them had they not béen mortall But I thinking onely of those vnluckie tydinges which I had hearde to one of you Gentlewomen to which I know not I sodainely became an open enemie and I began to reuolue great gréeuous matters in my perplexed minde And that amassed lumpe of gréefe which could not altogether containe it selfe in my breast with a furious and despitefull voyce I did in this sorte partly driue out of me saying O wicked and false young man O enemie to pittie and pittilesse wretch O Panphilus the worst of all those who with out deserte dooth breath this common ayre Disloyall Panphilus who hauing blotted me most miserable woman out of thy vngratefull memorie doost nowe dwell and delight thy selfe with thy newe deceitfull dame Accursed bee that haplesse day when fyrst I sawe thée and that fatall hower and very instant in whych thou diddest please my simple eyes Accursed be that Goddesse which appearing to mee with her allured promyses flattered my waueringe minde and disturbed the same though resisting with all her forces to the contrarie from the boundes of my right iudgement to lyke of thée wicked wretch and vngratefull monster to looue thée Certes I thinke that shee was not Venus but rather some infernall furie in her shape striking mee with madnesse and filling me with franticke furie as once she did miserable Atamas O most cruell youth whome amongst manie other most noble beautiful and valiaunt young Gentlemen I dyd fondly chuse out for the best where are nowe thy serious prayers which for safetie of thy life with teares thou diddest often tymes offer vnto me affirming that both that and thy death weare in my handes Where are nowe thy pittifull lookes and those two neuer dryed eyes with the which malicious man thou dyddest neuer cease at thy pleasure to shedde foorth teares in my presence Where is nowe the great looue that so brauely thou diddest fayne to shewe me Where are thy swéete wordes and thy sower gréefes thy infinite sorrowes thy paynes and trauels proffered and imployed in my seruice Are all these slyd out of thy memorie or hast thou framed them a new to entrap thy deceiued and newe loouer Accursed be that pittie of mine which tooke that life out of death his mouth that thereby making her selfe thē a ioyfull woman should haue rather sent it to the darkesome denne of death Nowe those eyes which whilome in my presence lamented laugh before their newe Mistresse and that mutable heart hath turned all his swéete wordes and faire offers to her onely and nowe hast thou hereticallie dedicated all thy seruices to her deuotions Alas Panphilus where are nowe those profaned and periured Godheades Where is thy promised fayth Where are thy infinit teares of the which miserable woman I drunke no small quantitie beléeuing them to bee tempered then with as great pittie and looue as now they are turned but to droppes of treacherous deceite All those placed in the bosome of thy newe Mistresse thou hast with thy selfe taken from me Alas how great a corsiue was it to my poore hart when once before I heard that by Iunos lawe thou werte combined to an other woman But perceiuing that the couenauntes in which thou didest binde thy selfe to me were not to be preferred before them although I did painefullie beare it yet ouercome with iust grefe I did with lesse anguish of minde endure it It is a great greefe that that which dooth iustly belong to one should vniustly be an others But now vnderstanding that by the self same lawes by the which thou wert boūd to me thou hast in casting me of giuē thy selfe to an other it is an vntollerable paine for me to sustaine But now I knowe the cause of thy stay openly perceiue my own simplicity with the which I euer beléeued that thou wouldest if possiblie haue once returned againe Alas Panphilus diddest thou stand in nede of so many guilefull artes and cunninge fetches to delude me Why diddest thou so often so solemnlie and so highlie sweare vnto mée with continuall asseueration of thy most entyre and sincere faith if thou diddest thinke thus to deceiue me Wherfore diddest not thou goe away without taking thy leaue or without making any promise of thy returne I did as thou knowest most feruentlie looue thée and thou wert not then so much entangled in my looue werte not so straightly my prisoner but at thy will as to my no small paine I now perceiue thou hast doone and without wasting such infinite and vaine teares thou mightest haue departed from me If thou haddest doon thus then I should without doubt haue sodainely dispaired of thy returne manifestlie knowing thy deceite and then with death ere this time or ese with iust obliuion my tormentes should haue béene concluded But because they might be the more prolonged in giuing me a little vaine hope thou hast continuated and nourished them still But I poore soule neuer deserued this at thy wicked handes Alas how swéete were thy salte teares to me but nowe knowing their vile effects I féele thē to be most bitter to my dying minde Alas if looue did so strongly rule in thée as he dooth féercelie vse his might and signorie in me tell me then if it was not sufficient for thée to be once captiuated but that the second time thou must fall into his forces againe But what doo I talke of looue For thou didst neuer looue but hast rather delighted to iest with young gentlewomen and hast made it but a sport to deceiue which thy subtilty their simplicity If thou had'st loued as I did beléeue thou did'st thou shouldest yet haue béene mine own And whose couldest thou haue béene that had looued thée more then I Alas what dame so euer thou be that hast taken him from me though thou art my mortall and onely enemie yet féeling the great gréefe which his falshood hath engēdred in my breast I must néedes take pittie on thée He that deceiueth once deceiueth euer Wherfore I warne thée to take héede of his deceites because he that hath once deceiued hath for euer after lost his honesty and shame and dooth make it no matter of conscience to deceiue euery one from thence foorth Alas wicked youth how many orisons and sacrifices haue I offered vp to the Gods for thy safetie and now thou must flie from mée to goe to an other O Goddes my praiers I perceiue are hearde but to the profitte of an other woman I haue the sorrowe and an other suckes the swéete I reape but dole and paine for my long deuotions and an other delight and pleasure of him who in right and equitie should be mine Ah wicked man was not my beauty correspondent to thy brauery my dooinges to thy desires and my nobilitie to thy Gentilitie Alas a great deale more Were my riches euer denied thée or dyd I take any of thine Ah neuer Did I euer in déede or demonstration looue any man besides thy selfe
these are more intricate and harder to folow then loue it self from which so fondly thou desirest to flée Dost thou not conceiue what great and intollerable sorow they kéepe in store for thée most foolish womā once and euen now ours and by the the bable of the old womā dost now feare to bee ours againe like her who is yet ignorant of the quantity of our great delights quality of our swéete ioyes Vnaduised as thou art vpholde and maintaine him by our spéeches whom the heauens and earth canne scarce containe with his might What doost thou know how much our winged Sonne without resistance doth raigne and command as much as Phaebus rysing with his golden beames out of the rich Ganges and plunging in the Hisperian waues with his wearied Chariot to giue some reste to his fainting steedes and to ease his owne labors séeth in a cléere day And howe he dilateth his signorie ouer all that which is shut vppe betwéene cold Arture the burning Pole who is not onelie a God in heauen amongst other Goddes but is so much more mighty then all the rest that there is not any one there who hath not béene somtimes wounded with his ineuitable weapons With golden and coloured feathers flying swiftlie thorow out his kingdoms The great force of Loue. in a moment of time hee dooth visite them all and gouerning his strong bow vppon his stretched string cunningly directeth his arrowes wrought by vs and tempered in our holy waters and when he findeth out some one more woorthy and fit for his seruice then another hee shootes them spéedily wheresoeuer it pleaseth him Hée dooth stir vp and augment in yong men cruell firy flames and in tyred and old men doth renue their spent and wasted heate inflaming the chaste breastes of virgins with an vnknowne and hidden fire and kindling liuely louely coales as well in wiues as in widowes He commaunded when he list the Gods scorched with his firebrands to leaue the Heauens aboue and with counterfet shapes and false habites to soiourne on the earth Was not Phaebus who conquered swelling Python and first tuned the melodious Cyterns of Pernassus many times his vassale sometimes for foolish Daphne sometimes for Climene and sometimes for Leucothoe and for many moe yes truly And at the last hyding hys great light vnder the shape of a poore enamored Sheepheard kept Admetus his flocks Iupiter himself who doth gouern the heauens controleth all the Goddes by his compulsion tooke vppon him formes farre vnbeséeming his omnipotent deitie Sometimes spreading his winges vnder the shape of a lillie white byrd sounded forth more swéet pitiful notes All these Fables are touched of Ouid in his trans-formations then the dying Swannes of Meander And somtimes transformed into a yong and goodly white Bullock which rude horns on his mighty Godhead bellowed out amids the meadowes fieldes and plaines his amorous plaints and deyned not to stoope prostrate his backe to the knées and seate of a sillye mayde and so with his enioyed and swéete pray with clouen hoofes instedde of cutting owers his broade and strong brest parting the waues and making way thorowe the déepest and raging billowes he passed his brothers kingdomes who for Semele in his owne forme and who for the loue of Calysto turned himself into the likenesse of Diana And to tel of that which in times past he did metamorphized into a shower of gold for the loue of fayre Danaee and trans-formed into other shapes for many more it would be too long And the fierce God of war whose angry and sterne countenaunce whose boysterly behauiour doth make the very Gyants afraide hath tempered his terrible and mortall effects vnder his power and was content to become a Louer And Iupiter his blacke Smith who neuer stirreth from his firy forge continually beating and framing thunderbolts hath béene also kindeled with his fire and smitten with his golden bolts which are more mighty and wound more déepe then his though made of hard yron and sturdie stéele And my selfe likewise although I am his mother could not defende my selfe frō hys might whose streames of mourning teares powred foorth for swéet Adonis his vntimely and cruell death can sufficiently testifie But wherfore doo wee trouble our selues wyth recitall of so many examples There is no deity in Heauen which hath escaped him but only Diana And she delighting her selfe in woods and hunting hath fled nay as some think rather hid her selfe frō him But if perhaps as incredulous thou dost not allow of this true tried examples of the Gods whose mansion places are in the heauens aboue art desirous to know who hath in earth beneath felt the like so many there are that I scarcely know where to begin promising and giuing thée to vnderstand that they were no base poore or simple men but the stoutest most valiant wights that euer liued And first of al let vs behold the most strong and inuincible son of Alcmena who laying aside his dyrie arrowes and casting of his huge and rough Lyons skynne delighted very often to passe his louing times away in framing and fytting Emeralds for his martiall fingers and afterwardes to prescribe Lawes for his rugged and bushy locks and by one and one to sette them in effeminate and fine order And that mighty hande with the which hée hadde but erst caryed his stronge and knottie clubbe killed great Antheus and beate downe and drawne from Pluto his Pallace gate the hellishe triple headed Dogge did now drawe foorth small thréedes which he spun on Iole her distaffe And those shoulders on which high heauen was imposed Atlas chaunginge shoulders with him were first tenderly pressed and beclipped of Iole And afterwardes to please her the more couered with embrodered garments of fine purple and gold What amorous Paris did for his sake what faire Hellene what Clytemnestra and what Egistus did all the world dooth knowe to well And therefore as as néedelesse also I omitte to speake of Achilles of Scylla Ariadne Leander Dido and many more Beléeue me Lady this is a holy fyer and of great force Now hast thou therefore heard howe mighty Gods in heauens Loue dooth worke his force euen in brute beastes and no meane men in earth haue béene vnder the swet yoake of my princely Sonne But what wilt thou say of his force extended in irrationall and brute beastes as well in the ayre as in the earth For him the mornefull Turtle Doue dooth followe her mate and our prittie Pigeons with a merueilous kinde of affection doo kisse and bill their loouing ones also And there is not any beast liuing in the wide earth that can or dooth at any time escape his gins The feareful Harts in the Woods waxing fierce cruell amongest themselues when he dooth wounde them with his dartes fightinge and braying after their desired louing Hinds shew blody signes of this burning heate The enraged wylde Bores
