vpon her makyng so muche of her as if thei had familiarly been nourished with her owne breastes A thing no lesse pleasaunt to the Ladie then meruellous to al the people standyng round about who seyng a chaunce so miraculous cried out incontinently for the deliuerie of the Ladie for vengeaunce to be taken of hym whiche so wickedly had protruded her into that daunger whiche for her vertue ought to be extolled and praised of the whole worlde When the noble man was certified of this straunge aduenture he caused his Stewarde to be apprehended and imprisoned whose conscience forced suche remorse yet not knowyng the ende of the tragedie condempned hymself by his countenaunce Duryng his imprisonmente the deposiciō of the beloued foole was taken who said that by the suggestion of the malicious Steward many tymes ignoraunt to the Ladie he conueied himself into her chamber not knowyng wherevnto the intent of hym that caused hym so to do did extende The other gentleman made excuse although he was blame worthie that he was deceiued by the same false practise that the Lorde hymself was The Stewarde openlie confessed the treason whiche he had deuised againste the Ladie and the whole occasion thereof and thinckyng to be reuenged of the refusall of loue by her denied he framed this slaunder to make her lose her life Whiche the Lorde hearyng could not abide that his death should any longer bee respected but without other forme of Lawe he was thruste out to the Lions and was out of hande seased vpon and torne in péeces by those beastes whiche by Goddes iuste iudgemente did absteine from the good Ladie for the punishement of the detestable synne of this varlette In the meane tyme the chaste and innocente Ladie beyng broughte before her husbande after he had kissed and imbrased her with humble reuerence she saied vnto hym My Lorde I render my humble thankes to God for that through his holie grace inscrutable Iustice he hath let you to vnderstande twoo diuers affeccions in twoo seuerall persones of this worlde whiche you loue so well In one the treasō so pernicious which prouoked you to soile and imbrue your hādes not without cause till this daie proued contrarie in the bloodde of your faithfull and dere beloued wise In thother a will and minde so good to obeye you and to persist in continuacion of that effecte whiche maketh her generally to bée praised worthie of your earnest loue for so muche as she is your very affectionat spouse Notwithstanding iustlie maie I make my cōplaint of you for that withon excuse for my discharge or hearyng any thing that might serue for my purgacion you condempned her for whose honour and defence you ought to haue imploied bothe gooddes and life But God shal bée iudge betwene your litle discrecion and my righteousnesse betwene myne obedience and your crueltie wherewith you haue abused the nobilitie of the race whereof I came The husbande hearyng this wise and iust cōplaint on the one side transported with ioye leapt and reioysed to sée his deare companion in libertie and declared to be innocent on the other parte he blushed for shame that he had so lightlie and without better proofe and triall condempned her whom God by his grace had preserued from the Lions throates and durste not lifte vp his hedde by reason his harte freated at the remembraunce of his light credite and furie imoderate Finallie imbrasyng his wife and kissyng her louyngly saied vnto her Madame and deare beloued wife I can not deny but foolishely I haue attempted to blemishe the honor of her that whilome made me to shine and glister emongest the best and chief of all this countrie but he that doeth well marke and behold the galle and disdaine of a husbande louyng his wife and then vnderstanding her litle care and great forgetfulnesse whiche she hath bothe of his honour and glorie of his comfort will easely excuse and pardon my fault whiche I will not by any meanes colour and cloke but rather craue pardon at your handes assuryng you that I will amende and requite the same so well in suche wise as you and yours shall haue no cause but to bee content and satisfied It suffiseth me sir quod she that my giltlesse offence is knowen vnto you and that I haue recouered place in your fauourable acceptacion For I dooe accompte myne aduersitie well imploied sithe thereby you and your frendes maie glorie of the seuere Iustice ministred against malefacters and I reioyse in resistaūce of the assaultes of loue and of death to guarde and kepe my chastitie pure and inuiolable And maie serue for example to euery honourable Ladie beyng assailed with suche strong and mightie aduersaries to kepe themselfes honest For the croune is not due but to her that shall lawfully combate to the ende After this the Lorde by perswasion of his wife commaunded that the foole should be auoided the house that his presence might neither grieue or torment her ne yet might remoue the memorie of a thyng that neuer was thought or dooen And not without cause for the Lorde whiche reclinde his eare to euery triflyng reporte and credited the woordes of euery whistlyng pikethanke had muche