on the Duke at the hour he should go forth to hear Mass. I know not whether one ought to believe what is spoken of his good Fortune but indeed I have heard say That she was more diligent about him then the most diligent of his Guards And that his enemies never laid any sâ—ares to catch him which she did not break asunder that they never prepared a Pitfall for him over which she laid not a Plank However it were it is certain there had been an end of him that day if she had not caused dispatches to arrive to him which busied him very happily all the morning and diverted him from going forth to expose himself to death which was prepared for him The occasion passing over with the morning the Conductors of the Enterprize resolved to begin by the seisure of a rich pawn and to secure the Dukes Person by laying hold on the good Lady his Wife who was at Mass. Mean while one of the Magistrates accompanied with twelve resolute and stout men entered the Castle Their Arms were hid under their Cloaks but their bad Intention being easie to be discovered by their ill looks one of his Guards had some distrust of them and ran to shut the Gate against those that followed to second them the party began hotly to discharge their Pistols before the Dukes Chamber some of his friends overpowred with number were slain in the place but his Domesticks and Guards hasting to the noise and he himself appearing with a Sword in his hand the end of the Pray proved as unhappy for the Assailants as the beginning The Magistrate and one of the boldest amongst his Troop made Payment for the attempt with their persons and the rest who were not resolved to lose so much rendred up their Arms and abandoned the party This first Troop being defeated the Duke was not for all that out of danger He was enforced to defend the two Gates of the Castle against fire and the Peâ—ard and then to repulse those who began to Scale it His greatest danger nevertheless was in the Church where furiously entred an armed and incensed multitude which seized on the Dutchess Her quality and Sex deserved at least some respect but qualities are not distinguished in a Tumult and no Sex is Priviledged against Fury Of two Gentlemen that led her one was killed at her feet and the other being dangerously wounded was in little better condition This Barbarous Act did not affright her the bloud which sprinkled her Gown and Death it self which passed over her wrought no change in her Countenance Her soul was alwaies Erect and Elevated above danger She conserved even the comliness of her gesture and the dignity of her looks even words of Authority and tone of Command and whereas another less Couragious Woman might have submitted to Insolency and have flattered Fury She treated them with Command like a Mistress astonishing Audacity it self by her Constancy They advertise her that she was Arrested for her Husband and that if she had a mind to live and preserve Him she must consider of disposing him to remit his Person and Cittadel into the hands of the Magistrate At this Declaration which was made to her with threats and a dagger at her throat she answered That she would not enter into any Treaty with Murtherers That she knew not how to give ill Counsels nor in what terms a Wise may perswade her Husband to be a Coward that it troubled her she had but one life to expose for the honour and safety of his that she was so far from lending them her prayers and tears against him that she would joyfully shed even the last drop of her bloud if that might add either a moment of new lustre to his reputation or half a days space to his life And therefore let their fury finish on her what it had begun That nothing of weakness should proceed either from her mouth or hands that they too well accorded with her heart and that it would better please her to dye at the Castle Gate for her Husband then to live without him upon a Throne She made large promises she found her self also as well disposed to make good what she promised and her Constancy being put to the Test was found as great and vigorous as her words I learned from an Illustrious Person and who hath narrowly looked into the affairs of that time that she was brought before the Castle and that they might there take the Husband by the fear and danger of the Wife the same Propositions were renewed to her with the same Threats and Violencies The Couragious Woman reduced to this Extremity considered nothing but the danger of her husband and had no fear but of his Affection and Tenderness She was not ignorant that all his weakness lay on that side and that there was no place so strong which would not be hard for him to defend against her tears She also cryed out unto him the better to fortifie this weak part That she came not to perswade him to a dangerous Piety and to betray him by her Intreaties That she came rather to make her Body serve him for a new Barricado against his Enemies That if he loved her truly and had a desire to save her he should love and preserve what was of her in him that on him depended her safety and danger her good and bad Fortune that out of him she could have neither life nor death nothing to hope or fear that he should take heed of trusting Traytors who assaulted his head by his heart who would soften it to his overthrow and raise a Compassion in him to gain his life at a cheaper rate that he should beware of listening to the suggestions of a Timerous and Apprehensive Love that he should rather give ear to that Affection which spake to him by her mouth that it were lost labour to preserve her if he lost himself that it would be of no advantage to his Enemies to destroy her if he were safe that in despight of them and what death soever they should make her suffer she should always live most happy as long as she should live in his remembrance She pronounced these words with so Graceful a Confidence and so Noble and Generous a Tone as it clearly appeared that at this instant her heart ascended to her mouth to express it self by its own Language This eminent Vertue dazel'd the furious Souldiers who environed her and made their Weapons fall out of their hands The Duke was relieved by his frinds who came thither from Xaintes and Caâ—gnae And the Capitulation being concluded between him and the Inhabitants the Dutchess impatient to see him again could not expect till the Castle Gate was cleared but commanded a Ladder whereby to enter at the window Certainly after so Illustrious and Glorious a Victory it had been fit the Gate should have been thrown down before her and that she should have entred the
the Chaste the Faithful the Couragious the Constant the Pious may all enter into it and keep their degrees there under the Title of Heroick VVomen The assembly of these Gallant Women might be greater then I have made it And albeit Solomon was troubled to finde one single Heroick VVoman yet since his Time enough have appeared to Plant here a whole Colonie Of all this great Number I have chosen twenty of the most Renowned all Illustrious amongst them And not to produce them confusedly in disorder I have divided them into four Squadrons The first of Jewish Woman The second of Barbarian VVomen to take the word Barbarian in the same sence as it was understood by the Grecians The third of Roman and the fourth of Christian VVomen I exhibite a Picture of each and the Subject of this Picture is taken from the most resplendent and couragious part of her Life Besides these Pictures are not meerly superficial carry a bare outside like those of Philostrates who was content to express what was visible to copy out the draughts of the Pencil with the strokes of his Pen. They represent chiefly the Interior that secret part which cannot be disclosed or expressed but by Philosophers They discover all the Features Motions of the Heart all the Postures and Colours of the Soul And the Scope of it which is wholly Moral aims more at the Manners then at the satisfaction of the Eye Every Picture is accompanied with a Sonnet which is another piece drawn in little And the Sonnet is seconded by an Historical Elogie where the Life of the Heroess is abbreviated which serves for the Subject of the Picture I adde a Moral Reflection to the Elogie which tends more directly and immediately to the Benefit and Regulation of Manners And there I mark out what is most profitable and instructive in the preceding Example I establish practical Axioms and draw from thence useful consequences I advertise Women of their Duties and obligations and cause them to take in by Grains and Drops the pure spirit of Christian Philosophie and the extraction of her Maximes which they scarce receive but with distaste in Books where it is without seasoning and in grosse In sequence of this Reflection and in order to the Maximes which are given therein I propose a Moral Question in which there is enough to satisfie the Intellectual part and to fortifie the Appetitive And after the having decided it to the advantage of Vertue and to the edification of those Women I desire to instruct I confirm my Decision by a Modern Example which I take either at our own Door or fetch it from our Neighbours to the end being seen neer at Hand it may make the deeper impression and act with more Vigour Besides these Examples are all illustrious and Heroick They contain great and wonderful things And I have chosen them of this form to teach such as run after the Fantomes of Romances that Truth is not only instructive but also more delightful and divertising then falshood and that natural Bodies are more Luminous and Graceful then all the Apparitions and Specters which Magick Art produceth As for the Heathen Women which I bring upon the Stage I place them not there as perfect Models I know very well that their Vertues have been but rough drawn And that wanting the light of Faith they remain imperfect But I know also that such fair rough drawn Vertues are presented there as we may gather from thence wherewith to form excellent pieces And by the same reason that the Son of God alleadged Ninâ—ve against Jerusalem and proposed Tyre to Judea one may alleadge the Heathen and Barbarian against Christian Women one may well propose Pantheas to Catherins and Zenobias to Agathas I particularly declare that I do not pretend to justifie the Death of those who slew themselves with their own Hands what Colour soever the Philosophie of that time gave to their Deaths and with what paint soever the Poets have set them forth If they had the Force and greatnesse of Courage it was enormous and disproportioned it was a greatnesse beyond limit or compasse Nevertheless this doth not hinder that these enormous and great disproportioned Women may have something of imitation One may frame by a Colossus a Figure of a middle and very exact Stature In Moral Philosophie as well as in Logick Errour may be serviceable to Truth And a good consequence may be drawn from a bad Principle Behold what I had to say in order to the designe and structure of this Work I have nothing to adde to what hath been said but these few words with which S. Ambrose concludes the second Book he dedicated to Virgins Since the tasts of men are so different and that there are as many Opinions as Heads If any Neatness and Care appear in some places of my Discourse those places can justly displease no Man If there be any mature and serious ones they will please the Palat of those in whom the Maturity of understanding accompanies the Maturity of Age If any be found flowered and delightful they will not offend such as are in the Age of the Flowers of Grace and Men will grant me that it is no lesse necessary to write for these Persons then for others There remains nothing more for me to say to the Reader He may enter into my Gallery when he pleaseth The Door is open to him DEBORE 〈…〉 THE GALLERY OF HEROICK WOMEN The Gallant Jewes DEBORA THIS Country so delightfull to the eye and so adorn'd with the riches and ornaments of Nature is the western Part of Palestine You cannot choose but know it at first sight by that verdure which makes it enjoy as it were a perpetuall spring And by those tufts of Palms and Cedars which serve as naturall Garlands to crown it These Towns and Cities which appear afar off are not built by the Israelites They have as yet erected in this Country nothing but flying Towns and walking Cities They have only built with Canvas and Cordage All their Houses have been hitherto but field habitations And during the obstinate and continual wars wherein they were imployed their thoughts were more taken up in rendring souldiers warlike and forming Captians then in hiring Masons and making Architects Besides at present the whole Countrey is fild with the rumour of wars and preparrd against the Cananites Ten thousand men selected out of two Tribes are rlready advanced towards Mount Thabor And the men you behold in arms about the great Palm are the most remarkable of the people whom Debora the Prophetesse and Governesse of Israel retained with Barac to instruct them in the discipline of war and excite them to act gallantly You never beheld a Tribunall like that of this Governesse Surely their enters more splendor and pride in the Thrones of Kings but lesse naturall Majesty and true Glory This is not the work of a year nor the master-peece of a
and obedience when the Dutchess of Parma arrived there and there was then no speech of Factions or States Guex or Hereticks But this calm lasted not long And the Heresies of Germany and 〈◊〉 which had crept into those Provinces quickly drew thither Rebellion after the dissention This alteration of time gave work enough to the Governess but it was a glorious work and full of reputation wherein she had Kings for her Encouragers and was looked on by all Europe with astonishment It was likewise to the wise and speculative of that time a wonderful spectacle to see a woman wrastle alone against so great and dangerous a storm Yet she got the upper hand at last and after nine yeers of agitation she brought back the vessel into the Haven in despite of the windes and tides which had forced it out I say that she was to wrastle alone against the storm because the Councel it self had begun the trouble and the Ministers hired to save the vessel were the first that split it and made way for the waves Grauâ—â—lle Archbishop of Arraâ— whom King Philip had assigned to the Governeâ—s for an honourable Spye and a Pedagogue raised to the degree of a Minister of State gave her more jealousie and distrust then good advice and proved rather obstructive then assistant to her His Corrivals and Enemies accused him of all the ill had hapned Such as stood indifferent suspected him for raising a tumult in the vessel to the end the stern might be wholly left to himself As for the Prince of Orange the Earls of Iâ—â—mond and Hâ—rn the Marquesse of Berg and other Dâ—tch Lords being all declared enemies against Granville and secret Corrivals to each other all suspected of Rebellion and ill affected to the Domination of strangers they brought nothing to the Councel but a spirit of contradiction and confusion nothing but interested and partial opinions nothing but hidden conspiracies and open animosities By which means they more imbroyled then assisted the Governess and not daring either to reject or take their advice she might be truly said to be abandoned amongst all these guides because they were either â—uspected or disloyal and that it was equally dangerous either to leave or follow them Nevertheless she forcibly overcame all these difficulties she deâ—teâ—ously loosned her self from these incombrances And after diâ—erted and discovered conspiracies after extinguished and chastised â—â—ditions after the revolt of Towns reduced to obedience she chased away Rebellion and Heresie out of Flanders she sweetly and deâ—â—erously tyed up again the 〈◊〉 which gaped after liberty and had already broken a piece of his chain The States of Holland would have been at present but a Republick in Idea and Leyden would have been 〈…〉 to Spain as to Bruxels if King Philip had left for a longer time the Government unto the Dutchess of Parma Ruy 〈◊〉 and the Duke 〈◊〉 were indeed of this opinion Likewise none but indulgent and popular Ministers were ignorant that clemency is more persuasive and makeâ— it 〈◊〉 better obeyed then severity But the advice of Cardinal Spinosa and the Duke of Alâ—a carrying it against their opinions the King concluded upon the way of rigour and force The duke of Alâ—a being sent to put them in execution opened afresh with fire and sword those wounds which lenitives had closed up and what the dextentâ— and mildeness of a wise and obliging woman had re-established was â—â—â—ned by the violenceâ— of a bloody and rigorous Minister of State Philip to 〈◊〉 this errour resolved to send back the Dutchess into â—landeâ—â— which very earnestly demanded her believing that its cure could come from no other hand then hers But he desired it too late and out of season God thought that she had laboured enough and sufficiently overcome and therefore called her to give her repose and the crowns she had merited The Flemings being out of hope to have her Person conserved her Memory They honoured her in Publick and in their houses and whereas they had solemnly and with ringing of Bells thrown down that insolent and proud statue which the Duke of Alâ—a had caused to be set up in the Citadel of Antwerp they erected in their hearts which were stronger then Citadels a statue of pure esteem and glory to the Dutchess of Parma IAHEL 〈…〉 Iahel THERE is now an end of the Cananites and of their Fortune their Armie composed of so many Troops and Engins of war was defeated by the Israelites who are still pursuing the remainder of it And all the presages are deceitful nay even Prophesie it self is a lyer or their Empire shaken by this Blow will not much longer expect its fall the Earth is covered over with the bloody parcels of so formidable a Bodiâ— some of them have fallen upon all the Mountains and into all the Valleys of the Countrey and the stately Head thereof which hath hitherto rolled along happens to be broken in pieces by the Hand of this Woman It is Jahel who hath finished the overthrow of the Canaanites by the death of their General whom she killed with a Nail in her own â—ent where he had sheltred himself after the routing of his Armie she is still moved with the blow she so lately struck Certainly she could not have given a more hazardous one nor of greater consequence and the Age of our fore-fathers which was an Age of Miracles and of prodigious Adventures hath never seen any thing of like Courage nor of greater Fame The joy she felt at the successe of so high an enterprise adds new lustre to her eyes and a second grace to her face The confidence of her looks corresponds with the boldnesse of the Action her hands armed with the fatal Hammâ—r which proved of more force then the warlike Engines of the Enemies and performed more then all the Lances and Swords of the Israelites prepared themselves to gain a second Victory And yet her Hands all heated as they are with breaking the Chain and Yoak of Israel upon the Head of Sisera seem willing to give the like blow even unto the Ghost of the Cananean King whom her imagination hath brought Captive to her and loaden with Chains Neverthelesse Sisera wrastleth in vain against the Earth At the same time he pushes with his arms as it were to force her to give back and by a contrary effort he seems willing to carry her away with his head His heart strives within to succour the wounded part and not being able of himself to assist it with all the remainder of his force he conveyes thither Anger Rage and Despair These impotent and furious Passions appear confusedly and with horror on his face swollen with the blood and spirits which are there poured out from the whole bodie It would be hard to distinguish them by their proper features and by the Colours which are natural to them All of them have participated of the Anguish which is mingled with them and are grown either pale
