Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A08015
|
The vnfortunate traueller. Or, The life of Iacke Wilton. Tho. Nashe
|
Nash, Thomas, 1567-1601.
|
1594
(1594)
|
STC 18380; ESTC S110123
|
82,351
|
108
|
of more power than God to strike me spéedily strike home strike deep send me to heauen with my husband Aie me it is the spoyl of my honor thou séekest in my soules troubled departure thou art seme deuill sent to tempt me Auoide from me sathan my soule is my sauiours to him I haue bequeathed it from him can no man take it Iesu Iesu spare mee vndefiled for thy sâ—ouse Iesu Iesu neuer faile those that put their trust in thée With that she fell in a sowne and her eies in their closing séemed to spaune forth in their outward sharpe corners new created séed pearle which the world before neuer set eie on Soone he rigorously reuiued her tolde her y t he had a charter aboue scripture she must yeld she should yeld sée who durst remoue her out of his hands Twixt life and death thus she faintly replied How thinkest thou is there a power aboue thy power if there be he is here present in punishment and on thée will take present punishment if thou persistest in thy enterprise In the tyme of securitie euerie man sinneth but when death substitutes one frend his special bayly to arrest another by infection and dispearseth his quiuer into ten thousand hands at once who is it but lookes about him A man that hath an vneuitable huge stone hanging only by a haire ouer his head which he lookes euerie Pater noster while to fall and pash him in péeces will not he be submissiuely sorrowfull for his transgressions refraine himselfe from the least thought of folly and purifie his spirit with contrition and penitence Gods hand like a huge stone hangs ineuitably ouer thy head what is the plague but death playing the prouost marshall to execute all those that wil not be called home by anie other meanes This my deare knights body is a quiuer of his arrowes which alreadie are shot into thée inuisible Euen as the age of goates is knowen by the knots on their hornes so think the anger of God apparantly visioned or showne vnto thée in the knitting of my browes A hundred haue I buried out of my house at all whose departures I haue béen present a hundreds infection is mixed with my breath loe now I breath vpon thée a hundred deaths come vpon thée Repent betimes imagine there is a hell though not a heauen that hell thy conscience is throughly acquainted with if thou hast murdred halfe so manie as thou vnblushingly braggest As Moecenas in the latter end of his dayes was seuen yeres without sléepe so these seuen wéekes haue I took no slumber any eyes haue kept continuall watch against the diuell my enemie death I deemed my frend frends flie from vs in aduersitie death the diuell al the ministring spirits of temptation are watching about thée to intrap thy soule by my abuse to eternall damnation It is thy soule only thou maist saue by sauing mine honor Death will haue thy bodie infallibly for breaking into my house that he had selected for his priuate habitation If thou euer camst of a woman or hop'st to be sau'd dy the séed of a woman spare a woman Deares oppressed with dogs when they cannot take soyle runne to men for succor to whom should women in their disconsolate and desperate estate run but to men like the Deare for succour and sanctuarie If thou bee a man thou wilt succour me but if thou be a dog a brute beast thou wilt spoile me defile me teare me either renounce Gods image or renounce the wicked minde that thou bearest These words might haue moou'd a compound hart of yron and adamant but in his hart they obtained no impression for he sitting in his chaire of state against the doore all the while that she pleaded leaning his ouerhanging gloomie ey-browes on the pommell of his vnsheathed sword hee neuer lookt vp or gaue her a word but when he perceiued shee expected his answere of grace or vtter perdition he start vp and took her currishly by the neck and askt her how long he should stay for her Ladiship Thou telst me quoth he of the plague and the heauie hand of God and thy hundred infected breaths in one I tel thée I haue cast the dice an hundred times for the galleyes in Spaine and yet still mist the ill chance Our order of casting is this If there bee a generall or captaine new come home from the warres hath some foure or fiue hundred crownes ouerplus of the kings in his hand his souldiors al paid he makes proclamation