Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A10790
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The heroinæ: or, The lives of Arria, Paulina, Lucrecia, Dido, Theutilla, Cypriana, Aretaphila; Heroinæ.
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Rivers, George.
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1639
(1639)
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STC 21063; ESTC S101215
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33,813
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186
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must sheath thee againe Where In this guiltlesse breast of mine Call up thy too degenerous spirit Of what bravery can it accuse the act Thou murdrest a poor innocent maid Shall posteritie brand mee with that weaknesse Shall it say that not able to stand under the miseries of life I was press'd down by the hard extremity of fortune to despaire to death No my tide of furie flowes into another channell here is a revenge fit for thy spirit fit for thine arme thine honour shall bee proud to riot in his bloud whose bloud would riot in thine honour Thus then I shake off woman and her frailtie thus doe I strangle the monster lust that revels in thy veines and to complete my vengeance send thy sin-surfetted soule into the land of endlesse night where it hath already tane sure footing With that her spirit restlesse in the revenge of words eager of action directed her arme which gave Amalius so fatall a wound that it seem'd her hot-metled fury was bridled with exactest discretion and nothing wanted the attempt but passion Bravest Theutilla sooner shall the Fathers bowels bee silent at the sight of his long unseen Sonne then posterity forget thy name Amalius now miserably groaning now miserably opening his eyes to shut them againe more miserably had little more of life then what could give her life in appeasing the fury of his servants that rushed in to her destruction What means said he is Chaos of confounding noise this unwelcome Traine to the more unwelcome Pomp of death Whither rush yee yee betrayers of innocence yee servants of nothing but my lust Oh may mine infamie find a grave as soone as life and you sooner that the world may want a witnesse of it I conjure you by the relation that ties you to my commands and this last spare her life whose chastitie the Gods are pleas'd to spare Then to make a minute of his life famous hee contemplated on mortality Nature said hee that first digested this All into an exact method of parts preserves it likewise by a constant concordance of the same without the which it would soone resolve into the first nothing onely man ungovern'd man Natures Master-peece revolting from her allegeance deposes her Lieutenant Reason le ts in the Usurper Passion to untune the harmony that preserves the soul. Hence is it that death the privation of being in this disorder seizes the Fort hurries the Governesse captive to an eternall a never redeem'd imprisonment The Sunne the Sea have both their bounds and man his stage from life to death of equall length to all though one runs faster then another The world whirles about continually till it be dissolv'd and mans brain not satisfied in the bare necessaries of life moves in an unbounded motion till stil'd by the period of action the undoer of Nature Death There is but one doore at which wee enter this Labyrinth of life but infinite are the waies wee turne and wind out of it The infant no sooner with much difficulty rak'd out of the wombe punishing the Mothers guilt of his short-liv'd misery enters the Tombe flashing through the world being but a lightning of life Pleasure or businesse wears out the riper mans vitals and forceth out life let Nature block it up never so strongly The aged man because a burden to himselfe sinks under his own weight These are ordinary waies out of this world into the next but to bee hurld out by violence of Fate this is the doom of strictest Justice that makes eternity our curse This is the hard fate my just merit hath encountred to be punish'd by the sex I have so much abus'd This was his last for Nature though shee could not tell him he had liv'd long enough told him hee had been long enough dying There she withdrew her selfe from him and seal'd up his eyes to the eternall sleep of eternall night Pro Theutilla REason is the only and noble difference between the free and servile creature and they whose actions are not moderated and well poyzed by her power deviate from themselves into the slavery of Sense Theutilla if shee could obtaine of her selfe to yeeld to sense why should not Amalius obtaine it If to reason why should shee not kill Amalius or why should she be ravished Her selfe then was Victor of her sense and to conquer reason she conquer'd Amalius Never had her vertue a fairer tryall then when her honour was a martyr stak'd to unlawfull flames never could her honour bee more honourably releived then by her vertue nor both then by this act Though Vertue being within her Honour being above her was not to be really violated without the Theutilla that was below her yet must Amalius be sacrificed as well to deprive her of the interest he might have in her dishonour as to make opinion cleare as her actions It was that mind that stoop'd not to her body that made her of consequence not her beauty the other sullied who but Amalius would value this or one whose sense is so scattered in the admiration of the outward forme that hee discernes not even those deformities of soule which are detected It was necessary for her fame not onely to resolve not to yeeld but to prevent occasions that might prejudice her vertue or her honour But why was Amalius slaine not master of the opportunity hee knew not why was she forc'd thither Because shee would not yeeld because she should bee ravished But haply her handsome prayers had wrought him to an handsome repentance Is beauty the loadstar that attracts hearts of steel to it the Orator that pleads against it selfe Amalius had his eyes been open had not read contradictions in her face nor made so obscure a Comment upon so cleare a Text. Hee had seene her but as hee had seene her her eyes inviting all eyes her lippes all lippes her face Loves banquet where shee ryots in the most luxuriant feast of sense not as shee was the modell of Divine Perfection so innocent shee knew not the meaning of a Mistris Theutilla had she had no other Sword but her innocence might satisfie her selfe in that defence but Conscience is but one witnesse to one and her actions must endure the triall of another touch-stone beside her owne Amalius would easily confront her meanenesse Then allow her this great revenge of little innocence Contra Theutillam A Mind well habited to vertue enjoyes all true content within it self knowing nothing without it to transport it from it selfe Why should she then strain her vertue to a vice in the too nice satisfaction of others unsatisfie her selfe Why should shee to prevent unlawfull love act a more unlawfull revenge Why should shee revenge an unacted injury commit a certain murder to avoid an uncertain rape Had she been absolutely tyed either to die kill or be ravished she had shewed a greater height of spirit in enduring then revenging her dishonour For the passive valour is more laudable then the
