were greatest And as soon as they came to the place where they were to fight between the flaming Fire and the victorious Army They shewed by the wonders which they did that there is no valour like the valour of despairing Love and of Graces armed in defence of their Honour After a long and rude fight they were at last rather overpressed then overcome by a barbarous multitude irritated by their own losses and their resistance And feeling their strength stealing away with their Blood they gave each other their last imbraces and fell upon a heap of dead bodies which had been slain by their Hands They could not die more sweetly then in the fruition of their mutual Fidelity They could not have a more magnificent Tomb then their Arms and Victories Their souls which imbraced each other as well as their Bodies could not be severed by Death
Death found Brutus living and victorious in Porcia Nevertheless with all this Fortitude and Courage she took a resolution to die and you need not doubt but she will execute the resolution she hath taken Nothing of Cowardize ought to be expected from the Daughter of Cato nothing of weakness from the widdow of Brutus She is couragious from her Race and a Philosopher by Alliance and her Death will be as Stoicall as that of her Husband and Father Her kindred and friends being willing to preserve this fair remainder of the ancient Vertue did in vain set guards upon her she made them understand that they might inchain her body but could never fetter her soul That she could pass through a thousand Chains and as many closed Gates and that if her Fathers Vertue was able to free him from the power of Caesar and that of her Husband to preserve himself from the victory of Anthony Hers would not remain captive to their importune charity and troublesome offices In fine whether she had perswaded or prevailed with them you see her out of their hands And how little soever their cares are retarded it is much to be feared they will come too late and not finde her alive A slave who had broken his Chains and freed himself from a long imprisonment could not be more joyfull then you behold her Her joy notwithstanding is modest and severe As her heart never changes place so her face never alters colour and her Death from this very instant will be as quiet and serene as her Contentments were heretofore She represents not to her self the place to which she goeth nor the way she takes She hath nothing but Brutus in her thoughts and before her eyes and provided she go to him it is indifferent to her whither she go by Sword Precipice or Poyson The shortest way is the best in her opinion and the nearest Gate what spectre or terrifying object soever hath the guard of it will be fitter for her purpose then one more free and remote But all wayes appear to her equally barred up and the diligence of her servants removed from about her all that could open any passage unto death She pretends that this charity is a violence offered her she is vexed and angry at it yet this vexation is without trouble and this anger ascends not to her face All her thoughts are busied to deceive these officious Importunes and not to take revenge of them There are no offensive arms which she doth not try upon her self in imagination Her Fancy puts into her mouth and to her throat all it can compound of Poysons or forge into Swords She attempts to strangle her self with the Scarf you see in he hand she tryed in vain to do it with her Neck-lace and one of her Bracelets And nothing remains but to tear off her Hair and work it into a Cord. Surely to commit a murther with such instruments is to inrage Beauty and render the Graces cruel But all means of getting out of prison seems lawfull and honest to a Captive VVith this thought she entred into her Closet she found an opportunity to dye more couragiously and without violating such â—nnocent things She found there a pan of Coaâ—s which little Cupids the Authors of fair Couples and Superintendents of vertuous Amities have prepared for the eaâ—e of her affection I doubt not but she sees them by the light of the fire within her Soul which is mingled with that of their Torches And you may behold them as well as she if your eyes were purified from the vapors which arise from Matter The two least present to her the pan of Coals which they carry upon their heads They render her this last office with smiles and serene countenances You would say that they animate her with their sparkling eyes and with the joy of their looks and that their mouthes half open seem to promise her the acclamations of Fame and the applauses of all Ages A third Cupid greater and stronger then the two other and hanging in the ayre lights with his Torch the Coals which are in the Pan I believe notwithstanding that his Torch what vertue soever it hath contributes less thereunto then his presence And if some one might say that by only touching a Tree with the end of his Finger he couâ—d set a whole Forrest on fire it is apparent that this Cupid might in passing by and with his bare shadow infire Mountains even frozen Mountains and covered over with Snow Do you not observe upon the face of Porcia the pleasing mixture which proceeds from the light of this Torch added to the fire of her eyes and that which her heart spreads upon her Cheeks There truly it is where confusion appears noble and where delight and glory enters Painters and Dyers could invent nothing like this And the concurrence is not so lovely upon a Rose freshly blown when the first rayes of the day newly flaming and still red from its birth adds an artificial Purple to that which is natural to it You have a sight piercing enough to sever the brightness of the fire from the fair dye of blood and to distinguish the lustre which appears outward from that which Courage begets and is reflected from the bottom of the Soul But you are too attentive in contemplating the action of Porcia And her heart is more visible by that then her face VVith one hand she puts a burning Coal into her mouth with the other she takes a second as if she needed many to conclude her life And whether the grief for her loss hath suppressed all other sorrows whether she hath no sence remaining but in her heart where her soul contracts it self about the Image of Brutus you would say that they are Rubies which she handles you would say that they are Leaves of Roses which she swallows But whether it be insensibility or resolution whether it be Love or Philosophy it doth not hinder the fire she had within fortified with an exteriour flame from burning the tyes of her soul. I conceive them already consumed and this generous soul speedily departing out of her fair prison will joyn it self with her likeness which is come to receive it Her Guards affrighted and surprized hasten with tears in their eyes and complaints in their mouthes But their tears will not quench this fire nor will their complaints terrifie Death or chase it away from the place into which it is entred This fire will shine in the eyes of all Nations and Ages and give an eternall lustre to the memory of Porcia This Death will be paralleld with that of Cato and Brutus And this Closet will be as fair a Perspective in History as the City of Vtica and the Philippian Field SONNET PORCIA speaks LEss worthy of regret then envy'd praise I by a Death which Nature did amaze Equal'd a Father's Glory and the Fame Of a dear Husband who their Fates ore-came Their Vertue which I
trac'd did me attend When they were gone to guide me to my end But envious Fortune in revenge did strive By cross Designs to keep me still alive My cruel Friends amidst this hot alarm By their offensive cares my hands disarm Therein obstructing like inhumane foes My passage to sweet Death whose gates they close But Love to give my Soul desired room Came with his Shafts to open me my Tomb And I for want of weapons to expire Swallow'd the Coals his Torch had set on fire The Elogy of Porcia THis Picture is of a magnanimous Woman who dies of Grief and Love and resolutely like a Stoick It is the famous Porcia who was the Rival of a Father Defender of the Publick Liberty and of a Husband the destroyer of Tyrannie And who renewed in the Age of Riot and Pleasure the Vertue and Severity of the Primitive Republick She was the daughter of Cato and the wise of Brutus Of the one she was born constant and invincible she became wise and learned from the other and had Vertue for her inheritance and Philosophy for her Dowry Her Husband ruminating upon the death of Caesar and the Deliverance of the oppressed Republick she deservâ—d to be admitted to the communication of this fatal secret and to assist his high thougâ—ts busied in contriving the Destiny of the Empire She conspired with him in heart and spirit she promised to send at least her desires her vows and zeal to the execution And since her Husband seemed to mistrust her silence and fidelity she made by one stroke of a dagger a great and painful wound in her thigh And thereby she shewed him what she was able to do against torments and gave him some of her blood in Hostage for her Constancy and Loyaltie After the death of Caesar and the ruine of Pompey's Faction Brutus having slain himself upon the bloody Body of the Republick defeated in the Philippian Plain Porcia dâ—ed not like him blaspheming against Vertue and repenting her self for having ever served it She continued her reverence to it to the last and honoured it with her last words Seeing her self besieged by her kindred which took from her all means of cutting asunder the tyes of her soul she resolved to kindle there a fire with burning Coals which she swallowed down Thus she set at liberty what remained of her Father and Husband And by her death the blood of the one and the heart of the other once more overcame Tyrannie MORAL REFLECTION WOmen ought to learn from this example that the fault cannot be charged upon their Sex that they are not valiant That their infirmities are vices of Custom and not any defect of Nature And that a great heart is no more discomposed by a tender body then is a great Intelligence by a beautiful Planet Doves would have the boldness of Eagles and Erins the courage of Lyons if their souls were of the same Species One may gather out of the same Example another instruction for Husbands Brutus was a man honest enough and a Philosopher able enough to read them a Lecture And they should not be ashamed to learn of him that Wives are given them for Assistants and Co-adjutresses that they ought to have a place for them as well in their Closets as Beds and to share with them in affairs no less then at Table And that capacity grows from imployment and fidelity from confidence Judgement proceeds from the head which is not changeable from the variety of that which covers it Augustus proposed nothing to the Senate upon which he had not deliberated with Liâ—ia who was as his Associate in the Empire and if one may say so his Domestick Colleague The Holyest of our Kings being a Prisoner to the Saracens would conclude nothing about his Freedom but with the consent of the Queen his Wife And under the Reign of Ferdinand Spain was not happy and victorious but by the prudence and courage of Isabella The ensuing Question will inform us whether Porcia were endued with generosity And whether women be capable thereof MORAL QVESTION VVhether VVomen be capable of an Eminent Generosity I Have been present at some Disputes undertaken upon this Question And sometimes it hath caused me to have innocent and pleasing quarrels with my Friends I have seen some who could not endure that a Woman should be commended for Generosity It is said they as if one should praise her for having a good