his last parting Who should it bee but one Cutwolfe a wearish dwarâ—ish writhen fac'd cobler brother to Bartoll the Italian that was confederate with Esdras of Granado and at that time stole away my curtizan when he rauisht Heraclide It is not so naturall for me to epitomize his impietie as to heare him in his owne person speake vppon the whéele where he was to suffer Prepare your eares and your teares for neuer till this thrust I anie tragicall matter vpon you Strange and wonderfull are Gods iudgements heere shine they in their glory Chast Heraclide thy bloud is laid vp in heauens treasurie not one drop of it was lost but lent out to vsurie water powred forth sinkes downe quietly into the earth but bloud spilt on the ground sprinkles vp to the firmament Murder is wide-mouthd and will not let God rest till he grant reuenge Not onely the bloud of the slaughtred innocent but the soule ascendeth to his throne and there cries out exclaimes for iustice and recompence Guilties soules that liue euerie houre subiect to violence and with your despairing feares doo much empaire Gods prouidence fasten your eyes on this spectacle that will adde to your faith Referre all your oppressions afflictions and iniuries to the euen ballanced eye of the Almightie hee it is that when your patience sléepeth will bee most excéeding mindfull of you This is but a glose vpon the text thus Cutwolfe begins his insulting oration Men and people that haue made holy-daie to behold my pained flesh toile on the whéele Expect not of me a whining penitent slaue that shal do nothing but crie and saie his praiers and so be crusht in péeces My bodie is little but my minde is as great as a Giants the soule which is in mee is the verie soule of Iulius Caesar by reuersion My name is Cutwolfe neither better nor worse by occupation than a poore cobler of Verona coblers are men and kings are no more The occasion of my comming hether at this present is to haue a fewe of my bones broken as we are all borne to die for being the death of the Emperour of homicides Esdras of Granado About two yeares since in the stréetes of Rome he slew the onely and eldest brother I had named Bartoll in quarrelling about a curtizan The newes brought to me as I was sitting in my shop vnder a stall knocking in of tackes I think I raisd vp my bristles solde pritch-aule spunge blacking tub and punching yron bought mee rapier and pistoll and to goe I went Twentie months together I pursued him from Rome to Naples from Naples to Caiete passing ouer the riuer from Caiete to Syenna from Syenna to Florence from Florence to Parma from Parma to Pauia from Pauia to Syon from Syon to Geneua from Geneua backe againe towards Rome where in the way it was my chance to méet him in the nicke here at Bolognia as I will tell you how I saw a great fray in the stréetes as I past along and manie swords walking wherevpon drawing néerer and enquiring who they were answer was returned mee it was that notable Bandetto Esdras of Granado O so I was tickled in the spléene with that word my heart hopâ— daunst my elbowes itcht my fingers friskt I will not what should become of my féete nor knew what I did for ioy The fray parted I thought it not conuenient to single him out being a sturdie knaue in the street but to stay till I had got him at more aduantage To his lodging I dogd him lay at the dore all night where hee entred for feare hee should giue me the slip anie way Betimes in the morning I rung the bell and crau'd to speake with him vp to his chamber dore I was brought where knocking hee rose in his shirt and let me in and when he was entred bad me lock the dore and declare my arrant and so he slipt to bed againe Marrie this quoth I is my arrant Thy name is Esdras of Granado is it not Most treacherously thou 〈◊〉 my brother Bartoll about two yeres agoe in the streetes of Rome his death am I come to reuenge In quest of thée euer since aboue thrée thousand miles haue I trauaild I haue begd to maintaine me the better part of the waye onely because I would intermit no time from my pursute in going backe for monie Now haue I got thée naked in my power die thou shalt though my mother and my grandmother dying did intreate for thée I haue promist the diuell thy soule within this houre breake my word I will not in thy breast I intend to burie a bullet Stirre not quinch not make no noyse for if thou dost it will be worse for thée Quoth Esdras what euer thou bee at whose mercie I lye spare me and I wil giue thee as much gold as thou wilt aske Put me to anie paines my life reserued and I willingly will sustaine them cut off my armes and legs and leaue me as a lazer to some loathsome spittle where I may but liue a yeare to pray and repent me For thy brothers death the despayre of minde that hath euer since haunted mee the guiltie gnawing worme of conscience I féele may bee sufficient penaunce Thou canst not send me to such a hell as alreadie there is in my hart To dispatch me presently is no