firme in mutuall fréendship dooth looue thee so much as I doo If this be thy beléefe beléeue me Pāphilus it is erronious For truely none can looue thée better and holde thée swéete Pāphilus déerer then I doo If therefore I looue thée more then others He that dooth loue most deserueth more pittie I deserue then to be requited with greater looue and pittie then others Prefer me therfore worthely before the rest being pittiful towardes me forget all other pittie that might offend and preiudicate this and let thy olde father as hee hath liued a longe time without thée enioy a Gods name his wonted rest with out thy companie And lette him from hence foorth if so he please liue amongest the rest of his other fréends and alies And if not let him dye If it bee true as I haue hearde hee hath a good while since escaped the deadly stroke of death and hath liued longer here then was conuenient for his necessary health and if he liue in payne with much troble as cōmonly olde men do thou shalt in thy absence shew thy self more pittiful towards him to let him die thē which thy presence to prolōg his trobled tired life But thou oughtest rather to succour me poore soule whose life hath not béene a good while since but by thy swéet cōpanie preserued nor cannot tell how without the same to enioy this mundane light who being yet in the prime of my tender age dooth hope to liue and lead with thée many ioyfull monthes and yéeres together If thy iourney were to such purpose and could worke such supernaturall effectes in thy olde father his body Medea her medicamentes restored to olde Aeson his youth againe as the charmes of Medea and her medicinall spelles did vppon olde Aeson then would I say that by iust pietie thou wert instiged and would highly commend this requisite pittie and although it would séeme repugnaunt to my will yet would I wishe and allowe of this deuotion in thée and exhorte thée to the performaunce of it But such a miracle passing the lawes and boundes of nature can neuer come to passe according to thy naturall reason as thou knowest well enough Behold then if perhappes thou shewest thy selfe more cruell and rigorous to mee then I beléeue or imagine thou wilt or doost so little care for me whome on thy owne mere choyce and not by compulsion thou hast looued and yet doost that aboue my looue thou wilt for all this aduaunce the lost and helplesse charity of the olde man take some pitty at the least of thy owne estate and caring little for him and bemoning me lesse rue thy owne condition whom if first thy countenaunce and afterwardes thy wordes haue not deceiued me I haue séene to be more deade then aliue as euen nowe thou werte without perceiuing me that did marke thée by some vncouth accident is a most extreame and sorrowfull passion and depriued once of my sight By long greefe and sorrow men dre and debarred of my company doost thou beléeue to lyue so long tyme as this pittilesse pittie dooth require Alas for the looue thou bearest to the Goddes looke better to thy selfe and sée what likely hoode of death if by longe and lingring gréefe men dye as I sée it dayly by others this iourney ah this inopinate vnluckie iourney wil yéeld thée which how harde moreouer and vnpleasaunt it is to thée thy sorrowfull sobbes and teares and the vnwoonted moouing of thy heart which panting and beating vp and downe in thy breast I féele doo plainely shewe And if not apparraunt death which is most like a worser and more cruell condition of life then any death be assured will accompany thée Alas that my enamored hart vrged with great pitty that it hath of my owne distresse constrained by that tender cōpassion which I féele for thée must now play the humble suppliaunt to pray and intreate thée and to aduise thée also that thou wouldest not be so fond what kind of pittie soeuer moouing thée therunto as with euident iminent daunger to hazard thy safe persō Who looueth not himselfe possesseth nothing in this world Why thinke that those who doo not looue them selues possesse nothing in the wide world Thy father of whom forsooth thou art so pittifull did not giue thée to the world because thou shouldest be thy owne minister and occasion of taking thy selfe away out of it againe And who dooth not beléeue but that if our estate were as manifest or could be lawfullie tolde vnto him that he being wise and of mature iudgemēt and experience would rather say Stay there still And if discretion and reason would not pitty at the least would induce him to it and this I am assured thou knowest wel enough It is therfore great reason that what iudgment in his own tried cause he hath giuen he should and is most likely that he wold in our cause if he knew it giue also the very same Wherefore omitte this troublesome iourney vnprofitable to thée vnpleasaunt to me and preiudiciall to vs both As these my dearest Lord are reasons forcible enough if followed to keepe thée from going hence so are there many more not a little effectuall if put in practise to dehort thée from going hence as fyrst for example cōsidering the place whether thou goest For put case thou doost bende thy iourney thether where thou wert borne thy natiue soyle and naturall countrey and a place belooued more of thée then any other as I haue heard thée say in certaine thinges annoyous and for certaine causes hated of thée Because thy Citty as thou thy self hast told is ful of haughtie boasting wordes but more replenished with pusillanimous and vnperformed déeds And that they are not onely slaues to a thousand confused lawes but to as many different oppinions as there are men All which as well forriners as Cittizens naturally contencious and full of garboyles doo dayly rage in ciuill broyles and intestiue warres And as it is full of proude couetous and malicious people so is it not vnfurnished of innumerable and intricate cares the least of which is I know most contrary to the good disposition of thy quiet minde Naples But this noble Citty which thou doost intend to forsake I am sure thou art not ignoraunt with what ioyfull peace it dooth continually florishe how famous it is for plenty of all commodities how opulent shining in glory and magnificensie how heroycally administred vnder the sole regiment of a mightie and inuincible king All which thinges I knowe if euer thy appetite I haue knowen are most pleasant to thy daintie tast It is some times lawful to praise ones selfe And besides all these rehersed pleasures here am I here am I Panphilus whom thou shalt neither find there nor mayst liue within any other place Leaue of therfore thy sorowful determination chaunging the vnaduised counsell into better consideration haue regard I
small time did make them appeare no otherwise to my fancies then if they hadde béene true indéede Sometimes mee thought hee was returned Dreames represent many times those things which are beloued and that in most fayre Gardens frée from all suspicion and feare decked with gréene leaues swéete flowers and diuers kinds of pleasant fruites I sported and played wyth him as other times we did accustome to doo And there I holding him by the hande and hee mee vnfolding his fortunes good and badde and telling all his accidents vnto mee mee thought that many times before hee had perfectly tolde out his tale with often kissing I didde interrupt him in his delightfull discourses And as if the same hadde béene true indéede which but with fained eyes I did contemplate I said And is it true swéete Panphilus that thou art returned againe Certes it is For héere I haue thée And then I kissed him againe Mée thought that other times wyth great sollace I was walking with him vp and downe the sea banks And sometimes my imagination was so strong héerein that I did affyrme it with my selfe saying Well now I doo not dreame that I haue him betwéene mine armes O howe it gréeued me when it came to passe that my pleasant dreames and swéete sléepe were both ended which going away did continually carie that away with them which without any trouble or gréefe to him I must néedes confesse did oppresse me And although that I remained in great melancoly by remembring of thē liuing neuerthelesse al the next day in good hope I was somewhat content and eased desiring still that night would quicklie drawe on because I might in my sléepe enioy that which waking I could not attaine to And although my sléepe did sometimes yéelde mee such néedy fauours notwithstanding it did not permitte mee to receiue such dreames of pleasure mingled without much bitter and poysoned galle of sorrowe because many times me thought I sawe him apparelled with ragged and forlorne garments besmeared all ouer I know not with what foule and blacke spottes and very pale and fearefull as though hee had béene pursued of some cruell enemie with shrikes and outcryes calling to me Helpe me Oh my Fiammetta helpe me Other tymes me thought I hearde diuers talke and mutter of his death And sometimes these fantasies of horror perced so farre into my minde that me thought I sawe him lie dead before me and in many other vncouth and pittifull formes so that it neuer came to passe that my sléepe was of more force or greater then my gréefe Wherefore sodainely awaked and knowing the vanitie of my dreame as one contented yet but to haue dreamed these terrours and terrible daungers I thāked the Goddes Things sene in dreames are some times true or else figures of true thinges remaining yet some what troubled in minde and fearing that the thinges which I had séene if not in all in parte at least they had béene true or else figures of true thinges to come Neither I was content at any time or perswaded by the contrarietie of these although I sayd with my selfe and heard of others that dreames were but vaine vntill I did heare some newes of him of the which I beganne now carefully and warely to enquier after And in such sorte as you haue heard fayre Ladyes I passed away the tedious dayes and irkesome nightes attending one still after other in their long course But the trueth is that the time of hys promised returne approching I déemed it the best and safest counsell to lyue merely in the meane time by which meanes my beautie a little altered and decayed by reason of this long vnacquainted gréefe might returne againe into her proper place because at his arriuall I might not séeme ill fauored and not gratious in his sight and so might not perhaps please his deinty and curious eyes Which was not harde for mée to doo because being since his departure accustomed and well acquainted with sorrowes it made mée endure and passe them away with verie little trouble or no payne at all And besides this the néere hope of his promysed returne made mée euery day féele a little more ioye and content of mynde Wherefore I beganne to frequent to feastes againe not a little while before intermitted of mée ascribing the occasion thereof to my obscured and clowdie dayes perceauing nowe the cléere and newe times to be at hand Nor no sooner dyd my mynde contracted earst with most bitter and pynching gréefes beginne to dilate and enlarge it selfe in such a pleasaunt and ioyfull life but I became fayrer then euer I was before And I trimmed vppe my gorgeous and rich vestures made my precious ornaments fayrer no otherwise then a valiaunt Knight at armes dooth cleare and make bright his Compleate Harnesse challenged to some worthye and famous combatte because I myght seeme more statelie and brauelie attyred with them at hys returne the whych as after it fell out in vayne I dyd attend As then therefore these actions were chaunged into an other tennour so dyd my thoughtes also chaung theyr coppie Vaine thoughts of loouers It came neuer nowe into my minde that I coulde not sée hym when hée departed nor the remembraunce of the sorrowfull signe of hys smytten foote agaynst the doore nor any thought of stynging and enuious iealousie nor hys susteyned troubles nor my suffered toyles nor his daungers nor my dollours did now molest my peace but rather dayes next before the ende of hys promysed returne I sayd to my selfe Nowe it dooth gréeue my Panphilus to bée long from mée and perceiuing hys time néere according to his promise dooth make short preparation and hast for his spéedy returne And now perhappes hauing left his olde father he is on his waie Oh howe pleasaunt were these wordes vnto me and how often dyd I most swéetly deskant vpon this note thinkinge many times with my selfe with what kinde of most loouing entertainement gratious gesture and swéete and fréendlie shewes I might at the fyrst represent my selfe vnto his personne and welcome him Alas howe many times sayde I to my selfe At his returne he shall be more then a thousand times imbraced of me and my zealous kisses shal be multiplied in such store that they shall not suffer one right and perfect word to come out of his mouth and I will make restitution of them a hundred times redubled which at his departure without receiuing on his parte any againe he gaue to my pale and halfe deade visage And in these kinde of thoughtes I doubted many times with my selfe that I could not bridle that burning and feruent desyre that I should then haue at the first sight of hym to embrace hym if I did perhappes sée him in open an publique companie But the vngentle Goddes as you shall hereafter perceiue found out a sorrowfull meanes which perswaded no feare doubte or mistrust of the due performaunce of any such circumstaunces and ceremonies denying