seat on horse-back and for well handling her Arms It is as if one would set her forth with a Helmet or the skin of a Lion It were to confound the bounds which sever us and place disorder in Morality And a generous Woman is no less a Solecism then a Woman Doctor and a Woman Cavalier It is an incongruity almost as undecent as a bearded Woman To this I did Answer that Vertues having their seat in the Soul and needing only a good disposition of the Soul to operate belong to both Sexes That Generosity is one of those Vertues That the office of the Body and the action of its Members are not necessary to it That all its Functions are interiour and performed in the heart And that the heart of Man and Woman is of the same Matter and Form I added thereunto that the Comparison of Arms and Military Exercises concluded nothing against the Generosity of Women That all things are becoming to well-shaped persons and of a handsom aspect That Semiramâ—â— Hâ—psicrates and 〈◊〉 were as gracefully set forth with Helmets as with Crowns And that another as well known in Fables was not found unhandsom in the Lions skin which Hercules wore That besides that there have been women seen who knew how to manage a horse to throw a dart use their swords with a good grace No just comparison can be made nor a right consequence drawn from the exercises of the Body in reference to the Habits of the Soul That a Woman Doctor and a Woman Cavalier were but Errors of Grammar which do not violate Morality That Generosity not being fastened to the heart of a man as a beard is to his face it might belong without any incongruity or undecency to both Sexes To these Reasons which came to my minde and which I alledged tumultuary and without choice in like Disputes others of more weight and better prepared may be added upon meditation Generosity to define it rightly is a heighth of courage or an Elevation of minde whereby a soul raised above interest and profit is led inviolably and without deviation unto Duty which is labourious and to Gallantry which is painful and difficult in appearance And because this disposition taken in its usual foyle and in respect of matter scarce belongs to any but Great and Noble Persons the name of Generosity hath been given to it which is a name of Greatness and Nobility Whether then that we take Generosity materially and for that cream of good blood and pure Spirits which nourish
and belonging to her Family she had much Piety of her own and was very vertuous by her own Acquisitions Her Piety nevertheless was not tepide and timerous her Vertues were none of those idle and Antick ones which amuse the most part of Women They were strong and couragious they acted continually and with vigour and this vigour was supported by a Generosity which might make a life Heroick if it had been placed in another Sex and in a Soveraign Condition She needed no less courage to resist the Assault and to acquit her self with honour of so perilous an Attempt which was made upon her She made answer to those that proposed to her an exchange of Laâ—cate and her Loyaltie for her husband That she owed her first and highest affections to her King and Fidelity And that she would not take them off to give them to her husband to whom she owed but second and inferiour ones That she loved him intirely and had great tenderness for him yet loved him in his degree and with order and that there was nothing remiss or weak in her tenderness That she understood better then any body the worth of her Husband That were he to be sold innocently and to be put to a Lawful ransom she would not only alienate her Lands and pawn her Jewels to redeem him but even rent out the labour of her hands and make money of her blood and death if she could compass it by her sweat and pains That nevertheless for this she would never alienate her Fidelity nor engage therein one single point of her Conscience And that if she should make so ill a bargain her husband would be the first breaker of it That he would never be perswaded to depart out of Prison without his honour nay he would never descend from a Scaffold nor ascend unto a Throne without it But should he forget his honour went she on yet I will never be unmindfull of mine I know too well the value of it nor will I ever dispossess my self thereof for any gain or loss which may arise from it I understand very well to what Marriage obligeth me and what I owe to my Family But I was not born a marryed Person as I am born a French-Woman And it shall never be said that to preserve a Family which was but yesterday and peradventure will not be to morrow I have laid open a Fort to Rebellion and contributed to the ruine of my Countrey The Confederates of the League being overcome and repulsed at this first Assault did not yet retire they continued the Battery for the space of seven weeks And every day they gave some new onset upon the Place through the heart of this generous Woman Sometimes they sware to make her Husband suffer all sorts of torments And they made her endure them all in her imagination with terrifying looks and far more frightfull words Sometimes they threatned to render him back to her by piece-meal And these threats were worse then Canon shots or Granadoes but they fell upon a heart which was stronger then the strongest Bulwarks and which would not have yielded either for Canon shot or for all their Granadoes In fine the Confederates of the League despaired of taking Laâ—cate by so well guarded a place and the dolefull and tragick execution which followed their despair clearly shewed that they spake in good earnest and that their threats were reall Monsieur de Barry was strangled in his Chamber by the hand of an Executioner And neither the Cord nor Engine wherewith he was strangled could not draw from his mouth any sign of irresolution nor one single word of weakness In History there are more glorious and famous Deaths then this but a more magnanimous heroick one hath not been seen Remarkable Deaths are not made so by the Grandeur of the Armes which destroy they arise from the greatness of Courage and the force of resolution and there are enough which will not yield before two hundred Piles and a battery of twelve Canon But there are few which render not themselves to the Rope of an Executioner Surely it were to be wished for the good of the State that we might have many Copies of this gallant Man and of this generous Woman If there were but one in every Town of the Kingdom it would be at least impregnable through coveteousness or fear The sending back the body of Monsieur de Barry did in a strange manner incense the Garrison In the first heat of anger and compassion the Soldiers transported by both ran unto the Governors house with a resolution to kill Monsieur de Loupian who was a Gentleman of quality and a particular Confident of the house of â—oyeâ—â—e Monsieur Montâ—â—rancy who kept him Prisoner being advertised of the taking of Monsieur de Barry had given him in charge to his wife that he might be responsible to her for the life of her husband and that by the right of Reprisals he might make satisfaction with his own life if the other miscarryed Doubtless there had been an end of him and all the credit of the League could not have saved him in this tumult if Madam de Barry had not been more generous and humane then is observed in the single order of Nature But she was so after a more pure and sublime manner and there was in her heart another kind of spirit and other principles differing from the spirit of the world and the Maximes of Morality She presented her self before this irritated Troop and spake so efficaciously and with so powerfull and perswasive a grace of Monsieur de Loupians Innocence of the Crime they would commit in making him undergo the penalty of a murther whereof he was not guilty of the punishment God would infallibly inflict upon this offence that she appeased their spirits and removed all spite and rage from their grief Addressing her self afterwards to her Son Heâ—â—dâ—s whom the soldiers had followed she proposed to him the Heroick constancy and the inviolable Fidelity of his Father The Patrimony of Glory which his death had purchased to their Family the stain which the unjustly spilt blood of Monsieur de Loupian would bring upon this still-fresh Glory the repentance which follows precipitated Anger and unlawful Revenges The Protection they ought to expect from him who makes himself to be called the Father of Orphans and the Defender of Widows And by these reasons fortifyed by her example and animated by a spirit of Vertue and Authority she saved this poor Gentleman and sent him back to Monsieur Montâ—â—rancy with a Convoy The History of Spain makes a great deal of noise about the Generosity of Gâ—â—â—an the Good who being summoned by the Moors either to deliver up Terissa which he defended or to be a Spectator of his Sons death who was a Prisoner in their hands would not become a Traitor to remain a Father and chose rather to preserve his Honour then his Race Truly
the more burthened nor the more exposed to Tempests None being able to perswade these Barbarous People to receive her all entire she did not forbear in spight of them to imbark her spirit and heart with her Husband and that she might follow him at least in part she put her Body into a Fishermans Bark and exposed it to the Winds and Waves which carried away the rest Fortune favoured so couragious a Fidelity The Spirit and Body of Arria arrived at Rome at the same time And being re-united at their arrival did joyntly and with mutual cares sollicite the freedom of Cicinna Her endeavours finding ill success she resolved to die And she sufficiently explained her self by the reproach she used towards the wife of 〈◊〉 for surviving the death of her Husband slain in her bosom Her Son-in-Law Thrascus alledged all that he could devise to perswade her to live All that he could invent not prevailing with her You have a mind then saith he that your Daughter should abandon her self to the like despair And you condemn her to die with me when Fortune shall ordain that I must perish My Example doth not condemn her replyed she And when she shall have lived as long and with as sweet an harmony as I have done with Cicinna she may die boldly without my coming back to take the sword out of her hand or the poison out of her mouth Her kindred being advertised by this Answer that her Resolution was of more force then their Reasons they renewed their cares and diligences towards her She besought them to suffer her quietly to die and not to change an easie death into a painfull one Having said this she violently threw her self against the next Wall and fell into a swound Being come again to her self with much ado I did tell you saith she that all you could do was but to hinder me from dying quietly and at ease All the violent Attempts which Arria made upon her soul did not loosen the soul of Cicinna nor perswaded it to depart Honourably out of the World and without expecting the violence of his Enemies She went at last to see him And declared to him that if he had not courage enough to go first he ought at least to have enough to follow her She represented to him on the one side the shame of being continually made a 〈◊〉 game by a prostituted Woman and an insolent Servant who made a Scene of the Court and a Fantome of his Masters On the other side she remonstrated to him the Infamy which the Executioner left to the Ashes and Memory of those that died by his hands She often repeated to him that death was only terrible to irresolute and timerous persons That it doth never wound such Couragious Souls as loosen voluntarily themselves and prevent the hand of