reuenge it wil soone be forgotten let me dye a lingring death it will be remembred a great deale longer A lingring death maye auaile my soule but it is the illest of ills that can befortune my bodie For my soules health I beg my bodies torment bee not thou a diuell to torment my soule and send me to eternall damnation Thy ouer-hanging sword hides heauen from my sight I dare not looke vp least I embrace my deaths-wound vnwares I cannot pray to God and plead to thée both at once Ay mee alreadie I see my life buried in the wrinckles of thy browes say but I shall liue though thou meanest to kill me Nothing confounds like to suddaine terror it thrusts euerie sense out of office Poyson wrapt vp in sugred pills is but halfe a poyson the feare of deaths lookes are more terrible than his stroake The whilest I viewe death my faith is deaded where a mans feare is there his heart is Feare neuer engenders hope how can I hope that heauens father will saue mee from the hell euerlasting when he giues me ouer to the hell of thy furie Heraclide now thinke I on thy feares sowen in the dust thy teares that my bloudie minde made barraine In reuenge of thée God hardens this mans heart against mee yet I did not slaughter thée though hundreds else my hand hath brought to the shambles Gentle sir learne of mee what it is to clog your conscience with murder to haue your dreames your sleepes your solitarie walkes troubled and disquieted with murther Your shaddowe by daye will affright you you will not sée a weapon vnsheathd but
as before they deemed them as a number of wolues vp in armes agaynst the shepheardes The Emperyalles themselues that were theyr executioners lyke a Father that wéepes when he beates his child yet still wéepes and still beates not without much ruth and sorrow prosecuted that lamentable massacre yet drumms and trumpets sounding nothing but stearne reuenge in their eares made them so eager that their hands had no leafure to aske counsell of theyr effeminate eyes theyr swords theyr pikes theyr bils their bows their caléeuers slew empierced knockt downe shot thorough and ouerthrew as many men euerie minute of the battell as there fals eares of corne before the sithe at one blowe yet all theyr weapons so slaying empiercing knocking downe shooting through ouerthrowing dissoule ioyned not halfe so many as the hailing thunder of their great ordenance so ordinary at euerie footstep was the imbrument of iron in bloud that one could hardly discerne heads from bullettes or clottered haire from mangled flesh hung with gore This tale must at one time or other giue vp the ghost and as good now as stay longer I would gladly rid my hands of it cleanly if I could tell how for what with talking of coblers tinkers râ—apemakers and botchers and durtdaubers the marke is cleane gone out of my muses mouth and I am as it were more than dunsified twixt diuinitie and poetrie What is there more as touching this tragedie that you would be resolued of saie quickly for now my pen is got vpon his féet again how I. Leiden dide is y t it he dide like a dog he was hanged and the halter paid for For his companions do they trouble you I can tel you they troubled some men before for they were all kild and none escapt no not so much as one to tel the tale of the rainbow Heare what it is to be Anabaptists to bée puritans to be villaines you may be counted illuminate botchers for a while but your end wil be Good people pray for me With the tragicall catastrophe of this munsterian conflict did I cashier the new vocation of my caualiership There was no more honorable wars in christendome then towards wherefore after I had learned to be halfe an houre in bidding a man boniure in germane sunonimas I trauelled along the cuntrie towards England as fast as I could What with wagons bare tentoes hauing attained to Middleborough good Lord sée the changing chances of vs knight arrant infants I met with the right honourable Lord Henrie Howard Earle of Surrey my late master Iesu I was yerswaded I sâ—oulde not be more glad to sée heauen than I was to sée him O it was a right noble Lord liberalitie it selfe if in this yron age there were anie such creature as liberality left on the earth a prince in content because a Poet without péere Destinie neuer defames her selfe but when she lets an excellent poet die if there bee anie sparke of Adams paradized perfection yet emberd vp in the breastes of mortall men certainely God hath bestowed that his perfectest image on poets None come so néere to God in wit none more contemne the world vatis auarus non temere est animus sayth Horace versus amat hoc studet vnum Seldom haue you séene anie Poet possessed with auarice onely verses he loues nothing else he delights in and as they contemne the world so contrarily of the mechanicall worlde are none more contemned Despised they are of the worlde because they are not of the world their thoughts are exalted aboue the worlde of ignorance and all earthly conceits As