a dooe to escape from dooyng thinges vnworthie his estate and calling Of so great force truely is the venime of suche Serpentes that seasyng it self by litle and litle vpon the harte of hym disposed to receiue it in furie maketh it to be in effecte like the nature of poison and drogues corrupt whereof menne ought to bée no lesse but rather more diligēt and carefull then of meates emonges persones whom thei suspecte and feare sithens that malidies and infecciōs of minde be farre more daūgerous then outward passions whiche torment the bodie Wherevnto if the saied noble manne was not hedefull he felt the dammage for penaunce of his inconsideracion Howbeit as ioynges bothe good and ill emonges menne bee not still durable and perpetuall Certaine daies after he beganne to solace hymself with his wife and rode an huntyng abroade visited his neighbours and at home made greate feastes and bankettes wherevnto his kindred and frendes were inuited to cōgratulate this newe alliaunce indeuouryng thereby to satisfie the faulte committed and the better to gratifie and pleasure his wife to make her knowe how muche he estemed and regarded her then before he caused the successe of this presente historie to bee ingrauen with greate industrie and merueilous cunnyng in Marble whiche he placed ouer the gate of the firste entrie into his Castle aswell to immortalizate the greate chastitie of his faire and vertuous wife as to sette forthe a Mirrour and example to euery housholde seruaunte and to all other what soeuer thei bee to beware how thei attempt any thyng against the honour of Ladies For many times it chaunceth that he whiche diggeth a ditche and setteth vp a Gallowes is the firste that doeth fall or is stretched therevpon As you maie se by this present
depriued of his kingdome The .vj. Nouell Folio 19. ¶ King Craesus of Lydia reasoneth with the wyseman Solon of the happy life of man Who little esteming his good aduise vnderstode before his death that no man but by vertue can in his lyfe attaine felicitie The .vij. Nouell Folio 21. AElianus ¶ Of a Father that made sute to haue his owne sonne put to death The .viij. Nouell Folio 24. ¶ Water offered of good will to Artaxerxes the king of Persia and the liberall rewarde of the king to the giuer The .ix. Nouell Folio 24. ¶ The loue of Chariton and Menalippus The .x. Nouell Folio 25. Xenophon ¶ King Cyrus persuaded by Araspas to dispose himselfe to loue a Ladie called Panthea entreth into a pretie disputacion and talke of Loue and beauty Afterwardes Araspas himselfe falleth in loue with the sayde Ladie but she indued with great chastitie auoideth his earnest Loue. And when her husbande was slayne in the seruice of Cyrus she killed herself The .xj. Nouell Folio 27. Quintus Curtius ¶ Abdolominus is from poore estate aduauÌ„ced by Alexander the great through his honest lyfe to be king of Sydone The .xij. Nouell Folio 33. ¶ The Oracion of the Scythian Ambassadours to Alexander the great reprouing his ambicion and desire of Empire The .xiij. Nouell Folio 34. Aulus Gellius ¶ The wordes of Metellus of mariage and wyuing with the prayse and disprayse of the same The .xiiij. Nouell Folio 36. ¶ Of Lais and Demosthenes The .v. Nouell Fol. 38. ¶ C. Fabritius and Aemilius Consulls of Rome being promised that king Pyrrhus for a somme of money shoulde be slayne which was a notable enemie to the Romane state aduertised Pyrrhus thereof by letters and of other notable things done by the same Fabritius The .xvj. Nouell Folio 38. ¶ A Scholemaister trayterouslye rendring the noble mennes sonnes of Faleâ—â—a to the handes of Camillus was well acquited and rewarded for his paines and labor The .xvij. Nouell Folio 39. ¶ The Historie of Papyrius Pretextaetus The .xviij. Nouell Folio 41. ¶ How Plutarche did beate his man And of pretie talke touching signes of anger The .xix. Nouell Fol. 42. ¶ A pretie tale of Aesope of the Larke The .xx. Nouell Folio 42. ¶ A merye ieft vttered by Haniball to king Antiochus The .xxj. Nouell Folio 44. ¶ The meruelous knowledge of a Lyon being acquainted with a man called Androctus The .xxij. Nouell Fol. 44. ¶ A pretie disputacion of the Philosopher Phaeuorinus to persuade a woman not to put forthe her childe to nursse but to nourishe it her selfe with her owne milke The .xxiij. Nouell Folio 45. ¶ Of Sertorius a noble Romane Capitaine The .xxiiij. Nouell Folio 48. ¶ Of the bookes of Sybilla The .xxv. Nouel Fol. 49. ¶ A difference and controuersie betweene a Maister and a Scholer so subtill that the Iudges coulde not giue sentence The .xxvj. Nouell Folio 50. Plutarche ¶ Seleueus King of Asia gaue his wife to his owne sonne in mariage being his mother in lawe Who so feruentlye did loue her that he was like to dye Which by a discrete wyse inuencion was discouered to Seleueus by a Phisician The .xxvij. Nouell Folio 51. ¶ Of the straunge and beastlye nature of Timon of Athenes enemie to mankinde with his death buriall and Epitaphe The .xxviij. Nouell Folio 57. S. Hierome and Pietro Messia ¶ The mariage of a man and woman he being the husbande of xx wiues and she the wife of .xxii. husbandes