Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A40992
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The Female advocate, or, An ansvver to a late satyr against the pride, lust and inconstancy, &c. of woman written by a lady in vindication of her sex.
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S. F.; Egerton, Sarah Fyge.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing F56; ESTC R16722
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11,727
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26
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can number all those vertuous Dames VVhich chose cold death before their lovers flames The chast Lucretia whom proud Tarquin lov'd Her he slew her chastity she prov'd But I 've gone further than I need have done Since we have got examples nearer home VVitness those Saxon Ladies who did fear The loss of Honour when the Danes were here And cut their Lips and Noses that they might Not pleasing seem or give the Danes delight Thus having done what they could justly do At last they fell their sacrifices too Thus when curst Osbright courted Beon's wife She him refus'd with hazard of her life And some which I do know but will not name Have thus refus'd and hazarded the same I could say more but History will tell Many more things that do these excel In Constancy they men excell as far A heavens bright lamp doth a dull twinckling star Tho' man is alwaies altering of his mind Inconstancy is only in womankind 'T is something strange no hold it isn't because The men have had the power of making Laws For where is there that man that ever dy'd Or ere expired with his loving Bride But numerous trains of chast wives expire With their dear Husbands tho in flames of fire We'd do the same if custom did require But this is done by Indian women who Do make their Constancy immortal too As is their Fame We find India yeilds More glorious Phoenix than the Arabian fields The German women Constancy did shew When Wensberg was besieg'd beg'd they might go Out of the City with no bigger Packs Than each of them could carry on their Backs The wond'ring world expected they 'd have gone Laded with treasures from their native home But crossing expectation each did take Her Husband as her burden on her back So saved him from intended death and she At once gave him both life and liberty How many loving wives have often dy'd Drownded in tears by their cold husbands side And when a Sword was Executioner the very same hath executed her With her own hands eagerly meeting death And scorn'd to live when he was void of breath If this isn't Constancy why then the Sun With Constant Motion don 't his progress run There 's thousands of examples that will prove Woman is alwayes Constant in chast Love But when she 's courted only to some Lust She well may change I think the reason's just Change did I say that word I must forbear No she bright Star wont wander from her sphere Of Virtue in which Female Souls do move Nor will she joyn with an insatiate love For she whose first espoused to vertue must Be most inconstant when she yields to lust But now the scene is alter'd and those who were esteemed modest by a blush or two Are represented quite another way Worse than mock-verse doth the most solid Play She that takes pious Precepts for her Rule Is thought by some a kind of ill-bred fool They would have all bred up in Venus School And when that by her speech or carriage she Doth seem to have sence of a Deity She straight is taxt with ungentility Unless it be the little blinded Boy That Childish god Cupid that trifling toy That certain nothing whom they feign to be The Son of Venus daughter to the Sea But were he true none serve him as they shoud For commonly those who adore this god Do 't only in a melancholy mood Or else a sort of hypocrites they are Who do invocate him only as a snare And by him they do sacred love pretend When as heaven knows they have a baser end Nor is he god of love but if I must Give him a title then he is god of lust And surely Woman impious must be When e're she doth become his votary Unless she will believe without controul Those that did hold a Woman had no Soul And then doth think no obligation lyes On her to act what may be just or wise And only strive to please her Appetite And to embrace that which doth most delight And when she doth this paradox believe Whatever faith doth please she may receive She may be Turk Jew Atheist Infidel Or any thing cause she need ne'er fear Hell For if she hath no Soul what need she fear Something she knows not what or vvhen or vvhere But hold I think I should be silent novv Because a Womans Soul you do allovv But had vve none you 'd say vve had else you Could never damn us at the rate you do What dost thou think thou hast priviledge given That those whom thou dost bless shall mount to heaven And those thou cursest unto hell must go And so dost think to fill the Abiss below Quite full of Females hoping there may be No room for souls big with Vice as thee But if that thou with such vain hopes should'st dye I' th fluid Air thou must not think to fly Or enter into heaven thy weight of Sin Would crush the damn'd and so thou d'st enter in But hold I am uncharitable here Thou may'st repent tho' that 's a thing I fear But if thou should'st repent why then again It would at best but mitigate thy pain Because thou hast been vile to that degree That thy repentance must eternal be For wert thou guilty of no other crime Than what thou lately puttest into Rhime Why that without other offences given Were enough to shut the gate of Heaven But when together's put all thou do It will not only shut but bar it too For when Heaven made woman it design'd Her for the charming object of Mankind Nor is alter'd only with those who Set Bewly Stratford nay and Chreswell too Or other Bawds chase their acquaintance out And then what they must be we make no doubt 'T is to make heaven mistaken when you say It meant one and it proves another way For when heaven with its last and greatest care Had form'd a female charming bright and fair Why then immediately it did decree That unto man she should a blessing be And so should prove to all posterity And surely there is nothing can be worse Than for to turn a blessing to a curse And when the greatest blessing heaven ere gave And certainly the best that man could have When that 's scorn'd and contemn'd sure it must be A great affront unto heaven's Majesty But I hope Heaven will punish the offence And with it justifie our Innocence I must confess there are some bad and they Lead by an Ignis fatus go astray All are not forc'd to wander in false way Only some few whose dark benighted sence For want of light han't power to make defence Against those many tempting pleasures which Not only theirs but Masculine Souls bewitch But you 'd persuade us that 't is we alone Are guâ—lty of all crimes and you have none Unless some few which you call fools who be Espous'd to wives and live in chastity But the most rational without which we