swéet angelicall queristers they are continually conuersant in the heauen of artes heauen it selfe is but the highest height of knowledge he that knowes himselfe all things else knowes the means to be happie happy thrice happie are they whome God hath doubled his spirite vppon and giuen a double soule vnto to be Poets My heroicall master excéeded in this supernaturall kinde of wit hee entertained no grosse earthly spirite of auarice nor weake womanly spirit of pusillanimity and feare that are fained to be of the water but admirable airie and firie spirites full of fréedome magnanimitie and bountihood Let me not speake anie more of his accomplishments for feare I spend al my spirits in praising him and leaue my selfe no vigor of wit or effectes of a soule to goe forward with my history Hauing thus met him I so much adored no interpleading was there of opposite occasions but backe I must returne and beare halfe stakes with him in the lotterie of trauell I was not altogether vnwilling to walke along with such a good purse-bearer yet musing what changeable humor had so sodainly seduced him from his natiue soyle to séeke out néedlesse perils in these parts beyond sea one night verie boldly I demaunded of him the reason that moued him thereto Ah quoth he my little Page full little canst thou perceiue howe faâ—re metamorphozed I am from my selfe since I last sawe thée There is a little God called Loue that will not bee worshipt of anie leaden braines one that proclaimes himselfe sole king and Emperour of pearcing eyes and chiefe soueraigne of softe heartes hée it is that exercising his empire in my eyes hath exorcized and cleane coniured me from my content Thou knowest stately Geraldine too stately I feare for me to doe homage to her statue or shrine she it is that is come out of Italy to bewitch all the wise men of England vpon Quéene Katherine Dowager shée waites that hath a dowrie of beautie sufficient to make her wooed of the greatest kings in christendome Her high exalted sunne beames haue set the phenix neast of my breast on fire and I my selfe haue brought Arabian spiceries of swéete passions and praises to furnish out the funerall flame of my folly Those who were condemned to be smoothered to death by sinking downe into the softe bottome of an high built bedde of roses neuer dide so swéete a death as I shoulde die if her rose coloured disdaine were my deaths-man Oh thrice emperiall Hampton court Cupids inchaunted castle the place where I first sawe the perfect omnipotence of the Almightie expressed in mortalitie tis thou alone that tithing all other men solace in thy pleasant scituation affoordest mée nothing but an excellent begotten sorrowe out of the chiefe treasurie of all thy recreations Deare Wilton vnderstand that there it was where I first set eie on my more than celestiall Geraldine Séeing her I admired her all the whole receptacle of my sight was vnhabited with her rare worth Long sute and vncessant protestations got me the grace to be entertained Did neuer vnlouing seruant so prentise like obey his neuer pleased mistres as I dyd her My lyfe my wealth my friendes had all theyr destinie depending on her command Uppon a time I was determined to trauell the fame of Italy and an especiall affection I had vnto Poetrie my second mistres for which Italy
light curtizan that he vsed to hee woulde faine to bee taken from her fingers and in summe so handled the matter that Castaldo exclaimd Out whore strumpet sixe penny hackster away with her to prison As glad were hee almost as if they had giuen vs libertie that fortune lent vs such a swéet pue-fellow A pretie round faced wench was it with blacke eie browes a high forehead a litle mouth and a sharpe nose as fat and plum euerie part of her as a plouer a skin as slike and soft as the backe of a swan it doth me good when I remember her Like a birde she tript on the ground and bare out her belly as maiesticall as an Estrich With a licorous rouling eie fixt percing on the earth sometimes scornfully darted on the tone side shee figured foorth a high discontented disdain much like a prince puffing and storming at the treason of some mightie subiect fled lately out of his power Her verie countenance repiningly wrathfull and yet cléere and vnwrinkled would haue confirmed the cléernes of her conscience to the austerest iudge in the world If in any thing she were culpable it was in being too melancholy chast and shewing her selfe as couetous of her beautie as her husband was of his bags Many are honest because they knowe not how to be dishonest she thought there was no pleasure in stolnebread because there was no pleasure in an olde mans bed It is almost impossible that anie woman should be excellently wittie and not make the vtmost pennie of her beautie This age and this countrie of ours admits of some miraculous exceptions but former times are my constant informers Those that haue quicke motions of wit haue quicke motions in euerie thing yron