with Death which entred by this wound or red with the blood which flowed from thence His eyes which to him had been ill Advisers and unfaithful guards and had suffered themselves to be surprised by beauty and sleep bewail the mortal errour they had committed and seem willing to cast forth with their blood and tears the pleasing poyson which they have taken in from the looks of Jâ—hel Besides they turn up and down in their last pains as if they sought her out to reproach her of Infidelity And the very sight of Debora and Barac hapning to be present at this Tragick spectacle increases their torment and begets in him a second confusion The victory of his Enemies proves a torment to him Death nay even such a death made it another death to him But the third yet more sensible and cruel death was that his enemies in his very presence and sight rejoyce at his death and at their victory Surely also this sight may be called the death of Sisera and the wound which he received therby in his heart though it cast forth no blood at all is yet more painful to him then that of his pierced head You would say that he is ready to dart out of his mouth a thousand Blasphemies against Heaven and as many Imprecations against Jahel But his voice is stifled with the presse of his passions and dies in his throat There issueth forth of it nothing but froth which is the blood of his inflamed rage and not being able to blaspheme with his tongue he blasphemeth with his countenance and the motion of his lips Debora and Barac look upon him in silence and with a kinde of Religious horror Astonishment which opens their mouth deprives them of breath and their stretched out hands seem willing to speak for their tongues that are tyed up The very servants which are of their Train are strucken with the like amazement and as if there were a charm in this spectacle it took from them their voice by gazing on it Sisera who could not astonish them by his valour and with a sword in his hand doth now amaze them by his punishment and with the Nail in his head And if all the people should be destroyed if the Ark it self were a captive and if the Cherubâ—â—s which guard it were prisoners there could not appear more Trouble in the minde of Barac nor more Emotion upon the face of Debora But this trouble and Emotion will be quickly followed with joy and every one resuming the Function which this spectacle hath suspended Debora inspired with the spirit of Prophesie shall sing a Hymn unto God of the wonders which have finished so great a war with the point of a nail and destroyed the Empire of the Canaanites with the stroke of a hammer and by the hand of a woman SONNET IN Jahels Bresta Hero's Soul survives Which prompts her modest thoughts to brave atchives Her flaming eyes declare with how much heat She did an Army in one Head defeat Sisera her strugling his black Soul doth groan That by a Womans hand he 's overthrown It quits his Breast amazed Rage conceives And in his Blood its wrath enkindled leaves Behold Man's â—ickle state how neer ally'd His Ruine is to his insulting Pride And with what ease this Ball is ev'ry way By Fortune racketed to finde her play She can advance him when in most despair As though she rais'd him with a puff of Air As strangly too without her VVheels full poise She by the pâ—â—cking of a Nail destroyes THE ELOGIE OF JAHEL JAHEL gave the last blow unto the Pride of the Canaanâ—â—es and finishing the victory which Debora had begun she shewed that God had chosen the hands of a Woman to break the yoke of his people Sisera the Lieutenant General of Jabin seeing his Army defeated by the Israelites saved himself aâ—oot in the Tent of Jahel But Death knows no Sanctuarâ— or place of Refuge And it is evident that she suffered him 〈…〉 in the heat of the conflict to kill him afterwards more at 〈◊〉 and at more leaâ—ure out of the Battel Jahel inspired by God 〈◊〉 And to quench the extream thiâ—â— which labour flight and 〈◊〉 had caused presented him with milk to drink There are some dangerous charities and courtesies whereof we must bewaâ—â— And sometimes the presence of Women have defeated those who could not be overcome by stratagems or armed Legions 〈…〉 together with the freshness of this drink having 〈…〉 unfortunate Sisera Jahel without noise pulled up one of the Nail wherewith her Tent was fastned and with the blow of a 〈…〉 to deep into his head as the Nail pierced it clean through and entred into the earth with his blood and Soul This Woman waâ— worth an Armie and a Nail in her hand effected that which ten thousand 〈◊〉 and as many Swords were not able to effect 〈◊〉 may well believe that this action was done by inspiration otherwâ—◠〈…〉 not have violated Hospitality which is naturally holy 〈…〉 to the Law of Nations She would not have corrupted 〈…〉 and favour not have staâ—nd it with blood and murther She would have at least respected the gentlenesse of her Sex and the sanctity of her Tent But it was Gods will on that day that two Women should work the Redemption of a whole Nation And that by this example they should teach posterity that great forces are not necessary to great Actions that the powers of the earth break asunder if never so little touched and that without framing Engines or rolling mountains there needs but one thrust to cause the fall of a Colessus A MORAL REFLECTION I Fear that if I propose the Example of Jahel to gallant women they will reject my proposition and abhor the blood and 〈◊〉 of this Precedent Nevertheless they may imitate her without violating the Lawâ— of Hospitality without exasperating the mildeness of their Sex without â—â—taging oâ— framing the 〈◊〉 with blood There are no more Canaanites to overcome not 〈◊〉 there another Sisera to vanquish But there are 〈…〉 there are commanding and 〈◊〉 Passion which are to the 〈…〉 at that day what Sisera and the Canaanites were heretofore to the Israelites Not only Men ought to take up arms against these spiritual 〈…〉 but even Women also must enter into this war and the 〈…〉 which they should hold with them would be a kinde of treason and 〈◊〉 Above all it there be any woman who hath entertained some Sisera in her 〈◊〉 who hath opened her heart and promised security unto some predominant Passion the ought to be advertised that this sort of charity is destructive and not to be 〈◊〉 in and that toward 〈…〉 mercy proves 〈◊〉 and fidelity scandalous and of dangerous example Saul was reproved for the 〈…〉 thrown to the king of the Amalekites and because he was pitiful out of â—â—ason and against the will of God he lost both â—rown and 〈…〉 Take heed of the liâ—e fault if you
be not prepared against the 〈◊〉 misfortune And if you have afforded a place of retreat to some Soveraign passion to some Capital and commanding vice Remember that you are bound in honour both to betrâ—y it and to keep no faith with it as it is a Sisera to you so ought you to be a Jahel to it and you shall be to it an Heroick and victorious Jahel if you â—ull it asleep with the blood of the Lamb and plane a Nail of the Cross in the Head of it A MORAL QUESTION Whether there was Infidelity in the Act of Jahel THe act of Jahel is not numbred amongst those which instantly gain approbation and which at first sight informs the understanding The colour of it is not so beautifull nor the face of it so taking There appeareth therein much dexterity and courage but there is deâ—â—ipt in this address and this courage hath something of barbarous in it 〈◊〉 the breach of faith seems in that action very evident cabinet and chamber 〈◊〉 cannot fail to fill their Common places therewith and to compose a piece against the infidelity of women But here and every where else we must defie seeming illusions and the false lights of the superficieâ—â— We must beware of fastning our opinions upon the 〈◊〉 of things and of judging by the colour The outside 〈◊〉 deceitful and 〈◊〉 into beliefe And very often colours are more 〈◊〉 and have more Justice about vice then vertue Moreover since the holy Ghost himself hath set forth the praise of Jahel since he hath inspired her with a prophetick mouth and hath even dictated it to one of his writers we need not fear to hazard our esteem upon his approbation not make a scruple to honour the memory of a vertue whereof he hath lest us the 〈◊〉 and picture after his own manner There was then prudence and conduct addresse and courage in this action of Jahel and particularly fidelity which is questioned was herein couragious and magnanimous It was fortified with zeal and consecrated to Religion I know not whether Jahel might owe something to Sisera and the Canaanites who were the enemies of God Tyrants over his people and publick oppressors of the posterity of the Patriarchs But I know very well that she could not engage unto them a second faith against the first which she owed to God against the Law of her forefathers and to the ruine of that holy nation A treaty of this nature had been an Apostaâ—ie of State and Religion and she could not have kept her word without the breach of her saith without betraying her brethren without sinning against God and Moses The Holy Scripture very well observes that there was some kinde of peace between the house of her husband Hebar and the Canaanites But this was not a regular peace and according to usual forms It was but a good interval hardly and dearly purchased by the weakest side It was but 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and pillages which the Canaanites accorded to the house of Hebar in respect of the contributions they drew from them And doubtlesse this Accord on Hebars part was without preâ—udice to the faith he owed to God and his people and this particular repose which he purchased was not a falling off from the common cause It was in all probability of the same nature as particular Treaties are now adayes between common people residing upon Frontiers who 〈◊〉 and sword with money who divert the â—undation and inâ—oad of the Enemie by contributions which they lay upon them this is properly called and without abusing the term so conâ—ure a tempest and charm wilde beasts But these charms and comutations do not binde the Common people who put them in practise They live within the limits of 〈◊〉 and under the duty of joyning as occasion serves with the Troop of their 〈◊〉 of maâ—â—hing against the common enemie of 〈◊〉 the same beasts which they themselves had enchanted The Treatie of Hebar with the Canaanites was in this form It was not a surrender of his right not a dispensation of his duty It was an innocent Charm against 〈◊〉 and sword against Tyrants and oppressors And the waâ— undertaken against them proceeding from the will of God 〈◊〉 by expresse revelation and declared by the Regâ—nâ— Prophetâ—â— as he might list himself without any â—reachers amongst the Troops and â—oyn hiâ— Arms with the common Armâ— for the liberty of the people In Jahel with a good Conscience and meâ—â—t might let her hand to the same work the might be aâ—ding by her 〈◊〉 and forces to break the Chaâ—â— of her brethren she might finish by a particular inspiration the victory which Debora had begun with publick Authority and by the Spirit of Prophesie This particular inspiration supported the common Interest and strengthened natural reason And Jahel exâ—ited on the one side and perswaded on the other exposed for the people both her life and reputation to a hazardouâ— enterprise and which might leave her an ill â—ame Thereby the performed an 〈◊〉 Act of fidelity towards God whom she obeyed towards the â—aw of her Ancesters which she established by the ruine of the opposite Power towards her people whole â—oke she brake and whose chainâ— she rent in pieces towards posterity to which she conserved both Religion and the Sanctuary Freedom and Hope Neverthelese this Act is reckoned amongst those extrâ—ordinary oneâ— which surpaâ—â— received Laws and exceed such measures as are in use It may well 〈◊〉 us admiration and respect but we cannot 〈◊〉 a model of it and draw copies from thence And since Fidelity is an essential part in a Gallant Woman it is proper to produce some exampleâ— whereby vertue all Pure and without the least appearance of stain may serve as well for Imitation as Shew EXAMPLE Joan of Beaufort Queen of Scotland and Catherine Douglas IT is with the History of Scotland as with those frightful pictures wherein nothing is represented but dead and wounded Bodies nothing but fired houses and ruines One cannot ingage himself in it without passing over blood and murthers nay even upon sacred blood and paracide murthers and it is very strange that so little a crown should be divided by so many factions and so often stained with the death of those who have worn it That of James the First was a Tragedy which might passe for an Oriâ—â— either in the time of 〈◊〉 or in the Age of Oedipus But as there is never any Age represented so cruel wherein some person of good life doth not interâ—â—ne who reads not upon the stage lessons of Vertue and corrects the scandal which others give Two women who were present at the death of this good Prince gave an example of Fidelity which cannot be seen now adayes in history without applauding and 〈◊〉 it at least in thought The 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 a Scotchman being possessed with the Ambition of 〈◊〉 which is a bloody Devil and the Instigator of Paracid◠〈◊〉 against his Nephew King
them nothing but the exteriour to burn Neither do I know whether they respect not the very marks which appear upon these bloody and torn reliques Surely they owe this and more to that Fire superiour to all others And the impression of Charitie ought to be at least in like reverence and no less sacred then the impression of Lightning Heretofore the Flames of the Babylonian Furnace had this discretion either Natural or Divinely inspired They respected the three Jews whom Faith and Charity had consecrated And by a violent breaking out like that of a Lion who should leave his prey and fall upon his Keeper they devoured those Ministers of Impiery who kindled them But nothing but Miracles of Courage and Patience will be wrought here God will permit the Consummation of the Sacrifice and receive all the Smoak of it Salomona her self who hath hitherto fought but in heart and been only tryed against Compassion shall be suddenly tryed against Grief By the same Force wherewith she restrained all her Tears she will pour out all her Blood She will overcome Cruelty as she hath vanquished Nature And after seven Deaths suffered in Minde and by Piece-meal she will endure the last which shall be the Recompence and Coronation of all the rest SONNET IN Natures sight in sight of Heav'n above Brave Salamona combats Grief and Love Which through her seven Sons Breasts with deadly Smart Have made a Rent in her undaunted Heart Nor Blood nor Tears do trickle from her wound All that 's in her is with true Valour Crown'd Her Faith dâ—â—ends that Breach â—midst horrid pains Her Soul much more believes then it sustains What cannot Love improve its force unto What hath not Faith abundant pow'r to do The Love of seven brave Sons dear as her Eyes Makes her endure seven Deaths before she dies Yet Faith does more and by a rare â—ffort Which Love should emulate in its transport Makes her seven times a Martyr ere paâ—e Death Constrains her to forsake her vital Breath ELOGIE OF SALOMONA THe Mother of the Macchabees was peradventure the first Gallant Woman who sought without Arms and overcame by death She was the Daughter of holy Conquerers and the Mother of Martyrs and gave to Judâ—â— a Christian Heroess before Christianity In the common ruine of her Countrey and general Martyrdom of her Nation all sorts of Enginâ— were applyed to withdraw her Children from the Religion of their Parents They were put to defend themselves against objects both of delight and terrour and to overcome a Tyrant armed with favours and punishments The Couragious Mother assisted at all their Combats and contributed her voice her â—eal and spirit to their Victory so far was she from concealing them from Torments and Death that she produced them one after another armed with her Vertue and fortified with her Admonitions she animated them with her faith and warmed them with her tears she gathered together their â—lead skins and their mutâ—lated members as the matter both of their Crowns and of her own and as many deaths as she numbred so many accomplished Victories she counted in her Thoughts Not that she was lesse a Mother then the tender and weeping ones 〈◊〉 Her soul endured Iron and Fire in the bodies of her Children she â—ell in 〈◊〉 with their Members and her Heart melted away through theâ—â— Wounds But she knew the order and quality of her obligation It was her belief that she owed more to God then to her own blood and more to Religion then to her Race And knowing that a 〈◊〉 Death is more happy then a sinner who lives and reigns she chose rather to make a Family of Saints then of Apostates and to be rather a Mother in Heaven then upon Earth MORAL REFLECTION LEt our Ladies learn of this Jew to be Mothers and Christians Let them learn by her Example that Children given to God are not lost That it would be much better to have them innocent in a Grave then vitious on a Throne That a good Death is the best Fortune they can attain to And that it is for the glory of the Macchabees and the good of Children to be saved even before their time even with many pains even by their own blood and through all the Engines of Death and not to be damned after their old Age loaden with sorrows and sins It is a glory to the Earth that Marble stones which come out of its Bosom should become excellent Figures under the Hammer And it is better that a Shute should be cut off when it is yet tender and that it be grafted in the Garden of a Prince then to have it wither upon the Stem and serve only for matter of Fuell MORAL QUESTION Whether Religion be the Principal Vertue of a Gallant Women THere are some Vertues indeed of greater noise and carrying a saâ—er Glose then Religion but none of greater use not more necessary for a Gallant Woman All the rest what 〈◊〉 soever they make and what colour soever they have are without her but Stage-Vertues They resemble those superficial bodies made only for shew which are all Mask and Garment they have neither life nor spirit they are without form and consistence And though they seem to be active and full of motion yet they act to no purpose nor move but by Artificial wheels Even Force and Valour which are not supported by Religion are feeble and impotent At the most they have but a Flash of Choller and a precipitous Brutallity Prudence 〈◊〉 blinde without her â—â—ght And the Graces cannot please if Religion hath not adorned and instructed them There is then no solid and perfect Vertue without Religion and by this common reason 〈◊〉 all the rest should 〈◊〉 Religion ought to be the principal Form and the predominant Quality of a Gallant and sollidly Vertuous Woman But that is effected by a more 〈◊〉 and which reflects particularly upon the Courage which 〈…〉 this place there are 〈◊〉 functions of courage and 〈◊〉 were 〈◊〉 general duties which supportall particular ones and give a solid state and consistence to the whole life By the first it makes us act equally and with a constant and regulated â—â—ennesse by the second it fortifies the Mind against either Fortune and keeps it up what winde soever bloweth between the elevation and the fall By the third it arms the Heart against the corruptions of flesh and blood and preserves it from maternal Passions By the last it secures it against the apprehensions of Death 〈…〉 it victorious over this dreadful thing which is the common 〈◊〉 Bear of mankinde and the terrour of Nature These duties are noble and sublime But force should impertimently strive to use extraordinary violences it could never acquit it self with the aid of Morality alone it hath need of a more powerful assistance to support it of a supernatural and Divine Coadâ—â—â—esse to labour joyntly with it And this Coadjuâ—â—ess can be no other then Religion whose
part it is to loosen the soul from abject things and elevate it to God This elevation also being 〈◊〉 well undertaken and made without deviation is able alone to strengthen the minde and sufficeth without other Philosophie for all the duties of courage First all the Actions of life being subjected thereby to the eternal Law and applyed to soveraign Justice and to the essential and primitive Rule receive from thence an equal and constant evennesse and a â—ectitude incapable of deviation or infringement Secondly the soul approaching to God by this elevation and consequently illuminated by his â—â—ght and instructed in the orders established in the World by that Providence which governs it doth not repiningly and with frowardnesse receive that part of events which is assigned her she accomodates herself by degrees to the rules of this vast Family into which she is entred she performs her part of the consort and contributes at least her resignation to the designe of the great Workman and to the general harmonie of his Work Concerning Hazard and Fortune knowing very well that they are but Figures which Errour hath painted and set up and that none but Children and Ideots regard them she equally deâ—ides their favours and their threats And whatsoever happens to her of good or ill she receiveth it with the same satisfaction of Mind and acknowledgeth therein the care and goodness of the Father who sends it her Thirdly the soul is purified by this elevation and disburdens herself of matter And the neerer this elevation approaches her to God the stronger and more vigorous she is the purity also which she receives thereby is more exact and her disingagement more perfect she is thereby lesse capable of material passions and can raise her self to such a degree and unite herself so close and straightly to the first spirit that being made one spirit with him she forgets the allyance and interest of her body and assists indifferently and as a stranger to its sorrows and joyes In fine the Soul brought back by this elevation to the spring of life and led into the entrance of Eternity which is promised her learns to contemn these little Moments which roll within the Circle of time and mark out to every one the space and length of his life And so far is she from apprehending Death or being affrighted at the sight of its terrible Arms that she looks upon it as her Deliverer as that which was to break her Chainâ— and loosen her from the wheel of revolutions and human viâ—issitudes The Synagogue in its declining Age had in Salomona an Example of this Religious Fortitude The Church in her beginning had the like in S. Felicitas who was a Roman Salomona and who of seven Sons which God had given her and by her restored to him made seven Christian Maccabees In these last Ages in which Schismatical Tyrants have succeeded Idolatrous ones and unbridled and furious Heresie hath fought against the Church and Faith There hath been plenty of Heroick Women who have given examples of theâ—â— Fortitude and Religion Behold here one of Note and chosen amongst our Neighbours where we shall see a Woman an Exhortresse not of her Children but of her Father a Martyr A Woman above interest and Nature and equally victorious over Fortune and Death EXAMPLE Margaret Moor the Daughter of Sir Thomas Moor Lord Chancellor of England THere is no Person who hath not heard some Discourse of the Birth of the Schism in England and who knows not the Cruelties which followed that Incestuous and Tragical Love and that fatal Malice which of a Prostitute made a Queen and of an excommunicated Lay-man of a rotten and mutilated Member made a Soveraign Prelate without Unction and Order a Schismatical and Monstrous Head The Lord Chancellour Moor was one of the first and most noble Victims Immolated to Aâ—â—e of Bullen and to the Schism which was born of this unfortunate Marriage King Henry omitted no kinde of Temptation to gain this learned and wise old man who was grown white in the Service of the State and had spent fourty Years to the Honour of his Countrey and Time But all his temptations proved weak and his Offers as well as his Threats returned back to him without effect The Chancellor was stronger then all the Engins which were prepared against him the Prayers and Tears of his afflicted and mourning Kindred were not able to move him The Engins and Rage of an inflamed and furious Tyranny could not alter his resolution He had a Daughter called Margaret who was no lesse the Daughter of his Spirit then of his Body He had formed her with his Tongue and polished her with his Pen He had imprinted in her by degrees and in divers Figures the Flower of his Learning and the Spiritual part of his Soul And he that shall represent to his imagination an exact Graver and jealous of the perfection of his Work who should spend Dayes and Nights about some rare piece of Marble which he designes for one of the Muses or Graces will have a right imagination of the Cares and Assiduity which this good Father had shewn in the instruction of this excellent Daughter His Cares also proved successeful and his Assiduity was very fortunate And if it be a common saying that Books are the Children of their Authors one may well say that this Daughter was the most learned and polished Book which issued from the Minde of Sir Thomas Moor. His Vtopia and other Works which still live are but in one Language and of one matter That other Piece was both Greek and Latine Prose and Verse full of Philosophie and Historie Of all the Family of Sir Thomas Moor there was scarce any but this Woman learned and couragious who went not along with the Time not was pliable to Interest She was singularly beloved of her Father and a few Words of her Mouth accompanied with as many Tears would have battered him more dangerously then all the suborned Ministers of Henry and all the Engins of Schism Neverthelesse these so powerful words and these forcible Tears which might have shaken him were all imployed to confirm him Friendship and Tenderness fortified his â—aith and gave Courage to his Constancie And the Piety of the Daughter added to the Zeal of the Father and finished his Martyrdom Sir Thomas Moor being Prisoner in the Tower of London where he was visited by God alone and had commerce with none but the Muses which suffered with him his Couragious Margaret caused a forged Letter to be spread abroad in which she feignedly seemed willing to gain him to the Kings Will and procured leave by this innocent and charitable deceit both to see and serve him Being received into the Tower she left at the gate with the person she had taken upon her the resentments of Nature and the weaknesse of her Sex and entred with the pure Spirit of Christianity and with a couragious Faith prepared for the Combat