force That this last Act would be more looked upon in History then his Consulship and would be more resplendent then the Triumphs of his Ancestors And perceiving that he still deliberated between Resolution and Fear she plung'd a Dagger into her own bosom which she had provided for that purpose And then drawing it forth warm and dropping she presented it to him with these words which were the most Heroick and Victorious that ever issued from a Romans mouth Take this Dagger Cicinna it hath done me no harm Cicinna received from her hand with the Weapon the Spirit and Courage which came forth of her wound And died rather by the Magnanimity of Arria then by his own Courage MORAL REFLECTION LEt Christian Ladies learn of this Idolatress in what dis-interessed Love and conjugal Fidelity doth consist Let them observe how many Combats she hath fought and how many Victories she hath gained She had a present and future Interest in his Possessions and Hopes She was Young Rich and the friend of Messalâ—â— She might have left her husband to Justice and reserved her self for a better Fortune and a more happy Marriage Her Riches her Beauty her Youth were no Criminals They had not conspired against the Prince And it was not against them Commissioners were appointed and Informations given She rejected nevertheless the Temptations of her Age and Interest She listened only to her Fidelity and Love And taught her whole Sex by her Example that a good Woman hath no other Interest then her Huâ—band that to her there was but one Man in all the World and that he dying Riches Youth and Beauty die to her Arria likewise reads a second Lesson to Women which is no less important nor less useful then the first she teacheth them how that Person is deceived who said that Marriage was but a name of pleasure And that even now adayes they are much mistaken who believe it to be a community of Goods and Fortunes It is a name of Yoke and Affliction a community of Evils and Troubles a society of Cares and Labours And it is fit that young Women should be advertized on the day of their Marriage that they are not to be Marryed only for that day but for all the rest which are to follow how stormy soever they may prove and what unpleasing hours soever they may have They ought to know that with the person of their Husbands they espouse all their present and future Fortunes and that they are obliged to follow them to what place soever the wind drives them in what storm soever the Heavens pours down upon them But this veâ—ity will be more enlarged in the ensuing Question MORAL QVESTION Concerning the Duty of VVives towards Husbands in the time of 〈…〉 and Misfortunes I Could not as yet Divine why Married Women are crowned and 〈…〉 celebrated with so great pomp and with so much joy 〈…〉 properly and without a figure it is to adorn Slaves and 〈…〉 it is to lead them to Prison in pomp and jollity it is 〈…〉 them with Ceremony and Musick I am well read in the 〈…〉 Custom I see very well that Time Example and the 〈…〉 People are for it But I know also that Antiquity is neither all 〈…〉 Holy The first Men may have left us their abuses as well as then 〈◊〉 And old Errours are not better conditioned then 〈…〉 are not justified by the crowd of those that commit them It were 〈…〉 to the purpose and of far better example that the Weddingâ— of Christians should be grave and modest That the Ceremony should be serious and frugal and that instead of being an object of access and pleasure for new married Couples it should be a Lesson of Petience and a preparative to Troubles There would not be seen so many Rich persons â—â—umbred nor so many Innocent Repentants There would not so many complain of being caught by a specious bait who curse the flowers under which so many thornes have been hid They would have at least made trial of the burthen before they laid it on their shoulderâ— They would have measured theâ— forces with this yoke They would
all the last night could not sleep by reason of his disquiets and discontents Perez set at Liberty by this Device repaired to Henry the Great who received him with Honour And Iane Coello staied behinde in Spain esteemed by every one for her Courage and Fidelity I am the first that have shewn this Couragious and Faithful Woman to France And I now present her unto the Court to the end our Ladies may learn of her that great Expences and studied Excesses do not form a gallant Woman That so fair a Figure deserves better Lineaments and Colours That the Noblest blood of the World is obscure and wants lustre if Vertue doth not give it That Marriage is a Companion as well for bad Times and rugged Tracks as for fair Dayes and delightful Roads And that the affection of a good Woman should resemble Ivy which sticks close and inseparably to that Tree which it hath once imbraced never leaving it what snow soever falls upon it what wind soever shakes it what tempest soever bears it down PAVLINE 〈…〉 Paulina IS it one of the Graces or an wounded Amazon who dyes there standing and in the posture of a Conqueress She is truly a Grace even a manly and magnanimous Grace No Amazon unless a Philosophick and long Robâ—d Amazon She is the wise and vertuous Paulina who became a Stoick in the house of Seneca and resolves to die in his Company and by his Example You may have heard what common rumour hath published of Neros ingratitude and of the Fatal command of death he sent his Master This second Parricide no less scandalized the Senate and all the People then the first which is yet fresh and whose blood still reales upon the Earth And the impiety of the Tyrant after it had caused Agrippina to be murthered who had been twice his Mother and brought him no less into the Empire then into the world after it had put Seneca to death the Instructer of his youth and the Father of his spirit could not ascend higher if it rise not up against God himself if it fall not on Religion and holy things Though this last stroke fell only upon Seneca yet he is the only person that was not surprized with it and having often beheld the soul of Nero open and even to the bottom he ever indeed believed that figures of Rhetorick and sentences learnt by roat would not be more acknowledged then the Life and Empire he received from his Mother He received likewise that barbarous Order with a Tranquility truly Stoick and worthy the Reputation of his Sect. He did not appeal to the Senate he knew very well that the Senate is now but a Body divested of Power a dismembred Body and still bleeding of the wounds it had received from the Tyrant He did not implore Redress from the Laws they were all at present either banished or dead He was content to obey without noyse or delay and you could not arrive more seasonably to see a Stoick dying according to the forms and principles of his Profession Paulina would also shew that Constancy belonged to her Sex no less then to ours and that VVomen might be Philosophers without having commerce with Lycea and Portica without making Dilemmaes or Sylogismes She believed that being the one half of Seneca she might be couragious by his Courage and dye by the example of his Death as she had been enriched by his Riches and honoured by his Fortune Their Veins hapned to be opened by the same hand and Lancet Their blood and spirits were mixt together in their wounds And that of Seneca entring into the Arm of Paulina with the Lancet penetrated her very heart and seated it self about her soul. You see also that being instructed and fortified by this spirit which serves for a second reason and an accessory Courage she had the fortitude to expect death standing which is the last Act of Soveraign Vertue and the true posture of dying Heroes The blood streamed from her Arm with violence as if her soul pressed it to have the glory of going out the first And to behold the purest and most spirituall parts thereof which spurt up from the Bason into which it fell you would say that it takes a pride in the Nobleness of its Extraction and conceives it self too well descended to be spilt on the ground Paulina calmly and without the least alteration beholds it trickling down And saving that her Colour vanished away by degrees and Paleness succeeded as it doth to the last Rays of a fair day which dyes in a beautiful Cloud no change was to be seen in her Countenance Her Constancy is no savage Constancy It hath a serenity and Grace but it is a pale serenity and an expiring Grace She is more covetous of her Tears and Sighs then of her Blood and Life she prohibited her Eyes and Mouth to shew the least sign of weakness And a Statue of white Marble which should make a Fountain of its artificiall Veins could not have a more peaceable stability nor a more gracefull confidence This example is very rare but it is sad and cannot instruct the mind but by wounding the heart The steam of so Noble Blood draws almost tears from your eyes And it afflicts you that you are not able to save the fair remains of so beauteous a Life Let it no longer torment you The Tyrant advertised of Paulina's generous resolution sends Souldiers to hinder her Death and inforce her to live Not that he takes care of the Vertues or is willing to preserve the Graces which are ready to dye with her He is Nero in all his actions and doth no less mischief when he saves then when he kiâ—s It is because he delights to sever the best united hearts and to divide the fairest Couples It is because he takes pleasure in forcing inclinations and violating sympathies It is because he hath a desire to exercise upon friendships and souls an interiour and spirituall Tyranny It is because after the death of Seneca he will have the heart of Seneca in his power The Balisters of Porphiriâ— upon which you see him leaning is the same as they say on which lately at the noise and light of flaming Rome he sung the firing of Troy He speaks from thence to the Souldiers he sent to Paulina and commands them to make hast Though she had but two steps to make yet they will enforce her to retreat and fasten her again to life by binding up her wounds It were to be wished for the good of Rome that they had done as much to Seneca But if they had Swathes and Remedies to apply to him Nero could wish that they might be impoysoned Swathes and killing Remedies The last year he caused the same Remedies to be applyed to gallant Burrus his other Governour And doubt not but he will shortly send the like to Seneca if 〈◊〉 Soul make not the more haste to expire It is not the good old mans