wordes dyed presently in her mouth and by as much as I coulde perceiue with the greatest paine in the world she stayed her teares ascended already vppe into her eyes from trickling downe her chéekes But I especially desiring the same oppressed with sursaults of vnspeakable gréefe and suddainly after assailed with an other as forcible and as great ielosie I meane I scarcely staid my selfe with moste vile and scolding tearmes froÌ„ reprehending her altered countenaunce and disturbed sences as one greeued at the very hart that she should showe towardes Panphilus such manifest tokens of Loue greatly fearing thereby that she shad perhaps as well as I some iuste occasion to bee discontented with the report of these bitter newes But yet I moderated my selfe and with great paine and fretting anguish of mind the like I think was neuer heard of I bridled and kept still my troubled and irefull harte vnder a modest and vnchaunged countenaunce though more desirous to complaine bewaile then to harken any further after such heauie newes or to sée such apparant and wounding signes of corriuallitie But the yong Gentlewoman perhaps with that same forced courage and strength forcibly retayning her greefe within her like my selfe and passed it away as thoughe it had not béen shée who was before so much troubled in mind and in face and shewing a semblaunce that she beléeued hys words the more she asked the more she founde his answers contrary to her desires and alas most repugnaunt to myne Whereupon leauing the Merchant of whom so instantlye she had demaunded newes and disguising her sadnes with a vysard of fayned myrth we stayed longer together then I woulde talking diuersly of this that But after our talke began to grow to an ende euery one went away and I my selfe with a soule fraught full of anger and anguish fretting within my selfe no otherwise then the enraged Lyon of Libia after he hath discouered the Hunter and his toyles my face burning sometimes by the way as redde as fire and sometimes wexing suddainly pale againe somtimes with a slow pace and sometimes againe with a hastie gate and broade steps more then womanly modestie did require sorrowfully returned to my sorrowfull lodging Where after that it was lawfull for me béeing all alone to doo what I woulde and entred nowe into my Chamber Passions of ielosie I began moste bitterly to lament And when a good while together my infinite teares had washed away a good part of my gréefe my spéech beeing come to me more franckly then before with a faynt and féeble voice I began to lament saying Nowe doost thou know the occasion so greatly desired of thee of his vniust stay Nowe doost thou knowe miserable Fiammetta why thy Panphilus dooth not returne to thée againe Nowe hast thou founde out that which so seriouslye thou didst serche out What doost thou then desire to seeke more miserable wretch as thou art what dost thou demand more Let thys suffice thée Panphilus is no more thine Cast away nowe thy flattering hope for euer séeing hym againe and thy desires to haue him euer any more Abandon thy bootlesse teares lay downe thy feruent loue and leaue of all foolish and vaine thoughts Beléeue from henceforth diuine presages and credite hereafter thine owne diuining minde And nowe beginne to knowe though too late the periuries and deceits of yong men Thou art come iust to that miserable point whereto other sillie women trusting too much like thy selfe haue alreadie arriued And with these wordes I rekindled my incensed rage and reinforced my gréeuous lamentations And afterwards with most fierce words I began to speake thus Blasphemes of those that be ielâ—ous Oh ye Gods where are you now where doo your iuste eyes nowe behold where is nowe your due anger wherefore doth it not fal vppon the contemner and scorner of your myght O mightie Iupiter whose diuine Godheadde canne brooke no wicked periuries and yet is by an execrable impeforsworne what doo thy thunderbolts and where dooest thou nowe bestowe them who hath most iustly nowe deserued them Wherefore are they not cast vppon that most irreligious and perfidus man to terrifie others by his perpetuall fal not to forsweare thy holy name Oh illuminate Phaebus where are nowe thy Dartes with mortall steeles of which fierce Python in respect of him who so falslye called thée to witnes of his detested trecherie and déepe deceits did so yll deserue to be pricked Depriue him of the comfortable light of thy shyning beames and become his pursuing enemie no otherwise then thou shewedst thy selfe to myserable Oedipus O ye other Goddes and Goddesses whatsoeuer and thou mighty looue whose celestial power this false louer hath mocked why doo you not shew your force and power the condigne wrath vpon his guiltie head Why doo yée not turne heauen and earth and all the cruell fates and the infernall sisters against this newe bridegroome that in the world for a notable example of a detestable deceiuer and for a wicked violatour of your righteous lawes despiser of your might he may not suruiue any longer to laughe and flowte you to scorne Many lesse faultes then this haue procured your heauie indignatioÌ„ not to so iust a reuenge as this Wherfore then do you delay it you are not scarce able to be so cruell towardes him that he might for his heinous offence be duely punished Alas poore wretche wherefore is it not possible that your selues iniured also should not féele the effectes of his fraudulent dealinges as well as I so that the irefull heate of his deserued punition should be as well kindled in your reuenging brestes as in my iniured hart Oh Goddes throwe all those daungers downe or else turne some of those least plagues vpon his hateful heade of the which I did of late doubt Kill him with any cruell kinde of death that pleaseth you best because I might in one hower féele my totall and finall gréefe that I should euer after haue sustained for him and so reuenge your selues and me at once Doo not partially consent that I alone should bewaile the gréefe of his vile offences and that he hauing mocked bothe you and me shold merely reioyce and desport him selfe with his new spouse But incensed afterwardes with lesse anger and yet prouoked with more fierce and sharpe complaintes comming to Panphilus I remember that I beganne thus to saye O Panphilus nowe I knowe the cause of thy stayinge there Now are thy deceites most manifest vnto me Now doo I sée what kinde of looue dooth holde thée backe and what pittie dooth kéepe thée there Thou doost now celebrate the vnhallowed Himens and espousall rightes nay wronges and I poore soule enchaunted with the pittifull charmes of thy faire tongue and with thy Crocadile tears deceiued doo now consume and wast my selfe away with mourning and lamenting making with my floddes of teares an open way to my spéedy death which with ignominious titles of thy crueltie and
this poynte But what dooth it auaile for all this to oppose it against thée since thou hast a thousand slights to endomage thy enemies And that which thou canst not bring to passe by right thou doost contend to worke by wrong Not able to sowe the séedes of mallice and enuie in our hartes thou hast indeuoured to inculcate into thē thinges of lyke efecte and predicament and besides this to repleate thē with the greatest gréefe anguish of minde Thy industries adnihilated heretofore and made frustate by our prouident wisdome were strengthened againe by thy other fraudulent forces and péeuishe waies and as a peruerse enemie as well to hym as to mée thou hast practised the meanes with thy ominous accidentes by long distaunce of place to deuide vs both a sunder Alas when I would haue thought that in so straunge a place so farre distaunt from this and deuided from mée by such great Seas so many high hilles wyde féeldes vallies and playnes and by so manie great riuers the onely source and cause of all woes should by thy meanes be sprong vp and growe styll Truely neuer But yet it is so and for all that though he be farre from mée and I from him I doubte not but that in despite of thée Fortune he looueth mée as I looue him whom aboue all thinges else in the world I doo most déerely estéeme But to what ende and effect dooth this looue serue more then if we were eyther mere straungers or mortall enemies Alas nothing at all to no purpose else Our wittes and policie therefore preuailed naught against thy contradictions Thou hast caryed away with hym all my delight all my good and all my ioye and with these my merry times feastes and pastimes my gorgious attyre my péerelesse beautie and my pleasaunt lyfe In lue whereof thou hast left mée dollours gréefe and sorrowe But yet thou couldest neuer make mée relinquishe his looue no nor is thy might so great as great it is to make mée by intermediate fyttes onely fancy hym Alas if I béeing yet but young had committed any thing agaynst thy Godheade the simplicitie of my vnrypened yéeres should haue excused my rawe defectes But if thou wouldest neuerthelesse take some reuenge vpon me Wherefore diddest thou not wreake it vp on thy owne thinges To put ones Sickle in an others Corne. Thou hast iniustly Fortune put thy Sickle in an others Corne. For what hast thou to doo orto entermedle thy lawes with looue his matters I haue most high and strong towers most fayre and ample féeldes many heardes of Cattel and great store of treasure which with thyne owne handes thou hast bountifully bestowed on mée wherefore with consuming flames deuouring waters cruel rapine and saccage and wherefore with vnluckie death diddest not thou extend thy wrath vpon them Thou hast left me those things which may no more auaile for my consolation then Mydas his golden fauour which he receyued of Bacchus for his pinchinge hunger and hast transported onely him away whome I accounted déerer then Gold then gemmes then ritch palaces yea more then infinite worldes of wealth Accursed therfore be those amorous arrowes which presumed to be reuenged of Phaebus and which nowe sustaine such base iniuries by thée Alas if these had neuer pricked thée as now they pearce mée with better aduise perhappes and with more mature deliberation thou wouldest molest thy loouinge associates But beholde thou hast wronged mée and brought mée to this extreame poynte that of the richest noblest and highest Ladie I am become the most miserable and vnfortunate woman in all my countrie and this cruell fortune thou séest to well approoued in mée Euery one dooth reioyce spend their times in merry feastes and glée and onely I doo stil lament and waste my youth in endlesse moane which kinde of lyfe is not now begun but hath so long endured that me thinkes thy mercilesse anger should haue béene ere this tyme somewhat mittigated But I forgiue thée all if of pittie or of curtesy thou wilt let mée fauourably enioy the swéete company of my Panphilus againe as thou hast not without great gréefe deuyded him from mée And if perhappes thy anger dooth yet endure let it be satiated vpon the glory of my goods and possessions Alas cruell as thou art let my vnhappy and poore condition of lyfe gréeue thée and mooue thée to commiseration of my calamities Thou séest that I am become such an one that as a fable to the common people I am carryed from mouth to mouth whereas my seuerall beauties with solemne fame and with swéete prayses were wont to be blazoned euerie where Beginne therefore gentle Fortune at the last to be pittifull towardes me because I may with gratefull and reuerend titles my selfe enabled iustly to prayse to thée incessantlie honour thy mighty maiesty To whose prayers if thou doost open a gratious eare and wilt not rigorously denie the easie effectes of so reasonable a demaunde then for euer doo I vowe and herewithall let the immortall Goddes beare recorde to erecte to thée the liuely Image of my selfe preciously adorned and gloriously sette foorth in euery place and Temple dedicated and most déere to thée in token of thy perpetuall honour and euerlasting fame Which with neuer dying memoriall of thy miraculous pittie subscribed with these wordes This is Fiammetta lifted vppe of Fortune from the deepe pitte of extreme miserie to the highest toppe of happy ioy as shal be published to the open sight and viewe of all the world Oh howe many other things also did I often times declaime with my selfe to recount which would be but a longe and tedious labour but all were bréefelie ended and resolued into bitter teares by meanes of which sometimes it fell out that béeing perceiued of other gentlewomen and with many comfortable words chéered vp by them I was much against my will caryed to these festiuall daunces But who would thinke it possible amorous Ladies that such anguish and gréefe should so vsurpe a young Gentlewomans heart that there was nothing There is nothing that maketh a miserable loouer glad but the same is an occasion of greater greefe againe one way or an other whych coulde not onelie not make it merrie but that the same was an occasion of greater sorrowe which cannot but séeme incredible to all though not to mée miserable woman that hath prooued it dooth féele it and dooth know it to be to true It came to passe manie tymes that the weather according to the season of the yéere béeing verie whot many other Gentlewomen and my selfe because we might the better passe it away vpon most swifte Boates winged on euery side with flashing Oares wée plowed the gentle waues of the calme Sea singing sometimes and with playing sometimes on diuers Instrumentes went rowinge vp and downe to séeke out sollytarie and opacall Rockes deuided from the maine shore entring sometimes into hollowe caues at the footes of stéepe hilles made by nature
And vnlesse thy new looue make thée degresse to farre from the trueth thou wylt confesse and say no. What faulte of myne therefore what iust occasion of thy parte what greater beautie or more feruent looue haue taken thée from mée and giuen thée to an other Truely none And all the Gods be my recordes héerein that I neuer wrought any thing against thée but that beyond all termes of reason I looued thée And if this hath deserued such treachery as thou haste doone and workest against mée let thy owne selfe disloyall as thou art be iudge O ye Goddes the iust reuengers of our vniust defectes I cal vpon you for cruel and due vengeance I neyther wishe nor goe about to practise his death who by his vile escape from mée would haue wrought mine Nor do pray that any other punishmēt may befal to his deserued guilt but if he looue his new choice as I looue him that in casting him of and giuing her selfe to an other as he hath taken him selfe from mée she would leaue him in that kinde of lyfe that cruel as he is he causeth me to leade And so with vnséemely motions of my body turning me now this way now that way like a franticke woman I tumbled and tossed vp and downe in my bed All that day was not spent in other spéeches then in such of like tennour and in most bitter waylings But the night worser then the day and more apte for all kinde of sorrowe the melancholy darkenes being more conformable too meditating miseries then the light béeing now stolen on it came to passe that béeing in déede with my déere husband and lying a great while silent to my selfe and broade waking yet warring within my selfe with hostes of dollorous thoughts amongest which calling to memory all my passed times aswell my pleasaunt occurrences as sorrowfull passages and especially that I had lost my Panphilus by meanes of a new looue my gréefe grewe in such aboundaunce that vnable to keepe it any longer within with great lamentations dolefull complaints I burst it out albeit concealing the amorous occasion of it And my sighes were so forcible and my sobbes so profounde that my Husbande béeing nowe a goodwhile drowned in déepe sléepe by the great noise and molestation of them was awaked and turning himselfe to me who was spunged in mine owne teares and taking mee louingly in his armes with milde and pittiful words he said thus vnto mee O my swéete soule The loue of a good husband what sinister cause of so dolefull a plaint in the quiet night when thou shouldest take thy rest doth trouble thée thus What thing is it that this long time hath made thée so melancholicke and sad Nothing must