onely needes many strokes onely yron wits are not wonne without a long siege of intreatie Golde eastly bends the most ingenious mindes are easiest moued Ingenium nobis molle Thalia dedit saith Psapho to Phao. Who hath no mercifull milde mistres I will maintaine hath no wittie but a clownish dull flegmatike puppte to his mistres This Magnificos wife was a good louing soule that had mettall inough in her to make a good wit of but being neuer remoued from vnder her mothers and her husbands wing it was not moulded and fashioned as it ought Causelesse distruct is able to driue deceite into a simple womans head I durst pawne the credit of a page which is worth ams ase at all times that she was immaculate honest till she met with vs in prison Marie what temptations shee had then when fire and flare were put together conceit with your selues but hold my master excusable A lacke he was too vertuous to make her vicious he stoode vpon religion and conscience what a hainous thing it was to subuert Gods ordinance This was all the iniurie he woulde offer her sometimes he woulde imagine her in a melancholie humour to be his Geraldine and court her in tearmes correspondent nay he would sweare shee was his Geraldine take her white hand and wipe his eyes with it as though the very touch of her might stanch his anguish Now would he knéele and kisse the ground as holy grounde which she vouchsafed to blesse from barrennesse by her steps Who would haue learned to write an excellent passion might haue bin a perfect tragicke poet had he but attended halfe the extremitie of his lament Passion vpon passion would throng one on anothers necke he would praise her beyond the moone and starres and that so swatly rauishingly as I perswade my self he was more in loue with his owne curious forming fancie than her face and truth it is many become passionate louers only to win praise to theyr wits He praised he praied hee desired and besought her to pittie him that perisht for her From this his intranced mistaking extasie could no man remoue him Who loueth resolutely will include euerie thing vnder the name of his loue From prose he would leape into verse and with these or such lyke rimes assault her If I must die O let me choose my death Sucke out my soule with kisses cruell maide In thy breasts christall bals enbalme my breath Dole it all out in sighs when I am laid Thy lips on mine like cupping glasses claspe Let our tongs meete and striue as they would sting Crush out my winde with one strait girting graspe Stabs on my heart keepe time whilest thou dost sing Thy ties like searing yrons burne out mine In thy faire tresses stifle me outright Like Circes change me to a loathsome swine So I may liue for euer in thy sight Into heauens ioyes can none profoundly see Except that first they meditate on thee ouer to an artlesse enuie Foure vniuersities honored Aretine with these rich titles Il flagello de principi Il veritiero Il deuino L'vnico Aretino The French king Frances the first he kept in such awe that to chaine his tongue he sent him a huge chaine of golde in the forme of tongues fashioned Singularly hath hee commented of the humanity of Christ. Besides as Moses set forth his Genesis so hath hee set forth his Genesis also including the contents of the whole Bible A notable treatise hath hee compiled called Il sette Psalm poenetentiarii All the Thomasos haue cause to loue him because he hath dilated so magnificently of the life of Saint Thomas There is a good thing that he hath set forth La vita della virgine Maria though it somewhat smell of superstition with a number more which here for tediousnesse I suppresse I flasciuious he were he may answere with Ouid Vita verecunda est musa iocosa mea est My lyfe is chast though wanton be my verse Tell mée who is most trauelled in histories what good Poet is or euer was there who hath not had a little spice of wantonnes in dayes Euen Beza himselfe by your leaue Aretine as long as the worlde liues shalt thou liue Tully Virgil Ouid Seneca were neuer such ornaments to Italy as thou hast béene I neuer thought of Italy more religiously than England til I heard of thee Peace to the Ghost and yet mée thinkes so indefinite a spirite should haue no peace or intermission of paines but be penning Ditties to the Archangels in another world Puritans spue sorth the venome of your dull inuentions A Toade swelles with thicke troubled poison you swell with poisonous perturbations your mallice hath not a cleare dram oâ— anie inspired disposition My principall subiect pluckes me by she elbowe Diamante Castaldos the magnificos wife after my enlargment proued to bee with childe at which instant there grewe an vnsatiable famine in Uenice wherein whether it were for méere niggardise or that Castaldo still eate out his heart with jealousie Saint Anne be our recorde he turnde vp the heeles verie deuouâ—ly To master Aretine after this once more verie dutifully I appeald requested him of fauour acknowledged former gratuities hee made no more humming or haulting