of Jasper and Porphire SONNET WHile this Heroick Mede attempts to gain O're weighty Palms be by their poyse is slain His Brow still sweats with Gallans Actions done Still do's the Blood about his Armour run His Hearts late active Flames have lost their Fire And through its reaking Blood in Smoak expire While couch'd among the Dead his Soul pursues The wand'ring Shades of those the sword subdues O hold Panthea hold thy best Relief Rests in the moderation of thy Grief Save thou at least thy Husbands second Heart And let one Death suffice your common Smart In thee he still survives and may again In thee fair Cruel by thy Hand be slain Thâ— inhumane Steel that shall dismiss thy Breath To him must needs procure a second Death ELOGIE OF PANTHEA PANTHEA had a Philosophers Spirit in a Womans Bodie and a knowing and disciplined Soul under a Barbarous Climat There was nothing weak or rustical in her Life All her Actions were full of Courage and Dexteritie Chastity Grace and Modesty excepted nothing appeared in her agreeable to her Sex Having remained a Captive after the Defeat of the Assyrians vanquished by Cyrus she was set apart as the most precious piece of the Spoil and as the choicest fruit of the Victory And in this occasion her Vertue appeared more rare and prizable then her Beauty A noble man of Persia having had the Impudence to attempt upon her Honour Discretion Chastity and Fidelity defended it And the Victory which remained to her evidently shewed that Fortune had not yet overcome her And that though she were an absolute Captive yet she had alwayes a free Heart and a soveraign Soul The Affection she bore to her Husband Abradates was serious and manly she did not consume it in affected Discourses and superfluous Apprehensions She truly loved his Life and Repose but she was jealous of his Reputation and Renown And she would rather have wished him an untimely and glorious Death then a dishonoured and compleat old Age. So far was she from making him lose in her Closet the hours of the Field and from withdrawing him from Gallant Encounters and Honourable Dangers that she sent him thither in a costly Equipage like a Conquerer that she delighted to see in him an adorned and sumptuous Valour which might both dazle and affright which might beget at once both Admiration and Fame He died likewise Victorious in the Gold Armour which she had bought for him with her Pearl and pretious Stones as if she intended thereby either to adorn his Death or to set a Value and Lustre on his Victory Being brought to her covered over with his own Blood and that of his Enemies she received him Couragiously and with a manly Constancy mixt with sorrow and Majesty She forbore not to bewail him but it was done with those modest and decent Tears which do not soften the Heart but beautifie the Face Not being able to make his Soul return into his Body she essayed to substitute her own in the place of it For that end she opened her Bosom by a wide wound and leaning on him as if she were willing to fill his Heart with her Blood and Life she dyed in two Bodies and yeelded up her Soul through her Husbands Wound and and her own MORAL REFLECTION I Put not here a Sword into Womens Hands nor invite them unto Poison a Halter or Precipice Voluntary Death might appear handsom and becoming in this Barbarian it would seem black and hideous in a Christian Woman But Chastity Fidelity and Constancie are in use with all Nations and requisite for All Sects And our Christian Women without darkning or disfiguring themselves may imitate Barbarian Let them learn of her that Conjugal Love is not an effeminate and mincing Passion That it is vigorous and serious That it is capable of great Designes and of Noble and Couragious Thoughts Let them understand that though their Sex be exempted from the Dangers and Functions of War yet their Fortunes and Mindes are not so that they ought to serve with their Goods and Possessions if not with their Persons And that it were a Disgrace for them to spare two or three Pearls and Parcels of rich Cutwork in Occasions wherein Princes are Liberal of their Blood and Kings expose their Crowns and Heads In fine let them know that their chief Ornament consists in their Husbands Glory that they ought to adorn themselves with all that contributes to their Credit and Reputation And that a man without Honour is as great a Deformity to a brave Woman as a Head of Clay to a Statue of Ivorie MORAL QUESTION Concerning the Order which a Gallant Woman ought to observe in Conjugal Love IF good Eyes and a great Light be requisite to love regularly more Courage and Vertue is yet required to it And well ordained Charity what sweetness soever it promiseth is the most powerful and the most rare perfection of a Gallant Woman There are many who tenderly love their Husbands The Heart of a Turtle or the Soul of a Dove without other Philosophie would suffice for this Tendernesse But surely few there are that love them according to measure and in order to their duties few that know how to afford just proportions to their kindnesses and to set every office in its place and in the degree which is proper to it Finally few that can boast with the Spouse in the Canticles of having a regular Love and a well ordered Charity And neverthelesse it is this regular Love and well ordered Charitie which must accomplish the Fortitude of a Woman For according to the saying of S. Augustine these give the Character and Tincture to all other Vertues of what Sex soever they be and by what Names soever they are called Morever this Order to draw the Designe of it in little and to teach it by Epitomie must be taken from the very order of those Objects that are beloved Wherein this proportion is to be exactly observed that every Object be ranked in the esteem and according to the degree of its Merit That the most pretious and important should have the first Cares and be furthest advanced in the Heart that the rest of lesse consequence should remain in the superficies and rest satisfied with the second thoughts and remaining Affections And generally that love should grow intense or remisse rise or fall act or acquiesce according to the different weight according to the several degrees according to the Value of the good which is to be affected and pursued This Rule ought to be in a Gallant Woman what the Rod was to the Angel whom Ezekiel saw measuring the Temple She ought not to Love but with proportion according to the quantity of merit And how vast soever her Heart is she must yet be wary of pouring it out rashly and at random she ought to give nothing of it but by weight and measure Not that I permit her to divide and distribute it to whom
she pleaseth she owes it all entire to her Husband But she owes it not equally to her whole Husband And as she owes more of it to his Person then to his Apparel and Livery more to his Head then to his Hair and more of it to his Hands then to his Nails so she owes more to his Honour then to his Life more to his Conscience then to his Honour more to his Soul and Salvation then to his Bodie and Fortune These measures and proportions are taken from Moral Philosophie which teacheth us that such Loves as are loosned from us and slide out of us are but small threads of that Love which remains in us They are taken from Christian Philosophie which directs that Charity whether it be terminated in our selves or shed upon our Neighbour should be of the same Nature both in its source and where it makes its discharge and that it should passe from one to another to the same end by the same tracks Now there is no Woman so ill instructed who knows not that by the Law of well ordered Charity she owes her essential and principal parts and as I may say the Heart of her Heart to his Honour and eternal Happiness And owes only the accessory and superficial parts to his Life and Fortune By this Law then as such Wives love themselves immoderately and inordinately who give to their Honour and Salvation but their second affections and the remaining cares after their lives secured and their Fortunes setled So such do love their Husbands very confusedly and without discretion who torment themselves both day and night about their Health who demand of Fortune Riches and noble Offices for them and put themselves to as little trouble concerning their Souls and Salvation as if the Bodie were the whole Person and as if beyond the Tomb there were nothing but Fables to be expected and nothing but Fantomes to be feared Certainly so inconsiderate a Love must needs have very bad Eyes And it cannot be whatever men say but a very childish and besotted Love to value things by the sound and colour to forsake the solid which is obscure and noiseless and to run after the superficial which is bright and resounding What would they say of a Woman who should take the pains every morning to present flowers unto her Husband and who should at a great expence cause Essences and pretious Powders to be brought from forreign parts to perfume his Clothes and Linen who should take upon her to feed his Servants and Horses who should disconsolately lament the fall of one Hair from his Head and the prick of a pin on his Hand And after all these Tendernesses and Cares could without Emotion and with a quiet Spirit see him choak'd with an Apoplexie torn in pieces by his Dogs and tyed upon a Wheel What might be spoken of this Woman ought to be said of the most discreet and prudent Women I mean the discreet and prudent according to the sence of the World There are some of these wise and discreet Women who employ all sorts of Cares and Inventions about the Body and Passions of a Husband The touch of a Lancet which should but scratch the skin would even pierce their Hearts and cause their very Souls to issue forth by their Eyes A sleight Feaver which shall draw but a few drops of sweat from him will congeal the blood in their veins And as for his soul which is the essential and important piece in order to Eternity they lesse deplore its falls and wounds then they would lament a torn Gorget or a broken Dish of Purcelane They will suffer it without trouble to be tormented by as many Hangmen as there are sins to be confiscated to the Divine Justice and to its eternal Executioners to become a prey to Hell and the second Death A Gallant Woman will not have such confused cares nor such disproportionable kindnesses All her Offices will be Just and Regular And if Panthea who was but a Heathen nay a Barbarous Heathen had a Heart Noble and Philosophical enough to with her Husband rather a precipitated and Honourable Death then an effeminate and dishonourable old Age our Christian Woman who hath more light and a better Guide will advance one step farther and will rather wish for the last perfection of her Love that her Husband might ascend to Heaven before his time though he went thither without Feet or Hands as the Gospel saith nay without either skin or Head then to descend into Hell all entire and loaden with Scepters and Crowns This Vertue is not without example some of them are seen in the Palaces of Kings where present interest crouds in and findes so much relief and where the pretensions for the future are so little considerable and abandoned Those which I am going to present to your View are of this Nature they give not only instruction to Women but will render Honour to France which hath educated Holy Queens and Martyred Princesses EXAMPLE Indegundis and Clotilda of France SPAIN was never so well cultivated nor so Catholick as now it is It hath had Monsters and Heresies Gertons and Arians in a time when 〈◊〉 was â—et a Virgin and when Rebellions and Errors were not 〈◊〉 come to disturb her Repose and adulterate her Innocence We were necessitated to make Alliances and Wars for the instruction of this good Neighbour And the Faith whereof she now so much â—aunteth hath cost us exposed Princesses and ruined Armies Indegundâ—â— the Daughter of Sigâ—â—â—rt was one of these Princesses exposed for the propagation of Faith and the reduction of Spain from Arianisme 〈◊〉 caused her to be demanded in Marriage for Hermenigildus his eldest Son The Counsel sat long without being able to resolve on this Alliance with an excommunicated House But God who intended to make a Saint of Indegundis carried it at last against Sigebert who feared least in seeking to make her a Queen she were made a Heretick The first 〈◊〉 of her Marriage had a most pure serenity and flowers without thorns or bitternesse Hermenigildus for all the Crowns of the World would not have changed the pleasing tye which fastned him to so rare and perfect a Princesse and possessing in her both Vertue and Graces he thought that there was nothing more to be asked of Glory or Fortune But so sweet a season was not to last long Dark Clouds quickly gathered together which overshaded this fair serenity There grew Thorns and Wormwood amongst these Flowers And the sweet Chain which was the Dradem of Hermenigildus Heart chanced to be broken by the malice of his Step-Mother Gosuinda This unhappy Woman possessed by the Devil of Arianism undertook to pervert Indegundis and proposed unto her to receive the profane Baptism of her 〈◊〉 Her sâ—â—atagems and wiles having ill success she imploied therein 〈◊〉 and Tyranny even to that height as she made her to be cast naked into a Pond threatning to drown her unless
Couragious and so little expected an Action raised a Tumult in the Temple and confusion amongst the people No person is seen there who reflects on the Goddesse or remembers the Sacrifice The Victimes which were already at the Foot of the Altar crowned with Garlands of Flowers and powdred over with fine Meal were affrighted at the Noise made about them And saving themselves with their Garlands and Ribbons threw down the Perfumes and Censors and scattered the Assistants surprized with Astonishment Superstition and Fear Instead of bringing them back the most confident accompany them in their Flight The Virgins of Diana only stayed behinde and they themselves were detained by a Terrour which tyed their feet and congealed the Blood in their Veins Their astonishment and fear appeared on their faces which bore the Color of their Garments The very flowers of their Crowns seemed to wax pale by their Example and Affrightment The Torches fallen from their Hands are extinguished by the Milk and and Wine of the Goblets which were tumbled down And of these two confounded Liquors a third is composed which retains the Colour of them both In this general tumult Camma alone remains quiet and undaunted She was never more fair and Graceful then you now behold her She never drank any thing more delicious or pleasing to the taste then that Remnant of Death she newly gave her Enemie The sweetnesse of the Revenge she took wrought upon her Heart before the poison and penetrated even to the bottom of her Soul There was spread from thence upon her face an effusion of Joy accompanied with a majestical and pleasing fiercenesse even Anger it self was there graceful and the last drops of its Gall had there a kinde of Sweetnesse Nothing is seen in her of that Death she had taken in her Couutenance resembles a Conqueresse and in her Attire something appears festival and Triumphant The very Flowers where with she is Crowned seem to rejoyce that they shall not be carried to a profane and polluted Bed And that they shall dye Ghast and without Blemish in her Company It was believed that she had taken them to sacrifice with more decencie and to render Honour to her Ministery and new Marriage And this was done to go more adorned to Sinnatus and to Triumph over Sinorix with more Pomp. The wretched Man dejected by the Guilt of his Conscience and pierced by the Reproaches of Camma falls on the Ground with the Fatal Cup which deceived him The Palenesse of Death which he drank begins to spread it self on his Face And disquieted by his Despair no lesse then by his Anger he looks upon Camma with Eyes which speak neither a Lover nor a Husband I think also that he vents forth against her all the Gall of his Spirit which is more bitter and comes from a far worse spring then the poison he drank And being able to do her no more mischief he dismembers her at least by his desires and Gesture And makes of her Bodie as many pieces as he sends forth Imprecations and Reproaches against her She hears him coldly and without Trouble It may be said that she loves him in this Condition And having never beheld him without Horrour she now sees him with Joy Meanwhile the Poison gaining on her Noble Parts and finding the Heart half open by the Effort which her Soul makes there to sally forth and reunite it self to Sinnatus behold her sinking between the Hands of her Maids They are well recovered of their first disorder but in no Condition to help her if their tears serve not for an Antidote The best they can do is to lift up their Eyes and hands to the Goddesse and to demand of her by their Gestures and Sighes the preservation of so sublime a Vertue for the Honor and Example of their Sex Do not believe that they are heard Camma opposeth their Petitions and offers up Prayers to the contrary In the Smoak of the extinguished Torches and the overturned Censors she beholds the Ghost of Sinnatus still bleeding from his VVound who gives her a signe that it is time to depart And that she is expected in the Region of Chast and Faithful Souls Her impatience redoubles at this Object And her Heart closing up she takes leave of the Goddesse Craves Pardon for having in her Temple and at the Foot of her Altar and Image sacrificed to Love and Revenge And with these last words rendred up her Spirit with a serene Countenance and such as a Conquerour would have who after the gaining of a Victory should expire in the fâ—uition of his Glory SONNET THis Queen whose noble wrath admits no rest With poison at her Lips Death neer her Breast Do's the now trembling Synnorix upbraid With that sad stroke his murd'rous Hand convey'd Her Husbands Ghost which often call'd in vain With Langnor pale yet bloody as when slain Waits to receive her in that Cloud the late Extinguish'd Torches with their smoak create Brave Soul forsake not thy fair Prison stay Do not Renowned Camma post away To thy Sinnatus ere the poisnous Draught Have on his Murd'rers Head due Vengeance wrought To which the Heav'ns and all things else conspire With his sad Fate and thy inflamed Ire And Love himself iâ— accelerate his pain Megrra's Torch and Deaths cold Shafts hath ta'ne ELOGIE OF CAMMA CAMMA Princess of Galatia and the Wife of Sinnatus was doubly Soveraign and reigned by the right of her blood and by that of her Face Her Beauty which was her first Crown drew Suters to her and furnished her with Combats and these Combats rendred her Spint sit for War and manifested her Courage and â—idelity Her Vertue made Fortune Jealous and her Beauty begot Love in Sinorix But not complying with Sinorix and abandoning all to Fortune she remained victorious over both Sollicitations and Services proving unsuccesseful to Sinorix he employed Despair and Crimes And perswaded that a vacant place would be weakly defended and with lesse obstinacie he murdered Sinnatus and of his Bodie makes a step to his Bed and Throne This Blow strengthened the Couragious Princesse instead of dejecting her She gave no Ear to the bloody Ghost of Sinnatus which summoned her And before she would follow him resolved to revenge his Death After so soul and base a Treachery Sinorix renewed his addresses and sweetned them with the Name of Marriage He presented himself to Camma with all the Artifices and Disguisement by which he thought to hide from her his Crime She failed not to discern it through all his Arts and Disguises and to scent the Murther and blood which remained still fresh upon him Nevertheless the restrained her self And for fear of losing her stroke if she lifted up her hand too high she enclosed her Designe in her Heart with her Anger In sine after many premeditated difficulties and counterfeit irresolutions she seigned to submit to the perswasions of her Kindred who sollicited her in Sinorix behalf and gave