bée concealed from mee that may any way displease or discontent thée Is there any thing that thy hart dooth desire and that my witt and substance may compasse for thée or that in demaunding of it thou mightest possibly haue Art not thou my onelie comfort my ioy and my good And doost not thou knowe that I loue thée aboue all worldly thinges yea more then my selfe Whereof not by shewe nor one proofe but by dailie experience thou maist liue assured Wherefore dooest thou therefore lament in such sort Wherfore doost thou afflict thy selfe in such extreame gréefe Doo I séeme vnpleasant ill fauoured or nothing gracious in thyne eyes or am I vnworthy of thy beauty or is not my birth parentage and estate agréeable to thy nobilitie or doost thou think mée culpable in any thing that I may amende Speake and tell me franckly and discouer to me the vale of thy desires There shal be nothing left vndoone or vnattempted for thy sake if it may possible bée Thou doost altered in visage and apparrel and extreamely sorowfull in all thy actions minister a doleful occasion and matter to me of an vnquiet life And though I haue before séene thée continually sadde pensiue yet thys day more then at any time I thought of late that some bodilie infirmitie was the cause of thy palenes but nowe I doo manifestly know that it is gréefe of mind that hath brought thée to this pittiful case wherin I sée thée wherfore I pray thée close to me the roote from whence all thy sorowes do grow Whom with a feminine and suddaine witte taking counsel of fained tales and lies which before hadde serued mee for a shyft I answered thus O swéete Husband déerer to me then all the worlde besides I lacke not anie thing wherein thy forward help may auaile mee and acknowledge thée without all doubt more worthy then my selfe but the death of my déere Brother of which thou art not ignorant hath long before and now since brought me to this extreame sorrow Which as often as I thinke of it with bitter wailings dooth rent my harte in péeces Sometimes the maner of ones death is more lamēted then the death it selfe And certes I bewaile not so much his cruell death a thing naturallie incident to vs all but the strange and pittifull manner of the same which thou diddest know to be violent infortunate and bloodie And besides this the straunge things and vglie sights that appeared to me after his death doo kill my fearefull soule to thinke of I can neuer so little shut vp mine eyeliddes or giue any slender sléepe to my sorrowfull eies but immediatly all pale trembling naked and full of goare shewing me his cruell woundes he appeareth quaking before me And euen then when thou diddest perceiue me to wéepe and lament hee came into the Chamber standing and staring before me as I was a sléepe in likenes of a horrible and fainting ghoste fearefully quaking wyth a breathles and panting brest in such sort that he could scarce vtter one word but at the last with extreame paine sayde O my déere Sister wipe that blotte of ignominie from me which with an appalled and troubled face looking euer for verie gréefe and shame thereof on the ground doth make my sorrowfull ghost wander with great disgrace and scorne amongst other haples sprites And although it was some comfort for me to sée him yet ouercome with terror which I had of his dreadfull habite and mooued with iust compassion of his words with starting on a suddaine I awaked out of my féeble sléepe and thus my teares the which thou dooest nowe goe about to comfort fulfilling the duetie of my conceiued pittie did at hand follow And so as the Gods know if weapons were fitte for Women I woulde ere this haue reuenged his miserable death and with a fierce countenaunce and couragious hart sent the gréedie gutton of his innocent blood amongst other damned soules But alas I can doo no more then I am able Therefore déere Husbande not without great occasion I am thus miserablie tormented in minde O with howe manie pittiful words did he then comfort me applying a salue to the wounde which was healed long inough before and howe did hee endeuour to
of my loouing heart and engrafted him false woman in thine And yet I knowe that it is so But with such content and so mayest thou looue and liue I wishe as thou hast made me to doo And if perhappes it be to hard for him to fall in looue the third time then let the Goddes deuide your looues no otherwise then they did dissolue the Grecian Ladies and the Iudges of Ida or as they did disseuer that of the young man of Abydas and of his vigillant and sorrowfull Heroe or as they did breake of those of the miserable Sonnes of Eolus bending their sharpe iudgement onelie against thée he himselfe remaining safe O naughty woman thou must néedes haue thought viewing wel his come lie face that hée was not without some Lady and loouinge Mistresse If thou dyddest therefore suppose this which I knowe thou diddest imagine with what minde diddest thou practise to take that away which appertained to an other with an enuious and fraudulent minde I am sure Wherefore I will as my mortall enemie and wrongfull occupier of my goodes pursue thée euermore and as long as I liue will nourishe and preserue my life with hope of thy shamefull and cruell death Maledictions of anen amoured woman The which I wishe may not be so common and naturall as to others it is but that tourned into a lumpe of massie leade or Ixions heauie stoane tyed about thy necke thou maiest bee cast into some déepe and darke caue amongest the middest of thy enemies murdering handes and that neyther fier or funerall be graunted to burne and burie thy torne and massacred members but béeing pulled in péeces and scattered abroad they may serue to glutte the hungrie mawes of howling dogges and rauenous woolues Which I pray after they haue deuoured thy softe and tender flesh may for thy naked bones fiercelie iarre and cruellie fight one with an other so that gréedelye gnawing and breaking them in péeces with their whetted téeth they may liuely represent thy wicked praie and thée delighted with thy gluttonous rapine which in thy detested life time thou diddest fowlie committe There shall not escape one day not one night no not one hower but my readie mouth shal be full of endlesse curses Sooner shall the Celestiall Beare plumpe downe into the Ocean and the raging waues of Sicilian Caribdis shal be quiet and the barking Dogges of Scylla shal holde their peace and ripe Corne shall growe in the waues of the Ionian sea and the darkest night in her chéefest obscuritie shall shine like Titan his beames and water with fire death with life and the Sea with windes shall sooner with breachlesse faith bée at turce and make concorde togeather before I will reconcile and establishe a péece with thée vile monster of woman kinde But rather whilest golden Ganges shal be hote and Istrus colde and while highe hilles shall beare sturdie Okes and the softe and watred medowes gréene grasse so long foule brothell will I bée at continuall warre and defiaunce with thée which neyther mortall hatred nor death shall determine but pursuing thée amongest the deade gostes and fiendes of Hell with all those tormentes that are vsed there I wyll continuallie plague and eternally punishe thy damned soule for thy condemned and hatefull déede But if perchaunce thou doost suruiue mée whatsoeuer the manner of my death shal be and wheresoeuer my miserable Ghost shall wander from thence perforce I will labour to take it and entring into thy lothsome bodie wyll make thée as madde as the Virgins after they had receiued Apollo Or else comming in thy sight broade wakinge thou shalt sée mée in a most horrible shape and in thy fearefull sléepe oftentymes will I awake The virgins that is the deuiners and afright thée in the vncomfortable silence of the darke night And bréefely in whatsoeuer thou goest about or doost I will continually be a horrible obiecte to thy wicked eyes and a griping corsiue to thy hellishe heart and then remembring this cruell iniurie I will not suffer thée to bée quiet in any place And so long as thou lyuest with such a hideous furie my selfe the onelie worker of it thou shalt be continually haunted And when thou arte deade I wyll minister occasions of more dirie stratagems vnto thy miserably ghost Alas poore wretched that I am to what end are my botlesse words prolonged I barke and threatē thou doost bite hurt me and enfolding my beloued Panphilus betwéene thy vnworthy armes doost care as much for my menacing and offensiue wordes as high and mightie kings for their inferiour and impotent vassailes and no more then conquering Captaines for their confounded captiues Alas would I had now Dedalus hys arte or Medeas Cotche because making wings by the one for my shoulders and being caryed in the ayre by the other I might sodainely alight there where thou doost basely hide and nestle thy selfe with thy stolen loone O how many thundering wordes and what threatning inuectiues with bended browes would I cast out against that false youth and against thée vniust robber of an others felicitie O with what villanous termes would I reprehend your detestable follies And after that I had amazed appaled and attainted your wicked faces with a shamefull blush with recitall of these vnshamefull faultes I would then without delay procéede to sharpe reuenge and taking thy haire false enchauntresse in my handes with pulling and renting them and drawing thée héere and there by thy tresses before thy perfidus loouer I would glutte my swelling anger and tearing thy garmentes from thy disgraced body with reprochfull tauntes I would triumphe ouer thée mall apart and wicked traytresse Nor this should not suffise mee to fulfill my due anger nor be halfe enough for thée to expiate thy odious crime but with sharpe nayles I would disfigure that painted visarde which so much pleased his false eyes leauing an eternall memoriall of their caracters and reuenge in it And thy miserable body with my gréedy téeth péece-meale I should shyuer leauing the which afterwardes vnto him that dooth nowe flatter thée to heale againe my selfe ioyfull for parte of so small vengeaunce would hie me home againe to my sorrowfull habitacles Whylest I spake these wordes with fyrie sparkeling eyes with closed téeth and with bended fist as though I had béene at the very action it selfe I remained a prettie while silent and me thought I had indéede played one Pagent of my gréedy reuenge But the olde Nurce with mournefull voyce lamenting sayde thus vnto mée O daughter since thou doost now know the furious tyrannie of this passion which thou callest thy God who dooth this molest thée temperate thy selfe and bridle thy pittious complaintes And if the due pittie which thou shouldest take of thy owne selfe dooth not mooue thée héereunto The care of her honour must warne euery wise woman frō vaine thoughts deedes let the regarde of thy honour perswade thée to it which for an olde
cleaued almost a sunder with vnspeakable gréefe and perceiuing my Louer to bee farre from mee like a desperate and franticke Womanne I beganne thus to say to my selfe Behold the very selfe and same occasion which Sidonian Eliza had to abandon this hatefull world cruell Panphilus hath giuen me And alas a great deale worse It pleaseth him that forsaking these I séeke out other regions And since I am become his subiect I will fulfill his hard beheste and pitty-les pleasure and in one howre I will requite my haplesse loue my committed wickednesse and my iniuried and déere husband with a tragicall and vnnaturall death And if oppressed soules deliuered out of thys corporall prysonne haue any liberty in the newe world I wyll without delay conioyne mine with hys And where my body cannot bee my soule shall supplye the place of it Beholde therefore I wyll die and so rydde me of all these paines I thinke it most conuenient that with these handes I execute this last stratageme vpon my selfe Because there can be no other hande so cruell that can perfectly performe that which iustly I haue deserued I wyll therefore without delay willingly take my death the remembraunce of which although it be terrible to my weake sexe and to my womanly thoughts yet shall it be as welcome vnto me as this painfull life is yrkesome vnto my soule And after that I had resolued vppon this last pretence I began to deuise with my selfe which was of a thousande wayes the best to take my life from me And first of all colde and sharpe yrons came to my minde the mortall meanes of many one hys vntimely death considering that the said Eliza by their cruelty did forsake thys cōmon ayre and then after these the deathes of Biblis and Amata were presented before mine eyes the manner of which was offered to mee to ende my weary life But more carefull of my honor and good name then chary of my selfe and fearing more the maner of dying then death it selfe the one séeming vnto me very infamous and the other too extreame cruell in the mouthes and mindes of euery one were occasions to make me refuse the one and not to like of the other Afterwards I imagined to doo as the Sagontines and as those of Abydas dyd the first fearing Hanniball of Carthage and the other Phillip of Macedon committing themselues and all theyr goods to the fury of consuming flames But knowing that thys coulde be no small detriment to my déere Husbande vnculpable and guiltlesse of my euils I refused also this kinde of death as I did the rest before After these I called to mind the venimous iuyces which héeretofore assigned to Socrates to Sophonisba to Hanniball and to many other Princes more their last daies And many of these indéede as they pleased my changable fancie so did I thinke them fitte for the purpose But perceiuing that in going about to séeke them no little time was requisite and doubting leaste by enquirie of them my drifts shoulde bee called in question and sifted out and that my determined purpose also in the meane while might perhaps haue béene altered I imagined to séeke out some other kinds of death Wherefore I bethought me as many times I had doone before to yéelde vppe my féeble spirits betwéene my knées but doubting least it should be known and suspecting some other impediment incident to it I passed to other headlong thoughts And the very same occasion and least I should be also séene made me forsake the burning and swalowed coales of Portia But the death of Ino and of Melicer ta