that whatsoeuer two resolute men will goe to dice for it and win the bridle or lose the saddle to such a place let them repaire and it shall be ready for them Thither go I finde another such néedie squire resident The dice runne I win he is vndone I winning haue the crownes he loosing is carried to the galleys This is our custome which a hundred times and more hath paid mee custome of crownes when the poore fellowes haue gone to Gehenna had course bread and whipping there all their life after Now thinkest thou that I who so oft haue escapd such a number of hellish dangers only depending on the turning of a few pricks can be scare-bugd with the plague what plague canst thou name worse than I haue hat whether diseases imprisonment pouertie banishment I haue past through them all My owne mother gaue I a box of the care to and brake her neck down a pair of stairs because she would not go in to a gentleman when I had her my sister I solde to an olde Leno to make his best of her anie kinswoman that I haue knew I shee were not a whore my selfe would make her one thou art a whore thou shalt bee a whore in spite of religion or precise ceremonies Therewith he flew vpon her and threatned her with his sword but it was not that he meant to wounde her with Hée graspt her by the iuorie throate and shooke her as a mastiffe would shake a yong beare swearing staring he would teare out her weâ— and if she refused Not content with that sauage constraint he slipt his sacriligious hand from her lilly lawne skinned necke and inscarfte it in her long siluer lockes which with strugling were vnrould Backward hee dragd her euen as a man backward would plucke a trée downe by the twigs and then like a traitor that is drawen to execution on a hurdle he traileth her vp and downe the chamber by those tender vntwisted braids and setting his barbarous foote on her bare snowie breast bad her yéeld or haue her wind stampt out She crid stamp stiflle me in my hair hang me vp by it on a beame and so let mee die rather than I shoulde go to heauen wyth a beame in my eie No quoth he nor stampt nor stifled nor hanged nor to heauen shalt thou go til I haue had my wil of thee thy busie armes in these silken fetters Ile infold
Disâ—â—issing her haire from his fingers and pinnioning her elbowes therwithal she strugled she wrested but al was in vain So strugling so resisting her iewels did sweate signifieng there was poison comming towards her On the hard boords hee threw her and vsed his knée as an yron ram to beate ope the two leaude gate of her chastitie Her husbands dead bodie he made a pillow to his abhomination Couiecture the rest my words sticke fast in the mire and are cleane tyred would I had neuer vndertooke this tragicall tale Whatsoeuer is borne is borne to haue end Thus endeth my tale his boorish lust was glutted his beastly desire satisfied what in the house of any worth was carriage-able he put vp and went his way Let not your sorow die you that haue read the proeme and narratioÌ„ of this elegiacal history Shew you haue quick wits in sharpe conceit of compassion A woman that hath viewd all her children sacrificed before her eies after the first was slaine wipt the sword with her apron to prepare it for the clenly murther of the second and so on forwarde till came to the empiercing of the seuentéenth of her loines will you not giue her great allowance of anguish This woman this matrone this forsaken Heraclide hauing buried fourtéene children in fiue dayes whose eyes she howlingly closed and caught many wrinckles with funerall kisses besides hauing her husband within a day after layd forth as a comfortlesse corse a carrionly blocke that could neither eate with her speak with her nor wéepe with her is she not to be borne withall though her bodie swells wyth a tympanie of teares though her speach be as impatient as vnhappy Hecubaes though her head raues and her braine doates Deuise with your selues that you sée a corse rising from his heirce after hee is carried to Church and such another suppose Heraclide to bee rising from the couch of enforced adulterie Her eyes were dimme her chéekes bloudlesse her breath smelt earthie her countenance was ghastly Up she rose after she was deflowred but loath she arose as a reprobate soule rising to the day of iudgement Looking on the tone side as she rose she spide her husbands bodie lying vnder her head Ah then she bewayled as Cephalus when hee had kild Procris vnwittingly or Oedipus when ignorant