say nothing sir for all the time of the feast mine eyes were stedfastle â—ixt vpon you my deare husband for what other mens beauties are it becoms not a married wife to inquire Cornelia the wife of Aemilius Paulus when a great lady of Campania came to her house and opening a rich casket as the custome of women is to be friendly one with another shee shewed her gold rings rich stones and iewels and causing her chests to be opened exposed to her view great varietie of costly and pretious garments which done she intreated Cornelia to doe her the like curtesie and to shew her what iewels and ornaments she had stored to beautifie her selfe which hearing she protracted the time with discourse till her children came from schoole and causing them to be brought before her turned vnto the Lady and thus said These be my iewells my riches and delights nor with any gayer ornaments desire I to be beautified Filij bonae indolis parentum lauta supellex Viz. No domesticke necessaries better grace a house than children wittie and well disposed Many haue bin of that continence they haue imitated the Turtle who hauing once lost her mate will euer mourne but neuer enter into the fellowship of another Therefore Ania Romana a woman of a noble familie hauing buryed her first husband-in her youth when her friends and kindred continuallie layd open the sollitude of widdowhood the comfort of societie and all things that might persuade her to a second marriage she answered It was a motion to which she would by no meanes assent for saith she should I happen vpon a good man such as my first husband was I would not liue in that perpetuall feare I should bee in least I should loose him but if otherwise Why should I hazard my selfe vpon one so badde that am so late punisht with the losse of one so good It is reported of Portia Minor the daughter of Cato That when a woman who had marryed a second husband was for many vertues much commended in her presence Peace saith she That woman can neither bee happy well manner'd nor truely modest that will a second time marry But I hold her in this to be too censorious yet the most antient Romans onelie conferred on her the Crowne of modestie and continence that was contented with one matrimonie as making expression of their vncorrupted sinceritie in their continewed widdowhood Especiallie such were most discommended to make choice of a second husband who had children left them by the first resembling their father To which Virgill in the fourth booke of his Aeneid seemes elegantly to allude Dido thus complaining of the absence of Aenaeas Siqua mihi de te suscepta fuisset Ante fugam soboles c. Had I by thee but any issue had Before thy flight some pretie wanton lad That I might call Aeneas and to play And praâ—e to me to driâ—e these thoughts away And from whose smiling countenance I might gather A true presentment of the absent father I should not then my wretched selfe esteeme So altogether lostâ—â—â— I now seeme Plutarch much commends the widdowhood of Cornelia the illustrious mother of the Gracchi whose care hauing nobly prouided for her children familie after the death of her husband she exprest her selfe euery way so absolute a matron that Tiberius Gracchus of whom we spake before was not ill counselled by the gods by preseruing her life to prostrate his owne for she denied to marry with king Ptolomeus and when he would haue imparted to her a diadem and a scepter she refused to be stiled a queene to keepe the honour of a chast widdow Of the like puritie was Valeria the sister Messalar who being demaunded by her kindred and deerest freinds why her first husband dead she made not choice of a second answered that she found her husband Seruius to liue with her still accounting him aliue to her whom shee had euer in remembrance A singular remarkeable sentence proceeding from a most excellent matron intimating how the sacred vnitie in wedlock ought to be dignified namely with the affections of the mind not the vaine pleasures of the body This was proued in the daughter of Democion the Athenian who being a virgin and hearing that Leosthenes to whom she was contracted was slaine in the Lemnian wars and not willing to suruiue him killed her selfe but before her death thus reasoning with her selfe Though I haue a bodie vntoucht yet if I should fall into the imbraces of another I should but haue deceiued the second because I am still married to the first in my heart Not of their minds was Popilia the daughter of Marcus who to one that wondered what should be the reason why all feminine beasts neuer admitted the act of generation but in their time and when they couet issue and woman at all times desires the companie of man thus answered the reason is onely this Because they are beasts The wife of FVLVIVS THis Fuluius the familiar and indeered friend of Augustus Caesar heard him priuatly complaine of the great solitude that was then in his house since two of his grand-children by his daughter were taken away by death and the onely third that remained was for some calumnies publisht against the Emperour now in exile so that he should bee forced to abandon his owne blood and constitute a sonne in law and a stranger to succeed in the Imperiall purple and therefore he had many motions in himselfe and sometimes a purpose to recall the yong mans banishment and to restore him to his fauour and former grace in the court This Fuluius hearing went home and vpon promise of secresie told it to his wife shee could not containe her selfe but makes what speede she can and tells this good newes to the Empresse Liuia Liuia she speeds to Augustus and briefly expostulates with him about the banishment of her grand-child what reason he had not to restore him to his former honors and why he would preferre a stranger before his own blood with many such like vpbraidings The next morning Fuluius comming as his custome was into the Presence and saluting the Emperour Augustus cast an austere looke vpon him and shaking his head sayd onely thus You haue a close brest Fuluius by this he perceiuing his wife had published abroad what he had told her in secret posts home with what speede hee can and calling his wife before him ô woman sayth he Augustus knowes that I haue reuealed his secret therefore I haue a resolution to liue no longer to whom she replied Neither is that death you threaten to your selfe without merite who hauing liued with me so long and knowne my weakenesse and loquacitie had not the discretion to preuent this danger to which you haue drawne your selfe by tempting my frailetie but since you will needs die it shall be my honour to precead you in death which she had no sooner
but his wife also The manner how she came to be his queene was as followeth Before his time it was not lawfull but punishable amongst the Persians to marry into that proximitie of blood but Cambyses surprised with the loue of his sister and hauing resolued by what meanes soeuer to make her his wife yet to colour his purpose he sent for those honorable persons who were stiled the kings Iudges being selected men for their wisedomes and of great place and qualitie as those that inioy their offices Durante vita vnlesse some capitall crime bee prooued against them besides they are the expounders of the lawes and to their causes all matters of doubt and controuersie are referred These being cōuented the king demanded of them Whether they had any one law amongst so many which licenst a man that had a will so to doe to contract matrimony with his sister to whom the Iudges thus ingeniously answered We haue indeed no law which giues licence for a brother to marry with a sister but we haue found a law oh Soueraigne which warrants the king of Persia to doe whatsoeuer liketh him best Thus they without abrogation of the Persian lawes soothed the kings humour and preserued their owne honours aud liues who had they crost him in the least of his disseignes had all vndoubtedly perisht This hee made the ground for the marriage of the first and not long after hee aduentured vpon the second The younger of these two who attended him into Aegypt he slew whose death as that of her brother Smerdis is doubtfully reported The Graecians write that two whelps one of a Lyon the other of a Dog were brought before Cambises to fight and try maisteries at which fight the young Lady was present but the Lyon hauing victorie ouer the Dog another of the same litter broke his chain and taking his brothers part they two had superioritie ouer the Lyon Cambises at this fight taking great delight shee then sitting next him vpon the sudden fell a weeping this the king obseruing demaunded the occasion of her teares she answered it was at that obiect to see one brother so willing to helpe the other and therefore she wept to remember her brothers death and knew no man then liuing that was ready to reuenge it and for this cause say the Greekes she was doom'd to death by Cambises The Aegyptians report it another way That she sitting with her brother at table out of a sallet dish tooke a lettice and pluckt off leafe by leafe and shewing it to her husband asked him Whether a whole letice or one so despoiled shewed the better who answered a whole one then said shee behold how this lettice now vnleaued looketh euen so hast thou disfigured and made naked the house of king Cyrus With which words he was so incensed that he kickt and spurnd her then being great with child with that violence that she miscarryed in her child-birth and dyed ere she was deliuered and these were the murderous effects of his detestable incest Of Lyuia Horestilla Lollia Paulina Cesonia c. IT is reported the Emperour Caligula that he had not onely illegall and incestuous conuerse with his three naturall sisters but that bee after caused them before his face to be prostituted by his ministers and seruants thereby to bring them within the compasse of the Aemilian Law and conuict them of adultery He vitiated Liuia Horestilla the wife of C. Pisonnius and Lollia Paulina whom he caused to be diuorced from her husband C. Memnius both whose beds within lesse than two yeares he repudiated withall interdicting them the companie and societie of man for euer Caesonia he loued more affectionatly insomuch that to his familiar friends as boasting of her beautie he would often shew her naked To adde vnto his insufferable luxuries he defloured one of the vestall virgins Neither was the Emperour Commodus much behind him in diuelish and brutish effeminacies for he likewise strumpeted his owne sisters and would wittingly and willingy see his mistresses and concubines abused before his face by such of his fauorites as hee most graced hee kept not at anie time lesse than to the number of three hundred for so Lampridius hath left recorded Gordianus iunior who was competitor with his father in the Empire kept two and twentie concubines by each of which he had three or foure children at the least therefore by some called the Priamus of his age but by others in dirision the Priapus The emperour Proculus tooke in battaile a hundred Sarmatian virgins and boasted of himselfe that he had got them all with child in lesse than fifteene dayes this Vopiscus reportes and Sabellicus But a great wonder is that which Iohannes Picus Mirandula relates of Hercules as that hee lay with fiftie daughters of Lycomedes in one night and got them all with child with forty nine boyes onely fayling in the last for that prooued a guirle Iocasta APollodorus Atheniensis in his third booke De deoroum Origine records this history After the death of Amphion king of Thebes Laius succeeded who tooke to wife the daughter of Menocoeas called Iocasta or as others write Epicasta This Laius being warned by the Oracle that if of her he begat a sonne he should prooue a Patricide and be the death of his father notwithstanding forgetting himselfe in the distemperature of wine he lay with her the same night she conceiued and in processe brought forth a male issue whom the king caused to be cast out into the mountaine Cytheron thinking by that meanes to preuent the predicted destinie Polybus the heardsman to the king of Corinth finding this infant bore it home to his wife Periboea who nourced and brought it vp as her owne and causing the swelling of the feet with which the child was then troubled to be cured they grounded his name from that disease and called him Oedipus This infant as he increased in yeares so hee did in all the perfections of nature as well in the accomplishments of the mind as the body insomuch that as well in capacitie and volubilitie of speech as in all actiue and generous exercises he was excellent aboue all of his age his vertues beeing generally enuied by such as could not equall them they thought to disgrace him in something and gaue him the contemptible name of counterfeit and bastard this made him curiously inquisitiue of his supposed mother and she not able in that point to resolue him hee made a iourney to Delphos to consult with the Oracle about the true knowledge of his birth and parents which forewarned him from returning into his countrey because he was destinied not onely to be the deathsman of his father but to adde misery vnto mischiefe he was likewise borne to be incestuous with his mother Which to preuent and still supposing himselfe to be the sonne of Polybus and Peribaea he forbore to returne to Corinth and hyring a charriot tooke the way
alwayes can the purple violet smell Or Lillies bloome in whitenesse that excell The fragrant rose whose beautie we desire The leaues once falne shewes but a naked brire O thou most faire white heires come on apace And wrinckled furrowes which shall plow thy face So likewise Petronius Arbiter in one of his Satyres Quod solum formae decus est cecidere Capillae The onely beautie of her shape her haire Fell from her head her beautie to impaire Summer succeedes the Spring her Autumne chaceth And them sad Winter with his snow disgraceth Deceitfull Nature all these youthfull ioyes Thou gau'st vs first thou art the first destroyes Now the fruits and effects of this fraile beautie especially where a faire face meeteth with a corrupted mind I will next shew you by historie Achab by the persuasion of his faire wife Iesabell was the death of many of the Prophets of the Lord. Dalila was the confusion of Sampson the Strong Strange women brought Salomon the Wise to Idolatrie and to forget God Ioram a king of Israell at the instigation of Athalia committed many horrible outrages Helena's beautie was the occasion of that infinite slaughter betwixt the Greekes and Troians Pelops succeeding in the kingdome of Phrygia made warre vpon Oenomaus the father of Hyppodamia because being surprised with her beautie she was denyde him in marriage Another Hyppodamia the wife of Perithous was the occasion of that great Centauromachia or battaiâ—e betwixt the Centaures and the Lapithes for which Propertius calls her Ischomache of the greeke word Isco which signifieth Habeo and Mache Pugna his words are these Qualis Iscomache Lapithae genus Heroinae Centauris medio grata rapina mero Such as Iscomache that was Of the Lapythaean line She whom the Centaures would haue rapt Amidst their cups of wine Pericles for his loue to Aspasia made warre against the Samians For Chrisaeis the daughter of Chrises Priest to Apollo vitiated by Agamemnon a plague was sent amongst the Greekish host which ceased not till she was returned backe to her father for so writes Tortellius Lauiniaes beautie the daughter of King Latinus and the Queene Amata was cause of the combustion betwixt Turnus and Aeneas so saith Pontanus lib. 4. de Stellis Lysimachus the sonne of Agathocles poysoned his owne sonne Agathocles by whose fortunate hand he had receiued the honour and benefit of many glorious victories at the instigation of his wife Arsinoe the sister of Ptoloâ—teus Vollateran Iphis a youth of exquisite feature strangled himselfe because he was despised by the faire but cruell Anaxarite Archilâ—â—us king of Macedon was slaine by a young man called Crateua because hauing first promised him his faire daughter he after bestowed her vpon another The Poet Archilocus called Iambographus because Lycambes denyde him his daughter in marriage writes against him such bitter Iambicks that hee despaired and hanged himselfe therefore Ouid thus writes Post modo si perges in te mihi liber Iambus Tincta Licambaeo sanguiâ—e tela dabit If thou pursu'st me still my booke Iust vengeance shall implore And in Lambickes weapons yeeld Dipt in Lycambes gore Iustine in his 27 booke relates That Seleneus Callinicus king of Syria for exiling Berenice his steppe-mother sister to Ptolomaeus was by the same Ptolomaeus inuaded and prosecuted by armes Deiphebus after the death of Paris hauing marryed Hellen to which infortunate match her beautie had inuited him was by her treacherie not onely murdered but his body hackt and mangled being almost made one vniuersall wound Tortellius reports of one Euander the nephew of Pallas king of the Arcadians at the persuasion of his mother Nicostrate slew his owne father Orestes the sonne of Agamemum slew Pyrrhus the sonne of Achilles being surprised with the beautie of Hermione daughter to Menalâ—us and Helena Pteleras king of the Thebans was slaine by king Craeon being betrayde by his owne Polydices Cleopatra was the cause of that bloody warre betwixt Ptolomaeus Philopaser and her owne father Alexander king of Syria Idas and Lyncaeus the sons of Aphareus and Arbarne fought a great battaile neere to Sparta about the two faire daughters of Leucippus Phebe and Ilaira against Castor and Pollux both which were slaine in that battaile and perisht not by shipwracke as some write in the pursuite of Paris by sea for the rape of their sister Hellen Liuie lib. 36. writes of Antiochus who warring against Rome was so taken with the beautie of a Chalcidonian damsell that neglecting all warlike discipline to spend his time in dalliance with his wanton hee became a shamefull and dishonourable prey to the enemy Octauia the sister of Augustus being repudiated by Anthony was the occasion of a ciuill and intestine war The Poet Lucretius growing mad for the loue of a faire damsell dranke poyson and so dyed Tullia incited Tarquinius Superbus to kill her owne father Seruius Tullius Martia the strumpet caused Autonius Commodus the Emperour whose Concubine she was to bee slaine by a souldiour with whom shee had many times had lustfull congression Tytus Corrancanus being sent on embassie to Teuca queene of the Illyrians because hee spake to her freelie and boldlie she caused him to be put to death against the lawes of kingdomes and nations Liuius and Florus Vollateranus writes of one Rhodoricus king of the Gothes who because he stuprated the daughter of Iulianus who was Prefect in the Prouince of Tingitana the father of the rauisht virgin brought in the Moores and raised a warre which before it was ended was the death of seauen hundred thousand men Chilpericus the sonne of Clotharius was slaine by the instigation of his wife Fridegunda in his returne from hunting Luchinus a Count of Italy warred vpon Vgolinus Gonzaga because hee had adulterated his faire wife Isabella Vollateran Otratus king of Bohemia accused of sloath and cowardise by his wife Margarita for entering league with Rodulphus Caesar raised warre betwixt them in which her husband was defeated Gandulphus the Martyr for but counselling his wife to a more chast and temperate life was murdered betwixt her and the adulterer Of warres and many other mischiefes of which faire women haue beene the originall Ouid elegantly deliuers in 2 Eleg. thus concluding Vidi ego pro â—iuea pugnantes coniâ—ge tauros Spectatrix animos ipsa innenca dabat For a white heyfer I haue seene bulls sight Both gathering rage and courage from her sight At the building of Rome Romulus to people the cittie and get wiues for his souldiers caused them to rauish the Sabine women and damsells for which warre grew betwixt the two nations Of which Proper lib. 2. Cur exempla petam Gracum Tu criminis auâ—hâ—r Nutribus duro Romule lacte lupae c. What neede I from the Greekes examples aske Thou Romulus by a fell she-wolfe nurst To rape the Sabines
them with garlands vpon their heads of which whilest some are called apart others still returne for their passages to and fro are distinguished by small cords or strings which direct strangers vnto such women to whom they are most addicted But of these not any returne to their houses after they haue once tooke vp their seats till some clyent hath cast some coyne or other into her lappe be it neuer so small or great and haue had carnall companie with her in a sequestred place of the Temple which done hee is to say So much I did owe thee ô goddesse Melitta Nor was any woman to refuse the money that was offered her whatsoeuer it were because it was to be employed in their supposed pious vses Neyther was it lawfull for a woman to refuse any man but she was compelled to follow him that cast the first coyne into her apron This beeing done it was lawfull for her to mingle her selfe in prostitution with whom she pleased The fairest and most beautifull were for the most part soonest dispatcht but others that haue beene vgly and deformed haue beene forced to sit in the Temple some one some two some three yeeres and vpwards before they could meet with any by whose helpe they might giue satisfaction to the Law returne to their owne houses and make vse of their free libertie The like custome though not in euerie particular was in Cyprus Amongst the Caunians a people in Coria there was a yeerely conuention of yong men and women to the like purpose as the same Author in the same booke affirmes Aelianus de var. Histor. lib. 4. sayth That the Lydian women before their marriage presented themselues for gaine till they had purchased to themselues a competent dowrie but hauing once selected a husband they from that time liued in all continence and chastitie From this generalitie I come to particulars and first of Thais Shee was a strumpet of Corinth whose beautie bewitched all the Atticke youth Her the Greeke Poet Menander in his workes most celebrated of whom shee was called Menandraea Clitarchus specifies vnto vs That shee was much beloued of Alexander the Great at whose request after the conquest of Cyrus all the Imperiall Pallaces in Persepolis with the greatest part of the citie were set on fire and burned downe to the earth This strumpet after the death of Alexander was marryed to the first Ptolomey of Aegypt by whom she had two sonnes Leontiscus and Lagus with one daughter called Irene whom Solon king of Cyprus after tooke to wife Lamia was a Courtizan of Athens and entyred to Demetrius a lord of many Nations insomuch that in his Armour and Crowne with his Imperiall Diademe he was often seene publikely to enter her roofe to conuerse with her and eate at her Table It had beene lesse dishonour for so great a person to haue giuen her meeting more priuately In this one thing Diodorus the Minstrell was preferred before Demetrius who being diuerse times sent for to this Courtezans house refused to come This Lamia was wont as Aelianus Lib. 12. reports to compare the Greekes to Lyons and the Ephesians to Wolues Gnathana was of the same countrey and borne in Athens of whom it is thus remembred A noble fellow drawne as farre as the Hellespont by the attractiue fame of her beautie shee gaue him both meeting and entertainment of which he growing proud and somewhat insolent vsing much loquacitie and superfluous language being in the heat of wine and lust shee asked him Whether as he pretended he came from the Hellespont To whom he answered He did She replyed And doe you know the name of the chiefe citie there He told her Yes She then desired him to giue it name Hee told her it was called Sygaeum By which shee ingeniously reproued his verbositie since Syga of which Greeke word the citie takes denomination signifieth silence and taciturnitie Of her prompt and wittie answeres the Poet Machon sets downe many for shee was held to bee wondrous facetious and scoffing and exceedingly beloued of the Poet Diphilus Lynceus likewise remembers many things concerning her Pausonius Lacus beeing dauncing in her presence in doing a loftie tricke aboue ground and not able to recouer himselfe hee fell headlong into a Vessell that stood by See sayth she Lacus in cadum incidit i. The Poole hath powred himselfe into the Vessell Lacus not only signifies a Poole but a Vessell which receiueth the wine when it is pressed Another offering her a small quantitie of wine in a great and large Bole and told her withall That it was at least seuenteene yeeres old Truly answered she it is wondrous little of the age Two young men in the heat of wine quarrelling about her and going to buffets to him that had the worst shee thus said Despayre not youth Non enim Coronarium est certamen sed Argenteum i. This was a prize for Money onely not for a Garland When one had giuen her faire daughter who was of the same profession a piece of Gold valued at a pound and had receiued no more than labour for his trauaile and bare lookes for his money to him she said Thou for this pound art made free of my daughter as those that are admitted into the schoole of Hyppomachus the maisterwrastler who oft times see him play but seldome prooue his strength admire his skill but neuer trie his cunning Many such with great elegancie came frequently from her for as Lynceus sayth of her shee was Concinna admodum vrbana Aristodemus in his second booke Ridiculorum memorab relates That when two men had bargained for her at once a souldier and a meane fellow the souldier in great contumelie called her Lacus or Lake Why doe you thus nick-name me sayth she because you two flouds fall into me Lycus and Liber Lycus is a riuer not farre from Laodicea which sometimes runneth vnder the earth and in many places bursteth vp againe Shee writ a booke which shee called Lex Conuinalis imitating the Philosophers of those times who had compiled workes of the like subiect The proiect of her booke was how her guests ought to behaue themselues at Table towards her and her daughter The like Law Callimachus composed in three hundred and three and twentie Verses Rhodope was a Curtesan of Aegypt one that by her prostitution came to such a masse of wealth that she of her own priuate charge caused to be erected a magnificent Pyramis equalling those that were raised by the greatest Princes Sapho calls her Dorica and makes her the mistresse of her brother Charaxus vpon whom he spent and consumed all his fortunes euen to the vtmost of penurie of whom Ouid thus writes Arsit inops frater c. Aelianus and others report her for a woman most beautifull who bathing herselfe in a pleasant and cleere fountaine in her garden her handmaides attending her with all things necessarie vpon a sudden an Eagle sowsing downe snatched
spoke but snacht out his sword and with it slew her selfe A noble resolution in an heathen Ladie to punish her husbands disgrace and her owne ouersight with voluntarie death and a notable example to all women that shall succeede her to be more charie in keeping their husbands secrets all which I would wish to follow the counsell of the comick Poet Philippides who when king Lysimachus called him vnto him and vsing him with all curtesie spake thus What of the things that are within or without me shall I impart vnto thee ô Phillippides he thus answered Euen what thou pleasest oh king so thou still reseruest to thy selfe thy counsells This puts me in mind of king Seleucus Callinicus who hauing lost a battaile against the Galatians and his whole armie being quite subuerted and disperced casting away his crowne and and all regall ornaments was forced to flie onely attended with two or three seruants and wandering long through many deserts and by-pathes as fearing to be discouered and growing faint with hunger he came to a certaine ruinate cottage where he deâ—ired bread and water the maister of the house not onely affoorded him that but whatsoeuer else the place could yeeld or the suddennesse of the time prouide with a large welcome In the interim of dinner fixing his eyes vpon Seleucus face he knew him to be the king and not able to containe his owne ioyes nor conceale the kings dssimulation after dinner the king being redie to take horse and bidding his host farewell hee replied againe And farewell ô king Seleucus who finding himselfe discouered reached him his hand as to imbrace him beckning to one of his followers who at the instant at one blow strooke off his head so that as Homer Sic caput estque loquentis ad huc cum puluere mistum These were the fruits of vnseasonable babling for this fellow had he kept his tongue till the king had beene restored to his former dignities might haue receiued large rewardes for his hospitallitie who suâ—ered an vnexpected death for his loquacitie Aretaphila ARetaphila Cyrenaea is deseruedly numbered amongst the heroick Ladies she liued in the time of Mithredates and was the daughter of Aeglatur and the wife of Phedimus a woman of excellent Vertue exquisit Beautie singular Wisedome and in the managing of common-welthes businesse and ciuill affaires ingeniously expert this Ladie the common calamities of her countrie made eminent for Nicocaentes the tyrant hauing vsurped the principallitie ouer the Cirenaeans amongst many other of his inhumane butcheries slew Menalippus the Priest of Apollo and assumed to himselfe the sacred office and dignitie In the number of these noble citisens hee caused Phedimus the husband of Aretaphila to be iniuriously put to death married her against her will who as well distrest with her priuate discontents as suffering in the publique calamitie meditated a remedie for both and by aduise of some of her neerest allies attempted to poyson the king but the proiect being discouered was preuented and vpon that ground Calbia mother to Nicocrates a woman of an implacable spirit and prone to any thing wherin there might be blood and slaughter first condemned her to insufferable torture and next to violent death but the tyrant her sonne in regard of the extraordinarie loue he bore vnto her being the more relenting and humane of the two was pleased to put her cause first to examination and after to censure In which triall shee answered boldly and with great courage in the defence of her owne innocence but being by manifest proofes conuicted in so much that her purpose could not be denied she then descended so low as to excuse herselfe alleaging that indeed apprehending the greatnesse of his person and that she was in degree no better to him than an handmaide and fearing least some other more accomplisht beautie might steppe betwixt him and her to insinnuate into his fauour and grace shee therefore had prepared an amatorious confection minding only to continue his loue not to betray his life and if her womanish weakenesse had in any kind through ignorance transgrest the bounds of loyaltie she submitted her selfe to his royall clemencie whose approoued judgement shee made no doubt knew how to distinguish betwixt folly and malice Notwithstanding these smooth euasions Nicocrates fully possest of the truth gaue her vp into the hands of his mother to be tormented who as shee is before charractered being a harsh and mercilesse woman left nothing vnattempted that torture could deuise to wrest from her a capitoll confession but Aretaphila with wonderous patience and constancie induring whatsoeuer the beldame could inflict vpon her Calbia grew as wearie in punishing as she in suffering insomuch that Nicocrates was in some sort persuaded of her innocencie commanded her release seeming sorrowfull for the torments she had indured so that his former loue conquering his suspition he began to studie a new reconcilement and excusing his too much credulousnesse renewed his antient familiaritie and custome But she not forgetting her former rackes and strapadoes now began to meditate vpon his death another way she had a daughter of exquisite feature and the tyrant had a brother called Leander a wilde-headed yong man and apt for any innouation or hair-braind attempt shee wrought so far with her and so inwardly with him that by the consent of the king a match was concluded betwixt them All these things falling out according to her wishes her daughter by the mothers instigation wrought so farre vpon his rashnesse in priuate and the mother gaue him such incouragement withall that putting him in hope to inioy the soueraignetie to himselfe they persuaded him to supplant his brother This tooke such prosperous effect that he suborned a seruant of his called Daphries who attending his opportunitie slew the tyrant Aretaphila not with this contented whose reuenge aymed to extirpat the whole familie of the tyrant and whose goodnesse to free her countrie from all seruitude instigated the citisens against Learchus for the murder of her king and second husband drawing him into the compasse of that publike hate that he was forced to flie as a traitour and a fratricide neither was she satisfied whilst he yet liued therefore by her wit and policie and the industrie of one Anabas hee was at length subtlely surprised by which the citie receiued her pristine libertie and freedome For which the people would haue done her diuine honours as to a goddesse which shee vtterly refused They next proceeded to justice vpon the delinquents where Calbia was iudged to the fire and burnt a liue and Leander to be sowed in a sacke and so cast into the Sea both which executions were accordingly performed The people then once againe assembled and prostrated themselues before her ioyntly beseeching her either to take vpon her the primacie and chiefe gouernment or at least to be a gracious assistant to the magistrates and princes with her directions and counsell both which shee vtterly refused