griev'd her not that it was gone but returned she thus bespake them You see how vainly you imploy your care to keep a prisoner that will be free you may make mee die with more paine and lesse honour but not to die at all this is beyond your power whilst I wear a hand commanded by a heart that knowes no feare I shall not despaire of death nor shall I long protract a loathed breath in such wretched times that make life but the nursery of sorrowes and seminary of misfortunes Some few dayes she wasted in comforting and condoling with her friends the generall calamities wherein the most vertuous were involv'd under that monster of men Nero then tyrannizing Then she retired into Paetus lodging and there thus spake her last The soule imprison'd in a necessity of being miserable must break through all fence of nature into an honourable end This very precept nature her selfe imprinteth in us shee denyeth not the iron-bound Slave a death to free him from the toylsome Oare doth she deny the Sun-scorch'd Pilgrim his nights sleep no nor the world-beaten man his eternall rest Surely then shee allowes us to shake off her interest when we are sunke below her succour Paetus thy life is not link'd to nature but to fame fall then by thine owne sword and thy spirit wound up in thine honour mounts to the Palaces of the immortall Gods If thou faintest under so brave a resolution or enviest thy selfe the glory of thy end know that ere two dayes expire thou thy selfe expirest but how by whose hands beheaded by a base hangman offered up a tame sacrifice to insated tyranny Awake the Roman in thee shall high Paetus whom when the World unworthy of his Vertue ingratefully flung off claspe broken hopes and fortunes to save himselfe with the shipwrack of his fame shall hee to whom thousand servile necks did bow stoop to the basenesse to beg life while his death is in his hands Cato and Scipio whom this age is more prone to adore then admire held it not honourable to begg life though they might expect more from Caesars Vertue But what canst thou hope for from a Tyrant abjur'd by all the Vertues one that approves nothing in Soveraigntie but Power and that guided by Passion to insatiate revenge Then as if shee had distrusted her Husbands spirit shee drew out the poyniard from his side Paetus said shee how I have not entertain'd life nor death but for thy sake this last act of honour be my witnesse Doe this Paetus then she plung'd the dagger into her heart and having drawne it out shee delivered it to him againe trust my departing breath Paetus said shee not the wound it gives mee but thee afflicts mee There died the noble Arria there did that soule flie to eternity that soule that was too great to owe her liberty to any power but to her owne Paetus blushing to be indebted to a president for his death especially his Wife took to him the dagger that was so lately guilded in his Arria's bloud and with these words hastned to his end Had fortune answered my resolution and crown'd my enterprize with happinesse I had entered Rome envied by the most noble not pitied by the basest I now see how the successe of humane affaires depends not upon valour but uncertain fates and our actions elevated by the height of spirit do but intrench us deeper into misery But though I am bereft of all the advantages of fortune and of honour yet am I Master of a mind unconquered over which nor Tyrannie nor Fate shall triumph Then embracing her dead hee sigh'd and said Pardon blest spirit my too long absence from thee I have borrowed this little leave of life but to admire thy Vertue which being above my wonder I must soare unto that height where it is ascended to search out her true perfection Pardon my soule that she ascends not to thee in an extasie faine would shee but this dagger claimes her liberty that gave thee thine Then he thrust it into his heart and there the dagger acted his last and most faithfull service slew his Master Pro Arria THE first Being tyed the first two into one and formed two different sexes into one body and one soule the bodies by alternate use so proprietated not to one but both the soules so sympathizing in affections and in passions as both became one to both They that keep this mystery inviolable know no outward respects of power to divide them into two If Paetus be unhappy Arria is unfortunate Paetus is doom'd to die and shall Arria live to see him slaine Hath hee outliv'd his hopes and can shee hope to outlive him But why would she die was the feare of the Emperours cruelty mingled in her cause What feares she that feares not death what Emperour is cruell to her that dares die what cruelty is to be parallel'd to that which bereft her of her life It was Paetus slew her Paetus had Arria liv'd Paetus had not slaine himselfe therefore Arria died died because Paetus should die Oh unheard of cruelty oh unparallel'd affection Arria died because Paetus could not live Paetus by death redeem'd himself from what was worse than death from torture Arria redeem'd her honour and her Paetus from torture and dishonour Fortune made her miserable that Vertue might make her happie her faith so firmly tyed her love that death could not undo it with her life Her fortunes were so ingrafted in her Paetus that with his they did bud flourish and wither Her life was fastned to his strings of life with him she liv'd with him she died Contra Arriam THrough what forbidden pathes doth passion hurrie us when once our reason is unseated Arria would die rather then bee led in triumph did death redeem her No death was but fortunes headsman to execute her she had condemn'd The Emperors power extended no faerther then to afflict her withred body not able to endure this weak revenge shee yeelded up her mind a triumph to her fortune and her selfe unto her sorrow If fear did not surprize her then engag'd in Paetus treason she was her own wrack and torture scorning all Executioners but her self Who then condemns her death when it was due to justice But what law exacts of her this justice The Gods forbid her to kill another much more her self being nearer to her selfe than any other Nature by her law claims life as her due debt payable when shee demands it If she died because Paetus should die shee did but invite him to her rage not to her vertue But I think fear the common defect of Nature in women depriv'd her of her life for death appeard so accoutred in the terrours of wrack and hangman that she died for fear of death PAVLINA LVcius Annaeus Seneca the Philosopher and Tutor to Nero the Emperour was Lord of great Revenues to which his vertue not his fortune was his title his mind was richly embroydered