fault that his soul is not already at liberty he presseth it with vehemency enough and hath made for it Orifices large enough in all his Veins But Seneca must be long a dying that his lingring death may be a lasting Instruction and a Pattern of a large extent Surely this Seneca is not the man of whom Envy and Detraction hath made so many false Pictures I perceive nothing of weakness or vice wherewith they reproach him And this Death what ever ignorant and traducing spirits say cannot be the Tragedy of a seemingly Vertuous person of a masked Philosopher of a Counterfeit and Sophisticall Doctor His calm and setled Constancy shews outwardly the stability of his mind He seems to confirm with his eyes and brow whatsoever he hath written concerning the contempt of Fortune and Death You would say that he alledges himself for the proof of his Doctrine He Philosophizes by as many mouths as there are wounds And every drop of his blood is a Stoicall Demonstration A proof of his Opinions and a testimony which he renders to the Courage of his Sect. His weeping and mourning friends receive with his last words the last spirit of Philosophy and the pure lights which already his almost loosned and descryed Soul diffuseth The attention they give him is full of respect and hath something I know not what of Religion It would be hard to say whether it be to his voice or blood they are attentive whether it be the dictates of his mouth or those of his wounds which they write In this extremity this severe man who so boldly looks upon Death as if he were seeing a Mask dares not fix his eyes upon Paulina I think that he apprehends lest friendship might soften his spirit and the Husband be found more powerfull in his heart then the Philosopher But â—e not scandalized at this tenderness It is not unseemly in a wise man He may with credit afflict himself for another And the Tears which friendship hath exprest may decently trickle down on his Face SONNET PAULINA speaks PAulina meets Death's Launcet with a Mind No less of Stoick then of Roman Kind A Philosophick Love which charms her Heart Will give the stroke to sweeten all her smart Inhumane Fortune through remorse or hate Runs to rebuke her and repair her Fate But her great Soul resists a forced stay And with her Blood makes haste to slide away You daring Sages who for Truths promote Your high fictitious Dreams and from us Vote Our Noble Passions Learn of this Heroique And Famous Woman to be truly Stoique And know this truth whatever you in vain Have learn'd from your fantastick Founder's Brain That the most Tragick Deaths delightfull grow VVhen Love himself shall give the fatal Blow Elogy of Paulina IF there were great Vices in Nero's Age there were also eminent and very exemplar Vertues The darkest nights have their Planets And in the worst Seasons the Sun hath his good Intervals and fair hours This Monster inrag'd against Reason which made him see his Errours fell upon Seneca who had cleer'd and disciplin'd that faculty in him As if it had proceeded from the Masters fault who polished the Glass and not from his own Deformity that he was hideous He then gave order for his death And this excellent Man who was grown old under another Mistress then this slight fencing Philosophy which is only bold in a School and against Fantosmes was ready to submit to this barbarous Command for proof of his Doctrine and to put in Practice what he had set forth in Propositions and Opinions When it was time to depart he did not so much as turn his head to listen to Fortune who solicited and called him to the Empire He departed out of a house more worth then ten Millions as if he had gone out of a thatchâ—d 〈◊〉 He shewed himself only sensible for Paulina whom he leâ—t young and exposed to the outrages of a bad season and the insolencies of a Tyrant who had caused it He endeavoured to perswade her to live and take comfort in her own Vertue and the Goods he had left her But she remonstrated to him that these indulgent and careful perswasions were not fit to be used to the Wife of Seneca That his Example counselled her better then his Reasons That it taught as well as Philosophy how to die resolutely and with courage Their veins were opened with the same Lancet they mingled their Blood their Spirits and Examples And the soul of Paulina would have followed that of Seneca if it had not been detained at the last step she was to make Nero apprehending lest the death of so illustrious a Lady and of so high a Reputation might compleat the drawing on him a publick hatred sent Souldiers who bound up her veins and used violence to make her live But she retained all that she could of death which was then kept from her And ever after conserved the desire of it in her heart and the paleness of it upon her face MORAL REFLECTION PAulina who is still victorious over death in this Picture informs us that Philosophy hath no Sex that it communicates it self without making any distinction between Garments and Faces That the Graces themselves may become Valiant and Couragious under her Discipline And that Cowardise proceeds from the corruption of the heart and not from the tenderness of the temper nor the dispositions of Fortune It likewise informs us that Vertue must needs be very weak and Christianity superficial in the greatest part of Christian Ladies who perplex themselves about a Necklace and a few Pearls who have their hearts fixed on a lac'd Petticoat who are slaves to a small Fortune which to express it well is but a figure of guilded dirt The least they can expect is to be condemned by this Heathen woman who had a soul dis-ingaged from Riches which may vie with those of Kings who had a free heart even in the arms of a Fortune which was as large as the Empire and which raised jealousie even in the Fortune of the Emperour himself The ensuing Question will manifest whether Paulina could be a Philosopher and a Stoick and whether I had reason to say that Philosophy hath no Sex MORAL QVESTION VVhether VVomen be capable of true Philosophy A Woman hath been heretofore seen playing the Orator in publick places who did with unprofitable and studied Discourses what the Mountebanks now adayes use to do with their Drugs and Antick faces There was also a lewd Woman who affected a brutish and impudent Freedom who braved Fortune and Nature with a Staff and Wallet who was Beggerly and Arrogant and who had under a ragged and tottered Garment a worse Pride then is found under cloth of Gold and Purple Both the one and the other was called Philosophy But both had but the name and a false mask which drew Spectators to them And certainly if no other Philosophy had descended from Heaven then from this
fault deserved punishment her youth at least and her imprudence were worthy of excuse and that God and posterity would shew her favor Constancie Grace and Majesty which had ever accompanied her ascended also upon the Scaffold with her One would have said that all that was seen there could be nothing else but a meer representation of her punishment And that all this Tragical preparation was but a fiction and a meer Ceremony She rendred thanks to the Catholick Divine who had assisted her and comforted her dispairing servants with so well composed a manner and with so vigorous and Noble words so full of Judgement and Courage as it seemed to some that if Philosophy her self had been to dye she could not have dyed more couragiously and with more Dignity She made her self ready for the stroak of the Executioner and to humble her beauty though it were innocent of her Misfortune she made a Wreath or Head-band of her own Hair whereof it seemed Nature had formed her a Diadem They offered to strike off her head with a Sword as if the Sword could have diminished the shame of her punishment and Dignified her Death and the hand of the Executioner But she rejected this unprofitable and superstitious Ceremony And resolved to be Executed with the same Ax which newly came from the Execution of her Husband Whether that she desired to mingle her bloud with his Whether she believed that a more painful death would be a more just Expiation of her faults And that the Iron of the Ax would better purifie her soul then the Iron of the Sword Such was the end of the Reign and Life of Iane Grey who was an Athenian and Roman in England many Ages after the ruin of Athens and Rome She shewed our Predecessors an Image of the ancient Constancy and primitive Vertue And taught us that the Graces may be learned as well as the Muses That Philosophy belongs to both Sexes And that even in our daies under the Purple and upon the Throne she might be as vigorous and couragious as she was heretofore under the Wallet and in the Tub of the Sunck VNE Dame chrestienne et Francoise combat iusques à la mort pour sa chasteté 〈…〉 parcille a celle de Iudith egale la France à la Iudée 〈…〉 Gallant Christian Women The French Iudith HEre we must beware of a bad Calculation by our Fancy and of a mistake in our sight if we believe them in this point we are in the Age of Nabuchodonosor and in Judea And the Tragick Action we behold is the death of Holyfernes and the victory of Judith Nevertheless we are far remote from that time and see indeed another Countrey and other things It is not credible that Holyfernes is returned so many years after his Death It is also less credible that Judea hath removed from Asia into Europe If whole Races and even the Ages themselves do not revive if Cities change not Regions and cross the Seas assure your self there is nothing in this of the Adventure of Bethulia Know then that you are in France and upon the Territories of Gontran King of Burgundy and that this Maid which you see with a naked and bloody sword in her hand is a Native of Champaigne Do not ask me concerning her Birth This well beseeming Anger and this modest and composed Fierceness will confirm you better then my self that she must be of a good Family And though her Phisiognomy may not induce us to believe it her blood must needs be as noble as her countenance As for this man who looseth his blood through two great wounds which will be perchance more beneficiall then they are honourable to him his Domestiques who hasten to his â—yde caâ—l him Duke Amolon I dare not tell you that he is 〈◊〉 a French man there is too much of savageness in his manners and saith And it would be too great a shame for France which is so noble a Mother so Generous so Civilized and to Christian to bring forth Scythians and Tartars and that under so temperate a Climate and so benign Planets there should be found souls of the same temper with those which are born under the Pole But let him be a French man by birth and a Tartar or Scythian by nature it doth not hunder Vertue which playes the principall part in this Action from being French And this second Judith will one day more honour her Country then this second Holyfernes could disgrace it You see the boldness of her Countenance and the Vertue of her Face There is much of Judith in both But there is more then the Look and Face more then the boldness and Vertue of Judith It is no common chaste woman you see It is a Virgin nay a victorious Virgin which newly fought even to the effusion of her blood And by these two features wherein she transcends Judith the French Copy exceeds the Originall lew and the Modern obscures the Ancient Judith After a long and obstinate battle fought against this Tyrant she was carryed away by his people and laid with violence upon his Bed but this was no longer his Bed but a Scaâ—â—old made of Silk and Feathers it was the place ordained for the end of his Tyrannie and for the punishment of his Crimes VVine and Sleep had already closed up his eyes and tyed his hands and there wanted but a Sword and an Executioner to make a great and celebrious example of him His Arms being near at hand the chaste French woman inspired by the same Angel who inspired the chaste Iew took advantage of the Sleep and Sword of her enemy and made of Amolon an Holyfernes The two great wounds which you see in his head were given by that fair and chaste Hand Pain awakened his bound up and benummed Reason and the first drops of his blood extinguished the dishonest fire which the Tears and Prayers of this innocent Maid had enkindled He is no longer the same brutish and furious person as before The wanten flames of his heart and the impure imaginations of his head are all fallyed forth at his wounds Iudgement and Respect are entred in their Room you would say that he awakes with new eyes Those at least retained no longer any thing of that sulphure which was enkindled by the smallest Rayes of Beauty and which was set on fire by every lovely glance which issued from it He seems to endure with torment the sight of his chaste and couragious Enemy He suffers it nevertheless and his confusion mixed with astonishment his shame accompanied with reverence make a silent Declaration upon his face by which he justifies the attempt and acknowledges it for a lawfull Victory He doth consider that the same person is in his power who had newly plunged him in blood and who had heretofore inflamed him who had pierced his heart and newly wounded his head He no longer remembers his Love he resents not his injury His eyes