peaceably into his hands these conditions are first debated next concluded and lastly confirmed by oath on both sides The towne is yeelded vp and Cacana according to his promise takes Romilda to wife but first he makes spoyle of the towne kills manie and leads the rest captiue The first night he bedded with his new reconciled bride but in the morning abandoned her vtterly commanding twelue Hunnes and those of the basest of his souldiers one after another to prostitute her by turnes that done hee caused a sharpe stake to bee placed in the middle of the field and pitched her naked bodie vpon the top thereof which entering through the same made a miserable end of her life at which sight the tyrant laughing said Such a husband best becomes so mercilesse an harlot This was the bloodie and miserable end as Polycronicon saith of Romilda But better it happened to her two beautifull and chast daughters who fearing the outrage of the lustfull and intemperat souldiors tooke putrified flesh of chickens and colts and hid it raw betwixt their breasts the souldiors approaching them tooke them to be diseased as not able to come neere them by reason of the smell by which meanes they preserued their honours for the present and they for their vertues sake were after bestowed vpon gentlemen of noble qualitie The same Authour puts me in mind of another Adulteresse who to her guilt of inchastitie added the bloody sin of murder Our moderne Chroniclers remember vs of one Ethelburga daughter to king Offa and wife to Brithricus king of the West-Saxons who aiming at nothing so much as her own libidinous delights that she might the more freely and securely inioy them by many sundry treasons conspired the death of her husband but hauing made many attempts and not preuailing in any the diuell to whom she was a constant votaresse so farre preuailed with her that she neuer gaue ouer her damnable purpose till she had not onely dispatcht him of life by poyson but was the death also of a noble young gentleman the chiefe fauourite of the king and one whom in all his disseignes he most trusted These mischiefes done and fearing to be questioned about them because she had incurd a generall suspition she packt vp her choicest iewells and with a trustie squire of hers one that had beene an agent in all her former brothelries fled into France where by her counterfeit teares and womanish dissimulations she so farre insinuated into the kings breast that the wrinckles of all suggestions were cleared and shee freely admitted into the kings court and by degrees into his especiall fauour so rich were her iewells so gorgeous her attire so tempting her beautie being now in her prime and withall so cunning and deceitfull her behauiour that all these agreeing together not onely bated the hearts of the courtiers but attracting the eyes of the great Maiestie it selfe in so much that the king sporting with her in a great Bay window the prince his son then standing by him he merrily demanded of her If she were instantly to make election of a husband whether she would chuse him or his sonne to whom shee rashly answered That of the two she would make choice of his son The king at this somwhat mooued and obseruing in her a lightnesse of behauiour which his blind affection would not suffer him before to looke into thus replied Haddest thou made election of mee I had possest thee of my sonne but in chusing him thou shalt inioy neither So turning from her commaunded her to be stripped out of her jewells and gay ornaments and presently to be shriuen and sent to a monasterie where she had not long beene cloystred but to her owne infamie and the disgrace of the religious house she was deprehended in the dissolute imbraces of a wanton and leaude fellow for which she was turned out of the cloyster and after died in great pouertie and miserie In memorie of whom there was a law established amongst the West-Saxons which disabled all the kings wiues after her either to be dignified with the name of queene or vpon any occasion to fit with him in his regall throne yet this woman though she died poorely yet died as it is said penitently therefore me thinkes I heare her leaue this or the like memorie behind her An Epitaph vpon Ethelburga Queene of the West-Saxons I was I am not smild that since did weepe Labour'd that rest I wak't that now must sleepe I playde I plaie not sung that now am still Sawe that am blind I would that haue no will I fed that which feedes wormes I stood I fell I â—ad God saue you that now bid farewell I felt I feele not followed was pursude I war'd haue peace I conquer'd am subdude I moou'd want motion I was stiffe that bow Belowe the earth then something nothing now I catcht am caught I trauel'd here I lie Liu'd in the world that to the world now dye This melancholly it is not amisse to season with a little mirth In some other countrie it was for I presume ours affoards none such but a common housewife there was who making no conscience of spouse-breach or to vitiate her lawfull sheets had interteined into her societie a swaggering companion such a one as amongst vs we commonly call a Roring boy This lad of mettall who sildome went with fewer weapons about him than were able to set vp againe a trade-falne cutler had to maintaine his mistresses expenses and his owne riots committed a robberie and likewise done a murder and being apprehended for the fact iudged condemned and according to the law in that case prouided hanged in chaines the gybbet was set neere to the common hie-way aud some mile distant from the cittie where this sweete gentlewoman with her husband then inhabited who because in regard of the common fame that went vpon them she durst neither giue her Loue visitation in prison bee at his arraignement or publike execution her purpose was as affection that breedes madnesse may easilie beget boldnesse vnknowne to her husband or any other neighbour to walke in the melancholly euening and to take her last leaue of him at the gallows Imagine the night came on and she on her iourney It happened at the same time a traueller beeing a footeman whose iourny was intended towards the towne as purposing to lodge there that nightâ— but being alone and darkenesse ouertaking him he grew doubtfull of the way and fearefull of robbing therefore hee retired himselfe out of the road and lay close vnder the gybbetâ— still listning if any passenger went by to direct him in the way or secure him by his companie as he was in this deepe meditation the woman arriues at the place and not able to containe her passion breaks out into this extasie And must I needes then goe home againe without thee at which words the trauellor starting vp in hast No by no meanes quoth hee I shall bee
transpierst himselfe and fell downe dead vpon the body of Aristoclaea Of no such death dyed Democrita whose history next ensueth Alcippus the Lacedemonian had two daughters by his wife Democrita He hauing with great iustice and integritie managed the affaires of the weale publike more for the common good than any peculiar gaine or profit of his own was affronted by an opposite faction which emulated his goodnesse and being brought before the Ephori it was deliuered to them in a scandalous and lying oration how and by what meanes Alcippus intended to abrogate and adnichilate their lawes for which he was confind from Spatta neither could his wife daughters who willingly offered themselues to attend vpon his aduersity be suffered to associate him but they were deteined by the power and command of the publike magistrate Moreouer an edict was made That neyther the wife was capable of inheritance nor the daughter of dower out of their fathers goods notwithstanding they had many sutors of such noble gentlemen as loued them for their fathers virtues It was likewise by the enemy most enuiously suggested to the Senat that the two Ladies might be debard from marriage their reason was that Democrita was heard often to wish and withall to presage that she should see children borne of her daughters who would in time reuenge the wrongs of their grandfather This being granted and shee euery way circumscribed both in her selfe her husband and issue euery way confind she expected a publike solemnitie in which according to the custome the women of the cittie with the virgins houshold seruants and infants had meeting but the matrons and wiues of the nobilitie kept their night-festiuall in a conclaue or parlor by themselues Then she guirt her selfe with a sword and with her two daughters secretlie conueyd her selfe into the Temple attending the time when all the matrons were most busie about the ceremonies and mysteries in the conclaue then hauing made fast the doores and shut vp the passages and heaped together a great quantitie of billets with other things combustible prouided for the purpose but especially all that sweete wood that was ready for the sacrifice of that solemnitie she set all on fire which the men hastening to quench in multitudes she before them all with a constancie vndaunted first slew her daughters and after her selfe making the ruins of this Temple their last funerall fire The Lacedemonians hauing now nothing left of Alcippus against which to rage they caused the bodies of Democrita and her daughters to be cast out of the confines of Sparta For this ingratitude it is said by some that great earth-quake happened which had almost ouerturned the cittie of Lacedemon from Democrita I come to Phillis Demophrâ—â— the sonne of Theseus and Phadra the halfe brother of Hippolitus returning from the warres of Troy towards his countrey by tempests and contrarie winds being driuen vpon the coast of Thrace was gently receiued and affectionately entertained by Phillis daughter to Lycurgus and Crustâ—â—ena then king and queene of that countrey and not onely to the freedome of all generous hospitalitie but to the libertie and accesse vnto her bed He had not long soiourned there but he had certaine tydings of the death of Muestham who after his father Theseus was expulsed Athens had vsurped the principalitie pleased therefore with the newes of innouation and surprised with the ambition of succession he pretending much domesticke businesse with other negotiations pertaining to the publike gouernment after his faith pawned to Phillis that his returne should be within a moneth hee got leaue for his countrey therefore hauing calked and moored his ships making them seruiceable for the sea he set saile towards Athens where arriued he grew altogether vnmindfull of his promised faith or indented returne Foure moneths being past and not hearing from him by word or writing she sent him an Epistle in which she complaines his absence then persuades him to call to mind her more than common curtesies to keepe his faith ingaged to her and their former contract to make good by marriage the least of which if he refused to accomplish her violated honour she would recompence with some cruell and violent death which she accordingly did for knowing her selfe to bee despised and vtterly cast off she in her fathers Pallace hung her selfe From Phillis I proceede to Deiaâ—eira Iâ—piter begat Hercules of Alcmena in the shape of her husband Amphitrio ioyning three nights in one whom Euristius king of Micena at the vrgence of his stepmother Iuno imployd in all hazardous and fearefull aduentures not that thereby he might gaine the greater honour but by such meanes sooner perish but his spirit was so great and his strength to eminent that from foorth all these swallowing dangers he still plunged a victor amongst these difficulties was that combat against Achelous a Flood in Aetolia who transhapt himselfe into sundry figures for the loue of Deianeira daughter to Oeneus and Althaea king and queene of Calidon and sister to Meleager he whom no monsters nor earthly powers could tame by the conquest of Achelous wonne Deianeira for his bride But he whom all tyrants and terrours were subiect to submitted himselfe to effeminacie and the too much dotage vpon women for when Euritus king of Oechalia had denied him his daughter Iöle before promist him the citty taken and the king slaine he tooke her freely into his embraces with whose loue he was so blinded that at her imperious command hee layd by his clubbe and Lions skinne the trophyes of his former victories and which was most vnseemely for so great a conquerour put on a womanish habit and blusht not with a distaffe in his hand to spinne amongst her damsells In briefe what slauerie and seruitude soeuer he had before suffered vnder the tyranny of Omphale queene of Lydia of whom he had begot Lamus he indured from her which Deianeira hearing in a letter she layes open to him all his former noble acts and victories that by comparing them with his present deboishtnesse it the better might incourage him to returne to the first and deterre him from the last But hauing receiued newes of Hercules calamitie by reason of the poisoned shirt sent him by her seruant Lychas dipt in the blood of the Centaure Nessus in which she thought there had beene the vertue to reuoke him from all new loues and establish him in his first for so Nessus had persuaded hir when in her transwaftage ouer the flood Euenus he was slaine by the arrow of Hercules dipt in the poyson of Lerna when she I say heard of the death of her husband and that though vnwillingly it happened by her meanes shee dyed by a voluntarie wound giuen by her owne hand Not such was that which followes The Ionians through all their Prouince being punisht with a most fearfull and horrible pest in so much that it almost swept the cittie and countrey and had it longer continued
fire Vpon whose smooth brow cannot â—it a frowne She can make flints seeme feathers bare boords downe I will now trouble thy patience gentle Reader with a discourse that hath in it more mirth than murther and more sport than spight and yet a touch of both A mad fellow newly married had onely one yong child by his wife of some quarter old whom he deerely and tenderly loued as being his first but he was much giuen to good fellowship and shee altogether addicted to sparing and good huswiferie still when he vsed to come merrie from the tauerne where he had beene frollicke with his boone companions she being as sparing of his purse as prodigall of her tongue for she was little better than a skold would often vpbraide him with his expences that what hee wasted at the Tauerne were better bestowed at home that he spent both his mony time and that being so often drunke it was preiudiciall both to his bodie and estate with many such matron-like exhortations but alwaies concluding her admonitions with a vow That if euer he came home againe in that pickle shee would happen what could come fling the child into the moat for the house was moated about It hapned about some two daies after that he reuelling till late in the euening in a cold frostie winters night and she hauing intelligence by her scouts where he was then drinking and making no question but he would come home flustred she commanded her maide to conueigh the infant to the further part of the house and to wrap the cat in the blankets and put it in the cradle and there to sit and rocke it presently home comes the husband shee falls to her old lesson and beginnes to quarrell with him and he with her Ill words begot worse and much leaud language there was betwixt them when the woman on the sudden stepping to the cradle hauing spyde her aduantage I haue long sayth she threatned a mischiefe and that reuenge I cannot worke on thee come dogs come diuells I will inflict vpon the brat in the cradle and instantly snatching it vp in her armes ran with it to the moate side and flung it into the middle of the water which the poore affrighted man following her and seeing leauing to pursue her and crying saue the child ô saue the child in that bitter cold night leapt vp to the elbowes in water and waded till hee brought out the mantell and with much paine comming to the shore and still crying alas my poore child opened the cloathes at length the frighted cat crying mewe being at libertie leapt from betwixt his armes and ran away the husband was both amased and vexed the woman laught at her reuenge and retyred her selfe and the poore man was glad to reconcile the difference before she would yeeld to allow him either fire or dry linnen Considering this me thinkes it was not amisse answered of a gentleman who being persuaded by a friend of his not to marry with such a gentlewoman to whom hee was a suitor his reasons alleadged were because she had no quicke and voluble tongue neither was she of any fine witte or capacitie to whom he instantly replyde I desire to haue a woman to bee my wife that shall haue no more tongue to answer mee to a question than yea or nay or to haue more wit than to distinguish her husbands bed from another mans Another woman hauing a husband who customably came drunke home and shrinking from his stoole or chaire would oft fall vpon the floore and there lie along stil when she cald him to bed he would answer her Let me alone the tenement is mine owne and I may lye where I list so long as I pay rent for the house Some few nights after comming home in the like tune and sitting asleepe in a chaire before the chimney his wife being gone to bed presently the man falls into the fire the maide cryes out to her Mistresse Oh mistresse my master is falne and lyes in the fire euen in the midst of all the fire shee lay still and turning her on the other side sayd so long as hee payes rent for the house he may lye where he please But to more serious businesse for I haue now done sporting Of English Viragoes And of Ioan de Pucil OF Guendoline the wife of king Locrine and daughter to Corinaeus duke of Cornwall I shall take more occasion to speake at large in the discourse of the beautifull Estreld Elphleda was sister to king Edward before the conquest sirnamed the fourth she was wife to Etheldredus duke of Mercia who assisted her husband in the restoring of the citie of Chester after it had beene destroyed and demolished by the Danes encompassing it with new walls he was generall to the king in all his expeditions against the Danes in the last battaile that he fought against them at a place cald Toten Hall in Staffordshire hee gaue them a mightie auerthrow but a greater at Wooddensfield where were slaine two kings two Earles and of the souldiours many thousands which were of the Danes of Northumberland In this battaile were the king and Elphleda both present Soone after this victorie Etheldredus dyed and she gouerned many yeres after him in all Mercia or middle England except in the two cities of London and Oxford which the king her brother reserued to himself She builded many cities and townes and repayred others as Thatarne Brimsbury the bridge vpon Seuerne Tamwoorth Liechfield Stafford Warwicke Shrewsbury Watrisbury Edisbury in the Forrest besides Chester which is since vttery defaced and destroied Also shee built a cittie and a castle in the North part of Mercia which then was cald Runcofan and after Runcorn Thus farre Ranulphus William de regib with others giue her this noble character This Lady hauing once assayde the throwes of childbirth would neuer after bee drawne to haue any carnall societie with her husband alleaging that it was not sitting or seemely for a woman of her degree being a princesse a kings daughter and a kings sister to inure herselfe to such wanton embraces wherof should ensue so great paine and sorrow She tamed the Welchmen and in many conflicts chased the Danes after whose death the king tooke the prouince of Mercia intirely into his owne hand disinherited her daughter Elswina whom he led with him into West-Saxon Henricus lib. 5. hath left this Epitaph as a memoriall ouer her Tombe Oh Elphlede mightie both in strength and mind The dread of men and victoresse of thy kind Nature hath done as much as nature can To make thee maide but goodnesse makes the man Yet pittie thou should'st change ought saue thy name Thou art so good a woman and thy fame In that growes greater and more worthie when Thy feminine valour much out-shineth when Great Caesars acts thy noble deeds excell So sleepe in peace Virago maide farewell Much to this purpose hath Treuisa expressed
against all Law or Iustice to behold me against reason or modestie naked Gyges at these words was first wonderously amazed but after recollecting himselfe entreated her not to compell him to so hard an exigent as to the choyse of eyther But finding that necessitie that he must be forced to one or the other to kill the king or to be slaine by others he rather made choyse to suruiue and let the other perish and thus answered her Since generous Ladie you vrge me to an enterprise so much opposite to my milder nature and disposition propose some safe course how this may be done Euen sayth she in the selfe-same place where he deuised this mischiefe against himselfe namely his bed-chamber where to thee I was first discouered Therefore prouiding all things necessarie for so determinate a purpose and the night comming on Gyges who knew no euasion but to kill his maister or dye himselfe awaited his best aduantage and hauing notice when Candaules was asleepe followed the queene into her chamber and with a Ponyard by her prouided for the purpose stabbed him to the heart by which hee attayned both the queene and kingdome Of this historie Archilochus Parius makes mention in his Iambicks who liued about the same time affirming That Gyges was by the Oracle of Delphos confirmed in the kingdome after the Faction of the Heraclides had opposed his soueraigntie Rowan and Estrilda ROwan was a maid of wonderfull beautie and pleasantnesse daughter to Hengest a captaine of the Saxons Of this Ladie Vortiger then king grew so enamored that for her sake hee was diuorced from his wife by whom hee had three sonnes for which deed the greatest part of the Brittaines forsooke him therefore hee by the instigation of Rowan still caused more and more Saxons to be sent for vnder pretence to keepe the Land in subiection But the Brittaines considering the dayly repayre of the Saxons came to the King and told him the danger that might ensue entreating him whilest it waâ— yet time and to preuent a future miserie to expell them the Land But all in â—aine for Vortiger was so besotted in the beautie of his faire wife by whose counsaile he was altogether swayed that he would in no wise listen to the counsaile of his subiects Wherefore they with one vnited consent depriued him of his Crowne and dignitie making Vortimerus his eldest sonne king in his stead Who was no sooner crowned but with all expedition he raysed an armie and pursued the Saxons and in foure maine battailes besides conflicts and skirmishes became victorious ouer them The Saxons and their insolencies thus supâ—â—est and the king now gouerning the Land in peace after he had reigned seuâ—â— yeeres was by this Rowan in reuenge of the disgrace done to her king deposed and her countreymen disgraced most trecherously poysoned Locrin the eldest sonne of Brute chased the Hunnes which inuaded the realme of England and so hotely pursued them that many of them with their king were drowned in a riuer which parteth England and Scotland and after the name of the king of the Hunnes who there perished the riuer is to this day called Humbar This king Locrin had to wife â—â—â—â—doline a daughter of Coriâ—eus duke of Cornwall by whom he had a sonne calâ—â—d Madâ—n He kept also a Paramour called the beautifull Ladie Estrilda by whom hee had a daughter called Sabrina Locrine after the death of Corineus of whom he stood in awe diuorsed himselfe from his lawfull wife and tooke to his embraces his faire concubine mooued with this iniurie Guendoline retired herselfe into Cornewall where she gathered a great power fought with her husband slew him in battaile and after caused him to be buried in Troy-nouant That done she caused the faire Estrilda with her daughter Sabrina to be drowned in a riuer that which parts England and Wales which still beares the name of the yong Virgin and is called Seuerne These her dessignes accomplished for so much as Madun her yong sonne was but in his pupillage and not of capacitie or age to gouerne the Land by the common sufferage of all the Brittons she was made Protectoresse and Ladie Regent of the kingdome which to the comfort of the subiects and the weale of the kingdome she discreetly gouerned for the space of fifteene yeares and therefore her memorie might fitly haue beene rancked amongst the most Illustrious women Her sonne comming to age and yeares of discretion shee to him resigned the Scepter The Faire ladie of Norwich ANd now because wee traffique altogether with Historie it shall not bee amisse sometimes to mingle Seria Iocis as shall appeare by this discourse which I haue often heard related A knight both of same and memorie and whose name is still vpon record beeing eminent and of note with Henrie the fift as personally with him in all the warres in France after the king had both conquered and quieted the Land this noble Englishman retyred himselfe into his countrey He had a Ladie that was of such beautie that she attracted the eyes of all beholders with no common admiration in briefe I cannot speake of her feature sufficiently as being farre beyond the compasse of my penne and therefore I put her into the number of my Faire ones This ladie with her husband residing in the cittie of Norwich He after so many troubles and torments purposed a more sequestred life and next the solace he had in the beautie and vertues of his wife to take a course meerely contemplatiue and thought out of the aboundance of his wealth to doe some pious deeds for the good of his soule hee therefore erected in the cittie and neere to the place where his house stood a goodly Church at his owne charge and betwixt them a Religous house that entertained twelue Friers and an Abbot allowing them demeanes competent for so small a brother-hood In this couent there were two Frier Iohn and Frier Richard these were still at continuall enmitie and especiall notice taken of it amongst the rest which by no mediation could be truely reconciled but omitting that it was custome of the knight and his ladie dayly to rise to morning Mattins and she being affable and courteous to all it bred a strange inciuile boldnesse in Frier Iohn for she neuer came through the cloyster but he was still with duckes and cringes attending her which she suspecting nothing simply with modest smiles returned thankes to him againe which grew so palpable in the Frier that as farre as they durst it was whispered in the couent Briefly after these incouragements as he constered them it bred in him that impudencie that he presumed to write a letter to her in which he layde open a great deale of more than necessarie loue This letter with great difficultie came to her hand at which the ladie astonished as not dreaming that such leaudnesse should come from one that professed chastitie and not knowing whether it might be a tricke
Apuleius testifies of Pamphila Larissana a Witch of Thessalie as likewise a Witch in the Laodunensian suburbes in the month of May 1578. who blushed not to doe the like before many witnesses now the Law saith Who that shall but incline or bow downe to Images which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be punished with death The Hebrew word Tistaueb and the Chaldaean Fisgud which all our Latine Interpreters translate Adorare imports as much as to incline or worship now these Witches doe not onely incline vnto him but inuoke and call vpon him A fourth thing is which many haue confessed That they haue vowed their children to the Deuill now the Law saith God is inflamed with reuenge against all such as shall offer their children vnto Moloch which Iosephus interpretes Priapus and Philo Satanus but all agree that by Moloch is signified the Deuill and malignant spirits A fifth thing is gathered out of their owne confessions That they haue sacrificed Infants not yet baptized to the Deuill and haue kild them by thrusting great pinnes into their heads Sprangerus testifies that he condemned one to the fire who confessed that she by such meanes had been the death of one and fortie children A sixt thing is That they doe not only offer children in the manner of sacrifice against which the Holy Ghost speakes That for that sinne alone God will extirpe and root out the people but they vow them in the wombe A seuenth is That they are not themselues blasphemers and Idolaters only but they are tied by couenant with the Deuill to allure and persuade others to the like abhominations when the Law teacheth That whosoeuer shall persuade another to renounce his Creator shall be stoned to death An eight is That they not onely call vpon the Deuill but sweare by his name which is directly against the Law of God which forbids vs to sweare by any thing saue his owne Name A ninth is That adulterous Incests are frequent amongst them for which in all ages they haue been infamous and of such detestable crimes conuicted so that it hath almost growne to a Prouerbe No Magician or Witch but was either begot and borne of the father and daughter or the mother and sonne which Catullus in this Distick expresseth Nam Magus ex Matre gnato gignatur oportet Si vera est Persarum impia Relligio Intimating that if the impious Religion of the Persians were true Witches of necessitie should be the incestuous issue of the mother and sonne or else è contra A tenth They they are Homicides and the murtherers of Infants which Sprangerus obserues from their owne confessions and Baptista Porta the Neapolitan in his booke de Magia Next That they kill children before their Baptisme by which circumstances their offence is made more capitall and heinous The eleuenth That Witches eat the flesh of Infants and commonly drinke their blouds in which they take much delight To which Horace seemes to allude when he saith Nue pransae Lamiae vinum puerum extrahat Aluo Nor from the stomacke of a Witch new din'd Plucks he a yet ' liue Infant If children be wanting they digge humane bodies from their sepulchres or feed vpon men that haue been executed To which purpose Lucan writes Laqueum nodosque nocentes Ore suo rupit pendentia corpora carpsit Abrasit cruces c. The Felons strangling Cord she nothing feares But with her teeth the fatall Knot she teares The hanging bodies from the Crosse she takes And shaues the Gallowes of which dust she makes c. Apuleius reports That comming to Larissa in Thessaly he was hyred for eight pieces of Gold to watch a dead body but one night for feare the Witches of which in that place there is abundance should gnaw and deuoure the flesh of the partie deceased euen to the very bones which is often found amongst them Also Murther by the Lawes of God and man is punishable with death besides they that eat mans flesh or deliuer it to be eaten are not worthie to liue Cornel. Lib. de Sicarijs A twelfth is That they kill as oft by Poysons as by Powders and Magick Spells now the Law saith It is worse to kill by Witchcraft than with the Sword Lib. 1. de Malific A thirteenth is That they are the death of Cattell for which Augustanus the Magician suffred death 1569. A fourteenth That they blast the Corne and Graine and bring barrennesse and scarcitie when there is a hoped plentie and abundance A fifteenth That they haue carnall consocietie with the Deuill as it hath beene approued by a thousand seuerall confessions Now all that haue made any compact or couenant with the Deuill if not of all these yet vndoubtedly are guiltie of many or at least some and therefore consequently not worthy to liue And so much for the Punishment of Witches and other knowne malefactors I come now to the Rewards due to the Vertuous and first of some noble Ladies for diuerse excellencies worthie to be remembred Of Tirgatao Moeotis Camiola Turinga and others TIrgatao a beautifull and vertuous Ladie was ioyned in marriage to Hecataeus king of those Indians that inhabite neere vnto the Bosphor which is an arme of the Sea that runneth betwixt two coasts This Hecataeus being cast out of his kingdome Satyrus the most potent of these kings reinstated him in his Principalitie but conditionally That he would marrie his onely daughter and make her Queene by putting Tirgatao to death But he though forced by the necessitie of the time and present occasion yet louing his first wife still would not put her to death according to the couenant but caused her to be shut in his most defenced Castle there to consume the remainder of her life in perpetuall widowhood The Ladie comforted with better hopes borne to fairer fortunes deceiued the eyes of her strict keepers and by night escaped out of prison This being made knowne to the two kings the sonne in law and the father they were wonderfully perplexed with the newes of her flight as fearing if shee arriued in her owne countrey she might accite the people to her reuenge They therefore pursued her with all diligence and speed but in vaine for hiding her selfe all the day time and trauelling by night through pathlesse and vnfrequented places at length she arriued amongst the Ixomatae which was the countrey of her owne friends and kindred But finding her father dead she married with him that succeeded in the kingdome by which meanes now commanding the Ixomatae she insinuated into the breasts of the most warlike people inhabiting about Moeotis and so leuied a braue Armie which she her selfe conducted She first inuaded the kingdome of Hecataeus and infested his countrey with many bloudie incursions she next wasted and made spoyle of the kingdome of Satyrus insomuch that they both were forced with all submisse