no other Attendance then his own Family Neither did he think to go to a Siege or Battel he beheved that his Voyage was to a Treaty of Marriage and a Marriage is not treated of with Armies and Engins of War No man espouseth a beating Drum or flying Colours As soon as he arrived in Navarre King Garcius a Complice in the Treason of his Sister Theracia received him with outrages and reproaches and without giving him time to recollect himself commits him to Prison and causeth him to be loaden with Chains more harsh and ponderous then those which he came to seek Sanchia advertised of so soul a Treason to which she had contributed innocently and with no ill intent thought her self obliged for the Justification of her promise and for the Honour of her House to assist a Prince who was taken in her Name and by her promise She found out a means to see him in Prison and this sight mollified her Heart and laid it open to Passion which never before found any accesse unto it Pitty which is not bashfull and suspected by no man entred first boldly and without resistance Love stole in fearfully after her and was there received upon the ingagements made by Gonzales and upon the faith which had been given him Sanchia was already sufficiently tied by the promise delegated to the King of Navarre her brother and to her sister the Queen of Leen But she found her self there much faster tied by the chains of Gonzales She renewed to him the promise she had sent him by the ministers of her brothers treachery And having given necessary orders for his liberty she took him out of prison and fled away with him to Castile where she was married to him in great pomp and with the general applause of the people I confesse that there was much of boldnesse in this action and I would not pardon it in a Maid who had followed a wandring fire and played the part of a 〈◊〉 or a Lucipps But if we consider that Sanchia was no longer at her own dispose nor at her brothers that she was promised and betrothed to Gonzales that she had given her faith out of obedience And that she owed more to her betrothed faith then to the treachery of her House her boldnesse will be no reproach to her memory And men will rather give her an honourable ranke amongst the Herâ—â—sses then joyn her with the wandring women of Romances Neverthelesse the King her brother did not take it in that sense As soon as he was advertised of his prisoners and sisters flight he presently raised a powerfull Army and fell into Castile But he fell in under so ill a Planet that he was defeated in the first Battell and by the sport of Fortune which mingles at her pleasure chains and Crowns and placeth them sometimes upon one Head and sometimes upon an other or to speak more Christianly by a just disposure of Divine Providence which would punish Injustice and Treachery the King of Navarre in his turne remained prisoner to his Fugitive and was loaden with the same Chains he had brought for him After some moneths of imprisonment Gonzales moved by the perswasions of his Wife set him at liberty and sent him back with honour to his Kingdom These benefits ought to be ranked amongst those Coals which according to the saying of the Wiseman give new heat to congealed Charity and reenkindle extinguished affection But they stirred up hatred and inkindled a new warre which would have caused great flames and ruines if the wise and couragious Sanchia before one drop of blood was spilt had not mediated between her Husband and Brother and quenched with her tears the fire which had taken on all sides These tears which had vertue enough to extinguish a warre already flaming and to pacifie two Kingdoms in Arms had not enough to sweeten the Animosity of a Woman The Queen of Leen reserved her passion in all the Treaties which were held And in all the Articles which were proposed to her whatsoever her lips and tongue did swear and whatsoever her hand did signe she full sware in her mind and signed in her heart the death of Gonzales The obstinate Princess not content with having laboured unprofitably and at a great expence to dishonour the Name of the King her Brother with having perverted her Faith and falsified her promise took away also the Honour and Reputation of the King her Husband And perswaded him to make of his Word and Faith a second snare for Gonzales The Faith of Kings is sacred Their Promise is holy And it is a prophanation and a kinde of Sacriledge to convert them into Deceits and Treasons and to make them serve for Baits to Circumventions This Prince nevertheless seduced by his Wife consented to the Prophanation of his Word and Faith He convened the States of his Kingdom and sent thither the Earl of Castile The Earl had sight good enough to discern afar off the snare which was laid for him but he had too good a Heart and too confident a Soul to avoid a snare from which he knew not well how to flie but by flying from his Duty and turning his back to his Reputation He stuck fast then to his Reputation and Duty and committed his Life and Liberty to Fortune Fortune nevertheless which is said to be favourable to bold Actions gave him no better entertainment at Leon then he had received at Navarre He found there a second Prison and as strong and heavy chains as the former And found no Sanchia in that place who might break these chains and open the Prison for him But Love which was more just then Fortune and works far other Miracles did not long retard the bringing thither his Deliveress And if she had been Couragious and Faithful during the time of Contract she shewed her self yet more Couragious and Faithful in the state of Marriage Assoon as she had notice of her Husbands Captivity her first thought was to march in the head of twenty thousand men to destroy his Prison with Fire and Sword and to bring him back to Castile through the Ruines and Light of a flaming Province To this first thought which arose from her Courage another succeeded wherein there was more of Prudence and more of Safety for her Husband She fixed upon that though the danger thereof was more evident for her self And she resolved to oppose to a foul and treacherous fraud an innocent and purely charitable deceit She chose amongst the most Faithful servants of the Earl her Husband all those who had most courage and strength and commanded them to follow her without noise and with Arms of more effect then shew This done she began her journey in the habit and Marks of a Pilgrime passeth every where for a Woman of quality who went to perform her Vow made to S. James And being arrived in Leon with two Knights she so craftily and dexterously assaulted the Gates of the
Loves leaving him to bequeath her self to the Romans She carryed away ather going off all the favours she had given him she resumed all her Crowns and Scepters And of so many Marks of Love of so many stately Pledges and glorious Ensignes she left him onely an impoisoned Ring to the end his Despair might possesse at least something that was rich and that a Diamond might procure him a more honourable and glorious Death then a halter could do This pernicious Example spread it self thorowout all Asia and the Infidelity of Fortune was followed with the Revolt of the People But that which will move Pittie even in Treacherous Asia and would do the like in Fortune if she had any sensible part that which will be lamented by deserting and Rebellious People is that Mithridates as jealous of his Wife as despairing of his Affairs resolved to depart out of the World to remain no longer in the power of Fortune and to take a Course that his Wife might first go out of it not to leave her behinde in the Hands of his Enemies This Barbarous Resolution accompanied with a far more Barbarous Command hapned to be brought to the Queen by an Eunuch of her Chamber The Message was delivered solemly and with Ceremonie with mournful looks and a Pomp which resembled some great Funeral Monima on the contrary received it with her Festival Countenance and a Face full of Joy She likewise adorned her self and put on all her Jewels to perform it with the greatest shew and Lustre As if she had taken this Message for a Defiance of Fortune and Mithridates she resolved to brave them both and inform the World that she had rather be with Death then alive with Jealous Mithridates or deceitful Fortune Being informed that her Husband carried in an easie and woundlesse Death an impoisoned Ring she believed that her Diadem might well be as compassionate to her and render her the like office And that after the having deprived her of Liberty it might deprive her also of Life But the Diadem as you see is broken in her hands You will peradventure believe that Majestie opposeth it self thereunto and that it concerned his Honour not to suffer an Ensigne of Dignity and a Sacred and Regal Ornament to become an Instrument of Despair and a Fatal Core You will perchance believe that the Graces are come to the Aid of an Innocent and ill treated Grace and have hindred the Pearls which are particularly dedicated to them from being prophaned by her Death who is the Glory of their Sex and the Pearl of Asia Others will believe and peradvanture with more probability that the Diadem had much of the malice and Spirit of Fortune which wrought it And that it being made to deprive Monima of Liberty it ought rather to break then to bestow it on her However it were the Wise and Couragious Queen looks upon the pieces of it with a Countenance where there is lesse of Despair then Contempt and more of a Philosopher then a Woman This haughty and becoming Action mixed with fiercenesse and modesty hath something I know not what which explains it self more efficaciously then Clamours and Reproaches And a furious Woman who should exclaim with open mouth against Fortune could not do her more Despite nor so highly reproach her Impotencie Surely also the Woman that you see is not a painted Idol a dainty and voluptuous Barbarian and Asian fit onely for the Bed and Table She is a Couragious and knowing Beauty a severe and Stoical Beauty A Beauty which lead Philosophie into a Seraglio which reformed the Riot and Delights of a debauched Court which preserved amongst the Women and Eunuchs of Asia the Constancie and Austeritie of the Sages of Greece Notwithstanding all this she is commanded to die In vain do the Vertues and Graces intercede for her In vain do they appeal from her Husbands barbarous Will They will not procure it to be cancelled whatsoever they alledg to the contrary And you see already the poor Queen laid on her Bed and ready to receive the stroke which was to execute it But consider here on the one side the trouble of a brutish and discomposed Soul And on the other side the calme and serenity of a wise and well instructed Spirit The Eunuch is affrighted with the cruel Obedience which he is going to render unto his Master Of his two hands the guilty one which was to give this unhappy Blow proves weak and feeble scarce able to bear up the Sword The other more innocent is lifted up as if it stood upon its Guard either against some Fantome which threatned it or against the Lightning which issues forth of Monima's Eyes and which fills the Chamber with a sudden and new Light It would be hard to judge whether it be out of Fear or Respect that he turns away his Head whether he be affrighted with the Jealousie of his Master or dazled with the Majestie of his Mistresse whether he apprehends the being unfaithfull to the one or impious and Sacrilegious to the other Monima nevertheless confirms him and presents to him her naked Throat To behold the Serenitie of her Countenance and the sweetnesse of her Eyes you would take her for a Captive who flatters her Deliverer and intreats him speedily to break her Chains Hence it appears who would be most terrified with the Prick of a Thorn and who would be lesse bold in gathering a Rose You are astonished to see so much resolution joyned with so many Graces and so much Constancie in a Countrey of Riot and in an Asian Court Surely also the Graces are seldom accompanied with Resolution Constancie is not the Companion of Riot And the Vertue of Monima is not borne upon this Stately and Sumptuous Bed where you behold her The Jewels which load as much as they adorn her neither setled her Minde nor fortified her Courage Philosophie hath educated and trained her up with her own Hands and good Books have formed her They have been her Instructors in her Fathers House They are her Councellors and Confidents at Court She hath given them all the Hours which others bestowe on their Looking Glasses and Flatterers She hath drawn from them that Constancie and Vigour of Spirit which you behold in her And even at present she caused them to assemble upon this Table to be supported by them in this Combat and to overcome Fortune and Death by their Assistance and in their Sight But what Disposition soever she had to die Couragiously and like a Conqueresse her Despairing VVomen cry out against her Courage and oppose her Victory The boldest amongst them put back the Eunuch with her Hand and Voice She gives him injurious Language and yet tenders supplications to him Anger and Pittie speak both at one by her Mouth and you would say that either willingly or by force she will obtain from him the Death he prepares for her Mistresse The rest melt into Tears and tear
their gesture and countenance the same oath which Brutus takes Their fiery eys and their faces grown young again by a heat unknown to their age swear in the same form to extirpate the Tarquins Colâ—atin dazled with his affliction and loss doth not mind what they do but when he shall return out of this amazement he will mingle his zeal with theirs And all four consecrating themselves to liberty and revenge by touching that blood which this woman gathers up they joyntly renewed their vow to Lucrecia's Ghost And Lucrecia will be hereafter next unto liberty and vertue their Domestick Divinity and the principall Religion of their Families SONNET LUCRECIA speaks ALL Nations know my Tragedy I find That still the fact is fresh in ev'ry mind The blood still from me flows which in Rome's sight Repair'd my wrong and wash'd my honour white Nature admird my genrous Death set forth In History by Pens of greatest worth And to eternize me each hand that 's rare In Glory's Temple draws my Picture faire But all these marks of Honour and of praise What do they serve me for since now adayes They slander my disaster with the name Of Crime and wrongfully arraign my Fame But this affront my noble Ghost resents And to my Fate her thence-sprung sorrow vents Nay rather then endure so soul a slain I in this Pourtrait kill my self again The Apology and Elogy of LVCRECIA LVcrecia complains in these verses of her rigorous usage and of the charge laid against her to the dishonor of her Memory I have seen this charge and the sentence annext to it in the Books of the City of God I have been present sometimes at the declamations which one of the highest and strongest Vertues of her Sex is wont to make against her And I confess that if she be judged by the Christian Rule and the Laws of the Gospel she will be hardly able to justifie her Innocence The most favourable will be at least of S. Austins opinion and conclude with him that she neither merited the death she gave her self if she were innocent in her dishonour nor the praises she received if she were guilty of it Nevertheless were she withdrawn from this severe Tribunal where no Heathen Vertue appears which is not in danger to be condemned were she to be judged by the Law of her own Country and by the Religion of her time she will be found one of the chastest Women of her Age and one of the most couragious of her Country Noble and Vertuous Philosophy which so often accuseth her will absolve her of her disaster and be reconciled to her and every one will confess that her sin is less ascribable to her own fault then to the imperfection of the Law which had ill directed her and to the scandals of that Religion which had given her but bad presidents In effect the Law of that Country was then but specious and superficial the Moral was only applyed to plaister over the exteriour to imitate the countenance and gestures of Vertue to make fair masks and handsom delusions It touched not upon corrupted intentions it had no Rule for inordinate desires and in case depraved passions came not so far as to ill effects yet it abandoned them to their own sense and permitted their hearts to enjoy a liberty more then popular It allowed them an unpunishable and unrestrained freedom As for the Religion of the Romans which erected Courtisans into Goddesses and sacrificed to Adulterers it was not to be expected that it should produce Virgins and chaste Women Therein Lucrecia even ravished Lucrecia was better then the Gods of Rome It was not the love of pleasure nor the fear of death which induced her to sin but the love of Honour and the excessive fear she had to lose it and if she were not endowed with the resolution of Susaâ—â—s who sunk neither under death nor infamy it suffices to say in her excuse that she knew not the God of Susanna And the miracle would have been too great it a Heathen Woman had equalled one of the highest Vertues amongst the Faithful without the Law and the Graces which made them so Let us not forbear then to commend Lucrecia she is worthy of our praises Ancient Rome which hath been the Nurse of sublime natural vertues of great Pagan Heroes hath brought forth nothing more high and great nothing more gallant and couragious then Lucrecia This great City was the Exterminatrix of insolent Kings and the Mother of the Common-wealth And to bring into the World this famous Maid who ought to have commanded so many Nations she opened her own bosom and procured to her self a remarkable and violent death Therein she was more glorious and worthy of esteem then the Mother of the first Caesar whose belly was 〈◊〉 up to make way for the Usurper whom she bore in her womb The outragious Villain who offered violence to her Honour did not dishonor her Honour stuck close to Vertue and Vertue cannot be torn out of the heart it must fall of it self Being unable with her single hands to resist armed Force she repelled it with her minde and her soul raised it self as much as it could not to be stained with the impurity which defiled her body Besides she was willing to cleanse it with her blood and the zeal of her Modesty was so great as she punished upon her self the uncleanness which another had committed MORAL REFLECTION YOU who see Lucrecia dying in this Picture take heed lest her blood fall upon you and put you to the blush if you be a less chaste Christian then she was a chaste Idolatress And if you be pure in that point and possess the prime Vertues of your Sex remember that a chaste Woman is but an initiated Christian and that it is no great praise to you to be under the Law of a Virgin born and a Virgin-God what so many other have been under lascivious Gods and adulterous Goddesses But if your Honour be humble and modest if your Chastity be sweet charitable and religious if you be numbred amongst the industrious and prudent Virgins if you listen to the Bridegroom with patience and with a Lamp lighted in your hand if you be strong in the strength of Christianity all Ancient Rome whether of your Sex or ours was endued with less Fortitude then your selves And you do not only take away the honour from Lucrecia but you take it also from the Cornelia's the Panthea's and the 〈◊〉 you take it from all the Vertues of the Republick and Empire MORAL QVESTION Whether Chastity belongs to the Honour of Heroesses and great Ladies I Have seen the discourse of Tassus concerning the vertue of Ladies and I understand very well the difference that he places betweeen the honour of Women and that of Heroesses But I very well discern to what his discourse doth tend And I am not ignorant of his sickness caused by the Princess 〈◊〉 of Esâ—e