of more power than God to strike me spéedily strike home strike deep send me to heauen with my husband Aie me it is the spoyl of my honor thou séekest in my soules troubled departure thou art seme deuill sent to tempt me Auoide from me sathan my soule is my sauiours to him I haue bequeathed it from him can no man take it Iesu Iesu spare mee vndefiled for thy sâ—ouse Iesu Iesu neuer faile those that put their trust in thée With that she fell in a sowne and her eies in their closing séemed to spaune forth in their outward sharpe corners new created séed pearle which the world before neuer set eie on Soone he rigorously reuiued her tolde her y t he had a charter aboue scripture she must yeld she should yeld sée who durst remoue her out of his hands Twixt life and death thus she faintly replied How thinkest thou is there a power aboue thy power if there be he is here present in punishment and on thée will take present punishment if thou persistest in thy enterprise In the tyme of securitie euerie man sinneth but when death substitutes one frend his special bayly to arrest another by infection and dispearseth his quiuer into ten thousand hands at once who is it but lookes about him A man that hath an vneuitable huge stone hanging only by a haire ouer his head which he lookes euerie Pater noster while to fall and pash him in péeces will not he be submissiuely sorrowfull for his transgressions refraine himselfe from the least thought of folly and purifie his spirit with contrition and penitence Gods hand like a huge stone hangs ineuitably ouer thy head what is the plague but death playing the prouost marshall to execute all those that wil not be called home by anie other meanes This my deare knights body is a quiuer of his arrowes which alreadie are shot into thée inuisible Euen as the age of goates is knowen by the knots on their hornes so think the anger of God apparantly visioned or showne vnto thée in the knitting of my browes A hundred haue I buried out of my house at all whose departures I haue béen present a hundreds infection is mixed with my breath loe now I breath vpon thée a hundred deaths come vpon thée Repent betimes imagine there is a hell though not a heauen that hell thy conscience is throughly acquainted with if thou hast murdred halfe so manie as thou vnblushingly braggest As Moecenas in the latter end of his dayes was seuen yeres without sléepe so these seuen wéekes haue I took no slumber any eyes haue kept continuall watch against the diuell my enemie death I deemed my frend frends flie from vs in aduersitie death the diuell al the ministring spirits of temptation are watching about thée to intrap thy soule by my abuse to eternall damnation It is thy soule only thou maist saue by sauing mine honor Death will haue thy bodie infallibly for breaking into my house that he had selected for his priuate habitation If thou euer camst of a woman or hop'st to be sau'd dy the séed of a woman spare a woman Deares oppressed with dogs when they cannot take soyle runne to men for succor to whom should women in their disconsolate and desperate estate run but to men like the Deare for succour and sanctuarie If thou bee a man thou wilt succour me but if thou be a dog a brute beast thou wilt spoile me defile me teare me either renounce Gods image or renounce the wicked minde that thou bearest These words might haue moou'd a compound hart of yron and adamant but in his hart they obtained no impression for he sitting in his chaire of state against the doore all the while that she pleaded leaning his ouerhanging gloomie ey-browes on the pommell of his vnsheathed sword hee neuer lookt vp or gaue her a word but when he perceiued shee expected his answere of grace or vtter perdition he start vp and took her currishly by the neck and askt her how long he should stay for her Ladiship Thou telst me quoth he of the plague and the heauie hand of God and thy hundred infected breaths in one I tel thée I haue cast the dice an hundred times for the galleyes in Spaine and yet still mist the ill chance Our order of casting is this If there bee a generall or captaine new come home from the warres hath some foure or fiue hundred crownes ouerplus of the kings in his hand his souldiors al paid he makes proclamation that whatsoeuer two resolute men will goe to dice for it and win the bridle or lose the saddle to such a place let them repaire and it shall be ready for them Thither go I finde another such néedie squire resident The dice runne I win he is vndone I winning haue the crownes he loosing is carried to the galleys This is our custome which a hundred times and more hath paid mee custome of crownes when the poore fellowes haue gone to Gehenna had course bread and whipping there all their life after Now thinkest thou that I who so oft haue escapd such a number of hellish dangers only depending on the turning of a few pricks can be scare-bugd with the