vsher in the Worke especially being so much and so long conuersant amongst the Poets which is able to discourage a Booke wanting their approbation and countenance Let that I entreat be no preiudice to my Labours since I did not communicate them vnto any And how can any man truly commend what he hath not aduisedly perused Neither doe I thinke I am so little knowne or ill beloued amongst them that any one would haue denyed me so small a courtesie But being onely a matter of forme and neither helpe nor hinderance to that which hath alreadie past the Presse I expose it naked to the free view and vnguarded with any such faction of friends either by the worth thereof to be commended and so liue or by the weakenesse to be disparaged and so perish And these are all the difficulties of which I am now to expostulate desiring thee to excuse a suddaine Businesse which began with the Presse kept it still going and ended some few dayes before it These things well considered may in any generous spirit preuent all Cauill and Criticisme and to such onely I submit my selfe Thine who for thy sake desires to be still industrious T. H. AN INDEX OR TABLE of Nine Bookes of Various Historie onely concerning Women inscribed by the Names of the Nine MVSES The Contents of the first Booke intituled Clio Treating of the Goddesses Celestiall Terrestriall Marine and Infernall c. A Proeme of the seuerall opinions of all the antient Philosophers concerning the Deitie Fol. 1 Of the Goddesses Celestiall and first of Iuno 5 Of Sybil. 7 Of Venus 8 Of Minerua 10 Of Diana 15 Of Ceres 16 Of Proserpina 18 Of Nemesis 19 Of Latona 20 Of Fortune 22 Of the Goddesses called Selecta 25 Of the Goddesse Rhaea 29 Of Isis or Io. 30 Of Ate. 31 Of Pandora 32 Of the Marine Goddesses 33 Of Amphetrite ibid. Of Thesis or Tethies 34 Of the Nereides 36 Of the daughters of Triton 37 Of the wiues and daughters of Proteus 38 Of the daughters of Phoreis 39 Of Scilla and Charibdis 40 The Goddesses of Hills Woods Grouâ—s and Trees c. 42 Of the Oreades 43 The Driades and Hamadriades 44 Of the Goddesses Infernall 45 Of the Furiae or Eumenides 46 An abstract of all the Fables in the fifteene bookes of Ouids Metamorphosis as they follow in the Poeme 48 The Contents of the second Booke inscribed Euterpe Treating of the Muses Sybils Vestals Prophetesses Hesperides the Graces c. A Discourse concerning the Muses 57 Of Clio. 61 Of Euterpe 63 Of Thalia 65 Of Melpomene 66 Of Terpsichore 68 Of Erato 70 Of Polymnia or Polyhimnia 71 Of Vrania 73 Of Calliope 74 A discourse of the Sybils 76 Sybilla Perfica and her Prophesies 79 Sybilla Lybica and her Prophesies 81 Sybilla Delphica and her Prophesies 82 Sybilla Cumaea and her Prophesies 83 Sybilla Samia and her Prophesies 85 Sybilla Cumana and her Prophesies 86 Sybilla Hellespontiaca her Prophesies 88 Sybilla Phrygia and her Prophesies 89 Sybilla Europaea and her Prophesies 90 Sybilla Tiburtina and her Prophesies 91 Sybilla Aegyptia and her Prophesies 93 Sybilla Erithraea and her Prophesies 94 A discourse of the Virgin Vestals 95 Of Oppia Claâ—dia Fonteia Martia c. 97 Of the Prophetesses 99 The Historie of a great Magician 101 Of the Hesperides 103 The Pleiades or Hyades and why of the seuen Starres but six appeare at once 105 106 Of the Graces 106 Of the Howres 108 Of Aurora or the Morning 109 Of the Night 112 Of Sleepe 114 Of Death ibid. The Contents of the third Booke inscribed Thalia Treating of Illustrious Queenes famous Wiues Mothers Daughters c. A Discourse concerning Illustrious Women 118 How kissing first came vp ibid. Of three gentlemen and their wiues 121 Of Illustrious Queenes 122 A Funerall Ode vpon the death of Anna Panareta 123 Of diuerse Ladies famous for their Modestie 125 The wife of Fuluius 127 Of Aretaphila 128 Of Pieria Aspasia c. 130 The memorable Historie of Odatis 133 Of Aristomache Hyppo and Chiâ—mara c. 135 Of Tertia Aemilia Turia Sulpitia Iulia and Portia 136 Of Horestilla Artimesia and Hormisda 137 Of Queene Ada and Zenocrita 138 Of the wife of Pythes 139 Of the wife of Nausimenes 140 Of Ciano Medullina and Erixo 141 A woman of the citie Pergamus 142 Of Stratonica Valeria and Claelia 143 Of Olimpias and the Troades 144 Of the Phocides women of Chios 145 Of the Persides Celtae Melitae and Tyrrhaenae 147 Examples of Modestie and Magnanimitie 148 Of Dido Caesara Gumilda and Ethelburga 152 Of Policrita 154 Of Queenes and other Ladies for diuers Vertues memorable 155 Of women remarkable for their loue to their husbands 159 The Contents of the fourth Booke inscribed Melpomene Of Women Incestuous Adulteresses and such as haue come by strange deaths A Discourse persuading to good life 163 Of women incestuous and first of Queen Semiramis 165 Of Tagenna a woman of seuentie Cubits high 167 Of Paâ—iphae ibid. Of Canace Canusia Valeria Tusculana 169 Of Iulia the Empresse ibid. The sisters of Cambises 170 Of Liuia Horestilla Lollia Paulina Cesonia c. 171 Of Iocasta ibid. Of Crythaeis the mother of Homer 173 An Epitaph vpon Homer Prince of Poets 175 A strange Incest 176 Of Cyborea mother to Iudas Iscariot 177 Of Veronica 178 A discourse concerning Adulteresses ibid. Of many great Ladies branded with Adulterie amongst the Romans 181 A countrey fellow and his mistresse ibid. The water of a chast woman excellent for the eye-sight 182 Of Laodice an vnnaturall wife 183 The birth of Antoninus Commodus 184 Of Phedima and a notable Impostor ibid. Of Begum Queene of Persia. 186 Of Queene Olimpias and the birth of Alexander 188 The death of Olimpias 189 Of Romilda with rare examples of Chastitie 190 Of Ethelburga with her Epitaph 191 A merrie accident concerning a Adulteresse ibid. A true moderne Historie of an Adulteresse 192 The wife of Gengulphus and diuerse others 196 The Historie of Elphritha 198 Of Gunnora with other intermixture of Historie 200 Of women that haue come by strange deaths 202 Women that died golden deaths ibid. Women that died in Child-birth 203 Women that suffered Martyrdome 204 The strange death of Aristoclaea Democrita c. 206 207 The Hostlers Tale. 213 The Contents of the fift Booke inscribed Terpsichore Entreating of Amazons and other women famous either for Valour or Beautie A Discourse whether Valor or Beautie may clayme prioritie 215 Of the Amazons their originall c. 218 220 Of other warlike women and those of masculine Vertue 224 Examples of Feare 225 Of Helerna Camilla Maria Puteolana and others 226 The race of Hyppomanes and Atlanta 229 Of other warlike Ladies 230 A description of the Messagets 231 Of Zantippe and Mirhâ— 233 Of a Sheepe and a Shrow 234 A tricke of an English Skould c. 235 Of English Virago's of Ioan de Pucil 236 A discourse of Faire women 240 Of Faire women 245 The faire
that obserued absteined from eating flesh contenting themselues with Chesnuttes and Akornes and the fruits of trees One of them called Melissa first found and tasted honie in Pelloponesus with whose tast the Greekes were so pleased that they call all Bees Melissae after her name From hence it came that in the sacreds of Ceres and in all nations the Priests deriued their names from her These nymphes were supposed to haue the charge of hills and mountaines and sometimes of such wild beasts as they pursued in the companie of Diana but the protection of priuate heards or domesticke flockes was not conferd vpon them so religious were the people of old that neither publicke place nor priuate was destitute of some peculiar and diuine power so likewise euery element hearbe roote and tree or whatsoeuer symple was vsefull and medicinable or obnoxious and hurtfull to the life of man Those of the mountaines were Oreades or Orestiades The Driades and Hamadriades THe Dryades had predominance ouer the woods and groaues as Pomona ouer the orchards and gardens The Hamadriades were the genij of euerie particular tree and as Calimachus in a Hymne to Delos witnesseth of them they begin with their first plantation grow with them and consume and perish as they rot and wither their number is not agreed vpon Pausonias in Phocicis calls one of them Tythorera in Arcadicis a second Erato and a third Phigalia Claudianus in laâ—dibus Stiliconis reckons them seauen Charon Lampsacenus produceth one Rhaecus who in the countrey of Assyria hauing a goodlie faire oake whose earth shrinking form the roote and being ready to fall as he was propping and supporting the tree and supplieng the decayed mould about it the nymph or genius of that tree which was to perish with it appeared to him and after thankes for so great a courtesie bid him demand of her whatsoeuer and it should be graunted since by the repayring of that plant she was still to liue He taken with her beautie demanded libertie freelie to imbrace hir to his owne fill and appetite to which she instantlie yeelded Appollonius in his Argonaut tells of the father of one Paraebius who going to cut downe an antient faire oake that had stood many yeares a nymph in like manner appeared to him humblie petitioning that he would spare the tree for her sake since the age of it and her and the liues of both were limited alike which he refusing so enraged the other of her fellowes that many afflictions befell both himselfe and his posteritie Mnesimachus saith that they are called Dryades because in the oakes their liues are included and Hamadriades because they are borne with them and Isacius the interpreter of Appollo because they perish with them I will conclude these with one tale recited by Charon Lampsacenus Archus saith he the sonne of Iupiter and Calisto being chacing in the forrests incountred one of the Hamadriades who told him how neere she was to ruine in regard that the riuer running by had eaten away the earth from the root of such a goodly oake to which she pointed and that by sauing that he should preserue her at her intreatie he turned the streame another way and supplyed the roote with earth for which this nymph whose name was Prospetia granted him her free imbraces of whom he begot Philatus and Aphidantes Whether these relations were true or false is not much to bee disputed on if false they were for no other causes deuised but by the superstition of the people of antient daies who left nothing vnmeditated that might stirre vp men to the adoration of the diuine powers since in euerie thing they demonstrated a deitie If they were spoken as truths I rather beleeue them to bee the meere illusions of diuells and spirits themselues than the genij of plants and trees that made such apparitions Of the Goddesses Infernall IT lies with much conuenience in our way to make discourse of Pluto the third brother of Saturne of the riuer Acheron and the properties thereof Of Styx a flood terrible to the gods themselues and by which they vse to sweare of Cocitus of Caron of Cerberus of the three infernall judges Minos Aeacus and Rhadamant of Tartarus with diuers others out of all which many excellent fables pleasant to reade and profitable to make both morrall and diuine vse of might bee collected but I skip them of purpose since I am inioyned to it by promise for but women onely I haue now to deale with It therefore thus followes Of the Parcae OF Proserpina we haue treated alreadie amongst the supernall goddesses aboue and therefore must necessarily spare her here amongst these below The Parcae or fatall goddesses are three Clotho Lachesis and Atropos Ceselius Vindex he giues them three other names Nona Decima and Morta and cites this verse of Liuius a most antient Poet Quando dies venit quam praesata morta est When the day commeth that Morta hath presaged Some calls them the daughters of Demogorgon others as Cicero of Herebus and Nox Hell and Night by another name they are called Fata the Fates as Seneca Multa ad Fata venere suum dum fata timeant As much to say Many come to their death whilst they feare it They are sayd moreouer to measure the life of man with a spindle and thread which they spinne from their distaffe from which they are called Lanificae by the Poets Lanificas nulli tres exorare puellas Contigit obseruant quem statuere diem The three wol-weauing sisters none can pray To change their time they fix a constant day They are sayd to be inexorable and by no praiers or intreates to be moued to alter the limit of the fixed time or prorogue the life of man one minute after the date bee expired which was proposed at our birthes therefore Seneca Nulli iusso cessare licet Nulli scriptum proferre diem The Poets thus distinguish their offices one begins the life of man and pluckes the towe from the distaffe the second makes the thread and continues it the third cuts it off and so ends it The first is Clotho whom Statius calls Ferrea or hard hearted Seneca Grandaena or extreamely aged Pontanus Improba and Sedula obstinate and yet carefull and dilligent The second Lachesis called by Ouid Dura hard by Marciall Inuida enuious by Claudian Ferrea obdure and rude The third Attropos of whom Statius Hos ferrea neuerat annos Atropos Some number Illithia amongst the Parcae Plutarch speaking of the face that is visible within the Orbe of the Moone sayth some are of opinion that the soules of men are resolued into the Moone as their bodies into the Earth Aliquanto post tempore eas quoque animas in se recepit Luna atquae composuit 1. After some time the Moone receiues into her selfe those soules which she had before framed restoring their mindes before lost for they are all in a dreame like the soule of Endimion and by coadiuting
how manie husbands they should hauc and young men what wiues and how manie children legittimate or bastards with such like ridiculous and illusiue coniectures but besides this Art she professed the knowledge of things lost and to returne any stolne goods to the true owner growing by this so popular that she grew not onely in fame but in wealth and of great opinion amongst the vulger It happened that in a certaine house a siluer spoone being lost and some of the familie aboue the rest suspected about the felonie two of the seruants knowing themselues innocent to cleere themselues and finde out the priuate thiefe made a stocke betwixt them of ten groats for that was her fee and verie early in the morning repaired to this cunning womans house because they would be sure both to take her within and find her at leasure They happened to come iust at the time when she her selfe opening the street doore the first thing she cast her eye vpon was that some beastly fellow or other had egregiously playd the slouen iust before the threashold of her doore at which being exceedingly mooued she in her anger thus said Did I but know or could I find out what rascall hath done this I would bee reuenged on him though it cost me twentie nobles One of the seruing men somewhat wiser than his fellow hearing this pluckt him by the elbow thus whispers to him Thou hearest her talke of twentie nobles but by my consent we will euen backe againe and saue our ten groats The other demanding the reason Marrie saith he she that cannot tell who hath done that abuse at her doore I will neuer beleeue that she can tell vs the partie that hath stolne the spoone I would wish that all would take caution from this seruant The HESPERIDES THey were the daughters of Hesperus the brother of Atlas or as some thinke of Atlas himselfe of which number is Eubulus Chaeretraâ—es deriues them from Phorcus and Cetus Their names were Aegle Arethâ—sa and Hesperthusa These kept certaine pleasant and delectable gardens not farre from Lyxâ—s a towne of Mâ—â—ricania in the farthest part of Aethiopia towards the West where all the countrie was scorched with the heat of the Sunne and the place almost inhabitable for the multitude of serpents These Gardens were not farre distant from Meroe and the redde Sea where liued the Serpent that kept the golden Apples whom Hercules after slew The keeper of this Dragon was called Ladon the sonne of Typhon and Echidna whom Apollonius takes to be the Dragon himselfe these Virgins inhabited the remotest parts of the Earth the same where Atlas is said to support the Heauens as Dionisius signifies to vs in his booke de Situ orbis Sustinet hic Atlas Caelum sic fata iubebunt Vltimus Hesperidum locus est in margine terrae Hic Capite manibus fert vasti pondera mundi Here Atlas doth support the Heauen for so The Fates command th' Hesperid's giue it name In the Earth's vtmost margent he we know Beares with his head and hands the worlds vast frame The fame is the mountaine Atlas hath round incompast or hedged in this Orchard or Garden because Themis had prophesied to him That in processe of time the sonne of Iupiter should breake through his pale and beare away his golden apples which after proued true in Hercules These Apples Agretus in rebus Libicis explaineth them to be sheep and because kept by a rude and churlish sheap-heard were sayd to be guarded by a Dragon But Pherecides where he commemorates the nuptialls of Iuno affirmes that the earth next to the sea in the furthest West brings apples of the colour of gold whose opinion Lucan follows With three of these apples was Atlanta the daughter of Scocneus vanquisht which Venus gaue to Hippomines when shee was proposed the reward to the victor and death to him that was ouercome but more plainely to reduce these fables to historie It is probable that there were two brothers famous and renowned in these prouinces Hespereus and Atlas that were possest of sheepe beautifull and faire whose fleeces were yellow and of the colour of gold Hesperus hauing a daughter called Hesperia conferd her on his brother Atlas of this Hesperia the region was called Hesperitis By her Atlas had six daughters and therfore they had a double denomination from him Atlaintides from her Hesperides Their beauties being rumord far off it came to the eares of Busiris who desirous of so rich a prey sent certaine pirats and robbers with a strict commaund by some stratageme or else by force to steale them thence and so to transport them within the compasse of his dominions These Damosells sporting themselues in the garden were by these spies outliers surprised and borne thence which hapned iust about the time that Hercules combatted Antaeus these Virgins being shipt away the pirats went on shore to repose themselues with their prey vpon the beach of which Hercules hauing notice who had heard before of the rape he sallied vpon them and slew them all to one man returning the Virgins safe to their father for which he receiued not only a present of those sheepe the reward of so great a benefit but many other curtesies amongst other things he instructed him in Astronomie and to distinguish of the stars which knowledge Hercules first bringing into Greece he was therefore sayd to ease Atlas and in his stead to support heauen vpon his shoulders So the Hesperides are called the daughters of Hesperus which signifies the Euening And they are sayd to haue gardens in the Occident which bringeth foorth golen Apples by reason the colour of the starres are like gold and their orbes round as apples neither rise they but in the West because instantly after the setting of the Sunne the Starres appeare which by reason of his splendor are concealed and obscured all the day time the Dragon some thinke it to be the signe-bearig Circle others a riuer that by many windings and serpentlike indents incompast the Orchard And so much for the explanation of the Hesperides PLEIADES or HYADES OVid in his first booke de Fastis leaues remembred how Atlas tooke to wife Pleione the daughter of Oceanus and Thetis by whom hee receiued seuen daughters these when Orion with their mother had for the space of fiue yeares together prosecuted onely to vitiate and deflower them they all iointly petitioned to the gods That they might bee rescued from all violence whose prayers Iupiter hearing and withall commiserating their distresse hee changed the seuen sisters into seuen starres whose names Aratus in Astronomicis thus recites Septemillae esse feruntur Quamuis sint oculis hominum sex obuia signa Alcione Meropeque Electraque diua Celaeno Taigete Sterope preclaro Lumine Maia Seuen starres th' are held to bee Though wee with our weake eyes but six can see Celaeno Electra Alcyone Merope Clerre-sighted Maia Taygete Sterope All these starres are plac't
in the head of the Bull two in his eares two in his eyes two in his nosthrills and one in the middle of his forehead where the haire curles and turnes vp Some reckoned the daughters of Atlas to the number of twelue and that Hyas was their brother who being stung to death by a serpent fiue of his sisters tooke his death so grieuously that they dyed with sorrow of whom Iupiter tooke such pittie that he translated them into so many starres which still beare their brothers name and are called Hyades Hesiod thus giues vs their names Phoeola Coronis Cleia Phoeo and Eudora Quas nimphas Hyades mortales nomine dicunt Others nominate them after this manner Ambrocia Coronis Eudora Dione Aesila and Polyxo Others haue added to these Thiene and Proitele which they haue beleeued to be the Nourses of Bacchus as also Dodoninas so called of Dodonus the sonne of Europa but write them as descended from other parents whence some held them for the daughters of Erecheus others of Cadmus some would haue Calypso to be the daughter of Atlas Neither is their number free from controuersie for Thales Milesius holds them but two the one Australis the other Borealis Euripides in his Tragedie de Phaetonte addes a third Achaeus makes them foure and Euripides six some thinke them called Hyades because they were the Nurses of Bacchus who is also called Hyes of which opinion Euphorion is Hyaecornuto Dionisio Iratae Others thinke them to haue tooke name of the Raine because their rising still pretends shewers in the Spring Besides these are the most certaine signes of weather which the Nauigators at sea gather from the rising of these Starres as Euripides in Ione most perspicuously demonstrates These Pleiades and Hyades are therefore called the daughters of Atlas because Atlas signifies Axis mundi i. the axeltree of the world The Collumnes of Atlas are the North and the Meridian or South poles on which the Heauen is thought to be supported Now the axeltree first made the Starres were next created Some thinke them the issue of Atlas Libicus who being a most skilfull Astronomer called his daughters by the names of the starres thereby to eternise their memorie as diuerse others haue done the like Amongst whom was Conon who liu'd in the time of Ptolomaus who called his Comâ— and Berenices Proclus in his Coment vpon Hesiodus his workes and daies writes that these Pleiades are all diuine and their starres the soules of the Planets as Celaeno is the soule of Saturne Sterope of the sphere of Iupiter Merope of Mars Electâ—ra of Apollo or the Sunne Alcione of Venus Maia of Mercury and Taigete of the Moone Of whome some haue had congresse with their owne Planets and some with other of the gods Which Ouid in his fourth booke Fastor hath with much elegancie related Pleiades Incipiunt humeros releuare paternos The wandring Pleiades gadding abroad Begin to ease their father of his Load Who though in number Seuen all shining bright Yet onely six of them appeare in sight Twice three of these themselues haue prostrate cast Into the gods imbraces Mars clings fast To Sterope Alcione the faire And sweete Celaeno Neptunes darlings are Maia Electra and Taigete three Of that bright sister-hood Ioues wantons be But Merope the seuenth of minde more base Stoopt lower to a mortall mans imbrace The thought of which fact she doth so detest She since neare shewd her face amongst the rest And so much for the Pleiades and Hiades shall suffice Of the GRACES THese whom the Latines call Gratiae or Graces the Greekes call Charites Hesiod calls them the daughters of Iupiter and Eurinome these called Oceanus father Orpheus in an hymne soong to the praise of these sisters calls them the daughters of Eunomea and Iupiter Antilemachus deriues them from Aegles and the Sunne others from Antinoe and Iupiter as they differ in their brith so they doe in their names and number some allow but two and name them Clita and Phaâ—na Pausonias in Boeticis stiles them Auxo and Hegemone Some number Suadela amongst the Graces But all those ancient writers that are best receiued and most authentically approued conclude them to bee three their names Euphrosine Aglaia and Thalia of whom Hesiod in his Theogonia Tres sibi Eurynome Charites parit edita magno Oceano c. Eurinome of the Greeke Ocian borne A nimph excelling both in shape and face Brought foorth the three faire Charites to adorne Ioues issue Faire Euphrosine the first Grace Aglaia and Thalia c. They are neuer seperated but alwayes put together whensoeuer they are remembered by the antient Poets The yonger sister Aglaia is sayd to bee the wife of Vulcan and all iointly the handmaides and attendants of Venus Concerning their habits there hath beene some difference because some haue presented them naked and without any garments at all which difference Pausonius hath reconciled who witnesseth that the Graces were set foorth as obiects either by the Grauers the Painters or the Poets of which number were Pythagoras Parius Bupalus Appelles and others but in habits fashioned in a modest decencie their haire faire long and comely therefore Homer in his hymne to Apollo calls them Pulcricemae or faire haired Horace hee setteth them out with gyrdles which are neuer worne without other garments It is therefore apparant that the ancient writers allowed them robes and vestures either because it was a great immodestie to present women vnclothed or else to keepe them from the violence of the winters cold by which their tempers are much distasted howsoeuer since they haue fallen into the hands of latter writers who haue robbed them of these habits with which they were apparelled by the former for which robberie they are said as ashamed of their nakednesse to haue exiled themselues from the Earth The first of all mortall men that erected a Temple to the Graces was Eteocles a king ouer the Orchomaenians for as Strabo writes amongst them was the fountaine called Acidalia in which these three sisters vsed to bathe themselues Plato aduised Xenocrates being a good man and of honest conuersation but of austere life and condition that he would sacrifice to the Graces And Plutarch in his Coniugall precepts sayth That a chast and modest woman in her societie conuersation towards her husband needes the helpe of the Graces that as Metrodorus was wont to say she may leade her life with him so sweetly that her boldnesse be to him no distast nor bashfulnesse any burden for by all such as affect their husbands neatnesse and cleanlinesse in the house and at boord with pleasing and smooth language at bed are by no meanes to be neglected for coursenesse of manners in the one makes her appeare harsh and frowradnesse in the other vnpleasant Herodotus relates that the flood Cynips glydes along by a hill dedicated to the Graces distant from the sea two hundred furlongs which hill is onely woodie and