he had slaine his owne father and knowen his mother incestuously This was her subdued reasons discourse Haue I liu'd to make my husbands bodie the béere to carry me to hell had filthie pleasure no other pillowe to leane vpon but his spreaded limmes On thy flesh my fault shall bee imprinted at the day of resurrection O beauty the bait ordained to insnare the irreligious rich men are robd for theyr welth women are dishonested for being too faire No blessing is beautie but a curse curst bee the time that euer I was begotten curst be the time that my mother brought me forth to tempt The serpent in paradice did no more the serpent in paradice is damned sempiternally why should not I hold my selfe damned if predestinations opinions be true that am predestinate to this horrible abuse The hogge dieth presently if he loseth an eye with the hogge haue I wallowed in the myre I haue lost my eye of honestie it is cleane pluckt out with a strong hand of vnchastitie what remaineth but I dye Die I will though life be vnwilling no recompence is there for mee to redéeme my compelled offence but with a rigorous compelled death Husband Ile be thy wife in heauen let not thy pure deceasing spirite despise me when we méete because I am tyrannously polluted The diuell the belier of our fraylâ—ie and common accuser of mankinde cannot accuse me though he would of vnconstrained submitting If anie guilt be mine this is my fault that I did not deforme my face ere it shuld so impiously allure Hauing passioned thus a while she hastely ranne and lookt her selfe in her glasse to sée if her sinne were not written on her forhead with looking shee blusht though none lookt vpon her but her owne reflected image Then began she againe Heu quam difficile est crimen non prodere vultu How hard is it not to bewray a mans fault by his forhead My selfe doo but behold my selfe and yet I blush then God beholding me shall not I bee ten tâ—â—es more ashamed The Angells shall hisse at mee the Saints and Martyrs flye from me yea God himselfe shall adde to the diuels damnation because he suffred such a wicked creature to come before him Agamemnon thou wert an infidell yet when thou wentst to the Troian warre thou leftst a Musitian at home with thy wife who by playing the foote Spondaeus tyll thy returne might kéepe her in chastitie My husband going to warre with the diuell and his enticements when hee surrendred left no musition with me but mourning and melancholy had he left anie as Aegistus kild Agamemnons musition ere he could be succesfull so surely would he haue béen kild ere this Aegistus surceased My distressed heart as the Hart when he looseth his hornes is astonied and sorrowfullie runneth to hide himselfe so bee thou afflicted and distressed hide thy selfe vnder the Almighties wings of mercie sue plead intreate grace is neuer denyed to them that aske It may be denied I may be a vessell ordained to dishonor The onely repeale we haue from Gods vndefinite chastisement is to chastise our selues in this world and so I will nought but death bee my pennance gracious and acceptable may it bee my hand and my knife shall manumâ—t me out of the horror of minde I endure Farewell life that hast lent me nothing but sorrow farewell sinne sowed flâ—sh that hast more weeds than flowers more woes than ioyes Point pierce edge enwyden I patiently affoord thée a sheath spurre foorth my soule to mount poast to heauen Iesu forgiue me Iesu receiue me So throughly stabd fell she downe and knockt her head against her husbands bodie wherewith hee not hauing béene ayred his full foure and twentie houres start as out of a dreame whiles I through a crannie of my vpper chamber vnséeled had beheld all this sad spectacle Awaking hee rubd his head too and fro and wyping his eyes with his hand began to looke about him Feeling some thing lye heauie on his breast he turnd it off and getting vpon his legges lighted a candle Heere beginneth my purgatorie For he good man comming into the hall with the candle and spying his wife wyth her haire about her eares defiled and massacred and his simple Zanie Capestrano run thorough tooke a halberde in hys hand and running from chamber to chamber to search who in his house was likely to doo it at length found me lying on my bed the doore lockt to me on the out-side and my rapier vnsâ—eathed on the windowe where with hee straight coniectured it was I. And calling the neighbours harde by sayd I had caused my selfe to bee lockt into my chamber