plague what plague canst thou name worse than I haue hat whether diseases imprisonment pouertie banishment I haue past through them all My owne mother gaue I a box of the care to and brake her neck down a pair of stairs because she would not go in to a gentleman when I had her my sister I solde to an olde Leno to make his best of her anie kinswoman that I haue knew I shee were not a whore my selfe would make her one thou art a whore thou shalt bee a whore in spite of religion or precise ceremonies Therewith he flew vpon her and threatned her with his sword but it was not that he meant to wounde her with Hée graspt her by the iuorie throate and shooke her as a mastiffe would shake a yong beare swearing staring he would teare out her weâ— and if she refused Not content with that sauage constraint he slipt his sacriligious hand from her lilly lawne skinned necke and inscarfte it in her long siluer lockes which with strugling were vnrould Backward hee dragd her euen as a man backward would plucke a trée downe by the twigs and then like a traitor that is drawen to execution on a hurdle he traileth her vp and downe the chamber by those tender vntwisted braids and setting his barbarous foote on her bare snowie breast bad her yéeld or haue her wind stampt out She crid stamp stiflle me in my hair hang me vp by it on a beame and so let mee die rather than I shoulde go to heauen wyth a beame in my eie No quoth he nor stampt nor stifled nor hanged nor to heauen shalt thou go til I haue had my wil of thee thy busie armes in these silken fetters Ile infold
Disâ—â—issing her haire from his fingers and pinnioning her elbowes therwithal she strugled she wrested but al was in vain So strugling so resisting her iewels did sweate signifieng there was poison comming towards her On the hard boords hee threw her and vsed his knée as an yron ram to beate ope the two leaude gate of her chastitie Her husbands dead bodie he made a pillow to his abhomination Couiecture the rest my words sticke fast in the mire and are cleane tyred would I had neuer vndertooke this tragicall tale Whatsoeuer is borne is borne to haue end Thus endeth my tale his boorish lust was glutted his beastly desire satisfied what in the house of any worth was carriage-able he put vp and went his way Let not your sorow die you that haue read the proeme and narratioÌ„ of this elegiacal history Shew you haue quick wits in sharpe conceit of compassion A woman that hath viewd all her children sacrificed before her eies after the first was slaine wipt the sword with her apron to prepare it for the clenly murther of the second and so on forwarde till came to the empiercing of the seuentéenth of her loines will you not giue her great allowance of anguish This woman this matrone this forsaken Heraclide hauing buried fourtéene children in fiue dayes whose eyes she howlingly closed and caught many wrinckles with funerall kisses besides hauing her husband within a day after layd forth as a comfortlesse corse a carrionly blocke that could neither eate with her speak with her nor wéepe with her is she not to be borne withall though her bodie swells wyth a tympanie of teares though her speach be as impatient as vnhappy Hecubaes though her head raues and her braine doates Deuise with your selues that you sée a corse rising from his heirce after hee is carried to Church and such another suppose Heraclide to bee rising from the couch of enforced adulterie Her eyes were dimme her chéekes bloudlesse her breath smelt earthie her countenance was ghastly Up she rose after she was deflowred but loath she arose as a reprobate soule rising to the day of iudgement Looking on the tone side as she rose she spide her husbands bodie lying vnder her head Ah then she bewayled as Cephalus when hee had kild Procris vnwittingly or Oedipus when ignorant he had slaine his owne father and knowen his mother incestuously This was her subdued reasons discourse Haue I liu'd to make my husbands bodie the béere to carry me to hell had filthie pleasure no other pillowe to leane vpon but his spreaded limmes On thy flesh my fault shall bee imprinted at the day of resurrection O beauty the bait ordained to insnare the irreligious rich men are robd for theyr welth women are dishonested for being too faire No blessing is beautie but a curse curst bee the time that euer I was begotten curst be the time that my mother brought me forth to tempt The serpent in paradice did no more the serpent in paradice is damned sempiternally why should not I hold my selfe damned if predestinations opinions be true that am predestinate to this horrible abuse The hogge dieth presently if he loseth an eye with the hogge haue I wallowed in the myre I haue lost my eye of honestie it is cleane pluckt out with a strong hand of vnchastitie what remaineth but I dye Die I will though life be vnwilling no recompence is there for mee to redéeme my compelled offence but with a rigorous compelled death Husband Ile be thy