she frees the bodie from a thousand paines and diseases deliuers the subiect from the crueltie of the tyrant makes the begger equall with his prince She to all good men is acceptable and welcome only dreadfull to the wicked who haue a presage and feare of punishments to come Alcidâ—â—â—us writ an excellent booke in the praise of Death hauing a large and copious argument in which he stroue to expresse with what an equall sufferance and modest patience she was to be entertained Of the same argument writes Plutarch in Consolator for life is nothing els but a light lent vs by the Creator of all mankind which if it be redemanded of vs ought no more grudgingly to be paid back than comming to a friends house to bee merrie in the morning and hauing feasted there all the day to returne to our home at night or to pay back what wee borrow to the owner For there is no iniurie done to vs if God demaunde that back at our hands which hee hath before but lent vs. Now from the daughter to come backe to the mother and know what is allegorically meant by Night These pests mischeifes before commemorated are therfore sayd to be her sonnes and daughters because the ignorance and mallice of man which is indeed the night of the mind is the parent and nurse of all calamities incident to vs yet may some of their violences by wisedome be mitigated though not frustrated of their ends namely Age Loue Fate Death and the like who though they be in perpetuall motion their speed may bee slackned though not stayd and their pace slowed though not quite stopt She was called the most Antient because before the Heauens and the Sunne were created there was no light extant which is said to proceede from the lower parts of the earth in regard that the Sunne compassing the world when he lights the Antipodes with his beames the earth shadowes them from vs which shaddow is nothing else than Night She is called the mother of all as being before the birth of any thing The word Nox is deriued à Nocendo of hurting or harming the reason is as some Phisitions hold opinion because the corrupt humors of the night are infectious and dangerous especially to men any way diseased of which there is continuall experience in all such as haue either woundes or aches or agues or feauers or the like to all such weakenesses or imperfections the humors of the Night are still most hurtfull and obnoxious And so much breifly what morally can be gathered by that which hath bin fabulously commented of Night That Sleepe could not fasten on the eyes of Iupiter it is intended not to bee conuenient for him that hath the charge protection of the whole Vniuerse to whose care and foresight the administration and guidance of all things are committed should so much as slumber or wincke at all neither doth the diuine Nature need any rest to repaire and comfort his troubled spirits when he is not capable of either labour or discommoditie And Lethe is called the sister of Somnus in regard that by our naturall repose wee for the time forget all paine anguish or trouble Because he comes to many creatures and at the same time he is said to be winged in regard the humor of the Night encreaseth the vapours of the stomach ascending to the higher parts of the body which after by the frigiditie of the braine descend againe lower and more coole by which Sleepe is begot hee is therefore not vnproperly called the sonne of Night which Night calls me now to rest with the finishing of this second booke called EVTERPE Explicit Lib. 2. THE THIRD BOOKE of Women inscribed THALIA Treating of Illustrious Queenes Famous Wiues Mothers Daughters c. Containing the Histories of sundry Noble Ladies GOrgias held opinion that Women were not to be honored according to their forme but their fame preferring actuall vertue before superficial beautie to incorage which in their sex funerall orations were allowed by the Roman Lawes to be celebrated for all such as had beene either presidents of a good and commendable life or otherwise illustrious for any noble or eminent action And therefore least the matrons or virgins in Rome the one should diuert from her stayed grauitie or the other from her virgins professed integritie the vse of Wine was not knowne amongst them for that woman was taxed with immodestie whose breath was knowne to smell of the grape Pliny in his naturall historie saith That Cato was of opinion That the vse of kissing first began betwixt kinsman and kinswoman howsoeuer neere allide or farre off onelie by that to know whether their wiues daughters or neeces had tasted any wine to this Iuuenall seemes to allude in these verses Paucae adeo cereris vittas contingere digna Quarum non time at pater oscula As if the father were iealous of his daughters continence if by kissing her he perceiued she had drunke wine But kissing and drinking both are now growne it seemes to a greater custome amongst vs than in those dayes with the Romans nor am I so austeare to forbid the vse of either both which though the one in surfets the other in adulteries may be abused by the vicious yet contrarilie at customarie meetings and laudable banquets they by the nobly disposed and such whose hearts are fixt vpon honour may be vsed with much modestie and continence But the purpose of my tractate is to exemplifie not to instruct to shew you presidents of vertue from others not to fashion any new imaginarie forme from my selfe and that setting so many statues of honour before your eyes of Beautie Noblenesse Magnanimitie Bountie Curtesie Modestie Temperance and whatsoeuer else in goodnes can be included each heroick and well disposed Ladie or woman lower degreed and vnderâ—qualified may out of all or some of these at least apprehend some one thing or other worthie imitation that as the best of Painters to â—â—law one exquiâ—it Veâ—us had set before him a hundred choise and selected beauties all naked to take from one an eye another a lippe a third a smile a fourth a hand and from each of them that speciall lineament in which she most excelled so hauing in these papers as many vertues exposed to your view as the Painter had beauties all left as naked to your eies you may make like vse of it draw from one a noble disposition bountie and curtesie the ornaments of great Ladies from others temperance sobrietie and gouernement things best beseeming matrons the married wiues coniugall loue and sinceritie the virgins chast life and puritie and euerie of you fashion her selfe as complete a woman for vertue as Apelles made vp the purtraiture of his goddesse for beautie I need not speake much of the worth of your sex since no man I thinke that remembers hee had a mother but honours it the renowne of which â—ome by their vertues haue as much
and iudgement for we were before opprest with a tyrant whose gouernment was very grieuous vnto vs after him succeeded another farre more burdensome and cruell than the former for whose destruction I amongst the rest besought the powers aboue now you being by succession the third and more bloody and inhumane than the former I therefore with great deuotion pray for your continuance least when you be taken from vs the diuell himselfe take vpon him the scepter and succeede you in your principalitie The Tyrant though toucht to the quicke yet in regard of her age and fearelesse libertie of her language suffered her to depart vnpunisht This Tertia Aemilia a famous Roman Lady was the wife of the first Affricanus the mother of Cornelia mother to Caius and Titus Gracchus She was of such gentlenesse and patience that knowing her husband to be familiar with one of her handmaides yet she dissembled it least hee that had conquered a third part of the world should haue the imputation of any such lightnesse laid vpon him being so farre from reuenge that her husband being dead shee gaue her bondwoman manumission and marryed her richly to a free'd man of her owne Turia was the wife of Quint. Lucretius who when her husband was proscribed by the Triumuirate and therefore instantlie to depart into exile onely trusting the secresie of her chambermaid she hid her husband in her house betwixt two chambers where no search could discouer him where to her great perill she kept him long without any preiudice or danger expressing therein her singular faith and loyaltie that when the rest that were confined into countreyes remote were exposed to the labour of the body and discontent of the mind he alone vnder his owne roofe and in his owne chamber liued safe in the bosome of his wife so remarkably louing and constant Sulpitia being strictlie kept by her mother Iulia least she should follow her husband Lentulus Crustellio into banishment who by the Triumuirate was confined into Sicily notwithstanding putting on the habit of a seruant past through their guards and watches attended only with two hand-maids and as many men-seruants by secret flight came to the place whether he was proscribed leauing all the pleasures and choice delicates of Rome to participate with the miseries of a husband Pliny writes of another Sulpitia a famous Roman Lady daughter to Paterculus and wife to Quint. Fuluius Flaccus she when the Senat and Decemuirat by inspection into the books of Sibill had decreed that an image should be dedicated to Venus Verticordia by which the minds both of virgins and matrons might be the more alienated from libidinous affections and reduced to the strict rules of modestie and shamefastnes when to the dedication of this worke out of the whole cittie a hundred of the most chast matrons were to be selected and then out of these hundred tenne supposed to be pure aboue the rest and out of these tenne one to be preferred this Sulpitia carryed the suffrage from all for vertue modestie and incomparable chastitie This Iulia was the daughter of Caius Caesar and wife of Pompeius Magnus after the battaile of Pharsalia seeing the garment of her husband brought home sprinkled with his blood and not yet knowing of his death the obiect so affrighted her that instantlie at the sight thereof she sunke downe to the earth and in the extremitie of that passion was with much paine and anguish deliuered of that burden in her wombe which no sooner parted from her but in that agony she expired Portia the wife of Brutus and daughter of Cato whose noble resolution and coniugall loue to her husband all future ages may admire for hearing that in the battaile at Philippi he was vanquisht and slaine when all weapons and instruments of death were strictlie kept from her shee feared not with her womanish spirit to imitate if not exceed the resolution of her father in his death for by swallowing hot burning coales she expired Herein onely they differ that he by a common she by an vnheard of death were extinct Horestilla was the wife of Marcus Plautius who by the commandement of the Senat hauing the charge of threescore shippes to passe into Asia his wife so entirely was deuoted to his loue that she shipt her selfe with him exposing her selfe to the dangers of the sea but not able through her weaknesse to endure the casualties appending on so harsh a iourney as the distemperature of weather and such like in the cittie Tarentum fell sicke and dyed Plautius willing to shew himselfe a husband worthy such a wife when her body was brought to the funerall fire betwixt the ceremonies of annoynting her body and taking his leaue with a parting kisse fell suddenlie vpon his naked sword and so slew himselfe which his friends seeing and lamenting they tooke him as he was apparrelled without so much as stripping his body and ioyning it to the corse of his wife and adding more combustible matter to the fire burnt them both together Ouer the vrne that couered their ashes the Tarentines erected a famous sepulcher which they called The two louers By Plautius and Horestilla it may appeare that where the greatest and most honest loue is setled betwixt man and wife it is oft times more happy to be ioyned in death than to be separated in life Artimesia Q. of Caria so much hououred the remembrance of her husband Mausolus being dead that after meditation deliberat counsell which way she might best decorate his hearse and withall to expresse to perpetuitie her vnmatchable loue she caused to be erected ouer him a tombe so magnificent that for the cost and state it was not doubted to bee worthily reckoned amongst the nine wonders But what doe I speake of so rich a structure when she her selfe became the liuing sepulcher of her dead husband by their testimonies who haue recorded that she preserued his bones and hauing beaten them to powder mingled their dust with her wine in remembrance of him euery morning and euening Cicer. Tusc. lib. 3. and Plin. lib. 36. cap. 5. Of womans fortitude and magnanimitie I will adde one admirable president in two virgins of Syracusa equallie resolute when by the intestine sedition and ciuill warres in Syracusa the stocke and familie of Gelo in these combustions was quite extirpt and rooted out euen to his onely daughter Harmonia and all the seditious weapons of the enemy now drawne and aym'd at her bosome her nurse pittying her threatned ruin made choice of a young virgin like to her in fauour and of equall stature and attyring her in the habit and ornaments of a Princesse offered her to the points of their yet bloody weapons this damsell was of that constancy and noble resolution that notwithstanding she saw imminent death before her was not affrighted with the terror thereof nor would reueale her name or tell of
businesses quite neglected many hauing died in the Mine and many readie to perish for want of food by reason the earth lay neglected The women came to make a petitionarie complaint to the wife of Pythes who vnderstanding their greefes with faire language returned them backe somewhat pacified though not altogether satisfied yet putting them in good hope that their griefes should shortly be redressed They thus dismist she sent for all the goldsmiths that were knowne to bee exquisit workemen and sequestring them into a remote place of the house where she had fitted them with forges all things necessarie for the purpose she commanded them to mold and cast all kinde of fruits as Apples Citrons Mellons and such like with whose tast her husband was most delighted and to fashion them all of gold Pythes comming from his Mine with a good stomacke as soone as he had seated himselfe called to eat his Ladie serued him in a golden table but with no meate that could be eaten but euerie dish composed of sollid gold Being at the first delighted with this banquet as pleased that art should so imitate nature after being much delighted with the obiect he demanded meate againe and calling for such a dish and such a dish as his appetite was best inclined to but shee still whatsoeuer was brought to the table caused it to be all of gold he still growing more hungrie and verie angry withall she made him this modest and effectuall answere Oh sir consider with your selfe of these and such like dishes you haue prouided for your selfe and your subiects plentie but of other viands no plentie at all we haue store of artificiall but the vse of naturall things hath vtterly forsaken vs no man tills plowes sowes or manurs the fieldes plantation or hope to reape from the earth is now forgot onely we studie for things vnprofitable and as you see vnnecessarie to please the eye and not the palate the fancie and not the stomacke such indeede as to your subiects bring sorrow but no satisfaction great molestation but no meate at all to suffise the necessities of nature This short but pithy speech tooke such impression in Pythes that though he would not altogether desist from his Mines yet vpon her vrgence he onely peculiarised to himselfe a fift part of the people and the rest were imployed in agriculture and tillage planting and such things most vsefull for mans sustenance This Pythes after many disasters as rich men are sildome without some or other as the death of his children who all came to violent vnexpected deaths by the meanes of Xerxes he fell into a wonderous deepe melancoly for hee hated life and yet was loath to die and like a foolish rich man as this age affoords many griefe still would haue killed him had not the thought of his wealth still recouered him therefore he proposed this farewell betwixt the wearinesse of life and the tediousnesse of death There was in the cittie a great heape of gold by which a riuer softly glyded which was called Pythopolite within the midst of this great magazin he had prouided himselfe a sepulcre and had so turned the channell that the water might come iust to the brinke of the shore where his monument was readie prepared The worke being finished he committed the sole gouernement of the state and empire to his wife with this charge That none should dare to approch his tombe but daily to send him such a quantitie of victualls in a boat by the riuer and when they found the meat vntoucht to forbeare to send any more for they should then imagine him dead And such was the couetous mans end in the middest of his treasure His wife after mannaged the state wth great wisedome and pollicie and to the generall good of the subiect The wife of Nausimines HErodotus reports of one of the sonnes of Craesus that he was borne dumbe and neuer spake word from his birth being in all things els compleat of an able body and a spirit vndanted to supply which defect he vsed all means possible that art or humane skill could deuise but all failing as his last refuge he consulted with the Oracle which returned him this answer Lyde genus rex multorum c. Thou of the Lydian off-spring and the king Of many nations if such be thy care To know this secret and effect that thing Which diuine worke no mortall can or dare Be thus resolu'd His tongue shall accent giue When saue by it thou canst no longer liue Craesus being besieged in Sardis and the cittie taken as first entered by one Mardus Hyreades a PersiaÌ„ that had disguised himself of purpose to murder Crasus in his pallace who insinuating into his presence and now lifting vp his hand to strike the fatall blow the king by reason of his present distresse not apprehending the danger which his son comming in at the instant and espying the strings of his tongue were vnloosed on the sudden and he cryed out Oh man spare the king Craesus and from that time forward his imprisoned voice was euer at libertie More disastrous was that which besell the wife of Naâ—simenes the Athenian who happening by chance vpon the place where she found her sons and daughters mixt together in the horrible action incest shee was suddenly strooke with that horror and extasie that neither able to punish the fact nor reprooue the heinousnesse of the sinne shee was strucke mute and dombâ— Her children punisht their owne offence with voluntarie death and shee was depriued the vse of speech all her life time after Cyane and Medullina DOsithaeus in his booke Rerum sicularum commemorates this historie Cyanippus Syracusanus sacrificing to the gods amongst all others he had neglected the celebrations of Bacchus at which the god incenst and to reuenge himself of the iniurie punished him with drunkennes when at a high feast he found him pleasantlie disposed being otherwise in his owne condition of a knowne abstinence the heate of his wine wrought with such violence vpon him that meeting by accident his owne daughter Cyane in a darke and remote place and ignorant who she was hee forcibly defloured her in which wrestling together she wrong the ring off from his finger hoping by that in time to find out the adulterer This ring she gaue her nurse in keeping not long after a pest raigning in the cittie the Oracle being consulted with returned this answere That vnlesse the incestuous person were sacrificed to the gods that haue the charge of punishing these horrible vices the plague should still continue amongst them The people being as much to seeke as before in regard that the person aymed at was to them altogether vnknowne Cyane truely apprehending the intent of the Oracle tooke her father by the reuerend lockes and dragging him to the temple slew him there before the altar which she intended for the common good but to expiate her owne sinne in killing her father she
owne death namely to see thee die When accommodating all things for the present execution shee no sooner saw her dead but she gentlely layd her out and with great modestie couered her Then she besought Megisto on her knees to haue a care of them in their deaths that nothing immodest or vncomely might bee done to their bodies which graunted she not only with courage but seeming ioy vnderwent her last fate till she expired nor was there any spectator there present to whom the memorie of the tyrant was neuer so hatefull from whose eyes and hearts this obiect did not extract teares and pittie In Megisto is exprest the Magnanimitie of spirit but in these following I will illustrate Fortitude in action The Turkes busied in the siege of some townes in Catharo Vluzales Carocossa two of no meane place and eminence among them wrought so farre with the great Admirall that he deliuered into their charge the managing of threescore gallies with munition and men in number competent to make incursions into the bordering Islands then vnder the state of Venice These two Turkish captaines land their forces before Curzala a citie that giues name to the countrie with purpose to inuest themselues before it which Antonius Contarinus then gouernour of the cittie vnderstanding like a timerous and fearefull coward taking the aduantage of the night fled with his souldiors thence not leauing the â—owne any way defensible which the cittisens vnderstanding all or the most followed after The towne thus left to the weake guard of some twenty men about fourescore women the Turks giue them a bold and fierce assault when these braue viragoes chusing rather to dye like souldiers than like their husbands runne like cowards some maintaine the Ports others defend the walls and with that noble resolution that what with fire stones scalding water and such like muniments then readiest at hand so opposed the assailants that many of the Turks in that conflict were slaine and all repulst retyring themselues with purpose some rest giuen to the souldiours to salute them with a fresh alarum But fortune was so fauourable to these Amazonian spirits that a mighty tempest from the North so tost and distrest the Turks gallyes that they were forced to abandon the Island with dishonour leauing to the besieged a memory worthy to outliue all posteritie Of Dido Cesara Gumilda and Ethelburga OF Dido queene of Carthage all Authours agree to haue falne by the sword and to haue died by her owne bold and resolute hand but about the cause that mooued her thereto diuerse differ Ausonius is of opinion That her husband Sychaeus being dead shee did it to preserue her viduall chastitie and so free hir selfe from the importunities of Hyarbus king of Getulia of his mind is Marullus and of these Remnius or as some will haue it Priscianus in the Geography of Dionisius writing De scitu orbis i. the Scituation of the world Contrary to these is the Prince of Poets he whom Scalliger cals Poeta noster Pub. Virgilius who ascribes her death to an impatience of griefe conceiued at the vnkind departure of Aeneas which though it carry no great probabilitie of truth yet all the Latin Poets for the most part in honour of the authour haue iustified his opinion as Ouid in his third booke De fastis his Epistles Metamorph. and others workes so likewise Angelus Polytianus in his Manto with diuers others Iustine in his eighteenth booke of Hystor speaking of the first erecting of Carthage saith That where they began to digge with purpose to lay the first foundation they found the head of an Oxe by which it was predicted that the cittie should be futurelie fertill and commodious but withall full of labour and subiect to perpetuall seruitude therefore they made choice of another peece of earth where in turning vp the mould they chanced vpon the head of a horse by which it was presaged their collony should in time grow to be a warlike nation fortunate and victorious In what manner she dyed I referre you to Virgill and will speake a word or two of her sister Anna the daughter of Belus She after the death of her sister forsaking of the cittie of Carthage then inuested with siege by Hyarbus fled to Battus king the Island Melita but making no long soiourne there she put againe to sea and fell vpon the coast of Laurentum where being well knowne by Aeneas she was nobly receiued but not without suspition of too much familiaritie betwixt them in so much that iealousie possessing Lauinia the wife of Aeneas she conceiued an irreconcilable hatred against Anna in so much that fearing her threatned displeasure she cast her selfe headlong into the riuer Numicus and was there drowned for so Ouid reports in his booke de Fastis But touching the illustrious Queene Dido vnder her statue were these verses or the like engrauen in a Greeke character interpreted into Latine by Ausonius and by me in the sacred memorie of so eminent a queene thus englisht I am that Dido looke vpon me well And what my life was let my visage tell 'T is faire and smooth what wrinckle can you find In this plaine Table to expresse a mind So sordid and corrupt Why then so vneuen And blacke a soule should to a face be giuen That promiseth all vertue Virgill where Begott'st thou those ill thoughts that brand me here With lust and incest Neuer I protest Was that Aenaeas whom thou calst the best Of men in Lybia Neuer saw I land One Troian on the Carthaginian strand Because Sychaeus my first husband dead To keepe my sacred vowes to him I fled Th' imbraces of Hyarbus am I made A prostitute to nothing to a shade He came in armes to force me and compell Me a chast widdow to another hell A second marriage 'T is the gods aduise No woman can be chast that marryeth twice To auoide that sinne I slew my selfe ô why Couldst thou ô Maro then comment a lye With lust to brand my memory When heauen knowes To saue mine honour I my life did lose Giue faith to History you that Readers are Before this fabling Poesie since that far Transcends the bounds of truth for Poets can Make the high gods much more corrupt than man So much touching queene Dido and as farre as probabilitie can to acquit her of all incontinence One Paulus an historiographer in his fifth booke remembers vs of Cesara a queene of Persia who hauing some light of the Gospell trauelled as farre as Constantinople in Greece to be further instructed onely attended by a few priuat followers who being satisfied in all the fundamentall points of her faith she with her small traine was christened The Persian Sophy hauing notice thereof sent embassadours to the Emperour to know the reason why he deteined his queene wishing him to returne her safe vpon such easie sommons Cesara being in presence when this embassie was deliuered desired the Emperour that she
expectation of the obiect so much desired the messenger is summond who appeares before them with his bagge at his backe or rather vpon his necke he is commanded to discouer this strange creature so often spoken of but till then in that place not seene the sackes mouth is opened out flyes the mastiffe amongst them who seeing so many ougly creatures together thought it seemes he had beene amongst the beares in Paris garden but spying Lucifer to be the greatest and most ill-fauoured amongst them first leapes vp into his face and after flyes at whomsoeuer stood next him The diuels are disperst euery one runnes and makes what shift he can for himselfe the sessions is dissolued the bench and bale-docke cleered and all in generall so affrighted that euer since that accident the very name hath beene so terrible amongst them as they had rather entertaine into their darke and sad dominions tenne thousand of their wiues then any one man who beares the least character of a cuckold But hauing done with this sporting I proceede to what is more serious Of Women remarkeable for their loue to their Husbands IT is reported of the wiues of Wynbergen a free place in Germany that the towne being taken in an assault by the Emperour and by reason the cittisens in so valiantlie defending their liues and honours had beene the ouerthrow of the greatest part of his army the Emperour grew so inplacable that he purposed though mercy to the women yet vpon the men a bloody reuenge Composition being granted and articles drawne for the surrender of the towne it was lawfull for the matrons and virgins by the Emperours edict to carry out of their owne necessaries a burden of what they best liked The Emperour not dreaming but that they would load themselues with their iewels and coyne rich garments and such like might perceiue them issuing from the Ports with euery wife her husband vpon her backe and euery virgin and damsell her father or brother to expresse as much loue in preseruing their liues then as the men had before valour in defending their liberties This noble example of coniugall loue and pietie tooke such impression in the heart of Caesar that in recompence of their noble charitie hee not onely suffered them to depart peaceably with their first burdens but granted euerie one a second to make choice of what best pleased them amongst all the treasure and wealth of the cittie Michael Lord Montaigne in his Essayes speakes onely of three women for the like vertue memorable the first perceiuing her husband to labour of a disease incurable and euery day more and more to languish persuaded him resolutelie to kill himselfe and with one blow to be ridde of a lingring torment but finding him to be somewhat faint-hearted she thus put courage into him by her owne noble example I quoth she whose sorrow for thee in thy sicknesse hath in some sort paraleld thy torment am willing by one death both to giue date vnto that which hath for thy loue afflicted me and thy violent and vnmedicinable torture So after many persuasiue motiues to incourage his fainting resolution she intended to dye with him in her armes and to that purpose least her hold by accident or affright should vnloose she with a cord bound fast their bodies together and taking him in her louing imbraces from an high window which ouerlooked part of the sea cast themselues both headlong into the water As pious an affection shewed that renowned matron Arria vulgarlie called Arria mater because she had a daughter of the name shee seeing her husband Poetus condemned and willing that hee should expire by his owne hand rather than the stroake of the common hangman persuaded him to a Roman resolution but finding him somewhat daunted with the present sight of death she snatcht vp a sword with which she transpierst her selfe and then plucking it from her bosome presented it vnto her husband onely with these few and last words Poete non dolet Hold Poetus it hath done mee no harme and so fell downe and dyed of whom Martial in his first booke of Epigrams hath left this memory Casta suo gladium cum traderet Aria Poeto Quem dedit visceribus traxerat illa suis Si qua fides vulnus quod feci non dolet inquit Sed quod â—u facies hoc mihi Poete dolet When Aria did to Poetus giue that steele Which she before from her owne breast had tane Trust me saith she no smart at all I feele My onely wound 's to thinke vpon thy paine The third was Pompeia Paulina the wife of Seneca who when by the tyrranous command of Nero she saw the sentence of death denounced against her husband though she was then young and in the best of her yeares and he aged and stooping notwithstanding so pure was her affectionat zeale towards him that as soone as she perceiued him to bleed caused her owne vaine to be opened so to accompany him in death few such presidents this our age affordeth Yet I haue lately seene a discourse intituled A true narration of Rathean Herpin who about the time that Spinola with the Bauarians first entred the Pallatinate finding her husband Christopher Thaeon apoplext in all his limbes and members with an inuincible constancie at seuerall iournies bore him vpon hir backe the space of 1300 English miles to a Bath for his recouerie These and the like presidents of nuptiall pietie make me wonder why so many Satyrists assume to themselues such an vnbridled libertie to inueigh without all limitation against their Sex I happened not long since to steale vpon one of these censorious fellowes and found him writing after this manner I wonder our forefathers durst their liues Hazzard in dayes past with such choise of wiues And as we reade to venture on so many Me thinkes he hath enow that hath not any Sure either women were more perfect then Or greater patience doth possesse vs men Or it belongs to them since Eu's first curse That as the world their Sex growes worse and worse But who can teach me Why the fairer still They are more false good Oedipus thy skill Or Sphinx thine to resolue me lay some ground For my instruction good the like is found Mongst birds and serpents did you neuer see A milke white swan in colour like to thee That wast my mistresse once as white as faire Her downie breasts to touch as soft as rare Yet these deepe waters that in torrents meete Can neuer wash the blackenesse from her feete Who euer saw a Dragon richly clad In golden skales but that within he had His gorge stuft full of Venome I behold The woman and me thinkes a cup of gold Stands brim'd before me whence should I but sip I should my fate and death tast from thy lip But henceforth I le beware thee since I know That vnder the more spreading Misceltow The greater Mandrake thrines whose shrieke presages Or ruin or