the more burthened nor the more exposed to Tempests None being able to perswade these Barbarous People to receive her all entire she did not forbear in spight of them to imbark her spirit and heart with her Husband and that she might follow him at least in part she put her Body into a Fishermans Bark and exposed it to the Winds and Waves which carried away the rest Fortune favoured so couragious a Fidelity The Spirit and Body of Arria arrived at Rome at the same time And being re-united at their arrival did joyntly and with mutual cares sollicite the freedom of Cicinna Her endeavours finding ill success she resolved to die And she sufficiently explained her self by the reproach she used towards the wife of 〈◊〉 for surviving the death of her Husband slain in her bosom Her Son-in-Law Thrascus alledged all that he could devise to perswade her to live All that he could invent not prevailing with her You have a mind then saith he that your Daughter should abandon her self to the like despair And you condemn her to die with me when Fortune shall ordain that I must perish My Example doth not condemn her replyed she And when she shall have lived as long and with as sweet an harmony as I have done with Cicinna she may die boldly without my coming back to take the sword out of her hand or the poison out of her mouth Her kindred being advertised by this Answer that her Resolution was of more force then their Reasons they renewed their cares and diligences towards her She besought them to suffer her quietly to die and not to change an easie death into a painfull one Having said this she violently threw her self against the next Wall and fell into a swound Being come again to her self with much ado I did tell you saith she that all you could do was but to hinder me from dying quietly and at ease All the violent Attempts which Arria made upon her soul did not loosen the soul of Cicinna nor perswaded it to depart Honourably out of the World and without expecting the violence of his Enemies She went at last to see him And declared to him that if he had not courage enough to go first he ought at least to have enough to follow her She represented to him on the one side the shame of being continually made a 〈◊〉 game by a prostituted Woman and an insolent Servant who made a Scene of the Court and a Fantome of his Masters On the other side she remonstrated to him the Infamy which the Executioner left to the Ashes and Memory of those that died by his hands She often repeated to him that death was only terrible to irresolute and timerous persons That it doth never wound such Couragious Souls as loosen voluntarily themselves and prevent the hand of force That this last Act would be more looked upon in History then his Consulship and would be more resplendent then the Triumphs of his Ancestors And perceiving that he still deliberated between Resolution and Fear she plung'd a Dagger into her own bosom which she had provided for that purpose And then drawing it forth warm and dropping she presented it to him with these words which were the most Heroick and Victorious that ever issued from a Romans mouth Take this Dagger Cicinna it hath done me no harm Cicinna received from her hand with the Weapon the Spirit and Courage which came forth of her wound And died rather by the Magnanimity of Arria then by his own Courage MORAL REFLECTION LEt Christian Ladies learn of this Idolatress in what dis-interessed Love and conjugal Fidelity doth consist Let them observe how many Combats she hath fought and how many Victories she hath gained She had a present and future Interest in his Possessions and Hopes She was Young Rich and the friend of Messalâ—â— She might have left her husband to Justice and reserved her self for a better Fortune and a more happy Marriage Her Riches her Beauty her Youth were no Criminals They had not conspired against the Prince And it was not against them Commissioners were appointed and Informations given She rejected nevertheless the Temptations of her Age and Interest She listened only to her Fidelity and Love And taught her whole Sex by her Example that a good Woman hath no other Interest then her Huâ—band that to her there was but one Man in all the World and that he dying Riches Youth and Beauty die to her Arria likewise reads a second Lesson to Women which is no less important nor less useful then the first she teacheth them how that Person is deceived who said that Marriage was but a name of pleasure And that even now adayes they are much mistaken who believe it to be a community of Goods and Fortunes It is a name of Yoke and Affliction a community of Evils and Troubles a society of Cares and Labours And it is fit that young Women should be advertized on the day of their Marriage that they are not to be Marryed only for that day but for all the rest which are to follow how stormy soever they may prove and what unpleasing hours soever they may have They ought to know that with the person of their Husbands they espouse all their present and future Fortunes and that they are obliged to follow them to what place soever the wind drives them in what storm soever the Heavens pours down upon them But this veâ—ity will be more enlarged in the ensuing Question MORAL QVESTION Concerning the Duty of VVives towards Husbands in the time of 〈…〉 and Misfortunes I Could not as yet Divine why Married Women are crowned and 〈…〉 celebrated with so great pomp and with so much joy 〈…〉 properly and without a figure it is to adorn Slaves and 〈…〉 it is to lead them to Prison in pomp and jollity it is 〈…〉 them with Ceremony and Musick I am well read in the 〈…〉 Custom I see very well that Time Example and the 〈…〉 People are for it But I know also that Antiquity is neither all 〈…〉 Holy The first Men may have left us their abuses as well as then 〈◊〉 And old Errours are not better conditioned then 〈…〉 are not justified by the crowd of those that commit them It were 〈…〉 to the purpose and of far better example that the Weddingâ— of Christians should be grave and modest That the Ceremony should be serious and frugal and that instead of being an object of access and pleasure for new married Couples it should be a Lesson of Petience and a preparative to Troubles There would not be seen so many Rich persons â—â—umbred nor so many Innocent Repentants There would not so many complain of being caught by a specious bait who curse the flowers under which so many thornes have been hid They would have at least made trial of the burthen before they laid it on their shoulderâ— They would have measured theâ— forces with this yoke They would
all the last night could not sleep by reason of his disquiets and discontents Perez set at Liberty by this Device repaired to Henry the Great who received him with Honour And Iane Coello staied behinde in Spain esteemed by every one for her Courage and Fidelity I am the first that have shewn this Couragious and Faithful Woman to France And I now present her unto the Court to the end our Ladies may learn of her that great Expences and studied Excesses do not form a gallant Woman That so fair a Figure deserves better Lineaments and Colours That the Noblest blood of the World is obscure and wants lustre if Vertue doth not give it That Marriage is a Companion as well for bad Times and rugged Tracks as for fair Dayes and delightful Roads And that the affection of a good Woman should resemble Ivy which sticks close and inseparably to that Tree which it hath once imbraced never leaving it what snow soever falls upon it what wind soever shakes it what tempest soever bears it down PAVLINE 〈…〉 Paulina IS it one of the Graces or an wounded Amazon who dyes there standing and in the posture of a Conqueress She is truly a Grace even a manly and magnanimous Grace No Amazon unless a Philosophick and long Robâ—d Amazon She is the wise and vertuous Paulina who became a Stoick in the house of Seneca and resolves to die in his Company and by his Example You may have heard what common rumour hath published of Neros ingratitude and of the Fatal command of death he sent his Master This second Parricide no less scandalized the Senate and all the People then the first which is yet fresh and whose blood still reales upon the Earth And the impiety of the Tyrant after it had caused Agrippina to be murthered who had been twice his Mother and brought him no less into the Empire then into the world after it had put Seneca to death the Instructer of his youth and the Father of his spirit could not ascend higher if it rise not up against God himself if it fall not on Religion and holy things Though this last stroke fell only upon Seneca yet he is the only person that was not surprized with it and having often beheld the soul of Nero open and even to the bottom he ever indeed believed that figures of Rhetorick and sentences learnt by roat would not be more acknowledged then the Life and Empire he received from his Mother He received likewise that barbarous Order with a Tranquility truly Stoick and worthy the Reputation of his Sect. He did not appeal to the Senate he knew very well that the Senate is now but a Body divested of Power a dismembred Body and still bleeding of the wounds it had received from the Tyrant He did not implore Redress from the Laws they were all at present either banished or dead He was content to obey without noyse or delay and you could not arrive more seasonably to see a Stoick dying according to the forms and principles of his Profession Paulina would also shew that Constancy belonged to her Sex no less then to ours and that VVomen might be Philosophers without having commerce with Lycea and Portica without making Dilemmaes or Sylogismes She believed that being the one half of Seneca she might be couragious by his Courage and dye by the example of his Death as she had been enriched by his Riches and honoured by his Fortune Their Veins hapned to be opened by the same hand and Lancet Their blood and spirits were mixt together in their wounds And that of Seneca entring into the Arm of Paulina with the Lancet penetrated her very heart and seated it self about her soul. You see also that being instructed and fortified by this spirit which serves for a second reason and an accessory Courage she had the fortitude to expect death standing which is the last Act of Soveraign Vertue and the true posture of dying Heroes The blood streamed from her Arm with violence as if her soul pressed it to have the glory of going out the first And to behold the purest and most spirituall parts thereof which spurt up from the Bason into which it fell you would say that it takes a pride in the Nobleness of its Extraction and conceives it self too well descended to be spilt on the ground Paulina calmly and without the least alteration beholds it trickling down And saving that her Colour vanished away by degrees and Paleness succeeded as it doth to the last Rays of a fair day which dyes in a beautiful Cloud no change was to be seen in her Countenance Her Constancy is no savage Constancy It hath a serenity and Grace but it is a pale serenity and an expiring Grace She is more covetous of her Tears and Sighs then of her Blood and Life she prohibited her Eyes and Mouth to shew the least sign of weakness And a Statue of white Marble which should make a Fountain of its artificiall Veins could not have a more peaceable stability nor a more gracefull confidence This example is very rare but it is sad and cannot instruct the mind but by wounding the heart The steam of so Noble Blood draws almost tears from your eyes And it afflicts you that you are not able to save the fair remains of so beauteous a Life Let it no longer torment you The Tyrant advertised of Paulina's generous resolution sends Souldiers to hinder her Death and inforce her to live Not that he takes care of the Vertues or is willing to preserve the Graces which are ready to dye with her He is Nero in all his actions and doth no less mischief when he saves then when he kiâ—s It is because he delights to sever the best united hearts and to divide the fairest Couples It is because he takes pleasure in forcing inclinations and violating sympathies It is because he hath a desire to exercise upon friendships and souls an interiour and spirituall Tyranny It is because after the death of Seneca he will have the heart of Seneca in his power The Balisters of Porphiriâ— upon which you see him leaning is the same as they say on which lately at the noise and light of flaming Rome he sung the firing of Troy He speaks from thence to the Souldiers he sent to Paulina and commands them to make hast Though she had but two steps to make yet they will enforce her to retreat and fasten her again to life by binding up her wounds It were to be wished for the good of Rome that they had done as much to Seneca But if they had Swathes and Remedies to apply to him Nero could wish that they might be impoysoned Swathes and killing Remedies The last year he caused the same Remedies to be applyed to gallant Burrus his other Governour And doubt not but he will shortly send the like to Seneca if 〈◊〉 Soul make not the more haste to expire It is not the good old mans
fault that his soul is not already at liberty he presseth it with vehemency enough and hath made for it Orifices large enough in all his Veins But Seneca must be long a dying that his lingring death may be a lasting Instruction and a Pattern of a large extent Surely this Seneca is not the man of whom Envy and Detraction hath made so many false Pictures I perceive nothing of weakness or vice wherewith they reproach him And this Death what ever ignorant and traducing spirits say cannot be the Tragedy of a seemingly Vertuous person of a masked Philosopher of a Counterfeit and Sophisticall Doctor His calm and setled Constancy shews outwardly the stability of his mind He seems to confirm with his eyes and brow whatsoever he hath written concerning the contempt of Fortune and Death You would say that he alledges himself for the proof of his Doctrine He Philosophizes by as many mouths as there are wounds And every drop of his blood is a Stoicall Demonstration A proof of his Opinions and a testimony which he renders to the Courage of his Sect. His weeping and mourning friends receive with his last words the last spirit of Philosophy and the pure lights which already his almost loosned and descryed Soul diffuseth The attention they give him is full of respect and hath something I know not what of Religion It would be hard to say whether it be to his voice or blood they are attentive whether it be the dictates of his mouth or those of his wounds which they write In this extremity this severe man who so boldly looks upon Death as if he were seeing a Mask dares not fix his eyes upon Paulina I think that he apprehends lest friendship might soften his spirit and the Husband be found more powerfull in his heart then the Philosopher But â—e not scandalized at this tenderness It is not unseemly in a wise man He may with credit afflict himself for another And the Tears which friendship hath exprest may decently trickle down on his Face SONNET PAULINA speaks PAulina meets Death's Launcet with a Mind No less of Stoick then of Roman Kind A Philosophick Love which charms her Heart Will give the stroke to sweeten all her smart Inhumane Fortune through remorse or hate Runs to rebuke her and repair her Fate But her great Soul resists a forced stay And with her Blood makes haste to slide away You daring Sages who for Truths promote Your high fictitious Dreams and from us Vote Our Noble Passions Learn of this Heroique And Famous Woman to be truly Stoique And know this truth whatever you in vain Have learn'd from your fantastick Founder's Brain That the most Tragick Deaths delightfull grow VVhen Love himself shall give the fatal Blow Elogy of Paulina IF there were great Vices in Nero's Age there were also eminent and very exemplar Vertues The darkest nights have their Planets And in the worst Seasons the Sun hath his good Intervals and fair hours This Monster inrag'd against Reason which made him see his Errours fell upon Seneca who had cleer'd and disciplin'd that faculty in him As if it had proceeded from the Masters fault who polished the Glass and not from his own Deformity that he was hideous He then gave order for his death And this excellent Man who was grown old under another Mistress then this slight fencing Philosophy which is only bold in a School and against Fantosmes was ready to submit to this barbarous Command for proof of his Doctrine and to put in Practice what he had set forth in Propositions and Opinions When it was time to depart he did not so much as turn his head to listen to Fortune who solicited and called him to the Empire He departed out of a house more worth then ten Millions as if he had gone out of a thatchâ—d 〈◊〉 He shewed himself only sensible for Paulina whom he leâ—t young and exposed to the outrages of a bad season and the insolencies of a Tyrant who had caused it He endeavoured to perswade her to live and take comfort in her own Vertue and the Goods he had left her But she remonstrated to him that these indulgent and careful perswasions were not fit to be used to the Wife of Seneca That his Example counselled her better then his Reasons That it taught as well as Philosophy how to die resolutely and with courage Their veins were opened with the same Lancet they mingled their Blood their Spirits and Examples And the soul of Paulina would have followed that of Seneca if it had not been detained at the last step she was to make Nero apprehending lest the death of so illustrious a Lady and of so high a Reputation might compleat the drawing on him a publick hatred sent Souldiers who bound up her veins and used violence to make her live But she retained all that she could of death which was then kept from her And ever after conserved the desire of it in her heart and the paleness of it upon her face MORAL REFLECTION PAulina who is still victorious over death in this Picture informs us that Philosophy hath no Sex that it communicates it self without making any distinction between Garments and Faces That the Graces themselves may become Valiant and Couragious under her Discipline And that Cowardise proceeds from the corruption of the heart and not from the tenderness of the temper nor the dispositions of Fortune It likewise informs us that Vertue must needs be very weak and Christianity superficial in the greatest part of Christian Ladies who perplex themselves about a Necklace and a few Pearls who have their hearts fixed on a lac'd Petticoat who are slaves to a small Fortune which to express it well is but a figure of guilded dirt The least they can expect is to be condemned by this Heathen woman who had a soul dis-ingaged from Riches which may vie with those of Kings who had a free heart even in the arms of a Fortune which was as large as the Empire and which raised jealousie even in the Fortune of the Emperour himself The ensuing Question will manifest whether Paulina could be a Philosopher and a Stoick and whether I had reason to say that Philosophy hath no Sex MORAL QVESTION VVhether VVomen be capable of true Philosophy A Woman hath been heretofore seen playing the Orator in publick places who did with unprofitable and studied Discourses what the Mountebanks now adayes use to do with their Drugs and Antick faces There was also a lewd Woman who affected a brutish and impudent Freedom who braved Fortune and Nature with a Staff and Wallet who was Beggerly and Arrogant and who had under a ragged and tottered Garment a worse Pride then is found under cloth of Gold and Purple Both the one and the other was called Philosophy But both had but the name and a false mask which drew Spectators to them And certainly if no other Philosophy had descended from Heaven then from this
fault deserved punishment her youth at least and her imprudence were worthy of excuse and that God and posterity would shew her favor Constancie Grace and Majesty which had ever accompanied her ascended also upon the Scaffold with her One would have said that all that was seen there could be nothing else but a meer representation of her punishment And that all this Tragical preparation was but a fiction and a meer Ceremony She rendred thanks to the Catholick Divine who had assisted her and comforted her dispairing servants with so well composed a manner and with so vigorous and Noble words so full of Judgement and Courage as it seemed to some that if Philosophy her self had been to dye she could not have dyed more couragiously and with more Dignity She made her self ready for the stroak of the Executioner and to humble her beauty though it were innocent of her Misfortune she made a Wreath or Head-band of her own Hair whereof it seemed Nature had formed her a Diadem They offered to strike off her head with a Sword as if the Sword could have diminished the shame of her punishment and Dignified her Death and the hand of the Executioner But she rejected this unprofitable and superstitious Ceremony And resolved to be Executed with the same Ax which newly came from the Execution of her Husband Whether that she desired to mingle her bloud with his Whether she believed that a more painful death would be a more just Expiation of her faults And that the Iron of the Ax would better purifie her soul then the Iron of the Sword Such was the end of the Reign and Life of Iane Grey who was an Athenian and Roman in England many Ages after the ruin of Athens and Rome She shewed our Predecessors an Image of the ancient Constancy and primitive Vertue And taught us that the Graces may be learned as well as the Muses That Philosophy belongs to both Sexes And that even in our daies under the Purple and upon the Throne she might be as vigorous and couragious as she was heretofore under the Wallet and in the Tub of the Sunck VNE Dame chrestienne et Francoise combat iusques à la mort pour sa chasteté 〈…〉 parcille a celle de Iudith egale la France à la Iudée 〈…〉 Gallant Christian Women The French Iudith HEre we must beware of a bad Calculation by our Fancy and of a mistake in our sight if we believe them in this point we are in the Age of Nabuchodonosor and in Judea And the Tragick Action we behold is the death of Holyfernes and the victory of Judith Nevertheless we are far remote from that time and see indeed another Countrey and other things It is not credible that Holyfernes is returned so many years after his Death It is also less credible that Judea hath removed from Asia into Europe If whole Races and even the Ages themselves do not revive if Cities change not Regions and cross the Seas assure your self there is nothing in this of the Adventure of Bethulia Know then that you are in France and upon the Territories of Gontran King of Burgundy and that this Maid which you see with a naked and bloody sword in her hand is a Native of Champaigne Do not ask me concerning her Birth This well beseeming Anger and this modest and composed Fierceness will confirm you better then my self that she must be of a good Family And though her Phisiognomy may not induce us to believe it her blood must needs be as noble as her countenance As for this man who looseth his blood through two great wounds which will be perchance more beneficiall then they are honourable to him his Domestiques who hasten to his â—yde caâ—l him Duke Amolon I dare not tell you that he is 〈◊〉 a French man there is too much of savageness in his manners and saith And it would be too great a shame for France which is so noble a Mother so Generous so Civilized and to Christian to bring forth Scythians and Tartars and that under so temperate a Climate and so benign Planets there should be found souls of the same temper with those which are born under the Pole But let him be a French man by birth and a Tartar or Scythian by nature it doth not hunder Vertue which playes the principall part in this Action from being French And this second Judith will one day more honour her Country then this second Holyfernes could disgrace it You see the boldness of her Countenance and the Vertue of her Face There is much of Judith in both But there is more then the Look and Face more then the boldness and Vertue of Judith It is no common chaste woman you see It is a Virgin nay a victorious Virgin which newly fought even to the effusion of her blood And by these two features wherein she transcends Judith the French Copy exceeds the Originall lew and the Modern obscures the Ancient Judith After a long and obstinate battle fought against this Tyrant she was carryed away by his people and laid with violence upon his Bed but this was no longer his Bed but a Scaâ—â—old made of Silk and Feathers it was the place ordained for the end of his Tyrannie and for the punishment of his Crimes VVine and Sleep had already closed up his eyes and tyed his hands and there wanted but a Sword and an Executioner to make a great and celebrious example of him His Arms being near at hand the chaste French woman inspired by the same Angel who inspired the chaste Iew took advantage of the Sleep and Sword of her enemy and made of Amolon an Holyfernes The two great wounds which you see in his head were given by that fair and chaste Hand Pain awakened his bound up and benummed Reason and the first drops of his blood extinguished the dishonest fire which the Tears and Prayers of this innocent Maid had enkindled He is no longer the same brutish and furious person as before The wanten flames of his heart and the impure imaginations of his head are all fallyed forth at his wounds Iudgement and Respect are entred in their Room you would say that he awakes with new eyes Those at least retained no longer any thing of that sulphure which was enkindled by the smallest Rayes of Beauty and which was set on fire by every lovely glance which issued from it He seems to endure with torment the sight of his chaste and couragious Enemy He suffers it nevertheless and his confusion mixed with astonishment his shame accompanied with reverence make a silent Declaration upon his face by which he justifies the attempt and acknowledges it for a lawfull Victory He doth consider that the same person is in his power who had newly plunged him in blood and who had heretofore inflamed him who had pierced his heart and newly wounded his head He no longer remembers his Love he resents not his injury His eyes