The .xxix. Nouell Folio 59. Bocaccio ¶ How Melchisedech a Iewe by telling a pretie tale of three Kinges saued his lyfe The .xxx. Nouell Folio 60. ¶ One called Guglielmo Borsiere with certen wordes well placed taunted the couetous life of Ermino Grimaldi The .xxxj. Nouell Folio 61. ¶ Maister Alberto of Bologna by a pleasaunt aunswere made a Gentlewoman to blushe which had thought to haue put him out of countenance in telling him that he was in loue with her The .xxxij. Nouell Folio 63. ¶ Rinald. of Esti being robbed arriued at Castel Guglielmo was succoured of a widowe and restored to his losses retourning safe and sounde home to his owne house The .xxxiij. Nouell Fol. 64. ¶ Three yong men hauing fondlye consumed all that they had became verye poore whose nephewe as he retourned out of Englande into Italie by the waye fyll in acquaintaunce with an Abbot whome vpon further familiaritie he knew to be the king of Englandes daughter which tooke him to her husbande Afterwards she restored his vncles to all their losses and sent them home in good state and reputacion The .xxxiiij. Nouell Folio 68. ¶ Landâ—lfo Ruffolo being inpouerished became a Pirate and taken by the Geneuois was in daunger of drowning who sauing himselfe vpon a little Coafer full of riche Iewelles was receiued at Corsu and being cherished by a woman retorned home very riche The .xxxv. Nouell Folio 73. ¶ Andreuccio of Perugia being come to Naples to buy horsse was in one night surprised with three meruelous accidents All which hauing escaped with one Rubie he retorned home to his house The .xxxvj. Nouell Folio 76. ¶ The Earle of Angiers being falslie accused was banished out of Fraunce and left his two sonnes in sundrie places in Englande and retourning vnknowen by Scotlande founde them in great authoritie afterwardes he repayred in the habite of a seruant to the French kings armie and being knowen to be innocent was againe aduaunced to his first estate The .xxxvij. Nouell Folio 85. ¶ Gilettae a Phisitians daughter of Narbona healed the French king of a Fistula for rewarde whereof she demaunded Beleramo Counte of Rossigliont to husbande The Counte being maried against his will for despite fledde to Florence and loued an other Gâ—â—etta his wife by pollicie founde meanes to lye with her husbande in place of his Louer and was begotten with childe of two sonnes Which knowen to her husbande he receiued her againe and afterwardes she liued in great honor and felicitie The .xxxviij. Nouell Folio 95. ¶ â—ancredi prince of Salerne caused his daughters louer to be slayne and sent his heart vnto her in a cuppe of Golde which afterwardes she put into poysoned water and drinking therof dyed The .xxxix. Nouell Folio 100. Bandello ¶ Mahomet one of the Turkishe Emperors executeth cursed crueltie vpon a Greke mayden whome he tooke prisoner at the winning of Constantinople The .xl. Nouell Folio 107. ¶ A Ladie falsely accused of adulterie was condemned to be deuoured of Lions the maner of her deliuerie and how her innocencie being knowen her accuser felt the payne for her prepared The .xl. Nouell Folio 112. ¶ Didaco a Spaniarde is in Loue with a poore Mayden of Valentia and secretely maryeth her afterwards lothing his first mariage because she was of base parentage he maryeth another of noble birth His firste wife by secrete messinger prayeth his companie whose request he accomplisheth Being a bedde she and her mayde killeth him She throweth him into the streate She in desperate wise
aduentures Who seyng hymself to begin to ware olde was desirous being yet in Ireland to knowe if he could what was become of his childrē Wherefore perceiuyng that he was wholy altred frō his wanted forme and féelyng hymself more lustie through the long excercise and labour whiche he had susteined in seruice then he was in the idle tyme of his youthe he departed from his maister verie poore and in ill apparell with whom he had continued in seruice a longe tyme and came into Englande to that place where he had left Perotto and founde him to be Marshall of the countrie and sawe that he was in healthe lustie and a comely personage whiche reioysed hym merueilously but he would not make hymself be knowen to hym till he had séen what was become of his doughter Gianetta wherefore takyng his iourney he rested in no place till he came to London And there secretly inquiryng of the ladie with whom he had left his doughter of her state he learned that his doughter was her soonnes wife whereof he tooke excedyng greate pleasure And from that tyme forthe he compted his aduersities past as nothing sith he had founde his children liuyng and in suche greate honor And desirous to sée her began like a poore manne to harbour hymself harde by her house wherevpon a certain daie beyng séen of Giachetto Lamyens for that was the name of the husbāde of Gianetta hauing pitie vpō him bicause he sawe hym poore and olde commaunded one of his seruauntes to haue hym into the house and to giue hym meate for Goddes sake whiche the seruaunt willingly did accomplish Gianetta had many children by Giachetto of whiche the