Dilates the Will which it hath fastened to its self and penetrates it with a pleasing and violent sweetness which hath wherewith to gain and overcome it Nevertheless it hath no need of violence against the Will She renders her self up freely to what is Good and expects not to be forced from it She embraceth all that resembleth it She ever gapes after the Odour and Shadow thereof And her happiness consisting in being united to it she cannot repel it without suppressing or suspending her instinct without acting against her self and offering violence to Nature Her instinct and disposition in respect of Evil are far different from the other As it is an Object of Terror which woundeth by 〈…〉 presence the Will also cannot endure the Reproaches of it She flies eagerly even from the appearances and presages thereof and for this she needs neither new vigour nor force but her own instinct contrariwise she would have need of a second vigour more powerfull then the first and it would be necessary that she should offer violence to her instinct If she were I do not say to follow Evil but even to expect it quietly and to suspend the hatred she bears it It is then more easie to fight against Evil. and to overcome it by a propense and natural resistance then to repell Good and obtain such a forced victory over it as is offensive to Nature and constrains her Inclinations And this truth being supposed I leave unto others to judge whether the Combats of Valour be more hazardous and painfull then those of Chastity And whether to support Nature and to repulse with her by joynt Forces a danger which affrights and threatens her it be necessary to imploy more Vigour and Constancy and act more couragiously and with more resolution then to force her Inclinations to suppress her instinct and desires to snatch from her a Good which is Interiour and Adherent to her a pressing and obstinate Good a Good which is supported by many other Goods which are her Solicitors and Agents which render it valuable and sustains it This is a third Reason which much increaseth the dangers of Chastity and the need she hath to be wel armed with courage warlike Discipline She is not only to defend her self from voluptuousness which is an obstinate and pressing Enemy And which can hardly be vanquished either by open force diversion or stratagem But she is likewise to overcome Avarice Vanity and Ambition She is to resist Engines of Gold and Silver Batteries of Diamonds and Pearls and generally all the Assaults which a potent Love assisted by Fortune is able to give Some Men go about to Debauch even Reputation and Honour from the service of Chastity and to imploy them some times against her with better Success then Pleasure and Riches nay then death it self and punishments as it hapned in the fall of 〈◊〉 Now it is certain that Gold and Silver are the Engines which overcome all things with them Towns are taken which have held out against Canons and Mines By them Armies have been defeated which had resisted Fire and Sword the injuries of Weather and the fury of the Elements And a Woman hath need of far greater force then that of the Heroes to maintain a Battery which hath broken whole Legions and overthrown Câ—tadels There are also but too many of them who surrender to it And in these sorts of Combats Victories are daily gain'd with Gold and Pearl Nevertheless that which is remarkable even Riches Honors Presents and Hopes which have so much power to weaken Chastity are helps which incourage valour and Fortifie it And the valiant raise themselves great and resplendent Fortunes out of the same things which turne chaste Women There is much more then this And as if Chastity had not enemieâ— enough of her own she is to contest with those of Valour and Constancy She is not onely assaulted by voluptuousness and battered with pieces of Gold and Silver with Presents and Offers with Weapons which wound the soul by 〈◊〉 the senses and vanquish the heart by delighting the Body But she is also assaulted by Tyrants and Executioners with a preparation of 〈◊〉 and Engines of Punishments And the 〈◊〉 which they propose to her is not a resplendent and specious death and Honorable and Glorious death like that of valiant Men but a hideous and Tragick Death a Death accompanied with Torments and like those which are bewailed upon Theaters The chief thing is that she is not to contend with this death and these Torments by resistance and by repelling them with the Sword as in War This Combat would be easie and Nature would both side with her and support her But she must overcome by Patience and in suffering all that an Irritated passion and become furious can make one suffer And Nature to which sufferance is averse not assisting her in this kinde of fight She must have a strong resolution and a very Heroick Courage to resist all alone Fire and Sword and hold out against the Rack and Tortures Those are truly to be esteemed who expose themselves freely to so many Deaths as there be Grains of Lead and Pikes of Iron in the Army of an Enemy who remain firm before artificial Thunders which strike at a greater distance and cause more Murthers then those of Nature But the end of those Persons how resolute soever they be is not to put back the Goods which are offered them and less also to abandon themselves to the Evils which appear and threaten them She is to acquire all that they see of Riches and Crowns in the hands of Victory She is to retort death upon their Enemies and with Death all the evils which accompany it as well as those that follow it Chastity hath Objects and Pretensions quite opposite to these And it is her duty to vanquish equally things delightful and formidable The delightful by a generous refusal the formidable by an immoveable Patience and both by an Heroick Magnanimiâ—â— The couragious Susanna was to fight and overcome all these sorts of Enemies drawn together against her in one single Occasion She vanquished Pleasure which hath put so many Heroesses under the yoke and so many Conquerers in chains She overcame Infamy which is the great Bug-Bear of her Sex She overcame Death even the Death due to Sacriledges And that which exceeds all Expression She chose rather to undergo innocently the shame and punishment of Adulterers then to preserve her Life and Honour by a Stain easie to be washed out and far easier to be concealed Certainly the Victories of Sampson though Heroick and Miraculous if compared with these will pass but for May-Games and Fictions And whatsover is said of it he shewed less strength in tearing up Pillars and bearing the fall of a Ruined House then Susanna did in offering her self to the snares which were prepared for her Let us add now Example to Discourse and to Inculcate also to the Understanding
pittiful Reliques And in this state able to beget Emulation in all the Vertuous Women of Antiquity she rendred up her Soul not upon the Body of her Husband who was no more but upon his Shadow and Memory ISABELLE de Castille suâ—e le â—enin et le peril de la playe de son Mary desesperé des 〈…〉 par sa â—uerisâ—n que l'Amour est le Maistre de la vie et de la mort 〈…〉 Eleonor of Castile Princess of wales ALL England is dangerously sick upon this Bed with Prince Edward The Fortune of the Publike being wounded to the heart by the wound he brought from the Holy VVar endures the same Convulsions as he feels And the Physitians give them but one day of life if God send not an Angel and a Miracle to cure them Surely it is very strange that the hearts of a whole Nation should be wounded by one blow and that one shaft which hath hurt but one Body should draw Blood from so many Soules But such is the condition and as it were the destiny of good Princes They have a heart and soul in every one of their Subjects Their blood and veines disperse themselves throughout all the parts of their Dominions and their least wounds are followed by publike Symptomes and popular Maladies Prince Edwards wound is one of those The King his Father and all his Subjects lament it and their Tears are the Blood of their Soules which have been wounded by his Body You will believe notwithstanding that in this generall sickness and amidst these common lamentations the Princess his wife is the most sick and most to be lamented There is also a good half of the Prince in her and reciprocally more then a good half of her in the Prince Her love at least is there intire and with her love there is more of her Life and more of her Soul then is left behind Though far remote from the fight yet she was wounded there to death with him Her heart found it self just in the offended part and ever since her soul and life have issued forth by the same wound with her Husbands blood At present hope is returned to her but it is a dolefull hope and such as may come from despair The Physitians have declared to her that the Prince might yet be cured and that to cure him it was necessary to seek out some affectionate and couragious person who would expose himself to take in his Death by sucking the poyson out of his wound Her Love which was present at the Consult of the Physitians perswaded her that this affection could not be expected but from a woman nor this Courage but from a Princes That this fatall wound could not have a more soveraign Salve then her Tongue and that if it were her Husbands destiny to receive a second Life he could owe it to no other then her Spirit and Mouth This inspiration greedily received by her heart drew from thence this bold and vigorous heat and this tincture of hope and joy which you see in her Face There appears in her Countenance something I know not what of fierce and stately which seems to require respect and yet begets affection It is peradventure a certain Ayr of Spain which passed the Seas with her and followed her into England It is perchance a visible expression of her Heroick thoughts and an exteriour sign by which her Soul declares what she newly concluded For whatever this little fierceness may be taken and what name soever they give it it sets a harmless edge upon the sweetness of this Princess It is to her Beauty and Graces a modest and well-becoming boldness It is as it were a reflection of her Heart upon her Face and as a demonstration of the greatness and vigour of her Soul But whether it proceed from the greatness and vigour of her Soul or from the force and greatness of her affection she valueth not death to which she is going to expose her self nor is affrighted at this great train of Terror which the people set before her She considers and hearkens to nothing but her Love which calls her to an action which will equall Spain to ancient Greece and old Italy which will efface the glory of renowned men and women and infuse jealousie into both Sexes which will be the honour of this Age and the admiration of Posterity and will manifest that Charity no less then Faith hath the gift of Cures and the vertue of Miracles Her Imagination was full of these great Objects But her Husband is the main one and approacheth nearest to her heart In her mind she renounceth Reputation and Glory and by an express Oath taken upon the name and picture of the Prince which you see in her hand She dedicates her self to his Cure and obligeth her self to suck in her own Death or to give him Life Let us accompany her to the Execution of this business and place our selves behind this