most Luminous and highest part of Heaven He is next to God the Mediator of holy Marriages and well united Pairs He is the common Spirit of Christian Sympathyes and the Moderator of Chaste Agreements and Vertuous Harmonies Such an Exhorter is most powerful and his Inspirations leave nothing to be acted by Reason However he is not the sole perswader of the Princess Her Husband though fast asleep is no less Perswasive nor Eloquent them he If Prince Edward speaks not with his mouth he speaks by the paleness of his face He speaks from the Ardour of his Feaver and the Palpatation of his heart He speaks from his wound which hath a Voice of Blood and words of Passion In silence the Princess yields attention to this Voice and to these VVords And Answereth them with her Sighs and Tears which are no less Eloquent nor less Passionate And ere long when she shall thrust her Tongue and Mouth into this VVound her Heart will descend upon her Lips to bid the last adieu to the Princes Heart and to transmit into it her last Flame together with her Life But fear nothing in her behalf This Love her Inciter will preserve them both He put a secret Antidote in to her Mouth and gave her Spirit the gift of Healing Her Lips which he purified with a Spiritual and Sacred Fire will Exorcise Death and dispossess it of this Body without taking it into her own And one day Edward Cured and Eleonor Preserved will be reckoned amongst the miracles of Heroick Charity SONNET ON some Exploit Prince Edward Dreaming lyes VVith Death in 's Wound and slumber in his Eyes His Spouse to Cure him is resolv'd to Dy VVith Heart like those of her brave Ancestry Love more then Nature skill'd in Life's repairs Makes him a precious Balsome of her Tears VVhose Soul already heals him in Designe And at his VVound do's with his Soul conjoyne Approach thy Mouth and Heart couragious VVife 'T is that must save thy gallant Edwards life That Heart of thine with true Affection Crown'd Shall make thy Tongue a Plaister for his Wound To Cure thy Prince employ no other Skill The Fire the Blood the Spirits that Distill From thy fair Soul shall from his Body drive Th' empoyson'd VVound and keep thy Prince alive Elogy of Eleonor HEroick Vertue doth not alwaies Kill not imploys Fire and Sword in all she takes in hand All her Exploits are not stained with Blood she knows how to perform them of more then one fashion and colour and acts not everywhere with Noise though in every place with Force There are Obscure victories without witnesses wherein she hath need of no less boldness then in those which are gained in the view of whole Nations and with the noise of Canons and Trumpets The victorie represented in this Picture is one of these Edward Prince of Wales was come back from the Holy Land with a wound he had received from an Impoysoned Arrow The Physitians had allayed all their speculations and practises and all those ways having been unprofitably tryed they declared to him that he could not be cured but by the destruction of some Person who might have the courage to suck in death with the poyson of his wound Being condemned by this Declaration he prepares himself to dye resolving not to preserve life by the death of another nor to make a remedy of an Impoysonment The Princess his Wife Daughter unto the King of Castile conceiving her self condemn'd by the same sentence received it as if love it self had pronounced it to her And seeing her self necessitated to dye either by the death or cure of her Husband She resolved to chuse of these two deaths that which seemed to her the most Honourable and least bitter and which ought of the two moyties of her life to conserve to her self that which was most dear and precious This resolution taken with her love she defers the Execution to the next night And as soon as the Prince was prepared for it by rest she gently discovers his wound and begins to cure it by the purest blood of her soul which she pours into it with her Tears That done she set her mouth to the wound and with her tongue plunged her heart into it By little and little she sucks out the Poyson and so seasonably casts it forth as she drew from thence all that was Mortal without retâ—â—ning any part thereof to her self Whether that this malignant humour were consumed by the subtile and penetrating fire which her heart diffused by her mouth Or whether God who is Life and Charity had laid his Spirit upon her lips she preserved her Husbands life without loosing her own and by one act cured two sick Persons and wrought two Miracles MORAL REFLECTION THere is a large 〈◊〉 in this Picture and an excellent lesson for married Women This couragious Spaniard added to the Romans Greciams and even to those Barbarians who dyed for their husbands will speak Eternally for the constancy and fidelity of their Affections And wil highly prove and in an Heroick fule that the loving portion of the heart is more vigorous and couragious in their Sex then in Ours But she will also prove for their instruction that nothing is impossible to well ordered Charity That her hands have the gift of Cures and that the vertue of Miracles resides on her Lips That she single and unarmed hath more Force then Death with all his swords and poysons and that Barbarous and heathenish Love which knew onely how to dye vainly and with Audacity was but an impatient and desperate Love compared to a Chaste One which knows how to save in dying and to reap benefit even by its Dangers and Losses But this saving and Wonder-working Love ought not to be a busie and Effeminate Love or a Love of Interest and propriety It must be a Philosophick and Couragious Love Extatick and Prodigal Elevated above all that pleaseth and affrights This Torch must be like that represented in the Canticles not a wandring and Volatile fire but a fire ever Equal and Active A fire which consumes all the little threds of Interests all Forraign tyes all Chains and Fetters even those precious Chains which Fortune frames nay those very Fetters which are more worth then Diadems and which fasten Princes on Thrones Some will have it that it consumes even the tyes of the Soul and Body And alleadge that place of the Canticles where the power of Love is equalled with that of Death This point is both important and instructive And because one might be dangerously mistaken therein it is fit to make a Question of it apart MORAL QVESTION Whether it appertains to the Duty and Fidelity of VVomen to expose themselves to Death for their Husbands IF in this point we believe Antiquity Conjugal Love was heretofore very Tyrannical And married Women who subjected themselves to it ought to be well resolved It was not satisfied that they should bear with
the ill humours and bad Fortunes of their Husbands but it would have them sick of their Maladies die of their Deaths And as if it had not been sufficient to make them slaves undergo the yoke It made them also Sufferers and Victims and put ordinarily either a rope about their necks or a dagger in their throats The chief thing is that there was a necessity of taking that course to acquire the title of a gallant Woman And such as were able to endure life after the death of their Husbands could not pretend to the acclamations of their present Age nor to the Eternity of History Besides even in these dayes this cruel Custom is used in some parts of the Indie No Widows are seen in those Countries And Families are not prejudiced there by Dowries which issue out of them A Father of a Family being dead the Law of the Country ordains that he be put in an Equipage for the other World And that such things as had been most dear unto him should be burn'd with him The best beloved of his Wives hath this advantage by his last Will and the Right which Custom allows her She dresseth her self more richly and with more care for death then she had done for her Wedding-Feast The whole Kindred in Festival Garments and adorned like her Conducts her Solemnly and in Pomp to the flaming Pile And there she suffers her self to be burnt in Ceremony and with a more Natural and less affected Constancy then did the 〈◊〉 Philosopher who would counterfeit Hercules dying And presented a Spectacle of his death to the Army of Alexander I know indeed that this Superstitious and regular Cruelty of the Indians And that other tumultuary and precipitated Despair of the Romans and Grecians are equally reproved by the Laws of Christianity But I am not ignorant also that conjugal Love hath its Meritorious and Vertuous Deaths And there is some ground to doubt whether such kinde of deaths may happen by way of obligation and concern the Duty of a good Wife To this Question which is not of meer Curiosity but Instructive and Profitable I answer First that desperate and passionate Women who kill themselves to follow their deceased Husbands transgress against conjugal Love and violate the Fidelity they owe them This Proposition draws neer to a Paradox Yet exceeds not its bounds and Truth is there well ballanced One or two Reasons may Justifie it and draw the assent of the most devoted to the Memory of the Pantâ—â—â—â—â— and the Porcia's In the first place it will be granted me that the prime care of Lovers should be to nourish their fire and to keep it still in heat and action To delend it from all that might extinguish it And the least neglects therein are Temptations Doubts are Dispositions to change and commenced Infidelities Now this fire is smother'd in blood and by the violence of desperate Widows It is a great folly to believe that nothing remains after death The earth of Church-yards is too cold to preserve a single spark thereof An such as thunder out so great Oaths that their Ashes will retain everlastingly the heat thereof are highly guilty of Perjury unless they vent them by way of Poesie And if it be an act of Infidelity by tract of time and by piece-meal to suppress ones love from day to day and to deprive it by degrees of nourishment what will it be to smother it violently and on a sudden not to leave it a single spark which may inkindle it I know not how they will take what I have to say in this particular It is true nevertheless and must be spoken in what sense soever it may be taken Conjugal Fidelity is more hainously violated and the dead are far more injured by the delusive Courage of the falsely Constant Women that destroy themselves then by the weakness of those which will open their hearts to new Affections and run to second Marriages These at least preserve the Memory of their Husbands They still retain their Rings on their Fingers They keep their Pictures in their Closets and Hearts And the second fire which â—â—â—â—eth on them is not so incompatible nor so much an enemy to the first that it permits not some sparks thereof and a little heat in the remaining Ashes On the contrary furious and despairing Widows in what manner soever they voluntarily die reserve nothing of their first fire They destroy it even to the Matter to the very Ashes and Harth And their Husbands who might live long and quietly in their hearts perish a second time by the impetuosity of their Despair or by the obstinacy of their Grief Hence I infer a second Reason against the Falsity of impatient and despairing Love It is an opinion generally received and supported both by the Sense and Nature as well as by Speculation and Philosophy That Persons beloved have a particular Being and as it were a second Existency in the Imagination in the Soul and Heart of the Persons that love them They live there intellectually and by their Images And those Images are not dead Figures nor Impostures of a deceiving Art They have Life and Spirit they are true and Natural They possess all the Perfections and Graces of their Originals and have neither the Defects nor stains of Matter Now a Woman who kills her self out of a blinde and precipitious fury or who consumes her self with an obstinate and voluntary Affliction takes from her Husband this second Existency and this intellectual Being and Love by which he surviv'd himself She voluntarily annihilates and violently destroys that which death had left her And if she ought to make a scruple of defacing his Picture with what colour and pretence can she justifie the violence she offereth to an Image which was her second Life and Felicity in this World It is evident thereby that Constancy is not furious and that Fidelity is another thing then Despair That the greatest Love is not that which makes the most haste to poysons and precipices That Wives cannot more Religiously keep the Faith they owe to their Husbands not give them stronger proofs of their Affection then in rendring their Fidelity and Love durable and lasting Then in procuring them in their minde a life full of tranquillity and satisfaction Then in espousing their Memory and making a new Contract with their Images Then in carefully preserving those things which have been dear unto them And if they be good Wives they will not doubt but they were more dear to them then any Worldly treasure Let it not be said that this Philosophy is too remiss and indulgent That it pleads the cause of Nice and Effeminate Dames That it gives credit and authority to self Love This cannot be spoken but rashly and at random And surely as one may kill himself out of self Love and through an excess of tenderness so one may preserve his own life for the Love of another and by a particular
impetuosity wherewith they passed along retreated disorderly into their Forts conceiving that it would not be safe for them to remain in their Tents Nevertheless the number of those that have no longer any need of Tents or VVorks is great enough And apparently if the landed Troops had given on at the same time upon all sides this dayes work had put an end to the Siege And this so stately Camp which had been for seven moneths the Prison of Orleans would become at present the Sepulchre of a good part of England But so great a work well deserved to be shewn distinctly and at leisure And to the end this imprisoned and despairing City might behold all the Valour of its Deliveress it was necessary that its Prison should not be broken but by track of time and by parcels This happy beginning is a certain presage of a far more fortunate Issue And the Earl of Dunois whom you see under the Gate with Lahire and the other Commanders is gone forth to congratulate with her aforehand Peradventure you may have never seen the face of this young Prince You have never then beheld the greatest Ornament of this Age and the fairest hope of Posterity Take time to observe him well Behold his gracefull carriage and the dignity of his whole Person Behold those Rayes of Majesty which have something I know not what of Royal and are dyed with the Purple of his Blood Behold the Nobleness of Aspect and ayr of a VVarriour which demonstrates his exteriour Courage and his remarkable Valour and acknowledge that he adds much to the name of Orleans and worthily supports the Greatness and Fortune thereof It is hoped that his Vertues will not die with him They will serve for other Ages and under other Reigns And all Predictions are false and Physiognomy is deceitfull or Princes shall be born from him who will be Heroes by Race and Valiant from Father to Son who will be one day the Honour of their Family by rendring Honour to France SONNET The PUCELLE speaks FAtal to England Fortunate to France Of th' one I curb'd the surly Arrogance And with my Lance the tott'ring Throne sustain'd Of th' other Realm whose Freedome I regain'd The smoakie Ordures of the burning Pile Could not my spotless Innocence defile And my opprobrious Death more mischief brought To those that cans'd it then my Arm that fought With Heart which did Heroickly aspire I under verdant Laurels kept entire My Body's flow'r and not unlike the Bee Was rich in Courage and in Chastitie On thâ— English Lions I did boldly press And chac'd them oft a Virgin Conqueress And gallantly defended with my Lance The Flowr-de-Luce which Crowns our Kings of France Elogy of Pucelle HISTORY which causeth it self to be stiled true and exact scatters nothing almost in every place but far fetch'd Falshoods and Fables Magnificently set forth and with Pomp. It only proposeth Pictures exceeding Natural Proportion nothing but Colosseses which seem to be made only to affright the belief of Readers and weary their sight There is nothing here of this Model or Statute All pure and naked Truth without exaggeration and ornament is here more taking then these Fables more magnificent and stately then these Colosseses The Maid of Orleans is not the Work of an Inventive and Deluding Fancy She is not composed of the same Matter with those Valiant Women set forth in Romances and by Poets Her Vertue was Sensible and Substantial She really effected in the Field all that others have done in Picture and in the brain of their Inventors Her Victories have not been like theirs which spake only by black'd Paper and spilt Inke The same Spirit which called from the Sheepfold the Conquerour of Gelia which chose a weak and unarmed Woman to defeat the Assyrians broken into Iudea and to tear its People out of the claws of Holifernes took this Maid from amidst the Flocks and sent her Fortified by his Vertue to raise up ruined France and to free it from the bondage of Strangers who would have dishonoured that Kingdom after they had pillag'd it He infused into her a Prophetick Spirit and a Conquering Heart He made a Debâ—â—â— and Iudith of her And heap'd together in her life all that in the time of Miracles appeared most rare and â—â—â—ustrious It did not suffice him to give her Courage and Conduct He sent her an Angel who laid his hands on her and this Imposition of hands was to her what the Ceremony of Instaulment is to new made Knights He instructed her in all the Exercises of War and taught her more in a moment then 〈◊〉 and Potâ—â—â— had learnt from Occurtences and Fortune The English also stood not before her Their Fortune which conceived it self already Victorious gave way to her Angel and what forcible endeavours soever they used to hinder her entry into Orleans she entred it in despite of them and deprived them of France by taking this City from them After several Fights wherein she was still Victorious she fell into the hands of her Enemies who treated her as a Criminal both in point of Religion and State and made her undergo the punishment of Hereticks and Sorcerers God was pleased thus to permit it to the end she might accomplish all the Duties of a gallant Woman and finish that part of a perfect Heroesse which she had begun That she might overcome by her Patience as she had done by her Valour And that the English might be no less defeated by her Death then by her Victories Besides this barbarous Injustice heightened their sins and drew upon them the wrath of God the Avenger of oppressed Innocence The Spirit of the Maid and her good Angel re-inkindled the War after he death Ever since the English had them on their backs they were vanquished by them in all Battels and beaten off in all Sieges And in fine to preserve themselves from these exterminating Spirits they were inforced to quit all that they 〈◊〉 â—â—vaded MORAL REFLECTION THere is a great difference between the Judgements of God and those of Men And we see few places where this difference is more expresse and better marked out then in the History of the Maid of Orleans God drew her out of a Village to inform us that he makes no distinction either of places or names that he esteems not men for their Coats of Arms and ancient Titles that the blood of a Prince and a Shepherd are of the same colour and matter That a Sheep-hook in his sight is of the same value as a Scepter And that both high and low as well as the Palme and Bush spring from the same Earth He chose her out of a weak Sex because he hath ever loved to overcome Pride by Weakness to throw down Colosseses with grains of Sand to fell Giants with Reeds He would manifest that the weakest and least Warlike hands are able to defend Scepters and support Thrones when he hath blessed them