towards Phocis It happened that in a strait and narrow passage meeting with his father Laius and Polyphontes his charioter they contended for the way but neither willing to giue place from words they fell to blowes in which contention Polyphontes kild one of the horses that drew the charriot of Oedipus at which inraged he drew his sword and first slew Polyphontes and next Laius who seconded his seruant and thence tooke his ready way towards Thebes Damasistratus king of the Plataeenses finding the body of Laius caused it to be honorably interred In this interim Creon the sonne of Menecoeus in this vacancie whilest there was yet no king inuades Thebes and after much slaughter possesseth himselfe of the kingdome Iuno to vexe them the more sent thither the monster Sphinx borne of Echidna and Tiphon she had the face of a woman the wings of a fowle and the breast feete and tayle of a lyon she hauing learned certaine problemes and Aenigmaes of the muses disposed her selfe in the mountaine Phycaeus The riddle which she proposed to the Thebans was this What creature is that which hath one distinguishable voyce that first walkes vpon foure next two and lastly vpon three feet and the more legges it hath is the lesse able to walke The strict conditions of this monster were these that so often as he demanded the solution of this question till it was punctually resolued he had power to chuse out any of the people where he best liked whom hee presently deuoured but they had this comfort from the Oracle That this Aenigma should be no sooner opened and reconciled with truth but they should bee freed from this misery and the monster himselfe should be destroyed The last that was deuoured was Aemon son to king Creon who fearing least the like sad fate might extend it selfe to the rest of his issue caused proclamation to bee made That whosoeuer could expound this riddle should marry Iocasta the wife of the dead king Laius and be peaceably inuested in the kingdome this no sooner came to the eares of Oedipus but he vndertooke it and resolued it thus This creature saith he is Man who of all other hath onely a distinct voice he is borne foure-footed as in his infancy crawling vpon his feet and hands who growing stronger erects himselfe and walkes vpon two onely but growing decrepit and old he is fitly said to mooue vpon three as vsing the helpe of his staffe This solution was no sooner published but Sphinx cast her selfe headlong from the top of that high Promontory and so perisht and Oedipus by marrying the queene was with a generall suffrage instated in the kingdome He begot of her two sonnes and two daughters Eteocles and Polinices Ismene and Antigone though some write that Oedipus had these children by Eurigenia the daughter of Hiperphantes These former circumstances after some yeares no sooner came to light but Iocasta in despaire strangled her selfe Oedipus hauing torne out his eyes was by the people expulsed Thebes cursing at his departure his children for suffering him to vndergoe that iniurie his daughter Antigone lead him as farre as to Colonus a place in Attica where there is a groue celebrated to the Eumenides and there remâ—ined till he was remooued thence by Theseus and soone after dyed And these are the best fruits that can grow from so abhominable a roote Of the miserable end of his incestuous issue he that would be further satisfied let him reade Sophocles Apollodorus and others Of him Tyresius thus prophesied Neque hic laetabitur Casibus euentis suis nam factus c. No comfort in his fortunes he shall find He now sees cleerely must at length be blind And begge that 's now a rich man who shall stray Through forreine countreyes for his doubtfull way Still groaping with his staffe The brother hee And father of his children both shall be His mothers sonne and husband first strike dead His father and adulterate next his bed Crithaeis SHe was wife to one Phaemius a schoolemaster and mother to Homer prince of the Greek Poets Ephorus of Cuma in a book intituled the Cumaean Negotiation leaues her storie thus related Atelles Maeones and Dius three brothers were borne in Cuma Dius being much indebted was forced to remoue thence into Ascra a village of Boetia and there of his wife Picemeda hee begot Hesiodus Atelles in his owne countrey dying a naturall death committed the pupillage of his daughter Crithaeis to his brother Meones but comming to ripe growth she being by him vitiated and proouing with child both fearing the punishment due to such an offence she was conferred vpon Phaemius to whom she was soone after married and walking one day out of the cittie to bath her selfe in the riuer Miletus shee was by the flood side deliuered of young Homer and of the name thereof called him Melesigines But after loosing his sight hee was called Homer for such of the Cumaeans and Ionians are called Omouroi Aristotle he writes contrarie to Ephorus that what time Neleus the sonne of Codrus was President in Ionia of the Collonie there then newly planted a beautifull Virgin of this nation was forced and deflowred by one of the Genius's which vsed to daunce with the Muses who after remooued to a place called Aegina and meeting with certaine forragers and robbers that made sundrie incursions into the countrie shee was by them surprised and brought to Smyrna who presented her to Meonides a companion to the king of the Lydians hee at the first sight inamoured of her beautie tooke her to wife who after sporting herselfe by the bankes of Miletus brought foorth Homer and instantly expired And since we haue had occasion to speake of his mother let it not seeme altogether impertinent to proceede a little of the sonne who by reason of his being hurried in his childhood from one place to another and ignorant both of his countrey and parents went to the Oracle to be resolued concerning them both as also his future fortunes who returned him this doubtfull answere Faelix miser ad sortem es quia natus vtramque Perquiris patriam matris tibi non patris extat c. Happie and wretched both must be thy fate That of thy Countrey doost desire to heaâ—â— Knowne is thy mothers Cl'ime thy father 's not An Island in the Sea to Creet not neer Nor yet farre off in which thou shalt expire When boyes a riddle shall to thee propose Whose darke Aenigma thou canst not acquire A double Fate thy life hath thou shalt loose Thine eyes yet shall thy loftie Muse ascend And in thy death thou life haue without end In his latter daies he was present at Thebes at their great feast called Saturnalia and from thence comming to Ius and sitting on a stone by the water-port there landed some fishermen whom Homer asked what they had taken but they hauing got nothing that day but for want of other worke onely lousing
houre so did the mother who came thither on purpose to reforme her sonne but he being hot and too forward in the action and she ouercome either by the inticements of the diuell the weakenesse of her Sex or both gaue herselfe vp to Incestuous prostitution the young man knowing no otherwise but that hee had inioyed the maid Of this wicked and abhominable congression a woman child was begot of whom the mother to saue her reputation was secretly deliuered and put it out priuately to nourse but at the age of seuen yeares tooke it home When this child grew to yeares the most infortunate sonne fell in loue with his sister and daughter and made her his vnhappie wife what shall I thinke of this detestable sinne which euen beasts themselues abhor of which I will giue you present instance Aristotle in his historie Annimal who was a diligent searcher into all naturall things affirmes that a Cammell being blinded by his keeper was brought to horse his damme but in the action the cloth falling from his eyes and he perceiuing what he had done presently seised vpon his keeper and slew him in detestation of the act he had committed and to reuenge himselfe vpon him that had betraied him to the deed The like the same author reports of a horse belonging to a king of Scythia who could by no meanes be brought to couer his damme but being in the same fashion beguiled and the cloath falling away and perceiuing what hee had done neuer left bounding flinging and galloping till comming vnto an high rocke hee from thence cast himselfe headlong into the sea If then this sinne be so hatefull in bruite beasts and vnreasonable creatures how much more ought it to be auoided in men and women and which is more Christians Cyborea the mother of Iudas Iscariot THis that I now speake of is remembred by Ranulphus Monke of Chester Ierome and others There was a man in Ierusalem by name Reuben of the Tribe of Isachar his wife was called Cyborea The first night of their marriage the woman dreamed that she was conceiued of a sonne who should bee a traytour to the Prince of his owne people she told it to her husband at which they were both sad and pensiue The child being borne and they not willing to haue it slaine and yet loath to haue it prooue such a monster to his owne nation they in a small boat cast it to sea to try a desperate fortune this vessell was driuen vpon an Island called Iscariot where the Queene of that place had then no child This babe being found she purposed to make it her owne and put it to be nobly nurced and educated calling his name Iudas and Iscariot of the Island where he was taken vp But not long after shee was conceiued of a sonne who prouing a noble and hopefull gentleman Iudas whose fauour in court began to wane and his hope of inheritance which but late flourisht now quite to wither he plotted against his life and priuately slew him but fearing least the murder might in time bee discouered and hee compeld to suffer according to the nature of the fact hee fled thence to Ierusalem where he got into the seruice of Pontius Pilatus and found meanes to be protected by him being then in the cittie deputie gouernour for the Romans Iudas because their dispositions were much of one condition grew into his especiall familiaritie and fauour The Pallace of Pilot hauing a faire bay window whose prospect was into Reubens Orchard he had a great appetite to eate of some of those ripe apples which shewed so yellow and faire against the sunne This Iudas vnderstanding promist him to fetch him some of that fruit and mounting ouer the orchard wall he was met by his father who rebuking him for the iniurie Iudas with a stone beat out his braines and vnseene of any conueyed himselfe backe Reubens death was smothered and the murderer not knowne Cyborea being a rich widdow Pylate made a match betwixt her and his seruant Iudas who being marryed to his mother was now possest of his owne fathers inheritance Not long this incestuous couple had liued together but Cyborea being vpon a time wondrous sad and melancholy and Iudas demanding the cause she began to relate to him her many misfortunes First of her dreame then of her sonne in what manner he was put to sea then how she lost her husband being slaine and the murderer not found and lastly how by the authoritie of Pilat she was now compeld to match against her will who had protested to her selfe a lasting widdowhood By these circumstances Iudas most assuredly knew that he had slaine his father and had marryed his mother which acknowledging to her she persuaded him to repent him of these great euills and to become a Disciple of Iesus who was then an eminent Prophet amongst the Iewes It shall not be amisse to speake a word or two of Pilate It is said that a king whose name was Tyrus begat him on a Millers daughter Pyla whose father was called Atus who from his mother and grandfather was called Pylatus at foure yeares of age he was brought to his father who by his lawfull wife had a prince iust of the same age These were brought vp together in all noble exercises in which the prince hauing still the best Pylat awaited his opportunitie and slew him loath was the king to punish him with death least he should leaue himselfe altogether Issulesse therefore hee sent him an hostage to Rome for the payment of certaine tribute which was yearly to be tendred into the Roman treasurie Liuing there as hostage he assotiated himselfe with the son to the king of France who lay pledge in Rome about the like occasion and in a priuate quarrell was also slaine by Pylat The Romans finding him of an austere brow and bloodie disposition made him gouernour of the Island called Pontus the people were irregular and barbarous whom by his seueritie he reduced to all ciuill obedience for which good seruice he was remooued to Ierusalem bearing the name of Pontius from that Island there hee gaue sentence against the Sauiour of the world Tiberius Caesar being then Emperour was sicke of a grieuous maladie who hearing that in Ierusalem was a Prophet who with a word healed all infirmities whatsoeuer hee sent one Volutianus to Herod to send him this man but Christ was before condemned and crucified There Volutianus acquainted himselfe with one Veronica a noble Ladie of the Iewes who went with him to Rome and carried with her the lynnen cloth which still bore the impresse and likenesse of Christs visage vpon which the Emperour no sooner looked but he was immediately healed The Emperour then vnderstanding the death of this innocent and just man caused Pylat to be brought to Rome who being called before Caesar the historie saith he had at that time vpon him the roabe of our Sauiour which was called Tunica
that cause many women in their modestie rather suffered themselues to perish for want of helpe than that any man should bee seene or knowne to come about them Aboue all the Athenians were most curious that no seruant or woman should learne the art of Chyrurgerie There was a damosell of that cittie that was verie industrious in the search of such mysteries whose name was Agnodice but wanting meanes to attaine vnto that necessarie skill she caused her haire to be shorne and putting on the habit of a yong man got her selfe into the seruice of one Heirophilus a Phisitian and by her industrie and studie hauing attained to the deapth of his skill and the height of her own desires vpon a time hearing where a noble ladie was in child-birth in the middest of her painfull throwes she offered her selfe to her helpe whom the modest Ladie mistaking her Sex would by no persuasion suffer to come neere her till she was forced to strip her selfe before the women and to giue euident signes of her woman-hood After which shee had accesse to many proouing so fortunate that she grew verie famous In so much that being enuied by the colledge of the Phisitians shee was complained on to the Ariopagitae or the nobilitie of the Senat such in whose power it was to censure and determine of all causes and controuersies Agnodice thus conuented they pleaded against her youth and boldnesse accusing her rather a corrupter of their chastities than any way a curer of their infirmities blaming the matrons as counterfeiting weakenesse onely of purpose to haue the companie and familiaritie of a loose and intemperate yong man They prest their accusations so farre that the Iudges were readie to proceede to sentence against herâ— when shee opening her brest before the Senat gaue manifest testimonie that she was no other than a woman at this the Phisitians the more incenst made the fact the more henious in regard that being a woman she durst enter into the search of that knowledge of which their Sex by the law was not capable The cause being once more readie to goe against her the noblest matrons of the cittie assembled themselues before the Senat and plainely told them they were rather enemies than husbands who went about to punish her that of all their Sex had beene most studious for their generall health and safetie Their importancie so farre preuailed after the circumstances were truely considered that the first decree was quite abrogated and free libertie granted to women to imploy themselues in those necessarie offices without the presence of men So that Athens was the first cittie of Greece that freely admitted of Mid-wiues by the meanes of this damosell Agnodice Of Women that suffered Martyrdome ANd of these in briefe Corona was a religious woman who suffered martyrdome vnder the tyrannie of Antonius the Emperour Her death was after this manner she was tyde by the armes and legges betwixt two trees whose stiffe branches were forced and bowed downe for the purpose the bowes being slackned and let loose her bodie was tost into the ayre and so cruelly dissâ—uered limbe from limbe Anatholia a Virgin by the seuere commaund of Faustinianus the President was transpierst with a sword Felicula as Plutarch witnesseth when by no persuasion or threats promises or torments she could be forced to renounce the Christian Faith by the command of Flaccus Comes shee was commanded to be shut vp in a Iakes and there stifled to death Murita had likewise the honour of a Martyr who being banished by Elphedorus a certaine Arrian opprest with cold and hunger most miseraby died Hyrene the Virgin because shee would not abiure her faith and religion was by Sisimmius shot through with an arrow The like death suffered the martyr Christiana vnder Iulian the Apostata Paulina a Roman Virgin and daughter to the Prefect Artemius was with her mother Candida stoned to death by the commaund of the tyrant Dioclesian Agatho virgo Catanensis was strangled in prison by the command of the Consâ—ll Quintianus Theodora a Virgin of Antioch was beheaded by the tyrannie of Dioclesian Iulia Countes of Eulalia suffered the same death vnder the President Diaconus Margaritu a maide and a martyr had her head cut off by Olibrius Zoâ— the wife of Nicostratus was nayled vnto a crosse and so ended her life partly with the torture of the gybbet and partly with the smoke that the executioner made at the foot of the gallowes suffocated Iulia Carthagensis because she would not bow to Idolls and adore the false heathen gods but was a constant professor of the true Christian faith was martyred after the selfe same manner Emerita the sister of Lucius king of England who had the honour to be called the first Christian king of this countrie shee suffered for the Faith by fire Alexandria was the wife of Dacianus the President who being conuerted to the Faith by blessed saint George was therefore by the bloodie murderer her husbands owne hands strangled Maximianus the sonne of Dioclesian with his owne hands likewise slew his naturall sister Artemia because that forsaking all Idolatrie shee prooued a conuertite to the true Christian Faith Flauia Domicilla a noble Ladie of Rome was banished into the Isle Pontia in the fifteenth yeare of the raigne of Domitian for no other reason but that shee constantly professed her selfe to bee a Christian. These two following suffered persecution vnder Antonius Verus in France Blondina who is sayd to wearie her tormentors patiently induring more than they could malitiously inflict in so much that before shee fainted they confessed themselues ouercome she readie still to suffer and beare when they had not blows to giue for as oft as she spake these words I am a Christian neither haue I committed any euill she seemed to the spectators of her martyrdome to bee so refreshed and comforted from aboue that she felt no paine or anguish in the middest of her torture and in that patience she continued without alteration euen to the last gaspe Biblis one that before through her womanish weakenesse had fainted for feare of torments comming to see her with others executed was so strengthened to behold their constancie that as it were awakened out of her former dreame and comparing those temporall punishments which lasted but a moment with the eternall paines of Hell fire gaue vp her selfe freely for the Gospels sake Dionisius in an Epistle to Fabius Bishop of Antioch reckons vp those that suffered martyrdome vnder Decius the Emperour Quinta a faithfull woman was by the Infidels brought into a Temple of their Idolls vnto which because she denied diuine adoration they bound her hand and foot and most inhumanly dragged her along the streets vpon the sharpe stones but when that could not preuaile with her they beat her head and sides and bruised them against Mill-stones that done shee was pitiously scourged and lastly bloodily executed The same Lictors layd hands on Appolonia a Virgin
and wife to Athanagildus was slaine by Chilperick the sonne of Clotharius at the instigation of his strumpet Fredegunda so saith Volateranus Sextus Aurelius writes that the Emperour Constantius sonne to Constantius and Helena caused his wife Fausta by whose instigation he had slaine his sonne Crispus to die in an hot scalding bath Herodotus speakes of Lysides otherwise called Melissa the wife of Periander who at the suggestion of a strumpet caused her to be slaine which makes Sabellicus amongst others to wonder why for that deede onely he should be numbered amongst the seuen wise men of Greece Marcus Cecilius in his seuen and twentieth booke vpon Pliny accuseth Calphurnius Bestia for poysoning his wiues sleeping Plinie in his fourteenth booke nominates one Egnacius Melentinus who slew his wife for no other cause but that shee had drunke wine and was acquited of the murder by Romulus Auctoclea the daughter of Sinon and wife of Laertes king of Ithaca when by a false messenger she heard her sonne Vlysses was slaine at the siege of Troy suddenly fell downe and died The mother of Antista seeing her daughter forsaken by Pompey the great and Aemilia receiued in her stead ouercome with griefe slew her selfe Perimele a damosell was vitiated by Achelous which her father Hyppodomus tooke in such indignation that from an high promontorie he cast her headlong downe into the Sea Hyppomanes a prince of Athens deprehending his daughter Lymone in adulterie shut her vp in a place with a fierce and cruell horse but left no kind of food for one or the other in so much that the horse opprest with hunger deuoured her hence came that Adage fathered vpon Diogineanus More cruell than Hyppomanes Gregorius Turonensis remembers one Deuteria fearing least her yong daughter now grown ripe and marriageable who might bee deflowred by the king Theodebertus cast her headlong into the riuer that runs by the citie Viridunum where she was drowned Orchamus finding his daughter Leucothoe to be vitiated by Appollo caused her to be buryed aliue Lucilla the daughter of Marcus Antonius and Fausta as Herodian reports was slaine by the hand of her brother Commodus against whom she had before made a coniuration Lychione the daughter of Dedalion because she durst compare hirself with Diana was by the goddesse wounded to death with an arrow at the celebration of whose exequies when her body was to be burnt her father likewise cast himselfe into the fire Hylonome the shee Centaur seeing her husband Cillarius slaine in the battaile betwixt the Centaurs and the Lapithes fell vpon his sword and so expired Anmianus and Marcellus lib. 16. haue left recorded that Mithridates king of Pontus being ouercome in battaile by Pompey committed his daughter Dyraptis to the safe custodie of the Eunuch Menophilus to bee kept in a strong Cittadell called Syntiarium which when Manutius Priscus had straitly besieged and the Eunuch perceiued the defenders of the Castle dismaide and readie to submit themselues and giue vp the fort hee drew out his sword and slew her rather than she should be made a captiue to the Roman Generall Sextus Aurelius writes of the Empresse of Sabina the wife of Adrian who hauing suffered from him many grosse and seruile iniuries gaue her selfe vp to a voluntarie death when shee considered shee had supported so inhumane a tyrant and such a contagious pest to the common weale Pontus de Fortuna speakes of a Virgin amongst the Salattines called Neaera who greeuing that a yong man to whom shee was betrothed had forsaken her and made choice of another caused her vaines to be opened and bled to death Cleopatra after the death of Anthony least shee should bee presented as a captiue to grace the triumphs of Augustus gaue her arme to the byting of an Aspe of which shee died for in that manner was her picture presented in Rome of whom Propertius lib. 3. thus speakes Brachia spectaui sacris admorsa colubris Neaera and Charmione were the two handmaides of Cleopatra These as Plutarch others report of them would by no persuasion suruiue their queen and misteresse who perceiuing as they were gasping betwixt life and death the crowne to be falne from the temples of their dead Ladie raised themselues from the Earth with the small strength they had left and placed it right againe on her fore-head that shee might the better become her death which they had no sooner done but they both instantly fell downe and breathed their last an argument of an vnmatchable zeale to the princesse their Ladie Monima Miletia and Veronica Chia were the wiues of Mithridates who vnderstanding of his tragicall fall and miserable end gaue vp their liues into the hands of the Eunuch Bochides Monima first hanged her selfe but the weight of her bodie breaking the cord she grew somewhat recouered and fell into this acclamation O execrable power of a diadem whose command euen in this small sad seruice I cannot vse which words were no sooner spoke but she offered her throate to the sword of the Eunuch who instantly dispatched her both of life and torment Veronica dranke off a chalice of wine tempered with poyson which dispersing into her vaines and keeping her in a languishing torment her death was likewise hastned by the Eunuch Bochides A strange madnesse possest the Virgins of Milesia these as Aelianus and others haue writ gaue themseues vp to voluntarie deaths many or the most strangling themselues this grew so common amongst them that scarce one day past in which some one or other of them were not found dead in their chambers To remedie which mischiefe the Senators of the citie made a decree That what maide soeuer should after that time lay violent hands vpon her selfe the body so found dead should be stript naked and in publike view dragd through the streetes freely exposed to the eyes of all men The impression of which shame more preuailing than the terrour of death none was euer after knowne to commit the like outrage vpon themselues Phaedra the steppe-mother to Hyppolitus her son in law and wife of Theseus when shee could not corrupt the yong man her son in law to make incestuous the bed of his father despairing hung her selfe yet before her death she writ certain letters in which she accused Hippolitus to his father of incest which after prooued the speedie cause of his death Amongst many strange deaths these of two mothers are not the least remarkable most strange it is that sudden ioy should haue as much power to suffocate the spirits as the power of lightning The rumor of the great slaughter at the Lake of Thrasimenes being published one woman when beyond all hope she met her sonne at the cittie gate safely returned from the generall defeates cast herselfe into his armes where in that extasie of ioy shee instantly expired Another hearing her sonne
and howsoeuer the euent prooue the reward of the victorie is nothing but the dammage arising from the fight manifest Their answer went before which their resolution as suddenlie and swiftlie pursued after for their army and their answer almost arriued together whose celeritie in march and resolution in purpose when Vexores vnderstood he forsooke his tents and all prouision for warre and betooke himselfe to a base and dishonourable flight They pursued him to the Aegyptian fennes but by reason of the marishes and vncertaine ground their further passage was prohibited Retyring thence they ouerranne Asia and subdued it vnder their predominance imposing on the Nations a small tribute rather in acknowledgement of the title than to be gainers by the victory the enemy rather suffering disgrace than oppression fifteene yeares they continued in Asia rather to settle the estate than to extort from the inhabitants From thence they were called by the wickednesse of their wiues from whom they receiued word That vnlesse they instantly repayred home they would seeke issue from the neighbour nations for they would not suffer the posteritie of the antient Scythians to bee in the women extinct Asia was for many yeares tributarie to the Scythians Trogus and Iustine say for a thousand and fiue hundred yeares which ended in Ninus king of Assyria In this interim two princely youthes among the Scythians Plinos and Scolopitus being by the optimates and chiefe of the people expulst from their families drew to their societie a mightie confluence and inuaded Cappadocia planting themselues neere to the riuer Thermedon and being by conquest possest of the Prouince of Themisciria there hauing for many yeares made spoyle of the neighbour nations by the conspiracie of the multitude who were opprest with their insolencies they were betraide and slaine Their wiues by reason of their exile halfe in despaire boldly tooke armes and first retyring themselues and making their owne confines defensible after grew to the resolution to inuade others Besides they disdained to marry with their neighbours calling it rather a seruitude than Wedlock A singular example to all ages Thus they augmented their seigniories and establisht their common-weale without the counsell or assistance of men whose fellowship they began now altogether to despise and to communicate their losse to make the widdowes of equall fortune with the wiues they slew all the men that yet remained amongst them and after reuenged the deaths of their husbands formerlie slaine vpon the bordering people that conspired against them At length by warre hauing setled peace least their posteritie and memory should perish they had mutuall congression with their neighbour nations The men children they slew the female they nourced and brought vp not in sowing and spinning but in hunting and practise off armes and horsemanship and that they better might vse their launces and with the more ease at seauen yeares of age they seared or rather burnt of their right breasts of which they tooke the name of Amasons as much as to say Vnimammae or Vrimammae i. those with one breast or with a burnt breast There were of them two queenes that ioyntly held the soueraigntie Marthesia and Lampedo these diuided their people into two armies and being growne potent both in power and riches they went to warre by turnes the one gouerning at home whilest the other forraged abroad and least there should want honour and authoritie to their successes they proclaimed themselues to be deriued from Mars in so much that hauing subdued the greater part of Aeurope they made incursions into Asia and there subdued many fortresses and castles where hauing built Ephesus with many other citties part of their army they sent home with rich and golden spoyles the rest that remained to maintaine the Empire of Asia were all with the queene Marthesia or as some write Marpesia defeated and slaine In whose place of soueraigntie her daughter Orythia succeeded who besides her singular valour and fortunate successe in warre was no lesse admired for her constant vowe of virginitie which to her death she kept inuiolate The bruite of their glorious and inuincible acts reaching as farre as Greece Hercules with a noble assembly of the most Heroicke youthes furnisht nine ships with purpose to make proofe of their valor two of foure sisters at that time had the principalitie Antiope and Orythia Orythia was then imployde in forreine expeditions Now when Hercules with the young Heroes landed vpon the Amasonian continent the queene Antiope not iealous of the least hostility stood then with many of her ladies vnarmed on the shore who being suddainly assaulted by the Graecians were easily put to rout and they obtained an easie victorie in this conflict many were slaine and diuers taken amongst whom were the two sisters of Antiope Menalippe surprised by Hercules and Hyppolite by Theseus hee subdude her by armes but was captiuated by her beautie who after tooke her to his wife and of her begot Hyppolitus Of her Seneca in Agamemnon thus speakes Vidit Hyppolite ferox pectore emedio rapi Spolium sagittas The bold Hyppolite did see that day Her breast despoyld and her shafts tane away Of Menalippe Virgill thus Threicean sexto spolianit Amazona Baltheo Hauing relation to the golden belt of Thermedon which was numbered the sixt of Hercules his twelue labours He receiued that honour and she her libertie Orythia being then abroad and hearing of these outrages and dishonours done at home that warre had beene commenced against her sister and Theseus prince of Athens borne thence Hyppolite whom she held to be no better than a rauishor impatient of these iniuries shee conuented all her forces and incited them to reuenge inferring that in vaine they bore Empire in Europe and Asia if their dominions lay open to the spoyles and rapines of the Grecians Hauing incouraged and persuaded her owne people to this expedition she next demanded ayd of Sagillus king of the Scythians to him acknowledging herselfe to be descended from that nation showes the necessitie of that warre and the honour of so braue a victorie hoping that for the glorie of the Scythian nation his men would not come behind her women in so iust an enterprise the successe of which was vndoubtedly spoyle for the present and fame for euer Sagillus with these motiues incouraged sent his sonne Penaxagoras with a great armie of horsemen to ayd Orithea in this warre but by reason of a discention that fell in the campe the prince of Scythia withdrew all his auxiliarie forces and with them retired into his countrey by reason of which defect the Amazons were defeated by the Grecians yet many of them after this battaile recouered their countries After this Orythea succeeded Penthisilaea shee that in the ayd of Priam or as some say for the loue of Hector came to the siege of Troy with a thousand Ladies where after many deeds of chiualrie by her performed she was slaine by