piece of Arras with the Princes servants who observe her in silence and with gestures of astonishment Vertue cannot have too many witnesses in like Enterprizes And this would merit that time past should return and the future advance to convey to her Spectators of all Ages Behold her already upon the Princes Bed and couched upon the wound she hath discovered You would say that her Soul to accomplish the Transport she hath vowed and to pass from the subject she animates to that she loveth flows away by her Eyes with her Tears and drop by drop penetrates the Body of the sick Prince Do not fear that these Tears should inflame his wound or that the Ardour of his Feavour be augmented by them These Tears indeed are very warm and come from a scorching spring but they are gentle and benigne and I believe that not a Tear doth fall which carryeth not with it some part of the Princesses Soul and some drop of her Life distilled therein VVhat do you think of this Love who exhorts her with his very looks and action Doth he not seem to be newly come out of her Heart to declare himself the Author of this great Design and to enjoy it neerer and in an open way He is not one of these Interested and Propriatory Ones that will ingross all to themselves and aym meerly at their own private satisfaction Less also is he one of those Discontented and Contentious Ones who are armed on all sides with teeth and nails who carry not a Flower which is not accompanied with Thornes who make not so much cleer fire as they do noise and smoke You see no Shafts nor Torch about him because he is a Saving and no Tyrannical Love He is come to cure an old wound and not to make new ones And there entreth nothing but a pure Spirit and Light into the Flames which he inkindles He is not of the Country of Romances nor of the Region of Fables His Origen is from Heaven even from the
on the Duke at the hour he should go forth to hear Mass. I know not whether one ought to believe what is spoken of his good Fortune but indeed I have heard say That she was more diligent about him then the most diligent of his Guards And that his enemies never laid any sâ—ares to catch him which she did not break asunder that they never prepared a Pitfall for him over which she laid not a Plank However it were it is certain there had been an end of him that day if she had not caused dispatches to arrive to him which busied him very happily all the morning and diverted him from going forth to expose himself to death which was prepared for him The occasion passing over with the morning the Conductors of the Enterprize resolved to begin by the seisure of a rich pawn and to secure the Dukes Person by laying hold on the good Lady his Wife who was at Mass. Mean while one of the Magistrates accompanied with twelve resolute and stout men entered the Castle Their Arms were hid under their Cloaks but their bad Intention being easie to be discovered by their ill looks one of his Guards had some distrust of them and ran to shut the Gate against those that followed to second them the party began hotly to discharge their Pistols before the Dukes Chamber some of his friends overpowred with number were slain in the place but his Domesticks and Guards hasting to the noise and he himself appearing with a Sword in his hand the end of the Pray proved as unhappy for the Assailants as the beginning The Magistrate and one of the boldest amongst his Troop made Payment for the attempt with their persons and the rest who were not resolved to lose so much rendred up their Arms and abandoned the party This first Troop being defeated the Duke was not for all that out of danger He was enforced to defend the two Gates of the Castle against fire and the Peâ—ard and then to repulse those who began to Scale it His greatest danger nevertheless was in the Church where furiously entred an armed and incensed multitude which seized on the Dutchess Her quality and Sex deserved at least some respect but qualities are not distinguished in a Tumult and no Sex is Priviledged against Fury Of two Gentlemen that led her one was killed at her feet and the other being dangerously wounded was in little better condition This Barbarous Act did not affright her the bloud which sprinkled her Gown and Death it self which passed over her wrought no change in her Countenance Her soul was alwaies Erect and Elevated above danger She conserved even the comliness of her gesture and the dignity of her looks even words of Authority and tone of Command and whereas another less Couragious Woman might have submitted to Insolency and have flattered Fury She treated them with Command like a Mistress astonishing Audacity it self by her Constancy They advertise her that she was Arrested for her Husband and that if she had a mind to live and preserve Him she must consider of disposing him to remit his Person and Cittadel into the hands of the Magistrate At this Declaration which was made to her with threats and a dagger at her throat she answered That she would not enter into any Treaty with Murtherers That she knew not how to give ill Counsels nor in what terms a Wise may perswade her Husband to be a Coward that it troubled her she had but one life to expose for the honour and safety of his that she was so far from lending them her prayers and tears against him that she would joyfully shed even the last drop of her bloud if that might add either a moment of new lustre to his reputation or half a days space to his life And therefore let their fury finish on her what it had begun That nothing of weakness should proceed either from her mouth or hands that they too well accorded with her heart and that it would better please her to dye at the Castle Gate for her Husband then to live without him upon a Throne She made large promises she found her self also as well disposed to make good what she promised and her Constancy being put to the Test was found as great and vigorous as her words I learned from an Illustrious Person and who hath narrowly looked into the affairs of that time that she was brought before the Castle and that they might there take the Husband by the fear and danger of the Wife the same Propositions were renewed to her with the same Threats and Violencies The Couragious Woman reduced to this Extremity considered nothing but the danger of her husband and had no fear but of his Affection and Tenderness She was not ignorant that all his weakness lay on that side and that there was no place so strong which would not be hard for him to defend against her tears She also cryed out unto him the better to fortifie this weak part That she came not to perswade him to a dangerous Piety and to betray him by her Intreaties That she came rather to make her Body serve him for a new Barricado against his Enemies That if he loved her truly and had a desire to save her he should love and preserve what was of her in him that on him depended her safety and danger her good and bad Fortune that out of him she could have neither life nor death nothing to hope or fear that he should take heed of trusting Traytors who assaulted his head by his heart who would soften it to his overthrow and raise a Compassion in him to gain his life at a cheaper rate that he should beware of listening to the suggestions of a Timerous and Apprehensive Love that he should rather give ear to that Affection which spake to him by her mouth that it were lost labour to preserve her if he lost himself that it would be of no advantage to his Enemies to destroy her if he were safe that in despight of them and what death soever they should make her suffer she should always live most happy as long as she should live in his remembrance She pronounced these words with so Graceful a Confidence and so Noble and Generous a Tone as it clearly appeared that at this instant her heart ascended to her mouth to express it self by its own Language This eminent Vertue dazel'd the furious Souldiers who environed her and made their Weapons fall out of their hands The Duke was relieved by his frinds who came thither from Xaintes and Caâ—gnae And the Capitulation being concluded between him and the Inhabitants the Dutchess impatient to see him again could not expect till the Castle Gate was cleared but commanded a Ladder whereby to enter at the window Certainly after so Illustrious and Glorious a Victory it had been fit the Gate should have been thrown down before her and that she should have entred the
heart of them both There are some men who have not so much as the first glimmerings of sound judgement You would swear that they had been made out of the Lees and Dregs of Matter You would say that not one single spark of this Coelestiall Fire is entred into their Constitution And their souls are so burthened the rinde which incompasseth them is so obscure and thick as no light can penetrate them with on single Ray of Truth which can give them a beginning of any vertuous heats On the contrary there are some Women who seem to be onely made out of the pure Extraction of rectified matter The superiour portion of their souls is so pure and so lively reflects all the luminous impression it receives the Inferiour hath two so noble fires and moves so regularly and with so measured and just a swiftness that it would not savor of flattery to compare them to those fair Compounds which are formed of the Intelligences and Planets It is not then the difference of Sex which makes any difference in the faculties of a soul and since they have the same perfection both in Man and Woman since both may be imbued with the same light and penetrated by the same fire let us descend freely step by step to the consequence to which this discourse leads us and let us agree that Women may be disposed by this light and fire to the principal Functions of Heroick vertue History is as knowing and perswasive in this point as Philosophy and the Examples she alledges are as just and formal demonstrations as those which are framed according to the Rules of Logick If it be shewed by these Examples that Women are capable of the most vigorous and illustâ—ous Actions it is consequently and of necessity proved by the same Instances that they are also capable of an Heroick Transport of this Enthusiasme without which we cannot pass beyond the bounds which Moral Philosophy hath prescribed to common Vertues Iudith indeed must needs have been transported with this Enthusiasme when she ran the hazard of her Life and Honour when she passed over Walls and Trenches when she cast her self single and unarmed into the midst of more then one hundred thousand Combatants to redeem Iudea out of their hands to take off their Generals Head by one blow of a Sword Susanna must needs have been stimulated by the same Enthusiasme when being sollicited to her Dishonour by Pleasure and Fear she couragiously rejected them both and hastened to her Duty through 〈◊〉 and Death and a whole storm of stones heaped up against her There must needs have been much of this Transport and Enthusiasme in the Mother of the 〈◊〉 when she exposed her self to Hatchets and burning â—â—â—drons when she marched over the skins and bloody limbs of her â—â—ead and dilacerated children when she gave up her heart and entrals her soul and spirit unto seven different Deaths to gain the eight which was worthy the memory of the 〈◊〉 and sutable to the Reputation of her Race But without going so far from our Age and Modern History was there not a Transport in that Maid of Agria who preparing her self to fight upon a breach by which the Turks endeavoured to bring fire and sword into the bosom of her Country when her Mother joyning in the same duty with a great stone upon her head was born away by a Canon