wife in heauen let not thy pure deceasing spirite despise me when we méete because I am tyrannously polluted The diuell the belier of our fraylâ—ie and common accuser of mankinde cannot accuse me though he would of vnconstrained submitting If anie guilt be mine this is my fault that I did not deforme my face ere it shuld so impiously allure Hauing passioned thus a while she hastely ranne and lookt her selfe in her glasse to sée if her sinne were not written on her forhead with looking shee blusht though none lookt vpon her but her owne reflected image Then began she againe Heu quam difficile est crimen non prodere vultu How hard is it not to bewray a mans fault by his forhead My selfe doo but behold my selfe and yet I blush then God beholding me shall not I bee ten tâ—â—es more ashamed The Angells shall hisse at mee the Saints and Martyrs flye from me yea God himselfe shall adde to the diuels damnation because he suffred such a wicked creature to come before him Agamemnon thou wert an infidell yet when thou wentst to the Troian warre thou leftst a Musitian at home with thy wife who by playing the foote Spondaeus tyll thy returne might kéepe her in chastitie My husband going to warre with the diuell and his enticements when hee surrendred left no musition with me but mourning and melancholy had he left anie as Aegistus kild Agamemnons musition ere he could be succesfull so surely would he haue béen kild ere this Aegistus surceased My distressed heart as the Hart when he looseth his hornes is astonied and sorrowfullie runneth to hide himselfe so bee thou afflicted and distressed hide thy selfe vnder the Almighties wings of mercie sue plead intreate grace is neuer denyed to them that aske It may be denied I may be a vessell ordained to dishonor The onely repeale we haue from Gods vndefinite chastisement is to chastise our selues in this world and so I will nought but death bee my pennance gracious and acceptable may it bee my hand and my knife shall manumâ—t me out of the horror of minde I endure Farewell life that hast lent me nothing but sorrow farewell sinne sowed flâ—sh that hast more weeds than flowers more woes than ioyes Point pierce edge enwyden I patiently affoord thée a sheath spurre foorth my soule to mount poast to heauen Iesu forgiue me Iesu receiue me So throughly stabd fell she downe and knockt her head against her husbands bodie wherewith hee not hauing béene ayred his full foure and twentie houres start as out of a dreame whiles I through a crannie of my vpper chamber vnséeled had beheld all this sad spectacle Awaking hee rubd his head too and fro and wyping his eyes with his hand began to looke about him Feeling some thing lye heauie on his breast he turnd it off and getting vpon his legges lighted a candle Heere beginneth my purgatorie For he good man comming into the hall with the candle and spying his wife wyth her haire about her eares defiled and massacred and his simple Zanie Capestrano run thorough tooke a halberde in hys hand and running from chamber to chamber to search who in his house was likely to doo it at length found me lying on my bed the doore lockt to me on the out-side and my rapier vnsâ—eathed on the windowe where with hee straight coniectured it was I. And calling the neighbours harde by sayd I had caused my selfe to bee lockt into my chamber
of his bread he would make conserue of chippings Out of boanes after the meate was eaten off bee would alchumize an oyle that he sold for a shilling a dramme His snot and spittle a hundred tymes he hath put oâ—e to hys Apothecarie for snowe water Any Spider he would temper to perect Mithridate His rheumatique eyes when he went in the winde or rose early in a morning dropt as coole allom water as you would request He was dame Niggardize sole heyre and executor A number of olde bookes had he eaten with the moathes and wormes now all daye would not hee studye a dodkin but picke those wormes and moathes out of his Librarie and of their mixture make a preseruatiue against the plague The licour out of his shooes he would wringâ— to make a sacred balsanâ—um against barrennes Spare we him a line or two looke backe to Iuliana who conflicted in hir thoughts about me verie debatefully aduentured to send a messenger to Doctour Zacharie in her name verie boldly to beg me of him and if shée might not beg me to buy me with what summes of monie so euer he would aske Zacharie iewishly and churlishly withstood both her sutes and sayde if there were no more Christians on the earth he would thrust his incision knife into his throate-boule immediatly Which replie she taking at his hands most despitefully thought to crosse him ouer the shins with as sorâ— an ouerwhart blow yet ere a moneth to an end The pope I knowe not whether at her intreatie or no within two dayes after fell sicke Doctor Zacharie was sent for to minister vnto him who séeing a little danger in his water gaue him a gentle confortatiue for the stomack and desired those