c. The same author lib. 2. speakes of one Tiburna Saguntina the wife of one Marhus a braue and bold female warrior Zenobia queene of the Palmyrians after the death of her husband Odenatus tooke vpon her the imperiall regencie and made tributarie the kingdome of Syria neither feared shee to take armes against the Emperour Aurelianus by whom she was ouercome and led in triumph but when it was obiected to Caesar as a dishonour and reproach that he had triumpht ouer a woman he answered It was no disgrace at all being ouer such a woman as excelled most men in Masculine vertue Of whom Pontanus thus speakes Qualis Aethiopum quondam sitientibus aruis In fuluum regina gregem c. As did the Aethiopian queene In the dry fields of old Incounter with the yellow heards whose rough haires shin'd like gold Opposing the sterne Lions paw Alone and without ayde To see whom wrestle men aloofe stood quaking and afraid Such 'tweene two warlike hosts appeares This Amasonian Queene Zenobia with her strong bow arm'd And furnisht with shafts keene Hypsicrataea the wife of Mithridates was still present with him in battaile and left him in no danger cutting her haire short least it should offend her when she put on her beauer Artimesia queene of Caria after the death of her husband was admired through Greece who not onely in a nauall expedition ouercame the inuading Rhodians but pursued them euen vnto their owne coasts and tooke possession of the Island amidst whose ruines she caused her owne glorious statue to be erected of whom Herodotus thus writes I cannot wonder sufficiently at this warlike queene Artimesia who vnforced and vncompeld followed the expedition of Xerxes against Greece out of her owne manly courage and excellencie of spirit She was the daughter of Lydamus her father was of Halicarnassus her mother of Creete shee furnished fiue shippes of her owne charge with Halicarnassaeans Coeans Nisirians and Calidnians in the great sea fight neere Salamine to behold which battaile Xerxes had retired himselfe and stood but as a spectator Iustine lib. 2. saith There was to bee seene in Xerxes womanish feare in Artimesia manly audacitie for shee demeaned herselfe in that battaile to the admiration of all men of whose ships the king taking especiall notice but not knowing to whom they belonged nor in whose management they then were one spake to the king and said Great Lord behold you not how brauely the queene Artimesia beares her selfe this dayâ— the king would not at first beleeue that such resolution could bee in that Sex at length when notwithstanding her braue seruice hee perceiued his nauie beaten and put to flight he sighing thus said All my men this day haue shewed themselues women and there is but one woman amongst them and she onely hath shewed herselfe a man Many of the most illustrious persons dyed that day as also of the Meades amongst whom was the great captaine Aria Begnes the sonne of Darius and brother of Xerxes Cleopatra queene of Aegypt the daughter of Dionisius Auletes after the death of Iulius Caesar hauing taken Antonius in the bewitching snares of her beautie shee was not contented with the kingdomes of Aegypt Syria and Arabia but she was ambitious to soueraignise ouer the Roman Empire in which though she fayled it shewed as inuincible a spirit in the attempt as shee exprest an vnmatched courage in the manner of her voluntary death Cyrus the Persian inuading the Messagets and Scythians of which Tomyris then raigned queene she sent against him her onely sonne Spargapises with a puissant army to beat him back againe beyond the riuer Araxes which he had late with a mightie host traiected But the young man not inured to the stratagems and policies of warre suffered his souldiours in the height of wine and surfets to be inuaded his tents rifled his army defeated and himselfe taken prisoner by Cyrus To whom the queene sent to this purpose Thou hast surprised my sonne by fraud not strength by deceit not warre be now counselled by me Returne me the Prince and with the honour to haue vanguisht the third part of my people vnpunished depart out of my countrey which if thou dost not I vow by the Sunne the Lord and God to which the Messagets giue due adoration that I will quench thy thirst beest thou neuer so much insatiate of blood This message being deliuered to Cyrus he regarded it not but held it as the vaine boast of a franticke woman But Spargapises the sonne of Tomyris being awaked from the drowsinesse of wine and perceiuing into what mischiefe he was falne intreated Cyrus he might be released from his bonds to which the Persian granted who no sooner found his legges vnbound and his hands at libertie but he instantly catcht hold of a weapon with which he slew himselfe The queene hauing intelligence of the death of her sonne and withall that Cyrus gaue no heed to her admonition collected a puissant armie of purpose to giue him battaile who inticed him by a counterfeit flight into certaine straits of her countrey where hauing ambusht her men she fell vpon the Persians and made of them an infinite slaughter to the defeating of their whole host In this strange and bloody execution Cyrus himselfe fell whose body Tomyris caused to be searcht for and being found filled a vessell with blood into which commanding his head to be throwne shee thus insultingly spake Of human blood in thy life thou weart insatiate and now in thy death thou mayst drinke thy fill The fashions of the Messagets are after this manner described by Herodotus Their habit and their food is according to the Scythians they fight as well on horsebacke as on foot being expert in both they are both archers and lanciers in all their weapons armour or caparisons vsing gold and brasse in the heads of their speares their quiuers their daggers and other armour they were brasse but whatsoeuer belongs to the head or to the belt is of the purest gold the breast-plates of their horses and what belongs to their trappings and caparisons are buckled and studded with brasse but that which appertaines to the headstall or raines is of gold of yron and siluer they haue small vse or none as being rare in their countrey but gold and brasse they haue in aboundance Euery man marrieth a wife but not to his owne peculiar vse for they keepe them in common for what the Greeks in this kind remember of the Scythians they do not it is customable onely amongst the Messagets if any man haue an appetite to a woman he onely hangs his quiuer vpon the next bough prostitutes her in publike without taxation or shame There is no limit proposed to terminate their liues when any growes old his neighbours about him make a generall meeting and with great ceremony after the manner of a sacrifice cause him to be slain with
these verses in old English Maud the daughter of Henrie the first was married to Henrie the fourth Emperour of that name after the death of her husband she bore the title of Maud the Empresse her father in his life time swore all the nobilitie to her succession but he being dead many fell from their oathes of alleagence adhering to Stephan Earle of Bulleine who by the sisters side was neaphue to the deseased king He notwithstanding he had before sworne to her homage caused himselfe to be crowned at London vpon a Saint Stephens day by William Archbishop of Canturburie one that had before past his oath of alleagence to the Emperesse Much combustion there was in England in those dayes betwixt Maude and Stephan and many battails fought in which the successe was doubtfull the victorie sometimes inclining to the one and againe to the other the circumstances rather would become a large Chronicle than a short tractat I will therefore come to that which sorts best with my present purpose This lady tooke the king in battaile and kept him prisoner at Bristoll from Candlemas day to Hollyrood day in haruest for which victorie the people came against her with procession which was approoued by the Popes legate From Bristoll she came to Winchester thence to Wilton to Oxford to Reding and Saint Albons all the people acknowledging her their queene and soueraigne excepting the Kentishmen onely shee came thence to London to settle the estate of the land whether came the wife of king Stephan for her husbands deliuerie vpon condition that Stephan should surrender the kingdome vp entirely into her hands and betake himselfe euer after to a sequestred and religious life But to this motion the Emperesse would by no meanes assent the Cittisens likewise intreated her that they might vse the fauourable lawes of S. Edward and not those strict and seuere statutes and ordinances deuised established by King Henry her father neither to this would the bold-spirited Lady agree For which the people began to withdraw their affections from her purposed to haue surprised her of which she hauing notice left all her houshold proâ—ision and furniture and secretly conueighed her selfe to Oxford where she attended her forces who were by this time dispersed and diuided But taking with her her Vncle Dauid king of Scots shee came before Winchester laying a strong siege to the bishops tower with was defended by the brother of king Stephan But now obserue another female Warrior The wife of the imprisoned King being denyed his freedome now takes both spirit armes and associated with one William Iperus came with such a thundring terror to rayse the siege that the hardie Empresse to giue way to her present furie was from strength forced to flye to stratageme for finding her powers too weake to withstand the incensed Queene she counterfeited her selfe dead and as a Corse caused her bodie to be conueyed to the citie of Glocester and by this meanes escaped But Robert her brother was there taken prisoner and committed to safe custodie Then the Queene imployed herselfe on the one part for the release of her husband and the Empresse on the other for the enfranchisement of her brother at length after long debating of the businesse it was determined by the Mediators on both sides that Stephan should be restored to the Kingdome and Duke Robert to his Lordship and Earledome and both as they had disturbed the peace of the Land so now to establish it To this the Earle would not assent so that all that yeere there was nothing but spoyle manslaughter direptions and all manner of violence robbing of the rich and oppression of the poore The King vpon Holy-Rood day was released and besieged the Empresse in the citie of Oxford from Michaelmas day to mid-Winter where being oppressed with famine she tooke the aduantage of the Frost and Snow and attyring her selfe all in white escaped ouer the Fennes and came to the castle of Wallingford And so much shall suffice to expresse the magnanimitie and warlike dispositions of two noble and heroicke English Ladies A French Ladie comes now in my way of whom I will giue you a short character In the minoritie of Henry the sixt when France which was once in his entire possession was there gouerned by our English Regents the famous duke of Bedford and others Charles the Dolphin styled after by the name of Charles the seuenth being a Lord wihout land yet at that time maintaining what hostilitie he was able whilest the English forraged through France at their will and commanded in all places at their owne pleasure the French in vtter despaire of shaking off the English yoake there arose in those desperate times one Ioane Are the daughter of Iames Are and his wife Isabel borne in Damprin This Iames was by profession a Shepheard and none of the richest Ioane whom the French afterwards called Ioane de Pucil whilest she was a yong maid and kept her fathers sheepe would report to diuerse That our blessed Ladie S. Agnes and S. Katherine had appeared vnto her and told her That by her meanes France should regayne her pristine libertie and cast off the yoke of English seruitude This comming to the eare of one Peter Bradicourt an eminent captaine then belonging to Charles the Dolphin hee vsed meanes that she should be sent to haue conference with his maister who soiourned then in Chynon in his lowest of deiection and despaire of hope supplie or comfort In her iourney thither shee came to a towne called Faire-boys where taking vp her Inne a place which shee had neuer before seene shee desired a souldier to goe to a secret by-corner where was a heape of old yron and from thence to bring her a Sword The souldier went according to her direction and searching the place amidst a great quantitie of old tongs shouels hand-yrons and broken horse-shooes found a faire bright sword with fiue Flower-delyces vpon either side engrauen This Sword with which she after committed many slaughters vpon the English shee gyrt to her and so proceeded to Chynon to giue the Dolphin meeting Being there arriued Charles concealed himselfe amongst many others whilest she was brought into a faire long gallerie where he had appointed another to take his place and to assume his person she looking vpon him gaue him neither respect nor reueâ—ence but sought out Charles among all the other in that assemblie and pickt him from amongst the rest to whom making a low obeysance she told him that to him only was her businesse The Dolphin at this was amased the rather because she had neuer before seene him and was somewhat comforted by reason that she shewed cheare and alacritie in her countenance they had together long and priuat conference and shortly after she had an armie giuen to bee disposed and â—irected by her Shee then bespake her selfe armour Cap a Pe bearing a white Ensigne displaide before her in which was
pourtrayde the picture of the Sauiour of the world with a flower-de-lyce in his hand and so marched to Orleance Her first exploit was fortunately to raise the siege and releeue the towne From thence shee passed to Reames tooke the cittie and caused the Dolphin there to proclaime himselfe king and take vpon him the crowne of France She after tooke Iargueux a strong towne and in it the Earle of Suffolke with many other braue English gentlemen She fought the great battaile of Pathay with good successe in which were taken prisoners the lord Talbâ—â— the skourge and terror of the French nation the lord Seales the lord Hungerfâ—rd with many others both of name and qualitie she tooke in Benueele Mehun Trois and diuers other townes of great import and consequence at length in a camisado or skirmish she was taken prisoner by sir Iohn of Entenburch a Burgonian captaine and sent to Roan The French Cronicles affirme that the morning before she was surprised she tooke the sacrament and comming from Church told to diuerse that were about her that she was betraide her life sold and should shortly after be deliuered vp vnto a violent death For sir Iohn gaue a great sum of money to betray her The English comming to inuest themselues before Mondidier Ioan was aduised to issue out by Elaâ—ie and skirmish with them who was no sooner out but he shut the gates vpon her being taken she was sent to Peter Bishop of Beuoise who condemned her to the fire for a sorceresse which iudgement was accordingly executed vpon her in Roane in the market place Twentie six yeares after Charles the king for a great summe of money procured an annichilation of the first sentence from the Pope in which she was proclaimed a Virago inspired with diuine instinct in memorie of whose vertuous life and vniust death he caused a faire crosse to â—ee erected iust in the place where her bodie was burned I returne againe to the English Fabian and Harding speake of Emma sister to the Norman duke called Richard who for her extraordinarie beautie was called The flower of Normandie she was married to Ethelred king of England By her heroicke spirit and masculine instigation the king sent to all parts of the kingdome secret and strict commissions That vpon a certaine day and hour assigned all those Danes which had vsurped in the land and vsed great crueltie should be slaughtered which at her behest and the kings commaund was accordingly performed which though it after prooued ominous and was the cause of much miserie and mischiefe yet it shewed in her a noble and notable resolution Of queene Margaret the wife of Henrie the sixt her courage resolution and magnanimitie to speake at large would aske a Volume rather than a compendious discourse to which I am strictly tyed And therefore whosoeuer is deâ—irous to be further instructed in the successe of those many battailes fought against the house of Yorke in which she was personally present I referre them to our English Chronicles that are not sparing in commending her more than womanish spirit to euerlasting memorie With her therefore I conclude my female Martiallists And now me thinkes I am come where I would be and that is amongst you aire Fones Of Faire Women IT is reported of a king that for many yeeres had no issue and desirous to haue an heire of his owne bloud and begetting to succeed in the Throne vpon his earnest supplication to the diuine powers he was blessed with a faire sonne both of beautie and hope And now being possest of what he so much desired his second care was to see him so educated that hee might haue as much comfort of him in his growth as hope in his infancie hee therefore sent abroad to find out the most cunning Astrologians to calculate of his natiuitie that if the starres were any way maleuolent to him at his birth he might by instruction and good education as farre as was possible preuent any disaster that the Planets had before threatened A meeting to that purpose being appointed and the Philosophers and learned men from all parts assembled after much consultation it was concluded amongst them That if the infant saw Sunne or Moone at any time within the space of ten yeeres hee should most assuredly be depriued the benefit of sight all his life time after With this their definitiue conclusion the father wondrously perplexed was rather willing to vse any faire meanes of preuention than any way to tempt the crosse influence of the starres Hee therefore caused a Cell or Caue to be cut out of a deepe Rocke and conueying thither all things necessarie for his education hee was kept there in the charge of a learned tutor who well instructed him in the Theorie of all those Arts which best suited his apprehension The time of ten yeeres being expired and the feare of that ominous calculation past ouer the day was appointed when his purpose was to publish his sonne to the world and to shew him the Sunne and Moone of which he had often heard and till then neuer saw entire and to present vnto his view all such creatures of which he had beene told and read but could distinguish none of them but by heare-say They brought before him a Horse a Dogge a Lion with many other beasts of seuerall kindes of which he onely looked but seemed in them to take small pleasure They shewed him Siluer Gold Plate and Iewels in these likewise hee appeared to take small delight or none as not knowing to what purpose they were vsefull yet with a kind of dull discontent he demanded their names and so past them ouer At length the king commanded certaine beautifull virgins gorgeously attyred to be brought into his presence which the Prince no sooner saw but as recollecting his spirits with a kind of alacritie and change of cheare he earnestly demanded What kind of creatures they were how bred how named and to what vse created To whom his tutor ieastingly replyed These be called Deuills of which I oft haue told you and they are the great tempters of mankind Then his father demanded of him To which of all these things he had beheld he stood affected best and to whose societie hee was most enclined who presently answered O Father I onely desire to be attended by these Deuils Such is the attractiue power of beautie which women cannot fully appropriate to themselues since it is eminent in all other creatures Who wonders not at the beautie of the Sunne the glorie of the Moone and the splendor of the starres the brightnesse of the morning and the faire shutting in of the euening Come to the flowers and plants what artificiall colour can be compared to the leaues of the Marigold the Purple of the Violet the curious mixture of the Gillyflower or the whitenesse of the Lilly to which Salomon in all his glorie was not to be equalled You that are prowd of your haire
feasted Mecenas being of a corrupt and licentious disposition and much taken with her beautie could not containe himselfe but he must needs be toying with her vsing action of plaine Incontinence in the presence of her husbandâ— who perceiuing what he went about and the seruants it seemes for modestie hauing withdrawne themselues from forth the chamber the Table â—ot yet being taken away Cabbas to giue Meâ—enas the freer libertie caâ—ts himselfe vpon the bed and counterâ—eits sleepe Whilest this ill-managed businesse was in hand one of the seruants listning at the doore and hearing no noyse but all quiet with soft steps enters the chamber to steale away a flaggon pot that stood full of wine vpon the Table Which Cabbas espying casts vp his head and thus softly said to him Thou rascall Doest thou not know that I sleepe onely to Mecenas A basenesse better becomming some Ieaster or Buffoon than the noble name of a Roman In the citie of Argis grew a contention betwixt Nicostratus and Phaillus about the management of the Common-weale Philip of Macedon the father of Alexander comming then that way Phaillus hauing a beautifull young wife one esteemed for the verie Paragon of the citie and knowing the disposition of the king to be addicted to all voluptuousnesse and that such choyse beauties and to be so easily come by could not lightly escape his hands presently apprehends that the prostitution of his wife might be a present Ladder for him to climbe to the principalitie and haue the entire gouernment of the citie Which Nicostratus suspecting and many times walking before his gates to obserue the passage of the house within hee might perceiue Phaillus fitting his wiues feet with rich embrodered Pantofles iewels about her hayre rings on her fingers bracelets about her wrists and carkanets vpon her arme in a Macedonian vesture and a couering vpon her in the manner of a Hat which was onely lawfull for the kings themselues to weare And in this manner habited like one of the kings pages but so disguised that she was scarce knowne of any he submitted her to the king There are too many in our age that by as base steps would mount to honor I could wish all such to carrie the like brand to posteritie Chloris was the daughter of Amphion and the wife of Neleus the sonne of Hyppocoon as fruitfull as beautifull for she brought twelue sonnes â—o her husband of which ten with their father were slaine by Hercules in the expugnation of Pylus the eleuenth called Periclemenes was transformed into an Eagle and by that meanes escaped with life the twelfth was Nestor who was at that time in Ilos Hee by the benefit of Apollo liued three hundred yeeres for all the daies that were taken from his father and brothers by their vntimely death Phoebus conferred vpon him and that was the reason of his longeuitie Aethra the daughter of Pytheus was of that attractiue feature that Neptune and Aegeus both lay with her in the Temple of Minerua but Neptune disclayming her issue bestowed it on Aegeus who leauing her in Troezene and departing for Athens left his sword beneath a huge stone enioyning Aethra That when his sonne was able to remooue the stone and take thence his sword she should then send him to him that by such a token he might acknowledge him his sonne Theseus was borne and comming to yeeres she acquainted him with his fathers imposition who remooued the stone and tooke thence the sword with which hee slew all the theeues and robbers that interposed him in his way to Athens Danae the daughter of Acrisius and Aganippe had this fate assigned her by the Oracle That the child shee bore should be the death of her father Acrisius which hee vnderstanding shut her in a Brazen Tower restrayning her from the societie of men but Iupiter enamoured of her rare feature descended vpon her in a shewer of Gold of which congression Perseus was begot whom Acrisius caused with his mother to be sent to sea in a mast-lesse boat which touching vpon the Island Seriphus was found by a fisher-man called Dyctis who presents the desolate Ladie with her sonne to king Polydâ—ctâ—s He surprised with her beautie marryed her and caused her sonne Perseus to be educated in the Temple of Minerua and after made attonement betwixt them and Acrisius But Polydectes dying at the funerall games celebrated at his death in casting of a mightie stone being one of the exercises then vsed Perseus whose hand fayled him cast it vnawares vpon the head of Acrisius and slew him against his owne purpose making good the will of the Oracle Acrisius being buried Perseus succeeded his grandfather in the citie Argos Helena was first rauished by Theseus and afterwards by Paris shee had these suitors Antiochus Ascalaphus Aiax Oeleus Antimachus Aeoeus Blanirus Agapenor Aiax Telamonius Clyrius Cyanaeus Patroclus Diomedes Penelaeus Phaemius Nyraeus Polypates Elephenor Fumetus Stenelus Tlepolemus Protesilaus Podalyrius Euripilus Idomenaeus Teliotes Tallius Polyxenus Protus Menestaeus Machaon Thoas Vlysses Philippus Meriones Meges Philoctetes Laeonteus Talpius Prothous but she was possest by Menelaus Aâ—ge was the faire daughter of Aleus and comprest by Hercules and deliuered of her sonne in the mountaine Parthenius at the same time Atalanta the daughter of Iasius exposed her sonne begot by Meleager vnto the same place these children being found by the shepheards they called the sonne of Hercules Telephus because he was nursed by a Hart which fed him with her milke they called the sonne of Meleager Parthenopaeus of the mountaine Auge fearing her fathers displeasure fled into Moesia to king Teuthrus who for her beauties sake hauing himselfe no children adopted her his heire These following are the fiftie faire daughters of Danaeus with the fiftie sonnes of Aegiptus whom the first night of their marriage they slew Idea killed Antimachus Philomela Pantheus Seilla Proteus Philomone Plâ—xippus Euippe Agenor Demoditas Chrysippus Hyale Perius Trite Enceladus Damone Amintor Hypâ—thoe Obrimus Mirmidone Mineus Euridice Canthus Cleo Asterius Arcania Xanthus Cleopatra Metalces Philea Phylinas Hyparite Protheon Chrysothemis Asterides Pyraule Athamas her name is lost that slew Armoasbus Glaâ—cippe Niâ—uius Demophile Pamphilus Antodice Clytus Polyxena Egiptus Hecabe Driantes Achemantes Echominus Arsalte Ephialtes Monuste Euristhanes Amimone Medamus Helice Euideus Amoeme Polidector Polybe Iltonomus Helicta Cassus Electra Hyperantus Eubule Demarchus Dâ—plidice Pugones Hero Andromachus Europone Atlites Pyrantis Plexippus Critomedia Antipaphus Pyrene Dalychus Eupheno Hyperbius Themistagora Podasimus Palaeno Ariston Itâ—â— Aâ—tilochus Erate Endemon Hypernâ—nestra was the onely Ladie that in that great slaughter spared her husband Lyncaeus What should I speake of Antigona the sister of Polinices Electra the daughter of Clytemnestrà Hermione of Helen Polyxena of Hecuba Iphigenia of Agamemnon Erigone Merope Proserpina Amimone Oenone Calisto Alope the daughter of Cercyon and Theophane of Bysaltis both stuprated by Neptune Thâ—onoe and Zeutippe
pittied her grauitie or suspected her innocence did not cause her to be instantly strangled according to the rigor of her sentence At the importunacie of the daughter he gaue her leaue to visit and comfort her mother but narrowly searcht before her entrance into the prison least shee should carrie with her any food or sustenance to her reliefe rather desiring she should perish by famine and dye that way than himselfe to haue any violent hand in her execution The daughter hauing dayly accesse to the mother who now had past ouer more dayes than the keeper thought was possible by nature and wondering in himselfe how she should draw her thred of life out to that length without any meanes to maintaine it hee casting a more curious eye vpon the young woman and watching her might perceiue how shee first drew out one breast and after another with her owne milke relieuing her mothers famine At the noueltie of so strange and rare a spectacle being amazed he carryed newes thereof to the Triumvir he to the Praetor the Praetor he related it to the Consuls they brought it before the Senate who to recompence what was good in the daughter pardoned all that was before thought ill in the mother For what will not loue deuise or whither true zeale not penetrate What more vnheard or vnexpected thing could be apprehended than for a mother to be fed from the breasts of her daughter Who would not imagine this to be against nature but that we see by proofe true naturall pietie transcends all bounds and limits The like of this we may read of in Plinie of another young marryed woman who when her father Cimon was afflicted with the same sentence and subiect to the like durance prolonged his life from her breasts for which she deserues to be equally memorized Our Parents in no dangers or necessities are to be by vs abandoned and that by the example of Aeneas in whose person Virgil thus speakes as to his father Anchises Aeneid 2. Eia age chare pater ceruici imponere nostrae Ipse subibo numeris nec me labor iste grauabit c. Come my deare father and get vp for see No burthen to my shoulders you can bee No weight at all and hap what can betide One danger or one safetie wee 'l abide Sabellic lib. 3. cap. 6. remembers vs of Rusticana a noble Matron of Rome and the daughter of Synnarchus who with his brother Boetius the famous Philosopher being put to death by Theodoricus king of the Gothes Shee after the Tirants miserable end was the cause that all his Statues in Rome were demollished and ruined purposing vtterly if it were possible to extirpe his memorie that was the inhuman murderer of her father for which fact of hers being called in question before king Totila who succeeded him she was so far from excuse or deniall that she approued the deed with all constancie whose noble magnanimitie resolution prooued more auailable to her saftie than any timerous euasion could haue done for he not only dismissed her vnpunished but highly applauded and commended Fulgos. Sabellicus and Egnatius writing of Alboinus king of the Longobards who at his first enterance into Italie hauing subdued and slaine Turismundus whom some call Cunimundus sonne to Cunimundus king of the Gepidanes and after taken his daughter Rosamunda to wife the Historie sayth hee made a bole of her fathers skull in which one night hauing drunke somewhat lauishly he caused it to be filled with wine and sent to Rosamunda then in her chamber with this message Commend me to my Queene and say I command her to drinke with her father The Ladie though shee knew him to be slaine by the Longobards receiuing his death by a common casualtie and chance of war and by this assuring her selfe that he fell by the hand of her husband betwixt filiall dutie and coniugall loue being for a time destracted the bond of affection towards her father preuailed aboue those nuptiall fetters in which she was tyde to her Lord in so much that to reuenge the death of the one she resolued to take away the life of the other to bring which about she deuised this proiect she had obserued one Hemegildus a noble man amongst the Lumbards to bee surprised with the loue of one of her waiting gentlewomen with whom she dealt so far that when her maid had promised to giue this Hemegildus meeting in a priuate and darke chamber she her selfe supplyde the place of her seruant after which congression she caused lightes to be brought in that he might know with whom he had had carnall companie and what certeine preiudice he had therein incurred protesting withall that vnlesse he would ioyne with her in the death of the king shee would accuse him of rape and outrage The Lumbard to preuent his own disaster vndertooke his soueraignes death which was accordingly betwixt them performed The murder done they fled together to Rauenna she preferring the reuenge of a slaughtered father before the life of a husband the title of a Queene State Soueraigntie or any other worldly dignitie whatsoeuer Something is not amisse to be spoken in this place concerning the loue of mothers towards their children which as Plutarch in his Grec Apotheg saith was excellently obserued in Themistocles Prince of the Athenians who was wont to say That hee knew no reason but that his young sonne whom his mother most dotingly affected should haue more power and commaâ—nd than any one man in Greece whatsoeuer and being demanded the reason hee thus answered Athens sayth he commands all Greece I Themistocles haue predominance ouer Athens my wife ouer-swayes me â—nd my sonne ouer-rules his mother Olympias the mother of Alexander caused Iollaes graue to be ript vp who was Butler to her sonne and his bones to be scattered abroad raging against him in death on whom in his life time shee could not be reuenged on for the death of her sonne to whom this Iollas was said to haue ministred poyson Agrippina the mother of Domitius Nero by all meanes and industrie possible labouring to confirme the Empire vnto her sonne enquired of the Chaldaeans and Astrologers Whether by their calculations they could find if he should liue to be created Caesar who returned her this answer That they found indeed by their Art that he should be Emperour but withall that he should be the death of his mother To whom she answered Inter-ficiat modo Imperet i. I care not though he kill me so I may but liue to see him raigne Sab. lib. 3. cap. 4. The same Author tells vs that in the second Punick warre the Romanes being ouerthrowne with infinite slaughter in the battailes fought at Thrasiamenus Cannas many that were reported to be assuredly dead escaping with life after their funeralls had beene lamented returning home vnexpectedly to their mothers such infinite ioy oppressed them at once that as if sinking beneath too