shot appeared no waies surprized with this Accident quitted neither her resolution not post Her heart did not so much as tremble at the blood which might have demolished even the strongest wall and with unchanging countenance she took up this stone still warm with the blood and death of her Mother and rolled it upon the heads of the first that entred the breaâ—h Was there not an Enthusiasme in the action which a young Woman of the same Town performed at the same Siege She fought compleatly armed between her husband and mother and when her husband after a long and obstinate fight was killed by her side her mother advising her to withdraw and render him her last duties God defend me replyed she from so unseasonable a piety Now is the time to revenge his death and not to deplore it his â—uneral may be well performed afterwards if we live and if it be ordained for me to dye upon his body mine will be a Tombe glorious enough for him and my blood mixt with his will do him more honour then my tears These couragious words were followed by a far more glorious action She threw away her own sword and took up that of her husbands whether she esteemed it better then her own and most accustomed to overcome or whether she thought it might have retained some remnant of his Valour and dexterity which would fight with her and bring her good fortune And fortified by this imagination she cast her self fiercely and with order upon those enemies that were the farthest advanced She killed tâ—ree with her own hand made the rest give back and that done she retired with her husbands body and the satisfaction to have revenged his death which was to her as just and manly a satisfaction as that which is sought in a spruce and flaunting mourning in a sorrow as Ambitious and Vain as the Excesse Besides this Transport which is a visible and commendable excess of Valour and Constancy there is another kinde of excess which Magnificence seeks in its actions which also appertain to Heroick vertue And we must not forget to affirm by the way that Women have gone as far and raised themselves as high as Men by this second kinde of Excess One cannot speak without vast terms of the Egyptian Pyramides And the abreviated draughts which Antiquity hath left us of them do even tire our sight Nevertheless the highest and most stately of these Pyramides were built by the boldness and Magnificence of Women The Maâ—solâ—um exhausted the skill of all Architects and of all the Sculptors of Greece and left neither Marble not precious stones in Asia and this Monument was the invention and enterprize of a Woman The pendent Gardens of Babylon and those Walls so famous for their matter and structure were the work of a Woman And this self same person who was filled with nothing but vast thoughts and unlimited designs resolving to have her Statue erected in a place where she had gained a battel caused it to be made out of a whole Mountain cut out into a humane Figure and seated upon a Throne And because it would not have been decent to see a Queen alone she commanded the Artist to dispose the outward and superfluous pieces of the Mountain with so much Art as there might be wherewith to make out of them half a dozen of Guards Without dis-interring ruins buried under so many Ages there are in France sumptuous proofs enough of the Heroick Magnificence of Women But being exposed as they are to publick view it is not necessary to
Morality teach us that Chastity ought not to fight but in retiring that she puts her self in danger when she takes upon her to be Valiant and shews her Face to her Enemies that she cannot attain to Victory but by a Retreat even by Flight and a very quick and sudden Hight All this agrees with the Spirit of Transport which 〈◊〉 no kinde of Enemieâ— and attaquâ—s them all without knowing them which measures no Dangers not Precipices and fully casts it self upon both which 〈◊〉 not to any thing whatsoever no not to terrifying Death it 〈◊〉 in which all other things submit Thirdly Chastity is not one of these Vertues which are born for Action 〈…〉 and are only serviceable in a Tumult and Storm she is one of the Peacâ—ble and Sedentary Vertues she is a Lover of Repose and 〈◊〉 she hath the Innocence of Lambs and the meekness of Turtles she hath a Temper contrary to Lions and Eagles Of what use would then this Spirit of Transport be to Sedentary Vertue Of what use could it be in time of Repose and Retirement What would that Lamb do with this Heart of a Lion What would this Turtle do with the Violence of 〈…〉 All these Reasons are very good proofs that Chastity is a Vertue of its own Nature Reserved and a Friend to Repose But they do not prove that she is never Armed with Boldness that she never takes Courage that she is a ways concealed and still possessed with Fear There are some Occasions wherein she must of necessity alter her Humour and Carriage wherein she must express Resolution and Courage wherein she must Act even elevate her self and elevate her self with a Transport Doves which 〈…〉 Sweet and Innocent have yet their Sallies and Anger 's Patience which is at least as calm as Chastity becomes Furious when it is Wounded And that Spotless and Silent â—amb which came to Teach us Chastity and Patience ceaseth yet sometimes to be a Lamb and becomes a Lyon when he is provoked Let us say that this Heroick Spirit of Rapture is not necessary to Chastity when she is not assaulted and proposeth no Enemies to overcome not Crowns to obtain She is then permitted to remove far off from the Tumult She may decently affect Repose and participate without blame of the benefit of Peace Her condition in that State doth not differ from that Valour it self which is not continually provoked and Furious always covered over with Sweat and Blood And which useth not every day her Warlike hands and countenance her Spirit and Garments of Battel But when this Peaceable Chastity is Assaulted when Dangers and Enemies press her when she is reduced to the necessity of either rendâ—ing up her self or of vanquishing by some Extraordinary and Supernatural â—ffort where will she finde wherewith to carry on this extraordinary and Supernatural Violence if the Heroâ—ck 〈◊〉 whereof I speak do not inflame her if the Spirit of 〈◊〉 do not possess her it both do not transport her to what place would not her Fears and Restraints hurry her And even in this her Condition is likewise equal to that of true Valour which hath an other Countenance and an other Heart upon a Breach then in a Closet which marchâ—â—n with an other kinde of Action and Look to a day of Assault then to a day of Ceremony Let us only oppose hereunto that the Comparison is not equal between Chastity and Valour between a Peaceful and Sedentary vertue and one that is Warlike and Tumultuary Chastity hath her Wars and Combats And her Wars are more lasting and obâ—â—inate her Combats are more dangerous and labonous then those of Valour She hath likewise more need of Courage and Resolution as I have already shewn And consequently the Spirit of Transport which is the Spirit of Courage and Resolution is more necessary to her then to this Vertue of Fire and Sword And here the Bravo's and great Pretenders to Valour must not flatter themselves not think to obtain it by the fierceness of their Looks and the greatness of Words The honour of Chaste Women is not in a place of easier Access nor less Elevated then theirs Nature cannot 〈◊〉 thither by her own Forces The Senses know not the way to it and on what side soever this way lieth it is possessed by Enemies who use violence even in their satisfactions and terrifie by their Complacences and Caâ—esses On all sides and at every step there are Gins which are so much the more to be feared as their Bâ—â—â—s are more rich and their threds wrought with more silk and covered over with more Flowers Besides if we were to beware of nothing there but Flowers and Silk if we were only to defend our selves against Complacences and Caresses Yet there are sometimes Daggers hid under these Flowers and these Silken Threds become strangling Ropes These Enemies are not always Complacent and Courting They change their Art and Posture according to the Resistance which is made to them They imploy Iron where Gold is not powerful enough and where Sweetness is weak and Presents effect nothing they practise Cruelty they display terror and punishments I mean that Chast Women have not only pleasing but even terrifying and bloody Temptations They are not onely to defend themselves against Avaâ—ice and Voluptuousness but they are to overcome both Torture and Death it self I say Torture which is the invention of Tyrants and the practise of Executioners I say Death armed with all its Fires and Engines Is it credible that Chastity without using any extraordinary violence without moving or changing place can overcome all these Enemies whether Complacent or Barbarous That she is able to loosen her self from all these eyes and snates whether from those which allure or those which strangle That she is able to master all these temptations whether sweet or sparkling in which Gold and Precious Stones are imployed whether cruel and terrible practised with chains like those which Ioseph suffered with stones like those shewn to Susanna with a Scymitar like that which vanquished the Daughter of Paul 〈◊〉 Beheaded by Mahâ—â—et at the taking of 〈◊〉 Again is it credible that Chastity can be victorious over so many Adversaries and in so many Conflicts if she be not filled if she be not Penetrated by this Divine Fire by this supernatural Instinct by this Spirit which begets an 〈◊〉 and the Extasies of Heroick Vertue Nature is strong and Attractive Chastity must resist her Forces and loosen her self from her Allurements The senses stick close to those Interests which are Commodious to them and the Body hath a strange adherence to pleasure where flesh and blood bears a part Chastity must either sever the sences from these Interests and must break all that fastens the Body to these pleasures or she must voluntarily separate her self from the senses and break violently with the body Death hath cruel and frightfull Weapons It is accompanied with terrible and furious Attendants Chastity