néere about him to perswade his holynes to take some rest and hee doubted not but he would be forthwith well Who should receiue this mild phisicke of him but the concubine Iuliana his vtter enimie shée beeing not vnprouided of strong poison at that instant in the popes outward chamber so mingled it that when his grande sublimitie taster came so relish it he sunke downe starke dead on the pauement Herewith the pope cald Iuliana and askt her what strong concocted broth she had brought him She knéeled downe on her knées and sayd it was such as Zacharie the Iew had deliuered her with his owne hands and therefore if it misliked his holines she craued pardon The Pope without further sifting into the matter woulde haue had Zacharie and all Iewes in Rome put to death but shee hung about his knees with crocodile teares desired him the sentence might bee lenified and they bee all but banisht at most For doctor Zachary quoth she your ten times vngrateful phisition since notwithstanding his treacherous intent he hath much art and many soueraigne simples oiles gargarismes and sirups in his closet and house that may stand your mightines in stead I begge all his goods onely for your beatitudes preseruation and good This request at the first was seald with a kisse and the popes edict without delaye proclaimed throughout Rome namely that all fore-skinne clippers whether male or female belonging to the old Iuriâ— should depart and anoyde vpon payne of hanging within twentie dayes after the date thereof Iuliana two dayes before the proclamation came out sent her seruants to extend vppon Zacharies territoriâ—s his goods his mooueables his chattels and his seruants who perfourmed their commission to the vtmost title and left him not so much as master of an vrinall case or a candle boxe It was about sixe a clocke in the euening when those boot-halers entred into my chamber they rusht when I sate leaning on my elbow and my left hand vnder my side deuising what a kinde of death it might be to be let bloud till a man dye I cold to minde the assertion of some Philosophers who said the soule was nothing but bloud then thought I what a filthie thing were this if I should let my soule fall and breake his necke into a bason I had but a pimple rose with heate in that part of the veyne where they vse to pricke and I fearfully misdéemed it was my soule searching for passage Fie vppon it a mans breath to bee let out a backe-doore what a villanie it is To dye bleeding is all one as if a man should dye pissing Good drink makes good bloud so that pisse is nothing but bloud vnder age Seneca and Lucan were lobcockes to choose that death of all other a pigge or a hogge or anie edible brute beast a cooke or a butcher deales vpon dyes bléeding To dye with a pricke wherewith the faintest hearted woman vnder heauen would not be kild O God it is infamous In this meditation did they seaze vpon mee in my cloake they muffeld mee that no man might knowe mee nor I see which waye I was carried The first ground I toucht after I was out of Zacharies house was the Countesse Iulianaes chamber little did I surmise that fortune reserued mee to so faire a death I made no other reckoning all the while they had mee on their shoulders but that I was on horse-backe to heauen and carried to Church on a a béere excluded for euer for drinking anie more ale or béere Iuliana scornfully questiond them thus as if I had falne into her hands beyond expectation what proper apple-squire is this you bring so suspitiously into my chamber what hath he done or where had you him They aunswered likewise a farre of that in one of Zacharies chambers they found him close prisner and thought themselues guiltie of the breach of her Ladiships commaundement if they should haue left him behinde O quoth she ye loue to bee double diligent or thought peraduenture that I being a lone woman stood in néede of a loue Bring you me a princockes beardlesse boy I knowe not whence hee is nor whether he would to call my name in suspense I tell you you haue abused me and I can hardly brook it at your hands You should haue lead him to the Magistrate no commission receiued you of me but for his goods and his seruants They besought her to excuse their ouerwéening errour it procéeded from a zealous care of their duetie and no negligent default But why should not I coniecture the worst quoth shee I tell you troth I am halfe in a iealozie hee is some fantasticall amorous yonckster who to dishonor me hath hyr'd you to this stratagem It is a likely matter that such a man as Zacharie should make a prison of his house and deale in matters of state By your leaue sir gallantâ— vnder locke and key shal you stay with me till I haue enquirde further of you you shall be sifted thoroughly ere you and I part Goe maide show him to the further chamber at the ende of the gallerie that lookes into the garden you my trim pandars I pray garde him thether as you tooke paines to bring him hether When you haue