in heaven Turns to a cold refusal when 't is given By any other hand She 's all divine And by a splendid lustre doth outshine All masculine souls who only seem to be Made up of pride and their lov'd luxury So great 's mans ambition that he would Have all the wealth and power if he could That is bestowed on the several Thrones Of the worlds Monarchs covets all their Crowns And by experience it hath been found The word Ambition's not an empty sound There 's not an History which doth not shew Man's pride ambition and his falshood too For if at any time th' ambitious have Least shew of honour then their souls grow brave Grow big and restless they are not at ease 'Till they have a more fatal way to please Look fair and true when falsely they intend So from low Subject grow a Monarch's Friend And by grave Councels they their good pretend When 't is guilt poyson and oft works their end The Son who must succeed is too much loved Must be pull'd down his Councel is approved For fear he willingly should grow too great Desire to rule should mount his father's Seat So he 's dispatch'd and then all those that be Next in the way are his adherency And then the better to secure the State It is but just they should receive his fate So by degrees he for himself makes room His Prince is straightway shut up in his Tomb And then the false usurper mounts the Throne Or would do so at least but commonly He nere sits firm but with revenge doth dy But thank heaven there 's but few that reach so high For the known crimes makes a wise Prince take care Thus what I 've said doth plainly shew there are Men more impious than a woman far So those who by their abject fortune are Remote from Courts no less their pride declare In being uneasie and envying all who be Above them in State or Priority But 't is impossible for to relate Their boundless Pride or their prodigious hate To all that fortune hath but smil'd upon In a degree that is above their own And thou proud fool that virtue would'st subdue Envying all good dost towre ore woman too Which doth betray a base ignoble mind Speaks thee nothing but a blustring wind But in so great a lab'rinth as man's pride I should not enter nor won't be imply'd For to search out their strange and unknown crimes There 's so many apparent in these times That my dull Arithmetick cannot tell Half the sins that commonly do dwell In one sordid Rustick then how can I Define the Courts or Towns Debauchery Their pride in some small measure I have shown But theirs is running over and prest down And 't is impossible I should repeat The Crimes of men extravagantly great I would not name them but to let them see I know they 'r bad and odious unto me 'T is true pride makes men great in their own eyes But them proportionable I despise And tho' Ambition still aims to be high Yet Lust at best is but beastiality A Sin with which there 's none can compare Not Pride nor Envy c. for this doth insnare Not only those whom it at first inflam'd This Sin must have a partner to be sham'd And punish'd like himself Hold one wont do He must have more for he doth still pursue The Agents of his Passion 't is not Wife That Mutual Name can regulate his Life And tho' he for his Lust might have a shrowd And there might be Poligamy allow'd Yet all his Wives would surely be abhorr'd And some common Lais be ador'd Most mortally the Name of Wife they hate Yet they will take one as their proper fate That they may have a Child legitimate To be their Heir if they have an Estate Or else to bear their Names So for by ends They take a Wife and satisfie their friends Who are desirous that it should be so And for that end perhaps Estates bestow Which when possess'd is spent another way The Spurious Issue do the right betray And with their Mother-Strumpets are maintain'd The Wife and Children by neglect disdain'd Wretched and poor unto their Friends return Having got nothing unless cause to mourn The Dire Effects of Lust I cannot tell For I suppose its Catalogue's in Hell And he perhaps at last may read it there Written in flames fierce as his own whilst here I could say more but yet not half that 's done By these strange Creatures nor is there scarce one Of these inhumane Beasts that do not die As bad as Bewley's Pox turns Leprosie And Men do catch it by meer phantasie Tho' they are chast and honest yet it doth Pursue them and some company on oath They have been in and their infected breath Gave them that Plague which hast'neth their death Or else 't is Scurvy or some new disease As the base wretch or vain Physician please And then a sum of Money must be gave For to keep corruption from the grave And then 't is doubled for to hide the cheat O the sad Horrour of debaucht deceit The Body and Estate together go And then the only Objects here below On which he doth his charity bestow Are Whores and Quacks and perhaps Pages too Must have a share or else they will reveal That which Money doth make them conceal Sure trusty Stewards of extensive heaven When what 's for common good is only given Unto peculiar friends of theirs who be Slaves to their lust friending debauchery These are partakers of as great a fate As those whose boldness turns them reprobate And tho' a Hypocrite doth seem to be A greater sharer of Morality Yet methinks they almost seem all one One hides and t'other tells what he hath done But if one Devil's better than another Than one of these is better than the t'other Hypocrisie preheminence should have Tho' it ha'nt got the priviledge to save Because the Reprobate's example may By open Custom make the rugged way Seem more smooth and a common sin Look more pardonable and so by him More take example 't is he strives to win Mad Souls to fill up Hell But should there be Nothing e're acted but Hypocrisie Yet Man would be as wicked as he is And be no nearer to eternal bliss For he who 's so unsteady as to take Example by such Men should never make Me to believe that he was really chast And without pattern never had imbrac't Such kind of sins at best such virtues weak That with such a slender stress will break And that 's no virtue which cannot withstand A slight temptation at the second hand But I believe one might as narrowly pry For 't as the Grecian did for honesty And yet find none and then if Women be Averse to 't too sure all 's iniquity On this side Heaven and it with Justice went Up thither 'cause here is found no content But did regardless and neglected ly And with