likewise the hunger starued ende of Erisichthone occurring to my memory the long time that I should haue in executing the one and in staying for the other made me also to reiect them thinking that the paine of the laste did a greate while nourishe the languishing body But besides all these wayes the precipitate death of Perdix falling frō the highest Towre of Creete came also to my minde which spéedie kind of death onely pleased me infalliblie to followe as one deuoide of all insuing infamie saying to my selfe Casting my selfe downe from the highest Turrets of my Pallace I shall crush my boanes in a hundred péeces and dashe out my braines and by all those seuerall péeces will yéelde vppe my haplesse soule contaminated with prepared goare and ready broken vp to be offered vppe as a Sacrifice to the Gods And fewe or none there are that will imagine and say that by mine owne cruelty furie or proper will this death besell vnto me but imputing it rather to some vnlucky chaunce with powring out pittifull teares for mee will bewayle my vntimelie death and curse my froward Fortune This deliberation therefore tooke place in my mind and it liked me especiallie to put the same in practise thinking to haue vsed great pittie towards me if I had perhaps become pittilesse and cruell against mine owne selfe This determination therefore had now taken sure roote in my hart and I did not attend for any thing els but fitte time Wicked thoughts euer warre with good when a chillie cold suddainly entring into all my boanes made me tremble for very feare which brought these words with it saying O miserable Woman what dooest thou intende to doo Wylt thou ouercome with madde anger in a senceles rage fury cast thy selfe away If thou wert nowe constrained to die of some gréeuous infirmitie wouldest not thou alas endeuour and séeke to liue because at the length thou mightest sée thy Panphilus once more before thy death Dost not thou thinke that when thou art deade thou shall neuer sée him againe and that no kinde of pittie that hee may vse in thy behalfe may helpe thée any thing at all For what did the slacke returne of Demophoon profitte vnpatient and strangled Phillis She florishing without any delighte felt his comming which if she could haue staied for he might haue found her still a Woman as he left her and not a Trée Liue therfore Fiammetta for he will yet for all this returning as a fréende or as an enemie at length come to thée againe And with what disposed minde soeuer he returne thou canst not choose but loue him still And perhaps thou shalt sée him talk with him and mooue his vnconstant and harde harte to compassion of thy woefull plightes Hee is not made of sturdye Oake nor of Flinty stone nor borne bredde nor nourished in a hollow Caue amongst wylde Beastes and did neuer sucke the milke of Tygres nor drinke any other sauage and cruell beastes blood neither is his hart made of Diamonde or of stéele and is not of so brutishe and rusticall inclination but that he will lend his eares and bende his hart to my pittifull plaints passions and perswasions and take some remorse of coequall commiseration of my sustained sorrowes But if he will not be ouercome with pittie then wearyed of thy lothsome life it shall be more lawfull for
thée driuen on on by manifest dispayre to kill thy selfe Thou hast passed away more then one whole yéere without him a pensiue and painefull life and wel maiest thou yet though with redoubted gréefe rubbe out an other Death dooth not fayle at anie time Any may haue death whensoeuer they will whensoeuer one dooth eyther desire or procure it which will be then as prest and more ready to come then nowe he is And thou maiest then depart with hope bee he neuer so malicious and cruell that béeing at thy present and haplesse death he will shedde some teares Recall therefore againe thy ouer rashe and cruell aduise Because whosoeuer hasteneth too much to wicked counsell Who hasteneth to wicked coūsell studieth to repent at leysure studyeth afterwardes to repent himselfe by leysure And this last parte of thy tragicall life which thou doost meane to play is not a thing that may afterwards be amended with vaine repentance which if it did follow could not with all the force it had recall it backe againe My mind béeing thus mollified with these arguments with a suddain altered purpose and inopinate aduise I kept a long time in an equall poyse of moderate reason But dreadfull Megera launcing it with sharpe and mortall woundes of gréefe disturbed by setled sences and dystourned my willing minde from following this good motion and egged me on to prosecute and to practise my first vnnaturall and cruell resolution which now I thought priuily and earnestly to bring to effect Wherefore to cloake it I alwayes shewed mine olde Nurce a merry countenaunce and did finely counterfette my sadde chéere with some pleasant kind of comfortable spéeches to whom because I would haue had her gone out of the Chamber I sayd Behold good Mother how I haue planted thy most true reasons graue coūsels with great profit in my breast but because this blind furie may depart out of my foolish mind withdraw thy selfe from hence a while leaue me to my rest that am nowe verie desirous to sléepe But shée béeing as full of subtiltie as my selfe and as one that did diuine of my secrete intent cōmended much the minde I had to sléepe and as shee was cōmanded went a little way from me into a dark corner hard by but would by no meanes goe out of the Chamber But because I woulde not giue her any occasion to suspect that which I went about cléene contrary to my minde and desire I séemed to like well of her staying still thinking that after she had séene mée sléepe shée woulde haue gone away With quiet rest therefore I fayned this imagined deceite in the which although nothing appeared outwardly yet thinking of that howre which should haue béene my last in this pleasing world full of bitter anguish and enuironed rounde about with legions of stinging gréefes I muttered forth these words to my selfe saying O miserable Fiammetta and of all Women that liue in this world the most miserable behold thy Glasse is nowe runne thy latest day howre and last periode is come And after that from the highest place of thy Pallace thou shalte haue throwne thy selfe headlong downe and that thy soule shall haue forsaken thy brused bodie then let thy teares bee dryed vp let thy sighes then surcease and thy sorrowes and desires be determined and then in one howre with the déere price of thy spilled blood with the raunsome of thy pale death thou shalt redéeme thy selfe from the bonds and captiuitie of loue And then shalt thou cancell the verball Obligation of Panphilus his promised and vnperformed faith Thys day thou shalt haue the deserued embracings of him This day the Millitary Ensignes of loue shall couer thy body wyth a dishonest and vnséemely torture This day thy wearyed spirits shall sée him This day thou shalt know for whom thou hast forsaken thy selfe This day of force thou shalt make him pittifull This day thou shalt beginne the vengeance of the yong and wicked Sorceresse and thy malitious copartner But Oh yée Goddes if any pittie doth harbour in your diuine breasts be fauourable to me in these my last prayers Suffer not my death and the memory of my life to passe amongst the rude populare with blotte of dishonor stayne of infamie And if in taking the same there bee any faulte committed behold there is a present satis-faction since that I die with feare to publish the occasion thereof The reuealing of which shoulde be certes no small comfort vnto mee if I beléeued that in talking of it it might escape without ignominious blame Make my déere Husbande also ye sacred Goddes suffer it with patience whose true loue if I had duely obserued and had rightly performed Iunos holy lawes I might haue yet liued a happye and merry Woman without troubling your diuine Godheads with these earnest prayers But like an ignoraunt Woman of my thrise happy estate and as others of my condition are wont to doo following euer the worst womē take euer the worst in hand and forsaking the best am nowe woorthely appaide with this vnfortunate and due recompence O fatall Atropos by thy infallible blowe to all the world I humbly pray thée that thou wouldest with thy power guide my falling body and dissolue my soule not with too great paine from the thredde of thy Sister Lachesis And thée O Minos receiuer of it by that loue that somtimes burned thée and by this blood which now I offer vnto thée euen by the same by what els may mooue thée infernall Iudge I obtest thée fauourably to conduct it to the places appointed by thy iust iudgment for it and that so cruell and sharpe torments be not prepared for it as to déeme and repute the infinite paines that it hath already passed but light in respect of them to come After I had spoken these wordes to my selfe incensed Tesiphon appeared before mine eyes and with a sencelesse murmure and contracted and menacing forehead made me afraide of a worser life to ensue then that which was alreadie past but afterwards with a kind of confused spéeche saying That nothing which was neuer tryed could be hurtful inflamed my troubled mind with a more eager desire of my owne ruine Wherfore perceiuing that my olde Nurce was not yet gone and doubting least her long tarying might not marre my matters béeing nowe resolued to die or that some other accident might not take it quite away with displayed armes vpon my bed and embracing it I said O bedde farewell praying the Gods that thou maist bee more fortunate and gracious to thy next Mistresse whom thou shalt receiue then thou hast béene to me After which words my eies rolling about the chamber the which I neuer thought to haue séene any more surprised nowe with suddaine griefe I was depriued of the light of the Heauens and groueling vp and downe surseysed I know not with what a shiuering and trembling feare thorow out all my body I would haue rysen vppe
but euery part of the same ouercome with quaking feare did not suffer me but I fell suddainly downe againe not once but thrise vpon my face in which occurrant I felt a fierce warre betwéene my angry soule and my timorous and vitall spirits which by maine force did kéepe it still that faine would haue flowen away But my soule at last ouercomming them and driuing away colde feare from me suddainly kindled me with a hote and burning dollour and so I recouered my wandred forces againe And yet my face morphewed with the pale colour of death I violently rose vppe and as the sturdy Bull hauing receiued some mortal pricke fiercely runneth vppe and downe beating and tormenting him selfe euen so hellish Tesiphon gadding madly vp and downe before myne eyes made me like a frantick and mad Woman and not knowing mine owne fancies cast my selfe from the bedde vpon the grounde and ledde by this infernal féende I did runne towards the stayres that went vp to the highest part of the house And hauing in a trice leaped out of the Chamber with most extreame lamentations and carelesse lookes viewing euery part of the house at last wyth a hollow and féeble voice I sayd O most vnluckie lodging vnto me remaine thou héere for euer and make my fall manifest to my Louer if euer hee returne againe And thou Oh déere Husbande comfort thy selfe and from hence forwarde séeke out a newe wyfe but a more wyse louing and more loyall mate thē Fiammetta hath béene vnto thée O my déere Sisters Parents and all the reste of my other companions and fréendes wyth all ye my faithfull Seruaunts lyue yée héere styll with all the fauoure that the Goddes may affoord you The goodnes of God oftentimes doth not suffer wicked determinations to come to effect Thus like a madde Woman with sorrowfull words I did hasten to my wicked ende But the olde Nurce as one by some suddaine feare awaked out of a slumber careleslye leauing of her worke at the whéele greatly amazed at the sight of this spectacle lifted vppe her aged body and crying as loude as euer she could made poste haste to followe mee who with a horce voyce and scarcely vnderstoode of me said O daughter whether doost thou run what madde fury dooth driue thée forwarde Is this the fruite that my wordes as thou saydst by the receiued comfort of them did put in thy breast Whether goest thou Tarry for me alas Afterwardes with a lowder voyce she yet exclaimed O yée yong menne and seruaunts of the house come come quickly take away this fonde Woman and kéepe her backe from her furious actions and desperate intent Her vociferations were of no force and their hast lesse spéedie And me thought I had Mercury his winges fastened to my shoulders and that swifter then Atlanta nay then any wynde I did flye to my violent death But of vnexpected chaunces appending as well to good as to wicked purposes one alas was an occasion to make me still enioy this lothsome life Because my long garments wauing and blowne abroade with the force of my hasty flight and fréendly enemies to my furious pretence my selfe also not able to refraine my course were fastened I know not howe to a shyuered poste by the wall as I was running and interrupted my swift passage which for all the striuing and pulling that I could doo did not suffer me to leaue any péece of them behinde me Wherefore whilst I was labouring to vndoo them the sorrowful Nurce breathlesse and panting came vppon me to whom I remēber with taynted chéekes full of burning anger and with outragious outcryes I said O miserable olde woman pack from hence in an euill howre if thy life bee déere vnto thée Thinking to helpe me thou doost hinder me in not permitting me to execute this last mortall duety resolued therevnto and spurred on with an eager desire to cut in sunder the webbe of all my woes Because whosoeuer dooth let one from dying that is disposed desirous and resolued to die Who doth hinder one that is disposed to die he himselfe doth kill him doth no lesse then kill him himselfe Wherfore thou art now become my homicide thinking to deliuer me from death and like the greatest enemy to my quiet rest doost endeuour with thy thanklesse office to prolong my sorrowes My tongue exclaimed and my hart burned wyth ire and yet thinking to haue loosed my garments in hast I dyd entangle and fasten them more and more which as soone as I had founde out the way to vndoo I was immediatly helde and staied by the