in her hands it was never more universal nor extended to more uses nor to a larger compass Her Profusions did not slide away in unprofitable transitory Pomps They were not like Torrents which are onely for shew and last but a dayâ— They resembled Rivers which are fertile and durable they afforded staâ—e and solid riches and brought happiness to Nations and plenty to Ages And to say nothing of those which remained in Spain where they are still looked upon with astonishment The great Bible of 〈◊〉 which hath been so long the most ample and rich spectacle of learned men the most profitable and stately Ornament of our Libraries is no less the work of Isabella then of Cardinal Ximenes her Councellor This Eminent Princess first advanced this great enterprize and furnished of her own stock to those preparations which were requisite long before the Work was begunne But as there hath never been so bold an Undertaker who hath not had more bold Successors then himself and besides as the same Time which ruins on the one side the works of art doth perfect them on the other so the Bible of 〈◊〉 having raigned near upon threescore year and held the first 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 was deposed of its place by the Royal Bible which 〈◊〉 the second caused to be printed at Antwerp And very newly the Royall happened to be degraded by that which Monsieur Le lay after the labour of thirty years hath published with the generall Applause of all the learned It is true also that this enterprize was not the undertaking of a particular Person and of a mean Fortune It was of a Monarch nay of a sumptuous Monarch and addicted to Noble expences It was of a Soveraign and Magnificent Fortune And if this great Body of seven Languages remains 〈◊〉 to be shewn all intire to Posterity I know not whether the most credulous Posterity will ever believe that a single private Person of this Kingdom assisted onely by his Revenue and Generosity hath affected more then a King of Spain with all his Mountains of Silver and Springs of Gold with all his Mines and Indies But great Souls not great Estates are the things which perform great Actions It was requisite that the Regency of Anne of Austria should have 〈◊〉 advantage above the Raign of Isabella and Philip her Predecessor It was necessary that a moderate Fortune should give Emulation and Instruction to all the great Fortunes of Europe and that Princes and then Ministers should learn from a Private Person to be Christianly Magnificent with the Benediction of God and Men. Isabella was not onely Wise and Couragious Magnanimous Just and Magnificent But her Publick and Active Vertues were accompanied with other Domestick and Peaceable Ones which were not the less vigorous for making the less noise and had not the less merit in being less Regarded I set down her Devotion in this Last which had been remarkable in a Religious Woman her modestie and Civility which savoured nothing of the height of her quality her Patience which might have made a Heroess in a private Fortune Her Court was a School of Piety Purity and Modesty for the Maids of Honour which were Educated near her Person She was an Academy of Spirit and Honour for Cavaliers And from this Academy came that famous Gonzales of 〈◊〉 to whom Spain so liberal in Titles and Elogies gave the name of Great Captain as a reward for driving the Fortune of France out of the Kingdom of Naples Besides her Vertue was not one of those Stage Vertues which act not handsomly but before the World and in the eyes of men It was not one of those Mercenary and Interessed Vertues which serve not but upon good Terms and for great Wages and Pawn It was likewise sincere and acted as soveraignly and with as much order in Private as in the eyes of the Publick It was likewise steddy as well during a storm as in a calm and had not a different Countenance and Heart in Affliction then in Prosperity It hath been known by the report of her Attendants that in all her Child beds the pain of Delivery which is the Natural Torture of their Sex did never force a word of Complaint from her mouth Marvellous was the Moderation which made her suffer with the death of her Son the death of her Name and the Extirpation of her Race And certainly since there is no Tree which doth not bend and complain when a Branch is torn off from it by a Tempest though it be a wilde Tree though the Branch which is taken off be half rotten How much courage were necessary for a Mother not to be cast down by the blow which deprived her of such a Son which tore from her so noble a shoot and of so great hope A shoot which was to have extended it self to new Worlds and a new Nature She was so far from being dejected by this Accident that it â—earce gâ—ve her the least disquiet The gallant Woman prevailed in her minde above the good Mother And the news of this deplorable death being brought her in the Eve of her Daughter Isabella's Marriage with 〈◊〉 King of Portugal she knew so well how to seal up her heart She so handsomly fitted her Countenance to an Action for which so great Preparations were made that not a sigh escaped out of her Heart not a Tear fell from her Eyes which might cloud the Serenity of the Feast Her Constancy appeared no less by bearing with the publick Extravagancies of the Princess 〈◊〉 her Daughter who was sick of the Love of her Husband Philip. His truly was a Lawful Love and had received the Benediction of the Church Not only Bastard Loves are those which appear Monstrous but even Lawfull Ones which are Enormous and Irregular have scarce a better Aspect And the Fires which the Church hath blessed if they be not entertained with Moderation may no less offend the head and dazle with their smoak then the other The Love of Iaâ—â— was one of these Lawful disordered Loves It was one of these honest fires which heat too much and daâ—â— with their smoak And surely she must needs have been much dazled when she resolved to Imbark her self in the most bitter Season of the year and to expose her life her great belly and the hope of so many Kingdoms to the Winter and the Ocean that she might meet with her Husband who was 〈◊〉 into Handerâ— But Fonsâ—â—a Bishop of Burgos and 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Governour of 〈◊〉 having hindred her Imbarking neither Intreaties nor Reasons could prevail to bring her back to her Lodging She remained whole days and nights without Food or Sleep exposed to the Air and all the injuries thereof And assuredly she would have died on the ground if the Quâ—een her Mother had not brought her in all haste a Licence to commit her self to the penâ— of the Sea Nevertheless she escaped the Sea and Tempesluous Season But Jealousie escaped
Morality teach us that Chastity ought not to fight but in retiring that she puts her self in danger when she takes upon her to be Valiant and shews her Face to her Enemies that she cannot attain to Victory but by a Retreat even by Flight and a very quick and sudden Hight All this agrees with the Spirit of Transport which 〈◊〉 no kinde of Enemieâ— and attaquâ—s them all without knowing them which measures no Dangers not Precipices and fully casts it self upon both which 〈◊〉 not to any thing whatsoever no not to terrifying Death it 〈◊〉 in which all other things submit Thirdly Chastity is not one of these Vertues which are born for Action 〈…〉 and are only serviceable in a Tumult and Storm she is one of the Peacâ—ble and Sedentary Vertues she is a Lover of Repose and 〈◊〉 she hath the Innocence of Lambs and the meekness of Turtles she hath a Temper contrary to Lions and Eagles Of what use would then this Spirit of Transport be to Sedentary Vertue Of what use could it be in time of Repose and Retirement What would that Lamb do with this Heart of a Lion What would this Turtle do with the Violence of 〈…〉 All these Reasons are very good proofs that Chastity is a Vertue of its own Nature Reserved and a Friend to Repose But they do not prove that she is never Armed with Boldness that she never takes Courage that she is a ways concealed and still possessed with Fear There are some Occasions wherein she must of necessity alter her Humour and Carriage wherein she must express Resolution and Courage wherein she must Act even elevate her self and elevate her self with a Transport Doves which 〈…〉 Sweet and Innocent have yet their Sallies and Anger 's Patience which is at least as calm as Chastity becomes Furious when it is Wounded And that Spotless and Silent â—amb which came to Teach us Chastity and Patience ceaseth yet sometimes to be a Lamb and becomes a Lyon when he is provoked Let us say that this Heroick Spirit of Rapture is not necessary to Chastity when she is not assaulted and proposeth no Enemies to overcome not Crowns to obtain She is then permitted to remove far off from the Tumult She may decently affect Repose and participate without blame of the benefit of Peace Her condition in that State doth not differ from that Valour it self which is not continually provoked and Furious always covered over with Sweat and Blood And which useth not every day her Warlike hands and countenance her Spirit and Garments of Battel But when this Peaceable Chastity is Assaulted when Dangers and Enemies press her when she is reduced to the necessity of either rendâ—ing up her self or of vanquishing by some Extraordinary and Supernatural â—ffort where will she finde wherewith to carry on this extraordinary and Supernatural Violence if the Heroâ—ck 〈◊〉 whereof I speak do not inflame her if the Spirit of 〈◊〉 do not possess her it both do not transport her to what place would not her Fears and Restraints hurry her And even in this her Condition is likewise equal to that of true Valour which hath an other Countenance and an other Heart upon a Breach then in a Closet which marchâ—â—n with an other kinde of Action and Look to a day of Assault then to a day of Ceremony Let us only oppose hereunto that the Comparison is not equal between Chastity and Valour between a Peaceful and Sedentary vertue and one that is Warlike and Tumultuary Chastity hath her Wars and Combats And her Wars are more lasting and obâ—â—inate her Combats are more dangerous and labonous then those of Valour She hath likewise more need of Courage and Resolution as I have already shewn And consequently the Spirit of Transport which is the Spirit of Courage and Resolution is more necessary to her then to this Vertue of Fire and Sword And here the Bravo's and great Pretenders to Valour must not flatter themselves not think to obtain it by the fierceness of their Looks and the greatness of Words The honour of Chaste Women is not in a place of easier Access nor less Elevated then theirs Nature cannot 〈◊〉 thither by her own Forces The Senses know not the way to it and on what side soever this way lieth it is possessed by Enemies who use violence even in their satisfactions and terrifie by their Complacences and Caâ—esses On all sides and at every step there are Gins which are so much the more to be feared as their Bâ—â—â—s are more rich and their threds wrought with more silk and covered over with more Flowers Besides if we were to beware of nothing there but Flowers and Silk if we were only to defend our selves against Complacences and Caresses Yet there are sometimes Daggers hid under these Flowers and these Silken Threds become strangling Ropes These Enemies are not always Complacent and Courting They change their Art and Posture according to the Resistance which is made to them They imploy Iron where Gold is not powerful enough and where Sweetness is weak and Presents effect nothing they practise Cruelty they display terror and punishments I mean that Chast Women have not only pleasing but even terrifying and bloody Temptations They are not onely to defend themselves against Avaâ—ice and Voluptuousness but they are to overcome both Torture and Death it self I say Torture which is the invention of Tyrants and the practise of Executioners I say Death armed with all its Fires and Engines Is it credible that Chastity without using any extraordinary violence without moving or changing place can overcome all these Enemies whether Complacent or Barbarous That she is able to loosen her self from all these eyes and snates whether from those which allure or those which strangle That she is able to master all these temptations whether sweet or sparkling in which Gold and Precious Stones are imployed whether cruel and terrible practised with chains like those which Ioseph suffered with stones like those shewn to Susanna with a Scymitar like that which vanquished the Daughter of Paul 〈◊〉 Beheaded by Mahâ—â—et at the taking of 〈◊〉 Again is it credible that Chastity can be victorious over so many Adversaries and in so many Conflicts if she be not filled if she be not Penetrated by this Divine Fire by this supernatural Instinct by this Spirit which begets an 〈◊〉 and the Extasies of Heroick Vertue Nature is strong and Attractive Chastity must resist her Forces and loosen her self from her Allurements The senses stick close to those Interests which are Commodious to them and the Body hath a strange adherence to pleasure where flesh and blood bears a part Chastity must either sever the sences from these Interests and must break all that fastens the Body to these pleasures or she must voluntarily separate her self from the senses and break violently with the body Death hath cruel and frightfull Weapons It is accompanied with terrible and furious Attendants Chastity
those persons who brought her to this violent Death by a precipitated old Age do not he bitter upon her heart nor disturb the Calm of her mind So clean contrary that she hath laid the very remembrance of their Injuries at the foot of the Cross She hath retired her thoughts from all objects which might exasperate them She called them back from all places whence any succour or pitty might arrive to her and hath deposited them all with her Heart and Faith in the wounds of the Soveraign Patient who assisted her during her imprisonment and at present assists and fortifies her against Death by the Image and Vertue of his Passion He encourages her with the Voyce of his Blood speaks to her by as many Mouths as he hath wounds He arms her with his Thorns and Nails He covers her with his Cross which is to her an invincible sacred Shield a Shield which could not be pierced by all the Darts of her bad Fortune nor shal it be by the Ax it self of the Executioner which will chop off her Head Vnder the protection of this Shield and at the sight of this Example she marcheth couragiously to Death And though a Queen and Innocent it seems not harsh to her to pass through the hands of an Executioner having before her eyes a God executed and Innocence Crucified Can you confide so much in your eyes as to expose them to this lamentable spectacle Mine wounded before the stroke flie back not to behold any more of it Yet I must enforce them to see All. The last Rayes of the setting Sun are the fairest And the last drops of blood great Souls pour forth are more sparkling then the rest and have something I know not what of more Vigorous and Noble Surely this Action must needs be extreamly black since endeavours were used to hide it from the light But the obscurities to which they exposed it will not give it a better gloss and doubtless if they were capable of sense they would fear to be stained by it You would say that these Torches do not contribute thereto their light but with regret You would say that in despite they produce nothing but shadow and smoke The Hall is full of Spectators and hung with black Velvet And not so much as the fatal Scaffold but is set forth w th the stately mourning of this barbarous Tragedy to which it served The cruel Ministers of so cruel an Action thought to sweeten Injustice civilize Cruelty they thought to appease violated Majesty and to abuse the Patient by this vain and sumptuous Hypocrisie They ought to know that Pomp and Ostentation do not justifie Crimes that artificial specious Cruelty is no other Fury then naked unpolished Cruelty And that the voice of blood causeth it self to be no less heard upon Velvet Carpets then upon the bare ground I need not shew these cruel Ministers unto you They are discernable enough by the greediness of their eyes thirsting after blood and by the impatience and fierceness of their looks To see the attention they afford this spectacle you would say that every one of them is the Executioner That every one is ready to give the blow with his eyes and that this blow was designed against the Head of the Catholique Church and not against the Queen of Scotland All the other Spectators in whose hearts there remains some tincture of Humanity detest this cruel Example And as many Tears as they shed are as many Voyces and Imprecations against those that both advised and put it in execution But the voice of just blood unjustly spilt will shortly make a greater noise It will be heard by all People and Ages it will be the eternall malediction of that person who so unworthily violates Nature in a Kinswoman Majesty in a Queen Hospitality towards a Refugiate and Adversity it self in an unfortunate Creature consecrated by more then twenty years of misery You see her kneeling before the Executioner but you see not her soul already elevated in the presence of God where by advance it takes possession of the â—hrone prepared for her Her despairing Women are on their knees with her as if her condemnation were theirs and that they were to die by her Death The fatal Ax hath pierced their souls and the blood tricles down by their eyes upon the ground Their sorrows are none of those which disturb and make a noise It deprived them of motion and voice even of the sense of their Sighs and Tears And in the condition they remain I see nothing which resembles them but those â—igures of Marble which seem to weep no less then Fountains The noble and couragious Patient with a serene Countenance beholds this sadness in her VVomen Her Soul elevated above the inferiour portion is no longer subject unto its tempests and showers to its sighs and tears The Clouds of Matter begin to clear up about her and she already casts forth certain Rayes of advanced glory which mingle themselves with those Angels who are come both to guide her and give a beginning to her Triumph The Crown which they brought her is not of the same matter as the other two which are taken from her No Thorns or Reeds enter there There is nothing sharp or brittle nothing which offends or burthens And it is not an Ornament of the same stuff and weaving like our Diadems which serve only to make Slaves glorious and proud Mortals miserable It is a Crown of solid and pure Glory It is independent of Fortune and stronger then Time And the wise Queen who understood the value of it would have given all earthly Crowns to possess but one flower of it Behold with what stedfastness of mind she presents her Head to the Executioner to receive from his hand this glorious Crown But stay do not stain your eyes with the murther of the Innocent God will have an account of the least drops of her blood And wo to the Hands and Hearts wo to the Mouths and Ears wo even to the Eyes in which any stain of it shall be found SONNET SHall we unmov'd behold the Tragick Sight Where Death puts out this fair Scotch Planet's light Shall Honour Justice Law see Vertue bleed In Mary's Death as for some heynous Deed Her Grief 's Heroick th' Ax no Paleness brings Vpon her Blood sprung from so many Kings Her Graces speak when words her Tongue denyes Her modest Pride endears her to 〈◊〉 Eyes To what renown'd Inchanter do we ow This piece of wonder From this Picture grow Joy and Regret while there the gazing sight Do's from a torment entertain Delight Art by a gentle force surmounteth clear The pitch of Nature in this Pourtraict where A Queen that 's Innocent is made sustain An Endless Death without affront or pain Elogy of Mary Stewart I Might have a scruple if into the Elogy I am going to make of Mary Stewart my Pen should insert her Nobility her Beauty her