yoake and supplying the place of those beasts drew her in time conuenient vnto the place where the sacred Ceremonies were according to the custome celebrated The Oblations ended and she willing to gratifie their filiall dutie besought of the goddesse That if euer with chast and vndefiled hands she had obserued her Sacrifice or if her sonnes had borne themselues piously and religiously towards her that she would graunt vnto them for their goodnesse the greatest blessing that could happen to any mortall or humane creatures This prayer was heard and the two zealous sonnes drawing backe their mother in her Chariot from the Temple vnto the place where she then soiourned being wearie with their trauaile layd them downe to sleepe The mother in the morning comming to giue her sonnes visitation and withall thankes for their extraordinarie and vnexpected paines and trauaile found them both dead vpon their Pallets by which she conceiued That there is no greater blessing to be conferred vpon man than a faire death when Loue good Opinion and Honor attend vpon the Hearse These I must confesse are worthie eternall memorie and neuer-dying admiration But hath not the like pietie towards their parents beene found in women I answer Yes How did Pelopea the daughter of Thiestes reuenge the death of her father Hypsipile the daughter of Thoas gaue her father life when he was vtterly in despaire of hope or comfort Calciope would not lose her father or leaue him though hee had loâ—t and left his kingdome Harpalice the daughter of Harpalicus restored her father in battaile and after defeated the enemie and put him to flight Erigone the daughter of Icarus hearing of the death of her father strangled her selfe Agaue the daughter of Cadmus slew the king Lycotharsis in Illyria and possest her father of his before vsurped Diademe Xantippe fed her father Nyconus or as some will haue it Cimonus in prison with milke from her breasts Tyro the daughter of Salmoneus to relieue her father slew her owne children Who will be further resolued of these let him search Hyginus And so much shall suffice for filiall dutie towards their Parents Of Sisters that haue beene kind to their Brothers THe Poets and Historiographers to impresse into vs the like naturall pietie haue left diuerse presidents to posteritie Innumerable are the examples of fraternall loue betwixt Brother and Brother To illustrate the other the better I will giue you a tast of some few Volater lib. 14. cap. 2. de Antropo relates how in that warre which Cai. Cornelius Cinna Tribune beeing expelled the citie with Caius Marius and others commenced against the Romans there were two brothers one of Pompeyes armie the other of Cinnaes who meeting in the battaile in single encounter one slew the other but when the Victor came to rifle the dead bodie and found it to be his owne naturall brother after infinite sorrow and lamentation he cast himselfe into the fire where the slaughtered carkasse was burned M. Fabius the Consull in the great conflict against the Hetrurians and Veientians obtained a glorious victorie when the Senate and the people of Rome had with great magnificence and cost at their owne charge prepared for him an illustrious triumph hee absolutely refused that honour because Q. Fabius his brother fighting manfully for his countrey was slaine in that battaile What a fraternall pietie liued in his breast may be easily coniectured who refused so remarkable an honour to mourne the losse of a beloued brother Valer. cap. 5. lib. 5. Wee reade in our English Chronicles of Archigallo brother to Gorbomannus who being crowned king of Brittaine and extorting from his subiects all their goods to enrich his owne Coffers was after fiue yeeres deposed and depriued of his Royall dignitie in whose place was elected Elidurus the third sonne of Morindus and brother to Archigallo a vertuous Prince who gouerned the people gently and iustly Vpon a time beeing hunting in the Forrest hee met with his brother Archigallo whom hee louingly embraced and found such meanes that he reconciled him both to the Lords and Commons of the Realme that done he most willingly resigned vnto him his Crowne and Scepter after hee himselfe had gouerned the Land fiue yeeres Archigallo was re-instated and continued in great loue with his brother reigning ten yeeres and was buried at Yorke after whose death Elidurus was againe chosen king What greater enterchange of fraternall loue could be found in brothers To equall whom I will first begin with the sisters of Phaeton called by some Heliades by others Phaetontides who with such funerall lamentation bewayled the death of their brother that the gods in commiseration of their sorrow turned them into Trees whose transformations Ouid with great elegancie expresseth Lib. 1. Metamorph. as likewise Virgil in Cutice their names were Phaethusa Lampitiae Phebe c. Antigone the daughter of Oedipus when her brother Eteocles was slaine in battaile shee buried his bodie maugre the contradiction of the Tyrant Creon of whom Ouid Lib. 3. Tristium Fratrem Thebana peremplam Supposuit tumulo rege vetante soror The Theban sister to his Tombe did bring Her slaught'red brothers Corse despight the king Hyas being deuoured of a Lyon the Hyades his sisters deplored his death with such infinite sorrow that they wept themselues to death And for their pietie were after by the gods translated into Starres of whom Pontanus Fratris Hyae quas perpetuus dolor indidit astris Thus you see how the Poet did striue to magnifie and eternize this Vertue in Sisters No lesse compassionat was Electra the daughter of Agamemnon on her brother Orestes and Iliona the issue of Priam when shee heard the death of young Polidore Stobaeus Serm. 42. out of the Historie of Nicolaus de morib gentium sayth That the Aethiopians aboue all others haue their sisters in greatest reuerence insomuch that their kings leaue their succession not to their owne children but to their sisters sonnes but if none of their issue be left aliue they chuse out of the people the most beautifull and warlike withall whom they create their Prince and Soueraigne Euen amongst the Romans M. Aurelius Commodus so dearely affected his sister that being called by his mother to diuide their fathers Patrimonie betwixt them hee conferred it wholly vpon her contenting himselfe with his grandfathers reuenue Pontanus de Liber cap. 11. I will end this discourse concerning Sisters with one Historie out of Sabellicus li. 3. c. 7. the same confirmed by Fulgosius lib. 5. cap. 5. Intaphernes was say they one of those confederat Princes who freed the Persian Empire from the vsurpation of the Magician brothers and conferred it vpon Darius who now being established in the supreme dignitie Intaphernes hauing some businesse with the king made offer to enter his chamber but being rudely put backe by one of the groomes or waiters he tooke it in such scorne that no
approoued by others interdicted Lycurgus and Solon because they would not haue the Virgins oppressed by the couetousnesse of men forbad by their lawes that any man should demaund a dower with his wife a necessarie and profitable decree by which he was condemned that being a long suitor to the daughter of Pysander and promising her marriage in her fathers life time repudiated the contract after his death because he dying poore her dower did not answere his expectation Aelian lib. 6. de Var. Histor. Amongst the Hetruâ—ians it was held base and ignoble and absolutely forbidden by their inscribed statutes for a man to send tokens or gifts to her whom he affected accounting them no better than bribes or mercenarie hire not fit to bee thought on in such a sacred commixion where nothing should bee meditated saue sincere loue and coniugall pietie The Aegyptians were so opposite to demaunding of portions with their wiues that they called all such as receiued them no better than slaues to them and their dowries Now touching bridall gifts and presents It was an antient custome amongst the Greekes that the father the day after the solemnisation of the marriage sent to the bride some spousall offerings which they called Epaâ—lia dora they were vshered by a beautifull yong lad attyred in a long white vesture reaching to his heele bearing in his hand a bright burning taper in order followed after him all such young men and maides youthfully attyred that brought the presents one presented Gold another Gemmes a third a Basin and Ewre with other Plate-dishes a fourth Boxes of Alablaster full of sweet Oyles and Vnguents a fift rich Sandals or Slippers with other necessaries belonging as well to the whole house as to their priuat bed-chamber Alex. ab Alex. lib. 2. cap. 5. Solon to this marriage-offering allowed onely three sorts of garments for the Bride to bring with her besides such small gifts as were tendered by the kindred friends and houshold seruants A damosell of Lacaena being poore and demanded What Dower she had to bring to her husband and to marrie her with answered That which was left mee as an inheritance from mine ancestors namely Vertue and Modestie Ingeniously inferring that there is no more commendable Dower to be expected in marriage than Chastitie and vncorrupt Manners The daughters of C. Fabritius Cn. Scipio and Manius Curius because their fathers left them not portions sufficient to bestow them according to their byrth and qualitie had their Dowers allotted them from the common Treasurie There was a Law amongst the Romans That no Virgins Dower should exceed the summe of ten thousand pieces of Siluer But after that limitation was taken away and brought to fortie thousand and vpward Insomuch that Metulia because the Dower of which she possest her husband amounted to fiue hundred thousand pieces had a sirname bestowed vpon herâ— beeing euer after called Dotata In ancient times the husbands wooed their Brides with a Ring of Iron without any Stone or Gemme but meerely circular and round by that denoting the parsimonie of diet and frugalitie in liuing Homer the Prince of Poets hauing no wealth with which to bestow his daughter vpon a thriftie citisen gaue her onely an Epithalâ—mium with certaine Cyprian Elegies for so Pindarus and Aedianus lib. 9. affirme The Carthaginians gaue no Portions with their Virgins but were onely at the charge of the Nuptiall feasts which grew to be immoderate and wastfull Amongst the Indians none can clayme a greater Dower with his wife than the price of a yoake of Oxen neither can he marrie out of his owne Tribe The Assyrians brought their noblest Virgins into the marketplace and their prices there publikely proclaymed by the Cryer whosoeuer wanted a wife and would reach to the summe propounded might there be furnished and he that had not readie money if he could put in good securitie it was held sufficient The like custome was amongst the Babylonians in which they obserued this order They first set out to sale the most ingenuous and beautifull and those at an high rate and when they were put off they brought forth the worser featured euen vnto the degree of deformitie and then the Cryer proclaymes That who will marrie any of them he shall haue so much or so much to recompence her foulenesse or lamenesse And this money which sells them is collected from the ouerplus of the price of the other so that the beautie of the faire ones helpes to bestow and dispose of the foule The Massâ—lienses would not suffer any man to receiue with his wife more than an hundred pieces of Gold Amongst the Cretans halfe the brothers estate was conferred vpon the sister to make her a Dowrie The antient Germans when they had made choyse of such with whom they meant to marrie at their proper charge prouided them of Dowries Which custome euen to these later times hath beene continued amongst the Celtiberians who dwelt in a part of the Pyrenes a Prouince which is now called Biskay Fulgos. lib. 2. cap. 1. And with the Dower which he sent he was tyed to present her likewise with a Horse bridled a Sword a Targuet and an Armour with a yoake of Oxen. And these were held to be the most assured Pledges of Coniugall loue without which no Nuptials were legally solemnized Alexand. ab Alex. lib. 2. cap. 5. Idem lib. 4. cap. 8. Of Nuptiall Ornaments Pompe Feasts Epithalamions c. AMongst the Greekes the Bride was crowned with water-Mints or Cresses her head was kembed with a piece of a Lance or Speare of a Fencer with which some man had beene slaine it was called Caelibaris which imported that the new-married Bride should bee as conioynedly commixt with her husband in mutuall affection as that Speare was inward in the trans-pierced bodie when it was drawne from the wound A strange Aenigma it appeares to me howsoeuer it is so recorded Her hayre was parted the one way and the other leauing a seame in the middest that her forhead and face might be the plainlyer discouered Some interprete it as an Embleme that she might be the breeder of a warlike and valorous issue or else that by that ceremonie she should euer acknowledge her selfe obsequious to the will and pleasure of her husband Alexand. ab Alex. lib. 2. cap. 5. In other places of Greece the Brides heads were couered with a Veyle to signifie her bashfulnesse and modest shame It was of Clay-coloured Silke by which colour the Matrons of the most temperate life and modest carriage denoted vnto the world their continence and vertue Amongst the Athenians the Bridegroome kept his Bride concealed and couered at home in the place where she was after to be devirgined the doores of the house were adorned with white Wooll and crowned and beautified with Lawrel which were first touched by the Bride who annointed the posts and daubed the thresholds with Swines grease or the fat of Wolues to preuent all
honour consume the remainder of their liues in great discontent sorrow and anguish Of this custome Cicero remembers vs Tusc. Quest. lib. 5. Vaeler Maxim lib. 2. cap. 1. Alex. ab Alex. Aelianus Egnatius and others This funerall ceremonie as Fulgos. lib. 2. cap. 6. is continued amongst them vnto this day alluding to this purpose is that of Propert. lib. 3. Foelix eo is lex funeris vna maritis c. Which I thus paraphrase in English You Easterne Husbands in your funerall Lawes Most happie and their first inuentors wise In which you are more famous then because On you the blushing morning first doth rise When Death hath with his last mortiferous wound The Husband strucke his last Rites to prepare A pious troupe of Wiues engirt him round Drying their moist cheekes with their scatt'red haire Who striue which shall associate him in fate And bed with him together in the flame To liue beyond him is a thing they hate And he once dead life is to them a shame She that can die with him hath her desire And leapes with ioy into the funerall fire The like is obserued by a people of Thrace that inhabite a little aboue the Crestonaeans They likewise are delighted with pluralitie of wiues who after the decease of their husbands enter into the like contention as the women of India and she that is Victoresse as if glorying in some great conquest adorned in her best and richest ornaments is with great ceremonious pompe amongst all her kindred and allyes conducted vnto the place where his bodie is to be interred where being slaine by her next of kinne as the best office he can doe her she is buried in the same graue with her husband Herod lib. 5. The wiues amongst the Geates repayre to their husbands Sepulchre and holding all life tedious and burthensome without them offer their bodies willingly either to the sword or to the fire The custome of the Catheoreans was That when the Bride chose her husband she made a couenant with him at his death to be burnt in the same Pile Alex. ab Alex. lib. 1. cap. 25. The women amongst the Herulians a people that inhabite beyond the riuer of Danubius repayre to the graues of their husbands and iust ouer-against them strangle themselues Which marriage-loue appeares the more strange because the men are of that barbarous and inhumane incontinence that they hold it no shame to leaue the societie of their women and haue congression with brute beasts Bonifacius in his Epistle vnto king Ethelbaldus as Gulielm Malmsbur lib. 1. cap. 64. de Anglia relates it sayth That the Winedi are the worst and the most nastie people among the Germans yet their wiues are of that incomparable zeale and pietie toward their husbands that shee is held to be the most laudable and prayse-worthie that with her owne hand kills her selfe to burne with him in his last funerall fire From the generalitie of women I descend to particulars Admirable was the loue of Phila towards her husband king Demetrius and haughtie and magnanimous her spirit who receiuing newes of his defeat in battaile and that his whole armie being dispersed and scattered he was retyred into Cassandria dranke poyson and so died The wife of Straton Prince of Sydonia when the citie was straitly besieged by the Persians her greatest care was least the person of her husband should fall into the hands of the mercilesse enemie which she purposed to preuent by death When therefore shee heard they had skaled the walls and were readie to be instantly possest of the towne and seize vpon the person of her husband she snatcht from him his sword with which she first â—lew him and then laying out his bodie with as much comelinesse as the shortnesse of the time would permit after fell vpon the same sword thus by voluntarie death preuenting the dishonor of captiuitie Fulgos. lib. 4. cap. 6. Fannia the daughter of Arria the younger wife to Poetus Patauinus before remembred in her braue and heroick death with her husband was the Spouse of Heluidius Priscus who followed him in all his exile euen to his vnfortunate and most vniust death she was the third time confined from the reigne of Tiberius Nero to the death of Domitian Plinie with infinite prayses applauds the incomparable vertues of this Fannia with both the Arriaes in Lib. 9. in his Epistle to Quadratus and in his seuenth to Genitor and Priscus Triaria was the noble and chast wife of L. Vitellius brother to Aul. Vitellius the Emperor who as Hypsicrataea followed Mithridates in all his combustious warres so she neuer forsooke her husband but was present with him in all those ciuile dissentions against Vespasian And the night when Vitellius her Lord with a great armie of souldiers inuaded and entred the citie Terecyna shee presented her selfe in the middest of the slaughter not onely daring but doing equally with the most valiant killing on all sides till shee had hemmed her selfe in with dead bodies slaine by her owne hand so bold and magnanimous a spirit had the coniugall loue to her husband imprest in her Her memorie is made famous by the same Author Antonia Flaxilla by some called Archona when her husband Priscus was found guiltie of the Pysonian Faction and for that cause exiled by Nero and when shee might haue enioyed all the plentie and abundance in Rome left all the pleasures and delights of the citie to accompanie her desolate Lord in his penurious and vncomfortable banishment Her example Egnatia Maximilla imitated who likewise associated her husband Gallus guiltie of the same Conspiracie with Priscus Fulgos. lib. 6. cap. 7. From Iacobus the sonne of Vsson Cassannus amongst many other Captaines that reuolted there was one eminent in that Rebellion called Pandoerus who had a most beautiful young wife her age exceeded not sixteene yeeres to whom he was ardently and in conioyned loue affected He being by her often earnestly entreated to forbeare all conflicts with the enemie but by no meanes either mooued by her teares or perswaded with her intercessions and prayers persisting resolute for a present encounter shee then begged of him That before he hasarded himselfe to the extremitie of danger hee would first take away her feares by transpiercing her with his sword which when he likewise denyed he presently left her and gaue signall of battaile in which conflict he was vanquished and slaine his Tent rifled his wife surprised and committed into the hands of one of the chiefe Captaines belonging to the king who pittying her teares and sorrow to which her feature and beautie gaue no common lustre made instant suit vnto her to make her his wife Shee whilest shee could put him off with all possible delayes but after perceiuing that what hee could not compasse with her good will hee purposed to attaine vnto by compulsion and force shee craued onely some few houres of
the citie with a strong and fearefull siege ingaging the defendants to all dangers and difficulties in so much that Clusia timerous of surprisall and preferring death before captiuitie threw her selfe from the highest part of the wall to destroy her selfe in the open view and face of the enemie but either as the former late mentioned fauoured by the windes or as my Author tels me greatly supported by the hand of Venus or whether the pittious Earth vnwilling to hurt or harme such faire and well featured limbes and therefore with more than accustomed courtesie fauorably receiued her into her lappe I am not certaine but the Ladie to the wonder of all the beholders was taken vp whole and sound without wound or the least-astonishment and from thence conducted to the Tent of the Generall who beecause he made but offer to violate her chastitie the euer nobly minded Romans not onely tooke from him the charge of the armie alleaging that hee that could not gouerne his owne affections was not fit to command others but confined him into the Island Corsica adiacent neere to the continent of Italie Not much lesse strange was that of Perhibaea the daughter of Accathous who when Telamon the sonne of Aeacus and Eudeides came into the cittie of Euboea where shee then soiourned with her father and tooke her at that aduantage that shee was by him devirgined and deflowred his name or person not being knowne by her or any and so priuily escaped and fled away by night Accathous after perceiuing her by assured tokens to bee growne bigge with child and suspecting it to be done by some one of his citisens or subiects hee was thereat so incensed that banishing all pietie or paternall pittie he deliuered her into the hands of one of his captaines commaunding him either to kill her with his sword or cast her into the Sea the souldier vndertakes the imposition of his soueraigne vpon him with many vowes and protestations to performe his pleasure with all strictnesse and seueritie but by the way commiserating her wretched fortune and loth to be the destroyer of such youth and beautie created for better vse comming neere the Sea-shore and spying a ship there at Anchor he sold her to the cheefe marchant for a summe of money returning to the father with an assured relation of his daughters death The marriners presently with this faire purchase hoysed sayle and a faire and gentle gale fauouring them they attained vnto the port of Salamine and there harboured where purposing to make sale of their marchandise they exposed them to the publique view amongst the rest they set a price on the Princesse Perhibaea Telamon who was duke of Salamine and then resiant in the cittie tooke his attendants with him and hearing of this new marchant went downe to the Key to take the first view of his goods and prouide himselfe of such things as he wanted amongst all the faire Perhibaea pleased him best whose face he well knew and still remembred what had past betwixt them hee bargained for her payd downe her price conducted her to his pallace and there acquainted her with the true passage of all his former proceedings Within few moneths shee brought him a sonne which he called Aiax and this was that Aiax Telamon who at the siege of Troy betwixt the two armies combatted with bold Hector in the plaine of Scamander you shall reade this historie in Aretades Guidius in his second booke inscribed Insulis The next that insues hath correspondence with this Lucius Trocius had a beautifull young daughter called Florentia shee was stuprated by the Roman Calphurnius and when the act came to the knowledge of her father deliuered to the trustie executioner to bee cast into the Sea who in the same manner was by him pittied and sold to a marchant his ship beeing then bound for Italie where she being exposed to publique sale was seene knowne and bought by Calphurnius by whom hee had a sonne called Contruscus I proceede to such as haue vnwittingly beene the death of their parents Euenus the sonne of Mars and Steropes by his wife Alcippa the daughter of Oennemanus had a beautifull female issue whom hee called Marpissa who had vowed perpetuall virginitie her Idas the sonne of Aphareus rauished and stole away which her father hearing prosecuted him euen vnto his owne countrey but in vaine for not able to ouertake them and returning without her in greefe of his lost daughter whom he so deerely loued hee threw himselfe into the riuer Lycormus and was there drowned some thinke that by his death the flood lost his name and was euer after called Euenus Dosithae lib. 1. rerum Italicarum Anius king of the Etruscians hauing a rarely featured damosell to his daughter called Salia whose virginitie he had vowed to Diana and therefore admitted no suitors though many great and rich offers were made vnto her at length as shee was sporting abroad amongst other virgins shee was espyed by one Calthetas a hopefull young gentleman and ennobled by his familie who at the first sight of her was so extaside with her beautie that maugre all feare of pursuit or danger hee snatcht her vp in his armes and vsed such meanes that hee got her safe within the walls of Rome Her father following the rauisher but not ouertaking him was strucke into such a deepe sorrow that desparate of all comfort or counsell hee violently cast himselfe into the next Foord that parted Rome and his owne Kingdome which euer since that time still beares the name of Anius Calihetus had by Salia two braue sonnes Latinus and Salinus who were famous in their noble nad flourishing issue insomuch that some of the best and greatest families in Rome were proud from them to deriue their ancestrie This historie is recorded by Aristides Milesius by Alexander and Polihistor lib. tertio Italicorum Of Clamorous Women commonly called Skoulds CNeius Pompeius to make his faction the stronger by his friend Munatius sent to Cato that hee would bee pleased of his two Neeces to contract the one of them to himselfe the other to his sonne by whome Cato sent word backe to Pompeius That though he as a friend tooke gratefully the free profer of his friendship and allyance yet beeing a man hee had euer kept himselfe from beeing intricated in the snares of women but hee protested hee would adhere vnto him in a more firme league of amitie than could be contracted by kindred if hee would studie any thing conducent and profitable for the common-weale but against the publique good hee would neither giue nor take hostages calling his neeces who as some write were his daughters giuen so in matrimonie no better than pledges of much future inconuenience especially in matters of state where the common-weale is distracted and diuided Eras. 5. Apotheg Socrates was wont to say that hee had patiently suffered three torments Grammer Pouertie and a skoulding Wife Xantippe two of