noise of the clamorous Nurce so that by her féeble forces and hanging vpon me I was greatly disturbed of my purpose But vnwynding my selfe at last out of her handes her strength had profited her nothing at all if the yong Seruants and Women at her continuall exclamations had not come running from euery part of the house and force perforce had not stayed me Out of whose handes with much strugling and diuers frisks and with greater forces also the desire of death adding strength to my mighty wyll I thought to haue vngrappled my selfe but breathles at the last and ouercome by them I was carryed backe againe to my Chamber which once I thought neuer to haue séene againe How many times alas with lamentable and bitter spéeches did I chyde them saying O vile and base Seruants what boldnes is this that makes you so mallepart and what precipitate presumption is this that mooues you so rudely and so roughly to handle her whom you should reuerence and contrary to your duety thus violently to lay hands and grype your Mistresse to whom you should be most obsequious and of whose welfare you should be most carefull and at whose will and pleasure you should be most dilligent and ready What kind of furie madde wretches hath enspyred you to this rash dealings And thou wicked Nurce the cruell example and meane of all my miserable gréefes yet to come why hast thou repugned my last desseignes Why dooest not thou knowe that in procuringe and helping forwarde my death thou haddest doone me a greater pleasure and a better turne then in with-holding me from it Wherefore let this miserable part be playd and let the ende of my tragical life be duely accomplished by me and if thou louest me as I thinke thou dooest leaue mee to mine owne wyll leaue me I say to mine owne selfe to represent the last pagiaunt of my dolefull life And if thou art so pittifull and carefull ouer me as thou shewest employe thy piety and studie in sauing my doubtful fame and honor which after my death shal stil suruiue Because in this péece of simple seruice with which thou doost nowe hinder me thy practise payne and néedelesse labour shall proue at length but vaine For doost thou thinke to take from me those sharp tooles and cruell poynados wyth which I will at last broche this miserable hart of myne and
in whose poynts and edges consisteth the onely hope of my desires Or els strangling cordes lothsome and swelling poysons mortiferous hearbs choaking ryuers burning coales and consuming flames What doth this vigilant care auaile thée anie more but to prolong a little this yrkesome life and to reserue it to that kinde of death which euen nowe without touch or staine of infamie might haue set peace to my afflicted soule which by thy pittilesse interruptions deferred thou shalt doubtlesse at one time or other make most infamous vnto al the worlde and moste shamefull vnto mee Because death is in euerye place and consisteth in euery thing Let me therefore nowe die least growing to a more gréeuous condition of life with a more inhumaine minde and cruell hand I prepare for my selfe the most miserable and cruell death that may be Whylst wretched Womanne I spake these wordes I coulde not keepe my handes styll but sometimes fallinge on one Seruaunt and sometimes on an other catching some by theyr locks I pulled the heayre from theyr heade and fastening my nayles in the faces of other some I made the bloode to spynne out of theyr cheekes tearynge from othersome their poore garments from theyr backs But alas neither the olde Nurce nor the mangled seruauntes aunswered me one word againe but lamenting my sencelesse actions executed their pittious functions towardes me whom then with gentle wordes and entreties I endeuoured to gaine to my will which serued my turne nothing at all Wherefore lyke a franticke Hecuba making a great noyse and with outragious spéeches I beganne to exclaime saying O wicked handes and prone to al mischéefe you the adorners of my hurtfull beauties were a great occasion to make me become such an one as to séeme so fayre and pleasing in his eyes that I was desired of him whome I looue most of all Since therefore these euilles haue spronge by your helpe in guerdon of this vse now your wicked crueltie vpon my accursed body Rent it in péeces and open it and diued in my hotte blood pull out from my accursed bodie my miserable heart and inexpugnable soule Teare out I say this false hart wounded with blind looue And since that all meanes of mortall and murdering instrumentes are taken from thée with these reuenging fingers the adorners of my banefull beauties and with these sharpe nayles péece-meale dismember and without remorce of pittie rent it out Alas that my bootelesse spéeches did menace and promise me desired euilles and commended them to the execution of willing handes but the vigilant care of the prying seruantes béeing alwaies ready to the hinderaunce of them withhelde them against my will And the mournefull and importunate Nurce with dolefull speeches after all this beganne thus to say Affectionate comforts O déerest daughter by these miserable breasts which were the scources of thy alimentes I humbly pray thée that with a quiet and appeased minde thou wouldest giue eare to my wordes By them I will labour to mittigate thy passions that thou shalt not sorrow any more or to driue quite away perhapes from thée the blinde anger that dooth incend thée to this kinde of furie or else with a more remisse and calme minde to make thée suffer the same or else spéedely to forsake it Wishing thée to reduce that to thy erred memory that shall reuiue thée and be no smal health and great honour vnto thée It is therefore expedient for thée good Ladie most famous for so rare vertues as thou art endued with al the gifts of nature and fortune not to be subiect to pinching sorrow nor as a woman ouer-come to turne thy backe from daring dollours from threatning mishappes and from persuinge woes It is not a poynt of vertue to require death and to call vpon it nor a parte of magnanimitie to be afraide of life It is not vertue to desire death and to be afraid of life as thou art but rather to countermaund pressing euilles and to flie away before them is not the part of couragious and resolute mindes Whosoeuer dooth abate his destinies and dooth contemne deuide and cast from him the profittes pleasures contentes and goodes of his life as thou hast don I knowe not what néede he hath to séeke death and cannot tell why he feareth life since that the one and the other is a will of a timerous persō Now if into the darke dungeon of extreame misery thou doost desire wil-fully to cast thy selfe séeke not death because this is the last expeller and extinguisher of it Let this foolish fury fly out of thy mind by the which mée thinketh thou doost séeke both to haue and to lose thy loouer Why doost thou beléeue by béeing dissolued into nothing to get him againe To whom I aunswered not a word But there was such a rumour spread thorow out the wide house thorow out the Cittie and country rounde about that all my seruauntes no otherwise then at the howling of some hungrie woolfe all the néerest inhabitauntes are woont to méete together came running to me from euerie place and all of them afrighted with sodaine sorrow demanded what the matter was But I had already forbidden them that knew it to tell any thing at all Wherefore couering the horrible accident with a cunning lie they rested all satisfied My déere husband made hast thether and my louing sisters my carefull parents and fréends with panting fainting breasts came running to me And euery one of them equally deluded with a false tale did instéed of a most wicked woman repute and praise me for a holy Saint And euerie one after much wéeping first reprooued my life punished with so much sorrowe labouring afterwards to comfort me vp againe But from thence foorth it fell out that some beléeued that I was haunted and stinged with some fury and therefore like a madde woman continually watched mee But some more pittifull then the rest marking my mildnes and iudging it as it was indéede but a certaine gréefe of minde with taking great compassion of me laughed at that which the rest both dyd and sayd And visited thus of many I remained euery day more amazed then other And vnder the discrete garde of the sage Nource I was closely kept And as there is no anger so burning or so extreame All anger with time is brought to nothing but by course of time is made colde againe So remaining certaine dayes in this case as I haue set downe I came to my selfe at last againe and did manifestly know the Nurces wordes to be true And with bitter teares therefore I bewailed my passed follies But yet although that the heate of my rage in time was spent and became nothing my looue neuertheles did not one whitte decrease but taried with me still by reason of the melancholie vsed in other accidents before which now continually I had taking it gréeuously at the hart to be forsaken for the vniust looue of an other woman Wherefore I conferred with
that mooueth thée from telling it but onelye that which I feare will prooue ominous vnto mee Conceale it no longer but declare it whilst I am attending for worse What tell me at a worde liueth my Panphilus She pricked on by my angrie wordes and threatnings with a lowe voice and looking downe to the grounde saide Hee lyueth Then said I againe wherefore doost thou not tell me quicklie What enuious accidents stay him from cōming hether Why doost thou hold me in suspence and wauering amidst a thousand fearefull surmises Is he sicke with any malladie Or what froward occasion doth with-holde him that beeing come out of the Gally he doth not come to sée me Then shée said I knowe not whether want of health or any other mischaunce doth detaine him Then said I againe hast thou not séene him or is he not yet come I haue séene him sayd she and he is come but not the same whom we did expect Howe art thou sure said I that he is not my Panphilus Hast thou séene him at any other time and didst thou nowe behold and marke him well Truelie said she I did neuer sée him that I wote of but béeing euen nowe broughte vnto him by that yong Gentleman who tolde me the first newes of hys returne and telling him that I had oftentimes enquired for him he asked me what I would with him His health and welfare said I. And I demaunding of him how his old Father did and in what estate the rest of his thinges stood and what was the cause of his long staying since his departure he answered that he neuer knewe his Father and that hée was a posthumus borne Posthumus is he that is borne after his Fathers death and that all his thinges were in good plight and that he had neuer béene héere before and did meane to stay héere but a small time These thinges made me to wonder and doubting least I was deceiued I asked him his name which curteously and plainly he tolde me and I no sooner hearde it but immediatly I perceiued by the identity and likenes of it with the name of thy beloued Panphilus both thée and my selfe to be greatly deceiued When I hearde these thinges most pittifull Ladyes mine eyes forsooke their lights euery sensitiue spirit for feare of death Effectes of a suddaine passion went their wayes and falling downe in the place where I satte there remained no more force in my body then was scarce able to breathe forth one poore alas Which when the miserable olde Woman perceiued lamenting greatly and calling the rest of my Women about mee caryed mee like a dead woman to my bedde and there labouring to reduce my wandering spirits with colde water beléeuing a great while together to recouer life and yet misdoubting al so the same they watched me with diligent care But after that my forsaken forces came to me againe and after I had powred foorth many teares and sighes I asked the sorrowfull Nurce an other time if it were so as she had sayd And besides this remembring with my selfe howe warye and discrete Panphilus was wont to bee and suspecting that hee had wisely and of purpose made himselfe vnknowne to the Nurce with whom he had neuer talked in his life before I wylled that she should describe vnto me the countenaunce the feyture the gesture the personage and the fashions of that Panphilus with whom she had talked But shee affyrming first with an oath that it was no lesse and no otherwyse then she had tolde me declared to mee afterwardes in order his stature the lineaments of his body face and last of all the manner of his apparrell All which alas made mee gyue too great faith to that which the olde woman told me Wherefore thruste of from all hope I reentred into my former woes and rysing vppe like a franticke Woman I pulled of my sumptuous garments of ioy and layd aside my once déere but now vnpleasant ornaments and my friseled shyning hayre with an enuious Hecuba hand I tore out of order and did carelesly ruffle them together and despysing all comfort I beganne most bitterly to complaine of my incessant and miserable mishaps and with cruell wordes to condemne my failed hope and to blame the good thoughts and like concealed opinions of my vntrue and wycked Louer And in bréefe I returned wholy to my olde life of myseries and hadde a more earnest and feruent desire of death then before which I had not escaped Hope doth still keepe one in life as yet I haue but that the hope of my intended voyage with no little force with-helde me from performaunce of it The ende of the sixt booke ⧠The seuenth Booke of Maister Iohn Boccace hys Fiammetta IN this kinde of lyfe therefore most pittifull Ladies I haue remained as by the recounted and passed accidents you may geather And by how much my vngratefull Lord dooth sée my hope fly from me by so much the more dooth he worke stranger effects in me then he was wont to doo and blowing with more hot desires the glowing coles of looue in my smothered breast dooth make them greater then before which as on the one side they doo mightilie encrease so are my paines and sorrows on the other by like proportion augmented Which neuer béeing with due oyntment asswaged of me are by my own will and follies made more gréeuous and insupportable And béeing more sharpe doo more afflicte my sorrowfull and woefull minde And I doubt not but following theyr headlong course they will at length with some honest meane open mee the way of death which heretofore I haue so long and vnfainedly desired But yet hauing my assured hope as I haue alreadie sayd in my pretended voyage to finde and sée him ah that vngratefull Panphilus I meane who is the originall of all this I did not séeke to mittigate them but was rather now resolued as wel as I could constantly to endure them For performaunce of which I found out one onely possible way amongst many others To resemble ones paine with an others greefes is a lightning of sorrowe which was to compare and measure my paines with theirs who had likewise passed suche bruntes as my selfe fighting vnder the amorous ensignes and in the dollorous battayles of looue Wherof I thinke to reape a double commodity First in knowing my selfe not the first nor to be alone afflicted with misery as not long since my Nurce in her alleaged comfortes told me Secondly that euery gréefe payne and pange of their looue being in my iudgement sufficiently recompenced I determined and resolued with my selfe to passe away euer after with my former euery other gréefe whatsoeuer which I recken no little glory to me when I may say that I am onely she that liuing hath sustained more gréefe and misery then any other woman And with this kinde of glorie forsaken yet of euery one as extreame misery indéede and of my selfe alas if I could