eldest was but eight yeres olde and thei were the fairest and beste fauoured children in the worlde who when thei sawe the Erle eate meate thei all came aboute hym and began to make muche of hym as thoughe by natures instruction thei had knowen him to be their Grandfather And he knowyng his nephewes began to shewe them tokens of loue and kindnesse By reason whereof the children would not goe from hym although their gouernour did call them awaie Wherefore the mother knowing the same came out of a chamber vnto the place where the Erle was threatened to beare them if thei would not doe as their maister hadde them The children began to crie and saied that thei would tary by that good manne that loued them better then their maister did whereat the Ladie and the Erle began to laugh The Erle not as a father but like a poore man rose vp to dooe honour to his doughter bicause she was a noble woman Conceiuyng merueilous ioye in his minde to see her but she knewe hym not at all neither at that instant nor after bicause he was so wonderfully transformed and chaunged from that forme he was wonte to bée of Like one that was olde and graie hedded hauyng a bearde leane and weather beaten resemblyng rather a common persone then an Erle And the Ladie seyng that the children would not departe from him but still cried when thei were fetched awaie willed the maister to lette them alone The children remainyng in this sorte with the honest poore manne the father of Giacchetto came in the meane time and vnderstoode this of their maister Wherefore he that cared not for Gianetta saied Lette them alone with a mischief to kéepe companie with beggers of whō thei came For of the mothers side thei bée but verlettes children and therefore it is no meruaile though thei loue their companie The Erle hearing those wordes was verie sorowfull notwithstādyng holdyng doune his hedde he suffred that iniurie as well as he hadde doen many other Giacchetto which knewe the mirth and ioye that the children made to the poore man although he was offended with those woordes neuerthelesse made as muche of the poore Erle as he did before And when he sawe him to wepe he commaunded that if he honest poore man would dwell there to doe some seruice he should bee reteined Who answered that he would carie there with a good will but he said that he could doe nothyng els but kepe horsse wherevnto he was accustomed all the daies of his life To whom a horsse was appoincted to kéepe and daily whē he had dressed his horsse he gaue hymself to plaie with the children Whiles that Fortune thus dealt accordyng to the maner aboue saied with the Erle of Angiers and his children it chaunced that the Frenche kyng after many truces made with the Almaignes died and in his place was crouned his sonne whose wife she was that caused the Erle to bee banished When the last truce with the Almaignes was expired the warres beganne to growe more sharpe for whose aide the kyng of Englande sente vnto hym as to his newe kinsman a greate number of people vnder the gouernemente of Perotto his Marshall and of Giacchetto Lamyens soonne of his other Marshall with whom the poore Erle wente and not knowen of any man remained a greate while in the Campe as a seruaunt where notwithstandyng like a valiaunt man with his aduise and déedes he accomplished notable thinges more then he was required It chaunced that in the time of the warres the Frenche Quene was verie sore sicke and perceiuyng her self at the poincte of death repented her of all her synnes and was confessed deuoutly to the Archebishop of Roane who of all men was reputed an holie and vertuous manne and amōges all her other sinnes she tolde him of the great wrong doen by her to the erle of Angiers and was not onely contented to reueale the same to hym alone but also rehearsed the whole matter before many other personages of greate honour desiryng them that thei would woorke so with the kyng that if the Erle were yet liuyng or any of his children thei might bée restored to their state againe Not longe after the Quene departed and was honourablie buried Whiche confession reported to the Kyng after certaine sorowfull sighes for the iniuries dooen to the valiaunte man he made Proclamacion throughout all the Campe and in many other places that who so euer could bryng forthe the Erle of Angiers or any of his childrē should for euery of them receiue a greate rewarde bicause he was innocent of that matter for whiche he was exiled by the onely confession of the Quene and that he entended to exalte hym to his former estate and more higher then euer he was Whiche thing the Erle hearyng beyng in the habite of a seruaunte knowyng it to be true by and by he wēt to Giacchetto and praied hym to repaire to Perotto that thei might come together bicause he would manifest vnto them the thyng whiche the kyng sent to seeke for And when thei were all thrée assembled together in a chāber the Erle saied to Perotto that now he thought to lette hym vnderstande what he was saiyng these wordes Perotto Giacchetto whom thou séest here hath espoused thy sister and neuer had yet any