dayes affected it for seldome doth Adulterie but goe hand in hand with Murther From the Sinne I come to the Punishment Amongst the Israelites it was first punished with Finâ—s as may be collected from the historie of Thamar who being with child by Iudas hee threatened her to the stake and had accordingly performed it had shee not shewed by manifest tokens that he himselfe was the author of her vnlawfull issue Genes 38. The Aegyptians condemned the Adulterer so deprehended to a thousand Scourges the Adulteresse to haue her Nose cut off to the greater terror of the like Delinquents Diodor. Sicul. Lib. 2. cap. 2. Coel. Lib. 21. cap. 25. By Solons Lawes a man was permitted to kill them both in the act that so found them Rauis In Iudaea they were stoned to death Plat. Lib. 9. de Legibus punisheth Adulterie with death The Locrenses by tradition from Zaluces put out the Adulterers eyes The Cumaei prostituted the Adulteresse to all men till shee died by the same sinne shee had committed Alex. ab Alex. Lib. 4. cap. 1. It was a custome amongst the antient Germans for the husband to cut off his wiues haire so apprehended to turne her out of doores naked and scourge her from Village to Village One bringing word to Diogenes That a fellow called Dydimones was taken in the Act Hee is worthie then saith hee to be hanged by his owne name for Didymi in the Greeke Tongue are Testiculi in English the Testicles or immodest parts By them therefore from whence he deriued his name and by which he had offended he would haue had him to suffer Laert. Lib. 6. Hyettus the Argiue slew one Molurus with his wife apprehending them in their vnlawfull congression Coelius Iulius Caesar repudiated his wife for no other reason but because P. Clodius was found in his house in womans Apparrell And being vrged to proceed against her hee absolutely denyed it alledging That hee had nothing whereof to accuse her but being further demanded Why then hee abandoned her societie hee answered That it was behoofefull for the wife of Caesar not onely to be cleare from the sinne it selfe but from the least suspition of crime Fulgos Lib. 6. cap. 1. Augustus banished his owne Daughter and Neece so accused into the Island called Pandateria after into Rhegium commanding at his death That their bodies being dead should not be brought neere vnto his Sepulchre To omit many Nicolaus the first Pope of that name excommunicated king Lotharius brother to Lewis the second Emperour because hee diuorced his wife Therberga and in her roome instated Gualdrada and made her Queene Besides he degraded Regnaldus Archbishop of Treuers and Gunthramus Archbishop of Collen from their Episcopall dignities for giuing their approbation to that adulterate Marriage And so much for the punishment I will conclude with the counsaile of Horace Lib. 1. Satyr 2. Desine Matronas sectarier vnde laboris Plus haurire mali est quam ex re decerpere fructum est Cease Matrons to pursue for of such paine Thou to thy selfe more mischiefe reap'st than gaine Sisters that haue murdred their Brothers AFter the vntimely death of Aydere his brother Ismael succeeded him in the Persian Empire who arriuing at Casbin was of his sister receiued with ioy and of the people with loude acclamations and beeing now possessed of the Imperiall dignitie the better as hee thought to secure himselfe hauing power answerable to his will after the barbarous custome of the Turkish tyrannie he first caused his eight younger brothers to be beheaded stretching his bloodie malice to all or the most part of his owne affinitie not suffering any to liue that had beene neere or deere to his deseased brother so that the â—â—ttie Casbin seemed to swimme in blood and ecchoed with nothing but lamentations and mournings His crueltie bred in the people both feare and hate both which were much more increased when they vnderstood hee had a purpose to alter their forme of religion who with great adoration honour their prophet Aly into the Turkish superstition his infinite and almost incredible butcheries concerne not my proiect in hand I therefore leaue them and returne to his sister whose name was Periaconcona who when this Tyrant was in the middest of his securities and the sister as hee imagined in her sisterly loue and affection vpon a night when he was in all dissolute voluptuousnesse sporting amidst his concubines she into whose trust and charge he had especially committed the safetie of his person hauing confederated with Calilchan Emirchan Pyrymahomet and Churchi Bassa the most eminent men in the Empire admitted them into the Seraglio in womans attyre by whom with her assistant hand in the middest of his luxuries hee was strangled an act though happily beneficiall to the common good yet ill becomming a sister vnlesse such an one as striued to paralel him in his vnnaturall cruelties Turkish Histor. Equall with this was that of Quendreda who after the death of Ranulphus king of Mercia his young sonne Kenelme a child of seuen yeares of age raigning in his stead whose royall estate and dignitie beeing enuied by his sister shee conspired with one Heskbertus by whose treacherous practise the king was inticed into a thick forrest there murdered and priuatly buried his bodie long missed and not found and the conspirators not so much as suspected But after as Willielm de regib li. 1. and de Pontificibus lib. 4. relates a Doue brought in her bill a scroule written in English golden letters and layde it vpon the Altar of Saint Peter which being read by an Englishman contained these words by which the place where the bodie lay was discouered At Clent in Cowbach Kenelme Keneborne lyeth vnder Thorne heaued by weaued that is in plainer English At Clent in Cowbach vnder a thorne Kenelme lyeth headlesse slaine by treason Some say it was found by a light which streamed vp into the Ayre from the place where his bodie lay couered His hearse being after borne towards his sepulchre to be a second time interred with solemne Dyrges sung by the Churchmen Quendreda sitting then in a window with a Psalter in her hand to see the funerall solemnely passe by whether in skorne of the person derision of the ceremonie or both is not certaine but she began to sing the Psalme of Te Deum laudamus backeward when instantly both her eyes dropped out of her head with a great flux of blood which stained her booke and it was after kept as a sacred relique in memorie of the diuine iudgement What need I trouble you with citing antiquities how this sinne ought to be punished on earth when we see how hatefull it is in the eyes of Heauen besides to insult vpon the bodies of the dead is monstrous and euen in things sencelesse to be punished Ausonius remembers vs of one Achillas who finding a dead mans skull in a place where three sundrie wayes
deuided themselues and casting to hit it with a stone it rebounded againe from the skull and stroke himselfe on the forehead his words be these Abiecta in triuijs inhumati glabra iacebat Testa hominis nudum iam cute caluicium Fleuerant alij fletu non motus Achillas c. Where three wayes parted a mans skull was found Bald without haire vnburied aboue ground Some wept to see 't Achillas more obdure Snatcht vp a stone and thinkes to hit it sure He did so At the blow the stone rebounds And in the face and eyes Achillas wounds I wish all such whose impious hands prophane The dead mans bones so to be stroke againe Of Mothers that haue slaine their Children or Wiues their Husbands c. MEdea the daughter of Oeta king of Colchos first slew her young brother in those Islands which in memorie of his inhumane murther still beare his name and are called Absyrtides and after her two sonnes Macareus and Pherelus whom she had by Iason Progne the daughter of Pandion murthered her young sonne Itis begot by Tereus the sonne of Mars in reuenge of the rape of her sister Philomele Ino the daughter of Cadmus Melicertis by Athamas the sonne of Aeolus Althea the daughter of Theseus slew her sonne Meleager by Oeneus the sonne of Parthaon Themisto the daughter of Hypseus Sphincius or Plinthius and Orchomenus by Athamas at the instigation of Ino the daughter of Cadmus Tyros the daughter of Salmoneus two sonnes begot by Sysiphus the sonne of Aeolus incited thereto by the Oracle of Apollo Agaue the daughter of Cadmus Pentheus the sonne of Echion at the importunitie of Liber Pater Harpalice the daughter of Climenus slew her owne father because he forcibly despoyled her of her honor Hyginus in Fabulis These slew their Husbands Clitemnestra the daughter of Theseus Agamemnon the sonne of Atreus Hellen the daughter of Iupiter and Laeda Deiphebus the sonne of Priam and Hecuba hee married her after the death of Paris Agaue Lycotherses in Illyria that she might restore the kingdome to her father Cadmus Deianira the daughter of Oeneus and Althea Hercules the sonne of Iupiter and Alcmena by the Treason of Nessus the Centaureâ— Iliona the daughter of Priam Polymnestâ—r king of Thâ—â—ce Semyramis her husband Ninus king of Babylon c. Some haue slaine their Fathers others their Nephewes and Neeces all which being of one nature may be drawne to one head And see how these prodigious sinnes haue beene punished Martina the second wife to Heraclius and his Neece by the brothers side by the helpe of Pyrrhus the Patriarch poysoned Constantinus who succeeded in the Empire fearing least her sonne Heraclius should not attaine to the Imperiall Purple in regard that Constantinus left issue behind him two sonnes Constantes and Theodosius which he had by Gregoria the daughter of Nycetas the Patritian notwithstanding hee was no sooner dead but shee vsurped the Empire Two yeeres of her Principalitie were not fully expired when the Senate reassumed their power and called her to the Barre where they censured her to haue her Tongue cut out least by her eloquence shee might persuade the people to her assistance her sonne Heraclius they maimed of his Nose so to make him odious to the multitude and after exiled them both into Cappadocia Cuspinianus in vita Heraclij A more terrible Iudgement was inflicted vpon Brunechildis whose Historie is thus related Theodericus king of the Frenchmen who by this wicked womans counsaile had polluted himselfe with the bloud of his owne naturall brother and burthened his conscience with the innocent deaths of many other noble gentlemen as well as others of meaner ranke and qualitie was by her poysoned and depriued of life for when he had made a motion to haue taken to wife his Neece a beautifull young Ladie and the daughter of his late slaine brother Brunechildis with all her power and industrie opposed the Match affirming that Contract to be meerely incestuous which was made with the brothers daughter shee next persuaded him that his son Theodebertus was not his owne but the adulterate issue of his wife by another at which words he was so incensed that drawing his sword hee would haue instantly transpierst her but by the assistance of such Courtiers as were then present shee escaped his furie and presently after plotted his death and effected it as aforesaid Trittenhemius de Regib Francorum and Robertus Gaguinus Lib. 2. Others write that hee was drowned in a Riuer after hee had reigned eighteene yeeres Auentinus affirmes That presently after hee had slaine his brother entring into one of his cities hee was strucke with Thunder Annal. Boiorum Lib. 3. But this inhumane Butcheresse Brunechildis after shee had beene the ruine of an infinite number of people and the death of ten kings at length moouing an vnfortunate warre against Lotharius to whom shee denyed to yeeld the kingdome shee was taken in battaile and by the Nobilitie and Captaines of the Armie condemned to an vnheard of punishment She was first beaten with foure Bastoones before shee was brought before Lotharius then all her Murthers Treasons and Inhumanities were publikely proclaimed in the Armie and next her Legges and Hands being fastened to the tayles of wild Horses pluckt to pieces and disseuered limbe from limbe Anno 1618. Sigebertus Trittenhemius Gaguinus and Auentinus And such bee the earthly punishments due to Patricides and Regicides Touching Patricides Solon when hee instituted his wholesome Lawes made no Law to punish such as thinking it not to be possible in nature to produce such a Monster Alex. Lib. 2. cap. 5. Romubus appointing no punishment for that inhumanitie included Patricides vnder the name of Homicides counting Manslaughter and Murther abhorred and impious but the other impossible Plutarchâ— in â—â—amulo Marcus Malleolus hauing sâ—aine his mother was the first that was euer condemned for that fact amongst the Romans his Sentence was to be sowed in a Sack together with a Cock an Ape and a Viper and so cast into the Riuer Tiber a iust infliction for such immanitie The Macedonians punished Patricides and Traitors alike and not onely such as persoâ—ally committed the fact but all that were any way of the confederacie Alex. ab Alex. Lib. 3. cap. 5. and all such were stoned to death The Aegyptians stabbed them with Needles and Bodkins wounding them in all the parts of their bodie but not mortally when bleeding all ouer from a thousand small orifices they burnt them in a pyle of Thornes Diodor. Sical Lib. 2. cap. 2. de rebus antiq The Lusitanians first exiled them from their owne confines and when they were in the next forraine ayre â—toâ—ed them to death Nero hauing slaine his mother Agrippinâ— by the hand of Anicetes had such terror of mind and vnquietnesse of conscience that in the dead of the night he would leape out of his bed horribly affrighted and say when they that attended him demanded
settled an enmitie against all Vices your publike enemies as hee did against the Persians the forraine inuaders you shall vndoubtedly after the Battaile of the Mind constantly fought against all barbarous temptations be ranked equall with him in all his triumphs It is likewise recorded of Isaus an Assyrian Sophist who in his youth being giuen to all voluptuousnesse and effeminate delicacies but comming to riper vnderstanding assumed to himselfe a wonderous continencie of life and austeritie in all his actions insomuch that a familiar friend of his seeing a beautifull young woman passe by and asking him If shee were not a faire one To him hee answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Desij laborare de oculis i. I am no more sicke of sore eyes To another that demanded What Fish of Fowle was most pleasant to the taste hee replyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. I haue forgot to looke after them and proceeded I perceiue that I then gathered all my Fruits out of the Garden of Tantalus insinuating vnto vs that all those vaine Pleasures and Delights of which Youth is so much enamored are nothing else but shadowes and dreames such as Tantalus is said to be fed with Of seuerall degrees of Inchastities and of their Punishments PHilip of Macedon making warre against the Thebans Aeropus and Damasippus two of his cheefe captaines had hyred a mercenarie strumpet and kept her in one of their tents which the king hearing he not onely cashiered them from their commaunds but banished them his kingdome Polynaeus lib. 4. In Germanie Chastitie and Modestie is held in that reuerent respect that no meane Artificer though of the basest trade that is will entertaine a Bastard into his seruice or teach him his science neither in the Accademies will they permit any such to take degree in schooles though it be a strange seueritie against innocent children who gaue no consent to the sinnes of their parents yet it is a meane to curbe the liberties of men and women deterring them from the like offences Aeneus Siluius lib. 1. of the sayings and deeds of king Alphonsus tells vs of one Manes Florentinus who being taken in forbidden congression with a strumpet was adiudged to pennance which was not altogether as our custome in England is to stand in a white sheete but naked all saue a linnen garment from his wast to his knees after the fashion of Bases the Priests comming to strip him in the Vestrie would haue put vpon him that roabe to couer his shame which hee no way would admit but was constantly resolued to stand as our phrase is starke naked but when the church officers demanded of him If he were not ashamed to shew his virile parts in such a publike assemblie especially where there were so many Virgins married Wiues and widow Women he answered Minime gentium nam pudenda haec quae peccauerunt ea potissimum dare panas decet i. By no meanes quoth he most fit it is that those shamefull things that haue offended and brought me to this shame should likewise doe open penance Pontius Offidianus a knight of Rome after he had found by infallable signes his daughters virginitie to be dispoyled and vitiated by Fannius Saturnius her schoole-maister was not content to extend his iust rage vpon his seruant and punish him with death but hee also slew his daughter who rather desired to celebrat her vntimely exequies than follow her to her contaminated Nuptialls Val. lib. 6. cap. 1. Pub. Attilius Philiscus notwithstanding in his youth hee was compelled by his master to prostitute his owne bodye to vnnaturall lusts for bruitish and vnthriuing gaine yet after prooued a seuere father for finding his daughter to haue corrupted her virginall chastitie hee slew her with his owne hand How sacred then may wee imagine and conceiue puritie and temperance was held in Rome when such as had professed base prostitution in their youth became iudges and punishers therof euen vpon their owne children in their age Val. Max. lib. 6. c. 1. Appius Claudius Regillanus the most eminent amongst the Decemviri so doted on Virginia the daughter of Virginius a Centurion who was then in the campe at Algidus that he suborned a seruant of his to seise her claim her as his bondwoman and bring the cause to be decided before him needs must the businesse passe on his side beeing both the accuser and the iudge The father being certified of these proceedings by Icilius a hopefull young gentleman before contracted vnto her leauing his charge abroad repaires to the citie and appearing before the iudgement seat sees his owne lawfull daughter taken both from himselfe and betrothed husband and conferred vpon another as his slaue and bondwoman The iudgement being past he desires leaue to speake with his daughter apart it was granted him by the Court who slew her with his owne hand then taking vp her bodie and lifting it vpon his shoulders posted with that lamentable burden to the campe and incited the souldiers to reuenge Liuie Volater lib. 14. cap. 2. Antropol Quintus Fabius Seruilianus hauing his daughters chastitie in suspition first deliuered her to death and after punished himselfe with voluntarie banishment The punishment of these inchastities is by the Poets to the life illustrated in the fable of Titius the sonne of Terra who intending to stuperate Latona was by Apollo slaine with an arrow and being thrust down into Hell and chained to a rocke his Liuer and Heart is perpetually tyred on by a rauenous Vulture who still renewes his inceasible torments Virgill lib. Aeneid 6. vnder the person of Titius would pourtray vnto vs the vnquiet conscience which though sometimes it may be at a seeming peace yet the torment by beeing still renewed dayly increaseth and gnawes the heart-strings of all such persons as to themselues are guiltie Of Witches and the Punishment due to them VIncentius cites this following Historie from Guillerimus in Specul Histor. lib. 26. cap. 26. which also Iohannes Wyerius Ranulphus and others commemorats an English woman that dwelt at a towne called Barkley in England being a Witch yet not being much suspected liued in indifferent good opinion amongst her neighbours and beeing feasting vpon a time abroad and wonderous pleasant in companie shee had a tame crow which she had brought vp that would be familiar with her and sit vpon her shoulder and prate to her in the best language it could she at this feast the Table being readie to be drawne sported with her which spake to her more plainely than it vsed some wordes which shee better than the rest of the companie vnderstood at which suddenly her knife dropped out of her hand her colour changed the blood forsooke her cheâ—kes and shee looked pale readie to sinke downe and fetching some inward suspires and grones shee at length broke forth into this language Woe is mee my plow is now entred into the last furrow for this day I shall heare of some great
his children though an impression of the fathers face by which the adulterer might easily bee knowne Minos therefore to conceale his owne discontents and as much as in him lay to hide his wiues shame whom he endeeredly affected caused the infant to be carryed into a remote mountaine and there by the Kings heardsmen to be fostered But growing towards manhood he likewise grew intractable and disobedient to those to whose charge he was committed The king therefore confinde him into a deepe caue digd in a rocke of purpose not to curbe his fierce and cruell disposition but rather incourage it for whosoeuer at any time hee feared or whatsoeuer he was that had offended him he sent him to this Minotaure on some impertinent message or other by whom hee was cruelly butchered The caue was called Labyrinthus and therfore described with so many intricate blind Meanders in regard of the difficultie of his returne with life who was seene to enter there Therefore when Theseus came to Minos hee sent him to be deuoured by this Minotaure of which Ariadne hauing notice being enamoured of Theseús she sent him a sword by which he slew the monstrous Homicyde and that was the clew so often remembred by the Poets which guirded Theseus out of the Labyrinth Canace Canusia Valeria Tusculana MAcareus and Canace were brother and sister the sonne and daughter to Aeolus king of the winds for so the Poets feigned him because the clouds and mists rising from the seauen Aeolian Islands of which he was king alwaies pretended great gusts and tempests hee is reported to be the sonne of Iupiter and Alceste daughter to Hyppotes the Tyrian of whom he had the denomination of Hippotides This Macareus and Canace hauing most leaudly and incestuously loued one another couering their bedding and boosoming vnder the vnsuspected pretext of consanguinitie and neerenesse in blood It could no longer be conceald by reason Canace at length brought forth a sonne which as she would secretly haue conueyed out of the court by the hands of her trustie nurse who had beene before acquainted with all their wicked proceedings the infant by crying betrayed it selfe to the grand-father who searching the nurse examining the matter finding the incest and miserably distracted with the horridnesse of the fact instantly in the heat of his incensed anger caused the innocent infant to be cut in pecces and limbe by limbe cast to the dogges and before his face deuoured This Macareus hearing tooke sanctuarie in the Temple of Apollo but Canace by reason of her greenenes and weake estate not able to make escape and shunne the violence of her fathers threatned furie he sent her a sword and withall commanded her to punish her self according to the nature of the fact Which she receiuing writ a passionate letter to her brother in which she first besought him to haue a care of his safety and next to cause the bones of the slaughtered infant to be gathered together and put into an vrne with hers this hauing done with the sword sent her by her father she transpierst her selfe and so expired The like we reade of Canusia daughter of Papirius Volucris who being found with child by Papirius Romanus her own naturall brother when the heinousnesse of the fact came to the knowledge of the father he sent to either of them a sharpe sword with which they as resolutely slew themselues as they had before rashly offended The like successe of her incestuous affection had Valeria Tusculana who as Plutarch relates by the counsell of one of her handmaids comming priuately in the night into the armes of her father and the deede after made knowne to Valerius he in detestation of the act slew her with his owne hand Iulia the Empresse THese abhominable sinnes that haue beene punisht in inferiour persons haue in great ones beene countenanced Sextus Aurelius and Aelius Spartianus both testifie That Antonius Caracalla Emperour doting vpon his stepmother Iulia was often heard to say in her presence I would if it were lawfull at length apprehending his purpose to these his words she made this reply What you list to doe 〈◊〉 Emperour you may make lawfull Princes haue power to make lawes but are not 〈◊〉 to keepe any by which words imboldned he tooke her to his bed whose sonne Geâ—a but a while before he had caused to be slaine Herodotus remembers vs of one Opaea the stepmother to Scithes king of the Scythians who likewise tooke her to his bed and made her his queene So Berenices the sister of Ptolomaus Euergetes was made partner both of his bed and kingdome Arsinoe the sister of Ptolomaeus Philodelphus became his concubine The like did Herod Antipas vnto Herodias the wife of his brother Philip. We reade also of one Leucon who slew his brother Oxilochus king of Pontus for the loue of his wife whom he after marryed Faustina the sister of Marcus Antonius Emperour became her brothers paramour on whom he begat Lucilla whom he after gaue in marriage to his brother L. Antonius Theodoricus king of the Frenchmen marryed the daughter of his owne brother whom he before had slaine And Pontanus remembers vs of one Iohannes Ariminensis who espoused his owne sister Phillip the brother of Alphonsus the tenth king of Spaine forcibly married Christiana daughter to the king of Dacia his owne brothers wife all Christianitie and Religion set apart Volaterranus remembers vs of one Stratonice who being deuilishly doted on by Antiochus Soter king of Syria his owne father at his importunitie gaue her vp into his sonnes incestuous embraces Virgill in his tenth booke speakes of Casperia stepmother to Anchemolus the sonne of Rhatus king of the Marhubians who was by him adulterated These prodigious acts haue beene incouraged by kings drawing their presidents from Iupiter who vitiated Ceres and marryed his sister Iuno when in my opinion the industrie of the Poets in illustrating the escapes of Iupiter and the other gods was aymed at no other end than to manifest vnto all men That such deities were not worthy adoration that were callumnised with so many whoredomes adulteries and incests The sisters of Cambises THese might seeme fearfull enough before related but I will giue you a short tast of some more abhominable I haue shewed the examples of Lust but these following are besides lust polluted with vnheard of tyranny Herodotus in his third booke speaking at large of the life and acts of Cambyses the great Persian king and sonne of Cyrus relates that hauing shewed his puissance abroad in Aegipt Greece and other places to the terror of the greatest of the world he caused his innocent brother Smerdis to be secretly made away by the hand of his most trusted Praxaspes The next inhumanitie which he purposd to exemplifie vnto the world was the death of his sister who followed him in his Campe to Aegipt and back againe being not only his sister by parents
accordingly done and she appeared before him all stayned and sprinkled with blood for she had not yet changed her habite at which hee grew at the first amased demaunding the cause of her repaire thither She desired her seruant might be likewise admitted who attended at the doore of his Tent for hee had that about him by which he should be better informed His entrance was graunted but being suspected by the guard because they perceiued him hide something folded vp in his garments they searcht him and found a head cut off but by reason of the palenesse of the face which was disfigured with the clottered and congealed bloud the countenance thereof could hardly be discerned The seruant was brought in with the head still dropping blood in his hand At which the king more wondering desired by her to be better certified concerning the Nouell to whom she boldly replyed Loe here ô Alexander the end of thy many troubles and feares the head of the great Captaine Spitamenes who though my husband yet because hee was thine enemie I haue caused his head to be cut off and here present it vnto thee At the horridenesse of these words the king with all that stood by were abashed euerie one glad of the thing done but in their hearts detesting the manner of the deed The Ladie still expecting an answer Alexander after some pawse thus replyed I must confesse Ladie the great courtesie and infinite benefit receiued from you in presenting me the head of an Out-Law a Traytor and one that was to mee a great obstacle and an hinderance in the smooth passage to my intended Victories but when I vnderstand it to be done by the hands of a woman nay a wife the strange horridenesse of the fact takes away all the thankes and reward due to the benefit I therefore command you instantly to depart the Campe and that with all speed possible for I would not haue the sauage and inhumane examples of the Barbarians contaminate and infect the mild and soft temper of the noble Grecians With which words she was instantly hurried from his presence As noble a president of Iustice in a Prince as it was an abhorred example of crueltie in a most vnnaturall wife Q. Curt. lib. 8. de Alexandri Histor. From a remorselesse wife I come now to as obdurate a step-mother Pelops hauing married Hyppodamia the daughter of Tantalus and Eurianassa had by her two sonnes Thiestes and Atreus and by the Nymph Danais a third sonne called Crisippus to which he seemed outwardly better affected than to the former on whom king Laius of Thebes casting an amorous eye at length stole him from his father But Pelops with his two sonnes by Hyppodamia made warre vpon Laius tooke him prisoner and recouered Crisippus and when hee truly vnderstood that loue was the cause of his rape hee was attoned with Laius and an inuiolable league of amitie combined betwixt them Whilest the Theban yet soiourned with Pelops Hyppodamia persuaded with Atreus and Thiestes to conspire against the life of Crisippus as one that aymed at the succession in the kingdome but not preuayling she meditated with her selfe how to despoyle him of life with her owne hands when hauing conueyed the sword of Laius out of his chamber when he was fast sleeping she came to the bed of Crisippus and transpierced him as he lay leauing the sword still in his bodie and left the place vndiscouered accusing the Theban for his death but the youth not fully dead recouered so much spirit as to discouer the murtheresse for which king Laius was acquitted and she from her husband receiued condigne punishment for her immanitie and murther Dosythaeus in Pelopedis Progne to reuenge the rape of her sister Philomela vpon her husband Tereus king of Thrace feasted him with the bodie of his owne sonne Itis of which you may read at large in Ouids Metamorphosis Some women haue beene so vnnaturall as to betray their fathers After Troy was vtterly subuerted and despoyled king Diomede one of the most valiant amongst the kings of Greece in the returne towards his countrey being by stormes and tempests violently cast vpon the coast of Thrace where Lycas the sonne of Mars then reigned and according to the bloodie custome of the countrey sacrificed all such strangers as landed vpon his Continent his daughter Callirhoe surprised with the loue of king Diomede not onely released him from durance but betrayed the life of Lycus her father into his hands notwithstanding hee most trecherously left her for which ingratitude and vrged with remorse of conscience for proouing so vnnaturall vnto him from whom she had her being by strangling her selfe shee despairingly expired Iuba lib. 3. Libicorum Paralleld with this is that which wee reade of Calphurnius Crassus an illustrious Roman and sent by M. Regulus against the Massilians to take in a most defensible Castle called Garaetium but by the crosse disaster of fortune being surprised in the siege thereof and reserued the next day to be sacrificed to Saturne being in despaire either of rescue or life Besalia daughter to the king who was then possest of the Port falling in loue with Calphurnius not onely deliuered vp vnto him the keyes of the Castle that hee might freely escape with life but betrayed vnto him the libertie and life of her father but after being most degenerately forsaken by him she desperately slew her selfe Hegesinax lib. 3. rerum Africarum I am wearie with setting downe these immanities in women and Polihimnia now inuites me to a new argument Of Women strangely preserued from death and such as haue vnwillingly beene the death of their Fathers NIceas Maleotes as Plutarch in his thirteenth Paralell testates reports That when Hercules for the loue of Iole the daughter of Cacus inuaded Oechalia and shee abhorring the embraces of him who had before slaine her father retyred herselfe for safetie into the strongest Cittadell in her countrey in which beeing straightly besieged by Hercules and the Fort readie to be surprised taken she hauing no way to escape and vnwilling to stand to the mercie of so louing an enemie mounted vp into the highest Turret of the Castle and from thence cast her selfe headlong downe towards the Earth but the wind gathering vnder her loose garments so extenuated the fall that she came to the ground without any hurt at all by which miraculous fortune shee inioyed a desperate life and Hercules a most desired mistresse Answerable vnto this is that which Theophilus Italicorum tertio relates The Romans in the Etrurian warre instituted Valerius Torquatus Generall of their forces hee hauing beheld Clusia the daughter of the Tuscan king grew innamoured of the Virgin◠and sent Embassadors to demaund her of her father but shee not willing to make any contract with her countries enemie and her father as loth to contradict his daughter the motion and offer of Torquatus was peremptorily denied at which inraged hee begyrt