otherwise doo in this sorte as you shall heare I passed away my melancholie times I say therefore that martired with these continuall anguishes and considering well of others who haue not béene exempted from the lyke the painefull looues of Inacus his daughter who being first a tender and delicate damsell and passing loouely and beautifull did séeme liuely to represent me came to my minde and afterwards her great good happe and happy felicitie in that she was not meanely belooued of mightie Ioue Which thing doubtlesse cold not be of her onely but of euery womā also accompted a great glory and praise Afterwardes considering howe shee was metamorphised into a Cowe and how by the seuere commaunde of iealious Iuno she was kept of vigilant Argus I did iudge her to be beyond all measure tormēted with great anxieties and gréefe of mind And certes I am of opinion that her gréefs did greatly excéede mine if that for her company comfort she had not had sometimes the assistance of her loouing God And who dooth doubt if I had the swéete company of my loouer who might any time haue helped me in these ruthfull passions or that he had but sometimes taken any little pittie of me that any woes whatsoeuer coulde haue annoyed me so as they haue continually doone Bedes this her ende made her passed and approoued sorrowes very light Because Argus being killed by her loouers messenger and she transported lightly with her heauie body into Egipt and returned there to her owne shape againe and maryed to Ostiris she sawe her selfe at last installed in the Emperiall diademe and like a happy Quéene to sway the regal scepter of Egipt If I could but thinke or hope though in my olde age to sée my Panphilus once againe I would say that my gréefes were not to be compared with the sorrowes of this Lady But the Gods onely knowe if this good fortune shall euer happē to me or no howsoeuer with false hope in the meane time I delude and flatter my selfe The greater part of these fables are in Ouide Next to her the vnfortunate looue of Biblis is represented vnto my thoughts whom me thinke I sée forsake all her wealth ioy and pleasure to followe vnflexible Caunus And with these I bethinke my selfe also of wicked Mirrha who after the detested fruition of her odious looues flying from her angry Father who pursued her with menaces of iust death plunged also into that misery I behold also dolorus Canace who after the miserable byrth of her incestious conceptiō looked for nothing lesse but death And thinking well with my selfe of their seuerall sorrowes I dyd doubtlesse estéeme them to be extreame although their looues were but filthy and abhominable lustes But if I am not deceiued I sée them all ended or else in shorte space to be terminated Because Mirrha flying away hauing the Goddes pittifull of her paines and aunswerable to her desires was with delay transformed into a trée of her owne name And shee neuer after although it dooth continually destill Amber teares as shee dyd at the very instant when her forme was changed felte any of her former paynes and playntes And as the occasion of her sorrowes dyd aryse so the cause of theyr pryuation was not also wanting Biblis likewise as some say without any longer delay ended her dolefull daies with a cruell halter admitte that others holde that by great fauour of the Nimphes who did commisserate her harde destinies she was turned into a fountaine of her owne name till this day yet kéeping the same And this befell to her when she knew that Caumus denied her her desires and scornefully reiected her companie and with frowning browes reprooued her wicked sutes What shal I say in shewing my owne paines greater alas then those that molested Biblis more gréeuous then those that Mirrha had but that the breuiety of them hath had no small aduantage ouer the length of mine Those therefore well considered the pittifull looues of haplesse Pyramus and Thisbe were next obiected to my remembraunce of whome I cannot but take great compassion imagining them both to be young and with great trouble many sorowes to haue burned in each others looue and labouring with mutuall presence to haue reaped the fruite of theyr feruent desires which with vntimely death and in shorte time were equallie dissolued O what a pittifull thing is it to thinke what gréefe pearced poore Pyramus his hart when in the silent time of night finding his déere Thisbes robes bloody and torne of the wild beast at the foote of the Mulbery trée néere vnto the foūtaine and appointed méeting place by these dismall vnexpected tokens he surely thought that she was deuoured The sheathing certes of his own sword in his inpatiēt breast did shew it manifestly enough Afterwards discoursing in my minde the wounding thoughtes of miserable Thisbe beholding her loouer wallowing in his owne goare and pāting yet with declining life I thinke them to be so gréeuous and imagine her teares also to be such burning droppes that I can hardlie beléeue that there were euer any myne owne excepted that dyd torment and scalde more then hyrs Wherefore these two as it is now sayd in the very beginning of theyr gréefes and looues dyd ende the very same O thrise happy soules if that in the other world as in this their perfect and firme looue dooth still remaine inuiolate And so the paynes cares and infinite woes of all theyr former looue could not be equiualent with the delightes and content of their eternall company After these the gréefe of forsaken Dido entred with greater force and déeper consideration into my minde because her condition did of all others most resemble mine I imagined how she was building of Carthage and studying with great Maiesty to dictate lawes in Iunos temple to her new people And how she gaue bountifull entertainment to Aeneas a straunger vnto her by enuious tempests of the Sea weatherbeaten and cast vpon her Libian shores and how she was enamoured of his braue personage and passing vertues and at last howe she committed both her selfe and all hirs to the disposition and pleasure of that Troyan Duke Who hauing vsed her royall Pallaces at his pleasure and soaked himselfe in all manner of delices in her countrie she being euery day more and more enflamed with his looue abandoning her at last departed from thence O how much without compare did she séeme miserable in my conceite beholding her looking from her highest turrettes towards the sea couered with disankred shippes of her flying and vnpittifull loouer But I iudge her more impatient then dollorous when I thinke of her cruell death And certes at the first departure of my Panphilus I felt in my oppinion the very selfe same gréefe as she did on the sodaine endure at the sayling away of false Aeneas O that it had so pleased the Goddes that I as vnable to endure my gréefe as she was hers had
with some sodaine death ended my loathed life so that by these meanes I might haue deliuered my selfe from these paines and sorrowes as she dyd her selfe which afterwardes by defaulte thereof dyd continually cleaue in sunder my afflicted hart After these miserable thoughtes and the ruthfull chaunces of vnhappy Heroe of Sesto came to my minde whome mee thought I sawe comming downe from her highest Tower to the Sea bankes and rockes where she was wont sometimes to méete and receiue her welbelooued and wearied Leander into her armes And euen there againe mée thinks I se her with what a pittifull pale countenance she beheld her loouer lying dead before her Sorrow ceaseth when hope is past to regaine the thing which is lost driuē first on shore by a fréendly Dolphin al naked souced in brinish waters laid along vpon the Sea sands wiping with her garmentes the salte water from his pale visage and drowning hym the second time with the flowing streames of her swelling teares Ah what great pittie dooth her cruell passages finde in my sorrowfull mind More truelie then any of those of the foresayd ladyes and sometimes so much that forgetting my owne woes I did wéepe and lament for hirs And lastly cold I conceiue no meanes for her cōfort but one of these two either to die or else to forget him as other dead men haue béene In taking eyther of which her sorrowes I thinke might haue easilie béene finished Considering that no lost thing in recouering of which againe there is no hope lefte can gréeue vs any long time But yet the Goddes forbidde that this kinde of comfort should happen to me which if it did come to passe no counsel in such a case should auaile but that which perswaded me once to a resolute and hasty death For during the time that my Panphilus liueth whose lyfe his happie starres and predominante planettes preserue as long as he himself dooth desire that cannot I hope nor shall not befall vnto me But séeing the enter course of mundane thinges in continuall motion this beléefe is added to my hope that in the end or else perhappes before he shall returne and be mine againe as once he was which lingering hope not comming to effect dooth howerly make my life gréeuous and irkesome vnto mée And by thus much therfore I estéeme my selfe oppressed with greater sorrowe then she was I remēber that in French méeters to which if any credite may be lent I haue sometimes read that Sir Tristram and Lady Isotta haue more then any other loouers French Rimes mutually and feruentlie looued each other and with their chaunging delightes haue had great misfortunes and aduersities enter mingled euen in the floorishing and brauest time of theyr youth who because loouing greatly togeather they haue tasted both of one ende it séemes most credible that not without extreame sorrowe and bitter gréefe on bothsides they forsooke their worldly delightes Which may be easilie graunted if in abandoning this world they thought that in the other the same could not bée found or had But if they had this opinion that they were as ample and common in the other as they had in déede then it is to be thought that death had rather aforeded them some great content and ioy then any sorrow and feare at all For what certaintie of gréefe may one giue with testimonie of a thing which he neuer prooued None at all truely In Syr Tristram his armes was his owne death and the death of hys Lady also For if in embracing her body so straightly and loouingly it had gréeued her at all in opening his armes againe the payne no doubt had ceased And yet for all this let vs admit and say that it is by great reason most fearefull and gréeuous to tast of what gréefe can wée say to be absolutely in a thing that dooth come to passe but onely once and which dooth occupie but a little space of time Certes none Sir Tristram therfore Isotta in one hower ended their delightes dollours The continued time of my stretching gréefe and lasting sorrowe hath without comparison greatly excéeded the breuitie of my enioyed myrth and ioyes But amongest the number of these foresayd loouers my minde did thinke of miserable Phedra who with her voluntary and aduised furie was the occasion of his most cruel death whom she loued more then her selfe I knowe not truely what dammage great inconuenience did follow her of such a great fault but I am certaine if the like had euer happened to me there had bene nothing but violent death that might expiate the guilt therof but if she liued she buried him afterward in darck obliuiō as commonly all thinges as euen now I sayd are wont to bée forgotten by death And besides these sorowes which Laodamia Deiphyle Argia Euadne Deianira and many others felte followed hers in my scanning thoughts all which eyther by violent death or by necessary obliuion receiued some comfort at last Fier the lōger it remaineth in any thing the more it burneth And who doubteth that burning fire red hotte iron and melted leade dooth not gréeuously burne and scalde his finger who dooth but sodainely dippe it in and dooth quickly pull it out againe Why none I thinke And yet this is nothing to that extreame payne whose whole body is in eyther of these tormented and plunged for a good space togeather wherfore how many soeuer I haue described aboue in woes sorowes paynes the same may be said to be but a momentarie while in their superficiall and counterfeite gréefes whereas I haue really felt them continually béene in them and am not yet frée from them Wherefore all these foresayd woes in respect of mine haue béene but amorous annoyaunces But besides these miserable women the no lesse sorrowful teres powred forth of those who with the vnexpected brunts of cruell fortune haue béene confounded came before mine eyes And these are those of Iocasta Hecuba Sophonisba Cornelia and Cleopatra O how much myserie considering well the miserable successe of Iocastas looues doo we sée befallen vnto her in all her life time possible enough to haue daunted and troubled the most stout and strongest minde For she being very young was maried to Layus King of Thebes who commaunded that her first childe should be throwen out to be deuowred of wilde Beastes the miserable Father thinking by this to haue preuented that which the heauens and his ineuitable destinies with infallible course had prepared for him O what a gréefe must I néedes thinke that this was to her soule considering the degrée of her that sente it and that with her owne handes she was constrained to deliuer and to sende it to a cruell kinde of death and afterwardes certified by them that caried her vnfortunate infante of his mangled and deuoured corpes with what intollerable gréefe she beléeued that he was deade indéede And to see her haplesse Husband most miserably slaine of him