the Sixt King of England and by this Marriage the Truce was continued between two Neighbors the greatest Enemies in the whole World the most jealous of each other The poor Princess did not long enjoy the Repose she give to the Publike and it hapned to her as to Victims which bear the Sorrows of the People for whom they are Sacrificed The Nuptials were Celebrated at Nancy with great Preparations of Carâ—ousels and Tournaments according to the Mode of the 〈◊〉 of that time who were only acquainted with Valiant and Manly Delights with Pastimes which equalled Battels and produced 〈◊〉 Victories Wherein surely to speak this by the way they were more Cavaliers and Men at Arms then those of our days who know no other 〈◊〉 then Racing nor other Tournaments then Dancing who have â—ffeminated Magnificence and taken away from Sports and Divertiâ—ements all that they had of Noble and Military Margaret being passed into England found not there the same Sweetness and Tranquility she had left in France Not that she was one of those ill lodgâ—d Persons who have always either Rain or Smoak in their Houses And Her Marriage was none of those Tyrannical Yoaks and Torturing Chains which a certain Person wished to his Enemy instead of a Gibbet and â—alter She enjoyed at Home a most pure Calm and without Confusion and her Marriage felt nothing Heavy or Incommodious The King her Husband had all the Qualities of a good Man and a good Prince But being born under a very Contagious Constellation and of a very Malâ—volent Influence the Queen his Wife failed not to he involved therein and to have her share of the Poison and bad Fortune She patiently received all that fell upon her Besides she joyned Grace with Patience And being induâ—d with a pleasing Humour and a Gallant Spirit she made Answer to such as lamented her Condition That having taken upon her Marriage Day the Rose of England she ought to bear it intire and with all it s I horns Moreover King Henry had a great inclination to Repose and no Aversion to Pleasure The Mildness and Indifferency of his Spirit did not Correspond with the Functions of Regality which required Courage and Resolution Noise and Stirs made him wâ—y his Head and when things were in his own choice he contented himself to have Ease and Repose for his part and left to his Favourites and Ministers of State the Authority with the Trouble and Affairs with the Tumult This Soft and Slothful Life afflicted the Queen who had a High and Active Spirit Noble and Manly Thoughts and a Head as Capable to fill a Crown as any Prince of Her Time Not that she did not affect the Repose of her Husband and wished him his Hearts Content But her Love being Magnanimous and of the Complection of her Heart she would have rather liked in him a Glorious Activeness and accompanied with Dignity then this stupid Repose and these mis-becoming Eases which Dishonoured him Truly this Prince though otherwise good was not beloved by his Subjects And his Reputation bore the brunt of all the Faults of his Favourites and Ministers of State The Revolt of the Grandees the Seditions of the People the Mutinâ—es of the Mayor of London who was then a Popular Soveraign and a King of the third Estate and generally all the Disorders of his Kingdom were cloaked with this Pretence All these Commotions grieved the Queen But they did not affright her She hastned still with the first to the most wavering Places and where Power and Authority might stop any Disorder Her principal Effort was upon the Kings Spirit She continually represented to him and with Pressing and Efficacious Terms that the Repose of Kings consisted not in the softness of their Bed but in the stability of their Thrones That the Throne could not be secure if Esteem and Authority do not Support it And that Esteem which ariseth from Action and Authority which grows from Courage are lost by Sloth and Softness that Affairs are truly very ponderous but that this Weight procures the Stability of Affairs And that there could be nothing more Fickle and Tottering then a King who discharges himself of all that lies heavy upon him That it were to Act a very bad part to play the Titulâ—r King and to Reign by Agents and Deputies That Authority Substituted and out of its Place is weak and without vigour And the Scepter which hath Force and begets respect in the Hand of a Prince is easily broken in the hands of a Subject and Resembles a Scepter in a Play These and other like Remonstrances accompanied with the Eloquence of Beauty and the Perswasion of Love Fortified the Kings Spirit and made him take a firm Resolution to Reign for the Future without a Substitute and to Act of himself He Resumed that Authority which he had conâ—erred on his Uncle Hâ—â—pâ—â—y Duke of Glocester And he called back all Affairs to his own Conduct And thereby it appeared how Imployments Protect those whom they burthen And how Authority Supports and Settles those whom it Loads The poor Duke of Glocester was no sooner put out of Office and Authority but his Enemies which before did not so much as shake him did now overthrow him And within a short time after his â—all he was strangled in Prison by a Sudden and Illegâ—l â—â—â—cution The Faction of the White Rose which could not endure the Odour of the â—lower de â—uâ—e and beheld with regret a French Woman so absolute in England â—ailed not to charge her with the Contrivance of this Death Andâ—while after the Danger of Richard Earl of Warwick who was Assaulted neer London by the Kings Guards and thrust into the Tâ—ames gave Occasion and Authority to this Calumny The â—arl of Salisbury his Father and Richard Duke of York Head of the White Rose made thereupon several Manifests by Word of Mouth and Published in the Country and Cities that this piece was devised by the Queen who had undertaken to cut off the Arms of England and to deprive it with its best â—lood both of Strength and Spirit to the end she might deliver it up to France That she began not her Work amiss And that if the end of the Enterprise should Correspond with the beginning if the Great Ones did not look better to themselves then the Duke of Glocester and the Earl of Warwick had done in a short time not one drop of good Blood not one single Noble part would be left in the Body of the State The good Queen was very far from entring into these Tragical Thoughts And though she truly wished Authority and Power to the King her Husband yet she did not wish him such an Authority as might be hated and lamented not sâ—ch a Power as might cause Desolation and Ruines Besides less was it in her Thoughts to procure the Destruction of that â—ree upon which she her self was Grafted And if she bore much Affection to the Stem of
not to make so great Account of an Embroideâ—ed and Tottering Greatness exposed to Tempests and Precipices Famous by its Shipwracks and Ruins And when they shall perceive that only Glittering things are subject to be broken that elevated Ones are liable to Falls and such as are swoln up do only burst asunder they will be affrighted with that which is the matter of their Vanity and will apprehend their Splendor Elevation and Pride Moreover Prosperous Fortunes are advertised hereby of their own Inconstancy and Frailty and the Unhappy of the Patience they ought to have and of the Merits they may Acquire In fine Men and Women of what Gold or Earth soever their Fortunes are Composed and in what Story soever of the World they are lodged ought to be instructed by this Example that no Condition or lazy Vertue can be Priviledged in this Life That the Carreer of Adversities is open to all sort of Persons That Providence Assigns to every one the Rank and Function which is proper to him That there is no Victory which is not preceded by some Combat and that it is a very great shame that Christians should endure so many Afflictions and expose themselves to so many Dangers for a handfull of Flowers which last but a day for a Perfume which is dispersed by the first blast of Wind for a Crown of Glass which may break every moment And that for Insatiable and endless Delights and for a Solid and Eternal Glory they should fear to endure but the pricking of a Thorne THE END A TABLE Of the Pictures Morall Questions and Examples The Gallant JEVVS Dâ—â—ORAH Page 1. Her Elogy p. 5. Moral Question Whether Women be capable of Government p. 7. Examples Isabella 〈◊〉 of Spain Arch-Dutchess of the Low-Countries p. 9. Margaret of Austria Dutchess of Parma Governess of the Low-Countries p. 17. JAEL p. 19. Her Elogy p. 22. Moral Question Whether there were Infidelity on the Actiâ—â— of Jael p. 24. Example Jone of Beusort Queen of Scotland Catharine Douglas p. 26. JUDITH p. 29. Her Elogy p. 34. Moral Question Concerning the choice which God hath made of Women for the preservation of States reduced to Extremity p. 36. Example Marulla of Scilimena p. 38. SALOMONA p. 41. Her Elogy p. 46. Moral Question Whether Religion be the principal Vertue of a gallent Woman p. 47. Example Margaret Moore the Daughter of Sir Thomas Moore Lord Chancelour of England p. 49. MARIAMNE p. 53. Her Elogy p. 57. Moral Question Why the most perfect Women be commonly the least Fortunate p. 59. Example Blanche of Bourbon Queen of Castle p. 61. The Gallant Barbarian Women PANTHEA p. 63. Her Elogy p. 68. Moral Question Concerning the order which a gallant Woman ought to observe in Conjugal Love p. 69. Example Indegonda and Clotilda of France p. 72. CAMMA p. 77. Her Elogy p. 81. Moral Question Why Conjugal Love is more Faithful in Women thâ—â— in Men p. 82. Example Sanchia of Navar p. 85. ARTEMISIA p. 91. Her Elogy p. 95. Moral Question In what manner a gallant Woman should mourn and what ought to be the Duties of her Widdowboâ—d p. 96. Example Blanche of Castile Queen Regent of France p. 98. MONIMA p. 103. Her Elogy p. 108. Moral Question VVhether it appertains to the duty of a gallant VVoman to expose her life to satisfie the minde of a jealous Husband p. 110. Example the brâ—ve Hâ—â—garian p. 112. ZENOâ—IA p. 115. Her Elogy p. 120. Moral Question Whether Women be capable of Military Vertues p. 122. Example Jone of Flanders Couâ—tesâ— of Monâ—fort p. 125. The Gallant Roman Women LUCRECIA p. 1. Her Elogy p. 7. Moral Question Whether Chastity belongs to the honour of Herâ—â—sses and great Ladies p. 8. Example Gondeberga of France Queen of Lombardy p. 11. CLOELIA p. 17. Her Elogy p. 23. Moral Question VVhether the Vertue of VVomen â—e as beneficial to the Publick as that of Man p. 25. Example Theodelinda Queen of Lombardy p. 29. PORCIA p 33. Her Elogy p. 38. Moral Question VVhether VVomen be capable of an eminent Generosity p. 39. Example Francis Cezely the Lady of Baâ—â—y p. 42. ARRIA page 49. Her Elogy p. 55. Moral Question Concerning the Duty of 〈…〉 Husbands in the â—â—ne of their Distresses and Misfortunes p 58. Example Jone Coello VVife of Anthony Peâ—ez Secretary to Philip the 〈◊〉 page 61. PAULINA page 67. Her Elogy p 72. Moral Question Whether Women be capable of 〈◊〉 Philosophy p. 73. Example Of Jane Gray of Suffolk Queen of England p. 78. The Gallant Christian Women THe French JUDITH p. 85. Her Elogy p 91. Moral Question Whether more Resolutiâ—n and Courage be required to make a Man Valiant then to make a Woman Chasteâ— p. 93. Example Blanche of Rossy p. 97. ELEONOR of Castile Princess of Wales p. 101. Her Elogy p. 107. Moral Question Whether it appertains to the Duty and Fidelity of Women to expose themselves to death for their Husbands p. 106. Example Margaret of Foâ—xe Dutchess of Elpernon p. 114. The Maid of ORLEANS p. 119. Her Elogy p. 125. Moral Question Whether Women may pretend to Heroick Vertue p 127. Example Isabella Queen of Castile p. 132. The Victorious Captive p. 139. Her Elogy p. 145. Moral Question Whether an Heroick Transport be necessary to the Perfection of a Womans Chastity p. 147. Example The Chaste Venetian p. 152. MARY STEWART p. 159. Her Elogy p. 165. Moral Question Whether great Ladies in Prosperity be not in a better Condition then those in Adversity p. 168. Example Margaret of Anjoâ— Queen of England pag. 173. 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Their first care after the conclusion of Peace was to choose a fit person to fill up the Throne which Autharus dying without Children left vacant It is apparent that the Customes of Nations the Interests of State and the Pretentions of particular persons would have 〈◊〉 return into Barâ—â—ta Her Vertue yet carryed it against Custome the Graces made sure for her and gained all the voyces on her side and by a general consent her hands already accustomed to govern well were judged the most proper to mannage happily the interests of the State and to divert with addresses the mischief which was feared from the ambition of parâ—â—â—â—lar persons The Crown was solemnly delivered up to her And from that time she began to Reign of her self and by the right of her Vertue which is the fairest right of Kings and the most illustrious claim which can enter into their 〈◊〉 Surely this cannot be paralleld in History And there would need a very perswasive vertue and of great authority to effect it They must be Graces of a high expectation and of a fair carriage which could gain with so much ease upon great Ambitious Men and a mercenary People and procure the unitement of them both in the choice of a Woman and a Stranger Being satisfied of her dexterity and capacity they invested her with absolute Power and Soveraignty without restriction They did not imitate those that binde their Princes upon their Thrones who tye their hands to the Scepter which they make them bear and take from them dispolute of the same Authority which they give them They only declare unto her that if after the having tryed the weight of Regality she should think fit to share it with a Husband they wished that she world seek no Forreign assistance but settle her affection upon some person of that Kingdom Confirmed by this proposition and by the advice of her Councel she cast her eyes upon 〈◊〉 Duke of Thâ—â—â—n and divided with him her Person and Regality This 〈◊〉 was a young Prince of a handsom aspect and of 〈◊〉 courage who was endued with all the Qualities fit to undertake and overcome And it was to be â—eared leâ—t Fortune which he might court should raise him to the Throne had not 〈◊〉 prevented her Not content to have made him a great King she undertook to make him a Catholick King and to withdraw him out of the slavery of the Arian Heresie This was evidently an enterprize of greater labour and of longer time then all those which are performed with iron and silver Engines with â—leets and Armed Nations Nevertheless she accomplished it by her cares and good offices with Prayers and â—ears Her Prayers drew upon 〈◊〉 the light of Heaven And every Tear proved a perswasive reason to him which all the Arian Doctors were never able to answer Her conquest reacheth farther then one individual soul though it were a Soveraign one and raised above others It was more ample and of greater advantage to the Church The chief Noblemen of the Kingdom and almost the whole People being converted by the Conversion of their new King submitted with him to the zeal and piety of their good Queen And this zeal was so 〈◊〉 is and of so great authority this piety was so efficacious and victorious that in a very short time all 〈◊〉 and the Provinces subject to it abjured Arianism and became Catholique by the industry of a Woman She effected much more and advanced the â—â—tivity of her zeal and the victories of her piety to a higher degree Adalulsus had increased his sins and dominions by the violated rights of the Church and by usurped Lands He had thrown Catholique Bishops out of their Seas and introduced into the sheepfold disguised Thieves publike impoisoners and Doctors of Error and Pestilence The vertuous Queen enjoyed no repose till the good Pastors were recalled till the Church was re-established in her Rights and Honors and till restitution was made her 〈◊〉 the â—ands which impetuous and bold Heresie had taken from her These actions did not proceed from an unprofitable and idle Vertue The most couragious and warlike ones did never act so vigorously and with so much success And all the Crowns gained by the valiant Women in this History were never worth so much as a flowre of Theodelind's Crown The great Saint Gregory who governed the Church at that time understood the weight and importance of her Services And being willing to reader her publike and lasting thanks for them he Dedicated his Dialogues to her by a Preface wherein she triumphs to this day and wherein there iâ— not a word which is not worth a Statue erected to her Vertue Some time after the Eâ—ark of Ravenna did over-run the Territories of Agilulsus and took in some Places which lay convenient for him and were ill guarded This â—â—on which was become more gentle yet had not suffered himself to be enchained quickly found again his Teeth and Claws and hastened to take revenge All things tended to a perilous and scandalous War and not only the Eâ—arkâ—at of Ravenna but even the Patrimony of Saint Peter was in danger if 〈◊〉 gained by Saint Gregory had not extinguished by her dexterity and Tears the fire which already began to be inkindled Thereby she preserved liberty to the Church and sacred things she freed the Church from her yoke she brake in pieces the Chaines prepared for the successor of the Apostles and chased away the Barbarians from before Rome Her whole life was thus powerfull And I know not whether there ever passed away one hour of it which was not beneficiall both to the Publike and particular persons The most Magnificent Churches were built by her and what is more to be prized then many erected Churches was that by her cares and good offices Lumbardy re-entred into the Church But we must not make a whole Book of one Example And I have sufficiently discoursed of it to encourage the Vertue of Women to give them a holy and profitable Emulation to withdraw them from idleness to make them understand that Christian Conquests Conversions of People Heroick Works and great Crowns belong as well to their Sex as ouâ—s PORCIE aâ—â—le des charbons ardens pour aller apres son Mary et par la hardiesse et 〈◊〉 de sa mort egale la reputation de Catâ—n et la gloire de Brutus 〈…〉 Porcia THE defeat of Brutus could not be concealed from Porcia The noise and mourning for it are great everywhere The Publik as well as Particulars regret it equally and in common and I believe that the very Statues in the Senate and Tribune have lamented a Citizen with whom in fine the Republike and Liberty of Rome even then expired This generous woman did not receive this loss with outcryes and fainting fits she did not violate her Cheeks and Hair she did not accuse Heaven nor reproach Fortune for it and one may say that the news of Brutus
Death found Brutus living and victorious in Porcia Nevertheless with all this Fortitude and Courage she took a resolution to die and you need not doubt but she will execute the resolution she hath taken Nothing of Cowardize ought to be expected from the Daughter of Cato nothing of weakness from the widdow of Brutus She is couragious from her Race and a Philosopher by Alliance and her Death will be as Stoicall as that of her Husband and Father Her kindred and friends being willing to preserve this fair remainder of the ancient Vertue did in vain set guards upon her she made them understand that they might inchain her body but could never fetter her soul That she could pass through a thousand Chains and as many closed Gates and that if her Fathers Vertue was able to free him from the power of Caesar and that of her Husband to preserve himself from the victory of Anthony Hers would not remain captive to their importune charity and troublesome offices In fine whether she had perswaded or prevailed with them you see her out of their hands And how little soever their cares are retarded it is much to be feared they will come too late and not finde her alive A slave who had broken his Chains and freed himself from a long imprisonment could not be more joyfull then you behold her Her joy notwithstanding is modest and severe As her heart never changes place so her face never alters colour and her Death from this very instant will be as quiet and serene as her Contentments were heretofore She represents not to her self the place to which she goeth nor the way she takes She hath nothing but Brutus in her thoughts and before her eyes and provided she go to him it is indifferent to her whither she go by Sword Precipice or Poyson The shortest way is the best in her opinion and the nearest Gate what spectre or terrifying object soever hath the guard of it will be fitter for her purpose then one more free and remote But all wayes appear to her equally barred up and the diligence of her servants removed from about her all that could open any passage unto death She pretends that this charity is a violence offered her she is vexed and angry at it yet this vexation is without trouble and this anger ascends not to her face All her thoughts are busied to deceive these officious Importunes and not to take revenge of them There are no offensive arms which she doth not try upon her self in imagination Her Fancy puts into her mouth and to her throat all it can compound of Poysons or forge into Swords She attempts to strangle her self with the Scarf you see in he hand she tryed in vain to do it with her Neck-lace and one of her Bracelets And nothing remains but to tear off her Hair and work it into a Cord. Surely to commit a murther with such instruments is to inrage Beauty and render the Graces cruel But all means of getting out of prison seems lawfull and honest to a Captive VVith this thought she entred into her Closet she found an opportunity to dye more couragiously and without violating such â—nnocent things She found there a pan of Coaâ—s which little Cupids the Authors of fair Couples and Superintendents of vertuous Amities have prepared for the eaâ—e of her affection I doubt not but she sees them by the light of the fire within her Soul which is mingled with that of their Torches And you may behold them as well as she if your eyes were purified from the vapors which arise from Matter The two least present to her the pan of Coals which they carry upon their heads They render her this last office with smiles and serene countenances You would say that they animate her with their sparkling eyes and with the joy of their looks and that their mouthes half open seem to promise her the acclamations of Fame and the applauses of all Ages A third Cupid greater and stronger then the two other and hanging in the ayre lights with his Torch the Coals which are in the Pan I believe notwithstanding that his Torch what vertue soever it hath contributes less thereunto then his presence And if some one might say that by only touching a Tree with the end of his Finger he couâ—d set a whole Forrest on fire it is apparent that this Cupid might in passing by and with his bare shadow infire Mountains even frozen Mountains and covered over with Snow Do you not observe upon the face of Porcia the pleasing mixture which proceeds from the light of this Torch added to the fire of her eyes and that which her heart spreads upon her Cheeks There truly it is where confusion appears noble and where delight and glory enters Painters and Dyers could invent nothing like this And the concurrence is not so lovely upon a Rose freshly blown when the first rayes of the day newly flaming and still red from its birth adds an artificial Purple to that which is natural to it You have a sight piercing enough to sever the brightness of the fire from the fair dye of blood and to distinguish the lustre which appears outward from that which Courage begets and is reflected from the bottom of the Soul But you are too attentive in contemplating the action of Porcia And her heart is more visible by that then her face VVith one hand she puts a burning Coal into her mouth with the other she takes a second as if she needed many to conclude her life And whether the grief for her loss hath suppressed all other sorrows whether she hath no sence remaining but in her heart where her soul contracts it self about the Image of Brutus you would say that they are Rubies which she handles you would say that they are Leaves of Roses which she swallows But whether it be insensibility or resolution whether it be Love or Philosophy it doth not hinder the fire she had within fortified with an exteriour flame from burning the tyes of her soul. I conceive them already consumed and this generous soul speedily departing out of her fair prison will joyn it self with her likeness which is come to receive it Her Guards affrighted and surprized hasten with tears in their eyes and complaints in their mouthes But their tears will not quench this fire nor will their complaints terrifie Death or chase it away from the place into which it is entred This fire will shine in the eyes of all Nations and Ages and give an eternall lustre to the memory of Porcia This Death will be paralleld with that of Cato and Brutus And this Closet will be as fair a Perspective in History as the City of Vtica and the Philippian Field SONNET PORCIA speaks LEss worthy of regret then envy'd praise I by a Death which Nature did amaze Equal'd a Father's Glory and the Fame Of a dear Husband who their Fates ore-came Their Vertue which I