those persons who brought her to this violent Death by a precipitated old Age do not he bitter upon her heart nor disturb the Calm of her mind So clean contrary that she hath laid the very remembrance of their Injuries at the foot of the Cross She hath retired her thoughts from all objects which might exasperate them She called them back from all places whence any succour or pitty might arrive to her and hath deposited them all with her Heart and Faith in the wounds of the Soveraign Patient who assisted her during her imprisonment and at present assists and fortifies her against Death by the Image and Vertue of his Passion He encourages her with the Voyce of his Blood speaks to her by as many Mouths as he hath wounds He arms her with his Thorns and Nails He covers her with his Cross which is to her an invincible sacred Shield a Shield which could not be pierced by all the Darts of her bad Fortune nor shal it be by the Ax it self of the Executioner which will chop off her Head Vnder the protection of this Shield and at the sight of this Example she marcheth couragiously to Death And though a Queen and Innocent it seems not harsh to her to pass through the hands of an Executioner having before her eyes a God executed and Innocence Crucified Can you confide so much in your eyes as to expose them to this lamentable spectacle Mine wounded before the stroke flie back not to behold any more of it Yet I must enforce them to see All. The last Rayes of the setting Sun are the fairest And the last drops of blood great Souls pour forth are more sparkling then the rest and have something I know not what of more Vigorous and Noble Surely this Action must needs be extreamly black since endeavours were used to hide it from the light But the obscurities to which they exposed it will not give it a better gloss and doubtless if they were capable of sense they would fear to be stained by it You would say that these Torches do not contribute thereto their light but with regret You would say that in despite they produce nothing but shadow and smoke The Hall is full of Spectators and hung with black Velvet And not so much as the fatal Scaffold but is set forth w th the stately mourning of this barbarous Tragedy to which it served The cruel Ministers of so cruel an Action thought to sweeten Injustice civilize Cruelty they thought to appease violated Majesty and to abuse the Patient by this vain and sumptuous Hypocrisie They ought to know that Pomp and Ostentation do not justifie Crimes that artificial specious Cruelty is no other Fury then naked unpolished Cruelty And that the voice of blood causeth it self to be no less heard upon Velvet Carpets then upon the bare ground I need not shew these cruel Ministers unto you They are discernable enough by the greediness of their eyes thirsting after blood and by the impatience and fierceness of their looks To see the attention they afford this spectacle you would say that every one of them is the Executioner That every one is ready to give the blow with his eyes and that this blow was designed against the Head of the Catholique Church and not against the Queen of Scotland All the other Spectators in whose hearts there remains some tincture of Humanity detest this cruel Example And as many Tears as they shed are as many Voyces and Imprecations against those that both advised and put it in execution But the voice of just blood unjustly spilt will shortly make a greater noise It will be heard by all People and Ages it will be the eternall malediction of that person who so unworthily violates Nature in a Kinswoman Majesty in a Queen Hospitality towards a Refugiate and Adversity it self in an unfortunate Creature consecrated by more then twenty years of misery You see her kneeling before the Executioner but you see not her soul already elevated in the presence of God where by advance it takes possession of the â—hrone prepared for her Her despairing Women are on their knees with her as if her condemnation were theirs and that they were to die by her Death The fatal Ax hath pierced their souls and the blood tricles down by their eyes upon the ground Their sorrows are none of those which disturb and make a noise It deprived them of motion and voice even of the sense of their Sighs and Tears And in the condition they remain I see nothing which resembles them but those â—igures of Marble which seem to weep no less then Fountains The noble and couragious Patient with a serene Countenance beholds this sadness in her VVomen Her Soul elevated above the inferiour portion is no longer subject unto its tempests and showers to its sighs and tears The Clouds of Matter begin to clear up about her and she already casts forth certain Rayes of advanced glory which mingle themselves with those Angels who are come both to guide her and give a beginning to her Triumph The Crown which they brought her is not of the same matter as the other two which are taken from her No Thorns or Reeds enter there There is nothing sharp or brittle nothing which offends or burthens And it is not an Ornament of the same stuff and weaving like our Diadems which serve only to make Slaves glorious and proud Mortals miserable It is a Crown of solid and pure Glory It is independent of Fortune and stronger then Time And the wise Queen who understood the value of it would have given all earthly Crowns to possess but one flower of it Behold with what stedfastness of mind she presents her Head to the Executioner to receive from his hand this glorious Crown But stay do not stain your eyes with the murther of the Innocent God will have an account of the least drops of her blood And wo to the Hands and Hearts wo to the Mouths and Ears wo even to the Eyes in which any stain of it shall be found SONNET SHall we unmov'd behold the Tragick Sight Where Death puts out this fair Scotch Planet's light Shall Honour Justice Law see Vertue bleed In Mary's Death as for some heynous Deed Her Grief 's Heroick th' Ax no Paleness brings Vpon her Blood sprung from so many Kings Her Graces speak when words her Tongue denyes Her modest Pride endears her to 〈◊〉 Eyes To what renown'd Inchanter do we ow This piece of wonder From this Picture grow Joy and Regret while there the gazing sight Do's from a torment entertain Delight Art by a gentle force surmounteth clear The pitch of Nature in this Pourtraict where A Queen that 's Innocent is made sustain An Endless Death without affront or pain Elogy of Mary Stewart I Might have a scruple if into the Elogy I am going to make of Mary Stewart my Pen should insert her Nobility her Beauty her
with Death which entred by this wound or red with the blood which flowed from thence His eyes which to him had been ill Advisers and unfaithful guards and had suffered themselves to be surprised by beauty and sleep bewail the mortal errour they had committed and seem willing to cast forth with their blood and tears the pleasing poyson which they have taken in from the looks of Jâ—hel Besides they turn up and down in their last pains as if they sought her out to reproach her of Infidelity And the very sight of Debora and Barac hapning to be present at this Tragick spectacle increases their torment and begets in him a second confusion The victory of his Enemies proves a torment to him Death nay even such a death made it another death to him But the third yet more sensible and cruel death was that his enemies in his very presence and sight rejoyce at his death and at their victory Surely also this sight may be called the death of Sisera and the wound which he received therby in his heart though it cast forth no blood at all is yet more painful to him then that of his pierced head You would say that he is ready to dart out of his mouth a thousand Blasphemies against Heaven and as many Imprecations against Jahel But his voice is stifled with the presse of his passions and dies in his throat There issueth forth of it nothing but froth which is the blood of his inflamed rage and not being able to blaspheme with his tongue he blasphemeth with his countenance and the motion of his lips Debora and Barac look upon him in silence and with a kinde of Religious horror Astonishment which opens their mouth deprives them of breath and their stretched out hands seem willing to speak for their tongues that are tyed up The very servants which are of their Train are strucken with the like amazement and as if there were a charm in this spectacle it took from them their voice by gazing on it Sisera who could not astonish them by his valour and with a sword in his hand doth now amaze them by his punishment and with the Nail in his head And if all the people should be destroyed if the Ark it self were a captive and if the Cherubâ—â—s which guard it were prisoners there could not appear more Trouble in the minde of Barac nor more Emotion upon the face of Debora But this trouble and Emotion will be quickly followed with joy and every one resuming the Function which this spectacle hath suspended Debora inspired with the spirit of Prophesie shall sing a Hymn unto God of the wonders which have finished so great a war with the point of a nail and destroyed the Empire of the Canaanites with the stroke of a hammer and by the hand of a woman SONNET IN Jahels Bresta Hero's Soul survives Which prompts her modest thoughts to brave atchives Her flaming eyes declare with how much heat She did an Army in one Head defeat Sisera her strugling his black Soul doth groan That by a Womans hand he 's overthrown It quits his Breast amazed Rage conceives And in his Blood its wrath enkindled leaves Behold Man's â—ickle state how neer ally'd His Ruine is to his insulting Pride And with what ease this Ball is ev'ry way By Fortune racketed to finde her play She can advance him when in most despair As though she rais'd him with a puff of Air As strangly too without her VVheels full poise She by the pâ—â—cking of a Nail destroyes THE ELOGIE OF JAHEL JAHEL gave the last blow unto the Pride of the Canaanâ—â—es and finishing the victory which Debora had begun she shewed that God had chosen the hands of a Woman to break the yoke of his people Sisera the Lieutenant General of Jabin seeing his Army defeated by the Israelites saved himself aâ—oot in the Tent of Jahel But Death knows no Sanctuarâ— or place of Refuge And it is evident that she suffered him 〈…〉 in the heat of the conflict to kill him afterwards more at 〈◊〉 and at more leaâ—ure out of the Battel Jahel inspired by God 〈◊〉 And to quench the extream thiâ—â— which labour flight and 〈◊〉 had caused presented him with milk to drink There are some dangerous charities and courtesies whereof we must bewaâ—â— And sometimes the presence of Women have defeated those who could not be overcome by stratagems or armed Legions 〈…〉 together with the freshness of this drink having 〈…〉 unfortunate Sisera Jahel without noise pulled up one of the Nail wherewith her Tent was fastned and with the blow of a 〈…〉 to deep into his head as the Nail pierced it clean through and entred into the earth with his blood and Soul This Woman waâ— worth an Armie and a Nail in her hand effected that which ten thousand 〈◊〉 and as many Swords were not able to effect 〈◊〉 may well believe that this action was done by inspiration otherwâ—◠〈…〉 not have violated Hospitality which is naturally holy 〈…〉 to the Law of Nations She would not have corrupted 〈…〉 and favour not have staâ—nd it with blood and murther She would have at least respected the gentlenesse of her Sex and the sanctity of her Tent But it was Gods will on that day that two Women should work the Redemption of a whole Nation And that by this example they should teach posterity that great forces are not necessary to great Actions that the powers of the earth break asunder if never so little touched and that without framing Engines or rolling mountains there needs but one thrust to cause the fall of a Colessus A MORAL REFLECTION I Fear that if I propose the Example of Jahel to gallant women they will reject my proposition and abhor the blood and 〈◊〉 of this Precedent Nevertheless they may imitate her without violating the Lawâ— of Hospitality without exasperating the mildeness of their Sex without â—â—taging oâ— framing the 〈◊〉 with blood There are no more Canaanites to overcome not 〈◊〉 there another Sisera to vanquish But there are 〈…〉 there are commanding and 〈◊〉 Passion which are to the 〈…〉 at that day what Sisera and the Canaanites were heretofore to the Israelites Not only Men ought to take up arms against these spiritual 〈…〉 but even Women also must enter into this war and the 〈…〉 which they should hold with them would be a kinde of treason and 〈◊〉 Above all it there be any woman who hath entertained some Sisera in her 〈◊〉 who hath opened her heart and promised security unto some predominant Passion the ought to be advertised that this sort of charity is destructive and not to be 〈◊〉 in and that toward 〈…〉 mercy proves 〈◊〉 and fidelity scandalous and of dangerous example Saul was reproved for the 〈…〉 thrown to the king of the Amalekites and because he was pitiful out of â—â—ason and against the will of God he lost both â—rown and 〈…〉 Take heed of the liâ—e fault if you