admirable Cittie the cruell death of so Princly a Husbande of so many renowned sons and most faire daughters to sée the destruction of so manie magnanimious Nephewes valiant Cosins and Allyes the rapine of so great riches the hauocke of infinite treasure the spoyle of so manie Virgins the rauishment of wiues and of all sorts of Women the extinction of such excellencie the losse of so many Kinges hewed and slaine right downe such blodie massacres and pittiful stratagemes of the dismayed and betrayed Troyans the impietie perpetrated in the Temples polluted battered and made plaine with the ground and the indignitie and irreuerence doone to their dishonoured chased Goddes And séeing her selfe to be olde and sorrowfully recalling to her wounded minde what mighty Hector was what valiant Troylus what doughtie Deiphobus what her yongest darling Polydore and the shyning vertues of manie noble men more and howe vnfortunatlie shee sawe them all die remembring also howe the generous bloode of her late mighty and maiesticall Husbande was cruelly shed in her own lappe before the holie Aulters and how she saw fatall Troy whilome reared vppe to the skyes with stately Towres famous for magnificent buildings full of princely Pallaces and very populous with noble and worthy Cittizens consumed with deuouring flames and wholy rased frō the earth And besides all this the pittifull sacrifice of her fayre Daughter Polyxena offered vppe by vnpittifull Pyrrhus to the shadow of Achilles Oh with what excessiue greefe and anguish of minde must we néedes thinke that shee behelde all these thinges But short was the sorrowe which her olde and féeble minde not able to endure the same wandering out of her right course made her madde as her barking complaints amiddes the fieldes and woods did plainely shew But I with a more firme and perfect memory then is néedefull for such woes to my great gréefe doo continually remaine in my sorrowfull and sound witts and doo discerne more and more the preposterous occasions of my present woes and of my future sorrowes Because my manyfolde harmes enduring longer then hers I thinke them be they neuer so light to be more gréeuous as I haue many times said then the greatest and most sensible paines which is ended in a short time Sophonisba equally participating the aduersities in her Widdowhoode Sophonisba and the ioy of her mariage in one selfe same moment almost of time iocande and sad an honorable and glad spouse and a poore prisoner inuested and despoyled of a Kingdome and finally in these shorte alterations of tottering Fortune drinking her fatall poyson full of anguishe and deadly gréefe appeareth next vnto my thoughts Behold her sometimes a most high and famous Quéene of the Numidians afterwards the martiall affayres of her Parents and fréends hauing but an aduerse and lucklesse issue her Husbande Siphax taken from her and become prisoner to Massinissa King of Marsilia warring vnder the Romaine Ensignes and her selfe in one howre depriued of her Kingdome and prysoner also in the mids of her enemies Campe Massinissa afterwardes making her his wife and she restored to the same againe O with what despight gréefe and bitter anguishe of mind doo I beléeue that shee sawe these thinges succéede abruptlie one after another Nor yet secure of her voluble and flattering Fortune with howe heauy a hart did shee celebrate her newe espousalles which gréefes and extreame myseries with a tragicall ende at last and with a stout enterprise she did fully finish Because not one naturall day after the nuptiall rytes béeing yet spent and scarcely thinking with her selfe that she remained in the regiment and that she did beare the former sway of Scepter and warring thus within her selfe and thinking of the newe loue of Massinissa not framed well to her minde the olde loue of Siphax béeing not yet extinct with no trembling hart but wyth a bolde hande receiued the mortiferous poysonne which her newe Husbande sent her by her owne Seruaunt the fearfull messenger of her vntimely death and with certaine dispitifull and premised spéeches without any signe and token of feare in her resolute face druncke of the same immediatly after yéelding vppe her ghost O how bitter may one imagine that her life was if she had had any longer time to meditate and think of her death that did followe Who therefore is not to be placed but amongst those Women To think of greefe maketh it greater who haue béene but meanely and not much afflicted with sorow considering that her spéedy death did preuent her beginning woes where as mine haue continued with me a long time together and yet doo accompanye me against my wyll and are sworne to remaine styll wyth me to make themselues more mighty thereby with their vnited forces to infest more their vsurped habitation After her doleful Cornelia oppressed with infinit sorrow was obiected to my musing thoughts Cornelia whō smiling Fortune had exalted so high to make her the first wife of Crassus and afterwards great Pompey his spouse whose worthy valor had almost gotten him the chiefest principality in Rome attayned to the sole gouernmēt of all the Empire annexed vnto it Who notwithstanding-after that frowning Fortune changed her copie in maner of a fugitiue fled miserably out of Rome and afterwards out of all Italy her selfe also with her husbande béeing fiercely pursued of conquering Caesar And leauing her in Lesboe after many turmoyles of inconstant fortune ouercomming his puissaunt competitour in Thessaly by whose discomfiture and ouerthrowe hee recouered hys force and might againe which not long since by his valiaunt enemy was greatly abated And besides all this with hope to reintegrate and to renue his power in the conquered East floting vpon the surging Seas and arriued in the kingdoms of Egypt offering himselfe voluntarily to the defence and trusty tuition of yong King Ptolomie béeing there cruelly doone to death she sawe his embrued and headlesse troncke tossed and beaten vpp and downe the raging waues Which things if euery one by it selfe or altogether be duely considered we must néedes say that without al compare they afflicted most gréeuously her dying soule But the sounde and comfortable counsell of the sage Vtique Cato and the lost hope in these instabillities of Fortune to regaine her Pompey againe in a little time mittigated nay rather adnihilated her former sorrowes wheras I styll nourished with vaine hope not able by any counsell or comfort to driue away the same but by the simple aduise of my olde Nurce equally knowing of my sorrowes from the beginning in whose hart I knewe good will more ryfe then wysedome rype in her heade because beleeuing oftentimes to remedy my gréefe shee hath redoubled them doo euermore remain liue cōsuming my selfe in bitter plaints and confoūded in a thousand doubts and anxieties of minde There are also many Cleopatra who I think doo beléeue that Cleopatra Quéene of Egypt did suffer intollerable gréefe and that her paines
fol. 2 A presage signifying the aduerse successe of her looue fol. 3 The description of the young Gentleman whome Fiammetta did choose for her loouer fol 4 The spéeches of Fiammetta her Nurce tending to her reprehension fol. 8 Fiammetta her aunswer vnto them fol. idem Venus appearing to Fiammetta dooth with many wordes perswade her to looue fol. 11. The meanes that Panphilus obserued to manifest his looue to Fiammetta fol. 16 The end of Fiammetta her amorous desires fol. 17 The second Booke Panphilus vnfoldeth to Fiammetta the occasion constraining him to depart from her fol. 21 Fiammetta her aunswer againe wherewith she laboureth to withdrawe him from his resoulte iourney fol. 22 Panphilus dooth sweare neuer to bee any other womans then Fiammettaes fol. 25 Sundry spéeches vsed of them both the day and night before his iourney fol. 26. 27 In what plight Fiammetta remained after his departure fol 28. 29 The third booke Diuers perplexed thoughts of Fiammetta fol. 30 Fiammetta by a letter that Panphilus sent her augmenteth her hope of his returne fol. 31 The great iealousie and amorous suspicions of Fammetta fol. 32 Fiammetta counting the dayes and noting the season and course of the yéere dooth afflict her selfe fol. 34 A certaine custome and manner of them that loue fol. idem Fiammetta dooth spend the nightes in vigilles gazing on the moone and diuers other thinges continually fixing Panphilus in her thoughts fol. 35 Fiammetta dooth blame the moone accusing her of too great slownesse in her course fol. idem A short discourse of Fiammetta pertaining to Astrologie fol. idem Fiammetta hath diuers meanes to passe away the long daies and nightes with lesse annoy fol. 36 Fiammetta her imagination thinking that she is with her Panphilus fol. idem The force of a dreame fol. idem What Fiammettaes thoughtes were after the promised terme of Panphilus his returne was past fol. 39. 40 The fourth Booke Fiammetta dooth vnderstande by a certaine Marchaunt that Panphilus is maried in his owne country fol. 43 Fiammetta beléeuing the newes to bee true dooth lament and bewayle with her selfe fol. 44 Her hope of seing Panphilus againe being extinct loue desire encreasing more and more dooth blame her selfe for vsing certaine wordes in her anger against him fol. 49 Fiammetta her prayers to Venus fol. 50 The hard condition of Fiammetta fol. idem The praise and properties of sléepe inuoked of Fiammetta fol. 52 Fiammetta her husband perceiuing her continuall sorrow and demaunding the occasion of it cannot truely knowe it fol. 53 Fiammetta inuited of her husband to visite the healthfull and swéete bathes of Baia goeth thether with him but chang of ayre not applying any remedie to her amorous fier dooth augment it more fol. 53. 54 Diuers sollaces shewed Fiammetta by her husband dooth kindle a desire in her to sée Panphilus againe fol. 55 Fiammetta constrained to goe to feastes beholding her altered hewe and pale face in a glasse hath a certaine feare of her selfe fol. 57 The glée and mirth of other gentlewomen putting Fiammetta in minde of her passed ioyes redoubleth her teares fol. 58 And extraordinarie palenes in her face is a signe of an inamoured heart fol. 39 No looue so feruent nor beset with so many woes as Fiammettaes was fol. idem The exteriour heates ceasing the flames of looue are neuerthelesse augmented fol. 63 Care of the mind is a great annoyaunce fol. 64 Certaine kindes and excersings of fishing fol. idem Fiammetta her vaine hope to sée Panphilus againe fol. idē An auncient custome vsed in Fiammetta her Cittie to inuite Ladies and Gentlewomen to Lordes houses at times of theyr most sollemne feastes fol. 67 The praise of diuers young Gentlemen before whom Fiammetta preferreth her Panphilus fol. idem The manner of Iusting fol. 68 The praise of a sollitarie life and of theirs who doo inhabitte villages fol. 69 The prayse of the Golden worlde and disprayse of the present age fol. 70. 71 Fiammetta not caring to weare any more her wonted Ornamentes is of certaine Gentlewomen her companions reprooued for it fol. 72. Beautie is but a doubtfull and frayle gifte of mortall men fol. 74 Fiammetta her prayers to the Gods fol. idem The fift Booke One of Fiammetta her seruauntes returned from Panphilus his countrie dooth tell her that he is not maried but in looue with an other Gentlewoman there fol. 77 Fiammetta her lamentation fol. 77. 78 Fiammetta neuer looued any but Panphilus fol. 79 Fiammettaes husband perceiuing her to lament wéepe in her bedde and dreames dooth aske her the cause thereof and with many loouing wordes dooth comfort her againe fol. 81 Fiammetta with cruell maledictions dooth reprehend and condemne her selfe fol. 85 The Nurce with many reasons dooth studie to chéere vp Fiammetta fol. 87 A cruell and desperate inuocation of Fiammetta against her selfe and against Panphilus his new belooued mistresse fol. 86 Fiammetta dooth desire death fol. 88 Fiammetta dooth showe that the paines of hell are lesse then hers fol. 91 Fiammetta her Nurce blaming her againe dooth endeuour to comfort her fol. 90 Teares conioyned with beautie are of great force fol. 89 Fiammetta dooth meditate on diuers kinds of death to kill her selfe fol. 92 The reasons the Fia. forged for to kill her selfe fol. idem Fiammetta determined the second time to kill her selfe is intercepted of the Nurce and of her other women fol 95 Diuers Gentlewomen promise diuers remedies to Fiammetta fol. 99 The sixt Booke A description of Springtide fol. idem The misery of Fiammetta fol. 100 The Nurce dooth bring newes to Fiammetta that Panphilus is nigh at hand fol. 101 Fiammetta her prayers to Venus fol. 102 Fiammetta recomforted beléeuing that Panphilus is on his way dooth take againe her forsaken ornamentes and waxeth fayre againe fol. 103. 104 The Nurce dooth tell Fiammetta to whome shee thought was the right Panphilus was an other of the same name wherefore she dooth returne to her former woes fol. 107 The contents of the seuenth Booke Two occasions moouing Fiammetta to sustaine her amorous paines with lesse gréefe fol. 109 Fiammetta compareth her paines with the gréefes of many other infortunate loouers and findeth none equall with hers fol. 110 Io belooued of Iupiter transformed into a fayre Heyforde after many sustained and passed trauelles became at the last Quéene of Egipt fol. 109 Biblis Mirrha and Canace came to diuers sharpe and cruell endes fol. 110. This be Dido Heroe fol 110. 111 Sir Tristram Isotta Phedro Laodamia Argia and others fol. 111 Iocasta Hecuba Sophonisba and others fol. 112 Cornelia first Crassus his wife and afterwards Pompey his Spouse fol. 115 Cleopatra Quéene of Egipt fol. 116 Cyrus Craesus and others fol. 117 Theistes Tereus and Lycurgus fol. 117. 118 Atalanta mother of Parthenopaeus fol. idem Vlisses fol. 117 Hipsiphile Medea Oenone and Ariadne fol. 118 Fiammetta her spéech to her booke fol. 121 The ende of the table Il faite bon fin qui meurt pour bien aymer Il decimo l' Anno terzo d' Aprile 1587.